"Two."
Saren Arterius's mandibles and jaws opened, then closed, then opened again in abject shock. He soon composed himself, however, and turned to the turian next to him.
"Twenty years ago, when we sent a probe into this system, we found a standard, boring garden world of intelligent, Asaroid life forms with a population of five point seven billion who had just discovered how to split the atom and land on other celestial bodies."
The turian nodded, not quite seeing where the freshly-made Spectre was going with this but having a good idea.
"Ten years ago, we sent a scout ship. The southern continent was gone, one was uninhabited, two were engaged in conventional and nuclear warfare, the oceans had somehow turned from blue to red despite still being mostly water,and the population was three billion and falling. There was residual evidence of… something, similar to an asari mind meld, from the south pole that seemed linked to the southern continent's disappearance. And for it to have lasted that long, it must have been enormous. Correct, Shiala?"
The other combat specialist on board the ship, an asari commando. "I wouldn't call myself an expert, but yes. It's like biotics, in the sense that the mind meld is like biotics, but also not, in much the same way. Matriarch Benezia?"
The elderly asari shook her head, predicting the maiden's question. "I apologize, but no. The exact mechanics of the mind meld are well-studied, but even after millennia elude us. All that is known is that it creates a bridge of electrical impulses between minds, but artificially doing this has shown there is something more. What it is is unknown, but we can tell its effects – which are similar to what is here."
"Right," said Saren, moving the conversation forward. "And now, there are two Spirits-damned life forms of the Relay 918 species on the entire planet?"
The turian in charge of the sensors nodded, slowly. "Aye, sir."
Saren's mandibles clicked shut, the turian equivalent of a facepalm. This turian wasn't destined for captaincy, that was for sure. The fact that he wasn't more concerned about what in the name of Palaven had happened to this planet was evidence of that. Some of Citadel space's best sensors couldn't tell exactly what, some of Citadel space's best minds couldn't tell what, the bloody STG was scratching their horns as to what sort of new WMD these pre-FTL idiots had used on themselves, and the science officer before him didn't seem to care.
"Bring us closer."
The turian scout ship slowly approached what was once the system's only inhabited planet. As they approached, Benezia began to sense… something. It was like – like how her grandmother described being in the thick of it during a Rachni assault.
Thousands, millions of minds all thinking, to themselves, to each other, all at once, and she only being able to glean bits of information as it wasn't true telepathy but simply a result of the electrochemical signals these things 'thought' being deafeningly loud. Like knowing you're surrounded but not seeing a soul around.
Like being in a battlefield still fresh with ghosts.
She was about to say something when the science officer let out a choked cry of shock.
"S-Sir! New life signs… by the Spirits..."
"Explain, ensign. Now."
"New life signs appearing all over the planet – first three near the two we picked up, then spreading outward… ten, thirty… sir, I'm picking up life signs in cities, fields, beaches, open water… there's no pattern at all to this."
All movement on the ship froze. Caves. Cloaking systems. Some sort of unknown life form shifting to a form their sensors could detect. But every suggestion would at least not result in random patterning, and not everywhere at once. Even the rachni couldn't pull 'random' organization off that well.
Saren closed his eyes, his appearance outwardly of calm but inside his mind racing as to what he was supposed to do. As a Spectre, he didn't really have to go along with the code a normal turian would operate under, or any code at all so long as the Council didn't pull his status from him, but this was… unprecedented. Species wiped themselves out before achieving FTL or discovering relays all the time. It was sad, but it happened. But for them to nearly wipe themselves out, then just start popping back into reality like they were all out for a bathroom break? That never happened. That couldn't happen.
One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to get any answers on this ship.
"Bring us in for a landing, ready first contact protocols."
"S-sir?"
"Whatever's going on down there, it has something to do with how a planet with no relativistic weapons could go from a population of six billion to two in less than two and a half decades. I intend to find out what it is. If it's something that can be controlled, I want to know how to use it, if it isn't, I want to know if we can stop it."
And thus, one little ship headed towards a planet whose species had deemed itself worthy of salvation, unaware that it was not alone in the world, and that not everything from beyond the moon sought their annihilation.
an: this is something a little different from being a one-shot; mostly just me fishing for interest with netflix having just released evangelion. and not just because it's a lot shorter than my normal stuff. the dub isn't the best but it's far from terrible, and tbh there aren't enough crossover fics involving aliens and the immediate aftermath of Third Impact. happy eva day everyone.