A/N: Thanks to BrokenArrow411 for making this story better then it was before with his awesome Beta skills. Everyone send him a big thank you. I mean it, I'll find you if you don't. Oh and decide the fate of the story by visiting my page and voting in the poles.

Stay classy everyone.

Tempus ad Reclaimer: Splintered Humanity

Basic Overview of the Races in the Orion Council

It is a golden age for humanity. The three splinters have been found, divided between Earth, Erde-Tyrene, and Terra Prime. Her alliances stand with her, forged in the heat of battle or cool of diplomacy. Her culture has grown, casting aside her petty hatreds of race or color for true judgement of another's character. Politically everyone was bound to the Orion Council. The Orion Council is a loose governing force of democratic ambassadors from most sects with the only outliers being the True Reclaimer and the Arbiter. The Orion Council brings everyone together yet allows them to follow their own path of evolution. Economic policy was that goods were traded openly between all her members. Each sect has a role to play as a part of the Orion Council.

The Earth-born lead as the best Engineers and are the core of all industries. Their story is one of sadness, loss, and death. Driven by a corrupt society and greed they depleted their homeworld of all its resources before inventing the Shock Point Drive to escape its grip. The Earth-born soon fled from the gray, dying planet to strip the Solar System dry. In this flight they became hyper-materialistic and discovered their undoing, a beacon of solid black stone covered in strange red markings and seemed to emit endless energy. Recklessly the Earth-born begin experimenting on the beacon without considering the effects. This led to an outbreak of infectious material that converted people into creatures of nightmares…Necromorphs. Thousands upon thousands were lost before the infection was stopped by a genius Engineer named Isaac Clark whose mind was corrupted by the Beacon, which tortured him with the dementia and death it brought. Finally with the destruction of the Beacon, now known as the Black Marker, he rushed the space docks with millions of outraged others and stole 2000 ships, half of them Planet Cracker Class. Marvels of interstellar engineering, the Planet Cracker class could grow to a length of several miles and easily hold and support a large population due to their vast size and resource gathering capabilities. After several blind Shocks they met a patrol of Arisen just exiting Slipspace. After several frantic messages from the Earth-born to the Arisen they sighed in relief as they realized they had lost both Earth Gov and the Unitologists. The Unitologists were people who worshiped the Black Marker and wished to turn everyone into the nightmarish Necromorphs. The two quickly became allies and have been together ever since, both with a deep respect for each other from their struggles.

The Arisen from Erde-Tyrene lead as the subtle hand and iron fist. The Arisen suffered greatly and were almost pushed to the edge of extinction by a coalition of alien races known as the Covenant. In the utmost religious zeal they marched on the Arisen, bombarding hundreds of worlds with superheated plasma until they were nothing but glass. On the eve of losing their homeworld to the Covenant a crack developed among the ranks of the alien collective and their hierarchal power shifted. The result was an event later called the Great Schism where the main warrior caste, the Sangheili, was beaten down by a new caste, the Jiralhanae. The resulting conflict drove the Sangheili to ally with the Arisen who, with their help, pushed the Covenant to its destruction. The Arisen now follow the Mantle, an idea which proposes that the most evolved species shall protect the others and guide their paths for the greater good. The Arisen easily have the most advanced technology in the Council with to travel great distances and store items indefinitely in Slipspace, form Hard Light and plasma weaponry, build massive installations and ships, create stars and planets, produce hyper-advanced AI, and make nanotechnology to heal wounds and tweak DNA to produce a superior human. They are lead by the 'True Reclaimer', a person that is known to be the most genetically perfect. Many others resent the Arisen for their seeming arrogance and superiority complex.

The Terran from Terra Prime are the newest Sect of man, having only recently left the cradle of their own solar system for the worlds beyond. The Terran have the brightest history out of all the Sects with only two World Wars and no near extinction event, either from themselves or outside forces. They also, however, have an unfortunate technological blockade with a deadly dependency on what they call a Mass Relay to travel long distances. This dependency forces the Earth-born and the Arisen to keep a closer eye on them, wary for any enemy that may take advantage of this weakness. They have several extrasolar colonies and are expanding fast. The latest colony is a planet called Shanxi and is a heavy industrial center despite its recent settlement. Most Terran believe that everything should be given to them because they think they are ready for everything the galaxy can throw at them.

Other notable Sects in the Council are the Sangheili of Sanghelios, Unggoy of Balaho, Lekgolo of Te, and Kig Yar of Eayn. Each of these are the alien Sects of the Council and each have their own traits. Sangheili are a strong, proud race of warriors with a subtle fear of doctors. Unggoy are the workhorse race of the Council, working as dockworkers, attendants, aides, and the like. They breath methane rather then the 'regular' oxygen, requiring them to wear breathing harnesses when not in a methane rich environment. The Lekgolo are a malleable race of orange worms that can form together into bipedal colonies; however, it is known that there are only a few Lekgolo ships because of the number of colonies required to run them. The Mgalekgolo, a colony in bipedal form, were nicknamed Hunters by the Arisen who faced them, these twelve foot walking tanks are incredibly strong, durable, and an infantryman's worst nightmare. Finally the Kig Yar are a rouge race of merchants and pirates, whose concern lies in how good one's manners are… or how big your pocketbook is. They have been known to ruthlessly pursue both higher prices and their enemies to the end.

However, humanity stands on the eve of its next big discovery. The new Relay in the Shanxi-Theta System stands at the ready to launch the Orion Council into the next system in the great void of space, forever carving out a larger chunk of space under its unified banner.

CH. 1 - The Next Relay

Terran Vice Admiral Lucas Verdin look upon the recently developed world of Shanxi, watching from the narrow port window in the ships cockpit as the planet rotated slowly by. He marveled at how the gray of mega cities and factories and well as the deep green of the land in the rural areas and the blue hue of the water blended together on the planet below. Slowly the mega city, New Hope, that his sister worked in faded out of sight into the horizon. Verdin turned when he heard scurrying behind him.

The subordinate held up the data pad and saluted at the same time. Verdin grabbed the pad while giving the subordinate a predatory gaze. The subordinate saluted again and ran off back into the Combat Information Center. Verdin glanced through the data before cracking a rare smile and cueing the ship's comms system.

"Open a comm to the fleet, lieutenant, pilot plot a course to the dormant Relay," Verdin ordered.

"Coms open sir!"

"This is Vice Admiral Verdin to all ships in Exploration Group Alpha, we finally got the green light from the Council to activate the Relay. Everyone form up on me, standard positions."

Verdin watched from behind the pilot's seat as the EXG formed around the Shanxi-Theta Relay in the similar position as the previous three Relays they explored, with his cruiser Enterprise leading the charge with the slightly smaller 10 frigates behind him and the six civilian science ships behind them. He smirked as the message 'Open Sesame' and the mass of his ship was sent and the Relay's rings started to grind and revolve around the bright blue Element Zero core.

The motion grew faster and faster until finally a blue lightning bolt lashed out when Verdin's flagship Enterprise entered the 10,000 kilometer perimeter around the ring. The ship shook wildly as the space-time fabric was torn as the ship accelerated and then…nothing. A moment or two passed before the sensors and other important systems slowly reactivated.

"Give me a scan of the space around us and then signal the rest of the flotilla to come through." Verdin ordered.

"Scans complete sir, area's clear as far as we can tell but it'll take a few more moments for the Eezo residue interference to clear up."

Verdin nodded thoughtfully as he debated what to do. He had heard the stories of first contacts gone wrong from those damned Arisen but he has never encountered another alien race. With a flick of his wrist he watched as the rest of his flotilla shot out of the Relay around him, already in position. Suddenly the ship rocked as if something struck it in the side. Then another mini-quake rocked the ship. Monitors started to overload and shot out sparks at the people behind them, burning their faces and in some cases setting their clothes ablaze.

"What the hell was that!" Verdin shouted out.

"Whole group is under attack sir! The Frigates Ray Luis and King George aren't responding while the rest of the Frigates and the civilian ship are reporting damage. The civilian ship Lusitania has reported the less damage and is closest to the Relay sir!" A random subordinate shouted out.

"Send them back through. Tell the rest of the group to form up in defensive formation. We have to cover the Lusitania!" Verdin barked back.

He maintained his cool but on the inside he was sweating. He was guilty of all the unknown deaths in his flotilla was his fault for his call. Verdin grimly watched as his ships formed up into a wall of durasteel and Kinetic Barriers.

"Can we get a read on our attackers?" Verdin asked.

"No sir, the sensors were damaged by the opening shots and we can only get visuals. The VI has traced the origins of the shots though."

Verdin sighed, before replying "Fire at the last known locations of those ships."

Verdin watched as the rest of the flotilla fired their barrage at the enemy. Most of the Mass Accelerator rounds missed the enemy and hit the large gas giant behind them. Some did hit but the blue shimmering around the ships proved they had barriers of some sort. More shots spat out of the unknown ships at them. Verdin grimly tracked them through the small window in the cockpit.

In a blink of and eye three rounds struck the Enterprise right in the cockpit. The resulting rush of air sucked Verdin, bleeding, freezing, and choking, out of the cockpit. His last thoughts were of his sister and him laughing at his 48th birthday party in New Hope only weeks earlier. Then his vision faded to black and everything went numb.

Arisen Space Station Prosperity Orbiting Terra Prime, Sol System

Orion Council Chambers

A Terran comms engineer ran down the hallway. A message for the civilian ship Lusitania was flagged urgent, prompting her to run as fast as possible to the Council Chambers. She burst into the Council Chambers and immediately she had the energy weapons from the Sangheili and Arisen Honor Guard pointed at her. She raised her hands in surrender as one of them came and took the data pad with more force then necessary. She was immediately escorted out as the Honor Guard handed the pad to the True Reclaimer after scanning it for possible explosives or toxins.

"This is most disturbing," His deep voice rumbled as he read the short message, "Exploration Group Alpha was destroyed by an unknown faction, the Lusitania was the only surviving ship."

The Terran ambassador, Udina, shot up "This is an outrage! I demand action! We need the Relay locked down, the civilians evacuated! We need everything!"

The Earth-born ambassador, Paul John, nodded "I agree. We must do something, but maybe not to the extent Udina suggests."

The Sangheili arbiter stood up, eager to fight after the assassination attempts last night "I say we burn them in their homes!"

The True Reclaimer smashed his fist into the table, denting the strong durasteel "We are not savages! I agree that we must do something in retaliation but we can't come off as unreasonable. It is easy to slip into a blood rage if we let our anger drive us, do you all not remember the destruction of the Covenant or the Oppression of Earth Gov? That is what happens when a government fails!"

The table became deathly silent as the True Reclaimer continued a bit calmer "It says there is a habitable planet in the system, they may inhabit it. I say we send an Inquisitor vessel through the Relay to gather information and in this time we gather strength outside the Shanxi-Theta Relay, in three days we strike. We destroy the armed fleet and any military installations in orbit and on the ground. After we've secured the planet we raid archives to create a translation matrix. In the last phase we appear around the location of their government and demand a treaty and reparations. I want zero civilian casualties in this campaign."

The table nodded and put in their vote for the plan, it was unanimous, even if Udina scoffed quietly before voting. Next the Sects put in their support. The Arisen donated the Alpha Attack Fleet and the 9th group SPARTAN II's, the Earth-born the 91st battle fleet, the Sangheili the Grand Fleet of Suburb Penance, the Terran the 81st Armoured Fleet and the 2nd Biotics Group, the Lekgolo the 131st Task Group, the Unggoy 9th Tactical Engineers, and the Kig Yar the 178th fleet and the attachment of the 52nd Sniper Battalion.

Shanxi-Theta Relay, Shanxi-Theta Cluster

Arisen Super Dreadnaught Unyielding Death - Three days later

John awoke in the Captains Room and looked to his side at the empty space beside him. He sat up groaning and looked at the clock, it was 30 minutes before the Relay jump into the unknown. John sighed as the hangover slowly faded away and his senses returned to normal. Normally John didn't drink but somehow after arguing over the finer points of the attack with Udina and the new Arbiter for several hours a bottle of alcohol seemed to be the answer.

John missed Thel'Vadam. He had been a good friend and actually understood the importance of lives after the Great War of Arisen Space. Thel had died on the eve of the cracking of the Sangheili DNA. After that the current Arbiter stepped in and made John's life all that much harder with his rash decisions and romanticized ideas about combat.

John heard the shower running and steam wafting out of the bathroom and he smiled, knowing the only other person that could be in there. He stood up and stretched before walking to the shower. He grabbed a towel off the rack and threw it on the sink before opening the door to the shower.

A waft of heated water vapor hit him as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. John felt slender arms wrap around him and a face nuzzle his neck. John spun in the arms and grabbed the woman by her waist and pulled her closer. The woman giggled a little bit before kissing John on the lips.

"Good morning True Reclaimer," She said while she backed up out of John's arms and switched the water to include soap, a grin on her face the entire time.

John groaned "You know I hate it when you call me that Kelly."

Kelly just smiled even wider, enjoying his discomfort at the subject. She thought about their barrage as she went back to wash her hair. It had started long ago under Chief Mendez's grueling regiment to turn the kids into SPARTANS. She had noticed her affection for him when they sat under the stars and wondered aloud if there was alien life, long before the Covenant invasion. It took John longer, it wasn't until Cortana died and he fell into a deep depression that he finally began to realize what Kelly meant to him. John and Kelly have been married for almost 1000 years due to the improvements in nanotechnology and still had the same childlike love for each other. John stepped into the stream and washed himself as well, his thoughts are on the upcoming fight. John felt another pair of hands wash his much more private areas.

"Kelly I have to be on the bridge in 30," John said, his voice being a bit huskier then it was before.

"Oh?" She purred in a sultry tone, "Just enough time for a quickie."

Damn her was John's last thought as Kelly bowled him over.

Bridge of Arisen Super Dreadnaught Unyielding Death

"Status report!" The True Reclaimer shouted out as he entered the bridge. He was a bit fatigued after his time with Kelly and the short sprint to the bridge in his armour.

"Just in time sir, we are entering the Relay in five, four, three, two, one, and launch."

The ship barely shook as it was transported through the Relay channel. Suddenly the screens cleared as they exited the relay and reverted back to normal space. The True Reclaimer watched the main holoscreen as more of the fleets appeared out of the Relay.

"Everything ready?" the True Reclaimer asked.

"Yes sir!" the weapons lieutenant shouted out, "Spooled up the Onager Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, heated up the Daedalus particle dilator, armed the Slipspace torpedo pods 1-50, activated the point defense system, engaged Hard Light protection lattice, ionized the hull, and prepared the HEV's along sections 90-130."

The True Reclaimer nodded in faith of his crew, they were the best in the fleet and John picked them for that reason. Even in the millennia of peace they were the sharpest minds available in the Arisen Navy. They were loyal and trusting and would fight to the bloody end for him.

"Targeting solutions and enemy profiles acquired from the Inquisitor sir. We out mass them 1000 to 1. We have this fight in the bag sir."

The Inquisitor vessel was a recon vessel based on the old Prowler, using stealth to take in depth scans and planting the occasional photon bomb or two. The True Reclaimer thumbed the comms to FLEETCOMM, "Acquire your targets and fire at will, remember to not break formation until all opposition is destroyed. Don't get cocky and we'll all go home in one piece."

At this moment the photon bombs that were planted in the midst of the enemy fleet ignited, boiling the hulls and flash frying the crews, leaving nothing but dust floating where the ship's used to be. The True Reclaimer watched as the fleet moved like a pack of wolves with the nimbler, faster Terran ships weaving around the slow Arisen and Earth-born ships to get into flanking positions.

Reading the IFF tags on the holoscreen the True Reclaimer watched as the Arisen and Earth-born lined up in a fashion that was practiced since their inclusion into the Council. The massive flagship Unyielding Death took point as the Super Carriers and Carriers lined up behind it. The smaller ships would peak over the top and take shots or the Destroyers would charge ahead at the unready fleet and dump superheated plasma streams and mini nuclear missiles. This happened for the first wave of the attack as the 20 Arisen Destroyers of the Alpha Attack Fleet fleet rushed ahead at breakneck speeds.

John watched from his gilded throne on Unyielding Death as the beautiful aqua marine and many mini black dashes sprayed over the top of the enemy fleet and molten durasteel shot off to cool in space. The enemy fleet was reduced once again by blinding white lights. Looking out the view windows he watched as the enemy fleet seemed to understand what was happening and turned on a dime at them, launching hypervelocity slugs at the Destroyers. Blood red Hard Light shields popped into place at the last second and the rounds pinged off like paperclips being flicked at a tank.

This told John that they must have strong electromagnetic pulse shielding to hold up against the EMP wave after the nukes detonate. John rubbed his chin in thought for a moment before snapping out of it. In battle extra thinking of matters offhand will kill you or others, not to mention the fleet was currently following his orders.

At this time most of the enemy fleet had their heads out of their collective asses and launched hundreds of rounds at the Super Dreadnaught and the Super Carriers. At this time it became easier to see the enemy ships. They were all dagger like and angular but also seemed slightly flamboyant with flaunting its thrusters on wings off to the side.

John thumbed on FLEETCOMM again "All ships fire!"

A conglomerate of thousands of lights sprang out of the massive wall of Forerunner and Titanium alloy. There was the deep purple of plasma bolts, the slivers of silver that was Earth-born Heavy Mechanized Cannons launching heated metal shards at speeds close to the speed of light, the yellow, gold lines of particle dilators, the orange streaks of Onager MAC's, and the pink of capital-class Needlers. For a second the space around the inhabited planet became a rainbow, and the next it was death in the cold, hard vacuum for the enemy.

The enemy front lines buckled and fractured as the first line of plasma bolts, HMC rounds and agitated particles melted through ships, either completely vaporizing them or setting the reactors into meltdown before detonating into a warm glow of orange and blue, a tell tail sign of Element Zero reactors.

The next line of fire crashed into the enemy fleet in the form of MAC rounds and capitol grade needles. The ships with needles in them struggled with the sudden extra weight before the crystals glowed a brighter pink and detonated, tearing the ships apart with the explosive force of the blast. The kinetic energy from the Onagers drilled through the weak barriers on the ships before colliding with the superstructure on the ships and ripping through them. Once again reactors melted down and detonated.

A third wave hit, not the enemy but the Earth-born/Arisen line. The Arisen ships shrugged off the heavy slugs with the Hard Light lattice that covered every inch of the ships. The Earth-born ships faired a little worse as they shook slightly from the impacts but held no noticeable damage.

"Shields?" John asked. The Unyielding Death had taken most of the shots, being in the front of the fleet and the biggest ship.

"Holding sir, 45%" Said the weapons lieutenant.

The True Reclaimer noticed the two largest ships from the beginning of the fight still intact. At 2.5 kilometers it had to be the pride of their fleet. John let out a small predatory smile when he saw the Daedalus was still fully charged.

"Weapons, hit those ships with Daedalus," John commanded.

John could almost hear the smile in the man's voice "Yes sir."

The Daedalus shook the entire Super Dreadnought as the massive particle dilator fired. The thick band of silvery gold smashed into the first 2.5 km ship. The ship itself was vaporized and the residual heat was hot enough to melt any near by ships. The beam disappeared moments later before reengaging at a different angle, spearing the other ship with a beam that once again vaporized the ship and the crew, not even dust was left.

Of course after most of the damage was done the Terran Armoured Fleet swopped over head and rained down Mass Accelerator rounds on the wrecked fleet like an old fashioned fighter/bombers strafing a ship at sea. In the end there was one personnel casualty for the Orion Council joint fleet and the enemy laid in ruins, but that was the easy part.

"Bring us in over the planet and launch HEV sections 90 through 130 over the mega cities and set the Onagers to target the military installations and gunships. After three minutes bring us up to help with clean up, we don't need fragments crashing into the planet and killing our troops or the civilians." The True Reclaimer said.

Nos Alen, Eden Prime

Lar'Raanis nar Adori wiped her gloved hands on her matte black enviro-suit as she crawled out from under the cab. She then walked to the back of the Mass Effect engine before pulling out the intake converters from the back.

Lar'Raanis only slightly regretted choosing Eden Prime as her pilgrimage spot. Sure it was safe and quiet and most of the Turians weren't xenophobic. She was also lucky she got a decent job in Drok's repair shop with good hours and pay. She also discovered her like for the same gender on Eden Prime with her first 'encounter' with a Turian female. Lar sighed nostalgically at the memory. She had been drunk at a bar in downtown Nos Alen and the nice Turian had offered to give her a ride home. On the way home Lar had started asking more and more intimate questions. At first the girl had been taken back but after a while they started to hit it off.

It came to the point where Lar and Grari Sartrin, the Turian female, where seeing each other almost everyday. After about a month of close contact and gaining a close friendship Grari dropped a bomb on her after flying out to the middle of a field. She remembers it like it was yesterday.

The sun is setting over the beautiful skyline of Nos Alen. Lar's breath still hitched at the sight of it. The tall buildings tuned black with small neon lights shining around it. Behind it the sky was multicolored with hues of orange, purple, dark blue and black. Lar framed it with her three fingered hands like in was a holostill.

Lar scooted over when Grari exited the air car, making room for her on the hood of it. Grari sat heavily on the hood, digging it deeper into the lose ground. Grari sighed as she sat while pulling a long, slender bottle out of her jacket. Turian Brandy, and expensive looking too.

"Want a drink Lar? It's been a long day for me," She asked, pulling out a glass and a bottle anyway.

Lar chuckled warmly that Grari already knew the answer. She accepted the sealed bottle with a straw in it gratefully. Lar put the straw up to the "emergency induction port", as she jokingly called it, and took a sip while looking out into the sunset. Lar looked over to see Grari finish draining a glass already and pouring a new one for herself.

"Sstarting the night out heavy?" Lar asked, slightly slurring her words and already smiling. No matter how much experience she was drinking she was always a lightweight, mostly due to her small size.

Grari laughed though it sounded…empty almost to Lar. Grari muttered something to herself low enough that the translator didn't pick it up. Lar didn't like this, Grari was usually happy and outgoing and willing to help complete strangers. But Grari was never down trodden for long and never looked. . . nervous.

"Is everything alright?" Lar asked, now concerned for her friends wellbeing.

"Yeah it's just... I got a lot on my mind," Grari answered slowly.

Lar reached out and grabbed her friend's shoulder "Tell me, Grari, what's wrong?" Lar was almost surprised at her tone, the worry was palpable and the drunkenness disappeared.

"It's... It's just I'm being drawn back into my garrison soon and there is this one person I been looking at for a couple of months and I think I like them," Grari said this a if the answer was tortured out of her.

"Why don't you tell them? Ssssurely they can turn you down. You are sssuch a wonderful person and you are always ssssoooo nice and happy," Lar told her friend, slurring her words again after the worry wasted away.

Grari got a mischievous glint in her eyes for a moment before answering "The problem with that, Lar'Raanis, is that I already did." Lar felt her chest get tighter and eyes widen at the revelation.

"I love you Lar'Raanis nar Adori." With that said Grari wrapped her arms around Lar and pulled her closer. In her suddenly sober state she only reveled in the warmth coming off of Grari, heating her through her insulated eco-suit.

Grari pulled out two small vials from her jacket. "Immune boosters, of you want them."

Lar took them into her hands. The vials held a greenish, viscous liquid that didn't look at all appetizing. Lar looked Grari, then to her hands, and felt the tightness in her chest. With the sudden steel that came from her feeling she reached to her mask's release latches and pressed them in.

The next thing Lar remembered was waking up with a nasty headache and cough and a wonderful ache in her private areas. Lar looked over and saw Grari sleeping more peacefully then she had ever seen. Lar assembled her eco-suit and waited for Grari to wake up to drive her home.

Snapping out of her stupor Lar remembered what she hated the most about Eden Prime. Eden Prime was dull and Lar liked to adventure, but it could always be worse and so everything was alright. She shuddered at the thought of worse, Omega. Those that went almost never came back.

Lar'Raanis nar Adori hummed to herself as she set the heavy thing on a cart and pulled out a new one from one of the shelves off to the side. She walked back over when her boss Drok Morick came out from the front of the shop stretching. He was the standard height for a Turian and had more muscles then most behind his yellow painted brown plates. Some of the fringes in the back of his head were damaged from what he said was a 'stupid accident'.

"Hey Drok, hows the shop?" Lar asked the Turian.

"It's fine, a bit slow though. Nobody's breaking anything anymore. I say it's your fault, fixing everything the right way."

Lar might have taken that as a threat if it wasn't for Drok's playful tone and shit eating grin. Lar was distracted by the lights flickering and the sudden darkness when the bulbs gave out, leaving only the few window for lighting. Lar and Drok looked at each other in concern, they had both heard about the Relay incident but thought nothing of it. After all who would, the Turian military was the strongest in the galaxy. They were, weren't they?

"What do you think that was Lar?" Drok asked, his words are ignored because one of the biggest flashes of light Lar had ever seen blasted into the room from the windows, however there was no sound to accompany such a bright flash.

"Tell me if I'm wrong Drok but don't nuclear weapons cause EMP's and bright flashes that can be seen from the ground and not be heard?"

Drok shook his head violently, not wanting to accept that. Nuclear weapons were banned by the Council for being too dangerous. The blasts could kill hundreds of thousands while the fallout could kill millions more and leave the surface uninhabitable for the next several generations.

"Drok, remember the news? The encounter from the dormant Relay? What if they have come to avenge the ships lost? Nuclear weapons are banned so it can be from any of the other races."

"Don't be silly Lar lets head outside. Maybe the power grid just failed, we'll see what the block looks like."

Lar just nodded dumbly and walked out and sure enough the block was out of power, as was the rest of the city. However the next sight Lar saw she would never forget, it was easily the most terrifying thing she had ever seen.

The heavens parted and from the space came a large metal plate. The plate was large enough to block out the sun from the horizon. The sight paralyzed Lar to the spot. The only thing she could do was stand there and watch as Drok cursed the spirits of Nos Alen.

Lar watched as thousands of little dots dropped from the darkened horizon and hurdled towards the ground. Lar watched as a gunship flew under the metallic beast only to be shot down by one of the turrets on the side with only one shot. She could only stand there and stare at the little dots and microshards of durasteel as they grew bigger in her vision, horrified that the end of her was something that her race was never involved in, horrified that the strongest military power was hopeless against this new race, and most of all sad that she might never see Grari again.

Lar just waited for the heat that would come and take her life, killed on her pilgrimage to a new world. Lar only regret was that she couldn't tell Grari that she loved her back because she never had the guts. One of the growing dots landed close by, only a couple yards away. The immense heat of the impact rolled over her while shockwave blasted her off her feet, causing her to fly back a foot and crack her head on the hard, unforgiving ground.

Groaning she slowly opened her eyes and stood up at the thing in front of her. It looked like a one person escape pod scorched black and had a tinted window on it. Steam rolled off of it, coating the ground in an eerie fog that quickly dissipated under the warm sun. Suddenly the front plate explosively separated from the pod's body. Lar stood there, paralyzed at the sight as the door flew off and landed, skidding to a halt right in front of her feet, smoking and slightly twisted from the heat of reentry and the explosive ejection.

Lar looked up and saw an armoured giant half fell half leaped out of the pod, landing on the ground on it's knees with a dull thud. It immediately reminded her of a cross breed of her own species males, a krogan battle master, and heavy mech. The giant shook it's helmeted head as if to clear it, an action too organic for Lar to believe that it was a mech. Lar wanted to run but couldn't, every instinct and scrap of survival training fled from her as she dumbly stood before the creature. The giant looked right at her and raised what had to be a weapon at her. It was long, angular and looked to be designed for fear factor and functionality. Lar was startled back into reality when Drok stood in front of her and lightly pushed her behind him.

Drok snarled slightly as the giant pressed a button on its wrist and a thin red light reached out and crossed over them. The giant relaxed it's stance when the light retracted and stood up to what had to be seven and a half feet tall. The giant walked past them, not sparing the two another glance.

"What. . . what was that?" Lar finally managed to squeak out.

"I don't know," Drok said, "But lets get to my place, it has to be safer then standing in the streets."

Lar'Raanis just nodded dumbly, still terrified of the giant even after its disappearance. She had found the remedy to make Eden Prime less boring, and she didn't like it at all. And worse Grari had been recalled back to her military base earlier that day. Lar's heart wrenched in her chest.

Codex

Arisen Destroyers

The Destroyers are 2.5 kilometers long, the same as an Arisen Frigate. The Destroyers have the same mass as the Frigates despite having only a meter of armour, with slightly more around the Engineering sections. All the extra mass comes from the extra reactors that power the ships to be faster then any other Arisen ship.

A Destroyers role in the Arisen Navy is the same as bombers in atmosphere. They swoop on and drop the payload of superheated plasma and mini nuclear missiles. The missiles are set to detonate after the plasma either breaks the shields from extreme heat or melt through the thick hulls of most other Arisen ships. This ensures maximum damage and next to zero survivability.

Terran Armoured Fleets

Terran Armoured Fleets are similar to regular fleets except one thing, deployment and armament. Terran Armoured Fleets are meant to be deployed into heavy fighting and are equipped as such. Carrying twice the amount of Disrupter Torpedos and triple barreled spinal Mass Accelerator Cannons the Armoured Fleets and dish out more damage then regular fleets. In addition to the extra armament Armoured Fleets have Reactive Armour attached to the ships hard points to allow extra damage to be taken by each ship.

Kig Yar Sniper Battalion

Tried and true, the KigYar Sniper Battalions are the toughest and meanest around. With nimble, agile bodies and keen eye sight the Kig Yar are the perfect snipers. Put through one year of harsh training the Sniper Battalions learn to easily hit a flies wings off with on shot at one kilometer. A strong sense of comradeship and respect pull these units together and make them the lethal weapons that they are.

Daedalus Particle Dilator

The Daedalus is massive, standing 40 kilometers long from end to end. All Daedalus' require enormous amounts of energy in order to focus, chamber, and fire the six energy lances. This limits the Daedalus to orbital defense platforms and the recently finished Super Dreadnaught. The Daedalus has enough power to completely vaporize an Arisen Frigate in three shots.

Inquisitor Class Vessels

The Inquisitor vessels are the descendants of old ONI Prowlers. Sitting at 1 kilometer long they are the smallest space exclusive ship made by the Arisen. Utilizing radar refracting composites, advanced heatsinks and active camouflage to stay undetected Prowlers are the greatest stealth ships known to date.

Containing no armaments besides the Photon Bombs Inquisitors need to be stealthy in order to survive. Under an experienced Captain and a powerful AI an Inquisitor and drift into and enemy formation, run deep scans from the advanced sensor package, plot entire engagements and proper lines of fire, and leave without a trace. This make the Inquisitors the deadliest of all the Arisen ships.