Ch: 2 A Tragic Past
I'm baaack, and Sweet Emperony with bologna (If you get that reference than clearly, you are a person of culture). I wasn't expecting to get this much attention. It seems like people have been wanting a crossover like this. I guess I'll have seen this through no, don't I?
DarthMMC : i love it :). finally someone created a crossover between mass effect and tokyo ghoul. I also noticed some other sci-fi franchises in the timeline like halo, warhammer 40k, star-ship troopers and maybe some titanfall? Its alright to have other franchises in your story, alot of people do that so its normal. keep up the great work you have put through. If you need help with the story just call and let us fans know.
Storyseekeer7: Yeah I've been wanting to see good Tokyo Ghoul/Mass Effect crossover for some time. But ones I did find only ever had Kaneki transported into the ME universe and never ones were the Humans and Ghouls somehow gained peace and went out into the galaxy. So I decided to make one myself and hope it does well. Plus it might inspire others to do the same.
Also to clarify things I am not making this a mass crossover story, the names and places I mentioned are just references and shout outs, they'll still have their place in the story though.
And thanks for the offer of support.
DarthMMC: i hope Shepard (either male or female) would be a ghoul-human hybrid, and perhaps a descendant of Kaneki. To be honest i hope there would be more detail as to how the dragon orphans survived these past centuries and how they got the technology to travel into space. My theory would be the involvement of Vs plans of trying to enslave both humans and ghouls, and maybe having orders from a demonic dragon orphan who might have the memories of some washuu individuals like furuta, rize, and many other members of the washuu clan. that just gave me the chills of seeing a dragon orphan that looked like rize in a sexy demonic form from a slaanesh cult.
Storyseekeer7: Shepard will be a half-ghoul, and even decide what kind of Kagune she'll. But she won't be descendent of Kaneki, however I well have an OC who is as apart of her crew. And to preempt the question, no they will not be paired together. That said I have who they both will be with, take whatever guesses you want about that.
I don't have any plans for V though. I may have to re-read the manga to get some ideas. However the idea with Rize is an interesting one, I'll have think that over a little. :)
Kilare T'suna: I'm curious how the council reacts to the synth's.
Storyseekeer7: Trust me that'll be the least of their worries. ;D
Blaze1992: Okay I am confused how the hell could what seems to be insane super ghouls not only hide and build up their numbers twice but also be able to fund and build numerous starships enough to outright have the CC on the retreat?
Storyseekeer7: That will be explained in later chapters, but to give you a clue. They don't build ships they grow them.
Now onto the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect nor Tokyo Ghoul and its spin offs.
April 3rd 16:00, Quarian shuttle, enroot to TFV. Victory
"Now docking with the Terran ship Victory." Said the shuttle pilot.
Rael felt the shuttle shack as a docking clamp extent from the massive alien ship. He and his crew had been treated to an unusual reaction from the alien, Terran he corrected in his mind when he showed him an image of a 427. His face so much like an asria's, had seemingly last its color becoming a pale white. Was it natural fear response for his species or something else? He supposes he would find out soon. He along with two other representatives had been invited aboard the Terran dreadnought for further talks.
He had brought with him admirals Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib and Daro'Xen vas Moreh for the talks. Additionally, they had been allowed to bring four guards with them. He heard the hiss of the airlock as it opened. Before stepping out of the shuttle he turned to his people. "Alright everyone, no sudden moves. We don't need to provoke these Terrans any more than we already have. Am I understood?" The Marines nodded their understanding.
"We do, Admiral Zorah," Koris spoke and Xen nodded in agreement. Seeing that his orders would be followed Rael turned back to the air and step out. Just as he did he barely heard Koris mutter under his breath. "We already have made enough enemies through our mistakes." He didn't stop to acknowledge the statement he knew where the sentiment came from.
As soon as the last Quarian stepped into the ship the behind them shut and they heard it lock. A voice most likely ships VI was heard. "Beginning decontamination protocol please remain still." Rael signal for his people to do as the voice said. It wasn't necessary as Quarians they understood the need to prevent foreign decontaminants from being brought aboard a ship. Especially when they came from a previously unknown alien race. The decontamination was quick and efficient as Rael noted, more so than their own. The door in front of them opened and they are greeted by five of the Terrans. Three of them are dressed in what appeared their equivalent of combat armor, two of them having helmets on and are carrying rifles on them, the other only had a pistol on their side, most likely security personnel. The other two Terrans are dressed in what was likely the standard uniform for crewmembers, technicians most likely judging by the equipment they were carrying. But what were they doing here?
"Greetings." Said the middlemost Terran the moment Rael and his entourage stepped into the hallway. The one in armor without a helmet, he (or at least he thought it was a he, Keelah he still couldn't get over how they look like Asari) had somewhat darker skin than the Terran admiral he had spoken to earlier and the fur on top of his head a brown color. "I am the ship's chief of security, and I assume you are this Admiral Rael'Zohah ves Rayya?" He said extending his hand out to the Quarian Admiral.
Noting that alien had five fingers on his hand; again like an Asari, Rael extended his hand hesitantly to the alien. The Terran took his hand and shook it for a second, a strange way to greet people Rael thought. "Umm yes I am, and it's pronounced Rael'Zorah vas Rayya. But you can just call me Zorah." He corrected the unintentional mispronunciation.
The alien nodded in understanding. "I apologize if I offended you."
"None taken."
"If you would allow us," The man gestured to one of the technicians. "We need to scan you over for any hidden surprises. I'm sure you would do the same thing of the roles were reversed."
Being quick to defuse any altercation that would arise from that. "Of course we'll submit to your scans." He turned to his people, in particular, a Marine. "It is a reasonable security precaution." He knew they could be a little bit trigger happy at times. Thankfully they didn't seem inclined to start a fight as they nodded in acknowledgment of his order.
The two technicians quickly moved to the group of Quarians and began their scans. Rael himself and Admiral Koris where the first to be checked. He had to remind himself that they weren't C-sec officers trying to look for an excuse to throw them off of the Citadel, but aliens that were being cautious in the face of a First Contact scenario. The scans didn't take long and aside from a quick explanation of what an Omni-tool is there was no incident. The technicians finished their job and the alien security guards began to escort the group to where they assume they would meet the Terrans Admiral.
As they passed through the corridors Rael memorized the route that they were taking in case that the talks with the Terrans got bad, he also took note of how the interior of ship look. As expected of warships its hallways are small with only enough room for two people to walk down comfortably and has a general angled shape. Not much to tell him about the people aside from that they liked efficiency. The exterior design, however, gave him more to go on, he had to admit when the shuttle came into visual range of the Terran fleet he was mesmerized by their design. They were sleek and beautiful like an Asari ship but at the same time deadly and predatorial like Turian ships, further, they all had distinctive deep vibrant red hulls, in a way making them look almost alive. That detail set a warning off in his mind, as the 427 creatures possessed similarly red hauls for their ships. He hoped that was only a coincidence.
They came to a stop at a door guarded by two Terrans in armor. The leader of their escort turned to them. "The Admiral is through this door." He said gesturing to the door. The Quarian group nodded to him.
They walked up to the door and it opened. Entering, Rael noted that the room is roughly rectangular and appear to be twelve meters in length. It had a rectangular table in the middle with eight chairs, three on both sides, and one on each end, three of those chairs are currently occupied. The corners of the room each had a guard.
Turning his attention to the occupants of the table he saw that one of them is the Admiral he talked to, Tylor Grayson if he remembered correctly, he is sitting on the far end of the table. To his right is another male that appeared to be a little younger than the Admiral, he had short-cropped black fur on his head and brown eyes, he had a scar that ran down the right side of his face. To the left of the Admiral is what appears to be a female of the species, the fur on her head is black and long tied together going down below to her shoulders. Her eyes are the strangest thing though, unlike the others whose eyes had white sclera and irises of various color, hers are black with a red iris and red veins extending from it to the skin around the eyes. That for some reason set an alarm bells in his head. What reason that was, he didn't know. He noted how the two seemed to glow with a blueish light telling him they are holograms, most likely there down on the colony.
"Admiral Rael'Zorah," Said the Terran Admiral. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person. Please take a seat we have much to discuss."
"The pleasure is mine, Admiral," Rael said taking the seat opposite of Admiral Grayson, Koris took the seat to his right and Xen the left.
"First the introductions. You already know I am Admiral Tyler Grayson and I am in charge of the fleet defending this system." He gestured to the man on his right. "This is General Williams and he is tasked with the ground defense of Shanxi the colony we're orbiting right now."
"A pleasure." Said the General.
The Admiral then gestured to the female with the strange eyes. "And this is Governor Maria Sanders the governor of the colony. Pretty much the woman in charge."
"It is an honor to be among the first Terrans to meet your kind. I hope our future relationships will be fruitful." She said.
"The honor is ours Governor. As you may already know I am Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Rayya, but you may just call me Zorah." Gesturing to Koris. "This is Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib, he's in charge of the civilian fleet."
"Please just call me Koris."
Rael than gestured to Xen. "This is Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh she heads the research division."
"Xen will do just fine. I am curious about your technologies, it seems a bit on the unique side." Xen said.
"Now that the introductions are out of the way." Admiral Grayson began to talk taking a serious tone in his voice. "Let's get to talking. These 427s you talked about earlier. When and where did your people encounter them?"
So they want to learn more about the creatures attacking the galaxy. Rael thought to himself. Understandable considering his own people might have lead a fleet of them to one their colonies. "We ourselves didn't encounter them until about six months ago, our time. We were passing through a minor system in Citadel space when we were attacked by a fleet of the creatures. About a thousand ships." Rael shuddered at the memory, which had to be one of the scariest moments in his life. "Fortunately for us, a Turian fleet arrived and engaged the 427 fleet. As they fought we made our escape." Rael had to suppress a chuckle as he mentioned the Turians apparent heroic act. More than likely the commanding officer of that fleet didn't care about the fate of the Quarian fleet, and only about driving the 427s out of Citadel space. Though more than like they all were killed in that battle.
"The Turians? Who are they? Another race?" General Williams asked.
Right they wouldn't know who the Turians are. "Their another race in the galaxy. They act as the Citadel council's primary military force. As such, they possess the largest military force in the galaxy." Rael explained to them.
The Governor spoke up. "This Citadel you just mentioned, are they a major power in galaxy?"
Koris was the one to answer her. "Yes, they are. In fact, the Citadel Council is the dominant power of the known galaxy. It was founded over two thousand years ago standard Galactic time, when the Asari, another member of the council, found an ancient Prothean space station called the Citadel while exploring the Relay network. Not long after the Salarians made contact with the Asari and together they formed the Council. The Turians came almost a thousand years later." Koris finished explaining.
"There are other races other than the three Koris mentioned, but they are the ones with any real power. All the others are only associate members." Rael said.
"Wait," Admiral Grayson interrupted. "You're telling us that this Citadel council is supposed to be an alliance of several races, but only three of its members have a real say in it."
"Yes, the council itself only has three members, the Asari, the Salarians, and the Turians. The others join as associate members. We are ourselves once held associate status, before being thrown out." Rael answered.
"Thrown out? What for?" Governor Sanders asked.
"For unleashing the Geth on the galaxy," Xen said.
"Not long after, the Geth drove us off our homeworld, we tried asking the council for aid in reclaiming Rannoch. In response, they just laughed in our faces, stripped us of our associate status, and forbid us from colonizing a new world." Rael said not even bothering to hide the bitterness in his voice.
"They just threw you out of their little club, for creating an AI, and what's more did so after you lost your home planet?" General Williams asked incredulously. "I'm liking these people less and less."
"As you can see the suits we wear are a direct result of their unjustified exile of our people. Living in a sterile environment for three hundred years has ruined our already comparably weak immune systems." Xen said as she gestured to herself and the Quarians in the room. "Now that we've answered some of your questions, it is only fair that you answer some of ours."
"Such as?" Admiral Grayson inquired.
"Have your people previously encountered the 427s?" That question shocked everyone to silence.
What is she thinking? Rael thought to himself. What would make her think that these people had encountered the 427s previously?
"What makes you say that, Admiral Xen? Was it?" Admiral Grayson said slowly.
"A few minor things," She began to elaborate. "Such as the look of your ships and your armor. They seem strangely reminiscent of the creatures. But there is one major thing that caught my attention and suggests to me you had encounters with the 427s." She looks to the Governor. In turn, everyone looks at her. "Your Governor there has some very unusual eyes."
"She does. Doesn't she?" The Terran Admiral said a noticeable edge in his voice. It's then that Rael notices that the Terrans in the room looked on edge. As though they were readying for a fight. 'Not good.' He thought to himself. He tried to tell Xen to drop the subject as seeing that they were on a sensitive subject. But something in Rael stopped him.
Seemingly unaware of the building tension in the room Xen spoke. "Unusual as they may be, they remind of rather interesting detail about the 427s. During the course of their assault on the known galaxy, there have been reports of several different variants of the creature. One of them includes a variant that looks identical to the standard and most commonly seen one. But it as one key difference, when one of them is killed it explodes releasing a toxic gas. When inhaled the victim most of the time develops a cancerous like growths on their bodies made of a strange cell type." Something clicked in Rael's mind, from the dark recesses of mind an image appeared. "However some lucky individuals, prove to be immune to this toxin. On the surface that is"
Torn bloody bodies everywhere.
"Reality, however, shows that these individuals are changed in four rather significant ways. The first being the appearance of eyes much the like the Governor's."
Those terrible wild, hungry eyes.
"Second their skin becomes impervious to all but the most extreme use of force."
Mass accelerated rounds dropping uselessly to the ground.
"Third, they gain the ability to grow a powerful red like appendage that can be used to great effect in combat."
Strange tentacle-like structures emerging from what had been once his own. They flail about and then surge to the Quarian marines, tearing them apart.
"Finally and perhaps arguably the most significant change is that they become unable to eat any kind of food source. Except for one,"
The monster looks up at Rael and smiles showing it bloody teeth, and it put its head down to take another bite of what had been a living Quarian.
"Their own kind. We ourselves encountered such an individual when she returned from her pilgrimage. She killed More than a dozen of our people before she was killed." Rael remembered it all. He was there when it all happened. He saw what had once been his cousin, kill the doctors that been assigned to treat her, see her eat them. See those tentacles emerge from her body and tear so many good men and women apart. If had not been for someone somewhere activating the emergency venting protocol of the med-bay he would have been, among the dead that day. Rael didn't know it yet but his whole body was shaking with fear at the memory.
He looked to the Governor, looking her straight in the eye. 'She couldn't be one those monsters. These Terrans wouldn't allow something that only ate their own kind near them, let alone a leader of a colony, would they?' He thought the woman looked back him worry in eyes. For a moment it seemed like she understood his thoughts.
"I see." Said the Terran Admiral said breaking Rael out of his stupor. "To answer your question, yes we have encountered the 427s in our history." He looks to the other Terrans in the room. The Quarian group bore witness to a silent conversation taking place among the aliens in a span of a few seconds. The Admiral stood up from his seat and so did the General and the governor. To the surprise of every Quarian in the room, the Terrans bowed to them saying. "For that, we owe you and the rest of the galaxy an apology. For you are paying for mistakes of our past."
"Why would apologize for such a thing?" Grayson heard Admiral Rael say. His mind still in a state of shock over the revelation revealed a second ago. Alien Ghouls? Was that even possible? Apparently, it was. High Command is defiantly going have a field day over that one, among other things. A multi-species alliance which apparently only three of members had any real power, a hostile synthetic race though he suspected that there was more than story than the Quarians let on, and the Dragon Orphans the longtime enemies of the Terran people, invading the territory of other alien races.
The last bit being the reason behind him calling for this meeting and more for the impromptu apology. When he had seen the image of Dragon Orphan standing on the alien corpse, he felt terror, unlike anything he had felt before. That image had confirmed the worst fears of the Federation, the Dragon Orphans had made their return. Sure over the almost sixty-nine years since their defeat, the Federation had to contend with small incursions from the Dos but never anything that could threaten the Federation as a whole, and they had always been quick to not only drive them out but track them back to their nest and exterminate it. But this was something entirely different, it wasn't some marauding fleet that came to tack over a colony. No this was a galaxy-spanning invasion force or at least an invasion of what the Quarians called the known galaxy and lord knows how much that was.
"The reason we are apologizing to is," Grayson began, taking a sear once more. He looks directly at the Quarian leaders, noting how the one called Rael had calmed down considerably in the last few seconds. He suspected that the Quarian admiral had a rather personal encounter with the after-mentioned Quarian "ghoul". That alone made what he said next harder. "That the 427s or as we like to call them the Dragon Orphans originated from the planet Earth, our home-world." The shocked gasps of the Quarians were the only response he received.
"B-but how is th-that possible?" Rael stammered out being the first to somewhat recover, his fellow admirals nodding.
Grayson allowed a sad smile to grace his lips. "To answer your question, we will have to tell you a tragic tale of two species born of the same world. Will you listen?" A few seconds passed before the Quarians nodded their agreement. Grayson tapped a button on the table, a holographic representation of Earth appeared. "This is Earth, our home-world it is the third planet in what we call the sol system. It orbits a yellow dwarf star, and as you can well guess it orbits in the area where life can flourish." He allowed the aliens to get a good long look at the blue sphere, he couldn't help think that they're looking at it with a little bit of jealousy in their eyes. He changed the image to show two humans. A male and a female. "This is my race, humans, one of the three races that Earth gave rise to. Nothing particularly remarkable, at least by our standard. Don't know what the species of the galaxy would consider normal." The image of the humans changed to a pair of ghouls their Kakugan and Kagune fully displayed. "Now this where the interesting stuff starts to appear. These are the second species that our world gave birth to. They are called ghouls, the same species that our Governor here, belongs to." He gestures to Governor Sanders. She stands up and an instant later a winged crystal-like structure grew from her back. The Quarian guards pulled out their weapons, in response, the guards pulled theirs. Being quick to prevent conflict, Grayson signaled for his people to stand down. A few seconds later Admiral Rael did the same after coming out of his stupor, a few tense moments later they lowered their weapons. "As you can see they are able to grow an additional appendage, which they can use to fight with. We call it a Kagune, and they typically come in one of four variations. She possesses a Ukaku." She slowly does a 360 turn allowing the Quarians to get a good long look at her and her Ukaku, and then she sat back down. "The other three we'll explain later. The Kagune are made from what is known as Rc cells, they can be best described as liquid muscle. They can be found in humans, though in a considerably lower amount then Ghouls. No one knows when or where ghouls first appeared, though there are many theories. One of the most interesting I heard is that Protheans created them, for what purpose I wouldn't know. Now aside from their ability to grow a weaponized appendage and their eyes, there is one other thing that sets them aside from humans, their diet."
"They can only eat humans." Said the female Quarian, Xen if he remembered correctly.
"That and coffee beans." General Williams said, getting funny looks from the Quarians. "It's a type of crop that can be used to make a drink called coffee, something that both humans and ghouls can drink. No one knows why ghouls are able to ingest them." He explained.
"That interesting fact aside." Admiral Rael began. "How can your two species live peacefully when one of them can only eat the other?" He said carefully.
"For a time," Admiral Grayson said his tone taking a sad note. "The eating habits of the ghouls did cause much conflict between us. The peace you see now, developed a little over four centuries ago, the rest of our time together has been marred by blood and hate." The image change to show several pictures of humans and ghouls killing each other. "No one can say for sure who did worst to who. But all can agree that both sides committed terrible atrocities to the other. The ghouls would attack and kill humans so they may eat, somewhere cruel in their methods. In response, humans created organizations solely dedicated to hunting and exterminating all ghouls. Regardless of their disposition, gender, or age." An image of a dead ghoul child appeared, a CGC investigator standing a little too proudly over her. Her eyes despite being in its full Kakugan form displaying a type of terror that a child should ever know, frozen forever in time. Grayson heard horrified gasps escape from the Quarian group. "For a time it seemed like the inevitable conclusion of our relationship will be the extinction of one or both of our races."
"What changed?" Koris spoke up. "What happened to change this? To allow both of your races to stand here, today. Together." There was something in the tone of his voice. It was as though he was asking another question, seeking for some great truth that he been trying to grasp on to.
Grayson banished these thoughts from his mind. This was no time for random musings. "Mostly due impart to the work of good people in right at the right time. At some point during the early twenty-first century, scientist were able to develop a method for creating synthetic human meat. Because of this more ghoul, sympathetic nation-states were able to make important strides in making peace between humans and ghouls. But this was not enough to cause lasting peace. Other nation-states refused to make peace and some only used the synthetic meat so they can imprison ghouls, either for the creation of Quinque, weapons designed to kill ghouls, or for information."
"But," Governor Sanders interrupted. "There was, one thing or rather a person who came along and changed things."
Grayson pressed a button that caused all of the images to disappear and show the face of one of the most famous figures in Terran history, Kaneki Ken. "On the day of October 8th, 2013, Kaneki Ken, the Eye Patch, the Centipede, the One-Eyed King went on a date with a woman named Rize Kamishiro." He noticed the Quarians were giving him odd looks.
"A date?" Rael asked.
"A date is a type of courting ritual for us Terrans." He explains, still receiving what he thought were skeptical looks from him. "That little detail isn't too important. But what is important is that the woman he was trying to court, was, in fact, a ghoul, who had set her hungry eyes on him. During her attempt to devour him, the two ended in a construction yard where at some point several steel beams fell on them. Now one would think this would have killed them both but not so. Kaneki was able to survive long for a doctor to come along, he was able to save his life by transplanting one of Rize's organs into him. Namely, her kakuhou the organ that enables a ghoul to grew their Kagune. But this did more just save his life, it had an additional side effect of turning him into a half-ghoul." The image changed to show Kaneki in his ghoul form. "This proved to be one of the most pivotal moments in our history. Because of his transformation, he inherited all of the traits of a regular ghoul, including their dietary needs. Furthermore, he was forced to live in the world of the ghouls."
"There he made an astounding discovery," Sanders spoke up. "He learned that my people were not the monsters that the media of time made them out to be. He learned that most of us were just trying to survive in a harsh world that hated us just for being born." It was hard to miss the emotion in her voice. It was obvious that she was thinking of what her life would have been like if she had lived in that time period, or even if things had not changed. In a way it hurt Grayson to think of that alternative, he considered the woman to be a good friend and even had the pleasure of getting to know her husband and son. "He got to live through their joys and hardships. He met many good and bad ghouls, he even married and had children with one. In his life, he came to see the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of both humans and ghouls." She finished.
General Williams picked up where she left. "In the time after many, many hardships that changed him both physically and mentally, his story was made known to the world. He became of one the most outspoken supports of ghoul rights, and unlike most others, people truly listened to him. You can guess why."
"Because he was once human," Rael said understanding dawning on him.
"Indeed." Admiral Grayson said. "Here was a man who was once one of them, a man who was transformed into what most thought as monsters, and yet he did not lose his humanity. Instead, he became a bridge between the human world and the world of the ghouls, or at least he laid down the groundwork for it. Hearing the story of his life as a half-ghoul, people began to wonder what was life like for ghouls, what it was like to live as one. Then next came the question of if Ghouls were really the monsters that their governments made them out to be. What were they really like? More and more questions were asked. What if my friend was one? The guy down the street? The bartender? What if I became one? The more they asked, the more they looked into the subject of ghouls, and the more they became disturbed by the answers they found. The outcry that followed was legendary, to say the least. In several countries across Earth crowds of people demand that their governments change their treatment of ghouls. To disband the 0rganizations that hunted them, and put its members on trial as criminals. In time those demands were met, and both humans and ghouls began to walk down the road to peace." Grayson smiled and stood up, opening his arms wide he gestured to the whole room. "And now you see here, the two of us together in peace. No longer are we two peoples, two worlds, but one. The Terran people." Seconds passed as he allowed the full meaning of that statement sink in for everyone in the room. He took a seat.
A moment later the Quarian Admiral Xen spoke. "While that was an interesting story and very informative. The question still remains, how could the 42- I mean the Dragon Orphans came to arise on your homeworld, and how they spread across the galaxy?"
"I would appreciate knowing the answer to that question too." Admiral Rael asked.
Grayson's smile melted. "Even though we were able to achieve peace and break the cycle of hate. We could not escape the consequences of that cycle. On the date of April 21st, 2018 the city of Tokyo was attacked by a massive Kagune based creature that is simply called the Dragon." The image of Kaneki disappeared and is replaced by images the Dragon like creature that had almost consumed the entirety of the Japanese city and spawned the most dangerous enemy of the Terran people. This elicited shocked reactions from the Quarians and heard one of them say something like keylie. "This creature was truly massive in scale spanning across much of the city. The exact details of its appearance have largely been lost to time. What is known is that it was the result of a ghoul's Rc production levels going into a state of extreme overdrive causing him to be consumed by his own Kagune it grew into the monstrosity you see now." There was no need for them to know that the Ghoul was Kaneki himself, not now. "From this monster grew the third race of Earth, the beings that threaten the galaxy now." An image of humanoid-shaped creatures emerging from the Kagune mass appeared. "The Dragon Orphans. Some more religious groups believe that they were some form of divine punishment for our sin that was hate." To some degree, he had to agree with that sentiment and had wondered if the Terran people would ever stop paying for the sins of the past. "Even after the Dragon was defeated the DOs continued to be a threat to both humans and ghouls alike. A threat that grew and grew over time. Until they were able to launch a massive invasion all over our world, starting the second Dragon War." The images showed scenes of destruction and chaos from several different places on Earth During this conflict not only were the numerous nation-states Earth were forced to unite against a common threat but the fragile peace between humans and ghouls was forged into steel. Over the course of the war, we designed weapons and tactics made to kill the Dragon Orphans, and as you can guess we were able to drive them off of our world. Actual for a time we thought them extinct."
"That is until some three hundred years later during the 2nd Battle of Caldron," General Williams said. "At the tail end of a civil. Our naval forces were attacked by a fleet of ships belonging to the Dragon Orphans. Their ships were entirely organic in make. For twenty-five years we fought them, and defiantly held the line against their destructive hordes. Hell at one point in the war an entire planet shattered because its defenders absolutely refused to accept defeat, and still fought on afterward."
"Cadia stands," Sanders said the age-old battle cry, getting odd looks from the Quarians.
"Cadia?"
"I'll explain later," Grayson said. "To cut long story short we were able to drive them out of our space. That was almost sixty-nine years and since then we have had to fight off sporadic but small incursions from the DOs. That pretty much sums up everything of importance. Any questions?" He asked.
The Quarian Admirals look at each other and seemed to have a quick silent conversation with each other. Then they look at Grayson and his group. "Not right now Admiral Grayson, you've given us much to think about. If you would allow us, we would like to return to our fleet and think about what you have told us."
"Very well. How about next we meet your ship in say, two hours to discuss anything else you may want to know. We'll forward you information on our measurement of time, so you can translate it to your own. Additionally, we'll send you a full database on our history and culture to scrutinize. How does that sound?" The Admiral offered.
"That sounds good," Rael responded getting up from his seat with fellow Quarian admirals. "We'll meet you in two of your hours on our ship. We'll also forward you information on my people and the galaxy." They were about to leave out the door when Rael turned to Grayson. "I do have one question. What will your people do when they learn that the so-called Dragon Orphans have invaded the known galaxy?"
"Simple," Grayson said his voice taking a cold tone. "We'll go to war."
"I see," Rael said. "Then with tha-"
"Excuse me." Said a familiar synthetic voice.
'Uh oh'. Grayson thought. "Yes, Helen?"
"I afraid that there is one thing we neglected to tell the Quarians." She said causing Grayson and every other Terran in the room to panic.
"Helen don-" Grayson began all too late.
A holographic sphere appeared on top of the table. "Greetings Quarians, I am honored to meet you. I am Helen the ship's onboard Synth." Helen said happily.
Several seconds passed before everything went to hell.
"Shit."
"GETH!"
"Keelah."
I hope you like this chapter. What you think of that curveball with the alien ghouls, it was idea toyed around with for a bit before going with it. Seemed like a good way to make the story more interesting and opens up a few possibilities in the future.
Now the next Chapter might take a bit longer to get out, as I want to hammer out some details for the first arc of this story. I also went figure the characterizations of the characters I'll be using, and yes I well use OCs wherever I feel they are, needed in the story. If you can't handle that then leave and find another story.
One last thing before I go. The Federation will not have Biotics, the human characters that were originally biotic will instead be ghouls or half-ghouls. I got an idea for Jack and figured out what Miranda will be. Kaidan however I haven't decided on, I'm thinking Koukaku, but I am unsure. I've decided to put it to a vote, I'll put up a poll on my profile page and let you decide. It will be open until I get the events of the first game.
That all said, Storyseekeer7 signing off. Have a good time until then.
