TURIAN REFUGEE "DEPOT STATION 9"
GETH WATCH STATION A231
TIKKUN SYSTEM
LATE AUGUST 2188
FAMOUS FOR THEIR DISCIPLINE, the turian refugees waited calmly to be processed. There was nowhere for them to go, as Palaven was yet wrecked, burning, infested with directionless husks and other creatures of the Reapers. Petitions to their fellow dextro allies, the quarians, had so far met with hemming and hawing and excuses. "We're not remotely organized to house and feed ourselves," ran the refrain, "We certainly can't provide properly for so many so unfortunately displaced."
When Councilor Valern accepted the explantion and basically told the quarian leadership "Thank you anyway", there was much turian anger… which lasted only as long as it took for Valern to ask the geth what they thought.
The geth found it odd that the quarians had an excess of space and foodstuffs, quiescent industry and proper facilities, and promised the turians they would query the quarians for an explanation.
Three days later, several empty liveships appeared in the Trebia system, with captains more than happy to render any aid and assistance they could. Carrying as many turians as the ships would hold – temporary – and they stressed 'temporary' several times, accommodation would be found on Rannoch for as 'many as possible'.
Instead of disembarking upon reaching Rannoch, however, all turians had to pass through depot stations – geth watch stations – until quarian 'immigration authorities' were convinced the turians would not 'upset Rannoch's delicate ecosystem, and bring new and unusual contaminants'. Crammed onto the geth stations – although spacious, had little in the way of amenities – the turians started to grumble, perhaps understandably.
Internal scans recorded it all. The footage taken by interior and exterior camera systems was kept secret, although that certainly didn't last. The quarians would use it as an excuse to close Rannoch off from any more refugee requests. The turians would demand answers and receive none, and relations between the two races would be strained for a very long time.
It took a few moments for it to be noticed at first, appearing as it did without sound or warning.
The figure was tall, pale, with no discernible limbs, humanoid. It was merely a seemingly-cloaked figure with a head, bowed. Internal microphones picked up no sound from it, only the sound of the turians around it, inquisitive or fearful. The figure raised its head, and its face skull-like, but with no nose or mouth, just sharp cheekbones and black pits for eyes. It did a complete turn, as to take it in its surroundings, stopped and for a moment did nothing. Some turians approached it cautiously, some retreated.
It said one short sentence, and the entire station rumbled with it.
"Negative Instance For An Invalid Function." was all it said.
It raised one cloaked appendage and lightly touched the turian closest to it.
Every single turian on the watch station suddenly collapsed.
A moment later, as if responding to some silent signal, all rose at once, jerking to their feet like spastic puppets. The turians then turned on each other; males, females, offspring, and using teeth, claws, anything they could find, they began to kill anyone turian in range. Expressions held a new horror – no one was in control of themselves – the turians were killing each other against their will. The figure stood silent, unmoving, and untouched in the melee.
At the end, someone pulled controls for the emergency airlock system and those turians not already dead suffocated, or were vented into space. Only then did the figure disappear, but no one saw it go.
Through it all, quarian functionaries, soldiers, techs and workers were unaffected. Turians in their induced killing frenzy went out of their way to avoid them.
There was no way to hide this. The quarians had linked the vid-feeds to public access as a PR gesture. The horror flashed across the Extranet. Governments sprang into action with committees and emotional discussions. Scientists were called in, ethical commissions formed, investigations by special arms and wings of various police agencies were conducted, and no less than five Spectres were sent to suss out what they could. Autopsies showed no chemicals or artificial means of coercion. There was no indication of any damage to any brain. It was not Indoctrination, it had no earmarks of Leviathan interference.
There was no official explanation why five thousand turians suddenly turned on one another in a murderous frenzy – and didn't kill a single quarian present. Careful and thorough analysis of the vid-feeds could not identify the mysterious figure who had apparently initiated the killing. It matched no known species in any accessible databases. The only other peculiarity was in the sentence it spoke. Various races watching reported that the words were in their own particular language – not translated, but in perfect idiom peculiar to each tongue. The geth reported it as machine language, as did any queried AI's.
Eventually, it became the official line that the figure was some Reaper holdover, official warnings went out and governments tried to bury it so as not to panic already stressed-to-the-breaking-point populaces.
Not that it mattered. Accusations started crawling out, suspicions and recriminations, but that was inevitable. It would only get worse.
For some, however, it was far past time to do something about it all.