Sword Fleet, Earth Orbit, final moments of the Reaper War:

Admiral Hackett stood on the bridge of his Alliance dreadnought, right in the command centre of the entire war effort against the Reapers. Out of the window he could see Earth on fire, Reapers around him, the Fleets fighting back. The Crucible had docked with the Citadel, and all remaining ships were protecting it briliantly, but nothing was happening. His ship was taking damage like every other one and couldnt hold out much longer, the grim truth was that the Allied Fleet never stood a chance against the Reaper Fleet. The Crucible was their game-changer, their trump card. And it wasnt working. All around him, people were running up and down the bridge, taking readings, communicating with the Fleet, monitoring the Crucible. It all came down to this. Victory or bust. If the Crucible failed now, they were all extinct. There was no way they could build another one, this one alone had drained their resources and was still technologically ahead of them. Hackett was so desperate now he was gripping the main console on the bridge hard enough that his knuckles were white.

"Sir, what do we do?" an officer panicked

"I don't know!" Hackett shouted, which told everyone something was wrong: Hackett ALWAYS kept his calm attitude.

Come on Shepard! Where are you?! He thought. Everyone knew he was up there somewhere, he'd told the fleets that someone had made it to the Citadel and everyone had assumed it was Commander Shepard, a testament to the mans reputation. But where was he now? Dead? Injured?

"Sir, we wont be able to stay here for more than a few minutes, we need to issue a tactical retreat!" another crewman said.

"No we stay the course! We protect that machine for as long as physically possible and then we protect it some more, do you understand me?!" Hackett yelled. He looked through the window and saw three turian dreadnoughts taken out by a Reaper Capitol Ship, as his own ship was rocked by several explosions.

"No!" Hackett said to himself, his voice strained, "every time we get presented with an advantage, it gets taken away!" it was agonizingly irritating to think about and was so... unfair.

And just when all hope was lost, as Hackett was considering that unthinkable retreat, it happened. The Crucible "switched on". What Hackett could only assume was the "firing chamber", the spherical section that was connected to the base of the Citadel, was glowing red.

"Jones! Tell me what that is, now!" He yelled to one of the crewman responsible for monitoring the Crucible from the ship.

"Sir, I... I dont believe it! If these numbers are right the Crucible is generating an enormous amount of dark energy, enough to completely destroy the Reapers. And its still climbing!" He said with disbelief.

"Shit... He did it" Hackett said quietly "The son-of-a-bitch did it!" he could almost jump for joy, and he wasnt the only one, the whole bridge was cheering.

"Steady now, crew, we're not done yet" He pressed the intercom and broadcast to the Fleets:

"All Fleets, the Crucible is armed! Disengage and head to the rendezvous point. I repeat: disengage and get the Hell out of here!" He said to every ship.

"Sir, these readings are now going off the charts" Jones said "The Crucible will destroy the Reapers, but the stress will be too much for it and the Citadel, the Crucible will explode, and the station will most likely rip itself apart."

That meant Shepard will die. Hackett's moment of triumph also meant leaving a friend to die.

"Admiral, orders?" one of his officers said. Hackett sighed.

"Head... for the rendezvous point."

"Aye-aye" The ship spun round and jumped into FTL with the rest of the Fleet. The Mars blueprints had shown that whatever the Crucible would do would use the Mass Relays so their get-out plan was to rendezvous several light years away from Earth in another part of the Local Cluster. As they jumped Hackett looked out the window at the Citadel, arms spread out like a five-point star, a read wave of energy being released from the station.

And then they jumped.