Karnoc was beginning to hate shuttles. It felt like he had been stuffed in one a few days prior and now he was crammed with an assortment of other SRN warriors. The asari across from him seemed like she was about to piss herself in fear; even if her face was concealed, her rigid body language reminded the krogan of prey animals freezing up so a predator wouldn't take notice of her. The fun part of the entire situation was that gunfire didn't particularly care how scared or brave you were in the accursed flying death trap; screaming flying metal coffins tended to attract a lot of attention and sometimes bullets found their way inside to greet the occupants.

 In a sense, Karnoc could [i]understand[/i] why one might be afraid in this situation, helpless with zero agency in how to protect oneself, putting your life in the hands of a pilot who may or may not be drinking. Who could know in that sealed cockpit? The passenger compartment could violently decompress in space and the pilots would be totally fine and comfortable, and other than a blinking warning light and maybe annoying buzzer letting them know that something was catastrophically wrong, but it's not like pilots gave a shit; they didn't stay and fight. They probably didn't know how to shoot a gun. Talking to a pilot in a bar was pretty much the same song and dance; none of them had a plan if a krogan headbutted them. 

They were boring and insufferable.

Karnoc felt a predatory satisfaction when the shuttle touched down and the gull doors flung open. Gunfire cracked the air and impacts kicked up dirt and mud around them. His adrenaline rush flowed through his veins, pumping some kind of chemical cocktail through his armour to augment his innate krogan battle lust that the squishy races called a "blood rage" as their bowels probably erupted violently at the thought of the untamed and brutal krogan breaking every bone in their bodies, even if they were allies. He charged into the fray to clear the landing zone, stray shots being absorbed harmlessly into his shields. A lesser krogan would be confident in their armour and shields and their own physical superiority to protect them from death; those krogan were largely all dead. A saying Karnoc had heard was that a poor craftsman blamed his tools for fucking up a project; personally, Karnoc preferred to think that his tools were going to betray him at any given time and burn the entire house down. Perhaps the genophage had made him cynical, he reflected as a high-impact shot smashed into his chest rig. The HUD in his visor told him his shield strength was at 64%. Probably that damned sniper.

He took cover behind the husk of a dead seafaring vessel, shots following him like an overeager drummer rapping into the metal bulkhead beside him. Katya, the human commander of the team called out, "Someone take out that scaffolding! Drop the sand on them!" 

Her accent was funny.

His capacitors had largely recharged his shields, so the krogan peered out and saw the scaffolding where the gunmen were using their elevation to rain fire down on the landing team. Karnoc looked down at his Striker, the dog tag jingling almost playfully from the grip. He didn't quite believe in fate, but sometimes the universe liked to line things up just so nicely.

"On it!" he confirmed, stepping out from cover and shouldering the weapon. Taking aim at the scaffolding, his visor showing the weapon's crosshair placement, Karnoc squeezed the trigger and felt the hearty thumps of recoil into his shoulder as he professionally held the weapon steady, a slow firing stream of explosive rounds finding the support beams of the scaffolding and exploding in micro-filament blasts, the metal struts tearing apart from the sudden destructive force. The drell standing on the scaffolding either held on or tried to leap onto something solid as the structure began to crumble around them. The defenders beneath were smothered in entirely too much sand to be considered a mere annoyance; Karnoc wouldn't be surprised if there were crushed lizards under the sand.

The asari fighter Karnoc took notice of earlier had brought a combat drone into the fight and she was barking instructions that seemed woefully out of touch with reality. 

 "Okay, ten hostiles. Shoot to surpress, do not kill. They're under some sort of mind control, so it's not really they're fault." Janiri called out, taking cover. "Not that they seem to care that we're not trying to kill them. Stay low. Peekaboo tactics." 

"Did you miss the dragon's teeth that are littered about like street lights?" Karnoc challenged. "If these idiots stumbled across Reaper tech, they're already lost! Don't hesitate; [i]kill them.[/i]" 

To emphasize he fired another burst from his Striker at some entrenched defenders, sand and metal kicking up around them. He heard a scream. 

"[i]I HOPE YOUR PERFECT MEMORY REMINDS YOU OF THAT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, IDIOT!"[/i] he bellowed out towards the drell.

Just then, Janiri received a biotic blast that knocked her on her ass. She flailed to defend herself from a drell charging towards her with a shotgun to finish her off. Karnoc's teeth grit as he felt his blood rage fill him. Remembering to activate his fortification, his armour shimmered with bright hexagonal energy lattice and he bellowed as he stormed across the open ground. The drell pivoted and shot at him twice with the shotgun, his shields flickering from the impact that took him down to 18% capacity before he grabbed the drell by his chest armour and drove him into a steel beam a few meters away. Something cracked from the brutal impact; not bothering to see if the drell was incapacitated, the krogan's omnitool activated and the microfabricator produced the ballistic blades that launched with blistering speed into the drell's chest, piercing through his armour and internal organs. 

Letting the drell go, Karnoc stomped over to the asari, the drell still stood upright, only dropping like a sack when the ballistic blades disintegrated in a shrapnel burst. He grabbed Janiri by the arm and pulled her up to her feet. 

"Do not hesitate, asari; [i]kill![/i]" he growled. He shoved the shotgun she dropped back into her chest. "You did not survive the damned Reapers to die like a fool to some weak-willed toads! Your people are known for their commandos; prove it!" he said, flinching from a sudden salvo of gunfire to his back. He used his body to shield Janiri before turning to return fire.

"You're going to wish you were back on your dead homeworld, drell!" Karnoc bellowed out, returning fire and advancing.