Author's Note: Okay So then, got another chapter done, barely. At least I know how this is going to end now, so progress? In any case I've decided not to continue into Andromeda. Why? A short Omake.

Kett Archon: So you guys cherry picked through the genetic information of all the life in your galaxy and used that information to raise a army of super soldiers?

Captured Union Soldier: Yeah. So?

Kett Archon: And all of you guys are still Fertile?

Captured Union Soldier: Why wouldn't we be?

Kett Archon: ...can we join your Union?

*Accepts Applause*

Still a better Story than Andromeda.

Chapter 79: Citadel's End

12M 00D 00H Until the Colossus Fires

The conflict that had started over eight months ago was back in full swing. Through the devastation wreaked across Council space using the Alpha Relay the Reaper's had spread hundreds of their corpses over the region of space, millions were already dead, hundreds of planets were rendered effectively uninhabitable. Ships were working on mass evacuations, already Rannoch and Tuchanka had already been evacuated, but every gun available was needed at the front line killing Reapers.

The Gestalt previously had the advantage of numbers, but now that advantage was turned on its head. Many of them had strong biotic power thanks to the Eezo that made up so much of their biology, which made it possible to break open Reaper shells with hundreds of contradicting mass effect fields. But the Reapers overwhelmed them with massed weapons fire, and their corpses were dumped back onto their birthing worlds, presumably so that their organic matter could be harvested later.

Then the Real Threat showed up.

Dozens of Harbinger Class Reapers appeared from the Galactic border and entered the Atmosphere above the Gestalt's birthing worlds and released their payloads, the swarms of trillions of synthorganic insects skilfully avoiding the defensive wormholes the planets had opened up and soon the surface of the planet below was turned into synthorganic goo. The Gestalt put up a resistance that could be called admirable, but soon the planets and their wormhole generating capabilities would fall to the Reapers.

The Contingency kept poring out of the Astral Rifts, unleashing Jump bombs and striking with machine like precision before retreating back to the Rifts to replenish their munitions, occasionally with evacuees from nearby worlds. Hub Gamma was churning out an endless supply of munitions fuelled in raw materials by the Formless and their ability to turn memory into matter. In retaliation the Reapers flew into the the Rifts, to their mistake, the ones that survived their encounter with the Animator of Clay emerged from the Rifts among the ranks of the Contingency, and tore into their former brethren with great enthusiasm.

As a result, the Reapers are now guarding the Rifts themselves hoping to snipe whatever comes through from this side or the next. As a result powerful Mass Effect fields projected by the Contingency's hub were dragging them inside and out was being spat new allies against the Reapers themselves.

Once again it appeared that threats from the other dimensions was the Reaper's Achilles heel when it came to weaknesses. The Formless were receiving vast portions of new life blood through the evacuee's that were now living in their territory, though fewer in numbers they and their ships were superior than the Unbidden's, with greater durability and more robust shielding, though the matter disentegrators remained just as effective. That said, it appears that the Reaper's had been traumatised by the Unbidden as their priorities immediately shift as soon as the Formless show up, which made evacuating other fleets effective. With the aide of the Formless the technology inside of the Kwuwu had been perfected, the issue of multiple conflicting Mass Effect Fields resolved with multiple weaves of Astral Threads to isolated the contradicting Mass Effect Fields from what they weren't supposed to affect.

Thus the Council Ships were now able to destroy Reapers ten to one before being destroyed themselves, even then the casualties the armies faced were ultimately minimal, with so few crew men on board ships predominantly manned by networked VI programs. Soon even those casualties would drop with the wide spread implementation of immortal clone technology and Greyboxes. But it will only last for so long before the enemy reaches the ends of council Territory. The newly established Intelligence hive of the Crystal Spire was abuzz with activity, intelligence was being pulled from every inch of the Terminus system, the vast combination of mass produced Quantum entanglement enhanced sensors, switch boards, and AI managers manage to instantly pull and organise vast portions of data from every inch of Council space to track and fight the enemy.

"The memories of your people are quite useful." The vast majority of the objects that the Formless pulled out of the collective consciousness of the Citadel government were objects made out of Omni-gel that would be easy to recycle, but not everything from the collective consciousness was made by the Council. Three large rings organised so that one fit into the other, each of them lodged inside of a larger contraption, the Mass Relay monument from the Citadel, otherwise known as the Conduit.

"It's useless as is." Sparatus complained looking over the technical specifications of the device in question. "It's only a receiver, without the capacity to send people out we can't use it for evacuation or troop transportation." However Sparatus hadn't given up hope yet.

"The technology is primitive but sophisticated and effective." The Formless scientist that had completed his study of the Conduit explained. Forcing the machine into existence gave the Formless a unique view of the machine and how it was constructed. "We believe we can help build your transmitter." The Tebrids had been working on the tech since Ilos, but Sovereign trashed the entire site, and there have been easier projects higher on the priority list so progress was slow.

But they had real life Protheans now, or at least beings who used to be Prothean scientists and engineers, so figuring out how the technology was put together was easier, on top of that was Astral Threads and the Formless who have the ability to read them. Given time and resources a theoretical network of conduits can be built across council and Union space allowing free travel for vast portions of the population. Time is the key word though.

"We might not have time, even with the Contingency, Formless, Gestalt alongside yours and our ships throwing everything we've got at them." Admiral Shepard was looking down at reports that were laying out for her, and then she got two new ones.

"These just came in, the one on the left is from Tuchanka, the one on the right Rannoch." Two holo vids played, the first recording the crash of a Reaper into the side of Tuchanka.

Credit where do, even in the wake of disaster the Custodian's still work fast, quickly rebuilding the basic infrastructure of the farms and the security, taking videos and pictures of the crash sight where a dead god had been hurled at a planet like a round from a rail gun. Bastard didn't even have the decency to be scratched, but then again that much mass slamming into a planet at FTL speeds would probably destroy the entire world as well. This gave an important piece of information: The Reapers want the planet, in fact they wanted every planet they did this to, though they might not care about who or what was on it. The Admiral let the footage continue at high speeds, pattern recognition programs inside of her grey box playing out as days went by at high speed. The Reapers came, a Harbinger classed monster, their insect swarms infesting all life on the planet and all of it's machinery distorting the footage in question. The last thing that could be witnessed was an energy beam coming down from the sky slamming into the corpse of the Reaper.

The Simplest explanation is that they needed the insects to do the bulk work and then the energy beam finished them all with some kind of final garish for the transformation, the simplest and the least terrifying.

The other explanation was that the energy beam did something to the Reaper itself, which was a terrifying concept all on its own. Everything they know about Reapers, what they are, what their goals are, and what they are capable of tells them that if they are doing something with their own corpses, it's nothing good. A similar sight was playing out on Rannoch.

Those who had stayed behind in the face of the planet's destruction planted camera's to watch the corpse of the Reaper that crashed into the planet, recording as the planet's atmosphere was bombarded by Nanite payloads and a huge beam of energy rewrote the planet's genetic code as the footage blanked out.

"They have to soften the planet first with their nanite swarm, and then they specifically target their own corpses." Admiral Shepard commented as she attempted to figure out what they're planning on doing.

"It's obvious that whatever they're doing requires their own corpses." Escheel stated bluntly. "The Formless expressed their intention to scoop up the Reaper's hearts to harvest them for psychic energy correct? They should do so immediately, and then the bodies disposed of with haste." As the various figures in the room nodded another priority alert came up from the citadel. A worm hole was opening outside of the Citadel, doubtlessly the work of the Gestalt worlds that the Reapers had already converted to their own ends.

"The Conduit's status?" Admiral Shepard was already standing up as she prepared to act. "Our agents aboard the Citadel have already finished modifying the Conduit end there to be capable of sending out instead of only receiving." Well they have a good harvest so far, there were three planets full of beings giving off psychic energy for them, that was enough to sustain their civilisation.

11M 25D 20H Until the Colossus Fires

The Citadel was in a panic. Ever since the Reapers reappeared they had already been on guard, the entire citadel closed up in its highest state of security, now the enemy was at the door step. The Conduit had been reinstalled at it's original location and modified so that it could send out and receive. Thousands of people were already flooding the device in their sky cars strapped with as many of their belongings and supplies as they could fit onboard as they entered the device in as orderly a manner as a panicking horde can manage.

Weapons platforms outside of the citadel were already firing on all cylinders trying to destroy any Reaper that came through the worm hole, a information war was being waged against the Thorian as the Reapers attempted to forcibly seize control of the station, but so far they were reluctant to damage their prize. Ships were already on their way over, diverted from the front lines to deal with the attack personally but in the mean time the Reapers minions weren't standing still.

Batarian boarding pods, newly upgraded with Reaper technology and Synthorganic material, were fired at the Citadel itself where the barrier leading to the void was thinnest. The Burrowing pods breached into the citadel itself, and from there more insidious forces than mere slaves of the Reapers began worming its way to the citadel itself. While Batarian Foot soldiers exited the pods themselves released synthorganic roots into the citadel, converting the materials that made up it's foundations as it crawled along at a snail's pace, spreading malicious Reaper code along the way as it went.

"We Will Not Be Slaves!"

A shame that the Reaper's dumped so much of their malicious coding all over the Galaxy already, by this point it was easy to crack. While the Batarians were navigating the halls of the station they soon ran into a familiar sight, Citadel Security, the usual Sniper rifles replaced by powerful shot guns.

"Get off our station!"

Without either identifying themselves or giving time to follow their orders the C-Sec officers started blasting, Claymore shot-guns fired polonium dust enhanced with Warp Ammo and Pyro ammo, each grain of radioactive material tore into the enemy forces with enough force to sheer the armour off of a tank, the Synthorg Batarians were pulped and the proverbial ashes salted with radioactive dust. In the close quarters of the tunnel ducts of the citadel, there was no deadlier force. And then more of the Borders came, and the officers kept blasting.

"The Councillors have already been Evacuated." A synthesized voice echoed in Saren's ear. "C-Sec and the Spectre's have already been scattered throughout the citadel." Of course Saren knew that this was no AI, in comparison to this AI was cuddly. "Be prepared to go on the offensive with your clones."

Both all of the Spectres and all of C-Sec had been backed up with Grey Box technology, their servers were the first thing sent through the Conduit. That meant that all of them were disposable.

"Let's raze hell people!"

C-Sec was fighting a retreating battle. For every boarding pod that made it past the shell of the citadel a new source of infection had entered the mega-structure, for every dead Batarian a new source of the Reaper's Synthorganic plague was eating away at the walls of the tunnels. Soon they would gain control over the guns outside, and from there who knows what else. This was not acceptable. From the vats of organic matter kept in the citadel normally reserved for producing keepers monsters were mass produced, Elcor, Krogan, small Thresher Maws were all unleashed as a giant tide of fodder, less it becomes infected by the Reaper's plague.

"We've lost the tunnels!"

One C-Sec officer shouted into his coms after hours of spitting flame into the tunnels. The Synthorganic plague was producing exotic gas as it dissolved the metal walls of the tunnels, Pyro Ammo, Shock Ammo and Warp ammo was no longer safe to use, and Cryo only lasted so long.

"Move!"

An Asari Spectre threw a Grenade down the tunnel before a group of Keepers sealed it seamlessly. The Grenade exploded, spewing flames into the Tunnels, turning them into exotic gas. Everything in the tunnels became ash and plasma, and the boarding pods that had stabbed into the citadel's hull were the weakest point for the explosion to go and worst yet, went through the biotic barrier that surrounded the entire citadel. The Explosion that ensued even threw the Reapers off for a second.

"Citadel inhabitants evacuated by twenty five percent." The Thorian that was acting as the central intelligence of the evacuation effort reported its progress.

That explosion probably killed off a few thousand Synthorgs, if they're lucky it broke off a few Reapers too. The Ancient war machines circled around, this time they were going for the base of the citadel, where the legs folded, it was also where the offensive weapons were at their heaviest but even that would only last so long under concentrated Reaper fire. They weren't going to punch through there though, they needed the joints of the legs intact to open the citadel, but they would open for them open once they've spread the synthorganic plague. That meant that every opening point on the Citadel was going to be flooded soon.

"Movement at Zakara port." One of C-Sec's lieutenants was keeping an eye on the port through the scope of their sniper rifle. A single man emerged from the docks, he wore the robes of a priest and carried a staff as he walked through the abandoned toll station. "One of those Syntho-bastards." Four eyes of a Batarian, metal scales gleamed but not from artificial light, bright green lines of circuits lined his entire body including the multiple tendrils hanging off his back. "Looks like that priest from the Vid."

"Citadel Government!" The Priest shouted, voice the epitome of a sinner in the hands of a angry Preacher. "You are trespassing on the temple of our gods, and your life is forfeit! Surrender now and you may join us in servitude to the great ones! Resist and-!" A loud bang accompanied a round from a Black Widow Anti-Material rifle breaching the sound barrier directly at the Priest's head. The round was stopped by a powerful barrier, biotics and psionics stopping the shot with a loud screech before it bounced off the Priest's head that was covered in metal scales. "So be it! Great ones! I have sanctified my body, my soul has been purified! Ascend me as one of your servants and claim my flesh in your name so that you may break this piddling resistance over your knee!"

"Ah Mot!" The Snipers immediately started to unload rounds into priest as he transformed. His robes were burned away as his body unfolded, weapons extending from his arms and legs revealing heavy support units while the face and chest unfolded doubling the man's width while a rifle unfolded and locked itself in place in the head. Most dramatic of all, the entire body glowed bright orange, as if it had been set on fire, but to be more accurate it was possessed by the man's god.

"Seizing Control!" Under the constant fire of C-Sec the Priest Charged forward, his body augmented by biotics and flooded with psionic power. He crashed through the first blockade and ripping apart the officer on the other side. From either arm devastating projectiles of exotic plasma was unleashed shattering barriers.

"RRROOOAAARRR!" Then the Thorian clones joined the battle, the Elcor and the Krogan immediately entering melee range while the C-Sec officers changed positions. The fight ultimately didn't last long, just long enough for the Possessed monster to stab both of its arm blades into the nearest Krogan and rip it open, releasing a cloud of spores in the process.

"Barriers now!" At once several Officers moved into position with Omni Barrier generators creating a box of Omni-gel reinforced barriers around the priest.

"What are you-!?" And then the Reaper saw it: A grenade had been lodged inside of the body of the Krogan he tore open, and the pin had already been popped. The Grenade produced a ball of flames, ignited the spores, and an explosion was triggered, trapped inside of the barrier box with the possessed priest the explosion ravaged the 'god in a mortal shell.' "I will not be defeated by the likes of you!" An explosion by the possessed monster tore through the Omni-barriers, the creature was damaged but not dead. But while he was breaking free of the box of Omni-Barriers the Spectres were setting up their counter offensive: a heavy Particle laser, manned by a Asari Vanguard.

"Sure tell yourself that." A Warp was applied to the energy beam as it slammed into the Possessed Synthorg pushing it back even as it used its own biotics to push back. The continuous application of energy and friction slowly ignited the exotic gas layered fat on the Batarian's body, which was being covered in contradicting biotic fields. With a loud explosion the Batarian's body was obliterated at last. "Was that it?"

The Citadel was already being forced open, few weapons could stop a Reaper in it's tracks, fewer still that could do so without destroying the citadel, which as long as they were still evacuating people, they still needed in one piece. Among them was a familiar one two punch, Matter Disentegators and Energy Siphons. The Harbinger trying to dock at the port became a power source for the Citadel's own defence, which included the weapons distorting its shell as it tried to dock on the station.

In the mean time the ports were being flooded. The Batarian was a good chance to get an idea of what the combat capabilities of Synthorgs were like, which while valuable was far from the Reaper's strongest weapon in this fight. Soon the Citadel shook as a black tide emerged from the ports to flood the citadel proper.

"Evacuation Fifty Percent completed." The Thorian reminded Saren bluntly.

"Yeah thanks for the update. Switch to Exotics and barriers now!"

The various people on the front line switched over to exotic plasma shot guns and opened fire. Each of the Reaper's insects rides forward on its own biotic barrier, under the influence of the exotic gas those barriers became unstable and exploded. With every shot of gas dozens of the insects die, more when paired with Singularities to draw them in and explode. But for one thing the defenders weren't the primary objective of the insects, and they didn't need to fly, they could also crawl, and burrow. As the swarm approached the floor and walls of the Citadel was changing, turning into a riddled hive of insects that was being broken down and replaced by Synthorganic material.

Their defence was effectively pointless.

If there was a silver lining, then the sheer mass of energy that was running through every cable of the citadel was acting as a highly effective bug zapper, so there was a limit that they bugs could dig before ultimately being fried.

"Gas now!"

At once several grenades were hurled into the swarm. Extensive research was conducted into the Thorian, the Salarians coming up with increasingly potent measures to kill it off as they sought to force it to adapt to even more toxic environments.

This was the culmination of that cycle, a Levino based neurotoxin created from a combination of the most toxic substances to come out of Palaven and Rannoch, if it doesn't manage to melt the target's brain it will induce a violent allergic reaction that tears the body apart through it's own immune system. It was lethal to all DNA based life that they had tested it out on so far, and that included the Reapers monsters. It also included the defenders as well. The Combination of the Gas, the Exotic Plasma based weapons, and Mass Effect Generators for crowd control was buying the defenders precious, desperately needed time.

"Evacuation at Seventy Five Percent." Which was relatively good news. "The Reaper has docked." Which wasn't.

"Get it off the station!" Saren snapped impatiently, climbing into a sky car as he prepared to face the enemy head on. "It's working to override my control of the station. We're at 90%, stall it."

The Reaper had attached itself directly to the council's chambers, in reality the tower that was at the centre of the flower like station was a docking port designed to directly connect to a Harbinger. Energy waves were firing off constantly, draining power from the Reaper while the Matter Disentegrators were forcibly expanding the Neutron material of the ship-monster, forming cancer like bulges all over the machine's hull as well. A loud dull sound was echoing throughout the citadel, the indoctrination detector was screaming at him, and the Reaper was getting ready to fire off their weapon through the Mass Relay network. There was little time to spare. Saren whipped out a missile launcher and fired it at the base of the Council Tower, taking out a corner of it, the Reaper had to use one of it's legs to keep the tower from falling over, and at once a light from a murderous eye shown down on him.

"So you finally noticed me!" Saren was channelling Shepard here, she was good at talking over a long period of time without saying anything. "I was beginning to wonder what I had to do to get some attention around here!"

"The leader of the little resistance force?" The Reapers always had confidence in their power of indoctrination, and with access to the Thorian and its spores that power had only increased. Even if the Union had invented little noise cancelling devices or found some super fungus so what of it? "What do you want?"

"I want to inform you that you have been beaten!" Saren snapped not one hint of doubt in his words. "All of the Remaining Mass Relays have been rigged to blow, destroying every Reaper that has entered this part of the Galaxy in the process!"

"Is that it?" The Reaper sounded like it let out a scoff, which shouldn't be possible and yet, here they were. "A bluff? After the Previous cycle we have examined each and every Mass Relay that we have come across closely, and I assure you that none of them have been rigged with explosives."

"No we didn't rig the Mass Relays with explosives, why would we? When we just have to put them all in the one place that matters!?" The Reaper reacted with fear at that statement.

"The Citadel's evacuation is complete." The Thorian chimed into Saren's ear piece. "Self Destruction Sequence has been initiated."

The Harbinger looked like it started panicking. It tried to release the docking clamps that it had attached its legs to on the Citadel but the Matter Disentegrators turned on them, inflating their mass to become stuck inside.

"There's one other thing I wanted to tell you. I am Saren Arterius! Brother of Desolas Arterius! And I defeated you!"

And then the entire Citadel was set on fire. Using the Reaper as a power source, a signal was transmitted to every remaining Mass Relay in the galaxy, safeties were disabled, their energy capacity overloaded, and detonation followed with planet shattering force. Many planets had already been evacuated, others had crude Astral Thread based shielding, some were unfortunately simply burned by the fires. All were pulled into the various pocket dimensions that had formed by the exploding Mass Relays, alongside the countless Reapers that had entered the Rifts with them. In a single stroke incalculable devastation was reeked across Citadel Space, taking thousands of Reapers with them in the process.

Review Section:

Monster King: Here's hoping the Muse has mercy, fickle mistress as she is.

RonaldM40196867: I'd suck as a poet. Saren and Shepard can chew the Scenery pretty well when they want to.

Valkrus: Yeah sorry about that.

Halo: Read, Find out.

Rick and Mory: I was channelling Space Marines actually.