It's raining fire.
At least, that's what it feels like.
Cracks fire through the air and the ear-splitting sound of metal being torn apart by a powerful laser shrieks in my ears. The crew are dashing about like mad, hustling to get into escape pods as white hot beams decimate the Normandy. The air is thick and feels like it's boiling my skin. Flames explode and whip about as a small gas canister ignites somewhere nearby. There are already a few corpses lying on deck. We need to get out.
I reach my armor and try to put my helmet on as calmly as I can. Survival instinct kicks in, and I push the images of the crew's bodies into the confines of my mind, corralling them into a part of my brain that is reserved for nightmares. I hear the helmet's seals click into place, and the sound calms me down just a bit.
"Commander!"
First things first. We need to send for help. "The distress beacon is ready for launch."
"Will the Alliance get here in time?" The stressful tone in Kaidan's voice comes through clearly. A powerful strike on the ship sends it into a rocking spasm, and I nearly lose my footing.
"The Alliance won't abandon us. We just need to hold on. Get everyone onto the escape shuttles."
"Joker's still in the cockpit. He won't abandon ship. I'm not leaving either."
Irritation sears through my brain like the beam cutting through the Normandy.
"Get to the damned shuttle! I'll haul Joker's crippled ass out of here." My reply was far more harsh than I had intended, but right now every cell in my body was in survival mode. We needed to get out, and Kaidan's heroics had no place here.
"Commander-"
"Get the hell out of here!" My voice nearly cracks with anger and fear, and Kaidan pauses for a moment before turning and dashing off to get any survivors onto the shuttles. As I begin to make my way to the cockpit, I wonder what the hell could be attacking us. It couldn't be a geth ship- no geth ship I'd ever seen could unleash this much devastation onto another vessel.
Joker's distress call is channeled into the intercom system in my helmet. "Mayday, mayday! This is SSV Normandy. We've suffered heavy damage from an unknown enemy! Come on baby, hold together, hold together..."
The door opens and if this wasn't really happening right now, I would've had to stop and admire the unbelievable view. A nearby planet's massive figure looms in space above me, casting an almost ethereal light on the husk that is left of the Normandy's main deck. Bits of metal have jettisoned off into space and they twinkle as they float past me in the absence of gravity. The pieces of metal that still remain attached glow hot red like the end of a cigarette. I have no time to stargaze, though. I painstakingly walk to the cockpit and it feels like I'm swimming through some sort of invisible jello. Finally, I reach Joker.
"Come on, Joker! We have to get out of here!"
"No, I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!" He turns his attention back to the control deck and furrows his eyebrows with determination.
"The Normandy's gone, Joker. Going down with the ship isn't going to change that."
He stares wistfully at the Normandy for a few moments before finally answering me. "...Yeah, alright. Help me up- wait, they're coming around for another attack!" I turn around just in time to watch a glowing beam of light slice right through the ship, dangerously close to the two of us. Time's up.
I grab Joker's arm and pull him from the chair, and in haste I hear a bone snap. I wince, but I know it can't be helped. A life is worth more than an arm.
"Ah, watch the arm!" Joker groans in pain as I pull him up and help him to the escape pod. I toss him into the shuttle and just as I'm about to jump in and launch our asses out of this train wreck, a devastating blow rocks the Normandy. I grip the side of the doorway as tightly as I can, but it's no use. My body is thrown and I hit the wall- painfully- before I grab hold of whatever I can, my lower body floating in zero gravity. "Commander!"
"Shepard!"
The last thing I hear is Joker's cry before a loud explosion nearly shatters my eardrums and I feel my grip release.
An explosion of ink before my eyes.
The shockwave sends me dangerously close to unconsciousness. I see black shapes shift in front of my vision before I manage to reach total awareness again. Everything's silent except for a strange hissing sound. I waver in and out of consciousness for a few seconds. Suddenly I recognize the sound and a wave of nausea sweeps over me.
It's my oxygen.
Quickly my body jerks as I grasp for nothing in particular. No, this can't be happening. My body begins to twist up as I frantically reach around the back of my suit, trying desperately and hopelessly to find something, anything that will fix this. Another terrible realization suddenly strikes me like a venomous snake- I have nowhere to go. Even if I managed to drift into a nearby planet's orbit, by the time I reached it's surface I would be a flaming, molten corpse, and even if the speed of the fall didn't ignite me like a straw doll, the landing would likely kill me. Either end was just as terrifying. I would float in space and panic until I ran out of oxygen- which, by the sound of that hissing, would not take too long- or I would get sucked into orbit and ignite as I sped quickly towards fatal impact.
Suddenly I begin to feel like I'm inhaling through cellophane and it dawns on me that my oxygen reserves are all but exhausted. My arms and legs jerk a few more times and I see spots in front of me. In the few seconds that my brain stays aware before death, I think of everything I'm leaving behind- my crew, my responsibilities, my life.
A few bright colors dart over my field of vision before quickly diluting to pastel clouds, and as they fade to an inky black that matches the cosmos around me, destined now to be my tomb, I can't help but wish it hadn't ended this way.