The small batarian slave ship was calmly making its return trip to batarian space when the attack from the inside suddenly hit. The small crew was gloating over the successful raid on another colony. They had a rather large haul of humans. What they didn't expect was what happened within the hour of them leaving the planet. Several of the humans they caught had broken free from their containment cells and seemingly vanished. What really had them puzzled was how the cages were opened. Two lesser drones of Nick were caught. The steel was slashed open in a bizarre way. Those drones then freed the other ten drones that were being held in other cells.
"Keep quiet," a lesser drone of Kim whispered to the humans. "We'll get you back home."
"Who…are you?" an older man asked. He saw how the drone lost its shape to become its true one. As much as he was scared, he also felt rather safe.
"The new galaxy police. We work in infiltration. Don't worry about a thing. Leave this to us. You are innocents in this. We'll get you back to the colonies. Just remain calm," a lesser drone of Nick nodded and camouflaged to take up a position.
"Find out what happened! Find those prisoners!" the batarian guard in charge of the cells snarled out to the three lesser guards. When they left to investigate, they got consumed quickly. Then he got consumed from behind from the lesser Nick drone. The drones moved swiftly throughout the ship in a quick and seamless fashion. But, the main guard that was consumed moved to where the main helm was. Only the pilot was there to keep the ship steady.
"Why are you here?! We have to get these humans out of the Terminus systems! The market's gonna be closing soon! We got a good haul today, and we need to be on time! Go find Captain Silus! He should be near his quarters. I'm too busy navigating the ship," he grunted. He had no time to scream when a lesser drone of Kim took him over. Both drones nodded to each other, and the drone started to turn the ship around. They had to drop off the humans first.
"What's this?!" the Captain growled at the sight of the stars suddenly moving in the opposite direction. When he moved to leave his quarters, a lesser drone of Robin was there at his door.
"This ship is now confiscated. You are our prisoner. Do not attempt to fight back. It will be futile," the drone said in its monotonous way. "The humans here will be returned. You will come with us for questioning."
"What…are you…?!" the batarian Captain seemed to gape when four lesser drones of Eddie uncloaked around him. "And…how…?"
"We are not human. But, we intermingle with them. We are a new, viral race. A disease on this galaxy. And you just caught us!" the second lesser drone of Nick said with a twisted grin on its face.
"Our Emperor and Empress wish to speak with you directly. So, after the humans are returned, we shall go to them. This ship will be repurposed for our causes. We will make an example of you to your race. We are not part of the Alliance. We are a neutral party to them. We only intervened here, because you tried to steal us away. Our Empress is very displeased. Shall we hope you do not die so quickly? We will have to see what happens," another lesser drone of Kim seemed to smirk.
:I'd say to get a drop of blood from him, but don't bother. For now, bind him up.: Alex ordered. It was quickly done. :Okay. As for the other memories you acquired…hmm. Omega. That sounds like a fun place to visit. We'll go there after we talk to the head fuck in charge of this ship. Let the humans go home, and you all bring the ship here. But, you may have to let the humans go a bit of a ways away to avoid suspicion. Explain it to them so they understand to keep the panic down.:
"We shall put you in a cell now. Shall we see how you fair in one of your own holding units?" a lesser drone of Aiden chuckled. "And don't worry about the humans. We won't let them touch you."
When the Captain moved for a gun, the drones around him had already confiscated it. They even had every other weapon on board in a lock down. The takeover was neat, orderly and seamless. The viral race was something none had ever expected. None of the races would even suspect something like them coming around. And now with drones building various space stations all over the Milky Way, it was going to be rather hard to get them to leave.
:My Emperor, we found a thresher maw nest. After killing off the guarding parents, we were able to steal the eggs. We will see how they develop, extract some DNA, and run a few tests.: Hypnos said calmly. :They do look similar to worm eggs. Even snail eggs.:
:Interesting! Yeah. Do what you can.: Alex approved. Captain Silus was promptly moved into a waiting cell after that, and the captured colonists were returned. There were still a good twenty drones living among them peacefully, so the colony would still be well defended. All of the colonies in the Terminus system would get small shipments of drones sent in as a silent form of defense.
With a new ship being sent off to Hypnos for a refitting in design and crew, Agatha was thinking hard over various things. Garrus's breeders were neatly forming in her, and the turian was still recovering from what he went through. He was still in a state of shock.
"Is he gonna live?" Robert asked at the sight of the sleeping turian.
"He'll be fine. It was pretty much the same for you on your first time with me, remember?" she chuckled. "He just didn't know what to expect. He does now."
"I'm sure your blood will evolve him to take the next session neatly enough. However, I've been gleaning over some new memories. Where's John?" Alex asked when he walked over to sit on the bed with her. "I need to ask him a few questions."
"He's talking to Councilman David Anderson," Nick said.
:Thanatos. Find John. Ask him about…Omega.: Alex snickered.
:A new playground?! Oh, you know I will, my Emperor!: Thanatos chuckled darkly and was quick to find the office that held them both. "Knock, knock!"
"Who's there?" David asked calmly. John now looked over at Thanatos walking.
"Just someone who wants to pay the Omega district a visit and help fuck up the economy a little bit more," the King grinned. David took in a deep breath and let it out.
"It's not in Alliance territory. And, technically, your race isn't fully a part of the Alliance yet. You know what to look out for with all the memories you're gleaning. So, you know where to keep clear of. But, if I know how you all work…"
"You tell us where we shouldn't go, and we end up going there," Thanatos chuckled.
"Just don't tell anyone that the Alliance told you to go there," David said.
"We wouldn't do that. If they ask us about it, all we have to say is that we're not part of the Alliance. That they know of us, but we didn't join them. In truth, I think it's best for us to stay as a neutral party. We like to work for the side that's gonna win. So far, that's the Alliance. Everyone else is just a new form of a main course meal," the King grinned.
"You would really eat them?" David seemed to pale.
"We eat humans, too. But, Mother has been trying to curb us from that. I think thresher meat is gonna become our new staple for now. It's quite good!" he said.
"It's okay. Not too bad," John said with a form of agreement. At how David stared at him, he said, "Yes, they gave me some of it. I think it would do well as a new food resource."
"And how do we know that?" David frowned. Then he gaped at the heavy slice of slow roasted thresher placed in front of him by a drone. It was thinly sliced and garnished with a few sprigs of parsley to help it make look appetizing. He was starting to feel his mouth water. It smelled really good, too! "That…is from a…?"
"Yep! Go ahead. Try it. Tell me what ya think," Thanatos nodded.
"Trust me, David. It's not bad," John chuckled. The Councilman sighed, picked up the utensils and tasted a small portion. Now he found himself in complete awe.
"This is…surprisingly good…" he muttered and found himself eating another piece. "Okay. I need to do something now. Come with me. Both of you."
"What's that?" Thanatos asked. David picked up the plate, got up from his desk and started to walk out of his office. John now moved to follow, and the King was close behind. They reached another set of rooms, and David was allowed entry.
"They need to come with me, please. I am giving them clearance," David said to the guards. He walked into the asari Council chambers with them.
"David Anderson? Ah…what is…?" the asari woman blinked at the plate.
"Try it," David said. She looked at him curiously, but did as he asked.
"Wow! What is this?!" the asari gasped.
"Thresher meat," Thanatos grinned. Now she stared at him with disbelief. "and those things are massive. We have a good three year supply of this from how fast we've been killing them."
"We can ration this meat out to colonies in need. And, with threshers growing at such an alarming rate, this could be a readily available food supply. I wanted to bring this to your attention," David smiled.
"We can start shipping it out the moment we get clearance," Thanatos nodded. "We'll have our drones working nonstop to ensure the needs are met."
"I'm…very surprised at all this," the asari admitted. "We do have documentation about your race now. We are trying to glean more. But, just to know that you can actively kill threshers, and that you are offering some of your stores to help us…"
"We don't want to become a full part of your Alliance just yet," Thanatos said. "We will help you as a neutral ally on the side. We will help your Alliance grow stronger in the background. In truth, we can be a hidden form of your Spectres. You just give the word on what needs to be done. We'll simply do it. We'll even give the credit to someone else to help keep things under wraps. Like…John for example. We'll do something out of the way, give him the details, and he gives the report. We just love killing things to simply kill things. Of course, we do evaluate who we are going to kill before going in. However, since we are on the topic of killing things, we are slowly making our way into batarian space."
"What?!" she gaped and nearly dropped the plate being held. A drone appeared to take the plate of meat aside to set down. She didn't even know that a drone was hidden in the room!
"Anyways, yes. We are going to bring down the slaving ring. Completely," Thanatos grinned wickedly. "We're just showing off that we are the real threat to anyone that tries to become better than us. We respect those that respect us. We help those that give us a chance. We aren't all heartless, and we do take in the homeless that want to prove themselves. Even orphaned kids."
"You all sound like a bunch of vigilante mercs at times," John said.
"We can be just that," Thanatos shrugged. "Look at how you treat the krogan."
"Right," David sighed.
"How do you plan to bring down the slaving rings?" she asked.
"How else? From the inside," Thanatos nodded. "We already know of a way to infiltrate into their systems. We find out where they are going to be. Then we give them a true taste of Hell when they land to pick up some locals."
"A cold method for sure. Just do not bring the Alliance into this," she warned. "A meeting will need to be done about this."
"Why? You all won't know anything. We don't belong to your group. Just turn a blind eye to it. Now, for the thresher steaks, sure. I can get that. But, everything else? Fuck it. We'll handle that," Thanatos said calmly. "If the batarians come to you to bitch at what's going on, well, how can you talk to them if you don't have any idea as to what's happening?"
"It's not the point," she frowned. "We, the Council, represent a multitude of races-"
"Save the speech. I know," Thanatos said. His attitude completely reflected Alex's when it came to this. "So, I guess the only alternative to this is to do stuff that you aren't aware of. Right?"
"Stop!" David said quickly. "If you can't report to them, at least report to me!"
"But…why?" Thanatos frowned. Now they looked over at Alex walking in.
"Sorry for crashing the party. You. Fuck off," Alex growled at Thanatos. "Your Mother told me to come here to straighten this out."
"Yes, my Emperor," Thanatos nodded and walked away. As much as David was relieved that Alex was there to take over, he was also very wary. His instincts would prove correct, as always.
"I am here to tell you that in the next two hours another batarian slaving ship is coming here. We caught the Captain and dismantled the crew. Yes, the colonists were returned safely. Now, I will give you three choices," Alex said to the asari woman. "One, we interrogate the Captain to find out what he knows. Two, we simply let him go and curl up into a form of what mental ball he wants to hide himself in while pissing his pants. Three, we kill him and cover up everything. Maybe even blow up the ship, too. What do you think?"
"I…" the asari was in shock at how blunt and to the point everything was.
"I say interrogation," John said quickly. "We can find out where the slavers plan to appear."
"We really don't want him dead," David said. "If we can get a step ahead of where they plan to go, then that would be the best resolution."
"I must detest this," the asari finally said. "Your reasoning is just short of being a vigilante! And to do this without Council approval is something I cannot push forth."
"So, here we are trying to help you get rid of a problem that no one wants, and you're shutting us down? What the hell?!" Alex seemed to growl with distaste. "And, we aren't a part of your Alliance just yet. What I'm telling you is out of respectful courtesy."
:My love, I think it may be best for us to leave the Citadel once we bring that slaving ship here.: Agatha said to him in the link. :It's only obvious that we are not really welcomed here. It's been that way since we first arrived. We just need to leave and be done with it.:
"Hmm. My mate just told me that, after this is done with, it's time to leave this place," Alex frowned. At the questioning glance from John, he sighed. "We're not welcomed here. We try to solve a problem, and we get pushed aside. Let's face it. We are trying to stop criminal actions all over this fucked up galaxy, and what do we get for it? A slap in the face?"
"No! That's not the case at all!" she said quickly. "We understand what you are trying to do. It's just…we have to uphold an image for the races we represent. Your race is far too new. We cannot evaluate you properly. We know you wish to help, but how you want to go about it is something we cannot approve of. We don't know how you all react to certain things, either. Even by me having this private conversation with you without the other Council members is something that shouldn't be happening. This is all spiraling far too fast for us to keep up with."
"You should know how they are by now. They make the krogan look like nursery school bullies," John smirked slightly. "In my opinion, I think we need them. We need someone that isn't going to put up with the crap of any other races. We need a race that will go to war at the drop of a bullet and not worry about the consequences of their actions."
"We don't mind being the new form of dirty police," Alex shrugged. "We are trying to help you out with a food shortage, should it happen. We are already sending out drones as new guards to help take a load off your C-Sec employees. We are just now protecting new colonies from being stolen away. But, we are still being treated like shit. So, here is what we can do. We'll open up a building. A space station. A neutral zone. And, if anyone needs our help or services, they can pay us a visit."
"But, if those services require you to attack us…" David frowned.
"We know who respects us. We know who to fuck with and leave alone. If anyone suggests it, we'll call it a breach in contract," Alex grinned slightly. "It's what we do back on our home planet."
"Agreeing to such a thing is something we usually don't do right on sight," the asari frowned. "And, for the record, we had informed the C-Sec operatives to bring you to us when you arrived. We did wish to meet with you. For them to draw their guns…it was not our intention to greet you like that."
"We found out who did it. We were informed of that. But, the damage is already done," Alex said. He didn't say how that little issue was neatly cleaned up, though. He had mildly promised Venari to keep that secret under wraps. "In many cases, it may be best for us to just be a neutral ally to the Alliance. And, I'm sure we'd set up a small spot for gambling, hotel stays and anything else. It would help us make some form of other credits. And, with the surplus we make, we would donate to causes."
"Can I get a permanent room?" John had to ask.
"Sure! And we'll include a nice hot tub for ya," Alex chuckled. John chuckled and nodded at that. "But, I'm sure you understand why we feel we need to leave. In another week, we'll have our space station up and running smoothly."
"A week?!" the asari gaped.
"Yeah. I have a lot of kids that like to work," Alex smiled.
"Just let us know where. And, I want to go back to the topic of that batarian ship you're bringing in," David said. "What do you plan to do with the ship?"
"Ah. Yeah, we plan to hold onto it for our own purposes. We'll turn it into a cargo frigate. We're gonna need a few ships for all the supplies we plan to spread out," Alex said.
"That would make sense," John nodded. "We'll need to register it."
"Oh. You would, huh? Okay. We'll figure all of that out," he agreed. The asari had a lot of conflicting thoughts now. The viral mind was both good and bad. They were helping, but they were doing a lot of things that the Alliance was not approving of. At the same time, results were getting done.
"I must speak with the others," the asari finally said.
"I know. I'll join you," David nodded. "I can try to explain it better. If we are going to war with Alex's family helping us, we need this form of action. We are dealing with Reapers. Exterminators of all life as we know it. If something isn't going to act soon, then we need something to act now."
"Spoken like a true soldier," the asari sighed. "Let us speak with the other Council members."
"Fine. But, I will interrogate the batarian Captain when he gets here," Alex snorted.
"As a Spectre, I'll represent the Council and join you. To help report," John said.
"Sure, sure," Alex muttered. When they got out of earshot, he growled out, "You know I'm going to fuck up the Captain. Right?"
"You know I'm not going to stop you. Right?" John muttered back. They both looked at each other, shook hands and went to the ship docks to wait for the slaving ship to appear. They talked about different trade routes, currency needs and supplies that would be needed to dispersed to the colonies that were too far out for immediate protection.
Alex was also asking questions about Omega, the problems there and various factors on economy. He was quite interested in the vorcha race. He even mused at the hidden idea of letting loose a couple trained Hunters into the mercenary buildings just to piss off everyone. Hermanubis would likely have them ready to go at a moment's notice.
:My Emperor. We have arrived.: A drone nudged him.
"The ship is outside, but out of detection zones. We need to get to it. Is there something we can use?" Alex asked. "Do you have an idea?"
"A bit tricky right now. I would say to bring the batarian here, but we know that C-Sec will intervene. We do have emergency vehicles that we can use. Or I just use my Spectre skills to get us there. The Council knows that we plan to talk to a batarian," John mused aloud. "Let me call Anderson and find out what we can do."
"Okay. I'll wait here," Alex nodded. John got up and went to a kiosk to fire it up. After a short conversation, John walked over, tapped on his shoulder and gestured for Alex to follow him.
"Special access is granted. We can pilot a small ship used for quick escapes. I'd use the Normandy, but everyone knows when she leaves and comes back. We need to be discreet," John sighed.
"Hmm. How long will this take? Agatha will be due for birth soon. Another four hours, if the timeline is right for breeder eggs. Ah, fuck…" Alex sighed. "Agatha wants to play, too…"
"What?" John frowned.
"Yeah, she's bitching. Okay. We have to wait for her to give birth. We need to bring that guy here. Is there a way we can do that? Wait. We can. We'll need Agatha's help for it," Alex mused.
"How?" John asked.
"She can use her hair to make an invisible shield. We knock out the Captain to keep him from squealing. We bring him to our room with her covering him. Yeah. We need her help," Alex said and was quick to start walking back to his room.
"Let me report to Anderson," John said. Alex nodded, and they parted ways. Several drones were going to ensure that John was safe. There were a good five hundred drones in the Citadel now from all the breeding out the Kings and breeders were doing. It was needed. And, in the next hour, that number was going to triple from the waiting eggs in various hidden tentacles around the Citadel.
"About time you showed up!" Agatha grumbled. Garrus was standing up in his armor and shaking his head. Robert was laughing at him.
"I know you warned me," Garrus growled at him.
"You lucked out by passing out when it was done," Robert said.
"It made you feel bad?" Agatha frowned.
"No! Of course not! I was just…not expecting it," Garrus said quickly.
"You'll adjust for next time," Alex said when he walked over. "You have some time. And you're still growing slowly. It's not the fast stage yet. If you let Robin carry you, you can cloak around it. Same with Nick and the others. Deal?"
"Okay. Let's do this," she nodded.
"Hmm?" Garrus asked.
"We're roughing up a slaver Captain," Lelantos beamed when he peered into the doorway.
"You know what?" Agatha mused aloud. At everyone glancing at her, she said, "Lelantos, you consider yourself rather stealthy. Surely…you can sneak him in…"
"Don't bother…" a quiet, gruff voice sounded out. "I have him."
"Oh?" Agatha smiled at the sight of a King with storm grey eyes and black hair tossing the Captain into the main room. His Queen moved in after that to embrace her grandmother. "Oceanus and Ran! What a pleasant surprise."
"We just arrived. We heard what was going on. Oceanus insisted to help out. He is the fastest one next to our Emperor," she giggled. "We got on the ship and retrieved him. Oceanus ran him here the moment the transport ship docked. No one even saw him!"
"Good!" Agatha beamed. Then she waved at John when he walked in. He was a touch surprised at seeing the Captain, but he nodded to show he was ready to watch what went down.
"Set up a chair," Alex smirked. Once the Captain was tied down and alert, Alex grinned wickedly. Then he revealed his claws. "Hi. You met my kids on your ship. I'm known as the Emperor. And my claws have names, too. One is named 'Fuck'. The other is named 'You'. If you don't answer my questions, I get to put them together inside you and rip you a new one. What do you think?"
"Ah…" the batarian Captain gaped. Agatha was dying with laughter in the other room. The others were just as amused, but still curious as to what was going to come out of the Captain's mouth. Alex had all the time in the world to coax out the answers. He couldn't wait to see what information would be spilled forth for him to glean without getting a drop of blood. He considered it a challenge. And, if he needed more coaxing, Spike was hissing at the unknown scent and barely kept calm by Agatha's tentacled hair. The batarian male was going to talk one way or another. There was no other choice for him if he wanted to keep his life.