"Orizaba, move to position. Logan, follow us in. Shield's moving up, we just need time..."
As the two dreadnoughts – as far as he was aware, the last two left in the Alliance fleet, the flagships of the Fifth and Third fleets – swung into position, Admiral Steven Hackett was surveying the scene from the Orizaba's bridge. Before him was a monumental field of debris and fire, and the battle was still raging amidst it all. Sword, mostly made up of human and turian ships, was still fighting valiantly. At least half of its ships had been destroyed, maybe more. Behind them, Shield was moving in – quarians, geth, salarians... their fleets were not quite as formidable as those that had launched the first assault, but their weight of numbers threatened to turn the tide – already, Reaper corpses littered the orbital battlefield in equal measure to the wreckage of the coalition's fleet.
"Status report," he barked. "Shield? Hammer?"
"This is the Tonbay," replied a filtered quarian voice – Hackett could practically hear the mask. "Shield has broken away from the Crucible. Repeat, we are abandoning the perimeter and engaging the enemy."
"This is Hammer!" a gravelly voice roared, to a soundtrack of static. "We're pushing them back, drowning the bastards in the river! FOR TUCHANKA!" he yelled, and to Hackett it sounded very much like his transmission had ended with a flurry of shotgun fire.
"Normandy," Hackett called again, anxiously. "Normandy, give me some news. We need that Crucible!"
"The Crucible failed," came Moreau's familiar voice, with an apprehensive note.
"WHAT?"
"We got Shepard, but the Crucible is not an option."
"Why the hell not?" Hackett roared, with an unusual tone of anger.
"Admiral," came the rough voice of the turian – Vakarian. "I couldn't quite make sense of it, but Shepard was muttering a message to you – the Crucible is a Reaper trap. Destroy it."
"I..." the Admiral was lost for words. Everything they had worked for was gone... "What the hell do we do now?"
"We fight," Joker interjected, much to Hackett's surprise. "Too late to back down now..."
"Right," Vakarian muttered.
"Right," Hackett echoed, nodding to himself. "All ships, this is Admiral Hackett. The Crucible is a no-go – this one's down to us. All ships... all ships forward."
Utter silence followed the command. Something in his voice must have belied his desperation, because no-one questioned the order. Instead, the ships swarming around them proceeded onwards with renewed vigour, and the volleys of fire crashing towards the Citadel increased in intensity. Then, as an afterthought, he leant close to the transmitter, and muttered a slightly more reserved request – he wasn't quite sure how the fleet would take this one.
"Shield, I need a sabotage team."
"Geth platforms are available for hacking and infiltration," replied a mechanical voice – the geth still sent shivers down Hackett's spine, allies or not. Nonetheless, he had to admit they were ideal for this job...
"Perfect," the Admiral nodded to himself. "Dispatch a team to the Crucible – lower the shields around the core."
"Confirmed," the geth croaked, in monotone assent. "Estimated time to completion... six minutes."
"Orizaba, new orders," Hackett muttered. "About turn, bearing one-thirty. Lock weapons on the Crucible, target the power core. Logan, move up, cover our flank."
As the Orizaba span once more, Hackett could only stare in disbelief at the Crucible – the weapon they had spent so long building had, like the Citadel, like the relays, been a tool for the Reapers... It was one last kick in the teeth from a vicious and morale-sapping enemy. They could change that, though. One last symbolic gesture of defiance. Provided Shepard was right...
What if he wasn't, though? What if he was indoctrinated? What if they were about to destroy their only chance of victory? Rubbing his brow, Hackett tried to banish these thoughts from his mind. Either way, it was too late to send a team to fire the damn thing, and doubting Shepard never did anyone any good...
"Units in position," the geth stated, and Hackett could see two or three of their smaller ships, insect-like in appearance, hovering beside the bulbous sphere that housed the Crucible's power core.
"Get it done," he muttered, uselessly – they were the geth, they were probably already getting it done. Sure enough, as he peered closer, a few minute forms flitted across the gap between the ships and the Crucible, landing on the metal surface and beginning their work.
"Reapers pushing on the right!" yelled a panicked voice, interrupting his reverie. "They're breaking out of the battle line! Cruisers, hit them in the tail, bombers, hammer the flank!"
Sure enough, as he looked to the left, Hackett saw a great shift in the obsidian forms ahead – at least two dozen capital ships and several smaller destroyers had surged through their lines with no regard to casualties, and had torn a turian cruiser in half. The other two turian ships in the formation were sweeping around, and the tell-tale blue glow of Thanix cannons was sweeping over both their gun batteries. Behind them, a squadron of falcon-like bombers was pushing into the void the Reapers had left, jousting against the few ships left behind.
"Catch their bearing," he barked.
"Heading straight for the Crucible!" the turian replied. As he spoke, both ships sent pale-blue shots hurtling at the Reapers' rear – a destroyer took both hits, and dropped from the formation, spouting flame.
"Hold your fire!" Hackett snapped, as the most marvellous of hare-brained plans came into his mind...
"What?" the turian captain exclaimed.
"Just trust me..." the Admiral said, praying he wasn't about to embarrass himself. "Demo team, how long-"
"Two minutes to completion. However, the Old Machines are closing in..."
"Then make it quick."
Sure enough, the geth fell into silence, and the first signs of progress appeared on the Crucible orb. A vague shimmer passed over the superstructure, and Hackett was sure the shields had just vanished under geth interference. After another minute, a curved strip of steel began to glow at the edges, and the geth ships swept aside – to the Admiral's disbelief, a whole panel of the Crucible's hull plating was now floating free, guided by the accompanying geth ships. It was such a strange sight, after all their efforts to secure the Crucible, that he almost forgot about the approaching Reapers. Forgot, that was, until one of the geth ships exploded in a burst of steel and plasma.
"We are under attack!" came the mechanical voice. "Ensure data backup channels, continue removal."
"Logan, follow our aim," Hackett cried. "Cruisers, you too!"
"What the hell are you doing, human?" the turian captain cried – despite his protests, he still brought his ships into line with the Orizaba, and they were joined by another squadron, three salarian cruisers, all sporting Thanix cannons like the turians.
"Just wait..." the Admiral assured them, as he watched the Reapers swarm toward the Crucible – the first to reach it tore through one of the two remaining geth ships, and sent the hull segment spinning away to reveal the glowing, pulsating core behind it. "Power up all weapons!" Hackett continued, and the comms system was filled by a chorus of whirring and humming.
Three of the Reapers were now swarming over the Crucible, giving off little ripples and waves as they adjusted mass effect fields to land on the tremendous structure. The rest quickly followed them, landing at various points along the Crucible, but not using their weapons – the only shot fired was aimed at the tail of the last geth ship, obliterating it. To all of the assembled onlookers, it very appeared as if the Reapers were putting their bodies over the Crucible's hub – they couldn't be protecting it, surely? But then, if Shepard was right, if they were using the Crucible themselves...
In those few moments, he became far more sure of himself than at any point prior in the battle. With a quick glance to the targeting computer – the attending officer gave him a thumbs-up, and the display showed a glowing beacon over the exposed power core – he leant close to the transmitter, and gave his orders.
"Fire."
With that single word, the ships assembled around the Orizaba unleashed hell. Five Thanix cannons and two heavy bombard guns unleashed their full payloads – the blue Thanix shots raced on ahead, and as one Reaper capital ship tried to move in front of the chink in the Crucible's armour, it was battered by all five, and seemed to crumple inwards, pock-marked by livid blue scars. Behind the Thanix rounds came the two pale thunderbolts from the Logan and the Orizaba – the Logan's smashed into the already crippled Reaper, reducing it to scrap. A moment later, the Orizaba's followed close behind, flitting through the debris and vanishing amidst the swirling vortex of the Crucible's power core.
For a few tense moments, every pair of eyes on every ship on the Orizaba stared at the silent, unresponsive Crucible. And then... the world exploded.