Shepard lay awake in his bed, watching as the stars above moved past, veiled in the hazy blue mass effect field from Normandy‘s drive core. He couldn’t sleep. His mind was too busy going over battle scenarios, contingencies, plans, and their chances against the greatest threat of their existence. Idly he played with Tali’s hair, her head on his chest, rising and falling with his rhythmic breathing.

She wasn’t able to sleep any better than he was at this point. They were about half an hour away from rendezvousing with the rest of the allied fleets. Thoughts ran through her head at a rapid pace, varying in topic, but always coming back to him.

“Shepard?” she said softly.

Her sudden question, though quietly spoken, startled him out of his thoughts. “Yeah?”

Tali took a moment to respond. “I don’t know if I am prepared for this fight, for what it might mean, for what might happen,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

She propped herself up on an elbow and looked at him. “I am prepared to die if it’s necessary to stop the Reapers. I have been prepared for that for a while now. But I’m not prepared for the possibility of you dying. I already lost you once. I remember what it felt like to watch the Normandy explode, sitting in an escape pod, trying to keep myself together when Joker said you didn’t make it,” she said, looking down. “I don’t think I can do that again.”

“You won’t have to if I have anything to say about it. I don’t plan on dying again, Tali. Besides, the Collectors killed me and all it did was piss me off and buy me a bunch of cybernetic upgrades and a new ship,” he said, smirking.

“But what happens to us if we manage to defeat the Reapers?”

He nudged her. “You mean when we defeat the Reapers, right?”

“Be serious for a second,” she said, laughing softly.

“OK, seriously?”

“Yes, seriously.”

He thought for a minute. “I’m going to put you on a ship and point that ship in the direction of Rannoch, home of your ancestors. That’s where you’re going to live.” She began to protest, but he cut her off. “Hold on, I’m not finished yet.”

Shepard sat up and leaned in close to her, putting his hand on the side of her neck gently. “Then I’m going to get on board with you and we’re going to fly there together. We’re going to find the spot where we landed before we destroyed that Reaper and I’m going to build you the house you wanted. I even remember where you wanted the living room window.”

“Do you even know how to build a house?” she said.

“OK well maybe I’ll find some Quarian contractors or some Geth platforms that know how to build a house and pay them,” he conceded.

Her eyes welled up as he continued. “We’re going to grow old together and you’ll get to see how gray my hair will get before it all falls out and as much as I try, this fine soldier’s body will start to slip away as the years go on. Enjoy it while you can,” he said, patting his muscled abdomen.

Half laughing, half crying, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him. He pulled her close against his chest, whispering into her ear. “There’s nothing I want more than to live the rest of my days with you, Tali, however many that may be.”

Her words were quiet but fierce in his ear. “I want more time. I don’t want this to end today.”

Tightening his embrace, he pressed his head against hers. “I know. I do too.”

Tali pulled from the hug only to kiss him passionately. After a moment that seemed to last much longer than it really did, they parted. “Then let’s kill every last damned Reaper so we have that time,” she said with determination.

Before Shepard could respond, the communicator in his cabin came to life. “Hey Commander,” Joker began, “Admiral Hackett’s ship will be here in 15 minutes, he’s requesting to come aboard.”

“Thanks for the heads up, Joker. Tell everyone to get suited up and meet in the CIC.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

The communicator returned to its normal quiet state. He looked at Tali, and without a word, kissed her again. “We should get ready,” he said.

They slowly put on their armor in silence. Shepard felt some familiarity in the satisfying clicks his armor pieces made as they slid into place. It was a mindless exercise, one he had done hundreds of time before. He would be wearing his heavy defender armor, its extra shielding and thick armor plating would be essential. After snapping the torso, shoulder, and arm pieces into place, he rotated his arms, and bent all his joints to ensure he had proper mobility. Satisfied, he moved to the legs and bent over, strapping the armor plates to his shins.

Tali had finished putting her suit back on save the facemask when she looked up to see Shepard facing away from her, attaching his leg armor. She grinned widely. I love the way he looks in his armor, he’s already built much broader than even the strongest quarian and the armor only emphasizes that. We’re getting ready to attack the Reapers and all I can do is admire my hesh’la in his armor. She laughed to herself softly. He did tell me to enjoy it, after all.

“Looking good, Commander,” she said in a low, teasing voice. As he turned his head, she said, “Take your time, I’m enjoying the view.”

Chuckling, he said, “Oh, you are, are you?” Finishing the last piece of leg armor, he straightened back up and turned to face her again. She had her arms crossed and was smirking at him.

He walked over to her, smiled by just raising one corner of his mouth, then promptly kissed her, holding her face between his hands. She jumped, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders. Quickly, he created a biotic field under her and held her in place. She gasped, always surprised when he used his biotic abilities on her. For a second, they allowed themselves to be swallowed up in the moment. I wonder if this will be the last time, Shepard thought.

Stopping, he lowered her onto the floor. “Is this the heavy armor you were telling me about?” he asked, gesturing to the new suit she was wearing.

“Yes, I just finished my modifications yesterday,” Tali replied. The suit she was wearing was black and silver and boasted much more armor than her normal suit. Her characteristic veil was missing, replaced with armor plating that mimicked its form. There were hardpoints for extra thermal clips and grenades along both arms. “I installed upgraded barrier generators into this suit, its shields are thirty percent stronger than those in my old armor. Combine that with the extra plating and the improved medi-gel and antibiotic delivery systems, and this suit is better in almost every way.”

Shepard stepped back, crossed his arms, and cocked his head. “You’re missing your old veil. I’ve gotten used to seeing you wear that,” he said with a little nostalgia.

“Don’t worry,” she said, laughing. “I have it right here.” She tapped her right thigh where a strip of the material wrapped around her leg. “I knew you would want me to keep it in the new suit design no matter what.”

He looked and saw the familiar pattern, the gray swirls on a deep purple background. “You’re right, and I’m glad you did,” he said with a smile. “The extra protection for you puts me a little more at ease as well.”

“I didn’t stop there; I tinkered a bit with your armor. Your engineers should really learn to tweak things for optimal performance. I was able to increase the barrier output of your armor by almost fifty percent without much work,” she said with pride.

“Fifty percent was all you could manage? You couldn’t get it up to sixty percent?” he teased.

Shaking her head with a laugh, she playfully shoved him aside and walked across the cabin. “Think you could do better, Shepard?”

“You know me well enough to answer that question yourself, Tali,” he said.

“I certainly do. I also know that you’ll be happy to see that I upgraded what you’ve repeatedly said was a serious weak point in my armor.” She reached for her facemask, took it, and then pushed it into place, hearing the hiss of the airtight seal closing. When she removed her hand, Shepard saw armor plating built into the visor, leaving cutouts for her to see through.

He smiled and ran his hand over her newly armored visor. Stepping in closer, he let his hands rest on her hips as Tali put her arms over his shoulders. “Let’s head down there and get ready to end this,” he said firmly.

After a pause, he heard her voice ring out, electronically modulated again. “Lead the way, hesh’la,” she said, taking his hand in between both of hers. Turning to walk out together, Shepard grabbed his helmet with his free hand and stepped onto the elevator with Tali, holding her close. The doors slid shut and they were down to the CIC in moments.

The deck was abuzz with activity. Traynor typed furiously on her console, helping to coordinate communications between the thousands of ships in the armada. Ensigns sat at their terminals, readying the ship’s systems for the upcoming battle.

“Well, there you two are, I was wondering if you were going to show up or if I’d have to do all the work,” a familiar sarcastic voice said to his right.

Shepard smiled widely as he stepped off the elevator. “Couldn’t let you have all the fun, could I, Garrus?”

“Someone has to make sure the husks you miss with your rifle don’t end up taking you out,” Tali added, cocking her head slightly. Shepard could tell she was smiling at their old friend.

Garrus chuckled and crossed his arms. He moved his mandibles in a way that Shepard had learned was a smile. “You two are in a good mood, did you follow my advice?” He smirked as they looked back at him blankly. “Get a room, work it out?”

Shepard was ready to try his best to embarrass his Turian friend but Tali beat him to it. “We did work it out. Twice, actually. Thank you for the advice, Garrus,” she said in a taunting voice, wrapping her arms around Shepard’s waist.

Coughing in a weak attempt to stifle his discomfort at the direction the conversation had gone, Garrus said quickly, “A little too much information, Tali.”

“You asked for it,” she said, shrugging. “You took some of your own advice, too, didn’t you? You embraced eternity, right?”

He burst out laughing. “Not going to ask how you found out about that, but yes. Don’t embarrass Liara, though, she’ll never let me hear the end of it.”

“Tali did say something about the security measures on your omni-tool being written by a stupid bosh’tet,” Shepard said with a grin. “May want to look in to that.”

“You do know we’re about to attack the Reaper armada head-on, right?” Garrus said wryly. Shepard laughed loudly, turning a few heads in the CIC.

As he began laughing, the elevator doors opened and Liara stepped out, looking right at Garrus. “You didn’t upgrade the intrusion measures on your omni-tool did you?” He reached and scratched the back of his head, giving his best impression of a sheepish grin.

“Goddess, you are stubborn. Let’s just focus on the task at hand,” she said, glancing at Tali and Shepard. As she looked away, Tali elbowed Shepard in the ribs as he started to laugh. He immediately quieted down. Looking back at Garrus, she smiled slightly and said, “We’ll talk about this later.”

Shaking his head, Shepard looked around him and saw the rest of his squad waiting to hear from Hackett. James, Kaiden, and Javik surrounded a terminal and were gesturing animatedly at the screen.

“We should get in there and kick their asses, not waste any time! Our ships have thanix cannons!” Vega said.

“Our ships can’t repel their firepower. We have to keep our distance, screen them, and reduce their numbers before they get close,” Kaidan said calmly.

“Major Alenko is correct,” Javik said quickly. “Many Prothean lives were lost due to the foolish aggression of poor commanders instead of relying on sound tactics. Save your rage for the Reaper ground forces. There will be plenty.” Shepard thought he saw Javik almost smile.

“Commander,” Joker said over the comm system. “Admiral Hackett is requesting to come aboard.”

“Permission granted,” Shepard returned quickly. He walked to the side of the galaxy map and waited.

“Aye, Commander.”

Within a moment, Normandy’s port side airlock slid open and Admiral Hackett entered, flanked by two Alliance special forces soldiers in full armor. Shepard straightened up. “Attention on deck!” he shouted. All Alliance personnel immediately stood at attention, saluting the admiral as he walked up to Shepard.

“Commander,” Hackett’s dry voice echoed with verve.

“Admiral,” Shepard answered, saluting.

“Are you ready to bring the might of the galaxy to bear on the Reapers?”

“Yes, sir!”

They shook hands briefly and turned, walking together toward the galaxy map. “Normally I’d be prepared to give a rousing speech at this point,” Hackett said. “But seeing as this armada has come together due to your efforts, Commander, and the fact that you have been knee-deep in this since Eden Prime, I feel it only right that you rally the fleets,” he gestured toward the galaxy map.

Shepard nodded. “Thank you, sir.” Turning, he walked up to the elevated platform. “Joker, open a comm link to the fleets,” Shepard ordered.

“Channel open, Commander, go ahead.”

He took a deep breath before proceeding. “This is Commander John Shepard speaking. We have, as a galaxy, come together at this moment, united together against a common foe who will stop at nothing to destroy us all. We have seen what the Reapers have done to our worlds, to Palaven, Thessia, Earth, and countless other planets. We have seen their relentless slaughter, how they have turned our own people against us, how they tried to break our will, make us crack, make us despair.”

He looked around the CIC briefly and saw every eye in the room staring back at him. He continued. “Yet here we are, ready to bring the battle to them. Ships from every race in this galaxy have joined this armada and soon we will be launching the largest battle in known history. This is not about any one race, any one civilization, any one way of life. Our differences and past conflicts have been set aside in the pursuit of one common interest we all share: survival. Our right to live, to exist. Should we win this battle, this will be a day that will always be remembered as the day that the races of this galaxy declared we will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on, we’re going to survive. We’re going to end this war today, on our terms! Godspeed, Shepard out,” he finished.

The CIC was quiet for the briefest of moments before applause erupted. Joker left the comm channel open for a few moments so the cheers of all the gathered races could be heard. Shepard took a few moments to catch his breath. He was used to giving speeches, but usually to his squad mates or to the crew of a frigate, not to millions.

Hackett walked up and shook Shepard’s hand again. “Hell of a speech, Commander, I’d always heard you were one to deliver them, glad to finally experience it in person,” a sly grin spread across his lips.

“Thank you, sir. I assume you’re here with mission details?”

“Yes, follow me to the war room. Bring your ground team, too, they’ll need to be privy to this information.”

Hackett turned on a heel and briskly walked toward the war room. Turning to follow him, Shepard nodded to his squad members and they all followed. As they circled around the war room table, Anderson’s form materialized in the quantum entanglement communicator at the center of the room.

“Shepard, Hackett, good to see you. This your squad, Shepard?” Anderson said.

“Good to see you in one piece, Anderson. These are the poor bastards I roped into coming with me wherever we’re headed. What’s the situation?”

Anderson shook his head. “We’ve got no idea how they did it, but the Citadel has been moved to Earth. It’s orbiting directly over London. The Reapers have set up some sort of beam from it to the planet’s surface. We weren’t exactly sure what they were doing at first, but advance scouts have reported the Reapers moving bodies into the beam, we’re guessing up to the Citadel. There’s a hell of a lot of traffic to that beam currently.”

Shepard pointed to the hologram of the station on the display in front of him. “God, they might be trying to build another human Reaper up there.”

“It also looks like they’ve closed the arms of the Citadel,” Hackett said.

“Dammit, we’ll have to get those open before we can dock the Crucible,” Shepard said.

Garrus stepped forward, noting many Reaper ships around the station. “It looks like the Reapers have set up defensive positions around the Citadel. It’ll be damn near impossible to board the station with that many Sovereign-class ships in the area.”

“You’re right,” Hackett responded. “That’s why we’re launching a ground attack on the beam. We’re going to try and get a handful of soldiers through to the beam, make their way to the Citadel controls, open the arms, then dock the Crucible and activate it.”

“It’s a hell of a gamble,” Anderson sighed. “But it’s the best we’ve got. I don’t even want to guess at the odds.”

“The Sword fleets will launch an attack on the Reaper ships surrounding the Citadel. Hopefully they can either distract them or punch a hole for the Hammer transports to make it toLondonand drop off the armor and infantry that’ll comprise the main attack force,” Hackett said. “We are holding back a small Shield fleet for escorting the Crucible into position.”

Continuing, Hackett motioned toward a simplified layout of the united fleets in front of everybody. “We have divided the dreadnoughts of the allied armada into groups of four. Our analysis shows concentrated fire from four dreadnoughts can destroy a Sovereign-class ship. Cruisers will be deployed in defensive positions to intercept any Destroyer-class ships attempting to get into close range, or to engage any capital ships whose barriers have fallen. Frigate wolfpacks will attempt to harass, distract, and pick off any vulnerable ships. Fighters will concentrate their attacks on exposed ships and interceptors will attempt to engage enemy fighter-bombers. This is the best strategy we have come up with.”

“This strategy is sound. It appears to offer the highest probability of success,” EDI stated. “I recommend concentrating all fire from thanix cannon armed ships on Reaper vessels whose barriers have fallen. Attempting to target the firing chamber of the Reaper main cannons will maximize the effectiveness of our thanix cannons, the main cannons are lightly armored, and direct hits can disable them or destroy the ship.”

Anderson nodded. “Thank you, we’ll need all the tactical advice we can get.”

“My people have already done this, but I advise you to construct additional firewalls around any automated process on your ships, Admiral,” Tali said. “Especially vital processes like GARDIAN laser batteries. The Reapers will undoubtedly attempt to hack the systems during the battle. Contact Admiral Xen and she can provide our security measures. They worked against the Geth when they were controlled by the Reaper on Rannoch.”

Hackett looked impressed. “Thank you, Admiral Zorah. You probably just saved thousands of lives,” he said. He typed briefly on his omni-tool, sending a communication before continuing. “Another thing to note – we’ve spotted several Hades cannon destroyers here in London. They’re going to make mincemeat out of any heavy transport that tries to land. We’ll have to land strike teams in smaller shuttles to take them out before the armor transports can even think about approaching.”

“Got it, Anderson,” Shepard said. “Anything else?”

“After you land, make your way to the FOB, we have an area locked down for now, it’s as close as we could get to the beam in a defensible position. Once you and the Hammer forces arrive here, we’ll launch our assault,” Anderson said.

Hackett turned to Shepard. “I’m heading back to the Orizaba, Commander. I want the Normandy spearheading the assault. It’s the fastest ship we have, activate the stealth systems and move ahead as an advance scout, see if the Reapers have any ambushes waiting for us. Our bases on the outer moons haven’t detected anything, but it’s best to be sure. The fleets will follow you through the relay on your mark,” he said, extending his hand. “Good luck to us all, Commander.”

Shepard shook his hand. “Thank you sir, let’s give them hell.”

“I intend to, Commander,” Hackett said, smiling. “Anderson, stay alive.”

“I will, Hackett. Kill some Reapers for us,” Anderson replied, crossing his arms. His image faded. Hackett quickly turned and headed out, followed by his bodyguards.

After a minute, Shepard turned to his crew. “Alright, everyone to stations. Tali, I want you in engineering. Garrus, get to the main battery,” Shepard said.

Javik interrupted. “Commander, I would like to accompany Garrus to the battery. It is fitting that the last Prothean should approach the Reaper fleet looking down the barrel of a gun,” he said grimly.

Shepard nodded. “James, I want you and Kaiden to get down to the armory. Get everyone’s weapons set up. Everyone’s taking assault rifles to the surface, we’ll need the extra firepower. Fix extended barrels and telescopic sights to all of the spare Avengers we have. EDI, I want you at the helm with Joker. Liara, assist Traynor with communications and coordinating the fleets. Let’s do this, people.”

Everyone filed out, but before they could leave, Shepard stopped Garrus, Tali, and Liara. “You three have been with me longer than most. You believed in me when nobody else did. There’s nobody else I’d want to go into this battle with than you guys. I want you all with me when we get to Earth.”

Garrus responded first. “You’re the best soldier and friend I know. I’d gladly follow you into battle anywhere, Shepard,” he said confidently.

“We’re with you, Commander, to the end,” Liara said with a slight smile.

“I’m by your side, hesh’la, no matter where it takes us,” Tali finished.

Shepard nodded and paused, trying to think of what to say.

“Before he starts crying or something, how about we get to our stations? I need to make sure there aren’t any last minute calibrations to be made, I want to fire that cannon right up Harbinger’s ass,” Garrus said with a laugh, walking out of the room. Liara followed.

Tali waited a moment until the two of them were alone. They didn’t say anything, they simply embraced tightly. She pulled away, nodded quickly, then hurried out of the room and down to engineering.

Shepard walked slowly toward the galaxy map in the CIC, a million thoughts surging through his mind, all screaming for attention. Blinking hard, he pushed them aside and stepped onto the elevated platform. “Joker,” he said.

“Yes, Commander?”

“Open a comm channel to the fleets, get the engines ready, we are about to move.”

“Aye, sir. And Shepard?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s kick some Reaper ass,” Joker said, no doubt grinning.

“You got it, Joker. Allied fleets, this is Commander Shepard speaking. I want all ships on the Normandy, we’re heading to the relay. On my mark, all ahead full. Five, four, three, two, one, mark!”