P3R-285 (New Velokian Outpost World)

It would take a few moments for EDI to pinpoint the source of the energy and magnetic readings, though it probably caused more questions than it gave answers.

The source was coming from a mid sized golden ... well, hole in space time. It had what appeared to be swirling glass floating around the outside of it, and it was clearly the source of the readings. The image of course was magnified given their distance from it still, but it was clearly an anomaly of some kind.

As they watched, it seemed some of their enemy was actually moving into the thing, while others came out of it. Even as they watched, they could see that there were Velokian people being shot at by the enemy near by, and unfortunately, the Velokian group near that anomaly was badly out numbered ...

"Looks almost like a man-sized Jump Hole." Ariana commented, leaning a little closer to the screen. "Very strange. We'd better get to it, though."

"We've got hostiles still planet-side. Joker, radio that over to the Nasara. EDI, I want you to keep getting everything you can on that...whatever that is." Lilith hit the comm button on the bridge. "Grunt. Garrus. Jack. James. To the shuttle. We're going in hot." She turns to look at Ariana. "I'm assuming you're coming, too."

"Don't scratch the paint!" Joker calls after her before complying with the communication order and also taking the Normandy down lower, looking for a better vantage point for the shuttle. Even with her take-off and landing capabilities, putting the Normandy down in the middle of a fight was not ideal.

"Don't vent my ship!" She gets out before the doors close and she heads for the elevator to take her down to the armory, waiting on the other pilot to join her. When they arrive, the others are already there, readying gear and bandying over who gets to pilot them down. Ariana, of course, has the option of taking her own craft or joining the others.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, EDI was continuing to gather information on the anomaly as best she could, cataloging and relaying it over to the other ship as quickly as she received it.

The response came over from the Nasara, from Aya shortly after.

"That looks identical to what we've seen before with the anomalies the Klarnell first appeared from.
Advise your landing crews they tend to give off high electromagnetic bursts, the kind that are strong enough to yank metallic objects out of your hands if they aren't held onto tightly."


Fortunately. putting the Normandy down became a bit easier as a number of Wraith and Draque 'dropped' in to the field, causing the enemy forces to be a bit too distracted to be shooting at the Normandy.

Joker will, in turn, relay that information to Lilith and the others via the comms in the shuttle, getting a "Noted!" in return. Having the ground forces distracted is ideal, given the shuttle doesn't have offensive capabilities, outside of opening up the doors and letting the passengers shoot out of the sides. Again, not ideal during a descent. Lilith, the one piloting the vessel, will ideally put it down behind the enemy forces to catch them in a pincer attack with the new allied forces. Before the shuttle's even fully landed, the doors do open to James and Grunt laying down cover fire to enable Garrus and Jack to take the field. The Turian hangs back a little, sighting out targets through his sniper rifle while the biotic immediately starts tearing into anything in front of her that isn't friendly. Once the shuttle is stable, the other two will hop out and start wading into the fray. Lilith, herself, swings out of the pilot's seat and grabs the second sniper rifle sitting beside it to join her team in aiding the Velokians in putting down the Klarnell.

Ariana glances over to her ship, but decides to stay on foot for now, slipping into the shuttle with Lilith's squad and running a quick check on the pistol she keeps at her side. She stayed put until the shuttle was firmly settled down, letting the larger squad to the bulk of the work while she moved to a flank, keeping low. She would take her time closing, taking a few shots with her pistol to aid the rest of the squad, until she closed to melee.

Once she was close enough to engage some Klarnell physically, she sprang forward, coalescing her energy blade and lashing out with it, defending herself with flashes of energy from her pistol hand, throwing return strikes out of alignment and dancing out of the way.

These Klarnell proved a bit more hardy than ones they had encountered previously, taking more than a few shots to put down and stay down. However, they were also caught between to enemy fronts, and fighting a multi-front war was never ideal.

Several of the Klarnell though exhibited unusual abilities, such as one tossing out bolts of ice at it's foes, trying to shred or freeze them. Concentrated fire from the allied forces ended that threat pretty quickly.

For the most part though, the crew found themselves slowly making headway, although some of the Klarnell had started filing away, vanishing. It was unclear if they were cloaked and retreating to the anomaly, or if they were trying for sneak attacks.

((Keeping it short and simple to get back on track again.))

Ari noticed that the Klarnell were shrugging off the few hits she made with her pistol more easily than they had before. One of the benefits of constant self modification, she mused. Her blade still sliced as cleanly as before however, making quick work of those she managed to close with, flashes of insight allowing her to dodge blows and find cover before oncoming fire found her.

She was worried about the few that seemed to be disappearing, however. Once it happened a few times, she pulled back, laying up against a thick pillar and turning her focus inwards, trying to see if she could feel them still in the area. If they snuck around to flank either group, it would cause problems with what so far had been a very effective rout.

After a few moments, Ariana realized the Klarnell were in fact still around, they apparently had some form of personal cloaking device. While a few of them seemed to be attempting to flank, a few others seemed to be retreating, one of which was carrying a strange looking device that wasn't entirely being concealed by the cloak, at least, not to her.

Ariana grunted, frowning. "They're still here, just cloaked. Watch your flanks!" She called out to Lilith and her squad. She spotted the other group retreating, and jumped over her cover to chase after them, firing her gun to try and force them into cover to slow them down.

Several other small battles suddenly broke out as Klarnell tried to ambush some of the allied group, however that turned into the ambushers being ambushed when suddenly a small number of Draque revealed themselves as having been waiting for a strike point from their own 'shrouding.'


The group Ariana went after began to return fire, though one of her shots did drop one of the Klarnell carrying the device, causing the others to lose their grip on it, sending the device to the ground as they dove for cover. With it no longer being hidden by their personal cloaks, the device became visible, resembling something akin to a Wraith Dart transport buffer ...

Grunt rather gleefully joins Jack in wading in and facing off against the Klarnell, seeming to be headbutting the aliens just as often as blasting them at very close range with his shotgun. James, Garrus, and Lilith stay a little closer to the back, providing cover for their squadmates and Ariana as they mix it up amid their foes. The ice abilities seem a bit worrisome, but between concentrated fire, brute strength, and incendiary ammunition, once the problem is discovered it is quickly dealt with.

When some of the Klarnell seemed to be cloaking out, the Normandy crew changed their tactics, not wanting those in the fray to get ambushed from behind, nor did they want to get flanked themselves. Having Ari's warning did give them a head's up in that regard but having the Draque jump into the middle of things seemed to help even better.

Seeing the device hit the ground and marking it as something the Klarnell were trying to get away with more than anything else, Lilith directed her squad's attention to it. "Eyes on the prize, team! The name of the game is 'Keep Away.' They don't get to move it another inch, got it?"
"No problem!" came back from Jack, who was still gleefully flinging the Klarnell around or suspending them in midair to allow the gunfire from the others to pick them apart.
"You got it, Lola!" James moved up to join Grunt's defensive position, slowly cutting his way closer to help keep a perimeter around the device and make it not worth the Klarnell's time to try and recover it.

Ari weaved and dodged as she charged the Klarnell, making it most of the way towards them before weight of fire cut her short and forced her to cover, raising a shield to block a few crucial rounds before she could dive before a piece of ruined building, deflecting the rounds upwards and out of her way. She only paused for a moment, then sprinted out sideways, running parallel to the group and drawing more fire, keeping them exposed for Lilith's team. She fired a few shots herself, but wasn't aiming for much more than keeping them occupied with her.

Ariana's tactics were effective at more than just drawing the enemy fire, it seemed she was frustrating them with her ability to avoid being hit by them. Of course, this also meant more than just a few of them started shooting at her, but this also left them open to other attacks ...


Which would come from Liltih's team, as well as a group of rallied Velokians that had hooked up with some of the Alveran and Wraith soldiers.


Ariana might also notice that one of the Klarnell had produced a device that looked like some sort of grenade ...


((Short but hopefully gets us back up and running.))

The agile woman would continue to frustrate them, though with so much of their attention on her, she was much less brave, sticking to her current cover, and popping out in random locations to get a few shots off. When she spotted the grenade, she acted quickly, motioning with her hand and summoning a blue shimmer of energy to try and slap the primed explosive out of the Klarnell's hand and to the ground at it's feet.

The effect was quick, and probably hilarious.

Right as the Klarnell went to toss the device, it was swatted out of it's hand by an 'invisible' force. The Klarnell let out some kind of warning sound, possibly an oh crap, and they dove for cover.

The device went off, sending at least three of the less fortunate Klarnell flying into the air, pieces of Klarnell flying everywhere as they essentially blew up despite their armor.

As they began to pick themselves up, the group of Alverans, Wraith and Velokians began to press forward, taking advantage of the moment. One of the Velokians fired a zat shot slightly wide of the first Klarnell, missing it. However the blast struck the anomaly itself, which had an unexpected outcome.

The anomaly suddenly pulsed, then seemed to almost collapse in on itself, remaining there. A nearby Klarnell who'd been trying to escape with a smaller device ran into the now semi-collapsed anomaly ... and bounced off of it.

Several more noises were heard from the Klarnell as they processed this latest development, and they did not sound pleased. In fact, it sounded like they were outright ticked ... and shocked.

Ariana ducked back into cover in time for the grenade to go off, advancing with the others while the Klarnell were scattered and confused. She saw the hit on the anomaly and ducked for cover again, though she popped back up when she had no reflexive flash of insight, somewhat surprised as the anomaly changed, but seemed to stabilize in it's new configuration.

She tried not to let that distract her for too long however, diving into the group of Klarnell and beginning to lash out with her psionic blade, engaging the aliens directly and dancing around, maintaining a hard target for them to fight back against.

The Klarnell were in total disarray now, dropping like flies as the allied group made headway, bolstered by the arrival of the Draque from their cloaked positions, and the fact that they seemed much more focused on Ariana than anything, or anyone else.

The device that had been being carried by the Klarnell sat a few feet away, and one of them suddenly turned and pointed a weapon at it, acting like it was going to shoot the device. At that moment there was a loud buzzing sound above, and the Klarnell jumped back in surprise as a wraith dart suddenly flew over head, engaging it's transport beam and whisking the object away. Before the Klarnell could take aim at the dart though, it was blasted by no fewer than five very angry looking Velokians.

Ariana would find that the Klarnell were highly focused on her, trying, and failing, to hit with with some sort of energy beam type weapon. Whatever it was, they seemed certain if they hit her, she'd not be a problem for them anymore ... perhaps it too should be stolen?

(Guess who remembered this existed. It's been a long summer...)
There's a bark of a laugh from Grunt as he catches sight of the Klarnell bouncing off of what appears to be a force field over their escape point. "You [REDACTED] are in for it now!" Jack continues to focus her attention on the Klarnell, hoisting them and now throwing them around with her biotics. With the device off of the playing field, it turns into open season on them for the Normandy crew. "Jack! Concentrate!" Lilith shouts the order over the comms, given that it's getting increasingly difficult for her and Garrus to pick off the captured enemies with her winging them about the battlefield. "They're goin' after Spooky," James cuts in, focusing his attention more on the ones who are trying to shoot Ariana. "Spooky?" comes from Lilith. "Work in progress." The pilot would find that she has backup in the form of the marine and the occasional shot from Lilith or Garrus when they're not picking off Jack's other targets.

For her part, Ariana focused more on defense, though this close, she was much more able to lash out in her own defense, a spin to duck away from one strike letting her slice a leg off a different Klarnell, finishing him off before dancing away in a different direction, a quick psychic shove throwing another one off balance and opening him up for James or another shooter to take out.

"Spooky's a new one, gotta admit." She added to the comm chatter, though her voice was starting to come in ragged from the exertion of dodging and dancing about so frantically.

The Klarnell were getting increasingly frustrated that they couldn't hit the woman.  Finally one of them seemed to have had enough, and there was a sudden vision that hit her as a warning.

She suddenly had a vision of herself being sliced to ribbons by whirling debris, even as around her suddenly pieces of metal that littered the ground, possibly fighter shrapnel, lifted off the ground, swirling around as if caught in a tornado, heading straight for her.  At the speeds they were moving at, if any hit her, or anybody else for that matter, they'd probably be cut down instantly.

Even as this happened, a few of the remaining Klarnell tried to use this to lock on to her, meaning they expected this vortex of deadly metal to either force her into one spot for them to shoot down, or to entrap her.


However, even as she made her defensive move, another vision hit her, this time of an explosion in front of her, as if a grenade was about to take her out.

By the time she had moved, there was a sudden explosion in the middle of the group of Klarnell surrounding the tornado maker.  Bodies went flying everywhere, even as a small group of Velokians, led by a red head Ariana would probably recognize even at this distance, charged out into the fray, taking the remaining Klarnell by complete surprise, and adding to the attack.


For Jack and the others, they'd find the Klarnell they were attacking had suddenly changed tactics, attempting to force them into a retreat as they concentrated fire on them, particularly aiming for Jack.  As one got Jack in it's sights with the same type of weapon they had been trying to shoot Ariana with though, that's when the explosion hit, causing it to face plant straight into the ground.  Jack would have plenty of opportunity, and probably ways, of killing it before it could rise again.

As the Velokian group joined the fray, energy weapons flying, the Klarnell suddenly found themselves in a cross fire between Lilith's people and the very angry looking Velokian people.  It seemed they were about to have a very bad day.

((Shrike, in case you're wondering, the red head is Vanessa.  She'd probably at least have met her enough by now to know who she is, if not more. And welcome back Copper!))

The flashes came, and Ariana reacted immediately, more on reflex than intelligent thought at this point. In quiet moments, she ponders if seeing herself exploded, eviscerated, or the hundreds of other gruesome deaths she'd witnessed had changed her outlook on life, but in the moment, there was nothing but action and reaction.

She threw herself backwards over a piece of cover, hand and energy flashing out to deflect one of the flying bits that would have caught her in the neck, accepting a second one to her upper arm in the process. Landing awkwardly, she kicked off and sent herself skidding sideways along the ground, raising an angled barricade of mental energy between herself and the incoming grenade blast.

Thankfully, it seemed it wasn't needed after all, reinforcements coming to help clear the arena. Ariana took that for the gift it was, glancing around to find that most fronts were now covered well, and parking herself in a corner of cover to fire potshots towards the group collecting themselves near Jack after being scattered, panting and letting her lungs and muscles recover from the extended burst of action.