AN:Hello and welcome. This will be more of an introductory chapter to start off the story. All critical reviews would be appreciated.
disclaimer: I own nothing except for OCs and AU events.
Note The Zakan Imperium (my Stellaris humans) is inspired by the 40k Imperium in NAME ONLY. Also they rely heavily on psionic armies supplemented by advanced armour and weapons. And unlike the 40k universe where every psychic is doomed to meet daemon or chaos, my psionics are guaranteed to be daemon or chaos free (thank goodness). Also I'm utilizing content from a mod that provides an elf species for Stellaris, I'm only using female pops, for which reasons will be explained later.
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2582 CE
Earth
Vancouver, North America.
Its been a long and stressful day, yet another day at the office, sometimes Amanda just wished she was born without having the name Shepard. A name that has become synonymous with the ideals of unity, cooperation and heroism. She always wondered what it would have been like to meet her famous ancestor, John Shepard, hero of the Citadel and savior of the galaxy.
The Systems Alliance was really adamant about it too. Essentially she has become, like her father before her and his father before him and so on, a poster girl for Alliance propaganda. Although the Citadel races were united more than ever since the Reaper threat, she did take notice that the emergence of new technologies, some of which she doesn't fully understand yet, have begun to slowly erode that unity.
Amanda was concerned but also was hopeful that the Council wouldn't let their past mistakes repeat themselves. The first signs of the Citadel unity's corrosion was when two decades after the Reapers' demise, the Salarians and human scientists charged with salvaging as much tech from Reaper corpses as possible discovered a data cache of sorts from Harbinger's deformed and rusting corpse.
Amanda along with her godmother, Liara T'soni, who still maintained her Shadow Broker persona, knew that it was this discovery that led to the development of alternative FTL drives. It was a ground breaking 'EUREKA' for the races, except for the more conservative Asari who went through a brief period of cultural shock, denial and then outright banishment of the new tech from Asari space. However, despite that the more level headed of the Asari managed to prevail and the new tech was embraced, somewhat reluctantly.
Back to the point, Amanda didn't like being a poster girl for the Alliance, after all she enlisted to serve the human race and the galaxy. She felt as if everyone was trying to undress her whenever they look at her image on the holo displays all over the city. Not to brag or anything, but she knows she's got the curves that'd make an Asari jealous or even envious, coupled with her shoulder length hair raven black hair, deep sea green emerald eyes and a face worthy of a supermodel, she's got most of the assets.
She never did like the publicity that came with the family name and legacy. Her great grandfather was a renowned scientist, her grandfather was a famous admiral who pacified the Terminus systems and eliminated Aria (self proclaimed criminal Queen of Omega) with just five cruisers and her father was arguably the most powerful human biotic in Alliance history as well as being revered as a technological prodigy.
She was every bit her father's daughter and even inherited his biotics, she set up a goal to surpass his biotic strength but had been having a hard time of it. But it has become increasingly hard to live up to such a legacy. Sure she'd done a lot of things that merit praise but she knows that it pales to what her forbearers had accomplished over the last four centuries. When she enlisted in the Alliance military it was discovered that she didn't make the cut for the N7 program, let alone the N5 program. Although she took solace in that she made it to the N4 level, despite her biotics, the Alliance brass deemed her too important to lose on the front lines. With her genius IQ she was assigned to the RD department and was really disappointed.
On the upside as she so eloquently told a fellow enlistee, a young man named Anthony Taylor, "...I get to play with new toys before any of you do." To which Anthony quickly replied "...well at least I get to shoot some of those toys at real targets."
Now one would think that she would have gotten mad at that statement but instead just quietly agreed with him. She yearned for combat and ever since she was a little child barely in her teens, she'd been fascinated with anything even remotely related to combat. So whenever she got the chance she would visit the local game spots and in her disguise, not wanting to attract unwanted attention, she'd join in a combat simulation tournament.
A lot of times she's actually trounced many of the more veteran players. Some complained and whined when she won but others complimented her unique approach to combat situations. Such as that one time she was outnumbered but somehow managed to emerge unscathed, everyone of those guys were caught completely by surprise, she giggled as she remembered the look on their faces.
She was in an apartment complex just within five minutes of walking distance to the Alliance RD facility located in the suburban area. Suburban wasn't the word she used to describe the many rows of apartment complexes all of which were neatly divided in blocks with intertwining streets alleys and roads. Her apartment was, for lack of a better word, spartan. She wasn't much for frivolous things and liked everything to be as uniformly similar and neat as possible.
However, that didn't stop her from buying up the latest in clothing fashion, some of which were of Asari designs. Liara always wondered if she had a clothes fetish to which Amanda denied with a death glare at her godmother. That didn't matter to her now as she climbed out of her work clothes and as each layer dropped at her feet in a pile, she couldn't help but admire herself in the mirror, her slender body and smooth fair skin almost glistening in the artificial light.
Her half naked form walked through the door to her bathroom and with a push of a button the cold water rand down the length of her body. She shivered slightly enjoying the sensation she got as the cold water touched her skin and then proceeded to slide down from the top of her head to her back. She felt relaxed as her aching muscles, from standing and bending over lab tables and microscopes, felt the soothing coolness massaging her shoulders, neck and back.
*
It was hours later when she got the call. The voice on the other end sounded excited, bordering on high ecstasy. She had been sleeping soundly, a cute snoring breaking the silence in her room at small intervals, when her omni-tool communicator rang. She didn't wake up immediately as she was enjoying a very intense battle with a group of mercenaries but the constant ringing brought her out of her dream.
Annoyed at having been disturbed, looking at the digital clock with the numbers floating above it, "...3 AM! Who the hell?! Ugh...they better have a good reason for waking me up this late!" She grumbled in her head and answered the call with an exaggerated push of the holographic button. A screen popped up showing a Salarian with dull grey skin and wide black eyes whose two horns were somewhat of a touchy subject (being shorter than the average salarian norm), he had the equivalent expression of a human who was both surprised and amused. A slight smirk on his face.
"Dr. Helios. To what do I owe the unfortunate pleasure?" Amanda drawled, half yawning. Her gaze falling on the smirk the salarian had.
"Dr. Shepard, wonderful news. Have discovered new information about the 'Cybrex'. Must come to lab immediately." Dr. Helios spoke a little too fast but fortunately Amanda followed every word just fine. A side effect of working with a hyperactive salarian, she swore he was like a kid high on sugar. An experience she herself went through, it was not pretty, considering she was a biotic.
"Hold on. New info?" Amanda knew before she even had to ask. "You didn't leave the lab again didn't you?"
Dr. Helios took a moment to think then with a curt shake of his head he stated, "Irrelevant."
The salarian cut off the connection before she even had a chance to chastise him. Groaning with a frustrated swing of her legs to the floor. Amanda got out of bed, quickly showered and then putting on some warm clothes, a turtleneck wool shirt with a leather jacket over it and black jeans. She walked out of her apartment, locking it behind her, stepped into the elevator and at the front door she nodded to, Herman the night guard who sat in his little cubicle, then she made her way to the facility. It was cold outside with a light snowy blanket covering the road.
Its always cold in the northern hemisphere, she liked the cold. It helps sooth her hot temper, a trait she inherited from her grandfather (mother's side). He was always in a heated debate with her mother and her father rightly stayed out of it, not because he was scared of his father in law but because Amanda's mother was also short tempered. So she could say its maternal.
Within minutes she was in the facility having gone through three layers of security checks before she found her way to the labs. It wasn't the standard lab that most Alliance RD facilities had, it did have the usual microscope and other standard equipment but this lab was a special one. It was designed to analyse the data collected from the Reapers. It was also that same data that first prompted the question, "What the hell is Cybrex?"
Dr. Helios was watching something on the his omni-tool when the doors slid open with an audible hiss and in walked a fuming Shepard.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have you drugged and dragged to your bed?" Amanda asked whilst crossing her arms across her chest. Her ample assets resting on her forearms, another reason she hated the pictures of her being displayed to the public.
"Cybrex are, were, not from this galaxy." the salarian scientist replied quickly and without hesitation. His eyes blinking at Shepard waiting for a response.
"What?" Amanda was indeed one of the smartest humans in the galaxy just behind the salarians, but this eight here left her a little confused. "I'm sorry come again?"
"Cybrex not from this galaxy. Likely intergalactic in origin." Dr. Helios once more replied in a quick and efficient manner. He felt no need to delay and honestly he found Amanda Shepard's response concerning. If it weren't for the fact that she was a genius he would have not accepted the Alliance's offer to work with their project on discerning the contents of the Reaper data. Similar projects existed within the other races' science research departments which then work on collaborations with each other if the resources and funding weren't enough for any one race.
"That is a rather outlandish theory...but then again so were the Reapers." Amanda muttered loudly but it was more to herself than to the salarian. "How did you come up with that assumption?"
"Not assumption," Dr. Helios sighed, a little frustrated. Then he showed her the communication log between Harbinger and the Cybrex, he explained. "Harbinger spoke with Cybrex entity, a machine collective of advanced AI. Unlike the Geth. They were intergalactic travelers that opposed Reaper harvest."
At this Amanda raised an eyebrow. She found it hard to believe that a sentient machine race, similar to the Reapers, would oppose the harvest. Dr. Helios seemed to think that it may be due to them being from a different galaxy, however, nothing can be proven yet. A few questions did come to mind, first off was; why would the Cybrex oppose the reaper harvest, and second; why didn't they win.
It was concerning that a machine race that could travel between galaxies was wiped out by the Reapers. Just as it is concerning that said race visited their galaxy leaving open the question; who or what will come next? if there were any. Amanda doubted that the Cybrex were gone, since they weren't in this galaxy, who's to say they won't come back now that the Reapers are gone or if they are actually good machines.
"Can tell you are sceptical of my hypothesis." Dr. Helios said as he watched Shepard frowning as she pondered the new info. "This is just hypothesis. However, this proves it, Reapers interacted with Cybrex thousands of years before the Protheans. May need more time to analyze data, hmm, interesting..."
"What is it now?"
"Most of these tech are too advanced...Reapers were studying them but never incorporated it in themselves." Dr. Helios narrowed his eyes as he sifted through the data on the holo computer. Several files were of schematics that displayed advanced weaponry and shielding tech as well as the warp drive, the FTL method of travel that has allowed for further colonisation and exploration of the galaxy.
"Well if you haven't noticed," Amanda reminded him, a hint of annoyance in her tone. "These tech require massive amounts of energy to power them and with current eezo reliance that energy is only able to sustain the warp drives. However, research into and production of the antimatter energy generators the last three hundred years has improved."
"True. Salarian Union, the Asari, Alliance and the Turians have had functioning antimatter generators. Application of these new technology will be expensive but not impossible." the salarian scientist agreed with a simple nod.
"The data has also shown location of Cybrex ship debris in the unexplored regions of the Terminus systems." Dr. Helios added before compressing the new data for transfer.
Both of them went over the data again before submitting a full report to the Alliance Head of the RD Department. It listed a variety of queries and some answers to those queries, as well as submitting the new tech schematics (energy weapons more powerful than the Reaper variant), new and improved energy shielding, ship based directed energy weapon and sometsomething called neutronium. The location of derelict Cybrex ships would require science and survey ships to investigate. Amanda looked at time on her omni-tool and muttered under her breath. It was already 7 AM and now she notices that several lab technicians and scientists were trickling into the building and their lab.
Oh well since I'm already here, may as well just continue. She sighed mentally as she glared daggers at the salarian who was too engrossed in his work to notice. Though she couldn't help but wonder about what prompted these Cybrex to visit their galaxy, there has to be another reason but she'd rather not jinx it.
*
In another galaxy
370 years after ME3
In a room inside an elaborate and very fancy high tech palace, complete with automated makers, defense and even automated toilets! A woman lay on a queen sized bed with a soft and comfy looking mattress, her elegant and slim figure hidden beneath the silk bedsheets, was sound asleep.
Her chest steadily rose and fell as she breathed. From her smooth skin one would assume her age to be at least somewhere in between her late thirties, one would be correct if it weren't for the fact that she is actually six hundred years old. A woman is very sensitive about her age and rightly so as it is important for their sense of self-esteem and confidence.
This is a fact known to the man laying beside the woman on the other side. His face was revealed as sunlight pierced through the curtains and illuminated his rugged square like jawline that was covered in a light stubble of black facial hair. Strangely it was the glowing yellow eyes that really grabbed attention. A scar ran across the bridge of his nose.
"Stop staring at me." The woman mumbled, somehow able to feel his gaze upon her.
"Now why would I do that?" the man playfully stroked the woman's hair. Silver strands of her hair twirled around his fingers, moving on their own volition, revealing a portion of the upper part of her ear that is slightly edged. She turned around to look at him with a smile and their eyes met, glowing yellow met with a slight glowing pink pair of irises. Hypnotic and seductive was how he could describe her eyes.
Just before their parting lips met, the doors to their chambers opened and in walked the maids, their embroidered long dresses purple and pink with a shade of silver, reached almost to the floor. The man was annoyed at the interruption but the silver haired woman giggled at his expense. He sighed, clearly she found it amusing to see him lose his composure.
"Your majesties. I apologize for barging in but the princes were adamant that they see the Emperor." the maid bowed from waist at an exact 45 degree angle with her hands clasped in front of her.
The Emperor was about to mutter something about annoying little boys when he caught his wife glaring at him.
"What?" the emperor asked with an innocent look but the silver haired empress just continued glaring at him until he relented. "Fine, I'll go see what the matter is now."
"Works every time." the empress smiled as the emperor stomped off towards the throne room, the maid stifled a giggle. Then something occurred to the empress. "Did his majesty just walk out of this chamber in his undergarments?"
The maid paused for a moment before speaking her face twisted in a funny expression. She was unsure whether or not to answer then she nodded.
"Oh my." the empress gasped, a hand over her mouth.
*
In the throneroom...
Two young men, both no older than three hundred (equals around late teen years to early twenties) stood around the throne. They both had their father's jawline and black hair, one was slightly taller and was more muscular. The other one was lean with an athletic build and looked to quite agile.
They both heard the emperor's rambling s as appeared from behind a large door from behind the throne. Both men gaped at their father jaws slightly hanging.
"Uh...father. Why are you not in you robes?" the tall muscular prince asked the emperor who stared back at them both before he realized that he was slightly under dressed. Both of his sons started sniggering but one hard glare sent their way and they stopped gulping.
"Doesn't matter!" the emperor declared as he went over to his throne and sat down. He could feel the cold embrace of the metal throne through his skin. He kept his glare on his two sons who liked like they were barely stifling their laugh. "Well what is it that's so important that you'd interrupted my slumber?!"
Both princes suddenly tensed and glanced at each other worryingly. They knew that the father the emperor had a very short fuse, telling him now would be unideal since the old man was already in a foul mood.
Finally they found their courage when their sister, the youngest of them, walked in from behind the throne. Her Father hadn't noticed her yet so the athletically built prince decided to risk it. "Fa...err...your majesty, I'm afraid that I have some rather disturbing news."
The emperor cocked back eyebrow and waited for his second son to continue.
"Our tachyon sensors picked up the third prince's flagship leaving the planet."
It took exactly two seconds before the emperor exploded in a flurry of curses at which he yelled out at the top of his voice. The large room, mostly empty, echoed with his booming voice. Finally he stopped, when he heard his daughter's voice say, "...papa? What does--"
"Nothing my dear." the emperor interjected before the little girl, who was around 7 years old (still a baby to them), could repeat any of the curses he had made. "My, my, what are you doing up so early, little one, hmm?"
"I was alone." was the girl's fearful reply. It was only natural, the females of the Zakan have an inherent fear of being alone, some sort of evolutionary quirk that was the result of their psionic abilities.
"Well you're not alone. You are never alone." her father assured her in his imperative voice and then looked at his firstborn. "Take your sister to your mother, Ari. Taman you stay and explain to me just how Ruteba managed to get his ship let alone his crew back together."
Taman, the second born athletic son of the emperor looked at his older brother with pleading eyes. Please don't leave me here alone...was what he was mentally saying to his brother who just smirked at him as he led their sister towards the Imperial chambers. He gestured with a wave of his right hand indicating the best of luck to his brother who stared at his receding form in shock.
"Ahem." the emperor cleared his throat but it sounded more like threatening growl to Taman as he gulped nervously and began telling the tale of younger brother's daring defiance.
Everyone in the Imperium knows that the emperor was a kind and gentle man who is beloved by his subjects and who is respected by his peers and feared by his enemies. However, it is also known by all that his three sons fear him greatly, not in the way one would dread dying, but in the way that that fear had been instilled since a very young age.
Ruteba, the youngest of the princes was more rebellious, he's caused more trouble in the Imperium alone than any pirate. He even has his own Warband whose members who are loyal to him to the point of dying rather than betraying his highness. He was some what of a combination of his two older brothers, he was tall, slightly muscular but lean and athletic.
There wasn't much to be done in the galaxy aside from hunting down pirates or the giant space beasts that roam the stellar seas. The emperor knew his son would most likely head to the Archivists, an alien collective of scholars and scientists who posses knowledge on all manner of things. In fact if it wasn't for them the Zakan would never have been able to attain the level of technology they posses now.
It was for this fact that the Fallen empires that reawakened were defeated, though the Swarm should also be thanked for weakening the Fallen just enough for the Zakan to deliver the crippling blow that now resulted in the Imperium gaining both empires' ancient but advanced technology. Not to mention the massive infrastructure they still operate and access to their weapons but then the Swarm came and destroyed what little of the Fallen was left.
Eventually the Swarm was defeated but a high cost in manpower, resources and ships, nearly bankrupted the Imperium. It was by pure chance that the last of the other major empires, aside from the Zakan, were destroyed. The last being absorbed into the Imperium, now with the economy slowly recovering from the brutal wars that ravaged the galaxy, the Zakan were left as the undisputed rulers of the galaxy.
It is only a matter of time for when the Zakan gain full dominion of the galaxy. The third Zakan prince was also an intrepid explorer so when not fighting pirates or hunting, he would escort a science vessel to discover new unchartered systems. On one particular day his ship and the science vessel they were escorting discovered a rather strange wormhole generator. Only it proved to be of much greater significance, even the Archivists are baffled by the large gate-like structure. It had the dimensional properties of a gate yet was shaped like a wormhole generator of some kind.
It suddenly hit the science team that it wasn't a gate or a generator but in actuality it was a jump drive booster. Increasing the range exponentially by billions of light years. It also contained Cybrex data which caused a minor panic to ensue until things calmed down a bit. With that information in their possession Ruteba and his Warband returned home with the news.
Thankfully this saved the young prince from a royal spanking. Phew!
--
Alright this was hard. Am using my phone to write this. So there may be some errors or a lot. Also this is just to set the plot, next chapter will be a thirty year time skip (from the Stellaris point of view). An exploration of the Cybrex derelict ships in the Terminus and the preparations for the hunt for the Swarm home galaxy, next time.
