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The situation on the ground is worse than Shepard had anticipated. They find burned corpses not far from the drop site. Maybe civilians, maybe not. It's impossible to tell. In the distance, the arcologies are visibly trading fire, but too far out for their small 4-man strike team to do anything about, were that even their mission objective. Nihlus pops up on comms to warn of large amounts hostiles still in the area. That's not surprising, Sacha thinks, but appreciates the Spectre giving them a heads up all the same.
They find more bodies as the go - burned beyond recognition, mangled - and eventually hostile synethics. Combat drones, it looks like. Not of human make. Jenkins goes down as soon as bullets start flying, his shields sliced through like butter. Ryder does not have to check for lifesigns once the shooting stops; the synthetics' weapons punched huge holes right through Jenkin's torso. They leave his body for recovery post-mission and move on with no fanfare.
They cut through an outcropping of trees. There's more of those drones and it slows them down only a little. For all their ability to slice through their shields, the drones can't take much in way of hits. Shepard and the others cut them down without too much trouble. They hit a clearing just in time to see a marine (in stupidly garish armor, no less) scrambling their direction, bipedal synethics in pursuit. Flashlight faces. They look a lot like archival footage of geth.
The fighting is brief. They take more effort than the drones did, but there's only a couple of them. They mechanically warble something that Shepard can't quite make out as they die. Die's the word, isn't it? He can't quite bring himself to think of it any other way.
Sacha holsters his weapons just about the same time the marine in the pink armor steps over to him. "Thank you for your help, I didn't think I was gonna make it," She says, audibly out of breath. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You're the one in charge here, sir?"
Sacha nods. "Report, Williams. Where's the rest of your unit?"
"Oh, man... We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit," She pauses, gesturing off in the distance. We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."
"We picked up some of the distress call while en route," Sacha replies. "Do you know if the beacon is secure?"
A brief series of micro-reactions pass over the Gunnery Chief's face. She shakes her head. "No, but the dig site is close. Just over that rise. It might still be there."
There's an expectant pause, but Shepard just nods towards the dig site and barks, "Move out."
They pass by strange groupings of strange metal spikes, dozens of feat high. All bearing human bodies impaled right through. It's horrifying, even to Shepard. Ryder makes some sort of comment about Vlad the Impaler, to William's disapproval. Shepard silences both with a curt few words.
There's more hostiles - Geth, Shepard guesses - on the way down to the dig. They take cover behind outcroppings of rock, returning fire. Progress slows to a crawl. Sacha mounts a taller section of the mined rock and sets up with his sniper rifle, picking the synths off from above. Ryder, Alenko and Williams push ahead further. The dig site itself is around enough of a corner that Sacha can only see the far edges of it. His team, however, find a position with a better view."
"Beacon's gone, Commander," comes Ryder's slight drawl over the comms.
A second later, Williams. "This is the dig site. The beacon was right here. It must have been moved."
"That was the implication, ma'am," Ryder's quick to come back. "Unless they ate it."
Sacha doesn't even know what to say to that. And thankfully, neither does anyone else. They take down the last of the hostiles with minimal chatter. Shepard climbs down from his spot and leads the way to the dig site proper. It's empty, as described. A large stage-like circle clearly meant to hold something that's no longer there.
They find more bodies as the go - burned beyond recognition, mangled - and eventually hostile synethics. Combat drones, it looks like. Not of human make. Jenkins goes down as soon as bullets start flying, his shields sliced through like butter. Ryder does not have to check for lifesigns once the shooting stops; the synthetics' weapons punched huge holes right through Jenkin's torso. They leave his body for recovery post-mission and move on with no fanfare.
They cut through an outcropping of trees. There's more of those drones and it slows them down only a little. For all their ability to slice through their shields, the drones can't take much in way of hits. Shepard and the others cut them down without too much trouble. They hit a clearing just in time to see a marine (in stupidly garish armor, no less) scrambling their direction, bipedal synethics in pursuit. Flashlight faces. They look a lot like archival footage of geth.
The fighting is brief. They take more effort than the drones did, but there's only a couple of them. They mechanically warble something that Shepard can't quite make out as they die. Die's the word, isn't it? He can't quite bring himself to think of it any other way.
Sacha holsters his weapons just about the same time the marine in the pink armor steps over to him. "Thank you for your help, I didn't think I was gonna make it," She says, audibly out of breath. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You're the one in charge here, sir?"
Sacha nods. "Report, Williams. Where's the rest of your unit?"
"Oh, man... We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit," She pauses, gesturing off in the distance. We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."
"We picked up some of the distress call while en route," Sacha replies. "Do you know if the beacon is secure?"
A brief series of micro-reactions pass over the Gunnery Chief's face. She shakes her head. "No, but the dig site is close. Just over that rise. It might still be there."
There's an expectant pause, but Shepard just nods towards the dig site and barks, "Move out."
They pass by strange groupings of strange metal spikes, dozens of feat high. All bearing human bodies impaled right through. It's horrifying, even to Shepard. Ryder makes some sort of comment about Vlad the Impaler, to William's disapproval. Shepard silences both with a curt few words.
There's more hostiles - Geth, Shepard guesses - on the way down to the dig. They take cover behind outcroppings of rock, returning fire. Progress slows to a crawl. Sacha mounts a taller section of the mined rock and sets up with his sniper rifle, picking the synths off from above. Ryder, Alenko and Williams push ahead further. The dig site itself is around enough of a corner that Sacha can only see the far edges of it. His team, however, find a position with a better view."
"Beacon's gone, Commander," comes Ryder's slight drawl over the comms.
A second later, Williams. "This is the dig site. The beacon was right here. It must have been moved."
"That was the implication, ma'am," Ryder's quick to come back. "Unless they ate it."
Sacha doesn't even know what to say to that. And thankfully, neither does anyone else. They take down the last of the hostiles with minimal chatter. Shepard climbs down from his spot and leads the way to the dig site proper. It's empty, as described. A large stage-like circle clearly meant to hold something that's no longer there.
