'Javik,' John yelled, 'back me up!'<br/><br/>Colossal optics burned with an ageless, fathomless contempt as they looked down upon the ants below, casting millennia of anger down upon the masses. Harbinger knew no fear or opposition, ignoring the firepower hurled from all directions by the<span style="font-style: italic">Normandy</span>and recently arrived dropships and Terrestrial SpecFor teams. As Harbinger's eyes glowed brighter and brighter, John ducked and wove, smashing aside the lesser husks as he made for the damaged Destroyer. He gestured for one of the machine's far legs.<br/><br/>'Take that one, I'll take the other! Push, dammit!'<br/><br/>With a roar of effort, John charged headlong into the Destroyer's leg, Javik doing the same to the other. They tipped the Reaper forward into Harbinger's field of fire right as the elder machine unleashed its pent-up fury upon the Earth. It was enough time to get Shepard and Javik to the<span style="font-style: italic">Normandy</span>. There was no time for arguing or goodbyes--the two Solars had bought her only a few seconds' respite.<br/><br/>'Admiral Anderson to all available Alliance assets, requesting Final Protective Fire on my position, Admiralty HQ, danger close!'<br/><br/>Shit. It was the only way to distract Harbinger long enough to fall back, but they had to move fast. A flurry of Javelin missiles and mass driver fire buffeted Harbinger's port plating. The attack did little beyond scuffing the finish slightly, but the presence of capital ship-grade firepower attracted the Reaper's attention.<br/><br/>'Admiral,' said a voice on short-range comms, laced with static and interference, 'this is SSV<span style="font-style: italic">Elbrus</span>, on station to assist! Main gun ready to fire on your mark!'<br/><br/>John waved his team back. 'Withdraw! Withdraw! Get clear of the blast radius!'<br/><br/>He retrieved a fallen assault rifle and began laying down covering fire. 042 disengaged quickly, shields crackling as they tanked volleys of gunfire. Bau vaulted over a pile of rubble shortly after, lending his own tech and guns to the meager wall of fire. He bled from a head wound, but he waved it off. Before five seconds passed, however, the<span style="font-style: italic">Elbrus</span>unloaded on the Reaper. Colossal railgun slugs impacted the Neverborn's ancient soulsteel hide with enough explosive force to sunder over a kilometer of high-grade durasteel. It only made Harbinger angry. They didn't have time to bother watching the ensuing fight or engage the Abyssals, who had been disoriented by the resulting explosions and dust clouds. They needed to retreat.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">___</div><br/><br/>Half an hour passed. Retreating further into the heart of Vancouver, the Alliance forces retaliated and regrouped. The first thing to fall was the space elevator, connecting an artificial island to the station above. Once used to supply materiel, personnel, and power for Vancouver Station's superheavy mass driver, the great orbital tether now fell upon the harbor and the evacuation forces stationed there. Reports claim that still-screaming human bodies rained from the sky for several minutes. The only solace was that most of the debris fell into the harbor rather than onto the evacuation lines.<br/><br/>In the city's far north, Major Roland Heng of the 175th Armored Division led the defense of the evacuation at the city spaceport alongside Terrestrial Exalted from Special Forces Teams Gauntlet, Corsair, and Halberd. His defensive lines, fortifications, and unit distribution were almost perfect given the situation and, under any other circumstances, his actions would have set an example for armies across the galaxy. The Reapers overwhelmed the spaceport in less than two minutes.<br/><br/>Across the globe, Alliance troops gathered to defend the vital power stations and space elevators connected to Earth's other orbital defenses. Harbinger-sized Reapers glassed the island fortress of Malta before a single shot was fired. Lunar, Terrestrial, and Solar assets in Argentina fought a losing battle to protect Buenos Aires Station's power supply. On-site VI assistance estimated their total annihilation four minutes, thirty-eight seconds from the present. Forces stationed in Houston, Cape Canaveral, London, and Cairo faced similar predicaments. The city of Volgograd once again became a meat grinder as Alliance Marines dug in and prepared for the brutal room-to-room fighting that would ensue. Amazingly, assets in Australia successfully repelled the first wave, albeit at heavy losses. VIs there pegged its defenders' life expectancy at 2.8 Earth days.<br/><br/>The mobile drydock, SSV<span style="font-style: italic">Ark</span>, intercepted a barrage of Reaper fire meant for the flagship and carriers of the First Fleet. Critically damaged, the<span style="font-style: italic">Ark</span>spent its last moments ramming a Harbinger-sized Reaper, heavily damaging the machine. The First Fleet's response was said to be a twenty-one gun salute ten times over. Their efforts, though valiant, did little to stem the endless tide. Another volley from the Reaper invaders crippled the First Fleet's flagship dreadnought and destroyed much of its cruiser, frigate, and carrier support.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">___</div><br/><br/>John took a moment to catch his breath at the foot of the destroyed comm jammer. Linking up with a platoon from the 73rd Marine Division, Anderson and Saber Team hunted down and slagged the signal jammers set up within the ruins of the city.<br/><br/>'<span style="font-style: italic">Midway, Midway,</span>this is Ground Team. Respond, over.'<br/><br/>More static. Still barely intelligible, but it was enough. 'Commander, Mitchell here. Vancouver Station got hit bad. We were forced to hit stealth and break away to evade pursuit, sir. You have an extraction shuttle inbound in two hours to your transponder signal, over.'<br/><br/>'Two hours to exfil. Noted, Mitchell. Thanks. Ground Team out.'<br/><br/>Anderson checked his rifle again and turned to his fellow Solar. 'Commander, you think you have the time to spare to kill this damn thing?'<br/><br/>'I don't leave a job half-done, sir.'<br/><br/>'Good, because here it comes.'<br/><br/>'It' was a Reaper troop carrier, a colossal walker about half the size of a Destroyer, a quadrupedal horror that seemed to blend Reaper machinery and Collector biotech. Bulbous, necrotic sacs bulged from its frame, pulsating and twitching as the husks inside writhed. Nonsapient and devoid of the heavier weaponry of its larger cousins, the troop carrier was no true Reaper. It was, however, arguably as dangerous as a Destroyer thanks to its ability to process and mass-produce husks taken from Harvesters and the immense charnel pits from which the Reapers drew their ground troops' bodies. John once again fought the urge to retch. It clambered over the ruins of a shopping complex, pausing briefly to skewer a heavy tank with its essence beam before continuing through the streets towards them, unaware of the ambush waiting for it.<br/><br/>'Jesus Christ,' said one of the soldiers behind John, 'we have to take that thing down?'<br/><br/>Sergeant Major Johnson of Alliance SpecFor gave the Marine an arch look. 'You got a problem with that, Jenkins?'<br/><br/>'Hell yes, I have a problem,' said Jenkins. 'We're low on ammo and anti-armor, and an army of killer robot zombies just ate half the platoon, and you expect<span style="font-style: italic">us</span>to assault that thing. See this look? It's<span style="font-style: italic">terror</span>!'<br/><br/>Johnson pointed an unlit cigar at Private Jenkins. 'Marine, did I give you permission to bitch? Back in my day, we didn't have any of your fancy schmancy tanks and artillery! When I joined the Corps, each platoon got sticks--two sticks--and a rock, and we had to share the rock! Listen up, kids! I don't care if these Reapers are God's own anti-son-of-a-bitch machines or a migration of angry space squid! We are not letting them have Earth! What we<span style="font-style: italic">will</span>let 'em have is a belly full of lead and a puddle of their own blood to drown in! AM I RIGHT, MARINES?'<br/><br/>'YES, SERGEANT MAJOR!' chorused the platoon.<br/><br/>'Mmhmm,' Johnson said, lighting the cigar, 'damn right I am. They cannot defeat our Big Blue Style!'<br/><br/>Admiral Anderson smirked at this display of bravado. 'After you, Commander. Crazy bullshit seems to be your team's specialty, so lead on.'<br/><br/>John observed their arena of choice through his helmet's zoomed-in visor. Silently, he marked points of interest and highlighted them on the others' retinal and helmet displays. In the middle of the road sat a fuel tanker, most likely still loaded judging from how low it hovered above ground. Wide-open walkways ran between the buildings surrounding the area, just above the walker's eye height. If they could position the walker properly, the Marines could fire down on it with minimal risk of being hit by the beam. John also marked a few potential vantage points for marksmen and heavy weapons teams, then cycled a fresh heatsink into an Eviscerator shotgun he'd picked up some time ago. The Marines began to move to their designated positions.<br/><br/>As the troop carrier passed the truck, two darts of fire lanced out from the Marines' two remaining missile launchers. One detonated on the carrier's starboard side, immolating a clutch of husk troops. The other hit the tanker, causing it to erupt into a massive ball of flame that seared the carrier's port flank. That was the cue. All around, Marine fire teams opened up as the carrier began disgorging troops, its techno-organic tumors bursting as its passengers deployed.<br/><br/>'Move, move, move! Priority targets are the scions and praetorians--don't let them even<span style="font-style: italic">think</span>of hitting our heavies!'<br/><br/>Once more, into the breach.