Chapter 14: Extremum Fato Quod.
"Gentlemen, you have fought like lions,
And have been led as mules"
-Erwin Rommel.
Deep inside human territory.
The group stared in shock how the three fully extended arms of the ship began to rotate, unknown to them, the ship by doing this began to collect positrons in the nearby space loading the internal battery of the firing system. As the seconds passed they saw how electricity passed between the two arms that were semi-retracted, they could almost hear the electromagnetic buzz coming from the ship. A few minutes later the arms slowly stopped rotating, when they stopped the tension augmented as the seconds passed; finally the container was fired with a loud buzz, The container travelled relatively slow, showing the prototype status of the weapon, a distance that would be travelled in milliseconds by the most 'moderns' rail guns, was by now taking more than 10 seconds.
"That's why we destroyed that stronghold." Said Viktor looking into his omni-tool. "It had some sort of AA emplacement that was able to destroy that." He pointed at the container that was a few meters above the ground. "But now it won't be a problem." He added smugly, five seconds later the container finally hit the ground. Fedorian and Sparatus closed their eyes in shock, not wanting to see what the human weapon was capable of doing. They waited with their eyes closed, seconds passed, then minutes, they could almost hear a 'click-clock' in their minds. Both of them opened their eyes when Viktor slapped them on the back of the head.
"Look what you did, motherfucking asshole!" Viktor said in disgust as Sparatus looked at the vid. Menae was transformed into glass, with six million innocent people. A mix of disgust, horror and fear were crippling his body. Leaving him unable to move, unable to think, unable to feel his whole world crashing around him. At the end, only one phrase was circling his head.
'What did I do?' He lowered his head feeling sick and ashamed of what he had done. At the end it was true, he was nothing more than a bloody traitor.
"Now you will do it?" Asked Viktor, moving to the other side of the table and pushing the papers so they were in front of Sparatus. "Or you want to me to destroy your homeworld?" Sparatus slightly shook his head as Fedorian let out a sigh. "Good." He stood up and put his hands behind his back. "Deactivate chair number one!" The shackles on Sparatus chair disappeared, he moved his hands a few times to regain the feeling before grabbing the papers and the pencil, he looked around until he found the place where his signature should be placed. He hesitated a few seconds before signing, after signing he moved away from the table without even raising his head. Viktor grabbed the same paper before putting his own signature, he nodded satisfied before moving back a few steps.
"That would be all." Before anyone could notice what was happening he reached to his lower back, took out a hidden pistol and fired. The bullet left the cannon and reached Sparatus's left lung in a split second. Sparatus screamed in pain when the bullet left his body, he put both of his hands on top of the wound. Only for Viktor to fire again trespassing both hands.
"Councilor Sparatus, according to the rules dictated in the constitution of the UTC, you are accused of committing the worst war crime possible." Viktor fired into the other lung earning another scream. "Since there is irrefutable evidence of your actions, there won't be any judgment." He began to approach Sparatus, never lowering the pistol. "Thus your sentence will be the highest possible." He stopped at the side of Sparatus, putting the cold barrel against the side of his head. "Death." The other side of Sparatus's head exploded, covering Fedorian with gray matter, bits of bones and gore. He stored the pistol and headed to the door, looking a Fedorian with his peripheral vision. "You know?" He said stopping but without turning to the side. "I heard blood is a pain in the ass to take out, so better get saying goodbye to those clothes." Viktor chuckled as he passed the door. "Deactivate chair number two." Was the last thing Fedorian heard, but he doesn't cared, he was more focused looking to Sparatus body. And wondering what the hell to do.
Unknown to Fedorian, everyone on the galaxy saw this.
Quarian Parliament.
Ik'er grabbed his stomach as his breakfast left his body and went right to his mask, the sound attracted the attention of his colleagues, Zan immediately stood up and approached him.
"You ok, buddy?" He asked patting one of his shoulders, receiving a nod from Ik'er; the latter stood up and headed outside, possibly going to a clean room. The rest returned their attention to the vid screen, one half showing a vitrified Menae, and the other an unmoving Fedorian and the corpse of Sparatus. After a few minutes both disappeared and changed to show white letters over a black screen.
'THREE DAYS FROM TODAY, LAST CHANCE.' After that, a picture of Palaven appeared for five seconds before disappearing and then the connection ended. The message was clear enough.
"What will we do now?" Asked Aza, trying to not puke too.
"Nothing." Zan replied with ease.
"What?" She replied, looking at his colleague bewildered. "How can you be so cold?"
"How many did they kill?" Zan asked.
"What?" she asked tilting her head.
"How many humans did the turians kill?"
"I don't remem-"
"The last official report says that almost thirteen million people died Aza." He interrupted her. "From them only ten thousand were military." She stood on in shocked silence. "I don't know how many turians died, but I'm damn well sure that it doesn't even it close to that number." She silently nodded, not finding anything to counter his point. "Besides, they're our allies, possibly the saviors of our race. I personally will give them an unconditional support." He meets his colleagues' gazes one by one. "And I expect you to do the same." Everybody on the room nodded.
"Good."
The Citadel.
Tevos glanced at the repeating message of connection terminated, she was still shocked by the abrupt end of Sparatus life, and knowing that if they failed in the next meeting it would most likely end with the extinction of the turian race. She recalled her conversation with Esteban, she knew that he was lying, the citadel couldn't win against them.
"Tevos." Someone says at her side getting her attention. "The machines are leaving." In fact the machines were slowly making their exit. "We need to get out and prepare ourselves, after all, is our last chance." She nodded before getting up, as they made their way out she took a last glance to the machines. A shiver ran down her spine, before breaking down in silent sobs.
Outside of the Galactic Rim.
Chen'Kal Zar Aurora walked marveled as he moved through the shipyard. The sound of heavy machinery was heard everywhere, as he looked at the vessel at his side he couldn't help but to felt proud of himself, knowing that he had helped on its building, three years ago he had completed his studies of Nanotechnology and Ship Engineering of that department, being the top of his class and with high recommendations and praises from his teachers. At first he was going to request a job into a civil shipyard but life tend to give people surprises, while he was still looking for a shipyard looking for personal, a letter -yes, a fucking paper letter- arrived at his apartment. In the moment he opened and read it he knew that his heart had stopped. The UTC had apparently received a resume of him and was surprised that such a genius had passed under their noses and offered him a place on a Military shipyard as the assistant of the Nanotechnology department. He had obviously accepted the job so his presence was soon requested into the UTC Headquarters on Mars (He was studying on Venus, where one of the most prestigious universities on the solar system was located). And after signing a lot, and he meant a lot of non-disclosure agreements, he was accepted into the ranks of the UTC's engineers. At first he was skeptical about the job, given that in all the time he had passed on the UTC space he hadn't seen even a single shipyard, but now he understood all the NDA he had to sign. Because every UTC shipyard was outside of the galactic rim, at first he thought it was stupid, but as the days passed the idea made more and more sense to him. First of all because the pact ships used a hybrid between warp engines and mass effect ones (except the human ones that only used warp engines). So they were able leave the Galactic rim without problems, and thus being completely undetectable. He shook his head to focus on the task at hand, a year ago he had been promoted multiple times, and now he was one of the heads of the Nanotechnology department. And his first task was to inspect, supervise and direct the final year of construction of a new class of warship focusing on the construction of the armor (after all that was his specialty). As he eyed the datapad his eyes were covered on pride.
-Top Secret-
Hades-class Battleship
Status: Complete.
He grinned, just a few more hours.
Two and half days later: Martian Military Base Bravo-05, Special Space Port.
White stood silently at the side of the door leading to the gangplank, hands clasped behind his back as he looked through the window at the massive ship waiting for them outside, the pride coming from his eyes was evident, just like his almost non-existent smile. A hiss from behind him indicated that Xen and Ik'er arrived, likely wanting to confirm his suspicion a very realistic synthetic arm hugged him around his shoulders.
"Xen." He greeted cheerfully. "How've you been?"
"I had better times." Xen replied sheepishly. "But I cannot complain."
"How's the arm?" Asked White, slightly tapping the synthetic hand.
"First week was a pain in the ass." Replied Xen with a slight chuckle. "At first it was nearly impossible to use."
"And what did Karla have to say?"
"At first she didn't like it." She leaned closer to White's ear. "But after she felt the upgrades she stopped complaining."
"You don't mean that she saw the upgrades?" Asked White, turning his head to his old friend with a raised eyebrow, when they made eye contact, Xen was giving him 'The look'. "Ah." White returned his gaze to the ship, five entire seconds passed before both friends erupted into laughter.
"What a beautiful ship." Said Xen once the laughter subdued, cleaning a tear from his eye.
"That's the Hades-Class Battleship for you." Replied White nodding.
"How long is it?" Asked Ik'er, who had been respectfully waiting for both friends to stop laughing.
"15 kilometers approximately."
"Damn, how long did it take to build it?"
"A little more than... let me see." He tilted his head to the right and the left a few times. "Sixty years."
"Why it took so long? UTC's shipyards are supposed to be a marvel on automation and speed."
"Yeah, but this ship was a special case-" His omni-tool beeped interrupting his story. "The escort is waiting for us." He took off Xen's arm from his shoulders and moved to the gangplank.
"I suppose we're going to bring the same ground escort with us." Said Ik'er while the three were walking down the gangplank, White shook his head. "Then?"
"We will not take any risks."
"That doesn't reply my question, who will accompany us?" White didn't reply until they crossed the door of the battleship.
"Deathclaws." The door closed behind them with a hiss.
UTCFG Dark Sun.
"Leaving warp space." Cindy's voice rang through the whole flagship while the black of warp space began to fill with stars. "Every available personal report to their battle stations. Assume the objectives as hostiles but do not open fire, I repeat, do not open fire." The ship began to advance slowly when they left warp space.
"Ma'am, the UTCFG Eternal darkness and the UTCFG Black Sky report that the travel went uneventfully." Said a crewman with a datapad while two more ships approached the Dark sun.
"Good." Admiral Parker replied as she supported herself on the rail of the Galaxy map. "Shields?"
"Currently at 68% and-"
"Ma'am!" An ensign shouted. "We have 20 enemy ships from frigate to dreadnought size separating from the main force and heading into our direction, IFF recognized as turian ships!"
"Enemy ships believed to be renegade elements," Cindy said materializing on her usual spot. "Awaiting further orders."
"Charge the Railguns and divert the all non-critical systems' power to the shields and Railguns, we don't have time for this shit!" She ordered, a second later the crew began to follow the orders. "Pass the orders to the rest of the flotilla!"
"Orders passed."
"Enemy ships powering weapons!"
"Cindy, stop that!"
"Negative ma'am, I don't have enough processing power to disrupt that amount of weaponry."
"Shit. Ok, ok, deactivate the dreadnoughts' weaponry."
"Done, ma'am."
"Lock targets!"
"Enemy fighters inbound!" A crewman shouted from a console.
"Load the AA system!"
"AA system ready and locking targets!"
"Targets locked for the Railguns!" Another ensign shouted.
"Fire!" Admiral Parker roared, not even a single ship remained.
"Enemy flotilla destroyed," Reported Cindy. "We have enemy escape pods leaving some ships, orders?"
"Leave them; they're not worth the ammo. Anything to report?"
"Actually, yes." Cindy materialized a datapad on her hand; it wasn't useful since she had access to most of the ship's system but if she liked to use it no one was going to complain. "Engineering report that the coolant systems of the Railgun number 8-"
"Shit, not the number 8 again." Muttered Kelly, slightly banging her head on the railing of the galaxy map.
"-is provoking weird fluctuations on the antimatter containment field readings."
"Dammit." Kelly sighed raising her head. "Ok, order a full shutdown of the Railgun number 8 systems, now. And when I say everything I mean everything, from targeting systems to coolant, everything."
"Understood, ma'am" Cindy began to disappear.
"Oh, wait." Cindy materialized herself again. "Prepare a request for dry dock to send it when we arrive in allied space; also prepare a request for a new Railgun and its systems, we're going to have to replace the number 8."
"Yes, ma'am. I suppose I have to send the reports?"
"You read my mind, and tell the VIPs that they can show their ugly asses now."
"Understood." Cindy finally disappeared. A few seconds later a massive ship appeared, showing with bright white the name UTCB Fury of the Void on the hull.
A predatory smirk formed onto Kelly's face.
The Citadel; Public docking bay F-78.
Tevos stood with Valern at her right side, she still felt the miss of Sparatus presence at her left but she had to push those thoughts to the back of her head, so she could give more space to the more important matters at hand. Behind them something nearby to 100 C-sec officers were trying to contain the largest crowd she had ever see on her long life, hundreds of reporters were taking vids of the four massive ships that were approaching the Citadel. She had read the reports of the ship that had arrived to the Citadel for the first time, she know that the humans ships were massive. But seeing a 4 kilometers long ship with her eyes was very different that reading it on a report, but the three massive ships were overshadowed by the behemoth behind them.
"Tevos, you're shaking," Valern whispered, she took a few deep breaths after realizing it was true.
"I cannot help it." She whispered back. "This is terrifying."
"I know. Whatever happens today they have to end being our allies," Tevos looked to her omni-tool again, looking to the message that has appeared on it a few minutes ago, it simply said 'Docking bay F-78'. She looked briefly above her shoulder and finally understood why the massive amounts of reporters.
All of them had received the message.
She shook her head as she looked to the ships, the biggest moved to the left, leaving the port side looking to the citadel. Even at this distance Tevos noticed some fighters returning to the ship with something glued to them. She briefly looked behind the ship and noticed debris.
"What the hell happened?" She whispered.
UTCB Fury of the Void; Frigate Hangar Bay.
Here's the UTCF Iwo Jima requesting permission to take off."
"Here's control, sky seems clear. Permission granted."
"Understood. Ah, by the way control, the phrase 'the sky seems clear' stopped being used about a century and a half ago." The link was silent for a few seconds.
"Shut the fuck up and take off." The controller said with a growl.
"Understood control." The pilot replied with a laugh. "Please prepare the hangar."
"Copy that, activating mass effect fields, also High Command wants to know if you have the prisoners' aboard."
"Yeah, we have them in the cells of deck five. Delta 0-3 is watching them."
"Good," replied control. "What about the other two?"
"0-1 is currently with the ambassadors, and 0-2 is eating." A loud hum rang around the hangar as a mass effect field was being created around the hangar door.
"Opening doors." An automatized voice was heard throughout the hangar. "All personal, please stand by." The doors of the hangar opened on the middle, going in separate directions while the mass effects field keeps the atmosphere inside the ship.
"Control, asking for the last permission."
"Permission given. May the motherland be with you Iwo Jima."
"And with you, Frank." Replied the pilot, using the controller's name. A few seconds later the frigate lifts up from the deck and accelerated towards the door, leaving its mothership and sister ships behind. And carrying the ambassadors towards a new future.
The Citadel; Public docking bay F-78.
Tevos stared wide eyed at the approaching frigate. 'By the goddess' she thought amazed and frightened. 'That ship carries its own escort.' As the frigate approached she turned to the left and looked at the now lowering gangplank. As the frigate now was slowing down she took her time to examine the design. It looked thin and weak, but at the same time looked elegant, powerful and agile. Obviously the work of a master, she briefly looked at the other four behemoths. Now that she gave them a more careful look she noticed that they were designed to look powerful, bulky and fearsome. Whoever drew the blueprints of those ships was a master on design. A hiss made her return her attention to the gangplank on front of her that now had six aliens walking down it, three ones that she recognized as the ambassadors of the previous visit and three soldiers, two of them carrying assault rifles and the last one a powerful sniper rifle on a non-threatening manner. They were also using some kind of holographic visor above one of their eyes, she and a few C-sec officer sighed on relief at the low number of alien soldiers. Clearly indicating that they were coming on peace.
"Madam Councilor." Said White bowing slightly ignoring the flashes of the omni-tools. "It is a pleasure, despite the circumstances of this meeting."
"Likewise, Ambassador White." Tevos replied, surprised to the sudden respect. Still she returned the gesture with a relieved smile. "Ambassador Xen, Admiral Ik'er, is good to see you too again." Both men nodded to her greetings. "If you please follow us to the council chambers we can start with the diplomatic talks." The three ambassadors nodded, White managed to take a step before a fully armored arm grabbed him around his chest.
"0-1?" He asked confused, looking at the Deathclaw, by the noise coming from his nose White knew that he was sniffing the air. "Something wrong?"
"I'm not sure sir," Replied 0-1 with a strangely deep voice for a saryn. "I have a weird feeling." He slightly pushed White behind him as the other two other Deathclaws put themselves in front the ambassadors, a fairly tense atmosphere began to form in the docking bay while the three Deathclaws looked around for the source of their feeling. The C-sec officers looked at them nervously while gripping their weapons more tightly, the crowd being more nervous than anybody. Suddenly 0-2 stopped looking around, his upgraded eyes focusing on a distant apartment block, a millisecond later his pupils dilated with adrenaline, and then he shouted.
"Snipers!" A shot rang out across the distance. 0-2 dropped his assault rifle as he raised both of his arms to create a powerful biotic bubble that stopped the bullet, the bubble covered the whole diplomatic group and the councilors. The crowd screamed on fear as they began to leave the docking bay on a rush. Tevos stood inside the biotic bubble amazed while more shot were heard, amazed by the sheer power that the biotic was showing by the quantity of shots that his barrier was stopping, besides that she found a captivating beauty in the form that the blue-green barrier moved like a wave every time a bullet hit.
"Where are they?!" Shouted 0-3, while the two Deathclaws still armed shouldered their weapons.
"The gray apartment block at 1 kilometer to the northwest!" Replied 0-2, his voice didn't even a bit strained, despite the heavy punishment that his barrier was taking.
"Understood," replied 0-1, resting his right cheek against the butt of his sniper rifle. Tevos fell to her knees while covering her ears protecting them from the loud boom that the rifle caused, not being prepared for it, the crack of the rifle and the semi-automatic fire was soon accompanied with the fire of at least forty assault rifles of the C-seg officers.
"Reloading!" Shouted 0-3, pushing a button above the mag that made the big magazine to fall, he quickly reached for one of his belt pouches and took out a fresh one. He inserted the magazine and moved the bolt of the rifle before firing again. After thirty seconds the one-sided firefight ended.
"Clear?!" Half asked, half-shouted 0-3 still scanning the area around the apartment block.
"Clear!" Affirmed 0-1 lowering his weapon. "Rest a little 0-2." he patted his partner's shoulder affectionately. "You earned it." 0-2 nodded before lowering his arms, sighing a little while crouching to grab his weapon.
"Madam Councilor." Asked White approaching the kneeling councilor. "You alright?" A few seconds passed before she replied.
"Y-y-yes." She replied while standing up. "I didn't expect your guns to be so noisy." She said while her ears stopped buzzing, he chuckled.
"You get used to it," replied White chuckling again.
"Can we begin now with the diplomatic talks?" Asked Xen crossing his arms.
"Of course, please follow us," Said Tevos as she turned around. The six aliens began to follow her while other three C-sec officers joined the group. A few minutes later they found themselves on two sky cars escorted by a dozen of C-sec shuttles on the way to the presidium.
A few minutes later; Council chambers.
"Do you need-" Started councilor Tevos before being interrupted by White raising his hand.
"Councilor, with all respect. Cut the bullshit." Xen laughed softly. "I'm not here for your warm welcome or some shit like that, the time for that already passed, let's get straight to business," Tevos nodded. "Good. We shouldn't be waiting for the turian representative to arrive?" Like a reply the door behind them opened followed with steps. Soon a turian in civilian clothes appeared and stood at the side of the table, Tevos signaled with her hand that he was allowed to sit down.
"Hello." He said once he sat down. "My name is Nihlus Krecht, I'm acting as a temporary turian representative until a new councilor is selected." How the two councilors moved uncomfortably did not go unnoticed before White's eyes. "It is a pleasure."
"Likewise." Replied White with a curt nod. "Shall we now begin?"
"As you wish," Tevos replied, putting both of her arms above the table. "Now, what are the requirements to stop and avoid any further conflict with the turian hierarchy?"
"Well councilor." Replied Xen this time. "Since now we are seen on paper as attackers instead of defenders we will not request any resources or credits. So our requests are very simple, a public apology from the Turian hierarchy for our small alliance." Nihlus nodded. "And the return of all the prisoners of war that the Hierarchy has in its power. Of course we will do the same with all our prisoners."
"Well, this is more than acceptable." Replied Nihlus nodding again. "Now, I have a question that the hierarchy told me to ask, if is it ok?" The three nodded. "Well, what will happen with Menae?"
"Nothing." Replied the three at the same time.
"Nothing?" Asked Nihlus incredulously. "That means what?"
"Like it sounds, there is no way of reversing it. Menae will stand like it is until the end of times."
"Dammit." Replied Nihlus lowering his head. "Ok, I understand. That's all the questions, now we pass to the reparation matters, if you allow me I will pass the requested resources to your omni-tool." He raised it and pressed a few things, a second later the ambassadors' omni-tools pinged, White raised it. A minute later he nodded. "Humanity will pay the damage done to the homeworld of another race. This amount is acceptable and will be paid within the next month." The two councilors were wide eyed like the representative.
"Well." A cough. "I didn't expect you to be so cooperative," said Tevos slowly.
"Like I said councilor, Humanity will pay everything, we have a dear sentiment for our home world, some of us even reached the point of creating a religion that worships it that is very wide spread through the military." He paused a few seconds waiting for a reaction, when it didn't come he continued. "So like I said councilor, no matter the cost, we will never leave another race with a suffering homeworld."
"Very true, ambassador, I'm gladdened by your cooperation." Said Tevos with a smile. "I suppose that this war is finished now?"
"Indeed councilor." He looked at his omni-tool. "Wow, this meeting wins the prize as the shortest one I have ever seen."
"Not actually ambassador." Replied Valern, slightly shaking his head. "Now we have to discuss the fusion of the Pact with the Citadel."
"Well councilor, I'm listening." He tilted his head on a curious way before putting his arms above the table, the next half an hour passed with the two councilors telling to the three ambassadors the benefits of joining the Citadel Council, they passed from economics, to defense and everything else, soon passing to the laws and the treaty of Farixen.
But everything that the six aliens hear was blah, blah, blah. When they reached the hour Council had finally stopped talking and was now looking at the ambassadors.
"Ambassador White?" Asked Tevos tentatively. "Are you alright?" White slightly shook his head as he turned off the movie he had started inside his helmet.
"Yeah, sorry. I got distracted a little." He looked at Ik'er and noticed that he wasn't moving either; he softly nudged him with his knee under the table.
"Turn off the movie." Whispered White after opening a private channel with Ik'er and turning off his external speakers. He saw how Ik'er slightly shook his head, before nodding almost unnoticeably.
"We don't have to repeat any of what we said, right?" Asked Valern, with a slight undertone of anger on his voice.
"No, no. that won't be necessary." Replied Xen with a wave of his hand.
"So, what is your answer?" Asked Tevos looking at the ambassadors. "Would you join the Citadel Council, and thus the galactic community?" White couldn't evade to chuckle softly at her slightly desperate tone, he tilted his head a few times before answering.
"Well, if I heard right you have AIs banned in Citadel space, right?" Both councilors nodded. "Well, the last population census -which was made, last year by the way- states that we have almost thirty billions AIs in Pact space, going from military ones to civilians. To put it simply, our society," he pointed to himself and his three colleagues. "Cannot work without them, besides the fact that we won't commit genocide of such scale."
"We unders-," White raised his hand.
"I wasn't finished." He lowered his hand. "Now, the treaty of Farixen. To put it simply councilors, most of the UTC and Saryn Royal navy breaks the treaty, and we won't destroy most of our navy to leave our borders and planets insecure."
"Again-." White raised his hand again.
"This leads to the next point, for what our AIs learned from the extranet you have an entire fucking civilization that openly attacks your planets, enslaving the people you swore to protect, and they shield their own sorry asses with pirates that you know they are funding and protecting. Besides the fact that you don't attack them out of fear. A galactic wide government scared of one -ONE- civilization." At this point he was almost shouting. "I'm sorry councilors." He continued calmer. "But slavery is a touchy matter for us humans. We've passed the last hundreds of years trying to build a society that seeks the equality for everyone. We also had slavery but we abolished it a long time ago." He looked how the councilors moved uncomfortably on their seats; he had kept everything he knew about the specters on the shadow, what was the point of giving all the knowledge. "Besides that, I suppose that our races would join the Citadel as a client race, right?"
"Yes." Replied Valern with a nod. "Every race started like that."
"Well, with all this checked I -on behalf of the human people- respectfully decline the proposal to join the Citadel Council." Tevos sighed sadly, she was waiting this but after all not all the races joined the Citadel Council immediately.
"And I say the same on behalf of the royal family and its people."
"I suppose you think the same?" Asked Tevos, looking at the admiral.
"Yes, these seven years with the Pact have been the best the Quarian people have ever had pass. We will not commit the mistake of joining the Citadel again."
"Then, now we have to see about how our governments will co-exist."
"Exactly," replied Xen. "But, we have three clauses that are not negotiable," he waited for permission to continue, with came with a nod from White and Ik'er. "As we suppose you know all the relays leading to our space are completely locked, they will remain like that until we say the contrary, except for one." He raised a finger for emphasis. "That relay will be the only one leading to our space."
"Then how do we trade?" Asked the turian representative, making everybody remember of his presence.
"Only your ships will use it, our ships don't need eezo to go FTL."
"Very well, that's acceptable." Replied Valern. "What is the other thing?"
"We don't want any kind of unauthorized council ship on our space, if our sensors detect a ship outside of the system of the open relay it will destroyed, no exceptions." He doubted that that will happen, but he needed to left the point clear. "And third, we doesn't want any turian or batarian in our space, not even a diplomatic envoy. We're not ready to forgive the turians and we aren't going to reduce ourselves to speak to slavers."
"Very well," said Tevos with a nod. "Now if we begin, I would like to speak of where we will place the Pact embassy."
And so the talks continued.
Codex:
Quarian Government: After passing near to 300 under martial law, when the quarians settled on Aurora they had the problem of finding a new governmental system. The ideas of the pre-exodus government never were lost, but there was the problem that with the new beliefs of the quarians it was impossible to use a monarchy. The quarians looked for the help of their new allies, soon establishing into a mix between a parliamentary republic and a federation. The migrant fleet population had divided into five majors cities, every city being ruled internally by a mayor democratically elected, aside from that, the people elect another person to being the representative for foreign affairs with other cities or races, These persons cannot interact with the internal governments of their cities, anyway the internal government tend to seek these people for advise, since they are very wise (most of the time). When there is a threat to the whole planet integrity the five cities unite economically and militarily for the defense of the planet. These five persons also represent the quarian people on the Citadel Council as ambassadors.
Quarian Military: Since the failure to defend the planet from the Turian invasion, there has been a complete reform of the army, most of the quarians instructors were inscribed on specials courses on human and saryn military tactics, those who refused were simply replaced by instructors of the other two races. Even if the bulk of the infantry still use saryn mass effect weaponry, the recently formed Special Forces units use the most advanced human weapons available on the market (figuratively speaking). The reason behind these is top secret. The rest of the arms of the army use a mix of human and saryn technology. To this point, The Pact's military is believed to be the most deadly, diverse and trained on the galaxy, since the human army is capable of surpassing the Turian military by itself.
Hades-Class Battleship: The only one of its class, a 15 kilometers long ship, equipped with the most cutting-edge technology, of which stand out the [classified], the [classified] and the [classified]. The blueprints of this massive ship were first drawn on the early days of the UTC space colonization, rejected and stored into the [classified] by the orbital costs that would cripple the recently formed alliance on that time. These plans of construction were retaken on the year 2100, by a vote of 4 against 2, the construction started five years later after the various renovations that the design went through. The construction of the ship was initiated on the shipyard [classified] located on [classified]. After that it suffered several breaks, either by budget cuts, resources relocation, or the relocation of the ship itself. And the usual problem of having to constantly update the ship to the new technologies, delaying completion for almost sixty years.