"Mass Effect transition completed, Empress! We've arrived at the Aralakh System!"

"Enemy presence confirmed! Reaper signatures detected around the first, fourth, and sixth planets! They are moving towards us!"

"Numbers?"

"One capital ship per group! Fourteen destroyers in the first group, twenty in the second, and only eight in the third!"

"They weren't expecting anyone to come to this system." Revan decided after hearing the numbers of enemies they faced.

Oh, it was certainly overkill for anything that would normally pass through the Aralakh System. But for all the destructive power a Reaper ship had, they were simply too small when it came to the size of a planet. Unless the Reapers received reinforcements it would take months, possibly years, before they could completely scour one world completely with all the forces they had in-system and they clearly weren't even doing that. Of course that might not be a concern for the giant droids. Time meant something very different for things that operated on cycles thousands of years long.

"They still outnumber us four to one." Her tactical officer cautioned from his station. A reasonable point considering they were down to seven escorts after Palaven even if the Harrowers were mostly untouched.

"No, they'll outnumber us two to one in one battle, and are outmatched in the second." Revan countered as she used the Force to observe the system. Not all of the Reapers were moving to intercept her battlegroup, some continued to linger around the planets they were located at when they translated into the system. No doubt considering whatever task they were occupied as more important than hunting down the ships that had appeared.

"Set an intercept course for the group near the sixth planet. We'll destroy them before they can link up with the rest of their forces. Harrowers lead the charge and Ion cannons dispersed between all enemy vessels."

-o-

Revan didn't have much to say about the first battle in the Aralakh System. The Reapers still didn't have time to come up with a counter to her ship's Ion cannons so once again they were forced to fight partially disabled and were quickly picked off by the sheer amount of firepower Revan's battlegroup could bring to bear when faced with similar numbers.

But that didn't mean the Reapers hadn't learned from the battle.

The ships that had broken off from the first and fourth planets had met up, but instead of forming one group and moving to confront Revan's own ships they had split into three subgroups. Theoretically Revan's battlegroup would be able to easily crush any individual group with minimal damage, but practically her forces couldn't afford to engage any one of them without quickly being surrounded by the remaining two.

It was the perfect tactic to counter what Revan had displayed so far.

"We could perform a microjump to FTL that would put us right on top of one of the groups." One of her officers suggested. "If we deploy all our spacefighter wings we should be able to destroy the Reaper ships before the other two get in range. Then it would be another battle between numerically similar groups, even if we would have a disadvantaged deployment."

"We'd have to use the Hyperdrives. Conventional FTL isn't accurate enough for that." Another argued. "And we were ordered not to reveal those yet."

"Technology not used is technology that is wasted! We have the perfect opportunity to give another blow to the boshtets!"

"And doing so would have every Reaper hunt us down until we were destroyed." Revan quickly reminded him.

Fear and arrogance after the last battle were clouding some of her officer's judgment, and Revan couldn't exactly blame them too harshly for it. They had seen the homeworld of the Turians destroyed by the same forces they had fought three times now and beaten with minimal to moderate difficulty. It was understandable that they wanted to keep pressing the attack and end the Reapers before they could do more damage.

So Revan needed to keep a firm hold on her more aggressive captains until they were ready to actually go on the offensive and unfortunately that simply wasn't going to happen in Aralakh.

"We are here for one, maybe two, reasons. To retrieve the hulls of the Krogan's navy and bring them back for refitting." Along with potentially convincing the Krogans to ally with the Empire since they would make incredible shocktroopers, but that was a secondary goal. "We don't even need to deal with the Reapers until we are ready to attempt making a move on the hulls."

"With all due respect, Empress." One of the more stubborn officers spoke up. "If that is the case and we are not going to engage the Reaper forces…is there anything left for us to do in-system or should we just return to Rannoch to gather crews to help move the hulls?"

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"We still need to negotiate for the hulls from the Krogan." Revan replied, allowing a bit of amusement to seep into her voice.

"...we do?"

"The Geth agree with Officer Moris, Revan-Empress." One of the Geth units joined the conversation. "If asset retrieval is priority, there is no need to discuss with the Krogan. They do not have the ability to stop us from doing so while dealing with the Old Machines."

"And it's precisely because of that, that it is crucial that we ask before taking action." Revan replied. "Just like the Quarians, the Krogan have been continuously exploited while being largely marginalized by the Council. While we probably could simply take everything once we deal with the Reapers in the system, it would hardly be a good start to an alliance."

With that little insight explained most - if not all - of the officers suddenly became much more understanding about Revan's approach. Even if the galaxy was under attack by omnicidal murder machines, that did not mean that the exploitation and slights from the Council races had magically been forgotten.

"Set a course past Tuchanka. I will head to the surface via a shuttle."

"And the fleet?"

"As long as the Reapers don't attempt to make a move, keep allowing them to pursue you. Don't get drawn into standing fights and keep mobile. I will call when it's time to extract from the planet."

And with that settled, Revan turned on her heel and began marching towards the nearest shuttle bay.

All that remained was to identify who had any authority on the ruined landscape of Tuchanka and if they would even be open to negotiations or if Revan would have to organize a…sudden transfer of power… to meet her goals.

-o-

Shepard moved as quickly as she could down the hall without making a sound, Liara and Garrus right on her tail.

They didn't have a whole lot of time considering Cerberus had beaten them here, but they also didn't have enough people to fight through the entirety of Grissom Academy while trying to reach the area the remaining students were hiding out in.

Thankfully, most of the Academy was actually empty due the the Reaper arrival so they didn't have to figure out how to sneak hundreds of people around a Cerberus cruiser, but trying to find twenty or so that had trained to be biotic artillery of all fucking things and keep them safe, was still going to be difficult.

Director Sanders had painted a fairly grim picture overall about the students' chances which was already an understatement considering her squad had found the older woman trapped in a server room about to be executed by the Cerberus squad the moment they broke through the door.

"Reiley Bellarmine, drop the barrier, now!"

Shepard momentarily froze at the sound of a Cerberus soldier barking orders before automatically ducking into cover before peeking out to assess the situation.

A single older teenager was protecting himself behind a domed biotic barrier as two Cerberus troopers were staring down at him from behind raised weapons.

"Nobody's going to hurt you. The file says we need you alive." The second trooper said in a failed attempt at being comforting. "But your sister? She's optional. You give us trouble, we'll find her."

If Shepard wasn't already convinced that Cerberus was more out for itself than for humanity that would have done it. Hard to convince people you are the 'good guys' when your partially-indoctrinated cyborg shocktroopers were going around threatening teenagers to come with them or they were going to hurt your family.

She gave a quick signal to her squadmates and did a silent three-count before she and Liara ducked out of cover and hit both troopers with a Biotic Pull.

The Troopers barely had time to shout in surprise before Garrus put two blaster bolts in their heads and silenced them.

Shepard turned to the now very pale teenager and gently stepped between him and the bodies. He might have seen worse by now, but there was no reason to rub it in his face.

"There may be more nearby." She said in a firm voice, drawing his attention even more. "I want you to play dead for a bit and then get to Kahlee Sanders in security. Do you understand?"

"O-okay, but my sister Seanne is out here somewhere, too…"

"Don't worry, we'll find her." Shepard promised, wishing she could spend more time making sure the kid would be okay. But the area was mostly secure and he had a clear shot back to safety. Shepard couldn't be sure the others could wait even that long.

Something that was unfortunately proven true when barely two minutes after they had left Reiley and moved forward Shepard saw a young woman getting gunned down from behind by another group of Troopers.

And they didn't seem to care much that they were shooting at children.

"Watch the headshots! Orders are to take them alive!"

"Check the file. Who was it?"

Shepard didn't even have to order her squad to open fire before the Cerberus thugs were shot to pieces by Liara's SMG, Garrus' blaster rifle, and her own shotgun.

Their bodies had barely hit the floor before the Spectre rushed to the fallen student, medigel in hand…but it was too late.

"Shepard, contact!"

She turned to see another squad of Troopers turn the corner even as one snapped a shot off at a target around a corner she couldn't see. Likely at another student.

Well at least now she had a target for the feelings burning in her chest.

"Liara, Singularity!"

"On it!"

The Asari Scientist put a glowing mass of biotic energy just beyond the doorway they were facing and almost immediately played hell with the Cerberus squad's positions. The two that had stacked up against the doorframe had been yanked backwards and were now flailing helplessly and another had dropped his rifle to desperately hang onto the back of a row of chairs that were bolted to the floor. The rest ranked high enough to actually have kinetic shields that let them ignore the biotic attack as the mass effect field and kinetic barrier interfered with one another.

Not that the shields were a major issue for her or her squad.

Garrus's gifted rifle shared the same property Geth plasma weapons did in mostly ignoring shields while burning through the field at an incredible rate.

Neither Shepard or Liara had anything similar - and unless they ran into Revan while she was in a giving mood, wouldn't anytime soon - but Spectre and the Shadow Broker could still afford to get their hands on some very impressive weapon mods.

The Cerberus hardsuits certainly protected them longer than anything the Alliance typically fielded. But longer wasn't enough to turn the tables.

Cerberus soldiers put down, Shepard moved up along with her squad to check on whatever the squad had initially shot at. Sure enough there was another student - another young girl even - huddled in a corner holding her side.

"Stay back! I'll…I'll…" She gasped as Shepard ran up to her.

"Hey, it's alright. My name is Commander Shepard." She said to the girl. "We aren't going to let them hurt you.

"Goddess, she's bleeding badly! Shepard, we need to help her fast!" Liara exclaimed.

"I've got some medigel." Garrus said as he moved closer with an injector. "Here, let me…"

The girl started squirming as the heavily armed Turian started approaching so Shepard gently moved her face so they were eye to eye. "Hey, we're here to help." She repeated. "Can you tell me your name?"

"S-Seanne. Seanne Bellemine."

Shepard forced a smile. "Well, Seanne. I'm glad we found you so quickly. We just sent your brother to go meet up with Director Sanders at security. Once we get you patched up you can go see him. You think you can do that?"

"O-oh…yeah…I think I can. I just need to rest a minute." Seanne's eyes darted towards the hallway Shepard's team had just passed through. "Sally was right behind me…is she…?"

The smile slipped off Shepard's face even as Garrus finished patching the girl up. "Sorry, Cerberus got her before we could do anything."

"....Damn…" Seanne hissed under her breath, fighting back tears. "...Promise me you'll make them pay for this, will you?"

"Damn right we will."