It has been a while, hasn't it? I can't guarantee that this story won't suddenly stop again, but I hope not. I am going to redo from chapter 3, as I am not pleased with it or subsequent chapters. Anywho, enjoy.
Year 2140 CE, Didact's Capital Ship, Edge of Galaxy
He had exactly 100 of the nearest solar systems to his primary fully explored and fortified, each with a small fleet of warships just in case. He had not met a single spacefaring race in the millennia he had been in this unknown galaxy, and that worried him. In his home galaxy there were innumerable species who achieved space flight, including the Humans and San'Shyuum who they warred with and devolved, and those that were folded into the Forerunner Ecumene to protect them as the Mantle demanded. Curiously, he had found remnants of those that achieved interstellar travel; however, in his research into their disappearance he found a rather startling fact: they were exterminated. Every single time. He was not sure who or what or how it happened, only that it did. Time had made sure that any evidence had wasted away.
He was watching out of the window of the command center, which was truthfully a formality as he could control the ship and external cameras with but a thought. His eyes traced along the gargantuan assembly vat that surpassed even the Master Builder's fabricators which produced Shadow-of-Sundered-Star's ship the Mantle's Approach. At a staggering 9500 kilometers it was a planet in itself, and could produce anything from freighters to capital ships that make the Mantle's Approach look like a toy. It had only been used twice in the 35,000 years since he had it created, once to create a Halo-bar the superweapon-and once to create Bornstellar a new ship with all the technology he had rediscovered in the Domain.
"Is everything alright, Didact?" he heard from behind him. Bornstellar gave a small sigh and turned on his heel to face the speaker.
"Yes, Glory, I am fine, just thinking how odd it is that we only find the remnants of civilizations that reached space travel. This galaxy has easily two-and-a-half times the stars that ours did, and yet..." he trailed off.
Unbidden Glory, the first and only true Ancilla he had created since being here, bobbed his chassis in agreement. At one meter by one meter by one meter Glory was larger than other Ancilla the Forerunner had created, but he was also many orders of magnitude more powerful. Even Offensive Bias' computing power paled in comparison. The Domain was a wonderful thing.
"Yes, it is rather odd. It is almost as if something is destroying them once they reach a certain point of evolution, however I cannot fathom why one would want to do so. Or how they manage to. If a race were that powerful, they should have found us by now." Glory spoke as they began walking across the room to the other window. Didact did not respond with words, only humming in agreement as he took in the Halo hanging in the tapestry of space.
At 10,000 kilometers in diameter it was enormous, and beautiful, but not deadly. He would not risk galactic genocide. Having only built it to test the speed of the assembler vat, the ringworld now sat unused in orbit of a gas giant Didact had created for that sole purpose. The advancements he had discovered in the Domain made even stellar engineering rather trivial, which allowed him to easily turn one of the stars into a Dyson sphere suspended in the slipstream. He called this system Reproach, as stored in it was the history of the Forerunner, including their mistakes. It had the largest dedicated defense fleet, sitting at 2 Fortress-class vessels and their dedicated task force, each at 15 Repentance-classSuper Heavy Cruisers, 15 Soujorner-class dreadnoughts capable of linking up and creating enormous gravitational fluctuations that can shred whole fleets, and 30 Domain-class Heavy Cruisers each armed with energy projectors and guided antimatter missiles. However he still hadn't discovered the secrets to neural physics, the technology the Precursors employed to build such megastructures as the star roads.
He was suddenly standing in a station near a dedicated shipyard thanks to the teleportation grid. As he discovered many years ago, building ships with the Mineral, as he had to taken to calling it, was not as simple as he first imagined it to be. The amount of the Mineral required scaled exponentially in regards to the size and mass of the ship. For him, that truthfully wasn't an issue as he could create and collapse stellar systems at this point; however, for a race that didn't have such advanced technology acquiring sufficient amounts of the Mineral as well as producing enough power to lighten the ship sufficiently, was a rather tall order. He found that with deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion the limit was upwards of 2 kilometers before there began major diminishing returns. That wasn't an issue when you could harness vacuum decay energy and acquire literal tons of the Mineral in short order, as even 15 kilometers was possible, as shown by the ship he was looking at, however it was much easier to just use hard light and buffer fields to manipulate gravity and build ships in the thousands of kilometers if desired.
"I still don't understand why you put a mass accelerator on the Mineral ships instead of hard light," Glory spoke as his chassis whirred around a projected hard light model of the ship. Didact nodded, as he hadn't actually explained it.
"Magnetically accelerated, Mineral lightened hyper-dense alloys still destroys what it hits, Glory," came the rather blunt explanation, "plus, it seems to make the most sense when you think about it. The full powered shot has a speed in excess of 40% of light speed. Even weighing 75 kilograms, that is an enormous amount of kinetic energy. Besides, all other ships are equipped with torsion beams, antimatter weaponry, and various hard light and energy projector weapons. The humans sure did know how to build ship killer weaponry."
After a few moments, Glory bobbed his chassis, as while he still believed there should be more hard light, Didact's point still stood. All other military assets were heavily armed, armored, and shielded with hard light based weapons, including Didact's personal armor. They had even rediscovered the information regarding probability mirrors, objects capable of large scale causal reconciliation, required for large scale slipstream transits including many ships transiting, or moving abnormally large masses through the slipstream.
"I believe our best bet to meet a space faring race, instead of waiting here on the edge of galaxy with only two relays within 500 light years of us, we take a small fleet of ships and jump a few light years at a time, perhaps 200 or so. Perhaps we find more relays, perhaps we will find intelligent life. This galaxy is rather large in comparison as well, almost 230,000 lightyears in diameter. Plus the sheer amount of stars.", came the sudden non-sequitur. Glory paused in his experimental redesigning of the ships and turned to face Didact.
"This is rather sudden, Didact. You have been here over 100,000 years, and suddenly you wish to search yourself?" Glory asked after a pause, "Is it what I said earlier, about them being destroyed purposefully?"
"Yes, that was the final push needed, as I was already contemplating searching. I find it worrying." Didact spoke after a brief pause. Glory dipped in understanding as a continuous galactic genocide was not something Didact would stand for once discovered. And truthfully the chances of meeting a race advanced enough to pose a true threat was rather low.
"I agree. Which ships shall we be taking, Forerunner or Mineral?," came the excited question. Didact grinned as he knew Glory wished to take the Mantle's Disciple, the new capital ship, and he couldn't find in himself to truly disagree, at first. At 650 kilometers tall, 300 kilometers long, and 330 kilometers wide it was a behemoth of a ship, single handidly capable of laying siege to a planet and winning. Armed to the teeth with torsion beams, energy projectors, hard light cannons, antimatter missiles and cannons, and slipstream capable matter-antimatter annihilation torpedoes, where matter and antimatter are contained in hardlight and joined when needed, detonating with a force that puts thermonuclear weapons to shame. The icing on the cake is that they are fully capable of suddenly entering the slipstream to dodge point defense fire and reappearing in the ships themselves. All in all while it is a very impressive ship, it's also terrifyingly large and obviously armed. Not the greatest choice for a first contact scenario. Didact shook his head as he glanced at the Mantle's Disciple and looked in amusement as Glory's light dimmed for a moment.
"No, Glory, we won't be jumping randomly, hoping for the best. We will send out probes to search for us, as our communications are instant even at galactic distances. If we find evidence of a space faring race or races we will watch, learn, and then make contact.," Didact spoke quickly. He gestured and a map of the galaxy appeared, with their territory marked on the southern part of the galaxy. With a thought probes were deposited into the slipstream from the flag ship, and instantly data started coming in. The map began changing as systems were mapped out, their exact locations now shown with information regarding the system properties displayed as well. Didact and Glory watched as more of the relays were found, each within a few lightyears of planets that are capable of supporting life, or with an abundance of the Mineral or other raw resources. Once or twice would be a coincidence, but not the dozens that are being found. Another point to the guided genocide idea.
Suddenly an alert popped up, a probe found an active relay. Glory then took control of the remaining probes and had them search in the direction the active relay was pointing, to search for its partner. After dozens of jumps, they found it, 7,000 lightyears away. A system with space craft. The probe immediately activated its stealth mode, rendering it invisible across all spectrums. It began to access all known communication spectrums and sent the acquired knowledge back to Glory and Didact, who parsed through the information and began to hack past firewalls like they weren't there.
"Cyber-security is rather poor, I believe."
"You're giving them too much credit Didact, it was a joke to break."
"Is that so? I suppose you already compiled a translator then, since it's so easy?"
"I have, yes."
"Very good. Let us see what this Codex has in store."
Didact began assimilating the knowledge held in the Codex, and he was not impressed with what he learned. Genocide, genophage, Geth and the subsequent exiling of the Quarians, Batarians (the race they found) and their slavery. This was unacceptable. Slavery is an abomination to morality and the Mantle, this would not continue. From he had gathered the Turian Heirarchy was against it but lacked the resources and backing from the other two Council races, the Asari and Salarian's, due to other political nonsense. It brought back bad memories from the corruption that plagued the Ecumene under Master-Builder Faber and his Builders. He wasa not beholden to Council law, nor the Treaty of Farixen. Frankly, he could easily rescue the slaves and eradicate the slavers and be gone before the Council realizes the Hegemony was no more. He looked up at Glory, who was privy to the thoughts in his head, and nodded. Immediately they were on the bridge of the Mantle's Disciple, Didact simultaneously recalling the unused Suppression Fleets that would now see action. Enormous slipstream potrals opened around his ship, spilling the hundreds of ships that constituted the 1st through 6th Suppression fleets. He had truly hoped that they wouldn't need to see use, but it appears violence is an unfortunate inevitability. Each fleet was 100 ships (excluding ships contained in Fortress-class vessels), 2 Fortress-class Fleet Carriers, 28 Soujournor-class dreadnoughts, 35 Repentance-class Super Heavy Cruisers, 15 Ghibalb-class Carriers, and 20 Domain-class Heavy Cruisers.
With their cyber-warfare capabilities, Didact knew everything the Batarians did, including the location of all their outposts and Hegemony backed pirate bands. As well as military capabilities, which was not impressive. A single Heavy Cruiser was likely a match for a few dozen of their dreadnoughts. Even their disruptor torpedoes were countered by the frankly overwhelmingly accuracy of Glory, who could coordinate tens of thousands of ships across multiple star systems and the slipstream. And the less said about the ground warfare capabilities the better.
"Didact, we have coordinates to the Hegemony colonies and slaver outposts. I have already formulated a signal to disable the slave collars, so we can simply teleport them onto the ships before beginning ground invasions. The communications jammer is prepped across all ships, so the moment we arrive in system they cannot communicate with anyone. Battle Sentinels are on stand by, war-sphinxes are prepped, interceptors and bombers ready, all weapons, shields, and slipstream drives are charged."
Didact nodded as he gave commands through his neural link, the ships responding and forming smaller groups. They split up into smaller groups near evenly, each battlegroup led by a Fortress-class ship, with 14 dreadnoughts, 17 Super Heavy Cruisers, 10 Heavy Cruisers, and 7 Carriers. This left 12 SHC's and 12 Carriers over, which he set to go to the smaller, less defended outposts. The 12 battlegroups would go to colonies and major pirate bases, where the Batarians would learn the hard way the Mantle doesn't care about their "culture". With a thought, slipstream portals opened, and the last Forerunner once more went to war. Not that it was really a war, per se, more of a one sided curb stomp. More on that later.
April 14, 2140 CE, Harsa System
Being a sensor station operator was boring. That was a well known fact throughout the galaxy. Then it shouldn't come as a surprise that one Corporal Gha'Shiik was dozing off after 9 hours of his 11 hour shift. What does come as a surprise was the sudden shrill noise of the proximity alarms going off, evident by the undignified squawk and sudden reacquainting with the floor Gha'Shiik experienced. He quickly hit the button the silence the alarms so he could think, and he immediately questioned everything as he looked at the sensor readings.
"...what?" was all he could get out before his jaw dropped, as he watched a fleet of ships, one registering over 600 kilometers, one at 100 kilometers, and dozens over 9 kilometers come out of honest to gods portals. He absentmindedly hit the emergency contact button that would get him a direct line to the admiral in charge of fleet. After a moment the signal was fully established.
"What's the meaning of this, Corporal?", came the voice of Fleet Admiral Kramo Khar'ran. Without saying a word Gha'Shiik linked the sensors of his station with the admirals ship. After a moment came the reply, "Is this a joke, Corporal?"
"No, sir! At current speed the ships will be in visual range of the defense fleet in minutes, I'm getting energy readings that are off the charts, and no readings of any element zero! Orders, sir?" Gha'Shiik spoke rapidly. He wasn't paid enough for this. Ships larger than Citadel? No eezo? And now that he thought to look, he was no longer picking up any signals from outside the solar system. This was not looking good, not at all.
The sensor station picked up another energy spike, the ships disappearing and reappearing 650k kilometers from the defense fleet. Suddenly the connection to the admiral was cut, and in its place was a new connection, showing a large being covered head to toe in incredibly advanced looking armor. After a moment it spoke.
"Greeting, Batarians. I am Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, the Didact. You are likely asking yourselves why I am here, well the answer is simple. You engage in the barbaric practice of slavery, have done so your entire existence. You feel no guilt or remorse for the beings you harm, the families you destroy. You claim it to be cultural heritage. Well, it is my cultural heritage to snuff it out, so you have a choice: willingly release your slaves to me, and restructure your government starting with a ban and denouncement slavery. Or, I make you. The choice is yours." As quick as it was there it was gone, and the connection with the admiral was reestablished. He looked paler and more nervous than he had earlier, not that Gha'Shiik could blame him with what was staring his fleet down. It wasn't the numbers, it was the sheer size of them. He'd bet his yearly salary that the biggest ship in that fleet outweighed the entire Batarian navy. At least, he did look nervous. Now he was looking more angry.
"He dares makes demands of the Hegemony?! He doesn't even use element zero, so no kinetic barriers! Bah, sound general quarters, all hands to battle stations! Maneuver ships into staggered formation, Bring the dreadnoughts to the back, cruisers around them, have frigates coordinate wolf packs. Hold positions." Gha'Shiik looked on in silent incredulity, at least until he remembered that the Fleet Admiral wasn't allowed to surrender, lest he be executed. Caught between bureaucracy with a slow death and a space battle with a quick death, he chose a quick death.
So with that, the 450 ships making up the Batarian Home Fleet turned to face the enemy fleet and brought themselves into formation. The admiral stared at the ships across the void, despite his words he knew there was no victory to be had. There was no other choice to had unfortunately, the leaders on Khar'shan had told him in no uncertain terms that they would not capitulate to the demands, which left him responsible for attempting to evict them from Batarian space. He had the largest Batarian fleet under his control, 450 total warships, 25 dreadnoughts, 150 cruisers, and the rest made up of frigates. It was enough firepower to hold Khar'shan against almost any invading fleet, especially considering they had far more dreadnoughts than were allowed by the Treaty of Farixen, but not this one.
Harsa System, Mantle's Disciple, same time
"They aren't going to surrender, are they?", came the rhetorical question. Glory shook side to side as the Batarian fleet assumed a defensive formation, launching fighters and charging weapons. Didact sighed as he began to move his ships in formation around the Mantle's Disciple, the Fortress-class ship taking position slightly behind and to the side of the capital ship while releasing the thousands of fighter craft as well as its compliment of SHC's. The carriers took position beind all others while prepping all fighters. The Sojourner-class ships took formation in front of the Disciple, with the remaining ships forming around them. As they slowly advanced, the Batarian fleet did not move. Didact watched as they crossed the emptiness of space, the distance getting closer to what the Codex stated was optimal firing range for Mass Effrect based ships, as they galactic community called it. As they crossed 110k kilometers, the Batarians opened fire, with the frigates firing, then cruisers, then dreadnoughts. He watched as slugs propelled to a fraction of light speed raced across the void and impacted his ships.
"All ships reporting no damage taken. Heavy cruisers shields dropped a few percent, the rest are negligible. All shields have fully regenerated." Didact tilted his head at this. The fastest slug was a measly 1.3% light speed, and it only weighed roughly 20 kilograms. Surprisingly, the volley didn't stop, as the ships continued to hurl slugs to no effect. Didact sent his plan to Glory, who implemented it with the speed only an ancilla can. As they crossed to 75k kilometers, the battlegroup responded. Lances of pure energy shot from multiple locations on the ships, bisecting all they struck. Hard light cannons began shooting bursts of hardlight encased plasma to devastating results. A frigate struck by one had its kinetic barriers immediately overloaded, before the enclosed plasma began burning away at the hull. As more hit it, the plasma burst from its container in the ship proper, rendering it functionally destroyed as the bridge was destroyed. The Sojourner-class ships then joined in the fray, their torsion drivers catching multiple ships in beams of pure gravitational destruction, before causing discordant harmonies that sheared the ships in two at a subatomic level. Didact watched as 170 of the opposing ships ceased to exist.
On board Pride of Khar'shan, command ship of Fleet Admiral Kramo Khar'ran
He stared in disbelief at the destruction that was wrought with one return volley. 170 ships, gone. And from what his sensors was showing, they haven't even brought down the shields of the enemy fleet. There were billions of Batrarians and slaves on Khar'shan, and if they got by the fleet it was over, as their was no way this enemy didn't have an enormous ground force ready to go. He heard his officers feeding him data as the fleet reeled from the blow it took.
"All ships, increase spacing and fire torpedoes, frigates break off into wolf packs and harass the perimeter, cruisers maintain formation and blockade Khar'shan, increase reactors to 115% and focus excess energy into the engines and keep moving, fire at will." Came the split second orders. What could he really do against these behemoths? The largest ship didn't even fire. As he watched the tactical screen he realized they hadn't fired except for that one volley, despite his fleet constantly attacking why?
Suddenly, the 14 tall ships, each a staggering nine kilometers in height, formed a hexagon inside an octagon and then started building up enormous amounts of power. He watched in mounting dread as the ships formed bridges of energy between themselves, before unleashing multiple lances from their torsion drivers, each lance spearing through multiple ships, the suddenly gravitational fluctuations overheating the engines and reactors. The other ships joined the fray, launching a paltry amount of missiles, only at the frigates, and that terrified him. He looked at the tactical display as every remaining frigate started firing their GUARDIAN lasers, but the missiles disappeared in a burst of radiation. There was confusion for all of a few moments before all frigates were simultaneously destroyed from the inside by something he couldn't comprehend. He had 18 dreadnoughts and 85 cruisers remaining. In mere minutes his entire fleet was quartered. He watched as he rushed out orders on his command center, as his ships continued to fire everything they had to no avail. The golden shields constantly shimmered as they brushed off the main guns of the ships, and the point defense systems showed their worth as they swatted every missile out of the sky.
"Sir, the captain of the Despots' Spoils is reporting that the main gun of his ship has fused itself from overheating and is inoperable. He says he took a glancing hit off of one of those lances of energy and is having engine troubles. He said that he will launch into FTL and attempt to drop the shields of one ship and requests a target!" a comms officer suddenly shouted over the cacophony. Kramo grimaced at the news of the kamikaze request. He typically wouldn't okay it, but at this point nothing else was working. He quickly highlighted the largest ship, the 600 kilometer behemoth. Before he could do anything else the Despots' Spoils launched itself into FTL, aimed directly at the capital ship of the enemy. However, to the shock of the entire fleet, that same large ship suddenly spiked in power and with a great twist in space-time in front if it, pulled the suicidal dreadnought out of FTL a mere 3000 kilometers away.
Kramo stared in disbelief as he watched a swarm of something launch from the ship and descend upon the suddenly powered down dreadnought. 'This cannot be happening,' was the thought racing through his mind as his attention was dragged back to the battle, to the sight of power visibly collecting along the lines of the ships before suddenly his vision ceased.
Mantle's Disciple in orbit of Khar'shan
Didact watched as sentinels flooded out of his ship and began combing the wreckage from the battle. He had attempted to take prisoners but they wound up committing suicide when they realized their suicide run bore no fruit. He had decided devolution was to be their punishment, to be confined to their home planet without technology. He just had to collect all traces of technology and civilization from the planet after freeing the slaves and passing down punishment for crimes against the Mantle, which would be accomplished momentarily. The shields of his ships never dropped below 70% the entire battle, and in fact did not in any of the battles that were happening throughout Batarian space. The computing abilities of Glory were astounding, truly. He watched as sentinels and war-sphinxes dropped into the planets atmosphere, suddenly transiting into the slipstream to dodge AA fire and reappearing at ground level by the entrenched defenses. Within minutes the Batarian anti-air was down as they were annihilated by far superior foes, allowing gunships to come down and tilting the already skewed scales further into Forerunner favor.
"We should have planet wide teleportation coverage within the hour, allowing us to finish teleporting the slaves onto the Disciple. Batarian ground forces are sustaining immense casualties, we have lost few pieces of hardware, overall there should be capitulation within 2 hours." Glory stated as he coordinated the massive strike ongoing in over a dozen systems.
"Excellent, when they begin to surrender accept them and bring them together. Have them stripped of all arms and armor. They will be tried and dealt with at a later time." Didact said as the first of the slaves began to be teleported into the furnished hangars. He watched as they looked around suspiciously, eyeing the various foods and furniture with looks of forbidden hope. He had a small sentinel fly in from above, they quickly cowered from the sudden noise and movement.
The sentinel stopped a few meters from the group, and with a gesture a hard light projection of Didact appeared. "Greetings, I am Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, the Didact. You are safe now, I promise you. I am currently working on freeing the remainder of those enslaved by the Hegemony and their pirates. The food is labeled with its makeup, so those who have certain dietary requirements need not fret. If any of you need medical attention please tell a sentinel and you will be taken care of. I will meet with you all in person at a later time, the Batarians are not being amenable." And with that the projection disappeared.
The now former slaves stared at the sentinel incredulously. Some made a move towards the sentinel before with a flash of light more enslaved people were in there with them. It was then that they dared begin to hope.
Capital City of Khar'shan, Fortified bunker under the Palace, Khar'shan
They had no idea what was happening. Reports were coming in saying the entire defense fleet had already fallen, and the battle had barely lasted five minutes. Immediately he realized the validity of the reports as massive amount of drop ships came in immediately following a sudden surprise attack on every anti air facility simultaneously. General of the Army Bathan Sed'rador was doing his best to try and coordinate an effective defense against enemies that were not organic, and on top of that wielded immensely powerful directed energy weapons that shredded everything they touched. They even teleported in heavy tanks! Large floating bunkers was more apt he thought, at 20 meters wide and 15 meters tall and armed to the teeth with shields to boot they still had only destroyed one through a coordinated biotics attack and heavy artillery.
"What's the status of the evacuation?" he barked out. Immediately the report was sent to his console, and he scowled as he realized not a single transport had left. In fact, it appears that was one of the first targets. His scowl became deeper as he read mounting reports of slave collars just falling off immediately followed by them disappearing in a flash of gold. What manner of creature had they angered, he wondered. Since they had no communication with anything outside of their system he could only assume that this was taking place throughout Batarian space. What race is this Didact to command such fearsome technology? Every weapon employed is some kind of energy weapon, be it actual pure energy, plasma, or light given solid form. They were not sure what the enemy torpedoes had been armed with, but there were suggestions of pure fusion weapons or antimatter based weapons.
In the middle of the room there was a flash as the being that sent the message appeared in front of them. Immediately the guards and others went to draw their weapons, but were suddenly rendered frozen as Didact activated his constraint fields and rendered all 23 individuals in the room effectively paralyzed. He gestured with his hand and all of their weapons floated over to Didact and disappeared as he sent them to his ship to study. He allowed his helmet to retract and reveal his face, humanoid like the Asari, but lacking a defined nose. Short pale gray fur rested atop his head, cut to within an inch on his ears.
"You have lost." Came the sudden statement, as if he was commenting on the weather. Bathan stared at the arrogance of this being, thinking they had completely lost. The Council wouldn't stand for this. One of the officers laughed, and suddenly he had the attention of this haunting two-eyes.
"Something you find amusing, Ghork Fad'karal?" The Didact, as he referred to himself, asked the suddenly pale Ghork, who could only move his jaw at the surprise he was known. "I know all of your names, and I know all of your crimes. Aiding, abetting, and committing: slavery, rape, torture, murder, the list goes on. You have all been charged, tried, and convicted of these offences already, I am here to personally see to yours, General Bathan Sed'rador, but perhaps I will be merciful if you order your forces to stand down." Came the expected ultimatum.
Bathan stared at this being, as his entire existence crashed around his head with every passing moment, and felt hate like he had never felt well up in his gut and heart. "We will never surrender to you. The Hegemony will not fall to you!" He spat in anger. He suddenly didn't feel as confident as the being didn't react immediately, but after a moment he gestured with a hand and a projection formed, showing a map of Batarian space and all their sponsored pirates. As he looked with dawning horror as he realized it was showing 100% pacification on every system. He looked at the Didact with horror in all four eyes as the Didact nodded.
"Now you understand: you have lost. And you have taken too long in making a decision, and as a result the rest of the military has been either killed or captured. Confiscation of technology has begun." As Didact spoke, small sentinels teleported in with Huragok and began dismantling all technology in the room, including cybernetics. The officers looked devastated as they witnessed the true consequences of losing this battle. One found their voice and managed to ask what what going to happen now.
"Now? Now, I will return this planet to as it was before civilization, and return the Batarians to as you were before you evolved to this point in civilization. You will be devolved as a race, all Batarians being returned to Khar'shan that safely can be, and the remaining will be placed on a terraformed world in another part of the galaxy. You will be sent back to the stone age, and will have to rebuild as you have before. But, perhaps steer away from slavery, hm?" He replied casually, right before they were executed via a broken neck. They wouldn't be allowed to live, and frankly after the punishments are dolled out he wonders if there will be enough to rebuild. Ah well, they would find out.
In a flash of gold he was back on board his capital ship, and he smiled as he got the full reports from Glory: entire naval force decimated, those he had confirmation were part of slavery or the like executed, all slaves rescued with only a handful killed by their masters when they realized what was going to happen. They had rescued 48 million slaves in total, and he was disgusted it was allowed to get to this point by the galaxy turning a blind eye. He then glanced at the estimated casualties the Batarians suffered and grimaced when he saw nine digits. Even some of the civilians fought back, brainwashed by Hegemony propaganda. He shook his head at the waste as stealth ships covertly infiltrated every know system and used stealth rated Promethean Knight like war frames to execute every Batarian that was part of the slavery that was integral to the caste system they employed. Those that were innocent would be left alone where they were, only those complicit would harmed. The enslaved Batarians were returned to Khar'shan, they would be the ones to rebuild Batarian society, as they knew what terrors slavery brought. He was pleased to see that the number of Batarians that would inhabit Khar'shan would be in the low millions, as that ensured genetic diversity.
Of course, first he had to engineer a geas, or gene-song, to regress them and allow them to re-evolve. As they were scanned when brought onto the ships it wouldn't be a monumental task. He could place it in their genetics to dislike enslaving creatures. Didact nodded to himself as Glory dedicated a portion of his computing power to engineer the virus with the geas encoded that was be deployed across Khar'shan when all Batarians were back. It would take time for the effects to show but the Librarian did the same for humanity after Ur-Didact crushed them at the end of the war.
As it stood, he had 46.5 million remaining ex-slaves in his care, and he did not know how he should go about getting them back home, if they even had a home. With a thought he had 4 of the ex-slaves standing in front of him, thanks to the ships teleportation grid. He didn't move from where he stood with his helmet retracted. He watched as they looked at him and each other nervously.
"Greetings, I am Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, the Didact. May I know your names?" He asked softly. The Asari among them eyes widened at his fluent Asari, and swallowed before answering.
"I am Eris Yuras, um, I'm sorry, but what are you?" She asked hesitantly. He nodded in acceptance of the question.
"I am the last of the Forerunner, a Tier 1 civilization that at its peak had 3 million worlds under its control. I am not from this galaxy, I hail from a galaxy roughly 11.2 million light years away. I arrived a bit over 100,000 years ago, but until recently I spent the vast majority of my time researching, imagining if there was another sufficiently advanced race they would find me. Imagine my surprise when no one had after 100,000 years. Thus, I decided to search, and rather quickly found a race called the Batarians, who practiced slavery. This goes against everything I stand for, and the punishment is the same as if you were caught practicing slavery by the Ecumene, destruction. However, I am not eradicating them, only devolving them and confining them to this system only." Eris stared at this alien who just said things she was having a hard time believing.
"Truly? You realize how ridiculous this sounds?" Came the sudden interjection from a Turian female, "I admit you have technology I haven't seen, but that's a bit fantastical." She continued. Didact smiled and nodded.
"Yes, I realize that is asking a lot for belief, but it is the truth. I decided to liberate all the slaves from their clutches, and now I come to you to ask for your opinion. Those I liberated have two choices: I can take them to a location of their choosing, or if they wish it I have an unused ringworld that is compatible with both levo and dextro-based organisms, or at least it will be after the terraforming is completed. Any that wish to can form communities and live peacefully, wanting for nothing. Do you have any other recommendations?" He queried. The ones he had brought just stared at him.
"Just like that? Take us to any place we wish or live in what sounds like a too good to be true paradise? What's the catch? There's always a catch." A scarred male Turian barked out, his voice having an odd inflection, like his throat was damaged. Didact shook head.
"There is no catch, I am upholding the Mantle. Besides, after suffering under those conditions you all deserve some peace." Was the reply, holding an edge of authority, "I have no need of a work force, as I have automated drones and technology far beyond your understanding more than capable of producing megastructures on a grand scale." He trailed off after that, seeming to look at nothing. Suddenly another person joined them, this one in an environmentally sealed suit. She, for they were obviously female, jumped back from the sight of a 2.7 meter behemoth standing infront of her. She slid closer to the other ex-slaves.
"Keelah, I, what is happening? Who are you?" She managed to get out. Didact did a quick introduction before getting to why he brought her here.
"You are Quarian, yes? Part of the Migrant Fleet?" He questioned. At her nod he quickly made a gesture and a data chit appeared in his hand. "This is the blueprints for a sterile field generator that is much easier to produce and much easier to operate than the ones your people use. Also included is ideas for upgrading your power generation and mass effect cores, consider these gifts. What the Council did to your people was unjust, and if your leaders are amenable I would like to meet with them." As he finished he gestured and it floated over to her. She caught it out of reflex and looked between it and him.
"I, what? Does this mean you will return me to the Migrant Fleet?" She asked, suddenly excited about returning home. At his nod she began sobbing as she looked at the others, who began talking to her. As they spoke they told her more about what they had learned, and she glanced at Didact, who had ordered the fleets back to their previous posts, asides from a single Fortress-class to continue removing technology, after sending the remaining liberated peoples to the Disciple via the Domain linked teleportation grid which was only accessible through a handful of ships and stations. He quickly had the 46.5 million peoples attention as he explained the options they had. After the explanation he had an interface appear infront of each of them, with each choice clearly marked. All those who selected to be dropped off was asked where, and once they did so they were teleported to various ships whose jobs it was to covertly appear in system and send the ex-slaves on their way in refitted space-capable Hegemony shuttle craft. Unknown to them, their memories of who had rescued them were wiped, only those who chose to stay remembered. Those that left only remember the Batarians being attacked where they were before they awoke in a shuttle headed to a Council planet.
Out of the 46.5 million slaves, over 75% decided to leave, many of them Asari and Turian, and most of the Quarians. A few wanted to stay after seeing the technology displayed, but there were very few Quarians to begin with, not surprising considering their population of just over 18 million. The Quarians were the special case in those that left, as their memories were left untampered. Didact really wanted to get into contact with them, but on their terms. He didn't wish to scare them.
April 16, 2140 CE, Migrant Fleet
Hina'gol nar Saera could not believe what happened in these last two days. Two days ago she woke up a slave on Khar'shan, repairing things for the Hegemony under threat that she would be stripped out of her suit and used if she refused. Surprisingly, they held to her word and she only had to deal with groping over her suit. They never even attempted to rip it, guess it goes to show how rare it is to capture Quarians. Unluckily for her she was knocked unconscious when Batarian pirates attacked the freighter she was working on, meaning they didn't have to subdue her and simply put a collar on her while she was knocked out. Then she and every other slave was rescued, and given choice what they wanted. She couldn't believe someone would go through so much trouble for no reward.
She shook her head at the thoughts, and looked at the approaching Migrant Fleet. She had the data chit and the other 17 Quarians that returned with her, and she had looked at the data on it, and he had told the truth. It was exactly as he said, blueprints and theories that went over her head regarding mathematical calculations she couldn't begin to understand. And, on top of that, he had given them an honest to gods ship. An entire ship that, while it wasn't a war ship, was still a major boon. At 800 meters long, 250 meters tall, and 300 meters wide it was the size of a dreadnought but only had a powerful point defense system and two articulating mass accelerator cannons, one on either side. He hadn't actually told them how powerful the cannons were, but as they weren't spinal mounted she figured they weren't incredibly powerful. The boon was the fact that it was designated as a freighter, meaning it had an enormous amount of room. It was completely ran off of element zero as well, meaning they already knew the basis of its build. Suddenly a transmission came through, and she immediately accepted it.
"Unidentified ship, you are trespassing upon the Migrant Fleet, please alter course away from the Fleet." Came the voice of the person in charge of traffic. Hina took a deep breath before responding.
"I am Hina'gol nar Saera, I and 17 other Quarians are on board this ship. Transmitting their names. We were rescued by a third party, not one associated with the Citadel, from slavery in Batarian space. Said third party gifted us this freighter, as well as more." She held her breath in anticipation of the response.
"Hold position, a shuttle of marines will be dispatched to verify claims. Have all persons on board meet them in the hangar." With a click the connection was cut, and she watched out the view port as two cruisers and two frigates started making their way closer. Her eyes widened before she watched a hangar open on the lead cruiser and a shuttle fly away. She quickly called the others to meet in the hangar that she had opened before racing there herself.
She ran into the hangar after a few minutes, panting. She ran up to the group of other excited Quarians, and explained more in depth what had happened. As she finished the shuttle began approaching, swooping into the hangar past the barrier that kept the atmosphere in. It tuned as it landed, hitting the floor with a dull thunk. The ramp lowered and six marines marched out, glancing around the room with weapons at the ready. After a moment the leader nodded, and another Quarian walked down the ramp. Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema walked down the ramp to the group of 18, the marines falling in line behind him.
"I am Admiral of the Heavy Fleet Han'Gerrel vas Neema, please, lets return to the Wrath of Rannoch and get you all settled in. We feared all of you dead or worse." He said with a smile in his voice. He knew the names of every Quarian that went missing, and he recognized all of these as ones that they believed may be in Batarian custody. As the one who the comms officer spoke to began rapidly speaking as they made their way back to the shuttle trying to explain all she could as fast as she could, he allowed a passing thought. Truly, things were looking a bit brighter for the Migrant Fleet, and if what she has said is true, then perhaps for the galaxy. So long as they don't anger this, Didact, as the Batarians found out the hard way.
END
Well that's it for the first of the redux. Let me know what you think. There is no update schedule, I write when the urge strikes, and this took a while.