AN: I do not proud myself when it comes to update-speed. I could use my change of university along with the necessary move to a new city as excuses, but they would be just that, excuses.

The main reason for my slow speed is that I write agonizingly slow in general and that I wasn't really all that sure how this chapter was should be like and in what direction I want to continue the story.

I'm still not all that sure on the latter to be honest. But well, hopefully it will work out, somehow.

Anyway, enjoy the read.

So many many reviews. Almost 200 at this point. And most give me helpful advise or are good questions. Thanks to all of you!

Inverness:

It is somewhat reasonable, but I think it just shows a lack of imagination on the Citadel species' part. Every contact besides the Rachni had been this way so every future one will too. That kind of stagnation is what I think is the biggest problem with canon Citadel.

I don't want to bash them, at least not intentionally. At the moment they are just fairly clueless about the situation so they can't really show their good sides.

Yinko:

Most TYPEs are simply too different from normal sentient life, and physics, to meaningfully coexist. In general, TYPEs as they exist in the solar system are an extremely rare thing.

Skepsis Forever:

Due to a drastic difference in numbers, yes.

Telron:

If everyone stops squabbling over economy here religious dispute there and you add a bit of Counter Force poking people in the right direction, a lot gets done.

Dman303:

It would be one of his most comfortable deaths to date.

mark21800:

Most of those conflicts with the Council or other races will probably be because they have almost always have a knee-jerk reaction, like with Quarian-Geth or Everyone-Rachni, and have a problem if the other side doesn't take their side.

MWkillkenny84:

I like my Ultimate Ones as forces of nature. I fell that having Zelretch command them would not be doing them justice. On another note: The Citadel needs an urgent shipment of brown pants.

Thanatoss:

TYPE Mars wasn't that happy about the Protheans trying to build something on its planet and there isn't any archive left on mars by now. The TYPEs are an abnormality that needed very specific conditions to come into being. Conditions that none of the other species of the ME-verse met. There might be other existences similar to them in the galaxy, but they are not in contact with the galaxy at large.

And yes, humanity is fairly corrosive, not as blatantly obvious as ORT but still enough. The less plenty and sophisticated a planet's life forms are, the more likely it is for it to be swallowed up by Gaia in is its entirety. If the planet's consciousness is strong enough, they will slowly flow into one-another, and their fauna and flora will slowly mix.

Okami Princess:

The route that happened is fairly close to Heaven's Feel.

Humans never really had any Biotics since there haven't been any exposure incidents. The Rachni have informed them of this possibility and, with a few Asari test subjects, they made progress in creating a system that can be integrated into armor to emulate natural biotics.

The Mars Archive can't be found since the Protheans found the solar system to be quite unfriendly, even back then.

Perrou:

Humanity's stats in def are much better than in off, so not two much direct curbstomping.

Rydan fall:

Prana can not be produced by a purely physical process just as you can't make any other form of energy from a temperature.

You can just decline a duel if you have nothing to gain from it. The usual judicial system still exists. This only plays much of a role if you value your honor very much or are interested in something the other party has. Foul play can be excluded by using geas.

Eternity Wind:

For the Magi, research always was priority #1. Getting money was only a means to that end, so for one, are they not easy to corrupt and neither do they really care all that much about ruling people. Sure, there are a lot who like parading themselves but have no real interest in what the normal people do as long as they can do their thing in peace.

The Church simply is quite nice to humans since the majority take their teachings seriously.

Personally, I find the picture of Rachni, big and small, with cameras hung around their necks being driven to ORT's cristal valley like tourists very funny. Maybe I will make an Omake out of it.

The Hero named Villan:

1. The mind meld somehow connects with the nervous system of the other party. The Magic Circuits of a Magus are close enough to real nerves that you can misuse one as the other. And pouring Prana through normal nerves is bound to hurt like hell.

2. There are sects that have gained power and more followers but nothing like the Church. What those sects revere are fragments of former gods, that what stays behind when a divine spirit loses believers.

If you have something that suffices as a base, a part of nature or an exceptional human, enough believers could turn that into a god. But if becoming a hero in modern times is already next to impossible, ascending to godhood is several orders of magnitude more difficult.

3. Not all that much. If I can work it in at some point I'll try to write one.

4. There have been a sixth and a seventh war, but none will happen in story for now.

fredaoxyz:

The Rachni can work as soldiers and field larger weapons or offer support by distributing supllies on the battlefield. Giving them magecraft is both easy and difficult at the same time. Rachni do not have any spiritual organs for channeling od or mana. They could use the way Shirou used to create make-shift Magic Circuits, but it would kill a large percentage of them. Given enough time, the Queen could breed those with higher success rates and eventually even Rachni with a few naturally occurring circuits, but that would cost a lot of Rachni their lives and take decades.

god of stuff:

Concerning magecraft: The "amount" is something determined by the root. But if more people believe that it is possible to do things the way your magecraft does, it becomes easier and more efficient, because you don't need that much power to fool reality.

I can only agree with you in regards to the application of magecraft. Reinforcement is good if you have to spontaneously turn your street clothing into armor for the next fight or so. Alchemy can make a ridiculously resilient armor that stays that way without needing further input or decaying over time. It's nice to have both options, but the later is what you want to do if you have the time.

Unless you take the original Noble Phantasm of Berserker it wouldn't really work. Copies would be really inefficient in terms of conversion and problematic in construction. Collecting ambient mana or harvesting life force works better.

TheExpendable Joe:

Humanity can cheat a little on the reverse-engineering part with structural analysis, but that would still only show the manufacturing process, not how the machines used in it work. Neither would it work on anything overly big like a whole spaceship or on something entirely immaterial like an OS or encryption.

The other side has a much worse disadvantage. They may be able to replicate the purely technical things by substituting the hell out of everything, but magecraft introduces a whole new dimension to the problem which can't just be substituted. And those using anything concerning the True Magics are even fiendishly hard to produce for humans, not to mention that those don't make the slightest logical sense most times.

Bazett :D

Lucem Yoru:

It will probably take a little bit more time before Council and what lives in Sol cross paths.

Kniightwalker:

Humanity is not that overly good at stomping. They severely lack the numbers. Counter-stomping on the other hand... There is a reason why attacking a Magus in his workshop is a good way to get yourself killed.

Home of Eternal Void:

Producing the necessary exotic matter with negative energy density is a lot easier with thaumaturgy than it is with pure science. The theory for the drive already exists now and got refined a few times already to minimize the amount of exotic matter. Throwing a prototype together in two decades should be possible if you have enough money to spend.

Akz251:

As far as my story is concerned, Gaia and Alaya are the most sophisticated meta-consciousnesses around and even those two are not able to freely express themselves in a way humans could meaningfully interact with on a regular basis. So there won't be literal avatars running around.

Hypothetical Spiritual Entity:

There will be some canon characters. Shirou has died, but not before siring several children, including one Emiya Kiritsugu. Lorelei has died of old age.

The Bosporus was quickly seized by the local organization of Magi who had their base in Istanbul since the time of ancient Constantinople. The eastern fringe of turkey got drawn into the fighting in the middle east but was relieved fairly early when the MAU takes over the countries of former soviet Russia and extends downward. They are currently part of the MAU.

blitzxs:

I try to find a good and sound explanation for as many fantastic (be they science or magic) things I put in my stories. I really hate hand waving things.

SneakyDevil:

As is only appropriate ;)

ChronoMagus (Guest):

Now that the main story has started I will wreck my brain over how to let things happen that it will probably proceed even slower.

PopthePuff:

Good to know that what I do is entertaining to people. I won't just abandon this story. I try not to abandon any story. Worst till now is the hibernation one of my stories has fallen into even though I have a half finished chapter laying around.

Siegfriedzz:

Amazing walls of text there, shocked me when I first moment :D

None of the original Servants are around anymore. But if, I would rather put Rider in a smaller craft than a dreadnought. A big and lumbering ship wouldn't make full use of her skill. Give her a small and fast ship with big guns and she'd probably gut enemies while dodging lasers.

Your point concerning Servants: Say hello to the sarcastic man in red!

I do completely agree with you on the point of common sense. Both humans and the ME species share the universal, confirm with normal physics, kind of common sense. TYPEs don't. At this point I would think the Citadel would get slightly paranoid of their planets and order a large shipment of brown pants, just in case.

The consciousness of a celestial body is mainly influenced by what lives on it. Lifeless planets don't even really have one and in most cases of civilized worlds it is already suppressed and replaced by the collective consciousness of the civilizing species.

Concerning colonization, humanity is fairly corrosive. Not as bad as ORT by a long shot, but they make up for it in numbers. And with any plants, etc. they take with them, they bring a piece of Gaia with them. The end result is that either Gaia overtakes the planet or, if the species on the new planet are resilient enough, both consciousnesses amalgamate.

Anonymous (Guest):

Very many and detailed reviews, thank you. I don't really like putting spoilers or bigger discussions in the review section so I'll just answer one of yours: Lorelei is no longer Vice-Director because she passed away around 40 years before the story started at 127. She refused to use the life-prolonging medical procedures that are mostly standard by now and died of old age.

And about the details of my chapters... I suck at fleshing them out, simple and stupid as that.

ferduran:

At this point experience told me not to promise any kind of release date. But as long as I don't say it's dead, it isn't, so there will probably an update at some point.

Chapter 7

In orbit above dwarf planet near Relay 299 two ships held vigil over the giant structure from afar. One was the STG vessel Shadow Watcher that had originally observed the activity at the Relay. The other was an Asari ship named Ailura that carried a delegation of some of the Citadel's finest Diplomats and was otherwise stuffed to the brim with cutting edge sensors.

They were waiting with their breaths held for almost two days now, forcing themselves to sleep despite their possibly impending death.

Two days ago, a ship had entered the System through the Relay. They had hailed it immediately and sent the First Contact Package.

What exactly they expected the new species to do even they didn't know, but turning around and fleeing through the Relay was something that caused mixed feelings among the crew. On the one hand, they weren't shot at which was a plus. On the other, there was still a very big possibility that next time it would be a fleet rather than a single ship, which made being shot at still a possible ending.

Sitting around uselessly while waiting for the other side to prepare whatever they were going to do didn't help with that at all.

Their reports about what little sensory data they could get from their position were already sent to the Citadel so there was at least the knowledge that their sacrifice wouldn't be completely useless. Completely being the keyword here.

From several million kilometers away they only visual they could get of the other ship had been a silhouette against the Relay. Their sensors couldn't detect any form of active radar and trying to measure how much Element Zero was used in the ship's construction.

Simply spoken, they didn't get any useful information.

The crew of the Ailura along with the cast of mainly Asari diplomats under the lead of Matriarch Benezia was uneasily passing the time by doing routine maintenance on the ship or rehearsing several First Contact scenarios when a flash of blue announced that something had entered the system through the Relay.

Before Thalia, the captain, could completely switch from distracting herself with idle conversation to formulating orders to her crew her communication officer shouted that they were being hailed.

"We are being hailed! The origin is-"

"-the unknown that just jumped through the Relay!" the sensor officer, a young Asari with light purple skin named Sedia, completed.

"Open a channel! Call Matriarch Benezia to the Bridge!" the blue-skinned captain barked her orders. "Let's see what we're dealing with."

"Channel is open."

With a flicker the big holo-screen on the bridge changed to black. On the dark background were representations of both the STG's and their own ship along with the planet they were in orbit above as well as the Relay and an icon they supposed to stand for the alien ship. As the icon on screen began moving towards their ships worried glances met the sensor officer who frantically tapped on her console, comparing the holo-feed with their sensory data.

The whole bridge waited while holding her breaths until the orange display gave of a slight beep and the Asari in front of it turned around.

"The unknown ship is lagging behind the transmission by a fixed amount, following the course as shown."

Whipping her head around, the Thalia asked her second in command: "Where is Benezia?"

After pushing a few keys on her Omnitool the other Asari answered with a fairly calm voice. "She is on her way. Should be here in another 3 minutes."

"Good. She's the one supposed to handle this... Anything new on the unknown?"

"No new com channels, hails from our side are being ignored, the active transmission shows no irregularities." replied the Salarian communication officer Radon Haelon.

Next was the navigation officer: "ETA is 10 minutes at current speed and course."

The seconds ticked by as the captain waited for the report that interested her most. After half a minute she tore her eyes away from the holo-screen and glanced at the Asari to her right who was staring at her screen with a burning intensity while her fingers flew over the interface. She was murmuring something to quiet to hear and only a tap on her shoulder brought her attention back to her commanding officer.

With an almost shaky voice she gave her report.

"The alien ship is enormous..."

"So this new race has dreadnoughts. This certainly doesn't make it easier for us."

"No..." Sedia cut in, "not enormous as in dreadnought, but truly enormous! If what the sensors are reading is correct, the ship is around ten kilometers in length, two wide and one high."

"B-but..."

"I checked it six times," the seated Asari replied with an almost defeated voice "that thing makes the Destiny Ascension look inadequate."

"We might have slightly miscalculated." a new voice threw in from the bridge bulkhead. An Asari Matriarch stood there in a formfitting black ensemble while watching the proceedings with a slight frown.

Having one of their leaders who usually had impeccable poker-faces show her thoughts on her face didn't reassure the crew in the least.

"Benezia, thank the goddess you are here. The alien ship-"

"I was listening in while coming here so there is no need to reiterate it all. How long till they arrive here?"

"ETA is 5 minutes. The feed is one minute early."

"Countdown to when the feed version of their ship reaches our position" the Matriarch ordered with a stern voice.

Silence reigned again on the bridge as the Citadel envoy waited for the giant ship to come closer. Some could only watch in a fascinated stupor as the ship entered visual range.

Gunmetal gray in color, the super-dreadnought was essentially an elongated cross that grew bigger towards the end with rounded corners and edges. While the front was featureless there were structures at the back. On the shorter sides were two rounded protrusions that stretched along the last quarter of the ship and ended in the bar of the cross-shape. The very back of the ship converged into a triangle and seemed to be where their thrusters were located.

A truly alien design. Nothing of the elegance of an Asari ship or the subtlety of a Salarian one. Turian vessels would be closest, but their pragmatic design was still more artful than a long slab of metal.

The countdown broke the spell on the crew and they all focused on the screen showing the alien ship next to their own. And nothing happened.

Watching as the ship on screen just stayed at its position, unmoving, without showing further actions it would take induced a new wave of anxiety. Meanwhile the real alien ship continued on its broadcasted path and was soon right next to them.

The data on the interfaces was nothing in comparison to the view the crew got of the other vessel through the windows of the observation deck. It was like almost like a second Citadel, only a lot more disturbing.

Coming to a stop, the giant ship just stayed next to them, making everyone aboard the two smaller spacecrafts hold their breaths.

"Still no active weapons or shields detected." informed the sensor officer.

"Channel to ship closed, receiving new transmission, bringing it up on main."

A flag appeared on the holo screen. On a white background a blue and green orb -most probably the depiction of a planet- was held in front of a figure that vaguely looked like an Asari. The Asari lookalike consisted of black contour lines and the colors blue on the left and green on the right. Overall, it lacked any distinct features but the blue half had a pattern on its hand that resembled circuitry while the green half's hands turned into vines where they connected with the globe.

Next came the Audio transmission. It sounded fairly metallic and synthesized, but was perfect Galactic Common otherwise.

"Your people do not stand in conflict with us. We will send two negotiators to clarify the current and future situation."

'Short and to the point.' thought Thalia 'I doubt that kind of message would've gone over well with trigger happy Turians in our stead...'

Without waiting for a reply, the flag changed to the exact same image as before, with all three ships shown orbiting around the planet. The view then zoomed in on the space between the other ship and the Ailura, and depicted two very simplified Asari leaving the alien ship and entering the Ailura through an opened airlock.

This perplexed the Asari on the bridge. Most hadn't expected a face-to-face First Contact with the aliens boarding their ship, but rather a series of transmission that would eventually lead to designating a neutral place where they could meet in person.

This new species has to be either very trusting or more likely quite sure that their ship would ensure the safety of their emissaries. Not that a spaceship that was bigger than yours by two orders of magnitude wasn't a very good argument to play nice.

Matriarch Benezia on the other hand was more dissatisfied with how they could only react to whatever the aliens did. From the moment the alien dreadnought entered the system they had lost the initiative to these newcomers and not having the initiative in negotiations made them significantly harder in her opinion. Especially if your opponent had a very good hands without even showing his hidden trumps.

Talia quickly designated an airlock facing the alien ship to be vented and ordered the few commandos they had on board to welcome their guests and lead them to the biggest conference room on the ship.

Luckily the other side had said that they only wanted to send two negotiators and the images showed that it probably hasn't been a mistake with the translation. The Ailura wasn't a very big ship and it wouldn't be possible to receive a delegation of more than a dozen without the even the biggest conference room getting a little bit too cozy for delicate matters.

With a row of saluting soldiers on each side, Tohsaka Rin and EMIYA made their way towards the airlock's bulkhead. The current Vice-Director of the Clock Tower had her long white hair tied together in big knot at the back of her head. She was wearing a light brown pinstripe suit with a crimson coat reaching just beyond knee-height, riding on her shoulders. Her firm gait was accompanied by the rhythmic tapping of a jet black cane with a silver tip and a big ruby for the grip. Despite her advanced age, the magus showed not much in terms of the deterioration usually attributed to being far into your second century of existance. Sure, she had gained some wrinkles and would probably break her back trying the acrobatic stunts she was capable of in her youth, but the experience she had gained over the years made that hindrance insignificant.

The man turned Heroic Spirit next to her was wearing his iconic dress of red and black, and looked just like Rin had remembered him, sitting inside her crashed living room atop a throne of debris with that mocking grin on his face.

At the end of the lane of people rear admiral Richard Bennings waited for the pair to pass him before signaling his crew to see them off with a chorus of "Godspeed!".

The bulkhead opened with a metallic sound, allowing them passage before closing again behind them.

"Ready to face the music, Rin?"

"I am perfectly able to look after myself, Archer. On the contrary, I am more worried about having to prevent you from killing yourself." she retorted with a beautiful and familiarly false smile.

Faking a wince, EMIYA replied: "Nice to see that even after a century you never change from the spitfire you were back then."

The false smile grew wider as a EMIYA found his foot being stomped on in a distinctly uncomfortable way. How she did that to a spirit of his class was a mystery to him, but he could imagine Rin especially designing some spell specifically for this purpose. Scratch that, he was sure she had invented one just in case they ever met again. Life never went easy on him. Though unlife would be more accurate.

"Rin?"

The pressure on his foot rose.

"Rin-san?"

Were those his bones that produced that slight noise that sounded like something cracking?

"Rin-sama?"

Before their small squabble could escalate any further a red lamp informed them that the airlock had begun depressurization which meant that the situation turned serious. And Rin had always been able to switch to serious instantly.

Alfred Erhardt and his squad had just seen off one of the most powerful living humans in existence when their Commander, the rear admiral, excused himself. As he passed the young soldier, he had let slip that they should watch what the Vice Director was about to do.

As a squad composed of magi, getting to watch a mystery used by such an esteemed magus as the Vice Director was something they wouldn't miss if they had a say in it.

So the ten men and women of the Orbital Knight Class 2 squad Lyrids huddled together in front of a screen showing the live feed from the optical sensors. They watched as airlock 54 opened and two figures left it.

Eyes lit with admiration and calculation were fixed on the pair walking through empty space as if it was a literal walk in the park. Neither of the two wore any kind of protective gear. Not so much surprising for the man since he was a spirit and breathing was more of a luxury than a necessity for him. The woman on the other hand was 100% human, no modifications done to her to the best of their cumulative knowledge.

They wrecked their brains trying to figure out how she accomplished the feat and were so absorbed in it that they almost didn't notice it when their two ambassadors entered the alien ship.

If they hadn't been thoroughly trained Commandos, Zerys and her comrades would have been standing there with their jaws hitting the floor. But trained they were, so their jaws only dropped internally wile outwardly they only froze up for a moment.

After all, who would expect the mysterious aliens with the giant spaceship of doom to be recolor Asari with long white fur instead of head crests? Or that they would float through the vacuum without any equipment or a shuttle to bring them. Or that they would answer the age-old question of how male Asari would look like. Delicious was her opinion if the black body armor was an accurate depiction.

Letting a wide gaze sweep over her group, the female alien said something to her companion which made the tall male sigh. Apparently they and the aliens shared the same gestures, probably due to the makeup of their bodies being close, but if the meanings of those gestures were the same she couldn't say.

Tipping away on a device the woman had pulled out of a pocket of her strange outfit, a frown soon made its way onto her face. The male then said something in the same language as before and was handed the device after a short flick of annoyance crossed the woman's face.

Was the man a technical expert of some sort? His armor suggested otherwise, but with new species you never could be quite sure. But if they needed technicians for something as simple as a translator, maybe their giant ship was that big because they couldn't get it any smaller and it was incapable of FTL? That would make a lot more sense to her than any other explanation for the dreadnought.

Due to being absorbed in her own thoughts she missed a small byplay of the two aliens where the male said something with a crooked smile on his face which earned him a step on his foot from the woman.

A synthesized voice brought her back from her small mental excursion to where the man had just finished typing away on the device which now seemed to translate the woman's words into Galactic Standard. Hearing her voice before the machine's made her reevaluate the usefulness of the translation implants everybody used. It cut down the conversation to half its length and you could hear what parts of a sentence were emphasized... well for everyone but the Elcor at least.

"We are humanity. Bring us to those who decide."

'Oookay, they don't seem to eager for some small talk' Zerys thought.

"Please follow me." the Asari said before opening a nearby bulkhead and gesturing them to follow her.

Apparently they had understood her as they walked behind her, flanked by her fellow Commandos. The long staff the woman was carrying was making a rhythmic tapping sound as she walked, causing Zerys to wonder what its purpose was. The scans as both aliens passed the airlock had shown that they had no weapons on their person, neither ranged nor melee, which was a big part of why she was as relaxed as she was right now.

Maybe it was a symbol of power? Something that showed she was of a certain status in their society? For all the similarities that existed on a physical level, their culture already seemed to differ quite much from their own.

Their way lead them down a long corridor, a right followed by a left bend before the reached their destination. Matriarch Benezia should have been waiting inside the conference room waiting for the pair they escorted so it was no wonder to find her already sitting at the table together with her secretary. When their guests entered the room Benezia rose in a show of hopefully common curtesy.

"Welcome ambassadors. My name is Benezia and I represent the Citadel Council. I hope for good relations between our species."

Unintelligible sounds, at least to Benezia, then sounded from a device in the female's hand. Thankfully her subordinates had already briefed her on the appearance of the aliens along with a description of their arrival.

"Humanity greets back. I am Tohsaka Rin and speak for the Gaian Union. My companion is named Archer. We have come to discuss diplomacy."

"That is great to hear," Benezia answered "would you like to take place?"

Without further reply both of her guest seated themselves opposite to her and the woman placed the rectangle shaped device on the table right in front of herself.

"If you would be so kind as to allow me to start?" an inclination of her head along with a synthetic "yes." made her continue.

"First, I would like to introduce the Citadel Council as the governing body of the galactic community. The Citadel Council is a conglomerate of multiple species and controls hundreds of planets with the goal of peaceful coexistence." taking a breath, Benezia continued on into the topics that needed more finesse: "My race is called Asari and we are an all female race. The Asari are known in Citadel space for their wisdom and diplomacy. The Turians are the military arm of Citadel space, although other races may also have their own military, and are tasked with peacekeeping inside it. The Salarians excel in the field of science but suffer from a short life due their high metabolism." Each mention of a race was accompanied by a holo of a member of it. "These three field the supreme legislative organ of Citadel space, the Citadel Council, with one member per race.

The economy of Citadel is regulated by the Volus, a race that has specialized in trade and-"

The Asari matriarch was interrupted as the metallic and cold voice of the alien translator cut into her explanation: "Excuse me to interrupt you, Negotiator."

Her female opponent, the one who clearly was in charge of the two examples of humanity as they called themselves, started dictating which was surprisingly enough being translated almost without lag this time.

"We seek to clarify the present and future actions between each other before anything else."

'This somehow doesn't sound very friendly.'

"Do you know this race?"

The depiction of a Batarian appeared on the translator device made Benezia's stomach churn. They had been the ones to open the relay and if what she pieced together from the little bits the Council threw her and her own information network was correct, then they had fucked up royally. Which is why she was sent here in the first place. With a bad premonition she could only answer in positive.

"Yes, they are called Batarians and are an associate member of the Citadel Council."

"What does the status of associate member entail." asked Tohsakarin with eyes that were hard as steel if their facial expressions were as similar to Asari ones as she believed them to be.

This question felt like answering it either way would lead to uncomfortable results. If she had to guess, the newcomers held some kind of grudge against the Batarians. If they had been as charming as ever when they paid humanity a visit it wouldn't even surprise her that they did. Benezia had to suppress a gulp before she answered.

"An associate member of the Citadel Council mainly has to pay taxes and enforce Council law in exchange for representation via an embassy on the Citadel, integration into the galactic economy and...

…military protection."

The slight hesitation at the end was half real and half played to give the exactly the image that this point worried her and that she would prefer a diplomatic approach over a militaristic.

"Then I, in my function as spokesperson of humankind for this occasion, officially deliver the following message to the opposite diplomatic delegation:

We do not stand in or wish for conflict with the Citadel Council or its associate members,"

Maybe this was not going to go as worse as she'd feared.

"excluding the Batarian people. I formally advise the representative of the Citadel Council against getting involved in the coming conflict."

No, this was exactly what her experience had told her.

She would like seeing the Hegemony reap what it had sown like dew things else, but they still were under Council administration and protection. If humanity attacked them, others would have to bleed for the sins committed by the Batarian Hegemony. Mainly Turian and Asari blood.

But they couldn't forsake one of their members without plunging the other ones into uncertainty, destabilizing the galactic order.

Hell if they help, hell if they don't. And she was possibly the last one that could influence humanity's ambassadors before they started a war.

"I'm sure the Citadel would offer to mediate between Humanity and the Batarian Hegemony to find a peaceful way to settle this."

The white-haired woman sighed lightly after the translator had done its job. Rubbing the bridge of her nose with on hand she refuted the Asari's reasoning.

"You seem to have misinterpreted what I said, so I will be clearer this time.

The Batarians made my people suffer greatly. We begrudge that deeply. But revenge or compensation isn't what we want, it would mend the damage at most and make us feel better at worst.

What we want, what we will do with the Batarians is one thing: make an example of them.

A mediator isn't needed for that."

Bad had turned worse very quickly. Pressuring the Batarians to give a garden world or two as reparations would have been fairly easy. Calming or redirecting a raging berserker like the Krogan would have taken more skill but was still in the realm of doable things.

Changing the mind of someone who combined revenge with achieving some higher goal bordered on the impossible. Especially if they could hold a grudge for a century.

"Then, Negotiator Benezia, farewell."

The electronic voice pounded the reality of her helplessness in like a kiloton shell. The humans left the table without any resistance. The voice was very unmistakably final in saying they were going and keeping them on the ship against their will was a very bad idea in light of the giant human dreadnought. So the wise Asari matriarch could do nothing but watch as galactic peace left through the automatic door.

All advantages she could have brought to bear as a diplomat were useless if the other side didn't do diplomacy and she didn't have anything to force them into having to use diplomacy. Her opponent was well aware that if push comes to shove they would have to fight against a majority of the galaxy, but brushed that away without second thought.

Supreme self-confidence or calculation? Benezia dearly hoped it was the first one.

The airlock closed behind them and began the pressurization process. As soon as enough air was inside the chamber to allow for speech to work, Rin once again took out her terminal.

"How did the main part go, Frank?"

She still found that Frank was an anticlimatic name for an AI, but better a sane Ai with a lame name than Ruby and Sapphire. The less said about those two Mystic Codes from hell the better.

A deep distinctly male voice belonging to the Caucasian face on her terminal answered her query.

"Very well, Lady Tohsaka. I was successful in infiltrating the ships systems thanks to the protocols that were recovered from the captured ships. I used the allocated time to extract as much of the ships internal data as possible. Additionally, I took the utmost caution in modifying their records about the Aegis. They will have to reconstruct anything meaningful from memory or miscalculate this ship's strength."

"Good, well done. What have you snatched from their computers?" the white haired Magus said with an acknowledging nod of her head.

"They took a small measure of care not to have anything blatantly classified lying around, but I was able to obtain a more complete set of star charts, schematics of their ship as well as more advanced cryptography algorithms than those the other captured ships used. Should I forward them to the appropriate sections?"

"Yes, please do that. A great catch for a mission like this. All in all, it went well enough."

"How so, Rin? That blue lady didn't seem all that thrilled with you." asked Archer although he already knew her answer. She had always loved explaining her plans.

"That standoffish display should make them stay away from the affair, push them to help from the beginning, or even come charging blindly at us. Either way, it is better to have a known enemy than an indecisive bystander that could join the fray at any point."

AN: I know that it is a little bit short, but that is how it turned out.

No cliffhanger at the end. That way nobody will have to wait till I get to writing the next chapter.

I hope you liked it and read you next time.