War is the unfolding of miscalculations.
- Barbara Tuchman

The Citadel - Councilor Aethyta

February 19th, 2176

"Explain yourself, Sapias!" Aethyta barked, barging into the turian councilor's chambers unannounced.

"I can't, but I assure you, I will shoot someone for this. Personally, if I can," Sapias thrummed, her eyes glued to a intelligence readout. "It was a holdover! An ancient precaution! One we didn't dare tell the League about, nor did we dare to use. Whoever authorized it, they WILL suffer. I assure you of that, Aethyta."

"Then you admit that the bomb was yours?" Aethyta demanded, her eyes blazing with fury. "By the goddess, we are not ready! Not by a long shot! A war now could destroy us! We're going to bleed for this Sapias. Badly. Make no mistake."

"I know. But there is nothing I can do. I've already sent a dispatch to the League embassy disavowing the action. This is their response." Sapias tuned the holo so the image grew large enough for Aethyta to read.

"Remember the Belari. Remember the Kelphic. Consider this your formal declaration, murderers," Aethyta read aloud. Then she swore long, colorfully, and passionately. "Is this from Arcturus?"

"No, this is just from Koris. But if he's this angry about it, you can damn well believe that Arcturus is going to be out for blood. We're mobilizing our fleets now."

"And we've already mobilized ours," a new voice declared.

Sapias and Aethyta turned to see a very, very pissed off Councilor Valern glaring at them. "Well. I never thought I'd see the day that the turians would be so blindingly STUPID as to actually use that bomb without informing their allies. You had to know what the response would be. Did you know you actually managed to get Urdnot Wrex? To the krogan, he's about the closest thing to a god they have, after a giant worm. By the egg, do you have ANY idea what this is going to be like? A thousand times worse than the Rebellions!"

"I wasn't aware of this. Neither was Primarch Ceezar. None of high command authorized this," Sapias snarled.

Valern snorted. "That's all completely irrelevant now. The salarian fleet is headed for Stargate as we speak. We have to pray we hit the League before their fleets launch. Because if they do, I guarantee that at least some of our worlds will burn. And I assure you, Palaven is first on that list."

Ship of the Salarian Union Dalatrass' Wisdom, Euler System- Admiral Sazzec Vass

February 19th, 2176

Admiral Vass stood on his command deck, radiating a sense of calm and poise that he didn't actually feel. Despite his facade, he was praying fervently to every Dalatrass he could think of that the stealth systems would hold up. Good numbers during testing were a positive sign, but Vass knew that the real test came during combat. And due to the pressing time constraints, his entire fleet had been forced to use mass relays into the Euler system feet first, which was as good as waving enormous flags that they had arrived.

Now they were under stealth and scattering in preplanned patterns, praying that they could get close enough to disable the mass relay leading to the Citadel races' home systems. Priorities were naturally Sur'Kesh, Palaven and Thessia. He'd dispatched task forces to deal with the relay pointing at Khar'Shan, but that wasn't critical. While the batarians were important to the Citadel, they were not vital like the major races were. That, and they'd dug their own grave with their ill timed assault on the human colonies. How they had managed to scrounge all those ships was a mystery to the STG at the moment, but they were going to find out, one way or another. Hopefully, they wouldn't have to kill too many batarians first.

"Sir!" one of the bridge officers called. "The squadron dispatched to the Kher'shan relay just tripped over a League frigate laying doggo! They're being painted by active LADAR. "

Vass nodded, struggling to keep up his veneer of calm. Stealth systems did no good against active LADAR painting. They only hid a ship's emissions by storing them in massive capacitors and heat banks. Against active scanners, they didn't do much.

"Very well, have them break off and-"

Vass' jaw dropped as the carrier leading the Kher'shan squadron exploded into tiny fragments. Within moments, her two dreadnaught escorts did the same.

ILS Olympus - Admiral Han'Gerral

"Three direct hits sir," the Olympus' tactical officer reported. "All targets destroyed with a single hit."

"Very good. That should give them pause. Now we just have to find those other three squadrons," Gerral calmly replied. Inside, he felt a gut twisting mixture of exultation at the success of the three new Olympus Class Super-dreadnaughts and worry that they'd only found what had to be the smallest of the four squadrons. The others had literally vanished into empty void. It was only pure luck that the Niagolon had been in the path of the squadron they had found.

Damn the Citadel and their stealth systems! Rael raged inwardly. He had known they were puting them on frigates, and by extension maybe cruisers and fighters too, but dreadnaughts and carriers? Intel had really fumbled that one. Not that Gerral could blame them too much. He wouldn't have believed it was possible to make a ship that size invisible to long range scanners. Now he knew it was entirely too feasible.

"Keep up the search! If they destroy those relays, our chances of striking at the Citadel's heart go right down the tube!"

SSU Dalatrass' Wisdom - Admiral Vass

Vass felt his skin drying and cracking, and it was only his self discipline that prevented him from nervously scratching at it. There was no weapon in the known galaxy that should be able to shatter a carrier's or dreadnaught's barriers and take them out in a single hit. Or at least, the Salarian Union hadn't known of any such weapons. Obviously, the League possessed them. Vass had run the numbers on the magnitude of firepower that would be needed to do that, and he did not like the answers he was coming up with.

And whatever it was, either its rate of fire was ridiculous, or the League had more than one. The three ships had been destroyed within seconds of one another, and Vass' ships hadn't detected any League units in the area aside from the frigate. There was no way that the League had managed to cram that much firepower into a frigate, was there? No, of course not. But the only other emissions detected that resembled a weapon discharge had been from the League formation that was over thirty light seconds away from the destroyed squadron. That was much too far for a successful shot...wasn't it? Vass wasn't quite certain about that.

"Coming up on the Sur'Kesh relay, Admiral," the helm reported.

"Hold fire until all units are within optimum firing range," Vass ordered. "Our first attack MUST be successful. Pass similar orders to all other squadrons via tight beam burst."

"Aye sir."

The minutes slowly dragged by, and Vass continued to observe the readouts. That League Squadron was sitting relatively equidistant from each of the relay's Vass was targeting. But that was absurd. They were about 45 light seconds away from the relays. Even accounting for the fact that Vass' own units were going to engage at five light seconds away, that meant that they were going to be at least 40 light seconds from Vass' units. By the time they could get close enough to engage, it would be too late. True, each relay had some fixed defenses and mobile units nearby to engage Vass' ships, but they couldn't hope to stop him before he crippled the relays.

Unlike the relays constructed by the ancients, the League relays, and the Citadel ones for that matter, lacked the molecular shielding that was impervious to nearly any assault. They would be devilishly hard to permanently destroy, but crippling them wouldn't be too hard. All Vass needed to do was to buy the Citadel's forces time enough to mobilize. And that would take only a few minutes of bombardment. The League ships would never get there in time, even with their super powered weapons.

Unless... Vass did some quick math. "Eggshells," he muttered. That was it. Somehow, those Leaguer bastards had figured out a way to extend the effective range on their weapons dramatically. Of course The way to do that was to make guns that could accelerate projectiles faster. To destroy a capital ship in a single hit, they'd need something like 40% or higher of lightspeed. If they could manage that...

"New orders to all ships!" Vass snapped, glancing at the clock. It was going to be close with lightspeed lag. "Carriers are to launch all fighters before the other ships open fire. Formations are to scatter, and no ship is to fire more than once before re-engaging their stealth drives and beginning evasive maneuvers before firing again. Assume the League has extreme range weapons capability, and that their forces deployed at the center are capable of hitting our forces from as much as a full light minute out."

"Aye sir," the comm officer said, transmitting Vass' orders.

Vass glanced at the clock again. It was going to be close. Very close.

ILS Olympus - Admiral Gerral

"Have the mobile units deploy and begin painting with active LADAR," Han ordered. "I think our enemy is about as close to our relays as we're going to feel comfortable with."

"Aye sir."

Gerral smiled grimly. Time to deploy his next secret weapon. Within moments, the ILS Amazon and her sisters, the first of the mobile relay platforms, began to deploy their drone wings throughout the space Gerral projected the salarians were likely to be in. He still need a solid fix to fire; even if he knew generally where they were it was still a huge volume of space. As destructive as a super-dreadnaught's main gun was, the actual shot needed precision guidance. Especially if there was a risk of hitting the very relays Gerrel needed to protect.

Within moments of the drones' FTL launches, their quantum entanglement communicators began to feed Gerral real time data on where his enemy was not. That was another nice toy the Citadel boys and girls didn't have. It was rather like a game called Battleship, one that Gerral had seen his young children play with their human friends. In Battleship, a commander had to fire blindly into the dark and pray that one of his shots struck true. Of course, a child fired randomly, and with little success. But Gerral knew that while a ship occupied only a very small amount of space, he didn't need to scan every cubic meter of void to find where it was. Only the spots where it was most likely.

"Sir, we have a lock on an enemy cruiser!"

"Dispatch FTL bombers and frigates. Hold the supers in reserve. Let's see if we can scare them into tipping their hand."

SSU Dalatrass' Wisdom - Admiral Vass

When fighters equipped with powerful LADAR scanners began to pop up all over Vass' plot, he knew he'd been had. But the game wasn't up yet. The problem now was that his enemy was most certainly going to find some of his ships. Once he did that, if Vass maintained formation like doctrine told him too, those blasted long range weapons would blow them all to bits as each ship was found in turn.

"Break formation now!" Vass ordered. "Wait thirty seconds, then open fire!" He just had to pray the other squadron leaders were bright enough to do the same.

As one of his ships was located and then seconds later swarmed by frigates and strike craft that seemed to come out of nowhere, Vass was past being surprised. Either the League had the best micro-jump capabilities he'd ever seen, or they had relays pointed right into their own system. That made a twisted sort of sense he supposed, if someone suspected his foes to have stealth ships. First send in those drones to locate them, then hit them with the real firepower. It wasn't going to be enough to stop Vass however.

The squadron opened fire sporadically upon the relay, outside the range of the enemy's fixed defenses, or so Vass hoped. He breathed a sigh of relief when those fixed defenses remained silent, but grimaced when a dreadnaught blew apart before it could slip back into stealth. Those League ships were deadly indeed. But they also appeared to have a limited rate of fire. Only three ships were destroyed, a cruiser and two dreadnaughts, one from each squadron. More frigates and fighters screamed in from nowhere and began to engage, preventing many of Vass' ships from reentering stealth. It was a good tactic, but one Vass was actually somewhat prepared for.

"Get those flak boats in there!" Vass ordered, and grinned evilly. The flak boat was a salarian invention that had been quietly picked up by all of the major Citadel races. Basically, a flak boat was a cruiser with no main armament. Instead, it had massive banks of GARDIAN lasers. Those lasers were fairly short range, but the cruisers had oversized engines that could easily catch a strike craft. The lasers were also the more destructive ultraviolet lasers, instead of the standard infrared. Violet lasers were more energy intensive, and as such not used by most warships due to the massive heat they generated. But since the only armament the flak boats carried were the lasers, the heat wasn't much of an issue.

The flak cruisers broke stealth and began to carve a wicked path through the League small craft. They even crippled or outright destroyed several enemy frigates. The smaller League ships had bigger guns with longer ranges, but by jumping right into the flak cruisers' teeth they denied themselves that advantage. A GARDIAN laser could cut down a frigate almost as easily as it could a fighter or bomber if they got close enough.

Vass watched his readouts carefully. He was counting the time between his larger ships' sudden demises. It appeared that the League super weapons were firing about once every 43.5 seconds. Slow, compared to conventional main armaments, but the trade off was that they only needed to fire once every 43.5 seconds. Anything that powerful could fire once every couple of minutes and Vass would have found a use for it. If his own ships hadn't been in stealth, the salarians would have been torn apart by those monsters long before they entered into their own weapons' effective ranges. The relays themselves couldn't maneuver, but they did have slaved kinetic barrier "rocks" that could block a shot if given enough time to interpose themselves.

As the three relays pointed at the Council's homeworlds' blew apart, Vass nodded in satisfaction. "Get us out of here. We've done what we came for. No need to sit under those guns any longer."

ILS Olympus - Admiral Gerral

Gerral snarled with anger as his prey slipped away from him. Tactically, the battle had been a one-sided success for the League. They'd lost only a few dozen frigates and about a hundred drones. The salarians, on the other hand, had lost eight of their dreadnaughts, six carriers, twenty-six cruisers, fifty-eight frigates, and countless fighters and bombers. A crippling blow that would sap them of a great deal of their strength, not to mention essentially forcing the salarians out of the war.

Strategically , it was a clear salarian victory. They'd crippled the Palaven and Sur'Kesh relay, and reduced the Thessian one to a faintly glowing minor star that had destroyed all of the fixed defenses nearby. The loss of life there had been extremely heavy, though still not as bad as what the salarians had suffered. Gerral estimated that the League's losses would number somewhere around 3,000 once everything was said and done. The salarian forces had suffered over ten times that amount. They had lost over 60,000 personnel with the destruction of so many ships.

But that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that now, the only path the League had into the heart of Citadel space was through the Kher'Shan relay. And that meant Gerral had a pretty good idea where his fleet would be headed next.

The Hollows, Tuchanka - Urdnot Jak

February 20th, 2176

Jak wept openly. The krogan culture didn't frown on displays of raw emotion, and right now, she felt like crying. Her father was dead. Killed by turians along with hundreds of thousands of Jak's people when the turians turned the Kelphic Vally into a funeral pyre. Jak could see the destruction from where she stood on the steps of the Hollows. Smoke still rose from the massive crater that had once been the heart of krogan agriculture.

Turning to the silent assembly of krogan, Jak glowed blue as she used her biotics to lift herself into the air and point at the wreckage. "There lies the resting place of Urdnot Wrex, first Overlord of Tuchanka, savior of the krogan people. He died in glorious battle, with the corpses of his foes at his feet. But he did not fall honorably. He was struck down by treachery and cowardice. By the turians. By our enemies!"

Jak's face split into a vicious snarl as she flung her arms wide. "Hear me! Children of Tuchanka! I swear to you a Blood Oath! The Oath of Vengeance! On the grave of my father, on the grave of my forefathers, I swear to you that I shall not rest until the Citadel has paid for their crimes! Until their blood flows like water and their own planets are reduced to the ruin they have visited upon us! I shall repay them their crimes against those we have sworn to protect on Mindour, Elysium, Watson, and every world their filth has desecrated! For every krogan they have slain, I shall slay four of their own! For every human or quarian they have killed, I shall kill eight of their own! This I swear to you!"

Jak slowly lowered and glared out at the crowd. "Which of you shall pledge yourself to me and aid me in fulfilling my Oath?"

She was greeted with a roar of primal anger and rage that Kalros herself would have approved of. Jak nodded in satisfaction and raised her hand for silence. The crowd hushed, though its angry rumbles sounded like dull thunder before a tempest.

"As a public sign of my Oath, I ask that the Shaman of Tuchanka, my mother, and mate of Urdnot Wrex, will carve it into my flesh, that all might know that I bear the pain of Tuchanka, the pain of the krogan people, and that I shall not rest until my oath is fulfilled. Any warrior that wishes to follow me must do the same. We are the Fist of Vengeance. No ties of clan shall bind us to each other, but we are krantt. We go into battle to give rest to the angry ghosts of the Kelphic and the scarred worlds."

Ma stepped forward, her own eyes deep set in mourning. Those same eyes blazed with anger and approval. Normally, Urdnot Bakara was a voice of restraint and moderation. Now she cried for blood louder than any other. She had loved her mate deeply, had known it was thanks to him that her peoples' hope had been restored. And she wanted an ocean of blood in which to drown her enemies.

The process of the Oath's inscription was incredibly painful for Jak. It involved injecting the colored dyes directly into her skin. Bakara had been forced to modify the normal dyes she used, as many could have been lethal to Jak. Instead, she was using dyes supplied by a human tattoo artist. The patterns she painted on Jak's skin were also miniature compared to what they would have been on a krogan, but their meaning was the same. Jak knelt, hands on her knees for six hours as her mother inscribed her oath upon her skin. It was painful in the extreme, and Jak didn't try to hide her tears of anguish. She wept for her dead people. Her pain was her people's pain. She would bear it with pride.

When she was finally finished, ma helped Jak to her feet. Many other warriors were kneeling, receiving their own marks. Jak nodded in satisfaction. "We move out in 10 hours. Those that have not finished the inscriptions may have then done later. Blood is more important than formality now."

Ma nodded in approval. "Agreed. I will stay here and control the clans. I do not think it will be hard. Right now, it will consist of pointing them at the Citadel, giving them a gun, and growling 'kill.'"

"Good. We will need many warriors. I have seen the reports. The League is fully mobilizing. The war we have long awaited is here. I just wish we had struck first."

Afterlife, Omega - Tevos the Exile

February 20th, 2176

Reclined in her chair, Tevos continued to stroke the sphere. It always told her what to do. She could hear its voice even when she left its presence, but she always felt best when she could hold it. She frowned worriedly. She had wondered if Saren's suggestion to have her pirates repaint themselves in Hegemony colors had been appropriate. She had plenty of batarians of course, the Hegemony had even supplied her with plenty of actual batarian military craft. But she'd done it.

When Saren had told her to launch an all out assault on the League's frontier worlds with her shadow army, Tevos had resisted at first. But then the sphere had calmed her. Showed her the wisdom of Saren's words. Saren was wise. He served Order. She should listen to him. Of course. It had been the right thing to do. She had to crush the League. Her brow furrowed. But what of her own people...

they will be given true joy in perfection

Of course. This was the path to perfection. Thresh the Harvest, so that only the grain remained and the chaff was borne away by the winds. Soon those glorious winds would come and herald a new age, one of light and beauty. A tear trickled down Tevos' cheek. Her daughter would grow up in safety. She and Aria could have a life together, where they could get away from this filth. They could be one in their love. In perfection. For all eternity. Together. How beautiful.

"Tevos, I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, but you've managed-" a turian voice snarled, and Tevos looked up to see Flavus Vakarian standing in her doorway with a shocked expression of horror that melted into a splayed mandible grin. "-to please her immensely. Well done."

Tevos smiled vapidly at Flavus. "Really? Does Aethyta serve Order as well?"

"Of course. Aethyta serves the Cycle as I do. Do you know of any others who seek Ascension?" Flavus asked smoothly.

"Oh, I think we all do," Tevos murmured dreamily, stroking her sphere. "Would you like to hold this? It always makes me feel better."

"I have one of my own, thank you. The Masters gave it to me themselves."

Tevos smiled rapturously. "Oh, that's wonderful. Aria gave me mine. I don't think she serves the masters though. It was just a bauble to her. Too bad. But she'll soon see the beauty of Order. We'll be together in perfection forever."

"Of course, of course. Good job on causing a war between the galaxy's powers. That will be sure to cripple them."

"I know!" Tevos sighed. "It's so wonderful! Just think, soon there will be no more war. No more chaos. Only order. Only perfection."

"Yes. Long live the Reapers."

"Reapers?"

"Never mind. I must be going, there is much to do to usher in this glorious new age. Tevos."

"Flavus." Tevos waved goodbye, then went back to into peering into the depths of her sphere. It was so beautiful.

The Clinic, Omega - Tali'Zorah

February 20th, 2176

In the months that Tali had been on Omega, she'd settled into a routine. Go to the clinic. Create miracles of engineering from nothing with nothing to keep its battered old machinery running. It was actually rather exciting. This was what the quarian people had done when they'd lived on the fleet. Never before had Tali needed to do so much with so little. And the constant battle to keep everything in good repair ate of Tali's time. Which meant she only had to see the geth in her nightmares. Only had to think about how she could continue her pilgrimage as she drifted off to sleep. That was how she liked it.

There were problems with that of course. She hadn't written Johnny in months. How could she? She couldn't very well tell him, "Hey, you were right, the entire belief that the geth were evil is totally bogus! I should just come home now and give up on Rannoch. Or maybe we could live with the metal monsters that nearly caused the extinction of my people in peace! Yay!"

Her hands trembled slightly as her mind wandered. She was just arriving in the clinic, and hadn't had a chance to get to work just yet. As she opened the door, she bumped into Patriarch, the head of the krogan who were Miranda's friends.

"Oh, hey Patriarch. How are you-"

"Tali!" The old krogan grabbed and hugged her tightly. "Thank the Ancients! I thought I had failed. Where were you last night? I couldn't find you at the apartment!"

"Oh. I couldn't sleep. I went for walk, then slept in an airduct somewhere. It was very warm. I was fine. I even got my weapons with me, see? Just like you told me to."

"Couldn't- You mean you don't know?"

Tali blinked in confusion. "Um, no I don't know. Know what?"

Patriarch started to answer, but then shoved Tali behind his back and drew his weapon. "Get back Spectre. The quarian is under my protection."

"Stand down Patriarch. I need your help," a turian voice called.

Tali peeked around Patriarch with her own shotgun in her hands. The turian was well armed and armored, and he walked like Johnny did; dangerously. Like he knew how to kill you a dozen different ways and wasn't afraid to do it.

"Who's the quarian? Is she good with a weapon? I might need her. I've got to get a message to the League," the turian explained.

Tali stepped into full view. "I am Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. I am on Pilgrimage here on Omega, and I have sworn not to return to my people until I find something that can help us reclaim our homeworld."

"Zorah?" Flavus asked, starting slightly, then he shook his head. "Actually, that helps. Where's Miri?"

"Inside," Patriarch growled. "Why?"

Flavus' mandibles lowered in resignation. "Because. Tevos has been subverted. She's working for the enemy now. I've got a long, sad story to tell, and not much time to do it in. I swear on the Spirit of Clan Vakarian I mean neither of your charges harm, Patriarch. In fact, I intend to save them."

Slowly, Patriarch lowered his weapon and motioned for Tali to do the same. "Very well. But I've got my eye on you. Get inside."

Tali went inside first, and to her shock found every krogan, quarian and human she'd seen on Omega crammed inside. And they were all armed too, all of them that could hold a mass accelerator. "What's happening?" Tali whispered to Patriach.

"The League and Citadel are at war. They hit the colonies, blew up a major settlement on Tuchanka. It's bad."

Tali felt her heart sink. The League races were heavily outnumbered here on Omega.

"Patriarch, get me to Miranda. Bring only Zorah. What I have to say isn't for general knowledge," Flavus ordered.

Patriarch studied the turian, then jerked his head toward the back. "Come on."

As she made her way through the press of the crowd, Tali's mind reeled from the news she'd just heard. War. That meant Johnny was in danger. She didn't even know where he was! And her family, they were on Earth, but if the Citadel had hit Tuchanka... She wormed her way through the press of bodies and squeezed into a cubicle after Flavus.

"Flavus." Miri's voice was flat and tired. "What are you doing here? Did Tevos send you? Does she want these people killed? I'm not willing to do that. They're innocents. I'll keep them contained, away from vital areas. If we're not careful, this could turn into a bloodbath. Some of them want Citadel blood. If you weren't with Patriarch, some of them might have tried to kill you."

"That's the least of my worries," Flavus sighed, his mandibles drooping. "Miri, do you know what a Reaper is?"

The human blinked, then shook her head. "No, I've seen the name attached some high security documents, but I don't have the clearance for that."

"You do now. I'm deputizing all three of you as Spectre Agents, with the full authority of the Citadel Council."

Tali felt her eyes widen. This turian was a Spectre? If the League and Citadel were at war, why wasn't he arresting them?

"This is a Reaper," Flavus stated, holding up a hologram of what looked like a metal cuttlefish. "And they're the real enemy."

As the Spectre wove his tale of horror and deception, of how the Reapers had caused the extinction of the Protheans and countless others species for longer than Tali's mind could fathom, of how they could subvert mind and turn others to their cause, horror boiled up inside of Tali. These Reapers were a serious danger to the galaxy if even half of what Flavus claimed was true. And he was claiming a great deal. Then he came to the part where Tevos had been duped by the Reapers. How she was now their pawn, and how she'd ordered the attack on the League. How she'd probably used her knowledge as a former Citadel Councilor to learn of the Tuchanka bomb and send mind controlled agents to detonate it.

As Flavus finished, Tali straighten. She was the daughter of Rael'Zorah. Now was her people's hour of need. She might not know how to deal with the geth, but here was an enemy she could save her people from. They wouldn't lose another home to this stupid war.

"So, what are we going to do about this, Spectre? How can I save my people?"

Authors Note:

I just want an extra moment to thank all my readers today. Last chapter, meek received over 100 reviews and has become the most followed Mass Effect story on FF. To have such an amazing response to my story as an author leaves me humbled and feeling blessed that you guys and gals are enjoying this that much.

I also want to assure everyone that yes, I am working on the sequel. Meek is going to be finishing up in the next month or so, and we'll start the next chapter around a month after the end of meek so that I have time to really proof read and edit (something I didn't do with the first half dozen or so chapters of Meek).

As always, thanks for reading!