Reviews

Alan

The Batarians will need slapping down sooner or later.

Catachan Jungle Fighters normally get sent to Death Worlds. Thrax's regiment are taken mostly from Planetos and Fallout Earth mixed in with some scattered survivors from broken regiments that made it to the forge-world.

bolgi

I never got into Battlestar Galactica. I also considered Farscape as a fun place for a Rogue Trader to go but I don't have enough ideas for it.

Carthienes

The smallest model of Fury class interceptors are only 40m long so they'd be considered corvettes at best not frigates and he has about 200 of them and around 80 bombers so yeah nothing short of the combined fleets of the Citadel races are going to be a real threat to Thrax's ship even without the escorts. I clearly didn't fully grasp the differences in firepower although to be fair it's hard to pin down accurate firepower numbers in Warhammer 40k.

Nipplegunz

Thanks, I will try to ignore the haters.

Morkail

Yeah you don't see much of what life is like for humans in the Mass Effect universe unless they live in a colony, which are always under attack when you visit, or on the Citadel which is run by aliens. What is life like on Earth for the average citizen of the Systems Alliance. One of Shepard's backgrounds is that ran with a gang or something like that so I assumed crime and poverty are still issues.

It could be argued that the aliens were only holding humanity back because the kids on the block were trying to expand too fast and they were worried about humans finding something like the Rachni. If humans had been around for the Rachni and the Krogan rebellions it would be easier to see the point of view of the aliens.

As for the asari they can get inside your head, we've seen it which makes them hard to trust.

Rogue Trader CYOA Story 3

"It's often remarked that diplomacy is just warfare by other means. Our battles are no less desperate for being bloodless, but at least we get wine and finger food"

- Tollen Ferlang, Imperial Envoy to the Realm of Ultramar.

Part 9

Nos Astra. Illium.

Illium was what the peoples of this galaxy called a garden world, in Star Trek they would label it as a M class planet, for the Imperium it would be a world in need of cleansing of its alien taint before being settled by humanity. Lucky for the locals I didn't have anywhere near the kind of resources or the sheer numbers required for such a conquest. I could burn it all to ashes, but that wouldn't profit me.

Officially Illium is not an asari world; it is colonized and operated by asari corporate interests. This gives it the same legal latitude enjoyed by the human corporate research enclaves on worlds such as Noveria. As such Illium is a haven for businesses with a lesser than stellar reputation when it comes to treating their employees well and respecting their customers.

This world had been developed to serve as an entrepot between the lawless Terminus Systems and the much more regulated Asari Republics that existed within Citadel space. In an effort to encourage this somewhat risky trade, the normally stringent customs laws of Council space on product safety, proscribed materials, and sapient trafficking are all relaxed. Although that isn't to say that they are not enforced somewhat.

Slavery is still illegal for example even if they were ways around it, if not for the fact that indentured servitue was so expensive I might try recruiting that way. As it was still my plan to invite human people to come live on Thrax II would go much more smoothly once I had some more freighters as then I could spare a ship to transport people. I'd have to filter out the spies, but that was what sanctioned pskers were for.

Though it seems like a gleaming, beautiful city outwardly, Nos Astra was not a safe place for anyone. The Eclipse gang operated on this world, many kinds of drugs illegal elsewhere could be purchased legally around here and it wasn't that strange for people to be murdered by highly skilled assassins.

If not for the fact that I was the only Rogue Trader able to reach this universe, at least as far as I knew, this was exactly the kind of world that would attract the attention of my kind. Not all of us were as careful with aliens as me, nor did they have some many people looking over their shoulders.

I assumed that the saviour of the galaxy was here for that reason and as my pleasure craft came into dock next to the second Normandy. I couldn't help wondering why I kept running into her. As far as I knew there were no higher powers in this universe to guide anyone's actions, but I kept finding myself going to the same places as Commander Shepard. This universe must have a sense of humour.

"So I need to go do what we talked about earlier," Miranda reminded me.

While Daenerys and I handled the diplomats I was sending a few of my battle harem off with Miranda to handle her sister's relocation. I was sure that it would have meant more to her if I'd handled the matter personally, but I couldn't go running off for a side quest while I was supposed to be dealing with diplomates even if I would prefer the former to the later by a large margin.

Meanwhile Jack was off the leash with some cash in her pockets so that she could go have fun. I'd bring some of my crew down from orbit for shore leave, but they'd not react well to all the aliens around here. As for Subject Zero seemed to hate nearly everyone with their species not being a concern. It was a good thing that no one cared that I had some so messed up in my service.

"Go do what you need to do," I said "Call for backup if you need it".

Those members of my battle harem not going with Miranda moved around the docking bay ready to do their jobs and they were not the only ones with me. Aside from Daenerys I had with me Inquisitor Agatha du Gisaal, a high ranking member of the Machine Cult who didn't look too far gone from human, my second wife Lady Sarah Lyons-Thrax , who'd brought along a couple of members of the Sisterhood of Steel, Canoness Brigicia of the Adepta Sororitas along with her escorts, and even one of the astropaths who was the Inquisitor's plus one and I assumed he was capable of some pskyer tricks that might come in useful later. The Inquisitor had dressed as a minor military officer and she sometimes did so that people wouldn't guess at her importance.

"Tonight the Sisters will pray for us all" said Brigicia "May the Emperor guard our souls".

She was worried about somehow being infected by the aliens we were going to meet with. I could tell because she kept one hand on a bolt pistol and the other on her prayer beads.

"You could stay with the ship," I offered.

She didn't take that chance to get out of this.

"And leave your soul and body unguarded" she replied "Never my lord".

I didn't even know if I had a soul in the same way she did, and while that was interesting to think about this was neither the time or the place or such musings.

"If you'll follow me" said an asari who came over to speak with us "The ambassadors are waiting for you".

We did just that leaving some of the guards to secure my pleasure craft as I didn't want to risk it being stolen.

"The Kill Team will remain inside your yacht" the Inquisitor let me know in a whisper "If things go wrong they'll make the port secure. Other than that pretend I'm not here and remember you're empowered to do what needs to be done to secure our presence in this galaxy".

Which meant I could sign peace treaties with the Citadel races on behalf of the IOM so as to help limit any interference with our operations in the Terminus Systems. It wouldn't stop them from spying on us or trying to steal some Imperial tech and it was unlikely that they would ever send a fleet into the more lawless parts of the galaxy, so maybe we didn't need a treaty, but I might need to cooperate with the aliens when the Reapers arrive.

I didn't even bother to remember the names of any of the aliens as they all had the title of ambassador, or at least that was how it translated, aside from Admiral Anderson who was in some sort of dress uniform and didn't look happy about this situation, the asari doing the introductions for the natives hadn't bothered to acknowledge his presence.

"My name is Maximinus Thrax, leader of the House of Thrax, Rogue Trader and Lord-Captain of the cruiser The Enduring Triumph" I said.

I felt sure that I had some other titles, but they didn't seem important right now.

"These are my two wives, Lady Sarah Lyons-Thrax, commander of the Sisterhood of Steel, and Princess Daenerys Thrax, the mother of my heir and matriarch of House Thrax'' I introduced "Also I have with me Cannoness Brigicia of the Adepta Sororitas, who speaks on behalf of the Imperial Church. Then we have Colonel Gwynenya Ionael and her aide".

I didn't bother to introduce the Inquisitor or her plus one since she wanted people to ignore her presence.

"What exactly is a Rogue Trader?" the asari ambassador questioned.

Not a simple question to answer.

"We serve as a combination of freelance explorer, conquistador and interstellar merchant for the Imperium of Man'' I explained "The title is hereditary and a Rogue Trader such as myself can found an entire dynasty, command powerful warships, and even have their own armies. Once we leave Imperial space we have carte blanche to roam the stars to find worlds that lie outside Imperial space, once I find one I can do what is required to make a profit or if needs be remove a potential threat to the Imperium".

The diplomats went off to discuss that for a few moments leaving me with my fellow humans.

"So who's your date?" I asked Shepard.

The Commander was with Anderson, and while they knew they were both here on behalf of the Alliance I couldn't help being a bit silly. Besides, it wasn't as if I should know who Anderson is.

"Captain Thrax this is Admiral Anderson, my superior now that I'm back with the Alliance" she told me in a soft tone of voice "I lost contact with Cerberus, which seems to have gone dark, so as far as anyone knows I was working to take them down from within. Not everyone is convinced of this, but they're willing to go along with it as long as I go back to chasing the Collectors after this meeting. They only ordered me here because they figured a familiar face would put you at ease and I was on Illium looking to recruit a Justicar".

It seemed unlikely that they'd be able to lock her up as they had for the start of the third mass effect game.

"My date is actually hanging out over the buffet" Sheppard let me know "You introduced me to her on Horizon and she tagged along. Nice girl".

She was called Talyor or Tranyor, or something like that, the specialist in ME3.

"Let's get down to business" I was now saying in a louder tone of voice "What do you want from me?".

While the natives clearly had some sort of diplomatic functions planned, perhaps including a dinner, I saw no reason to delay matters. I wanted my supplies and perhaps to purchase some more while on this world as they came from humans originally as raw materials could be blessed. We had enough priests of the machine god and the Emperor for that.

"To start with we want to know why you seized that Batarian vessel" said the Salarian diplomat when the ambassadors came back over "Why would you do such a thing? You risked offending the entire Batarian race".

Mostly I'd done it because I'd just wanted to. I got to play space pirate for a change, which is what I'd always intended to do while in this universe.

"They attempted to sell me slaves" I replied "Which is illegal in Citadel space and in the Imperium. When I attempted to place the Batarian captain under arrest his crew reacted badly and the rest of the slaver fleet ran for it".

That was more or less what happened only the slavery thing had just been an excuse to seize the ship. As for the slaves they'd been a mixed bunch and I'd already ordered them to be dropped off at the nearby space port once we got all the information we could from without causing more duress even if they were aliens because it would look like a kind gesture. Which in part it was as I wasn't a total monster.

"Let's cut to the chase, we want to be able to buy your laser weapons" said the turian diplomat "It isn't acceptable for the Systems Alliance to be the only party who can buy them".

I would not be selling weapons technology to aliens. I could get away with trading baubles with xenos, but not something that they could use to harm humans.

"No," I said firmly.

They weren't expecting that. The room, which was part of the hotel we'd been brought to, something meant for functions less important than this, went silent.

"What do you mean by no," the salarian ambassador asked.

It wasn't hard to understand.

"The Imperium of Man does not trade weapons technology with aliens," I explained "As a Rogue Trader I have much more leeway when it comes to dealing with outsiders than most Imperial citizens, but I'd be branded a criminal at the very least if I sold you any weapon's technology. So the answer is no''.

They'd steal the tech from the humans of this galaxy soon enough and because of the permission slip I'd gotten from the Inquisitor I could sell Fallout technology to the aliens as long as it wasn't military stuff as she had assured me while we prepared for this meeting.

"Ah yes the Imperium of Man '' said the turian in a mocking tone of voice "An extra-galactic human empire that we've never heard of before. Do you really expect us to believe that?".

To be fair it did sound silly.

"So what's your explanation?" I asked "That I found a few ancient vessels that between them require more than a hundred thousand people to crew, and yet despite them being well beyond Alliance technology I somehow not only got them working again but also managed to move tens of thousands of people to these ships without anyone noticing, and then covered the ancient vessels in what are clearly human symbols and decorations, something that would require access to a major shipyards and vast funds to achieve. Yet again without anyone noticing".

I wasn't done yet.

"Then I invented laser weapons of many different models, by back engineering some alien tech, without anyone in the scientific community getting involved or even noticing" I said next "Your intelligence services can't be that poor".

No one had anything to say about that outside of a few mutterings.

"Now perhaps we should get down to business" I was saying "The Reapers are coming and I wish to..."

I didn't get to finish.

"There are no Reapers" said the turian "They are at best a myth and at worst an attempt by certain parties to cause panic".

I had to laugh.

"The Collectors are supposed to be a myth" I replied "Yet I have one of their ships in orbit of the colony of Horizon so forgive me I don't believe you. The Reapers have already attacked the Citadel and you only survived that because of Shepard".

No one liked hearing that.

"The Geth attacked the Citadel," the Asari said.

Which wasn't exactly a lie.

"Sovereign was no Geth creation" I stated "I've seen the images and read the news reports, the design is all wrong for the Geth, its technology was far too advanced and there's no way Saren could have fooled a race of machines, who operate on pure logic, that the Reapers were real unless he had real evidence".

My sound reasoning was ignored.

"It was a Geth fleet that attacked, led by an advanced Geth dreadnought" the Turian said.

Sure it was.

"Then why didn't the Geth build more than one advanced dreadnought?" I asked "The Geth control enough resources to build a few, and they don't have to worry about paying workers, and how come the rest of their fleet lacked any of the advanced technology?".

None of them had anything to say to that.

"You must have examined the wreckage of the Geth ships and found them to be far less sophisticated than their 'advanced dreadnought' even if it was a prototype the other ships would have shared some of its technology" I was now saying "Or are you just all that blind?".

The turian ambassador was not happy.

"Maybe the Geth do have more of those dreadnoughts in their own space" he said "That is why we can't allow you to side with the quarians if they move to regain their lost worlds".

They had no authority over me.

"Your permission was not asked for, nor is it required" I stated.

I decided to ignore the aliens and speak with Shepard who looked as if she was going to burst out laughing.

"At the very least the Alliance leadership must be aware that the Collectors are a real threat" I said to Shepard and Anderson "They are welcome to come along and check out the ship I captured".

It wouldn't be destroyed just yet.

"I sent reports" said Shepard "But as far as I know there's no Alliance response to the Collectors".

Officially no, but perhaps the higher ups were just keeping their preparations out of the public eye.

"The Alliance is playing it safe," said Anderson in a soft tone of voice "We actually do have people looking into the Collectors, but we're still at the information gathering stage due to a lack of any real evidence. The missing colonists are a concern, it's just until now we didn't know for sure that they were even being taken, they just all vanished".

He had more to say.

"I suspect that the Alliance brass does think that there is more behind Sovereign than Saren and the Geth '' Anderson let me know "However the Council is putting a lot of pressure on anyone who speaks up about the Reapers, even going as far as to discredit them. They don't want to cause a panic".

This was something that I'd considered before.

"If the Alliance is preparing to deal with the Collectors then I think it's time we discuss letting you have access to the AER14 model" I mentioned "I'd never sell those to the colonists because they require much more regular maintenance than the AER12 or the AER14".

The reason that the AER9 is much more commonly found in the world of Fallout is that it was much sturdier and more reliable than the models that followed. The AER9 featured a titanium housed crystal array which proved to withstand long years of exposure to the elements much better than the gold alloy housing of the later models. As a result, the crystal arrays stayed focused within operating parameters, rather than falling completely out of focus like the newer models. This made it a better model to sell to frontier worlds that couldn't afford so many spare parts or didn't have as many skilled technical people as the Alliance military.

"I am authorised to speak on behalf on the Alliance in this matter" the Admiral let me know "And my superiors they are interested in acquiring more of your technology, but I should warn you that the Alliance might end up sharing the AER12s with the other races, the other races can still place a lot of political pressure on the Alliance even if we have a bigger voice in galactic politics, and if we have a better model than everyone else then we still have an advantage".

This wasn't a concern of mine because aliens stealing or bullying people in order to acquire human technology was expected of the foul xenos.. What did surprise me was how honest Anderson was being about all of this.

"In the interest of fairness I'll warn you now that the AER14 is less durable and more power hungry than the other models" I admitted "It requires more maintenance that the other models and that can cause logicstal problems".

When the Reapers invaded then supplies would become an issue.

"On the other hand it is a prototype so you should be able to refine the design and it does have more of kick to it" I was now saying "You may want to limit the AER14 to special forces and arm your other units with AER12s and AER9s since they don't require as much support".

Anderson spent a moment thinking.

"I'm sure our own tech people will be able to modify these laser weapons to better suit our own needs" he said "From what I understand it's the power cells that are the key to the whole thing. Perhaps we could purchase them directly and buy the rights to produce our own laser weapons through an Alliance arms manufacturer. Without an understanding of the power cells the other Council races will need time before they can start producing their own models and we can make them pay for it".

Given their fabrication technology they might be able to do that.

"We also have scopes and focusing devices that we can manufacture some examples of and then license to the Alliance Navy as well,'' I offered "We can work out a price to be paid in old ships and useful materials such as Element Zero".

Buying cheap freighters suited my plans as I simply needed ships to move cargo around on a reasonable timetable which the local vessels could do thanks to the Mass Relays.

The humans of this galaxy must have a fleet of old freighters mothballed somewhere or be able to buy in bulk at a discount as Anderson let me know that my price would be paid. I didn't mind paying more than was required since I wanted the Alliance Navy to be well armed when the Reapers turned up.

As for the Element Zero I would need a small stockpile now that I was using some Mass Effect technology and the Ad-Mech back in the IOM would love to experiment with the stuff and while they could gather their own supply they'd want mine too.

Element zero when subjected to an electrical current, releases dark energy which can be manipulated into a mass effect field, raising or lowering the mass of all objects within that field. A positive current increases mass, a negative current decreases it. This "mass effect" is used in countless ways, from generating artificial gravity to manufacturing high-strength construction materials. It is most prominently used to enable faster-than-light space travel without causing time dilation. When humans discovered the Prothean ruins on Mars, they also discovered refined element zero that the Protheans had left behind. It enabled research into FTL ship drives before the Charon Relay was discovered.

Also I would accept payment in metals like Iridium, palladium and platinum were of use to me and the Imperium as well as acceptable trade goods in other parts of the multiverse. Platinum is a malleable noble metal with multiple catalytic applications, it also possesses a degree of cultural cachet among humans. Much like gold, which did have some value in the galaxy, but not much when compared to some other minerals.

"Excuse us a moment" said the Inquisitor.

She and I moved over to an empty part of the room.

"My date for the evening has been carefully reading the minds of the ambassadors" she let me know "None of them know what to make of you. Most of them think that your ship and our technology is the product of some unknown alien race that you've been able to restore and back-engineer for your own reasons, they don't believe a word about the Imperium".

Odd considering that the peoples of the Fallout world and Planetos hadn't been that hard to convince. Sure they didn't have space ships of their own and few people on Planetos understood what the Imperium actually was, but none of them had thought me a big fibber or if they had they had then they'd kept it to themselves.

"I supposed that I shouldn't be surprised" I said to my ally "For such advanced races they seem very willing to ignore evidence".

Which served my interest since it meant they wouldn't believe that my ship was as powerful as it really was or that I had backup waiting for me on Thrax II.

"They are very interested in The Enduring Triumph" I was informed "A few of them already have plans to try to get people on board to poke around"

She pointed at a Salarian

"That one is planning to sneak a stealth shuttle onto your cruiser" she warned,

How rude.

"Since dealing with alien threats is my business I'll handle them" the Inquisitor stated.

It was best not to pry into Inquisitorial matters so no need for me to get involved.

"The asari whore over there is planning to seduce you" I was warned "She's used to sleeping with people to get what she wants, it's how she became an ambassador. Of course such vile xenos tricks would not work on one of the Emperor's most beloved servants".

Why on Earth would I even consider tapping some blue ass?

"And that one," she said as she gestured towards the Turian. "He is heavily involved with an important military supplier that managed to recover some Reaper tech. I suspect he'll try to acquire Imperial tech through underhanded means. You might be able to sell something non-Imperial".

A potential way of making profit alas aside from laser weapons there wasn't much Fallout tech that they couldn't do with their tech. Mass Effect had better computers, space travel, holograms, mechs, fabricators and so on.

"I have some other news" said the Inquisitor ``I've just been sent a report on the Batarian cruiser you took possession of and it looks as if we've been overestimating the danger their ships present in combat with ours. Their state of the art ships might be very nimble compared to our own, but the Batarian vessel is more sluggish than we expected. That might be a product of its care, but it does suggest that we might have an easier time swatting the bees, to use your metaphor, and their sting isn't anything to worry about unless you're in a fighter bomber. They can threaten our support craft and we don't have the numbers to face them on the ground in a major conflict, but their fleets would only be a hindrance not threat".

Before now I had wondered if it might be possible to go and destroy the Citadel as if it did contain an AI which controlled the Reapers then destroying it would aid the war effort. Although if there was a super AI there then why did Sovereign need to open up the relay? Why didn't the AI just let the Reapers in when the time was right? No, I'd only destroy the Citadel if it came under Reaper control and they began using it for their harvesting.

"I'll let you get back to dealing with arms" said the Inquisitor.

This was when Sarah waved me over from where she was chatting with Anderson and Shepard while Dany chatted to the aliens, keeping them occupied.

"I was just mentioning that we do have heavier laser weapons" Sarah said "The kind we armed our fighter jets with on my world".

Perhaps I should sell them. I'd been careful not to mention such things as I'd been worried about arming a threat, but I'd been overly cautious, not a bad thing, but the Reapers would have the numbers even if their tech wasn't that much better than that used by the locals so better arming the humans of this universe might be a good idea.

"Yes we do have a laser cannon that can be equipped on atmospheric craft" I told the two navy officers "It might be possible for you to adapt them for outer-atmosphere combat. Our own fighters do use laser weapons, but those models aren't for sale".

Anderson looked interested but our talk was interrupted by the turian delegate. The man was no diplomat and must have only gotten this job due to his important connections.

"Oh please laser rifles are one thing" he said "But there's no way you can generate the kind of energy needed for a laser cannon that can be mounted on a starfighter. Next you'll be telling us that you've figured out how to make hand held plasma weapons".

I took off my great coat and withdrew my pistol, something that put everyone on edge.

"Relax this is just a demonstration" I told the crowd before getting on with it "Hand held plasma are much rarer than lasers or projectile weapons but they do exist".

I lined up a shot and blasted some decorations on a table. Everything saw the green bolt of energy leave my sidearm. The Austrian-made Glock 86 plasma pistol. also referred to as the Plasma Defender. was designed before the Great War by some source the Ad-Mech had classified. It shoots a small bolt of superheated plasma and is powered by a small energy cell. It did as much damage as an AER14 yet was much lighter and more stylish, the decorations on the table could validate the damage part at least.

"By the goddess" swore the asari ambassador.

That did sum it up rather nicely.

"We don't trade this sort of technology and we mostly use our own laser weapon on the battlefield which are superior to the models that we do sell, but we can arm our elites with plasma rifles even more deadly than then my pistol" I let everyone know "Be glad that I'm a merchant not a conqueror".

I figured that from now on they would all be speaking to me with much more respect.

"Now who wants to talk about having a non-aggression treaty?" I asked.

I figured that things would progress more smoothly now and that soon I would get my promised supplies.