Downfall

One: Thanatos

Amada System, Omega Nebula – Undisclosed Vessel

Softly, the young Asari maiden slipped from her lover's bed, moving on bare feet across the cold steel floor of the starship's cabin. The sudden feeling of frigid metal on her warmed feet sent shocks through her body. For a brief moment, as she passed the lone window out of the cabin, Doctor Liara T'Soni was clad only in starlight, as she searched on the floor for the remnants of her clothes from the previous day. Finding them, she quickly donned her lab coat and shipboard uniform, and then paused for a moment to admire the view of the stars around them. Even after months spent on board, she was still struck by the silence with which the SSV Normandy slid through the fabric of space.

In the bed behind her, Shepard stirred slowly from sleep, his tall and muscular frame taking up fully half of the barely-sufficient mattress that the Systems Alliance had outfitted the vessel with. In the past week, Liara had transplanted herself from the confines of the auxiliary laboratory where she had roomed when first aboard the Normandy into Shepard's cabin. Though much larger than the sleeper pods that most of the crew got, it still wasn't designed for two people – especially when one added their weapons, armour, gear, and clothing.

"Good morning," she smiled as she saw Shepard's reflection begin to emerge from beneath the bed's covers. He was clad only in a thin set of pants, yet his powerfully-built chest was bare and exposed to the cool air around them. When she turned to face him, she found that he was still slightly dazed and confused – the product of a particularly intense melding between them the previous night. Planting both feet on the floor, Shepard attempted to sit fully upright, but was caught off-balance and quickly fell back into the mattress. "Easy there," she laughed as she watched him struggle, "last night you were more than capable of moving yourself with skill and ease."

Shepard chuckled to himself as he slowly lifted himself from the bed. "Yeah, well…" he eyed her knowingly, "your enthusiasm makes the amount of effort required…considerable."

She smiled back at him as he drew his tall frame to its full height, her head barely reaching his collarbone as he drew her close and kissed her. She sank into his chest and wrapped her arms around him, allowing the memories of the previous night to linger a little longer before the inevitable call of duty arrived at their door.

"When you're in a state that won't send the crew into fits of laughter," she kissed him again, "I'll be in the mess hall." He blushed furiously as she glided out of the door of his cabin. The last look she caught was his eyes burning into her soul.

Liara smiled and shivered as the door to Shepard's cabin sealed behind her and she strode into the open space of the Normandy's Crew Deck. She had never known life to be as exciting or fulfilling as it was now. It had been less than a month since Saren Arterius's assault on the Citadel had been repelled – since Shepard had stopped Sovereign's plot to bring the Reapers back from Dark Space. The Citadel had been badly damaged –Shepard himself had spent four days recovering from his wounds – and the Council's fleets had been battered. Even now, cleanup operations against the remnants of the Geth persisted, with the Normandy among the leading ships in the Human contingent.

So much had changed since the Battle of the Citadel, both on and off the Normandy. Grateful for their role in saving both the Destiny Ascension and the destruction of Sovereign, the Council had granted Humanity a permanent seat alongside the Asari, Salarians, and Turians. Even now, the upper political echelons of the Systems Alliance continued to fight one another for the position of Human Councillor. Though offered the opportunity to recommend someone, Shepard had declined; had David Anderson been a willing candidate, he almost certainly would have received Shepard's backing. As it stood, it was increasingly looking like a tossup between Ambassador Donnell Udina and Grand Admiral William Coryn. Coryn was regarded as the safe pick – he had the backing of the Alliance brass and the mainstream political parties, while Udina had quietly rallied the support of the Terra Firma movement and many of the colonies that straddled the Traverse. For the sake of Humanity's relationship with the rest of the Council, Liara hoped that Coryn won – Udina still made her skin crawl every time she was in proximity to him.

Things had changed on the Normandy as well, most notably the departure of several prominent members of Shepard's team. Tali had been the first to depart, returning to the Migrant Fleet with stacks upon stacks of data concerning the Geth and their evolution since the departure of the Quarians from the Perseus Veil. She had been optimistic that it would be sufficient to complete her Pilgrimage – the rite of passage that all Quarians went through to prove their worth to the Migrant Fleet. She had high hopes that she would live up to the legacy her Admiral father had placed before her.

Garrus Vakarian had been the next to go, leaving a week ago for the rigours of the Citadel's Shock Assault Training Program. He had accepted an offer of additional training from the Council, with the aim of eventually being inducted into the Citadel's Spectres. He kept in regular contact with Shepard, who had been visibly sorry to see the alternately stoic and sarcastic Turian leave the Normandy. The former C-SEC investigator still sought to help them, using his few surviving contacts on the Citadel to provide Shepard with Intel as they continued their hunt for the remainder of the Geth fleet.

Three days ago, Urdnot Wrex had taken his leave of the crew of the Normandy, accompanied by a surprising number of heartfelt farewells from the Human crew of the Frigate. His vengeance against Saren complete, he intended to spend a few last days on the Citadel before returning to Tuchanka. He planned to work to unite the fractured and warring Krogan Clans, using either diplomacy or violence to bring them in line. In the long term, he hoped to amass sufficient political and financial resources to begin exploring serious options for ending the Genophage.

The ship felt quieter with those three gone – somehow emptied of the life and intensity and adrenaline that had filled it for the last three months. Only Liara, Kaidan Alenko, and Shepard himself remained of the original ground team. The Normandy's crew remained unchanged, but Pressly and Adams had been joined by a number of newer recruits. Rumour was the Alliance planned to construct several more frigates on the Normandy model, and they were training engineers and navigators aboard their vessel to eventually crew these frigates. They seemed eager, yet also intimidated and awe-struck by the presence of Shepard, Kaidan, and Liara – between Akuze, the multiple tours in the Terminus Systems, his Spectre Status, and his heroics on the Citadel against Saren and Sovereign, Shepard had begun to develop into something of a cult figure among the younger Alliance soldiers and ensigns. They could barely contain their excitement at serving aboard the Normandy – or the mix of awe and fear they held Shepard in.

The crew deck was a buzzing hub of activity as Liara exited Shepard's cabin. All around her, soldiers, engineers, and other crew members scurried about the cabin. The Normandy had never been a spacious ship – theoretically roomy, the sheer volume of supplies, munitions, weapons, and salvage that had littered the vessel by the time they tracked down Saren had turned every corridor and room into a cramped maze. That situation had only worsened since they had begun to hunt the remaining Geth: more crew had meant more bodies packed into tight spaces, with additional surveying, surveillance, and fighting equipment packed into every available space on the deck. The crew of the Normandy had just finished their first meal of the day, and the mad rush of bodies on the deck was quickly dissipating as they moved to their stations on the CIC or Cargo decks.

She waited for the crew to clear out before making her way to the Mess Hall, grabbing a plate of Human breakfast as she did so. She had grown fascinated with human foods in her months aboard the Normandy, developing a particular taste for eggs and a strange grain that humans pronounced kinoa. She ate gladly, shaking off sleep as the hot food and fruit juice quenched her thirst and sated her growling stomach. She ate slowly, waiting as the last of the crew shifted out of the Mess Hall.

"Morning Kaidan," she noted crisply as First Lieutenant Alenko came into view from the right side of the Mess Hall. The young Human biotic had remained after Wrex, Tali, and Garrus's departures, the last member of the original ground team to still serve alongside Shepard. Because he was assigned to the Normandy, he would remain on the ship until the Alliance – or Shepard – moved him elsewhere. Given the enormous political clout Shepard now held in the Alliance military, a move seemed unlikely.

"Doctor," Kaidan noted as he sat down across from her at the Mess Hall table. He still addressed her formally, even though they had known each other for close to three months. "You're looking well rested this morning." A thin smile played across his face as he looked at her knowingly, "I take it Shepard is…"

Liara glared at him for a moment, then lightened her tone as she responded. "Still getting ready; he was a bit dazed this morning." Kaidan raised one eyebrow suggestively. She blushed, "I may have been slightly at fault." Kaidan chuckled to himself again, and Liara eyed him with concern. "How much does the rest of the crew know?"

"They know you two are together – that's patently obvious to anyone who spends more than an hour on the Normandy. Honestly, I think some of the younger ones are attracted to you," he laughed at the wide eyes she gave him, "but they know their place. They don't pry more than they should – and if they do they certainly keep it to themselves."

Liara was glad for that. There had been several of the newer ensigns on the Normandy who had questioned Liara's presence when they first arrived. A death-stare from Shepard and a viewing of her proficiency with biotics and combat had shut them up quickly. "Do you have any word on what we're doing here, Kaidan?"

Kaidan shrugged, "same thing we've been doing for the past week. Alliance Intel says there's Geth stragglers in this cluster, and we've been tasked with flushing them out." It had been a slow, largely fruitless search. Every time they caught wind of the possibility of a Geth presence, their targets vanished into the darkness of space around them. Their engineers were hard pressed to find even the suggestion of a Geth presence in the region.

"Are you even sure there are Geth here? We've spent nearly four days patrolling the sector and we haven't found a damn thing."

"Five ships went missing here in the last two weeks," Shepard's voice cut through the calm as he left his cabin and joined them at the table. He sat beside Liara, planting a single kiss on the tip of her forehead as he did. "Something happened to them, and the complete absence of survivors or distress calls suggests it wasn't slavers."

"Good morning Commander," Kaidan noted as he passed Shepard breakfast, "up well after Liara, I see."

Shepard took a moment to collect his thoughts as he stabbed at his breakfast with his fork. Something seemed off in his manner. Only a few hours ago he had seemed in a far better mood than he was now. "I had a quick conversation with Admiral Hackett this morning." His eyes darted to either side before he leaned in close. "One of the Council's deep cover operatives in the Terminus Systems sent in a Priority One alert six hours ago. Apparently it concerns us – and our mission in this cluster. Hackett wasn't specific on the details – I don't even think they know, but he seemed to think that the Normandy was in danger."

"Even if we are," Kaidan noted, "we've got enough heat reserves to run on full stealth for at least twelve hours. That's more than enough time to get to the Omega Two Relay and get back into Council Space. What could possibly be here?"

"Who knows? We're an Alliance vessel deep in the heart of the Terminus Systems – don't forget that Omega is within a day's flight of here. Anything could happen."

"Commander, if you ask me, we're wasting our time out here. You, Liara, and I all know that the Geth aren't the real threat. We should be looking for evidence of the Reapers and their plans, so that we're ready for them if their full fleet ever comes for us."

"Don't you think I know that Kaidan?" Shepard clenched his fist into a ball, and Liara could feel the biotic energy pulsate outwards from him. "Our hands are tied until Humanity has our seat filled on the Council – if Admiral Coryn gets it, then we can probably change course and hunt for the real threat. Until then, we have to play politics. The Council doesn't want to admit that the Reapers exist – Sparatus in particular – and we can't change that until this political shitstorm dies down."

"Commander," the conversation was interrupted by Joker's voice on the Shepard's comm link, "this is the cockpit. Pressly and I are picking something up on the long-range scanners. It's not matching any known energy signatures, but it's huge – possibly Geth, possibly Terminus or Batarian. Recommending that the crew stand to and prepare to engage."

Shepard glanced at Kaidan, who nodded discretely. Shepard caught Liara's gaze for a moment, and then reached for his omnitool. "Stand to threat level Delta. Keep stealth systems engaged and continue monitoring. As long as they don't know we're here, there's no need to engage until we have a better idea of what we're up against. Key me into the bridge chatter and keep me engaged."

"Roger that," Joker replied. The next they heard his voice, it was over the ship's general intercom. "This is a stand-to and general quarters order for SSV Normandy. Threat Level Delta – unidentified vessel has entered into Normandy's scan range. All crew prepare for battle-stations. Adams, keep the stealth drive fully engaged. We are preparing to observe and recon."

"In that case," Kaidan got up from his seat, "duty calls. I'll get the detachment ready for a search-and-destroy operation."

Liara looked at Shepard with concern. "Does that mean-,"

Shepard cut her off. "I'm not sure. But I won't engage until we have a clearer picture. I don't want to be the ship commander that accidentally provokes full-scale war with the Terminus Systems."

"Could it be-," Liara leaned in close to Shepard, "could it be the Reapers? What if Sovereign wasn't the only Reaper ship that their fleet left behind as a vanguard?"

"Alright Pressly, bring her around. All stealth systems are engaged – prepare to activate the stealth monitoring equipment as soon as the vessel is close enough for the short-range scanners." The chatter from the cockpit trickled through the intercom on the Normandy, keeping Shepard and Liara fully alert as to what was happening.

"Roger that Joker. Ten seconds until we are in range."

There was a brief pause as the Normandy crossed the threshold into observation range, and then the chatter resumed again. "Data collection has begun. We should have an accurate profile on the vessel inside of ninety seconds."

"What could a lone vessel be doing in this remote part of the Terminus Systems?"

Shepard shrugged his shoulders, "if it is the Geth, they'll hide where they're least likely to be detected."

"Evans, are you getting a profile of the ship?"

"Yes Pressly, results are coming up now. It doesn't match any known signatures, but it looks to be about the size of a Cruiser."

"But it doesn't match known signatures?"

"No."

Liara felt as if her stomach had just dropped, and she looked at Shepard with her blood cooling as her heartbeat began to accelerate. "No known signatures, size of a large cruiser. This doesn't look good."

Shepard nodded, "I agree."

"Hold on. Cruiser has changed course. It now appears to be on an intercept trajectory"

Intercept. The word hung in the air, filling Liara's throat with the taste of bile and causing her heart-rate to soar. There was only one thing that word could mean.

"Intercept? That's impossible. The stealth systems are more than equipped to mask us from G-,"

"It's not the Geth," Joker's voice cut through the chatter edged with fear, and then moments later with panic. "Oh shit. Brace for evasive maneuvers!"

Liara felt the Normandy jerk violently to the left, throwing her off-balance as Joker pulled the Frigate into a nosedive. She had only just begun to regain her feet when she heard it – the deafening roar of something terrible and powerful heading towards them. She locked eyes with Shepard for a moment; she knew what she had to do, and sprinted for her cabin at the back of the Medical Bay.

The first beam struck the Normandy violently, throwing the Frigate off-course and knocking its shields out in a single blow. The chatter on Liara's omnitool turned incomprehensible, replaced quickly by screams of terror and agony as the second and third blasts hit the Frigate. The Normandy was nearly three hundred metres long, weighing hundreds of thousands of tonnes, but the force of the impact tossed the ship around like a ragdoll.

"Oh my God! Pressly-, AH!" another voice was drowned out by static as Liara bolted through the Medical Bay, taking every ounce of concentration to stay on her feet as the ship jolted in all directions around her. She reached her cabin as another set of beams hit the Normandy, and she watched in horror as the bulkheads around the Med-Bay began to buckle under the force of the impact. As she struggled to get her hard-suit on, fires began to break out all around the ship. She could hear muffled explosions and shouts of panic as the crew trapped on the Cargo Deck searched frantically for a way to the escape pods.

"Kinetic Barriers are down! We have suffered from multiple hull-breaches! All weapons are offline-, somebody get that fire out!"

Liara finished outfitting her hard-suit in a nick of time, and began to sprint back through the Med Bay for the main crew deck. Only moments after she burst through the door, the bulkheads above her cabin collapsed, and the Med Bay was soon engulfed in flames.

The Mess Hall had been devoured by smoke and fire, with wreckage falling from the upper decks and forcing Liara and the other crew to navigate carefully through the debris. Crew members were dying all around her, caught in explosions or crushed by the beams that continued to collapse. She narrowly avoided an explosion that took out two young ensigns as she entered the long corridor that housed the wreckage of the Normandy's sleeper-pods. She saw a lone figure at the end of the hallway, crouched at the VI's Master Control Unit and calmly working away at the necessary procedures.

"Shepard!" He had his N7 armour and helmet on, its crimson-etched black plating glinting magnificently in the orange glow of the inferno unfolding behind them. He turned towards Liara as she sprinted towards him, and caught her falling body as she tripped over a stray cord that littered the ground.

He lifted her slowly back to her feet, planting his gloved hands firmly on her shoulders. "The distress beacon has been launched."

That didn't convince Liara – they'd have been dead for an hour by the time anyone in the Citadel could possibly respond. "Will the Alliance get here in time?"

He seemed to regard her thoughtfully as he applied the last of the buckles that held her own helmet in place. "The Normandy won't survive that long, but if we can get the crew to the escape pods, most of the survivors should be picked up. Get the crew to the shuttles!"

Liara tossed Shepard a fire extinguisher as he continued to battle the blaze next to the master electronics panel, and she quickly used her biotics to lift a fallen beam out of the path of feeing crew. "Joker's still in the cockpit! He won't abandon ship," she turned to look at Shepard directly, "and I'm not leaving without you either."

His work at the panel complete, Shepard moved close to Liara, bringing a hand to her shoulder. "I need you to get the crew to the shuttles. I'll take care of Joker – there's a pod in the cockpit that we can use." He moved back for the master control unit, quickly hitting the button that activated the distress beacon.

Panic struck her. If she left without Shepard, there was no telling what could happen, or whether he'd survive the attack. "Shepard I-,"

"Liara, go," Shepard turned from his work to face her for one last moment, "now."

Her heart ached, and she gave him a last look that tried to communicate the thousands of things she wanted to say to him, the thousands of things she might never get a chance to say – of what he meant to her, of who she was because of him. Instead, all she could managed was a muffled and mangled salute. "Aye aye, Shepard." She turned her back to him, her tears concealed by her helmet as she ran for the escape pods.

The escape pods were located on the starboard side of the Normandy, off of a narrow hallway that bisected the sleeping pod quarters. The surviving crew were already flooding for the loading bays, creating a knot of bodies that was sure to degenerate into chaos. Amid the panic, Liara spotted Doctor Chakwas and Chief Engineer Adams scrambling into one of the pods. She stopped at the narrow opening of Chakwas's pod, gesturing frantically for the ensigns near them to get to safety.

"Everybody in, go! Go!"

Liara waited for the last of the crew to reach the pods, noting with a grim sort of satisfaction as each of the blast doors sealed in turn, filled to capacity. Shifting herself into the pod, she glanced back out into the ruins of the Normandy in time to see Corporal Lowe thrown bodily against the wall by the force of another explosion. Liara could hear her neck snap as she hit the steel bulkhead, and the Asari reluctantly climbed into the escape pod rather than continue to watch the destruction unfolding around them. Liara seated herself in one of the ten steel-backed chairs that lined the sides of the pod, frowning as she saw that only six of the other seats were filled. Adams reached for the launch lever as the Normandy was rocked by yet another blast from their mysterious attacker.

"Come on," Adams seethed as the lights in the escape pod began to flash, "just get us out of here."

Liara heard the sound of the explosive bolts that held the bod in place releasing, and she was suddenly lurched sideways as the thrusters ignited and tore the escape pod from the doomed hull of the Normandy. The pod continued to accelerate, the VI having calculated long ago the minimum safe distance from the Normandy in the event that the ship's drive core exploded. Two of the younger privates that were also in the pod were visibly shaken and nauseated by the intensity of their release from the Frigate, and Chakwas offered a reassuring hand to a young female marine who looked ready to throw up.

"Easy, easy. We're almost out of this."

Liara wasn't so sure. Whoever their attacker was, they were thorough and advanced. The Normandy was supposed to be invisible to detection with its stealth systems engaged, yet this enemy had found them without difficulty, caught them completely off-guard, and outgunned them within seconds. Even if they'd had warning, the Normandy would have fared poorly against this. When the escape pod finally shifted in the vacuum of space, Liara chanced a glimpse out of the observation window, daring herself to look at what had become of the Normandy. What she saw terrified her, and sent ripples of horror and fear through her for Shepard.

The Normandy hardly resembled the frigate it had once been. One of its thrusters had been blasted off, and it now drifted helplessly through space as its drive core began to fail. The rear of the CIC had been exposed to space where the durasteel armour plating had been sheared clean off. In some places, Liara could see through the beam's holes through to the other side of the ship. Their attacker loomed large above them as well, and amid the burning hulk of the Normandy Liara caught her first glimpse of it. The ship was enormous, easily dwarfing the Alliance frigate; even a fully-repaired Destiny Ascension would be challenged by this leviathan. The cruiser looked to be composed of a mix of organic and synthetic materials, appearing to have been grown as much as created. It resembled an enormous revolving cylinder, with four rocky spires concealing the particle beam that had knocked out the Normandy's shields, weapons, and FTL drive in a single hit. The cruiser was preparing for another pass at the Normandy, one which would surely finish the doomed frigate. Liara hurriedly prayed to every deity she could think of that Shepard would make it off the Normandy.

The cruiser fired again, catching the Normandy near the bridge, and Liara felt her heart sink in dismay. The entire front-end of the frigate was engulfed in flames; nothing in the CIC could have possibly survived that. She was faintly aware of the exclamation of shock and horror by Adams and the others in the escape pod, but her world quickly turned inward as the pain began to sink in. The Normandy had been her home these past three months. After so many years without a sense of belonging or surety, she had found it in the often-cramped confines of the Alliance vessel. She had met people of every species that she counted as friends, as colleagues, as comrades. She had met someone she loved, someone who was likely still trapped in the ruined hulk as it waited inevitably for its destruction.

"Look, there! They made it!" Liara followed Chakwas's gaze to see a single escape pod jetting away from the twisted and burning frame of the Normandy. Her heart leapt in elation; Shepard had made it! The single escape pod fled rapidly, as if it knew what was coming. Seconds later, a final blast from the cruiser's particle beam tore through what little remained of the frame, and Liara tried in vain to stifle the tears as the Normandy was torn apart. The hull was engulfed in a massive explosion that threw debris in all directions. The thin kinetic barriers of the escape pods were battered by incoming shards of metal, and Liara was bounced around in her seat as the pod was thrown by the force of the impact. She felt her head hit the steel frame of the shoulder restraints, and her vision was suddenly clouded with stars as she began to lose consciousness.

Chakwas was out of her seat and at Liara's side in an instant, holding the Asari's neck as she quickly applied a sedative from her omnitool. "You'll be fine, Liara. We just need to wait until the Alliance arrives to pick us up. Hang in there."

Liara could feel herself slipping under, yet the last thought in her head was not one of terror or of panic. It was of a serene calm: their ship was destroyed, they were drifting through the edges of the Terminus Systems, but they were alive.

And through it all, Shepard was too.

She was sure of it.