For the Republic
Matriarch Armali frowned as her personal ship, a small frigate named Athame's Grace, exited the mass relay. This relay was one of the 'border relays' between Council and Terminus Space. They were allowed through by the Turian fleet on the Council side without any fuss. They managed to get through before the inevitable witch hunt could start so the Turians didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
Thousands of years of progress gone just like that. She knew that after a century or two the galaxy would forget all about this incident allowing them to continue their mission. It would be much harder than they were used to. Possibly even too hard.
The galaxy now viewed the Asari with very different eyes. Comm buoys were scarce in the part of the galaxy but when they did get close to one they took the time to become up to date on galactic news. While the Asari's Council seat was thankfully safe the pedestal we had long occupied was in serious jeopardy.
The perception of the Asari being the galaxy's diplomats and mediators was gone. There were reports from all across the galaxy of deals, both political or business, being subject to intense scrutiny if they were even remotely connected to the Asari. The technological superiority of the Asari which had been threatened by humanity's arrival was now about to be destroyed completely. The Turian and Salarian Councillors' first acts in this crisis was to demand the beacon to be surrendered to Council authority. If her sources were correct Council spectres with support from C-Sec would be retrieving it from Thessia today.
As much as she hated it she could not allow that to happen. If the beacon were to fall into Council hands it was estimated that the galaxy would reach the Asari's tech level in mere decades! There were plans for this. Plans that just so happen to have been recently updated to account for new options.
They had long feared the races of the galaxy learning of the beacon and trying to take it for themselves. In case of such an event the beacon was to be destroyed in order to deny the unworthy of its knowledge. Previous plans called for the Asari to step up its domestic research in order to keep the other races from catching up. The new plans still called for that in addition to stealing whatever tech they could from the humans. The bigger nations watch their tech like mother varrens with their cubs so they'll have to sneak some away from the minor human states.
There was a lot to do and the time in which to do so was rapidly running out. When the Grace she sent a quick encrypted message to their agents on Thessia. They were to copy as much of the undeciphered data as they could and then destroy the beacon.
The Asari must remain dominant. For the good of the galaxy.
Thessia
Temple of Athame
Saren stared up at the immense structure standing before them. He had read about how big the Temple of Athame was but to see it person. He shook his head. No time to marvel at the sights. He had a job to do.
C-Sec was to support Council Spectres in retrieving the beacon. He noted that out of all the personnel here there wasn't a single Asari. Despite some of their best officers being Asari it seems like Executor Palin didn't want to deal with the risk of a mole.
Temple officials stood back and let C-Sec do its job but he still felt the glares. The impression that they were unwelcome. It was unknown how deep this conspiracy went. The temple claimed not to know what was stored beneath their floors but he wondered if that was true.
Spectre Nilhus, their commander, wasn't worried or at least he didn't appear to be. He strode through the halls in a confident stride as if nothing could touch him. He felt a tinge of jealousy as he thought how he lost his chance to be a Spectre.
That could have been me!
His temper calmed somewhat as he reminded himself that he still had a chance. His work in C-Sec was doing much to clear the stain on his family's reputation. The fact he was personally picked by the Executor did much to convince him that the name Arterius would soon no longer be associated with failure in Turian society.
'With no help from Desolas…' he thought morosely
Ever since his disgrace Desolas had become closed off to the world. He stopped talking to anyone and started associating with those with known anti-alien turian supremacy motives. He tried to reach out to him but Desolas brushed him off saying 'the humans would get there's one day'.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking over he saw it was Sergeant Bailey. The human officer transferred from Liberty City Police a few months ago. Despite his gruff exterior Bailey's generally friendly attitude and to-the-point mindset endeared him to many in C-Sec him included.
"Nervous?" Bailey asked simply
Not wanting to hit him with his family worries Saren decided to talk about something that did worry him. "The priestesses. The way they're watching us." he said
"Good to see you noticed that too. I don't like it. Let's hurry up and secure the beacon."
The squad of officers hurried into the chamber where the beacon was stored. They quickly raised their weapons upon seeing the room that was supposed to be empty was filled with people. Priestesses of Athame were all around the beacon placing explosives with Asari commandos and huntresses providing cover.
"Cease what you are doing and place your hands in the air!" Bailey yelled "By order of the Citadel Council this beacon is under their jurisdiction."
An asari Saren recognized from the briefing as the Head Priestess stepped forward. She held within her hand a detonator that no doubt was connected to the bombs.
"The holy beacon does not belong in the hands of the unworthy!" she cried with religious fervour "Only the Asari were wise enough to be given the honor of possessing it! This is for the good of the gala-"
The priestess screamed as her hand was separated from the rest of her arm by the wrist. Saren had just enough time to see Garrus reload his sniper rifle. After that 'all hell broke loose' as a human would put it.
Asari commandos & huntresses versus C-Sec officers was the most lopsided match up he ever heard of. It went as well as you'd expect. Officers fell left and right brought down by soldiers with centuries of combat experience. A huntress had him within her sights but using his biotics he threw the Asari against the wall. There was a sickening crack and she fell to the floor a bit of bone jutting out from her neck.
It seems they didn't expect some random turian officer to have biotics. True to their reputation the asari quickly adapted to the new threat and began assaulting him with their own biotics. He was good but nowhere near the level of an Asari commando. Spirits Damned Natural Biotics!
"We've taken heavy casualties and are in need of assistance!" Bailey yelled into his radio "They're trying to destroy the beacon!"
Saren looked over to see Garrus shoot a huntress in the head with his rifle. The disruptor rounds going clean through her biotic barriers. 'Scoped and dropped!' the turian yelled triumphantly.
Well at least Garrus was having fun. Though if they didn't get reinforcements soon that fun wouldn't last long.
The Code is Law and Law is the Code. The Justicar Code was one of the oldest texts in Asari history and could trace its origin to the first written laws. Those that followed it forsaken everything that could divert their loyalty. Family, government, people, and even faith were all incomparable to the word of the Code.
They had no possessions. No contact with family. No relationships. Answered to no government or creed. Only the Code mattered.
While many Justicars were devout followers of Athame the Code was quite clear on the matter. Only the just could be true believers. Those that would lie, murder, and manipulate in the goddess' name were naught but heretics and pretenders.
From her vantage point in the upper balcony she could see the heretics attacking the C-Sec officers. With practiced ease she looked through her scope and shot a heretic commando in the head. One of the pretender priestesses spotted her and tried to alert the commandos. Her justicar sister on the other side of the roof shot her through the chest.
These heretics claim to be doing this for the good of the Asari and galaxy when in reality it was for their own selfish gain. The law was quite clear. All prothean beacons belonged to the galaxy as a whole and were to be taken to the Citadel so all could benefit from its knowledge. We Asari may have wrote that law but that didn't mean we were exempt from it.
Down below a squad of Justicars had stormed in the room to help the C-Sec officers. The commandos had several centuries of combat experience. We justicars had twice that.
The heretics and pretenders were made short work of. The beacon miraculously sustained no damage. Given their willingness to destroy it they feared one of the commandos might have taken potshots at it. They found a device mounted on the side of it that was copying and transmitting the data to an unknown location. The signal was traced and promptly destroyed.
The Justicar Order would be taking control of the Temple of Athame for the foreseeable future. All remaining priestesses would be subject to the meld in order to purge this holy place of anymore heretics. To think even here in the most sacred of places in Asari culture this criminal order had spread their toxic beliefs.
All was not lost however. The beacon was secured and while having sustained casualties the C-Sec officers were alive. While this day was one of sorrow for the Asari it was still a victory.
Councillor Tevos rubbed her head as she got the report on C-Sec's success in securing the Beacon.
'Thank the goddess' she thought.
Neither Valern or Sparatus seemed to trust her that much anymore. While there was no concrete evidence they had suspicions she was apart of the 'Order of Athame' as the press called them.
She could see where they were coming from. An ancient order dedicated to ensuring Asari dominance of the galaxy. It would make sense for the Asari Councillor to have some connection to it. Well unfortunately for them she wasn't apart of their so called order. Sure some of the Matriarchs that were known members of the Order would ask favors of her but so did every other Matriarch in Asari space. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Still Matriarch Armali had recently been getting very friendly with her. She wondered if the fallen matriarch had planned on recruiting her… It doesn't matter. Her recent actions have no doubt pushed such ideas from Armali's mind wherever she may be.
She had been looking for a way to regain the trust of her colleagues and she felt that the Order wasn't just going to let them take the beacon. One of her cousins had pledged her life to the Justicar Code centuries ago. While it wasn't easy she managed to get her concerns to the Justicar's leader through her. The leader of the Justicars thankfully agreed with her and promised to send a few Justicars to ensure the beacon fell into Council jurisdiction.
Judging from the report her paranoia was justified. Several squads worth of Huntresses and Commandos!? It was a miracle those C-Sec officers survived. Honestly her colleagues should have expected such opposition. Asari Matriarchs were known to possess a large following of elite soldiers who protected them and occasionally enforce their will.
The beacon was now being brought to the Citadel by an entire Turian fleet to deter both pirates and the Order. After the Temple fiasco Sparatus wasn't taking any chances. Hopefully this is the last bit of excitement they'll have for a while.
Armali cursed as she received the report of the failure of their agents in preventing the beacon from falling into the hands of the Council. Goddess Damn them! They had one job but wasted time doing theatrics and getting into a firefight with glorified cops.
They managed to send what they copied so it wasn't a complete failure. They had been unable to copy the VI Vendetta it seemed. She honestly didn't know whether to consider that a good or bad thing. While the data it possessed was invaluable the VI became more unhelpful to their order as time went on. It had become very stingy with its tech archives demanding to know what they had been doing in preparation for the 'enemy'.
Apparently it had been mentioned some sort of 'enemy' that would consume the galaxy in the Order's early years. The Protheans were wiped out trying to fight it and left this beacon on Thessia in order to prepare them. The Order's scholars have reached the conclusion that Vendetta was simply malfunctioning.
The Rachni were most likely the enemy it spoke of so they ensured the Rachni were wiped out during the war. Krogan war chiefs were laughably easy to convince to not take any queens prisoner. Despite the Rachni being gone it still acted as if the so-called enemy was around the corner. Use of the beacon was kept to a minimum until they could find a way to control the VI.
They could have forcefully hacked into it and copied all they could like they did today but that ran the risk of the VI deleting everything in retaliation and they couldn't have that. Though with the beacon soon about to be out of their reach they had less reservations.
Her bad mood got worse as her radio went from playing music to an urgent news report reminding her of the abysmal failure of their troops. She grit her teeth as she heard the voice of Matriarch Benezia congratulate the C-Sec officers and Justicars who retrieved the beacon. Bitch.
Benezia had once been considered for their Order but her willingness to work with aliens instead of properly guiding them made her a liability. The bitch had quickly become the public face of the witch hunt against their order and had been responsible for tracking down many of their members and sponsors. By the goddess once she got her hands on that alien loving bitch she would-
BOOM!
She was thrown to her feet as the entire ship shook violently. The lights shut off in her cabin leaving her in darkness. Were they under attack? She had to get to the bridge. Commando training kicking in she rushed to the door.
The door to her cabin opened and the emergency lights in the hall were on meaning they still had reserve power. While they were in no danger of losing life support they had no shields or weapons. Her trip to the bridge was largely uneventful. Crew were rushing to and fro paying her little attention.
Once on the bridge the captain informed her what happened. The ship was suddenly attacked by a vessel that somehow didn't show up on scanners. Best guess was that it could mask its heat emissions. It was obviously a human ship seeing how it fired what the humans called 'ion rounds' at them. These ion rounds shut down all non-essential systems including propulsion leaving them stranded.
The human ship pulled up aside theirs giving them a better look at it. It was unlike any other human ship she'd seen before. It had a tube like shape with a boxy protrusion on top. All along its side were guns and in the front there was a single large hole that reminded her of a dreadnought's mass accelerator.
"Uh… Captain." said one of the crew at her station."They are… asking for permission to board…"
Armali sighed. Only humans would fire on a ship, disable it, and then gave the audacity to ask for permission to board. She told the Captain to grant it because after all they weren't wanted in human space and she hadn't heard the Council enlisting their help. They might be able to request political asylum if it came to it.
The airlock opened and in stepped a human male in a uniform she'd never seen before. It bore some resemblance to the ornate uniforms worn by the Romans or Germans but it was all black. The human had a large collection of medals that he couldn't possibly have all earned. On his arm was a red armband with a symbol she didn't recognize. After giving her a slight bow the human spoke while giving her a downtight unnerving smile and in a tone that let her know there was no option to refuse.
"Greetings, frau. I am Obergruppenführer Karl Speer. Our Fuhrer would like a word with you."
United Republic Space
Colony of Eden Prime
"You alright down there, Virgil?"
"Jesus Frank that blast revealed a whole damn cavern."
"Just my luck. Buy this land hoping to start a farm but there's a god damn cave underneath."
"This place seems pretty big so I don't think you'll be building a well anytime soon, pal."
"Damn. Well is there anything good down there then? Might start doing cave tours."
"..."
"Vigil?"
"Holy shit Frank…"
"What!?"
"Hot damn, man! You've struck gold!"
"Gold!? What are you talking about!"
"Call the government! There's a bunch of tech and shit here! I think it's prothean!"
Cultural Civilopedia
Name: Wolfenstein
Type: Video Game
Year: 1974 (Original Game), 1976 (Wolfenstein 3D), 2003 (Reboot Series)
Nation of Origin: United Republic of States
Plot: Considered to be the game that popularized the first person shooter genre of video games. Wolfenstein started as a series that didn't stand out much from its competitors with its first games Escape From Castle Wolfenstein and its sequel EFCW 2.
This changed with the release of Wolfenstein 3D and the series' main character B.J. Blazkowicz as a gun toting nazi killer. W3D would see several expansions both official and fan made when the series went dormant for over a decade.
In 2003 the series was rebooted in a spectacular way. A free short expansion was released for the original game with BJ attempting to thwart a nazi experiment that ends up sending him to an alternate history where the Nazis won WW2 by defeating the Republic and turning on their Russian & Roman allies. Wolfenstein: The New Order picks up from this with BJ joining the resistance against this worldwide Nazi state.
Famous Quote: "You're KIA, Motherfucker!"- BJ Blazkowicz, Wolfenstein: The New Order