Three choices were all that were left. After the fight, after the friends and family that lead him forwards all that was left was three choices. Shepard slowly trudged towards the intersection of fates bearing the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders and he was tired. He was tired of the fighting, tired of not being able to save others, tired of living. The choices laid themselves in front of the half dead male. Each had a benefit, each had a flaw. Shepard could not bear to think it over any more than he had. His decision here held more weight than he would like to believe. He knew every minute spent waiting was another hundred thousand dead. He had no more time to think. Shepard shut his eyes and trudged left. A trail of blood memorialized his steps up the precipice to what was certainly his doom. Atop the mountain of metal Shepard was gifted a look at death itself. Two pylons that stuck promptly out of a console on the wall. Shepard looked back for one last time and was not pleased by the sight; the endless expanse was littered with the corpses of once great starships that at one time struck fear into their enemies. Unfortunately for them, the Reapers did not feel fear. Shepard looked back at the console, back at death's unblinking unaltered eyes. Shepard closed his eyes and reached for the pylons.
Admiral Hackett stared dismally out the armored dreadnought windows. He never expected to see the horrors present on the battlefield. Reaper ships ending hundreds of thousands of lives with a single attack. Entire fleets being taken down by just one Reaper, and all he could do was watch. He was stuck in the CIC to only give the order of no retreat no matter what. It was Hackett's own personal hell; he had to listen to the final pleas for help of hundreds of ships and he could do nothing to save them. He could just watch the ship explode and then place it on the casualty list. It was inevitable that if Shepard's plan did not take form soon the entire galaxy would be doomed to extinction. He began to look down towards the floor only to look up again from a blinding blue light.
Tali had been quiet even since they left Shepard. She had always been one to worry, but this was different. She could see it among the entire crew; they were worrying also. No one wanted Shepard to die, but all other outcomes have been exhausted. Shepard had died once already, but Tali of all people knew that he was only human. A human that she loved; a human that she wanted to hold close and never let go of, and here she was letting him go, letting go of a bright and happy future, letting go of a house on Rannoch, letting go of all she has ever lived for. She could not help but cry a little inside her prison of a suit. Her small sobs soon turned into large cries when she heard the drive core begin its acceleration of warp speeds. "But he promised".