Chapter Text
Commander Shepard stood next to Joker, one hand on his shoulder.
“Anything on the sensors?” She was pissed and by then you could hear it in her voice.
Joker shook his head. “Nothing. I'm starting to believe they are already gone.” For a moment he gazed up to her.
“No, they have to be here.” She clenched her teeth while Joker just sighed. Everyone on the ship was in tense. For now about three days the Normandy was in this Cluster searching for some ship of 'the others'. That's how the crew called the alien species which was in war with humanity. The Alliance had no official name for them, but according to the fact that they're the first alien species humanity ever met, they called this war the 'First Contact War'.
The aliens they were hunting, had allegedly stolen very delicate information from the Shanxi garrison right after its fall. They were hit but not very badly and could escape. So the Normandy was sent after them to get the data back. Shepard didn't see why some information could be so important that the most advanced ship of the Alliance has to follow them. But if Admiral Hackett thought it was necessary, she wouldn't argue.
At the moment they rounded a garden world with, according to the scans, an average temperature of 40 degrees celsius. She groaned in frustration and was about to turn around when one of the consoles started to peep slowly.
“We got something over here.” Joker started typing into his consoles again and in the next moment a blurred picture of a ship appeared. Shepard leaned closer to examine the ship.
“It's them!” She opened a com channel. “All hands on battle station. We found our prey.” Instantly everybody was moving, some lights turned red and an alarm rang on medium volume.
“Commander.” Joker drew her attention to himself. “They spotted us.” The enemy ship slightly turned their direction and was now on direct way to the Normandy. “Shit, fuck. Shields up! Prepare the Weapons, they are not going to make it easy to us.”
“Heat signature! They're charging their weapons!”
“Of course they are. Joker, I don't want a single scratch on my ship.”
“Yes, Ma'am.”
Shepard walked back to the CIC while giving all kind of orders. “Is Admiral Hackett informed we found the ship?” “Sorry Commander, the communication is dead.” She turned to the soldier who answered. “What do you mean with 'the communication is dead'?!” The young man stood up straight looking her into the eyes. “We lost contact with Alliance at the moment the ship appeared.” “Shit, so it's them. Where is my XO?” She asked while walking through the CIC. “On my way, Commander.” Alenko's voice sounds trough the com channel. A jolt let her stagger and forced her to hold tight to the console bar. The Lights flickered for a short moment and in another part of the ship the fire alarm rang.
“You call this 'no scratch', Joker?!” She yelled to the cockpit area while straightening herself up. “I'm doing the best I can, they put us into heavy fire.” As to confirm this statement the VI voice announced: “Shields at 40%”
“Fuck. What's with our main cannon?”
“Ready in 4, ...3, ...2, ...1... Fire!” The voice of the officer from the main battery proclaimed thru the com channel.
Shepard fought her way through the running crew members to the cockpit. “Joker?”
“We hit them right in the baby makers, their ship won't last long but we neither. Shields at 10% and we got several shell breaks all over the ship.”
“Emergency power to the Shields, give them all we have, we are not going down here because of this assclowns.”
“On it, Commander. ...Shit”
“What?!”
“Their main weapon is online again, thought we send that to hell.” A blue beam made its way to the Normandy the same time a torpedo clash the propulsion of the enemy ship. The beam hit the Normandy and a strong jolt went through the ship. Everywhere on the ships rang alarms and sparks flew from some consoles. The front window had a crack but you could still see the other ship slowly tilting to the nearby planet.
“Shields down. Emergency Power switched to live support. The Shuttle dock has a big shell break, no air left in there. Navigation offline. Weapons offline. Engine offline. We are going down with them.”
“Got it Joker. Everyone to the rescue capsules!” The rest of the crew fled to the capsules. She helped the wounded ones and gave some final orders before returning to the cockpit. “Joker you too.”
“No, maybe I can save...” She interrupted him angrily. “No, you can't, I won't let you die here just because of your dumb shit stubbornness.” Shepard started to lift him up. “Ahh, my arm!! Okay, okay I'm coming.” She helped him to the capsules when Kaidan appeared. “Commander, on the engineer deck are still people.”
“Why the hell aren't they moving?”
“I don't know...”
“Take Joker and escape, I will get them!”
Her XO was about to give objections. “Commander,...”
“That was an order, Lieutenant!”
“Of course, Ma'am.”
She watched them a short moment before an renewed yank shook the ship. “Out of here. NOW.” She pushed the release button and made her way to the engineer deck. But she didn't get far before the VI narrated: “No other live signs on board, Commander.” “Fucking Shit! Rescue capsule?” “One remaining on the crewdeck.”
On her way down to the crewdeck Shepard had to walk over one dozen dead bodies of people she knew for years. Each dead face burned into her memory. Just to bring up even worse memories. She could barely breath because of the smoke and she was nearly consciousless once she reached the capsule. While the capsule started she could see all the others capsules, the Normandy ones and the others' ones, through the small window before becoming unconscious.