So I decided to do something a little different. First, a little back story: I was reading some Mass Effect crossover fanfics and found myself bored. The stories were good, hell, they were often great! But I realised something; no matter the different types of humanity, they were just that, humanity. So I had the glorious thought, "What if the Turians found something worse?". Before I wrote this, I found another fanfic that inspired me to write what this (I mentioned it in my other story, The Great Event), and here we are. Fair warning: This chapter is both short and heavily alternate universe. Let's dive in shall we?

(E.S.T.- Earth Standard Time)

Serpent Nebula 2157 C.E., 300 hrs. E.S.T.

General Desolas Arterius of the Turian Hierarchy did not know what he was looking at.

It began as a fairly simple patrol: fly over here, destroy a lone pirate frigate there, maybe have to deal with a Quarian ship or two.

But that all changed when they arrived at Relay 314 to find the strangest thing: it was activated.

An off-limited Relay was activated.

After running every possible scanner known to Turians, which concluded that yes it was indeed activated. But not by simple pirates, oh no no no.

This Relay had opened from the other end.

After suppressing the near panic that threatened to overtake him, Desolas sent a message to the Hierarchy on what he should do next. In his opinion, whatever race had opened the relay should be punished as per Council Law, and be subjugated to the Turians as a client race.

The thrill of learning that the Hierarchy agreed with him in their reply threatening to overcome him until he read the last sentence.

:...absolute concealment is necessary. We shall refrain from alerting the Council until further notice in order to prevent a widespread panic.

May the Spirits guide you.:

Now that set off alarms in his mind, but there was not much he could do about it. He was dutiful soldier ever since he was enrolled within the Turian military, and questioning orders were a strong sign possible mutiny.

And Desolas was no mutineer.

God forgive him, he was a soldier following orders.

So when he jumped through the Relay with his three Dreadnoughts, 10 cruisers and dozens of fighters he expected a lot of things. Maybe a scout ship, an invasion fleet, or even the slim chance of just a pirate band. What he did not expect was nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Desolas, never one to take things at face value, ordered his techs to scan for any habitable planets or moons. And wouldn't you know it, there just happened to be one only a few light-years away and if the scans that came back were correct, it was full of artificial constructs and life signs. Though the incredibly high amount of life signs gave him some pause, he none-the-less pushed the feeling aside and ordered them to make the jumps to the planet for the take over.

That's when he came upon his third surprise of the day.

The General honestly didn't know what to expect when his ships made the jump to the planet, but with the spirits as his witness, he did not expect a big ball of darkness.

The planet was absolutely surrounded by it, so much in fact, that Desolas thought that were it not for the empty pockets where the dark...thing was avoiding, he would never had known there was a planet at all and would just assume to be looking at space itself.

"By the Spirits, what's wrong with it?!"

Desolas turned to the sound of the voice and saw his younger brother, Saren Arterius basically doing the Turian equivalent of gaping at the ball of blackness. Further sounds of worry and confusion were echoed by the crew as they inspected the image of what appeared to be a dead planet.

"Most likely the result of biological war," Desolas frowned upon looking at the image again, "Maybe even a nuclear one if it was bad enough. Poor dumb bastards probably thought that the Relay was their last hope of survival."

Saren frowned before turning towards Desolas, "But brother, how did the Relay open then? If these savages failed to survive...whatever that is, then there should be at least a few dozen scuttled ships. Yet when we arrived there was nothing. Is it possible that they could have gone through the relay without our notic-"

"Impossible," Desolas gruffed out, still keeping his full intentions on the planet's remains, "Our technicians assured us before we jumped that the Relay hadn't even been open a full five minutes before our arrival. They couldn't have gotten far enough that our scans couldn't find them, but I agree with you on one thing Saren. We don't have the full picture here, mayb-"

A technician took that time to interrupt, "Sir, our scans our reporting- uh, well, uh-"

"Spit it out Ensign."

The tech then gathered his wits. Well as much as he could with what he had found out, "The planet is full of life sir. It's inhabited."

Shocked silence filled the air, as the atmosphere took a turn for the worst. 'How could there be life signs in that mess?' Saren thought to himself, 'Could we be dealing with another Krogan Rebellion?'

Desolas however, only thought of how the Hierarchy (and the Council of course) could gain from this new client race. He then ordered the ensign to send all available data to the Hierarchy in the securest channel possible.

With that done, there was only one thing left to do.

"Saren, I want you to lead the shuttles down into the planet. I want this race under our talons as soon as possible, though I doubt they'd put up much of a fight anyways." Saren gave the Turian version of a salute before heading down to the bay in order to prepare. Desolas turned to the ensign, "What kind of atmosphere are we going into here. Nuclear fallout? Biological virus?"

"Actually sir, the atmosphere is perfectly breathable despite appearances." The ensign clearly showing surprise at the words that came out of his mandibles. Desolas grunted in acknowledgement and ordered the shuttles to land within the light pockets, just in case.

You have to be prepared for anything after all.

"Spirits, this place looks almost liveable."

Saren couldn't disagree with the grunt. He and his platoon had just exited their shuttle and were now getting a good look at where they landed.

Those choose one of the many lighted areas that pocketed the surface of the Spirit's forsaken planet so that if anything was wrong with the black-cloud thing, they were a clear distance from it.

Still, Saren didn't really find anything interesting with where they were; it was a grassy field surrounded by tall, silver, rectangular buildings that were unmarred by whatever catastrophe had befallen this planet and it's residents. In fact, the buildings and the area around them were so clear and clean, Saren wondered if anything had actually happened at all.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Saren went up to the closest building and rubbed a talon across it's surface. The screech and lack of dust confirmed that it was polished metal, and recently done too.

Something wasn't right.

"Villaxos, get a channel with the 4th platoon immediately, and tell them to do the same with the others. From now on we are the central command." Saren was regretting his previous orders. He had ordered the many shuttles under his command to land in a the same single lighted pocket, but spread out enough that they weren't crowded by each other. The light pockets diameter was about the size of an average Turian dreadnought, which would give them just enough elbow room to maneuver, with Saren's in the middle of it all.

But the facts weren't adding up.

No destroyed or damaged shuttles anywhere near the planet or the Relay, obvious life signs that appeared on the scanners but were no where in sight, buildings that laughed at their suspicions of a Nuclear Fallout or Biological attack. Not to mention that these light pockets that were all over the planet seemed...strangely intentional and not just an act of nature.

He wondered...

"Ephios use your sniper scope. I want you to look out into the areas covered by the Black Cloud and tell me what you see." Saren ordered.

The tall Turian quickly nodded and peered in the scope. He was quiet for a few seconds before, "Spirits. It's incredible."

"What? What do you see?" Was it enemy patrols? Wildlife perhaps? Maybe the mutated inhabitants?

"It's great spiraling towers that reach for the clouds. Spirits, all the buildings are spires! They look nothing like the ones around us. The Asari would have a field day here."

Tired of not getting the detailed answer he wanted, he pried the rifle out his fellow Turians hands and looked into the scope himself.

Ephios was right. Every building that he could see were spires, some of them took on a twisted appearance, some even had smaller spikes popping out of them. Even though Saren was no architect, even he could tell that whoever made those towers and these buildings had completely different mindsets.

As soon as he finished that thought, the lighted area was suddenly covered in darkness, the black clouds blocking out all the sunlight that they had chosen that spot for.

"Well, that can't be good," quipped Ephios.

And then the screaming started.

Boom! Cliffhanger on the first chapter! Didn't see that one coming did ya? Anyways I won't update this one as much as my previous two stories but it will update!

Stay classy folks and review!

-Ridtom