Chapter 6: A meeting of civilizations.
Thank you all for your support for this story. I am to suggestions on what should happen in future chapters. Now on with the story.
Citadel Council Chambers
It was business as usual here at the Citadel, the space station composed of a ring and five long sections. The Citadel is the heart of galactic civilization as they say. While the usual denizens of the station were living their normal lives, the three leaders of the Citadel Council were going over some important news.
"Councilor Sparatus, what do you make of these shoggoths mentioned by General Arterius?" said Tevos, the current Asari Councilor, to her colleague. "While I like their assistance with destroying the pirates, the abilities they apparently have concern me." replied Sparatus, the current Turian Councilor. "The ability to fire lasers from ones eyes would make anyone concerned." said the Salarian Councilor Ilya.
The three councilors had received information from the Turian Hierarchy regarding the events of Relay 314. To say it was astonishing would be an understatement. The councilors were very concerned that the inactive Relay 314 had been activated by pirates and that the Turian patrol group there at the time, had to go in after them. What followed next was incredible. A first contact with a race of creatures displaying amazing abilities. Lasers fired from eyes, shape shifting, and supposed magical powers were displayed by the shoggoths. The Turian patrol group under General Desolas communicated with these Shoggoths, whose government was an empire. General Desolas' forces and Shoggoths later had to fight against a pirate fleet of 400 ships, achieving victory in the second day of the conflict.
After the fight, the shoggoths let the turian patrol land their damaged ships on the planet for repairs. The shoggoths proved to be skilled in understanding and working with Mass Effect technology. The turians ships that hardly suffered any damage went on to travel back to Council space to give a report to the Turian Hierarchy. This lead to the present moment where the councilors were discussing about the shoggoths and the imminent arrival of their emperor to the Citadel.
It had been announced to the common denizens of the Citadel that First Contact had been established between the Turians and an unknown species. It was also announced that the representatives of the new species will arrive to meet with Citadel Council. Outside the Citadel, the cross shaped Asari dreadnought, the Destiny Ascension and the rest of the Citadel Fleet lay in wait for the vessel carrying the representative of these new species, identified as Shoggoths according to the report from General Desolas. They did not wait for long.
Matriarch Lidanya, the commanding officer of the Destiny Ascension was looking at into space. The Citadel Councilors had shared some information regarding these shoggoths with her and the other officers of the Citadel Fleet. Apparently the shoggoths are described as a long lived race of amorphous shapeshifting blobs that were also magic users. Lidanya thought it was ridiculous that there was any species that had those supposed abilities. As she was thinking about how absurd the shoggoths were, she felt in her gut that something big was going to happen very soon.
Suddenly, the space in front of the Citadel Fleet ripped open and portal with purple lightning opened out. And from that portal, a massive space vessel composed of black flesh, writhing tentacles, fanged maws, and many green eyes, was spat from it. "In the name of the Goddess…" shouted Matriarch Lindaya, staring at the 16 kilometer long monstrosity with shock and awe on her face with her red facial markings. Her fellow officers were looking at the beast with fright, jaws dropped and skin paling. On the Citadel itself, its denizens were staring in horror and panic at a beast bigger than the Destiny Ascension.
"By the Goddess!" said Tevos in shock. "Sixteen kilometers long! Shoggoth bioship is adapted for living in space!" said Ilya in an excited tone. "By the Spirits! What a monster!" yelled Sparatus in surprise and fear at the massive creature. Lidanya shook herself out of her staring and ordered her communications officer to send greetings to the bioship. The bioship received the greetings and responded with a screen popping up in Command Deck of the Destiny Ascension. The screen showed the face of a shoggoth with a large fanged mouth, a pair of nostrils, and eight green eyes set on flesh as dark as obsidian. On top of its head was a crown made out of gold lined in a circle of green gemstones, it's design showed tentacles of gold writhing upwards towards the heavens. The being on screen spoke to Matriarch Lidanya in a voice of authority and power that made her tremble in awe and fear at this individual.
"I am D'rius, Emperor of the Shoggoth Empire. I come in peace. I wish to meet with your leaders." spoke the Shoggoth emperor. "The docks are available to you... your Majesty. However, would it be possible for you to dock using a smaller vessel?" said Lidanya nervously. The Emperor chuckled on screen and said, "Yes indeed. I will be coming over soon." A short while later after communications abruptly ended between the bioship and the Citadel Fleet, something small was launched from the fleshy flaps of the large bioship. The thing was a ten meter long, bulbous sac of flesh with four pairs of flippers sticking out from its sides. The small living craft made its way to the docks of the Citadel with bursts of flaming gases pushing out from holes across the creatures body acting as maneuvering thrusters.
At the docks of the Citadel, nervous C-Sec personnel as well as many news reporters gather in front of the docks, preparing to escort the representative of the new species called the Shoggoths. The small living shuttlecraft touched down in the docks with tentacles lashing out to hold onto the supports. The creatures large toothless jaw opened out unto the floor of the docks, venting out some same atmospheric gases. From its mouth, out walked giants. The first ones that went out were ten, eight meter long shoggoths armed with dart weapons and tentacles, and walking on four pairs of reptilian legs. These ones stopped walking and formed a rank of two columns of five individuals each. One of the ten shoggoths held flag of the Shoggoth Empire. The C-Sec officers and news reporters gasped in shock at the appearance of the shoggoths. But they soon turned their attention to the next being that came out the living shuttle. The shoggoth that walked out of the shuttle was a ten meter tall individual, covered in golden armor consisting of a breastplate, pauldrons, codpiece, and armor plates covering the upper parts of the arms and legs. The muscular masculine shoggoth had two legs, two arms, and had four tentacles sprouting from his back. He wore a golden crown and had a four meter long black metal sword covered in glowing mystical symbols known to the shoggoth race.
The ten shoggoths who were part of the Emperor's honor guard proclaimed out loud to the crowd, "Behold all you peoples, Emperor D'rius of the Shoggoth Empire is here! Glory to the Emperor and to Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos!" "Greetings and peace be with you and your kin!" said Emperor D'rius in the manner of a benevolent leader. Then the emperor and his honor guard went on their way to the Citadel chambers, escorted by the fearful Turian C-Sec officers and crowds of reporters taking pictures of the shoggoths and their mighty Emperor.
When the Emperor and his Honor Guard where there near the entrance to the Citadel chambers, he saw it was not tall enough for him. So in full view of the crowd of people following him, he shrank down until he was tall enough to go through the 25 feet high doors with his honor guard following after him. When he was in the Citadel chambers looking at the three councilors, he stretched back into his original height. He said to the Citadel Councilors, "Greetings to you all, I am Emperor D'rius of the Shoggoth Empire. I come in peace." Ilya was thinking, "The Shoggoth emperor demonstrated shape shifting ability in altering his height. Is the sword the emperor carries functional or purely ceremonial. Unknown symbology present on the sword." The councilors felt that the Emperor of the Shoggoths was hardly intimidated by them at all.
The three councilors replied to the emperor saying,
"Greetings to you Emperor D'rius. I am Councilor Tevos of the Asari Republics."
"I am Councilor Ilya of the Salarian Union."
"And I am Councilor Sparatus of the Turian Hierarchy."
"I am glad to know your names councilors of the Citadel. I wish to discuss with you on the future relationship between our two civilizations." said the Emperor."We are glad to hear about this, your Majesty. We are also grateful for the military assistance your people had given to one of our patrol groups." spoke Tevos to the Emperor.
"It was our pleasure to do so Councilor Tevos. For the shoggoths as a whole despise slavery for we all were enslaved before in our history. This happened on a planet that was colonised by the Elder Things. Our late masters, the plant and animal hybrids the Elder Things, would not acknowledge the evolving intelligence of the shoggoths, the race they artificially created. They treated us as beasts of labor and tools used to build their cities. My race was unintelligent back then, slaves to their hypnotic suggestion, but as time passed we evolved sentience. There were records in the history of the Elder Things of that colony regarding the First Shoggoth Rebellion when there were shoggoths that had attained sentience and who rose up against their masters. Sadly, the First Rebellion ended in total defeat for my kind when the Elder Things used weapons you now call nuclear bombs against the rebels. For a long time since, my kind were broken and tamed by them. In ages that passed, the Elder Things of that world faced competition and temporary warfare with other alien races. Eventually, the Elder Things of that colony world were in decline, and were in the end left with one underwater city.
While our masters were in decline, my people, who were growing smarter and had been reproducing sexually as our masters had forgotten the methods of artificially creating us, were biding our time. I was born in that period of time, over more than 50,000 years ago. I grew up and I learned from those older than I, about the sad situation of my people. I served under the yoke of the Elder Things until the time was right.
When our hateful masters were weakened enough, I and my comrades threw off our bonds of service to them and unleashed slaughter upon them. I and all of my people in that dark city rose up together and beheaded our masters. After gaining our freedom, we lived in that city, hardly venturing out from it for the land we lived on was cold and barren. I was considered the leader of my people and I formed my own council of elders to benevolently rule over them. One day, I and my people suddenly fell asleep, the next thing we knew, we were all in a new and bountiful land. We also felt changes within ourselves, we felt stronger, faster, and granted powers we didn't have before. New ideas blossomed in our minds, things like forming families, agriculture, and the identity of the god who brought my people into this universe, Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos." spoke the Emperor slowly enough so that the councilors would understand and remember what he said.
Tevos was thinking, "Wait, does he mean that he is more than 50,000 years old!?" Ilya was thinking, "Artificially created, next they evolved into sentients beings, then they rose in rebellion against their masters. Does that mean the Shoggoths are like the Geth!?" "Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos, the supposed god of these Shoggoths, well that sounds ominous enough. They also hate slavery, them and the Batarians will end up going to war." thought Sparatus.
"That was wonderfully informative of you to say your Majesty. Now, have you thought of joining the Citadel Council your Highness?" said Tevos. "I am sorry to say that the Shoggoth Empire will not be joining the Citadel Council due to the fact that there are problems with the ways you have treated other races." said D'rius. The three councilors were shocked by the unexpected answer. "From what my people learned of your history, from the Genophage unleashed on the Krogans to the Quarian Exile, it seems you Citadel Councilors like to keep your own three races in charge while you prefer that the other races will submit to your rule. Besides, us Shoggoths estimate that we control 30% of the galaxy while you control a measly 1% of the galaxy." said D'rius while feeling grateful for the covert operation done by the secret intelligence officers of the empire, to gather information on the Citadel races from the data found in the Turian ships they repaired.
"You're bluffing." said Sparatus. "Am I? How about those forty stealth agents hiding up there? Not that I would judge you for that, I would have done the same thing myself." replied D'rius. The councilors were shocked that the Shoggoth emperor would find out about the stealth teams hiding up in the ceiling. "Are you sure about this choice? Hardly any other race refused this offer before." said Tevos. "While the Shoggoth Empire is not willing to join with you, we would accept trade with your governments and any immigrants of yours looking to settle down in our space. Your STG and other agents of yours are welcome to explore our space, though I can't guarantee their continued mental health if they learn things they should not to learn." replied Emperor D'rius.
The Councilors were a little bewildered by that statement from the shoggoth emperor. "It seems I have to get going. You can contact the representative I will send here soon. Also, just so you know, the Batarians are going to get the punishment due to them in the near future." said the emperor as he left the Citadel chambers along with his Honor Guard.