Author's Note:

Improved star map, with planet's overview on my profile, in addition to ship-sizes.
All planets in human territory in my story are hereby fictional (and plentiful, going by my story), or taken from lore.
And the stars are a bit brighter and larger than real life.

Artistic vision. Speculation.

There, any and all counterarguments prevented.

Any and all feedback is much appreciated.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chapter 3: Nalas

Recon Team 1 was one of several teams created from the new N7-recruits, consisting of 10 N7. The recon teams numbered in 5 to 10 recruits, while the largest fire-teams were comprised of 50 recruits. The N7 lacked numbers, but swung far above their weight. The recruits in the hangar had yet to be informed of what had happened in the mines, but rumours had begun to spawn, due to the change in tone in the people in command. "Sooner or later, though, they would get the message it was an exercise, and scramble to their positions." That was the most prevailing rumour. One guy had sworn he heard a terrifying scream coming from the Command Centre right before the lock-down, and several people gave the man their ears. Others claimed there had been a serious cave-in. Some said the defence fleet would deploy for a joint planet-wide exercise, to show of the new toys to High Command. The confusion only lent credence to the rumour that this was an exercise. The N7 recruits kept a quiet and calm atmosphere, of course, they still didn't want to mess this up. None of them really knew what was going to happen next, so they were expecting the unexpected.

Lars knew the N7 could be kept in that state of uncertainty, unlike many other armed forces. They wouldn't like it, but they were professionals all. Lars had been one of the few men and women whom Adama had hand-picked to be N7-recruits, and was now designated Lars-231. Lars in particular had worked closely with Adama during the pacification of the Wolf 359-system in 2606, when the mercenaries there had turned to attacking Alliance outposts and military installations. Alliance brass had sent in the Special Forces, and within 3 solar years, the ringleaders and agitators were dead, and peace-talks had begun. A few others from that campaign were present here as well. Humanity still kept up a relatively strong navy, both to keep systems in line, and to protect itself from what might be lurking out there. Although the fleets hadn't fought a major battle in a century, the need for new weaponry, ships and technologies were not lost on the Alliance, and research had always had a high priority. Humanity needed to continue to grow, not stop and rest on its laurels. Now, we were hours away from learning if there really were something to protect ourselves from, if we were right in keeping weapons. Lars was nervous. This was a completely unprecedented situation. He had been in the Command Centre when the miner had gone dark, which had gone to lock-down the moment the scream had come through. And since Lars now was privy to classified information, he was drafted into the task-force that currently dealt with planning the approach to the mineshaft, as well as taking command of the first team they would send down the mine.

"Contact High Command, inform them of what has happened, attach every piece of information we currently have. Send in Recon Team 1 to the Nalas-mine. Lars-231, you will take command. Send Fire Team 1 and 2, armed with heavy weapons as backup, they are to deploy outside the mining-complex. I want to know what happened down there." Adama said. "Set the defence fleet on high alert, possible hostile life-form on Sirius." Adama ordered, while every man and woman in the room confirmed, and scrambled to their respective tasks, while Lars-231 marched out the door to brief Recon 1.

Recon 1 was given a private briefing, and was given every piece of information on what they might encounter in the mine, and what they could do once they encountered the unknown party. Which was basically none. They did get to hear the screams of the few miners who reached the unknown though. And they were informed that this might very well be First Contact, although Adama had assumed the life-form to be indifferent or possibly hostile. Could be territorial. The team hadn't found that bit reassuring, but here they were. Too late to jump ship now. First priority was to assess the situation, observation only. Although they were armed, they were not to open fire unless attacked. They had to know if this was sentient, or if this was some fauna we simply hadn't encountered yet. If it was sentient, then we could establish a dialogue, and work out co-existence. If it was fauna, they would learn to avoid or deflect it. It was deep in the earth after all, and we could refrain from mining the planet if need be. As a precaution, they were to place small transponder devices along the way down, so that the CC could watch through the helmet-mounted cameras in real-time and record what happened. The A.I's could also escape through these, carrying every piece of data with it, though only in the case of user death or capture. The suits themselves had a self-destruct mechanism in place if that should happen, so as to prevent technology from falling into enemy hands.

After briefing Recon 1, he was to accompany Adama who would relay the news and explain the current situation as it stood to the N7. It was decided to isolate the system, only maintaining contact with HC as the situation developed. The rest of the N7 had been surprised when it was announced that this was in fact, no exercise, but a very real situation. For all they knew, this could be first contact with an extraterrestrial life-form, or a cave in over a miner with the most fucked up vocal-cords in human history, or a radio-malfunction, or a mesh of all three. But Adama was not willing to take chances here, and had decided the first option was the most likely one. Lars looked at him. Adama was tense. This planet was the single foremost research institute in human territory, and important to the Alliance. To add to the tense situation, none of the miners who had gone to look at what had happened deep in the Nalas-mine had re-emerged, and screams could be heard from their radios as well. Three miners were lost. All mine-shafts on the planet were evacuated and sealed.

Lars-231 walked through the hangar-door. Him, and 105 other N7 recruits were to be the first down the mine. Other N7 teams prepared to travel to different mining-complexes on the planet, by shuttles. This was ordered by Adama because he believed there was a risk of this happening in some other mines, the closest ones being given the highest priority priority. He stepped on to the grass, the people in charge having decided for Recon 1 to run the 25 km to the Nalas mining-complex, to test the suits. He looked back at the rest of the N7 present, who stood there, envious of his task.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I don't like this." Zollin-56 said. "I didn't care for those screams."

"Well, too bad, you could've refused coming to Sirius in the first place." Kate-57 answered. "What, you thought we would get easy missions here? We're already on the planet, and Adama, of all people, won't waste that."

"Yes, I knew that. It's just the... I don't know, I just have a really bad feeling about this." Zollin-56 replied.

"Jesus, shut up about that already, we get these suits, and with them, we just covered 25 km of terrain in 15 minutes!" Umhal-59 said. "We didn't even use the Dimension Drive. These things kick ass, and is worth a little danger. I'm already half in love with Raia."

"Raia?" Kate-57 asked. "No, wait, don't answer. ...Not that it's any of my business, but I think you're going a bit too far, too-"

"Quiet, mission-relevant chatter only." Lars-231 ordered. "Focus."

"Yes, Sir!" the squad replied.

The mine-shaft was unremarkable so far. They had made it roughly 3 kilometres beneath the surface if the instruments were correct, and there had been no sign of life. The mining-complex on the surface was evacuated and deserted, and the shaft was equally dormant. The darkness below didn't bother them much. Their visors had a wide variety of functions, one of which was to allow the N7 to be able to easily see in razor-sharp night-vision. But still, Lars knew what Zollin meant. Like he said, there was a foreboding feeling in the air, and every person in that squad could feel it. He just gave the thought a voice. Even so, the A.I's in the suits helped restore calm and professionalism, subtly and quietly. The squad made good progress. Lars was convinced now, that the A.I-improvement the new armour afforded was for the better. Still, the way their voices materialized in your head would take time getting used to. Lars looked around. The tunnels dug out weren't truly massive in scope, but were almost 200 meters wide at their widest. They also had innumerable side-tunnels that continued into the darkness beyond. Aside from the digging-equipment and the myriad of machinery, now laying dormant, there was nothing down here. A small display on the visor showed they were still 500 meters from where the first miner had been when he had encountered whatever this was. Every miner had disappeared a little closer to the main hallway than the last.

Lars began to mark of the distance as they progressed.

"400 meters"

"300 meters"

"200 meters"

100 met... What the hell is that?"

They stopped. The rough tunnel floor continued for a few dozen meters in front of them, before it changed colour. And texture. Lars saw, and the more he looked, the more shocked he got. It looked to be some sort of blob. A very large blob. It covered and clung to the walls and ceiling, and its colour changed constantly. It was vividly red some places, sickly purple in others, as well as white and black. These seemed to be the dominant colours, although others appeared from time to time. The colours shifted and melted into each other constantly, creating new colours, new patterns, never settling. And then there were the miners. They stood there, in the middle of it, covered by it. They half-walked, half glided through the mush, slowly. When they came close enough, every N7 froze. In spite of all their training and experience, they froze.

The miner's faces were masks of absolute horror and excruciating pain. Tendrils of the creature bored its way into every orifice it could get, eyes, nose and mouth, among others. Their skin had turned a pale, pasty white. They didn't speak. Instead, they suddenly began screaming.

v̷̳̺͚̭̪̠̫ṿ̶̪͚͕̜̗̄̃͌͐v̱̿ͪ̅̔̂͘V̡̻̦̫̫̒͋͑̽̂ͧV̸́̽́̉ͭ͊V̞͖̗͓ͤ̉ͬ̽̎̈R̒ͩ̋̔ͣ̍̿̀R̯̘̪̾̌͆R͚͍̫ͯ͑̒̽͆ͣ̏ͅO̒̂̿͆̽͗̎Ȍ̫̩̾ͯͫ̆̾O̸̭͙̻̗̙͒ͩ̾͌̏͂͋O̪̠̥̘̯͖̝̎̽̎͛̊̈́̑͞O̴̱̹͕̬̒̿̒O̭̪̬̘͕ͫ̊́̌O̟͕͇̦̙̳͐̓U͔̥̝͉͇̙̪ͤͭ͞Uͬ̅̓̄́ͨ҉͍͍̱̻ͅȖ̸͕̗̭̙ͧU͛ͧ̂̿ͤ̓ͥ͡Û̗̪̭̟̗͈̙͌Ğ̝̮͈̟̒̋ͬ̆̂͢G̩̓ͯ̈́͐͠G̦̝̝͔ͦͦͭ͂̋͒͐H̷̚Ȟ͢H̦ͅH̒̅͢!͙̬̞̿̄͆͑!̦̎͊̿̓̚!̽ͣ̇̊ͧ̌͐!̱̣͖͎̋̓̏̊ͧ̕!̠̣̠̐͗!̪̀͐̃̇͒

The three miners charged at them, as fast as they would have in life.

"Hold fire!" Lars-231 yelled.

He would wait and see if this was a defensive reaction, or if there was ill intent. His soldiers were nervous, but they held their fire. The first miner threw himself at Vasilisa-55, putting all his weight and force behind his fist. The arm shattered like glass on the armour, but the miner didn't seem to mind. The other two miners surged in on them as well, faring no better. They pushed the now seriously crippled miners to the ground, and although the miners were beyond saving, the N7 didn't kill yet. They just stood there. The ball was on the other side of the pitch now. Then something happened to the mass in front of them. It seemed to dissolve, but after a moment of relief, Lars saw it was merely splitting itself into millions of airborne particles. Then they began to spin in the air. Pointing directly down the shaft. Directly at them. It spun faster and faster, and at last shot a ball of airborne particles and condensed air and dust at them. There wasn't time or places to take cover, but everyone braced themselves. The shot flung them back a couple of meters, and did no damage to the armour. The miners became paint on the floor behind them.

Then the mass started bubbling. And then it charged at them, while making a horrible screeching noise. A tendril emerged from the mass and rapidly flung Sedaris-60 against the wall.

"You are cleared to open fire, Recon 1." said Adamas' voice on the team-channel. Immediately the assault-rifles began to spit fire. Plasma-shots ripped through the blob, driving it back. The team were massively relieved to see their weapons could hurt this thing. That was a comfort. As they halted the blobs advance, Lars asked for orders.

"Sir, what are our orders? I don't think this thing wants to be friends."

Adama answered immediately. "We are now considering the alien to be hostile. We will begin reconnaissance and research on enemy capabilities. Make your way to the creatures entry-point, and observe as much as you can, then withdraw."

"Yes, Sir." Recon 1 confirmed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Adama stared intently at the screen. It was filled with static. The Command Centre was deathly quiet, no one dared to breathe, no one made a sound. It was the first time the Onyx-suit had performed such a Dimension Jump, underground, in a real combat-situation. Communications had been scrambled.

Then the screens came to life and a voice spoke.

"...is Lars-231, please respond. This is Lars-231, Recon Team 1, calli-"

"We hear you, Team Leader." answered Adama, before continuing. "Fire Team 1 and 2 are to burn anything other than Recon 1 trying to exit that mine." he said to the communications officer. "Get High Command on the line. Recon 1, status report."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Fragments of speeches

Recon 1 reported no injuries after fighting their way to the lair and back. We pushed it back. It wasn't intelligent, just a large blob, attacking on reflexes alone. We walled up the entrance to the lair we had breached, filled the lower layers of our mines with concrete, and stopped mining on the planet, because of the unknown factor beneath. A discussion was called for as to what the next step would be. After 3 months, the seismic control reported vibrations in several mines. Within 4 the Nalas parasite were knocking on the sealed doors. The Alliance made a call. They would try to establish dialogue again, as humans were the actual invaders after all. So, an unarmed, unarmoured diplomatic party were sent to the Nalas-mine, to try and communicate. Luckily, they also decided to keep this top secret, away from civilian eyes for now.

Which was just as well, because the high definition video of an ambassador from the Alliance and several other officials getting slaughtered and assimilated, screaming those horrible screams, would traumatize a generation or two. That's when it was decided to fight back. Our two species couldn't co-exist it would seem, and we're not polite enough to die because the other guys want our corpses. We sent the N7, not even initiated into their training regiment at this point, down into the mines, to destroy the parasite wherever they found it. If it somehow wanted peace, we would listen, and we could work out something to end hostilities. But that call for peace never came from the deep.

So, we sent the N7 down. This time, there were reports of injuries, none of them serious though. The Nalas parasite had once again been driven back, but now we followed. We saw it had adapted and changed in the short three months, and had for eons gotten very good at digging through the earth. Forming great claws and spirals, it had begun to dig upwards. But that wasn't what shocked us. The first recon team didn't go too far in, and we didn't realize just how deep this thing went or just how large it was. What we found that day could best be described as some sort of parasite. As we would later find out, it assimilated other life, and in doing so, learned and evolved. It was completely dependent on other, outside species that had characteristics it lacked, or needed.

It was theorized there had once been many different species on Sirius, but when this thing first evolved, it had taken over every niche of life on the planet, driving every other species to extinction. Why and how it had moved so deep underground was a mystery. Some think it retreated and waited so other life could either evolve or arrive to evolve it further. After all, if it had assimilated all life on the planet, then it could also survive anywhere on the planet. Some argued it was intelligent, and all around smarter than us. We haven't found out how long it was down there, the things nature making scientific research... difficult. First Contact was not as magical as we would have liked. This being, was simply named "Nalas", for where it was found. It resided in great underground caverns, draining nutrients from the volcanic activity down there, and chemical reactions in the acid-baths on the cavern-floor. Nalas was massive, and covered the surface of the caverns, and great spires of itself stretched from floor to roof, sometimes more than 500 meters tall. But for all its size, it wasn't really a problem at first.

The N7 drove it back into its lairs. But then it started adapting. The advance stalled, and after just a year, only our heaviest infantry weapons could harm it. Even the N7 were beginning to receive serious wounds after skirmishes. Soldiers were deployed in greater numbers, and news of the creature had been released to the public, and instantly our imagination was captured, and art imitated life. Alien and monster-movies saw a marked increase in profit. The Alliance High Command became involved in a serious way, because of the threat this thing had suddenly grown to be. It emerged from tunnels and attacked civilians and scientists, who were soon evacuated, along with every bit of research.

Every piece of hardware and software were removed, and important structures that couldn't be transported were obliterated from orbit. Large teams of soldiers scoured the ruins to make sure everything was destroyed. Soon, the entire surface was under attack. All of it. The whole planet had become a battlefield. We fought for close to a hundred years to eradicate that parasite, N7 now dying on every mission. Death-tolls in the millions. A large defence fleet was constantly in orbit, bombing the parasite wherever it appeared. We couldn't stop. This thing was too dangerous to let out off the planet, much less the system. During that time, the one who won the most victories was known as John-117, a brilliant soldier who was responsible for driving Nalas further back than any other, and among other things, set of the hydrogen bomb that crippled the parasite's progress for a year. Admiral Adama was also noted for his effective stratagems during the Sirius War, and his strategies are regarded as curriculum in the military courses. The two of them went M.I.A, presumed K.I.A, in 2775, in a Dimension Jump malfunction. The dreadnought they were travelling on, 'The Venus Falcon', split in half during the jump, and only the first half arrived. The other part, the stern, was lost in the wormhole.

In 2825, a ship came from the surface of Sirius. The small craft was launched from beneath the surface. We destroyed it. Then a week later came another. In the following months there was launched a steadily larger stream of space-ships from beneath the surface. We atomized each one, it was not possible to evolve immunity to anti-matter. But then came our first ship-casualty. In 2828, a ship crashed into a human cruiser, on its way to space, unable to dodge. The cruiser suffered a hull breach, and the enemy poured in. When the captain saw who the enemy was, he ordered all ships available to fire enough anti-matter missiles at them to atomize the ship, so as to leave no trace of the parasite. The order was executed. The fleet around the planet doubled in size, and R&D once again had massive resources thrown in their faces.

The situation grew desperate. Now it had hit at us in space, after barely a hundred years since we found it. The situation would rapidly deteriorate. That's when the Alliance R&D unveiled the new dreadnought, said to be powerful enough to end the war by itself. The Alliance's SHIVA. It was 5.5 kilometres in length, and could carry two heavy cruisers in its bay for support. Along the ridges along its angular, geometric shaped hull, was rows upon rows of missile batteries. It had state of the art Dimension Drives, advanced radar-systems and a robust and efficient plasma propulsion-system. It had newer versions of ten large plasma-cannons and ten large rail guns, of which the older dreadnoughts only having had 5 of each, for short and long range battles. In addition to that, it had hundreds of smaller versions and laser turrets along its length, to shoot down incoming fire, as well as to support the multitude of drones and fighters she could spawn. The best plasma-shields in existence were installed on the ship, and it had the best armour around. But the crown jewel was the main gun, for which the ship itself was named. It consisted of two twin barrels that ran the ships length, and used energy gathered by the ships main drive. The device was a laser style weapon used to create an atomic state in which electrons couldn't be shared. When this happens, the molecule splits into separate atoms, which create a chain reaction in inducing a similar splitting state in the surrounding mass. The more massive the target, the greater the firepower of the weapon.

The 20. of March, 2830 the war ended, on what is called Destruction Day. We had evacuated all personnel we could from Sirius. The order had come through, to let the new flagship of humanity have a swing at this opponent. The defence fleet had already shot down 50 ships that day, when the SHIVA jumped into the system. She approached the planet, and activity was visible in her main gun, light and lightning emerging in short bursts. They were charging. She positioned herself so that its main gun pointed directly at the deep canyon where most of the ships had departed from. The rest of the fleet provided covering fire while she waited, and not one Nalas-ship got a kilometre off the ground. Then we learned SHIVA was aptly named.

Two great beams of white lightning surged at near light-speed at the planet, who converged at ground zero. When it hit, it looked like a super volcano had gone of. A shock-wave of pressure and heat scourged around the planet, circling it in less than three minutes. The shock-wave colliding with itself created enough of a blast to create a second, smaller wave that made its way back. Any ships that had tried to leave after the shot was fired were caught in the chain-reaction, and destroyed. The surveillance-drones could capture the sound the planet made as it burned. It was a deep rumbling sound, unlike anything we had heard or seen before. The surface liquefied, the rock instantly melting to magma. Metal-ore close to the surface ran in rivers. And the parasite, the massive creature, interconnected in that layer of caves beneath all the surface. When it was hit... the planet was burned from the inside-out. The outer 3000 meters of any surface area was extremely affected by the wave, and 20 kilometres was heavily affected. The parasite was dead. There was no way for it to survive. And we looked in shock at what we had created.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The SHIVA was the only ship of that class we built. Apocalypse-class. It was maintained, and remained the flag-ship of the fleet, but we didn't build any more of it, because of its devastating power. After the Parasite War, as it was now being called, there was an era of peace and prosperity. Humanity had just gotten its fill of aliens and war, and was not as eager to see more in a while, so some of the systems within 15 light years of Sol were settled and properly populated, while industry was established in others. After the show of force that was SHIVA, research instead focused on education, medicine, transportation, and other civilian areas, since we had reached a point where our weapons were becoming too large to be practical. Now, Humanity numbered at 167 billion, while our A.I's numbered exactly at 300 billion. That was the population-cap they put on themselves for the time being.

One A.I could converse with hundreds of humans at once, and do hundreds of tasks at a time, so there was no need for any more of them yet, they reasoned. They were numerous enough to run the machinery of man many times over. They also agreed on a ban to create a significantly smarter A.I, or upgrade themselves significantly, since the new entity would most likely steer society in its own way, not one of our own choosing. Our A.I's had developed our taste for individuality, personal privacy and self-determination. Their quirks became more pronounced as well, and several developed different personalities. Some of their holograms had gained either a more feminine or masculine appearance, and voices became more and more unique. All this happened on its own. We could observe machines evolving as a species. They were of course very intrigued when we began to point this out, and began observing in their own right. So, as the personality-quirks became wildly different, the age-old dream of a sentient robot butler, complete with British wit, accent and sarcasm came true. Humanity rejoiced. Human and machine continued to work together, the N7 having proved once and for all the A.I's could be trusted in the most sensitive areas, and the two societies became more intertwined than ever. Many N7 considered their respective A.I to be their closest friend, and many got implants that allowed them to be connected outside their suits.

Humanity on its part, had begun using cybernetic implants and body parts a few centuries earlier, which now looked natural. Augmentation had became normal, and since society had marched a long way from its earlier structures, it didn't divide people as much as it would earlier. Human lifespans were now ~200 years, and many were in active work and looked sixty up to and at the age of 170. Some kept going longer, but we suspected we might have hit our life-span limit. We were aware of the problems of over-population, we remembered why we left Earth, but contraceptives were long since normal and had advanced like all other medicine. Few couples had more than two children during their lives, and being an only child was normal. The population would remain sustainable for 500 years in the current systems if the trend stayed like this. And they had means to explore further, but for now, we focused on building a strong foundation. In 2979, the Zeus Dyson sphere was now 63 % complete, and several others were between 25 and 30 % complete. Then, one day, in 3026 a mining outpost on a small lonely ice-moon orbiting Epsilon Indi, made a discovery. There was a piece of alien machinery in the centre of the moon. A large piece of alien machinery.

The Alliance brass was on this the second the reports came through. It had been almost two hundred years since the Parasite War, but no one had forgotten. The planet Sirius's surface had resettled only 75 years ago, and because of the deep tunnels frying the planet so thoroughly, it could be said this was a different planet entirely, the mineral-composition and distribution of resources had changed drastically. The entire planet had been molten for a century. The volcanic and seismic activity had settled down only in the last decade. Careful expeditions and teams of geologists travelled to the planet to determine if there would be any surprises waiting for us in the deep, our sensors now having learned to pick up living tissue. Careful terraforming began, and had progressed nicely for the last five years. No one wanted a possible repeat of that calamity.

The Alliance moved in, and began digging a large tunnel down to the object in the moon. The SHIVA was placed on guard-duty around the moon, as we were certain it could contain anything. Upon reaching it, the first thing they did was to analyse the material. It was unlike any other they had encountered. Scans revealed there to me a massive power-source somewhere in the structure, and its gravitational pull was much higher than it had any right to be. Research continued for the next five years, and a few things had been established; it was millions of years old, maybe even billions. Its main function was to manipulate vast quantities of energy quickly, manipulating dark matter in a way we hadn't thought possible, using an unknown element, which could be the cause of the gravitational anomaly, according to the theory the scientists and A.I's came up with. There was also traces of some code-instructions hidden deep within its systems, dormant like the rest of the structure, but without the rest of the pieces, or their source, it was meaningless. The material was analysed, and it was determined it might be possible to synthesize it with a few dedicated decades of work. It was nearly indestructible, and if it could be mass-produced, human warships and troops would be nigh-indestructible. To speak nothing of the industrial possibilities.

The moon's name was Charon, so it was determined to call this the Charon Structure. We weren't as imaginative when it came to naming alien technology we didn't understand or if it didn't name itself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Phaos T'neala was bored. She was communications officer on The Antares, part of the Citadel Council patrol fleet. Some batarian slavers had struck a nearby Citadel colony, and the turian patrol fleet originally to scout this quadrant had been ordered to destroy the pirates base of operations, after neutralizing the pirates attacking the colony. Thus, the Antares and two smaller asari ships found themselves sent to this remote corner of the galaxy. She looked around. It was a relaxed atmosphere, and some were bored, like herself. She thought about the batarians again. They had become rowdier again. The barbarians took slaves, worked them to death, and complained to the Council because their "cultural rights" were "being infringed upon." Huh! Disgusting. They risked their embassy this time, she knew, and hoped the Council would finally find the guts to put the batarians down a notch, maybe free some slaves in the process. That would buy some goodwill. But she was a still in the Maiden-stage, enlisted in the Citadel Navy for at least ten years more. Had she voiced her thoughts, no one would listen to such an inexperienced and naive outlook. Skilled in navigation and excelling in communication, she had quickly been promoted to the senior communications officer on this ship. It was a cruiser, 650 meters long. One of the newer ones, although its weapons and shields weren't that much better than the decommissioned cruiser it replaced, The Pisces Raigi. Unlike many asari, she thought progress was slow. They had been space faring for over 2000 years, the first to achieve space-flight in a significant way since the Protheans, and still, the Council's slice of the galaxy had not progressed much since the days of the Krogan Rebellions.

The navigation's officer jumped in her chair and began fiddling with her omni-tool.

"Captain, I registered some activity from the Relay!" Narlyzia Senis said.

"Really?" Captain Delik Edola asked.

The captain was an asari in the Matron-stage, and rumours would have it she had a taste for pushing the limits of regulations and orders to their limit. Not fraternization, she didn't do that, but she had the most 'radio-equipment failures' among all the other asari captains. She stepped towards the navigation's officer in long strides. Narlyzia brought the picture and the data up on her omni-tool. The captains eyes lit up.

"Seems like you're right. However, there hasn't been registered any activity in this Mass Relay, ever." Delik pondered. She thought for a minute. "Contact the captains of The Tsiahi and The Auriga." the captain ordered. "I'll take this conversation in private. Do not report this to the Citadel yet, keep it off all channels." she said, taking the data and pictures.

"Roger!" the CIC answered, albeit slightly uncertainly.

An hour passed, and from time to time the relay really did display signs of activity. Phaos knew the captain could play roughshod with the rules, but was the captain really considering doing what she thought the captain was doing? Not reporting it to the authorities, not alerting more forces... She would have to have a hell of an argument to sway the other two captains into doing this. That was the only way this flew. Otherwise they would report and maybe shoot at them for the attempt. This had gotten interesting very quickly. Would she dare to open the relay? Another hour went by before the captain came back down.

"Alright crew, I have an announcement to make!" the captain bellowed, and connected to every screen and speaker in the three ships. Phaos listened intently. "We are ordered to observe that Relay."

Oh, Phaos thought, slightly disheartened, and hoped the politicians knew what they were doing. No daring raid into the unknown.

"It's only a matter of time before whatever is on the other side activates it of their own accord." the captain continued. "The Citadel Council has decided we are to wait here and observe until the Council can send a diplomatic party, which should take a day or two. We are to remain as honour guard of the diplomatic party. When one of their ships come through, then-"

Relay 314 chose this moment to spring to life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Author's Note:

The Charon Relay is in this story placed in the Epsilon Indi system, and links to every canon relay.

Long chapter, huh?