Alright, sooooo... little shorter than I would like, but honestly, the chapter does end at a decent place. As always, see you at the bottom.
Beyond Horizon: First Contact
Chapter 4
Zero Hour
.xIx.
Why won't these damn things leave, Balak thought to himself while hiding behind some rubble.
Peaking over it, he once again saw the subjects of his discontent. Those bird-looking machines with the red glowing eye. Not too far from him was a pack of these things, their red-eye scanning various areas with one keeping an eye on them.
Not standard synthetic behavior, the way they moved and acted was extremely unsettling to him and he was having a hard time figuring out why.
After everything that was happening, the least he could do was try and learn as much as he could from their defenses, what else could these things be if not that?
Still, despite wanting to learn, he wasn't about to let himself get killed. Sneaking around them was his best option, but waiting for them to leave was starting to grate on his nerves. All it would take was for them to scan near him and he was done, or another pack could come along to back this one up, who knew what would happen.
All he knew for sure was that he lacked the firepower to go on the offensive. His rifle had long ago been lost and the alien rifle he picked up was proving difficult to figure out. There didn't appear to be anything too complex about it, some kind of biometrics perhaps? Not the time to wonder about that though.
A whirring sound drew him out of his thoughts and Balak stiffened. Did they detect him? He couldn't check, that just might reveal him if they haven't.
Before he could plan out his next actions, a loud war cry echoed through the street as something dropped from above, shaking the ground as it landed. The mechanical whirring increased right before violent crashing and gunfire began.
While curious, Balak decided that caution would be the best option and remained hidden, not even daring to poke his head out to see what was happening.
The violent sounds went on for several seconds and then suddenly stopped, the silence feeling strangely unwelcome.
"So, you gonna grow a quad and come out of your hiding spot, or am I going to leave you on your own?" a gruff and grizzled voice spoke up.
Reasoning that the machines couldn't speak, Balak felt the risk was low enough to take. Peaking out, he saw a truly ancient-looking krogan standing there in yellow and black armor.
"You're not Blood Pack." Probably not the best thing to say to the krogan, but it's what slipped out.
"You noticed that, huh? Broker's really scraping the bottom of the barrel if you're the best he could find."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course you don't," the krogan said as he hefted his shotgun around to its magplate, freeing up his hands to tear into the machine closest to him. After a bit of digging later, the krogan ripped out a chunk of metal that was glowing.
"Hmm… this looks like it would catch a decent price. What do you think? Some kind of power source?"
Balak looked at the piece and nodded, it certainly looked like something that would power a machine.
"Not very talkative are you."
"I use my words carefully. Who are you?"
The krogan stood up, his full height dwarfing the young batarian. He glared at him before putting the piece away and turned to walk off.
"Name's Amkor Drack, are you coming or not?"
It's not like he had much else going for him, might as well follow the walking tank if he was offering. With only a little hesitation, he started following the grizzled lizard.
.xIIx.
Bullets rained around what remained of her cover, causing Ana to hunker further down into what little she had left.
"Shit," she muttered under her breath as more fire broke out right before she was going to try and return some shots. She was good and well suppressed and there wasn't much that she could do to change that.
She caught some movement to her left and immediately raised her pistol to it and fired, taking down an alien that had tried to flank her. They were increasing the pressure on her, the only question now was whether or not they would try to capture her or just shoot her.
If they were smart, they would put her down, a soldier of her caliber was not to be trifled with.
Of course, there was always the third option…
She looked at her pistol as a very dark thought passed through her mind.
…
And the moment has passed, she had more pressing things to worry about.
Jeez, just how much ammo did they have?
Before she could spare more time to think about that, a different kind of gunfire started up.
Whatever or whoever it was, the pressure on her let up as the aliens redirected their attention to the new threat.
Big mistake.
As soon as the gunfire was off of her, Ana broke cover, lined up her pistol, and took out several aliens in quick succession, downing each with a headshot. The ones she didn't get were soon gunned down by the familiar sound of pulse fire.
A squad of soldiers was some distance away, laying down fire from cover and she could hear the shouting of orders through all the gunfire.
It wasn't long before all the aliens were down, not a single survivor among them. Ana breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she semi-collapsed against a nearby vehicle, her legs all but giving out under her.
That had to have been one of the most stressful moments of her life, right up there with that time she was in Syria. Though at least she had a reliable team back then, she wouldn't turn away this ragtag group.
And ragtag they appeared, they looked as though they had been through several skirmishes before winding up here. Several of the men were like her and resting where they dropped.
"Captain Amari?"
Given the little amount of time that she had been here, it was a surprise to hear her name spoken and immediately gave her an idea of who was speaking.
"Sergeant Manyhides," she greeted Sam as he walked up to her, "so nice to see a friendly face."
He saluted her as he approached, his shoulders relaxing a little.
"Likewise, we've been going up against these guys for a while now. These guys are pretty winded, we're gonna rest up for a bit before heading out again."
Ana nodded, noticing how ragged the squad looked. Well, most of the squad.
"Well, well, well. Look who we have here! Long time, no see, Ana. How have you been?" the ever-positive voice of Jack Morrison spoke as he approached the two, his eyebrows wiggling suggestively.
Sam all but facepalmed while Ana merely gave the man the same disinterested stare that she was quickly learning to be the best look for him.
Jack didn't seem all too abashed at the wall he went up against, he instead moved quickly on to other matters.
"I followed the pirates we didn't get, they seem to be regrouping now that their initial push has been halted. Who'd have thought that those security bots could be so useful."
Yes, the security bots. Ana looked over at the remains of said bots that the pirates had managed to gun down. She didn't know much about them other than they were present on most human worlds. Most people tended to ignore them as they did little other than watch over the other machines with more important jobs. Orders from the higher-ups were to leave them alone, but that didn't stop people from wondering where exactly the bots came from.
She supposed this was what they were for, a hidden defense if anything else while also getting some other tasks done. Efficient.
They most certainly turned the tide of battle, though she figured that would've happened eventually, they just made it happen that much sooner.
"Well, since we've got some breathing room for the moment, we should make our way back to HQ and restock and get ready for the next battle."
At least, that was the thought, right before everyone flinched as a loud mechanical roar echoed through the streets, rattling the unbroken glass as well as their teeth.
"The hell was that?"
Ana looked in the direction the roar came from, her mind already set.
"I'm going to go investigate, you guys should get back. Does anyone have a rifle I can use? Mine's a little…" she held up her ruined firearm
One injured soldier offered her his rifle. She quickly inspected it and while it wasn't a model that she favored, it would still do.
Looking back up, she found that while most of the men had left, a few remained with determined looks on their faces. At the forefront were Morrison and Manyhides.
"Much as I would like to go back and rest, we need to follow up on whatever that sound was. So if you don't mind, we'll be following you over there," Morrison stated, fully serious.
A blank stare was all she gave before turning and heading out. "Very well, keep up."
With that, she quickly traversed through the streets, the group keeping pace behind her.
.xIIIx.
Nakmor led the way through the ruined streets, Balak shadowing the krogan as close as he dared. No better place to hide from enemy fire than behind the hulking form of a krogan.
Both had remained silent as they traveled, something that Balak appreciated. He was fairly certain that if he was with another batarian, they would've been cursing up a storm or ranting needlessly about batarian superiority or some other inane spiel.
Thankfully, they didn't come across any of those machines other than the already defeated remains of some. Despite how tempted he was to get his hands on some salvage, time was of the essence and he didn't want to risk losing his krogan escort as he very much doubted that he would wait.
It was for the best really, he already had more than enough info without having to risk his life for something that would only marginally boost his standing with the Shadow Broker. He felt on his hip to make sure that the pistol he had picked up earlier was still there, that would be more than enough.
It wasn't too long before he started to hear the sound of people and rounding a corner found them at one of their landing points, batarians rushing from here and there, carrying a variety of items of value, mostly tech, and loading it all up on shuttles.
"Move it, people! I want us in the air before the next group of those things finds us!" the apparent commander was shouting, garnering a chorus of affirmatives.
The commander spotted the two as they walked up, giving them a once over as he did.
"Well don't you two look miserable," Balak doubted very much Nakmor looked anything of the sort, "If you want a ride, you're gonna have to wait, cargo comes first this round, and any space leftover is for my squad."
Frankly, Balak didn't care one way or the other, he was just thankful that he could rest right now. Nakmor on the other hand looked annoyed, well, more annoyed.
"You have two options, pyjak. Either I'm on the next shuttle out of here, or you're not."
While most would have no issue with giving the krogan what he wanted, batarian pride and arrogance wouldn't allow even a krogan to gain the upper hand.
"Oh, and just how are you going to do that?"
The other pirates around had been watching and most had stopped what they were doing and were now encircling the two. Despite how tough a krogan is, there was no way that a single one could stand up to numbers alone.
At least, that was the thought most of them probably had. Balak figured that this krogan was not one to be messed with and tried as best that he could to shrink back without being noticed.
Before hostilities could break out was when they all felt it. The ground trembled, causing all to pause in their tracks. Not even a few seconds later the ground trembled again, and the pattern repeated. It almost felt like…
"Footsteps…" Nakmor grumbled as he grabbed his shotgun.
This of course prompted everyone else to grab a weapon of some sort, though now they were doing so for whatever was out there.
Nervous glances were shot every which way, each tremble causing even more to grab a weapon. Rifles and pistols now pointing in all directions as the trembling grew closer.
And as suddenly as they began, the steps stopped. Everything went still, everyone holding their breaths as the silence dragged out.
After what seemed to be minutes a noise broke the silence as something flew overhead. All weapons rounded on the object though surprisingly no one fired. More than likely because the object was hanging in the air and everyone had aimed to where it would have landed. After a slight adjustment to their aim, everyone now had their sights on the object in question.
It was a disc of some sort, any further detail Balak couldn't make out as it suddenly started spinning. In the same motion, a blue light shone out of it and ran over the surrounding area. As suddenly as it appeared, the light vanished and the disc fell to the ground.
All too late did Balak realize what the object and so did a few others as some screamed out, "It scanned us!"
Balak only barely registered a buzzing noise in the air before more blue lights appeared but these weren't scanning them, as he saw when two nearby pirates got blasted.
Chaos broke loose as even more shots were fired, from where Balak didn't have a clue, the shots seemingly came from everywhere. The first volley had taken out only a few of the pirates, most having the sense to get to cover, only the stragglers getting gunned down.
Just as they thought that they would have a chance to catch their breath, was when a piercing mechanical roar cut through the air. Before anyone could react, a shuttle was launched end over end and it crashed down onto a couple of unlucky pirates.
Balak turned just in time to see another shuttle tossed aside, crushing three more.
Those shuttles were in the way as something large and mechanical walked from behind the remaining shuttles.
At first glance, Balak would have thought it was just a larger version of the smaller machines, its overall shape was the same, a body with two legs and a tail. But the similarities ended there as this thing was loaded with what appeared to be weapons on its back and its head was far more complex in design. Whereas the smaller machine's head was made up of one large armored eye, this one's head appeared to be mostly something like a mouth, the bottom of the jaw split, looking like the mandibles of a turian.
Two belts ran along the thing's neck and Balak got a sinking feeling in his gut; those looked familiar.
Sure enough, the thing started firing blue bursts of energy from some spinning barrels near its mouth. The rapid-fire shots tore through whoever didn't get behind cover quick enough, not that doing so helped as it launched something from the platforms on its back that targeted those outside its line of sight.
Soon, he wasn't sure how long, things got quiet once again. His heart pounding, Balak poked his head around from his hiding spot and instantly regretted it.
For staring right at him was the machine. If it had been an actual animal, he probably would have been done for. But whatever this machine was, it didn't act on instinct and merely stood there. Why, Balak had no idea.
That is until he heard a small beep to his side. Looking down, he saw a small blue light flashing on the gun he had picked up. The large machine's eyes flickered at the same time and to Balak's surprise, turned and left, stomping off to who knew where.
The important thing right now was, it was no longer here.
His body relaxed so hard that he all but fell to the ground, quickly leaning against some debris. He let out a breath he didn't know that he had been holding and soon felt the adrenaline crash coming.
He looked at his hands as they started to shake and couldn't help but wonder, just who the hell were these people? Sometimes, they seemed a bit backward, their stone architecture standing out, but also had advanced technology. Something wasn't sitting right with all this and he felt a need to get to the bottom of it, but how?
Before he could ponder more on the subject, he heard something moving about not too far from him. His heart started pounding once again, he was not ready to have to deal with anything else right now.
A piece of shuttle launched off the ground and a large familiar shape clawed its way out of the debris.
"Son of a pyjak, where'd that thing go? I'm gonna rip its tail off and show it not to mess with a warlord…" Nakmor grumbled as he stood up and brushed some metal bits off his armor.
Balak let out an audible sound of relief as he settled back where he fell, at least knowing that Nakmor was less likely to kill him than the machine.
The krogan looked over at him and an amused grin formed on his lips. "Looked who survived, what'd you do? Hide under a shuttle?"
Balak had no energy to give a response and instead just rolled over a little to get a bit more comfortable.
Just in time to see a squad of aliens march up, their weapons already aimed at them.
One that looked like an asari only with dark brown skin and long black hair instead of a crest shouted at them, words he didn't understand but their meaning was pretty universal.
He carefully grabbed the pistol he had pilfered and slowly placed it away from him. He would've done more, but he was just too tired. He looked over at Nakmor and to his total not surprise, the krogan didn't look like he was going to surrender. What did surprise him was that Nakmor didn't immediately start shooting, his gun hadn't even left its magplate.
Nakmor appeared to be sizing up the opposition, not that it mattered to Balak. If the krogan wanted to go down fighting that was his choice, he only hoped that these aliens didn't shoot him as well.
After a bit more yelling from the aliens and a few more growls from Nakmor, the krogan came to a decision. He raised one arm while using the other to slowly reach for his shotgun, which he took from his belt and tossed it aside.
He then hunched to the ground and sat in a fairly passive sitting position, for a krogan at least. To Balak, he still looked incredibly dangerous, but that could've just been because he knew what krogan are capable of.
The aliens quickly surrounded them, taking the weapons from the ground and looking at them. One came to him and roughly put him facedown as he pulled his hands behind his back. Balak heard something click and he could no longer move his arms, some kind of restraint.
Honestly, things could have been worse, looking over at the wrecked shuttles and the remains of some of the other pirates. Yeah, things could be much much worse.
…
General Williams let out a breath of relief as he sat down for the first time in hours. The battle was dying down and so far the reports coming in were all telling good news. For a bit there, it seemed the battle could go either way, their forces able to handle the initial onslaught, but then the aliens brought out those big guys and the ones with the teeth. Those had tossed things up and he was sure things would only get worse from there.
Looking at the screens, he saw even more machines weaving around the settlement, mostly the smaller theropod-looking ones, though he did occasionally see the almost deer-like ones as well. Williams was one of the few people in the know that these machines weren't controlled by the military like many believed. He wasn't authorized to know who or what really controlled them and right now he couldn't give a damn, they turned the battle in their favor.
Communications were still spotty, so there was always the chance something could happen and he would remain vigilant.
"General, Captain Amari has managed to get a report through. She says that she and a squad have managed to capture two of the aliens, one of the human-looking ones and one of the big ones."
"Huh, didn't think we would actually get any prisoners. Well, I'm certain she knows where to take them. I want an interrogation team prepped and ready within the hour to handle our guests." He thought a moment. "Who did the diplomats send here again?"
"That would be Ambassador Anita Goyle, sir."
"Right, inform her of the prisoners, might as well see what we can handle diplomatically while we're at it, if at all possible. I'm sure someone is going to raise a stink about first contact."
"Right away, sir."
"See to it, I want some answers by this time tomorrow."
.xIVx.
Reinhardt shoved yet another piece of a fallen wall out of the way, letting the soldiers following him pass by. The battle appeared to be over and while many were smiling at their good fortune, others had one eye on the sky. The bulky crusader was one of them, carefully keeping watch for any attempts from the aliens at a sneak attack.
As it was, things had been quiet for some time now and he suspected it had something to do with the machines he had seen darting about earlier. They had to have something to do with the aliens suddenly running off back to their ships. Those that didn't quickly fell to either the soldiers or the machines. Even then things didn't get better, as some ships didn't even make it to the clouds before falling back to the ground as a fireball.
Many were curious, especially about the roars they'd heard earlier. Personally, Reinhardt didn't care too much, he was sure that it would come up eventually. No, his concern was in two places right now. The first was on his charges, the wounded soldiers and those moving them, making sure that they reached safety.
Looking to the towering citadel, his concern for his friend and commanding officer. While he couldn't say for sure the wound he had received was fatal, that didn't change the fact that Balderich stayed back to face those creatures alone. Who would lead the Crusaders if Balderich was gone?
Though, he supposed that was becoming less of a concern the further he walked. The way they were traveling had revealed a disturbing revelation to Reinhardt, and that was he was seeing far too many of his comrades lying on the ground lifeless. The only reason he wasn't too grieved to see this was the many alien bodies surrounding his brothers and sisters' fallen bodies. They fought and died with glory, he would see to it they were given an honorable funeral.
He just wondered if he would have to do the same for Balderich. Hopefully there were others, he recognized many of his fallen brethren and they weren't all accounted for. But for right now, he had the living to look out for, the dead could wait.
.xVx.
Councilor Arrithea Tevos was fuming.
Of all times for there to be little communication between councilors, it had to be this time.
She angrily made her way towards the councilors' meeting room, fully expecting the other two to be there or heads would roll.
Entering the office did nothing to calm her anger though, despite seeing both of the other counselors there.
"Councilor Tevos," the newly appointed turian councilor greeted as she walked over to her seat. Was he new? A few months maybe, fairly new to her.
"Councilor Galrian," she greeted back, it wasn't him that had earned her ire for the day. No, it was the other one. The who right now had the gall to look annoyed at being interrupted.
"Tevos, is there a reason you've dragged us here today? I have work to finish," Councilor Cilbon complained.
She had to hold herself back from shouting in his face, at least for now. First, get to the bottom of what she had just learned.
"I've called the both of you here today because it has been brought to my attention that batarian pirates have been organizing. Have either of you been informed of this?" She knew full well that Cilbon knew what she was referring to. So what was his answer going to be?
Galrian shook his head, to be expected.
"I received some STG reports, nothing special there, pirates raids aren't exactly new now are they."
Some of her anger evaporated at his words only to quickly be replaced with annoyance. The pieces fell into place, so he wasn't actively keeping stuff from them, Cilbon was just negligent.
"Did you even read through the reports?"
Cilbon's face rolled through a few emotions at the statement, shame, and embarrassment the most noticeable.
"I… did not, no."
"Yes, Cilbon didn't read his reports thoroughly, is there a point you're making Tevos? We haven't got all day."
Well, this may not have gone the way she would've thought, but at least it wasn't as bad. Still, she and Cilbon we're going to have words later.
"Those pirates have discovered a new race just beyond a closed relay."
The mood in the room shifted at her words.
"A new race? How do you know this?" Galrian asked, his mandibles clicking in interest.
Well, it's not like she could out and say that a notorious crime lord had told her personally. Though she was fairly certain that her fellow councilors knew of her underworld connections, she felt no need to advertise them.
"I have it on good authority."
By which, of course, she meant her ties to Omega. A life as long as her own was bound to have less than scrupulous moments and this happened to be one of them.
Naturally, the other two councilors were aware of this, to a degree, their own skeletons keeping them silent.
Cilbon looked a little green… more so than usual. It wasn't often the salarian councilor made a mistake, if ever, so this was probably weighing heavy on him.
"So, I take it we're going to send an envoy to this new race? Apologize for the actions of the batarians?" Galrian asked. Rather level-headed for a turian, at least in Tevos's opinion.
"A relief package would be in order, to help them recover from whatever havoc the batarians have done," Tevos said, already thinking about how best to approach this new race. Surely the other two were also thinking along similar lines, encountering a new race usually brought a bevy of benefits to whoever the new race allied themselves with.
So now was the time to present themselves and see who this new race decided to become a client race under.
…
Balderich couldn't feel his legs as he collapsed onto the decorative throne. All around him were the remains of several aliens, all crushed under his hammer.
His breathing was becoming a bit of a problem, his breaths short and haggard. This honestly was pretty close to how he thought it would end for him, some backwater planet while fighting pirates or some other form of criminal. Granted, Shanxi wasn't that much of a backwater, though he could just be thinking that because he'd grown attached to it.
There were worse places, so he was thankful for that at least.
Though, he had hoped that this place hadn't been as damaged as it was. The door was torn off its hinges, stone and wood were strewn all over. Leaning back into the throne he got a good look up, there was even a hole in the ceiling, he could see light coming in.
Oh well, he wasn't going to be around much longer, it was hardly his concern anymore.
May as well sit and relax as the darkness overtook him.
…
This room sucks.
Such were the thoughts of Balak as he looked around the boring room they had placed him in. It didn't look like any cell that he'd ever been in before, not if the giant mirror on one wall was anything to go by.
Looking at it, he got the feeling that he was being watched. No, studied. They were learning about him.
Even if he felt so inclined to do something for them to take note of, he really didn't feel like it right now. Though he had been here for hours now, he found it difficult to relax and was fairly exhausted. He wouldn't allow himself to rest until… until what, exactly?
He was under no delusions that he would escape, it wasn't like he was biotic. He had been stripped of what little weapons he had along with his armor. He was sitting in this room in naught but his undersuit. They even took his basic omnitool.
What were they going to do with him? It wasn't like they could interrogate him unless they spoke any batarian languages, that conversation wasn't going to get far. He'd left his primary omnitool in his quarters, so none of the usual translation packages were on the one they took.
Of course, they could have translation suites of their own though those would be easy enough to get around, he simply needed to remain quiet. Couldn't translate silence after all and there wasn't a translation package in the galaxy that could pick up the subtleties of batarian body language.
Though…
He would need to speak with them eventually. First and foremost he was an agent of the Shadow Broker, perhaps he could work out a deal of some kind. Of course, that would mean also getting in touch with the Broker first, an impossibility in his current situation.
Balak would've sighed if he wasn't being watched.
He wondered why the krogan was up to.
…
Ryder watched the four-eyed alien sit against the wall of its cell, its eyes looking every which way making it hard to tell what it was focusing on. That was probably going to make things difficult later, he just knew it. He wasn't sure how or why, but he just knew there were going to be problems because of it.
"Fascinating," a voice murmured next to him, followed by a quick series of taps. He glanced over at the person next to him, a scrawny looking fellow in a lab coat. Scrawny mostly in his physical build, he was actually quite tall, though one wouldn't know it not of the time with how often Ryder saw the man hunched over.
"What would that be?" Ryder asked, genuinely curious what had captured the man's interest.
"Oh, far too much to say really, I would bore you to tears with a full description," he said even as he continued to type away on his tablet.
"Winston, now is not the time to be fascinated, what can you tell us?" the other person in the room asked.
"Pcsh, now is the exact time to be fascinated, Anita! No other researcher is in the place that I am right now and I intend to make every moment count!" the scientist exclaimed.
Ryder looked over and found that Anita Goyle was rubbing her left temple.
"I need something that will help me communicate with it, not what their biology is."
"...hmmm… well… There is one thing, maybe." He pointed at the alien's face. "We only have the two eyes while he has four. My suggestion while speaking with him, once you can that is, is to pick a set of eyes to make contact with and stick with it."
Google nodded. "Anything else?"
"Unfortunately, that's really all I can figure at the moment. I would need days of study to figure out a better approach. Weeks even."
The ambassador sighed and Ryder couldn't blame her. Really, how did anyone expect them to interrogate something when neither side could understand the other? He didn't see it happening anytime soon.
"What about the other one?"
Ah, yes, the other one. Rather than keep the large alien in a room with a vulnerable glass wall, they opted to put it in a secure cell with a video feed, which they were now keeping an eye on.
Despite what Ryder thought would happen, namely, the aliens being uncooperative to the end, they were practically model prisoners. To say the least, he was surprised, especially with the big one.
It was giving him a bad feeling.
All it did was stare threateningly into the camera and didn't move a bit while doing it.
"Well, again, I would need more time-"
Goyle cut him off. "Yes, I know, I know."
Before she could do much of anything else, the big alien moved in its cell. Ryder immediately took notice and paid extra attention to the screen.
This was the first time it had done anything since they put it in there hours ago. Looking at the screen, Ryder watched as the creature gestured.
If the gesture meant the same thing as it did in human society…
He turned on his radio.
"I think the big one wants to talk."
…
Honestly, it wasn't the worst cell he'd ever been in. At least there weren't any pests crawling out of the walls, always a plus in Drak's book.
How long had he been in there? He didn't really care too much, a life as long as his usually meant that what felt long to someone else was a nap to him.
Right now he figured that whoever was on the other side of that camera was rushing off to tell the higher-ups he wished to talk. Assuming that they caught his meaning with his gesturing. They did appear a bit primitive, so he tried to keep it simple, the gesture used by most species he'd come across.
And so he waited.
And waited.
Still waiting…
Okay, perhaps he put too much faith in this species. Looks like he was going to have to get violent.
Was what he was thinking when the door to the cell opened andin walked three of the generic-looking aliens. First the asari, then the batarians, now these pyjaks, why did three different species have to look alike?
One stepped forward and took a seat while the other two, armed, hung back. If he had to guess, there were more in the hall and even more eyes were watching. Meh, it was exactly what he thought would happen anyway, so it's not like he was in any real trouble.
Yet. There was always time for trouble in the future. But for right now, he had to exercise something his kind were not greatly known for; diplomacy.
And scene!
So just a little of the aftermath of the Battle of Shanxi, or skirmish, or whatever it is, I dunno. But yes, we see the premier of the Thunderjaw (not that any human is going to call it that in this timeline...), the Council prepping their speeches, and Drak has a plan. Not everything I wanted, but at this point, it would probably take me another month or two to get the rest of it written down and nobody wants to wait for that.
I usually do some reviews here, but this time they're mostly just people saying how much they like the story and "Please sir, may I have some more?" and I'm more than willing to deliver, but my bad habits are getting in the way.
Well, that and just some regular habits. This chapter would've been out a hell of a lot sooner except back around oh say... October of last year my hard drive on my old computer finally decided to die, taking all the work I had put into a few of my chapters for all my stories with it, so I had to start over from scratch with this one. And boy has it been a pain in my butt, primarily because I have been using Word since my middle school days and its what I like using and the program is no longer on my computer and it sucks and I hate everything. I got Word 2010 before they started using subscriptions and have been too broke to get it, leaving me stuck writing in Google Docs and I'm not a fan. Just an old man stuck in my ways.
Either way, thank you all for reading and I'll be back sometime in the future (don't know when) with the next chapter. please leave a review. Lostbasin out!
