'Where are you you little bastard?' Athena thought as she continued to remain in place.

Two days... she hadn't moved more than a few millimeters for breathing in two days. She had remained still, remained hidden, for the whole time. She was watching, waiting, wondering when her prey would make his first and last mistake.

She was hunting a Salarian, and a talented one at that. He was using a newly developed form of active camo that used his biotics to bend the light around him and make him, more or less, invisible. Unfortunately, it was best used in the dark or when not moving. Athena knew this, and she knew that since she hadn't found him, and it wasn't dark, then he was remaining stationary and trying to find where she had hidden herself.

Athena was a good mile away from her target, but she knew he was on a ridge, though the specifics were hazy. He knew how intelligent the Salarians were, and she knew that a trained sniper of the Salarian species was not going to do ANYTHING to jeopardize their cover. So she was left with lying prone, her eye practically glued to her rifle scope, and hidden under a well crafted natural cover in the grassy field she was in.

Suddenly, she noticed movement, and quickly targeted it. It was an animal though, a lizard like life form of some nature. It was running along the ridge, and an idea came to her mind. She kept the animal in her sights for the duration of it's run across the ridge, carefully watching it's lower portion all the while. Midway through the ridge, she noticed a rather small, but noticeable, distortion in the creatures figure. Athena simply smirked.

'Found you asshole!' she thought, unconsciously shifting ever so slightly.

She noticed another distortion after the animal had left, and quickly realized her mistake.

"Shit!" she said aloud as she quickly made the necessary calculations and squeezed the trigger.

One collective round fired throughout the area, and it was followed a few seconds later by a scream. The Salarian was now visible, and as such the damage could be seen. It was now indistinguishable as to what race he was, the shredder round making sure of that.

On the other hand...

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!" Athena screamed as the incendiary round tore through her.

It caught her on her left bicep, having been just slightly off target. The chemicals it was composed of burnt away her entire upper arm, leaving only a bit of her shoulder still attached. Her forearm fell away, knocked away by the force of the round. Luckily, it cauterized the wound, so comparably little blood was lost.

Athena's scream eventually ended, her body seemingly unable to produce such sounds. The pain was blinding, and she felt her vision fade as such. She was determined not to die though, she couldn't let herself become a soulless body. Though she was unable to see it, she rooted around for her arm, desperate to activate her omnitool's button to call her ship to her. She felt herself going numb, but she couldn't let herself 'fall asleep'.

She recited numbers in her head, mentally broke down and repaired a standard sniper rifle, and mentally listed every part of a rifle. Soon though...



One month later...

Athena tried, focused as hard as she could, but her new arm would not move. It was a bare bones model; supplying nothing more than an arm. Some provided omnitools, some contained blades, others contained a kinetic barrier without the need for a combat suit. However, she couldn't even get the bare bones arm to move... no matter how hard she seemed to try.

She sighed, her painful left collarbone aching rather fervently, preventing her from focusing. It was probably the first thing in her life that she actually had to work her hardest at... and there was still a chance that she would lose.

Lying in that bed, trying with all her might to just move a finger, was going to be a rather humbling experience for the rather cocky and headstrong Asari sniper.