Location: SSV Dublin—Citadel Airspace, support formation.
Dana stood hunched over the controls, her shoulders quaking as she laughed lightly. "It's them." The screen lit up with a live feed of a ship inside the Citadel. Liam didn't recognize its markings, but the rundown exterior suggested pirates. "These are the fuckers I let get away," Dana announced.
"Bring us closer. I can dock and disarm it," Liam offered, staring helplessly from the bridge as the doom timer neared five minutes. When Ellie filled him in on the situation he wanted to laugh at its absurdity, but now he could only watch as the Citadel disintegrated piece-by-piece.
"There's no time," Dana said curtly, still facing away from her officers.
"Captain, there has to be another way," Glen said softly, almost to himself. Casey fidgeted nervously beside him while Preston glared everyone down.
"Get back to your posts!" Preston yelled.
"No!" Dana yelled, rounding on her second-in-command. "I want everyone to watch. This is what happens when you don't destroy your enemy. When you don't rip their hearts out and squeeze them in your palms, it comes back to bite you in the ass."
The entire crew drew a collective breath as they watched their captain. Her honey colored irises, so determined on deck, full of life when she smiled, so beautiful...were now leaching dark veins as if black tears were trapped beneath her skin, flowing outwards towards the rest of her face.
Liam rushed for Captain's podium but Preston barred his way. "What happened?" he demanded of the older man.
"The Captain gave you an order. Watch as the Citadel is destroyed," Preston relayed, staring him down.
Liam glanced between the panoramic view of the Citadel and the woman on the verge of giving him a heart attack.
"Ma'am, are you okay?" Casey ventured, transfixed on the dark veins like everybody else.
"Don't worry about me." Dana whipped her head to the intercom. "How long until the cannon reverts to manual controls?"
"They're yours ma'am," the voice of the chief engineer echoed back. "God help us all. It's been a pleasure serving with you."
A small stand rose up from the ground next to Dana's console. It was the manual firing control system for the ELRC cannon. One shot and the heat wash alone would vaporize them with their targets.
"Dana, what are you doing?" Liam asked, ignoring the curt looks some of the officers shot him, mainly Preston who looked ready to kill at the informality. "My brother is down there. Give him time to fix this."
Dana's own brows knit together in a scowl. "He's busy with Saren. There won't be time for him to disarm it."
"Get ba—" He felt Preston's nose break under his sucker punch but didn't wait for the old man to recover. Liam swiftly drew his pistol and felt about ten others draw sights on him.
His barrel bobbed over Dana's heart as he held it firmly in his grip. "Dana...please. Let me go down there...get the ship away from here, there's no need to use the cannon."
"Destroying that stockpile gets me two birds with one stone. Sovereign will be vaporized along with the pirates."
"Along with every innocent person on and around the Citadel!" Liam yelled, drawing a shaky breath but never wavering in his stance.
"This isn't about them, Shepard," Dana said, and for a moment he thought he saw a hint of sadness, the combined total of all the loss this mission had brought. But it must have been a trick of the light because her coal black eyes weren't hers anymore. Whatever that bastard did to her was starting to corrupt her from the head down. "This isn't about you, me or anyone on this ship. It's what we signed up for. It is our duty to vanquish all threats to galactic society. That is why this thing dies here."
"We can fix this," Liam pleaded, feeling his heart constrict as she turned away from him. He was talking more than the battle condition now, he watched the veins seem to her neck. "Please...don't kill my brother."
"I'm sorry, Liam." Dana clutched the controls and started aligning the sights.
"Me too," Shepard whispered and squeezed the trigger. The Paladin's discharge stopped all arguments. Casey, Vega and Glen stared transfixed as their Captain fell forward, as if in slow motion.
Preston, still on the ground gave a wild roar when he saw her body pitch forward. Shepard felt his feet leave the ground before he registered Preston's tackle. He felt each slug to his cheek, but not the force of the punches it carried.
Eventually someone threw Preston off of him and the rest was a blur. Vega yanked him to his feet and thrust a rifle in his hands. The next thing he knew they were winding their way down the Ship's staircase with Ellie and Traynor in tow. He didn't know when the tech joined in, but her apprehensive expression told him not to ask. Not that he could speak. His mouth felt like cotton balls were stuffed into his gullet, it hurt to breathe. But every time he blinked, he could see her body falling.
Ellie jumped behind the drop-ship controls with Vega in the cockpit beside her. Liam felt Sam close the hatch as they launched into the battlefield.
Ellie flipped a switch and flooded the small shuttle with Alliance comm chatter.
"This is Commander Shepard, Saren is down. I repeat, Saren is down the threat is eliminated. Sovereign is still in play, I'm opening the Citadel's arms for a clear shot," John relayed.
"Shepard we copy," Hackett replied. "All Alliance ships hold formation. Wait for a shot at Sovereign, nothing else matters. I repeat, nothing else matters.
"This is the destiny ascension requesting—"
"Fuck them," Vega said, flipping the channel closed before turning back to Liam. "Looks like your brother is in the clear and the Citadel is still standing."
"We need to get that ship under control," Liam said somberly as flashbacks made his fingers twitch.
"What we need to do is get the hell out of the fleet's way. It's too late for an insertion," Vega said, everyone looked to their right as the entirety of the Alliance's Arcturus fleet jumped in.
"We have to...we have to go in...I," Liam trailed off, frozen with painful overflow of memories. Her smiling face was the last thing he remembered before a thousand volts zapped him into blackness.