So, we broke the 1K Followers. Whopee! Did not think this story would get that big. Thanks to all who followed, favorited or reviewed!
RR
tpx1: Thanks, Will do.
The Prime Cronos: I'm not entirely sure of if the Humans will be capable of it. At this moment in time, they are ignorant of its capability and uses. In fact, I have plans for what will happen with unplanned exposure to the element.
Matt Kennedy: Cheers. We won't have to wait too much longer to see how that part will play out.
Morlow: I've sort of hinted at a different means of travel last chapter with no sky cars over the city, but I had not thought of a gravity train like you suggested, I was thinking more along the lines of Elon's hyperloop. But, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. It may be making an appearance next chapter.
Ralmon: If you saw a car from a horse-drawn cart, you would say the designs are very different. They relays work on a very different mechanism, a one the in game governments do not understand. It is plausible, and in my mind likely, that you would look at the ships, and the relay, and think that they are not alike. Also, I agree, we need more Wrex, but not this chapter.
/.../
Ship Master Camaxtli sits on the edge of his chair, his sensor expert warned him a short time ago that the Council Armada has entered the system and are now on an approach vector, which is something he has not been looking forward to. Cmaxtli knows that his vessel can do little to stop the council fleet, the fleet is simply far too big, and carrying far too much firepower. To even challenge the imposing fleet in numbers, the Hegemony would need to send the majority of their Primary, Secondary and Third fleet, which would leave only the Fourth and Fifth fleets to protect Batarian space. To challenge the firepower of the fleet, the Hegemony would need to send everything it had, and more.
Camaxtli's orders are simple, he is to find out the intent of the Citadel Fleet by placing his ship in front of it before the Citadel Armada can proceed any deeper into Batarian space. He is to warn them that proceeding any further would be viewed as 'Citadel Aggression' against the Hegemony, resulting in the immediate cessation of all critical resources from Batarian space, and patrol vessels pulled from the Traverse border.
Personally, Camaxtli does not think this is stern enough, the Citadel have sent not only the largest assembled fleet seen in his lifetime but a fleet under the command of the war criminal Careddeus Fanus into their space. Camaxtli scoffs at the idea of the Turians allowing Balak the Defender to enter Turian sovereign space with a fleet, it will never be allowed to happen. Actually, if it did happen, the Turians would undoubtedly send a fleet to intercept and destroy it, so why is this invasion of Batarian rights happening right now?
Hearing his comms specialist inhale a deep breath Camaxtli turns to face him, knowing the specialist has a tick which results in him taking a deep breath before speaking. "We are in range for light comms."
Camaxtli stands from his chair and takes a moment before giving the gesture to hail the fleet, and shortly a Turian appears on the viewscreen; the Turian is none other than the repulsive Primarch's Chosen. "Batarian vessel," The Turian states almost immediately, beating the Batarian to speak, as he continues to speak the Turian tilts his head to the right. The act of tipping one's head to the right would not be significant if it is not for the fact that in Batarian culture, tilting your head to the right when speaking to someone indicates you think you are of a higher class then them; Camaxtli knows that the Primarchs chosen will know this fact. "You are in the way of my fleet." The tilting of the head is highly insulting.
Camaxtli does not let the Turian see that its insult has affected him - he is sure this conversation will be broadcasted into Batarian space, so he needs to look impartial, he needs to make the Turian look like the aggressor. "You're in Batarian space." He simply replies after a moment to think, "You are trespassing against the Hegemony and his people." Unlike the Turians and the Asari, to Batarians a state and nation are referred to as the male gender.
The Turian is still tilting his head to the right, "We are acting on Council Order UN6401. Your Hegemony is an Associated Member of the Council, meaning by Council Law, your Hegemony is required to allow us safe passage to our destination."
"You bring an Armada with some of the heaviest and most powerful ships in known existence. The Hegemony would be stark raving mad to allow such a transgression without reason, a one you are yet to provide outside of some elusive Citadel edict we are yet to receive. Continuing down this path will have consequences, resources..."
The Turian is in no mood for Camixtli's response, cutting him off to say, "Madder yet is to attempt to veer this fleet. Carradeus out." The video feed is terminated on the Turian's side, leaving Camaxtli to his own thoughts. Deciding to stay put in his position, as ordered, he waits for the fleet to respond.
"Enemy fleet moving around our position." The sensor expert says, "They show no attempt to slow or accelerate." A common Turian tactic before using their main spinal guns is to pump considerable amounts of energy into their mass effect core, reducing their mass, this then allows them to accelerate to a speed which is unsustainable for anything longer than a few seconds. The burst of speed gained through reducing their mass ultimately results in the guns delivering a payload with considerably more velocity, reducing the chances of it being dodged.
"Understood," Camixtli responds, "All hands brace for the gravity wake." When a ship is powered by element zero it creates a large gravity wake behind it, and a ship caught in this wake can be pulled and pushed around as the gravity waves pass through the vessel. To be caught in the wake of a fleet just shy of 200 vessels strong is sure to throw Camixtli's small scout vessel around like it is a feather caught in the winds of a hurricane.
/.../
The Turian Councillor looks at himself in the mirror as a second Turian moves around him, inspecting the Councillor from numerous different angles to see what he has to work with, "So then, what will it be today?" Asks the second Turian.
The Councillor brings a hand up and touches his left mandible, his fingers focussing on the pointy end, "I would be correct in thinking the latest fashion is for a Coretta point and a Corvena edge, correct?"
The second turian tuts a few times before saying, "Not any longer I'm afraid, the latest is for a Corvena edge, featuring a Nivvena point while having a slight grove filed along the outer edge. I could show you if you would like?"
"Yes, please do." The Councillor asks, knowing from past experience that his groomer is typically on point with his suggestions.
With a few button presses, the mirror that Councillor Sparatus is looking into augments his image, displaying what the Councillor would look like with the suggested cut to his mandibles. The Councillor rotates his head in a few different directions, to see what he would look like from a few different angles before saying, "Yes, I like this. Tone down the tribal colours, however, I need enough to show my tribe, and type of military service served, but not enough to push it into people's faces."
"As you command," The Turian File Master replies as he reaches for a small file to begin his work. To a Turian, a well decorated, and well-groomed set of mandibles is a sign of not only wealth but of good health; meaning the Councillor is a regular customer of this File Master. A good mandible should always have a point on it capable of puncturing the skin, and a small edge which could tear meat from a Kohaka if needed, but the latest fashion tendencies dictates the design of these features - which regularly changes. The Turian Councillor can remember an old fashion which had almost a third of the mandible filed down so that the edge was sharp, thankfully, that fashion does not seem to be ready for a return any time soon.
As the File Master begins his work, the two engage in occasional chit chat, the conversations range from how busy work has been, to family life, and what is planned for that evening's meal. In a lull between conversation as the Turian File Master focusses heavily on his work, the Turian councillor looks into the mirror in front of him and focuses on where an entertainment device behind him is displaying some news channel. From the colours displayed and the logo at the top right of the screen, he knows the channel is a Volus one, which does not entirely surprise the Councillor. Sparatus knows most Turians outside of Turian space prefer Volus news channels, they tend to be the most impartial of all the known species.
"I heard it was us Turians that rescued the Asari Councillor, again," The File Master says as he steps back to look at the Councillors mandible he is working on, "At times, I don't know what the others would do without us."
"Yes, we did," Sparatus replies, "But we all have our place in the galaxy, it just so happens we carry the claws." It is a political answer, and both the File Master and the Councillor know it, but they also know it has a surprising amount of truth to it. Both Turians know that the Hierarchy would be lost without Asari technology and expertise, or the Salarian intelligence reports.
The two go back into a comfortable silence until the Councillor stands abruptly from his chair and approaches the entertainment device he has been watching in the mirror's reflection. Across the bottom of the screen is a banner which says "BREAKING NEWS - FIRST CONTACT" and above the banner plays a video of a Turian exchanging salutes with an unidentified alien - a one Sparatus knows to be called 'Human'. "Faex." The Councillor says, referencing a volcano on Palavern, its meaning to Turians is equivalent to the English word for excrement. "Cassia," The Councillor then says, calling to the File Master, "I need you to finish in quick time."
"Yes," The File Master initially replies, who is now also watching the entertainment device with great interest. "As you command. I can imagine you will have a lot of work on your plate because of this."
"Hmm," Sparatus muses as he takes to sitting in the File Masters chair, "You have no idea."
Half an hour later the file masters work is done and Sparatus is sat with the two other representatives of the Citadel Council. "So," Sparatus begins, getting straight down to business, "Who talked?"
"A Salarian known as Animalia, the STG are already ensuring..."
The Asari representative cuts the Salarian Councilor off, "Nothing. We act against them, and there will be a public outcry because he has leaked reports which stipulate our fears over the Humans. Primarily their ship armour, their stealth vessels and the potential capability of the Human weaponry. People are wanting to know why we haven't told them already considering the threat that this species pose to ourselves, and they will be outraged beyond calming if we silence this man."
"We have created ourselves a faex sandwich, and now we're eating it," Muses Sparatus, referencing to the fact they have withheld the information from the public. "Do we know what else the leak has had access to? What else they can reveal to the press?"
"They have had their hands on every report sent by Quirinus from the moment we found out," Valern admits, "The STG are trying to figure out exactly what else they are yet to leak."
"Right... Right." Sparatus pulls a hand down over his face before then asking, "So, the secret is out of the bag. What do we tell them?" Them obviously refers to the civilians of the galaxy.
"Well, what do we know?" Asks Irissa, "We know one of their worlds whereabouts, their species name, and the fact that they are the ones who rescued the Avians crew, not the QRF fleet. We also know some other little tidbits that have us worried about their military capabilities. What we should or could reveal, we actually have very little. We do not know how long they have been space capable, we do not know their population numbers, their homeworld, their character traits or political mindset."
Sparatus taps the table before saying, "We can not release their known whereabouts yet, the last thing we need is for the Batarians to become a problem."
"We doubt the Batarians will be a problem," Valern says, speaking up for the first time in a small while, "Studying past experiences would tell us they will sit back and learn new species before they begin territorial aggression."
"All due respect, Valern," Sparatus replies, "The discovered Human territory is firmly surrounded by Batarian space. Now, as I'm sure you know, Batarians are historically aggressive when dealing with trespassers or people who stray close to their turf, to the point they enslaved a Turian Colony ship which had strayed into space the Batarians arguably did not own. This was an event my predecessor almost green-lighted an invasion of Trebiea over if you remember correctly.."
"Yes." Irissa comments to this, "I remember we offered a great sum of resources to pacify the situation."
"Many Turians still call for a robust military response over it, compensated or not. My point is this, the Batarians will be problematic. If they can get a fleet there before our own arrives, then I dread to think what the result would be."
"Could they get a fleet there?" Asks Irissa.
Sparatus slowly blinks in the Asari's direction, "Yes, Salarian intelligence suggests the Batarians have cobbled a fleet together in response to the one under the command of the Primarchs Chosen, and now the news is out regarding the Humans, they know the fleet is for the Humans. My Military advisors believe the Batarians may head straight for the Human world in efforts to get concessions out of ourselves. We do not think they will be dense enough to try anything with the newcomers."
"If they did try something that really would be a thorn in the socks," Irissa responds, "Could we deter them, make the humans seem more dangerous than they are?"
"No," Sparatus dismisses, "That would be an awful idea. It would probably cause the Hegemony to send their fleet in the human direction just to protect itself."
"Not to mention," Valern adds, "It would also cause great concern among the public. We have already seen stocks take a dive from the leaks."
"Just how bad are the stocks doing?" Asks Sparatus, who has not yet had the chance to check on them since the news broke.
"Overall? Down 4%" Valern replies, "The volus think they will be able to stop the haemorrhaging by days end if no more leaks are announced."
"If being the keyword." Muses Sparatus, "Alright. But we need to address the situation, we still need to make an official comment over the Humans, either to acknowledge their existence or to deny it. I do not think we can deny their existence any longer, though."
"No," Irissa agrees, "We can not. I vote we release a statement confirming that Fleet Commander Quirinus is currently initiating contact with the species."
"I agree," Sparatus responds, "But we also must be ready with our answers. My people especially will want to know why we have sent the Primarchs Chosen on this mission, and with such a sizeable fleet."
"We can't claim it is a standard response to First Contact. We did not send such a powerful fleet for the Batarians, Volus or the Quarians on their respective first contacts." Valern notes.
"True, but none of them have warships made of relay metals, ring worlds, stealth war vessels or plasma weaponry." Sparatus says before pulling a hand down his face, "This is going to be a fun afternoon. If I get an assistant to bring a drink up do any of you want one brought up?"
/.../
Earth
Tevos looks herself over in a full-length mirror before blinking to herself, happy with her overall appearance. As it turns out, after Dinner, which was once more an extravagant affair with more types of food then Tevos had anticipated, the Humans had invited them to a 'cultural' event. From loose translations, Tevos understands the event will showcase different types of music from human culture, trick masters, and unique types of entertainment. After collecting the rest of her cohort, Tevos finds herself whisked away in some sort of sky car, only to start landing procedures around 20 minutes later; from the speed of the skycar Tevos must assume they are a fair distance from their accommodation. The city they are landing at Tevos notes to herself is far smaller than the city they flew over the day prior, nor does it have the spiralling skyscrapers, instead, this town appears old and is representative of an Asari city during the late industrial years. In the centre of this city and living on the top of a small rocky hill, there is a building that looks as old as the mountains, it is made from what looks like rudimentary materials and is surrounded by a wall which looks equally as old. It occurs to Tevos that this building must have been a fortress at some time that the humans for some reason never tore down. In fact, it would appear to Tevos like the Humans have illuminated the Fortress of a building, lighting it up nicely in the night sky, glorifying it.
The skycar comes to land in a quiet courtyard not too far away from the city centre, and outside the car Tevos can see a few Humans standing around, no doubt waiting for her cohorts arrival. Before dismounting from the car, Tevos notices a few of the human soldiers checking what must be concealed communication devices, before nodding to one another and then opening the doors to the skycar. The President is the first to leave after the soldiers, followed by Benezzia, and then everyone else dismounts in a disorganised manner. There are a few words exchanged between Benezzia, the President and the new humans before Tevos finds herself and her group led out of the courtyard and into the city's streets. The street itself is dead, no one being around, but this does not bother Tevos too much. It allows her to see the old buildings of this city in all their glory, and for her to catch a glimpse at what type of shops are available, and thankfully the Human shops don't appear to be too different from Asari shops. There are clothes shops, watch shops, jewellery shops, food shops and one or two others that Tevos is not too sure of, but one type of shop which does surprise her is a one which appears to sell skin ink, so far only Asari are known to decorate their skin with ink.
Turning off the street to move down a quiet side street Tevos comes to the conclusion they are making their way to the imposing Fortress at the top of the hill. As they get closer to the Fortress, they leave the side street and enter some wider streets that once more are lined with shops all the way down them. Unlike the prior streets, the new streets are different from the last because these streets are populated with humans, many of whom are now staring at herself and her team. Being allowed to walk a street populated with civilian humans on so close to first contact is also a good indicator to Tevos, it means that the Human leaders trust their people enough to not just attack her group. What she does not yet fully realise is the Augment soldiers with her are armed and enough of a deterrent for anyone to try something.
The group walk along a few more streets till they start walking up the hill towards the Fortress, and as they walk more and more among the local population, Tevos comes to notice a few things. Humans are really diverse, they have many different hair colours and styles, they come in many different sizes and shapes. Their skin is sometimes decorated with tattoos like her own, and sometimes their skin is of a completely different colour. Some of the humans walk alone with their dogs, in fact more than Tevos would have anticipated which tells her the animals are more relevant to the humans than expected, and others walk in large social groups. The conclusion to be made is simple, Humans are going to be a diverse and complex species to fully understand, meaning it will be a considerable amount of time before the Council will be able to fully understand the reasons why a human government acts how it does.
Getting near the top of the hill the Councillor can see some stands have been erected in front of the Fortress's entrance, with the stands being filled with maybe a thousand or so Humans. Tevos can't help but remark to Benezzia that she hopes they themselves are not what the humans have come to see. Tevos finds herself being taken behind the stands and to the Fortress, where they are then taken up onto its walls through what must be ancient corridors built into the Fortress and then on to the top of the gatehouse. From this position on top of the gatehouse, Tevos can look into what the stands in front of the Fortress have been erected around; It quickly comes clear the stands are built around an illuminated performance area.
As they take their position, a waiter offers everyone in the group a selection of drinks, and a voice can be heard broadcasting from a speaker to announce something to the audience, which is then quickly translated to Benezzia.
"It turns out," Benezzia then says to Tevos, "This is a cultural event from this part of the world, and has happened every year for more than a thousand years. There will be numerous different acts."
The first act caught the group off guard as some drummers within the Fortress itself started to beat some drums, only for some people in red coats carry a wide variety of musical instruments to enter the performing area seconds later from the gatehouse of the Fortress. After the act was complete, the Human audience did something unexpected, with nearly everyone of them slapping their hands together, creating a commotion of harsh slapping sounds. Tevos would come to see this after every act, and quickly realises it is how the humans show applause. It is an odd mechanism to show appreciation, but Tevos can see how it works, it's loud and audible. It would not work for the Asari though, the act of 'clapping' is a little too 'out there'.
Over the course of the evening, Tevos would come to see many different types of entertainment, some acts involved humans dancing, others performing different types of music. Still, most importantly, there was something which entertained everyone attending. One act which grabbed the Turians attention involved a race between two teams dragging ancient and heavy looking cannons over various obstacles, Tevos notes that the Turians also liked how the Humans started the race by firing a mini cannon. Something which grabbed the Salarians attention was a 'magic' show, she could hear the Salarians discussing long after the act how the entertainer had done what he did. How did the man cut the woman in half, and how did he do that thing with the balls and string? Tevos may never know, but she does know the act held her attention all the way through. For her own people, the Asari, in general, were most captivated by the fire dancing, it certainly added an extra flair to simple body movements.
As the show went on, it was explained to Tevos from Benezzia that the Humans consider this show to be a platform to show off culture, and while all the performers may arrive as strangers to one another, from many different parts of Human space, they will all leave as friends. It is a nice sentiment, Tevos thinks, already conceiving of a way she could use this event in the future to showcase off some Citadel culture to the Humans.
The event was brought to its conclusion with all the performers of the evening coming into the performing area to sing some sort of song, before some fireworks concluded the night with a final bang. Checking the time Tevos notes it has been 3 hours since the event started, meaning by now, she is ready for some sleep. Thankfully, the Humans must also think the same as they quickly bring a sky car in for them to return to their accommodation.
As Tevos sits in the sky car on the way back, she turns from observing the planet below her and to Benezzia, "I've been thinking," She says. "We just witnessed many different types of talent, from physical to musical, but we did not see a single demonstration of biotics." Usually, this is something species that poses biotic capabilities like to demonstrate.
"Yes," Benezzia blinks back, "I have also been thinking about this. I believe that this species probably do not harness biotic power. From my scans, their food contains next to no element zero, and no other scan I've made over the last day have detected any traces of element zero. I think this solar system may be parched of the element." It is not common for a solar system to completely lack element zero, but it is not unheard of.
"Then maybe we should ask tomorrow." Tevos returns, "After some sleep."
Thanks all.