History Repeated, Lesson Learned
Written by KitBeast
Chapter 9
Hello everyone it's me again with another installment of History. Since there is no major things for me to say today I'm going to go straight to answering questions.
Firstly there are only two Rachni queens. The one on Noveria and the Rachni queen that is in this chapter. The Rachni that was rescued from Suen was an Empress. I will explain the difference in upcoming chapters.
Secondly since the Rachni are not deeply explored in cannon we unfortunately have no way in which they work at a government or command level, all we know is there's workers, soldiers and queens etc. So I will be using another Hive that is covered in extreme detail as a basis for the Rachni. This hive is the Xenomorph hive (Aliens) hence the Empress. But no I'm not turning the Rachni into Xenomorphs, which would just be stupid.
Third thing is people have been asking is if it was the Repears in control of the Rachni during the Rachni wars, and in my opinion no it wasn't. I think the evidence in cannon supports the leviathans more than the reapers therefore in my story the Rachni were being controlled by the Leviathans.
Finally yes the UEF is going to study technology of the Rachni although they will only get one thing from it that they haven't got already, and if you've played the Leviathan DLC then I'm sure you'd be able to guess what it is.
Oh and I completely hate the way I can spell check everything on Microsoft Office and have it perfect and as soon as I upload it onto Fanfiction it says I have mis-spelt practically every word. I mean really?
15:37 Presidents office, UEF Assembly, Berlin, Germany.
The shining blue of the vortex lit up all that surrounded it as the Shadow's Cloak glided out of Slipspace into the Sol system. The rest of the 2RF had stayed behind at Reach however an order directly from the top of the UNSC had resulted in the Shadow escorting the Rachni frigate directly to the Rachni colonies on Jupiter's moon, after which Laura was ordered to report not to UNSC headquarters but to the President's office for her next orders.
This is what had resulted in her stood outside his office waiting for his assistant to let her in and her trying once again to straighten out creases that weren't there.
After a couple of minutes the assistant finally allowed her to enter allowing only for her to see that the president wasn't the only person there. Tanlayn and his two aides, Partolyn and Xaltain were there as well.
"I'm sorry sir; I didn't know there was a meeting in progress." Laura said when they all turned towards her
"It's quite alright Admiral. You are here for your next orders so I think it's important that you take place in this meeting." Adam said gesturing to an empty seat and when Laura had sat he continued "The Elcor government is willing to hear out the Rachni's side of the story when it comes to the Rachni wars. This leads us directly to your next orders. You are to take the Ambassador and his aides to the Rachni colony here in Sol and act as an overseer for the talks between the two, just to ensure that both of friends are safe from the other after all it would take just a small thing to trigger a big mistake when nerves are on edge like it is most likely going to be."
"The Rachni have agreed to this?" Laura asked knowing how territorial the Rachni were
"Dr Green has passed on the message to the Queen and she has agreed to meet the Elcor Ambassador in the UEF embassy."
"I see. How about you Ambassador? Are you sure about this?"
"Nervous statement; I am. However I will admit to being concerned about being so close to the Rachni since they have always been portrayed as being mindless beasts."
"These mindless beasts happened to achieve space flight." Laura pointed out
"Honest statement; yes however there interactions with the Citadel suggests that it was a exception to the rule not the rule itself."
"Anyway Admiral you have your orders. You are clear to leave whenever the Ambassador is."
"Nervous statement; I am ready now Admiral. I would like to get this over with before I lose my nerve." Tanlayn said while slowly moving towards the door.
23:12 UEF Embassy building, Rachni colony, Amalthea.
Amalthea was a desert like moon with a rusted orange landscape dominated by sand and rock as far as the eye could see. The atmosphere was virtually none existent restricting the humans to either their Embassy or EVA suits.
The embassy building itself was a huge construction, large enough to house the 200 people who worked and lived within its walls. The majority of them being there to study the behaviour of the Rachni in as close to their natural habitat as possible since Amalthea would be amongst their first choices for colonisation. When asked why they would colonise the desolate moons instead of the larger planets or garden worlds the queen answered saying it was safest since no others could survive there.
The outside being covered with large metallic sheets giving it a brick like appearance but in a deep metallic grey, which stood in complete contrast to the orange which surrounded it. Standing almost 4 stories high it was tall but the majority of its size was underground, descending down 10 floors providing both protection and space in which the staff could work and their families could live.
Immediately next to the main embassy building was the main landing bay. Essentially nothing more than a hangar to allow even the larger ships such as pelicans to land safely. This was connected to the embassy with a underground passage that would allow the embassy security to easily defend the only entrance with what is most likely going to be a numerical inferiority should the embassy ever be attacked.
Having arrived inside the embassy almost 10 minutes ago the ambassador and his aides had just finished the security checks needed to authorise them to enter the diplomatic parts of the embassy, while keeping the research sections off limit.
Moving through the massive 6 foot thick blast doors that would seal the embassy in case of attack they could see that the inside had a completely different feel than the Spartan militaristic feel of the outside. The floors were covered in well-polished off white tiles lined with plush light blue carpet that was covered by the benches and chairs for any visitors. The walls were a warm cream smoothly finished covered with the occasional picture, either of landscapes or spacescapes all of which was lit warmly by the overhead lights.
Finally stopping their walk through the embassy at the arranged meeting room Laura opened it to show that the meeting room was already occupied by the Rachni queen and a single human woman. Moving into the room Laura sat at the deep mahogany table that was next to the balcony's edge that allowed the people at the table look the queen in the eyes. Although it took several minutes the Elcor group entered the room and took their seat which was on the side of Laura furthest away from the queen.
"Before we start allow me to introduce Dr Rachel Green. Ever since the initial meeting between our people she has become our best authority on the Rachni having work almost constantly with the Rachni queen and her people to learn all she can about them. I thought it would be best that she joins us so she could clear any misconceptions and if that fails hopefully the queen will be able to change them." Laura said gesturing the medium height red headed woman sat next to her.
"Sceptical statement; I will hear out what you have to say but as I said to your president do not expect a single talk to negate thousands of years of negative conditioning." Tanlayn said
"That's all we ask for Ambassador." Laura answered "Now since this meeting is simple to improve the relations between your two people we are here simply to ensure nobody comes to harm therefore we will not be taking a prominent role in these talks. We will answer questions and Dr Green may speak on behalf of the Rachni but that will be the extent of our participation in these talks."
"Curious statement; why would a human talk for the Rachni when the queen is no more than 20 feet away from me? It seems to be a complete contradiction of your statement that Rachni are a people capable of diplomacy." Tanlayn said after several long silence filled moments.
"Since the Rachni communicate the majority of their thoughts and beliefs etc. through pheromones they believe that vocal communication is extremely limiting therefore they prefer not to use it." Rachel answered
"She sings the truth." The queen added after a couple more seconds of silence.
"Confused statement; if they are so capable and willing to communicate with outside parties why the constant fighting against the Asari and the Salarians?"
"From what we have learned from the queen it sounds like all of the Rachni queens were under some kind of mind control." Rachel said and seeing the disbelief in the eyes of the Elcor party she added "When searching one of the latest Rachni colonies that was founded about 3 years before the Krogan uplifting a device was found that is completely different from the Rachni technology you would expect to find. To begin with we believed it was simply the Rachni's attempt to reverse engineer a new technology like they had reverse engineered the FTL drives of the Citadel ships sent against them. Unfortunately we were wrong. Those who spent any significant amount of time around the device seemed to become mindless drones that answered to some unseen master. The result happened in appeared to even be accumulative since after the first 5 incidences we would only allow technicians to be around the artefact for no more than 5 minutes at a time yet the results were still the same. It was only after the artefact was destroyed that they returned to usual however they had forgotten all events that had taken place during their blackout."
"The voice they heard was the same sour yellow note that my sisters were forced to sing all those years ago." The queen added
"The most intriguing thing to happen around this time is that the Rachni population began to expand at an unbelievable huge rate, almost 100% per each breeding cycle and queens can breed up to 3 times per year. The most popular theory is whoever was controlling the Rachni was also breeding them for some kind of army."
"Curious statement; If that is true and the Rachni were being controlled why is it this queen seems perfectly willing to go against it?" Xaltain asked
"She didn't. This queen was a newly hatched queen put in charge of the newest colony. The same colony I mentioned earlier. However it seems when the war seemed to be getting lost whoever was controlling them had their connection severed somehow."
"Our escape was undertaken while we sang the vile note. Our fleet was made of my ship and several others which housed un-hatched queens to rebuild our people in a far corner of the galaxy. One of the ships also carried the broadcaster of discord. It was destroyed by an Asari ambush along with all but two ships, mine and the ship of an unborn queen. My ship was badly damaged so I entered a form of hibernation to survive the long journey ahead of me."
"Curious statement; You seriously expect my people to believe that you were being controlled by some unknown factor that you have no ability to prove the existence of?" Tanlayn asked
"No. Luckily for us thou we have proof. A UEF search of a possible colonisation site uncovered another of the beacon like devises that were used to control the Rachni. It is currently being held at a secured facility that uses security field to neutralise the effects to ensure that the facility itself isn't compromised. The 'artefact' is extremely advanced, even more advanced that the examples of Prothean technology that we've encountered, which proves that whoever was controlling the Rachni predate the Protheans." Rachel said answering Tanlayn's question however she quickly wished she hadn't when she realised Laura was glaring daggers at her.
"Shocked Statement; You have Prothean technology?" Partolyn asked
"That information is classified." Laura interjected quickly "However it's obvious that we will have to have further talks about this subject."
"Determined statement; Definitely Admiral. It's obvious that your people do not rely on that technology while it would be a great benefit to mine." Tanlayn said
"Like I said Ambassador that is a talk for the future, at the moment however I suggest we get back to the reason why we're here. To help the relations between the Rachni and the Elcor." Laura said in an attempt to change the subject.
06:19 Presidents office, UEF Assembly, Berlin, Germany.
The talks between the Rachni and the Elcor had finally ended after almost 7 hours of constant talking. The relationship between them seemed to be getting better since the Elcor were actually willing to give the Rachni a chance, however they suggested that they colonise planets in the opposite direction than the Citadel space which would prevent the Citadel attacking any new Rachni colonies.
It had been agreed that the Rachni would mine resources from the more hostile planets in which they tended to inhabit and trade them with the UEF as payment for the protection of the Rachni. Fortunately for the UEF for some unknown reason the area in which the Rachni planned to colonise was completely devoid of Mass Relays which would mean that the Citadel would be unable to find them so they could expand without worry, with the UEF acting as a buffer between the two peoples. The UEF would be able to defend the Rachni just solely be defending its own boarders meaning that it wouldn't require any added fleets or any unwanted expenses. Which would mean that Adam would be able to please everyone. The Rachni would be able to expand and rebuild their people, while being safe from attack. The Elcor would get to be safe in the knowledge that the Rachni are no longer a threat, and the UEF gets to have another race mine resources for them at no extra cost. Although if the initial report from the Admiral was anything to go off of he's going to have a rather heated discussion with the Elcor in the upcoming days.
Thankfully at the moment however he could relax knowing that that would be an event for a later day. Sitting behind his desk Adam was just about to take a bite out of his bagel when one of his ridiculously large amount of assistants barge into the room looking terrified with Fleet Admiral Jenkins following her.
Putting his bagel down Adam turned to face them after giving his bagel one last brief longing look.
"What can I do for you Fleet Admiral Jenkins?"
"I'm really sorry to be the bearer of bad new Mr president but just over 5 minutes ago a large fleet of ships matching Citadel designs entered the Delta Earandi system." Jenkins said in a solemn voice.
"Has there been any attempt at communication?" Adam hurriedly asked
"At the moment? No. However the Future's Hope is continuing to broadcast signals to them in an attempt to open a dialogue."
"Good I want all possible attempts to contact them to be taken."
"Of course Mr President. With your permission I would like to send the FRF to reinforce the stations defences in case of a hard contact."
"The FRF might be too big a display of military strength." Adam said
"Sir there is over 7,000 people in the Delta Earandi system Mr President. If we don't send reinforcements to help it may result in the deaths of all of them."
"I'm well aware of that Fleet Admiral." Adam said forcefully "We have to show at least some capability of diplomacy to the Citadel Council otherwise this entire situation may be blown completely out of proportion and result in a war that would end in the deaths of more than 7,000 people."
"Of course sir. However I refuse to abandon our people." Jenkins said after several tense seconds
"Who said anything about abandoning our people Admiral? I simply stated that the FRF might be too big a display." Adam said with a soft forcefulness ringing in his voice.
"There's always the 2RF sir. It's mainly made up of Frigates and Corvettes so it would be less of a threat. Since Admiral Roberts is the only Commander with experience fighting forces of this kind of make up since it was the 2RF that engaged the Batarian Pirates."
"Very well send the 2RF immediately."
Thanks again for reading. If you have any questions or comments then please leave either a review or a PM otherwise have a nice day.