37: Dance with the Devil

Destiny Ascension

xxx

The remaining Geth forces had fallen back to the tip of the Citadel in the hopes that the Citadel and Alliance fleets would not engage for fear of hitting the Citadel itself. Though they had greatly miscalculated as Valern and Tevos had both sent out messages to the fleets that they were to engage and destroy the Geth forces, whatever the cost. Therefore, the battle was quickly turning into a rout even as Lidanya watched the Vanguard break from the chaotic, close range battle that was being waged by the vast majority of the cruisers and smaller ships from all sides.

The only ships not currently engaged in the dog fighting were the Ascension, the Alliance dreadnought and fleet flagship the SSV Kilimanjaro, the two Alliance carriers, the Marie Curie and the Andreas Vesalius, and their assigned escorts. That small group of ships were now positioned directly between the Citadel and the Relay, their main guns aimed to fire on Saren's super-dreadnought once the Citadel opened enough to allow them to take the shot.

"Raise the Vanguard." She ordered.

"The channel has been opened Matriarch." Replied Gilanea, who was now operating the secondary communications station. This had freed Lieria to concentrate on the scanners and controlling the tactical movements of the remains of the Citadel fleet.

"Might I enquire as to where you are going Captain?" Lidanya asked as the viewscreen split to show both the battle and the bridge of the Starfleet vessel.

MacLeod gestured back at Valern, who was now standing beside Havaris – even as Lidanya saw Sahen watching him attentively. "We've received a signal from the Presidium and are deploying ground forces to try to find and assist Shepard."

Lidanya gave a slight nod as she quickly processed the information. Due to MacLeod's answer, she presumed that Valern was revealing the 'secret entrance' to the Presidium, since it was the only way that was likely to be unblocked; provided that Saren had not found out about it himself during his time as a Spectre. "Very well, but where is Councillor Sparatus?"

Valern glanced up for a split-second as MacLeod answered. "He insisted he join the assault. I assigned him a bodyguard but did not stop him from going."

Lidanya turned and looked over Tevos, who seemed clam about her fellow Councillor's decision, for assurance that this was acceptable before she turned back to the viewer and replied. "Understood. How long until you are able to re-enter the main-battle?"

MacLeod chuckled softly, but it was more than clear to Lidanya that the humour was not jovial in nature. "Matriarch, this is nothing more than the pre-show. The main event is still to come."

Lidanya stared to speak only for Gilanea to interrupt; "Apologies Matriarch, but Admiral Hackett wishes to know why the Starfleet ship has left the battle."

Lidanya and MacLeod shared a quick mutual look, before the Asari turned to her comm-officer. "Route in the Admiral's signal to the conversation." There was an audible click as the order was followed, though no visual image appeared on-screen. "Admiral, this is a three-way conversation with the Vanguard. They are deploying a small ground force to the Citadel to locate Commander Shepard."

"Understood. How soon until they can re-join the battle?" Came the gruff, but commanding voice of Hackett. MacLeod actually stared at the roof of his bridge at Hackett asking the very question he had just answered, forcing Lidanya to cover her mouth to hide her chuckle – she should not have found it amusing given to the time and place, but the little moment of genuine humour was greatly welcomed.

"Our shuttles have been launched Admiral, but the main battle is yet to start." The humour was now gone from his face as he stared at Lidanya as he spoke again. "I know this sounds suicidal, but when Sovereign emerges or the Citadel opens, I need you to pull back you ships and allow us to engage him alone."

"Commander," Obviously Hackett had not yet gotten the news about MacLeod's promotion. "No matter how powerful you think your ship to be, it cannot go toe-to-toe with a dreadnought of that size and power alone."

"I do not know if we can Admiral," Lidanya really hoped that was a simple downplaying of the Vanguard's power and not a belief that MacLeod actually held. "But that ship has already taken out two Turian dreadnoughts with ease and almost managed to take out the Ascension, and I will not throw lives away wastefully so long as I can do something about it."

There was a pause as Hackett pondered the statement. "Understood Commander. I will co-ordinate with Matriarch Lidanya to assemble our forces around the tip of the Citadel to provide mid-range support. We'll wait for your signal to engage."

MacLeod's lip twitched as he mentally pictured Hackett's deployment. "Carpet bombing Admiral?" Lidanya tiled her head slightly, unsure if the translator had understood the term correctly.

"The technical term is tactical-area-denial Commander, but in essence yes." Hackett's slight change in tone meant the translator had caught the term correctly, and Lidanya understood Hackett's terminology better since it was the same term as used by the Council races. Now she just had to look up the word carpet to fully comprehend MacLeod's statement.

MacLeod looked at Lidanya to ensure she understood the general plan, which she confirmed with a slight nod, before speaking once more. "Understood Admir…"

"Matriarch, the Citadel!" Called out Lieria. It was a break in protocol but Lidanya had trained her crew to do just that in combat situations after observing such actions from a Human crew during war games. While the Turians and Asari were very strict in combat – for vastly different reasons – the Humans actually allowed that structure to be broken to help respond to unexpected events. Having been impressed with the tactic, Lidanya had implemented it on-board the Ascension and suggested it to Asari High Command for adoption on all ships.

She still found it a little strange that such behaviour was acceptable to the Asari during ground operations, but not during space battles, but given the serious lack of air or space battles that the Asari had fought in their history, it was not totally unexplainable. To counter this, they had adopted first Salarian, then Turian techniques as they had met and observed those races so adding in a few Human ones was only natural.

Pushing the memory aside, she stared as the Citadel again began to open. "Gentlemen," she started. "It seems that the next stage of the battle has begun."

MacLeod nodded. "We see it. Pull your ships back now and we'll go say hello to the space squid. Vanguard out."

The Starfleet signal cut – allowing the Citadel to fill the full viewscreen again – as Hackett could be heard chortling at MacLeod's final comment.

"The Commander had a rather jovial approach to command doesn't he?"

Lidanya could not help but smile a little at the question, though that had more because of where they were when the question was asked than the question itself. "Yes, I suppose Captain MacLeod has not yet developed a more conventional approach."

"Captain you say?" The question was left unanswered as Hackett immediately moved onto more pressing concerns. "We will leave the channel open to allow our teams to co-ordinate the strike. Good hunting Matriarch."

"Understood, and likewise Admiral." Lidanya transferred the signal off the bridge speakers and turned to Gilanea. "Order all Citadel forces to assume defensive posture Trellya, aimed for the tip of the Citadel."

"Yes Matriarch." Lidanya had barely turned back to the main viewer when three red beams came out of the area enclosed by the Citadel, and smashed through anything in their way; Geth and organic alike. With the Citadel and Alliance forces so close to the Geth – and only just beginning a slow, tactical fall-back to their assigned positions – there was a real risk that they would be slaughtered by those beams, and the monster that was soon to appear.

"Get our forces in formation!" She ordered as the super-dreadnought known as Sovereign began to emerge, its tendrils glowing in rage. "Hurry, before we lose the rest of the fleet!"

"Matriarch, the Relay!" Without waiting for confirmation, Lieria split the viewscreen to show the Citadel and the Relay simultaneously. The Relay was glowing and Lidanya wondered if Sovereign had called for the other Reapers. And if so, how would they stop such a fleet?

…

xxx

"Franklin, Watch your flanks! Jevilus, help Rleina." Ordered Pallin as the Geth renewed their attack. Pallin had been extremely lucky when Saren and his Geth had arrived to take out Citadel Control and C-Sec Headquarters as he had been coming back from a meeting with Councillor Tevos.

While he had not been in C-Sec during the attack, the fact that the Geth were using it as a central base of operations on the Presidium, told him that his entire staff had been massacred. Quickly linking up with the few patrol officers nearby, he had taken up position to observe their actions on the Upper Ward level near a small clinic.

After a few probing attacks – and the loss of two further officers – Pallin had decided to stay back from C-Sec. Moving carefully around the area, they had found a handful of civilians nearby and moved to a small shopping area which housed weapons and armour. While the weapons were for display only, the merchants and customers were armed. This had increased Pallin's force to around a dozen and made holding the market possible.

However, in the last ten minutes the Geth had started to push out from C-Sec to attack anyone they found; Pallin had watched as they gunned down an Asari and her daughter that had arrived in a hover-car from another area of the Ring and targeted any another vehicle that flew passed, including a C-Sec Rapid Response Team transport.

"Ravrog, stay in cover for Spirit's sake! You're no good to us dead!" The Krogan in question, a visiting mercenary, grunted in annoyance that he could not move out to engage the Geth at close range, but he obeyed the order.

"When this is over Turian, I'm going to skin you alive!"

Pallin's mandibles flexed in annoyance as he answered. "When this is over you're going straight to jail for those illegal modifications to your weapons!" Pallin leaned out from behind the column he was using as cover just enough to take a snap-shot at a Geth trooper that was trying to flank the door to the market. "And that's only if I let you live!"

Ravrog laughed, seemingly enjoying the banter during the life or death struggle. "Good Turian! I look forward to seeing you try!" He continued laughing as he swung around the stall he was crouched behind and blasted the same Geth trooper. Ravrog grunted as he spotted more Geth emerge from the entrance to C-Sec. "Got more Geth coming!" He spat in annoyance at the red giants that came out at the rear. "Including a group of the big 'uns."

Pallin cursed to himself as that meant the Geth were getting ready to assault them, and the small group he was leading couldn't stand against a squad of Primes. Risking it, he peered around the column and cursed again as two of the Primes raised the impressively large and powerful rifles at the column. With no easy cover to move to, Pallin swung he rifle around and prepared to fire on the Primes in a last act of defiance at them attacking his Citadel, only for the lead two – the pair that were targeting him – to fall to the ground, melting from the obviously intense heat of four green energy beams that struck them.

Pallin – and those in his group that were watching – stared in disbelief as the remaining six Primes turned to face the source of the beams; which judging from their angle had to have been from a transport floating alongside the gangway, only for all to fall as they were battered by an impressive amount of green and red blasts. The other Geth tried to turn their fire on the unknown newcomers, only for them to fall in a crossfire from more conventional mass-accelerated rounds from the newcomers and Pallin's group.

With the Geth attack force shattered on – or in some cases melted into – the floor, Pallin moved forwards in the hope that the newcomers were friendly. Ravrog and a Salarian STG operative named Solus moved beside him as he cautiously walked out onto the exposed veranda and gasped at the large shuttle that was landing, and at the impressive armoured figure that jumped down from the rear exit to the floor.

All three raised their rifles at the figure only to be stopped from firing by a familiar voice. "Stand down Pallin, they're from the Vanguard." Pallin looked up at the shuttle, and the lowered rear door, to see Councillor Sparatus standing next to his Spectre bodyguard, with an even larger armoured figure just behind them.

"Councillor." Pallin, gave the two beside him a signal to relax, and they moved to take up firing arcs on the C-Sec entrance. Sparatus jumped out of the shuttle as it hovered about half a metre about the floor as two Alliance shuttles came in beside and turned to deploy their troops. "It is agreeable to see you again." He said as he extended his arm.

Sparatus returned the gesture and gripped Pallin's forearm. "And you." He turned back to the Human that dropped out of left Alliance shuttle. "This is Commander Rico of the Alliance," Rico gave a slight nod before moving his team to guard the C-Sec entrance with his team, "and Lieutenant Ratcliffe of the Vanguard." The visor of the heavily armoured figure pulled back to reveal a smiling Human face.

"Sorry for the delay Executor." Said Ratcliffe as an even bigger, and far more imposing individual in the heavy armour dropped. "We had to take a few detours to get into the inner ring."

Pallin examined the young looking Human in the scary looking armour – and tried his best to not stare too long at the pair of rifles attached to each arm – as he replied. "I'm just glad that you arrived when you did." He turned back to the market area where the majority of his group was still located. "We've got wounded but no supplies."

Ratcliffe nodded and turned back to face the runabout, "Davids, Munroe, we've got wounded that way. Kassus, go with them." The Romulan jumped down with the two medics and gave Ratcliffe a slight nod at the un-stated order: protect them from everyone, Geth or otherwise.

Pallin turned to look at the market and waved for someone to come out. "Franklin, get that doctor out here now." The Human C-Sec officer nodded and stepped out of sight as he moved through the market to where the wounded and civilians were sheltered.

"How many officers have you got on the Presidium Executor?" Rico asked as his team moved to assist Ravrog and Solus in holding other exits from the veranda; one of which lead down to a lower entrance to C-Sec while the other lead to Flux Nightclub and the Presidium.

Pallin shook his head in regret. "As far as I know, there are no more members of C-Sec left in the Tower area. The Geth attacked C-Sec Headquarters and took over the controls for the Citadel arms." He noticed that Franklin was back in sight, now with a young female Human in tow. "They sealed all the entrances to the Tower area except by going through C-Sec and seemed intent until recently to just wait us out." Pallin turned and waved for the female to approach. "This is Doctor Michel; she has a clinic just past those stairs."

Michel smiled nervously at the three newcomers. "That's right. It's small but well-stocked."

Rico gives her a nod then turned to Ratcliffe and Sparatus. "OK, first we get the civilians to that clinic then we move on C-Sec. Councillor, I'd feel better if you stayed at the clinic."

Sparatus chuckled a little even as his mandibles flexed in amusement. "I'm sure you would Commander, but I did not leave the fleet battle to hide in a clinic."

"Understood sir." Was all Rico said in reply before turning to deal with Ratcliffe. "Can your shuttle land between the stairs and the clinic?"

Ratcliffe examined the area and shrugged a little. "It's doable, but it will be a little tight." He smiled as he looked back at Rico. "But I suspect that's the idea."

Rico returned the smile and nodded. "Yup." He turned back to Pallin; "Executor, begin to move the civilians to the clinic. We'll cover you and then move on to take out the Geth." Pallin led the small group into the market area and they set about transferring the small group to a more secure location.

…

xxx

MacLeod watched as the beams spewed out of the tip of the Citadel – and sliced through the unlucky ships in their way – even as the energy build-up in the Relay was detected. As he looked back at Havaris, he noticed the surprised look in Valern's eyes – though that vanished almost as quickly as it appeared – and he realised again that the local races were not able to detect subspace signals and so were only alerted to a Relay activation when it started to glow. Which it now started to do.

"What have we got?" he asked Sahen.

Sahen scanned the first few ships, and compared them to all known ships on file. "Turian. Judging by the energy readings, it's a full fleet." He was basing that statement on the similarly high readings that they had detected from the Relay just before the Alliance fleet had arrived.

MacLeod was glad to see more reinforcements arrive but, wondered if so many ships targeting such a small area of battle wouldn't lead to a friendly fire incident. "Very well. Leave them to the others. Helm, bring us around for an attack run on the Citadel but hold at a thousand kilometres." By Starfleet standards, that was almost point-blank range but to the locals, he suspected it was simply optimal firing range. While he did not know the full range of Sovereign's beams, he suspected they had the same optimal range as their phasers, around half a light second. Yes, phasers could fire well beyond that – and be practically impossible to avoid up to a full light second away, but after around a five thousand kilometres, there was a rapid loss of beam strength; thus photons were preferred for longer-range strikes. However, MacLeod figured that, provided they were able to stop Sovereign, the drop in beam strength at greater ranges would not be a real issue since the locals lacked true shield technology.

"Sovereign is emerging." Reported Khev, though it was a little redundant as the main viewscreen was fixed on the tip of the Citadel as the giant, squid-like ship emerged from the protective cocoon of the Citadel, dwarfing the scant Geth or Citadel ships that were jockeying around it in their own little, private fire-fights. Without slowing, the mammoth warship smashed through three frigates – one Geth and two Asari – as it turned to face the small grey Starfleet vessel that was patiently waiting for it.

"Open hailing frequencies, and broadcast to all ships." Ordered MacLeod. Sahen harrumphed a little at the Starfleet approach – he would have simply obliterated the enemy at the first chance, and if that meant sacrificing a few of their supposed allies ships ,then so be it.

However, MacLeod was showing that famous Starfleet trait of talking. Sahen considered it a Human weakness but with MacLeod he was beginning to doubt that was the case as the Augment showed an almost Romulan level of cunning and deviousness. Tricking his own crew into getting a promotion while securing their loyalty? That was truly inspired! Therefore, he wondered just why MacLeod was going to bother wasting the time to talk with the Reaper.

"Your channel is open." He replied, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.

MacLeod could detect the annoyance in his XO's voice, and mentally smiled at it, as he spoke. "This is Captain MacLeod of the Federation starship Vanguard to the being known as Sovereign. Stand down. Your plan has failed and you are outnumbered and surrounded. This is your only chance to end this alive."

Sahen smirked; MacLeod had started the dialogue as any Starfleet officer would have, but he had made it clear that it was a one-time offer for Sovereign to surrender. He could see that MacLeod was placing the blame for any future damage caused by the Vanguard at the 'feet' of the Reaper; an acceptable reason to him to initiate conversation with an enemy and one he would be sure to remember for his own future actions when dealing with the Augment.

…

xxx

Lidanya turned to Tevos in mild shock. "He is trying to reason with a warship?"

Tevos was also shocked, but as an experienced diplomat, she was able to hide it better. "Indeed. From my readings of the Federation, they believe in always trying to reach a compromise over combat."

Lidanya gave a slight nod of acceptance. The Systems Alliance had shown signs of that at times, but was far too interested in getting its own way as much as possible. This was true for the Republics as well and the Thirty often used an approach of offering a compromise at first to deal with both domestic and foreign issues, and then later changing the deals to better suit their own interests; the Asari were after-all, a very long-lived race and so could take a very long-term to diplomacy.

If these new Humans could show the Alliance that compromise was better than conflict, then Lidanya was sure the Alliance would quickly join the Council; as lower equals under the Asari.

"Your words are meaningless." Lidanya felt more than heard the reply from the super-dreadnought. No, the Reaper. Of that fact, she was now rapidly becoming very sure; that this ship was indeed a Reaper that the beacon had warned them about. "The Arrival has been delayed, nothing more. Your actions are nothing more than a nuisance in to the Great Plan."

"And what is this great plan?" Asked MacLeod over the open channel. "What could you possibly hope by using the Citadel as a giant Relay?" Now even Tevos showed shock at that statement. How could the Citadel be a Relay? And how could the Council races have failed to see it for so many years?

…

xxx

"You fail to understand. You fail to comprehend." Answered Sovereign. "You fumble in the darkness with no realization of your true purpose."

MacLeod tapped a small button on the ops console to mute the channel, then he turned from the viewer and looked around the bridge. "Kind of full of itself ain't it?" he asked quietly to no-one in particular. Sahen and Havaris did not look up as they scanned and counter-scanned the behemoth, but he could see both of them smirk slightly at the comment.

"It truly is alive." Muttered Valern to himself, now back in the XO's chair as he stared at the viewscreen in shock and fear. "Remarkable."

MacLeod turned back to the viewer, and tapped the same button on Khev's console to re-open the channel. "Then why don't you attempt to educate us?" He waited for the Reaper to respond, though none came. "Or has the big bad Reaper realised that it is the one that is fumbling in the darkness?"

…

xxx

Hackett shook his head as he listened in. The battle had essentially stopped as the conversation took place; allowing both sides to re-group and prepare for the almost inevitable final push. "Is he trying to anger that monster?"

"I don't know sir." Replied his intelligence officer – and acting XO, as the replacement for Captain Shepard had not arrived in time – Commander Shelby. "But it is allowing us time to co-ordinate with the Turians for the next stage."

"You fail to understand your role. Your time will soon end, like that of all organics. It is futile to resist."

…

xxx

MacLeod slowly walked back to his seat and sat down. Even as he spoke again, he accessed his chair console and relayed his orders to Havaris and Reiji. "You said that on Virmire, and we resisted and destroyed your cloning labs. So please, one more time, I'm begging you; tell us how futile it is to resist."

Valern's eyes widened in a mixture of shock and fear as this Human dared to insult such a powerful monstrosity. Was he trying to make the machine angry? Was that even possible and if so, what was the purpose? Yet, as he looked around the Starfleet bridge, he noticed that the last words spoken by this monster had galvanised the crew it a way he had not expected. Obviously, that phrase had had an emotional effect on these people, but he did not know why.

"You speak with emotion that is borne from false hope. You rely on your limited view to create your beliefs, but they are all false. You understand nothing. Your defeat is inevitable, there is nothing you can do to prevent your fate, just as those before you could not prevent theirs."

"You see, that is where you are wrong mister big, old and ugly. There is always something we can do."

"Your attempts at insults are pointless. Your audacity at trying to understand is matched only by your foolishness. There is nothing you can do to prevent your uplifting."

MacLeod felt his eyebrow go up in curiosity at that last word – and swore to himself to never tell Varik he just did the Vulcan eyebrow thing – as he entered the last commands into his console. "Actually there is something I can do. It's something I always do to a bully and I can sum it up in two little words, just two words Sovereign." He paused it see if Sovereign would try to counter him, but strangely the Reaper stayed quiet, as though it now deemed the conversation as worthless. "Punch it."

…

xxx

Tevos, Lidanya – and the entire assembled fleets – watched as five torpedoes shot from the Vanguard towards Sovereign with an acceleration that none of their own missiles could hope to match.

"Matriarch, Power build-up on the super-dreadnought." Reported Lieria even as the monster warship started to extend its tendrils. "Both vessels are moving!" Lidanya could understand the raised voice of Lieria as she watched both ships begin to move towards each other even as the tendrils fired.

Lidanya raised her arm to shield her eyes as the five torpedoes exploded – even the virtually instant glare protection on the viewer had not been quick enough – and blanketed the two warships, and a few of the remaining Geth ships, in a brilliant explosion.

An instant later, even as the glare started to fade, Lidanya turned to Lieria. "Scan for survivors."

"Incoming signals from Human and Turian flagsh…." Gilanea trailed off as the glare faded and she stared open-mouthed at the image that was displayed.

"Goddess." Muttered Tevos, though whether it was as a curse or a blessing even she did not know as onscreen for all to see, amongst the wreckage of nearly a dozen Geth ships, the two warships now appeared to be joined in a red glow that had not fully faded.

"Enhance." Ordered Lidanya even as she stepped forward in the hope of getting a better view. As the viewer zoomed in, Lidanya could see that Sovereign had managed to either destroy the torpedoes, or survive a direct strike, and she dearly hoped and prayed it was he former and not the latter. Now the five beam-emitting tendrils were pressed down on the armour of the Vanguard even as both ships continued to fire their beams against each other.

"Matriarch, Sovereign is firing its main beam." Reported Lieria as she regained her senses. "Vanguard is holding."

Tevos and Lidanya shared a look of disbelief. That beam had almost totally taken down the barriers of the Ascension but somehow the Vanguard's armour – its secondary defensive protection – was withstanding the full force of the beam, and it seemed to be able to take multiple strikes from that beam. If this armour was their secondary protection, Lidanya silently wondered just how dangerous their own universe was even as Tevos barely managed to fight of a shiver as the images from MacLeod's mind about the Borg came flooding back.

…

xxx

MacLeod held onto the arms of his chair as the ship rattled. Thankfully, there was no sound from the armour but he could easily imagine the groaning sound it would be making as it tried to hold against the pressure being exerted on it by Sovereign's tendrils.

"Armour integrity falling." Reported Havaris, though somehow he suspected everyone on-board knew that. "Fore armour at seventy-four percent and falling. Ventral and Dorsal at sixty-five but falling is slower." While like the shields, the armour could weaken at different areas around the vessel, if one area of the armour failed, it all failed.

"Well at least we know the armour works against a Reaper beam!" Commented Sahen as he held onto the weapons console beside Havaris.

"Yeah, but his central armour is resisting our phasers." Replied MacLeod as he stared at the viewscreen, or rather the red glow of Sovereign's beam. Incredibly, the Reaper had managed to track and target the photons with an ease that worried MacLeod – and told him not to attempt a frontal assault on a Reaper again. However, given to their current predicament, he seriously doubted if he would ever even consider such an attack again. "Suggestions?"

"Target the tendrils with the phasers?" Said Khev, as he rapidly handled the incoming damage reports from throughout the ship. There had not been too much damage to the ship; Sickbay was reporting that six crewmembers were in for treatment, though no one was in critical condition, and a few of the secondary systems had been taken of-line, but otherwise the ship was doing fine; for now.

Havaris shook his head. "They're too close to the hull to allow us to do so, or in a place were the main arrays cannot get a lock." MacLeod gritted his teeth in annoyance as Sovereign's beam ended another fire cycle. One of the design flaws, in his mind anyway, of the Akira-class, was it only had two phaser arrays. He made a mental note to ask Varik if would be possible to add some secondary arrays or emitters to the nacelle struts or the engineering hull.

It seemed as though Sovereign could maintain a full, five second blast from that mammoth main blaster, with a further ten seconds needed to recharge while the phasers were capable of a shorter two second burst with a five second recharge need for another full powered blast.

As it stood, phasers or beams verses either armour was a virtual stalemate, but Sovereign could simply keep crushing with its tendrils until the armour finally buckled under a pressure it had not been designed to withstand.

"What about your torpedoes?" Suggested Valern, his eyes blinking rapidly as he tried to not hyperventilate as he processed all that he was seeing, hearing and experiencing .

MacLeod shook his head. "We're too close for a torpedo to not dama…" He trailed off as an idea came to him and he leapt from his chair, and vaulted over the rail to the weapons console with Sahen and Havaris barely able to get out of the way in time. They could only watch as he accessed the main torpedo system located in the weapons pod.

…

xxx

"It almost looks like Sovereign is trying to eat them." Commented Shelby as she watched the live and death struggle like everyone else on the bridge of the Kilimanjaro.

"Thank you for that image Commander." Replied Hackett as he watched the red glows of the two ships beam weapons splash against each other. The comment was accurate, though highly disturbing, as the massive Sovereign held the far smaller Vanguard in place just as the Kraken of myth did to ships it pulled into the depths of the sea.

The energy readings from those beams was simultaneously both frightening and intriguing: both were easily generating more energy per second than a strike from a Kilimanjaro's main cannon. Even the new Everest-class couldn't come close to matching these power readings! Hackett could easily see either ship slicing through his own dreadnought was ease. "The question is what do we do to help?"

"Admiral, a ship has broken formation!"

Hackett spun to his communication and sensor officers. "Who is it? Order them back into formation."

"The Hannover sir." There was a brief pause as the sensor officer read another report. "The Normandy has joined them."

"Captain Shepard wishes to speak…."

"Vanguard has fired torpedoes." Hackett spun back to the hologramatic display – and silently longed for the newer view-screens of the Everest-class with their better quality and higher resolution– as three torpedoes sped away from the rear of the Starfleet vessel: straight towards the Destiny Ascension and the Kilimanjaro!

Hackett opened his mouth to order his ship to move to evade, when the torpedoes started to alter their course and vectored back around towards the Citadel. Hackett stared open mouthed at the torpedoes as they actually moved to avoid defensive fire from Sovereign.

Such an ability, on top of them being anti-matter weapons, was sure to give him nightmares for weeks to come, but he watched as, for the second time inside a few minutes, the tip of the Citadel was engulfed in a massive explosion of antimatter.

…

xxx

MacLeod released his grip on his armrest – and noticed the faint imprint of his hand had made on the composite material, showing just how tightly he had gripped the rest – as he wondered why Starfleet never used seat restraints for combat, and noted that down for future consideration. "Status?"

"We're free." Replied Reiji groggily as she barely managed to hold down her stomach. The explosion of three low-powered torpedoes so close to the Vanguard had managed to free the ship from Sovereign, but the resultant shockwave – and the rapid, raging blasts from the tendrils, had flung the Vanguard away with enough uncontrolled momentum, that the Structural Integrity Fields had struggled to compensate.

"Sovereign is ten kilometres to starboard." Said Sahen slowly as he fought to regain his bearings. "His main cannon is facing away from us."

MacLeod began to order Havaris to prepare a full spread of torpedoes when he caught movement out of the corner of eye, and turned to see the Lieutenant currently on top off the Salarian Councillor. "Kusto?" He asked even as he moved to help his Security Chief.

"Fine sir," Answered the Bajoran. "Just a little disorientated."

"Reiji, pull us back to a hundred kilometres." MacLeod smiled as he helped the Lieutenant back to his feet and turned to Sahen. "Target Sovereign and fire again." Thankfully, a few kilometres were just far enough away to allow torpedoes to be used, though Starfleet did not exactly recommended it. He turned around again to face the viewscreen to see the behemoth slowly begin to turn, even as it leaked it's entrails from its missing rear-end. "Evasive manoeuvres. Keep us out of the arcs of those his guns."

Both officers nodded even as Khev spoke up. "Captain, the fleets are moving in."

"Order them back!"

"Communications are down." Reported Havaris as he unsteadily stood back at his station. "Sovereign is putting out too much interference." MacLeod watched as Sovereign, even missing the entire rear third of its body, turned to target the nearest inbound ship, an Alliance cruiser that had broken from the combined fleets, as all three allied dreadnoughts began to drift into better firing solutions.

"Get us between Sovereign and those ships!" Reiji did not answer verbally as she swung the small starship around with impressive speed, and shot forward to protect its allies. "Tactical overview."

"Armour at twenty seven percent integrity. Damage to dorsal phaser array and forward launch tubes." Reported Sahen as Havaris used the still working ventral array to fire on Sovereign, distracting the monster enough that the Alliance cruiser barely avoided being vaporised, and instead drifted away without power and a blackened scar running down its starboard side. "Engineering reports that we can switch back to shields, but they will only be at fifty percent."

MacLeod nodded in acknowledgement. He would prefer to use the shields, as they were a far better understood system, but changing over in the middle of a battle was paramount to suicide. "Very well. Let's finish this." Even as he spoke, Sovereign turned two of its tendrils on the Vanguard and fired.

"Port armour at twenty percent."

"Captain, it seems as though Sovereign is badly damaged." Reported Khev. "Those beams were less than half the strength of earlier beams."

MacLeod shook his head, in disbelief that the Reaper did not acknowledge that it was beaten. "I'm more concerned that three torpedoes were insufficient to kill him, even if they were low yield. However, we'll rectify that. Major, if you please, blow that bastard out of my sky!"

Sahen smiled with ruthless intent as he targeted a full load and spread of torpedoes, and fired. Everyone watched as the Reaper tried to turn in time to target the incoming torpedoes. One exploded as a tendril beam caught it flush, but the other four slammed into the starboard side of Sovereign, ripping the massive Reaper asunder.

Even as it died, Sovereign managed to fire two of its tendrils, destroying two unfortunate Turian frigates and severely damaging another Alliance cruiser that had started to move closer.

"Bring us around again." Ordered MacLeod. " I don't want any of that ship left to indoctrinate and infect any of the scientists that will try to examine the wreckage." He knew that the Council and Alliance would be angry, if not furious, but having seen what that ship did to the STG team on Virmire, he was not prepared to take any chances.

As the Starfleet vessel began to turn back towards the shattered remains of Sovereign, the image of the Ascension bridge appeared on-screen. "Captain, is everything alright?"

MacLeod smiled a little as he watched the Matriarch and Councillor who had asked the question carefully. "We're still standing Matriarch, and are just carrying out clean-up operations."

"Clean-up?" Asked Tevos, clearly seeing through the thinly veiled lie. "From our scans, it appears you are circling back towards the remains of Sovereign. May I ask as to why?"

"Councillor, you read the reports from Shepard and the STG regarding Virmire and indoctrination?" Tevos waited for a moment before giving a slight nod to indicate she had. "Then you understand that we cannot allow such technology to infect others. MacLeod out." Yes, cutting the signal on the Asari was probably unwise, but nothing they could say would change his mind.

Just to be sure, he turned to face Valern. "If the Council wishes to protest this, go right ahead but I'm doing it anyway."

Valern was caught in two minds regarding the wreckage. Obviously, it should be studied and analysed, for the benefit of the Union first of course, but he also had some classified reports from the STG regarding the Virmire mission that had not been made available to the other Council representatives. Reports that scared him deeply, as they indicated that the highly accelerated metabolisms of Salarians made them more susceptible to indoctrination than the other Citadel races. "I understand your logic Captain, but I must officially protest your actions on the Council's behalf."

MacLeod gave Valern a slight nod. "Noted." He turned back to the viewscreen. "Major, fire." Ignoring the incoming hails from both Alliance and Turian flagships, Sahen launched a second full spread of five fully charged photon torpedoes, eviscerating the overwhelming majority of the remains of Sovereign – and hopefully removing any lingering effects of the brain-washing technology that Saren had been researching on Virmire. "Alpha Mike Foxtrot." He silently whispered to himself, as Valern blinked at the strange choice of wording for a prayer.

MacLeod watched stoically as the massive, sentient ship was removed as a threat even as he wondered just how many of those things were in the fleet that it had claimed was coming. Putting that thought to a side, he tried to move onto the next phase of the battle, the clean-up. "Helm, take us back to the Citadel landing area. Havaris, Major, I want as many security personnel as we have in the shuttlebay along with any medical staff that sickbay can spare."

…

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