Disclaimer: I own all rights and licences of Bioware and any Bioware product including Mass Effect. You are no longer allowed to write fan-fiction of Mass Effect or other Bioware products that is not approved by me. If you do I am in a good legal position to sue you off of every cent or pence or whatever your lowest form of currency might be.

Things, I think their acronyms:

OSS: Orbital Space Statios

CISS: Coalition of Independent Space Stations

MCA: Mobile Combat Armour

PCA: Personal Combat Armour

UCM: United Cities of Mars

IFV: Infantry Fighting Vehicle

UT: Universal Time

Tell me if ive left anything out or review if your confused about something.

OSS Roman Battleship Dancer Cell A

Admiral Kering sat on the thin mattress inside the cell. About an hour ago he had been trying to get the Archon to self-destruct but to no avail, the enemy had completely taken over the ship using unknown means and had cut off all access so he could not get into the system. He was captured along with some of the remaining crew a short while afterwards.

He sat in the chilly cell and thought of ways to make the situation turn to his favour, however he knew it was a naïve thing to do. The enemy had completely defeated them and they had Boetia completely at their mercy. Kering hoped these aliens knew what that word meant.

–

–

OSS Roman

Lord Admiral Alexis Josephine Heather was proud. The OSS Roman and OSS Gaul were now in orbit around the conquered planet of Boetia and the Lord Admiral could see the very first truly alien world. It had three continents separated by water, the largest one holding the main city and smaller towns was on the eastern hemisphere, the second largest to the western hemisphere was connected by a small strip of land and the third was a thin island to the southern hemisphere. There seemed to be other small islands scattered on the oceans.

Alexis was proud because they had achieved a very important victory. In just about six hours they had swept in and destroyed an enemy Fleet that outnumbered them and conquered a planet. Though she was saddened by the losses she was glad that it had totalled to only eight thousand deaths. On the ground five hundred and fifty two soldiers had been killed with another four hundred and thirty wounded. In space they had lost six main battleships, eight hundred MCA's and twelve light battleships. Though these losses could be replaced the experience of the crew could not.

With the events of the past few days the OSS Roman and their ally OSS Gaul found themselves in a very advantageous position. Soon others would follow, all seeking to pass through the relay and into new space and they would all be paying for the opportunity. Soon they would be talking to the Council and it would be the OSS Roman that represented humanity. This victory had won them riches, renown and more importantly, symbolism. OSS Roman and OSS Gaul ventured into hostile alien space as the striking arm of Humanity, delivering victory to a short war that the violet aliens started. The media would be in a frenzy. Though Alexis knew that the Council might not react the way she wanted it to the Lord Admiral still held confidence in her heart that this war would end before it turned into a war of attrition.

"Lord Admiral, the Lord General is contacting you"

Alexis nodded to patch him through, in her office within the military HQ a holoscreen appeared with the face of the Lord General "Luke"

Luke saluted "The main city has been captured and all resistance put down, we're now in the process of treating the wounded, securing strongpoints and taking all armaments. You should get down here sometime, they have some great stuff"

Alexis laughed "Soon enough, but first I have to deal with the universal impact of this. The media and the League of Companies will come knocking on the door soon enough, then the other factions of Humanity will want a piece of this"

"Hm, how likely is it that some of our...enemies might try and seize this moment to attack?"

"They wont, the publicity we gain from this will make us heroes, the defenders of humanity, to those who matter anyway"

The Lord General nodded "Well, I trust your judgement in this. When should we contact the Council?"

"A message had already been delivered, now we wait to see what happens"

–

–

Citadel council chambers

The atmosphere was tense within the room. Just minutes ago the three councillors had been in a heated argument about what they should do with the "invaders". Councillor Savaros expected his colleagues to support the Hierarchy in a full scale war but he was surprised and shocked that they did not. Councillor Losana had stood firm in her belief that war could be avoided by peace talks, the fact that the "Humans" contacted them requesting to negotiate gave hope for success. Councillor Ledra, while initially believing this race to be incapable of negotiation had supported the idea when they actually contacted them for talks.

All three had been adversely affected by the fact that three Turian fleets and a dreadnought had been swept aside. Savaros was angered, he and the Turian Hierarchy could not accept this defeat, their pride in being the best military in the known universe would not let them accept peace without completely destroying the Human military. Councillors Savaros and Ledra were shocked and horrified, though they did well to hide it. Both feared the prospect of all out war with such an enemy, the traumatic events of the Rachni War being on the forefront of their minds.

"Turian lives have been lost and an entire planet conquered, we must mobilise for war!" Though Savaros did not yell the other Councillors could feel the intensity behind those words.

"Councillor Savaros, this enemy had swept aside three Fleets and an experienced Legion with unknown technology and unknown methods. Now they want to talk, I and Councillor Ledra cannot pass up this opportunity"

The Salarian nodded "Remember they have taken prisoners and while the images attached with the message is a questionable source the city and the prisoners seem to be in good health. If that is true then this indicates that these Humans are sincere about negotiating"

Councillor Savarus knew he was outvoted, no matter how much he argued.

–

–

Quarias Park Medical IFV

Mara groggily awoke to the noise of machines and a feeling of numbness on her left arm. At first she tried to make sense of it all, last she remembered she should have died from blood loss but she was alive. She tried to sit up but she found she could only mover her right arm, she looked at her left arm, or what was left of it, as she felt her heart drop. Her left arm was just a stump and it was at this moment that the situation truly dawned on her.

"By the goddess"

One of the alien invaders turned to look at her and she was shocked to actually see the face of one without it's helmet on. Before she could study the face the alien went over to her and Mara started panicking, thinking the worst might happen to her.

"Please calm down ma'am, we wont hurt you" One of the aliens, most likely a female due to the voice and the closer resemblance to the face of an Asari, tried to calm her down. Mara stopped struggling but her heart was still beating in fear and panic.

"Ma'am, we need you to calm down. I promise we wont do anything" The way the alien said it, with a calming voice and a truthful smile made Mara calm slightly. However, the state of her arm still made it hard to calm down. The alien seemed to notice and surprised the Asari at what it said "We can make a prosthetic arm for you ma'am, you dont need to worry about that"

Eyed wide she asked in a croaky voice "Really?...Wh..why?"

The alien smiled kindly again "Because we swore an oath ma'am to give care to all people"

The Asari maiden could only sit there in shock and hope they were being truthful.

–

–

Former Turian 51st Legion HQ

The dead bodies of the Turian soldiers were being dragged out and placed in neat orderly rows. The alien bastards fought hard Squad captain Terrance Hall thought to himself as he dragged a dead Turian missing it's leg in line with other dead bodies, most mutilated. The HQ was hard fought and many good Roman soldiers had died trying to take it, Terrance accurately assumed that these were some sort of special unit within the alien army.

He took a look around at the other soldiers doing some task or another like sorting the bodies or moving the alien's equipment into waiting Hawks, those weapons and equipment would be taken back to the station for study and as spoils of war.

Terrance himself had taken a heavy looking pistol from a dead Turian who looked like a commander since it's armour had a distinct design to it that separated it from the others. His squad, who thankfully survived with some minor injuries, had taken their own rewards. The heavy trooper Marcus an intact Turian helmet, the other heavy Sabrina had taken some badges and strips she found in one of the rooms and had attached them to her shoulder. Some had taken small arms like rifles and shotguns, some took pieces of armour like shoulder pads and some had even taken missile's or the missile launchers themselves.

There were however some objects they were prohibited from taking like the deactivated omni-tools as they were called, these would be researched and most likely adapted and mass produced if what intel had told them about the objects held true.

"These things were tough" Marcus commented

Terrance nodded in agreement, they had to engage in tough close combat fighting to dislodge the enemy who simply would not retreat. If the EMP didnt work or the enemy had a defence against it, well, they would most likely had have to bombard the building, civilians casualties be damned. The lives of the soldiers comes first and foremost.

"Some nice souvenirs though" Sabrina said as she checked out some of the badges in her hand.

"Careful not to show it around the locals, they might react badly" Terrance warned them.

Sabrina nodded and wrapped the medals in a piece of fabric, the others doing their best to conceal their prizes. When all the dead had been brought out the building, as well as the Turian dead, were fully stripped of anything that looked useful or interesting.

–

Unknown vessel

Matriarch Asira was understandably nervous,though she did not outwardly show it . A short while ago the Council had arranged for her to be the negotiator, a task she had trained for and had been doing for quite some time but not to this scale. "My words could save or end countless lives" Asira whispered to herself, trying to calm her nerves.

"We trust you Matriarch" The captain of the commando squad apparently heard her.

As a security precaution five experienced Asari commandos had gone with her, they were using the stealth ships used by the Asari special forces in case the aliens laid a trap and they needed to escape quickly.

"We're coming out of FTL now Matriarch" The pilot alerted them.

When they exited FTL travel they were utterly shocked at what they found. The enemy possessed a large number of ships that were larger than dreadnoughts and they could see at least five ships twice the size. There were a larger number of smaller ships as well, about Cruiser size. What was more shocking and awe striking though were the two huge space stations, one much larger than the other, both orbiting the planet.

"By the goddess..." The delegation were clearly affected by the sights.

A beeping noise on the pilot's console alerted them to an incoming transition "Their contcting us ma'am"

The Matriarch nodded for her to open a channel, a holoscreen appeared letting the delegation see what they were dealing with. They were definitely alien, though it was surprising to see they shared similar features to the Asari. "Please remain where you are and wait for one of our ships to retrieve you" The video feed cut off.

"That was...a human?" one of the commandos asked

Asira nodded "Now, we wait"

–

–

OSS Roman

"The alien ship has docked in docking bay twelve Lord Admiral"

Alexis nodded, she was dressed in her ceremonial armour. It was white and on abdomen was the black eagle of OSS Roman, her shoulder pads had the red laurel wreath and on her chest were the medals and other awards she had collected in her career. The armour's heels made her stand taller than she already was, an intimidating six foot nine inches, adding to the intimidation was her helmet, it was styled to look like a Roman cavalry mask from the ancient times and matched the colour of her armour.

The Lord Admiral made her way to the meeting room she had designated to the soldiers escorting the delegation. She had arrived first and with two guards waited for the delegation. Soon enough the six of them arrived, all Asari, though there was clearly one who stood above them all. It...She held herself with dignity born out of years of experience and did not show any sign of being intimidated, Alexis looked right into the eyes of the alien and she looked right back. The Lord Admiral knew right then that this would be a very interesting talk.

AN:

This really is just a filler chapter to get some progress going. As always review and tell me what you think.

Im really in a bind right now, I dont actually know how to go forward with this. My first plan was just...I dont know, I think it was to integrate humanity into the wider galactic community. I dreamed up that some militarised OSS's, who spoil for fights that give them rewards, would go into the Terminus systems to do just that. I planned that Humanity would explore and populate the Traverse. I planned some other things as well but now im divided, as far as I can see I have some options:

-Go ahead with my original plan and have humanity expand it's power, there would be no Shepard.

-Ignore the 100 year difference between the game and this story and have Shepard do his mission in my own way and have him the focus of the story

-I could do both, ignore the 100 year difference and have humanity expand and Shepard do his mission in my own way. The focus would be mixed between the two and they would blend with each other sometimes. Im kinda leaning towards this at the moment.

Im gunna take some while to think about this so updates might not be coming as fast. Or I could make up my mind quickly and update soon...I dont know yet.

The Wealthy Barber: It was actually you, and some others, that made me think about the direction of the story so thanks for your review! It's really good to get suggestions and see from another perspective.