"GET DOWN!"
Kasumi tackled Brandon to the deck as the beam sliced through a passing cruiser. It exploded in a flash of fire until all the oxygen had burned up, leaving scattered debris and floating bodies in its wake. In an instant, the normal lights dimmed and red alert warnings flashed down the length of the hallway.
"Attention, all personnel. Man your battlestations. Civilians, please proceed to designated safe zones."
The pre-recorded message continued as people went from a casual walk to a full sprint. Kasumi and Brandon had just enough time to share a look with one another. It was more of a mental inquisition that they were both okay, even alive, before they were on their feet and hurrying as fast as everyone else. Armor plating sealed over the glass windows and locked in place, something both of them knew would provide little protection.
"We got to get off this station right now!" Brandon said frantically.
Kasumi had no objections as she followed his lead. She was no longer cloaked, but it didn't matter anymore. Crowds were bunching up like herds of worried cattle. Alliance personnel were rushing to their posts. Anyone non-military were going to protected areas that they practiced for every safety drill. Brandon and Kasumi did neither and were pushing through the crowds as fast as they could.
It wasn't the quickest way to the civilian hangar, but Brandon deliberately drove them away from the outer hull. One wrong hit and the outer bulkheads would be exposed. The further in they were, the better their chances of staying alive. It was Alliance training that Brandon was falling back on, even though Reapers could do far more damage than a slug from a dreadnought. A fact that became very apparent when something managed to shake the station so violently that everyone in the hall stumbled into the walls or fell to the floor.
"Warning. Structural integretity compromised. Evacuate sections 1 through 4. Bulkhead collapse in 30 seconds."
The panic managed to supersede its current state and screams steamed from the crowds they left behind. Brandon glanced back to see people charging like a stampede and stepping over, and on, anyone that got in their way. Younger Alliance personnel were running ahead of the civilians as all sense of organization collapsed. There was a real danger of getting caught up in the herd, so Brandon brought them down a corridor back towards the service hallways. If they had any luck left, it would be less crowded by maintenance staff as opposed to the exits more widely known.
"Bulkhead breach in 20 seconds."
"This way, this way!" He sputtered as they ran towards the bulkhead seals. They made safe passage to section 5, but Brandon stopped. He was hesitant to run, and then tried to yell back down the hall and flag down anyone else. Kasumi stayed by default though it took effort not to tell him to go.
"Bulkhead breach in 10 seconds."
"Come on, come on, come on!" He yelled to a few stragglers piling in. Another massive quake coursed through the ship. A young officer close to the door was struck by a violent spray of sparks from the wires across ceiling. It slammed her to the floor wide eyed with severe burns on her face. Brandon already knew she was dead and was about to seal the hatch…
"Wait!" He heard from the hall. Another group of people turned the corner and was running towards him.
"Bulkhead breach in… 5…"
They were still running.
"4…"
Brandon hadn't closed the door yet.
"3…"
They were so close…
"2..."
…but not enough.
"1..."
His face contorted in angered sorrow before he pulled the hatch closed and sealed it shut. He could feel the pop from the depressurization through his grip on the handle and hear the oxygen flowing into space, accompanied by faint screams. For some reason, his muscles froze in place. When the Normandy went down, his body didn't shutdown like this. Even while they passed through the Omega-4 relay, Brandon had been given grim reminders of that same day all those years ago, but this… this didn't even come close. This wasn't a frigate. This wasn't an unknown. The might of the Alliance that was getting torn apart around him like it was insignificant. The Reapers had finally come and it was putting fear his veins. The threat always felt like some bad dream, but now it was chasing him.
"Brandon!" Kasumi's voice cut through to him and he let go of his white-knuckled grip. She hoisted him up and he blocked everything else out until they found the hangar.
It was a sight for sore eyes when the Razgriz came into view. Other people were piling into their own ships and escape pods could be seen launching through the bay's mass effect fields. They made it to their dock, but a huge tremor moved through the station like an earthquake. It sent Kasumi tripping and sliding along the floor while Brandon found himself grabbing the railing beside the dock to keep himself from tumbling over.
"Attention. All personnel, evacuate. Repeat. Evacuate the station."
Brandon got his footing and was quick to pull Kasumi back up. They hurried across the platform and unlocked the hatch. It was a minor relief to be back aboard, but it left as quickly as it came. Both of them were quickly seated in the cockpit. Kasumi turned on the navigation and communication systems while Brandon flipped every switch for the mass effect core. The engines came on and all systems went green across the board. Brandon wasted no time pulling the stick back… then the ship jerked in place. It didn't move. The wireframe readouts on the computer flashed repeadtedly revealing the locking clamps hadn't disengaged and were still holding the ship in place. Normally, it was simply a matter of pressing a button to order them to retract, but there was no signal coming to the ship to grant that access. Even in emergencies there was an override… unless that option had been disabled prior.
"Shit!" Brandon growled out, remembering the ship had been grounded.
"What's wrong?" Kasumi asked.
"It's stuck."
"What!?"
"The clamps are frozen. We're stuck."
He tried again and put full force on the microthrusters and wing vectors. They were pushing hard, but the clamps wouldn't let up.
"Son of a bitch! Stay here," he ordered, leaving his chair.
"Where are you going!?"
"The clamps aren't going to release. I need to manually bypass the safeties."
Brandon ran down the length of the ship and stopped at one of the metal panels on the wall. He gripped at the edges and yanked it off. Beneath it was an array of thick wires that he started sorting through. All ships had safety features to automatically prevent the main engine boosters from throttling when docked at a port. That was how the Normandy was grounded and why it couldn't be deactivated from the ship. Luckily, on a boat as old as his, he guessed a way around it. Being built pre-Council, not to mention military designed, things were cruder and easier to manipulate. He found the wire he needed and tugged off the casing. A spare wire clipped to the exposed area and was connected around the safety circuit; effectively hot-wiring the sequence to fool the computer.
"We're good. Kasumi, get us out of here!"
He ran back up to the cockpit and hoped that did the trick. Kasumi was in the captain's chair and started to feather the main throttle. The engines started to vibrate through the ship as it slightly nudged forward, but it didn't move more than an inch.
"Give it more," he said.
Kasumi pushed the throttle further, bringing them to 10% thrust, "It's still not budging."
A loud noise cut through the ship. It was like some distorted air horn that caused both of them to stare out the windows. A Reaper approached that seemed to get bigger with each passing second, or maybe it was just the biggest compared to the others around it. Cannon rounds hit its shell yet the damage it received was miniscule. Most worryingly for Brandon, there was something awfully familiar about it.
YOUR EFFORTS ARE POINTLESS.
The voice thundered through the Razgriz's speakers.
YOUR KIND WILL FALL. ALL WILL FALL. IT IS THE INEVITABLE. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE YOUR DESTINY.
Then something happened. Something that made Brandon question if he was paranoid or losing his mind. The Reaper tilted towards the ship and it was if it's 'eyes' were staring straight at him.
BUT FOR THE MINIONS OF SHEPARD…
The yellow glowing 'veins' throughout Harbinger's, for it could only be 'him', body turned red and then the center of Harbinger's core grew into a massive ball of energy.
…YOUR TIME HAS COME.
"Go. Go! GO!"
Brandon pushed Kasumi's hand, and subsequently the throttle, fully forward. The ship's thrusters burst with fire in the oxygen filled bay. The clamps groaned in protest as the metal bent and crumbled from the pressure before the angle joints of the arms popped and shattered apart. Wires peeling from the station swung the ship towards the walls of the hangar until they snapped like a whip, allowing the Razgriz control to rocket from its dock.
Brandon switched places with Kasumi and he piloted them through the hangar bay. He was breaking every rule in dock space. The Razgriz's travel speed far exceeded the minimum allowed, but his respect for rules was nonexistent at the moment. There was no communications coming in from the Tower. Maybe comms were down or maybe it had been destroyed, it didn't really matter. One thing was for certain, though, Brandon wasn't going to stop for anything. His palms were sweating and his senses were on overdrive. Going straight into the space skirmish would be suicide, so he tried to fly the length of the docking bay and the shipping yard to give the furthest departure from Arcturus-
"Brandon, look out!"
An Alliance fighter flew spinning out of control from their nine o'clock. The Razgriz pushed down and left as it soared past, crashing into the side of the hangar. Missing the one ship put him on a crash course with a docked crusier below. He pulled hard on the stick but still scrapped the Razgriz's belly along the ship's hull. The impact jostled and bounced them off like a dodgeball. It threw the compensators off, putting them into a spin on its axis. Brandon had to use the vector thrust to stop its spin. The ship's diamond shaped wings lit up and burst opposite thursts simulatenously. It did stop the spinning, but it pressed them towards the walls of Arcturus. The right wing scrapped along the side and caused shards of metal from the remains of the forward clamp, still locked onto the ship, to scatter across the vector thruster. It started to sputter slightly, but Brandon just punched the throttle forward to regain their bearing. Another assault had to have hit the station since support beams of the hangar started separating from the ceiling. It turned the flight into an obstacle course of floating rubble that managed to scatter along the gunship, but they ultimately burst out from the station into open space.
"Please tell me all systems are still up?" Brandon asked, not daring to stop looking out the cockpit window for even a second.
"Right wing vector has taken a bit of a beating, but everything checks out. I think the hull is gonna need a lick of paint," she said, the false humor in her tone all too apparent.
Brandon was so focused that he couldn't even pretend to be amused.
Momentarily away from the danger, they were able to get a picture of the skirmish taking place. They may not have been able to hear it, but the light from the distant explosions was unmistakable.
"Dear God," Kasumi said.
The scale of destruction was unfathomable. Arcturus Station had the equivalent of asteroid craters embedded through its circular dome. The docking port on its far side was cluttered with fleeting ships and the wreckage of others. The closest one had been severed in three pieces down its length. The Fifth fleet had been joined by the Second and Third. It hadn't been too long that Brandon had forgotten how to distinguish them apart. The Second fleet sported the old red and white colors since the First Conact War. It positioned itself as the main line against the attacking Reapers and was suffering the most casualties. The dreadnought SSV Logan of the Third fleet had taken position at the rear and pummeled one of the capital ships with its mass accelerator cannon; managing to merely slow the enemy down. Even with the vast amount of Alliance ships, it was nothing compared to the Reapers. They were massive in size, scale, and firepower. One of them extended its 'arm' and a beam sliced through a cruiser's hull and out the other side like its kinetic barriers weren't even on.
Both Brandon and Kasumi were mesmerized by the entire sight. It was the closest they had been to a real Reaper. None of them were exactly alike. Each one was slightly different than the next, as if each had a different 'face' of the species that was harvested into its birth. One's shell was smooth while another's was sharper. Some kept their tentacles closed around their core while others opened up like a grasping hand. No matter what the differences, they were decimating the fleets. So much so that Brandon saw the Fifth and Third starting to pull back.
"They're retreating…" he said without thought.
A priority message came to their ship and Kasumi patched it through.
"Broadcasting on all emergency channels. Civilian ships with FTL capability retreat to the Citadel. Alliance fleets will ensure safe pass-"
The line cut to static.
Taking the advice, Brandon redirected the Razgriz towards the mass relay. It was no surprise there were more ships taking the same path. Cruisers, private ships, freighters, they were all trying to make it to the relay and it was obvious how desperate they were. The big ones weren't giving room to the smaller vessels and the fast ones were soaring across anyone and everyone's heading. Worse were the ones spewing fuel or oxygen from holes in its hull. It was everyone for themselves and Brandon was doing his best to avoid getting boxed in, or worse, crushed.
A flash of light wiped across the convoy and a Reaper laser scrapped the frigate beside them. It's front left side exploded and the entire ship started drifting left. It cut across their path and then slammed into the adjacent cruiser. It dug in, causing fire to blow from the hull of the cruiser like a blowtorch.
"Hang on! I'm gonna get us out of this," said Brandon as he pointed the nose the gunship upwards. The Razgriz barreled through the fiery cloud as the windows were splintered with bits of debris, "How're the kinetic barriers?"
"They're fluctuating. I'll try to reroute power from the-!"
Her voice was replaced with a mouth covered shriek when a suffocating body plastered across the glass. Brandon felt his entire body go cold and all his hairs stand up. It was such a quick moment, but he saw the person blink back before he stretched past the ship and out of sight.
"Citadel… Kasumi, we good for the Citadel?" He said, desperately blocking out what he just saw.
"Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah." she said way too quickly.
"Okay," he said mostly to himself.
They approached the relay with the rest of the escaping convoy. As soon as they could, they jetted away as fast as they could from the nightmare on their heels.
"Welcome to the Citadel. We hope you have a pleasant day."
Brandon didn't respond to the Tower's cheery asari. They came out on the other side with the rest of the escaping ships, though Brandon noticed how some of the more badly damaged ships weren't with them. It was a stark silence in the ship from that point forward. Neither Brandon nor Kasumi spoke as they prepared to land. It felt wrong to do so, given the situation, but Brandon decided to pay well over premium for a private docking space. The public ones were filling up fast and left many ships circling the station. He and Kasumi had plenty of credits for whatever they were still worth. Food and supplies were going to become valued over credits eventually.
The gunship deployed its landing gear and touched down. Before even everything had gone offline, Brandon was already opening the hatch doors.
"I'm gonna make repairs where needed," he said in a robotic monotone.
The first thing he did when stepped onto the station was take a long, hard breath. It wasn't intentional, but it just seemed to be needed.
Initial inspection of the Razgriz made him glad the armor was three times thicker than most modern ships. Again, another perk of pre-Council tech. The curved fuselage sported many dents and scratched paint. The hull received some scorch marks from some of the fires. The rear docking clamp was still locked in just before the engine core. The right vector thruster had taken the most damage. Unlike the fuselage, it was an aftermarket addition. Visually, a gash jutted up and out on the metal of the diamond shaped surface. It'd require cutting a new piece to weld in place. Mechanically, there was no internal damage from the computer readouts, but he'd check it out anyway. A lot of metal shavings had made their way into the thrust mechanisms when they were forced through the debris field of glass, metal, and… bodies. Brandon tried to shove the fresh images out of his head and pressed them into his gut.
He returned inside to retrieve his welding equipment and caught Kasumi on her omni-tool. When she noticed him, she quickly turned it off.
"I'll be back. I'm gonna see what I can find," was all she said before leaving the ship.
"Hey," Brandon called back.
The thief stopped turned around. He couldn't see her eyes, but her body language was tense.
"You be careful, alright?" he said.
She smiled faintly before disappearing. For some reason, it left Brandon feeling very much alone. He carried on and put on his welding mask. The sheared clamp on the rear was what he focused on first. The precise use of the torch would suffice as it flared hot and the fire cut through the remains of the arm. The hefty chunk hit the platform and it's orange edges slowly cooled. As for the little pieces stuck on the hull, a simple crowbar popped them out.
Attention moved to the gash on the wing. He put his crowbar on the top and readied his torch. The damage metal wouldn't be too hard to cut out, but there was some discoloration that made him pause and stare a little closer. On the tip of the sharp metal were brown streaks that tracked down the piece and over the back of the wing. It was dried blood and made the pit in his stomach even more deep. Brandon tried to ignore it, but when he aimed his torch he realized his hand was shaking. The torch fell to the ground like it was covered in pyjak dung. He drew the crowbar behind his shoulders and pulled his arms to try and release the building tension. When that failed, he slowly started to pace with his right hand still clutching the crowbar. His breathing rose and fell until he smacked the vertical piece of metal only to dent it inwards. Both hands now, he hit the metal again. And again. And again. Even when the metal had curled back, Brandon kept smashing the crowbar into his wing harder and faster. It was only when it snapped in two in his hands did he finally stop.
He knocked off his welder's mask and wiped the sweat and tears flowing from his eyes off his face. His body begged for air and forced him to brace himself against wing. The guilt, the frustration, it physically weighed down his shoulders like an elcor crushing him. Three years trying to prevent the Reapers. They knew they were coming, but only a few truly knew and no one else believed them.
Now they'd believe it. He was damn sure of it now.
The wing remained as it was left. Hours had passed and Brandon lost track of time as he sat silently at his desk. In front of him, both Arondight and Excalibur had been field stripped down to their internal mass accelerators. The armor piercing ammo he took from the supply room was carefully installed. Whenever in doubt about ammunition, if it could cut threw armor then it'll cut through everything else. He was calm and meticulous as he reassembled his weapons. It was a process that was methodical and enjoyable most of the time, but in his current state, it was a way to focus on what was at hand and block everything else out. It was something very in-grained from Alliance training.
The slides were pulled and locked for the new thermal clips, but a strong tapping on the hatch grabbed his attention. Brandon grabbed Arondight, added a clip, and snapped the slide forward. Cautiously, he approached the door with his weapon in hand. The locks were disengaged and the door slid to the side. As soon as he was sure it was Kasumi, he relaxed his grip.
"How bad is it out there?"
He barely finished his sentence as Kasumi stormed in.
"Unless you were in the docks, you wouldn't believe the Reapers were here!" She spat with an anger he hadn't heard from her before, "I mean how can these people still walk around their lives and ignore what's coming!?"
"I'm sure it's just a communications blackout. The Alliance is stubborn and will rely on themselves before they ask help from the Council. Just calm down-"
She whirled around in his direction, "I just saw thousands of people vaporized in front of me! Don't tell me to calm down!"
"Don't you dare say that to me like I wasn't there!" He yelled back.
After their echoes stopped, the ship became silent. Brandon looked away in shame. He didn't mean to snap at her as much as she did to him.
"I'm sorry. I-"
Kasumi braced herself on the kitchen counter. Her head hung low with quakes rolling through her back.
"Kasumi?"
Brandon approached her and touched her shoulder. She turned around and he pushed her hood back. Then he could clear see the streaks of tears that had moved down her face before she walked in.
"Kasumi, what's wrong?"
She took a small breath, "They just hit Earth."
Special Thanks to my beta Maxaro. Yeah... things just went from bad to worse.
