Captive - Part 3

She could feel warm liquid running down her leg from the bullet wound as she climbed out of the snow. She used her hand to pull her leg up and to keep it stable, otherwise she'd have fallen again. Her movements were slow and painful, she practically dragged her wounded leg through the snow in the brief moments where she wasn't hauling it upwards using her hand to create short but painful steps manually. Her leg had gone numb as it lost blood.
Mia began hearing growls and barks behind her, and distant shouting was audible. Several soldiers with Varren were closing in on her location.
There was a second gunshot, and snow was flung up into the air as it hit nothing but ice.
She brought Nar'Mia around and fired several shots, which she instantly regretted. In her weak state, the gunfire knocked her off balance and sent her rolling down an embankment, landing in a pile of snow at the bottom. She hissed in pain and swore furiously.
There were sounds of quick and frantic panting before a Varren, a four legged and extremely vicious creature that was used in a similar way as humans would use hounds - for hunting, came into view. It bounded down the hill in a single leap and set upon her, growling viciously whilst trying to tear her to pieces.
Luckily her suit resisted the attack, but the aroma of rotting meat originating from its mouth was overpowering. At times like that, she was glad she could activate an air filter to get rid of bad smells.
She managed to haul the large creature off of her, and she scrambled for her gun as the Varren charged.
It jumped at her, claws outstretched and jaw open.
She pulled the trigger, and the Varren's head exploded, showering her with fleshy entrails and scattering its blood across the snow. She stood up slowly and painfully.
Then the Varren's... Keeper? Protector? appeared, wielding a vicious looking cattle prod, which sparked with electricity. She wasn't sure whether it was for her or the Varren.
"Bosh'tet!" she hissed, "I hate you! All of you! Leave me alone!"
The man swung his cattle prod in a wide arc, sweeping her legs out from underneath her. She landed on her back, and he jabbed the device into her chest and it crackled with blue light.
She grabbed the handle, "Our suits are unaffected by electricity. Bosh'tet."
Mia pulled the cattle prod from his grasp and spun it around and jammed him in the hand, sending him to the floor with muscle spasms.
By the time she had climbed to her feet, a second Varren was upon her. They rolled over in the snow and she used their momentum to throw it off her, but before she realised what was happening she was rolling down an embankment and was face-first in snow.
She moved so she could see again and quickly wiped the snow off her visor. Her gun was too far away to reach effectively, but she still had the electric prod in her hand. The Varren bounded at her and she jabbed it in its forehead, and it howled and dropped to the floor. She tried to scramble to her gun, but found herself unable to move.
"Come on body..." she hissed, "Just survive a little longer..."
Hands grasped her shoulders and she was pulled out of the snow, and she looked up into the helmet of who appeared to be a human soldier.
"Mia?" the soldier asked. Mia realised she was a female, which was unrecognisable by her armour. Or maybe it was her eyes. She just managed a nod in response.
The soldier moved her so she was behind her and she raised her rifle, "I'm Commander Keating of the SSV Naseby. I'm a Council Spectre. Hang on, I'm radioing in for my ride."
She pressed against the side of her helmet, "This is Keating. Sending you my coordinates. I have Mia. She's injured and needs medical help. Requesting evac."
Keating fired her rifle one handed, and there was a sharp growl of pain from a Varren Mia hadn't even seen.
"If you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate it if you would hurry up," Keating sighed as she gunned down the Varren's trainer, "There's a pack of Varren incoming and to be honest I have better things to do than to be stuck in this damn frozen hell hole."
She turned to Mia, "Mia, stay with me. They will be here in a few minutes. Just wait here. They'll pick you up. I have a job to do."

Keating left Mia. She knew that the Quarian was injured and was in a critical condition, but she couldn't do anything to help. Her suit stopped the application of medigel, and she knew that her time would be better spent doing what she was actually being paid for.
She marched up towards the base. She activated the blue holographic visor that came across one of her eyes and the sensors immediately picked up on the pack of the four Varren that were heading towards her at a frightening speed. She would only have a few seconds before they were upon her.
Keating put her rifle on to her back and it collapsed in on itself until it was just a fraction of its original size, and drew her pistol from a holster on her leg.
She shot the first Varren in the head, killing it with a single bullet. The second she knocked to the side by punching it as it dived at her, and shot it in the back as it tried to recover.
The third, however, she had not accounted for. The air suddenly glowed blue and she was hurled off her feet and landed in the snow. She quickly stood up as the two remaining Varren dived at her one after the other.
She activated her Omni-blade, stopping the Varren in mid-air. She fired her pistol and shredded the rib cages of both of them with a single round.
Keating turned around as the Naseby extracted Mia from behind her. Her ship was relatively large, a frigate. She had fought in the Battle for Earth against the Reapers, which rewarded her vessel with a large scorch mark down the side where a Reaper fighter had shot her. It was, however, mainly a stealth ship. Normal frigates carried Kodiak shuttles. She preferred a Skycar, though.
She continued her path towards the base. The first step on taking down any gang, especially one who were dealing with slaves, was to target the people who they had sold to. The Council had brought a gang on Omega to her attention. They were growing in power rapidly - pushing back the Blue Suns and the Talons rapidly across the station and were also in the slave and starship market.
As far as she was aware, over a hundred Quarians had been kidnapped from in and around Omega, with their ships also going missing. They had also ordered enough Dreadnoughts to create an army.
And it was her job to stop them. This was her last job before going to Omega and finishing them once and for all.
Keating holstered her pistol and drew her rifle from her back again. She heard a round from a sniper rifle whizz past her helmet and embed itself in the snow behind her. She dropped to one knee and returned fire, catching the sniper on top of the roof of the base with a volley of bullets in his chest.
She slammed her hand against the door of the facility, pushing the green circular hologram. The door slid open and she stepped inside, immediately felling a guard with her rifle.
Keating ejected the thermal clip, cooling the weapon so she was able to fire again. She walked down the corridor, pushing her back against the wall when she reached the ninety degree corner at the end of it. She quickly poked her head around the corner and saw two guards running her way. She raised her weapon and waited until they came around the corner - and unknowingly ran into a hail of mass-accelerated rounds from her rifle.
Keating made her way further into the facility, passing several bodies of guards whom, she guessed, Mia had dropped, judging by the holes which had been peppered into their chests, which matched the spread of the shotgun she had been found with.
She reached what appeared to be a security control room, and only had to gun down another seven guards to be able to get in. She quickly hacked into one of the terminals with her Omni-tool and started downloading the data in the network.
"Commander Keating," said a familiar voice, "I knew you would show up eventually."
"Histus Gyrth," she replied, greeting him, "Why do you have a robot body? The last time I saw you, you were a Turian. Now I'm not sure what you are."
"That stupid Quarian bitch shot me in the face. Still, I have plans. I always have plans. The gang sold me some prototype technology. Allows conscious transfer. I programmed it to activate upon death. It transferred me to this body, which was specifically set up as a combat unit. I hope you understand that rifle of yours is useless."
Keating put her rifle on her back, and the now robotic Turian stepped from the shadows into the light, not that made much of a difference. Her helmet had night vision. She had been able to see him clearly since she entered the room.
"I shall get my revenge on the Quarian," said Histus, "Right after I-"
"I don't have time for this," Keating growled, and felt energy quickly build up in her arm. She let the biotic energy discharge, throwing the robotic body up against the roof of the security room, and back down on to the ground, shattering all but its head.
"Unlike you," she said to the robotic skull, "I have a job to do."
She kicked it across the room like a football.
Her hand went to the side of her helmet, "Mission complete," she said to the pilot of the Naseby, "I'll be there in a moment."