Chapter 1: Now What?
Location: Battlefield Above Earth
Date: June 14, 2184
My eyes widened as we watched the Citadel begin to open as the Crucible attached itself to it. Then Hackett's voice came through the comm system. "Shepard, the Crucible isn't firing! It's something on your end!" Ann's voice came through next. "There's nothing here!" She sounded both panicked and exhausted. "Wha-" came John's voice before we lost a connection with both. I looked over towards Jeff, who was sitting in his chair; while I sat in the co-pilot's seat. Minutes passed very slowly. What seemed like hours was in fact no more than ten minutes when the comm began crackling. "Joker we need a pick-up asap!" came one of their voices, but the comm was so pitchy that I couldn't tell if it was Ann's or John's voice.
"Aye, aye Commander." Jeff answered. His voice ever so calm that it was quite eerie. As we closed in to the Citadel for pick-up we noticed that the entire structure, including the Crucible, was glowing an odd color.
I couldn't pay too much attention to it as the comm crackled again and once more I couldn't tell who it was exactly. "We...Citadel...gonna blow!" was all we heard, and it was all we needed to hear as Jeff drove the Normandy into a hot pick-up and in seconds began to take off towards the relay.
Both of our hands flew over the holographic displays of consoles as we went through the relay. "Jeff, I'm picking up a huge surge of energy!" I yelled out at him.
"Shit, shit, shit!" he cursed when suddenly all the klaxons began sounding loudly.
The console I was at suddenly caught fire. I quickly pushed myself away from it, wrapped an arm around my swollen stomach. "Shit!" I screamed as I grabbed my burnt left hand.
"Serena!" he yelled as we were hit by a wave of pure energy. I was thrown from my chair to the ground. I felt my head hit something and as darkness took me over I was reminded of how this all began.
Location: Citadel
Date: October 28, 2183
My eyes widened, as did every spectator on board the ships in and around the Citidel. They had no choice, we had to retreat. The Citadel was activating! "This is Spectre John Sheperd, we need evac shuttles asap. I repeat, we need evacuation shuttles for civilians asap!"
I looked over towards Jeff, "We need to get them." I noticed he was looking at the now charred remains of the SSV Normandy. I placed my hand on his shoulder as we passed the escape shuttles. "Should we help 'em?"
He looked up at me. "After we get Ann." He looked towards the co-pilot seat. "Could use my sexy co-pilot." he smirked.
"Yeah well, your sexy co-pilot has to go help Chakwas." I leaned down and kissed his bearded cheek. "Keep us safe," I whispered into his ear as I left.
Ann shot another husk as it came hobbling towards them. "Joker we need pick-up asap!" she yelled into her comm. She saw John dodge a geth hopper as Jacob made it explode from a hacking.
"Coming in behind you Commander," was her response from him.
"We're on the damn Presidium. There's nowhere to land!" she yelled at him.
"It's me you're talking to Shep, I can do the impossible. I'm Jeff Joker fuckin' Moreau! I can do this!" he yelled back at her.
"Then get it done Moreau!" she heard John yell as his body lit up with his biotics, the geth flying from the Presidium to the ground below.
"You heard him Joker, get it done," she said as she picked up her collector based gun. The superheated plasma tore through the husk bodies without hesitation.
Ian pulled out his sniper began shooting the geth from the walls. "Why did it have to be Garrus!" he growled. "My best friend!" he shot another and another, each one being a head shot.
Ann looked at Ian and then towards her husband. "Keep your head in the game!" Garrus growled at the human.
Ian paused as he looked at the turian before he nodded. "Right," he muttered as he shot again and got another headshot.
Wrex threw up a shield around the two Shepards as a kamikazie husk came running at them, but blew up on impact of the krogan's shields. The two looked at him. "You can thank me later," he growled, his eyes shinning in what could only be amusement.
Just then there was a whirling of engines and as the wind picked up everybody looked up to see the Normandy SR-3 come barreling through the Citadel. It's thanix canon shot through a building allowing it to pass through it to the teams awaiting for an evac. The ship came to a pause as it shot at the building opposite of the team, which then collapsed and allowed it to spin around and open the cargo bay. John's remaining team jumped into it. They gave cover fire to Ann's team who jumped in after them. Kal jumped last and paused when a single shot was heard, causing Ann to turn around quickly with he pistols drawn. Kal lifted his hand to reveal purplish/blue blood on his hand. He'd been shot. It was a through and through. "Commander?" he asked as he fell to the ground unconscious.
"I need a medic!" she yelled as she grabbed him before he touched the ground.
"Good thing I'm here then," came Serena's voice as she ran over to the fallen quarian in the Commander's arms. Chakwas was right behind her. The two began to check his pulse, scan for infections, see if any major organs were hit, and then got him onto the gurney and ran him to medbay.
Ann looked out the cargo bay as it began to close and the Normandy began it's ascent into space and away from the oncoming apocalypse. John grabbed Ann's shoulder. "What now?" he asked. He looked to be still shaken by what had happened.
"Now, we fight back." she said as they walked into the elevator. "But first we need to go to Eden Prime."
"Why?" he inquired as his eyebrows knitted together. "What's on Eden Prime?"
Ann smiled. "A friend," she responded as the doors to the CIC opened up.
M-Angel: Yes! There is my surprise to my loyal readers. Chapter one to Hero's Survival is finished. Now that I have your attention, chapter two isn't going to be posted until after Labor Day...maybe? Now I'm off to go finish A New Dawn; that way I can begin working on this story. *smiles*
xoxoangii: remember to review! maybe it will make her write faster :x