The melodic hum of the geth hubs erupted into series of piercing alarms, causing Reese's environmental response helmet to deaden itself to outside aural stimulus in a sudden attempt to protect her eardrums. Before Cole's warning could finish playing in her ears, the commander's spinal implant was already reacting, forcing up her arm as her eyes scanned her surroundings for immediate danger. When her optical implants ignited, it was as though she were seeing everything in hyper definition, increasing the effectiveness of her sub-par human eyesight and accuracy to almost robotic degrees.<br/><br/>Three geth troopers sprang to life from the hubs, their black, elegant bodies breaking out into a defensive run toward her, pulse rifles pointed in her direction. Unperturbed, Reese moved, lifting her right hand and firing off three consecutive shots as she barreled toward her pursuers, each slug striking its respective target in the center if its wired chest. One by one the geth platforms froze in place, bodies encased in a fine silvery sheen. Halted by the collision of super-cooled subatomic particles against their bodies, the geth were left immobile and highly fragile, their mechanical bodies susceptible to severe damage thanks to the low temperatures. Falling back on over a decade of physical training, Reese twisted on her heel slammed her armored foot into the fist geth's chest, watching with narrowed eyes as the machine cracked and shattered around her leg like a piece of glass.<br/><br/>She shook the incapacitated geth off her, using her left-handed pistol to shoot the second geth's head lamp at point blank range. Like its brother, Geth #2 exploded like black and silver fireworks before her, raining glassy shattered pieces down onto the floor. Her body moved fluidly, confident and lacking any hint of hesitation as her free leg swung a second time, making contact with the third enemy. The final geth platform broke into a thousand frozen slivers, leaving Reese surrounded in a pile of jagged pieces as Cole's voice came back to her through the comms.<br/><br/>"Did you doubt you'd have a good time with me, Vanes?" she quipped, removing herself from the junk pile and crouching into cover behind a squealing, illuminated hub as a phasic slug crackled against her shields. "Shit!" she groaned, watching as her omni-tool sprang to life, flashing a warning across its holographic screen like a babysitter wagging its finger in disapproval.<br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"><span style="font-size: 15px">SHIELDS AT 37.21%<br/>
PERMANENT DAMAGE SUSTAINED<br/>
REGENERATION CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE</span></span><br/><br/>"Holy fucking hell, geth must have upgraded their gear since the Citadel. These slugs are doing massive damage to my shields. Team,<i>be careful!</i>"<br/><br/><i>"Little help!"<br/>
</i><br/>"Hold on, Vanes." Reese tossed a glance over her shoulder, searching through the chaos in a desperate attempt to see where Cole was struggling. Faustus and Calypso were scattered across the room but otherwise looked all right, both having disposed of a number of geth platforms while currently remaining engaged. Talyet was nowhere in sight.<br/><br/><i>There</i>. Across the room an angry-looking geth prime with a glaring red cyclops eye was stomping its way over. The quickest way to Cole was straight through, no cover, no protection. One more hit to her shields and they would be fried. She shook her head, pulling herself out of cover and kicking herself into a sprint. Maybe her shields would go down, maybe not, but if she did nothing Cole was going to end up as a bloody smudge at the bottom of that geth's foot.<br/><br/>Halfway through her rush, she felt her shields crackle once more. Her omni-tool was screaming at her for being so reckless, but she ignored it. It didn't matter now.<br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"><span style="font-size: 15px">SHIELDS AT 0.00%<br/>
SHIELDS AT 0.00%<br/>
PERMANENT DAMAGE SUSTAINED<br/>
REGENERATION CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE </span></span><br/><br/>"I heard you!" she snapped, pulling up her pistols and aiming for the geth prime's legs. As powerful as her cryogenic rounds were, they'd only halt the prime's assault for a few seconds at most. She hoped it was enough.<br/><br/>Her finger twitched at the trigger for a fraction of a second before Talyet's voice came through garbled comms. "Hold fire, Commander!"<br/><br/>"Maos? What are you--?"<br/><br/>A black shadow appeared across the prime's back, scurrying up like a skinny little lizard while the geth twisted in surprise. The drell wrapped his legs around the geth's shoulders, eliciting a high-pitched electronic clicking from the prime as it reached up in an attempt to pull the wiry alien off.<br/><br/>"Borrowed these from Suni," Talyet explained, slapping a small, round blinking device against the geth's head. "She'd be so disappointed if she knew what I was using it for. My deepest apologies, big boy."<br/><br/>The blinking light increased in speed, flashing erratically. "Get down!" Talyet yelled, leaping from the prime's shoulders in Cole's direction, pressing the human's body down beneath his own leaner frame. As the two males hit the floor, the geth prime's head exploded into a flurry of shrapnel, spraying the damaged geth chunks almost four meters in every direction. Lightly armored, Talyet winced as stray metal bits lodged into his back. Behind him, the prime platform crumbled to the floor.<br/><br/>"I think you owe me two now, handsome," Talyet rasped, slipping off of Cole as Reese crouched close.<br/><br/>"Talyet--"<br/><br/>"No time. There are four platforms left, Commander. Lieutenant."