Everyone was coughing in the dusty air. To Alec, it looked like the entire world had been tilted on its side. The seats were not at normal angles compared to how gravity was acting, but he then realized that his position was correct. The entire Caiman had tilted.

Blinking his eyes, a ringing in his ears, he looked at the occupants in the vehicle. They, for the most part, appeared unhurt, although Liara had a cut on her forehead that was slowly oozing blood. Wrex looked pissed, as did Garrus, and Tali was busy brushing herself off, thankfully untouched.

"Everyone hurt?" Alec asked. "Everyone okay?"

"I…I think so," Tali managed.

"I'm still in one piece," said Liara.

"Think I might have cracked something," Garrus groaned.

Wrex gave a grunt in response, signaling that he was fine.

Alec was about to ask for more specifics when he could hear footsteps approaching the vehicle from behind the doors. The entire group turned at the source of the noise. A rescue party?

There was a light amount of tapping at the door for a few seconds and then the footsteps appeared to shuffle to the side. Alec sat up in confusion as a voice screamed outside, "Execute, execute, execute!"

The entire interior of the Caiman was now drowned in a flood of light and sound as the doors burst open, the planted charge sending smoke and air inside. Without even thinking, Alec reached for his Predator and fired blindly into the soot. A volley of reports told him that Garrus and Wrex had drawn their sidearms as well and were also joining him in repelling the assault. There were a few wet smacks as their shots hit flesh and they heard four thumps as the bodies fell to the ground.

"Get out!" Alec yelled to the group, who complied at once. Once free of the cramped cabin, Alec took a look at their assailants. They were dressed in a black mesh with dusty beige accenting their uniforms. Their faces were covered by tactical masks and goggles, obscuring their eyes. The armor that they wore was bulletproof, both the vest and the helmet. The only other distinguishing feature about them was the patch on their right arms that bore the Roman numeral "V."

The sunlight of the day was shining down upon them. The cool air was racing by, sending a brief shiver up their spines. There was the smell of cordite in the air, the sounds of screeching tires and panicked civilians. They could see the people scurrying away from the street, frightened of the violent proceedings that were occurring.

Now that they were out in the open, a flutter of sharp pings raced by them as they realized that they were still being shot at. Everyone ducked and Alec immediately made for the nearest fallen weapon. The assault rifle was a modified HK416, with a red dot sight and a vertical foregrip. It had an extended Beta-C magazine that held at least a hundred bullets each. Alec appropriated the weapon, plus a service pistol, an HK45, into his holster.

"Grab whatever weapons you can find!" Alec shouted. "We don't have any spare thermal clips so we're going to run out of ammo fast if we don't scrounge around."

Alec tilted his head around the Caiman and immediately ducked back as bullets smacked into the armor plating. There appeared to be an armored blockade made up of a platoon of the black and beige troops just past Triangle Park. All were heavily armed and precision shooters.

"Alec," Wrex barked, "There's no weapons here that I can lift in my grip!"

Alec nodded and tossed his Predator to Wrex, "Liara, give Wrex your pistol. He can't fire human weapons in this condition."

"Got it," Liara said as she simultaneously grabbed a KRISS Vector submachine gun, the weapon fitting comfortably in her arm.

The shooting was getting closer but the group was nowhere near ready. Tali was busy showing Garrus how to reload a pistol when Garrus suddenly shouted, "Alec, we need to find cover now!" The turian ducked as a car windshield suddenly shattered behind him, spraying Garrus with glass.

"I noticed!" Alec roared back. "Grab a rifle and let's give some covering fire."

Garrus sat up as he was handed a SCAR-L assault rifle by Tali. "You humans really need to work on your reloading function," he said dryly. "There are just too many steps involved. Flick a button here, grab a mag there, slam it in here, push another button..."

"Garrus, just do me a favor and shut your fucking mouth," Alec spat. He waved to Liara, Wrex, and Tali, "Go! Get to the Mall! We'll cover you."

Tali dropped back to say something but Alec would have none of it as he sprung from around the Caiman to drop to a crouch and depressed the trigger on full auto. The recoil bit into his shoulder, making him snarl at the discomfort. Several of the soldiers scurried off the street, bullets chewing the pavement only inches away. Alec swung the rifle around when something struck him in the chest, sending him to the ground.

"Damn it, human," Garrus growled as he grabbed Alec's jacket and hauled him to safety. "We aren't armored, you son of a bitch. What are you thinking?"

Alec was coughing and sputtering, "I thought…redundant shield generator…would take entire impact…guess not."

"You're going to have a huge bruise under there, assuming we survive this."

"If we want to survive, we'd better get to the Washington Monument."

Garrus ducked as another round passed over his head, "What's at the monument?"

"It's the best place for an extraction, we can get a pickup from the Alamo there."

"Then call it in," Garrus said as he now moved to the side, clumsily firing the rifle in his hands. Amazingly, because the soldiers had started to close the distance, one of the turian's rounds caught a man in the neck, sending a spray of blood to the side as his artery was nicked.

"This thing hurts my hands," Garrus grimaced.

With his wind back, Alec said, "Stay off the street. We'll signal to Tali and the others to cover us, okay?"

"Got it."

Standing up, Alec waved to Tali who motioned to the group, bringing their weapons to bear. Tali had procured herself a grenade launcher. An ideal weapon, considering the fact that this was not going to be a close quarters fight. When Alec could see the flashes from behind the parked cars, he tapped Garrus and both took off running.

Everything then started to go wrong all at once. From the adjacent C street, a black colored APC suddenly rammed into the line of parked cars, sending a mass of twisted metal and glass shrieking away. Alec cursed and ran out into the street, followed by Garrus, trying to get around the armored car. Instantly, Alec felt his shields flare and then he dropped as an enormous pain in his left leg kicked in as a bullet hit. He hit the pavement hard, scraping his palms as he shouted.

"Alec!" Garrus exclaimed as he bent to help his friend. Alec then heard the turian cry out as a series of bullets struck him, dropping his shields as he also fell to the ground. Alec grimaced in pain as he struggled to get to his feet. Grabbing the turian by the shirt, he hauled him behind a stalled car on the road, but his vision went white as he was slammed to the ground yet again. He tried blinking his eyes to get rid of the brightness, but it was no use. A bullet had hit him in the face as he shields flared in response, they had been aiming for the head.

"Ugh," Garrus groaned, drawing a cross between a cough and a choke.

"Garrus," Alec said slowly. "I can't see. It might be a few seconds before I can be of any use."

"Damn it," the turian said. "All right, I'll look after you." To demonstrate, Garrus rose to a knee and began leveling off shot after shot. Alec could hear yells as the bullets found their mark. Coughing, he instinctively activated his omni-tool as Garrus ducked down, the front of the car was now getting pockmarked with bullets, the engine block ruined.

"Alamo, come in!" Alec shouted. "This is Captain Lee, requesting immediate assistance!" There was nothing but static on the line. Alec keyed the comm again, agitated, "Alamo, respond!"

A brief moment arose when there was no response until a drawl rasped out, "Captain…how unexpected."

Alec's eyebrows scrunched in confusion, "Saren?"

"Correct, Captain."

Ignoring the sarcasm he pressed, "I requested the Alamo's assistance, why am I talking to you?"

The voice that came through practically dripped with disdain, "I am in command of the fleet in your absence, Captain. Any and all orders are relayed to me at my own discretion."

That damnable turian, "I don't give a fuck at this point, Saren. I need a shuttle to my coordinates, now!"

"I'm afraid that is an impossibility, Captain."

"What?"

Saren gave a slight chuckle, "The reports I'm getting place you in the middle of a warzone. I cannot risk any personnel or equipment at this point, even if they are synthetic. The area is just too hot for a pick-up."

"That is bullshit and you know it!" Alec shouted. Garrus roared as another round struck his shields, this time at the elbow. "We are going to die here unless you send down a shuttle right fucking now!"

"I do apologize, Captain," the turian said without any trace of remorse. "But I have to think about the safety of the fleet. I know you would understand if you had to make the choice. Saren out."

"Motherfucker!" Alec screamed. At this point his vision had cleared sufficiently to the point where he could point a rifle. From his awkward sitting position on the pavement, back propped up against a car, he turned and pointed his gun at a group of soldiers that were trying to flank the two. One man dropped with a hole through his goggles, another staggered as his vest absorbed the first volley, only to fall as a few more rounds managed to punch through. The final man's head exploded as Alec depressed the trigger to deliver three bullets to the head.

Garrus tapped Alec on the shoulder and they scurried off the road, back onto the sidewalk. At this point the men from the APC that had blocked their path in the first place had deployed outside the vehicle and were now leveling fire at the two. Alec activated his arm shield on his left as Garrus did the same. Both sprinted towards the sidewalk where Alec vaulted over the closest car, bringing his omni-sword up in a vicious swing that decapitated the first solider, head bouncing along the pavement as the stump of the neck gushed blood in a fountain. Garrus stutter-stepped and swung to the right with his own omni-sword, spilling a man's intestines as the tip of the weapon raked across his gut.

Alec and Garrus ran to where Tali and the others had been holding out, pistols out and shooting any men that were in their way, the sun blinding them through the tree cover of the walk.

"Keelah!" Tali exclaimed. "What happened to you two? Are you all right!"

"No," Alec grimaced. "We just got shot several times, we are most certainly not all right."

"What are we going to do to get out of here?" she implored.

Alec shook his head, "I've been stonewalled by Saren. He hijacked our communications so we can't call for help directly. We're on our own."

"But…what if I hacked the transmission protocol from the Alamo? You should be able to contact them directly!"

Alec looked at her with bated breath, "Then do it, it's the only chance we've got."

"Alec!" Wrex growled. "Looks like we've got more trouble."

Alec whirled to see what Wrex was referring to. The soldiers had dropped down below the range of their weapons but he could see three new objects pushing them aside, parting the crowd.

The objects looked like someone stuck a minigun on top of a miniature tank tread, the things were traveling at about fifteen miles an hour but at that current rate, they would be on top of them in less than two minutes. The guns started to spool up, creating a mechanical whir, and they suddenly began firing in a rapid line, decimating everything that was in their path. The entire group ducked as the miniguns threatened to punch through the bare cover they had. Wrex sat up and depressed the triggers on the pistols he was holding. The remote controlled drones barely flinched at the onslaught, even when Alec, Garrus, and Liara brought their own weapons and turned them onto the metal beasts.

Dropping to a crouch, Alec said, "Tali, give me the grenade launcher." She complied, passing the beige weapon over. Alec checked to see if there was a round in the chamber before pulling the trigger. The first round struck a drone head on, causing the gun attached to it to fall off the chassis. Another grenade blew the treads off the second, causing it to tip over.

There was only one grenade left but Alec wasn't willing to use it just yet. "Liara!" he yelled. "Pull!"

All asari in the galaxy have the natural ability of being biotic, able to manipulate dark energy that is exuded from every pore in the universe. Liara now used that same energy at her disposal, her fingertips glowing with a deep indigo as the last drone levitated off the ground.

"Show us the underside!" he called. Liara made a turning motion with her hand, bringing the undercarriage of the drone in full view.

"Give it everything you've got!" Alec yelled as he swapped back to his assault rifle. Bullets and metal parts rained down on the sidewalks, the clanging of cartridges joining in. The disabled drone now crashed to the ground as Liara let go, out of the fight.

"I've got it!" Tali cried. Alec brought his omni-tool up again and Tali transferred the protocol to his device. "Alamo? This is Captain Lee, respond."

"Acknowledged, Lee-Captain," came the perfunctory geth response. "Do you require assistance?"

"We need an immediate pick-up at these coordinates," he bit back a joyful sob. "The zone is hot so be prepared for an immediate dust-off. And make sure the med bay is ready."

"Acknowledged, Lee-Captain. ETA to destination is twelve minutes."

"You're a godsend," Alec breathed. "Captain Lee out." He deactivated his omni-tool and let out a sigh of relief at the conclusion of the exchange.

"Well?" Garrus shouted over the din. "What's the verdict?"

"We've got twelve minutes to make it to the monument!" Alec pointed at the distance obelisk. "We might not get another chance so we need to leave right now."

"On foot?" Liara asked. "That'll be a challenge."

"No one said it was going to be easy. We've got a block to go before we get to the Mall, after that it's a straight shot to the monument. We're going to get this done fast and I mean fast, got it?"

Everyone nodded, now was not the time for screwing around. "Go!" Alec screamed and everyone scrambled. Alec could not see where the shots were coming from so he pulled out his pistol and fired blindly behind his back as he ran down the sidewalk, not knowing if he was hitting anywhere near where he needed to.

Amazingly, there were still a few civilians on the sidewalk, cowering in fear, partly because of the urban combat, and mostly because of the presence of aliens in their midst.

"Get out of the way!" Alec yelled as they backed into the nearby stores. He barreled past them as traffic on Constitution Avenue caused everyone to slow and wait for an opening. Alec whirled around and leveled shots behind him, seeing a few of the black soldiers fall after he'd bothered to aim down the sights. But he was still outgunned in this regard. This wasn't just a ragged militia, this was a black ops unit of the most effective combat force in the world.

He glanced behind him and saw that his friends had made it across the street. He cautiously scanned the road in front of him before turning around and sprinting to the other side. His right leg was twinging, he could now feel the side effect of where a knife had plunged into his flesh, all those years ago. He limped a bit, catching himself before he was propelled forward as a bullet hit his back. Alec staggered, falling to a knee in the middle of the road but kept moving forward. An oncoming car saw the weary man in the streets and depressed the brakes, but it wasn't soon enough.

Alec was unprepared for the car and was knocked back a couple feet as the it made contact with his legs. He shouted in agony as he was knocked back, his entire body felt like it was on fire. His hearing had gone a few blocks back, there was only a dull ring. His vision was blurry again, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. He slowly got up, flinching every time a bullet made contact with his shields, as he bent down to pick up his fallen pistol. Through the murky glare, he saw a purple glow appear at his side as a strong grip supported his weight.

"I got you!" Tali shouted. "We're almost there!"

Alec could not make a response, his mouth wasn't working. Tali slowly guided him underneath the trailer of a stalled semi-truck, the ever present bullets making contact with the metal above them.

"Just…go," Alec said tiredly. "Get yourself out of here, Tali…I'll hold them off."

Tali whirled to give Alec a slap on the face, the harsh sting jolting him back to reality, "You bosh'tet! I'm never leaving you, you got that? Stop trying to be a hero and come with me right now!" Alec, in a daze, only nodded as he was pushed forward by Tali. She was making sure that he had the point position so that he would not sneak off and have a glorious final stand.

That duty had currently fallen to Garrus and Wrex, the former was busy planting tech mines on the sidewalk which led to the monument. Wrex was lobbing a few smoke grenades to cover their retreat. This had no effect as both the turian and krogan were pushed back after a few bullets stuck them in the chest.

"They must be using thermals," Wrex growled. "Smokes are useless against them."

"But now they can't send any more tank drones lest they suddenly fall into disrepair," Garrus indicated the mines.

Jogging back to catch up to the group, they could see that the entirety of the park around them had been completely emptied of life. They could not see any soldiers on the horizon but they knew that they were approaching fast. Alec checked his chronometer, five minutes to go.

"Take a side by the monument!" Alec yelled. "Use it as cover."

Everyone bunched to the side as they reloaded their weapons, empty clips clattering to the ground as the majority of them fumbled with the unfamiliar guns. With everyone locked and loaded, they stood at the ready as they prepared for the final assault.

Garrus tilted his head, "Listen," he said. "Do you hear that?"

Wrex craned his neck, "No…I think you're…wait…there is something."

A slight buzzing noise was now audible to Alec, despite his ruined hearing. He immediately started scanning the sky, nervously clenching the rifle in his hands.

"Fuck me," Alec whispered. "Aerial drones, take cover!"

Out of nowhere, a squadron of small quad-copters suddenly filled the air. Each drone carried a small turret underneath their construction in addition to a small camera lens. Designated the Scout by Aeryon Labs and used in several military operations throughout the years, the drones were programmed for only one purpose: seek and destroy.

Everyone edged behind another wall of the monument as the drones circled to catch their prey. Liara brought up her submachine gun as she swept it across the air. Miraculously, a stray shot caught a drone's rotor and it crashed to the ground.

"These things are delicate," she said. "But it will take us forever to down all of them, and we might run out of ammo before then."

"My thoughts exactly," Garrus said, priming an electromagnetic grenade from his belt. The turian chucked it into the air where the concentration of drones was the thickest and moved behind the wall so as not to be affected by the pulse. There was a blue flash and fifteen drones rained to the ground, some smashing their components all over the sidewalk.

"How about that!" Garrus laughed. "I bet they never thought of-"

He broke off his gloating as a rotor on a drone started to twitch until it was fully spinning again. Within seconds, the entire fleet was back in the air, ready to carry out their orders again.

Alec swore, "Damn! I didn't know we had perfected electronic shielding that fast yet."

Garrus shrugged, "The more you know…"

Shaking his head, Alec snarled, "This is getting old. Liara, hit them with a singularity. Tali, grab a grenade and throw it at the center when it's up."

Liara waved her arm as a dark ball suddenly appeared in the middle of the swarm, the drones were now altering their paths as they started to orbit, slowly getting sucked in past the event horizon. Tali, grenade now primed, hurled the small object and it caught perfectly in the gravitational field. When everything was sucked into the dark hole, there was a brief flash of the grenade detonating. The singularity dissipating, there was no evidence that there had even been a fight at all.

"We've still got two minutes to go," Alec warned. "Stay frosty, people."

"Damn!" Garrus pointed. "Look at that."

Alec looked to see what Garrus was indicating. There was another dark object in the sky, although this was at a distance and quite a lot larger than a simple drone. Alec's eyes widened as he recognized the silhouette.

"Chopper incoming. Don't let it get a bead on you."

With a roar of rotors, the helicopter tilted to a side as it tried to get in a perfect position to take out its targets. Alec could see that it was not an attack helicopter which specialized in anti-infantry but only a utility helicopter, a Black Hawk. In this case, neither choice was particularly enticing as an option of having a helicopter is a step over the enemy, specialized or no. This particular Black Hawk had two side mounted turrets to it, each manned by one of the black and beige soldiers.

Garrus and Wrex raised their weapons and fired at the fast moving object but it was no use. The chopper was too well armored and too fast for anyone on the ground to have a remote hope of hitting it. All they could do was stay out of the range of its guns and run around the monument. But how long would that last? Reinforcements were surely converging on their position at this moment, it would be mere minutes until they would be overrun on all sides.

"Crap," Garrus threw down his gun as it clicked on empty. "We got so far, too."

"You think there's a chance for us to surrender?" Liara asked.

Alec shook his head, "Their minds were made up from the moment they pulled that trigger. I underestimated exactly what lengths they would go to."

Tali leaned against Alec, ignoring the barrage of the rotors and the guns, tuning out the screams and the shouts of people, "None of us could have predicted this. It's only fitting that-"

Caught up in their fatigue, the chopper now took advantage of the lull in their retreat to position itself perfectly in line with the five people at the bottom of the Washington Monument. Every halted in their tracks, knowing that their shields could not withstand such an assault from the powerful mounted guns. Even Wrex seemed to have accepted the fate to which he was now resigned, lowering his gun in a gesture of submission.

Alec shut his eyes as he heard a distant explosion. There was a rush of heat and a cacophony of metal falling to earth. But nothing seemed remotely different. He opened his eyes to see a flaming wreck on the ground in front of him. And, taking the position where the Black Hawk had hovered, was a Kodiak shuttle. Alec laughed, tears starting to form around his eyes. The group stepped away from the monument as the shuttle landed fifty meters away, its doors opening. Garrus ran out in front to address everyone.

"All right, when we get back up there, I'm buying everyone a round. I just want to appreciate-"

Alec was smiling at the turian's exuberance when a dark shape came into his vision, just over the Capitol building to the left. It was traveling fast, faster than a drone, faster than a chopper. It was sleek, had a single cockpit, and slung underneath its stubby wings looked like-

"MOVE!" Alec screamed and scrambled back toward the monument with Tali as Garrus stood, gaping at the new development. There was a dull thump and a pressure burst through Alec's body as the missile detonated. He felt himself flung through the air, the ground spinning underneath as he came to land hard on his back. Flames rushed over his face, causing him to roll away to get away from the burning sensation. He opened one untouched eye as he detected something rushing at his face. Alec instinctively threw up a hand to protect himself and howled as the spinning piece of shrapnel took off his little finger as it passed by. He clutched his hand as his ruined finger twinged, pain shooting up from the stump. Gasping, he fumbled in his pocket for the tiny packet of medi-gel he always kept handy and applied it to the wound. He grimaced as the stinging took its toll but the bleeding had stopped at this point.

It was a weird sensation, not having five fingers on one hand anymore. It felt to Alec that he still had his finger but at the same time he couldn't. There was nothing for him to move, his nerves were misfiring, everything was jumbled.

Flickering his eyes, he felt himself being brought up by a huge form. Wrex. The krogan gingerly wrapped a hand around his waist as he carted him to safety.

"Wrex?" Alec groggily asked. "Where are the others?"

"I…" the krogan, for once, did not have anything to say. "I…don't know."

They both stood in the inferno for a bit. They could see the shuttle, somehow untouched, in the distance. There was also a faint hint of a voice in the air. Alec strained to hear it…it sounded like…Liara.

"Alec! Wrex!" Both human and krogan looked in all directions for the asari. Spotting a faint hint of blue, Alec extracted himself from Wrex's firm grip and started running to her.

"Liara!" he called. "Are you hurt!"

"Come…come quickly," he heard her say in a strangled voice.

Pushing past the flames on the ground, uncaring at the harsh burns, they found Liara next to a body. It looked like Garrus. Liara's eyes were cloudy, welled with tears as she indicated the turian at her feet.

"He's…alive…but…" she couldn't finish the sentence as Alec knelt down beside her.

Garrus was unconscious and most of his body appeared undamaged, but the right side of his face was a mess. Blue blood was splashed all around the area, some areas of skin had been ripped apart from the force of the explosion. His right mandible hung loosely, held together by only a few strands of sinew. The turian groaned as he was undoubtedly going through the most unbearable pain he'd ever experienced. Alec felt helpless as Liara was already applying a dose of medi-gel to the wounds.

"Wait…" Alec said. "Where's Tali?"

He immediately got to his feet, dizziness permeating every cell of his corneas from the quick motion. He stumbled across the landscape, desperate to find the familiar form, his wife, in this hell on earth. There was a faint sniffling noise, a whimper. Alec turned in all directions, urgency impacting every fiber of his being.

"Tali!" he screamed. "Where are you?"

"H…H-here…" came a faint reply to his left.

Alec scrambled down a steep slope where he found Tali propped up against a small bank, her chest heaving in short breaths. Her visor had an angry spiderweb of cracks on it, but the tempered glass meant that it was incredibly hard to shatter, even for a large explosion. Alec crouched to run his hands along her body, checking for any unseen injuries until his gaze dropped to her feet.

Alec stopped all movement, his breath did not seem to want to get out, his heart seemed to stop and just quit working altogether, "Oh…god, no." He sobbed, "Tali…"

"Is…is…it bad?" she managed through labored breaths.

Alec glanced down, unsure of what to do. Tali's lower right leg was gone. Blown completely off, a mass of red tissue and a small sliver of bone were exposed. Blood was spurting out in even bursts, brought on by the beating of her heart.

"I…I…I…activated…my antibiotics," she said, voice tinged with pain. "S-Should be…n-n-no inf-f-ection…now…"

Alec's hand shot to his medi-gel, the other grasping the leg around the stump, trying to stem the flow of blood. He applied a generous amount to one hand and addressed Tali very softly.

"This is going to hurt, okay? But I have to do it…to m-make you…b-better."

"Please, Alec," she pleaded. "I w-want more t-time with you. I can't g-g-go…now…"

"I know, baby," Alec said as his hand touched her stump, smearing the gel. Tali bucked in his arms and screamed as what must have felt like a million fire ants crawling all over her wound. He grabbed her in an embrace as she continued to cry, "I know…it will all be over soon." He continued to hold her as her sobs subsided as the medi-gel took its effect.

Alec furiously glanced over his shoulder. He could see that the rest of his squad had loaded the shuttle already. The geth pilot was standing in front, gun at the ready. Alec slid a hand underneath the quarian and lifted her as he jogged to the waiting shuttle. He didn't stop running until he had run inside the cabin, Tali still wrapped in his arms. Liara gasped and Wrex's eyes widened when they saw the extent of her injuries but Alec ignored them both. The geth had already clambered into the cockpit and now he could feel the shuttle start to ascend, lifting them away from this wretched place.

The geth intoned that the med bay had been alerted and was ready for processing when they docked. Alec did not acknowledge the geth, cradling the body of his wife as she still clung to life, softly crying into her shoulder and pouring with rage at the monsters who did this to her.

Someone would pay. He would make sure of that.