Mass Effect/Liberation: Hive

The walls of the narrow concrete corridor shook with the bark of shotgun blast and the growls of the pressing horde of Husks.

"You know, I am having a great time here," shouted Turtman between volleys of fire, "But we are running thermal clips here and I don't think we have time to make a quick run to the store to get some more."

"Turtman, anti-matter charges are not firecrackers. If I mess this up we will be annihilated, literally," barked the batarian engineer setting up the anti-matter bomb.

Two bullets thumped into the krogan's kinetic barrier, "Less talking and more arming."

"Grrr!"

At the end of the hall a pair of Cannibals, misshaped blobs of flesh stitched together from several batarians, fired long burst to cover the advance of another wave of skeletal Husks. The Husks swarmed over the shattered corpses of their predecessors and pushed forward headless of the losses.

A call came through Turtman's comm, "Dagger One, status report."

"Knee-deep in husks as the moment. The engineers are working on the-"

"Incoming!" warned the krogan soldier as he pulled Turtman to safety.

Explosions blasted chunks of concrete. Several Cannibals emerged from the dust cloud. Turtman got from under the body of his underling and reached out with his open palm at the nearest enemy. A blue nimbus surrounded the Cannibal, lifted it from the floor and slammed him against another. Turtman jammed the bayonet at the end of his shotgun into the bloated face of another then pulled the trigger. The blast shredded it and the one right behind him. The soldier that pulled Turtman to the floor moaned in pain.

Turtman pointed at the fallen krogan, "Jakurt, take him out of here. Sergeant Kurdon with me."

"Yes sir," said Kurdon.

Kurdon tossed a  Turtman a thermal clip. Turtman covered Jakurt as he pulled the injured korgan from the line of fire.

"Dagger One, come in," said the voice on the comm.

"Still here and still waiting," said Turtman.

"Got it," said the batarian engineer.

"Wait is over Herakles. We are falling back to the outer perimeter," said Turtman. Turtman extended his hand then closed his fist swiftly. A dark blue globe filled the middle of the corridor. Husk were torn apart by the shearing forces of the singularity. Turtman took a deep break then turned to Kurdon, "Deploy the barriers and fall back."

Kurdon tossed several boxes to the floor. Each broke up into six pieces, three of each floated near the ceiling. Once in position they projected a blue hexagonal energy field that connected to the three bottom pieces on the floor. Something to delay the enemy long enough for Dagger One to clear the area. The mix group of krogan and batarians ran down the labyrinth of service tunnels that crisscrossed the ruins of Axum. Turtman pressed on even as his muscles ached. That last biotic maneuver took its told.

"Sir?" asked Kurdon.

"Am alright! Just move already!" shouted Turtman.

A shock wave sped down the tunnel as the anti-matter bomb went off. Everybody dropped to the floor. The corridor collapsed twenty meter behind them.

"Well...that was something," said Turtman.

They reached the surface twenty minutes later. A gigantic dogfight swirled above the skies of Axum. Friendly fighters dueled with enemy Oculi. Then a barrage of orbital fire came down on the former Axum Sports Arena. The secondary barriers around the arena's dome deflected the first rounds but did not last long under the thunderous barrage. It flickered then vanished.  Huge columns of dust erupted from the ground as the orbital strike grounded the enemy base to dust.

"One down, three dozen more to go," said Turtman with a toothy grin.