The alien flared his mandibles and charged towards her with an angry roar. No time to duck. No time to roll. No time to even blink. Shepard could only watch wide eyed as unstoppable pain sped nearer with a hungry glint in it's eyes, complete with sharp talons and heavy armor. She thought about saying something, but what do you say at a time like that? Stop please? Do you beg them?

Absolutely not.

She braced her arms over her face during the breathless moment before contact was made, not dropping her gun – Commander Shepard never dropped her gun – and wincing as the creature dipped his spiked head and crashed into her chest. With an 'oof' her feet left the ground altogether and he bull rushed her to the back wall in what was truly a superb tackle. Head crunched against the ship, ears started ringing so hard it felt like her whole skull was vibrating, and the not so distant cries of death around her suddenly seemed so very far away. A mad thought of an alien football team crossed her mind, eleven horned monsters charging across a grassy field with a ball made of pig skin tucked under one arm. Perhaps it was the fact that it sounded so comical, or that it was such an inappropriate time to even be imagining such things – probably because she no doubt had a serious concussion - but a bubble of laughter left her lips even as the alien was pushing her to the ground and snarling inches from her nose in a language she did not understand.

Her unexpected mirth at least confused him for a few moments, mandible twitching as he stared down at the little human. In truth the entire situation was unbelievable. Mere minutes ago Shepard had been doing her rounds, joking with Ash in the CIC over the perkiness of a certain soldiers behind. Kaiden had wandered by and wanted to know what was so funny, and they'd refused to tell as he needled them for information. She had been avoiding one of his puppy dog faces when the power went dead; panic settled among the crew quickly, and flourished after Joker announced over the comms that they were under attack. After that things got blurry, and the commander mask was on. She'd ordered Kaiden to go turn the power back on – and he must have somehow succeeded as the lights were now casting shadows over strange, plated faces, though Kaiden had not returned - had rushed with Ashley and a few others to grab their weapons, charging down the stairs as Joker's shrill voice continued to sound above them. "Breach in the cargo hold. Prepare to be boarded. I repeat, prepare to be boarded."

Hackett had sent them on a simple routine mission. It was meant to be simple.

Adrenaline brought her out of her rabbit hole and gave her the energy to once again fight back. She realised that his two fingered hands were attempting to pull her assault rifle from her, and Shepard gripped onto it for dear life as they began to wrestle across the metal ground of the Normandy. Others fought around them, but she was lost in the moment as death stared at her right in the face and elbowed her in the ribs. When that did not work he head butted her with his rock like forehead, and her knee instinctively rose to crash between his legs in answer; but she did not find what she'd been looking for and barley caused the alien to flinch. A woman then? She sure as hell couldn't tell, and didn't find the time to ask. Instead, they rolled across the cargo bay until a dead body blocked their path – one of hers, Private Jenkins, he'd been itching for some action. Anger seethed through her bones, an anger she rarely brought to the surface, and she crashed the butt of her gun against his plated cheek. The aliens snarled furiously as his face was knocked to one side, spittle flying from his mouth and allowing her a perfect view of sharp little teeth, set in a neat row and looking ready to dig in to soft flesh.

"Get… ugh…off me!" She said through her own gritted, and unfairly blunt, teeth; smashing her gun like a hammer into his mouth several more time. Fangs shattered, one mandible crunched, and he leaned back far enough in protest that she was able to clamber free; scrambling backwards on her ass and lashing out with one last kick to the face before leaving him and re-joining the fray.

Now up on her feet and back into reality, one thing was obvious: they were losing.

Pools of red blood splashed the floor and mixed amongst blue to make a murky magenta. But the humans lying cold dead outnumbered that of the enemy. Humans. Her crew. Her friends. Guilt dragged her down (or maybe that was the now dying alien clutching to her leg?) and Shepard pulled herself into action before all was lost.

These people were under her protection, and if she didn't lead now then all their lives would be on her head instead of the majority.

"Retreat!" She said in an angry shout, leaping over Jenkins's body and shooting towards a snarling alien with blue face tattoos. "Get to the escape pods! Fall back! I said fall back!"

She herself stepped forward, covering her party as they bolted up the emergency ladder or crammed into the lift. Say one thing for Shepard, say that she's a good shot. Firing quick rounds of five with her assault rifle, she aimed for headshots every time, fully prepared to go down fighting if it meant a few survived – survived and sent a warning back to Earth.

Humans were not alone. And they were not safe.

More of the aliens diverted their attention to the lone solider with red hair and a temper to match, so much so that she had to duck behind the mako's wheels and grit her teeth as her baby was shot into scrap. Damn, she'd miss driving that thing.

Now free of gunfire, a few of the armoured monsters rushed after her crew, climbing the ladder seem as the lift was now gone. She shot out again, catching them in the back with a sickening cry of vengeance as two fell from the ladder and landed heavily by her feet. Blue blood splattered her face, and Shepard felt a brief wave of success before two long fingers wrapped around her neck and flung her backwards.

"Ugh!" They'd come round the other end of the mako while she wasn't looking, and she was pinned up to the wall yet again, only this time there would be no lucky escapes. The hand squeezed without mercy and any remaining air was pushed out of her neck. She coughed and spluttered and choked towards an angry face marked with blue markings, bullet wounds oozing from one cheek.

He clicked at her in a foreign language, biting off angry words that seemed to flow into a low growl at times. She tried to shoot him in the chest, but her gun was out of heat sinks, and he flung it away with a snap of his wrist when she kept attempting the impossible. That option now gone, she went for a more basic technique, and spat the blood from her mouth into his eyes, merely fuelling his anger and tightening his grip on her.

May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.

Vision was starting to turn fuzzy as the alien strangled her to death. Her red hair – usually bound into a ponytail so tight it gave her a headache – now fell in messy trickles over her face, leaving a bare patch over one eye that stared up at him furiously.

Squeeze, wheeze, squeeze. Wheeze, wheeze.

Heat washed over her face and she was briefly aware of black smoke licking the ceiling by one end of the cargo bay. Engines probably burned out, she thought. No doubt Joker was refusing to leave the helm, desperate to detach the Normandy from the alien ship so he could somehow save them all.

But that wasn't how her story would end. She was going to die before the war had even begun. She was going to die without any heroics, without a commendable service record. An orphan who made it off the streets and into the army, only to be one of the first causalities from a new alien race. Though she supposed that in itself was something, even if she didn't feel very proud all the same.

She noticed with a slight twitch of her lip the first sign of panic among the aliens, they ran from the fire that was quickly spreading and back towards their own ship. Except Blue here, he was still squeezing, still staring at her with a fiery rage of his own. Maybe that had been his brother she'd killed? Or maybe she was the reason his face was shot to hell? She didn't know.

She didn't care.

And then her world went dark.