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The situation was terrible. As the Geth continued to move the artifact, the chance of completing this mission was steadily reaching the nonexistent point. It was the sort of thing that he'd never tolerated in the past and not something that he'd readily embrace today. And that something was failure. He never would've reached the rank of Staff Lieutenant had he embraced that mindset.

Yamashii was convinced that wasn't the worst part. They had lost contact with their Spectre; Aura, and that was incredibly stressing. How could they hope to deal with the invading forces if they could overwhelm even the strongest of their group? He had neglected to inform the rest of the shore party in fear of their reaction but they were beginning to catch on with the lack of status reports on her end. But they remained quiet for some reason.

It was one of the only pieces of good news.

Luck was on their side, however. Corporal had seemingly cleared most of the starport just as they'd arrived, meaning that chances of engaging the enemy in this area were fairly low. Another piece of good news. He was tired of the constant fighting and needed the rest to catch his breath. His eyes looked toward the building below and idly noticed something familiar on the platform. The armor... that rather familiar shade of brunette... hold on!

Aura was here! He was moving before the rest of the shore team even took notice, leaping over fallen pieces of debris and running to meet the Spectre. His rapid heartbeat thumped heavily against the inside of his chest, only made worse by the worry that filled his inner thoughts. God, the Lieutenant hoped she wasn't one of the casualties. He was more than certain the Council would murder him if one of their best was announced KIA. He also wasn't keen on losing of his comrades.

Even if she wasn't part of the SSV Lustful Captain. She was still part of the mission and therefore, part of the crew.

He was there in seconds. The soldier dropped toward the floor and checked her over for injuries. It was terrible. He was able to recognize the signs of someone being shot from point blank immediately and that the weapon was, shockingly enough, a shotgun. How in the world had someone gotten close enough to shoot her? Unless the woman had known the attacker personally and let her guard down.

Yamashii swallowed the lump in his throat. He checked her pulse and was shaken to discover that she had none. Aura was dead... the brunette fell back and closed his eyes, as though warding off the image in front of him. It was futile as her corpse filled his mind. He had failed to protect one of his own teammates! How could this happen on his first assignment aboard the Lustful Captain?!

As the rest of the shore party arrived on scene, they each had varying reactions. Green was sickened by the sight and was looking off toward the right. Fuuin was fairing the sight much better than his commanding officer and was looking at the Spectre with sadness in his eyes. Secrecy was mourning her death, in spite of the fact of never having met her, seeing as the others were doing so. It was only respectful to do so, seeing as they were both part of the Alliance military. At least technically on Aura's part. The woman had left the Alliance to join the Spectre, after all.

They were thrown off guard when, abruptly, the brunette inhaled sharply. It was followed by several coughs as she dislodged the blood in her lungs. The Lieutenant was visibly relieved by the sight and looked at Green in particular. "Stay here. Keep her safe until the ship arrives for pick-up... I don't want her dying on us. Do you understand me, Chief?"

Green was quick to nod. He was already in the process of contacting the ship. "Keiko, do you read me?"

"I read you, loud and clear. What do you need, Green?"

"I need emergency evacuation from the starport. Aura was injured and she isn't looking too good right now, she needs to see the Doctor immediately if she wants to survive. We've cleared the starport of any remaining traces of Geth so get here as quickly as possible."

"Roger that. The Lustful Captain is inbound to your location, hold tight."

Yamashii sighed and stood from his previous place on the floor. It was time to continue the mission seeing as the Spectre was going to get taken care of by the Operations Chief. He would need to simply trust the Lustful Captain's medical staff to pull the woman away from the brink of death. The mission was more important for now. In the back recesses of his inner thoughts, he made the note to check on her after the mission was completed.

"Alright. Corporal, Gunnery Chief, we need to continue. Our priority is the artifact. Move out!"

"Sir!"

"Sir!"

---

The ride over from the station was silent and filled with trepidation. As the Geth had yet to interfere with their approach, tension was high and they were pondering over the plans of the machines. Were they waiting to ambush them? Were they far too preoccupied with using the beacon for whatever reasons they had? In the end, none of them knew what exactly to except from the enemy.

Lieutenant Yamashii looked at the youngest of the shore team, the Corporal, and thought over his next move. They were fairly close to wherever the tram was taking them and that gave them the chance to plan... something. He wasn't entirely sure himself. But the one thing that he was sure of, was that he wanted someone to watch his back whenever they reached the drop point. Just in case they were ambushed.

"Corporal, do you see any potential sniping areas? I want you watching our backs in case the Geth are planning something for us at the end of this ride."

Immediately the youth was looking at their surroundings, looking for the best vantage for him. Then his eyes landed on a building in the distance. It wasn't terribly far away and his scope was more than advanced enough for him to see what was going on from there. He nodded to his commanding officer to answer his question. "Yes."

Yamashii was pleased by the confirmation. "Alright. Remember to save our asses, Corporal."

And with that order, the sniper leaped off the tram and caught the edges of the barricade. He pulled himself up and looked back at his commanding officer for the scarcest moment and waved. Fuuin was heading for his destination afterward. It was close enough that he'd get there just as they arrived at their own destination... or so the brunette man was going to hope.

His eyes lurched toward the newest member of the ground team, Gunnery Chief Secrecy, and blinked. Now that they were relatively safe and their sniper was keeping watch over them, he was able to ponder on just how strange the soldier's name was. Granted, most of the Lustful Captain's crew had similarly weird names. Lizzy, Fuuin, Keiko, and Doutei were the only ones that really sounded reasonable.

Fuuin was Japanese.

Keiko was Japanese.

Doutei was Japanese.

Lizzy was American.

Yamashii, himself, was Japanese.

In that same line of thought, where did the other names fall in to place? Aura. Green. Secrecy. They seemed like the sort thing someone would pick as their alias in the workplace. Military-wise, of course. He was more than sure that normal places didn't have the need for alias'. "Secrecy. What is yer real name?"

Secrecy looked at the Lieutenant in confusion. As though the line of questioning was foreign, one that he'd never heard before. Then his eyes took on an understanding glint and the man crossed his arms, expression turning thoughtful. Yamashii waited in blissful silence. They had plenty of time to converse until they needed to prepare for whatever awaited them on the other end.

"Noel. My real name is Noel. I haven't thought about my name in years, though. I guess I can blame that on keeping the colony safe from slavers and whatever else decides to crawl out of the Terminus systems." the taller man replied.

The Lieutenant looked surprised. "Why the alias?"

"It was more my nickname back in high school than anything. I stuck with it more out of sentimentality. Most of my graduation class moved to other parts of the galaxy and I wanted something to remember them bye."

Yamashii was touched that the man felt strongly about his old friends... enough to where he willingly went by his nickname instead of his given name. Almost inspiring, seeing as he'd gotten rid of his own nickname as soon as he possibly could. Yam Yam was not the sort of thing you wanted people to call you in the military. Unless you liked being picked on by the rest of the soldiers.

"What about you, sir? Yamashii your real na-" "Enough! Get ready, GC. We've got one hell of a welcoming committee."

Waiting for them at the end of the ride were thirty Geth Troopers, each looking as intimidating as the last.

Yamashii smirked and leaned his Lancer on his shoulder, the action being mimicked by his subordinate.

"They brought friends. Perfect... I was getting kind of anxious 'bout cracking some heads."