This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#Snowscape – April 17, 2016
Jason seats a thermal clip in his Revenant and locks it in place before standing up and exiting the vehicle. Upon spotting the corpse and the improvised weapon, he cusses softly under his breath. "Ilyna." he calls back, "Come take a look at this..." He keeps his Revenant aimed at the ground as he begins to scan the surrounding area. "Careful. Whatever killed this thing is smart enough to
Rala steps out of the Mako, taking in their surroundings with a long look around the area. She starts to approach the carcass, looking fascinated, but a frown is forming on her face the closer she gets. "What-... take a look at this." she says to Athassa, who is walking beside her. She kneels down at one of the metal wires and lifts it, tugging lightly. One end is attached to the bone harpoon, and the other anchored in the
Ilyna exits the vehicle after Jason, but doesn't say anything while she looks around their surroundings for any sign of the owners of these weapons.
Jessica climbs from her seat and shoulders her shotgun as she exits the vehicle. "Holy shit." she exclaims as she sees the creature. "You think whoever did this will come back for their catch?" she asks aloud.
Yan Sun exits after Jessica, stopping beside her and looking at the whale-creature. "Woah... there are people here?"
Plask exits the rover with a case of research equipment in hand, but upon noticing the strange harpoons they hurry over to Rala and Athassa. They put the case down and walk closer, activating their omni-tool to perform a scan while walking alongside the carcass.
Jason looks over the creature for a few more moments before turning to the others. "Alright, let's create a perimeter so they can do their work." he says, gesturing towards the area around the carcass, "No telling if whatever did this will be back. Doesn't change anything, just means we need to keep our eyes peeled." He begins to march a short distance from the whale.
Artullin nods and begins a patrol a short distance away, his drone extending his cone of vision dramatically.
Ilyna nods. "I can stay with the researchers," she says, "so I can get a barrier up quickly if they get past our perimeter."
Jason gives Ilyna a nod. "Sounds like a plan." he says, continuing to put a little distance between himself and the creature to create a perimeter. "Report anything you see." he orders over comms as he looks about for any sort of high ground nearby.
Rala drops the wire and stands up, shooting Athassa a look. The two of them start discussing the possibilities.
Ilyna watches the horizon from where she's standing, which is two meters away from the researchers by the carcass. A biotic shimmer starts to surround her. Her weapon remains in its holster.
The howling of the increasing wind is echoed across the walls of the depression in the ice that they find themselves in, heavy flakes of snow flowing and falling, already starting to cover the scratched-up ice and the blue bloodstains of the creature.
Jessica passes a glance to Yan Sun. "Stay safe." she says with a sigh before spreading out in the opposite direction of Jason, her gaze dancing about as she searches for any sign of the alien whalers.
Yan Sun shoots Jessica a smile. "You too..." she says before starting to look around, her eye glowing. After a moment of turning her head in every direction she speaks over comms, sounding rather confused. "Uh... the probe is gone. I'm not picking it up at all."
Artullin keeps an eye on his drone's vision on his omni-tool, occasionally glancing up to examine his surroundings.
Jason frowns as he stations himself some distance away. "O....kay. It couldn't have just disappeared. Doesn't it have some sort of, I dunno, locater on it? Not like it just got up and wa-..." He sighs deeply and goes quiet for a moment, "Is there any chance whatever killed our big friend over there took the probe?"
Yan Sun double-checks her omni-tool before replying. "Yeah but... I'm not picking it up on the tracker. There's no signal. I think it must've been taken..."
So they either disabled the tracker, or destroyed the thing. Either way there's not much we can do if we can't find it. Do what you've gotta do here. Take your samples or whatever and let's get out of here. The probe is a lost cause if we can't pinpoint its location.
Jason continues to stare off into the distance. "Oh no." he says with absolutely no emotion. "Whatever will we do if Harmonia isn't happy? Woe is me..."
Rala speaks up on comms next. "This is fascinating... there must be intelligent life on this planet. And... the metal wiring can't possibly be native... that-... there must be off-worlders here!"
Jason nods to himself. "I'll switch channels and try to raise them." he says, reaching over to tap at his omni-tool interface. "Linora, you read me?" he asks, testing to make sure they haven't yet dropped out of comms range.
There is nothing but static. The weather is increasingly severe, with winds growing stronger by the minute and snowfall growing thick enough to cause minor impedements in visibility.
Jason returns to the local channel with a sigh. "We're out of comms range." he informs, "Research team: How long is this going to be? If they have that probe, it means they know they're not alone anymore. Last thing we need is for them to stumble across our camp while we're away."
Artullin chimes in over comms. "We shouldn't stay long... the weather is getting worse and whatever took the probe has the advantage if they decide to attack. We're in their land."
Athassa lifts up her omni-tool while looking around. "Well, we need to find them, right? They might be shipwrecked and need our help!"
Ilyna looks around, looking even more worried than before. "We can't take that chance," she says. "We need to warn the ship."
Jason gives a shake of his head, continuing to keep watch. "We have no idea who they are or why they're here." he says, "There's not much we can do from here anyway. Get in the rover and, what? Drive around aimlessly, hoping to find a spec of dirt on the side of a planet? As Ilyna said, our first priority needs to be warning the others. I'm not saying we just leave people behind who may
be in need of help, I'm just being realistic here. We have no way of helping them from our current position. Once we're back on the ship we can conduct a better search."
Athassa responds with a nod, still looking around at the cliffs. "Yes, alright. That makes sense. Rala, do you th-... over there!" She points towards the rover.
There is sudden movement at the cliff closest to the rover, a half dozen of unusually large, pale gray vorcha leaping out from the high ground, their loud howling and snarling mixing with the wind. Some of them wield bone-tipped spears, shaking them menacingly as they land on the vehicle, while others have sharpened bone-claws wrapped to their hands. The three that land on the ground charge right for the researchers while the others
Ilyna raises her brows and quickly moves to the researcher's position, spending her built up biotic energy to form a barrier dome around them. She is immobile while holding up the barrier, and her Locust and Carnifex are still in each their holster.
Jason lifts his Revenant as his attention swings in the indicated direction. "Hey! Stop!" he calls out. "Shit, they're in the Mako. Athassa, can you disable it remotely? We can't let them get control of it!" His finger hovers over his trigger as he sights in on one of the spear-vorcha. He raises his voice as he shouts to the vorcha, hoping to be heard over the howling wind. "We can help
Artullin whips around, raising his rifle as he hears the howling. He dissipates his search drone, substituting it for a combat drone that zips towards the nearest vorcha. It garbles unintelligibly as it attempts to shock one. Artullin raises his rifle, but doesn't fire quite yet.
Jessica raises her shotgun and glances at the others, unsure of how she's supposed to be handling the situation. She slowly advances on the vorcha, hoping to bridge some distance to allow her shotgun to be effective.
One of the vorcha is zapped by Artullin's combat drone, and lets out a furious growl as it starts to charge towards the turian on all fours with remarkably speed. Another of the three outside lets out a howl and hurls its spear towards Jason while the third does the same towards the researchers, who are fortunately shielded by Ilyna's barrier bubble. It breaks on impact and bounces harmlessly to the ground. There is commotion in the
Mako and it suddenly jumps ahead, door still open. It jumps again and again, jerking forward. There's another series of howls as another group of vorcha, seven of them, leap off a cliff to the north, one landing directly on top of Jessica, hoping to knock her to the ground.
Rala looks on, almost with fascination. "Vorcha? This is... most unexpected, we had no indication that there would be..."
Plask lowers their posture, looking defensive as they position themself infront of the asari, glaring out at the feral vorcha. "We must leave!"
Jason easily sidesteps the spear from this distance and returns fire, squeezing the trigger of his Revenant a few times. "Ah shit. Don't let them hit you. Our shields aren't going to pick those things up. One catches you between the plating and it won't be good!" he instructs over comms, "And get that Mako shut down!" He continues to fire at the two spear-hurling vorchas.
Artullin hurms and plants his rifle's stock into his shoulder. He fires off a burst at the vorcha while his drone pursues it, belching out a billow of flames towards the vorcha.
Jessica drops her shotgun as the vorcha tackles her to the ground. In a panic, she attempts to maneuver herself onto her back to defend herself.
Ilyna doesn't even seem to flinch at the spear hitting the barrier, and she is quick to reinforce the field to make up for the energy lost to stopping the spear. "My barrier is still strong, but there's no telling how many more there are," she says. "We need to take back the vehicle and get out of here!"
The vorcha attacking Jason takes several shots from the Revenant, which causes it to snarl and leap at him, but with the second burst it takes a shot to thte head and goes down. As Jessica turns around the vorcha on top of her claws at her chest and then lunges down with its head, trying to bite her helmet - of course, teeth are little match for the armor plating. The attacker after Artullin is lightly singed by the flames but rushes
on, and jumps at the turian even as shots strike it, it hits him hard, one claw scratching at his faceplate. The northern group is now advancing, and two more spears strike the barrier bubble while a third comes at Jason from the side. Two claw-wielding vorcha charge, both heading for the barrier. The Mako's thrusters suddenly activate and it flies into the air, jumping up several meters and then starting to tip ahead. It comes
Artullin rolls with the vorcha, using his gun and the momentum of his attacker to try and propel it over him. The aim is to slam the vorcha into the ground, followed by a full auto clip into it's snarling ugly face. The drone zips around to zap the vorcha for added effect.
Jessica continues to panic beneath the vorcha as the claws scratch at her chestplate. She grabs at the vorcha's throat with one hand, trying to create some distance out of sheer panic despite its biting being largely ineffective. Her other hand scrambles for her knife as she squirms beneath her attacker. "Get.... off....." she groans, kicking at it as best as she can which, due to her positioning, isn't very effective.
Ilyna is holding up the barrier without much difficulty. "There's two advancing on our position," she reports over comms.
The vorcha wrestling with Artullin is slammed into the ground, and just as it tries to stab him with a bone claw its face is filled with hyper-accelerated metal flakes, spurts of blood soaking the snow, and the turian's scratched-up visor.
Jason begins firing shots at the second spear-tossing vorcha who was targeting the researchers, but his attention is quickly diverted as one of the bone spears shatters against his pauldron. He swings his Revenant towards the new attacker and takes a knee as he fires off another volley. "They're trying to overrun us! We need to cut down their numbers, now!"
Jessica's kicks are largely unsuccessful in deterring the vorcha, which changes tactics as the helmet holds up to its bites. It bites down on her shoulder instead, tearing the shoulderpad off and with a snarl while a hand grips her helmet and slams it against the ice.
Artullin wipes the blood away from his visor and turns around, acquiring another target. His drone zips away to go and defend the barrier, attacking any vorcha that come close. Artullin starts charging towards Jessica, aiming his weapon but not firing in fear of hitting her. Then again... shielding. "Jessica, I got sight on it. Do you want me to shoot?" He asks, just in case.
One of the vorcha is shot by Jason and whines from the injury, but it joins the rest of the northern group in charging towards Ilyna. They run head-first into the barrier, but upon being knocked back they start striking out, punching, clawing and biting, as they stare in confusion and anger. There is yet another series of howls as a new group comes charging in from the northeast, leaping down and coming up behin Artullin, rushing
towards the turian on all fours. One of them halts and throws a spear at him. There are several loud cracks, and the ice can be seen splitting from where the Mako impacted it. The rover slowly starts to sink into the ice and then suddenly disappears with a large splash of water.
Jessica grunts loudly as her head jostles back and forth in her helmet, the impact causing everything to go dark briefly. "I-... Gah-...." she groans as she's continuously slammed against the ice. She pulls her blade free and begins stabbing wildly at whatever she can reach.
Artullin turns at the sounds of attackers behind him. "Actually, hold one!" He says. He primes a turret and drops it on the ground. It unfolds and raises from the ground, hovering. It starts firing into the group and would start belching flames out to any that stray close. Artuliin would turn, stop, fire, then start running again. "Got a group closing on my position!"
Jason remains on one knee, unloading into the crowd of vorcha pounding at the barrier. "Keep that barrier up, Ilyna!" he says, "I'm trying to get 'em off you!"
Ilyna manages to still hold the barrier up, which is gettting more difficult as claws, fists and the full weights of Vorcha hits it. "I could use-... yeah, do that!" she says over comms.
There's a loud whine as Jessica stabs at her attacker, and it stumbles off her, clutching its side as it retreats. Two more are rushing towards her quickly however, while three are going towards Artullin. One of those coming after the turian falls to fire from the turret, but the others continue. Another spear flies at the barrier, and the group already at it continue to try and claw and bash their way in, although a few are mowed
down by Revenant fire and one diverts as it is zapped, lunging at the drone instead, a bone-claw striking the fabricated construct. More vorcha can be seen charging down from the northwest now, no longer arriving in groups, but more like a slow stream.
Rala stares at the vorcha assaulting the barrier and then nods to herself, taking a deep breath and lifting her hands as she focuses her biotic energy into reinforcing Ilyna's barrier. Her strength is fairly average, but it should provide some aid.
Jessica scrambles backwards, scooting across the ice on her bottom until she reaches her shotgun. With shaking hands she struggles to resheath her knife for a moment until it slides into place. Still on the ground, she lifts her Eviscerator and shoulders it, firing into the rushing vorcha.
Artullin slaps in a fresh clip and turns once again, firing into the mass of bodies. His turret is still spitting hot lead and flames at the encroaching vorcha. If they have passed, Artullin deploys a second turret that follows the same tactics. His drone would be strafing the vorcha at the barrier with flames and shocks.
Jason cusses under his breath. "Keep them off the barrier!" he shouts as he replaces his spent thermal clip and glances back to get a look at the situation. As he spots the stream of vorcha, he slowly rises back to his feet. "Shit, we've got more incoming. A lot more." He ignores Yan Sun for now. The Mako isn't of particular use anyway if they all die. He removes a grenade from his side
and primes it. "Tossing a grenade! Hopefully it'll slow them down!" he announces before whipping the grenade just in front of the stream of charging vorcha.
Ilyna sighs relieved as there's another biotic aiding with the barrier. "Thank you," she says to her before returning to the focus to keeping the barrier up.
One of the vorcha coming at Jessica drops as it is hit with the shotgun blast, but the other charges, running past her and clawing her in the process. Several more vorcha go down to the combined fire of Artullin and his turrets, although one of them smashes the outer turret to bits, getting burnt in the process. They keep coming, in greater numbers. More are approaching from the west and northeast now. The bashing against the barrier
continues while a single vorcha attacks the drone, crushing it, but getting set afire in the process. It runs around screeching in terror, bumping into another vorcha and setting it on fire as well. Jason's grenade skids across the ice and then explodes as the leading few vorcha charge over it. They're shredded by the shrapnel that flies in every direction, and their mangled corpses are tossed into the air. A loud crack follows the
explosion, as the hole left by the Mako and the crater where the grenade exploded are connected by faults in the ice. With a thundering crunch the ice starts to split, smaller fractures start to appear all over the ice in the basin.
Jason returns to opening fire on the vorcha up against the barrier. "We're not gonna want to stick around much longer! Bring down the ones around the barrier and we'll retreat to the south! Hopefully keep them all on one side of us!"
Artullin starts to fire, reload and fire into the mass of bodies. He now has to wait for the recharge on both his drone and downed turret. With one left, it shoots rapidly into the vorcha, it's targeting acquisition floundering at the mass of targets. Artullin keeps moving back, careful to avoid the cracks. "Copy that, Wolfe! Pulling back to assist at the barrier."
Jessica is layed out flat as the vorcha zips by her and clonks her in the head. All of the blows to the head are beginning to add up, despite the armored helmet, and she's definitely feeling a little foggy. The fear of being left behind as Jason's voice comes over comms lends her enough urgency to climb back to her feet. She sways back and forth in place, trying to get a read of the land in relation to herself and the
Artullin and his remaining turret bring down a couple of more vorcha, but more are coming. A spear hits the turret head in and it explodes into a mess of parts. Several of the vorcha by the barrier are cut down by Jason's machinegun fire, but many of his shots don't find their mark and instead hit the barrier bubble itself. The vorcha that passed Jessica by has turned around, and pounds its chest before charging at her again, readying
another slash. The cracks in the ice are growing by the second, and there is a loud groan as a considerable part of the basin encompassing Ilyna's bubble and Jason breaks loose and starts to shift, the part with the whale being slowly weighed down into the water. Smaller ice floats start to break away along the edges. The feral vorcha keep coming but their approach is slowed by the cracking ice, more than one falling victim to the
treacherous ground beneath them. The wind is still picking up in strength, and it seems as if there may be a blizzard approaching, visibility worsening as the snowfall becomes thicker.
Artullin has now abandoned the notion of attacking the vorcha, instead focusing on not falling victim to the cold embrace of the water. He hops over the cracks, his path angling him towards Jessica. He snaps up his rifle and fires a burst at the Vorcha's legs, trying to halt it.
Ilyna looks on worried as their barrier is getting separated from the rest of the ice. "This is not good," she says over comm. "Take down the remaining two vorcha before so we can do something about this."
Jason focuses fire on the two remaining vorcha around the barrier, pumping the rest of his clip into them as he begins to scurry away from the fractures snaking towards him. "Everyone get ready to move! NOW!" he shouts over comms.
Jessica remains perfectly still for a moment as the vorcha stares her down, slowly reangling her shotgun. As it begins to charge, a mutter of, "Oh shit!" escapes her and she brings her shotgun up haphazardly and empties her clip at it.
One of the remaining two vorcha by the barrier is cut down, but the other turns and charges at Jason. More of them are now crossing the ice, several more charging at the barrier, and a couple of spears hit it. One spear flies at Jason as well. The vorcha charging Jessica is slowed down by Artullin's gunfire, and the Eviscerator blast finishes it off. It's little help as another two jumps down near Jessica and Artullin, with more on
hasty approach. The ice they're on is starting to break off into its own float now, the ground shaking. The main float containing the carcass and the others is tilting more, the north end starting to sink into the water from the weight of the whale, and the south end tipping into the air as a consequence. Visibility is down to something like twenty meters, which is about a third of the width of the basin.
Artullin moves over to quickly check on Jessica. "You alright? Yeah? Then let's go!" he snaps around and fires at the nearest Vorcha, activating his drone again. It starts to belch flame at the vorcha too.
There are now three burning vorcha in total, all of them running around flailing their arms while letting out horrifying screeches as the flesh is seared from their bones. One of them jumps into the icy water as a last ditch effort. It doesn't emerge.
Artullin nods and follows behind, his drone swooping back and forth and launching flame at any vorcha that stray too close.
Ilyna keeps the barrier up, changing her mind as she sees it's still under attack despite the two clawing at it being taken down. "We need to move soon," she says over comms. "Our ground is sinking."
Jason moves forward to meet the vorcha charging him. "Get out of here! Now! South! Get the researchers up that cliff!" he orders over comms. The spear catches off his chestplate and drags along his undersuit, slicing through his left shoulder. He lets out a pained grunt as his suit begins to plug the breach and dispense medigel, but he continues towards the vorcha, aiming to go right
Yan Sun 's gaze darts around to the mercenaries outside the bubble, lingering a moment on Jessica before looking south. "So let's go!" she shouts. "Let's go now!" Her left hand has fingers darting along her omni-tool interface.
Jessica blinks a few times before nodding to Artullin. "Yeah, yeah! Let's get moving!" she says as she starts to navigate the cracks back towards the barrier, shotgun in both hands with one round remaining.
Jason's attacker is knocked down as it smashes into his arm hard, neck snapping. Another spear flies his way but goes way off mark. One of the burning vorcha suddenly tackles Jessica from the side, kicking and clawing frantically, although it is unarmed. Several vorcha surround the drone, a few getting lit aflame but destroying the device regardless. The bashing, tackling and swiping at the barrier continues.
Plask nods in agreement and snarls at the feral vorcha on the other side of the barrier. "Must leave!"
Artullin deploys two more turrets, one ahead and one behind to cover both avenues. He fires a burst towards a lone vorcha, before snapping around to the burning one attacking Jessica. He moves across and tries to smash his stock into it, aiming to dislodge it from her.
Ilyna frowns. "Get ready to move when the barrier falls!" she shouts before letting go of the barrier. It'll remain intact for a few more seconds plus however long Rala keeps at it. She unholsters her Locust and aims it at the vorcha. There's still a biotic shimmer surrounding her.
Jessica brings her shotgun up, trying to wedge it between her self and the vorcha. Although her head is still filled with cobwebs, she's certainly not about to be left behind to get torn to shreds by a bunch of vorcha. She leans back far, aiming to slam her head into the vorcha until she realizes all of the fire. Her gaze goes distant for a moment and a loud shriek escapes her. One of her hands moves up to the vorcha's face
Athassa expends her gathered biotic energy in a telekinetic field at the nearest vorcha, sending it sliding across the ice.
The turrets slow down the approaching pack of vorcha, and a few more slip down under the ice, but they are not deterred. The snow is thick in the air, meaning the approaching vorcha are barely visibly. A spear comes at Ilyna, and another at Athassa and she cries out in pain as it hits her leg and she collapses. Two more vorcha charge in for melee, but Plask intercepts one of them, and the two are sent rolling across the uneaven ice.
Yan Sun sends an arc of electricity at the remaining charging vorcha, and it spasms before falling back and sliding out of sight. She stares at her own hand, not really running anywhere.
Ilyna moves over to Athassa's side, using a biotic field to lessen her mass as she lifts her over her shoulder. "You heard Wolfe," she says. "Hurry!"
The burning vorcha continues to claw at Jessica, tearing at her armor and singing her undersuit. As Artullin smashes his rifle against it the vorcha's attacks ligthen, and a moment later it succumbs to its injuries, dying on top of Jessica, still aflame.
Jessica flails at the flaming vorcha, only seeming to calm once Artullin has pulled the vorcha off of her. She quickly reaches up and uses his hand to pull herself back up, scooping up her shotgun in the proccess. As she begins to jog away, her eyes remain fixed on the vorcha for a good while until she manages to tear her focus away.
Jason loads a fresh thermal clip into his Revenant as he hops and leaps across fractured ice. As he nears Ilyna, he shoulders his weapon once again and drops to lay down cover fire for the retreating researchers. "Get them out of here, Ilyna!"
Rala nods and gets to her feet, starting to run towards the south where there are not yet any vorcha.
Artullin pats her on the back, matching her speed. "You're doing good, Jessica, keep it up," he assures her. Her actions and reactions to everything happening screams to him that she's a rookie. But now is not the time to call it up. His only goal is to preserve the life of his squadmates. "Wolfe, we're closing!"
Yan Sun is still frozen in place, although another approaching vorcha brings her out of it. She glances at the mercenaries she can see again and then starts running.
Jessica nods distantly. "Yeah, I-.... It-..." she mutters as she retreats alongside the turian. "Thank you..." As she spots Yan Sun, she changes direction towards her. "Run!" she orders the woman, finding renewed strength at seeing her friend in danger.
Ilyna is moving at a light jogging pace, the biotic field and low gravity making the asari's weight not too heavy. She is aiming the Locust forward.
The ice has now tilted to such a degree that the southern tip is at the same height as the surrounding ice cliffs. The gap is a couple of meters - might be doable. The vorcha pack is fast approaching from the north and the west, both of Artullins turrets now destroyed. Spears hit the ice here and there, one going right over Yan Sun's head and burrowing into the ice. A couple of the approaching vorcha are hit by Jason's fire and fall,
Yan Sun runs straight into the spear's shaft, getting knocked to the increasingly angled ground and starting to slide. "Woah, woah!"
Artullin struggles to keep on his feet. Seeing Yan slide, he swipes to try and snatch her, but misses. He keeps moving so he doesn't meet a similar fate.
Jessica catches up to Yan Sun and stutter-steps as the woman begins to slide down the ice-slope. "Fuuuuuck!" she shouts and, briefly, looks up towards the gap and considers making a run for it. Her gaze drifts back down towards the approaching vorcha that Yan Sun will be sliding straight into. She clasps a gauntlet onto Yan Sun's wrist and tosses her shotgun aside so she can reach for the spear embedded into the ice,
Rala reaches the edge and just barely manages to stop before falling down. "Aaah! There's no way down! What do we do?!" The possibility of jumping to the cliff has clearly not entered her head.
Jason is beginning to lose his footing as the incline gets steeper and steeper. "Everyone! Off the ice, now!" he says, although he remains in place, unwilling to leave Jessica and Yan Sun. He continues to fire down the slope at the encroaching hordes, leaning back to steady his stance.
Artullin draws his knife and slams it into the ice, hoping it would keep him still or at least slow his descent. He starts to fire into the horde, bracing with one arm. His fire will be not as accurate, but at this point, it looks like it won't matter.
Yan Sun 's descent is stopped as Jessica grabs her arm. She grabs hers in return and struggles back onto her feet. She lets out an out of breath "T-... thank you." The spear holds for now, but the shotgun is sliding rapidly out of view - and right into the hands of an approaching vorcha, who grabs the gun and stares at it in confusion for a moment.
Ilyna reaches the end of the slope. She uses a telekinetic field to bring herself and Athassa over the gap safely, but the landing is less than graceful with her stumbling over, and losing grip of Athassa. They landed about 2 meters past the ledge on the other side.
Rala makes the jump after she sees Ilyna cross. She just barely makes it over, nearly slipping on the edge, but stumbling into safety.
The combined fire of Jason and Artullin bring down a couple more vorcha, but their unsteady fire does little to halt their advance. Their claws dig in firmly into the ice, meaning they have no trouble with the sliding, and the nearest few now jump, one heading straight for Artullin and two for Jason.
Plask comes jumping out of the swirling snow rather suddenly, landing on top of one of the vorcha that are coming at Jason. They grab its neck, claws digging in to the other vorcha's face as the two of them fall over and slide out of view again.
Jessica digs her boots into the ice and begins to ascend, holding tightly onto Yan Sun's hand. "Come on!" she shouts, casting a single glance back over her shoulder before releasing her grip on the spear and booking it upwards, towards the gap.
Yan Sun follows after Jessica, walking at first but picking up her pace to keep up. There is a loud blast behind them, sounding as if the shotgun fired.
Jason sights in on the vorcha that seem to be targetting him, shifting backwards suddenly as Plask pounces. "Get out of here, Plask!" he shouts as he sights in on the other vorcha leaping at him and aims to shoot it out of the sky. "Not a chance, Artullin. We cover their escape and go together. Get ready to move!"
Ilyna runs over to Athassa, and she will try to stop her if she's still rolling. "Sorry," she says. "How bad is your injury?"
The vorcha Jason is firing at takes a few shots to the shoulder but still comes at him, landing on top of him, one hand grabs at his chest while the other slashes at his gun arm with a bone-claw. Artullin's kick hits the vorcha and sends it sliding back down, but two more are quickly approaching, both jumping at him and starting to claw.
Plask comes running out of the snow again, clutching his shoulder as he scrambles up past Jason, making the jump with a growl of effort.
Jessica continues up the slope. "We're not stopping!" she informs, her vice grip on Yan Sun's arm tightening. "Jump!" she says, moments before they reach the edge and she hurls herself at the gap.
Artullin awkwardly reloads and fires into the two vorcha. AS they leap at him, he pushes himself back and holsters his phaseton. He clings to the ice and removes his dagger, slashing at the nearest one whilst trying to kick the other away.
Athassa has a large, bleeding gash in her leg, and the flesh around it is showing signs of frostbite.
Jason isn't particularly bothered by the claw making contact with his gun arm... synthetic arms and all. He may as well have struck a metal wall. He strikes out with his other arm, aiming to knock the vorcha off of him.
Yan Sun tries to jump alongside Jessica, but times it completely wrong. She ends up pulling the two of them down to the point where they hit the ledge with only Jessica's upper body being above it. Yan Sun slams into the cliff head on with a cry of pain, disoriented by the impact and just trying to hold onto the arm that is now her only lifeline.
Ilyna starts applying a generous amount of medi-gel before pushing the suit down, so that it can seal it for now. "The pain will go away soon," she assures her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You're going to be fine."
The vorcha on top of Jason is quite clearly caught off-guard by his cybernetic arms, letting out a confused grunt before getting punched in the side of the head, causing it to tumble backwards.
Rala is on her feet, staring at the ice as she waits for more people to arrive. She moves to help Jessica and Yan Sun, but spots a vorcha jumping at them. She focuses her biotic energy and manages to impact it enough to cause it to fall down into the ice water below.
Jessica's grip on Yan Sun's arm tightens even more. "Hold on-...uunghh..... kitty cat..." she groans, struggling, and failing, to pull herself up. She reaches for any handholds she can find as her body slowly slides backwards, her armored fingertips scraping deep into the ice as she tries to keep herself from tumbling backwards.
One of the vorcha is slashed across the chest with the dagger, but is not deterred, it bites down on his arm while the other starts tearing at his armor, pulling off one of his shoulderpads with a vicious snarl that covers his visor with grimey vorcha spit.
Jason skitters backwards, digging the heels of his boots into the ice as he retreats up the slope. "Our turn, Artullin!" he shouts, bringing his Revenant up and firing a few random shots into the crowd as he continues to make his retreat. After sending a few rounds downrange, he reaches back and removes one of the EMP grenades. "Here-..." he says, holding it out in front of his face and
waggling it around to get the vorcha horde's attention as he primes it, "Catch!" He underhands the grenade at the crowd, hoping it might at least disorient them enough to allow himself and Artullin to escape.
Artullin growls brings his helmet forwards to headbutt one straight into it's face. The other he would try to hook in the brain with his dagger and slam it brutally into the ice. If successful, he would start to retreat to the jump. If not, he would growl to Jason 'Need a hand here!"
One of the vorcha is headbutted, and disoriented enough to slide back a short ways, the other gets a blade through the brain, but its teeth has already tore a hole in the undersuit of his lower arm.
Artullin growls again as the medi-gel gets to work patching up the hole and the wound. He rips the dagger free and launches it at the other vorcha before scrambling away.
Yan Sun sounds panicked as Jessica begins to slide. She scrambles to get a hold of anything on the side of the ice cliff, but to no avail. "Oh no, oh no, we're gonna fall!" Her left hand is typing frantically on her omni-tool for a purpose unknown.
Jessica grunts and groans as she resists the slide as much as she possibly can. "My-... my knife, kitty cat! Grab it. Just like the ice pick, remember? It's on my hip." she instructs between clenched teeth, using up all of her strength to hold on for dear life. "If you can drive it into the ice, you'll be okay."
The EMP grenade hits one of the vorcha and detonates immediately, causing the lead vorcha to run away startled and confusion among several others, but it doesn't halt their approach in any real way. An overwhelming number is very close to reaching Artullin and Jason. The thrown knife hits the disoriented vorcha in the chest, but it doesn't stop him from resuming a new charge at the turian.
Ilyna stays with Athassa, and there's still a hand on her shoulder. She is listening for any changes in her breathing.
Yan Sun nods a couple of times with a stuttered "O-Okay!". She feels around until she finds the hilt of the knife, pulling it and stabbing it into the ice as hard as she can. After a brief test to see if it seems to be holding up she loosens her grip of Jessica's arm. "Get up! Get up!"
Jessica seems reluctant to release her grip on Yan Sun's hand, but after a moment, she nods and lets go, reaching up with her newly freed hand. She digs her armored fingertips into the ice and, with a deep groan, begins to pull herself up. As soon as she's high enough, she lifts a leg onto the edge and rolls over it, quickly moving to hang over the side and reach out for Yan Sun.
Jason reaches back and holsters his Revenant as it's clear that more firepower won't be getting them anywhere at this point. He turns and throws a haymaker at the knifed vorcha charging Artullin, hoping to knock him off into the water, before beginning his rush up towards the gap.
The knifed vorcha flies off into the snow as it is struck by the arm, its fate unknown. The horde is nearly upon them, clawing and biting and growling.
Artullin sees Jessica stuggling to help Yan on the other side of the gap. He has to angle his jump so he doesn't collide into her. He leaps, sails through the air and prays to all that is holy that he reaches the other side.
Jason shows no signs of letting up as he nears the edge. He bends at the knees and leaps with as much force as his legs can muster just after Artullin, bringing his arms up to brace himself should he collide with the cliff-face.
Yan Sun lets out a yelp as Jessica lets go, and she holds onto the knife for dear life. Her boots struggle and fail to find a foothold in the ice cliff, and a glance down causes a gasp. She looks up and notices Jessica's hand, reaching and trying to push herself up to grab it, but slipping, her weight once again fully on the knife. Her eyes go wide as it starts to slip out of the ice. She makes another attempt at leaping up to grab
the hand, but doesn't come nearly far enough, and a panicked cry of "Help!" is all that escapes as the blade comes loose and she falls down into the icy water with a splash.
Rala blasts another vorcha that tries to jump after Artullin, preventing it from grabbing the turian. It's clear she's not used to using her biotics like this by the way she staggers and catches her breath after the attack.
Athassa seems to calm down a bit as the medigel's effects kick in. She's staring at the cliff where the others are trying to make it over.
Artullin crashes into the snow, but manages to scramble to his feet. He turns and reaches out to assist Jason if needed.
Jessica's eyes go wide and she stands up straight, glancing around at the others. "Are you all just going to stand there!?" she shouts, infuriated at their lack of involvement in helping the pair climb up. She looks back down into the water and quickly begins removing her gear, pistol, thermal clips and grenades, and tosses them off to the side. She wastes no time leaping in after Yan Sun.
Jason stumbles as he lands on the other side, grasping at Artullin's hand to keep himself upright. As soon as he's on stable ground, he spins around to face the sinking iceberg and raises both hands, flipping off the soon-to-be-drowning vorchas. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck you!"
Artullin would help. But obviously Jessica hasn't seen turians swim. It's mostly flailing about with the occasional bouts of drowning. He looks to Wolfe silently, then to Jessica as she leaps into the water. He runs to the edge and watches her crash into the water.
Jason 's attention is diverted towards Jessica as she hurls herself into the water. "Oh for fuck's sake!" He rushes right to the edge, looking downward into the water to make sure they're okay. "Ilyna! Athassa, Rala.... One of you have to be able to lift them out of there, right!?" he shouts back, his eyes remaining downward.
Yan Sun is flailing around wildly in the water, splashing as she tries to surface, obstructed by small ice floats and finding no grip whatsoever. When Jessica dives in next to her she startles and starts to look even more panicked at the prospect of both of them drowning in the freezing water. Her eye lights up as she tires to do something, what is unclear, but she struggles to keep herself afloat while doing it.
Athassa immediately tries to get to her feet when Jason shouts at them, but stumbles back to her knees with a pained cry.
The vorcha do not seem to appreciate Jason's taunting, and several of them - eight, infact, jump across the chasm, two slamming right into Jason and another one into Artullin. One of the others run at Ilyna with a spear while a single one slams into the ice wall and falls into the water.
Artullin catches the vorcha, snarling in return at the ugly creature. He rolls with it and makes to pin it down, before repeatedly slamming his clenched fist into it's face over and over and over and over and over and over etc.
Ilyna shakes her head. "You're not going anywhere," she says. She leaves the loaded Carnifex and two clips with her before standing up. "It's loaded. Use it only if you have to." She raises her Locust and opens fire on the nearest vorcha, taking a few steps towards the edge.
Rala lets out a yell as one of the creatures come at her. She shoots a weak biotic blast at it which does little more than unbalance it, and then tries to retreat to charge up energy for another attack.
The vorcha coming at Ilyna mostly shrugs off the shots from the Locust, and raises it spear, stabbing at her with it.
Athassa nods repeatedly and grips the pistol tightly as she stares at the skirimish by the cliff's edge.
Jason clearly didn't expect the vorcha to pursue. "Oh shit!" he exclaims as he catches a pair of cuddly vorcha and tumbles backwards. He quickly scrambles to climb to his knees, reaching for his Phalanx.
Plask tackles one of the vorcha attacking Jason, and they start clawing at each other. The other lunges at the human again, clawing with bone-weapons.
Jason brings his left arm up, taking the claw to the forearm as he draws his Phalanx with his right hand, aiming to pump a handful of rounds into the vorcha at close range as he attempts to climb back to his feet.
Ilyna uses a hastily prepared, but still strong, biotic throw at the vorcha. He managed to hit her over the chest with the spear once before the throw and she staggers back. The medi-gel is quick to get to work plugging the wound.
Jessica begins treading water as best as she can in her hardsuit while reaching out to get a hand on Yan Sun to keep her from sinking as she looks around for any sort of outcropping they might be able to climb onto.
The vorcha that attacked Artullin has its head reduced to a blob of bone and brains stained against the snow. The one attacking Jason has its head pumped full of pistol shots, and soon ends up quite dead, limp body lying on top of the human. The vorcha that threw the spear is hurled back and flies off out of sight. There are sounds of many more vorcha approaching from both west and east, but they're not yet visible in the stormlike
Artullin stands up and flicks the gore from his fist. He draws his rifle and deploys a drone to go down and, if not help Jess and Yan, at least cover them. Additionally, he deploys a turret a little ways out to act as an early warning system.
Yan Sun clings to Jessica's arm best she can, treading water as well to try and stay up. Her eyes continues to dart around and suddenly Jessica would see indicators of power in her hardsuit being rerouted to the eezo core. The load of staying afloat soon starts to lighten, to the point where it is outright trivial, their weight reduced to next to nothing between the combination of the mass effect field and the planet's light
gravity. "T-... there! We're nearly weightless! Won't last long!" she exclaims loudly over comms. She shoots out of the water as much as she can with a groan of effort and jabs the knife into a low point in the ice cliff. "H-.. hn-... ugh..."
Plask manages to hurl the vorcha they're fighting off the cliff, but not without it getting some scratches in on them. They retreat, stumbling towards the back of the group.
Rala sends another telekinetic blast at the vorcha coming at her, and it goes flying off the cliff as well. The last two vorcha that jumped are now coming after her as well however.
Jason climbs to his feet and holsters his Phalanx, cussing as the sound of more approaching vorcha can be heard. "Not good!" he says, "I didn't get a headcount, but there was a fuckton of these assholes. Get ready for another attack! Yan Sun and Jessica went over the side, we need them back up here now. If anyone has any ideas, now would be the time to voice them." he announces as he
unholsters his Revenant once more and begins pounding rounds into the remaining vorcha rushing down Rala.
Jessica swims up against the cliff face and assists Yan Sun, boosting her up during her jump. "Go on! Climb up and toss the knife back down for me. I'll be right behind you, kitty cat!" she says, looking around anxiously.
Ilyna looks around for the nearest vorcha, preparing energy for another biotic attack. "I can't lift them out while we're still under attack," she speaks over the comms.
Artullin heads over to the edge and switches his safety on. He then lays down in the snow and dangles the rifle as far down as he can for Yan to use once she reaches high enough. If she reaches it, he would start to pull her up with a grunt.
One vorcha is shredded by machinegun fire and the other takes a few hits as well, changing its attention as it runs at Jason instead.
Yan Sun shakes her head, keeping a grip of Jessica - one she would have been completely unable to hold under normal gravitic circumstances. She yanks hard, trying to more or less pull the woman out of the water and send her flying upward. The movement would look utterly absurd to any observer, as if they were in water or on a much lower gravity world.
Jason cocks an eyebrow at the vorcha with a deathwish as his finger squeezes the trigger once again, his aim dancing up the vorcha's body.
The last vorcha in sight is struck by a burst of machinegun fire up close, shredding it. The ones that fell into the water all flail and struggle and whimper as the cold sets in.
Jessica lets out a surprised gasp as she's tugged upwards. "What if it won't hold us both!? Just let me go, I'll be fine!" she says, although she's quite clearly holding on for dear life, showing no interest in going back into the water.
Plask , still clutching his injured shoulder, gestures southward. "We must go! Quick! Are all humans gathered?!"
Yan Sun tightens her grip on the knife and, with all the strength she can muster, pulls herself up alongside Jessica, letting go of the knife in the process as they both fly up the cliffside at a slow, floaty pace, right at Artullin. With his assistance getting up the cliff would be an easy matter, and he would find the two of them to weigh next to nothing as he pulled them in.
Jason snaps his gaze over to the cliffside as Yan Sun and Jessica are pulled up. He looks slightly confused at the 'barrel of monkies' chain, but is in no mood to question it. He gives Artullin a nod of approval. "We are now." he responds to Plask, "Everyone on your feet! We've got a long hike and those assholes are gonna be right on top of us soon if we don't move!"
Artullin pulls them up, gripping Yan's arm for added assistance. He pulls them onto the side, looking between them both. "You're alright," he says with a nod before standing up, flicking his safety off and preparing to move out.
Jessica scrambles further onto the cliff once they're pulled up and spins around, looking back over the edge. "That-.... That was stupid..." she muses, sucking in a few deep breaths. "Suppose I owe you again." she says softly with a glance towards Artullin. Realizing there's not much time to waste, she quickly begins to collect her gear from the ground.
Artullin chuckles. "You're a squadmate. You owe me nothing," he assures her before moving off, keeping his gaze fixed for hostiles.
Ilyna puts a new clip into her Locust before holstering it. She moves to Athassa's side. "I'll carry you," she says, reaching out a hand towards the pistol.
Yan Sun falls face first into the snow, and immediately starts scrambling back to her feet, shivering from the cold. She looks to Jessica and lets out a rushed "Thank you" again before her gaze darts around to get a grip of the situation.
Jessica finishes re-gearing. "Thank you, all the same..." she says with sincerity as she looks towards Artullin through her visor. She returns to Yan Sun's side and clasps an armored hand on the woman's shoulder. "Don't thank me yet... Sounds like we need to get moving." she sighs, glaring in the direction of the rabid vorcha sounds. "Are you good to keep moving?"
Athassa starts to shake her head in protest but stops as she hears the approaching vorcha. "Are-... are you sure?" she says to Ilyna, while trying to get on her feet.
Jason takes a quick stock of his gear and loads a fresh clip into his Revenant. "I hate to inconvenience everyone-..." he begins sarcastically, "...but it wasn't a request, it was an order. Come on. South. If you're hurt, pair up with someone, but we have to get moving now. Someone stay on comms and keep trying to reach the basecamp." He glances around, waiting for everyone to get moving.
Rala nods a few times to herself and starts moving south, as fast as she can manage in the quickly deepening snow and heavy wind.
Yan Sun nods a couple of times, clearly freezing but starting to head south regardless, stumbling ahead at a decent pace.
Jessica remains close to Yan Sun, gripping her pistol in her hand as she moves along. Fear and adreneline are keeping her going, despite the heavy chattering of her teeth.
The growls and snarls of the vorcha continues to grow louder behind the group as they make their way south through the increasingly violent weather. The roar of the wind and the thick snow is severely isolating, and the members of the group would now only be able to see the people nearest to them, and visibility grows even worse as wet snow starts attaching itself to visors.
Ilyna holsters the pistol, and lifts the asari over her shoulder. Athassa would have an uncomfortable start of the trip as Ilyna has to jog to catch up with the others.
Jason remains beside Ilyna as they head southbound. "If you get tired, just let me know. I'll take over for a bit."
The group continues south through the the forming blizzard, the trek hard not only because of the weather but the fact that the ground slopes ever upward. The wind has all but drowned out the noise of the vorcha after they've walked for a couple of minutes. Artullin would find himself suddenly standing infront of a large, hinged metal door that is poking out of an ice cliff, slightly ajar. The door seems very thick, and snow covers the