Chapter 26: Death Comes For Us

HBHound: My wenis itches

"I feel so stupid." I said looking at Chakwas.

"You're not the only one sweetie." she said softly with a smile.

"What are you smiling for?" I asked as I looked at her.

"Can an old woman not smile?" she asked still smiling.

"Not when you're smiling like an oaf!" I accused her.

"Child, you are always-" she began.

"Carolyn..." I said crossing my arms over my chest.

She chuckled. "I was gonna save the news until after the fighting stopped."

"The fighting will never stop." I grumbled.

She nodded. "You're about a week pregnant." she said still smiling.

My eyes widened and jaw dropped. "Impossible!" I shrieked. "I-"

"Even the most advanced of birth control has some backfire." she said with a chuckled.

I whimpered and hid my face with my hands, my hair fell over my face. "Oh God. Jeff doesn't need this to worry about." I moaned.

"What don't I need to worry about?" Jeff asked, causing me to look up and see him leaning against the doorway. "I mean, if it's your sexiness I have to worry about, then damn." he smirked.

"I'll leave." Carolyn said.

"Scaredycat." I mumbled.

Jeff walked up to me. "What is it babe?" he asked.

I sighed. "You don't need this to worry about."

"Bullshi-t." he said. "Now spit it out."

"I'm pregnant." I said an watched his eyes widen.

"Are ya...I mean is it...dam-n." he stuttered.

"Jeff, I believe you should return to the pilot's seat." came EDI's voice.

'Yeah," he mumbled. "We'll talk later." he said as he quickly left.

John had his men all positioned about the Presidium. Ann had said that the conduit was a back way into the Citidel. That the damned Citidel was a freakin' Mass Relay. Ian and Garrus were positioned on the nearby roof tops. Taylor and Alberdeen were on two different human embassy balconies waiting with their biotics. Ashley and Wrex were both waiting patiently on the Presidium, while Tali was standing next to him in her new armour, her shotgun cocked in her hands and her twin Thelix pistols at her side. He chuckled at the quarian as two C-Sec officers were watching his group.

He didn't know who the men were but if they didn't know how to fight a maniac, they'd be dead in two seconds. Just then the krogan monument exploded, shrapnel went everywhere. The shockwave caused everyone there to be blown into building or into each other.

John's head felt like it was swelling up to exponential proportions and it was extremely warm, almost as if he had dunked his head into a bucket of warm water and left it there. He groaned as he placed his hand on his forehead and forced his eyes open, his eyelids protesting to the movement as they felt stiff and rigid, like someone had glued them shut. Once his eyes finally came into focus, he realized why everything felt so sluggish; he was upside down.

"What the fuck happened?" he groaned, forcing his arms to move.

"Explosion." Tali deadpanned with awince from the pain in her shoulder.

"No shit Sherlock." Ashley rolled her eyes, immediately wishing she hadn't as her head rushed into apainful whirlwind.

"That must have hurt."Garrus groaned in the comm as he pushed himself back up on his position and brought the scope to his eyes.

"Here they come!" Alberdeen yelled as his body lit with his biotics.

"Bring 'em on!" Taylor yelled as he to lit up like a Christmas tree.
As the smoke cleared they saw figures slowly making their way towards them. As they drew closer, the haze of the air gave way enough to let them see the small number of husks curled into balls on the floor.

"It's never easy," John growled angrily as he aimed and opened fire.

The others followed John's lead and focused on the team of husks that had begun their clumsy charge. The first couple went down without too much trouble, but while John and his squad were focused on the first two, the other two drew far too close for comfort. Before the last two husks could get any closer, both Alberdeen and Talor's arms erupted into araging biotic layer that Lifted the husks into the air where they inadvertently started a round of skeet shooting for Garrus and Ian.

With two resounding bangs from their sniper rifle in quick succession, seeping holes were blown through their torsos to rain down blue synthetic conductive fluid all over them like they had gotten caught in a rainstorm.

"Disgusting." Tali frowned harshly as she wiped away the fluid from visor face.

"Yuck." Ian agreed, giving his arm a shake to splatter the fluid onto the floor.

"Sorry." Garrus smirked.

John rolled his eyes and provided a crooked grin as they heard the elevator start up. "Looking at it he saw Saren's silluette standing in it. "How did he-" John gasped.

"Must've been during the explosion." Garrus grunted as he ans Ian made their way back own to the ground, with Alberdeen and Taylor following suit.

John growled as he Tali and Wrex made their way towards the elevator. Their weapons aimed up as John took point and charged forward with the other two in corridor to the elevator was in disarray with large, burning holes sizzling through the normally shiny and sleek paneling. They darted into the glass paneled car with Shepard jamming a fist down onto the cracked, but still functional button. The elevator car groaned as it started up the shaft, but the groan of the car was overshadowed by an earsplitting metallic howl that resonated in the car and made their heads thrum.

"What the Hell is that?" Taylor winced as he pressed the heel of his hand into his forehead and between his eyes.

Shepard squeezed his eyes shut as the pressure began to build behind his eyes, "I don't freakin' know, but I'm getting seriously mad!" he yelled as he slammed a fist onto the glass.

When Shepard's angry outburst hit the glass wall, the elevator came to a screaming halt, sending all inside to the floor with harsh thuds. It only served to make Shepard even angrier as he sat up, having to force himself not to think that it was his fault that the elevator was no longer functioning.

"What the frick!" Shepard hissed as he climbed to his feet, clenching his fists to try and dissipate some of his anger.

"Why did the elevator stop?" Ian asked, plastered up against the back of the car.

"That basta-rd must have locked down the elevator!" Shepard roared up at the ceiling.

"So now what do we do?" Garrus asked as he picked up his sniper rifle that had fallen to the floor.

"The only thing we can do," Shepard simply answered as he sealed his helmet and flicked on the comms. "We're going outside," he added flatly.

Shepard waited amoment for the others to seal their helmets as well before he aimed his gun and pulled the trigger, sending an accelerated round through the glass spiderwebbed in every direction, but didn't completely break which Shepard was hoping the air was completely sucked out of the car, he lifted his foot and thrust it forward, pummeling the heel of his boot into the significantly weaker glass and blowing it the rest if the way out in thousands of tiny pieces.

They stepped to the edge of their frozen car and stepped out, floating weightlessly for amoment before they activated their magnetic boots that sucked them down onto the exterior of the tower. They took another moment to get their bearings, making sure that they weren't facing towards the ground, but the top of the tower. However, when they turned around, all the air in the lungs froze right where it was in their chests as they set their eyes onto the monolithic machine perched on the tower's peak.
Dec 23rd 2011, 1:03pm

All were completely speechless as they laid their eyes on the massive underbelly of the ship they now recognized as Sovereign, causing them to nearly forget the amazing view of the Citadel with all the twinkling lights of the endless city all around them. The behemoth of amachine sat perched like an oversized bird on the top of the tower, its massive, squid like legs clawing and scratching at the tower and ripping off equally massive chunks that floated away towards the ward arms. As their eyes followed the pieces of Citadel, they realized that the ward arms were shut, sealing off the defensive fleet and locking Shepard and his squad inside the tank with the shark.

They moved as fast as the zero gravity would let them as they began to charge up the tower on the outside of the elevator shaft and towards the beast perched at the followed the strut work and rafting of the tower until it ducked down into ashort tunnel with one side being comprised of glass, allowing aview of the inside of the shaft.

As they stepped further into the tunnel, another car went whisking by until it stopped with the same harshness as their's had, but the moment it did, the glass of the shaft blew out and filled the tunnel with a wall of razor sharp shards.

Shepard skidded to a halt, prompting the other two to follow suit as the elevator's passengers began to pour out into the tunnel. With little cover to utilize, they immediately opened fire at the Geth troops as they made for the dip to their right which would sheath half of them from the incoming rounds.

They took full advantage of their cover, making sure that at least one of them was up shooting at the Geth at all times. They alternated down the line to let their shields recharge and theirweapons to have amoment to cool.

Once the Geth were dealt with, Shepard took point and started forward again, pistol still aimed up as they came to a ramp, taking them out of the tunnel and back onto the outside of the Citadel tower. They wove around more support struts, seeing another Geth unit with the exception that this one, was a Destroyer instead of a trooper. Alberdeen instantly froze the Destroyer in a Stasis Field without even a second thought, leaving it completely open to Ian's and Garrus's weapons fire which allowed small globules of white fluid to spill from its wounds.

They pushed on and around another support strut where a krogan stood in wait with its shotgun ready. It blew off ascattered shot, sparking Shepard's shields as they caught the projectiles. Without missing abeat, Wrex bounded forward, grabbing the barrel of the krogan's shotgun and aimed it away from John's team, spinning it around so that its back faced Taylor and Garrus.

"Fire!" he yelled through the comms in his helmet as he scrambled away from the krogan whom was trying to reach for the device on the back of its prominent hump.

Taylor and Garrus both heeded Wrex's order as they opened fire as fast as they could, pumping shot aftershot into the krogan's back that bled in a constant stream.

"A little unorthodox, but it worked." he smirked as he lowered his weapon.

"Of course it worked." Wrex growled angrily as he continued on his path.

Taylor and Garrus shared a quick glance and shrugged before they hurried to catch up with John whom was already nearing the end of their junction. They quickly caught up with him just as he rounded the corner, all skidding to a halt as they saw a field of kinetic barriers perched on another steep incline. The shimmering barriers did little to hide the Geth squadron behind them as they began to lean out and fire shots at Shepard and his squad.

With little more then their shields to protect them, they all fired back, taking out a majority of the plain Geth that hid behind the barriers. Garrus's powerful shots made quick work of the portable barriers, rendering the remaining Geth vulnerable to whatever Taylor and Alberdeen had up their sleeves.

Once the last of the Geth fell, they hiked up the incline into alarge clearing of sorts with giant comm antennas pointing towards Sovereign whom was still ripping pieces of the Citadel tower off. They were immediately greeted with more Geth, but just like all the others, they were no match for John and his team.

Shepard glanced to his left, towards Sovereign once Taylors Lifted and Threw the last Geth trooper off the tower, seeing a short incline that might serve to get them closer to the top. He started towards it, having to angle himself nearly on his side into order to walk on it without fully sitting down and scooting along on his backside. They climbed up into along corridor that was filled with more Geth; Shepard and his team not even bothering to stop, or even slow their pace as they just fired as fast as they could manage.

With biotics and shots blazing, they were through the corridor and on the other side in no time flat. Even the Destroyer who was leading the opposing team didn't stand a chance against the four abled biotics, a turian crack shot, quarian and human C-Sec officer. They pushed hard to the other side of the corridor where it banked right into another clearing that was much like the other they had been in. However, this clearing was different then the other, as it was littered with huge turrets, but they weren't firing at anything.

Just as Tali opened her mouth to speak, a Geth dropship descended onto the other side, right in front of their exit and thus, blocking them in.

"Why aren't these turrets firing?" Garrus asked as all three of them planted themselves behind a low hump.

"Probably malfunctioning because of Sovereign having a hay day up there!" Ian hollered up towards the mammoth machine that was only growing bigger the closer they got.

Just then, the very ground where they sat shook violently as the Geth dropship began firing shots and raining Geth down onto the tower.

"We gotta get those turrets online or we don't stand a chance Shepard." Taylor said as he holstered his pistol.

"Garrus, take this one. I'll take the next one over there and Taylor, you take the far one." Shepard rattled off quickly as he too, holstered his weapon.

"Why are you two taking those?" Garrus asked, bringing up his omni-tool and slinging his sniper rifle onto his back.

"Because we're the biotics. We have a little extra to throw at them." Shepard grinned as his body began to shimmer with blue.

Garrus only nodded as both Shepard and Taylor wrapped themselves with their biotic barriers and darted across the open towards their assigned of Geth shots sparked their shields as they ran but their hard suit shields were none the wiser since they never felt an impact. Just as Taylor reached his turret, the flash of Garrus's caught his attention for a brief moment. He brought up his omni-tool as he raced to access the turret's main systems, desperate to diagnose the problem and subsequently fix it so they could bring down the dropship as fast as possible.

"Got it! Try the second algorithm in the emergency protocol sensor Taylor. It's corrupted." Shepard said as his turret joined Garrus's.

Taylor immediately heeded Shepard's advice and found the needed system, having no trouble at all removing the corruption from the sensor and cueing his turret to join the fight."That was it. The turrets must have malfunctioned when Sovereign started ripping the place to pieces." he said as he shut down his omi-tool, wrapped himself in his biotic barrier again and made a beeline back to where the others were crouched.

"Who knows why." Shepard groaned, popping off a few rounds at a closing Geth trooper.

Alberdeen leaned out to Lift another Geth, noticing that the drop ship was shot to Hell and engulfed in flames, "As long as they do the job, which it looks like they're doing."

John poked his head out to take a quick peak for himself, "Burn baby burn." he grinned.

Ann and her people suddenly came flying through the conduit with their Mako's landing on a contingent of Geth. "Nice landing Shepard." Kal said smiling behind his visor.

"Let's go help John." she said as she grabbed her modified rifle. "Joker, please say John told you to be on this Comm channel.

"Maya Commander, the SR-1 crew is ready." he said.

"Good, tell Jack to get her ass up to the Counsil Tower asap." she yelled as she saw husks heading their way. "Koylet, Grim, take 'em out with your biotics. Reeger shoot them!"

"You nuts, she'll tear my nuts out from me!" Joker yelled. "I mean I don't plan to have kids, but still..."

"Man up flyboy!" she yelled as she shot a husk and it blew up. She heard grumblings on Jokers end followed by Jack cursing. "Good boy, wasn't so hard."

"I like John better." he mumbled.

"See that ship Joker, I want you to get its attention away from the tower." she said

"You're insane, but I like it." he said and she could feel him smirking at her.

Just as the last Geth dropped, Shepard focused through the smokeyhaze, seeing adistorted silhouette standing by a large terminal that he hadn't seen there before and didn't remember ever seeing at all "Look! That's gotta be him!" Shepard pointed as he vaulted over his cover.

"What is that he's standing in front of?" Alberdeen asked, trying to get abetter look, but having a hard time because of the smoke.

Garrus brought up his rifle and looked through its high powered scope, getting a somewhat decent look at the large, holographic terminal that the silhouette stood in front of, "That's gottabe the Citadel control unit. I can't make out what he's doing though."he reported.

"Hurry!" Shepard ordered as he broke out into an all out sprint.

Tali and Garrus ran after him, jumping over Geth bodies and debris as they reached the last staircase. They flew up the stairs after him, the smoke clearing abit to give them a betterview of what the figure on the platform was doing, but as they reached the top, they saw it really was Saren and he had a flashing device in his taloned hand.

"Get out of the way!" Ian yelled

The amount of time that had passed between when Ian ordered to take cover and the moment the grenade went off was faster then any of them was expecting. The concussion from the explosion sent all to the floor, throwing John against a large planter and the others tumbling halfway down the stairs to the middle landing, grabbing onto the handrail to keep them from rolling down to the bottom of the stairs.

"You guys alright?" Shepard called down to them as they started to crawl back up.

"Yeah, we're fine." Ashley answered as they reached the planter across from Shepard.

"Shepard...I was afraid you wouldn't make it in time." a double toned voice came fluttering down from the platform.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" John called back, not leaning out from behind the planter, just in case Saren had another grenade.

"You've lost Shepard. All you have to do is admit it."Saren said, his voice ringing with ill placed confidence.

"No we haven't!" Shepard hollered, his anger beginning to reach its boiling point.

"Yes you have. In a few minutes, Sovereign will have full control of all the Citadel's systems and he will open the relay for the Reapers return." Saren nearly laughed.

"You're going to get out of my way Saren whether you like it or not!" Shepard hissed through clenched teeth.

"You survived our encounter on Virmire Shepard, though not without blood of your comrade is on your hands." Saren coaxed with the turian equivalent of an evil grin on his face.

That statement in itself, ignited Ashley's fury into something that outshone the brightest stars, "Kaiden's blood is on your hands! He would still be alive if it wasn't for you!" she roared, her skin beginning to turn an irate red from anger.

"Shut it William's! He's just trying to mess with you and you're letting him!" Shepard snapped, resisting the urge to throw something at the Chief to shut her up.

She closed hher mouth and sucked in a loud breath, forcing her anger back under her control before things got out of hand. However, it proved harder then she thought, as the rage inside her was nearly overwhelming. Saren was within their grasp and all he was doing was taunting them.

"You're still the same Saren! You still can't face me face to face can you!" Shepard barked with a quick check of his pistol.

"I'm different then last we met Shepard. Sovereign has...Upgraded me." Saren said with a deep thunder in his two toned voice that could shake the ground.

Shepard's brows furrowed hard and started to laugh, "You still can't see it! Sovereign is using you! You're only a pawn in its twisted little game!"

"No! It is you who refuse to see it! There can be a place for organics in the new order! The Reapers need men and women of action! People like you... and me! Sovereign recognizes your worth! Join us and you will be spared Shepard!" Saren drawled on, the laughter still playing at the edges of his psychopathic tone.

"You're delusional! The Reapers don't need us! All they're going to do is devour and throw us away like trash! The second this conquest is over, you'll be cast aside and forgotten!" Shepard shot back, glancing over at Kaidan who was no longer glowing with dark energy.

"I had no choice Shepard! You of all people should be able to understand! You saw the visions! You saw what happened to the Protheans! It is either surrender, or death! There are no other options!" Saren defended, his voice beginning to shake, but only mildly.

"Bullshit! There's always another choice! You could have resisted! You could have fought, but noooo...you quit! You're a coward!" Shepard bellowed, his grip tightening on his pistol to nearly white knuckle standards.

Saren began to lowly growl as he planted a taloned hand to his forehead, "M-Maybe you're right...Maybe there is still a chance for...for..." his voice trailed off as his gargled with pain that erupted all over his body.

"Shepard...He's weakening. Keep doing whatever you're doing." Ian said just above a whisper.

Shepard nodded as he peaked around the corner to see Saren crouched on his hovering platform, "You know there is still a chance Saren! We can fight! We can still win!"

"T-The implants...Sovereign's too strong. I'm s-sorry. It is too late for me Shepard." Saren stuttered, seemingly having trouble standing on his own two feet.

Shepard decided to look Saren in his blue, mechanical looking eyes as he wheeled out from behind the planterand stood with an angry sneer across his face, "You can still end this Saren, but that's only if you've got the guts to do it." a small crooked grin began to tug at the corner of his lips.

"G-Goodbye Shepard." as Saren spoke, he slowly raised ashaky hand, pistol in hand and brought the barrel to the side of his head. His blue glowing eyes were locked on Shepard for several moments, neither saying aword, but they both seemed to be understanding each other.

John's team began to stand themselves, their eyes bouncing from one man, to the other as they tried to decipher what was possibly going to transpire, but before they had fully stood, a shot filled the entire stood, somewhat stunned as a dark blue plume of blood blew out the side of Saren's head, the softly glowing blue immediately vanishing as his body started to go limp.

All watched as Saren's lifeless body fell off the hovering platform, crashing into the last remaining panel of unbroken glass of the arboretum where it came to rest on the pristine grass beneath, covered in glass shards. None dared to say anything as they saw the look in Shepard's eyes. He had known all along what Saren was going to do and that look even suggested that it's what he had been planning all along.

"It's over? Just like that?" Garrus asked, not really determined to get an answer or not.

"Almost. Come on." John said with little emotion in his voice.

Taylor and Garrus followed John to the platform and headed for the large orange terminal that stood waiting at the end. As they approached it, they realized then just how large the control panel was and the same thought ran through their heads. Where had it been hiding all this time? John brought up his omni-tool and reached into the pouch that he placed the OSD into, keeping his eyes on it as he removed it and plugged it into the terminal. After only a few moments, the whole orange display flashed green, as did John's omi-tool to indicate that he now had full and complete control of the entire, massive space station. John was beaming.

"I've got it! I've got control." Shepard tried to contain his flood of relief and emotions that had washed overhim.

"Hurry and open the stations arms. Maybe the fleet can take Sovereign down." Garrus said, the thump of his heart pounding away happily in his deep chest.

"While you're at it, see if you can open a comm channel to the outside fleet." Ashley added.

Shepard tapped a couple commands on his omni-tool to open a comm channel, silently praying that someone was on the other side to answer it and what started to come through, was less then pleasing.

"Destiny Ascension's shields are down to 40%. The Council is on board! I say again! The Council is on board!"the panicking voice of an Asari came through, laced with static.

Shepard went to answer their call, however, he was cut off before he could speak.

"Normandy SR-3 to the Citadel. Normandy SR-3 to the Citadel! Please tell me that's you Commander!" Joker actually sounded abit worried.

Shepard's grin grew, "Right channel, wrong Commander." he laughed.

"We caught that distress call Commander. I'm sitting here in the Endura sector with the entire Arcturus fleet. We can save the Ascension, but you need to unlock the relays around the Citadel and we'll send in the calvary."

"John...Are you sure about that? Human casualties will be very high." Alberdeen said, his stomach beginning to knot itself.

"We have no choice! Sovereign is a threat to every organic species in the galaxy! Save your fleet to attack it!" Garrus said with a roll of anger in his voice.

"We need an order Commander. Do we come in now to save the Ascension? Or wait to attack Sovereign?"Joker interrupted.

Shepard's mind was overflowing with thoughts and none of them brought him any solace. He was torn. He didn't know if he should save the Council, as all they had everdone is put up more red tape then was hadn't believed him when he said that the Reapers were coming. They hadn't believed him when he said that Saren had betrayed them and yet, he couldn't get rid of the thought that maybe they deserved a second chance. After all, he had gotten one when he enlisted in the alliance.

"Do both." came Ann's voice, causing everybody to look up. "You're Joker take care of the ship. My boy, take care of the Ascenssion." she smiled.

"Do it." he said under his breath, glancing at Ian and Garrus who were standing next to each other waiting his next order.

Shepard tapped a couple fingers over the larger terminal, commanding the Citadel to open its great arms. From where they stood, they couldn't see the arms begin to open except for what was visible outside the windows. He glanced down into the opened pit, seeing Saren's body still laying lifeless on the green grass and his anger started to return the longer he looked at it.

"Go make sure he's dead." he said in an emotionless tone that could send chills down anyone's spine.

"He's not." Ann said her tone just as dead as she nodded towards both her Garrus and Kal. Both men opened their omi-tools. "They'll hack into the control units that Saren has because od Sovereign."

"Control units?" John questioned when suddenly the body began lighting up.

"Uh-oh." Ann muttered causing John to raise and eyebrow.

"What's going on?" Alberdeen asked.

"Sovereign is taking control of his body?" her husband yelled. "I placed my virus in it, but it'll only slow him down for only so long."

"Same here!" Kal yelled.

"Counsil saved!" came Pressley's over John's comm.

"Take out Sovereign now!" John yelled.

Ann's eyes widened as the body shot out of the hole and onto the counsil chamber walls. "Shoot it!" she yelled.

Joker weaved the SR-3 through debris and shot at Sovereign with the canons. The shields on the ship seemed stronger this time around, plus Sovereign wasn't letting go of the tower! He saw the SR-1 come up next to his. "Let's dance." he said to the pilot.

"Aye!" came the reply.

"Jeff I am reading a large amount of energy that's about to be released." EDI said.

"Canons on the port!" he yelled to the other pilot.

"See it." was his reply.

"Jeff there's another about to be shot in quick succession." EDI warned.

"Impossible." he mumbled. "Sovereign never did that."

"He is or will in 10.5 seconds." EDI stated.

"Normandy! Get out of the way, there's a quick canon burst about to happen." Jeff warned them.

"It's too late Jeff." EDI stated. "The cargo bay will erupted in fire and that'll spread to engineering if they don't act quickly."

Sure enough the double canon shot went right through the SR-1's shields, setting the cargo hold in fire. Within seconds he heard the mayday calls from the other him. Fires soon spread in engineering, several lifepods began ejecting from the SR-1. Seconds later the once spectacular ship known as the Normandy exploded. Fifteen lifepods of twenty had ejected. Ten out of the fifteen were engulfed by the explosion. Jeff growled. "Damn it, Commander, the Normandy has...exploded."

"Saren is dead...for sure Jeff. I'll tell John." came Ann's voice.

"Aye, aye, Commander." was his reply as he refocused onto Sovereign.

Ann looked at John as he and Ian laid his Garrus's body down. She looked over at her husband who was limping. "You sure its dead?" John growled at her.

"Yeah, but I don't understand why Sovereign's ship hasn't been destroyed." she looked at John. "The Normandy has been...destroyed."

John's head snapped up to her. "Did any survive?" he asked.

"EDI sent me a list that five lifepods have survived with at least fifteen people in all, so far." she sighed. "This didn't happen to us."

"The Citidel Control, its orange again!" Ian yelled causing all to turn around just as another hologram appeared. It was Sovereign.

"You exist because we deem it. Now, you die!" it snarled as locking mechinisums began to activate the Citidel.

"Shit!" came Jack's voice as the entire room began to shake.

Serena's eyes widened, as did every spectator onboard the ships in and around the Citidel. They had no choice, they had to retreat. The Citidel was activating!

STORY END...