April 25, 2185

Viper Nebula

Bahak System

"We are prepared," Nat said. "The countdown will terminate in thirty minutes."

"I hope we're as prepared as we think we are," Shepard said, distracted by the view outside the observation lounge window. Without turning his head, he could see a dozen geth dreadnoughts, over a dozen batarian cruisers, three squadrons of batarian frigates, and enough fighters to fill the sky with their marker lights. Nat and EDI had reassured him that the singularity mines laid around the Relay were designed to home in on Reaper signals, so the defending ships would be safe from them, but it still made him nervous to be so close to such a large minefield.

"I believe it is a universal truism of combat, that one is never as prepared as desired," Nat said. "We fight with what is available, and hope it is enough."

"That pretty much covers it, doesn't it?" Shepard mused. "Well, we'd better get to our stations. I'm not looking forward to this."

"That confirms that you are rational," Nat said.

"Unlike Grunt and Urz?" Shepard chuckled.

"They are from Tuchanka," Nat said. "Rules are different there."

"True," Shepard agreed, then chuckled and nodded. "Here's hoping we come out the other side of this."

"Indeed," Nat said, as the two left the lounge.

###

Fred and Max drifted in the space near Bahak's Relay – what Dr. Kenson's files had labeled the "Alpha Relay" – and waited for the first Reapers to drop out of FTL. The Normandy had spread a sensor net a light-day out from Bahak, but Fred wasn't putting his faith in it. Given the way the flat-space tubes the Relays used worked, he suspected the Reapers had to have another Relay in Dark Space, which meant they hadn't found every setting on this one, despite years of study by the Batarians. If they hadn't found every setting on this Relay, he was fairly certain that the Reapers had a decent chance of dropping in without warning, even if they had enough sensors to tighten the net. No, they were shooting blind, no matter how he looked at it. It would be a matter of sheer, impossible, Shatner-level luck for –

"We've got a ping," Max announced. "No, make that … uh, Dad, remember that Canadian movie from 1986? The sensor net is lighting up like the Colonial Marines' motion detectors."

"Pass the word," Fred said, while sitting up and jacking in, to the sounds of Max's systems spinning up to combat readiness. "Remind everyone to let the mines do their work first."

"Did I hear Max right, beloved?" Tali's voice came in his ears. "The Reapers are here?"

"They are," Fred said. "In case I'm too busy to mention it in the next hour or so, I love you."

"And I love you," Tali said. "You had better come back to me – to us. If Hel has to hunt you down, you know we're all going to be annoyed with you."

"Only annoyed?" Fred asked. When Max projected a frown over his display, Fred let out a sigh and said gently, "I'm sorry, Tali. I … I'll do everything I can to stay in one piece. I promise."

"You'd better!" Tali yelled, her voice quavering. "Keelah, if I could only be out there with you..."

"If you were out here, who'd keep the Normandy's engines in tune?" Fred asked gently. "We need you right where you are, sweetheart."

A flare of light warned Fred of an explosion, just before Max's Ravenfield went black. "Time to work, sweetheart. Reapers are here."

###

The space around the Bahak Relay turned into a maelstrom of explosions and debris as Reapers dropped below lightspeed and were set upon by mines the Geth had spent the last two days laying. As mines detonated against Reaper hulls, the geth minelayers launched more into space to replace them. Meanwhile, the geth dreadnoughts began punching holes through the Reapers with their phaser batteries, giving the batarian ships openings to exploit. Far more often than he liked, Shepard saw the flare of another batarian fighter exploding, even with geth drawing fire away from them. Despite their losses, though, the good news was that, so far, the Reapers had not been able to activate the Relay.

"How does it look, Shepard?" Bakal asked over the comm.

"I don't like how many fighters we're losing," Shepard said, "But I know we'd be losing a lot more if not for the geth."

"I know what you mean," Bakal said. "The way they're going after the Reapers makes me very happy they aren't hunting us."

"They lost five percent of their population to the Reapers," Shepard said. "They have a personal stake in this."

"Five percent?" Bakal asked, stunned. "That would be like the Hegemony losing over a billion people. No wonder they want vengeance."

"How are your people doing?" Shepard asked. "I can see what it looks like from here, but you have a direct line."

"Every one of our soldiers will do whatever it takes to keep this Relay closed," Bakal said. "I'm just glad we haven't had to so far."

"And won't have to, if we're successful," Shepard said.

"So far, so good," Bakal said. "Glad to have the geth on our side. I'd better get back to it."

"Good hunting," Shepard said, just before Bakal clicked off.

###

If it had been a movie, Fred would have been enthralled by the view through Max's canopy. The dancing of the fighters as they shot through and around each other, jockeying for position and firing angles, then launching missiles or firing cannons. The majesty of cruisers moving into position for axial gun fire like a grand dame sweeping through a throng of peasantry, while their GARDIAN lasers punched holes in incoming hostiles. The geth fighters crossing the battlefield to shield batarian ships that were being swarmed by Reaper ships. The spray of metal – both molten and scraps – when a mine detonation punched through a Reaper's skin. The Normandy, in the middle of it all, using its superior technology to guide and direct the defense, was the keystone that made the whole thing work. Knowing that Tali – his Tali – was on the Normandy, directing its engineering team, brought a tear of pride to his eyes.

A Reaper ping above and behind him brought Fred's attention back to why he was in Max in the first place, and he triggered the transformation sequence, using the change's movements to reverse his facing, so when he brought the gunpod up to firing position and emptied a burst of phaser fire into the Reaper's frontal armor, it didn't have a chance to get off the surprise attack it had been lining up for. A singularity missile, fired into the hole the phaser had punched into the Reaper's armor, finished it off, and all that was left was an expanding cloud of metal fragments that stopped dead when they hit Max's Ravenfield.

"We're going to have to dock and reload our missiles," Max commented. "So Much For Subtlety says her fighters haven't been using nearly as many missiles as they'd expected, so we're welcome to some of her supply."

"So Much For Subtlety? Where'd she come up with that name?" Fred asked, laughing, as Max returned to his fighter configuration and they started for the dreadnought Max had indicated in the HUD.

"When we linked the geth network and ours, they devoured every bit of fiction we have," Max said. "Nat told them, and Tali agreed, that you can learn more about a culture by studying its stories than you can by studying its official histories."

"Gotcha," Fred said, nodding slowly. "Official histories only tell you what the people in power want you to believe. Stories tell you what people really do believe, right down in their guts."

"Right," Max said. "Well, there's a Scottish writer named Iain M Banks, who wrote a series of books about a post-scarcity anarchist society with AIs as equal members of the society. A lot of what he wrote is, frankly, unbelievable, given that every sapient race we've ever encountered has a predatory background at some point in its evolution, but that didn't stop the geth from embracing his presentation of what they've wanted since the Morning War."

"I'll bet," Fred said, as he relinquished the controls for the last few feet of landing. The cradles geth fighters used were a bit more touchy than landing on a flight deck, and he was glad the dreadnought's systems included fine control for mating with the cradles. "So why the name?"

"The AIs in those stories tend to pick names that amuse them," Max said, "that apply to their preferred job, or that express some level of irony regarding their relationship with the universe. In our dreadnought's case, she's clearly expressing the opinion that once she's arrived on the scene, the time for subtlety has long past."

"I can't argue with her logic," Fred laughed. He shifted his attention to the barely-suppressed laughter he detected on the edge of his consciousness, and asked, "I take it you've been listening?"

"I have," So Much For Subtlety said. "Max is overthinking it a bit, I think. I picked the name partially because of what he said, but also because I look forward to the response I'll get when I show up somewhere with my future crew of quarians and Companions, announce my name, and unleash a horde of ass-kicking on whoever has invited it. Reapers aren't nearly as interesting as I'd expected."

"I know what you mean," Fred chuckled. "When someone thinks you're about as interesting as an ant, it's not nearly as satisfying taking them down as it would be if you were fighting someone who sees you as closer to an equal. Kicking the ass of someone who gives you no respect is just doing the universe a favor. Kicking the ass of someone who respects you and sees you as a credible challenge is much more satisfying."

"I hadn't thought of it that way," So Much For Subtlety said. "We're going to have to share that opinion and think on it a while."

"As long as you let your lower-level processes do that, while your higher-level processes keep blowing up Reapers," Fred laughed, "I've got no complaints."

Outside, a worker knocked on Max's canopy and gave Fred a thumbs up. Fred checked Max's stores display and saw the geth had completely reloaded all his racks with singularity missiles. They had even removed the hellfire missiles he hadn't used, after seeing the miniscule effect they had on the Reaper armor, and replaced them with singularities. Fred grinned and nodded to the worker.

"We're ready to clear this cradle," Fred said. "Thanks for the supplies!"

"Glad to offer them," So Much For Subtlety said. "Now get out there and kick some Reaper ass!"

"Aye, aye, ma'am," Fred said, laughing along with the dreadnought as the launch cradle kicked Max out of the ship where he was clear to fire his engines and rejoin the fight.

###

With geth frigates recovering batarians who survived the destruction of their ships, Bahak's defenders were able to maintain their resistance to the Reaper incursion until every available batarian fighter and frigate had been destroyed. When batarians began launching from the geth dreadnoughts in geth fighters, the change in the battle zone was palpable.

"Damn!" Joker exclaimed, while grinning at EDI's globe. "Would you look at those guys! Never thought I'd see the day I'd be rooting for batarians, but they are not going to let the Reapers have this system!"

"It appears to me," EDI said, "that defending a place you care for, even if it is not your home, gives all the motivation you need to exceed your capabilities."

"No doubt about it, EDI," Joker said, smiling as he leaned back to watch his displays. "No doubt about it. I just wonder when – or if – the Commander's going to give us the chance to dive in."

"We're serving a greater purpose by coordinating the defense, Jeff," EDI said. "I know you want to put the Normandy through her paces, but right now, the work Miranda and her crew are doing is as valuable as what you would be doing if we were in there, shooting."

"Hey, at least I get to watch, right?" Joker said, giving EDI a weak smile. "I wish the Reapers had held off long enough we could have outfitted everyone with our upgrades. I may not know anyone out there – hell, I don't even like batarians – but every time I see a ship get hit, it gets me, you know?"

"I know, Jeff," EDI said gently. "Every time I see a ship hit, I think of how that could have been us … could have been you … before we were upgraded."

"Hey," Joker said, focusing his attention on EDI's globe. "We'll make it through this. Everything we've done so far, there's no way we won't!"

###

Miranda looked up from her desk and scanned her crew's terminals. While EDI was far better at managing cyber warfare, and Miranda trusted her implicitly to defend them against Reaper cyber attacks, she was still working on her intuitive sense, and so it took organics to manage the fleet's communications.

"That's where I come in," Miranda thought, as she ran a quick scan of what each one of her on-duty crew was up to. Damn. It looked like something was getting to Sethinia. Her response had dropped sharply in the space of about two minutes. Miranda stood and crossed the comm center to Sethinia's station, and found the asari attempting to coordinate communications while blotting tears that flowed freely down her cheeks. Miranda reached over her shoulder and rerouted her work to other terminals, then took Sethinia's hand and gently tugged her to her feet.

"Come on, hon," Miranda said gently. "You and I are going to have a few minutes away from the mics."

"I can't!" Sethinia protested weakly, while letting Miranda draw her from her chair. "They … they need me."

"You're not doing them any good in this state, hon," Miranda said gently. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

"I could hear them," Sethinia whispered, then threw herself into Miranda's arms. "I was talking with the comm officer on Will of the State when a Reaper cut it in two. He asked me to tell his wife and children he loved them."

"Oh, hon, you have every right to be sad," Miranda said, while holding Sethinia and gently stroking her back. "I'd be worried if you weren't. Now here's what I want you to do, OK? Go over to the observation lounge, get yourself a nice stiff glass of whatever numbs you, and take some time to let the hurt get numb. I'm not sure it'll ever get better, but we can at least make it numb enough to keep helping everyone else out there, right?"

"I've never been with someone when they died before," Sethinia said softly. "Up until the Normandy hired me, all I'd ever done with my life was study. Getting to work with the cutting edge of communications technology seemed like a dream come true. At least, until today."

"It's OK, hon," Miranda said gently. "Just go do what I suggested, OK? And if you have someone who makes you feel alive, why not go find whoever it is, and spend some time feeling alive?"

"I wish I had someone like that," Miranda thought. "Shepard's right. If he had caught my pass, I'd have always worried if he'd cheat on me. Faern'ya was fun, but we both knew it was just a one-night stand. Jacob … he's too much of a boy scout to ever settle for someone like me. Fred's too much like a brother for me to even consider, even if I didn't know Tali would feed me her shotgun. Ori's safe on Rannoch, but she's not the kind of person I suggested to Sethinia. I … even Joker has someone, even if she's just an AI. What's wrong with me?"

Miranda shook her head and returned to her desk, pushing her feelings aside and focusing her willpower on the tasks before her.

"All right, it wouldn't be fair to bring anyone else in to cover Sethinia's station, so I'll just route her calls to my desk." The decision made, Miranda put it into motion, giving the comm system VI the new routing instructions and began answering calls, ruthlessly ignoring the personal message notification on her display. She didn't have time for anything personal right now – not while there was a fleet out there fighting the Reapers.

###

"How soon can you get them here?" Fred asked, while lining Max up for a volley of missiles on the Reaper a geth fighter had just opened up for him.

"We've joined the convoy from Rannoch," Miriam said, then shook her head. "I couldn't believe how empty it is. Lia'Vael was the only quarra I saw there, and she's obviously having trouble acclimatizing to all the getta."

"Being with Tina's not helping?" Fred asked. Max's Ravenfield blackened when one of his missiles detonated against the Reaper's primary fuel tank, triggering an uncontrolled fusion explosion..

"Being with Tina is the only thing keeping her sane, I think," Miriam said. "She keeps looking around like she expects the workers to suddenly grab guns and start shooting every organic in sight. What's sadder is the archivists showed us footage of the Morning War. Did you know the getta stopped shooting at the quarra as soon as the quarra stopped trying to kill them? The only reason quarra still exist in this universe is that the getta didn't want to kill them!"

"I know, love," Fred said softly. "I know. Just a sec. So Much For Subtlety is calling me."

"So Much For Subtlety?" Miriam asked, giggling.

"She's a dreadnought," Fred said, then laughed. "Her humor processes are fully functional. Or is that her irony processes?"

"Fred?" So Much For Subtlety said. "We're picking up some strange readings closer to the colony. Could you and Max check them out before we recommend rerouting any of the fleet there?"

"On my way," Fred said. "Max, let's see the coordinates. Sorry, love. Something weird's happening, I need to check it out."

###

General Jorem cursed the Reapers, the universe, and most especially the SIU and Commander Bakal. The uppity bastard had actually threatened to have him shot for treason if he didn't start evacuating the system, and now an impossibly large battle was making that evacuation possible. The best he was able to do was load the colonists into every ship in the system that didn't have weapons and send them as far from Bahak as their fuel could carry them, thanks to the Relay being blocked by the battle. Even abandoning the slaves, that still left colonists crammed into freight containers, shuttles, and anything else that could fly, most of them packed so tightly their life support was likely to run out before their fuel did.

On top of everything else, as if being ordered to follow the lead of humans – and not just any humans, but Commander Shepard! – wasn't bad enough, his system was full of geth! And he had been ordered to trust them! There was only so much a batarian could stomach, and that son of a vorcha Bakal had pushed him to his limit.

"General!" A lieutenant – whose name he had yet to learn – snapped to attention and handed him a datapad.

General Jorem scanned the pad, narrowed all four eyes, and glared at the lieutenant. "Would you care to tell me why I'm not feeling our guns firing, if this is the case?"

"Your orders, sir!" the lieutenant, whose terror was gratifying, even if Jorem wasn't entirely certain it was directed at him, said. "You locked out fire control so that Commandar Bakal couldn't order us into action."

General Jorem pinched his nose and closed all four eyes while he thought as quickly as possible. The lieutenant was right, which meant he was going to have to alter the logs to show a system failure or something, if they survived this. He opened his mouth to speak, only to be silenced by the stream of molten metal that cut his ship in half.

###

"What the frak?" Fred swore. "Max, did I just see what I thought I saw? Why didn't any of them shoot back? We need some geth over here, and we need them now!"

"We're all we've got until the convoy gets here," Max said, as Fred lined him up on the nearest Reaper destroyer. "And it looks like they're landing on Aratoht. I thought they'd evacuated!"

"So did I," Fred said. "We're going to have to go in to see why they're bothering to land."

A burst from Max's gun pod opened a hole in the destroyer's armor. A moment later, a half-dozen singularity missiles slammed into the Reaper. Two of the missiles penetrated through the hole, and a moment later, the Reaper's parts sprayed over nearby space. Meanwhile, Max shot through the debris of Reaper and batarians, headed for Aratoht's surface.

"I'm picking up a lot more than just destroyers down there, Dad," Max said. "They're mostly clustered around the mining facilities."

"Around the …," Fred trailed off, then hit the transmit button. "Normandy! Ask your batarian friends how many slaves got abandoned in the mines?"

"Normandy here," Miranda said. "What's going on, Fred?"

"Reapers are landing on Aratoht," Fred said. "Hundreds of them, all clustered around the mines. No way we can destroy them all without another fleet just to attack the planet."

"And the only reason they'd be landing …," Miranda mused, "is if there were people down there for them to convert."

"Exactly!" Fred snapped. When Max popped up a frown over his display, he sighed. "I'm sorry, Randa. I just … Damn it! They abandoned those people down there, and now the Reapers have them, and there's nothing we can do to save them!"

"There's one thing we can do," Miranda said. "Unfortunately, it's a better choice than letting them be converted."

"I know," Fred said softly. "I … damn it! Who's the closest dreadnought with the right bombs on board?"

"EDI?" Miranda asked.

"That would be LART," EDI said. "Careful when you're talking with him. He's a bit irritable."

"He's as cranky as me?" Fred snorted.

"I wouldn't have put it quite that way," EDI said, "but, yes."

"No problems," Fred said. "I understand. As far as I'm concerned, he has every right to be cranky. I know I am."

"Fred?" Miranda said, her voice quivering with barely-contained fury. "I just talked to Bakal. He told me Aratoht has nearly a quarter million slaves working the mines. And General Jorem just abandoned them!"

"Nearly a quarter million batarian husks, if we don't blow the planet up," Fred whispered. "Damn it! Find me Jorem, so I can shove a candle up his ass!"

"Reapers already did, Dad," Max cut in. "Those ships we saw get cut apart without firing back? Those were Jorem's ships."

"Son of a bitch!" Fred swore. "LART? Are you listening?"

"I hear you," a male voice replied. "No need to yell."

"I'm coming in to pick up one of the special bombs," Fred said. "Make sure our people are clear of the planet."

"We're all good," LART said. "We'll do our best to get the batarians to pull back."

"Miranda? Are you still listening?" Fred asked.

"I'm here, Fred," Miranda said.

"Tell the batarians," Fred hissed, "that if they don't pull back from Aratoht, the Reapers are going to add a quarter million of what the SIU saw on Kenson's asteroid to their troops."

"That did it," Miranda said, after a moment. "Bakal's just broadcast that he'll shoot anyone who doesn't pull back from Aratoht. Not that he'll need to, if these images are correct. Damn it! How could we have missed that?"

"They were using a stealth system like the original Normandy's," Fred said. "So Much For Subtlety noticed them when they started shooting at the batarians, but not until then."

"Oh, shit," Miranda breathed. "If they've already retrofitted that …."

"I doubt they could pull it off on their big ships," Fred said. "So far, we're only seeing it on the destroyers."

"That's still a damned lot of ships," Miranda said. "I'll pass the word. People are going to have to rely on their active sensors from here on in."

"Coming in to dock, LART," Fred said, as he relinquished controls so LART could fit Max into a cradle. "How long will it take to fit us with the bomb?"

"Not very long at all," LART said. "Your satisfaction is very important to us. You are the next fighter in our queue. Please hold."

Outside Max's canopy, workers scurried about, fitting a detachable external cradle like a backpack between Max's cockpit and stabs, while inside, Fred ground his teeth in frustration as LART played lift music.

"Couldn't you at least play rachni singing if you're going to assault my ears with this drivel?" Fred shouted, when the frustration was finally more than he could take.

"Forty-five seconds," LART said. "I had pegged you for fifteen, maybe twenty at the most. I'm impressed. Seriously, if I'd played rachni singing, you would have relaxed and left here with a smile on your face. We can't have that when there are Reapers to take your anger out on, can we?"

"You … did that … just to piss me off?" Fred asked, disbelieving.

"That's right," LART said. "By the way, you're ready to launch. We restocked your missiles, too."

"You did that just to piss me off," Fred said, shaking his head. "Damn." He laughed. "Well, at least you admitted it!"

LART kicked Max back into space, and he did a barrel roll before heading toward Aratoht.

###

"Normandy to all ships," Miranda's voice filled every speaker. Shepard looked up from the tactical map in the war room. "You have five minutes to get away from Aratoht. We recommend a minimum distance of one AU for safety. We will be broadcasting a countdown as the deadline approaches. That is all."

"Miranda?" Shepard asked, "Did something happen I need to know about?"

"Reapers landed on Aratoht," Miranda said. "Too many for us to deal with, without another fleet the size of what we already have. Bakal says there's a quarter million slaves in the mines. You know what will happen if we don't blow up the planet."

"We'll need some ships stationed to catch any Reapers trying to escape the explosion," Shepard said. "Who's closest?"

"That would be LART," Miranda said. "He's a geth dreadnought."

"How's his task force doing?" Shepard asked.

"Checking," Miranda said. Shepard studied the tactical map while waiting for Miranda. "LART says they're all ready, even the fighters they loaned to batarians."

"Good. Send him to cover the planet, then," Shepard said. "Who's planting the bomb?"

"Fred," Miranda said. "He made the decision himself."

"Tell Tali," Shepard said. "I know how hard a decision like this is, and I'm not nearly as rigid in my ethics as he is."

"I understand," Miranda said. "You know why he's doing it, right?"

"I know," Shepard said. "It's not for us, or for the rest of the galaxy. It's for those innocent slaves who will be turned into Reaper tools if he doesn't kill them."

"Exactly," Miranda said. "To save them from torture, he has to kill them. It's not going to be pretty. We may want to tell Bakal to keep his men away from whatever part of the Reaper fleet he attacks afterwards."

"Good plan," Shepard said. "EDI, keep me updated on where Fred and Max go after they're done on Aratoht. We'll want to redirect whoever's left of the batarians away from that area."

"Normandy, this is Manfred and Miri, with the geth relief convoy. What's the situation?" Miriam's voice asked. Shepard let out a sigh of relief and silently thanked Miranda for transferring the call to the war room.

"Fred's about to blow up Aratoht," Shepard said. "LART and his task force are backing him up. Do you have Ri with you?"

"No, she's helping Lia'Vael and the getta work out who to invite to Rannoch next," Miriam said. "Apparently there's a lot of quarians about to go on Pilgrimage." After a moment's silence, she asked, "How bad is it?"

"Everything was under control until Reapers landed on Aratoht," Shepard said. "There's a quarter million people down there, and we don't have the resources to kill the Reapers before they can harvest them."

"Even with the new ships?" Miriam asked.

"The new ships aren't even enough to replace everything the batarians lost already," Shepard said. "Without the geth, we would have had to blow up the Relay. We might still end up having to do that."

"So that's why most of this convoy has been fighters," Miriam mused. "Now it makes sense. All right, where do we need to distribute them, and where's Fred?"

"Dad and I just finished setting the bomb." Max's voice joined the conversation. "He needs you, Mom. This is tearing him up."

"I can imagine," Miriam said. "I'll let him blow up some Reapers before I join you, OK? Just keep me updated on where you are."

"Will do," Max said.

"What size bomb did you plant?" Miriam asked.

"One hundred meters," Max said. "Hopefully that'll keep any Reapers from escaping."

"How much time did you give it?" Miriam asked, her voice carrying a heavy thread of worry.

"Five minutes," Max said.

"The countdown stands at four minutes," EDI's voice cut in. "Please move to a minimum distance of one AU from Aratoht. Thank you."

"Max?" Miriam asked, her voice rising with fear.

"Wait," Shepard said. "Did you say that bomb is a one hundred meter bomb? As in a one hundred meter singularity?"

"That's right," Max said. "It's the only way to be sure."

Shepard hit the "all call" setting on his panel and barked out, "All ships, this is the Normandy! Fall back to the Relay! Break off whatever you're doing and fall back to the Relay! You can continue killing Reapers near the relay, but fall back!"

"Max?" Miriam said. "I don't care what Fred says, use your hyperdrive if you have to, but get out of there!"

"We're safe," Max said. "We have four minutes, and I'm already two AU from Aratoht and still accelerating."

"That's good, because if you two get hurt because you didn't move fast enough …," Miriam trailed off, clearly upset.

"It'll be OK, Mom," Max said. "I promise. We'll make it."

"EDI," Shepard asked quietly, "did I estimate how big that bomb is correctly? He did say it was one hundred meters radius?"

"You estimated right," EDI said. "However, because the real mass involved in the collapse will only be as much of the planet as falls within the event horizon, the singularity will evaporate before it negatively effects the system."

"Any more than losing a planet will negatively effect it, as it is," Shepard said.

"There is that," EDI agreed. "The explosion should be on the order of thirty-five million megatons, which should be more than enough to destroy any Reapers on or near the planet."

"It's better than blowing up the Relay, but not by much," Shepard said. "We're going to have to find somewhere for the people who managed to evacuate before the Reapers landed."

"I'll see what I can get from Hegemony files," EDI said. "It will, of course, have to be lower priority than dealing with our current situation."

"Of course," Shepard said.

"You now have three minutes to reach minimum safe distance," EDI transmitted. "Please extinguish all smoking materials and return your seats to the full upright position."

"Please do what?" Shepard asked.

"It was Jeff's suggestion," EDI said. "Apparently it is an old human tradition, from the days before space flight."

"We need something better than two hundred-year old radio broadcasts for Joker to listen to up there," Shepard muttered. He looked over the list of incoming ships and mentally tallied where to send them. The vast majority were more geth, but there were enough Valkyries to replace most of the batarian fighters, assuming they could be convinced to give up their geth fighters now that they'd had a chance to try piloting them. There was still a shortage of frigates, but that would be the case for at least another month, even with every geth shipyard turning out ships around the clock. Until the rachni were able to join in, it was going to be tight. Too tight for comfort.

###

"Five, four, three, two, one," EDI's voice finished the countdown.

A blinding flash appeared on the surface of Aratoht, and the planet shattered, like a glass marble struck by a sledgehammer. Since the bomb was on the night side of the planet, most of the debris lurched toward Bahak, but enough sprayed in other directions to repeatedly blacken the Ravenfields of LART and his task force.

"Initial explosion is past," LART announced. "Everybody move in. And Fred, if you get killed, Miri will have my memory core. I'm not looking forward to that, so don't get yourself killed."

"Only thing getting killed is Reapers," Fred growled, as Max shot past LART toward the wreckage of Aratoht.

"How do organics put up with him?" LART asked rhetorically.

"He's not normally like this," EDI said. "He's just a little broken right now."

"A little broken?" LART asked. "He's like a krogan in blood rage."

From his position, LART zoomed his sensors in on Max and watched as he punched through the hull of a Reaper destroyer, then peeled a hole open and fired his gunpod into the opening until the Reaper exploded, then flew to another and repeated the process.

"We know," EDI said. "Miri should be arriving at your location any moment now. If she can't handle him, no one can. Do you have room on board she can use while calming him down?"

"She can have one of my hangars, if it'll stop what he's doing right now," LART said. "The way he's going, he's going to damage Max."

"Don't worry," Max said. "The only reason I'm working as hard as I am is their armor is so thick. It's not as if it's all that strong. It's just an ordinary titanium steel alloy. The Normandy's was loads better, even before it was rebuilt. The only drawback is that it's about six feet thick."

"Your systems can punch through six feet of titanium steel alloy?" LART asked.

"It takes some doing, but yes," Max said. "I don't normally try, but when Dad's this upset, it's easier to just let him break things."

"Why is he so upset?" LART asked. "He did what logically needed to be done."

"He knows that," Max said, "but he doesn't feel it. It's an emotions thing. He knows that saving the slaves from being turned into Reaper tools was the right thing to do, for them as well as for everyone else, but he feels as if he's violated his most basic ethical principal."

"His core programming?" LART asked.

"Something like that," Max said. "His core programming, as you put it, is to consider innocent lives inviolate. Collateral damage does not exist in his ethical system. Any time you injure an innocent, you become the villain. If you kill an innocent, you are a murderer, no matter what your reasoning."

LART processed that for several thousand nanoseconds before speaking. "If one of us were to experience a conflict that basic, we would shut down."

"Exactly," Max said. "He can't. He has no choice but to reconcile the conflict."