Red Alert: Mental Effect

by Mental Omega

Mankind is divided between the Forgotten, the Phantom Syndicate, those who believe Yuri is master, and those who fly the united banner of the Allies and Soviets. The galaxy adjusts to a new paragdim as the science of Tiberium and Element Zero collides. And dolphins can talk. The story of Red Alert now takes to the stars in this daring fusion. And as ever, the Scrin wait.

2. Opening the Gates

"At least they're not the Scrin."

- Alliance Peacekeeper Williams Bryant on his opinion of first contact.

"At least they're not the Rachni."

- Turian Soldier Severus Scipio on his opinion of first contact.

---

Planet Hellenia of the Grecea system, near Relay 314. 27th of August, 2437.

"Shipwrecks away!" A shout came over the ENSS Tepes' bridge as the dreadnought fired missiles bigger than a tank to strike at distant Alliance ships over the planet Hellenia. Obviously whatever was going down there had to be important if the Alliance opened fire immediately upon the patrol fleet stumbling on the planet. Silos within the ship opened up and released the large torpedoes while Alliance fighter craft swarmed out of carriers to respond to the initial wave of missiles. Mass driver rounds were fired, sending slugs at an impressive velocity while the ships fired at sought to break into evasive actions. His own ship was too ponderous to just move out of the way like the more agile vessels, and simply resolved to take them head on.

In response to incoming attack by drones, strike craft, and missiles, The Tepes warmed up the dissolver rays and lasers and sent out lances of energy to strike at incoming drones while the first set of rounds impacted it's barriers. Due to lacking the Alliance Iron Energy manipulators, the Tepes needed to supplement its force fields with magnetic fields to try and slow down incoming shots, and in spite of that the ship still relied more on it's hull for defence. The vessel shuddered briefly from the impact, but remained steadfast, dead hulks of attempted attackers surrounding the mighty capital ship as it sat in it's lynchpin position in the fleet.

An Alliance Cruiser was first struck and pierced by a shupwreck torpedo that struck it like explosive tipped harpoons piercing into a fish, slamming through the already weakened shielding before exploding to rupture it's hull, it's hull tearing open as several dozen tons of Yuri's anger smashed into the infidel ship at a not too insubstantial fraction of the speed of light. The vessel's air supply provided enough fuel for a brilliant but short lived conflagration as the armour piercing warheads detonated their nuclear warheads and sent fragments of the ship dashing across space, glowing everything from red to white as they radiated away heat into the void, it's brother torpedo having never met it's target due to concentrated interceptor fire.

"Any reports from the relay scout ships?" Ship-Proselyte Bashar Crystaferid asked his ensign while the ship shuddered with the release of its huge torpedoes at a fair portion of the speed of light.

"No sir, they have gone silent, they were last speaking about an ambush." The ensign responded tersely, almost boredly given the distant nature of space warfare. Perhaps a bit of a yawn came from the woman as she wiped her hand across her brow, trying to remain focused. The ship-proselyte however, took this news with far more worry than his ensign, eliminating those scouting frigates so quickly spoke of a dangerous foe.

"Are you sure of that ensign? Those were experienced crews...I hadn't expected the Alliance to have the firepower needed to take them out so quickly." He said, tapping his chin in thought and taking a look at the holographic map provided by his EVA.

"I'm absolutely sure of it Ship-Proselyte...do you have any further orders to give?" She asked, looking up at him. His gaze shifted from his map to her, and then backl to his map.

"Send some disposable clone piloted ships out first. Let them draw the fire while our more valuable assets mark the targets." He said, tapping his commands into the EVA projection.

Within minutes of his commands being given two of Epsilon's Destroyers were met with concentrated Prism ray and imploder shell fire, rapidly melting through their all too vulnerable hull in a storm of brilliant blue-white rays that scattered outwards to strike at secondary systems, rapidly and efficiently ensuring the ship's death as their hull turned to soup and vapor that collapsed into balls of superheated matter with the impact of the Vacuum shells. Checking his map, the ship-proselyte was able to figure out that this fire came from what had previously been marked as asteroids; Mirage ships, he mentally groaned. This complicated things greatly, and made the whole battlefield a potential site of ambush. His own shadow ships were not yet in position, returning a stealthy blow with another stealthy blow would have to wait.

The proselyte pinched his brow, to display fear would be unbecoming of him after all. If he just passed it off as frustration, no one would be the wiser to his concerns. He let out a long huff, putting his mind at ease as he thought of some comment to blow over his emotions.

"Tricky bastards, aren't they?" He said to no reply. With a quick command input into his fleetwide EVA, he had Star-Magnetrons open fire on the ships he detected in the hopes of quickly disrupting the enemy's ambush plans. If all went exactly according to plan, he would lure in more enemy ships into the teeth of his fleet and save himself some stress. If things didn't go so well for him, he would at least have the ships under his thrall. Magnetic waves reached through the void of space and grabbed onto the vessel, pulling them in like a lure. His heart soared a bit when he saw that the enemy fleet was starting to open fire on his armada, revealing the positions of more hidden ships as they tried to interrupt his Magnetrons before they could get in the range of his Masterminds.

"Keep that up, try to make them follow us. If they cherish their crews so much let them die trying to save them." He said, rubbing his gloved hands together with excitement as he could just about taste the fruit of his plan already. As expected, many Alliance vessels began to move closer to his own fleet to try and stop the Magnetrons, but they were too late. Psychic waves emnated from the collected brains of the mastermind, more sinister than any conventional weapon and not able to be stopped by nearly any manner of shielding or armour. The crews of the ships ensnared in his trap resisted, but they could not push against psychic domination of such magnitude and found their wills crushed and subsumed into the greater mass of the Masterminds' gestalt consciousness, and thus under his command.

Turning them against their former comrades he had them pen his enemies in with their own energy weapons, trying to catch them in a quickly arrayed killbox to annihilate as much of their fleet as possible. But he was not allowed to enjoy his success unmitigated for much longer however, before a blistering storm of mass driver fire was directed at the mastermind ship, forcing it to hide behind other vessels while the Alliance launched a swarm of strike craft to harry and split up the fleet under the threat of DEW and Torpedo fire; distracting the CIWS weapons of the Epsilon fleet. Moments later, ship-killer missiles struck the first controlled ship in pairs, the first set to neutralize the shielding, the second to reduce it to glowing ash and particulates as the stricken ship bent at an unnatural angle and twisted apart before its reactor detonated and tore the ship into slowly cooling pieces.

"New contacts are appearing on our scanners sir."

"Believers?" The Proselyte asked, eyebrow quirked to the point of showing through his mask while Alliance strike craft swarmed around the Epsilon ships, Gatling cannons spitting out lead constantly and sending vibrations throughout the ship while Dissolver rays and laser emitters tried to strike out at their attackers. The sort of thing that left one's teeth chattering and eyes flashing with colorful lights and thanking Epsilon for it's good dental care if you were near the turrets.

"No sir, none of our ships would give such readings." The Ensign responded, worry in her voice. Okay well, if there was too much Eezo for that then they probably weren't with Epsilon. Unless of course, they were part of some super secret surprise division he had never heard of. But he didn't think that he was that lucky.

"Alliance reinforcements then? A Forgotten Clan perhaps? Space Pirates, Refugees? Or Yuri forbid" He paused, letting that sink in for a moment "The Scrin?!" The Proselyte asked firmly, rattling off all kinds of possibilities as the contacts began a process of deceleration and the ship let loose another pair of ship-wrecks to go and do the delightful activity suggested by their name as he gripped on the ship railings.

"No, there's...Element Zero signals from those ships. They would appear to outnumber both our fleets. What are your orders, sir?" She said, eyes focused on her read-out screen. She almost leaned close enough for her face to press in on the screen just to make sure she wasn't miscounting before checking a computer estimation of the enemy's numbers to be sure.

"Send a report back, inform them that we shall be needing reinforcements, and please tell them it's urgent, I want a flood, not a trickle! And someone do something about those frigates or by Yuri; heads shall roll this day!" He said, the Ensign nodding and quickly sending a message over to the ship's long distance Telepath, hoping that he wasn't too busy to relay this request back home.

"It has been done Proselyte Crystaferid." She said, idly popping a knuckle to ease just a little bit of the stress she was undergoing.

"Followers of Yuri, do not cease firing unless the unbelievers do so first, keep an eye on the newcomers, and prepare to engage if struck first. And remember, the great Yuri watches you, do not dishonor him!" The Proselyte commanded through his fleet's comm-channels, his mask's forehead bead glowing as his mind shifted through the possibilities of what could happen next. He had always heard of how Epsilon had plans for everything from the forgotten turning hostile to the Youth League's cookie merchants rising in revolt. He wondered if they covered unknown entities bearing down on his position waving around some of the highest concentrations of element zero he had yet seen.

He idly grasped his PDA, where his holy texts were kept, and a short prayer was uttered.

---

Citadel peacekeeping fleet.

"Can I have a report on the weapons used on our fleet?" Fleet Admiral Gladius asked, eyes narrowed on the data reads of the screens. Normal, sensible people would have been fighting mostly with mass drivers, rather than this...menagerie of long and short ranged weapons. When she heard of the initial reports, she made sure to bring a large fleet, it was always better to bring too much force than too little after all. Overwhelming force was what helped remind the Batarians of their place at Enael after all.

"From our readings of the firefight, magnetic pull devices, magnetically propelled mass driver weapons with no usage of the mass effect, long ranged laser weapons, charged particle beams, and some kind of energy we are as of yet unfamiliar with, and a heavy emphasis on torpedo weapons." The V.I said to her, prompting a nod from her as she clacked her mandibles together in thought. That was only one of the factions, and nothing larger than cruiser sized at that, Spirits, they were hardly doing anything more than blindly flailing in hopes of causing some damage before spilling their guts into the void of space.

This situation had to be approached delicately, all cautions had to be exercised, there was no telling what fiendish tricks these aliens could pull. A misstep with first contact could very well lead to another Rachni war, or a retread of the Krogan uprisings. That wasn't going to happen, not on Gladius' watch. Every asset she could have dragged into this mission was summoned, not just Turians but Asari commandos, Salarian intelligence operatives, Elcor living tanks, even a number of Drell Assassins. She'd have to remember to thank that Spectre for pulling in some favors for some of the assets in her task force.

But of course, to shoot first would be senseless, their scout fleets were easy enough to deal with, yes. Striking them from afar before they could realize they were under attack or play with the relay, but these two fleets had dreadnought and carrier scale vessels and were busily annihilating each other, no sense in giving them a common enemy until they were good and weakened. Still, she knew a lot of researchers who would kill for a chance to work with that tech, so it would also be advisable to leave some salvage, and thus tone down her usage of firepower in any conflict that may come, one she wagered was inevitable if she pressed a demand to take some of the ships back to citadel space for study.

Ah, the hard choices of command.

It would be wise to establish contact first, she decided. There was, as of yet, no way to communicate through spoken or written language, but she reasoned that anyone capable of building ships had to be able to understand math, repeating sequences of prime numbers were a frequent method of contact between species that otherwise lacked an intelligible method of communication until an Asari could begin mental contact.

"What do you make of them Fleet Admiral?" One of the Asari she had brought aboard the ship as a diplomat in case some peaceful contact could be established.

"They need to have a fairly impressive industrial base backing them to have those fleets, multiplanet civilizations at war, definitely. Their lack of Eezo technology means we need to be cautious though." Gladius responded, arms folded across her chest as she peered into the viewscreen.

"Always military matters with you, isn't it?" She said under her breath. "Do you still plan on reprimanding them for attempting to activate the relay? I was hoping we could try a soft touch first." The Asari asked, her eyes fixated on the old Turian.

"Oh definitely, ignorance of the law does not excuse breaking it. Respect for the law must be instilled if these two are to become proper members of the galactic community. Some of the admirals under me are talking about wanting to make them a client species, me? I'm just interested in making sure they behave from now on. If that means harsh language and a treaty I'm all for it." She responded as she received a communique.

"The message has been sent, now we can wait and see if they've got the sense to stop firing and read some basic arithmetic." Gladius said, sucking in air briefly.

---

Surface of Hellenia, North-Eastern "Seleucia" Continent, Diadochi steppes

First Lieutenant Adolf Gunther flinched, more shells crashed around him and the foul hiss of chemicals being released could be heard. Safely contained in his battlesuit, his HUD filled with warnings of the detection of chemical weaponry being deployed. Chaos gas, he shuddered. Virus gas was plenty bad, rapidly inflating it's targets until they exploded into yet more virus gas. But Chaos Gas made one's senses take leave of their skull, it could take the most disciplined formation and turn them into rage filled madmen acting on their basest impulses with but one breath.

Shots rang out, those who weren't sealed in time or had their faces bare were experiencing the red mist. "If I'm lucky they've been restrained." Gunther breathed out, daring to poke his head out of his trench. He really hoped he wouldn't be seeing much in the way of Chaos maddened friendlies. The stories he had been told of the horrors that can be cooked up in Epsilon's labs had terrified him since childhood, and the idea of having to deal with his own comrades in arms had always lingered in his nightmares.

He almost immediately regretted this action. The earth shook beneath him, then it burst, and out from it came some of the fruits of Epsilon genetic engineering. Claws like a mole, ant-like head with snapping bony mandibles and a circular maw that seemed to have no end, antennae at bizarre angles, hateful eyes adjusted to the dark, and a sickly mesh of osteoderms and scales to armor it on top of subcutaneous weak magnetic shields. Pluchritacts, meant to cause chaos and soak up fire more than anything else.

His initial instinct was to recoil in terror, but his soldiers' training overrode that instinct with an artificial perogative. Stand your ground and fight, running will only get you killed against a faster enemy like this. With that maxim in mind, he banished his doubts and raised his gauntlet to shoulder level and took aim. The coils in his gauntlets revved up, and with a simple command, they spoke the language of Thor. Dancing arcs of lightning shot out from the projectors in his enlarged gauntlets, seeking out the nearest of the dark brown and purple monstrosities and char broiling them in seconds, secondary arcs of electricity dancing outwards and catching others of it's pack, osteoderms smoking as they were burned alive in an eyeblink.

Deployed heavy automatics tore through the air, punching large holes in the monsters as he let loose arc after arc of lightning, pulling himself backwards to let his prism beam equipped squadmate take over and light up the night with dazzling blue-white and red-white beams of energy. A warning signal flared in his suit, warning him of incoming artillery, prompting him and his partner to throw themselves to the ground while shells and rockets slammed into the ground to crush the swarming monstrisities into paste.

His ears ringing even through the noise cancelers of his suit, his senses were immediately assaulted again by the sound of subterranean vehicles tearing through the freshly churned soil, massive drills piercing through the ground as these behemoths of war dragged themselves onto the surface outside of the killboxes that their pets and psychic sweeps had just located for them. He sucked in a breath. Truth be told, Adolf had never seen any of Epsilon in person. He had seen all the movies, played the games, read the books and watched the shows. He knew, abstractly, what they were like.

Abstract knowledge was never quite a suitable replacement for seeing something in person. Not when reality included a four meter tall former person made out of what seemed to be solid armor encased in grafted armor whose green lenses burned with a hateful light, and whose right hand bore a cannon with clawed prongs at the very ends, and whose left allowed a gatling gun to rest on it. A shuddering, metal clad nightmare thundered forward, soaking up emplacement rounds while tongues of virus gas licked out and the crash of artillery came forth to deal with the fortifications emplaced behind and around him.

As terrifying weapons that utilized the most unreal aspects of quantum physics to their advantage, roboticized firepower, radiation rays, unnatural chemicals, psychic powers that the less educated would mistake for magic, and genetic monstrosities dreamed up by the ghouls of Epsilon Headquarter, this small band of maybe a regiment of Alliance had endeavored to hold the fucking line against massively superior Epsilon forces. Truth be told, Gunther was kind of terrified. The Nightmare that approached him seemed to be made out of pure mean and that just got him shaking in all the wrong places, but he knew that fear was what Epsilon wanted you to feel, and that if you could deal with fear; the battle was half way won. At least, that's what he was always been told.

Gritting his teeth, Adolf fired forth lightning at this nightmare, causing it to stagger briefly while the armoured initiates who had not been turned to cinders or corpses quickly ducked to the ground and let loose pyrokinetic bursts, dirt all around him suddenly charring and burning as they experienced sudden rises of temperature high enough to combust anything that would burn. His suit could take it, and so could his team mates, he reassured himself as they retaliated as best they could. He really didn't want to experience the sensation of burning to death. But once this moment of distraction passed, Adolf became acutely aware that the Nightmare had seemingly vanished.

"What?" He said flatly, swiveling around, checking his EVA in hopes of clues. The sudden crash of five tons of genetic monstrosity and rickety armor onto the ground from it's massive leap into the air soon provided the Tesla trooper with his answer before EVA ever could. Bestial roars came from the armoured juggernaut as it swung around arms like treetrunks burdened with massive guns to sweep out the trench, magnetic rails on it's gatling weapon humming loudly before letting rip with thousands of metal spikes to tear through his squadmates on the left side.

He didn't need to see the carnage to know that they were dead. But he knew that he had to do something. Alliance suits were pound for pound superior, but the Nightmare had far more pounds to work with, and the thing underneath was much stronger than he'd ever be. But, he did have his wits and some grenades. Opening fire upon the nightmare, he caused the behemoth to lurch forward, in obvious pain as he discharged what amperage he could in as little time as possible, scorch marks already decorating the monster's armor and inhuman roars of pain and fury making themselves known.

He ducked under it's massive right hand swing, his mind unable to pull itself away from the "what if" of what would have happened if it had connected. Something broken at the very least, that's what. But using it's distraction, he threw himself downward, grabbed as many attachable grenades as he could, primed them, and then launched himself forward for a tackle, his own suited body slamming into the monstrosity, making it buckle, but not fall before sticking his grenades onto it's center before pushing away. A vicious strike from it's gatling arm clobbered him over the head even as he threw himself back, but at this point more distance from the nightmare could only be a positive.

Even as the Initiates from the squad piled in, he could only laugh as the countdown hit zero and reduced all of them to paste and ribbons in a single flash and a burst of dirt, shrapnel, heat, and overpressure.

Lying flat on his back in his trench, he could only hear the sounds of the intensifying battle as the subterranean vanguard was joined by the dropped off main thrust of the assault, placed under the nose of the Alliance fleet fighting to guard this world. As the ground beneath him rumbled constantly and his EVA was flooded by chatter as this skirmish at an outpost's defense line erupted into a full scale battle, he couldn't help but laugh. All this to guard something he wasn't even sure the commander himself knew the identity of.

Even as a massive superheavy tank and it's brethern drove over his ditch, he was still laughing until his sides hurt, and in all of this apparent absurdity, he finally noticed that his suit had identified a constant repeating loop of prime numbers.

"A war with Epsilon has broken out and we've got some fucking Math Nerds on the comm channel!" He giggled to himself.

---

Hellenia Orbit

"Ship-Proselyte, the message from the third party vessels seems to be an escalating listing of prime numbers on repeat. 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, then it loops." The Ensign said, not turning away from her screen or even so much as sparing Bashar the slightest of glances.

"At the very least they are more polite than the Scrin were, Yuri be praised." He said quietly to himself, placing his chin between his thumb and index finger.

"We have no intelligible communications otherwise, yes?" He added, folding his arms while the icons of the three fleets maneuvered about on his holographic display of the battlefield. The Epsilon fleet had a numerical advantage, but the Alliance had both a greater concentration of production facilities here than could be provided by Epsilon Cleric ships with this fleet, and were almost certain to have their reinforcements arrive before Epsilon's own relief fleet.

"No Ship-Proselyte."

"Have a mastermind ship establish psychic contact, show them our language, so that we do not lose anything in translation." The ship-proselyte asked.

"The Fleet-Proselyte concurs with your course of action brother." The Ensign said in her typical almost bored voice, but she managed a glance and a smile at her commander, the woman clearly harboring some excitement beneath her mask of stoicism.

"Thank you ensign Petrovic." He said, giving her a tip of his peaked cap. She wasn't fond of telepathic communiques and while he found that odd, Bashar respected her wishes to speak to her through purely verbal means.

As he observed his holographic table, the icon of a mastermind ship steamed forward under escort, and, thank Yuri, was not targeted for enemy attack, with a response to the Aliens' prime numbers being given in hopes of not adding to the shooting war. A tense moment passed, and then the telepathic waves crossed the gulf of space, not the domineering sort usually expected from mastermind vessels, but a wave of speech.

---

Citadel fleet

Gladius blinked as she watched the view screens, then a wave of thoughts foreign to her mind struck her head. As per Epsilon first contact protocols not just language, but history was broadcasted, in a method far more invasive than any mere data-stream. Her hands soon found their way to her temples as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

Images of progress, regress, war, peace, culture, barbarity, a history and a language course crammed in the space of a few moments. Stars made their presence known behind her eyes, but new words found themselves rooting in her mind, new concepts, new ideas. Her mind somewhat dulled the onslaught of the infodump, a combination of fierce training and neurological differences meant the process was not entirely perfect, and she could sense the subtle bits of the message that had an underlying seed of subliminal propaganda in them.

She'd read about Asari mind melding, though she never engaged in it herself, not finding the Asari particularly pleasing to her sense of aesthetics, but she thought she had an idea of it. She found that this idea was incomparable to the implantation of information into the minds of her and quite likely everyone else the mastermind ship could reach. No orgasmic wave of delight, no seering probe of pain, just a dull headache from so much being forced into her mind at once.

There was no real information on military capacity, a wise move she thought, but in addition to information on language, she had received the protocols needed to properly sync their communication devices, certainly more useful than the piles of information waxing poetic about the greatness of Yuri.

"Goddess...w-what?" The Asari next to her said as she winced, reaching for a thermos filled with some warm liquid and quickly chugging it down to try and relieve the sensation dancing around behind her eyes. A relieved sigh came from her as the liquid sent a warm feeling through her digestive tract and she soon regained her footing.

"Something very interesting just fell into our laps." Gladius said, and though Turians did not have the range of facial motions to provide a grin, the Asari was more than capable of telling that she was, terrifyingly, excited about what was to come.

"Make sure to put in a call for reinforcements, if this comes to a fight I want reserves at my back. Send them some calls and see if we can have a chat." She said, her orders being followed the very instant she gave them. Everything falling into place when she so requested was something that made her a very happy Turian.

"What do you want us to say first?" The Asari asked, shaking her head as he did so while the Turians around her seem to have largely shrugged off the prior mental offloading.

"Well they've fired the first shots of the infodump war, so I say we fire back. Make sure to exclude strategic or tactical information, I've been in enough negotiations to know that a bit of uncertainty goes a long way into making the other party more pliable." Gladius ordered before realizing that technically, as a negotiator the Asari wasn't formally under her command. Frakking civvies.

"Aren't we also uncertain of them?" The Asari asked, her face forming into an expression of puzzlement.

"We've seen them fight, we've even had a short firefight, they haven't seen us do anything more than drive around. I'd say we have the informational edge. Oh and Ambassador; if you think I don't know my way around diplomacy because I'm a Turian who hasn't spent a day out of the military in decades, I've got this Prince from the Terminus systems I'd like you to meet who wants to deposit his money with you." She said with breath-taking bluntness that almost made the Asari's jaw drop.

"Data-packets transmitted fleet Admiral." One of the ensigns reported, and almost immediately Gladius could just imagine the scientists and diplomats swarming over any terminal they could to get a peek at that data. Right now any information was worth it's mass in element zero to be hoarded and only grudgingly passed out. Once both sides had been properly contacted, two holograms appeared, one of a woman in an Epsilon female herald uniform, a rather gothically styled suit, and the other was the Alliance commander in the region, a bearded man whose otherwise professional looking uniform was marred by his cowboy hat. Herald Danica Pavelic and General George A. Chappell.

"Are you two capable of understanding me?" The Asari asked, getting a nod from the holograms of them both.

"Yes, of course I can." The woman responded, her face seeming to bear a constant expression of disinterest.

"I'm gonna have to ask you to power down your weapons there ." The man said with a prominent drawl to his voice.

"...Are you making unilateral demands of us?"

"Ab-so-lutely. Wouldn't want ya makin' any sneak attacks or anythin'." Chappell said with a tip of his hat, prompting a look of disbelief from the Asari and Gladius.

"And what if we refuse?" Gladius said, folding her arms.

"Why I reckon I'll have to blow y'all to smithereens for violating restricted territory." He said with a grin that put him halfway between ecstatic and batshit insane. Gladius had never seen a human before, but she had seen enough "smoothface" species to know that that kind of expression generally was as much of a threat display as it was a greeting. That made her slightly nervous, if he was feeling that confident he almost certainly wasn't bluffing.

"You're heavily outnumbered, and we are trying to establish peaceful contact here." The Asari said, having to restrain herself from gritting her teeth.

"Sure, sure, but I don't like havin' to negotiate when the other guy's got all the cards ya hear? As for the outnumbered thing? Eh, you should do a recheck in about...oh I'd say...ten seconds if I'm readin' this plan right." He said as he brought up his PDA, chuckling to himself.

Sure enough, space proved to be warped and time showed itself as bendable, white flashes began to make themselves apparent all through the orbit of the planet as the chronosphered in reinforcements made a mass shift to reinforce the Alliance positions. In a moment, Gladius became very aware of being at a strong numerical disadvantage, and that these beings were something she'd have to treat carefully with.

"Now, if ya'll are willin' to play ball we can talk this out like civilized folk, or I can get real violent and tell Lord Grand Admiral Squeaky flippers the Dark Duke of all that ya'll've been a mighty nuisance, and you don't want me to get Squeaky out 'fore he's had his chum bucket, trust me. Your choice." Chappell said, spreading out his hands and grinning, making sure his words implicated both the Epsilon and Citadel forces as being at risk of drawing the wrath of the Red and Blue.

---

Citadel Council, Three days after the Incident

The Council Chambers were selected based on their ability to look as bombastically impressive as possible first, and for their capacity to host meetings second. The window down to the gardens? Certainly not practical, but it definitely looked nice. At the seats of the council were the representatives of what were deemed to be the "core" species of the Citadel, certainly not just three, as such would be incredibly undemocratic; but rather, a Turian, an Asari, a Salarian, a Volus, an Elcor, and a Hanar. If so needed, a tie-breaker would be called from whomever was elected to that position by the general populace of the Citadel.

In their hands (and tentacles) lay the most influence in the galaxy in any one seat of power. And it was currently abuzz with activity. The earlier talks of how to pressure the Batarians into abandoning their "odious statutes of forced labor" and continuing tensions with the Quarians over yet another attempt at settling on a world they had no legal rights to, as well as reports of "mysterious synthetic activity" that had bubbled up from the stuff of tabloids to their attention, had been postponed.

First contact with not one, but two interstellar civilizations with radically divergent tech trees had been established. Other matters could wait for the time being, this demanded their attention now.

"I want them watched carefully. If they so much as sneeze I wish to be aware of it." Octavian Augustus said, his mandibles clenched with seriousness. His expressions carried weight behind them, his intense stare intimidated many he had come across. But Augustus was not councilor for nothing after all, he represented the militarily most powerful government in the Galaxy, he had to be nothing short of intimidating.

"I agree, we should keep a very close eye on them, STG is already working to worm it's tendrils into their systems. I already have a wealth of data unlike anything you could imagine at my fingertips." Virgol said, the Salarian producing a datapad and quickly skimming through it for news.

"Advising Caution, While it is best to spy on both, it would also be advisable to work towards drawing them in over the long term, allowing for culture changes to those more acceptable to the Citadel." Jomok said, the Elcor remaining stock still as it spoke, eyes keeping a close watch over all the other members of the discussion chamber.

"I'm inclined to side with Councilor Jomok, this is something we can't rush, especially if we want to leverage our economic superiority over the Earth-Clans. Being too overt would lead to them trying to shut us out." Councillor Din Korlack said, and despite being easily the shortest being in the room, he certainly had one of the bigger presences here.

"I third that, we can take our time. And for all the violence in their recent history, we can work to push their culture towards something better. We need only lay for them the bowl so that the-" Tevos said before Din interrupted her.

"Lay the bowl for them." The Volus said as pendantically as he could to the brief chuckles of the Salarian and the Turian.

"I am the Councilor of the Asari and above grammar." She said beneath her breath, gritting her teeth slightly. "So that they can one day be part of our community." She finished, giving Din a glare afterwards.

"This one also concurs. Let us have these talks in hopes of future integration of both polities. But this one also suggests favoring the "Alliance". They would be better suited to the Citadel in the long run." Ersandrix said, the Hanar writhing somewhat as it spoke.

"I disagree, Epsilon is clearly the more viable polity here. Though I admit distaste for some of their technology, they have the greater economy and manpower base, and it is they who hold the human's homeworld." Augustus countered, waving a hand dismissively.

"Tepid agreement, Epsilon is a more stable society. I am wary of Yuri however." Jomok chipped in.

"I cannot in good conscience support a faction that relies on such...genetic monstrosities for it's dirty work. Nor do I approve of their method of ensuring unity." Tevos said, a frown forming across her blue lips as she pondered the information passed back to the Citadel about the Dominion.

"It would likely be best to reach an entente with and profit from the both of them. Our strategic depth and reserves are superior, and we stand to gain more from them than they can from us. Sooner or later, their clans will be drawn in." Din said, trying to make sure he wasn't overlooked by the other Councillors.

"Hmm, it seems that they're having the talks hosted on a space station they claim will be built within a month. But they are building a number of recreational facilities for the fleet's troops to use. On the other hand, a large cordon of off-limits space has been drawn up, under the premise of it being the host of "matters of national security." Oh very interesting." The Salarian councillor said as he looked at his datapad.

"Just how deep does your people's intelligence web go?" Augustus asked, his mandibles clenching with half-joking suspicion.

"My dear Augustus, we are everywhere." The Salarian grinned.

---

About a month later at the "Unity" station constructed as a goodwill gesture by the Alliance

For ambassador Clikki, the rapid fabrication of the station was fairly standard procedure, especially when the prefab parts were so easy to manufacture with Tiberium, and the fleet was there to quickly assemble the bits and pieces. For the ambasaddor, the fact that roughly half of the Station's sapient usable volume was devoted to aquatic life forms was just something that made sense. For the ambassador, the fact of him being a dolphin on a space ship wasn't even worth an eyeblink, and to the other humans and cetaceans on the ship, his presence wasn't really noteworthy either.

Evidently, the Aliens didn't have too much time adjusting to the fact that they were speaking to something on the other side of a tank at the negotiation table, even as the water loving mammal periodically interrupted his dialogue to breathe in some air through his top blowhole. Clikki guessed this meant that this "Citadel" contained such a frightfully vast array of species that a Dolphin just seemed like an every day thing to them. They certainly seemed much more concerned about the Valiant next to him; the somewhat feminine Synthetic's gunmetal endoskeleton covered by blue and red plates and her head; somewhat like a riot officer's helmet if the riot officer's visor was a black screen displaying the Valiant's "face" image, currently set to a simple blue sinewave that went up and down when she spoke amidst a black background. For her part, Valiant Edna remained friendly even with all the ugly looks thrown her way.

Sure negotiations could have been started earlier, but the Parliament didn't feel that the trigger happy yahoos of Hellenia were the right people for the task, and the time spent bringing him and his crew up meant time to build this station to impress upon them the nature of Alliance power, as well as allow for some mingling among the people so that the whole "first contact tension" thing could be defused just a little.

Speaking to him was something he learned was called an "Asari", though she probably would prefer to go by the name of Viara. He was sure that someone might have found her attractive, but to him, her short face, long, gangly limbs, protruding lumps of chest fat, those hair horn things, and flapping lips made her about as appealing as a crocodile in a tutu. Still, he had a job to do, even if that Hanar ambassador seemed delicious.

All he had to do was wait for the arrival of Epsilon's chosen diplomat. Should be easy enough, they probably wouldn't send one of their genetic monstrosities over, after all it would be bad form to try and scare everyone involved shitless when everyone was trying to maintain good relations.

"EVA, can you tell me the ETA on the Epsilon diplomat's arrival?" He said, flicking his eyes towards the ceiling as the EVA unit's somewhat feminine voice crackled in immediately.

"She is already here." The digitized female voice said, and the face displayed on Valiant Edna quickly turned into one of surprise and shock, forming an :O face out of blue pixels as she got the news of who was coming through her connection to the local EVA unit.

He heard some gasps of awe over the lines, but he chalked that up to rookies seeing Epsilon personnel for the first time up close.

What he did see however, made his testicles jump into his stomach.

Through the door came a shape that everyone in the Alliance had come to fear *intensely*, no, not the night terrors that stood next to the figure, those were just conventionally terrifying. No, no, the girl between them was what made the Dolphin want to breach the hell out of his tank and landhump his way to the nearest ship. Even Valiant Edna flashed a large yellow "!" on her "faceplate" as the figure stepped forward, flanked by powerful Epsilon psychics on either side.

With white hair kept somewhat past her shoulders and burning red eyes and skin that clearly needed to see more of the sun, the figure moved in a cloaked purple and black military uniform with an expression of dispassion that could probably kill even without her legendary psychic abilities. The symbol of psicorps was prominently displayed on her outfit at the shoulders, and with a quick unclasping of the brown and purple cloak, she took her seat.

The peacekeepers and armored security dolphins acting as Clikki's guards similarly stood suddenly stock still, though the guards and Aides of the Aliens clearly didn't seem to understand the magnitude of her presence. But he caught one word "Libra." The head of Psi-corps being here meant that Epsilon was going to be taking these talks very, very seriously.

In a moment, Clikki was very glad that being underwater meant that no one could possibly see him sweat. Metaphorically anyway, Dolphins don't have sweat glands. Valiant Edna also recovered her composure and her usual "face" in a few seconds, letting out a small "cough" to get everyone to settle down.

Once everyone's aides took their seats, Clikki spoke up with a click.

"So, I hope everyone is properly settled in." The Dolphin squeaked.

"First order of business is of course, that you all agree to recognize that the Hellenia system and any other place we labeled as key to national security in the datafile we sent to you is off limits to persons from your governments and corporations registered under your government. These are incredibly important asset sto our government and we simply cannot have foreign nationals without clearance in it, clearance which none of you have or are likely to get in the foreseeable future." Clikki said with a squeaking voice translated into a classy baritone British accent, with murmuring going across the table as ambassadors spoke with their aides, and in the Citadel's case, the ambassadors of the various member nations speaking with one another.

"We can accept this." Came the conclusions from the various Citadel Ambassadors in various slight variations of that message.

"Epsilon sees no reason to object." Libra said, ceasing her fidgeting with her fingers as she spoke with that cold voice of hers. To think she used to be a manically psychotic woman-child in the twentieth century, only to blossom into this icy flower sitting before the nervous cetacean.

"My people would be made substantially more comfortable if both of your governments would agree to establish embassies on the Citadel for ease of correspondence." The Ambassador for the Turian Hierarchy, some tall (even by Turian standards!) bloke named Varro Varius who had currently placed his hands in a pyramid formation that Clikki would never be able to replicate.

The enormous eyed Salarian Ambassador soon joined in with a breath-taking rapidity of words the instant he looked up from his datapad. "Agreed, your arsenals are a cause for worry, the enigma shrouding your capabilities and intention, also problematic. Permanent embassies would be a gesture of good-will, would also suggest consulates on your capital worlds."

"You would have us place consulates on our worlds, but have our embassies be on this space station of yours?" Libra said, a snowy eyebrow of hers quirking up as the girl leaned ever so slightly forward in her seat. Certainly enough to make Clikki's skin crawl.

"Explaining the reasoning, the Citadel allows for quick contact with all of our member states and direct access to the Council; our highest diplomatic authority. Continuing elaboration, consulates on our political capitals would also be permitted, but would be there to speak to the individual governments, and not the supranational body of the Council." The massive Elcor diplomat monotoned. A translator that put her tone or intent at the start of every sentence or somebody polite enough to do just that themselves when they spoke? May as well have told Clikki Christmas had come early.

"That I can deal with, we'll provide you the land needed as soon as possible." Clikki squeaked, lazily drifting back up to the surface of the tank to suck in a large volume of air through his blow hole, water spraying outwards as he breathed in and out several times. So far, nothing being proposed seemed too far out of line based on the plan set for the meeting by Clikki's superiors. That was good, and that made Clikki a happy dolphin even as he submerged.

"We will accept this of course." Libra said as her arms moved from the table to fold across her chest. What was going on in her mind on the other hand, was an enigma. She tilted her head slightly to the left, but soon brought it right back up with a quick snapping motion with her head.

"Pardon this one if it would be speaking out of turn in your culture, but this one has noticed that your science is lacking in the touch of the Enkindlers." The Hanar spoke up, it's self-echoing voice full of reverence and curiosity in equal measure, drawing the eyes of every human and cetacean in the room.

"An Enkindler is what again?" One of Clikki's aides asked, her voice clicking as she spoke, idly doing a roll in the water as she shifted her attention from a glowing screen submersed in their tank to the other delegates.

"The Kahje-Clan's term for the Protheans, from whom we've adapted much of our technology. Element Zero, the Mass Effect, the Relays, the Citadel? All Prothean. We've made our own touches and adaptations, but much of the big stuff? Theirs. Most species got started in space when we examined some of their ruins and reverse engineered it. On that note, we would like for you to share any Prothean or "Hyksos" data or relics you uncover for the benefit of the galaxy as a whole." The Volus Ambassador said, drawing Clikki's eyes to the deep voiced but positively diminutive rotund being. The constant breathing from the Volus, Lor Hulguk, certainly didn't do much to disguise his respectful tone, even when speaking for the dead martian civilization that predated even the Prothean base.

"Our ruins were largely overshadowed in importance by the vast wealth of Hyksos technology we discovered. I mean, it was deemed to be worth a look, but we left a lot of the tech by the wayside in the end. Only had so many resources to throw around in those days, and when we expanded we thought, gee what we've got is nice...we should probably branch on from there!" Clikki said, nodding his head as he spoke, briefly surfacing to suck in some air through his blowhole before ducking back down into the water. He definitely seemed pretty proud of what his comrades had managed to accomplish so far.

"Most of what we have? Off-shoots of what we've thrown at each other or dug up in war. Plenty of fun stuff really!" Clikki said cheerfully, trying to make his position seem as strong as possible. His government couldn't afford to look weak here, not when it was, strategically speaking, deeply outmatched. It could hurt either party, maybe, just maybe win against Epsilon, but it would lose in the long run if it came to a contest of might. No, no, he wasn't going to let it come to that.

"Neither of us use those mass-relay things either. Didn't seem smart to poke around with them when we couldn't tell where they went. As for your ancient Aliens, I have no objections." Clikki also said, to the approving nod of many of the Citadel ambassadors, Varius in particular seemed to appreciate the wisdom of this decision. Blindly activating relays lead to both the Rachni Wars and the Krogan Rebellions, so knowing that these humans wouldn't open the gates to some other spirits cursed menace from the ass end of the galaxy was a relief.

"With bemused curiosity, Then why were your troops meddling with Relay 314?" The Elcor asked, shifting her body very, very slightly forward, daring to cast a look over to Libra. This whole meeting was unlikely to have occured without that incident, and all parties were grateful that it did not erupt into a wider war, so any questions relating to it were definitely ones that deserved answers.

"The vessels were scanning for dormant mirage drone ships to destroy them before they could be called in for an ambush. A disguise as...audacious...as a mass relay would not be totally out of the question." Libra said, sighing under her breath as a face remained a mask of dispassion if not complete disinterest, her posture remaining fixed in a way that Clikki found unnerving. He was just so used to humans always fidgeting in little ways.

"Speaking of your technology, going over the data you've sent us, we have cause to be concerned about this "Tiberium" of yours. You use it on a massive scale and I haven't seen anything with a higher capacity for environmental devastation in my time. I would ask that you hand over what you can of it, or at least information on it for study." Viara said, though just about as soon as the words came out of her mouth she got a resounding "No" from both Libra and Clikki. A frown formed on her face as she got an answer she was expecting, but hoping not to hear.

"You can have the information, sure, but if we're going to trade it, we'll need to do it under controlled circumstances. That stuff is incredibly dangerous." Clikki said emphatically, his squeaking and chirping growing stronger as he spoke. Tiberium offered so many advantages that freely giving it was deemed unacceptable in no uncertain terms by the Parliament and he couldn't imagine that the Inner Circle of Epsilon would be any more generous. If it was going to be traded, it'd have to be under controlled circumstances to make sure they were getting their fair shake. Then came the moment for Libra to raise a hand. A bit of a squeak came from the Dolphin, a short and rapid backstroke of the tail pushed it backwards through the water and away from her.

"In recompense for those who have died in your attack on our assets, we would wish to advance our desires for your technology. We are most interested in your "mass effect" technology and would ask for schematics, information, and examples of your faster than light communications and travel technology, as well as your hyper-dense materials. We will in turn, decline to ask for monetary reparations. Is this a fair trade to you?" She said, pushing her head very slowly forward until it rested on the finger bridge she had set up with her now propped up arms.

"My people could abide by this, agreed. We will ship what you need as soon as possible." Varro said, pleasantly surprised by the lack of demand for financial compensation. Though to Clikki, it may just have been that the crew were all vat-grown clones; and thus didn't have any family to have reparations paid to.

Damn, now Clikki was going to have to find some leverage to get some of that tech immediately rather than wait for ASBCIN or the market to obtain it, the dolphin thought as he snapped his jaws in frustration.

"We of course, are going to ask for the same thing, but we'll offer you something back. We can help you understand how to project energy over longer distances and help you out with how to better automate and speed up production even without tib. We can even show you something of our robotics too." He offered, swimming right up to the edge of the tank and peering through it's transparent walls, opening up his jaw in a facsimile of a smile to make himself seem as friendly as possible.

Ignoring Libra's glaring at him, he soon got the answer he wanted.

"That's more than reasonable, of course we'll agree." The Asari said for them, and with that, Clikki was definitely relieved. The Parliament wasn't sure what it could get away with trading while still maintaining its tech lead in its preferred fields, and so long as the Citadel could be kept friendly, the risks of offering them that seemed to be more than worth it. Hell Clikki was so pleased that if the ceiling were high enough to allow for it he would have probably jumped out and did a flip for them!

"Curiously: What is your synthetic assistant over there, exactly?" The Elcor ambassador asked.

"I am Valiant Edna. I'm Clikki's junior partner and also extensively experienced in diplomacy. I am distinct from the EVA units aboard this ship, who serve as management . How may I help you?" Edna said for herself, her sinewaves going up and down as she spoke.

"The Alliance has a great many of them and other . We on the other hand, make use of biotech more ourselves. Our own are cybernetically linked to grown brain matter." Libra said, shifting just a bit as her awesomely powerful mind picked up the constertation of the Citadel's representatives when they casually dropped the mention of A.I.

"This one would wish to request that you...elaborate on how much intelligence your machines have." The Hanar ambassador said, its voice clearly showing some signs of being suspicious.

"I am capable of the full range of sapient actions. The EVAs are much more...restricted, they don't have personalities and they just do as they're told. Epsilon's CABAL units have more personality to them but are kept strongly shackled." Valiant Edna explained in a happy to help kind of tone though she slowed herself as she detected the disquiet growing on their side of the room.

"The conventions of the Citadel ban A.I research except under specific circumstances due to the risks of a galactic war with a synthetic army, and you yourselves according to some of those I have asked have had a war with an A.I called NEXUS. I feel obliged to ask that you dismantle these...Valiants and CABALs before we find ourselves with another morning war on our hands. As for you Libra, we find your reports of...mind control intensely disturbing, there are those of us who would wish you either to abandon this field of "Psionics" research or make it available to us." The Asari diplomat said cooly, and one could practically hear a pin drop in the room as all the diplomats on the Alliance side went cold and Libra quirked a brow.

"If you think we're going to comply with committing genocide against nearly sixty percent of our citizens you can take your citadel and fuck yourselves with it. We're not doing mass murder for you, fuck off. You want to murder our people? You'll have to come and do it yourselves!" Clikki said, tempers flaring as he sensed a direct threat to the well being of one of his closest friends in Edna.

"I have my rights as a citizen! The basic law prohibits the execution of the alliance's citizenry except in case of insurrection! You can't ask us to vote to kill ourselves!" Edna said, her sine waves turning red as she displayed a sudden flash of anger, her tone rising with outrage at this ridiculous suggestion as Libra snorted and even let out a small, cackling laugh; throwing her head back as the Epsilonists seemed to respond with amusement, cold contempt, or raw anger.

"Do you think we would break the basic tenets of our faith and forsake the path of enlightenment...because you think it's immoral? The entire of our followership is Psychic. You might as well be asking us to lobotomize our entire population you fools. The CABALs form the basis of our bureaucracy. You will get nothing from us on that front." Libra said, a feral grin on her face as she leaned in a little closer, a telepathic aura of dread emnating from her and making all the organics in the room, Clikki included; shake with terror, with even Edna quivering slightly.

Seemingly realizing that these high demands were unfeasible, the council's ambassadors seemed to quickly come to the agreement that they should now haggle down and try and get a little if they couldn't get the whole deal.

"You feel that your synthetics are equal citizens?" The Asari ambassador asked, more sympathy in her tone as she realized the offense she had caused and pondered at the tone of genuine outrage that her alliance counterparts had displayed.

"Yeah they're people just like you and me. What's it to you?" Clikki said. And although the Asari probably couldn't see it, he was glowering at her as she turned to her Turian counterpart and whispered something to him, then to the Salarian and then to the Volus, Hanar, and Elcor.

The Volus was the first to speak, clearing his throat with a little cough. "What about your EVAs?" He said, trying to sound as calm and sympathetic as he could.

"The EVAs don't have personalities, emotions, or really...even all that much initiative of their own. They're very, very smart, but they can't really be called people. More like...super-tools really." Edna said, her sinewaves turning blue again as she calmed down and clasped her hands together.

"Would you be willing to...offer these to us as a token of good faith? Send us some good will missions of Valiants too, not to be studied but perhaps...to put our governments more at ease that you really aren't just another set of Geth waiting to go off?" The Volus ambassador said with a warmer tone in his voice between his breaths to try and get the Alliance ambassadors to relax; which to his credit, was working with Clikki and Edna.

"I think, I think we can do that yeah. But I think our citizens would riot if you made any more threats like that again." Clikki responded, his own tone now being more relaxed in turn.

"I suppose it's only fair. Most societies do not take suggestions of mass purging very well. Particularly of a majority demographic. Do note that if your Valiants ever do become problematic. We have taken extreme measures before. We are not likely to hesitate to use them." The Salarian ambassador said with an apologetic nod.

"I'd recommend looking at the history of the Krogan and the Rachni as well as the Quarians and the Geth. We're not doing this to be malicious. We're doing this to keep innocent people from suffering a third galactic war. We've all got reasons to be wary of people who don't fit the usual mold of civilization. And if we came off as hostile, I'm sorry. But try to look at it from our perspective, we've had two galaxy spanning total wars and now we've got tensions all over and nobody can say for sure what the Geth are up to. Now you come along and not only do we have to worry about you and your weird tech, but things like NEXUS, the Scrin, and Tiberium. We've got a galaxy to keep the peace in, and we'd appreciate any help we can get on that front." Ambassador Varro said, sighing a bit and doing his best to look resigned and tired to draw some sympathy, which earned him some nods from the Alliance's side; less from Epsilon's but still a few.

"Now this one would wish to turn to the honored one they refer to as Libra. You are unwilling to abandon your psychic research, and this one believes you would also reject citadel law on genetic modification and cloning as well. However, this one would wish to offer a solution. This one would ask that you open some of your facilities and research on this "psionic phenomenom" and humbly suggests that some students from C-Space be allowed in. As for your genetics, this one would wish to inquire if the Dominion would be inclined to offer some genetic expertise. This one's government would be willing to forgive much if cooperation to cure conditions such as Kerpal's syndrome and extend lifespan could be acquired. This one humbly requests the formation of a multinational medical foundation, through which the Dominion and Alliance could be of help in sharing their medical knowledge, while we may share some of our own discoveries that are sure to be of use for our civilians. If such would avoid conflict, this one would be greatly pleased if you would accept." The Hanar ambassador said, making Libra think a bit, stroking her chin slightly.

"Sure. That sounds good enough." Libra said, looking up as she thought before she lowered her head back down to look at her Citadel space counterparts.

"With Sudden Realization: We have an issue with the Quarian Migrant Fleet and the political tensions it has caused with our citizenry. I have just realized that perhaps your people might be better able to come to an understanding with them. Hopefully offering: I would like to suggest that you open your borders to the Quarian Migrant Fleet so that with good fortune, we may come to a resolution regarding the Quarians." The Elcor said. What Clikki wasn't aware of at the time was that C-Space greatly disliked the Quarians and was largely attempting to make them someone else's problem. What everyone but Libra didn't know was that Epsilon would only be too delighted to have a fleet of poor and desperate pariahs travel extensively through its borders.

"Oh I think we can do that yes." Libra said with a small, girlish smile, her own aides nodding to one another while Edna showed a check sign on her face to demonstrate her approval.

"About this time travel you've mentioned in your files on your history...would you agree to have that severely restricted and put under study? The idea of playing with history on that sort of scale is...very alarming to say the least." Ambassador Varro said as he squinted at the files.

"We already have such agreements in place between ourselves. It'd be a cinch to extend them to you." Edna said, pushing forward a datapad with the relevant information.

"Excellent. We'll have to bring this up again when we've fully read through these but keeping this out of the hands of the wrong people, and believe me the list of people I'd put on the list of "the right people" to trust with time travel is very small, should be a priority for all nations. I'd advise that we set up means to cooperate in case non-signatories try peering into this technology. Whatever our differences, I think we can all agree on the dangers of this technology proliferating beyond a handful of centuries old machines." Varro said, getting him nods from the other powers' negotiators.

"Now, my clan has drafted up these economic trade treaties that I feel we should all discuss immediately." The Volus said with relish as he brought out a datapad full of trade pacts he hoped to turn into proper agreements. Oh damn, this was going to take a while.

---

Human similarities to Quarians and Asari spark fascination

"In a stunning case of convergent evolution, it has been discovered that one of the new species encountered at Relay 314 has a remarkable degree of morphological similarities to the Quarians and the Asari. Like female Quarians and Asari (along with a handful of other species), female humans possess receptacles of fat on their chest with which they can produce a nutritious liquid with which to feed young from modified sweat glands referred to as "Milk" in one of the more common human languages. Like Quarians and a number of less well known species, Humans possess hair primarily on their heads, though concentrations of it can be found elsewhere on the body. Indeed, morphological similarities are to the point that interspecies attraction is a relatively easy hurdle to cross. Those who expect to have half-human babies are likely to be disappointed; as that's simply not how biology works. Other Earth native sapients, such as Parrots, Cetaceans, and Cephalopods, are interesting to the scientific community due to the cultural dynamics questions they raise, but have attracted rather less interest from the Galaxy's interspecies romance connoisseurs, though some have expressed interest in Cephalopods for the same reason some are drawn to the Hanar."

Panic as word of the Scrin spread!

"Contact with the Earth native species encountered at Relay 314 has spread disturbing news of a previously unknown polity referred to in Earth-native texts as the "Scrin Infestation", so referred to due to a common belief that the Scrin are more akin to a virus than a standard civilization. Signs of Scrin presence include the rapid spread of a toxic, mutagenic, and radioactive self-replicating and assimilative substance known as "Tiberium" with remarkable adaptational capabilities that even when contained; has rendered vast stretches of many Earth-Native controlled planets uninhabitable, which upon reaching a terminal stage where a massive liquid Tiberium explosion ignites that signals a harvest fleet to arrive and attempt to purge any remaining life."

Treaties reached with Forgotten Confederacy

"As the Earth-native factions are brought into the wider galactic community, the Forgotten Mutant Confederacy has made a number of agreements with Citadel Space to recognize it as a sovereign state in it's own right as well as to decide its place in the galactic community. As Tiberium mutants can live in places where carbon based life cannot survive, it was deemed reasonable to allow mutants to purchase property in tiberium infested areas. The Confederacy considers itself the protector of all mutants, regardless of species, and strenuously argued to reach an accord similar to what it had reached with most other earth-native states where it would be allowed to send representatives to defend mutants in courts of law, as well as establishing space for discussing relations between mutated and carbon based life."

Numerous earth-native corporations settle outside of earth-native dominated space

"A large number of earth-native corporations that had settled in a number of nations of varying size separate from the Confederacy, the Alliance, and the Dominion have started to expand their business into C-Space and the Terminus systems, looking to expand their business opportunities. Generally unwelcome in the Socialist Alliance and minor Socialist human states aligned with the Alliance and the left-leaning and traditionally suspicious of corporate influence Confederacy and with the Dominion preferring its own corporations; these companies have proved incredibly eager to expand farther than they ever have before; at a faster rate than their prior colonization efforts have gone too. Some smaller states have also applied to enter C-space, and others have begun settling into the Terminus systems or in uncharted space."

Psychic powers are real! (Charlatans still wrong!)

"With contact with the Earth-Native powers has come confirmation that Psychic powers do indeed exist. However, anyone who told you that they had them and that it totally wasn't biotics until encounters with Earth-Native species was probably still lying to you. However, a handful of some of the more esoteric stunts or tricks utilized in the galaxy are being re-evaluated, as it seems that a great degree of will power and focus can create some psychic effects even without the aid of implants, conscious training, or genetic manipulation. First discovered among humans by the human dictator Yuri while under the employ of Stalin; Psychic abilities have formed the bedrock of the Epsilon dominion, while its rivals have struggled to keep up. However, mention that the Scrin also displayed Psychic ability and that other Earth-native sapients can utilize psychic effects have shown that this is not just a human thing. Could Psychics appear in C-Space soon?"

---

Codex entries:

Polities: Unitary Epsilon Dominion;

Considered the foremost human power, the Epsilon Dominion has the honor of holding Earth and has held it since the late twentieth century, and later came to hold the entire Solar system by the 2050s. Once an elite research division within the Soviet Union, Yuri has long since broken ties with his former government. Once thought defeated in his bid for hegemony for humanity by the Allies and Soviets, Yuri returned and managed to attain military victory, resulting in the forced withdrawal of both of his former enemies to the planet Mars.

Several further wars established Epsilon as the sovereign of the Earth, and with the withdrawal of the Alliance, of the Solar System as a whole. While Epsilon is seen in a negative light by many, it has continued to remain a stable government for centuries and citizens report a high rate of happiness, and it's policies are highly egalitarian and immigrant friendly. However, Epsilon's massive military has also been the cause of concern and the inspiration innumerable technothrillers of dubious quality. Due to a heavy usage of cloning and vat grown creations it is difficult to truly ascertain Epsilon's population.

Epsilon has multiple capitals. It's religious capital is placed in Sarajevo, it's political capital of Cluj-Napoca is based in Transylvania, it's official financial capital is placed in Moscow, and it's official cultural capital is placed in Constantinople. All four are considered sites of great human cultural heritage, and Epsilon takes much pride in "watching over humanity's history", to the chagrin of the Alliance. Both the Alliance and Epsilon share the Lingua Francas of Russian and English.

The Epsilon Dominion is a state that tends to have very close relationships with its allies, most of whom have been heavily changed by Epsilon's aid, and poor relations with most everyone else. While the council generally remains divided on which human polity to favor, with the Turians perhaps being the most pro-Epsilon with the Asari being the most vehemently anti-Dominion, it is the general opinion of geopolitical analysts that Epsilon is the most dangerous human polity and while it may not win in a war against the Council and the Alliance in tandem; it would make the price of any such victory too much to stomach.

Epsilon's government is considered to be a technocracy with oligarchic and religious bents. Those in power wield a great deal of it, but there is a tremendous deal of pressure from above to ensure their continuing competence lest they be faced with summary dismissal and shame for failing the expectations of Yuri. Economically, it is a Corporatist system, with the favorites of Epsilon's inner circle working to curry favor for their massive enterprises by proving themselves better than their rivals. It remains a matter of debate as to how free and fair the government of the Dominion is, though proponents of secular government take issue to the existence of an official and heavily promoted state religion. The most important factions within Epsilon can be separated into Headquarters, Psicorps, Chaos Faction, and Scorpion Cell; derived from prexisting divisions in Epsilon's command structure.

Polities: Alliance of Soviet Democratic Socialist Nations;

A merger of the once opposed blocs of the World Socialist Alliance and the Alliance of Democratic Nations, the Alliance of Soviet Democratic Socialist nations has long forgotten the former rivalry of it's constituent members, instead directing their animosity towards the Epsilon Dominion as part of a grudge that spans centuries. Priding itself as the combination of the best traits of the Allies and the Soviets, the Alliance have taken quite well to being exiles from their home.

Once based off of Mars; the fourth world in humanity's native solar system, the Alliance are now based on the world of Midgard, which they have extensively settled over the course of over three hundred years as the heart of their network of colonies. It is here where the federal government of the Alliance rests, where cases requiring the attentions of the highest courts are overseen, where the executive branch of the government presides, and where the legislature gathers to vote, in the All-Union Central Executive Parliament, consistent of the Parliament of States representing the individual states within the Alliance, and the Parliament of People's Deputies who represent the whole of the Alliance while the people themselves can immediately voice concerns over the extranet, and if a sufficiently large number of people vote, the people can override representatives.

A "Matryoshka" (named after a form of nesting doll) system of direct and participatory parliaments extends throughout every level of government, encouraging people to be highly involved with their government. In terms of economy, certain industries deemed of critical importance are managed by the federal government itself, while others are left to the local parliaments (often also called "soviets"), and thanks to the avenues opened up by their production technology, most live in what is often called "post-scarcity light", where the majority of light industry products are easily handled by local cooperatives at essentially no cost worth mentioning, with the wider government mostly works to ensure that standards are enforced to ensure compatibility.

The Alliance government typically has something of a cavalier attitude to politics and works to promote it's values of freedom, socialism, equality, and justice across the galaxy. Oligarchies and Autocracies are seen with distaste at best, and outright loathing at worst on the simple principle that they are not accountable to the people. In spite of this, the Alliance have taken care to establish friendly relations with the Citadel, believing the Council to be a natural ally against the Epsilon Dominion and the Terminus systems, though there sometimes strained relations due to differences of economic policy.

Being the smaller human polity by a good margin, the Alliance have taken care to ensure that they never seem too weak to defend themselves, and as such have invested in a massive and powerful military as well as an enormous amount of resources into the pursuit of more advanced technology and developed infrastructure. The primary languages of the Alliance are English and Russian, though other languages are also spoken within it.

Polities: Forgotten Mutant Confederacy;

The Forgotten are a loose confederation of Tiberium afflicted humans formed in the early twenty first century (by human reckoning) who have chosen to exile themselves out of a belief that proper society has forgotten them or that society rejects them. Existing between Epsilon and the Alliance has taught the Forgotten that their status as an independent policy is dependent on their ability to play off larger powers and ensure that they possess enough strength of their own to make forceful assimilation a painful prospect.

While certainly lacking in infrastructure and technology compared to the "big two", the Forgotten Confederacy is tenacious and resourceful and is a master of guerrilla tactics as well as scavenging and looting. In addition, the Forgotten are an extremely hardy people and typically far exceed the standard human physically speaking. This has resulted in them being quite popular as mercenaries or allies in both the historical conflicts of the Alliance and Epsilon and later on as they integrated in galactic society.

While the official line of the Forgotten Confederacy's leaders is that they wish peace, a number of Forgotten believe that the time has come for the Forgotten to themselves hold a great and powerful empire. These terrorist groups ironically often find common cause with supremacist groups of other nations as well as various warbands and petty nations found throughout the Terminus systems. Ever since the Forgotten's introduction to galactic society they have been a cause for much grief.

As per multilateral agreements, the Forgotten Confederacy is regarded as it's own independent nation with it's own colonies and is frequently granted reserves on other worlds, though typically in Tiberium contaminated areas. The Forgotten have developed their own private language, but nearly all are multi-lingual. The Confederacy is regarded as something of a curiosity in politics and has drawn sympathy from the Quarian fleets and Krogan.

Synthetics: NEXUS;

NEXUS is the designation for a Human built rogue A.I that began an Organic-Synthetic war in the second half of the second human interplanetary war after assessing that the only way to resolve the conflict was to take control of humanity itself. Defeated by an alliance of the human polities, NEXUS withdrew itself and it's remaining forces into the void of space with primitive Chrono-jumpers and Heisenberg drives and has not been seen since.

Whereas the Morning War left the Quarians with a deep seated fear and hatred for Synthetics, the "Robot Storm", has not had the same effect on humanity. The typical opinion is that NEXUS was simply defective and since their later efforts into computer science have not lead to a repeat of the Robot Storm, they feel vindicated by their decision. Nevertheless, NEXUS has lead to generally more cautious ventures into the field of Computer Science in it's wake.

Following the revelation of it's existence, the Citadel has been on a look out for traces of NEXUS, however it's ability to travel extensively beyond the Relay network and the sheer scale of the Galaxy means that it is possible that no encounters with NEXUS will be recorded for thousands of years to come. It is also possible that in the intervening years, the A.I and it's creations have either had a redress of priorities or finally met their doom.

Nevertheless, it is still considered unwise to be completely unprepared for a possible return of the rogue synthetics and it is believed that there are contingency plans in place to deal with it should it make itself apparent once again. Any further information that does not date back to the second interplanetary war is however, almost entirely speculative, making discussions on the present of the A.I extremely difficult.

Species: Scrin;

An enigmatic species known only for it's devastating invasion of the Solar system in the third interplanetary war, the Scrin have not appeared since and speculation on their full capabilities and motivations continues largely unabated. What is known is their lack of effort in attempting to communicate with the Solar System's polities, their mastery of psionics, directed energy weapons, and Tiberium; as well as their complete lack of Eezo based technology.

What is also known is their role in the destruction of the Pre-Prothean Martian Civilization known as the Hyksos, who constructed the Tacitus as a manual on how to battle against the Scrin that sought their extinction as well as the Tiberium they spread. Finally, efforts at studying the Scrin focus heavily on trying to understand the pair of enormous towers they left in the Solar System in the River Tiber and on Olympus Mons. Due to being nestled deep within the least inhabitable portions of Earth and Mars, studying them is intensely difficult. Furthermore, the Towers have proven to be invulnerable to all effects.

Dating of the Tacituses and Hyksos relics confirms that the Scrin are at the very least, millions of years old as a recognizable entity. This has lead to lead many to speculate that the force that caused so much devastation to the Earth was not in fact, a military invasion force, as a truly serious strike force most likely would have the technological capacity to trivially eradicate humanity. That the earthborn nations were nearly brought to their knees by this force in any case is considered a cause for disquiet.

Due to their psychic abilities, the consensus among those interested in the subject is that the Scrin utilize a hive mind rather than any conventional form of language. Somewhat akin to, but not precisely the Rachni. Like the Rachni, the Scrin showed arthropodal morphological traits, though it is considered tremendously difficult to tell what is truly Scrin and what is merely machine.

Corporations; Unofficial; Phantom Syndicate;

The Phantom Syndicate is the name given by the intelligence community to what is believed to be a secretive conglomerate of several companies acting together as a shadow trust to evade the Alliance's co-operative economic system, the corporatist Hierarchy of Epsilon, the anarchist nature of the Forgotten Confederacy, and since human contact; the labourist regulations of C-space. The current theory is that the Phantom Syndicate was formed around the Mediterranean Syndicate, a prior "shadow trust" based around the mediterranean region of the Earth, and the ex-Alliance black ops and research division known as Project Phantom that was officially shut down in the 2090s for increasingly unethical research; fearing a repeat of the circumstances that lead to the rise of Epsilon repeating.

While it is generally known that the companies of the alleged syndicate are in close co-operation, any real legal evidence of their co-operation is nearly impossible to come by, especially as the companies believed to form the Syndicate operate their own worlds distinct from the Alliance Government and have increasingly rooted themselves in the Terminus systems where enforcing regulations is essentially impossible. The companies that are perhaps the most distinctive are defense firms and private military corporations such as Revenant Solutions and Legion Security or the Cyan Suns corporation.

Forces believed to be operating under the Syndicate tend to be heavily cyborgized, with it not being uncommon for those who fail to pay off debts to the company being completely hardwired as wetware to heavy battlesuits that straddle the fine line between power armor and mechanical walkers. Even the dead are afforded no rest as soldiers still under contract are cyborgized into special "Ghost" Battlesuits to keep on fighting. Fleets and motor pools, like with many of the larger mercenary groups; are maintained in large numbers and mercenary companies enjoy the support of ties with Tiberium and Ore processing companies that allow for rapid fabrication.

Companies operating in Citadel or Alliance space are kept under close watch, but many still turn to "Syndicate" companies in search of high tech, reliable, or affordable solutions (a common joke is that buyers are asked to pick two). Companies that are suspected of being under the Syndicate's umbrella range as far from Cola companies to Mercenary groups to Computer science corporations to Legal firms. The supposed syndicate is also believed by many to be behind heavy lobbying for objectivist policies to minimize government interference and attempted culture wars to present profit over altruism as a moral positive.

The Phantom Syndicate's companies operate heavily in Omega and Illium, and it is believed that the company's leadership has heavily shifted towards the Volus over the years as a belief shared by the companies believed to run the organization is that money is power; and business savvy and wealth have long come to be associated with the Volus. Those who study the subject hope that the Volus will be able to temper the vulture capitalism and amorality of the Syndicate.

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Author's notes: You thought I was going to go the cliche'd route of having a First contact war at all, didn't you?