Chapter 12 Getting the Pieces

Sheppard stepped out of his private shower in his quarters and even before he got fully dressed, he popped some aspirin to help with the sore muscles. His battle armor still lied on the floor along with the uniform he had been wearing. He glanced at it for a moment, seeing the blood stains and the battle scars. With a resign sigh, he picked up his armor and weapons placing both in a special compartment beside wardrobe. Once everything was in the compartment, he pressed a button as a plastic shield dropped down, once it place a fine mist filled the area as the armor/weapons became covered with nano bots which would clean and repair them both down to the micro level in a span of about 4 hours. With that done he finished getting into a pair of pants and a simple T-shirt, his jacket sat on the back of his desk chair as he moved to sit on the tinny couch in his cabin. It was even a joke to call it a couch it could maybe hold two people and sat the path between his desk by the door and his bed. Still it was better then everyone else on the ship, with the only one close being the second officer's cabin a deck below.

"Would Jacob still be second in command or would Miranda be second in command?" inquired Sheppard out load to himself.

"Major do you need me?" said EDI's voice from a nearby panel, she monitored everything on the ship aside from the bathrooms and even then, she had auto monitoring controls but no visual.

"Not really do you know who is technically second in command now?" inquired Sheppard

"We are in a little bit of a catch 22 Major, Dr. Lawson as 3rd in command of the scientific mission is Jacob's Taylor boss however standard orders is that Jacob while onboard is in charge after yourself sir." Explained EDI "In practice however Dr. Lawson has already claimed the second officer's cabin as her own. So it would seam that she is the second command."

"Alright, I'll deal with that when we transfer her back to the Prometheus." Stated Sheppard as he picked up his data pad and checked the command internet. While they where way to far out to get nearly instant updates from the rest of the Tau'ri space, the net had a daily update. The bulk of the headlines didn't cover news from home but instead the Reapers, the image of an Asari "mother" holding up her baby to be rescued even as they both died. He didn't want to see that image or the video of the nuclear flashes, so he moved down the page to hit the recorded broadcasts from Earth.

"Maybe a football game will…God damn it!" cursed Sheppard as right there beside the title of the game he was going to watch was the final blowout loss of the game he was going to watch. "Never mind that…I'll just put on a show to get my mind off."

He had just started a show to get his mind off everything that had happened and what he had seen when EDI paused the holographic display in front of him which was playing the anime he had just started.

"Major Sheppard, sorry but you have a request from Liara T'Soni to speak with you." Reported EDI

"Alright allow her to come up." answered Sheppard as he got up and moved up toward his office area and threw on his jacket. He had just finished the last couple of buttons when the door opened and Liara walked into his cabin, she paused for a moment studying everything around her. It was a tiny space, a bathroom shower area near the door she was at, an office area beside that and a bed and dressing area down a few steps. Along one wall was a screen paused on something she had never seen before, it looked like a drawing of a black-haired man wielding swords fighting against a giant of a man but the 1st man was flying through the air.

"A broadcast of some kind?" inquired Liara

"A recording of show I loved as a kid even though my mother hated that I watched it." explained Sheppard as he looked at the anime before him. "Attack on Titan, my mother used to yell at me when she found me watching it. I never told her Uncle Ronan had let me borrow it."

"When I was a child my mother caught me digging up a local park trying to uncover a Prothean artifact that I knew had to be there." stated Liara as she remembered the memory "She yelled at me and the next day bought me my first archaeology book."

"And I am sure your father loved it." Laughed Sheppard as Liara looked at him for a moment slightly confused at the statement.

"You did read the information we gave you about the Asari and the other races?" inquired Liara as Sheppard looked slightly ashamed.

"Not fully, lots of information to go through and I personally focused on the military issues because that would be what I have to deal with." admitted Sheppard

"Well I can't say I blame you, I haven't gone through all your stuff either." admitted Liara as Sheppard got the opinion that Liara was avoiding talking about what they had just seen. He couldn't blame her for that, he hadn't wanted to think about it which was why he had picked an anime had had seen dozens of times. He wanted to turn his brain off for a while before getting some sleep. "Well, Asari have no male gender so we have no fathers as you would say it."

"I see, that is different. So are you clones?" inquired Sheppard "Because the Asgard where we are from tried that and after thousands of years the copies broke down and they died out."

"Well no, we are not clones per say we take DNA samples from our patterns and use that to randomize the code and since Asari live for a 1000 years." explained Liara "I am only 109 myself."

"Only a 109, a generation ago 109 year old human would likely be the oldest human on Earth." stated Sheppard "On Athos, they would have been eaten by the Wraith long before that. We can reach those ages now but still 109 is plenty old by our standards."

"Well Salarians live for only 40 years or so and Turians only for….." started Liara only to pause "But those people on the Citadel, they didn't live full lives they all died."

"Yes, your galaxy is at war." answered Sheppard as he looked around for a moment thinking. "Why don't you sit down on the couch."

"No I don't want to intrude." Started Liara

"Just do it, it is clear you have questions." answered Sheppard as he sat down at his desk chair for a moment, before pulling a bottle of Jack Daniels from the bottom draw. "I have some alcohol if you want it, but it is kind of strong."

"I need strong right now." confirmed Liara as Sheppard nodded his head and poured two drinks before putting the bottle away. He walked over to the couch where Liara had sat down offering her a glass which she took, he made no move to sit beside her on the tight couch and instead moved to sit on the small outcrop which contained the TV, bookcase which covered the side wall of his cabin. He smiled as Liara sniffed the Jack before taking a tiny amount before making a face.

"It is a required taste, but I like it." admitted Sheppard "Now, ask me whatever you want and I will answer them as best as I can. On second thought don't ask me anything top secret, I can't tell you that but I will do what I can."

"Could we…could we have saved those people on the Citadel?" inquired Liara "All those people died and yet you have the technology to tow two whole arms of the Citadel to Omega."

"And we are tasking ourselves doing so." admitted Sheppard as he turned back to the first question. "Could we have held off the Reapers? Yes…if we had the whole 7th fleet with us or another one of our main fleets we could have held them off until dooms day. The issue is we don't have any of the fleets with us at the moment."

"So why would Omega be safe?" inquired Liara

"We are setting up our defense platforms, those things can tear apart any known ships even our battleships." stated Sheppard "Given the bottle neck your FTL has we can focus their fields of fire and defenses ships and hold back any Reaper assault outside of a full assault and even then it would cost them heavily."

"Bottle neck what do you mean?" inquired Liara

"From my understanding when you travel by Mass Relay you come out near another mass Relay." Inquired Sheppard as Liara nodded her head.

"I see what you mean, you know the area any ships are likely to come in so you can focus all your fire there." stated Liara as Sheppard nodded his head. "We have defense platforms like that around Thesisa and Palavan had more of the same didn't seem to do anything."

"If I can ask, how do you think your council will react to what just happened?" inquired Sheppard

"Not well, some will want to have you all arrest for using nuclear weapons to destroy the Citadel." Explained Liara "I must admit, I don't like it even if I knew you where trying to prevent the Reapers from using them. It still killed millions."

"Millions who were already died or soon to be." countered Sheppard with a sigh as he took a long pull on his glass. "Cold comfort for sure, even with the atmosphere failing on the arms and Reapers over running the position I am sure some where killed directly by the nuclear blast. Fuck we didn't nuke the actually ring itself, that would have set them back a lot more, but we kept that intact to protect the Furlings."

"The Keepers you mean?" inquired Liara as Sheppard nodded his head.

"They are one of the founding members of the Alliance of Races and beside the Nox the only remaining original member race of that great alliance." explained Sheppard "I wouldn't be surprised if the Vice Admiral took that into consideration for his targets, or he didn't know the results of a nuke going off on that amount of Naquadah and Zephry or Element Zero as you call it. Last time we expoloded a naquadah bomb on a despot of Naquadah we destroyed half a planet."

"What?" inquired Liara her eyes widening at the news. "You destroyed half a planet with a single bomb?"

"Yes, by accident true." admitted Sheppard "Dropped a nuclear bomb on a natural despot of Naquadah and the chain reaction was so powerful it turned half a planet into a nuclear wasteland of molten rock and sent pieces of the crust into orbit. Thank God it was an ice ball world and the nearest population center was on the other side of the planet, so civilian casualties where low comparatively."

Before Sheppard could add anything his data pad beeped as he turned his attention away from Liara to his data pad. He looked over the information for a moment before looking back up at Liara.

"President Carter wants to meet representatives from your races." Explained Sheppard "Admiral Hackett just sent me the mission, since your team is onboard he wants you to make contact with your government to make the arrangements."

"Question is how to make contact with them, without the Citadel they would likely head toward Thessia only that is under attack, after that Palaven." stated Liara

"Which is under heaver attack." noted Sheppard

"So likely Sur'Kesh that is the Salarian homeward." Stated Liara

"And likely the very next target." Added Sheppard as he stood up. "We better go find Garrus, he will have to be the point man on this."

"Agreed, he is the hero of the galaxy and a symbol of hope but we will need more then a symbol we will need support and a lot of luck." Admitted Liara as she stood up.

"Well there is a good chance that the Tau'ri fleet will be behind you." stated Sheppard "however it will take time to get them here. President Carter isn't going to sit back and allow trillions of people to die while not doing everything in her power to stop it."

"I just hope we as a galaxy can come together." Admitted Liara

"How so?" inquired Sheppard

"Turian and Salarians will not work with the Krogans who are the best soldiers in the galaxy, the Turians hate every council member, the Baratains likewise hate the Council and that isn't even going into the relationship with the Quarin Migrant fleet." Explained Liara "And we will need everyone to defeat the Reapers."

"Well, President Carter will want to meet all the Races and maybe an outside member who isn't beholden to any other race and hasn't wrong any other race will be able to make a deal?" offered Sheppard

"Worth a shot, but I am not sure it will work and considering that 10 million people are dead at the Citadel some may say you are at fault for that." stated Liara as she shook her head. "They will not want to admit that they share at least some of the blame, they knew about the Reaper threat since Sovereign attacked years ago and they did next to nothing."

"Sometimes it takes a problem knocking at the door to make people do what has to be done." Advised Sheppard as he and Liara stepped into the lift and headed down to find Garrus.

It was around that time that what remained of the Citadel defense fleet exited the Omega relay only to find themselves facing down a large number of unknown ships. Alarms began going off as the Captains of the damaged ships prepared to do battle once again only to stop when their onboard computers matched the haul profiles of the ships to their limited scans of Tau'ri ships.

"Commander Mutis I am detecting 18 dreadnought size ships and one…by the goddess I have never seen a ship that size before or even one designed that size." Stated the Sensor operator as the multiple images of the Tau'ri dreadnoughts appeared along with long rectangle shaped ships which while as large as Dreadnoughts didn't seam as deadly. The image of what had to be defense platforms but of a style unknown to the Citadel races where being assembled nearby. While the massive number of ships of a type and style unknown to the Citadel forces was unsettling what was breathtaking was the size of the largest ship which sat in the heart of this fleet.

"Give me a scan of that monster." Ordered Commander Mutis as the powerful sensors of the Destiny Accession turned their attention to it. Commander Mutis's eyes widened as the ship which over shadowed the Destiny Accession came up in closer detail. It was nearly 12 Kilometers long and over a kilometer wide, the sheer size of the ship was something no one in Citadel Space had ever dreamed of constructing.

"Citadel Fleet this is Prometheus control please come in." said a Tau'ri voice over the communication channel. "Please advance toward the center of the fleet, we have cleared the cargo bay for your damaged ships so that they can be brought onboard for repairs."

"Prometheus control this is Commander Mutis, Citadel fleet please explain what you mean?" inquired Commander Mutis

"Commander Mutis, this is Admiral Hackett commander of the Prometheus's exploratory mission." said a different Tau'ri voice "The Promethea's is the massive ship, I am sure you have spotted on sensors. While it is massive the bulk of the ship is a 10-kilometer-wide cargo hold capable of holding the enter fleet before you. It is cleared so your ships can use it as a dry dock."

"I understand Admiral Hackett, what is the status at the Citadel?" inquired Commander Mutis

"Commander...the Citadel has been destroyed." stated Admiral Hackett as the entire bridge crew of the Destiny Ascension gasped. "The Tau'ri task force did manage to extract and bring into hyperspace two of the Citadel arms. Current estimate is just under 3 million citizens where rescued the rest were sadly unable to be saved. They are three hours out from this location, pulling the arms in hyperspace has slowed down their speed."

"So we lost 10 million people." stated Commander Mutis, she had a lot of friends who lived on the Citadel including her mate. Her thoughts turned to her wondering if she was among the living.

"Sadly yes, you have our condolences Commander we did everything we could but there was no way we could hold the space and the Citadel itself had been boarded. We evacuated what we could and destroyed what we could to prevent the enemy from using it." explained Hackett "I have the combat report onboard the Prometheus, I request you and some of your highest-ranking officers join me onboard so that we can plan the next phase of this war."

"Alright." Said Commander Mutis "Let me contact the officers I will need and the Citadel Council. They will want to know about this as well."

"I understand, we will await your arrival, Hackett out." Said Hackett as the link was cut.

"Get me whoever is the highest ranking Turian and Salarian who is left alive and have them prepare to head toward this Tau'ri ship, have our most damaged ships head toward it as well to use this "dry dock" of theirs." Ordered Commander Mutis

"Madam, if I may." Whispered her second officer "What if this is a trap?"

"And if it is what can we do about it?" inquired Commander Mutis as she took in the sight of the Tau'ri warships around her forces. The Tau'ri had as much firepower here as she had ever outside of the Combined Pavalen defense fleet, that fleet was larger than even the Citadel fleet. "We are beaten up, over half the fleet is gone and half of what is left can barely stay afloat. We have maybe a quarter to a third of our firepower left, we are in no condition to fight at the moment. We need a safe harbor and right now this is it."

"Understood Commander." Said the second officer before adding "I must admit, I agree with you and besides they could have destroyed us when we exited the Relay and they haven't. Besides could they be worse than the Reapers?"

"Get a coded message off to the Council and every command that we are safe and regrouping at Omega." Ordered Commander Mutis as the Destiny Accession ship mounted cameras got a good image of the cargo bay on the Prometheus, it was indeed a massive hold which could hold whole ships inside it. Some of the more damaged ships where already heading inside before they could fall apart. "Get a shuttle ready as well, I want to leave in five minutes."

The speed at which the Citadel shuttles launched from their flagships caught Admiral Hackett by surprise, he had expected them to take their time. With civilizations without beaming technology he found as a general rule that it took them 10 to 15 minutes to leave but just over five minutes after the communication link was cut they sent messages that they where on their way. The Salarians would be the last to arrive not because they where slower but because their dreadnought was farther away from the Prometheus.

For his Part Admiral Hackett stood in the main hanger of the Prometheus, while a ship of discovery and exploration it still had some teeth. A flight of Eagle fighters sat in their bays white air-to-air missile under their wings. Owl transports and larger Condors bombers also sat in their bays, an honor guard of marines prepared to welcome the Citadel Race officers. Their shuttles reminded Hackett strangely of cars, they were sloped along the top and coming out of the sides in four tiny arms where engines which propelled the shuttles to a stop.

The side doors opened to the first shuttle as a blue skinned woman, dressed in a skin-tight black leather looking armor stepped out. Over that armor was hardened panels but she wasn't armed as far as Hackett could see. Beside her came another woman, this one blue as well but with a slight greenish tone to her skin. Behind her came another blue woman only this one in much heavier white armor and holding a rifle in her hand, a marine of some kind.

"Commander Mutis, I believe." Guessed Hackett to the Asari who stepped off first.

"Yes, are you Admiral Hackett?" inquired Commander Mutis as she eyed this grey haired Tau'ri male in front of her, dressed in white fabrics with silver trim.

"I am, welcome to the Prometheus." welcomed Hackett as the second shuttle arrived, a twin to the first in every way aside from the paint job. Out of this bird came three bird like aliens, with a lot more armor and both of them holding an assault rifle in his three fingered hand.

"Command Mutis good to see you made it out alive as well." Said the unarmed Turian without even looking Admiral Hackett even as his second officer or guard scanned the lines of Eagle Fighters and other strike aircraft in their bays along with the armed guards.

"Captain Vaninic this is Admiral Hackett of the Tau'ri and this is his ship, the Prometheus." Introduced Commander Mutis as the Turian eyed this human who had never seen before. In fact outside of the video of the Tau'ri he had never seen a human before.

"I see, you build your ships at an extremely large scale." Stated Captain Vaninic as he talked down to this new unworthily alien. "This ship is a huge target for any enemy."

"Well that is why it is surrounded by a task force of ships." Countered Admiral Hackett as the third shuttle landed in the hanger, causing the air around them to swirl. "Besides this ship isn't design to slug it out with enemy ships, that is what the battleships are for."

"Ah…I see Captain Vaninic is making friends as usual." Said a new voice as a big eyed salarian came out of his shuttle, like the others he had two guards and one was armed with a pistol which was resting at his hip. "This isn't the time for bickering, this is a time to work together for the common good."

"Thank you." Said Hackett

"No, I must thank you Admiral Hackett the percentage of our forces getting out of that battle had shrunk to below five percent until your forces arrived." Said the Salarian as he spoke at a very rapid rate. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I am Commander Ulian of the Salarian defense group."

"Commander, I recommend that we head to the war room so that we can better discuss our plans." Offered Hackett

"Agreed." Confirmed Mutis as Hackett turned and headed toward the exit passing by the honor guard of Tau'ri Marines who stood at attention. The armed guards of the Citadel forces stayed behind as only the commanders and a single aid followed Hackett into the ship. The hallways had been semi-cleared for their mission, Hackett wasn't about to stop people from carrying out their jobs, but the highly classified research had their doors sealed and in the case of Doctor Rush's research he had four armed and battle armor wearing marines by his research door. Their job was more to keep Rush inside his lab and out of Hackett's hair then actually making sure that the Citadel races didn't see something they weren't suppose to.

"Admiral Hackett, if I may Prometheus that sounds like a persons name?" inquired Commander Ulian as he moved up to Hackett's side, the tall thin big eye alien was a little off putting to Hackett but he had dealt with stranger. "Can you tell me where it comes from?"

"Prometheus is was a god once worshiped on our home world Earth." Explained Hackett even though he wasn't sure if Prometheus was a god or a titan, he wasn't going to confuse the salarian with that details. "Legends goes that he took pity on mankind and stole the gift of fire and metal work from the gods and gave it to mankind."

"I see, so this Prometheus is a sharer of knowledge one could say?" inquired Ulian

"Yes, one could say that." Confirmed Hackett as they reached one of the meeting rooms onboard the massive ships. It wasn't the official main meeting room, that was located near the bridge and a much greater walk to and from the hanger. This one near the hanger was a twin to that in every way beside this one having paint on the walls instead of wood paneling, so to save time and make the Citadel races calmer being closer to their shuttles they would meet here. It had a long wood rectangle table with a single metal strip running down the center. At each seat was a wireless dock to attach Tau'ri designed computers to the main holographic display built into the table. There was of course a large wall mounted holographic display on one wall which was currently off showing the off-white walls. Along the back wall behind the head of the table sat a wall mounted metal seal, the ships own seal along with two Tau'ri flags on a pole to either side of the seal. Two aids stood by those flags neither of them armed but ready to help their Admiral if needed. Sitting beside the head of the table with his back to the wall mounted hologram was an older man, with some gray hairs mixed in with his brown. He had been looking at his data pad when they entered only to stand up.

"Welcome, please be seated." Welcomed Hackett as he guided the new comers to seats across from the brown-haired man. "This is Doctor McKay or head researcher on this mission, sadly Dr. Daniel Jackson the head of our mission will not be joining us. He is on board the Battleship Prince of Wales currently towing the Citadel arms to our location and their systems are too tasked for a holographic connection to us. I will cut with the pleasantries because of the current situation before us. Your galaxy is at war and we have stumbled into it alongside you, how can we help?"

"Last reports is that the Reapers are in at least 3 major systems, our home systems." Said Commander Mutis as she looked at the Turian "And of course the Citadel."

"Add to that we have gathered some brief reports of massive Reaper forces in Bararian space." Added the Salarian Commander Ulian "If only half the reports are true then the Bararian took the full force of the Reapers."

"That makes sense, Spetre Vakarian had information that the Reapers where coming in from that region of space." added Captain Vaninic "They would be hit first and take the full force, if I was the Reaper commander I would have stayed in Baratian space and cleared them out before moving on. Having three forces stuck behinds lines isn't anything a tactician would recommend."

"I would have to disagree." stated Admiral Hackett as the Turian glared at him. Hackett had had some time to study the Turian and other battle tactics of races in this galaxy. They were much more static think with fixed lines then Tau'ri where. They were nowhere near as static thinking as Colonial Military had been who had been basically stuck in WW1 thinking. "Striking at the heart of your enemy command and control such as your capitals. Same for hitting the Citadel in combination with the fact that the Citadel was a super gate."

"A what?" inquired Captain Mutis

"A super gate, the center ring I believe you called it the Presidium is what we call a Super Gate." Stated Admiral Hackett as he looked toward Dr. McKay.

"In our galaxy, in fact every galaxy we have been to outside of your own there was been a series of devices called Stargates." Started McKay as a holographic image of a stargate appeared in the center of the table. "These devices where built by the Ancients and spread across each galaxy they visited and once dialed they open a wormhole between the two stargates allowing transportation across light years in micro seconds. They are the backbone of intergalactic travel in every galaxy we have been."

"You have this?" inquired Captain Mutis

"We have one on this ship, we brought it with us from our galaxy." Explained Admiral Hackett "It is our plan to use it to evacuate civilians out of the combat zone to our galaxy where for the will be far away from the Reapers."

"How many people can you take through this stargate?" inquired Commander Ulian

"The Stargate can remain open for 33 minutes before it shuts down." Answered McKay "After that we can redial almost right away and open it again and send the next group through."

"So we can move a lot of civilians out of harm way while bringing in supplies from your galaxy." Stated Commander Ulian as he nodded his salarian head "I like it, I like it a lot."

"Well we can bring in supplies however the wormhole is only one way at any given time, we can't send people through both ends of the stargate at one time." Explained McKay

"Well that is disappointing." Stated Commander Ulian "Still bringing in more troops will be helpful."

"At the moment at least we will not be sending troops through the gate." Stated Admiral Hackett "They will do little good at the moment."

"The millions of people fighting right now on Palaven and others worlds would disagree with you." Countered Captain Vaninic.

"And what will a few hundred troops will do on a broad front like that at the moment." Countered Hackett "We simply can't move in the forces as fast as we need to through the gate while still evacuating civilians. We are operating at the end of a long supply chain now we need to focus on what will give us the most bang for our buck. That isn't troops now, that is nuclear weapons that we can beam onboard the Reaper capital ships. Destroying them is more important at the moment."

"I would have to agree with that." Confirmed Commander Utian "So the Reapers have this Super gate thing in that was hidden in our Citadel?"

"No, not really when we destroyed the arms we left behind we stopped them from opening the super gate and allowing their own super gate located in the void between galaxies from opening up to bring in reinforcements they have in the void between this galaxy and the next." Explained Hackett as he looked at his watch. "In fact the operation to destroy that fleet should begin within the hour."

"You are going to destroy a whole Reaper fleet within an hour?" inquired Captain Vaninic "I don't see how you can do it as easily as you claim."

"We could destroy the entire Reaper fleet over your home world in about 30 seconds Captain if we wanted to." Stated Admiral Hackett "It would involve exploded your star with a micro black hole and causing a supernova which would destroy the entire system and every living soul there."

For a moment none of the Citadel members spoke.

"Our plan is to use this type of bomb to destroy the Reaper fleet far away form any living soul and at the same time prevent them from getting reinforcements." Stated Hackett "At the same time we are assembling our own super gate, once that is assembled we will be able to bring in our ships and other forces in enough numbers to carry out large scales offense operations."

"And how long will that take?" inquired Commander Mutis

"We have already started but we are looking at 5 days at the earliest." Stated Hackett "In the meantime, our President wants to meet with your leaders to better form a plan to defeat the Reapers and prevent them from becoming a threat to other galaxies."

"Knowing the Council, they will want to have a meeting before anything gets done." Admitted Commander Mutis with some distain in her voice. "In times like this we can't wait for politicians to spend days debating over stupid items."

"I don't expect any of that from President Carter, she was a military General for a long time and is one of our greatest heroes. She knows time is key." explained Admiral Hackett as an aid which had been standing behind him moved forward and leaned forward and whispered into his ear. "Thanks Tom, put them on."

"Yes, Sir." confirmed the Aid as Hackett turned around and looked away from the group, within seconds holographic images of another Tau'ri in a more relax dress appeared. He wasn't alone beside him also in a hologram from was Spectre Vakarian.

"Admiral, Sir." Said the Tau'ri as he snapped to attention and raised one hand to his eyebrow and saluted the higher-ranking officer.

"Major Sheppard, good job so far." said Hackett before he turned his eyes toward the Turian. "Spectre Garrus Vakarian, I have read some of your duty reports the public ones at least and you and your team have done some amazing feats."

"Thank you Admiral, we would all be dead if your people hadn't beamed us onboard the Normandy before the Citadel fell." added Garrus

"It was no issue, now Major you reported you had news about the upcoming meeting between President Carter and the other leaders of this galaxy?" inquired Hackett

"Yes, sir." Confirmed Major Sheppard "Liara, an Asari on Garrus' team informed me that any meeting of the council races would leave out some of the major powers in this galaxy, notably the Krogans, Quarians and the Geth."

"Is there a reason?" inquired Dr. McKay more to the Citadel races across from him then to the young man he had known since before he could walk.

"Those races are not members of the Citadel and they have a bad history with the Council." Explained Commander Mutis

"And at the moment, none of that matters." stated Admiral Hackett

"Agreed, we need to move forward and right now old grudges need to be put aside most of all with the Quarians." Stated Commander Ulian as the Salarian leader.

"Sir, with all due respect the Quarians may have a largest fleet because of the Migrant fleet but if we want real power to fight the Reapers we need the best fighters in the galaxy we need the Krogans." Stated Garrus

"And how do you expect to get the Krogans to work with us in any real way?" inquired Captain Vaninic "After the Krogan war, genophage and everything else they have no reason to help us."

"Agreed." Stated Commander Ulian

"Sir, Sam…sorry Doctor Carter talked a little about curing this Genophage that the Krogans have." Offered Sheppard "Maybe curing them will get them to help the other races of this galaxy."

"Wrex would be open to that." added Garrus "He is a major leader of the Krogans and with a cure for the genophage it would be easy to get the rest of the clans to join him in fighting the Reapers."

"Never, we can never have the Krogan Genophage cure it would doom the galaxy for decades of war." Stated Commander Ulian

"From the reports I have seen from Palaven it may be worth the trouble of curing the Genophage to bring the Krogans into the fight." Countered Captain Vaninic "However that would have to be something for the Primarch to decided not me."

"Primarch?" inquired Hackett

"The leader of our people." Answered Captain Vaninic "I assume it is similar in roles to your President."

"And where is he or her?" inquired Admiral Hackett

"Palaven." Answered Captain Vaninic

"Well then Major, take the Normandy and head to Palaven rescue or make contact with the Primarch. If possible, bring him to this war council." ordered Hackett "If you need resupplies draw them from the rest of the fleet, do what you can to help the Turian forces there but you main mission is to retrieve if possible the Primarch."

"Yes, sir." Confirmed Sheppard as the holograms disappeared as Hackett turned back to his guests.

"Now we need to talk about what to do in the meantime." Stated Hackett "I can't release much of my task force, I need it to hold the line here while we build the gate to bring in reinforcements. I fully expect a Reaper attack on this system before to long."

"How so Omega isn't as important as other systems." Countered Captain Vaninic "I can name dozens without thinking that hard."

"Because we broadcast to you that this was the meeting point, they will want to strike us here and soon." stated Hackett "I have two defense platforms set up and we know the direction the assault will most likely come from…"

"If your defense platforms are anything like your other ships they can handle themselves, we need your ships to protect the billions of souls on other worlds." stated Commander Mutin as Hackett lowered his head.

"You have to understand, I don't have the ships under my command to turn the tide of this war." stated Hackett "All our simulations confirmed my beliefs on that, President Carter has already order the 7th, 18th and 25th fleets to prepare for sent into battle that is over 150 Capital ships, dreadnought size you would call them in those fleets alone along with cruisers, destroyers and everything else. They are the teeth of our navy, with the most power ships and well-trained crews. Along with that we have alert orders sent out to every other fleet we have along with our ground forces, the entire Tau'ri Military is mobilizing to help you, refugee centers are being scouted and set up for your people. Our allies are also being contact, even our rivals are being contacted in hopes to bring the force needed to end this war as fast as possible. We will be unable to bring any of those forces to bare if the Reapers take this system and the nearby super gate we are building. We have to hold the line here, sorry but to save your galaxy I must hold the line here."

"I understand." Stated Commander Mutin "I didn't realize how much force you are preparing. We look out and see all these ships, giant dreadnoughts and more power then any of our current forces and want to use it to save our people."

"So do I." admitted Hackett "I want to save everyone I can, but even with the ships I have here now if the Reapers do a full out attack with everything they have I would likely not be able to stop them. I could bleed them out badly make them pay for every inch of space they took but they could overwhelm this position with numbers. If I deploy too many ships away that becomes easier for them to do and something, they are more likely to try. In order to win this war, I need to keep those ships here to make sure they don't try. I will send what I can, mostly the Akula class stealth ships I have and the Normandy class frigates, but they will be use to extract high Value VIP, intelligence gathering and hit and run attacks. That is the best I can do, sorry."

Space was ripped apart as a vortex of blue energy appeared in the center of a massive ring, a large slash of energy shot forward from the event horizon before settling into a pool of blue energy. For a moment nothing happened and then out of that pool of energy came a dark sword like shape. The massive form of the TAV Missouri, the current flagship of the Tau'ri Navy pulled away from the Super gate and scanned the area around the Super gate. The Captain on the Missouri spotted what he expected to see, two defense satellite along with a dozen other ships including two other battleships.

"Communication confirm with ORI galaxy command that we have arrive." ordered the Captain, as he wanted a moment for confirmation from his communication officer. ORI command was a tiny outpost when it came to the ever growing Tau'ri command structure. It wasn't that the job of holding the ORI super gate in the possible enemy galaxy wasn't important it was very important. It was just that they knew that this was a forward outpost. The men and women here along with the ships and equipment wasn't suppose to stop a full scale ORI attack, they where to hold the line long enough to alert the forces back home and make their escape. That of course was their official mission, unofficially this was also the HQ of major intelligence operations with multiple Akula class stealth ships operating across what remained of ORI space gathering intelligence about any threat the once mighty ORI could poses to the Milky Way Galaxy. So far the answer had been not much of a threat and shrinking by the day, the constant advance of the Tau'ri technology and growth of their fleet in combination with the long running a bitter civil war tearing the once united ORI galaxy apart meant they where not the threat they once were. Still memories of ORI ships blowing away their rivals in the Milky Way as the ORI soldiers destroyed whole armies stayed with the memories of the people of the Milky Way galaxy. Even so the mission of the Missouri wasn't to join the task force here it was to carry out a different operation.

"Helm, turn the ship around and prepare to dial out." Ordered the Captain as the massive battleship spun around in space and turned to face the ORI super gate. "Weapons arm probe, prepare forward missile batteries full nuclear spread, drone launchers and stand by to fire black hole bomb."

"Aye…Aye sir." Confirmed weapons as massive missile launchers raised up from positions within the Missouri and turned toward the still inactive Stargate. Missile tubes built into the haul of the battleship opened up as well to show more missiles ready to fire. The forward most fire port didn't have a missile instead a slightly larger vehicle sat ready to launch. Along with the missiles and probe, other tubes opened up to reveal Tau'ri drone weapons, while not as powerful as their ancient counterparts but they where still extremely powerful weapons.

"Weapons ready Captain!" reported Weapons as the Captain stood on the bridge and did a quick double check of his orders. He tapped a button on his own data pad which sent a confirmation that he was ready to launch his attack back through subspace by a series of repeater beacons back to Earth. After about 10 minutes he got a confirmation and he knew it was time.

"Dial the gate, once it is open launch probe and stand by weapons." Ordered the Captain as the ORI super gate began to dial, it took only a few moments before another vortex of energy shot out and the gate opened again.

"Tracking wormhole." reported Stargate operations, "It is heading just past the Torch galaxy but not reaching the next galaxy."

"Launch probe." Ordered the Captain as the probe was launched, once it was away the probe automatically cloaked itself before it even reached the event horizon. It passed through the horizon and entered the wormhole traveling the distance between the ORI galaxy and the Torch galaxy as the Tau'ri called it. The probe exited the other end and began to broadcast back to the Missouri. What it sent back was set on a holographic command table in which the Captain along with the senior staff of the Missouri could study what was before them.

What the probe sent back was what they had somewhat expected from intelligence reports from the Torch galaxy, their was a super gate, tiny by their standards and judging from the power readings it wasn't capable of reaching very far. The space around the super gate was full of multiple ships all matching information given by this catalyst of Reaper transports. Along with the supply ships there was a handful of Reaper Capital Ships all heading toward the wormhole as if they were expecting a threat to come out of the gate. They hadn't targeted the cloaked probe, however they also spotted was five arms coming out of the Reaper Super gate.

"Looks like it is a twin to the Citadel." stated a second officer as the powerful sensors noted that instead of skyscrapers full of people there where large bays now empty for the repair of Reaper Capital Ships.

"Alright, mark targets and prepare to fire." Ordered the Captain as the probe marked the targets for the coming attack.

"Fire." ordered the Captain as the front bow of the Missouri came alive with missile and drone fire which passed through the event horizon. The attack traveled the distance between galaxies in a few moments before appearing in the middle of the Reaper supply fleet. The missiles flew forward heading toward their targets while the drones went on auto pilot and went after their own targets. The Missiles aimed at the Capital ships hit their AA defense and began to get cut down however around half of the missiles where aimed not at the capital ships but at the more distant but lightly armed and armored supply ships. These missiles flew true blowing up the ships in naquadah enhanced nuclear fireballs. The capital ships were the sole targets of the drones as they began to tear the ships apart. These drones where on a one-way mission and would tear their targets apart before self-destructing. Not that it would matter much as the last missile from the Missouri flew through the super gate. With that done the super gate deactivated and the Missouri lost the feed. The probe was programed for this and sent it's last broadcast toward the still distant but much closer Promethea's. The last image was the Black Hole bomb going off and sucking in the Reaper Super gate and pulling in the remains of the Reaper Capital ships and nearby supply ships. The ever-growing event horizon swallowed the super gate up and the additional mass caused it to expand out word sucking in the supply ships which had only started to move away from the battle. The probe itself along with any remained of the Tau'ri weapons were also sucked into the new black hole in the void between two distant galaxies.

Onboard the Missouri they couldn't get a perfect reading on number of Reaper Ships destroyed but they were able to get an estimate.

"Sir, judging from the likely size of the black hole and the position of the Reaper fleet we estimate at least 60% of the Reaper fleet will be destroyed along with docking center and the super gate." stated combat control "With the rest being unable to Reach the Torch galaxy for some time and therefore out of the fight."

"Good, send report to Admiral Hackett and then prepare to transfer the other black hole bomb to the weapon bay of the main defense platform." Ordered the Captain "lets hope they never have to deploy it here. After that, lets head home."

"Aye…aye sir." Conformed the weapon officers as the report was generated and sent first to Earth who would forward it to Admiral Hackett through the stargate.

Well I hope you liked this chapter, it was basically a lot of set up for events that will happen later in the story. Now since I have gotten a few PM about what happened to the guy at my job who crashed the network so many times delaying my last chapter I will just say this. The guy in question is the owner's son-in-law and will likely be my boss in a few years once the owner retires so no he didn't get fired. He is a really good guy but doesn't know much about computer networks. Now until next time please keep reading, thanks Wilkins75.