Knights of Cydonia - Muse

The scope was cold against her eye as she swept the area from her perch.

Although there were no enemies on her radar, Shepard kept a close eye for any faint changes in the air that could indicate cloaking. The forested area was large, with dozens of cargo crates for potential cover and a host of trees to block her vision. She was currently stationed in a small crow's nest where she had raised the ladder to prevent any attacks from behind.

Zoey almost jumped but restrained herself when she spotted exactly what she was looking for: a geth hunter. Sniping had become her focus for the last six months, and as soon as she had a target in her sights she followed her routine: forefinger on the trigger, line up the target, deep inhalation to focus energy, line up again, exhale, and pull the trigger. As expected her routine worked and the hunter dropped with a hole clean through his head light.

Pulling a thermal clip from her belt, she leaned back to reload her Mantis. A loud curse escaped her lips when a soft ping indicated that she had just been shot in the head.

"What the hell was that, James?" She growled as the crates disappeared and the room flickered and returned to its emptiness and dull grey walls. "I had no idea you were so sneaky."

"That's because it wasn't the Lieutenant, Commander."

A true gasp escaped her lips at the voice resonating around the room. "Anderson? Is that you? Should have known James wasn't smart enough to set me up for a trap like that."

"Yeah kid, it's me. I've come to get you out of here. The Defense Committee wants to listen to you."

She felt a mix of exasperation and relief. "About damn time." She hoisted her Mantis - Garrus's Mantis - over her shoulder and slid backwards down the stairs before jogging to the exit of the combat simulator. Anderson was waiting at the door, and she saluted him before reaching her hand out to shake his. He bypassed her hand and pulled her in for a hug, enveloping her in his woodsy smell.

He gripped her shoulders and gave her a quick one-over when he pulled away from the embrace. "I see you've been keeping in shape. Have they been making you do mandatory laps of the compound?"

James jogged to meet up with the pair, saluting to both of them. He held his muscular arm out to take the Mantis, which Shepard handed to him without taking her eyes off of Anderson before he jogged off.

"I have a lot of free time, Admiral. When I'm in my cell - which is most of the time - I'm either reading or exercising. You can't imagine what a fight I had to put up to get an hour on the shooting range daily, and my rifle has to be loaded with blanks. Although it's not like I couldn't get out using my biotics."

"We both know they're just wasting your time."

"Thanks to Cerberus, time is something I have more than enough of." She let out an exasperated sigh. "How have things been out there? I've had no comm in or out and James has to keep tight-lipped."

Anderson rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Not good, Shepard. The Council and the Alliance should have listened to you a long time ago." He swallowed. "The Reapers are starting to hit. The batarians are almost wiped out, and we're getting scans indicating they're on their way here now."

Shepard let out a word that her mother would have chastised her for. She grabbed Anderson's arm and stopped, feeling dizzy from the need for knowledge that encompassed her. "Any word from-"

Anderson's eyebrow rose. "The turians?" Shepard nodded. "No news yet. But things are going to change by the minute in this war. Don't let yourself get too attached to anything because you never know when you'll have to say goodbye." She didn't miss the shadow that crossed his eyes.

"War is a time when we have to appreciate what we have."

"Too true, Shepard." They stepped outside; it was overcast - not surprising in Vancouver - but warm. He started leading her to the oversized Alliance Headquarters in the compound. "Which is why we have to make it as short as damn possible."

She was rocked by the overwhelming feeling that matters were about to get much, much worse.

Garrus was crouched on his own perch, scouting ahead through the scope of his Viper at one of the gates that protected the base on Menae. At the moment, it was quiet.

Too quiet.

The air was filled with an eerie silence and the acrid smell of burning bodies. They had survived the first wave of husk attacks, but had suffered many losses. When General Corinthus realized that the Reapers were taking away their dead comrades and returning them as enemies in the form of Marauders, he had ordered all casualties to be burned. The thought that the pile of ash before him was once the flesh and blood of his fellow soldiers - his friends - made him sick to his stomach.

Damn war.

He momentarily moved his scope away from his eye to take a mouthful of water from his canteen, and when he looked to the sky it darkened. Red lightning jumped between the black clouds, and when he peered at the sky through his scope he saw the arms of a Reaper destroyer emerging.

He immediately punched a planet-wide alarm code into his omni-tool before jumping onto the comm channel. "General Corinthus, come in, this is Advisor Vakarian. We have an incoming Reaper destroyer, repeat, incoming Reaper destroyer." He swallowed hard when he realized the Reaper was going to land uncomfortably close to his position. "Current expected trajectory is in proximity of Gate B."

"Copy that Vakarian. Hold your position, I'll send troops over as soon as I can. Corinthus out."

Garrus pushed his fears aside and counted his thermal clips. Thirty-four. His position was easily defensible: he had climbed up a rocky face with limited cover and proximity mines placed at the base of the hill, and his sides and rear was a sheer drop down a cliff. However, the thought of one man with thirty-four thermal clips against an entire troop of Reapers filled him with despair.

The ground shook as three flaming meteors hit the ground, and the Reapers immediately began their assault. The first wave consisted of a dozen husks, four Cannibals and two Marauders. They hadn't noticed him yet, so he made his first move tactically, using Overload on a far Marauder to take down its shields and stagger it before sending it to the ground with a clean headshot. One of the Cannibals let out a roar and ran towards its leader before Garrus shot it down as well, his attention turning towards a Cannibal that was near a cliff's edge that he used Concussive Shot on, sending it tumbling down hill.

A loud bang resonated from the foot of his hill, and he saw three dead husks fly into the air from the force of the mine. This meant that the rest of the troops had a way up to him, so he switched to his assault rifle and focused his clips on taking down the dangerously close husks, their cries daunting as they filled the air. The rest of the Cannibals and a few of the husks made their way to the gate, and although he had taken out the husks nearest to him his stomach convulsed when he spotted more ground troops incoming.

He turned on his comm device. "General, this is Advisor Vakarian requesting assistance at Gate B."

"...comm... out... tus... ing... read..."

"General, do you read?"

"...this...ian..."

"General?"

He cursed when he received only static in reply. He began to snipe the troops that were assaulting the gate, but more were incoming quickly. By the time the husks and cannibals at the gate had fallen, a group of five Cannibals and three Marauders were starting to climb up his hill, so he switched to his assault rifle and sprayed them in hopes of knocking them down.

"I've got you, Vakarian!"

Relief washed over him as General Victus and his troops came from a hill to the north, fighting viciously. That came as no surprise: Victus was tough but inspired his troops, and they easily cleaned out the area with the assistance of Garrus's precision shooting.

They made short work of the Reapers, and Victus only lost two men. When the hostiles had been taken out, the General ordered the bodies to be piled and burned. "With me, Vakarian." Garrus jogged down from his perch and saluted the General, who pulled him aside for a quiet discussion.

"Our comm channels are in shambles. I can't get in touch with base, but I want them to know that I'm staying here to hold this area. Could you head back to let them know, and try to get those comms up and running? I don't want to be out here blind."

Garrus nodded firmly.

"One more thing, Vakarian. I was on a channel with the Primarch before the Reapers took out the comm tower. Sparatus had sent him a wave, notifying him that a human ship was on the way to pick him up."

Garrus's mandibles tightened against his face, and his subvocals instead of his words betrayed his anticipation. "I think we'll need more than one human ship to win this war."

"If it's the ship I think it is, I'll have to disagree with you on that one."

He had to restrain himself from sprinting back to base.