Hero's Survival - Chapter 21: War Song

Summary: The Reapers are here, the galaxy is being destroyed, and it's all my fault. Now I've gotta stop the Reapers, save the galaxy, and find a way home...oh and I'm pregnant. What's a girl to do?

Pairings: Female Shepard/Garrus, Joker/OC, and Male Shepard/?
Language Warning: Contains adult language
Rated: T or PG-13

Chapter 21: War Song
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Date: March 29, 2184
Location: Viper Nebula / Destroyed Alpha Relay Site

Joker’s eyes were wide as he looked at the Rachni ship. Ten times bigger than the Reaper ships that had just been obliterated by this one Rachni ship, its guns were bigger and looked ancient. As the drone he had sent out finished scanning the ship he found that the shields were fifty times stronger than anything the SR-1, SR-2 or the new SR-3 had ever had. The hull was made out of a metal he couldn’t identify and the core was more definitely not made with element zero. Then there was the mysterious canons that had torn through the Reapers shields as if they had been made of butter. This Rachni ship was a new breed of ship all together, which possibly made it the most dangerous ship in the galaxy; next to the Reapers of course.

Upon hearing the clicking of heals coming up the ramp behind him he turned to see Ann looking out the cockpit windows. “Looks like some friends have come to help.” She muttered breathlessly.

“Yeah, but John killed the Rachni Queen on Noveria, according to his mission report of that particular mission.” Joker replied.

“Doesn’t mean she was the last of her kind.” Ann stated remembering that she too had killed the Rachni Queen, only to find another one when she’d gone to help Aralakh Company when she’d gone through the Rachni Relay to Utukku.

Suddenly everybody in every ship heard in their minds a gentle voice with images and battles lost by the Rachni and won by the krogan, followed by images of Protheans attacking Reapers and ordering Rachni to destroy the husked Protheans. “Songs of war have been sung by our kind many times. The first by the ones called Protheans, who used our kinds biotic powers to destroy their enemies, first by conquering other primitive species, and then when those who sing sour songs came to destroy them we were called upon once more; but our kind was not meant to fight. After Light Singer and her broods were killed in battles it was decided amongst the other Queens to stay away from other organics and let them war amongst themselves. Then the sour singers found Singing Planet. We tried to resist their song songs, many fell to their songs; whilst others like myself, Victory Singer, had the strength to resist and took our eggs that were not infected by the songs of dissidence and found a place where we could sing in peace. We could hear the songs of war being sung by those who could not resist the songs and we hear the songs of war by those known as Krogan. We sang mournful songs for many years for those who had been lost. Then there were no songs of war being song for many years and we thrived in our peace. Now once again the sour singers are back and once again a song of war has begun. We cannot ignore these songs like we have in the past and we will help, we will sing songs of destruction to the sour noted ones and this time it will be their songs that end and not ours or yours. Afterwards our songs of victory will be sung throughout the galaxy so that all organic and non-organics may one day know who destroyed the sour singers and how it all occurred.”

As the song ended Ann felt as if her head had once again been tossed in the blender on high like it had when she’d found the beacon so long ago. She then turned her head around slowly as she heard several footsteps headed her way. She smiled as she spotted Grunt, Garrus and Javik. The Prothean looked out the window of the cockpit and seemed amused as he looked at the familiar shape of a Rachni ship. “It is good to see that one thing hasn’t changed.” He muttered. “The attack dogs are here to help.”

“Be careful who you call an ‘attack dog’ ancient.” came Victory Singer’s voice. “My people have suffered too much over the millenniums. We are not mindless beasts. We are sentient beings and we are here to fight and defend our right to exist!”

“Somebody sounds pissed.” Joker smirked as Javik was forced to shut up with a single look from the commander.

“I am certain Javik meant no disrespect.” Ann said trying to smooth things over.

“We have heard the song of you and your other.” Victory Singer stated. “We give you our songs. Do what you wish with them.”

“How many of you are there?” Ann asked, it was a simple question after all.

As the silence dragged on Ann began to think that perhaps there wasn’t that many when suddenly Ann’s answer became apparent as not one, but thousands of ships suddenly de-cloaked and showed that even if all they had seen was one ship, it had turned out that, that ship wasn’t even the biggest ship. As a ship literally the size of a small planet appeared off the bow side of the SR-3, but even that wasn’t the biggest ship. The largest one seemed to be three times the size of the small planet sized ship. It had the same glossy look to it that the one Victory was on. Its canons seemed even larger and even older than Victory’s had. The ship gave off an aura that it was somehow very much alive, even though it was not possible. Then Victory’s voice came. “We are many and we shall not be defeated by the sour singers.”