By the Goddess, what just happened? What just happened!?
"Shepard! SHEPARD!" Liara screamed. The white light continued to expand. The Prometheans and Sentinels were closing in on the three.
The room began to shake. Metal panels pieces throughout the walls and floors began to fall into the blue abyss below.
"Liara, I'm sorry, WE HAVE TO LEAVE!" Tali screamed.
Liara didn't care. She got off the bomb and tried to enter the white. A hand grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back.
"NO! NO! NO!" She screamed, tears flowing down her eyes.
In the center of the white light, a blue sphere emerged and ignited a pillar of light that disappeared into the infinite above.
Another pair of hands grabbed her stomach. The hands pulled her back, past the bomb.
"SHEPARD!" She cried out. As they kept pulling her back, her cries became less and less coherent. But one thing was clear, "I'M NOT LEAVING YOU AGAIN!"
"Joker, it's Tali! We need extraction ASAP!" Tali begged on the commline.
He...he wasn't… He couldn't. Not again. Not again. She couldn't lose him again. No, please, please Goddess, no.
She kept trying to fight them, trying to fight her way into the light. Even with the Prometheans blocking her path, she'll kill everyone. She'll kill them all.
"Liara, he's GONE!" Ashley yelled directly in her face.
Liara tried using her biotics, but she was completely drained from fighting the Spartan. Only small embers flared up from her hands. And with so little energy, every flare caused dizziness. Her vision was tunneling.
They shoved her into the elevator. Ashley quickly limped over to the control panel and pressed the button right as the Prometheans began to encircle them.
The elevator rode up. Tali let go of Liara… She collapsed on the floor.
And she thought of the Spartan "...We need to kill them all…"
"Believe me, we'll get to that, Liara." Tali responded, "but first we need to get the hell out of here!"
Tears dropped down onto the metal floor. It felt like Liara couldn't breathe.
"We gotta get back to the Citadel. We have to tell the Council what the UNSC tried to do." Ashley said.
"Agreed, it's the only safe place left," Tali replied.
The elevator shook. It felt like Thessia was experiencing an earthquake. Tali and Ashley almost fell over.
Maybe the elevator realized the dire situation. The ride up was shorter than the ride down. The doors opened up. The Temple of Athame was collapsing. Statues and pillars crumbled. Priceless artifacts shattered. Pieces of the ceiling fell to the ground and the floor cracked, beginning to slowly peel open.
And the crew...was battered. They were pushed back to the temple entrance. Maybe it was for the best. The ground ripped open, revealing the blue abyss below.
"Crew! Clear us a path, we're coming through!" Tali ordered.
One of the Spartans turned around. Kelly, Liara thought.
On the horizon, outside the temple doors, the bleak orange sky was interrupted by the Normandy. It made a sweeping pass, nearing the temple on approach.
And Kelly saw it. Saw that the Master Chief wasn't with them.
She raised her weapon. Tali pushed Ashley and Liara into cover. "Fucking Boshet!"
The Normandy came into view. So..close…
"Should we consider Blue Team hostile?" Joker asked on the comms.
Liara felt shotgun pellets shatter a picture right above their heads. One of the metal balls had slipped down Liara's neck.
"No, they're only shooting at us!" Wrex yelled out.
"Roger that, precision targeting, twenty-mil. Clear the way!" Joker replied.
The hatch to the Normandy opened. Where the main cannon should've been was now a machine gun, similar to those attached to gunships. It opened fire on the Spartans
"Come on! We need to move!" Thane said on the comms.
Grunt and Wrex pushed forward, clearing a makeshift path. They focused most of their fire on Linda, making sure she stayed in cover.
Tali dragged Liara and Ashley out. Samara and Thane rushed to them and took the two off her shoulders.
Liara barely noticed...
Shepard…
"Where the hell's Shepard!?" Wrex yelled.
Tali looked at him. She only shook her head.
Wrex didn't say anything for a minute. He looked at Thane. "And where the hell have you been? I didn't even notice you were gone!"
"You know me, I like to stick to the shadows…" Thane said. He brought something out, a detonator.
Grunt and Wrex passed by Liara and Thane… The two Krogans were beaten down. Bruised, cut up. Blood was seeping out of parts of their armor. A small chunk of Wrex's head plate was ripped off. Grunt even had a bruised eye and was limping. Liara only just noticed the multiple gunshot wounds throughout both of their bodies. Grunt's kneecap was torn apart… She swore she saw bone. But...other than that they looked okay.
Thane pressed the detonator. The walls were ripped apart and the Spartan's cover was blown away. She saw one of them land on their back, but she was still moving.
The team reached the Temple entrance. In the skies above, the Shadow of Intent and the rest of the Sangheili fleet were beginning mass evacuations… And the ground… For dozens of miles throughout the city the ground was beginning to tear apart.
And the Reapers… They were retreating.
"Get your asses in gear! Something's happening!" Joker ordered. "Where's Shepard!?"
The Normandy loading ramp opened. The Asari soldiers guarding the temple front and the ship security team formed a perimeter around the ramp.
The team reached the ramp. Liara and Ashley collapsed on the floor. The rest of shore party piled in
"He's gone…" Liara mumbled.
"What do you mean he's gone…?" Joker replied on coms.
"HE'S GONE!" Liara yelled out.
The security team pulled in. Normandy began to pull out. The Spartans moved out of cover, a last attempt to rush the ship.
Goddess, they could move fast. They passed the ship's weapons hatch. Kelly led the way, firing a pistol at the crew.
The crew fired back. Dozens of weapons. It seemed to do little to slow them down.
As the Normandy backed up, Kelly jumped and latched on to the edge with one hand. She began to climb up.
Grunt ran forward, and fired off his claymore. In the very last microsecond, Kelly had dodged the round, jumping to the side and grabbing the ledge with her free hand. She climbed up, faster before Grunt could react. She tackled the Krogan to the deck, uppercutted him right under his jaw. Dark purplish-red blood spread across the deck. Grunt cried out in pain. Kelly immediately rolled to the side and targeted the only other heavyweight, Wrex
Liara slowly walked forward. Without thinking, she pulled out her carnifex. She fired at the Spartan. A few rounds landed, absorbed by her energy shields. Others joined in, carefully coordinating crossfire to ensure not to hurt anyone else.
Liara took a breath, mustering whatever energy was leff in her body. She gritted her teeth and summoned a singularity push that briefly threw the Spartan off her tracks. Kelly stumbled slightly, nearly about to recover before Wrex charged her.
The Spartan, off balance, was now forced to take on the weight of the Krogan. Off footing now, nearly fell on her back. When her back hit the ground, she immediately rolled out of the way and got back up. She raised her free foot and smashed it down on Wrex's joint between his knee and leg. He gritted his teeth, groaning in pain as he kneeled to the ground. She grabbed Wrex by the head, and was about to land her free fist down.
Every biotic on the team reacted at once, utilizing the rest of their remaining energy to push the Spartan back, nearly pushing her off the edge. Her shields emitted a bright, morphing yellow light around her body.
With the tips of her fingers, with no energy left, Liara did her best to form another singularity right in front of the Spartan. The air was kicked right out of Liara's lungs.
With the combined force, Kelly's shields burst. The light spread in numerous directions. The gravitational pull from the singularity tugged at the Spartan, but she was too heavy to fully move and manipulate compared to other beings.
The Normandy was now a hundred meters away from the ground. Liara opened fire.
"Wait… No, wait, Liara, wait!" Tali cried out.
Liara pulled the trigger… Repeatedly. A few rounds bounced off her armor. Maybe one or two pierced her underlayer suit.
Still, Kelly seemed unphased. A small amount of blood trickled down her armor. She turned towards Liara and pulled out her sidearm. She fired a pair at Liara. The Doctor's biotic barriers immediately failed.
Samara immediately stepped in, forming a secondary barrier around Liara. Thane focused on the Spartan. Another warp push. Combined with the singularity, the Spartans weight was being pulled in opposite directions. Still, she pulled out her ka-bar and tried to throw it at Thane.
The knife, reaching a meter towards its target, was immediately pulled back by the singularity and consumed within the black ball of the void. Liara kept pulling the trigger. Two shots went off before Tali grabbed her arm and tried to pull her down.
Liara didn't see where the last shot landed, but the Spartan's body seemed to grow limp. It staggered backwards and forward along with the shifting weight of the Normandy.
Tali had subdued the Doctor to the deck. The Quarian was trying to be as gentle as she could. Liara was able to look up. Kelly's body also fell to the deck. One of the security crews tried to grab her body, to prevent it from going overboard. He was tugging at the heavyweight, unable to move it. Either way the ramps started to close. Below, the city began to rip apart. Smaller Reaper destroyers fell into the great abysses that were forming.
Tali pulled Liara back. "Keelah, what the hell did you just do?"
Liara didn't respond… She just recognized Tali had been shot...
"We have incoming," EDI said on comms. "I'm reading a surge of plasma energy coming from the Shadow of Intent. They turned their weapons on us!"
"Get us out of here! Back to the Citadel!" Tali ordered.
"Negative, they've already targeted us!" Joker responded
"We have a hail." EDI reported. A voice began to play on the squad channel.
"This is Shipmaster 'Vadum of the Shadow of Intent. We have already received a distress hail from the Spartans. Surrender, or perish."
...
Tali waved her Omni-tool across the still Spartan's body.
"Keelah, she's alive," the Quarian said as she began to apply medi-gel.
Liara inserted a fresh thermal clip, "unfortunate-"
"No. NO." Wrex casually said as he got up and grabbed Liara by the waste and nearly lifted her up into the air. "As much as I like murder, it might be a bad time."
And it seemed the crew consensus was in agreement. She dug her nails into his armor, then lowered the pistol. She felt her entire body tense.
"Wrex, get Doctor Chakwas," Tali said as the medi-gel began to seal up the majority of the wounds. Liara was able to get a clear look… One of the rounds had pierced her helmet, and more than likely slightly pierced her skull. Maybe the metal saved her brain from most of the kinetic impact, but Liara wasn't sure by how much. "Liara and I will head upstairs."
"Good idea," Wrex mumbled. He let go of Liara into Tali's custody. She grabbed the Doctor by the arm and guided her to the elevator. Up they went, and they quickly headed to the cockpit.
For whatever reason, the Sangheili didn't destroy them. Tali watched Joker slowly maneuver the ship into the hanger bay. The Normandy passed by hundreds of transports, each one filled with Asari civilian refugees.
Down in the city below, the ground cracked away. Entire sections collapsed and were consumed in the blue shadowed cataclysm. The Temple of Athame was stripped away, and the tip of, what Liara knew, was the Forerunner artifact began to appear.
Now, with Shepard gone and Garrus MIA, the unspoken and unanticipated chain of command left Tali in charge.
But Shepard couldn't be gone… He...he wasn't. He always survived.
Pushing her dark thoughts aside, Tali applied another round of medi-gel to her gunshot wound. Wouldn't be the first time she got shot, but she swore each one hurt worse than the last.
"Bosh'tet…" Exhausted as Tali was, there was no rest for the wicked. She'll mourn when the job is done… as Shepard would have done.
Tali glanced at Liara. She looked...catatonic. She sat against Joker's flight chair and gripped her knees until her knuckles turned white.
The Quarian turned to EDI, "watch her," she said as she left the cockpit.
"Roger that."
Doctor Chawkas was now present in the cargo bay, attending to...well, everyone.. Ashley was sitting down, leaning against the Mako the team 'tactically acquired' on Illium. She looked the worst out of all of them, as bad as she did on Mars.. Even compared to the Krogans. Wrex and Grunt wearily stood up. With redundant organs and about eight packs-worth of medi-gel, they looked a little better.
"Thinking of fighting our way through?" Grunt asked.
"If they were actually hostile, they would've already destroyed us," Tali responded.
The Normandy docked within the hanger. She heard faint groans and churning metals as the ship uneasily docked with the incompatible hanger clamps.
The cargo bay door opened, revealing a massive hanger that could probably hold multiple frigates. Hanger...this wasn't a hanger, it was a staging ground. An entire army could be assembled here and deployed… Yet, Tali only saw thousands of civilians and evacuated soldiers here; as transports dropped them off and pushed back to the surface.
Immediately, in front of the team was a group of Sangheili. It's been a few weeks since she first witnessed these behemoths. Their size, larger than even the Spartans, was a bleak and terrifying reminder of the deeper horrors of the galaxy.
Shipmaster 'Vadum, in his pearl white armor, approached the group as the rest of the Sangheili had their weapons aimed at the group. At most, the Shipmaster seemed ...displeased. But it was hard to read their faces, with such a strange facial anatomy.
"I believe it would be safe to assume that the humans' overzealous approach may have caused a brief altercation on the surface." Shipmaster 'Vadum said, "The Arbiter has tried to consul the shipmaster of shipmasters on this matter, yet they rarely heed our guidance."
The Shipmaster turned, motioning for the group to follow him. Tali briefly looked at Wrex, who only shrugged. The group slowly and cautiously followed, with their Sangheili security detail tagging along close behind.
"You knew?" Tali accused, "you knew about the bomb?"
"Since the plan was conceived." The Shipmaster simply replied. "We are extracting the Spartans from the surface. The Demon, the Master Chief is not with them. Nor do I see your Commander with you. Yet…"
He glanced behind Tali, to the injured, unconscious Spartan.
Tali tried to speak, "he's...uh…"
The Shipmaster turned back without any second thought, "were it so easy. I pray the Spartan is not deceased?"
Tali sighed, "believe me, many of us did try… Very hard to kill."
"As will many of my men attest to the same," the Shipmaster replied.
A Sangheili transport passed very closely by. It hovered a few dozen meters from the group. It activated its underbelly gravitational lift. Two beings floated down into the surface… The remains of Blue Team, Fred and Linda.
And without word, the two Spartans stepped forward and pulled out their sidearms. Fred yelled, "what the hell did you do-?"
"Heed, Spartans," the Shipmaster calmly said. "Your comrade shall still live."
Quite the authority when he doesn't even know the damage, Tali thought.
Tali gulped down her emotions and spoke, "our onboard doctor is tending to her. We plugged up most of her wounds."
That didn't seem to settle them down. Fred frantically looked around, "where's John?"
Bosh'et. Tali didn't know how to answer that question because she herself legitimately didn't know. When she got there, Liara kept screaming that he's gone, he's gone. And she assumed wherever the Commander went, he took the Spartan with him.
"I...I honestly don't know," Tali said.
"Doctor T'Soni was down there with him. Where is she?" Fred nearly yelled. Tali found it quite strange that even with hostilities, they still referred them to the team's proper titles.
"Spartan…" the Shipmaster interrupted. "We are currently in a time-sensitive moment. You witnessed what is happening in the city."
Fred was silent for a moment, trying to let go of his teammate, at least for the moment. He cleared his throat, "we need to contain this."
"In that, we have already failed," the Shipmaster said. "The city is being destroyed underneath our feet. Our warriors are evacuating as many as possible, yet I fear all will fall soon."
The collapse… The destruction that's happening underneath the ship right now.
"What the hell is happening?" Tali asked, feeling as if it would be a better question coming from Liara or Commander Shepard, or hell even Garrus… But she's the only one able right now.
Bosh'et…
The Spartans looked to the Shipmaster, as if they were unsure what to say, expecting the Shipmaster to speak for them.
"We need to go back for John…" Fred said.
"And truly, do you believe he is still even upon this world?" The Shipmaster said. "And should he be contained in the Keyship, he shall be safer there than out here…"
"What?" Tali asked.
The Spartans silently agreed.
Fred spoke, "and the only way to do that is the bomb-"
"No!" Tali said. "What the hell is done there?"
The Shipmaster looked to the massive staging grounds. More Sangheili Phantoms dropped off civilians and evacuated soldiers by the dozens… Hundreds were now building up. Confused, concerned Asari terrified by the Elites…
"A ship…" the Shipmaster said.
"Vady…" Fred cautioned.
"A Forerunner ship," he continued, ignoring the Spartan.
"A ship?" Tali echoed. "And those constructs…?"
"Of Forerunner descent also." The Shipmaster replied, "highly advanced in nature, more so than the Reapers, and certainly more so than these Protheans. And now, with this keyship exposed, soon old threats may rise again…"
Outside the airlock shield, three-hundred meters away from the Normandy, the sun began to set and darkness consumed the sky. The smoke began the morph with the growing moonlight. AA fire seemed to settle and die down… The battle was over.
Those were the Forerunners… The great UNSC secret.
"Why are you telling us…?" Tali asked.
"Unlike our Human allies, our qualms with secrecy are less severe. As I had advised the Shipmaster of Shipmasters, secrecy only leads to distrust and failure," the Shipmaster spoke. "However, they were not wrong in the fact of arithmetic. The danger that ship poses exceeds the value of the lives of the inhabitants of Thessia."
Seems to be a lot easier when it's not your own people, Tali wanted to say.
"Shore Party!" Joker said on comms, "the Temple! It's collapsing!"
And it seemed the Shipmaster received a similar hail as he twisted his head to listen to the commlink attached to his helmet.
"The Temple….?" Tali asked.
"Should you come with me," the Shipmaster said. "You must witness this calamity."
...
A single spoke came crashing through the Temple, ripping apart the foundations and pillars that encircled the Temple of Athame. Statues collapsed in the presence of the geometric spoke as it rose higher and higher into the air.
On the bridge, the Shipmaster sat in his command seat, silent observing the rising Keyship as it's called. Around the city, entire blocks begin to collapse. Buildings consumed by cascems. Thousands have to be dying right now.
And the Sangheili observed quietly. Standing obediently at their stations and continuing their work. A red-dressed Elite turned to the Shipmaster.
"No slipspace rupture detected," the Elite reported. "The city is being destroyed. Our warriors-"
"And should they perish, they shall do so honorable," the Shipmaster interrupted. "Continue evacuations. Should the city be on the complete verge of consumption, then proceed to evacuate from the surface.
The Thessian moon rose over the mountains, and provided a white light that shrouded the dying city. Blue-black imprinted on the Asari teepee-like buildings. The smoke seemed to also disappear in the growing cataclysms.
On the Shipmaster's orders, Corvettes lead by a single cruiser deployed from the Shadow of Intent, guarding the growing Keyship as it now stood maybe five klicks in the air, passing even the height of the mountains.
Liara stoically looked at the destruction, at her childhood memories being ripped away and thrown into a Forerunner abyss.
"Contact the Arbiter," the Shipmaster said. "Tell him of the situation. It has grown more dire."
"Yes, Shipmaster," Elite replied.
"And contact the Shipmaster of Shipmasters… I am sure he will want a report on his mission."
His mission. He ordered the bomb… Liara wondered if he knew what he was doing, what the cost was…
The bridge was cold. The kind of cold that ate away at your skin. The Normandy team could only watch as the city was consumed in darkness.
"Shipmaster…" a Elite dressed in blue reported. "I cannot hail Lord Hood. I have contacted UNSC Command of the Human Sixth Fleet. They report they are also having trouble contacting Lord Hood."
"Joker," Tali said on comms. "Can you try sending a horn to the Citadel?"
"Buoys are out, I'll have to send a horn through QEC. Standby," Joker replied.
"Roger."
The Shipmaster leaned forward. Fred and Linda looked at each other. They already knew this was unusual.
"Uh, Shore Party?" Joker said. "I got a line, but… Patching it through."
Liara listened in.
"Shepard?" A panicked familiar voice said on the other line. Deep and grovely, a Turian.
Tali sighed and bottled up whatever emotions she felt, "absent at the moment, this is Tali…"
"The Qurians?" He said, rather surprised… "This is Councilor Sparatcus, we're under attack!"
"What?"
"Spartans! Spartans are assaulting the Citadel!"
It's all going down… The UNSC…
"Hang on…" Tali said. "Spartans?"
"I don't know. They broke into the Council Chambers with Biotics."
Biotics?
Tali immediately relayed the info to the Shipmaster and the Spartans.
"What?" Fred said. "We can adapt but not that fast…"
"Councilor…" Tali said. "I need a clear picture on what's going on…"
"I don't know, we're in the panic room. They started attacking! The UNSC has turned on us!"
And despite the rage, despite the incoherence, even Liara knew something was very off. Communications blackout, even to the Sangheili was just too far, too straightforward even for the UNSC. None of this was adding up, and speaking to the utterly panicked Councilor, the team doubted they'll get the full picture.
But her mind instantly went to ONI. It was the only possible logical conclusion. The only faction capable of, yet why stage an assault like this? What were they trying to retrieve this time?
But, in any event, they got the basic message.
"The Citadel is under attack!" Tali finally announced.
"As are we," the Shipmaster replied.
"Shipmaster, incoming Reaper ships. Capital-class," a Sangheili operator reported from his station. "At this rate, they'll intercept us in stratosphere."
Perfect timing, Liara thought.
"Leave a contingency here, and defend this area and evacuate as many civilians for as long as possible," the Shipmaster said. "Send a communications home. We need reinforcements."
"We cannot win this fight here. Not with their maneuverability," the Shipmaster concluded as he sat on his throne in the center of the bridge. Dark light gleamed off his pristine silver-white armor. Grim, stoic, nothing could phase him. He smashed his hand on the armrest of the throne. "Prepare for a slipspace jump. Set coordinates to the Serpent Nebula."
"In atmosphere?" Tali exclaimed. "Head to exosphere. The Normandy can slip by and head through the relay!"
What does that mean? Why was a slipspace jump in atmosphere…
Goddess. They were going to create a black hole on the surface of a highly populated planet.
"Wait...wait, you can't do that!" Liara began.
"Shipmaster!" Another crew member said. "Our ground teams are reporting contact with Prometheans! Their numbers are spreading throughout the city! We cannot hold them!"
"Hold the line!" The Shipmaster replied. "Let the Reapers fight these abominations when we can no longer hold."
The Shipmaster turned to the Normandy crew, "the enemy is on a direct attack trajectory. Their speed outmatches must known ships. I must maneuver or we shall surely lose-"
"And you can do that by responding in exosphere!" Tali explained. "The Normandy is the fastest responder! We can get there in less than a day!"
The Shipmaster thought about this, and as he did, Fred stepped forward, "we're not letting you leave without us."
"And you think we're letting you on our ship?" Tali said, "this is the Citadel! This is our fight!"
"And you think you can outlast Spartans?"
"A contingent of my warriors shall accompany you," the Shipmaster decided. "Should we be forced to enter slipspace, we shall ascend to higher altitude to assure minimal damage to the city. Now go! We shall follow in time!"
Somehow, in the span of less than two minutes, they were more successful negotiating with the Elites than they ever have been with the UNSC.
Still… How much would be lost in a slipspace exit? How many more people will die?
Those would be Shepard's concerns… Liara was at a loss for words as the crew rushed back the hanger.