After the long and protracted battle that was your welcome to Earth, head up the stairs and across the town plaza. There will be even more enemies stationed up here, including one of the hulking Brutes, as well as lesser foes such as Cannibals and Marauders. The lighter troops will attack you from all angles while the Brute rampages around destroying everything in its path. The Brute, then, should be your first priority. Use Incendiary Ammo to give your bullets a fiery sting if you have the ability available, or use Incinerate, Warp, or another armor-damaging power on the Brute to weaken it significantly. With a whole squad all using Incendiary Ammo on the Brute, it should be cut down in no time flat. If you are still having trouble, try using a Decoy or a Combat Drone to get the Brute to focus elsewhere. Keep in mind, though, that if you are having trouble taking on one Brute now, you will probably have a really hard time with later parts of this mission, where you will have to take on Brutes, Banshees, and other enemies at the same time.
Once you have taken down the Brute, you can take two different approaches to the plaza battle, just like you could with the fight on the stairs. The strategies are pretty similar to the ones you will have used during the last battle. There will be a tiny courtyard to the right at the top of the hill when you first clear the stairs. You will have to follow the wall to get to the back of the arena. It will be fenced in with a metal fence and it will have corners made of concrete supporting lamp posts. This little courtyard is one of the few areas in the entire plaza that will not be infested with enemies, so climb over the little metal fence and take cover behind the concrete base of the lamp post.
From the courtyard, you can do one of several things to give yourself the advantage. First off, you can snipe the enemies if they are giving you enough breathing room. There will be Marauders behind the cars and the fallen concrete slabs to the back and the right side of the level, so focus there first. Go for headshots when they pop out from cover to fire at you. Again, distracting the enemies with a Combat Drone or a Decoy works pretty well here. If the enemies are focusing on the Decoy, you will not have to worry about them shooting back at you while you leave cover to snipe them. You can also move your squad forward at a slow, consistent rate, running and attacking as one cohesive unit. Keep your squad at your side, roll over the cover, and proceed around the side of the enemies to sweep across the battlefield, cleansing it of the Marauders and Cannibals as you go. Use Singularity when the enemies group together, and switch to Warp Ammo to wear down the shields of the Marauders. If you down a Cannibal and see its allies running over to eat it, let it sit there for a second to attract the others. You can then either kill the other Cannibals when they go to eat the downed enemy with gunfire, or with a trap set by Garrus with his Proximity Mines or the Scorpion pistol.
The turtling approach works well for classes such as Engineers and Adepts, those who have lots of Biotics to draw enemies out of cover while trying to snipe and who can take out lots of enemies at a distance when they group together. The alternate approach is more suited to Vanguards, Sentinels, and Soldiers, and involves taking the enemies to task head-on. You will find a small concrete wall on the opposite side of the plaza. Sprint to this area after you kill the Brute. Use your Assault Rifle along the way to pick off enemies as they come to you. Remember to use Grenades when you see the enemies bunching together, and to use powers such as Concussive Shot to down tougher enemies in one go.
Flank around the enemy through the shattered building to your left. From here, you will have a better vantage point when you sweep out to attack the enemy forces. Hit their left flank hard, using powers such as Biotic Charge, Tech Armor, Grenade, Concussive Shot, and Nova to weaken them significantly. Don’t forget about the charged melee attack, either. Hit them hard from the side, and then have your squad play cleanup with the rest of the enemies. Alternatively, you can also remain in cover behind that first chest-high wall that you found across the plaza, and pick off the enemies from here. Use distractions or set up Turrets to draw the enemy away from you before you attack.
Watch out when you start to run out of enemies to kill, because a second Brute will burst into the arena around this point. Command your entire squad to focus fire on it if you can. This will be the fastest and the easiest way to down the enemy, especially if you have any ammo powers equipped or if you have the Spike Thrower Shotgun, which you can charge up to maximum power to take a very significant chunk off of the Brute’s armor bar. Vanguards can make short work of the Brute by hitting it with a Biotic Charge followed by three fully charged Spike Thrower blasts in a row.
When the Brute dies, head up the makeshift ramp formed by the rubble of the building to the back right of the plaza. This will lead you towards the crash site of the other dropship. Along the way up the ramp, you will see Cortez’s ship taking fire from the Reapers. His ship will fade from view as you crest the hill. Take cover and get ready for yet another big fight as you battle to bring down the Hades Cannon.
