Alright, well I promised a chapter involving the Citadel Council and here it is. Though to be clear, it will also have appearances by political and military officials of several other franchises as well.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, Halo, Star Wars, Metroid, or anything else that appears in this story. As usual.
In the darkness of the vacuum, a lone vessel flew, seemingly aimless in its direction. Onboard the ship, the original crew had been killed, and were now replaced with sickly green and yellow monstrosities, moving through the vessel with a higher purpose.
On the bridge, the once stark and clean control room had been turned into a grotesque fungal-like nest, with a large glob of biomass in the center of the room. Tendrils spread from the center, manipulating the controls as it's mind strived for connection with the greater whole.
Below decks, the parasitical life forms were learning about the drive, striving to understand what the drive was capable of. The minds of the consumed engineers could grasp what it was capable of, but they still needed more. All absorbed thoughts primarily spoke of their own galaxy, of their homes, of their families.
All the Flood cared about was that they could gain more bodies to infect, and gain them quickly. And a universe away, a massive shape stirred in the stars. It was finally time, the dam would burst.
The Council Chambers were sealed as the current residents watched the video recordings that they had managed to recover from their disastrous expedition to that Forerunner gas mine. And they learned just why ONI and those Kig-Yar pirates had told them to stay away.
Councilors Tevos, Valern, Sparatus and Osoba watched with varying degrees of horror as the unleashed abominations tore through and corrupted their own species and turned them into monsters. Each one had their own specific thoughts on the matter.
Sparatus was disgusted and horrified at these monstrosities, and was perfectly willing to order that gas mine to be destroyed. He was also concerned however, since these parasites had apparently hijacked the Turian ship that was leading the expedition and taken them off to Spirits-knows-where.
Tevos could barely hold the contents of her stomach in. She had thought the abominations created by the Reapers were bad, but this, this was an entirely different level. She could see now why the UNSC and Sangheili wanted these things buried.
Valern studied the feed with curiousity, trying to understand what these creatures were and how they could be stopped. In spite of their danger, he was already planning on capturing these creatures and studying them, hoping to find a cure or bioweapon for these things. Maybe even find some way to control them.
Dominic Osoba was absolutely horrified at these creatures. He had lost his son during the Reaper war, which had millions of twisted monstrosities. And these abominations made even the worst Reaper creatures look like kittens.
"We need to alert the rest of the IDA." Osoba finally found his voice. "We're clearly dealing with something we don't understand."
"That may be a mistake." Valern interrupted. "UNSC and Sangheili will likely react badly to our breach."
"So let them." Sparatus growled, folding his arms. "They neglected to warn us about this threat."
"And we broke their rules." Tevos replied. "Not to mention we blindly rushed in, without pausing to think about why both ONI and those pirates warned us to stay away."
All of their omni-tools lit up as a message came for the Council. It was a very strongly worded request from Lord Hood and Arbiter Thel 'Vadam for a meeting within the next day. All of the IDA delegates were to attend as well. There was no subject, but the Councilors could guess what they wanted to discuss. Sparatus looked at the feed then back at the omni-tool and sighed.
"Looks like we'll find out what we're dealing with soon enough."
The IDA leadership often met on the Citadel to discuss various situations that affected their governments and territories as a whole. Currently, another such discussion was in progress, about a very serious problem. It would be miraculous if it was done with any degree of civility.
"What in god's name were you thinking?!" Lord Terrence Hood shouted.
Normally one of the calmer people at these gatherings, the fact that he now wore an expression of barely contained fury didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the delegates. To say many of them were terrified of what could cause him to shout would be an understatement.
"I must admit, I'm curious to hear your explanation for these events." GA Chief of State Wynn Dorvan was clearly pissed as well.
"We only desired to learn." Valern tried to defend himself. "To understand what you would consider so dangerous to have it stricken from your records-"
"Did it ever occur to you that we did that for a reason?" Arbiter 'Vadam stated. "We desired to keep fools like many of you from unleashing the Flood in the same form the Covenant once did."
"You could've told us the truth." Tevos pointed out. "You could've told us what was on that station and why it was locked away."
"Would you have believed us if we told you?" Hood retorted. "Or would you gone out and done exactly what you did?"
"That's absurd." Valern said. "We would have taken every precaution-"
"ONI has the records of your previous experiments." Hood interrupted with a dangerous look in his eyes. "Do you want to try that again?" Valern's mouth instantly snapped shut.
"Getting back to the topic at hand." Wynn Dorvan interrupted. "We need to discuss how to deal with this Flood, as you called them."
"There is only one course of action to ensure the Parasite does not spread." The deep booming voice of Thel 'Vadam broke out through the din. "The infected worlds must be destroyed."
There was a lack of movement and sound as they realized what that meant. The Arbiter was speaking of bombarding the surface of a planet until it was molten magma. It was a tactic the Covenant were very familiar with, and one the Empire had once been fond of as well.
"This is outrageous!" Sparatus and Tevos simultaneously yelled.
"You can't be serious." Leia chimed in as well. The sheer destruction would be an affront to life.
"We are quite serious." Hood grimly replied.
"We must study this enemy." Valern suggested. "There must be some sort of vaccine or cure-"
"There is no cure, you fool!" The Arbiter shouted. "The only way to stop the Parasite is to remove every trace of their existence."
"But surely, such mindless beasts won't pose a threat-"
"Mindless?" Hood's rebuttal to Tevos was scathing in its disbelief at her stupidity. "The Flood gain the intelligence of every living being they infect. Or how do you think they took over your expedition cruiser?"
There was silence in the wake of that statement as Lord Hood took a moment to collect himself before speaking again. "The Flood are a hive minded alien race hellbent on consuming any life they can find. As they grow, they accumulate more and more biomass until it develops into a central intelligence. A Gravemind."
"And this is where the Parasite becomes truly dangerous." Thel finished, drawing looks of horror and confusion at that statement, considering how bad they already sounded. "The Gravemind contains the accumulated knowledge of everyone the Flood has ever infected, all the way back to the time of the Forerunners."
"The Forerunners?" Leia asked, her eyes narrowing. "You said you didn't know what happened to them."
"We lied." Hood stated grimly. "The Flood tore through the Forerunners, consuming everything they were and turning their very strength against them. The Halo rings? They were their last resort. A series of superweapons that would kill every living being in the galaxy, and after thousands of other plans were tried and failed, they activated the rings."
Horrified mutterings emerged from the delegates present. Some were horrified at the scale of death and destruction, others were accusing the UNSC and Sangheili of hoarding those weapons to use against them, while others still were disbelieving. Leia on the other hand, knew they were telling the truth. She had been on goodwill missions into UNSC and Sangheili space, sometimes with her family, but every time she was there, they could all sense a feeling of death and emptiness in the galaxy, even in spite of that universe's resistance to the Force. It had stretched beyond the conflict of the Human-Covenant war, a Wound in the Force that would never truly fade. They had similar feeling in the Reaper universe, but this just felt so much worse. And now they knew why.
"Oh, the situation is far worse then you can imagine." Everyone turned to the voice as it entered the chambers. Security personnel turned their weapons towards the voice, only to lower them upon seeing who it was. "The Flood have been planning this for far longer than we've been alive."
The Supreme Commander of the Republic walked through the security checkpoint, escorted by a Predator and Samus Aran. No one bothered to stop them, as they still had clear memories about the last time someone had tried. Samus and the Yautja held back at the entrance, while the Supreme Commander stepped into the room, ignoring the fearful security members.
As for the delegates, they were all just shocked that he was here. No one had invited him, having assumed that the Republic's war with the Separatists would keep them too busy to send anyone, at least for the time being. Apparently they were wrong.
"And how could you possibly know all this?" Sparatus demanded.
"Shared intelligence." Another voice emerged from the entrance. "Or did you think we wouldn't notice your little incursion into their universe?"
Security raised their guns at the new voice, and unlike last time, refused to put them down. The Separatist Ruler smirked as he walked in, not even bothering to halt when they called for him to stop. A sniper round impacted the Ruler's head, splattering his brains on the floor.
To the shock and horror of every delegate, he didn't even break stride as his head regenerated from the damage until it looked like he hadn't been shot at all, while all the blood, flesh and grey matter on the floor vanished into the ether.
"Really, that didn't stop him," The Separatist Ruler gestured to his Republic counterpart. "So why did you think it could possibly stop me?"
"What are you doing here?" The Arbiter snapped, drawing his energy sword despite knowing how futile it was.
"Alright, everyone just calm down." The Supreme Commander said. "I invited him here."
"But I thought you two were at war?" Osoba said.
"No point in holding onto bad blood when there are bigger enemies on the horizon." The Separatist Ruler crossed his arms. "Or have you all learned nothing from your own conflicts?"
There were various looks of indignation or embarrasment coming from everyone as they thought back to their own histories. The Reaper war, the Yuuzhan Vong conflict, the Horus Rebellion, the Phazon Crisis and even the Human-Covenant War. All of them had groups refusing to aid even with the looming threat of extinction. Supposedly, nothing would unite mortal foes like a common enemy, but it seemed that many were too stupid to realize even that.
"Blame gets us nowhere." The Supreme Commander said, briefly glaring at his counterpart. "What we need to do is unite our resources against the Flood. That's the only way anyone will survive."
"So, we should just follow you against the Flood?" Valern said. "Give you our fleets and let your throw them away in battle?"
"As opposed to what?" The Separatist Ruler countered. "Fortify your defenses and lock down your own worlds? How well did that work out the last time around? The Flood will drown you in bodies. They take your civilization's strength, technology and resources and they turn it against you. If we don't unite, then the fate the Reapers wanted to give you will look merciful in comparison."
"And why are we just hearing about this now?" Dorvan questioned, drawing everyone's attention to him. "I don't care what you thought would happen if the rest of the multiverse heard about the Flood, we all should've been informed!"
"Look, the fact of the matter is, we're all to blame." The Supreme Commander said, gesturing to the Arbiter and Lord Hood, then to himself and his Separatist counterpart. "We didn't tell the rest of the IDA." He then gestured to the Council. "And they didn't listen to any warnings." Then he gestured to Leia. "And frankly, you all knew there was something missing from the history they were telling, but you never asked. But blaming each other gets us nowhere. If we don't unite now, the Flood will consume everything."
There was a moment of silence as the gathered leaders took this information in. The Supreme Commander, the Separatist Ruler, Arbiter 'Vadam, and Lord Hood, were all willing to do this, and Chief of State Dorvan and Leia Organa Solo looked willing to as well. But the leaders of the Galactic Federation and the Council themselves were still wary of such an idea, which the Separatist Ruler picked up on.
"Or you can all huddle behind your worlds, pretending that the Flood won't notice you, and then inevitably drown in a sea of biomass." He crossed his arms, his glare aimed at the reluctant members of the meeting. "Take your pick."
There was a sigh amongst the Federation and Citadel Council as they briefly convened amongst themselves. Eventually, the two groups stopped debating and offered their support against this threat.
"Now, what's our first step?" Tevos asked.
...
"Well, that could've gone worse." Valern said, to the reluctant agreement of the rest of the Council.
Several hours later, the meeting was over, and the Council had retreated to their own private room. It had been a long meeting, with people throwing arguments and blame at each other while disagreeing about which government does what. Several times, the Republic and Separatist leaders had to unleash their powers in order to restore order.
Eventually, after the capabilities of the Flood had been explained in full (to the initial disbelief of many before more details came to light), the member factions of the IDA had pledged to work together and devote their militaries to eradicating the Parasite. Still, it hadn't been easy to do.
"By the Goddess." Tevos sighed. "I thought that meeting would've ended in a brawl."
"Without our 'guests,'" Osoba started. "It very well might have."
"Indeed." Sparatus nodded. "However, our work is not done yet. If you'll excuse me, I need to go contact my government."
"We will do the same." Valern stated, as he left for his office.
Soon Tevos was left alone in the room, and she sighed, feeling the weight of several centuries experience on her shoulders. From what she had heard and seen about the Flood, it appeared they would be in for a long period of hardship ahead.
Heading to her office in order to contact the Asari Republics, Tevos could only pray that they would live through it.
And that's the end of the chapter. Truth be told, I'm not sure how well this one came out, but I just couldn't figure out what more to add to this. Still, I hope it was to everyone's liking regardless.
Now, I know this isn't what everyone was expecting, so to make it up to you guys, enjoy this little omake:
...
"Ah yes, the Flood." Sparatus made his finger quote gesture. "The immortal race of galactic parasites hellbent on consuming all sentient life. We have dismissed this claim."
Sparatus shifted, the green-yellow tentacle he was fused to, retracting itself into the floor, joined by the bodies of Tevos and Valern on their own appendages. No one was there to listen, as the Gravemind had already transformed the Citadel into a Flood Hive.
And all thanks to the Council's ignorance.
...
Now, I know we all love a good Council bashing, but ultimately, they're not composed of complete idiots, and if they had footage of what the Parasite could do, they would probably take it more seriously.
And yeah, I know this chapter wasn't my best. As it turns out, I'm not that great at writing politics.
Anyway, if anyone would like to know just what specific event the Council is referencing in the first part, you can read it in the first chapter of my other story, Catalog of War. It details the true first contact between the Flood and the Mass Effect races.
Now, this brings me to another chapter idea. I've already written about the start of the Great Flood War. Now, I think I might make a chapter depicting its ending.
With all that said, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter, and reviews are always welcome.