"Admiral! We have a power buildup on the Crucible. According to Dr. Bryson's calculations, if the buildup continues, it'll reach firing threshold in five minutes."

"HOT DAMN! All fleets! The Crucible is armed! Disengage and head to the rendezvous point. I repeat, disengage and get the hell out of here!"

. . .

Miranda's heart leaped as she saw the power spike from the Crucible. Then her jaw fell open as Hackett's order to withdraw came through. She was about to give him a piece of her mind when an ear-bleeding whistle pierced the com channel. A hologram of Shepard, flickering red, appeared on the bridge—and on the bridge of every ship in the fleet. Battered and bloody, barely standing, his arms trembled. He looked like death. His eyes stared in desperation. Miranda gasped.

"If anyone can hear my voice... the Crucible effect will destroy the geth... all... all synthetic life. Go..." Shepard's knees buckled. The transmission flickered.

"John!" Miranda cried.

The transmission cut out.

Miranda jumped on the command frequency. "This is the Normandy. We're going after Shepard." She turned back to the CIC. "EDI, can you use that transmission to tell us where he is?"

"Shepard is located at the center of the 'focus' referenced by Dr. T'Soni."

"Joker, get us down there. Garrus, I need you to punch a hole in the Citadel close to Shepard but not so close we kill him."

"I thought you were going to give me something challenging, Miranda," Garrus replied.

The Normandy took a barrel roll around a hellish crossfire. Miranda noticed geth ships in the fray. Joker leveled out. Miranda zoomed in on a schematic of the target area. If Garrus blew the shot, John was dead. She felt like she couldn't breathe.

"I have always wanted to take a shot at the Citadel," Garrus snickered.

Garrus barely touched the triggers. Twin cannons that had gutted the Collector cruiser fired a whisper, gold streaks of superheated metal that blew the surface hull off two compartments, and very little else.

Miranda was stunned. Later, she couldn't believe she actually said, "Holy shit! What a shot!"

"And that, my friend, is why we do calibrations."

. . .

Admiral Hackett sighed as he heard Lawson say she was going after Shepard. If he didn't have an armada to save, he would have done the same thing. He was about to tell the Iowa's pilot to jump away when hails came pouring into the command channel.

"Normandy, this is Captain Fob, SSV Nuremberg. If you're going after Shepard, we've got your back."

"This is Matriarch Lidanya, Destiny Ascension. We owe Shepard."

"This is Captain Holland, SSV Sarajevo. Count us in."

"Commander Phillips, SSV Saratoga Fighter Wing. You think you're going to have all the fun?"

"Admiral Meridus, Indomitable. We are with you."

Ship after ship, fleet after fleet, the responses came in. Finally, the one that Hackett would remember on his dying day: "The geth fleet has achieved consensus. We will not leave until Commander Shepard is safe."

"Dear God," Hackett whispered.

The com officer said, "Sir, no one's leaving."

Hackett wiped a tear away from his eye. "Neither are we. All fleets. Stand your ground. Protect the Normandy and Commander Shepard. Let's show these bastards what we're made of."

The bridge of the Iowa cheered.

. . .

The Kodiak's engines were already firing up as Miranda came out of the elevator. Jack and Ashley stood in the hatch, waving her to hurry. "Move your ass, cheerleader! We don't have time!" Jack yelled.

Garrus was running ahead of her. What the hell was he doing there? Miranda pushed him in and closed the hatch. There wasn't time to argue. She saw full medical evac gear and some heavy weapons for good measure. Ashley knew her stuff.

As Miranda belted herself in, she asked, "Garrus, what the hell are you doing?"

"You left Jacob in charge of the Normandy. I left Randall on the forward guns. He looked like it was his birthday."

"Is he even qualified?"

"I trained him myself. He'll blow the wings off a gnat at half a parsec."

As the squad put on their helmets and pressurized their suits, she heard Joker say, "We're going in. Get ready."

From the cockpit, Cortez said, "Hold on, everybody!"

The hangar bay doors opened. Quickly, Miranda saw a glimpse of one of the Citadel's arms, then Cortez fired the shuttle's thrusters and they were out.

Miranda had never felt so exposed in her life. Ships and deadly fire were everywhere. Allied ships. Reaper ships. Some of the technology was so alien that she couldn't tell what was friendly and what was Reaper. That's simple enough, she chided herself. If it tries to kill you, it's Reaper.

Cortez flew the Kodiak like an interceptor—then Miranda actually saw interceptors from the Yorktown's wing form up around them. Three of them fired thrusters, flipped over and gave them covering fire.

Miranda held her breath as the Kodiak skidded in next to the breach that Garrus had shot away from the Citadel, going from full speed to dead stop in seconds.

"Shit, I gotta go driving with you, Esteban!" Vega said.

Miranda slid the hatch open and jumped the narrow gap to the Citadel. The edge of the space was charred, melted metal. Inside looked like a corridor. Miranda saw what looked like human body parts clinging to support struts in the walls. Frozen scarlet muck on the ground confirmed it.

Grunt, Ashley and Jack automatically took point, with Tali and Miranda in the middle, and Garrus and Vega in the rear. Miranda's HUD showed EDI's map, their position, and an arrow to Shepard's position.

"No targets," Ashley said.

"Keep your eyes open."

"Roger that."

A blue haze covered the corridor. Ashley passed her arm through it. "Atmosphere seal." She hurried through. "We've got air."

"Helmets stay on just in case."

"Got a door," Jack said.

"Tali," Miranda said. The quarian hurried forward and began working the door's controls.

"Wonder where we are," Garrus said.

"Someplace we were never meant to be," Ashley mused.

From outside, explosions that were too close for comfort lit up the corridor.

"Got it!" Tali said.

The door opened. Inside was what looked like a bridge over an electrical furnace. Ashley, Grunt and Jack ran in, guns pointed ahead, while the others followed, covering above and behind them. Storms of crimson arcs the size of buildings flashed over rising and falling power cells. Thunder crashed everywhere. It felt they were inside a cross between a music box and a tesla coil gone mad.

The Crucible was about to unleash it all on the Reapers.