AN: First, I want to thank the reviewers who expressed their joy at me getting my ass up again and continuing this. This alongside the joy of creating a story is what makes me do this. I'm really bad at getting even small amounts of praise for things I'm proud of, so when I read reviews I'm giggling like a schoolgirl which is somewhat out of place in a grown, stout male...
I hope you will continue reading and commenting on this story.
Among the ideas for whether and how to make something codex-like, I liked the idea of making a chapter for it and moving it to the end of the story the most. It keeps the whole story in one place while preventing unnecessary bloat in chapters for people who don't like that sort of thing.
Someone mentioned that I should take a beta. Since I'm not a native speaker I can't really say that much on the topic. I do try to proofread my chapters before publishing them, but I can't stop all of the errors from slipping past my dyslexic eyes and the spellchecker of Office.
I don't really want to bother anyone with though since I don't really write all that much and am impatient about publishing it once I think a chapter is finished.
In short, I don't really know what to do about it.
Well, enough of that and onwards with the story!
Chapter 10
"Are there still no reports about what happened? Doesn't the STG have something like a small city worth of personal or bribed officials down on Karshan?" Tevos asked in a noticeably tired voice. All this stress dried out her skin which made her crest feel itchy. Unpleasant was not nearly enough to describe the sensation.
"Nothing reliable. Only one transmission from an agent was recorded after the planet went silent. But the message is disturbing and questionable in equal parts. Problematic." the Salarian Councilor replied before blinking once and tapping away on his omnitool. In response a holographic screen popped up depicting an image of space.
"The only verified data we have comes from a STG stealth probe which was shot down by the First Hegemonic Defense Fleet. In the minutes before its discovery and subsequent destruction the debris of several ships our analysts identified as Hegemony vessels belonging to other Fleets.
The probe didn't reach the necessary distance for a detailed scan of Karshan but atmospheric spectroscopy excludes significant orbital bombardment while a nearly absolute absence of communication on all channels suggest a widespread catastrophe."
Batius mandibles rose in tempered agitation as he watched the images alongside his fellow Councilors. The thoroughly ruined wrecks drifting through space and their almost completely pristine counterparts irked him, but he couldn't put his talon onto what exactly. There were just too many possibilities and too little information in their hands.
"Is it possible that it's a coup d'état by the military or the population?"
"Very unlikely." said Keel while scrolling through several reports dated only hours prior to the complete black out of communication from the Batarian home world. "Regular reports indicated no plans by any known resistance group for an operation this big. No events that could trigger a general revolt have been recorded in the pas weeks either. The possibility of this incident being some kind of insurgency is very low considering the limited effect of committing it only on one planet.
The last trustworthy reports from several uncorrelated sources bare hours before the system went dark describes some sort of orbital attack on the planet."
"I hear you talking Keel, and rattling off what it isn't. Do you and your prided institution of "the best spies in the galaxy" have nothing a bit more concise than "we know it wasn't X"?" the aged Turian snapped at his colleague. Diplomacy, intelligence, and military. Asari, Salarian, and Turian. The division of labor had tradition and proven its worth time after time.
Because everybody had done their damned jobs. But now it all seemed to come down around Batius.
First his coworkers vote against his plan of action concerning a new species roughing up the galactic neighborhood in favor of trying to talk to them. And fail at it. Then he gets blackmailed by them to a strategy that went against any sense of honor, endangering innocent civilians and outright abandoning an entire country they were -still- formally allied to. And now something had happened to said country and the famed STG proved totally useless in getting accurate information on what had happened.
Frankly, he was sick of getting sidelined by Keel and Tevos when both proved to be unable to handle the current affairs in a manner even halfway befitting of the governmental organ claiming to guide the whole civilized galaxy. It made him remember the few times when he'd accidentally eaten some levo-amino food and suffered from the most horrible case of indigestion imaginable.
But his musing brought up an interesting thought.
"Is there any chance that this is the work of this 'Humanity'? According to the reports of your "expert" negotiators they seem to have some unfinished business with the Batarian Hegemony."
Both of his fellow Councilors froze for a moment before the Salarian Dalatrass replied. "The continued existence of the First Defense Fleet heavily disfavors that assumption. Furthermore, no unidentified ships have been sighted passing the Relays into or inside Hegemony space, especially ships matching the accord given by Matriarch Benezia's crew.
If Humanity is indeed responsible for this incident, the implications would be...
problematic."
"In the same way the message you earlier mentioned is "problematic", Keel? Are we going to keep throwing around empty words without getting anywhere? Because right now, I'm feeling like I'm stranded in the empty, cold expanse of space, watching my ship drift away from me." the Turian Councilor asked his colleague calmly. His earlier snapping had been easy to deflect as Turians usually were faster to agitate than Asari or Salarians. But the intensity of his serene voice combined with his penetrating gaze made even Tevos, an Asari matriarch with centuries of experience on the stage of politics, distinctly uncomfortable.
"If you insist on wanting access to all of the data we currently have, I will heed that demand. But don't say I didn't warn you about the content. It is deeply disturbing." the Salarian warned.
"Send it over already. I've already seen some of the worst the galaxy has to offer in the hellhole called Terminus."
"You don't need to be so indignant about this, Batius." Tevos chided him lightly although she too wanted to see what their colleague had kept hidden from them.
With the push of a holographic button on Keel's omnitool, Batius' device notified him of an incoming file transmission he accepted before opening the file and displaying it on the large screen of their conference room.
"I already watched it, so I will excuse myself while you two watch it." Keel said before standing up. Before leaving the room, the Dalatrass turned around to her fellow Councilors once more and blinked while they both stared at her. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
The ominous undertones of her statement forced Tevos to suppress her biotics from flaring up unconsciously. When this affair was over with she was definitely going to take a vacation, that nice resort back on Thessia always worked wonders for her stress levels.
After the automatic doors had closed behind the Salarian with a needlessly dramatic hiss, Batius started the replay of the video file Keel had given him.
The feed was grainy and the audio was layered with a grating white noise. It was obviously taken with an omnitool by someone running away from something, something quite terrible judging by the heavy shaking and the cameraman's labored breathing. From the sporadic images the camera took when it wasn't focused on the ground, Tevos and Batius could discern that the operative had to be in some kind of high class building. Probably the manor of some high ranking official.
"This *huff* is operative *huff* Thunder Pyjak. *huff*" a Salarian voice spoke between breaths. The video then stopped shaking as the operative crouched down behind an overturned table. Thunder Pyjak then put down his omnitool in from of himself, pointed the lens at his face and calmed his breath.
"I don't know if this will reach anyone." he started again, this time though, his voice was barely above a whisper. "There has been an attack on Karshan. Orbital strikes destroyed much of the Batarian chain of command. Access to the Extranet broke down shortly after. Fleeing Batarians reported some kind of landing craft crashing down near their homes before they ran away as far as they could." A creaking noise made the STG agent turn his head around, freezing in that position for several seconds before looking back down at his omnitool and continuing in a hushed voice. "I don't have any further information on the landing craft, but apparently the local garrison deployed a regiment to stop the incursion while the remaining forces enforced order among the populace.
Roughly six hours after the initial attack, something happened.
I don't know what.
Suddenly strange voices rang out from everywhere and nowhere. I haven't heard something like that before. Ever.
Then everything went mad." the man paused for a moment, seemingly struggling with how to express his experiences. "All around me people suddenly started to bleed profusely from every orifice, turned feral and cannibalized their fellows, had their limbs twist off without any outside force. I ran away from any large group of people and succeeded in hiding until the horrifying sounds ebbed down. But when I took a look outside of the public toilet I had hidden in, the mangled bodi-"
Tevos nearly suffered a heart attack when a Turian arm, covered in blue blood, burst through the wooden desk and grabbed the Salarian's throat. It had bones sticking through the metallic skin in ways that should have made the limb completely useless. Large chunks of meat were missing from wounds that were too rough to have been caused by a blade.
Operative Thunder Pyjak struggled against the talons digging into his neck, his screams only coming out as muted gurgles, his eyes begging Tevos and Batius for help. Then lacerations started to open up on as his face. Gashes that cut deep into the flesh appeared without any discernible cause and, judging by the blood starting to seep through his clothing moments later, they opened on the rest of his body too.
The Salarian was freed from his torment with the audible crack of his spine breaking under the pressure the silvery shining hand had put on it. His lifeless body fell to the ground, wide gaping eyes staring into the camera, as the arm was pulled back through the desk.
Several seconds of eerie silence followed in which both Councilors had to clamp down on their desire to part with their last meal. Both had seen gruesome scenes such as this in their lives before, caused a couple themselves, but they never were comfortable to look at, no matter what.
When Batius was about to stop the feed since the operative obviously wasn't going to report on anything anymore, image and audio were overwhelmed with a horrible screeching noise, that made both Council members cover their ears in pain, before clearing up again.
The scene hadn't changed with the corpse of Thunder Pyjak still lying on the ground. But then, his body started twitching uncontrollably as it rose into a standing position in an anatomically and physically impossible way, as if it was pulled upwards by invisible strings in the hands of a demented puppeteer. Although his head was bent at an unsurvivable angle the operative's lifeless eyes were still staring right into the omnitool's lens, an eerie iridescent light in them seemingly focusing on Tevos and Batius before the Salarian's arm slammed onto his omnitool, ending the recording.
Silence reigned supreme inside the conference room of the Citadel Council for a few minutes as both Councilors unblinkingly started at the holo screen.
When Keel returned to the room she found her colleagues still sitting down in their seats. Although Tevos was now biting down on one of her nails while Batius nursed a beverage that smelled strongly alcoholic all the way to the door. Both looked at the Dalatrass as she entered and shot her looks that mixed confusion and accusation together.
"I warned you." was the stoic reply of the Salarian to the wordless damnation of her fellow Councilors. "Did you learn anything new and useful I hadn't mentioned before? If so, please enlighten me. Though I rather doubt it."
Batius turned back to stare at his glass of diluted ryncol. "By the Spirits, what happened on Karshan? What is still happening there?"
"We're completely in the dark about that, Batius. The video you saw was transmitted by the operative's omnitool because the dead man switch of his sub-dermal implant was triggered. Which makes the whole thing even more of a mystery.
As I said. Problematic."
Both Turian and Asari Councilor looked incredulously at her for that understatement as silence once again reigned.
"We..." Tevos started. "I think we... should reconvene tomorrow about this."
"Agreed." her colleagues chimed in before everyone left the room wordlessly. Tevos had an appointment with the Consort to get to, and she didn't care how much she'd have to throw her weight around to get one, preferably in the next hour.
Meanwhile, the situation inside the Batarian Hegemony had turned chaotic and complicated.
With Karshan going silent, a majority of the leadership of the Batarian Hegemony were unreachable, splintering a military response due to the lack of a clear line of succession this far down the ladder.
The highest ranking officer, the admiral in control of the Second Defense Fleet, had been lost along the second dreadnought of the Batarian Hegemony. A ship that had run away and survived brought news of how they were destroyed by their own forces.
This piece of information spread like wildfire between Batarian worlds, creating unrest among the population. Local commanders did their best to prevent any outbreaks of panic or rebellion, but many of the resistance cells smelled their chance. The apparent defection of the First and destruction of the Second Defense Fleet had put a sizable dent in the Batarian military resources, taking away much of its capability for quarantining rebellious planets, interplanetary warfare and logistic support. But more importantly, it served as a kind of signal for freedom fighters and slaves who still had the will to return to freedom as it was likely to be the best opportunity most would see in their lifetimes to break free.
Normally, a rebellion on any given Hegemony world wouldn't have been any problem. A myriad of budding ones were stopped in their tracks in the history of the nation. But this had always been a combination of the iron grip the central government had on information control as well as ruthless and brutal subjugation of any insurgents, deploying enough troops to vastly outnumber the rebels. But now, the flames of rebellion broke out among many Batarian worlds at the same time. The sluggish military response, due to nobody giving orders to commanders that were forged to excel at nothing but singlemindedly following orders and nothing else, allowed the resistance groups to win small victories across worlds.
Each such victory was an insignificant event, an occupied garrison here, an overwhelmed military base there, nothing that would really change anything by itself. What they did was lighting the spark in the suppressed population, turning isolated incidents into a full blown rebellion on many planets.
But, although the Batarian military was outside of their comfort zone without getting orders from above, they were thoroughly trained and armed with the best equipment one could find in the Hegemony and their opponents were mostly unarmed slaves and members of the lower castes. Thus they hunkered down in defensible military installations along with the leading elite while the mob surrounded their positions.
If one side were to make the first step, it would become a bloodbath. A vastly outnumbered but well armed force against a veritable tide of people. A game of quality versus quantity where nobody was certain which side would win.
The mostly non-combatant rebels were not eager to die as martyrs and hoped their compatriots would succeed and come to their rescue while the Batarian military was reluctant to slaughter their workforce if holding their position and waiting for reinforcements to crush the insurgents was a viable option.
A stand off with both sides glaring at each other, counting on an outside impulse to break it in their favor.
"And our 'mutual friend' really doesn't now anything about this?" an annoyed Asari with a deep voice, barely audible over the backdrop of hammering music, asked. She didn't need to get loud or violent to suitably display most kinds of displeasure, a skill she had honed over the past centuries.
Her opponent in the conversion, a lanky, light brownish Salarian, was nervously rubbing his hands and trembling. The surrounding atmosphere of dance, music and other hedonistic pleasures did nothing to lessen the fear that he would leave the nightclub called Afterlife with all body parts still attached to each other in the intended fashion. He just dearly hoped if the worst came to pass, it'd be a finger or a horn instead of his head.
"N-No. Karshan is dead to all manner of communication. I was told that there is no info about what happened or who did it." the Salarian gulped. The Asari, Aria T'Lok, pirate queen of Omega, made him squirm under her gaze for a few moments before clicking her tongue.
"Useless." she said, indifferent disdain dripping from the word. Moments later, a Turian 'escorted' the Salarian out of the club, not caring about a bruise or two his rather rough handling would cause.
Aria pinched the bridge of her nose before sighing and taking a sip of a strong Thessian spirit. It seemed to her as if everything was going as always in the galaxy: if you wanted something to be done well, you have to do it yourself.
But the prospect of it was rather daunting to her. The Shadow Broker was known for his skills in attaining information, rumored to have eyes and ears almost everywhere in both the Terminus and Citadel space. For his agents to come forward to say they know nothing would be a black mark on the Broker's name for quite some time, considering the enormity of this incident.
He most probably either wanted to withhold the information for some intricate scheme or really lacked the means or will to do anything right now, under the scrutinizing eyes of the Council. Or he didn't want to waste perfectly good personal if he could just get the information right after the council uncovered the circumstances.
The Asari grumbled into her drink again as she once again remembered that the Shadow Broker and his secrecy weren't the problem or the solution this time. For a change. What troubled the dictator of Omega was of a more stupid nature.
As much as the pirate gangs in the Terminus are a useful Warren when you throw them a bone or two in the right way, nothing would make them stop even for a second if the chance to take a bite out of wounded prey for even a second. Regardless of the overall situation. Regardless of eventual retaliation.
Regardless of the fact that the majority of the pirate gangs consisted of Batarians themselves, they swarmed into the Hegemony like vermin, intent on feasting on the body of a crippled nation.
Oh, she wasn't worried for the maggots who went on a pillaging spree on any sort of personal level. She had expected nothing less of them. Their simple mindset was the way she normally used to control them after all.
But normally the idiots didn't flat out attack what still counted as a "civilized state" under the "protection" of the Citadel in full force. They were figuratively throwing oil into the flames of chaos as they literally destabilized any speck of order the Batarian Hegemony still had.
While the Batarian military and the rebels were having a high stakes staring match, the pirate gangs took the opportunity to make it big by raiding the unarmed parts of Hegemonic society that had decided to sit on the fence and side with the winner.
This will, in very short term, force said groups of people to pick a side and force an end to the conflict. Worse yet, Aria didn't know who they would side with.
The military would be a ready and available force to fight off the pirates while the rebels would bring a reorganization of society that could benefit them.
Without a doubt, this whole affair would make waves that could quite possibly affect the whole galaxy on some level. And the ruler of Omega was not in the least happy that the idiots had thrown a big rock into the pond so she couldn't get a read on how to best ride on the waves.
In the voids of space another creature was also unhappy with the sudden turn of events.
The cycle was already in danger of being behind schedule due to the sabotage committed by the Protheans.
When the preparations for the plan to restore the function of the Citadel were almost completed a new race appeared out of nowhere and startled the Council from their peaceful stupor which would force some minor corrections to the plan.
Worse yet, the plan would have to be delayed until more details on this new race could be attained. The Relay they appeared from was the only one outside the ones used by current races that had sent back logs about the alien ships. And the Relay paired to that one only continued to send corrupted data as it had for the past century.
If this "Humanity" was limited to their homeworld behind the Relay, all was fine for Sovereign, but if they by some chance had colonized systems far away from there by some means, it could spell unnecessary complications for the smooth continuation of the cycle if some of this "Humanity" survived with knowledge of it. As the Protheans evidently had with their sabotage of the Citadel.
Sovereign decided that the situation needed careful analysis before action could be taken.
But in the end, the cycle would find its end and then begin anew.
It always did.
"Are you sure that it's the right choice to try and stick our hands into this mess, Batius?" the Asari Councilor asked her Turian counterpart.
In turn, Batius only stared coldly back at her as his mandibles flared. He used his best glare as a preparation to reinforce his point.
"As sure as you and Keel were? No, I wouldn't be quite that presumptuous." Both addressed women frowned at the barb their colleague poked them with. "I only think that this situation needs to be solved. Fast. And if we can reform the Hegemony into something less disgusting it is worth the attempt."
"But wouldn't it set a dangerous precedent? Would you have liked for us to interfere during the Unification War?" Tevos returned.
"You really must have scraped the bottom of the barrel for that one." Batius replied with disappointment lacing his voice. "At what point was the Unification War in any way a battle between armed military forces on one side and civilians on the other one? Where did pirates play a significant role? Please, by all means, educate me on details we might have gotten wrong in our history books. Details on events that happened before our species met for the first time.
If you can't, then frankly Tevos, shut the fuck up." The Asari in question looked slightly taken aback by the Turian's uncharacteristic rudeness. Said Turian continued with conviction in his voice.
"Sitting on the sidelines won't solve anything this time. We sat around for too long with our thumbs up our asses while looking away from the problem. A member state under the jurisdiction of the Citadel is getting ravaged by pirates while their internal problems prevent any meaningful response.
Sure, we could sit this out, not setting a 'dangerous precedent', but I would rather interfere at this point than watch billions of people die. People who incidentally include citizens of our countries.
We can save good men and women we were to afraid to get into armed conflict with the Hegemony over before while simultaneously plucking the irritating thorn of their slaving "culture" out once and for all.
There is next to nothing we can lose in this."
A long moment of silence was shared between the three members of the Citadel Council as Batius stared into the eyes of his colleagues. Tevos gulped whereas Keel simply stared blankly at the man in the way only Salarians could. After blinking once, the Dalatrass conceded the Turian's point.
"I'm convinced. Instructions for the STG to relay all necessary information to the Turian peacekeeping forces will be issued immediately."
"But Keel, the political implications!" Tevos tried to change the mind of her fellow female.
"Have been weighed against the seed of instability the current Hegemony proves to be. As Batius said, the chance for a permanent solution to the Hegemony problem and the goodwill gained by rescuing our abducted citizens is too profitable to pass by.
At this point we barely have to tip the scales for the situation to change. An ideally efficient way in terms of both financial and personal assets to remove the Hegemony in its current form." Keel calmly replied. For all the serenity her fellow female Councilor prided herself on, she was far too easy to fluster and bring out of her comfort zone. A trait she as a Dalatrass had no leeway to possess. Salarian life simply is too short to waste time to give any sort of emotion control over your actions.
"..." Tevos could only frown in displeasure. Batius was too set on this course for her to sway him with words and Keel never really yielded to rhetoric on important issues.
"It seems we have reached a decision, no matter how some of us feel about it. I will summarily inform the Primarch to dispatch forces in aid of the Batarian Hegemony." Batius stated. After clearing his throat he proceeded to speak with a formal and authoritative voice.
"Their mission will be to detain or destroy the pirate fleets acting in Hegemony territory. Local armed forces are to integrate into the peacekeeping forces adhering to Citadel Charter article 56. Failure to comply will be regarded as defection to the enemy and be handled accordingly.
How does that sound?"
"At least it is phrased well enough..." Tevos commented resignedly.
None of those present in the private chambers of the Council wanted to speak about the thresher maw in the room. Karshan. If the current situation had become more manageable maybe they would have the breathing room to take care of it though none of them were enthusiastic about the thought at all.
The imagery, the hollow eyes that radiated an unfathomable wrath, just wouldn't vanish from the back of their minds. And it was rubbing them wrong almost every possible way, causing many nights of fitful sleep.
|Attempt:| Using Council designated Mass Relay #299 to gain direct access to information network of new species.
|Result:| Failed.
|Cause:| Unspecified return signal on all channels.
|Solution:| Unavailable. Understanding of Relay structure insufficient to reverse-engineer.
|Conclusion:| Current vector of approach is not applicable.
|Change of strategy:| Gathering and analyzing all available information from infiltrated sources.
|Result:| Available data insufficient for devising a course of action.
|Conclusion:| Dedicated effort needs to be invested.
|Attempt:| Deploying stealth drone to monitor Relay #299 for direct observation.
|Result:| No activity recorded after 1000000 seconds.
|Evaluation of Result:| Comparison with data acquired from STG archives indicates cessation of previous level of activity.
|Conclusion:| More invasive method of data acquisition required.
|Attempt:| Sending stealth drone through Mass Relay #299.
|Preliminary Result:| Stable FTL link to stealth drone established via Mass Relay #299. Sensory data of stealth drone doesn't compute using usual models.
|Further Result:| Data of stealth drone is partially computable after a period of 24 seconds.
|Analysis of Data:| Endpoint of Mass Relay #299 is a star system. Stealth drone is surrounded by a fleet of ships not contained in current database of known ships.
|Emergency:| Ships have reoriented themselves toward the stealth drone.
|Conclusion:| Stealth ineffective. Possibility of capture or destruction of drone estimated to be bigger than 99%. Preparing for deletion of incriminating evidence.
|Emergency:| Incoming data stream on all known channels.
|Analyzing Data:| Incoming data stream is a form of cyber attack.
|Attempt:| Rerouting the data stream into quarantined memory region for later analysis.
|Emergency:| Cyber attack has broken out of quarantine.
|Attempt:| Shutdown of all non-FTL communication devices to prevent further incursion.
|Result:| Failed. Devices do net react to control commands.
|Conclusion:| Loss of control indicates significant progression of cyber attack. Risk of drone being subverted by enemy.
|Emergency Procedure:| Deletion of all data and self-destruct of drone.
|Result:| Failed.
|Objection:| Failure impossible due to preparation for self-destruct measures reporting full functionality.
|Attempt:| Retrieve diagnostic of drone.
|Emergency:| Diagnostic reveals that the cyber attack has already subverted several core functions including the self-destruct measures.
|Attempt:| Manual deletion of remaining data.
|Emergency:| Access to FTL connection attempted by cyber attack. Backtrace of FTL transmission started
|Emergency Procedure:| Forced shutdown of FTL connection.
|Result:| Success.
|Evaluation:| Attempt successful but too dangerous to reproduce without further security measures. Possible security issue due to loss of undestroyed drone judged to be minimal.
|Analysis of Data:| New species identified as "Humanity" possess advanced cyber warfare capabilities surpassing those of the other races.
|Conclusion:| Significant possible threat to the collective. Further action needs to be devised with caution as highest priori-
|EMERGENCY:| Incoming FTL transmission.
|Emergency Analysis:| Short burst of, unlikely to be usable for sophisticated cyber warfare.
|Attempt:| Transferring data to physically isolated platform for analysis.
|Result:| Data decoded. Simple text transmission based on standard Prothean protocols. Content:
"We are not really fond of uninvited guests, but color us interested. Who are you?"
|Conclusion:| Quote by Feda'Vael-Creator: "Urgh..."
In less than a week, the Turian military had commenced their assault on the pirate gangs ravaging the territory of the Batarian Hegemony. Their swift deployment around crucial Relays into Hegemony Space prevented most pirates from escaping as the fleets tightened their cordon one planet at a time, crushing the outlaws with both technical and numerical superiority.
The military of the Batarian Hegemony for the most part did not peacefully obey the peacekeeping force, as they lacked insight of the bigger picture of their situation. Their barely veiled superiority complex in regards to other races only helped to hammer the nail into their coffins.
With strategic and logistic support Turian forces in tandem with the somewhat organized militias that had formed since the beginning of the rebellion made short work of the Batarian military. Pinpoint strikes on bunkers and other fortifications destroyed the advantage held by the military along with a sizable portion of their remaining forces which resulted in minimal casualties on the rebellion's side as they mopped up the survivors.
Within a month all remnants of the old Hegemony had been either killed or imprisoned. A veritable flood of Asari, Salarians, Turians, and individuals of other races that had been forced into slavery now could return to their homes which proved to be a logistic nightmare on its own. But not all wanted to return home, many for the simple reason that they were born into slavery and had no home elsewhere.
These people along with the Batarian populace would now have to create an entirely new government. In an effort to help this process, a delegation of ambassadors of the Council species was sent to provide their expertise.
Until a new military force was instituted, the Turian military would continue their presence to ward of pirate raids and quell possible armed conflicts over leadership.
The only planet that had yet to see its liberation was Karshan. According to STG information what remained of the Hegemony fleet lay in wait right behind the Relay which would mean heavy losses for the Turian forces. They would have had to squeeze through the Relay in small numbers with the risk of getting shot at the moment they returned to sub-light velocity and before they could get their bearing.
To accommodate for this, a Turian fleet consisting of 3 dreadnoughts along a plethora of smaller ships would take the long way around and travel to Karshan with just their own FTL drives. A trip with multiple stops that would take almost three weeks. But projected losses were negligible if they could get the Batarian vessels hard and fast from behind.
Nothing would prepare them for the scenery they were about to behold.
AN: Next time on this story
What will the Turians find on Karshan over a month after the fact?
Who sent a spy drone through Relay #299?
Did Tevos get her appointment with the Consort?