Salvation: A Half-Life/Mass Effect Universe Fan FictionDisclaimer: This fan-fiction takes place after the events of both Half-Life 1 and 2 and its episodes, and jumps to the events after Mass Effect 1 and 2. If you have not played or beaten these games this fiction may not make much sense to you. Characters property of their respective companies, Half-Life created by Valve and Mass Effect created by Bioware.
Chapter 36: Judgment Day (Part 1)
The Arrival
"Auuuuugh..." "Guuuuuhhh..." "Uggghh..." Were the sounds that they made as they clambered towards the gray and orange armor clad figures, standing side by side near the chamber entrance. These poor creatures, almost thespian by nature, were now reduce to an eerie chorus of chilling moans, and blood-curdling groans.
The thunderous sound of automatic rifles cracked without end, as they staggered forward; one massive, unrelenting blob of dead flesh, and cybernetics - their glowing blue eyes speckling the masses, as they poured through. Their numbers were somewhat contained by the fact that they had to push through the narrow tunnels on the opposite side of the massive boulder of Element Zero, that hung suspended ostentatiously in the middle of the cavern.
For several minutes now, Freeman and Shepard stood before the sealed entrance of the element core chamber, whipping their weapons back and forth, picking off target after target, as they closed in. Bursts of bright light strobed rapidly, as the muzzle flashes of their rifles rhythmically lit up cavern, like a dance club.
"Line up your shots!" The Commander shouted over the salvo, as he did his best to make careful selections of his targets. "Try and hit as many as you can with a single round. We need to conserve all the ammo we can down here!"
"Right." Gordon acknowledged with a slight nod, without looking at Shepard, as he tightened the grip on his rifle. He began to focus on the floating orbs of blue light carried on a sea of the dead, knowing their bulbous eyes were the best way to target their heads.
A mix of blood, dead flesh, and sparks flew as rounds were drilled into the heads of the abominations, leveling them and often those behind them with the same shot. As the unfortunate beings began to topple, many of the others stumbled over them, lacking the coordination of even the most rudimentary of creatures. They were cybernetic zombies, nothing more.
"They don't appear to be capable of the lightning attack the other vortigaunts use." Gordon affirmed loudly, rapidly jerking his weapon around as he continually picked out new targets. "Probably due to the unnatural change in their physiology. Lucky for us."
The tip of the Commander's gun barrel smoked, as he pulled back on the trigger, only to find his weapon depleted.
"I don't know about these..." Shepard replied, carrying his voice over Gordon's gunfire, as he released the empty thermal clip casing and popped in a fresh one, with uncanny quickness. "But the husks I've dealt with before gave off a nasty electrical discharge when in close proximity. It's strong enough to temporarily overload your shields, and it stings like hell too."
"Heh..." Gordon chuckled as he shouldered his rifle, gently pulling back on the trigger, aiming carefully and using short, controlled bursts of fire. "One of those 'good news', 'bad news' situations, eh?"
"Always is..." Shepard forced a grin, as targets continued to fall in his sights. "Would you have it any other way?"
"I suppose not..." Gordon yelled in response, as he quickly began loading a new clip into his rifle, and slammed it firmly into place with his palm. "It's how things have always been, why change now?" He grinned as well, as he shouldered his rifle once more, and continued to fire. "We'll just have to be sure to keep 'em out of close proximity."
Commander John Shepard and Dr. Gordon Freeman stood together, shoulder to shoulder – working as one, accomplished, attack unit. Like targets at a shooting gallery, one by one, two by two, the abominations fell in their sights, the collective thunder of their gunfire echoing loudly throughout the chamber. But for every one they killed, it seemed as though two more would take its place, as they drew in closer and closer.
Small beads of sweat began to form on the brows of both men, as they did their absolute best to choose their targets carefully, wasting not a shot. Both of them knew that there were far more of these vortigaunt monstrosities than there was ammunition on their belts.
"The reports we have so far are sketchy at best..." The visage of an attractive, young reporter flickered on a holographic screen, in the middle of a living room. Her voice was somewhat muddled by the sound of the high winds blowing against her microphone.
"All we can confirm at this time is that there has been some sort of hostile contact made with the Arcturus Fleet, above Earth's atmosphere. While we're still unsure of who is behind this mysterious, unprovoked assault – we do urge all civilians to remain in their homes, preferably in basements or cellars. Or in one of the designated safe houses around the city. We will stay on the air, and give you up to the minute updates, as they come in. Reporting to you live from outside the EVIS in White Forest, Russia, this is Amber Anne Cartwright... Westerlund News."
Her hair blew wildly in the wind, as she made her report, with the towering star port looming behind her. The sky was cloudy, and dark. And the whistle of the wind gave the impression of an uncharacteristically cool breeze, for a midsummer day.
As anchor's and experts continued their reports on the screen, a man sat by his window in a steel framed chair, peering through the blinds as he watched the neighborhood. His eyes batted back and forth, as he tapped one finger on a large, gray handgun resting in his lap.
There were no lights on in the living room. The only lighting was that of the flickering holoscreen, and the daylight bleeding in through the windows, from the outside. Most of the home furnishings seemed typical of many modern, contemporary homes. Leather upholstery on the couch, and loveseat with a chrome finish. An orange glowing, holographic, analog clock mounted onto the wall behind the holoscreen. And gleaming metallic shelves, cabinets, and tables.
"Honey, I really think we should head down to the basement..." A woman urged with a great deal of concern in her voice, as she entered the room.
"I'll bet it's those damn turians... I never trusted them..." The man muttered to himself, completely oblivious to his wife's pleas. "All the men they killed at Shanxi, and we're just supposed to forget about it, and pretend we're friends? I knew they'd come lookin' for trouble someday. It was bound to happen. Damn gutless, lizard faced..."
"Nathan!" His wife shouted irately after being ignored, causing him to jump in his seat a bit, before turning to look at her.
"What?" He beckoned angrily, shrugging his shoulders and waving his hands out in front of him.
She released a deep breath, and composed herself a bit before speaking again. "I think we should head down to the basement." She replied, with her head somewhat bowed. "The kids are scared, and frankly I am too."
"We don't need to go to the basement, Catherine." Her husband asserted, as he turned back to peer out of the window once more. "I'm not gonna let some damn aliens force me into a hole."
"Besides, look there's ol' Frank Horton." Nathan said as he noticed the old man sitting on his porch, on the house across from his, holding a long, black, shotgun in his arms – a somewhat antiquated looking weapon compared to most modern firearms.
"He ain't lettin' no damn aliens scare him into the ground." He remarked arrogantly, as he turned around to face his wife again, gripping the handle of his pistol tightly. "And if they do come lookin' for trouble, that's why I have this." He held the pistol up next to his face, barrel pointed towards the ceiling.
"Would you stop waving that thing around!" His wife demanded, with a mixture of fear and anger in her voice, as she cringed slightly at the sight of the handgun. "I told you to get rid of it years ago..."
"Well it's a good thing I didn't!" Nathan affirmed with a hearty nod.
Catherine rolled her eyes at him, and turned away in frustration, bowing her head and crossing her arms in front of her.
"Look..." He said with a sigh, as he placed the gun down on the corner table beside him and stood up, walking over towards his brooding wife.
"Kitten, even if they manage to get passed Earth's entire navy..." He began in a placid tone of voice, as he wrapped his arms around her waist, embracing her from behind. "We're in the suburbs far outside of White Forest. I really doubt we're gonna be on their 'main targets' list..."
He felt her let out a mild chuckle, as she placed her hands over his, around her waist.
"Besides, it's nothing our boys in blue can't handle..." He said reassuringly, as he leaned forward to give her a peck on the cheek.
They stood there together for a moment, swaying side to side – their combined fears and apprehensions slowly easing away. And they were completely oblivious to the frantic reportings of the panicked news caster on their holoscreen, as it displayed an ominous black shadow spilling out of the clouds overhead.
As the couple held each other, a faint rumbling started to ripple throughout the house.
"What's that?" Catherine asked with alarm, as the portraits on the wall began to rattle, and a heavy rumble could be heard outside. The couple quickly released each other, a look of concern now on their faces, as they turned to face the holoscreen.
"As you can see, as they're descending down on us, they appear to be ships of some sort! They have a very strange design, resembling some sort of insect, or squid! Not unlike the one that attacked the Citadel in 2183!" The Reporter's voice shouted, as the whiplashing camera focused on the onyx titans breaching the cloud blanketed sky.
"We still don't have any clues as to who is manning these crafts, but we do kn... Oh god! Oh god, they're firing on us!" She exclaimed in a terrified voice, as a sudden highly concentrated beam of light shot out from one of the creatures, slicing through a number of buildings, leaving a thick cloud of smoke in its wake. "They are firing on us. They seem to be using some sort of powerful laser. I'm going to try and retreat to a safe distance now, but we'll stay on the air as lon..."
There was a sudden, blinding flash of red light, as the young woman attempted to draw herself away from the area, followed by an abrupt flurry of static.
The house continued to tremble, and quake turbulently – knocking frames off of the walls, and dishes off of shelves in the kitchen. The vibrations shook the handgun Nathan had left on the table completely off, causing it to land softly on the light blue carpeting. .
Quickly, he ran towards it, picked it up, and removed the safety. Through his window, he noticed people gathering outside, in the street, pointing, and looking up into the distance.
With his pistol clutched tightly, he bolted towards the door, and it slid open before him. As soon as it did, the muffled roaring sound turned into a piercing howl, like that of a large, low-flying aircraft. He rushed out, and turned towards the East - towards the major metropolis of White Forest. His jaw fell, and his eyes opened wide in terror at the sight he beheld.
Normally, one would see the towering sky scrapers of the city skyline cascading across the horizon. But now, a black cloud loomed over head, darkening the skies as powerful beams of red light sliced through the city. Tracer fire from the ground sprayed into the sky, and tiny aircraft swarmed all over the obsidian giants – having absolutely no affect as they laid siege to the once bustling city.
"My god, Nathan..." His wife exclaimed in a hushed voice, as she came to stand beside him, clutching his arm tightly.
Just then, as they looked around, they noticed that in every direction, on the threshold of every horizon, these creatures were descending. From the North to the South, and from East to West, they pierced the cloud blanketed heavens and began their attack. Red blades of light danced all around them, lighting up the night sky and demolishing everything they touched, as the sound of artillery fire echoed in the distance.
"Catherine..." Nathan began, in a very calm, quiet voice as he noticed an ominous shadow appear behind the clouds a few short miles away from them. "Get the kids, and get down into the basement..." He paused for a moment to gulp at something in his throat. "Now..."
"Sir, targets have breached atmo over Eastern Europe, and most of Asia!" A female crew mate on the bridge of the Orizaba yelled out, watching the activity on her radar screen. "Our ground forces in China have just come under fire!"
"They've split off into several groups, sir!" The voice of a young man called out, from a separate station. "Each containing between five to six-hundred vessels!"
"We've got reports of breaches over Indonesian Air Space!"
"Our ground forces in Saudi Arabia, and North Africa have just come under attack!"
"Sightings over the North Atlantic, en route towards Canada and the Americas!"
"We've got hostile activity off the Coast of Western Australia!"
The projection of a world map at the rear of the Orizaba's bridge lit up with red blots, and trails as the Reapers began to envelop the globe.
"Damn it..." Admiral Hackett said through his teeth as he listened to his crew deliver the grim reports of the impeccably orchestrated, world-wide invasion.
"Have our ground forces hold firm as long as they can!" He ordered abruptly, watching the thick gray clouds outside of the forward windows, as the Orizaba began to descend onto Eastern Europe.
"Dispatch Eagle, and Alpha squadrons to North America. Delta and Foxtrot to the Indonesian Islands and Australia... Bravo and Zulu to Central and Eastern Asia. Charlie to North Africa. And Europe belongs to us... We don't have the man-power to be stretched any further..."
"What about South America, sir?" Captain Donaghy questioned, as she stood at attention besides the Admiral, watching the gray puffs whisk away outside the windows.
"Have we confirmed atmo breach over that region?"
"No sir. Not yet..." Donaghy replied, her chin up, and her demeanor intact.
"Then we've done all we can for now..." Hackett answered back, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders dubiously. "We've already lost multiple vessels, and Bravo and Foxtrot were significantly weakened in the initial attack..."
Just then, the cloud cover outside of the Orizaba's forward windows faded as they re-entered Earth's atmosphere, revealing a scene of dismal brutality. Like a school of hungry sharks circling wounded prey, the Reapers hovered over the cities of the world – firing crimson beams of death from their appendages. Buildings collapsed, and entire skyscrapers toppled, as they sliced through them with ease, causing eruptions of dust, smoke, and flames.
Their silhouettes appeared over the Eastern horizon of the North American coastline. From Tokyo, Japan to Seoul, South Korea they darkened the skies. From Delhi, India to Shanghai, China and from London, England to Paris, France they rained down with fire.
Military gunships and fighters scrambled fiercely, converging on the demon eyed leviathans; unloading a vicious maelstrom of hellfire over their entire hulls. Artillery teams on the ground fired fruitlessly into the air, striking the attackers with heavy anti-aircraft plasma slugs, which simply seemed dissipate, or ricochet off, with little to no noticeable damage. The siege of Planet Earth had begun...
Admiral Hackett was silent for only a moment as he watched the ensuing carnage. He clenched his lips, and shook his head ever so slightly, as he exhaled a deep breath through his nose. "Viper squadron... All vessels open fire."
The burden of their heavy rifles seemed to be taking its toll, as Shepard and Freeman could feel the muscles in their arms begin to tighten and knot up. They continued to whip their weapons back and forth, choosing their targets carefully as the abominations crept in on them – the recoil of their respective weapons making it harder and harder to shoot straight.
Gordon shook his head a bit, as his glasses fogged up, causing them to slide down the bridge of his nose somewhat, and allowing him to peek over the top of the frames. Everything became blurry, and more difficult to make out in the darkness mired cavern, but the glowing eyes of the husks made his targets fairly easy to discern.
Shepard squinted as sweat began running into his eyes, from his drenched forehead. With one eye shut, he picked out one more target, and put it down. He then quickly took his left hand off of his rifle, and wiped his face vigorously – being meticulous to wipe the perspiration off his forehead, and out from around his eyes. After shaking the excess sweat off his glove, he gripped his assault rifle tightly with both hands once again, and pulled back on the trigger.
The early signs of fatigue were definitely becoming evident in both men, as the breaths they drew became deeper and increasingly rapid.
"They just keep coming, don't they?" Shepard asked, carrying his voice over the sound of gunfire despite sounding slightly out of breath, as he drilled the heads of two husks, with a single round.
"With no end in sight..." Gordon replied, shaking his head with a hefty sigh, as he whipped his rifle to the left, picked out a new target, and fired. Then swinging it back to the right, discharging again and again with deadly accuracy.
"So how many times you been in a spot like this before?" The Commander questioned, unable to hold back the grin on his face, as he continued to line up his sights.
"Whew..." Gordon released a deep breath, a bit of a smile now showing on his face as well. "Definitely more than I'd like to remember. Hehe..." He released a mild chuckle as he caught his breath. "You?"
"Same..." Shepard replied with a sigh, as he sprayed a flurry of gunfire in a sweeping motion, across a few of the abominations getting too close. "I remember a few months ago, when we were still trying to figure out a way to make it through the Omega-4 Relay..." He paused for a second as he released an empty ammo casing, and drove in a fresh one. "We got a tip-off that a turian patrol cruiser had managed to disable a Collector ship, but was destroyed in the process."
"The Collectors. Those alie... aliens that were abducting humans, right?" He stopped mid-sentence to catch a quick breath, as husks continued to topple in his sights, like dominoes - their shadowy figures growing ever closer.
"Right..." Shepard acknowledged, using the adrenaline surging through his body to stave off the fatigue. "We needed to check it out to see if we could find some way to get through the relay safely. When we got there, the place was dead. No signs of life, life support, nothing..."
The two conversed in an almost casual manner, as hundreds of vile monstrosities, made up of dead flesh, and cybernetic components continually flooded into the large cavern. Bright flashes of light, and a cannonade of gunfire filled the chamber, as the corpses of the fallen began to pile up on the ground around the massive eezo core.
"I took Tali, and Garrus with me." Shepard continued, taking time to catch a breath between sentences, whenever he could. "We made our way through the bulk of the ship, until we came to a promising looking control terminal... Surprise, surprise, it was a trap... Hehehe..." He shook his head a bit, as he chuckled under his breath.
"It always is, isn't it?" Gordon added with a weary laugh.
"The place sprung to life like an angry hornets nest, and the three of us got pinned down. So, while EDI tried to get the information we came for off their systems, we stayed and fought off a few hundred Collectors..."
"Damn..." Gordon remarked astoundedly, turning to look at the Commander for a split second, before turning his attention back to the fray.
"They just kept comin' and comin', we could barely hold our own. That's when EDI told us their weapons were coming online, and if we didn't get outta there soon, the Normandy would be destroyed. So as we tried to get out, the Collectors finally realized they couldn't stop us on their own. That's when they started using these guys..."
"The husks?" Gordon asked, as he pulled a new clip off his belt, noticing he only had about four left, as they dwindled at an alarming rate.
"Yep..." Shepard replied, as the heads of two of them erupted in his rifle's sights. "Husks of the poor human colonists they abducted... As we made a mad dash for the shuttle, we started getting over run by the things. We had to fight our way out punching, and kicking. We got out just as their weapons came online. That damn particle beam of theirs nearly fried the skin off our backs, but at least we got what we went in for..."
"Sounds rough, Commander." Gordon affirmed, as the onslaught continued. He could feel a stiffness in his neck, and shoulders, as his arms began to cramp up under the weight of the heavy rifle.
Suddenly, as the other husks clambered over the mound of corpses already piling up, one of them seemed to claw its way out from underneath. Perhaps having been trampled by the others. It pushed out from under the bodies, and crawled out on its stomach, in a prone position without the use of its legs.
As Gordon watched it slither towards him, dragging itself across the floor, he had the strangest sense of deja vu. He knew this was a sight he'd seen many times before.
"Well, this sort of reminds me of the time I spent the night trying to get out of a place called Ravenholm..." Gordon began as he pulled back on the trigger, putting the poor creature to rest. "A small town on the outskirts of City 17."
"Was this before the time you..." Shepard paused to catch his breath, taking a moment to wipe the sweat from his face once more. "Repelled the Combine's famous assault on the resistance base at White Forest?"
It took Gordon a moment to reply, as Shepard's statement came as a bit of a surprise to him.
"Heh, I had no idea it was famous..." Gordon replied, cracking a bit of a grin. "But yes, it was about a week or so before that."
"I was forced to pass through it when the Combine attacked one of our major outposts, and I got cut off from everyone else... From the moment I set foot there, the place smelled of death. Like flesh rotting away for months..." Gordon actually cringed a bit as he remembered the fetid odor.
As they continued to talk and shoot; adrenaline coursing through their bodies, their limbs growing weak, and their breaths becoming labored, they both knew that time was running out. But there was nothing they could do about it. Between the two of them, and the grand element core they needed to reach, stood a flood of bio-mechanical monstrosities, closing in on them slowly but surely. As inappropriate a time as this was for the two icons to share war stories, it seemed it was all they could do as they attempted to mow down the horde.
"The town's entire population had been zombified." Gordon continued, inhaling deeply as he shook his head. "The place was overrun. You could hear 'em howling in the distance and see 'em running across the rooftops. All except for one man. He was a priest, or a preacher, or something. I'm not sure. But I probably wouldn't of made it out alive had it not been for him."
"He guided me through the town." Gordon said with a heavy breath. "Helping me every step of the way, and letting me make use of his... traps..."
"Traps...?" The Commander turned his eyes to Gordon beside him, not actually tilting his head as he listened over the roar of gunfire.
"Yeah, he had set up all sorts of crudely made devices to fend off the zombies. Spinning blades attached to car engines. Electric fences. Propane burners. Even a crusher that consisted of a car on a... on a system of pulleys. Pull back on a lever, and it would crush anything underneath it. Crudely made, but effective."
"Phew..." Shepard breathed a hefty sigh, as he shook his head with an amazed expression on his face. "Talk about... ingenuity. Be great to have a few of those right about now, wouldn't ya say?"
"Heh..." Gordon gave an out of breath chuckle, before he continued. "Well you know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention."
With empty ammo casings littering the floor around their feet, Shepard let yet another one drop, as he reached for a new clip on his belt. That's when he noticed, for the first time, how dangerously low his ammo reserves had gotten. At that moment he thought about using one of his grenades, but an uncontrolled explosion like that could bring the entire cavern down on top of them. He slid the fresh thermal clip into place, as he dismissed the idea.
"Anyway, he eventually led me out of town... through a narrow valley, to... to an old graveyard. The damn things must've known we were trying to get out, because they just started coming at us non-stop. They'd jump down on us from over the cliff side, and swarmed us at the graveyard. If I didn't know better, I'd say they were rising out of the graves..." Gordon stopped for a moment to catch his breath. He quickly clenched and rubbed his eyes as they began to ache due to the extra strain he had been putting on them.
"The father and I fought 'em off as we made our way to the gate." He continued. "When he opened it and told me to go, I expected him to follow me through. But when I turned back, he had shut it behind me. He said his farewells and ran back into the melee. After that, I just remember an explosion, and watching him get swallowed up as he cackled maniacally..."
Gordon gulped as he recalled the chilling memory. As the two continued to fire, and husks continued to fall in their sights, neither of them could help but notice how close the husk horde was getting. The perimeter they had managed to establish to keep them at bay was consistently shrinking, as was their ammunition supply. One way or another, this was going to end soon.
"He told me to look to my own salvation..." Gordon spoke up again, after being silent for a moment. "I don't know how anyone could've survived, but somehow I don't think that was the last of him. I could still hear him laughing when I walked away towards the dark tunnel leading out... I hated just leaving him there, but I was never so happy to see daylight..."
"This is tango leader, we are tied. Weapons free, all squads fence in!"
Hundreds of fighter ships, interceptors, and gunships alike seemed to swarm all over the devil-eyed giants, appearing utterly tiny in comparison. They unleashed a violent torrent of missile barrages, laser canons, and high-capacity slug fire, but it all seemed terribly ineffective.
Throughout every region of the world, Navy squadrons unloaded every type of ordnance in their considerable arsenals, as the obsidian giants continued to sweep a crimson curtain of death across the land.
The towering skyscrapers of New York and Chicago toppled like dominoes, with clouds of smoke and dust erupting into night sky. The cities were bathed in a red luminance, and engulfed with flame as pillars of light swept the area.
Entire ground platoons throughout the world were swallowed up and piles of flaming wreckage, and smoldering debris crashed into the ground as the Reapers turned their weapons on the troublesome gnats of the Alliance Armed Forces.
Admiral Hackett gripped the arm rests on his chair, a look of despair and contempt on his face, as the shock wave of an exploding Alliance cruiser rattled the flagship dreadnought.
Suddenly, the entire ship canted left unexpectedly, as the helmsman jerked back on his controls, narrowly allowing them to avoid the concentrated laser fired on them, from one of the onyx skinned invaders.
The Orizaba dove, and swooped down to lower altitudes as ships burst into flames around them, and buildings toppled below them. Like water splashing against a dam, the numerous vessels of the Alliance continued their assault in a desperate attempt to deter the siege on the Earth, only to be broken in their efforts.
"Sir, we've lost the Edison, the Geneva, and the Madrid!" One of the crewmen on the bridge exclaimed in a panic, watching his screen worriedly as the Orizaba rocked back and forth. "And we have confirmed an enemy cell sighted off the coast of Brazil..."
"Christ, almighty..." Hackett uttered under his breath, with a deep anxiety in the pit of his stomach, and a feeling of sheer helplessness burdening his soul. "We're being exterminated..."
"Keep firing! Divert all non-critical power to the weapons array, and the shields!" He suddenly ordered adamantly, as the orange light from explosions spilled into the bridge, from the outside.
Tiny drops of moisture speckled the windows and a light drizzle danced on the wind, as the mid-day sky grew cold, dark, and angry.
"Barnes, where the hell is the Citadel Fleet!" The Admiral demanded angrily, as he watched the devastation outside. "We're getting massacred out here!"
"Still en route, sir!" The ship's Communications Officer confirmed in an anxious tone.
"Damn it!" Hackett bucked his head forward frustratedly. "Tell our artillery teams in Brazil to hold out for as long as possible, we don't have any more detachments to send their way."
"God help us, we should've listened to Shepard..." He stopped and whispered to himself, as he shook his head. "Where the hell is he anyway? If there was ever a time we needed him..."
"Admiral Hackett, sir!" The semi-excited voice of Captain Donaghy suddenly grabbed his attention. He looked over to her standing beside one of the other crewmen. She had the makings of what appeared to be eagerness on her face, however still mired by fear, and doubt.
"Sir, Zulu Squadron reports to have just taken one down over Nagoya, Japan!"
"They took one down... ONE?" He shouted angrily.
"Y-yes sir..." Captain Donaghy replied, what little spur of hope that may have stirred inside her quickly fading away. "They're just too powerful... Whether it's their shields, or whatever it is they're made of, we're just not doing enough damage, sir..."
Admiral Hackett sighed as he sank down in his chair, gripping his chin between his thumb and index fingers pensively. "How bad are our civilian casualties?"
"Minimal for now, sir..." Donaghy answered, as she slowly came to stand a few feet before him, with her hands stoically behind her back. "Almost all the major cities have been evacuated. But all our military forces around the globe are taking heavy losses... We won't hold out much longer..."
Hackett was silent for a moment as he batted his eyes back and forth a little. He could hear the maelstrom of the battle outside, and feel the percussion of the rupturing ships, as giant red blades of light tore into the structures of the Earth.
"Keep firing..."