The End of Eternity: Rise of the Terran Alliance

by Icarus636

No Gods, No Kings REWRITTEN: Through intervention the dream of Rapture never became a nightmare, instead new technologies and beliefs pave the way for Humanity to unite as one and seek a new future among the stars. The Council finds itself confronting a civilization that has surpassed every technological shackle and overcame every obstacle thrown their way: The Terran Alliance.

19. Ch 18: An Illusive Man or a demon's

Chapter 18: An Illusive Man or a demon's slave

Fortuna vitrea est: tum cum splendet frangitu

"Fortune is like glass: the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken"

-.

((2 Chapters for the price of one, sorry for the long hiatus but this and the previous chapter were originally meant to be a single very long chapter, it took me a while to develop this storyline as I am moving from established cannon. My newest OCs particularly the Kowalczyk siblings serve as an inside into the story from an outside –or mostly oblivious to most affairs- perspective. My focus for now is the Illusive origin story as well as the revelations behind the black fleet and their connections to the Reapers))

((Also I have been extremely busy with my job and my computer is not doing well, I am having it updated for the use of highly advanced programs for my design projects and my work deadlines))

-.

2157.07.28

LLC Nighthunter

Secondary Cargo bay

In Sun Tzu's famous book The Art of War, the legendary Chinese strategist once stated: "All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive."

That quote was one of the favorites of Jack Harper, commander of Admiral Comstock's secret unit Task Force Sigma during his studies of military history back at the Academy of New Rapture yet it was not what he considered Sun Tzu most important piece of wisdom. For Captain Harper there was nothing more certain in the Art of War than: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

Information about the enemy and about your own strengths and weaknesses was an invaluable factor in any type of strategy, despite what many thought of him, Jack Harper didn't despise aliens even those of the species that were rivals of humanity, for a successful commander there was no greater enemy than arrogance, believing your forces and yourself above all others and the enemy as inferior was a recipe for disaster.

While he was committed to the preservation and advancement of humanity he did not considered humans to be inherently superior to every other sapient being, he had learned to respect and admire the Turians and their martial spirit, Asari's cultural search for enlightenment and Salarian inquisitive and meticulous nature and at the behest of Admiral Comstock he had spent a lot of time studying their history, philosophy and even works of art; yet it was hard not to look at the Batarians on a first glace and feel something other than contempt; the Hegemony represented practically an amalgamation of every dark and twisted political and regressive/oppressive cultural trait of human history.

Four Batarian pirates were tied up to chairs in the middle of the Nighthunter's secondary cargo bay, yet it was not the prisoners who put Harper on edge but rather their 'guests'. Standing next to his senior officers was the Asari spectre Vassir, her turian sidekick Saren Arterius, the Salarian STG operative Dr. Rulhu Dor and the krogan Urdnok Wrex even though the last was more likely to take their side if the Citadel operatives betrayed them.

Despite his dislike for the Batarians Jack had a feeling he wasn't going to like what was going to happen now; they needed to interrogate them and confirm Intel and targets, extracting secrets was his 2IC the lilim Camille Dumas' job.

"Rise and shine assholes!" yelled Camille after hitting the Batarians with an electroshock.

Jolting awake the four eyed aliens looked all around at the room and its occupants first in confusion and then in pure defiance, yet you did not need to be a lilim to see that there was fear behind each of those two pairs of eyes. The Batarian commander a large male with brownish orange skin directed his gaze at Harper who returned the defiant gaze.

Jack was flanked at his right by Camille Dumas, Eva Core and Zaheed Massani and at the left were the three Citadel operatives and the krogan.

"Okay" he began. "As they say we can do this the easy or the hard way; my crew and I need Intel" he took a deep breath.

"What are you hiding in Praggia?" Jack asked the commander directly who shuddered in response and his eyes betrayed a hint of concern and recognition, the rest of the crewmen just exchanged nervous gazes.

"We will say nothing to you human" one of the Batarian crewmen stated while his companions just stood quiet.

"So now we know which one of you has the least of a brain" Camille said looking at the talkative pirate the same way a boot would look at a cockroach. "I will begin with you" she made a sinister smile that made almost everyone in the room feel a cold shiver down her spines.

"My name is Camille I am a Lilim" she began. "If you do not know a lilim is a subspecies of humans who has telepathic abilities in simple terms, even though is far more complex than that; we are like the Asari who have the ability to link with other sapient beings through the melding as they call it, seeing their thoughts, memories and drives or like the rachni which can mentally communicate with each other; we lilims can do the same and far more than that: we can dig our way into other minds and not only read them, but control them and even reshape them, reprograming sapient beings in the same way you do a software" she explained, the smile never leaving her face while the Asari Spectre Vassir looked at her with extreme discomfort.

"But entering alien minds is always tiresome and you in particular Jorhuk have a resonance that is very disgusting, similar to that of a filthy animal looking for his next meal and sexual prey so I am going to perform an special type of procedure to simplify things for me" she opened a metal container and from it she extracted a flask with some kind of white snake or worm inside it like a long slimy caterpillar resting in white –like milk- liquid.

Jack's heart skipped a beat and so did the one of Eva's upon recognizing the creature held inside the flask within Camille's hands, the lilim's smile growing wider upon nearing it to the prisoners.

"I see you recognize it Captain don't worry this is for scientific purposes" Camille stated before turning to the Batarians.

"You see both Captain Jack Harper and Chief Eva Core are from a planet called Chiron in the Alpha Centauri System, as the first human extra solar colony it's one of our major worlds, holding a massive economy and enormous cities; the planet now holds a population of over 4 billion people. But Chiron wasn't always like that" she made a pause looking at the creature in her hands.

"The planet has a rich yet evolutionary simple ecosystem; the main flora is a type of red mushroom/algae known as the crimson fungoid that made it difficult for the introduction of Earth based crops, plants and general operations of terraformation. Yet the biggest threat to the colonial endeavors was not a harmful species of plants, a massive super predator or even an alien virus but rather this small seemingly harmless grub"

"The colonists of Chiron called them Nǎo chóng, in their language it means brain worm; as these small creatures like we lilims, the rachni queens or the Asari also have psi abilities" she made a pause as everyone other than the humans in the room exchanged uncertain gazes.

"Individually they have very little psi power and reach, but a whole swarm of them was like a boiling mass emitting psi disruption the same way a small star emits heat. Sensing the human colonies as invaders the worms worked practically akin to a planet scale immune system fighting the virus and even coordinating their moves with remarkable efficiency"

"They attacked entire colony settlements using their psi call to paralyze their victims with visions of pain, trauma, torture and gore. People stood still as statues or shuddering in the ground while entire swarms covered them and slowly devoured them, the chironian psi worms were especially adept at planting their eggs inside their victims brains while they were still alive" many in the room shuddered at that, the Batarians most of all.

"Yet ultimately technology and human intelligence achieved triumph over one of nature's greatest and nastiest creations, through the use of psi blocker helmets teams of exterminator with flame throwers were able to destroy most nests in proximity to human settlements, while units of lilims like myself were able to 'draw' swarms away from them and relocate them through psionic calls"

"Nevertheless we lilims have developed a special fondness for the chironian worms not only because of their place as kindred beings to us but also because of their usefulness as a sort of middle man for a psi link process" she made a pause as everyone wondered where she was going with it.

"As I said before it's not easy to enter another's mind specially an alien one with a different system of 'wiring' that a human one; and a Batarian mind like the likes of yours, well I would rather walk waist deep in pig shit" she made a very sadistic smile.

"Unless this little guy enters your brain literally and serves as a conduit for a lilim such as myself" Camille took the worm out of the flask which began climbing its way through her arm and into her shoulder like a slimy snake with a head that looked more akin to the top of a carnivorous plant than that of an animal.

The worms head opened like a creepy flower of three petals with lines of sharp razor teeth, and from the mouth were protrusions that resembled thin almost blood like red vegetal tentacles that began caressing Camille's pale cheek in some sort of nightmarish display of affection towards its master.

"Now let's begin" she approached the Batarian pirate who committed the stupidity of speaking up, he looked at the human lilim and her worm pet with absolute horror. "Hold still" she ordered, her palm shinning with a yellow aura of the telekinesis plasmid; suddenly the straps holding the Batarian at the chair were also covered by the yellow aura and several of them were bonded around the four eyed alien's head and his mouth like ropes holding him in place.

In that moment the previously defiant Batarian lost all his bravado, attempting to kick and scream; a muffled yell of despair before the Lilim finally placed the chironian worm at his shoulder.

The slimy worm began to crawl around the alien's head; the worm had no eyes but it seemed like he saw the captive pirate as a juicy prey.

"Do you know the chironian worms were reported to be able to pierce their victims' skulls in 10 seconds or even less if they find another orifice from where to reach the brain, be it an eye socket, ear hole or nose hole" the lilim explained in a playful tone.

Then everyone in the room and especially the three remaining Batarians watched in horror as the white worm drilled its way through one of its victim's eyes with a small explosion of blood and gore as the unfortunate pirate shuddered and made muffled screams, in tremendous pain. After a few seconds that felt like hours finally the worm disappeared into the eye socket its body now completely inside the victim's skull. As this was happening Camille Dumas stood still eyes shut close and breathing steadily as if meditating, her hands at the side were shinning with a green ethereal aura as if she was summoning a plasmid power.

Yet to everyone's surprise the poor Batarian finally stopped shuddering and struggling and looked at Camille Dumas with a somewhat relaxed gaze. Then to another massive surprise Camille telekinetically released the straps of the prisoner chair who shakily rose from his chair and stood looking at the Lilim, blood still oozing from the empty eye socket.

"What your name?" Camille asked.

"Cre… cre… crew… crewman Jorhuk Vahhur…of… of… of the Shadow of Strength" he stuttered in a tone completely absent of any emotion but shakily and uncertain as if he was drunk.

"Our mission was to… raid the planets of the… Attican Traverse to capture any prisoners and transport them to Praggia"

"What is on Praggia?" she asked. "Your computers have it flagged it as a conversion center"

"I… I… do… do not know" the Batarian stuttered. "It's where we have several enemy prisoners of war processed, that's all I know"

"Is this certain? Do you know anything else?" Camille interrogated again.

"I have… heard of slaves taken from Illium being brought to Praggia under… the orders of…" he stuttered the last words and there was a glint of fears on his eyes.

"Orders of who?" the Spectre Tela Vassir which until that moment has remained silent spoke then.

"The… orders of Hegemon Tokrshen" the Batarian spoke, the three remaining Batarians stood mouth agape and fearful yet it was hard to guest who they were more afraid of: the lilim and her pet or the iron fist of this Hegemon Tokrshen. The Citadel operatives for their part reacted strangely upon hearing the name.

"Tokrshen" Jack Harper began. "That name rings a bell; some kind of Batarian autarch noble of infamous reputation is it not?"

The ship AI answered for him. "Affirmative sir, I will send his dossier and associated Intel to your personal terminal later"

"STG has a whole file on that Batarian" the Salarian doctor stated. "There are a lot of rumors linking him with illegal genetic experiments conducted with captive prisoners of various sapient races. Also it is said that he has a particular taste of slaves belonging to the Citadel races" he explained.

Eva didn't like what she was hearing and it seemed like they were barely scratching the surface.

"Troubling" Camille answered. "In any case it seems like we have a partial confirmation on Praggia's location then" she added.

"Is there is anything else you can tell us" she asked the Batarian zombie with the empty eye socket. His eyes looked emptier than the void of space, the worm inside his brain had already linked its tendrils into his neural cortex, burning through his mind and carving his way into his soul.

He was just an empty shell now

"No commander" the Batarian answered in a dry tone. "I do not know anything else; I have never been to Praggia or heard anything else"

"Then you are of no further use to us? Are you?" the tone of Camille was now bordering on frost.

"No, ma'am" he answered.

By that point the smile at Camille's face have vanished replaced by a frown and her gaze grew colder when she took out a long steel knife from her belt and to the entire room's surprise handled it to the Batarian zombie.

"Now take this knife" the zombie obeyed. "And cut your throat" she ordered to the shocked expressions of everyone including her own crewmen.

"Yes… Commander Dumas" the Batarian stated, raising the knife towards his neck, he stuttered for a moment before carrying on, his eyes filled with tears and blood, his breath hastened and near panic. He looked to be fighting with every fiber of his being but it was not enough.

In a quick motion he slashed opened his throat and opened the flesh of his neck as a stream of orange yellowish blood came out.

He collapsed into the floor in pure agony, before finally ceasing to move and breath. Camille knelled next to him avoiding the pool of blood putting her hand next to his face…

It was weird seeing the ruthless Lilim showing respect to the enemy she had just killed with her mind, like some kind of deranged sense of honor…

Then to the shudder of the spectators the white chironian worm sprouted from the dead guy's empty eye socket like an earthworm drilling out of a rotten apple. Afterwards the little creature which practically exuded nightmare fuel crawled its way to its master's arms which held it closely as if was a tiny defenseless kitten.

"All right" she smiled and directed her frightening gaze at the three Batarians still cuffed to their chairs. "Now who is next?" the three pirates looked as if they were ready to piss themselves, if there was something certain in this universe it was that no Batarian pirate could keep a secret safe from the powers of a lilim like Camille Dumas.

-.

An hour later

LLC Nighthunter, mess hall

"I never knew they would have a dextro based alcoholic drink in a human vessel" Saren Arterius stated after he and the rest of the Citadel crew sat at their table in the mess hall.

It was somewhat unnerving for them to be a group of outsiders in a ship full of humans; and it was reciprocal to their 'new allies' who were constantly looking towards them with suspicion. Not that it was necessary for them to keep a watch over their group; the all-seeing, all-hearing AI of the vessel did that for them 24/7.

"Well they have two quarians serving aboard after all" his fellow turian Caena Vikandros commented while looking up from her plate. "So what about this torture method the humans used on the Batarians?"

The Spectre Tela Vassir also looked up from her plate; she had been eating a bacon and cheese sandwich which was very good, but when thinking about that alien white worm carving through that pirate's skull to slowly feed of his brain made her lose her appetite.

"They never did that during war, I was their prisoners for a month yet they never mistreated us, we ate 3 times a day and we were interrogated for time to time, by humans, synths and even one of those lilims once yet never tortured" Sared exclaimed, sighting, for all their faults the Terran Systems Alliance was honorable in their treatment of POWs and occupied territories.

"Well technically this is not an official military vessel" the Salarian doctor stated. "By acting out of their jurisdiction this task force sigma can act with a limited impunity and do things that interspecies treaties or national accords would not allow".

"Ingenious truly" he added.

"Politics are always complicated, but they are part of the job" the other Asari Corporal Vyla commented with a smile on her face, she looked cheerful and calm.

"Why can you be so relaxed?" Tela Vasir asked her.

"I went to the sauna in deck 3; you have no idea how pleasant that was and my skin feels like Thessian prime quality silk, the bath tub there was also amazing. I didn't believe that this ship was a repurposed luxury yacht until I saw the original rooms" she explained.

Everyone exchanged looks of interest before resuming their talk about the information extracted from the Batarians interrogated.

-.

A few tables from them at the other side of the mess hall a human and a quarian were watching the Citadel group with interest. They could pick a word or two amongst five like Praggia, conversion, Thorsken… or something like that.

Ez Kowalszyk sat in front of Lannya'Werr who was drinking her coffee through a special straw and sterilizing her food with a type of irradiation apparatus before eating it; her friend was trying to make small talk but she was not giving her full attention.

"It's okay to leave the engine core unattended?" Lannya'Werr asked shyly, continuing their banter.

"It's fine Nath4an and MINERVA are handling it" Ez answered.

Even through the faceplate Ez could see that his friend's gaze was not on him but rather on the table at the other side filled with aliens; he knew what she was thinking. He smiled and nodded with the head towards them.

She nodded back.

Standing up from their seats their carried their food trays towards the other side of the hall.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" he asked to the surprised group of Citadel operatives.

One of them the younger Asari smiled. "Of course not, please" she gestured for them to sit. The rest of the table seemed to share her attitude or lacked the energy to protest, the Asari spectre and his turian sidekick glared daggers at them; both Ez and Lannya simply shrugged off.

"Well I heard a gossip amongst the crew that Commander Dumas was interrogating the prisoners, and that we are travelling the Dakka System in the Nubbian Expanse" Ez stated, looking back at the Spectre Tela Vassir. "So do you care telling us what happened? That it left even you, completely unnerved Miss Vassir?" he asked the spectre directly.

"Your commander used a so called chironian brain worm to extract information directly from the mind of one of the pirates" the Salarian doctor explained in an accelerated voice.

"A chironian brain worm?!" Ez exclaimed, with eyes huge in surprise. "Santo dios, those things are nasty…"

"We noticed it" Tela Vassir added. "But I have to admit I am curious, what do you think of Commander Dumas? And what do humans deal with genetic anomalies like Lilims, are there more of them or…"

"Stop right there" Ez Kowalczyk cut her off. "Let's just say it's complicated, Lilims have been a part of human society since the first gene mod therapies and plasmids. The first lilims were considered victims of irresponsible tampering of science and nature, children of individuals addicted to splicing, that ended up with mutated unstable DNA" he explained taking a deep b breath, it was a gamble to be open with Citadel aliens but it had been two years since the First Contact War, and he knew nothing that the waypoint and social media didn't tell.

"In any case lilims were not the only anomaly to appear during an era of quick changes, the fact that there were humans that could sense someone's emotions and open thoughts was not very different from the birth of individuals capable of moving an object with their minds through either biotics or plasmids"

"So there is not really an actual social segregation or discrimination against lilims; some people feel uncomfortable around lilims when they know who they are but there had not been any serious problems between kori liliths or normal humans in recent history"

"For what I know lilims do not read minds exactly is more that they can feel other beings emotional state, like chemistry and neural pathways or something like that…" Ez released a short sight. "Social media describe emotions like anger, sadness or fear as auras but for what I know about lilims the effect is more like…"

"A resonance"

A gentle yet sinister voice cut through their conversation, they all turned to the side to see Commander Camille Dumas approaching the table before grabbing a chair through her telekinesis and sitting next to them at the table.

"Well I see you are all curious about my abilities and who better than me to explain them for the sake of trust and cooperation" her smile vanished from her face and a professional frown appeared in its place staring directly at Tela Vassir and Saren Arterius.

"For the record lilims cannot see emotions or thoughts, we can scan the effects or an emotional state as if we feel a resonance within them"

"Sometimes I and those like me can influence those emotions lowering someone's emotional state or raising it. For example making an already extremely angry man go berserk by changing their body and cerebral chemistry, yet it's not that simple, when we synchronize/tune with another sapient beings we are also vulnerable to their emotions, a lilim who reduces someone's anger or hatred may also be 'infected' by those raw emotions"

"Even the strongest lilim cannot force someone else to do something that they would never do; all we can do is simply push them or stop them from fulfilling their desires" she made a pause. "Yet even in those cases the effect is not without flaws, sudden changes in body chemistry and neural wiring can be detected throw a body scan and any lilim would be easily track down if they are doing something illegal"

"Nevertheless all those cases are mostly regarding interactions with humans, for example…" she looked straight at Ez with her piercing yellow eyes. "Tell me Engineer Kowalczyk, are you afraid of me?"

The young engineer almost stammered as his quarian friend put her hand in his leg in a gesture of support. "Honestly commander, yes, a little…"

"You are honest that's good, but you are wrong, you are not afraid just a little nervous, which is quite normal. As for other sapient beings well…" she looked around the table with a bright smile and an even brighter gleam in her golden eyes.

"Asari are the closest to humans in terms of brain chemistry" she looked directly at Tela Vasir, their expressions mirrored each other like two lionesses ready to challenge each other for dominance.

"Yet they vary with their stage, Asari maidens are very easy to read, they are akin to human teenagers controlled more by their hormones and charged emotional drives, they have almost no layers in what refers to a thoughts and personality"

"Asari matrons are the most similar to adult humans in brain works they resonate almost the same way, and are in possession of consolidated layers of personality and emotions in check most of the time" her smile faltered at that moment adopting a thoughtful gaze. "Matriarchs are very hard, mental disciplines sharpened by centuries of experience and highly evolved intellects. I have read matriarchs before and sometimes I felt as if I was speaking to a marble statue"

She turned towards the STG doctor. "Salarians are the hardest of all alien species registered so far, they think fast, talk fast and feel fast if they feel at all. It's very hard to track changes in emotional state, reactions or deep thoughts when they happen at a very quick pace"

Then she turned her gaze towards Saren. "Turians aren't as hard as they appeared, they have very disciplined minds but their emotions and thoughts are easy to read most of the time; even thought their sharp sometimes overdriven senses make it sometimes uncomfortable for most lilims to dig too deep" she explained in a very cryptic tone.

"I don't know much or Volus but Elcors are the complete opposites of Salarians, slow in body chemistry and neural activity in a psi level. You need patience to read an Elcor but it can be done"

She smiled at the girl next to Ez, but in warmer less sadistic way. "Quarians are also similar to humans or young Asari in their neural pathways, not so much in their body chemistry nevertheless. The most interesting difference however I would have to say it's their natural predisposition towards collectivism and social interaction"

"What do you mean with that?" Lannya asked with curiosity.

"It means Quarians unlike humans or perhaps Asari have a much higher need of social influence, the need for others is present in almost every species but you have a much more considerable need to see and speak with others. As the old phrase says it no man is an island, we all need each other but if a human would be left in an island alone for a few months or even years, chances are yet they would be left with severe mental scars by the isolation even in the case that they do not go mad; but a Quarian would suffered much serious mental wounds and trauma if they lacked the community and support of others"

"Also the beta type personality of following the leader or the majority of a group is most predominant in Quarians than humans, perhaps that is why you had so few divisions be it cultural or national than humans alongside your history"

"It's not hard to find to human that has or behaves like a sigma type personality defying their collective groups and leaders, standing up for themselves. Yet a majority of the Quarian people is more biologically predisposed to choose or do something in accordance to their group than their own belief in what's right or wrong, or what is the best path"

"Krogans well there is no much to read within those noggins of theirs" she smiled at the Salarian doctor who actually returned his version of a smile.

"Rachni are a hive mind, everything other than the queens cannot be defined by either him or her and more like them" she made a pause and looked around the table, her golden eyes shone and her expression looked more akin to that of a scientist observing a petri dish than a person talking to a table with both friends and enemies.

"In any case is fascinating to see how the minds of an entire species are the result of thousands if not millions of years of evolution. Turians evolved as hunters so they have sharp senses and mental disciplines, Salarians are natural scavengers just like Drells possessing nearly eidetic memories so as to find the best shelters and food. Krogans are naturally territorial so males cannot stay in a confined space for prolonged times without fighting"

"Humans were both hunters and scavengers so we are a little more balanced; also our genetic diversity makes it something difficult to find a common denominator" she explained. "There are a lot of personality types also within all species, so we tend to classify them once we make a through reading: Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Epsilons, Zigmas, Omegas, etc"

"Any further question?" she asked to a table of profoundly puzzled people.

No one dared to make a sound.

"Very well, go get ready we will be arriving at the Dakka System in a few hours" then she looked with her golden eyes at the female turian in the table. "Also Mis Vikandros you should probably finish the letter to your brother as soon as possible"

"Ehh?" the Turian medic in the table exclaimed sharply now deadly afraid like a wounded bird being about to be cornered by a golden eyed cat.

How did she knew?… by the spirits…its true, this demon can read minds she thought, if it wasn't biologically impossible, Ez Kowalzcyk could almost see cold sweat dripping from the turian's brow.

"And no miss, I didn't get that info through my powers but from the AI in charge of the ship, if you write a letter through your omni-tool you should try using a secure network first" she finally explained with an enigmatic smile before rising from her seat and walking from the table of frightened aliens and a human.

-.

Hours later

LLC Nighthunter, in orbit of Pragia

CIC meeting

Arriving at the Nubbian Expanse and the Dakka System was easy the Nighthunter while not being technically a military warship it was certainly a fast vessel, capable of moving undetected from system to system in an efficient manner.

As expected there were no ships in orbit of the jungle infested planet enemy or otherwise, but the sensors went hardwire when they pointed them at the coordinates recovered from the pirate cruiser and confirmed by a trio of very talkative and honest Batarians, unlike their fourth crewmen they were still drawing breath in their cells.

"Well we have located this conversion center" Eva Core stated looking at the hologram with interest.

"The point is what we should do?" Camille Dumas wondered exchanging gazes with the rest of the senior officers.

"What are you suggesting Commander?" the Captain Jack Harper asked.

"Our mission was to recover Intel and find anything about the Terminus Combine's movements, operations and infrastructure; we have already done that, we can leave this conversion center for the navy. Call the cavalry and leave this system, clean and simple" she explained.

"What?" Eva nearly yelled. "Are you saying that we should just leave and quit right before unveiling this?"

"We have no idea how many enemy soldiers are down there, it might be an entire army and we don't have enough manpower to cut through and shut down their operations" Camille countered.

"But we have the means to infiltrate and find out what these bastards are doing?" Jack cut in.

"Maybe" Camille reflected for a moment her hand caressing her chin. "We don't have a gravity well beacon to stabilize a rift jump for a flotilla to arrive, so any reinforcements would take some time to arrive"

She made a pause. "But if we attempt to make a recon and infiltration operation we will need to make use of all our capable operatives and I mean all of them. We should talk with the Spectre and her people" she suggested.

Jack nodded and sighted, he was not going to like this.

-.

A few minutes later

LLC Nighthunter's armory

Assembled at the armory right next to the Hangar bay of the ship were six of the aliens rescued from the Black Fleet slave ship: The Spectre Tela Vassir, the other Asari known as Corporal Vyla, the turian operative Saren Arterius, the Turian medic Caena Vikandros, the STG specialist Doctor Rulhu Dor and the krogan battlemaster Urdnot Wrex.

"This is an M-27 Falcon semi-automatic rifle the standard light sub-machine gun of Alliance Land Force Command" Ben Hislop began introducing the aliens to their weapons, they were all low tech nothing of critical value to be compromise if capture.

"She has a quick rate of fire and precision but easily overheats; it's perfect for short bursts of medium range fire to stop an incoming foe or break through an enemy's kinetic barrier; before returning to cover as you recharge and the weapon cools off" Ben explained. "If you are strong enough you can hold in only one hand leaving the other free for the use of biotics or plasmids".

He placed the next rifle in the table a bigger weapon, a rifle with a longer cannon and frame. "This is the M-45 Argus assault rifle, everyone's favorite combat rifle for the frontlines, she uses a cryo core and advanced heat dispersal systems so she hardly ever overheats and it's extremely versatile for a large number of combat scenarios"

Then came their version of a sniper rifle with a modified GL-19 Altair, the spectre and her sidekick Saren looked interested. The krogan and the female turian's eyes light up at the shape M-15 Eviscerator Shotgun when Ben Hislop showed her off, it was his weapon of preference.

"Finally we have the J-3 Carnifex revolver" he showed several pistol of the same model. "Don't be dismissive about her size, she has a strong bite and it can use a large list of ammo types; she is very precise".

While they didn't have a place big enough to be used as firing range Ben Hislop made a short presentation through holograms and VR simulations to show them how to use each weapons, their strengths and weaknesses; before allowing them to test them in a hovering drone at the open space that was the hangar bay.

The Salarian Doctor was the first to choose, he took the Argus assault rifle; Saren Arterius took the GL-19 Altair which could be used as a medium range sniper rifle; the Asari Spectre and her compatriot took the M-27 Falcon as they were weapons that worked well when fighting with biotics; the other turian and krogan took two Eviscerator shotguns, yet the krogan battlemaster stood for a moment at the armory watching another weapon hanging in the racket.

"What is that?" he pointed to a large weird gun that looked like an unholy fuse between a grenade launcher and a shotgun.

"That is LC-205 Heavy rifle, we call it 'the rivet gun', the favorite weapon of the Alliance Praetorian military corps it has a very heavy punch; if a rifle is the cannon of a frigate then the LC-205 is a dreadnought. If fires heavy rivets through gauss impulse, any round fired from that gun can pierce through almost any barrier and any armor. Yet it is very heavy to be carried by a regular human soldier even with the increase strength of a combat exo-armor…" at that moment Ben stopped talking when he realized just how close the 600 pound krogan warrior was to his face.

"I am a krogan, my dungs are heavier than you human" he simply stated with a toothy smile. "And I want one"

Ben Hislop sighted and handled him the heavy rifle.

-.

After a few minutes of preparation the whole team assembled at the hangar bay, all in combat armor and all carrying weapons.

They were divided into three squads of five people each to infiltrate the conversion center complex in Praggia and find anything about the Terminus Combine and Black Fleet, the squads were to be led by Captain Harper, Commander Dumas and Armory Chief Massani while Chief of operations Eva Core was to stay in the Nighthunter to cover their escape at the insistence of her captain.

-Wraith 1: Captain Harper, Ben Hislop, Saren Arterius, Dr. Dor and Corporal Vyla

-Wraith 2: Commander Dumas, Spectre Tela Vasir, Nath4n, Burk (the rachni) and Urdnot Wrex

-Wraith 3: Zaheed Massani, Ez Kowalkzcyk, Caena Vikandros, Lannya'Werr and Dr. Mathew Groznik

They were all split into diverse groups meant to infiltrate and recover any Intel as well as rescuing any prisoners kept down there, as agreed upon by the captain any data recovered was to be shared between all parties as a gesture of good will and payment for all the services provided to each other.

To maximize the efficiency of each unit they all have included a tech expert within them who could hack any terminal and a sufficient number of heavy hitters to ensure the accomplishment of every objective.

As the shuttle was being prepared the squad waited mingling in the middle of the hangar bay, talking to each other and continued to examine their new weapons.

Saren Arterius looked at his Altair assault rifle modified to be a long range sniper rifle with a special type of suppressor that served as a silencer for an infiltration operation; he had to admit the weapon was almost turian in design even though it was ill fitting for his turian talons, the trigger and grip were designed to be handled by smaller fingers; a Drell or an Asari would be comfortable nevertheless with this weapon.

The technology was different than turian weapons; at first glance he could see the subsystems that handled heat dispersal, optics, magnetic stabilization and power core. The magazine was easy to change and recharge, he doubted that the mass accelerator mechanism could jam in the middle of crossfire.

"I have to admit the humans know how to make interesting weapons" the Asari specter stated looking at her weapon, the humans have also returned them their secondary weapons, the specter had her disciple pistol of Asari design hanging from her belt.

"I agree Dr. Dor joined in at the conversation" holding his Argus. "This rifle though heavy reminds me to the weapons issued by STG, versatile and precise" Saren joined them.

"Still I preferred something larger and with better range" he held his long sniper rifle. "It has a long cannon and a good handle, perfect for dispatching an enemy from distance".

"Ha ha too small for my taste turian and where is the fun in killing an enemy from afar" the krogan Wrex joined in holding his rivet gun in both hands. "I can't wait to try this cannon, it's completely my style: big, strong and heavy. Not to mention brutal" he released a short laugh.

"You think that's a gun Krogan?" Zaheed Massani approached them he was in an exo suit that was only slightly lighter than a praetorian armor, in his arms was a heavy minigun he looked like a juggernaut with all that armor and huge weapon.

He held his HM-11 Grinder for all to see; everyone could guess the reason behind the name if that monster started spitting lead and tungsten at an enemy position.

"This is a gun; we call it the meat grinder for a reason".

"Ha" Commander Camille Dumas laughed, she was in a form fitting armor that made her hourglass figure and round shape ass plain to all; the lack of heavy armor plating was compensated by superior kinetic barriers and the lilims natural regenerative abilities.

"I see my mother was right no matter which planet they are from, men always fight to see which one has the bigger cannon" she stated with a smirk.

The two Asari smirked and Eva Core released a snort.

"I don't get it" Lannya'Werr the quarian engineer sitting next to Ez Kowalczyk said. "What did she mean with…" her shinning eyes behind the obscure face plate opened wide in realization. "Ohhh" she added.

Next to her Ez smirked and friendly hit her in the back before becoming completely serious. "Stay next to me, I will watch your back if you watch mine" he declared, she nodded in response.

They all stood in attention when the captain came out of the armory in full armor and armed to the teeth. Captain Jack Harper was in full pitch black armor without any markings of the Terran Alliance military.

Both the captain and his first officer had LB-42 Special forces rifles equipped with suppressor silencers at the end of the barrel.

"Well this is it" he began as a hologram of the so call conversion center appeared in front of him. "Our recon drones have located three main entry points and several points of interest that are critical objectives" the hologram highlighted several spots.

"Wraith 3" he gestured to Massani's squad. "Your job is to break into the complex central mainframe, hack its systems, disable their communications and defenses and recover any critical data cache you can find".

"Wraith 2" he looked at Camille and her team. "Dumas you and the Spectre will take care of the prisoners, we have located several areas where it seems like they may be holding captives. Extraction will not be easy as we only have a single transport shuttle so after that you should go to the complex's shuttle bay and capture a few vehicles" he explained.

"Wraith 1" he looked at his own squad. "Our task is to capture the complex commander and recover any vital data cache associated to the black fleet and Terminus Combine" he finished.

-.

They took the condor to the planet surface its stealth capabilities shielding them from the enemy's sensor array; while they didn't detect any enemy warships the shuttle's sensors detected many transport vessels parked near the blacksite.

Once on the ground the group divided into three squads and headed for their respective objectives.

The Batarian complex looked like a mix between a factory, a laboratory and a concentration camp: a massive rectangular construction similar to a bunker that shielded its content from external sensors dominated the layout, with smaller facilities built around them serving as prisons, foundries and supply storage.

Under the oversight of Zaheed Massani Wraith 3 the hacking team moved towards the complex central processing system and energy array. Lannya and Ez have managed to hack the sensor towers to avoid detection, but the Batarian complex's guards could not be hacked (well not so easily at least), they needed to be dispatched as silently and efficiently as possible. While Ez and Mathew Groznik were not true soldiers both of them have received training after being recruited within a Private military camp in Praxis and were adept at the art of covert infiltration.

"Mute charge ready" Dr. Groznik informed them after placing the state of the art infiltration tool on the wall covering the outer room.

"3" Massani counted down. "2" everyone raised their weapons pointing them at the breach point. "1" they took a deep breath. "GO" the mute charge was activated creating a stasis field that kept the molecules of the air to stay as still as stone; stabilizing an area in perfect silence.

No one heard the explosives breaking the wall even after seeing the fire and smoke bursting through the concrete and metal; the surprised enemies on the other side least of all as they rose from their seats and positions, making desperate attempts to grab their weapons, yet it was all pointless as the five operatives of the Nighthunter gunned them down in an instant.

As the last body fell to the ground, the stasis field vanished as did the silence covering their ears, sound returned.

"I will never get used to it" Ez stated taking a deep breath.

"Which part Kowalczyk? The killing or the mute charge?" Massani asked scratching his ears.

"Hard to say which one sir" Ez answered looking at his quarian friend who looked to be shaken, he kindly put his hand on her shoulder, she nodded thankful.

"Werr" Massani called her pointing to a group of computers at the edge of the room. "Go to that terminal and see what you can find, disable the security if possible"

"Yes sir" Lannya answered heading for the computer activating her omni-tool.

"Chief Massani we have a problem" Mathew Groznik called them near the door.

"What is it?" Zaheed asked.

"This door leads to the central mainframe but there is no terminal lock; the keyhole is an actual keyhole"

"What?" Massani demand an explanation.

"You see this door was designed to avoid hacking or security breaches, so using a 'low tech' solution an analogical lock in other words is a clever trick" Groznik explained.

"So what? Do we need to find the station commander and take the key…?"

"There is another way" Ez explained examining the door mechanism with his omni-tool, the hologram detailing the intricate system of the lock displayed over his left hand. "The gate has a faulty security subsystem if we short-circuit the machine and then freeze the mechanism we can keep the door opened" he finished.

"Very well" Massani stated gesturing to the lock.

"Stand back" Ez ordered, then he began firing a couple of incendiary rounds at the steel plate covering the lock the phosphorus burning through the metal before using his cryo winter blast plasmid to freeze and break the metal plate as if it was made of cardboard.

Once the lock mechanism was revealed he signaled for Groznik and Massani to overcharge the machinery. The scientist and the skirmisher combined their electroshock plasmids to infuse the wires and gears with a surge of energy, the wires and subsystems began burning covered with sparks.

Finally the door opened wide as the system was forced, before the emergency security system was activated Ez threw a blast of ice cold air through his cryo plasmid that fused and froze the mechanism in place.

Meanwhile the Turian doctor Caena Vikandros remained at the sideline guarding the door yet she was slightly distracted by the mastery of strange powers the humans were in possession; it was fascinating these plasmid abilities were not only capable of being used as weapons but also as tools for regular problems like biotics: electroshocks could be used to overcharge or activate tech, cryo blasts to put down fires or disable mechanisms and an infinity of possibilities; it was something to behold.

"Gate's open" he stated with a smirk. "Lannya let's go" he said to the quarian still downloading and examining data from the terminal.

"Coming" she answered; the five person squad moved into a wedge formation following their leader who guided them into the long hallway through the door.

"Sir" the quarian moved to the front next to Zaheed Massani. "I found some troubling information regarding this complex"

"What is it?" he asked, Ez looked troubled at Lannya.

"There are records of ships bringing prisoners from Illium to be processed in this facility, hundreds maybe thousands of Asari were brought here but the strange thing is that after that they were send to the frontlines as soldiers according to the records" she explained.

"What?" Caena Vikandros asked sharing everyone's confusion.

"I know it does not make sense, unless they have a way to control them or send them as slave labors" she pondered.

"Anyway, heads up" Groznik stated signaling at the door, his omni-tool was flaring with alerts. "According to my scans there is a group of unknown beings behind this door, but this is the strange part my drone's scan has them flagged as synthetic organisms but there are traces of Asari DNA and readings of mass effect anomalies matching those of biotics"

"Hold" Lannya asked. "If there are synthetic enemies in front of us we should change our thermal clips to disruption ammo"

"Well thought Lannie" Ez nodded as he, Groznik and Lannya changed their ammo clips for blue rounds. A type of ammo designed for the Quarian Migrant Fleet marines to fight synthetic enemies like the geth; the rounds emitted a heavy resonance electric pulse that fried circuits and electronic systems the same way an incendiary round burnt through organic flesh.

"Everyone stand ready; on my mark open the door Kowalczyk" Massani ordered, Ez and the rest nodded.

"Mark" the hatch opened and the light behind it revealed several figures shaped like human females but they were Asari that had been…

There were no words to describe them, they were like monstrous androids with pieces of flesh covered by metal and circuit, in their hands shone the blue aura of biotics and they looked at the group of intruders with hostility, as behind those semi organic eyes with strange light patterns there was not a single gleam of a soul.

Asari, robotic zombies, que diablos? Thought Ez.

"Open fire!" Massani ordered.

"What in the spirits?" Caena Vikandros asked horrified as she fired at those Asari abominations.

"La puta madre!" exclaimed Ez, firing madly as well.

-.

Meanwhile at the other side of the Complex - Wraith 2:

"By the goddess, this one is efficient" Tela Vasir Council Spectre muttered under her breath looking at the scorched corpses of Batarian guards who had been burned to death by the plasmid Incinerate powers of Camille Dumas.

The Spectre had seen vids and recordings of the humans with plasmid powers before, even those that were classified; she had studied their manners and combat doctrines yet the lilim Dumas was different. She was capable of teleporting from place to place in the blink of an eye in a red mist, appearing at the flank of the enemy one second and at his back the next, throwing fireballs from her hands with tremendous effect on the enemy soldiers, breaking their kinetic barriers and scorching their flesh.

"Ahh I love the smell of fried Batarian in the morning" Nath4an the synth operative joked taking a deep breath.

"You can smell?" the krogan asked puzzled.

"Actually yes, my synthetic model has olfactory sensors" the synth stated. "But it's a human figure of speech when we have a banquet or a battle"

"Ha ha well said" the krogan nearly roared in laugher. "They are one in the same"

"Keep quiet you two" the Rachni brood warrior Burk stated through the modulated voice of his bio suit. The rachni praetorian bio suit not only increased his resistance and biotic ability but also allowed him to communicate through speech as any other sapient being.

"We are nearing the prisoner cells" the rachni informed them.

"Nath4n hack the alarm systems and secure us an escape route" Camille ordered.

"Commander, given the unknown number of prisoners I suggest capture of the enemy transport ships to ensure safety evacuation" Nath4n explained.

"Very well contact Massani's team and inform them of their new objective" the Lilim ordered.

Before they could even call them the coms flared with an urgent message, Massani's raspy voice sounded through their headphones. "Wraith 3 to Wraith 2; better be careful out there, we have just had an encounter with some kind of cybernetically augmented Asari" he stated with concern.

"Say what now?" Dumas asked, everyone exchanged gazes and looked at their omni-tools.

"It seems these Batarians bosh'tecs…" the quarian Lannya spoke through the coms. "Have been altering their prisoners as some kind of augmented cyborgs"

"They are like something out of H.R. Geiger acid infused nightmares" the voice of Chief Engineering Ez Kowalczyk explained as the omni-tool began showing a holo scan of one of the creatures' death body.

"By the goddess" Tela Vasir exclaimed looking at them, as anger boiled within her veins, was it this what the Terminus Combine was doing to her people?

"Be watchful out there" Massani recommended.

"Copy that" Camille answered. "Good luck, Wraith 2 out" she cut the coms.

"Let's go free those prisoners before they do this to the rest of them or us" Nath4n declared.

No one argued against that.

Once inside the prison cutting through the remaining guards had been easy, they were too distracted watching or molesting the prisoners to satisfy their depraved needs to notice the five alien elite operatives sneaking up on them.

One particularly fat Batarian guard was laughing as he watched as his companions used a hose to spray water at high pressure into a group of naked Asari prisoners he never knew what hit him when a biotic bubble swallowed him and compacted him into a pile of shattered meat and bones. The Asari Spectre Vasir could be gruesome when she wanted.

The rest of the team opened fire into the rest of the guards dispatching them quickly.

All the eyes inside the cells shone with surprise, hope and ultimately confusion when they saw a female human in a combat hard suit, an Asari in spectre armor, a black plate synth, a rachni and a krogan armed to the teeth as they killed every last guard.

"What in the goddess?" one Asari behind the bars exclaimed. "Who are you?"

"We are here to rescue you" the human answered grabbing one of the dead guards and using his omni tool and DNA biometrics to open the cells; groups of Asari burst out of their prisons surrounding their liberators with eagerness.

At the other side of the room the group of damped and naked Asari shivered in the corner trying to cover their privates while Nath4n approached and pointed them to a line of lockers where clothes were storage.

"Nighthunter to Wraith 2" the voice of Eva Core spoke through Camille Dumas's omni tool. "What's your status?"

"We are releasing the Asari prisoners" she explained. "What about our reinforcements and extraction"

"Working on it, stand by, we have just detected enemy ships arriving the system; we will need to remain in silent run for a while, be on your guard and stand by for exfill" Eva stated with traces of concern in her words.

"Willco, Wraith 2 out" Dumas cut off the transmission.

Some of the prisoners and the Spectre exchanged gazes filled with concern; two years ago the humans were mortal enemies a few months ago they were rivals of the Citadel species and now it seemed like they were allies, what has happened since they had been imprisoned; one of them looked to be particularly bewildered.

"All right ladies" Nath4n the combat synth began. "If any of you has any training with weapons grab the guards' guns" he instructed them gesturing to the corpses at the floor. "We need to go to the landing bay for extraction and…" he was cut off mid-sentence.

"No" one Asari prisoner yelled for all to hear, immediately all eyes fell towards her.

"We are not going anywhere" the blue skinned woman with sharp eyes retorted; she had the markings of an Asari matron with fair skin and a generous bosom, she looked mean yet professional like an old bitter eagle. "Unless you tell us who are you, what are you doing and what in the goddess name is going on?"

"Well" Nath4n began. "Long story short, we are from the terran independent frigate LLC Nighthunter, we rescued a Spectre Tela Vassir and her crew after an engagement with the Black fleet a few days ago, we recover Intel from one of the black fleet vessels pointing us to Praggia and we have come here to rescue you and survey any operation of the Terminus Combine"

"Terminus Combine?" the sharp eye Asari matron asked.

"A confederacy of Terminus nations and gangs spearheaded by the Black Fleet" Dumas explained. "How long have you been here? There is a war now between the Terminus Combine and the Citadel Council; the Terran Alliance is staying neutral, for now"

The prisoners exchanged gazes, all the pieces falling in place now they knew why no one had come to rescue them before.

"Believe me sister" the Spectre Tela Vassir said to the other Asari. "I don't like the humans either but right now I am sure that both us and then reap more benefit from working together than working against each other"

"I am not going with them" the Asari matron. "We are not going; I will not leave one prison to land in another. How do we know the humans will not keep us captive and use all of us as a bargain chip with the Asari Republics?"

"Speak for yourself Erinya" one of the other former Asari prisoners sneered.

"Ignore her she is a pure blood bitch" another prisoner naked as when he came into the world stated.

"Maybe she prefers to stay with the Batarians, they are her type" another spoke looking at the matron, becoming a chorus of heated insults.

"Enough" the voice of Commander Dumas ended the argument her hands literally flaring with Incinerate plasmid fire. "You want to stay be my guest, those who want to leave come with us" she stated.

"How do we know you will not keep us against our will once we leave this facility?" the matron asked with a rude tone, her response was the sharp glare of Camille Dumas with her golden gaze making the prideful matron nearly bite her tongue.

"Your name is Erinya isn't it?" Dumas asked keeping her bright golden gaze in the pure blood Asari.

"Yes… it is" she simply answered, her voice stammering for a moment before hardening once again returning the sharp glare in defiance, yet the lilim simply smirked at her with a cold smile and playful eyes.

"Then let me assure you lady, that if I wanted to hurt anyone…" she teleported in the blink of an eye with a cloud of red smoke to just centimeters away from the Asari Enrinya's face who back away two steps nearly tumbling down into the ground and looked at the lilim in shock.

"I would have done so already" the lilim completed the statement with red and purple flames dancing around her palms, in a display of her plasmid powers.

All the prisoners exchanged expressions of concern and doubt but followed them nevertheless after that.

"May I ask you something?" Dumas approached Erinya who looked at her suspiciously. "Has there been any attempt to escape? I mean you are all biotics, you could easily overpower the guards even if you didn't have any weapons training"

The Asari stuttered for a moment then she slightly bowed and pointed to her nape; Camille Dumas could see a recent surgical wound in the skin over the spine.

"They placed an implant of all of us, it causes severe pain every time we try to use our biotics; they can also track us with them and we cannot remove them easily, a young maiden named Viela tried to removed hers with a piece of glass and the implant blew her head off" she explained.

"Dear god" for once Camille Dumas looked at someone with a mix of surprise, rage and compassion, she reached for her com link. "MINERVA I need you to…"

"Way ahead of you Commander" the AI answered. "I have access to the complex's mainframe I will try to find the frequencies of the implants and disable them"

"Do it" the lilim stated; she looked at the faces and eyes of the Asari prisoners, they looked so much human in appearance yet that didn't matter for a Lilim, what mattered was the resonance. The collection of feelings, drives and impulses of everyone; she could see any being's true colors and through focus feel the resonances of their memories and personalities. All the prisoners were now gleaming with an aura of hope and a raging fire of resentment towards their captors; the wave of the hope and hate was like a drug flowing into her veins giving her a rush of pain, pleasure and excitement that felt invigorating in a way.

Note to self she thought, burn this place to the ground once we are done.

-.

Facility's central complex, a few minutes later

"Understood Eva keep the ship in stealth mode; if things go south then take the Nighthunter with any who is able to escape and leave" he made a pause. "Someone needs to tell the Alliance and the galaxy what the Batarians are doing here" he said through his com link.

"No way, I will not leave all of you Jack" Eva Core in command of the ship in orbit, still in silent run yet surrounded by numerous enemy ships countered.

"That's an order Lieutenant" he simply stated. "Wraith 1 out"

"Let's go" he signaled the team to follow him through the hallway, Wraith 3 did their jobs the cameras and alarms through the complex had been disabled while the Nighthunter's AI had a firm grip on the system, dispatching false messages of 'all in order' or 'all clear' to avoid suspicions.

From all the Citadel operatives Saren Arterius was alongside the Asari Spectre the one Jack Harper was keeping an eye for; so while he stood at the vanguard leading the group, Ben Hislop remained at the rear watching their backs and remaining vigilant for any of Arterius's stupidities.

Yet despite their mutual distrust neither human nor turian could deny the exemplary performance of the other; both Jack Harper and Saren Arterius were proficient and focused killing machines driven by the task of completing their missions and uncovering the activities of the Black Fleet no matter what.

"MINERVA" Jack hailed the Nighthunter's AI. "Do you have access to the complex's camera system?" he asked.

"Yes sir and I have located the facility's commander, this lord Tokrshen" the female voice of the AI informed him as the waypoint appeared in his omni-tool's mind.

"However there is an area of the complex that has no internal surveillance and it seems like it is also where the prisoners are being processed. Covert access to the large central room goes through the laboratories, there is also an interesting issue regarding the facility's layout…" she made a pause.

"The central room restricted to the surveillance where the prisoners are taken is flagged as the inner sanctum in the closest term of translation from the Batarian language" she explained.

"Inner Sanctum?" Ben Hislop commented. "What do the Batarians have a church or a religious temple in this place?"

"According to the data available it seems more likely that the place is used for some type of ceremony that may include the induction of slaves into servitude of something like that" the AI further explained her hypothesis.

"That does not matter, we need to capture or kill Tokrshen and take control of this facility" Saren Arterius stated with determination.

"For once I agree with you Turian" Jack Harper said taking command. "Let's finish the mission"

The members of the squad nodded and followed him as they went through the hallways heading straight towards the base's control room. They encountered some resistance in the form of guards and patrols but they were more a nuisance than a threat.

Wraith 3 has fulfilled their primary objective, getting their ship's high processing AI into the base's systems. MINERVA was now everywhere, the Batarian facility an extension of her consciousness, there were still a few locked systems and firewalls in place but the three squads were now able to move within the complex with an almost absolute impunity. MINERVA could block enemy coms reporting them and asking for reinforcements; she could create a time loop in the cameras watching them, making it seem as if all was in order; she could lock doors to cut off the enemy's retreat she could guide the team through the building with surgical precision.

The building was the AI's domain, and she was in every lever, every door, every computer and every camera.

Yet this inner sanctum was completely outside her all seeing gaze, a dark void in the blueprint of the facility, there was a strange energy reading according to the facility's internal sensors she also controlled but the weird part was that there were no important energy conduits flowing to that area, that could feed any machine capable of emitting that reading.

Fully self-aware terran AIs were based of human brain scans, there were duplicates of a human soul and mind if the term was correct in any scientific, philosophical and spiritual sense; and for the first time in her short existence and position as the Athena's computer she could actually say the all feared and ancient human expression:

"I have a bad feeling of this"

-.

Facility's Control room, meanwhile

Meanwhile the base's big boss in his tower was completely oblivious to all even though his operation and kingdom were crumbling around him.

The only indications of trouble for the officers at the bridge were the successive glitches in the security system whose contradictions and rates were only beginning to increase, and the strange repetitive reports of 'all in order' coming from the guards.

Something strange was going on every officer in the room could feel it.

Organic conversion facility 1-5-1 was the name of this Blacksite a sinister name for a gruesome place of even more gruesome acts. Most of the guards protecting this facility were taken from the worse of the worse of the Hegemony's military, a few were even liberated convicts that served in penitentiary brigades in exchange of a government pardon but those that worked directly and guarded Hegemon Tokrshen were from the very best of the Hegemony's special forces, the Striker units, with experienced, respected officers as well. If only their commander treated them as they deserved…

Working for Lord Tokrshen one of the nine hegemons of the Batarian high council was supposed to be an honor according to political propaganda but the truth was that it was not a pleasant job for the soldiers guarding him or for the servants and advisors providing help.

The man had been a war hero for a small civil wars that has plagued one of the undeveloped continents of Kar'Shan; an insurrection sparked by the lower castes of the region who have rebelled against their superiors killing thousands of upper castes in the process including their families, half a dozen ancient houses have been extinguished as a result; a great shame for the entire Hegemony.

As expected the retribution have been brutal, orbital bombardment, poisoning of river ways, destruction of entire cities and the enslavement of hundreds of thousands of survivors; including the deportation of the rebels concubines and children to the outer colonies. Tokrshen had been the general for that operation and his results spoke for themselves; no further rebellions erupted in that region, even though the casualty rate of both sides was sky high and the economic potential of the entire continent went to shit.

The worst part was that for any middle cast Batarian who had earned his place through his deeds and merits rather than through political pull, Tokrshen was seen as exactly what he was: a bastard who had never earned neither worked for anything that he was or had in his life.

His family was one of the oldest in the Hegemony's higher cast, he was an aristocrat plain and simple, born with a golden spoon stuck in his ass since birth as the humans would say it; but unlike many of his fellow high castes Tokrshen had a problem: he believed in his own legend as the butcher of Fer'Jhuru, he was twice or trice as worse as any of the other hegemons.

And definitely trice as fat, the Hegemon was so morbidly obsessed that he never even stood up from his hover chair; the spots of sweat and grease never left the skin of his face and neck, a pathetic image of the Hegemony's upper caste.

"You have shit over your eyes as much as between them Gholek?" Hegemon Tokrshen sneered with his high peak voice. "Go and find what's happening down there"

"Yes your excellency" lieutenant Gholek answered with as much respect in his voice as he could muster.

He hated sucking up to that disgusting and entitled prick; during the negotiations with the Terran Alliance two years ago, he had heard a rumor that the humans had nicknamed the fat hegemon "the Batarian yellow toad", Gholek didn't had a clue of what a toad was but the sneering tone of those who spoke the name seemed fitting.

Yet it wasn't Hegemon Tokrshen's history or manners the most disturbing issue about him but rather his peculiar tastes…

"Bring me more of the vodka drink slave" he screeched.

Answering the order a pale and thin Asari child perhaps 14 years old, about the height of 6 year old Batarian approached the fat hegemon carrying a glass bottle that had been imported from human space.

She was frail thing, always shacking in terror or crying by the side; ever since her capture a few months ago she had become Torkshen's favorite pet. She was practically naked, only wearing her underclothes that allowed all of them to glimpse upon the scars of the brutal slave training in her pale blue skin; long slashes of a whip or marks of electroshock covered her back and chest.

If there was one reason why Torkshen was especially infamous within various circles both inside and outside the Hegemony it was his collection of private slaves: children from various species who served him personally, there were three Asari, one female Turian and a male drell who was the biggest of the bunch.

The small Asari girl couldn't even reach the top of the table to pour a coup of vodka so she moved a chair in order to reach and with some hesitation began dropping the liquid into a glass.

"Do not let a single drop be wasted! That bottle is worth more than you" her master sharply ordered, scaring the girl who in her stuttering dripped a stream of the liquid to fall into the table.

"Useless idiot" the Hegemon stated, further scaring the Asari toddler. "Bring her here" he ordered with a smile looking at the Turian in the group.

Immediately the Turian girl who was much bigger than the young Asari, about the height of a twelve year old grabbed the bottle from the blue toddler and pushed her into their master. The poor girl instantly went into her knees and began begging for forgiveness, the master merely smiled more and pushed a button in the arm of his hover chair.

The child collapsed into the floor in tremendous pain over the electric current coming from her implant. She shuddered in the floor in agony as tears covered her eyes and a pool of her own piss grew beneath her. Many of the other Batarian guards laughed at the sight.

The two other Asari of the group were a little older than the newest, looked away as they continue cleaning the room both of them had been especially relieved when the attention of their nasty ass master was diverted into a new fresh target.

The last member of the slave kids the drell being the size of a fourteen year old human, merely helped the two asari girls; he was always trying to protect them if possible from some of the worse acts of cruelty of their master.

After getting tired of abusing the Asari toddler, the fat hegemon ordered her to clean up her mess as he turned to the rest of his collection.

"I have good news for all of you" he sneered with a big smile on his face and cruel gleam in his four eyes; all of the kids flinched in terror, their master being this exited was never a good sign. "You will soon have a new friend for the collection; I have put forward a very substantial slave bounty for anyone who brings me a very beautiful and interesting specimen" he made a pause as his smile grew even wider.

"A human female child" he sneered.

The position of the Terran Alliance as an unknown and growing power capable of standing against the might of the Turian Hierarchy have made most of the slaver guilds, pirate gangs and Hegemony officials very hesitant to conduct any type of operation against the humans but now with the Citadel forces busy in a war and the Alliance staying neutral with their forces patrolling their borders they had a golden opportunity to begin exploiting a new large and rich source of new slaves.

The human frontier colonies were ideal targets ready to be snatch and taken before the humans could react and once they did, they would look at the Terminus systems in search of retribution not the Batarian Hegemony. That gave them enough time to study the potential of a new fertile market for human slaves, specially the females so similar to Asari.

Also once the Citadel fell they would be able to clone their own servants and slave species; perhaps they could combine human and Asari DNA to make the perfect slaves.

His mouth watered upon thinking of a group of fresh human cubs for his collection.

He yelled for another drink but while his lips moved no sound came out, his mind wondered for a second if the alcohol had affected his hearing when the door opened – in absolute silence - and several armed intruders came through guns blazing, no sound came from their weapons even when the mass accelerator rounds pierced through the flesh of his guards, who began falling one after the other.

The deafening silence ceased and a hundred different sounds crashed into his ears, the first was the loud thud of a body falling into the floor a pool of yellow blood oozing beneath the broken corpse of Lieutenant Gholek.

The fat hegemon panicked but as he tried to call for help by accessing the coms in his chair yet before he could even blink he felt a force crushing him as he was suspended from the ground, his entire body gleamed with the blue aura of biotics. He looked forward to see a young asari perhaps about a hundred or two hundred years old staring at him with pure hatred in her blue eyes, she then pulled her arm back in a throwing motion like a baseball player throwing a curve ball as he was telekinetically pushed into the wall. His bloated body bounced of it like a rubber ball before crashing head first into the floor.

"Clear" Ben Hislop stated first, the room free of hostiles now.

"It's he dead?" Saren asked about the unconscious Batarian Hegemon, the disgust in his voice plain and clear.

Just minutes ago they have watched the intercepted footage of the cameras in the control room through their com links as they planed the breach. Ben Hislop has been the first to express his desire to kill this worthless sack of meat and for once both Saren and the Asari Corporal Vyla were in complete agreement with him.

"No, he is still alive but may develop a concussion due to the blunt force trauma" the Salarian doctor explained looking at the medical scan of Thorsken.

"I would love to kill him but we still need information" The leader Jack Harper interjected. "Vyla" he ordered looking at the only Asari in the squad.

"Look after of the kids" he ordered, the Asari nodded practically running towards the group of scared sobbing children huddling together in the corner looking at the massacre with wide eyes. The eyes of the Drell and the Turian turned towards their unconscious master wondering if they should try to help him and be rewarded and avoid punishment. But looking at the newcomers confusion stood next to fear in the melting pot that were their emotions.

The three Asari girls looked at Vyla with a spark of hope in their hollow pale eyes, for the first time in a very long time. The young commando put down her riffle and reached her hands to them in a gesture of support.

Meanwhile Jack Harper reached out into the disabled hover chair and through his omni-tool extracted the codes for most secured area of the complex, their final objective.

"MINERVA do we have access?" he asked the AI.

"Yes sir, but I would suggest against an incursion into the final room of the blacksite, I have no visual in the area, it's completely cut off, there is no telling what may await you there, the materials and wiring around the room will obstruct most attempts of communication"

The compute voice with her distinctive British accent, made a pause that almost felt like a sight. "Also captain I don't think there is any need for further operations, the base has been mostly secured and the cavalry is about to arrive"

Everyone made a pause looking towards Jack Harper and the voice coming from his omni tool. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"A terran fleet is coming to the system" she explained. "ETA five minutes, we have just received confirmation"

"You knew this?" Saren accused him although to be fair there wasn't anything to call out at their unexpected allies.

"Actually no" he answered. "Alliance Intelligence may have also discovered the value of this site"

"Captain" Ben Hislop asked. "What should we do? We can simply secure the prisoners, hostages and Intel before delivering it to the Alliance"

Saren, Dor and Vyla looked against throwing themselves at the mercy or understanding of the Terran navy and for good reason; in the best case scenario they would be returned to Citadel Space with nothing to show for other than their lives and in the worst they would be imprisoned or even quietly eliminated in order to erase any trace of their involvement in this matter, alongside any interference on their part.

"The mission is not over" he finally stated.

"Vyla, Dor" he called on the Salarian and Batarian. "You two will watch the kids and secure the room and our prisoner" he made a pause.

"Hislop, Arterius you two are with me, we are going to find out what are the Batarians hiding.

-.

Antechamber of the Inner Sanctum

The two humans and one Turian moved into the artificial cave that was in the lowest part of the facility, the place looked as creepy as it could be, fresh claw marks in the rock and dark as the mouth of hell if it wasn't for their flashlights.

Until they finally saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel, standing in the middle of the large cavern was a monolith of some kind. It like a weird sculpture made of chrome metal with a shining core.

In a simple way it resembled two petals of a flower twisted around its center.

Big and heavy metal chains covered the floor all connected to the sculpture.

"What in the spirits?" Saren asked.

"What do you think it is?" Ben asked.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before" Jack answered and then he crouched into the ground, looking at the chains.

"But it's clearly been carried here. Look at the chains and the marks in the rock, they are old but this thing was brought here"

"For what purpose?" Saren asked.

Ben meanwhile looked carefully at the sculpture and the chain. "But how did they bring it here, this thing's got to weight tons! They may have used mechs or…"

Hislop's words were cut short when the chains rattled with violence hitting the three operatives and sending them into the ground.

Strange inhuman voices came from the side as they all turned their gazes to see several creatures resembling Asari but somehow altered into cyborgs with electrical wiring coming in and out of their flesh like something out of the Borg from Star Trek or H.R. Geiger worst nightmares.

The part robot part zombie part alien chicks (only thing missing was part vampire or part pirate) pounced at them with violent shrieks coming from their mouths.

"Ben!" Jack shouted seeing his comrade being lifted off the ground by one of the creatures af if he was nothing more than a potato sack, he and Saren opened fire at the creatures gaining enough time for the young man to recover his riffle and joining the struggle.

"What have they done to all of you" Saren exclaimed as he continued to fire at the Asari cyborgs.

"Put them down" Jack ordered. "Why won't you die?" he asked, as he fired round after round on the creatures which simply didn't fall.

After a few seconds that felt like hours the last of the zombies was dropped down, dead at last.

"Did you see how strong that thing was? It lifted me like I was nothing!" Ben stated.

"Yes, I saw it" Jack answered.

"They have been altered somehow with cybernetic implants" Saren stated the obvious. "They may have brought prisoners from Illium to be converted into these things and be used as terror weapons; mindless beast designed to spread fear into the enemy soldiers and populace"

"I find myself in agreement with you, Arterius" Jack interjected. "It's absolutely monstrous, to use civilians and innocents as cannon fodder, turned into monsters and used to fight their own people" he released a sight.

"In any case we need to secure this place and contact the ship for extraction" he turned to his com link. "Eva, Minerva, someone" no one answered.

"Something is throwing interference" he explained.

"This tower thing maybe? Let me see if there is a way to switch it off" he approached the monolith.

"No Ben! Wait!" Jack shouted in warning.

A pulse of energy came from the structure and hit Ben Hislop, the lighting continued as if it was charging the man like a battery.

"Ben I got …" Harper said as he tried to get his subordinate from the energy field.

A lightning bolt from the artifact hitting him as well.

Meanwhile Saren watched both horrified and fascinated as the eyes of the human captain somehow glowed in an unnatural almost mystical way after being hit by the beam of energy.

The Turian went to one knee as he approached the still alive human, while the young boy have been converted into one of those creatures, his skin covered by wiring and melted grey flesh.

Saren wondered what he could do…? Should he try to take this alien artifact to the Hierarchy for study? Should he help the unconscious captain? His people took priority but he had committed himself to this mission so…

His thoughts were interrupted when the sound of several men wearing heavy duty boots running towards them assaulted his ears.

In less than a minute Saren found himself confronted by two dozen terran marines armed to the teeth, their leader cladded in pitch black armor was unfortunately familiar for Saren Arterius and his brother.

"Well we meet again Saren Arterius" the voice of the N7 operative Booker Dewitt confirmed his worst fears. "It's you? Isn't it? You Turians all looked the same, your brother and you as well" he added with some level of irony.

Looking around the Turian Blackwatch operative realized how bad this looked: he was unharmed in an enemy facility right next to the bodies of two terran operatives, he could try to take his riffle but they were too many. He was at the mercy of the humans once again…

His mandibles crunched in frustration…

"Men secure the area and do not approach the artifact" Dewitt finally ordered.

Meanwhile Jack Harper's body was twitching in constant discomfort as his mind was in overdrive hearing a voice as old as the universe itself.

-.

CODEX:

Terran alliance most common rifles and weapons:

-M-27 Falcon Semi-automatic rifle: Manufactured by Ching & Sinclair Arms the M-27 is the favorite secondary weapon of the Alliance Marine Corps and Colonial Guard. Fast, light and reliable the Falcon is especially adept at raiding operations in enemy ships or outposts; her light weight also allows it to be used with only one hand with efficiency while throwing plasmid attacks with the other.

-M-45 Argus assault rifle: The standard rifle of the Alliance Marine Corps and Main Army the Argus is a reliable weapon, with an stable rate of fire, efficient heat dispersal capabilities and a versatile modular use of different types of ammo: from armor piercing, incendiary, electro-disruption, cryo and non-lethal.

-GL-19 Altair assault rifle: A modular assault rifle using gauss electro acceleration technology, it can be modified in the spot to be used as both an assault rifle and a sniper long range rifle.

-M-15 Eviscerator shotgun: The favorite shotgun of the Alliance special forces and marine corps the eviscerator as the name implies fires a storm of tungsten and Rearden shrapnel at close range eviscerating any enemy at close range.

-LC-205 Heavy rifle 'rivet gun': The preferred 'weapon' of the Praetorian Corps the LC-205 is actually a converted rivet gun, originally designed to fix bulkheads and open panels in zero-G; now it is use by praetorian combat units. This powerful tool fires high-power Rivets at enemies. Because of its massive size and weight, the Rivet Gun cannot be wielded by a normal human soldier. Using gauss magnetic acceleration the rivet gun fires a large rivet at incredible speeds with a powerful impact. The most remarkable feature of this weapon is her capability to use different types of ammo: armor piercing (tungsten and Rearden steel rounds); incendiary (phosphorus and pyro dispersers) and a variety of tactical (tracking, trap, disruptor or non-lethal) ammo.

-J-3 Carnifex Pistol: A small yet precise and powerful revolver for any operative preferring the use of plasmids or biotics to fight.

-HM-11 Grinder Gauss heavy MG: A 'minigun' in all but name the HM-11 Grinder is a powerful machine gun similar in function to a Gatling Gun; like every weapon of its era the Grinder uses electromagnetic mass acceleration to metal rounds at any target at relativistic speed. It fires the equivalent of .50 Caliber rounds with anti-personnel and armor-piercing variants. It is best used to sweep an area of enemy soldiers or hold a defensive position from waves of attackers but has increasing recoil with continuous bursts. It uses a cryo core to cool down and disperse residual heat.

-CL-57 Ion laser portable cannon: The favorite weapon of most terran combat synths and praetorians the CL-57 is a portable version of the PDC (Point defense cannons) used in terran warships. Originally designed a century ago in Rapture at Minerva's den district the weapon was further updated and mass produced by Porter Robotics and Cyberline. The cannon is a powerful laser infused by particles of negative ions especially adept to shatter kinetic barriers by depolarizing mass effect fields, burning armor and flesh; also creating electric disruptions in circuit wiring. The only downside of the weapon besides its weight and also the primary reason why is used only by synths or praetorians is the emission of radiation lethal to most organic beings.

-.

-Chironian Brain worm – Bestiary codex: Native to Chiron the main habitable planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri-A, the chironian worm is an equally terrifying and fascinating organism.

-Mute Charge – stasis field generator beacon: An experimental tool for high risk infiltration or hostage rescue operations; the mute charge as the name implies generates a field of telekinetic stasis like a bubble where the air particles are temporally held in place preventing any type of sound wave from expanding too far. The mute charge creates a place of absolute silence for a few critical seconds that can be used for a tactical breach or a covert entrance into an enemy controlled room. The short time of the duration of the field is due to the costs of energy from the beacon as well as the subsecuent effects the stasis of a field of air would produce in the people inside the bubble like troubles for breathing or the explosion of capillaries in the skin, in a similar manner to people exposed to the void of space.

-.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

I am back Baby! And the Illusive man is now in the house. It took me a while to return and found enough time to write again, hope you have enjoyed this chapter. Next chapter we will finally travel to the epicenter of this AU, my version of Rapture.