A Krogan misplaced: Chapter 5
Crash site of the "Turning Wheel" - Former Bicentennial Park - Sydney - June 7 2041
As Urdnot Wrex finished the final line of chanting, one of the planets days and a night after he had started, he lowered his head in sorrow.
The children lay in their graves, the silence of death something Wrex was far to familiar with, even after a thousand years of life. Turian, quarian, asari and salarian alike in a long row of pits, with the exception of their faces they all were covered by dirt, gifts at their sides so as to placate kalros when they passed her on the way to the realm beyond, and weapons to fight in the endless city of Juakahre until the end of days arrived, whereupon they would do battle one last time.
Wrex made his way to the start of the row, and knelt beside the face of a young turian, not even old enough to have developed a crest. Muttering a short blessing, Wrex covered the face in dirt, to send the child to the realm beyond. Down the long line of bodies, several humans muttered blessings in their own tongues before doing the same. Wrex assumed they were shamen of some sort, they had robes certainly, and also possessed various items which probably meant something to the humans, deliberately shaped pieces of wood and metal for the most part.
Wrex repeated the process on three others before all the children in the line had been buried properly. Staring at the scene one last time, Wrex began to ascend the steep hill out of the crash site. The humans had a delegation of sorts waiting for him, dressed in what was quite similar to the krogan concept of a suit, and some trailing dresses that Wrex was used to seeing on asari. The male human at the front of the group gestured to the swiftly erected gigantic tent. Wrex gave what he now knew was the human gesture for yes, an awkward moving up and down of the head of all things, and proceeded into said tent with the rest of the group trailing behind him.
The inside of the tent was dominated by a small semicircular table, with numerous chairs set around it and a single, larger desk in front of it. Also present were several more of the primitive cameras which seemed to be recording the entire room. It took Wrex a few seconds to work out where he was supposed to sit, but one of the...what he guessed were servants pointed him towards the larger middle chair, which he realised had a curved back. As he sat down, Wrex noted that the choice of table might be deliberate, perhaps to signify that they didn't believe themselves to be above him? Wrex knew the asari and elcor liked to practice such things, but it would have been foreign to most krogan.
The procession that followed him in was a varied sort. The humans were a colourful bunch, not as distinctive as krogan but still better than the hangar or batarians when it came to distinguishing them from one another. The fur styles on their heads and the skin colour were the easiest by far to differentiate, which was lucky for Wrex as the fifteen or so humans which entered into the room couldn't be told apart by much else.
The humans walked to the various seats around the semicircular table, most glancing at him a few times as they sat down, small metal plaques being placed down next to each human had various words on them, which Wrex guessed might be their names, or perhaps who they represented. When the last one had sat down, the rest of the humans exited the tent, leaving them alone with Wrex.
For a few seconds there was silence, but then the human farthest to the left spoke. his voice gravelly and heavy with some tone Wrex couldn't identify, not helped by the fact that his head-fur extended down and covered his mouth, how he could even eat with that Wrex didn't know.
"Greetings Urdnot Wrex, we are the United Nations Security Council, we represent the vested interests of all humanity on this planet. We do apologise for the delay in speaking with you, but your... unexpected arrival has thrown global diplomacy into a degree of chaos."
Wrex was outwardly silent, but his mind was racing at the implications of what the human had said. His talks with the previous human, Ruth, had mostly been about his getting the language she called "English" onto his translator correctly. He'd affirmed some basics of what had transpired to bring him to the planet, as well as teaching the human a degree of Korogorish, and his explaining why anything they wanted would have to wait until the children...and only the children, were buried. But little had been spoke of politics or government. The words... "United Nations", they suggested the humans either were like the asari and acted as a confederation, or that they hadn't gotten past the period of nation states so famous in turian and salarian media. He hoped it wasn't the latter, if it was then the Council would pick it to pieces if they ever discovered the planet. Which was entirely possible, depending on how far from the nearest mass relay Wrex was at the moment.
It hadn't taken Wrex long to decide what he wanted to do after he'd talked to Ruth and confirmed that he was their first alien visitor. He was going to uplift the humans. But Wrex was going to be smarter than the salarians about it, he wasn't going to forcibly mould their culture into that of the krogan, nor was he going to use them to achieve some goal. Well, besides the obvious one. The thing that had convinced him to help the humans in the first place, the desire he possessed deep in his hearts, something no krogan had ever had the opportunity to do.
He was going to get revenge.
It would a century at least, it could take millennia. But if the humans got off their rocky planet, and they met the Council? They would be forewarned. The salarians wouldn't get to infiltrate the tech markets of the humans by posing as charitably intentioned galactic citizens, merely seeking to uplift the new race. The humans would be aware of the asari tactic of seeding biotic cults and ardat yakshi through opposing powers citizenry. The Council would meet a state which was forewarned of their tricks in advance, one which had been brought about by that lowest of races, the krogan.
Urdnot Wrex would bring about the rise of the humans, so as to get revenge for the krogan. But first he would have to ensure that no...weakness was available to prey upon in the human government. They would have to be united, truly united, if they wished to avoid being subsumed or broken from the inside.
All this passed through Wrex's head in the handful of seconds before he responded, trying to keep his mind on subject as the beginnings of a plan began to form. Clearing his throat, he addressed the "Security Council" in as neutral a tone as he could manage.
"So what do you want to know? History? Myself? The other races of the galaxy?"
His words caused a brief spate of conversation in a language he did not know, it sounded like an actual language though, tone and actual vocalisation being put into the words as opposed to the seemingly dullness of English. When it was over, a different human, a female this time, answered him.
"You mention other races... who are they? What are their governments? How many are there?
These humans were lucky they weren't meeting a salarian or an asari in this position, if it had been one of them speaking they might well have glossed over several aspects of Citadel history. Lucky for them, he considered himself better than the salarians. Wrex lent back on the chair, thinking of the best way to address the issue, before replying in what he hoped was a neutral tone.
"The galaxy can be roughly divided into three distinct power blocs. The Citadel, the Ascendancy and Aria. The Citadel Council is a three person dictatorship, they control roughly two thirds of galactic territory, and more than that in terms of population. The Citadel is based out of an old prothean space station, also called the Citadel, and six member races. Unfortunately for you, only three of those races actually have any representation in the Council itself. Those three are the asari, salarians and turians. Each of those races gets to appoint their councillor, gives a portion of their fleet and income to Citadel control. Theoretically its possible for any of the races to get a seat on the Council, but the elcor have had their embassy on the citadel for over two and a half of your millennia, and haven't gotten any further."
He stopped to let the humans absorb the information. If he had the right of their faces, then they were disconcerted. The woman who'd spoken turned to him again, before speaking.
"And the other two, this Ascendancy and Aria?"
Wrex gave a sigh. Of course they'd ask about those two. Still, no getting out of it.
"Aria is...complicated. My translator tells me the closest term to what she would be called is "Criminal Warlord". I actually know her personally, she controls a loose alliance of warlords, separatists, minor races and mercenary companies that make up what the galaxy calls the "Terminus Systems", conquered them about one of your centuries ago. She doesn't actually control too much in the way of territory or ships, but her defences and finances are vast, she's seen off the citadel fleet once, her fortress asteroid of Omega is practically invincible."
Wrex hadn't had the opportunity to see Aleema T'armal to much since they'd parted, the girl had grown strong for sure, and he'd been as surprised as anyone to see her face on the haptic screens when it was announced that Omega's management had...changed.
The humans seemed even more displeased at that announcement, several frowns appearing on their asari like faces.
Wrex continued on, the last part would be the most interesting after all.
"Finally you have the Hanar Ascendancy. The Ascendancy is... small compared to the other two. They don't control more than about ninety worlds, and they only have a single client race, the drell. Course they don't need to control any more than that when they're the single most technologically advanced government in the galaxy. The hanar essentially believe that the race whose technology most of ours is based on, the protheans, are their gods, and fortunately for them, they happened to get a jumpstart in leftover technology. Point is, they've fought the entire armed forces of the Citadel Council and defeated them, twice. Couple of events known as the Refusal Wars, Council attempted to invade hanar space and seize their prothean ruins, the hanar...took issue with that. I was actually around for the second, they parked an entire fleet outside Citadel Station itself, assassinated the councillors, and threatened to exterminate us if we didn't leave them alone. They're religious fanatics as well, the only way your species could get on the good side is if you accept their faith of the Enkindlers."
As Wrex lifted his right claw to scratch his armour, he noted that this time the humans actually looked positively ill. Oh he was going to have some fun telling them everything else.
Then the human who'd asked first spoke again, his face had lost colour in the time since Wrex had last looked, but he kept up the tone of voice he'd had before as he asked the next question.
"And may I ask where your race, the krogan fit in with this?"
Wrex chuckled, a deep 'Hur Hur' that echoed in the tent, before responding, his voice tired compared to the previous minutes.
"Well...it begins about seven thousand years ago, in a series of events we call the Wars of Blood."
AUTHORS NOTE:
CHAPTER TIME! Woooohooooo!
All hail the UBER-Jellies!
On other notes, this is apparently my most popular story now. Huh.
EDIT: OKAY TO REMIND EVERYONE, there won't be no council bashing on any of that in this fic. I have standards, its just that much of the lore for this fic is based upon the LogicalPremise | FanFiction . Which is inherently a dark fic, with beautifully crafted lore. its not quite so dark as Premiseverse canon, but it is a darker shade of grey than canon