2026

The Citadel – Present Day

"Maybe you could help us, Miss Zorah, on telling us what kind of a man he was."

The quarian councilor spoke gently to her, standing atop the platform in the center of the room. On the catwalk stood Tali, with Veetor by her side, as she struggled to answer the question.

"Please, Tali," the councilor implored, her voice carrying through the room. "We want to get a better idea of what he was like for-"

"For the eulogy?" Tali snapped. "So you could write his name on some wall somewhere? That's all I'm going to get from this? If you truly cared, you would do something but you say that it is impossible, that you can't even collect his…" She trailed off, suddenly tired after her outburst. Veetor reached down and squeezed her hand in reassurance. She appreciated the gesture, yet it lacked something. She missed the grip of his five fingers on her three, the strong grasp that he always provided. It just wasn't the same.

"Tali'Zorah," the turian councilor said sternly. "You know as well as we do that sending a rescue team to look for Alec Lee's body is practically impossible. The planet itself is treacherous and we have no idea where it crash landed. The krogan might ward off any aid we offer, potentially starting a war."

Tali sighed, "He…he would still w-want me t-to…"

"That's enough, Tali," said the quarian councilor. "We have nothing but respect for your husband. He was a good man who truly cared about you. He even earned a spot in our culture's history as the human who brokered peace between our people and the geth. He gave us – you – our homeworld back. That's an accomplishment that no one else can claim. But, everyone knows that story. We'd like to hear your side."

If they could only see through her visor, as Alec always appeared to, her murderous gaze would shut them up then and there. She shrugged out of Veetor's loose grip, "Alec, my husband, was the kindest, most gentle human…person, that I ever knew. He cared about me, he loved me. And I loved him. I know that he would have died for me if it ever came to that." She glanced down, unwilling to say more, "You have what you need. I don't want to be here anymore."

"We understand, Tali," the asari councilor said. "And we will respect his memory so that the galaxy would remember what he did for them."

"But…" she said in a whisper. "He did it for me…"

A vibration suddenly passed through the room, the foundations shaking slightly. Tali raised her head, alarmed. All over, the guards were on their omni-tools, barking into them for orders. The councilors were looking to and fro, concerned at what was happening.

"What's going on?" Tali asked.

A guard suddenly came over to her and Veetor, "Time to go. This way." He started pulling them to an elevator to the left of the councilors' platform. Glancing to her right, she saw the Council also being ushered in the same direction. They crammed into the same elevator and one of the guards hit the button for the commons.

"Something's gone wrong," he explained. "There are a few shuttles on the lower platforms. We have to take them to get to safety."

"What exactly is happening?" asked the salarian councilor.

The turian guard shook his head, "Right now, it's unclear. But we have reason to believe that terrorists have attacked the Citadel."

Tali jerked. Terrorists? On the Citadel? Who would be so stupid to launch an offensive within the center of the galactic government?

The elevator jerked to a stop. The guard cautiously inched out the open door and looked around both corners before beckoning to the group. "It's all clear, we can-" A slight hiss was heard and the guard fell backwards, blue blood pouring out of an entry wound in his neck. Someone in the elevator screamed as the mist of blood coated everyone. Tali, shaking off the initial shock, drew her pistol, Veetor doing the same. There were footsteps approaching the elevator door. They were taking their time, they weren't rushing at all. Definitely not reinforcements, then.

A glimpse of a white helmet peering over was all that Tali needed. She loosed two shots and the figure slumped to the ground. "Everyone out," she shouted. "Right now!" She sprung out of the elevator to see if there were any more enemies lying in wait but the coast appeared to be clear. She stepped over to the person she'd shot, examining it more closely and bending to pick up the dropped assault rifle.

The figure was a human, draped in white armor. She was glad that the target was helmeted because a quarter of the man's head was missing, from her initial volley, splattered across the tile floor. This made no sense. Why would humans do such a thing? It reminded her of-

"Oh, Keelah," she moaned. No, it can't be them. They can't be here, it isn't possible.

"Tali?" Veetor asked, "What is it?"

"I…think I know these people," she gasped. "I think they're the same people who tried to kill me and Alec back on Earth."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes. It has to be. Who else would…oh no. They're the ones who blew up the ship, they killed him. They actually did it."

"Tali?" Veetor was starting to get worried, "Calm down, Tali. We will get out of this."

Tali ignored him, "They killed Alec. They killed my husband…they will all die for what they've done!"

With a scream, Tali started to run where the soldier originated from but Veetor caught her arm and pinned her against the wall, "What in the name of the Ancestors are you doing?"

"Let go of me! I'm going to murder them all!"

"Don't throw your life away, Tali!"

"It doesn't matter anymore! If I die then I will get to be with him forever. I can at least take as many of them out before I do."

Veetor snarled, "He wouldn't want it to be like this!"

Tali slapped him across the visor, "Don't…don't you dare presume to know what he would have done. He-"

"He would not want you to die needlessly for his sake! He wanted you to have a normal life! Keelah, Tali…think of-"

Two white forms suddenly appeared from behind a series of columns, behind Tali. Grabbing her pistol, he lifted his arms and held both guns akimbo, squeezing the triggers several times for the humans to have their chests erupt in fountains of plastic, blood, and bone. A snap by his ear told him that he should get to cover. He ran over to Tali, handed her pistol back and started pulling her back toward where the Council retreated. She didn't bother putting up a fight this time.

They caught up with the group after a few minutes. Turns out the elevator had deposited them on the wrong floor and now they were hurtling down staircases to make up for lost time. Now escort-less, Tali took point while Veetor covered the rear. From time to time, she could hear the pulsing of Veetor's pistol but each time she checked Veetor remained unhurt, having warded off each wave of enemies.

Stepping out of the hallway, she collected her bearings by viewing the lake in the middle of the station. They were at the commons. The majority of the high end shops on the Citadel were located here. She knew that there was a shuttle bay just a few flights down. They only needed to find another staircase.

That would prove to be a bit of a challenge as the commons were currently swarming with troops, both good and bad. C-Sec officers were currently raining fire from the balcony above, but no matter how many humans they hit, another came up to replace them. The humans were winning by attrition; the C-Sec officers eventually fell under the barrage of fire and quiet hummed over the area for a second.

One of the helmeted humans looked in her direction, spotting the ragtag group from across the yard. "Hey!" he yelled but Tali quickly leveled her rifle and fired in his direction. The man fell with a wound to the gut, blood vomiting past his helmet as he lay there in agony. The rest of the troopers turned and opened fire in unison. Tali ducked behind a low wall. The humans had a lot of firepower but their aim was sloppy. They were also burning through their clips too fast, at this rate they would be out of ammo in seconds.

Her theory was proven correct when she was rewarded with a series of clicks. "Fuck!" She heard one of the humans yell out. Tali broke from her crouch and methodically placed three bullets in three heads. They all fell to the ground as the remaining ones scattered. There were only five left now, but they had most likely reloaded. She spotted a leg that was out of cover and fired, hitting it and sending it flying. The human began to scream as blood poured out of the ragged stump, sluicing across the shiny ground. The man sitting next to the wounded one stood up, shocked, and lost his head to a bullet soon after.

Three left to go.

There were two sitting behind a shop counter, she could tell. At the moment, it looked like they were too busy arguing and they weren't using their mics because she could hear every word they could say.

"The fuck are you doing? You don't need that!"

"The bitch is going to burn, I can use a grenade if I want!"

"You already pushed the button, you stupid fucker! It lit up when you handled it!"

"Shit, man! Why didn't you-"

The grenade exploded from behind the counter, obliterating the two nincompoops with the unfortunate timing. Tali just stared at what transpired and shook her head at the spectacle, too bewildered to quip.

Suddenly, a strong arm grabbed her by the back of the neck. She was lifted up out of cover and a gun was jammed into the side of her helmet, her assault rifle clattered to the floor.

"Don't move, you little whore," the soldier said. "You don't want to make it any worse for yourself."

"You're a little late on that bit," Tali said dryly. She made a subtle motion with her arm and she heard a tiny shick! Her elbow blade popped out from underneath the slot embedded in her suit and she savagely rammed it into the thug's midsection and twisted her arm, creating a huge gash in the man's unarmored side. The man screamed in pain and fell, shocking white bones of his ribs exposed from the deep cut. Tali moved to grab her pistol and fired as she rolled away, silencing the man.

"Clear!" she coughed, trying to catch her breath and hoping that the adrenaline would give her more of an edge. The councilors sprung from around the corner and headed to the staircase in the back of the room. Hacking, she soon followed, with Veetor still covering the back. Regaining point position, she took the stairs three at a time until they reached the bay.

The room was comparatively small in scope, with small places reserved for the Kodiak shuttles that were popular with C-Sec and various militaries. There were walls of glass that separated each bay and with the medium high ceiling it looked like more of an office. They stepped into one of the partitioned bays, looking past the jutting alcoves to see if they could spot anything that was capable of flight. There was nothing available. No shuttles were around, either in use by troops or destroyed outright. Tali gestured to the councilors in an effort to rally them.

"We're going to the next level down, there's an elevator that will take us to C-Sec headquarters where we can bunker down-"

Both doors on opposite ends of the hanger opened, spilling out white armored humans that leveled guns at the group. Tali and Veetor instinctively moved in front of the Council, weapons raised, in an effort to buy some time. The humans, on the other hand, made no effort to fire. One had his helmet off, was sweating and grinning from ear to ear. He turned to a figure that had black accents on his chestplate and tattooed, muscular arms that were unarmored. The massive arms lifted the helmet off the man's head where it was thrown to the ground, clattering away. Tali and Veetor laid their weapons down on the ground in surrender, unsure of what to do.

Silas raised his pistol and slowly shifted it from Veetor to Tali, staring at her with pure hatred, "The target has been acquired," he spoke into his omni-tool. "All units, take up defensive positions."

The human manning the tower was bored. Derek had told Joe to specifically draw away any docking ships but they were more focused on leaving than going, at this rate. The man waited for his partner, Russo, to finish coming back from the john so that they might discuss leaving the tower to get in on the action. A swish of the door told him that his friend was back.

"Shit, Russo. You took your sweet time in there." Joe unwrapped his packet of cigarettes and fished around for one. Accomplishing the task, he held it out to Russo, who declined.

"What? A guy can't take a piss for very long in a battle? So I stalled, big deal. This post is a waste of time, anyway."

Midway through lighting his cig, Joe paused between puffs, "You want to see if we can get in?"

Russo nodded, "Hell yeah. I don't want to sit on my ass all day."

Joe shrugged, "Fuck it, we're going."

"Oh Christ, what is that?"

Russo was pointing out the window to one of the airlocks on the level below. A frigate, similar to their stolen turian ones, was lining up to dock. It was grey and the pilot was expertly maneuvering it below their own ships towards the dock. Joe grimaced, they had been so close to leaving too. It was odd that they didn't bother to hail the tower asking for permission. That would have helped in the detection until Russo had to look out the damn window.

Joe tilted his head, "Reinforcements?"

"Hell if I know, you think they would've called in."

"But…technically, we didn't call in when we docked."

Russo laughed, "True that. But still, you think it's worth a look?"

Joe groaned, "Fine. But we leave to catch up with the main group after. Understood?"

"Whatever."

Both of them took off running down the staircase and down the marked hallway to reach the appropriate dock. Padding across the carpeted floor, they waited for the door to open.

"What do you think man, hostiles?" Russo hissed.

"No fucking clue."

"You think we should line up on the side of the doors to be sure?"

"Yeah, let's go."

They started to move forward, heading to position themselves accordingly when it became clear that their little conversation just cost them their lives. The airlock doors to the frigate suddenly opened, making Joe and Russo freeze in their tracks. They could see nothing beyond the black expanse that was the interior of the ship. Just then, a sequence of flashes appeared from the ship and Joe felt the briefest of impacts before the white light overtook him. Russo, glanced down to see the body of his friend, mangled by a dozen bullet holes, fall nosily down. He tried to bring his rifle to bear but a bigger and louder boom echoed and Russo's upper half of his body disintegrated, raining bloody chunks, and leaving his lower waist to spill all of its remaining fluids on the ground.

Alec, Garrus, and Wrex all stepped out from the frigate, guns smoking from the carnage. They stepped over the drying bodies and walked into the main gate, where they caught an elevator. Listening to C-Sec reports from his omni-tool, Garrus pressed the button for the Presidium Commons. The doors hissed shut and they began their slow climb.

"Got to love the welcome wagon," Garrus said. "You wonder how many there are?"

"Who cares how many?" Wrex laughed, "It's a fight, and things just got a lot more interesting."

Garrus rolled his eyes, "Glad you're so optimistic, Wrex."

The krogan shrugged, "Come on, Garrus. We're three heavily armed bad-asses wading into a ton of bad guys that can't aim for shit. This, I tell you, is going to be fun."

"Fun is not the word I'd use to describe it," Alec said. "But we do have the advantage in firepower, and we have the element of surprise."

"Oh, they're going to be terrified when they see us out there," Wrex said, practically hopping in anticipation. "A turian sharpshooter, a krogan, and one scary looking human are going to make them piss their pants."

Alec smiled at the compliment. He too thought his Terminus armor looked very intimidating. And with all of the extra weapons hidden in its depths, he was itching to try them out on the bastards who tried to murder him and his wife. Conscious be damned, they will all pay.

"So, Alec," Garrus said as the elevator started to decelerate. "What is the plan?"

Alec chinned the control to make his helmet seal over his head, piece by piece from their hidden slots in the armor, the voice modulator giving his voice a deeper edge, "Get to Tali and kill everyone who gets in our way." The elevator doors, perfunctory in their duties, slowly opened to reveal the guests to the ravaged courtyard.

"Let's move."