Diplomacy (part 2)

Nobody sees when we arrive, when we act, when we go,

Only the traces of our acts.

We aren't humans... we are Ghosts.

Motto of the Ghost Corp

"So what do you think?" Zan asked sitting on one of the beds.

"Well" Zin said slowly, "they seem honest enough, and they could be a very good allies."

Ik'er nodded. "Something that surprised me was that Jason'White was very angry at first, but when I mentioned that we had lost our home world, he immediately calmed."

"Really?" Kar asked. "I didn't realize that. Do you think something happened to their home world, maybe they lost theirs too?"

"I don't think so," Zan intervened. "Remember, he said that everything they do is to protect their home world?"

"So that is going to remain classified until we arrive to Arcturus it seems," said Kar.

"Well my friends," said Aza as he stood up concluding the conversation. "I think it would be best if we rested a little before the meeting."

"She's right," agreed Zan.

The admirals each selected a bed and lay down to take a nap.

Several minutes later, the admirals were still awake.

" Keelah, this ship is so quiet," said Zin bitterly.

After the two hours passed the admirals found themselves in one of the observations rooms waiting for White; they were still in FTL.

The door opened and White entered the room.

"So, why did you send us here?" Zan asked.

"Because this is the best place to see the Arcturus Station," he said as he sat down along the admirals. "Meanwhile we wait, any questions?"

"I have one." Zin said

"Shoot."

"What?"

White sighed. "What is it?"

"When we passed the mess hall, we saw a human and a saryn kissing; doesn't your military have fraternization rules?"

"Of course we have them, the thing is that we can't do anything against lifemates."

"Lifemates? Your race is monogamous?"

"The saryns are, humans no."

"So, how do you avoid infidelity?"

"Well… we don't know, we are still trying to discover why in the first place."

"Interesting."

White lifted up his omni-tool to read a message that had just arrived. "We should be leaving FTL at any second."

A few seconds later, the plain black surroundings of human FTL disappeared and are replaced by the sight of Arcturus Station and many ships.

"Keelah," Zin whispered shocked.

White chuckled. "Sorry about that, it's not every day we make First Contact, so please don't blame my government for this."
Through the window, they were able to see all the Second and Third Fleets plus half of the Fifth Fleet: 5900 thousand ships in total.

"Hello gentlemen," said a with a thick Russian accent over the inter-com. "My name is Aleksi Ivanov, Admiral of the Second Fleet, welcome to the Arcturus system." After he was finished, the dreadnoughts and flagships of the Second and Third Fleets formed a cradle, with the four flagships in the front; behind them the cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and fighters formed up, using the dreadnoughts and flagships like cover. Then all of them began to advance at the same speed.

"What the hell are they doing?" asked Zan, not understanding what it was he was seeing.

"Charge formation," White answered calmly.

"What?"

"Charge formation, the dreadnoughts and flagships use their superior armor and fire power to protect the lesser ones," explained White. "When they charge, they can destroy the most powerful of enemy ships; when they reach the minimal distance to fight, they stop and the lesser ones pass over them, given that they use the big ones like cover almost everyone reaches their target alive. The charge tactic is only used by the Oblivion Fleet." White realized that he had said too much.

"Oblivion Fleet?" the five admirals asked in unison.

"Sorry, that's classified," White answered, kicking himself mentally for not being careful. Meanwhile the three fleets had formed into an attack formation.

"Hey, the fighters, what are they doing?" Zan pointed to a few couple of the fighters that had been making pirouettes.

"Oh, they are simulating dogfights."

"Dogfights?"

"Please don't tell me you don't know what the dogfights are." The admirals just stared at him. "You have got to be kidding me, alright dogfights in reality are called 'close air combat', the name should say it all, apart from that, you are actually seeing it."

"Ah right," Zan saw through the window that the fleets were in a combat formation. "Uh, Jason'White, why are the fleets in a combat formation?"

"What?" White was clearly surprised. "Ivanov, you son of a bitch, we agreed not to do this!"

"Do what?" Aza asked, now very scared.

"This!" shouted White. All the ships, except for the drones and fighters, fired a volley of their railguns in the direction of the Dark Sunrise, hundreds of them.

"Keelah!" all the admirals shouted, except Ik'er whom had fainted. None of the shots hit the Dark Sunrise but some of them were too close for comfort. The Third and Fifth Fleets repeated the same action. White stood up and reached for the comm.

"You like-" Ivanov was cut off.

"IVANOV YOU SON OF A BITCH, I'M GOING TO HANG YOU BY THE BALLS, WE AGREED NOT TO DO THIS SHIT!" White shouted, voice full of rage.

"Hey, White calm down—"

"CALM DOWN… CALM DOWN?!" raged White. "I'M GOING TO CALM THE FUCK DOWN WHEN I CUT OFF YOUR BALLS. YOU KNOW ON THIS SHIP ARE THE FIVE HIGH MANDATORIES OF THE QUARIAN PEOPLE!" He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. "But, good show, regardless."

"White, you're an idiot," Ivanov laughed and White killed the link.

He turned to face the admirals; Ik'er was still on the floor.

"What the hell was that?!" demanded Zan.

"Sorry, that was a firepower demonstration."

"No, really?" Zan said, sarcastically.

"Sorry," said White sincerely. "If it makes you feel any better, when I see Ivanov again I'm going to kick his ass."

"That does make me feel better," replied Zan.

"Well, I need to ask you a question, are you dextro or levo based?"

"Why?" Aza asked, confused.

"Just answer the question."

"We're dextro based."

"Good, let me make a calls," he said then he exited the room.

Ik'er finally woke up after White left, he sat up and asked, "What the hell happened?"

"You fainted," Aza answered, obviously amused.

"What? Really?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Zan was laughing a little, but then his face fell into a stern expression. "Seriously, if they aren't a mass effect species, what kind of weapons do they use?"

"I don't know, we're going to investigate when we arrive to the Arcturus station," said Aza.

While they were speaking, the Third and half of the Fifth Fleet entered into FTL to perform their respective duties.

"Yes, we-" he started but was cut off by the pilot.

"Gentlemen, we can't dock at Arcturus Station," said the pilot over the comm. "So White needs you to head to the hangar immediately, your Marines are already there."

"Tell him we're on our way," said Zan and the five admirals stood up and exited the room.

"Understood," the pilot cut the link.

A few minutes later the admirals were in the hangar, while they waited for White, they resumed their previous discussion as to what kind of weapons the humans used.

"Well people," White said as he clapped his hand to call attention. "Please enter in the Arvus, we're going to Arcturus station. The Dark Sunrise is too big to land at those docks and besides I need to return it."

The admirals entered and the Arvus began flying, headed for Arcturus Station.

O'Connor was nervous; he had been brought to the reception party for the quarian people due to his status as one of the most brilliant inventors alive. Standing with him were some of the brightest individuals both humans and saryns had to offer, people he had either worked with personally or had heard of through mutual friends. While he stood there taking in the scene, his omni-tool rang.

"Sweetie, what's going on?" Nadia asked when he answered.

"About what?"

"I don't know… maybe about a possible First Contact with another race?" she said, her voice full of sarcasm.

"A wha—" He was cut off.

"Don't play innocent with me, it's all the news has been reporting lately," she said obviously annoyed.

Her voice was loud enough that onlookers could easily hear it so O'Connor left the group for a moment.

"Look Nadia, I don't want to scare you, but... be ready in case oblivion protocol is activated," he said softly.

"Oblivion protocol!" she shouted, now scared."So ... so it's bad?"

"You know that we're in alpha protocol… just be ready, alright?"

"But… if the worst happens, then the first place they're going to attack is Arcturus station," she said, pausing for a moment. "Why did only you go? I'm an inventor, too. Besides that, I'm your lifemate, I should be with you."

"Nadia… please, calm down," he said to her as softly as possible.

"How am I supposed to calm down when my lifemate could die?!" she demanded as her sobbing intensified.

O'Connor was about to reply when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

"I have to go, they're about to arrive."

"No… no… no, please don't hang up!" she begged.

"I'm sorry, I need to go… just . . . just remember that I love you."

She didn't answer immediately."l love you, too," she said between sobs before cutting the call.

O'Connor returned to the group just as the quarians arrived.

The admirals were nervous. These next hours would determine the future of their people. After undergoing an intense and long decontamination process, something the five of them found extremely ironic, they rounded a corner to see humans, saryns and a female of a completely different race; it seemed as if they were waiting for the quarians. One member of the group, a male human, stepped forward and extended his hand.

"Hello my name is Alexander O'Connor and I, in name of the humanity wish a peaceful co-existence with your race."

The five admirals repeated the same process with the others, until they reached the unknown.

Zan looked at the strange female curiously. "Sorry, but what are you?"

They watched her ears twitch. "Me?" she pointed at herself. "Oh, I'm a hyron." She smiled at them softly.

The admirals looked at her curiously. "A hyron? What race is that?"

"Well, my race is a hybrid between a human and a saryn."

"Your race is a hybrid?" asked Zan, obviously shocked. "They play with biology in that way?"

"What? No," she answered quickly. "My race is a natural hybrid, my father is a saryn and my mother is a human."

"But how are your races compatible that way?"

"We don't know," the hyron shrugged. "It's still is under investigation."

"Gentlemen," White stopped the conversation. "Please follow me."

"Where?"

"To the visitors chamber," he said. "The meeting should start in a few hours, so in the mean time, you can eat or drink something, and ask any of them questions while you wait."

They began walking. When they arrived the say their goodbyes to White, moments after they closed the door someone knocked on it. Aza opened it.

A young man was on the other side of the door. "May I come in?" Aza nodded and he entered the room. "Good morning, my name is Bruno, and I will be your personal assistant while you are on Arcturus station, if you are in need of anything, let me know."

"I suppose you know we're dextro based?" Zan asked.

"Of course sir, I already was informed… let me see," he said as he brought up his omni-tool. "The meeting is in three hours, so do you want something to eat or drink? Please make a selection from the menus I just sent you."

After the admirals selected their food and drinks they turned to the group as Bruno left the room to prepare their meals.

"I suppose you have a lot of questions," said a human female with a smile, the quarians did not answer right away. "There's no reason to be frightened, we'll happily answer what we can."

"Well," Ik'er spoke up, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "If I may ask, how is your home world?"

The admirals saw the happiness on the humans' faces drain away. The female raised her omni-tool and opened two images. One was a beautiful green and blue planet, and the other one was a planet covered with gray clouds. The admirals understood right away and felt a wave of pity, this was why they were a nocturnal race.

After a few minutes Aza spook up "How…how…how did that happen?"

The humans lowered their heads in shame; O'Connor was the only one who spoke.

"In the year 2037, a massive war started-"

"Massive war?" Zin interrupted in shock.

"Almost every sovereign nation fought in that war," explained O'Connor.

"Why?"

"The planet was running out of petrol," he said. "And before you ask, petrol was our principal fuel in that time. Anyway, we tried to find other ways of producing energy, but it was too late, before we knew it the superpowers were fighting for the lasts of the deposits. Alliances kicked in and more countries entered in to the war, when the superpowers started to disintegrate, the lesser countries tried to take advantage of that."

"How did you end the war?"

"In the year 2040…. the remaining governments made a massive nuclear strike."

"You destroyed your home world!?" Aza suddenly shouted. "We lost ours, but you" she pointed an accusatory finger at the humans, "you destroyed it!"

"Aza, shut the fuck up!" Zan shouted. "Don't you remember? They still have their home world."

Aza immediately shut up.

"Anyway" O'Connor continued, "a few years later we created the Discs of Eden and repaired the damages caused by the war."

"What are the Discs of Eden?"

"Well… what they do is simple," said O'Connor as he thought over the purpose of the discs. "They were launched in the outer atmosphere, once in location, they suctioned carbon dioxide and transformed it into oxygen, after that they 'feed'," he made air quotes, "the atmosphere with ozone to repair the cape."

"Impressive, how was it your race invented something like that?"

"It was a matter of necessity," replied O'Connor. "That is when my race becomes more progressive; in moments of extreme necessity or in war."

"Your race seems to be a utopia right now."

"No… as much we want it, we aren't a utopia," said O'Connor firmly. "We still have crime, terrorism, and a more than a few minor conflicts. We still produce nuclear weapons, the most powerful never imagined, our Navy is enormous, our soldiers are specialists in the art of killing." He paused for a moment. "War and humanity always go hand in hand, our race has evolved with the war at its side since our ancestors grabbed a stick to kill, never in our history has there been a long era of peace. Humanity tasted the forbidden fruit, and we just wanted more."

The quarians were shocked, this was a warrior race like the krogans, and they almost had the same end. But still they were civilized; they even accepted another race in to their society.

"But… how has your race managed to survive?" Zan asked slowly.

O'Connor shrugged. "We may be warriors, but since we are sapient beings we care about each other, it is in our nature to help each other out, we always want to save everyone." He stares off into the void. "I remember when I have eight, my grandpa used to tell me histories that his dad told him about the massive war; he told me about soldiers throwing themselves on to grenades, using their bodies like shields so their buddies could live another day, about fathers who happily sacrificed so their children could have a brighter future. These were normal people who managed the impossible to free their cities of enemy occupation." Another long pause. "That war was the best thing and the worst thing that could happen to humanity."

"Why?"

"Because the war showed the best and worst of our nature," he said the quarians still couldn't believe it. "I remember an old saying 'write the words of peace, but have the machines of war' or something like that, I don't remember it all that well."

After a few minutes the quarians finally digested what they had heard.

"How was the First Contact between your races?" Kar asked to a nearby saryn.

"Well," he started as he searched for the right way to explain the First Contact, "from what I read, the first time we encountered the humans we had something like three hundred ships, they had sent a scout fleet with a dreadnought to our home system. We outnumbered the scout fleet, but the dreadnought made us think twice about any trying any kind of attack; we were scared and assumed the worst would happen, then they sent a translator with their language and we started talks on our home world. For the first years of the alliance, they assigned a fleet to protect our home world so we could increase our fleets, then a few years later they accepted our race into their home system." He chuckled. "We were lucky and saw the humans' good side, if they had wanted to, they could have begun assaulting our home system and we would have been powerless against their fleets."

"I know this might bot be the right question," Zan said cautiously, "but what kind of weapons does your race use?"

"Well," said O'Connor slowly, "we use railguns and coil guns mostly, but our soldiers still use weapons of the old design."

"What kind of weapons are those?" Kar asked intrigued.

"A railgun consists of two parallel metal rails—hence the name—connected to an electrical power supply," began O'Connor. "When a conductive projectile is inserted between the rails, connected to the power supply, it completes the circuit. Electrons flow from the negative terminal of the power supply up the negative rail, across the projectile, and down the positive rail, back to the power supply, and accelerating the projectile linearly in the direction of the rails, reaching a top speed of 2500 meters per second."

"But… why doesn't your race use mass effect technology?" Zin asked.

"Well, when we colonized Mars we found a prothean vault," said O'Connor cautiously. "Inside the vault we found a great deal of data, but everything was heavily corrupted, we only could get the blueprints for kinetic shields." He didn't say anything about the data they had about the three main races. "The shields don't detect our bullets, so we changed them to plasma shields, which are our own design."

"Impressive."

"And the other one?" Kar asked again.

"Well, coil guns consist of one or more coils arranged along a barrel," said O'Connor. "So the path of the accelerating projectile lies along the central axis of the coils. The coils are switched on and off in a precisely timed sequence, causing the projectile to be accelerated quickly along the barrel via magnetic forces, reaching a top speed of 5000 meters per second."

"Wait a second," Zin interjected. "If the coilguns reach a higher speed that the railguns, why do you use both?"

"Well, first because the speed the coil gun bullet need to reach is fairly large, so we commonly use them like planetary defense cannons," said O'Connor. "Secondly because the projectile giving the speed it travel, reaches a solar temperature when is in contact with atmosphere that turns it into plasma. So when the cannon shoots to the space, the projectile arrives like plasma, melting anything it touches. We use them in tanks, but given that the cannon is small it reaches a lower speed, however it is still enough to transform the bullet in plasma."

"And what did you mean by 'weapons of the old design'?" asked Zin.

"Well, that means our soldiers still use weapons of a pre-war design," explained O'Connor. "And before you ask, those designs still use bullets and magazines, but we have the advantage of having different types of bullets heads."

"Such as?"

"Incendiaries, tracers, explosives and the new experimental models of antimatter," said O'Connor proudly. "Besides that we have bullets of different calibers, and thanks to the saryns we know how mass effect weapons work, so we have an advantage in that respect."

"I have one last question," said Aza.

"Shoot."

"How is it that you've avoided an AI rebellion?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, we created the geth, and when they demonstrated sentient behavior, they rebelled against us, their creators."

"Ah, well, we just told our AIs the truth."

"The truth?"

"Yes, that we do not know if they were alive, but we consider them so," explained O'Connor. "After that, we asked them what they wanted to do, and they always answered that they wanted to serve their creators."

"And that stopped any possible rebellion?"

"Well, we give them rights so they don't feel overexploited, I think that helped too."

Before the admirals could ask another question, someone knocked on the door. Kar stood up to opened it, Bruno was on the other side carrying food for the admirals. "May I come in?" he asked and Kar nodded.

"Well, we have to go," said O'Connor as he stood up. "Please enjoy your food." He signaled for the rest to leave, Bruno gave the food to the admirals, while the admirals just stared at him.

"How you know we use tubes to eat?" Ik'er asked surprised.

"Well, because some of our people have to use them too," said Bruno and stood there waiting for someone to taste his food.

Zan was the first to insert the straw in to the port, after a few seconds he had the courage to taste some of the paste, the flavor left him trembling.

"Zan… Zan, are you okay?" Aza asked worried.

Zan felt a few tears slide down his cheeks. "Yeah, I'm okay, it's just… I've never eaten something like this before."

The rest of the admirals inserted the tubes and tasted a little, all of them were left trembling. Bruno left the room happy, pleased that the admirals had liked the food.

After the three hours, the admirals were at the entrance of the chamber where the meeting would take place. They had to wait while the last of the presidents arrived. They saw White arrive.

"So guys, how was the food?" he asked with a friendly grin.

"Amazing!" exclaimed Zan. "Is all of your food like that?"

"Well, that was a dextro variation, so I don't know," he replied with a shrug.

A person came out of the room and told them that they could enter. When the quarians and White entered the room, they saw circulars tables, with 186 humans and twenty saryns. They understood why there were circular tables; it was to create a sense of equals, definitely not like the Council, who made their chamber to show their supremacy over the galaxy. After the quarians and White sat down at table in front of the rest, a man in a UTC uniform stood up and grabbed a microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we are gathered here to see if the quarian people can enter in the already created pact between the human and saryn people. Any questions?"

"I have one," Zan said.

"And what is that question?"

"What do you mean 'enter in the pact'?"

"Well," said the uniformed man, "when humanity and saryns decided to ally, we created a unbreakable pact between our races. That pact has been unchanged since its creation forty-four years ago, so that means that your race would enter the pact and follow its conditions and rules."

"And what are they?"

"Well, the most important is that we have citizenship in each other's territories and unconditional support in cases of external threat, in that condition we help them with our fleets and they help us with their Special Forces."

"Will that apply to us as well?"

"If everything goes well, yes."

"Alright," said a saryn. "Please explain to us why we should consider allowing your race to enter the pact?"

"We've heard," said the human from before, "that you lost your home world, is that true?"

"Yes that is true" Zan answered shamefully. "We lost our home world to our own creation, the geth."

The stance of the humans changed from stoic to empathetic.

"We understand, do you have any other reasons?"

"Yes," said Zan sternly. "Understand that no one apart from us and a few captains even know this. Our fleet is dying, one of our live ships-"

"Live ships?" White asked.

"The ships that produce food for the Fleet," explained Zan. "Anyway one of our live ships is failing, we have one or two years before that ship shuts down. That would cause millions of quarians to die of starvation, that's why we began searching uncharted places in the galaxy, to find a planet to colonize."

"But… why didn't the Council help your race?"

"Because we freed a rogue AI race into the galaxy," said Zan. "They punished our race by forcing us to live solely on the fleet. If we were to colonize a planet, they would send a turian fleet to kick us off of the planet, and if we don't leave they bombed us. In our people's first years after the Morning War, we tried to colonize, but we were unable."

"They… they doomed a race because of a mistake? They punished children for the mistakes of they fathers? If they attacked the geth in their first years they could have destroyed them, and you could have returned home."

"We… we know," Zan answered sadly.

"These are enough arguments," a saryn said. "We are now going to deliberate regarding our decision, please wait here."

All of the humans and saryns left, the quarians were now extremely uneasy, they just waited where they sat. An hour later the others returned, a human and a saryn stood up.

The saryn started. "Admirals, please rise," the admirals obeyed, "we are happy to announce that your race has been accepted into the pact."

"Our races are now allies, partners, friends," the human continued. "We coexist with each other, we protect each other, and we help each other."

"We, speaking for all the saryn and human people," the human and the saryn said in unison, "welcome the quarian people into the pact."

Everyone in the room clapped. The admirals were nearly crying out of joy, they had done it.

"What… what now?" Aza asked happily.

"We have a dextro world outside of our territory," said the human. "Your race has access to all saryn and UTC territories and their planets, except for our home world."

"Why?"

"Because the planet can only be inhabited by humans, due to extenuating circumstances."

"Understood," said Aza formally.

The human grabbed the microphone. "This meeting is adjourned."

Everybody stood up and left, the quarians were excited to return to the fleet to give the news, the news about the new future the quarians now had.

Codex

TOP SECRET

PLEASE, INSERT PASSWORD

(*********)

ACCESS GRANTED

N7s: The N7s are the most deadly soldiers of the UTC army, they're highly prolific soldiers. They're trained for 10 years and experience since they have 16 years in the roughest environments known in human or saryn space. They are extremely lethal and one of the most adaptable soldiers in the military, but this has a disadvantage, as the numbers of N7 soldiers is low due to the high death rate. They are only deployed during an oblivion protocol, or in a full scale war. They technically have the best skills of all the military corps. Even if the people know about the N7s, it is illegal to speak about them in public. Being selected for the N7s is the highest honor for any human.

Augmentations: depending of the corps the soldier receives a different augmentation:

Ghost Corps augmentations

-One that allows the Ghost soldier to control their cloak with his brain.

-One to have the HUD placed in their eyes.

Pilot Corps augmentations:

-The pilots have the strength of the bones increased.

-They have their reflexes augmented.

ODST's augmentations

-The ODST's have the same augmentations that the pilots.

N7's augmentations

-The N7's have all augmentations, along with a special exo-skeleton that instead of increasing their speed, only increases their raw force.

All the soldiers are augmented in a way that allows them to have a normal life after retiring.