Archive of Our Own ^beta

Disclaimer: Mass Effect is not my property, but is the property of Bioware and the writers who created them. It is not the intention of this fan fiction author to participate in financial gain through this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Artist – downontheupside
Beta – brandnewandancient

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 .:: 11:45 am Los Angeles, Earth – 2186 ::.

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LA was beautiful this time of the year; summer was in full force with the thick warm air and it was hard to miss the humidity, hanging heavy in the air like the unspoken promise of rain. Tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, Emily slowed down the FCC Skyvan and pulled into the parking lot of the Engineer Department for UCLA. She turned off the hover motor and leaned back against the seat for a moment. She sighed, her clothes were heavy against her sticky skin and no amount of air conditioning could fix the sweat threatening to bead on her brow.

The downside of living in a warm place , she thought grimly. She decided to pull her chin length hair into a makeshift ponytail, she was sure wouldn’t stay for very long but she needed it out of her way for a few minutes while she gathered the hover cam and her sound equipment from the back of the van.

She pressed the latch to open the door and stepped out into the bright light of the mid-day sun; she blinked wearily while her eyes adjusted and let out a small yawn. The trip had been a bit long in the skyway traffic; she eyed the sky and could see a few clouds forming into the distance. She heard the soft ping of her omni-tool, flicking her wrist upwards, she quickly checked her messages. Smiling, she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at the words her producer left, a list of questions on the QEC Technology he seemed to believe she hadn’t thought of herself.

The technology wasn’t new to Earth but there wasn’t much known about it publicly. It was mostly used in military applications and there were rumours of a civilian version to be rel-

Her thoughts were interrupted when there was a slight tremble that rolled beneath her feet. At first she believed she was mistaken but a second small tremble confirmed that she hadn’t imagined it. Emily frowned, her omni-tool flickered as her reply to her producer placed itself in her outbox, promising to try again later as it failed to send. She looked around for a second to see if anyone was running out of the buildings in a panic – but it remained quiet on campus. Her hand gripped the handle of the van door and she shrugged – the traffic was still moving slowly towards the city. 

She considered the possibility of a small earth quake but she dismissed the idea, eyeing the large truck that pulled in near-by and had begun unloading its cargo. She removed the camera from its protective container and turned on the mass effect field to allow it to float freely beside her. After a quick check, she turned on the light and cleaned the lens before testing the sound system on the camera itself.

“Everything is in order,” she murmured, smiling with the familiar sensation of nervous energy gathering in her belly. She never got tired of it, interviewing was exciting, no matter what the subject. Her omni-tool pinged again, the message failing once more. She sighed, not everything was entirely working as planned so far but it was just a small delay.

She adjusted her shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles before heading towards the entrance of the Engineering Building – the soft hum of the camera trailing behind her as she entered through the glass doors. There were a few people in the lobby, one was a woman who was smiling at Emily and the other was a man dressed up in police gear.

“Hi,” a dark skinned woman reached her hand towards Emily and smiled, “I’d recognize that face anywhere. I’m Dr. Leisha Martinette.”

The reporter felt her cheeks warm with pride at the comment, “Good afternoon, and thank you for meeting with me Doctor.”

“No problem at all,” still smiling, the engineer motioned to Emily to follow her. “I’ve been looking forward to speaking to the public about this latest piece of technology that could ease off our dependence on the extra-net to communicate off world.”

“This used to be a military only application?” Emily watched the doctor carefully, trying to decipher what kind of subject she would be for the interview – so far, Emily had a good feeling she would be very open to the interviewing process.

“Yes, it was,” the two women walked down the bright hallway towards the doctor’s office. Once inside, Emily briefly looked around the room, admiring the scales of old paper bound books that filled the bookcases, right up to the ceiling. This was a rare thing to see, books with paper had been phased out over the century, it took dedication to collect this many.

“Something about the smell of old books,” Leisha murmured at Emily’s surprised expression. She nodded in response, looking to see where she could set up her camera to get the best shot of the doc and the QEC. The machine was in the corner of the room, a contraption on the floor that was shaped like a circle. It was bigger than she anticipated, how were these supposed to be more portable and public friendly?

“I thought it would be smaller,” she raised a brow, folding her arms across her chest while she thought out the interview shots in her head.

“The military one is quite a bit larger than this one – it can recreate the whole body of a person, this one displays the upper torso and it gives the ability to use text instead of a hologram.”

“You mean this is more useful for e-mail off world, posting online and short video conversation that doesn’t require an entire body shot?”

“Yes, exactly,” Leisha nodded her approval, smiling. She was glad to see that the reporter she’d chose for the interview was exceptionally tuned to the scientific side of things.

“Good to know,” This changed a few things in her questions but nothing major, she could adjust. Emily placed her hands around the hover camera and pulled it into place, checking the shot so she could see both the QEC and the doctor. “Okay, we’re good to go doctor. We go live in about two minutes on the FCC News Site.”

Leisha smoothed her long black strands of hair and adjusted her rimless glasses, Emily held back a chuckle. Everyone had a routine before the cameras turned on. As time wound down, the reporter flicked on the screen and waited for the light to turn green on the camera, indicating it was connected to FCC and live.

The red light stared at her, she waited a little longer. No green. She frowned.

“What’s the matter?” Leisha asked, seeing the concern on Emily’s face. The reporter shook her head, grabbing the camera gently between her hands.

“Sorry about this…” Emily flicked the camera’s power source on and off again, tapping the glass of the camera lenses as though that would actually help. “It’s not connecting to the extranet, I have no way to get this report live.” She flicked her omni-tool on – her message is still in the outbox, waiting to send. She blew a breath between her lips, her cheeks billowing a moment before seeing the QEC flickering to life, the bright blue image of a human face slowly came into focus.

“Doctor? Can you hear me?” A checkered digital voice flooded the room, Dr. Martinette stood up and moved closer to the QEC, tinkering with it for a moment to clear up the sound. The image itself becomes crisp, Emily can see a scar nipping across his chin. Not bad.

“Yes, Doctor Haddock. I can hear you.” There was the sound of relief, despite the clarity of the video, everything had a strange blue holographic light to it which made it a little unpleasant – sale wise, this aspect would be hard to convince people to see past if they couldn’t see the colours, she’d have to ask if there were plans to remove that feature.

“Thank goodness the QEC still works.” Emily’s attention focused on the hologram, she raised a brow in wonder. What did he mean it still worked?

“Of course it works,” Leisha frowned at him, shrugging. “What happened?”

“There seems to be a buoy comm outage on Earth, we can’t communicate with anyone at the university.” Emily watched him looking down, pressing other buttons and checking screens – she assumed, the motions seemed to indicate as much. “I thought I would try my luck with it; I remembered you had an interview today.”

“A full buoy outage?” Emilie piped up, confused for a minute. Why would the communication systems going off planet be out around Earth? “Is any other planet affected?”

“There’s been communication issues with the Turians, the university there also has gone dark – no luck with the QEC there though, but, the reports don’t flag anything unusual. The asari government doesn’t seem too concerned.” Dr. Haddock brought his hand to his chin in thought before shrugging off the question.

“The asari?”

“This QEC is connected directly to space near Trikalon, we have a few researchers there working with the University for the Communication Project you’re reporting on today.” Dr. Martinette informed her, her attention still on the blue image. “Thanks for the heads up, we’ll get information to you as soon as we find out – Martinette out.” she waved goodbye to Dr. Haddock and turned off the QEC.

“If the comm system is down, that explains why I can’t connect the live footage and why my messages to my producer off world are still sitting in my outbox.” Emily pressed her lips together in concern; this interview was becoming a nightmare.

“You could piggy back off the QEC, at least communicate by text on the FCC’s communication site.” Dr. Martinette pointed out, already moving to grab wireless equipment to connect Emily’s omni-tool to the QEC.

“I thought it could only communicate with another QEC.”

“It can do a lot of things with the right people and tools,” Dr. Martinette grinned.

“I’m willing to try anything at this point.”

A few more minutes tick by while the connections are made and tested. They could finally bring up the FCC Live page where her report should be broadcasting, another few seconds of tinkering and Emily had the page set up for text reporting directly from her omni-tool.

“Here goes nothing.” Emily murmured to herself.

Thank you for bearing with us. Earth is currently experiencing a comm buoy outage.

“It worked!” Emily beamed, her text loading up neatly on her report page. “The question is, can anyone else can read it.”

“Well,” the doctor thought for a moment, “If I understood Dr, Haddock correctly, the Internet still works on earth, it’s off world that is affected.”

“As long as the interview is up on the site, that’s all I really care about at this point. My producer will be almost happy and I’m doing my job.” The reporter nodded, relieved that something was finally going right today. “Let’s get started.” Her fingers flew across the holographic keyboard on her omni-tool.

Hi, everyone, this is Emily Wong with the FCC News. Apologies for text-only feed!

Talking with Dr. Leisha Martinette at UCLA, using QEC – quantum entanglement communicator.

Now that the camera was no longer in play, Emily’s questions were a bit more informal, a bit more inquisitive since she could edit and post only the bits that really applied to her question. The format used on the site was fairly constricting with the total amount of letters used. “So… how does the QEC works exactly? Can we use it to speak to another world that has any QEC? Like a phone?”

“No,” the doctor put her hand on the controls of the QEC, absently rubbing the metal surface in thought, “Unfortunately, the technology allows us only to speak to a matching particle QEC, which is efficient for secured conversations, and you can’t eavesdrop on it, for example.”

“That’s not very convenient for the public use.” Emily deadpanned, unimpressed with the restriction.

The doctor laughed, shaking her head. “No, not so far. There will be tweaks here and there but it will mostly be used for secure reasons.”

“Hence why I can’t do a video feed on the report, it’s only allowing me to do text feeds?”

“Correct.” Leisha smiles at Emily, who nodded in comprehension.

QEC faster than light, but can only talk to matched particle. Also limited to text. Yay typing!

She didn’t feel like adding that exclamation point, there was nothing fantastic about typing out a report like a twitter feed from the early 21 ^st century. “Let’s talk to the Trikalon QEC again, since the camera is still rolling I can use the feed later and edit the report online when everything is back to normal.” Emily had to restrain from sighing her irritation, this report was going to be more work than it was worth.

“Okay, that sounds like a good idea.” Leisha turned on the communication device and was greeted by a very confused Dr. Haddock.

This QEC is talking to asari space near Trikalon. With comm buoys out, only way to talk off world.

As the conversation between the doctors was recorded by the camera, Emily couldn’t help but feel deep down that the buoys going off line has something more sinister to it that deserves a little bit more attention. Her internal alarm bell was going off - she had a bad feeling and she wasn’t one to usually disregard that nagging “something is corrupted” tug in the back of her mind. The last time it went off, she followed her gut instinct on the Citadel and it hadn’t been wrong since.

“You know,” she interrupted the two doctors, “Why would the buoys be out for so long? It’s been nearly an hour and still nothing is working, there are no updates of any sorts...” Emily thoughtfully tapped her finger against her lips; the possibility was pretty high in percentage. “Could this be an attack against earth?”

She leaned over her omni-tool, typing out her thoughts on the Live Report page.

Loss of comm buoys huge financially. All of Earth cut off from Extranet. Still not sure why.

“An attack?” Dr. Haddock scoffed the first to break the nervous energy but Leisha didn’t even blink at the thought. Emily hummed for a moment, trying to clarify her own thoughts.

“I mean, think about it. Losing all communications off world, not only is it a huge loss financially to Earth but we can’t even call back-up if something was happening. This reeks of sabotage.”

“Not necessarily,” Leisha mused. “There are several environmental factors that could be interfering, such as solar eruptions, satellite malfunction, server issues – let’s not call it sabotage when there are far too many other factors that could be at play here. “

Emily narrowed her eyes; call her paranoid but that seemed too simple. “That would be too convenient,” she put the question out to the public regardless, the QEC losing its grip on her interest over the loss of buoys.

Dr. Martinette says it could be environmental, not necessarily sabotsdfasiofhd-

The ground shifted suddenly, knocking Emily off her feet. The building groaned in protest at the trembling and rocking. The reporter’s teeth clattered against her will while she tried to crawl towards the nearest door but the shaking was too severe, she could barely keep herself steady even laid out on the ground, she curled into a ball protecting herself as books fell around her. Dr. Martinette shouted in surprise or fear, she couldn’t tell.

It stopped as soon as it had started. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, a minute at most.

“Are you alright?” Emily heard the doctor’s muffled voice through the piles of books that had surrounded her, she pushed herself up to her feet and swallowed hard, pulling out the hair elastic and re-did her ponytail, dusted herself off and tried to get control of the adrenaline running through her veins.

“Yeah, I’m okay. You?” Leisha nodded quickly, steadying herself as she walked across the books toward the QEC. Emily tried the light, flicking it on and off – nothing happened. “Maker,” Emily murmured under her breath, “It looks like the power was knocked out.”

The midday sun filtered through the office windows with an eerie glow through the dust billowing from the old books that had spilled across the floor. She took a quick look outside – the sky was still overcast and people were beginning to come out of buildings and gather outside. The silence was a bit unnerving but they could hear commotion outside the door in the hallway – people running up and down the corridor, murmurs of questions that she couldn’t make out clearly through the door. Everything was in complete chaos.

“The QEC doesn’t seem damaged after all that,” Emily heard the doctor sigh, picking up items as she spoke. “But, I better make sure since we’re going to be using it for a little while longer.” Dr. Martinette wiped at her brow, adjusting her glasses in the quick motion as she began to dig through the mess on her desk for something.

“Why do you say that?” Emily watched the woman pull out a few grey boxes out from under a pile of papers, with connecting wires still attached to them. She cleared more debris off the QEC and set to work before answering the reporter.

“I think you were right, Miss Wong,” She looked up from her makeshift work and smiled at her, “Maybe there’s more to it than just a glitch in the system for the buoys.”

Emily returned the grin, her eyes almost twinkling – a few moments passed and Dr. Martinette gave her the thumbs up to reconnect to the public again.

Back, sorry, just had minor quake. Knocked out power. QEC now hooked to portable cell. Back in business! :)

Emily Wong, FCC News, here at UCLA trying to find reason for Earth's comm buoy outage

“Who would benefit from knocking out the buoy system?” Emily pondered, nibbling her lower lip in thought, “besides the Batarians, of course. After their claims that Shepard was responsible for the Mass Relay explosion-“

“Hey! Doctor! You need to come check this out!”

A young woman burst through the doors, chattering excitedly. The three women looked at each other, the much younger one reddening from embarrassment as she realised she had rudely interrupted them.

“Sorry – I didn’t mean-“

“It’s okay, Caroline. What’s the excitement all about?”

“There’s something coming down over the skyline, it’s really weird looking. You need to come see.” She walked back through the door, motioning to follow her. Emily frowned and quickly typed a note on her omni-tool.

Just been told need to see something outside. Hang on.

Quickly, they made their way outside the Engineering building, Emily blinked against the bright light while they adjusted to the contrast, and she shaded her eyes as she looked up towards the sky.

“I don’t see anything,” she starts to say but the student points in the opposite direction.

“There – Right there in the clouds, over the highway.”

She saw it, a large shadowy mass hidden in the clouds, moving slowly. She saw flashes of light, they were the wrong colour to be lightning in the upper atmosphere. She sent her question to the net, maybe someone would be able to answer.

Something in skyline. Not cloud. Ship maybe? Red lights.

“What is that?” Dr. Martinette’s voice was full of curious wonder but Emily had a feeling in her gut. Something wasn’t right, she couldn’t recognize it from this far.

“I don’t know, is it a ship? How can a ship that big stay afloat in the atmosphere?” She knew that Alliance Dreadnoughts weren’t supposed to be flight worthy in the atmosphere. It dropped out from the clouds and hovered, it was shaped… she wasn’t sure how to explain it but it looked familiar.

“It can’t be a ship,” the student countered, “It has tentacles or something, it’s spreading them wide.” The certainty in her voice almost confirmed the dreadful feeling in the pit of Emily’s stomach.

“I count six.” Leisha turned to Emily, worry now etched on her brow, “And what’s the bright red eye?”

Emily shrugged, biting her lower lip thoughtfully. She quickly provided the public with the combined observation of her small group’s findings.

Seems too big for ship. Like Godzilla was 100mtall, 150 in holo remake. This 10x that.

Has six legs. Tentacles? Maybe 2-3 km to east, over Wilshire skyway. And I mean OVER it.

Can see an eye or something. That red light I mentioned is among the tentacles.

The earth trembled again, the group quickly dropped to the ground to steady themselves as they watch the large black mass land hard over the skyway.

“The earthquake, earlier…” Leisha looked to Emily, “Do you think it was caused by one of these landing?”

“You think there’s more than one?” The student gasped, a bit shocked. “How would these get past the Alliance?”

“This can’t be good.” Emily kept her eyes on the alien ship, its red eye moving silently in a sweeping motion. She had to keep updating the public, with the extranet down, she had to get the info out there.

This is Emily Wong back online at UCLA on Earth. Unknown alien ship just landed nearby.

“Why-“

There was a sound, suddenly, that froze her thoughts. It tore through the atmosphere around them, interrupting Dr. Leisha’s question mid-sentence. It resonated through her chest, bwoooooong, her mind felt numb as she doubled over with the pain of it, clutching her ears. She couldn’t even scream.

Everything was shaking, but it wasn’t the ground this time.

It was just sound.

“What the fuck was that?” Caroline gasped, clutching her head as soon as the noise disappeared. Emily shook her head slightly, her thoughts felt dull.

“Did that come from the ship?” There was panic rising in the voice of the doctor. Emily looked up towards the black mass. She couldn’t answer her, she didn’t know.

“I have a bad feeling,” Emily murmured, her fingers flying across her omni-tool.

Sorry for break. Ship made loud blare/roar, big like rock concert. Could feel in chest. This thing can't be friendly.

Another blare, this time they were sort of ready for it, but it still scrambled her thoughts, making it hard to think. The eye was flashing strangely, as thought it was gearing up for another one. Was it looking for something?

Alarms in skycar lot all going off again. No broken windows… not this far off anyway.

“Scare tactics?” she asked the doctor. Leisha shrugged, it was obvious that this was not in her scope of expertise, she knew as much as her.

“It would make sense. The sound is disorienting, it’s so loud it shocks you into complete panic or immobilises you.”

Emily had to agree, that was smart warfare. Not only the sheer size of them was terrifying but add loud noises and you’re sure to set fire to the masses – people run, people separate, easier to conquer that way. After the second blast, people started to get curious, students were coming out of their classes and dorms. Some were pointing upwards, others were nervously looking around. The smarter ones were packing their skycars and leaving.

Another blare – this time people started screaming, fear running through them.

People coming outside to look now. Big crowd on campus. Some still in pajamas. Lots of people running.

She couldn’t help but feel like she’d seen this type of vessel before, she searched her memory – and then it hit her.

“I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen this!” Emily’s gut churned with fear. It took out nearly the entire Alliance fleet back then, it nearly destroyed the Citadel.

“What? Where?”

“It’s like Sovereign, the alien ship that the Geth used on the citadel three years ago,” her voice was shaky. This thing was invading Earth? And it wasn’t alone?

Now that tentacles extended, recognize this. Looks like geth flagship that attacked the Citadel.

She hadn't believed the original reports of his size from the battle of the Citadel, was Sovereign really this size back then? How were they supposed to fight something like that? Were the geth retaliating? Where did they get the ships? The Veil had kept her secrets but this was almost unimaginable.

This is why the comm buoys were out.

Everything was starting to make sense.

“We got to go.” Leisha pointed at the ship, its red eye seemingly focused in their direction. “That thing is moving. Put it up on the live feed, maybe the university is tuned in and they can clear the campus.”

“Okay,” Emily’s omni-tool beeped in recognition as she typed her warning: It just moved. Lifted a leg. Could be coming this way. They needed to go themselves. “Can we take the QEC out of your office?”

Dr. Martinette shook her head, sighing. “This is a proto-type. We can’t just pick it up and go. Regardless, it’s very heavy. We won’t be able to carry it.”

Need to move, will try to take QEC. Dr. M says can't. Back soon.

She had to convince her.

“We need this communication device. We have to keep reporting this. We’re the only link online right now.” Emily pointed at her News Skyvan. “We’ll put it in there, it has its own power source to keep it going.” The doctor bit at her lower lip, the ground shook with every step of the invader taking towards them. “We can’t leave people in the dark, Leisha.” She pleaded, squeezing her hands together as she twisted them. The doctor blew out her cheeks in defeat, sighing.

“Okay, fine. But we have to get the UCLA-PD that was assigned to guard it.” She was rubbing at her forehead in exasperation – when she plugged in the portable power, she wasn’t expecting the QEC to leave the area.

Emily let out a small sound of glee, her smile almost blinding. “Great! Where is the guard?”

“Officer Pearson is close, he probably hasn’t wandered far from the QEC, and he’s pretty dedicated to his job,” she mused. Emily motioned for her to lead the way back into the building.

“Pearson?” Dr. Martinette shouted in the hallway, heading towards his last post. She didn’t see him in the room but she heard him further down the hall towards her own office.

“I’m over here.”

The man stood inside Leisha’s office, eyeing the QEC, he was still moving debris clear of the area, making his way to the door. “We need to move this out of here, that thing out there might shake the buildings down to the ground the way it blares.”

Emily smiled, winked at the doctor before stepping around her through the door. “Glad to see someone else is thinking my way,” the reporter almost felt elated. Once she got closer to the officer, she noticed he was fairly older, his temple greying against the dark blond hair. She recognized him; it was the man from the lobby earlier when she signed in.

“How are we going to get this out of here, Aidan?” She didn’t hide the sound of annoyance in her voice, she clearly disagreed with the notion of moving this but she couldn’t argue with a lot of facts that made it obvious she was on the losing side of this argument.

“There’s a mass effect cart in my office. We can put it on there and proverbially wheel it out of here.” He suggested, pointing his thumb over his shoulder towards his office.

“Sounds good. I’ll go grab it.” Leisha disappeared into the darkness of the hallways, leaving the two to prepare the QEC for transportation.

“Where are you planning on taking this, Ms. Wong?” Officer Pearson didn’t look up from his work, his hands dusting off some of the QEC’s base, unplugging some of the unneeded wires since the communication device was now loaded onto a portable power cell.

“Thought about taking it to the company skyvan, it’s got reinforced walls and bullet proof glass since we take them into warzones and such sometimes,” she straightened out for a moment, her back aching from the weird angle she was leaning down at. “I figured it would be the safest place to put this and still be able to report what’s going on.”

Pearson looked up, raising a brow. “Well, you are a reporter and this is probably the biggest story since Shepard saved the Citadel.”

“Or her arrest,” she chirped, groaning in effort for a second as she helped move the base of the QEC in a better spot so they could easily maneuver it when the time came to pick it up.

“That too.” He paused his work, looked out the window to check the skyline, no sign of a Sovereign anywhere. “I wonder if they let her out.”

“Is this all over the planet? Do you think Vancouver got hit with it?” Leisha added as she pushed the cart through the door.

Pearson and Emily lifted the base unto the cart and placed it carefully, if not quickly. He grabbed the rest of the equipment and piled it up on top it. He looked at the doctor for a moment, considering her words as he shooed her away from the handles, taking control of the cart and started to walk towards the exit. “If it’s an attack, it would make sense that they’d hit the Alliance’s center of operations, no?” he shrugged.

It was a sensible answer, completely logical. She wasn’t in the military so it never really occurred to her. She didn’t think of it that way. Is this an all-out attack against the entire planet? How many of those Sovereigns were there?

Emily Wong, back online. Taking QEC to report on ship, UCLA-PD Officer Aidan Pearson coming with us to guard it.

Putting QEC on little mass cart to try to get it into the company skyvan. Back soon.

Emily pointed at her transportation when they arrived outside, there were still people scattering, running towards their own vehicles. Some people were just standing there, watching the Sovereign ship approach.

“It’s moving towards us for sure now,” Emily observed, it was deceptive to the eye on how close it was. It was so big, it moved slowly but its steps covered several kilometers in one go. She could see small explosions against the black colour of the vessel. Was the military already moving in?

“I’ll drive,” Pearson hopped in the front while the doctor helped Emily put the QEC back together inside the back of the van. After they closed the back doors, Emily felt the van pick up and move, gaining altitude as they connected the last pieces together.

“You go sit in the front, Leisha. I need to stay in the back to run the cameras and the QEC.”

“Why bother?” Pearson asked, eyes on the skyroad as he made his way through layers of chaotic traffic. Everyone on the road was in a rush, in a panic to get away from the center of town.

“What do you mean, why bother?” Emily shook her head slightly, irritated at his question. She still had to get this on film, even if she couldn’t get it on air today, she could get it up later. “To quote you, Mister Pearson, this is the biggest story since Shepard saved the citadel. This is history in the making.”

He didn’t answer her, he just kept on driving ahead. The vessel was still heading towards the campus. Emily flicked on her omni-tool, eyes on the live report – there were comments, reports from all over the city from various people. Everything was still uploading fine, the internet wasn’t affected yet, thankfully.

Okay, this is Emily Wong, on air, in air. Pearson is driving. Dr. M is sitting shotgun.

For those just joining. Earth's comm buoys out. Massive geth flagship in Southern California likely cause.

“Something’s not right,” Pearson grumbled, the car suddenly dipping down towards the ground as they avoid another car barrelling towards them. “I know people are freaking out, but they’re driving like lunatics.” Emily carefully moved up to the front of the van while it stabilised, she could feel it picking up speed.

“Can we get off this skyway?” Leisha asked, her hands on the dash to keep herself from wiping out despite the fact she had her seatbelt on. Emily leaned in-between the two passengers and hit the GPS on the van’s controls. It turned on, booting itself slowly.

Swarms of skycars are careening out of air lanes, trying to get away from it.

The screen flickered on, static sounds filling the van cabin instead of the usual monotone GPS voice asking her where to go.

“I take it by your expression, it’s not supposed to do that.” Dr. Martinette observed, smiling worriedly at Emily. The reporter clenched her jaw, looked to her omni-tool and chose the GPS app.

That one wasn’t working either.

“It’s all out, the GPS systems in both the van and the omni-tools. The satellites have been taken out.” Emily made her way back towards her station by the QEC and tried to figure out what to do next.

Van GPS out. Omni-tool GPS too. Looks like sats down? If so, act of war.

Did she dare put that out there? It was only logical – the aliens were invading earth, cut them off from warning people off-world and took out the satellites, disorienting the population and the military in the process.

“The roads are a mess, Pearson – how are we going to… where are we going anyways?” Emily leaned forward, between the seats and looked at him briefly before trying to see where they were over the city.

“I’m going to get my wife and son. Once we’re at my house we can figure out where to bring the QEC. Hopefully to the military compound.” He pulled up further, leaning his head out of the skyvan window to stare down at the ground. There was a lot of noise coming from below, most were screams. “We can use the ground traffic to guide ourselves, the skyway is gone – the signs… well there’s nothing working, people have gone off-lane.”

We're flying over the groundcar freeways -- we're going to have to use them to navigate. Airborne over the 405 now.

Groundcar traffic is thick. Rubbernecking at the giant ship. Lot of idiots driving skycars badly up here.

Emily leaned back against her chair, her thoughts swirling. She heard something, like two planes crashing in the distance, she frowned. Was that an explosion?

“Holy shit! Holy shit!” Dr. Martinette surprised her with a string of loud profanities. Emily rushed to the front, the doctor pointing in the distance where he could see a large cloud of smoke rising up towards the sky, covering the sun.

“What is that?” Emily was trying to figure out what the smoke meant.

“That’s Fort Irwin. Or what’s left of it.” Pearson replies grimly – Emily eyes him wearily, she can see his knuckles turning white as he grips the steering wheel.

“The military base?” she whispered, for the first time in a while, fear gripped her and immobilised her. “They wiped out the military base?” Her hands shook and she formed fists to control them, pressing her hands into her hips to hide them.

“Yeah, so much for our plan to drop this off.” Pearson, took in a breath, nostrils flared in thought. “I really need to get to my family. I’m worried. These things aren’t fucking around.”

On that, Emily couldn’t agree more.

“We need to climb higher, avoid all this traffic – but the van is too heavy.” Pearson turned and looked at Emily, he pointed his chin to the back where her station was. She followed his gaze and she nodded, understanding what he meant almost immediately.

Dumped camera gear -- not much good now. Gained some altitude. Mushroom cloud to the northeast.

Pearson says mushroom cloud near Fort Irwin.

The silence in the van was thick, Emily had a million questions but no one here could really answer her. The invasion was strange, nothing like when the Turians attacked Earth in the First Contact War. Why would the geth look to wipe them out?

Aliens here to kill us all? Doesn't make sense.

The geth didn’t even wipe out the quarians, why would they march against them now? Was it because of Shepard? Was there more to her incarceration after the batarian Mass Relay exploded? They weren’t even touching the city yet or the civilians.

They would have hit downtown. Maybe they're just targeting the military?

Systematic destruction, first the communications systems, the satellites and the military. They were isolating them, it’s only logical that the next thing to hit would be the industries, airports to keep people from being able to escape, and then… and then the destruction of the cities.

She heard Aidan sound off numbers to Leisha, who rapidly typed them out on the phone app of the omni-tool. There was no connection; Emily wasn’t really surprised to be perfectly honest. Everyone in the city was probably trying to call a loved one and try to get them out.

Dr. M is trying to call Pearson's wife on her omni-tool. Phone network is down, no doubt overloaded.

“No luck, I just can’t get the signal.” Dr. Martinette reached out to touch Pearson’s forearm. He hadn’t looked away from the make-shift road of ground cars. “We’re not too far, maybe the area’s been kept clear from them.” He hoped, Emily could hear it in his voice. The reporter didn’t know what to say to comfort him. Everyone was suffering, luckily she had no one on Earth to worry about, they were all off-world. They drove carefully thought the skycars, the traffic getting worst by the minute and the looming presence of the alien vessel was pressing on everyone’s mind. It was blaring its horn, scrambling their thoughts every few minutes.

A few more minutes past and Emily saw something strange in the sky, there were weird fires falling towards Earth. Debris, maybe? She couldn’t tell – did they take out the Alliance vessels patrolling Earth’s orbit? Were those the ships falling out of its gravitational pulls? She didn’t want to think about all those people dead and just drifting in space, falling down to earth. To change her thoughts, she looked out the window, she could see smoke below, fires spitting out of the local airport.

Cresting hill into San Fernando Valley right now. Lot of smoke from Van Nuys Earth-local airport.

“This is terrible, they’re taking out the airports. No one can leave from here.” Emily nervously chewed on the nail of her thumb; the debris from the sky seemed brighter here – no wait, that didn’t look like the debris from a few moments ago. They were too bright and round. Pearson slowed down the van as he noticed them too.

“What’s that?” Dr. Martinette whispered, as though if she spoke too loudly, the bright red eye of the Sovereign like ship would turn its stare onto them.

“I’m not sure, I was thinking about that a few minutes ago. Maybe it’s debris from space falling down?” Emily leaned closer to Leisha, she heard the engineer swallow hard, her eyes following the smoking tails of the falling objects.

Meteorites or something dropping from sky onto airport tarmac.

“No, it’s too compact. They look like meteorites.” Leisha brought up her omni-tool arm, the piece of equipment quickly coming to life and took a picture, zooming in. They could see it a little clearly. It was round in shape. “See? It’s a ball of sorts but entirely on fire.”

Emily watched as the balls of fire hit the airport again, crashing through buildings and through parked planes. She shook her head, the level of destruction from the meteorites was almost worst than that of the giant ship stomping through town. She narrowed her eyes - there was movement inside the fire shortly after that.

“Oh no.” Emily groaned in disbelief.

They're smoking. People coming out.

“It crashed through the building, these people are on fire! Get closer, Pearson, maybe we can help them!” She was shouting now, gripping both seats with her hands as Pearson opened his mouth to argue with her but he didn’t get the chance. She was quiet again, looking at the fire below as they hovered in place. Something wasn’t right with the shapes of the people walking.

“Why aren’t they running?” All three were now looking out, Dr. Martinette was taking pictures to get a better look, zooming in as much as she could before the screen got too blurry.

“If I was on fire,” Pearson started, “I’d at least drop and roll.” The humorous jab wasn’t lost on Emily, she smiled a little bit despite the horrific fact that someone or something was burning alive in front of them.

“Why are they so big on the upper body – and the arms are too long? They’re super lumpy.” Leisha observed, trying to pull up a clear picture of them but she couldn’t find one that could identify them.

“Maybe it’s the aliens?” Pearson added. Emily frowned.

Wait. Not people. Moving in closer.

“Move in closer, carefully though, I don’t want them to notice us.” She put her hand on his shoulder, he carefully allowed the van to move forward, quietly. Luckily for them, the sounds of the fire and traffic were camouflaging the van’s engines well enough. Emily could hear the doctor’s omni-tool taking shots the closer they got.

It became clear though, without the camera that the things weren’t humans. They had large and round at the top, longer arms and skinny legs with strange blue lights all over their bodies.

“Krogans?” she whispered to Pearson, who shook his head. “The legs are too thin, and they’re not holding on to any weapons that I can see. Krogans move in a pack when they’re at war,” he added, his own voice almost a whisper. The bright orange flames made it difficult to really see any details from this far plus. The smoke was getting thicker by the second – she didn’t know how those things could breathe in there.

“Got a good one!” Leisha looked up from her omni-tool, her smile wavering as she zoomed in on the picture.

“Let me see,” the words had barely left her mouth before Emily’s brows shot up in surprise. The aliens were a weird blue purple with bulbous lumps all over their upper torso. She could clearly see four eyes, very batarian-like but there was something weird about the thing’s body. It had faces all over its body and the arm… were those human remains?

“What the…” she let out a breath in disbelief, looking away from the image and turned on her omni-tool to update the public that was still logging on the FCC site.

Aliens look deformed, lumps on back. Not like krogan, whole upper body bulbous[80er.

“Oh shit!” Pearson pulled up the skyvan suddenly, forcing Emily to painfully wipe out on the floor, there was a huge bright white light that flooded the cabin of the skyvan. Leisha was doubled over onto her lap, clutching the dash to hold herself steady and suddenly, there was another explosion. The sound of it shook the van; she felt the vibrations in her chest.

Emily sat up, staring at the back of Pearson’s head, he was wiping at his brow, the van picking up speed, and all she could hear was a prayer in hushed tones from his direction. “They blew it up, they… they used some weapon from their arm and blew the building to hell.” Leisha, sobbed out the words, Emily blinked in surprise.

Aliens hit terminal with energy weapon whole bldg destroyed.

She was right. They were hitting the airports now – but the vessel wasn’t the only thing they needed to be worried about, they now had ground troops. Correction, she told herself, they had terrifying looking ground troops. Was this really the geth? The last time they attacked, they didn’t use these things.

This is Emily Wong, FCC News, reporting on alien attack on Earth. Currently fleeing Van Nuys airport.

“Did they see us?” Emily asked, her voice shaking, she’d stopped trying to hide her nerves, everyone was as terrified as she was. “Is anyone hurt?”

Pearson nodded in a sign that he’s okay. Dr. Marinette sat up straight and leaned back against the seat, closing her eyes before telling Emily she’s fine, just a bit shaken up. “It doesn’t look like they’re following us,” Leisha mentioned as she stuck her head out of the opened window and looked behind the van, the airport’s is now nothing but a cloud of smoke and fire. There’s no building left. It’s all gone. Any survivors would be dead for sure.

No pursuit, nobody hit. Aliens have guns as well as energy weapons but are on foot. Pearson circling back to freeway.

As they make their way back to the skyway, there was an increase of activity in the sky. The explosion from the airport had sent the surrounding area into a full fledge panic. The roads on the ground were at a standstill but the sky was full of chaos. Drivers were barely avoiding each other - there’s no order anymore.

Trying to report on routes out of LA, but have to dodge incoming skycar drivers from north and south.

They're coming at us head-on, same altitude. Everyone scared. Plz drive safe everyone.

“Everyone is out for themselves, at this point.” Pearson mumbled at no one in particular, Emily glanced up from her omni-tool, the update still loading to the Live Report site. She furrowed her brow in confusion at the sudden shadow that enveloped the whole van.

There is a surge of screams below them, all three passengers looked up through the windshield only to be met with another alien vessel; only this one is much smaller and far more agile. There is an explosion of the fireballs coming from the vessel, flooding the area. Amongst the fire, Emily sees something shiny along the ground roadway – no cars are moving, no people are trying to escape. They look abandoned. The fireballs land all over the road, the lumped masses emerge and spread out, shooting their weapons at skycars, immobilising or taking them down.

“Holy shit,” Emily’s yelling, “Holy shit! They’re shooting them!” she hit Pearson on the shoulder to go, to move. They couldn’t get caught here. “Move it, move it!” she was grabbing now, shaking his shoulder.

“I know! I’m fucking trying!” He shook her off, his face twisted in anger and fear. The van took off like a shot, throwing her backwards a bit. Sitting down in her chair at her station in the back, wide eyed, Emily quickly got to her omni-tool and tapped out the warning.

OH GOD EVERYONE FLEEING LA DO NOT GO NORTH ON 405. SOMETHING ON ROAD

Another ship/thing standing over freeway. Not as big as other one, but still big, maybe 200m tall.

She barely had pressed send before the whole area turned red. She was sure there was another explosion, like at the airport, but the familiar boom never arrived – only a loud roar of the vessel’s blare that deafened them. People below fell to the ground clutching their heads from the bwong of the vessel, some were shot at and remained on the ground unmoving, and others were captured by the beasts and dragged away. Where was that coming from? They couldn’t tell – there was too much chaos.

The beam sliced again, this time taking out skycars as they tried to escape, punching holes into the freeway to cut the people off from getting to safety. They were herding them. It was all organised, it was terrifying.

Firing beams, destroying skycars. Made holes in freeways. DO NOT APPROACH

Pearson was moving the van away from the large black vessel, away from the traffic – he didn’t know what was more dangerous, the people driving or the aliens. After a few minutes, they’d manage to stabilise, the chaos far behind them and they tried not to think about what had just happened. It was so quiet inside the van, Pearson could only squeeze the steering wheel, his lips tightly closed as he watched innocent people get slaughtered or dragged away, Dr. Martinette had dipped her head below the dash, quietly sobbing at the horror of it all. Emily had her face pressed hard against the front windshield, squeezing herself between the seats of the two people in front.

She had to see. She had to know what was happening to them. And she saw, she almost regretted it but it had to be done. They were dragging the dead and the living towards the shiny objects she’d noticed earlier.

“There’s spikes down there,” she muttered to herself, trying to figure out where she had seen them before. They were all lined up against the side of the road and the lumpy beasts were throwing the bodies on them.

“I’ve seen those on the Citadel. They’re called…” she racked her brain, trying to think what Alenko had called them back then during the interview after the Citadel was safe. He had called them something teeth. Frustrated at her lack of information, she swore out loud before firing up the omni-tool again.

Spikes on side of road. Tall -- Vlad the Impaler spikes. Saw similar ones when geth hit Citadel during Saren's attack.

Spikes hung with human bodies. More of the lumpy aliens dragging people toward them. Hundreds of them.

The window to the right side of the van suddenly shattered, Leisha yelled out in surprise – they could hear the strange grunts from the aliens and the people screaming, some begging for their lives. There were children there too. Emily felt her heart break, tears threatening to squeeze out of her but she pushed it back, now wasn’t the time to lose it.

Some lumpies shooting people. Others taking people alive. Need to get out of here, firing into air too

Get out. Get out if you can

Would her warnings get through? Could she save some people? She wasn’t sure. More shots fired up towards them, Pearson brought the car up higher, rolling far too much in his attempts to avoid most of the shots. She heard more glass breaking, shots bouncing burning through the side of the van.

It was supposed to be safe in here – this van was war-proof.

But it never occurred to her that maybe there were undiscovered weapons out there. They were living far too comfortably with the idea that space had been explored and all its mysteries discovered. The van dipped hard, Emily fell forward and could hear the QEC slipping against the metal floor – the grinding of metal made her stomach churn as Pearson voice pierced the fog of fear.

“Hold on, hold on! This is going to be really rough.”

There was sweat on his brow. Dr. Martinette’s dark skin looked pale in the setting sun-light. She didn’t know what she looked like while the van was spiraling down towards the ground. Probably just as terrified.

Would they survive?

Everything went black.

---

.:: 16:30 Los Angeles, Earth - 2186 ::.

---

 

Emily woke, eyes sprung open with a shot of adrenaline but the world had become still again, she could feel grass under her face as she rolled over and groaned.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Emily.” Leisha’s face appeared over her, smiling. Emily blinked quickly, her temples throbbing.

“What happened?” She croaked out, her throat was far too dry and everything ached. She felt the small cooling breeze and appreciated it for a moment; the sun was even further lower than before, dipping behind the mountains. How long had she been sleeping?

“We crashed, safely mind you,” Dr. Martinette helped Emily into a sitting position and took the opportunity to check the wound on her face, “but the QEC got loose in the back and decided to give you a bump.”

“Oh no.” Emily shook her head gently – another thing gone wrong today but this time it was her only way to communicate with the outside world, “Is the QEC alright? Can we still use it?”

“I fixed it, although you are very hard headed, your skull did no major damage to the QEC.” Leisha smiled, taking Emily by surprise. She smiled herself, allowing herself a bit of a chuckle.

“Ah, the doctor has a little sense of humour.” She grinned; Leisha visibly blushed at the remark. Laughter aside, there were bigger problems to be concerned with.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Leisha cleared her throat, the blush still dusting her cheek bones, “But I updated your omni-tool program for the live report saying that we’re back online and everything is okay.”

Emily flipped to the history of uploads and saw the doctor’s delicate message.

This is Emily Wong reporting via QEC on the alien attack on Earth. We are back online and okay.

We didn't get hit. It must not have wanted us too bad. QEC took a bump during the dodge, Dr. M saved it

Emily laughed. “Good job, can barely tell it’s not me.” Leisha grinned.

“Where’s Pearson? How’s the van?”

Dr. Martinette pointed to the left, where the van stood still. It had seen better days, some of the paint had been burned off, there were several dents and holes on the side door, one window was broken but besides that it looked like it could still fly. Pearson had the hood up and half his body was inside the skyvan’s motor.

Emily stood up, walked over to the officer and leaned against the vehicle.

“What’s the verdict?”

Pearson looked up from his work and smiled at her. “Glad to see you’re okay,” he nodded at her; she nodded back in appreciation of his concern. “As for your question, the skyvan is fine, but it’s making a terrible racket that I need to fix before we sneak into the city.”

He slammed the hood shut, wiping his hands on his uniform. It was filthy but so were all three of them.

“How long was I out?”

“About an hour.” Emily’s brows shot up in surprise.

“What’s happened since?”

“Well, I took the time to check the surroundings with the van and there are fighter drones up ahead. Round things with a big red eye like the bug over there.” He pointed up towards the smaller sovereign that was still shooting its beam into the ground. “They’re taking down anything that approaches. Shooting them right out of the sky.”

“Shit.” Emily sighed, how were they supposed to get around that thing. She pressed the palm of her hand against her forehead in thought. The least she could do is warn a few more people out there where not to go.

Still in Valley, staying low. Smaller fighters/drones over mountains firing at any skycars that approach.

Big metal bug is still at the 405 choke point. DO NOT APPROACH OR GET OUT OF VEHICLE

“You know,” Pearson started, looking up towards the horizon. They could see the tall apartment buildings in the residential area of the city, “They’ve run out of military and airports.” He sounded worried, almost tired.

“Yeah,” she understood. He didn’t really have to say anything more but maybe keeping it quiet only made it a little less real.

Officer Pearson is very concerned. If aliens targeting civilians, he believes his wife at home could be in danger.

Trying to figure out where to go next. Emily Wong with FCC News, back soon.

Emily pushed off from the van, her omni-tool powering down for the time being. She tried to smile reassuringly as she stood next to Aidan and stared up towards the high rise buildings. All these people trapped in there, all the deaths that are sure to come.

“Let’s go get your family out of there.”

 

---

.:: 17:00 Los Angeles, Earth 2186 ::.

---

For those of you just joining us, Earth is being invaded. Alien forces are exterminating all resistance.

They were back up into the skies, leaving the safety of their makeshift camp behind. Leisha was still trying to get through to Pearson’s home but still had no luck.

I'm Emily Wong, FCC News, with Dr. Martinette and UCLA-PD Officer Pearson, planning next move.

“Where to?” The two women asked, almost at the same time, Pearson almost laughed but he becomes serious within seconds.

“What about you guys? Anyone we need to rescue too?”

“My family is off-world,” Dr. Martinette sighed, almost in relief – she was glad that there was no one she needed to worry about if this was just focused on Earth. “They’re hopefully all safe at home in the Terminus System.”

Pearson laughed, “Terminus system? Safe? That’s one sentence I didn’t think I’d ever hear put together.” Leisha rolled her eyes slightly, shaking her head. Obviously that wasn’t the first time she’d heard the joke.

Dr. Martinette and I have no family on Earth. I have coworkers in San Jose, but not sure how to reach them.

“My family relocated to the Citadel years ago,” Emily piped in while her fingers were still typing out information to the live report site, distracting the two from an argument for sure, “But my co-workers are all in San Jose – I hope they read this feed and got the hell off planet.”

“If that’s even possible.” Leisha added, both women looking worried for a moment. Emily let out a breath, “Either way, I can’t reach them so the question remains, Pearson. Where to?"

Pearson's family is in Inglewood. So that's where we're going.

Inglewood wasn’t too far away but the path to get there was riddled with dangers that they wouldn’t really normally think about. The alien ground troops were in a deadlock with humans, civilians and military from what Emily could tell. They weren’t too far off the ground, fearing to be seen by the patrolling drones or even the lumpies.

The sun was almost entirely gone behind the mountains at this point, it was getting darker and harder to see – it only made them hope that it would make them harder to spot while they snuck around the aliens.

She hoped.

Another explosion and a loud blare of the alien’s horn brought her attention to the east of their position. She could see a third vessel stomping its way through LAX airport – it was still shocking to see, but she couldn’t really feel the sadness of it anymore. The thought was almost too much to process, too much to bear.

Only good thing about giant death machines is you can see them a long way off. Can see one burning LAX now.

“I hope they got out,” Emily thought out loud, Leisha turned to follow the reporter’s gaze; she saw her bite her lower lip in thought. What could they say? More red beams cut through the buildings, more explosions. One plane made it off ground only to be brought down in the same cut motion of the attack. It all seemed hopeless.

“We’re almost there.” Pearson spoke softly, fearing any excessive noise would bring attention to them. They’d manage to avoid traffic up to this point but they’d been in wider spaces. Now, entering the civilian quarters, the concrete buildings seemed too close, everything was narrow and enclosed. How were they supposed to get to Pearson’s without getting caught?

The van slipped through between piled cars, slipped over fires burning out. There were no people in the streets, the darkness was swallowing the chaos – there was no electricity in the building.

“Where are all the people?”

“Inside or away from the city if they’re smart, hopefully.” Pearson mumbled, his gaze focused on the debris and the smaller routes available. Without the GPS, things were a bit more complicated. Emily powered up her omni-tool again, this time trying to find a radio station. There was no satellite signals, no matter how many channels she flicked through.

“What are you doing?” Pearson hissed out, worry etched on his face as they moved through the side streets.

“I want to see why the streets are empty, maybe the Alliance evacuated them.” She hissed back, a little bit of hope seems to have breathe life into the man, maybe… maybe his wife had evacuated with their son, if that was the case.

“Try the old AM signals, if the satellites are down, the old radio towers might still work since they don’t rely on the same tech,” Leisha suggested, her eyes also on the surroundings. The darkness was oppressing.

We're staying off big roads, blending in with buildings and ground clutter. Near Pacific Palisades. Sat radio out, will try AM.

“… Reapers have landed on earth. Alliance personnel advise that all citizens evacuate from large cities. This is an emergency broadcast.”

“Reapers?” Emily couldn’t believe it. Commander Shepard had been preaching about the aliens for years, urging the council and the Alliance to take the threat seriously, that we needed to be prepared. But no one had taken her seriously, branded her a mad woman when she blew up the Mass Relay to delay them. Not only that, but she was traitor according to the latest reports she’d managed to get her hands on – working with Cerberus, an enemy of the Council with her SPECTRE status still active. Not only that, but the woman had faked her own death when the Normandy was destroyed by the Collectors.

Even that bit of information was iffy at best – there was no evidence of Collectors. But now… the Alliance was admitting to the Reapers and she could see them right in front of her.

AM radio still on. Someone calling invaders "Reapers."

“Commander Shepard was seen fighting the Reaper Forces after the Alliance Head Quarters was severely damaged by a Reaper’s attack. The Alliance warns that the Reaper ground forces are aggressive and should be avoided at all cost – they will not negotiate.

While protecting the city, an Alliance Dreadnought engaged one of the invading vessels and was shot down – the distraction was enough to allow the Normandy to escape with newly reinstated Commander Shepard.

Admiral Hackett has passed on this message from Shepard: “Keep fighting, stay safe – don’t lose hope. I will be back; I am seeking help from the Council, from our allies.”

Emily shut the radio off, Shepard’s voice still ringing in her ears. There was a bit of a glimmer of hope in the darkness. Pearson didn’t look convinced and Leisha just kept frowning.

“With Shepard off-world…” Leisha started, her hands twisting in doubt.

“She’s getting help, she didn’t abandon us.” Emily said it with such conviction, Leisha blinked in surprise. Emily had no doubt. Shepard hadn’t abandoned them, they had to keep getting as much information as possible – she’d keep reporting all her findings and putting it out there. Alliance Intelligence was sure to pick it up and pass along the information if it was important.

It had to be. Too many people were dying for nothing.

Radio says Alliance dreadnought shot down over Vancouver. I thought they couldn’t go in-atmosphere?

“If the ground troops can’t be negotiated with,” Pearson turned another corner, the roads were still empty but there was debris everywhere. Some building were completely destroyed, others untouched. “I have weapons locked up in my home. We can at least protect ourselves if they attack us.” Emily had to laugh. She couldn’t help wondering if that would really change anything, a pistol against a Reaper? How would a single bullet change the fate of the galaxy?

Pearson says he has spare guns at his house. Can only help, but looking at thing firing on LAX, not sure pistol will do it.

The skyvan stopped, landing as quietly as possible, Pearson turned towards the two women and gave them a tight worried smile, nodding as he wiped his hands on his thighs.

“Ready? We’re here.”

“Ready as we’re going to be,” Leisha mumbled, eyeing the street for movement. Emily took a deep breath and waited for Pearson and Dr. Martinette to step out. She hoped this was going to be quick.

We're at Pearson's apartment block. Time to meet the family.

They quickly made their way across the small parking lot, through the glass door of the building. There were papers strewn across the floors, a hole in one of the walls from a skycar crashing through it. Reapers had been through here, they weren’t certain, but it was the only logical thing to think based on the chaos in the lobby.

Emily noted that there was no blood, so maybe it wasn’t an attack, just careless panicked driving.

Pearson points towards the exit stairs – Leisha shakes her head no, worried there are lumpies in the stairway but Pearson shows her his set of keys. They unlock the door, it’s dark – they can’t see anything but Emily turns on her omni-tool flash light. Dr. Leisha blinks, as though she forgot that they all had that ability.

“Comes standard,” Emily laughed, a little light hearted as they climb an endless amount of stairs. It was so quiet. So, so quiet. Humans had all but disappeared. Reaching his floor, Pearson peeked out the door and motioned for them to follow.

They made their way down the hall, Emily’s hands were shaking and she reached out to Leisha, grabbing her hand. The doctor gave her a small smile, but her eyes never wandered from their destination. She counted the doors, none of them were open, there was still no noise, still no sign of anyone still around.

It was unnerving as their careful steps echoed slightly in the halls. Could this tiny sound give them away? Would there be Reapers crawling out of the darkness?

The only thing they have to defend themselves was a civilian omni-tool and harsh language. Not much. They’d die for sure.

Pearson motioned for them to stop, flashing his keys to unlock the door of what seemed to be his home, they quickly made their way in.

“Honey?” he whispered, tiptoeing inside the room. The blinds were down, Emily noted, the area they walked into seemed to be the living room – Pearson reappeared, worry etched on his face with a crumpled piece of paper in his hand.

“She’s not here. Well, she was,” he passed a hand through his hair and rested it on the back of his neck. He looked tired. “My son didn’t come home from high school. She went looking for him at the school to pick him up to bring him back but that was hours ago. She wrote this around three and it’s going on six.”

That didn’t sound good. She flicked on her omni-tool, typing a message to send once they get closer to the QEC. She couldn’t help thinking why maybe that would have happened. Then it becomes obvious – the buses can’t fly.

Change of plans. Pearson's wife left a note. Their son never made it home from high school.

Buses are all ground-only, students may be trapped.

“Buses are grounded, can’t fly, Maybe they’re in traffic and something is keeping her from being able to come back directly. Maybe she got picked up by the Alliance.” Emily reached out to Aidan, touching his forearm. She was trying to give him hope. His eyes searched hers as much as they could in the darkened apartment.

“Maybe.” He didn’t believe her and she didn’t blame him. “I got the weapons out of the safe, let’s go back to the van.” He took the lead, a large bag over his shoulder as they made their way back down the building. She hit send on her omni-tool before they leave the lobby, the signal becoming clear again

This skycar just became a rescue team.

She felt a surge of hope build in the pit of her belly – this day had been filled with a lot of hopelessness so far, she needed something to believe in. Pearson needed something to believe in. The load the van with his bag, he pulls out some clothes that at first she doesn’t recognize.

“Just in case,” he mumbled, his thoughts obviously on his wife and child – Emily couldn’t help but get that vibe that he was sure this wasn’t going to end well. They need to move as soon as possible, Emily realised, it had already been several hours since she disappeared and time is of the essence in this kind of situation.

Officer Pearson loaned pistol. He's also got a vest and a UCLA-PD kinetic barrier for himself. Hope we don't need them.

 

---

 

.:: 18:37 Los Angeles, Earth - 2186 ::.

---

 

The ride took longer than they thought it would. There were fighter drones moving into the city, some lumpies fired at them from the ground as they passed through the smaller streets. They were everywhere but there were still no people around. It was void of bodies, void of survivors.

The more she thought about it, the more she wondered why that was. How can an alien invasion hell-bent on destroying earth leave no bodies behind? What was happening to the dead? To the living?

Did it have something to do with the silver spikes from the side of the road? What happened to people on the spikes?

Twilight pressed down on the sun, the darkness covered the city in a blanket that was far from comforting. Most of the city was without power – some parts she could still see some lights in the buildings.

There were only alarms blaring in the distance, the harsh sound of fire swallowing buildings and the trembling sound of the earth as the Reapers made their way through the city, burning it to the ground. She could see the high school in the distance – it was one of the largest in the city. They didn’t have to get too close, they could see an outdoor field and it took everything in her not to scream in frustration, in horror.

“Oh, god,” Leisha whispered – her face white with fear.

“No, no, no, no.” Emily heard him yell each word with rage. It didn’t entirely register at first what they were looking at. Then it became clear as they noticed bodies on the spikes. The whole outdoor was full of the spikes; she could see the aliens dragging people around. She could hear people screaming.

Pearson’s knuckles were white, he was shaking. His lips were pulled back into a pained expression. These were just children. They weren’t meant to see war – they were supposed to stay safe, supposed to be the reason why we fought the war in the first place.

Reached the school. Can see an open-air basketball court filled with spikes.

She was shaking, terrified. She could see masses of people still alive but they were trapped. The aliens were holding them hostage.

Humans penned in by lumpies.

Landing now.

The van dipped down, dropping hard to the ground. All three stayed silent, waiting to see if anyone noticed the loud sounds coming from them but, Emily bitterly thought, the people’s screams probably gave them cover.

“Doctor M.” Pearson looked at Emily, he nodded at her when she took out her pistol and checked the thermal clip, “You’re going to stay here. Miss Wong and I are going to look around, see if we can get some people out.”

“You mean, to find your family.” Emily reiterated, Aidan looked away, eyes on the school. He lifted his own gun, checked the kinetic barrier and hit his chest hard to feel the resistance of the plating against him.

A reassurance? Emily’s not so sure. If the alien weapons cut through the metal of her van like butter…. She shook her head – that was negative thinking and negativity always bred more negativity.

“Yeah, find my family.”

And get them out of there. She wanted to say it to him, but the tone of his voice suggested otherwise. He was still sitting in the seat, staring at the dark building.

“Let’s go.” He opened the door of the van, steps out into the darkness.

Pearson and I will get close. Dr. M will be getaway driver. Going dark, will be back online soon.

She shut off her omni-tool entirely, just in case if the systems ever came back on line – she didn’t want it to give away their position at the worst time possible. She’d seen enough vids to know that it could happen and she was not going to be that person.

They snuck around the building, so far there were no aliens, no lumpies present but she could see the spikes in the class rooms, some were full to the brink, some were empty.

Pearson tested all the windows, so far they were all locked so they kept walking, kept trying them until one of them was loose and they managed to get inside. Pearson propped her up first, and she in turned helped pulling him inside the classroom. Once there, Emily could have sworn her heart could be heard by the entire building.

It was pounding hard behind her ribs and she couldn’t steady her hands. She had to get herself under control but it was getting harder by the minute. There were shuffling sounds in the hallway, wet sounding footsteps like flesh against flesh. The reality of the situation was truly sinking in, there was a difference when observing from far, the destruction and suffering and being in the thick of it.

It felt dangerous. It felt… surreal.

Pearson moved quietly across the room, catching her attention as he opened the door slowly and checked up and down the hall. One of the lumpies had shuffled out of sight, he motioned that everything was clear before Emily followed him out into the cover of darkness.

It didn’t take long for them to make it out of the class room area into a more open section of the school. It didn’t feel safe though, they were exposed.

“It’s the cafeteria, just through here we can make it out into the field where those spikes were – the kids must be close by, you can hear people.” Pearson whispered to her, his pistol was out and he removed the safety. Emily hadn’t taken hers out, still snug in the back of her pants.

Her throat felt dry, her hands were shaking still but she could keep it under control. She followed Aidan closely, eyes on every shadow that moved in the large area. There were no patrols, no lumpies anywhere.

It made her nervous.

“Did you hear that?” Stopping in his track, he whispered the question to the darkness.

Emily paused, listening for something unusual – there was someone praying to the maker, not too loud but just loud enough for them to catch it. Pearson changed routes, heading towards the voice.

“Eric?” Pearson ducked close to one of the closed doors, pressing his ear against the metal, listening. “Eric? Are you in there?” he asked again. The prayer didn’t stop, it was more than a murmur but it was hard to pin point where exactly it was located.

“Was that him?” Emily whispered, looking over their shoulder to see if anything was coming. It was still clear, luckily – Aidan didn’t answer, opening the door instead. He stood at the entry, and shook his head slowly.

“Damn,” he whispered, putting his hands on his hips as Emily came up behind him to take a look herself. There were people in the room. Emily pressed the back of her palm against her lips, trying to stop the sob that wanted desperately to come out. They were all dead; every single person was staked through on the large silver spikes. Pearson quickly made his way around the room, careful to avoid touching the spikes and the people.

“They’re not here,” was all Emily heard him say. She backed out of the room; Aidan passed her silently and headed towards the next set of doors. Each room was full of the spikes, they could still hear the prayer and for a moment, just for a little bit, Emily thought it was all in her head.

Why couldn’t they find them?

“Do you think…” she started to say, but bumped into him when he suddenly stopped and pushed her against the wall, pressing his hand against her mouth. Eyes wide, she heard him go shh as a lumpy exited a room, a man being dragged behind it – he was screaming, struggling but it didn’t stop the alien.

Once they were out of sight, Aidan let her go, “Sorry,” he whispered, Emily nodded, shrugging off the surprise. “Looks like there are people in there, alive.” He pointed at the door and quickly made their way to it.

He pressed his ear against the door, listening.

“I can hear someone.” Without a second thought, he opened it. He came face to face with a boy, eyes wide with fear.

“Oh thank the maker, Aidan.” A woman that stood just a bit behind the boy, pulled the officer into a fierce hug; Pearson reached out to the boy and pulled him in too. Emily smiled, he’d found his family.

“I was…” he swallowed hard, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice but failing hard. “I was really worried I didn’t make it on time.”

“They’re starting to take people from here, we need to go, dad.” The younger man urged his father, looking around the room. The people were gathering, hope giving them the courage to escape.

“You’re right, let’s make a break-“

The door opened, there was a moment of complete utter silence in the room before the alien made a loud growling sound and Emily felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. Panic exploded amongst the people, they screamed, pushed themselves out from the center and ran for the walls. The alien’s arm rose and suddenly there was a bright hot light that filled the room.

Pearson opened fire, screaming at Emily to get out. His son grabbed her arm, his face bloodied – Emily couldn’t understand what was happening, she could hear the shots from Pearson’s pistol but she couldn’t see clearly. The alien was still shooting at the crowd, his mouth opened wide with a screech that was almost immobilising them.

“Get to the van, Wong, get to them out of here!” he was shouting again, this time it was different. There was rage there. Where was all this blood coming from? Emily looked down, her clothes were covered in it, and she could taste the copper of it in her mouth. The boy was crying next to her as they ran down the hall. People were running ahead of her, white beams from the alien weapons were hitting walls; people were tripping over each other. Some were shot and some didn’t even run. They just curled up on floor and surrendered themselves, waiting.

She found that odd. Why would they do that?

She heard Pearson scream again, the pistol shooting quickly. The boy let go of Emily and ran ahead, the exit in sight. She stopped in her tracks, pulling out her pistol and turned, shooting at the alien as well.

She had to buy them time to escape.

Another bright light flashed in front of her, she couldn’t see for a moment, still shooting the pistol – she realised after a minute that Aidan’s gun had gone silent, the alien fallen at their feet.

“Fuck,” Pearson leaned against the wall, clutching his chest and fell to the ground.

“Aidan?” she ran to him, she pressed her hand against his chest, and his breath was ragged and bleeding profusely. “Oh no,” she let out a single sob; he smiled at her, a little bit sheepishly.

“I got it,” he laughed, “I got it.” He slumped over, breath wheezing out loudly – she heard his pistol drop to the floor and knew he was dead. She grabbed it off the floor, standing up and stared at the alien. The gun was empty – she could see the wounds on the alien and it didn’t even slow it down.

She reached out to Aidan’s face, closing the lids and thanked him, tears burning her eyes – she thought about his son, his wife was nowhere to be found. Had she died in the initial attack in the room? She was alone in the hallway, everyone they saved having escaped. Her gaze fell on the alien that laid face down on the floor. She wiped her eyes with the palm of her hands, pressing her lips together. She wasn’t about to let his sacrifice go to waste.

She moved over to the bulbous thing on the floor and made a grab for the alien’s weapon. It was warm still, the flesh of it wrapped around the metallic base. It made a sticky, wet sound when she yanked it free from its grip. She fell on her backside, yelping in surprise when another alien arrived, running straight for her.

She scrambled, slipping on the blood from Aidan that was spilled in the skirmish. She tried to grab for her pistol but the alien was mere feet from her as she tried to run.

She could hear it grunting, the weapon dragging on the floor as it ran but… it stopped, leaning over the its dead comrade. She looked back for just a moment, her feet still running for freedom; she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

She burst out of the doors of the school – there were dead bodies in the parking lot but it seemed most people had made it out, she hoped. She wondered where Eric and his mother had gone for a brief moment but she couldn’t concern herself with that – she had to get out of here.

She saw the van head her way, the door opened and she was greeted by Eric, and his mother.

“I’m sorry,” Emily bowed her head as she entered the vehicle, dropping the large weapon at their feet. “I’m sorry.” The woman gave her a small smile, but said nothing while the boy cried. Leisha eyed her worriedly as Emily sat down in the front seat, Emily could see the tears there but she ignored it. Leaning back, she closed her eyes and tried to understand what had just happened. She flipped on her omni-tool, watched it connect through the QEC and updated.

Oh god pearson dead full thermal clip into alien and it still killed him before it died

Got weapon from pearson's target but backup arrived, had to run

I'm sorry I'm so sorry we tried but we couldn’t

The skyvan took off quickly, there were things pouring out of the school, she thought it may have been survivors, she put her hand on Leisha’s arm to stop her but Dr. Marinette was shaking her head.

“We can’t take them all, Emily, we’re going to get mobbed if we keep the van here.” There was no doubt in her voice, but she could see it in her eyes, it was a hard decision. The harsh reality of survival. Emily looked away, apologizing to the people still on the ground in silence.

This is Emily Wong. Officer Pearson died trying to save students at his son's school, one of countless such heroes. I'll be back.

She sat up straight in the seat, slapping her cheeks twice in an effort to focus her mind. There were things she needed to put out there in case the Alliance was following her report, in case anyone was following her information.

More news on the aliens. When Officer Pearson downed one, another ignored me and bent over its comrade.

As best I could tell, it was eating the fallen alien. Unfamiliar with any similar cannibal activity among known aliens.

“I should start calling these things Cannibals, not Lumpies.” She grimaced at the memory, Leisha laughed despite the horror behind the words. They drove a few more minutes in silence, the boy had fallen asleep against his mother – she was still staring at the wall of the van, worry etched across her brow.

Emily couldn’t blame her. She’d probably be the same way.

“What did you bring back with you?” Leisha was looking at her, Emily looked down from Pearson’s wife and stared at the weapon on the floor.

“I grabbed it on the way out, Pearson’s gun barely hurt the thing,” she started, clamping her mouth shut when she realised who else was in the van, but it was too late by then. She sighed. “I figured I would have a better chance with this thing firing back since it pretty much one-shot anything it came in contact with.”

“We should probably look at it; try to give more information out to the public,” she suggested. “We can pull over, we’re pretty far from the school and there’s no fighter drones around in this area that I’ve noticed.”

“That’s a very ‘engineer’ thing to say,” she let out a breath of relief, smiling despite the fact that her body was still super tense – she felt exhausted – her omni-tool beeped when it posted the message.

Dr. Martinette believes it would help to discuss the alien weapon I recovered. We're safe now, pulling over.

“Well, you know.” She grinned at the reported, setting the van down on the side of the road. The women got up from their seats, Emily grabbed the weapon and handed it over to Leisha. It felt… odd, in her hands, now that she had time to pay attention to it.

The weapon is a meter long, more curves than a human rifle. Smooth organic feel but it's metallic.

“We should test it, so I can see just what it shoots. If I can identify the rounds, we could potentially save more lives if we expose it.” Leisha was already opening the side door to the skyvan, Emily nodded and followed her.

“We’ll be right back, Mrs. Pearson.” Emily tried to reassure the woman, who was still silent in her seat. She didn’t look at Emily or acknowledge that she heard anything.

Parking structure nearby. Going to fire weapon at wall. Dr. Martinette will study effects.

Weapon in hand, the two women made their way quickly across the street and stopped just before the building, it was mostly empty of cars – the large hole on the other opposite side would suggest that the fighter drones had already patrolled this area so they were safe for now.

“How do you fire it?” Leisha flipped the weapon around, looking to see where she could hold on to it. Emily shook her head, unsure.

“They have it built into the arm of the Cannibals, I had to rip it out of them.” She turned towards the wall of the parking garage, pressed her lips together and spread her feet apart to brace herself for the blast. Her finger searched for a trigger she wasn’t even sure was there. It took a little bit of effort but she eventually found it.

“Ready?”

Dr. Martinette brought up her omni-tool, an app running to scan the beam of light. “Ready,” she nodded.

She pressed down. At first nothing happened but she felt the weapon heat in her hands, a bright violet light burst out the tip of the weapon and blinded her. She dropped the blaster to the ground, clutching her hands, her mouth wide in a silent gasp of pain. She couldn’t breathe – there was dust everywhere.

“Holy crap!” Leisha coughed hard, she took off her glasses and blinked away the dirt in her eyes. “Look at that hole!” She pointed at the garage, spitting out the dirt in her mouth.

sry weapon hot brnd hands. Aslo hard t see. Bright violet blast destryed wall big hole.

Emily didn’t really care, her hands were on fire. “Medi-gel.” Was all she managed to say, Leisha grabbed her elbow and swiftly guided her to the van, weapon in her other hand. As they approached, Mrs. Pearson opened the door, motioning for them to enter. Grateful, Leisha thanks her quickly before digging out the med-kit she had put away earlier that day after the van had crashed.

She searched quickly but no luck. “No Medi-gel left,” she slammed the kit shut, leaning on her hands against the station desk. She eyed Emily, who was now ash faced from the pain.

“My… apartment isn’t far from here – I have medi-gel there.” She gasps, sitting down in the front seat and buckling her belt, “I’ll… guide you.” Firing up the engine, Leisha followed Emily’s directions carefully, avoiding detection from the drones patrolling the empty streets.

“Did you get any information on that blast?” Emily had her eyes closed, leaning her head against the headrest, trying to keep herself from throwing up as the pain pulsed through her hands.

“Yeah, it picked up a lot of information, and it’s sorting it out now, I have an idea though – it’s complicated.”

She has theories. Micro black holes, fusion reactions, nuclear force, all put into rifle.

Going to my place to find food, plan.

“That’s kind of terrifying. How are we supposed to protect ourselves from that?” Emily shook her head, Pearson didn’t have a chance with his pistol and Kinetic Barrier. She could feel the gun pressing against her back inside her belt. How was she going to protect herself?

A bullet couldn’t stop a small nuclear black hole.

She bit her lip thoughtfully – the options left weren’t pleasant and she didn’t really want to delve into the meaning of it all just then. They were survivors, that’s all she had to focus on for now.

Her building came into view. “I’m on the top floor, you’ll have to scale up the building with the van.” Leisha nodded, pulling up the van to fly up towards the top of the building. Once they landed, Emily took a moment to look at the skyline.

The power was out almost entirely throughout the city, fires ravaged the horizon, Reapers were stalking the larger untouched areas – it was terrible – smoke was blotting out the rising moon. There were no stars twinkling in the sky. She turned her back on the destruction.

“Let’s go inside, I’m starving.”

 

---

.:: 19:58 Los Angeles, Earth 2186 ::.

---

 

 

This is Emily Wong, reporting on alien invasion.

She was sitting at her table, in the dark – QEC still within reach of her omni-tool and waiting for the medi-gel to kick in. She bit into her sandwich, thankful that even though the power had gone out, some food was still good. She’d kill for a warm cup of joe though.

She couldn’t figure out what the motive of this attack was. Nothing was making any sense besides world-wide genocide. They were herding them and killing them.

They’re attacking civilians and penning us in the cities for some reason.

She took another bite of her sandwich, thinking about the school. All those people. Dead or dying. She felt a lot of guilt at taking off without them but at least Pearson had released some people from a fate she was sure was far worst. Well, that’s what she kept telling herself. It wasn’t really working. She flexed her fingers, the pain was entirely gone and the skin had gone back to normal thanks to the wonders of medicinal technology.

Apologies for poor typing earlier. Hands burned. At home. Have gotten medi-gel and doing better.

She watched as Eric returned from the bathroom, still dirty with blood on his face and neck, he shrugged at her. She stood up and checked the tap in her kitchen – nothing. This meant the aliens had also wiped out the utilities. No power, no water. No survivability.

No water pressure. Long-term, will be deadly. Without water in Los Angeles, you dry up and die fast.

There was no declaration of intent, no “take us to your leaders” for negotiation – they were breaking all the rules. Humanity was at a severe disadvantage considering the methodical way the aliens were invading.

Motivation for attack still unclear. Would surrendering lead to mercy, or would they put us on spikes?

It's still not clear what these Reapers want. Not to kill us -- could have used nuclear weapons.

All these questions weren’t getting her anywhere – but she still needed to bring them up, still had to give her observations to those who were still watching this. Information was a tool, a weapon.

I can only hope the rest of the galaxy is hearing this message and planning a counterattack and rescue.

Not even clear what they are. Cannibals are clearly not geth.

She looked up from her ‘tool, her thoughts going over the memory of the Cannibal – its grey skin, the lumps looked like people melded into the bulbous parts, the bright blue pupil-less eyes. There were weird wires all over its body.

Four eyes like batarians, but some kind of cybernetic implants.

Leisha was sitting on the couch, feet up against the table while flipping through a holo screen from her omni-tool. Emily could see articles on the Citadel attack, zooming in on the pictures and taking notes.

“According to these reports,” she looked up and motioned for Emily to come closer, “The spikes were there on the citadel when Sovereign entered it.” She tapped her index against her lips in thought. “This is a Reaper weapon that the geth were using.”

“Are you saying that maybe the geth were under the control of the Reapers?”

“It’s a possibility.” She flicked through the reports, pointing at a weird looking corpse. It almost looked like a Cannibal but entirely human. “According to Commander Shepard, these are called Husks – humans that are on the spikes are changed into these things. In fact,” she flipped through the documents again, Alenko’s face taking up part of the screen, “Major Alenko, at the time he was a lieutenant, called the spikes Dragons Teeth.”

“That’s a mythology reference, and an accurate one at that.” Emily was impressed – Dragons Teeth in mythology were used by Prince Cadmus to grow fully armed warriors, ready for battle. “So, if I get this correctly, they’re taking humans and turning them into their own forces.”

“Exactly,” Leisha shut down her omni-tool. The ramifications of what she was saying were a bit hard to grasp. They were fighting their neighbours, their own military forces. It made her head spin.

Dr. M searching pages on offline sources. Confirming spikes used in attack on Citadel. People turned into "husks".

She felt the floor shake, bracing herself as another loud Bwong rang through the apartment – the reaper forces were moving in slowly. They were going to have to abandon this place eventually but for now they were safe. She hoped.

Have gotten food, feeling better. Reaper "horn" blaring, making it hard to think.

“That horn, you know –“Dr. Martinette got up and moved to the shuttered windows, pulling back the material to look outside, “I’ve been thinking about our sound conversation from the Reaper horn. It completely freezes you in your tracks. It makes you confused and slows your reaction time – there must be some infrasound tech behind it to force your mental state into a constant stream of fear.”

Dr. Martinette says klaxon may have infrasound frequencies to cause instinctive fear reaction. It works.

“It’s still a bit strange, isn’t it?” Eric piped up, startling the two women – they’d almost forgotten he was there, considering how quiet he’d been this whole time. Not that she blamed them, losing a loved one while they were being protected… she couldn’t even imagine what that was like.

“What is?” Emily leaned against the wall, next to the window – frowning as she noticed movement on the lower levels of the building across the street.

“These Cannibals look like batarians, maybe they did something to piss the Reapers off…” Eric twisted his hands together, not really wanting to finish his sentence. Emily raised her brows in surprise.

Or maybe this is just a mistake, like First Contact War.

If Reapers came thru batarian space, could think we are allied with them. Need to communicate with them.

Could they even do that?

Emily doubted it, she peeked out of her window again, and the movement became more noticeable. She pressed her face against the glass and narrowed her eyes. There were people down there.

“Oh, look – survivors.” She was smiling, pulling the curtains back and waving at them. She could see people in the apartment across the way in the darkness. They were using flashlights to make their way around both the on the ground and in the room.

Leisha leaned forward, squinting her eyes. There was something odd about the light, she brought up her omni-tool and zoomed in on the movement.

“Oh shit,” she backed up from the window, grabbing Emily just as the window across the way burst and a body came flying through. Emily yelled in surprise, her mind wasn’t registering what she was seeing. The “person” leaped across the street onto her building, she could hear the thing crawling up the concrete, digging its fingers in the rock.

How was that possible?

The group gathered their things, Leisha was shouting at them to hurry to the van, Emily was still staring at her window when a face appeared there. It didn’t register completely - blue lights for eyes, lips pulled back showing only the teeth like some old pictures of the Grim Reaper. It was bald and its skin a weird silver colour and it climbed over the glass with an ease that was not natural.

‘Was that… the hole from the spike?’ She could see the large blue circle in the middle of its chest, wires embedded in the skin.

She looked away, slamming the apartment door behind her just as the thing broke through her window. They ran up the stairs to the roof, there was a strange screech coming from below outside. Running, they barely made it to the van when the first few Husks made it over the railing onto the roof.

They piled into the van – Dr. Martinette barely got the car off the roof before they heard metal grinding under them, one of the husks had leapt but missed, its hands scratching the bottom of the van in the process.

“Hold on! Hold on!” Leisha shouted, grinding her teeth as they avoided leaping husks, the noises the Reaper forces made were unnerving – mixed human and machine. It was all shocking. Were these the people from the high school?

This is Emily Wong. We're safe now after a near encounter with creatures Dr. M calls husks. Almost thought they were people.

Had holes in their stomachs from spikes. Glowing light inside. Only way I could tell at distance that they weren't people.

Emily looked out of the broken window – she could see swarms of the husks climbing all the buildings in the area. That counldn’t just be from the high school. There were too many of them – she continued to post what she saw, warning those still online to keep an eye out, to recognize the husks in the distance.

Skin was gray, no hair, no clothes.

“It makes sense.” Dr. Martinette was a bit calmer now, having the van up high off the ground away from the ground forces, “They’re building their army.” Emily’s mind was going a mile a minute. She was right, she put their finding out there, a warning hopefully someone will take seriously if they can get this off planet.

Dr. M suggests chilling theory on why Reapers here now.

Cannibals have batarian features. Repurpose batarians into cannibals, use as shock troops to attack Earth.

“You think they’ll take this galaxy wide?” Emily asked, disbelief weighing each word heavily. The realisation that this wasn’t just humanity’s problem anymore, that this was bigger than that made Shepard’s warning even deadlier.

“If these are repurposed batarians, the Reapers have no intentions on ending here, Emily.” Leisha focused her attention on the path ahead. There were barely any skycars around. Emily kept the theory going, posting her thoughts.

They make husks from humans, attack turians.

Make something from turians, attack asari.

Turning our civilians into their troops

“How did they manage to get so many people though,” Eric asked them, Emily shook her head a moment, not entirely sure.

“How long did it take for them to gather you at the school and start the husk process?” Leisha asked, frowning at something she was thinking of.

“A couple of hours, most of the day.” Eric looked away, watching his mother and she gave him a small smile.

“They had caught the kids when they were still in class, they knew when to strike.” Mrs. Pearson added in, her voice shaky from emotion or fear, Emily couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She was glad to see her speak again.

“Enclosed areas, huh.” Emily bit her lower lip and got an idea. They needed isolated area, where people can’t be mobile or free to move. “If they tracked down the schools, maybe they hit other places first. Like prisons?”

Leisha eyed her carefully, her attention still on the road. “It would makes sense – but for them to specifically hit prisons, wouldn’t that mean they had to recon earth first?”

“Or at least have access to a data base that has all of earth’s information, like the Citadel or the Arcturus Station.” Emily pondered, looking up an offline map on her omni-tool. If they got the information from the Arcturus Station, it would mean that Earth’s government was gone. They were on their own.

There was no confirmation though, she could go on about conspiracy theories until she was blue in the face. They had to get proof though on where the Husks were coming from.

“There’s a prison not too far from here, let’s go take a look and see for ourselves. “ Emily passed on where to go and felt the van shift in direction.

I have a theory. West Hollywood has prison. Will be back with findings shortly.

It didn’t take them long to get there, the van dropped quietly to ground and Leisha took out her omni tool, zooming in on the prison. It was hard to see at first, the sunset was almost entirely gone but they saw enough to confirm her fears. There was no humans left on the prison grounds that she could see, just a vast field full of empty spikes, there was blood all over the grounds and down the spikes, but no bodies.

They were already all turned in to Husks and fighting for the Reapers. Emily took in a deep breath, her hands on her hips as she tried to process the information. It was hard to understand. There was no intention of taking anyone prisoner or negotiations, that was becoming clearer by the minute.

Emily Wong back with you. Theory was right. West Hollywood prison quiet, but field of spikes in prison yard.

Reapers know where to get bodies. No coincidence. Must have been monitoring communications for years.

“So, all the prisons are probably empty of people, just spikes. Where else?” Leisha rubbed her face in frustration, they were losing this battle, and they could all feel it.

“Hospitals?” Emily suggested, searching her map to try and locate anything that fit that requirement. Her omni-tool peeped, flashing the location to her. There was a treatment center close-by, in the old days it was a cancer treatment center but now it was just a hospital.

We're going to check Cedars Sinai. Another large group of potential victims with little ability to resist.

Within minutes, they were standing a few hundred feet from their target, it was the same – but the activity was much higher. They make sure to stay out of sight as Dr. Martinette takes several close up pictures. They can see the spikes in the parking lot and husks climbing out of windows, coming through the doors and scattering towards the burning city.

Cannibals and husks all around hospital. Can't get close -- looks like theory was accurate.

“Shit,” Emily wiped her forehead, sighing. Things weren’t looking good for anyone. “Where else? We need to tell people what to avoid.”

“People gather in safe houses, community centers, their neighbours.” She shook her head, unsure – she heard moaning sounds close by, she tugged at Emily’s arm to clear the area.

The reporter let herself be guided away, her fingers flying across the keyboard, mumbling ideas. “Military, hospital and…” Emily presses her lips together.

Dr. M brainstorming more locations. Churches? Popular in disasters. Not sure.

Please, if you hear this, DO NOT GO TO ANY INSTITUTION WHERE PEOPLE GATHER. THEY ARE TARGETS.

She looked up, eyes wide, whispering “Damn it.”

“What is it?” Eric asked as the two women entered the skyvan, Leisha shrugged, unsure of what has Emily upset suddenly.

“This afternoon,” she posted her message and quickly looked up a map – how far were they from it?

Oh, no... Dodger Stadium. Game today.

“This afternoon, what?” The young man pressed for more information, Emily’s word has everyone on edge but she dismissed the heavy atmosphere, her mind on the ramifications of such a large conversion.

“There was a baseball game.” She replied before giving directions to Leisha towards the stadium – she didn’t have to say anything else – they all knew what it could mean. It became unusually silent in the van after that.

 

---

.:: 20:30 Los Angeles, Earth - 2186 ::.

---

The house they found wasn’t nearly high enough to see over the building, but, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was in the process of happening. Despite the lack of electricity they could still see some areas thanks to the light from the idle cars that were outside the stadium, and what they saw churned Emily’s stomach.

This is Emily Wong broadcasting from a rooftop near Dodger Stadium. It's now Reaper territory.

There were lines of people, outside and through the doors, she could see the silver spikes of the Dragons Teeth with people staked through. There were husks freely roaming the grounds, climbing the sides of the building while others stumbled out the doors after they were released from the teeth.

Husks outside, but not tens of thousands. May not be finished converting victims.

“Maybe some can be saved?” Leisha suggested, but the doubt in her voice said it all. Emily looked at her for a moment, trying to answer but she couldn’t think of anything – her gaze reverted to the stadium, watching the Cannibals gather up the living and march them into the building.

“They’re not even resisting.” Emily sighed, she didn’t know what to do – she sat down, leaned against something hard and drew her legs up to her chest. Pressing her forehead to her knees, she took a moment to herself, just a single second. Enough to feel the denial slip away and the hopelessness flower in the center of her chest. She lifted her head – now wasn’t the time to feel sorry or to lose control, she had to get the information out, and maybe there was still some time to save them.

Can see cannibals dragging people from cars, marching them into stadium.

She tried to ignore the burning in her hands, the medigel was still working but she needed more medical attention. It was hard to push out the images of the children down there, in line with their parents to be repurposed by the reapers. There was no mercy.

There's Angelinos of every age, men and women, dressed blue-collar or fancy, some bloody, most just terrified.

Marching like POWs, but these aren't soldiers. They're just people who got captured during their morning commute.

She crawled to the edge of the roof, leaning out to see the people out there, there was no way they could get in there and free some of them, there were Cannibals everywhere in the area and the Husk numbers were steadily increasing.

They’d get slaughtered.

Can't get into stadium, but no doubt in my mind it's filled with spikes.

Frustrated, she stood up and resisted the urge to throw anything she could find on the roof at the invaders. She wanted to scream at the people there to rise against the Reapers, to fight! But all she could do was grind her teeth – she couldn’t draw attention to her group, they’d worked too hard to get to this point. The helplessness she felt was overwhelming – how are they supposed to fight this? How are they supposed to rise against this oppressing force?

This isn't how humans are supposed to die. We beat nuclear war. We beat overpopulation. We can't go like this.

Rage isn’t something she was familiar with but was becoming a driving force behind her today – but despite it all, despite her words, despite the courage she was trying to convey, despite her efforts to rally the troops that could potentially still be out there, reading her report and messages… she knew they didn’t have a chance in hell.

This is Emily Wong. Earth is falling.

If she ever thought she was hitting rock bottom, this was it. “Leisha, we need to…” Something caught her eye, far off into the distance. It was tiny – a little flash but she still saw it. There was a shuttle gunning it across the horizon, she could see the flash of the engines firing as they sped up.

“Where is that coming from?” Emily murmured, her map flashing across the screen of her omni-tool – there was an airport close by, she frowned, a little surprised.

Can see shuttle taking off from El Monte Airport.

“I thought all the airports were destroyed.” Leisha breathed a sigh of relief – she couldn’t believe it, neither could Emily.

“I guess this one managed to stay out of sight.” She felt hope flowering in her chest, a dangerous sentiment at this point. The shuttle suddenly sped up, its movement almost erratic in pattern.

“Not for long, look.” Dr. Martinette pointed at red dots in the air. Emily brought her hand to her chest, gripping the material of her shirt. She should have known better by now, they always have the upper hand.

Alien fighters moving to intercept. Shuttle not going to make it.

The red dots exploded in the sky.

“Holy shit!” Emily shouted, fist pumping the air – something shot the fighters out of the sky, the shuttle disappeared into the cover of night, away from the airport.

Wait! Anti-aircraft tracer fire coming from the airport. Covering the shuttle. Alien fighters down!

There were survivors down there. Emily grabbed Leisha into a hug, both women laughing. This was good – she had to hold on to that feeling, she had to hold on to the little bit of hope she could find. Humanity wasn’t done – it was rising!

We've got to get to this airport. First sign of real human resistance! Back online shortly!

 

---

 .:: 21:37 Los Angeles, Earth 2186 ::.

---

 

“Hold your fire!” They heard the shout as they were landing, the van was in bad shape, Emily knew that but it had done what it was supposed to do, it had protect them throughout all of the attacks they’d suffered through. And now, it had taken them to safety.

Emily opened the door from the passenger side, her hands up in the air to show that she was not a husk. Her experience so far showed her that it was hard to tell and for a group of people who had live gunfire and were riding on adrenaline, it was best to take it slow. Leisha turned off the van, Mark and his mother were smiling for the first time that day – it was bittersweet for the family but at least they were going to make it out alive, if that was any comfort.

Emily held her hands up, squinting as the bright light illuminated the whole area they were in. “We’re not… Husks?” Emily said it, but immediately thought it was a really strange thing to say.

“Obviously,” the gruff voice replied, she could see his shadow in the light as they approached. His hand was extended out to grab hers, which she took quite eagerly. “I’m Lt. Col. Gordon Soto of the National Guard, nice to see you’re still kicking Ms. Wong.”

She let out a sigh in relief, tears burning her eyes. “Nice to meet you, sir and I’m also glad to see some resistance.” He grinned at her, people moved from behind him and towards her van, helping those that were with her into the compound of the airport.

Once they were inside, Emily felt herself relax, as though the weight of conflict was lifted off her shoulders now that she found herself in the center of security.

She was tired. Scratch that, she was exhausted. Soto motioned for her to follow him into the makeshift office he’d set up in the control tower, Leisha squeezed Emily’s hand and smiled at her.

“I’ll stay here with the QEC, I need to do a few repairs on it. It got banged up a bit.”

“Okay,” Emily waved and turned around, following the colonel closely. The airport was full of people, military and civilian alike, working together to make this place safe.

“We’ve been following your reports, online.” Soto motioned for her to go first as they arrived at the tower – she could see the city from all angles here, including the large Reaper still stomping its way through the city. Everything is coated in an orange glow, she didn’t want to think about what that meant.

“I hope they’ve been helpful.” She sat down on a cushioned chair, her gaze focused on the man before her. He handed her a cup of coffee and suddenly, things didn’t seem that bad. She took in a sip, leaned back with a smile.

“Very much so – they hit us this morning, luckily we were transporting a lot of equipment for the military up on Fort Irwin but, well, you know what happened to that place.”

Emily nodded, her hands wrapping themselves around the mug, seeking its warmth. “I take it then, you guys set up shop here and fought?”

“It ended up that way, yeah – we’ve been transporting people out of the city, a few people at a time when we can. We’ve been picking up stragglers on the way but it’s getting harder.” He sat down at his desk, leaning forward on his elbows. “In fact, we couldn’t figure out why the Husks weren’t thinning in ranks.”

He looked at her, Emily rubbed at her chin, unsure what to say.

“Luckily, one of our communications officer was on the FCC site, to see what was happening in the city but most of the news channels are all dead – you were the only one still reporting.” He smiled, “You saved our lives, now we knew what to expect and where it was coming from.”

She laughed, not too loud – it was more of a chuckle. “You should thank Dr. Martinette, my partner in this mess. She kept the QEC running so I could report.”

“So I hear,” he reached for his own mug of coffee, sipping it. They spoke for a few more minutes and then heard a knock at the door, it was Leisha.

“I got the QEC working right, you should be able to update from here if you need to. It’s got a longer range.”

“Awesome, thanks Leisha!” Emily flicked on her omni tool and quickly updated the public.

Met w/Lt. Col. Gordon Soto of National Guard. Were at the airport this morning, fully equipped when it all went down.

She rose from her seat, Soto following her as they stepped out of his office into the more public areas. She was starting to feel the soreness of her body – everything ached. She forgot about it though, soon she was shaking hands with people that recognized her, people that had been reading her report. She felt re-energized. The colonel told her to keep the messages going. People needed to know what was happening to Earth, and she agreed, it was too important to stop.

He said to keep getting the message out. I just got hugged and high-fived by about a dozen grunts.

Everyone glad msg getting out. Workers and travelers still scared, but hope to escape.

After a while, she tracked down the doctor, who was dozing in a cot. She looked at her watch, it was nearing eleven and she was almost envious of Leisha’s nap.

“Hey.” Emily poked her, smiling. Leisha woke up slowly at first but she eventually sat up, stretching. They could hear burst of guns outside, nothing serious but it still gave them a jolt every time.

“Did you find out when we’re getting out?” Leisha asked sleepily, Emily nodded.

“In the morning. We just got to hold out until then.”

“What about Mark and his mother?”

“They’re already gone.”

“No good byes?” She seemed almost miffed. Emily didn’t blame them, they’d lost someone they loved while he was trying to save them. They’d already thanked them, and Emily kept them safe. Emily chuckled at her.

There was a burst of weaponry again, outside. Emily stood up from the side of the cot and looked out the window. She saw a half dozen red circle dots moving towards the airport.

Hang on, I see fighter drones approaching. Guard manning guns on tarmac.

Guards suddenly came into the room, waking people quietly, urging them to get out of the room and into a safer area of the building. Emily watched as they tried to communicate through the radio but it was all jammed up, all they could hear was static.

She heard the Reaper’s horn, she dropped to the floor.

“Get away from the windows!” One of the guard grabbed her, pulling her even further down as the drones opened fire on the airport. There was glass everywhere as the windows blew out from the weapon’s heated lazers.

Emily was screaming.

Radios dead. Guard asking us to get away from windows, lie flat. Can hear klaxon of big Reaper ship coming.

Once it was quiet, she scrambled off the ground and sought Leisha’s hand, grabbing it, checking on her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, just… surprised.”

“They’re coming for the airport, we need to get the QEC out of here.”

“To where?” Leisha shook her head, almost laughing. They couldn’t be in a safer environment if they tried. This was military. They could fight them off easily but Emily didn’t believe that for a second.

“The big reaper is on the way here – you heard it.” Emily hissed, trying to avoid setting off a panic. Leisha couldn’t deny the truth of it, she could feel the ground shaking.

"If the QEC goes dark…” Emily looked around, the people’s faces were scared – even the military guys.

Can't just lie here. If we die, QEC dies and Earth goes dark. I'm getting it to the van.

She grabbed Dr. Matinette and led her out of the room, ignoring the National Guard telling her to remain there. She couldn’t risk it. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the National Guard to protect them, she just trusted her gut feeling more than anything else and it hadn’t been wrong yet.

There were more of those red thing flying around, getting closer to the airport – and the Reaper vessel wasn’t too far behind by the looks of it. How had they began to pay attention to this place? It was off their radar the whole day. Before she could even finish the thought, there was a familiar sound above them in the air.

Emily and Leisha looked up, excitement bursting in a shout out of their lips. It was the Alliance.

Alliance ships overhead! Jets and gunships! Trinities and Mantises! We've got a counterattack!

Things were looking up. The guards were at the guns, shooting at the Husks running for their safe haven. She had a bad feeling, they needed to get out of there. Gunships swooped down, firing besides the guards. The husks were dropping like flies in vinegar and Emily ran for the van, holding on to Leisha’s hand as hard as she could.

Gunships holding line at the fence. Shooting at cannibal and husk ground troops.

There was an explosion, she felt the heat of it on her back as they kept on running – the gunships were down, and she knew exactly how it had happened, she’d recognize that colour anywhere.

Cannibal blast just took out gunship

“Get in!” Emily shouted, the husks are already past the gates, leaping across buildings and killing those that showed any resistance. The Cannibals weren’t too far behind them, destroying all the vehicles they could touch with their weapons. They made it, just in time to see the Husks turn their attention to them, the Reaper’s horn blaring in the background wasn’t helping anything.

We're in van. Buckling in everything and everyone.

“What about this?” Leisha points at the Reaper weapon that Emily had salvaged when Pearson died. “Maybe their own weapons could hurt them, since ours seem to do little damage.” Emily nodded quickly, taking the pistol out of its hiding spot.

“Get off the ground.” She calmly said to the doctor, turning around quickly and sticking her arm out of the window, shooting at the oncoming husk. She nailed it in the head and it dropped to the ground. They were all running at the skyvan.

Dr. M’s got the energy weapon. Maybe can help

The Alliance was getting torn apart in the sky, they weren’t making a dent in the Reaper vessel at all. The horn was increasing, the ships were faltering in the air. None of the attacks were hitting the targets. Emily watched them fall, the Reapers are entirely focused on them, even the larger one seems to be staring at her from the sky scrappers.

She had to be over-thinking things.

Alliance forces have not hurt Reaper ship. No damage. It's coming straight for us. Straight for ME.

And then it clicked in her head. The QEC signal – it was just a piggy back, not a direct link, this was being broadcast every where. This attack right now, all these deaths were her fault.

This signal, going out and being rebroadcast everywhere… I think they picked it up. I led them here

To everyone I may have endangered, I am so sorry. I can only hope the information we got out is worth it.

Trying to lead it away.

The Reaper stopped moving, its legs almost bracing themselves as the big red eye focuses on the airport, on Emily. She could hear something in the air, the hair on her neck stood up.

“Oh god, MOVE IT LEISHA!” She screamed, Leisha pulled up and hit the gas, Emily nearly wiped out of her seat and suddenly everything turned red.

Huge glowing red eye opening. No not eye, gun, it's firing

That explosion was like nothing she’d experienced so far that day. The van’s metal groaned, there was a lot of wind in the van, the windows had blown out from the sheer force of the attack. This was her fault.

The Alliance vessels changed their patterns, moving to the back of the large reaper looming near the airport. They still couldn’t hit it, everything was going off course.

“Shit, they’re using jamming tech.” Leisha swore under her breath, her omni-tool lighting up as she scanned the airways for information or communications between the ships. She caught a few bits here and there, enough to know that the Alliance was trying to hit the jamming signal so they could take down the reaper.

Airport gone. Eye is Reaper ship's big gun. Alliance ships hitting from behind, no damage. Jamming tech, many shots missing.

“Let’s use the energy weapon.” Leisha’s voice was soft, but she heard every word.

“What?”

“Lets use it on the coordinates I got from the transmission.” She looked at the reporter, her eyes were brimming with tears but her voice was steady. She had a bad feeling. “It’s Reaper tech, it should go through its own defenses.”

Another Alliance vessel zoomed by them, only to be cut down by the Reaper’s red beam. Emily knew they couldn’t really argue about it, time was running out by the second. More people were dying.

“Okay.” Emily opened her omni-tool and set it to voice recording, she wouldn’t be able to type any longer while focusing on the task at hand.

“Okay,” she repeated again, trying to find her courage. “Let’s get that jamming signal down.”

Leisha nodded, they were both unsure.

Airport gone. Eye is Reaper ship's big gun. Alliance ships hitting from behind, no damage. Jamming tech, many shots missing.

Dr M taking us in. Our Reaper weapon might be only way to damage ship. Flying low.

They followed the path of the fallen alliance vessels, Dr. Martinette checked her omni-tool for the coordinates. They were getting closer, fire was heavier and it was becoming more and more focused on her. Emily thought about turning off the QEC but she knew if she shut it down, this part wouldn’t go anywhere. She had to keep sending out the information.

“Okay, this is it.” Leisha leaned forward, looking up under the Reaper. She just had to shoot up by the red eye. Just enough to give the remainder of the Alliance to get in there and destroy it. She needs to hurry.

“Shoot it!” Leisha shouted, she pulled up towards the Reaper – there were shots coming from all around them. Alliance vessels were exploding, people were screaming from below – the alien vessel let out a loud blare that shook everything in the skyvan, even Emily’s vision. She took the weapon, the van door opened – wind swirled inside the car, papers flew everywhere, she precariously edged herself towards the open door of the van, her fingers tight against the metal as she hung herself outside for a better shot. 

 

She aimed, the red eye of the Reaper within her sights, grinding her teeth.

“Shoot!” Leisha could barely keep the car steady, it was getting harder by the second with the Reaper closing in.

“I know!” She pulled the trigger, closing her eyes and praying she didn’t burn her hands this time.

Nothing. No recoil, no bright light and no burning sensation.

She pressed the trigger again. Nothing. Nothing!

Oh god weapon not firing only had one shot

“Fuck!” Emily stepped back inside the van and threw the weapon out the opened door and screamed, it was all pointless. It had all been for nothing! The Reapers closed in, their weapons firing at the idle sky van.

were being targete72-r3

Emily heard the doctor scream for a brief moment before they begin to spin out of control toward the ground. She leapt towards the handle bars, Leisha was clutching at her neck and her chest.

Oh God.

“Leisha! Hang on!” Emily pulled on the wheel, steadying the car from its spin. There was blood everywhere, it was in her eyes, in her mouth – her hands were slippery with it.

She looked out the window – there were but a few Alliance vessels still fighting, still trying to overcome the odds. “Leisha, we need to – “she looked down at the doctor, at first it didn’t register but seeing it now… slumped over in the seat, her hands weren’t clutching the wounds anymore. She was dead.

Emily felt her chest constrict, the tightness of her throat was almost too much to bear. There was another burst of energy from below, the van was riddled with holes – she been hit. Emily screamed, the pain ripping through her whole body – the van started to spin down towards the ground once more. She could barely control it.

hit bullets from ground lots blood dr m dead hurts god im hit too

Van still flying. Lost a lot of blood. Not sure how long I have. Not sure QEC even still on.

This was it.

She was alone. The van groaned and sputtered as she flew high into the sky – the destruction below her continued, she couldn’t believe it even now even though she had lived it first hand, saw the people die around her.

One second she’d been complaining about how shitty her report was, then laughing with the doctor about conspiracy theories and suddenly, running for their lives and then… and then everyone was dead at her feet.

Blood dripped down from the crown of her head, she was sure her nose was broken – there was glass everywhere. The attack had destroyed most of the van. All she could smell was smoke and charred flesh – the silence wasn’t merciful. She shifted in the seat, she couldn’t repress the painful wince that scrunched up her face, and her throat was raw from screaming or was it from weeping? Her side was opened up and bleeding heavily. She was in trouble – she was losing too much blood, her hair was singed from the blast and her hands burned so much.

She gripped the steering wheel of the skyvan, ignoring the protest of her flesh – she needed the pain to keep her awake, keep her adrenaline flowing. She stared straight ahead, defiant against the mass that gathered to greet her. Husks, Cannibals poured from every direction on the lower ground and the Reaper... The Reaper stood above them like a conqueror, victor to the spoils of Humanity’s greatest fall.

Was it hopeless? All these people sacrificed against an immeasurable enemy. Thousands lost against one single entity, thousands of souls raging against one alien - only to be wiped out in the blink of one gigantic, red eye.

Why? A question she’d never be able to answer by the looks of things.

Her body was failing, her vision was swimming and her rage had no satisfaction. She was a trapped animal and she didn’t know how to fight back.

Reaper out in front of me. Lost pistol. Only weapon left is this skyvan.

She squeezed her fingers around the steering wheel, narrowed her eyes with determination, she had to get that jamming signal down. The last gunship on the horizon dropped from the sky as a large ball-shaped vessel with a familiar red-eye spotted her and sped towards the moving skyvan. Her omni-tool beeped reminding her it was still waiting for her to speak so it could send her words to the public.

Words she hoped had saved some lives despite everything… if there was still anyone out there still looking for the information. She was a reporter – this was all she knew, this was all she could do in a moment of crisis.

Fighter drones closing. Gunships are down.

Her breath was shaky, the pain was nearly blinding, her eyes burned – was it because of the blood running in her sight or her unshed tears? She couldn’t tell anymore since it hurt all the same. Who would have thought that this morning she would die by bed time?

Mom, dad, love you

Did she have any regrets? Yeah, she had plenty of them. She never got to interview the Commander for one thing, she was supposed to next week. Maybe she’ll read this once she gets Earth back from Hell.

Go on.

She was screaming the words at the Reaper, her foot pressing down on the gas, her omni tool beeping, sending out her messages. The Reaper blared, numbing her for a moment, she could feel its power in her chest, she was trembling with fear but her voice was strong and she yelled even louder, she could hear herself over its deafening sound of conquest.

Make your noise.

She was defiant, smiling, laughing – her grip so tight her burnt flesh stopped hurting. This was for the unit that died at the airport protecting civilians – this was for the survivors still hanging on to life hiding underground and this was for Shepard who was trying to save them.

Try and scare us.

She dared them, they’d find out, these Reapers, what mettle humans are really made of. She was still screaming her words, her throat raw – the van was shaking under the assault of the Reaper’s blaring – she won’t let them win. She maneuvered around the fighter drone, the size of the Reaper ship doesn’t really register; all she can see is black, all she could hear is the sound of the wind as Earth burned around her.

You want to see how a human dies?

She was close now, the sun was blotted out by the Reaper above her – she let go of the wheel and leaned back, her arms spread out for just a few seconds, her last moment on Earth. There’s peace, she could almost smell the sea under all the chaos.

At ramming speed.

What would Shepard say if she were here? Emily closed her eyes. The skyvan’s engines strained under the weight of her foot. She could hear the echo of her own vehicle off the tentacles of the alien ship. She was so close, she could taste the eezo in the air.

She knew exactly what Shepard would say. There’s no doubt in her mind. She’d say, Fuck the Reapers.

 

<SIGNAL LOSS.>