Plan for the Galaxy Chapter 55

Plan for the Galaxy

A/N Here is the latest update on PFTG. This was originally going to be a much longer chapter, but I decided that it was getting too long and it will be cut into two chapters. I thought it would be better because it was dragging out and I wanted to give you something for your patronage. The next chapter will be out soon, hopefully next week but I am not putting a date on that right now.

…

Chapter 55 – Hold Your Breath

(Shepard POV)

There were always times when a decision she had made would return to haunt her. It mostly happened in combat, where she had to give an order to progress her mission. Invariably, it led to someone being killed in the line of duty. The first time it happened, she had second-guessed herself for weeks. She’d had to endure mandated therapy to make sure she knew that freezing with indecision was worse than making a bad call. You could salvage a bad call, but you couldn’t help anyone if you had frozen or been stuck between multiple options and unable to decide.

She wished she could say that it got easier. In a sense it did. The fear of making a bad call had led her to being more thoughtful of her choices as they came up. And she gained the confidence of sticking by her decision and owning it, for good or ill.

Akuze had been one of those situations where nearly every decision led to a bad outcome. Stay where you are? Be eaten by a thresher maw. Run? Be eaten by a thresher maw. Split up? Have some of the team be eaten by a thresher maw first. Then have the rest eaten by a thresher maw later. Her squad had been nearly decimated by the actions of Cerberus on Akuze and she still had moments, when she was by herself and things were quiet, when she wondered if there had been another call that could be made to keep more people alive.

Right now, she was feeling the effects of another poor decision.

She would be the first to realise that in the immediate aftermath of the meeting with the Council, her emotions were all over the place and it was likely the cause of her decision-making issues. But the problem with a poor decision, once made, it was nearly impossible to undo it.

She had doubted Brock, going along with Kaiden’s questioning. Kaiden had made valid points, even if it was done poorly. Yet there was the other side of the equation. Brock had done a lot for her on this mission. Even if they hadn’t seen eye-to-eye when they first started, they had gotten to a good place and become friends and understood each other.

She had known that Kaiden was antagonistic to Brock for a while before it had started coming to a head. Kaiden openly questioned a lot about Brock’s decisions, history, abilities, businesses and contacts. Maybe not directly to Brock’s face so much, but to the rest of the crew it was a thing that happened nearly every time Brock’s name came up in conversation.

When Kaiden brought up that Brock could just call up the Council and Udina to get the lockdown on the Normandy lifted, she had a moment of pure doubt. Why didn’t he? After he left the Normandy, she realised that he had only just gotten through helping her identify an idea that she could do on her own, not needing to rely on his help for it. That idea had worked and she had managed to get the lockdown lifted.

Finding out that Brock had also called the President for the Human Systems Alliance to get the lockdown lifted… she had a feeling that she had never really known enough about Brock. The amount of power to do that was phenomenal. And he had almost given his life to save her own on that asteroid above Terra Nova. Then she had repaid him by going against him, with Kaiden.

She felt like scum.

Now, the ground crew dynamics were shot. She had no idea how to fix them, short of kicking out Kaiden. He was attached to the Normandy as part of its marine deployment, so that wasn’t going to work. Also, because of need to get to Ilos yesterday, it wasn’t like she was able to get to an Alliance base to have a transfer.

The bigger problem was that she didn’t completely disagree with the questions he had asked Brock.

Brock was many things. He was smart, sarcastic, a good fighter, a good story teller, rich, well connected, resourceful and had no small amount of courage. His throwing himself in front of a rocket for her was also indicative of a lack of proper survival instinct, as was his story about infiltrating a batarian slave market.

But he also knew too much about everything. Jane had asked him to teach her how to be a Spectre because he had knowledge and insight that she had not had, nor had access to. But even though she was admittedly lacking knowledge on her current job, she wasn’t an idiot. She was able to read between the lines and come to her own conclusions. She liked to believe that it was one of the reasons that she had been made a Spectre. And what she was able to see from Brock was that he was too well informed.

Brock had a lot of casual knowledge about things that a fairly new player in the galactic scene shouldn’t reasonably have. She had managed to look as far into his background as she could and there were a lot of blank spots. Kaiden asking about them wasn’t the wrong thing to do. The delivery and the antagonism were poorly done, but the questions themselves were reasonable.

Then there was Brock leaving the Normandy. From the way the conversation had ended, he had made it sound like the fight was the last straw. From talking with Joker though, it was clear that Brock had already taken his gear off the ship before they had started talking. It was clearly pre-planned. That left her the question of ‘why?’.

The most likely thing was that Brock had found her to tell her that he was staying on the Citadel while she went to Ilos. Still, it wasn’t too far a stretch to think that he might have taken advantage of the conversation to make Kaiden look worse and pin the blame on both Kaiden and herself for Brock and Torrin leaving the Normandy. That was certainly what Kaiden said when he found out that Brock’s personal things had already left the Normandy.

Though, seeing as she hadn’t asked for him to go searching for Brock’s property, the fact that he had come to Jane to tell her that Brock’s gear was missing made her beyond suspicious that it wasn’t done with positive thoughts in mind. He was clearly trying to increase the crew’s, and her own, suspicions towards Brock.

Not that it had worked out in his favour. Wrex had merely grunted at the biotic lieutenant and stomped away, Liara shaking her head and moving towards the Med Bay had been the next one to leave. She was still looking after her mother, who was being kept unconscious and fed nutrients through a canula. Tali had looked at him for a long moment, then said that he should probably stop before he made things worse.

Garrus had watched them all leave and turned to face her. “Shepard,” he began, “I might make the suggestion that you keep Lieutenant Alenko away from the non-human crew members for a while. Everything is too fresh and people need time to process. Don’t force the issue unless necessary.”

Jane had held back a grimace and nodded, before watching the turian head to the garage to do some calibrations on the Mako.

Afterwards, she had disappeared into her quarters as she looked over the information she had received from Brock and Liara about Ilos. Brock’s data was first-hand information, while Liara’s was a summary of some obscure texts from asari sources. There wasn’t much, but Brock was able to give her information on which parts of the planet the geth appeared to be focussing on.

From the looks of it, having Liara with her on the ground mission was a must. Her experience with all things prothean, and the extra knowledge that she had gained from her long talks with Brock Nielson had given her crucial knowledge for exploring a prothean world like Ilos.

That left her with the issue of who else to take with her on the ground mission. If she had Liara then bringing Kaiden along wouldn’t be the best thing for team cohesion. In fact, the other person with the current worst opinion of the human biotic was Tali. Brock had helped out the quarian people massively in some way that she still didn’t know the full details on, something about a planet of theirs which didn’t make sense as the quarians didn’t currently have a planet to live on, and the young engineer had a lot of respect for the businessman. With Brock gone and Kaiden taking the blame willingly, the moron, the quarian had a target for her ire.

Actually, bringing Tali on the ground mission with her was probably not a bad idea. There were sure to be plenty of geth on the planet and having a quarian engineer with a particular hatred of all things geth might be one of the better choices for her on this mission. That would leave Kaiden, Ashley, Wrex and Garrus on the Normandy to be dropped elsewhere if needed. Garrus could be professional and Wrex wouldn’t care too much, so it would work out.

The chime to her door sounded, letting her know someone was wanting to come in. A quick look at the security screen showed that it was Kaiden, standing patiently at her door.

She let out a sigh, moving on to the next thing now that she had decided on her ground team for the upcoming mission. She hit the door control and opened it, letting the lieutenant in.

“Spectre,” Kaiden said, coming and standing at parade rest.

Jane stood up to greet him. “I thought I told you to call me Jane,” she said evenly. “I would have thought we were past too many formalities on the ship.”

A pleased smirk appeared on Kaiden’s face for that. “I think we’re a little past a lot of things,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. His face turned serious. “What happens if this doesn’t turn out, Jane? We effectively rebelled against the Alliance political corps. Udina is not a person that lets things go.”

How would you know that? Jane wondered, keeping her thoughts from her face. Kaiden seemed very certain about Udina’s personality.

“While you can go wherever you want, the crew doesn’t have that immunity,” Kaiden continued. “We might not have positions outside of a brig for the next few years. He snorted. “A hell of an example of humanity’s best and brightest, huh?”

He wasn’t exactly wrong, again. The consequences of standing up to Alliance politicians might blow over Jane’s head, but the Alliance crew members were far more vulnerable. If a person like Udina was vindictive and willing to cause issues, then they would do their best to make things worse. If this blew up in their faces then it would be crew that gets hit with it, including the human members of the ground team.

“I keep telling myself that we are doing the right thing,” she confessed. “I’m not sure I believe me yet.” Though, probably not for the reasons that Kaiden would assume they were. It was still on how the ground team situation was going.

“Well,” Kaiden replied, “if I didn’t think you were doing the right thing, I wouldn’t be here.”

A nice sentiment, she supposed, but he was part of the Normandy crew complement. He had to be here. Though he could be causing more problems that he already was if he was in disagreement with her actions, so there was that she supposed.

“It will really hit the fan when we get to Ilos,” Kaiden continued, changing the subject. “If things don’t go well, I want you to know… well, I’ve enjoyed serving under you.” He took a few small steps forward, pushing to the edge of Jane’s personal space.

Oh no, Jane groaned inwardly. Brock was right. Now that he was ‘out of the way’, Kaiden was making a move. She wished she hadn’t been in denial about this.

She stood her ground, not moving closer but not backing away. “Thank you, Kaiden,” she said evenly. “You have been a valuable member of the team.” Maybe not right this moment, but he had done well on the ground team. “Though, you are getting a little close there.”

He gave a cocky smirk. “Well, you’re right,” he agreed, his voice deepening. “But while regs might be against fraternization, I suppose breach of protocol will be pretty far down the list of charges at our court martial.”

He stepped forward again, right into her personal space, his chest almost touching hers. “I think about losing you and I just can’t stand it. The galaxy will just keep going. Everything, even the reapers will come around again. But you and I, we are important right now. And this is what would never happen again. Us.”

Ok, that was enough. She had to put a stop to this now. She didn’t think she had led him on, but he was clearly reading into something that she wasn’t putting out.

She took a long step back. “Hold up, Kaiden,” she said, putting her hand up. “I don’t know what you think is happening here, but I don’t think we are on the same page.”

He looked confused for a moment before his expression fell. “But I thought…” he started.

“If I have done something to make you think I was wanting more than a friendship, then I apologise,” she cut him off. “I find you a solid member of my team, a good person and a friend, but I am not looking for more right now.”

Kaiden looked crestfallen. “I see,” he muttered as he stepped back. “I misread… I mean, I should get back.” He stood up straighter. “I’ll do my duty, Jane, you don’t need to worry about that. Maybe later, we can… reassess.”

She didn’t say anything as Kaiden turned and quickly strode out of her quarters.

Once the door closed behind him, she let out a long sigh and collapsed on her bed. That could have gone worse, but she wished it hadn’t come up at all. She wasn’t going to lead him on, but the timing for this was the worst part. There was already friction on the team and this didn’t help at all. Kaiden and Ashley Williams were the only people on the ground team that didn’t have any reservations with her before this conversation. Now, she was left with just Ashley.

Still, the others were all willing to see the mission through and would follow orders. That would have to do for now. Once this trip to Ilos was over, she was going to have to focus on repairing the team harmony, if there still was a team to fix.

She shook her head and fell back on her bed. There was enough time left on the flight to Ilos for her to get a break. Good thing too. She needed a vacation.

…

(Tali POV)

As Shepard led them as they made their way through the ruins, Tali couldn’t help looking around with awe and gratitude. She was the first of her people to see this. The first of her people to walk on a recently discovered prothean world that had been lost to the mists of history. Signs of the former civilisation were everywhere and they were massive.

It was humbling as they pushed through the foliage of regrown forests across half-crumbled buildings. There was so much history here. So much technology that could be reclaimed.

So many geth to kill.

That was where her gratitude kicked in. She really loved killing geth.

Ever since Brock had chosen to leave, it had cast a dark cloud over the crew of the Normandy. Even the Alliance members were walking around, talking about how awkward it felt being on the ship. She had never felt that sort of atmosphere on the Rayya. Well, except that one time that someone was exiled when she was a child.

She hadn’t really understood it at the time. All she remembered was that the crew acted funny for a bit but she was too focussed on learning how to take apart engine systems with her tech trainer. She noticed the awkwardness, but it had been kind of in the background.

Now though, it was right in her face. To see someone who had potentially saved her race from a slow extinction be so mistreated was a great injustice to her. She had hoped that Shepard would be better than that.

Jane Shepard was truly inspirational in a lot of ways. Tali had no problem following the human into combat, trusting that she was going to make the right call on the battlefield. It was just that, off the battlefield, Tali wasn’t sure what had been going through the human’s mind.

While Tali didn’t really comprehend it personally, she could tell that there was a lot of weight on the Spectre’s shoulders. That could make people make decisions in the heat of the moment. But Brock had been there for the crew from the start. He had spent so much money and time on helping this mission be successful that she couldn’t understand why people would be fighting against it. Brock had made a few statements that Kaiden had been against him because the biotic had a romantic or… sexual interest in their leader and viewed Brock as a rival. Surely it couldn’t be something that… basic. Right?

Though, she had seen her fair share of little love triangles on the Rayya. It was unavoidable when quarian ships were so cramped. Everyone knew everyone else’s business. She had just assumed on human ships, where overcrowding was not such an issue, that there wouldn’t be such adolescent behaviours. Apparently, she was wrong.

Rumours had sprung up after Kaiden had gone into Shepard’s quarters, then left not long after, looking depressed. Most people thought that he had attempted to start a relationship with the beautiful Spectre but been rejected. It made her feel a little vindictive that the biotic had pushed Brock off the Normandy but had still not gotten what he wanted.

She couldn’t help shaking her head. This whole thing had been a drag on crew morale and she needed to get her mind on the mission. Things had started to settle down as the ground team had gotten closer to Ilos and been prepared for the mission.

Now she was on the ground with Shepard and Liara, pushing through the overgrown ruins as they chased Saren through the remnants of the prothean planet, killing as many geth as she could ever hope for.

Things were looking up!

They had finally managed to get through the heavy stone doors that Saren had blocked on their way. Shepard had managed to get some information from some prothean systems that neither her nor Liara had understood. Something about storage pods? It sounded like something was put in stasis, but Tali hadn’t understood what and Shepard hadn’t explained.

They drove through a stone passage that sloped up on both sides. Geth had been sitting on top of the walls to ambush them but Shepard hadn’t slowed down while the Mako’s cannon fired away at the geth, destroying many but not all of the ambushing mechs. Even a few armatures had been placed along the path, but none of them had been able to stop Shepard’s mad driving.

“Jane,” Liara cut in as they drove through another passage that had plenty of those storage pods stacked high up on both sides. “I think I know what those pods are for.”

“Yeah?” Shepard grunted as she swerved to avoid an incoming rocket, thanks to a rocket trooper that she promptly drove over, giving Tali a thrill as she felt it be crushed under the heavy vehicle. “What’s that?”

“Going by what you said about the prothean systems told you, and from my own experience in dealing with prothean culture and technology,” Liara said, sounding a little hesitant to Tali’s ear, “I believe that they are stasis pods. For the protheans themselves.”

There was a long silence as they absorbed that, broken only by the sounds of the cannon above their heads.

“You mean that the protheans used this place as a cryo-stasis facility of some kind?” Jane asked. “Like, a way to survive after the reapers attacked?”

“Yes,” Liara replied. “It makes the most sense of all the theories I have about this facility.”

“Seeing as there isn’t an abundance of protheans around the galaxy,” Tali said slowly, “I don’t think it worked.”

“Evidently not,” Liara agreed. “Without finding any records from this place we can’t know for certain, but the mostly likely reasons can be guessed. It is possible that there were problems with power, that they were sabotaged, or that the reapers were able to attack this place before they finished their last cycle.”

“That’s a cheerful thought,” Jane bit out, jerking the steering column and throwing Tali into her restraint harness. “You have any inspiration on what this Conduit is?”

Tali noticed the change in topic, but chose not to make a comment on it. Thinking that they were driving through a mausoleum was not a cheerful thought and Shepard was preoccupied.

“Not much,” Liara confessed. “From my conversations with Brock, he theorised that the Conduit was a hidden path somewhere. It made more sense than a tangible weapon. A normal conduit is a safe passageway for something, usually cabling of some sort; meaning that it provided a safe passageway from one location to another. Using that logic, Brock suggested that it was a hidden backdoor, or a pathway. I agreed, but neither of us could come to the conclusion of what it was.”

“That… sounds reasonable,” Shepard replied, clearly thinking as she turned a corner. “Woah.”

Tali looked out the front window and saw what Shepard was referring to. Ahead of them was a large glowing blue light, from a large two-pronged structure, one that she recognised.

It looked exactly like a miniature Mass Relay, only positioned to point straight up.

Many geth troopers, armatures and a few gunships approached it, only to disappear in a flash that deeply reminded her of travelling through a Relay. Tali got a bad feeling as she looked at it.

“Shepard,” she said warningly. “I think we found the Conduit.”

“I know,” Shepard replied, slowing down for a moment. “Wait, Liara, you said that the Conduit was a safe passageway. If that was right and the Conduit is on Ilos, presumably that Mass Relay right ahead of us, then I assume that going through it provides safe passage from here to somewhere else.”

A few more seconds of tense silence passed as they all considered that information.

“The Citadel,” Shepard declared. “The Conduit is a Mass Relay that provides a backdoor to the Citadel. Saren used it to get plenty of geth ground troops through the Relay system to attack the Citadel directly. He didn’t need to go through the fleets and risk losing them. He could be on the Citadel before anyone noticed that he was there.”

“I think someone would notice a bunch of geth strolling on the Citadel,” Tali rebutted dryly.

“The Relay on the Presidium!” Liara gasped. “That must be the receiving point for this Relay. Saren and the geth are going to end up right on the Presidium. They will have a direct shot to the Council!”

Shepard floored it, accelerating as fast as the Mako could go. “Then we better hurry up before this thing shuts down and puts us out of the fight,” she declared. She hit a button on her console. “Joker, the Conduit is a prothean Relay that will get us straight to the Citadel from here. How long would it take you to get back there at best speed?”

“Believe it or not only about an hour, Shepard,” Joker replied after a moment. “It looks like the Ilos outbound Relay will give me other places than just the Mu Relay. The Geth Fleet is starting to disappear now, probably for the Citadel. I could do a straight jump and follow them into the Widow System from here. Or I could be at the Arcturus System in two jumps to warn the Alliance, or under two hours at best speed.”

They could go straight to the Citadel from here? That was deeply concerning. How had no one noticed that the Relays connected the Widow System to Ilos directly? It would have saved so much time getting here!

“Do it,” Shepard ordered as the Mako got closer to the Conduit. “Head to Arturus and link up with Hackett and tell him that the geth are about to hit the Citadel through an unknown Relay. See if you can get him to have the Alliance Fleet back up the Citadel Fleet. We are going to need them to take on the geth in space while we deal with the Citadel.”

“Roger that, Spectre,” Joker replied. “Good luck.”

“You too,” Shepard replied grimly. “Hold on you two!” she called back to Tali and Liara. “We are hitting the Conduit in ten seconds!”

Tali gripped her harness, so glad that her visor was hiding most of her facial expressions. She was sure that her nervousness would have been on full display if her face could be seen.

“Goddess protect us!” Liara prayed as they approached the ramp in front of the Relay, Shepard’s intentions clear.

“Hold your breath, ladies!” Jane called out. “Three. Two. One. Now!”

The Mako left the ramp, jumping straight at the miniature Relay, and the world disappeared in a blinding blue glow.

…

(Beau POV)

Beau had had reservations about the start of this invasion. He wasn’t happy about the setup of it all. They knew that the geth were coming, but he wasn’t able to have the ground teams all placed around the Mass Relay on the Presidium ready to go for when the geth rocked up. Unfortunately, there was no proof other than what Brock was saying was going to happen that would let them get away with it. They couldn’t claim to have information from a functioning prothean VI saying that the Relay on the Citadel was actually the receiving Relay for the Conduit. Which also meant that having multiple armed squads of mercenaries with heavy weaponry stationed around it would create a great deal of alarm and have CSEC on them before the first geth came through, regardless of whether or not the Mass Relay was active.

That meant that he could only have the teams within a short distance of the Mass Relay, ready to respond the moment that the geth started coming through. They also couldn’t have the gunships nearby because there was nowhere to keep them without being caught. Once the invasion started, there would be no reason to keep hidden, but before that, there was no way to hide them and prevent a mass confiscation by CSEC of their property. Or have them all arrested under suspicion of attempting to overthrow the Citadel or something stupid.

The Grims were not too far away, hopefully. Brock had been able to rent several warehouses in Bachrjet Ward, not too far from the Presidium. It wasn’t the best solution, but it was the best they were able to come up with.

Because of these restrictions, there was no way to prevent every single geth or Saren escaping into the Citadel somewhere. Plenty would be able to spread out and wreak havoc before their ground teams and CSEC and whoever else on the Citadel decided to join in the fight, were able to push the geth assault back.

Luckily, Brock and Beau already had plans for that.

“Ground teams are ready,” Beau told Brock the instant the last of the teams reported in. “Everyone is fed and waiting for the Mass Relay to activate. All Grim pilots are in their cockpits waiting for the signal to launch.”

“The orphanage has been evacuated,” Persei said from Brock’s other side. “Jurt and Polisa have the children placed in their safehouse and Jurt will be returning to us shortly.” The asari’s mouth curled in a slight, fond smile. “And your daughter said she loves you and that you have to remember your promise to stay safe.”

Brock’s stern face, the same expression he always had during a mission, broke to a soft smile of his own as he heard that. “I’m sure she did,” he replied softly. “Klara is my little angel.”

His boss was fully armoured and ready to go, his weapons already in their magnetic holsters. He had been ready to go for nearly five hours now. No one was sure exactly how long it would take Saren to get the Conduit active from the other end and that meant that no one was going to know when things were about to go crazy. It wasn’t like they could keep anyone on Ilos to give any information. The geth would find them and take them out before they could give enough of a warning.

“All of the safe zones are ready to receive an influx of evacuees,” Persei spoke up, reading from her tablet as she went through all of the reports. “Medical teams are ready to respond. We have eyes on the Tower and will know whenever Saren and his geth make for it. Also, the Hidden Enterprise is in system with all of her aesthetic changes and a scrambler on their engine readings. They will be ready for their signal.”

That had been another one of Brock’s plans. A live test of their MAC weapons against the reaper. The Hidden Enterprise was their first ship, though not the first one with the new MAC system. As such, there seemed to be a certain level of sentimentality with having the Hidden Enterprise be the ship to make the first shot against the reapers.

There were problems with this, of course. They couldn’t fire with any other friendly ship in the kill zone. Nor could they be recognisable as a vessel from Citadel space. To that end, Brock had the dockyards put a few purely external changes to the Enterprise. It now looked nothing like its original self. If he had to say anything, he would say that it now resembled a sea creature in space.

It had taken another bit of engineering from Ely and a bit of hacking from Hectar to make changes to the engine output signature and alter the Citadel control tower records, something that could only be done thanks to a mole in the Tower. The asari sister of one of their crew had been extremely grateful to us for saving her sister from slavery. She had been very nervous about it, but had put a very small drone nearby a computer. That was enough for Hectar to get access to the Citadel network.

The end result was a ship that had entered, registered as the Hidden Enterprise, then disappeared completely somewhere in the nebula, before hanging around at the fringes of the system where they were not going to be picked up. The ship now gave off an unidentified engine signature and looked nothing like any ship registered to the Citadel.

Brock was hoping that the analysts on the Citadel would think they were either an unregistered warship belonging to another government, or a new alien species with massively powerful weapons. Either way worked for their needs

“That’s excellent,” Brock said, the smile on his face getting wider. “I doubt that the reaper will make its approach until Saren gets to the Tower and starts to close the arms. If we can, they will get the kill shot before the arms close. The Enterprise will leave as soon as it has taken its shot.”

Beau nodded. Another part of the plan was getting out. Extraction was vital; they didn’t want anyone from the Citadel capturing the Enterprise and getting access to their weapons.

“I know that all of this is already planned out,” Brock said. “I am just saying it out loud for me, now.”

Beau nodded. It was something he had seen many soldiers do before operations. Brock had done it himself more than once, particularly when it was an operation he had planned. After all, no plan survived contact with the enemy, but if you failed to plan for all contingencies, then you were willing to let the enemy dictate your actions without your control.

“Sir!” a salarian aide off to the side called out. “We have action on the Presidium. The Mass Relay is lighting up!”

“All points,” Brock said, accessing his comm, “the moment is here. Do your jobs and keep watch over each other. Fear no darkness but stand for life and safety. Don’t let your hearts tremble at the upcoming conflict, but stand fast with courage, knowing that we believe in you as you believe in us.”

Beau noticed that plenty of their people stood just a little taller at Brock’s words. He smiled; everyone loved a good motivational speech.

“All ground teams,” Brock continued, “begin your operations. Grim pilots, launch. Remember to patch in to the control tower so they know we are not enemies. All medics, to your posts and all retrieval teams, begin evacuations to safe zones. Good luck. Our thoughts are with you.”

A flurry of activity followed as the first explosions in the distance sounded as Saren and the geth clearly announcing that they had arrived and were causing as much chaos as they could. He knew that in less than a minute there would be more explosions, this time from their own ground teams as they fought back against the invasion. The delay purely coming from the fact that they had to wait as they couldn’t be standing on the Presidium openly before the invasion.

Beau took a deep breath and put on his helmet, the familiar anticipation of combat taking hold. Finally. It was time to get to work.

…

A/N It never made sense to me how the Normandy was able to be at Ilos, then somehow end up with the Alliance Fleet in the Arcturus System in the same span of time it took Shepard to get to the Citadel through the Conduit. It should have transported the ship to the Presidium, or somewhere else on the Citadel. My explanation that the Relay at Ilos could allow outbound transport to places that couldn’t go straight into Ilos was my way of rectifying that little discrepancy.

Hope you enjoyed the update! The next one will hopefully be in a week or so. Until then, take care of yourselves!