Side note, I know I made a tribute to Stan Lee but I obligated to put a short thing here because I heard the news while writing this.
RIP Stan Lee, Excelsior forever.
The room was quite as the feline like alien stood in front of a circle of Warlords around her. She was intimidated to say the least. Each face she looked at had a grim look on their face as they looked at her. The one who saved her and her people, Shepard, sat between someone of his own species but with black hair and slanted eyes while the other was a large alien with a plate on his head. With the scars he had it was clear that he was a veteran of many battles.
The bug-eyed alien in front of her spoke after he pressed something in front of him.
"Please state your name for the record," he said.
"I go by the name of Galiian," she replied. "I am the leader of a resistance against the empire,"
"The enemy who entered out galaxy?" Wrex asked.
"Indeed, they need resources and use all who are not Xei as slave labour," that made eyes turn to Balak who just gave a slight smirk. "I am of Xei, but do not agree with the Empire, some of Xei have rebelled against the Empire without successes,"
John looked around at the faces of the Warlords. This was something that had them all on edge.
"Me and my people seek sanctuary in this galaxy," Galiian said with a pleading voice.
That made eyes move from one to another. "What do you offer?" one of the Turians asked.
"Nothing, we lost knowledge before we came,"
"Then why should we give you what you ask?" asked one of the humans.
Galiian looked around as she could sense venom in their eyes, except for one. Shepard had his head down deep in thought before looking up.
"I'll offer you it, on the condition that your best warrior joins me," he said making eyes look to him with a few being that of panicking.
"I… I'll accept that offer," she said with a bow.
"With that settled please make yourself available for further questioning," the salarian said.
"I will,"
"Good, now onto the matter of the two prisoners," he said looking around at the others. "If there are no objections, I propose that Commander Shepard be given full custody of them,"
"I have no objections, other than no one from that the refugees cannot be introduced into Solar alliance military other than the one he has already requested," one said with a series of nods following.
John nodded as well, "I agree under the condition that in 100 years I can introduce them into military service,"
"That's reasonable," one of them nodded.
The salarian at the head nodded. "Does anyone have anything else to offer?" he asked but no one responded to that. "Very well, from this moment on we can consider the crisis over, but there are a few things that I wish to outline. First the alien tech, no warlord may use FTL technology unless it is for testing. A representative from article will observe when this happens. Other than that, I will send you all a legislative file for all you to examine and sign. If there are disagreements then we shall talk about them. No conflict or expansion is to take place until the legislation is signed, understood?" a series of nods followed before the salarian nodded as well. "In that case, his briefing is concluded,"
OOOOO
Jack sat in one of the observation rooms of the Normandy with incense filling the air. A mix of human and asari incense filled her nose and gently claimed her allowing her thoughts to turn to peace. Her door then buzzed telling he someone wanted to come in.
"Enter," she said calmly without opening her eyes.
The door opened and she sensed John enter, but he stayed by the door trying not to disturb her. "Speak, your knocking already disturbed me,"
"I do apologise, but I need to talk to you about the refugees," he said in an apologetic tone. "We need to house them and I do not feel that they are ready to integrate with the rest of the galaxy…"
"You were wondering if you can leave them on my world?" Jack finished.
"Yes," he said a little taken aback.
"I have also given this problem some thought, and my planet is the best choice. So, I agree, they can stay under the condition that they follow my rules,"
"I'm sure they'll agree," John bowed and walked out leaving Jack to her meditation.
"Fucking boy scout," she muttered under her breath.
OOOOO
Galiian looked at John from across the war room as the commander sat down.
"I just checked with Jack, she has agreed to house you as long as you follow her rules," he said looking at her. "I'm sure she'll write them up when we get to the planet,"
"Will we not go to earth?" she asked.
"No, I'm sorry but earth cannot support a population as large as yours, not to mention you are not aware of how things are done here," he said with an apologetic tone. "We had an apocalyptic event around 4 years ago. We are still rebuilding,"
"I understand," she said as Ashely walked in followed by a Xei who had orange skin rather than purple.
The Xei walked in with an air of experience around her and plenty of scars with part of her left ear fin missing. Her green eyes were quite striking and her red armour also stood out with two bandoleers of grenades and ammo.
"Dalia," she said nodding to Galiian who stood.
"Jun'li is former Dalia of the Xei royal guard, she will serve you well," she said with a bow.
Jun looked to John with a frown on her face.
"You strong?" she asked.
"I like to think so," John replied making Ash shoot him a coy look.
"Show me," making eyes turn to her.
"O…Ok," he said standing and leading the foursome to the gym.
John discarded his armour making Jun look at him with an odd look. "We tend to spar with no armour, spares us any unneeded injury and keeps the fight fair,"
She looked to Galiian who shrugged before discarding her armour. Underneath her armour were hexagonal red camo fatigues making her look intimidating. But he ignored it and adjusted himself as Ash stood to the side of them.
"One round, no hair pulling, ear biting, biting or slaps begin!" she said and the two moved quickly.
Jun moved in fast with a quick punch to the face but the commander blocked it just as quickly. In the same movement he grabbed her arm and twisted it so her back was facing him. He was about to trip her up but she pushed herself up and over him and wrapped her legs around his waist. Using her momentum, she brought him down and forced him into a roll straight into a wall. Reacting quickly the commander used the momentum to push himself off and at Jun.
The Xei tried to react in time but the move that John was going to make was a bluff. Instead of going for the head he instead went for her gut and slammed his fist into her. Recoiling she spun around kicking him in the side, but this had two effects. One it had the desired effect, but the second was him grabbing onto her leg. He then tripped her up and held her down.
"One, two, three, BREAK!" Ash called. "Match over,"
John let Jun go before getting up and offering his hand to help her up. The new member of the crew looked to it then at the commander and took it. After helping her up she then locked lips with the commander making John blush and Ash red with rage. She grabbed Jun and pulled her away from the commander.
"What the HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" she yelled out.
"Committing myself to my Dalia,"
"BY KISSING HIM? In my culture we only do that when we are either family or in a relationship,"
Jun looked at her for a second before a smirk emerged from her mouth. "You mated with him, in Xei culture, the strongest male gets the mates,"
"Like an Alpha male," John muttered.
"Don't even think about it," Ash warned shooting him a look.
"Scared of a little competition?" a voice then said making eyes turn to see Miranda standing in the doorway.
"Don't start," Ash warned again with a look that could kill. "There's already 3 wives' and one slave in his harem, Tevos is considering joining and that Princess is most likely going to be a slave. That's 6 women, we can do without seven,"
Miranda just smiled and walked up to Ash. "Are you sure?" she asked before turning to Jun. "She's such a beauty and combatant, she'll make a nice bodyguard. And since she kissed John that means that the nanites have already worked their magic,"
That made the two Xei look to the XO with wide eyes. "Nanites,"
"Small machines inside my body that have altered me in such a way that I cannot die from disease or age. I heal faster, am stronger and can react more quickly," John said looking while rubbing the back of his head.
"Is it not part of your military?" Jun asked.
"No," Ash said looking to her. "We only found it in John but even then, the technology has us more than a little concerned, so for we have no problems but we are not taking any chances until we find out what it's there for,"
Jun nodded. "I understand, but I wish to join the harem id possible. John is an Alpha male,"
Ashley's eyes would have glowed red if they could while Miranda just smiled. "Well, we shall see," she said winking at Ash. "We need to test your skills in combat first, which can wait,"
"Very well," Jun said nodding.
"Now," John said trying to change the subject, "Is movie night still on? Phe'ra is six hours away, time for a movie or two," he suggested.
OOOOO
Ulestia sat in a cell in chains. To say she was not happy was putting it lightly. She was furious these peons for stripping her down and locking her wrists in cuffs. It was like she was some kind of slave, how dare they do this to her. Her, Ulestia princess of the empire not some non Xei slave! she growled under her breath looking at the floor as a white clad human walked up to her.
"Can you hear me princess?" she asked only to get a dark look at her. "Good, you are cut off from the rest of your galaxy. You belong to us now,"
"I only belong to the empire!" the Princess yelled standing and looking down the human.
"Yes, the Solar empire," the human said before grabbing onto one of the princess wrists and lacked a metal collar around her neck before letting go. "Slave,"
"Get this THING OFF ME!" the Xei tried to order but the human just shook her head in response.
"No," she said as an orange holo activated along her arm.
She knew what it meant but before she could do anything the human activated it making the collar electrocute her. She screamed in pain for 5 seconds before it stopped. Falling to her knees she looked up at the raven-haired woman in front of he who looked down on her, as if she was a princess.
"You will do what we say, or you will feel hell," she warned.
The princess looked down with fear, she didn't know what to do.
OOOOO
It was getting late and the only movie John and the others watched was Star trek 2 before turning in for the night. But he didn't as he found an old comic in his wardrobe. Seeing it as an opportunity for some relaxing he lay back on it bed and read it from cover to cover. As he finished Ashley waked in and cracked her limbs.
"Ugh that feels good," she said before looking towards John. "What are you reading?"
"Old comic, Amazing Spiderman 33, the final chapter," he said getting up and setting the comic down.
"Any good?" she asked walking up to him.
"Very. It was written by a guy called Stan lee, the head of marvel back in the early to mid-20th century. From what I understand to say he was respected is an understatement, he was the face of superheroes and made some of the greatest comics before he died. 'With great power comes great responsibility', truer words have never seemed so true then now," he said as he poured two drinks.
"Sounds like a wise man," Ash said next to him as she picked up one of the drinks.
"Excelsior forever," John said followed by Ash.
The two then drank.