Disclaimer: Mass Effect does not belong to me. It belongs to it's respective owners, namely Bioware.

Bapaume, France, Europe, Earth, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way Galaxy.
25th March, 1918.

Taking a chunk out of the chocolate bars that he got from one of the British supply depots that had been left behind by the British during their rout, Unteroffizier Hermann Prenzler re-slung his Gewehr 98 over his shoulder as he continued strolling around and looked upon his kameraden, who were in good spirits amongst themselves.

Not so much for Hermann, as he looked upon the ruins of Bapaume, and bitterly thought of his friends, Otto, Klaus and Dietrich who had died whilst trying to take the town.

Three of my friends gone. Probably more German blood spilt. And for what? A town wrecked by the constant back and forth that our esteemed Generals Ludendorff and Hindenburg just seem to be playing with the damned Tommies?, thought Hermann disgustedly as he chewed on the chocolate.

Otto, who was known for his shit-eating grin that could make everyone's day brighten, had been struck by shrapnel from a British artillery shell that impacted his chest.

Klaus lost half of his head to a British bullet, while Dietrich had taken the full blast of a Vickers gun during the advance to the British lines.

But then, Hermann was brought out of his thoughts when a loud screech was heard, and everyone stopped what they were doing, looking around to find the source of the screeching.
Then, it came again, and it was much louder.

Immediately, everyone started grabbing their weapons and rushing towards the South-east end of the town, where the screeching was coming from.
Hermann spat out the chocolate in his mouth, onto the floor, before rushing to join his fellow kameraden.

Again, the screeching came again, and Hermann also heard, what appeared to be the hoofs of multiple horses.
Initially, he thought that somehow, the British had managed to mobilise their cavalry and attack from the rear, but he realised that the thundering sounded very different from the distinctive sound of multiple horses at full gallop, their hoofs slamming into the ground.

As Hermann reached the South-east end of the town, along with his fellow kameraden, he could see rows of riflemen readying their Gewehr 98s, snipers with their scoped Gewehr 98s ready to pick off targets, while machine gunners were starting to set up their MG 08 machine guns.
Also, Hermann could see Stoßtruppen having joined in the preparations for the defense, bringing to bear not only submachine guns, but also flamethrowers.

A slight shiver at the sight of the Flammenwerfer M.16 and the Kleinflammenwerfer, as well as the Wechselapparat, made Hermann stick himself towards rows of riflemen readying for a volley at the incoming cavalry, and put his thoughts on the use of flamethrowers against cavalry to one side as he checked over his rifle.
Only to realise, as they saw coming over the edge of the horizon, that this wasn't British cavalry at all.

In fact, they weren't even human, or even a horse at all.
They were a swarm of four-legged bug-like creatures, with whips for arms. And they were so fast, that one soldier fired his rifle in a panic, and soon everyone started opening fire from riflemen, to Stoßtruppen right down to the machine gunners.

Despite the officers and NCOs shouting for them to hold fire, the situation spiralled out of control, as the bugs quickly got within reach of the defensive line, and the slaughter began.
Gunshots ran out, and it all became a haze as the slaughter became absolute chaos.

Hermann, who had fired four rounds with seemingly no effect, fired his last round at one of the eyes of the bug approaching his position.
The bug screeched as it's right eye was destroyed, and charged recklessly at him, only for Hermann to realise that his rifle still had it's bayonet attached.

As soon as the bug got close enough, Hermann brought his rifle back, aimed for the bug's remaining eye, and put his full strength at thrusting the bayonet at the eye.
His aim was true, and the bug screeched as it was blinded with a bayoneted rifle stick in it's eye.
But Hermann did not have time to contemplate this success, as the bug started flaying it's whip-like arms in pain and agony, and in the process, 'slapped' Hermann in the stomach, throwing him backwards.

Hitting the ground and sliding backwards, Hermann looked around as he saw many of his kameraden being slaughtered.
The machine gunners had been wiped out, their guns smashed and destroyed, while the riflemen and Stoßtruppen were fighting back with mixed success.
One Stoßtruppen managed to use his stick grenade to blow the legs off one bug, while a rifleman managed to fire all five rounds of his rifle at close range and kill the bug, and a Stoßtruppen used his MP18 to riddle one bug with a full magazine of bullets.

But one soldier, with a Weshselapparat on his back, aimed the nozzle of his weapon towards 3 bugs in front of him and fire a stream of flammable liquid onto the bugs, which ignited.
And in quick succession, the bugs all screeched loudly, in absolute pain, as the flames engulfed one bug, and burn the skins of the other four. In complete agony, the bug engulfed in flames lost all sense of rational thought, and started going on a complete frenzy, attacking anything in it's sight with reckless abandon, before Hermann got up and tried to back into the fight, looking for anything that could be of use.
But a bug saw him and rushed up to him, before it's whip-like arm shot out and stabbed him right in the stomach.

Hermann felt an immense shot of pain that felt like a million needles piercing his stomach as he then started vomiting blood.
Then, the bug pulled it's arm out, and let him collapse to the floor, bleeding his guts out.

As he lay down on the ground, Hermann faintly remembered moving his hands over his stomach and pressing down in order to try and stop the bleeding, but as soon as he pressed down, immense pain shot right through his body, making him stop.

And time seemed to slow down as his vision blurred in and out, before he succumbed to the depths of unconsciousness, and eventually, death.

Outside Villers-au-Flos, France, Europe, Earth, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way Galaxy.
25th March, 1918.

Immediately, Trileena shouted at everyone to run, to no avail as the soldiers and officers stood where they were, looking at her in confusion and bewilderment.

But another shriek prompted them into action, only this time, the officers had the presence of mind to stop the men in their tracks.
"Hold your ground, there will not be any falling back! Anyone who does will be shot!"

As Trileena tried to get the soldiers to get out as fast as they could again, one officer came up to her in an overbearing manner, with stern and outraged face, shouting, "Who do you think you are, presuming to give me and my men orders?!"
"Sir, your men are in complete danger. You need to get them out of here and retreat!"
"Retreat?! We'll not fall back against the Hun!"
"But sir, this isn't your enemy..."

Fed up, the officer then turned his head away from her, looked at a soldier with three stripes on his uniform, and ordered,
"Sergeant, get this... thing, out of my sight. A battle is no place for a woman, even one so strange as this one".

But before the Sergeant could do so, another soldier then shouted and pointed out to the East.
"Leftenant! Over there!"

Heads turning to where the soldier pointed, and everyone looked on as they saw multiple four-legged, bugs the size of horses, approaching them at a rapid pace.

Every soldier, shocked at their appearance, froze, before the officers regained their senses and ordered for them to take positions and return fire.
Immediately, soldiers rushed into a firing line, their Lee-Enfields at the ready, whilst Lewis guns were set up, as were the Vickers machine guns (the tripods set on the ground in good positions where an wide-field of fire could be managed, then the weapon linked up to the tripod, before an ammunition belt full of .303 rounds was fed into the weapon, then water poured into the evaporative cooling system around the barrel to ensure that the weapon's barrel would not overheat and finally, the weapon was primed and all set, ready to fire).

However, Trileena was determined to try and get the soldiers out of here as fast as they could, by shouting out loud at the nearest officer, "Get your men out of there, quick!"

Ignoring her, the officer shouted to his men, "All troops, open fire!"

And before the officer even finished his sentence, everyone let rip at the bugs.

Initially, the bugs shrugged off a few hits from the Lee Enfield's .303 round, or moved about in such a matter to make soldiers start to miss hitting them, but when one soldier consistently laid some hits on one particular Rachni Soldier with around 5 rounds, the bug actually started to feel the damage inflicted by the rounds.

The soldier managed to continue on, noticing this, until he reached the ninth round, which made the Rachni scream in pain, more so than it had been before.
And soon, the Rachni charged straight at the soldier with reckless abandon, only for the soldier to finish working the bolt, aiming and firing his tenth round, which landed a direct hit to a vital organ on the Rachni, one of it's four lungs.
With this direct hit, the Rachni Soldier fell to the ground dead.

But as the soldier instinctively went to reload his weapon, he only heard the sound of a screech, and he turned his head to the right, only for his head to be decapitated from his body in an instant.

Everywhere, Trileena watched as soldiers died around her.
The light machine gunners, with their Lewis guns did make some progress in killing the bugs, but when one bug died, another took it's place and soon, when the Lewis guns ran out of ammunition, the bugs took advantage.
Even though the Vickers machine guns were killing more bugs than the Lee Enfields and the Lewis guns, they were more vulnerable to the fact that their barrels required cooling down via the water jacket and that they were in, somewhat fixed positions, the tripod being quite heavy to move around in such a situation.

With these humans soldiers dying around her, Trileena felt that she could not just stand by and do nothing, so when one machine gun crew was in danger from a bug that was fast approaching them, Trileena rushed in, biotics glowing.

Knocking a Rachni back, the machine gun crew looked on at her, in total amazement, until she shouted at them to move.

Shaken from their shock by the forcefulness of her command, they left their gun and retreated.

Trileena moved on to see who else needed up, but found that a Rachni was fast approaching her.
Her biotics glowed, only for her to be suddenly thrown backwards from the force of the Rachni warrior suddenly exploding in a gooey mess.

Landing on her back a few feet away, Trileena groaned as she slowly got up, and saw her 'saviour', one of the 'tanks' moving up, the barrel of it's starboard cannon still smoking from the aftereffect of firing.

Clinging onto the 6-pounder, as the Grouchy Gremlin traversed over the French fields quite roughly, Corporal Terence Wynne struggled to keep his balance within the confides of the tank as it advanced up to support the Ox and Bucks, who were under attack from something new.

The Grouchy Gremlin stopped, and Terence had gotten the turret zeroed in on one of the bugs, which was approaching a strange person not in khaki, and fired.
The result had meant that there was nothing left of the bug, it's flesh and innards being splattered all over the place, even on the other bugs.

The tank commander, 2nd Lieutenant Leonard Collins, "Good shot, Wynne. Now, let's get in and help out our lads".

As the driver, Lance Corporal Delbert Mullen, moved the tank forward and began manoeuvring the sudden battleground that this plain field had become, he couldn't help but ask upon seeing the bugs through the front view of the tank, "Say, what the hell did Fritz come up with this time?"
Lance Corporal Morris Hume, the loader of the starboard 6-pounder and the starboard Lewis gunner, shouted over the racket, "I don't know. This doesn't seem like the work of the Hun to me".
But then, before the men of the Grouchy Gremlin could start theorising on what they were dealing with, Collins cut right in and stopped the impeding debate before it began, "Alright, lads, enough chit-chat. Driver, keep your eyes on the ground ahead. Gunners, keep your heads on a swivel".

Even though the engine was noisy, which made communication rather difficult within the confines of the tank, they could still hear that piercing screech, that sent shivers down the skin of the entire crew.

Then, as the tank continued onwards towards this new threat, Collins ordered, "Driver, slow ahead. Gunners, let's give our lads a bit of help".

And the two 6-pounders and three Lewis guns, started scanning the area, only seeing a whole lot of bugs.
But then, Corporal Herbert Rivers, the port 6-pounder gunner, and Lance Corporal Charles Toner, loader and port Lewis gunner, spotted one bug on an approach towards their tank.

"Got a target! Fast approaching!"
And as the bug got even closer and closer, Toner unleashed a volley of rounds from his Lewis gun, which due to the distance, managed to dump all it's rounds into the bug, killing it.

But Rivers, who was moving the 6-pounder around to find a target, found that another bug was right behind the recently fallen bug, and this bug charged right at the tank.
With no time, Rivers swung the barrel of the 6-pounder at the bug, and without a hesitation, Rivers pulled the trigger.

Terence also was keeping an eye out, and found one bug on his side of the tank coming closer.
And, immediately, with no time to waste, Terence swung the 6-pounder over to one bug which then charged right at the tank, and shouted "FIRE!", before pulling the trigger.

An 6-pounder shell expelled right out of his cannon, landing a square hit on one of the bugs and sending bug guts and bits everywhere.
But as the Grouchy Gremlin was about to seemingly make a difference and help the infantry lads out, Terence noticed that there were a lot more bugs starting to swarm in on the tank.

And Terence had lost count at how many there were closing in.

Attempting to get one shot off, he spotted one bug rushing towards his 6-pounder, but before he could pull the trigger, the bug slammed right into the sponson, the impact causing him and the crew to be thrown back towards the floor, as more bugs now closed in on the tank.

Despite the pain of being thrown backwards, onto the hard metal floor of the tank, Terence slowly managed to get himself up, noticing that there were an increasing amount of dents being made along the side of the tank, before turning to Morris Hume, who was still on the ground, and extending a hand.

Hume grasped Terence's hand, accepting the offer to help himself up.
And once Hume got back on his feet, Terence said loudly, "Morris, those things out there, it's too close for the 6-pounder, get to the Lewis and..."

Then suddenly, everyone was thrown back down to the ground as he felt the tank moving.
Backwards.
Despite the fact that the driver had gotten back into the driving position and had the tank moving it's tracks forward, and the fact that the tank itself weighed in at around 29 tonnes.

Someone in the tank shouted over the noise of the engine and the shrieks, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! They're pushing the tank!", and before anyone could react, they could see much more deeper dents throughout the entire tank.
And in Terence's case, one of the bugs managed to break an opening into the tank, at the right sponson, and it's tentacle started flaying about.
Getting back up and backing away from his 6-pounder, Terence found that his right hand was reaching for his Webley revolver.
But before he could grasp the pistol grip and pull the weapon out of it's holster, Hume moved past him to get to the Lewis gun, hoping to open fire at a bug that was surely, very close to the tank.
But the tentacle soon slashed across Hume's throat, and as he dropped to the floor, blood started spurting out all over the interior.

Looking around, more of the bugs were starting to penetrate the metal with their tentacles, which were flaying around, striking at any place they could find.

Terence meanwhile, got out his Webley revolver and aimed right at the 'tentacle' flaying around in front of him, before firing.

Of course, the chances of him hitting it was quite low, so he missed the first four shots, the .455 Webley rounds hitting the metal of the tank instead, causing ricochets that struck him in his legs.

Falling down, Terence groaned in pain, and let go of his revolver to put his hands on where the ricocheting rounds hit his legs, as they were now bleeding and he needed to put pressure on them to stem the bleeding.

But then, over the sounds of gunfire and the screams of his fellow crewmen, one shout made Terence completely forget about his wounds.

"The fuel lines!"

Immediately, Terence snapped his head over to where the fuel lines were, and saw that a tentacle has slashed it, and it was causing the fuel to leak uncontrollably.
But not only that, he could see that the air was hazy, which meant that gas was leaking.

Then Terence noticed Mullen, getting out his Enfield No. 2 revolver and aiming it towards the door, and also noticed the leaking fuel lines, which was also expelling flammable gas that could light up as a result of a spark.
Eyes widening, Terence shouted, "NOOOOOOO!"

But his shout was all for naught as Mullen pulled the trigger, and Terence's world was filled with a whoosh of fire that filled his eyes and lungs, and began burning his skin.

Trileena, some distance away, watched as the mass of Rachni all over the tank, were suddenly caught in a sudden whoosh of fire that erupted from within the tank.

And soon, the Rachni were screeching in pain as the flames burned their bodies, and some of the bugs attempted to extinguish the fires, to no avail.
Not only that, but she could also hear the pain-filled screams of the crew burning to death within.

Everywhere she looked, these humans, were being swamped and slaughtered by the Rachni, despite their valiant efforts to stand their ground.

Hope did arise, when another tank, this one different from the others that she had saw, drove across the ground, much faster than the other ones, and opened fired with it's machine guns.
One Rachni fell, as did another, and another, but off course, there were plenty more Rachni and soon, those Rachni swarmed the lone tank, taking away the brief relief of hope that these humans had.

But then, as she stood in place, watching the slaughter, some loud screeching made her snap her head over to a set of bugs that were coming towards her.

Immediately, Trileena bolted and ran.

As she ran, the bugs picked up their pace and continued their pursuit, even though Trileena occasionally launched a biotic attack or fired her weapon at them.
But this did little to stop them, and after a while, for she had lost track of how much time went on, Trileena suddenly felt exhaustion throughout her body, and fell to her knees, exhausted.

The bugs were closing in, screeching, rushing towards her, and Trileena closed her eyes, about to embrace her fate, until she could hear, over the Rachni screeching, distant pummelling on the ground that was rapidly approaching.

Approaching Villers-au-Flos, France, Europe, Earth, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way Galaxy.
25th March, 1918.

Galloping on a steady pace, the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) were on their way to Villers-au-Flos, having finished up with clearing out German troops in Hamel, when they heard screeching that sent some of their horses into a panic (requiring a bit of effort from the soldiers to get their horses back in control).

Lieutenant William Badley had heard the screeching, which was then followed by screaming and gunfire, and once they got within sight, the entire 11th Hussars stopped.

A short bit of conferring amongst the senior officers later and A Squadron was called to move up to investigate, whilst the rest of the squadrons would hang back.

The Squadron Commander, Major George Pigott, the Squadron Sergeant Major Reginald Dowell, and a couple of officers and other ranks, formed a small party that went ahead towards the horizon, which would get them within sight of Villers-au-Flos.

Stopping in place, they whipped out binoculars and saw what was going on, and soon enough, William could hear his Squadron Commander, Major George Pigott, ask the Squadron Sergeant Major, "What, in god's name, are those, Sergeant Major!?
SSM Reginald Dowell, responded quite simply, "I haven't the foggiest idea, sir".

And while Major Pigott and SSM Dowell corresponded with one another over the threat in front of them, William's dark chestnut horse, Challenger, started to shuffle about uneasy, as his ears caught the screams and screeching.

Having not took immediate action to calm down his horse, William then started to calm Challenger down with instinctive ease by patting the side of his neck and rubbing the top of his head.
"Easy, boy. Easy there, Challenger. Easy".

As his horse settled down, William took a glance over to Major Pigott, whose face was looking straight ahead in the direction of Villers-au-Flos with stony resolve.
Then, the Major called for a messenger, a Lance Corporal Stanton, telling him to tell the rest of the regiment that the nature of the threat was unlike anything they'd seen before, and that they were to bring it's squadrons up in readiness, while he prepared to charge.

Once the Lance Corporal bolted on his horse with his message to the rest of the regiment, the Major then took another look at the town, and frowned as the shouts and screams became louder.
He then said to SSM Dowell, "Sergeant Major, get the Squadron ready to charge!"
"Yes sir".

And SSM Dowell had the squadron organise itself by four troops, one in a line behind the other.

William's troop, was right behind the Major's line, the foremost one that'd see the first action.

Once the SSM told the Major that the Squadron was formed as ordered, and Lance Corporal Stanton returned with a message that the rest of the regiment had received his message, Pigott was satisfied, and had his rose grey horse walk forward.
Upon seeing the Major wave his hand out slowly, the rest of the Squadron followed on, towards the screams and the screeching at Villers-au-Flos.

William tensed up, as he prepared for the Major to give the signal to go at full gallop.
Then, before they crossed the horizon, Pigott's horse started picking up speed, up to a slow pace, before the Major then shouted, "DRAW! SWORDS!"
Everyone, William included, whipped out their swords from their scabbards, before another shout came, "GIVE! POINT!"
This meant that everyone now had the tips of their swords pointing forward.

And then, finally, as they all crossed the horizon, Major Pigott screamed at the top of his lungs, "CHARGE!"

Immediately, Major Pigott's horse went at full speed, and the rest of the squadron followed on.

As Challenger increased speed, leaving behind the rest of his troop to catch up with the Major, William found that he was standing up in his stirrups, and was using his left hand to hold the reins, all while using the stirrups and the reins to urge Challenger to go at full gallop towards the enemy.

Then, as they all charged across the horizon and got within sight of the town, William's thoughts seemed to be drowned by the sounds of hooves furiously pounding the ground, along with his fellow officers and troopers from A Squadron of the 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussars yelling at the top of their voices.
Upon seeing the town, William could see, on the outskirts of the town, British troops being attacked by what seemed to be giant bugs with large tentacles.

Seeing exactly where the threat was, the Major had his horse turn slightly towards the right, and the rest of the squadron followed suite.

And some of these bugs, stopped what they were doing, and turned to face the oncoming charge of men on horses, and shrieked in their direction, before heading off to face this new threat.

Then, once the Squadron had closed the distance and got within contact of this new threat, William could see that things were going wrong.

One bug had noticed the approach of a Trooper and his horse charging towards it, and slashed it's tentacles at him once he got closer, piercing right through his body and throwing him off his saddle, causing his horse to be spooked like mad and now running amok.
Another trooper had his throat slashed, and he fell to one side, only for his foot to be entangled by the right stirrup, and thus his body was dragged by the now unsaddled horse.
And one bug slashed with it's tentacles towards one Sergeant's horse, impacting right at the horse's throat, causing blood to spurt right out in multiple directions, before collapsing to the ground, leaving the Sergeant an easy target for the bugs.
Needless to say, the men of A Squadron were on the receiving end of the bug's retaliation, being impaled or beheaded, as were their horses themselves.
Others found that their horses were quite unused to these bugs, and were so spooked, that their riders lost control of them.

When Major George Pigott, who had survived the contact, manoeuvred his horse around to go for a charge against a bug, it noticed his approach and turned around to open it's mouth, shooting a ball of yellowish-green acid, which upon contact with both the Major and his horse, burned right through the cloth, leather and skin, causing a rather agonising death.

Everywhere, the Squadron was being slaughtered.
Not that the Squadron didn't manage to kill any bugs of their own, because they did.
Some men did manage to close in on the bugs with their horses and plunge their swords right through what passed for eyes for these creatures, effectively killing them.
Other bugs were killed when some horses were going too fast to stop and collided with them, causing an almighty crash that threw the riders of their horses, but overall, pinning the bugs down with the horses' corpses and allowing the horses' dismounted riders to close in with their swords and stick them into the bugs, killing them.

William meanwhile, had survived the initial encounter, as had other men and their horses, and tried for another charge, only for one bug to swing it's tentacles right at him with the intent to kill.
Instinctively, he swung his Pattern 1912 Cavalry Officer's Sword, cutting right through it.
Surprised with himself, William continued on, and it all became a haze, as William manoeuvred Challenger around, swinging his sword around left and right. And narrowly missing shots of acid.

But one bug in front advanced quickly towards them both, causing Challenger to whinny and suddenly rear up in a panic, and thus, causing William to fall from his saddle onto the ground.
And soon enough, Challenger was killed by a shot of acid from a bug, and William's steed fell down on his left leg, pinning him down.

Trying to wiggle out, William found that he couldn't move out from the carcass of his steed, and thus was effectively helpless.
Even more so, when the bug that had killed his horse, took notice of him and was closing in to make him it's next kill.

Tentacles raised and William fumbled around to get out his Webley revolver from his holster.

But as his hand got the pistol grip and before he could unsheathe the revolver, aim and fire it in a defiant last stand, a wave of blue energy hit the bug, pushing it right back.

And his saviour appeared in view.
To his utter surprise and amazement, he saw what seemed to be a woman.
A woman, wearing a strange dark brown skintight suit and a helmet that covered her head and face, with a strange weapon slung across her back.

But, what was more amazing, was that her body, from head to toe, seemed to be glowing with a blue aura, for lack of a better word.

Throwing her arms forward, the bug that had recovered, was pushed back again, before she got the weapon off her back, and fired it at the bug, killing it.

Turning around, the woman came around to him and put both hands to her helmet, pulling it off to reveal her face.

Despite William's shock, to the very fact that her face was blue and in the place of hair, were oddly shaped tentacles on her head, he could see a face of an angel on this woman's face.

And her voice was like an angel's as well.

"Are you alright"?

Whew!
Man, I was really having trouble trying to finish this!

Apologies for the long delay everyone, but I was having trouble with the depiction of the battle, even with the cavalry charge against the Rachni, which I really looked forward to writing down, as well as the first meeting between Trileena and William, which will continue next chapter.

Anyways, don't forget to leave a review whenever you can, and see you next time!

Update (16/11/18): Had to change up and add more detail to the cavalry charge.