Shepard wanted to say 'we made it,' but it just wasn't true enough.
They'd lost about half of Hammer One traversing the streets of London, swarmed almost every step of the way. According to EDI, this was actually better than expected: her estimates anticipated less than a quarter of the team would arrive in any condition to make the run to the beam.
Shepard hoped Harbinger had the good show it needed. It towered ahead, parked just behind the beam so she could see her objective…and the thing keeping her from it.
Or so she thought.
The signal to start the distraction so Hammer One could be lifted out was 'band saw,' at which point any heavily damaged ships that could still move were supposed to lock onto Harbinger's coordinates, the crews were to abandon ship, and the too-damaged hardware was to be thrown in Harbinger's direction. The intention was it would have to turn its attention away from Hammer One to deal with the sudden deluge of damaged ships…assuming its Reaper buddies didn't handle the matter for it. The Normandy would then come in and lift the team to safety.
It was part of the plan that only vessel captains were privy to. Well, vessel captains and probably all the geth, since the geth shared information in a way that so far seemed secure.
The beam rose from the ground—or maybe it terminated at the ground, it was hard to tell—like an ominous finger, pointing up into the clouds, casting a livid, unpleasant light in spite of the rain. The beam drained almost all color from the surroundings, made the eyes ache of one looked at it too long. She could see husks dragging things to the beam, then shuffling away unburdened.
Fresh meat for a new Reaper. The thought made her nauseous, chilling her already chilled body.
There was no word from the Stiletto teams, nor would there be. They were on strict radio silence, only helmet-to-helmet communications. The Wrench and some of the Screwdriver teams were already doing their jobs, causing havoc and destruction.
But Harbinger remained where it was, waiting for her.
Shepard closed her eyes, pain from staring at the beam lancing between her temples. "Alright. Are we ready to do this?" she asked, voice low. This was it. No one would back out here, now, because there was no point.
"We're in this to the end," Alenko said.
"Yeah, Lola. We're in it," Vega agreed.
Ghur, Wrex's contribution to Hammer One—someone on that stupid run has to have redundant organs!—and Javik didn't say anything, merely moved to stand closer to the front of the bedraggled team.
Shepard took another shaky breath, part of her mind echoing from the trip here. Any Reaper on Earth seemed to have been in her way: husks, Abominations, Marauders, Banshee, Brutes, Cannibals, Harvesters, a couple she didn't recognize but which might have been salarians once upon a time…and even one of the big Reapers like on Rannoch. Her ears were ringing with the noise, the gunfire, the screams of the Reaper and the screams of her fellow organics as they died.
She shivered, remembering the geth squadron that had assailed it, buying Hammer One time to turn some of the heavy ordnance moving through the city on it. Most of the ordnance hadn't made it very far. Most of those brave geth were dead now.
If she hadn't expected the hardware to bog down eventually, she would have felt more disheartened than she did, although the reality of her plan was beginning to squeeze her. It had never been a fabulous plan; even if, according to EDI's projections, they were doing exceptionally well, she was beginning to feel the weight of 'what if it doesn't work? What if Harbinger already knows, and is just playing us like fish on a line?'
She shook herself. Too late to back out now, though the time for a strategic break-off was coming. That scared her, too. What if Harbinger didn't redirect its attention and just kept hammering on Hammer One?
She shook herself again.
She'd seen Cortez and Hornet a couple of times—or so she thought, maybe so she hoped—chasing, or being chased by, Harvesters. So far, it looked to her as if synthetic/organic partnerships for aerial combat were a pretty viable option. She just hoped it would last.
"Alright…this is it," she said aloud, opening her eyes to look at the beam, to see beyond it, to momentarily imagine the city that would rise from the rubble of this one. This could all be mended in time. Someday, this would be just a scary story told to children, who would delight in the creepiness knowing as they would that everything had turned out alright. She swallowed. "Let's get it done."
With that, she threw herself out of cover, for a moment regarding Harbinger past the beam. The Reaper let off one of the screams of its kind as it let off a potshot at her—more of a 'hello, honey, I see you there' than anything else, considering how wide it went. In the scream she heard quite clearly: try your luck.
"I don't need luck," Shepard breathed, letting the fear turn into anger. "I have ammo." She switched to her Collector particle beam and started to run, hearing Ghur pounding along behind her, practically shaking the earth as he ran. The rest of the Alliance forces rattled and jangled, their small sounds fading in and out of hearing as the larger sounds of the assault—hope-inducingly clear of Reaper ground troops—as Hammer One plunged along the wide, empty swathe of ground, careful to keep to the sides, where there was a little bit of cover, in case they had to bail out of the run.
Shepard's heart beat painfully, the world bouncing as she ran, stopped, dodged. There was no way she or anyone else would survive a direct hit from that thing…