The Warhammer Effect: Collateral Misfortunes

by BKGeno

In the future, where there is only war, sometimes desperate measures must be taken to secure the survival of a few. But when that measure leads to a place far different from what they know, can the Eldar adapt to a new reality, where there is more than only war? Also, what is a monkey? Picture by timokujansuu on Deviantart.

10. Of Damsels and Debriefings

Chapter 10 - Damsels and Debriefings

A/N - Split this from the previous chapter, as it was starting to get longer than I wanted. And because that Armature fight is a normal cliffhanger in most ME stories, despite it not being THAT big of a fight once you have played through it once.

Also, I just want to say, to everyone that has viewed this little mental exercise of mine, that favorited, followed, or reviewed it, thank you. This story is now in the top 50, second page, of the Warhammer/Mass Effect cross overs, and easily my most whatevered story as of posting this, in all three categories. Reviews, Favorites, and Follows. This is a tremendous boost to me, and is easily what is keeping me writing. Just to see if I can get it to the front page of the Warhammer/Mass Effect crossovers, beating out several much older stories. Once again, thank you.

Also, just a heads up, this is the last week for the current poll, before it is closed and the next is opened. Hurry and vote, and help the Eldar choose where to focus his training and upgrades.

'Harriers for the Cup!' - Lord Commissar Ciaphas Cain

Arlas looked down at the remains of the walker, and then sent the group an amused thought, though he was directing it mostly at the Twins. *I thought you said these things were dangerous.*

The slimmer twin, Jaclyn, raised a hand with only the middle finger extended, as Joannis finishing looking over the group for anyone that was wounded. "Screw you. Not everyone can cheat by shooting through shields and teleporting wherever the hell they want."

Arlas simply shrugged, before yanking his sword out of the chest of the walker, and then jumping down. *Where was the geth ship? Yol'Pvera didn't warn me about anything breaking her two kilometer perimeter.*

Jaclyn turned back to him, and frowned. "Who is Yol'Pvera?"

Arlas shrugged. "Where did the geth deploy from? I saw no ship."

Jaclyn glared. "Who is Yol'Pvera?"

"Where did the geth deploy from?"

Joannis saved them from having to repeat their routine further. "They are machines. Probably deployed by a fast moving frigate in either low orbit or at high altitude."

Arlas nodded. "Yol'Pvera is the pilot of my lander."

Before Jaclyn could drag him into another round of questioning, Joannis whistled to get everyone's attention. "Alright people, the primary VIP should be in the mine, as well as those 'off the chart' readings Joker picked up. Wrex, you and Garrus will be staying out here with Tali and Ashley, ensure our ability to leave is secure and that the geth don't drop more enemies off to trap us in the mine. Retreat inside if you have to. Everyone else, with us."

Arlas glanced at his group, and pulled out his long rifle. Since he would be with Ghost, Twins, and the human male, he would have to be the long distant death dealer. He could also fill in for fast flanker, but that would require weapon swapping, which might get someone killed if they were relying on and expecting his rifle, and it might even be him. They would just have to be cautious.

The Twins took point, with Ghost and male on their flanks, and Arlas taking rear guard. The mine shaft quickly ended in an airlock, which took far too long to cycle. Once it did, it opened into a snaking tunnel, never going further than ten meters before it made another turn. After a moment of careful advancement, the tunnel brought them to an elevator and a glowing blue barrier blocking off an entrance to some kind of structure. The group took a quick ride on the elevator into the bowels of the earth, before both twins paused, and then fired their weapons at something ahead, around a bend in the tunnel. At the sound of two explosions, Jaclyn vanished in a blue light, and a third explosion echoed up the tunnel.

Arlas rounded the corner, to see the Twins looking down, examining some sort of track and platform. As the others arrived, they glanced at each other, and Arlas frowned as he actually sensed something between the two, but it was over too fast for him to tell if it was just them thinking the same thought, or if they had actually been thought sharing. Both Twins stepped onto the platform. "Come on."

He wasn't sure which of the Twins spoke, but they all stepped onto the platform without a word.

The platform only got about three levels down before it jammed, but it was close enough to the bottom for the others to jump. Arlas surveyed where he was and what he could see, before going prone and activating his cloak. *I will stay here, machines on the other side of the chamber, group of twelve advancing to this side.*

All four of the mon-keigh with him jerked at his sending, which made him sigh. But they did keep advancing, and took positions on the walkway they had landed on, waiting for the machines to advance. The machines, however, stopped at the corner, as if they knew the mon-keigh were in cover on the high ground of the walkway. *Twins, they have stopped. Orders?*

He hadn't worked a radio into his helm yet, but the omnitool was enough to relay their command. "Hit them in five seconds."

He watched the Twins both leap down, and begin advancing, Jaclyn ahead of Joannis. At five seconds they were about two steps from being seen by the machines, so he fired his long rifle, the laser bolt easily melting through the armor of the larger red machine at the back, and causing it to explode in a shower of white fluids and metal fragments.

Sadly for Arlas, every geth chassis, thirty scattered about the room in addition to the eleven still standing at the ambush point, though they were starting to scatter, immediately raised their weapons in his direction, and put enough firepower at him to begin warping the metal of the already damaged platform further. *Attention acquired, relocating.*

Before he could move, though, the Twins stepped around the corner, and hit the still-grouped geth with some kind of light-distorting bubble, and then with a blue ball that caused the distortion to explode with more force than anything he had ever experienced outside an artillery bombardment by the forces of Chaos. He actually yelped in surprise at the force of the explosion, despite being several tens of meters from it, and the Twins were actually thrown backwards by their own blasts, though they managed to stay standing. The geth, however, were rendered into fine shrapnel going everywhere, and the fire from the other troopers in the room shifted from the elevator to the Shepard twins.

Arlas moved back to the edge, and began picking off geth, as the Twins dashed toward cover, and Ghost and the human male jumped down. Another massive explosion turned a four meter tall white geth into so much scrap metal, while the male was busy stripping shields from the troopers so Ghost could do something to the geth that made it turn on its allies most of the time. Though once it instead charged her, causing the turian to swear and use her shotgun on it.

Several times, Arlas watched a geth trooper try to sneak up on the Twins, only for the two to turn and blast it with either their blue psy-craft or guns. But only if he wasn't already going to shoot it. It was almost enough to make him think they were psykers.

Still, it took only a few minutes to finish clearing the last of the area around the white underground structure of the geth, and then all four of the mon-keigh walked toward it, the human male pausing long enough to do something to a minor hit he had taken, though what they were looking at and… talking to? He couldn't see what they were doing, and moved to correct that. A minute later, he was beside the others, talking to a blue skinned woman that he mistook for a Tau because of the blue field between them, but quickly realized she had head tentacles and feet, rather than a smooth head, hair, and hooves. He had seen several asari on the Citadel, but hadn't gotten a good look at most of them due to the urgency of trying to find Gemling, the psychic noise from the lesser races that pervaded the space station, and the fact he had been trying to avoid the C-Sec for most of it, which most of the asari he had seen had been part of. Of course, he had seen a few at that ceremony thing, but lack of interest had kept him from taking advantage of that opportunity, and the less he thought about the meeting with the Council, the better.

While he was examining the floating asari, despairing as he realized she was basically a human with head tentacles and noting her desperation, exhaustion, and soiled outfit, the others were talking. "And be careful, there was a krogan with the geth. They have been trying to get through the barrier curtain. I hope you have more luck."

Arlas frowned, as Kaidan glanced about. "Ma'am, I don't see the krogan among the dead down here, and with one tunnel leading in, it would be hard to miss him."

Both twins nodded, as they surveyed the chamber they were in. "Spread out, see if you can find anything that might help."

Arlas looked about, before pulling his sword out. "Found something."

Everyone turned back to him, surprised, until they saw the sword. Ghost rolled her eyes and scoffed, before heading off to keep looking, while the male had just kept walking. The Twins glanced back, and then exchanged a glance, causing another flicker on his psy-sense, before leaning against a couple nearby crates. "You really think a sword will do anything?"

He simply walked to one side of the barrier covered opening, and began running his free hand along the side of the structure. "As opposed to everything out here, that the geth have been examining for… how long have you been stuck?"

The asari finally realized he was being serious, and answered. "Two days. And I doubt a mere sword will do anything to the structure. It is made out of the hardest substance we have yet encountered, and I doubt a human sword will do anything to it."

Arlas rolled his eyes inside his helmet, and channeled warp energies into the blade, causing it to softly glow with unlight in the dim cavern. "I am not human."

He placed the blade tip against the structure, where his foresense was saying something would happen, before pushing. "I am Eldar."

He was a bit disappointed as the blade slowly began sinking into the structure, he had wanted to shove the blade to the hilt in one quick movement, but apparently slowly driving the blade into the structure was just as good. All three mon-keigh watched with wide eyes as the blade slowly sank, and a second later the barrier curtain flickered, but restored itself. He pulled the blade clear, ignoring the sparking of the barrier, and resumed running his hand along the edge. He found another spot along the side he was examining where his foresense tingled, and this time, when the blade was fully shoved into the wall, the curtain actually dropped for a second, instead of just dimming. However it quickly came back up, though now it would shimmer and flicker instead of just shifting.

He had to find two more spots, on the other side of the hole, before the barrier fell and stayed down, during which the male and Ghost returned having found a mining laser that might be useful. Ghost was busy examining one of the holes he had made, while Kaidan just watched and recorded the destruction of the last barrier node, shaking his head. The asari just gaped like a landed oceanic creature.

Once the barrier was down, the Twins headed through, and deactivated the bubble the asari was floating in once she had stopped being aghast at Arlas. After a moment to drink some water and get her limbs moving, the asari staggered back to the center of the structure. "This elevator should take us to the top, and I can deactivate the curtain barrier at the top."

She swayed on her feet, but pushed the button when the last of the group got on. No one said anything as the elevator slowly rose, remarkably quiet considering the location. Arlas figured they were halfway up the structure, judging from a hole in the platform he looked down, whatever the structure was, when the squad's radio crackled. "Shepard, Ashley. Just fought off a group of geth, but a krogan and about a half dozen geth troopers carrying packs made it inside. Might wanna hurry."

That got the rest of the group to exchange a look, while Arlas just kept watching the approaching top. Three quarters of the way there…

"Alright everyone, prepare for trouble. Find cover first, THEN start shooting."

The elevator was mostly bare of cover, only the console in the middle providing anything close to it, and the asari was leaning heavily on it, looking about to collapse. Arlas headed to the edge of the elevator, before activating his cloak, and then firing his grappling hook up at the approaching ceiling. After a second of travel, it bounced off with a tiny clink, and landed beside him. Guessing he would have to just be patient like everyone else, he spooled the wire, and turned to watch the others.

Joannis checking on the asari, before standing and putting a bubble like the barrier curtains up around the two of them. Ghost was tossing small floating metal items around, setting out four of them before deploying a glowing orange shield in front of herself. Jaclyn sheathed herself in a blue aura, and readied her weapon, while the human male encased himself in a blue aura, and then added glowing orange panels above that. Arlas was amused at how… obvious they all were, but wasn't going to complain. They would distract the geth and hostile krogan from him while he got into position.

Just before the elevator hummed to a stop on the top floor, the eldar drew his fusion gun, cloak already active, and dropped to a crouch, before slowly stalking to the nearest pillar, one of eight scattered around the top floor, the only real cover in the room. A quick glance to the barrier curtain showed it flickering up and down, almost at random. A krogan with his own blue aura was stomping forward, eying the four opponents he could see, with seven geth flanking him, four white, two red, and a black machine in the back. All eight were wearing packs of some kind, though the packs were small enough to be easily thrown.

Arlas frowned at his last thought, before raising his fusion gun and stalking closer, toward one of the pillars nearest the group. The krogan looked over the groups, before speaking. {Surrender. Or don't; that would be more fun.}

Arlas swore; he had no idea what the krogan was saying. He would need to leech that specific language from the krogan on board at some point. Luckily, it seemed Jaclyn could understand him, and sneered. "Maybe you missed the fact that half my squad was outside, and you are down considerably more than that. Hurry up, and DIE."

Arlas brought up his fusion gun as everyone else started moving toward cover and opening fire. He was in already cover against the pillar, when it suddenly opened a vent and blasted steam right into his face. He jerked in surprise, but his finger was already pulling the trigger, and the first shot went high, catching only the two nearest geth, a red and white one, with the burst, instead of hitting the line. The blast of steam knocked him out of cover and off balance, as well as disrupted his cameleoline cloak, revealing him right as the krogan turned to see where that blast of heat had come from.

The krogan gave a roar as he leveled his shotgun and charged, while the Eldar simply rolled his eyes and dove behind the pillar again. "Typical, really."

He replaced the fusion gun on his back, and grabbed his pistol and sword, when he heard the krogan scream in pain and thud into the other side of the pillar as the Twins gestured toward the krogan. A quick glance showed most of the other hostiles down, the last geth behind another pillar with its back to him, his allies hammering the pillar with fire as Ghost stalked around to get a better shot. He hosed the geth down with the projectiles from his pistol, quickly flaying away its shield, and then its armor and insides, before moving to see the krogan.

The krogan was a gruesome sight, missing both legs, his left hand was a mangled mess, and an eye had popped and was oozing down his face. His gun was off to one side, but that didn't stop the krogan from tapping away at his omnitool. Arlas turned back to the group. "Got a live one, if anyone have any pressing questions."

He turned back to the Krogan, and placed the blade tip against the krogan's throat, the wide blade bocking the alien's view of its omnitool. "Stop typing unless you desire to lose another appendage."

The krogan didn't stop, just nodded. A couple more taps, and he stopped right as Arlas pulled the blade back to slam it into his shoulder. "Alright, alright. Stopping. There, happy?"

Arlas simply stared down, but the Twins had arrived, letting the human male assist the asari while Ghost was collecting her turrets. As Arlas stepped back, he heard something beep softly, so quietly that he almost missed it, but a glance showed no one else casting about for it. Letting the Twins handle interrogating the suddenly sedate krogan, he went looking for whatever had beeped.

He vaguely overheard the krogan and Twins interrogating him, and Kaidan carefully helping the exhausted asari to the exit, but with most of his attention on whatever had beeped, he took a couple seconds to realize that Ghost was talking to him. "What are you doing?"

He glanced at the female turian, before turning back to the geth he had been examining. "I heard something beeping. I am making sure the geth don't have any surprises on them."

She rolled her eyes, and brought up her omnitool. "Savage, you can just use your omnitool to scan for active elec... tron...ics…"

She blinked at her tool, and tapped it a couple times, before turning to another geth. She then flipped the geth over, and yanked open the pack it was carrying, dumping several blocks of a dark grey material, and a small golden metal stick shoved into each one, which was making the beeping noise Arlas had been hearing. He nodded as the turian tightened her mandibles against her face. "Ah, that is what I was hearing. Good to know. What is it?"

Ghost turned, ignoring him, horror suffusing through her mind. "Shepards, armed XDX charges! RUN!"

The krogan immediately started cackling maniacally, creaming taunts the suddenly retreating group. "Run. RUN! You can only delay the inevitable. For SOVEREIGN!"

Arlas had drawn his long rifle, and turned and shot the krogan in his right shoulder, preventing him from immediately activating the explosives. But his foresense was still screaming danger at him. So he did what any sensible eldar would do in that situation, and ran like the wind. He took a single glance back as he rounded the first corner, and saw the krogan fumbling with its shotgun one handed, trying to get the barrel into its mouth with its bad hand, and decided to run faster, even as the barrier curtain flickered back up.

He made it two more turns, and was just catching up to the rest of the group when he heard a weapon discharge behind him, followed also immediately by the sounds of explosives going off. The tunnel they were in rolled like a wave on water, and then chunks began falling out of the ceiling. The Twins yanked the barely conscious asari between them, putting one of her arms around their necks and each grabbed a leg before sprinting for the exit. "MOVE!"

It was rather hard to pass the Twins with their passenger taking up most of the walkway, so Kaidan put a blue aura around the group, causing any rocks that hit it to deflect away, and ran in front of them, leaving Ghost and Arlas to bring up the rear. The sounds of ever larger sections of rock tearing free from the ceiling as more and more of the tunnel collapsed made it difficult to think, the dust made it even harder to think, but somehow everyone made it out, to find the second team waiting for them amid a field of destroyed geth, and the lander just settling down at the base of the ramp to let everyone in.

Once everyone was in but before they were secure, Arlas lifted the lander off, just as the mountain that contained the structure rumbled and began collapsing. A quick pulse of the engines added a hundred meters to their altitude in time to avoid several rocks and pieces of metal being blown out of the mine entrance, which impressed the eldar, as there had been two thick steel doors in the way. Arlas checked with Yol'Pvera, and had her set a course for the space ship.

---

An hour after returning to the ship, Arlas was finally finished modifying the seat for the unusual anatomy of the other, more esoteric, passengers he would be ferrying about. The krogan and male turian had tried out the seat, ensuring they wouldn't injure their occupants, and he had simply duplicated the turian's seat for Ghost. It was then that Yol'Pvera contacted him. *The Twins are requesting you report for a debrief. Same room as before.*

He had already changed into a tunic, this time choosing the Striking Scorpion tunic, as he felt he could justify the brighter colors. It was dark grey with green and yellow designs worked into the fabric, and a bright red rune proudly displayed in the center of the tunic. Since he was done with everything else that needed to happen before the next deployment, he grabbed his cloak and pistol out of habit, and made his way to the comm room, pausing only long enough to grab a couple of small crystals. As he walked, he used a touch of power to fuse the two crystals together, and placed the crystal, now as wide and long as two fingers, into a pocket of the tunic.

As he entered the room, he heard the pilot speaking. "Just as well the lander was there ma'am, otherwise we would have been picking rocks and pieces of steel out of the hull. Just saying, the brass tend to get unhappy about shrapnel in the hull without a kill or assist to offset it."

The asari was looking far more alert now than we they had fled the site, and looked at the twins. "We get ambushed, nearly killed by an explosion, and your pilot is complaining about shrapnel?"

The Twins nodded together, before Joannis replied. "More like joking in his own way, but it helps ease the tension and ground out stress. A coping mechanism."

Jaclyn smirked as she continued. "But he is a jerk. Arrogant too, but comes with being one of the best pilots in the Systems Alliance. Arlas, glad you could finally deign to join us."

Arlas leaned against the wall, and simply stared at the Twins, unmoving and barely blinking. However, Joannis didn't wait for the stand off to finish, instead turning to the rest of the group. "Good job team, mission complete, only minor injuries, not counting the pounding the geth gave the mako before the cavalry arrived."

The asari looked about the room. "Yes, thank you for the rescue. You all saved my life, and not just from the collapse of the structure or being caught in its fields. The krogan kept insisting that I would only be escorted to Saren, but I doubt he was truthful."

The human male spoke up. "About that, why does Saren want you so badly? Do you know anything about the Conduit?"

The asari recoiled slightly, before shaking her head. "I don't know, but Saren was always interested in Prothean relics and artifacts. As for the Conduit, all I know is that it was a major project, related to the Prothean's extinction."

Arlas listened with only minor interest as the asari went on to describe what she knew, which was mostly guesswork even by her own admission, but she kept insisting that there was something more about the Prothean's extinction event, part of a larger picture, with something else coming along behind to clean up clues as to what happened to them. Arlas did not miss the Twins exchanging a look, before Joannis spoke. "Actually, doctor, I might be able to help you with that theory. I suspect they were wiped out by something else. Something the Protheans call Reapers."

While Joannis was speaking, Arlas was attaching the fused crystal to the wall behind him, directly over a light fixture by the door. It would record everything that happened in the room, audio and visual, though it used tamed psyker energy to power it rather than something these beings knew how to detect. A second pulse of power made it fade into the immaterium, making it extremely unlikely someone would be able to find it physically. Done with that, he returned to the conversation to note Ghost and Jaclyn were both giving him an odd look, while Saren and Benezia's voice recording played again. He simply gave them a raised eyebrow, before casually dismissing their scrutiny to return to the conversation.

The asari looked horrified as she listened, though she waited until the end to lean forward and put her face in her hands. "That was my mother. The second voice."

Joannis nodded. "We already determined that, it was how we knew to come looking for you."

After a moment, the asari raised her head, clearly getting control over herself again. "Then I am to assume I am being taken into custody to determine if I am a threat, or useful against Saren and…"

She stopped, but Joannis interrupted. "No, we have already determined you knew nothing of what was happening."

The asari glanced at Ghost in confusion, who was simply watching the Twins with twitching mandibles, her posture tense. Jaclyn spotted it, and sighed. "The entire kidnap plot was too elaborate to be faked. Too distant and contrived if it was. I and my sister agree that the abduction attempt was a legitimate attempt to acquire her. The only people that would try faking something like that are writers, someone with only the most minimal grasp of reality, or a politician. A better plant would have been closer, or even after she already 'surrendered.'"

After a moment Ghost nodded slowly, and Joannis picked up the thread. "That doesn't mean we won't be taking precautions. Doctor Liara T'soni, due to the threat of another abduction attempt, and the fact you are a person of interest in the investigation of former Spectre Saren Arterius' treason, we are asking that you remain on board the ship while we sort this out, within reason. Should you agree, we are also prepared to offer room and board, though all will be standard human military, as well as a consultation pay for your prothean expertise. You might be just as instrumental in breaking this case open as us three Spectres."

The asari tilted her head, before nodding. "I can agree to those terms. But you said that there were three Spectres here? Who are they?"

The Twins simply smirked and nodded. "Icivia Kryik is the senior Spectre on board, but my twin and I, Jaclyn and Joannis Shepard, are the Spectres in charge of this investigation. Icivia is here to provide combat engineering expertise and mentoring."

Jaclyn gave the asari a wide, malicious grin. "Don't watch the news much?"

The asari just gaped, before turning and looking at Arlas, who had simply been watching the entire exchange, not deigning to participate. Neither had the krogan or the human female, but they hadn't caught the asari's attention yet. After a moment, the asari shook her head, and turned back to the Twins. "Where would you like me to stay? I would like to rest and recover."

A quick glance, another tiny spike of psyker power, before Joannis spoke. "Second level, behind the medbay is a free room. Will be cozy and a bit bare, but unless you want to use sleeper pods or bunk with the rest of the crew, that is the best we can offer."

The asari nodded after a moment, and the Twins looked around. "Anything else important that should be brought to our attention?"

Arlas spoke. "How often do krogan kill themselves to set off explosive charges?"

Everyone stared at him, causing him to realize he had spoke in eldar, before repeating himself in human. This time, he got a response from Wrex. "If they have nothing else to lose? Then every krogan worth the name. What happened?"

Arlas let Ghost describe what had occurred at the top of the shaft, though Arlas had to add his actions after the group started sprinting. "I inflicted extreme injury upon his right shoulder with my long rifle, before retreating. As I withdrew, I observed the krogan attempting to put his weapon, similar to yours, in his mouth, while his destroyed left hand tried to work the trigger."

The krogan frowned, before shaking his head. "No, that was not normal. The threat was right, but the ending part of it was not something any krogan worth his armor would do. He would have taunted you with his name, not someone else's."

Icivia shrugged. "Maybe he was just that loyal to Saren?"

The red armored krogan was suddenly standing and across the room, with a speed that actually impressed Arlas, and shoved his face right into Ghost's. "Loyalty to a turian? The same species that emasculated our race? Don't be stupid, turian. Your people get loyalty from mine for as long as you pay and not one second longer. Certainly not enough to encourage us to go out like that."

The krogan turned and stomped out of the room, and after a moment Arlas shrugged and followed. This time, the krogan activated the elevator, and Arlas stopped it from descending with only one passenger. He didn't look at the fuming krogan as he took up the same spot from their first ride, but this time he actually spoke. "So, what did the turians do to your people to enrage you so?"

Arlas was expecting the krogan to verbally snap at him. He was not expecting the krogan to turn and charge him.

Arlas swore and tried to dodge, but the combination of surprise and narrow confines meant he couldn't get out of the way. He was picked up and slammed into the far wall of the elevator, held there by an enraged krogan. Not even on the top twenty worst positions he had ever been in, but definitely the top five when he remembered he only had his pistol and no armor.

Arlas simply stared down into one of Wrex's eyes, and ignored the pain in his back. "I will forgive. Once. Now unhand me and talk like a sapient."

He didn't finish the rest of the thought, but he could see the rage slowly dying in Wrex's eye, reducing it to exhausted anger. The arm holding him up immediately began relaxing, and after a tense half minute, finally released him. The krogan sighed, some emotion overwhelming him. "The Shepards said you were new to Citadel space. What do you know about the Krogan?"

Arlas noted Wrex hadn't given him room, but at least he wasn't being pressed against the wall anymore. "Considered a high threat species. Natural regeneration, resistance to small arms, high aggression. Appear to have a tribal or feudal government. Don't like turians, apparently."

Wrex snorted at that. "Not important enough to do much research on?"

"Not enough time and too much other work required. Working on more common and current enemies. As well as everything else I can."

"Huh. Well, whatever. Citadel ran into something vicious fifteen hundred years ago. They couldn't stop them, they were called the rachni. But then they found us. Naturally warlike, high reproduction, nearly unkillable, we were perfect for their needs to defeat the rachni. But after we killed them, they gave us a few planets to keep us busy, and then ignored us. When we needed more space because we couldn't stop breeding, they denied us. We rebelled, and then they found and convinced the turians to help stop us. The turians only stalled us, we replaced our warriors too fast, and too many kids were raised by those that found glory in the Rachni War and then the Rebellion, so we just kept hitting them.

Eventually, the salarians came up with a fix, a disease, a bioengineered plague, that neutered our race. Our women could lay a thousand fertile eggs at a time before, but after the Genophage, they lay a thousand eggs, painfully, and all those eggs will die and break, the half formed child spilling onto the ground to die. One in a thousand will live to become a child. A best."

Arlas listened, before nodding as the elevator reached the hangar level. "Thank you for the knowledge."

Arlas murmured to himself as he turned to leave. "But at least you have something to be thankful for."

He was not aware of how keen Wrex's hearing was, before the krogan turned back and snarled. "Thankful for WHAT!?"

Arlas stopped, halfway to his lander. After a second, he glanced at Wrex over his shoulder. "That you have someone else to hate for your people's decline and destruction other than only your own."

Wrex's confusion was apparent even though Arlas wasn't looking, but the eldar was already inside the lander's bay, sealing the door before Wrex could say anything.

A/N - One more week, then the current poll goes down, and the new one goes up. If you enjoyed the antics, leave a review, hit the favorite, or just keep coming back, keeping this story as my most read and favorited and followed and stuff.