Prologue
The klaxon's yelled out their alarm as Tali'Zorah vas Neema looked up from her monitor on the SR-1 Normandy's console. A brief moment of surprise flashed in her mind before a blast from the electronics threw her off her feet and onto the deck, making the world go black for a few precious seconds. As the world flooded back in, a dull ache in the back of her head felt like now was the time to start making itself known.
The wail of the ships klaxon's greeted her back into the moment and she staggered to her feet, taking in the scene of destruction in the engine room. Over half the consoles had shut down completely, and the rest where clearly on route to joining their fallen companions in the digital afterlife. Even the Migrant fleet would have had a hard time making use of those components now.
"Keelah" she exclaimed to herself, and turned to evacuate engineering, trying not look at the floating body of a crewman. She turned and staggered down the cargo hold, her mind rapidly burling as she started to run with the rest of the crew, reaching an escape pod. She turned to jump in and slammed into Wrex as he stood in the pod.
"Careful Quarian; if we weren't already in a fight for our lives, I'd have been forced to fight you" said Wrex, his amused voice coming from the mic on his suit. Three of the human crew were strapped into the pods seats, and it was clear Wrex was unlikely to fit into one of the free chairs. He didn't seem to want to try regardless.
"And then I'd be forced to shoot you Krogan" she retorted. She didn't wait for his chuckle of reply and instead parked herself into a seat and strapped in. The seat was alittle big, but she'd gotten used to human sized chairs over the last month.
After a brief look out of the pod, the crewman nearest door seemed to conclude that now was the time to go, and mashed his palm on the large red button. With a harsh jotted that slammed Tali into the right of her seat, the pod began its flight. Wrex merely grunted, barely moving as the pod shaked and rattled.
"Any word on Shepard and the rest of the team?" she shouted into her mic as the pods shaking made it hard to hear.
"Williams radioed that he's gone to fetch Joker. Woulda left the cripple myself." but Tali could tell he was just being alittle grumpy because of the constant shaking.
Tali turned her head to look out of the rear glass, but the shaking stopped her from getting a clear view of the Normandy, but even so, she could see the wreckage pouring off the vessel. Suddenly, yellow beam cut into the Normandy.
"Bosh'tet!" she exclaimed, and Wrex replied, "Shepard picks good enemies."
She was about to comment when she saw a flash of a pod firing off from the Normandy, narrowly escaping the explosion as the beam killed the Normandy.
"May Keelah guide your path Normandy" she said as the ship died in the distance before opening her mic to radio, "Tali to Joker, is Shepard on board?"
The crackle of radio traffic was the only reply for a few long seconds before the disheartened voice of Joker replied, "Joker to all pods... the Commander... he's gone."
The radio was quiet for a moment before Williams, Liara, Garrus, and members of the crew broke into the channel, requesting confirmation. But Tali could feel the weight of the world sinking in and she knew the others where feeling it. Wrex remained silent, but Tali didn't even notice and she looked back towards the Normandy, forcing herself to watch as the broken vessel died, taking her friend, her captain, and one of the best people she'd ever known, down into well of the planet below.