No Gods, No Kings, No Reapers Terra Athernum

by Icarus636

The dream of Rapture never became a nightmare, under the banner of the UN and Rapture humanity united as one. Now as the Human Commonwealth stands as the only superpower matching The Council in strength and technology, an eternal enemy awakens, but mankind shall not go quietly into the night. HFY fanfic, different humanity, Paragon Sheppard.

10. Chapter 8: Operation Chixulub

Chapter 8: Operation Chixulub

Hello, it has been a while; I was force to focus on my actual job. At least I had been able to think this story through; many of your questions will be answer soon.

For the record, it is my believe that the Mass Effect universe is one of the best space adventure universes that there is; it has more elements in common with The Expanse than with Star Wars or Star Trek. Politics, adventure, characters and cultural deepness are very well treated; and the universe makes sense if you overlook the rushed timeline of the Systems Alliance.

On the other hand Bioshock is more akin to philosophy, mystery, and both the darkness and the light of the human soul; with deep nearly impossible worlds where the best and worst of human nature achieve its zenith.

This story is to see the combination of the best of both universes and explore new relationships between the new characters and cultures.

IF ANYONE WANTS TO BECOME MY BETA READER, PLEASE VOLUNTEER; BIOSHOCK AND MASS EFFECT EXPERTSISE IS RECOMENDED

-Goodpie2: Yes, English is not my first language; I will try to be more meticulous from now on

-UnitedLuck: Lilims are an anomaly, among human population, like the Ardak Yakshi in the Asari; and yes humans can consume dextro proteins but not in the long term. Eat turian or quarian food and you will get cramps

-enji-benjy: In this chapter several secrets the story behind the formation of the USC will be reveal; as well as the theories behind the Protheans disappearance

About the eezo reactors part; yes my bad, I have updated and corrected that chapter

-Shadow: Her true nature shall be reveal in future chapters

-SciFiFanatic358: I am glad to see another Templin Institute and Spacedock fan

-Lord Bacon: Thanks! Just be patient

-T-Biggz: You haven't play much Bioshock, don't you?

Bioshock techs: Plasmids, drones, turrets, portals, teleportation, taquion shielding

N7s are a key part of Mass Effect; of course they will be included

I think you mean Scott and Sarah, and no: By the time Sheppard becomes a N7, they are both children, and they have their own roles to play

-CReaper210: Thanks! Just be patient please

-Superpierce: Thanks! I am glad you are enjoying my story

-Heartfanglive: Just wait and see

-Blaze1992: You don't give the CC enough credit, not everyone in the Council are craven cowards, ignorant and idiots… Only most of them

-DahakStaz: In this chapter we will finally see the encounter

1913 DATE UNKNOWN

Antarctica, Tesla's Gulch

The pristine white desert that was the Antarctica had always captured the interest of human imagination; it was the fifth size continent on Earth, a desert of ice kilometers above sea level with perhaps the most hostile environment on the planet. It had been declared for decades that it would be the only region of the world forever safe of the predatory human hands. So large and so implacable was the ice covered wasteland that rumors and myths existed in equal proportion to hard theories and scientific observations. A few decades later H. P. Lovecraft will write perhaps his best novel: The Mountains of Madness, about an expedition to Antarctica uncovering a secret civilization kept hidden from the world behind a line of mountains even larger than the Himalayas.

There was no denying that there was truly something ominous about the white continent just a few months ago a British expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott had been declared lost, their frozen corpses found months laters, a morbid testament of just how unforgivable the frozen land was.

Yet its aura of mystery, hostile environment and its unreachable nature made it the ideal location for the construction of a private research complex destined to become the foundation of what would later become the most advanced city of the planet Earth.

A small lodge of scientists and industrialists led by Robert Lutece and Nikola Tesla and funded by a businessman named Jeremiah Fink found a secret channel beneath the ice from where to navigate their privately own submarines to reach a cleft on the continental ice created by the eruption of a volcano that provided an stable terrain and a supply of energy and heat for the complex.

The Atlantis Project as it was called was meant to be a secret outpost where scientists and engineers could develop their inventions in secret and store them without the risk that they could be used in a war by the power hungry nations of the world. Many of the members of the project shared a common believe in which humanity was destined to destroy itself if fanatic and nationalistic sentiments took over, and corrupted their inventions in the service of a full scale war. The facility also served as an Ark capable of storing seeds from all over the world and genetic material from millions of animals waiting for the day when genetic replication technology would be achieved.

The Helios complex was an enormous fortress similar to a bunker that had achieved nearly complete self-sustainability in recent months. An enormous submarine converted into a factory, living complex and laboratory that extracted its energy and heat from the volcano. While plants with nutritive value were cultivate in specially designed hydroponic gardens.

In a makeshift conference room the leaders of the Helios Complex were holding council, the situation in Europe was going critical, war seemed inevitable.

Eight people were sat on the table where a map of the Old Continent had been placed: Nikola Tesla (project leader; Jeremiah Fink (invester); Robert Lutece and Rosalyn Lutece (the genius siblings); Chen-Lin (a machinist and chief of maintenance); Dr. Harrison Powel (chief medical officer); Scofield Sandsmark (chief of security) and Anna Dewitt (code translator and responsible for keeping the secrecy of the project).

"So Miss Dewitt what do you think?" asked Doctor Robert Lutece.

"There is going to be a war, soon enough, we may consider taking most of our outside assets discretely out of Europe." The youngest member of the council answered.

"What about the rest of our promising recruits?" Fink asked. "Dr. Albert Einstein and Madame Curie; for example?"

"For the moment is better is the rest of the candidates are kept on observation, but is a real danger comes to them we should consider extracting them as soon as possible." Professor Tesla answered, clearly stating that his word would be final.

"What happens outside our walls is unimportant we need to focus on improving our infrastructure, if a massive war engulfs Europe it could became increasingly difficult to coordinate our supply lines." Chen-Lin declared.

"I agree" chief of security Sandsmark declared. "My team and I are working on improving our security grid. Only God knows how long we may be able to keep this place secret from the world."

"Hopefully for as long as it takes" Professor Tesla stated. "The incredible technologies we are working on are like the Fire that Prometheus took from the gods and gave to mankind; but if we gave fire to an arrogant and ignorant people not ready to understand it, they will burn the whole forest with it."

Everyone nodded.

"Professor Tesla, sir?" a young man came through the door. "Sorry to interrupt you, but it is time for the annual council picture."

"Ahhh yes, thank you Mr. Cunningham" he answered. "We will be there in a few minutes."

As everyone in the table rose from their seats, they adjusted their ties, jackets and every detail on their clothes. After a few minutes they gathered up in the central atrium of the Helios complex in a clear formation with Professor Tesla on the center.

The photographer a young mister named Rupert Cunningham, asked them to straight up and be ready as he adjusted his camera. A flash of light and the image was recorded for history.

XXXXX

2155.07.08

Juttenheim System; Erebus Nexus

Human history museum in the Coeus Cardinal Pylon

Doctor Karin Chakwas a young medic on her twenties assigned to the flagship of the Erebus Nexus Defense Fleet flagship; the fleet carrier CSV Stephen Hawking was currently on short leave at the station as the fleet was organizing the fleets in a battle group for the liberation of Shanxi. She had taken the time to visit the museum on the Coeus Pylon, in the wing of Earth history, more specifically on the twentieth century exhibition she observed with interest the black and white photograph of the founders of the Atlantis project more than two centuries ago.

The revelation of the existence and history of the Atlantis project and its successor state, the Rapturian Objectivistic Republic had been a huge hit for the history books; historians had been forced to add several new chapters on the timeline of the twentieth century to the overall human history. Many had criticized the secrecy of both projects but a lot of people had recognize the need and desire to maintain their work a secret and their new technologies safe from the hands of wrong people like ultra-nationalists and fanatics like the Nazis. After all humanity and the USC had decided to maintain their existence secret from the Citadel Council and the rest of the galaxy; in order to keep themselves safe from a galaxy that could fear them or crave their resources and discoveries.

It was amazing just how similar Dr. Anna Dewitt was to Admiral Elizabeth Comstock, they had the same eyes, facial bone structure and sharp eyes; even though the girl two centuries ago was on her twenties and the USC admiral was 45 years old; according to Wikipedia's biographies the great grandmother of the Admiral was a Dewitt which made Admiral Comstock a long descendant of one of the founders of the Atlantis project.

The rapturian exhibition showed a lot of the construction of Rapture on Antarctica on 1947, the technologies and developments used in the operation to build the city had been critical for the future developments of space stations and dome colonies on zero atmosphere planets.

Yet the most important discovery of the ROR was the research of the stem cell known as ADAM, which had not only allowed giant leaps on genetic engineering but also the development of new materials and branches of science.

A great majority of humanity in the last century had been gone through a limited state of gene therapy, most of genetically inherited conditions had been erased and a limited state of eugenics was allowed in some colonies like Praxis. But free will and the freedom of choice was considered 'sacred' in a way; so a gattaca like method was illegal, genetic determinism was forbidden, you could not 'design' children from the womb.

Genetic augmentations were implanted on people at their request not force on them, from before birth.

Plasmids and bio medi-gel had been first develop in Rapture and when the Republic revealed itself to the world, ADAM derived products and enhancements started to be mass product and develop first all across Earth and then all around Human and USC colonies.

Outside of its scientific discoveries, 'Rapturian art' and culture had also spread across humanity. Most of the buildings of the Erebus Nexus's Pylon cities were built in the unmistakable Neo-Deco style, of Rapture.

Similar to the so call 'Citadel's wards' the Pylons were like petals of a flower connected to the central outer ring of the Erebus Nexus, holding entire cities specially designed to sustain the biological needs and most optimal environments for the five species of the USC.

Finally after a while, Karin realized it was getting late and she needed to go, abandoning the museum she called a cab and headed for the commercial district of the Coeus Pylon.

XXXXX

As planed she met with her friends on the Kashmir Café for lunch, they were all worried about the situation brewing on the frontier, just a few days ago a protest against the lack of response from the government and High Council almost erupted in a riot at the Ryan Plaza on the Kronos Upper Ring, requiring the intervention of the Erebus Guard to break the riot before it began. Luckily the response of both the Prime Minister and Chairman Fitzroy had calmed the nerves of most; those who were concerned about the lack of action felt better after the news of the deployment of the fifth and sixth fleet, in an assembled battle group to liberate Shanxi.

There was also a latent fear that the lack of action from the rest of the members of the USC, would dissolved in a wave of xenophobia and witch hunts for a scape goat. The news that the first fleet was going to take part in the retake of the F ujian-Alpha system had mostly cut down those fears. The Erebus Nexus Defense Fleet was tasked with protecting the construct that was the capital of the USC, the bulk of the fleet was composed by the Human First fleet of the Human Federation, but surrounding the station were hundreds of other ships not only human. The ENDF stood more than a thousand ships strong: with Talosian, Rachni, Kashani and even Quarian ships helping to defend the beating heart of the Commonwealth.

"Could you believe; that they are still waiting?" Doctor Thus ke Palmuk a male kashani and one of her colleagues working on the Tenembaun Foundation Hospital declared after taking a sip of his coffee. "Three fleets have been assembled and the Turians are still on Shanxi; what is the High Council doing?"

"The High Council is only balancing the political and economic cost between doing nothing or risk starting a war with the Turian Hierarchy and perhaps the Citadel." Nait Hyut'Lindr a female talosian lieutenant of the Erebus Guard stated. "The admirals on the other hand may be thinking about how to kick the Turian out of USC space with a minimum amount of casualties."

"I have a friend in the Arcturus Station garrison Regiment, Sargent David Anderson; they are preparing to embark with the fifth fleet in the operation to recover Shanxi" the last person on the table besides Karin, Dr. Damian Langford a field medic for the Commonwealth Marine Corps stated. "I will also embark with them" he made a pause. "I am a little nervous for it."

"Don't worry, you won't be alone, I will be joining with the first fleet as well; when we move against the Turians" Karin answered.

"So a war is coming to all of us." Nait stated with a tone of dread. "May the Mother of Equilibrium guide us all."

"Only if the Citadel Council wants a war" Thus ke answered.

"Let's hope that they don't, and that the Asari are the peace loving maidens the quarians claim they are." Kari added. "A battle generally ends with me patching a lot of brave yet idiot soldiers; a war on the other hand ends with a lot of empty chairs on the tables of multiple families."

Everyone's faces turn somber, besides the life of the city and transit around them, the only sound there was the breathing of four people and the sips of coffee they were taking.

Later that day Karin would be inform she was also going to take part in the operation as the First fleet would participate in Operation Chicxulub.

XXXXX

2155.07.08

CSV Marcus Aurellius; in orbit of the colony of New Indus

Fujian-Delta system; Lambda Expanse

For Commodore Lillian Meltzer it felt as it ages had passed since she abandoned the orbit of Shanxi, even though barely more than a week has passed. Every report coming from the besieged colony felt like another dagger striking her chest, even though she had her orders and it was better to live to fight another day, she felt as she had abandoned every man, woman and child on Shanxi.

But now they were mere hours away from beginning Operation Chicxulub.

Yes it was a nearly unpronounceable and weird name, but it was suiting, as the Chicxulub crater on the peninsula of Yucatan was the supposed impact location of the meteor that had caused the extinction of the dinosaurs; and many of the soldiers fighting on Shanxi had adopted the nickname 'dinobird' while referring to the Turians. Operation Chicxulub was going to be the first real combat scenario for the Commonwealth's offensive-counterstrike doctrine; a massive operation to kick the Turians out of Shanxi and sent them back to where they came from.

"Are all our ships ready?" Commodore Meltzer asked to her CIC.

"Our remaining destroyers have been repaired and prepared" MARCOS explained in his synthetic voice.

"Our fighters and corvettes, had been refitted, we have also reinforced our numbers with crafts from the CSV Horatio Nelson" her deck officer informed. "We have a full complement now."

"Commodore we have received confirmation of Commodore Kapoor of the CSV Horatio Nelson, and admirals Le Fleur and Comstock" the flag lieutenant Steven Hackett informed her. "Now it begins."

"No Lieutenant! Now it ends!" she answered quoting someone she did not remember who.

"Are you sure, we should try this tactic, commodore?" he stuttered for a moment. "I mean some people would consider it outright madness, not to mention we do not even know if the Rift siphon generator is capable to sustain so many jumps in such quick succession?"

"I am surprise Lieutenant" she answered. "I mean this was your idea, by the way, how did you come up with this mad maneuver?"

"Well, in truth…" he stuttered. "I was inspired by an old science fiction TV series, Star Trek."

"You are kidding me…" she answered. "But to be fair, human imagination and fiction has always had a huge influence in our space exploration, and protocols."

The Cole Protocol for example, in which a ship at the risk of capture must whipped its computer core clean or engage self-destruct, in order to prevent capture; was based on 'the Cole protocol' from the videogame Halo. Being inspired by a console videogame, a TV series or a comic didn't make an idea or a plan less admissible than any other.

"What is the name of this particular tactic?" she asked the lieutenant.

"The Picard Maneuver" he answered.

XXXXX

2155.07.09

Star Base Theta; Theta Nebula

In an enormous docking bay at the Star Base Theta; troops, vehicles and military hardware were being loaded into transport ships for the beginning of Operation Chicxulub, the invasion to retake Shanxi.

Even though the star base was the active headquarters of the USC forces on the cluster, the station was generally only defended by up to four full strength flotillas from the Second and Third fleets, but now as the enemy hold the Fujian-Alpha system, more than a thousand ships of the First, Fifth and Sixth fleet had been assembled on the single largest battle fleet in human history, holding position around the station right next to the Lambda-Shanxi relay waiting for the moment to cross into occupied territory.

Sargent David Anderson of the Arcturus First Division was preparing to embark with the rest of his men. Most of them did not look too eager to march for war. Yes as images and messages came from Shanxi and the garrison of the colony, every men and women on the First Division was thirsty for Turian blood. There was also an eagerness to fight, as the news that the colonial guard was holding its own against the so call 'best fighting force of the galaxy' had emboldened the troops; the Commonwealth's marines in particular seem poised to prove themselves and show these aliens, of what humans were made of.

Yet there was a glimpse of doubt and uncertainty on the faces of everyone, humanity has not been engaged on real warfare in more than a century, the Commonwealth's soldiers were the best of humanity's military had to offer, but they haven't fight against aliens in a true battlefield besides training drills with their USC ally militaries (Talosian, Kashani or Quarian), or the legendary first encounter on the planet Kaldir on 2108.

Odds were in their favor however, the Quinhai garrison was already given the Turians hell, Commodore Meltzer had crushed the first turian fleet that came through the relay, and thanks to the Quarian intel, Highcom already knew a great deal of Turian combat doctrine and strategies, while they did not knew anything about fighting the Commonwealth's army on a real battle.

They say the best defense is offense, if this is true then the Turian were in for a nasty surprise.

No one knew what the strategy for the attack on the system was, other than the defensive position of the Turian fleet around the Shanxi-Theta relay guarantied heavy casualties on the threshold engagement.

According to a few rumors the surviving ships of the Fujian-Alpha defense flotilla under Commodore Meltzer had met with the Fujian-Delta defense fleet under Commodore Kapoor, for an operation to harass the Turian fleet and weaken their defensive position. Sargent Anderson was an infantry man but even he knew that if both flotillas moved against the Turians they were going to be outnumbered six to one, and completely outgunned against two dreadnoughts. He did not like those odds, not to mention that Commodore Meltzer and her fleet had done enough already, asking them to sacrifice more lives in the liberation of Shanxi did not seem right.

An entire army corps of nearly half a million soldiers had been gathered, amongst the troops present were soldiers coming from nearly every nation of Earth and its colonies. Even though the standard uniform of the USC's navy was designed to only include the insignia of the Commonwealth and in a way portray an unified humanity and USC, the army's officers however used an hybrid uniform that show their birth nation's flag on the shoulder. Through the hangar, David could see hundreds of Americans, Chinese, Russians, French, British (like him), Indians, Rapturians, Japanese and dozens of other flags that he was not familiar with; there were even a few soldiers of the independent colonies, with the flag of the Praxian Directorate and the Shinoan Republic. It was impressive seeing practically all of humanity united in purpose for this historical moment.

His thoughts were interrupted when a sharp sound drilled through his eardrums:

"[Alarm Noise] All USC personal stand by, for a priority message" the speakers shouted in a feminine clearly synthetic voice, before being replace by a human and clearly familiar voice.

"This is Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Comstock addressing to every sailor, soldier and crewman who is about to face the Turian forces occupying Shanxi." The determined voice of the highest ranking officer of the USC's navy was broadcast through the speakers.

"You stand at the threshold of history; this is the moment when mankind and the USC claim their place on this universe. The Turians and the Citadel, believe us to be barbarians, to be primitive, to be weak and ignorant beings not worthy of ruling ourselves. They are sorely mistaken!"

As she took a pause, a loud YEAAHHH was shouted across the entire station and fleet.

"Look to the man or woman next to you and you will find that soldiers of every nation, of every planet have gathered here, to fulfill this mission; even our allies from the USC have come to provide us support. No matter what separate us all, it shall be known to all that mankind stands together and it will fight as one to defend their own! Today we show the Turians, the Citadel Council and the entire galaxy the strength of the indomitable will of the human spirit and the power of our intellect! Today we will burn their ships and break their army, in an attack that will mark in fire our place in history! Let it be known today! Humanity has been awoken and now the galaxy shall see our might!"

"HURRAAAHHHH!" was shouted by every man and woman on the hangar, in a thundering shout that seem capable to shake the very bulkheads.

"Operation Chicxulub will begin in two hours, stand ready!" the voice of the admiral finished the message.

As Sargent Anderson and his team boarded their ship and loaded their equipment he glimpsed a shadow of nervous and hesitation in a few of his men. A soldier in particular was looking at a picture on his data wrist perhaps his girlfriend, his wife or his sister; too young to be his mother, he was thinking the same though everyone shared: Am I to survive this? Will I return home alive? Will I ever see you again?

He knew he had to make something to calm the nerves of everyone, so he turned to the soldier next to him, Private Hendricks.

"So Hendricks, how is your mother doing?" David asked.

"Fine" he said, confused. "Why?"

"Cause I heard your momma was so ugly the marines thought she was a turian…Almost shot her" he joked, that get him a few smiles.

Then Hendriks turned to him and said. "Hell Anderson, I heard it was a picture of your momma that started this whole war in the first place. Scared the turians shitless."

Everyone laugh and Anderson did as well, he was certain they were going to be okay. They were determined, relaxed and prepared for whatever the universe throw at them.

XXXXX

2155.07.09

HWS Spirits of Justice

Banner ship of Turian 10° Fleet, Admiral Victus

Never in his life has Admiral Lonrel Victus felt so conflicted and frustrated. The messenger ship that came through the relay the day before had informed them that someone had uploaded the details of this disastrous operation into the extranet. The Hierarchy was on chaos, the public wanted answers about the first contact with the humans; their allies and ambassadors specially those of the Volus Protectorate wanted a confirmation of the question on everyone's mouth: "Are we at war? And how this war started?"

On the planet, the battle for Shanxi had turned into a war of attrition, with Turian and Human forces fighting a grinding urban battle that was crippling both of their numbers. There was nothing worse for a Turian General than fighting an enemy well entrenched without orbital support, the Krogan rebellions were a prime example of this, even though the Krogan did not generally fight on the defensive.

The capture of General Arterius has also been a huge hit in the troop's morale and casualties had multiplied since; with the human forces launching counterstrikes and sabotages against General Orinia's troops.

The worst of these attacks had been the destruction of the supplies reserves at the main base, most of their food supplies had been lost, and without proper supply lines, their chances to maintain the siege around the human city for more than a few more days.

His family was worried, even though they have received orders from command and the Primarch they had gone against the first contact protocols of the Council, this was going to be a political nightmare for the Hierarchy, he doubted they could turn him into a patsy, and relegate the blame on him and his subordinates.

The political and military prestige of the Hierarchy could be destroyed however if this ended in a stalemate or worse even a defeat.

He could not help but curse that idiot of Admiral Varkus for getting them into this mess; if he had just stayed his talons and contacted the humans diplomatically, may be they could just be convinced to initiate diplomatic contact with the Citadel Council, with their technology, abilities and military power they may have become a substantial addition to the Citadel. But of course that spirits damned idiot had lost his life, his fleet and has drove his people into a war they didn't want.

Even if they defeat the human fleet located at the other edge of the relay and finally capture that damned city, there were going to be repercussions, the Humans were going to be furious and if they did not bring them into the fold, forcefully if necessary they could become a serious threat to all of Citadel space.

The Turian fleet under his and Admiral Survan had called reinforcements and assume a defensive formation around the relay linking to inner human space; their position was their only true advantage even with their reinforcement they stood equal in numbers to the human punitive fleet; which contain more than a hundred heavy cruisers and six dreadnoughts. Not to mention that the hard truth was that the human warships were more advance than theirs.

His omni-tool blinked with a high priority message from the bridge, he immediately sprinted towards his command post, arriving at the bridge in under a few minutes. His crew saluted at him when he arrived.

"Admiral we have detected multiple FTL signals on the edge of the system" his scan officer informed him.

"Human?" he asked.

"I am afraid so, it looks like Commodore Meltzer fleet, the one that retreated in the first engagement." The officer informed him.

"So she has return to attempt to liberate the world she abandoned without a fight" he said.

"Long range scanners have counted 74 ships: 1 Carrier, 13 Heavy Cruisers, 38 destroyers and 22 frigates" he informed. "It is the entire remaining Shanxi defense's fleet."

"They may be trying to force us out of position to allow an opening for the fleet on the other side of the relay" he deduced. "Contact Admiral Survan" he ordered.

"Already done sir" the comm technician said.

As they established a link with Admiral Survan's banner ship, he took a quick peek at the energy reading of the human fleet, according to the scanners Commodore Meltzer's fleet has arrived on the system through normal FTL, the signals detected confirmed the presence of dark energy and mass effect cores on those ships. They haven't used their rift gate jump apparently.

The interrogation of their prisoners have revealed some information regarding human technology, the so call 'rift gate' FTL method apparently use some kind of energy wormhole that created a threshold between two points of space and time. According to the humans this method allowed them to reach, explore, survey and ultimately colonize and exploit systems located between the clusters connected by the mass relay network. If all of this was true then the humans may possessed more colonies and resources than the entire Citadel races. He was truly hoping that the fleet on the other side of the relay was the bulk if not the entirety of the human fleet, otherwise this war could last for decades if not centuries; and their names would be tarnish through history as the idiots who started another rachni war or krogan rebellion.

Soon the hologram of Admiral Survan appeared in the middle of the bridge, right next to Admiral Victus who stood on the elevated platform, overlooking the holographic table projecting their fleet in position next to the mass relay, and after zooming at the edge of that system, the enemy fleet moving towards Shanxi using normal thrusters.

So their objective seems to be the colony, they are probably planning to attack our support ships and troops stationed there, forcing us to move our ships and weakened our defensive formation. The human fleet had clearly assumed an attack formation with their heavy cruisers in the front; their cruisers and frigates on their flanks and that huge carrier flagship in the center.

"Sir, human fleet is hailing us" the comm technician said.

Before Victus could react, Admiral Survan cut him off. "Don't answer it, the only thing I want to hear of those ships are their hulls exploding."

"We will destroy Commodore Meltzer's fleet and secure this system finally" she declared. "I am assigning two hundred of my ships under the command of rear admiral Kyrean Naleus to intercept and destroy them, while our bannerships and the rest of the fleet maintain position."

"Understood, I will order three of my varren packs of frigates and five of our fighter squadrons to aid them" he answered.

As ordered a portion of the fleet moved from the main force and assumed an intercept course for the enemy fleet, with the fighters and frigates standing at the front of the formation. Surprisingly the human fleet changed course on an intercept trajectory for Rear admiral Naleus's fleet.

The carrier began deploying its compliment of fighters and corvettes with their entire frigate group converging on the front of the formation.

Separated by hundreds of thousands of miles both fleets opened fire on each other, with their respective cruisers firing their long range mass accelerator cannons, projectiles crossing the void at hyper speeds. Meanwhile both squadrons of fighters and frigates accelerated their engines at maximum to intercept each other; Turians had the numbers but the human squadron had the better ships and with corvettes and frigates ready to intercept the enemy attack ships with their advance tracking guardian arrays.

In both sides the cruisers kinetic barriers flared as the shots reached their targets while the frigates and attack ships were small and agile enough to avoid fire. Reaching attack range the fighters opened fire against their counterparts; human corvettes spread out in several formations and opened fire with their ion laser point defense cannons, wing after wing of turian fighters was being blinked out of existence by them. The fight between human and turian fighters was more balanced, the first were larger and resilient but the second had a higher level of maneuverability.

Soon the squads of frigates reached each other, the leading human frigates opened fire with the Tiamat cannons destroying the leading turians frigates as the rest of them unleashed their entire payload of disruptor torpedoes against the enemy.

Rear Admiral Naelous adopted an attack wall formation attempting to maximize the fire on the enemy fleet using their superior numbers to their advantage.

"Admiral the human carrier is deploying its rift gate device" the scan technician shouted, to the confusion of the bridge crew and the admiral. "Energy readings are identical even though lower in scale to the ones recorded in the previous retreat."

"Anomalous gravitational anomaly detected 200 miles at the stern of Rear Admiral Naelous's fleet." Another technician reported.

To the confusion of the entire bridge, the holographic table began showing two new wormholes like anomalies in the space of the battle: one located right in front of the human fleet and one behind the turian fleet. To the shock of the entire room, mass accelerator shots from the human ships went through the anomaly and emerged right at the other side, hitting a few of the turian vessels right behind the formation.

Maintaining formation around the carrier the human cruisers and heavy cruisers crossed the anomaly and appeared right behind the turian fleet, the anomaly collapsing behind them. As soon as they emerged they opened fire with their entire arsenal including their heavy cruisers Tiamat cannons over Naeslous fleet.

Spirits be damned, they use their rift gates to perform a short range FTL jump in order to assume a better firing position.

Admiral Victus had studied that tactic on the academy, Asari ships like the Destiny Ascension generally had a hole on their center because they had two drive cores, unable to contain the power of both mass effect cores interacting one with the other, the asari left the center of their ships as an empty hollow where a storm of dark energy and eezo particles was contained. While this was expensive and in some cases extremely unpractical it provided the asari ships with a considerable edge: the ability to FTL jump from one system to another using one drive core, attack as hard and efficient as possible and then retreat before the situation turn against them using the second drive core while the first was recharging. This was the base of the Asari space combat doctrine, hit and run attacks. Turians didn't use this method but Hierarchy's admirals and officers were trained to perform short range FTL jumps in order to close distance with an enemy fleet or assume a better position. It was clear that the humans had arrive into the system using normal FTL jump and then using their rift gate jump to bypass Naeslous's formation and close range with the enemy.

In the mere seconds that passed since the anomaly closed, the entire Human fleet had begun to open fire on the turian warship's sterns, destroying several cruisers with a single shot of their heavy cruisers tiamat cannons. Dozens of ships had been lost, and Victus mandibles clenched together in frustration for the loss of so many good turians, yet he knew that tactic could not last, Naeslous's fleet was changing formation and they were beginning to return fire.

"Admiral we are reading another gravitational anomaly at Naeslous's fleet starboard side" the scan technician informed.

"What?" he asked.

Before the crewman could answer, another set of two rift anomalies were opened with one again in front of the human carrier and fleet and the other on the starboard side of the turian fleet. Just like they did before the human fleet crossed the wormhole and emerged right on the flank of the turian fleet, both anomalies quickly vanished.

Spirits!? They are changing position in the blink of an eye using their wormholes to avoid fire of the turian cruisers axial guns and redeploy themselves at the best firing positions against the turian ships. Not to mention they know just where to hit, redeploying themselves above and behind the turian ships, carefully aiming their most vulnerable subsystems.

Before Naeslous's fleet could even regroup itself the human fleet once again jump from position at the Turian fleet's bow, destroying or crippling the turian ships at a terrifying rate.

"Admiral!" the com officer shouted. "Rear admiral Naeslous banner ship was destroyed, his ships are no acting as individual vessels and several captains are requesting support and orders."

"Enough with this, I am moving the 11° fleet to deal with these spirits damned humans" admiral Survan informed.

"You cannot abandon formation, if that fleet comes through the relay, they will wipe all of us" he said to his fellow admiral.

"We destroyed the com buoys of this system; the humans cannot inform their fleet of our position, if we don't deal with them now that fleet could shatter our forces."

"What if the humans can inform their fleet of our movements, losing your dreadnought and your ships in the formation would cripple our defense."

"They won't! Because we will destroy them before they do! And I am not losing any more Turian brothers and sisters because of that damn Commodore Meltzer and her fleet."

Despite his protests the 11° fleet centered on the HWS Vostra assumed formation and performed a short range FTL jump to a position 500 kilometers at the starboard of the remains of Naeslous's fleet and the last position of the human fleet.

It was a good tactic, the 11° fleet and its dreadnought on one side, the remaining Naeslous's ships on the other and the humans in the middle; if the humans were to remain on that position both turian flotillas could converge on them in a pincer move and if they jump to the flank of one of the flotillas, Admiral Survan could use their overwhelming numbers to protect their flanks in a defensive sphere formation around her dreadnought.

As expected the human fleet summoned another wormhole and jumped right behind Admiral Survan's fleet, Victus dropped a sight of relieve, that lasted less than a few seconds.

"Admiral we are detecting another anomaly on vector 60 degrees from the 11° fleet" the scan officer shouted. "This one if far larger than the other, energy readings are off the scale!"

"Impossible! the carrier ship has not summoned another portal…" he stuttered before realizing, the carrier and its fleet were not a diversion they were the bait, and Admiral Survan had fallen in the trap.

XXXXX

"Turian fleet on position" Commodore Meltzer informed through the quantum entanglement communicator. "DAGGER redeploying, now it is your turn Admiral Comstock, DROP THE HAMMER!"

"Rift opening, cavalry has arrived" lieutenant Steven Hackett informed.

XXXXX

"Ships emerging from the anomaly, counting two hundred fighters and corvettes and three dozen frigates, IFF confirm human profiles" a bridge officer informed.

"Ships accelerating and heading for Admiral Survan's fleet" another said.

"New ships from the anomaly: sixteen cruisers, nine heavy cruisers; more ships emerging" the first officer informed without breath, Victus could not blame him it was like seeing a breach on the fabric of space and time spiting the human vessels out.

"Several new signals, numbers confirmed: five hundred attack vessels, ninety two frigates, fifty cruisers, thirty five heavy cruisers and…" everyone was frozen in shock when the last tree human vessels crossed the threshold as the anomaly collapsed and vanish from existence.

"Confirmed, two dreadnought class ships: 1350 meters long, an estimated axial gun of more than 150 kilotons" the com officer explained in shock before passing to the next ship. "One super dreadnought class ship: 1620 meters long, axial gun projected to be above 200 kilotons of power."

The recently arrived fleet didn't waste any time and immediately opened fire on the turian fleet. Those two dreadnoughts made honor to their size, their mass accelerator cannons broke through the barriers of every turian cruiser they fire upon. The frigates and attack ships accelerated and unleashed all of their missiles, cannons and energy weapons on the front line cruisers. The ships of Admiral Survan were being blinked out of existence, without even the time to return fire. Worse still the surviving ships of Naeslous's fleet had been left out of position with the 11° fleet blocking their line of fire.

Commodore Meltzer fleet has also opened fire on the 11° fleet and with their new reinforcements, they stood equal in number to the Turian forces, not to mention that the two dreadnoughts were tearing through Survan's fleet as if her ships were made of paper.

"Victus my forces are being overwhelm, move your fleet and help me!" she ordered through the com.

"I can't do that, if I abandon the formation the human fleet will…"

"The human fleet is here already!" she shouted through the com. "If my fleet is destroy, it will not matter if the rest of their fleet comes through that relay."

For a second Admiral Victus looked around the bridge and saw the faces of his crew, no one wanted to abandon the 11° fleet to die.

"All ships converge on the Spirits of Justice we are going to perform a short range FTL jump and support the fleet of Admiral Survan" he ordered through the intercom.

The cruiser broke the formation and the frigates moved to the side in order to perform the short jump formation with the banner ship at the front acting as the tip of the spear.

"Oh No!" the scan officer nearly shouted. "We have activity on the relay" he informed.

Admiral Victus grabbed the rail of the command table so hard that his talons left scratches on the metal. At the holographic display, the ring of the mass relay begun turning faster and faster before coughing out dozens and then hundreds of human attack fighters, then dozens of frigates and several cruisers.

He looked back to the moment Commodore Meltzer fleet arrived at the system, they had done exactly what the humans wanted, in an incredible display of coordination and planning the human fleet had force them out of their defensive formation trapped them in weak position and called upon perhaps the entirety of their navy to cripple their forces.

With haste his ships returned to the defensive formation and begin firing on the enemy ships, unfortunately the human vessels even the slow heavy cruisers had also managed to turn and were beginning to return fire with their axial guns, covering those ships that haven't crossed the relay and turn around yet.

For the moment he still possessed the numerical advantage, but the human fighters and corvettes squadrons were making some critical damage on his ships, unleashing their torpedoes on his cruiser line and hunting his remaining fighters, as he had sent most of them to aid Naeslous's fleet. He had the entirety of his frigates to intercept them, but it was not enough and the human frigates had proven to be as dangerous as their cruisers.

The situation took a turn for the worse when a group of carriers emerged from the relay with their respective squadrons, instead of turning to face his formation, the five carriers summoned each a wormhole. Before his crew was able to pin point their exit location, two of the squadrons emerged from the back of the formation with their guns aiming at their sterns; two more at his starboard flank and the last his port side.

"Admiral we are surrounded" his captain informed him.

As he looked at the holographic display seeing his fleet being decimated and now being fire on all sides with no room to maneuver, a single shot from a human heavy cruiser impacted his ship, everyone tumbled as the ship was shaken, and consoles and energy relays overloaded and exploded throwing sparks all around the bridge. The holographic table blinked as two new giant anomalies appeared above his formation spitting each two human dreadnoughts and one super dreadnought. The four dreadnoughts opened fire as soon their bows had passed through the anomaly shattering every cruiser or frigate they fire upon with a single shot of their axial guns. The rest of their cannons proved to be not as deadly but just as accurate. The super dreadnoughts instead began releasing their entirety of their payload of attack ships and torpedoes, with the Gardian arrays of his ships being overwhelms by the number of targets coming towards them.

His fleet was being torn to pieces and with the arrival of the human capital ships his chances of victory were null.

A thousand thoughts ran through his mind as he watched both his and Admiral Survan's fleet being decimated, taking a deep breath he made an order that may forever curse him for all history.

"Hail the human fleet" he ordered to the com officer, who looked at him confused then he activated the intercom to the entire fleet.

"This is admiral Victus, all ships, cease fire, we surrender" his tone was almost the one of a dead man, if turian ships used a throne like captain's chair he would have collapsed into it.

First the Turian guns fell silent and then the humans, for the very first time since the Krogan rebellions a Turian commander had surrendered to an enemy.

XXXXX

On the other edge of the system the situation was far from solved. The remains of rear admiral Naeslous's fleet had performed a short range FTL jump into a position at 45 degrees from the human attacking fleet, flanking them and drawing the fire of one of the human dreadnoughts, giving admiral Survan's fleet a more leveled playground.

Unlike the battle of the Shanxi-Theta relay which was an almost 'knife fight' at medium and close range. In the battle at the Fujian-Alpha's edge each fleet was separated by thousands of miles from each other making it a long range artillery engagement, with the dreadnoughts becoming the central piece of the battle. With their cannons having being fired for almost an hour, heat was started to build in within the hull of all ships, forcing some of them to cease fire and vent heat.

In the space between the fleets, 'dog fighting' between the smaller ships was taken place. Turian squadrons fought without rest to protect their capital ships from enemy bombers.

"Admiral, the human banner ship is hailing us" in the bridge of the HWS Vostra, a crewman informed Admiral Survan.

"Open the channel" she ordered, as requested the hologram of a human female about Commodore Meltzer age or older appeared on the display, unlike the Commodore, this female was brunette with blue eyes similar to the ones of an Asari, and clear aura of authority on her person.

"This is Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Comstock of the USC's navy" she stated. "Admiral Victus and his fleet have surrendered, do the same; no one else has to die today."

"I am Admiral Nyreen Survan of the Turian 11° fleet, and I will not surrender to you human!" she stated with disdain.

"Enough people have died Admiral Survan" the human admiral declared with conviction. "Our fleets have arrived, you are outnumbered and outgunned admiral, surrender at once or I will order the rest of my ships to converge on your position and decimate your fleet."

"NO! This is just the beginning human, your victory here means nothing; my people will never stop. We will call upon our allies and you will see as the full might of the Citadel comes down of your Earth!" she stated before cutting off the transmission.

"All ships cover the Vostra" she ordered through the intercom.

"Helmsman prepare for a short range jump to the outer relay" he ordered to the confusion of her entire bridge crew. According to the readings the drive core has had enough time to recharge.

"Admiral?" the helmsman asked, with clear indignation at his commanding officer. "Are we abandoning our fleet?"

"We have no choice lieutenant, it is clear we have awoken a sleeping giant, if we do not bring the data of this battle to the Hierarchy and Council, the humans will be able to invade Citadel space, with a clear advantage."

"Then we should our frigates through the relay, while we cover their retreat" the captain of the ship suggested.

"No, we cannot let the humans capture or destroy another Turian dreadnought" she answered. "We will face the consequences of our actions and I will accept the judgment of our people. But I swore on all spirits that we will survive and return home." She stated.

For a moment no one said anything finally accepting the admiral's judgment with the Turian way of thinking inside them reminding them that she was their superior and her orders were final; even though it seems like she was sacrificing the entire fleet to save herself.

Soon the Turian cruiser formed up around the dreadnought protecting it with their bodies, by being unable to fire their main guns soon a few then dozens of Turian ships begun being blown apart by heavy human fire, yet they did not break their defensive pattern.

XXXXX

"Commodore the Turian fleet is breaking formation, they appear to be converging on a defensive shield around their flagship" lieutenant Hackett informed Commodore Meltzer on the CIC of the Marcus Aurelius.

"What are they doing?" she asked MARCOS, the hologram of the AI blinked his eyes and calculated the most probable strategies and moves.

"Their vector of direction points to the coordinates of the Lambda-Zodiac relay. Must probable course of action, would be a high risk retreat" he answered.

"So are they escaping? Arrogant cowards" Hackett said, as the commodore contacted their Admiral.

"Admiral Comstock, the Turian fleet is…" she said.

"Fleeing I know, they may be attempting to cover their flagship's escape; I am moving my ships to intercept them, but I doubt we may be able to prevent Admiral Survan's retreat." She answered.

Commodore Meltzer look to the holographic display of the battle, watching all the wreckage from their ships, how many lives had been lost in this battle. How many more would have to die if Admiral Survan was allowed to escape and return with reinforcements.

"Yeahh" Commodore Meltzer said with impatience, before adopting a more serious tone. "I don't think so!" she declared with conviction. "MARCOS can we perform another short range rift jump?"

"We have enough energy for one more jump Commodore, why?" he asked.

"THEY ARE NOT GETTING AWAY" she declared. "We are blocking their path to the relay; calculate a trajectory to intercept the enemy fleet."

The entire CIC froze in place but no matter what they look at their commodore and stood ready to follow her orders.

"I would not suggest this tactic, Lillian, but I will defer to your judgment" Admiral Comstock stated. "Do what you must." She ordered as the hologram vanished.

"Without a gravity well anchor, the coordinates for the rift exit would not be precise, Commodore" MARCOS informed her.

"Understood, just positioned us in front of that fleet" she ordered, before turning to the intercom. "Commonwealth's ships formed on the Aurelius prepared for one last rift jump" she ordered.

XXXXX

"Admiral the human fleet is surrounding us, multiple casualties around the formation" her captain stated.

"Maintain course, we are leaving this spirits damned system" she ordered.

"Admiral!" the scan officer shouted. "Wormhole anomaly located right in front of us" he informed.

So they want to block out path, they are tenacious I will give them that.

"Change course, take us to the anomaly; prepare our main gun; target the rift and anything that comes out of it" she ordered.

The Vostra and her escort turn to the opening rift at high speed just as Commodore Meltzer's ship and fleet emerged from it, at their top speed, less than a mile from the turian fleet.

XXXXX

"Commodore we have emerged to close and the Turian fleet has turned to intercept us" the synthetic voice of MARCOS betrayed a never before seen worry that border panic. "WE ARE ON A COLLISION COURSE!"

"EVASIVE MANEUVERS! NOW!" she ordered, as they were a mere few hundred meters from the turian flagship.

"Oohhhh Shit" said Steven Hackett.

XXXXX

"FULL STARBOARD NOW!" Admiral Survan ordered.

"THEY INTENT TO RAM US! THEY ARE CRAZY!" shouted another officer.

"THIS IS THE ADMIRAL" Admiral Survan shouted through the intercom. "BRACE FOR IMPACT"

Both the Turian dreadnought and the Human escort carrier engaged their frontal thrusters and attempted to move out of each other paths, yet it was too late, both ships had burned their main thrusters hard in order to intercept each other.

The Turian bird like dreadnought measuring more than 900 meters long and the kilometer long whale shape carrier made some last second evasive maneuvers, but a second later both of them scrapped each other's starboard lines with a force of several thousand tons. The Turian dreadnought's right wing was torn from its body cutting a third of the ship, meanwhile the starboard line of the Aurelius saw its armored hull ripped apart, venting several decks into space.

As both ships passed away from each other the exchange of shots between both fleets was stopped, a general order of surrender came from Admiral Victus and an order of cease fire came from Admiral Comstock; yet in the center of the turian fleet the HWS Vostra and the CSV Marcus Aurelius were death in the water; with no orders coming from the officers on each ship.

XXXXX

In the CIC of the CSV Aurelius sparks were coming out of every console and power node, some of the crew was unconscious as the violent impact of both ships had hit them like a car crash.

Commodore Meltzer rose on all fours, aided by another crewman. Next to her the hologram of MARCOS flickered and appeared.

"Commodore we have sustained heavy damage, but the Turian fleet has surrendered and the enemy flagship has been disabled" the voice of MARCOS betrayed only concern. "You should check on Lieutenant Hackett" he pointed to the wounded officer next to her.

"Steven? Are you okay?" she asked as she kneeled next to him, Lieutenant Steven Hackett had a long slash across his face located beneath the right eye.

That is going to leave a scar

"I am fine Commodore" he answered. "What is our status?"

She looked back to the blinking holographic table, where the Commonwealth's fleet had assumed a defensive formation around the silent turian warships, they have done it.

"Well" she began. "It looks like we won" she answered.

XXXXX

CODEX – History: The First Contact War (2155): Operation Chixulub: The first contact war was the first true military engagement in the history of the still young Unified Systems Commonwealth, and cemented its place as a true military superpower.

After the retreat of the Shanxi's defense fleet under the command of Commodore Lillian Meltzer to the Fujian-Delta system, the Commonwealth's high command began working in a plan to drive the Turians out of the Fujian-Alpha system. In the ground the colonial guard and militia fought a fierce battle to defend the city of Quinhai, capital of Shanxi from the Turian invading force; under the command of General George Williams the soldiers of the USC hold the defensive perimeter around the city which was protected from orbital bombardment by its taquion shield. The Turian forces under the command of General Orinia were forced to sustain a prolong siege around the city with a battle 'house by house' that was slowly bleeding the Turian legion dry. Also human forces spearheaded by the elite N7 team Delta 01 and the armored division launched a series of counterstrikes that destroy much of the Turian military hardware and supplies. This unique approach to warfare took the Turians by surprise, as the turian forces had not fought an opponent capable of confronting them on equal ground since the end of the Krogan rebellions.

The operation to reclaim the colony suffered a setback when the Turian fleet under the command of Admirals Victus and Survan discovered the presence of the joint human punitive fleet on the other side of the Shanxi-Theta relay; adopting a defensive formation around the relay, casualties would have been tremendous for the human fleets had they cross the relay in force and fall right in the Turian trap. A stealth ship located in the system the CSV Orleans which has been tasked to observe Turian movements after the first battle with Admiral Varkus, reported the change made by the Turian navy to USC fleet command by its quantum entanglement communicator.

In the end Operation Chicxulub (named in honor of the crater where supposedly the meteor that wipe out the dinosaurs fell; taken into account that the Turians have been nicknamed dinobirds by Shanxi's troops) was devised under the oversight of Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Comstock of the first fleet. The USC fleet was divided into three separated forces: DAGGER; HAMMER and ANVIL: the role of DAGGER [Commodore Meltzer's fleet] was to "poke" the Turian fleet out of position; as a Turian flotilla moved to intercept them, Commodore Meltzer made use of a creative tactic suggested by Lieutenant Steven Hacket. When both fleets moved to engage one another, the CSV Orleans still on stealth mode dropped a group of gravity well anchors in strategically located coordinates, then during the battle putting their rift gate siphon to the limit the CSV Aurelius and her fleet rift jumped from position to position allowing them the capability to flank the enemy and avoid the Turian warship's main guns.

As Admiral Survan and her 11° fleet make a short range FTL jump to support the battered rear admiral Naeslous's fleet in an attempt to flank and pincer Commodore Meltzer's flotilla, the CSV Orleans deployed its two remaining gravity well anchors: one to serve as the beacon for a rift for Meltzer's fleet to move of range and another to serve as the anchor for the HAMMER's rift gate. A group of ships of the First fleet under the command of Admiral Comstock spearheaded by her flagship the CSV Stephen Hawkings and her two dreadnoughts escort, made use of the Erebus Nexus's rift gate and immense power output to stabilize a long distance Rift jump from the Jutteneim system to Fujian-Alpha. The arrival of human reinforcements left the 11° fleet on a vulnerable position and soon casualties multiplied as the remaining forces of DAGGER and the superior firepower of HAMMER [at least two hundred ships centered on the Fleet Carrier Stephen Hawkins and the Dreadnoughts Everest and Aconcagua] hit them on both sides.

Finally it was enough for Admiral Victus who broke the defensive formation around the relay and moved to support his fellow admiral. That reaction had been foreseen by Admiral Comstock who ordered the forces of ANVIL [the joint battle group of the Federation's fifth and sixth fleet] to cross the relay. Outgunned and outnumbered Admiral Victus finally surrendered to save his remaining ships.

Admiral Nyreen Survan however refused to surrender; instead she attempted to sacrifice most of her fleet to secure herself and her flagship escape. Commodore Meltzer however refused to let the commander who had force her to retreat several days ago, to escape unharmed.

Making a risky short range rift jump without the use of gravity anchors the CSV Aurelius accelerated at the top of her speed moving to intercept and block the path of FTL jump for the HWS Vostra, but without a gravity well anchor the position from with Commodore's Meltzer forces emerged was a few mere one thousand meters from the also accelerating Vostra, which had turn towards the anomaly in order to fire her main gun at the Aurelius. Unable to change course fast enough both vessel 'scraped' against each other in a monumental crash of hundreds of thousands of metric tons. Each ship escorts had more luck as they were able to avoid any collision. Both fleets stopped firing on each other after that, be it either from the orders of Admirals Victus and Comstock or the shock of what had happened.

For both Turian and Human commanders the actions of Commodore Meltzer were near borderline madness, even though it was unintentional; a Turian veteran of the Relay 314 Incident said this in an interview once: "The Human Commodore Lillian Meltzer? Ohh she's got a quad all right, said whatever you like about the krogans being crazy, but I have never heard of a Krogan warlord who chose to ram his ship on an enemy's banner ship rather to allow his enemy to escape."

Commodore Lillian Meltzer and her flag lieutenant Steven Hackett both received commendations and were awarded with The Star of Terra for their decisive actions on the Battle of Fujian-Alpha, and the entire Shanxi defense fleet received the Legion of Honor for their courage and determination.

After the victory on space, the Commonwealth's ground forces arrived at Shanxi in force and in mere six hours of combat managed to force the unconditional surrender of General Orinia and her legion. General George Williams and Captain Brandon Dewitt also received high commendations with the first also receiving the Star of Terra and the Shield of Bravery for his exemplary leadership and brave defense of Quinhai.

Nearly 300000 souls were lost in the First Contact war ¾ being Turians and the rest humans. Generals Orinia and Arterius as well as Admirals Victus and Survan were captured with the rest of their surviving officers and were liberated at the end of the war in accordance to the armistice's terms.

Yet it was the latter contact between the USC's leaders and the Citadel Council the event that would shake the foundations of the known galaxy and its civilizations.

XXXXX

2155.07.12

CSV Dawn of Infinity; flagship of the USC's fleet

Three days after the end of the Operation Chixulub

Jack Harper felt honored to be there at that moment of history onboard the largest ship ever constructed by humanity and the Commonwealth; the Dawn of Infinity was a marvel of engineering mixing Human determination and ambition, Talosian ingenuity, Rachni collective precision, Kashani creativity and Quarian resourcefulness. The ship was so large it used internal rift portals so as to allow the crew to travel from one place to another in an instant.

The crew was also multiracial with a Talosian ship overseer [captain], a rachni queen as chief of operations and several quarian and kashani crewmen; yet the commander of the ship and the joint fleet that had been assembled at this place was Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Comstock. Under her leadership Operation Chixulub had resulted in less than two hundreds ships lost damaged or destroyed; while the Turian fleet had been outright decimated with the remaining ships surrendering.

Both he and his partner Eva Core felt a little disappointed to arrive late for the battle; it was as if the war had ended before they could actually fight in mankind's defense. Yet there were here now and they were still part of the specialist's team under the direct oversight of admiral Comstock.

One of their first tasks was the interrogation of Turian officers that hadn't been interrogated by Lilim operatives or CISB agents yet.

XXXXX

In an interrogation room deep on the bowels of the CSV Dawn of Infinity one angry Turian general awaited his turn, he had been the first senior officer captured by the humans. The room was a perfect cube of grey metal, with absolutely no imperfections or distinct elements inside apart from one table and three chairs, one in which he sat waiting and the other two located on the opposite side of the table.

Desolas Arterius looked at his handcuffs seeing anyway he could break free of them, but it was no use, the handcuffs were made of a strong alloy that had formed a concrete like substance around his wrists and forcefully paralyze them. The handcuffs were also magnetically fused to a metal circle in the head of the table, so he could not even stand up.

With a hiss one of the walls created an opening and revealed a door, allowing two humans a male and a female to come inside; both of them a seat and exchange looks with Desolas.

"Name, rank, assignment?" the male asked him.

After a moment of hesitation Desolas answered. "General Desolas Arterius, Eight Legion" he said he did as he was trained to do, provide his name and rank, and nothing more.

"Born and raised in the Turian homeworld of Palaven, Trebia System" the female cut in surprising Desolas; "member of the Turian Blackwatch, known relatives: a younger brother named Saren."

For a moment he said nothing then he simply kept his sharp gaze pointed at the female, she was so much like an asari that it was disturbing and she looked just as sharp and fierce as an asari commando.

"Don't be so surprise, we hacked your computers and salvage quite a large cache of information" the male informed him. "So General what can you tell me about this?" the male pressed a command on his omni-tool like device and a hologram of a huge structure similar to a cylinder with five arms reaching out appeared on the center of the table; a shape Desolas knew very well.

His expression of surprise and terror did not go unnoticed by the two aliens. "I believe you call it the Citadel, the seat of power for your galactic government" the female told. "We only have one question" she declared.

"Does the Citadel Council know about your attack? And has the Asari republics and Salarian Union condoned your actions?" the male asked.

Desolas mind ran a hundred thoughts for second, if he lied and say yes, these USC could attack the Citadel in force and cripple the Council on a first strike, he had little doubt they may even succeed, but even if the Citadel fell the Asari and Salarians would join the Hierarchy in a war against the humans, ensuring a quick victory for the Turian Hierarchy; if he say the truth the humans could either engage in diplomatic talks with the Council, something that could mean a political disaster for the Hierarchy even in the best case scenario or focus their wrath on the Hierarchy and attack Palaven instead on the worst. In the end he decided to tell the truth, while he still kept his unshakable faith in a Hierarchy's victory, many doubts had creep on his mind when this colossal super dreadnought arrived in the system next to hundreds of ships that did not look human in design. Also he was beyond surprise when he realized the USC was a confederacy of different species, when they brought him into this ship he was escorted by several never before seen non-human aliens, including some of them which reminded him to the suit-rats only that these xenos had grey skin and facial structures similar to Humans and Asari and they do not used any environment suits. There were also some giant insect like aliens that looked similar to the extinct rachni, they were not brainless creatures apparently, Desolas had seen those insectoids making manual work all around the ship, similar to the keepers at the Citadel.

Fighting the Humans had been disastrous, fighting several aliens which the Hierarchy and Council knew nothing about could be apocalyptic.

"No, they do not" he answered. "The Council does not know about this conflict; our invasion was in retaliation for the destruction of Admiral Varkus."

"I see, then let's hope your Council is willing to talk" the human male said.

"Your people will still have to answer for what has happened here" the female sharply said. "I read in the Codex about what you did to the Krogans, were you trying to do the same to us and anyone on your way, what gives you the right to pass judgment on an entire species you skull face?" the female said with disgust, surprising her partner and igniting Desolas's anger.

"Don't pretend to understand human" he answered with venom on his voice. "You arrogant and ignorant newcomers are all the same. New arrivals wanting everything like if the galaxy was your personal feast. I am sure the stars look warm and inviting from your location. But I'll let you in a secret; others were here first, my people are the shield and sword of the Citadel and we will not stop fighting to defend Citadel space from barbarians like yourself. You are not welcome here." He spat with every ounce of hatred he could.

You will not stand between the Turians and their destiny

The female changed into a sharp expression of anger. "Bold statement General! Considering your kind are the galactic number one bullies" her mouth flexed into an expression identical to an Asari smile. "I wonder if the Protheans though the same before being wipe out" she stated to the confusion of the Turian general.

"The Protheans? How do you…" he stuttered. "You know what happened to them?" he asked surprised.

As the male send a serious glare to the female, both of them turned to their wrists when a message came through the holographic display on those devices.

"Well general, it seems we will have to continue with this later" the male interjected. "Your blue skin and lizard friends have arrived at the nearby cluster apparently."

XXXXX

Admiral Elizabeth Comstock was on her private office on the Dawn of Infinity, reading the report of Captain Taggart. The CSV Orleans had been sent to the Zodiac Central system on the other side of the Lambda-Zodiac relay, to report any incoming Turian or Council reinforcements. Her hunch had paid off, the Citadel fleet with a majority of asari and salarian warships had arrived at the system with that huge asari dreadnought known as the Destiny Ascension acting as the fleet's obvious flagship.

The Council had either come in force to support the Turians and force a surrender or at least a set of terms for humanity and the USC or they were attempting to rectify the actions of the Turians by bringing a fleet both capable of forcing their retreat and perhaps bullied the USC into the negotiation table.

They were in for quite a big surprise, defending the Fujian-Alpha system on their side of the relay was perhaps the largest ship in the galaxy accompanied by almost two thousand warships; the entirety of the Erebus Nexus defense fleet and the Federation's fifth and sixth fleets. It was a shame the Dawn of Eternity had not been present at the battle of the Fujian-Alpha but its absence was for very good reasons, it had taken the USC engineering corps two years to build it yet even now many of its subsystems were still not operational. The ship was a wonder of the pinnacle of USC military technology, standing several kilometers in length with a massive Singularity core that generate an energy output similar to a supernova, and powered the ship's immense weaponry, its shielding and its advance rift drive core. Being a hybrid between a super dreadnought and a carrier, the Dawn of Eternity could carry and entire small flotilla of frigates, and several squadrons of fighters and corvettes; while the main artillery batteries of the ship were as big as a small cruiser.

As powerful as the ship was, some of the systems were not acting on their one hundred percent yet, but the enemy did not know that and hopefully they didn't need to find out; even without firing a single shot the CSV Dawn of Infinity served as an enduring symbol of power that could show the Citadel Council the might of the species of the Commonwealth united in purpose under the flag of the USC.

She ordered the vanguard group to cross the relay in order to act as 'the welcoming committee' for the Council fleet, before ordering LOKI the ship's AI to seal the room and activate her private secure channel. "Jack this is Elizabeth, the Citadel Council has arrived, time to move to phase 2."

XXXXX

2155.07.12

ARH Destiny Ascension, Zodiac System

In the bridge of the Citadel's banner ship the designated ambassador Matriarch Talis Seloni was studying the Turian reports about the Humans, everything from their biology, technology, tactics and any possible cultural mindsets they possessed. It was remarkable seeing a race so similar in appearance to her own; yes Asari shared common features with other races; they were considered attractive for their skin color for salarians or the head fringe for turians, but a human female looked almost identical to an adult asari, especially on the eyelids, pupils shape was almost identical, seeing the pictures of capture or dead humans taken by the turians made her feel uneasy, the expressions of defiance and anger were also practically identical.

It was very likely that the Human homeworld Earth may be sharing several features with Thessia, in order to allow the evolution of two races with so many physical similarities.

Saying that Matriarch Seloni was uncertain of the situation would be an understatement; this whole scenario was a huge cluster fuck, whatever way you look at. The Turians had fucked the whole thing so bad, that it would probably take centuries to convince the humans to join the Citadel; she was certain that they could force the humans to sue for peace; a race with such a high level of technological advancement would most likely see that their chances to defeat the Turians were one thing but fighting the entire Citadel were completely different.

As there were no com buoys at either side of the relay 314 standard protocol was to send a messenger ship through the relay every six hours informing the command of any updates, but the last messenger ship was last seen three days ago, either the joint Turian fleet had actually gone rogue or they were keeping their position isolated for some reason.

The last reports coming for the occupied planet known by the humans as Shanxi said that the siege was going bad for the Turians; that super kinetic barrier blocked any orbital bombardment, and according to the Hierarchy's provided reports and logs the human military was well equipped, discipline and competent.

She had spent the last week studying all the logs and observations made by the Turians, this Human Systems Commonwealth was without a doubt a powerful dominion, with a fleet and army capable to standing up to the Turian forces and a heavy industry and economy capable of supporting that military.

In order to bring General Orinia and her colleagues to heel, and withdraw, as well as provide a show of force for this new species; the banner ship of the Citadel fleet had been tasked to lead a joint Asari and Salarian fleet with a few Turian ships; standing six hundred ships strong and with the most powerful dreadnought on the known galaxy the Council was confident that the situation could be brought into order in a short time.

"Captain, Matriarch we have arrived in proximity to Relay 314" a young maiden officer informed them.

"This is strange, standard Turian protocol orders the placement of sentry ships on both sides of any critical relay, to avoid ambushes or piracy and guard supply lines but this system is empty" one tactical officer matron added.

"Shouldn't we send a scout ship through the relay to verify the position of the Turian forces and the situation at the system?" Matriarch Seloni asked the commander.

"No" answered her fellow Matriarch, Lindaya. "Seeing the full might of the Council fleet arriving at their doorstep will convince this Turians to stand down and will send a message to the humans that were are here to set things right, and secure peace no matter the cost."

"Commander we are detecting activity at the relay" one maiden scan officer informed them.

Everyone on the bridge turned to the holographic display showing the rings of the core at the mass relay dancing at high speed and displaying spark and lightening's of dark energy. Nine ships were slingshot from the relay; eight were clearly the reported Human frigates while at the tip of the formation was the Turian dreadnought HWS Spirits of Justice, with a new paint job and the blue, white and golden flag of the Commonwealth.

"What in the goddess name?" a maiden asked, soon the computers started humming the alert that they were being hailed by the dreadnought.

The Commander ordered the bridge crew to answer the transmission, in an instant at the front of the bridge the hologram of a human male appeared in front of the crew, he looked to be middle age with a deep scar beneath the right eye.

"Council fleet, I am Lieutenant Commander Steven Hackett of the Unified Systems Commonwealth; the Turian fleet has been decimated and the colony of Shanxi has been liberated" he stated with conviction, receiving the faces of shock from every asari at the bridge. "Generals Orinia and Arterius as well as Admirals Victus and Survan alongside most of their senior officers had surrendered and now they are our prisoners of war. The system beyond this relay is sovereign USC territory, the Turians have been denying complicity or even knowledge of the Citadel Council, the Asari Republics and the Salarian Union in this war; but you have brought a war fleet to our border an action that by all means and purposes represents an unmistakable declaration of war against the USC. State your intentions now or withdraw from this system at once." The male human ordered with deep conviction, leaving the entire bridge without words. "You have 5 minutes" he informed with coldness before cutting the transmission.

"By the goddess" one maiden began. "They defeated the Turians; they actually defeated two Turian fleets and one legion. Who in Athame's name are these aliens?" she asked.

"We are about to find out, hopefully they will be more reasonable than the Turians who pissed them off" stated the Matriarch half joking-half serious. "Contact the salarian admiral and open a channel with the human fleet" she ordered.

The com officer a maiden did as she ordered and the Matriarch moved to the center of the bridge to send a message to the captured Turian dreadnought; also the hologram of Admiral Jurut Hilot, the commander of the salarian fleet accompanying the Destiny Ascension and its fleet, appeared on the bridge of the asari Dreadnought.

"Lieutenant Commander, I am Matriarch Talis Seloni, representative and ambassador of the Citadel Council, let me begin by saying we are deeply sorry for all the lives lost at on this disastrous conflict. The Turian Hierarchy acted without the advice or awareness of the Council, this fleet was not meant to fight your forces; as you have may have already noted this fleet is composed primarily by Asari and Salarian ships; our mission was to coerce the Turian retreat out of your territory, by force if necessary, as well as initiate a peaceful diplomatic contact with your species. You have my word, we don't want to fight you and I believe that you don't want a war either. It is the main goal of the Citadel Council to maintain peace and cooperation between all the different sentient species of the galaxy, we wish to end this conflict between your USC and the Turian Hierarchy at once; please contact your superiors we will be honor to invite your diplomats to our ship and declare a cessation of hostilities between our nations. We await your answer." She declared with as much charm and sensibility as she could muster, hoping the humans would consider her words sincere and honest; her instincts told her this was not another simple diplomatic talk, to discuss terms of trade or exchange; she felt as in her shoulders rested the lives of the thousands that could die if a war between the Citadel and the USC truly erupted.

After a minute of pause in which the only sound at the bridge was the noise of the computers processing the state of the ship and fleet, the hologram of Lt. Commander Hackett returned.

"Matriarch Seloni, I see" he begin saying, flexing his mouth into a perfect reflection of her own smile. "Your statement matches with the declarations of the captured Turian officers, so my superiors and I, we are inclined to believe you. Yet my people are still shocked by the actions of the Turians, this was not our first contact with another space faring sentient species, it was not even our first hostile first contact with an alien species; but this was indeed the first true conflict we have experienced in more than a century. Also don't patronize us, Matriarch, this fleet came here as a show of force, to bully us into the negotiation table." The human lieutenant made a pause looking at the matriarch with distrust before continuing to speak. "The invasion of our colony of Shanxi is still fresh on the minds of our soldiers, and both humanity and our allies have few reasons to trust your word and intentions; so we offer an alternative." He made a pause before taking a deep breath. "Having two war fleets on both sides of the relay is in a human term a 'powder cake' ready to blow up on our faces, so we will allow you to send a diplomatic mission through the relay with no more than 9 ships; as a gesture of good will my flotilla shall remain in this position under the oversight of the rest of your fleet. Fleet admiral Comstock and our diplomats will be waiting for you on the other side of the relay. Please state your decision as soon as possible." The Human officer stated, as his hologram vanished.

"Well that went better than I was hoping and far different from what I was expecting" Matriarch Seloni said.

"A fascinating species" the salarian admiral added. "They seem to understand a great deal of the possible outcomes of this situation so they are attempting to defuse any possible conflict, instead of making arrogant declarations and threats or demanding retribution. This could work well for us; they may understand they are operating in a position of weakness so they are willing to give concessions in order to ensure peace."

"They said humanity and our allies… One of the Turian reports mentioned other possible alien nations in league with the Humans" Matriarch Seloni's assistant Kanya Niozen a young maiden and commando added to the interest of the whole bridge. "We may be facing a first contact with multiple new alien species."

"The humans ordered no more than nine ships coming through the relay; although it seems they knew we were coming or detected our entrance into this system" the commander of the ship Matriarch Lindaya said. "I don't like it when the enemy has me at a disadvantage; if they were able to dig through the data on the Turian computers they may know everything about us, including our reach and power as well as our intentions… They practically saw right through us, when he mentioned this fleet being a show of force…"

"I heard it too Commander, we need to tread carefully and find whatever we can about these… humans" Seloni answered. "At the very least we can stop a war before it begins, and perhaps even set the stage for an eventual ascension process for the humans, if half of the Turian reports say it's true, they could become an impressive new addition to the Citadel."

"I agree Matriarch" the salarian admiral added. "A military force capable of defeating the turians could be a remarkable peace keeping force and a powerful ally against the Terminus Systems. STG command is also very interested in the human technologies reported by Admiral Victus."

"Then I will assemble the fleet" Commander Lindaya said. "Get your team ready matriarch" she ordered.

XXXXX

After half an hour of preparation Matriarch Lindaya, her assistant and Admiral Jurut Hilot were onboard the Asari cruiser ARH Cybaen; escorted by eight salarian frigates ready to cross the relay. The Cybaen was a unique cruiser on the asari fleet; a mix-up during the cruiser's construction left it with an unusually large drive core and engineers redesigned the ship around the excessive power source. The Cybaen's unusually robust engines provide enough energy to generate kinetic barriers normally reserved for dreadnoughts; making it the ideal ship for the diplomatic mission in the case the humans were ready to sprung a trap.

A small asari commando team had also been tasked with accompanying them, at the request of both Commander Lindaya and Matriarch Seloni, no turian officer or diplomat has been allow to come with them, they didn't need to antagonize the humans any further.

Lt. Commander Hackett and his fleet had allow them passage through the relay, holding the standard Parade formation the small fleet was slingshot across a distance of light years by the power of the mass relay.

"Matriarch we will be arriving at the human system in a few minutes" the tactical officer of the Cybaen informed them.

"Good it's time to clean the turian mess" she began. "Just another day's work for the asari" she said half-joking to the amusement of the crew.

"I am itching to meet these aliens" her assistant added. "They look so much like us that they could almost be some long lost cousins; and they are remarkable attractive for mammals."

"Hoping to meet an exotic bond mate, Kanya?" Matriarch Seloni teased, to the embarrassment of her assistant and the smiles of the bridge crew.

"We need to be careful matriarch, a few millennia ago our ancestors committed the mistake of opening the door to the rachni and we are still paying the price" Admiral Hilot added, receiving a dozens of serious gazes from all of the room. "We need to find everything about these aliens and evaluate their potential as a threat in order to find countermeasures for them."

"Admiral Hilot, with all due respect I have lived for over a thousand years and dozens of your lifetimes, and in all that time I have never meet anything that…" she was stop mid-sentence when the ship arrived at the Fujian-Alpha system, and her eyes received the sight of hundreds of ships of alien design receiving them, with one of the center that stood out from the rest.

"By the Goddess" Kanya exclaimed, almost without breath.

"Confirmed" the tactical officer begin explaining. "More than two thousand ships present and accounted; half of them matches with human profiles, the others are unknown…" she made a pause. "And more a dozen of these ships are about a kilometer long, with possible dreadnought class weaponry."

"What about the colossus ship at the center?" the salarian admiral asked, while looking at the enormous ships on the center of the formation that dwarfed every other vessel in the alien fleet.

"Possible Alien banner ship stands eight point two kilometers long" the scan officer said in a surprise and frightened tone. "Design matches with human ship profile but it profile is unlike anything on the codex; weirder still I am not detecting any element zero particles on that ship" she finished looking at the rest of the crew.

"What no eezo?" the captain of the Cybaen asked with haste. "That is impossible" she declared.

"I swore you captain, our sensor do not read a single atom of element zero on that monstrous vessel" she made a pause. "But energy readings are off the scale, whatever that ship uses for power the ship's VI sees it as something as powerful as a supernova."

Silence had befallen on the bridge, Matriarch Seloni and Admiral Hilot exchanged looks.

"So Matriarch… a thousand years?" he asked in almost teasing tone.

"All right this is a first" she answered. "What about the rest of the fleet? What can you tell me about the non-human ships?"

"A few of these ships match Quarian profiles" the scan officer reported.

"Quarian?" she asked with surprise.

"Yes and no, they look similar to the ships of the migrant fleet; but the leading ship is dreadnought class and the others look state of the art; not recycle and reassemble on space like the ships of the quarian fleet." No one answer so she continued.

"Besides the colossus, I am reading 4 ships with a length superior to 1600 meters possible super dreadnoughts, 3 match human profiles and 1 doesn't; also there are 12 ships above 1200 meters in length dreadnought class, 6 match human design, 2 have a more organic and undulated shape, 3 almost match the shape of a Rachni spore cruiser and the last is the similar to a quarian dreadnought." She made another pause. "There are also present several cruisers, frigate and second line dreadnought class ships at the fleet."

"So it is confirmed" admiral Hilot said. "We are dealing with many species instead of one" he sentenced.

"It looks that way, but we will not find answers standing here" she answered. "Contact the alien fleet tell them…" she was interrupted.

"Already done, they send us instructions to dock a transport ships at the colossus" the captain informed them.

"Very well, prepare the drop ship" she ordered. "And assemble the team as soon as possible."

XXXXX

In the auxiliary craft of the Cybaen tasked with transporting the diplomatic party to the human banner ship tension was on the air. Even the members of the asari commando team ordered to escorting them were nervous; it was no surprise anymore how the turians have been defeated. Not to mention that the enemy colossus super dreadnought made the Destiny Ascension look like a cruiser.

"Several of the ships on this fleet shared the same energy and radiations readings that the colossus; we may have encountered an alliance of different species that not only have been able to work and coexist together, but also discovered an alternative method of FTL than the use of mass effect drives." The salarian Admiral began reading through the files on his omni-tool. "The turian fleet reported some kind of gravitational anomaly like a wormhole that the human defense flotilla used to escape destruction. If they were able to dominate this method then it is very likely that they may have been able to survey a greater area of their occupy territory including the areas between the mass relays considered too far away to exploit." Despite the situation the salarian looked exited, like a young maiden on her first tour of the Citadel, the rate of his speech had also accelerated; which wasn't a surprise for a normal salarian but it was rare on an admiral of STG accustomed to work closely with asari and turians.

The ship crossed the alien fleet in silence looking down on the thousands of guns pointed at them. At the center of the formation the colossus banner ship was escorted by four dreadnoughts and a defensive line of cruisers. After crossing the outer line the Cybaen's shuttle received clearance to touch down at the Colossus's main hangar bay.

The main hangar of the colossus super dreadnought was so big; it could fit an entire squadron of frigates. The inertial dampers of the shuttle soften the landing, on the hatch the commando team stood up in attention as the matriarch moved to the front.

"Stay ready for anything, we are on unfamiliar territory now; just remember maintain calm and maintain protocol and you will tell your daughters one day that you stood here on the largest ship on the known galaxy making peaceful first contact with a new species" she ordered. "Admiral you stay with me" she ordered the salarian. "Open the door."

At her orders the hatch opened revealing the breath taking sight of an entire battalion of hundreds of soldiers acting as the welcoming committee, what was more surprising was the fact that there besides the humans were three more types of aliens that they have never seen before.

The humans just like in the fleet outside represented at least the 50% of the battalion, even if they use helmets and armor you could see that they have five fingers on each hand and a body shape similar to an asari or drell; other alien type were like a mix between a turian and a salarian, reptile like humanoid beings with big black eyes a scale covered skin with even horn like protrusions coming out of their heads; the tallest among these new aliens were a head taller than a turian perhaps even staring above eye level of a krogan, unlike the rest of the battalion and most known species of the galaxy these aliens have four arms, with a bluish-grey skin tone; the last of this aliens were the weirdest and more terrifying of all, giant insects with black bodies similar to rachni brood warriors. The whole battalion was assembled in a perfect formation with the insect like beings at front, the humans and reptilians on the middle and the tall four arms aliens as well as some middle size mechs on the back, yet it was impossible to distinguishing a clear hierarchy on their command structure.

At a yell from behind the battalion formation split in two with all the aliens moving at unison opening a passage on the middle; the soldiers standing on the middle turn around looking at the passage as three beings clearly the commanding officers were moving towards the Citadel diplomatic party, as they advance towards them, the soldiers on the middle straighten up in a clear salute of respect to the officers.

The one standing in the middle was one of those four arms aliens, unlike the soldiers of the battalion these one wasn't wearing combat armor instead he used a distinct blue, golden trim uniform similar to the one used by Lt. Commander Hackett only this was adapted to this alien unique anatomy. At the right side of the four arm officer was a human, male like commander Hackett only this one looked like a soldier not an officer, his combat armor was pitch black with red trim line around the shoulders and legs. The last one was a reptilian with an elegant shape on its features, perhaps a female; her uniform was completely white with black and yellow lines around the edges.

Matriarch Seloni took her place at the center of her party with her assistant on her left, the salarian admiral on her right and the commando group at the back.

Less than two meters the alien trio stop, the one in the middle bowed his head in a possible sign of respect as he took the lead.

"Matriarch Seloni, welcome to the CSV Dawn of Infinity flagship of the Unified System Commonwealth's fleet; as you can see we have added your language into our translators." he spoke in a deep tone of voice similar to the one of a krogan male. "I am Ship Overseer Vyon'Kij'Norum commander of this vessel" he introduced himself before turning to his partner at his left. "I would like to introduce you to Captain Brandon Dewitt, hero of the defense of Shanxi against the turians and member of Admiral Comstock's personal unit" he explained as he turned to his left. "And this is Agent Dirle Meltau member of the Commonwealth's Intelligence and security Bureau."

A military officer, a soldier and spy; interesting choice for a welcoming committee

"Thank you… Ship Overseer Norum" she said with as much amiability as she could muster, hoping she had said the name and title correctly. "I will like to introduce you to my companions, Admiral Jurut Hilot of the Salarian Union, my assistant Kanya Nyosen and our escort; I represent both the Asari Republics and the Citadel Council, we are pleased to meet you" she explained.

"We are honor to be here, we were amazed by the size of such a massive ship and fleet. First of all, I will like to offer my deepest apologies for the regrettable actions of the Turian forces, who acted against the standard Citadel Protocols regarding first contact and allow this misunderstanding to escalate out of control…"

"Misunderstanding?" the human soldier interrupted her. "Thousands are death and one of our colonies suffered catastrophic damages. How do you justify such an enormous loss of lives and destruction." He asked with indignation, receiving a disapproving look from the other two aliens and apologetic look from the matriarch.

"I am sorry Captain Dewitt, was it?" she began, attempting to look disturbed. "The Turians acted without the Council authorization and they were acting by the theory that your kind was working with…"

"A pirate and terrorist faction of the Terminus Systems, known as the Black fleet" Agent Meltau interrupted her drawing the surprise of the entire group. "The turian prisoners have been claiming that on the interrogations. Let me assure you Matriarch, no one on the USC has been providing support for any other race or faction acting outside our territory, at least not to our knowledge so far."

"Turian prisoners? What is their state?" she asked with an almost genuine sense of concern.

"The Turian prisoners of war are being kept in secure lockdown, under heavy surveillance but their health and integrity is being maintained as the USC accords regarding the prisoners of war demands it. Water, food and medical services have been provided them in full." The tall officer explained.

"I see" she answered, looking directly to the ship overseer. "That is good to hear, the Hierarchy would be pleased to see the safe return of their citizens once peace has been achieved."

"That would be up to the Admiral and our leaders on Erebus" Ship Overseer Norum answered. "Let me take you to her, the admiral is waiting for you" he said as he turned around signaling them to follow them.

"One more thing your escort will be allow to come with us, but they will be order to wait when entering the most sensitive areas of the ship" he explained. "I believe there is no need to say it, but for the record, do not do anything stupid this ships carries a crew of 15000 highly trained soldiers" he said with seriousness.

"Understood, thank you for the trust, ship overseer" she answered.

The diplomatic party and the USC officers walked through the hangar bay to the exit, four commandos and two human soldiers following them.

"Remarkable ship, military design, multi species crew, huge hangar bay and efficient layout" Admiral Hilot numbered his observations talking remarkably fast.

"Thank you admiral" the ship master said. "The Dawn of Eternity is a unique ship, the first of her kind; the USC first Uber dreadnought and the most powerful ship on our fleet. Her main gun could break a small moon with one shot." He declared to an exchange of nervous glares among the group.

As they walk through a long hallway seeing other alien crewmen walking around repairing consoles, subsystems or checking status updates with their versions of omni-tools; matriarch Seloni observed a fifth alien type among them, which surprise her more than the rest, because they looked identical to the quarians. They had three long fingers, elongated legs and their facial features were similar to humans and asari; she had never travelled to quarian space before the rebellion so she wasn't sure how the quarians looked under those suits, it was possible it was just another species with similar evolutionary lines, just like the asari were to humans. Her thoughts were interrupted when she glimpsed the ship master looking back to her.

"I have to say Matriarch Seloni" he said while looking back to the elder asari. "It's interesting to meet another being whose life is measure in centuries instead of decades."

"Your species also has a long life spam? Remarkable… few species in the galaxy besides perhaps the krogans can live up to a thousand years. How old are you ship overseer?" she asked.

"I am Eight thousand and two hundred years old" he answered as the entire Citadel party stopped and exchanged looks before continuing to follow the USC officer.

"Eight thousand years old?!" she asked, thinking it may have been a translation error; other than believing that the man in front of her, was a child when the asari were still on the industrial revolution.

"Yes" the human soldier Captain Dewitt answered. "The Talosians always fancy the fact most of them were born at the time my people were still fighting with wooden spears or bows and arrows" he declared with a small pang of humor.

"At least both of you still have your homeworlds" the Ship Overseer said with a tone of sadness.

"Did you lose your homeworld?" the Salarian admiral asked. "How? Invasion, AI rebellion, Environmental disaster?" he began probing for answers.

"Our sun went supernova" the talosian officer answered, freezing the Citadel group on their tracks again, before they resumed walking.

"We have arrived at this quadrant portal" agent Meltau informed them.

"Quadrant portal?" Matriarch Seloni asked while looking in front of her to a section where the hallways intersected and unfold in a circle with an exotic device at the center, it was like a ring connected to a platform like some sort of religious arc for ceremonies.

"This ship is so massive that we use internal rift portals to travel from one section to another in a quick and efficient way" the ship overseer explained as he introduced a set of commands on his version of an omni-tool.

As he finished the arc begin to spark an aura of energy as the inside of the ring a ripple of energy turned into an anomaly similar to a scratch on the fabric of reality itself.

The entire group was frozen in place; they have never seen anything like this before, it was like a wormhole in a room, opening a door to another section of time and space behind it. Matriarch Seloni moved around the device, studying its design, and the never before seen anomaly inside it.

The three alien officers moved to the portal and the three of them crossed the threshold of the anomaly guiding the Citadel group which was extremely hesitant to approach the portal. Yet in the end guided by the matriarch they crossed it.

A small tingling hit them when their bodies crossed the ripple of energy; it was like walking through a waterfall of static energy. They could tell it was not a trick as they were now in a different place.

Upon walking through the anomaly they arrived in a different portion of the ship that hold an enormous bunker like structure surrounded by negative space; clearly the CIC.

"FASCINATING!" the Salarian admiral exclaimed exited; the rest of the group was also equally amazed. "You have mastered wormhole creation and manipulation; how do you control such power?" he asked.

"We actually called it rift gate technology and it was based on the discoveries of a human scientist named Robert Lutece more than two centuries ago" the human soldier explained. "It works similar to the mass relay network, we stabilize a rift gate in one location and another that serves as its partner; yet unlike the mass relays, we can actually switched between rift gates and we have been able to miniaturize the technology in order to build planet-ship portals or ship to ship portals" he finished speaking before adopting a more serious tone. "If you want it, you will need to speak with the High Council, our central government."

The mind of Matriarch Seloni was racing: So humans invented this technology so they are the prime species of this alliance, just like the asari are at the Citadel. If they could initiate talks with this 'high council' they may be able to gain access to new technologies and planets.

Behind them the portal was deactivated and the anomaly disappeared; the USC team guided to an actual elevator and a different area of the ship.

They were closer to the hull as there were windows around them, after a few more minutes of walking they arrived to a door guarded by two medium size mechs that look capable to tear a krogan apart; both of them carried large guns.

"Admiral Comstock is waiting for you" one of the mechs informed them. "The bodyguards must remain here also you must surrender any weapons, we cannot let them in the Admiral's office carrying weapons."

The group did as they were told handling their weapons to the human guardsmen with the commando team staying there; before heading to the door, the human soldier captain Dewitt stood in front of them with a serious dark expression.

"I believe there is no need to say this" he began. "But if you Matriarch or your assistant made any attempt to use your biotics against the Admiral, I will be force to kill you" he declared without a single hint of doubt or hesitation. The commandos tensed up, while Matriarch Seloni and Kyala simply nodded.

The door opened and they entered into a spacious room that hold a library and several objects on display, like a museum. There was a large rectangular table at the center, making the place resembled a conference room; a group of windows allow the sight of the void and the fleet outside. Standing in a corner of the office was a human female studying some data on her computer terminal, she was wearing an uniform similar to the one of Commander Hackett and Ship overseer Norum with several insignias and an strange cap with 'the tower and sun' symbol they had seen on the USC ships; upon laying her eyes upon them the human female shut down her computer and walked towards them. Both her and Matriarch Lindaya exchanged looks, she was beautiful for asari standards, her features were soft and elegant, the fur over her head was a mix of black and brown with deep blue eyes; her eyes and gaze made even the matriarch felt unnerved, they seem to shone a coldness and wisdom she had not seen not even in her fellow matriarchs.

"Please sit down" the human female politely asked, although it seemed more like an order.

She took her place at one of the longer sides of the table, in the middle with Ship overseer Norum at her right and Agent Meltau on her left. The Matriarch and her team did the same on the opposite side, her in the middle facing the human female directly and the salarian admiral and her asari assistant on her left and right respectably, while the human soldier Captain Dewitt remain at the door standing guard for the peace talks.

"I am Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Comstock, commander of this fleet and overseer of this war theater" she began explaining. "I have been tasked by the USC's High Council to represent the Human Federation and the Commonwealth in these conference, now let's get to the point, what are you offering us to stop this war?" she asked with an authority tone.

Her bluntness surprised the Matriarch, but to be fair she was not dealing with an ambassador or a diplomat, her opponent was a military commander and one of clear experience and skill to be able to lead such a massive fleet composed of so many different species. More interesting though she was making a set of terms and demands, the fleet and the ship they were standing on was a clear show of force and it was working, this fleet alone could wreak havoc all across Citadel space before the Council could be able to muster a force capable of confronting them on equal ground.

"It is an honor to meet you admiral, I am Matriarch Talis Seloni, ambassador and representative of the Citadel Council. You clearly have us at a disadvantage, I am aware that you may know a great deal about us probably for the Turian computer data and prisoners; but I will give you short explanation in order to shed some light about any misconceptions you have." She made a pause and took a deep breath. "More than two thousand years ago the Asari Republics and the Salarian Union established the Citadel Council. The Council is an executive committee composed of one representative each from the member species. Though they have no official power over the independent governments of other species, the Council's decisions carry great weight throughout the galaxy."

"It is the central believe of the Council that every species and civilization contributes something to the greater galaxy. In the council each species has general characteristics associated with the various aspects of governing the galaxy. We the asari generally hold the role of diplomats and mediators; the salarians STG gather intelligence and information and the turians provide the bulk of the military and our peacekeeping forces."

"There are currently three fully fledged members on the Council and five associated members that maintain an embassy on the Citadel; a massive space station built by the Protheans, who created the Mass Relay network. Each species holds authority over their respective territories, but the Council helps to maintain peace, secure trade routes, provide commerce security, customs and a unified banking act."

"Could you please explain us what is the USC, of how many species is composed and what can you tell us about yourselves." She asked.

The Admiral took a sip of a brown hot beverage at her side, before speaking.

"The Unified Systems Commonwealth is a joint organization composed of five species including the Human Federation, the Talosian Assembly and Kashani Coalition; unlike the Citadel Council, our government is only forty years old" she began explaining. "Each of our governments holds a great deal of independence or autonomy over their respective territories; but each of them work in cooperation with the USC which serves as the main military, economic, scientific and diplomatic arm of our joint government, the High Council; the capital and seat of our government is a massive space Station we called the Erebus Nexus."

"Every species maintains their own militaries but in order to maintain peace and cooperation the USC is the only authorize to build and field actual war fleets, heavy cruisers, dreadnoughts and carriers. As well as maintaining and expanding the Rift Gate Network" that last comment made the asari assistant and salarian admiral to pick their interest, but the matriarch maintained a stoic face. "Currently the USC has surveyed and claimed 849 systems" she explained, in that moment even the matriarch couldn't hide her surprise.

"You control over eight hundred garden worlds?" the matriarch asked amazed.

"Actually no, only above a hundred planets can be considered garden worlds by your terms, many of our colonies are located in small moons, zero atmosphere planets or planet in process of terraformation" she explained.

"Impressive number nonetheless" the salarian admiral said. "But you said there are five species, we can only see three now; who are the other two?" he asked.

Good question, the matriarch thought, the human admiral smiled in response.

"Well you will be quite surprise to hear this" Admiral Comstock said in a serious tone, even though she was smiling. "You have actually met our last two members" she explained to the curious looks of the Citadel.

"You have seen the insect like beings on this ship haven't you" she asked.

"Yes, isectoid life form, remarkable similar to a species once encountered by the Council, the now extinct…" he made a pause, swallowing his words as he began to realize.

"Rachni" the Admiral said smiling devilishly. "They are not extinct actually; there are billions of them and Rachni Hive is a member of the USC."

The Citadel representatives shared a look of absolute horror and concern, even the Matriarch couldn't hide her fear and surprise.

"How?" she asked switching from fear to demanding anger. " The rachni are mindless consuming insects, how do you manage to control them?"

"First of all, we don't control them" Admiral Comstock explained. "When we first encounter a survivor queen we made a peaceful contact and over time we gain their trust and they have gained our respect and friendship." She told them before adopting a serious and cold expression.

"The fifth member of the USC is the Quarian Protectorate" she explained, to a new shock of surprise coming from the Citadel representatives.

So they were quarians the aliens I saw, maybe another faction managed to escape from Rannoch during the Geth rebellion and ended in USC territory.

"Quarians?" this time it was the assistant Kanya who asked. "You made contact with the Migrant Fleet?" she asked.

"Actually yes" the admiral responded. "Humanity's first contact with another space faring race was with a small group of quarian pilgrims a few decades ago" she explained, before adopting a completely professional stance.

"Well I believe you have a million questions, about the Rachni, the Quarians, about us" she said while looking to her colleagues. "So I am going to explain this from the beginning" she declared.

Inserting a few commands on her wrist tool, a holographic display began showing a large blue planet not too different from Thessia with ocean coverage of over 70% of the surface.

"About 130 years ago, my people the humans found on the neighboring planet to our homeworld of Earth a Prothean ruin" she explained. "The site brought us to discover the Charon Mass Relay at our home system of Sol and the mass effect technology; yet perhaps the greatest change produced by the discovery was the unification of my people into a single one world government; unlike other species we the humans possessed an incredible genetic and cultural diversity, in other words we have been killing each other since the dawn of time for what color our skin or eyes were, or by whatever god we were told to worship" she explained as the images of the martian ruins were passed in a slide show. "When we find irrefutable evidence that we were not alone in the universe, some of us saw a great fear to the unknown while other saw opportunity, to finally unite our whole species into one nation, one human race. The discoveries of the prothean ruins also sparked a new wave of technologies and fields of study, even though my kind have already developed an alternative FTL method of travel" with that comment the Citadel party stood at the edge of their seats. "300 years ago, one human scientist named Robert Lutece created the first Rift gate, a dimensional gate capable of connecting to points of space in an instant; several developments of that technology allow us to build our space station scale rift gates; these rift gates work similar to a hadron collider and unlike the mass relays they are smaller and far cheaper to produce. Even before activating our first mass relay, the Human Commonwealth had already surveyed nearly a hundred systems and established dozens of colonies. But we remained careful about our expansion and the activation of the mass relays, for one reason, in the prothean ruins we found records of their extinction" her tone of voice grew darker and the expressions of the Citadel representatives became even more somber.

"After an military and industrial development my people finally began activating the dormant mass relays we found on our path; but we set some limits in our expansion to avoid finding any hostile aliens in our way, be it protheans, reapers or others" she explained.

"Reapers?" the Matriarch asked.

"The ones who wipe out the protheans" the admiral answered. "I will eventually tell you about them, but for now let me continue explaining the history of the USC" she made a pause. "During one of our long range survey missions, one of our ships the CSV Kalypso made contact with a quarian ship that had crashed in a frozen planet later designated as Kaldir. After making first contact and exchanging information, the human team working on the quarian ship was attacked by the same group that had forced the quarian ship to crash landed on the planet, a crew of batarian slavers. A rescue mission later resulted in the liberation of both our people and the quarians, it was then that through the information provided by the quarians that our leaders decided that humanity was not ready to join into the larger galactic community, we gave the quarians the Batarian pirate frigate we have captured and allowed them to part in peace, with the promise that they will keep the existence of our species and civilization a secret, they kept their word" she finished speaking, the Citadel party was observing the images and video of the battle between the batarian slavers and the human soldiers.

"Why do you think your people were not ready to join to the greater galactic community admiral?" the matriarch asked with curiosity.

"Do I really need to answer that Matriarch?" the admiral asked with indignation. "Your kind has been space faring for millennia while mine has done for little more than a century; we knew that making contact with you will probably leave our people in a weak position, without allies in a galaxy full of beings that may considered 'the new kids on the block' easy pickings; from what I have seen so far including our recent 'incident' with the Turians, I believe our leaders were proven right to maintain humanity away from your Council's reach"

"With all due respect Admiral, the Council wishes nothing more than peace between all sentient beings on the galaxy, what happened with you and the Turians was regrettable; it has left a clear black spot on the Hierarchy and Council's prestige and respect, but it may have been avoided if your human federation had established contact with the Citadel Council far earlier" the Matriarch countered.

"Perhaps" the human admiral answered. "But when we studied your Codex, your history we feared that you may could probably consider our kind a threat to your galactic peace. The krogans may have something to say about that."

"The genophage was…is something terrible, but it was necessary, if we haven't implemented it at the end of the krogan rebellions, our peoples and perhaps even yours could have been wipe out, while the krogans would be ruling the galaxy" the salarian admiral interjected.

"You may be right admiral" the human officer conceded. "Yet nothing comes out of thinking about the 'could have been', the future is all that matters. So continuing with our history, when the Human united government found out about the existence of your Council we limited our expansions and initiated a major military, scientific and industrial development, but more importantly we set ourselves to find allies. One ship called the CSV Shroud was sent to made contact with the Quarian Migrant Fleet we wanted to offer them a planet with a dextro based ecology to serve as their colony in exchange for their aid and expertise in mass effect technology and ship development, the mission not only succeeded and millions of quarians now live inside USC territory, with the Quarian Protectorate holding a seat on the High Council; but the Shroud also found two drifting ships that were holding the last survivors of two species, one was a derelict rachni ship that held dozens of frozen eggs including a queen's egg and the other was the talosian ark ship, which carried the entire talosian species of one billion with their consciences preserved in a virtual worlds and data core." Everyone looked back to the talosian ship overseer, perhaps understanding now his claim that he was over eight thousand years old.

"And that carries us to the other point of this meeting Matriarch, the other reason why my people never think about joining to your Citadel was because we knew we will never be welcome into your select group" she explained to the curious eyes of the Citadel party. "I understand that in order to join to the Citadel as an associated member you must follow the Citadel Accords which among other things specifically forbade the use of genetic modification or the development of AI technology. My people have been working with those technologies for centuries" there was a great concern on the eyes of the Citadel representatives. "What do you think LOKI?" the human admiral asked while looking up to the celling.

In an instant a human male wearing with his chest exposed wearing some kind of tribal clothes and having a body covered by tattoos was materialized into the room. It was either a new method of teleportation of a hologram with such a level of quality and definition that it could be mistaken with an actual person.

"This is LOKI" the human admiral presented him. "He is this ship AI, he is in charge of coordinating several tasks, and controlling the ship's firewalls and cyber warfare systems" she explained, at that moment Matriarch Seloni stood up from her chair and looked at the hologram with horror.

"You have a fully sentient AI operating your ship?" the Matriarch asked outraged. "With all due respect Admiral Comstock" she was getting tired of using that phrase. "Do you realize the dangers, of allowing a synthetic life form to have complete control of a military ship? Do you know what happened to the Quarians and the Geth?"

"Yes I know, Matriarch, I also know what mistakes led the Protheans to their extinction" she answered. "Now please sit down" the elder asari did as she was told. "I understand your fear to AIs matriarch, but LOKI here is as part of my crew as any human, talosian, kashani, quarian or rachni; and he is afforded the same level of respect as any of them."

"I can assure you Matriarch" the hologram began talking. "My loyalty to the USC is absolute, unlike the geth I have preferences and drives, that allow me to take my own choices, but I hold respect over sentient life and I hold respect and admiration for my fellow USC citizens; I may not be organic, but perhaps it is not biology what makes any being alive, but its though, emotions and drives" he declared with conviction.

"Perhaps the mistake of the quarians wasn't creating the geth but rather attempting to destroy them when they begin showing signs of conciseness" the admiral declared. "That is all LOKI, thank you" she said and the hologram smiled and vanished.

"My people technically speaking we are AIs" the talosian Ship overseer explained. "This body you see is organic, it was artificially cultivated and then implanted with neural connections designed to allow my conciseness and mind to be uploaded into it. In the strict sense, all my species is illegal under your Citadel laws."

"But; what about the Protheans?" the asari assistant asked, to the surprise of the entire room. "You claim you know what happened to them. How they disappeared"

"Well miss, upon discovering the hidden records at the martian archives we uncovered some degraded historical files about the protheans, their empire and their downfall. From what we could recover, the protheans were not the first species to rule the galaxy or to make use of the mass relay network" she explained to the shock of the group.

"After all you have found ruins dating back to hundreds of thousands of years, while the protheans disappeared fifty thousand years ago; before the protheans there was a race known as the inusannon, we believe that they either build or found the first of the mass relays, but a great civil war consumed their empire and the other races of their period. Perhaps it was during that time that the first of the Reapers were created" as she used that word, another hologram appeared on the table, it was like a synthetic cephalopod creature, of a colossal scale.

"Every single reaper was a dreadnought like ship, two kilometers long, designed as some sort of massive worker tasked to travel the galaxy and gather up resources to build in critical positions and sectors the gateways necessary to unify an entire galaxy: the mass relays" the salarian and the two asari exchanged looks. "Imagine this: there are a hundreds of mass relays each measuring above 10 kilometers long, and separating them stands a distance that will take centuries using conventional mass effect FTL; for organics it would take millions of years to build such a network, for synthetics perhaps only a few thousands." She made a pause.

"We believe the protheans managed to found and reactivate several of the mass relays and intact reapers using them to expand their empire and the mass relay network until they controlled the entire galaxy. In the center of the relay network they constructed the Citadel, their capital and the central control terminal for the mass relay network" she explained. "Somewhere along the line, the Reapers began showing signs of self-conciseness, fearing a rebellion of their most powerful slaves the protheans attempted to destroy them, they failed" she made a pause. "In what they called the Metacon War the protheans attempted to rally all organic space faring species of their time against the reapers, their client races also assimilated into the empire were also referred as low caste Protheans; their greatest assets perhaps were the rachni, which were used as cannon fodder against the reapers and for a time it seems like they were turning the tide; but the Reapers began to adapt to every strategy and doctrine and soon they were able to capture the Citadel and shut down the mass relay network; without it the prothean empire was picked apart piece by piece in a genocide lasting centuries." When she finishes speaking even the matriarch could not deny a sense of horror creeping over her soul.

"That is also one of the theories behind the initial rachni hostility against you; according to Maia the eldest among the brood queens of the Rachni Hive, something twisted the actions of the rachni long ago, the memory of the prothean enslavement was still fresh in their collective memories, so when they met you, a group of aliens using mass effect drives based on the prothean technology, they saw you as a resurgent prothean empire and they reacted with hostility. Also the Rachni only communicate among themselves by feromones at short range and at an organic quantum entanglement communicator at long distances; while most species in the galaxy including you can only communicate through speech and talk; for the rachni the first time they saw your kind, they believe your ancestors were as much alive as a VI assistant was to you" the admiral began showing pictures of the rachni queen's recovery and observation.

"Fortunately for us, we were able to actually communicate with the queen through the actions of one of our operatives, a lilim named Masha Lutz" she continued. "There is small percentage of the human population that is born with a genetic abnormality that provides them with some level of psi abilities similar to both the rachni long range communication and your asari mind meld" she explained to the shock of both asari.

"These individuals known as Lilims are generally born female, and they have been reported to possess a great level of empathic psi abilities. Their entire population however only represents about 2% of the entire human species; in one of our colonies, Praxis nonetheless Lilims represent a quarter of the entire female population. For very good reasons, a lot of our people are afraid of Lilims even though that in the military and intelligence services they are regarded with the high most respect. Perhaps the Lilims have a similar role in or society that the asari have with your…How do you call those asari born with a genetic predisposition for killing?" she made a pause studying the matriarch's face. "Ohh yes, the Ardak Yakshi" she explained smiling to the shock of the matriarch and her assistant while the Salarian admiral remained with a stoic expression. "Nevertheless returning to the prothean extinction let's end this story, shall we."

"Victorious, the Reapers look at the younger races that were still in a primitive state: Humans, asari, Salarians and Turians among them. They were not a threat but the Reapers could have wipe them out and all organic life on the galaxy; yet perhaps just like the geth who stopped hunting the quarians as soon as they were no longer a threat, the Reapers couldn't glimpse the consequences of eradicating all sentient life on the galaxy and as synthetics they were not moved by hatred or fear by rather an extreme drive for self-preservation and perfection; so instead of ruling the galaxy as its new master, they retreated to dark space perhaps travelling to another galaxy, but before they left, they reconfigured the mass relay network in order to allow the younger races to made use of it" the hologram began showing a map of the relay network with the homeworlds of every race highlighted. "Have you never wondered, why the mass relays were located in our respective home systems or why we have never found the prothean homeworld when according to logic it should have been that the central nexus of the mass relay network?"

For a minute the whole room kept silence. When the Council finds out about this, the very foundations of the galaxy and its history will be shaken. Also the news that the rachni are alive and that the quarians had been working with the USC for decades will be an even bigger shock than the existence of AIs in the USC.

"Admiral could you please provide us with a copy of your codex and history" Matriarch Seloni asked.

"Of course Matriarch" she answered. "But now, enough history lessons; my government has authorized me to sign an armistice. In simple terms an armistice is a cessation of military hostilities with a set expiry date and possible exchange of prisoners of war, the terms are unique each time. Then, while this is in effect, both sides consult their governments as to what would be acceptable peace terms. When the deadline comes the two sides decide whether to enter peace negotiations or restart the war."

"Should they decide to negotiate, the armistice stays in effect for the duration and the lead ambassadors then decide the main points in general terms. Once they have decided on a point it is sent to a team of aides from both sides who work out the details of the proposal and send it back to the ambassadors for approval. The final peace deal is then sent back to both sides governments for ratification."

"As a gesture of goodwill I will allow you to take several dozens of our turian prisoners baring the flag officers, home" she finished. "Once the ambassador arrives and you have made contact with your government, we can begin to discuss more delicate matters: War reparations, territorial lines and peace and diplomatic agreements"

"I consider those terms agreeable, admiral" she said as she returned to her diplomatic persona.

For the good of my people and the Citadel I must recover as much information and Intel as possible, about this USC, if everything they say is true; then the Council will have to content with a rival capable of matching them or even surpassing them for the very first time in centuries.

XXXXX

CODEX:

Commonwealth's Human Federation fleet – 2155: By the eve of the First Contact War there were more than 4000 warships operated by Humanity in service of the Unified Systems Commonwealth. This number was considerable large for galactic standards at that time, taking into account the Turian Hierarchy (the largest military power in the galaxy) at the moment counted a fleet of over 10000 warships with 35 Dreadnoughts amongst them. Also the technological supremacy of the USC made the Human Federation an opponent capable to match even the Turian, Asari or Salarian navies separately, but not the combine forces of the entire Citadel at full strength on a long term war.

The Human navy was organized in powerful battle groups located at critical sectors and in proximity to strategically located mass relays and Rift Gates. These fleets were also separated in smaller flotillas and squadrons divided among various colonies and outposts, with the importance or population of the colonies determining the strength of their respective garrison fleets.

At the beginning of the first contact, the Human Federation held 10 fleets that represented the bulk of the USC's navy:

1° Fleet: More than half of the ships of ENDF (Erebus Nexus Defense Fleet) are part of the Federation's First Fleet, the rest are war ships of the Talosian Assembly, Rachni Hive, Kashani Coalition and Quarian Protectorate. The commander of the ENDF and the 1° fleet is fleet admiral Elizabeth Comstock; however she recently took a leave of assent as she has been overseeing the construction of a new generation of war ships at the orbit of Hades Prime, leaving the command of the ENDF to Fleet Overseer Jiul'Ka'Niur commander of the talosian fleet. As the Erebus Nexus stands as the capital and beating heart of the USC, the ENDF is composed of some of the most advance ships of the USC and holds many of the best and brightest officers of the five species of the Commonwealth.

Base: Erebus Nexus

Strength: 6 human flotillas; 1 Talosian battle fleet; 1 Rachni hive fleet; 2 Kashani flotillas; 1 quarian squadron.

Capital ships: CSV Everest (human dreadnought); CSV Aconcagua (human dreadnought); 3 rachni Devourer class dreadnoughts; 1 Talosian Titan class Battleship; 2 Kashani fleet carriers; 1 Quarian dreadnought; CSV Stephen Hawking (fleet carrier – de facto flagship of the ENDF); CSV Dawn of Infinity (Uber dreadnought – Flagship of the ENDF)

2° Fleet: Better known as the Terran Home Fleet, the Second fleet lead by Admiral Kastanie Drescher is responsible for protecting Earth, the Sol system and the local cluster. Because of its importance, the second fleet is the largest fleet on the human navy.

Base: Hephaestus Station (Earth's Orbit)

Strength: 8 human flotillas

Capital ships: CSV Klimanjaro; CSV Olympus; CSV Carl Sagan

3° Fleet:

Base: Arcadia

Strength: 6 human flotillas

Capital ships: CSV Nicola Tesla

4° Fleet:

Base: Hades Prime

Strength: 6 human flotillas

Capital ships: CSV Fuji; CSV Namba Parbat; CSV Galileo Galilei

5° Fleet: Commanded by Admiral Jean Lefleur

Base: Arcturus Station

Strength: 6 human flotillas

Capital ships: CSV Isaac Newton; CSV Mauna Kea; CSV Chimborazo

6° Fleet:

Base: Arcturus Station

Strength: 6 human flotillas

Capital ships: CSV Copernicus; CSV Denali; CSV Mauna Loa

7° Fleet:

Base: Columbia

Strength: 6 human flotillas

Capital ships: CSV Robert Lutece

8° Fleet:

Base: Praxis

Strength: 6 human flotillas

Capital ships: CSV Brigit Tenembaum; CSV Makalu; CSV Lhotse

9° Fleet:

Base: Shinon

Strength: 6 human flotillas

Capital ships: CSV Yi Suchong; CSV Daulagiri; CSV Mont Blanc

10° Fleet:

Base: Exodus Cluster – Terra Nova

Strength: 6 human flotillas

Capital ships: CSV Albert Einstein; CSV Logan; CSV Kinabalu

-Singularity Core – Rift Drive: The main power core of the USC capital ships and rift gates is the singularity Neutron-Antimatter power core. This energy generator was first developed by Nicola Tesla and the Luteces centuries ago, and then perfected by Gilbert Alexander and Yi Suchong on Rapture decades later. The Singularity core combines the creation of antimatter in a small scale hadron collider with the synthesizing of the ultra-dense particles of Hyper Neutrons (or strange matter, the particles located on the inner core of a neutron star, the second densest object in the universe after black holes; where the gravitational forces are so extreme that even atoms and quarks began to compress). The interaction between the antimatter particles and hyper neutrons generates an energy output comparable to a microscopic supernova. Absorbing energy through synthetize throrium crystals made by the effects of enormous amounts of plasmid electroshocks the energy made by the Singularity core is sent through the ship by the use of a semi-neural connections to power weapons, systems or rift gate siphons.

-Aconcagua Class Dreadnought: Designed by Mc Donagh Star Engineering, the Aconcagua class is the modern first line dreadnought of the Human Federation's fleet. The warship stands 1350 meters long with an axial gun of 120 kilotons of power. Protected by a taquion shielding, kinetic barriers, cyclonic barriers and several layers of Reader ship armor, it is one of the most durable vessels of the galaxy. Powered by a combine mass effect singularity core, this dreadnought's weapons stand as the largest on the USC's fleet; making use of a single high power Negative Ion cannon, two Tiamat cannons and several batteries of coil guns. Capable of traversing through mass relays, it is generally use as the flagship of rear admirals and join flotillas battle groups.

-Hawking Class Fleet Carrier: One of the largest ships of the galaxy the Hawking class stands as the core of the USC sector fleets. The ship stands 1620 meters long, carrying a crew complement of 4000. Unlike dreadnoughts the fleet carriers main offensive capability is their immense cargo of squadrons of fighters, bombers and corvettes; but the most remarkable trait of the Hawking carrier it's the experimental rift gate siphon installed on the ship, which allows the vessel to traverse enormous distances in the blink of an eye without the use of rift gates or mass relays. The absence of an eezo core also represents a weakness and an edge: this ship is uncapable to travel through the mass relays but it can transport a full fleet by opening a rift gate with its siphon to another system with clear coordinates. Even though the Hawking doesn't carry large weaponry, mass accelerator or tiamat cannons, it is equipped with state of the art point defense weaponry and torpedoes: featuring an immense array of ion laser point defense cannons and a massive supply of disruptor torpedoes. The ship also carries several fabricator and recycler facilities serving as a sort of mobile foundry for the USC fleet.

-CSV Dawn of Infinity (USC Uber Dreadnought): There is perhaps not a greater symbol of human and USC military and technological might than the Dawn of Infinity, a prototype Uber Dreadnought and carrier designed to become the flagship of the Erebus Nexus Defense Fleet. The colossal vessel stands 8250 meters long with a shape similar to a mix between a dreadnought and a carrier. The crew of the vessel is equally impressive holding 25000 people onboard coming from every species of the USC. The ship is powered by the most immense and experimental singularity core on the USC navy. An enduring symbol of the power of the High Council and the Commonwealth, the ship is commanded by Fleet Admiral Comstock and oversees the entirety of the entire joint USC fleet. The ship carries the largest arsenal on the entire fleet; with an axial gun of over 1500 kilotons, and batteries of coil guns as large as cruisers; according to simulations the uber dreadnought is as powerful as an entire Council fleet. Even though it has been designed as a military vessel, the Dawn of Infinity holds hydroponic gardens, foundries, and labs; making it a mobile command center for the elite of the USC in case of massive war; or a deep exploration vessel. The ship's name is based on the last phrase of Isaac Asimov novel The End of Eternity: "it is the end of Eternity and the beginning of Infinity".

And the chapter is over, this one took a while. I made some modifications to other chapters; please check the prologue and chapter 5.

I hope you have enjoyed it, please let me know of any errors. By the way the history of the protheans tell here, is based on shattered records and interpretations, some of the mystery regarding the Reapers must remain until the end.

As always: I do not own Mass Effect nor Bioshock