Author's Note: The writers of the Origins spinoff (pilot s/12891283/1/Undiscovered-Frontier-Origins-Introduction) contributed to many of the combat scenes, as well as writing or re-writing dialogue for factions they are personally following.

With barely an hour left before the fleet would arrive, Zack stepped into the Lookout. He couldn't stay long, but he didn't need to. He immediately walked to the bar. Within a minute Hargert stepped up. "Zachary," he said, smiling softly. His German accent was pronounced, but not so thick as to make him difficult to understand. "It is good to see you again."

"Good to see you again too," Zack replied, matching the smile. "The people in my company enjoyed the stew. They wanted to say thank you."

"I accept humbly. The important thing is that you and your comrades got a good meal before the fighting begins." Hargert eased into a seat. Zack could tell that Hargert was weary. It was unsurprising given the flurry of activity he'd brought on himself. "You seem more settled, Zachary."

"I guess I am. Well, I am about to go risk my life, I suppose that keeps me from dwelling on things." Zack sighed. "I know I made a real mess of things before. I… I just couldn't bear bringing my problems to anyone…"

"We all have our pride, my young friend. It can lead us astray easily, but few can endure life without some." Hargert's expression changed to show worry. "So many of you are going to risk your lives destroying this evil. I wish I could do more than cook for you."

"You've done enough," Zack insisted. "Honestly you look like you'll fall over with a stiff breeze."

To that Hargert chuckled lowly. "I suppose I might," he admitted. He turned his head slightly. "Thomas."

Zack turned in time to see Barnes step up and sit beside him. "Hey Tom," he said, smiling at his friend. He clapped Barnes on the shoulder, pulling him close for a quick hug. "Good to see you."

"You too, man. You too." Barnes clapped Zack's back as well. While he looked somewhat rested, it was clear he was still a little tired. "Man, it's good to have you back. I mean, you're coming back, right?'

"I've got to finish my tour on the Citadel first," Zack replied. "But yeah, I think I'm coming back."

"Awesome, man. With you and Rob back, everything will be great."

"What can I get for you, Thomas?" Hargert asked.

"Nothin'. I mean, I'm due in Engineering in about twenty minutes, no time for anything."

"Not even for a celebratory drink with Zachary?" Hargert asked, his eyes glinting with humor.

"Given what I'm about to get into, coffee is all I'm interested in."

"Same here," said Tom. "What's that stuff Ana's always asking for?"

"Ana Poniatowska? She delights in my Milchkaffee."

"Alright then, let's go with that."

It didn't take Hargert long to mix three cups of the aforementioned substance. "To renewed friendships, my young friends," he said upon handing two of those cups to Zack and Barnes. Each took them with their right hands, as Hargert did his own. The three men raised their drinks and clacked the ceramic cups together.

"To renewed friendships," Zack agreed.

"Abso-fraking-lutely," Barnes added.

Given the size of the incoming fleet, Julia felt little surprise at the lack of enemy resistance in orbit when the vanguard of the main fleet started dropping from warp. "No welcoming committee," she observed quietly. Around her the others were at their stations: Angel at tactical, Cat at science, Jarod at Ops. Violeta was at the helm and one of the junior ops officers, a male Avalonian ensign named Tristan Mallory, was manning the Engineering station. Locarno was taking up First Officer duties beside her, already verifying the fighter launches as the Aurora, and the other ships in the fleet with fighter wings, began deploying their fighters in a defensive screen.

"They're bastards, but not stupid," Angel said from Tactical. "I'm betting they pulled out when they saw us coming. Probably to link up with whatever main fleet they've got coming in."

"Either way… what's the status of our beam-downs?"

"We're already deploying the first battalion of Marines," Jarod said. "They're going to a Dorei unit in the southeast front around the city that's taking heavy fire.

"Do we know where we're sending Robert and the others yet?" asked Locarno.

Caterina looked up from sensors. "I'm detecting trace elements of neutrinos that could be from test activations of a drive. I can tell you that whatever they've done, they're not consistent with the signature of a proper jump point."

"So we're not too late," Julia said.

"I'd say not." Cat frowned. "But I can't give you an exact area. Just somewhere in the center of the city. There's so much interference from the fighting that we'll have to wait until the ground team can help me triangulate a more exact location."

A tone came over the ship's speakers. "Dale to Bridge. Do you have a location for us yet?"

"I'm figuring that now," Cat said. "There's heavy fighting all around the city. I'm trying to find what looks like the most likely location for their research facility. But the best I can do is tell you it's somewhere in the heart of the city."

"Understood. We'll pick a beamdown point and relay it to you."

Although the plan was to beam down, Robert nevertheless gathered everyone in one of the assault landers. While most of the vehicle was devoted to cargo space for moving troops, a section between the cargo area and the cockpit had a small data center. It was hardly an optimum command post, but it let Robert and the others - King, Meridina, Zack, and Anders at the moment - look over the situation on the ground. An open comm channel to the Normandy allowed Shepard to participate as well. "This is the fiercest land battle of the war," King noted grimly. "Even as we speak, our side alone must be taking hundreds of casualties across the front."

"Likely. But right now I want a good landing zone."

"What about over here?" Zack indicated a point in the southeast corner of the city. Markers indicating the presence of Alliance troops were placed.

"There are avenues there to lead us into the heart of the city," King said. "But I wouldn't recommend it." She tapped the map. "There's a heavy enemy element in this sector, and these are residential blocks. We could end up being bogged down by militia forces as well as Reich troops."

"King's right," Shepard said. "That place is a maze, and every building could be a fortress. We'll get stuck in there forever."

"Schildow," Anders suggested. "The 1st and 3rd Davion Guards and the Oriente Fusiliers' 4th Brigade are hitting the enemy hard there. We can use that to slip through."

At first glance Robert liked Anders suggestion. But as seconds passed he didn't feel right about it.

"Progress along the northern sector has been the slowest," Meridina noted, looking over the relevant reports. "The greatest concentration of enemy armored forces are in the northern and northeastern approaches."

"Because they're busy fighting the FedComs and Leaguers," Anders pointed out. "They'll be more concerned holding the line against the Inner Sphere's walking tanks than stopping a fast-moving column of powered infantry."

"And if they don't, you get us surrounded and trapped," Lucy observed. "Look, Prince Victor and the other ground commanders have left a gap in the lines along the western edge of the city. Why don't we land near Wustermark and slip our way in from there?"

"For the same reason the northern front is a bad choice. Little chance of backup," King noted.

"Potsdam," Robert said. When they all looked to him, he indicated the area in question, southwest of the heart of the city. "Here, near Potsdam and Wannsee. Clan Wolf and the Turians have secured a position at Potsdam, the Dilgar are right behind us, and the Aururians are coming up on the Teltow Canal." He tapped a key and highlighted a road in the area with a press of his finger to the holo-display. "They call this the Horst Wesselstrasse, and it leads right up to the Volkshalle at the edge of the city center. The area is mostly industrial and commercial, so no thick residential blocks to fight through, and the allied units in the area will be on hand to help if we absolutely need it."

"Given the enemy positions, even if we land in Wannsee the direct path isn't viable," King observed. "And the water route is inadvisable. We'll have to force the canal close to Teltow."

"The Aururians will probably be there soon after we land." Now Zack was focusing on the recommended spot.

"I've never worked with them," said Shepard. "They're that all-female Amazon society you made contact with a few months ago, right?"

"I'm not sure 'Amazon' fits entirely, but yes," Lucy replied. "And they're fairly militaristic. And more than a little aristocratic."

"If you think they can force the Canal on time, then I'll back that choice."

"Same here." Zack blinked at the data. "I'm surprised the Dilgar have enough troops that they're fielding an independent force. Where did they get this many troops?"

"My mother practiced the same total mobilisation for this war that we had in the old Imperium days," Tra'dur replied with some justified pride. "Twenty-five divisions on the ground, thirty-five ships in the stars, all from forty-five millions."

"Even in victory, that may cause them some pain in the post-war drawdown," King pointed out.

"We are quite aware of that, Captain," Tra'dur answered. A fierce look came to the Dilgar woman's face. "But we are willing to pay that price. We have a lot to prove to the Multiverse, you might say."

"I see." King nodded at Robert. "Captain, I know it's your final call, but I highly recommend the Potsdam point. Wannsee is too far ahead for our safety, and we'll need to backtrack to link up with the Aururians anyway."

Robert considered the request for a minute before nodding. "Potsdam it is."

Shepard nodded. "The Normandy doesn't have a transporter, so we'll coordinate with your transporter operators to bring my team down to your coordinates. I'll see you planetside, Robert. Normandy out."

Once Shepard's image disappeared Robert tapped his omnitool's comm key. "Dale to Bridge. We have a beam-down point for you. What's our deployment status?"

"The last of the Marine replacements just went down," Jarod answered. "Give us your beam-down coordinate and we'll get you down there ASAP."

"We're relaying coordinates now," Robert replied. "Shepard will be contacting you for bringing her team down from the Normandy. Awaiting beamout."

The beamdowns were commencing as planned and there was no sign of an enemy attack. On the Aurora bridge Julia was left with the frustration of waiting for something to happen while dreading that it would.

When she couldn't bear the silence any longer, she glanced toward Locarno. "Status on the beaming?"

"We're beaming down the strike team from the Normandy now," Locarno noted. "The Naval Infantry unit will go afterward and we'll be done." He glanced over more data. "The fleet as a whole reports sixty percent completion of the transport operations."

"All of this to capture one city," Angel murmured.

"It's a big city," Jarod noted. "And the Nazis are throwing every soldier they can find into holding it."

"Sixty-five percent completion," Locarno noted.

Julia turned to the port side stations and Cat's station there, where she was still examining sensor returns from the surface. "Anything on sensors?"

"I still can't determine the exact location of the particle traces," Cat said. "I've got my people using Lab 2 to help, but there's just too much…" She stopped and let out a harsh breath. "Captain, long range sensors are lighting up. I've got a massive reading in subspace."

"What is it?"

Cat checked her readings carefully. "Disturbance consistent with warp drives. A lot of them. I've never seen so many… there must be four thousand ships out there."

"Let me see?" Jarod waited for Cat to relay the scan results to him. Julia couldn't see his face, but she could tell from the way he straightened in his chair that he was surprised at what he was seeing. "I'm running the readings through the computer now. I'd say at least thirty-five hundred ships." A light appeared on his console. "Message from the Kentan."

"On screen."

The holo-viewer activated to show Maran's face. "Support fleet, maintain position," he said. "The main fleet will finish our beamdowns and intercept the incoming ships by the time they approach the outer planets of the system. Leave the fight to us."

"Understood, Admiral," replied Shai'juhr from her flagship, the Magaratha. "We will hold."

Squadron by squadron, Maran's fleet began to break from nearby space. Within a few minutes the last of them were pulling from orbit and moving away at high sublight. A check of the tactical holo-display beside her told Julia how small the invasion armada had become… if one could call a fleet of over three hundred combat starships "small".

"Beaming down the last unit now," Jarod confirmed.

The team's beamdown point was at the edge of the Sansouci gardens, not far from the palace of the same name. The skyline bore no trace of the idyllic setting that had once made the area the preferred home of the Prussian royalty and their court. Towering edifices along the Havel River turned Potsdam into a small island of quaint palaces, parks, and summer homes amidst a sea of what the Nazis undoubtedly considered urban splendor.

In the distance, the immense spires of City-center Berlin shimmered under a haze of smoke. Thunder roared from every direction on the horizon. It was not natural, and neither was the smoke which obscured the skyline.

Robert thought it was a big damn eyesore, and the sight of Hakenkreuzen everywhere was a visible reminder of just what this place was. It wasn't the only reminder. Robert could feel the cold darkness in the Flow of Life around him, as if the entire region was steeped in it.

"This is an evil place," Meridina murmured beside him. "So much hate and fear and… how can beings live like this?"

"This place makes me feel filthy." Ensign Talara, Lucy's student in the arts Meridina had taught them, seemed to shudder. Robert still didn't know much about the young Falaen woman. He'd heard that her people were once known as Alteans before nearly being exterminated by another species over ten thousand years ago, but he'd yet to look up further details on that.

"You look like I did on my last trip back to Mindoir," Shepard noted, looking at Robert. "Been here before?"

"C1P2," Robert said. "Just a week or so before the Dalek attack on the Facility. We were trying to smooth over relations with the Prussians and other Earth governments, and Leo was treating their king for a stroke." He remembered the brief period of lucidity from King Frederick William IV during that visit. He'd always sensed that the old romantic had something of a love-hate sentiment toward Robert and the other "Sternvolk" who were causing such a fuss among the governments and societies of that 1850s-era Earth. "In the long run it didn't matter. The Avenger left Berlin and Potsdam a burning ruin, and Frederick William died in the bombing."

There was an explosion near enough to shake the buildings, a reminder of how close to the fighting they were. A few soldiers took cover. Nearby Zack materialized with Lieutenant Tachibana and some of the other officers of his company of provisional naval infantry. More and more of his unit were appearing in bursts of white light every few seconds, creating a constant buzz in the air. "Didn't we come to this place on that 19th Century Earth?" Zack asked.

"I was just telling them that," Robert answered. He consulted his omnitool, using it to tap into the Coalition's tactical comms. The display showed the local forces. A moment later the face of an older woman wearing a Clan-made neurohelmet appeared. A few strands of red hair were visible through the helmet's faceplate. "Khan Kerensky?" Robert asked.

"Hardhead," replied the notorious Black Widow of the Wolves. She smirked. "Maran said he'd be sending you. But I figured you'd land over with General Threek south of the Seelow Heights."

"We don't want to get bogged down in the residential blocks," Robert answered. "My force is going to work its way over toward the Teltow Canal. It looks like the best route to the heart of the city."

"A good choice. I'll make sure Alpha Galaxy keeps the Nazis busy. General Victus might be able to slip a regiment your way to watch your flank, but it'll depend on when the Turians manage to secure Wannsee."

"Acknowledged."

"I'll let General Kylarjha know you're on your way. She's gathering to make a push over the Canal within a few hours, so you'd better hurry your asses up. Aururians don't wait around."

"We will. Thank you, Khan, and good luck."

"I'm the Black Widow, Captain Dale." Natasha Kerensky grinned wickedly. "I don't need luck." With that the communication ended.

"The infamous Black Widow," Shepard noted. "Why did she call you 'Hardhead'?"

"Because I got punched by Lincoln Osis and managed to get back up," Robert remarked, trying to not remember how hard that particular punch had hurt. He looked to Zack, who was conversing with his officers. "Everyone down?"

"Just about," Zack answered. "We'll be ready to move out in a minute."

"Good." Robert looked toward the east-south-east. More explosions could be heard, along with distant retorts of weapons fire. "We've got work to do."

While the battle raged below them, the Aurora crew were in a state of "hurry up and wait" readiness. Everyone was at battlestations, the vessel's weapons were energized and ready, the defenses primed. But yet there was nothing to do. All they could do was sit, wait, and hear for any news about fire support being needed orr incoming enemy forces to deal with.

For all that combat could be terrifying, Julia still found it preferable to this state of tense uncertainty. She knew from training with Maran and her own experience that you couldn't keep people in a state of nervous readiness forever. Eventually attention would drift. It couldn't be helped.

Cat interrupted those thoughts. "Multiple contacts, enemy fighters," she called out. "They're coming up from locations all over the planet."

"They were waiting for our main fleet to withdraw."

Julia nodded in agreement with Locarno's assessment. "I don't want Laurent getting swamped. Tell him to stay in range of our weapons."

"All vessels, assume close formation," Shai'jhur ordered over the comms. "Let our defensive batteries attend to them. Fighters, engage stragglers."

"All squadrons are launching," Locarno noted. "We'll have everyone out in a minute or so."

Julia nodded and said nothing, watching silently as the enemy fighters rose to face the fleet.

The bridge of the Magaratha resembled what she ought to have in times of old. Busy Dilgar officers moved about with folios and data and holograms projected and re-projected. Shai'jhur watched her eldest daughter keep the staff well under control. A final count of some 300 ships stood in orbit of Terra. Only an eighth of them were her's, but her rank counted as equal to a Nazi Grossadmiral and technically ranked anyone in the Alliance, so she was in command of the Earth operation, but as a courtesy and acknowledgment of the limited military power of the Union, Maran's subordinate. A niggling part of her brain reminded her that the last time she had actually commanded this many ships in one place at one time was the retreat from Third Balos.

Sparkling below her, the Warmaster thought the planet pretty. Murderous though they were, the Nazis seemed good stewards of the environment. The realisation that there were twenty-five divisions of Dilgar amongst the troops assaulting Welthauptstadt Germania below them felt almost weird after decades of weakness. Her officers were exultant.

"I'm shifting the fighters to start making runs by wing, so that they will draw the enemy fighters back into the atmosphere, Warmaster," Tia'jhur reported from the forward command position. Magaratha had been modified to incorporate staffwork on her bridge, just one of many lessons for the Independent Fleet from the Dilgar War. And though she had not wanted to risk it before, if her daughter was to be a Warmaster someday and her successor, she had to be blooded in the greatest battle the Dilgar had fought in thirty years. Period.

"Understood. Are we using adaptive spacing in the anti-fighter box?"

"Yes, Warmaster, distance between ships is being determined based on weapons fit for the anti-fighter role. We're doing the calculations and forcing them out by tactical datalink with the Enterprise, Aurora and the Unity sending us back error correction.

"Right." Shai'jhur thumbed her open channel selector. "Battlemaster Zhen'var, take note that you're on forward point for the fleet if we're attacked from the inner system. I want your pentacon to concentrate those Alliance sensors and ripple scan inbound, but if you can keep the box intact while holding position, use passive optical as well."

"Yes, Warmaster!" That faintly too-eager voice came back.

Shai'jhur smiled. Her instincts about her adopted daughter had not been wrong so far. But of course Kaveri would not ruin a kit. Not in the end. She steepled her hands and leaned forward, hunched in her command chair, staring intently. The fleet was protecting them in the outer system, the battle was occurring around Neptune. It was inboard that mattered. Then the fighters began the first of their close-atmospheric runs by wing and she highlighted the atmosphere of that blue orb, hanging over Welthauptstadt Germania.

"Tia, have the last of the Army resupply transports withdrawn from the system?" She asked her daughter after a moment. The ship's interceptor grid had just automatically come up, filling space around them with lines of explosions as the Nazi fighters attacked their section of the defensive box.

"Yes, Warmaster!" Her daughter stared for a moment, unused to the informality in combat. But they were about to be sorely tried and Shai'jhur was her mother. "It is just the fleets, now. The armies have enough supplies for another week, come fang and blood."

"That will do… That will do. They are learning everything about us with this formation, daughter. The adaptive box makes up for our disparate technology, but also showcases them in harmony."

"But we will keep the scans up. They are testing us and a fleet will be coming soon to exploit that. From in-system, I believe."

"Yes, Young Mistress," Shai'jhur answered, using the epithet for a youth of brilliance. The significance, the true significance passed between them in a flash, and her daughter flared with pride. "That separates the true objective from the Neptune battle as much as possible. Have us ready."

"Yes, Warmaster." Tia'jhur turned back to the holotank.

Shai'jhur followed her gaze, but with the spot for Fei'nur at the side of her command chair empty, the risk her other daughter was taking flickered to her mind. She banished it. Shai'jhur had survived watching billions die, now was not the time to count her family above that.

The Nazi fighters filling the orbital space were mostly those that Patrice Laurent had faced already in the war. He kept his grip on the controls of his Mongoose starfighter and kept his aim on a Nazi fighter that was attempting to acquire one of the Aururian fighters. At the press of his finger trigger the pulse phasers on the Mongoose came to life, spitting amber energy over the enemy fighter. Its shields held long enough for the Nazi pilot to break and evade. The maneuver brought the fighter free from Laurent's attack, a respite he was determined to cut short. He twisted and pulled over the front of the fighter to reacquire his target. As soon as his reticle turned red his finger tensed. This time the bursts of amber light played over the enemy fighter's shields until they collapsed. Flame and debris erupted from the main body of the dagger-shaped Nazi craft until the entire craft disintegrated, overwhelmed by the stress on its damaged structure.

In this environment there were no shortage of targets. But that wasn't Laurent's worry. He was worried that in the thick of this fight, his people would focus too much on combat and let themselves be outmaneuvered. "Alpha, Charlie, Fox, form up on me," he said. "Break away and prepare to re-engage."

"Roger that, Commander," and variations thereof were the replies to his order. Laurent moved his fighter's nose toward the North Pole and put his engines to full. The Mongoose, always a nimble fighter, shot away from the fight. Almost half of the Aurora's fighters followed.

Laurent's intention had been to come about and re-engage in formation. That plan changed when his radio came alive. "This is the SSV Normandy, we could use some fighter cover. I repeat…"

His reply was immediate. "Normandy, we are moving to engage." Using his systems he tracked where the Systems Alliance frigate was currently evading the two dozen Nazi fighters chasing it. Their disruptors blasted at the Normandy and struck its protective fields. It took the hits well, but Laurent wondered how many hits they could take if the Nazis went fire free with torpedoes.

Not that he was going to find out.

"All fighters, engage, keep them off of the Normandy." He gave the order even as he selected a target for his weapons. The data readouts gave him a solid target lock and he opened up with an anti-fighter missile before engaging with phasers.

The initial strike did as expected. Over ten enemy fighters died to that first volley, with another twelve damaged to varying degrees. The Nazis broke off their chase of the Normandy and turned toward Laurent's fighters. The warning tones of active target locks filled Laurent's ears. He repressed the instinct to break off wildly and controlled his evasive maneuver, changing the heading of his fighter and hitting the Mongoose fighter's boosted engine trigger. The maneuver was good for evasives, but it also had the effect of straining the inertial dampeners enough to generate punishing G-forces.

The Nazi fighters missed thanks to this maneuver. Their pilots were skilled enough to not entirely lose track, however, and Laurent found that they were keeping the superior angle of attack, forcing him and his squadrons to remain on the defensive. His fighter twisted and shifted to evade the incoming disruptor fire. One of the other fighters in Fox Squadron wasn't so lucky, taking enough fire to pierce the deflectors. The fighter was torn apart from the attack.

Before the Nazis could claim more, light mass effect fire struck them. The Normandy maneuvered into their rear, her weapons blazing, and four enemy fighters blew apart before they realized the frigate was attacking them, forcing them to break off. Laurent happily shifted to offense, finding a target and striking it with several shots before moving on. "Thank you, Normandy," he said into the radio.

"You scratch my back, I scratch yours," replied the pilot on the other end. "Unless you've got one of those really hairy backs, I draw the line at that."

Laurent chuckled. "Well put." With that exchange over Laurent turned his attention back to the fight at hand.

They almost made it to Teltow before facing enemy units. Robert had even been entertaining the possibility they wouldn't have to fight anyone before linking up with the Aururians. That thought went away the moment he felt the sense of danger. He stopped and glanced toward Lucy and Meridina. Both nodded and ignited their lightsabers just as he did his.

That was when the snipers started firing. Robert sensed where the shots were coming from and where they were going. He intercepted the shot aimed at his head with a quick motion of his blade, its buzz filling the air as it sizzled through the air before him. Shots aimed at Zack and one of his officers were stopped by the other two.

"Garrus, Tali, Ashley, right side," Shepard barked. "Wrex, Kaidan, with me!" She went to the building to the left as the others went to the right. Both structures had a commercial look to them, as did those around and before them, giving them an innocuous look that had to be ignored in the nightmare of an urban combat. The normal response to the incoming fire was, in fact, to call in artillery to level the place.

Shepard's team ran ahead, and they weren't going alone. Anders sent his Marines into action, detailing squads to follow them. Around them Zack and unit sought what cover they could manage. "Platoons Bravo and Charlie are confirming no sniper fire on their roads," Tachibana said. "They're moving ahead…"

Shepard's team had only just entered the structures when more visible enemies moved into sight further ahead. Robert sensed and deflected another sniper shot before turning his attention to the incoming threat; a platoon of four panzers and accompanying infantry, including a squad of Panzergrenadier armored infantry.

"Anti-armor rounds!" shouted Anders. The power-armored Marines with him obeyed, triggering their armors to switch to said weapons. Disruptor fire converged on them and on the naval infantry and was quickly responded to by suppressive counter-fire. Missed shots tore holes into the ground around their targets and started fires.

The firefight made things more difficult for Robert, Meridina, and Lucy, as they couldn't focus on the attack so long as they had to deal with both the incoming fire and the sniper fire from the buildings. They were in a stalemate at the moment, but only for a moment. Robert and Lucy had to leap away from the others to evade a shot from one of the tanks. The other enemies fired as well and they heard cries and screams from behind, those of comrades mangled or slain by the blasts. Any time Shepard! was Robert's thought, after which another sniper shot came within a second of blasting through his shoulder. He deflected at the last minute.

One of the enemy tanks blew up, the victim of a missile from the Marines. Said Marine unit had to return to cover to avoid another round from the tanks. The fire blasted away at the first floor and foundation of the building instead.

Just as it seemed the tanks were a volley away from overwhelming the three, there was a sharp cry and an explosion from a nearby building. A soldier went flying from a window. "Sniper down," reported Ashley.

Robert sensed a surge of fear joined by resignation, and then a distant feeling of void filling in where there hadn't been one. "Coleman here," said one of Anders' Marines. "Sniper down."

Lucy didn't wait for the confirmation of the last sniper being defeated before dashing ahead, lightsaber swishing through the air to block incoming fire. Robert and Meridina sighed in resignation before taking off after her. Robert waited for an opening after another sniper shot before focusing on one of the tanks ahead. He reached through the Flow of Life and felt its power, so chilled by death and hatred on this world, but still vibrant enough to respond to as he needed. Much to the surprise of the vehicle's driver, the vehicle was knocked into the air as if something had exploded under it. It flipped in mid-air and came crashing down on its turret.

A moment later there was a crash from above. The last sniper came flying out of the building, Shepard above him wreathed in biotic power. She shot the sniper in the torso on the way down, a hit to the heart that was immediately fatal. She landed and rolled, avoiding incoming fire from the Panzergrenadiers.

Freed from sniper attack Robert and the others could focus on offensive means. Robert brought his hand up and gripped a large chunk of debris with his power, sending it flying into a Panzergrenadier to stun him long enough for Meridina to close the distance and begin slicing through the armor with her weapon. He turned to aid Lucy and found she needed none. She leapt over one of the Panzergrenadiers, landed behind him, and drove her lightsaber into the armored suit's power core on the back, the blade impaling the pilot and his suit so that the blue blade was sticking a little out of the front as well. She pulled her blade out immediately and went for one of the two remaining tanks. The tank crew tried to depress their gun low enough to target her, but Lucy acted first, forcing the muzzle high enough that the shot flew off over her head. She reached the tank in the next few seconds and sliced its main gun in half with her lightsaber. The coaxial disruptor targeted her. Robert ripped it free while she went to work on cutting into the turret. An enemy soldier popped out of the turret with a sidearm coming up. Lucy raised her hand and invisible force ripped the gun from his grip. The man had a moment to be absolutely stunned before the same free hand turned into a fist and struck him in the jaw. He fell over and back down into his vehicle. Lucy finished cutting a hole in the turret and dropped down into the confined space. Robert heard cries of surprise in German, sensed a moment of pain and disbelief, and then the fighting stopped with further cries of surrender.

That left one tank. Meridina dealt with this one by forcing the vehicle to flip and then mentally commanding those inside to go to sleep.

Some of the attached infantry was already retreating. The armored infantry lacked the speed to, especially given Shepard and Lucy, who used their abilities to quickly get in range, at which point their respective weapons - shotgun and lightsaber - came to play. Robert and Meridina left them to finish the fight and approached Zack, now coming up from behind. He was shaking his head. "Goddamn," he muttered. "Every time I think I know how badass those powers make you…"

"What's our status?" Robert asked.

"Bravo and Charlie platoons ran into infantry, but they're retreating now. As for Alpha?" Zack shook his head. "Two dead, four wounded."

Robert sighed at that. "I'm sorry," he said. "A hell of a thing. They signed up to serve on starships, not fight on the ground."

"Don't worry about that. They knew it'd be bad coming in," Zack said. "They're all volunteers who want to see the Nazis beat down. Anyway, I've got my corpsmen prepping the wounded to be carried. The Aururians aren't far from here, right?"

"Probably not. But we'd better hurry. The Nazis know we're here and if we get identified, they might figure out what we're here for."

"Right. We're still behind you."

Robert nodded once and showed his friend a grateful smile before they continued on.

The Nazi fighter attack was on the ebb. Shai'jhur's tactic of a formation to maximize the anti-fighter weaponry of the fleet and the skill of the allied pilots was grinding down the enemy fighters, such that the attack was visibly petering out.

Through it all, Cat kept her eyes on the sensors. They were already showing the distant energy discharges of the main fleet battle as well as those of the battle with the fighters. No other ships were showing on the long range bands, although she couldn't rule out cloaked ships.

She was just about to return her attention to other bands when she noticed something of interest. A faint reading was coming from deeper within the solar system, in close proximity to Sol itself. Her first thought was that it was just the sensor detecting a natural signature from the star. But the more she looked at it, the more she wasn't certain. "Captain, I've got something on sensors." She prided herself that calling Julia by rank while on duty was virtually second nature to her now.

"What are you seeing?" asked Julia.

"I'm not sure. I think it might be an energy source near the sun. Which would be what the fleet warning was about."

"And it would be pretty hard to see from here," Jarod noted.

"See if any of the other ships are picking it up?"

"I'm asking now…" Jarod worked his console to send the message. After a moment he nodded. "The Enterprise is seeing it too. Data thinks it might be multiple ships."

"Oh, right," said Cat. "It would explain why we're seeing it. So…" Something caught her attention. "The signature's shifting… I think they might be moving."

"Standby. Jarod, alert the Magaratha…"

"Warp signatures detected!" Cat called out, noticing the change in her readings. "They're…"

There was no point in finishing the warning. On both the tactical display and the holo-viewer, incoming ships zipped into existence, having just decelerated from warp. Julia recognized the various lean, predatory shapes of Reich warships, the smaller ones resembling daggers and the larger having a slanted shape. She also recognized the coloring scheme and the twin lightning bolt insignia visible on the vessels.

"Evasive maneuvers, now!" Julia called out. Violeta obeyed and sent the Aurora into an corkscrew turn. A moment later, disruptor beams sliced through the space they would have been occupying.

"Fleet orders, assume formation Lepanto-3," Jarod called even the very moment they had finished evading.

Heavy ships straight in to disrupt the enemy formation. This will be unpleasant. "Helm, come about four-one-one mark seven, full ahead!"

The first contact with the Aururian troops occurred to the west of Teltow. The area showed the signs of bitter, fierce fighting, with bodies and burned out vehicles littered amongst the piles of rubble barely recognizable as having once been human-made structures. The troops were mostly Ralsan in this immediate sector, the silvery-complexioned humanoids with pointed ears, tails, and brown hair nearly thick enough to be fur. The same was true for General Kylarjha when they arrived at her command headquarters, nestled in what had been a former bank at the edge of a residential sector, the vault being one of the few structures to survive the hellacious bombardment that had pounded the area. Members of various species could be found in the HQ, although Humans and Ralsan in Aururian uniforms were by far the most prominent.

"Captain, Commanders." Kylarjha nodded to them. "You have arrived with unintentional punctuality for our attempt to seize a bridgehead over the canal."

"We'll help with it in any way that we can," Robert assured her.

"I am aware of your talents, as well as the capabilities of your allies.." Kylarjha looked briefly to Shepard. "I intend you to remain in reserve for the initial attack. Your mission is of high importance and I shall not see it risked needlessly."

It was a good point. Robert felt an instinctive dislike at remaining on the sideline, though. "We'll hold back until your forces secure our route over the canal," he said, "and then we'll help secure your bridgehead. We're going to need your support to get to the Volkshalle."

"Is that where you believe the research center is?"

"We're not certain of the location yet," answered Shepard. "But it's somewhere in that area."

Kylarjha respponded with a single, stoic nod. "Very well. I shall provide an escort for you toward the front."

The Teltow Canal predated the Nazi Regime by a generation, built in the first decade of the 20th Century to link the rivers Havel and Dahme and allow river traffic to move south of Berlin's busy center. The Nazis' initial rebuilding of Berlin after their victorious war left the canal intact, as had the centuries of urban expansion since. Some trees and parks continued to flank the waterway while middle and upper class residences and commercial parks were to be found beyond, offering a place for rowing practice and swimming in the city.

That was in peacetime at least. Now that the capital was a battlefield, every structure in sight showing some kind of damage, with many no more than piles of rubble, no matter the effort the Nazis had put in for their buildings to become graceful ruins. The north end of the Canal was not lined by trees any longer, but by enemy infantry and heavy guns, including enemy tanks. Only occasional trees had not been knocked over or shattered by artillery fire, and of the buildings, they showed the effects of the titanic concentration of heavy artillery that had been brought forward to attempt to secure a lodgement on the far shore.

While the naval infantry and Marines cooled their heels for the moment, Robert and many of the others gathered at a divisional-level observation post - assembled in a captured business - to observe the river crossing. The Aururian general in charge was Native American, a Quechua-speaker from the Andean region of South America. She spoke that language with aides, all from the same region by Aururian custom of geographic recruitment and unit groupings, and switched to English and Aururian when issuing commands to her subordinates or receiving the same from Kylarjha.

The attack began with an artillery barrage on the other end of the canal. The enemy defenses had force shield protection, but against the fury of a full-fledged bombardment these shield systems degraded and finally collapsed. Explosions threw up chunks of debris from their impact points, occasionally joined by bodies… or at least pieces of them. One shell landed squarely on a gun emplacement, slaughtering the crew servicing it and blasting the gun to pieces.

As the barrage developed, the precision munitions were hitting so frequently that the opposite bank turned into nothing but a wall of smoke and flame. There was no longer any ability to tell the explosions apart, only an ongoing assault of sound, explosion following explosion, blending together into an eardrum shattering crescendo. The disruptor beams and bursts that came sizzling from the far side slowed, then ceased, as those foolish enough to give their positions away served only to provide the forward observers points of aim.

As the bombardment continued its steady steel rain, the Aururians went into action. Their armoured vehicles moved up into jumping-off positions. Rows of tanks hid behind buildings as small compressed air lines were rolled up right to the bank by advancing infantry. These were attached to smoke generators and misters loaded with chemicals which would aerosolize and block sensors. Quickly the entire bank was obscured and the visage of the Nazi positions under attack on the opposite bank could no longer be discerned, nor could the final preparations for the jumping-off points be observed or targeted by the Nazi troops.

The Aururian General in command of the post had been quite busy, and ignoring them for a sustained period of time, before, after a brief exchange with some of her staff, she stepped back over to the group, a Ralsan officer saluting and leaving the post as she did.

"Alright. Captain Dale, please go forward to point X-ray Vectrus," she said mildly. "Once we get the bridging gear across the Fourth of the Twelfth Wirrawunga's commanding Colonel has been instructed to take you forward. Good luck, Captain."

"Thank you, General. And the same to you." Robert rose.

"Oh, save it for my girls," she said simply, her voice pitched to carry through the roar.

"Then I will." With a tight grin that was really his teeth gritting, he waved his hand. "All right, team. Let's go!" They started off down the streets of the burning and shattered capital, straight into the bare hell of a massed urban attack.

As they reached the point marked by a blazon of spraypaint across a ruined building, small groups of troops could be seen, dashing along the streets under the cover of smoke and smog. They had compact, conformal air tanks and special armour, the women under it slipping on facemasks and fitting fin attachments to their boots. Robert could hear a call through the dim murk, lit by the continuous roar of explosions across the front.

"See you on the other side, Maria! All right, girls, let's go. Strength and Guile!" They disappeared down the bank.

The barrage continued. Talara shook. It was impossible to think, impossible to feel, impossible to anything, there was just a continuous whooshing, crashing, freight-train rumble, the sharp whine of energy weapons as direct fire weapons were now engaged through the cover. Now the barrage was for suppressive purposes. "How is it possible for anyone to survive that!?" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

Lucy barely heard her. One of the Aururians passing by was closer, a Major bringing forward scan-gear with a small team of techs. "Oh, they'll be alive." She shook her head grimly. "They'll be alive. But courage! We'll slosh 'em up enough to get across." Then she and her team vanished again into the impenetrable fog.

The SBS teams went into the massive storm-drains which debouched into the Teltow on the opposite side. They used micro-drones to scout ahead and disable Reich reconnaissance sensors intended to prevent them from doing - exactly what they were going to do. Passing through and up into manholes behind the forward Reich positions, where the smoke and smog drifting across had now obscured the far bank as well.

Their weapons were knives and compressed air guns with tritanium cylinders and barely subsonic, poison-tipped flechettes, fought at ten paces or hand to hand. Once they cleared their positions, they marked sensor tracers for the remaining Reich strongpoints, working around their own suppressive barrage.

On the opposite bank, the minutes passed with an unimaginable fury. Twenty minutes, twenty-five… How long could it last? From the ammunition the Aururians were expending, freshly resupplied by the freighters Shai'jhur had escorted in and out, it seemed forever. They saw the end of their campaign ahead, and they spared no shell in making the crossing.

Meridina joined Lucy at Talara's side, putting a hand on her shoulder. Robert stayed low. He could see his Grandpa right now. The breakout from Normandy had been like this. Little else in the American experience...

Then the opposite bank erupted. Moments later the scream from overhead signalled that it had been caused by air support, carefully timed for the final support for the operation. Precision guided fires from both artillery and aircraft converged on targets designated by the SBS. As they did, they finally squawked, using their suit radios to confirm target destruction. In the headquarters, a tactical plot for the assault crossing was updated with each report, showing cleared lanes for the assault, questionable, and dangerous.

Combat engineers were moving forward to the bank, the snorting and clanking of their massive 'funny' special purpose tanks buried under the sound of the ongoing barrage. The complexity required for the operation meant there were actually MPs directing traffic behind the buildings to get the right equipment in the right places. It was almost incongruous to see women in white gloves and crimson helmets waving batons with perfectly crisp gestures.

The MP's redirected traffic on the fly to account for Nazi strongholds that hadn't been knocked out by the final precision air assault. The SBS girls did their best, but it was equally important for them to accurately observe where the air assault had not worked. Final selection of the crossing lanes was done at the last second and then uploaded across the tactical datalinks, the MPs receiving the last set of directions for the tank columns.

Abruptly the barrage surged to an enormously intense tempo. The multiple rocket launchers were salvoing-all of them. The artillery was firing as fast as it could. The tanks began to roar and whine, and then to move. They would go across first, alone, as a breakthrough element. As the lead of the columns arrived on the far shore, the SBS would take positions to support and warn of infantry ambushes and once resistance requiring heavy armour to break had been met, close support would be rushed up as the bridging crews worked.

Unseen to the observer on the banks, more SBS teams were operating down the canal itself, clearing mines, traps and encumbrances. As they worked, special burrowing drones they had set were drilling into the concrete a few feet below the water, trailing line charges as they did. Once through the concrete and a set amount of soil, they kept going to protect themselves and dropped the line charge, leaving it embedded through the concrete.

It was time. The Micklick detonations provided the final signal. Massive high-end chemical explosive charges eleven times the power of TNT erupted inside of the concrete, blasting massive gouges across the banks of the canal and collapsing the bank. The charges had been specially placed and calibrated as planned demolitions: They created the ramps that the tanks would egress from the canal on.

The heavy tanks moved directly into the canal as charges buried into the bank on their side provided a similar effect at the very last moment. Plunging down ramps of mud and rubble into the canal, the tanks disappeared entirely. It took Robert's breath away for a moment, for he remembered the need for tanks to breathe back home. But that was the 21st century and this was the Aururian Army. They were quite capable of operating fully submerged for bridging operations, and churned the water brown as they roared across.

In a final act of support, the phosphorous and smoke rounds crashed down to augment the fog and aerosol cloud in blinding and disorienting the Nazi defenders, a final salvo as the assault was already underway. Abruptly, the silence in the wake of that barrage was almost as unnerving as the thunder before it, and to call it silence simultaneously true and a black joke, for the intensity of the direct fire with charged energy weapons that now commenced. The Aururians advanced according to a tightly coordinated plan where part of each tank formation provided fire support as the other part dashed across.

For a long moment, it seemed like there was an absence of response on the part of the Nazi defenders. Perhaps, contrary to the pessimistic and anonymous Major, they had in fact been blasted into total annihilation. Certainly the SBS professionals had marked and seen to the destruction of every direct fire strongpoint or position for anti-tank weapon teams that they could identify, and it showed. The initial phase of the assault was proceeding flawlessly, the tanks charging up the destroyed banks of the canal, engines again screaming in air as they shook off the muddy brown water and ground through ruined concrete and rebar.

The life force users could feel the anxiousness of the ranks around them, huddled behind what-ever cover was to hand - the engineers would be next, to float their spans to provide for the follow-on waves. The heavily armoured engineering vehicles went underway next, while rockets sent lines across the canal.

On the far bank, the Nazi defenders were not in an utterly hopeless position. Small groups of survivors rallied. Taking local initiative, Unteroffiziers moved into position with radios. Where heavy weapons had been knocked out, they used comms. Working through the jamming with automatic frequency shifts, they began to call down high-angle missile fire from launchers centrally located in the city.

This fire was detected long before anyone along the bank could see it. Tanks waiting their turn to cross spun their turrets skyward, the dedicated anti-air and artillery SP pom-pom platforms swinging their barrels in accordance with direction from central control. The first counter they could see were the massive salvoes of anti-air missiles from the rear areas screaming over their heads. A rippling mass of explosions swept the sky, and the agonising roar of battle was back on around them.

These missiles followed power-trajectories which brought them plunging straight down toward the canal. They were guided, making final course corrections before slamming into the bottom. Tremendous masses of water erupted where they did, tanks and engineering vehicles that were crossing skewing to the sides to dodge their own lines of advance and then converge on the ramps on the far side. Few got through, most missed. A couple did not.

As the artificial smoke and smog cleared from around the river, the tremendous hammers of the explosions shattered one of the engineering vehicles. The instantaneous deaths of the crew could be clearly felt in the direct line of sight, amongst the exploding rubble blown upwards in a mix of muddy water were the fragments of what had once been living women. Talara stopped in her tracks again, transfixed, the moment of clarity bringing home the continuous killing all around.

Lucy put her hand on Talara's shoulder. "It's not easy," she said. "It should never be. And hopefully you'll never get used to it… not like I have."

"All of this death," Talara murmured. "It's wrong. This entire city, this place, it's…" She stopped, unable to find the words to continue. Through it all she sensed dark fascination and noticed Tra'dur watching the battle as well.

The Dilgar woman looked to her and swallowed convulsively. "Now I understand Battlemaster Fei'nur very well. She spent years like this, and then she raised us when her entire family was dead. Before now… I didn't understand. Not even the fights at the tidal barrage could tell me that."

Most of the engineers got across. Extending bridges across the canal using the guide wires started immediately. Secured to bridging equipment on each end, the lightweight composite structures unfolded while anchors were driven by explosive charges into both banks. They were still under intermittent fire, but the tanks were pushing ahead and light hover-vehicles were now racing forward to deposit large numbers of troops to finish clearing the bank.

Threats to the tanks had all but been eliminated, but crew-served weapons were still positioned and manned in several nests throughout the remaining buildings and ruins. Two of them converged fire onto one of the hover-transports as it crossed. A few others were engaged, but quickly fired counter-missiles at the attacking positions. This one was not so lucky; struck in one of the manoeuvring thrusters, it spun violently in circles until crashing into the canal.

Unlike the tanks and engineer vehicles caught under-water, most of the squad aboard was very much still alive. Robert could feel their fear and desperation in the Flow of Life, and he acted without thinking, lunging forward out of their partial cover, back from the bank, and charging toward it.

Lucy reached for her lightsaber. "Now's our time!" She dashed forward, and Talara and Meridina followed. After a shrug, Shepard followed them as well, dashing straight up to the bank.

Throwing himself down on his belly at the concrete retaining wall, Robert reached out with his strength. The energy that flowed through him joined in the life of a planet still very much full of it, for all of the darkness and evil that it had known. He slipped one of the heavily weighed down and drowning women into the air and then onto the bank, and then another.

Above his head, Lucy and Meridina's lightsabers hummed, quickly hard pressed by a few Nazi positions still held with small arms. As they covered them, Shepard rolled out of her own cover and delivered a biotic attack straight across the canal at the position.

Talara dropped to her belly at Robert's side and lent her strength into the effort, her full concentration burying her psyche into the exertion of her own powers, barely trained. Slowly another rose from the water.

Fire slapped around him, and Robert ignored it, bringing another person to shore. Suddenly, it was gone, and his concentration threatened to leave him as he felt the flash of a large group of men abruptly die. The searing heat of a flamethrower device on one of the engineer vehicles ripped across the Nazi positions that were taking them under fire, superheated uncontained plasma much safer than the gelled gasoline of old and even more effective at incinerating and catching light to everything in its path.

Robert won the battle against his own demons, forcing him to think calmly of the aspirations and desires of a woman who wanted to go on living. He slowly pulled her free and then quickly swung her in the air to safety. As he did, Talara did the same, and they exchanged a silent, quick smile, words lost in the roar of hell all around.

Robert was bringing another pair of half-drowned people to the shore when he sensed Zack approach, a Ralsan woman at his side. Nearby he heard mechanical whirring and turned. Another of the bridges was going up right next to them.

Zack's naval infantry and Aururian troops waited for it to finish. Much further down another bridge was already stretched across the canal, allowing Aururian tanks covered in infantry to cross. "It's time to go," Zack said. "The Nazis are pulling back toward the Horst Wesselstrasse. And your ride's here. Colonel Teroli," he introduced the woman.

"Where they'll make another fight of it," Robert answered with a sigh, and then reached out his hand for the Colonel.

She shook it, her tail flexing behind her. "Captain Dale. I believe you got a bit ahead of yourselves, but fortunately close enough to find you. We'll be pushing on ahead in the same direction long enough for you to hop a ride, if you don't mind being tankniki for a bit. I certainly would, but I expect you can handle it better than most."

He looked out on the canal; with enemy fire non-existent in this section, the bridge had been rapidly completed at their side, and with their efforts completed at life-saving, he felt a wave of fatigue. "Sorry, Colonel…" He swayed in place, blinking in exhaustion.

Zack reached out and steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right, Rob," he said, and then reached into a pouch on his belt and removed a ration bar. "Here, get some energy back. Follow us when you're ready. Colonel, say they can fall in with D Squadron at the rear and then my troops will come up right behind your Wirrawungas?"

"That'll do, Commander," she answered, and turned away, whistling a cheery tune. For the warrior Ralsan, the occasion was one of grandeur and pride.

Zack shook his head, and handed out similar bars to the others before heading off to join his unit and form them up for the crossing. Robert stood silently, watching Zack go.

Lucy was already tearing into the bar Zack handed her. "He'll be fine," she said to Robert, trying to assure him.

"I'm not sure any of us will be," Robert admitted. The thunder of distant explosions punctuated his words. "Let's push onward. I want to be there in case the unit needs us."

"Yes," agreed Meridina.

And together they approached the bridge. As promised, an Aururian tank stopped long enough for them to hitch a ride on the back, after which they joined their friends and allies in the push toward the heart of Welthauptstadt Germania.