ALPHA CITADEL

THE VOID

SYSTEM INAPPLICABLE

LATE OCTOBER 2188

JACK COUNTED DOWN IN HER HEAD from fifty and she reached twenty-one when the first of the Inquisitoria rushed through…

…straight into the sudden and powerful Singularity Jack dropped in their way. Behind her, Shepard punched his omnitool through the computer interface, turned to the wall and waited. An alarm hooted.

Suspended, the Inquisitoria flailed – four of them caught. Behind them, the Captain and Twelfth Knight snapped off two shots, one of which Jack nimbly dodged, and returned fire with a Warp into that Singularity that detonated with a blast large enough to knock her back. The four suspended Knights had been crushed in their armor, the other two down and unmoving. Jack instantly disengaged and ran for Shepard.

He was looking at the rather large score mark of a shot mere centimetres from where his head had been only a moment before.

"She doesn't like you," Jack informed him as the wall before them sliced open and a Keeper appeared.

Shepard glanced back at the crumpled figures behind them.

"I'll try and get over it." He pointed to the Keeper access tunnel. "After you."

She smiled.

"Nice thinkin' – they do go everywhere."

"Exactly."

Both disappeared into the tunnel as the door sliced down behind them.

So much for the 'rarely defeated' Inquisitoria.

THE CORRIDOR was silent, save for the clacking feet of the Keeper working diligently on the computer Shepard had destroyed. One of the seals on the armor of a dead Knight popped and hissed.

The Captain pushed herself to a sitting position then shook her head. After a moment, she climbed painfully to her feet. Quick checks of her armor's diagnostics showed her to be functional, if severely damaged. All of her Knights were dead, crushed in their shells. Twelfth Knight had been mangled by the biotic detonation. She had her onboard AI replay the combat analysis it always ran.

There were no Inquisitor biotics. The Lord Remnant specifically forbade 'witchfire' as it had been the power of the blue witches that had at the least slowed his armies and at the worst even succeeded in turning the Legions back once or twice during the war against them. The Inquisitoria had defences against the powers, but had not faced any biotics of note for quite some time and thus it had not occurred to her to prepare for them.

An error in judgment. Arrogance on her part. A flaw. She would need to learn to be cautious. Too many victories could be as detrimental as too many defeats. That female showed biotic power that easily equalled anything she'd seen in the secret histories.

She knew the Lord Remnant. Like the Spartans of ancient times, for a troop of Inquisitoria to return without a full complement of Knights from a mission was considered a defeat. Inquisitoria were never defeated. To die taking an enemy with one was a victory, the death irrelevant. Only victory mattered. Only the Will. The Inquisitoria were the Hands of The Beloved. If they failed, She failed. Better death than failure. The Captain and whatever of her Knights remained could never return home now. That fault was hers and hers alone and she would atone in the only way she understood.

Inquisitors were never stopped. They could be slowed. Delayed. Even diverted. But never stopped.

Whatever it took, she would fulfill her sacred duty.

She now had nothing to lose.

JAVIK SMILED TO HIMSELF when he saw his ship still safely moored. They had received the only break so far on this Citadel, as Murtock had loudly proclaimed upon seeing the vessel, and made it without any further danger. They did not linger. Once boarded, Javik ran as many quick checks as he could, fully expecting to find extensive damage from the battle but astonishingly found none. He didn't ponder it and powered the ship for flight.

"This thing is fifty thousand years old?" Grunt asked as they watched Javik prepare. The Prothean nodded. Systems were beginning to respond.

"Interesting aesthetics," Mulholland noted. She liked the design. Everything looked to be clean, to the point and useful, straight-edged and functional.

"We did not have time for frivolities during my war," Javik told her testily. "This ship was made to fight, not to be pretty."

"I'll just be happy if the damn thing actually flies." Murtock grumbled.

"It will fly, annoying human." Javik backed the ship away from the station. "It also has many convenient airlocks."

"Fine – I'll sit down," Murtock half-sneered, knowing a threat when he heard one. He was not liking these people much at all. He'd thought he and Jack had had weird friends in their time together.

Javik suddenly swore in Prothean. His main engines were out. Automatic repair subroutines were handled by nanobots and they were active. They used stores of inert materials to craft new parts, but it would take a while to fix. The nanobots saved ships from having to employ valuable engineers during his cycle as they were far better employed seeking ways to stop the Reapers. Not that it had truly mattered.

"What is it?" Mulholland asked.

"My engines were damaged. They are being repaired, but at the moment I have only maneuvering thrusters."

"And inertia," she added, gesturing at the holodisplay that stood in for a forward portal. "We are in space. That in motion stays in motion… right? Point us at the Presidium and fire them up. We'll get there. Slow, but we'll get there."

"Yes, of course," Javik replied, feeling ever-so-slightly sheepish. Basic physics. Far too used to the convenience of point-and-go. Javik pointed the Far Traveller at the Presidium spire and fired his thrusters.

Javik also discovered that his weapons systems were in no shape, self-repair routines indicated at least several hours.

That Javik kept to himself.

SHEPARD AND JACK HURRIED through the Keeper tunnels, occasionally having to double back or loop around some large obstruction to keep going forward.

"We can take these all the way to the top, can't we?" Jack asked him.

"No. The Keepers use the hooks on their feet to climb the ones inside the tower. Also discourages would-be infiltrators, like ourselves. We're gonna have to run through this place's Commons." He slowed. "We need to find an exit junction soon."

"I could fly us."

"No, I think we might just need it before we get out of here."

They exited the Keeper tunnels in an empty cistern – what would have been one of the lakes they knew on their Citadel – and could hear the sound of combat not far from them.

"The other fifty?" Jack inquired quietly.

"Very likely," Shepard agreed as quietly. "Let's try and keep our heads down."

In the distance he heard the distinctive roar of a blood-raging krogan. They made their way around the cistern hugging the wall, so far unseen by any combatant. Jack halted, pulling Shepard short.

"Listen – can you hear that?"

"What am I listening for?" He asked as she pulled him closer.

"I could'a swore I heard your voice. From over there."

Shepard cocked his head to listen. For a moment he could only hear yells and screams, the firing of rifles and explosive rounds. Then someone ordered a fall back to regroup – and it was definitely his voice.

"That is my voice." He frowned, slowly rising to look over the cistern lip.

"Other Shepards?" Jack followed him to spy over the edge. "Other Jacks…?"

"The way this has all been going, I'd be disappointed if there weren't."

Across the way a fierce battle raged. Much better armed and armored humans, turians, asari, krogan and salarians battled energy-spewing Inquisitoria. Bodies from both sides littered the one gleaming Presidium. Two metres away he saw a red-haired woman in armor crumpled near their cistern. She was in full armor, her weapon resembled an N7-issued Typhoon with minor changes and Shepard could feel his fingers itch. Jack saw it too.

"I could try pulling it over." She offered. Shepard considered, watching the ebb and flow of the battle. There was no one near them save the bodies of the dead.

"Try and grab her..." Jack bobbed up, grabbed the corpse with a biotic Pull.

Shepard finished "…with it." as the body was dropped at his feet.

Jack gave him a smug smile.

"You couldn't have shaved a few seconds off?" Shepard asked with a hint of sarcasm. Jack waved a fist at him. Shepard squatted down to look the dead soldier over.

"She's got extra T-clips," Shepard said after a brief examination. He pulled what gear he could from her. A pistol he handed to Jack, a few grenades he put in his pockets. The Typhoon got a quick check and he was satisfied it was functional. Jack squatted across from him, pointed to an amp on the woman's ear.

"Biotic too."

Shepard turned the corpse over. The face was not unattractive, the fiery hair cut short. She had a smattering of freckles across her nose. The shot that had killed her had punched clean through the armor, flesh and bone covering her torso. The shot had cauterized the wound as it went.

"Fuck. That was some gun."

"Not a kinetic weapon. A burner."

"Well, shit - somebody's got money."

Shepard gestured to the mesh on her chestplate.

"Sentinel-class. Even reinforced, she didn't stand a chance."

A shot blazed across the cistern and they decided it was time to move.

"There's a drainage channel we can use to get around that bunch," Shepard told her as he pointed the way out. "The tricky bit will be getting out without being seen."

"First things first," Jack said, glancing back at the dead woman behind them. "Who do think she was?"

Shepard shrugged.

"She was armored and rigged the way I would have been as a Sentinel." He mused.

"A girl Shepard?" Jack seemed quite taken with the idea. "Shit. Imagine that."

He went silent for a moment, then shrugged again.

"I'm trying not to, but from what I've been told lately, it's possible." He chuckled quietly. "Because of that, I know anything's possible."

He stopped her as a heavy crunch sounded only a few metres away.

"Something else you'll explain later?" Jack asked, not liking to be in the dark. Shepard nodded.

"Sorry."

"Not the place for it, I know." Jack grumbled as they reached the channel. They were just about to head into when a loud shout and the sound of many running feet made them freeze. Ahead of them, up the channel, people were jumping in to use it for cover. Fire from the surviving Inquisitoria began raking the area. Shepard took a quick glance around the corner. He counted at least twenty people of varying species, the battle raging as fiercely as ever. Shepard sighed, looked back at Jack.

"Well. Fuck."