The Citadel has fallen, trillions have died
Betrayed from within
Can you hear us, hidden and safe
Synthetics and modified creatures destroying everything
Murmurs of a message that cannot be understood
A trap and an immortal unstoppable enemy awaits us all
The Commander awoke to the almost blinding lights of the infirmary shining down on him, he tried to get up but his head was hurting more than anything he had ever felt before, he closed his eyes to try and will the pain away but could only remember the horrific images he had seen in his nightmare.
"Doctor he's waking up"
"Get the Captain, Commander...Commander Shepard can you hear me?. John your on the Normandy"
The commander opened his eyes once again and saw the Doctor staring at him with a small pocket light being used to shine into his eyes "Arrrhh, Help me up doc". His head was still splitting but he didn't want to close his eyes again and risk seeing the images he was being plagued with.
"Ok commander easy now" Karin grabbed the commanders arm and helped him up slowly. "How do you feel?"
"My head feels like it has a hole in it otherwise I'm fine doc"
Ashley walked into the room "Commander are you ok?"
"Im fine Chief, Give me a sit rep"
Ashley tensed up and out of habit stood at attention ready to address her superior "You've been out for almost 9 hours in the mean time we have been using the relay network, we're almost at the Citadel"
"And the package?"
"I...Im afraid the beacon overloaded and blew up shortly after it released you commander. I think I activated a dormant security system when I approached it, there's no excuse sir, I was careless and I apologise"
The commander sighed and shook his head "So we're on our way to the citadel with our tails between our legs, fucking great"
Captain Anderson entered the room flanked by two marines as a ships CO always was, he walked past Ashley who gave him a full salute standing at attention which the Captain ignored and headed straight to the commanders bed.
"Ahhhh Captain, Our XO's vitals are back to normal and he seems fine. The only thing that I still can't explain is your rapid eye movement while you were out Commander which is normally associated with intense dreaming, can you remember anything while you were out?"
Commander Shepard looked down at the floor and remembered the images he was subjected too "I saw...Hell I don't know what I saw. Synthetics, Geth maybe killing and butchering organics a race I couldn't identify. The images were horrific and out of sync but I could hear a message in a language I've never heard before"
Doctor Chakwaas brought up a pad she was taking notes upon "hmm Ill add that to my report"
Captain Anderson walked around the bed and stood directly in front of the Commander "Give us the room and Dr I'd like a full copy of your report before you file it and send it to alliance command"
"Of course Captain" With that the room was cleared apart from the ships two ranking officers
"I'm not gonna lie to you John, this is bad. The beacon was destroyed, Nihlus is dead and the Geth are invading. The alliance is deploying the fleet to protect our colonies in the traverse and we're sending discreet help to the breakaway colonies in the terminus systems just in case"
"It's not our fault sir, intelligence dropped the ball we had no idea what we were walking into"
"I know that but there's no way we could predict this, the Geth have not been seen outside the veil in three hundred years"
"I know, I know I just hate losing people sir" The commander looked down thinking of the brash young marine wanting to make a name for himself
"Jenkins was a good soldier John, and he was proud to serve under you his death on the Geth's hands not you"
"I know. How are we going to deal with this, Williams said we're almost at the Citadel"
"That other Turian, the one identified as Saren, we asked the dock worker to pick him out from some council intelligence pictures to confirm its the Saren I believed it was. His name is Saren Arterius one of the council's top spectre's and he hates humans, I've had run ins with him in the past and if the Geth are following his lead we could be looking at an all out war not just an incursion on a civilian colony"
"Hates humans eh sounds like a nice stand up guy what with shooting a colleague in the head and all, so what's our play with the council? We both know the testimony from a lone dock worker won't make them listen"
"We also have the Turian military grade explosives you disarmed, it's not enough to implicate Saren but we contacted the citadel when we recovered you and they were convinced enough for C-sec to open an investigation, hopefully they will turn up something to link Saren to the Geth and the explosives"
The commander stood up from the medical bed, for a split second he thought he would fall over from a dizzy spell but he regained his concentration and balance "I assume they'll be wanting a testimony"
"They haven't asked for one but I'm taking you anyway along with Alenko and Williams into the hearing to give our side of the story, whether they want to hear it or not. That reminds me I've transferred Chief Williams to the Normandy's marine detachment"
"That seems like a good idea, she's a good soldier...could do with working on her attitude though"
"Well now she gets to learn from the best"
"Thank you sir"
"I meant me hot shot" Captain Anderson smirked as the commander laughed
"I don't think she can travel back in time 15 years sir but ill ask"
"Hahaha one more like that and you'll be spending a week in the brig 'commander'"
"Aye Aye Captain" The commander couldn't wipe the smile of his face, he knew Anderson was just trying to lighten the mood and anyone else making that kind of bad joke would have gotten his cool poker face but Anderson knew him better than anyone so he knew how and when to cheer him up, that's one of the reasons he trusted and looked up to him
"Ok ok enough screwing about, get up to the cockpit and tell Joker to bring us into the citadel we should be hitting the relay any second now"
The Commander gave his superior a salute then walked out the infirmary past the two marines standing guard at the door. He walked by the mess hall towards the circular stairs aft of the ship that connected the first and second decks, on his way Ashley joined him from her waiting position in the mess hall "Hello Chief"
"Commander I was hoping to catch you, I just wanted to say sorry about the beacon. I was reckless and endangered the mission but ill try much harder now I'm a part of the Normandy's crew"
Commander Shepard took a split second to think of his response. He had seen Williams in action and she was impressive, better than most in fact but a couple of lapses in judgement and emotional outbursts had shown him why she hadn't been commissioned as an officer yet "I'll be honest with you chief you're a fantastic soldier and I believe you can go very far and you have a fantastic opportunity on this ship. Learn, listen and follow orders and we will never have a problem...understood?"
"Absolutely sir I'm just happy to have the opportunity and I won't waste it"
They both arrived at the cockpit just as Joker brought the ship into the relay. They could see the gigantic structure giving of its blue energy seemingly reach out and grab the ship ready to catapult it half way across the galaxy, Joker activated the comm "All hands secure stations we will be hitting the relay in 5...4...3...ready...steady..."
The relays spinning and rotating dark matter engine let out a huge blue spark that encompassed the whole ship then fired her down the relay like a bullet from a gun. Almost instantaneously the Normandy was 'caught' by another relay surrounded by a nebula which hid the mysterious citadel space station.
"We're on course for the Citadel, eta 2 minutes, sending IFF codes to friendly defences" Joker tapped away at his holographic console, commander Shepard had noticed that he was at his most comfortable and even professional when piloting his ship and multitasking
"WOW have you seen the size of that thing!" Ashley was clearly in awe of the Gigantic space station built by the Prothean's millennia ago, she was almost embarrassed when she noticed her mouth was wide open staring out the window almost over Jokers shoulder
"First time visiting the Citadel chief?"
"Yes sir, I didnt realise how big it is"
"Ive had girlfriends with that problem" Joker smirked
"You wish" Ash retorted
"It houses hundreds of millions of people, as far as I know the citadel has never been attacked by a military force not since the Asari found it thousands of years ago" the commander admired that fact more than the mere size of the station. The fact that all the wars that had been fought in the galaxy the citadel was considered impregnable especially since the station could close its 'arms' and turn into a cylindrical shell as it were.
"Holy shit what's that?"
"What" Joker answered Ashley's profanity filled question
"That massive dreadnought, there!"
"That's the Destiny Ascension, the Asari and Citadel fleets flagship"
"Its bloody huge"
"Yeah well size isn't everything Ash, you gotta have firepower too"
"Do I hear some personnel insecurities there eh Joker? that things main gun could rip through anything the alliance has easily"
"Well that's the beauty of this ship Chief, they would need to find us first" Joker smiled and almost caressed his seat as he defended his ships honour
"Ok you two save the flirts for later, Chief go gear up with lieutenant Alenko your both joining me and the captain on the citadel and Joker contact the alliance tower and dock us somewhere near the presidium we need to get to the ambassadors office asap"
"Aye Aye Commander"