The Last Flight of the Tai Shan
It had been thirty-six years since Captain Lawerence Briggs first set foot on an Alliance warship and yet he still remembered it all like yesterday. All the pomp and ceremony as his tutor Commander Payne pinned his officer bars on his chest, the wonder of seeing the newly commissioned dreadnaught the SSV Tai Shan for the first time, sleek and powerful, lying silent in orbit as the small shuttle craft carrying the fresh out the academy recruits cruised through the void towards it. As soon as he had come aboard he found himself met by the ships executive officer Commander Irvine, a cold woman with little time to pander to the new recruits mix of wonder and pride, she had led them to the bridge promptly and assigned them to their posts, Briggs was to take up the position as one of the gunnery lieutenants working directly beneath the star ships commanding Officer Captain Tiberius Burns. Briggs would never forget as he first stepped onto the bridge he had awkwardly stumbled over the lip of the elevator drawing dagger like stares from XO Irvine yet Burns had been good enough not to mention it.
Back then it was all so easy, they protected fleets of colonisation cruisers as the new pioneers struck out to brave new worlds, he had been part of the great expansion of human kind as the Tai Shan travelled throughout the galaxy using the newly discovered Mass Relays. It had been when he was boy and first heard over the vids that explorers on Mars had unearthed the remnants of an ancient civilisation that he turned his eyes to the stars and decided that he would one day be on the frontier like they were. But after a few seemingly short years on service on the Tai Shan his childhood dreams really did come to fruition but not as he hoped they would have done. He had been there on the cusp of the First Contact War commanding the Tai Shan's starboard battery of flak cannons, at that time humanity learnt the hard way that they were not alone in the galaxy.
Briggs grew older and wiser as the Milky Way seemed to grow bigger and bigger, new technologies, new peoples and new threats all reared into view in quick succession but he knew his duty stayed the same and he remained on the Bridge of the Tai Shan. In the years that followed he enjoyed a steady rise through the ranks, being made XO in 2169 following Irvine's transfer to the SSV London. But the time for him to really show his mettle had been given to him in rather cruel circumstances, upon leaving the Eighth Fleet to return to Earth from the Skyilian Verge for a refit the Tai Shan was ambushed by a small flotilla of Batarian cruisers, the ensuing battle had been short brutal and bloody.
Briggs would often recall the feeling of panic on the bridge when they emerged from the Mass Relay and were immediately fired upon full broadside by the Batarian ships.. The enemy was visceral, if you faced a Turian fleet they would be well disciplined and focus on integral ship systems to finish the battle quickly with as few shells as possible fired, but the Batarians just unloaded everything they had, peppering the Tai Shan with as many slugs as they could in a hope to cripple them. But this was ultimately their undoing, Alliance dreadnaughts are no trifling matter to deal with and despite the heavy level of damage they inflicted on the ship the well-disciplined Alliance crew fought on and left more than half of the clunky looking cruisers either as floating hunks of space junk or disabled before the Batarians fled. But the victory did not come at a cost, while the Batarian's did very little damage to the Tai Shan's core systems hundreds of crewmen lay dead, including Captain Burns making Briggs the ships acting commanding officer, something that was made official by Alliance Command when the ship finally limped back to Earth and Briggs was given the Tai Shan to be his first command. It was unheard of for an officer to see his first captaincy aboard a dreadnaught but Briggs was not going to let himself think this was because he was somehow exceptionally skilled, he knew it was a promotion of mere convenience and he imagined if there had have been a more senior officer familiar with Kilimanjaro-class Dreadnaughts on shore leave they would have called him or her up, but instead it went to Briggs. Since he was handed the captaincy of the ship he loved in such sour circumstance though Briggs had always told himself that he would give them no reason to take the ship away from him and that he would prove his worth and looking back now as an much older man he was sure he had earned it and then some.
For years now the Tai Shan under Brigg's command had faced every enemy that would dare challenge the Alliance, but it was when they had been there for Sovereign's attack on the citadel that everything they thought they knew seemed to change again. Briggs remembered as they and a number of other nearby Alliance vessels joined with the Fifth Fleet as they made the jump to Citadel Space. He stared in a mix of awe and fear as they first saw the hulking form of the Destiny Ascension violently listing as Geth ships swarmed over it and then like some giant creature of the deep the flagship Sovereign tearing through Turian, Asari, Salarian craft as if they were paper. Briggs ordered a full broadside against the giant tendriled capital ship but all the might of the Tai Shan just bounced harmless off its gunmetal coloured hull. It took everything from everyone to finally take the beast down and not without heavy losses, he was just glad the Citadel Council had been grateful for the human lives they gave to save them. But none of the aftermath mattered to him, in his three decades of service he thought he had seen and fought off everything that the Milky Way and its people had to throw at him, the might of the Turian Hierarchy, the vicious Batarian Hegemony, countless pirate and slaver raids and yet now there was a new threat, a threat that completely changed the rules of war, a threat that seemed unassailable and immortal.
All these thoughts and more swam round his head as he sat nervously on the Tai Shan's bridge in the captain's chair awaiting for Comm-Officer Hamilton to double check the message she had just received.
"There is no question sir" Hamilton said "Luna-Base has gone dark"
"I see" Briggs uttered calmly "Thank you"
Hamilton saluted and returned to her post, Briggs did not say anything but he could see she was visibly shaking. He did not blame her, he knew what this meant, everyone on board knew what this meant, the creatures that they had been told and time and time again were just a myth were moments away from descending upon Earth, the Reapers were here. All eyes on the bridge turned to him and he sat silent for a moment, despite all the steeling of his mind and endless mental preparation he had tried to do for this event none of it had worked, he just thought back to the Citadel, that creature, how powerless he was even with one of the most powerful pieces of human technology ever built beneath him, he had no plan and he had no hope to think of one.
"Sir" XO Brody piped up, a good girl and ever the optimist, but she had not been there when Sovereign came, she had been on some frigate in the Skylian Verge relocating colonists, "What are your orders?"
Briggs knew there was nothing he could do to stop what was coming and he imagined those that had been there at the Citadel knew as well, but he could not let himself be overwhelmed as any hope for the future ebbed from his mind, he had to do something, no, he would do something. Flicking open the keypad built into the armrest of his captain's chair Briggs opened a comm channel to the rest of the vessel.
"SSV Tai Shan this is your captain" He said sternly, he would keep face even on the cusp of Armageddon that's what Burns would do, thats what he did as he lay dying those many years ago "Alliance Command has lost all contact with Luna-Base and I think we all know what this means, for years we have tried to trick ourselves into believing that this was not coming and that it was the ravings of a mad-man. I will not lie to you and give some pretty speech, but I will tell it straight and tell it true, we face a battle we cannot win"
The faces of everyone on the bridge sunk.
"But we will not baulk and we must not falter, beneath us lays the city of Vancouver, a city of millions, people who we need to defend and who we need to buy time for. We are men and women of the Alliance Navy and we have one of the most powerful ships in the fleet at our disposal and we will do our duty, we will do the only thing we can do, we will save as many as we can. Some of you may want to run but the Reapers are at our door there is nowhere left to run to, we will hold the line until the end and we will give them hell"
The sunken faces rose and numerous crewmen silently nodded with approval.
"Everyone to your sta.." But before Briggs could finish a deafening guttural roar rocked the ship.
The captain stood from his chair and stared out of the bridge's panoramic view screen, bursting forth from the clouds and descending down upon to Vancouver's skyline were the Reapers. Swarming, another came and another, crashing through buildings and letting out their incredible howls as they dug their claw like appendages into the Earth latching hold. In mere moments the blue morning sky was now filled with black smoke and flashes of red dancing across the cloudlayer as the creatures loosed their weapons against mankind. Some of the crew stood silent, some of them let out simple cries of 'my god' and he heard someone was already weeping, but they looked to him, his command.
"Full speed ahead, bring us in low" Briggs barked
"Aye aye sir!" Chief Helmsman Michaels said as he immediately began to work with the ship's holographic interface, flicking through a number of screens of scrolling texts and status reports as he bought the dreadnaught's mighty engines online.
Briggs strode back through the bridge towards the combat information centre shouting orders to his crew who all immediately set about their duties, bringing the main guns online, transferring all excess power to the shields, making sure that the Tai Shan would give these Reapers no quarter. Briggs reached the holographic layout in the centre of the bridge, currently it displayed the Milky Way, such a sight could encourage many unwelcome thoughts so Briggs quickly whisked it away and brought up a layout of the city, one that was now filled with the familiar silhouettes of the Reaper monsters bearing down on it. Briggs looked over the display, already so much destruction, so much death, but he could not let this play on his mind, they were all members of the Alliance military they would do what had to be done.
The SSV Tai Shan cruised into the depths of the city, such a large ship would be difficult to manoeuvre but Briggs knew it was their best chance to engage the Reapers as close as they dare, despite being an impressive sight in Citadel Space the alliance dreadnaughts were still dwarfed by the monstrous forms of the enemy, getting in close may allow them to act as a wasp to an angry bear. Briggs commanded from the CIC deck as they prepared for their first engagement, he looked over to Comm-Officer Hamilton, she had her face in her hands and he could here coming through the radio was an utterly incomprehensible mess of chatter, frightened soldiers begging for orders, the sounds of gunfire and screams. Briggs could not pay this any mind, he would have liked to have saved everyone, made sure that everyone knew what had to be done but he had enough to juggle aboard his own craft, they were in the hands of their own Captains and Commanders and he prayed they all did their duty. Above the dreadnaught a squad of Alliance fighters and a frigate screamed into battle, darting and diving between the high-rises as they engaged the nearest Reaper. The beast let out a brief roar before it turned its main gun onto them, tearing through the frigate like nothing and sending its flaming wreckage slamming into the River Fraster below before it turned back to its business of the destruction of the city.
On the holo-map Briggs could see already the streets were crammed with people stampeding as the Reapers descended around them, he imagined them screaming, streaked with blood, tears and dirt as they frantically ran without any goal above survival. On the harbour already large seagoing vessels were letting the frantic crowds pile aboard while the spaceport was being swamped as every single cargo freighter, military vessel and private craft took on the people who just moments ago had gone from their day to day lives to being refugees. Briggs watched as the shapes of craft began to rise from the port and make a beeline for the sky, but as this happened there was another roar in the distance as nearby Reapers saw the fleeing ships and began to wade out into the river towards the fleeing spacecraft.
"Michaels, get us towards the Spaceport, we might be able to buy those people some time!" Briggs commanded and wordlessly the stalwart helmsman obeyed banking the ship to port so they were facing the oncoming Reapers head on.
A blast of red energy cut across their bow and brought a building to their starboard side crashing down in sheets of flame. The dreadnaught rocked as rubbles crashed over its hull but sped on. One of the Reapers turned its main cannon to the refugees and fired blowing one of the packed cargo freighters out of the sky, thousands more people dead in an instant and with no regret and the creatures only thirsted for more. On the eastern shore of the Fraster people were gathering on the bank and leaping into the icy water making a desperate swim for the awaiting spaceships on the other side, behind them though a smaller Reaper that resembled an erect locust plunged in after them, firing its cannon into waters sending up plumes of steam and turning the water a pale red. The gunnery chiefs opened fire and all of the Tai Shan's firepower unloaded onto the smaller creature; it let out a loud wail as it was impacted time and time again by the ship's flak cannons that tore away at its armoured body. Briggs gritted his teeth; they might be able to take one of the bastards down. Down in the deck's below Briggs knew the gunnery crews were working double time but as he watched the Reaper writhe and recover from the initial impact he wished they would work even faster. Shrugging off their firepower the Reaper looked skyward; Briggs felt a lump in his throat.
The Reaper's main cannon glowed red as it took the Tai Shan into its sights, Briggs gripped the metal railings of the CIC' balcony, this would not be it he told himself, it could not be, they could still give more. But as if some force above him heard there was a gigantic white flash and the Reaper let out an ear splitting scream, Briggs was thrown to the floor and he felt the ship list to the starboard. Crewmen screamed and alarm bells began to sound throughout the ship, he felt his head pounding and in a moment of searching for a little familiarity fumbled for his captain's cap that was thrown from his head. Jamming it back onto his balding scalp Briggs could reassure himself he was still alive, he pulled himself up on the railing with a little help from a crewman, he did not know who. The bridge lighting had turned to its emergency backup and he could hear that throughout the ship alarm bells were ringing piercingly, on the bank of security monitors he could see that crewmen with fire extinguishers were dashing through the corridors, this was reassuring, whatever damage they had received the crew thought they could contain. Gradually the ship was brought level again and Briggs could see where the Reaper had been was now a smouldering crater of ruins and heap buckled metal that moved and writhed as it tried to claw its way back to its feet, but after a pathetic cry from the machine there was another mighty flash and the Reaper moved more. Briggs turned to the comm station immediately and as he expected Hamilton had received a message through.
"SSV Tai Shan this is the SSV Winchester" Came a voice marred with static "Glad we could be of assistance"
An orbital strike, Briggs would have liked to have use the dreadnaught's most powerful weapons but they dare not fire them in the atmosphere, especially not when there were people still running through the streets. He quickly marched over to the comm unit and spoke into the communicator.
"This is Captain Briggs of the Tai Shan, what's happening up there?"
Most of the transmission was incomprehensible but Briggs deciphered enough to leave him cold 'hundreds of thousands dead', 'fleet in tatters', 'orbital defences destroyed', 'no hope' and then nothing but silence and the low buzz static. Briggs had no time to contemplate on this; he returned to his post and busied himself once more directing the ship. He could not think about what was happening above them, about the Reapers descending all around them, he just had to keep in command and do what he could, he had to save the people, there must be some he could save.
"Damage report now!" Briggs ordered
"We have severe damage to the starboard side sir, engine four is completely disabled and engine five is only running at half capacity, we also have fires on decks four through seven, a hull breach on decks five and six, engineering is reporting unstable reactions from the Mass Effect core and the starboard thanix cannons are damaged beyond repair" Michaels yelled, still frenziedly working the controls.
"Casualties?"
"Unknown"
"Well at least we are still in the fight, reroute all excess power to the weapon batteries"
"Aye aye"
Everyone did as they were ordered and Briggs felt a sigh of relief wash through him, such a damage report at any other battle would have made them turnabout and get out of there but today as long as the Tai Shan could move he and his men would do all they could.
The dreadnaught moved full ahead and soon they were over the river and following it downstream, they would try to protect anyone making the crossing. A group of orb-like Reaper fighter craft dashed from the ruins and attempted to engage them but were quickly taken from the sky by the dreadnaught's gunners. Bellow them Briggs could see that crawling through the streets now was not just men and women but strange creatures as well, they lopped over the wreckage in pursuit of the people but Alliance marines were in the fray trying to fight them back. Through the view screen Briggs saw a squad of gunships engage another group of Reaper fighters, both sides suffered losses with one of the Alliance gunships slamming hard into the riverside docks. So much death, never before in the history of man had there been such a loss of life in such a short period of time and this was only the first day of the war, hell, Briggs knew he could not call it a war. A war implies that both sides have a chance of victory, it is not a war between men and mice, they were just bees buzzing and dithering round as the beekeeper came to harvest their honey, they could do nothing. How could galactic civilisation survive, it could not, he could hope, maybe the Alliance had a super weapon they were saving to reveal at this moment and use it to bring the Reapers down, maybe we could find some way to beat them outside of weapons, maybe a hero would rise up and lead the galaxy to victory, but no Briggs knew this was not how the world worked.
The old captain wished he could try to lie to himself and convince himself that somehow there was hope in the spirit of man and what not, but he knew that no matter how much hope or spirit someone had that means nothing when you are facing execution, wars are won with weapons not positive thinking and in a war when even your weapons are worthless, then what is the point. But Briggs knew his purpose, his ship's purpose, he just had to give the people bellow a chance, he may only be delaying the inevitable but if humanity were just mice they would gnaw away at the Reapers and run as far and fast as they could, they would not fight to win they would fight to survive and claw and scratch and kick until they could claw and scratch and kick no more.
The Tai Shan now faced down a Reaper once more, but this was not the small bug like creature that they had destroyed with help from their comrades in orbit, no, this was like the one Briggs had faced at the Citadel, sat hovering above the river, colossal, angular, a monster from the darkest places of the universe that represented nothing but death and destruction. Briggs felt his whole body grow tight as they went full speed ahead, they had to engage, the creature was looming close to spaceport, to close, with one blast of its mighty weapon it could wipe the whole place and all the terrified people off the face of the Earth. Over the comms he could still hear the hysterical cries of the soldiers bellow, but he still tried to pay it no mind, this was their last flight, their final stand. Another voice came on the speaker, some gunnery sergeant of some frigate begging them to flee and not engage, but Briggs paid it no mind and with a nod to Hamilton she turned off the comms. It was time.
"Fire!" Briggs shouted and all of the Tai Shan's guns opened simultaneously spraying the monstrous machine with everything they had. Barrage upon barrage of the most powerful weapons that man had to offer being flung at the metal hulk of the machine, the guns spoke again and again, a scream of desperation, the Reapers would know that man would not give in to them and he would always fight even when he knew he could be victorious. The reaper looked up and stared them down, Briggs knew it was drawing eyes with the ship, summing them up. He wondered if it felt any admiration for them, if it felt any pity, even if it felt the slightest hint of fear in seeing what man would do. Normally he knew his enemy inside and out but these things, so incomprehensible, so beyond anything that man was. Briggs stared on and sucked in his breath and there was a red flash followed by the sound of rending metal. The bridge computers fizzed and shorted, the ship listed forward and the crew were thrown to the metal grating. Briggs found himself sliding down towards the view screen; he latched hold of one of the seats that was occupied by a bloodied and dead technician. Hauling himself to his feet he stumbled forward before losing his feet again and tumbling to the helm as another explosion rocked the dreadnaught. Through the now shattered view screen Briggs could see the Reaper still standing unphased and undamaged exalting its deafening roar. It fired, its red beam tearing through the ship and that began to ignite and explode behind him.
All seemed to go silent for a moment for Briggs, the bridge were he had seen most of his adult life fly past him was still and full of ruin. He tried to desperately to think but his mind was screeching, nothing was clear, only that his life was about to end. The Tai Shan began to fall from the sky, all its system shutting down and merely becoming a hunk of lifeless metal; Briggs stood with it and fell with it. Peace washed over him as the bright light bathed the ship, he always hoped his life would end like they said in the old stories with a flash of bright light, it's just a shame he knew that for him it was nothing mystical and it was not angels coming to carry him to some heaven, it was merely the Mass Effect core rupturing, reducing him to nothingness and his beloved ship to nothingness. It was like they were never there.