Til Vorhess

Captain Vorhess's listened intently to a Salarian STG officer interrogate the hoomen system Authoritarian. It or she had identified herself as Governor Williams.

"Tell me. If this is in fact your homeworld. Why is your population so… low?" Asked the STG officer.

"Our kind has spent the past few decades recovering from a global calamity…"

Vorhess had been the victor. But he did not feel like it. In fact it felt eerily like the moment before he had succumbed to the worst beating of his childhood.

As a boy his elder sister had wronged him. Or so he felt at the time. In anger he had struck his superior knocking out several of her teeth. For the briefest of moments young Til had felt vindicated; as if he had won the duel of fates.

His elder sister had simply stared at him, wiped the blood dripping out of her mouth. Then proceeded to administer a beating he would carry with him to his grave.

With this in mind.

Vorhess felt like he had punched these hooman's in the mouth; knocking a few teeth. And now the Hegemony was about to receive a beating of cosmic proportions.

"Of what kind?" Questioned the Officer.

"Biological… 95% of our people died during a great…"

"But we have not detected any ruins?" Interrupted the Officer.

"That is because it happened centuries ago. We meticulously used the remains to rebuild our society…"

"Lies!" Exclaimed the officer.

As information had arrived from troops stationed within the main city STG officers had become more and more nervous. This species had shown to be far from primitive.

In fact besides Eezo drives, the hooman's seemed to be on par if not better than the greater galaxy in all relevant technical fields.

Medicine. The hooman's possessed a magical medical gel that healed all wounds. Human, Turian, Batarian it did not matter. Almost instantly.

Bio-mechanics. The hooman's seemed to be infatuated with mechanical upgrades. Everyone from the smallest child right up to the oldest adult had some form of mechanical implants. It was making the processing of the first wave of slaves a nightmare.

Industry. The hooman's did not build. They applied grey goo to matter and the goo magically transformed said matter into whatever was needed.

Cybernetics. The hooman's had translated Hegemony basic before his own STG officers had been able to decipher their transmissions. To his surprise Governor William's had surrendered in perfect Batarian. Kirrahe was also convinced the hooman VI's were intentionally playing dumb.

Vorhess was carried away from his thoughts and focused on the interrogation.

"Right before your surrender we detected a massive data dump sent to seemingly nowhere. What or who were you sending a plea for help too?" Questioned the Salarian Officer.

"I have no idea what you are talking about sir. That surrender was sent system wide… so that all humans within the system understood…"

"Lies! Lies lies! Who and where were you sending a plea for help… wait."

The Salarian visibly calmed as if he had scored a win.

"You said within system… implying there is an out system…"

The similarities between these hooman's and the Asari were jarring. Which is why Vorhess and the STG officer both detected the hooman's tell.

"Governor William's… the longer we play these games…"

Captain Vorhess shut off the holo-display. He had watched enough. The Batarian High Captain was in his office with Major Kirrahe.

His reptilian 1st officer was in deep concentration. Salarian's hated not having answers.

"I am telling you my Lord. These hoomans use Artificial Intelligence. Or worse are so connected to their VI's they have become a race of organic machines…"

Til frowned. The past few cycles had been rough on the Major. Vorhess had watched the Salarian's confidence in the mission plummet. Too many unknowns for the top STG Officer to process.

"The 'this is our home world' story held water at first. Now though not so much." Said the Salarian.

"And then we began dissecting them and were astonished by just how proliferated mechanical and cyber implants were for these aliens." Continued Major Kirrahe.

Til Vorhess scratched his head in irritation. "Major these primitives did not have any time to set up a cover story species…"

To the Captain's surprise his subordinate interrupted him.

"My lord I think we should stop making it a habit of calling them primitives. They are anything but. The problem with their 'cover story' is that it is perfect. Everyone we have interrogated thus far has been saying the exact same thing. As if… As if… reading from prompter."

"Kirrahe. Do you think this has anything to do with their brain implants?"

The Salarian intelligence officer visibly stirred.

"I do not see why they would not be able to upload and download data population wide efficiently. Much like…"

"The Geth… I know Kirrahe." Interrupted Captain Vorhess.

Over the next few rotations things had been mostly un-eventful.

Then almost suddenly; mysterious events started befalling the occupation force. First a junior officer had been abducted right outside of his drop ship. His crack Turian squadron killed before they had drawn their weapons.

Half a rotation later the ranking ground force commander had been abducted in an audacious air assault. The Commander's shuttle was in transit to an orbiting Infantry command Frigate.

By the 8th rotation a Infantry command Frigate had reported boarders. Then shortly after had stopped responding to hails. Before Vorhess could scramble marines to inspect the situation; the Frigate had self-destructed. All eyes lost. The Hooman's had somehow overwhelmed a Frigate filled to the brim with soldiers. Yet no boarding craft had been detected.

The last attack Vorhess was willing to stomach had just happened. For a few moments all VI's on all of his ships had reported a digital attack of epic proportions. Then they had been reset, and were acting as if nothing had happened. Failing to register any interference.

Captain Til Vorhess had watched all of the interrogation footage of this Governor Williams. Yet he had not actually met her. Even her surrender had been given to one of his senior Infantry Commanders.

This time, the Batarian was assuming direct command. He was going to have a word with her eye to eye.

"I thought we had an agreement. You gave me your word you had surrendered!" Growled Vorhess.

"Ehh. And you are…"

"Why are your soldiers still attacking the occupation force? I need you to tell them to stand down immediately!" Roared Til.

"I have. If… anyone is attacking you they are doing it without my orders. Are you Til Vorhess?"

Til was getting tired of surprises from these Hooman's.

'How does this vermin know my name…'

"I need you to address your people. And tell them to stop attacking the occupation force. I also need you to tell them that we will start making examples of you if this injustice continues!"

The hooman matriarch seemed to weigh her options and simply performed a very Asari nod.

For a third of a cycle and several rotations things had gone back to business as usual. Vorhess was receiving praise from his superiors almost every rotation.

"My Lord it appears as if Governor William's was able to pursued the insurgents. The last major attack looks to have been the attempted hack into our Virtual Intelligence network." Said Kirrahe.

The two commanders were having dinner. In celebration of the last rotation they would be in command of the Occupation. The Hegemony occupation force had just arrived. A General Batak was due to assume command..

Vorhess couldn't wait. It was as if he was passing on a ticking time bomb to someone else.

"Ill be honest my friend. I think the attacks stopped because the attackers were able to get everything they needed. Do you still think the hack attempt was truly foiled by our firewalls?"

Kirrahe took a moment to ponder on the question.

"Either they failed. Or were so effective they didn't leave any trace of success…"

Captain Til Vorhess took a bite of his womp bat leg. Something told him it was the latter...