2128 hours, May 17, 2542 (UNSC military calendar)
Councilor Tevos' private quarters, the Citadel
Tevos sipped her iced tea. It was almost time.
The door to her apartment opened, and an asari in formal attire walked in. It was Tela Vasir, one of the finest asari Spectres. She'd single-handedly broken the backs of Terminus warlords, wiped out illegal AI labs taken over by their creations and had under her belt a hundred more operations so secretive that even Tevos had to struggle to get her hands on the reports.
She was also an agent of the Shadow Broker.
Spectre Vasir activated her omni-tool and scanned the interior of Tevos' room for listening devices. She'd done it every time she entered, even though she never found any. This never stopped the Spectre from trying, of course, and at times Tevos wondered if today would be the day Vasir found the recording device Tevos had hidden in her shoe.
Tevos knew Valern had been trying to bug her quarters for some time now. It was why Tevos did all her cleaning and other household tasks by herself and never let anyone that she didn't trust inside her home. To the outside, it made her look like a hard-working respectable woman, but it also gave her complete control of what information went in and out of her suite.
In Tevos' centuries as Councilor, her room had slowly and secretly become a fortress. Only she knew about the secret exit below the carpet. The hidden weapon behind a wall panel. Or how with a single vocal command she could have the room filled with an anaesthetic gas that she had been genetically and cybernetically modified to be immune to. She wondered how much it must have vexed the STG that even their best listening equipment outside her apartment couldn't pick up the faintest whisper.
"Councilor, our mutual associate had been able to acquire information that could be quite valuable to you. In accordance with terms of the contract, I've come to deliver this information to you."
The "contract" referred to the deal Tevos had made with the Shadow Broker to help him place agents in the upper echelons of several asari republics, in exchange for providing her with political leverage against pacifist Matriarchs, as well as asari corporate leaders.
It was amazing what one could dig up on an asari Matriarch if they looked long enough. Nobody wanted their secret children or wild Maiden years to come to asari corporations quickly stopped their anti-tax lobbying when reminded of the Prothean data drives they had been studying in secret. The Shadow Broker truly was a good ally to have at times.
It was something Tevos had learned quickly. The Asari Republics were e-democracies, but Matriarchs held great power and influence in the society and at times formed de-facto shadow governments. Control the Matriarchs, and you could control the asari.
Tevos had to be careful, however. Blackmail did not work on idealists, only the self-serving. But if you convinced one hardliner asari to stop opposing the increased taxation, others would quickly follow suit. It was a dangerous game she was playing, but she judged the risks worth it. The Citadel had to prepare before the Covenant tide swarmed into its own systems.
And the asari were the closest to the Orion Relay. They would be the first to suffer in any invasion.
"Our associate has agreed to your terms and helped to install more militaristic Matriarchs into positions of power throughout the Asari Republics. The terms also included a promise to inform you of any potential Covenant infiltration." Tela Vasir took a datapad and placed it onto the coffee table. "But this does not cover his latest discovery."
"What have you found?" Tevos inquired, eying the deactivated datapad and picking it up. She turned it on, seeing a photographic image of the Orion Arm. It was dated as three hundred years old.
"Pictures taken by the Thessia Deep Space Observatory..." Tevos asked. "What's so special about these?"
She swiped the image to the left, seeing an identical photograph. This one was taken later, according to the timestamp. Tevos could not spot any difference, until she saw it: one of the stars was noticeably brighter in the second picture.
Vasir must have seen something change in Tevos' expression, because her smile immediately turned sour.
"This was at first classified as an occultation by a small moon or planetoid. But in the last two hundred years no observatory aimed at this solar system has detected a planetoid whose size and mass matches what we observed."
The realization slowly overcame Tevos.
"It wasn't a moon... By the goddess, if this is a fabrication, Vasir, our dealings are over." The Councilor snarled. "Why show me this?"
"Because the Shadow Broker feels it is important you remain motivated to follow our arrangement."
Tevos silently cursed to herself. The Broker was right. She couldn't break the "contract" for now: the Shadow Broker was far too influential to make an enemy of. She had to keep him on the side of the Citadel until the Covenant could be defeated. But for that, she had to make the Broker dependent on her. Or at least, make turning on the Asari too expensive. But it would not last. It was like a Terminus colony bribing a krogan warband not to invade.
Just long enough for her to find him, kill him and replace him.
The Councilor took a look at the datapad again as Tela Vasir left her apartment. The Extranet reporters would shrug the visit off as the two of them having a quick fling, like they always did when Tevos brought guests.
She tried to think of what to do with this information.
1400 hours, May 20, 2542, (UNSC callender)
Bridge, Destiny Ascension, in orbit over New Ghent.
Matriarch Benezia stood on the bridge of the Destiny Ascension as she awaited the arrival of the human diplomats. According to the information handed over by the human admiral, the diplomats could arrive any second now. It had been decided by the Citadel Council, that the flagship of the Citadel fleet would be sent to this historic meeting.
The diplomats from Citadel space had been preparing ever since, drawing up growing lists of demands, requests, concessions and offers to ingratiate themselves with the humans. The word of the unique technologies the humans possessed had begun to spread, as well as the information about what they did not. There was great influence to be gained in being the first to acquire working examples of their "slipspace" engines or to sell them comm buoy technology.
The offers extended from military assistance to technology, raw materials, food and large-scale shipments of industrial equipment. It was a curious mixture of genuine care and enlightened self-interest from all parties involved. The Covenant had to be pushed back, no doubt about it. But that did not mean the Citadel's representatives couldn't make profit from this. So far the most pressing points had been who would help the humans build a comm buoy network and the future proliferation of their "slipspace" FTL drives.
The volus had sent envoys from both their government and the Galactic Bank, as well as representatives from megacorporations in Citadel space that had ties to the volus government. The corporations in particular were keenly interested in the prospects of this "Titanium A" the humans made their ships out of, as well how they made their massive ships feasible. While human FTL was slower than what ships with mass effect cores could achieve, it made superheavy ships practical, a boon which the volus government, as well as corporations like the Elkoss Combine, was seeking to acquire in exchange for financial assistance, raw resources and military equipment.
The asari had sent Matriarch Benezia as the official ambassador of the Asari Republics, but there were many corporate representatives as well. Armali Council, for example, was interested in acquiring an exclusive license for human FTL technology to supplement their dominance on the drive core market, while other corporations specializing in civilian technology wanted to quickly tap into the humans' intellectual resources. Matriarch Aethyta was to represent the military forces sent to assist.
The salarians hadn't sent as many envoys as the other Council races, instead sending Jondum Bau to represent the military of the Salarian Union, accompanied by a few civilian ambassadors. They were interested in selling comm buoy technology to the humans, and as theirs was the best in Citadel space, they would likely succeed in such a thing. Their fleet was also preparing for pre-emptive incursions into Covenant space to map it out, or at least determine potential targets.
The turian delegation was a predominantly military one as expected, with Primarch Fedorian coming personally to "show the flag". He'd brought admirals, generals, logisticians, scientists and representatives of the Hierarchy's military-industrial complex. They were intent on setting up technological trade with the humans and formalizing a military alliance.
The elcor had sent a single representative, a diplomat to formalize friendly relationships with the humans and offer a contingent of elcor ground forces. The elcor rarely went to war, and even rarer so eagerly, but a combination of wanting peaceful relations with the humans, a fiery hatred for what the Covenant was perpetrating and a desire to at least show some measure of commitment to the Citadel's cause had resulted in the Elcor offering to send part of their standing army to assist.
The hanar had sent the high priest of Healing Waters to coordinate humanitarian aid from the many Enkindler-based religions of their aquatic worlds. Healing Waters was the most trusted non-profit organisation in the galaxy, renowned for their selfless aid to the less fortunate. Although Benezia suspected that this was also coordinated by the Illuminated Primacy as groundwork for a cordial relationship in the future.
The most curious attendants were the batarians. They had shown up uninvited, but they also offered substantial military support to the Covenant war… in exchange for lifting of sanctions on their economy. Benezia wondered if the turians might agree to this so that the batarian fleet would be out of Citadel space as the war began in the earnest, letting the turians decrease their border patrols. But she doubted the salarians or the asari would be as amenable.
In any case, the batarians were still Citadel members, at least officially, and so they would be allowed to attend. They'd sent one ambassador purely to inform the Batarian Hegemony's secretive government of what was happening beyond the Orion Relay.
Benezia was concerned about the batarians slipping from the public consciousness due to the actions of the Covenant. Theirs was still an aggressive government that defended slavery as an "inalienable" part of their economy and culture, and their only reason for not being destroyed by the turians was the fact they could be reasoned with… to an extent. Taking out the Hegemony would be an excruciatingly long and bloody affair.
"Human slipspace portals opening at the edge of the system." An asari sensors operator reported. "Two large contacts coming through - no, wait. Smaller contacts are breaking off from the ships."
The viewscreen on the Destiny Ascension's bridge showed two massive ships slowly emerge from what looked like black-blue-white vortices. The ships had to be very large, many kilometers long each. Benezia leaned forward to look at the sensor readouts, noting the exact size of the ships in question. "Four kilometers long, but it's not a space station. That is... quite impressive." She said in an unusual showing of surprise.
The diplomats muttered among themselves in hushed whispers, while the military representatives calmly observed. The turian Primarch leant forward on a railing and nodded approvingly at the sight, a rare sight from the grizzled turian, the turians around him apparently being in agreement. One of them stepped forward - Admiral Karandis, the turian who'd won the first space battle of the war.
"I wonder if the FTL method these humans use explains the size of their ships. It must be. We've not seen any indications that they're using element zero drives. Their ships are definitely slower than ours, but in terms of size they are bigger than any warship we have. I wonder if they would be willing to trade that technology."
Primarch Fedorian slowly nodded. "We could use them to create mobile fleet bases and superheavy ships for defensive deployments. A fleet with mass effect technology and the right speed could run circles around an attacking force of ships like these. But it would be suicide to attack them head on." He mused. "Our technologies would complement each other quite well. I believe they would be willing to trade Mass Effect FTL for this "cross-dimensional" drive they use. The strategic options it would open up would be priceless to say the least."
Other ships were sliding out of their own portals - two squadrons of ships half a kilometer long each, shaped like long thin arrowheads, all exiting into normal space widely apart, but quickly adjusting their course to move back into position. Then came an even larger ship that looked like a massive slab of solid metal with yard space and repair docks.
"We are receiving a message from one of the human supercapitals. Putting it through now." An asari communications officer called out.
"This is the Punic-class supercarrier UNSC Trafalgar, formally representing the Unified Earth Government on behalf of the United Nations Space Command Security Council. We come in peace and to open diplomatic contact with your species.
"We hope to establish a rich and productive relationship with your leaders and formally establish an anti-Covenant coalition."
Benezia mentally went through the speech she had prepared for this moment. The humans were blunt and to the point. So would she.
"We gladly accept your hand of peace and offer our full support in driving the Covenant out of human space. Our diplomats are ready to make formal contact. Where do you wish to formally meet?"
The humans immediately responded. "As befits an event of this magnitude, we invite you aboard our flagship. Our diplomats and xenoscience experts are eager and ready to meet you."