Shepard and Kaidan bumped into Ashley and James, "Hey Cali, Kaidan; this is James my boyfriend. He is a huge fan boy of you, and made me drag him down here just so he could meet you. So here he is, Lieutenant James Vega. "
After the meet and greet at the base of the secure elevator, the three of them rode up reliving the missions of old, most importantly how the N2 allowed both Kaidan and Ashley to hold off a partial Geth platoon almost single-handedly while the STG operators were disabling the complex AA system covering the Normandy's approach, and exfiltration, and how they survived the makeshift nuke. They arrived at the dock, only to be greeted by Admiral Hackett, and Captain Anderson, and Councillor Udina.
"Shepard," they began, "We know the truth, but this mission is a hearts and minds mission. You probably won't find anything, but if you do, back up from the SSV El Alamein is only six hours away."
"Thank you Sir!" Shepard stated before snapping off a salute. Kaidan and Ashley followed her, by saluting as well, before disappearing into the Normandy's airlock.
Shepard turned left to approach the bridge, while Kaidan and Ashley went right to store their belongings.
Jeff heard the clomping of footsteps behind him, and knew that someone in armor was approaching him. Who it was he didn't know, but he assumed that it was his Commander.
"Joker, before you set a course for the Sarhibarek System, put on your flight suit, I suspect we are going to be in combat relatively soon." Commanded Shepard.
"Yes Ma'am." Joker replied, as he gingerly got up out of the helmsman position and grabbed the lightly armoured pilots' suit from the rack off to the side. Shepard helped him put it on as his Vroliks syndrome made life difficult. He sat back down in the helmsman's chair, and gently backed the Normandy out of her berth.
Three relay jumps later, the Normandy arrived in the Sarhibarek System.
"Joker, head towards the Amada System, it's a short FTL jump, but be prepared to engage stealth systems upon arrival."
Four Days later
Navigator Pressly voiced his opinion to Joker, "We're wasting our time. Four days searching up and down this sector and we haven't found any sign of Geth activity."
Joker turned to glance at the XO, before returning his attention to the displays in front of him. "Three ships went missing here in the past month. Something happened to them."
"My money's on slavers," Pressly retorted. "The Terminus System is crawling with them." The disgust was evident in his voice. Whether it was at the slavers or the inaction, Joker didn't know or care.
Any further debate was interrupted by the ensign. "Picking something up on the long range scanner," she announced. "LADAR paints it as a Collector Cruiser."
"Cruiser is changing course." she said, "Now on intercept trajectory."
Pressly looked at his own monitors, but couldn't believe his eyes. Double checking the ensign's findings, Pressly exclaimed, "Can't be, stealth systems are engaged. Why would, how could, the Collectors be intercepting us…?"
His disbelief was interrupted however when Joker grimly stated, "The Reapers have new lackeys." Fingers flying across his screens, Joker yelled, "Brace for evasive manoeuvres!"
Pressly wasted no time. Trusting Jeff, he disengaged the stealth systems and immediately hit the commands to put the Normandy into red alert.
When Navigator Pressly placed the Normandy into Red Alert, it woke Ashley up in the armory, and Shepard and Kaidan up. They both rolled out of her bed, and quickly did each other Nanoshells. Shepard ran to the end of the ship in amidst multiple explosions, Kaidan ran to check on Jeff, and Ashley ran to check on the Karin.
The Guardian lasers were doing minimal damage to the Collector Cruiser and it just seemed to aggravate them, as their relentless attack resumed. Throughout the ship, blow after blow was felt. Systems immediately overloaded as the attack tore its way through the Normandy. Alarms blared and crewmen were scrambling to contain the damage. In the bridge Pressly had only moments to read out the damage report before the beam tore through the console to his left, instantly killing the ensign, and mortally wounding Pressly. As he fell, his final thoughts drifted toward his last mission. Saren, Geth, reapers, and how they defied the odds, time and time again. His final thoughts were toward the crew of the Normandy, human and alien alike. At the thought of the nonhuman members of the ship he couldn't help but think, the Commander was right, they really weren't that bad.
Joker desperately tried to manoeuvre his baby out of harm's way. The pilots chair injected him with a synthetic adrenaline to help him focus on the actions at hand, His eyes flashed across different monitors trying to predict the enemy's attack, the damage Normandy sustained, and his ability to control. The screams of the wounded and dying were muted from him, aiding in the amount of detail he could focus on.
He heard the ensign's and Pressly's screams of pain, along with the tortured sound of shearing metal and hoped that they were all right. Through it all, he continued to pilot Normandy as best as he could.
"Kinetic barriers down!" Joker shouted. The heat from the fire from the ensign's console grew behind him. "Multiple hull breaches! Weapons offline! Somebody get that fire out!"
As he looked back at the enemy cruiser's position, he knew that there was no way to avoid the next attack and braced himself for impact.
The Normandy flew as best as she could, but her pursuer continued to persist. Another shot from the enemy's main cannon struck the frigate on her main body. Fires erupted as oxygen from multiple breaches fed the flames, only to be extinguished moments later from the cold vacuum of space.
In one last act of defiance the Normandy entered the orbit nearby planet of Alchera and pushed around the planet to break the line of sight, using the planet as cover in an effort to get away from the enemy ship.
Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko sprinted through the second deck, moving past scrambling crewmen that were trying to deal with the fires and explosions. Kaidan wasted no time and tore his way through the mess of wires and debris. More explosions rocked the ship as screams of the injured and dying were muted through his N2 helmet Kaidan ran toward the figure in the Crynet armor. Standing tall and calm despite the chaos that erupted around her, Kaidan was once again reminded why, out of all the possible candidates, the Alliance chose Shepard to represent humanity. Her background and service record be damned, they were only footnotes compared to standing before the woman herself.
Her crimson visor reflected the fires and explosions rocking the ship. Kaidan immediately pictured the calm, reassuring, and penetrating green eyes behind the mask.
"Distress beacon is ready for launch," Shepard said, turning toward him.
"Will the Alliance get here in time?" Kaidan asked.
Another explosion rocked the Normandy. Kaidan stumbled, and regained his balance. Another fire broke out near a console. None of the fire suppression systems kicked in.
"They damn well better!" Shepard said as she grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher to fight the blaze. "I'm not doing this so they can find our frozen corpses, not that we," Shepard motioned to herself and Kaidan, "will become frozen corpses."
Kaidan grabbed another fire extinguisher and helped fight off the flames.
"Get everyone onto the escape pods!" She heard Shepard shout.
"Joker is still in the cockpit. He won't abandon ship!" Kaidan yelled.
He turned toward Shepard and saw her trying to get the fire suppression system working again.
"I'm not leaving either!" Kaidan declared.
The nearby console flashed to life. Shepard turned toward Kaidan and gripped his shoulders.
Looking into his visor hoping to see his eyes, Shepard said, "I need you to get the crew to the evac shuttles." Turning away, Shepard moved toward the console. "I'll take care of Joker."
"Shepard! Karin, Adams, and the alien members are aboard, we are just waiting on Kaidan, Jeff, and yourself," Ashley reported.
"You heard her, everyone else is aboard, I'll get Jeff," ordered Cali.
Another explosion shook the deck. Regaining his balance, Kaidan tried desperately to get her words out. All he could say was, "Commander."
"Kaidan, go." Shepard turned to look at him one last time. "Now."
Kaidan stood frozen for a moment, only a moment, considering defying Shepard's order, but reason won and all's he could say was, "Aye, aye." Turning around he ran to get into the evac shuttle.
Manipulating the console, Shepard finally activated the fire suppression system, giving everyone alive a chance to get past the blazes and into the escape pods. Once finished, she activated the one alarm every captain hopes they would never use. The evacuation alarm rang throughout the wounded frigate.
The Normandy VI rang out: "All hands abandon ship. All hands abandon ship. This is not a drill."
Kaidan looked in each evac shuttle, nodding to Ash, when he saw her, before getting into one with one seat left. He noticed that 2 of the shuttles were still empty, and was about to hit the release when a voice pierced the silence, "Help me! I can't get through, the beam is too heavy!"
Kaidan had yet to do up his harness, so it made jumping out even easier. He jogged over to the fallen support beam and lifted the beam moved several inches, enough for the young yeoman to slide under. Kaidan let go of the beam and it crashed down, sending vibrations through the immediate area. The yeoman got caught in the blast wave of a nearby explosion, which slammed her to the ground. Kaidan, the ever chivalrous gentleman, reached her before she got up and helped her up. He helped her into the shuttle where he was originally going to sit, and strapped her in.
"Ash, I'll catch a ride with the bridge crew shuttle, see you on the flip side," Kaidan radioed.
The doors closed. The hull of the Normandy opened, revealing six escape pods on her port stern and six on her starboard stern. All 12 evac shuttles launched even though six of them were empty, sending all the survivors of the Normandy toward Alchera, the planet she was orbiting. The Normandy accelerated with what power she had left, limping away from the pods. With luck, the Normandy would be a better target for the enemy than small escape pods. Futilely using what thrusters remained, Joker continued to pilot the gravely injured Normandy further away from the defenseless escape shuttles. A trail of smoke and debris were drifting behind her.
Satisfied that the pods were ejected, Shepard turned away from the console. An explosion from her left nearly rocked her off her feet, but she regained his balance quickly. Glancing at her HUD, the brunt of the explosion was caught by the armored nanites on the exterior of the suit and was already regenerated.
She ran down the length of the corridor straight through the flames and explosions absolutely confident that her armor will protect her from the explosions that did get her.
She heard the shipboard speakers blare, "Mayday, mayday! This is SSV Normandy! We've suffered heavy damage from a Collector Cruiser!" Joker yelled.
As Shepard reached the stairs leading to the CIC, he heard Joker plead with the Normandy, "Come on baby, hold together, hold together."
Reaching the top of the stairs, the doors strained to open, so Shepard placed her hands in the gap between the doors and pulled, the augmented muscles of the suit easily opening the doors. Shepard looked up, seeing the massive hole torn in the hull by the attack from the enemy weapon. She saw the planet they were orbiting and the debris that floated around them. Looking around, the power to the CIC was out, which meant mass effect fields were out, which meant no more artificial gravity. Silently wishing she was wearing a hardsuit with magnetic boots, Shepard placed her feet against a nearby wall, and gripped a torn panel before flexing her augmented leg muscles, propelling herself along the length of the shredded foredeck. Every marine a rifleman, every rifleman zero-gee certified, a saying taught to every marine who joins the systems Alliance. Her armored torso slammed aside chairs that were dislodged from the explosions or attack, Shepard saw that a barrier was protecting Joker from the merciless elements of space. Passing through the barrier, Shepard felt gravity again; She grasped an overhead hand rail, so that she wouldn't hit the floor. Power was still on in the cockpit. Normandy's still trying to protect us. Looking down she saw Pressly and the ensign were dead.
Focusing on her goal Shepard ran up to Joker and grabbed his arm while shouting, "Come on Joker! We have to get out of here!"
Joker pulled his arm away. "No! I won't abandon the Normandy! I can still save her!"
One quick glance at any working monitors told a different story to Shepard.
"The Normandy's lost. Going down with the ship won't change that."
Joker looked at his commander, the despair in his eyes was reflected back to him through the reflective crimson visor; fighting the truth that they were going to lose another member of the crew no matter what. Giving in, he nodded reluctantly.
"Yeah, okay. Help me up."
When nothing happened, he turned to Shepard. He saw her focused on one of the monitors and turned his head to see what was up. Beads of sweat started forming on his spine as he saw what Shepard was seeing voiced out what they both knew.
"They're coming around for another attack!"
The Collector Cruiser had finally caught up to the frigate. The Normandy was trapped with a planet below and the enemy above. The cruiser charged its main gun as it closed in for the kill.
A high pitched screeching sound caught Shepard's attention as she turned around and saw the particle beam cut through Normandy, as if they were trying to shear off the bridge from the rest of the ship. Knowing that time was running out she turned back toward Joker and threw finesse out the window.
She grabbed the collar of his flight suit and hoisted him into the air, before placing her second arm under him. The suit compensated for his body weight. She carried him to the evac shuttle designated for the flight crew.
Kaidan came jogging up the main aisle and hit the button to open the bridge crew evac shuttle, he helped Shepard place Joker in one of the seats.
"I thought I ordered you to go," stated Shepard.
"I was, but all of the evac shuttles were full, save two, but I wasn't about to sit in a shuttle by myself, so I came up here and was going to join you guys," responded Kaidan.
Shepard got in with Jeff and Kaidan; she buckled herself in, and punched the launch button. Nothing happened, the fire growing ever nearer, Shepard got up and exited the shuttle hoping the external button would work. It did. The doors closed and the shuttle launched, leaving only Shepard stranded in the cold and dark of space. so she latched onto a passing piece of debris she launched herself in the direction of the floating M35 Mako. Shepard clambered aboard, and powered up the tank's mass effect core, she wouldn't be able to start the diesel engine for manoeuvring but the fusion torches, and the 155mm main gun could alter her course.