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[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren continued firing her shotgun into the oncoming vorcha. "Fall back inside and lock it down!" (this shouted if we're outside)

[TheMajonese]

"Yeah, no sh*t, Kurik!", Naomi yelled furiously and knelt down to become a smaller target and let her shields replenish but that obviously wouldn't help much against fire from the precision rifles of the snipers. Without the snipers she would try to get close enough to use her biotics against the vorcha but that wasn't an option any longer. And with a Mattock she didn't have the best weapon to deal with the vorcha. 

 

Chris stopped shooting for a moment to look after Cadi. "You're alright?", he asked but then he saw that her armor had stopped the bullet from entering her body. Relieved he turned his attention back to the vorcha and began reloading his rifle when he suddenly had an idea. He contacted the driver of the grizzly. "We're under fire! Get your vehicle down here and pick us up!"

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos activated his tactical cloak, turning on the thermals of his sniper rifle as he looked to the entrance, backing up towards the entranceway. He lined up the best shot he could of one of the snipers, and fired his 3 round burst for them.

 

"Specks is right, Everyone fall back and hold the doorways..." Menos said to the others via the comms, still trying to take out the snipers as he made his way to the faucility.

[Kel Riever]

Menos’ Incisor wasn’t ideal for a target just popping up out of cover, but his skill was enough to land one of the shots directly on target.  It sent the sniper down, though it was impossible to tell if the target was dead, or simply staying under complete cover for the moment.

The closest of the team’s Grizzlies had already come down the hill to assist with the cowering vorcha, and the other two were close with the rest of the team when they came down.  That didn’t mean they were ideally placed when the fight broke out.  The vorcha drivers were civilians, and they could have easily panicked or driven away.  But to their great credit, they did no such thing.  As Chris asked for their assistance, the Grizzlies rolled to the group, and could be gotten behind as cover.  Even loaded onto safely using a hatch opposite the enemy sniper fire, though the maddened vorcha were closing fast.  All the vorcha really lacked were experience, and one of the Grizzlies was out of position, too close to the closing.  It would be a tight fit, but only two of the Grizzlies were needed. 

Cadi was firing from the ground with her custom Avenger.  It was a workhorse gun, not favored by most elites, but one distinct advantage the rifle had was it had so much ammo capacity and heat dump efficiency that it could be fired constantly.  The sound of her fire was sustained and controlled, and to the maddened vorcha, who were unarmored, it was working well.  Another sniper shot hit her in the waist though, and she shouted out as the round might have gotten past her plates now that her shield was down.  She rolled behind one of the Grizzlies (also conveniently avoiding being crushed by it as the driver hadn’t seen her).  Once out of the line of fire, safely behind the Grizzly who’s hatch was opening, she tried messaging Reith again.

This time, on all receiving team member channels, Reith’s voice came back, with no image.  The reception was broken, garbled, but enough came through for a moment to make sense.  “Get…back im…mediately.  The base…is under….attack.  Whatever…was…up…there…is here…now.”  After that, Reith’s message was lost.

There was a growl and then the sound of a shotgun being discharged.  The attacking vorcha had gotten close enough that Juric had opened up with close range weaponry.  The horde was collapsing in on the team.

[Cknarf]

"Perhaps I should have brought more thermal clips." Kurik ejected the heatsink from his sidearm, and inserted it into his rifle.

[Kel Riever]

The carnage stacked up, and it was gruesome.  Whether inadvertently or by accident, Naomi killed a vorcha about to leap onto Tolema, and in return for the 'favor', Tolema was able to biotically throw another vorcha about to leap on Naomi.  That was as close as it got before everyone was aboard, though Kuric fired at the last of the vorcha before everyone was loaded.  

Menos had put down three of the snipers, two confirmed kills as he saw them die.  He was first to get a read on the situation as a matter of coincidence being the first to get to the onboard displays.  One Grizzly, the closest to the enemy, had no one in it but the driver.  It was also the closest to the exit, so it was in the lead of the convoy.  Everyone had packed into the other two Grizzlies, and even through the thick hulls of the vehicles, the thumping of vorcha could be faintly heard as some of them threw themselves at them.  None of the vehicles were armed, being meant for civilian use with no wildlife threat, and no thought for police action, but as they drove, there certainly were more than a few of the vorcha that fell under the churning wheels.  The vorcha gave up for the most part as the Grizzlies moved away at a fast enough speed to outpace them.  

Cadi was sitting up on the floor of the Grizzly she was on, gritting her teeth as she examined the second hit she took.  Blood trickled from beneath the plate but it had stopped.  Her suit had applied medigel and she tried to scan herself but her omni-tool software built only for first aid simply said she was safe to move and that she should seek a hospital immediatly.  Ignoring the message, Arcadia sent a com out, "Kamau, are you out?"

"Affirmative.  I'm in my vehicle and doubling around to meet you.  I am not able to reach Reith or the base.  The alert has been put out all the way to Teklia but it is doubtful that any response can be mustered in time."

Sighing in frustration, Cadi said to Kamau and to everyone, "We'll never get back in time to matter.  Two hours?  Whatever is going on will be over in twenty minutes!  I'm calling in for an air evac from Koehler's Brigade, if that's still even possible."

As Cadi put the call in, there was the shudder and sound of a large explosion, immediately followed by another.  Orange light flickered through the window slits in the vehicles.  The driver of the second Grizzly called out through the com, "Rocket fire!  There's an ambush!"

Both Grizzlies came to a halt and began to move in reverse, back the way they came.

[TheMajonese]

One of the vorcha had lept at Chris and knocked him down. Even though he managed to get rid off the attacker by thrusting Naomi's knife through his neck, he recieved a hard blow against the head. The helmet protected him against any serious injuries but the brute force of the attack was already bad enough.

 

Back in the grizzly Chris used one hand to lean against the wall while he covered his forehead with his other one. Everything was spinning around him, he had a terrible headache and he felt certain that under his helmet, his nose was bleeding. Despite the pain and the dizziness Chris tried to keep track of the things around him but it was very hard to concentrate.

 

His sister however turned to the vorcha driver when she saw the impact of the rockets. "What the f*ck are you doing?", she shouted at him. "We have to move forward, not back! They can't hit use again until they reload their weapons, so GET US OUT OF HERE!"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Naomi's right. They get us pinned inside that facility it's all over." Lauren said and moved up to the seat next to the Vorcha in the grizzly and spoke to him in as calm a voice as she could. "We have to leave. Now. And fast. Go to about three-quarter speed," she said, and turned back to Naomi and Cadi. "I'll time the rocket fire. They'll try to lead target us, we should hold something back and accelerate past it as they come in on our way back."

[Kel Riever]

The vorcha in the Grizzly with Naomi and Lauren was frightened, but followed through with his instructions, accelerating the Grizzly forward to three-quarters its normal speed.  The driver transporting the other part of the team in the vehicle behind saw what was happening and did the same.  Normally the door to the passenger compartment was closed, but in this case it had been left open by the vorcha, which was good in that if it hadn't been, he'd have been compartmentalized away from the rest of the team.

It was a solid, if not aggressive move, as the Grizzlies got through the most blocked part of the neck quickly.  They had to get around their companion vehicle, which had the front blown wide open.  As it was obvious there was no one alive in that vehicle, there was no reason to pause as the two Grizzlies churned their way past and were making their way.  The rocket launcher teams weren't able to load fast enough to take their targets down before they were through, and of the two incoming rockets that were finally fired next, one was ineffective, glancing off the hull of the rear Grizzly without breaching or other effect.

The second rocket wasn't nearly as ineffective, however, as it was on target, striking the front right of the lead Grizzly.  Everyone inside without a helmet was temporarily deafened from the impact. Lauren and the vorcha driver were thrown about.  It took a moment to realize the hull hadn't been breached but Lauren was first to recognize from the damage readout that the right front tire was blown off, gone, or somehow otherwize completely inoperable.  As the vorcha driver was stunned from the impact, she had to put her hand over the controls so the Grizzly's rear wheels didn't shove the vehicle off the narrow road and into a field of rock where it would have been completely immobilized.

Having saved the Grizzly, it was a quick calculation to figure out the damaged Grizzly wasn't going to escape before another series of rockets came in at it.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos had been wearing a helmet, and so hadn't been deafened. The shock of the hit however was big, and Menos looked around as he began to take stock, "Everyone still breathing?" He called out, hoping to be greeted by something other then silence.

 

He looked out of one of the slit viewports, seeing how fast they were moving and the smoke from the front of the vehicle, "No...no, this is too slow. We gotta go faster then this!" He called out to the front, looking to the driver to hope he was just being cautious. "We'll be sitting ducks otherwise."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"F*ck! The right front tire is flat!" Lauren shouted. "Why couldn't they use hard rubber tires? Do we have a spare?"

 

"Yes," the driver nodded. "It is on my side on the outside."

 

Fortunately the Grizzly had the steering on the left side away from the rocket fire. Lauren had to think for a minute.

 

"It's too far back to the building, and we're sitting ducks out here," she said and then got on her com to the others. "Snipers. Anyone with a sniper rifle or who is a good shot take out those rockets and cover us while Gnish and I change the wheel. Unless someone has a better plan."

[Cainhurst Crow]

"I'll cover you. I'm accurate enough with maria here to buy us that time with interest. " Menos said as he drew his incisor. "They won't see me coming."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Gnish, we'll exit from your side of the vehicle and get that spare and jack," Lauren said. "Can anyone hold a biotic barrier?"

[Kel Riever]

"It really isn't my specialty," Tolema replied over the com from the other Grizzly, "But I can do my best."

"All right, everybody in this Grizzly out!" Cadi said.  "We're useless in here. At least outside we can give covering fire."  Her wound dressed and gelled, Cadi followed out after Lauren, Menos and the vorcha.

The vorcha, still stunned, held his head and informed, "Wheels sold, can't take hits from rockets...need hydraulic jack...takes time..."  Using the vehicle as cover, he began moving around towards the back and clawing at a panel on the lower hull.

Menos couldn't see the enemies with the launchers at first, as they must have completely hidden in the rocks to reload.  But the instant one popped his head and body up to line a shot on the Grizzly, he fired, and drilled the man directly through the skull.  Menos was ready for the next as soon as they appeared.

Kamau's voice came over the com, "I'm almost to your position.  Even if you take out your ambushers, you don't have a lot of time.  That mob is still out there, and will be heading your way."

There was then another voice over the com, familiar slightly to Kuric and the twins.   "...is jamm...ed....head....your....way....ETA.......min.....be...ready...."

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos fired another shot, pulling his rifle wide as the shots soared out and sprayed the rocks with another 3 round burst. That was 3 trigger pulls, 9 shots, leaving 6 shots or 2 trigger pulls left. He kept the count in his head because of what he counted on, the enemy counting his shots. He paused, keeping his eyes trained on the rocks, and when another vorcha popped their head up, he fired and clipped its head.

 

Menos scowled as he now took the time to reload his rifle, "Getting as good a shot as I can here. Could be a real good time for that hydraulic jack to kick in..." He said in his coms to the others.

[TheMajonese]

"Naomi...let me do this!" Chris got off the grizzly and approached his sister who looked a bit lost with her assault rifle, trying to fire at the enemies behind the rocks. She wasn't the best shot and the distance made it even harder to hit anything, even with the Mattock. Chris drew his Valiant and used the back of the vehicle as cover. Even though he still felt the effect of the vorcha's blow against his head, he was confident to at least buy Lauren and the driver some time to fix the tire by forcing the attackers to stay down.

 

"Hey, did you hear that?", his sister asked excitedly. "Someone's coming for us!"

 

"Really?", Chris shouted back, his first two shots completely missed his targets and hit the rock instead. "That's good, at least if they actually help us!"

 

"What do you mean?"

 

But Chris didn't answer as he fired another shot when he spotted some movement next to the rock. 

[Cknarf]

Kurik had used the last of his thermal clips, leaving him with only three heavy concussive rounds, and a handful of grenades. Since chucking a hand grenade that far, and uphill would likely result in failure, he loaded one of the heavy rounds, and took aim. Because of the their slow moving nature, he'd have to get a decent lead on the target, and since they were behind cover, he'd have to do his best to predict their movements.

 

This shot would be known as a 'Hail Mary' in certain Earth sports.

[Kel Riever]

Chris' next shot landed with gory resolution as the projectile penetrated the merc's helm, to blow the content out the back.  The body of the attacker fell back behind the rock, but if there was any question as if someone was still alive under cover, Kuric's 'Hail Mary' put an end to that as his concussive round arced and hit the ground just next to the rock.  The blast radius shot the corpse of the attacker out the other side of the cover, its limbs flapping raggedly as it flew.

The two black armored rocket launchers were the only ambushers, it became evident, as fire ceased.

Audio picked up the sound of an approaching vehicle but friendly identifiers signaled an ally.  It was Kamau, who's scout vehicle rolled over the rise coming from another direction.  The scout vehicle was an odd sight, a three-wheeled trike design, enclosed and perhaps meant to seat two at most.  As with a Mako, it was apparent there was some sort of eezo powered mass effect compensator system that let the thing move lightly across what were clearly steep inclines and difficult spots.

From inside the scout vehicle, Kamau got on the com with the others, "The vorcha are going to be here quickly, so if you've got some miracle to work with fixing that tire, I'd use it now."

That's when another movement caught the eyes and monitors of the Stormhammer team.  There was some sort of flyer, maybe a shuttle, coming in from the south.  The message that had come in from an unknown but familiar voice was clearer now.

"This is...Liz....jamming is...subsiding...with distance...get...ready...we're....picking you..up...and get...ing off....world!"

Magnifiers did show the flyer to be some sort of shuttle, maroon in color.  Also shown was that the flyer was trailing a thin but fairly solid like of smoke.

[TheMajonese]

"HA!" Naomi climbed onto the back of the grizzly and watched the shuttle come closer. "'Big nothing', Liz, huh? Really funny!", she shouted towards the shuttle as if the crew could hear her. Then she turned around to see how far away the bloodthirsty vorcha still were. From her elevated position she had a good view on the street that led to the mining facilities. "They better hurry..."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren and Gnish worked hard.

 

"Get that pneumatic jack under there! Quickly!" she shouted.

 

Gnish moved it and was lifting the Grizzly on it. "I'm working as fast as I can."

 

"Work faster! We're  running out of time!" She said and started loosening the lug nuts with the pneumatic wrench that was connected to the Grizzly's compressor.

 

By the time the Grizzly was lifted the wheel was loosened. "Give me a hand with this. F*ck this wheel is heavy!"

 

Gnish helped pull the wheel off. Tolema still held the barrier to protect them. "You two alright back there? And you'd better hurry because there's a horde bearing down on us."

 

"You don't have to remind me Tolema," Lauren said. "It's just a damned good thing I had to do this crap on expeditions. Change a bloody wheel? Who'd ever thought that this skill would  come in handy? Alright Gnish, now let's slide the spare on. Line up the holes first! That's it. Now start putting on the nuts. Righty tighty. I'll switch over the wrench."

 

Seven noises and banging on  the wheel. "Alright it's on and secure. Lower the jack, secure it, and we're ready to go."

 

"What about old wheel? We have to take it back. The rules....."

 

"You know? F*ck the rules!" Lauren said. "We have a pack with murder in their eyes bearing down on us! How far out is that rescue shuttle in relation to the pack? Estimated time of arrival of both? Cadi, should we get our convoy moving or sit here and wait? I say we get the hell out of here! Your call." Lauren was starting to panic as she and Gnish climbed back into the Grizzly. Cadi could hear it in her voice.

[Kel Riever]

By then, that horde of vorcha was getting into range.  They weren't a slow zombie horde, either; the vorcha had come on at a pace and were increasing it.  Shots had gone out from those who had long range weapons already.

Cadi answered as she clambered to the top of the newly repaired Grizzly.  "Get moving!  Distance!  We don't have the firepower to sit still."  She activated the mag locks on her suit, which included the knee pads, so she could stay kneeling on the vehicle as it moved.  With steady bursts, she started firing at the closing vorcha.

Those who had room to fire from the top of the Grizzlies, the weaponry, and the ability to do so without getting in the way, were welcomed by Arcadia as she kept up whatever stream of fire she could.  Gnish, and the other vorcha driver, got under way, moving the vehicles with intent.  The one that had its wheel fix had a nasty grinding sound, indicating something else took damage, but it moved, and it was at least faster than it had been.  

"We'll never make it back in time to matter," Tolema said, concerned.  

"Let's see what we can do when we link up with the shuttle," Kamau replied over the com.

As if in answer, there was the sudden thrumming beat of a heavy machine gun cutting loose.  The Grizzlies had gotten distance from the oncoming horde and the small arms fire had taken down several, but it wasn't until the heavy fire came that ranks of the vorcha started getting chewed up.  As spread out as the vorcha were in their mob, it wasn't enough to save them from the shredding they were receiving.  It was the shuttle, a Kodiak that had a turret placed to fire out its side, and a figure laid down the generous covering fire.

It was Liz firing the machine gun and her voice, now in close enough range to be unaffected by jamming, came through urgently, "Get everyone out of those Grizzlies and on board!"  The Kodiak was maneuvering to hover for a close enough hover that people would be able to scramble onboard.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Let's move like we got a purpose, people!" Lauren shouted as she unstrapped and started climbing out of the grizzly.

 

"No argument from me!" Gnish shouted, and he stayed close to her as they climbed aboard the Kodiak.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos was already getting aboard, jumping into the Kodiak with a running leap and turned around to motion the others to come. Seat belts for him had been a formality at this rate, and while it had almost killed him, he was now in a position to help the others.

 

"Come on. Let's get in and dust off quick." He said, reaching a hand out ot help hoist in the first person who'd take it.

[Kel Riever]

Tolema was first to grab Menos' hand.  Everyone getting on board had to give room to Liz, who was firing away with the mounted machine gun.  The only members of Koehler's Brigade on the shuttle were Liz and the pilot.  Smoke was still coming from one of the thrusters, from some sort of high penetration round, but it still looked as if it were working.

"Don't worry about me," Kamau said from his vehicle, "This is fast enough and I can't leave it behind.  I'll rendezvous with you as soon as we can."

Liz shouted, "I don't want to be rude but I didn't come out here from the goodness of my own heart. That base we were at is overrun!  We just barely got out with our lives.  Vorcha are running mad everywhere, and we've been shot at by some of our own people.  It's a free for all.  I'm picking you up because I know you aren't against us.  We need to get to the starport.  I'm hoping we can find a way off world there after we explain things.  Maybe take our own ship back.  Yours left I heard.  Maybe Teklia can do something."

Cadi stopped just shy of jumping aboard.  "Wait, what about Reith?  What about Vihaan?  You're going to leave them there?"

Liz, despite her intimidating suit of armor, couldn't hide her own body language of fear.  "They're dead!  Or they're going to be dead...all of them!  Saba, Hestyas!  All your vorcha that you love so much...pardon me but to hell with you rat men!  You've got to turn your back on people if you want to live!"

Arcadia held a steady gaze through her helmet at Liz, "We're not leaving them behind.  Not until we know they're dead.  If there's a chance at all they can make it, we will get them out."

"What's wrong with you?!" Liz's voice trembled.  "We've made it out.  We're not dead.  Did you not hear what I said?  That base is gone!"

"Then fly back there and show me," Arcadia responded, her voice hard.

[Cknarf]

"This is what I meant by no longer feeling expendable." Kurik said to Liz, as he was pulled inside by his people. "Unfortunately, that only applies to others in my unit, or those who are willing to assist us."

 

"We are going back to extract the remaining members of Stormhammer." Holding onto the door, he extended a hand to Cadi, gesturing for her to grab on. He then looked to Liz. "Whether or not you will be extracting with us, is entirely up to you."

 

Kurik was not above commandeering a drop shuttle by force, even if it included chucking a few people out of the door.