Mass Effect: Maelstrom Siblings

by Leaf Ranger

When faced with protecting an entire galactic community, it's always good to have friends and squad-mates at your side. But it's even better when you've got your brother with you as well. Get ready galaxy, because here come Alicia and Naruto Shepard, the Maelstrom Siblings. Rated M for swearing, action, gore, and implied sexual situations.

4. Skyllian Blitz

Well, didn't quite get the reaction I was expecting from last chapter, but you all seemed to enjoy it, and that's good enough. Was just surprised how few people seemed to react to Malcolm's death. Then again he was barely in the fanfic for more than a chapter, so I guess most people wouldn't be that messed up over it.

So for those of you who played the games, this chapter should bring about a familiar event you've heard a lot about. For those of you who read my 'preview' in my Shinobi's Creed fanfic, this chapter should equally be familiar. And for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, this chapter will be covering an event constantly referenced in the Mass Effect games, most notably based on certain choices made when creating your Shepard at the start of the game.

For those of you who have asked if I'll be getting to the games soon, rest assured that there are only three chapters, counting this one, between you all and the start of the adventure we're all truly familiar with. I've covered Naruto and Alicia's childhood so you understand that, but now I need to cover their military careers, and help set a few things up for when the events of Mass Effect really start. So please bare me with for three more chapters. I promise to try and make them worthwhile.

One little note here. Fanfiction seems to have goofed in the past three-four days, in that so far, no one seems able to actually see reviews left on their fanfics. Reason I know this is because none of the author's I've reviewed in the past three days have apparently seen the reviews I left, and my own review history tab has stated I haven't left any of the reviews I know I have. So, if I don't respond to your reviews, it's because I haven't been able to read them. I apologize for that in advance. Sorry. *sad face*

Oh, and I do believe my beta a7xfanatic1195 wanted to say something to one of our reviewers. Go ahead a7x.

To Mandalore the Freedom:

KOTE BAL IJAAT PAR MANDO'ADE VOD!

So, with that said and done, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mass effect. They are the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Bioware/EA. This is a nonprofit fanfic meant purely for enjoyment. Please support the official releases.

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Chapter 4

Skyllian Blitz

Elysium, 2176

Naruto Uzumaki Shepard quietly looked out the window of the military transport currently ferrying him and a number of other military personnel and supplies to the alpine resort colony world of Elysium. For Naruto, this would be his newest posting as a member of the Systems Alliance Marine Corps.

The now twenty-two-year-old vulzan shifted in his seat, adjusting the blue short sleeved fatigues he was currently wearing, all while watching the clouds go by as the transport made its way down to the space docks at Illyria, the capital of Elysium. They had been forced to wait in a holding pattern, due to the heavy traffic Elysium had due to it being a rather popular resort world, and not just with humans. A number of asari, salarians, and even a few hanar, drell, turians, elcor, and volus visited the world for various reasons, making it almost as much of a cultural melting pot as the Citadel itself.

Of course, despite being what many would consider a luxury resort world, its proximity to batarian territory also meant that the planet still required a rather sizeable garrison, even more so since an attack on Elysium didn't only threaten the humans visiting or living on the planet, but also the alien tourists. The last thing the Alliance wanted was the debacle and scandal of Council citizens being killed or kidnapped from one of their worlds.

Naruto's thoughts slowly drifted back to the training he and Alicia had gone through, after dealing with some…interesting problems regarding Naruto's unique nature and the Council. Once those were out of the way, and the Shepard twins had passed the physical and mental entrance requirements, they were admitted to the Alliance Military Training Camp located outside Brisbane, Australia.

Alliance 'Boot Camp' was a nine week training course for those who would make up the ground forces and fighting crews of the Alliance Navy and Marine forces. The first two weeks started with the basics, consisting of nothing but drills, obstacle courses, and firing ranges, to instill in the recruits a sense of discipline and a basic understanding of the weapons and equipment they'd be using. These first two weeks helped to not only weed out the physically or mentally weakest recruits, but also help the drill instructors and training officers recognize the skills of the recruits under their command, and ready them for more specialized training. By the end of the initial two weeks course, Alicia had proven to be rather skilled with the shotgun and assault rifle, while Naruto had proven to be highly skilled with a sniper rifle, as well as an assault rifle. They both had also shown themselves to be capable hand to hand combatants as well, and then of course there were their biotic powers.

Alicia, roughly a year before enlisting in the Alliance, had been confirmed to have biotic powers, and was outfitted with an L3 implant that would allow her to control her biotics. She had received some basic biotic training so that she could control her powers and not have emotional or accidental bursts, but on the side, Naruto had begun training her in some of the abilities he himself had been taught by his asari mentors back during the time he was being tested and studied by the joint Alliance-Council team.

During the next three weeks of training, Alliance recruits were trained in more specialized branches of combat, based on their capabilities. These branches were codenamed soldier, vanguard, infiltrator, engineer, sentinel, and adept, and each was relatively unique. However, certain individuals who showed skill in multiple branches could receive specialized training in more than one branch, to maximize their skills.

The soldier branch of combat training was for those who showed remarkable skill with weapons, capable of handling different types of weapons in combat. The bulk of the recruits usually fell under this branch of training, being skilled with weapons rather than tech based attacks or biotic powers.

Vanguard combat training was for those who displayed a talent for both biotics and frontline combat. Vanguards were considered shock troops of the Alliance military, using their biotic abilities to crash into the enemy's front lines, and proceed to cause chaos and destruction with weapons and biotics to allow their fellow soldiers to solidify the foothold they created, and pierce through enemy lines.

Infiltrator combat training involved teaching recruits how to use technical skills to cloak and hide from enemy troops, before using their skills with sniper rifles to pick off key targets, or their technical skills to sabotage enemy equipment or hack into their networks and steal valuable information.

Engineer combat training was for troops who would be fulfilling a support role in combat, usually involving supporting frontline troops by erecting mobile shield or barrier generators, establishing fortifications, or even creating combat drones to deploy in combat to support frontline troops, usually providing a distraction or a flanking attack on enemy positions.

Sentinel combat training was perhaps the most unique and selective of the various combat branches available to Alliance recruits. It consisted of training for those who were not only technically minded, but also capable biotic wielders, allowing them to utilize tech based attacks such as launching concentrated plasma or cryogenic blasts at the enemy with potent biotic powers. Those who graduated from sentinel combat training tended to be valuable support troops in combat, as they could easily provide valuable tech and biotic assistance on the field, as well as having powerful shields and armor in the form of holographic 'tech armor'.

Lastly, the adept combat training course was for those with the greatest biotic potential. Recruits in this branch were trained almost exclusively in the use of their biotics, sacrificing even weapons training to hone their skills in manipulating dark matter. While humans were still behind the rest of the biotic capable races in the galaxy, they were quickly learning how useful biotically gifted soldiers were, even as the rest of humanity looked on biotics with suspicion and prejudice. Biotically capable individuals were offered extra incentives to join the military, and the adept combat training course helped those who joined to become powerful combatants on the field, able to change the course of a fire fight with a single movement of their hand.

Alicia ended up being assigned to the vanguard combat training course, having proven she was quite skilled in close quarters combat with a shotgun and hand to hand combat. Her biotics also were better suited for this style of training, as she showed a lack in the fine control that those in the adept and sentinel training courses had in controlling their biotics. Those in the vanguard combat training course tended to be rely more on power and wide spread damage with their biotics.

Naruto however ended up receiving specialized training from both the soldier and adept combat training courses, honing his skill with both the sniper rifle and assault rifle, as well as furthering the biotic training he had received when he was younger. His training in the adept course, while not as thorough and complete as other 'adepts', even led to him starting to research a new biotic attack he hoped to make his own unique 'hidden ace'.

Besides receiving more specialized training, recruits were also routinely deployed in platoons both for 'simulated combat' training, and for 'survival' training. In the simulated combat training, they were given specialized weapons that were almost identical to the ones they would be using in real life, except that instead of firing live rounds, they instead fired sensory beams that simulated the trajectory and velocity of rounds fired from their respective weapons. These sensor beams would impact against specialized training armor that would register the hit, and react accordingly, disabling/locking up that portion of the armor suit, or locking up the entire armor if it was a 'kill' shot. For survival training, they would be taken to different geographical environments around the globe, in order to train in the different environmental conditions they would most likely encounter, and learn how to survive in those environments.

The last four weeks was perhaps the most important training for the recruits. While they continued to learn their specialized combat training courses, they were also given basic training in piloting, repairing, and maintaining the various small vehicles the Alliance military employed, such as the M35 Mako, the A-61 Mantis gunship, and the UT-47 Kodiak drop shuttle. They were also taken off world to expose them to the more exotic or toxic environments they would possibly have to fight in as part of the Alliance military.

Upon successfully completing all nine weeks of training, the recruits were welcomed into the Alliance with a grand graduation ceremony, and then given their assignments either into the navy or marine branches of the military. However, those who had displayed remarkable leadership qualities during the training, or had received special commendations before beginning basic training from active or retired officers, were eligible to take an extended training course for officer training. If they successfully completed this course, they would automatically be promoted to the lowest officer rank in the branch of the Alliance military they were assigned to.

Naturally, the Shepard twins had jumped at the chance for officer training. Their drill instructors had both noted they showed excellent leadership capabilities during the simulated combat and survival training courses. Hannah had told them she would be happy to give them recommendations as well, as had Jiraiya, but both had stated they wanted to get through on their own merits. A statement that was vindicated when they both began the twelve-week officer training course.

Unfortunately for Naruto, things were not easy. During basic training, he had simply been one of dozens, if not hundreds of new recruits, and despite his alien heritage and appearance, he had generally been accepted and treated with little difference from anyone else. But when he entered the officer training course, it was a different story. There were fewer recruits here, and some of the drill instructors and teachers were a bit leery about training an alien, even one that closely resembled a human and was raised by humans. Some of them didn't think it was right, allowing an alien to have command over human soldiers. A sentiment shared by a few of the officer recruits as well. Determined to prove himself though, Naruto pushed himself harder to prove to them all he deserved to be there.

In the end, Naruto's hard work paid off. Both he and Alicia graduated, and earned their officer's commissions. Alicia ended up joining the Navy, gaining the rank of Ensign, while Naruto was assigned to the Marine Corps with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

Naruto smiled fondly, thinking about the celebration his family had following his and Alicia's completion of the officer training course, including the part where a drunken Jiraiya proudly proclaimed that he was going to base the main characters of his next book after his two god children, earning him a smack and a stern talking to from his wife. He also remembered the absolutely proud look his mother had when congratulating the pair of them on making it through the training.

He shook his head as he heard the transport's onboard Virtual Intelligence, or VI, announce they were nearing the landing bay at the Illyria space port. Smiling, he picked up his beret style cover (2) and got ready to disembark.

Roughly a half hour later he was stepping out of a skycar taxi, and after paying the driver, slipped his cover onto his head, settling it on his rather short blonde hair. If he did have one major complaint, it was that regulations prevented him from having longer hair, which just felt more comfortable to him on an instinctual level. Course it had been worse with Alicia, who had to sit through having her long red hair cut to a much shorter length. She had loved her hair.

He approached the gates of the perimeter wall for the main garrison headquarters, and flashed them his ID, gaining him access to the base. Entering the main building, he removed his cover, and proceeded immediately to the front desk, where a female marine sat typing at a console. The female marine looked up, and quickly stood and saluted as Naruto approached, seeing the officer insignia on his uniform. "Sir," she said.

Naruto saluted back. "I'm checking in," he said, holding up his left arm and accessing his military issued omni-tool. The marine nodded, sitting back down and returning to her console, typing a few commands in as Naruto transferred his information to the computer. In the old days, any soldier or sailor transferring to a new command had to go through roughly a week of filing paperwork with various offices in their new command before they could even officially report in. Now though, all they had to do was simply transfer their information from their omni-tool to the base's computer, and the information was sent to the necessary offices, taking all of five minutes to properly file away the information.

As Naruto finished, the female marine nodded. "Very good sir. The major is currently in his office if you'd like to report in. Fifth floor, sector two," she said, saluting again.

Naruto gave her another salute and a 'thank you' before heading deeper into the building, to a nearby elevator.

Roughly ten minutes later, he was waiting patiently outside the office of the garrison commander for Elysium, Major Fredrick Robertson. The major's secretary was working on a report, but glanced up as the intercom buzzed, and a male voice spoke through it. "You can send him in now."

"Yes sir," the secretary said, before nodding to Naruto. "The major will see you now."

With a nod, Naruto moved to the door which slid opened, and stepped smartly to the desk of the garrison commander, before stopping and saluting. "Second Lieutenant Naruto Shepard, reporting for duty sir," he said, keeping his gaze locked on the wall behind his new commanding officer.

Fredrick Robertson was a man in his mid-forties, with crew cut brown hair, and brown eyes. He had a muscular build, obviously a man who intended to keep in shape for as long as possible. He glanced up from the report he had been reading, before slowly standing and returning the salute. "At ease," he said simply, studying Naruto.

As Naruto relaxed his stance, dropping his salute, the major sat down, bringing up a new data file. "Well…quite some impressive skills you have here," he said. "Skilled marksmen, impressive biotics, and you show promise in tactical scenarios," he said, before glancing up. "Tell me something…why do you think you were posted here to Elysium?" He asked him.

"I don't know sir. I assume this was where they felt I would do the most good," Naruto stated.

Robertson chuckled softly. "Indeed. Well you will be doing the most good here, though not in the way you think. Lieutenant, I don't like to sugar coat things. I tend to want my soldiers to understand the full truth upfront. You're here because you're a showpiece to the Alliance brass," Robertson stated bluntly.

Naruto blinked in confusion at that. "Sir?" he asked a bit hesitantly.

"Son…you're the only alien to ever be admitted into the Alliance military. Not only that, but there's that whole business of you being from an extinct alien race that died off fifty thousand years ago. One that the Council has raised a fuss over time and time again. The Alliance sent you here because it's here where they can not only keep you safe, but also show you off to all the alien tourists, to let them know that they have your support," Robertson stated. "You're here because the Alliance wants to use you to boost their image and influence."

Naruto blinked at that, stiffening. "I see, sir," he stated quietly. "Is that what you think I am? A show piece?"

The major shook his head. "If I had my way, you'd be stationed onboard one of our warships closer to the batarian border, or on one of our colonies that are in the most danger of pirate attacks. Your skills are too valuable to waste here. But these are the brasses orders, so we follow them. Now, do you have any questions?"

"What are my duties to be, sir?" Naruto asked, as Robertson nodded, turning to type a few commands into his computer.

"You're going to be second in command of the security detail at the spaceport. Report to Lieutenant Ralden over there tomorrow at 0700 hours. He'll run you through your duties. Oh, and take some time to enjoy yourself while you're here on Elysium. This is probably one of the most peaceful and attractive postings in the Alliance, so take advantage of it," Robertson stated.

"I'll take that under consideration sir," Naruto said, still standing and awaiting any further instructions. Robertson watched him for a few moments, before shaking his head.

"Very well then. You're dismissed," he said.

Naruto gave him a salute, and after receiving a return salute, he about faced and left the major's office. As he did, he couldn't help but clench his fist slightly, thinking about the major's words. He knew the major hadn't meant to anger him, but hearing what was said had done exactly that. Naruto couldn't believe that he was just being used as some trophy by the Alliance, not after hearing the stories that Malcolm, Hannah, and Jiraiya had shared with him. Sure, his postings over the last nearly four years had been quiet ones, but he had never been treated like some prop for the Alliance to use for it's own publicity. Shaking his head, he headed off to find the officer's housing, to get settled in.

SSV Ontario

Hannah Shepard let out a soft groan as she stretched in the chair at her desk located in the executive officer's cabin onboard the Ontario, a cruiser in the Alliance Navy. Now holding the rank of commander, this was her first assignment as the executive officer of a warship. Her duties were not so dissimilar to when she was in charge of the troop complements of warships in the past, except now she was second in command of the entire warship, rather than a portion of the ship's crew. She was still adjusting to the extra duties.

She grinned softly as after activating the terminal on her desk and opening her messages, she found one from Naruto stating he was on his way to his next posting. He had only been able to mention he was posted to Elysium, and nothing else, as a matter of operational security. Still, it was good to hear from him, even if it wasn't a lot.

Her eyes drifted to a nearby digital picture in a computerized frame. They were a marvel, allowing you to download multiple images into one frame, and then flip through them, to set the one you wanted displayed. Currently, it was showing an image of her in her uniform, standing with an arm around her two children after they graduated from the Alliance Officer Training Program, with both of them in their own uniforms. They all had smiles on their faces, hers' one of pride while Naruto and Alicia's were ones of happiness.

It hadn't been easy, when Naruto and Alicia announced their intent to join the Alliance. The first thing Hannah had felt was a sense of fear. She didn't want them in the Alliance. Not after Malcolm had died. She had tried to convince them not to join, to find another job. She had even tried to get Jiraiya to help convince her. But both of them were adamant, and refused to budge on the issue.

There had been some arguments and fights, but in the end…they both told her how they wanted to honor Malcolm's memory. They wanted to honor him. And unable to fight them, Hannah had given them her blessing.

Of course, things didn't go as smoothly as them simply signing up and starting their training. For Alicia there wasn't too much trouble. With Hannah and Jiraiya's endorsement it was easy enough for her to be accepted. But Naruto…that had been another story.

The first problem had been the Alliance debating whether they should accept Naruto into the military or not. He was raised by a human, had been taught by humans, but he wasn't human. And so the recruitment guidelines were gray on whether or not they could accept him into their ranks. A debate began within the halls of Alliance Parliament, and ended in favor of allowing Naruto to enlist.

Sadly, a second problem arose: not even twenty-four hours after the decision to allow Naruto to enlist was passed, the turian Councilor Sparatus had contacted them, all but demanding that the Council have a meeting with Naruto and Alliance officials.

The meeting, as it turned out, was Sparatus wishing to make it known that he and the turian hierarchy had issues with the Alliance allowing Naruto to join them. Sparatus stated that given Naruto's unique nature and abilities, he should be trained by a joint team of military trainers from various Council and Council affiliate races. Afterwards, Sparatus suggested that Naruto be instated as a new type of operative, one that operated alongside the various Council and Council affiliate militaries in missions against threats ranging from pirates and criminals to terrorists and warmongers.

Naruto countered with a simple statement: it was his own life, to live and choose as he saw fit. He wanted to join the Alliance military, to not only honor his father, but to help the people who were constantly under threat from the slavers, pirates, and criminals populating the Attican Traverse and Terminus Systems. As he stated, the people out there were in more danger than anyone else in Council controlled space as they had the full might of the turian and asari fleets to protect them. Most people could recognize the slight jab Naruto made at the fact that these Council fleets had done nothing so far to help protect one of their affiliate races.

The new salarian Council had been initially supportive of Sparatus, most likely in an attempt to get another chance for his race's scientists in examining Naruto. However, Tevos called for a private discussion between the three Councilors during the meeting. When they returned, the salarian Councilor immediately made it known that he was supporting Naruto's choice in joining the Alliance military, as did Tevos.

Hannah wasn't sure what exactly was said, but she could guess that Tevos probably pointed out that alienating Naruto wouldn't do them any favors. He already held a slight grudge against the Council for their inaction against the batarians following Mindoir, and the death of Malcolm Shepard.

In the end, Sparatus was outnumbered, and grudgingly withdrew his complaints. Hannah couldn't help but feel though that the event had simply furthered the tension between humans and turians.

Still, things worked out and Naruto and Alicia both enlisted. Alicia had followed in her mother's footsteps, joining the Navy branch of the Alliance Military, specializing in ship security, boarding actions, and landing parties. She was currently serving on the SSV Falkirk, Hannah's old ship, which was patrolling the outermost border of colonized Alliance space. She had also been promoted, to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade, putting her ahead of her brother, something she didn't let him live down since he now stood taller than her and she couldn't tease him over that anymore.

She sighed as she closed the message down, and browsed through her other messages, finding nothing else interesting. Closing the terminal down, she groaned softly as she stretched. Feeling tired, she decided to get some rest, before her next duty shift. Being the executive officer of a warship was definitely not an easy task.

Maroon Sea, Two Weeks Later

In the Attican Traverse, near the border of Alliance Space, the Maroon Sea was a mostly unexplored nebula cluster with several star systems. Being an unexplored nebula, it was the perfect gathering for pirates and slavers, such as it was currently.

Within one of the unexplored systems, close to two dozen warships of various designs, belonging to various pirates, criminals, and slaver gangs were gathering. Along with them were a fair amount of lightly armed transports, modified by their criminal owners to meet specifications for smuggling or slavery. In this case though, their cargo consisted of hundreds, if not thousands of pirates, slavers, and mercenaries, mostly batarians but with some turians and humans as well.

On the largest of the warships, an aging turian dreadnaught mothballed by the Hierarchy but then 'liberated' by its current captain, the leader of the entire expedition, one Elanos Haliat, closed the communications he had with his financial backers, a group of batarian generals and senators within the Hegemony. The turian pirate smiled as he turned to his bridge staff. "Report," he said, his flanged voice deep and grating. (3)

His second in command, who was standing at a holographic display of the gathering fleet, looked up. "Captain, at least ninety percent of the fleet has gathered. We should be ready to move out within the next three hours."

"Excellent. And we're certain on the Alliance patrol routes?" Haliat asked another of his 'officers'. The batarian he asked nodded as well.

"Yes. There won't be an Alliance ship close enough to our target. The closest ship won't arrive for at least four hours, and if we haven't already begun pulling out by then, we should be able to handle a couple of warships."

Haliat nodded, looking to a third pirate, this one also a turian. "And our 'infiltrators'?" He asked.

"They reported that they managed to secure several of their objectives, and have the coordinates for our initial strikes. If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to sweep in with little to no opposition," the officer reported.

"Good, good," Haliat said, his mandibles flaring slightly. "Then today gentleman, we strike the first blow against the scourge that is sweeping across our space. These humans will understand that it is we who control this space, not them. Make sure that every ship is armed and ready, and that all the landing parties are fully armed. Today, we strike a blow against the usurpers that are humanity!" He said.

His officers quickly set to work, as Haliat turned, watching the ships moving through space through the viewports on the bridge, a satisfied smirk on his face. It had taken him quite some time to gain the power and notoriety needed to gather and command this many criminals and warships, but now, it would all be worth it. His name would be infamous, feared and respected by all for his daring raid against one of the most prosperous colonies of the Alliance. And the deaths or capture of civilians from other Council races would simply make the victory against the Alliance all the sweeter. He allowed himself a chuckle, as his warships finished their final preparations, waiting only for the last stragglers before he began his glorious mission.

Elysium

Naruto let out a slightly frustrated groan as he sat down at a table outside a café, leaning back in the chair as he lightly rubbed his forehead. Two weeks on Elysium, and he finally understood what the major meant by him being a show piece.

His job at the spaceport largely consisted of him being in display for everyone entering or leaving Elysium to see. He was either at the public security desk where civilians and spaceport workers could come bring complaints or concerns to him, or he was leading security patrols through the public areas of the spaceport. The worst though was anytime someone with money and/or influence arrived, as it fell to Naruto to be part of the greeting party for them, as well as providing the security for them while they were in the spaceport, and while they were traveling to the resort where they were staying or the lodge/mansion they might already own or be renting out for themselves.

It aggravated him, to say the least. He joined the Alliance to try and help people, to fight against threats to humanity. And in four years, he had been given a series of cushy jobs. It hadn't been obvious to him before, he had simply thought it had to do with him being still young and inexperienced. But now, two weeks on Elysium had made it painfully obvious that the Alliance was more interested in the publicity and fame he bought them, rather than the skills in combat he could offer.

Thankfully though, something had come along to cheer him up…well, relatively speaking. That something was the grinning redhead that plopped down opposite him. "Jeez, I would think being on a resort world would be relaxing, not stressful," Alicia said to her brother, getting comfortable in the chair while they waited for their drinks.

Naruto just grunted softly, as he lowered his hands. "Trust me, relaxing to me right now would be if I actually got to do something beyond watching over tourists," he said, grinning a bit though. His sister had surprised him by popping up two days ago to spend her shore leave on Elysium, eager to spend time with her 'little brother'.

Of course, they could only hang out when he wasn't on duty, like currently. He had just finished another duty shift at the spaceport, and was eager to relax and take his mind off of things.

Naruto grinned at her as he signaled one of the waiters to come over. "So, how did things go last night? You seemed to be getting a bit friendly with that asari in the bar before I had to head back to base," he asked her with a smirk, as Alicia blushed lightly but grinned back.

"Was going pretty good, till her date showed up," Alicia said with a chuckle, leaning back in her chair. "My charm wasn't quite good enough."

"You and your addiction to asari," Naruto teased back with a grin. He was over exaggerating of course, as while Alicia had an appreciation of asari, she was far from 'addicted' to them. Alicia was bisexual though, having dated a few boys and girls during high school, so it was easy to understand why she was attracted to asari.

Alicia just smirked at him. "C'mon, there's nothing wrong with appreciating fine art. Like that one there," she said, nodding to a dark blue, almost purple skin toned asari nearby who was chatting with a human man and a salarian.

Naruto just shook his head with a grin, as a waitress came over with a smile. "Hi, what can I get you two?" She asked, her smile grow more flirtatious as she looked at Naruto.

Alicia, smirking, ordered first. "I'll have the Mixed Fruit Juice, with the Ikle berry crepe," she said, as the waitress took her order down without looking at her, seeming to be focusing on Naruto.

"And you, handsome?" She asked, as Naruto chuckled softly.

"I'll take a turian Tiki nut caffe and slice of Haverath tart," he said, giving her a smile back. "And why don't you get yourself something as well, on me," he added, causing the waitress to blush but grin even more.

"Mmmmm, maybe I will," she said, giving him a wink before turning to place their orders, a noticeable sway in her hips as she walked away. Alicia just gave him a huge grin, shoving his shoulder.

"Look at you, Mr. Smooth talker. With that tongue of yours I bet you could charm the pants off a Quarian," she said with a grin, making Naruto just chuckle as he smiled.

"Just my natural good looks and wily charms," he said with a smirk, only to blink as his omni buzzed. Taking a look at the computer, he blinked as he found a video call request coming in. "One second," he said, standing up and moving to a more private spot before activating it. "Yes?" he said, as the image popped up, revealing one of the soldiers on duty at the spaceport, Corporal Rollins.

"Sir, we've got a bit of an incident here. A couple of turians captured in a restricted area," the corporal said, as Naruto nodded.

"Is Lieutenant Ralden there?" Naruto asked, only for the corporal to shake his head.

"No sir. He was called to a staff meeting the major called for. All the senior officers are currently at the meeting," Rollins said. "What should we do?"

"Detain them for now. Ralden or I will handle it," Naruto said, as the corporal nodded and ended the communication. Naruto sighed, shaking his head as he returned to his sister, to find their orders there.

Alicia glanced up from the juice she was sipping, tilting her head a bit curiously. "Anything interesting?" She asked, as Naruto shook his head.

"No, not really. Just some tourists being someplace they shouldn't," Naruto said as he sat down, and began cutting into the pastry he had ordered. "So, what should we do today? We hit the club scene last night, so there's still the skiing, or the heated indoor pool. Or the arcade," he said, referring to the massive entertainment facility that had a number of arcade based games as well as more interactive entertainments such as combat simulators, both on foot and fighter based ones.

Alicia hummed softly in thought. "Hmmmm, fall on my ass a lot in snow, check out cute guys and girls in swimsuits, or kick your butt in video games. Have to say the choice between the last two is hard," she said with a grin.

"Hey, I'm not that bad at video games," Naruto shot back, pouting. He was about to speak again when there was a sudden explosion off in the distance, making the two Alliance soldiers shoot up.

"What was that?!" Alicia shouted, only for a second explosion to go off closer to them, followed by a third and fourth one. Around them people were screaming and shouting, running away from the explosions, as alarms went off overhead, and a VI announcer began directing people to head to the nearest designated emergency shelter. Naruto cursed as he brought up his omni-tool to try and get in contact with the headquarters. "This is 2nd Lieutenant Shepard to command, do you copy?! What's going on?!"

Almost immediately Major Robertson's voice replied to him. "A number of unknown explosive devices were set off at several of the security outposts throughout the city, and we have reports of armed hostiles at the spaceport. I'm recalling everyone to arm up and prepare for combat. That includes you lieutenant," he snapped. "Get over to the armory and standby for further orders!"

"Yes sir!" Naruto responded, shutting down his omni-tool and turning to his sister. "We need to get to the armory ASAP. This looks like it's a full blown terrorist attack, and they're trying to take the spaceport."

Alicia nodded, her mouth set in a firm line as they began rushing to the nearest vehicle they could find. As they did so, another alarm started going off, one that made Naruto look up in shock. "That's the invasion alarm! What the hell?!" He shouted.

In orbit, the pirates found the first major hiccup in their plan, in the form of a small flotilla of Alliance warships. Intelligence provided to Haliat had indicated that there would be no Alliance presence in orbit beyond a couple of shipyards built to handle large incoming warships and civilian ships. What Haliat's sources hadn't known was that a small flotilla of four frigates from the Fourth Alliance fleet had arrived at Elysium to drop off shipments of weapons and parts for the garrison, including the SSV Falkirk.

Now, Haliat cursed as he saw the four small warships in orbit of the target planet. Still, he reasoned that the battle shouldn't be too difficult. There were only four frigates, and he had six times as many warships. "Have all warships focus on those frigates. Signal the transports to begin landing the troops," he ordered, as his ship and the others began to surge ahead to engage the four frigates, who even now were moving into a defensive posture around the shipyards and preparing to engage the pirate vessels. The transports however veered away, heading towards the planet instead. One of the transports, as it breached the atmosphere, launched a smaller craft which immediately began a direct route towards a specific target.

On the ground, Naruto and Alicia had barely reached the marine base, and were rushing towards the armory, as around them the marines that had been on duty were already setting up a defensive perimeter. Most of them were erecting hasty barricades with whatever they could get their hands on, or small portable barrier generators, while others were preparing a number of the garrison's armed vehicles for combat. Already a pair of M35 Mako's, the Alliance Infantry Fighting Vehicles, were rolling forward, their main cannons and secondary co-axial guns primed and ready to fire.

As Naruto was nearing the armory, he heard the roar of engines overhead, and stopped, looking up. His eyes widened as he saw what looked like a batarian shuttle roaring by overhead, its barriers repelling the fire from the marines on the ground as it flew over them. Naruto blinked in confusion, only for his eyes to widen as he saw where it was headed. "It's going for the command building!" he shouted.

Indeed, the shuttle, a remotely piloted suicide craft loaded with explosives, had been prepped for such a mission, to cripple the garrison's chain of command. With frightening precision, it rolled over, diving downwards and slamming into the headquarters where it exploded as it punched into the building. Not even a second later a massive fireball erupted out of the building, totally consuming it and throwing everyone within two hundred feet to the ground from the shockwave.

Naruto had been forced to his knees from the edge of the shockwave, and now slowly got up, staring at the inferno that had been the command building. There was no way anyone inside the building could have survived that explosion. He felt Alicia grab him by the shoulder, and shake him. "We have to go Naruto! Move it!" He nodded dumbly, turning and following her.

Naruto and Alicia dashed inside the armory, where a number of other marines were quickly suiting up in armor, or checking over their weapons, slotting fresh thermal clips into their guns. Most of them had formed up with their squadmates and had moved outside to reinforce the perimeter and wait for orders, but others, alone or in ones or two, were simply waiting for their squads, or orders.

Naruto soon reached his armor locker, practically ripping the door off its hinges while gesturing to his left. "There should be spare armors over there!" He yelled to his sister as he quickly grabbed the reinforced armored suit that comprised of the standard Alliance Marine infantry armor. Alicia quickly found an extra suit and began putting it on as well, as Naruto soon finished, and grabbed his helmet, sealing it and its breathing mask in place over his head. (4)

As the suit and helmet fully sealed, the visor in front of his eyes began to flicker, as the HUD came online and began to run through its power up diagnostics. As it finished, the HUD began to shift, as new displays began to appear. In the lower right a motion tracker appeared, immediately coming alive with a large flurry of blue friendly dots and red enemy dots, the latter appearing as triangles to indicate they were at a higher elevation from his current position. At the bottom of the HUD was a blue bar, indicating the current strength of his armors shields, below which was a bar indicating the integrity of his suit's armored plates. Lastly, the left side had an indicator for currently equipped weapon's status, though that indicator was blank due to him not having any weapons equipped.

Moving away from the armor lockers, Naruto quickly moved to the weapon lockers, first grabbing the standard issue M-3 Predator pistol and M-7 Lancer assault rifle, which he slipped onto the magnetic locking plates on his right hip and right shoulder blade respectively after ensuring both had fresh thermal clips slotted into them. With those in place, he moved to the sniper rifles, quickly grabbing up his M-97 Viper, which unfolded from its compact frame after he picked it up, extending to its full length. The Viper was one of the two mainstay sniper rifles of the Alliance military, its counterpart being the M-92 Mantis. Both were powerful rifles, but were quite different in their capabilities. The Mantis was a more powerful, but slower firing sniper rifle, more akin to old bolt action sniper rifles, while the Viper was a semi-automatic sniper rifle, capable of more rapid shots but with less power in each shot, as the mass accelerators used less power in each shot to achieve the greater rate of fire.

Naruto quickly tapped a couple of buttons on the side of the rifle, connecting its onboard computer to that of his suit's computer, which now caused the weapon indicator to light up on his HUD. It soon flashed green, indicating the weapon had a fresh thermal clip, and was ready for use. During combat, the indicator would tell Naruto the status of his weapon, including how close it was to overheating. Due to the advantages of eezo and mass effect technology, concerns regarding ammo were a thing of the past, as weapons could turn slivers of metal the size of a grain of sand into lethal projectiles thanks to mass manipulation. However, the mass accelerators used to accelerator the projectiles to terminal speed could cause intense heat buildup in the weapons, rapidly overheating and damaging or destroying the weapons. Thermal clips were used to thus cool the weapons down during combat, though they could only delay the inevitable. Prolonged use of the weapon would eventually overheat it, and even burn out the thermal clip, forcing the operator to exchange thermal clips in order to keep firing his weapon. The indicator on the HUD would let Naruto know if his currently equipped weapon was about to overheat, and when he would need to change out the thermal clip.

Now armed, Naruto turned to see Alicia doing the same procedure with a Lancer, a Predator pistol at her side while an M-23 Katana shotgun was nestled on the magnetic clamp on her lower back. She looked up at him and nodded, as the pair quickly turned to the staging area in the armory.

Naruto patched them both into the frequency used by the marines on their radios, switching his frequency to reach every marine who was active. "This is Lieutenant Naruto Shepard broadcasting on an open frequency. I need a sit-rep on our situation. Who's the senior officer?!" He shouted into his comm.

There were several moments of silence, before a slightly panicked voice responded. "S-Sir…all the senior officers were in the command building…they're all dead."

Naruto let out a curse at that, as Alicia joined in now on the conversation. "This is Lieutenant Alicia Shepard form the Falkirk. Are there any officers left alive?"

This time a different voice responded. "This is 2nd Lieutenant Walthers, ma'am. To be honest, I think you're the most senior officer planet side at the moment."

"2nd Lieutenant Romeo, ma'am. Walthers is correct; everyone above the rank of 2nd Lieutenant was in the command building. You're the senior ranking officer ma'am. What are your orders?" Said a second voice.

Alicia froze for a moment at hearing that. Despite her being a Navy officer and not part of the Alliance Marine Corps, the close working relationship of the Navy and Marines had led to a new directive being initiated, where officers from either branch could command personnel from the other military branches if they were the senior ranked officer in the area. Meaning that Alicia, as a Lieutenant Junior Grade, currently outranked the surviving marine officers. (5)

Alicia turned to Naruto, who gave her a nod, before she cleared her throat. "Okay…well…I need a sit-rep then people. What's our status?"

Walthers was the first one to speak up. "The enemy has destroyed several of our checkpoints and outposts throughout the city, and we've lost contact with the orbital facilities. However I think they're just jamming us ma'am. We're trying to evacuate people towards the center of the city."

"Romeo ma'am. My platoon is currently trying to fight our way over to the spaceport, but I think it's a lost cause. Our last report from over there didn't sound good. We'll try to link up with any other units and-."

"CONTACT! Enemy transports inbound, heading for the city perimeter!" A panicked voice interrupted over the comm.

"Confirmed, inbound enemy troop transports! They're preparing to land around the city!" Another voice spoke up, making Alicia clench a fist.

"I need a visual! Naruto, get yourself onto a vantage point and report in," she said, as Naruto nodded and rushed off, while she pointed to a nearby sergeant. "You, take your squad and start setting up some type of command post. Romeo, Walthers, I need you to get everyone currently in the city and pull back towards the center of the city. We'll need to set up a defensive perimeter inside the city itself, if we're going to hold off a fucking invasion. Move it!" She said.

As the marines leapt into action, Alicia headed outside, looking up to see the transports moving towards the outskirts of the city, slowly lowering themselves into landing positions. Alicia's eyes narrowed as she recognized the majority of them as batarian ships, making her hand tremble softly, before she gripped her Lancer.

Naruto panted lightly as he dashed up the stairs of one of the nearby hotel buildings, having entered and found the elevators offline. Reaching the upper most floor, he rushed to an employee doorway and entered it, finding a staircase leading up to the rooftop. Quickly ascending the final staircase, he burst onto the roof, moving towards the edge of it and crouched down, using his sniper scope to survey the situation. He activated his comm, opening a direct channel to Alicia, before speaking. "They're off loading troops outside the city. Looks like the transports are too big to land any closer. I'm seeing mostly batarians, but with some turians and some humans in the mix. Estimated enemy strength currently at maybe two thousand, and growing," he said. "No sign of any enemy armor or vehicles though. Only infantry."

Alicia, standing in the makeshift command post, nodded at that report, while looking at a digital map of the city. "Alright…we're going to need to slow them down anyway we can…what's our current troop strength?" She asked one of the sergeants.

"Ma'am, we currently have four hundred and sixty three soldiers, about ninety three percent of our total strength," he reported, as Alicia quietly nodded, looking down at the map of the city. She frowned though as she took in the currently reported enemy numbers.

"I'm not sure we have enough to form a defensive perimeter. Not against these numbers," she said softly, looking up at him. "Check our weapon supplies. I want to know how many extra weapons we have on hand," she said.

The sergeant saluted and rushed off, while Alicia took a deep breath, trying to formulate a plan. And yet despite her best efforts, she kept coming back to one sobering thought: she needed more men if they were going to hold out. With no other recourse, she turned to a nearby console, where a corporal was manning communications. "I need you to patch me into the civilian frequencies. Now," she said.

The corporal nodded and quickly did so, giving her a thumb up. Taking a deep breath, Alicia began to speak. "This is Lieutenant Alicia Shepard, current commanding officer of the garrison here on Elysium," she said.

In the center of the city, where the civilians were massed, they all looked at their omni-tools, or at the speakers, where Alicia's words were being transmitted from. "We are currently mustering all available soldiers to defend against the incoming attack. However…if we are going to successfully hold the enemy back, then I require the aid of any and all civilian volunteers."

This made a lot of people start talking, most in fearful tones. Being told that they required civilian help conjured all kinds of feelings of terror and defeat in their minds. Yet Alicia's words cut through to them again. "I know that many of you are frightened, and that you didn't come here to fight against a pirate invasion. You came here to relax, to enjoy yourselves. That was why I came here too, to visit my brother and have a good time. But these pirates, these slavers, they're not going to go away just because we weren't ready for them. They're here, to kill you, or to take you away, to become the property of some batarian senator, or some criminal warlord. Well I for one am not going to let that happen. I'm going to fight them with every fiber of my being, and stop them. But I need your help to do so. So please…for yourselves…for your families or friends…please, I need your help. If you decide to join us…access the city VI and find the marine armory…thank you," she said, before cutting the communication.

In one building, a group of civilians were looking at each other at the end of that message. One of them, an asari, bit her lip as she hugged her daughter close to her. "She…she can't be serious, right? W-we're civilians!"

One of the humans nearby nodded. "Y-Yeah! I'm a cook for fuck's sake, I can't fight!"

"Not right now, you're not," said another voice. A man slowly stepped forward, despite his wife obviously trying to hold him back. "She's right. These pirates…they're not going to stop. They're going to come after us…and they're going to kill or enslave us. Well…I'm not going to stand here and wait for them. If they want to get at my family…they have to go through me," he said, before turning to kiss his wife, and then hug his son. With that, he left the room.

The others all looked, before another man stepped forward, following him. Then a woman, followed by a turian, another human. Slowly, more and more began leaving the room, after saying goodbye to their loved ones. A scene that was playing out in several other locations.

At the armory, Alicia meanwhile had gathered the remaining officers and non-commissioned officers together, to outline her plan. "Alright, the pirates are still massing outside the city, and only a few elements have made it into the city itself. So here's what we're going to do. Walthers, Romeo, Teagan, and Howards. You four are going to take a couple squads each, and move out away from the center of the city. Find yourselves some ambush points, and wait there. When the enemy reaches you, engage them. Do not get yourselves drawn into a sustained battle, and avoid casualties. We don't have the numbers to take any losses. Meanwhile, we'll be busy building up a defensive perimeter around the center of the city," she said, drawing a defensive circle on the map around the central part of the city. "We'll move the Makos and any other vehicles we have to the points of the circle crossing the main streets, to provide additional firepower. We'll also hopefully be having a number of civilian volunteers join us, so I want you all to keep an eye on them. They'll be manning the perimeter, though I want to make sure we have plenty of experienced soldiers with them to keep them in line. Naruto, you'll be taking the snipers and moving to these buildings here," she said, highlighting several tall structures within the defensive perimeter. "They should give your men clear lines of fire on the enemy. Tell them to prioritize anyone who looks like they're in charge, or carrying heavy weaponry. Understood?"

As the officers all nodded, a corporal ran inside. "Ma'am, we have civilians inbound!" She said, saluting quickly.

Alicia gave a grim nod, moving towards the doorway. "I want them armed and organized into platoons. Mix them with the marines, and make sure they have a basic understanding of what we need them to do," she said, as she moved outside to see how many were coming, only to stop as she saw the civilians. There had to be hundreds of them, all moving rapidly towards the armory, some with determined looks on their faces, others with barely restrained fear. And yet they still were coming.

The ones in front stopped outside the armory, some of them glancing at the squads of marines rushing off with weapons armed; while others were loading whatever portable defenses or debris they could into trucks. One of them, a human male, stepped forward as he saw Alicia. "Are you the leader?" He asked.

Alicia nodded, stunned at how many people had apparently rallied to her message. "Yes, I am…there are some soldiers inside, who will be giving you your orders and outfitting as many of you as possible with weapons," she said.

The man nodded, before reaching out a hand. As Alicia took it, the man gripped her hand. "Tell us what to do, and we'll do everything we can," he said, as several others behind him nodded in agreement with quiet 'yeses', echoing as well.

Alicia just gave a nod, shaking his head. "If any of you know how to fire or use a weapon, do what you can to help teach those who don't. We're going to organize a defensive perimeter around the heart of the city. That's where you'll all be stationed. Just keep your heads down, stick to cover, and don't panic fire. If we keep calm and fight hard, we'll make it through this," she said.

At that moment, the main armory doors opened, and soldiers began wheeling out racks of weapons and such, as a sergeant took stock of the number of civilians. "Ma'am, I'm not sure if we've got enough weapons to outfit them all," he said, looking at the numbers of civilians.

Alicia nodded as she turned to him. "Have anyone not armed with weapons work on building up the barricades and defensive positions then. Have them help the medics, or be ready to take the place of any casualties. Anything they can do to help, make sure they do it. Got that?"

"Yes ma'am! Alright, anyone who has weapon training, you first! Single file line!" The sergeant ordered, grabbing a Lancer off the rack as some of the civilians began streaming forward to take up arms.

Alicia meanwhile watched as Naruto headed off with at least two dozen soldiers, all armed with a mixture of Viper and Mantis sniper rifles. As she watched him go, Alicia activated her comm, setting it to his channel. "be careful out there, little bro," she said.

"You too sis. Let's give them hell," Naruto said back, turning to wave to her, before heading off. Alicia took a deep breath, and glanced out in the direction of the enemy transports, knowing this was going to be a long fight.

Over on the outskirts of Illyria, a turian by the name of Titerius Vernius growled in annoyance and frustration. He had been put in charge of the ground operations by Haliat, and was supposed to be leading the pirates and slavers into the city already. However, complications had already arisen.

For starters, the spaceport, which would have been an excellent landing sight and would have allowed them to deploy hundreds of their men in a manner of minutes, was not within their control. The infiltrators who had set the explosives had been charged with taking the spaceport, but the Alliance marines defending it had managed to hold onto the main control facilities, preventing them from making use of the docking platforms, and forcing them to land all their troops outside the city. The landing and organizing of the troops was also taking too long, as the criminals, while sharing a lust for booty and slaves, were not as eager to work together, with mistrust of other criminal or slaver groups leading to antagonizing words and near brawls to erupt amongst several of the groups. The first troops down had immediately rushed into the city, only to immediately begin looting the outer buildings they came across, rather than pushing towards the center of the city to try and engage the marines and prevent them from setting up a proper defense.

All of this meant that the invasion of the city, which should have been a quick smash and grab attack, was taking longer than it should have. A fact made worse by the presence of Alliance warships in orbit. Even now, Titerius was getting reports that despite being outnumbered six to one, the Alliance frigates were holding their own due to the fact that they were more advanced than the majority of the pirate and slaver warships, and moved together to prevent the pirate's warships from surrounding them.

Still, the men were now organized, and Titerius quickly ordered the first waves into the city, urging them to push in as far as they possibly could.

On the east side of the city, a group of close to thirty pirates and slavers were steadily making their way through the city, finding it mostly abandoned. One of them, a batarian, grinned as he saw a jewelry store, stopping and pointing to it. "Hey guys, right there," he said. "There's our payday."

The leader of the group a second batarian, turned to the speaker. "You heard the turian, we need to get into the center of the town. We can come back for it later Jarak," he said, only for Jarak to scoff.

"C'mon Sklar, you really think those jewels will be here when we get back? The guys behind us will pillage it before we do. Let's hit it now, and get the good stuff," he said, as some of the others voiced their support.

Jarak thought for a moment, before greed won out. "alright, let's do it," he said with a grin.

Sklar let out a triumphant shout, before rushing towards the store, followed by his comrades. Just as he rushed through the door though, he heard a beeping noise. "Wha-?" was all he managed to get out before the entire store erupted into flames, incinerating his body instantly, as well as the bodies of his comrades right behind him. The other pirates were thrown back by the explosions, some of them burning while others were pierced with debris that had overwhelmed their kinetic barriers. Still others had their organs liquefied and their bones shattered by the concussive force of the blast.

Only Jarak and a few others, who had been at the back of the group, were spared death, instead being hit by the shockwave and thrown back onto the ground. Dazed, head ringing and his four eyes out of focus, Jarak slowly got to his knees, only to feel several impacts against his shields, then armor, then his body, throwing him back to the ground. He weakly looked down at his chest, seeing the armor he wore torn open in several places on the chest, and dark red blood oozing from the wounds. Weakly glancing up, he now saw a few armored figures in the windows of the buildings around them, making him curse weakly. "D-Damnit…," he said, as the world went dark.

Above, Walthers nodded in approval. "Good idea booby trapping the store, Hicks," he said to a female marine nearby, who grinned.

"Pirates are dumb like that sir," she said, putting a couple of notches on the butt of her Lancer.

"Alright people, let's displace to the next position. Keep your heads down," Walthers said, as his marines began to move out quickly, falling back to their next planned ambush point, knowing they had to give Alicia and the others more time to ready the defensive perimeter.

On the south side, Sergeant Teagan nodded as he saw the last of the batarian slaver group his marines had engaged fall to the ground, grasping weakly at his throat. His men had moved to the rooftops surrounding one of the larger streets, and when the slavers had come through, had lobbed grenades down at them, killing dozens in mere seconds. The stragglers, disoriented and surprised, had been quickly gunned down, the final one being shot by a corporal opposite Teagan's position. "Good work people. Fall back to position Beta," he ordered, as they quickly began moving out.

The pirates and slavers that made up the first wave of Haliat's ground invasion soon found themselves being ambushed across the city, being hit by surprise explosions or bursts of weapon fire. Most of the initial groups were so surprised they were unable to respond, being wiped out within minutes or seconds of contact. A few managed to find cover, radioing the news to the groups following up behind them.

Titerius growled angrily, his mandibles flaring slightly as the reports came in from the few survivors of the foremost groups. They had lost any advantage surprise had given them, and the enemy was already inflicting large casualties on their forward units. With no choice, he ordered as many pirates and slavers into the city as were ready, to simply flood the streets and alleys and force these ambushers back.

Alicia stood on the main street of Illyria, watching as a mixture of marines and civilians finished setting up the defensive barricades, and quickly took up positions behind it, checking their weapons. The marines were doing so with calm proficiency, but the civilians were all nervous, one woman fumbling with a thermal clip before managing to slot it into the cooling chamber of the Predator she had been issued. She trembled as she looked over the barricade, only to glance as a nearby soldier spoke to her, causing her to nod and take a deep breath, trying to steady herself.

Alicia's gaze moved to the Mako rolling up slightly behind the defensive line, as well as an older M29 Grizzly. Unlike the smaller Mako, the Grizzly was heavier, longer, and slower, with a configuration that gave it great stability, but made it less maneuverable. Because of this, Grizzlys were more and more becoming a staple 'defensive vehicle' in Marine garrisons, leaving the Mako to fulfill the role of a fast moving 'scout and assault' vehicle. The Grizzly easily fulfilled its role thanks to the much larger 203mm cannon mounted on it, compared to the smaller 155mm cannon of the Mako.

Seeing this defensive position was established, she activated her comm. "What's our status people?" She asked.

"East barricade secure ma'am!"

"North barricade ready to go!"

"Western barricade is complete."

The reports came in from each of the barricades, with soldiers and civilians taking up positions behind the defensive fortifications, or in the buildings behind the line. Alicia nodded as she switched to her brother's channel. "Naruto, how about your men?"

Naruto, currently perched in an office inside one of the tower office buildings located in the center of the city, tapped the side of his helmet. "My snipers have put themselves up in good positions. We've got fairly good firing lanes over the majority of the barricades, except for one in the south eastern sector. It's in a bit of a blind spot."

"Roger that," she said, before switching to a more open frequency. "Alright people, bunker down and lets get ready. Remember, don't give them standing targets. Use your cover and pick them off. They have to get past us to win."

At that moment, a voice broke in. "Lieutenant Shepard, the enemy is coming in full force! We're not going to be able to ambush them this time," Walthers said.

"Confirmed! Massive groups of enemies on our trackers! Request permission to fall back and reinforce the defensive perimeter!" Teagan's voice echoed over the comm.

"Permission granted! Heads down and get back here double time! Move!" Alicia ordered, before moving to her own position there at the southern barricade, pulling out her Lancer. "Check your thermal clips, and let's get ready!" She shouted.

All along the line, soldiers and civilians alike checked their weapons, a few silently whispering or praying under their breath. At one barricade on the eastern side, a man quietly crossed himself, whispering under his breath as he prayed to God, before glancing at the civilian to his left, finding a turian there. The turian had his eyes closed, and was whispering quietly as well, clearly in a form of prayer. The human slowly blinked at that, before settling into his position, starting to think that maybe there wasn't that much of a difference between humans and other aliens after all, as he began his own quiet prayer, crossing himself.

Alicia watched as her motion tracker lit up, showing the incoming blue blips of one of the ambush squads. "Hold fire, friendlies incoming!" she said, knowing the civilians would be too excited to register the distant shapes as allies.

*Soldiers by Otherwise*

The ambush squads quickly vaulted over the barricades, taking up their own positions along the line. Now they waited, the air feeling heavy, the city silent save for the engines of the vehicles, or the heavy breathing or quiet whimpering or sobbing of one of the civilians.

And then Alicia's motion tracker lit up again, this time with a few red blips, that soon began to morph into a larger group of red blips, and then soon the entire upper portion of her tracker, indicating the area ahead of her, was filled with red blips. Alicia quietly activated her comm, now whispering her instructions. "Snipers, you take the first shots. Pick off the officers, heavy weapon wielders, or snipers. We'll take the rest," she said quietly, as she steadied her Lancer, bringing it up to her shoulder. Along the line, others did so as well.

Down the road, they could hear some laughter, shouts and jeers from the pirates, soon followed by the irregular mass thunder of hundreds of armored boots tramping towards them at uneven paces. And then the first ones appeared visually, a large group of batarians, some wearing full armored suits, others wearing bits and pieces of armor or just normal clothing. Each and every one of them was armed though with a variety of weapons, ranging from shotguns to assault rifles and battle rifles.

Alicia narrowed her eyes as her HUD identified one of them moving forward, gripping what definitely looked like some type of grenade or rocket launcher. And he definitely seemed intent on using it, as he started to raise the weapon. Activating her comlink to Naruto, she said two simple words: "Do it."

The batarian was raising his heavy weapon when he suddenly jerked, thrown back as a spurt of dark red liquid shot into the air from the middle of his forehead, followed by the crack of a sniper rifle echoing through the air. The batarian fell back dead, the second hand shield generator clipped to his clothing offering no protection against the round from Naruto's Viper. He fell back dead, as Alicia raised her Lancer. "Light em up!" She shouted.

And with that, the entire barricade came alive with weapons fire, tracers ripping through the air and burying themselves into the ranks of pirates and slavers. Numerous batarians, turians, and humans all along the first few ranks dropped, dead or wounded from the rounds ripping into their bodies. A few of those still standing were initially saved by their kinetic shields, only for those to quickly fail under the withering assault and for them to drop as well. The pirates behind them quickly rushed to find cover, diving into stores and buildings, alley ways, or behind parked vehicles, lamp posts, or any other cover they could. Those unable to find cover dropped to the ground, hugging it to make them harder targets.

Behind the defenders, the vehicles began to add their own fire with their cannons, the six and eight inch shells ripping through cover like it wasn't there and sending pirates, or their body parts, flying from the explosions. One unfortunate batarian, carrying several grenades on bandoliers, was sent crashing into a parked sky car from such an explosion, before his grenades went off, causing the skycar to explode and killing him as well as the huddled group of human pirates using the skycar for cover.

All along the defensive perimeter, it was the same, as Alliance marines and the mixed civilian defenders opened up on their invading enemies, pouring fire into them and driving them into cover.

Up above, from his vantage point, Naruto quietly aimed at an armored turian who was obviously speaking into a radio unit mounted into his armor. Lining up the sights, Naruto quickly fired three rounds at the turian. The first two dropped his shields while the third round ripped through the softer material around the spiked bastard's neck, dropping him instantly. Checking his thermal readout for his weapon and seeing it was still good, he quickly found a new target, a batarian taking potshots at the defensive line with a shotgun, firing a single round at the alien slaver's unarmored and shield head and ending his life.

Alicia ducked down as a spray of bullets impacted the barricade in front of her, glancing down the line. Invariably, the pirates and slavers had now started firing back at the defenders, forcing them to duck into cover. A few of the civilians had been injured, and Alicia felt her throat tighten as she saw one man lying on the ground, a gaping hole where his left eye should be. Growling angrily, she peeked over the barricade, and seeing a batarian poking out of cover, shot up and fired a quick burst, letting out a grunt of satisfaction as she saw him go down. Ducking down again, she turned to a group of marines hiding a bit back from the main defensive line. "Hammer team, you ready?" She asked them over her comm.

Hammer team was the platoon of marines stationed on Elysium who were trained as engineers, technical soldiers capable of not only repairing vehicles and building defensive emplacements, but also sabotaging enemy weapons, shields, and armor during combat, as well as deploying combat and defensive drones. Alicia had divided the platoon up all along the defensive line, to support the defenders at key spots.

Now, with the enemy in cover, she signaled the section of Hammer team assigned to her sector to set to work. Immediately one of the engineers's pulled out his drone kit, typing a few commands into his omni-tool and causing the spherical holographic drone to appear. The drone rose up, before launching itself over the barricade, homing in on a group of batarians and turians hiding inside a building. The drone, a military class combat drone, immediately fired a barrage of mini rockets all along the front of the building, causing the entire front to be blown out and killing or maiming the majority of the pirates and slavers hiding there. Turning, the drone, still not being fired upon, focused on a couple of pirates hugging the ground. Homing in on them, this time it instead launched a bolt of high powered electricity at one of them, shorting out his armor and shielding. A second pulse hit him directly, electrocuting the man and ending his life. The other pirate began frantically firing at the drone, who fired a pulse of lighting at him, but quickly succumbed to his fire. Badly damaged and nearing expiration, the drone threw itself at the pirate, exploding violently and killing the pirate in the process.

The other engineer meanwhile was typing commands into his own omni-tool, targeting a pirate with a rather large light machine gun who was suppressing a section of the barricade with his fire. Connecting to the onboard computer in the light machine gun that was used for targeting compensation, he began hacking it, sabotaging the computer program into overheating the thermal clip. With a loud bang the light machine gun backfire, destroying the weapon and ripping the batarian pirate's hands off, causing him to scream in pain before a burst of rifle fire mercifully ended his life.

However, even though the pirates were being destroyed due to the lack of cover and equipment, they had numbers on their side, as fresh pirates moved up behind those who had fallen or were bogged down. A fresh wave of pirates now started to assault the barricade, as several of the defenders either had to duck down to try and replace the thermal clips in their weapons, or were hit by weapons fire, their wounded or dead bodies falling backwards or draping over the barricade.

Alicia decided now was the time to use her next big surprise, even as a turian civilian near her fell to the ground, clutching her shoulder. The turian was quickly hauled away for medical care, as in her place was one of the few biotic marines stationed on Elysium. The woman, a master sergeant, began gathering her biotics around her, forming a ball of energy into her hand before launching it at a group of enemies with a throwing motion of her hand. The powerful 'throw' smashed into the group, launching the forerunners back with a massive burst of kinetic energy, with enough force to shatter the ribcage of one of the pirates, and hurl them through their own group, sending the others scattering. The woman continued to launch powerful throws at groups of enemies, only to stop and shield herself in a barrier of energy, throwing her hands out to form the shield.

Alicia, her Lancer overheating and needing to cool down, stowed the weapon and called upon her own biotics, channeling the energy into both her hands. Unlike the biotic user next to her though, instead of unleashing a throw, she expelled the energy from her hands, creating a cascading wave of biotic explosions that the Alliance had dubbed as 'shockwave'. The cascading explosions ripped through a skycar being used for cover, sending it flying as well as the pirates behind it who were thrown into the air by the shockwave.

Other biotc users were also taking their place along the line, utilizing their biotics to throw enemies with bone crushing force, pull them into the air, or to shield themselves or nearby allies in barriers. A few of the more well trained biotics were unleashing more powerful attacks. On the western barricade, an asari commando who had been on vacation launched out a biotic energy ball that erupted into a swirling vortex right above a group of pirates. Before they knew what hit them, the biotic singularity yanked them off their feet, dangling them helplessly in the air. As they struggled, the commando let out a smirk as she fired a second blast of biotic energy. This one instead was a warp, a potent attack meant to manipulate dark matter into shredding the molecules of an enemy target when it impacted them. Against a single target it was deadly, but the unstable nature of the warp made it far more deadly when combined with the unstable power of an active biotic singularity. A fact demonstrated when the warp hit the singularity, causing a massive explosion of biotic energy. The pirates trapped near the center of the singularity were reduced to half disintegrated corpses, while those farther out were killed by the force of the shockwave, or the force of their flying bodies smashing into nearby buildings.

Up above, Naruto finished sliding a new thermal clip into his Viper, and after registering the weapon's thermal readings returning to normal, proceeded to check for targets again. The battle was in full swing now, the pirates fully engaged in trying to break the defensive line while the marines and colonists were holding. From the radio chatter, the defenders had suffered some losses, but they were nothing compared to the pirates, caught mostly in the open against a well entrenched and well motivated enemy.

Tracking a target carefully, he saw a batarian slaver prepping a grenade to throw. With a quick shot he hit the grenade as it was still in the slaver's hand, causing it to detonate and kill the slaver and his allies nearby. Naruto just blinked, having been aiming for the man's arm. "Well that was unexpected," he said, while the sniper next to him just gaped, having seen it through his own scope.

On the ground, Alicia was taking a moment to recuperate her strength from her use of the biotics. They were a powerful asset, but using her biotics required a lot more energy, and so biotics had to not only train to have higher stamina and endurance than other soldiers, but also had to constantly remain energized during battle. In this case, Alicia was having one of the prescribed energy drinks as another took her place on the line.

Using her momentary respite, she decided to check on the situation overall. Retreating to the forward command post, which was also doubling as a resupply post and forward medical station, she began contacting the other command posts around the defensive perimeter. "This is Lieutenant Shepard to all command posts. What's your status?"

"Command Post Beta reporting everything under control here."

"This is Charlie. We're holding them Lieutenant!"

"Delta here. Situation is normal. We've taken some losses along the line where we can't get sniper support, but we're holding otherwise."

Alicia nodded, frowning at that last report. That one position on the south-east section of the line was their weak spot. Besides the lack of clear firing lines for her snipers, they weren't able to move any of the vehicles over there either, leaving it relatively unsupported. She had stationed a larger portion of the marines to that sector, but still it was their weak link.

"Roger that. Delta, keep an eye on that sector. If they wise up, they might try and major push there," she ordered, before ending her comms. Turning, she watched a human civilian helping a wounded marine to the medical post, as another civilian nearby took the marine's Lancer and rushed off to take his place. Watching the civilian's bravery made her nod grimly while clenching her fist. They would hold this line, no matter what.

SSV Agincourt

The Agincourt, an Alliance Hastings-class frigate, currently was pushing its FTL engines to maximum burn in order to reach the colony of Elysium. They had received the distress call from the Hong Kong, one of the four frigates that had been scheduled to make a supply run to Elysium, stating that a large pirate force had made an assault on the planet. The Hong Kong, Falkirk, Iwo Jima, and Hattin had engaged the enemy warships in orbit, while slaver transports moved down towards the capital city of Illyria. (6)

The Agincourt and her flotilla she was assigned to, a group of two cruisers and six frigates total, were the closest ships on hand, less than four hours away. They had received the initial distress call approximately two hours ago, and had immediately responded, being the first group to do so. A couple of Mass Relay jumps had left them one relay away, a journey of less than hour.

Onboard the Agincourt, Navigation Quartermaster 1st Class Charles Pressly was busy plotting and adjusting the ship's planned course, while Lieutenant Kyoto, the ship's Navigator, conferred with Commander Romanoff, the ship's commanding officer. One of the nearby crewmembers leaned over to Pressly. "Hey, you think we'll get there in time Pressly?"

Pressly just nodded quietly. "We'll get there in time. This won't be another Mindoir," he said, her jaw set. Those damn aliens wouldn't get the better of the Alliance again. No sir.

At that moment, the helmsman called out over the intercom. "Thirty minutes to Relay jump! Repeat, thirty minutes to relay jump! ETA to Elysium is one hour!"

Pressly felt a rush of excitement at that. They were close, and hopefully they'd be there in time.

Orbit over Elysium

Elanos Haliat cursed as he saw yet another of his warships start belching plasma fires from several ports, its hull ripped open by laser fire from one of the Alliance Frigates. That made the eleventh ship destroyed or disabled since this orbital battle began, and the battle was continuing to not go in their favor. Despite outnumbering the four Alliance frigates, Haliat hadn't considered three variables that were working against him. The Alliance frigates were fighting in their home turf, and were using it to their advantage, especially since Haliat's warships had to limit their fire when the Alliance ships moved between them and the planet. If they were careless with their fire, they could rain shells down on their own ground forces. The frigates however had no such problems, darting out to close quarter ranges and using their General ARea Defense Integration Anti-spacecraft Network, or GARDIAN laser batteries, to cut into his ships, then retreating to allow their laser batteries to cool down, taking pot shots with their missiles as they hung back to recharge.

The second disadvantage was simply that all of his ships were outdated compared to their opponents. Almost every ship in his fleet was a warship that had been cast aside or had been decommissioned by their governments, and while there were attempts to keep their ships as modernized as possible, it simply wasn't enough to handle the more advanced Alliance frigates.

The third variable was the teamwork and coordination of the captains of the Alliance frigates. Haliat's warships were made up of vessels and crews belonging to different pirate captains, who made a habit of attacking each other just as much as attacking civilian colonies and transports. This meant that their teamwork extended only so far as they were willing to fight alongside each other, and little else. The Alliance ships though were captained by men who were ready to work with each other, and trusted each other, allowing them to fight more effectively.

These three variables had allowed the Alliance warships to down his fleet of nearly half its fighting power, while only suffering minor to moderate damage to their own warships. Every moment stuck fighting these warships was another moment he couldn't reinforce his ground troops with the soldiers onboard his own warships, not to mention more time the Alliance had to bring up reinforcements. They should have already been loading the transport ships up with slaves and treasure.

Instead, his ground forces had been ground to a halt, stop dead by an impressive defense put up by the colonists and their marine garrison. The last report put their ground forces casualties at thirty five percent and rising, and they hadn't managed to break through at all.

Haliat gripped the railing of the command podium on the bridge of his dreadnaught, as he felt the ship shudder from impacts of a few missiles hitting the kinetic barrier. The ship's own laser batteries had destroyed several incoming missiles from the frigates, but several had still gotten through. He narrowed his eyes as he studied the map of the battle in front of him, trying to find a point where he could flank the enemy, or drive into them and stop them from freely maneuvering. Unfortunately, there was no opening for him to exploit. He couldn't maneuver his ships quickly enough to counter the frigates. The best he could do was group them up for protection, and even then the frigates simply picked off whatever ships were on the outer most edges.

Hoping that the situation on the ground was improving, Haliat pressed a few buttons on the command console for the holographic map, changing it to act as a communicator with Titerius. Soon enough his ground commander appeared. "Titerius, I need an update," he ordered.

"We're completely bogged down here sir! Most of our forces are held up in the open with no way of advancing or breaking through their lines!" Titerius reported, as in the background they could hear the screams of wounded pirates and slavers being dragged back to the shuttles for medical attention.

"You need to find a way to break through Titerius. We cannot hold our position much longer, and undoubtedly their reinforcements will be here soon. Hurry up and punch through their lines," he ordered.

On the surface, Alicia looked at the latest figures. The pirate attacks in the north had slackened off considerably, and VI controlled aerial drones had spotted numerous pirates taking long routes out and around the defensive line to reinforce their positions in the south. Alicia had thus ordered some of the defenders along the west and eastern parts of the perimeter to shift southward, while some of the soldiers in the northern part shifted to pick up the slack in those areas. If need be, she could shift reinforcements rapidly in this fashion, in case the pirates doubled back.

Ammo wise, her forces were holding out still, with plenty of thermal clips left. Casualty wise, they had over one hundred confirmed dead currently, with almost three times as many wounded, the majority of them being the civilian defenders with only a few being marines.

It seemed that at the moment, they were holding, and would continue to be able to hold against the enemy.

Alicia looked up as her comm went off, and Naruto's voice came through. "Hey sis, I think we're winning this. A fair amount of the pirates just pulled back from the south perimeter. Think they might be retreating," he said.

Alicia frowned a bit though. "All of them, or just some?"

"Only some, but the rest don't look like they're making any plans. They're staying where they are, trading shots. Probably just trying to keep our heads down until they can pull back themselves."

Alicia still frowned. "I don't know, that seems a bit too easy. Keep your eyes peeled," she said, before switching her comm to the frequency used by the entire defense force. "This is Lieutenant Shepard. All commands keep your eyes peeled. The enemy might be planning something," she ordered.

Indeed, Titerius was planning something, as he consulted with his remaining ground commanders, looking over the defensive perimeter the enemy had. "Alright…we've managed to establish that they've got snipers watching almost every sector of the defensive line, except for right here," he said, highlighting the southeast portion of the perimeter. "The area is too narrow for their vehicles as well, so the only thing defended this sector of their line are their troops. This is where we'll break through. The troops we're pulling back will concentrate into a single thrust, and break through here, while the rest of our forces keep their forces occupied and stop them from reinforcing that position. Understood?"

The commanders all nodded, and quickly rushed off to issue the orders, while Titerius clenched a fist. This was their final chance to break through. If they failed here, they would fail altogether. He didn't have the manpower to make another frontal assault. Battles came down to the commanders recognizing the moments to make bold actions, and in Titerius's judgment, this was one of those moments. Watching the pirates and slavers move out, he contemplating grabbing a weapon and joining them, before shaking his head. He'd have to be ready to organize a retreat if need be.

In orbit, Haliat frowned as his communication officer suddenly stiffened. "What is it?" He ordered.

The communication officer turned to him. "Sir, our sentry ship near the Relay reported in...eight Alliance warships have entered the system, and our heading for us," he reported in a shaking voice.

Haliat froze at that, before slowly looking at the holographic galaxy map, currently set to show a map of the orbital battle around Elysium, including combat data on the ships and structures in orbit. Indeed, the map was already being updated with this new data, indicating eight incoming warships with estimated speed and time till firing range.

In that instant, Haliat knew they had lost. His ground forces would never break through and return in time. Even if they tried to evacuate now, it would take too long. If four Alliance frigates had been capable of reducing his warships to floating debris over the course of hours, what would eight more warships do to his dwindling ships?

No, they had lost. And Haliat knew there was only one course of action. Straightening himself, he opened a comm channel to all of his remaining warships. "All ships, this is Elanos Haliat. Disengage from orbit and prepare for a fighting retreat. We're falling back to the Mass Relay," he ordered.

The CIC crew all gaped at him, as he continued. "We'll move in formation and keep firing at every enemy ship that we encounter. But focus on getting to the Relay. Move out," he ordered, before cutting the comm. "Helm, take us out to the Relay, and plot a course for the Terminus Systems. Any system will do," he said, turning to move away.

"Sir, what about our ground forces? They'll be cut to shreds without any support!" One of his officers protested, only for Haliat to fix him with a cold stare.

"They're lost already. Even if they aren't routed by the ground defenders, the warships will drop reinforcements to cut them off. If we leave now, the Alliance ships will focus on trying to reinforce their defenders, rather than trying to stop us. Sacrifice some to save others," he retorted. "Now get moving. You have your orders," he said.

His officers stood there, before slowly moving, ordering their subordinates into action, as Haliat simply moved to the doors leading out of the CIC, to head to his quarters. They were finished, and so was he. He had been the one to gather everyone, to propose the plan with the backing of his financial investors. This plan had been his glorious moment, his crowning achievement as the strongest criminal leader in the Terminus Systems. And now it was ending in disaster. He'd be lucky to even be accepted in another criminal group, let alone be in command of any forces. Clenching one tri digit hand, he quietly vowed vengeance against those who ruined him. Whoever it was that had thwarted his plans so effectively. He'd make them pay for this.

On the ground, Alicia was gripping the table as reports came in. The pirates had launched fresh attacks along almost the entire perimeter, bogging all of her forces down. What didn't make sense to her was that the pirates and slavers didn't seem to be intent on advancing; they only seemed intent on engaging her forces and keeping them tied up. Why weren't they trying to take the barricades?

The answer came when a frantic report came over the comms. "This is Corporal Daniels on the south east barricade! They're pushing us hard here! I don't think we can-." The transmission abruptly ended, as Alicia immediately turned to the UAV controllers.

"I need a visual on the south east barricade! Now!" She shouted. The controller nodded, and quickly maneuvered his drone into position. As the visual came up, they could see the defenders of the barricade in that position being overrun, some running from their positions, others being overrun and captured or killed.

"Damnit," Alicia cursed, turning to her table. "Are there any forces available to route over to that position?!"

"No ma'am. All forces are currently engaged. The only ones not fighting are the wounded or those here," replied one of the marines present. Alicia knew she couldn't take the people in the command post into combat. They were needed to coordinate the other defenders. She knew of only one person available to reinforce the south east barricade.

"Very well then…continue to coordinate the other barricades. I'll handle this myself," Alicia said, pulling out her Katana shotgun and checking the thermal clip inside, before starting to move out. As she exited the door, she found herself being confronted by Naruto. "I take it you heard?" she asked her brother.

"Eeyup. And with all due respect ma'am…you're going to need me," he said.

Alicia looked at him, and grinned a bit ruefully before securing her breather mask to her helmet. "I don't suppose threatening to charge you with insubordination will make you return to your snipers?" She asked.

"No ma'am," Naruto said, gripping his Viper, as Alicia just nodded.

"Very well…Lieutenant Uzumaki, you're with me," she said, before holding out a fist. "Ready to rock?"

Naruto just grinned behind his own mask as he bumped his sister's fist. "Ready to roll," he said, as the two rushed off towards the barricade.

A group of armed humanoids stopped as they reached the corner of a building, with their leader slowly leaning his helmeted head around the corner, searching. The figure turned to his followers, the visor of his helmet turning transparent, revealing four eyes. The batarian nodded to his squad mates. "Looks clear," he said in a harsh, guttural sounding tone, while lifting up the assault rifle in his hands to a ready position.

His followers, a mixed group of humans, batarians, and turians, all readied their weapons, and quickly sprinted around the corner, weapons at the ready. They were the forward most group of the pirates that had managed to break through the south eastern barricade, and were trying to reach the Alliance command post to disrupt their communications and coordination.

The batarian leading the group watched his squad spread out, weapons up as they scanned for any sign of defenders. One of them stopped as they saw movement, and quickly began to fire their shotgun at said movement. The entire squad swung around, opening up as well, their projectiles ripping into what had been a lively electronic advertisement sign, which now sputtered and collapsed, electronic sparks shooting off of it as it was ripped to pieces by the projectiles.

"Cease fire damnit!" The batarian shouted, as his squad did so. Some of them glared at the human who had started firing, who had a bit of a sheepish grin on his face. The grin evaporated though when the sound of a shotgun blast ripped through the air and he was thrown back, his armor's kinetic barriers failing completely and his armor being torn open by the spread of pellets. Blood spurted from the chest wound, splashing another batarian pirate near him as he let out a grunt, gasping for air as he bled out.

Before the rest could even react, another of their number, a turian, was sent flying as what seemed like a glowing blue comet smashed into him, shattering his armor and the bones in his chest. He was sent flying back, only to be killed as a second shotgun blast ripped into his torso, ending his life.

The group whirled, seeing a new figure in their midst, holding the smoking shotgun. The figure was female, clad in standard Alliance combat armor and wearing a fully sealed helmet, with the blue glow of biotics surrounding her entire body. The only visible part of her was a pair of blue eyes, as she cheekily waved at the pirates.

"Hey there boys," she said, before letting out a yell as her biotics flared and she slammed a fist into the ground, creating a massive shockwave of biotic energy that slammed into the pirates surrounding her, sending them flying with incredible force. One of them, a turian, went flying back the way they came, hitting the ground and rolling, while a batarian slammed into a building, his body broken by the impact, and a third smashed into one of his comrades with such force that it broke his neck and drove his comrade into a wall. The other pirates were staggered by the sudden biotic attack, and so they couldn't react when this biotic wielding soldier brought up her shotgun, blasting a human female who was barely regaining her footing. The shot ripped through the woman's helmet, turning her head to a mass of red pulp as the soldier spun, shooting another in the leg and dropping him before using a compressed wave of biotic energy to send him flying into a wall head first, crushing his skull.

The batarian leader growled and raised his own assault rifle, firing at the biotic woman. The first shot hit the woman's kinetic barriers, and she quickly dropped down, sliding behind a skycar that was parked nearby. The two other pirates still on their feet also began firing at the skycar, as they all advanced on the woman.

Suddenly, a small beeping disc flew over the vehicle, and the batarian leader's eyes went wide. "GRENADE!" He shouted, jumping to one side. One of the remaining pirates, a human, dodged as well, but the remaining one, a batarian, reacted too late, and disappeared in a flash of flames and shrapnel as the grenade exploded at his feet.

The human pirate tried to stagger back to his feet, only to get slammed by a second biotic charge, followed by another shotgun blast to the chest as he went flying, his dead body smashing through a storefront window. The batarian leader, his head reeling from the explosion, struggled to reach for his assault rifle, only for an armored boot to land on it. He slowly looked up at the human female, who had her shotgun pointed at his face. "Well…get it over with human," he spat out.

The human titled her head for a second, before shrugging. "If you say so," she said, before pulling the trigger and shooting him point blank in the face, reducing his head to a dark red crater. She slowly lowered her shotgun, stepping off the batarian and looking back the way she had come, raising her free hand to press against the side of her helmet, as if talking to someone. As she did so, she missed the sight of the pirate who was thrown back the way the pirates had come getting back to his feet. The turian shook his helmeted head, before looking at the woman. Seeing her distracted, he raised his assault rifle, about to fire, when there was a sudden sharp pain in his face that lasted for not even a second before he knew no more.

Alicia turned to see the corpse of the final turian slump over with a hole in the center of his helmet's visor, before turning to see Naruto rising up from his crouched position on top of a truck, his Viper smoking slightly from the barrel. "Nice shot," she said.

Naruto however was frowning as he joined his sister, the pair advancing forward towards the overrun barricade. "You didn't need to kill that batarian. He was defenseless," he said.

"I couldn't have left him there, and we don't exactly have anyone to hand him over to, do we?" Alicia asked, before her tone grew darker. "Besides, he wanted me to kill him, so I granted his wish," she said.

Naruto let out a frustrated sigh as he dropped the subject. He knew that his sister had a very strong dislike, bordering on hatred, for batarians. He could understand why, given how batarians were responsible for the death of their father, Malcolm. But even still, he didn't think killing them in cold blood was the answer. But right now wasn't the time to talk about it, especially as they came around a corner, and found their objective.

The defenders at the barricade were gone, either fled, dead, or captured. They could see the pirates and slavers even now working to tear down the defenses, to make it easier for troops to move through, as others prepared to fan out to strike at the nearest barricades. Naruto gripped his Viper as the pair stopped, staring at the mass before them. "That's a whole lot of them," he said quietly.

"Yeah...loser has to buy the drinks when this is all over?" Alicia asked, challenging Naruto.

Naruto just grinned as he placed his sniper rifle on his back, and pulled out his Lancer. "You're on," he said, as Alicia smirked, channeling her biotics.

*Feel Invincible by Skillet*

With a roar she launched herself forward with a biotic charge, turning into a blue biotic comet that smashed into the pirates. The one she impacted was sent flying, smashing through his comrades, sending several flying. Before they could react, Alicia continued to channel her biotic energy from the charge into her fist, smashing it into the ground and sending out another Nova wave, sending the remaining pirates around her flying.

Even as she crouched, she felt Naruto's hand on her back as he vaulted over her, firing his Lancer with his other hand as he landed on his feet and rolled forward, coming up into a crouch and firing at the pirates closest to him, felling several with his continuous fire. Alicia quickly moved next to him, firing several bursts with her shotgun, killing three batarians.

The pirates at the barricade could only gape at this seemingly suicidal charge from the two Alliance soldiers, before they turned to fire at them. Naruto dropped his Lancer and threw out his hands, red biotics swirling around him before forming into a barrier that withstood the fire. Alicia charged her own biotics and launched a shockwave through the barrier, sending a large swathe of pirates and slavers flying from the cascading waves of biotic energy.

Naruto dropped his barrier, grabbing his Lancer and charging, shooting the now cooled weapon down as he cleared the last pirates on the half destroyed barricade. Seeing a turian start to climb up he quickly channeled his biotics to his right hand, rearing back and punching the turian, sending him flying with his neck twisted at a fatal angle. Dropping behind what was left of the barricade, he began to open fire with his Lancer, as Alicia joined him, still firing her shotgun as well.

The pirates were momentarily thrown back, absolutely stunned by this vicious assault by just two soldiers, who had already driven them back off the barricade. However, numbers gave them back their confidence, and they charged, firing at the pair of siblings.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he was forced to drop his Lancer, the weapon overheated. Not having time to let it cool, he grabbed his Viper and began firing with that, as next to him Alicia did the same with katana, grabbing her Lancer. The pair continued to hold their ground, continually putting fire into the ranks of the charging pirates, watching enemy after enemy drop dead or wounded.

Yet the numbers began to tell, as they pressed closer and closer, gaining ground through sheer numbers. It was two against hundreds, if not thousands.

As his Viper overheated, Naruto dropped it, grabbing his sidearm, as he could see Alicia doing the same. The two of them looked at each other and knowing they couldn't hold this position with just pistols, did the only thing they could do. Red and blue biotics flared as, as one, they leapt over the side, shouting and firing their pistols while charging.

The pirates soon learned the disadvantage that came from their numbers. The south eastern barricade had been placed on a narrower street, and in this confined space, biotic users would be all the more dangerous. Especially biotic users getting right into their faces, at melee range. Their comrades behind them couldn't shoot without hitting their own, and so the pirates at the front were on their own. They managed one burst of fire, enough to weaken both Alicia and Naruto's shields, before the pair was upon them.

Alicia drove a biotically enhanced fist into a human pirate's chest, shattering the armor from the force of the blow, as well as the man's ribs, while Naruto ducked under a batarian's clumsy attempt to bash him with his rifle, before rising up, grabbing the batarian by the face and smashing him into a wall, whirling to use him as a bullet shield as a turian behind him fired. Throwing the dead body into the crowd, Naruto sent out a large biotic throw, the energy projectile smashing into a pirate and sending him sailing through several of his comrades, as next to him, Alicia rapidly delivered a series of punches to an opponent, then grabbing him and using him as a battering ram to smash into the enemies ranks, driving deep into them. Smashing her now unconscious passenger to the ground, she let out another powerful nova, sending pirates and slavers around her flying, as Naruto leapt into the air over her, bringing his own fist smashing down onto an unfortunate batarian's face, smashing him into the ground. He quickly raised his pistol, firing several rounds into a human woman about to shoot him, and watched her drop as Alicia did the same.

The pirates at this point simply faltered. Those closest to the pair were absolutely terrified at these seemingly two unstoppable soldiers and began to quickly try to retreat, while those behind them tried to push forward. This momentarily created a mass of confusion and chaos, one which Naruto and Alicia decided to take advantage of.

Naruto quickly cast out a singularity, catching the pirates and slavers in the confused knot and suspending them in the air, while Alicia grinned, throwing out a biotic throw. The biotic projectile hit the singularity, causing a massive biotic explosion that incinerated the pirates closest to it, while sending those who were not as close flying.

Using the momentary distraction of the explosion, the pair quickly retreated back to the barricade, dropping behind it as they both panted heavily. Alicia grabbed her shotgun, fumbling to change the thermal clip while glancing over at her brother, who had pulled off his breathing mask to catch his breath. She blinked as she saw his eyes, now both a deep amethyst due to the red hue of his biotics mixing with the cerulean of his eyes. He glanced at her, grinning as he changed out the clip on his Viper, setting it aside to do the same on his Lancer. "That was something, eh?" He asked.

Alicia just grinned back at him. "Don't think I've had this much fun since graduation night from Basic," she said, joking along with him, as they heard the weapons fire smash into what was left of the barricade, the pirates and slavers having regrouped apparently and preparing to charge again. Naruto quickly grabbed a dextro ration bar from his pouch, biting into it to help restore his energy after the repeated biotics use, as Alicia removed her mask and grabbed her own ration bar. The pair looked at each other, silently nodding as they chewed, gripping their weapons and preparing for the next attack.

At the pirate command post, Titerius was livid as the report came in that the attack on the barricade had been somehow driven back. They had taken the barricade, and were preparing to run wild behind enemy lines, when two soldiers, only two soldiers, had somehow driven them back, inflicting heavy casualties without suffering even a wound. He cursed as he prepared to order another push, when one of the crew of the slaver transports rushed over to him. "Sir, our sensors have detected incoming shuttles! They're Alliance!" He shouted.

Titerius could only sag at the news, as that could only mean one thing. The Alliance frigates in orbit had driven off Haliat and the fleet, and were even now dispatching reinforcements. With that, he knew this battle was at an end. He immediately activated his comm, setting it to a general frequency to address every surviving pirate and slaver. "This is Titerius. I'm ordering a full retreat. Enemy reinforcements are en-route. I repeat, this is a full retreat order. Everyone return to the ships. We're leaving this Spirits forsaken planet," he said, before shutting off his comms. "Start getting everyone and everything we can onto the transports. We're going to try and make a run for it," he said.

The crew member just nodded, rushing back to his ship as Titerius moved to his own, cursing Haliat and cursing the humans for this disaster.

Around the defensive perimeter, colonists, tourists, and marines could only watch with growing relief as the pirates abandoned their positions, fleeing back the way they had come, leaving behind countless dead and wounded. A ragged cheer began amongst some, and soon started to encompass the entire defensive perimeter, as they realized that they had done it. They had won!

However, for some there was no time to celebrate. 2nd Lieutenant Romeo quickly gathered a group together and rushed towards the south east barricade, to hopefully find and relieve the Shepard siblings.

At the south east barricade, Naruto grunted as he barely threw off a batarian who had tried to grapple him to the ground, shooting his pistol point blank into the alien's chest, before gripping his left shoulder, which was bleeding from a bullet wound. Next to him Alicia was crouched down low, her helmet cast aside after a turian with a knife managed to pin her down and slash at her face. The knife had managed to cut through the helmet and visor, scouring a cut above her left eye, from which blood could even now be seen pouring out of it. The pair of them, battered and bloody, still held their ground, firing whatever weapons they had on hand, or resorting to biotics and their own fists when their weapons overheated.

Naruto panted heavily, slumping down and scrabbling to find his last thermal clip, preparing for the next assault, when he heard the cries of 'retreat'. Looking over the barricade, his eyes widened as he saw the pirates and slavers running. Alicia watched as well, in amazement and relief, as their enemies fled before them, leaving a street littered with dead or dying batarians, turians, and humans. The two could only stare at their retreating enemies growing smaller in the distance, before looking at each other. A slow smile spread across both their faces, before the two of them both just started laughing, laughing in joy and relief. They were still laughing when the relief forces arrived.

In orbit, Pressly smiled grimly as he saw another red light on the holographic battle display disappear, indicating yet another pirate ship had been destroyed. It was the second one claimed by the Agincourt, as the Alliance flotilla engaged the retreating pirate warships after intercepting them on their way to the Mass Relay. Yet instead of engaging them in pitched battle, the pirate vessels were moving with single minded purpose to the Relay, attempting to escape while only firing on the Alliance warships that were in their way or moved close enough into weapons range to engage them. The Alliance vessels had returned fire, claiming nine of the thirteen remaining pirate warships, but they had to let the remaining four ships escape, as the situation on Elysium was of a higher priority. They needed to land relief forces on the planet quickly, as reports from the frigates in orbit indicated there was still a large enemy presence on the planet.

Pressly could only watch as the remaining four enemy targets reached the Relay, escaping back to whatever hole they crawled out of, before turning his attention to the necessary calculations for achieving a holding orbit around Elysium, quickly punching in the calculations and transmitting them to the Navigator. As the Agincourt neared the planet, new red blips appeared on the battle map.

"Sir, it looks like the pirate ground forces are in full retreat! We've got numerous transports attempting to leave the planet's surface!" The sensor officer called out, as Commander Romanoff smiled grimly.

"So I see…patch me through to the Cairo. Let's see what Captain Ashton would like to do regarding those slave ships," he said, as the comm officer quickly did so.

Onboard his ship, Titerius could only stare at the Alliance ships ahead of them. He knew this would be a massacre, as they were onboard lightly armed and armored transports, facing against heavily armed warships. He looked at the comm console as it began to beep, indicating a hail from the Alliance ships. The comm officer activated the panel, as a voice spoke over the comm.

"This is Captain Alexander Ashton of the SSV Cairo. You are hereby ordered to disengage your engines and weapons and surrender yourselves to Alliance custody. Failure to do so will result in hostile action. You have sixty seconds to comply."

Titerius simply slumped in his command chair. There was no way to escape. He and his men were either going to die, or become prisoners. He looked at the men on the command bridge of the transport, a small group of no more than four officers, before looking through the viewports at the Alliance vessels. Straightening himself up, he looked to his helm officer. "…make full speed for the Alliance cruiser…advise all ship captains to do what they think is right…but we will not go quietly," he ordered.

Pressly could only watch as some of the indicators on the map signified that the ships they represented were powering down, while others immediately began veering in different directions, attempting to flee. Commander Romanoff just nodded, before turning to his fire control officer. "Fire at will," he said simply.

Titerius watched grimly as his ship headed for the Alliance cruiser Cairo. The last thing he saw though was the flash of his main cannon, before the magnetically accelerated slug ripped through the bridge of his transport and exiting out the back, turning the transport into so much debris and organic paste in a single shot.

On the surface, the victorious defenders could only stare up in the sky in eye, as they could see the distance pinpricks of light and the slightly larger explosions, as the Alliance warships opened up on the slave transports attempting to flee or fight. And as the shuttles bearing Alliance marines landed and fresh troops were deployed, they knew that they had won.

The Skyllian Blitz was over.

---

Whew! I did not think this chapter would be this long. But well…this is something I really wanted to try and get right, and I really hope I did so. They never actually really covered all the details of the Skyllian Blitz, only giving us some information, so I had to make up a lot of this on my own. Well, not really on my own, had a lot of help from a7xfanatic1195. Thanks again buddy!

So, I really hope you all enjoyed this, and it wasn't too boring or long or anything. Guess I'll see what you all think in the reviews, won't I?

Thanks go out again to Kyuubi123 and a7xfanatic1195 for their help in betaing this chapter and fanfic. You guys are awesome!

So, till next chapter!

1. So yes, ranks. If you've played Mass Effect, you may or may not have seen the codex regarding ranks within the Alliance Military. In said codex, they stated that because of how intertwined the naval and marine branches were in working together, the military ranks for both naval and marine personnel were largely the same, with only some being distinct for each branch out of a sense of pride. However, if you play Mass Effect 3, you find that said codex is then quickly tossed out the airlock, as a couple of the crewmen on the Normandy are Ensigns, a rank not present in the previously mentioned codex. As such, to both respect the armed men and women of the United States Military, and to save my own sanity, I will be following standard, separate ranks for the Navy and Marine Corps.

2. Navy/Marine jargon for the hat that is part of their uniform.

3. Okay, before anyone bites my head off here, yes I know that in the game Elanos Haliat appears as a human. However, if you actually read up on the trivia regarding his character, you'll see he was supposed to be a turian, but was given a human model in game by accident. However, his dialogue remains the same, referring to Shepard and humanity as 'your species' or 'your kind', as well as having the same 'flanged' tone all the turians have. And to be honest, it just overall makes a lot more sense for Haliat to be a turian instead of a human, as humans wouldn't be that respected or liked in the criminal circles. At least, not at this point and time.

4. For visual reference, their current armor's are the same type worn by the Alliance marines in ME3. This will be the standard Alliance marine armor throughout my fanfics. Also, it will be standard procedure for all soldiers to enter combat with their helmets on and fully sealed with breather masks.

5. 2nd Lieutenants in the Marine Corps are equivalent to an Ensign in the Navy, rank wise. Since Alicia is a LT(JG), that puts her at an equivalent rank to a full Lieutenant from the Marine Corps. Which is why they're deferring to her for command.

6. Referencing The Battle of Hattin on July 4th 1187, in which Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, wiped a large Crusader army in the Holy Land, allowing him to then move on to conquer Jerusalem and spark the 3rd Crusade.