Alarms sounded through out the cavern. The unmistakable boom of weapons fire on the surface of the small moon echoed through the air. Somewhere a connecting passage to the lower levels collapsed adding its sound to the din. Stalactites broke loose from the roof of the caves. Hundreds died from falling rock alone. The foolish and the cowardly ran into the darkness of the caves deeper below the surface for the illusion of security. Most did not survive. Ships were maned. Defense guns still in process of being upgraded were fired. Civilians were herded to safety with the Council, except the human Councillor. David Anderson was busy seeing to those who staggered behind and to the children who were separated from their parents. The Council body guards tried to force him, but when he drew a gun on them they decided to assist him instead.

Kryik was already on the Normandy when the attack began. He just completed the upgrades he was working on when the attack began. A full diagnostic had yet to be run. The Normandy would have to prove herself in battle. He no sooner activated his omni-tool to alert Shepard and Vakarian than they appeared in the door way of the forward docking hatch ready for battle. This was it. He locked eyes with them, clapping them on the shoulders. The three briefly pressed their foreheads together, lending their strength to the other, before heading to their stations. Joker was not far behind them.

"Can't flight without a pilot." Joker proclaimed as he settled anxiously into his seat.

"That is not entirely accurate, Mr. Moreau." EDI corrected.

"Right, whatever... Let's kick some Reaper ass!" Joker shouted excitedly.

"Don't get to excited." Kryik said behind him. "We don't know if these upgrades are functional, but if all goes well, we will at least match them in fire power and shielding."

"So if don't blow up we've got a chance." Joker summed.

"Yes."

"That's unusually optimistic of you," Joker scoffed.

"Good." Kryik nodded.

"I think this was the best convo we've had sir." Joker teased.

Kryik grunted and walked away. He wasn't dumb and he wasn't deaf. He heard the comments the pilot made as he walked away. They didn't need to like each other. Jeff Moreau only needed to fly admirably and keep everyone on board alive, especially his family.

The Normandy roared to life on the front lines leading the defense against the attacking Reaper, at least they thought it was only one. Hoped. The Normandy was the only defense that was fully upgraded. Garrus was more worried about blowing up than the equipment not working. It would either function and they would fight a more hopeful battle, or the Normandy would explode from within. That was it. He maned the newly added gun station in the cockpit. He had all the control of the console in the forward batteries as well as a first person view. It wasn't part of the design, but the battle would be intense. Joker and EDI would have their hands full. So he helped with the guns.

Vakarian took the controls in his talons. They felt good, felt right. Shepard and Kryik stood on either side of the pilot to monitor the information and give orders. Either of them could have been the picture in the dictionary beside the word 'warrior'. He was sure that if they could have shot lasers from their eyes they would have. The ridiculous thought eased his tension and focused his mind. He was ready. The signal to go pinged Joker's station.

"Okay, hold on to your asses!" Joker shouted.

The Normandy shot out of the crack in the moon's surface like a bolt of lighting followed by every ship the Alliance and Council had available, upgraded or not. The Reaper was alone as it hovered over the surface like a giant cuttlefish firing molten metal at the surface of the moon.

"Form up and flank it, divide it's attention. On my mark!" ordered Captain Shepard.

The Normandy charged in. The new kinetic barriers were nearly invisible as the ship made her approach. Shepard waited for the Reaper to raise a tentacle at them.

"Mark!" Shepard shouted into the com.

The fleet of ships paired off, surrounding the Reaper in a wide circle. Joker pulled out of the line of fire just in time to miss being vaporized.

"Stay out of reach of those arms! Old weapons distract for new weapons fire! I don't need to tell you to avoid getting hit!"

"I've got a shot. Hold her steady!" Garrus told Joker.

Vakarian didn't wait for the order to fire. He had a good shot at one of the 'eyes' and he was going to take it. He pulled the triggers and the Normandy jolted as a red beam shot out from the Normandy's armaments. The other ships were already pelting the Reaper with what may as well have been pebbles. When the Normandy's fire impacted the Reaper it cut through its shields like they weren't even there. Every ship with new guns took aim. The Reapers didn't prepare to have their own technology turned against them. Indoctrination should have prevented that. Whatever the Illusive Man found, collaboration with the other spieces made it Reaper's hull was taking major damage. One of the tentacles broke loose from the main body in a series of shots. A tentacle flailed and swatted at a small group of frigates like flies. The entire division was lost, falling to crash on the surface like snow.

"Tell them to aim for the eyes! It's not like a normal ship, it can't hit what it can't see!" Garrus shouted.

Kryik nodded, "All ships, aim for the eyes! Repeat, aim for the eyes!"

Ship after ship swarmed the Reaper firing anything it had at the red glowing points along the outer edges of the Reaper. Several got too close and were knocked out of the sky by a sweeping arm. Others further out were hit by a fiery shot from the tentacles. The flying debris and molten metal took out several surrounding ships. Garrus fired again. There was only one eye left. The Reaper was fighting blind.

"Why isn't it moving?" Joker asked allowed. "Why doesn't it just plow through us and use its shields to destroy the fleet?"

"It's waiting for back up, it's a trap." Kryik stated calmly.

"You sound awfully calm about that, sir!" Joker said anxiously.

"He's right." Vakarian said, realizing the fact. "Once we let it know we had equal fire power it must have sent a message to the others. They know where we are now. We have to get out of here!"

"We should circle back and rescue the Council." Kryik told the Captain.

"No. I'm not leaving the battle until that thing has been taken out. We're not going to leave a wounded Reaper that can be repaired."

She open communication with the fleets.

"More are coming," She announced, "but we're not going to retreat. Not yet. Leave them a message. Show them that we will defeat them, even if we have to do it one at a time!"

Closing the channel she nodded to Vakarian with eyes like the hull of the Reaper itself. He got the message and opened fire. Shepard thought she could hear the Reaper scream as the last of its arms was severed from the main body and its eyes were burned out. She thought she could hear its death cry as it crashed into the moon below, likely destroying caverns within for kilometers around.

"All ships to the base! Now!" She ordered.

The Reaper was on fire. It would likely explode. She was going to make sure it did. When that happened it would take half the moon with it. There wasn't time.

"Joker, alert the Council, they needed to get out of there ten minutes ago!"

The Normandy landed in the hanger of the base. Things were burning. Walls had collapsed. Rock fell from over head large enough to crush a man. She had to get the Council and as many survivors as she could. The Normandy was their best bet at survival. She had to get David. Garrus stayed to man the guns per her orders. He knew it was the right decision. No matter how much he wanted to go with her and make sure she came back, his place was here. He was covering her back like he always did. She took Kryik with her.

"Nihlus!" Garrus called to him just before he followed Shepard out the air lock. "Make sure you both come back."

Nihlus held Garrus' gaze for a second. Even that was time they didn't have. He nodded, his eyes firm, to assure his friend they would return. Then he vanished through the door, running after Shepard.

The cavern was collapsing around them. Shepard was running almost too far ahead of him to catch up. The ground shook. More rocks fell, barely missing them. They found the Council, their guards and the other survivors running toward them from the shelters that collapsed on top of them. Shepard ran to Anderson.

"We have to get you on the Normandy, now! Everyone follow me! I'll take as many as I can. There are other ships!"

They started running.

"We killed the Reaper, but more are coming." Shepard explained as they ran.

"That must have been what brought down the shelter." David panted. "We lost civilians. A few soldiers."

Shepard glanced back at the Council. None of them escaped unscathed, but they were alive. Then something teal and red caught her eye. Something that was waving and shouting her name. It was Kolyat.

"Nihlus, get Anderson and the Council on board." She ordered.

"Where are you...?" Anderson tried to ask, but she was gone before he could finish the sentence.

Through the crowd stampeding like frightened cows, Shepard fought to reach the son of Thane.

"Shepard!" He shouted.

"Kolyat!"

He was pushed into her by the crowd running for their lives. She caught him before he could fall and be trampled. His dark eyes met hers. For a brief moment she was reminded of Thane.

"Hurry! I'll get you on the Normandy!"

"Wait!" He shouted.

"Are you crazy!" Shepard shouted back.

"No, my wife, she's pregnant, but I can't carry her alone."

"What?! Where is she?"

"I'll go get her. Wait for us!"

"You left her?! You're not going alone!"

Shepard grabbed Kolyat's hand and drug him out of the crowd. She followed him as he ran back to the shelter. The roof had caved in. It was a wonder any survived. On the steps, far from the entrance, sat a very lovely, very pregnant, young drell female. Her coloring was much lighter than Kolyat's, almost golden. When she looked up at the Captain her eyes made Shepard hesitate in her tracks for she saw the setting of the sun in them as Thane must have seen in Irikah's eyes.

"Common, we have to get her out of here." Shepard ordered.

Kryik and Anderson waited at the top of the ramp to the hangar bay. When Kryik spotted his mate with two drell, one very pregnant. He and Anderson ran to help.

"Shepard!"

"Kryik, help me."

The turian paused long enough to pick up the woman. There was no time to be careful. The cavern was cracking. It would come down on them at any moment. He ran, the woman's arms clung tightly around his neck.

"It'll be okay." He told her. I might have been a lie, but he did his best to calm the panic in the mother's eyes.

"Joker, go! Now!"

Kryik shouted the order as the air locks closed behind the last survivor. There weren't as many as they hoped. The rest of the armada was holding off the Reaper scouts that plagued the collapsing entrance to the caves.

"Joker, we're gonna blow that Reaper to hell. I want everyone into FTL!" Shepard shouted over the com. "Now!"

"All ships jump now!" Joker gave the order. "Repeat, all ships FTL, NOW!"

"We're gonna what?" Joker glanced over at Garrus. "How?"

"Remember Virmire?" She shouted back at them.

Garrus' mandibles fluttered and Joker turned pale.

"We'll, we had a lot of old ships to up grade..."

She didn't need to finish the statement. Kryik followed after her. She would need help lifting it.

Salarians were sometimes annoying, but they were smart sons of bitches. Shepard and Kryik loaded the new and improved nuke into the bomb drop slot and shut the hatch. She tapped the com on her omni-tool. "Okay, Joker, fly us over and drop this thing. Then get us outta here!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Joker answered.

He flew just a little closer than he needed to, just to make sure the thing landed where it needed to and dropped the payload.

"Bombs away!" he warned.

"I hope this works..." Garrus mumbled.

The Normandy jumped. The were in normal space just long enough for Shepard to see the light from the nuke take out the Reaper, the moon, and the remaining scouts. They barely out ran the blast, but they made it. It would be at least half an hour before they knew how many, if any, other ships survived.

"Well, we didn't blow up." Joker said.

"Incredible job. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a head count and see to Kolyat and his wife."

"Wife? Kolyat?" Garrus asked, not hiding his surprise.

Shepard walked away.

"Yes. Apparently he was one of the survivors. I don't know why we never saw him before today. His wife is close to term." Nihlus explained.

Garrus' mandibles relaxed in the turian version of a jaw drop.

"Go help her. I'll take the guns." Kryik told him.

Garrus nodded and relinquished his chair. He pressed his forehead to Nihlus' as they exchanged spots as one might a brother or close friend. It surprised Nihlus. Garrus did not openly show that part of their life often.

"I'm glad you made it back." He said.

Nihlus looked up from the chair and nodded.

Garrus left to assist Shepard and the doctors. There were a few besides Chakwas, mostly salarian. He found Shepard in the port observatory sitting at the foot of a bed with a drell in it. At the head stood Kolyat holding his wife's hand as she lay next to him very worried and very scared.

"Doctor Chakwas will be here as soon as she can." Shepard assured the drell. "Everything will be okay."

"Is she alright?" Garrus asked.

"She thought she felt a contraction, but there hasn't been one for a while." Kolyat explained.

Garrus took a seat at the desk.

"What's you're name?" Sonya asked the woman. She offered a friendly grin.

The woman looked up at her husband. He grinned and nodded. "You can trust her. She's the commander I told you about."

The woman's face lit up with surprise and relief. "I am called Rya." She smiled.

"It's good to meet you." Sonya nodded her head as a kind of half bow.

She was fascinated by the exposed swell of the woman's belly. Her belly was smooth, the skin between her scales was exposed from stretching and it was pale. She always wondered if it would be different or if the skin beneath mirrored the sales color. She saw a section jump. Rya smiled.

"The baby is moving." She said, looking up at Kolyat.

He put is had over the spot and grinned when the one inside pushed against his hand. Sonya was taken back a bit when he grabbed her hand and put it over the spot. She tired to pull back.

"It's okay." Rya told her. "I want you to feel him."

Sonya relaxed and let her hand rest over the smooth skin and polished scales. It was like touching a crawling snake when the baby inside moved under her touch, but very, very warm.

"You know he's a boy?" She asked.

"Yes." Kolyat answered.

"Have you decided on a name?"

Rya glanced up at Kolyat. He smiled down at her, then back at Shepard with tears in his eyes.

"Thane, after my father."

The lump quickly built in her throat when she heard the name and passed into tears of her own. She let them show. It seemed to be their way. The babe moved again under her touch.

"Thane..." She whispered. A smile touched her lips.

Garrus was glad it was him that was with her and not Nihlus. He wouldn't have understood. Things were hard enough as it was.