Chapter 22: The Dragon
They were in the Home Stretch now.
The trench to the Central Hub was a dark brooding expanse. Hovering above and before the trio like gnats in a swamp were enemy platforms, each carrying a crew complement of five to six hostiles.
"Bogies coming in at three, nine, and twelve o'clock," Shepard announced. "Stay frosty!"
Both of the other women replied with a "Roger that."
Team Mako shouldered their weapons and fired a trio of bursts with pinpoint accuracy. Warp-empowered-armor-piercing rounds tore into the Collectors, shredding their chests and heads. One by one the insectoids fell from their hovering platforms, they crumbled into heaps. Thick blood oozed from the corpses.
The Specter and Miranda fired. Bullets filled the air and pinged off of cyan simmering barriers in front to the creatures. A bolt of green heat blasted from the Collector's riffles sizzling over their heads. Miranda dove forward and knocked Shepard out of the blast's path: the energy burst caught Miranda in the side, the reflective coating of her armor flared. She fell clutching her side, but still managed to fire her weapon.
Shepard and Tali rolled on their backs and sprayed gunfire at the insectoids. Slugs peppered the aliens-each one bounced and ricocheted off their energy shields. Shepard glanced at her ammo counter—half gone.
"Tali overload their shields. Miranda status."
"Five by five, Commander." Lawson responded. "Shield's held, they got a little but they held."
The Collectors kept up a stream of answering fire-energy blasts hammered into the companions forcing them to bunker down behind the floating platforms half-walls. The Collectors may have thought their enemy pinned down but for the surge of dark energy swirling around the biotics indicated anything but.
Shepard and Miranda sent out leashes and warps allowing Tali to use her drones. By this time the team worked as a well-oiled and carefully calibrated machine.
Moving forward, up and over. Always up and over. The ground gained was marginal, but each meter advanced was an important one. And always the Collectors were there trying desperately to maintain a foothold and deny Mako Squad any ground.
Collector strike teams came in from both flanks, one acting as a diversion while the other laid down cover fire.
YOUR EXTINCTION IS ASSURED
"Not as much as yours asshat," Shepard muttered between clenched teeth.
Amongst the insectoid troopers were two scions. While they were slow and appeared clumsy, the companions knew differently. The cannons mounted within their torsos were equivalent to the heavy weapons of a shuttle, and they could leap into motion with startling suddenness. Their kenotic shields could withstand a tremendous amount of punishment. Worse they would never stop until the enemy lay dead at their feet… or they were dead themselves.
Team Mako opened fire, grenades exploded, and the pair of Collector troopers roared their defiance. One of them lifted his right arm and fired his weapons a plasma gun. One of Tali's drone spun in a haphazard circle as if someone grabbed hold of a globe and spun it on its axis before it blinked out of existence.
Tali snarled in irritation yet she knew if her deference drone hadn't taken the shot the plasma fire would have melted through the shields of her environmental suit and began to melt through the insulation of that suit to her flesh.
I WILL DIRECT THIS PERSONALLY.
The scion lumbered from the center of their platform to the lip, presumably to create cover fire while behind him one of the troopers began to glow gold—the telltale sign of possession. Shepard lined up the shot, crosshairs centered directly on the bug's cranium. Steady, hold the breath, squeeze the trigger. Warp rounds spiraled through the air - SPLAT!
Shepard's team advanced eating up as much ground as possible before they were overwhelmed.
"Enemies in coming." Miranda cautioned
Ahead of them and just above—two of the anti-grav hexagons connected, troopers and husked abominations formed a rough phalanx and peppered Team Mako's positions with plasma fire.
"Hit em' hard!" Shepard commanded. The Normandy poured fire onto the tandem platforms. Dark energy-infused slugs whined through the air, slid into the octagonal anti-grav systems—detonating it. The explosion was impressive.
ASSUMING CONTROL
It was not one this time but three troopers become the possessed, presumably to target one of each of the members of Team Mako.
The Spectre swiveled around "Direct all firepower on the possessed!" Shepard ordered
Grunts of pain and fire filled Shepard's ears and it took only a fraction of a second to realize that those sounds emanated were coming from her. Shepard bunkered down behind one of the 'L' shaped half-walls allowing her to pop up fire, duck down waiting for shields to reestablish strength, only to pop back up and fire—this time with her biotics.
"There we go!" Miranda chirped watching as the trio of the processed.
"Move! Move! Move!" Shepard ordered. "We don't know how long we have before they regroup."
Finally at they reached the core main platform that could take them directly into the core. Shepard went to the hub as Tali and Miranda covered her.
This far in the Specter was astonished that her small team hadn't met with more resistance or that the opposition in fact hadn't fortified such a vital area. Considering the infiltration Shepard thought that that the very least there would be a reserve picket force fortified however hastily to protect the Colossus
The expectations seemed outlandish, the events that lead them to this exact time and place were so unlikely to be nigh on impossible. And yet here they were.
"This is it. All the tubes lead to this spot. EDI what can you tell us? What are they doing?" Shepard looked around her.
*The tubes are feeding into some kind of superstructure. It is admitting both organic and inorganic energy signatures. Given these readings it must be massive.* the implied exclamation was as the end of the statement even if EDI's simulated voice was entirely incapable of expressing it.
The platform took the trio deeper and deeper in. Just as EDI's last word sounded the women came face to face with a colossus construct. A half-formed human skeleton. It bore the apperance of something from a 1980 sci-fi horror genre. This was no Terminator.
*Shepard if my calculations are correct, it is a Reaper.*
"Not just any Reaper," Shepard said staring opened mouthed at the monstrosity. "A human-Reaper"
*Precisely.*
The platform lowered and connected automatically to the hub decking with a jolting clunk.
The trio walked aghast forward, but ever the soldier Shepard pushed past her horror and began the swift assessment of how to best neutralize this new threat. She saw large extension cables coming down from the ceiling like so many metallic spider webs and connecting directly into the spinal cord and elbow joints of the Reapers still unformed appendages.
There was a click-hiss as parts of the cabling opened up to resembled large hypodermic needles filled with glowing amber—goo. Goo that was the only word Shepard's mind could come up with to describe the substance. That goo she knew had to have come from the colonists. That was the organic components.
Almost as if tracing her thoughts, EDI supplied: *It appears that the Collectors have processed tens of thousands of humans. Significantly more will be required to complete the Reaper.*
Shepard stared at the metallic abomination unfathomably. "What do the Collectors gain by turning humans into this Reaper shell?"
*They may be facilitating the Reaper equivalent to reproduction. Or it may serve as another purpose; I do not have the data to speculate further. However, it is clear that the Collectors are merely pawns. The technology and ability needed to create this Reaper is not their own. It is likely that different species construct their own Reaper. In this case, the Collectors provide the labor.*
Miranda just shook her head taking in the enormity of what she was seeing. And she knew, she knew in her hind-mind that this thing, this monster cannot fall into Cerberus' hands. It could not come anywhere near The Illusive Man.
Part of her task when she joined with Shepard, something she had managed thus far to keep from the Specter even partly from herself was to grab any data, any intelligence she could on the Collectors / Reaper union and bring it back to her …Master. Seeing this monstrous thing the former loyalist could not, no would not do so. TIMmy could not have this technology.
Shepard's words brought Lawson out of her own mind and back to the issue. "The Collectors are just protheans. Why would they help the Reapers?"
*The Reapers subdued the protheans long ago.* EDI reminded the Spectre. *Probability suggests they attempted to create a prothean Reaper and failed. Over time they twisted the protheans to suit their needs. Changed them. Turned them into workers. Tools for the Reapers.*
"They are building it to look like a human." Shepard frowned and asked the question on everyone's minds. "Why?"
*It appears the Reapers' shape is based upon the species used to create it.* hypothesized EDI
"So that means original Reapers were giant space insectoid-cephalopods?!" Tali murmured to no one in particular.
"Reapers are machines. Why do they need humans at all?" the Commander's question was almost whispered.
*Incorrect.* EDI said. *Reapers are sapient constructs—a hybrid of organic and inorganic material. The exact construction methods are unclear but it seems probable that the Reaper absorb the essence of a species, utilizing it in their reproduction process.*
"How many more humans do you think it would take to finish it?" Shepard had to ask the question.
*Billions. Perhaps more.* there was an unmistakable awe in the AI's voice as she delivered the answer. *Impossible to know for certain. This Reaper appears to be in a very early stage of development. An embryo in human terms.*
*So it's not alive, yet?* Pondered Shepard. "We can still stop it from being…created." she seemed to struggle with that last part, knowing that constructed wasn't quite the correct term.
*The process can be stopped. But it is unclear exactly how much it has developed. I cannot be certain for example if it has awareness.*
"This thing is an abomination," growled Shepard. "EDI how do we destroy it?"
*The large tubes used to inject the fluid are a weak structure link. Destroying them should cause the supports to collapse and the Reaper to fall.*
"Sounds familiar," Shepard said with a scoff looking towards Tali as she did.
The quarrian snapped her fingers twice before gestured one of them at Shepard. "The thorian! We did the same thing to it!"
The Spectre nodded and smiled gravely. "Shoot out the supports and SPLAT! No more sentient mind-controlling plant no more Reaper abomination."
Shepard scanned the two lower gullies that extended from the main gangway like the wings of a stage or rather miner orchestra pits, as they were a flight of stairs below. As before Tali laid out a web trap with the Omni-bow's darts. Floating above the netting both Miranda and Shepard placed singularities. It was an old hat-trick trap but it was effective and more importantly, it continued to work, even when the enemy was aware of the traps have been laid.
From behind them, there was an all too familiar whirl. Three women's heads turned to the north-east and saw the fast approaching hovering platforms.
"Hang on EDI; we gotta take care of some old friends, first," Shepard said rushing for cover making sure that both Tali and Lawson were doing the same.
PAIN IS AN ILLUSION. WE ARE THE HARBRINGER OF YOUR DESTENY.
Over the blast of gunfire was the ever-present drone of Harbinger, announcing he was yet again seizing control over one of the Collector's forms. And again rather than one it was a multitude.
The hive was well and truly kicked now.
The trio took defensive positions around the walls of the upper deck. The motion sensors in the helmets' HUD showed everyone on deck, enemies incoming, and allies. There was nothing beyond the peripheral. Either the secondary squadron was especially effective at distracting the main core of the Collector forces or the bugs decided now was the best to employ stealth technology and mask the great bulk of their retaliation against Shepard's team.
"They're deploying heavy weapons!" Miranda called out a warning.
"Jamming them now!" Tali answered swiftly. Despite the fact that the vast majority of weapons now utilized heatsinks that replaced the ammo packs to avoid overheating issues, the talented engineer had somehow rigged her drone to send out a moderated EM pulse that for a very short time short-circuited the link between heatsinks and the firearm hardware.
The tech of course had come from the skulker-geth she had dissected during the hunt for Saren. In fact, that information was part of the data files she had copied and used as her gift to the Caption of the Neema the ship she was destined to join once her mission with Shepard had finished. Of course, that was before she became Vas Normandy.
The enemies' weapons inoperable for a millisecond gave Shepard and Miranda time enough to throw warps into their already planted singularities just as bug troopers disembarked from their platforms. Their bodies immediately snatched by the sheer power of the dark energy combination spun and spiraled—yanked this way and that. Twisting by the torque of the singularity and ripped open by the explosive force of the warp, their carapaces could not contain the soft tissue underneath or the organs.
Tali and her drones laid down heavy cover fire. Shepard danced from cover to cover. Deploying shockwaves, pulls, lifts warps, her body surrounded in a dark cyclone of annulation. A darker power of biotics to be sure, but extremely effective. Around her, the husks fell by the dozen only to be replaced by a dozen more.
More platforms were descending on their fixed location. "We got this, Shepard," Miranda called out implying without words that Shepard should turn her attention to the feeding tubes that connected the Colossus
"Alright you big ugly, let's get this over with," Shepard growled and with expert precision shot the open feeding tubes destroying two of them in an explosion of golden-gray goo and sparks.
Shutters slammed shut over the four tubes making it now impossible to destroy them. It was only a matter of minutes before the tubes reopened.
"Trouble ahead!" Miranda's voice came from somewhere to the left. "There we go!" she launched a heavy weapons' assault on the troupers massing on their location.
Dodge, fire, take cover, fire. Waiting for the whirling hum. YES! There it was the tubes reopened.
"Get the tubes!" Tali cried out as she dove for cover having heard it above the din of battle. Even as she sought cover she detonated the drone's electro-missiles which in turn detonated the lattice work of the Omni-bolts nets capturing many of the husks in a magnificent explosion.
The coleuses thrashed and rived oh how it thrashed but the sheer might of the Abomination Reaper was no match for the sheer persistence of the Specter and her team.
OUR POWER IS UNMATCHED.
Denial and truth. Unmatched perhaps but not unchallenged. Harbinger's words were the prelude to the incumbent attack.
More platforms whirled in from the west.
Shepard turned from the on-coming insurgents and concentrated all fire-power into the tubes connecting ports. The glowing amber goo splattered outward like arterial spray. How may humans was….no that genetic material was no longer human only the genetic essence that made up a person. Just like the collectors were no longer prothean, that goo was no longer huma.n
With the last two injection tubes shattered, the platform the colossus was mounted on was destroyed. The three companions watched was the colossus released a grinding metal groan—a roar. Then tumbled into the black abyss far below the base.
Shepard continued to watch the descent almost as if making sure the abomination was gone and tapped her earpiece. "Shepard, to ground team what's your status report?"
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
"It's Thane we are holding, but they keep coming. A Quick exit is preferable."
Around the Team Hammerhead in heated battle
*Head to the Normandy.* Thane heard as the Commander linked their connection to that of the ship actual *Joker prep the engines, I'm about to overload the engines and blow it sky-high. *
*Roger that, Commander.*
Fighter fight making to the roundabouts point.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
*Commander I've got an incoming message from The Illusive Man. EDI's patching it through*
"Oh, what now?!" Shepard snarled. "I don't have time for his shit." she didn't stop what she was doing. The central core was opened allowing the core to rise up out of the main decking.
Miranda blinked as her OMNI tools holo emitters blinked, so this was no mere radio transmission. he was logging in real-time holo-transmission. Miranda held her form out so that the holo image of her former boss would be facing the Spectre.
Without preamble, he began: *Shepard you've done the impossible."
Looking over her shoulder Shepard managed to keep the sneer off of her face. as she answered. "I'm not finished here yet." she turned back to the hub's commander controls and begin reprogramming it. "This base is ten minutes from extinction."
*Wait! I have a better option.* the holoimage looked down at an off-camera computer terminal. *I'm looking at a schematic EDI uploaded. A timed radiation pulse would kill the remaining Collectors but leave the machinery and technology intact* he clutched his fist as if he were seizing the moment. *This is our chance, Shepard. They were building a Reaper—that knowledge, that framework can save us.*
"They liquefied people!" Shepard, at last, stood, turned, and faced the head of Cerberus. the rage was paramount in her voice. "Turned them into something horrible! We have to destroy the base!"
*Don't be short-sighted. Our best chance against the Reapers is to use their own resource against them.*
"I'm not so sure." Miranda interrupted. "Seeing it firsthand. Using anything from this base seems a betrayal."
TIMmy bluntly ignored Lawson. "If we ignore this opportunity that would be a betrayal " he shook his head. *They were working directly with the Collectors. Who knows what information is buried there. This base is a gift." His arms lifted, reaching out to emphasize his point. *We can't just destroy it.*
"You're completely ruthless." Shepard shook her dark locks "The next thing I know you'd be wanting to grow your own Reaper."
*My goal is to save humanity from the Reapers at any cost." his hand made a cutting motion in the air. "I've never hidden that from you. Imagine how many lives could be saved if we keep this base intact and use its knowledge to thwart the Reapers. Imagine the lives that will be lost if we don't.*
"No matter what technology you might find, it's not worth it" Shepard asserted.
*Shepard, you died fighting for what you believed, you were brought back so you could keep fighting. Some would say what was done to you was going too far but look what you've accomplished.
"I sought you out, to support your cause when those of the Council and even the Alliance turned their back on you. I didn't discard you because I knew your value. Don't be so quick to follow in their footsteps and disregard this facility! Think of the potential!*
"I will fight and win without it. I won't let fear compromise who I am." Shepard turned her back on TIMmy and returned to the core'
Knowing the argument was over with, The Illusive Man turned to his agent. *Miranda, do not let Shepard destroy the base.*
"Or what? You'll replace me, next?" came a snarky reply that caused Shepard's lips to curl upwards.
*I gave you a direct order, Miranda!*
"I noticed. Consider this my resignation." her hand for once did not rise to her collarbone to scratch an itch that didn't exist. A motion or rather a non-motion that wasn't lost on TIMmy and the former loyalist could have been mistaken but she could have swarmed the holoimage blanched. His control over Lawson had faltered.
Desperation flashed on the man's face.*Shepard! Think about what's at stake! About everything that Cerberus has done for you! You…*
Miranda casually turned off the holo-projector effectively cutting TIMmy off.
At her side, Tali couldn't contain herself. She burst out laughing. "That was brilliant." she complimented.
"I've been wanting to do that for a long time," Lawson admitted with a daring coy smile. Too bad Jack wasn't here to see it. She mentally added just as she handed Shepard a charge.
Shepard placed the explosive within the reactor core directly and typed the commands that caused the core to descend back into the decking
"Let's move. We've got ten minutes before the reactor overloads and blows this whole station apart."
Just as they were about to head out the entire decking shifted-quaking.
Incomprehensible metallic words garbled from the abyss, another quake, and from the pits below the colossus made its' encore appearance. One hand reached out to claw at the deck to haul its half created torso back up.
Its eyes if they could be called eyes glowed ominous red—the hue of the ever-familiar ember of a Reapers main gun.
Shepard took a note out of Tali's orders to her drones and fired directly at the monstrous construct's photoreceptors. The other two women obeyed without hesitation. Belching out from under its chest cavity like gnats and flies surrounding a dead corpse flew up more collector troopers, making vain attempts to protect their new creation.
"Ignore them!" Shepard demanded. "Continue fire on the Reaper."
The creature tried to smash the interlopers but the three scattered behind the half-walls of the platforms.
A moment of inspiration struck Shepard. She craned her neck and saw her teammates huddled close enough to each other that Miranda could cast a barrier bubble.
Shepard gave one word warning. "Tsunami."
Miranda reacted swiftly and covered she and Tali in a swiftly erected dark energy bubble as Shepard pulled the life-force form the filtering troopers in a reave then like a Mobius strip returned the energy on itself and shot it out in a blaze of mass effect energy directly into the colossus vulnerable photoreceptors that would cause a chain-reaction traveling from the processing core to the still inactive drive core.
The skeletal chasse erupted in glowing orange-crimson and amber and cyan. The whole world shuttered. The metallic abomination roared screamed, roared, bellowed out in protest of its unfathomable demise at the hands of such smell creatures. And then it fell.
The entire floor to tilt, Miranda lost her footing as slid down towards the abyss her hands desperately clawing for purchase any handhold to stop her swift descent.
They were out of GL's, tapped because of the tsunami Shepard could not reach out with a biotic lift and take hold of Miranda. there was no way to stop her inevitable plummet into death—not without sliding after her.
Shepard's hand snaked out before her stretching almost until the shoulder joint popped out of the socket to catch Miranda, both now slipping to the crevasse. Just as Shepard's hand closed firmly around Miranda's wrist, the Specter other hand caught hold of a broken rebar sticking out like a broken twisted branch of a long dead tree or gnarled rib-bone from an ancient unrecognizable beast. For a moment she held her weight and that of Miranda's.
The base-quake shifted once more causing the deck to tilt in the opposite direction hurdling both women over and over into a stomach twisting tumble. More plates splintered around and around.
Fate caused one of them to spiral directly over the trio then seconds of darkness. Shepard felt the weight of the world on her back. Only to realize it was sheared off section of bulkhead. Pushing up with everything she and left Shepard reached up like a bodybuilder and continued to push the metal plating off of her body completely then dropped it.
At least this she had not been impaled by the shorn mettle detritus. The Specter doubted that without all of her cybernetic enhancements that she would have been able to shift the metallic bulkhead off of her torso let alone be lucid enough to take stock of her situation and be battle ready if needs be.
Soberly scanning the now dominant platform she found Tali lying face down. No blood. Thank the Goddess or Keelah or whoever was listening the younger woman was still alive, gingerly Shepard ran her hands over Tali's suit and another blessing was the faceplate was still intact and the quarrian's silver eyes were open.
Reaching down Shepard helped her friend and shipmate to her feet, making sure she was at least stable enough to manage on her own before she turned to look for Miranda.
She found her…
She was under a support beam.
Sprinting Shepard picked up the heavy metal and cast it aside if it weighed nothing and with more care helped Lawson to her feet. The former agent was holding her side, clearly, she had suffered some damage, broken ribs most like but for the moment it wasn't life-threatening. But if they lingered longer broken ribs were the least of Lawson's concerns.
*Do you copy!* Joker's voice rang out over their headsets. Frantic. How long were they out? How long did the trio have left? *Commander! Come on Shepard! Don't leave me hanging! DO YOU COPY?*
Shepard tapped her headset. "I'm here Joker. Did the ground team make it?" Shepard paced towards the edge of the deck. There was no way across the expanse now. They were completely cut off. Off in the distance was a churning black cloud, drawing ever closer to position.
Seeker swarms. This time there was not another biotic to cover them as they rush for safety. It'd be a crap way to go, to achieve all they have done, suffered all they suffered only to end up frozen from a seeker bite.
That was not going to happen. Not now! Not ever. The trio ran, using everything they had and more.
*All survivors on board. We're just waiting for you.* Joker's voice piped up over the helm's radios.
Even if the trio managed to edge further away from the shattered hub there was nowhere else to go, and the swarm was getting closer.
"Back! Back!" Shepard ordered they were not going to die frozen. She fired into the churning mass; she was not going out like this.
HUMAN, YOU HAVE CHANGED NOTHING. YOUR SPECIES HAS THE ATTENTION OF THOSE INFINATELY GREATER.
Shepard ignored Harbinger as did the others, all three of them broke out into a full out dead run
THAT WHICH YOU KNOW AS REAPERS ARE YOUR SALVATION AND YOUR DESTRUCTION
The Swarm behind them now at their left and right flanks Collector troopers.
Their flight became more desperate. An explosion nearly took Tali's legs out from under her and still they ran. Miranda felt her ribs scream in again and still they ran.
Up and over up and over. Behind them explosions and gunfire before them another abyss.
When she saw it Shepard gave a cry of relief. Like an avenging angel rising up from the darkness, was the Normandy. Her White-gray hull and blue racing stripes never looked so beautiful
EDI must have helped fly because when the sideboard hatch pooped open Joker was standing there on his glass-bones legs with an… assault rifle in hands giving the trio cover fire. Targeting the Collects chasing after the hated human Commander and her shipmates.
Tali made the jump easily, Miranda with a little more difficulty.
The place was coming down around them, above whole chucks; the station was raining down like hailstones. One took out the hovering disk that the others had used as a bridge spanning a twenty-meter gap between the Normandy and the base.
Shepard ran, pooling all her strength into her legs, enhancing her spring with her biotics, and leapt.
the gulf between Normandy and the hell behind seemed to grow. But the Specter managed to grasp hold of the Normandy's deck with her arms, her body dangling. She had no more strength to pull herself the rest of the way in
She didn't have to; despite the broken ribs it was Miranda that pulled the Commander the rest of the way in. The hatched closed
*Detonating in ten, nine, eight….* EDI counted down.
Joker turned and swiftly moved for the cockpit. "Hey I get the jest of it EDI." he snapped and reclaimed his position at the helm. "Hold on!" He punched the console over to him and did what he was best at- navigating the Normandy through hell.
Around them was still the asteroid belt and graveyard of destroyed ships. But the Normandy dodged and dipped out of fire, spun around and around, and sped out of danger
KAFOOOOOMMMM!
The blast from the reactor core obliterated the Collector base, being the Normandy was hells own fire chasing the small frigate all the way back to the Omega Four Relay.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
YOU HAVE FAILED.
The commander of the base clicked-clacked its response as it desperately trying to gain some sort of energy control over its dying home.
A blast sent the insectoid to the CIC, its pincher appendages groped for a hold in sheer desperation.
WE MUST FIND ANOTHER WAY. RELEASING CONTROL
For the first time in a long time, a time beyond counting now the Collector Commander had its own thoughts, its own actions. its own words. It looked up to the holoimage of Harbinger as the Reaper locked its landing struts into flight position and disappeared.
The Commander of the Collectors didn't even know its own name anymore if it had one that had a mate or offspring. It knew only one thing: the inevitability of its own death. Gravely with all remaining dignity, it turned towards the destroyed section of wall and welcomed the inferno the consumed its body
It knew nothing more.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
The Normandy's reinforced hull deflected the blast, the upgraded shielding held firm, the integrity of the frigate was not compromised, a little singed but she made it out of the relay.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It's the courage to continue that counts.