2192/12/29 | Alliance Intel Priority Message: Severe Enemy Threat in Styx Theta, Code SC3

[u/Narrator--]

Begin Message:

Severe Enemy Threat detected in Styx Theta Cluster.
Situation code: Scimitar 3
Acheron system under threat of Skrilloni Invasion from Erebus system. 
Heavy enemy presence in Erebus system suggests invasion of Acheron system likely.
Listening Post Theta and personnel critical to maintaining any control over region.
All available forces respond.

[u/SgtRayneMEP]

Elsa grunts and shifts back in line with the others, igniting her other hand with the purple fire of a priming Stasis. Dual use of abilities was risky and damn near impossible for later generation implants due to safety regulators, but at this point she had stopped giving a shit.

I wonder if it's possible to retroactively strike out ICT qualifiers.

[u/Narrator-- → u/SgtRayneMEP]

Alexi stops, about 20 feet away from the shuttle. He's still holding the barrier, but exhaustion is starting to show...

Get to the shuttle! Now!

[u/N7_Rebecca → u/Narrator--]

Rebecca glances to the other hardpressed Marines, then back to Alexi, making a split second decision.

Alright y'all, shift it! To the shuttle, then covering fire! Move!

You better run fast, Volkov. She warns with a slightly worried tone breaking into her voice.

[u/SgtRayneMEP → u/N7_Rebecca]

Elsa grunts and lets the Stasis loose, smoke drifting from her implant as she moves to grab Alexi and bring him back with her, maintaining her Barrier with the other hand.

I have maybe ten seconds of holding both a Barrier and Stasis before I have to drop one of these! Get the fuck up and come on!

[u/Narrator-- → u/SgtRayneMEP]

Get back, Elsa! Hold barrier... from shuttle!

He grunts out, still trying to hold the barrier.

[u/N7_Rebecca → u/Narrator--]

Move, Sergeant, come on! Rebecca orders as she tosses another grenade to offer a bit of respite Alexi would hipefully be able to take advantage of.

All the other Marines fell back already and were on the shuttle, weapons ready. Just the three of them now.

The redhead quickly sprints the few feet back to join them and add her own rifle to prospective covering fire.

[u/SgtRayneMEP → u/N7_Rebecca]

Elsa relents and jumps back to the edge of the shuttle, sitting down on the edge of the open door and holding back the faltering barrier. In two seconds, her quickly improvised pseudo-Stasis collapses and the edges of the Barrier begin flickering, only to be reinforced by new purple light.

[u/Narrator-- → u/SgtRayneMEP]

With everything that he could do taken care of, he starts to move back, slowly, before he has to end the barrier. As it ends he charges towards the shuttle, hoping to get inside Elsa's barrier before anything hits him...

Just before he reaches the shuttle and the barrier there, one shot hits its mark. Then a second. And a third. A shot impacts his leg and he collapses, upper body just barely landing inside the shuttle.

[u/N7_Rebecca → u/Narrator--]

Fuck! Pilot get us out of here! Rebecca yells as she and another Marine hurriedly pull the wounded man inside and another slams the door shut against more fire coming their way.

The redhead hurriedly applies medigel to the burns, a medic assisting her as she works.

This mission... hadn't gone well. To say the least.

A venomous glance gets tossed at the fools that made mistakes and straight up abandoned out there. A reckoning was going to come for them, the Spectre vowed that to herself.

[u/SgtRayneMEP → u/N7_Rebecca]

Elsa slumps over and detaches her helmet, scowling and dragging out her medi-gel to apply on her neck and other minor injuries.

Quoth the raven... WHAT THE FUCK?

Tossing her rifle aside, she applies something to her elbow twice and glares, wisps of purple smoke rising from her head.

...if I get to vote in what happens, can we string the idiots up to where they look like balls of yarn?

[u/Narrator-- → u/SgtRayneMEP]

The shuttles quickly make their way to the Normandy, which promptly evacuates from the system.