AN: This is the last chapter of this for a while now, maybe ever. I'm going to try to push the next chapters of Cameron's Legacy and War in Tokyo through to completion this week; they've been crawling along, but only crawling.

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"This is humiliating," Adrien Victus said, and none of the other Primarchs, assembled via QE teleconference, cared to contradict him.

Admiral Tranatine, by far the junior-ranking Turian in the conference, didn't feel much like speaking either.

"What happened?" Primarch Aurolius demanded, "How did they get so close without being detected?"

"Unfortunately, sir," Tranatine said, admirably concealing his discomfort, "Immediately preceeding the attacks, the aliens initiated a massive jamming field, cutting off all communications links with our surface forces. All we have, are visual feeds of the strikes taking place."

"And what did they reveal?" Aurolius pressed.

"It appears that the aliens have taken tactical cloaking technology," Tranatine said, "And advanced it far beyond what even the Salarians or Asari are capable of. As best as we can tell, they used a large number of laser-armed pocket gunships equipped with these cloaking devices to strike with essentially no warning. They took out the command center and the most senior Regimental commanders in the first strike, then re-cloaked, repositioned, and struck again before any of the other Regiments were able to discern what happened. The only position they left untouched was the field hospital."

"It is fortunate, it would seem," Adrien Victus said, "That our new enemies show some sign of mercy. It is time to call in the Asari to broker peace."

"Peace?" Aurolius demanded, "After they slaughtered six regiments?"

"After they have proven that they have the ability to crush our forces, if they are so inclined," Victus growled.

"On the ground," Aurolius said, "Certainly. But we have already proven that we are far superior in space."

"From what we have seen," Victus snarled, "Are you privy to intelligence reports I am unaware of, showing that these aliens are not capable of employing the same cloaking technology on their space-borne vessels? Need I remind you that it is entirely possible, that Kolokolsot was telling the truth when he claimed our patrol fleet only engaged non-military vessels?"

"It is possible," Aurolius grudgingly admitted, "But it is also possible they do not have such capabilities, and if they do, why have they not employed them before?"

"I do not know," Victus said, "But I do not wish to waste more lives finding out."

"And I see no reason to run to the Asari with our tails tucked between our legs when we have not even attempted an orbital bombardment thus far!"

Victus resisted the urge to grind his mandibles at that, as the other Primarchs shifted subtly in their seats. No Turian liked losing, and admitting defeat with out even attempting the most powerful aspect of standard doctrine would be humiliating.

The arguments may not have ended, but Victus knew he had already lost.

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On the surface of Shanxi, the Turians who had survived the Spartan's strike were experiencing the first face-to-face Turian-Human contact, or face-to-helmet, anyways. The 21st Spartan Heavy Infantry had sent out S&R teams to find survivors, and escort, or sometimes carry them, to the Turian field hospital. While some of the surviving Turians were displeased with the armored figures herding and carrying them, most recognized, by the time they reached the still-standing hospital, if not sooner, that their new captors were treating them far better than they had any need to. Though they did confiscate all of the Turian's weapons.

Throughout the entirety of the rescue operation, none of the aliens removed their masks, or even spoke to the Turians, using gestures and holographic maps to give commands and directions. And once the aliens had finished moving all of the Turians to the field hospital, all of them, every last one, disappeared before their vary eyes, fading from sight, hearing, and sensors.

It was then that the Turian name for the aliens was coined:

'Shades.'

((()))

"Kolokolotsov," Marissa said, somewhat crankily, "It looks like they're finally moving into position for orbital bombardment."

"Well," The Base Commander said with what he liked to think of as a roguish grin, and Marissa liked to think of as an ugly smirk, "I guess we'll see just how well a gen nine Tachyon field holds out, won't we?"

"You could be a little bit less blasé about this," Marissa grumped, "This is my body they're going to be bombing."

"Yes," Kolokolotsov said, an uncommonly serious tone entering his voice, "I quite understand. I am, after all, here as well. I have skin in the game, so to speak."

((()))

Hundreds of kilometers above Shanxi Prime, three frigates entered optimal firing position, and rotated to direct their spinal guns down towards the University base. Two held themselves in reserve for the first barrage, waiting to test the effect of their weapons on a smaller scale.

The first frigate's paired spinal mass effect cannons projected two 1.2 kilogram masses down to the surface of Shanxi at C-fractional velocities, sonic booms crackling through the atmosphere, and coming to an abrupt, absolute halt against Shanxi Prime's Tachyon Field.

The shielding system didn't even flicker.

The other frigates joined in the next barrage, the three vessels unleashing enough force between them to level a small city.

It did not noticeably accomplish any more than the first barrage did.

Then the Turians began moving their Cruisers up...

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"Persistent, aren't they?" Kolokolotsov opined six hours later, as he watched the Tachyon Field's power reserves slowly fade, "You'd almost think they didn't like us or something."

"Oh my!" Marissa said caustically, "Whatever gave you that idea? Was it the fleet in orbit? The ground assault team? The orbital bombardment? Or was it that they destroyed that freighter before it could offload your favorite coffee blend?"

"Now now," Kolokolotsov said chidingly, "I'll have you know it was the Ice Cream that I was looking forward to, not the coffee."

"You're impossible," Marissa grouched, a touch sulkily.

"I very much hope that our enemies come to that conclusion," Kolokolotsov said, his voice suddenly terribly grave, "How do things look over at their field hospital?"

"One moment," Marissa said, "I will consult with the Spartans."

Kolokolotsov waited for a moment.

"The Turians appear to be stable enough for transport," Marissa said.

"Alright then," Kolokolotsov said, "Bring them in."

((()))

"Sir," Trenatine's adjutant said as he forwarded a visual feed to the Admiral's command chair, "You'd better have a look at this."

Trenatine had a look.

"Get me Primarch Victus," He growled.

((()))

Victus snarled after Tranatine finished his report, then cut the connection.

"Get me the Council," He barked.

((()))

Sparatus was not accustomed to being glared at by his Asari counterpart on the council. He also was not accustomed to being made nervous by someone glaring at him.

"What," Matriarch Tevos asked harshly, "Were your fleet commanders thinking?"

"I would guess," Sparatus growled, "That they were thinking about enforcing Council Law. You know, the one that was passed because of the Rachni Wars?"

"Ah," Tevos said, her tone as flat as her gaze, before turning to Toriya, their Salarian counterpart, "Toriya, my good fellow, could you remind me of what the purpose of the edict regarding new relays was?"

"To prevent a repeat of the Rachni wars," The Salarian said bluntly.

"Hm," Tevos said, bringing a hand up to her chin as her voice and face filled with faux thoughtfulness, "Now, obviously we can't be entirely certain, but it would seem to me," She glared at Sparatus for a moment before continuing, "That initiating first contact with heavy weapons fire, then following it up with a planetary invasion and orbital bombardment would not be the best way to repeat such a first contact, would it?"

Sparatus winced.

"Fine, dammit," The Asari councilor growled, "We'll go and try to fix this damn catastrophe you numbskulls have dragged us into. Let me make something clear though, there will be hell to pay for this."

((()))

Two weeks later.

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"MARISSA!" Kolokolotsov shouted as he leapt from his seat, clear over his desk, "BRING THE CHAIR OF POWER!"

((()))

Matriarch Tevos had reviewed every second of footage from the creature's conversation with the Turians, a minimum of three times. What little had been visible from the limited visual feed they had received had revealed a remarkably Asari-like physiology; seeing the creature in person now, on the surface of Shanxi, revealed that aside from possessing fur and a lack of mammary glands, their species was practically identical.

Considering how much time she spent on her feet while dealing with Council matters though, she rather envied the creature's chair.

"I am Tevos," She introduced herself, "Of the Asari Republics. Our race generally handles diplomatic affairs for the Council, and I am currently the seniormost representative thereof."

The creature sitting across the, in this case literal, negotiating table from her, gazed dispassionately at her for some time while its seat moved slowly in a circle along a vertical plane.

"You are here then, to negotiate," It finally said, "What do you desire from these negotiations?"

Tevos thought carefully before responding. Very carefully.

"Primarily," She said, "To redress the crimes the Turians have wrought in their excessive zeal regarding certain Council decrees, and negotiate terms of peace."

"Peace," The creature said, cocking its head to the side as it continued gazing at her, its chair beginning to spin with the creature's head as the pivot-point, "But not surrender. Why should we accept such terms?"

"To prevent further death," Tevos said, leaning back in her own, far less luxurious seat, so that she could more easily prevent herself from being physically disoriented by the creature's strange gyrations, "And I can assure you, the Turians will pay restitution for their crimes, even if it is not under terms of surrender."

"Fair enough," The creature said, and its chair abruptly ceased moving, twenty-three degrees off from being entirely upside down, then began to rotate on a plane parallel to the ground, "The terms are as follows: We will remand all surviving Turians to your care, and in return, as well as restitution, the Turians will surrender every vessel of the two fleets that assaulted Shanxi to our possession, fully intact and with all hardware and equipment that is not personal property of the crew included. If these terms are accepted, peace and trade negotiations may begin."

Tevos eyes widened at the terms; while the frigate squadron and cruiser detachment that had assaulted Shanxi represented only a small portion of the Turian fleet overall, it was still a lot of firepower in absolute terms. On the other hand...

"The surrender of these vessels is all you will require," She asked, "No monetary restitution or repatriation of officers to stand trial for their actions?"

"That is correct," The creature said, its rotation stopping, as it began to bob up and down, "Will these terms be accepted?"

Tevos stilled herself for a moment, and bent her mind to a single consideration; not whether or not she should accept the terms, but whether or not she could. In essence, could she bully the Turians into accepting the surrender of so many of their ships? Considering that she could hold having potentially instigated the next Rachni war over their heads, and they would lose only hardware, not people, she damn well would make them eat it, or she would die trying.

"The terms will be accepted," Tevos declared firmly, meeting the creature's gaze as best she could as it bobbed up and down, while upside down, more than a meter above the ground.

"Very good," The creature said, and its chair, mercifully, lowered and rotated itself down to simply sit across from her.

Then it began to vibrate.

"N-now th-that that i-issue is d-disp-spensed w-with," The creature said, "I-it is t-time to ad-dress a few d-details."

Tevos nodded, concealing her confusion at the creature's change of behavior with the skill of a diplomat holding centuries of experience.

"O-our race r-refers t-to ourselves as H-humans," He said, "M-my nam-me is Kolokolotsov, a-and I-I am-m male."

Tevos nodded again, wishing his name had not been distorted by his vibration-induced stutter.

"Th-the M-m-m-morganites," The chair abruptly stopped vibrating, and began slowly circling on a horizontal plane, without turning its occupant away from her, "Will be happy to engage in trade with your society's merchant caste, but we will not be joining the Citadel races, nor opening our borders, aside from a few specific trade ports."

"Why?" Tevos asked, somewhat wary that she may have just bought nothing with her large concession on behalf of the Turians.

"Humanity does not conform to a number of laws the Citadel enforces," Kolokolotsov said, "For example, Digital Sentiences have been legal citizens within our society for a century now, and we have developed genetic technology far beyond that permitted by Citadel decree."

Tevos was very glad she had chosen to come to this meeting alone, and leave her Turian counterpart in orbit. It was hard enough for her to avoid violent reaction to the male's words, she knew Sparatus would have exploded.

"We are willing, however," Kolokolotsov continued, "To sign a formal peace treaty, and once we have further information on entities such as the 'Rachni' and the 'Geth,' we may be willing to pledge support should the Citadel races face assault from such foes once more. However, considering the ingrained bigotry against certain forms of life, we feel it would result only in violence for our borders to be fully open at this time. Some time of acclimation would be appropriate first."

"This sounds amenable," Tevos said cautiously, "I will have to consult with the other Councilors before such an agreement is formalized, but I foresee no troubles with such."

"Very good," Kolokolotsov said, nodding, then retrieved an odd object from within his garments, a curved stem leading into an upturned bowl shape, "Perhaps we may then partake of a custom of humanity since millenia past, the Peace Pipe."

So saying, he stuck the stem into his mouth, then exhaled through it, causing bubbles to spew forth from the upturned bowl. Afterward exhaling, and producing more streams of bubbles, several times, he withdrew it from his mouth, then wiped it with a cloth that Tevos hoped was treated to sterilize microorganisms, then offered it to her.

Carefully accepting the 'Peace Pipe,' she stuck it in her mouth, savored the odd taste of it for a moment, then exhaled, producing her own plume of bubbles to join the dissipating cloud already around them. She found the activity oddly cathartic.

And judging by the broad grin on Kolokolotsov's face, a near perfectly Asari-like expression, so did he.

((()))

AN: Codex is from the perspective of the Council races, Datalinks is from the perspective of the humans.

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Codex: Humans.

Humans are, without a doubt, the most viscerally alien race that the Citadel has encountered thus far. While bearing generally similar traits to most Citadel races; four limbs, two genders, animal rather than plant based physiology, sexual reproduction, and in fact are sometimes described as 'Asari with fur and two genders' as far as appearance is concerned, their society and culture is drastically divergent.

As best as has been determined, human society is rigidly separated by caste, five castes currently known to exist, though anecdotal evidence to now-extinct castes exists, and there is some inference that new castes may be emerging. The castes known to exist, and their general roles, are as follows:

University: The caste of knowledge, and technology, occupied primarily with scientific advancement and exploration of the universe.

The Morgans: The caste of merchants, concerned primarily with trade and the production of entertainment media.

The Piece-Keepers: The caste of Diplomats and possibly law enforcement. They appear to worship a deity known as 'Yoo-En', whose holy text is known as 'Char-Ter.' It appears that the Council edict against AI's somehow is offensive to this deity.

The Gay-yans: The agricultural and healer caste, this caste seems to concern itself almost exclusively with the cultivation and protection of life, though there is anecdotal evidence they may also serve as philosophers.

The military caste: No formal name is known for certain, though the Turians coined the term 'Shades' for them after the Relay 314 Disaster, and other castes have been heard referring to them as 'Survivalists,' 'Militants,' and 'Spartans,' though as members of this caste have never been witnessed by Citadel races outside of their battle armor, nor heard speaking, it is not known how they refer to themselves.

It must be heavily stressed that while humans have yet to prove dangerous when not provoked, their society freely admits engaging in heavy genetic and cybernetic modification of their own members, as well as essentially uninhibited AI development, and as such they are potentially extremely dangerous.

What little contact their has been since the establishment of the Relay 314 Trade Station, has primarily been with representatives of the Piece-Keepers, and the Morgans, and members of both caste have proven to be friendly, outgoing, and curious, though the Morgans have been known to employ cut-throat business tactics. For those interested in meeting humans, passage is available to the Relay 314 Trade Station from the Citadel, and the Morgans have begun constructing vacation resorts in new modules on the Station for just such interested parties. Please exercise caution while present though, and under no circumstances initiate hostilities, as the Council has ceded legal jurisdiction to the Humans regarding crimes on the station, and as such, you will be outside of the council's protection.

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The Citadel Races.

(This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it.)

(This article may not be written from a neutral point of view.)

(This article may contain original research.)

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Mankind has met intelligent life amongst the stars, and this intelligent life possesses two salient qualities, [I]gullibility[/I], and [I]stupidity.[/I]

First and foremost as a recognition of these qualities, is the Citadel Races complacency regarding the ZWCD network, and willingness to rely wholly upon technology they do not understand or control as the lynchpin of their civilization. The strategic and tactical weaknesses of such a thing are as glaringly obvious as they are comprehensive. The failure as scholars and scientists to study, reverse-engineer, and master such technology is equally shameful.

Then there's the matter of their tech base, [I]as a whole.[/I] Humanity, on Planet alone has developed more over the last three hundred years, than the [I]near-trillion[/I] sentients under Council rule have over the last [I]two millenia.[/I] And not by a small margin, either, We've gone from Fission to Quantum, as the saying goes, and the Eggheads have gone the next step to Singularity. You could, by comparison, say the Council races have gone from Fusion to Fusion 2.0 over those two millenia, and they don't look to be going any further any time soon.

Then there's their [I]military[/I] incompetence. What a bunch of (profanity filter engaged), they dropped [I]six regiments[/I] of men and hardware into a siege situation where they knew nothing about their opponent's abilities, except that they didn't know. What a bunch of [I]morons[/I]. They also bought the University's BS hook, line, and sinker, the whole course of the First Contact Massacre, and paid up an entire [I]fleet[/I] for the loss of a research vessel and a freighter! The University and Morganites didn't even sustain any fatalities!

[I]Gullible,[/I] and [I]Stupid.[/I]

-The first entry on Citadel races to appear on the Datalinks, believed to have been written by a Spartan who served in the First Contact Massacre.

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AN: And that's the end of the Prologue. Or possibly the end of the story altogether, depending on what I feel like. Either way, I need to go finish Cameron's Legacy, or at least 'book one' of it; hopefully I'll have another chapter of that up after the weekend.