The scene of the battle was surreal. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t seen plenty of fields of battle, plenty of bodies and gory, disgusting images that would likely never leave my subconscious mind. But this was different from some wolf attack, the biotics were never so… clean.

They tore apart bodies, leaving pieces behind, this was almost meticulously kept, save for a handful of people that hadn’t even been covered by tarp yet. Each bore at least one white bolt - it looked more like a broad spearhead honestly - in their bodies, one had been quick, the bolt pierced through his head. The other had four, two in his torso, the other two in an arm and a leg apiece. Somehow, the scene didn’t disturb me, Smith had numbed me to the scenes of death, and witnessing my own dismemberment in hundreds of ways during his ‘training’ had wildly inured me to losing my head to this.

Even so… the cold efficiency in which we’d lost a dozen people caused a tremor to run down my spine. This was another level, and it had been a long time since we’d lost so many at once. Or, at least, it felt like it had been a long time, another life even, since before the Obelisk system had descended and given us an entire new take on life.

I filed that whimsical thought away, my helmet feed coming to life as red digitized cracks seemed to form over the opaque black surface, a skull appearing to shimmer with the red light beneath, coated in an inky blackness. Each of these cracks twisted and churned, optical sensors scanning everything around me.

What had made the entire scene surreal wasn’t the pair of bodies, but the hundreds of white spikes that were embedded in the concrete of buildings, protruding from cars, or having torn through the cover that the Bulwark members used, were shattered and scattered across the ground.

I leaned down, picking up a piece the size of my thumb, grinding it in my hand.

“It’s salt.” I blinked in surprise, feeling the gaze of my team behind me, as well as dozens more members of the Bulwark that roamed in force, securing buildings and searching for any trace of the Biotics. Only one survivor remained from this attack, having fled when it was clear they couldn’t hold.

His testimony of what happened set a grim, tight expression upon Bulwark leadership.

That attack had happened an hour ago. Backup had arrived thirty minutes after that. I was notified ten minutes ago and had, with six teams of Legionaries in tow, made great speed here with our retrofitted heavy vehicles. We only had three for now, and they were only really usable in the city thus far, but it was better than nothing.

Even so, almost fifty minutes for the Legion to get here… if there had been a sustained Biotic assault, what would have became of the regular people just a few hundred more feet beyond our ramshackle excuse for a wall?

[Woefully inefficient,] Smith mirrored my thoughts, [This cannot stand.]

“I’ll assign Doug to take care of it,” I murmured, knowing that the best way to deal with this problem was for someone else to deal with it. Interfaction politics were Doug’s domain, and it was time he had something to really flex his muscles on.

Rising from my squatting position, I moved closer to Terry, donned in his armor, striking a less imposing form with Daniel’s massive mech-suit and daunting array of weapons. To the side, Alice spoke with other scouts from our legion, coordinating on her own volition. We wanted to make sure the Bulwark didn’t miss anything, not so much that we didn’t trust them, but more that we didn’t really know what this new Biotic was capable of.

Fran approached, cutting a terse line through the people towards me with James in tow, the Bulwark officer and military man didn’t struggle to keep pace. I nodded to them as they approached.

“What do we know?” I asked, to which Fran, currently without her angular helmet concealing her usually comforting features, shot a look to James.

James, for his part, seemed glad to dispense with pleasantries in the moment, “We’ve got a complete report on what happened, let me fill you in while we walk.”

I nodded to him, an eyebrow quirked behind my mask. Crunches of salt crystals punctuated the other sounds of activity as the Bulwark here set up a new defensive perimeter, knowing that the cars and grates that had been used apparently stood for little against whatever had come through only an hour ago.

“As you know already, there was a biotic attack from a new creature type an hour ago. We had around a dozen men stationed here and in the area to watch for wolves, but the south-side has always been pretty quiet. They attacked in a small group, only five biotics, but they were large, about the size of cars, and seemed insectoid in nature. Our report states that it appeared to be wearing a white armor and fired bolts of some solid substance - salt as we’ve come to find out - at sub-sonic speeds. Still, they’re heavy enough to do real damage to anything softer than steel, cars don’t do to well for cover, and concrete can only take so much, not to say anything about a body.”

“Any idea on the actual number of people here? Or how accurate these things are with their ranged weapons?” Fran’s face twisted slightly, whether by how many people might actually be lost, or the fact that the biotics now seemed to have a reliable way to engage at range, I wasn’t sure.

“We don’t have an exact count, our… assignment detail is in need of an overhaul,” James shook his head, “As for how accurate they are, well… given how many of these spikes seem to just be scattered about, I’d say they’re not too great. Who knows, though.”

He continued, now that we closed on a bus that had definitely been used as cover. Most of it was speared through and had been torn to pieces, the front half of it had been twisted open, looking like a tin can that had been sheared apart.

“We can safely assume that they have great strength, and that their mandibles are quite capable. Whether they’re as capable as the wolves at increasing bite pressure over time to shear through something, we’re not certain. But we are aware that each of our guys here were armed with rifles and assault rifles. The fact that we don’t have any evidence of a biotics corpse suggests they’re quite armored and durable. Unless they decay that fast, but even wolves take time. They took most of our… casualties with them, and much cleaner than the wolves do.”

“Durable, strong, capable of inflicting potent ranged damage… quite a threat.” I nodded to him, uncertain if they were cleaner than wolves simply because they could carry intact bodies, or for another reason. More than curios about the plan, I asked “What’s the Bulwark’s official response?”

He frowned in thought, thinking for a moment before letting out a sigh, “Well, Commander Song wants to send out a task force to track down and deal with these new biotics before they become a great threat. The Mayor is pushing against that, citing that the Bulwark’s job is defense, and is pushing to reorganize our defensive arrangements, but we don’t have the Matter Energy to take care of that…”

James gave me an inquisitive look, to which I could only shake my head ruefully, “We’ve only just really started up, but it looks like we’re going to have to tap into some reserves here for Matter Energy. I agree with the Mayor, but I’ll have Doug work that out, along with some other suggestions. We’ll see about smoothing out some edges. If nothing else, we didn’t get an unstoppable wave of biotics. This attack almost helps… us…” I paused in thought, and at the same time James frowned.

Fran spoke first, “Did they launch a probing attack?”

We were silent for several seconds, before James’ grim look exacerbated, “It’s possible. At least, it’s something we shouldn’t discount. I’ll radio it in to headquarters.”

I nodded, “I’ll contact Doug, he should be there now anyways. I’ll take Song’s idea, we’re going to mobilize the Legion and go hunting out here. If it was a probing attack, they’re going to have a force out there, and I’d like to find it on our terms instead of theirs. That should give the Bulwark time to get something together for defense.”

“Appreciated,” James nodded, “Time to move out, then.”

We gave each other passing nods and Fran bid him farewell with a handshake, saying something about being sure to have some patrols deeper in the city, just in case.

Almost like it was planned, the others fell in line around me, quickly followed by the teams that weren’t actively scouting at the moment.

“What’s the plan, Matt?” Daniel’s mechanical voice prompted eagerly, his energy clear even behind his stoic steel facade.

I gazed around, making a point of turning and looking to those around me, amplifying my voice to make myself more easily heard, I began. “We’re going hunting for biotics, as usual, what else?”

I got a round of chuckles for that. My voice turned more serious, “We’ve a total of 25 teams of around six people per team in the Legion. 12 teams are going to be posted around the city on other sides, scouting and clearing biotics. If you see a new biotic, specifically the beetles, test their defenses, but do not engage uniques. The other 13 teams will move down after prepping, we’re looking for the hive for these bugs, and we’re going to get rid of it. These ones are dangerous, especially without the Bulwark being set up.”

“They’re doing something about that, right?” Terry almost lazily spoke up, “I mean, at least building, oh, I don’t know, a real wall?”

A round of chuckles came out of the group, but I shook my head. I really, really shouldn’t encourage that kind of behavior.

Probably.

“Doug’s going to coordinate on that front,” I answered shortly, “We’ll cover our end first and supply them with M.E. to work through on their front. For now though, it’s anyone’s field for taking care of this problem, Gilramore isn’t steady on its feet yet.”

A team leader spoke up then, “We have an idea where this hive’s at?”

“The salt mines.” Alice answered as I opened my mouth, “Given how much salt is here, and that being a pre made hole in the ground, I don’t see why bugs wouldn’t move into it.”

“Greaaat,” Someone else motioned, “No explosives then. I’d prefer to keep my insides inside.”

My gut tightened at that, and I almost felt Fran and Daniel give me knowing looks at that.

[Ah, to have friends.] Smith chortled amusedly in the background of my mind.

I promptly ignored that, thinking rapidly on the topic.

“We have a lot of ground to cover with that, still.” A woman spoke up, “Several square miles between here and the mountains, and we have no idea how many biotics there are. And there’s no guarantee we’d stumble on them. If they ran right by us into the city… well, I don’t have to say what’d happen then.”

A cold silence settled over us at that thought.

And then an epiphany moment struck me.

My helmet grinned widely, “It won’t matter if we start attacking the core. They’ll all come running.”

The looks on my own team’s faces, sanz Terry, told me they realized all too well how correct that was, the memory of ever resurrecting Grey Wolves fresh in their minds as they tore in through the tunnels while Smith and I overwrote the core then. When it was finished, the biotics fell to pieces like puppets with cut strings.

“We’ll split into two groups, we’ll arrange those with better defensive abilities to be topside to keep the biotics out as long as possible and deal as much damage as they can. Meanwhile, we’ll clear out anything in the hive and get rid of the core.” I paused, “Are there any questions?”

No one was forthcoming, we’d likely make modifications on the fly, but the strategy was fairly solid.

Unless our defensive perimeter collapsed. I guessed that most of the biotics were outside of the nest, so we’d have to allocate more teams to defense rather than offense…

“I’ll allocate orders soon, check your Reaper Links, we’ll set out in thirty minutes after arming up.” I nodded to them, “Good hunting.”

At that, we dispersed, save for my own team.

“I don’t like this plan,” Daniel was the first to speak up, “I mean, it makes sense, but I’m not looking forward to that again.”

I nodded, “I know, but otherwise we risk too much for them getting by us. Unless we have a better idea?”

No one had anything to say to that, at which point I shrugged, “We’re going to need to pull some heavy ordinance on the defense. If they breach, we’re not pulling the defensive line into the mines this time, I’d rather if we could keep thinning them as they came, if possible.”

Daniel grunted, “You’d get pincered on two sides down there, then.”

“We can’t use explosives in the mines,” Terry pointed out, “We’d risk compromising the whole thing. It’s already crazy that you guys did that underground at all.”

I opted not to say anything about that, “In any case, if we can keep them out, then this won’t be a problem anyways.”

Terry raised a hand and grinned, “I may have an idea about that. I may need to use some M.E. though, and borrow a truck… or two.”

I gave him a long look, uncertain if that was a good idea. I sighed, “Only if it’s a good idea, let me send orders first.”

“No problem,” Terry’s smile widened, and I turned my attention to putting together orders for the Legion, specifically to Doug.

He’d need to tap into the M.E. reserves too, and probably borrow from other people. Being the liaison between the Legion and Bulwark would be a very busy job soon.

The rumble of a four trucks, one with a freshly installed hydro-cell engine to follow the previous three, made their way up the mountain road. A few motorcycles, running on gasoline still, scouted the area ahead of us on the road, now dirt as we approached the mountains. It was suggested that there’d be no reason to walk through the forest, as large as it was, given that we might not even stumble upon the biotics. Fran was adamant that if their plan would work, we’d need to make the best time possible to get to the mountains and thereby the salt mines.

The possibility that they might very well be near the city right at this moment did wonders for our expediency. Currently 24 teams had accepted the Legion orders, splitting us evenly between the raid and the early warning system around Gilramore. That said, one group hadn’t answered at all.

That meant that three of those teams would need to be going northwards to see why they weren’t responding. Wherever they were, they were too far from the Obelisk to get a good read on. And possibly too far to receive messages. This was the worst possible time for that to happen, given that they would be on their own if they had problems, and with new biotics afoot, it’d be better to move closer to other teams for the foreseeable future.

Sending three teams to comb the area and try to reach them was already stretching the line a little too thin, but I’d rather that than leave a team high and dry.

Turning my attention forward, I glanced back at the two middle trucks in our convoy. They were packed with large crates with mostly prefabricated equipment, as well as a small number of the Legion who’d opted into getting simple exo-suits that allowed them to lift very heavy loads and move around quickly. A farcry from Daniel’s suit, but hardly something to scoff at.

Suddenly, I heard the sounds of a brief retort of gunfire, and then a sharp twang and an explosion. I recognized that sound.

“Alice?” I questioned aloud into the microphone, coming across not only her feed but the feed of each team leader on the raid.

Three more sharp twang sounds resounded and three more small explosions resounded before Alice responded, “Contact, a beetle, about the size of a car. I… think it’s dead now?”

“You thin-” Came someone else’s response, before a full auto string of bullets cut through the din, incomparably loud.

A few seconds later, Alice came on again, “Nevermind, it wasn’t. It is now though. These are tough.”

I shook my head, “Any more information?”

“Nope, we didn’t let it attack. Keep rolling, we’ve got you covered.” Alice’s cheery voice seemed out of place after the violence, but a chuckle from the people in the truck bed with me surprised me. I suspected that most people might be a bit more nervous about what we were going to do. Instead, they were almost jovial, making jokes and trying to bet on how many biotics there would be. I shook my head with a smile hidden under my visor, these guys were definitely fit for the Legion.

“Copy that, rolling on.” A husky voice responded from the driver from our lead vehicle, the man accelerating ever so slightly. Fortunately, we had a few people who knew how to drive such large rigs, otherwise this would have been fairly awkward to move so many people.

Only minutes later, we could hear the scouts reporting of a few contacts out of range to fire, but were busily moving away. One seemed to notice them and began charging at the scout ring, but there seemed to be no way that the beetle could actually keep up with a motorcycle at the least.

Before long, we’d arrived at the mine, the fences that normally marked the perimeter sheared through and trampled in several places. Large rigs, dump trucks and massive machines, conveyor belts silent and unused for months. Some of the pieces of equipment showed signs of rust from disuse. Seriousness settled over us as we looked a the buildings abound, many of them coated in shells of salt, spikes protruding here and there, almost like a testing ground.

The trucks rolled forward, crushing a layer of salt even more, ground already by what had been many, many pointed legs.

“Alright, Scouts, check for entrances, I don’t expect they’d only have one way in or out.” I called over the link, keeping a wary eye out for anything out of the ordinary.

Only the white of salt and the once-occupied mining base stood out, no biotics lingered, no scouts, nothing in this area.

“It’s really quiet,” Fran commented, “Do you think there’s a chance the core was moved?”

I paused at that, if they did move the core too, then we’d be completely out of position for if the biotics were heading to the city. The trucks stopped, still running, as booted feet hit the salty earth. No plants grew for a hundred feet beyond the mine, giving us plenty of line of sight. And yet, nothing came at us, no creature came to attack us. Not so much as a screech or howl filled the air, just the crunching of salt flakes as the Legion moved out to cover the area.

“I suppose it’s possible they moved with the core,” I frowned, listening for anything at all.

Moments later, however, my concerns were rendered invalid.

A tremor ran through the earth, the sounds of shrill screeching and the chittering of dozens, if not hundreds of limbs, blared from the open mine entrance. Rails led deep within the dark maw, once sturdily built concrete and brickwork covered in layers of hardened salt. Both vibrated now, the metal railing shedding crusts of mineral as they shook.

“Incoming!” I shouted, bringing up my reaper assault rifle and sighting it. Already, the scouts were poking around, finding only two more entrances to the mine as of yet. They flagged them on my vision, lighting up with icons clearly with the aid of the Obelisk. Others moved quickly, covering behind heavy duty metal and equipment.

Terry shouted something to some men, hurrying and unpacking one of the boxes, I frowned at that, but didn’t have time to look. Whatever they were setting up hopefully was important to pull the more heavily armed of the teams off the line.

Then I grinned, feeling heat billow off of the rifle in my hands as it primed, the triple barrels ready to spit death at ridiculous speeds. I moved forward, standing towards the front, coming to kneel behind a minecart.

Moments later the first biotic burst forth from the main entrance, as large as a car and filling half of the entrance with its bulk. It had six legs, though two more near the front seemed to act partially as legs, and definitely factored as scything limbs. Also large, the hooked mandibles that chittering madly, clicking and grinding together in its angry rush, were certainly lethal.

The moment it hit the light of day, the compound eyes on the sides of its head seemed to glisten, the targets before it tantalizing it. Salt formations messily clung to its body, far more solid than salt ought to be even in crystal form. It added to already thick looking chitin, and its wings expanded in an instant, showing a strange malformation in its body. Two thick, stiff plates that would protect the wings of other beetles instead seemed to anchor a strange, pale and fleshy limb, or organ.

It was bizarre, seeing what looked like tendons tightening against it as it pulled backwards, a reserve of salty spines shifting from beneath the wing plates into place on the organ.

The instant before it fired, though, my own snarled in challenge. Superheated slags of metal, though small, were spat in rapid succession faster than the speed of sound through three barrels.

Exactingly, I tore through one side of the tendons, watching as the whole organ suddenly twisted and tore off of its body, slinging off to the side and around its wing plates disgustingly. It screamed, or at least seemed too as its many mouthparts clacked together rapidly.

My shots marked the beginning, others unloaded into it, assault rifles pitting its armor until finally shining silver liquid poured from its shell.

Even so, a second and third came out beside it, and farther from us I could see six more in all already spilling from more entrances, at least three more.

This time, one managed to fire off its bolts before I could halt it, white blurs streaking through the air with a sharp snap as the beetle’s tendons let loose.

My cover shifted against me, moving several inches and bearing grooves and dents on the other side. The minecart was made of sterner stuff than cars, though, and held in spite of the more or less superficial damage.

Daniel, likewise, provided cover for some fellows.

However, the second volley was less fortunate. A man not far from me caught a spike in the shoulder and spun away like a ragdoll, a distorted scream coming from him as he landed on his side, crying out.

Not lethal, then, but it wasn’t lost on me that literally having salt in your wounds would be unbelievably agonizing.

“Aim for the squishy organ on the back when they fire!” I called out, “That’s the biggest problem!”

The moment after I said that, someone fired on another beetle as it readied another shot, hitting the organ dead center with what had to have been a .50 caliber rifle.

It sounded like it too.

I didn’t need to glance around to see the woman from before, one of the other leaders, propped up on a crane and shooting down from rather immaculate positioning.

A moment later, another man shredded through the organ with a large crossbow, a strange electric motor that looked like it was completely out of place on the weapon pulling back the string to the bolt. Then, an equally interesting loader would snap another bolt into place, firing every other second.

The man beside him, his team leader, caught my eye as well. He had a strange armor contraption on his left arm, giving him a broad shield there. A gun was fastened with a multi jointed bar against what looked like a weight belt around his waist. He fired a shot, and I nearly laughed when the projectile snapped into the face of one of the beetles, what looked like a some kind of machine bolt sticking out of its face, completely ruining its aim.

The creatures kept coming even after a dozen of them came out. Even so, out of roughly 70 people, five of them were probably out of commision, only one, luckily, was in a near fatal situation. A few medics took after him, pulling out equipment both familiar and very much not to remove the salt spear and work on him. Generous use of a strange medi-foam sealed the wound after they worked on it, and a strange pack of blue liquid was fastened to his arm, linked into him with an I.V.

It took a lot to kill one of these things, though. I could mow one down, but it took half of a clip and careful aim, with a weapon well beyond most of what earth had access too.

With an assault rifle? It took two to three clips, even a reaper modified one took a full clip, and a lot of luck and aim.

“Everybody down!” Terry’s voice called out as something sailed over my head and landed at the entrance.

I ducked, realizing what he had planned. Others did the same, though they weren’t certain exactly what was going to happen.

The spear-like contraption pierced the ground between several beetles. They regarded it for a brief instant before turning back towards the invaders of their nest with savage single-mindedness. The cords that lay on the ground all around the pillar almost seemed to come alive in the next moment, electricity crackling off of them. One singularly thick and insulated cable led to the whirring generator, along with three others distantly near the entrances of the mines.

It sounded like an explosion went off, and given the sudden projection of salt and silver fluid into the air, I suspected that had indeed just happened. A man and woman near to me in another piece of cover visibly gagged as acrid fumes and what was probably very cooked biotic wafted through the wind moments later.

The sounds persisted, similar explosions happening every few seconds for a minute.

Finally it stopped, and even with my helmet filtering the air, I felt like the smell of scorched bug was somehow still getting through.

“Well, that, uh… worked…” The buzzing sound vanished as the generator powered down, “Sorry about the smell, didn’t think about that.”

I shook my head, smirking. I certainly didn’t mind it, considering that it’d just made our job much easier.

And when I looked at the combined four entrances, one of which was only visible due to the rod standing up next to it, I couldn’t help but breath out in pure amazement at how effective they’d been.

Each tunnel entrance had at least ten beetles apiece, fried from the inside out with the electrical current.

“Wow, that’s disgusting.” Alice spoke up first, and then quickly backtracked, “Err, I mean, it works great though!”

Terry didn’t take any offense at all to it, “Right? I have to say that was rather a stroke of genius.”

“You turned them off, right?” Someone else shouted out, “That’s not something I’m keen on walking through.”

He laughed back, “It’s perfectly safe!”

A sudden pop and the expulsion of trapped, superheated gasses from a corpse showered the entrance of the mine with more boiling silver gore.

I had to admit, it was brutally effective.

“Alright, move the generators.” Orders spilled from my lips quickly, “Set up a perimeter in the meantime, assume the horde might turn back on us at any moment.”

People rushed around immediately, our injured taken to the trucks to rest for now. Some of them might be able to get on their feet in some capacity after the medics finished their strangely advanced field dressing, but for now they’d be in the way. Exo-suits carried advanced generators filled with fuel cells that Earth hadn’t seen before.

As I watched, I remembered what Sis had told me, that infrastructure was easier to access.

This would definitely be something to examine more later. For now, I felt a sinister smile rest on my face as each unit and its parts were moved into the tunnels, our modified plan already coming into play very nicely.

“Delving teams, lets go.” I called out, half of the number of our teams breaking off and moving towards the main tunnel, carrying gear at least moderately suited to spelunking. “Fran’s in charge of the defense while I’m down there.” I reiterated that part of the plan, seeing Fran rising into the air, magnetics pushing her higher and higher as she tried to get a better view of the area, rising above the metal crane that sat unused until now.

With that, the delving team and the defensive team parted. I would have liked to have my team with me, but they’d be able to field their might better up in open field, and Terry was the one who knew how to actually use the generators.

“Let’s collect the Reaper’s due.” Someone next to me spoke up, a grim smirk on their face.

I grinned back, the feature appearing on my helmet, a red line of distorted light, “Lots of Reaper’s here.”

“Hell yeah,” a man with two axes and a bare-bones exo suit that fitted to his body growled low, “I’ll get more points than you today, Boss.”

I laughed, “You can try.”

“Nah, that’d be me,” the man with the crossbow spoke, “I’ve already got one.”

“Then you’re out of luck, I have two,” The woman with the sniper rifle chuckled.

Another man, stoic and standing beside me, the team leader with the bolt-gun nodded to me.

I nodded back, the lot of us driving into the darkness as lights began to unveil our path. We had a lot of work to do.