Author's Note:

This was written for a drabble contest sponsored by a Mass Effect Fan fiction site I am a part of. The limit was 1,000 words but I went over a bit. None the less, I hope you enjoy it.

Read and Review.


She reeled back her arm, fists clenched, hot blood slick between her black fingers, and gazed at the horde of blazing husks hurtling towards their direction.

"We will die here." her partner spoke, pain evident in his voice; Even still, he was readying his weapon, a grin full of broken teeth. "Didn't even get the chance to see what all the fuss was about those damned scales." he eyed her suggestively.

Jera didn't even glanced back at the krogan behind her. Instead she closed her eyes, allowing her minds eye to search for the targets ahead. Each one was a dim point in her vision, but it was all she would need.

"One final blow for those who think themselves Gods!" she bellowed her prayer and slammed a biotic charge into the ground. Even wounded, her control was precise, a blue light flashed momentarily from her fist and ran into the ground, erupting into angry veins, their only escape was through the feet of the charging husks as they blindly trampled over the lines, the effects sending a fatal electric charge through their mutilated bodies.

Any who managed to get through her attack were quickly taken down by her friend with his assault rifle.

Staggering, she opened her eyes, her knees meeting the ground beside her fist, anger and dread filled her as she saw movement in the distance. "Drek..." she called over her shoulder while the Krogan knelt to her side, not needing to look ahead to know what it was she saw, "We can't say we fought well until they take out our last man. To end it here, like this..." he trailed off, motioning a large paw to the corpses of the fallen comrades around them.

Jera refused to look, refused to see the lifeless forms of her friends who had died only moments before to the monsters who plagued the human planet. She was tired of this war, tired of surviving battles, loosing team mates and being reassigned to units only to lose them again. But they both knew this was different, they had all seen The Normandy reached Earth's surface and fly out again, had all seen the Crucible which had crashed into the dark earth, enter orbit once more.

This would be the last battle, the woman who everyone had expected to lead all of the allied races to victory would succeed or everyone would die, no not even that mattered.

What did Jera care about the success of the Spectre; Of the fate of the world when she knew she would not live to toast to something so glorious.

"This may sound strange...coming from someone like me Jera." Drek grunted while pulling the older drell to her feet and held a hand in the small of her back to keep her steady, "but I was in love with you until I saw you on the battle field."

That was a bit strange coming from a war hungry krogan, however she knew Drek was anything but that. He was forced into this war much like she was. A krogan who dreamed of being a scholar, an astronomer, couldn't be called a krogan at all.

At least according to his battle master, he was sent with a unit as an asset to the war in hopes of being "re-educated" or killed in battle with a worthy foe.

"Your love for me left once you saw me on the battle field...why is that Drek?" she tried to sound coy, but it proved difficult with taste of fresh blood filling her mouth.

"Are you familiar with the story of Ara'shu and her consort?" he asked, eyeing the new horde of husks and scions that were beginning to make their way to their position.

She knew it all to well. Surrounded by demons and Gods who would see the warrior of protection fail, her escort Frior sacrificed himself as a shield while Ara'shu made her escape into the heavens. "If you're shooting for something symbolic, I guess you have it right. Am I to be Frior? Sacrificing myself for the freedom of the galaxy? Is Shepard supposed to be Ara'shu?"

Adrenalin faded the pain from her wounds, was now melting away the exhaustion that leaded her limbs. She could near the sharp cries of a banshee from behind them, maybe only a few meters away. They would be taken in this next wave.

A shield, in her final moments, if she could be anything, she would rather not be simple fodder, but a shield to her people, for her loved ones. If she only bought them a few more minutes, a few more seconds, it would be enough. For now, it would have to be enough.

She braced her legs, spread them shoulder width a part and took a deep breath. She clenched her fists and held them to her sides and stretched her head back.

Reaching for an energy deep within her, she thought of the one person who had been her motivation for power all this time.

Her thoughts were full of Shira, her younger sister.

She closed her eyes and the music that was Drek's battle cry flowed beautifully with the rapid fire of his rifle. She sent a biotic ripple forward into a crowd of husks, pulling one of their limp corpse in front of her while a abomination fired into her person.

Dropping the body, her right leg extended forward, anchoring into the ground while she lunged and turned into a spin, her left leg remained free, another biotic charged released it's embrace from the limb and sent an arc into the group of maunders that thought the duo would be easily flanked from their right side.

The scythe formed from her kick dispersed into smaller black spheres upon impact, stasis anchors, picking up stray husks that brushed passed their brethren in an attempt to over take the odd pair, as they floated above their heads, Jera slammed them, full force into the earth below, a satisfied shiver ran down her spine; Or was it exhaustion finally settling in?

"A shield, a shield." Jera could hear Drek's grunts as he spun out of the direction of an oncoming cannibal and slammed it's fleshy head into the ground before sending a spray of bullets into it's skull. "How dare you lower yourself to the simple use of a shield!" he roared, loosening a grenade into the general direction of the south.

The answer to the wanton attack was a choir of screeches, a song filled with colorful screams, however it wasn't long before they found themselves, backs literally pinned to the wall of a downed shuttle that had failed to extract them earlier.

The shrill sounds of a banshee grew ever close.

Jera's red eyes shot open, in the distance she saw what had seemed to be a pulsating blue light from from the distance, too bright for her to recognize through her biotic's eye. "Drek..." she breathed, but krogan only replied with a laugh.

"The love of my life, subjects herself to that of a mere shield." he looked down at the drell, with scales as dark as the unforgiving nights on his planet and eyes as red as his own blood, she was the only one willing to accept him as who he was, a failed krogan.

He saw the reaper forces sub come to the light that flashed behind them, his field of vision was further and larger than his drell companion, but he also knew that unless he bought her some time, she would not escape, the enemy would reach them before the light killed them off.

He grabbed her by her frill and jabbed a finger into its underside, watching as she collapsed, her face full of horror and betrayal, the last thing he would see; his final memories. Drek grinned and kissed her forehead before laying her down and looked towards the light, "Allow me to become your shield, Oh Goddess Ara'shu." he spoke the chant that was most common to drell warriors who were to face their deaths in battle.

Their eyes met after he spoke, and she understood. She couldn't stop him, she couldn't move.

Jera could only watch as Drek charged all the grenades on his person and ran full force into the horde that would take their lives.

The explosions went off, and a few seconds later a warm aqua light killed the rest of the creatures that had them surrounded.

The groans and protests from the larger reaper ships filled the air in a crescendo that signaled their defeat, a glorious victory, but it could not drown out her cries.