A/N: Long time no see kids, I'm sorry, it really has been a while. Last year I was kinda out of any resemblance of free time, and this year is pretty rocky as well, but the story is not dead, even though this chapter is shorter than the usual, no double postings today sorry. Anyway, I hope you like it, please tell me what you thought about it.
AES Intruder.
Shepard's expression remained blank as he looked down on the metallic caskets holding his companions, laid next to each other on the cargo hold of the Intruder.
He wore the all-black uniform of the Imperial Special Forces, in its day-to-day version, foregoing medals and ribbons.
Identification plaques on the steel coffins displayed the names and ranks of the dead soldiers inside, along with their military identification numbers; beyond holding their corpses for transfer, the capsules also preserved the body for a proper funeral once they were back in Imperial space.
"What are you're going to do with Sarge's belongings?" Shepard asked, without looking at the man behind him. "He left you his old notebooks after all..."
"I…" Xavier began, but then fell silent as he remembered Werner's last will. "I will return them to his surviving family, he told me his brother has a wife and children, but that he'd rarely visited them,"
"That seems proper." Shepard finally turned around to face the younger operative.
"I guess," Xavier muttered, before continuing aloud: "He was a great man, but I won't feel comfortable to hold those things when he has living relatives, much less publishing his writings on my own, even if that's what he wanted to do one day."
"This is pretty much wrapped up, I think," he looked around on the cargo bay. "We'll be put on leave, and as Hill said, on reserve if we want to, I guess we earned that."
"Do you plan on meeting Mayrithia again?" Shepard asked, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, I promised her a lot of things, she did too, and the Captain said a lot of things are going to change, and besides, I want to see where it will lead me," he put his hands into his pockets. "Is it bad that I want this?"
"Not really, you are your own man," Shepard replied. "You want adventure, experiences, and the unknown, to go further and beyond as they say in the Navy, you can't suppress your spirit, it will just keep battering at its jail."
"But," Shepard looked him straight in the eyes. "Do you have an idea of where you want it to go?"
"She's a great girl, but…" Xavier trailed off.
"But you can't have children with her," Shepard completed, following his train of thought. "At least not human children,"
"That's a part of it, but that isn't all." Xavier replied. "And I don't want to plan that much ahead; I have many years ahead of me."
"That you do, and so does she," the senior soldier agreed. "More than you, in fact."
"I want…I want to take a break for a while, you know?" Xavier continued, crossing his own arms. "It isn't the action, or the pressure, as things have winded down, I hope, but like, I want to do things."
"How are you holding up?" Shepard asked him. "About the mission,"
"I'm sad of course, the universe is a lesser place without them," Xavier sighed, looking at the metallic coffins beside Werner's own enclosure. "Still, they are heroes; they paid the ultimate price, for us, and everyone back home, and for everyone that has yet to come…true heroes of the Aryan Empire."
"Mankind depended on us, and we didn't fail." He said looking up to Shepard again, his expression resolute.
"They live on through us," Shepard placed a hand on Xavier's right shoulder, and Xavier returned the gesture. "And beyond time and space, dining and celebrating with our ancestors, free of everything."
"Thank you," Xavier nodded, returning the gesture. "It was an honor, serving with you all,"
"For me as well, Xavier," Shepard replied, smiling.
After the operation came to an end, and the ISF team returned to the Intruder, Cinis had expected Constantine to come down and speak to her, but he had other plans.
"What I am about to dictate is not negotiable, you have no position to bargain, I won't pretend to be nice to you," Constantine said to the image of two salarian females in front of him, his face hard as steel. "These are the last consequences of your mother blackmailing me."
Cinis and Sajie conferred with him through electronic means, while he was aboard the Intruder, as Constantine saw no reason for him to be in person on the ground; the more distance between him and those beings, the better.
"You will not attain the prime position among the Ten clans, the Solus will, as they have the strongest naval fleet out of you right now and the most intact economy and infrastructure." Constantine said, looking towards the screen that displayed Cinis's face. "The Vaerdall in turn will let go of a share of their possessions both in terms of liquid assets and real-estate and pass them over to you, while acquiring some of your own directly owned worlds as their new capital, with the Solus moving to the capital and a marginal share of their own resources being transferred to the Vaerdall as they lose their positions around the homeworld."
"This is...balance," he continued, eyeing both Cinis and Sajie straight on their large eyes. "If you are smart, Cinis, you will let go of clan rivalry and warfare and ally yourself in the foreseeable future with the Vaerdall, as you both will be in a vulnerable position from now on."
"And finally," he took a deep breath. "This is the end of our covert cooperation with you and your kin, while we won't cut off contact through official means and of course through economic deals that are soon to come, you won't receive our help any longer, and you better forget this affair ever took place."
Cinis's eyelids blinked upward for a few times, before she released a sigh of her own: "I understand, I confess that it isn't comfortable to be spoken to in those terms, but I accept our reality and our actions." Cinis said. "I am truly sorry this all has come to pass, and I am sorry for the people you lost, they fought and died for my future and because of my mother's mistakes. I hear your counsel, as one ruler to another, and will take it into consideration."
Constantine looked to Sajie, in her much different complexion, and differently styled robes matching her own clan, awaiting her response.
"I...I did not expect such a turn of events," she began, eyeing Constantine in a mix of awe and suspiciousness. "To be made Dalatrass of Sur'Kesh, out of the blue. I should say thank you, but I feel that there should be something else too, because your actions cannot simply be in the name of 'balance' as you name it."
"Indeed, they are not," Constantine smiled. "We have an expression in human society, 'better the devil you know, than the unknown one' - a devil being an evil creature."
"That is," he began to explain. "We know you; the other seven Clans of the Ten, not so much, therefore we do not know their aspirations nor their predisposition towards us or the galaxy in general. To us, they are nothing but numbers on charts."
"And, despite your misgivings," he added. "That is truly the balanced decision to take, all things considered, so it can be said that things have turned out alright in the end."
"Then," Sajie smiled, looking to the man intently, sizing him up across her own display. "Thank you, sincerely, for this; the significance of this action might escape you, but holding the homeworld is the greatest prestige a clan can have, to be 'first among the great'."
"'Sur'Kesh is everything', I have heard it before, I can get an idea of what it means to you." Constantine said, recalling his dealings with Nizen. "I might not grasp the entirety of what that means, on a rational and emotional level, but I do indeed have an idea of it, I do award this lightly."
"'Award'," Cinis said. "I had not considered until now that this is some sort of pre-spaceflight feudal distribution of war spoils."
"We are the same beings as we ever were and always will be," Constantine smirked. "The only things that change are our garments, technologies, and constructions that surround us, but we are what we are; in any case, that is all I had to say directly to you, any further communication will be done either through diplomatic or intelligence means."
"So," he looked between the two of them one last time. "Goodbye."
Irissa's office, Citadel.
In a matter of minutes, everything had changed in her morning.
She had calmly sat once more behind her desk to monitor the daily reports due her attention, and arrange further dealings between the Hierarchy diplomats and their Imperial counterparts, and she enjoyed a cup of black coffee, courtesy of the human diplomat, having brought some from the stores aboard his cruiser.
Then, Kel'Shan became the most commented topic in the Extranet, as news poured in of widespread warfare between drones and GARDIAN batteries on the capital city, of explosions on the Palace, and news of an inconspicuously idle human task force on orbit, only watching the events unfold.
RIS contacted her immediately, faster than she herself did, and began updating her on the situation through their own means, meanwhile the humans remained silent, and confined to their cruiser.
Now, it was all over, and her coffee had turned cold and stale, forgotten on her table yet again.
Dalatrass Nizen was dead, with Cinis being the new Dalatrass of the Sesoln, with her sisters also being dead, and the entire power structure of vassals being adjusted to that change.
The city was in martial law and curfews had been enacted, the streets were deserted, and only official diplomatic envoys were granted passage and escort from their own embassies to the shot up Palace.
Irissa tapped her foot on the floor as she awaited Constantine to acknowledge the connection on his end, and speak to her.
The screen flared to light suddenly, and there he was: the same features, dressed in a plain black suit without the decorative royal pins.
It did not matter that it was the umpteenth time she saw him, his face and the warmth in his eyes, albeit restrained, still made her heart skip and beat.
"Finally!" She exclaimed, putting her feelings for the man aside for the moment, stopping to tap her foot. "I've been dying to speak with you about what happened, I need answers, Constantine."
"I wanted to see you too," he smiled brightly. "Well, where should I begin?"
"First," she said. "What does it all mean? In general terms."
"It means that I'm free, and vengeance has been delivered." He answered, closing his eyes as he sighed. "In specifics, it means that the Sesoln will cede their place in the Union hierarchy to the Solus, which will assume the Vardall's position in turn, there will be a lot of assets and importances changing hands to help stabilize their positions, of all of them."
"We will be able to put down this dumpster fire and put a hopefully neutral party in the top, after all they got out of this almost unscathed, the Solus," he continued. "I don't want to be mired in salarian clan politics again if I can help it, leave that to them; in turn, as I was saying, the Vaerdall and Sesoln stop being concerns of ours."
"Is her daughter reliable?" Irissa questioned him.
"I wouldn't call anyone there reliable, at least not in the way you're implying, but she is predictable, and isolated, and frightened, so then yes, in a sense she is reliable." He answered. "She won't pursue the matter of clan revenge and will probably settle down to rebuild for another two or three generations of Dalatrasses, so I don't expect any more problems from them for at least fifty or so years, and even then, as she will impart her own wisdom to her daughters, if they become a problem it won't be ours."
"The Vaerdall are shattered, in terms of prestige and actual naval power projection, so they most likely will buy and bargain their way in a reluctant alliance with the Sesoln as they ressettle there with them," Constantine explained. "I imagine they will foster resentment towards the Empire and the turians, the latter for betraying them, and towards us for getting involved, but I don't expect them doing anything about it."
He finished speaking, not bothering to mention the minutiae of those dealings, settling to stare back at Irissa through the screen.
"When will be able to see each other again?" Irissa asked him, green eyes meeting brown ones.
"We are seeing each other, are we not?" Constantine fought to repress his smirk from returning, as he teased Irissa.
"Don't be like that," she said, and for a moment, as displeasure spread across her face, he thought she was going to pout. "I speak seriously...I miss you a lot."
"I miss you too," he said, exhaling as his own feelings came to the surface. "I will be there soon, as soon as I can, I promise you,"
Irissa couldn't help but to smile at him: "I have a lot to talk about with you, I...I have a lot of plans I want to share with you."
"I will love to hear them," he replied. "In the meanwhile, the diplomat there on the station will contact your staff soon, everything is being finished as we speak, we need your support more than ever now."
"You will have it, be sure of that, always," Irissa said.
"Then, see you soon I guess," he smiled again, and it softened as he considered his next words. "I love you, Irissa."
"I love you, Constantine." She replied, emotion beaming inside her, as the screen opposite to her desk turned black again.
"Dear Mother,
I have finally succeeded, your advice was great and accurate!
It is wonderful, mother, finally being united with him, overcoming the distance between us and the way his line of work damaged him; he is such a wonderful man. Of course, you'll say that I'm saying this due to the chemical and psychological bond we form, but I truly mean it, and I agree with you now, that I had wasted much of my time.
But perhaps not so much, as then I wouldn't have met him.
I feel like I'm in one of those great romances you used to read me; I feel like all the jewels in Elysia wouldn't pay for what I'm experiencing. Father will be pleased to meet him, patriot that he is, I have sent a letter for him as well.
You must be laughing hearing me say these things, but I don't mind, even if your point has been proved true in the end; I feel complete, I feel like everything is right in the universe and nothing can go wrong, it's such a thrill.
We will be visiting soon, we are packing our things and will be arriving there in about a week I think, there are some unfinished things we must resolve here in Pallas, and I am kind of sick of the ongoing winter, you know how they are harsh where I live.
The ring mother, heavens you were so right, I catch myself staring at mine every now and then, it is perhaps my favorite human tradition; and the fact that both our rings made of the same ingot is all the much more symbolic.
Once I'm there we can have a proper face to face conversation, and even about the more intimate subjects (I can't believe I blush while writing this).
And yes, I come to agree with you again, they are incredibly complex creatures; full of love, passion, hate, fear, compassion, pain, happiness, and sadness.
It's like staring at an ocean and then suddenly comprehending the vastness of what's underneath the surface.
He'll be posted in the Citadel, and perhaps I'll renew my contract with the Commonwealth once they learn of my marriage to him, I just hope we won't be hopelessly alone there, surrounded by aliens.
I'm sure a human-elysian community will begin to form there as time passes, but it seems our social circle will be relegated to other Imperial government employees and Commonwealth contractors.
I suspect the Navy will post a fleet or detachment permanently once things settle down; this whole salarian thing was such a bother, I myself lost stocks with this, though I wonder if we'll be allowed to offer reconstruction loans to these beings or if the Empire or other entities will do so in our place, it ought to be a lucrative endeavour.
In any case, we plan to drop by soon enough, don't fret.
With love,
Ayda."
Talat City, Sur'Kesh.
Erlana's eyes committed the scene to her photographic memory, observing as Pranas descended through the sky, casting orange and crimson sunlight into the meticulously maintained rainforest around her palace.
A pleasant breeze passed through, warm and slightly humid, and in between the sound of distant skycars, she could only hear the rushing wind and the life that bristled in the surroundings; birds sung, insects flew or crawled about, small reptiles moved freely through the actual rainforest grounds, all of them living, dying, in their never ending life cycle.
She could feel the labored masonry of the palace, different from the polymer and metal construction of other buildings, the stone being a rich light creamy color, with intermixed gray impurities in veins that ran through the blocks and carved shapes, adding to the beauty of the material; contrasting with the vivid greens and yellows and even blues of the trees around them.
She loved Sur'Kesh with all her heart, it meant not only her birthplace, but the cradle of their species, the birthplace of all their dreams and endeavours, the primordial lagoon as many like to call it.
It was her most treasured possession, not even her off-spring came close, something that would apall perhaps the majority of beings across the galaxy, but something she couldn't hide from herself.
She could always clone her daughters and re-educate them if something ever happened, or she could pluck a newborn female egg from a cadet branch or lesser known relative and adopt the unborn female as her own progeny.
But she could never produce or manufacture another Sur'Kesh, it was worth all the riches of the galaxy perhaps, worth the lives of all salarians.
Was it worth her own life? Could she live without it?
She considered it for a second; leaping off the ledge, meeting her end many stories below in hard rock, perhaps dying mid-fall out of arrhythmia, a sudden overload of her heart, borne out of the sudden panic and impending realization of death, of immeasurable regret perhaps.
She didn't linger on how it would feel to go through the Wheel, as she most likely had gone through it before, and couldn't remember the feeling; there was no way to tell if her concept of self would be destroyed and something as intangible as a her soul would be utilized by some type of higher power to create another consciousness, as if simply energy being re-routed or plastic being recycled.
Or if perhaps her soul itself was tied to this concept of self, and it would simply reincarnate in the purest sense of the word.
She wondered even more why she kept believing on what she did, she knew for a fact that the late Nizen thought her even more of a fool for keeping religious beliefs.
She considered again shortening the cycle, bypassing the supposedly natural course of a salarian lifespan; but then she stopped, settling in the stone parapet, content in simply sitting slightly atop it, hands on her lap.
Warm tears trailed from her eyes down her face as the warm breeze kissed her face; she wished she had accepted emotional suppressant treatment long ago, as sadness and remorse enveloped her again.
But then, she wouldn't experience joy either, she would be as good as dead; a living husk of a salarian worrying itself with things that would would mean nothing at all, because then she wouldn't feel, neither would she care.
She moved away from the balcony parapet, wiping the two glistening trails with the sleeves of her robes.
She would need to accept the fact that she had lost Sur'Kesh, and that she would never own it again, not in her lifetime of course.
She couldn't let despair overcome her, as there was much yet to be done; ever since she spoke with the humans, and the reality of what had transpired not only on the Sesoln capital world, but also on the previous weeks of combat and scheming, settled down on her.
As the human had explained to her, she had gambled and lost; she had no support among the Ten, and wouldn't have so for a few generations, and her priority right now should be to rebuild, even if away from the homeworld.
It was no use fighting this, the turians had deserted her, and she knew the Ten had only supported her by means of convenience, she would not rage and deny reality like a stubborn krogan.
Her few consolations however, were that she wouldn't be completely destitute, as many assets would be changing hands, and the humans seeked to almost revert things to a state of status-quo-ante-bellum, and surprisingly, they did not trust the Sesoln neither the Solus to accomplish this, and perhaps they were being influenced by the Republics.
Plus, the fact that Nizen was dead, and that her daughter, even though she murdered her mother, was a scared hatchling desperate for stability; the news had brought desperately needed mirth to her, she would admit as much.
She'd be easy to ally herself to, and eventually secure her position from falling ever further; right now she needed beyond a new navy, new allies.
She wouldn't win, but the Sesoln wouldn't either; the ones who truly won this had been the Solus, who would invariably abandon the Sesoln once Sajie came to power succeeding her mother, the humans, who navigated the situation, displayed power, and damaged the Union.
The Hierarchy, while not suffering on the same level as her, had a tarnished image right now, and she couldn't image the Primarch and by consequence the Councilor staying in power for much longer; the Vol Protectorate would be pleased however, there would be a drop in the Union's economic output and capacity after this, and they'd benefit from it, not to mention the loans they'd offer in reconstruction efforts and the devalued assets, shares, and real estate they'd acquire after this.
On a brighter note however, she wouldn't have to worry about such things anymore, as she'd return to the old provincial politics of internal relations between Salarian clans; these matters were Solus problems now, after all they're probably celebrating right now over their newly awarded possessions.
She moved inside, strolling through the halls of the palace, as the evening sunlight poured in through the many windows; there was much they'd need to pack and ship offworld, many things they'd need to destroy.
She'd terribly miss these halls however, the feel of cool and polished stone on her bare feet, the lazy afternoons smoking a water pipe with freshly extracted local essences, the luxurious lunch receptions with the very best their civilization and others could offer on her plate.
She'd terribly miss being called Dalatrass of Sur'Kesh.
She flicked her left wrist, the traces of a blueish haptic interface, minimalistic, appearing on her hand: "Olzik, do you hear me?" she said calmly.
"Yes, my dalatrass, at your service," came the immediate response.
"I have finished my private time, please, gather who you judge necessary and store and pack all artwork in the palace," she ordered him, still strolling through white stone. "All statues, all paintings, every manuscript, everything, and with the utmost care, do you understand me?"
"Perfectly, my dalatrass, we will begin at once," he answered.
"Then, once you've done so, load them into my personal entourage of spaceships, the ones that will depart with us, contact my daughters and sons to collect whatever personal items they wish to take off world as well, and aid them if they require so." She continued. "I don't want to leave anything that is dear to me, and I intend on attempting so, unfortunately I cannot transport the planet and the palace themselves, so these things will do."
"I understand, it will be done as you command," came the reply.
"In the meantime, I will be at my chambers, send a team there to help me collect my things as well," she added, before shutting off the channel, the haptic interface fading from her hand. "This will be all."
She wouldn't die today, and if she did, she'd have no chance to shape the next years in her clan's life, neither to set the foundations for their longiquous but certain reascendance to power.
Perhaps, she'd be reincarnated in that time to witness it happen, perhaps even as a Vaerdall again.
A/N: That's it for now folks, thanks for reading.