OoO( 7 )OoO

2176 CE, April 8 ESD - 1415 EST
Bridge – Vakarthus - Vetus System

"Someone tell me what in the titan's name is going on down there!" shouted the turian as he stood up and threw his turian whiskey against the far wall of the bridge. The glass shattered into hundreds of shards, causing the strange liquid pour down the wall slowly as the angry man rose up from his chair and watched the wholesale destruction of his collected fleet.

"Well, Elanos, it seems they got the defense towers back online," said an asari standing behind him, a small smirk on her face.

Looking back slightly, his mandibles clicked in irritation. "I can see that!" he growled before bringing up his own holomap of the city again. "Forget it. We can still salvage the situation," he said scanning the miniaturized colony in front of him. Spotting a possible seam to tear open, he immediately activated the comm console. "Calling all ships within the borders of Illyria, if you're still alive, move towards a skyscraper, or get your ass on the ground! The tower can't risk damaging the colony or civilians, so they won't fire on you!" he shouted at the remainder of his fleet.

"Not a bad plan, but that isn't going to help them against the frigate that's now hunting them down," said the asari again, her voice hinting at amusement.

"Look Farah, if you wanted to call the shots your blue ass should have stepped up sooner. Now back off with the mouth before I have you thrown out the airlock," he snapped, only getting another amused chuckle from her. Turning back to the console, he opened it again. "The rest of you outside the colony, make your way for Gate 5! The Alliance ship is crowding the other entrance, so steer clear and go around. Right now, I want every ship that can fly inside that damn city on bringing down that human ship!" he shouted into the comm. In response, hundreds of green lights lit on his console, showing which ships had heard and acknowledged the orders. Those who didn't were either already dead or running for the hills after the towers' display of power.

"Not a bad plan, but that's a pretty nasty choke point," chimed in Farah as she looked at the map curiously.

Glaring at the asari once more, he almost snarled at her. "There's only one Alliance ship in the colony right now. Who the hell is going to take advantage of that choke point if it's on the other side of the city?" he asked, as if he had one upped her.

OoOoO

2176 CE, April 8 ESD - 1418 EST
Gate 5 Outskirts - Illyria - Elysium

"This is Mok'lanok near Gate 5 and ready to strike. Everyone follow my lead," said the batarian captain as he piloted the small craft downwards until he was speeding just a few feet off the ground. Aimed directly at the open security wall, he smirked when the defense tower refused to fire. "Easy money." he said over the comm to the other ships.

"Mok'lanok, I've detected an anomaly in the gate. It appears to be some kind of vehicle. Do you have visual?" asked the commander from a much more prestigious ship than his own.

"Targeting now," he said back as his windscreen zoomed in twice, then finally a third before an unsettling image was projected on the display. It looked like a tank, a large vehicle with six wheels that was painted blue and white with Alliance colors. The most worrisome part about it though was that its giant cannon was aimed directly at him. "Shakas…" he cursed as he saw the barrel light up.

Suddenly, it was a vacuum inside of the spacecraft. The large round had hit the vehicle directly in its cockpit, obliterating the pilot and taking all of the air with it as it tunneled out the back. The ship immediately hit the ground and exploded, showering all his nearby comrades in flak. "What the fuck was that!?" asked a startled human from another ship. But he didn't get an answer as another round tore through his own ship and slammed into its eezo core, detonating the entire thing in an explosion that shook the ground.

"Contact Haliat and tell him we're receiving fire from Gate 5!" shouted a turian as he veered his ship away from the gate. But even he wasn't spared, as a sand-grain sized fragment punctured through the side windscreen and splattered his head across the cabin.

OoOoO

2176.78 CE - 1544 CST
Military Housing Block M900 - Zakera Ward - Citadel

"-don't care what the hell it takes, just get the damn thing working! What?" came a staticky voice as the news story flashed to the captured footage.

"We're live!" came a male voice from off camera.

"Now? … This is Aaliyah Almasi with the Alliance News Network. Today we are broadcasting from Sector 5 of Illyria on the colony world of Elysium! Hours ago, the entire city's sirens went off all at once, sending the city into an unsettling alert. Following the sirens was gunfire and explosions caused by an invading force from the Verge that had somehow penetrated the Alliance's defense systems and shut them down. However, we now have word that someone has managed to undo the sabotage, and the defense towers are now live..." said the reporter as the drone that they used began focusing on one of the ships over their head.

Both kids watched in awe as the camera panned upwards and showed a single pirate fighter getting torched out of the air by one of the pinpoint lasers. "Woah!" shouted the boy excitedly as he watched the news story.

His teenaged sister grumbled and looked over at him accusingly. "Quiet! I'm trying to listen!" she commanded, elbowing her twin gently.

"...and we now stand inside the gate of Sector 5. It appears with the defense towers online; the pirates are unable to approach the inner city from the air. Instead, the insurgents have started clamoring for entry at the only other gateway in the city left that isn't being guarded by an Alliance ship. The resistance they met however was more than the initial wave could handle. Almost every craft that approached the gate was destroyed, with only a few getting away before their impending destruction. The architect of their routing, an Alliance officer by the name of Jane Shepard, is now standing and directing the ragtag group of humans, turians, and asari from behind cover to prevent any of the hostile units from entering the city," reported the woman as the camera focused on her again.

"Wow!" chimed the girl this time. Her brother smirked at her as her excitement peaked at the prospect of the female commander.

"We're now leaving the ANN action drone to film the action as we take cover. The insurgents are making another round to try and get through the gates, and any non-combat civilians are being moved away from the gate to a shelter. This has been Aaliyah Almasi with the Alliance News Network, signing out," finished the reporter as she turned off her mic and stepped out of view of the floating camera.

OoOoO

2176 CE, April 8 ESD - 1440 EST
Sector 5 Gate - Illyria - Elysium

"Team One, now!" shouted Shepard as she spied the approaching wave of criminals making a run and gun for the front gates. Two asari, a pair of sisters that Jane and Sevene found fighting a group of pirates, stepped out from either side of the gate and both of them lit up like an eezo core during relay jumps. Lashing their arms out, the two majestic females sent giant shockwaves pounding down the road to the gate. The first five pirate fighters immediately dodged out of the way, two of them having to pull upwards to get away from the attack and getting annihilated by the defense towers as a response. But those behind the front line were hit square in the faces. Three of the vehicles immediately buckled under the biotic assault, the cabins crushing near instantly. But the real damage was when one of the vehicles was hit by both waves. The mix of biotic power resulted in a detonation that left a crater in the middle of the road where once there had been a ship.

The main cannon of the Mako fired again, punching through the one of the fleeing ships and causing it to crash to the ground, nothing but a flaming husk. "Team Two!" she shouted, aiming down her scope and zeroing in on one of the vehicles that was turning to make another run from a different, less exposed angle. As soon as the vehicle crossed her reticle, she squeezed the trigger and sent the shot clean through the canopy and into the human's skull. The ship continued on until it slammed into the outer barrier wall of the city. Meanwhile, other members who had some combat training, including an older male turian took their long-range rifles and fired at the oncoming wave. While much less accurate than the Lieutenant's pinpoint shot through the man's skull, they were still hitting the vehicle and tearing the flimsily armored pirate vessels apart. "Team Two stand down! Team One, finish them off!"

Again the sisters stepped out. This time, one of them sent out a powerful biotic wave that stopped the remainders in their tracks. Then the other sent warp attack into the fray that once again caused a biotic detonation of destructive proportions. When the sisters stepped back into cover, Shepard immediately noticed them both panting heavily at the exertion. "Boss, I think I may need a minute," said one of the girls as she plopped down on her rear end.

Nodding, Shepard turned to a male human standing by completely decked out in Alliance uniform. "Get them some food and water, and a little time to rest." she commanded. The medical trainee saluted and did her bidding. Both sisters smiled up at Jane gratefully as they were led to a small building nearby. With the next wave a few minutes off, Sevene popped her head out of the top of the Mako.

"What about my break? I've been with you from the start!" she claimed in mock offense.

"You can have a break when you do some work," said Shepard with a playful smile.

"Ma'am…" called the well-aged turian who swung the sniper rifle in his hands like it was his own. Looking up at the tall figure, she smirked at him. Neros had been taking the raiders out one by one from the rooftop of his apartment complex when she found him. The offer of more targets with a better rifle was too great, and he readily agreed to join the party.

"No need for formalities. You can call me Jane," she said, forgoing the handshake.

"I'm a former Hierarchy drill instructor Ma'am, you'll have to forgive the policy," he said sharply. She cocked an eyebrow at him curiously, wondering if this was going to be another humans versus turians debate. "I have respect for any officer of any military, even yours. That being said, I have to ask what in the spirit's honor you're thinking by letting them take a break. We still have fighters zeroing in on us, and those girls are probably the only thing we have keeping them back."

Narrowing her eyes, the human stood firmly against the turian militant. "With all due respect sir, there are a lot of ships out there, and we're not going to help matters by exhausting our two superweapons. On top of that, they're civilians, and not combat trained. I'm not going to sacrifice their lives when there are other options," she said sternly.

The turian's eyes narrowed as well, resulting in a soft twitch of his mandibles. "Fair enough. But that tank can't continuously fire. There needs to be something between the shots to fill the downtime, or we're going to be overwhelmed," said the older turian.

"Something's coming from above!" shouted a female nurse who was carrying one of the sisters away. Both the turian and the human lieutenant looked up and their eyes widened as they saw a much bigger ship drop from orbit outside the reach of the defense towers.

"They've gotta have guns on a ship that size…" growled the turian as he leveled his weapon again and aimed down the sights. "It's turian design, you can almost guarantee it does!" he snapped as he tried to fire a shot at the speeding vessel.

Shepard grimaced as the shields on the craft lit up from the shot. "And shields. Mako team! Take down that vessel!" she shouted rapidly as she moved quickly. "The rest of you get to cover!" The other fighters moved quickly, but some not quickly enough. As the Mako fired, so did the ship. The two long range shots crossed one another on the field and the destructive force when they impacted was immense. The Mako took a full shot to its side, sending the vehicle careening sideways and flipping like a coin through the air, before finally landing back on its broken wheels with a smoking hole through its center mass. The ship took the shot on its nose and the shields deflected it before burning out temporarily.

"We need to stop it now before its shields come back up!" shouted the turian from behind cover.

"Where is the pilot?" asked the woman as she popped up from her own barricade and readied her sniper rifle.

"Front end dead center! Shepard, you're shooting something you can't see!" shouted the turian as he too took up his rifle and aimed.

Squeezing the trigger twice, she felt the gun jerk back in her hands as two rounds flew from the barrel. Immediately, the heat warning on her weapon started flaring as the gun locked up. Ejecting the glowing heat sink, she immediately slapped in a new one in one smooth robotic motion before aiming again. Meanwhile, the turian, ignoring the race of smaller vessels around the much more advanced ship, nearly gasped in shock when he watched her. The thick armor on the ship had done its work and stopped the shot. But the second round hit the exact same spot. Then he heard the commander fire twice more before the familiar hissing of a spent heat sink sounded again. The next shot hit the same place, then the fourth, resulting in a hole directly in the middle of the armor.

The ship nosedived directly into the ground, coming to a catastrophic halt before flipping up into the air with its engines still pushing it. As soon as it reached a certain height, the defense tower locked onto the ship and obliterated it with a concentrated beam of energy. After watching the commander nail the same spot on a speeding ship four times, the turian turned to her, his jaw hanging. "What the spirits are you?" he asked incredulously.

"Get everyone back! Now! We may have stopped the big one, but the others are coming, and we just lost the tank!" shouted the woman as she stood from her cover and began moving backwards, switching out her sniper for the closer ranged Avenger.

The older turian jumped at her order, immediately shouting at the other fighters to move back as quickly as possible. When he returned to Shepard's side, he prepared his own weapon. "What do we do?"

"Take everyone who is still alive and fall back down the street. Make another choke point with whatever you can find and do it quickly. I'm not going to be able to hold them off forever," she snapped. Staring at her for a long moment, the turian simply placed his folded hand against his chest, a form of turian salute. As he gathered everyone, she stood and watched as the vehicles sped towards her, making for the opening that the gunship had left them. "You bastards want this colony?" she asked as she opened her omni-tool. "Come and get it!" she yelled as she saw them cross the hot zone.

Activating the detonator, the entire ground around the gateway lit up like the sun while the lieutenant hid behind her street barrier. A shockwave erupted through the ground that nearly shook the other defenders off their feet as every ship that had crossed that line erupted in fire and metal. The concentrated focus of their destination resulted on most of them slamming to a halt directly in the gateway, making a temporary fiery barrier that kept the other ships at bay.

OoOoO

2176 CE, April 8 ESD - 1455 EST
Sector 5 Gate - Illyria - Elysium

"They're using our own goddamn corpses to block the gate!" shouted one of the humans that had been back far enough to avoid the blast. It still left him with a likely concussion and a goddamn headache though.

"I don't care if they're skinning you alive and putting you on display! Dismount your damned vehicle and get in there! The rest of the squad retreated! There's only one defender left at the post!" shouted a turian captain to the human.

Slamming his fist against the pilot wheel of his now disabled ship, he kicked the door open and grabbed his rifle. "Whatever's in this goddamn place better be worth it," snapped the man as he and the others that had received the order filed out of their useless ships and began jogging towards the opening in the wall of destroyed spacecraft. He coordinated with the others, signaling that he was going to go first. Then he immediately burst from the cover of the metallic wreckage with his weapon up and ready to fire.

2176 CE, April 8 ESD - 1457 EST
Sector 5 Gate - Illyria - Elysium

The human at the front was immediately killed as three rounds slammed into his chest faster than the speed of sound, puncturing his lackluster armor. More men flooded out firing as well, causing the armored defender to take cover as rounds began chipping away at her barricade. Lighting her omni-tool again, she activated her stealth capabilities.

Meanwhile, the pirates stopped firing temporarily, and one of them directed the others to move around the barricade to flank her. Two turians nodded in acknowledgement before quietly moving around either side of the street and out of sight. "Keep your weapons trained on them," growled the batarian as he took charge. "Hey guys, I wonder how much we could sell this dog for?" he asked loudly enough so that she could hear it. The pirates chuckled, but kept their weapons trained on her position in case she reacted. "I bet we could easily get a couple thousand credits out of a fighter like them. Hell, after they finished with her their body, they could throw 'em into the pits to make the money they spent back," he said with a smile that reeked of anger. Despite all his talking, she wasn't responding at all. Growling to himself, he finally snapped. "Get out here human filth! Come out with your hands up or we'll chip away that stupid shelter of yours!"

"Besak!" shouted one of the two flankers over the radio.

"What!?" he shouted back, already in a foul mood.

"They're not behind the barricade!" came the call again. Immediately, the batarian stared in horror.

"What the hells do you mean they aren't there!? We saw them duck down and they haven't moved since!" he yelled angrily. Suddenly, he was stunned to silence as he felt a slap on his back.

"Sorry boys. Party's over," said the lieutenant as she detonated the carefully planted grenade. The entire group was devoured in fire, tearing the batarian to pieces and sending the others scattering from the impact. Some landed dead from the blast, while others rolled around in misery. Raising up from her new location, the redhead aimed down her sights and cleanly killed those that weren't taken out by the blast.

Unfortunately, her new cover put her directly into the path of the turian who had gone to flank her. He took aim and fired into her side, almost shorting her shield. She dove over the barricade to get away from the fire, but one of the rounds had already punched through her arm near the elbow. Growling in anger, she saw the turian hop the barrier to go for the kill. But she lashed out with both feet, scoring a cannonball-like kick to his chest that sent him soaring back.

Rolling to her feet, Jane raised her weapon and fired, finishing the stunned turian. But she wasn't finished as she felt as if a sledgehammer had hit her in the back. The woman flew forward and skidded along the ground face first as an unknown shotgun blast hit her armor clean in the back. Rolling onto her side and coughing through heavily labored breathing, she saw three more figures approaching from the burning gateway. More pirates were starting to filter in through the gate now, outnumbering her three to one. At the head of them was a krogan that held a shotgun over one shoulder.

"It was a good fight, but it's over now. Give up and I'll consider selling you as property rather than killing you," snarked the large mercenary. Shepard got to her hands and knees now, the taste of blood in her mouth and no weapon in sight. Both her rifle and sniper had gone separate ways when she was fighting the turian. "Might even keep you for myself. You put up a damn good fight."

She had fought several krogan before in her run-ins with mercs. But never did she have to take any out up close. She was a sniper after all and was meant to kill things at a distance. Still, she knew quite a few weaknesses of all the known races. When killing was your job, you do it well, or don't do it at all. And she did her job very well. The krogan lowered his shotgun to her chest, a somewhat awkward smirk on his face.

"So, what'll it be human? Servitude? Or death?" he asked. But the pirate stumbled back as gunfire from the disabled tank struck him directly in the chest. Sevene coughed heavily as she took in gasping breaths, her hands barely able to clench the weapon she was holding.

He growled, and he and his two partners raised their weapons to return fire. Being as close as he was, he wouldn't have been able to react quickly enough to stop her. Pulling one last turian knife from her omni-tool strap, she grabbed the shotgun with one hand and lunged forward with the other. The curved metal sunk directly under the hardened plate on the creature's head with a sickening sound, causing the large raider to scream hysterically as Shepard ripped the shotgun from his hands. Spinning quickly, she blasted one of his cohorts in the chest, ripping a crater in his torso.

Feeling the ping of rounds ricocheting off her recharged shields, she spun again and unleashed another hellish blast that nearly made her skid backwards with force. Neither of the invaders had shields, making them easy targets for the heavy shotgun. The krogan had fallen to his digitigrade knees now, reaching up to try and delicately remove the blade that was jutting out of his head. But the lieutenant put an end to that when she pressed the shotgun directly to his face and unleashed another roaring shot. Unwilling to test her luck, she cocked the weapon and fired it twice more into the now hollow skull of the dead pirate.

Her breathing was extremely heavy when she heard the explosion nearby. Looking up, with her lungs burning, her one arm barely responding, and the taste of blood still in her mouth, she peered through the visor of her helmet at the new ship that had just cleared the wrecked path. This one was a smaller human fighter, allowing her to see through the plasteel into the cockpit. The man smiled and waved at her sarcastically as both of the weapons on his ship turned towards her.

Suddenly, as if by some miracle, the ship exploded so heavily that it knocked her backwards. The woman groaned in pain as she looked up to see something blotting out the sun. Clearing her vision, she saw that It was the hull of the SSV Agincourt. "You know Shepard, when I told you to send them to hell, I didn't intend to have you meet them there," came the amused voice of Captain Armstrong.

"Of course, sir. Must have misunderstood your original orders," she said as the ship flew past her, its own weapons tearing through pirate ships before they could even get close. As the ship drifted by, she clearly saw fire raining down into the atmosphere of the planet, and more Alliance ships swooping into the colony. "Cavalry's here?" she asked over the radio.

"Damn right it is," said the captain as he set the ship to overwatch the gate. "Shepard, what you did here was insane, utterly stupid, and defies any sense of logic that the Alliance prides itself for. I want you to know that before I go pinning a medal on your ass and inflating your ego."

"Duly noted sir. With your permission, I'd like to take a nap now," she groaned as the medigel continued its work on her arm. Despite the healing gel's quick work, it didn't stop the pain.

OoOoO

2176.102 CE - 1920 CST
Military Housing Block M900 - Zakera Ward - Citadel

"And that's why we have to ask the hard questions. Was it right for this human Lieutenant to hand out Alliance weapons and armor to aliens?" said one of the women on the TV. She had a rather dark complexion, with brunette hair down to her shoulders that looked as smooth as silk.

"Listen to what you're asking! Staff Lieutenant Shepard saved a human colony with the help of those aliens. If it wasn't for them fighting against the invading force from the Verge, who knows how many of the colonists would have been captured and sold into slavery?" snapped back a human male across from her with sandy blonde hair and a suit fit for a lawyer.

"What Representative Michaels is forgetting to mention is that around 25% of the weapons she put in civilian hands were not returned to the Alliance armory. What if sometime in the future, those weapons are used in some kind of terrorist attack on the colony?" responded the woman.

"Like the one that happened last month? Or did our lovely journalist suddenly forget that nearly every pirate in the Verge attacked the colony all at once?" asked Michaels, the outrage on his face as plain as day.

"The attack on Illyria is in the past, and now we must look towards the future's problems!" snapped back the woman, her voice rising in anger as well.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you two, but that's all the time we have right now. Mr. Michaels, Miss Al-Jilani, thank you both for coming-" came another woman's voice before the TV changed channels.

"You two need to stop watching that crap. Tabloid news rots your brain," came a gruff voice behind the young boy and girl.

"Awww, but dad!" complained the young man as their father changed the channel.

"No buts. Watch this instead," he said as he changed the channel to another network, this one labeled ANN. On the screen was a stage set up in the biggest park of Illyria. In front of the large platform were rows and rows of Alliance soldiers in full dress uniform. Both the boy and girl perked up at the sight of the redheaded woman standing in full Alliance Class A regalia in front of an aging full-bird captain, who was pinned something to her chest.

"Is that her?" asked the girl as she curled up next to her father, who sat between the pair.

"That's her. They're pinning the Star of Terra on her today," said the man as he ruffled the teenager's hair.

"Why does she look so serious?" asked the boy, who had just noticed the solemn look on their hero's face.

The father gave a melancholy sigh. "That's the face of a soldier kiddo. There's nothing fun about fighting."

This time the girl chimed in. "Then why do people do it, Dad?" she asked curiously.

Staring at the stone-cold face of Shepard on the screen, the father simply said. "Because someone has to." That seemed to answer the question, as both his son and daughter quieted down and watched the holoscreen. The father got up from his seat and headed towards the door. "Scott, Sara, don't stay up too late," he said, then left as they waved in acknowledgement.

OoOoO

"Shepard…" came the voice of another, who watched the channel from another world. He sat in his chair with a glass of turian whiskey. He had been watching with anger boiling in his veins. But ever since her face came on screen, and she was credited as the Hero of the Skyllian Blitz, he had gone silent as rage filled his entire being. Soon, the glass in his hand cracked, then exploded, coating both his taloned fingers and the arm of the chair in the foul-smelling liquid. "Shepard…" he growled again to himself.

OoOoO

CODEX ENTRIES

Titans – Xenomythology – Turian
Before the space-flight era of turian history, nearly the entire species believed in the same mythological story of titans that created Palaven, its life, and everything on it. The father titan, known as Palaven, was believed to have shared his spirit with every creature on the planet, making them all individual children of the titan itself. But, while leaps in technology and information dissuaded a belief in these stories, many facets of the mythology stuck around in turian culture. A belief in the spirit being one of these, as well as having a military training regimen called "Path of the Titans" that was a recreation of the journey across the continents the titans were believed to have taken, consisting of lots of running with heavy equipment.

Easy Money – Xenolinguistics – Batarian
A colloquialism that essentially means the same thing as "like taking candy from a baby," implying that the task ahead was so simple that it would be laughable to fail. Its origins can be traced through batarian culture and back to the slave trade where some slaves were marked as 'easy money' due to their inability to resist.