Chapter Text
The lights were truly unforgiving and yet the silence that accompanied it made it worse. Or well, whatever silence that could be had with all the beams and loud ambient noises from each reaper outside. Each sliver of beams of light that shined passed the barrier of thin skin over their black eyes drove the pounding behind them harder into their head.
Once Leo got their eyes to open, all they could see was a room that was perfectly curated as the last stand between the reapers and their death. Floors white with towering pillars of white holding up the massive windows that showed the war around them. In the middle of the room stood a beam of light green light, the right was a pod of some sort, dark red in color and the left was a chair covered in blue light..
Just as their eyes adjusted and studied everything in the room, a blue holographic child materialized right in front of them. Explaining the three choices behind it. Control, merge or destruction.
Their death incarnate, with bruises and broken limps, only moving with the sheer spirit to end it all.
Destroy.. Destroy them like they've destroyed me. Destroyed my life, my home, my planet. Soon their mind kept looping it.
"Destroy.. I have to-i HAVE to destroy.."
They kept muttering to themself, their armor felt heavier with each step towards the holographic child. His voice booming throughout the room as he just stood by and watched death's final action. Grabbing a small pistol in their working arm, they aimed straight for what was the core of the red pod. Expression of anger, satisfaction and cockiness graced their being as they pulled the trigger. Steps growing in confidence as their shots penetrated the glass, stomping as they got closer to hit better. Regaining the last bit of remaining strength to just shoot out their anger. Letting go of their bleeding side of their torso to properly fire the pistol. It felt right with each bullet.
Once then twice, thrice. A loud crack gave them hope but everything suddenly fell silent. Even that painful aching in their body had stopped. The ambition that pushed them was gone. There was no real need to when you felt yourself flying through the air like a fly being swatted away with a harsh gust of wind. Leo's body fell through the holes that lined the crucible's main room. Hitting against the lower part of the circular room with a harsh crash. Forcing out the last bit of remaining breath they had as a red light encased their sight, then black.
As the crucible exploded, a red ring bursted out with speed that scared everyone still fighting but that wasn't all that spooked them.
The reapers had finally stopped cold, some that were in mid beam clicked off almost immediately. Others that were descending down to earth froze mid way, now stuck drifting face down from the sudden moment change.
Chaos erupted nearly immediately after the blast. Emergency alarms blared through the ship's hulls, thuds of heavy combat boots vibrated throughout the metal flooring. Lights flickering off and On while the emergency generators attempted to click back on. Sparks aggressively flashed from most hardware that kept the SSV Orizaba alive.
Hackett stayed as still as a statue, hands firmly holding eachother behind his back, face forward. It felt unreal that its over, its finally over..
His breath shivered as he couldn't peel his eyes away from the goresome scene infront of him. Even though he knew he couldn't stay in his spot forever, he couldn't convince his body to move. That was until a newer recruit to the ship holding up two fingers to her left ear as she repeated his title walked up.
"Sir.. sir?"
She kept trying but it all felt like a strange blur for a few moments. Everyone around him ran to different stations in the ship but all he could see was the broken fragments of galactic peace break apart into bits of firey hell.
"SIR!"
She finally screamed loud enough to snap him out of his train of thought. Her voice semi panicked as she locked eyes with him.
"Everyone is running blind at this moment. The hierarchy are asking whats happening, pilots are blind on the field and dead in the air. Some have had collisions head on..."
She finally panted out, speaking faster as her mind wanted to stumble with each thought. Just past her head was a view port of the exact thing she was explaining. Many ships, Turian, Asari, Salarian glides in the vacuum of space, funtionless.. All in the same metaphorical boat as him.
Just passed those steel coffins was the aftermath of the citadel and crucible structure breaking apart. Each piece of each building either falling straight down to earth's atmosphere in a firey blaze or surface while other pieces drifted in space. The citadel's arms now ripped into different shards of metal. Something that was once a symbol of peace and harmonic life now shattered apart.
Another radio recruit jogged up next to the pair, huffing as he tried to steady his posture. Eyes flared open in panic.
"Lost contact with the Destiny Ascension, All I got is static."
He scrambled to speak as his nerves betrayed him. Soon more started to surround Hackett with more issues from different parts of the ship.
Hackett took in a breath to regain his composure, looking over to the two cadets while more nearly started to swarm him. Everyone went dark but some had better technology than humanity and got back faster while others struggled to scrap by.
"First priority is make sure each area with injured and critical patients have enough power to function then confirm that air will not cut off in the ship. After giving me reports of this, stabilize the ship's orbit. Last we need is to crash into more ships then find a way to connect through to the other species."
His voice never wavered, even when it wanted, he held back the desire. Now wasn't the time for vulnerability, we had won...
People scattered again, chatter filled the air as they started to find their routine in this moment. The two that walked up to Hackett first saluted and ran back to their stations fighting for a sliver of feedback from any other species...
After what felt like hours for Hackett, someone else spoke up .
"Status report."
Admiral commanded.
"Sir, emergency generators and power are.. stabilized as best we could. Oxygen and life supporting systems are still fighting us but not putting us in immediate danger. Comms are still down, attempting to clear up the interference."
Once the officer finished his report, the recruit that spoke to him earlier, shot up from her chair. Whipping her head to face Hackett.
"I HAVE A SIGNAL, I have a signal to the council members on the Destiny Ascension."
She locked eyes with him, watching him nod over to her, getting ready to speak out to them. Another radio recruit stood up nearly mimicking the woman prior.
"Connection to Primarch Victus established."
"Connection to Dalatrass Esheel established"
"Patching you in Admiral"
The woman clicked a few more buttons on the screen underneath her finger tips. As the radio waves synchronized, sounds cut through at last
"What happened dow-"
"Connections have been severed, did it work-"
"Where's Shepard? Do we have eyes on what happened?"
Voices stacked upon one another, cluttering everything in confusion. Hackett stayed silent as the group trampled over the other. Too many questions, too many voices with too little answers.. Everyone knew Shepard died on that mission, no way around it. There was no way to cheat death, and even if, IF the possibility was there, all this debris would kill them over again.
"This is Admiral Hackett to all allied vessels. We have fired the crucible.."
He pauses for a moment
"We have won."
His eyes grazed around the room, some recruits nearly started to cry while others fought the desire to cheer out in happiness.
"However, The blast has left all ships completely out of power. Thousands are wounded and are now in ships that are null or failing with their systems. I order all able engineers from across all ships and species to focus on rerouting power to life support systems, then Power and lastly comms. Its in all of our collective interests to avoid bigger catastrophes while we fix our fleets"
His tone stayed strong as his mind flashed back to the last order he had given Shepard. Forcing himself out of a stupor he continued.
"As for Shepard, Their current status is unknown. It may be well established that they have sacrificed themself for this victory. Contact with Earth has also been cut off however I will keep everyone updated as the reports come in."
He took in a shaky breath
"I will be leaving my comms open for any and all incoming questions."
"Hackett out."
Status report.. She-ard
ANGEL 999999999999
Status report... 1001900111010
ANGEL Pro-to Arns 99999999
Huad 999999999 7ung3 9999999999
B0d7 999999999 L3gs 99999999999
Static sound followed with each corrupt number, whatever it was trying to portray.
'She-.. I ca-ca-cant.. pard-..'
A.N.G.E.L. SYSTEM SHUT DOWN
'Move damnit.. MOVE GET UP.. SHEPARD..'
A rough cough interrupted the train of thought, soon a soft wet clicking noise faded in.
'Angel..'
'Angel...'
'Gods damnit.. Angel! Get me.. get..'
'Why cant i move?'
A barely fluttering motion over their eyes was all they could manage. Their body felt pinned against other surfaces but couldn't determine what.
'I-.. Angel....'
'Garrus...'