No man's land. That's what they called the hell that they were going into. Kaidan Alenko and Joshua Shepard cast a single glance at each other. They knew how likely it was that this was the end for at least one of them, if not both.
"If the two of you are ready, let's go show these bastards what we're made of." James Vega smirked a little as Shepard glared and Kaidan blushed.
Shepard motioned for the two of them to move out, Kaidan on the left and Vega on the right. Shepard took the position he was most efficient with. Right up the center.
Vega would never admit it, but watching the Sentinel and Vanguard literally crush enemies in the way was like watching the Russian ballet troupe perform Swan Lake. Damn, they worked well together. He only had to keep husks from sneaking in behind them.
"Shepard! Watch your ass!" Kaidan flared blue and threw a stasis field around the brute about to charge.
Shepard turned to see the thing and charged at a dizzying speed. He immediately flung a nova, letting the energy fly out around him. He'd seen the four husks nearby. They flew back, though the brute was barely stunned. Shepard's barrier was down and the brute had broken from stasis. It's target was close by and had no shields.
Kaidan was tangling with two husks that seemed determined to bring the Sentinel down. That left James Vega to act as Shepard's backup. The marine let out a shout that caught the brute's attention just long enough for Shepard to scramble behind cover before the bullets went flying.
Shepard leaned out of cover long enough to shoot at the brute. This close and he opted for his shotgun. Once Kaidan was done wrestling with the two husks, he added his personal attention to taking down the brute. With all three, the brute went down quickly. As soon as it fell, another took it's place.
"Well... Shit." James sighed. "How many more of these assholes do we have to go through anyway!"
"As many as it takes, Vega." Shepard didn't seem the least bit nervous or scared, or anything really. Vega might have felt a little better if there was at least some emotion.
"No offense, Loco, but I think you may have long passed the realm of loco." James shakes his head and takes down the latest husk to charge at them.
"Took you this long to realize that, LT?" Kaidan smirked at James. "I could have told you that about him after Rannoch."
Shepard leaned out of cover only to duck back to narrowly miss being hit by a marauder. "Fuck!"The word was ripped from him without a thought.
"Hold that thought for later, Commander." Kaidan chuckled and lifted the marauder for easier targeting.
James rolled his eyes and stood up, firing on the marauder.
Shepard did the same. "Careful, Major. I might not be able to resist your charm."
James groaned. They were going to drive him crazy before the end of this.
Soft emerald eyes stared into pained chocolate ones. A gentle hand pressed against Kaidan's cheek. "I'll always love you, Kaidan."
"Don't leave me behind, please." Kaidan tried to move forward, but James had a strong hold on him.
"Go! Now!" Shepard ran back into the fight to the beam as the Normandy took off.
The last thing Shepard thought was how strange it was that Harbinger didn't attack the Normandy. Then the beam hit him.
"Status report!"
"Our ground team was decimated."
"Why hasn't Harbinger stopped firing?"
"Oh. My. God. It's got Shepard suspended!"
As the reports flew back and forth, no one noticed the waver in the beam. What seemed like an eternity to Shepard, only lasted minutes to everyone else. What everyone did notice was the build up of red surrounding Shepard that unleashed and flew along the beam to hit Harbinger, causing it to release Shepard before crashing to the ground, very much inactive. In the time it took Shepard to fall back to the ground, the Reapers also succumbed to the same fate as Harbinger.
Cheers rose from the soldiers fighting the Reapers and reports started flowing in across the galaxy. Messages were sent to Hackett congratulating him on the success of the crucible, except the crucible had never fired. It had never docked. In fact, it had been destroyed. So how did this happen?