The Normandy was now clear of all Alliance soldiers, all either unconscious or groaning, incapacitated by pain. Liara stepped out from behind the sky car, converging under the Normandy. The ship thrummed gently as it began to reboot the drive core. Marab opened a laptop like device, tapping away.

"Working on disabling the Normandy's tracker...and...It's...gone! Ha-Ha!" Marab cheered. Liara nodded with a faint smile.

"This is going to work. It's going to work" She quietly repeated.

In Vancouver, Hackett gave an order. "Lock down the Normandy, all overrides!" the men and women of the room nodded in compliance as they observed the live feed of the losing battle. Hackett gently knocked his knuckles together, gritting his teeth.

"Sir, Zaeed it one minute to target!" A male voice informed him across the room.

...

Back at the Normandy on the farm, Marab's eyes widened in horror.

"What?! No!" He called as the Normandy's cargo bay ramp began to rise. It locked with a slam.

"What happened?" Liara called nervously.

"I've been locked out!" He called, trying to hack back in, but the encryption was too strong.

Tali looked out over the distant trees and hills, seeing a black spec growing closer and louder.

"Keelah, we've got incoming!" She called. Liara looked up in horror. Everything was falling apart.

Zaeed's gunship was growing nearer, the name: The Grim, written along its hull in etched skull white paint. The VTOL wings tiled as four jets of long blue flames flickered from the thrusters. On both sides the doors were slid open and Zaeed was hanging onto the left hand side, watching the world race by beneath.

"Thirty seconds to target!" The Turian pilot exclaimed. Leonitus readied his claymore shotgun. The huge Krogan had a large jet black crest which matched well with his black and red highlighted body armor. Cyrus, the Turian of the team had a missing mandible on his left side and one snapped off crest prong on the back of his head, only two remaining. Red markings were tattooed over his face and black and red body armor covered his body. Zaeed was in his iconic yellow and black armor, the same that he fought the Collectors and Reapers in. In his right hand was Jesse, his trusted ancient rifle, repaired and fully operational.

...

At the Normandy, things were growing desperate. Marab peered up at the incoming Gunship, rumbling over the landscape towards them.

"I...I can't do it!" He panicked.

"What?" Liara asked as he shut the laptop.

"I'm bailing!" He called. Liara tried to reason with him but he just kept shaking his head.

"No, no! Big fan of Shepard's, but do not want to die! Sorry!" He dropped the laptop and went to run, Liara grabbing his wrist.

"Let go!" He begged, when he suddenly turned nasty, aiming his predator at her temple. She didn't feel fear, more so she was pleading for his help.

"Let go of me" He snarled, the terrified Salarian having to resort to this.

"Please...run it again" She begged.

"I'm not dying. No way. No, no" The Salarian shook free of her grip and began running to the blue sky car.

"They're here!" Tali shouted as the massive urban Gunship slowed its approach, coming to a low hover around the Normandy, dust kicking up. Liara slapped her forehead with a roar of frustration.

"Goddess no! We were so close!" She shouted, dust hitting her from the updraft of Zaeed's Gunship, The Grim. The battle hardened gunship listed around the stationary Normandy.

Because of the dust kick up, Zaeed couldn't see the identity of the assailants, only that they were targets.

"We got a runner boss!" Cyrus shouted. Zaeed looked out the side at the running Salarian.

"Ha! God damn pussy. Hand me that" Zaeed called to the Krogan, who offered him a big black rifle; the anti-matter Widow rifle. The barrel extended and the extremely heavy rifle formed. He aimed at the Salarian, cocking the lever back and locking onto the fleeing being.

Marab ran through the corn field as fast as he could.

"No! No, no, no!" he begged as the roar of the Grim grew louder as it hovered behind him. Suddenly a muzzle flash erupted and a shell impacted the Salarian's head, erupting in shattered skull and a spray of green blood. The body dropped in the now tainted corn.

Zaeed stood up with grin.

"Ha! Watch that Genophage maker die!" Leonitus chuckled. Zaeed pat the Krogan's shoulder.

"Bring us back around Cyrus!" He called to the pilot as the Grim pulled a hard turn, the crops fluttering under the ships draft.

Liara was under the Normandy with Feron and Tali, Illo crouched behind the blue sky car. He flicked open the crates and shouted over the roaring engines of both the Normandy and the Grim.

"Hey! Here, catch!" The Turian arms dealer called as he chucked a Kalashnikov to Liara. She caught it, checking the chamber, just how Illo told her how to. The gun was loaded. She leaned out from under the Normandy, seeing The Grim circling like a shark does to its prey. She aimed and fired, the aggressive recoil gnawing at her shoulder.

Zaeed staggered back as bullets pinged off the ship's hull.

"Fuck me! They're using guns older than Jesse!" Zaeed chuckled, still unable to see who exactly these thieves were. The heist was going very wrong. Liara unloaded a whole magazine into the side of the hull.

The Grim shook it off, swirling back around and low.

"Krogan air drop!" Leonitus chuckled as he leaped off the ship into the field. A heavy thump sounded, and Liara's eyes widened at the charging Krogan, Claymore in hand. Liara stepped back, trying to reload the ancient rifle.

"It's jammed!" She shouted. She'd put a new magazine in but accidentally loaded two rounds into the chamber, blocking it. She peered up at the rapidly nearing Krogan. Suddenly AK-47 fire sounded and Illo stepped out from behind the sky car, roaring as he unleashed the magazine into the stunned Krogan. It bought Liara enough time to clear the rifle. When she peered up, Illo was face to face with the Krogan, the Ak-47 now quiet. He peered up at the Krogan who simply aimed his claymore with one hand at Illo's head. He closed his Turian eyes and a loud bang sounded, the claymore jerking back and Illo's dead corpse slumping backwards.

"No!" Liara called. The Krogan peered at her with a villainous smirk. It aggravated Liara no end that these monsters were working with the Alliance. She raised her rifle and fired once more, the barrel white hot and recoiling with each expel of bullet. The Krogan's armor was shredded and he charged at her. She rolled aside, narrowly missing the Krogan. As she stood up, she was out in the open, the Grim watching her as it circled.

"What the..." Zaeed's eyes narrowed as the dust cleared, revealing the lab coat wearing Asari. She ducked again as the Krogan swung at her with the butt of his gun. She dropped the Kalashnikov and charged a biotic blue pulse in her palms, upper cutting the Krogan with the Energy.

Tali unsheathed her knife from her leg and against her better judgement jumped on the back of the dazed Krogan. She raised it and yelled as she jammed it into his large throat. Leonitus spluttered as he tried to get her off. Liara quickly looked down seeing a stray bullet from broken AK magazine. The golden round shimmered. She peered back at Tali as the Krogan shook her off. Tali landed on her back with a winded thump. He went to kill her when Liara picked up the bullet with her Biotics and launched it faster than a gun could, full blast through the tough crest of the Krogan's head. A collateral bang sounded and the Krogan slowly fell back, dead.

The Grim had circled round in time, just to see his death.

"Leon!" Zaeed called. He reached to the side of the bay door and extended a machine gun, mounted on a mechanical arm. He squeezed the trigger and dust kicked up around the feet of Tali and Liara. They ran back under the Normandy for cover. Zaeed sprayed the ground in a surge of mass accelerated rounds.

"You goddamn bastards!" Zaeed shouted, the Grim circled back around, dust flurrying under its worn hull.

Suddenly the Cargo bay ramp of the Normandy opened to their surprise. As it lowered, Joker stood there, Crowbar in hand.

"Had to open it manually, get in!" He called. Liara sighed with relief as Feron jumped in, Tali next and finally Liara. They walked up inside the cargo bay as the door began to raise shut again, blocking out the view of destroyed sky cars and dead friends.

Joker limped up to the elevator, Liara and Tali next to him. Feron joined them quickly. All of them caught their breath.

"Tali, you okay?" Liara asked.

"Yeah, no suit ruptures thank Rannoch" She huffed with relief. The elevator slowly rose to the top floor of the ship, The Grim still circling outside.

"Where'd they go?" Zaeed called to Cyrus. He shrugged in the pilot seat. Zaeed snarled and grabbed Jesse.

"Set us down!" He shouted at The Grim lowered. The gunship dropped in the field with a thud, Zaeed hopping out and running to the Normandy. He saw that the ramp was sealed and there was nobody left standing outside.

"Hackett, I think they ran off, but they killed Leon!" he contacted the Admiral.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Is the Normandy intact?"

"Yes, your fucking ship is fine!" Zaeed shouted down the communicator. Suddenly the thrum of a reactivated drive core roared and the Normandy began to move. It tilted and hovered over the much smaller Grim. Zaeed watched in awe as the massive frigate tilted over his head, blocking the sun out for a moment, the cleansed font of NORMANDY whirling past his vision in the basking watched on as the massive frigate pulled upwards and lifted away from the farm, it's now reactive blue thrusters glimmering bright as she wailed in her beautiful tone. The Normandy hurtled off.

"Sir...we have a problem" Zaeed huffed as he shook his head with a smile. "God damn, whoever they are, they're good" He chuckled. Hackett was speechless as he watched the live feed of the Normandy take off, disappearing, leaving injured Alliance personnel on the ground of the farm.

"Track that ship!" he roared to the room.

"Sir we can't, she isn't responding. The tracker is disabled!" Hackett roared with anger. It was never like him to lose his cool, but the Normandy had been stolen.

The Normandy hurtled up towards the atmosphere. Joker cheered as he flew his ship once more. "Hey baby girl! You miss daddy, huh? Well I'm back!" Jeff chuckled. Liara and Feron hugged with joy and Tali fist pumped the air.

"We did it! Keelah we did it!" she cheered, bouncing on the spot.

"Not alone we didn't. Illo and Marab will be remembered. I'll tell Shepard how they helped save him" Liara smiled. The huge iconic frigate lifted upwards, when Liara shouted to Joker.

"Wait!" Joker nearly jumped from his seat.

"God, what?"

"We need to go back. We need someone, and we need to get him for this mission" Liara said.

"Who?" Tali asked.

"James Vega" Liara smirked. The Normandy pulled a hairpin turn and flew back to Earth.