//------------------------------// // Backup // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 81 Backup [Buck going to that second waypoint. They need me at the control center now!] 57% Smoke now filled nearly half the room, and the heat was getting to levels that weren't exactly bearable either. Dash cursed as she glanced at the safe. There might just be info in there that… No! Shepard clearly needs you, and now is not the time for some half baked plan! Groaning in frustration, Rainbow shot back out into the shaft where she'd entered, flying up and looking at the map her omni-tool was displaying. The route was still set to guide her to the next waypoint and with her tool locked down she'd have no other option than to follow it until she reached it. After that it would update to lead to Shepard. Buck, that's going to take valuable time! Shooting up back into the little corridors she'd been traveling through before, Dash galloped towards her destination. It wasn't like she had encountered anyone else in these paths, so she doubted that she'd run into anyone now. The distance to the second waypoint shortened at a significant rate as Dash gave her all to reach the location, pipes and passageways flying past in a blur as she raced by them. Rainbow burst out of an underground tunnel into a hallway section, skidding to a halt. The last thirty meters to the next waypoint was a bridge covered in corpses, the smell indicating that they had been there for a while. Carefully stepping forward, Rainbow was fighting to keep the contents of her stomach inside of her. She just needed to hit the checkpoint and head off to… Oh shit! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! A pain stung in her chest as Rainbow opened fire at three heavily armed aliens first, one of them getting a shot off at her in the split second before she could reach cover. The fired round hit her shield and punched through, burying into her armor composite. Screaming in pain Dash nearly dropped her SMG, her chest felt like it was on fire as the medi-gel mended her injured internals. “Damnit, hold your fire!” A shout came from the end of the bridge, and Dash was shaking as adrenaline ran through her veins. “Come out of cover! Slowly!” Rainbow bit her cheek as she weighed her options. The last round was powerful enough to down her shield immediately. If there was indeed more than one person on the other end of the bridge, then she wouldn't make it far in either direction. With slow and deliberate movements Dash stepped out of her cover, looking down the barrel of a sniper rifle wielding and helmeted turian along with an assault rifle wielding quarian and salarian.  “W-we can talk about this!” Rainbow stammered, slowly walking backward. The turian lowered its rifle and the others mirrored that move as well. “Best way to show that is, of course, by shooting at us,” the quarian snarked, getting a look from the turian that told him to stand down. “We're friendly. We were just looking for evidence of survivors here,” he said, turning around to look at the structure on the other side of the bridge, followed by another glance at the pattern of all the corpses on the ground. It looked as if they had been performing an assault. “We found nothing.” “Damnit, man down! Miranda, get Jacob out of there! Mordin, I don't think we can push through here. Environmental control is simply too well defended. We have to pull back!” Dash’s radio sprang to life, reminding the pegasus why she was rushing in the first place. “Sounds like you can use help. Follow us. We know the layout of the surrounding area.” Without looking back, the three aliens took off with speed. Rainbow was momentarily too stunned to follow. First they shoot me and then turn around and help me… Whatever, the Commander can definitely use the bucking help. Rainbow didn't question it any further as she opened her wings and shot after the group, the hallways now passing in a blur as the three lead aliens took every turn, stair, and hallway to make their way over to the control center. “Hey, who are you guys anyway? Part of Archangel’s gang?” “We’re not a gang. We’re a unit!” the quarian shouted again, his brief moment of anger quickly subsiding. “Or we used to be…” The sadness in his voice stung in Dash’s chest. After seeing the video of Archangel being executed, she had a feeling as to why that was the case… The rattling of automatic fire echoed through the hallway as they got close, Dash quickly making sure that her SMG’s thermal clips weren't overheated. They weren't. “Contact!” the lead turian had his rifle up in an instant and sent a shot downrange. The head of the unfortunate vorcha who had shown its face imploded as it was hit. “Vortash, take out those flamethrowers!” The salarian didn't hesitate a moment and lobbed a couple of containers towards the flamethrower wielding vorcha, massive explosions engulfing the aliens as both the containers and subsequently the fuel they were carrying exploded. With their strength significantly diminished the vorcha along with their blood pack allies fell back, seeing that they were now facing a much larger force without heavy weapons support.  “Shepard!” Dash ran towards the commander as they were clear for the moment. Jacob lay behind a barrier a bit further back, Miranda trying to administer medi-gel but not having nearly enough as the black man's entire upper body was burned, some places the skin had just boiled off. “Horseapples…” “He needs to be taken back to the doctor asap!” Shepard said as he fell down to his knees and helped apply the medi-gel. Dash looked stunned at the body of her colleague, rage bubbling up inside of her. Not just at the vorcha, but herself too… You should have been faster! Maybe even backtracked to the clinic and then asked Mordin to update the damn omni-tool!… This is all your fault… Dash looked at the three aliens that had led her here. They had made sure that they wouldn't be surprised by a swift attack from the vorcha now that they were distracted but definitely looked like they wanted to move from this position. The bubbling rage, by now, was a raging volcano, the pegasus nearly seeing red from anger as she felt something stir inside of her. An instinct of sorts maybe. She wasn't sure what it was, but it directed the rage. Someone had badly hurt one of her friends. They would regret that soon enough. Nobody. Hurts. A. Friend. Of. Mine!