Inside the palace's throne room, Finch was anxiously typing on a terminal. His anxiety turned to frustration as it seemed the terminal was not doing what he wanted. He slammed the keyboard and cursed. This was the fifth time he tried to execute a particular command and the fifth time it failed. Finch took a deep breath trying to keep his composure.

The slamming of the keyboard caused a muffled cry to come from the hostages who were in the room with him. Finch had placed the hostages in a straight line in front of a camera. Each hostage was from one of the council races. Between the hostages' cries and the terminal not working, Finch was having a difficult time keeping himself from exploding. He called over one of the men he had guarding the hostages.

"Tell those animals to shut up before I lose my temper," he growled, "and if I lose my temper I'm going to come over there and use one of them as a punching bag."

"I could do that for you sir," said the guard, "all this standing around is killing me. I really need to hurt an alien."

"No," Finch replied, "as much as I would like to let you, we need to leave these things somewhat presentable. If their kind sees they were treated roughly they might be motivated to fight back. Remember we're trying to scare them into submission, not intimidate them."

"Understood sir, how long until the broadcast?"

"We were supposed to have been going now but for some reason I can't get a signal out."

"Is it our jammer sir?"

"It can't be. I'm using the frequency that we're using for our comm. but somehow the signal is still being blocked."

Before the guard could make another suggestion, an alarm sounded on the terminal. Finch pushed a few buttons and a video image popped up on his screen. The video showed Shepard and Vega as they were making their way through the secret passage.

"Dammit!" he shouted. "Shepard got into the ballroom. "He probably released the other aliens. We'll have to make do with the ones we have."

"Orders sir?" the guard asked.

"Leave two men here to guard the hostages and I'll stay here and keep trying to get the broadcast started. Meanwhile you round up the rest of the men and try to ambush Shepard in the picture gallery. Stop him no matter what it takes. Shepard is not going to stop me again."

The guard saluted and called out to the other two guards in the room. He ordered them to stay with Finch and guard the hostages. He then raced out of the throne room while using his comm. to order all troops to meet him in the picture gallery.

Finch continued to feverishly type some commands on the terminal. Unfortunately the terminal continued to give him an error message. After slamming the keyboard one more time and ordering the two guards with him to keep the hostages quiet, he pulled up his omni-tool and patched through a call. He cursed again as he waited for the call to go through. Finally he was greeted by a video image of a silhouetted figure sitting at a desk.

"Mr. Finch," the figure said in a distorted voice, "I wasn't expecting to hear from you so soon. I take it our operation was a success?"

"No, actually I was calling because we need to talk about this supposedly 'top-of-the-line' equipment that you gave me for the operation."

The passage Shepard and Vega were in was long but not too narrow. Shepard took comfort in that as it meant they would have room to maneuver if they found themselves caught in a firefight. Both Shepard and Vega knew that the odds were that there might be one. Earlier they had spotted a camera mounted on the walls. They knew they couldn't disable it before it spotted them so there was no doubt Finch knew where they were.

Eventually they emerged from the secret passage and ended up in the palace's dining room. Aside from the long dining table, the room didn't offer much in terms of cover. Fortunately there weren't any hostiles in the room. There was however an explosive device on the door that led to the picture gallery. Vega was about to step out of the passage when Shepard reached across him and held him back.

"What's wrong Loco?" Vega asked.

"Take a closer look at that explosive device," Shepard replied.

Vega did as Shepard suggested. At first glance there appeared to be nothing unique about the explosive. Vega was about to say so when upon second glance he saw what Shepard had noticed. The light that was supposed to be blinking to indicate the device was armed was off. This prompted him to scan the rest of the room. It was then he noticed that there was a camera facing the direction of the secret passage. He quickly pulled his head back into the passageway.

"It's a trap," he said to Shepard.

"Yep," Shepard replied, "the minute we step out into the dining room we'll be sitting ducks for whoever is waiting for us on the other side of that door."

"So what should we do?"

"Well since there's going to be a fight anyway, we might as well be the ones to start it."

With that said Shepard armed a grenade and launched it towards the door with the explosives. The combined detonation of the grenade and explosive device blew the doors clear off their hinges and deep into the adjacent picture gallery. A collection of screams could be heard from the gallery once the explosion silenced. When the smoke cleared, there was at least one terrorist standing in the doorway. However a collection of voices giving orders told him that there were more of them in the room.

Shepard and Vega charged into the dining room during the confusion and took what little cover they could behind the table. Vega was the first one to raise his rifle and fire into the gallery. He took out the lone terrorist in the doorway and managed to hit one more who was running across the room and ended up in line with Vega's shots. When Vega's rifle needed a new thermal clip, Shepard stood up from cover and began firing. As he fired into the gallery, he also moved further down the table and closer to the door. Vega began firing again when Shepard stopped to change his clip and he too began moving closer to the door. The plan was to keep this cycle going so that the terrorists would be unable to come into the dining room where they would have an advantage.

Every once and a while, Shepard and Vega would get lucky and one of the terrorists would get hit trying to retreat. During the attack Shepard noticed that they had already hit three terrorists. According to Yuless, Finch had three terrorists with him when they took the hostages out of the ballroom. Shepard had honestly hoped that was all there was but a part of him knew that a team of thirteen men plus Finch might not be quite enough to successfully take Buckingham Palace. Who knew how many more men Shepard and Vega would actually have to deal with.

After a few more cycles of covering each other's advance, Shepard and Vega were now standing on both sides of the door leading to the picture gallery. Shepard stood on the right and Vega on the left. They were about to step inside the room when an unpleasant sight greeted them. Situated at the end of the gallery was a mounted machine gun. They were barely able to step back into the dining room before the gun started firing at them. Splinters were flying at them as the bullets struck the doorframe and shattered it. Both of them hunched down in an attempt to shield themselves.

Suddenly the machine gun stopped firing. Shepard figured it was to give the gun a chance to cool down. He quickly raised his rifle and tried to peek around to take a few shots at the gun operator. To his horror he discovered that the gun operator was covered with a bulletproof shield mounted on top of the gun. Any parts of his body not covered by the shield were covered by the gun itself. Shepard quickly ducked back into the dining room just as the gun started firing again.

"I can't get a shot," he shouted to Vega over the sounds of the machine gun fire, "the operator is shielded head to toe."

"Can we make a break for him when the gun cools down again?" Vega asked.

"He's clear at the other end of the room. The gun would be warmed up and firing again before we could get in position for a good shot and we would have no place to take cover. Besides I think the gun operator is smart enough not fire in long bursts. He won't fire again unless one of us steps into view."

Vega leaned back against the wall and silently cursed to himself in Spanish. Aside from the fact that the gun was keeping them from advancing he also realized that the gun also trapped Shepard in his current position. In order to escape, Shepard would have to step across the doorway and right into the path of the gun. Vega had to figure some way to help Shepard. He scanned the room looking for anything that could help them. A quick glance to his right helped him see something he didn't notice from the other end of the room. There was a spot in the wall where the paint color was a slightly different shade from the rest of the wall.

"Captain," he called, "did there used to be something behind this wall?"

"From what I remember from the palace plans," Shepard replied, "there used to be a doorway there that led to what used to be the music room. It took heavy damage during the war. When they were fixing up the palace, they didn't try to fix it up. Instead they just sealed over all the doors and windows. I guess they decided a music room wasn't necessary."

Vega smiled as an idea entered his mind, "I know this might sound loco but I'm going to try and flank the gunner."

"How are you going to do that?"

"I thought I'd make myself a door. Can you cover the noise?"

Shepard smiled when he realized what Vega had planned. He pulled out a grenade while Vega pulled out his shotgun and primed it with a carnage round. Shepard tossed the grenade as close to the gunner as he could. As he expected the gunner didn't try to run away. Of course the purpose of the grenade was not to inflict damage. Meanwhile Vega took a step away from the wall, and aimed at the odd-colored spot. When Shepard's grenade went off, Vega pulled the trigger. Vega's carnage round blew a hole in the wall revealing the previously sealed up music room. Thanks to the timing of his shot, the sound of the explosive round and the exploding grenade sounded like a single explosion.

While Shepard ducked back into the dining room to avoid the next burst of machine gun fire, Vega climbed through the hole he created into the music room. Or at least what was the music room. It was dark inside due to all the windows and doors being sealed over. Vega turned on his flashlight and used it to scan the right wall while running down the hallway.

Eventually Vega found a spot in the wall where the paint was a different color from the rest of the wall. The doorway that led to the picture gallery used to be in that spot. Unfortunately the sound of the machine gun fire was still coming from a few feet ahead of Vega. If Vega blew a hole in the wall where he was, he would enter the picture gallery right into the sight of the machine gunner. It was not the ideal spot for him to breach. He ran a little further into the music room and found another spot. This time he could hear the machine gun coming from behind him. Breaching this wall would put him behind the gunner. He checked his shotgun and saw that it had cooled down enough after the last carnage shot. He could fire another one whenever he was ready. With the shotgun primed, he aimed at the odd-colored spot and pulled the trigger.

The force from the shotgun blast once again blew a large hole in the wall. Not wanting to give the gunner a chance to react, Vega jumped head first through the hole shortly after he fired the shot. He did summersault when he landed to get himself situated on his feet. He then raised his shotgun, pointed it toward the gunner and fired. The clump of shotgun fragments littered the gunner's back and he slumped over his gun, dead. Vega kept his shotgun trained on the gunner as he approached him to check his pulse. When no pulse could be found, he signaled to Shepard the dining room that it was all clear.

Shepard jogged to Vega when he saw the all clear signal. Along the way, he took a mental count of all the terrorist bodies he passed. Sure enough there were more than the three bodies he had expected to see. By his count, including the gunner, there were six dead terrorists lying around the music room, bringing the total count of dead terrorists to sixteen. Unfortunately none of them were Finch. Before Shepard reached Vega, he pulled up his omni-tool and used it to hack into the machine-gun. He programmed it to fire in series of short bursts at random intervals. If any terrorists were waiting for them in the throne room, it was best they continue to act under the impression that the machine-gun was still keeping him and Vega held back.

Vega was waiting for Shepard by the doors to the throne room. When Shepard got to him, he watched as Vega first pointed to his eyes. Then he held up two fingers and pointed towards the throne room. Vega was telling him he could see two hostiles in the throne room. Shepard mouthed the words "hostages too" to which Vega replied with a nod. Shepard had a hunch that if the hostages were in there then one of the terrorists guarding them had to be Finch. The odds of two against two were also slightly better than what they had just endured in the picture gallery. If they waited for the right moment, they would be able to burst in and take out the terrorists before they had a chance to react and kill one of the hostages.

Shepard peeked through a small crack in the door. The two terrorists were standing by the hostages with their rifles at the ready. Shepard was about to give the order for Vega to breach when a voice caught his attention. He didn't see either of the terrorists' mouths moving. There was another person in the room. Add that to the fact that Shepard recognized the voice and he knew that Finch was in the room too.

Based on what Shepard could hear, it sounded like Finch was talking to someone but it wasn't one of his men. There were no voices talking back to him so Shepard figured Finch was talking to someone on a comm. terminal and had the other end of the conversation muted to everyone but him. From Finch's tone of voice it sounded like he was not happy. With Finch angrily focused on his call and the two terrorists watching the hostages, this was the perfect time for him and Vega to strike.

"You take out the guard on the right while I take out the one on the left," Shepard whispered as he let Vega peek through the crack, "once they're down I'll focus on Finch and try to get him to surrender while you tend to the hostages."

Vega nodded to indicate he understood. He then put his free hand on a door handle and waited for Shepard to give him the signal to open the door. Shepard took one final peek through the door to make sure everything was still the same as last time. The guards were still with the hostages and Finch was still shouting at his terminal. Keeping his eye on the door, Shepard held up his hand towards Vega with three fingers up. The countdown until they breach was about to commence.

Three…two…one!

When Shepard finished the countdown, he used his free hand to grab the other door handle. Then he and Vega simultaneously threw open the doors and raised their rifles. Before anyone in the room had a chance to react, Shepard and Vega had fired their weapons and two bullets went through the heads of both terrorists. Vega watched the terrorists fall down dead while Shepard quickly focused his rifle on Finch who was still processing what was happening. With the rest of the terrorists dead, Vega holstered his rifle and began freeing the hostages. Shepard was looking through his scope right at Finch's head.

"It's over Finch," he said, "step away from the terminal and put your hands on your head."

Finch made no effort to move back. The only movement he made was in his eyes. They were shifting back and forth between looking at Shepard and looking at the terminal. Shepard wasn't sure but it seemed that the look in Finch's eyes were some kind of a silent signal to whoever he was talking to on the terminal for help. Shepard glanced at the terminal but he couldn't get a good look at the face displayed on the screen from where he was. The sweat dripping on Finch's forehead indicated that he wasn't getting a response. Suddenly he slammed his fist next to the terminal. Shepard almost fired his weapon but then he heard Finch speak.

"Don't you dare hang up on me!" Finch screamed at the terminal, "This is not what you promised me! Hello?! Hello!"

Finch was now completely distraught as nothing but silence replied to his call. Deciding that Finch wasn't a threat in his current state, Shepard began to slowly approach him. All the while he kept his weapon trained on Finch's head. Finch just remained still, staring at the terminal as if that would bring the person he was talking to back. Finally Shepard was close enough to handcuff Finch's hands behind his back.

Glancing at the terminal, Shepard noticed that it was connected to what looked like the communications jammer that had been messing with his comm. As he suspected, the jammer was small enough that anyone of Finch's men who were dressed as waiters could have hidden it in their carts. He pushed a few buttons on it and soon he heard the sound of the jammer powering down. Shepard tapped his ear to activate his comm. and now with the jammer turned off he finally got a connection through. He smiled when he heard Ashley's voice answer his call.

"Is that you skipper?" said Ashley.

"It sure is Williams," Shepard replied, "I just disabled the Reds comm. jammer. Vega and I have secured the last of the hostages. Finch is in custody and all other hostiles have been terminated."

"That's great to hear. You'll also be happy to know that someone at the operations center got your message. We just met up with an Alliance squad outside the palace's main entrance and I'm turning the hostages over to them. Do you still want me to come back and give you backup?"

"That won't be necessary. Vega and I have everything under…."

(RIIIIIIIINNGG!)

Before Shepard could finish his statement, an alarm went off in the adjacent green drawing room. It sounded like a fire alarm was going off. He ran over to the door leading to the drawing room. He didn't dare try to open it fearing that it may be rigged like most of the other doors. When he pressed his ear to the door, he almost thought he heard a rainstorm coming from inside. If the fire alarm was going off, the rainstorm he was hearing was more than likely the fire sprinklers. However, Shepard couldn't understand why the sprinklers would be going off. He couldn't smell any smoke so it wasn't because of a fire. But there was something in the room that he could smell. It wasn't water but something else. Suddenly he recognized the smell, gasoline.

"EVERYBODY DOWN!" he shouted as raced back to the hostages.

(KA-BOOOOOOOM!)