Author's Notes: Here's the next chapter! I know that last cliffhanger was abrupt. That's why after consulting with a decent amount of alcohol, I sat down and immediately started this chapter. Upon sobering up I looked at what I wrote, I deleted all of it, and actually started writing something that was...you know, good. I sent it to my beta reader -thanks again Imanoldfart- and let it sit for a day. Looked it over again, fleshed out a few things, corrected a few stupid errors, and uploaded it. I'm hoping ya'll like it since this is me working to figure out space combat scenes as well as trying to add some more real feeling to diplomacy. I've been reading other fan fictions and I have to say, I think a lot of other people do it a lot better than I do.

If you have suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Now, without further Adu -...uh, here ya go.

The AI mused over the data streaming into his mind, everything from the mundane as the minor temperature fluctuation from a local avian species landing on the forward engine nacelle to the most nuanced detail of the formation of hostile ships that had arrived mere milliseconds earlier. The scans continued to stream the data he prioritized and he came to the conclusion that the local fauna warranted more interest. Combat he had seen, tons of dense metals and ceramic alloys hurled across the vacuum of space for one reason or the other. Nothing new.

Now though, he was on the surface of a planet and a new one at that. Being a ship-borne AI was an amazing experience but as was true with any sentient being, sometimes it is nice to just sit and watch the animals. He briefly wondered if there was any sort of food that he could disperse for their benefit and began to go through the ship's inventory. Finding nothing, he did the best digital approximation of a sigh as one of the avian species seemed to shake and ruffle the long, feathered scales they had evolved to fly. His amusement at this was interrupted however as the first volley of the Batarian Hegemony's holdouts reached the Hard Light dome he was maintaining around the diplomatic site.

The explosion was tremendous, stupefying even to those who had never seen an orbital bombardment. The AI knew that the Council races had their laws against such a thing and because of that, they were no doubt near panicking if not already panicking in their ships when the rounds struck. The surrounding area for kilometers around them was scoured clean by the heat and pressure waves as the 24kg dreadnaught slugs expended as much energy as tactical nuclear weapons.

Oddly enough, because of the difference in size and speed that each round had, only the dreadnaught slugs actually made it through to the surface. The frigate and cruiser rounds ran into the shockwave of the dreadnought slugs and detonated above the surface. The Batarians seemed to have overlooked that and simply pulled the trigger at the same time. Sloppy.

Either way, the effect the rounds had on the Diplomatic Base was minimal, the Tempered Steel's Hard Light shield held and as such, the ground shook, there was a thunderous boom, and….well nothing much else. The only effect it beyond that was for the Hard Light shield to become opaque to block out the intense light of the impacts.

Strictly speaking, only the AI was really aware of this due to his sense of time and dutifully logged it away before noticing the effect the bombardment had on the avian species he had been watching. He knew they would be frightened but what he saw was a more poignant demonstration of 'frightened' than he had expected. Three of the almost two dozen hardly flapped their wings before the muscle they used to pump their blood gave out and they hit the ground. Many of the rest, in an attempt to flee, hit the inside of the now orange opaque Hard Light shields and died from the subsequent impact.

The remaining avians numbered at nine and quickly succumbed to the same failure of their bodies as the first three while flying around the rather spacious interior of the Hard Light dome. In their simple minds they panicked when they realized they were trapped. The only being that marked their deaths was the onboard AI who did so with a small amount of sadness and an increasing amount of anger.

In the end, the first and only casualties of the initial strike of Fleet Admiral Kanmorr's fleet were nearly two dozen unnamed avian creatures native to Virmire. Something that the attacking Batarians would never live to know.

Virmire - Equatorial Diplomatic Base

The attack on a garden world, even one so far out of reach of civilization, registered surprise and indignation throughout the four Councilors. The NSSC was much less surprised since they were familiar with such tactics. Once the surprise had died down and the ground stopped shaking from the impacts, Ambassador Ryder decided to speak up.

"It would seem Councilors, that the remnants of the old Hegemony did not come here to attempt to negotiate. The Tempered Steel is more than capable of shielding this location." Before he could continue, a wide-eyed Councilor Tevos interrupted, her eyes still on the tactical hologram.

"Goddess, I never thought they would go so far as bombard a garden world." taking a moment to compose herself, she continued, turning to the NSSC Ambassadors, "We must thank you for using your ship's shielding. There were no damages I hope?"

AI Minerva spoke up at this, having been in contact with the shipboard AI, "No damage to any of the ship although, the strike apparently scared a flock of an avian species that was perched on our ships to death. Those are the only casualties so far."

There was a moment where no one said anything after the AI's almost absurd mention of the local birds, Councilor Valern found it particularly interesting at the apparent nonchalant manner the NSSC had on the direct attack on the proceedings.

"While I am glad that there was no damage, may I remind you Ambassadors that this WAS an attack on the ruling body of the Citadel Council as well as your Ambassadors. I would think you would take it more seriously." Councilor Valern crossed his arms.

Ambassador Ryder answered him, "Oh, we take this very seriously Councilor, there is simply nothing we can do right now. Our ship will provide defense, our addition to the defense fleet is on its way, and I have every confidence that the Council's fleet will be able to repel the attackers. As to the Batarians themselves, the Hegemony has been dealt with, if anything, this is simply their last gasp before they fade into the history books."

He moved forward to the tactical display but it was the Sangheili Ambassador that stepped up next to him that spoke, "There is much still to do Councilors, however, until this menace is removed from the skies, there is not much room for talk."

The tactical screen detailed the battle above them, the fleets were moving into position and the fighting would begin soon. Unbeknownst to the Councilors, there was a lot of cross talk between the NSSC Ambassadors and the Dauntless concerning the situation. While it would be beneficial to simply destroy the Batarians and move forward, it had been decided that they would not put the Council in the position of "damsel in distress" and as such would conduct the battle as they saw fit. With the exception of the previously-unknown experimental ship that Admiral Hood had sent.

That still didn't sit right with Ambassador Ryder but he would hold his judgement until after these proceedings.

In orbit of Virmire - Batarian Hegemony Fleet

Doubt crept into his mind as he listened to his tactical officer's report. The base they had bombarded was still there. Centered on what was now a raging firestorm from the energy released by the kinetic bombardment the view from orbit had cleared to show a dull orange sphere that quickly shifted to a translucent orange. The bridge went quiet as they waited for him to make a decision now that their revenge had been denied them.

Fleet Admiral Kanmorr cleared his throat after he realized what his tactical officer had said, the Citadel fleet was moving to engage his fleet, "Turn to face them, get our ships in formation! We will have our revenge on these bastards…."

While everyone on the bridge began moving, there was no cheer to accompany their Admiral's command. The morale of the fleet had been tied to the destruction of the Council along with the NSSC ambassadors. Now that it seemed the base had been unaffected, there was considerable doubt beginning to develop in their minds. Doubt that had to be put aside if any of them were to survive the next few hours.

"Sir, they have altered their formation and now are entering their firing range. Orders?" The tactical officer informed him. He secretly hoped for a retreat order.

His fleet's shields were already up, screening against what the Citadel fleet would throw at him, he briefly considered retreat unbeknownst to his officers. His first plan for retribution had failed and he doubted that there were any reinforcements anywhere in the Hegemony's previous pirate conscripts. The idea tempted him.

His mind was quickly torn away from thoughts of living to fight another day when the first rounds from the Citadel fleet were let loose without preamble. He had at least been expecting some sort of communication, some call to surrender or some typical indignant condemnation of his actions.

His officers began relaying the information on the attack to him, "Sir, they have targeted our frigates, we've lost two and another twelve have had their shields damaged!"

His decision made, he gave his orders, "Concentrate fire on their cruisers until their dreadnaughts get within range, order the frigates to overwhelm theirs. Once the frigates are out of the way we'll outnumber their ships and will be able to pick off their dreadnaughts one by one."

Frantic motion answered his orders as they all began to do their part, no one had any illusions about it, they were in a fight for their lives.

Virmire - Equatorial Diplomatic Base

Councilor Sparatus watched as the two fleets engaged each other, his fleet having shot first although not nearly to the effect he had hoped. The Batarian fleet had still been moving and only two of their frigates were taken out. Now he watched as one of the cruisers in his fleet was hit by the six dreadnaughts destroying it in a single volley.

"The damn fools must have either an experienced commander or an inexperienced one, firing at a single ship at once is overkill!" Sparatus hit the table, overkill or not, it had worked and Turian lives had been spent.

The others watched the unfolding events, they were safe where they were for the time being but for Sparatus and many of the NSSC Ambassadors, it was hard to watch others die for them. Councilor Tevos, Valern, and Udina weren't happy but also were not soldiers. They didn't feel the loss of the rank and file quite the same way.

Councilor Sparatus came to the conclusion that the Batarian commander had to be inexperienced, he was pouring most of his fire into single ships. While effective, it was also easily countered. The use of their frigate's numbers was more in line with traditional combat however as the groups teamed up to pick off the Citadel frigates. They had so far lost two of their cruisers and one frigate while taking four of the Batarian frigates and one cruiser. There was still much more to do.

Virmire - Equatorial Orbit

The two fleets approached each other at what seemed like a slow pace, hurling death at each other at every chance. The batarian ships moved more slowly, not eager to move within the range of the ten Citadel dreadnaughts before they had taken out more of the cruisers.

The Fleet Admiral in the Batarian flagship thought the battle was going well, he was taking a ship out with each volley of his dreadnaughts and his frigates were making headway. Little did he know that the council ships were not attempting to answer his fleet with the overkill that Fleet Admiral Kanmorr preferred.

Each round from the Turian dreadnoughts hit a different ship, each round taking more defensive ability from the fleet as a whole. The more experienced Turian Admiral knew the value of weakening the fleet as a whole rather than waste every volley on a single ship. Once the tipping point was reached, these battles always quickly turned. Still, the loss of life on each side was beginning to add up.

Batarian Hegemony Flagship bridge

"We've lost another four frigates sir! The number of frigates we have is nearly even with the Citadel now and we've only taken out four of their cruisers. Their dreadnoughts are approaching firing range of ours." The tactical officer reported on the battle that had been going so well.

The Fleet Admiral snarled again, as long as he could keep his cruiser numbers above the Citadel fleet's own, then he could out maneuver the dreadnoughts he faced.

"Have our frigates pull range after the numbers are even, we will use them when we attack the dreadnoughts. Our cruis-" he was cut off by the newest report.

"New contact! A single ship seems to have arrived, IFF reads as….Cerberus, Sir!"

Kanmorr growled, the human supremacy group had been a thorn in the Hegemony's side on more than one occasion. For a moment, all thoughts of the Citadel fleet left his mind, his inexperience crippling his ability to focus in a battle, "Have our frigates strafe the ship, I don't know what the hell they're doing here and I don't care but I'll be damned if they get to leave alive!"

The tactical map showed the fleets, each marked on the screen as the ship shook as it took fire from the Citadel cruisers. The Fleet Admiral took note of the new contact.

'Only a cruiser in the middle of our fight? What the hell do they think they're doing?' His thoughts ran wild as he let his bridge crew do their jobs. In all honesty, he let them do what they were doing because he had no good idea of what to do beyond some vaguely remembered lessons years ago. He had been counting on his surprise attack to have wiped out the Council. Once again, his pride fought against thoughts of retreat.

Bridge of NSSC Vanguard

The scans of the system showed a shit storm to Takashi, flying to the system to provide security support had caused him to assume that it would be relatively quiet. He was wrong.

Immediately upon exit from FTL, Hades had announced that there was a pitched battle going on. There was wreckage of ships on both sides but he was inclined to mention that the Citadel fleet had almost twice the number of their dreadnaughts in system.

"There's damage to both fleets but overall I'd say that it seems like the Citadel fleet will win this, if only due to their dreadnaught advantage and the reputation of the Turian navy Takashi. What should we do here? We've literally popped out in the middle of this crapshoot. I told you we should have done recon." Hades looked at Takashi with a smirk.

'He is running every subsystem of this damn ship and he still has time to give me crap about that, we were told to make the best time here dammit, how'd I know there'd be a battle?' Takashi ran through a number of ideas before he addressed his AI friend.

"Ok, let's contact the Citadel fleet and Ambassador Ryder. First things first, let's not muck up some whatever the Citadel fleet has going on here." Takashi stood, absorbing the tactical information as he saw it. Not a huge engagement but enough so to make a hell of a mess.

Hades turned to him, more for Takashi's benefit than due to any necessity, "Well, it seems the Batarians have made up our minds for us. Their frigates are swinging around towards us on a strafing run."

"Batarians? What the hell? Didn't we destabilize their government?" Takashi was confused, "And what do you mean by their frigates?"

"First things first, yes - we did destabilize their government but these guys don't seem to have gotten the memo. Or they did and that's why they're here. Secondly, their frigates, as in all eightteen of them are going to be shooting us and we don't have any Hard Light shielding on this rig." Hades said all of this while running a number of combat situations through simulations, preparing.

In the Diplomatic base, Councilor Sparatus turned to the NSSC Ambassadors. "There's a new contact registered as Cerberus, do you know anything about this?"

Ambassador Ryder flinched at hearing Cerberus, he had hoped that they would have changed the IFF but things couldn't be so easy. The reports on that group were all...well, bad.

"Councilor, that would be the experimental ship I had mentioned….the Cerberus IFF is leftover from the last operation it was involved in." His mind raced, 'Yeah, the last operation being it's construction and subsequent attack on Cerberus. This may cause some problems - Dammit!'

Councilor Sparatus' mandibles flared a little, he was suspicious, "We will have to address that after the battle Ambassador, for now I'm just glad the Batarian commander seems to have made another mistake. He just sent all of his frigates after that one."

Ambassador Ryder was amused, not outwardly, but still amused. From the report he had seen, that would be a mistake the Batarians wouldn't recover from. He sent a packet to the Vanguard.

"Takashi, we've been cleared by Ambassador Ryder to engage the Batarians. Something to the effect of 'extreme prejudice'." Hades' face morphed again into a more vicious version of himself before he looked at Takashi and smiled.

Takashi was glad he wouldn't have to hold anything back but didn't share quite the same level of enthusiasm as his AI friend. They were outnumbered by a lot and only had kinetic shielding. Then again, the ship had flown through a large station.

"Well then, let's stop sitting here. It seems we've just been given free reign and I think it's time to take this ship out for another test drive." The words left him sounding more confident than he felt but he supposed that would happen when outnumbered almost thirty to one. A small smirk made it's way onto his face even with the trepidation he felt. He still didn't quite register the Citadel fleet as backup in his mind or he might have tried to coordinate with them. As it was, he decided to strike.

The former Cerberus ship ramped up to full combat alert and jetted forward, propelled by artificial gravity at speeds that sent both the Citadel fleet and Batarians reeling, confused, and surprised.

The formation of Batarian frigates was not ready for the sudden aggressiveness of the single ship, their captains struggling to figure out what to do as their ships moved with what seemed like ponderous slowness compared to the cruiser sized Vanguard. A few of the ships loosed their weapons against it, slugs missing by huge margins as the ship rapidly approached them.

Within seconds, the Vanguard crossed the distance between it and the frigates, flying directly into the center of them, firing vicious volleys from the independently articulated gravity-driven mass accelerators. The ferocity of the attack wounding a dozen of the ships and destroying three of them before it had passed entirely through the formation.

The two fleets who had been so focused on each other just moments ago watched as this new….thing as it tore through the formation. Fleet Admiral Kanmorr flew into a rage as he watched, quickly horrified as he saw what happened when one of his frigates got close to this new contact.

The frigate in question had been attempting to cause the ship to veer into the line of fire of three of the other frigates trailing the formation. Its captain one of the few quick-thinking and qualified commanders in the fleet. His future became a non issue however as the Vanguard adjusted to the movement in a very surprising way.

The frigate's hull buckled and pulled in on itself, the element Zero core unable to even explode as the artificial singularity the Vanguard had projected where the frigate flew quickly turned the ship into a heated, compressed, and gnarled ball of scrap. The Vanguard simply made its pinpoint turn and shot out of the stunned formation of frigates at a right angle to its previous flight path.

Moments later the wreckage finally exploded, the unstable mixture of pressure, heat, and exotic elements released from the crucible of gravity. Officers and Commanders across both fleets sat stunned for a moment before flying into a flurry of motion. Their sensors streamed in data, their officers issued orders, and tensions built as the new contact's motions sent one deadly message.

The Vanguard wasn't done.

Councilor Sparatus glared at the tactical screen, the new contact had just decimated the Batarian frigate formation in what would have been considered a suicidal run by any Citadel cruiser. Turning sharply towards Ambassador Ryder he heard Councilor Tevos mutter something about her Goddess and Udina's stunned face for a moment before addressing the NSSC.

"You owe us an explanation Ambassador. That ship is reading a much larger amount of Element Zero than is prudent for a ship that size and not to mention it has just pulled a maneuver that makes anything any Citadel race can do obsolete." He made no attempt to hide his anger, the Batarians were the ones on the receiving end of this new ship but he had no illusions, this was in the works long before this meeting.

Ambassador Ryder thought for a second, arms crossed and looking at the tactical display. He quickly sent out the information he had received on the Vanguard to them. Breaking from his thoughts and communication, he looked back at the other Ambassadors as they shifted on their feet. The report would be a surprise to them as well.

"I would start off, no matter how unlikely it is for you to believe me, that I had only found out about this-" He gestured to the icon that denoted the wildly maneuverable cruiser tearing across space, "almost right before we arrived. It was a project commissioned by one of our military leaders to incorporate your Element Zero into our designs."

Councilor Udina spoke up at this, "And why would you need to do that Ambassador?! Does the NSSC not already have a huge advantage over us? Why throw our own technology in our face like this?"

Ambassador Ryder was taken aback for a moment, "I can say that it was more exploratory than malicious Councilor. We just wanted to know what we could do with Element Zero." He was stretching the information he knew, all indications in the report he received pointed to a more military use other than "We just wanted to know".

All of their eyes turned to the tactical display as they watched the new ship rush the remnants of the Batarian frigate formation again, leaving only four of the ships alive to retreat back to the larger Batarian formation. The Citadel fleet, over it's surprise, was unloading withering fire into the remaining ships.

Councilor Udina turned his gaze back to the Ambassador, he had to attack the obvious issue before another Councilor brought it up.

"Now Ambassador, you are going to tell us why that ship is flagged as Cerberus. That terrorist organization has been a pain in my ass for years and I'll be damned if I let the NSSC fly around carrying their flag." His eyes were locked with Ambassador Ryder's

'Heh, well, this Council is certainly not pushover diplomats.' he sent a quick packet to each other NSSC Ambassador asking what they thought and received his answer, 'Well, I suppose it can't hurt. I think they'll be happy to see what happened to this Cerberus group.'

"Councilors, I realize that the history of this Cerberus group is grounds for much concern. Concern I am to prove is unfounded." He walked looked to Minerva and she nodded.

Before the Councilors could rebuke him, he motioned, "If I may, I would direct your attention to the far wall." As they all turned, he noticed that the Vanguard was approaching the rest of the Batarian fleet in an erratic and previously impossible approach. He hoped he could wrap this up quickly.

The Councilors moved behind and to the side of the tactical display so they would have an unobstructed view of both the display and whatever Ambassador Ryder was showing them. It didn't pass their notice of the path the new ship was taking, Councilor Valern was recording the entire thing.

Minerva projected the video and tactical report from the Vanguard's maiden voyage. Starting off with the boring test runs as Ambassador Ryder continued.

"As you can see, we had infiltrated the highest level of the Cerberus organization. I want to assure you all that we do not condone their actions, indeed, from this report I have come to the conclusion that they were picked specifically to allow us to get close enough to their highest tier." As he spoke, the report fast-forwarded through the tests the ship had gone through before they were presented with the view of the Minuteman station from the Vanguard's point of view.

He continued, "After the ship was registered as a success, we took steps to cripple the organization."

At this statement, they watched as the duo of ships flew through the station and swung around to complete their second pass. They all watched, the Councilors most surprised, as the ships engaged the Cerberus fleet. Some of the Councilor's surprise was at the scale the private organization's fleet. It lacked dreadnoughts but was still formidable.

Ambassador Ryder waited until the viewpoint of the Vanguard entered FTL, having left Cerberus decimated.

"As you can see, we have crippled, if not outright destroyed, the terrorist organization Cerberus. I cannot confirm why they were chosen in the first place...BUT, I can assure you that a significant portion of their capabilities have been removed." He could see the Councilors recovering from the display, two ships had wrecked havoc on a fleet and a station, two undeniably small ships. No one noticed that one of those present hadn't been watching the video, but rather was watching the current situation.

"I am more interested in what your 'experimental' ship is doing now Ambassador." Councilor Sparatus motioned to the tactical display.

Almost in sync, they all turned to look at the readouts, the assembled diplomats watched as the Vanguard finished crossing the distance to the remainder of the Batarian formation. They all couldn't help but stand and watch as the situation unfolded.

Bridge of the Vanguard

"Those rounds are getting awfully close Hades…." Takashi was holding on to the railing in front of him, watching the tactical display and processing the information flooding his neural lance.

"Well we did fly directly into their formation. They won't be able to use their mass drivers here, just those damn missiles. Besides, you wanted to do this. I'm just running damage control here." The AI's good humor was evident even as the ship shuddered as their point defenses let one of the disruptor missiles get too close.

"We've yet to actually get hit but at this rate we'll spend more time evading than actually doing any damage." Hades' Hard Light body was still, after that last missile, his demeanor quickly switched and he was no longer wasting any processing time on animating it.

The ship pulled around hard on a singularity, avoiding a volley of missiles as the artificial gravity tore them apart. The shrapnel was spun on the singularity and as the Vanguard pulled away the momentum left in the missile scrap was flung into the shielding of their ship.

"Well that was embarrassing, aft shields are down 15%. It's getting difficult to keep up with everything Takashi…" Takashi was rapidly beginning to doubt their course of action, they had thrown this fleet off balance at first but now they had seemed to have become the only target. His neural lance poured data in and just as quickly relayed his commands out as he and his AI swung his ship in nearly impossible maneuvers around incoming volleys. Foolish or not, these aliens would have to work for their kill.

The point defenses were now shooting non-stop to defend the ship against the missiles that managed to track the Vanguard's erratic movements. Some just happened to be at the right place at the wrong time, sometimes at the design of Hades, sometimes out of sheer luck. Takashi gritted his teeth as his gravity drivers answered the incoming fire with much more effective rounds. The Batarians were forced to reposition as various ships had their shields torn away and hull breaches reducing the formation's effectiveness.

Takashi watched as a Batarian cruiser was turning in his direction, his computer chimed, signalling a target lock. 'Things must be getting REALLY tight if Hades let that happen.' Just before the ship fired however, a number of Turian rounds slammed into the ship, destroying it outright.

A message came through from the Citadel fleet, a gruff Turian's voice came over the channel, "We've received word from the Diplomatic base that we are to support your efforts. I don't know who you are and I don't care at this point as long as you keep attacking the Hegemony fleet."

Before Takashi could get a response off, his attention was divided as an alarm went off.

The fleets watched as a disruptor torpedo finally made contact with the Vanguard's shields after having emerged from the debris cloud of the destroyed Hegemony cruiser. The torpedo connecting at the base of one of the pair of gravity drivers causing the ship to lurch and rapidly move and roll to compensate for the damaged portion of the ship. Relief and anger were felt by the opposing sides as they saw the torpedo finally hit.

Alarms sounded on the bridge of the ship as the fluctuating gravity fields bypassed the mass effect shielding. The hull and supporting structure around the weapons platform buckled and twisted, finally breaking the bulk of the rear gravity driver of the pair clear off the ship while damaging the machinery that provided the range of motion for the forward weapon, cutting down on their offensive options.

Takashi was nearly knocked off his feet, "Dammit! That's damn near a third of our weapons!" Hades answered him with a backtraced firing solution, both AI and cursed as they coordinated through his neural lance, swiveling the ship around and focusing the remaining four gravity drivers on the Batarian dreadnought that had fired the missile. Those ships had escaped harm far too long by their reckoning.

The crew of the Batarian dreadnought that had landed the hit cheered moments before they saw what was about to happen. Most of them were still elated as the four slugs passed through the shielding of the dreadnought with no more resistance as a piece of paper. Takashi had overridden the safety locks on the drivers and the total mass of four 18kg slugs traveling at 12.73% the speed of light slammed into the unfortunate ship. The core didn't have to go critical, the amount of released energy was enough to blind the sensors of every ship on the field for a moment.

Batarian Hegemony fleet flagship - Bridge

"What the hell just happened?! Where'd my dreadnought go!?" Fleet Admiral Kanmorr was furious, first they had failed on their surprise attack, then the Citadel fleet had been punching through his cruisers, now this new damn ship was wiping the floor with them.

He had a moment of triumph when they had landed a hit, proving that it wasn't invincible. Then the damn thing had shot one of his dreadnoughts completely out of existence.

"Get me sensors right now! I want to know what the hell is happening out there! Where are my cruisers?! SOMEONE SHOOT THAT SHIP!" His officers scrambled to make sense of the interference, coordinate the fleet, and lock in targeting for a shot. The amount of energy that was released in that explosion had been significant, hindering almost everything they were doing.

"Fleet Admiral! The dreadnought line is shifting from the shockwave, the cruisers are still trying to react, and the new contact seems to be heading directly for us!" The bridge screen cleared up, showing them all exactly what that meant.

The new ship was barreling directly towards his ship, in the few moments that it took Fleet Admiral Kanmorr to process what was going to happen, his mind wandered in a numb haze. Thoughts of regret flashed through his mind as he realized that if he had retreated after his surprise failed, they would all still be alive. He watched helplessly as the ship sped closer as his mind distantly registered his officer demanding orders.

Fumbling through his thoughts, a single word made it past his lips, "Fire?"

The Vanguard, in a reckless move borne of the necessity from being outnumbered and technically out gunned, barrelled straight at the ship that Hades had identified as the flagship of the Batarian fleet. While they could have simply shot it out of the sky, the pair controlling the ship decided on shock and awe. They barreled straight at the bow of the ship from just below its line of fire.

Moving at an accelerating pace as the cruiser sized ship fell towards the artificial singularity, they made contact with the doomed dreadnought. The moment before the singularity met the ship's hull, a last round left the spinal cannon of the dreadnought, flying high over the incoming ship that was killing it. A final gesture of defiance.

The singularity bit into the hull mercilessly as hull, superstructure, personnel, starship armor all pinched and twisted into superheated slag while being drug along with the gravity well, dumping radiation out as the Vanguard traveled through the ship. Roughly a third of the mass of the ship through the center was simply gutted and slagged as the Vanguard exited the wreck, the remaining superstructure of the ship twisting and buckling as it was simultaneously irradiated and heated from the out pouring of radiation from the matter that was compressed by the artificial singularity. The Batarian Hegemony's last gasp of defiance was broken.

On board the Vanguard, the attack had not been without it's own price. Alarms and warning flashed all over the ship. It hadn't been designed to fly through other ships and the radiation from the matter falling into the artificial singularity had wrecked a good measure of the ship's systems.

"Takashi, we've lost most of our secondary systems, shielding, weapons, engines. We're barely flying now. On top of that, I'm pretty sure you will need some radiation treatment, this bridge isn't nearly as shielded as it should be if we are going to pull those kinda stunts." His avatar was animated again, Takashi also noticed the number of systems that were in the damage report, as well as the escape vector that was plotted for them.

Sending a packet to Ambassador Ryder, Takashi activated the FTL engines, "I think we're done here, don't you Hades? Get us to the Dauntless, I'm starting to feel rather nauseated."

Virmire - Equatorial Diplomatic Base

The diplomats watched as the Vanguard left the system, jumping away moments after the destruction of two of the Batarian dreadnoughts.

Councilor Valern turned to the NSSC Ambassadors, "I think I speak for all four of us on the Council when I ask this Ambassador, what just happened here?"

Ambassador Ryder looked between the Councilors, "Exactly what you all just saw, a ship that we developed with a minimal application of our technology just attacked the fleet that attempted to kill us all." His mind was racing, this wouldn't be good if things went downhill because of this.

"I find your claim that the ship only used our technology dubious at best Ambassador. We have no ships capable of such things." Councilor Valern highlighted the other Councilor's thoughts rather well with the rather exasperated accusation.

"With the exception of our power generation methods, we used what is available to the Citadel races. Element Zero and the law of physics. Our scientists simply took a different route, bending gravity to our will instead of simply manipulating mass." Ambassador Ryder said this as he glanced at the tactical readout that was still the main focus of the Diplomatic floor.

The two fleets were standing off, the Batarians seemed only interested in reforming instead of shooting at the Citadel fleet. Meanwhile, the Citadel ships moved closer to finish the job.

Remembering Councilor Sparatus' admonishment from earlier, Ambassador Ryder countered, "Councilor, perhaps we should see this battle through, once the threat is gone I will detail our plan to share what we have found with the Citadel races." This caught their attention before Sparatus received a report.

"The Batarians are surrendering, a smart move considering the damage their fleet has taken. Apparently Ambassador, your new ship flew through their flagship, cutting off the head of the fleet. That's twice today that the NSSC's actions have saved lives." Very little gratitude actually made it into the Turian's posture or voice. Still, Councilor Sparatus took a moment to consider the actions that had taken place.

Stepping forward, Councilor Sparatus stood face to face with the Ambassador, "You say you intend to share the technology of that ship with the Council Ambassador?"

Ambassador Ryder nodded, "As soon as I was informed of that ship's existence I had decided to do so Councilor."

Councilor Sparatus' mandibles drew in closer, it was possible the Ambassador had only just heard of the ship but he had his doubts, a lot of them, "I want to make something clear to you Ambassador, indeed, to all of the NSSC Ambassadors here." He made eye contact with each of the others present before returning his gaze to Ambassador Ryder , now half a meter away.

"I do not like how events have played out, since arriving the NSSC has held too many cards and too closely to your chests for me to believe that you are as altruistic of a society, or at least government, that you claim."

Ambassador Ryder stiffened a small amount at that but Councilor Sparatus wasn't finished, "BUT! Given what you have shown us and what we have discovered based on that, the real threat is the Reapers. One which I DO believe you intend to fight." He stepped away from the Ambassador and paced in front of the other NSSC Ambassadors, "Since the Council has come to the conclusion that they are real and have decided to treat the Reapers as a threat, one that is unmatched in our history..." He stopped in front of Ambassador Ryder again, hands clasped behind his back and standing as straight and proud, "We are willing to work with the NSSC."

Ambassador Ryder said nothing, looking into the Turian Councilor's eyes, gauging his resolve. He went with his gut and straightened, still slightly shorter than the Turian, his only response was a nod. Councilor Sparatus seemed satisfied with that.

The Turian Councilor turned and moved to the table, disabling the tactical display and motioning to the table, "With that being said and the immediate threat over, I believe we have much to go over Ambassadors. Please, take your seats."

Councilor Tevos was impressed, she had been more than happy to allow Sparatus to lead in the military aspects of this meeting but the manner with which he had shifted to the actual issues was impressive for the Turian. She watched as the Ambassadors moved to take their positions around the table. The Asari Councilor smiled inwardly, this was now her arena and she knew it well.

As they all settled in, Councilor Tevos saw Ambassador Ryder waiting patiently. Looking to her left and right she saw the other Councilors positioned and they each nodded to her in turn. She could appreciate the gesture from them all, the ball was in the Council's court now.

She began, "Ambassadors, as we have seen there is much in this galaxy that we must agree on beyond the Reapers. That being said, we do not know when or where the Reaper threat will materialize but we must prepare ourselves. I hope we can stand together and for that we have to work together."

Looking across the various species of the NSSC, she asked, "Now, how do we suppose we are going to do that?"

Harsa System - NSSC Stealth Prowler Poignard - Three Days later

The scanners were reading off the charts, the Commander of the small prowler was sifting through the data as fast as her and the AI would allow. A fleet was approaching, something numbering far beyond what any of them might have expected. Numbers only told of in the history of the Forerunners and their battles with humans or flood.

She had no orders for this, dropping a cloaked slip space beacon, the prowler moved to a safe distance above the pole of the planet to continue surveillance. Her communications equipment streamed the data across subspace to the New Ark. The information formed a picture, the forms that moved through space matched only one thing in the database.

The Reapers had arrived.

Edge of Harsa system, Unmarked location

The dark forms of the ancient machines dropped from FTL by the thousands, tens of thousands followed with hundreds of thousands more behind them. The first groups broke off, preparing to move across the system to the Relay that would allow them access to the galaxy that had be denied them. They had been delayed before, they adjusted and continued the Harvest. Days, weeks, years, even centuries meant little to them.

The oldest of them signaled to its brethren the locations they would attack, the entire plan for the harvest transmitted in a mere moment as huge swaths of Reapers moved through space. Harbinger moved first towards the planet of the species calling themselves 'Batarians'. They would fall first and form the mass that would weaken the other races. All would proceed as it had before.

The Harvest had begun.

A/N: Ah HA! So the last of the batarian hegemony is dead. Rest assured (bit of a spoiler) the mean, mustache twirling slaving government is gone. Batarians? not so much but that comes later. This chapter is shorter than the others but besides some petty dialogue that I could have shoe horned in for the Reapers I didn't have much more to add to this chapter without doubling the word count.

That being said, the next chapters will be much, MUCH more combat. Space, ground, mental, I'm hoping to get it right. We'll see how well I do. For now...

I hope I'm keeping ya'll entertained *raises glass* Cheers!