I'll Find You

Chapter 5: Destruction (Phase 2)

"I AM HARBINGER. AND THIS STATION IS MINE!"

Jacob had always been the first to admit he'd seen his fair share of crazy shit. In his time as an Alliance Corsair, a Cerberus enforcer, and a crew member of the Normandy, Jacob had been sure that he had seen everything the galaxy could throw at him. But staring at the abomination before him proved just how wrong he had been. He had read Shepard's report of Sovereign's hijack of Saren's body three years ago; he even talked to Shepard and Garrus about it during the Collectors mission. But seeing it firsthand, hearing the screams of the Illusive Man as all of his humanity was stripped away, was indescribable.

The eyes of the human-Reaper remained fixed on Jacob, as if trying to gauge his reaction. Jacob could feel his bottom lip quiver and sweat roll down his forehead. His grip on his pistol was nonexistent. Years worth of combat training and experience was the only factor that kept him from dropping it. His legs refused to hold his weight and seemed ready to give out at any moment. Jacob did have a word for his reaction.

And it was terror.

Absolute terror.

The creature took a breath and unleashed a monstrous roar that seemed to drain all color from Jacob's skin. The monster sprang forward; its fangs dripping with drool, ready to eviscerate every part of his body. A shove from Grunt, with the force of a speeding car, saved Jacob from that fate. Jacob struck the chrome floor, shoulder first and rolled the rest of the way while Grunt unloaded his M-15 Vindicator rifle. Embers from the krogan's incendiary ammo simmered on the monster's armor-like skin and quickly flickering into nothing as the Reaper hybrid charged. Grunt rolled out of its path and switched to his Claymore shotgun. Two shots struck the beast but only succeeded in aggravating it. The new Reaper closed the distance between them and in a single blow sent Grunt flying down the platform, next to the petrified Jacob.

Grunt shook his head like he had merely bumped it. "Damn pyjak!" he growled.

The Reaper hybrid circled the computer panel, its eyes not leaving its two opponents. Grunt pumped his Claymore, replacing the overheated thermal clip. He turned to Jacob, his eyes glazed over with adrenaline.

"Jacob on your feet!" he barked. "You gotta do your computer-thing to blow this damn place up!"

Jacob heard the words, but Grunt sounded like he was light-years away from him. He tried to answer the krogan, but his mouth seemed incapable of forming speech. A tug from Grunt brought him to his feet but the human's body felt like a statue. He could only stare at the humanoid Reaper before him, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

"Damn it, Jacob, snap out of it!"

The next thing Jacob knew, a krogan head slammed against his forehead, knocking the human back to the floor. For a few seconds there seemed to be two Grunts dancing in front of Jacob's vision. His forehead ached and Jacob could already feel blood oozing out from the new wound. But the overwhelming headache seemed to override the paralyzing effect he felt before. Jacob shook his head and slowly pulled himself to his feet.

"Thanks," he said with a groan. "…I think."

Grunt switched to his Vindicator. "You good?"

Jacob grabbed his M-23 Katana. "Yeah."

"You better be," Grunt said as the pale blue of his fortification ability covered his armor. "Cuz I'm going in, draw this thing's fire."

Jacob flared up his biotic barrier and switched to incendiary ammo. "Got it. I'll finish the job at the control panel."

"See you on the other side."

"Here's hoping."

Jacob exchanged a glance with the krogan, who merely nodded and fired off a concussive round at the monster. The round struck the Reaper hybrid's deformed head and exploded on impact. With the smoke over its vision, Jacob dashed for the control panel, his body warm with adrenaline and pain from Grunt's head-butt. The smoke had barely begun to clear before the former Illusive Man let out a screech and sprang towards the tank-bred krogan.

Grunt let out a roar of his own before charging, his Vindicator firing off every round in his magazine as he went. "I'm Urdnot Grunt and today is the day you DIE!"

The cinders from the ammo dotted the monster's skin but didn't seem to deter it. The humanoid Reaper swung its massive arms like the Brutes. Grunt ducked under the blow, making the limb strike the chrome floor, resulting in a small quake that Jacob could feel even from the control panel. The former soldier had to grip the sides of the panel to maintain his balance. Grunt dodged another blow before slamming his shoulder into the monster's torso, knocking it back a few steps. The krogan quickly switched to his Claymore and fired off a concussive shot point blank. The recoil sent the adolescent krogan stumbling backwards.

But the proximity of the shot mattered little to the Reaper. The monster emerged from the smoke undamaged and sprang at the krogan once more. Grunt fired off one more shot before the overheated hiss of his gun caught Jacob's ear. Before the tank-bred could switch out thermal clips, the Reaper sank its sharp fangs into Grunt's shoulder. The krogan let out a vexed growl before smashing his head into the Reaper's body. The Reaper stumbled but kept its oral grip. The abomination reeled its head back, lifting the one ton alien off the floor. It shook its head like a dog with a bone before hurling Grunt off the side of the rotund platform.

"Grunt!" Jacob exclaimed. But the sight of the krogan's three clawed hand digging into the chrome floor told the former marine he clung to his life, for now. But the Reaper seemed to see it two and sprang at the dangling krogan, adamant to finish the job.

Jacob's body flared with azure blue and thrust his arm out at the Reaper. The blue aura of Jacob's biotics engulfed it, freezing the Reaper in mid-air. But the creature thrashed about, its defiant screeches were like needles stabbing in Jacob's ears. Even without the noise, Jacob knew he couldn't maintain the grip for long. The monster most likely weighed several tons and required more biotic effort and power to keep suspended. Power Jacob knew he didn't have. Already he could feel the aura weaken and his body yelling at him to break off the technique. Jacob glanced at the ledge as blood began to ooze down his nostrils from the overexertion. He saw Grunt's other hand grab onto the ledge.

The aura around the monster began to recede. Only seven seconds remained until the technique would cancel itself out. A pained growl from the ledge signaled Jacob to look over once more and see Grunt pull himself back up with yellow-orange fluid seeping out from his new wound. Grunt took one glance at the floating monster before pulling out his Vindicator and firing another concussive round. The blast sent the creature flying back down the walkway. It rolled at least four times before coming to a stop, completely still.

Jacob's chest heaved when the technique shorted out. He'd never had to keep any biotic attack up for that long against something so heavy. It was a good thing Shepard didn't pick him to protect the squad from the seeker swarms during the assault on the Collectors. Jacob knew he wouldn't have been up for the task.

Grunt made his way over, rolling his shoulder a few times as if checking for lasting damage. He grabbed his fallen Claymore before taking up a defensive stance behind Jacob.

"Looks like that thing doesn't like biotics very much," Jacob said as he tried to re-establish his link to the Crucible.

Grunt pumped his Claymore. "Yeah, he should join the club."

Another screech and the former Illusive Man was on its feet.

"Think you can do that again?" Grunt asked.

Jacob shook his head. "To keep that thing down, you'll need biotic power way beyond what I got. Besides, even if I could, I have to finish this destruction sequence."

"Ah, where's Jack when you need her?"

"Or Samara."

"Jacob!" he heard Brynn over the comm.-line. "Jacob, are you there?"

"I'm here Brynn," Jacob replied.

"What happened? I lost contact with you for a while."

Jacob glanced over his shoulder to see Grunt charge the Harbinger possessed Illusive Man. "Trust me babe, the less you know the better. Just tell me what else I need to do to prime this destruction sequence, we're running out of time."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you. Harbinger is making its way towards our front line! If we don't hurry, it'll decimate everything, Citadel and Crucible included!"

"How many direct hits can the Citadel take?"

"Now that we've synched the Citadel to the Crucible drive core it should be able to withstand a great deal. But all of that will be worthless if you don't prime the discharge of the energy."

"How much longer then?"

"Seven minutes….ideally."

Behind Jacob, he heard Grunt toss his Claymore and tackle the Reaper to the floor. But even Grunt could hold that monster off for only so long.

They had four minutes at best.

"Let's finish this."

OOOOOO

The Crucible deck had become a frenzy of chaos the moment Admiral Hackett revealed the destruction plan to its crew. Throngs of personnel saturated the narrow corridors, turning walking into a never-ending game of Tetris. With every four steps, Miranda seemed to bump into someone storming the corridor, shouting questions or putting a request for primary placement on one of the escape shuttles. Scientists of every species scrambled to save whatever samples or notes they could, while the soldiers assigned struggled to keep order. The news that Harbinger was slowly making its way to the front lines did not help matters either. The Crucible had not been built with many escape shuttles. At most they could fit a quarter of the crew with the amount they had but that was nowhere near good enough.

Miranda's eyes were fixed on the display of the battle on her Omni-tool while she made her way down to the med-bay. Over her comm-link she could hear the sounds of battle from the admiral she was conversing with.

"I understand your reservations Admiral Gerrel," Miranda said over the comm.-link. "But we haven't gotten this far by playing safe. The Crucible needs your ships for a proper evacuation."

"There's a break in the Reaper lines!" Gerrel insisted. "I need all the ships available to me to push the offensive! If we break off our ships will be too exposed. We'll lose more than we save."

The initial burst of white energy from the Crucible had given their forces the boost it needed to keep them in the game. Conventional means were finally working against the Reapers, causing many ships in the Sword division to push their luck and attempt a full offensive. However, with the destruction plan in place, admirals like Gerrel and several others like Balaak and a few turians, were only putting themselves and their crew at risk.

"Don't be stupid," Miranda pressed. "If you advance too far, your ships will catch full the brunt of the destruction sequence. In that case, you'll lose everything."

"And when is the next time we'll see a break in the Reaper lines like this?" Gerrel said. "The more we destroy now the more effective this destruction sequence of yours will be."

Miranda rubbed her forehead. It was like talking to a damn wall. She knew from Tali that quarians like to argue and debate, but this was taking it to a whole different level.

"Operative Lawson," another Admiral cut in. "This Admiral Koris, the Civilian Fleet will be more than happy to render assistance."

"Zaal, I told you, the heavy fleet needs the civilian fleet for covering fire!" Gerrel said.

"Evacuating the Crucible crew is far more important Gerrel," Koris said.

"Thank you admiral," Miranda said. "You'll be evacuating the crew of deck four. Approximately 250 people, can your ships handle that?"

"It will be a tight fit, but we'll do it."

"Excellent, I'll send you the rendezvous coordinates."

The link flickered out as Miranda reached the med-bay. A soldier ran past her and she grabbed his shoulder.

"Yes Ms. Lawson?"

"Inform the crew of deck four that the Qwib-Qwib is coming to extract them in ten minutes. Their priority should be evacuating any children and non-combatants. Leave any non-essential projects and notes behind."

"Understood ma'am."

The former Cerberus operative took a breath as she stood in front of the med-bay door. The news had reached her that Jacob had successfully extracted Shepard a few minutes ago. She had meant to check-in sooner but organizing the evacuation and arranging for more ships had to take precedence. She wasn't even sure why she had come down in the first place. According to the report Shepard wasn't even conscious. Visiting now didn't serve him or her any good.

Miranda shook her head at the thought. No, she knew why she came down, because there was chance she wouldn't be able to later.

The door slid open and immediately her nose was assaulted with the surgical odor of medi-gel, alcohol, and countless other chemicals. It only took Miranda few moments to get accustomed to the scent. She had after all, spent two years of her life in such an environment. The med-bay was a cramped room with only a dozen or so beds. The shelves only had room for the most basic of medical supplies and there were only three medical dispensers for the entire room. It was obvious that the protheans or whoever designed the Crucible didn't design it for long-term use.

Most of the beds were empty. A good deal of the injured personnel was already on their way to the escape shuttles. The only ones who remained were three doctors and they were all huddled around a single bed, listing off various injuries and possibilities of treatment.

Miranda approached the foot of the bed, her heart in her throat. Shepard's body was confined to countless machines, tracking both brain and heart activity, both of which were low. The amber salve of the medi-gel was smeared from his neck down to his stomach. The sheets of the bed prevented her from seeing just how far down the salve went, but it did allow her to see the countless wounds, scorch marks, deep slashes, and worse that his armor would have concealed. In way seeing Shepard in this form brought Miranda back to Project Lazarus, only this time Shepard meant far more to her than just a long-term science project.

He meant so much more.

"What's his status?" she asked the salarian doctor next to her.

The doctor tapped a few buttons on his datapad. "The medi-gel has stabilized him but…."

"But?"

"Internal bleeding, several fractures in the rib and chest area, eardrums blown out, serve burns, blood entering the lungs….it's not looking good."

"Where is he being moved?"

"As you can well imagine, several fleets have offered to shelter the great Commander Shepard," an asari doctor said. "We settled for General Corinthus. His dreadnaught has top the line armor and large amount of fighters and frigates to support it. The commander will be safe there for the retreat."

"Have you calculated the risk factor of any dextro-based substances entering the commander's body?"

"We've managed to lower it to 5.3 percent with a two percent margin of error," a red haired female doctor replied.

"Get it down to three percent or less however you can," she said, her eyes not leaving the wounds on Shepard. "I want a full crew manifest of all of General Corinthus's medical personnel along with access to their dossiers."

The asari jotted down Miranda's requests on her datapad. "Noted. Anything else Ms. Lawson?"

"I'll need a moment alone with him, to survey the full extent of his injuries myself. It should only take ten minutes at most. Finalize the transfer for both the commander and yourselves in the meantime."

It was only until the doctors shuffled past her and she heard the door swish to a close, did Miranda dare approach the bed. She ran her hand from his covered leg up to his cold face, trying to fully take in the sight before her. Her thumb brushed against his lips. The last time he kissed her seemed like a completely different life, when in truth it had only been at most, three days ago. She remembered waking up next to him after the crew's party in Anderson's apartment on the Citadel, and she could honestly say that she had never felt true happiness until that moment. A cheesy and naïve sentiment no doubt, but Miranda couldn't describe it any other way. And now, the source of that happiness lay in front her looking more like a corpse than the man she had come to….care for deeply.

Her white gloved hand took his still one while she brushed his cheeks with her other hand. Her throat was dry and already she could feel moisture build within the corners of her eyes.

"Shepard," she whispered. "I'm not sure if you can hear me. You probably can't certainly, but I'm….glad that you made it out. When that first blast went off, I knew you must have had something to do with it. Large explosions are your forte after all."

She blinked several times trying to keep her tears at bay.

"I know you. I know you'll pull through somehow. The galaxy needs you to pull through. And…I need you to pull through. There are so many things I need to tell to you…."

Miranda searched her brilliant mind for more to stay, but came up short. She increased her grip on his limp hand while stroking his bloodied knuckles with her thumb. Silence filled the room save for the occasional beep of the life support machines. The minutes seemed to pass like seconds until the notification alarm on her onmi-tool broke the stillness.

"Ms. Lawson!" Ensign Richard said over the comm. Line. "We have an update for you about the evacuation."

"It looks like I have to get back to it," she said softly. "Please just hang in there."

At that moment, Shepard's hand closed around hers and squeezed her palm. Miranda wasn't sure if it was the result of an involuntary motor function or truly a reaction to her presence. There was hardly any strength in his grip but it was enough to give Miranda pause. His face was still and his heart and brain functions were still minimal. But she couldn't deny the warmth, however small, in Shepard's hand.

Reluctantly Miranda pulled away and activated her comm. Channel.

"Commander Shepard is ready to be evacuated," she announced. "What's the status of General Corinthus's ship?"

"Being swarmed by Reapers ma'am," Ensign Richard said. "I've transferred the evacuation plan to a geth ship closer to your location."

Miranda held in a grunt. "A geth ship won't have a proper medical staff on board."

"I'm sorry ma'am it's the best I could do under the circum-…..holy shit!"

"What?"

"It's Harbinger and it brought 30 of his friends!"

Miranda quickly switched on the displays panels to see the sight for herself.

The sight before her sucked all energy from her body. Thirty Reapers all lined up like a firing squad was aimed for the Citadel. Their beams transformed the dark abyss of space into a sea of crimson red.

Seconds later all Miranda could see was red.

OOOOO

A powerful impact shook the entire chamber, knocking Jacob off his feet. The sound of a heavy set of metal striking the floor as well, told Jacob that Grunt felt it too. But the Reaper hybrid seemed unaffected. It pounced at the downed krogan, who quickly rolled out of its path and flared up his fortification power. The shield extension took the full hit of two swipes from the beast before fired one last concussive round, knocking it back. The thermal clip popped out of his assault rifle but the loud hiss from the weapon meant that there was no replacement for it. Grunt snarled and switched to his shotgun, only to be met with the same result. The human-Reaper sprang back to all fours ready to continue.

"Jacob! I'm out!"

The former marine hurled his shotgun at the tank-born. "Use what's left in that!"

"Thanks, sissy gun though."

"Brynn, what the hell was that?"

"It's Harbinger! It just decimated the front line and is focusing all its attention on the Citadel! Along with thirty more Reapers!"

"That's good right?" Jacob asked. "More blasts mean the more energy released when this thing blows."

"Our theory was based on the fire power of two or three Reapers at a time, not thirty! It's too much at once!"

Jacob glanced down at the energy levels of the drive core and sure enough the readings had spiked in an exceptional manner. Already the Crucible was at 47 percent of its maximum input. But the excess Reaper energy was breaking down certain functions of the Citadel. A total breakdown was inevitable. Only it wouldn't be the controlled detonation like they had planned.

"How long do we have?" was all Jacob could ask.

"I-I'm not sure. If this keeps up….not long. The fleets are trying to stall them as much as possible but….Jacob if anything happens….."

"Don't start saying your goodbyes now," Jacob said as he rearrange the code. "I'm setting the destruction sequence to activate the second it reaches 100 percent input. Get yourself and everyone else off that station now, Brynn!"

"All right, but how are you and your krogan friend getting out? We can't send another access port."

"We'll figure something out. Just get yourself to an escape shuttle and take everyone you can. I love you, and I'll see you soon."

"Jacob I…I….I'll see you when you get back."

The connection fizzled out with another rumble, causing the chrome floor to crack. The energy levels spiked to 67 percent. It wouldn't last long at this rate. Jacob gritted his teeth and grabbed his pistol.

"Grunt! We're leaving!" he exclaimed.

Grunt rammed the Reaper hybrid with shoulder, knocking it back a few steps. "Great, I'm already sick of this place!"

"Do you remember your way to the beam that got you up here?"

"Yeah it's a straight shot after this pyjak! Just wish we had more ammo!"

The Reaper hybrid glanced at the two of them before letting out one more deafening scream that shook the walls. Jacob had to latch onto Grunt's shoulder to stay on his feet. But soon the scream lowered into a booming bass that brought Jacob back to the collector base.

"YOU HAVE CHANGED NOTHING! THE CYCLE WILL CONTINUE!"

The door flew open, allowing hordes of cannibals to swarm the walkway behind the Reaper-hybrid. Twenty marauders followed soon after along with three brutes and two banshees. Surrounded by its allies the Reaper-hybrid let out another roar, this one of triumph it seemed like. Jacob felt the sweat build on the back of his neck. Even Grunt looked at their new opponents with a hesitation he'd never seen before.

"We're gonna need bigger guns," the krogan said.

"And a miracle," Jacob muttered.

"If we're going out we're taking all these bastards with us agreed?"

"Damn right. Just hope there's a good bar in the after-life."

"Heh, if the gods don't have a decent bottle of ryncol they aren't gods."

Jacob flared up his barrier and made sure he had a decent amount of thermal clips. "See you on the other side."

Grunt merely nodded and with one savage roar, worthy of any krogan, he charged headlong into their final skirmish with the Reapers.

"Goodbye Brynn," Jacob muttered under his breath. The marine said one last prayer before following Grunt lead into the fray.

All he could hear were the sounds of gunfire.

AN: Yes this story is still alive. I've just been playing through ME3 again with the extended cut, Leviathan, Omega, and the Citadel DLC included. With all of those it makes the game feel much fuller and complete than when it was first released. The ending is still kind of "love it or hate it", no matter what, so there's that. Anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter. Ideally the next installment should be out by early May if all goes well.