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"Guys, I've got good news and bad news," Dakka's voice came over the comms. "The good news is, I've got the Cerberus troops on the run. The bad news is, half of 'em are heading toward the cave and the other half are running back toward the Mako."

Magnum glanced at Takahashi and nodded at the Mako behind him. "Better get inside and lock the doors. Trouble's coming." She lifted her M-96 Mattock heavy assault rifle, checked its heat sink, and faced the path ahead of the Mako. "Dakka, how many are headed my way?"

"Eight. Nine more heading for the cave."

"Have you found Benny yet?" Takahashi said.

"Not yet," Chula answered. "We've detected a human life sign in the cave, but ran into something odd before we could investigate. We'll let you know as soon as we can get to him."

Magnum glanced over her shoulder and found Takahashi in the doorway to the Mako's driver compartment. "Please, get inside and lock the door. I'll let you know when it's safe to come out."

"I'm on my way." Dakka said. "Let's see if we can pin 'em down between us."

"Sounds like a plan." Magnum sealed her helmet, charged her armor's shields, and lined up a shot on the most likely spot for the first Cerberus mook to appear.

Her armor's auditory sensors picked up several pairs of footsteps crashing through trees and, a moment later, clacking against rock. She tapped a button on the Mattock's side, switching it to disruptor ammo to take care of enemy shields, and waited.

Okay, boys, come to Mama.

#

"That should do it." Chula waited a few more seconds, scanned the batarian with her Omni-Tool to be sure the sedative had taken effect, and stood. "Let's check out the cave before the Cerberus team finds us."

To her right, Yutani spun around and aimed her plasma shotgun. Chula turned to face the same direction and raised both Phalanx pistols.

A batarian stood three meters away, holding both hands up, clutching an Avenger assault rifle in one and an M-6 Carnifex pistol in the other.

"Hold your fire!" The batarian placed the guns on a nearby boulder and stepped away from them. "I'm not here to cause any trouble. Well, not anymore." He nodded at the half-dozen dead batarians near Chula, Quint, and Yutani. "As you can see, we've had plenty of trouble already. I know when it's time to give the hell up."

Yutani approached slowly, keeping her shotgun aimed at his chest, and scanned him with her Omni-Tool. "No weapons detected."

"Okay." Chula lowered her guns but didn't put them away. "Tell us what happened here."

"I can tell you what I saw, but as far as explaining it goes ... eh, I wish I knew." He glanced at the bodies and shuddered. "On second thought, maybe I'm better off not knowing."

"Okay, what did you see, then?" Chula set her Tool to scan continuously and keep track of the approaching Cerberus troops. For now, the blips in her HUD were still several minutes away.

"Well, we'd heard about the activity here and thought we could get our hands on something worth selling. Several of us entered the cave and found a human there along with four crates and some artifacts that hadn't been packed up yet. I made the mistake of pointing a gun at the guy." He grimaced and rubbed his jaw. "Bastard has a hell of a right hook. The others had to pile on top of him and pin him down."

"What did you do to him?" Chula raised her guns a few centimeters, not aiming at him but making sure he knew what would happen if he'd harmed their client's husband.

"Just shackled his wrists so he wouldn't hit any of us again. But that's when the trouble started. We opened the crates to see what we had, and a couple of us examined the other relics that were laying around." He nodded at one of the bodies. "Morek, there, must've triggered one of them. A green light washed over him, he convulsed and fell over, and about a minute later, he started crying and babbling about whole planets being wiped out and something coming for the rest of us."

Chula shivered and pointed at the sedated batarian behind her. "This one was doing the same thing when we found him."

The new arrival nodded. "The relic affected the others one by one, within seconds of each other. I got the hell out of there before it could do the same to me, and watched from a distance. One by one, they grew more hysterical, until they blew their own brains out."

"Shit." Chula glanced at the cave entrance. The human she'd detected was still alive, but if he'd been affected by that thing, it was only a matter of time.

Yutani stepped toward the cave. "We believe it is safer for us to investigate; the device may not be able to affect synthetics. We will send a video feed to your Omni-Tools so you can track our progress."

"Okay." Chula set her Tool to receive Yutani's signal and watched the geth approach the entrance. "Be careful."

#

Dakka caught up with the eight Cerberus troops mere seconds before they reached the Mako. The point man emerged from the trees and stopped in his tracks.

"That's far enough," Magnum said, her voice coming from the clearing where the Mako was parked.

The guy stared at her, then snapped his rifle up. A sustained burst of disruptor ammo overloaded his shields before he could open fire. Magnum switched to incendiary ammo and hit him with another long burst to melt through his armor.

Better not start shooting, especially with my BFG. Can't risk hitting Mag or Takahashi. Dakka put her Claymore shotgun away and crept up to the two guys bringing up the rear. Don't need a repeat of what happened in that hangar on Omega, either.

She closed in on the troops and was within arm's reach of the two stragglers when the guy ahead of them glanced over his shoulder and saw her. He spun and brought his assault rifle up.

Before the two guys could turn to see what had startled him, Dakka clamped a hand onto the side of each man's helmet and slammed them together.

"Bonk!" She giggled as they collapsed.

The next guy managed to get off a half-dozen shots before she reached him. She swatted the gun away, grabbed his wrist and yanked him off balance. He drew a hand cannon, but before he could turn it toward her, she drove her left foot into his knee, snapping it sideways. His leg buckled and she wrenched the pistol from his hand as he fell. A solid kick to his head made sure he wouldn't get back up.

One of Magnum's shots punched through the point man's armor and set his skin ablaze. He screamed, dropped his rifle, and swatted at the fire.

The four remaining troops locked their aim onto Dakka and backed away. She laughed and advanced slowly on them. The Cerberus mooks glanced at each other, as if surprised that she hadn't simply charged them like a typical krogan.

Footsteps crashed through the trees toward them. Dakka flicked a glance to the right as Magnum appeared, launching straight at the point man. She leaped, cocked her right fist back, and crashed it down into his faceplate. He hit the ground and she rolled, turned, and came up in a crouch.

The guy pushed himself up to his hands and knees, shook his head to clear it, and looked around for his gun.

Magnum aimed her rifle at his back and cleared her throat. He looked around at her, froze, and his shoulders sagged.

"Well, shit." He raised his hands slowly.

The four other troops shifted their aim back and forth, trying to cover both Magnum and Dakka.

"I hope you keep fighting." Dakka grinned as she continued her approach. "I really do."

The nearest one kept his aim steady. The guy behind him appeared to decide that Dakka was the bigger threat, and turned to cover her as well, leaving the others to cover Magnum.

"Go right ahead. Pull the trigger." Dakka didn't even slow down. "Think you can punch through my kinetic barriers and my armor before I grind you into a fine paste?"

His finger tightened on the trigger.

Dakka lunged, grabbed the barrel of his rifle and wrenched it aside. The gun fired a burst past her, one of the shots grazing her shields and causing them to flare. She clenched her fist and drove it into his faceplate. The impact cracked his visor and knocked him off his feet.

"Bonk!" Dakka laughed again and strode toward the second mook. He opened fire and the other two swung their rifles around to aim at her. Her shields absorbed the shots, but the gauge in her HUD dropped rapidly. Only a few more seconds and she'd lose her barriers.

She glanced at her confiscated rifle, flicked the safety on, and flipped it over. She caught the end of the barrel, swung it like a club, and whacked it into the side of the man's helmet. "Boink!"

She turned to the last men standing as the second toppled over. They sprayed her and backed away. She cocked her hand back and threw the rifle at the guy on the left. It slammed into his chest a split-second before her shields failed. He staggered and flailed, and several dozen shots drilled into the trees beside him.

He regained his balance, but before he could reacquire his target, Magnum knocked his gun out of his hand with a shot from her Mattock. He turned and stared at her. She kept him in her sights, drew her hand cannon and aimed it at the guy she'd taken out a moment ago.

The last guy tossed his gun aside and raised his hands with a resigned groan.

Dakka chuckled and pointed toward the Mako. The conscious Cerberus troops grumbled and trudged ahead of her and Magnum. Dakka picked up the unconscious ones and dragged them by their ankles. When they reached the Mako, Dakka dropped her captives at a spot about two meters away from the vehicle and pointed at the ground.

"Sit." She pulled her multi-barrel cannon from its place on her back and pointed it at them. "Okay, now, how about you tell us why you're here?"

"Nah." One of the guys stretched out on the ground, laced his fingers together behind his head, and crossed his ankles. "Think I'll just wait for our backup to come in and take care of you and your friends."

"More bad guys to shoot. I like where this is headed." Dakka leaned against the side of the Mako and took her helmet off. She took a brick of bubble gum out of her belt pouch, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.

"The other nine should be reaching Chula's position right about now," Magnum said.

"Nice. No reason we should have all the fun." She grinned and blew a bubble.

Magnum rolled her eyes.

Dakka popped the bubble, grinned, and continued chewing as she waited.

#

"Oh, shit!" a man whispered through Chula's comlink. In the holofield projected by her Omni-Tool, a human male ducked into a side tunnel.

"I intend no harm," Yutani said. "Is your name Benny?"

"Y--yes." He peeked around the corner.

"Malcolm Takahashi hired my crew to move the artifacts you found to the Citadel. He is waiting in a Mako at the base of the mountain."

"Mal's here?"

"Correct. Three of my crew members are outside the cave, and part of a Cerberus team is approaching. I recommend you wait in here until they are dealt with."

"Uh, guys," Magnum cut in, "we've detected some heavy reinforcements coming in. Four gunships and two personnel carriers; I figure each carrier has at least a couple dozen troops."

Chula glanced at the blips in her HUD and sighed. "Not only that, but the remnants of the first team are almost on top of us."

The Mako's engine started up, followed by Takahashi's voice.

"Tell Benny I'm on my way. Dakka, Magnum, hop in."

"Uh, Mr. Takahashi," Magnum started, but he interrupted her.

"I'm not gonna sit here and wait for them to overrun us. I'm getting my guy out of there!"

Dakka chuckled. "You're the boss. Mag and I will cover you from the two-wheelers."

"Benny," Yutani said, "Malcolm is coming to pick us up."

"Good. I'm ready to get the hell out of here." Benny hesitated before stepping out into the open. He turned around and said, "W--would you mind taking these restraints off?"

Yutani walked forward and hacked the locks with her Omni-Tool. The cuffs fell from his wrists and he turned to stare at the pile of artifacts.

"Thank you." He waved a hand at the artifacts and the partially empty crates. "We should pack those up before--"

"I will do that. We saw what happened to the batarians who accidentally activated one of these."

In the distance, the Mako crashed through the trees on its way up the mountain.

The nine Cerberus blips in Chula's HUD were only a few seconds away.

"Find some cover, everyone. Company's coming." She made a point of staying near the batarian as he looked around, picked a spot behind a boulder off to the right, and crouched behind it. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Goresk."

She nodded. "Chula'Raalga vas Sulaco."

"Here they come," Quint muttered. He gripped his Locust submachine gun in his right hand and pointed his left arm at the trail leading down the mountain. His Omni-Tool's golden glow wrapped around his arm and the device waited for his next command.

A suit of light gray armor with gold and black trim appeared as the first Cerberus goon hopped the low ridge at the edge of the clearing. He took a quick look around, spotted the cave entrance, and charged straight at it.

The rest of his team appeared in the same spot and followed him.

Quint tapped his thumb on one of his Tool's hard-light controls, and the Cerberus point man's shields collapsed in a shower of electric arcs. One of the arcs jumped across to the guy behind him, hitting like a lightning bolt and knocking out his shields, and spread from him to the rest of the group.

Chula leaned far enough out of cover to aim her guns at two of the men. "Head back the way you came or--"

They scattered, firing wildly as they ran for whatever cover they could find.

Chula ducked behind her boulder and flinched as several close hits blasted chunks of rock away. She activated her Tool and launched her combat drone. It appeared in the middle of the advancing hostiles and zapped the nearest one.

Beside her, Goresk curled up, trying to make himself as small a target as possible, and shook his head. "If I survive this," he grumbled, "I'm fuckin' retiring."

#

"Wooohooooo!" Dakka grinned as the six-wheeled vehicle ahead smashed through the smaller trees and swerved effortlessly around the larger ones. "This guy can drive!"

"We're almost on top of 'em," Magnum said. "The Cerberus team is right over that next ridge, and our friends are just outside the cave."

Takahashi fired the Mako's ventral thrusters and launched it into the air. Its wheels scraped the tops of the trees in its path before it began its descent.

"Whoa." Dakka's eyes opened wider as the Mako dropped directly onto three of the hostiles and their bio-signatures flatlined. Takahashi accelerated toward the cave and the Mako's left-rear wheel skidded over one of the bodies. The tire's spin launched the corpse straight toward Dakka.

She wrenched the controls to the right and leaned over. The body sailed overhead, missing her by mere centimeters. Gravity took hold and she and her bike skidded across the ground until both slammed into the ridge the hostiles had climbed moments before.

"Fuckberries," she grumbled. She scrambled back to her feet and peeked over the ridge. The half-dozen surviving Cerberus troops had stopped firing and turned to stare at their teammates' remains and the onrushing Mako. Chula's combat drone took advantage of their distraction and electrocuted one of the guys on the left.

Yutani's combat drone appeared and engaged two more off to the right.

One of the last three stood and stepped out from behind the rock outcropping he'd been using for cover. He pulled his right arm back and a deep blue glow enveloped his body.

"Uh-oh," Magnum said. "They've got at least one biotic on their team. I've got him." She dismounted and a similar glow crackled around her.

Dakka picked up her bike and hopped over the ridge.

The Cerberus agent thrust his arm forward and a biotic shockwave rippled across the ground, slamming straight toward Quint and Chula.

Magnum fired her own biotic blast at the shockwave. The two fields connected and detonated. Dakka flinched, shielding her eyes from the flash. The concussion made her stagger and tipped the Mako briefly onto its passenger-side wheels. It came back down on all six tires and bounced.

When Dakka's vision cleared, she found the Cerberus troops picking themselves up and her friends sprawled on the ground past them.

Her hearts pounded. "Quint...?"

He moaned, but didn't move.

The Cerberus biotic pushed himself upright, staggered, and shook his head.

Dakka roared and threw the two-wheeler at him. The huge bike spun through the air and plowed into his shoulder blades. He pitched forward with a grunt tumbled across the ground.

Magnum gunned down his two buddies before they could get back to their feet.

The biotic agent dragged himself out from under the bike and looked around.

Dakka strode toward him, clenching her fists and snarling.

He plucked a frag grenade from his belt and flung it at her. The blast hit her just hard enough to knock out her shields.

She didn't stop, didn't slow down, didn't even blink.

He managed to get his feet under himself and dashed toward the cave entrance.

He reached the entrance and stopped abruptly. Dakka frowned at him, then laughed.

Yutani stood in the entrance, shoving her plasma shotgun into his face. He simply stared at her, probably confused by her Santa hat, coat, and matching bikini she'd bought for Takahashi's costume party.

"What the hell?" the guy mumbled.

"Santa is coming to town," Yutani replied.

Dakka rushed up to him, clamped her left hand onto his shoulder, spun him around to face her, and cocked her right fist back.

He grabbed at a knife on his belt.

Dakka rammed her fist into the side of his head, putting everything she had into it. The impact snapped his neck and sheared his armor open. She let the body fall and headed back to Quint. She dropped to her knees beside him and stroked his cheek.

"Hey ...."

He opened his eyes and grimaced. "What...? Oh, hi."

She scanned him and let out a relieved sigh. "Looks like you'll be okay."

"Yeah, I think so. Once my head stops aching, at least." He took her hand and let her pull him up. "That was a hell of an explosion."

"Yeah," Chula groaned as she sat up. She looked around, found her hat, and put it back on. "Not the kind of bang I'm usually in the mood for."

Yutani hung the shotgun on her back, walked over to Chula, and extended a hand to help her up.

Takahashi climbed out of the Mako and took a few steps toward the cave entrance. "Benny?"

"Right here!" Benny launched out of the entrance, ran over to him, and threw his arms around him.

"You okay?" Takahashi whispered.

"I think so. When we get to the Citadel, I want to get a complete med-evaluation done, just in case." He glanced at the dead batarians and shuddered. "Last thing I want is to end up like them."

"That's the first thing we'll do when we get there."

"Cerberus reinforcements are almost on us," Magnum said, looking at the sky with a frown.

"We will finish packing the artifacts." Yutani returned to the cave.

"I'll help." Dakka gave Quint's lips a brief lick before following the geth.

"Exercise extreme caution," Yutani said as she gathered the last few items and placed them in a crate. "We do not know what activated the device that affected the batarians."

"Got it." Dakka picked up one of the crates and scraped it through the narrow entrance. Yutani followed with another crate.

Less than five minutes later, they'd secured all the crates in the Mako. Malcolm took the controls and Benny sat beside him.

Dakka arched a brow ridge at the batarian survivor. "What about him?"

Goresk raised his hands slowly. "If you'd drop me off at the spaceport, I can take it from there." He took a slow look around. "Or ... I don't know ... maybe I'll stay here a while. Rent a hotel room with a good view and take in a few sunrises. Think I need something like that after what I saw here today."

"As long as you don't give us any trouble," Benny said, "I've got no objection."

Goresk shook his head. "Don't worry about that. I'm not giving you another excuse to crack me on the jaw again."

"Okay." Chula picked up the sedated batarian and helped Goresk load him into the Mako. She pointed a thumb over her shoulder. "Since those reinforcements are probably more than we can handle on those bikes, I think we should all just get into the Mako and haul ass."

Takahashi patted the console. "This baby's kinetic barriers should hold out long enough for us to get to the spaceport."

"Then we take our shuttle back to the Sulaco and head straight to the Citadel." Chula climbed into the passenger compartment.

"Agreed." Yutani stood by the vehicle's door and waited for everyone else to board.

"Not riding in one of those things." Dakka shook her head, climbed on top of the Mako, and found a handhold. She clamped on and pulled the massive gun from her back. "If they start shooting at us, I'll make 'em regret it."

Quint shook his head. "Dakka ...."

"Don't argue. I'll be fine."

He sighed. "If you say so." He, Magnum, and Yutani climbed aboard.

"Okay." Dakka grinned and looked around for the approaching gunships. "Let's go."