Vigil's chamber, several hours later.
The chamber was the same as it was two years ago, except for the absence of the Prothean AI, the projector that had once generated the image was deactivated, Vigil was dead. Shepard approached it to see if it would power up at his presence, nothing, he kneeled by the panel and gripped the edge, he strained but it would not budge.
"Garrus, Kevin, a little help here!". His teammates ran over and helped him pry the panel out of the ground, when the dusty, stone-like slab of metal was removed, the electronics and core were revealed, David activated his communicator.
"Miranda, Tali, get down here, we have exposed the core.".
Minutes later the two female technicians were hard at work trying to remove the core and the surrounding machinery, Shepard, Garrus and O'Neil stood guard until the pair had finished their work. The core was carried to the ship on a hover trolley and hooked up to a section of EDI that was temporarily separated from the main computer, so that if anything went wrong, the AI would not be affected.
"I will need four hours to analyze and translated the data, and another two to single out any that could help against the reapers.". Shepard nodded and walked up to the bridge. Joker was sitting in the pilot chair and checking over the ship's diagnostics, when the sensor console blared and turned red.
David leaned over Joker's shoulder as he checked the readings.
"Three Geth warships approaching the planet sir, the hostile ones.".
"How soon can you get us off this rock and to the relay?".
"I can do it in three minutes but those ships are right in out path, we'll have to get through at least one of them.".
"Do it.". The Normandy's engines flickered and flared to life, the vegetation below was scorched and the sand was fused into glass.
The ship lifted off and angled upwards, the engines gave one last blast and propelled the frigate into the sky.
When the Geth ships came into weapons range of the Normandy they fired everything, but the smaller, nimble ship slipped through the torrent of death and fired it's Thannik cannon. The sapphire beam crashed into the lead ship, flaring the shields before punching through, the alloy was cut deep and scarred black, plasma conduits were severed and leaked freely into space, creating a blue haze around the ship and causing a slow degradation of it's armor as the plasma eroded the pink-grey material.
The Normandy's pulse lasers followed, igniting the plasma and boiling away more layers of armor, leaving a substantial amount of the Geth ship's bow devoid of armor, the flanking ships fired again, the Normandy spiraled around the lasers and sent a pair of pulse beams at the leading cruiser, they pierced deep and cut into the core, the ship consumed itself in blue light too intense to be called mere flame. A halo of debris orbited the blast site, the other cruisers foolishly continued their forward course, the Thannik cannon's intense beam speared the second ship, balancing it on a thin line of blue energy, which moved up then down, cutting the hull like a scalpel, the two halves parted and drifted away from each other, Joker maneuvered the Normandy around the third cruiser and toward the relay, disappearing in a flash of light.
Five hours later, Franthnek system.
EDI had found something useful, a weaker portion of armor on the Reapers, it had been discovered too late for the protheans, but it could help save the next of the races. The weak point was a section of armor nestled in the back of the reaper, situated in the center area between it's rear four 'claws', concentrated or powerful weapon fire to this area once shields were down would damage the reaper faster, but it was near several laser emitters, and they were fatal to any ship hit by one. Shepard and his team talked it over in the briefing room.
"So to attack this weak point could cost almost as many ships as if we hit it dead on from the front?". Garrus shook his head.
"I just don't know it it's worth it, I mean, a three percent higher survival chance for any ship going here is not that much.".
"I agree,". Said Samara. "But it is a better chance, if it gives us a better chance against the Reapers, it could mean the difference between victory and extinction.".
"But what if your wrong?" Tali spoke up. "If assaulting this area still costs as many ships as a full frontal attack, why bother, we would need several more ships as fast, well equipped and well piloted as the Normandy.". At that, Joker's voice crackled over the speaker.
"Thanks Tali, it's nice to know I have a fan.". David muttered to himself before replying.
"I may have the answer to that, when the council called all of the specters back to the citadel, it was for the unveiling of a new breed of ships, the Normandy class stealth frigate, there were two already and I think that there are at least two to three more, we could gather them and explain why we need them at the battle.".
"That sounds like a good plan, but how are we supposed to get to that weak point when the reapers are going to be surrounded by their support fleets and each other?". Inquired Kevin, Shepard nodded in his direction.
"A very good question, this will be accomplished with a fleet, we will need to gather a fleet of at least twenty or more heavy warships and use them to get in close, this should take only a day or two at most, because all we need to do is gather a few ships from each system and then rendezvous with them at a relay connected to the citadel, in this case that system would be Torvus.". The group agreed, dispersed and returned to their respective tasks while Shepard remained behind and contacted Anderson.
"Hello Shepard, how are things going on your mission?".
"We have found a weak point in the reaper armor that could give us an edge, but we need as many Normandy class ships as we can get, I'll need the contact info for all of he specters that are now commanding a Normandy frigate.". Anderson nodded, looking like he could cheer at any second.
"I'll send you the information, good job Shepard.".
"Have there been any sightings of the Retributions?". Shepard asked he did not want to be caught unprepared when the reapers attacked again.
"Yes, in the Sylvaras system, three relays away from the citadel, they will most likely come to the citadel from the Hypirid relay, we estimate thirty hours until they reach the us, but we have amassed a fleet of over two hundred ships, so we can put up a fight if we have to.". Shepard snapped his fingers.
"Before you sign off, I need any ships you can pull off of planetary guard within twenty-five hours travel of the Torvus system to report there, I need at least twenty ships of cruiser class, maybe a carrier or two if possible.". Anderson crossed his arms and stroked his chin.
"I'll see what I can do, good luck.". The hologram faded and dissipated, leaving David to his own devices. He contacted the other captains of the Normandy class frigates, that were available for combat. Silinar of the Incorruptible, Ragar of the Powerhouse, Eradna of the Armageddon and Darvos of the Shimmering Dawn, each captain pledged their services to David and agreed to meet him a Torvus in twenty-three hours.
Twenty-three hours later, Torvus-Citadel relay.
David marveled at the amount of ships that had answered his call, a grand total of thirty-four ships, three carriers, five assault cruisers, four heavy cruisers and the rest were the new standard upgraded cruisers, like the new majority of alliance and council warships, they were equipped with the Thannik cannon and the shield and hull upgrades. The other specter captains had also shown up, the whole fleet had been briefed and knew what to do, they simply waited for their scouts to bring back reports every quarter hour, the last scout had been unable to get a good reading because of a small ionic storm so they were about to send another scout through.
David stood by Joker's chair as they waited, sweat was already beading on everyones brows and necks, the sir was heavy and time seemed to stop as the scout returned three minutes early. A woman's voice crackled over the comm.
"Commander Shepard! The citadel is under heavy attack, it looks like the battle has been going on for almost seven or eight minutes, but the citadel fleets are holding, just barely.". Shepard nodded to Joker, who gunned the Normandy's engines and activated FLEETCOMM.
"All Normandy class ships, hang back for ten seconds, let the heavy classes go through first, they are our ticket to the reapers, heavy classes, try and get the enemy as confused as possible, let's go people!". The fleet jumped forward and disappeared in a series of rapid-fire flashes.
Aboard Alliance cruiser 'Burning Justice II', in station keeping around the citadel with the Grand Fleet, nine minutes earlier.
Ensign Wallace jumped as his sensor panel beeped, he checked the readings, twice, then raised his voice.
"Captain, sensors show a large amount of ships exiting the Hypirid relay, wait, the exit emissions have stopped, scans indicate roughly three hundred, six ships, three reapers, three fifths Geth and two fifths Collectors, they are moving in, will be in weapon range in twenty seconds!". The captain activated the comm.
"This is an alert to the fleet, Retribution's fleet has arrived, initiate combat protocol. The fleet turned to face the incoming tide of ships, they charged their weapons and fired, hundreds of lines of death crossed the space between them, explosions lit up the formations and ships were blasted apart, Wallace held on as a stray Geth missile found their ship, the lights dimmed and he saw the kinetic barriers pop and die, another laser headed for their ship and filled wallace's vision with golden light.
Shepard's fleet appeared in space and continued on it's path, straight at the reapers, who were only protected by a thin screen of forty-some Geth ships, the reapers and their fleets were slowly inching toward the citadel, who, like last time, could not close the arms, but at this rate, it would be almost an hour before Retribution reached the citadel, but it was Shepard's goal to stop that. His fleet engaged the reapers and their escorts in a frenzied battle, while the Normandy and her sisters weaved their way toward Retribution Beta, who still bore the scars of it's near defeat.
They managed to maneuver behind the smaller reaper and charge their Thannik cannons, five bile spears of energy struck the same place, causing the shields to ripple and spark, the reaper began to slowly turn, whilst being bombarded with pulse lasers and Thannik beams, it's weapons charged and emitted ruby beams, the smaller ships easily dodged the beMs and continued to pound the ship, weaving around it in a complex pattern, a special maneuver designed to bring them together behind the reaper, it worked, they charged and fired their Thannik cannons one-by-one, the shields popped and the lasers pierced the weak point, they went deep, causing secondary explosions to rack the machine, it was torn in half by the force and floated lifelessly in space.
The Normandy bridge crew cheered as the remains drifted away, then a red light lit up the main console, the second reaper was heading right for them, before they could react, the PowerHouse was vaporized by a beam from the reaper, the other ships maneuvered out of the way and scattered, the Normandy angled around and fired at a few of the Geth ships, the pulse lasers tore their rear sections to shreds due to the fact that they had all of their shields focused forward. The freed alliance ships went to work helping the others, and soon, the remaining twenty-two ships were engaged with Retribution Omega, the Normandy class frigates swarmed around it, distracting it and pounding it with relentless assaults, the original Normandy was following the original Retribution, all of it's. Ships were busy with the citadel and Alliance fleets Normandy was about to attack when the alliance flagship exploded, taking three geth cruisers and two Turian destroyers down with it.
The outgoing fire from he fleet became less organized and it seemed like the fleet might crumble when another, sleeker looking ship came out of the citadel, the same general shape and size of the first flagship, and then a voice that was very familiar to Shepard echoed over the fleet channel.