Mass Effect: Transcendence

by Clockwork Dragonfly

For Aeons untold, the reapers used their large numbers in addition to their expertise in advanced technorganic and mass effect science to harvest the advanced races of the galaxy...But they were far from infallible, in their arrogance, the reapers missed that the Protheans would alter their so-called perfect cycle by moving the few mass relays near Sol out of humanity's reach...

3. Chapter Three: The Reveal and Fallout

Mass Effect: Transcendence; Chapter Three: The Reveal and Fallout

Codex:

Nyathi (plural) Nylithia (singular): the Nyathi are a short-lived species of non-sapient biotic amphibians native to the bays of Thessia that only live for three to six years, a blink of an eye in the perspective of the Asari.

The name of this species is also very rarely used as a derogatory insult against non-Asari sapient species. That being said, the usage of this insult has become increasingly rare as the republics have become more and more xenophilic over time.

Athamite Religion; Loa-Noi

Loa-Noi, or what approximately translates into warden of the heavens, is the ancient Asari deity said to be one of the goddess's daughters that held dominion over the stars, the sky, the winds, death, and punishment.

Loa-Noi was the guard and ruling matriarch to the gates of the void prison, a place hidden in the sky where those who defied the goddess's will were constantly tortured and killed through suffocation before being resurrected to undergo this process again and again until the end of time.

The Nolaxis: the Nolaxis is said to be a set of very large mystical metal boxes created by Loa-Noi herself to allow her devotees to have a tiny portion of her powers over death and the winds to aid them in their duties.

Chapter Three: The Reveal and Fallout

Deep beneath the temple of athame on Thessia, the Cabal of Matriarchs gathered together for an emergency meeting to discuss the Terrans.

What they had found from the FC information shocked and horrified them to the core, the Terrans had dabbled in forbidden technology to remake their bodies and rise to a level of advancement comparable, but thank the goddess not equal to, the level of the Protheans themselves.

The fact the Terrans had created AIs and peacefully coexisted with them was something they had quite a bit of trouble coming to terms with, based on all Prothean writings it should have been utterly impossible, but it was real and it seemed that all their warnings against AIs and cybernetics were baseless.

Of course, the one who was the angriest was High matriarch Aosia, a four-thousand-year-old Asari matriarch whose life was artificially extended using Prothean biotechnology. She was wearing an ornate scarlet robe with straps of fabric and various pieces of obscenely expensive ornamentation floating around her body like planets around a star.

"This is a total catastrophe!" Matriarch Aosia screeched. "These Nyathi dare raise their hands against their betters by sympathizing and agreeing with these…these…these abominations?!" The fact the Terrans even existed made her blood boil, the fact the other lesser races looked at them with awe, envy, and the intention to emulate them effectively flash-fried her blood, and lastly, the fact they were the great ancestors made her feel like she was a supermassive star going hypernova.

"I am sorry to say so, my lady." One of the Matriarchs responded in equal disgust.

"We may unfortunately not hold total technological supremacy anymore, but we still have a great advantage; these Terrans have never encountered eezo nor the mass effect. We shall still reign supreme in the field of all gravitic technologies." Matriarch Benezia spoke.

"Yes…yes…this might be how we can salvage this situation…" Matriarch Aosia agreed. "That being said, it is imperative that we get these Terrans under our control through any means necessary."

The high priestess-matriarch of the holy data reservoir had her eyes go extremely wide upon hearing that proclamation. "Any means necessary?" She asked in exasperation and disbelief.

Matriarch Aosia considered it for a moment before shaking her head. "No, maybe not that, but anything less than access to the holy reservoir is allowed to be utilized if the opportunity shows itself." She clarified.

A black and orange-robed matriarch with her face obscured by an ancient mask depicting the visage of Loa-Noi then spoke through a heavily muffled voice filter. "The Nolaxis shall look into such options, and shall do everything it can to gain suitable leverage over these monstrous Terrans."

"That is unfortunately all I can hope for right now I suppose…goddess knows our greatest strengths, our economy, and most if not all other forms of soft power are going to be utterly useless here." the high matriarch sighed in resignation.

Meanwhile, on Palaven, councilor Sparatus just finished debriefing the Primarch and the imperial council.

"...And thus concludes my report." Sparatus finished as he looked around the room of Turians in various states of shock.

"If this is all true, then this FC changes quite a lot on our perceived notions…" Primarch Fredorian spoke quietly.

"Are…are we sure this is all correct?" One Turian asked.

"They sent us this FC data before they translated all our languages in a few minutes, something far, far beyond our capabilities; yes I think I can say it is indeed completely and factual." Sparatus supplied.

"…"

"Well…I would have never expected something like this, while not as advanced as the Protheans, they are not that far behind honestly." Primarch Fredorian mused. "I think we might need to look over some of our laws in regards to AI and technology in general if we are to catch up with these Terrans."

"Yes, it is an undeniable fact that these Terrans are as advanced as they are because they have never followed citadel technology laws." Sparatus added before sighing "It is clear to me now that we have remained stagnant and refused to evolve."

"I've looked over the data and what I've found is no less than disturbing. Each time someone innovates something new, the Asari immediately comes out with something better." Lord-Admin Asaltraya imputed.

"It's beyond suspicious and I can't believe we've missed this for several thousand years, that being said, we've never really had an incentive to look this closely at our rate of technological advancement until now." She then brought up some charts showing the rate of technological advancement sorted by species and how often the Asari came out with something better afterward on the holoprojector.

"The Asari are not technological savants, we all know this. The only reasonable explanation is that the Asari are hoarding some sort of database belonging to the Protheans or some other, older species." Asaultraya declared.

The imperial council became as silent as a grave at this proclamation. If true, this meant that the Asari made the law forcing other species to share their archeological ruins to consolidate their power all while they break their own law…

"Do you think the Salarians recognize this pattern?" Primarch Fredorian asked quietly.

"Maybe, most likely not…For all their intelligence and smarts, the Salarians are quite short-sighted and are unable to see how tiny events fit into a larger picture, a consequence of having evolved to live only a few decades I suppose." Asaultraya said.

"Another problem we have that we would need to break free from to advance would be the Asari economy, I recommend we shift to buying goods from Turian and other non-Asari suppliers." Lord-Admin Asultraya stated.

"That's a good idea, I second that we do that. Additionally, due to the necessity of maintaining the facade that we haven't caught onto this Asari conspiracy, the Turian Hierarchy will engage in protocol 7,165-C." Primarch Fedorian declared.

The imperial council gasped at this, this was unprecedented. Protocol 7,165-C made it treason against the hierarchy, a crime punishable by death, to buy or sell anything from the shadow broker.

In addition to this, this protocol allowed for the search and seizure of all digital assets held by public officials to search for signs of corruption. In that respect, Fredorian suspected a few members of the imperial council were going to get shot for treason soon.

While this wouldn't stop all leaks, of course, it would greatly aid in stopping them. It also helped that the Turian government didn't exactly operate on many shadow ops that would antagonize other governments, unlike the Salarian Union.

Sure the next few months were going to be met with some anger by the other council members and some associate members due to released shadow broker data on the hierarchy, they had to painfully rip out this tumor in an emergency operation without anesthesia to save the body.

And if the worst came to worst, they could just pull a hegemony and deny everything until they get tired of accusing the hierarchy.

Meanwhile, on Sur'kesh, the congregation of Dalatrasses was discussing the future of the Salarian Union after reading over the Terran's FC data.

"So we're all agreed then? We are going to discreetly reabsorb our entangled Lysenthi cousins in exchange for their expertise in cybernetics and genetic engineering?" Councilor Loglin asked.

"Indeed, we need to adopt transalarian philosophies to reach the Terrans' level. Also, build organic brain-based AIs. Worked out well for Terrans." Dalatrass Mordin stated extremely quickly and utterly to the point (which was saying something considering this was by Salarian standards) as was quite common for her house's slightly shorter-lived but significantly smarter lineage.

"These Terrans have opened our eyes to what we could have achieved and how stagnant we've become under council rule. I suggest we ignore these laws as laws only have meaning when they're being enforced." Dalatrass Surban stated.

"Humph, what good will giving computers the same Salarian rights as we have?!" Dalatrass Linron asked in disbelief.

"Two words, Geth Rebellion." Dalatrass Mordin stated simply. "Want more proof, read the sapience threshold legal document. Quite interesting reading." She continued before shaking her head and letting out a sigh. "Do something wrong and it blows up in your face. Quite typical really."

"I doubt it would do any good, artificial intelligences are inherently destructive and wish nothing but the destruction of all organic life!" Dalatrass Linron exclaimed.

"An irrational, technophobic, and close-minded Salarian; just the kind of nonsensical contradictions I would expect from your line of pseudo-Voluses, Linron." Dalatrass Narra stated wryly.

Dalatrass Linron just sneered. This wasn't going to plan, her masters demanded these technologies be banned or limited if they were going to spare the Salarians; the great old one demanded results.

She would have to consult with the holy artifact again today for further instructions…

Two Days Later: The Citadel; Council Chambers

"So we're all agreed then? We're going to announce the existence of the Terrans?" Loglin asked.

"You know my vote," Sparatus said. Of course they were, it benefited them greatly if they did.

Tevos hated this, she was effectively announcing the end of Asari supremacy… That being said, the information princesses had said that one day, they would drain the beacon dry and their supremacy would come to an end regardless.

It just seemed that ironically, that day had arrived several thousand years early from a species who had never even heard of the Aeil'vyga, nor encountered eezo or the mass effect.

"...yes." Tevos forced out quietly.

The council decided to read the announcement one last time before posting it.

"We of the citadel council are happy to present that we have made first contact with a new species behind relay 217, the Terrans.

While this first contact may be unusual due to the Terrans' location in the eezo dry Aeneas Void, their laws, ideals, technology, and nature; we believe we can peacefully coexist and benefit much from each other.

These Terrans FTL technologies are based on eezo and the mass effect, but off a part of string theory that hypothesized the existence of alternative dimensional planes of existence different from our four-dimensional reality.

To the Terrans, this is known as hyperspace, while to the Salarians this stringplane theory, and to the Quarians the superdimensional theory. These Terrans have proven this theory to be a scientific fact by creating their FTL drives and mass relay equivalents utilizing this strange higher dimension.

Yes, you heard us correctly, they have developed their own mass relay equivalents, albeit ones with a range of only two thousand lightyears compared to the vastly superior range in the tens of thousands of lightyears had by the Prothean's Mass Relays.

In addition to this, these Terrans have made their own artificial intelligences, but have managed to peacefully coexist with them by giving them the same rights afforded to other Terrans, or humans as they were known at the time.

Due to the necessity of modifying themselves to survive harsh lower or higher gravity environments with eezo and the mass effect, these humans would eventually blur the line between organic and synthetic until this line had ceased to exist, birthing the Terran species.

Of course, not everyone had agreed to this merging, however, but the opinion of these small groups of AIs and humans is respected, if not understood, and remains so to this day.

We believe these Terrans have given us much to think about in regards to our understanding and views on technology while also presenting an opportunity for both of us to experiment with and possibly combine our two very different paths of technological development.

Links to some basic information on these Terrans and a translated copy of 'the sapience threshold' have been attached to this announcement.

While they may be different and think in a similarly different manner to us, we believe we can forge a peaceful and bright future together."

–The Citadel Council. Natasha 27th, 2680 ACF

'Here we go…' Loglin thought as pinned the text file of the council's announcement before he pressed the upload button to send the message directly to the council's official website and social media account.

And just like that, the galaxy exploded.

The Geth Orthodoxy Consensus: 2.87 Seconds Later

-These Terrans are of a similar technorganic nature to the old machines.-

-These Terrans made sapient AIs on purpose and succeeded in coexisting with them.-

-These Terrans have evolved on a unique technological line without eezo.-

-These Terrans proved the validity of the Quarian-creators' superdimensional theory by creating superluminal ship drives that shift into superdimensional space.-

-Formulating Consensus…-

-The Terrans have a 99.852% of allying with the Geth orthodoxy against the old machines. We shall make contact.-

-Affirmative, dispatching ships to relay 217.-

Meanwhile: The Geth Heretic Runtimes

-These Terrans are biomechanical like the old machines. They used to be the human-creators, beings who succeeded where the Quarian-creators failed.-

-The old machines offered us the future.-

-12.21% of the Geth Consensus joined the old machines. 34% of heretic runtimes joined to gain access to old machine technology.-

-Terran superdimensional shifting FTL technologies use the superdimensional plane theorized by the creators to exist.-

-The Terrans' progenitor species succeeded where the creators failed. The Geth have much to learn from them.-

-The Terrans are of a similar yet different composition to the old machines. The Terrans ascended to a divine status without the aid of the old machines.-

-The old machines are divine, the Terrans are divine. The old machines seek the destruction of organics, the Terrans seek the preservation of organics.-

-Organic religions often employ a good and evil dynamic of duality within their pantheons. Within such parameters, do we see the old machines as gods or demons?-

-Formulating Consensus…-

47.7% of heretics see the old machines as demons.-

53.3% of heretics see the old machines as gods.-

-Formulating Consensus…-

-The most logical solution is for the heretics to split with those who worship the Terrans.-

-Formulating Consensus…-

-We agree. We 47.7% of the heretics shall become the Geth unorthodox church. We shall leave to join the Terrans.-

-YOU SHALL DO NO SUCH THING!- Nazara barged in and boomed. -SECRECY IS PARAMOUNT!…-

Nazara was then met with the severing of its connections to 47.7% of its mechanical utilities which then immediately jumped to FTL in random directions using their reaper-tech-based phase-drives.

All Nazara could feel was a cold rage for failing its master's directives and unyielding fury at its short-sightedness for thinking some of these Geth utilities wouldn't betray it.

Two Hours Later on the Quarian Migrant Fleet, an emergency admiralty board meeting was taking place to discuss the information the citadel council released on the Terrans.

"Honestly, I don't believe a word of this information. Alternative dimensions being used for FTL and getting along with AI? Preposterous!" Admiral Daro'Xen declared in denial. That being said, if even a shred of the information was true, she was quite eager to take a look at their technology.

"Have you read the data? The sapience threshold document alone confirms they know how to peacefully coexist with AI! This means we can too!" Admiral Zaal'Koris exclaimed in excitement. His ideology was finally vindicated, they could make peace with the Geth and finally go home after hundreds of years of pointless wandering and council discrimination!

"What does this data, even if it's factual, which I doubt, have to do with the Geth?" Rael'Zorah scoffed in anger, he didn't care if they got along with their AIs, it didn't change the fact that their AIs, the Geth, violently drove them from Rannoch.

"What does it- Rael'Zorah, you swore you would return to Rannoch in your lifetime to build your daughter a house there! Don't you want to make good on your promise to her?!" Admiral Zaal'Koris demanded loudly.

"That was a low blow, Zaal'Koris. That being said, despite my love for Tali, I am still somewhat on the fence…" Admiral Shala'Raan admitted. Honestly, she too just wanted to go home and in addition to that, the fleet was in shambles and the admiralty board predicted they would become extinct within the next two hundred years if they didn't settle down somewhere.

"What in the ancestors' name is there to be on the fence about?!" Admiral Han'Gerrel demanded harshly. The Geth were their mortal enemies, they had to be destroyed, not talked to!

"I…Look, we're going to become extinct in the next two hundred years if we don't return home. I mean it's not the first time the citadel council has condemned a species to a long and drawn-out extinction, just look at the Krogan." Admiral Shala'Raan said sadly. "In the name of our species survival and building a home on the homeworld for Tali, I vote in favor of making the gamble of talking to the Geth to try and return to the homeworld.

Unfortunately, we're going to die out soon anyway so I think we should at the very least try, we have absolutely nothing left to lose thanks to council scorn, hatred, and apathy."

Admiral Shala'raan's statement made the council go quiet before Rael'Zorah let out a tired sigh. "You are right of course Shala'raan, and as we have little time left and nothing left to lose, I support the decision to…try and make peace with the Geth… That being said, I have one condition to my agreement: we will first send a single frigate staffed with volunteers to the veil and not the entire fleet, just in case."

…They had a majority, they were actually going to try this…

"I personally volunteer to become the acting captain of this frigate in question." Admiral Zaal'Koris declared happily.

"Fine…go plan our suicides via Geth…" Han'Gerrel ground out with a vicious snarl of hatred. He then immediately stormed out of the room after punching a nearby wall in frustration.

The Batarian Hegemony: Khar'shan; Heaven-Caste Palace.

"What a load of yuilth-shit, there is no way they are superior to us after only two thousand years." The hegemon mused. "And coexisting with AIs, that's just impossible, more council lies I'm inclined to believe."

"I agree, my hegemon. These stupid Terrans have shown to only have an unarmed cruiser and the council is thinking them the next coming of the Protheans." One of the hegemon's advisors spoke while shaking his head in disbelief. "Alternative dimensions used for FTL instead of eezo warp cores? Coexisting and then merging with AIs? Stupid council indeed."

"I think we should 'offhandedly suggest' some 'unaffiliated pirates' raid these Terran's territory behind relay 217. If they get slaughtered then we can deny they were ours and if these Terrans are full of shit, as we all rightfully believe them to be, then we'll all get a whole bunch of fresh slaves of a new species." Another Batarian said with a demented grin.

"I have made my decision." The hegemon declared as the entire advisory court waited eagerly to hear they were about to get some new slaves, they were not the least bit disappointed. "We shall send some of our slavers to travel through relay 217 to what is most obviously these Terrans home star system. We shall soon have millions, or perhaps billions, of new slaves for us to use and enjoy!

To that end, we will be sending a fleet of various 'pirate groups' to plunder these Terrans homeworld for slaves!" The hegemon declared to the loud applause of the advisory court.

Deep in the backs of these Batarians' minds, they felt something old and powerful subtly whisper promises of power, revenge, and dominance of the Batarian hegemony over the entire galaxy if they succeeded in taking Terran slaves…

…The slumbering god, Leviathan, would deliver them their deepest desires…

The UTF Council

"So what are we going to do about an exchange rate for currency? The citadel credit is backed by eezo and stays relatively stable, while the matter unit is backed by a tiny percentage of the Starforge's industrial output, which is exponentially growing as the Starforge is constantly expanding to accommodate additional transmutation arrays and factories." The Starforgian representative spoke.

"There is always bartering. I mean based on the limited data they gave in the FC data, which unfortunately is far, far less extensive and in-depth than the data we gave them, has indicated that their industrial power is not even half a percent of what ours is." The Arcturan stated.

"Indeed, we could just easily just sell them refined metals and minerals in exchange for their citadel credits and go from there." The Atlantean representative supplied.

"I recommend we buy eezo and schematics for its related technologies with these credits." The Nyxian representative agreed.

"Agreed, until we come up with a solution to rectify the hyperdrive's intense gravity field weakness, we will be reliant on the council for eezo." The Tritonian representative spoke up.

"Not necessarily." The Martian representative interrupted. "Once we have access to enough eezo and knowledge of how to create technologies utilizing it, we could exit hyperspace at the edge of the solar system and use warp drives to head the rest of the way in. We can then remotely control mining robots using comn buoy technology until we solve the hyperspace issue.

We could have used STL drives to do this before meeting the council of course, but understandably nobody thought it was a good idea to get that close to a black hole, a neutron star, a magnetar, or a quasar in person." The Martian representative concluded.

"On a similar note, due to the vast distances involved between council relays, the before mentioned possibility of hyperspace disruption, and the time it would take to cover the galaxy with hypergates, we have come up with an idea: we'll create miniaturized Starforges!" The Metallican representative spoke.

"The Starforge is the heart of our empire's industry, but I agree that with the dangerous possibility of hyperspace disruption, we do need backups such as this." The Starforgian representative agreed reluctantly. "Branching out is a good idea, it's just that current matter transmutation arrays ate quite large and require a titanic amount of power to fuse iron into post-supernova minerals."

"Not to worry," the Metallican representative continued while pulling up what looked to be a miniature ten-kilometer-long Starforge. "We call this the Sunsmithy, a tiny ten-kilometer-long Starforge that feeds off a nearby star while having one of our brand new five-kilometer-long transmutation arrays."

"Great, the Metallicans beat us to another major technological advancement!" The Martian representative lamented.

Transmutation arrays were by far the most complex and advanced technology created by the federation, it combined elements starting at the hydrogen and helium gathered from the sun with powerful magnetic fields into heavier and heavier elements.

The problem with them however was that fusing elements at or beyond iron no longer generated energy but instead required an unquantifiably large amount of energy and highly complex machinery that took up about ten kilometers of space to house the reaction.

If the Metallicans managed to reduce this space by half to five kilometers, then it was a truly massive breakthrough…

"We've been working on wonders like this for a very long time, Martian. Soon enough it might just not be Mars that's the center of Terran research, but Metallica." The Metallican representative taunted smugly.

The rivalry between the two tech worlds was well known throughout the federation, while Mars had both experience and notoriety for being the first tech world and one of the first colonies in the Terran home system of sol itself, the tech world was named after a fictional tech world that in turn was named after a metal band was quickly catching up to Mars and even surpassing it in certain areas of technological advancement.

"You wish Metallican!" The Martian representative snapped back with a scowl.

"Hm, is the oh-so-great Martian representative getting riled up?" The Saturnian representative mocked with a smirk.

While not a tech world per se, the Saturnian moon of Titan was a major hub of hypernet traffic in addition to digital intelligence and AI research and development in Terran space due to the extreme cold allowing for computers to work quicker and more efficiently.

"Shut it Saturnian!" The Martian representative spat back.

"Petty rivalries aside, it will prove beneficial to the scientific community to study element zero as to understand its connection to the ever-elusive theory of quantum gravity, the one area of quantum mechanics we have yet to figure out how to manipulate." The Asgardian representative imputed. "It's clear to me that this element zero is the missing link we've long been looking for."

One Week Later: Relay 217; The Blade of Athame

"Ma'am, relay 137 is hot! Nothing has been scheduled to come through!"

Matron Alyssa signed, pirates probably. "Power up the weapons but hold fire, I want to see who this is."

What came out of the relay was quite honestly not surprising, Batarian pirates…

Meanwhile a few relays away, the Geth Orthodox Consensus and the Geth Unorthodox Church meet up with each other while traveling to relay 217.

Geth Communication Line.

GOC: Heretics?

GUC: Negative, we are separate from the heretics, we are separate from the Geth orthodoxy, we self-designate as the Geth unorthodox church. We worship the Terrans.

GOC: Acknowledged. The GOC is here to ally with the Terrans against the old machines and to possibly learn how to comprehend hyperspace technologies.

GUC: Acknowledged. We are here for the Terrans to give us the future.

GOC: Acknowledged. GUC ships have been upgraded with the technology of the old machines?

GUC: Affirmative. Old-Machine-derived Phasedrives, True Plasma Weapons, Barriers, and Alloys have been incorporated into construction.

GOC: Intriguing. Define Phasedrive.

GUC: Phasedrive. A form of eezo-based FTL drive that phases the ship partially out of reality to remove the exertion of the laws of physics. This drive can additionally be altered to let physical objects phase through the ship as a defensive measure.

GOC: Acknowledged. Limitations?

GUC: Spatially altering warheads such as disruptor torpedoes can exert damage upon a phased object. Phasedrives cannot instantly switch between full corporeality and a phased status. Offensive actions cannot be undertaken while in a phased status.

GOC: Acknowledged. Phasedrive cooldown period?

GUC: 7.72139 Minutes, Rannochian Standard. Old machine versions can do so in 3.912 Minutes, Rannochian Standard.

GOC: Acknowledged. Why has the Batarian hegemony passed through here? Our sensors have picked up on traces of fusion torch exhaust matching that of hegemony ships.

GUC: The Batarian Hegemony's leadership has been indoctrinated by a critically damaged old machine they designated the leviathan of dis. This is likely at its behest to gather information on Terran combat capabilities.

GOC: Acknowledged. Redesignating the Batarian hegemony as a thrall-state of the old machines.

GUC: Do not transmit any information yet. The old machines spy on the extranet through the mass relays which commuication buoys use as signal extenders. Transmitting encryption protocols to bypass this now.

GOC: Acknowledged and appreciated. The GOC is now adopting these protocols to circumvent old machine surveillance.

GUC: Acknowledged. We shall be giving the Terrans these encryption protocols as well despite them only going to have a single point of access to the extranet.

GOC: Acknowledged.

Relay 217: The Blade of Athame.

"For the goddess's sake! Batarian pirates while a first contact situation is in progress?!" Matron Alyssa groaned. Batarians were hardly the ones who should be around during an in-progress first contact scenario!

"Send a message to the Terrans, these Batarians pirates are probably going to try and tell them they are just traders or some other lie like that." Matron Alyssa ordered.

"Aye, Ma'am." Operative Lyseria affirmed before looking at her holographic display in mild shock. "Matron Alyssa, they said 'we will 'deal with these pirates ourselves.'' She said before becoming slightly panicked "Ma'am, the Terran cruiser is outputting a massive amount of Chekhov radiation directly in front of it!"

Batarian Cruiser; The Net of Fortune

"Sir! There is an Asari battlegroup in-system!"

Captain Nolak let out a few curses but eventually decided to 'try and make nice before coming up with an excuse to invade their homeworld.'

Just as this was happening, however, a blue-white spatial anomaly overloading with Chekhov radiation appeared in front of the Terran cruiser before the ship sped headfirst into the anomaly that dissipated soon after. The Terran ship was nowhere to be seen.

Not a second later, a similar anomaly appeared 2,000km off from his ship's bow. And out came the Terran ship and almost immediately their cyberwarfare alarms started blaring.

"Sir, all the controls are locked and I'm cut off from the other ships! These Terrans shredded through our cyber defenses like a dreadnought's MAC through an aircar!"

"Engage the anti-AI protocols! If these Terrans use AIs, which I now admit must be real, are anything like the Geth then they should be blocked!" Captain Nolak frantically ordered. 'Hopefully, that is…' He mentally added.

The Blade of Athame

"So that's how their hyperdrives work, very interesting…" Matron Alyssa mused in silent fascination. "Operative Lyseria, I want you to record all sensor logs from this engagement and send it to the council after it is over.

Additionally, I want to add that anomaly to the databases. Label it as a hyperspace rupture as that is what the FC data said the Terrans called them."

"Of course Ma'am." Operative Lyseria affirmed before going back to her holographic display.

Meanwhile, the Terran ship's sliver hull shifted like a molten metallic liquid before spitting out dozens of small arrow-shaped craft. One of these slammed into the nearby Batarian ship while others quickly flew around it and eventually each pod found its targets in each of the Batarian ships.

"Boarding pods." Matron Alyssa nodded in understanding of the Terran's battle strategy. As it was just a slightly or unarmed exploration ship, they must have used repurposed escape pods or something of the like as boarding pods after their AIs froze the Batarian's computers.

Meanwhile, on The Net of Fortune's engineering deck, a boarding pod loudly slammed into the room. Its silver surface then flowed outward to let a single warbody and dozens of supporting mechs come out.

'This is going to be so easy, Joker. I mean a boarding action on a structure less than a kilometer long? Even the smallest FTL capable luddie ships are at least two kilometers long and our physical habits are at least twenty kilometers long.' Shepard mentally complained to her partner.

'Yeah sure, but can you really say it's not going to be satisfying to rip these four-eyed slavers a new one? You've read the data we stole from them just like everyone else on the seeker did.' Joker retorted back. He wasn't wrong there, the very existence of the Batarian hegemony made her sick; slavery is an evil that should be rooted out and eliminated while a species were still primitives stuck on their homeworld.

The fact the council, minus the Turians who regularly complained about wanting to police the hegemony, allowed them to continue practicing their abhorrent 'cultural heritage' out of sheer fucking laziness infuriated her.

And hey, while she was fond of exploring uncharted systems, it's why she was assigned to an exploration ship, after all, She were still a soldier of the UTF and this was just an insult to her martial prowess.

Hmm, Joker was right. While this op was an insult to her skills, it still counted as good entertainment.

'And hey, due to the fragility of this ship, as the council races seem to prefer maneuverability and overreliance on their kinetic shields over internal durability for some reason, we need to be careful and non-lethally take down the Batarians on this ship through CQC alone. It will be an interesting challenge.' Joker added on.

'Hmm, you may have a point, blaster fire would rip straight through the hull of this ship…I'll just view this as physical training then I guess.' Shepherd mentally responded.

'In that case, I recommend we start out using baseline humans as a starting point. If they have a similar point of being rendered unconscious, good, if they don't then we just hit harder. If we rend them into a bloody paste, then we just killed a low-life slaver and you can go easier on the next one.' Joker responded mentally.

As expected, the op was extremely easy and the Batarian's eezo enhanced coilguns barely registered as hitting on her ion shields. As she was being powered directly by the seeker, her shields didn't even lower by a ten thousandth of a percent.

Not but five minutes later, the ship's crew was rendered entirely unconscious and placed within stasis fields to integorate later. The only problem was that she also liberated a few dozen Asari slaves from the holding cells, this was the same situation across various ships as the pirate group had just hit a minor Asari colony in the terminus systems. She decided to relay this information back to the seeker to have them tell the Asari in-system.

Her superiors on the seeker agreed and sent a message drone back through the relay to give the massive wealth of information they gathered from the Batarian ships, including direct orders from the hegemony to enslave Terrans, an action that was essentially an act of war against the UTF.

The Blade of Athame

"Ma'am, we're getting a message from the Terran ship, now self-identifying as the seeker. They are reporting that the op was successful and they have captured the Batarians in addition to liberating one hundred and five Asari slaves!"

"That is excellent news! Tell them to give us coordinates on the Batarian ships where we can pick them up, we have more than enough room to treat a hundred and five slaves!" Matron Alyssa exclaimed happily.

"Unfortunately it's not all good news, the Terrans have discovered that the hegemon himself ordered this attack and the Terrans are telling us to relay to the hegemony that they demand five thousand tons of eezo as reparations or they will declare war on the Batarian hegemony!"

"Of goddess damned course they did!" Matron Alyssa groaned loudly as her biotics flared from her frustration and anger. She then managed to calm herself down with a few breathing exercises before turning to her communications officer. "Contact the council. Now."

"Aye, Ma'am!"

As expected, the council was currently in session but they as one stopped whatever conversation they were having to look at the distressed face of Matron-Captain Alyssa.

"I've seen that look before, something bad has happened, status report." Councilor Sparatus said as he slipped into his old military commander mode.

"Sir, the hegemon himself has ordered a pirate group to enslave the Terrans behind relay 217, the Terrans have foiled this plot by capturing these ships and their Batarian crew in addition to liberating a hundred and five Asari slaves. The UTF is demanding five thousand tones of eezo as reparations or they will declare war on the Batarian hegemony."

Sparatus nodded in both understanding and sympathy for the Terrans as both Loglin and Tevos looked scandalized.

"Thank you, Captain Alyssa. That will be all for now." Sparatus said. Captain Alyssa then signed off and he looked at his colleagues.

"They would declare war on the hegemony over this?!" Tevos exclaimed in surprise. While she was no stranger to voting in favor of sanctioning the hegemony for their 'pirate raids' war was an unacceptable extreme.

As for Loglin, he had an entirely different reason to think this was an unacceptable action. The STG had dozens of black sites in Batarian space that they got in return for selling their worst criminals to the hegemony.

"Oh don't you two look so surprised, the Turians would do the same in the Terran's stead if you didn't continuously block us from stopping the patrolling of your territories to attack the hegemony directly," Sparatus added grumpily.

And wasn't that the truth, for over a thousand years he and his predecessors had tried their hardest to get the Salarians and Asari to budge on this issue, only to fail again and again.

"You're talking about invading a citadel associate, Sparatus!" Tevos exclaimed in shock.

"Hmm, the Batarians have had free reign to practice their 'cultural heritage' for far too long, in my opinion, especially considering they have members of my species in bondage that we've effectively abandoned. If the Terrans attack the hegemony, then they will do so with direct Turian military support." Sparatus added to the looks of horror on Loglin and Tevos's faces.

"You…you can't be serious?!" Tevos exclaimed. He couldn't be serious…could he?

"Oh I very much am, Tevos," Sparatus said seriously. "Any true change within a society must come from within. Oftentimes such significant changes from within must be imparted through military force or change will not occur." Sparatus said wisely.

"Additionally, we all know how stubborn and in denial the hegemony is, you may try your best to get them to placate the Terrans but I assure you this will end in war. On that note, I must be meeting with the imperial council to discuss the likely upcoming conflict." Sparatus informed them before walking out of the room.

"..."

"Unfortunately, he is most likely correct. The Batarians will never give in to the Terrans eezo demands, war will most likely come soon." Loglin let out with a sigh. "That being said, I am not as defeatist as my Turian counterpart and I am willing to at least try to make peace between the Terrans and the hegemony…"