Princess Ulestia awoke with a start and looked around. She found herself in a glass like cell and she didn't even know how she got there. Moving around the cell she was repelled by one of the panels of glass, but it wasn't glass. A force field, out side of that was two soldiers who looked like two of the people who stormed onto the bridge. Whoever these people were, they were at least smart.
"Being your leader to me!" she said.
The two looked to her before saying something in another language and turning to face forwards.
"Hey pay attention to me! I am royalty and demand to see your leader!" she yelled but they ignored her.
"They understand, but they'll do nothing." said a voice to her said.
She turned to see one of her royal guard laying on a bed in the next cell. Shaking her head she sat on her own bed.
"Why do they not listen?"
"Orders most likely. It seems that they are very interested in us, I keep hearing the phrases Article, Warlords and Shepard. The first two sound like organisations given the speech patterns but the last seems to be like a name. And one that they seem to respect." he said giving her an idea.
"Hey I want to speak to this Shepard!" she said this time getting their attention.
One of them tapped something on their ear and said something. After a few points they nodded and opened the door, one had their weapon aimed at her. The other produced binders and indicated for her to turn around.
OOOOO
John sat in the war room reading up on the latest reports about the battle. Each of the Warlords were allowed one salvage team to get a share of the tech. After that it was first come first claim. But thankfully the salvaging style his team was using allowed him to get more tech. The idea was to use their suits and bring stuff closer to the salvage ship to claim it as theirs, it was a sneaky move but it was allowed. Getting a one up on the other Warlords, despite the situation, was always the game plan even if they were at war with an extra-galactic threat.
The door then opened and the two guard walked in with the female prisoner. She was brought to one of the chairs and sat. Before she could do anything else one of the guards pressed something on her neck and a loud click sounded making her cry out.
"HOW DARE YOU! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" she yelled.
"No and to be honest we don't care." John said making her eyes look to him.
"How can I..."
"That thing he injected you with was a translator implant, it allows you to understand us."
"I see, and you might you be? The leader of these worthless peons?" she asked getting a nasty look from the guard who brought her in.
"My name, is Supreme Commander John Shepard. I'm the Capitan of this ship and the one who got you and your friend out of that ship of yours." that earned him a nasty look from the woman across from him. "We have no interest in joining any Empire and am more then willing to take you on in a war."
"We? Who's we?"
"Me and the other Warlords."
"Warlords?"
"That is something for later, you said you wanted to see me? Well here I am."
"Yes, I'm ordering you to release me now."
John just simply smiled and shook his head. "You don't understand the situation you are in right now don't you? You are a prisoner of the Solar empire, you don't get to make demands or orders. You are in no position to, I don't care who you are or where you come from. Take her back to the cell."
The princess resisted but she was soon out of the room. "EDI did you get all that?" John asked.
"Indeed I did, sending all information to Article. We also received a message to convenience in 60 days after consolidation." she said.
"Perfect." John muttered.
OOOOO Midpoint station.
The room was light up with a red light onto several people who sat in a horse shoe shape. The Knowledge operator stood before a Prince and several Justice seers. Another feet was readying itself for the voyage to the new galaxy as such they needed knowledge about the enemy force. The Knowledge operator bowed before the prince could even speak.
"Ki'lon I was not expecting your arrival here at mindpoint. What do you have to say?" the prince asked.
Ki'lon nodded and rose up. "My prince, what I have found has been quite illuminating. The enemy has a massive communications network that they refer to as 'extranet'. It holds quite a lot of information within it, I have gained a lot of information from this network. It also seems that our enemy refers themselves as Article, it also seems to work on a feudal system of government….."
Before he could continue someone walked in and interrupted what he was saying. "I'm afraid that is not the case." a female voice said making eyes turn to see a female with a tail on the back of her head walk in. "As much as I value the princess operators it seems that Ki'lon has made a mistake."
"And what might that be?" Ki'lon asked.
"First off all Article is not the name of the enemy, it's the name of an organisation that is outside of any of the factions who are at war with each other. As for the factions, they are not feudal lords but Warlords."
The prince leaned forward and his brow raised. "Warlords?"
"Indeed it seems that up until two and a half years ago the majority of the galaxy was ruled by the 'Citadel council'. But the galaxy became under siege from this..." an image of a tall machine with tentacles at the bottom appeared as a hologram before the prince and Justice seers. "… the galaxy called it a Reaper. There was a fleet of them, countless from what I've seen, their mission was to harvest all advanced life in their galaxy. There has been speculation about the reason why, one of them is fuel." as she finished silence fell over the room before she continued.
"Their arrival and war devastated the galaxy to such a degree that any and all governments no longer existed. The population is under a billion people galaxy wide This is when the Warlords come out, individuals who were either power hungry or desperate to bring back some version of this council. Now the Warlords fight for territory, wealth, resources and other such things. We could use this against them but the Article organisation puts a stop to that."
"So they are looking for a new government?" one of the Justice seers asked.
"I'm not sure, it seems like things are in chaos but given what Ki'lon has said and found, it seems that they are not interested in our rule."
The prince raised his head as if he was looking down at the two. "Why? Why do they not what our rule? We offer peace and stability."
The princess' Knowledge operator gulped before speaking. "The princess said 'if they do not wish to join us, they will be purged from the galaxy'. It maybe because of our not joining die rule."
"Don't be ridiculous, it's a perfectly alright offer. If they do not wish to join then they are a threat to out empire and must be removed. This has worked since before I was formed and will work for points to come."
"Of course my prince, but there is one person that we should be concerned about." the hologram then changed to one of an alien wearing black armour. "Supreme Commander John Shepard, from what I have read he is our main concern..."
OOOOO
The room was filled with the other Warlords but with the lack of animosity between them. After all an attack from outside of the galaxy would force rivalries aside for the most intimidate threat. A hologram of Mordin stood in the middle of the room reporting on the tech they had found.
"…. all weapons technology works on the same basic principals as our element zero weapons. But the weapons however do not retract like our modern weapons. It seems that the weapons are leaning towards the energy based propulsion, much like how we are researching directed energy weapons. But it seems that they have not perfected the technology yet, as such each round is charged with an energy that acts like a directed energy weapon but is not." he spoke quickly making a few of the Warlords rub their heads due to the fast talk giving them a headache.
"The hulls of their ships are remarkably durable due to the unique alloy that's used the making of their ships. The alloy, seems to be weak against high heat weapons like the Thanix cannons from the solar empire ships."
"So the Commander has an advantage?" asked one of the Warlords who shot a look at Shepard.
John however shrugged. "So? Just got lucky." he smiled.
Mordin ignored them and continued. "Their FTL abilities however far exceed our own. This explains how they can travel between dark-space in such a sort time. If we ever face them in this galaxy they will have the speed advantage as the FTL speed is faster then the mass relays. This will be a problem if we cannot match their speed. However, looking at their FTL frequency may be able to produce something that will slow them down matching the speed of the mass relays. This will give us equal footing as the enemy." he lowered the datapad he had and looked up. "That's as much as I can find out about their technology and we are working on reverse engineering it. But it will take time."
Wrex, who had been silent though out the beefing, spoke up. "Time we may not have." he said.
The other Warlords looked to each other and nodded. This was a tricky situation, unlike the Reapers this enemy could be fought against conventionally but the problem was the technology. They were at least 100 years advanced compared to the milky way and in some places that was going to be a problem. They needed every advantage they could use.
"Thank you Mordin." said the head of Article.
The Salarian scientist nodded and his hologram disappeared.
As he did an Asari warlord spoke up "So, it seems that we have many problems to figure out."
"Indeed, this is presenting a problem for all of us." Mikyle said stroking his chin. "But at least we know we can beat them."
"With under a billion people left?" a Turian Warlord asked. "Not likely."
"I agree." John spoke up. "Since my empire is quite small at the moment we have little manpower but we make up for it with mechs, we can supply them in limited numbers to all warlords here. Obviously they have to be the most basic ones and I expect them back after this whole ordeal is over."
A few nods appeared around the table in agreement. This wasn't a beefing about each other's technology or about sharing it, this was about a common enemy that they needed to face. Even if they would never agree to hand it back over once it was all over it was still necessary to offer it so that they all can survive. They had to look out for each other even they didn't like it.
"Well talk about that later, but now to know our enemy." said the Salarian said. "But I believe that you have some more information for us."
"Indeed, my chief doctor is still working on the biology of the enemy. But so far we've been able to identify at least 5 different species working together. But she found something in them that has her a bit concerned and she wanted a more in-depth analysis. She's working with several doctors at the moment to try and find out what it is. However it seems that four of them may have been gerneticlly engineered, or so heavily modified that they are no longer the species they used to be." John shook his head as he leaned forward. "This creates even more problems if we face them on world or ships. Even when I fought them they where tough, not as though as a Krogan but tougher then a Turian. Once I get the report I'll make sure to inform all of you and send you all a copy."
"So reverse engineering of the weapons is a priority." an Asari said.
"Indeed, but we do have a prisoner who we can interrogate."
"Bring her in, I've been waiting for this." Oda said.
John nodded and pressed his ear bud, a few moments later Jack and Jane walked in with their prisoner. Moving her to the middle of the room and forced her onto a chair. She grunted as she sat and looked around at the aliens around her.
"Pretty." muttered one of the Warlords.
"Please state your name for the record." the Salarian said.
"Princess Ulestia, of the Dolmus empire. Third in line for the throne." the princess said making people raise their brows in a curious way.
"Why did you attack our galaxy?" Oda asked.
The princess looked to him as if he was a child. "We didn't attack, you did. We only wish to bring peace to this galaxy."
"We only attacked because you threatened us." Mikyle shot back. "We shot back after that declaration of war. No matter how you look at it, you invaded and attacked not us."
The princess just shook her head "Impudent fool." she muttered before locking eyes with the lead Salarain. "Are you the leader? Why didn't you get me yourself instead of your worthless peon?"
A few Warlords chuckled while others just laughed. "You insult us, and the man who warned us about the greatest threat to this galaxy? Wow your even more of a fool then I realise." Wrex said trying to contain his laughter and anger.
"Be thankful he wasn't on the warpath." said an asari. "You would not have survived."
"We are not as allied as you might think, and I am not the leader. Mealy a neutral party who's interested in saving this galaxy." the Salarian said. "The people you see around here, are simply Warlords with their own empires to look after. They have no interest of joining up with any empire and neither do I."
"We don't want to join any empire, and we will defend ourselves to the last." John spoke up.
"Then you will all die at the hands of my brother." the princess said. "I have no more reason to talk to any of you,"
"We have ways of making you talk." Mikyle said with a smile. "So you can either talk, or we can get it out of you."
"You wouldn't dare." the princess shot back.
The silence in the room told her otherwise.