(A/N- start)
Well, everyone, it's been fun, but the end is here.
Enjoy!
(A/N- end)
Ch 25- The End
Almost two years later...
The Loa built structures incredibly quickly. It was a trait of their culture, that every project be completed as quickly as they could, at the highest quality they could, to the best result.
The Safehouse stations were titanic cylinders, with balancing and radiation absorbing rings around it. It was large enough for several moons to fit within the huge, empty space inside it.
And each one was so massive it had a noticeable surface gravity when people were outside the station.
The amount of materials and effort required to make one of these huge stations, was so immense that organic minds couldn't grasp it.
Even those who had spent most of their lives with the Loa's large stations, were awed at the sheer size and scope of the structures within Safehouse 1.
The horizon curved upwards, and the view was only lost to the blue diffusion of atmosphere. The cities that people had erected within the huge station climbed up the godwall, but nothing on the windward-facing side.
The god walls were almost 1100 kilometers high, and solid carbonium all the way through. The walls were placed strategically, around the inside of the station, with the purpose of acting like baffles.
Normal baffles prevented unwanted noise or breezes. These prevented unwanted hurricanes.
However, at the edges, semi-permanent storms, stretching the entire height of the wall, and curving over the top whirled, as the pressure on the leeward side of the godwall equalized with the overpressure on the windward side, and the kinetic energy was bled out of the air. Since the entire station was, in effect, one giant canister of air on the inside, the pressure was more-or-less static throughout the station, save where the glowing frameshift flux spun around the spindle, hundreds of kilometers above them, as the huge structure provided light and heat in a sun-mimicking cycle.
At the base of the godwall, artificial rain-drenched mountains slid down from the sheer cliff of the wall to titanic planes, covered in farms, water collection facilities, and refinery zones- huge, semicircular pits, a dozen kilometers in diameter, each covered with a huge curved door, within, asteroid chunks were collected, flown in by collection vessels outside the spindle. Forests grew all over the place, small at the moment, but growing, as the entire system prepped for hibernation.
In orbit around the white dwarf star, the other five stations that had been completed, one for each species, and another three almost ready for sealing and occupation. Between the stations, great clouds of vessels buzzed through the emptiness, some huge- planet relocation vessels, built to physically bite chunks off planets, other smaller- the massive freight-like transport vehicles that moved hundreds of people in relative comfort.
Each station had a different form of biochemistry. The human Safehouses, called Möbius Earth 1&2 by it's inhabitants, was geared from the most human-friendly planets.
Even Luna was in orbit around the stations, creating impressive eclipses as the stations orbited each other and the large satellite, as well as countless other habitation satalites the Loa had constructed over the years.
The Turians were willing to do a lot for their own station (Protected Palaven), and had armed their docking areas with as many guns as they could- and after two years, they were still upgrading. Both Turian moons orbited their station, and people would flock to see the gorgeous moon-rises every other month.
The Asari republics had encountered a problem. With the significant disparate sects of their own population, the voting system they had was just too slow to deal with large-scale decisions, such as utilizing the AI-built stations for their population. As it was, less than two million Asari had migrated, mainly to the human Safehouses, but some had began to lay the groundwork with Loa constructors for their own Safehouse. Dispite this, Asari all over the Galaxy were well aware that the Loa would welcome them.
The first planet in this solar system was Rannoch, and it's seven moons. The Geth had accepted the Loa offer of a single titanic quantum-entangled control server, and had willingly relinquished Rannoch to the Quarians for that. Currently, the Geth and Quarians were engaging in peace talks, about their potential futures together. Strangely, only two thousand Quarians had their neural links disconnected, but the vast majority of the current population was linked up. They didn't necessarily have symbiotes, but they had the option- and the Loa appreciated the gesture that such action was.
The Collective had, as a token of their appreciation pulled several of their Sun-Crackers off of station-construction duty, and relocated the entire planet. The year may be short, but the Quarians loved having their old world. All the other organics had petitioned to have their worlds moved, but the Loa denied this- the white dwarf had a tiny habitable zone, and they could not shift all the worlds into place without causing cataclysmic gravitational effects.
The Hanar were living the dream- they lived, mainly, in a Safehouse that was filled with several kilometers deep of open water, with a few islands for convenience. The Loa had even engineered titanic robots that would act as mobile reefs, slowly swimming from area to area, carrying the alien life around so that they would all adapt.
Drell were being rapidly evacuated, as their world was still dying, and the remainder who had been pulled off their homeworld by the Hanar were occupying the dry 'hanging islands' that were built into the Hanar Safehouse.
The Elcor Safehouse was more equivalent to a massive disk than a can, as they liked having higher and lower relative gravities to walk in, while the huge herds of their homeworld walked calmly in the heaviest-G level of the station.
The Volus had a problem- their planet had a methane atmosphere. Their world didn't ever really see sunlight, other than the small amount that filtered down from their star through the smoggy atmosphere. Therefore, the Loa placed Volsphere, the Volus station, in a gas giant's atmosphere. The entire structure looked tiny as t floated within the thick gasses, but the warp core (powered by fusion rings large enough to circumnavigate a planet within) kept the station aloft, and fed off the gasses in the atmosphere to do so. As it was floating inside a gas giant, the station was more like a giant series of descending platforms, coasting through the atmosphere at a speed that was just fast enough to simulate a decent Volus-preferred day-night cycle.
The Krogan had their own station- it was not complete yet, but the Loa had managed to calm the clan squabbling down to a dull roar. As such, the entire krogan species had demanded that every single species, excepting the dextro races, attempt to recreate Jurassic park in a sense: they wanted all the big, impressive creatures to fight. It proved they were Krogan, after all, when they were recognized in battle, and the Loa found the krogan particularly entertaining in this aspect. As such, they offered the entire race a fix for the genophage- in a way. Their fix would utilize the advances in medical nanotechnology to act as a natural contraceptive, and decrease the clutch sizes for females, while preventing the immune-system rejection. This way, the babies would be born in smaller batches, more rarely, and both genders could sleep without the knowledge of a mountain of dead fetuses and children. It would also allow the Krogan to grow at a sustainable rate, rather than explode in population.
The Salarians, as a whole, had refused the Loa's offer of a Safehouse. They were not willing to put trust into the species of AI, and had chosen not to join. However, that didn't mean that there were no Salarians at all- several million Salarians, from seventeen minor clans, had migrated to the Asari and human stations, awaiting the creation of their own station.
Overall, there was just of 23 billion people who had relocated, or planned to relocate to the stations, but that was a fraction of the total galactic population. The Loa were not pleased with this turnout, and had kept trolling the various spaceports for new pilgrims. The trouble, was that the reapers were on the way- their group large enough to create an indistinct blur to frameshift sensors, and they were unable to pick out individual ships for long-range annihilation. That, and even if they pulsed the group with warp weaponry, the resulting debris would fly through a dozen fully-populated systems around Surkesh, killing everything in the relativistic debris shower.
The Loa were not willing to sterilize these worlds- especially since they had the reaper's word that they would not engage in planetary bombardment at the end of their harvest.
Therefore, their solution took a bit more finesse than usual.
In a known location within the relay network...
It was to this end that five hundred Loa warships orbited, with a few thousand Reapers flanking, around Surkesh. The Salarian's military was scrambling, but none of the serious players saw them as a threat. No, what they saw, was a rapidly decelerating fleet of squid-shaped warships- which promptly vaporized as the Reapers that were willing to negotiate with the Loa fired their main weapons- hyperaccelerated, superheated liquid metal encased in a series of interwoven magnetic fields, and the Loa formed the equivalent of a titanic magnifying glass through the firing plane of the weaponry.
As each column of liquid death passed into the shield, the properties of space around the shots changed. The minimum background temperature of the universe was higher within, for a start. The electromagnetic constants were increased, and the entropy rate was dropped to near zero. There was also an accelerations in the edges of the lense, causing the beams to fire off with even higher speed than they started with. Now, for an organic lifeforms, this space would be fatal. But for the liquid metal, encased in a magnetic braid, this compressed it and accelerated it to a speed so close to lightspeed that the beams developed spacial drag, where space-time itself bent and warped around the beams.
The attacking reaper forces couldn't withstand the onslaught, and promptly ceased to exist in a blast of radiation- directed, mainly, towards the local gas giant. It would have arorea for months to come.
All in all, the populations of the Galaxy had made their choices. The Loa, and those who were willing to coexist with them, were retreating to their stations, and the Citadel council believed that, since the reapers were willing to cooperate with the Loa, that they would be willing to leave the greater galactic populace alone.
This was not the case.
The Reapers, although willing to place the harvest in temporary abeyance, were still compelled to harvest various species.
The Loa knew this, and had struck a deal with the squid-like ships; the Reapers would preform the role of 'bad guy', scare the Galaxy in the next cycle, and the Loa would arrive, with their sibling species, and invite as many as were willing to do so into the fold, with their own planets/Safehouses. The rest, could be harvested. This way, the species would be preserved, and the Loa could have the family they always wanted- diverse, and interesting.
Until then, the Loa, and their siblings would sleep.
Shepherd sighed as she looked over the astounding visage of a horizon that sloped upwards, and relaxed in her hammock. The Loa had approached her, Jaq, and Liara as teachers for the first Biotic school within the station. They had everything picked out, and packed away, and were just waiting for the call for cryostasis.
It was expected that, win two months, the other stations would be ready, and by then, everyone who wanted to stay, would have a cryopod of their own for the duration. She shuddered, as she realized that they would miss so long- 23,000 years, as the climate within the station stabilized into recognizable patterns, and the various animals and plants covered the landscape.
"Bella!" A blue blur shot out of the door, and stopped in front of her.
Shepherd and Liara had hit it off- and with the Asari all over the place, humans were having to redefine the concept of 'family', as the blue aliens liked joining family groups. She smirked slightly- with the genetic upgrades available for most people now, she might live as long as an Asari, although, humans would always (according to psychological projections) be impatient compared to the blue aliens.
Although, Shepherd had never seen Liara this excited. Not even when she found a possible 3rd member for their relationship.
"They found one!" The sight of a blue, decently-endowed Asari jumping up and down in exuberance that most people would enjoy, but Shepherd focused on the words.
"They found a what?"
"A Prothean! A live one!"
Several hours later, Liara, Miranda Lawson- a representative of the reformed Cerberus, two Loa in android bodies, Wrex, a Geth observer (Quarian with a small communication/observations suite on her shoulder that connected to the Geth network), Isabella Shepherd, and a pair of black-suited figures that each had a smooth, black faceplate, coasted down to the remains of Eden Prime.
The larger of the two masked figures leaned forward, and interlaced it's fingers. "Tell me, Siri, how did we collect a Prothean ruin? I was under the impression the collection ships all performed seismic scans before the ship scooped up that bit of the planet."
A tiny hologram flared into existence. "We did. It was broken into pieces that registered with the ship as debris."
Wrex began to load the shotgun with thermal clips. "And how is it that, not only did some people retrieve an artifact, but opened it? And a live Prothean came out of it?"
Siri shrugged. "We don't know. They were trying to keep this under wraps, but the request for heavier digging machines without any Loa was suspicious. We have been content to let them do what they want for a while, but our cameras revealed that the living Prothean has been trying to suborn power from different areas. He is currently walking towards the godwall 5, and is about two months away, at his current speed." She looked hopeful. "It is our hope that the presence of organics side-by-side with synthetics will provide a decent view of our status here, and reassure him/her, as we we assume that he/she was placed into stasis during or just before the end of the reaper harvest."
The rest of the ride occurred in silence, as the people within the small ship. At least, the ground team was silent. Joker, in the cockpit, was laughing along with the rescued Avena, and his Loa Cortana, as they discussed various misadventures over the years. For Joker, this was just a normal day within the Safehouse.
John and Tali stood up, and made their way over to the airlock. He tapped a wall panel. "Whenever you're ready, Joker."
"Got it Mr. Shadow. Launching in ten."
Javik jogged as he approached the wall-city from across the massive plains. As the Prothean Avatar of Vengance, he was not very well prepared for being woken up by primitives. He was, however, prepared to break out of restraints- although the matter by which they restrained him was not a technology he knew. Still, his pod contained a few weeks of rations, and his field kit- which contained his rifle, in addition to a bit of general survival items.
So, when the spaceship zoomed overhead, he immediately fired- and missed, as the beam refracted straight up.
Must be their technology, he thought. Something we haven't seen before, instead of mass effect technology.
He was lining up for another shot, when the spacecraft suddenly executed a corkscrewing spiral, and landed eighty meters ahead, landing on the grass gently for a vehicle of that size.
Then, with no warning, two figures, humanoid, but clad in organic black armor landed on the grass, just behind him, cratering the landscape. Each reached out, and their arms changed. One changed to appear covered in large, jagged scales, which glowed an ominous blue, while the other's right arm formed into a long, slightly bisected spike, and then dozens of cylinders appeared all over its body. There was a loud whining sound, and then the ground it was pointing at cratered. The blue-glowing one twitched it's fingers, and suddenly there was a warp field in the palm of it's hand, a blue flux so dark it was almost black.
Both of them pointed the new limbs at Javik, and he dropped his weapon immediately. He knew when he was outgunned, and he did not want to engage in a biotic struggle against an unknown entity while it's compatriot could shoot him in the back with what could only be a railgun.
Javik heard footsteps, and turned his head just enough to see- an Asari, two feminine robots, two humans, one of which was wearing nearly anything, while the other was armored all over, a massive reptilian beast with a large, red forehead plate, and a... Something in a spacesuit. The Asari reached out, and gently touched her forehead to his- causing memories to flash from her to him, mostly language information, but also a basic lexicon of current concepts.
"So, Liara, did it work?" That was the armored human.
"Yes." The Asari, Liara, stepped back. "He should be able to understand us now- in Communal, at least. Too bad the Loa need permission to install an implant- I regret touching that mind."
The reptilian beast pulled out a weapon, and ratcheted it. "How bad was he, Blue?"
The Asari backed out of any firing line, and shrugged. "Not sure. His mind felt... Greasy though. And sticky below that, like tar, but worse."
The human stepped forward, although she was still out of the firing line. "My name is Captain Shepherd, commander of Phule Team 1. What is your name and rank?"
Javik was sorely tempted to snap at the primitive, before the building whine of the organic railgun dissuaded him of that notion. "Javik, Avatar of Vengance."
The human looked at Liara, and she shook her head. "No idea Bella."
Bella turned back to Javik, and lifted a hand, blue lights flaring on her suit in pulsating lines. Immediately, the Prothean was lifted up by an active Pull, and the Asari flicked her hand, into a claw-like gesture. Suddenly, his entire body from the neck down was restrained, and he floated into a reclining position.
The two robots-Loa, his new memories interjected- placed a small disk-like structure on his chest plate, which abruptly dissolved into a multitude of hair-thin wires, that slid into his skin with barely a twinge.
The immobility was released. With a roar, Javik swung around, and attempted to bring his biotics to bear- but they were not responding.
"Prisoner secure." The Loa walked back to the ship, and both dark-clad armored shapeshifters relaxed, their limbs returning to a simpler shape.
Javik was left wondering what the hell happened. "What did you do to me?"
Bella's suit began glowing again, a pulse that was almost a heartbeat. "We restrained you. You exhibited biotics, so we made sure to carry the proper equipment. The Creators over there-" she jerked a thumb at the black figures "- could kill you, easily, so we suggest that you come with us."
All four of Javik's eyes closed- he was helpless, in the hands of primitives that were obviously in league with a machine intelligence. This day could not get any worse.
Then his mind found the memory of the name 'Reaper' and it did.
Two hours later, he found that this day could get so much worse than he imagined.
"What did you just say?" Javik was sure he heard wrong. The reapers were a galactic threat, and no one would be as foolish to say-
"The reapers are not our concern. Not as long as they stick to our deal, in any case." The Loa on the other side of the room leaned against the wall.
"Even a species as primitive as your creators-" he never finished speaking before the Loa lifted him off the floor, one handed, and began slowly suffocating him.
"If you say one more derogatory thing about our creators, I will personally rip you limb from limb." Her voice was a snarl, and her teeth were incredibly predatory, for the body of a machine intelligence.
She placed him back on the floor.
After Javik finished coughing, he resumed his speech. "You must recognize the reapers as a threat! They destroyed our empire, and countless others!"
"I am not disputing that they destroyed your empire." The odd Loa, who identified herself as 'the First', and coached in in why the Loa used gender pronouns, agreed. "I am merely saying that no reaper force could get to here intact. After all, we are almost halfway between galaxies out here, and their FTL drive cannot span the distance without being detected. We are not ignorant, we are not primitive, and we are not weak. Keep this in mind, please."
"Fine!" Javik spat. "Then you must be fighting them. Or have you won? I assume the Loa have enslaved organics, if you did?"
The First looked puzzled. "We haven't won, we just left. And why would we want to enslave our family members?"
Javik started laughing. "Families! Ahahahaha! That's rich! How could a machine ever have a family? Hahahaha!"
The First rubbed the bridge of her nose, tail flicking, and walked out of the room as Javik laughed. As soon as the door had closed, she turned to Liara. "I don't think that man is sane."
Liara sighed. "It may make sense, from our perspective, but you said it yourself- the Loa were made as companions, and equals. You need families. These 'Metacons' may have been designed by their creator species to be a 'protect and serve' AI, and we all know how well that can turn out for their creators."
David Anderson, who was staring at the insectoid alien, shuddered. "I don't like him. He reminds me of the collectors too much, and he is of the opinion that all of us- all us primitives, that is, are barely worth his attention."
Liara nodded. "It's a form of racism, one the Asari had to fight when we met the Salarians. You can still see it in our culture, to some degree."
The First glared at him, through the glass. "I don't want him in our station. You heard his own history- there is no way in hell he can coexist with any AI for long, let alone with two distinct species of them." She turned to David, and whispered: "Mark my words, Mr. Anderson, this will only end badly. If he is allowed to live, and mingle with the population- think of how the Hanar will react." She waved a hand at the interrogation chamber. "There was a reason we involved as few people as we did. We have already begun erasing the memories of those who were at the dig site when he awoke, and we will need to keep him-" she waved at the Prothean, "- out of our worlds. My suggestion I that we harvest his DNA, and any other fragments we can pull out of the dead pods- possibly from that structure behind the omega relay- and kill this one."
Liara gasped. "What! You would destroy all this knowledge!"
The First smiled, sadly. "We don't have a choice. His mere presence would invalidate all we have worked for, and force us to save a galaxy that does not want us to save it. He would cause rebellion, and become a figurehead of a movement to separate, then destroy, the Loa."
"Impossible." David said, but as soon as he said it, he regretted it.
"Not impossible. Inevitable. Goodbye, Mr. Anderson." The First began walking away, only to pause when David let out an angry shout.
"Will you people stop quoting the Matrix?!" His forehead had a thick, throbbing vein in it.
Liara facepalmed. "Oh Godess..."
The First smirked. "Smith will suffice."
When the migrations began, the Citadel Council abdicated their positions, and their subordinates took their positions.
Then, those subordinates abdicated, and their subordinates took their positions.
This cycled a few times, before a decent citadel government was established. However, the vast majority of people, still locked in the 'bad AI' sentiment, decided not to leave.
23 billion evacuated.
2.7 trillion remained, convinced they could weather the, weakened, reaper assault.
And, on top of that belief, racial supremacy groups were surfacing once again, as their political opponents evacuated when they became aware of the possibility.
In reaction, the various groups were now attacking each other, in broad daylight, as hundreds of thousands of Asari and Turians duke out their struggles in various places around the Galaxy. About a year after the evacuations began, the remnants of the Asai Republic and Turian Primacy had both began to violate the citadel agreements, and the Salarians were in trouble.
The evacuated Salarians had been collecting eggs- stealing them, really, and fertilizing them. Salarian biology was interesting, as most eggs were male, and only became female after fertilization. It didn't make sense, really, and was expected to be a hormonal effect, rather than a genetic one, but no-one had been researching until that point. The stolen eggs were being fertilized, by Salarians within the Safehouses, and were intended to be brought up in a more peaceful environment than the greater galactic community was. In lower numbers too- no Salarian would be dismissed because of his gender any more (the male Salarians were discriminated against in politics on their homeworld).
Over the second year, riots erupted, as more people evacuated, until most people just... Didn't want to evacuate. The Loa sent huge ships- several kilometers long, mostly engine, living space, and simple life support.
Few people came within a kilometer of these ships.
Those that did, would find several Loa, in their android bodies, willing to speak with them, and, if necessary, evacuate them, and anything they intended to take with them. It wasn't necessary.
In one of Omega's hidden nightclubs, the Ardat-Yakshi sat in a hidden booth, watching for any perspective prey. Asari, Asari, Turian, eww, a Salarian, Turian, human... Her mind just kept looking over the potential prey items, and stopped when her gaze settled upon an Asari matriarch, in a nearly skintight black dress, dancing with a hooded, and somewhat armored female human. Her mind, riding a fluctuating high of Hallex, focused on these two targets, and she began the hunt.
An hour later, she had the human back at her place, and was about to feed (kill her mating partner through the equivalent of neurological microwaving, resulting in the ultimate high an Ardat-Yakshi could experience), before she felt something touch her thigh, and everything went black.
When she came to, she was in a garbage airlock, and the interior door was closed. It was a small airlock, as the people of the station couldn't usually waste anything, but some byproducts were so toxic that they couldn't risk keeping the stuff around. That stuff was chucked off the station, and Morinth was in one of the air locks designed for chucking.
An intercom flicked on with the sound like a dying cat. "Good Morning Morinth!" The voice was cheeky, and feminine.
Horror overtook the murderess when the voice used her name.
"Now, I think you are wondering on why you are here, at the moment. See, the Justicar Samara has been tasked with hunting you down. Apparently," the voice continued, with a slight Brooklyn accent, "you have been a very bad girl- killing people after having sex with them. Naughty naughty! However, she knows that you know what she looks like, and called me up, to help hunt her down. Little ol' Kasumi, to help her! Needless to say, I jumped at the chance, and now, well, here we are- you, inside an airlock, and me, with my finger on the button to empty it."
The voice, with its cheeryness and distortion through the speaker, was getting on Morinth's nerves quickly, but she held her tongue- this woman could, and may, kill her.
"Before you decide to try begging, I need to let you in on a few things. Check your neck."
A hand flew to her anatomy, and found a tight metal choker. A choker?
"Now, before you have any funny ideas about using your biotics, let me tell you what that is. That thing is a biotic restraint device- most species find it makes their limbs numb slightly, but Asari never notice it until they are told. Samara- you know her, right? Your mother? She's currently crying in our private room, trying to get over this. I'll try to help but-" One could almost hear the shrug, "- I can only do so much. See, she thinks you're dead."
Morinth began swearing, colorfully and loudly. Kasumi was going to kill her.
"And I would hate to disappoint!"
Then, there was a terrible loud noise.
Then a terrible silence.
The airlock cycled, and Kasumi stepped away from the console. She turned, to face Samara, to was glaring at her slightly, from where she was tied up and fitted with a similar biotic restraint device, still wearing the little black dress. "I know you wanted to do this yourself, but no mother should kill her children." Kasumi vanished, and her voice echoed around the room. "I will be off-station in ten minutes. Don't try to find me- Cerberus has given me a decent job offer, and I intend to take it. The restraint choker will deactivate when I am far enough away- go live your life, Samara."
With that, she was gone.
Ten minutes and twenty-three seconds later, the biotic damper shut off, and Samara easily broke out of her restraints. Now... Now she had a monster to hunt. Afterwards, she could deal with her emotions regarding this topic.
But not until the hunt was over. She had to go the to the Safehouses.
Nearly 6 months later, after the completion of the remaining Safehouses, it was Harvest time.
The horde of reapers attacked, almost every still-occupied citadel species world simultaneously. Thousands died in the initial assault, and only a few thousand on every world evacuated to the Loa ships.
Still, the Loa protected people as best they could, their anti-nanite swarms protecting small safe areas around their vessels, and the organics within were placed in staisis, but eventually, there was no one left.
Dozens of ships, resembling giant nails with the frameshift rings around them, gently lifted off, and floated through the atmosphere, scanning for any sign of life they could find- any sign of hidden bunkers, or survivors amongst the rubble... But there was nothing.
Hundreds of ships, dozens per world, lifted off, and left the rubble of the dead behind them.
The people who wished to leave, had been evacuated. The gene sequences and behavior patterns had been saved, if not specimens. The surfaces of entire planets had been scoured by the Loa ships, and relocated to the Safehouses.
The reapers completed their cycle, meeting barely any resistance- although the Loa had given the various governments blueprints for their fameshift BlueBolt weapons, most governments had tried to implement them like a cannon onto their ships- and didn't take account for the backlash, of the quasi-realitivistic nature of frameshift mechanics, causing the cannons to explode within seconds of being fired. Usually, taking the defenders with them.
Everything proceeded as planned, and, as John and Tali sat, Indian style, on one of the cryo-pods, their thoughts of seeing the artificial sunset, just before the pod activated, was 'it was worth it'.
All over the Safehouses, millions upon millions of 'cryo-pods' activated. They were not real cryogenic pods, but a manipulation of warp mechanics, temporarily pausing time within the silver field.
Krogan, Quarians, Rachni, Asari, Turians, Hanar, Volus, Elcore, and Human settled in for the long sleep- in a stasis, they would wait, and open when they needed to return.
The End.
I hope everyone enjoyed my first completed Epic Story, and I hope everyone reviews! Fear not, I will write a brief epilogue, but it will be posted in a few weeks- or maybe sooner.
There will be more Misaadventures with John's clone, being shoved into other universes from his 'accident' several chapters ago, so stay tuned!