1850 hours, April 27th, 2542
Nialla opened her eyes for what felt like the first time in years. She groaned as she woke up and tried to rub her eyes, only to remember her missing right arm and use her left instead.
She was currently in a medical ward back in Citadel space, on an asari world named Telnavis. An inhabited world in the same system as the Orion Relay. The wounded of the battle of New Ghent had been taken there alongside the human refugees. Whereas the humans were settled in with their asari hosts or in hanar refugee camps, the turians had been brought to the planet's medical facilities which were currently being rapidly expanded to accommodate all the patients.
Telnavis's biosphere was still in a very primitive evolutionary state when discovered, with its oxygen atmosphere being relatively new on a geological timescale. Most landmasses were rocky with the only plants being lichen and fungi, with no discovered fauna having left the ocean permanently yet. The planet wasn't the most fertile or blooming, but it was very safe. The climate was mild and the oxygen levels were easily within tolerable levels for most species. So while food had to be grown in hydroponics or imported, the air was free, and there was no shortage of water.
The lack of a levo-based biosphere on dry land had made it possible for turians to live on the planet without danger of levo-poisoning, and the Hierarchy had seen its potential as a military base near the relay, leading to them buying the smaller continent for that purpose.
Nialla used her left arm to prop herself up, looking through the medical ward. Her right stump and lower body had been connected to machines that kept her blood flowing but also served to prepare her for limb reattachment.
The wards were filled with turian cripples and amputees, lying in their beds awaiting cybernetic surgeries. They were the lucky cases, they were conscious instead of being in a medically induced coma. The others joked to each other in their beds, shared stories, and waited for visiting comrades.
Gedrus was still undergoing almost daily surgeries for his plasma-burnt innards and oxygen deprived brain. In desperation, the doctors had been forced to remove the majority of his organs and replace them with bio-synthetic replacements, amputate his left arm and shoulder, and remove large chunks of radiation-tainted flesh. She heard horror stories from a nurse about how he looked more like a bunch of cybernetics, meat, and bones, constantly operated on by autodocs.
Normally he'd have been allowed to die, but Gedrus was meant to be a propaganda hero, and the Primarch himself had authorised a variety of invasive experimental surgeries to try and keep him alive. Perhaps if they worked for him, they could also save other lives.
Nialla had been waiting for her own cybernetics for a while now. Her lower body had been recovered and was being "repaired" with cybernetics. She looked at the machine where her lower body should have been. A quarter of her spine was in need of a replacement, and so were parts of her intestines and several other lower internal organs that had cooked or boiled due to the plasma sword turning the fluids in her body to vapor. They currently kept her locked in place, but the doctors said they could be disconnected, leaving just two large sturdy plugs that served to allow her nerves to heal, and blood to continue flowing.
She reached for her right shoulder and pressed a button, disconnecting the plug from the machine anchoring her in place. Then she grabbed a simple cybernetic arm from the left side of her bed, and plugged it into the stump. It was a simple and crude thing, but it would do until she'd fully healed and could get a custom cybernetic fitted.
Best part of being a soldier in the Hierarchy. Best damn medical care in the galaxy.
"You're awake?" Came a voice opposite her bed. The curtain was pulled aside, revealing Michael. A human who'd lost his arm to the Covenant, and was being treated here like other human refugees. He was the only human in the ward, as there were few humans who'd lost limbs and survived. He'd been fitted with an Asari cybernetic arm, but was still waiting for one final surgery before he could permanently leave the hospital.
The human refugees had proven insular, but a few doctors and medics among them had proven willing to help in the hospital while their own was constructed.
Extranet access had been restricted for a while to keep word of the humans from Citadel space, but rumors and travelling ships had broken said silence, as well as some hackers who'd managed to get the word out. She figured that reporters would be coming soon.
Michael stepped out of bed. "Want me to get the wheelchair, Nialla? We can watch the Council announcement in the main lobby."
She nodded at him and pressed the button beside her bed that would call for a nurse.
A hanar floated into the room. "This one has heard a patient needing assistance. How can this one help?" The only thing setting this hanar aside from every other she'd seen was the white hat on top of his head.
"I want to go to the lobby. Can you have the personal assistance mech place me in the grav-chair?"
"This one will do so." The hanar moved to a corner of the room and tapped a hologram. A wall slid open and a mobility assistance mech stepped out, walked over to Nialla, and placed her onto an anti-grav wheelchair.
"This one expects you to return before it gets dark, or this one will set the mech to return you automatically."
Michael just stared silently at the hanar as it floated away.
"It's a floating space jellyfish." He said bluntly. "With a hat." As if he couldn't believe hanar were real.
Nialla laughed as she put her cybernetic hand on the controls of the anti-grav chair, and waited for the assistance mech to start pushing. "Come. Let's go watch the announcement." She said, Michael following her.
"How have things been for the other refugees, Michael?" Nialla asked. They passed through the pristine white halls of the hospital, avoiding the many human and turian wounded being treated.
There was a very happy attitude for a hospital, especially among the humans. Most stayed in the refugee camps, while those that ventured outside seemed obsessed with experiencing Citadel culture. She didn't blame them, after fearing the unknown for decades, it had to be nice to see something hopeful for once.
"Pretty normal, to be honest. Diplomats, reporters, tourists, military strategists. Everyone wants to hear our stories. Many of us don't talk about it, but a few do. Weirdest are these asari though. They seem obsessed with learning more about us. They also look far too much like us." Michael admitted, passing another human whose hand he touched in a gesture Nialla did not understand.
"Originally people were hesitant about going here, but even the freighter captains agreed eventually that being far -far- away from the Covenant was a very good thing."
Nialla's gravity chair was pushed into the lobby, where the patients were all gathered in front of a large holographic screen.
It was a live announcement from the Citadel Council. Councillor Tevos was having a speech.
"Seven months ago, we opened the Orion Relay in the name of progress and exploration. But shortly afterwards, we went silent about what we found, and shut down all civilian access into the Orion Arm. This was because of our discovery. What we found you will see in the following images."
The broadcast switched over to feeds showing glassed worlds, fields of charred skeletons, ruined spaceships filled with bodies.
"We found signs of a brutal campaign of indiscriminate genocide being committed against a species called "humans". They are at war with a coalition of species called the Covenant. This Covenant has already killed half of them and turned hundreds of garden worlds into balls of glass."
The view changed back to Tevos.
"We kept this news a secret amongst the highest levels of Citadel governments until we could finish preparing for war. And that is why we come before you tonight. One week ago, the Turian Hierarchy established first contact with a surviving colony of these humans, which was under attack by the Covenant."
The view changed to shots of the space battle, then of headcam footage from turian soldiers fighting against Elites, Grunts with their methane packs, packs of Jackals, duos of Hunters, and nearly every other type of soldier the Covenant had deployed on New Ghent. There was footage of Gedrus carrying a human child to safety, humans being escorted up evacuation transports. The montage ended with of the Covenant battlecruiser's engines exploding and the ship crashing.
Nialla smiled when she saw the picture she'd made of Gedrus. She was lucky she'd sent it before losing her omni-tool and arm to that Elite. Its propaganda value might have saved his life by making his survival important enough to allow those experimental procedures to happen.
The view changed back to Tevos.
"Today we have made official contact with the human government and will be offering them an immediate alliance against Covenant aggression, as well as aid to their civilian population."
The view changed to human refugee camps on Telnavis: large prefabs set up on the rocky plains, the grisly sight of hundreds of humans being treated in burn wards, given cybernetics or wheeled around by orderlies.
Nialla suspected there was more than a little bit of editing going on with those pictures, but she did not mind.
"From now and until the Covenant ceases their aggression, the Citadel is at war."
The broadcast ended.