Hello Everyone, Reader Here. Here's chapter 5 for Night Until Dawn. This chapter will deal mainly with the political aspects that go with the ending of the First Contact War. I will continually update the past few chapters, hoping to improve quality. Well, that's all I have. If you have any ideas, concerns, or any way to improve my writing please leave a review or PM me. Thanks, and enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MASS EFFECT NOR DO I OWN STAR WARS, THEY BELONG TO THERE RESPECTIVE OWNERS
Chapter 5: Negotiate With One Hand, Have A Dagger In The Other
Palavan, Unknowns Blockade, The Diplomat, Asari Captain Lena T'saka, 40 ABY
Captain Lena T'saka stood aboard the Asari ship The Diplomat, a ship mainly used for negotiations, usually between one Galactic Power to another.
The Asari were usually the diplomatic wing of the Citadel, and it was their job to prevent, and in the worst case, stop wars. Right now, the war between the Turians and the Unknowns was costing the Citadel its protection fleets that kept away pirates and slavers. Now with most of the fleets destroyed, they only had the smaller fleets that the Turians had to give to the citadel as written in the Treaty of Farixen.
She gazed upon the fleet that was surrounding Palavan.
"Goddess.." she breathed out.
This was, indeed, the largest assemble of ships she has ever seen in her 379 years of living. And to add to that fact, most of these ships were much bigger than any ship the Citadel could even produce.
She was brought back to her senses when she felt a hand placed on her shoulder. She looked at the source, and it was no other than Matriarch Benezia.
"You seem rather...entranced by this fleet" she said as she took place next to the captain. The captain saluted. They both looked at the awesome sight before them.
"Yes ma'am, i've...i've never seen anything like this, have you?" she questioned the older Asari.
"No, not that i ever recall. I don't think i've ever seen this many ships in one place, or even the size...its truly amazing" she said as she closed her eyes.
The communications officer walked into the room.
"Ma'am, we've sent a message to the unknowns fleet. A fighter escort will bring us to the capitol vessel" she said.
The Matriarch nodded and the officer saluted and exited the room.
At that moment around 20 of what she could assume were fighter came near the vessel.
They were strange in design. The fighters were in a crossed pattern with what she could assume was a gun mounted on the end of each wing.
"I think those are the fighter we are supposed to follow" the captain said.
A communications link opened up in the cabin of the ship.
"This is X-Wing fighter squad 4, please follow us towards The Eclipse" the fighter pilot of the spoke.
"Affirmative" spoke the pilot of The Diplomat.
The ship moved at a slightly faster rate, due it to being a smaller end vessel than that of warships.
15 Minutes later
After 15 minutes of maneuvering through the Unknowns fleet, they reached their destination.
If a credit chit fell on the floor, the echo could be heard around the room. It was that silent.
The crew of the Diplomat gazed their eyes upon the largest creation they had ever seen.
"Goddess..." even the Matriarch, with hundreds of years of political experience under her sleeve, was astounded by the size of the ship.
The ship, which had to have been over 10,000 meters long, with hundreds of visible guns seen on the side of the ship. The black color of the ship only added to its intimidating look.
Benezia had heard of the reports of massive ships belonging to the unknowns, but she had only dismissed those accounts, only of disillusioned soldiers.
But now, she could tell that those reports were completely true.
The pilot pulled the ship into one of the massive hanger bay which, amazingly, held the ships the large that surrounded Palavan.
They reached the designated landing zone.
"Okay, everyone, it seems we do not want to piss off whoever is on the other side of that airlock" she started.
Everyone one of her commandos looked at their leader. They had never seen her act like this. But , to them, it was a likely even for a Matriarch to become afraid of someone who could build fleets this large and of this size.
"Since they agreed to talk, they should at-least be somewhat non-hostile. Keep your guns to the ground unless they shoot" she said.
All of the Asari commandos nodded and took position near the airlock.
The hiss of an airlock changing pressure reverberated
To say that the commandos and even the Matriarch were nervous was an understatement.
A species (or multiple species) that could take down what was assumed to be the greatest military power the galaxy had come to known was a scary thought to think. They wondered what they would look like.
Due to a mix of conflicting reports coming from the Turian front lines, they had a very little idea of what the unknowns looked like.
'Lets hope this goes well' she said mentally.
The airlock opened finally.
What greeted them was a squad of soldiers pointing their rifles at them. Instinct took in and the Asari pointed their guns at the unknowns.
What she could assume was an officer stood in to diffuse the situation.
"Put your weapons down, and we will do the same" the officer spoke with a cold tone.
Benezia turned to the commando sand a motion for them to put down their weapons. The complied. In return the unknowns aimed their guns downwards.
She gazed at the variety of species that stood among the soldiers.
Most of them were shockingly Asari like creatures, only without blue skin, and had a strange fur on the tops of their head and a set of ears. But alongside them were other species. One had strange tentacles on the side of there head, and were different colors. Another had large eyes and green skin. The list could go on and on.
"Welcome to The Eclipse, we will bring you to Admiral Hackett" the officer spoke. She motioned for the envoy to follow, and they did.
They walked into an never ending hallways. There seemed to be never ending amount of people too.
After entering a large elevator and after a 5 minute ride they reached their destination.
The group walked into the meeting room.
A person stood with a uniform that told that he must be this Admiral Hackett. His uniform was a grayish colors with red and blue emblems to what she could assume was to show rank.
"Greetings Asari, I welcome you on behalf of The Repubic, I am Admiral Hackett" he bowed.
"Greetings Mister Hackett, I am Matriarch Benezia of the Citadel Council, I am pleased to meet you" the Benezia said with courtesy.
"Pleased to meet you as well" he began. "Now that the pleasantries are out of the way... lets talk" he motioned for the guards to leave the room.
"Would you like anything to drink, or eat before we get started?"
"No thank you" she politely replied.
Admiral Hackett
The young admiral inwardly smirked. He knew a lot about council history, as he had gotten it out of Turian POW's and data logs. So he already had the advantage. He can control what information she gets, while he had unlimited.
He may have been a smart admiral, but he could also be a smart politician when need be.
"How many species are part of The Republic? I saw many while on my way here" spoke the Matriarch.
"There are many species that are apart of The Republic, it would take me at-least a half an hour to list all the species that are in The Republic, and those we are allied to. The most populous species, though, would be the species I am of, Humans."
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Also, I would like to know. How do you build ships of this size and magnitude? I've never seen-" the Admiral interrupted her.
"I'm sorry, but we need to get down to initial negotiations" spoke the admiral.
The Asari looked disappointed, but nether the less nodded.
"This whole conflict started when the Turians attacked a science research team who was investigating these 'relays', we did nothing to provoke them and yet they fired first. Then they sent another fleet to invade our territories which was beaten back and then we went on our little offensive into their territory" he said and then there was a moment of pause.
The Asari seemed to have already knew this as she did not look surprised at all. He guessed the Turians were known to by like this.
She shrugged off this fact off and said "Well, there is a law regarding that, by law, no species can open a relay without the permission of the-" she was cut off by the Admiral.
"A law WE could have not known of, it also does not add up when they send an invasion fleet hell bent on making us a client species" she flinched.
"The Republic will grant a cease-fire for the time being until proper negotiations can be made, for the time being you will return to your council and we will co-ordinate to make a feasible time to discuss a peace deal" he spoke.
She thought for a moment.
"That is agreeable" she conceded.
"Good, now one more thing" he pulled out a data pad.
"The data on this pad will give a basic knowledge on The Republic and its allies" he spoke while placing the pad on the table. She picked it up and looked it over.
"Thank You" she said. He merely nodded.
They had a hand shake, and went their respective ways.
The Matriarch left the ship and returned to the Citadel, while the admiral left for Coruscant.
1 Week Later, Citadel, Captain Hannah
Captain Hannah stood alongside other captains and the admirals of the main fleets. In the middle of the room stood the Ambassador from The Republic, Donnald Udina
All the personnel were at the airlock of The Liberty, the smallest ship that could fit in the citadels docking bay. Alongside them stood marines in medium and heavy armor, mostly armed wit regular rifles. They heavy troopers were also armed with Z-6 blaster cannons, which should intimidate anyone to the point of not attacking the envoy.
The hiss of the change in air pressure reverberated in the room.
"Here goes nothing" Udina spoke as the airlock opened.
They walked out and was greeted by a guard detail made of C-Sec, the police of the citadel.
"Welcome to the Citadel, if you please hand over your weapons that would be..." the Salarian was silenced by Udina.
"We will not give up our weapons, if you try to take them it will be viewed as a hostile intent of the citadel" he said while narrowing his eyes at the officer. He seemed to shrink a bit.
"Th..Th..That's ok" he said nervously.
C-sec guided the envoy across the citadel, showing off the various landmarks, and also the presidium as well.
Anderson had a strange feeling about this place, but kept to himself.
"Must cost lots of money to run this place" Anderson spoke as he walked by Hannah, wandering with the group to the various sites.
She smiled and looked towards Anderson.
"Yeah, a place of over-wealthy, over-arrogant assholes, reminds me of the senate building" at that statement Anderson burst out laughing.
"HAHAHAHA"
All the other member's of the group looked at the two.
Udina just merely sighed and the group continued to move on.
Anderson, now recovering from his outburst, looked at Jane.
"Ahh, so true, I always hated meeting those damn politicians, could have used that time to actually help people" he chuckled while walking along.
But slowly the feeling that he felt earlier, a strange sense of dread slowly came over him. He placed his hand on his chest.
"Everything all right Anderson?" Hannah spoke with worry in her voice. Anderson was one of her best friends she had, and new him like the back of her thumb. She could tell something was wrong.
"Yeah, this...this place...I had a strange feeling when we came aboard, but now...it seems to be getting worse by the minute, although I am physically fine" he smiled, trying to calm her down, knowing how over-protective his Chiss friend could be.
"What sort of feeling do you have?" she raised her eyebrow.
"Like...a sense of dread. The dark side of the force is strong here...most likely many people died here at some point" a shiver went up Hannah's back. Anderson was being real strange.
"I wont let this feeling overcome me, lets just get this over with and leave. I..I don't like this place" he said with an expression of sadness.
She merely nodded at her old friend, not knowing how to help him in his current position.
They continued their way towards the Council chambers. The group finished the elevator ride up, in which 2 trips were made to get all of the guards and diplomats to the top. They finally reached their destination.
In front of them was the revered citadel council.
"The way they built this room, trying to make them seem more powerful and dominant than they are" Anderson whispered to Udina and Hannah, to which both nodded their heads.
The Asari councilor spoke first.
"Welcome, We are the Citadel Council. I am Tevos, Councillor for the Asari, to my left is Sparatus, councilor for the Turians..." Sparatus let off a low growl. The Republic envoy could feel the hate coming from Sparatus. Tevos glared at him.
"...And to my right is Councilor Valern, of the Salarions"
"Greetings" spoke the Councillor.
"I am Donald Udina, ambassador here on behalf of The Republic" he said.
"Now that we are familiar, shall we get on to negotiations?" spoke the Asari. Udina nodded.
"Good, now to solve the matter of war between The Republic and the Turian Hierarchy"
"Yes, could the Turians please explain why they opened fire on a science team who did not provoke attack..." the Turian Councillor interrupted him.
"You broke council law you damn primitive, we acted according to council law, no relays open unless we approve of it" he practically was yelling at this point.
"A law we could not have possibly known of, also please explain the massive fleet and army you sent to the Shanxi system?" he spoke with a cool tone. All those years in the senate were paying off.
"That fleet was to show you the error of your ways, opening relays could bring about something of the Rachni again to this galaxy" the Turian councilor spoke with a much less angry voice.
"We did not know what the relays did until after the war started" he spoke.
"But still, this is about us ending a war, so let us talk peace. The Republic will agree to peace if the Turian Hierarchy hand over the 10 systems that border Republic Space and Turian space, in return we will evacuate all troops from all Turian planets and protect Turian space from pirate and slaver attacks until the Turian navy is rebuilt" he said while looking for a reaction from the councilor. The ambassador got the reaction he wanted.
"WHAT!? Are you insane? We would never accept-"
"Do you have any choice? We currently have your entire leadership captured, 97 percent of all Turian space is now in our control, and most of your navy and armed forces are dead" the ambassador spoke with a smirk.
The Turian was now fuming with rage.
At this point the Asari councilor stepped in.
"Sparatus, calm yourself. We are here to make peace, not start another war" spoke the old Asari.
He seemed to calm down a little, but was still not happy with the current situation.
"The Turian Hierarchy..." Sparatus said, looking like he wanted to throw himself out an airlock.
"We...we will accept this peace deal". Udina wanted to take a picture of Sparatus's face the moment he spoke that. Udina knew that the Turians were a war-like species, and for them to lose a war was a major embarrassment and damage towards their pride as warriors.
"Now since that is settled..." spoke Tevos.
Udina knew what was going to happen next. Every time a new species is discovered, they would offer an embassy on the Citadel. No species had ever refused. But now they would break this 'tradition'.
"The Citadel council would like to offer a seat on the council for The Republic and its species' spoke Tevos, with a fake, political smile.
"I am terribly sorry Miss Tevos, but let me explain this to you. The Republic is sort of like your Citadel, just with a larger amount of species and more united. Governments still exist, such as the Chiss Ascendancy, The Federation of Earth and other Nations, just that they are bounded by the laws of The Republic. So we cant just 'join' the citadel" spoke Udina. Just as the Council member's were about to speak they were cut off by Udina.
"Also, the senate has viewed this council to be...racist towards smaller species, something The Republic does not like. All species, no matter how small or large are represented in the senate, unlike this Council that has only three species to speak for the smaller ones. Along with a huge amount of other issues The Republic has, like the Treaty Of Farixen and ... the specters" he spat out the last word like it was poison.
Many people, like Udina, remember the atrocities committed by Imperial Intelligence during the reign of The Empire, and these specters were almost like exact copies of agents of the Intelligence service. They were given privileges such as being able to get away with murder of innocent, espionage and other crimes.
The Council looked like they were slammed into a brick wall.
"You ungrateful fools, do you understand the opportunity you are wasting, you are getting the deal of a lifetime and you are wasting its !? Sparatus yelled at Udina and the diplomatic party. Udina, Hannah, Anderson and the rest of the diplomatic envoy was starting to get irritated with the Council.
"Say whatever you want, our business here is done here" spoke Udina as he turned is back.
"Wait!" spoke the Asari councilor.
The rest of the Envoy took the lead and left an astonished citadel in its wake.
The Council members looked at each other with a look that could be described as a mixture of anger, fear, and confusion. They did not have time since the time received a copy of the data, so they did not know the full amount that they could have known.
Over the next few days after the negotiations, they worked out any receiving matter such as boundaries and trade agreements, but any person could feel the tension between The Republic and The Council. This tension would last a long time, and for the most part, would never fade.
This event, the war between The Republic and the Turians would be one of the marking points in Galactic History. The 'relay 314' incident, or the Hierarchy-Republic war is a war that would scar both sides fro many years to come.
Hello Everyone, here again. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Just love the council getting shit on. Hopefully I can be more predictable with my update rate. I currently am in school and also have a part-time job, so it is difficult to find time to write these. Thanks everyone for reading, if you have any ideas, concerns or any advice on how to improve my writing, then post a review or PM me. Also as a side-note, I might be looking for a beta reader, so if you would like to beta this story just send me a again, this is Reader, signing off!
Next Chapter: Between the Years