Author's Note: Hey everyone! I'm back, still working on this story although much less frequently than in the past. Went through a big transition recently and haven't been able to sit and work much. Should get better but I'll not promise anything. Definitely still working on this story though!

I apologize for the false alarm earlier, I had posted the chapter on accident while my daughter tired her hardest to tear one of the plants i have in my office down. My beta reader hadn't gone through it. Now it is finished and reposted. No taking it down again. Sorry for the confusion.

I do want to make some corrections, one pointed out to me was using Hades speaking to Nick at Shangri La when it should have been Andrew. I'll change that soon. Also, Anderson is an Admiral by the events in this chapter and the last. This chapter reflects that but I've gotta fix last chapter. My bad.

To answer a few reviews, guest reviews of course, first off. I'll clear up the number of Reapers in this story. I based it on some math I did, this cycle has/would have had nine races the Council knew of. That's without exploring the entire relay system like the Protheans no doubt did. So without exact numbers of relays discovered vs relays that exist I can't get a good average of how many space faring races exist per average number of relays. So I guessed. I figured there were twenty races on average per cycle that would be turned into reapers. That many each cycle - 50k yrs/cycle for 1 billion years. Works out to an estimate of 400k Reapers. Assuming attrition from destruction and races that couldn't be turned into reapers like the proteans, I landed solidly at about 350k reapers. Not a million, just 1/3rd of a million. That's a lot of damn Reapers. The power disparity between the NSSC and the Reapers will be highlighted in this chapter so I hope I answered those sort of questions here.

To answer the reviewer that wants Earth and Palaven to fall, well, this chapter addresses Earth. Next will address some stuff with the Council, the Assembly, and Palaven. Hope it works for ya.

Also, the whole Reapers in slipspace thing will be explained as well, just later on.

Without further adu, I present to you to next chapter! (I don't own this stuff, I just like writing it.)

Earth - Reaper Invasion

Shepard flailed in an attempt to keep her balance as the ledge she was on shifted violently under her. The building they were attempting to talk in was one of the first to be hit by the Reapers. Shepard, Anderson and Nick had made it out of the conference room where much of the Alliance leadership had been killed by the initial blast but now they were faced with escaping the slowly crumbling building.

They had just gotten out of the building and were getting ready to move down when Shepard looked out over the city. Reapers were dropping in all over the city and she could see the silhouettes dropping on the horizon as well. Her spirits dropped as her anger rose. They weren't ready yet.

"Nick!" Anderson and Nick stopped and swung around, "The NSSC knows what's happening right?"

Shifting from running through and over a collapsing skyscraper to the NSSC confused him for a second before he glanced to what Shepard was staring at.

"Don't worry Shepard, if there's one place in this galaxy they're monitoring, it's Earth. Andrew had been sending burst updates through the Unseen too. Either way they know and they're on their way as we speak." He saw Shepard ball her hand into a fist for a moment before she turned and nearly sprinted towards the radio signal they had been chasing.

"Then let's find a way to get to our ships, we're not doing a whole lot of good down here." She jumped down to a landing of rubble and rolled.

Standing back up she looked out over the river they were near, a Reaper descended from the sky before catching itself on its mass effect field, landing in the riverbed. The wall of air displaced by the Reaper dreadnought nearly knocked them off their feet and the rubble they'd been climbing on shifted dangerously. The angry red line of its weapon lashed out against anything and everything. After the noise passed Shepard realized that she could hear Anderson talking with someone on the Normandy.

"...They're about to hit that dreadnought….Dammit!" Shepard was about to ask Anderson what they were talking about as they ducked under the remains of support beams from the building they were scaling down. Then she saw the Alliance ship level out to face off against the Reaper, the guns on the dreadnought firing in quick succession but doing little visible damage.

The Reaper returned in kind, raking the ship with its weapon, the angry red stream causing obvious damage to the kinetic shields. As the less advanced Alliance ship began a second volley, Nick could be heard.

"We've got NSSC incoming Shepard!" As he said it, all three of them covered their ears as a strange buzzing, ripping sound began making the air vibrate across the city.

Shepard looked out at the Reaper, worried that it was some new horror from the ancient ships. To her surprise however, it seemed to be abandoning its attempts at destroying the Alliance ship. As it lifted from the river it hardly made it a few hundred meters from the surface when suddenly it floundered.

It's hull buckled and twisted where the 'legs' met the main section of the Reaper. The deep, bass drone that announced the Reapers intermingled with a screeching metal and strange buzzing/ripping sound. Suddenly, the sounds from the Reaper stopped as a blue-black portal tore through the space the it had the misfortune of occupying. The effects were strange, the crumpled hull pulled itself into the strangeness of slipspace for the moment before the NSSC ship made its appearance. The orange glowing shape of the hard light shielding hit the partially severed front section of the Reaper, tearing it completely from back half that was in the process of being pulled into the portal. The NSSC frigate slid from the portal as it closed behind it, the eviscerated wreckage of the ancient machine falling to a twisted heap below it.

Anderson, Nick, and Shepard all froze for a second at the sight before looking around as more NSSC ships arrived. Shepard looked at Anderson, both of them with equal amounts of hope, relief, and happiness on their faces. The three of them were quiet for a moment as the ships slid into view before all hell broke loose. The Reapers immediately changed targets as the NSSC ships opened fire.

In the midst of the carnage falling across Earth, the NSSC ships wasted no time, as Reapers across the globe turned to react to the new arrivals. The first volley of the NSSC ships looked like lightning, Shepard squinted as the first directed energy weapons struck in the distance. A Galaxy-class ship could be seen in the distance firing every weapon at the Reaper forces. The brightness of the DEW's the NSSC used were like slivers of starlight. The atmosphere was heated to temperatures reaching well into the seven-digit centigrade as the energy lanced out at the dark hulls of the ancient ships.

As they looked up at the NSSC frigate in front of them, the sound reached them. The near constant thunderous sound of DEW's being fired off in atmosphere. It was like every thunderstorm Shepard had ever been in at once. She saw Anderson and Nick don their helmets in an attempt to block out some of the sound, if only so they could talk without yelling into each others ears.

Her helmet sealed and the sound immediately abated, her suit blocking as much of the roar as it could although a dull roar punctuated by explosions could still be heard and felt in her chest. Her radio crackled to life, "Shepard! I just got word, the Ark is sending almost everything that was at Shangri La to secure the Sol system."

She turned to Nick with a vicious smile across her face, "Good! Have we been able to get through to the Normandy or the Unseen?"

"Andrew is piloting the Unseen here…" Before he could continue, the Normandy swung into view. The upgraded ship slid sideways into their view as the hangar bay opened, mere inches from the ground ten meters ahead of them.

Shepard smiled as he heard Joker's voice come over her comms, "Someone call the Reaper Ass-kick Express? She's all primed and ready Commander."

Shepard took a moment as the others began to walk to the ship, she looked over the hull of the Normandy. The new weapon emplacements were prominently displayed although their modest appearance belied the power her frigate could project. Glancing at the Reaper forces around the city she held onto a newfound feeling of hope while turning towards the ramp leading into the Normandy.

The three of them made their way into the Normandy, Nick turned to Shepard at the threshold of the bay and tapped her on the shoulder. He pointed behind her and she turned to see a sight she was sure she would never tire of.

The NSSC frigate had turned and began to engage the Reaper dreadnought that had originally fired on the Alliance headquarters building. A bright beam of light burned two of the 'legs' off in one go as bright plasma bolts began striking the 2km ship at center mass. Whatever the Reaper was made of was resilient but under the barrage of dozens of superheated bolts of plasma, it wasn't resilient enough. Before the Reaper fell however, the frigate stopped firing and began to leave. The heavily damaged Reaper took flight as well. A rising whine could be heard as it charged its main weapon. Shepard laughed as it was abruptly cut off however, a large explosion along the heavily damaged spine of the Reaper cause it to slump and lose altitude. Before they knew what happened it seemed the core went critical.

The three of them jumped into the Normandy as the shock wave hit them, throwing the ship at the wreckage although Joker quickly corrected before the new shielding collided with much of the rubble.

The three of them stood quickly and began making their way to the CIC. Shepard had seen enough to guess how the fight was going but was also aware of what weapons and a battle of that scale would do to the cities they were being fought in.

"We've got to figure out how to get them off the surface. If we keep killing them on the ground we'll end up with more casualties." The reached the elevator and she punched the button for the main deck.

Nick stood next to her, "I think the Reapers might know that too, the reports from the fleet are saying that they aren't lifting off anymore and their staying in heavily populated areas. Didn't take them long to figure that out huh?"

"The best the NSSC can do if they don't leave the surface is to take out the fighters and try to minimize damage." Anderson felt conflicted, on one hand their allies could kill Reapers. On the other hand, doing so would cause huge casualties either way.

Shepard frowned, "Either way, we're not going to do much good just talking about it. Let's get linked up with the fleet and go from there."

The doors to the main deck opened and they rounded the corner to the controlled chaos that was the CIC. Shepard stepped up to her station and looked out over her crew. Confident and hopeful faces looked up at her.

"The Reapers are here everyone but we're not alone. They think they can come to Earth and start destroying everything, they think they'll just harvest us and the rest of the galaxy like they always have, they thought wrong. Let's go kill these sons of bitches." A cheer rose up as the crew got to their stations with renewed purpose. There was a galactic war to be fought.

Bridge of the Dauntless - Sol System

Rear Admiral Wagner looked out over the bridge of the Havoc-class ship he commanded. The ship was in low orbit over the continent of Europe as they coordinated the movements of the NSSC fleet. The crew was professional and efficient. Centuries of experience did wonders for performance during combat. His fleet's arrival in the Sol system had been more haphazard than him or his peers would have liked but Admiral Hood was adamant. If Earth was attacked, the NSSC would counter attack as swiftly as they possibly could.

Wagner had a few moments to reflect on Admiral Hood, 'He's been reserved, almost too much. I understand he'd our top military leader but there's been too much cloak and dagger lately with his hand in it. I've seen the history of ONI, it couldn't have happened without him and that little stunt with the Citadel human's Cerberus organization. Cold-blooded.'

His thoughts were interrupted by his bridge crew, "Sir! We're receiving reports that the Reapers are staying grounded. This makes it significantly more difficult for us to fire on them."

"I think they know that too...damn." He took a few moments, running scenarios through his head before addressing the ship's AI.

"Zam, do you have any insight on how to deal with these machine bastards?" As he asked the question, an image of feathered Kig-Yar appeared.

"I have a few ideas Admiral. We need to launch all of the fleet's prowlers. I'll coordinate with the other AI'S on what I'm thinking." Said Zam.

The Rear Admiral considered the situation for a moment before addressing the bridge, "You heard him, see that it's done." A small flurry of activity followed before he focused on the hologram again.

"I think I know what you have in mind but will a prowler have enough punch to kill one of them?" The prowlers were powerful compared to Council equivalents but these Reapers had, comparably, a lot better tech.

The hologram avatar of the AI flickered for a second, one of Zam's quirks while thinking, "If one can't do the job, I'm sure more will do the trick." A smile spread across the AI's avatar without a hint of humor in it as the orders went out.

CIC - Normandy

Shepard was looking over the holographic display of the city they had just left. No small amount of satisfaction on her face as the NSSC continued to pin down the once seemingly indestructible Reaper forces she had come to fear and loathe. Nick walked up next to her, their part in repelling the Reapers was on hold until they could come up with a way to get them away from the population centers.

The terminal in front of the two chimed as Joker's voice came across, "Commander, the NSSC brass just sent us a...suggestion? Plan? Whatever it is, they're asking if the Normandy can help taking care of the rest of the Reapers."

"Send it through Joker, if it ends up with dead Reapers I'm up for it." As she finished the sentence, the details came up on the terminal. Nick and her read it before a small chuckle came from Nick.

"I think I'm in love, whaddya think Commander?" Shepard turned to Nick with a smile on her face before heading up to the cockpit.

"I think all things considered, being Reaper bait will be an ironic way to help clear these bastards off Earth and the rest of the Galaxy." NIck followed her as she stepped up behind Joker.

"Commander, I've got our course plotted. There's a Sovereign-Class Reaper near the Alliance HQ rubble that is moving further into the city. Just give me the word and I can shove the Normandy so far down it's throat that it'll choke."

Shepard looked out at the city in the distance, Joker had brought the Normandy around while waiting on her order, "Let the NSSC know which one we're hitting, once they're in position - punch it."

"Aye Aye Commander"

Earth - Invasion in Progress

Within a few minutes, all across Earth the NSSC prowlers got into position. The larger NSSC ships all carried as many ships as could be assembled in the short amount of time they had. Hundreds of prowlers sat cloaked near the remaining Reapers. When the signal was given they sped forward, uncloaking only once they had gotten within 500 meters of the ancient machines.

The Normandy had been given the honor of the initial assault however. The sleek form screamed straight towards a 2 km Reaper while firing everything she had. The upgraded weapons hammered the Reaper until the last possible moment. With every proximity alarm in the cockpit announcing its displeasure with Joker's piloting, he pulled up with only a handful of meters between the Normandy and the Reaper's kinetic barrier. EDI had a few choice words for Joker.

Under the onslaught, the Reaper had been unable to return fire. As soon as it was clear, the machine turned its bulk towards the Normandy. A single 'arm' rose to track the Normandy as the tip began glowing red.

What happened across the globe next could be seen by every ship in an orbit nearly halfway out to orbit. The prowlers uncloaked and fired. Nearly every Reaper targeted was either crippled or outright destroyed. Concentrated fire from no less than two NSSC prowler energy weapons bypassed the Reaper barriers and melted the hulls within fractions of a second as they fired. The few remaining Reapers not targeted reacted swiftly as well, realizing the battle was lost and their destruction assured, they opted for a mutually assured destruction by detonate their eezo cores. The AI's in the fleet had prepared for this however. As the prowlers struck and darted past the now unstable wrecks, they dropped modified bubble shield emitters. Quickly modified by the AI's on the ships, they now operated to direct the energy and debris of the blast upwards for the brief instant following the most intense part of any explosion. They didn't last long and turned to slag the instant used but they only needed to work for the instant the ships actually exploded.

With what the NSSC had deployed, the victory on the ground and in orbit of Earth was swift although not without Human casualties. The hastily modified shield emitters were roughly 70% effective and the few Reapers not immediately targeted and struck down had succeeded in detonating their cores. The Reapers were repelled but at the cost of tens of millions of lives and nearly a dozen cities across the planet. For many, it was a bittersweet victory.

15° above Solar Plane - Sol System - Harbinger

Surprise. The closest facsimile of the emotion rippled through the prodigious mind of Harbinger. Prudence had served the first Reaper well through the near billion years of its existence and that prudence was the reason it now sat in the dark space above the relay. There were unknowns in this cycle. Harbinger avoided unknowns face to face unless necessary.

The oldest Reaper "watched" the battle unfold on the human home planet. Hundreds of Reapers were cut down in what was the largest number of loss ever in any of the innumerable cycles it had led. The losses would take cycles to replenish but the failure of the invasion was what sent its mind working, sifting through the same billion years of experience for a solution.

"THE INVASION HAS BEEN REPELLED BY THE INTERLOPERS. STANDARD TACTICS FOR THIS CYCLE WILL BE INSUFFICIENT, MORE FORCE IS NEEDED." With that thought, the signal hit the Charon relay. A call had went out and the Reapers answered. Where almost 600 Reapers failed, now, a hundred thousand would darken the skies of the Sol system. Confident the much larger force would be successful, Harbinger jumped to the relay and left the Sol system. For the first time in tens of thousands of cycles, it would converse with the Intelligence during the Cycle.

Bridge of the Dauntless - Sol System

The sensor tech watching the readouts from the cloaked sensor buoys near the register a relay activation. He rushed out of his chair to notify the Rear Admiral, yelling over the others in the bridge, "SIR! The relay just activated. Indications point to outbound travel. All traffic has been accounted for, strong possibility that this was a Reaper."

The activity on the bridge suddenly became more subdued as Rear Admiral Wagner turned to the tech across the large room. "Sounds like one of these old bastards just sent for-"

The AI Zam interrupted him, "Reinforcements Admiral. The sensors indicate the relay is in a modified shutdown state. Possibly to keep any ships from leaving. The Alliance ships will be unable to leave at this time."

Wagner turned back to the tactical holographic display as it changed to display the now seemingly inert relay, "It won't stop us but the Alliance won't be able to evacuate anyone that way."

After a few moments of concentration, arms crossed with on hand on his chin while he thought. The Rear Admiral stood straighter with his arms behind his back.

"Contact whoever is in charge of the Alliance, let them know what's going on and that the Dauntless and half or our ships are going to secure the relay. I don't know how the Reapers will respond but let's assume they're not going to take this defeat gracefully."

A small ripple of humor spread across the bridge. Ancient machines used to pushing aside any and all resistance for tens of millions of years taking defeat gracefully? Those on the bridge were just glad to have handed them said defeat. Each and every person in the fleet was willing to keep it up as well.

With a renewed sense of purpose, they went about their duties. Wagner looked at the ship's AI as the assigned ships of the fleet made the short jump to the relay.

"Sir, we've gotten in contact with an Admiral Anderson." Anticipating the next command, a hologram of Admiral Anderson materialized where the AI's avatar had been.

Wagner greeted him shifting mental gears as he did, "Admiral, I'm NSSC Rear Admiral Wagner good to see you. I apologize we couldn't make it sooner...or keep them from the causing the sort of destruction they managed on Earth."

Admiral Anderson's face was serious but now with obvious relief as he shook his head, "You've got nothing to apologize for, if it weren't for your fleet, Earth would be in Reaper hands right now. You have our gratitude."

His demeanor shifted, "Besides, the Reapers destroyed those cities and killed all of those people when they realized they were beat. I saw the report from your….AI, if your ships are going to be securing the relay, ours will be working here on Earth to cleanup this mess and secure the planet. There's a lot of damage and displaced people that we've got to help. We've got our work cut out for us."

"Understood Admiral Anderson, my fleet was sent to repel the Reapers here at Earth and I'll be dead before we stop doing exactly that." The NSSC Admiral noticed a slight change in the posture of the Alliance Admiral.

Anderson turned for a moment to speak with someone out of view before turning back, "We owe the NSSC big for something like this Admiral." His eyes unfocused for a second, quickly snapping back up, " I'm not proud of the fact that our leaders dragged their feet about getting prepared. We could have been more prepared if the brass and Council would have listened to Commander Shepard."

Wagner laughed, "She's been working through hell and back, literally if you think about it, to fight the Reapers. I'm sure your Alliance will take care of her by the end of this Admiral."

On the bridge of the Dauntless, one of the officers reported, "Sir, sensors indicate that the relay is beginning to power up again."

Rear Admiral Wagner nodded and turned back to the hologram, "There's activity at the relay Admiral. That's our cue, we'll make sure to let you know how things turn out."

"Understood and while it seems like you don't need it, good luck Rear Admiral Wagner. I owe you a drink." Admiral Anderson ended the conversation at that, his likeness dissolving into unfocused light.

"Zam, send the notice for the fleet to get combat-ready. Let's hope they don't have any tricks for us and if they do, twelve Galaxy-class ships and the Dauntless will give them a fight they'll never forget."

Council Fleet - Shanxi System

Matriarch Lidanya looked at the holographic images of the three other Councilors with Councilor Udina by her side. They had each gone to their respective homeworlds to personally ensure their species' support. Councilor Udina had been positively tolerable the entire trip compared to what she had known of his reputation. The recent blackout from Earth had turned his and the entire fleet's mood, darker however. They all knew what a blackout meant.

Reapers.

The seasoned Matriarch reflected on what Reapers meant for the galaxy she had come to know. The Council races had been so comfortable only to have their lives ripped out from beneath them. The worst part of it from what she had been briefed was that they had never been safe. She thought of all the things she'd done in her life and now could imagine their time running out. Nostalgia and grief would have to wait however. She cut off her train of thought before focusing on the conversation again. Councilor Udina was speaking to Councilor Sparatus about the various eventualities based on what they knew.

"All Naval forces that can be spared are being spared to investigate the blackout at Earth while the bulk of our forces are mobilizing to the Citadel Udina." Councilor Sparatus was the impromptu leader of the Councilors on military matters and as such was leading the efforts at consolidating the various fleets.

"I'm simply concerned by the blackout, I had figured 50/50 odds for the Reapers to attack either us or Palaven. On one hand, a Reaper attack on Palaven would weaken the main military arm of the Council. Earth on the other hand...well, we all know that Commander Shepard has been digging up and interfering with almost every Reaper effort since Eden Prime."

Councilor Tevos nodded but before she was able to continue, one of the officers on the bridge exclaimed, "Matriarch! The relay continuing into Alliance Space isn't functioning!"

Matriarch Lidanya rushed over to the station to see the readouts herself, the relays never shut down once they were active.

Councilor Valern spoke up, "It seems more evidence of Reapers and their involvement with the relays then Councilors."

Councilor Sparatus spoke next, "Indeed, they're moving faster than expected. It's time we focused on what we came to speak to our leaders about at our homeworlds Councilors." Looking to Udina he nodded, "I hope for the best for Earth and Humanity Udina, but we must prepare. We will support each race starting with Humanity but there is still some opposition before we have a united front."

Udina simply nodded, his now reserved attitude throwing off the other Councilors for a moment. Sparatus waited a moment before nodding to the other two Councilors. With that he cut the connection and shortly after the other Councilors disconnected as well. Udina stood for a moment looking out at the seemingly inactive relay with a multitude of scenarios running through his head before he caught part of Matriarch Lidanya's conversation through the ship's normal comms systems.

"Understood, our fleet will hold a defensive position but be ready to mobilize." Turning to Udina, the Matriarch addressed him, "Councilor, until the rest of the fleet arrives or the relay activates we are forced to wait."

Udina looked out at the relay with a sour face, "As much as I despise waiting with what could be happening at Earth, it seems we have no choice. I will be in my quarters."

With that he turned and left, leaving Matriarch Lidanya to consider what had happened. The original plan to rendezvous at Arcturus station and push to forward from there was on hold. She looked out as her crew went about their duties, a sense of deep foreboding taking root in her mind.

Sol System - Charon Relay Battle

The Reapers had come back with a vengeance. The original hundreds on Earth were now thousands swarming through space. Zam had estimated approximately ten thousand had made their way through the relay nearly all at once before it went inactive again. Luckily the normally quick transition seemed to be slower due to the entire force coming through rapidly in groups of roughly eight hundred. It seemed the relay required a longer charge-up time to accommodate that sort of outpouring of mass.

Rear Admiral Wagner hadn't had much time to consider that at the time however, his command of the fleet was immediately taxing for him and his neural lance as he kept up to date with tactical data.

The space around the relay was equal parts organized fleet movement and chaos. The NSSC ships had the decisive edge in firepower and defense but the Reapers capitalized on their mass effecting capabilities for maneuverability. Their formations of hundreds of ships kept their distance or dove in to strike on the NSSC ships using the use of short FTL jumps as well as to dodge incoming fire from the NSSC ships. While effective at times, Rear Admiral Wagner countered with equally decisive pinpoint slipspace jumps. The Reapers were beginning to learn to avoid the areas where the radiation that announced an NSSC ship's reemergence rather quickly. While it didn't turn the flow of battle in their favor, it did slow the destruction of their forces.

Hundreds of Reapers kept their distance from the Galaxy-class ships as the NSSC ships moved through space dodging incoming fire from the Reapers. Dark formations of Reaper ships were lit from within by the red of the Reaper weapons. The silver-white energy weapons of the NSSC ships were lancing through the Reaper forces were usually followed by the explosion of the Reapers that were struck.

The Reaper main weapons were supremely effective against the Council races but against ships designed around fighting with weapons orders of magnitude more powerful than what the Reapers put out meant that they needed to focus fire from many Reapers to have any discernable effect. Their overwhelming numerical advantage meant they could employ this tactic quite easily though. The seven frigates that had been destroyed were testament to the Reaper's efforts.

The Dauntless was at the center of the battle. The colossal ship's shielding and sometimes hull were taking huge amounts of punishment but the combination of quick-deployed hard-light barriers, forerunner-based shielding, and equally strong armor allowed the NSSC ship to avoid any sort of permanent damage. The frigates in the fleet had proven resilient but not infinitely so.

"How do our ships look Zam?" The Rear Admiral mentally made a note that he now had the disgrace of having lost the first ships in combat for the NSSC in the universe.

"The frigate Tacoma just went down on the other side of Pluto, it's a shame. Their plan to jump from Pluto's shadow could have thinned things out for the Harper's Volley." The AI had noted that their frigates and cruisers seemed to have their own battles going on while the larger ships needn't avoid as much of the incoming fire.

Wagner's face was stiff, grim professionalism required him to avoid outbursts but inwardly he seethed at knowing the Reapers had killed those under his command.

Wagner had originally had the fleet organized in a half-sphere screening formation to counter any attempt to attack Earth again but the Reaper's intentions quickly became clear as hundreds broke off and attacked each Galaxy-class ship while well over a thousand faced off with the Dauntless. While an impressive display of power, the Reapers had learned quickly why it was a bad idea to face off toe to toe with the NSSC ships. A full fifth of the Reaper forces had been turned into rapidly expanding clouds of gas and debris in the first minutes that followed the start of the battle. Shortly after that the more complex maneuvers were employed by both sides.

The NSSC had deployed the dozen cruisers in the Galaxy-class hulls as well as twice that number in frigates. FTL jumps, pinpoint slipspace jumps, and the realization by the Reapers that a much smaller NSSC ship can still take them out.

The original formation of the NSSC ships had dissolved, now each of the Galaxy-class ships were strewn randomly throughout the hundred thousand kilometer wide engagement with the Dauntless as near the center as possible.

The huge swarm of Reaper ships completely occluded line of sight between each of the NSSC ships. Throughout the battle bright flares of light announced the use of NSSC nuclear weapons. At the end of the first fifteen minutes of the battle the Reaper forces were cut down to just over six thousand. Six thousand ancient ships determined to destroy the NSSC forces.

Bridge of NSSC Galaxy-class Ticonderoga

Captain Mohr was on edge. The battle had been going fantastically as of yet. The usual white-knuckle experience of space battle was dulled considerably on the bridge of his ship. These 'Reapers' just did not pack the same punch that anything his ship had been designed to battle. If he had been fighting this galaxy's Council races he would have felt pity. As it was, these older-than-dirt machines made that part easy. Systematic galactic genocide was not a thing that garnered sympathy.

"Helm, target plot the groupings of Reaper forces around us and give me your best prediction for the most effective firing solution in the direction of the Dauntless." He had been forced to rely on putting as many ships in a line and gutting them with burst fire from his main energy weaponry. He had ran out of nukes shortly after the first wave. It was effective but the Reapers had quickly taken formations that made difficult to line up anything. The two frigates and cruiser he had deployed were the best bet to actually do the most damage.

The ship's AI, Gru, materialized his avatar. "Sir, the best we'll get if they don't spook is maybe seven Reapers critically damaged. Best case."

Mohr shook his head, it was a battle of mosquitoes. You can swat one or two but unless they found a reliable means to destroy more of them, 7 at a time is a hard way to kill the nearly six thousand Reaper ships that remained.

"Signal our support ships, see if they can herd them into something we can monopolize on." The AI nodded and began running simulations.

Quickly, the AI came back with the news, "Best case scenario right now, even with the frigates and cruisers hunting, is that we've got a few weeks of hunting these things."

Gru held out his avatar's hand to count on his fingers, "IF, one - they don't have reinforcements. Two - they don't succeed in destroying any more of our ships, three - if they have the same sort of limitations on extended FTL that the Council does, four-"

Mohr cut him off, "Yes, yes. These are persistent little bastards with a lot of options. How are the cyber warfare suites doing?"

Accustom to the Captain switching topics, Gru continued, "That's one thing I'm confused about Captain. The Reapers aren't employing any E-War and our suites are ineffective." The AI saw the look on his Captain's face and cut off the incredulous reply quickly.

"I know what you're thinking and no, they're not countering any of our stuff. We just cannot find an opening. There seems to be zero normal communication between them. They could very well simply have a system of QED devices but that's just speculation on my part. Outwards appearances seem to be complete comms blackout."

Captain Mohr had his ideas as well but few good leads. He had been curious if it was possible to disrupt communication between the Reapers since coordinated attacks seemed to be the only reliable threat to their ships. Still no headway on that however so they would just keep destroying them piece by piece.

Charon Relay proximity - Dauntless

Currently the Dauntless was in the process of a new maneuver, they had yet to demonstrate a nonlinear slipspace jump. The battle was rapidly expanding to encompass an increasingly larger volume of space. They were going to jump behind the ships that had positioned themselves below the Havok-class ship. Continuing updates poured in, Zam had even reported that there were three frigates and a cruiser engaging a number of Reapers in the orbit of Neptune.

A bright pinpoint of light announced a smaller group of Reapers was taken out as the Rear Admiral began to plan his next move. The havok nukes that the Galaxy-class ships carried were effective but the Reapers were learning to avoid clumping into large groups, forcing them to use more of them than he would have liked. They were running out since each ship of that class only carried a dozen. The Dauntless could carry more but due to it's posting at Shangri La, they were not loaded. Nova bombs were out of the picture as well since they were all kept either on the Ark or aboard the NSSC's Patriarch class ship. With their largest area-of-effect weapons almost gone, the battle was beginning to slow. As the battle progressed the Dauntless was quickly becoming a main target now that the smaller ships couldn't kill the Reapers in large enough numbers.

On the bridge Rear Admiral Wagner was going over the tactical display when Zam's avatar snapped into existence, "Admiral, the Reapers have some of our ships pinned down in Neptune's Radiation belt and they just sent a larger force in that direction. Given how they've been reacting to our short jumps, we could clear Neptune quickly."

"How many Reapers?"

Zam's image was replaced by the replay of four dozen Reapers suddenly pulling a high-g maneuver and darting towards Neptune. "Forty eight of them, enough that they could endanger the ships there if there's not the threat of a larger force."

Leaning closer to the tactical display as it zoomed out to display Neptune orbit, he made a decision, "Make the jump, I doubt they expect the largest of our assets to leave the thick of it. The smaller ships will be able to mask our return once we clear Neptune."

Zam laughed, "Or pull everything to Neptune, either way the Reapers will die. Here or there is of no consequence to me."

With a grace that belied the pitched battle it was in, the Dauntless slid into its portal. With the largest ship gone, the Reapers began to pull together, trading short FTL jumps and weapons fire to distract the twelve Galaxy-class ships and their smaller attending cruisers and frigates. Unbeknownst to Wagner, the Reapers would soon make their play.

Neptune Orbit

The Dauntless slid from slipspace almost as soon as it entered slipspace near the relay, now in orbit around Neptune. Zam knew immediately that something was wrong. At speeds that no organic mind could operate at, he began sifting through the sensor data. The NSSC ships that should have been present were gone. Only high-energy radiation and an expanding cloud of charged particles. The ships here had detonated their cores.

While the organic crew of the ship began registering the new view, Zam ran scenarios.

When the Rear Admiral's eyes surveyed the image he saw, Zam had narrowed down the possibilities to a handful.

When everyone on the bridge began to realize the Reapers left had formed up around their egress portal all hell broke loose. The Reapers launched their cyber attack.

Zam's mind was suddenly flooded by nonsensical data in prodigious amounts. Systems he was interfaced to in the ship, nearly all of them, began to pour error readings into the AI's mind. The thirty seven Reapers left in orbit made no attempt at coherent hacking attempts. The NSSC AI on the ships they had led to Neptune had proven that they were able to resist a structured attack in time to detonate the slipspace drives. Now the Reapers resorted to simply using the digital equivalent of a flash bang.

The bridge of the Dauntless erupted into unhindered chaos, the incoming junk data flooded every system on the ship, including the neural lances of each and every crewman. Instead of a centuries-old disciplined crew, they were reduced to screaming and seizures as the sensory overload flooded from their neural lances. This only lasted a moment however as a fail-safe tripped, cutting the neural lance communication connections to the ship computers. War games had shown that E-war was as deadly a weapon as their energy weapons and steps had been taken to ensure either the AI or the crew would be functioning to operate the ship.

Wagner stood up and wiped blood from his forehead. He had fallen over when the rush of data had come in and now had a gash above his right eyebrow. Looking across his bridge he saw most of his crew stirring and taking to their stations. While slow at first, everyone had made it with little to no injury.

That is until he looked to the holographic display.

Zam's avatar was fluctuating wildly, barely discernable as his original form as the junk data flooded the AI's mind. Seeing his ship's AI in such a state sent the Rear Admiral into action.

He turned to the officers on the bridge, "Status report! Update the rest of the fleet, they are employing effective cyber attacks! Use the secondary tactical computers to plot a jump to the Relay!" His crew scrambled to their duties although still recovering from the shock of the cyber attack, they were slower than normal.

The comms officer was the first to speak up, "Sir! The cyber attack has maxed out the bandwidth on the incoming connection. I'm resetting the system to the secondary." The crewman glanced at the holographic image Zam's tortured mind was still producing. Setting to secondary systems would allow them to fight but the AI would still be on his own to sort out a way through the attack while they reset the communications systems.

"Do it. Where are we on getting back with the fleet? There's a hell of a lot more of these things there and I'm betting they're doing the same back there."

An officer reported loudly, "Comms systems non-responsive. Unable to reset. A hard reset will be required or cutting off the source of the interference."

Without preamble another officer began a countdown, "Slipspace transition in three seconds."

The fifty four kilometer ship slid into the portal to slipspace before a minute had passed at the orbit of Neptune. The Reapers had found an effective manner of attack against the NSSC but the battle was still raging near the relay. Wagner was determined to end the battle.

Charon Relay space

The AI's on the other NSSC ships knew that something was wrong as soon as they registered the slipspace portal beginning to form. The Dauntless would not return that quickly and so directly if things had gone well. Once the ship broke through to normal space and there was no data from the Dauntless' AI sent to them they began forming a plan.

Before any of them could speak to their crews, the Reapers that had been at Neptune arrived right on the heels of the Dauntless. All hell broke loose. It took billionths of a second for them to send the answer the bulk of the fleet had been waiting on. A yes or no to the question of the effectiveness of their digital countermeasures. While one-on-one an NSSC AI would be able to defend against a Reaper, the combined weight of many Reapers working in concert was enough to be effective. With the affirmative they were useful, the rest of the machines went to work on their own cyber attacks.

Zam had been given a brief moment of reprieve from the flood of information that had cut him off and disrupted him so effectively. He sent the commands to disable inbound communications and began running checks on his more important systems. The comms were successfully able to reset since travel through slipspace cut the incoming Reaper connections. Shield and weapons systems were still cycling but their armor would hold.

He was distracted before finishing as he caught what the Reapers were doing. The rest of the fleet almost immediately dissolved into disorder as the Reaper group from Neptune's orbit returned. In the brief time he had a clear system to work with he had regained his senses and saw the situation he was in.

Any attempt at communication was flooded with junk data by the thousands of Reapers there. The NSSC ships had almost thirty seconds before their crews would be able to recover from the loss and disruption of their systems. Just as Zam began to think that this was the worse-case scenario, he was proven wrong. The relay began to power up.

None of the NSSC ships had been conducting long-range scans, believing that the main Reaper force they would face was here. An oversight on Rear Admiral Wagner's part. What none of them could have predicted was the Reaper's strategy on dealing with targets capable of destroying their numbers. Now, nearly ninety thousand Reapers were poised and ready to enter the Sol system and destroy the incapacitated NSSC ships.

The results of the integrity checks Zam had run on himself came back. He was destabilizing, dying. The attack had hit him in the instant after leaving slipspace, having given him no time to prepare or even expect a cyber attack, damage had been done. The more he used his matrix, the faster it would deteriorate. He had hours left now.

His attention went back to the relay. The readings from the device suggested a significantly larger mass would be moving through it. He projected his avatar. He had only one course of action that would serve to achieve their goal of securing Earth.

Wagner blinked as he looked out at the space around the Relay. It seemed to be going well here until a second later when he saw the Ticonderoga fail a slipspace jump, the portal evaporating. For a moment he perceived the Reapers shift subtly before his attention was pulled to the relay hundreds of kilometers ahead of him. It was activating.

He nearly jumped when Zam's avatar tried to form, there was no animation to it, simply a static image of the AI in front of him. Before he could speculate on the reason, Zam's voice came through.

In a rushed, broken voice the AI spoke to his commander, "Sir, Reaper cyber attacks are a major threat, unknown number of reinforcements inbound. I have a plan but we won't survive. Either way we're dead but this plan has the best overall outcome." The static avatar of the AI disappeared, replaced with a simple looping image of the Dauntless rushing at the relay with a slipspace portal. Both entered slipspace before they detonated, obliterating both.

The badly digitized and broken speech coming from his ship's AI was not lost on Wagner as he looked down at the plan. Outside the ship, the Reapers began to fire at the new weakened NSSC ships. The frigates succumbed immediately to the massed fire from the Reapers. Their shielding systems and hard-light barriers dependent on the AI's to operate them. The cruisers were able to survive mostly as their armor was thicker but they were as good as gone in the next seconds of the battle.

Wagner looked up from the image of the plan, "The Alliance will lose the relay."

The AI's voice squeaked out garbled noise before repeating, Wagner knew what that must have meant for the AI. "The Pluto system will be gone along with it but no relay, no Reapers. Earth will be secure. Ships in system will handle stragglers."

Hearing that the Rear Admiral made his decision. Straightening his uniform as he said it, "If you can get through, send the plan to every ship in system and the Ark. Then, execute."

The thrum of power went though the ship as Zam forced suicidal amounts of power through the slipspace drive in a fraction of a second. This would not be the precise jumps executed by the NSSC normally. There was a good chance of not coming back from this jump. If the relay did not detonate from the force of the Dauntless impacting it, then the added mass and eezo in the Relay would cause unknown interference. The systems on the bridge flickered and the ship shook but Wagner stood resolute. Whatever happened, the Reaper fleet would be denied access to humanity's homeworld.

He did believe that he had just sentenced most of his fleet to die but he knew the other Captains would understand if they had time.

The relay rushed towards them as the portal opened. As the Dauntless flew towards the relay the Rear Admiral said his last words.

"For the Mantle."

Charon Relay Battle

The Reapers were unprepared for any of the NSSC ships to be functional when the Dauntless almost immediately rushed the Relay. The bulk of the ships turned to intercept, physically if necessary. Those not pursuing the Dauntless fired on the cruisers, eleven bright, brief new stars announced the destruction of the ships as dozens of the Reaper weapons tore into their hulls systematically.

The bright light from the death of the NSSC cruisers threw the drama of the Dauntless' last movements in sharp relief. Thousands of Reapers moved towards the huge ship, raking the now unprotected armor of the giant warship with their weapons in a vain attempt to stop what the ship was doing.

That's when the portal opened.

The portal was mere meters behind the relay from the Dauntless' point of view and gaping nearly a thousand kilometers across. The edges ragged and fluctuating wildly, any Reapers that came in contact with the edges were eviscerated.

The Dauntless hit the relay, pushing it at thousands of meters a seconds into slipspace. The nearly indestructible material the relay was built of cracked.

With the ship half-way through the portal, the Reapers closest to the portal were either pulled in or because of their own momentum, flew into the portal. The hull of the relay shattered, its superstructure mortally damaged, the failsafes failed and a runaway reaction began.

As the Dauntless' engines cleared the portal into slipspace, the pursuing Reapers began to turn away in an attempt to jump to FTL, outrunning the relay's explosion.

As the portal began to slam close, the relay exploded. No Reaper had successfully entered FTL.

In the time it took the relay to go critical, the portal had closed to a meager 1.6 meters across. More residual radiation than a portal. In the billionth of a second it took the portal to close from 1.6 meters, enough of the relay detonation made it through.

An explosion that would bright enough to light the night side of Earth almost as bright as Sol erupted from where the relay had been.

The explosion destroyed nearly everything within four light-seconds from the Relay. Reapers and NSSC ships were flashed into hydrogen plasma and gamma radiation. Pluto was flash-melted to nearly 1/20th of its size and flung with enough energy to break the pull of the sun, destined to escape the solar system as an irradiated rock.

All except three of the NSSC ships were destroyed. The cyber attack had either taken down their defensive systems or the crews had begun to cycle to secondary systems. Once the initial burst of light cleared, only three Galaxy-class ships that had not yet had their shielding affected by the Reaper's attack remained. Although each had been heavily damaged and thrown sun-ward.

The last gasp of the Dauntless' suicidal victory was a pulse of energy produced in the final femtosecond before the portal shut.

Due to the direction of travel the Dauntless had gone, the last pulse of energy traveled as a straight pulse directly towards Neptune. When it reached Neptune nearly an hour later it would strike it obliquely near the equator. The amount of energy superheats the atmosphere of the frigid gas giant. Nearly a seventh of the mass of Neptune is lost as the gases boiled off into space. Neptune would later recapture some of that in a spectacular ring system that would last thousands of years. For millennia, humanity would have a reminder of the battle at Charon.

Bridge of the Ticonderoga

Captain Mohr picked himself up and rolled off the console he had been thrown on. Bounced really, he remember hitting no less than two flat surfaces and a chair. He had no idea what had happened, one moment they had been pulling a precision slipspace jump, the next there was nothing but noise, light, and pain.

It had abruptly stopped for an instant before his ship was violently thrown. Regaining his senses he limped over to the tactical console.

"Status report." He croaked out through the pain darting down his left side. He had definitely broken some ribs.

Instead of the avatar of his ship's AI, Gru, scrolling readouts of the systems began flying by. A garbled voice sounded weakly from the speakers. Suddenly, the tactical station died. After a moment of near-panic at the thought of drifting dead in space with no functional systems left, the system rebooted.

Within a second the familiar image of the ship's AI was facing him again, "Extensive damage across the ship but we're holding together. The Reaper cyber attack had disrupted...everything. Full diagnostic and refit needed. Emergency protocols in place. They hurt us bad Captain."

With no small amount of dread in his voice the Captain asked, "How bad Gru? And what the fuck happened? Where are we?"

Looking at the main viewscreen, the stars seemed to be spinning by much faster than expected. A particular point of light rushed by quickly a few times as the ship seemed to be in a tumble.

Agreeing with the sentiment of his Captain, Gru gave his report, "The relay and Pluto dwarf-planet system is gone. Only the Rainier and the Vandal IFFs are registering. The ship was thrown sunward when the relay exploded, emergency protocols required the inertial dampeners set to maximum and lowest power conditions for the rest of the ship. We look like spinning debris right now Captain."

Captain Mohr grunted at this before he gave his next order, "Bring us up as close to 100% as you can and find out what happened."

Before he could finish the order, the ship rumbled fas their directional point-thrust pushed against the spin. The stars slowed, finally centering, the viewscreen showed they were no longer spinning but facing what appeared to be a high-energy event where the relay had been.

"We are at 46% operational readiness Captain. Some shielding left but no where near what it should be, all the armor on our starboard side and bow were boiled off, engines are slagged, and we've only gotten maneuvering point-thrust." As more readouts manifested next to the AI's avatar, the viewscreen showed something new.

The high-energy event where the relay began to pulse brightly as lines of bright light impacted from the direction of the Arcturus system, throwing large amounts of incandescent gas in a jet from the opposite side.

"Gru, what the hell is going on here?" The Captain approached the viewscreen in a stunned stupor.

Gru had no answer.

Relay - Arcturus System

The much larger invading force of Reapers had massed around the Charon Relay's partner after clearing any Alliance ships from space. Much of the Alliance navy had fled. Arcturus station had been reduced to a cloud of scrap along with its attendant fleet however. Only the groundside settlements remained which the Reapers had begun to harvest. The Alliance capital system had fallen.

As the mass calculations and energy draw grew more and more the ancient machines prepared themselves to destroy the opposing force as they had done thousands of times before. All was set according to the cycle.

Until the feedback from the Dauntless' actions reverberated through to the partner relay. A pulse of energy hit the relay just as it had initiated the first transit. Instead of groups of ships going through in rapid succession, a blue pulse expanded from the relay in a wave. Pulling in all of the surrounding ninety thousand ships and throwing them to the tortured knot of space and radiation the relay had been.

What Captain Mohr had seen was the residual dark energy build up from the Charon relay connection to its partner anchored by the prodigious amount of energy and interference caused by the slipspace portal as well as the Arcturus relay attempting to compensate. NSSC scientists working on the slipspace relay project would have recognized the event, having encountered the phenomenon in more controlled settings. What they wouldn't have recognized was the effect it had on eezo ships that transited TO such an event.

The incandescent gas seen being thrown off the dark energy buildup was the remains of the Reaper invasion. The mass effect corridor ended in the best approximation of a ultra-high energy wood chipper. Nothing above the bonds holding together protons had the strength to survive. Within seconds, the last remnants of the Reaper invasion of the Sol system were reduced to energetic hydrogen gas. When the partner relay finished, the dark energy lost cohesion and evaporated into gravity waves. Pulling on the debris and gas left from the battle, it arrested all outward motion from the position of the former relay. Everything seemed to stop in place for a moment, silently announcing the battle was over and the lives spent.

Bridge of the Ticonderoga

Standing in disbelief for a moment, Captain Mohr made no attempt to process what had just happened. Millions of lives had just been snuffed out and the NSSC had suffered a huge loss. Earth had been secured but there was too much far above his paygrade. He had to assume he was the ranking officer in the fleet. There was a lot to be done.

"Gru, if you haven't already, send out a distress beacon and get a hold of the other two ships. See what aid they need. I will be directing damage control." With that he walked off the bridge to see where in his ship he could be the most help.

Gru began to see to the systems on the ship as he packaged as much data on the battle as he had together to send to the New Ark.

Still reeling from the scope of what happened, the AI's response was simply a subdued, "Yes Sir."

Dark Space 25 Light Years from Serpent Nebulae - Harbinger

The connection the ancient ship had to the Intelligence went idle as Harbinger processed what it had just received. Or more precisely, what it had stopped receiving. The fleet sent to the Human system had gone quiet. Not a single Reaper was within two relay jumps of the Sol system when there should have been a flood of tactical data.

The Intelligence noted the same lack of data as well with the added addition of the Sol relay going dark. Such things had happened before but the destruction of a fifth of its Reapers was the most disconcerting information.

Turning its attention to the first, "The human relay has been destroyed and the invasion fleet has been destroyed. The interlopers fleet was destroyed as well. I have sustained unacceptable losses but the interloper fleet has been eliminated."

Harbinger answered its creator, "THEY HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH, THE CYCLE WILL CONTINUE. WE SHALL DARKEN THE SKIES OF THE ORGA-"

The Intelligence spent the time that Harbinger was speaking to consider the galaxy at large. With the only force known to effectively resist the cycle gone and this cycle's champion isolated in the Sol system, the cycle would continue. It had other plans as well but they required a thoroughly indoctrinated agent. The turian had been the only suitable one but Shepard had killed him. There were others that still had will of their own but it made little difference. Willingly or not, the organics would be preserved.

Interrupting the oldest and most useful of his tools, the Intelligence dictated the next move to it.

"The military force of this cycle's races must be destroyed. The Prothean meddling has cost too much in this cycle. Correct this. The cycle will continue as it always has. Disrupt the Turians, destroy their ships, then take their homeworlds."

With that, the Intelligence terminated the connection but left its overwhelming force of will pulsing through Harbinger's intelligence.

There was no resistance in Harbinger's mind. It knew its place was to obey the Intelligence and as such sent out the command for its forces to gather in the dark space between stars.

No matter the cost, the cycle would continue.

Palaven would fall.

Hot Damn, there it is. Earth is cut off but Reaper free- most of the NSSC fleet was destroyed to eliminate a huge number of Reapers, Neptune is remodeled, and a movement from the Council! Them and Shepard will play a larger part in the upcoming chapters as well. I can't let the NSSC dominate everything although honestly, the way I wrote their technical prowess they could. Hoping to avoid that though.

Also! I'll be taking down the poll on how Master Chief will play out in the story Friday. So cast your votes now! He'll be making his appearance soon.

I'm at almost 120k views, 600 favorites, and 750 follows. Pretty stoked that people are still enjoying my story. Reviews are welcome too, I take what the readers into mind when writing so if you want to suggest something feel free.

Here's to keeping you all entertained! *raises glass* Cheers!