III: Requiem

by RedCenturionG

The Collector threat is done; and the Normandy crew survived. The Shadow Broker has eyes watching a friend of Shepard's. Loyalties will be questioned, lives put on the line. And Peta will stop at nothing to get the girl of his dreams. In this, the crew is never safe. And in the end, Marcus Shepard will have to make a decision that could cripple his resolve forever.

1. Prologue

REQUIEM

PROLOGUE

October 9, 2185

0800 hours.

Main Bridge, Brussels-Class Stealth Frigate CAW Tajikistan, Guarding Omega 4 Relay.

Captain Andrew Nepal.

Space; it was a wonderous place. Ever since humanity first dreamt of the stars, space had been a beautiful, amazing place; one humanity could never hope to access. Yet they did. Two hundred years in the making. Humanity now not only travelled the stars; they owned them. Or at least would, when Cerberus won the hearts of the Alliance loyalists or even the Alliance itself. Humanity was superior to the other races; they just had to realize it.

Captain Andrew Nepal was a spacer kid; or at least he had always dreamt of being one. He had been born on Earth; a little area called Australia. Two hundred years ago, hearing about that country and referring to it as a military superpower would have been laughed at. But in the future, where the Systems Alliance rules Earth as a single global power, Australia is no longer a nation to be laughed at.

Nepal was australian himself and ever since he was a child, he had dreamed of joining the Alliance Navy. But he had been born in a harsh family; his father despised the Alliance and its ideals, and his mother hated aliens; something which Nepal adopted. But when it came to it, and he was 18 years of age, he joined the Alliance, but took his mother's xenophobic ideals with him. And now he commanded one of many Cerberus stealth frigates; fighting the good fight for humanity.

He looked out at the stars, but he couldn't look at them the same now. Not with the pulsing red glow of the Omega 4 Relay poisoning the view. Everything about the relay radiated Reaper presence; the color, the size, the design...it was all Reaper architecture; designed by a race of sentient starships that harvested life every fifty thousand years; a relay that was ultimately connected to a massive deathtrap. Thanks to Commander Marcus Shepard however, that trap had been inactive for two years.

Now his stealth frigate, the CAW Tujikistan, lay in wait near the relay, stealth drive engaged, ready to ambush the savior of the galaxy's vessel and disable it, before taking its crew hostage and the ship back to a Cerberus drydock where it belonged.

Marcus Shepard had recently destroyed the Collectors; a race of twisted hybrid servants of the Reapers, who had once been the mighty prothean race. With them destroyed, human colonies would stop disappearing, but the Reapers were still coming; and the Illusive Man needed Shepard under lock and key if they were to win. If that involved inputting a control chip into the crew's brains, then so be it.

Nepal brought up the inventory of the ship's weaponry; they were hopelessly outmatched. Four GARDIAN batteries; two rear, two bow. A couple of absolute hellfire missile banks at the bow and a few pulse lasers. No MAC cannon, no heavy weaponry. The Normandy would pick them off like they were an annoying fly.

But there was one weapon on the frigate that with a single lock-on and pull of the trigger, would result in rendering all the Normandy's defenses meaningless. It was an EMP emitter; mounted on the chin of his vessel. They would have to drop the stealth drive, but by the time they did that and fired, it would be too late for Shepard's ship to retaliate. All its weapons, defenses, upgrades and speed would be rendered redundant with a single, well-placed shot.

Andrew's ship had been equipped with a platoon of well-armed commandos. Once the Normandy was disabled, the Tajikistan would board the enemy ship and insert through both entrances; airlock and shuttle bay. Injured from the collector battle, they would hardly put up a fight, and with a few tranquilizers fired, it would all be over. Once secured, the platoon's commander, First Lieutenant Jonathan Sand, would destroy the AI with a system purge, disable the geth and bring it in for weapons testing and secure the crew to be moved onto the ship. It would all go perfectly fine. That, and Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor would be executed for treason. TIM was only so forgiving.

He looked away from the displays as his weapons officer, Dante, spoke up, "Sir, Omega 4 Relay powering up; they're coming through."

"You know what to do," Nepal ordered, turning in his chair to face him, "Have the VI sound General's Quarters. Dante, have the weapon ready," he quickly turned to face his navigation officer, Yvette, "Rotate us anti-clockwise until facing the relay and the Normandy's exit point. Also make sure we're relative with them on the galactic plane. Get to it."

Alarms rang throughout the ship and the bridge turned a dull red in color. Officers rushed around the bridge, while Nepal placed his face in his palm, just letting himself get lost in the persistent crimson of the relay. He watched it power up more and more. We'll get you Shepard; and you won't even know we're coming for ya.

The Normandy flashed forward in a dash of blood red; the Omega 4 Relay unclasping its tentacles from the frigates hull and watching it move away. Nepal examined the ship's hull. Christ, that thing took a beating, didn't it? Scrapes along the hull, a hole at the shuttle bay, hull scarring, evidence of a crash...That just made his job alot easier.

"Drop the stealth," Nepal ordered, "Fire immediately upon drop. Don't wait for the VI to get IFF IDENT, just override it and fire."

He watched as the Normandy turned its GARDIANs instantly to aim at the now revealed frigate, but as he predicted, it was too late. The EMP pulsed away from the frigate and licked at the Normandy; soaking it vibrant blue electricity. When it was all done, the GARDIANs on the frigate went dead and became adrift. He smiled grimly.

He turned to his communications officer, Emilio, "Inform Lieutenant Sand that the mission is a go. Launch the shuttle. Have his second team meet at the airlock and prepare to board. Let's hit them before they have to time to mount resistance. Yvette, get us a dock. Move it, double time. Illusive Man doesn't enjoy failure and doesn't reward it."

Give me the Normandy and I'll give you command of the Elbrus. I'll give you my flagship, Nepal.

And what captain didn't dream of commanding a dreadnought?

He smiled and leaned back in his seat as the Tujikistan moved into dock with the Normandy, turning to his XO, Jason, and ordering him to go to the mess hall and get him a coffee with two sugars. He wanted to think about just what the Elbrus might look like.

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October 9, 2185

0804 hours.

Cockpit, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate Normandy SR-2, Disabled around Omega 4 Relay.

Chief Warrant Officer Tiana Runner.

Clearing the airlock was easy; noone came rushing to meet them. So both of the squads under his command cleared the airlock pretty well. Even the AI was defenseless to protect the vessel from the Cerberus invaders. But it really wasn't invading when the ship was your property was it? No, this was reclaiming what was rightfully theirs. And, with a note, to take a little side of crew. What the Illusive Man needs, he gets.

She once again eyed her repurposed vindicator battle rifle; instead of thermal clips, it as retrofitted with transquilizer darts, designed to take down any alien, no matter the race. Team Two under Sand would have more tranquilizers in terms of the krogan supersoldier, but that was it. This was going to be too easy. Too fun.

They moved into the dimly lit cockpit; the only thing operating being the emergency lighting. She turned to look at the cockpit, weapon raised to see the back of a seat. She, along with Sand, had been given clear details on the crew, and she knew the crippled pilot would be no threat, "Turn around, Moreau."

The chair spun around, and the pilot faced them, hands up, "Are you going to shoot me? You think you can just take this ship? You can kiss my-"

Her finger tightened on the trigger and a dart flew out, hitting the pilot in the neck. He fell back quickly, eyes drooping steadily, "You can't-You won't...we'll...take...you...dooooowwwnnnnn..." His eyes fell closed and he slouched back in his seat, now in a sleep-like state. Pilot neatralized, she motioned squad one to take point and move down the flight deck while she took the rear with her main squad.

The CIC was empty but for a couple of the treacherous crew, but they were put to sleep easily enough. They moved through the CIC quickly and quietly, weapons drawn and ready. Squad two took the armoury while her squad took the tech lab. Her team got to clear the CIC and deck one, while Sand took care of engineering and crew deck. I wonder what Shepard would think if they secured his quarian bitch. But be motivation.

Both squads in position, she gave the go ahead and they breached the rooms using electronic power surges; the doors were designed to open upon haptic touch, but due to no power, the haptic interfaces were offline. Her team cleared the empty bow between the CIC and the lab and then moved into the main lab.

One of the suit-rats on the ship, the one called 'Lia'Vael' stood in the middle, back turned towards them. Three of her men approached her back, weapons up and ready. One ordered her to turn around, but she declined to do so. So he gave her an attitude adjustment by grabbing her shoulder roughly and spinning her around.

A knife embedded itself in his neck and he fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. An SMG went off and got another commando in the side of his head, the salarian appearing out of nowhere, SMG in hand. He pushed Lia onto the floor, firing an incineration blast into the third trooper, killing her instantly and allowing him to face the rest of her squad.

Unfortunately, without kinetic barriers, he was completely defenseless. Her team opened fire and three darts hit the salarian in the chest, one in the forehead. He collapsed forward, knocked out. The quarian quickly followed suit. With them neatralized, her squad quickly moved through the corridor occupying the conference room entrance and moved into the armoury.

It was a bloody mess; five commandos dead, and two injured. Turning around, she saw the unconscious forms of Jacob Taylor and Kaidan Alenko, two human traitors. She wanted to kill them both badly, but decided it wasn't worth defying TIM's orders, and ordered second squad to secure the CIC while the rest of her squad takes Deck One.

The elevator was out of use due to the EMP; so they took the maintenance ladders. With ten men in her squad left, including herself, they were all that was needed to take care of Shepard; as strong as he was. She looked forward to putting a dart into him herself.

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October 9, 2185

0806 hours.

Shuttle Bay, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate Normandy SR-2, Disabled around Omega 4 Relay.

First Lieutenant Jonathan Sand.

Gaining access to the shuttle bay was easy; even with its main doors closed, the hole in the hull was more than large enough for them to get through. Whatever caused that hole was fucking massive. Its both a pity and a fortunate thing it didn't finish the job, whatever the hell it was. So the shuttle landed in the middle of the bay, the pilot informing them that the hull breach was sealed by a forcefield, so EVA equipment wasn't necessary.

Once outside, they could see a battle had raged in the shuttle bay. One of the ventilation fans had been blown completely from its hinges and rested ten meters across the bay, right beside the docking control consoles. One of the kodiaks had once been a smoking ruin, but the fires had long since burned out. Equipment was shown lying all over the place; dumped where it was just before the forcefield was erected to stop decompression.

The rubble of a YMIR mech lay not far away and that's when he saw it just next to the elevator; the crippled form of a hammerhead tank; the only one in existence. It was a Cerberus prototype tank built under the name of Project: Firewalker, and had been given to the Normandy to aid in the battle against the Collectors, but one side of it had been incinerated and blown off. The tank was destroyed in most meanings of the term; useless. Billions of credits...blown apart by collectors.

Both squads pushed into the shuttle bay, all of them noticing a shattered glass window up above; more signs of battle, and he also saw a scorch mark tracking all the wall of the engineering corridor. It was a huge scorch mark. They approached the elevator, but just as they reached it, one of his commandos' head exploded, a large gaping hole in his skull where his brain had been and fell to the ground in a heap of gore. They looked up, weapons raised to see the attacker, but saw nothing. Another man fell, same injury he ordered the elevator opened. But no further attacks came.

The elevator doors were forced open and they immediately entered the shaft, looking up to see the elevator stuck halfway between decks three and four. Moving up the ladder, all 26 soldiers moved up the ladder steadily gaining access to deck four and opening the door. Jonathan lead the way, weapon ready. He saw nothing.

Once out, he looked back down, his voice barely above a whisper, "Squad One, keep going up and secure the Crew Deck. We'll stay here and keep engineering."

The commander of that squad and his section moved into the main engineering corridor, weapons raised and ready. He split them up; three men moved to the garbage disposal area, four to the cargo bay, and the rest were with him to take care of the quarian and her two helpers, along with Subject Zero, who the Illusive Man had a particular interest in.

It was eerily silent as his unit moved into engineering; not a sound, not even the humming of the drive core, and that unsettled him. He may have once served as a marine in the UNAS Marine Corps, but this kind of silence was just wrong. A crew like the Normandy? It shouldn't be this quiet.

He opened the door to engineering and fired a dart at the quarian's console. But when his dart fired and impacted, it ricocheted off the unmanned terminal, the quarian missing. He frowned and three of his men split off downstairs to take care of Zero. He moved silently, edgingly, and swiftly inside. Silent, he looked right and saw Donnelly and Daniels missing as well. What the fuck is going on?

He commed the Tajikistan, "Captain Nepal, this is Sand, breaking radio silence, how copy?"

"Copy, Sierra-Alfa-November-Delta. Better have a good reason for this lieutenant," the captain replied.

"Sir, Deck Four is empty," Jonathan replied, "Its a fucking ghost ship, most like. I've checked engineering, and the quarian is missing, same with both engineers. And two of my men were taken out whilst on the shuttle deck, but there's no sign of the assailant."

"Then keep searching," Nepal frustratingly replied, "What, you think they stay in scripted locations all-day? Are you that moronic? Of course they move around the ship you idiot!"

Jonathan nodded, sighing, "Aye aye sir. We'll keep searching. I'll update you on our progress."

"See that its good news," Nepal replied before switching off the comm.

Fuming, he moved back outside, signalling the three men with him to follow. As they did, they found the other three already back from below decks, but hadn't found Zero. Jesus-motherfucking-Christ. These people want to play hide-and-seek do they? That's fine; I'll play. But I'm going to fucking win.

All seven of them moved out and through the doorway into the main hallway. He was about to demand a status update from both fireteams sent to secure the flanking rooms, but heard the door slide open to garbage disposal. All seven turned, weapons raised. There was nothing for a second and they slowly began to lower their weapons, but that was until the mercenary veteran, Zaeed Massani, stood framed in the doorway, holding the body of a commando by the throat.

Zaeed shook his head, no smile on his face, "You send three goddam rookies to take care of me? Three? Tell your Illusive Man I ain't goddam impressed. I'm insulted," it was then that he smiled, "But I'm not mad with you; just a little annoyed. So I've got a present for you; well, we do," and with that, he threw the dead body at Jonathan and his men.

The body landed at their feet and Jonathan cried out as he realized there was a grenade rammed in his mouth. "Mov-!"

The grenade detonated and Jonathan's vision went red as he was thrown back. Two of his men were consumed by the blast and thrown away like ragdolls; one into a wall and the other out a window. The other five fell backwards with him, one missing a leg and screaming while the others were deafened slightly by the blast, all covered in their own gore or the gore of their former comrade.

Jonathan sat up to look Zaeed in the eyes, the mercenary moving forward with casuality. Jonathan raised his rifle and fired a dart at him, but the mercenary saw it coming and sidestepped it, the dart entering the garbage disposal room and disappearing. Jonathan barked at his men to get up and open fire on the merc and they so without objection.

"I. AM. KROGAN!" A voice bellowed from behind them and all the commandos immediately turned to face a huge krogan supersoldier who now emerged from the cargo bay, bathed in the red blood and gore of three more of Jonathan's men. This is suicide. We should have just gassed the ship!

He turned back to face the mercenary, but was just in time to watch another one of his men's heads get blown off his shoulders, looking directly at their attacker from before; it was the geth, which held a widow rifle in its hands as it came to a stop by Zaeed's side. Without lowering its weapon, it spoke, "This attack on the Normandy-collective was a strategically illogical allocation of Cerberus logistics."

Jonathan growled and turned to see two of his men trying to flee only to run into the krogan and quickly run back. But as they did, they ran into a wave of purple patterns. She ducked a shot from the commando's rifle and grabbed the man's rifle, ripping it from his hands. She immediately let go and whacked him over the head with the butt of her shotgun before firing a bolt of plasma into the other's chest. With all his men down, the quarian turned around, and was revealed to be none other than the bitch herself.

"Tali'Zorah vas Neema," Jonathan growled, moving to raise his weapon, knowing the futility of the gesture, "You should have stayed on your pig sty of a fleet."

Zaeed grabbed him from behind and ripped the weapon from his grip. Jonathan quickly found himself forced to his knees by the geth, the Cerberus commando unable to resist the geth's powerful machine grip. He looked up at the quarian engineer, who now squatted next to him, shotgun infront of her.

Her voice was venom, "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. And you just messed with the wrong ship, Cerberus bosh'tet. Knock him out Zaeed. I'm sure Marcus will have questions for him when he finishes this charade."

Jonathan growled one last time as Zaeed hit him across the face with the butt of his rifle, Jonathan's world going black as he fell to the deck. There's still three more squads on the ship. Runner's bound to have Shepard under a leash now. She'll threaten to kill Shepard if they don't surrender. And if they don't, well, their ship is looking pretty vulnerable.

Fuck these xenos. Fuck them all. Should have brought live ammo, and left a tranquilizer for Shepard.

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October 9, 2185

0811 hours.

Captain's Quarters, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate Normandy SR-2, Disabled around Omega 4 Relay.

Chief Warrant Officer Tiana Runner.

Her prize; at last. Any other stupid woman would drool at the sight of Commander Shepard's doors, but she simply saw an opportunity to tag Shepard and claim the credit all for herself. Maybe she'd get a transfer from Lieutenant Dickhead's platoon. The man was barely command material, and he'd be prone to anger. Ex-marine or not, he was not suited for the task. Runner however? Maybe she could.

Her squad's engineer began hacking the door, ready to open it on her orders. She loaded a tranquilizer into the firing chamber of her vindicator and prepare to storm the quarters. Finally, when the engineer got the door open, she rushed in first, two of her men flanking her. She didn't make a single verbal sound; just moving forward, ready to get the bastard. Maybe tag him as he's sleeping? That'd make a-"

She stopped suddenly, lowering her weapon and her face creasing in disappointment. He wasn't in his bed sleeping and from what she could see, he wasn't on his couch either. She turned to his desk, and saw he wasn't there either and quickly checked the shower cubicle; nothing there either. She cursed at herself and moved back into the room seperating the elevator shaft from the Captain's Quarters.

"He's not here LT," she reported, moving down the ladder, "We're heading to deck three, over."

No response. She frowned, comming again, "LT, report."

Still nothing, "This isn't friggin funny, sir. Are you still butthurt over me calling you Lieutenant Dickhead? Seriously? Grow some fucking balls; it was a joke. Quit trying to be a hardass and just give me a simple sitrep."

No response. She didn't like this. Jonathan Sand wasn't a hardened man; apply the pressure a little, and he'd crack, but she wasn't getting anything. She checked her HUD, and saw his IFF, along with all of fourth squad, were pinged KIA. Except Sand, who appeared to be listed as WIA. Dead? All of them? All except Sand? How the fuck...I thought we caught the fuckers by surprise! How could this happen?

She radioed second squad on the CIC to be ready for any enemy activity and to start transporting the crew onto the ship before they wake up. If they couldn't have the whole crew, they'd at least take some of them. After a while of ladder climbing, they reached the Crew Deck door and forced it open, Runner going first and landing on the deck, weapon arched upwards. She rolled her eyes at the sight of a blood smeared wall infront of her; a dead body to accompany it. And it wasn't the enemy's. Do all these morons not know the essence of stealth?

She motioned four of her men to flank right and take out the thief while the rest of them dealt with the justicar. But, too their surprise, they found the door already open and one of the commandos tossed across the sofa like an unwanted toy. Another one had been thrown against a wall and a third against an upturned chair. But no asari justicar was to be found.

She turned back around after hearing a creak, but saw nothing. Tightening her grip, she motioned for her men to keep going, and the four sent to acquire returned, stating they couldn't find Goto. They checked Life Support, but found nothing there either. The assassin was nowhere to be found.

They quickly moved into the Mess Hall, and saw that the medical bay windows were tinted and that the hall was basically ended. She wanted to capture the Cerberus traitor herself, but when she checked, the XO's quarters were empty too.

"Ma'am, where's Allers?" One of her men asked and she turned and indeed, Allers was missing.

"I don't know," Runner responded, looking at the med bay, "But we keep moving and secure the medical bay; those windows are tinted for a reason."

They moved to open the door but were beaten to it as it slid open and a roar of assault rifle fire took three of her men full on and down. She roared and charged into the doorway, seeing a turian, most of the crew, Zero, the justicar, the assassin, the XO and...Shepard.

Shepard looked at her and let off a burst from his pistol, the weapon taking down her shields in a few shots. With a curse, she leapt behind cover and ordered her men to retaliate. But saw that there was no point, as now half of her squad was now spotanteously dead. I don't know...

Another one of her men fell before her eyes; slit throat by seemingly nothing. Runner saw a shimmer and immediately recognized what it was. Tactical cloak. The thief. Yeah, why didn't we use tactical cloaks, huh? She took aim with her weapon at the shimmer and fired, the dart stopping in mid-air, followed by a feminine gasp. Bingo.

The dart angled downwards to show the target had fallen. Upon hitting the ground, her cloak evaporated around her, revealing the hooded, unconscious form of Kasumi Goto. She smiled, but didn't get to celebrate her victory for long as she noticed the enemy had moved out of the bay, taken out the rest of her team and were turning to her to finish the job.

She took aim with her weapon, preparing to fire at Zero, smiling smugly at Shepard all the way, "Go ahead and kill me; you've lost. Our final squad is in the CIC now, and we've got your pilot, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Alenko, along with that suit-rat and her salarian appeaser. So kill me if you want; but in the end, we still get a nice chunk of your crew."

Shepard merely smiled, as if pitying her. It was Jack who spoke first, "This Cerberus whore must be as stupid as she looks."

Runner looked at her with hatred, "Coming from the one who wears nothing but leather straps for a bra, I feel pretty safe. And its not stupid to know the facts."

"Making you stupid," Garrus pointed out, smiling.

"What the fuck are you on about?" Runner hissed.

Shepard stepped up to her, shaking his head before hitting the comms, "Tali, have you secured the CIC?"

"That we have," the quarian responded causing Runner's grin to fall, "Joker's just waking up and Lia's going to get a fever from the dart, but everyone's fine. We've got a prisoner too. Tag says his name is 'Jonathan Sand?'"

Couldn't just die, could you Lieutenant Dickhead? She looked at Shepard with continued hate as the commander just backed away. With a sigh, he nodded and disconnected the comms, "Let me put this straight, whoever you are. Your EMP may have crippled us, but its kinda redundant when you dock with us. You see, we have an AI, which means she's smarter than your average VI. And with a geth onboard, that only helps things. So while you were trying to take our crew by surprise, EDI has just been so casually draining power from your ship to power our systems. EDI, status?"

"One minute to full restoration of power commander," the AI reported, "Drive core is online and weapons powered up. I have masked their signature from the Tajikistan to avoid alerting them, as I have masked our power seepage. VIs are easily fooled; as is this one. Legion has tricked it into thinking its the EMP main gun of the ship discharging."

Shepard nodded, "So once our power is back up, EDI is going to reduce that frigate too a smoldering wreck in the middle of space. You know, I would have at least wanted two days of breathing air before Cerberus decided to run up and slap me; but it seems TIM is just too impatient. Well, I'm about to show him what it means to be impatient. You are relieved, Warrant Officer Runner."

With that, he raised his pistol and fired a shot directly into Runner's forehead, killing her instantly.

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October 9, 2185

0817 hours.

Main Bridge, Brussels-Class Stealth Frigate CAW Tajikistan, Docked with Normandy SR-2.

Captain Andrew Nepal.

What the fuck is taking Sand so long?

"Contact Sand," Nepal ordered Emilio, "I want a status update right now. If he doesn't, I'll arrange an appointment with him and the Illusive Man's dog, Leng. That should be motivation enough."

Emilio nodded, returning to his duties while Nepal examined the situation. Sand had broken radio silence like, what, seventeen minutes go? 'round about? All to tell him that they weren't where they were meant to be, the bloody moron. And now, seventeen minutes later, not so much as an update? And didn't Runner's men say they were bringing the first batch of prisoners onboard? Where the hell were they?

He tapped his fingers impatiently on his chair before turnin to Emilio, "Well, have you frigging got him?"

"I can't seem to get him to respond sir," Emilio reported, "Noone's responding. Runner, Sand, all units under them; they've all gone silent. Something isn't right."

"Yes, thanks for that brilliant deduction Sherlock," Nepal shook his head, looking out at the stars. Give me the Normandy and I'll give you command of the Elbrus. I'll give you my flagship, Nepal. He turned back to Emilio, "Hack into their hardsuit heartrate monitors; give me a fitrep on 'em."

Emilio did as ordered and slowly turned around, "Sir, all their hardsuit monitors ping as KIA, all except for Sand, who's listed as unconscious or in comatose state. This could explain why they're not-"

"Do you exist to purely point out the obvious!?" Nepal boomed, causing Emilio to flinch in his seat, "You don't think I can't figure that out!? I don't want the obvious, Emilio, I want friggin answers! Fetch me answers!"

Yvette's voice came into his ear from below, "Sir, the Normandy...they've just disengaged dock. They're breaking off and their power is...fully restored."

"How the hell...?" Nepal asked, "How did they restore power?"

"I don't know sir," Yvette answered honestly, "The VI told me the Normandy was completely disabled."

He sighed, turning to look up at the ceiling, "VI, what is the state of the Normandy?"

"Disabled."

He shook his head, unclipped his pistol and shot at the pedestal that served as the VI's voice control, "Piece of shit; never trust a machine to do a human's job. They tricked the VI; I don't know how, but that doesn't matter now. I want the EMP emitter primed and ready to fire. Dante, Yvette bring us around and Dante, prepare to fire."

"We can't sir!" Yvette slammed at her console, panicking, "The drive core...sir, someone has made an energy exchange."

He quickly made the connections in his head, "Fuck! The Normandy's AI...should have known an EMP wouldn't disable it. It must have sapped power from the ship to power it and in the process, took all our energy. What's the status on the ship?"

"Drive core is offline," Emilio reported, "Kinetic Barriers Disabled. Weapons Disabled. Main Power is at 15 percent efficiency. Sir, we're dead in the water."

He whacked Emilio over the forehead with the butt of his pistol, "Sick of hearing what I already know," he stood back to his command chair, "Status on the Normandy?"

"Turning around to bear on us sir," Yvette reported, tears in her eyes, "It looks about ready to open fire."

He threw Emilio out of his seat, sending a message to the Illusive Man telling him that they had failed; the Normandy was still in Shepard's hands. With a sigh, he sent the message and looked back out at the Normandy, who had now deployed their thanix cannon. He looked around the stealth frigate bearing down on them; bearing Cerberus logos, yet firing on them all the same. The Tajikistan was a fine ship, but the Elbrus would have been finer.

As the azure light of the thanix cannon firing blinded him, he could only think of one thing that would be worth remembering in that moment; the stars truly looked beautiful today.

A/N:

A teaser of sorts; couldn't resist. As for that secret fanfic; I'm still working on it. And no, its not a To Survive continuation. I hope you understand that no matter how many of you enjoyed it, it was a sorry attempt at trying to continue an excellent trilogy and a botched attempt at my own closure with its abrupt ending. I hope you understand that I will only be keeping it up to serve as a reminder, not because I'm proud of it. The first couple of chapters were chapters I could never hope to replicate ever again (they were brilliant in my opinion) but the rest...was questionable.

That leaves two options; a possible continuation of Jacob and Friends, or the revival of HICH.