9/5 2183
Normandy
On route to the Mu Relay
Mads was sitting at his table cleaning his 44. Magnum. It had been a couple of hours since their departure from the Citadel. Most major news outlets were already busy printing story about the new rouge spectre. Music was playing in the background. Mads had lit up a smoke in his mouth. He had cleaned both his Kalashnikov and his AA-12. His signature weapon was all that remained.
He was examining the barrel before cleaning it, when he heard a knock on the door. Confused that someone had come to him, since most of the crew was preparing in their own way, he called for the person to come in.
The door opened to reveal Tali standing there. She walked into Mads' quarters. Mads stared at her in confusion.
"Evening, Tali. How may I help you?" Mads asked as he continued cleaning the barrel.
"I was wondering if we could talk" She replied.
Mads stopped cleaning the gun and looked at her for a little while.
"Sure, have a seat" Mads said as he pointed to the seat in front of him at the table.
Tali sat down and remained silent for a little while, whatever words she had prepared died down in her throat.
"What did you want to discuss?" Mads asked as he began cleaning the gun again.
"What are you going to do?" She asked back.
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do. First I'll secure the conduit from Saren. Then I'll plant his Turian ass 6 feet in the cold hard ground" Mads replied with an angry voice as he picked up the pace of cleaning his gun.
"You're tense, is this getting personal?" Tali asked.
Mads put down the gun and looked Tali in her eyes.
"Hell yeah it's getting personal. That cunt thinks he has won, the councilors and my own goddamn ambassador burned me and most of the galaxy probably thinks I'm a traitor now." Mads answered with some anger in his voice.
Tali didn't expect such an answer. She thought he would have been more... well, diplomatic.
"Sorry about that. Things are indeed a little tense." Mads said as he saw Tali's reaction.
Tali remained quiet for a little while. Mads stopped cleaning his magnum, spun the chamber and put down on the table.
"Your desire to know more about me hasn't lessened, has it?" Mads asked.
"No" Tali answered.
Mads rose from his seat and went over to his desk, he grabbed the photo of his family and went back to the table. Mads placed the photo on the table so it was facing Tali.
"As I have already told you, that is my family" Mads said as he pointed to the photo.
Tali took a few moments to examine the photo. On the photo, they were all smiling. Mads was standing in the middle in what appeared to be a colorful ceremonial uniform. Behind him on each side, was what appeared to be his parents. To his side were a male and a female, what Tali assumed to be his siblings.
"You wanted to know what happened to them? Current status: Deceased." Mads said coldly as he took a drag of his cigarette.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know" Tali apologized.
"Most don't, and I had hoped to keep it that way" Mads replied coldly.
Tali was afraid that Mads was now angry at her for digging into his personal life.
"I'm sorry" She apologized once again.
"Don't be. You were persistent and I respect that. I think you earned that knowledge" Mads said with a smile.
"How did they die?" Tali asked suddenly.
Mads looked at her for a little while, not sure how to answer the question. Should he lie and avoid her finding out? Or would it be better for her to know? Normally he would have gone with the former to stick with his protocols, yet with Tali he wasn't sure. Something was digging away at him, and it bugged him that he didn't know what it was.
"Natural causes" The words just flew out of his mouth.
"How old were they when they got you?" Tali asked further to feed her curiosity.
"Tell you what, Tali. If we survive this whole ordeal with Saren, then I will tell you everything you want to know over a drink. Sounds fair?" Mads proposed and offered his hand for a handshake.
Tali thought for a while about it. "Deal" She said as shook his hand. She had become familiar with the human gesture after spending the last couple of weeks on the Normandy.
"There was something I wanted to give you" Mads said as he rose from his seat. He went over to the crate sitting by the desk and began looking through it.
"You have already given me too much" Tali remarked as she watched him dig through the crate.
"Nonsense" Mads replied as he continued his digging. He found what he was looking for, a small box. He went back to the table and put it in front of Tali.
Tali stared at it for a while, not really sure what to do. Mads reached over the table and opened the small box to reveal what was inside.
It was a golden necklace with the crucifix on it. Tali didn't know what it was, but it seemed to be some kind of symbol.
"My grandmother gave it to me when I turned 14. She was a devout catholic from Nürnberg. I didn't believe in God back then and I never believed in carrying my prophet on my neck. I would like you to have it" Mads said.
"But why?" Tali asked.
"A souvenir from your travels. Maybe one day when this is all over, you'll show it to your kids and tell them of the time you travelled with a human crew. I don't expect you to wear it, but I would like to gift it to you. I know you don't share the same religion as I do, but I figured it might carry some weight" Mads explained.
"Won't you need it?" Tali asked.
"Like I said, I don't believe in the need for the lord to hang around my neck. I already got him watching my back, quite literally" Mads replied with a wink.
Tali looked at Mads confused, unsure what he meant by that. Their talk however was interrupted.
"Going through the Mu Relay in a few minutes, commander. Might want to come up here" Joker said over the comms.
"Looks like I'm summoned. Take it, please" Mads said with a smile.
"Thank you" Tali replied.
"You're quite welcome. Now let's go save the world." Mads said as gathered his weapons and made sure he was ready for the fight.
Tali and Mads went up the stairs and into the cockpit, where Joker, Pressly, Kaiden, Liara and few other crewmembers.
"How is it going up here?" Mads asked.
"We are about to go through the Mu Relay, commander. And it's not going to be pretty." Joker remarked.
"Take us through" Mads ordered.
"Yes sir" Joker replied.
The Normandy flew towards the relay and as it approached, it began to pick up speed. Suddenly the Normandy was launched forward at faster light speed. It came out on the other side only a few seconds later.
"Looks like the Geth are already here." Joker commented.
"Have they detected us yet?" Mads asked.
"Nope, we got stealth mode on. Unless they see us through a window, we'll be okay." Joker answered as he continued typing in commands for the Normandy.
"I'm picking up some strange readings, commander!" Pressly said from behind the room.
"We need to boots on the ground now, Joker" Mads ordered.
"The nearest landing zone is two clicks away" Pressly replied.
"We need something closer!" Kaiden stated.
"There is nowhere closer, I've looked!" Pressly almost yelled.
"We'll go in the Mako then" Mads suggested.
"Can't do that either, commander. You need 100 meters to complete a run, the nearest is 20!" Pressly said angrily.
"That's way too short. We can't make a drop on only 20 meters!" Kaiden replied.
"We have to try!" Liara proclaimed.
"Find another landing zone, Pressly!" Kaiden yelled to Pressly.
"THERE IS NO OTHER!" Pressly screamed back.
"The descent angle is too steep!" Tali said.
"It's our only option!" Liara replied.
"It's goddamn suicide, that's what it is!" Kaiden screamed.
"I can do it" Joker said with a low voice, almost missed by everyone in the room.
"Are you sure?" Mads asked.
"I can do it" Joker confirmed.
"Then we'll use the Mako, everyone gear up and meet me there. Joker, drop me right in front of that cunt" Mads ordered.
"Aye sir" Joker replied.
The team went down the Mako and waited, they waited for the signal.
The Normandy approached the planet with its stealth function on, making the Geth clueless about their arrival.
Saren was walked towards the entrance of the large bunker on Ilos. On his mind was the comforting words of Sovereign, and yet a little reminder of Mads' words on Virmire. Sovereign had upgraded him, but it seemed like Mads' words kept on haunting him.
Saren simply brushed it off, he didn't have time to dwell on such issues. Soon Mads and the entire human race would be an irrelevant piece of galactic history, his alliance with Sovereign would make sure of that.
Saren was just about to enter, when he heard the sound of a ship flying towards them at an incredible speed. Saren quickly called the Geth in orbit to ask what the hell was going on, but they didn't have a clue. As the ship came closer and closer, he could see that it was the Normandy.
Of course Mads had come for him, but it was too late. Saren's war was as good as won. Saren simply smiled to himself and walked further into the bunker. He radioed the Geth at the control center, to tell them to close the large doors.
The last sight Saren saw before the doors closed was a Mako falling to the surface and landing directly in front of the doors. Saren had an evil grin on his face when the doors closed on Mads' face.
"You humans never learn" Saren said to himself as he continued on his merry way.
The Mako stopped right in front of the door, it simply came too late. Mads quickly jumped out of the Mako and ran to the door that separated him from victory over that Turian nutjob.
"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!" Mads yelled as he banged on the door.
Mads felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked back to see it was Tali's hand. Mads placed his own hand on it and smiled to her.
"We have to get through that door, it's the only way to the conduit" Liara proclaimed.
"I know. There must be some other way to get through" Mads theorized.
"Shouldn't there be a control room somewhere?" Tali asked.
Mads snapped his fingers.
"You're right, Tali! Let's go this way" Mads ordered as he ran up the nearest ramp.
As soon as he came to the top of the ramp, he came under fire from Geth units. Mads leaped into cover and readied his assault shotgun.
I ain't got time for this shit Mads thought as he took off the safety.
He leaped from cover and began firing. The Geth, that had only a few seconds ago had held the upper hand, suddenly found themselves in a dangerous open position as a human had attempted a deadly offensive. The Geth quickly deployed Armatures to regain the upper hand, but with some help from his loyal crew, Mads was able to overcome the new challenge.
They moved slowly at first, but they began to clear their way through the compound. Geth body parts were everywhere, blown to hell by the AA-12. The team went down a large corridor and came to what must have been the security control center for the Protheans.
Mads opened the door that had blocked them before, but just as they were about to leave, something happened.
A hologram appeared. It began repeating some sort of message. It was broken, and most of the words were cut out, making it hard to understand.
"Sounds like a message, but I don't know the language" Garrus remarked.
"It is most likely in Prothean, it is more than likely over 50.000 years old" Liara replied.
"You guys don't understand it?" Mads asked.
"No, do you?" Garrus asked back.
"It's broken up, but I understand certain words. It seems to be a distress call of some kind." Mads explained.
"That makes sense, after all you been through you must have picked up some understanding of the Prothean language." Liara said.
"What is it saying?" Garrus asked.
"It's too broken up, it's saying something about the conduit. Anyway, let's get back to our duty." Mads said.
They all nodded. They went up the service elevator behind the control room and ran back down to the Mako. They all jumped in it and hit the accelerator.
They drove through the bunker, drinking in the view as they drove along. It seemed that the place had been used to house the remaining Protheans of the war. It was a sad thing to witness, the last refuge of an entire species.
They had been sleeping in pods, to cryo freeze them into the future. It brought back bad memories of his own time in Cryo.
They drove along until they were stopped by a force field blocking them from going any further.
"Might be a trap" Garrus commented.
"Agreed, let's check it out" Mads ordered as he hopped out of the Mako. There was a door on the side, leading to god knows where. Seeing that it was the only option, it would have to be the one they took.
The door lead to an elevator, that took them down a long way. It leaded to a place where a VI interface and a console were held up. Perhaps there was hope after all.
As they approached it, they were greeted by a VI. It spoke to them. It spent a good time explaining what had happened, and what might happen in the future. It told them the true fate of the facility and the Prothean race. The last members of the race had taken it upon themselves to solve the issue and block the reapers from taking the Citadel with one swoop, like it had done with the Protheans. Yet, a new harvest was on its way and Sovereign had looked into how to solve that issue.
With all the information given by Virgil to Mads and his crew, it was time to get the job done. The next few hours would prove to be the some of the most hard fought in the galaxy.
As they were about to leave, Liara spoke up.
"Commander! Are you sure we shouldn't speak with it for a little longer? I might hold important information about the Protheans and their culture!" Liara pleaded.
Mads walked over to Liara and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Liara, I know you spent your entire life learning about the Protheans and now an opportunity had finally revealed itself. But you can't let this get in our way of saving the galaxy, please let it go" Mads requested while looking Liara straight in her eyes.
"Okay" She replied quietly. Mads tapped her on her shoulder.
They ran back up to the Mako and drove the last stretch. It proved to be the hardest driving route ever. Saren had deployed the remaining forces to guard the way, and they were firing at the team. The worst part was that they didn't even have the time to fire back. They had to keep on moving.
Then they finally saw it, the thing that they had been chasing this entire time. The conduit. It looked like a mini relay and it probably served the same function. Saren had already gone through it and his Geth were all around it. It was one last drive down the hill and they would be there.
"Joker, can you hear me?" Mads asked.
"Yes sir!" Joker replied.
"Turn the Normandy around and link up with the alliance fleet, tell them that an attack will happen on the citadel and make sure the Normandy leads that fleet!" Mads ordered.
"What about you guys?" Joker asked.
"We got our own ride there" Mads answered with a smirk.
"Aye sir. See you there" Joker said as he cut the connection.
"You guys ready?" Mads turned around and asked.
"Always" Garrus replied.
"I am" Liara said.
"A Krogan is always ready" Wrex answered.
"Count me in" Kaiden said.
"I am too" Tali said as a final.
"Good, then let's do this!" Mads said as he hit the accelerator and drove the Mako down the hill, through enemy fire and right into the conduit.
It felt a lot more intense then when you do it in a ship. The entire Mako was shaking dramatically. When they finally came through on the other side, the Mako crashed upon two Geth units walking by. The team slowly crawled out of the Mako, only to be horrified by the state of the Citadel. It was burning, with corpses in the street.
"Damn, Saren have been busy." Mads remarked as he readied his AK.
"So much death" Liara commented.
Mads looked around to see where they were on the citadel. They had been thrown out through what most people had thought was a statue of a relay. They were in fact right in front of the council chambers.
"Convenient if you ask me" Mads said as he went over to the elevator.
The others followed suit. The rode up the elevator, when they heard the Citadel's arms close. A single ship had made it through and it was the one they all had hoped wouldn't have, Sovereign. It latched onto the building and began taking over control.
The elevator stopped and with no hope of it starting again, there was only one option.
"Stand back" Mads said. They all did. Mads drew his 44. Magnum and blew open the window of the elevator. Gravity was shifting on the station. No doubt a result of Sovereign's tampering with the station. It did allow them to walk on the side of the building.
They weren't the only ones with the idea, Geth and Saren's home grown army of Krogans had the same idea. Soon they were under fire from these attackers, who pinned them down every chance that they got. They moved slow, too slow for comfort. Every second was a second they handed to Saren, and it was looking pretty grim already.
They were also attacked by dropships, who also delivered fresh Geth for them to fight. With Tali's engineering magic, they managed to override some defense to start shooting at the dropships.
Finally they reached the hatch that would bring them into the heart of the citadel, the council chambers. A few Geth were waiting for them there, but it was a rather small force. With them gone, it was time for the big prize.
Mads ran up the stairs to the place where he was elected Spectre. His team was right behind him, like they always had been. Mads caught a glimpse of Saren working on the Citadel's controls, trying to hand them over to Sovereign.
Mads raised his gun to take a shot, but Saren was quicker. While Saren's shot didn't hit Mads, it forced him into cover.
"Romanov, I wasn't sure I would be seeing you again" Saren greeted.
"Saren, how is the finger?" Mads asked.
"Better, Sovereign upgraded it. I suppose I should thank you for your words on virmire, they had me thinking. I was beginning to doubt Sovereign's cause. Now he has implanted a chip in me and I fully believe in his cause." Saren explained.
"YOU LET HIM DO WHAT?!" Mads yelled back.
"You heard me" Saren said as he crossed his arms.
"You can't be serious! He owns you now, when he says jump, you'll reply how high! How dumb can you be?" Mads asked.
"You don't understand, Romanov. I am the pinnacle of evolution, a relationship between organic and machine. The strenghs of both and the weakness of neither" Saren proclaimed.
"Think Saren, for once in your life! I can still stop this, but I need your help. Simply stand aside!" Mads yelled back.
"We can't stop it! The visions are clear, they will find a way. The reapers are too powerful" Saren replied.
"Saren, please... Think! Have you no common sense left? Is your moral compass completely gone?" Mads asked.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe there is still a chance for…. UNH!" Saren was interrupted by Sovereign giving him mental pain through the implant.
Mads sensed his opportunity, he wasn't sure if Saren would come around. He decided to strike now. He got up from his cover and aimed his 44. Magnum dead center at Saren. The last look of Saren was something to behold, it wasn't anger or sadness, but forgiveness. It didn't matter anyhow, Mads fired.
The sound of the 44. Round rang throughout the chambers. The bullet went clean through Saren, taking enough gray matter with it to fill a small bowl. Saren collapsed down to the small area beneath the chambers.
That was the end of the Saren they knew him.
Mads ran up to the control panel where Saren had been working. Mads uploaded the data file and instantly got control of all the systems.
"I got full access" Mads said as he typed away at his omni-tool.
"Quick, open the arms so that the fleet can take down Sovereign!" Garrus suggested.
"Try and open a commutation channel with the fleet" Tali said.
An Asari came through on the channel, detailing the status of the Destiny Ascension. Apparently the council was on board.
"Normandy to the citadel! Are you there, commander?" Joker asked.
"I'm here" Mads said.
"I got that distress call, commander. I'm sitting with the entire Arcturus fleet. We can save the Destiny Ascension if you unlock the relays around the citadel." Joker said.
"Are you willing to sacrifice human lives to save the council?" Garrus asked.
"We need the council, they represent every organic in the galaxy!" Liara said.
"We need the human fleet at full strength to take down Sovereign!" Garrus continued.
"What are you orders, commander?" Joker asked.
Mads looked at his team. He wasn't sure what to pick. He never really did like the council, but was that reason enough to doom them? No, he needed them for later. At least they would owe him their lives after this.
"Save the council, Joker" Mads ordered.
"Aye aye" Joker replied.
As then the human fleet entered the system, with the Normandy leading them. They did as ordered, saving the council. They flew towards the giant ship that was under attack.
"Alliance ships move in, save the Destiny Ascension" Hackett ordered.
The ships began their duty, clearing the Destiny Ascension from the hostiles that were attacking it. It didn't come cheap, many ships were lost. But the council was saved in the end.
Now the focused on the bigger target, Sovereign. With the citadel arms open, they moved forward and began attacking the giant monster that was holding the galaxy hostage.
"Make sure the bastard is dead" Mads ordered.
Tali and Garrus nodded and slipped down to the lower level where his body had landed. He already looked pretty dead, but Garrus shot the corpse one time to be sure, and then spitted Saren in the face.
"He's dead" Tali said.
All seemed calm for a moment or two, until the unexpected happened. Sovereign intervened personally. Sparking life into the corpse that was once Saren and rocking the entire chambers until Mads fell down. The thing alive now was no longer Saren, but rather Sovereign.
Now a new fight began, the longest Mads had ever endured. It was like the damn machine wouldn't die! It jumped faster than a Geth hopper and was well armored.
It took long and a lot of sweat to finally kill the bastard and with this enemy dead, the larger Sovereign was also defeated. The fleet had finally gained the upper hand in their battle. Striking down hard on Sovereign.
And so, Sovereign was no more.
Then the debris from Sovereign began raining down on the council chambers. A piece was coming directly for Mads.
"Oh shit" Mads muttered to himself as the giant piece of rock fell through the ceiling.