London, Earth, 24th November 2186 CE
Ana looked upon the maelstrom of chaos and destruction before her. The scene resembled a Bosch's vision of Hell as the allied forces battled for survival against the abominations created by the Reapers.
"Into the valley of death rode the six hundred," Ana quoted grimly, "Tennyson now, really Ash?" she smiled ruefully, "You're having a bad influence on me."
"Just trying to improve your mind Skipper." Came the glib reply.
When Shepard led the small squad in a mad dash towards the transport beam all three were injured during the charge, shields and armour could only cope with so much inbound ordnance. None of the wounds were immediately life threatening but the cumulative effect of minor blood loss and weariness from continuous fighting was taking a toll on them. After a particularly vicious barrage hit the three runners their armours were showing severe signs of battle damage; ablative plates were blackened and shattered in places and their shields flickered weakly as they recharged. Ana had managed to shield Tali as much as possible with her own body but the quarian's suit had received multiple punctures from shrapnel and she was starting to stumble as the inevitable infections set in. Ash was bleeding from several places including a deep thigh wound and a long shallow cut on her cheek when her helmet's visor had been shattered by a stray round.
Rather than risk the two women she loved any further Ana had called in for an emergency pick-up by the Normandy. As she helped them to the cargo ramp and relative safety the marine and quarian could only plead to go with her but Shepard was adamant, instructed them both to live for her and each other and turned her back on them before she could lose her composure.
Watching the ship lift off safely, Shepard re-orientating herself, wiped her eyes dry and quickly checked her store of thermal clips and once again started to sprint towards the column of light. The number of converging troops and vehicles was rapidly being decimated by Reaper ground forces and airborne strafing attacks. A nearby explosion threw Ana into the air then back to the ground with sickening force, she felt the sharp pain of breaking ribs when she crashed into the remains of a Mako. The vehicle had been reduced to a smoking ruin with bodies of combatants from both sides strewn around it.
Gasping in pain she pulled herself upright and clasping an arm to her side to stabilise the ribs she staggered onwards, the shot that shattered her shoulder came from a mutated Turian Marauder. Weakly raising her Carnifex she shot the abomination between the eyes, gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep moving.
It was adrenaline and anger that fuelled her now, anger at the obscene loss of life across the galaxy, the destruction of Thessia, Palavan, Earth and all the other planets that had been despoiled by the Reapers. The hard decisions that she'd been forced to make; the loss of Kaiden in the fight again Saren, the alliance ships destroyed to save the Destiny Ascension with the Citadel Council aboard and the sacrifice of 300,000 Batarians to delay the Reapers.
Ana was in pain, gut-wrenching pain but she pushed it back down as far as she could until it almost became normal, she knew that her chances of survival were less than remote, but she would beat the monsters or die trying, there was no compromise in this situation.
She was also terrified of failure, it meant the annihilation of all civilisation, everything she had sworn to protect - even if she fell she wanted to give those she loved a chance at life. She finally made it to the gateway and as she stepped into the blue light she gave a last look at the sky and prayed for all aboard the Normandy.
Between aerial combat manoeuvres as they tried to distract and harry the Reaper forces as much as they could, Joker had been monitoring Shepard's progress from the cockpit He was streaming updates to the medbay where Dr Chakwas was treating Ash and Tali's wounds. They could see her vitals drop when she was wounded and watched in agonised silence until they stabilised, and she started to move again.
They maintained the link with Ana's suit until the moment that it either became too damaged to transmit the data or she entered the Citadel, they couldn't tell which.
After a tortuously long time, the ship was rocked by a series of short but powerful concussive waves that caused a momentary communication blackout.
"Joker, what the fuck is going on out there?" came the question from the Normandy's XO, gone was the refined speech that Jeff would normally expect from Miranda Lawson.
Going against his usual nature, Jeff responded in his best alliance voice, "I'm not sure ma'am, it felt and looked like an EMP of some kind, but it only seems to be affecting the Reapers, look out the port window".
"Jesus Christ, they're falling out of the sky...have, have we won?" the Australian replied.
"It must be Shepard, she's done it - she's beaten the bastards!" he crowed.
"Do we have any contact with her suit? Is she alive?" Miranda demanded.
"Negative Ma'am, and unknown, there's no sign of her."
"Keep trying to locate her, I don't care what you have to do, but find her - we know she's injured and I'm not losing her after all the work I had to put in to rebuild her!" Miranda ordered Joker.
"Like I'm going to give in, I killed her once because of my stupidity, I won't repeat that mistake," he snorted.
"I heard that Joker, although I appreciate the sentiment. Keep me updated on your progress, Lawson, out."
Joker smirked and thought to himself about his XOs interest in Ana, "Was that strictly professional or is there still a personal interest going on there?".
EDI had been responsible for monitoring all onboard activities when the Normandy was a Cerberus ship, since she had acquired a body she and Jeff had become an item and she'd accidentally let slip that Ana and Miranda had a brief fling until Tali had joined the crew.
"Moreau to XO Lawson, I have an update, where are you?"
"Joker, I'm in the medbay helping Karin, we have Ash and Tali in here, what do you have for us?"
"We had a momentary transmission from Ana's suit close to the main crash site, her vitals were still there but she's in a really bad way!"
"Do you have a location?"
"Negative, not exact but we've managed to pinpoint a search area of about one square mile."
"Get us there now so I can get search parties out there with body heat scanners!"
"On the way Mir…Aye, aye ma'am, Joker out!" throwing a worried look across to EDI Joker brought the frigate around and headed to the location, dodging all the allied ships still in the air above the now quiet war zone.
Despite their injuries Tali and Ash determinedly led one of the teams themselves, tearing at debris with their own hands when they found life signs. They were guided throughout their search by Joker and EDI as they continuously scanned the area for any sign of Ana from the Normandy.
The groups were able to save several trapped and wounded allied soldiers as a result, administering emergency aid then directing trained medical staff to the injured. Bodies of those too late to do anything for were left where they had fallen after being marked on a holo map for recovery later.
They'd just managed to stem the bleeding of a badly wounded Asari commando when an urgent shout from Miranda caught their attention.
"Ash, Tali, she's here, we've found her - she's alive!"
Moving as quickly as they could considering their wounds and the broken terrain they finally reached Miranda and frantically started to wrench debris out of the way, "Shepard, can you hear us? We're here, hold on love!"
As the final piece of ship that trapped Shepard was gently lifted away the extent of her injuries became apparent, "Oh God! Shepard, stay with us," Miranda demanded as Tali and Ash looked on in horror at what damage had been wrought upon their lover.
Miranda feverishly directed the other two as she applied medigel and administered pain relief and adrenalin to Shepard before they could transfer the Commander to the Normandy medbay and into the care of her anxiously waiting godmother Dr Chakwas.
Her face caked in both dried and freshly oozing blood, Shepard stirred weakly and one emerald eye slowly opened, "Am I dead? Because I'm surrounded by beautiful women..." she croaked with a lopsided smile.
"You stupid Bosh'Tet, you'll pay for that later!" Tali replied, her face behind the mask was tense but a brief look of relief passed across her features.
"Did we win? Where's Anderson?" Shepard whispered.
"It's over Skipper, you did it whatever 'it' was, the Reapers are down!" Ash spoke into her ear while holding Ana's hand, "No sign of the Admiral yet but they'll keep looking". The commander didn't hear the last comment however as the sedative had taken hold and she'd surrendered to the effects.