So, it took me forever to decide how to go about this chapter. Up until now, it's been fairly straightforward where I wanted to take the story. This chapter was sort of a crossroads- whatever happened here would decide what the next few chapters would be about, and which one of my three basic story plans I would go with. Eventually, my old guy helped me make the decision, and while I'm sure some readers will be dissappointed (you can't please everyone), I'm happy with it. Actually, to be honest, I expect some major complaints about this. Just bear with me, however- read the chapter, even if you hate where it's going, and I'll provide an explanation for my thought process at the end of the chapter, and I assure you, everything will work out well.
Also, I realized that I didn't adequately describe the ending of the last chapter. With the self detonation of the Empire's Might taking out a full fifth of the Turian fleet, including a large portion of the command structure, the humans were quickly able to gain the advantage. The battle ended in a decisive victory for the humans. I wrote it out, but it didn't flow right, so I just ended the chapter where I did, and the left over bit was too small for a chapter by itself (even by my standards). I guess I figured that it was clear the humans would win the battle. Let me know if you want me to post the rest of that battle.
Lastly, I fixed the poll for the fate of Those Damned Primitives, and will leave it up for two more weeks after I post this. While I won't necessarily follow the results, they will strongly influence my eventual decision.
Lastly lastly, I changed the Turian who was interrogated in chapter 2 to be Saren's brother. It occurred to me that Saren would already have been a spectre by then, if he was experienced enough to go on captian whatsisname's evaluation. Also, I have need of Saren, and I needed him to hate humans. I also realized that since the Relay wasn't in Shanxi, it wasn't 314, so I changed that to 287.
Third lastly, a big thanks to six samurai of dragon order, TheGhost129, ww1990ww, Kira Kyuu, wolf, Spartan-A716, and Kaioo for reviewing.
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The Trinus system was, while small, an important system in the eyes of the Turian Hierarchy. The presence of a large asteroid belt and two particularly rich gas giants meant that it provided nearly xxxtwenty percent of the Hierarchy's natural resources. With the added presence of what was technically a garden world (the frigid planet was cold enough that the term "garden" was really a stretch), it really should have had a larger defense fleet than it did. However, it was so deep in Turian space that a large fleet was deemed unnecessary. After all, the only possible way to bring an invading force into the system was to go through several other, more heavily guarded systems and their relays.
Unfortunately, nobody ever bothered to tell humanity what was and wasn't possible, so they can be excused for ignoring the Mass Relay system altogether and simply opening a wormhole directly into Turian space.
As soon as the wormhole was opened, dozens of human warships began pouring out of it, firing on the Turian fleet as they did so. Turian ships exploded as beams of light and plasma bolts passed through their kinetic barriers, and others shuddered as specialized explosive AMAC rounds teleported directly onboard while the simpler ones simply slammed into the ships before exploding. By the time the Turians were able to start shooting back, they'd already lost half their fleet. Within another fifteenxxx minutes, they'd lost the rest of it.
With the fleet destroyed, a small portion of the fleet turned towards the garden world, while the rest turned towards the orbital mining installations. The smaller flotilla began orbital bombardment on the colony's cities, while the larger group began moving towards the mining installations in the gas giants' rings. As soon as the fleet was in range of the mining stations, the ships opened fire.
The two fleets rejoined, a wormhole opened, and the fleet jumped to the next Turian system.
All in all, the fleet was in the Trinus system for an hour and a half.
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Councilor Sparatus looked at his omnitool boredly as it beeped.
How many times do I have to tell those idiots not to contact me during Council meetings? He thought to himself. It's ridiculous... the councilor's thoughts froze as he took in the priority code from the High Primarch's* office- the code that was only to be used in the case of an invasion into Turian space.
Sparatus stood up abruptly, drawing the attention of his two companions.
Before he could say anything, however, Councilor Valern spoke.
"Before you go, should bring up matter of humans. Obviously you just learned of their offensive. Reaction to O-mail makes this clear. Am surprised that word took so long to get to you."
"What do you mean, offensive?" Tevos asked. "And what are humans?"
"Humans are race near Relay 287. Not AIs, as we previously thought. Large force came through Relay. Blockade force opened fire. Humans made contact. Informed us that we had killed their leader. Promised extinction of Turian species. Have now invaded Turian space. Taken three colonies within eight hours, all deep within council territory."
"You mean that we initiated first contact with a species by attacking them?!" Tevos asked.
"Worse. Killed their leader on his way here to meet us for peace talks. Humans are furious. Have completely destroyed the colonies they attacked."
"What?!" Sparatus shouted, not having yet actually read the O-mail that was sent to him. "They've destroyed entire colonies?"
"Orbital bombardment upon all cities within captured colonies, and total destruction of all orbital platforms or stations in system." Valern replied calmly.
"They've bombarded our cities?!" Sparatus exclaimed.
"Would appreciate it if you stopped repeating me." Valern said with a hint of a smile.
"Valern, this is a serious matter. We must do whatever we can to calm these hoomans. If they con..."
"You can't be serious!" interrupted the Turian councilor. "If these barbarians are truly practicing orbital bombardment, on colonized garden worlds, I might add, over the death of one man, they must be put down like rabid varren! Even the Batarians have never committed such an atrocity!"
"And that, dear Sparatus, is exactly why we must bring them under our wings. We must enlighten them, civilize them. After all, with proper procedures, a rabid varren can be cured. It is difficult, and the procedure doesn't always work, but it is possible. So the same shall be with these hoomans. We shall attempt to teach them the ways of the civilized galaxy."
"And, as with the varren, if we fail, the humans shall be put down." Sparatus stated firmly. "Also, the Hierarchy will demand reparations for the colonies destroyed."
"Good. In agreement that war must be ended. Diplomats should be sent to Relay 287 immediately. Invite leader or interim leader to Citadel." Valern stated.
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"Citadel vessel, you are now entering Solian space," came the voice on the comm, in perfectly translated High Thessian. "State your intentions or be fired upon."
Arysa Sedeos was nervous. Understandably so, considering the fact that it was her responsibility to convince an angry species to end a war of extermination against the Turians. Damn those militaristic idiots, always thinking with their guns, she thought to herself. And damn these fucking aliens, too. Who launches a war over one death?
"This is the Hand of Grace, here with a diplomatic courier to propose an end to hostilities between your people and the Citadel Council, and invite your leader to the Citadel for further discussions," replied Miessu T'venos, the captain of the courier vessel Arysa was on.
There was a pause for a few minutes, and the voice spoke again.
"Follow the indicated flight path. Any deviation will be met with lethal force. You will be met by a boarding party who will inspect your ship and crew. Any attempt to interfere will be met with lethal force. Follow further instructions as you recieve them, or be met with lethal force."
"Wow," somebody said. "Do you think that if I sneeze, it'll be met with lethal force?"
Everybody but Arysa chuckled, and even the worried diplomat gave a small smile as the Hand of Grace began moving smoothly along the flight path that had been sent to the ship. The hoomans did seem to be laying it on a bit thick.
While she waited for the ship to reach its destination, she went over and looked at the sensors array, wondering what kind of forces would carry out these threats of lethal force.
What she saw made her gasp. It wasn't the two dozen dreadnoughts in formation outside the Relay, or the hundreds of smaller ships. It wasn't even the equal number of ships twice that size. What surprised her most were the two collossal ships in the back of the formation, each measuring three and a half kilometers long, and the four slightly smaller, but still gigantic, ships in the center of the formation.
Suddenly, ending this war seemed to be much more important, and Arysa was very glad that she was essentially a glorified messenger. After all, her goal wasn't to get the aliens to agree to anything, it was to get them to visit the Citadel, where the council could do the actual work.
Eventually, the Hand reached its desitnation, where an alien shuttle was waiting for them.
"Umm, ma'am," the comm officer said. "They're asking how to dock with our systems."
"Tell them that the docking bay has been prepared for a first contact scenario," T'venos said. "It should be able to fit with any vessel."
"Yes, ma'am," said the second Asari before turning to the comm, then, "They're docking now."
"Daline," T'venos said to her second in command, "go to the docking bay and escort the hoomans on their inspection of the ship. Make sure they don't damage anything, but don't interfere with anything that's not unsafe. Once they're satisfied that we don't mean any harm, escort them to the bridge."
"Yes, ma'am," replied Daline, before rushing to the airlocks.
It was another hour and thirty minutes before a slightly exasperated Daline returned to the bridge, followed by a group of six aliens.
"Sorry, ma'am," Daline murmered to her superior. "They insisted on searching everything and everybody. They didn't damage anything, but there are a few things that will have to be put back together. They also did a complete scan of everybody's omnitools, and disabled the engineers' omnitools."
"That's... disturbing," commented Arysa, who had been listening in. "That implies a thourough knowledge of our technology, which shouldn't be possible in the few weeks since contact was made."
"I agree. Unfortunately, they aren't likely to explain how they know so much to us, so we'll have to go on as planned. Which means you'll have to go with them alone, Arysa, as they demanded. Good luck."
Arysa nodded, and turned back to the aliens, taking them in for the first time.
The first four were asarioid, a little under two meters tall, with five fingers. Beyond that, she couldn't make out much, as the hoomans were in covered in gold and blue body armor. Each one of them carried a different weapon in its hands, and had a sidearm in a holster and a long, strangely glowing knife strapped to its leg.
The other two aliens, Arysa realized, weren't aliens at all, but mechs, in the same blue and gold as the hoomans. One of them was varren-shaped, with wicked fangs and tremendous claws, while the other was less regular. Vaguely asarioid, its head was elongated, and it had tremendous claws on each hand.
Arysa gulped as the second mech turned towards her and grinned, revealing a gaping maw filled with dozens of razor sharp teeth. Its empty black eyes stared at her and the creature flexed its claws, then it turned to observe the rest of the bridge.
The asarioid mech and three of the hoomans spread out around the bridge and began searching the area and its occupants. When they were apparently satisfied, they began, without a word, to scan the crews' omnitools. When they had finished that, they took up positions by the door. The fourth hooman, the one who hadn't moved, stepped forward.
"Thank you for your cooperation," the hooman said in a deep, rough voice. "You may now choose one, and only one, delegate. He, she, or it will be held on our flagship as hour guest until the Empress arrives, which should be sometime within the next twelve hours. During this time, you will be given a course on basic human culture and history. If you reject this offer, you will instead be invited onto the Hammer of Sol, the Imperial Flagship, upon its arrival in Tarantulon space to meet with the Empress."
Everyone on the bridge looked to Arysa, who stepped forward. "As the official ambassador for the Citadel Council, I accept your offer to be your guest on your flagship. I would very much like to learn about your people before meeting with your Empress." Arysa was barely able to hide her disgust at the idea of any race using such a primitive and totalitarian form of government, but she was a trained diplomat, and hide it she did. She didn't want to offend the humans if she didn't have to.
"In that case, let us leave. If you would please follow me."
With that, the hoo- human turned towards the door and led Arysa off of the bridge.
Twenty minutes later, the Asari ambassador caught her first true sight of a human.
It was tall, almost two meters, with pink skin and had short black fur where an Asari's headcrest would be. Its hands were five fingered, and its elbows bent forwards and its knees backwards. In fact, it looked remarkably like it was theorized that a male Asari would, except that it wasn't blue and had fur instead of a headcrest.
The human stepped forward, and stuck its arm forward. Arysa took it, as she had been instructed while on the shuttle, and shook the hand back and forth.
The human smiled, and spoke. "Welcome aboard, ma'am. I'm Admiral Harmon Saxby, and I'll be your host for the next few hours until the Empress arrives. If you'll follow me, I'll introduce you to Gandaldore. He'll be the one teaching you about our people." At Arysa's nod, he turned and led her to a doorway, which opened as he approached, to reveal a large elevator, which Arysa followed her guide onto.
When they reached their destination floor, the Admiral stepped out, Arysa following shortly behind him. The Asari matron was led through a maze of corridors and blast doors, until Saxby stopped in front of a door which was, in every distinguishable way, identical to every single other door on the ship.
"Now, before you meet Gandaldore, I should warn you- he's... well, he's not human."
"You mean you've had experience with other races before this?" Arysa asked, surprised. She'd expected the hoo- humans, Goddess damn it, to be new to the greater galaxy. What was more, she found it hard to believe that there were not only one, but two advanced(ish) races who had not contacted the citadel.
"Well, yes, but he's not one of them, either. He's... ah, fuck it. He's an AI. Now don't..."
"WHAT!? You have AIs? And you give them access to military grade ships? Are you INSANE? Don't you know how dangerous AIs are?"
"... do that," the admiral finished somewhat dejectedly as Aryssa continued to rant. Eventually, as the blue woman was starting to calm down, the door slid open, and out came a hologram of an old man with a long white beard and robes that shifted from gray to white, then developed polka dots, which then turned into smiley faces, then bled out into the rest of the robe and faded until it was gray again.
"Hello admiral," the hologram said cheerfully. "I assume from the yelling that you just told her about me?"
Saxby sighed. "Yes. Arysa, this is Gandaldore, and, as I said, he's an AI," he said to the hyperventillating Asari. "However, he's not evil, crazy, or bent on the destruction of all organic life." Saxby looked at Gandaldore's shifting robes, and ammended his statement. "Well, two out of three, anyway. Humans have been using AIs safely for the past two hundred and fifty years, and they've never rebelled like your Citadel Council says they will. Now will you calm down?"
Arysa took a deep breath. "I apologize for my reaction, admiral. It's just that it has long been known to our people that AIs have no use for organics, and would destroy us all."
Gandaldore laughed loudly at this. "Don't be ridiculous. You have no use for a rock- do you go and destroy all of them? And what about varren? Not only are they useless, they're dangerous animals. Yet you don't wage a war of extermination upon them. Besides, organics are people, too, even if they aren't as good as AIs in some areas. No offense, admiral. I know that if humans went extinct, I would miss them. Not to mention being monumentally bored. Who would there be to beat at chess? Can you imagie what it's like to play chess with another AI? Why, in the time that we've had this conversation, Drizzt and I have already had six hundred and forty two stalemates."
Arysa looked shocked and slightly confused. "I... I never thought of that," she said after a few moments. "And... wait, how do you know what varren are? For that matter, how do you know High Thessian?"
Gandaldore opened his mouth to answer, but Saxby broke in. "That's classified, I'm afraid. Now, if you trust me to leave you with Gandaldore, I have to get back to the bridge."
Arysa hesitated, but nodded.
"Good. If you need anything, Gandaldore will see to it. I'll come back as soon as I get word that the Empress is in Tarantulon space." With that, the admiral left Arysa and Gandaldore alone in the hallway.
Arysa stared at the AI distrustfully.
"Oh, don't give me that. I'm not going to hurt you. I don't even have acess to the ship's systems, beyond communication, so I couldn't hurt you if I wanted to. Though, I suppose I could ask somebody with a golemn to do it. Nightfall has the most magnificent claws- fantastic for dismemberment, he says..." at the look of horror on Arysa's face, he chuckled. "Just a joke, don't worry. AIs are strictly forbidden from dismembering people without permission. Especially Nightfall. Now come on, we've only got about six hours before Empress Eleanor arrives, and we've got a lot to cover if we want to get past basic history and into etiquette. Come on, come on."
Arysa sighed and followed the hologram through the door he'd come out of and into a nicely furnished room, which had a couch, desk, table, and a few armchairs.
"Well, if you'll take a seat, we can begin. I've been instructed to skip to the Dontrin era, which is a shame, because the pre-Dontrin humans were a fascinating lot. The fact that they managed to do so much without the plague is incredible. But that's humans for you- always exceeding expectations. I don't think anybody expected us to win the Solar War, after all, but the humans did, now didn't they?"
"Ummmm... Yes?" Arysa guessed. "I'm sorry, but what are you talking about? Dontrin, and doing without a plague? Isn't that generally a good thing?"
"Oh! Right! I'm giving you a history lesson, aren't I?" the AI asked.
"You're supposed to be," the Asari said.
"Well, in the early twenty first century, the humans discovered a ruined city..."
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So, here's the deal. I know that I kinda promised a war of extermination, but it just didn't make sense. As soon as the humans started bombarding planets, the Asari would call for a peace conference. The Turians would be pissed, but the Asari are the real powers in the Council, and the Turians would have to go along with it. But don't worry- the Turians, and the council in general, will eventually get what's coming to them. THAT'S a promise.