Chapter 11- A New Song

March 10th, 2164

Eli'ranas scout ship 'TAS Searcher 1201'

Overseer Triklinorlirak, also known as Trikli, stood on the bridge of the Eli'ranas scout vessel. The rest of his kind aboard the small hundred meter long scout craft scurried around, their chitinous feet making small clicks as they impacted the metal floor. The scout's mission was simple- To search for any Ancient One artifacts, and if possible, destroy them.

The ship exited a dimensional gate, the scout ship being small enough to carry one of its own. Only the very largest and the very smallest ships in the alliance navy could carry their own dimensional gate generators, with other ships requiring the use of the main dimensional gate network for FTL travel.

Almost immediately, Trikli felt an alien psionic signature touch his mind. The other Eli'ranas drones on the ship also seemed to feel it, as they began to chitter in confusion. Restoring order to them with his own psi-field, Trikli began to scan for the strange psi-signature's source. He found it on a derelict ship, one not matching any known profiles, Ancient One, Ethereal, or otherwise.

As the scout craft closed, Trikli began to feel the signature intensify, and he began to make out a strange song inside it. It was wordless, and yet it seemed to convey distress. Was this some ancient species' distress beacon?

The scout craft came up alongside the strange derelict. Trikli donned his combat vac-suit, ordering the drones to put their own ones on. Then, when they were adequately prepared, they exited the airlock, grav-jets moving them into the alien craft's strangely intact hull. Once inside, Trikli noted the strange hallway design, as if it was built for small, insectoid creatures rather than the more common upright biped. While the smaller drones had no problem entering the passageways, Trikli, being a sentient overseer, had to compress his body in order to move. The ship itself was about the size of a Citadel cruiser, so it was small compared to the expansive Terran equivalents. As the Eli'ranas proceeded down the hall, the song changed. It seemed to be beckoning the Eli'ranas onward, closer to its source.

Then, the team reached its destination. It was a single egg, about half the size of an Eli'ranas drone. As the Eli'ranas closed in, the song became louder. Then, when one made contact, the egg twitched. The song dropped off in volume, replaced by a tiny, barely audible melody. Slowly, the egg split open, a tiny insectoid creature exiting.

'Get a message through to HQ. We've made contact with a psionic lifeform.' Trikli ordered one of the drones, which complied, activating a hyperwave comm. Once the message was sent, the Eli'ranas stood by, waiting for a reply. All the while, the newly hatched insect was exploring its surroundings, still releasing that strange song, although it was slowly growing in volume. The creature seemed to be drinking a strange nutrient fluid that had leaked from the now hatched egg.

"We read you, Seeker 1201. We have a frigate inbound for pick up. Hold your position, another scout will be diverted to finish your patrol. HQ out."

Several minutes later, the drones onboard the scout craft reported a frigate, the TAS Gettysburg, entering the system. By then, the creature had stopped drinking, and seemed to have grown several protrusions, as well as a much larger head. As a shuttlecraft from the frigate docked with the derelict, Trikli suddenly felt a tug at the psionic network keeping him in control of the drones under his command. The creature was attempting to wrest control of a drone from him! Increasing the strength of the psionic wards around the mind of the targeted drone, Trikli suddenly heard the song change. It seemed to be showing confusion. Any thoughts on this matter were put aside as several human marines and scientists entered the room.

"What's the situation?" One of them asked.

"The creature has been confirmed to possess psi-abilities, as it seems to be attempting to take control of one of my drones." Trikli reported.

"It may be trying to communicate. Allow it to take control." One of the scientists ordered. Trikli responded by releasing control of the Eli'ranas drone. Then, the drone froze, before it squealed in confusion as a foreign mind took control. Then, it stopped, standing unnaturally still.

"Your songs are strange, colorless. You sing as if you are pushing air. It is... difficult to understand." The drone spoke, its voice distorted by its under-evolved vocal cords.

"Who and what are you?" One of the scientists asked.

"I am the last of the Rachni queens, sent to compose anew when the Sour Yellow Note corrupted the old queens' song." The newly born Rachni queen said through the Eli'ranas drone.

"Rachni? Didn't you attack and nearly destroy the Citadel races?"

"Our Queens wanted nothing more than to let their song harmonize with that of the rest of the Galaxy. However, then came the Sour Yellow note, twisting the melody of peace into the cacophony of war. The old queens became twisted, the note corrupting them as well. Before they fell, they send my egg away, to compose far away from the Sour note's source."

"Wait, how do you know all this?"

"We remember. Our memories are passed on."

"What was this 'Sour Yellow Note' that caused you to wage war on the galaxy? We wish to make sure that it does not threaten us, before we allow you inside our territory."

"We do not know. The ancient queens found an artifact on an ancient world, which would later become the note's source. However, we knew not its origins, only that it corrupted us. By the time we found its true nature, it was already too late. We were too corrupted to bring ourselves to destroy the source of our ruination."

"What will you do now?"

"We wish only to harmonize with the rest of the galaxy, but the galaxy is not yet ready for the return of the Rachni. We wish only to be left alone, on a quiet world, to develop ourselves. Then, when we deem the Galaxy ready, the Rachni will return."

"I have a counter-proposal." Trikli said, causing all eyes to turn on him. "The Eli'ranas hives may be willing to accept the Rachni as a protectorate. I wish to, with the Rachni queen's permission, of course, request an audience with the Eli'ranas queens' council, and allow the Rachni to plead their case."

"That is... an interesting proposal. We will accept the Eli'ranas' proposal, assuming that they accept me and my future children."

Soon, the Rachni queen was onboard the TAS Gettysburg, and was en route to the Eli'ranas homeworld. Meanwhile, a scientific team was examining the derelict Rachni ship for any possible salvageable technology. Finding nothing worthwhile, the team eventually set plasma charges, destroying the warship to prevent other races from discovering the resurgent Rachni.

The Rachni queen was given the fifth planet in the Eli'ranas home system, due to that world having the near-inhospitable climate that the Rachni were accustomed to. Within 2 years, the planet contained a full-blown rachni colony, one which had begun trading with the rest of Alliance space. Over the next twenty years, the galaxy would settle down, focusing on mass military build up in order to face the Ancient One threat. While human forces had located the machines in an isolated system in Dark space, the recon probe's findings were disturbing, revealing a massive fortress of a system, containing a full blown Dyson Sphere, which served the dual purpose of hiding the system's emissions and providing a central base for the Ancient One forces. While the probes had attempted to gauge the amount of combat capable machine-ships in the system, they were only able to obtain basic estimates. These estimates put the amount of total starships inside the system somewhere in the billion range, while simultaneously documenting about a hundred planetoids, suspected to be some form of defense platform. After the findings were shared, the various races of the galaxy began work on planning their assault, developing technologies to fight the Ancient Ones in their own space.

December 9th, 2164

Mars Orbital Shipyards

The TAS Normandy was finally complete, having undergone multiple refits and even a total re-design while under construction. The ship was the first of the new class of state-of-the-art Stealth Frigates, designed to operate solo behind enemy lines, performing acts of sabotage, acting as a hit-and-run raider. Its shakedown run was performed flawlessly, the ship's systems running at optimal capacity, with Captain Anderson praising the ship's design, calling it 'The next generation of warship'. Twenty more Normandy class vessels are planned to be finished by 2170.

May 22nd, 2165

The Transcendant Justice was complete, its two sister ships in the final stages of construction as well. Due to the absence of the Turian Hierarchy, the Asari Republics had stepped up their military production, their fleet rapidly growing to become the largest in Citadel space, the Salarians being close behind in terms of military strength. Hanar, Elcor, and Volus militaries were likewise growing in strength, the Volus having announced their newest Dreadnought, the Kwuunu, to be finished in 2 months. Volus spatial strength combined with the Elcor's growing armies, the Elcor fleet itself being the smallest of all the council races. However, the Elcor ground forces were extremely strong, almost on par with those of the Asari. Finally, the Hanar fleets utilized primarily automated drones in their own military, although Drell combat specialists were renowed for their effectiveness in the field, with Sireyt Keris becoming the first Drell SpecTRe in 2165.

February 28th, 2167

The first human/asari child is born. However, her parents are the subject of great controversy. Her father, Felix Carter, was an XCOM Psi-specialist, while her mother was Morinth, an Asari Ardat-Yakshi. Ardat-Yakshi were an extremely well kept secret, the Terran intelligence agencies not even knowing that they were real. However, acting upon intelligence given by Morinth, the Terran Intelligence Agency located a monastery on Kallini, inside which were twenty Ardat Yakshi. Brief Psi-scans of the area showed that all of the Ardat-Yakshi incarcerated within possessed psi-abilities ranging from class 8 to class 10. The initial belief was that the Asari were secretly training their own psionic army, but upon closer examination it was found that the Asari were unable to use their own abilities in most cases. After conferring with Asari scientists, Terran investigators found that the Ardat Yakshi were considered a menace to Asari society due to their killing of mates upon engaging in a meld. However, this conflicted with data taken from Morinth, which clearly showed that she and her bondmate had engaged in melding activity on multiple occasions, with neither partner coming out unscathed. Eventually, it was found that Ardat Yakshi, upon engaging in a meld, created a powerful mindfray like pulse that overwhelmed their partner's mind, killing them. It turns out that Morinth's partner had been training her to control her psi-abilities, thus allowing her to function as a normal member of society. However, as the Asari lacked the facilities required to train Ardat-Yakshi, the Terran Alliance offered to step in and provide psi-training to all existing Yakshi in Asari space. However, negotiations nearly broke down when an Asari Justicar attempted to assassinate Morinth, although human response teams managed to subdue and incarcerate Samara, who was found to be Morinth's mother through psi-interrogation. This event began to sour relationships between the Asari and the Terran alliance, the latter of which attempted to push for legislature restricting the movement of Justicars to Citadel space. Asari defended the Justicar order with what would be termed the 'Batarian excuse', which entailed claiming that the Justicar order was an integral part of Asari culture and could not be altered. The human response could be boiled down to 'Deal with it', thus proving that they would not bend on the matter. While the two powers have remained officially friendly, there is now a race to match the humans, both technologically and genetically, on the side of the Asari, in an attempt to prove that they are in fact the superior race.

October 7th, 2171

The Salarian and Asari fleets had finally finished their overhaul of existing vessels, the Asari capitalizing on their massive stores of Element Zero, while the Salarians using Zrbite in a fusion of Human and Salarian technology. While the Salarian fleet had been primarily focused on intelligence gathering pre-human contact, it had shifted to incorporate a more conventional form of ship makeup, now containing far more Dreadnoughts and cruisers, all armed with state-of-the-art laser weaponry. Meanwhile, Asari fleets used Mass Effect technology, their ships being the epitome of pure mass-effect tech. Both races now began to step up production of new warships, intending to create a fleet that not only would allow them to stand against the Ancient Ones, but also rival the Terran Alliance's own military strength.

July 23rd, 2176

The refit of the Quarian migrant fleet and the Geth armada finally reached completion, three years overdue. While the Quarians possessed nearly 50,000 vessels, the state of disrepair those ships were in delayed full refits, and even caused several hundred vessels to be scrapped entirely. The Turian protectorate, meanwhile, had managed to construct its first 'True' Dreadnought, the Vindication, as well as having re-built a quarter of its pre-conquest military strength. Meanwhile the Geth have unearthed and destroyed a fully intact Ancient One on Rannoch, narrowly avoiding a disaster involving the release of Ancient One nanites into the Rannoch ecosystem. Finally, the Rachni have begun building warships,

Galactic Military Assets as of 2180

Human- Forming the bulk of the Terran Alliance military, the Humans are considered by many to be the most advanced race in the galaxy. Their giant dreadnoughts and extremely disciplined and well equipped troops make their military a force to be reckoned with. Mastery of hard light allows them to mass-drop millions of outsider crystals on any ground target, overwhelming their foes with millions of disposable shock troops. XCOM forces are equally adept on land and in the water, equipped with the best technology in the galaxy, as well as having extensive genetic modification and psionic capabilities, both of which are growing stronger with each generation. Humanity has begun production of the new 'Pinnacle' class Dreadnought, as well as the 'Epitome' class Artillery ship, both of which are expected to have their first set finished by 2182.

Muton/Ethereal- The Ethereals and Mutons, rather than possessing their own military, are integrated into special units in Human forces, with the Ethereals being psi-specialists, operating psionic amps on warships and acting as psionic artillery pieces on the ground. Meanwhile, Mutons fight alongside humanity as frontline infantry, using their augmented bodies to act as heavy weapons specialists. While they lack the psionic power of humans and ethereals, the Mutons are heavily augmented physically, both from their time as Ethereal slaves and by human meld-based gene mods. In addition, some Mutons voluntarily undergo 'Floater' cyber-augmentations, involving the implantation of grav-harnesses into their bodies, giving them highly efficient personal flight ability. Supplementing Floater units are Muton MEC units, utilizing Clibanarius MEC suits, which were human Cataphract MECs with psionic amplifiers replaced by powerful Mass Effect field generators, giving Muton MEC troops powerful abilities equating to Biotics.

Eli'ranas- The Eli'ranas are the intelligence arm of the Terran alliance, their space forces consisting primarily of scout craft and spy drones. While these ships are well armed and equipped with their own dimensional gate generators, they do not stand up on their own in space combat. The few Eli'ranas capital ships are designed for speed and agility, rather than armament and armor. While they carry powerful fusion lances, they are not very well protected, designed to avoid enemy fire rather than take a hit. On the ground, Eli'ranas use numbers and overwhelming amounts of non-sentient drones to overwhelm their enemies, while the drones' controlling overseers stay safe in the back line.

Rachni- The Rachni currently field the smallest military of any Alliance member race, currently only having ten warships fully completed. Utilizing human biotechnology, Rachni warships are grown rather than built, a time consuming process. While knowledge taken from the old Micronoid shipyards have proved invaluable to the Rachni shipbuilding industry, it is estimated to be at least five years until the Rachni have anything resembling a significant military force.

Krogan- The Krogan fleet is next to nonexistent, being even smaller than that of the Rachni. However, with the Genophage cured, the Krogan now form a significant portion of the Alliance ground forces. While meld-based augmentations have not yet been introduced in significant numbers, the formidable natural ability of Krogan makes them highly effective heavies in battle. On a side note, the Tuchankan Lesser Striper Thresher Maw has experienced a significant drop in population numbers following the increase in the amount of Krogan undergoing the rite of passage. When questioned, Lord High Environmentalist Urdnot Ganx reportedly gave a reporter a Krogan-built flechette cannon, and told her to 'Bag a few for research.' However, Human scientists have been attempting to weaponize Thresher Maws for use in conjunction with Krogan forces.

Quarian- The Quarian Migrant Fleet is still the largest fleet in the galaxy, numbering at forty thousand warships post-refit. The old liveships have been converted into Artillery Dreadnoughts, considered to be some of the most powerful ships in the Terran arsenal. These ships are bristling with powerful disruptor weaponry, and contain a powerful artillery cannon. This Artillery cannon utilizes a combination of elerium gravitational acceleration and mass effect fields to launch a fifty kilogram slug at .3c. In addition, the latest slugs contain 4 kilograms of antimatter, which makes the Artillery cannon the most powerful weapon of war to date. While Artillery Cannon are also installed on Turian and Geth warships, the Quarian liveships are unique in that they also carry secondary armament on par with that of 'True' dreadnoughts. Smaller Quarian vessels, meanwhile, have been converted to point defense destroyers, which provide screening against enemy fighters and missiles, and 'Psi-boats', which carry powerful psi-amps, and are designed to provide psi-support to the larger ships in the Alliance navies.

Geth- The Geth possessed a fleet that was almost on par with that of the Turians before the latter were defeated by the Terran Alliance. After integrating into the alliance, the Geth underwent a massive overhaul in the military field, eventually converting almost all their warships into fighter carriers. Geth military strategies involve swarming the enemy with overwhelming amounts of fighter power, using the small craft to deliver powerful plasma charges capable of destroying capital ships. Geth Dreadnoughts have been converted into powerful artillery ships, carrying two Artillery cannon per dreadnought. However, this heavy armament comes at the cost of point defense weaponry, of which these Geth artillery ships have none of. Thus, the Geth rely on fighter screens for point defense purposes. On the ground, Geth mobile platforms are adapted for a variety of combat roles, with Colossi and Armatures being extremely effective walker units armed with low caliber fusion lances. Almost every possible niche of ground combat has a Geth mobile platform specialized to fill it.

Cyberdisc- While the Cyberdiscs themselves lack a proper fleet, they are invaluable in the form of ground support drones and fighters, the newest 'Fury' fighter designs being designed to integrate with Cyberdiscs directly. This has resulted in about half of the Alliance small craft being fully Cyberdisc operated, while on the ground Cyberdiscs are utilized as living tanks, armed with plasma cannon and mortars.

Turian- While the Turian fleets are at a fraction of their former size and strength from a numeric standpoint, they are far more advanced technologically. The Turians possess three 'True' Dreadnoughts, as well as twenty Artillery ships, along with several thousand Cruisers and frigates. While the Turian protectorate is far from its former position as the peacekeeping army of the galaxy, it remains a viable military power in the Terran Alliance.

Asari- The Asari military is now the primary defense force of the Citadel council. They still utilize conventional mass effect technology, only utilizing zrbite when it is absolutely necessary. Powerful kinetic barriers, silaris armor, and Thanix guns make their ships a force to be reckoned with, with no corners cut in warship construction. The Asari military strives to embody the spirit of the Asari people in general, attempting to be both superior to all enemies, and elegant at the same time. On the ground, the Asari military operates in small, self-sufficient units of highly trained commandos, their innate biotic power, amplified further by the latest military amps, making them formidable opponents.

Salarian- The Salarian military has a reputation for only using the most cutting edge technology available. This still holds true in today's military, as Salarian ships use powerful laser cannon as their main armament, while their ground troops likewise use laser weaponry. However, after the Turian conquest, the Salarian military has gone through a noticeable shift in focus, beginning mass production of capital ships and beginning the training of large armies, rather than the more specialized pre-human contact STG. While the STG still exists, it is no longer the primary ground force of the Salarian union.

Hanar/Drell- The Hanar Illuminated Primacy's fleets are composed largely of automated warships, largely due to Hanar being an aquatic race. Thus, they would require waterproofing of all starship systems, which would not be feasible. However, technology shared by the Humans has allowed the Hanar to build true automated capital ships. Meanwhile, the Drell of Kahje are the primary infantry arm of the Hanar, as Hanar physical strength leaves much to be desired. With Kepral's syndrome a thing of the past, Drell specialists are now able to live full lives, and serve for much longer in the military.

Elcor- The Elcor fleet is relatively small when compared to the Hanar or the Volus, possessing few combat capable capital ships. However, Elcor physiology allows them to be deployed as 'Living Tanks', which, when coupled with powerful Salarian-built laser guns, turns Elcor into extremely effective soldiers.

Volus- The Volus are still the economic arm of the Citadel, a position that has only strengthened with their recent gaining of a council seat. The Volus fleet, while small compared to the Asari or Salarians' own militaries, is the largest fleet of the three races that were recently granted a council seat. However, the Volus' unique physiology prevents them from fighting effective ground wars, forcing them to rely on other races for fighting land wars.

A/N: Regrettably, there will not be a library entry for Wh40k, as with due consideration, I have decided that it will be, of lack of better words, GODDAMN OVERKILL, as well as difficult to integrate into the story itself (Wait, how did the Ethereals defeat the Eldar, Imperium of Man, Chaos, etc. and not beat the Reapers yet?). I made this decision while writing a draft where humans got space marine augmentations, and I eventually thought "To hell with this, might as well give them Kryptonians next. My humanity is OP, but not THAT OP."

On a different note, this is the last chapter in the 'Contact' arc, with the chapters afterward taking place in ME1 onward.