Shepard looked at the Defense Committee. Every face was grave, lined with concern, and all attention was fixed on her. It was like being shoved out on stage, willy-nilly, to be pinned with a spotlight and without an idea of what she meant to do. But it was clear they expected an answer from her, as if it had already been asked.

Which could only mean one thing…

"What's going on?" she felt she didn't need to ask, but part of her wanted to hear that it was something stupid.

"We were hoping," Admiral Montoya said quietly, "you would tell us."

"The reports trickling in are unlike anything we've ever seen," General Carpenter added, her brows knitting together.

Silently, Anderson pressed something into Shepard's hand, something Shepard immediately recognized as her own omnitool. It wouldn't make sense for him to give her someone else's. She slipped it on, appreciating having it back.

"Whole colonies have gone far. We've lost contact with everything beyond the Sol Relay," Carpenter finished.

Shepard let the silence spin out for a few moments. They'd asked her for the same reason she'd asked them: no one wanted to hear the ugly confirmation. Everyone was hoping, in the way of everything faced with a worst-case scenario, that it wasn't so.

"Whatever this is…it's incomprehensibly powerful," Montoya finished.

"You already know what this is, Admiral. The Reapers are here." Something in Shepard's throat, something that made the words feel funny, suddenly loosened its grip. Now that she'd said it, now that the horrible fact was out in the open, her mind began working more smoothly. The war had started…

…well, the war had started for the galaxy at large. The war started for her almost four years ago.

"So…how do we stop them?" Carpenter asked, licking her lips.

"Stop them?" Shepard responded. "The time for strategy, armies, and conventional warfare has already come and gone. We can't stop them,they're already here. They're more advanced than we are, they're more powerful, more intelligent…they don't fear us. Our species, all the species out there right now, are just another notch on their doorframe."

"But…there must be something…" Carpenter's words died on her lips.

"We have two choices: fight or die. It is that simple."

"That's it?" the previously-silent General O'Reilly demanded.

"The galaxy either stands together or we all die separately," Shepard responded. "Yeah. That's it."

"That's our plan?"

Shepard opened her mouth to tell O'Reilly exactly what she thought about planning phases, but she didn't get to. A side door opened, admitting a young data-muncher. Shepard recognized the data-muncher look. "Admirals, Generals…we just lost contact with Luna."

"The moon?" Anderson asked, shaken.

"Shit," Shepard muttered, biting the inside of her lip.

"They couldn't be that close already!" one of the other officers protested.

"Can't they?" Shepard cued her omnitool, checked what she had available. No one had messed with the settings, though someone had added a few bells and whistles.

"UK headquarters has visual!" As the Defense Committee turned their attention, with all the horror one might expect, to the sudden array of newscasts and video feeds, Shepard cued the old frequency for text-to-ship communiques. It was worth a try.

EDI, if you can hear this, they are here.

The spaceport would be a primary target. She didn't want EDI and the Normandy caught flat-footed.

Anderson's omnitool flared and Shepard caught, in that unguarded moment of surprise, 'Operation Needle'.

EDI must have a lot of communications tapped, and Shepard was glad of it. A moment later, Shepard's omnitool flared.

Message received. Operation Needle has been authorized. Anderson will brief you. ~EDI

It seemed to Shepard as though the AI had just activated some plan of the Alliance's. Normally Shepard would have frowned, but it would give whatever Needle was a jumpstart.

Shepard's eyes fell on the window behind the Committee. She raked the skyline, her body beginning to shake with pre-action adrenaline. "We need to get moving. Now." Her words came out deadly calm, but no one seemed to hear them.

"Why haven't we heard from Hackett?" Anderson asked, apropos of nothing.

"I don't think Arcturus is there anymore," Shepard responded. She hoped she was exaggerating the Reapers…but she didn't think so. Her first move would be to cripple a civilization, and that meant taking out their power structure.

"We should get to the Normandy," Anderson said to the room at large. "Needle's been activated."

Needle again. It must be the Alliance's SOP for invasion. So, they hadn't been sitting on their hands this whole time. "She's re…ready." Shepard heard it, a low sound that made her shiver, like a fore harmonic tremor that warned of an impending catastrophe. "Shit…"

The Defense Committee, already on their feet, turned to follow Shepard's gaze.

"How's that for a delusion?" Her words, spoken in bleak, colorless tones, were lost to any but herself, and with them came a surge of hysterical laughter that was kept silent by the equally quick rise of tears. Nothing could prepare a person for watching a Reaper slide majestically out of the cloud cover and settle on the ground of Vancouver. Nothing.

Fortunately, the moments of shock, despair, horror, and mental paralysis all passed with what was, in actuality, lightning rapidity. Her years of living under the Reaper threat, knowing they were out there, seeing tidbits of what they were, what they had planned, had hardened her against persistent shock. Once the moment of arrival passed, she found herself functioning again. "We need to go," she announced sharply.

This building was as primary target for any invading force.

"Oh shit…"

Shepard wasn't sure which of the Committee members spoke, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was the red beam of light that suddenly surged from the Reaper as it turned its attention directly for the main building…

"Get down!"

She and Anderson, who both shouted the warning, were too slow to save the Committee, but were fast enough to avoid the surge of flying glass.