WOW! Thanks to everyone who faved and followed, I seriously wasn't expecting to get any attention when I posted that chapter.
Special thanks to everyone for liking the story, hope I can keep it interesting for you all!
Now advance apologies, this chapter was edited but I didn't get an outside opinion before posting. If anyone is interesting in BETA reading please let me know I would greatly appreciated the help.
Now let the game begin!
2000 years ago.
Two ships hurled at break neck speeds through the void of space, mass accelerators hurling projectiles at the other in a violent two ship battle.
The perusing ship was long and thin in design, with large sweeping wing like structures that gave the white and red warship a bird like design. Across the ship's hull were dozens of rapidly firing mass accelerator cannons that pelted the fleeing warship with low powered projectiles.
The bird like ship belonged to the Turian Hierarchy, a military like race with one of the strongest naval fleets in the galaxy.
The fleeing ship was a bulky, unwieldy looking vessel that almost appeared organic in nature, its hull was in flames from multiple failures of its kinetic barriers to protect it from harm against the Turain cruiser hot on their heels.
The ship in question, belonged to the hive species known as Rachni. They were a very aggressive and sturdy race that inhabited toxic worlds and safe guarded them fiercely from outside forces, when the species of the Citadel, the ruling races of the galaxy came into contact with the Rachni.
Violence broke out as the Rachni feared the other races, resulting in several long years of warfare that caused a reptilian race to be uplifted from its primitive ways.
The Krogan had evened the playing fields for the council, the Rachni's safety originated in their homes being too toxic for ground assault. However the Krogan were durable enough to survive these worlds and begin one by one destroying hives.
Things were escalated by the introduction of the Turian Hierarchy, who immediately declared war on the Rachni as well.
Facing extinction, the Rachni last hope was a desperate run towards the massive red core of Relay 314.
"Captain! Rachni ship making an approach for that relay!" warned one of the bridge staff on the Turian warship, the captain glanced at his crew member, before turning his red face painted head toward the main holographic screen in the room showing the fleeing Rachni ship.
"Main guns fire, we can't let those vermin slip away!" declared the Captain as he pointed a talon at the screen, in reply the Turian cruiser's main mass accelerators opened fire.
Deadly projectiles silently flew past the organic ship, zooming past and into deep space where they would travel until they one day strut an object. Be it ship or planet was regardless to the kinetic based projectile.
Inside the Rachni warship, the tiny little insect like workers scuttled about in panic while the larger warriors lumbered about trying to keep the workers calm. The Rachni queen sung to her children to comfort them while also giving orders to those who were not panicking.
The Queen's jaw quivered as she tapped into one of the ships sensors to look at the approaching relay and hopefully her species salvation. She knew that her enemies didn't go near this relay, she knew they feared its unusual hateful colours and hadn't moved near it since the war began.
She cried out to her children, motivating them to continue fighting as a crackle of red lighting lashed out from the relay and latched onto the Rachni's hull. The lightning dragged the vessel through space, before flinging it into FTL and into uncharted space.
"Follow that ship, all crew brace for FTL" yelled the Turian captain as the cruiser's wings angled backwards slightly to give it a sleeker appearance, seconds before the warship was also launched into FTL by Relay 314.
Elsewhere, deep in an uncharted system, a looming construct of white metal twitched as the distant Mass Relay came to life with a bright flash of red light. Slowly, golden lights flickered to life across the constructs hull and giant wings unfurled to stretch into space.
Golden eyes locked on the relay, and silently like a ghost the construct drifted towards the commotion to investigate.
Almost an hour later, the Rachni warship tumbled out of FTL in a bright flash of light. The vessel spun through space slowly as the crew inside held on for dear life. The queen was exhausted, her children were battered and tired. They couldn't fight any more, her ship couldn't tolerate and more damage or they would all be destroyed.
Tumbling away from the relay, a few minutes later the Turian warship appeared from FTL with a bright flash. Its wings shifting forwards once more moving into attack position, however the ship was sparking all over with red light. Inside the ship the captain bellowed furiously at his crew, demanding to know why the cruisers systems had shut down upon exiting FTL.
Sitting their vulnerably, the Turian cruiser slowly began to regain control of its computer systems and bring weapons online. But as the warship began to manoeuvring itself to line up its bow cannon with the tumbling warship, something slammed into the cruiser causing its crew to be thrown off their feet.
"What hit us!" bellowed the Turian captain as he scrambled to his feet, eyes glaring at his crew as they slowly got up.
However no one needed to answer the Captain as the cruiser was turned about by another warship of dreadnaught size.
The cruiser was held firmly between two sets of large mechanical clawed hands that suck slightly into the cruisers hull.
Giant wings flared outwards to stabilizing the dreadnaught as it moved its head downwards to pear into the bridge of the warship.
The Turian captain stood there in shock, eyes wide as a cluster of golden lights shone through the bridges viewing screen and into the room.
Then slowly, the ship rumbled and the lights drew away, being replaced by a large fang filled jaws that slowly latched onto the bridge and began to crush the armoured hull.
The dreadnaught sunk its fangs into the offending warship, before whipping its head back and tossing a chunk of the ship's hull into space. Tearing the warship apart with ease, the dreadnaught turned its gaze to the tumbling form of the Rachni warship.
Inside the vessel the Rachni queen sung softly to her children, comforting the scared and weak who pleaded for their queen to do something to save them all. It came a little as a surprise when no mass rounds ripped through her hull after a long time, and slowly her ship stopped tumbling though space.
The vessel rocked slightly as something large bumped into it, and the Rachni crew let out a startled cry as someone new began to sing colours of joy and happiness. Confused the Queen sung polite greetings to the unknown singer and questioned who the voice belong to.
"We are your Guardians child, we have waited a long time to share our voice with yours" sung the dreadnaught as it carefully cradled the Rachni warship in its arms and silently glided through the void of space towards the closest habitable planet known as Shanxi.
"Why do you sing of joy and colours to us, all others sing the rhythms of war against us?" questioned the Queen in confusion, this caused the dreadnaught to sing colours of sadness at this news and the dreadnaught hugged the small Rachni ship closer to its chest.
"We are the Guardians, we protect all life…" the dreadnaught paused briefly"I am Captain Jeff of the Guardian Normandy SR2, what is your name child?"
The Rachni queen found the name strange to her mind, the colours were bland and the name held no meaning. But she disregarded this thought as she declared her name to the giant that had spared her race from extinction.
"I am Singer of the Last Song" she declared, causing Jeff to stop mid-flight and look down upon the Rachni warship.
Jeff felt pity for these poor creatures, he remembered them from 50 000 years ago when the Protheans took many of their kind and used them as weapons against Humanity, now they were on the verge of extinction.
The Guardian felt sad, but also happy that it taught those bullies chasing the Rachni a lesson by ripping their pitiful warship apart.
Glancing back at the destroyed cruiser, Jeff wondered if another race had followed the Prothean culture and was seeking to dominate the galaxy, if so that mean the galaxy wasn't ready for the return of the Guardians.
Or perhaps that's what it exactly needed, Jeff would need to speak with Admiral Hackett first and possibly Zeus the squidgy robot of death. Who thought naming a giant aquatic lifeform looking robot the name Zeus?
Shaking his head slightly, Jeff flared his wings and flooded them with biotic energy. It was a Guardians equivalent of engines that produced zero exhaust emissions of heat energy, practically the perfect sub light engines for space travel.
"Well Singer of Last Songs, I'm going to take good care of you and make no mistake, any ass hole who messes with you messes with the Guardians" Jeff mentally smiled as he approached Shanxi, creating a biotic barrier around himself and the Rachni frigate as well as activating his mass drive, dropping his hull weight and mass to the point that he could descend to the planet's surface without harm.
The Rachni queen didn't fully understand the words Jeff was speaking, but the colour of his voice indicated he was saying that he would protect them from the enemies. She didn't know how to feel, no one had ever been merciful to the Rachni before.
Then it clicked into her head, these guardians were Mercy Singers. They would give her kind a second chance in this galaxy, crying out in joy, the Queen began to sing to her children the wonderful news and all rejoiced.
Present age
It had been over 2000 years since the Rachni had vanished behind relay 314, in those many years thousands of explores have vanished behind the relay, none have ever returned alive.
The Salarians theories that the relay leads to a dark core of the Milky Way galaxy, where upon emerging upon the other side. Ships would be torn apart and sent back through the relay as mangled heaps.
But in the fallout of the Rachni wars, a great crime was committed by the galaxy during the conflict of the Krogan wars. The proud Krogan race had been uplifted into fierce warriors to fight the Rachni threat, but when there was no war to fight those warriors became lost without any meaning to live but to fight.
Without any culture, the Krogan began to war against the Citadel and an act of biological warfare was created to subdue the threat.
The Salarians produced the Genophague, a genetic disease that targeted a female Krogan ability to rapidly reproduce. Only 1 in 1000 children were born capable of life, slowly leading into a long and silent struggle for the Krogan species as they dipped lower and lower into extinction.
In the 2000 years that followed, the Citadel species entered a long and prosperous era of peace. With the three ruling species dominating and prospering above all else, the Asari became one of the most economically powerful races in the galaxy, while also being the most diplomatic of races despite their access to ancient Prothean archives that allowed them the most advance technology in existence.
The Salarians were the most technologically and scientific experts of the galaxy, despite their short life span they engineered marvels of technology that nearly surpassed the Asari. They were also one of the most secretive using advance stealth warships to spy on the troublesome races of the galaxy that threaten the era of stability.
Then there were the more recent Turians, the military leaders of the Citadel who brutally enforced Citadel law with their massive naval fleets and land army's that dominated nearly all area of combat.
The three species ruled from the massive 50km long Prothean capital ship left behind from their extinction 50 000 years ago.
And that is how it remained, with civilisation on all worlds learning from the remnants of the mysterious Prothean empire that vanished 50 000 years ago.
However one young and adventurous Asari archaeologist was in search to challenge the belief that the Protheans were the only ones around and weren't the only ones who may have created the Mass Relay network.
Liara T'soni was incredibly young by Asari standards, not even exceeding 100 years of age yet she was the forefather of studies upon the rare and nearly non-existent remains of Humanity, a species that possibly existed during or before the Protheans ruled the galaxy.
She had travelled the galaxy in search of answers, finding clue after clue etched into faded bas reliefs and inscriptions etched into stone or metals of unknown alloy. She had studied art depicting massive predatory creatures, of unknown aquatic creatures that fell from the skies and onto planets.
She translated extracts of scripture speaking of something, or someone known only as Shepard. Whatever this Shepard was, it clearly had significant influence in human society. And all the clues left behind pointed Liara to one place, to the deadly red mass relay 314.
Sitting in her work room, Liara sat at a table with computer on one side, while a partly broken statue of some kind of creature sat before her covered in dirt. Using a small brush, Liara carefully dusted away the dirt to examine the carvings in the creatures frame, making out clawed hands and legs as well as a tail that coiled around its feet. The creature possessed wings, or had done before a majority of it had been broken off during excavation.
"What significance do you hold? What secrets are you hiding?" questioned Liara aloud almost childishly as she rested her arms and chin on the table to look at the statue at eye level with its stone head.
The archaeologist sighed softly as she fantasised what this creature may look like in real life, it was clearly based on some extinct creature but what significance did it hold. Was it religious in nature, a symbolic creature that represented something important or even an organisation amongst human society?
Brushing a little more dirt away from the statue, Liara paused as she revealed small faint letters at the base of the statue. Eyes widening as she recognised the symbols 'S' and 'H' Liara began to dust more dirt away to reveal all the writing upon the statue.
"By the Goddess!" she gasped and jumped backwards, knocking her chair to the floor and letting her brush clatter on the table.
Liara clasped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide in disbelief as she stared at the words on the base of the statue. Slowly coming back to her sense, Liara turned to her computer and rapidly began to type a report of her findings for official records.
Unknown to her, as the research frigate she was upon began its approach towards relay 314. The eyes of the statue beside her glowed briefly, sending out a code to the relay that adjusted the original coordinates for exit point.
As the research ship was sling shot into FTL, Liara gasped as the lights went out plunging her into darkness momentarily before the emergency lights flicker to life illuminating the room.
In another region of the galaxy known as the Terminus system, a region of space that belonged to savage pirates and slavers. A behemoth of a vessel floated in dark space, it was double the size of any known dreadnaught amongst the Citadel races and of a dark blue metal design that resembled an aquatic creature with several thick tentacle like limbs.
Slowly, the massive vessel twitched and groaned as blue lights flickered to life across its hull. Nazara turned his gaze towards the closest relay, his ancient mind processed the signal he intercepted being broadcast light years across the other side of the galaxy.
'The Heretics have returned' he stated bluntly, using his mass drive to make his own gravitational field to gently push him towards the closest relay.
He'd slept long enough, it was time to check the races of this cycle to ensure they were still following the path his kind had set for all to follow.
Meanwhile in atmosphere over the uncharted garden world of Shanxi, a flash of light split the air and from that light fell the form of an old and rusted, retired Turian frigate that had been converted into a research vessel.
The space ship plummeted at first through the air, before its chemical based engines roared into life throwing the old ship forwards and allowing the air to pass over its sweeping wings. Causing physic to kick in and create lift, but despite the vessels design to fly through atmosphere the warship was just too heavy for sustained flight.
That was until its mass drive kicked into gear and the vessel slowly fell to a stop just a few meters from the ground, engine exhaust angling downwards to hover above the planet's surface.
Inside the ship, the small crew of 40 were in a mess of confusion as warning lights blared away and people sought medical staff from the violent exit of FTL in orbit.
The captain of the vessel was in deep shock, for the old retired Turian had never heard of a vessel dropping out of FTL into atmosphere of all places, the notion was unheard of. Despite this the old Turian was pleased with himself, for only a seasoned Commander like himself could give the orders required to save the ship from plummeting to its death.
Deep inside the vessel, Liara groaned as she massaged her temple. Her vision was blurred and she was distinctively aware of her lab equipment being scattered across the room. But one thing that was out of place, the artefact she was studying was sitting perfectly upright on the floor in front of her.
"But… how?" she muttered in confusion, reaching out a hand to grab the statue.
As her fingers made contact with the statue however, the statues eyes glowed and a golden flash of light appeared where her hand touched the artefact. Liara was thrown backwards with a pain filled scream, her mind being flooded with a blur of confusing images that she did not understand.
The images were so painful, Liara blacked out and lost consciousness where she was found by a co-worker moments later. Liara was taken to the ships infirmary, where she was placed under constant care by the ships medical officer who was treating several other members with severe injuries.
Hours later, Liara would awake with a nasty surprise to great her.
Hope you all enjoyed the story, now moving on to other minor issues.
One of my short comings as a writer is my inability to think up names, so I'm going to rely a lot on my readers to come up with interesting names for the RACHNI! And the other races.
ATM I need a name for a Rachni queen, a Krogan Ambassador and possibly two names for STG operatives that will be appearing in the next 2 chapters.
Don't be shy I wont criticize any names, but the help would be appreciated.
Also any thoughts on how I should do the Codex entries? I got 3 to post but unsure in what fashion.
Anyway have a lovely day where ever you are in the world, be safe and have fun!
Oh and Eye of Sparta to answer your first question. yes/no and I'll try hard to give you at least 5-6 chapters mate.
