A Krogan misplaced: Chapter 12
"R&D Department: Lab 3: X-Compound" -Australian Outback - 25 Days after landing
The group of humans filling the lecture hall were to a sapient, singularly unimpressive by krogan standards. Seated five rows of forty, they were what passed for the human "elite". Each and every one of them was allegedly one of the most promising officers the humans could produce, high intelligence, peak physical fitness. A handful even had adorably primitive cybernetics and genetic enhancements.
They were a bunch of useless weaklings. But every race was that compared to the krogan, and if Urdnot Wrex intended to succeed where the salarians had failed, then the future human leadership would need to be soldiers and thinkers...not bloodthirsty morons claiming to be warriors that the damned amphibians had produced from the krogan.
Yet as Wrex gazed across the ranks of humans...he couldn't help but feel an inkling of...something.
It was that feeling which he'd had when commanding his clan. When he taught the pups how to sing the most basic of the sacred songs. When the name of Urdnot Wrex had meant something other than failure. Wrex could see it in the eyes of the humans, the race might be stubborn, primitive, far too obsessed with their pop culture and constantly looked like they were on red sand... but they had potential. Wrex had learnt the subtle ways the humans expressed emotions, far to much focus on the face or tone of voice in his own opinion, but easy enough to read. The humans were...respectful. Some were in awe, others curious. He was rather disturbed that one of them was looking at him with slightly to much interest. More militant asari indeed.
But all of those were emotions he could use, emotions he could mould, forge into something which would set the foundation for the humans future. A future where they would be strong... honourable... with a miracle by Kalros he could even make them peaceful. But the challenge would be keeping them human...not some miniature race of krogan. Wrex was better than the salarians, he would prove it to the whole galaxy whenever the humans found it.
Enough of that though, now he would have to speak to the damned humans. Giving the primitive microphone on the podium a light tap, he started to speak in what the humans would hopefully interpret as a jovial tone.
"Greetings humans, for those few of you who don't know who I am, my name is Urdnot Wrex. I have fought in three galactic scale conflicts, nearly a hundred lower level conflicts, and more skirmishes than I can count or be bothered to remember. I have been a mercenary, warlord, general..."
Wrex let the sides of his mouth pull back. To a krogan, the face would be signifying his general excitement at what was to come, the human interpretation was somewhat more vague but along the same line of thought. The humans in the lecture hall just shifted nervously, if they reacted at all.
"...and It has become my job to teach you whimpering pyjaks how fighting beyond this little dirtball of a planet works. This will be a long term project, I doubt any of you will be alive when this comes into use, and you will all have to adjust everything I speak about to make it suitable for humans."
Scratching his chinplates, he gazed over the intent faces of the humans, most were leaning forward from where they sat, and even those that didn't were writing down notes. Good...might be hope for some of the useless pyjaks. Idly, he pointed to one of the humans in the front row, the name tag had something written on it and the flag probably signified where he was from, but Wrex didn't care.
"You, front row, second to the left. If I were to try and fight you in hand to hand, how would you defeat me?"
The young man started at being addressed, but rapidly got over it and answered the question, a degree of uncertainty in his voice as he analysed Wrex.
"I...I would attempt to hit your eyes, before tipping you over and thrusting a knife into your skull."
Wrex gave a disappointed sigh, before looking at the human and speaking.
"Wrong, even if I wasn't wearing a full face helmet, you'd have to place your arm in range of my bite. You'd be short an arm, and I'd probably blast you with a shotgun."
Turning to one of the candidates up the back, he pointed once more.
"Last row, fifth to the right. How would you do it?"
This human gave it more thought, before answering in a confidant tone of voice.
"Cut whatever your equivalent of tendons is, then finishing you off a distance away."
Wrex raised a brow to the human before he responded, according to Fatima, his deadpan tone of voice was improving.
"I have six redundant muscles which can take over the job my tendons provide, your plan fails and I crush your skull with my fist."
As he looked around the room, he noticed one of the humans, a small one with orange fur on their head. He couldn't actually its gender to his surprise, but presumably they had confidence given their action. Pointing to them, he gestured for the slight being to speak.
"We can't win, retreat to a distance and open fire with conventional weapons."
Wrex's grin grew wider, oh he was going to like this one.
"Correct!"
When he spoke next, he addressed the room as a whole, keeping his voice low so as to get the point across.
"What you humans are going to have to learn, is that you are not top of the pack in the wider galaxy. If you are in close combat with one of my people, the krogan, then your commanding officer has made a mistake. We have enough redundant biological systems, regeneration and pain resistance that any attempt bring us down without heavy amounts of gunfire is likely to be futile. The same applies to numerous other species. Turian blood is poisonous to your kind, the batarians are physically your superiors, any asari with half a brain can shove a fist full of biotics into your gut and let loose."
Crossing his arms, Wrex slowly tuned his head about the chamber, watching the reactions of the humans carefully.
"Your species is technologically two thousand years behind the rest of the galaxy, and is likely to be that way for several centuries. What I am going to be teaching you is not how to nullify this advantage, its going to be how to live with it, and who your descendants foes are going to be. If you don't disappoint me I might even consider each one of you to be a vague threat to a half dead quarian with a suit rupture. But the quarian would still probably win."
The humans were all looking distinctly uncomfortable, perhaps not used to the idea that they were helpless against the vast majority of the galaxy. Good, they needed to learn that they weren't the best. Wrex would remove their pride if he had to beat it out of them, pride was what had caused the krogan to try and conquer the galaxy, and Wrex wouldn't let the humans ever think they could pull that off. The humans would learn.
Wrex let them mull over that before he addressed them again. Glancing from one side of the room to the other, he let a bit of excitement pass into his voice as he spoke.
"But the best way to defeat your enemy is to know how they fight, and that is what I am here to teach you. So... who wants to start?"
Grand Ecumenical Conclave of All Christendom - Bethlehem - Israel
To say that the representatives of the many denominations present in the hall were nervous would probably be understating the issue. This was only the most important meeting of the worshippers of christ since the last supper, never before had so many answered the call to a council, let alone one called by the Pope in Rome.
Yet as the last delegate was seated, Cardinal Josephine Vargas couldn't help but worry about the outcome of the holy gathering she was attending. Because the simple truth was, that just about everyone in the room hated someone else.
The Lutherans despised the Catholics, the Catholics disliked the Church of England, the Church of England thought the Methodists were doomed to hellfire. Everyone not from north America thought the Church of Latter Day Saints were weird and nobody was quite sure what to make of the Jehovahs Witnesses. That wasn't even getting into the near theological war that had broken out between the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches while for some reason the representative from the Turkish Evangelical Union had been getting strange looks from the Armenian side of the room.
If there hadn't been a single unifying factor which had gathered the disparate followers of god into a single room then there would probably have been three murders before the conference could start.
Yet... there was a unifying factor. Despite everything, the attending groups all agreed that the ramifications of what had happened near a month ago had to be discussed in an open forum. Some groups, a handful of the more fundamentalist expressions of gods word amongst them, had refused to attend the heathen/devil worshipping/papist meeting of faiths, and consequently had avoided mention. Yet when nearly two thousand people of different creeds had come together to discuss one issue... it was rather heartening.
That she herself had been chosen for such an honour made Cardinal Josephine intensely aware of how badly this needed to go right. And as the first speaker got up, that feeling remained.
Pastor Johann Yu was the first to speak, as one of the select delegation who had actually spoken with the subject of the council, Urdnot Wrex, he was also chosen to lead said council. The elderly man held up the sheet of notations as he began to speak.
"Greetings to all of you who have made the journey here to the birthplace of our lord-"
While there were some grumblings at the choice of word, the room otherwise remained silent as Pastor Yu continued to speak.
"- despite the swiftness with which this conclave was declared and the rapidity with which it had begun, I do believe that this event is necessary to have dialogue about. Our perspective on the lords creation has changed, no longer can we say for certain that we are alone in the universe. God has without doubt created other beings, and they have with them their own beliefs. I shall remind all that this conclave is purely for discussion, not binding arrangements or even general agreement."
Pausing, the old man seemed deep in thought for a few moments, but then he spoke once more, his tone betraying nothing of what he felt.
"Firstly, I must sadly state that this Urdnot Wrex does not believe in god as we would all know him, instead his people worship their ancestors, praying for their guidance. Yet despite this, they also seem to believe in what comes quite close to the descriptions of heaven."
A general murmur began to fill the room as many contemplated the fact that an entirely non human race separated from earth by untold millions of lightyears had created a similar concept of heaven. Josephine had a feeling that the particulars of that statement would become the focus of many a church in regards to the new reality.
"The specifics seem to be that when a being dies...their soul is placed upon a narrow bridge which leads up to heaven. On either side of this bridge, Urdnot Wrex claims that there is a great pit, which is where the souls of those unworthy must attempt to climb back out until they have been purified. This is however, only the first challenge. For a great worm referred to as "Kalros the Everliving" seeks to knock the unwary into the pit. Urdnot Wrex has told us that supposedly this beast is calmed by singing... and to do such at the burial of the deceased, if they are provided with appropriate gifts, will ensure they can get past Kalros and into their ancestors halls."
There was a great silence as all within the hall contemplated the words, eventually one of the Orthodox delegates stood up, opened his mouth to speak, and began at last, the Council of Bethlehem.
AUTHORS NOTES
In case you guys/gals/cthuloids are wondering why I chose to show a Christian conference on the matter, its frankly because I don't know any other
group of faiths intimately enough to gauge their reaction to Wrex's arrival. If you have any opinions on the subject, i'd encourage you to offer them.