CHAPTER ONE

Introductions...

Earth was truly a beautiful sight to see. Transport shuttles always took longer to arrive to their destination but being rewarded with this view, flying over the ocean, made it all worth it. Liana T’Loch sighed as she stared out the window of the shuttle. The color of the sea reminded her of her mother. The color of her skin was almost identical. Even though it had been nearly four years since she had died on the Citadel during the Geth attack, her heart still ached at the memories of her.

Looking around, she could see almost every race in the galaxy on board. There were other Asari, Salarians, and even Hanar. As different as they were, they were all arguing about the same topic: Commander Shepard.

Over the past three to four years, he had believed that a race of sentient machines called, "Reapers", were coming to harvest all living beings in the galaxy. Before the attack on the Citadel, Liana had thought him crazy. Just another soldier looking for a war. But after her mother had been killed on the Citadel and she had seen that ship, "Sovereign", she had a strange feeling about it. Something was not right. All the reports said that Sovereign was a Geth ship, but as her Mother always said, "Believe half of what you see, none of what you hear.” She always liked human sayings.

Consequently, Liana had done some research on the Reapers, though, there wasn't much on them. Except for a paper written by Dr. Liara T'soni, an Asari who had fought along side Shepard. No one took the paper seriously. In fact, it was not even officially published. It was underground and you pretty much had to have “beneficial contacts” to get a hold of it. Luckily, Liana still had her Mother’s contacts. 

As the shuttle landed, she looked outside the window and saw the city of Vancouver where Shepard's trial was going to be held. A deafening roar of chatter instantly resonated through the shuttle. Everyone was arguing about what would happen to Shepard after the trial. Personally, Liana wanted to hear his side of the story before she passed judgement.

After she left the transport and walked down the busy streets, the same thing was echoed every where. "Commander Shepard will pay" or "Shepard is innocent". It sounded like there was going to be a few fights before the trial even began.

With each step, she could hear the crowd around the court building getting louder and louder. It wasn't difficult to guess who was supporting Shepard and who was against him. A kinetic barrier for riots, separated both sides. The right, were those that wanted Shepard's head on a plate, mostly Batarians. And the left, was everyone who supported Shepard, or like her, those who were staying neutral until they knew more.

Security was every where. They all looked as if they were forming their own opinion of Shepard in their heads but at the same time, it was evident that they were being wary of the crowd to prevent any problems.

It was painfully obvious that she was never going to get through the crowd, so instead, she looked around and spotted a Starbucks across the street. They really were everywhere. 

The coffee shop was near enough empty. There were a few people sitting at tables  but their eyes were glued to the screen, watching and waiting, for Shepard’s shuttle to arrive.

"What can I get for you Lovely?" The staff member asked with a deep French accent, he looked about twenty one years old. There was nothing special about blue eyes and blonde hair. It was most likely dyed anyways since blondes were pretty much extricated. He wore a simple white t-shirt, black jeans, and a Starbucks apron. 

"Yes, can I have a caramel latte with two shots of espresso please." She had quite a fondness for Earth lattes after visiting the Citadel a few times with her mother. So, it only seemed right to have one while she waited.

After about an hour of nursing her latte, she saw Shepard's shuttle arrive on the screen. Immediately, an explosion of enthusiastic cheers and screams of anger came from the crowd. When she stepped outside, the entire crowd, pro-Shepard and anti-Shepard, pushed forward against the wall of security that was preventing the crowd from charging into the building.

There was no way she was going to get in. Not with all that security. Now, all she could do was watch the closest video screen where reporters would be giving the latest news about what was happening inside. 

Shortly after, something strange happened. The screen started to go fuzzy. The reception would cut in and out and the scratchy audio was barley understandable.

"We......Hav.....technic....problems....wait...something is...." 

Then, the image cut out completely. 

The ground shook. Losing her balance, Liana braced herself up against the nearest wall. Then, she saw it. Sovereign. The most unsettling thing was that it wasn’t just one ship...the sky seemed to rain of them. As they each landed, one after the other, she could feel the ground shake and then, without warning, one of the ships fired a beam of energy so powerful that it instantly reduced whatever it hit into rubble.

One thing she thought she’d never see was a Batarian running from a battle. But there it was. And it wasn’t just him. It was crowds of people.They came stampeding out of the building, running and screaming like frightened little Varren. But who was she to talk, she was running right behind them. Desperately, she tried to make her way to the nearest shuttle port, which wasn't very far, but it was almost impossible to reach since everyone had the same idea. 

People were falling over each other as they ran frantically. Gunfire and  explosions could be heard all around. She had to get out of there. But then, as she turned the next corner, she came face to face with one of the ships. Lucky enough, it was about forty feet ahead of them and it was heading the opposite direction but, their luck was cut short when it walked right through the shuttle port. As if that wasn’t enough, a large number of what looked like humans, except they were grey and had what seemed to be blue lights all over them, came running towards them. They would have been pretty if they weren't killing everything in sight.

Liana quickly looked around for another way out before she became food for some human light show. But, when she turned to head down the way she had come from, there were MORE human light shows and they were charging right at her! Without thinking, she darted into the nearest building but ended up tripping over something. Then, everything went black.

****

It was hot. And it wasn’t so much because of the weather. It was actually rather nice outside. The sun was out and there was a refreshing breeze that was more than welcoming every time you exited the building. The agglomeration of people in the court room was enough to change the temperature in any given room. The tension. The anger. It had to release some how. Didn’t these people know they could watch the trial in the comfort of their homes? Or outside at least...with a nice breeze? It was the Humans that were piling up more than any other race. They never seemed to take the practical- or logical- alternative in any given situation. It also didn’t help that there were a number of Batarians present whose fuses had just been set off. Especially the Batarian who was interrogating Commander Shepard at the moment. If he had a hand gun, he knew he wouldn’t hesitate to pop a few rounds into Shepard’s face right then and there. 

But that’s what he was there for. Len Tonrik shook his head and looked out at the mass of people that were fixated on Shepard’s every word. They looked like children who were being told a terrifying story around a camp fire. The one’s that stood out to him though, were those that kept shaking their heads, mumbling to themselves, and glaring at Shepard with this stare that screamed ‘die’. They were the one’s he had to watch for. By now, he was pretty much an expert at body language. It was even more revealing than actual words or written plans. Those tense muscles, the continuous clenching of the jaw, jittery fingers, eyes darting from side to side as if some omniscient being was pointing the guilty finger at them. Knowing exactly what they would do next. That was Len. He was always watching. 

SLAM!

Len instinctively raised his riffle and turned towards the noise. The Batarian that had been drilling Shepard had his fist pressed down on the table in front of Shepard. He must have slammed his fist down. Len brought his riffle down and relaxed. Batarians had no sense of control. No discipline. That’s why everyone hated them. He took in a deep breath and rolled his shoulders. This was taking longer than he thought. He looked back at Shepard.

“The Reapers are coming. It was the only option I had!”

The strange thing was that as much as Len knew this whole dabble about the Reapers was nonsense, Shepard seemed to be telling the truth. He truly believed what he was ‘preaching’. He frowned, they should lock him up in a psych ward instead of throwing him into prison.

Then, he heard it. It was a noise that any soldier knew all to well. There was a series of loud but almost muffled bangs that caused the floor to rumble. Everything went silent. Something big had broken the atmosphere. Len looked around for a second, people just stared at each other, some had their mouths open almost as if they were afraid to breathe. Then there was another loud bang....and another....this wasn’t normal. Len rushed down the aisle and exited the building. He didn’t even have to look up to spot the enormous ships emerging from the clouds. 

...They’re coming...

Shepard’s words started looping in his mind. His mouth felt dry...all he could do was clutch his riffle. It couldn’t be. He looked back at the court room and finally noticed how many people had come out to see. He hadn’t even seen or heard them.

“The Reapers!” Someone yelled, pointing up at the sky.

Len shook his head, “No...” he said more to himself than to anyone else. 

People started to scream and run down the steps, pushing past him.

“No!” He looked around, people were panicking. At that moment, all training and all routine, left him. He looked back up at the sky, there were more ships now...much more. He swallowed.

Don’t ever show your fear.

He immediately transformed back into the soldier he was and rushed back inside. He was gone. His eyes went wide as he looked frantically around the court room. Shepard was gone! “Damnit!” Len ran back outside, shoving his way through the crowds of people. If Shepard was any where in the vicinity he would be impossible to find in this madness. Len looked back at the enormous ships, a few of them were already touching ground. He felt a chill run down his spine. This was it. Shepard was right. They had come. The Reapers...had come.

What happened next was something Len had never seen before. The ships were walking. They were walking! In the millisecond it took him to turn around he heard a deafening sound that sounded like a high pitched engine and then an explosion. He instinctively crouched down and covered his head. When he saw what had happened, his eyes went wide. They were attacking! Of course they were attacking, what did you expect! It was a laser...it almost seemed like the ship was getting rid of pests. It wasn’t stopping. It just kept sweeping the laser from side to side, destroying everything in it’s path in a very casual way. Almost as if it was another days work for the thing. Len cursed and ran out into the crowd. He couldn’t see Shepard anymore, but he was sure he wasn’t far. Even though Len hadn’t believed a single word Shepard had said for years...he suddenly felt the need...the duty, to assist him. This was worse than anything he had ever experienced. Anything he had ever thought possible. This would mean the destruction of all living things if they didn’t do something. He felt a pang of guilt for mistaking Shepard’s desperation with insanity.

He kept pushing his way through the crowds. He had to find some kind of military personnel. That was when he heard the shots. He turned around the corner only to find himself face to face with a group of security guards shooting at something he hadn’t seen in a long time. It was those monsters he had seen back on Eden Prime. He raised his riffle and joined in on the attack. One of the men, a human, turned to look at him with a more than relieved expression. “There’s hundreds of them to the north! They’re different!”

Len reloaded and kept firing. They did look different but he hadn’t quite realized the weight of those words until he saw the larger creatures. “What the hell?” They backed up behind the corner. “What the hell are they?”

One of the guys shrugged. “I have no goddamn clue! But they’re a hell of a lot harder to drop!”

Len looked up ahead of him, his good eye instinctively started to dart from side to side. He was looking for the best vantage point where he could drop these sons of bitches. The three security guards just had hand guns, that wasn’t going to get them very far. “Keep them busy, but don’t waste your ammo on the big ones!” Len ran across the court yard and entered the Starbucks across the street. Some people were hiding behind the counters and others where on the ground crying. Trying to keep out of sight. “How do I get to the roof?” He saw everyone struggling to say anything. They were all either sobbing or shaking, most likely in shock. He put away his assault riffle behind his shoulder and grabbed his sniper rifle. “Come on!”

One of the employees behind the counter stood up slightly, shaking. “I...you...you have to...go up there...” he pointed at a back door.

Len rushed through the door. “Stay down!” he called back to them and dashed up the stairs skipping three, sometimes four steps at a time. When he reached the roof he sighted up as he walked up to the ledge and placed his sniper on top of it for leverage. Damn, they were faster than he thought...and they were biotic. Shit. When he got one of the bastards in scope he pulled the trigger and nailed it right between it’s ugly eyes, making the right side of its head explode into chunks. He reloaded, and dropped the next one in a similar fashion. And the next. After he took down three of the disgusting brutes, he took down three more of the husks just for good measure. He put away his sniper and went back to his assault riffle as he rushed back down the stairs. 

“What do we--”

“Don’t move!” He pointed a menacing finger at the woman that was almost pleading with him at his feet.

He rushed out and when he returned to where he had been fighting with the security guards, he only saw one, dead on the ground. The rest were gone. 

****

It had been 250 years since Sarina had lost everyone she loved. Her friends. Her family. Everyone. During that time, Sarina had tracked down those that trained the Justicars. The training was hard, tedious, VERY long, and dangerous. She lost count of how many times she had almost died. A small part of her truly did want to die. But not yet. She couldn’t let those responsible for Alex's death go unpunished.

Sarina had already been a Justicar for over 150 years. It may have seemed like a long time to other races but, to an Asari, that was a little more than a blink of an eye. For her, she had just become a Justicar. After spending over a century tracking down the men responsible for killing her friends and family. And Alex...dear, dear Alex. She had found and brought punishment to all but one of the men...the one who actually put that death sentence on her fiancée when he beat him to the brink of death.

When she had brought up the security footage to make some sense of it all, the moment that brought up the most anger, and yet the most sadness...was seeing who had actually beaten Alex. It was a Turian by the name of Hunter Stombak. He had been appointed by the Council to make sure Alex was safe. In Sarina's eyes, the "Hunter", had just become the "hunted". 

Though her main mission was to find the last man that had pushed her to become a Justicar, she still was supposed to expose injustice, and bring light and protection to those who needed it. She had been monitoring Commander Shepard's deeds through the years. Following in his path. Sarina had even spent some time on Feros, helping the colony rebuild after they had been taken over by the Thorian.

When she found out that the Justicar that she looked up to the most, Samara, had joined Shepard, it gave her even more cause to follow Shepard's exploits even more diligently. After all that she had seen, Sarina couldn't understand why people could NOT believe that the Reapers were a real threat. All the debates and court hearings were ridiculous. With this in mind, Sarina made her way to Earth for Shepard’s trial. Strangely, something inside her could sense that something was not right. She felt as if something big was going to happen. She wished she had been wrong.

It’s funny how much could be observed perched on top of a building. Sarina could actually see what was happening in the courtroom. She had listened to everyone's testimonies, and even the Batarian’s stark remarks when he had lost his temper while questioning Shepard. At that moment, she was about to drop down to get something to eat but that’s when she heard it...the beginning of the end.

All she could hear were crashes and explosions as countless Reaper ships descended upon Earth. Momentarily stunned, she remembered her Code. Protect the people. She jumped off the six story building, using her biotics to slow the fall. She could hear a cry from somewhere, "They’re here!" As soon as she landed, Sarina pulled out her pistol and katana, readying herself. What she thought were simple husks turned out to be much worse. It seemed as if multiple races had fallen prey to the Reapers because they didn’t look like they had ever been human.

Calmly, she walked towards them. She shot and sliced, dancing around the husks as if it was a Dance of Death. Then, a child’s scream came from some where behind her. She quickly turned and saw what looked like a Batarian husk, charging a little human girl. Without hesitation, she threw her katana, using her biotics to send it zipping through the air with so much speed that it instantly speared through the husk’s head and pinned it to the wall before it could get to the girl. Running as fast as she could, Sarina pulled the katana out of the wall, and picked up the little girl. She didn’t look older than five years old.

Holding the child in one arm, and slicing husks with the other, Sarina looked for a safe place she could temporarily leave the child. She spotted what looked like a Starbucks coffee shop. As she ran for it, Sarina saw a Turian rushing out, holding a rifle and shooting all that came near him. Once inside, she ducked under one of the tables and placed the child down. "Whats your name sweetheart?"

Hardly able to speak, the girl muttered. "I...my...my name...is...Serinity."

"My favorite name." Sarina said, smiling. "Can you do me a BIG favor and stay right here like a big girl, and wait until I come back for you?" 

She nodded.

“Thats a good girl. I promise, i'll return. This, I swear to you." She quickly rushed out of the coffee shop to help as many people as she could.

The husks came kept coming. Endless, waves after waves. Right then, she heard something strange. She looked up and found herself starring up at a Reaper that was getting ready to fire its laser at the coffee shop. It seemed to be smaller than the larger ships but it still would be capable of destroying the coffee shop effortlessly.

"I promised that little girl." Sheathing her sword and pistol, she stood in front of it and held her arms out, bracing for impact.

The laser fired and nearly ripped her into pieces but she mustered up as much biotic energy as she could. She felt her whole body as if it was on fire. She could feel her feet skidding across the pavement. She couldn’t hold it for much longer but she had too. She had never used her biotics at this magnitude. She was feeling weak. Drained. She couldn’t go on for much longer. Then images of her friends, of Alex, and the little girl, came flooding back to her. Closing her eyes, and concentrating as hard as she could, she opened them back up and threw the laser back at the Reaper, destroying it.

She dropped to her knees, shaking. After she regained some energy, she stood up and ran back for Serenity. Inside, she picked the little girl up, and yelled to the customers inside "Everyone, get out of here!"

As everyone ran out, Sarina took a quick glance to make sure everyone had made it out, and then followed. She knew they needed to find help, and fast, or else neither of them would last much longer. Within seconds, another Reaper took aim and destroyed the shop they had just been in. Looking down at Serenity in her arms, Sarina smiled and said, "Dont worry, we're going to find help. I promise. This I swear to you."