The Illusive Man pushed himself off the floor and look around. Dr. Abbott was just pulling himself to his feet as well. Miranda lay on the floor not moving. The Illusive Man activated his personal comm. and said, "Security report!" there was no answer. He glanced down at Miranda again, she was not moving, though she was undoubtedly alive. The station rocked again. The Illusive Man waved to Dr. Abbott to follow him and he marched from the room to the shuttle bay.

OoOoO

Kaidan walked into Councilor Anderson's office flanked by Samara and Thane to catch the tail end of the Turian Councilor's sentence, "…is in the Attican Traverse, allowing him to take a fleet in could spark a galactic war."

To which the Asari Councilor answered, "His mission is to find Captain Shepard. Commander Alenko has every right to go there and he has every right to draft whatever fleet he wants."

Councilor Anderson said, clearly holding back annoyance, "Commander Alenko will do whatever it takes to find Captain Shepard. If I recall correctly that's why we assigned him to do so. So regardless of any orders to the contrary he will find Shepard. Which is what we all agreed is necessary."

The Salarian Councilor nodded, "Exactly, this attack changes nothing. It may in fact simplify things,"

"Assuming he gets there before Minuteman Station is overrun," Anderson added with a pointed look at the Turian Councilor."

Up until this point Kaidan had been standing patiently at parade rest just inside the door. But he was so surprised by this last statement that Kaidan blurted, "Overrun?"

Anderson turned to face him and nodded slowly, "The Batarian Hegemony has attacked the Cerberus installation known as the Minuteman Station in retaliation for attacking one of their installations and stealing one of their military grade interrogation chemicals."

Kaidan felt cold. If the Batarians got a hold of Shepard, Kaidan probably couldn't even imagine half of what the Hegemony would have done to her. The batarians would do anything they could to bring down any Alliance hero and Shepard in particular after what happened with the Alpha relay. Kaidan opened his mouth, but Anderson waved a hand and said, "Before you can," Anderson cleared his throat, "borrow a fleet, both Admiral Hackett and Admiral Borshevsky are temporarily assigning a couple of ships from Fifth Fleet and Third Fleet to your command."

The Asari Councilor cleared her throat and Anderson turned back around to face his fellow Councilors. The asari, "Councilor Anderson, Commander Alenko, this is a human matter, it is better if the Council does not become directly involved. We are going to leave resolving this situation in your hands." the Salarian Councilor nodded readily, the Turian Councilor hesitated but it seemed he was unwilling to speak his mind and nodded slowly in agreement with his fellow Councilors. The three other Councilors signed off and their holographic images disappeared.

Anderson turned back to Kaidan and after handing him an OSD he said, with a slight smile on his face, "Coordinates of Minuteman Station courtesy of the Watch Dog. As well as complete dossiers on the Geneva, Tokyo, Boston, Manchester, Perugia, Nagano, Sidney and the Ain Jalut which are temporarily under your command. Run the batarians out of the Horse Head Nebula and hold the station until the Alliance can scrape together a full staff."

Kaidan felt his jaw drop then he closed his mouth for a moment, counter offensive strategies dancing through his mind, with nine ships at his command he could do a lot of damage. Kaidan refocused on Councilor Anderson, who was watching him, clearly amused, and said "'A couple of ships'?" Kaidan shook his head slightly then asked, "How many Hegemony ships are there?"

"Unknown; expect heavy resistance though, the Hegemony is very unhappy with Cerberus. We know that Cerberus had three frigates stationed there permanently, so expect at least double that many batarian ships."

Kaidan shook his head smiling wolfishly, and saluted the Councilor. Anderson nodded in response and Kaidan, about to leave Anderson's office, thought of something and turned back, "Councilor Anderson, would it be possible for the Minuteman Station to be sanctioned as the official base of operations for the Apollo Group?"

Anderson raised his eyebrows, "'The Apollo Group' I take it that is the name you've decided on for your organization?" Kaidan nodded. The Councilor pursed his lips in thought for a moment before saying slowly, "I will speak with the Prime Minister and Admiral Hackett and have an answer for you as soon as I can."

Kaidan nodded in thanks and left Anderson's office, once again flanked by Samara and Thane. Once Anderson's door slid shut Kaidan broke into a run.

Once the Normandy's airlock cycled Kaidan walked over to Joker who turned his chair to face Kaidan, "Take us to the Horse Head Nebula Relay, we're rendezvousing with my fleet there then we're going to Minuteman Station." Kaidan handed the OSD to Joker. The pilot turned his chair back around and within second the Normandy began to move. Kaidan slide into the engineering station next to the pilot station and logged in with his Alliance security overrides so he could pull up the full technical specifications and crew rosters for all of the ships in his temporary fleet. Pulling together a battle plan on almost zero notice with nine ships that he'd never worked with before was an interesting tactical challenge.

Five minutes later the Normandy came to the specified mass relay. Joker obligingly 'parked' the Normandy at the official head of the, as of yet, incomplete fleet. The ships from third fleet were there; the Geneva, the Tokyo, the Boston and the Manchester. The fifth fleet ships were due to arrive in about thirty minutes. Kaidan activated the Alliance ship to ship comm. unit, "This is Staff Commander Alenko of the SSV Normandy."

"Captain 'Card' Addison SSV Geneva," the reply was prompt from the lead ship.

"Stand by for orders, Addison; Normandy out." Kaidan cut the comm.

Two minutes later the SSV Ain Jalut came up on the Normandy's starboard side. Kaidan turned in his seat to eye Joker before he activated the comm. again, "This is Commander Alenko of the SSV Normandy to Captain Mustang of the SSV Ain Jalut; you seem to have left behind the rest of your task group." the Ain Jalut was exactly the same as the original Normandy, making it the only other stealth ship in existence.

"Captain Roy Mustang here; we're just leading the way Commander. My pilot wanted a chance to coordinate with yours before the battle."

Kaidan chuckled, "I understand Captain; how far behind you is the rest of your group?"

When Captain Addison's voice came back his tone was laced with sarcastic amusement, "Eighteen minutes."

Kaidan looked over at Joker and nodded. Joker opened a private channel with the other pilot. Apparently the other pilot, a man named Wes Janson, and Joker had known each other in passing in flight school. Janson had apparently graduated a year behind Joker and was looking forward to flying with another ship that was as fast as the Ain Jalut. Kaidan snorted in ironic amusement when he noticed that Janson was as much of a joker as Kaidan's own ace pilot. Kaidan took vicarious pleasure in hearing Joker rib someone else for a change, though Janson seemed to be giving as good as he got in that respect.

As advertised the Perugia, the Nagano and the Sidney dropped out of FTL exactly eighteen minutes later. Kaidan programmed a temporary encrypted fleet comm. channel then, after broadcasting it to the rest of his fleet, activated it, "This is Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko, N-7, Spectre and acting captain of the SSV Normandy. We're going into an active fire fight between Batarian Hegemonic forces and Cerberus. We will obviously creating a three way battle, though the other two sides will be worn down by the time we get there. I'm transmitting fleet tactical plans as well as navigational route info now."

Joker immediately broadcast their route to the Minuteman Station in the Horse Head Nebula over the encrypted fleet comm. Kaidan said, "Let's go Joker."

Joker took the Normandy through the mass relay to the Horse Head Nebula. The Ain Jalut fell in next to the Normandy. The other seven ships maneuvered into a double diamond pattern with the Geneva directly behind the two stealth ships and at the center of the other six ships. Joker and Janson trimmed back the FTL speed of their respective ships and all nine ships made a twelve minute long burn for the Minuteman Station. It was between two systems, similar to the Heretic Geth station right in the middle of Sea of Storms in the Phoenix Massing.

As per Kaidan's battle plan, as soon as his fleet dropped back to normal space speeds the Normandy and the Ain Jalut activated their stealth systems and accelerated to their full, and considerable, speed. Kaidan brought up the external sensors and watched the battle. The three remaining Cerberus cruisers were getting pounded by the six Hegemony ships. Kaidan whistled lowly and winced as one of the Cerberus ships blew apart under sustained fire of the batarian dreadnought Orn'var. "Joker let's go. The dreadnought is yours and Janson's. Take it down before it turns it's guns on my fleet."

"You always give me such fun assignments…" Joker punched a few keys on his board. The Normandy in unison with the Ain Jalut spun on its axis and rocketed to towards the intimidating shadow of the Orn'var.

As per Kaidan's plan, the Geneva went head to head against the Orn'var from one side at exactly the right time to keep the dreadnought's gunners from visually tagging the stealth ships and targeting them manually. The Normandy and the Ain Jalut split four kilometers out from the Orn'var to rake the huge ship from opposite directions. They succeeded in dropping the monstrous ship's shields and scoring several devastating direct hits on its hull. It wasn't enough to take the Orn'var down but the Geneva made an attack run on the dreadnought and scored a direct, if lucky shot on the bridge viewports. The reinforced transparasteel buckled slightly but held, barely, until the Tokyo opened fire. The viewports shattered and the pieces flew inward for a moment before the vacuum of space sucked the atmosphere of the bridge out into the void. Kaidan held back a cheer as the Normandy and the Ain Jalut flew around to make a run on the disabled Orn'var's engines. The Ain Jalut made a beautiful shot on the mass effect core that caused a chain reaction to ripple through it and the dreadnought began tear itself apart.

Kaidan, who was keeping an eye on the rest of the battle, barked into his fleet comm., "Perugia break to port and dive towards the station!" the Perugia's pilot responded immediately and 'dropped' towards Minuteman Station. The Perugia had been triple teaming four of the other Hegemony ships with the Nagano and the Sidney. The Perugia had attacked crosswise from the other two Alliance ships and scored several shots on one of the frigates which combined with the fire from it partner ships had caused the batarian frigates to start breaking apart. Unfortunately for the Perugia one of the batarian cruisers had used the heat from the exploding ships to mask it's presence from the Perugia's sensors. The Nagano and the Sidney took exception to the attempted ambush and within moments the batarian cruiser was so much space junk.

Kaidan saw something strange on his monitors. Four ships were undocking from Minuteman Station. Kaidan pulled up schematics on those ships; they were batarian cruisers. Kaidan cursed as all four ships went faster than light and were gone.

The Normandy and the Ain Jalut engaged with one of the two remaining Hegemony ships as the Boston and the Manchester succeeded in destroying their chosen Hegemony frigate. Kaidan grinned maliciously as the Boston and the Manchester turned to intercept the two remaining Cerberus ships. About a second later the two Cerberus ships deactivated their guns and stopped maneuvering. A female voice came across an open comm. channel, "This is Captain Orin of the CSV Defender we surrender." Kaidan blinked, that was unexpected but not really a surprise considering the tactical advantage his fleet held and how quickly they'd taken out the Hegemony ships.

The Boston and the Manchester continued their pass on the smaller ships but looped back around to take a run on the remaining Hegemony cruiser. Kaidan nodded to himself, those pilots were good which was another non-surprise to him. The Boston's and the Manchester's target disintegrated under the two ships' combined fire. Thirty seconds later the battle was over as the Normandy destroyed the last Hegemony frigate. Kaidan smiled in satisfaction and sat back in his seat for a moment before he remembered the four batarian ships that had left mid battle.

Kaidan pulled up the sensor logs. He recognized the Olemser and the For'dal and muttered darkly under his breath for a moment before Joker said, "Kaidan?"

Kaidan looked up at Joker and shook his head, "Damn slavers; look." Kaidan shunted the sensory data to Joker.

"Commander, I estimated that the batarians slavers got away with approximately two thirds of Minuteman Station's personnel ," EDI chimed in.

Kaidan's head snapped up and he glanced at the station through the Normandy's viewport then turned to EDI's interface, "Can you tell if Shepard…?"

"No Commander, the security personnel have yet to run a full station wide census."

Kaidan breathed slowly considering his options looking at Minuteman Station. After a moment's hesitation he turned to EDI's interface again, "Get me the frequency for that station. I want to make a general broadcast to all remaining personnel."

"Of course Commander Alenko," the comm. frequency came up on the tech station display.

Kaidan punched in the frequency and said, "This is Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko of the SSV Normandy to all Cerberus personnel aboard the Minuteman Station; surrender unconditionally and you will not be harmed. I am coming aboard the station, any hostile actions on your part will be met with deadly force."

Author's Notes: I couldn't find any references to the names of the Alliance ships that are guarding the Citadel. Based upon the information I could find on the Alliance (.com/wiki/Alliance_Navy) it makes sense that they would have one of their fleets would be based out of the Citadel, Bailey even says that there's "a human fleet guarding the Citadel". That being said I've created all the details about the Third Fleet: Admiral Borshevsky and the ships.

I barrowed a character's from STAR WARS; as well as a substance from STAR WARS.

I also borrowed a character his name only, again from the awesome Manga/Anime Fullmetal Alchemist.

SSV stands for Systems (Alliance) Space Vehicle so the Cerberus cruiser can't be SSV anything. I therefore invented the CSV, Cerberus Space Vehicle for the purposes of this story. The Illusive Man has a big enough ego for it too.