Halo is owned by 343 studios (and their souls are owned by something small and soft)
Mass Effect is owned by Bioware (and their souls are owned by something that loves to bathe in pennies)
Author Notes: Beta reader needed to hammer those pesky typos and ultra long paragraphs that never end.
Luckiswithyouall: First contact happened a while ago. Hehe and if you mean First contact between Humans/Covies and the Citadel races, then that is going to happen sooner rather than later, but probably not in the way you expect (I hope, I really don't want to be predictable this early).
Alec McDowell: We know a few things, and can theorize others, on another note ONI did try to screw the Arbiter by helping the servants of abiding truth, but their involvement was more limited because their link to the servants was cut early, so things didn't get as crazy as canon.
WolfassassinKing: With is one of the things that make no sense.
I can use some mental exercises and chalk those low numbers to the Rahni war and the Krogan rebellions (Both wars destroyed Garden worlds); but they are still far too low for races that have been around for thousands of years so I REALLY want to do something about that, even if all comes down to tactical data of the amount of deads caused by the Rahni.
Military Calendar December 17 2556
Great Schism
Beginning: October 20th 2552
Status: Ongoing skirmishes/Perpetual War.
Covenant Loyalists/Covenant Separatists
Favored: Covenant Separatist.
Sangheili Civil War
Beginning: March 2553
Status: Ongoing.
Servants of Abiding Truth/Arbiter Loyalists
Favored: Arbiter Loyalist.
Human Insurrection
Beginning 2494
Status: Hostile Relations
UNSC/URF
Favored: UNSC
-.-.-.-.-.-
"We own the insurrection our survival as a species. Without the insurrection humankind would have been wildly unprepared for the Great War, and our defeat would have been assured."
Unknown ONI operative.
Chapter 1: Adrift in the void. Part 1: When enemies become friends.
The image was clear to the Battle Group Seven-Eleven; several ship parts were floating in space in a tight group, the biggest one of the parts was the aft section of a Frigate, and the name was also very clear 'UNSC Forward Unto Dawn'. The crew could scarcely believe it, and with reason, after all the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn was the name of a legendary Charon-class light frigate. The name of the last ship to cross the portal to earth before its collapse, the ship that marked the end of a brutal war, well half of a ship, and lo and behold here was the other half.
The sense of awe had to be interrupted, they had an important mission and lives could be on the line. The Admiral had sent them to investigate the signal, rescue survivors and then regroup with the fleet.
"Ensign Lowell, inform Lieutenant Petrosky that I want him and twenty of our best in that ship and tell them to take the non-lethal approach if they do find anyone alive."
"Yes sir."
Later inside the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn
Lieutenant Petrosky couldn't honestly believe his orders. Finding the more stable parts of the ship to anchor to avoid doing more damage during the salvage operation, that was standard protocol. Looking for survivors, also standard protocol. Not being able to use any kind of force on half a ton of super soldier, that wasn't standard protocol and as if to give voice to his own misgivings about the parameters of this mission one of the poor souls under his command opened his mouth.
"Sir, have you ever met one?"
"You'll have to be more specific than that Junior"
"A SPARTAN, I mean"
"No, I have never met one."
Soon enough both men fell into silence, a silence that extended for little over a minute until another of the poor souls under his command addressed him.
"Sir I am inside the system"
"Good job Peralta, what can you tell me"
"Well sir, the ship is a wreck"
Nervous laughter filled the observation deck of the ship. Everyone appreciated Peralta sense of humor, and it certainly did wonders to alleviate their nerves, but they had to be professional.
"Very funny Peralta, now tell me what we want to know"
His tone was stern, as much as he appreciated the joke they had a job to do.
"Sir, Weapon systems are online a few of the Hyperion Missiles can be salvaged, also the aft armory survived and so did the garage"
"Good what else can you tell me"
"Sir, as we expected we aren't alone. One of the cryo tubes was opened two minutes ago"
'Well, nothing we can do about that now'
"Everyone, high priority target alpha is on the move get ready to meet a very big guy"
"How big sir?"
That was Martinez the youngest member of his ragtag special infiltration team.
"Over seven feet"
He could see several smiles crack, but he had to tell them now, or risk one of them shooting their target by mistake later on.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Five minutes earlier
"Mayday Mayday Mayday- this is UNSC FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard- prioritization code Victor zero five dash three dash Sierra one one seven."
The message kept echoing in the derelict ship. Most consoles were covered in ice and in standby mode to save energy for the one system that couldn't fail the cryoroom; where the only survivor of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn remained in cryo sleep.
The cryoroom was very dark with only a bright blue light visible at the far end of the room. The light source was nothing more than a sphere of blue light on an AI pedestal, soon the sphere of blue light disappears, replaced by a female figure sitting down on top of the pedestal. The figure of the AI Cortana.
Cortana gasps and looks around. She stands up. A hologram panel appears in front of her, with the words "UNSC Forward Unto Dawn" visible on the top left.
She starts moving things around.
"Unauthorized entry on system".
Cortana begins searching desperately, shaking her head.
'No sensors'.
'Systems at 7 percent'
'Unauthorized entry on Observation Deck'
She then brings up the cryostasis control page. One of the sections shows John-117's MJOLNIR armor. Cortana presses the command to reactivate. The status update with the red words "ACTIVE" comes up. She closes her eyes and turns to the Chief's cryotube.
"Wake up, Chief"
The frost covering its glass surface thaws, to reveal John-117 in his armor.
"Ungh…"
"Chief! Easy. You've been out for a while."
"Where are we?"
"We're still adrift on the Dawn."
The Chief starts to move his hands and fingers to regain his motor function.
"Why did you wake me?"
"Someone is accessing the Dawn from the observation deck"
"Someone?"
"I don't have sensors Chief, I could barely detect the intrusion.
Hang on. Bringing your systems online now."
"Something seems different"
"I rewrote your suit's firmware while you were out."
"You've been busy."
"Activating the ships's gravity generators."
The drifting crates and debris in the room drop on the floor.
"Partial system restoration. Initializing system diagnostics"
Cortana flickers a few times.
"Chief, look up. You need to pull the manual release."
John looks up and pulls the cryo-tube's manual release lever. The cryo-tube opens and John steps out and walks over to the Holotank that Cortana is occupying, she appears worried.
"Chief, whoever they are, they know we are here"
"Could it be a rescue team?"
"Whatever they are; they are definitely not UNSC"
"Ready to get back to work?"
Cortana crosses her arms.
"I thought you'd never ask."
John pulls Cortana out of the holo-tank and inserts it into his neural interface. And starts to arm himself with the weapons at his disposal, a MA5D assault rifle and a M6G pistol.
"Chief, we've got intrusion alerts lighting up on multiple decks; but I detect an anomaly in the system, so the ship internal sensors are no longer reliable.
Our best bet to figure out who's boarding us is the observation deck. The place where the unauthorized entry occurred - four floors up."
The ship shakes violently.
"Cortana?"
"No sensors Chief"
John enters a room with a holo-table displaying a hologram of Forward Unto Dawn, he ignores it as he continues towards the Observation Deck.
"How long was I out?"
"Four years, and six days."
"Somebody should have found us by now."
John enters a circular room with a center console displaying a holographic replication of the Dawn's predicted drift course.
"How close are we to the observation deck?"
"It's directly above us."
John leaves the circular room and leads into another rectangular room with an elevator.
"The elevator doors look sealed tight."
John approaches the elevator doors and pries them open with his bare hands.
"Chief, be careful!"
John successfully gets through the elevator doors. The elevator shaft has been depressurized causing a few crates to hit John from outside the elevator shaft. He grabs the side of the elevator shaft, avoiding falling debris from the top of the shaft, while slowly climbing the shaft to reach the next level.
"Because some areas might have lost pressure!"
"Right."
John climbs a few feet. Debris falls from the top of the shaft and he is forced to act fast.
"Chief, watch out!"
John-117 jumps to the left, managing to avoid the falling debris.
"I didn't realize the ship had deteriorated so badly."
John manages to climb to the top of the shaft, avoiding falling debris. The door to the next level is conveniently open and after stepping into the next level at the top of the shaft. The shaft's door locks behind him.
"..."
"..."
There was someone by the door controls, a Human in a standard Black Body Suit.
"So our unidentified boarders are humans"
"Cortana my motion sensor shows him as a hostile contact"
"Strange he has no transponder, that would mean he has no Neural-
"Greetings. Am I to assume you are Sierra one one seven, commonly known as SPARTAN one one seven?"
John didn't answer.
"The distress signal mentions survivors on board and your- Oh right"
John tensed ready to act as the unidentified man moved his hand and placed it behind his head to scratch it... Such unprofessional behavior screamed civilian, but what was a civilian doing with a Black Body Suit?
"Sorry about that, I am Gustavo Aguilar, crew security of the ship 'Wild Coyote', we detected your distress signal and moved to assist"
Neither John nor Cortana were caught by the ruse, many things didn't add up.
"State your mission and what you are doing in this sector of space"
The young man inside the Black Body Suit seemed to tense a little.
"As I said earlier, I am part of the security detail of the ship 'Wild Coyote', you must know I am not part of the standard UNSC military, but we do possess some military grade equipment thanks to our job as security"
He paused as if expecting a comment, getting none he decided to explain in detail.
"We salvage ships that appear to be dead in space and that is usually dangerous business."
John had another thing to say.
"Dangerous and Illegal for non military personel"
The boy seemed to tense even more.
Silence befell on the Hallway, but inside the armor the situation was very different.
"Cortana"
"Many things can change in four years chief; we don't know the current state of the UNSC"
"The lack of Neural links marks you as a civilian. Why is a civilian acting as security for a ship."
"Well... I... Don't..."
"Where is your commanding officer?"
"H-he is coordinating the operation in the Observation Deck."
"
"What are you waiting for?"
"Sir, may I shake your hand?"
"Why?"
"I won't get another chance sir. I am probably going to be under arrest for a while after this, sir"
"Seems like you have a fan Chief"
"Cortana"
John took his time to consider the odd request, and decided to comply. No reason to antagonize what could be his only way back home.
"Fine"
"Really!? That's awesome!"
"Cut the crap, Aguilar!"
A new voice joined their conversation causing mild surprise to the Chief as the owner stepped out of the Observation Deck without leaving a trace in his motion sensors. The new person also had a Black Body Suit, but his appeared to be a heavily modified one.
"You are risking our mission for a hand shake. You will be lucky if all you get is arrested"
The new man turned towards the Chief
"SPARTAN one one seven, I presume"
The chief answered with a subtle nod.
"I am the leader of the boarding team. Lieutenant Petrosky of the Ship 'Wild Coyote'."
The man seemed to sigh inside his armor as if getting ready to do or say something unpleasant.
"I will be straight with you SPARTAN, if you promise to listen to my history in its entirely"
"The whole history? Chief I don't think they are mere hired muscle."
"I'll listen"
"Very well, we are part of the colonial defense first fleet. Former United Revel Front forces"
The youngest of the three was visibly shaking, but Lieutenant Petrosky just ignored him and continued.
"Our mission was to investigate a Forerunner world that is located at a stone throw distance of our present location"
That got the attention of the SPARTAN and his AI.
"The world opened somekind of massive hatch and dragged seven of our ships that were inside its event horizon. Sadly communications were cut and we don't know their present status. Another four ships went inside the planet to try a rescue operation, but contact was lost with them as well"
"Hostile forces?"
"Unknown"
Silence
"That would explain why you are in this sector of space, but not why you boarded the Dawn"
"Is fairly simple. UNSC and former insurrection forces are no longer in hostile confrontation. We picked your emergency transmission and while having problems of our own, decided to assist in hopes you would assist us as well."
John was skeptical about their true intentions, but many things could be at risk. John quickly remembered his encounters with the Flood and how quickly things could go out of control if left unchecked.
"We need someone capable of ground operations behind enemy lines because our ground troops are for a lack of better term inexperienced. Our leader figured it would be in our best interest to request the cooperation of a veteran and hero of the Great War."
"His leader is pretty smart".
"Also we are more than willing to give you a ride home. So there is no need to kill us and hijack one of our vessels to do it".
"..."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Later
The bridge of the 'Wild Coyote' was in many ways similar to any other UNSC Stalwart-class frigate, but a trained eye could easily catch the glimpses of civilian behavior on the crew. John could even see a few of the officers playing some sort of puzzle game on their consoles.
John could see the image of four frigates on one of the consoles with the words Battle Group Seven Eleven. The formation had three Stalwart-class frigates and a Paris-class frigate.
"SPARTAN, I am glad you have agreed to help us."
That was the captain of the vessel a somewhat unimpressive man of medium build, that could be over fourty.
"I agreed to save human lives."
Only a deaf person would miss the undertone of John voice.
"Oh. I see"
Any future confrontation was stopped by the opportune intervention of Ensign Lowell.
"Ten seconds to exit slipspace.
Five, four, three, two, one."
John was a hardened soldier and veteran, few things could surprise the SPARTAN and clearly the sight of the small fleet or the Forerunner planet didn't.
"Cortana what can you tell me"
"Chief, I can see their 'fleet' has almost twenty Corvettes, most of them Mako-class. With the addition of the four frigates in this battle group their frigate count goes to seven. They also appear to have modified Parabola and Laden class freighters."
"So no heavy hitters."
"I wouldn't say that, there is also a single destroyer and believe it or not they seem to have a covenant corvette"
"Nothing that the UNSC can't handle"
"Their threat level appears to be moderate at best, yes."
Their internal chat was interrupted by the communications officer.
"Sir, incoming transmission from the Destroyer Red Bull. Captain Dominic is hailing us."
"Patch it through"
No one in the bridge dared to make a sound as an imposing black man, with gray hair appeared on the Holo screen.
"Captain Steven Gil, I see your mission was a success."
The man in the screen was focusing on John as he said this.
"That indeed James. I-
"Then let's not waste time, the lives of our people are at risk"
The man glanced at the captain of the Wild Coyote for just a second only to once again focus on John
"SPARTAN. I believe the Captain explained the situation to you."
"Not entirely."
"Then let's get you up to speed. Seven of our ships were initially lost when the Planet opened up; a few suffered catastrophic damage as they crashed with each other as a result of their desperate maneuvers to escape the pull of the planet.
Four more of our ships intentionally dived towards the planet to attempt to rescue as many of our men as possible. Initially no contact could be made with either group of ships, however that changed one hundred minutes ago, when we received a short burst of data in the form of broken audio and video message with a ghost signal of looped Morse code and binary."
"Why binary?"
"The message explains that some sort of Forerunner communication relay is intercepting and disrupting our communications. They circumvented this by sending a ghost signal inside the original message. The details are not important as the only thing that matters is that the message managed to reach us."
Both Cortana and John were somewhat impressed by the former insurrection forces and their capabilities to adapt.
"Our men tried to tap into the system of the Forerunners to locate and disable the relay. Success was easy on the former, is the later that is proving to be most difficult. It has to be disabled manually and hostiles prevent any approach onto the object."
"Any clue about hostiles?"
"Only that they appear to be humanoid constructs, and use advanced Direct Energy Weaponry and shielding."
There was a long pause.
"They are either advanced Forerunner combat platforms or Forerunner themselves; evidence is inconclusive on this regard."
"So what do you want from us?"
Everyone in the bridge seemed to be surprised at the intrusion of the unexpected female voice.
"I see you have an AI with you SPARTAN. That can only be a good thing. To answer the question. We will launch an assault on this 'communications' relay and turn it off, then find a way to get our men off world."
"So you want us to spearhead the operation?"
The older black man smiled, and it was such unpleasant smile.
"No. I want you to be a symbol; everything else is just a bonus."
The man known as Captain James Dominic of the Destroyer Red Bull continued to explain the situation and issue orders clearly used to command. Meanwhile
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Planetside things had been going well for the former insurrection forces. Aside the debacle of the 'hard' landing of the seven ships on the planet 'surface' and the following discovery of the compromised communications to the rest of the fleet, everything else had gone well.
The four ships that followed the downed ships had no problems to reach ground zero, and after a few days of restless work two of the seven ships were now capable of flight. Sadly of the seven ships four could never fly again and most of its crew were lost with all hands.
The bridge of the Destroyer Frenzied Ox was bustling with activity.
"Sir we have the coordinates to the gravity well, and most of the task forces on the planet status is green."
"All but one."
"Sir may I ask why the admiral went personally to the core of the planet? We are losing men by the dozens."
"Do not question your orders; the Admiral knows what he is doing."
His gaze burned all the officers on his bridge and one by one they lowered their heads in acceptance. Yes he knew the mission to the core had so far taken hundreds of lives, but whatever was in the core of the planet was way more than a simple communications relay.
"Men. The relay must be very important, otherwise the Admiral wouldn't be trying so hard to reach it, and that is a fact."
"Sir. Incoming message from the Light Cruiser Adasaurus."
"What does it say?."
"Still decoding the message sir, but it appears that the mission was a success."
'Objective Alpha has been accomplished then. Our standing orders are to rendezvous with the CRS-class light cruiser Tiburon and the Heavy Cruiser Carnotaurus to get ready to push our way off planet to join the main fleet as soon as possible'
"Ensign Richards what are the status of the remaining Objectives"
"No progress on the core and we lost contact with the Admiral twelve minutes ago. On the other hand the first defense around our exit vector is about to be engaged."
"Very well. Start packing we are leaving-
"Sir. Are we going to abandon the Admiral?."
His XO was almost distraught and so was the rest of the bridge, in a way all of them owned their lives to the Admiral.
"We are going to follow his orders to the letter as we should."
He paused for a moment and then continued.
"The Heavy cruiser Carnotaurus will move to rescue the Admiral as soon as our exit vector is cleared. The rest of us have our own parameters to follow."
Slowly the bridge of the Destroyer began to relay the orders of its captain in several simple forms of communication, not knowing that the relay had just stopped its interference.
-.-.-.-.-.-
"So fades the great harvest of my betrayal."
"..."
"The Librarian left little to chance, didn't she? Turning my own guardians – my own world – against me. But what hubris… to believe she could protect her pets from me forever."
"..."
"So you know about me, surely confidence born out of arrogance."
"..."
"Known your place human, the Mantle belongs to the Forerunners. Time was your ally, Human, but now it has abandoned you. The Forerunners… have returned."
"This tomb… is now-
Part 2: The essence of trust.
Military Calendar December 18 2556
Sanghelios Vadam Keep
"Arbiter. We have substantial evidence of human intervention in our war with the servants of abiding truth."
The Sangheili smashed his hands on his console.
"We must do something."
"Let's not be hasty. We only know that some humans are helping our enemies, nothing more."
"And yet we do nothing!"
Murmurs of agreement spread on the assembly, it was clear that something had to be done about the humans and their meddling.
"One could say that humans are not doing enough."
The whole assembly was silenced by that single statement. Outrage and shock were the most visible emotions of many of the Sangheili, the rest remained stoic and impassive.
The Arbiter focused his gaze on the one that had made that statement and was surprised to find a member of the order of Ascetic. Intrigued he made a gesture to allow the Ascetic to continue.
"My name is Rha 'Chonai and I ask of you to consider my words."
He paused for a few seconds to gaze upon the assembled Kaidons and then continued.
"Over Twenty Three billion."
The Ascetic stopped to see if the rest of the Sangheili in the Assembly could understand the meaning behind his words. Many had yet to understand the meaning of the seemingly random amount, but many others had understood. 'Good.'
"Over twenty three billion humans dead in twenty seven human years of conflict. Over half of their total population lost."
"Esteem Ascetic elder, it was a war-
"And yet most of the dead weren't warriors. Many of you demand action against the humans for meddling in our own affairs, yet forget what we have done to them."
Silence engulfed the assembly.
"Many of you lack perspective."
Soha 'Potum Kaidon of the Potum keep would have none of that.
"And what perspective would you have? You-
Whatever he was going to say next was stopped. By the words of the Ascetic.
"I have the perspective of a warrior that has lost his honor. We killed their children, those that had yet to receive a name, and we did it gladly."
His gaze burned with barely contained rage.
"Could any of us claim to have enough restrain to not demand blood if such a huge offense had been done to us?"
He sighed.
Thel 'Vadam was glad the Ascetic had intervened, he had spoken the words that he couldn't say himself and for that he was grateful.
"And what is the perspective of the order, esteemed Warrior."
The assembly grew quiet and expectant, the Ascetic were a shadow of its former self, but their opinion had great value to the Sangheili, maybe they would have the solution to the current dilemma.
"History has taught our people important lessons. Lessons that have almost been forgotten behind the curtain of lies of the San 'shyuum.
Its time we remember those lessons."
Council Year 2631, year 236 of the great journey.
The Quarian Migrant fleet was the largest collection of space faring vessels in the know galaxy. A testament to Quarian perseverance in the face of adversity and unjust persecution. Persecution and punishment for a single transgression, for nothing more than an accident that in the end claimed most of the quarian population.
The Migrant fleet was the only thing the Quarians had left of their once great civilisation. They had become nomads wandering the stars till the moment they could reclaim their homeworld. For that reason the Quarians protected the fleet with fervor from external threats and the internal ones. But it was becoming clear that wasn't going to be enough.
The Quarian migrant fleet was losing the most aged ships and it was apparent that not even their incredible mechanical expertise would be enough to save all of them, Quarian experts knew something would have to be done otherwise the situation would reach the point of no return in less than a century and the Quarians and their plight would become nothing else than a footnote in the history of the council.
The admiralty board with the support of the conclave had done their best to address this situation, to endear young Quarians to seek valuable technology during their pilgrimage, and for all the Quarian people to poll all their resources to buy new ships for the good of their fleet. But in the end that would only give them a few more decades at best, something drastic had to be done, something that could change the destiny of all seventeen million Quarians in the migrant fleet. Something like the mission given to the Twelve Scout Flotilla in extreme secrecy.
The twelve scout flotilla, to most Quarians had left in a mission to locate a possible world to make a temporary mining colony. In truth they had left to investigate what appeared to be either a structure or an unusual formation of an asteroid belt next to a massive gas giant. Normally something that was inaccessible by normal relay travel that would require a dangerous trip that would take almost a year would be left unchecked, cataloged as a curious thing by most species. But not the Quarians. Two centuries traveling the stars had taught them many things, and one of those was to recognize an opportunity.
Quarians were desperate enough to risk a few ships to investigate this anomaly and their time as nomads had made them well suited to deal with the dangers of long range Faster than light travel.
The mission was dangerous. But the Captain chosen to lead the scout flotilla was one of their best Captains Fhe'Reager vas Relade, now promoted to Commodore of the twelve scout fleet was known to get results and handle himself admirably against terrible odds.
The ships under his command were but a mere dozen, a single cruiser, four frigates and the rest mere cargo vessels of with three had been modified to work as research ships. It was an oddity for Quarians to use cargo vessels as true cargo ships, but it was a necessity of the situation and the parameters of their mission.
The Admiralty board had taken a great risk by keeping the mission a secret, if the details of the mission were carelessly released to the public the conclave could request their resignation, but the Commodore Fhe'Reager vas Relade knew why it had to be a secret, if the citadel council were to learn what they had discovered... No he couldn't think about that, he had to focus in the hypothetical Geth Colossus in the volus conference.
The bridge had been operating in silence for minutes watching the feed provided by the scout drones they had sent to the surface of the structure they had come to investigate.
"Keelah. The structure is not only massive, but it has an atmosphere and bodies of water. Captain can we truly consider this a space station?"
'Could they really?'
"I think the term Artificial world comes to mind, as impossible it may be."
'He would have to agree with his communications officer, anything else would come short of what they were seeing'
The structure was shaped as a ring, in what could only be considered a ring world. The purpose of such a structure still eluded them, but a few hypothesis had been raised from the research teams under his command.
"Dia what can the scout drone sensors tell us about the structure?"
"Captain the readings show the structure indeed has an atmosphere, but is not breathable."
"Not a problem for us."
The bridge could hardly contain their laughter, their mission had been a success beyond their initial expectations.
"Lifesigns?"
"A moment captain..."
Everyone stopped working martial discipline all but gone, lifesigns could mean many things, many good, but some bad. If the artificial world had lifesigns...
"How odd, it seems large areas are covered in some sort of fungus, and the air is overcharged with spores."
"Very well, let's pick an area with no spores or at the least less density of them, we don't need to risk our operation with an infection. Tell the teams to triple check their seals and equip their suits with external air tanks, I don't want to rely in our filters with an unknown type of spores."
"Yes, Sir."
As one the bridge began to work to disperse the orders, coming here had been dangerous, but that was only the beginning of their problems.
Little did they know of what was waiting for them.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Council Year 2631,Log 38
The Citadel Council is the governing body of the Citadel. The Council acts as the ultimate authority in Citadel space, passing judgement for violations of Council law, settling disputes between governments, and maintaining law and order in citadel space.
For hundreds of years the council has ruled and settled thousands of situations some amicably and others with ruthless efficiency. From the bloody Rachni Wars and Krogan rebellions, to the tame mining rights dispute in the Minos Wasteland. However the new council has been unusually busy and burdened with the threat of a great war for the last few years. And to my surprise the threat has NOT come from the Geth.
To this day the Geth still remain in isolation behind the Perseus Veil, doing whatever synthetics without a purpose do, oh no, the threat of war has come from another cluster in a situation that is eerily similar to what happened with the Rachni. But to understand the present situation one has to look to the past to find an explanation.
You see decades ago a group of unlikely allies had lobbied to get the council to remove the restrictions about the reactivation of dormant relays, the debate was fierce, but a truth couldn't be denied and that was that the systems with easy and cheap access to inter-stellar travel had ran out. Council space was starting to get cramped and the terminus systems were too dangerous and lawless for the average civilian of council space. So the debate was won and carefully and methodologicaly each inactive relay in council space was activated in the company of the largest fleet the council could muster.
At first everything had gone well and all known relays in council space were oppened without complications, that is when the first mistake was made, the relay activation defense fleet was a gross expense and left too many holes in the patrols for the Batarian slavers to exploit and exploit they did.
A garden world now known as Turvess was discovered by the slavers and the indigenous species now known as the Raloi came under attack by them. It took months for the previous council to take notice of this situation and is common knowledge that was one of the reasons for their resignation. When the Turian fleet finally arrived to investigate, they had found a young race under ruthless attack doing what they could with what they had to defend themselves.
Plagued by introduced pathogens and a terrible introduction to the greater galaxy, the council could only do the right thing. The council revealed themselves to their new neighbours provided them with medical help and expertise and protected them from further attacks. And in response the Raloi joined the council as an associate member, and a client species of the Turians.
Tevos sighed, massaged her forehead and continued writing in her omni tool.
That was the second mistake. With the support of the Volus and the Raloi, the Turians will in the future hold more power in the council than us and some situations will get out of our control. Just a few years ago the Turians almost declared war on the Batarians and I am afraid that IF the Batarians try to force their weight once again nothing will stop the Turians from dragging the council to a war that will cost million maybe billion of lives if the intelligence provided by STG is accurate.
The only saving grace to the present situation is that the new threat has united us. But I fear this situation is either war with our new neighbours from the Terminus, or war with the Batarian Hegemony and their criminal cartels. To this day I don't know with one is worse and the threat of both attacking at the same time is still very real.
That brings us to the new threat and the last mistake of this chain of events. After the incident with the Raloi, the relay activation fleet was reduced greatly and most ships were returned to their patrol routes, yet still we kept activating new relays in the border of council space all the way to the terminus.
This inevitably lead to relay three four seven and the route to the Shrike Abyssal were the now reduced Relay activation fleet meet with heavy opposition. Survivors tell the history of a huge minefield that took a third of their forces and forced them into a killing field were apparently the enemy used their own ships to destroy most of the survivors. Its still unclear exactly how it was done, but the sensor data on the few survivors ships that returned back show WHAT was done. The enemy ships dropped off Faster than light speeds by collapsing their mass effect fields within the formation of the Relay Activation fleet, destroying ships on contact and showering the rest in huge amounts of radiation. In a matter of seconds the fleet was decimated to just a few ships, but the enemy was relentless and ruthless picking the survivors with long ranged mass accelerator shots. Only sheer luck and the protection of the goddess saved the few that managed to use the relay to escape.
It has been eight days after the event, and our fleet waits on the other side of the relay from an attack that may not come. Salarian STG is still trying to get a prove into the system to gather intelligence, but that has been as of yet an impossible endeavour.
Tevos sighed once again, closed the message window and stalked her way to her bedroom.
Tomorrow was going to be a very difficult day. She was sure Matriarch Aethyta was going to propose something radical again, but this time she was willing to hear every word of it. After all it was a common adage for Asari, that all Matriarch's have to deal with at least one great war in their lifetime, and the galaxy has not failed to deliver time and time again, so it was either with the Batarians, the unidentified species that lived in the Shrike Abyssal, or with the Turians some years from now.
"No. I am wrong."
Matriarch Tevos clapped her hands and her lights went off.
"Is either; The Batarian Hegemony, the unidentified species, The Geth, or the Turians."
She looked to the holographic representation of the galaxy that she had next to her bed to remind her the importance of her job.
"Or a whole new threat from the half of the galaxy we know nothing about."
In the end nothing mattered, because she would do her best to ensure the safety of council space.
'Councilor Brutus needs to disappear, if we want the Turians off the war path and under control.'
And with thoughts that could get her killed if said out loud the Asari councilor went to sleep, hoping to dream with a safer galaxy.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Author Notes: Help me, Help you, Help everyone, by becoming my Beta Reader, you will get sneak peeks to the plot and will have conclusive evidence of how much of a tard I am.
If not...
I have a thread in the SB forum, so if you are a member be sure to hop there and criticize my work (I can take it), just remember English is kind of my third language turned second because I stopped using french a decade ago.
Peace!