And now, the battle begins. Everything has lead up to this moment, this deciding moment where the Galaxy will either stand or fall, hinging at the competence of a woman viewed by most as insane and by some even unfit to lead.

Enjoy!

Defenders of peace, of just and right

The Ascension, the Citadel's might

In the wake of terror, crippled she lay

Until the 6th Raiders, joined the fray

Human guns, Turian guns, Asari guns,

Echoes without sound

In the void all around

Sovereign took its place, roosting

Messenger of force, of vengeance.

The serpent turned traitor brought relief

Human ships, end of deceit.

Admiral Anna, warrior red, saw the destruction

She saw the dead.

And the Hammer of Vengeance came crashing down

Francis Kitt - "Ode to the Fallen"

Arcturus Station, Arcturus Stream

Cantina, military sector.

09:28

The spoonful of oatmeal Anna had been in the process of capturing within the sharp and all-ending confines of her teeth, cheeks and lips, was spat out in a gluey shower of goo when the call suddenly came in on her Omnitool, flaring to life like 4th of July.

Citadel under Attack.

"Fuck me!" She shouted out loud, causing a lot of heads to turn and a few hands to begin rising, before she continued; "All hands, battle stations! Get to your ships! Everyone! Price, sound the alert!" She yelled as she started running out of the room, followed by the sound of running feet and arguing voices.

"Done. Waiting for your orders." Price spoke into her ears. Anna opened her comms on the Omnitool, switched it to open channel and directed her voice into every single speaker and radio on the station;

"All hands, man your battle stations! Get to your ships! This is Admiral Anna Fisher, and I order every fucking one of you to report to your ships with two minutes or be towed behind the engines!" She yelled, rounding a corner, almost knocking over a Quarian marine, on her way to the docks; "The Citadel is under attack! This is the time to get your fingers out of your buttholes and mount up for war!"

SSV Normandy, Arcturus Station.

Deck 1. Cockpit, CIC and briefing room.

09:27

Thomas leaned back in his chair at the table, enjoying his mug of coffee. It was nice being back at Arcturus, and it was even better that most of the injured crew was back on duty, healed from their injuries. Nicolai was one of the sad cases though, as even though he was on the ship now, he had been restricted to the beds in the Medbay by Chakwas, utterly forbidden from any and all action that would cause him the least kind of stress. Still, he was on the ship again now, which was really all Thomas felt he could ask for right now. A development he hadn't expected was that the Normandy at some point had been gifted a replacement for the Mako. It made sense, he supposed, seeing as they were supposed to be able to sneak in behind enemy lines and drop off. So, now a UT-47 Kodiak shuttle was resting in the same spot their Mako had once occupied, before a dragon had blasted the living hell out of it.

"I missed navy-grade caff. It has a certain… charm to it." Boss said, from where he was seated across the table. The seasoned commando was walking with just a slight limp now, and was adamant that he was perfectly fit for duty, using the words 'a clone can do everything. A commando has to be even better'. Thomas could tell Chakwas hadn't seen any logic in the statement, as there hadn't been any. Still, Boss was simply too good a soldier to leave on Arcturus, if the call came to ship out.

"Boss, it's coffee, not caff. Not in the Republic anymore, remember?" Scorch said from next to the commando, sipping his own mug of coffee. It was nice having Scorch back, almost as nice as having Tali back was. Thomas still felt the occasional glare from her because he had cost her almost a month worth of mailing with Jennifer, but the engineer had warmed back up to him soon after coming onboard. For some reason, probably the surreal state of it, Thomas still had the image of her uncovered face lingering in his mind. Jenny had been right: Tali really did look like an elf.

"So, you two are brothers, right?" Hillary asked, noticeably from the other side of Ash, not Thomas. She still seemed uncomfortable with the idea of breaking science, and Thomas made sure Roku didn't go near her for the moment. Couldn't keep it up forever, but giving her a few days to get used to the thought wouldn't harm anyone.

"Yeah, though we're not what you'd understand in brothers. We didn't have the same mother." Scorch said, putting down his mug.

"Then what sort of-" Hillary started, but was cut off when the alarm claxons went off ;"What the fuck?"

"All hands, man your battle stations! Get to your ships! This is Admiral Anna Fisher, and I order every fucking one of you to report to your ships with two minutes or be towed behind the engines! The Citadel is under attack! This is the time to get your fingers out of your buttholes and mount up for war!" The transmission ended, and for a blissful moment, Thomas thought it had just been a figment of his imagination. Yet, the startled looks on the faces of the others told him it was real enough.

"Fuuuuck…" He groaned. The sound of running feet came from above, and Jane, assisted by her crutches, came hammering down the stairs.

"The fuck are you all sitting down for? Get moving, get the ship going! Get in armor, weapons, everything! We're jumping with the 15th and 10th fleet, so get ready for a massive Relay transit!" She shouted, then vanished into the elevator. The messhall was then cleared, the group all heading for the same lift Jane had taken, opting to armor up and check weapons as soon as they could.

Even as the group moved to get to the hangar, in the cockpit, joker was busy aligning to the mass of warships altering their angle to fit with the leader, a massive super-dreadnought of more than three kilometers, slowly coming out of dry-dock at the station.

"Holy shit. That, is one bigass dreadnought." Joker exclaimed, deciding Alenko should know his thoughts on the subject. Kaidan nodded, though his mind was currently divided. He knew it shouldn't be, what with what was going on right now, but in the time he had had to get to know Jane, he had learned one crucial fact about the beautiful woman. She never gave up. That was likely to mean she would decide to join in any actual combat they might get involved in at the Citadel, and… he worried. He didn't know if her new limbs were ready for something like that. If it came to it, he'd just have to leave the steering to Joker, and protect Jane himself.

Not that she'd ever accept protection.

"I mean, seriously, how could they build something that big, and not tell me?" The pilot continued, unaware of Kaidan's train of thoughts being at another station altogether; "I mean, yeah okay, they need me to pilot the Normandy, but still."

Kaidan sighed, and pulled up the intercoms for the lead-ship, the new Goliath-class Super-dreadnought that was, from what he knew, captained by Admiral Anna Fisher. It was floating past the Normandy, the size so different that if Joker had crashed the Normandy into the vessel, it would have made a small scratch, but that would be it.

"SSV Hammer of Vengeance, this is SSV Normandy, joining the 10th fleet, how copy?"

"Solid. Join the frigates and perform strafe-runs when we get to the Citadel. Expect hard contact from end-transit." A man said. He sounded grizzled, though not as old as Hackett. It was likely Fisher's second in command.

"Copy that. Normandy out." Kaidan said and closed the transmission. Joker did a symbolic crack of his fingers, seeing as a real one would break his bones, and went to work setting them up with the nearest wolf-pack.

Kaidan dared a glance out the cockpit's monitors, and did a double take at what he saw. In the endless void they floated through, at the very least three hundred vessels were following the same course as them, multiple of them of Quarian make.

As they approached the Arcturus Relay, leading to the chain of systems they would need to go through to get to the Citadel, Kaidan was unsure whether or not the massive amount of warships calmed him down or worried him. On one side, it meant a lot of firepower on their side. On the other…

On the other side, it meant a lot of firepower on their side was warranted.

Citadel Presidium, C-Sec Headquarters.

Main hall.

15:35

Officer Chellick had enjoyed his day well enough so far. It had been quiet, boring and calm, but that was how things usually went when you worked desk-jobs half the time. Or, it had been quiet, boring and calm, until Executor Pallin's voice suddenly blared over the speakers, all across C-Sec.

"Officers, the Citadel is under attack! Man your stations! Get to the Relay Monument, we're about to be breached!"

That had been when he had been sent flying through the hallways, helmet in one hand and Phaeston rifle in the other. Being a turian in C-Sec, he was always armored, so helmet and weapon was really the only things he needed to worry about. He wanted to start swearing and cursing, but considering that he had never been the best runner in the academy, Chellick wanted to save as much air as possible for simply running his ass off towards the relay monument.

It was still a crazy thing to consider, that the monument that had just… been there, for as long as anyone remembered, was actually a relay that could be used to circumvent the entire advantage the Citadel had as a defensive location. The mere thought that you could build a relay into a habitable complex, was staggering in its scale of technological… something. Chellick didn't much care, as he was almost tackled by an Asari running the opposite way, bumping into people and yelling 'sorry, sorry, sorry!' all the time.

When he came out in the open Presidium air, or well, recycled air, he saw the scale of the defense planned around the monument. Sure, he had helped stack and construct half of those defenses, but seeing them filled to the brim with armed personnel, mechs and armored vehicles, gunships flying above and snipers perched on rooftops, it struck him just how important this was. He spotted Pallin quickly enough, directing the men and women of C-Sec to their positions. Asari, Turians and human soldiers, paramilitary infantry and officers of the law stood side by side in the trenches dug into the otherwise green soil of the gardens, rifles, machineguns and rockets aimed at the monument, ready to, as humans called it, 'unleash hell' on whatever came through.

Chellick found his own spot easy enough, crouching down behind a slate of thick, portable steel cover equipped with a stand for his rifle, as well as protection around it for the benefit of the person doing the shooting. Not so much for whom- or whatever was about to get shot, though.

Still, looking at the massive number of guns pointed at the Relay monument, Chellick felt a bit giddy, at the prospect of Saren Arterius himself maybe walking into their crossfire. If that was the case, Chellick wanted to be the one to nail the bastard… as would every single other person here as well, he suspected with a sour expression.

Citadel, Serpent Nebula

Citadel Docks, SSV Caucasus.

15:36

"I never imagined… it would come already." Oleg Petrovsky snarled as he looked out of what amounted to windows on his Dreadnought, currently hanging indecisively in the skies above the wards. Petrovsky was in doubt. Not professional doubt, as he knew what his duty now was, regardless of whether he liked it or not, but personal doubt, as he knew assisting with the defense would claim the lives of many of his remaining men and ships. The small destroyers above Virmire had shredded his cruisers. He didn't want to consider what the hulking monster currently soaring towards the station, soaking up the fire being poured at it by the Citadel Defense Fleet.

"Admiral. Orders?" Tanya asked from her position, urgency in her voice.

"We are not near full strength…" He muttered, having not noticed his lieutenant's words.

"Admiral!" Tanya barked, snapping him from his stupor.

"Yes, yes we… how many ships are ready for combat?" He asked. Tanya didn't even look away, having apparently known the answer before Oleg asked.

"Thirty frigates are operational. We're without cruiser support, unless you pull the hospital ship into the fray."

"Does it hold wounded at the moment?"

"No sir."

"Then we set out. Assist wherever able and maintain control of the station from the enemy." Oleg ordered, gripping the rails in front of the galaxy map. How odd, that he had adamantly sworn not to sacrifice a single human for the Citadel, and now he would be forced to. The universe had a cruel sense of humor.

Citadel, Serpent Nebula

Citadel Defense Fleet, CDF Hyperion.

15:36

Councilor Sparatus, a Turian and therefore a soldier by heart, stood at the bridge of the Hyperion, the Turian dreadnought in charge of leading the defense should the Destiny Ascension fall. He stood straight, proud and defiant. He knew help was on its way. He hoped it was. He had sent the message the second C-Sec had informed him of the approaching fleet. Now, they just needed to make sure they held out until Fisher arrived with the Alliance.

"All guns, fire!" He ordered. The Hyperion, followed by five other Turian dreadnoughts, and sixty Turian and Asari cruisers, launched the first volley of the battle, unleashing their deadly torrents of tungsten and missiles at the approaching geth fleet. He didn't hold any illusions that they could win this alone, no matter what the others said.

The streaks of light were somewhat difficult to spot against the bright purple glow of the nebula, but he could still follow them as they raced towards their targets. Standard military practice dictated that the side with the most frigates would attempt to close range and engage in knife-fighting, but… as the slugs started tearing into the approaching geth, Sparatus saw that the massive vessel, the thing he was now convinced was something more than a mere ship, shrugged everything off. Dreadnoughts who took out geth cruisers in a single volley did nothing to deter the hulking monster, the thing Admiral Fisher's nephew had called 'Sovereign'.

It simply continued through the rain of fire, ignoring whatever fire was poured at it. As it came closer to the CDF, Sparatus widened his eyes and mandibles both, seeing the vessel, the Reaper on collision-course with the Dreadnought CDF Adamant Pride. The dreadnought kept up a steady firing, however it was already starting to veer off, desperately trying to avoid being impacted by the hulking vessel, the mocking of an Earthen aquatic animal.

"Keep up the fire! Don't let it into the station! Dammit, where's the Ascension?" Sparatus growled, gripping the rails of his command-post as he saw the Adamant Pride being rammed by the larger vessel. There was no sound, only the vibrations in the gaseous ether surrounding the Citadel, to show the vibrations caused by the nuclear explosions as the Adamant Pride detonated, its drive core exposed to far too much damage for it to handle. The fact that the vessel, Sovereign, just rammed through, underlined the message that the ship was wrong.

"Councilor, the Ascension is taking heavy fire from the geth vessels. They are requesting assistance, do we break off?" One of the technicians called from up front. Sparatus snarled, almost animalistic in rage. He had to make a choice now. He had no reinforcements left, no parts of the defense fleet wasn't already engaged in fighting. He was sitting in a Dreadnought, one of the few left in the fleet, and the choice was simple, but cruel.

He could stay, and do his Spirits-be-damned best to make sure the Citadel could close its arms before Sovereign came through. However, that would mean leaving the Ascension to fend off the attacks alone. The Council had been evacuated the moment word got through, as the risk had been there all along that the arms would not be closing. Now though, choosing the fleets would mean sacrificing the Ascension, and hence his two colleagues. Esheel and Tevos had been getting on his nerves lately, but they were still valued colleagues and he wanted them both to survive. Not just out of personal feelings, but because the galaxy needed the Council to survive.

If he chose to save the Ascension though… that would mean saving the Councilors. But it would mean pulling at least one dreadnought from the already strained defense fleet.

"Councilor?" The tech called again. Sparatus was completely in doubt. He had no idea how to tackle a situation so utterly lose/lose as this. It would either leave him alone on the Council, or it would claim the lives of thousands he could have saved.

Was it even a choice?

"Denied. Focus on Sovereign, make sure we don't let it through our lines. Fire everything we have!"

"Sir, incoming transmission from Alliance vessel Caucasus. Putting it through." The same tech called back. Sparatus hid his surprise behind a mask of commanding calm and opened the communication. Admiral Oleg Petrovsky appeared before him;

"Admiral, are you in a position to assist?"

"I am, though my force numbers at just thirty-five ships, and most are frigates. Do you need help at your position?" the human said. Sparatus was reminded of the Council, and the distress-call he himself was unable to respond to. But maybe…

"No, but the Destiny Ascension is taking heavy fire. The rest of the Council is onboard it, can you provide assistance?" He knew his voice was growing dry and ragged from constantly shouting orders, but he didn't care right now. The humans were the best hope the Council had of remaining intact. Petrovsky scowled for a moment, then looked away, as if receiving information.

"We can. I doubt we can turn the tides, but we can give the Ascension more time." Oleg Petrovsky said, then turned and barked the appropriate orders for his crew. On his screens, Sparatus could see the small force of thirty-six ships make a sharp turn and head for the swarmed Destiny Ascension.

"Spirits be with you, Admiral." Sparatus said. Petrovsky nodded, though he added;

"I'd prefer God really, but I'll take whatever help I can get in this." And disconnected. Sparatus turned his attention back to the task at hand, which was getting damned impossible as the seconds ticked by. Sovereign had reached the main defensive line, and the constant rain of geth missiles made it a chaotic hell to coordinate what ships remained of the CDF.

At least the Citadel arms were closing now, if slowly.

"Sir, the left wing just flat lined!" A marine shouted. Sparatus snapped to look where the call had come from and pulled his displays up. His mandibles went completely slack.

Sovereign had started firing, as if it wasn't doing enough damage already. From the bowels of the metal demon, a bright, thick and red beam of death shot out and hit a Turian dreadnought on the top of the bow, slicing upwards through the vessel like a heat-knife through skin.

"All guns, focus on Sovereign! Send that demon straight to hell!" Sparatus shouted. Even as every single gun and turret in his side of the fleet shifted focus to Sovereign, the demon of the void carved its way through a pack of cruisers trying to slow it down with a volley of concentrated firing of where they assumed its engines were located.

That was one of the disturbing features about that ship, Sparatus thought as his own dreadnought fired volley after volley at the immortal ship. It seemed to swim rather than fly through space, with no real thrusters or engines visible. Was this thing even a ship?

A bright explosion showed that Sovereign had just carved up a cruiser, simply by moving a tentacle to point at it and unleash what looked like a hilariously overpowered GARDIAN-laser. The Cruiser, an Asari vessel, was gutted like a fish, and left to soar in opposite directions as its drive core detonated.

Sovereign had broken through their lines.

It was headed for the station.

And the arms had yet to fully close.

The Relay was spinning up. Chellick grit his teeth, mandibles stuck close to his face beneath the helmet. It was policing gear, riot-armor, but it would serve its purpose now, if ever. Talon on the trigger of his Phaeston, he squinted the left eye as he sighted in on the monument.

The spinning grew more violent and rapid with each passing second. Suddenly, he could hear Pallin's voice over the comms.

"Men, women! You are soldiers of the Hierarchy, of the Alliance, of the Republics. You are soldiers of the Citadel. No matter what comes through that Relay, you will hold your ground!" Damn… Pallin still knew how to send the bones shivering with his speeches.

Why had the man quit the military again? Not that Chellick was given more time to ponder the question, as the Relay suddenly stopped spinning at an impossible speed, and froze. A thick streak of solid, blue light impacted on the walkway in front of the monument, and shapes appeared.

Chellick heard them before he saw them. Guttural roars, like monsters from the void. Deep, bloodied and frenzied, the shapes took form as the metal walkways cracked beneath their weight. Out of the lights, of the monument, came the first wave of attackers.

They were huge. Hulking abominations of black flesh, muscle and steel. Beady eyes sank into a Turian head, positioned like a stalk on a long and thin neck that ended in a powerful and black body. The creature looked like a nightmare had come real.

"Open fire! Open Fire!"

Chellick didn't know who gave the order, and didn't particularly care either. He followed it and opened fire on the attackers, the invaders of his station, his home. Spirits be damned if he died before punching Garrus in the face for always being such a stuck-up mister "right-all-the-time".

The brutish creatures were not paying much attention to the firing until the C77-Tyrus parked by the divide of the walkways opened fire as well, a pair of coaxial heavy machine guns hammering down on the incoming enemies. The monsters finally took notice, but even while the slugs tore through their flesh and armor, they charged forward, towards the defenses, with a guttural roar and clawed hand lifted into the air, ready to strike. Behind them, came the rest of the force.

Chellick halted his fire an pulled an incendiary grenade from the bandolier on his chest, pulled the pin and tossed the small elliptical lump of metal at the incoming enemies. The resulting explosion tore into the first hulking creature, tearing off its leg. As the monster stumbled and feel mid-charge, the rest of the line took notice and started strategically deploying grenades against the invaders as well.

"Yeah! Yeah how'd you like that you mutant bastards?!" Chellick yelled, switching back to firing at the horde of never-ending enemies streaming from the monument. It was horrifying, seeing the waves of mutated aliens and Turians alike, shaped into something usable for whatever sick fuck had decided to do this. Even Saren couldn't have gone thís far. Wouldn't have.

The next target Chellick fired at was a walking lump of mutated, brown flesh and chitinous armor, armed with a right hand that had been crafted into a weapon. He kept firing, even as the creature fired back, ignoring the bullets that tore whole chucks of flesh from its body at a time. It went down before managing to hit him, but it didn't seem the least bit in pain as it did. The only thing Chellick could focus on was the ghostly light filling its mouth and eyes.

Spirits, there were even faces on its shoulders!

"I'm overheated!" The Asari next to him yelled, crouching down to allow her firearm, a regular Avenger, to cool down. Chellick gave her the time she needed to recover, pouring fire and death at the horde, though not even the mounting pile of corpses would stop the advancing enemies, the monsters. Chellick wasn't sure whether or not they were actually enemies or just mindless pawns, but he wasn't going to let thát stop him from tearing them apart. He kept on firing in bursts, making sure his had as long a duration of fire as possible. When his rifle finally signaled an overheating, he swapped to his sidearm, a officer-issued Carnifex pistol and started pumping off shots with the powerful handgun. He got to ten shots before this weapon too overheated, by then he simply holstered it and picked up his Phaeston again, ready to fire.

As he brought up the weapon, a missile, or something else, he didn't know, streaked overhead and impacted the side of the Cyrus vehicle parked behind them. The IFV was designed to survive rockets for long enough that the crew could escape, however the missile struck and buried into the side of it before detonating, blowing up the vehicle from the inside out. The explosion knocked Chellick halfway over the barrier he was behind, and he was promptly harried by slugs fired from a mix of geth and mutant weapons. The Asari he had given cover leaned over and pulled him back into cover.

"Thanks, I-" He started, but a spray of blue blood, coming from where the woman's head had been a moment before, stopped him. Feeling sick, he desperately wiped the blood from his visor, staring at the corpse for just long enough that a volley hit him in the shoulder and knocked him on his ass.

"Fuck!" He yelled, getting back to his position. His legs were trembling from the adrenaline rush pouring through his veins, and his senses seemed to slow everything down to a crawl as he picked out the singular enemies. Most of them were now the simple mutants, or geth.

Not that thát made his life any easier, or likely to continue for the next hour, but at least there weren't anymore of the hulking monsters to be seen. The line in front of him had been wiped out by the brute that wasn't killed by grenades. He didn't want to look at what remained of the men in that defense, but rather, he aspired to not dying.

It was, he believed, a rather good goal.

"We've got air support!" Someone yelled. Chellick looked up and saw the familiar shapes of a pair of Mantis-gunships screaming through the air towards the monument. He knew they were probably in an even worse position than the ground teams, knowing that a stray missile hitting the monument, revealed to be an active relay, could cause a small supernova sufficient to end the entire battle, as everything would be warped to shit and then blown up a few times again.

The gunships opened up on the hostiles amassing on the walkways, mass accelerators pouring machinegun-fire into the side of the horde. The sound of slugs tearing through flesh and metal had never been sweeter to Chellick, and he found new hope as the gunships continued their harassment of the enemy creatures and the geth.

Missiles started appearing in the horde, and before Chellick could blink, one gunship had lost its tail, sent spinning in flames towards the ground were it crashed in the soil of a garden and crushed several trees beneath it. Whether or not the pilot had survived the crash was academic, as a fresh missile struck the downed craft, sending it exploding upwards in a pillar of flame and debris.

The remaining gunship veered to avoid a missile that almost clipped its right wing. As retaliation, it sent a pair of missiles on its own towards the center of the horde, still streaming in an unending mass from the relay-monument. Even while the middle was assaulted by gunship and the front was met by crossfire, the mutants and geth refused to cease their advance, crawling over the bodies of their own dead. The sight of it filled Chellick with a dread that was highly un-turian-ish, as Turians didn't get scared, they were simply supposed to get rigorously angry, or righteously, depending on your personal viewpoint.

"Die. You. Bastards!" A human a few meters to Chellick's left shouted, leaning over his cover with a Revenant light machine gun. The weapon was known for being expensive and inaccurate, but packed a punch and had extensive thermal sinks that could sustain heavy fire for far longer than most other weapons. Chellick decided to stop worrying about where the man had the gun from, and more about getting the enemy dead before they reached the line. He could hardly see the white tiles of the walkway now for the sea of black blood and stumps of flesh that covered it entirely. The stench was ranking amongst the worst things he had ever smelled, like setting fire to a rotten corpse.

A new series of missiles streaked up towards the gunship. The pilot was a good one though, as he steered his craft out of the way of five missiles before the sixth one hit his gunship frontally, caving in the cockpit before sending it flying backwards in a violent explosion.

"Well… that was the air support." The Turian muttered to himself as he ducked down, allowing his rifle to cool down while taking pot shots with the Carnifex. The enemy was getting close now, close enough that their fire was getting horrifyingly lethal and that a shotgun would be a fine choice for a weapon.

So he looked around for a moment, as if hoping to come across a conveniently placed shotgun. None was to be found vacant though, so he switched the Phaeston from accurate fire to fully automatic, and started spraying whatever was in front of him with heavy-caliber tungsten rounds. The problem here was that the fully automatic mode had a tendency of overheating the weapon before one could say 'Farixen'.

As it was, even when he kept the fire to bursts and resisted the temptation to just spray and pray, the weapon overheated within seconds, leaving him to once more duck and fire as red streaks of light, projectiles of some twisted sort, pinged off or imbedded themselves in his cover, leaving marks on the inside where the well-aimed ones hit.

Whatever he had planned on doing next was abruptly cut off when a hulking machine, of geth make this time, impacted the walkway by the monument with enough force to send tiles an mutants alike flying. Chellick dared looking as it unfolded itself into a twenty-foot machine, standing on four solid legs. It had an almost elegant appearance that ended in a curved head with a flashlight at the end. Only, as the eye started glowing brighter and brighter, it was clear that it was more than a flashlight.

"Move!" One of the human C-Sec members shouted and pushed Chellick away from his cover as the machine fired, a massive blue sphere of pulsating energy that raced downwards like a boulder, and smashed into where Chellick had been just before. A few other officers hadn't moved quickly enough, and the plasma ate through their bodies, disregarding their shields completely. As Chellick looked back at the barricades, he could see the mutants starting to climb over the low walls, fighting the officers remaining in close quarters.

While those armed with shotguns fared well against them, the regular officer was armed with a mid-distance weapon, and rarely trained to face down the sort of enemy they were now fighting with their lives at stake. Even though they must have known that abandoning their positions would mean dishonorable discharge, more and more officers abandoned the barricades, instead taking up cover behind trees, overturned tables, rocks, corners of buildings and just about anything that seemed bulletproof. Chellick had been hauled behind a low table, which the human had then kicked over for use as a shield between them and the incoming fire. The insignias on his shoulder marked the human as a police sergeant.

Not that Chellick really cared about rank right now. Instead, he got to his feet and joined the sergeant in shooting at the incoming mutants and geth, the invaders now at least forced to focus on multiple directions and devoid of cover. Not that they had used it before though. While he was able to cut down the mutants fairly easily, and the humanoid grey runners were to be scoffed at with a single bullet to the head, the geth were the worse enemy. They moved with coordination and avoided places they had difficulties going through due to entrenched officers, who instead were treated to a flamethrower or a grenade.

A similar tactic was tried on their position, and Chellick noticed the grenade of geth make as it bumped against the wall next to them. Before he could react, the human sergeant had picked the orb up and returned it to sender. It exploded, sending a group of geth troopers flying in different states of dismemberment. This granted the pair a brief moment of relief, allowing them to look at the state of their respective weapons, the human carrying the same revenant Chellick had seen earlier. The gun had a glowing muzzle, overheated from extensive use.

"Officer Chellick, C-Sec detective." He said, figuring he at least owed the man his name. Had it not been for the blond-furred human, Chellick would have been a waste on the floor, courtesy of plasma by geth walker.

"Sergeant Armando Bailey, Zakera Ward." The human said, picking up movement on the street. There was more shooting, then what looked like green plasma, or fire, Chellick couldn't tell, soared past their position and hit where an officer was crouched behind a tree. Tree and man burned alike, with instantaneous effect. More gunfire followed, followed again by either the sound of tearing metal, human and Turian screaming, or simply the sound of fire being made and burning.

"We have a reprieve. We should make sure we are prepared, then head back out there." Chellick said. Bailey nodded, and pulled the handle of his Revenant, allowing a white-hot heat sink to drop out.

"Give me a moment, this thing's always been buggy as hell with the heat dispersal." He muttered, rummaging around his armored uniform for a fresh heat sink. Finding and inserting one, he nodded and the pair started out from their cover, headed to where the most likely destination of a rendezvous could be found. Either C-Sec headquarters, or the entrance to the Presidium tower. The latter was by far the rational one, as whomever controlled the tower controlled systems and wards, as well as the defensive systems of the station.

Chellick glanced up in the "skies" as a rumble resonated throughout the station, and saw the wards, the arms of the Citadel, begin to close. So, they had managed to figure out closing the gates to the fortress.

Good. Because from the looks of it, from what he could see in the nebula, they needed to keep out the forces trying to get in. Especially…

"Oh Shit…" Bailey groaned. He had seen the same thing Chellick had, that the massive geth dreadnought had managed to slip within the Citadel's arms before they closed, and that none of the Citadel's systems were firing at it. What the hell had happened?

Not that he had time to think about it. The massive arms closed at last, though they had now served the opposite of their purpose. Instead of keeping out the enemy, they had sealed the biggest dreadnought Chellick had ever seen, within the arms. It was a hostile dreadnought with free reign to bombard the millions of innocents living on the Citadel, and right now, there was nothing to do but keep running, and shoot anything hostile.

"How the hell are we going to survive this?" Chellick asked himself as he leaned around a corner. Spotting one of the brown, mutated creatures feasting on a dead Asari, he brought up his rifle and hammered the thing to the ground with a volley of slugs; "Crap, these things are everywhere…"

"Beats me… still, we need to get back to the tower base. If anyone's alive, that's the closest place we'll find them." Bailey said with a surprisingly calm voice. Chellick decided the human might be a bit more suited to get him through this shitstorm alive, and nodded.

As they progressed further around the Presidium, the sound of biotic in use, followed by the sound of an assault rifle being fired, caused them to speed up. As they rounded the corner, they saw two humans, a member of the N7, and a female soldier. Both were visibly worn out, but seemed to have earned it, considering the near-hill of broken geth and dead mutants they were standing on. At the sound of footsteps, the two humans snapped up and aimed shotgun, a Crusader model, and the assault rifle at the turian and human officer.

"Fuck me… thought you were more of those critters." The female, the woman, said. Chellick breathed a sigh of relief at seeing that the rumors surrounding the N7 seemingly held true. If those two had killed that many enemies, they were anything but ordinary soldiers ;"Had plenty of those fuckers on Virmire."

"We're friendlies, in case you were wondering. Sergeant Bailey, C-Sec."

"Detective Chellick." Chellick added, nodding at the two humans. The man, the one with the red-and-white N7 stripes jumped down from the hill of dead bodies and seemed to examine them both.

"Isaac Clarke, N7 marines." The man said, reloading his rifle with a fresh grenade in an underlying barrel. Chellick noticed he had a very odd-looking helmet, with a visor that was horizontally split into three separate, green visors.

"Lieutenant Lee Riley, Alliance Marines, 6th Raiders." The woman said. She was encased in a set of massive, red armor, and her helmet allowed nothing of her face to be seen.

"Oh yeah, I'm 6th Raiders too…" Clarke said, nodding. Chellick wanted to comment on it, but considering the hill of dead enemies, he was more than willing to let the N7 be odd.

"We're on our way to the Presidium Tower." Bailey said, holding his Revenant at relative ease. Clarke looked over his shoulder, at said tower in the distance.

"No good. The area is already swarming with more freaks than I saw even on Virmire. Arterius seems to have ascended the tower, which means most of the enemy force is at the base right now." He said. Chellick growled.

"What about the Executor? Did you see him?"

"Can't say I did… saw a lot of dead bodies, mostly C-Sec, and some Blue Suns too, for some reason, but… didn't see anyone alive that wasn't going to shoot at me." Clarke shrugged.

"It's likely they are all dead. Most of the Presidium is contested territory right now, so they could be alive and scattered too." Lee Riley suggested. Chellick balled his fists, hating not knowing what was going on. The something struck him as too odd to pass up.

"You mentioned Blue Suns?" He said, looking at Clarke. The N7 nodded as they snuck around a new corner.

"Yeah… for some reason, they just started appearing and relieving C-Sec. Heh, saved by mercs, I wonder how that's going to look in the reports." Clarke actually chuckled, further cementing Chellick's opinion of him as odd.

"Well, I've never been one to turn down extra help. So, what do we do now?" Bailey said. Riley pointed upwards;

"We need to open the arms somehow. With that thing alone in here, we're all fucked. If we open the arms, the CDF can take it out. And hopefully before Petrovsky gets overwhelmed. The admiral went to assist the Destiny Ascension, but… we haven't heard from him since then." There was a note of worry in the woman's voice, even though her face was hidden by a red helmet with angular visors, like the eyes of a predator.

"Well, we won't do that by standing around here with our thumbs up our asses, will we?" Bailey remarked, taking point towards Citadel control. They were likely going to have to fight their way through to get to the controls.

Just another day on the job.

Andura Sector, Serpent Relay

10th and 15th fleet, SSV Hammer of Vengeance.

18:22

"Price, what's the deal? Why aren't we already in transit towards the Citadel?" Anna demanded, glaring at the visage of her AI, for the moment only visibly from the interior of her helmet. Anna had, in the time it took to traverse the galaxy, changed into a fully operative suit of Bulwark Armor. Sure, she might not get to need it, but to hell with that if the possibility of being blown open came. It also allowed her a HUD and a private link to Price.

"Give me a goddamn second… the Relay is locked from Citadel Control. Dunno who the fuck activated it, but I have to hack it to get us through." The AI muttered, his expression set in clear annoyance an frustration. Anna shot him an impatient look;

"Can you do it?" Price merely huffed at that.

"The hell do you take me for, a VI?" He scoffed; "It'll take me a minute at most, so be ready when I give the all-clear." His visage vanished from her HUD, and Anna was left with trying to strangle the rails in front of her command chair.

Battle for the Galaxy, and she was locked out due to some fucker having panicked and locked the Relays. If they survived this, she was sure as hell going to make sure whomever had done so was thrown out the airlock.

"Get word to all ships. The moment we've unlocked the Relay, we swarm through in formation and deliver the fires of HELL ITSELF in their faces!" She was getting worked up. Impossible not to be really, considering she was riding around with enough firepower to conquer Palavan if she wanted, and there was a massive battle she wanted to get to. Adrenaline was racing through her veins, making her skin crawl with an almost childlike excitement. But she was also worried.

Oleg had still been on the Citadel when the message for help arrived at her desk, so to speak, and she had no idea if he was already dead or not. No, no she wasn't going there. Oleg was a hardass topped only by Zaeed. There was nothing that faced him in battle.

"Anna, we have a problem." Price came back in her helmet.

"What?" She snapped, causing the men around her to turn and look at her. Dammit, she had it on public. Switching to private, she looked at the AI.

"The Citadel itself is locked. Unless someone opens it from the inside, it's impregnable."

"Good, means we don't have to worry about protecting the Council." Anna nodded. Price shook his head.

"No, Sovereign is inside the station now, and the Council is fucking around in the Destiny Ascension. The Monument-defense seems to have failed, from what I can gather. Saren is on the Citadel with a small army. C-Sec can't handle it all alone, so the moment we get the arms open, we need to deploy troops to-"

"Who's the Admiral here?" Anna demanded. Price blinked and looked at her in annoyance; "Now, you do have a point though. Do we have any transports ready? Shuttles, gunships?"

"Most of the Cruisers have a dozen Wasps on board, but almost none of the frigates do. The Normandy has a shuttle ready for use, and a competent ground crew to boot. Suggest we make sure to put them on the ground at the first opportunity."

"Good thinking." She agreed, the opened the comms again; "Listen up. Apparently someone thought it was a fucking brilliant idea to shut the Citadel arms with the big doom-squid inside the station. This means we have two missions now. First one is to rain hell on the enemy fleet outside the Citadel. The other is, as soon as the arms open, deploy whatever troops you can on the station and engage sovereign with whatever firepower you have. Saren is on the station, so be careful. Kill anything not organic" She said, then added; "Or painted green."

"The last part was your brother's geth-platform-friend, right?" Price said, not taking his eyes from something in front of him. As Anna nodded, he brightened up, as much as Price could brighten up anyway; "I'm through. The Relay is open."

"All ships! Through the Relay! Move it! Whatever crew kills the most enemies gets a lifetime of free booze!" She barked and, metaphorically speaking, stepped on the petal. In other words, her crew sent the massive vessel through the Relay at the head of the hundreds of ships.

Anna gripped the handles of her command-chair as the ship trembled slightly. The dampeners needed work in this thing when undergoing transit between systems, that much was sure.

"Coming out of transit in twenty seconds, ma'am." One of the Quarian ensigns at the bridge said. It was a woman, which seemed to be a testament to the fact that the Quarians had just as many women as men in their armed forces. Anna mused at that, seeing how men were still in the majority of humanity's armed forces. Figures that aliens had more functional gender-equality… or maybe just a lot more hardass women.

"Good. Make sure all weapons are primed and ready. Have all squadrons ready to fly and all teams in their shuttles by the time we reach the other side." Her orders were carried out, as the communications officers made sure every ship in the fleet knew their assigned positions and orders.

Tenth Fleet, Andura sector.

SSV Normandy.

Deck 4. Engine room, hangar.

18:25

He went for the leggings first, the plates of solid, rigid and white-scraped p-steel that would mean the difference between getting a leg shot off and keeping it on. The boots would come last, slipped on his padded undersuit-feet. Each leg was always a chore to get on, what with the amount of clamps he had to fasten and make sure remained fastened. Each shin had to be closed behind the leg with a magnetic lock, then connected to the movable kneecap-protector, before the thigh was strapped on as well, extra protection on top of the Kevlar making up the spaces between armor. He still kept the blue colors of the 501st, simply because it had been his first thought when he got the armor.

At some point, he was going to repaint the armor in the same style as his old Hydra model, and get it green instead. When both thighs had been strapped on and connected to the waist guard, he proceeded with clasping the torso around his own upper body. The rigid piece of protection was always more of a chore than the legs, considering he had to fumble around with it, seeing as Ashley was in the process of donning her own armor herself. When he had the body covered, it was surprisingly easy to get the arms covered as well, before he proceeded with picking up his helmet.

It had become something of an unconscious habit, looking into the dark visor of his headgear from the outside. He could see perfectly well through it from the inside, but from the outside it was black as the night. The blue painting that had started out pristine on his whole armor, was now scraped in multiple places, and downright gone in other areas. Since Virmire, it was a miracle thát much of the armor could even be repaired. The arms had the pristine painting still, seeing how his old ones had been utterly destroyed and a new set had been found for him.

Sighing, he slipped on the helmet, feeling the comfortable padding settle on his head and short hair. Audio was booted up, as was visions of different versions, either regular or night vision. Thermal was something only available to the Bulwarks yet, which was a little annoying. The rest of the HUD followed, allowing him full advantage of the best of two worlds, quite literally. It was Republic armor-tech with Alliance computing power.

There still was a feeling of surrealism to it, he admitted that much.

"Alright people, get in the shuttle. Just had word from command, we're deploying to the Citadel the second they get the arms open. C-Sec defenses failed, so we're going in to clean up the mess." Jane called, stepping up in her, frankly, imposing suit of Bulwark armor. Only Wrex, Scorch and Boss were wearing the same style of armor, and with reason. Even with the servo-motors, the armor took muscle and training to pull around, let alone flow around in.

The assembled crew nodded, picked up weapons, grenades and additional heat sinks in the case of Wrex for his heavy machinegun, before stepping into the shuttle. Gods, this was going to be a pure shitstorm, wasn't it?

Serpent Relay.

10th and 15th fleet, SSV Hammer of Vengeance.

18:27

"Coming out of transit in 5…4…3…2… brace!" The tech called. Anna gripped her railing, gritting her teeth against the trembles following the emergence from transit. She definitely had to install better dampeners in this thing, no matter how much firepower it had. She would end up with Vroliks-syndrome if this went on.

"Get me a sitrep! Displays, cameras!" Anna shouted as the rest of her fleet blinked into being around her. She held them near the Relay until she could get a feed. There was no way she was going in blind. The signal came and she pulled up the displays, allowing her a panoramic view of the entire area around the Citadel. What she saw, had it not meant the potential downfall of all organic life, would normally have been something to make her snigger. Now, it made her grit her teeth to hard she almost felt certain a tooth cracked somewhere.

The area around the Citadel, still shut closed, was littered with hundreds of destroyed ships, most of them belonging to the CDF. There was still a heavy firefight going on, and ships from both sides were pummeling each other with missiles and slugs. She could see Alliance ships surrounding the largest Dreadnought in the Asari fleets, and knew what had become of Petrovsky. Crazy bugger had decided to help the Ascension. Oh well, nothing to do about that now. At least she wasn't going to be distracted by the Council now.

"All ships, move in! UNLEASH HELL ON THOSE MECHANICAL ASSHOLES!" She barked, feeling her skin stiffen slightly from appreciation of the situation, as well as the hairs standing straight on her skin.

The Hammer led the charge, coming from an angel that let them drop down on top of the geth, instead of behind them. The geth only started suspecting, or noticing them, when Anna opened her mouth into the collective fleet-comms;

"OPEN FIRE ON THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS! SEND THEM STRAIGHT TO HELL!" She actually screamed, both with fury and glee, into the speakers. The fleet obeyed her, and the Hammer unleashed the first volley, main guns charged and ready to let fly a pair of 78-kiloton bombs worth of kinetic destruction. She aimed at the closest geth dreadnought, a hulking giant but still a dwarf compared to her Goliath-class ship. The slugs didn't explode on the geth's shields.

Instead, they detonated the shields and smashed straight through the dreadnought, one slug exploding inside the ship, while the other went all the way through and shattered a geth cruiser that lay beyond. The brilliant explosions almost sent Anna over the ecstatic edge as they were accompanied by hundreds of others, courtesy of the 10th and 15th fleets. The six Everest-class front-mounted guns around the main guns barked and let fly their own deadly volleys, aimed at each their target. As the slugs tore through geth vessels still turning to face the newcomers, she watched with a passionate glee as the rounds hammered the shields of geth dreadnoughts before punching through and cutting down the mightiest vessels the geth could deploy. Sovereign though, was nowhere to be seen.

"IT'S HAMMERTIME, MOTHERFUCKERS!" She kept yelling each time a geth dreadnought was violently erased from existence by courtesy of the 1400mm main guns of the Hammer of Vengeance.

"You've been waiting to use that one, haven't you?" Price asked in her ear, sounding like he was talking to a child. In some aspects, that was what Anna was, but in all others, she was in her element here, 'raping' as she called it, enemy fleets with superior firepower. Just a shame Uncle missed out on this, but it was what it was.

"I sure as hell have. Why do you think I picked the name?" Anna just responded with a grin, that bordered on a maniacal one. From his place in the system, Price shook his head and went back to trying to crack the Citadel open like a nut.

"Admiral, we have an incoming message from the CDF Hyperion." One of the ensigns called, just as another geth frigate was gutted by a round from one of the front-mounted 600mm's. That wasn't to say that the incoming fleets weren't taking heavy losses either, but Mithril-shielding provided a much improved defense against the slugs and lasers fired by respectively geth ships and drones.

"Put it through, I think I know who it is." She said, watching as the geth moved to get into knife-fight with her ships. Big mistake, but she wanted the synthetic fuckers to learn that on their own. She wanted to keep looking at the first geth cruiser that got through the hellish barrage laid down by the Hishuko broadside turrets, but had to tear her eyes away to look at the projector. Thus, she missed the sight of a thick azure beam of plasma shooting out from the installations dotting the Hammer's hull, carving through the geth vessel as if it wasn't even there. There was no explosion, just the insectoid vessel falling apart, with fires burning where it had been cut.

"Admi…al, is… you?" The scratching voice and fleeting visage of Councilor Sparatus asked. Anna didn't even have to say it for her crew to start clearing up the signal, allowing the Councilor, visibly relieved, to be projected perfectly; "Admiral Fisher, can you hear me?"

"Oh, I can hear you alright. A bit hard over the sound of me kicking ass, but I hear you." She smirked, taking off her helmet.

"Thank the Spirits! We're getting hammered, I've lost eighty percent of my fleets and the Ascension was just narrowly saved by the intervention of Admiral Petrovsky. You came just in time." The Turian said. Anne felt like it was the most cliché line in a western, with the cavalry arriving just in time. Still, praise was always nice.

"How's Petrovsky fairing? What's the situation on the station, how many ships remain of the CDF?"

"Admiral Petrovsky is alive, last I heard anyway. He managed to save the Ascension, though it is heavily damaged and we have had no communications from it since the request for aid. The Citadel… Sovereign got through our lines, we simply couldn't stop it, and to make matters worse, it's now protected behind the Citadel arms. We can't get to it, and even if we could, we couldn't put a dent in it when the entire fleet fired at it… as for our numbers, I count less than twenty still fit for battle." The past part was said with obvious regret and shame, even while his dreadnought bombarded a wayward geth cruiser. Sparatus had started out with at least a hundred ships, from what Anna knew, so she understood his shame. Still, the amount of geth wreckage strewn about with generous hand was also a testament to him having made good use of his ships.

"I guess that's the best we could ask for then…" She muttered, activating her earpiece; "Price, how are we on the arms?"

"It's a bugger… I can't hack the system, but… another possibility just presented itself." The AI said through the private channel.

"I'm all ears."

"There's a team of soldiers; two C-Sec officers and a pair of 6th raiders, one an N7, headed for the auxiliary controls. I can't hack the shit, but I can help them along. Permission to go to their channels?"

"Granted" Anna said without hesitation, then turned back to Sparatus; "A team of soldiers is working on getting the arms back open. In the meantime, pull your damaged ships back and observe how the Alliance kicks superior ass." She allowed herself a grin at the last line.

"Understood. Good luck Admiral, and don't hesitate to ask for whatever help we can provide." Sparatus nodded. Anna thought for a moment, while enjoying the sight a geth drone-swarm thinking it could outmaneuver her ship. They were all proven wrong when the GARDIAN-systems opened up and cut them down with gusto.

"Missiles would be nice. Try to avoid hitting my guys though." Anna said, then ended the transmission.

She walked forward to the frontmost part of the bridge and watched the direct feed from outside the ship. The Hammer of Vengeance was pummeling through what lines of defense the geth managed to assemble, pouring fire to the left and right from both the Hishuko broadside guns, the 120mm turrets and the repeating ion-weapons. From an exterior point of view, she had no doubt her warship too on the appearance of a godlike creature, spewing death to the left and right. Thanks to the shields and barriers on her ship, she didn't even wince as a geth dreadnought opened fire on the Hammer of Vengeance from the side. What would have been a crippling blow to an Everest-class dreadnought only caused her shields to blare in alert, drained to 95%. A collection of death-dealing weapons, compromised of plasma, shells and railgun-accelerated slugs returned the gesture to sender. The slugs hit the barriers, doing little more than activating the shields on the insectoid vessel. The nuclear-tipped shells ignored the shields though, and bathed the vessel in fire and radiation that would have wiped out the crew on an organic dreadnought. Here though, it simply caused localized EMP's where the shells punched through. The finale came from the ion-pulses, carving the vessel apart. Though, since it was a dreadnought, the beams had to work at it to cut through to the engines before a nuclear explosion ensued.

Ah yes, this was definitely worthy of the title ''Hammer-time" in her eyes. Battle against regular foes was no long a thing to be worried about, even if that thought bordered on arrogance. She was unstoppable, immortal even. The geth dreadnoughts couldn't touch her, and she was riding around with two fleets equipped with the same type of shielding, albeit nowhere near as powerful.

Geth destroyers and cruisers, drones and dreadnoughts focused their fire on the Goliath-class dreadnought, causing her shields to slowly, but steadily drain. However, when the geth focused on her, they ignored the one-hundred and seventy other ships following her. Anna, and the more experienced of the crew, almost leaned back in their seats and enjoyed the show of firepower, brilliant explosions and destruction of enemy ships. Now thís, was what she was dreaming of doing over Khar'shan one day, before freeing all the slaves and bombarding the planet itself to a crisp. Still, she focused her attention to the battle still raging around her.

Ahead was the burning, nearly non-functional vessel named 'Destiny Ascension'. The Asari Dreadnought was a formidable vessel in its own right, true, but the fact was that it had called for human aid, something Anna found both annoyance and entertainment in.

"Open a channel to the Alliance vessels near the Ascension." She turned to the technicians. For the moment, she was okay with Price being occupied with something else. She did have a rather competent and interesting crew after all, and this was their trial of fire as a united group. Seeing as she had more than a thousand crewmen on this vessel, Anna held no illusions that she would get to know even half of them, but she wanted to at least establish herself with the additions to her usual bridge-crew. She waited for a moment as connection was established; "Oleg, you dead yet?"

She was answered with a rough chuckle, proving that the Russian was very much not dead yet. Still, the chuckle sounded strained, like the man was in pain.

"I'm sorry to inform you that I am, Fisher." He said, though the image was so scratchy she couldn't make much out of it.

"Damn, no grave-ale then." She said, then straightened up; "What's your situation?"

"I'm down to five ships, my own included. We were hit hard, and… the geth didn't really show much mercy. They picked us apart one after the other, even when we took out five of theirs. Just… heedless rushing in. Apart from the ships still docked here and on Arcturus, the 6th Raiders are all but pummeled into the grave." Oleg spoke with a voice that, not unlike Sparatus's, was filled with pained regret.

"Just take it easy from here, I'm going to finish this battle and kick some more ass. Concerning the Ascension, I wouldn't be so extremely lucky that a stray slug hit the councilors, could I?" Anna said, not at all trying to hide the fact that, with Sparatus being alive, she had no tears to shed if the rest of the Council was dead and gone.

"The Councilors are alive, so no. The most I can imagine is Tevos tripping over her dress when the Ascension took fire." Oleg said.

"Fine…" Anna sighed aloud, throwing her hands up; "I couldn't get just a little luck, could I?" She blatantly ignored the fact that she was riding around in the most powerful warship built by organic hands in the current cycle, counting that herself as personal achievement. Oleg shook his head and ended the transmission. Anna turned her attention back to a battle that was almost at an end.

While she had been speaking, the guns of the Hammer of Vengeance had been busy slaughtering anything even remotely insectoid in appearance that came within range. Which, given where they were, was everything actually. What remained was just to clean up the geth and hope that whomever Price was helping, would get the job done before Sovereign managed whatever it was trying to do.

As if on cue, Price returned to her earpiece in that moment, slightly startling her when he spoke;

"Alright, there's a good and a bad news. Which one first?"

"I'm guessing the good news is that the arms are starting to open" She said, and the arms were. Even if it was only slowly happening, the arms were sliding open, revealing what Anna assumed was the bad news.

"Yes. The bad news is that Nazara has planted its fat ass on the Citadel Tower, and if I remain in the systems too long, it will rip me apart. My firewalls are worn down, and I'm as physically tired as a synthetic can be." The AI sighed. Anna nodded with a grim expression set on her face. Sliding the helmet back on, she opened fleet-comms;

"All ships, this is it. Deploy whatever ground teams you can and take back the Citadel from those freaks." She barked out, then turned to the comms-officers; "And get me a channel to Sovereign. I don't care how, just do it."

A few minutes went by, where she watched as scores of shuttles and gunships descended from the fleet, headed for the opening arms of the Citadel. Each had a predestined destination it was to reach and deploy troops at. The gunships were deployed to the areas most heavily contested, as they would be able to provide heavy covering fire while the troops took back the wards. One shuttle was an exception though, as it had been sent straight to the area of the Presidium where the Citadel Tower located. On the outside, the shuttle was nothing special, not even armed.

It would be what it ferried, that would make the difference.

"Ma'am, I… think we have a connection. It's… really alien though, and our firewalls are going into-"

"Can I talk to the fucker?" Anna cut the Quarian off.

"Yes, I think so…" That was all she needed to know. Marching back to the projector, she opened it for a face-to-face connection. And boy, was this getting old fast.

The shape of a red, transparent squid-like creature or being stood in front of her, fastened to the tip of the Citadel Tower.

"Organic. You dare defy my will, the ascension of this cycle. You are a parasite destined to-"

"Yeah, yeah. Your friends said the same thing before I gut-raped them. You, Sovereign, are nothing more than an arrogant machine thinking it is a god. Now, I know all about your real identity, and I know the mistake you made as well."

"Arrogance born of ignorance. You are inferior to my will human, a simple mortal trying to test the gods."

"Is that so? What would happen if I were to fuck over your physical form? Yeah that's right: You'd die permanently, wouldn't you? I'll give you to the count of zero to surrender before I sexually molest you with a fission-bomb jammed so far up your ass that you'll spit out radiation."

"Incomplete being, you make treats born from belief in technological superiority, thinking yourself my equal. I am Nazara, aspect of Darkness, death and deceit! I am Sovereign, vanguard of the Harbinger's forces! You will all serve as slaves to our will or drown in blood! I am Nazara, and this station is mine!"

"Zero. Your time is up, Squid face. Now, it's Hammer-time!" At the last word she ended the transmission. Price was starting to complain about her juvenile choice of words when she started shouting orders;

"All ships, follow my lead! I am Anna Cologne Fisher, and this dreadnought is mine! We're going to hunt us a demon, and I demand first blood! Fire!" While she had been shouting and speaking, the Hammer of Vengeance had started moving trough the arms of the Citadel. At her command, the guns bellowed, and the cargo of drones in her ship was released. Fifty Quarian Hammerhead drones swarmed from ports in her ship and sped towards the gigantic monster holding the Citadel by the throat.

Surprisingly, as the slugs from her main gun reached their target, they didn't shred it. Neither did the accompanying volley of slugs from the 600mm guns. Sovereign, or Nazara, simply sat on the tower like a fat hen on its poster. Wisely though, she kept her distance from the massive creature, as she was no longer certain she could call it a ship. The rest of the fleet followed her lead in every action and held their ground and distance to the metallic squid.

"Keep shooting! Remember that whomever gets the kills gets free booze for the rest of their lives!" Anna barked into the fleet-comms, watching as hundreds of slugs and missiles sped towards the Reaper. Yes, not a being but not a ship either, Reaper was the best classification for it. Suddenly, the communications opened up again, revealing the visage of the Reaper.

"Organic, mortal, filthy sack of flesh and skin! You persist in your attempt to remove me from power, to render this form in ruin. Know this as you die in vain. I will open the Relay and let through the slaves of the one true master, Harbinger. You will not survive, and I will gloat over your frozen corpses as they become fluid for the cause. When your entire species is assimilated into a new form, a Reaper form, you will be but yet another willing slave of the Harbinger!" It was obvious that the squid was pissed, as Anna saw it. That must mean she was doing it right, seeing how Sovereign had been all stoic and shit when she contacted it.

"You done yet?" Anna asked, feigning a yawn.

"Insolent bacteria! I will exact the torture of the millennia on your frail form, and you will bear witness to our glory!" Yep, she had definitely pissed it off.

"Yeah well… I figure I'm going tobe the one left standing after this. Sure, maybe with a few less ships, and maybe even a scar, but you forget one thing in all your divine oh-so-wise-and-immortal thingy."

"You attempt to utilize primitive humor against the dread crawling through your soul. I enjoy watching your kind on your knees, begging for death. What would I be forgetting?" The fact that Nazara had completely dropped the omnipotent tone and was speaking like an individual, a maniacal individual yes, but still an individual, served to further establish that she had pissed it off.

"A small simple fact…" She said as she pulled up the display that allowed her to personally cycle through the ammunition used in the missiles and rockets. She picked the one she had had, illegally so, installed in as many missiles and torpedoes as she could manage before the call came.

"You attempt to drag the time. No matter, your actions are without consequences, I am immortal."

"That is debatable. Especially because…" She spoke in a slow tone, watching as the display showed the warheads being loaded, then signaled ready to fire; "Because… I am Anna Fisher, Admiral of the Systems Alliance. And… I'M GOING TO RAPE YOU!"

As she shouted the last part, the signal was given. From the belly of the ship, torpedoes were launched. From the top and sides, missiles. All had one thing in common. In their tips, where there would normally be placed explosives, now resided small hydrogen- and nuclear warheads, sufficient to gut an Everest-class dreadnought regardless of shields, barriers or armor. The radiation alone could short out EMP-protected equipment by utterly destroying it to the core; "Catch!"

"How amusing. Missiles. A primitive weaponry dating back from human pre-space eras. I do not think-" Nazara was cut off when the missiles hit its lower body, utterly destroying the thick appendix it they had impacted and exploded on. A howl of wrath seared through the bridge, forcing Anna to her knees as her helmet amplified the sound. Wresting it off, she hurled it away and held her ears with gauntleted hands.

"You dare! You dare harm this form!? I will eat your very SOULS!"

"End transmission, end transmission Goddammit!" Anna yelled, still on her knees. What technicians capable of withstanding the neural and earsplitting pain, pulled all plugs to communications, causing the wrathful visage of the Reaper to vanish from the projection. Anna remained kneeling for several long moments before managing to get to her feet, if weakly.

"Okay… memo to anyone stupid enough to contemplate contacting a pissed off Reaper: Don't." She groaned. Luckily the attack, if it had even been that, had been centered around the bridge, so while sensors and scanners had been momentarily incapacitated, the weapons hadn't. As the more sensitive equipment came back online, one of the Quarian ensigns turned around;

"Admiral, Nazara has left the tower! It's heading straight for us!" Anna felt the fist beads of sweat roll down her forehead. She opened the system-wide comms, not caring if Sovereign or Nazara was listening in;

"All ships, open fire on the Reaper! I don't care if you blow up your own engines, I want that thing DEAD!"

From outside the arms of the station, the remnants of the CDF and the few ships left in Petrovsky's fleet sailed through the arms and joined in the fire bath that was being poured at the Reaper fast approaching them, with tentacles outstretched and a red crackle lighting up the inner midst of the giant. Each arm was longer than a regular dreadnought, and Anna had no doubt a single hit from the main gun of that thing could shred the Hammer from bow to stern before she could give the evac-order.

Fine.

So, this was how it was going to be.

"Charge all weapons! Everything we have, I want fired at the red spot of that thing. It's a fucking gamer weak-point, so start shooting at it! Shoot! Shoot! Kill!" It was a surreal sight, seeing the red beam, easily the thickness of a frigate, pour forth from the mouth of the Reaper and lick across the hull of the closest dreadnought, the Fuji. The pride of the 15th fleet was gutted like a fish, carved into pieces that summarily blew up in a brilliant show of nuclear destruction.

…

Citadel, Serpent Nebula.

The Presidium.

17:22 (Citadel Presidium time)

"I'm not sure me going with you is a brilliant idea…" Roku said as the others disembarked the shuttle, armed to the teeth. Thomas snapped around and looked at the aspect in confusion.

"What?" In response, Roku tapped his geth-head.

"I have the body of a geth, and currently, geth are valid targets for anyone with a gun. I'll find you later, when there's less of a chance of getting my form shot to pieces." Roku shrugged.

"So what, you're leaving us?" Hillary exclaimed with clear indignation in her voice. She was carrying a Revenant-model light machine gun, which had caused Thomas to take an extra look as he hadn't exactly figured her a heavy-weapons user.

"No, I'll be staying close. I simply prefer not having to explain my way out of a firefight whenever you encounter friendly forces." The aspect said, and with that he shut the door to the shuttle and took off. Thomas was left in annoyed surprise, even if he could see the reasoning behind Roku's decision. It still seemed wrong that he left them now, of all times.

"That mother… fine, fine." He cursed to himself. Seeing how the group was moving ahead, he shook his head and followed, keeping his Lancer close to his chest and primed to fire off either disrupter- or hammerhead-rounds, depending on whether they met geth or husks.

As it turned out, they encountered minimal resistance on their way to the Presidium Tower. The most enemies they met was when they rounded a corner and came upon a group of Husks and mutated Batarians. It was becoming rather easy to deal with the Husks now, thought the firearm-wielding enemies still bit hard. Their howls as they fired at the team, were quickly replaced with dying screams, or the ghastly scene when they completely disregarded the Normandy team and started eating their own allies, forming some sort of extra puddles of flesh on their bodies. Despite everything he had seen up until that point, Thomas nearly threw up at the sight. When the last mutant was trying to eat its way out of the fight, Wrex stomped over to it, pulled his Claymore from his back and blasted most of the creature away with a blow to the head.

"Pathetic. Even the regular Batarians are tougher than these little shits." The Krogan remarked, retaking point with his heavier weapon. Better to keep him in the front, as John had put it, seeing how the Battlemaster was carrying a room-sweeper. Wrex had just chuckled when the Quarian said that, and gently patted his gun.

"They are still fucking creepy." Hillary said, pulling her lips in disgust. Black, dirty blood was flowing from each decaying form of an enemy, as if they had been dead for a while already.

"Just be thankful they aren't geth." Thomas commented, walking next to her. Hillary glanced at him as they walked, scanning for hostiles. The most common sight they came across was a couple of dead C-Sec or civilians, surrounded by an assortment of dead and alive reaper-creatures. They had yet to encounter their mechanical enemies; something Thomas was perfectly content with keeping up.

"Geth aren't this creepy. They are just machines. You can break a machine." Tequila said from her place in front of them, her regular Pulse Rifle in her hands. She had strongly denied when the requisitions-officer had offered her to buy a new and 'modern' weapon.

"Still better than the bugs, right?" Thomas asked. He was mostly keeping his eyes on Ashley. She had insisted on coming, felt like it was her duty and that a simple thing such as a new leg, shouldn't keep her from finishing the fight. Thomas just made sure to keep close to her, to make sure she wasn't strained or forced to use the new leg too much.

"Don't need to remind me of those fuckers." Both brunettes said almost in unison. Thomas had to repress a small chuckle at the scene, and was glad he was wearing a helmet. The humor died quickly though, as a blast above deafened everything else. Even as the group looked up, a wave of pressure from a small nuclear explosion staggered them all, even Wrex.

Then followed a sound that would one day haunt the dreams and waking moments of every single living creature in the galaxy, and had already done so for countless of cycles before. A loud, claxon blare, like a pagan gjallarhorn, echoed through the station.

Sovereign, Nazara, had let go of the Citadel Tower, and was shaking visibly. For a moment, Thomas allowed himself to actually think they had killed the Reaper already. Thát thought was squashed though, when it was revealed that the only damage had been a significant hole in one of the legs. And now the Reaper was flying towards the amassed fleets firing upon it with a veritable shower of ammunition.

"Come on, no use standing around here." Wrex said, causing the rest of them, even Jane who had frozen at the sight, to snap back to attention and the present situation. As they advanced across the Presidium, the group finally came upon where the Relay Monument was.

"Fuck me…" Jane muttered.

"I'd say. Might be those C-Sec guys failed, but they took down a fuck-ton of enemies." Hillary noted. The entire area around the monument was covered in a thick layer of dead bodies, often on top of each other like a mountain of corpses. Despite the scenery being anything but pleasant, Kaidan let out a low whistle;

"Damn… that is a lot of bodies."

"No shit…" Thomas muttered, looking at what remained of the defensive line. The mountains of dead reaper-troops grew higher and higher the closer they came to the barriers, and at several places they had actually tipped over and overflowed the low walls. There were several corpses belonging to C-Sec as well, but nowhere near the amount they had taken with them; "C-Sec kicked ass here."

"Doesn't look like the Executor is here." Garrus said. Thomas wondered how the Turian could know that from a short glance; "You'd know if you saw him. Pitch-black armor, can't mistake him for anyone else if you see him."

"Doesn't matter. Let's just get to the Tower, it's not far." Jane ended the conversation and tapped Wrex on the shoulder, signaling their personal walking tank to continue leading. Along the way, the group came across a lot of abandoned and destroyed checkpoints and barricades, most of which had a field of dead mutants, but few geth, before them. This just further cemented the fact that geth were on a whole other level than C-Sec, or the mutated reaper-troops.

"Anyone else worried that we haven't seen a single living friendly so far?" Thomas asked, looking around. There was a dead officer slumped against a tree, something like a flamethrower having burned most of his head away.

"I'm more worried about the lack of bad guys. Feels like walking into an ambush." Ashley muttered, and she knew more about that than anyone in the group, bar Thomas and Hillary. They all three remembered how the ambush on Eden Prime had devastated their squad and left only themselves alive.

"Well, that's what we have Fisher and Aquila for." Jane stated. Thomas wondered for a moment what she meant, until he remembered that she had been watching them train with Roku. She wanted him and Tequila to be something akin to a super-natural defense, although Wrex was the far better choice, being a Krogan.

"Doesn't make me feel much better knowing I'm putting my life in the hands of cartoon-powers. Still, let's do this. I owe Saren more than one bullet between the eyes." Hillary said, moving with a little more purpose than she had previously. When they reached the entrance to the Tower Lift, Garrus let out a small 'oh'.

The area was surrounded by broken and overrun barricades, with dead C-Sec and, surprisingly enough, Blue Suns mercs, crouched behind the barricades or strewn about on the walkways. They seemed to have died fighting together, controversial as that was. Thomas mused quietly at the irony that, with the demise of the galaxy, mercs and police worked together. Order, at its finest, he thought. At the Lift, Garrus had taken a knee at a dead Turian.

Said dead Turian was wearing a remarkable suit of black military-issue armor, and had a Phaeston assault rifle clutched in his dead hands. His head was there, but… it wasn't anyway. The skull, what was the outer skull was there, but someone, or something had burned everything out from the inside out. Dried goo had been running from the empty eye sockets, charred black in the edges where fire had obviously been burning through his skull.

"That's one way to go, I suppose…" Wrex muttered, even he seemingly disturbed by the state of the body.

"Holy fuck…" Thomas exclaimed. He briefly glanced at his own hands. Could he be able to do something like that? Could he ever do something like that to a living person? He desperately wanted to say 'no' and let it be at that, but the scene from Teltin came back to him in that instant. How he had drilled his burning fingers into the face of a screaming woman, scarred her for life. He had used his fire to do it, and Saren… Saren had done this, hadn't he? This was what happened when you had power and you snapped.

"It's him… Executor Pallin. S'kak, what the hell?" Garrus growled. Thomas had never met the executor, but it was still clear that Garrus had respected the man. Ashley put her hand on Garrus's shoulder and helped him back up.

"Come on, let's get up there." Jane said, summoning the lift. As if the universe wanted to make up to them, the lift actually arrived not many moments later, opening with an innocent swoosh.

There was only one way now.

Up.

And thus ends part 1 of the Battle of the Citadel.

This is where you start screaming at my awesome talent and... what? What do you mean by 'not awesome, Roku'? So what if I had you leave the actual combat and action, you're still in the story... fine!

So, this is where you at least smile at the story since it appatently isn't awesome if Roku doesn't get a proper part... I swear, Juvenile bastard...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Next part will be out soon enough :)