…

"'We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things."

(Lt. General Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller)

…

UCV Saint Luke, October 11th, 7:28 AM, 2186

...

Walking to the CIC with my mug of coffee in hand, I slowly scrolled through the morning reports Dixon had forwarded to me. I had been preoccupied with getting everything settled with our Krogan guests the previous day, so reading the relatively benign reports was a bit of a welcomed treat. I took one more sip of my coffee as I opened the door, ready for another uneventful day.

"Happy Birthday, Admiral!" was what I was immediately greeted with as I walked in, shouted by the entire CIC, and many other members of my crew who were here. Everyone stood up as they clapped their hands, leaving me genuinely awestruck. The room had been decorated with handmade garlands and basic streamers, and a small cake sat on the center of the holographic table with lit candles. Dixon, Mara, and Elle were all front and center, with equally infectious smiles on their faces.

"I… what… wow." I stammered, unable to keep myself from grinning as I looked at all the faces gathered around me, masked or not. "You guys did all this for me?"

"Sure did. Thought you were going to find out for a while there." Dixon smiled as Mara walked up and put a small party hat on my head before planting a kiss on my cheek.

"Happy birthday, hon." She said in a softer tone, getting my face to light up blood-red as Elle hopped up and down in excitement.

"I-I honestly forgot about this… thanks guys." I nodded, unable to keep my thoughts straight as I picked up Elle and held her on one of my arms.

"Well, are you going to blow out the candles?" Dixon asked, looking quite amused. "I know that cake didn't come cheap."

"Hm… I suppose I could." I agreed with a smirk, walking to the center console and leaning in, blowing out the candles as Elle attempted to mimic my action. I laughed as several of my crewmen did the same, setting Elle down with the biggest grin on my face.

"Hapi birday, dada!" She said in her cute, stilted way with that bright little face, a moment that would forever be seared into my mind.

As hard as I had tried to forget about my 34th birthday, it seemed that my wife and crew had been determined to make me remember, something I would have normally been annoyed with, but this time around I couldn't help but grin like an idiot.

It had been the happiest moment of the last few months, and something I had needed desperately. In that moment, I realized with friends and loved ones like this, I might actually make it through this war with my sanity intact.

…

UCV Saint Luke, October 13th, 11:02 AM, 2186

...

Sitting in my lab with Mara and Elle, I was using some of my valuable free time to do some further research into the quantum entanglement communicator. While Dan and I had previously managed to reverse-engineer our own version from what Cerberus had developed, we still had little idea how it originally came to be. We only knew for sure that it had something to do with the Crucible design fragment Old Dan had shown us, leaving me to wonder if it had been a combination of research done on both Sovereign and the Crucible design. I had no way of knowing for sure without talking to the people behind the original project, and they were either dead or in hiding after our assault on Cronos Station.

Best I had been able to tell, the communicator wasn't Reaper tech. At its core, it functioned quite similar to what the Reapers used for their instantaneous communication, but to describe it… it felt more like a car that had been completely taken apart several times, and had been modified with each iteration. Without seeing what the "original" version of it was, there was no way to know what was new and what wasn't. It was frustrating to say the least. I had no way of knowing for sure what the Crucible would do if we fired it right now.

Sometimes I really did wonder if quantum physics had a layer of consciousness backing it. Murray Gell-Mann was right when he mocked quantum mysticism with his "quantum flapdoodle" phrase, but the way it "worked" really was spooky sometimes. No one aside from a select, unknown few knew more about entanglement than Dan and I, but even we barely understood how any of this truly worked. Back before our accident, the state of quantum research was awash with a bunch of kooks and crazies, the Ramtha School of Enlightenment being one of many groups we'd make fun of and mock on a weekly basis. The batshit idea that the universe was made up of "thoughts and emotion" was enough to immediately annoy and anger me, and I tolerated none of it.

"Mama, dada! Look!" Elle squealed in excitement as she held up a crude drawing of a Raloi, with big arms held up in the air and blue eyes as tiny dots.

"Very good, honey!" Mara smiled, dropping her work on a Pulse Rifle to crouch down and take a closer look. "Doesn't that look good, dad?"

"Your grandmother would have been proud." I smiled, leaning over the side of my workbench to take a closer look at the drawings she had made.

In addition to the one she drew of a Raloi, she also drew one with a Quarian and Geth. I had to admire her attempt, the rough ovals that were supposed to represent a Quarian facemask made me squint slightly harder to see what she saw in her mind's eye, and the Geth was little more than a brown blob, obviously based on Powell's platform.

"We'll have to hang these on our fridge back home." I grinned, holding up the second picture as an announcement tone rang out through the ship.

"Attention security teams, report to Deck 14 mess hall immediately. Admiral Michaels, please contact CIC ASAP." Dixon's voice rang out through the ship, getting me to narrow my eyes in confusion.

Having been taken completely out of the moment, I forced myself to leave the two and answer the call, picking up the receiver on the wall.

"Michaels." I answered, knowing that if this wasn't important I was going to crack someone's skull.

"Sir, we've got reports that a fight has broken out between one of the Krogans and Corporal Yardes down in the mess." Dixon explained, sounding quite worried as I began feeling worried byself. "No reported injuries as of this moment, but they're apparently being quite... liberal with the furniture down there."

"Son of a bitch… meet me there." I ordered, hanging up and looking back at Mara and Elle. "I'll be right back, there's a fight I have to go break up between our guests and one of my Marines."

"Be careful." Mara urged as I put my coat back on, running out of the lab towards Deck 14.

I had suspected that this would eventually happen sooner or later. Corporal Yardes was one of my Raloi marines, and no doubt one of the Krogans had egged him on. I knew that if I didn't stop it soon, we'd have a real serious incident on our hands.

Running down the hallways, I finally ran into Dixon and several members of my security team. Sounds of fighting, cheering, and shouting could be heard coming from inside the mess, and a few of the non-combatant crewmen were busy trying to get out of the room with their half-eaten meals.

"If things get out of hand, try not to cause anyone any permanent harm." I ordered as I took out my 1911 and chambered a round.

Finally walking into the mess hall, I noticed three distinct groups had filled the hall. First were the onlookers, mostly off-duty crewmen who were keeping a safe distance. Second were the Marines and several Krogans, all keeping relative distance from one another as they cheered their respective comrades on. Last were the two figures in the center, Corporal Yardes and Warrior Khel Klesk. Both were throwing punches at one another, and various broken chairs and two broken tables littered the floor. Several of the Marines hushed up when they saw me enter the room, though the Krogans were a little less reciprocating as the fight went on.

Klesk managed to land a good punch into Yardes' abdomen, causing him to double over in pain as Klesk grabbed his uniform and threw him into another table, sending several trays of food flying through the air. Yardes quickly shook his head, flipping his head back up to focus on his opponent. Klesk charged forward, but Yardes quickly propelled himself into the air with one of his legs, flipping around and using his momentum to kick Klesk into a nearby support column, knocking him head-first into the hard titanium support. Klesk yelled out in anger, preparing to charge again before I fired my 1911 into the light above the two, showering small shards of safety glass on both.

"Sound off!" I yelled as loud as I could, holstering my gun and walking towards both of them, hands held together behind my back. "So… who would like to explain to me exactly what the problem is?"

"Admiral, I apologize. I take full responsibility for what has happened." Yardes quickly said, standing at full attention even as dark red blood poured from several cuts along his face, smeared into his feathers. He panted heavily, his only way to cool his body temperature due to his lack of sweat glands.

I glared at him for a few seconds before Klesk started laughing, getting me to flip around and face him instead.

"The bird fights well! I knew I picked a good opponent!" He remarked, wiping blood from his left eye as he walked in closer. "I would have preferred a fight to the death, but it seems your Admiral has come to save you! Be thankful, bird!"

Without even thinking, I pulled my 1911 back out and whipped Klesk in the face with it, causing him to recoil several feet as his Korgan comrades walked in closer. Several Marines did the same for me, creating a standoff of sorts.

"You puny little human! You dare strike a Krogan warrior?!" He yelled in my face as I refused to budge from where I stood. He was close enough that I could smell his awful breath.

"I seem to recall your leader giving me full control over you and your fellow warriors for the duration of this assignment. That gives me the right to punish you as a member of my crew." I boasted, getting him to growl at me. "You either stand down now and agree to be escorted to the brig with Yardes, or you can spend the rest of the mission learning how well those redundant organs of yours deal with the vacuum of space."

He stared daggers at me as I did the same to him, all of us as quiet as mice. Before either one of us could back down, heavy footsteps were heard as another Krogan entered the room.

"Klesk… I should have known an idiot like you wouldn't be able to control yourself." The Krogan spoke as we both turned to face the speaker, Nakmor Drack. He was the leader of the Krogans here, and quite amicable by their standards.

"Hello Drack." I greeted in a terse voice, crossing my arms as I looked back to Klesk.

"I suggest you all break up and go back to where you're supposed to be. I'm tempted to let the Admiral make good on his threat." Drack threatened, walking in closer and narrowing his eyes.

"If it weren't for my orders, I would kill you where you stand." Klesk growled under his breath, though not quiet enough. Drack could hear him, and wasted no time "disciplining" the insubordinate soldier.

Drack immediately walked up to him, slamming his plate against Klesk's and knocking him directly to the floor. Drack groaned in disappointment, rolling his eyes.

"Get up, you pathetic excuse for a warrior!" Drack ordered, giving Klesk a good kick in the ribs as he clutched his cranial plate in pain. Looking back at Drack, he nodded me towards Klesk, getting me to smile slightly.

"You forgot to address me as "sir", soldier." I remarked, kneeling down next to him. "Are you ready to follow my orders now, or should I continue to let Drack have his way with you?"

"Yes. Sir." He replied with as much reluctance as one could possibly put in their voice, getting me to nod.

"Good. Now you're going to follow my men down the brig without question, and both you and Yardes will stay there until I figure out who started this." I finished in a lowered tone. "Now stand up and get the hell out of my sight."

He followed my instructions, standing up and clutching his side as he walked off with my security team following closely behind.

"As for the rest of you… I must admit, I expected better. Cheering a fight on without a care as to how it affects the ship and morale, not even bothering to try and stop it." I chastised, looking at both groups with equal disdain. "You're supposed to set the standard for how those outside the Confederation view us, and you decide this was the proper thing to do?"

"Sir, if I may-" One of the Marines tried to speak up before Dixon stepped forward.

"I don't remember the Admiral asking you to speak, Private." He immediately shot down, glaring daggers into the Quarian marine.

I let the silence hang in the air for a moment before folding my hands behind my back again, looking at the Marines in particular.

"All of you will be assigned additional work shifts, and your recreational time for the next month is hereby invalid." I announced to a small wave of disapproving looks and body language, though none made a sound as I turned towards the Korgans. "As for the lot of you, I'll leave your punishments up to Drack to decide. If any of you so much as speak ill of a member of my crew in the future, I'll leave you on the nearest rock to rot."

"Meal rations will be halved for the next month, and off-duty time will be spent… volunteering in the cargo holds." Drack said, cracking a smile as his warriors groaned, obviously not thrilled with the idea of helping the crew. "Now get out, unless you want more work to do."

The entire mess was eventually empty, revealing the full scale of the damage that had been caused. Half of the tables had been completely smashed to pieces, and the chairs weren't much better, some obviously having been used as clubs or projectiles. Several dents were evident on one of the walls, along with a multitude of food that had found its way onto the floor, walls, and even the ceiling.

"Goddamn it, this'll take the better part of a day to clean up." I sighed, shaking my head at all the damage.

"Should I get a cleanup crew in here?" Dixon asked, opening his omni-tool.

"Yeah, while you're at it, have a medical team sent down to the brig to patch up our two combatants." I agreed, getting him to nod.

"Hmph… I told them not to come up here." Drack remarked, looking at the blood on the deck. "Controlling these so-called "warriors" is like trying to wrangle pyjaks… I can't believe I agreed to do this."

"Hey, Wrex picked you for this assignment because he trusts your experience." I replied, trying to lighten the mood that had built-up around us. "You wouldn't be here otherwise."

"Heh… this makes me wish I was still working alone in the Terminus." He admitted, turning back to me. "Then again, once this war is over you "Confeds" will be in charge there, so maybe I did make the right choice doing this."

"That seems a bit preemptive, don't you think?" I warned, surprised by his thoughts on the Confederation.

"I've been around a long time, seen many governments come and go. Unlike most of them, you guys are obviously fixing to be in the running for a long time." He remarked, sitting down on one of the few undamaged chairs. "Then again, I've been wrong before. Maybe the writing on the wall isn't as clear as it used to be."

"Now I'm hoping you're wrong about being wrong." I chuckled, pulling out my 1911, ejecting the mag, and making sure the chamber was clear. "I've got a lot of work to do before my little girl is in any shape to recall any of this."

"Hmph, if my people cared more about how their offspring are raised rather than having as many as possible, then maybe they wouldn't've been sterilized in the first place." He smiled, shaking his head. "You humans always surprise me."

"You could always settle down, enjoy your twilight years after this is all over." I replied, hearing the safety glass crunch under my boots.

"I'm too old to have any more kids, too… "Long in the tooth" is what I think your krantt says?" He quoted, leaning forward in his chair. "I can barely control these idiots as it is… the last thing I need are more kids running around."

"My krantt?" I questioned, not sure what he meant by that word.

"Those that'll follow you to the Void itself, your crew." He clarified, cocking his head to the side and chuckling. "I haven't seen a crew this loyal to its Captain in a long time."

"I only do what's expected of me as their leader." I played down, looking over at Dixon as he talked to Maintenance on the wall phone. "I'm no more important than anyone else. Now Commander Shepard, he's a real leader."

"People like Shepard are good for the cameras, but I've read those briefings and mission reports. None of this would have been possible without you, it seems." He continued, getting me to smirk in acknowledgement. "Krogans with this kind of technology would be a force to be reckoned with."

It seemed no matter how hard I tried to deny it, my team and I had really done a lot to shape this corner of the galaxy. While I certainly wasn't as bad as Dan when it came to public attention, there were some times where I just wanted to run away and hide in Serenity Valley with Mara and Elle, never to be in a position of leadership ever again. I often missed the quiet, unassuming life I had back in 2023 when I simply took orders from a normal boss, working on technology with my best friend underneath an old U.S. Air Force base. I was little more than a name on someone's payroll sheet at DARPA.

I hated having to discipline people like this, be the one to put out the fires and make the big decisions. Dealing with interpersonal issues was not an activity I derived any enjoyment from, and offloading such responsibility to Dixon or someone else would be irresponsible and asking for trouble.

Knowing there was nothing more I could do, I zipped my jacket back up and walked out of the room, hoping the fallout of this wouldn't be too damaging to crew morale.

Last thing I needed were a bunch of angry Krogans knocking at my door in the middle of night.

…

UCV Saint Luke, October 13th, 1:02 PM, 2186

…

I stood in silent anticipation as we neared the end of our jump, both hands on the center console as I watched the timer tick down. Like any operation with this level of importance, I was worried about anything going wrong. Dixon and Lieutenant Teves stared directly at me as I followed the seconds, waiting for my order.

After spending a few days slinking through the Traverse and half of what used to be Earth Alliance space, avoiding Reaper patrols the whole way, we finally reached the Kite's Nest. We had no idea how well our hastily-mounted stealth systems had done against Reaper sensors, so if we had anybody tailing us we'd know very quickly once we exited FTL. I held my breath for several seconds before exhaling sharply.

"...alright, put damage control teams on standby, deploy Marines to defensive positions." I finally spoke up to Dixon as the timer clicked down to one minute. "If we're attacked, I want the Gravity drive spooled up as quickly as possible."

"Yes'sir." He nodded, picking up the phone and repeating my orders to the rest of the ship.

Erszbat was our destination, located in the Vular System. Before the war, it was a fairly wealthy planet with lots of infrastructure and farmland. I figured it was a good place to start, given its relatively backwater status compared to Camala and Khar'shan itself, but knowing how the Reapers treated population centers didn't leave me with much hope. I wasn't sure what we'd find here, but then again that was one of the main goals of our mission, finding out what happened to the Batarians.

"Ten seconds." The helmsman announced, getting me to hold my breath again. "Five…four...three...two...one."

A gentle feeling of deceleration could be felt in my gut, forcing me to exhale as the space outside the ship returned to normal. Erszbat could be seen in the distance, a greenish dot with no moon or any other defining characteristics, at least from this distance. As planned, we had dropped out at the edge of a belt of ices, mainly frozen methane and ammonia. It was one of three Kuiper-style belts in the system. We'd be using it as an additional layer of protection against Reaper sensors.

"Anything?" I asked, looking over at Morgan's station.

"Nothing behind us, though I am reading several Reaper signatures around the planet, mainly on the surface itself." She answered, completely focused on the readout in front of her. "Seven larger signals, and numerous smaller ones in close proximity. They appear to be situated in or around the planet's major settlements."

"Hrm, it's the same thing that happened on Benning." I shook my head, knowing they wouldn't still be here if there wasn't a civilian population to harvest. "Are the stealth systems still holding up?"

"They're reading green across the board. As far as the Reapers know, there's nothing here." Tony answered with a smile.

"Right then… have the Marine units stand down, but keep damage control on medium readiness. Keep the Gravity Drive spooled up just in case. Scan for any surviving comm buoys and if you find any, download its logs." I ordered, the cogs turning in my head as quickly as they could as I flipped around to face Teves. "Lieutenant, your mission is a-go. Be ready to depart in ten minutes."

"Yes'sir." He saluted, bumping his hand off his mask and running off towards the hangar deck as I cracked a small smile, the psychosomatic "tightness" in my chest beginning to lessen slightly.

Three of our Cobra gunships had been modified into stealth-capable vessels, able to enter a planet's atmosphere without being detected either visually or by sensors. Unfortunately, due to the low capacity of the heat sinks we installed on said ships, a limitation given the Cobra's size, it was only capable of remaining hidden for 20-25 minutes before the system would fail, radiating its heat and turning the vessel into one massive hotspot. This could be safely done on the ground, ideally in a hotter climate, but either way it posed a risk to those using it.

Lieutenant Teves and his team were fully aware of the risks, and I knew if they couldn't pull this mission off, the rest of this assignment would be a bust. We needed to know what the hell was happening here, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice my own people just to find out the Reapers hadn't done anything here that wasn't already being done on several Alliance planets, Earth included. I'd rather leave behind smoldering, radioactive craters than lose my men to these abominations.

"Cobras are fueled and ready for launch. Should I give the order?" Dixon asked as I stared down at the console, looking at their flight paths one more time.

"Do it. Move us into the belt once they're cleared." I acknowledged, looking back up at him as he gave me a curt nod, raising the receiver to his ear.

"Flight, you are cleared for launch. Good luck." He said, taking in a deep breath as we watched the camera view of the hangar as their engines fired up.

"Thanks, we'll be back soon." Teves reassured with a slightly cocky tone to his voice as the line was cut, leaving us with no further communication until they were either on their way back or forced to break radio silence.

"Hm… I think this might be the worst part of being in command." I mused quietly, watching the Cobras fly out of the portside hangar and disappear as their stealth systems engaged. "Sending those men into an uncertain situation and not knowing if they'll make it back or not."

"You gave them all a choice, and they volunteered." Dixon reasoned, one of his eyebrows shooting up. "I'm sure there's a point where you have to just… let them do their jobs."

"That's easy for you to say. You chose your leadership position, I didn't." I argued, thinking back to all the time we spent running and hiding from Cerberus all these years. "Hypervigilance will damage any man, no matter how hardened they are."

Dixon stared at me with an uncertain expression for a few seconds before nodding and walking off to check the CIC stations, obviously not wanting to get into a philosophical argument with me. I couldn't blame him, the last few months had made me far more bitter than I ever expected to be, even after taking down Cerberus. Nothing I had done before their arrival properly prepared me for the absolute brutality of the Reapers. They made a train car filled with corpses look pleasant in comparison. People processed into sludge or converted into husks, the pure lack of emotion behind any of it… it was quite unnerving.

I knew lingering on these thoughts would do no one any good, so I instead decided to leave Dixon in charge of the CIC so I could go down to Engineering and give them a surprise inspection. I was curious to see how the heat sinks for the stealth systems were functioning anyways, so looking at them now would be killing two birds with one stone.

Even though my goal had been to avoid thinking directly about the situation, my mind wandered again to the Reapers and the ideas we had for defeating them as I walked through the corridors. Despite how badly the battle at Cronos Station had gone when the Reapers came, we learned heaps of valuable information about both their offensive and defensive capabilities. We discovered their kinetic barriers did have a maximum threshold that was capable of being broken in one shot by our Super Magnetic Accelerator Cannons at maximum charge. This revelation led to some in the New Quarian Commonwealth proposing the idea of turning the ODPs into mobile "siege guns", either attaching engines to our pre-existing platforms or designing a whole new "ship" to move and house the SMACs.

It was quickly shot down when we studied the concept and determined that modifying or converting the platforms into mobile vessels would actually pose an immense risk to the crews. Powering the engines, FTL, and the SMAC all at once surpassed the power generating capacity of even our largest reactor designs, and could lead to massive, critical instabilities in the power grids. Fielding the SMACs as spinal ship weapons would require a vessel many times the size of the Caprica, and moving a ship of that size would require a complete re-understanding of the physics and engineering behind Element Zero. We didn't have the resources to research and design yet another reactor or ship, not when said resources were already focused on other projects. We were still building the newer platforms around Rannoch, Turviss, and Reach, and everything else was needed for new ships and the Crucible Project.

Finally reaching Engineering, I walked in getting the Chief and his team to jump to attention.

"Sir! I didn't know you'd be coming down today!" Chief Tirus remarked in surprise, standing with his hands behind his back as the rest of his control team looked at each other.

"Things were quiet up in the CIC, so I figured I'd come down and see how the stealth systems were holding up." I replied, walking past them and looking down into the reactor hall. "Who's the one in charge of that?"

"That would be Ensign Farow, sir." Chief Tirus immediately answered as I turned to Farow, who looked quickly between both of us before picking up his data pad.

"Yes'sir, uh… heat sinks are at thirty-four percent capacity, and the stealth systems are running at ninety-seven percent efficiency. Uh… it's all within expected limits." He answered as his voice wavered slightly from nerves. "There has been a slight drain on the reactor's efficiency since the system's installation, but we don't want to run diagnostics on it until we're out of harm's way."

"That's fine. I assume you've increased the reactor's power output to make up for the increased draw?" I guessed, getting the Chief to reflexively tilt his head just a little further down, confirming my thoughts and getting me to smile. "Hm… very good. I've trained you all too well. Soon you'll be designing and building ships that'll put me to shame."

"You'll still be in charge though, sir. You have all the power when it comes to what we can or can't build." Chief Tirus pointed out, narrowing his eyes as my sarcasm sailed over his head.

"You know what I mean." I refocused, looking back to Farow with a smile as a hard rumble could suddenly be felt beneath my feet, followed quickly by what sounded like a muffled explosion.

"Keelah, what was that?!" Farow exclaimed, another vibration being felt as the Engineering team jumped into action. I ran over to the phone on the wall, quickly dialing in the CIC.

"Come on, come on…" I repeated to myself as I waited for a response, finally getting a connection as yet another muffled explosion could be heard, this time much closer as the alarms began blaring. "Dixon, what the hell is going on?!"

"We're being attacked by several ships that just showed up out of nowhere from the ice field! Our MES was damaged in the first shot, and we're attempting to fill the gap with the kinetic barriers." He quickly explained as another explosion went off behind me in the reactor hall, filling the compartment with fire before the air was quickly vented out.

Dixon's connection cut off as the electrical grid browned out, the emergency generators kicking in a second later.

"Reactor has tripped, we are running on emergency power only!" Chief Tirus yelled out, attempting to find out where and what the damage was. "Life Support backups are functioning, but Weapons and Defensive systems are down."

"What about Engines and FTL?" I quickly asked, looking at his station as two more explosions rocked the ship.

"We are dead in the water, sir." He shook his head, sending me into a barely-contained panic.

"See what you can do about getting them back up again, I need to get back to the CIC and find out what the hell we're dealing with." I forced myself to think and say, pointing at him as I ran out of Engineering.

Red emergency lights lit the halls as several damage control crews rushed past me into Engineering, likely to the reactor hall. I ran as fast as I could, knowing that if we didn't save this ship, there was no chance in hell we'd be able to make it back home. I needed to save the ship.

Running back into the CIC, I watched the holographic projector in the center flicker, the backups having trouble keeping up with its power demands as everyone rushed to keep the ship running.

"Is it the Reapers?" I asked without hesitation, knowing that if it was, there was no way we'd survive.

"No sir, according to the brief IFF we picked up before Sensors went down, they were Batarian." He answered, getting my eyebrows to shoot up as I noticed the distinct lack of explosions being heard now.

"They've stopped firing." Tony pointed out, leaving a pit in my stomach. "That's good, right?"

"No, that's bad… very bad." I shook my head, quickly picking up the receiver and dialing in the shortwave band. "This is Admiral Michaels of the United Confederation Vessel Saint Luke, we are friendly, I repeat, friendly. Please cease your attack and respond to this hail."

Several seconds ticked by before a burst of static signaled that an outside connection had been made.

"This is Captain Ka'hairal Balak of the Batarian External Forces. Prepare to be boarded. Your ship and people are now the property of the Batarian Hegemony." The transmission quickly said before cutting off again, leaving me with a massive pit in my stomach.

"Attention, this is the Admiral. Man your stations and get ready to repel boarders." I said simply into the intercom, giving Dixon one last grim look as I took my 1911 back out and chambered a round.

We had found the Batarians, all right, and they were coming right to us in the worst possible way.

…

A/N: Hello again, here I am with another chapter I finally managed to will into existence. I think we can all agree writing these stories would be a lot easier if I could just hook my brain up and type with my mind, but alas we are forced to use these fleshy appendages called fingers instead. Too late to explore the world and too early to explore space, but maybe soon enough to become a cyborg. Who knows?

All joking aside, writing has been very difficult lately, with the heat at work, the release of Halo 3 on PC occupying all of me and my friend's free time, and so on. It took a lot of thinking to decide what I wanted to do with this chapter, and I hope you all find it satisfactory given these innumerable distractions.