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-21:47:04

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They were all gone, each and every last one of them.

Shifting through the carnage of the Reaper attack on Eden Prime, Lieutenant Soka Junian found the last member of her platoon – Adran Vactorys. He could not have been more than a teenager himself, freshly drafted into the military. He had been torn to shreds by Cannibal shrapnel wounds.

Silently she murmured a small prayer to him and continued to drag his body to the rest of 423 Platoon of the 194th Light Infantry Division. She ignored her shaking Talons as she finally slumped down into the mud next to the bodies and stared down at the vista of Eden Prime engulfed in rain, fire and smoke.

They should have been home. On Palaven fighting the Reapers where they should have been battled. Instead her division had been assigned to aid the Alliance in retaking the colony world from out of the hands of Cerberus. They did, but as Cerberus withdrew, the Reapers landed in their place. Local human militias, Alliance Troops and the 194th battled the Reapers for weeks, but it was far too much in spite of the sacrifice they endured. They could only take a small comfort in the fact that the Reapers had to tie down significant amounts of ships to fight, and even more ground forces. This might have bought Palaven some breathing room by diverting forces away from a major offensive to engage a thorn in the side. That made the early losses worthwhile, it made it bearable.

But that felt like an eon ago now. The defenses of Eden Prime had long since been shattered, the resistance was now but scattered fighters connected to an emergency channel network which they could not use much because the Reaper ground forces were tuned in, and now the Reapers had left to return to their main offensives. They did not harvest the civilian population. They did not have the time, or perhaps need to, but they did leave their occupation force behind to subjugate the civilian population they were leaving to process for a later date.

Whatever the case was, there was no further justification to be here anymore, and for Soka, each passing moment on this miserable, strategically unimportant rock ate away at her conscious… at her very sanity. She wanted to go home, she needed to get her men off this planet and back into the fight proper. But instead here she was, surrounded by the men she failed and wishing to have joined them.

It wasn't too late, she supposed. She still had a couple options left. The soldier instinct in her screamed that she should go down into the valley she overlooked and wage a one turian war against the Reaper ground forces, of which she hoped they had some form of consciousness so they never forgot her last moments. The little voice that represented everything the soldier voice was not had a different opinion: she could just put the barrel of her pistol against her head and end it much quicker.

Either way sounded good right about now. She wasn't going to survive any of this, she had no control in the matter, she would die sooner rather than later, but while she did not control her fate any more, she could control the moment of her destiny. It gave her some measure of comfort as her talon touched against her pistol.

A noise caught her attention and in a display of primal instinct, Soka swung her Phaeston up and fired blindly into the tree line. She fired until her weapon overheated and locked down until the heat clip cooled. There was no return fire and in the absence of a response, she dived behind the nearest rock and raised her rifle again and fired a far more control burst into the tree line for good measure.

"I'M FRIENDLY, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!" a voice roared through her universal translator.

Soka remained at the ready, undeterred by the human language translated into Turii. She was not swayed by the cry to her. At least not without a clear target to examine so she could determine whether or not it truly was friend or foe. Raising herself back up into a combat pose, she gripped the fore grip of her rifle and steadied it.

"Hands up!" she roared at the voice. "Approach slowly and identify yourself!"

After several moments of muttering profanity, the noise she heard revealed itself. Standing there in busted looking Alliance armour, his mud caked battle rifle gripped by the stock and in the air as Soka had commanded him was a System's Alliance Marine. His pale, bloodied and dirt stained face was grim as he inched slowly towards the turian as she had commanded.

Her Phaeston still aimed at him, Soka remained lock eyed with the human. Visually she examined the man for any signs of Reaper indoctrination. Months of fighting the Reapers had taught her to look for the signs. The indoctrinated's cover was generally blown when they walked. They moved wrong… one human she ran into during the opening stages of the Eden Prime counter offensive described them as marionettes being pulled around by their masters. It was not an inaccurate description at all.

This human - at least on the surface - seemed unaffected. There was a slight limp in his step, and glancing down at his leg, she noticed the a large chunk of his leg plating had been blasted off, his thigh burnt and bloodied, dark blood was dried coming from his likely from a concussion round going off nearby. Slowly the man's expression twisted into a grimacing smile. It was like he knew exactly why Soka was prepared to shoot the man dead on the spot. He too was not a stranger to indoctrinated infiltration.

"Lieutenant James Merrick, 58th Marine Division…" the human introduced himself in raspy voice, laboured and in pain "…can I put my hands down now? I'm clean… I'm not one of them…"

Soka remained silent as she continued to glare at the human from behind the iron sights of her rifle. The man remained motionless mostly. He had a slight sway in his body, probably as a result to the mixture of medi-gel and amphetamines keeping him from collapsing right there in front of her. Even if the man was indoctrinated, and it was clear to her so far it wasn't the case, he presented zero security risk at the moment.

Exhaling, the turian nodded curtly as she saw other humans do in similar situations. The human lowered his hands and limped forward. Lowering her rifle, she too stepped forward to meet him so that he did not have to move too much. Carefully she stepped over the bodies of her platoon and tried not to pay attention to the human who had directed his attention to them.

"What are you doing out here?" she demanded, her harsh tone surprising the human enough to get him to redirect his attention upwards to look her dead in the eyes once again.

"Looking for survivors," he admitted his head leaned to one side, his neck cracking. "Major Pytori Halain called my Platoon to divert from New Esperance and link up with your battalion. Strength in numbers was his theory I suppose… We took a vote… we decided to try… Fought for three straight days to break out of the pocket the Reapers ensnared us in. I guess I am all that is left of 3rd Platoon…"

As she noticed the flash of devastation that broke through the stone faced visage the Lieutenant held. Soka softened her own expression. It appeared as though she had found a kindred spirit in this hell. They both lost the people they promised to bring home for a futile platitude. They were officers without men to command.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant," Soka broke the silence. "You're looking at all that remains of the 194th Light Infantry Division. We got overwhelmed three days ago as well. General Haorus was killed, and then one by one the chain of command followed him; and it wasn't long before we got overwhelmed… 8:1 by my estimate. I am Lieutenant Soka Junian…"

Soka went silent as she watched the human bow his head and slowly, he fell down to one knee and took a seat in the mud, his hand clutching his knees as he stared straight ahead. It was a display of emotion that she herself could completely understand. After everything he likely had been through, the only turian leftovers was her and her dead comrades.

In his position, she would have been disappointed as well.

"It seems your efforts were wasted. I am sorry…" she apologized, wishing it could sound more emotional than the dead voice that she possessed.

The human did not reply. He pulled a hand away from his knee and wrapped it around the back of his head, pushing off his helmet to reveal a tussle of brown hair that was probably not quite up to regulations. She supposed that in war of extinction, such things weren't exactly a pressing matter. After another moment of silent reflection, the man pulled his hand away from him and looked up at her dead in the eyes. There was no accusation that her people caused the deaths of his, he was just tired and beaten down by the war.

"Me too… We left New Esperance to burn with the Reapers. We could have saved so many lives if we stayed, or at least we could have helped them escape..." Merrick informed Soka softly. "Seventy five thousand plus civilians we left to the Reapers in order to regroup with your division… God damn the Reapers..."

Soka nodded, agreeing utterly with his assessment of the Reaper's divide and conquer of Eden Prime. They had all been forced into heartbreaking tactical situations and in the end it was all for nothing. Everyone was dead and the Reapers were still left relatively unmolested despite their best efforts. This war wasn't a war any more than an insect could retaliate against a boot stamping on them.

"What do we do now?" Soka asked out loud, her options were still on the table. At least now she would have a companion to meet her fate with. It would not be so lonely.

As she noticed the human was struggling to get back up to his feet, Soka reached her talon out to him, which he took and forced himself Standing back up, nearly colliding with the woman in the process.

"The way I see it, we have to escape," Merrick replied soundly as he collected his rifle from off his magnetic strip. "We find a ship… we get our asses back behind the lines. Command needs to know Eden Prime is a lost cause."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, her tactical senses told her that this was a completely logical move, which was surprising considering it had come from a human of all people. The rest of her mind was beyond outraged by the suggestion James Merrick had made. So many dead, so many suffering and here he was wanting to abandon the dead and the living to an enemy that would process them into their newest shock troops regardless of their state? It was madness.

"And what?" Soka breathed, taken aback by his callousness. "We leave these civilians behind to their fate?"

Merrick stared at the turian for a good long while. He nodded his head as though he meant it. He probably did. Like her, he too had a good long time to weigh his options out, but he chose to cut and run like the cowardly human he was. Leave thousands of his people behind to suffer and die all in the name of getting 'vital' information to command. A pile of krogan shit of an excuse in her books.

"Yes, Lieutenant, They remain behind as a distraction while we leave as soon as possible," Merrick repeated as firmly as before. "The Reapers have destroyed all forms of instant communication back to command. Command will send a scout ship to survey for Reaper ships, and they won't find any. They might divert ships and troops to land on the planet. They'll be ensnared into a trap and more men and women will die if we can't tell them a Reaper ground army is waiting. We have the power to make something like that not happen."

She wanted to hate him for this line of reasoning. It made sense to her, but right now she was not looking for sense. She could not stand before all the men and women she had sent to their death on her command and simply walk away from it, to wash her talons of all the promises she had made to them and start fresh. It was a betrayal of both them and everything she had been raised to believe in.

"They are your own people, Lieutenant!" she sapped at the human finally. "You can't just abandon them! It goes against everything you swore when you took up your oath. Eden Prime has precious few soldiers left… to up and leave when this world needs you…"

The human remained locked eyed on her. His mouth was twisting as though he was battling the urge to express the scowl he most certainly wanted to issue her for what she had attempted to guilt him with. To his credit, he remained unemotional, and stubbornly unmoved by emotional manipulation.

After a moment, the human lowered his head and rubbed the back of his neck, he limped forward, his hand reached out and clutched the rock Soka had used as cover earlier. To his credit, he seemed to at least been thinking out what she had said. Perhaps he was less self-interested as she hypothesized.

"Then what should we do?" he inquired finally. "I'm open to suggestions."

Deciding her plan for suicide wasn't going to inspire the human too much; Soka chose the more idealized version of death in its place.

"We fight," was her immediate response, ignoring the stereotype she must have sounded like. "We fight and we save lives, and we die if need be! We can't just leave these people. We have failed them by demanding your unit break out of the New Esperance pocket, perhaps we can go back…. Save as many as we can."

As she fell silent, she stood there looking at Lieutenant Merrick, who had remained silent in spite of her point being made. It would have been comical if it hadn't been for the insane position they were both in. It was made worse by the billowing of smoke on the horizon. The city in question was set ablaze in a vicious firestorm.

"Lieutenant… That is the single most foolish, short sighted goddamn plan I have heard in my life, and I have heard a lot of foolish goddamn things in my life," the human chastised her. "Those people are already dead, you know it's true, so do I. So we have to be realistic."

Realistic… That was all it took for Soka to finally lose her composure.

"Realistic? Look at them!" she suddenly shrieked at him, her talon flailing out to point to the line of her comrades remains. "I promised all those men and women that we would be on the first shuttles back to Palaven to fight for our home world and we get shipped off to some human colony to fight. I promised to see them through this battle and they died on my watch instead! And here I am now; still alive and listening to some human coward talk about running when the only real option left is to fight!"

The human remained still. He seemed unperturbed by the insult she had issued to him. His blue eyes darted back and forth as he took her steadily growing desperation in carefully. He stepped forward, his hand reaching out to grab the turian by her shoulder.

"Their deaths aren't on you, Soka," he reassured her. "Throwing your life away isn't going to bring them back…"

Soka snapped out and shoved the human back as hard as she could. Considering his state, she was surprised that he managed to remain standing.

"I should have joined them days ago!" she roared back at him, her voice high and panicked "I-I shouldn't be alive, I don't deserve to be alive! You don't deserve to be alive!"

"We got Husks!"

The shout of the human and his rifle raised at the ready was all it took to snap her out of her rage and redirect her attention on the incoming enemy. Soka swung her rifle around and aimed at… aimed at… nothing. There was nothing at all to be seen. Just what was wrong with this human-

She never got to ask what the hell that was all about. The thump in the back of her head was all she knew for sure. Her legs gave out and she collapsed, her last conscious sight was that of the human standing over him, his mouth moving as though he was trying to say something, but she just could not make out as her mind faded to black…

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I want to issue a special thank you out to admiralsakai and Serketry, whose story on turian writing along with private correspondence has been useful tools in crafting my first fully realized turian protagonist.