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Shepard finally made it to the War Room. Anderson looked up from the maps spread across the table and smiled at her, wearily.
"We've been waiting for you."
"Sorry. I got stopped. A lot."
He nodded. "I understand. Some things are worth taking time for. But time is a luxury we no longer have. The Reapers have begun the battle in full force up there—Hackett is holding on as best he can."
"What do we hear from the Crucible?"
"They just keep saying to give them ten more minutes."
"It's a complicated system, developed over millennia, and no one has ever been able to get it to work."
"If it does, it'll be a miracle."
Shepard thought of Leviathan. Hardly what she would have imagined a miracle would look like, but if it helped, if it truly helped, that could be considered miraculous. "How are we looking on the ground?" she asked.
"Not great. Hammer's being … well, hammered. Barely fifty percent has reported in."
"Can we count on any more making it through?"
Anderson sighed and shook his head. "Stragglers, maybe. But the bulk of the force is here now."
That many lost, already. Even if they saved the galaxy, would there be enough of them left to consider be worth the cost?
Shepard shook herself firmly. There was no value in thinking that way. She was a soldier, and she thought in terms of troops. Everyone she loved was here today. For her, maybe there wouldn't be enough left to be able to feel good about a victory. But there were still billions of souls in the galaxy who weren't here on Earth, who could go on and live fulfilling, joyous lives if they won today—and whose lives would be snuffed out entirely, painfully, if they didn't. "All right," she said. "Time to throw everything we've got at them. Not just in the sky, but down here. Let's send in the krogan, and the turians, and the Alliance, and the elcor, and whoever else we have. One last final stand—all of us, together."
Anderson nodded. "Yes. It's time. We're as ready as we're likely to get."
"Let's not let the Reapers gather more strength. When the Crucible gets here, lets make sure they're weakened and vulnerable."
"Exactly my thoughts." He hit his comm link. "Battalion leaders, report to HQ, on the double."
When he had as many leaders assembled as he could get, Anderson went over the plan, assigning quadrants, laying out the known locations of Reaper forces, preparing them for what was almost certainly a suicide mission, for them and for most of their people.
"We've fought hard to get here," he said at last. "But now the toughest part of our mission begins. We've got to hold the Reaper troops down, take out as many of them as possible, keep them distracted on the ground so that Hackett can focus on clearing the way for the Crucible. Expect heavy ground resistance. They know we're coming; this will be a one-way trip for many of us. But there can be no retreat, no stepping back. We fight here on the ground with the hearts of our comrades in the sky fortifying us, and our hearts fortifying them. All of us, with one common enemy and one common goal: to drive the Reapers out of existence once and for all. For your families, for your friends, for your futures and the future of everyone in the galaxy. We move forward at all costs."
The battalion leaders cheered his words.
He went on with more specifics, then dismissed his battalion leaders, to wait for his signal and then attack with all force.
Shepard saluted with the rest. At all costs. She understood. All too well.
Anderson approached her. "Shepard, I'm sending you right up the gut where the resistance is heaviest. Support the tanks the best you can—but stay alive. I need you to coordinate with the Crucible. Leviathan listens to you. We don't know if he will listen to anyone else."
"Understood, sir."
"I'll give you a minute with your team. And, Shepard?"
"Yes, sir?"
"It's been an honor. I'm very proud of you."
"Thank you, Anderson." She had more she wanted to say, to this generous man who had given her a chance when no one else would, who had given up his command to her, who had stayed on Earth and sent her to unite the galaxy in the best ship ever built while he hunkered in mud and fled the forces trying to kill him. But there were too many words and not enough time, so she settled for, "Thank you for everything."
He nodded, and Shepard could feel that he, too, had more words to say than he had time for.
"Drinks are on me when this is over," she told him.
Anderson smiled. "I'll hold you to that."
In a relatively quiet corner of the room, Shepard activated her comm link, the one that connected all those on the Normandy together. "It's time," she said softly. "Time to end this. The war up till now has brought us pain, and suffering, and—and loss." Oh, how she missed Thane today, how she wished he were here. "But it has also brought us together. As soldiers, as allies … as friends. As family. The bond that ties us together, forged across the galaxy, is something the Reapers could never understand. It's more powerful than any weapon, stronger than any ship. It can't be taken from us or destroyed." She took a deep breath. "The next few hours will decide the fate of everyone in the galaxy. Every parent. Every child—including those still unborn. They are trusting you, depending on you, to win them their future. A future free from the threat of the Reapers. But take heart. Look around you. We're not in this fight alone. We face our enemy together, and together is how we will defeat them." Tears stung the back of her eyes at the idea that she might never see her ship again, that she might well never see her companions again, and she fought them back. There was no time for that. "I could not have asked for better friends. Thank you. One way or another, we will see each other again."
Clicking off her comm, she hoped that was true. Across the sea, where the traveler never tired, the lover never left, the hungry never starved. That was where she would see them, if nowhere else.