Trebia system, Palaven
Cipritine city

The walled in city of Cipritine towered into the sky like a pyramid, buildings growing size from the out skirts to the tallest spire in the center. The Primarchs of Palaven and the Turian colonies sat around a massive oval table. Their mandibles twitched as they spoke to one another and their metallic exoskeleton moved with them like organic body armor. Primarch Fedorian locked his two three fingered hands together and straightened his back. As Primarch of Cipritine he was authorized to lead this discussion. Admiral Irix Coronati and another armored Turian sat at the end of the table in silence.

'This meeting will come to order!' yelled Fedorian.

The room fell silent as everyone focused on Fedorian. Primarch Fedorian had amassed himself a revered reputation; the only thing he was guilty of was being a born leader.

'This emergency council has been called in light of recent events at relay 314. Approximately 19 hours ago the Vibirian encountered an excessively large ship activating relay 314, an unmapped relay. I'll let the ships commanding officer, Commander Aetdros, explain the rest.'

The Primarchs along the table all turned their heads to the Commander and the Admiral sitting beside him.

'Firstly I have a question. Why was a cruiser out in the middle of nowhere?' asked one of the Primarchs.

'The Vibirian was searching the system for a reported Krogan insurgence base. We assigned a cruiser for the assignment on the premise that it could seek out the base and destroy it. If we had dispatched a scout frigate we would' then had to called in the cruiser,' explained the Admiral.

'Thank you for clearing that up Admiral. Let us continue, Commander.'

The Commander nodded and leant forward in his chair. His long and thick fingers tapped on the table as his nerves nagged at him.

'There was a massive energy cloud on the outer rim of the system. The ship is thought to have come from the cloud but my navigations officer neglected to mention it. He raised the alarm as they began to activate the relay. I acted on pure instinct and ordered a strike on the ship in light of the Rachni incident.'

The Commander realized the error of his ways now, the ship was far too large and shouldn't have been attacked without notifying his superiors first; he was simply afraid. Turians were taught not to fear anything, but the dark almost invisible hull of the ship seemed to emanate power and domination.

'Upon attack the ship just sat there, not doing anything. Then it suddenly sprang to life and jumped through the relay. It was a primary relay, capable of jumping to multiple locations so we did not pursue it in case of endangering ourselves.

Rear Admiral Ontarioux glanced over some communication logs from the defence fleet at Essenus. Their comm traffic was normal up until a few minutes ago after failing to report in.

'Still nothing?' he questioned the communications Lieutenant.

'Nothing sir, I'm not even getting static,' replied the Lieutenant.

Ontarioux hadn't seen anything like this before, for there to be nothing but static on the channel the ships communication relays were either offline or destroyed. He hoped it wasn't the latter, Captain Hirus was a good friend.

'Contact the Primarchs, we may have an invasion on our hands?'

'Who would invade us?' questioned the young Lieutenant.

'I really hope it's not who I think it is.'

Orbit of Essenus

'Captain Hirus is being brought aboard Master Grissom,' assured the communications officer.

'Excellent, Officer Reid you are clear to jump!'

Reid and Anderson stood on the bridge of the Aconcagua overlooking the devastation they had caused, mangled sections of hull plating drifted from Turian ships that had been ripped apart.

'Copy that Master, we'll be underway in just a moment,' confirmed Reid.

'God speed to all of you.'

Reid nodded slightly to Anderson who replied in kind before leaving the bridge, his position here was critical to the mission. He would deploy on the ground with a small team and extract both the Primarch and Admiral Coronati. Reid walked to the holotable across the Newton who was discussing the final plans with the ships head engineer.

'We'll need to keep the drive active for a maximum of 30 minutes, can you do it?'

'It's going to get extremely hot but we can do it,' sighed Engineer Cole.

'Good. We're ready to jump sir.'

'Helm, begin jump to site 01!'

'Aye sir. Course laid in, drive powering up, jumping in 5 seconds.'

The ship whined as the drive powered up and peaked with a brilliant crack, the ship rematerialised in Palaven's low orbit just above Cipritine. The holo-table lit up with an instant scan of Cipritine and identified the cities main tower.

'You're clear to deploy Anderson!'

'Copy that, deploying!'

A pair of thick doors opened along the ships belly and a car-like shuttle dropped out and sped toward the main tower. The cities defences came online, mass accelerator weapons began pummelling the Aconcagua's shields.

'Our priority is the Primarch and the Admiral, everyone else is expendable. If they get in your way don't hesitate to shoot them,' said Anderson.

'Yes, sir!' replied his squad.

The pilot swung the shuttle around to avoid the gun fire all around them. She manoeuvred the shuttle up against a balcony on the main tower.

'Bail out!' she cried.

The shuttles side door lifted up and the squad jumped off onto the balcony, the shuttle quickly retreated down to safety.

'I'll find a safer place to hide, radio in when you need evac,' she said over the comms.

'Copy that, we're moving in.'

Anderson led the squad into a large foyer area, leading up to the chamber of Primarchs. Turian guards entered the foyer from multiple side doors and with no hesitation the squad opened fire. Anderson dived for cover behind a chair before ducking out and taking out a duo of Turians. The energy weapons Anderson's squad carried seem to bypass the Turian's shields and directly impact their armour. It wasn't long before the Turians fell, their armour and weapons inferior to that of the Alliance.

'Reid we're entering the chamber now.'

'Copy that Anderson keep moving, its getting a little warm in here.'

They scaled the stairs to come onto a large open walkway at the end of which was a round door. They jogged along the walkway, before stopping and noticing the swarm of frigates descending upon the Aconcagua. With thunderous claps a small fleet of Alliance frigates jumped in and roared over head, speeding to the Aconcagua's aid.

'33rd Escort Flotilla on station and ready to assist,' said Captain Harrison.

'Captain your timing is impeccable,' replied Reid.

Anderson continued onto the door. It was unsurprisingly locked, numerous mechanisms held it in place and many more identification methods.

'Royle get this door open,' ordered Anderson.

'Yes sir.'

A younger soldier carrying a large pack approached the door and placed the pack on the ground. He hooked the computer on his forearm into a larger data pad and began scanning the door. The screen on his wrist showed at least five bars holding the two sections of the door in place and a series of magnetic clamps.

In the distance the 33rd Flotilla engaged the Turian frigates in a brilliant array of red and blue laser beams. The red beams of the Alliance sliced the opposing frigates open like tin cans, flames spewed from the huge gashes in their hull; frigates spun out of control and collided with buildings in burning orange explosions and spraying debris.

Royle tried his hand at hacking into the doors identification software but his lack of knowledge in the Turian language made it impossible.

'Sir, there is now way I can hack into this door.'

'How thick is it?' asked Anderson.

'About a meter, made of some sort of titanium carbide.'

'Polson plant fission charges at the doors outer rim.'

A broad demolition's sergeant in thick heavy armour and a large metal pack on his back made his way to the door. Royle and Anderson retreated with the rest of the squad to the foyer as Polson placed the charges. The charges were magnetically fitted to the door and equipped with a highly unstable micro fission core. Polson grabbed his pack and rifle then sprinted for the foyer. He flipped the lid on the detonator, and with a nod from Anderson he flicked the switch. The charges detonated in a blue flash, causing the door to collapse in on itself from pure shock.

They moved in as the smoke cleared to find a room full of startled Turian politicians. The Admiral and Aetdros stood up with their side-arms aimed at Anderson. Primarch Fedorian stood up from his seat slowly with twitching mandibles.

'You dare attack us on our home planet?' he snarled.

Anderson ignored the Primarch and proceeded to knock out both the Admiral and Captain. Polson and Gerard picked them up while Royle and Taj guarded the other politicians.

'Primarch Fedorian you're coming with me,' said Anderson.

'Leave this planet or face the wrath of the council you ignorant fool.'

Anderson punched the Primarch hard enough to throw him off balance then cuffed him. The Primarch struggled and groaned as he was walked out of the chamber.

'Targets secure, requesting evac on the towers upper walkway!'

'Copy that shuttle en-route,' replied Lieutenant Lee.

They arrived outside to see the door to the foyer open. A Turian regiment filed out onto the walkway, setting up several firing lines. Taj stopped in his tracks and aimed his rifle toward the Turians, Anderson waved a hand at his side and Taj reluctantly stood down.

'Hand over your hostages, now!' ordered Commander Daestrus.

'Or what?'

They stood there for a few seconds in silence, unsure of what would happen next. Anderson looked to Royle with a cocked eyebrow.

'I don't think they can understand us, the translator must only work one way.'

'Well that's always nice, can you give them one somehow?'

'Turian's use some kind of Omni-tool, if I could upload the translator to the Primarch's he could act as a translator.'

'Do it.'

Royle tapped at the screen on his forearm and held it against the holographic omni-tool on the primarch's arm. With a few more slides and taps Royle looked the Primarch in the eyes.

'Can you understand me now?'

'…Yes…perfectly' stuttered the Primarch.

'Tell these men to stand down,' ordered Anderson.

'Why would I do that? You obviously want me alive.'

'Because if you don't they'll all die.'

'How, you are hilariously out numbered?'

'Shuttle 012, take'em out!'

The shuttle rose up from beneath the walkway and its forward guns fired a barrage of red beams at the Turians. The side door lifted up and they jumped in, the Turian's fired off random shots that bounced off the shuttle like stones. As the door closed the shuttles engines exploded in a pulse of blue, launching them to super sonic speeds.

'Aconcagua this is shuttle 012, approaching at high speed request permission for combat dock?'

'You are clear for combat dock shuttle 012!.'

Reid and Newton stood at the holo-table anxiously. Technicians ran around the bridge patching up fallen wall plating and rewiring broken cables. Another barrage hit the ship and knocked a group of deck hands off their feet.

'We can't take much more punishment,' said Newton wiping the sweat from his brow.

'Shuttle 012 has just completed a combat dock!' cried the comms officer.

'Helm get us out of here!' cried Reid with relief.

The helmsman throttled the engines and activated the jump sequence, the 33rd flotilla formed up with the Aconcagua following it out of the city.

'What's our heading sir?' asked the helmsman.

'Arcturus station, Master Grissom will be waiting.'

With the course laid in and communicated to the 33rd Flotilla they jumped away from Palaven in a great crack, the shockwave turning buildings into flying metal splinters. The jump to Arcturus was long, they had plenty of time on their hands. It was time to get answers, it was time the Turians understood that the human race will not go quietly into the night.