Note: Welcome everyone to a new segment of the SRC-mediated introspection of the Mass Effect universe~ Today, we revisit the first meeting between Humanity and the Quarian Pilgrim Saami'Zorah, and the two Battlemasters Urdnot Wrex, and Urdnot Grunt. Since we have seen slightly more of the consequences of the former meeting, the following few chapters (I will not be writing down my predicted chapter count because they are always wrong, haha...) will explore the other half, and we get to finally see what happens between the Krogan and Humanity.
| The Solar Research Council x Mass Effect beta | r/MinimalistMusings/ |
| A "Papers, Please" stream that got derailed into a shape-based talk about how proteins inside the human immune system works: YouTube | OmoBFsR6wfo |
Manifest Krogan
Two weeks after Saami met with the two Battlemasters, Wrex was standing in a lavishly furnished meeting room waiting for his next meeting. Whatever he was expecting out of this race that managed to fight the Citadel Council to a standstill, it was not that they looked like Asari with cascading head ornaments. Over his two millennia, he had thought that he could tell much about a species via their ships; from the cone-like silhouette that Human ships possessed, he had imagined something more ... lanky.
But it did give him an advantage; being bipedal with two arms meant that these humans likely evolved the same broad types of body language as all other bipedal, two-armed races. There was no exception within the Citadel and associate species, even though Batarian an Asari body language differed, the major components remained strikingly similar. Wrex was not innocent enough to think that there would be no differences, but it did give him a frame of reference.
Their meeting had gone far better than he expected; though in hindsight, if almost all the Salarians in the original fleet had defected, then it made sense that the Humans would have a good idea of what they were dealing with. His and Grunt's first impressions were quite good, though standing no more than two meters tall, the soldiers of the welcoming party carried themselves with a confidence that suggested a long career of controlled force projection. This spoke well of their discipline, and fighting ability, though he would reserve judgement on that.
What stood out was that the assembled force subtly deferred to an unarmoured female, one no bigger than Saami herself. While this was not surprising given the dominance of Asari in galactic society or even the respect that the female Krogan clans held, the way the forces were arranged did not suggest that this female was more powerful from a combat perspective. In fact, the Salarian standing just a step behind her meant that she was likely the head of the welcoming party sent to start negotiations.
Halfway through that first meeting Wrex thought he realized that the woman, having introduced herself as Marissa Harper, was actually the *leader* of Humanity, though she only smiled in that mysterious Asari-like way when he brought it up. It was only afterwards that the Salarian who had been standing behind Harper the entire time, Jorort Ayor, explained that the woman was the leader of the organization presenting the outward face of the species. To Wrex this made a certain amount of sense, until proper diplomatic channels were established, access to the civilian government should be restricted.
Everything that was on display, from the coordination of the military forces, to the ease at which technicians and military personel mingled suggested a confidence of an established space-faring power, which made this next meeting much more interesting. From all he saw, Humanity was absolutely able to protect itself, and would have no problem convincing the Citadel Council of the value of peace, through either diplomatic, or military means; yet that is not what they have chosen. And then it hit him, while they had the industrial capacity to simply offer three live-ship sized hulls to the Quarians, he was sure that they were convinced that they could not win in a scenario of total war against the combined Citadel forces.
The realization put the old Battlemaster's mind at ease, he could work with that. The original talk of cultural exchange was not fully convincing, and something always felt off about the motive. But now he understood that, even though they were not being deceptive, cultural exchange was merely a euphemism for diplomatic offensive. They were not only helping the Quarians out of the kindness of their own hearts, it was also brilliantly transactional. The Quarians would have a safe space, and much more food security, while Humanity would gain a valuable source of engineering knowledge to complement their own. Conveniently, one that was not only familiar with the technology of their opponents, but also very unlikely to sell their own secrets to the Citadel.
As he leant back in satisfaction, his eyes met with those of the Salarian. Since the very first meeting, he thought the way the boy carried himself like ex-STG, and this was confirmed in his mind when the latter nodded to him, recognizing Wrex's sudden epiphany and confirming it. But there was something else in the Salarian's gaze, something that took him a few moments to recognize. The boy had hope! Something in this next meeting was of such importance to him that the usual cool demeanour of STG had slipped. Or perhaps, the Salarian defectors had spent so long away from their usual infighting that they were more likely to show emotion? For the first time in a millennium the Battlemaster was intrigued; these newcomers were going to shake up the very galaxy's stagnancy that had drained him.
He watched as Marissa Harper swept into the room after having shown Saami to the docks where the hulls for the proposed liveships were sitting. Though he was unsure if Grunt caught it, he definitely noted the change in demeanour of the Salarian, that almost imperceptible straightening of his back as if in the presence of a superior. To Wrex it made a decent amount of sense, those boys were imprinted at birth, so would always be deferential to females, but more importantly, it spoke of respect that Jorort Ayor held for the human.
Respect that he himself was slowly developing as the meeting progressed. According to Harper, it was serendipitous for Humanity that he and Grunt had accompanied Saami as she already had plans to hire Krogan on a broad retainership basis. That is, there were many things that Humanity could learn from the Krogan, and she hoped to start a long, mutually beneficial relationship by hiring Battlemasters Wrex and Grunt to demonstrate to her special forces why they needed to work harder.
His intrigue for Humanity grew as they moved outside to an open plain for a demonstration battle. During the short walk Marissa Harper caught up with his stride powerful stride as if it was childsplay for someone half his size, and whispered conspiratorially to him. "In the eastern lands on our home planet, there is a saying that 'You do not know someone until you have fought him.' Let this getting-to-know-each-other demonstration match be the start of a carefully cultivated friendship, shall we?"
Before he could ask if she meant personal friendship, or one between their species, the girl had already skipped off and pulled out another human. "Battlemasters Wrex and Grunt, and your respective Krantt. May I present my head of Special Operations, Commander Shephard!"
The match between Grunt and Shephard was very interesting for the Krogan, while he did not necessarily *distrust* Humanity, he had remained in a carefully prepared overwatch position through the entire fight. Grunt was ... enthusiastic in a fight, and even though Harper had promised that there would be no *Human* interference, it would have been tragic if in his enthusiasm the boy's own Krantt pulled the two Battlemasters into an unexpected fights. When he made it known that he would remain alert and with his weapons loaded, he only received a smile of understanding.
What was even more surprising to him, was the lack of any movement or cry for help when their representative's left arm was broken by a rather forceful charge; even Harper only winked at him and turned back to the demonstration. This was revealed to be a minor setback at best as not more than a minute later, the Human representative managed to catch Grunt in a carefully designed trap, setting off a series of mild explosives around the Krogan that would have wounded him deeply if they were using fully armed versions.
Altogether, the demonstration had, just like Harper said, taught him a lot about Humanity. While most Citadel species, with the huge exception of the Krogan, unified their planets more or less peacefully, it appeared to him that Humanity was much more warlike than their outward appearance suggested. During the demonstration match against Grunt, Shephard, the human representative, had used a wide array of martial arts from obviously different styles. This pointed to the fact that there continued to exist a huge amount of *intra*-species competition, which drove continued non-convergence not only in martial arts, but also all other aspects of Humanity.
Afterwards, he went to make sure that Grunt was doing well only to see the boy in an animated discussion with Shephard about the various tools Humanity used to supplement their lack of natural strength. He had rarely seen Grunt that alive in his enthusiasm and decided at the last moment not to interfere, watching his protégé from the distance. It was at that moment that Harper sidled up to him, the exaggeration in her pretending to be subtle quite obvious even though he had only limited interaction with Humanity.
"So, Battlemaster Wrex," her voice was quiet, reminding him of a whisper in the wind, "May I interest you in this proposal for the Krogan Security Strike Force?"