Author's Note
Relatively short chapter due to pacing. However, chapter 3 should be up faster than it took for this one!
Chapter 2
"Standby, Admiral. Here goes nothing."
Admiral Hackett glanced toward his communications officer.
"Give me a transmission on all channels on-board and outbound."
"Aye, sir." The ensign had begun following through with the order even before she had replied. She swiped her hand across her control panel and tapped three times down the right side of the screen. The woman turned back to her commanding officer. "Ready, sir."
"All units, this is Admiral Hackett. Commander Shepard is activating the Crucible. Standby."
The gray haired man turned his head back toward the ensign and nodded once, signaling her to cut the outbound signal. With two quick taps of her fingers the transmission ceased and she resumed her ongoing primary task of monitoring priority signals and comms. The admiral had already focused his attention to his own control console and was accessing video feeds from Alliance vessels nearest the Crucible. One of the available feeds was from the SSV Normandy as it rapidly approached the Citadel. The admiral couldn't help but shake his head in amazement, his mouth falling ever-so-slightly ajar. If there was one trait Shepard had that couldn't be taught it was his ability to inspire undying devotion from his comrades. Hackett leaned back in his chair and looked up from his command screen to the large viewport of the cruiser he had made his command vessel. Because the ship had remained relatively far back from the main point of engagement he bore witness to a sight truly never before seen by human eyes: almost every capable and willing ship in the known galaxy united on one front. Some ships were close enough to read the serial numbers painted across their hulls in various locations. Others were barely a speck in the inky black of space, only noticeable because of the faint flash of their cannons. He realized he had been gazing for nearly ten seconds before recomposing himself and redirecting his attention to the video feeds he had opened. Then he waited. He waited the longest seconds of his life.
Commander Shepard smiled as that soft, familiar tone radiated from the control panel. He took a step back and blinked, finding it difficult to reopen his eyes. The man felt himself involuntarily sinking to his knees. Shepard blinked again, his eyes holding shut for longer still than before. It seemed fitting that he should die here, the Citadel. The place that symbolized the very center of galactic cooperation. It was what he had made his greatest weapon. He gently lowered himself to the side and laid his head onto his arm, the emergency sequence lighting of the space station glowing a warm orange all around him.
Shepard's breathing became more labored with each passing second. As he lay dying his mind began to wander to that of what he had been fighting for. Faces began materializing in his mind, new and old. He saw the faces of his parents. His crew. His friends. His loved ones. This was truly something worth dying for, he thought to himself.
"EDI do you have a fix on his location?"
Joker didn't normally have much difficulty when it came to flying, but avoiding enemy and friendly weapons as well as hundreds of ships and debris from destroyed vessels proved to be a challenge even for him.
"I have set a way-point on your navigation console."
"You're a lifesaver, EDI... Heh. Literally."
EDI would have rolled her eyes had her physical body been present on the bridge at the time. Joker's eyes bounced between data feeds on his helm console, plotting a course to Shepard's location in his head. The arms of the Citadel were nearly closed which, hopefully, would mean there would be minimal debris to avoid once inside.
"Alright, we'll be inside in about twenty seconds... Check again and make sure the anti-debris fields aren't active, would you?"
EDI checked and the Citadel remained, as it had been, fully accessible. As she did her communications subroutine pinged with interesting data. Before she could fully analyze the information Joker spoke.
"EDI is it just me... or did the Reapers..."
Joker was looking out the viewports to make sure his sensors weren't malfunctioning. They weren't. Around him the hundreds of Reaper ships visible had suddenly and unceremoniously begun to stop firing their main cannons. The lights that ran the length of their obsidian hulls began to dim and die. The Reapers, no longer moving to maintain evasive maneuvers, began taking massive bombardments from the galactic fleet.
"It is not just you, Jeff. There is a signal I am picking up outside of traditional communication frequencies. It is stronger than any transmission I have on record."
The Normandy arced gracefully through the mostly retracted arms of the Citadel and set course for a maintenance platform that was documented as a power relay station.
"Are they reactivating?"
"Not yet."
The Normandy began to slow as it approached the platform.
"Well how about we pick up Shepard so he can make sure they don't!"
EDI rechecked Shepard's vital signs.
"Hurry, Jeff."
"Come on, T'soni! I've got a broken leg and I've still got a higher kill count than you!"
Liara rolled her eyes in both parts aggravation and good humor as she charged a massive biotic wave in her palms, unleashing it on an advancing wave of husks. The mutated humans flailed about helplessly as their converted bodies were thrown through the air and ripped apart in a torrent of pure energy.
"I think that brings me close! Are you really going to let a lab-coat catch up that easily, Garrus?"
The turian laughed and rattled off three shots in quick succession with his M-97 Viper, each catching an advancing cannibal in the head. He popped his expended thermal clip and banged his fist on the side of the Mako they were perched atop to signal for a few more fresh clips from the soldiers below. The quick respite they had enjoyed after their run toward the light had unfortunately subsided as their reinforcements were met with a heavy counter-attack by Reaper ground forces. Liara stood next to Garrus as he sat with his good knee up, giving him a makeshift bi-pod to steady his shots. The asari continued to hurl blast after blast of biotic energy at the charging enemies, stopping occasionally to stave off complete mental exhaustion.
"They... just don't know when to stop, do they?"
"Ya know, Liara... I think that might be why the Reapers like using indoctrination so much."
Garrus smirked to himself as he caught a banshee just over a hundred and fifty meters out with her barrier down. After making quick work of her with a clean headshot he looked up to the resting asari. As he opened his mouth to speak Liara's omni-tool began flashing with an alert signaling an incoming transmission. Liara activated the speaker without hesitation.
"All units, this is Admiral Hackett. Commander Shepard is activating the Crucible. Standby."
"Now we just hope it isn't a giant bomb, right?"
"Well, Garrus, if it is I don't think we'll be alive for too long to worry about it, will we?"
The turian took aim and began firing once again, leaving Liara a bit surprised at his lack of a sarcastic rebuttal. She closed her eyes and began to re-establish her mental center. She focused on hushing the sounds of death and destruction emanating from every direction and lowered her consciousness back to relaxation. Liara's eyes opened and the sounds came crashing back down. As she began to prep another wave of biotics the young asari looked to the sky above her before letting out a vicious shout and blasting the energy toward the field of battle.
"Liara! Look!"
The asari followed Garrus' hand as it pointed toward a Reaper destroyer a few kilometers away. The lights adorning it's hull had begun to dim and fade until the body was completely dark and the long legs began to crumble beneath it, leaving the massive body to come crashing down.
"He did it?"
The two looked to one another in a brief moment of disbelief, almost looking for reassurance in each other that they weren't imagining what they had seen. A deep, commanding krogan voice suddenly burst from Liara's omnitool.
"GARRUS! LIARA! What the hell is goin' on? I can't raise Shepard on comms!"
"Wrex? We can't get to him directly, but look! The Reapers are-"
"That's what I'm talkin' about! I was trying to take out this destroyer with only a Tomkah and that pyjak kills it before me! From space!"
Garrus opened his mouth to speak only to stop himself and shake his head. No point in arguing with an angry krogan.
Commander Shepard lay motionless as the Normandy leveled off next to the circular maintenance platform. Mutliple crewman waited in the airlock for Joker to kill the safeties and open the door. Joker handed over the helm to EDI and limped to the opening hatch as four crewmen jumped onto the platform and ran to the bodies of Shepard and Anderson, checking for a pulse on both. One of the two next to Anderson shook his head and cursed under his breath before he and his partner turned to help the two lifting Shepard up and under their shoulders. Joker flipped on his comm.
"Med-bay this is Joker. You've got incoming."
Admiral Hackett glanced toward the mission timer at the corner of his command console. Nearly half a minute had passed since Shepard had reportedly activated the Crucible. His comm officer had begun to investigate a series of signals broadcasting outside of any standard Citadel space frequencies but she hadn't gotten a few seconds into her analysis before the admiral jerked up in his seat. His eyes stared intently into the video feeds on the screen before him before looking out the forward viewport. Across the expanse of space the red energy cannons of the Reapers had stopped firing. The dim lights that wrapped their bodies had vanished, making their silhouettes disappear in the pitch black. His communications officer (along with the rest of the bridge crew) stared just as dumbfounded as he did.
"Sir... What's happening?"
The admiral's lips slowly swelled into a smile. A sight his staff had not seen for many months.
"I think we just won, Ensign."
Author's Note
I had to make this chapter kind of short due to the pacing for the next segment of the story. If you're not a fan of the way the focus keeps changing constantly just hang on until chapter 3 as things will settle down a LOT. And for those curious about the Crucible and what it does I do plan on explaining it in the upcoming chapters... but if you want a tiny spoiler: it works. There will be no "twist for the sake of twists" that way too many writers have seemingly made standard over the past ten years. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
