A/N: So, I had a very interesting empire in Stellaris, and I wondered how it would fare in Mass Effect's Galaxy with its complicate, geopolitical and social situation. I used some mods too, be aware of that.
Also, this may have an offensive background, and elements too.
Citadel, Council Tower.
Councilor Irissa was enjoying her last dinner in the Citadel for this year, nothing like the last day of work to help alleviate the built up tension throughout the year.
Months surfing between several petitions from client races, Volus Council membership motions, Quarian pleas for repatriation and lifting of sanctions, numerous trade disputes between corporations, micro-states vying for power.
Not to mention the inter-species disputes between the three major powers, and the Batarians, to complete the mess.
She currently sat on her private office, eating her favored Southern Thessian salad along with a fine 40-year wine; the perks of being a member of the Citadel Council, simply enjoying the magnificent view the Citadel, cars flowing to and from up in the air, civilians beginning their night lives.
It was her 49th year as the Asari councilor, her 50th would have a special celebration for the jubilee; however, she knew the next year would be much like the closing one. A boring, tedious, tiring job only the most obstinate of the public servants would endure, all in the name of the Galactic well-being.
An obvious lie; the pay and the prestige made up for all the nuisances, and the day-to-day dealing with her colleagues, who pretended to care about their Council, but in name only stayed there for the advancement of their own species and governments.
All a big play, in a stage illuminated by starlight and the Nebula behind. But today was not a day for statecraft, but rather a moment for relaxing and introspection.
The next three months of well-deserved rest on Thessia would do her good, alleviating the muscle aches from spending her whole work day sited on a chamber. That new elite-only spa she heard about would do wonders.
She remembered when she joined the Legislative Formation Program, wishing to become one of the respectable Asari diplomats she read and saw about in diverse books and movies. Wishing to make a difference in the whole Galactic Community, and not just inside Asari space, as Justicars did.
Those hopes quickly faded away as she saw how fragile, yet all-powerful, the Council was. A triumvirate of the three biggest superpowers in the known space united only because they did not have the means to completely subdue the other two, so they were forced to work together.
But it was temporary, all Asari at one point in their lives saw that, be it two hundred, five hundred or a thousand years from now, that would end. With the powers-that-be and their military/industrial complexes in a constant race forward, it was a simple matter of time until a breakthrough was made, whatever it may be, that upset the balance of power.
And then it would all come crashing down in a glorious display of Eezo explosions and ultra-accelerated slugs.
But wishing for something isn't the same as getting them.
As she finished her dinner, a soft knock on her door brought her out of the intimate conversation she had with her glass of wine. Without even asking permission to enter her personal space, a fellow Asari stepped into her office.
"Councilor, I am Spectre Nyava," she said, showing her badge. "There are important matters pertaining the Republics that need your immediate attention."
"What kind of matters, Spectre?" She asked, annoyed at being interrupted.
"Situations that cannot be discussed without briefing, milady. Your presence on Thessia is urgent." The Spectre answered, implicating that the office was compromised, with the code phrase at the end.
"Very well, my belongings are already packed, lead the way." She answered, all alcohol quickly leaving her system at the choice of words used.
With the order, Nyava guided her to the personal landing pads reserved for the Councilors, an unmarked ship already waiting her there. Upon boarding the ship, the vessel wasted no time on leaving the Citadel immediate airspace towards the void, using the most unconventional routes; avoiding all sorts of traffic and questions.
On the bridge, when they safely exited the Nebula towards an undisclosed location, she begun to ask the real motives of her hasty departure.
"What is the situation at hand?" Irissa demanded. "I want a detailed explanation, else you will be responsible for spurring the safety protocols."
"We have received a positive confirmation of First Contact with another sentient species, it is occurring as we speak." The operative said calmly.
"Where?!" She said with her interest perked, with all the geo-political implications running through her mind.
"Diplomatic Mission 314.'Perfect Illusion' protocol has been activated by the exploration vessel's captain. Our flotilla at the DMZ has a detachment ready to jump."
"By Thessia…" She suddenly wished to have brought her wine on the trip, her recess from Council would definitely not be as she expected, not at all.
Zeta-Omicron system.
On the Zeta-Omicron System, the very fringe of Imperial space, a game of stare was being exercised by two forces.
Immediately next to the relay pair Relay 314, there stood an Asari exploratory vessel, and no more than two thousand kilometers away there was a squadron of military-grade vessels, 21 to be exact.
Facing each other without exchanging any sort of communication signal.
"Captain, we have detected anomalous activities within their vessel, we suspect they are transmitting information." The silence in the bridge of the battlecruiser AES Vindicator was broken by a Lieutenant, as he spoke to the Captain above the crew pits. "High Command says they are evaluating the situation and expect you to act accordingly; what are your orders?"
"Navigation, slow approach on alien vessel; Weapons Room, all platforms continue trained on the intruder. Legion and Madrid intercept the vessel at close quarters, Echelon and Volgograd are to lead all frigates and surround the alien station, splash any vessel that comes through!" Captain Erwin Yardley ordered, being answered by a wave of 'ayes!' from the operators.
Under his lead, the vessels engines came to life amidst the void, silently propelling their ships forward, giving their intense red glare as immense quantities of plasma was propelled backwards.
The leading vessel, AES Vindicator, was a dagger-shaped battlecruiser, painted bright white, customary to capital-class vessels of the Imperial Navy. At 1000m long, and hailing from the 'Saturn' class of ships, it was the formation's longest and most powerful combatant, two tachyon lances denoting its might.
The other ships, four Crusader-class cruisers at about 800m long, were the famous and numerous ships-of-the-line employed by the Imperial Navy. They were not like the pointed capital ships; they sported a more linear figure, and painted in lead and black.
Accompanying them were sixteen 350m long Fencer-class frigates, sporting smaller builds than the more resilient ships, and being armed to the teeth with anti-air weaponry and torpedoes.
The small Asari vessel was slowly enveloped by the human squadron, and back in the relay, the frigates blocked any possibility of escape.
The crew full of 'young' maidens did not even move, afraid that the gigantic ships that now flanked them would open fire again upon their very breathing.
"C-Captain, milady, we're receiving a transmission from the Councilor's shuttle." One of them mustered courage to report.
"Put her through." Said Arisme T'relis as she quickly fixed her uniform of any possible defect, standing up in a firm stance to communicate with her superior, in everything but paper.
As the holographic figure appeared before her, she could notice all the seriousness in the councilor's face as she said: "Captain T'relis, full mission report, immediately."
"Good evening Councilor," the scientist began. "Our covert operation began exactly on 10:45 AM Standard Thessian Time, when we began the remote protocols for the activation of the Relay 314. The patrol crafts around Tuchanka, as previously arranged, were only from the Asari Navy, and they complied in accordance to the plan. Then, we made the jump to Relay 314. We calculate through the position of known stars to be 2 kiloparsecs spinward from the Krogan DMZ proper."
She wasted no time in continuing her report. "As soon as we appeared on this side, we detected cosmic background radiation. As we could make a preliminary optical scan of the area, no apparent habitable bodies orbiting the star."
"Around 200,000 kilometers away from the relay, we detected an unidentified constellation, which we later could classify as a small dreadnought, four cruisers, and sixteen frigates. Immediately, we changed our trajectory to return to the relay, but the dreadnought fired what we too assumed to be a warning shot and we stopped dead on…"
"What kind of slug, did you get any composition reading on the projectile? How far away from your vessel?" Interrupted the Councilor.
"It was not a projectile, milady, but a particle lance…" She saw in the eyes of the councilor the same surprise she felt when facing the weapon. "…faster than our very sensors could register it appeared about 350m away from our vessel; we could not identify the particle used. It emitted green light and stayed for exactly 2 seconds before disappearing; it would have easily annihilated our vessel if they were aiming for the kill."
Irissa pressed on for more information. "Was any sort of verbal or visual communication attempted?"
"Besides the display of firepower, no." Arisme answered. "We have yet to send any sort of data towards them. Currently their frigates are blockading the relay and the heavier vessels surround us."
"Then do immediately!" Irissa ordered. "Lest they decide to decimate you. I'll stay in constant communication with you. Follow the protocol at all costs."
Erwin evaluated the contents of the messages playing at his screen, both the agglomerate of information he trusted to be a First Contact package by these 'Asari', the orders from Naval Command to cease all sorts of possible hostility, the incessant requests by his fellow Captains for an attack order on both the station and the alien vessel…
The package was nothing special, were it not the complete silliness of it, compared to the Elysian first contact.
Diverse images and videos of hairless humanoids doing day-to-day activities and their general biology, judging by the structures displayed, said aliens which had an absurd level of similarity to both Man and Elysians, despite leaning completely to the feminine side. A language apparently way too complicated for its own good came together with the package.
Captain Yardley, we're receiving encrypted orders from headquarters. We received a special package with Imperial Standard, we are to send to them and see if they can translate it to their language. Command says we are to, heh, 'escort' the vessel towards Sigma-Tau Centauri and then engage in diplomatic relations there, an ambassador will be there together with an Elysian representative to conduct the exchange."
"Send the content to them, fucking aliens ruining my goddamn week…"
"Right away, sir." Answered the officer as he directed the considerable amount of data towards the aliens.
Minutes passed and passed before the same officer returned to speak "Sir, they're sending a transmission, the format is sort of weird, but we managed to make some compatibility with our own systems, shall I broadcast it on the main viewport?"
"Yes, do it. And by the Immortal Gods, if a single damn shot is fired, before my order, I'll personally airlock the responsible out of the ship." After typing a bit more on his console, the frontal transparisteel panel on the bridge lit with the image of the aforementioned blue beings; meeting them with a stone cold face and glaring yellow eyes was the standing human Captain, in his ribbon decorated, and meticulously adjusted, grey uniform.
"Greetings!" The alien began. "I am Dr. Arisme T'relis, commanding officer of the Star Crescent, I hail you in the name of the Asari Republics, and we look forward to establishing a healthy relationship with your government. We are delighted to meet a new species on the cosmos."
"I am Captain Erwin Yardley, you have trespassed restricted military space belonging to the Interstellar Aryan Empire, and we have orders to escort your vessel towards one of our systems." The human replied. "Direct your ship to one of our hangars and we'll transport you, once there, a delegation will engage in diplomatic talks. You have 3 minutes before we open fire."
To say she was dumbstruck was an understatement.
"Strikingly alike to us in physical form, only with more rugged features, a funny skin color and fur on their heads; definitely mammalian." Arisme reported. "Close, but much better, to the infamous extranet representations of what the several species fancy a 'male Asari' would look like. Councilor, have you seen it?"
"Yes, I did," The superior Asari replied. "Obey them, and learn about them as much as you possibly can. And Captain, I read your file, you have specializations in both Exobiology and Diplomacy; use them."
"Any diplomatic incident whichever it may be will not be tolerated, vie for a meeting between one of their higher leaders and me. And good luck." She finished as her holographic image disappeared.
"I guess we have no choice." Arisme commented to herself, before ordering the awaiting ensigns. "Begin an approach on their hangar."
With that, the sleek, chrome painted, vessel ventured inside the portside hangar bay on the Vindicator; the hangar being evacuated of all personnel and shuttles before their arrival.
As their ship touched down inside the warship, trespassing the electromagnetic shield, large blast doors closed the space between them and the void; the deep blue shield quickly disappeared, not being needed anymore.
Outside, the fleet turned their bows to a certain constellation of stars, with their Rip Drives initiating and stabilizing powerful singularities that enveloped their ships in blinding light.
Soon, they were light years away.
Within the Vindicator, the crew silently awaited for further orders while enjoying the show that were the currents of plasma flowing past their ship. Heads up like children, eyes fixed on the yellow-orange expanse before them.
"Andrews, did you send the video to HQ before we begun to sail?" Erwin asked softly, not taking his eyes off the alternate dimension.
The Lieutenant turned back to his screen before answering. "Yes sir, Admiral's response was, heh, 'This is bullshit.' On his very words."
Erwin cracked a smile at the brutal honesty. "Send a quick message to the Asari ship, they are not to leave their vessel. What's our ETA, by the way?"
"Around 8 hours from now sir; STC isn't that far away, about 500 parsecs. The Admiral ordered us to escort them back once the initial talks are finished, or destroy any evidence of their presence should they go sour." Finished the Lieutenant.
"Out-fucking-standing, my ship is now an oversized taxi, remind me when we get back to the shipyard to paint it yellow with black stripes." He said as he left the bridge, the door closing with an audible swoosh to the humorous smiles of his crew.
As he strode through the corridors and elevators towards the officer's dining room, several other crewmen saluted along the way and made the way itself to the dead serious commander.
The ship interiors weren't decorated or handcrafted, like a yacht or an interstellar line cruiser that families spent their vacancies on, cruising from planet to planet, but they would not drive a man mad during duty.
Occasionally during the walks, one would eventually meet the painting of a generic landscape, historical figure, important planet, or a landmark of the Empire; his preferred however were the ones showing the Imperial Palace and the Mars shipyards.
The Palace was one the epitomes of architecture to be found on Terra, built all those centuries ago, it was a mix of neo-classical and renaissance styles with touches of 21st Century futurism on it, with marble and other expensive rocks he did not know the name glorying it's construction.
Coupled with the huge Swiss Alps on the background, together with the kilometer tall buildings of Imperial Center, and the magnificent Royal Gardens on the front, it was an astonishing sight.
But the Mars shipyards, while not beautiful in an aesthetical way, were wondrous if one was particularly patriotic and keen on engineering.
They were a single superstructure; four space elevators distributed around the equator, all connecting to a giant Niven Ring not built for habitation but for the construction and maintenance of massive amounts of spaceships, including the industries related to star faring.
The First Fleet, pride of the Navy, was included on ships station there, being assigned to the peacetime defense of both the Sol and Elánir systems, as the Elysians call their star. From space, the shipyard, looked like a giant grey-white line ran across the planet, a stark contrast with the blue oceans and green continents below.
As he reached the officer's cantina, he tapped the comm on the table and said. "Chef, would you prepare a big hamburger and a sizeable portion of French-fries for me…huh…an XL Coke too?"
Smiling at the commander's antics, the man answered through the line. "Right away, Captain."
Massaging his temples while sulking on his chair, Erwin murmured. "Lord Almighty, I should have shot on sight…"
Sigma-Tau Centauri III.
Sigma-Tau Centauri III was newly-settled territory, a fringe colony beginning to take shape of the very edge of the Empire. A proper name still had to be selected by the settlers.
It was on the first steps of its proper colonization, several geographical obstacles were being removed, and first hypermatter reactors recently installed, settlements and farms being built, among other basic infrastructure.
It housed around than 5 million new couples, shipped from across the Empire through the colonization encouragement programs; many young couples saw this as chances at opening their own business, to make a legacy for their family names, or raising their children in a small community.
Or either to simply start anew; with a new household and a new job perhaps, either in the mineral extraction, farming, civil construction or even security, but more importantly, a new lot in life.
Above them, a double-engine 45m long luxury yacht was in orbit around the planet, its sharp yet elegant lines complemented the scarlet paintjob.
Inside, sipping champagne by the bar, there was a woman in a designer dress with strands of pure silver along some lines, slightly accentuating all the right places while still leaving to imagination; she wore an emerald collar and her chestnut hair in a complicate hairdo, together with a single 24k gold ornament outlining her pointed left ear.
Her red irises stared at the man across the room.
Sitting by the couch staring back at her, a simple man in a tailored suit, with an M25 Beretta hidden inside his jacket and a Rolex on his wrist.
"If you don't mind me asking, was it the Commonwealth or the Senate who paid for your clothes?" The man asked as he lit a cigarette and poured some scotch in his glass on the table in front of him.
Smirking with lipstick tinted lips, she answered. "The Senate of course, do you think my paycheck can afford all this? Or even better, that the sharks at the Commonwealth would pay for it? If you're curious, the whole outfit, plus the bag, cost twenty thousand Imperial Credits."
"…Why?" The man asked, with indignation clear on his face.
"Well, for starters. We're meeting an alien race, an alien race of female beings, be aware." She began, annoyed at the notion.
"Second, I must look my prime to compliment your own image, I'm sure you can understand that; and third, we're allowed to keep the clothes for ourselves after assignments." She finished, sipping more of her drink, then slowly moving and sitting across the unsatisfied man in the leather couch.
Minutes passed. "Are you armed?" She asked, switching between the TV channels.
"Of course," he replied, showing the gun holstered inside his jacket. "You?"
She extended to him her long polished nails, at distance he could not notice, but leaning closer he saw it: the small blades on their tips.
"Venom. Potent to kill three of you." She said, while he puffed a small cloud of smoke, shaking his head with an amused smirk.
"Fitting," He commented, before asking. "So…what do you think of them?"
"That will depend on how they truly are." She mused, twirling her glass in her fingers.
"Or how much money they have in their pockets…" The man interjected.
"They're some sort of female-looking mono-gendered species, I think," she continued. "Their home planet is quite a distance away, and they use that weird element as power source. She mentioned 'Asari Republics' in the video, so one can assume they're a capitalist democracy, I hope. One superpower made of protectionist morons is enough."
He scoffed at the jab. "But that state is awfully useful when you want free healthcare, universal income, or a fiscal bailout, no? I tell you, you women abuse the citizenship you have…"
"That's beside the point." She ignored his argument, choosing to continue her assessment. "With that in mind, I have no doubt that if certain conditions are met we can make incredible amounts of revenue from commercial relationships with them. Even your own human companies, I'm sure. I could not get much sociological inputs from the few minutes we had of data, but they seem to partake in the same vices as most sentient beings are capable of."
"'All is one, and one is all' was the belief they espoused, no?" She smirked. "I'm eager to see how your own monotheistic/syncretistic faith will clash with their pantheistic one. Or when they find out that there's an ultra-nationalistic, bigoted, borderline xenophobic, authoritarian autocracy, with republican tones just for fun, superpower sitting right next to their space." She finished sarcastically.
"You're eager? Hell, I wonder what will be their reaction when they find out you're a bunch of corrupted, spoiled, materialistic, atheist, lying and manipulative, capitalist predators." The man shot back, bristling. "Ruled by their corporations and banks, masters and slaves to a system of cyclic oppression, in worship to the oh-so-almighty, false, god that is your vicious economy."
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees while joining his hands together. "And I won't even comment on the extremely shallow understanding and arrogant dismissal of our historical philosophy."
Laughing at his response, she poured more champagne in her glass and raised it, saying "To the Empire: the strong arm that did not let us come to harm, and the gentle hand that wiped our tears when all over."
He answered, raising his own glass with the amber liquid on it. "To your race: the only real thing we will ever possess in this cold void between the stars, even after nearly causing our complete ruin."
"To us, for we still breathe." They finished, as their crystal cups met.
A/N: Didn't think this would actually work.
Also, polished and beta-read by Xabiar as of December, 2017.