Greetings, everyone.

Welcome back to the story that is being updated over a month after its publication... sorry.

Anyways, it's May 4th!

Therefore, what better day to publish the new chapter?

Alright, so into the notes:

In that author's note that I had up briefly, I talked about how I hadn't planned on writing a full story.

Yeah, so, that's still a thing.

I've got a basic plot down, but nothing super solid.

Also, researching all the details of things in Star Wars and Mass Effect and then comparing how the two are similar, contrast, and are either superior or inferior takes a lot of time.

Oh, and, all those reviews you guys gave me on the first chapter.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, those were such nice and pleasant reviews.

However, I must point out that in the author's note for that chapter I did state that most of it was based off of Timothy Zahn's short story: Mist Encounters (download the pdf online for free and read it, real good stuff)

So, I'm not sure if I deserve all the credit, but you really should be thanking Timothy Zahn more than me.

He's the reason this story even exists.

Anyways, here's the new chapter, hope you enjoy.

"This is the system?"

"Yeah, apparently this is where all those weird signals were coming from."

"Contact the sentry group, tell them no one comes in or out of the relay."

"Yes, sir."

Ha'rashau Kardev, infamous pirate, slaver, and captain within the Batarian External Forces narrowed his left two eyes. He stared out through the viewport of his ship, Khar'shan's Will, towards the worlds before them.

Weeks ago, a roaming group of pirates caught a few signals bouncing around the Aquila system. As the pirates were funded by the Batarians, the Hegemony got the news first and they quickly had it cut off from reaching anyone else. Within the next few days, they had patrols sent out to find the source of the signal. Eventually, they caught onto the next few signals that emitted from one of the systems within the cluster.

These were the Terminus Systems, so the signal was possibly that of a pirate group's hideout. However, it never hurt to make sure.

"Captain, we've isolated the signal's origin."

"Take us in slowly, I want this done quietly," he ordered and the helmsman nodded to him before executing the command.

The ship moved slightly with a subtle lurch, little more than a small quiver as the engines purred and flew them towards a green world blanketed with vast blots of grayish-white color.

Kardev watched, and then he straightened. A lieutenant yelled something out, but the Batarian captain waved off the report for he already knew what it was about. He stared with several of the bridge crew at the large, mute gray complex that hung in the orbit of the planet.

It appeared to be a space station of sorts with a massive disk-shaped structure in its center. Many arm like appendages reached out from a large tower atop it, sitting where the arms converged and in between each arm, in the sloped space of gray metal, were large rectangles emitting bright lights. The ends of each metal limb held large, dagger-shaped blades that pointed to the right in a clockwise direction.

Never before had the Batarian captain seen such a sight. It was foreign to him. Alien.

"Sir, we're being hailed."

Kardev's widened eyes narrowed and he shook himself from his awestruck stupor. Rising up, he looked to the deck officer who had relayed the report and then turned his eyes up to the screen that sat on the slanted ceiling before him. The corner of his mouth dropped to form a scowl as he waited, wondering what this was all about.

"Answer it," he ordered and slumped back into his captain's seat, leaning to one side with an arm propped up on an armrest.

The screen above and before him crackled with static as the transmission came through. Seconds passed before the spray of white and black cleared up to reveal an all to familiar creature.

Pink skin.

Hair-topped head.

Two eyes.

And such insolent arrogance.

"Humans," he growled under his breath, keeping his eyes locked with the alien on the screen.

It was a male, he was sure of that. However, he was different from the humans he'd seen. This man wore a gray uniform, unlike the many blue jackets of Systems Alliance officers he'd seen. A silver, cylinder-like object, maybe a syringe or a stylus pen of some kind sat in a pocket, the top of it poking out of a pocket. Next to it was what appeared to be a plate of badges which was pinned to the left side of his chest, and on the plate there were six red squares above six blue ones. Whatever they signified, Kardev could only guess.

Suddenly, the human opened his mouth and the Batarian straightened up slightly, opening his ears to hear the adversary's words. However, what words came out he could make no sense of.

"The hell is he saying?"

He looked to the lieutenant in control of communications and the younger Batarian looked back with a shrug.

"Translator is running perfectly, sir. The human could be speaking one of their other languages."

A figure on Kardev's right stepped up, and the captain looked to his executive officer, Darif as he questioned the theory, "Thought they translated all of them?"

"Apparently, not-"

"Unknown vessel, you are in restricted space."

Kardev snapped his head back to the screen immediately, caught off guard by the strange, accented voice. He watched as the human fiddled with something on his arm; more than likely his omni-tool. Idiot must have forgotten to activate his translator.

"Turn back now or face the consequences."

"Consequences?" Kardev growled and lifted himself up, onto his feet. "You dare speak to me of consequences?"

The human simply narrowed his eyes and met the Batarian's glare with one of his own.

"I do."

The Batarian's eyes widened for the briefest second before he narrowed them.

"Such arrogance," he scolded and started moving towards the screen. "Do you know who I am?"

"No, I do not believe I do," the human spoke and Kardev chuckled, finding humor in the man's ignorance.

"I am Captain Ha'rashau Kardev, infamous pirate and slaver, and you-"

Without warning, the human spoke up and interrupted the Batarian's would-be monologue, "I am Admiral Qhos Tao and you are intruding on restricted space."

The Batarian's yellow-brown face grew darker as blood rushed to it. Anger began to show in his bared teeth and narrowed eyes, yet the human man betrayed no emotion.

"Leave now or we will be forced to remove you."

"Is that a threat?" Kardev challenged.

"A threat implies that I seek violence, which, I do not. No, it is a warning. Leave or we will remove you."

Silence followed the human's command and the crew of the Batarian ship's bridge waited for their captain's answer. They watched and observed, hearts pounding and bodies sweating as the atmosphere grew tenser by the second. Then, however, Kardev pursed his lips and nodded his head slowly.

"Fine, we'll go," he relinquished and fell back into his seat. "But don't think that this'll be the end. I'm taking this to the Hegemony!"

With that, the slaver captain cut an invisible slit across his throat, signaling the communications officer to cut the line. The last image of the human admiral displayed his lips turning into a deeper frown, and then he was gone as the screen went dark. Kardev's eyes turned away from the black screen and he looked to his helmsman, a scowl on his face.

"Helmsman, take us to the planet behind us, on our port side."

"Sir?"

"And tell the others to do the same. We'll slingshot around it and come back with full force."

"Yes, sir!" the helmsman saluted and began changing their heading as other members of the bridge crew began contacting the rest of the ships around them.

Kardev sat back into his chair and dreamt of the fear that the human admiral would feel. He ran a hand over the right side of his face, feeling the jagged scars that cut down through his flesh and two right eyes. A growl left him as he rubbed a necklace around his neck and remembered, and he swore silently to burn this human colony until it was ash.

It was several hours later when they began to slingshot maneuver. Their ships entered the unidentified world's orbit and traveled along it before coming around on the other side. Once they were in the right angle, the helmsman of each Batarian slaver ship cycled their engines to full power and they shot out from the gravitational grip of the planet. They flew through space, curving an invisible arc before lining up their heading with the apparent human colony.

Excitement buzzed in the air amongst the eager talks of the crew. Soldiers and deck hands alike shared their anticipation, promising each other bottles of ryncol after the battle. Some betted the lives of their future slaves, others discussed what armaments would maximize damage, but keep the humans intact enough for proper use.

Ha'rashau Kardev, however, did not cheer or speak excitedly. He did feel the anticipation that the rest of his crew felt, but he kept his expression of it silent. The only indication of his excitement was shown in the smirk that was ever growing on his face and the occasional chuckle at a fantasy that he'd concoct.

"Captain, ETA is five minutes!" the helmsman shouted and he grinned.

Pushing a button on his omni-tool, he activated the intercom and began to speak, "Alright, boys. You know the drill: Hit them hard, burn everything down, collect as much slaves as possible, and then we're out."

A chorus of cheers arose from around the ship, and Kardev could only smile in pride at his men.

Then, the spiral downward towards tragic failure began.

"Captain! We're getting some strange readings!"

"What?" he asked, looking to the ensign that had shouted.

"That space station, it's... breaking apart."

His brow furrowed, and the Batarian slaver captain looked out the viewport of his ship. The left two eyes of his head observed the floating structure, and he saw no difference in its shape. He frowned and looked to the ensign to reprimand him, but stopped short as he caught a glimpse of movement.

Looking back, he stared in surprise as the dagger-shaped ends of each "arm" of the human space station came loose. They floated out, drifting... no, flying.

They were ships! And there appeared to be five- no, six of them in total.

The captain's reaction was swift and stern, "All hands, to battle stations! Get our kinetic barriers up and guns online!"

A shrill klaxon blared through the alarms and he fell into his captain's seat, eagerly awaiting the fight to come. Unfortunately, that lust for battle and blood was quelled as soon as it reached its climax.

"We'll be in firing range within three minute-"

"Enemy ships opening fire!"

Kardev's eyes widened and he straightened up, his head snapping in the direction of the viewport as he watched emerald green lights flash into existence. He registered their appearance moments before barking an order at his crew, "Brace for impact!"

His hands gripped the armrests of his seat tightly and he prepared for the inevitable rocking of the ship as the enemy attack collided with their kinetic barriers. However, instead of the rocking and shuddering he expected—which his entire crew expected—there was, instead, a violent quake and terrifying burst of fire. Explosions rocked the hull of Khar'shan's Will and the bridge crew cried out in fright and pain.

Those that hadn't held fast were tossed around, falling to the ground or impacting with the wall or consoles. As soon as the barrage was over, though, they pulled themselves up. A few let out the breakfast they had, had earlier in the day while the rest stumbled to the nearest console to help deliver reports.

"What was that? They bypassed our kinetic barriers completely!"

"That's impossible!"

"Kinetic barriers are at 47%! They hit us alright!"

"Upper deck is venting atmo! Calling repair teams!"

Where there had been excitement and joyous exhilaration for the fight to come, there was now frantic and terrified voices shouting to each other. Amongst the chaos, however, Kardev remained paralyzed in his seat. His hands still clutched the armrests tightly, refusing to budge as his eyes continued to stay squeezed shut.

Slowly, however, he opened his eyes to look and when he did, they widened with his mouth dropping to gape in conjunction.

From the viewport of his bridge, he saw the mangled and burning hull of his ship. The ablative armor beneath the first layer of titanium had been completely disintegrated away by the barrage, leaving them without their defense against direct energy weapons.

Speaking of which, only such weaponry could actually bypass kinetic barriers. That meant that the humans had managed to weaponize laser technology... but that was impossible. The only combat system using lasers was the GARDIAN laser system, but that was short-ranged and for defense. The only other species with anything close to what had been fired on them were the Geth, but the humans couldn't have... no, he needed to stop sidetracking.

Kardev shook his head and pulled himself from his stupor. He scanned over the sorry state of his bridge and then darted his eyes to the communications officer nearby.

"Open a line to the others, I want status reports on their conditions!"

Within moments, he learned of the wounded states of the other Batarian slaver ships. Where there had been seven of them, there were now six. Along with that, the remaining six—including Khar'shan's Will—were badly damaged.

The Batarian captain pondered on the news and placed his head in his right hand while rubbing his necklace with his left hand. The right hand's digits ran over his scar, and he growled while holding a scowl.

"Are our men ready?"

"Sir?"

"Are they ready?" he barked once more and various deckhands reported green lights. "Launch all shuttles! They'll have to choose between us or their precious colony!"

The bridge fell silent and Kardev looked between his wide-eyed crew.

"The hell are you waiting for?"

"Kardev."

He looked to his right where his second-in-command stood and glared at Darif.

"What?"

"Captain, we're barely floating right now. We can't take on those ships."

"I never took you for a coward, Darif."

"Kardev, if we go up against these humans we'll be annihilated. If we go now, we can escape and come back with reinforcements. Besides, I'm sure the Hegemony will want to hear about some mysterious human colony at the far end of the Terminus Systems."

The scarred Batarian slaver captain glared at him, breathing heavily before he turned his attention to the viewport.

The dagger-shaped ships had halted in their advance, now waiting for them to make a move. A growl left his throat once more, but he dropped his head and conceded to reason.

"All ships, retreat."

With that, the cluster of Batarian slaver ships began turning, changing their heading to leave the system. The air grew cold and hollow as the crew of the bridge mulled about. They barely spoke, mentioning only reports and logistics while they limped away.

Kardev, himself, dwelled in his hate and loathing while gripping his necklace tightly, angry tears burning along his cheeks. Suddenly though, he was pulled out of his languishing as a deck officer shouted out, "Captain, we're being hailed by the humans!"

He looked up and stared at the dark screen and then to the deck officer. He glared at him and the younger Batarian's posture degraded into a frightened, shriveled version of itself. Eventually, he ceased his hateful look and spoke up in response, "Answer it."

Within a minute, the dark screen brightened into a flurry of static before displaying the face of Admiral Qhos Tao once more.

"What do you want human? We're leaving, alright!"

The human—who had not appeared to change his posture as his chin continued to point up and eyes never failing to look down past his nose then upon Kardev—showed no smugness or joy. He continued to hold the same solemn, stern professional face that he first held when they spoke last. The illuminating light of wherever he stood before a monitor revealed no change in the pale flesh of his face.

Then, out-of-the-blue, the human spoke:

"I do not believe you understood my meaning, captain," Admiral Tao stated with the same humorless and accented voice.

Then, slowly and steadily, the human began to lower his chin and the visor of the cap atop his head, in turn, started to block the light that illuminated his face. A shadow cast itself over his solemn, emotionless face and the Batarian slaver captain felt the smallest smidgen of fear worm its way into his chest.

"When I spoke of forcibly removing you, I did not mean expulsion," the admiral explained with a cold voice, his eyes narrowing in the dark of his cap and voice growing more ominous by the articulation of every syllable. "I meant eradication."

Kardev had only a moment to widen his eyes in horror before the human turned away from the screen to give an order.

"Open fire, ion cannons only, per the Grand Admiral's orders!"

Streaks of whitish-blue light flashed before Khar'shan's Will's viewport as the human warships blasted them. The crew of the Batarian slaving ship watched, and they could only observe as thin, spidery arcs of blue electricity overtook their vessel. They gasped and gaped as their consoles and terminals and nearly anything electronic and connected to the ship was shut down. Monitors and screens flickered before turning dead while the lights died out with sputtering bursts of illumination. Emergency power turned on shortly afterward, but that did not assuage the crew of their fear.

Shaking off his own stupor of shock and fright, Kardev bellowed out, "Status report, now!"

The bridge crew quieted and one deck officer was brave enough to answer his request.

"Captain, kinetic barriers are down and we're running on emergency power."

"What about our communications?"

"We got an emergency signal out to the sentry group before they hit us with those, uh... ion cannons?"

"And our ships here?"

"Looks like they got hit too," Darif remarked while staring out of the viewport.

Kardev grit his teeth, hard. He felt the fear in his chest wriggling about, forcing an uncomfortable feeling of fright to grow as he thought on what was to come.

The disabling of their ship was a clear indication that they planned to board them. However, the human admiral's words haunted him: I meant eradication.

Pillars of Strength give him might.

Looking to the nearest deckhand, he gestured at them with a point of his finger.

"You, get down to engineering and tell them to fix the engines as soon as they can. Understood?"

The deckhand nodded and the young Batarian was off, leaving Kardev to bark at the rest of the bridge crew and beyond.

"All hands, prepare for boarding!"

Half and hour passed before one of the large, dagger-shaped ships enveloped them in their shadow. A few minutes after, they spied several stark white ships with three wings flying out and around. One passed by them and from the noises they heard on the hull, it seemed to be attaching to their airlock.

Kardev, now strapped in armor and wearing his personal tech armor mod, stood with his crew in the hall that lead to the mentioned airlock. Some had the same tech armor mod, a few had simple kinetic barriers and there was one who had dressed a full suit of armor. Most of his men were outfitted with the standard M-8 Avenger assault rifles that the Hegemony supplied them, but he, himself held a M-76 Revenant—a trophy from one of his proudest raids.

They sat behind crates put together into makeshift barriers and around the corners at the end of the hall where it became a T-shaped intersection with another corridor.

"Hold," the Batarian slaver captain ordered as they waited.

He could feel the twitching of his mens' trigger fingers, the slight wiggle of them practically reverberating through the tense atmosphere. Everyone was on edge, fear of Kardev barely overruling their fear of this new foe they faced.

Suddenly then, the muffled sound of boots stomping on steel was heard and they aimed their weapons up at the door. There was a brief moment of silence, then a fizzling noise was heard. The sides of the airlock door burst into sparks and flames as the boarding party cut through the door, searing around the edges of it.

Every Batarian wielding a gun was shaking even harder, leaning against the walls or barriers for support. The only exception to this phenomenon was Kardev, himself, who stood stalwart with a face of cold rage.

"Hold!" he bellowed at his men, shooting glares at any pirate slaver that still quivered after his command.

After forcing them into stillness with his hateful gaze, Kardev turned his attention back to the airlock just as the two burning flames reached the top of the door. He touched his necklace for a brief second before holding his weapon back up and scowling. A silent second passed, and then there was a blast. The door cried out with a groan, and then it exploded in a cloud of smoke and sparks. Shrapnel flew and soon shavings of metal went as the trigger-happy Batarians opened fire.

"Fire!" Kardev shouted over the cacophony of battle, ordering the remnants of obedient men that hadn't started shooting to do so.

The entire hall was lit with the flashes of gun muzzles spewing their munitions. Sometimes there was even a sudden shot of explosive plasma from someone's omni-tool. However, after a few seconds of continuous gunfire, the Batarian's onslaught was reciprocated with a flurry of laser bolts.

The noises of the enemy's guns were foreign to Kardev, but after seeing the streaks of red and hearing the cries of his men as they died with scorch marks on their chests, he knew that they had begun their attack too.

His men got smart after the first three of their comrades fell as they then chose to stick behind cover and shoot when they thought they were safe to. Only two more fell after that, and as the battle's time increased to a minute, the slavers thought they had successfully held their line.

Then they appeared out of the smoke. Humanoid soldiers in stark white armor, marching out of the plume of blackish-gray. Their helmets were large and held the image of scowling faces that glared forward with unwavering, inky black eyes. Tiny blue lights shimmered along the bottom of the helmets and they appeared elsewhere on the armor. The first to come through were protected by large, diamond-like riot shields that appeared to be metal frames with golden glass. Kardev was quick to spy the rippling of the golden glass whenever a shot hit it, and he knew then that it was like a biotic's barrier.

The shield they carried were projecting their own energy shielding from the metal frame, a feat of technology no species had yet to achieve. At least, not a feat that any species had publicly announced.

Inching backwards to the T-intersection, Kardev came to call a retreat as the enemy pushed forward:

"Pull back! Retreat!"

His men started to follow his command, but only a few made it to the perpendicular corridor. Those that didn't had been gunned down, streaks of red searing their backs and killing them. Their bodies littered the ground, but the enemy did not care. They marched over the corpses, stomping on the dead and deceased of Kardev's crew. His fury arose with each dead Batarian they marched over, and so he picked a small disk from his belt before pressing his thumb down on a button.

Tossing it, he spied the grenade fly through the air and explode, sending the shield-bearing soldiers backwards. They tumbled, exposing the rest of their boarding party who immediately began opening fire. The Batarian slaver captain, however, smiled and began to laugh as he pulled his rifle from behind the corner to open fire. His crew followed, not needing an order to kill.

The enemy, though, had taken to using the cover that the Batarian slavers had made. The white of their armor was barely visible until they peeked out to open fire. Kardev readied another grenade and tossed it, but before it could reach the boarding party's position, one of the shield-bearing troops rose up and intercepted it with his shield. The explosive detonated and the soldier was thrown back far, landing at the opposite end of the hall.

Kardev watched, and he felt his remaining eyes widen as the soldier got up, his scowl-imprinted helmet falling off to reveal a human male underneath.

The human man shouted something in a foreign language before he picked up his rifle. He managed to fire off a few lasers before the slaver captain sprayed his gray matter across the floor.

The Batarian slaver captain grinned, but then grimaced a moment afterward as the intensity of the assault increased.

He spied one of the other white armored soldiers picking up the fallen one's shield and using it to block incoming fire with the still-living shieldbearer that had picked themselves up. Now holding out, the white armored soldiers laid down a spray of suppressive fire, but Kardev continued to peak out to observe their actions.

Eventually though, he chose to give up on the entry hall and signaled to his men with hand motions. They began pulling back, laying down explosives and holding onto the detonators as they ran further down to the ends of the corridor.

"Don't blow them until I give the word," he ordered through his omni-tool and a confirmation came through from the soldier on the other side.

Tense seconds passed until a minute had gone by and the entire time, Kardev and his men waited with guns held up.

Suddenly then, a gasp was heard and the captain looked to one of his men. That Batarian was staring out through the viewport on their right and Kardev followed his gaze. His four eyes widened in shock and horror as the remains of the Shackler and a few other ships of the sentry group drifted by them.

"The sentry group?" one of the other Batarians breathed in disbelief.

Then, before anyone could speak further, bolts of red flashed by. Kardev cursed as they fell to the ground and behind stacked crates.

"Now! Blow them now!"

Fire and smoke erupted from the grenades placed down on the sides and floors of the corridors. The white armored soldiers disappeared into the explosion, and Kardev hoped that they had won a victory.

Unfortunately, he found his hopes crushed as a small tube-like object landed at his feet. Realization struck him the moment before he cried out, "Grenade!"

He backed up, twirled around, and then scrambled past his men. He didn't get far before he felt the heat and afterwards, the pain. He hit something, the floor or maybe a wall. There were cries and shouts, some of them were his; he recognized his voice. Of his four eyes, the two that remained after gaining his scar still worked, so he prayed in thanks for that. However, when he sought to move, he could not.

Kardev sought to speak, but his voice would not appear. His arms and legs were motionless, ceasing to follow the commands of his mind. He was prisoner of his own body, and he roared in rage.

Then, he felt the agony.

Like fire running through his blood, burning his body from the inside out.

His remaining two eyes opened and fluttered, letting him see the soot covered ground and white boots stomping about. He grit his teeth and scowled as the boarding party kicked and prodded at the body of his men.

Moving his arm, he reached for the pistol on his belt. Though it pained him to move he still did so, and soon enough he felt the grip of his small firearm. Pulling it free, the Batarian slaver captain expanded the gun and aimed it at the nearest soldier in white armor, a grin almost carving itself into his face.

Then a boot stomped on his arm.

He cried out, feeling the fire rage at the sudden fuel to it. A whimper left his lips against his will, and suddenly he felt hands on his shoulders.

Kardev was picked up and propped against the wall, rifles aimed at his downed form. Slowly, he managed to raise up his head to stare at the scowl-imprinted helmets of the white armored soldiers. Their soulless black eyes glared down at him and he barely made out any further details, his vision blurring the black markings and lit, blue lights. One of them was speaking, their foreign tongue still a mystery to Kardev's ears.

He growled at them, but he could not muster the strength to raise his arms and struggle against them.

One of the white armored soldiers raised up a small device wrapped in black, holding it to the respirator-like bottom of their helmet. They spoke and waited and then spoke again before putting the device away. Then, they lifted up their right arm as radiant orange lights appeared over the limb.

They began applying medi-gel, he could feel the substance on him, mending his body slowly. However, before he could feel relief and strength, another of the soldiers raised the butt of their rifle and slammed it against his head.

The sound of his boot-clad feet echoed down the corridor of the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer as he walked down into the warship's detention center. The cold air of these desolate halls forced goosebumps to appear on his exposed skin and forced him to rub his nose every so often. What little staff worked on the other side of the ship's built-in brig saluted him when he passed and he nodded back so that they might return to their duties.

Eventually, he came to stand at the end of the hall which lead down to the detention center's entrance. Two stormtroopers stood guard on either side of the threshold, and they straightened up when he was within fifteen feet of them. Their bodies stiffened and their guns rose up so that the barrels of the rifles touched their left shoulders. When he had made his final step to stand before the duo, the stormtrooper on the right lowered his weapon and held out his left hand.

Nodding slightly and reaching up to the left, shirt pocket of his uniform, he produced a code cylinder for the trooper to take and plug into the terminal behind him. A second passed before the small screen in the wall wrote off a name, rank, and authorization in aurebesh.

"Captain Pellaeon," the stormtrooper addressed, their voice masculine and electronic through the helmet. "You are clear to proceed."

"Thank you, trooper," Gilad Pellaeon replied while taking back his code cylinder.

He gave the troopers a quick, polite bow before moving into the detention center. Within, he found more of the stark white stormtroopers standing guard, these ones wielding not just the standard E-11 blaster rifles, but also compact stun batons which hung from their belts. He eyed them for a moment as he took slow steps forward, but then returned to his original pace and began his march further into the detention center.

Along the way, each pair of troopers he passed straightened their back and saluted to which he nodded, giving each pair an approving gesture. Eventually, he reached the end of the corridor and began to process of handing his code cylinder to another stormtrooper for verification again. Seconds later, he stood in a darkened room with several other Imperial officers, these individuals garbed in black and holding the occupation of interrogators.

"Captain Pellaeon!" a young human woman gasped in surprise as she spied him enter through the threshold.

She laid a hand on her chest, breathing a deep breath to calm herself as the others in the room arose from their seats around a small table.

Among them were a human man, a male Salarian, a male Chiss, and a female Chiss.

"Apologies, captain," the Salarian spoke up, waving a hand about as he did so. "We didn't expect you to be here just yet."

He raised up his chin before addressing the statement, "Yes, well the Grand Admiral is requesting results which you have yet to provide."

The five Imperial officers and interrogators shared frightened looks before the Salarian spoke once more, "Of course, but the Batarian is has been rather resilient to our initial probings."

As if on cue, a voice boomed through the audio system of the computer installed into the wall separating the interrogation room from the one they stood in.

"I won't reveal anything to you! The humans took from us! They took from me! I will never give to them, only take!" the batarian bellowed, almost fanatically as if his stubbornness was religious.

"Rather unsavory, yes?" the Salarian next to the captain inquired and Pellaeon nodded.

"Yes, indeed. Unfortunately, we must endure it in hopes that he will eventually grant us the information the Grand Admiral wants."

The Salarian hummed in agreement and nodded his head, but then, the Chiss woman stepped forward to him with an suggestion, "Captain, if I may, we were preparing to send a request for permission to use more... persuasive methods."

The Imperial captain needed no clues or time to understand what she meant and quickly nodded in response, "Yes, that will certainly do. Ensure that he begins talking soon."

With that, Captain Pellaeon turned and left the interrogators to wake an IT-O Interrogation Unit. He walked back down the hall to leave the detention center, performing the same actions he had on his first walk through the corridor: nodding at the soldiers and handing his code cylinder to the stormtroopers posted at the threshold out of the area.

Soon, he was standing in the lift that would take him up to the bridge. However, before his finger could press the button indicating the bridge deck, his eyes looked to the one that once lead to his predecessor's former luxury and entertainment suite. He stood still for a moment, pondering on whether he should deliver his report in person or over the holo. After a second of thought, he chose the former and awaited his arrival at the Grand Admiral's command room.

When the doors opened, he found himself standing in the only source of light in the dark hallway. A slight pang of fear struck him, but he resisted the urge to regret and stepped out into the shadows.

His footfalls were louder here than they were in the detention center's entry corridor, rebounding off of the durasteel surfaces of the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Then, suddenly, his mind registered a cold breath on the back of his neck.

"Captain Pellaeon," mewled a deep, gravelly, cat-like voice.

He jumped and twisted around, eyes wide and heart beating against his chest in a vain attempt to flee. A curse left his lips as he caught sight of the creature that stood with a knife in hand.

"Blast it, Rukh!" Captain Pellaeon cried out, sucking in a sharp breath as he held his chest in attempt to calm his thumping heart. "What do you think you're doing?"

The human man stared at the dark gray-skinned alien as he waited for an answer. Unintentionally though, he darted his gaze between the short, wiry figure's protruding jaw, needle teeth, and visible, steel wire muscles. Pellaeon's mind moved to what his superior employed Rukh and his brethren to do, and he gulped involuntarily.

"I'm doing my job," the Noghri replied shortly and then moved towards the door at the end of the hall.

He stretched out an arm towards it and the captain had only a second to register the Rukh's knife somehow disappear into his sleeve.

"You may enter."

Gilad Pellaeon stayed stationary for a moment before digging a finger into the collar of his uniform. Pulling it to allow the heat beneath to escape, he then began moving past the Noghri assasin to enter the command room.

With an angered growl, he told the Grand Admiral's bodyguard, "Thank you."

With that, he stepped into the dimly lit chamber beyond the threshold and listened to the door shut behind him.

Seconds later, he stepped forward and journeyed further into the dark, using the orange glow of two rotating, holographic rings as a guide. The closer he drew, the more detailed the rings became, and he soon came to identify the distinct borders of the digitally restored artworks which hung in the rings.

When he was within several footsteps from the rings, though, he suddenly felt a pang of doubt strike him. He began to wonder if choosing invading the Grand Admiral's privacy had been a wise decision.

Then, from the chair situated in the center of the rings, there came a quiet voice, cool and cultured, "Come in, Captain."

He gulped and he obeyed, stepping forward into the bright glow of the holograms.

"What do you think?"

A hand, gloved in pure, immaculate white lifted off the armrest of the chair and gestured with an open palm towards the holographic artworks.

Pellaeon took a moment to choose his next words, and after he had found them he gave them, "It's... certainly interesting, sir."

"Indeed," the Grand Admiral replied, seeming to agree. "Has our prisoner provided us with any information yet?"

"No, sir," Captain Pellaeon answered, lowering his head slightly so that the visor of his cap might cover his eyes. "The interrogators are employing more extreme measures as we speak."

No answer came from the Grand Admiral and it took Gilad Pellaeon a moment to realize he had nodded instead of vocalizing a response.

"Has there been any recent news from the home galaxy?"

"Only status reports, sir," he confessed. "With the establishment of the New Republic and the loss of Coruscant, Imperial forces have retreated to the Mid and Outer Rim. Our spies have successfully infiltrated the New Republic's structure while our agents in the Galactic Empire have increased recruitment."

"Very good, Captain," his superior remarked and Pellaeon chose then to look up into the solid scarlet eyes of the Grand Admiral. "What of our colonies? How have our people reacted to the Batarians' failed attack?"

"Publicity of the incident has garnered a feeling of patriotism amongst the colonies, sir."

A smile creased across blue lips and Pellaeon lifted his head up to see it.

"Excellent news, Captain Pellaeon," he surmised and steepled his gloved fingers. "And what of the reports on the Geth?"

"Our probes have tracked Geth forces leaving the Perseus Veil and entering the Attican Traverse. They appear to be searching for something, sir."

The pleased look on the Grand Admiral's face faded as a contemplative expression overtook it.

"Have our scouts continue to monitor the Geth activity, but prepare the Chimaera and Victorium to jump to lightspeed; we will be shadowing the Geth."

Thus, begins the prelude to Mass Effect.

Alright, so thanks for reading guys. I hope you liked this chapter, maybe even loved it.

I really did enjoy writing the scenes with the stormtrooper boarding party and Captain Pellaeon's introduction.

However, my absolute favorite moment was writing Admiral Tao's "I meant eradication" scene.

It was just... pleasant.

Anyways, quick questions for you all:

1.) So, would you like to see what happened between the first chapter and the second? Meaning, would you like to see what occurred during that huge time gap when Matriarch Benezia found Thrawn and now Thrawn being in control of the Empire of the Hand?

2.) How do we feel about OCs? Reason for this question is that there will be a lot of OCs.

3.) How do we feel about canon characters from Star Wars being taken into this story? Like, I really love some of the characters that appeared in other Star Wars media and I also planned on some things that canon characters would fit into. So, would you guys be alright with that?

4.) Lemons... yeah, so, we all know the cornerstone of Mass Effect is sex, right? I mean, I don't know about Thrawn, but I'm definitely having Shepard in the story and if he doesn't get to bang things, well... you know. Of course, I could mention it, but I just want to know what you guys think first. (P.S.- That bumps the story rating up to M-rated)

5.) Do you guys want a set schedule for updating?

Okay, that's all my questions. Please respond to them through the reviews, or if you feel like it's necessary, use a PM.

So, thanks for reading, please favorite and follow if you haven't already.

Leave a review on what you think, and if you didn't like it, please be constructive.

And that leaves us off with a farewell:

May the 4th be with you all,
Mithrao - Fanatic of Thrawn