A/N: Hiya everyone! Old computer crashed, so I caught a break (no more pesky web blocker!) Anyways, I have good news and bad news. Good news is, I now have access to FFN again! YAY! Bad news is, my thumbdrive, and half a month of work with it, crashed... That means I have to re-write Timeline V, Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 all over again. That, folks, is also why I am posting this chapter now, instead of last week.

Also, why am I posting this in a new story, and why is Alpha and Omega renamed? Because I felt that the saga would be more organised better this way. That's why.

Prologue: Beginning of the End

UNSC Valiant-class Light Dreadnought Everest
Relay 147, Epsilon Indi Joint Colonisation System, Human-Yautja Space
2245, July 27, 2593 SET (Standard Earth Time)

The aging Polemarch gazed out of the bridge's viewport, marvelling at the construct of a race long gone. A few million kilometres away, the most efficient form of interstellar transit lay dormant in front of him—a Mass Relay.

How it remained hidden for so long in one of the most contested systems in the war was currently the hottest topic in the FIL media. Some speculated that it was because of a security oversight by the UNSC or Yautja, others that the Relay was involved in some sort of military conspiracy.

Like most, however, Fleet Admiral Preston Jeremiah Cole believed that the Great War was the main reason behind its lack of discovery. The UNSC was simply too busy defending and attacking to look for Relays half a light-year from their star. Another reason was that this was a Prime Relay, not a Secondary one and comparatively rare, as they only linked to one other Prime Relay. Hell, this was the first Prime Relay found after the one connecting Twi'lek territory to Jiralhanae space was discovered and activated by the Federation 34 years ago.

Shaking the stray thoughts from his mind, Cole focused himself on the task at hand: activating the Epsilon Indi Prime Relay and securing the connecting system. Since Sector Five of UNSC space so happened to border unmapped, unexplored space, HIGHCOM had entrusted him with two of the feared Olympus-class battlegroups, as well as an additional 2 Frigate Flotillas and 100 Mako-class corvettes.

The Yautja had spared no expense either, sending in a Kryann-class dreadnought along with her customary cruiser, destroyer and frigate escorts.

"Incoming transmission from Adjudicator Harkh-Va," the Comms officer announced.

Cole sighed—it was time, "Put him onscreen."

The central display blurred and warped into the image of the 5th most powerful person in the Council of Ancients.

"Polemarch Cole," Adjudicator Harkh-Va, Sharp-Blade in the Yautja tongue, dipped his head in a show of respect, "It is good to see you alive and well after your 112th year. Most humans your age would have retired."

"I serve the UNSC, just as you serve the Council," Cole replied, "How was your son's first Hive Cleansing?"

The Adjudicator chuckled, "Very well. He's now an Elite Predator. If the nest had contained 73 more of the Xenomorphs, I would have abdicated control of the clan to him! Either ways, our fleets are ready. The time to activate the Relay has come. We await your orders."

Cole nodded in acknowledgement before terminating the signal, "Comms, send the activation code. Now, once it warms up, send a Clarion spy drone through. I want to see what's on the other side before sending any of my men through."

A chorus of "Aye sir's" were uttered by the occupants of the bridge as they set about their tasks.

"Bring everyone up to Combat Alert Charlie. Prime the Firestorm missiles and make sure our dual MACs are ready to fire. Prepare the 63rd Recon Flotilla to go through as soon as the probe reads all-clear."

Another round of "Aye sir's" was followed by a storm of activity as the heavily modified Valiant-class lived up to its design as a fleet coordinator.

"Relay is warmed up, sir. Sending the drone through now!" an Ensign shouted.

Everyone watched in anticipation as the drone disappeared in a flash of blue. Little did anyone know that their act of exploration would shake the galaxy to its very core.

HSV Byrken-class Dreadnought Might of Khar'shan
Orbit over Torfan
Vaksir System, Outer Batarian Space

Admiral Aizha Mikla'al sat in the command chair of his dreadnought, bored as a slaver in between jobs. Absentmindedly, he wondered what he had done to be assigned to the dead-end job of guarding the Vaksir system.

There were no slavers to worry about since it was the Hegemony that did the slaving, and the Batarians had already secured alliances with the two major merc groups of the Terminus. In other words, he was just there to warm the chair.

All of a sudden, the sensor officer reported energy readings from the dormant Mass Relay in the system. Admiral Mikla'al frowned—that Relay was a Prime Relay, and no one activated Prime Relays as it was against Council law.

Council law required that the offender be heavily punished and its government pay heavy fines. However, there were no ships present near the Relay, designated 147, which meant that someone else was opening it on the other side. Someone else who did not know about the Citadel Council.

"Sir, I'm detecting a spike in energy reading from the Relay! It just shot something into the system, some type of probe, I think," a bridge officer cried, "Sir, it just self-destructed!"

Mikla'al's mouth stretched into a predatory grin. In all likelihood this was merely a young race, new to the stars and only just starting to explore the wider galaxy. If he attacked the upstart race now and enslaved them, not only would the Batarians have access to a large population of slaves and eliminate the need for costly slave raids into Citadel space, his place in upper echelons of the Hegemony would be secured for the foreseeable future! The name of Admiral Aizha Mikla'al would be known for generations!

"Warm up our systems. Comms, get me a fleet-wide comm-link," stated the Admiral, the glee in his voice barely concealed.

"Sir, you're on in five!" the officer in charge of communications shouted.

Mikla'al smiled, "All hands to battle stations!" he cried, "For today, we shall show the galaxy why we are the apex race! Everyone here in this fleet shall be known as the first Batarians to completely enslave a new race, and our reliance on the pathetic Citadel Council will be over! For the Hegemony!"

He heard the enthusiastic roars of his soldiers before terminating the connection. As his fleet rumbled towards Relay 147, Mikla'al leaned back into his chair. Today was going to be a good day…

A/N: Yes, I know. It's short. But then, I wanted to post something to show that I'm still alive, and what better way than to upload a new story? Also, this is an apology for disappearing for so damned long. Sorry for the wait, and hope this 2-chapter pack kinda makes up for it. If only my thumbdrive hadn't crashed...

Anyways, enough of that. Now that I've started on the main trilogy, there won't be any more universe adding. Ya hear that? No more requests! Anyways, welcome to the TheMantleverse!

Updates will be quite regular, but not very fast. I got into the Charon Continuum project, so I'll have to multitask between that and FFN. If you want to check it out, you can go to charoncontinuum wordpress com. Just substitute the spaces with full-stops. By the way, any questions regarding The Mantle can and should be sent to my askfm (found on my profiile). I'll also use it like an FAQ page, so do check every now and then.

Now, on to the next chapter...