Area 51, Nevada

"Captain Hiller, where were you?" asked General Grey as Hiller escorted a ragged woman in her early thirties and a young boy out of the elevator to the surface. A couple of middle aged men followed, and then three teenagers escorted by a man who looked to be in his early thirties.

"I went to confirm the reports about MCAS El Toro, Sir," said Hiller, snapping to attention.

"And these stragglers?" asked Grey, gesturing to the one in the obviously damaged clothing, as opposed to the four Brits.

"Survivors sir, of Los Angeles," explained Hiller. "With an armada of RVs outside I figured it was safe to bring a half dozen injured here."

"And you four?" asked Grey, looking to the Brits.

"We offered him a ride, General," explained Sirius, stepping forward.

"And who might you be?" Grey asked.

"They're with us," said Shepard.

"Well, more with me, but that's details," added Winona. She walked up and gave Sirius a hug and a kiss. "General Grey, this is my husband, Sirius Black. Sirius, this is General William Grey, of the Untied States Marine Corps, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and this ranking military commander for the United State Armed Forces, second only to the Commander-in-Chief himself."

"A pleasure," said Sirius, offering his hand for a shake.

Grey reluctantly shook it, "Lord Black."

"While technically yes, since we're here in the States, it's best if it's just 'Mister' Black, or just call me Sirius," he said in reply.

"Yes, well, I was wondering why you had to offer my Marine a ride?"

"Well, he wanted to get to El Toro, and we made a trade for our services in getting him there," said Sirius.

"A trade?" asked Grey sharply.

"They took me to El Toro, and helped me bring back these survivors, and I show them where the Attacker I downed was," explained Hiller.

"To what end?" asked Grey.

"Cerberus is a think tank, but we do research and development as well, working with many different companies world-wide. We're big on space research, after I helped save the Space Shuttle seemed like a good idea. A few years ago we even procured one of the uncompleted Burans from Kazakhstan. We've been working on getting it working, and perhaps using it as a commercial launch vehicle," explained Shepard.

"And what does …" began Grey, before he understood, "Salvage?"

"Seemed like a good idea," said Winona. "As soon as we realized the aliens were coming we but out a call to all our contacts around the world, top dollar for intact alien artifacts, cash on verification."

"Wait, how much cash?" asked Hiller.

"Fifteen million for the Attacker," said Shepard. "Though we'll likely re-negotiate once inflation has settled after the war."

"You expect us to win?" asked Hiller.

"Of course we're going to win," said Shepard with a smile. "Even if I have to go up to that Mothership myself and kill every last one of them, we're going to win. I'd rather not have to, but that's neither here nor there."

"Wait, you don't want to kill them all?" asked Jasmine, the woman leaning off of Captain Hiller.

"Why would I?" asked Shepard.

"You weren't in LA, if you were, you've want to go after those bastards," said Jasmine icily.

"What about Germany after the Second World War? If you could, would you have every man, woman, and child in Nazi Germany killed because of the holocaust?"

"Oh," said Jasmine, realizing the scale of what she desired.

"What we should do is go after their leaders, their government, put responsibility where it belongs," said Shepard.

"And what about the rest?" asked Hiller. "Once you take out their leadership, what then?"

"I'm thinking Venus for a start," said Shepard.

"Venus?"

"Well, for the acrids and their arthropodic slaves at least," said Shepard. "I'm pretty sure they've got left-handed proteins, rather than the right-handed ones here on Earth. The feline slaves, I'm sure we can find a place for them on Earth, we'll need the help rebuilding."

"Wait, slaves? Arthropods? Felines? What are you talking about Shepard?" asked Grey.

"I got more out of the acrid pilot I killed than just how to fly their ships," said Shepard.

"It's not that hard," commented Harry, speaking for the first time. "The sticks are inverted, but otherwise the controls are pretty simple. The seats leave a bit to be desired, but that's easily fixed."

"Wait, you flew the crashed alien ship?" asked Grey.

"Well, once we cleaned it out, it wasn't that hard, had to fix a couple of broken bits, but nothing Hermione couldn't handle," said Harry, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, yeah, we mostly kept it in neutral, so to speak, and let the Hippogriff, and Captain Hiller, do the driving, but it's not like it's impossible to fly the thing."

"So, you have a working acrid Attacker?" asked Grey.

"Not sure if the weapons work, couldn't figure then out," said Harry.

Grey turned on Shepard, "We'll talk about your little 'salvage' operation later, I need you to brief the President on these slaves you spoke of. They make things … complicated." He then nodded to Hiller, "Captain, get these civilians to the infirmary, and then report to me ASAP. Shepard, follow me to the President. Black, you have the passes for your employees, make sure they know that these are limited access passes, just to the common areas, the main research lab, and the hangar, and just for the duration. Once this is over we're all going to have a nice long talk about what we've learned." He then turned on his heel, and began to walk.

Shepard shrugged, "Well, got to run. Sirius, nice to see you're safe. Kids, nice to see you again. Harry, Sue, congrats on the engagement." He then turned and followed Grey.