Chapter 7

Well will my low amount of followers we have got a tie. So I will post both versions, and it will be your choice on which one you like more.

Option 3:

Shepard decided, he looked at EDI, "Reset the core and engines, we aren't going anywhere anytime soon."

EDI gave a nod and she started inputting commands, "Understood Commander, Resetting Core and Engines now." There was a near instant drop in the amount of lights on as well as drop in what little noise was in the ship.

Joker sighed and sat back in his chair, "Which leaves me with nothing to do but sit and pray."

Option 2 (this choice is so small it doesn't really matter the major difference is just a few lines):

Shepard decided, he looked out the window and took a breath. "Let's wait and see what happens."

EDI let out a simple nod, "Understand Shepard. Awaiting orders."

Joker sighed, "It's not entirely what I would have gone with but you are in charge."

Shepard gave Joker a glare before he turned his attention back to the window.

And here is where the versions would converge back:

There was silence on the whole ship as they waited to see what would happen. And they did not have to wait long.

In no time at all they saw lines of bright blue coming from the unknown fleet. Almost all the ships had these blue lines coming from them. The only ones that did not have the blue lines coming from them were the three smallest styles, but they appeared to be firing projectiles of some form.

Each of the blue lines appeared to be well aimed, for they all either hit or came close to hitting. Yet if they hit or not, it did not seem to matter for the Reapers all responded to the shots with shivers of pain. And soon enough the Reapers that took multiple hits started to get cut apart and eventually destroyed.

The Reapers responded as best they could. They all moved towards the firing fleet and eventually all opened their fingers and fired at the fleet. The Unknown fleet didn't even move as all the fire hit the energy curtain. The smaller ships were never hit for they were inside the energy curtain of the larger ships. And the energy curtain of the larger ships appeared to be able to take a large number of hits from the Reaper's facing them for they did not go down much, or at least it appear to not go down.

Word quickly spread around the ship about the fire fight. Everyone that did not have a room with a view instantly found one such room. No one wanted to miss out of the splendid fire display that was going on, and in the case of Javik he didn't want to miss out on seeing a single Reaper blown to bits.

Both fleets were quickly firing everything they had, but for the Reapers everything just wasn't enough. The fleet was quickly being obliterated, and their shots were not so much as scratching the paint (or lack thereof) of the ships that they were firing at.

Option 3:

During the fire fight one of the Reaper's aim was slight off and hit the lower edge of the energy curtain that surrounded the ship that the Normandy was near. The way it hit though made it look like it was heading straight for her, and scared the crap out of a lot of people.

Joker cringed as the shot came and when it hit the curtain he looked back at Shepard. "See!? That's why we should have not have reset. If that 'energy curtain' hadn't been there we would be dead now."

EDI didn't seem faced, and then again she never did. "You worry too Jeff. The energy curtain has maintained the same readings throughout the fire fight. We are midway between the ship and the curtain. Even if the curtain had started to fail we would have had some warnings. And I could have brought in enough engine power to avoid it."

Shepard looked at EDI, "I thought the engines were offline."

EDI didn't miss a beat. "They are."

Shepard looked ready to say something else, but Joker looked back at him and shrugged. So he settled with shaking his head and continuing to watch the firefight.

Option 2:

During the fire fight one of the Reaper's aim was slight off and hit the lower edge of the energy curtain that surrounded the ship that the Normandy was near. The way it hit though made it look like it was heading straight for her, and scared the crap out of a lot of people.

But thanks to the engines being online and Joker paying attention, he moved the ship. He moved it so fast that even if the energy curtain had not been there the shot would have missed, not by much but that little bit was what counted.

Shepard had let out a breath he didn't even knew he was holding. "That was lucky."

EDI instantly chimed in. "Luck had nothing to do with it. The energy has maintained a constant reading. There is little chance of that it will fail anytime soon and if it does we will have problems anyways."

Shepard nodded, "Agreed. Go ahead and do the restart. I want to be able to jump if things go south."

Joke sighed, "Not sure if I agree with you or not after that." And with that EDI started up the restart, though few even noticed as they were too engrossed in the firefight.

And again they merge back.

After the scare there was nothing to be worried about as the unknown fleet kept on pounding away at the Reaper forces, letting nothing get close. Near the end it seemed the Unknowns started to get bored of killing the reapers in the same way.

A few of the ships started to have green-yellow blobs come from them along with their blue lines. The blobs were less damaging than the lines but enough still got the job done. And then not to be undone, the ship next to them fired something that seemed to combat everything around it. When this newest weapon hit a Reaper with a glancing hit the orb went up in one giant explosion that covered a large portion of the Reaper and when the explosion dissipated everything it had touched has ceased to exist.

The Reapers did not stick around any longer. They gave up even trying to take on these new, extremely powerful ships. They settled with turning around and GOT THE HELL OUT OF THERE!

The three smallest of the unknowns broke through the energy curtain of their larger brethren and started to give chaise, firing their rail guns all the while.

They had gotten a good distance when a large beam of red came from below one of the larger ones; hit its energy curtain and BROKE THROUGH IT! Needless to say the beam then cut through the ship and destroyed it. And directly behind the beam came a Reaper which plowed through the debris.

The Reaper continued up for a little bit before it fished back around and pointed directly at the ship next to the Normandy.

All on the Normandy saw this new Reaper, and it truly was new. It was bigger than the Soveran-Class capital reaper ships they had ever seen. Shepard even figured it would be bigger than Harbinger, he looked to EDI.

EDI seemed to know what he wanted to know, "That is a completely unknown type of reaper. Scans show it is near three times of any reaper previously recorded. It has one extra 'finger' and I'm detecting a minor energy curtain of its own. If there is more I cannot tell.

Joker gulped, and so did Shepard but he was quiet about it. "W-Where did it even come from?"

EDI went to doing a few things on her counsel. "I think it came with the unknowns. If it did, I think we just caught of glimpse of why they came here."

Shepard was looking directly at the new Reaper was had now been completely orented to look at the ship next to them and had started to extend its 'fingers'. "If the Reapers they faced were like that, then they evolved. We can't even hold our own against the ones we face."

Joker looks back at Shepard, "Didn't the leviathans make it seem like the Reapers have remained in the same general spot of technology since they were created."

EDI responded before Shepard. "That is here. This new Reaper could have come from the formation of a forced evolution somewhere else….Warning! I've detected an new energy signature from the ship next to us and a heavily modified energy signature from the new Reaper."

Shepard's head swung around to try and see what she was talking about.

At a middle point of the ship next to them a long 'port' had opened up and from that opening came…something. The thing was almost six times the size of the Normandy, but in comparison to the ship next to it, it was still small. It was a pail, almost see-through, green, but the size prevented it from being seen all the way through. There were two semicircles made of plain materials of some sort attached to a base which was also attached to the greenish thing. The thing was in a sort of stair stepping formation with the very tip of in a blunt point.

Shepard then looked at the Reaper. Its six fingers had moved apart, revealing the three eyes that was in its palm, and they were glowing. But not only that but the fingers themselves started to glow and soon red looking electricity came from all six of them and bet up in the center directly in front of the eyes. Where they met a red orb had started to form and as more of the electricity was pumped from the fingers the bigger the orb got.

And then Shepard noticed that the thing coming from the ship next to them had started to show activity. The two semicircles had started to move in rotation of the thing between them. As they moved it looked like sparks of blue electricity came from them and into what was between them. They slowly picked up speed and so did the number and strength of the electricity. And as the electricity struck, the object started to glow. It was faint at first but then it started to get brighter with every second.

Shepard looked to Joker as he realized both ships were about to fire weapons that would vaporize the Normandy in an instant. "Get us moving!"

Option 3:

EDI began going nuts. "The engines and core are coming back online now. Reset is one hundred percent complete. We have full capabilities."

Option 2:

EDI began going nuts. "I can't bring the engines and core back online fully, I need more time. But I can give you enough to move the ship."

No matter what option that goes through, Joke activates the thrusters and moves the ship a distance away from the ship next to them, they even slip through the energy curtain without trouble. EDI will make a comment about the energy curtain automatically lessening in intensity to let them through.

Once the Normandy has been moved away Joker turns the ship back around to watch what was about to happen.

From the looks of things both the Reaper orb and the unknown's object's glow had reached its most intense. The Reaper fired all three of the weapon spots in its palm which connected with the orb and continued through it but the beam was larger and more intense than any reaper weapon ever before seen. As the beam streamed across the void, the object below unknown 's ship let lose a beam of its own. The beam was a simple green and all came out the one end of the thing that was not connected to the base. The Semicircles were still rotating around it adding even more charge.

The two beams would meet head on stopping each other cold. It was like watching two waves continuously ram against each other and spray extra water everywhere. The two beams kept on going and going, almost like a never ending tug of war but instead of tugging it was pushing.

Somehow the green beam started to win out, ever so slowly. It pushed back the red beam with a slow and painful process. But as the beam got halfway to the reaper Shepard noticed something was off. The green beam had started to waver in some places, and this drew his attention to the weapon itself. He saw nothing at first but then he noticed them, hundreds of cracks had started to form on it and several of them were starting to grow bigger and bigger.

This new information was starting to scare him and he looked back at the meet point of the two beams. One or the other was going to fail. He knew not how long the green beam would last, but he knew that Reaper weapons ha a limited amount of fire time and he hoped that time was coming to an end.

Lady luck smiled upon them all as both beams cut off at the exact same time. But in its place all of the unknown ships opened fire with everything they had, even the ship that had the massive weapon that was just firing. Speaking of the massive weapon it was starting to be drawn back into the ship, hopefully to be repaired.

The Reaper did not stay around much longer. Deciding that it would not be worth it to fight alone it turned around and chased after its less evolved brethren.

The Normandy erupted into cheers at the sight, but that quickly stopped as they found themselves near instantly surrounded by the unknowns, with the biggest of them, the most deadly of them, pointed directly at the Normandy's bridge.

A/N: Yikes that wait was long. I am sorry about that my mind went hey-wired there. Hopefully I'll be able to get more of these done so I can get some sort of posting timeline of some sort but that may or may not happen. And I do realize these are sort of short, I am working on that. And again speaking of working, I should have a poll up, I would appreciated it if you answered it.

I do hope you have been enjoying the read, and again hopefully I will get better at making sure to type.