The trio made their way slowly up the long ladder in the bowels of the ship. Grunting with effort, and trying not to slip, Elsa, Rachel, and Victus made the inexorable climb to deck two. Sweat dripped from their foreheads as they gradually climbed upwards.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they reached the hatch that led into the research lab. Carefully unlocking the latch, Rachel lifted the hatch carefully and peered out.

"All clear."

She pushed the hatch fully open and pulled herself through. The room was indeed empty, so she made her way to the main door as the others climbed out.

"Close that hatch!"

Victus muttered a curse under his breath, and turned to close the neglected hatch.

"How do we know there's no one out there? Or in the armory for that matter?" he asked.

"I guess we don't. But we don't have a choice. Come on!"

Rachel activated the door controls and stepped into cover behind the wall, holding her breath. The door slid open, and she peeked her head around the corner.

"It's clear."

The trio entered the hallway and quickly moved to the armoury door. Rachel activated the controls again and the door slid open to reveal the empty armoury.

Rachel let out a sigh of relief, and crossed the room to the weapons locker. Opening it, she retrieved three M-6 Carnifex heavy pistols for herself, and distributed the rest to Elsa and Victus, as well as a generous supply of thermal clips.

"All set?"

Elsa and Victus nodded.

"Let's move!"

They made their way carefully across the corridor once more and back into the research lab, where Victus opened the hatch and disappeared down. Elsa and Rachel followed suit, closing the hatch behind them.

"Deck three, everyone. Lead the way, Victus."

They descended, arguably a great deal faster than they had ascended, and before long they were at a junction. Turning left, Victus crawled through the narrow tube for a few metres until he stopped.

"We're here," he whispered, peering through the grille in the ceiling of the observation deck "and I see Anna. There doesn't appear to be anyone else there."

"Good," Rachel whispered back. "Use the wrench in the kit on the wall to your left-"

Victus punched the grille clean from its mountings with the flat of his hand.

"-or you could just do that."

The two women and the turian squeezed through the hole in the roof and landed in the observation deck, where they were met by a very startled Anna.

"Elsa!" The young quarian ran into Elsa's arms, sweeping her into a bone-crushing hug.

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Victus, get to work on that door. Get us out of here, I don't feel like climbing back into that shaft."

The turian nodded and set to work on the deactivated control panel by the door.

"Elsa! What's happening? I'm scared! There were these men, and they took me, and they locked me in here and...and...and.."

"Hush, Anna," Elsa soothed, still embracing her, "everything is going to be fine. We've come to rescue you, and retake the ship."

"Retake? What happened?"

"Mutiny," Rachel said grimly, handing Anna a spare pistol.

Anna took the weapon gingerly. "Oh…"

"Aha!" Victus said triumphantly, the door panel he was working on glowing green.

"Alright Anna, let me get you up to speed. We need to free the rest of the crew. Most of them are locked in the quarters, which are just down this hall. We need to be careful, before we'd been using maintenance shafts to sneak around, but now we have to cross a rather wide-open area. Don't be afraid to use that," she said, gesturing to the Carnifex in Anna's hand.

Anna gulped. "And then what?"

"Just focus on getting to crew quarters for now. Then I'll inform everyone of the plan. I don't feel like repeating myself again."

Anna nodded.

"Everyone ready?"

The team nodded.

"Good. Victus, open up!"

The turian activated the control panel on the wall and the doors slid open to reveal the empty corridor. Rachel took point, gradually tiptoeing down the hallway, her team following closely. Before long they reached the officer's quarters, which was locked.

"Get to it, Victus."

He nodded, and began to work on the control panel, bypassing the locking mechanism. Rachel and Elsa covered him, on guard for any patrols.

"Fast as you can, Victus," Rachel pressed.

"I'm trying. It's surprisingly difficult, this one."

The sound of footsteps echoed down the corridor, and a shadow appeared on the wall, unmistakably of a man with his gun drawn.

"Victus!"

The turian let flow a string of muttered curses as he worked frantically. Meanwhile, the footsteps grew louder and the guard rounded the corner. As soon as he saw Rachel and her team, he opened fire.

Rachel dove for cover, a searing pain shooting up her left arm. Anna and Victus had also taken cover behind a canteen chair, but the guard was distracted by Rachel. Meanwhile, Elsa remained where she was.

"Elsa! What are you doing?!" Rachel screamed, firing blindly at the guard, missing.

Elsa did not reply. She clenched her hand in a fist in front of her, and blue glowing energy began to form around it. It grew in intensity, until it was almost blinding, until Elsa opened her hand.

The ball of energy flew towards the guard and struck him, sending him flying into the bulkhead. He collapsed limply, unconscious.

"Els...what the hell?"

Elsa shook her head, staring at her hand. "I don't know. It just seemed...somehow I knew how to do that. Don't worry, he isn't dead."

"Good."

"Oh my god, Rach! You've been shot!"

Rachel grimaced, looking at the gash in her upper arm. "Flesh wound," she said. "Nothing to worry about."

"At least let me wrap it," Anna piped up.

"When we're inside. Victus, the door."

Victus nodded and returned his attention to the door panel. A few moments later, it slid open to reveal the shocked faces of the off-duty crewmembers.

"Inside, everyone."

The team crammed inside the small room and Victus sealed the door behind them.

"Anna!"

A middle-aged woman from the rear of the room came crashing through and leapt into Anna's arms.

"Mother?"

"Oh, Anna! I am so so sorry!"

"No, I'm sorry! For everything. But right now, we have to focus. We'll talk when this is done, all right?"

"Alright."

The two separated and turned their attention to Rachel, who was stood at the small table in the centre of the room.

"Listen up, everybody! We don't have much time. You all know the ship has been taken. Right now, you don't need to know why, all you need to know is that we need to recapture it! How many of you are there in here?"

Someone did a quick head count and replied, "Um...twenty."

"Perfect. I want ten of you to come with me and Elsa. We'll take the maintenance shaft up to the armoury on deck two. There's enough spare weapons there for anyone unarmed. Meanwhile, five of you will go with Anna and proceed to engineering, again via the maintenance tunnels. Victus will take the remaining five to the hangar deck. We'll be using these-" she handed a portable communicator to Victus and Anna, "-to communicate. Remain in a safe place, then on my signal we'll storm each location simultaneously. With any luck, it'll go without a hitch. They'll never know what hit them. Everyone clear?"

A murmur of affirmation rustled through the room.

"Okay then. Let's do this."

Rachel led the way out of the room, checking carefully for any other guards. The hallway being clear, she led the small group out and back into the observation deck. They all gathered around the small opening in the ceiling.

"Alright,.team two for engineering, you're up. Victus, give them a leg up."

The turian stooped and cupped his hands together. Anna carefully stepped into his hands and was boosted into the maintenance shaft. He repeated the maneuver with the other five team members, most of them a great deal heavier than the young quarian. Anna scurried along the pipe, making little noise as she went, the rest of her fireteam following as quietly as they could.

"Help me up, Victus."

Victus hoisted Rachel easily into the maintenance shaft. Scrambling around, she poked her head back through the access point. "Wait until we've all gone. Then take your team to the hangar deck and wait for my signal."

The turian nodded solemnly. "Good luck."

"And to you."

Rachel shuffled along to the end of the maintenance shaft where the ladder to the upper decks was situated and waited for the other members of her team to join her.

Finally, after a great deal of grunting and cursing, they caught up. Nodding silently Elsa, she began the slow ascent up the ladder. The small space was cramped, claustrophobic, and far too warm for Rachel's taste, but she persevered. Finally, she reached the access hatch which led to the armoury. Cautiously peering out, she ensured the armoury was deserted before fully entering. Immediately, she crossed to the doors leading to the CIC and locked them.

"Elsa, come here."

The blonde walked over, eyebrow raised. "Yes?"

"Take half the team and head to the research lab. Lock the doors. We'll storm the CIC from both sides."

Elsa nodded, and without a word, gestured to five of the men and left via the side door.

Rachel reached for her portable communicator. "Team two, status."

"Team two, ready," Anna's voice echoed from the small device.

"Team three, status."

"Team three, ready."

"Els, you set?"

"Yes, good to go."

"Remember everyone, use lethal force only if absolutely necessary, clear?"

"Clear," Anna said

Victus grunted, whioh

Rachel glanced at her teammates, a slight look of apprehension evident on her face. They all returned a reassuring smile.

"Go! Go! Go!"

Rachel deactivated the locking mechanism and the doors slid open. Sergeant Thrax, donning an immense suit of body armour, was standing at the immense galaxy map. A portable shield generator stood at his feet, and a faint glow surrounded the colossal guard. He immediately whirled around. Raising his weapon, he fired a volley in the direction of Rachel's team. They scattered, and thankfully none of them were hurt. Rachel dove behind cover, in this case a chair at one of the ship's many weapons consoles. She peeked out briefly from behind the chair and fired at Thrax, but the rounds glanced harmlessly off his body armour, shields flashing.

By now, the entirety of the mutineers in the CIC had been subdued, and all attention was focused on Thrax. Shots were fired upon him from all directions, but his personal shield mitigated every ounce of damage. Out of the corner of her eye, Rachel saw Elsa slowly emerge from cover and raise her hand.

A swirling ball of energy began to form around her clenched fist. It grew in intensity, until it blinded everyone in the room. Releasing her fist, the blast flew towards Thrax and struck him in the chest.

"Argh!" Thrax stumbled backwards, dropping his assault rifle, his shield immediately failing and his body armor glowing orange.

Rachel stepped from behind her cover, raising her Carnifex. "Open fire!"

Volleys plummeted towards Thrax, though his body armour still resisted well. Finally, one of the rounds punched through, and he fell to the ground with a grunt.

Rachel realised his assault rifle was too close to where he landed for her liking, but it was too late. With surprising speed, Thrax scrambled towards the weapon and grabbed at. At the same time, he swung around and knocked Rachel's legs out from beneath her. She hit the deck with an ooof!.

Thrax fired his weapon, sweeping it around in a wide arc. At first, it seemed his attack was fruitless, until…

"ELSA!"

Elsa stood there, blood seeping from her belly, hands clutching at the wound.

"Rach…"

She collapsed.

"Elsa!" Rachel darted forwards, forgetting about the assailant behind her. She was halfway towards her best friend, when strong hands suddenly grabbed her from behind. She struggled, but Thrax whipped out a pistol and held it to her temple.

"Listen!" Thrax bellowed. "Listen, all of you! This woman-" he pointed to the stricken blonde on the floor-"is a monster! Have you seen what she did? How can we expect someone like her to command? As for this one-" he dug the pistol into Rachel's head "is an accomplice. She turned a blind eye to Shepard's incompetence ever since Heshtok! Refused to believe she was compromised!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Rachel could see one of her team members sneaking around the command desk, obviously trying to get a good shot at Thrax.

No! Rachel thought. Don't do it, you'll get us all killed…

Thrax continued. "Lay down your weapons, all of you. Signal to any other teams you may have to do the same. We can all resolve this...peacefully."

Something in Thrax's voice made Rachel think that Thrax was willing to be anything but peaceful. Meanwhile, the crewman was taking up position and lining up his shot.

Don't do it…

He fired.

Thrax screamed. Seemingly, the crewman landed a fine shot. Thrax's gun hand jerked away, but not before it discharged. Rachel felt a searing pain across the back of her neck, before she too hit the deck, hard.

Elsa, still conscious, was shouting Rachel's name, but she could barely hear her. Her entire life was playing out before her eyes. She was scared, scared beyond belief.

Something warm covered her hand. Looking over, she could faintly see Elsa reaching out and grasping her hand in hers.

She smiled. Suddenly, she wasn't scared anymore. Her mind was filled with beautiful memories of her best friend.

Her heart was light as she settled on the memory of their first meeting. The darkness began to consume her, and finally it was all around her, but still she smiled until there was nothing left, not even the warmth of Elsa's hand.