Mass Effect: Going Dark

[rhoenix]

Sidonis darted behind another group of crates for cover, and sighted his sniper rifle at a vorcha, his Viper sounding almost like an assault rifle as it issued a three-round burst, aimed for the head.

Sings-to-the-Stars had been busy, but he too saw the downed krogan Tallos. His huge form rippled again with biotic energy as another massive Singularity opened near two of the remaining vorcha. This done, he scuttled backward next to Many-as-One, protecting Tallos. The brood warrior knew that the Geth could not hear him, but he looked at Many-As-One and nodded his insectoid head once in respect before going back to scanning the battlefield.

[JD196]

Tallos woke to the sound of screams and immediately tried to stand, however he collapsed again when a wave of nausea and pain hit him. "Ahh. What the hell happened." He screamed groggily from behind tightly clenched teeth.

[frigidmagi]

Lysander fired into the last Krogan.

"Tallos stay down, get under cover. Cipriani, Many as One finish off the Vorcha. Everyone else move up, prepare for round 2 with their friends. If anyone can use them, see if those rocket launchers are working. Jager do you have eyes on incoming?" Lysander asked moving to new cover.

[Cynical Cat]

"No," said Jager, poking his head up. "No eyes on them." His attention shifted to the singularity and its victims. A corona of indigo light briefly flashed around his right hand and then sped toward the singularity to detonate it in a warp explosion.

[frigidmagi]

"Everyone move up, we're gonna try and hit them while they're still moving. When we make contact hit them hard." Lysander said over his radio. Okay the old plan was dead and in pieces, time for a new one. Sadly any real time or resources Lysander had to fall back on the Marine stand by, punch them in the face til they fall over. Then kick them til they stop moving.

[Marcao]

As the shuttle left and climbed upwards he wasted precious little time in identifying the nearest point that offered both protection from line of sight but also appeared to be capable of absorbing a few hits. He took a practiced step and then another, his right arm reaching behind his back as he sought the familiar shape of his assault rifle. He had been provided a weapon load that nearly mirrored his weapons during the defense of Earth. The sole exception was the Arc Projector, the heavy weapon had been unavailable for him back home but the other familiar tools of the trade were comforting in their presence.

He reached cover and crouched, the Mattock assault rifle comfortable in his hands. A three dimensional hologram indicating the incendiary ammunition on the weapon was a reminder of the ammunition within the unassuming if deadly weapon. He took a deep breath and held it, his armor mounted internal sensors projecting a readout of the armor's present condition his blood pressure, heart beats per minute, blood sugar as well as a host of other data points. An untrained human could quickly become lost in the data that the armor provided him. As a result, he was running with the absolute minimum display for the moment. His head turned and he glanced towards the others, the relative locations of the other members of his unit displayed in a three dimensional grid at the lower left of his vision.

The Infiltrators went to work, their cloaking systems becoming active and bending light as well as other forms of the electromagnetic spectrum around them. He attempted to track them all, but as the distance between his location and their own grew he quickly lost track. Their talents were the most useful in their present circumstances and their skills were crucial for the completion of the mission. He had once dreamed of being an Infiltrator but when he had been tested he had learned that he lacked the aptitude for it. His talents had laid elsewhere. His head turned, his left hand holding his assault rifle a bit more tightly than moments before.

The waiting is always the hardest part.

The words of one of the infiltrators of the team came through loud and clear through the armor's internal communication system. His eyes widened slightly and he shook his head.
"Understood." The response was short, sweet and if anything a bit dry. Had the Krogan tracked the shuttle after all or had someone dropped the ball? One way or the other, they were going to find out. Lysander spoke firmly and a part of him felt reassured. He had no doubt that everyone in the team was qualified to be here, but Lysander spoke like a man that expected to be obeyed. Besides, the man spoke sense. He had enjoyed doing his best trying to keep good leaders alive during the War. This time, it would not be any different.
He did not see Mikhail take aim nor did he see him fire. He did however, hear the shot and he had just made visual contact with the Krogan as his kinetic barrier made a valiant attempt to keep it alive and failed. Within seconds, a familiar situation arose as his sensor system collated data from multiple sources within the unit and attempted to provide him with data as known enemy positions.

"Here they come." He said softly the words carried through to the Unit as he braced himself to take advantage of an opportunity when it presented itself.

The situation quickly escalated and as he left cover long enough to align his assault rifle with potential targets as Lysander had asked he found to his chagrin that they were dying as he aligned his weapon with them. He was quite used to the weight of the Mattock assault rifle, but the combination of Sidonis, Sings to the Stars and the unseen Adept that seemed to detonate the singularity the Vorcha found themselves being cut down before he could act. His armor informed him of the change in status of Tallos but he could do nothing to offer immediate aid. Instead, his rifle finally aligned itself with a target that still drew breath. The Krogan seemed already battered and his armor's sensors indicated that his kinetic barriers were down. His right index finger moved three separate times as he fired into the Krogan's center of mass. A few moments later, he left cover and began to move upwards towards the next location he had identified as suitable for his needs.

[rhoenix]

Junko buzzed in over the radio, "Iona how far are you from me, am going to start distracting the northern blood pack door team of 2 krogan and 3 vorcha, Lysander how soon can the team get here to cover me?"

With that said, Junko unleashed a biotic charge at one of the vorcha at the door, then charged west to a different set of cover, once in cover she reactivated her cloaking unit.

The vorcha's face slammed into the door with an audible thud, and a muffled squeal of pain. As all three vorcha turned around snarling to see what had happened, one whose nose was still dripping blood, but all they saw was the last of the traces of Junko's charge.

Nonetheless, they decided to all aim their guns in that general direction and fire wildly, while the krogan continued to work on the door.

Maraka had hit the dirt alongside Lysander. As they met enemy contact, he kept his head low, swinging his assault rifle from foe to foe, semiautomatic fire zipping through the air towards them.

A set of incoming hit his cover, forcing his head down, looking over at Lysander as the human popped up to engage the vorcha. He saw Tallos take a rocket and he swung his rifle, tracking back to hte shooter and tugging on that trigger, sending rounds at him.

Most of the rounds flew true, and struck the vorcha wielding the missile launcher several times. He was able to fire one more missile before the remaining rounds brought him down, aimed at Maraka.

Cursing low under his breath, Sol'Amon moved a bit to his left, closer to his last firing position as he thanked the ancestors for the glass helmet of his envirosuit having optical dampeners. The flash of light caused by the explosion that took out the Krogan only stunned him for a moment instead of blinding him, giving him more than enough wherewithal to pop up out of cover once more to fire another burst from his submachine gun at the Krogan who'd been standing directly behind the Vorcha who'd been taken down by Shaddai.

Ducking back down he quickly checked his thermal clip, doing so caused him to grimace slightly, he'd already expended twelve bullets from his first twenty round clip. Quickly deciding to keep going with the half spent clip.

The stream of bullets from the Locust repeatedly struck the krogan's shields, enough so that the krogan Blood Pack soldier's shields were now down. The krogan roared, and prepared to charge at the quarian.

The committee needed very little time to decide that the odds were good that said Krogan would react violently to being engaged at close range by a Quarian. Accordingly, the decision was tabled, seconded, and passed, to elevate the Krogan in question to the top of the priority list.

The anti-materiel rifle was already in position, for the previous round had actually struck the Krogan's ballistic shields after decapitating the Vorcha. Only minor adjustments from wind alterations were required. Without a word, Shaddai locked its digital sights on the Krogan's bulbous head, and fired again, hurling another hypersonic bolt straight towards the Blood Packer.

Just as the krogan reared up to charge, the bolt from Shaddai's Widow round struck the krogan in the chest, bringing it swiftly to a stop. However, the krogan was not yet down, and began to walk toward the quarian with his shotgun out.

Ghostly blue light silhouetted her stealthed form as a violent blast of biotic force lashed out from her extended hand, originating from a point just behind the spine of her chosen victim and angled such that with any luck, the body (alive or dead, it was relatively immaterial at this point) would be catapulted into the troops in front of it.

And now, to survive the attempt, to evade long enough for her stealth field to stabilize and for the telltale flare of unleashed biotic power to disperse. With any luck, distraction and surprise would buy her most of that, but luck was a poor substitute for a proper line-of-sight break. Muscles bunched and threw the asari sideways in something that was very nearly a sidelong leap, only barely keeping her legs beneath her as she touch rock again and dashed for the scant cover provided by a nearby dip in the rocky ground. It wasn't much...but she didn't need it to last long, just long enough to disappear once more.

What Iona observed were the forces at the front of the building, previously a large, angry-looking mass of Blood Pack, were now being distilled into three distinct groups.

The first were three fireteams, each consisting of a krogan leader, three vorcha, and two varren, out after the last known location of their compatriots. Iona saw their pace slow a bit as they heard the results of the battle, but they wove into and out of cover as they closed in on Team Five's shuttle's location.

The second group (consisting of eight krogan, four vorcha with missile launchers, and six varren), were apparently staying back to guard the facility, and the third group.

The third group consisted of a single krogan and three vorcha, who were all working on the airlock door of the facility, and apparently without much success as of yet.

Iona's target for controlled mayhem was the group headed toward the rest of team five, and Iona maneuvered herself carefully from behind cover to throw the rearmost member of the group, a vorcha armed with a missile launcher, with great force into several other vorcha ahead of him, knocking most of them down in a heap. The rest of the group stopped, and glanced quickly around as they waited for the vorcha to unentangle themselves, which didn't seem to be helped by the snarls, scratching, and biting going on.

Shortly though, one of the krogan had had enough, and shot one of them with his shotgun from point-blank range, bellowing something in krogan to the vorcha. This seemed to help them sort themselves out with a minimum of fighting, but they had given Team Five at least two minutes more to prepare.

"Many-As-One reporting. Moving to retreive Tallos. Switching to.. 'Shotgun'." The delay was less than a heartbeat, but for a Geth, it was very slow. He had to look up what they had dubbed the incredibly potent plasma-launcher he was swapping into his arms. The overarmoured Hunter platform moved in, covering Tallos and launching blasts of superheated plasma into any Vorcha carrying heavy weapons. His objective now was not accuracy.. Though it'd be foolish to think the multitudes in Many couldn't acheive kills like this.. But primarily keeping them back while he assisted the downed Krogan. A few hundred subroutines accessed Krogan biology, used to quickly assess his status and how to best remove him.

The plasma blasts tore into several of the vorcha, forcing them to stumble backwards as they fired wildly. Many-As-One's diagnostic routines of the krogan showed that while Tallos-Candidate's armor was now damaged, it was not compromised. The krogan himself seemed to be recovering quickly, but was for the moment still somewhat dazed.

Tallos woke to the sound of screams and immediately tried to stand, however he collapsed again when a wave of nausea and pain hit him. "Ahh. What the hell happened." He screamed groggily from behind tightly clenched teeth.

Tallos' body complained at him, but it was certainly less painful than the shaman's lessons or certain parts of his own Rite. He could feel his body repairing itself, and his armor mostly seemed to be okay, though it would certainly need repairs once all this was done. His shields were already beginning to regenerate.

Lysander fired into the last Krogan.

"Tallos stay down, get under cover. Cipriani, Many as One finish off the Vorcha. Everyone else move up, prepare for round 2 with their friends. If anyone can use them, see if those rocket launchers are working. Jager do you have eyes on incoming?" Lysander asked moving to new cover.

Lysander's Mattock tore into the krogan, who was already wounded and had had his armor damaged. The krogan staggered under the impact, and seemed to stand stilll, stunned for a moment before bellowing again, falling under blood rage.

"No," said Jager, poking his head up. "No eyes on them." His attention shifted to the singularity and its victims. A corona of indigo light briefly flashed around his right hand and then sped toward the singularity to detonate it in a warp explosion.

The warp hit the singularity, and created a rather impressive explosion that blasted both the trapped vorcha into the walls, now unmoving and very still. The blast further struck the remaining vorcha not killed by Sidonis' sniper rifle, and caused it to fly screaming into a rock, after which it too fell to the floor, unmoving.

The situation quickly escalated and as he left cover long enough to align his assault rifle with potential targets as Lysander had asked he found to his chagrin that they were dying as he aligned his weapon with them. He was quite used to the weight of the Mattock assault rifle, but the combination of Sidonis, Sings to the Stars and the unseen Adept that seemed to detonate the singularity the Vorcha found themselves being cut down before he could act. His armor informed him of the change in status of Tallos but he could do nothing to offer immediate aid. Instead, his rifle finally aligned itself with a target that still drew breath. The Krogan seemed already battered and his armor's sensors indicated that his kinetic barriers were down. His right index finger moved three separate times as he fired into the Krogan's center of mass. A few moments later, he left cover and began to move upwards towards the next location he had identified as suitable for his needs.

The blasts from Cipriani's Mattock tore into the krogan, several times, before it finally fell over, unmoving.

Once this fire was done, the team had seen that they had taken down both fireteams, and according to their map, the incoming forces were nowhere nearby yet.

However, it was at that moment that Iona observed the team at the front door make excited motions, just as the door opened. The three vorcha and krogan ran inside, followed quickly by all of the rearguard team.

[White Haven]

There were no other asari on Team Five. There were definitely no other asari inside Iona's helmet. Accordingly the vicious curse that spilled from her lips went unheard and untranslated. She keyed up on the tactical network, her voice cutting across it in the clipped, even tones of an experienced operative, "Iona. Force temporarily interdicted en route to your location. Moving to attack, some support would be appreciated. Blood Pack have penetrated the facility, eight to ten krogan, six to eight vorcha, plus varren support. They're entering too fast, airlock must be overridden."

As she spoke, Iona slowly slipped up to her feet, moving carefully to avoid kicking up a cloud of volcanic ash from the depression she'd bellied down in. A quick glance confirmed her earlier mental map -- a small rocky outcropping nearby should give the cover she needed from the base itself. She slipped over to it, flattening up against the far side of the rock to hide the telltale flare of her biotic abilities as best she could. A simple shove, lateral momentum imparted suddenly, didn't require much exertion, and consequently much of a visual side-effect in comparison to some manifestations. She extended a hand, still wrapped in the comforting net of bent light and twisted emissions, focusing her will down her arm and out across the intervening space. As she did so, light sizzled and skittered around her, again producing the ghostly shadow of a humanoid form wrapped around what outwardly looked like empty space.

Gravity is a funny thing. People take it for granted that 'down' is a static phenomenon. The prevalence of artificial gravity ensures that even most spacers never really question it on a regular basis. Outside of yard workers and engineering staff doing hullkwalking work, it just remains a constant. That is, until someone like Iona decides to fuck with it. A point of light flared into being just above the tangled mass of vorcha, krogan, and varren that her earlier misdirection had created. In a heartbeat, it became the heart of a swirl of ash and dust and loose stones and bits of shotgunned vorcha. A few moments later, and the singularity Iona called into existence began clawing and dragging at the tangled mass of mercenaries strewn across the rocky ground, an inexorable gravitational embrace striving to drag them into the pulsating blue vortex.

"Now would be a very good time," she commented, sounding strained as she struggled to deepen the gravitational pit to suck in as many of the Blood Pack mercenaries as she could.

[Sabre72]

After charging away from the backdoor, Junko realized she has no backup which leads into a series of swearing quietly in another language.

Junko's tactical net was receiving a message from Iona, Junko thought "will this explain why I have no backup cause it better", Junko went on with a mental hiss as she read the message.

Her tact-net transformed Iona's voice into text mode since Junko is running silent.

galactic detected "Iona. Force temporarily interdicted en route to your location. Moving to attack, some support would be appreciated. translating to Japanese. アイオナ。力が一時的にあなたの場所に向かう途中interdicted。攻撃に移行する、いくつかのサポートをいただければ幸いです。[/引用]日本語に翻訳.

Junk sighed, not knowing whats going on with the other half of the team told her she should regroup now, she cant do anything more with where she is due to having no backup.

Junko sent a speech to text message to the teams tact-net, it translated her japanese into galactic then into text. she couldn't risk using her omni tool to type the words thus she was speaking in a whisper that was barley high enuogh to be detected by her helmets mic.

Further more, the reason for sending a text instead of a spoken message, was that a spoken message took longer to encode heavily, given Junko's background she uses everything she can to avoid detection, all the little things add up after awhile.

"At back door I distracted hack team. Four blood pack looking for me. Iona thought you be here for backup, but plans change, I will make my way to you as soon as possible once I shake loose of them."

Junko could have easily spoken in galactic, but she was rather pissed off among other reasons, and she was falling back on years of hard earned experience and learning, that she slips back into her native tongue without warning most of the time.

After Junko sent the message, she rechecked her stealth nets strength and proceeded towards Iona's location, Junko knowingly must avoid detection from the four blood packers. With a hunters patience, she gets behind cover and beings to study their movements, she repeats the process again and again for every new set of purposely selected cover which scatter this ash filled landscape.

Junko's goal is to have the blood packers look the other way so she can charge towards Iona's location when the opportunity arises.

[JD196]

Tallos got back to his feet, ignoring the blinding pain. "Damn it, that stings." He pulled out his own rocket launcher and fired a shot into the body's of the blood pack. "How do you like it." He screamed as the rocket detonated, before taking cover near to Sidonis.

[rhoenix]

After Junko sent the message, she rechecked her stealth nets strength and proceeded towards Iona's location, Junko knowingly must avoid detection from the four blood packers. With a hunters patience, she gets behind cover and beings to study their movements, she repeats the process again and again for every new set of purposely selected cover which scatter this ash filled landscape.

Junko's goal is to have the blood packers look the other way so she can charge towards Iona's location when the opportunity arises.

Junko continued to play the cat and mouse game, slowly leading the fireteam away from the still-locked back entrance to the facility - but they didn't stay interested for very long. After firing a wild spray of bullets at the rocks and ash-covered hills of the landscape, the fireteam began a controlled retreat back to the door, but paused before they got there, the krogan putting a hand to his helmeted ear.

After a moment, the team continued their retreat, but this time toward the front entrance of the facility, firing steadily at the rocks and area around them to discourage pursuit.

Gravity is a funny thing. People take it for granted that 'down' is a static phenomenon. The prevalence of artificial gravity ensures that even most spacers never really question it on a regular basis. Outside of yard workers and engineering staff doing hullkwalking work, it just remains a constant. That is, until someone like Iona decides to fuck with it. A point of light flared into being just above the tangled mass of vorcha, krogan, and varren that her earlier misdirection had created. In a heartbeat, it became the heart of a swirl of ash and dust and loose stones and bits of shotgunned vorcha. A few moments later, and the singularity Iona called into existence began clawing and dragging at the tangled mass of mercenaries strewn across the rocky ground, an inexorable gravitational embrace striving to drag them into the pulsating blue vortex.

"Now would be a very good time," she commented, sounding strained as she struggled to deepen the gravitational pit to suck in as many of the Blood Pack mercenaries as she could.

Although Iona got several of the force in the Singularity, there were quite a few others who were not - and among those who had not been caught in it were most of the varren.

The rapid-fire bullets from the unaffected krogan quickly whittled down Iona's shields and quickly began to shred her light armor - but if that was bad, what was incoming was worse. The few uncaught vorcha were setting up to shoot missiles at her, and eight baying varren ran right at her, eyes intent on their prey.

Tallos got back to his feet, ignoring the blinding pain. "Damn it, that stings." He pulled out his own rocket launcher and fired a shot into the remaining blood pack. "How do you like it." He screamed as the rocket detonated, before taking cover near to Sidonis.

The missile flew, in the post-combat quiet, quite a ways before it struck a cargo container and exploded.

Sidonis, for his part, looked oddly at Tallos, while he was sitting comfortably on a crate, giving his sniper rifle a thorough look-over. "This first group are down, but the others will be here soon enough. Medigel's in the shuttle if you need it, I don't think it's leaving just yet."

[White Haven]

Iona's lips twisted in a tight smile as the mobile force rounded on her and began taking her under a hail of fire. Pros: They're distracted, and convinced that they're under attack from the opposite side of their formation relative to the rest of Team Five. Cons: Measured in caliber, explosive yield, and teeth-per-capita.

Time to leave.

Rolling along the curve of the outcropping quickly took her out of sight around its curve at the same time as it spread the impacts out to prolong shield failure as long as possible, but that was only a temporary solution. Even if they weren't spreading out to flank her, the Blood Pack forces had enough explosive firepower on hand to reduce her cover to gravel. She paused for a split second, just long enough to shift her footing, and then blurred forwards, launching herself into a nearly-flat ballistic trajectory that saw the ground scrolling away beneath her blue-rimmed form. If she could hold it together long enough, she would have been able to make her entire exit at that sort of speed, but the strain on both her biotic abilities and physical body were...formidable. She touched down again in short order, legs pumping, arms swinging close to her body as she began sprinting in an erratic path, trying to present a hard target while her stealth field restabilized. Cover. Got to find cover. Something to break line of sight long enough to open up possible locations, make pursuit more difficult...

[Sabre72]

Junko continued to play the cat and mouse game, slowly leading the fireteam away from the still-locked back entrance to the facility - but they didn't stay interested for very long. After firing a wild spray of bullets at the rocks and ash-covered hills of the landscape, the fireteam began a controlled retreat back to the door, but paused before they got there, the krogan putting a hand to his helmeted ear.

After a moment, the team continued their retreat, but this time toward the front entrance of the facility, firing steadily at the rocks and area around them to discourage pursuit.

Junko was still hunting her pray which now was retreating towards Iona's location, Junko decided that she should attempt to slow them down and get ahead of them but still maintaining a safe distinct from them.

Junko took her harpy pistol out aimed center of mass on one of the vorcha took 2 deep breaths, upon the 2nd she held her breath and let off three taps of the trigger, before she could even see the results she charged into her next set of cover towards Iona she went into a prone position for max cover.

After hearing more gun fire towards Iona location, Junko got back up and charged yet again to another set of cover, sensing that something will go down in front of her and cursing over how Iona's craziness will probably herself killed simulation or not.

Junko was basically backpedaling to Iona's location by using charge.

[Cynical Cat]

"Breaking right," Mikhail sent to Lysander as he kept low and headed forward and to the right, staying in cover.

[rhoenix]

Rolling along the curve of the outcropping quickly took her out of sight around its curve at the same time as it spread the impacts out to prolong shield failure as long as possible, but that was only a temporary solution. Even if they weren't spreading out to flank her, the Blood Pack forces had enough explosive firepower on hand to reduce her cover to gravel. She paused for a split second, just long enough to shift her footing, and then blurred forwards, launching herself into a nearly-flat ballistic trajectory that saw the ground scrolling away beneath her blue-rimmed form. If she could hold it together long enough, she would have been able to make her entire exit at that sort of speed, but the strain on both her biotic abilities and physical body were...formidable. She touched down again in short order, legs pumping, arms swinging close to her body as she began sprinting in an erratic path, trying to present a hard target while her stealth field restabilized. Cover. Got to find cover. Something to break line of sight long enough to open up possible locations, make pursuit more difficult...

Once Iona began Charging away, she began to see missiles miss her location by less than a meter, as she ducked and dodged behind cover to try to lose her pursuit.

As if being the harbringer of bad news, the Singularity that Iona had created finally hit the end of its lifespan, closing in on itself as it disappeared. The previously-trapped korgan and vorcha dropped to the ground, got their bearings, and began adding their own volume of fire, attempting to box Iona in.

The varren, on the other hand, traveled far faster on foot than most. When Iona Charged, all she could do was keep the distance between she and the varren the same as it was; gaining ground on them was impossible.

Amidst the missile explosions around Iona, the varren began to spread out, beginning to encircle Iona's location. The krogan and vorcha equipped with missile launchers followed the varren toward her location, trying to pen Iona in with missile fire and shotgun blasts, and letting the varren go to work.

Junko took her harpy pistol out aimed center of mass on one of the vorcha took 2 deep breaths, upon the 2nd she held her breath and let off three taps of the trigger, before she could even see the results she charged into her next set of cover towards Iona she went into a prone position for max cover.

At the sound of the pistol fire, the three vorcha and krogan adjusted their aim, the krogan shooting his shotgun in Junko's general direction, and the three vorcha unslung their flamethrowers, and began bathing the immediate area in fire, making it dangerous for her to leave cover without being careful.

The krogan took lead on this, stomping inexorably toward Junko's location, trying to box her in.
From Junko's position behind cover, she could hear the fireteam slowly approaching her location, having apparently abandoned the tactical retreat of before.

[JD196]

"I know that Sidonis, but it was either work off some anger or risk going into blood-rage." Tallos checked his weapons before the next wave. "I'll pass on the medigel thanks. My regen should take care of the worst of it and I'd hate to use it and not be able to treat any other people who get hit."

[SirNitram]

"Multiple inbounds. Switching to maximum refire." Without the charge up, the plasma shotgun was able to lay down a devastating hail of withering fire. Not even a Vorcha could regenerate from the white-hot heat of the weapon, and Many used his subroutines well to walk the fire, advancing slowly and presenting a clear target.

[Soleimon Berserker]

Peeking his head over cover to confirm that the immediate threat was gone, Sol'Amon's shoulders tensed slightly before he cautiously began to move from cover to cover, his trajectory a more forward position from which he could hide and hit any advancing Krogan from behind while. And while he wasn't really a 'sneaker' he had learned enough from his years as a hit man to be able to quickly look and choose a spot to strike a target from that would provide the most surprise.

That spot made itself known as a chest high rise of burned metal shaped into an arrow facing the enemy position (^), though it was a small ways further ahead of the others in the assault group. The strong muscles in his legs could propel him across the ashy landscape at almost Turian footspeed, though he'd have a chance of being spotted if he hesitated before going at all.....

....he didn't.

Vaulting almost 5 feet up and over the burned out Mako that he'd been using as cover during the first firefight, the Quarian Vanguard's eyes locked on the arrow as he landed in a crouch on the ash covered ground outside of cover. Marking the possible enemy positions across the 20 yards of open ground, the young man put on a burst of speed as he made a sprint toward his new position.

"Sol'Amon. Advancing to a forward assault position, I should be able to provide a crossfire with your team from here." He said with a small grin on his face, "I would'a let you know guys know I was gonna do this but that would've ruined my window."

Breathing evenly and watching the positions around him, Sol quickly thanked the Goddess and Ancestors that he'd thought to holster his Locust before making the run, the sub-machine gun was light but even that could have slowed him down an infinitesimal amount enough to not make it.

[rhoenix]

"The two of our chorus who sing observation-songs of the facility are in danger," Sings-to-the-Stars said through his mindspeech worriedly to the others. "I cannot show you the minds singing threat-songs, but I can sing location-songs," the brood warrior continued.

And then, suddenly, all the non-Geth of Team Five saw a map overlaying their normal vision, in their mind's eye. It would be easy enough to ignore when necessary, but it plainly highlighted the locations of every member of Team Five. This included Junko and Iona - and it showed their adrenaline and fear increasing.

"Handy," Sidonis said, nodding as he looked around. "I wish I had you along back in the day - it would've saved a lot of grief."

"I sing gratitude-songs," the large brood warrior replied, though he still seemed to exude worry. "But I think our two far singers would sing the same songs if we get to them in time."

"Yeah," sighed Sidonis. "Let's save their asses, and get this over with."

[Sabre72]

At the sound of the pistol fire, the three vorcha and krogan adjusted their aim, the krogan shooting his shotgun in Junko's general direction, and the three vorcha unslung their flamethrowers, and began bathing the immediate area in fire, making it dangerous for her to leave cover without being careful.

The krogan took lead on this, stomping inexorably toward Junko's location, trying to box her in.
From Junko's position behind cover, she could hear the fireteam slowly approaching her location, having apparently abandoned the tactical retreat of before.

Junko swore in her native language, she started to build up massive amount of her biotic energy to prepare herself.

Junko keyed her radio, "Look to the sky gents, am over here!" She was going to get the attention of everyone.

With that said, Junko charge upwards into a 45° angle toward Iona and team 5's general area, while in mid air and falling Junko found some cover she could attempt to get to. She unleashed another 45° angle charge with a roar as she bioticly tossed herself to the rocky ash layered ground.

She landed with a small thud and roll back onto her feet, she then ran to suitable cover she found while in the air, upon arriving she fell prone into cover, drained from that sudden burst of exertion she applied, however it was only a dent in her endurance.

[Agent Fisher]

Maraka watched the Vorcha crumble, the hiss of steam and a blinking indicator flashed in his helmet, showing the heat sink was overheating. But that would have to wait as he saw the rocket screaming towards him. His arm came up, a barrier shimmering into place just as the rocket impacted. The warhead detonated, sending out smoke and shrapnel. His barrier, shields and armor did their jobs, leaving Maraka with nothing more than a bad headache and fresh dings in his armor. The Turian biotic refocused his attention on his rifle, the heat sink dropping out, a new one slapped in.

He moved forward, tapping Lysander on the shoulder. "Advancing!" He called out, rifle at the low ready, sharp turian eyes scanning for targets.

[frigidmagi]

Lysander dove behind a swallow rise of ground seeking cover. He pulled out his omni-tool and got to work.

"Adepts, close and unload on them. Everyone one else hit 'em hard we need to waste these assholes." He orders. He hit in the last command on his omni-tool, readying an overload command. He moved ahead to the next piece of scanty cover. One of these days he would have to get his own moving wall or something.

[White Haven]

Ah. Good. Backup's on the way. Now to deal with all the assorted bullets, high-explosives, fragmentation warheads, teeth, and claws in such a way as to keep all their owners distracted.

No pressure.

The bullets and missiles -- always going to be a problem, fast, erratic movements to throw those off. The varren closing in...time for artful. They have to obey the laws of Newtonian motion.

So did Iona. Sort of. Kinda. Occasionally. As her foot landed on an angled stone, she let her momentum drive her leg into a deeper flex, then straightened it wuth a grunt, twisting in place to spin herself to the left...and then blurring into a streak of gleaming blue light again. One part of her mind idly noted that she'd be eating heavily after the exercise, whatever happened. The rest of her attention was focused quite intently on one simple thing: timing. Her trajectory carried her sharply aside, but also upwards into the air, not at as dramatic an angle as Junko's dramatic spike only moments ago, but enough...just enough. As the cocoon of biotic force dissolved from around her body, it left her on a ballistic trajectory in midair, travelling fast enough to make impact a dubious proposition. Timing...timing is everything. Too high an arc and she'd become an obvious target, describing a simple parabola in front of the Blood Pack gunsights. Too low, and she'd plow into the ground before she'd had time to twist in place and birth another storm of gravitational disruption amidst the nearest of the Blood Pack troops showering her with fire. The varren...the varren she'd just have to rely on being quicker on her feet. Missiles were more dangerous than teeth in any case.

The ground was getting dubiously close again. Landing facing the same direction as her trajectory would be workable, but the twisting motion that brought the Blood Pack forces into view made that less than likely. The solution, of course, mirrored the second half of the other biotic's 'jump,' albeit without the dramatic, flashy explosions of force on each end. She blurred into motion again, streaking forwards and down until her booted feet made contact with the ground again. Without hesitation, she tucked into a tight roll, absorbing the force of her meteoric plunge across her body and the kinetic barriers still stubbornly clinging around her battered armour.

[Cynical Cat]

Jager continued to break right until he found a half decent firing position. He raised his rifle and began sniping vorcha.

[General Havoc]

Geth did not swear. Geth did not recite oaths to imagined gods. The Loyalists were aware that such behaviors had, for a while, become popular among the Heretic faction of the Violators, imagining the Reapers to be their Gods, and swearing oaths to them. But the Heretics were no more, and the Loyalists had always consciously sought to distance themselves from them. The Heretics were mad, a malfunction topped upon a malfunction, the logical extreme of the Geth's willingness to commit mass-genocide to achieve their goals. The Loyalists were different. So they always told themselves.

And so, when the Quarian broke cover and raced ahead, away from the rest of the group, exposing himself to fire to reach a distant point of cover well beyond any friendly support, Shaddai did not swear, nor did any of its constituent programs. But there was a moment or two where the programs that comprised it might well have wanted to.

Instead though, Shaddai acted.

The blue-painted Geth infiltrator rose from his distant cover to a standing position. For a tiny second, the Geth raised its Widow anti-materiel rifle to its shoulder, an act which would have broken the collarbone or equivalent of any living being save a Krogan. Instead it fired a round capable of penetrating two inches of mass-compacted armor straight at the helmet of one of the flamethrowing Vorcha attempting to incinerate the friendly biotic. But without stopping to ascertain the effect of this round, Shaddai instead began to run.

There was nothing robotic about Shaddai running. The basic Quarian design had been modeled, of course, after themselves, and improvements made by the Violator conclave over the centuries had been noted and copied and in a few cases improved on by the Loyalists. Infiltrator protoforms moved with speed and even grace, traversing the broken ground effortlessly at maximum velocity, its eye flicking from point to threat point, sensors monitoring changes in wind speed, enemy positioning, and overall flow of the battle. Though Shaddai could not receive the information being psychically broadcast to the organic members of the team, its proximity radar, 3D-imaging software, and sensory-triangulation algorithms, manned as ever by dozens of efficient Geth programs, gave it very near to the same level of information. Yet whatever threats Shaddai uncovered, it moved regardless, for a higher priority was in play, and not one of the programs aboard would question that.

Shaddai's target was a wrecked and burnt-out armored vehicle, the very same one that the Quarian had abandoned to push on ahead. And as it ran at top speed, holding its sniper rifle in one hand, with its other hand, it drew a large pistol from its side. Without breaking stride, Shaddai aimed the pistol forward, at the cover it was approaching, and fired a dozen rounds with one hand. The shots struck home, hitting points identified as 'weak' by a quick structural analysis carried out in a quarter of a second by two thousand Geth. Running at high speed as it was, only nine of the shots struck home at their designated targets, of which six did not penetrate the cover, and three did. But three was enough. One would have been.

Fifteen feet from cover, Shaddai's body threw itself down, its feet gripping at the top layer of the soil, carving a furrow in the dirt as the charging Geth slid in unconscious imitation of a human baseball player, straight into its chosen cover. Yet this was not enough. As Shaddai slid, it holstered its pistol, and brought its rifle around with both arms, positioning it carefully. As the slide came to a stop, directly behind the hulking vehicle, Shaddai extended the rifle ever so slightly, sliding the end of the barrel directly into one of the holes that it had just shot through the imposing armored vehicle.

There was half a second allocated to adjusting body positioning and weapon trajectory, and then Shaddai fired.

The shot was aimed at the Blood Packer it had identified as most likely to spot and/or shoot at the Quarian. From the perspective of the target, it would be as though the long-dead vehicle had spontaneously begun flinging parts of itself at him, rendering return fire all-but pointless. Hopefully it would also give the Quarian time to get into something approximating cover.

It would do for now, at least until the Quarian decided to leap out from behind cover again. Shaddai's preliminary analysis gave the likely time before that happened as between seven and nine seconds.

For a Geth, an eternity.