"I cured all the illnesses found on this world. And yet there is one sickness that has evaded me. War. Long ago I swore an oath. Primum non nocere. Now I find myself lost in an endless mist of uncertainty. Could the cure for this sickness be worse then the disease?"

-The Mad ravings of an unknown physician, December 3887 Earth

November 4th

15:30

3927

Crystal Tokyo, Earth

Ami fell to her knees. The strike on the Salarian councilor had taken so much out of her. This week had been a blur. She'd hit STG base after STG base, and she even ran into a demon while tying up one more loose end. Apparently that was thing now.

The most surreal part occurred when a team of Shadows appeared to take out the Demon. She was there so she gave them some targeting data and it almost reminded her of the old days.

Thinking of that made Ami grin. "Back when things were simple", she murmured to herself.

The TV was still on. Some mindless advertisement for a teeth whitener was blaring in Venesian. Ami glared at the screen. As if the power and intensity of her gaze could change the channel. It didn't work. But the commercial break ended any ways and the news came on.

"Welcome back, I'm Jasper Wong and tonight we'll be looking into an incident that's only recently been opened up to the Public, the Accident at Oltan's Shadow in the Phontes system."

She recognized the reporter. Jasper Wong was the 47th most popular news anchor in Crystal Tokyo. Known acquaintance of Yuri, also known as Palla the "Asteriod" senshi. Also known to be intelligent, influential, and charismatic.

"The accident unfolded in the Milky Way 4 Galaxy, a Region of space so distant that you can only observe it with Plutonian optics or an enchanted mirror from Neptune. "

"The News anchor spooled this information out in a cool smooth tone. Her confident demeanor earned her plenty of fans. She was also quite handsome, with dark hair that was cut into a fade, and a smile that made audiences scream.

"Auxiliary ships suffered catastrophic engine failures near an Alien world. Many lives were lost, human and Alien. Now the fog of war hangs heavy over our fair city. An Alien organization known as the Council accuses Crystal Tokyo of directly carrying out attacks against members of their galactic community"

The Princess of Mercury grimaced. She cursed the Salarians for their talented information gathering. She cursed Mina for speaking to the press. She cursed herself for not being faster. If she'd just been faster. If she'd been more aggressive then maybe she wouldn't be in this situation. A rival power knew about Crystal Tokyo and the citizens of Crystal Tokyo knew about a rival power.

"May the Queen watch over us".

Another beauty advertisement blared over the speakers in Venesian. Mercury closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She still had to strike another dozen research facilities. She had to buy more time.

May 23rd

14:00

2228

Quebec, Earth

"So, I heard about what happened"

"How did you hear about it Shepard?"

"Garrus"

Miranda downed an entire bottle of vodka. She threw it to the side.

"That's not healthy"

Miranda got up. She went to the liquor cabinet. She came back with three more bottles.

" You can't drink away your problems Miranda"

Shepard activated her tactical cloak. She snatched the bottles out of Lawson's hands and uncloaked a short distance away. Miranda activated her biotics. She snatched back one of the bottles and looked the commander straight in the eye.

"This is me, Shepard. Drinking my problems away. "

"Hind sight is 20/20 Miranda. I've been declared dead before and – the alcohol helped. It helped at first. But what really got through all of it, the Bullshit and the red tape- was you and Garrus and Tali and everyone else. I'm not mad that your drinking Miranda. I'm mad that you're drinking alone."

Shepard bit off the corks of the bottles in her hand and downed them. Then she stumbled towards Miranda and said.

"I'm not going anywhere. You hear me"

"I hear you Shepard"

Novermber 10th

04:50

3927

Crystal Tokyo

"Let me through"

"Usagi's not well ami. And I think you know the reason why. She needs some time to herself. If you need to talk to some one, you can talk to me"

Mamoru Chiba, also known as King Endymion. His cluelessness helped kick off the fall of the Moon Kingdom. Of course back then, in his previous life, he was technically an enemy. As an ally he got himself captured way too many times. Now he was trying to stop her from seeing the Queen. Even though she'd been Usagi's friend back when Mamo-chan was still wearing those god-awful outfits. She remembered the turtlenecks, and those color combinations.

"She'll want me with her"

"She told me to keep you out here. And she wants you to stay out of the war"

"What war?"

Mamoru stared at her. Her eyes went wide. Her pupils dilated.

"That's just a minor skirmish. We'll make peace and then- and then"

Her words caught up with her. After everything she'd done to stall the conflict. All the blood she had on her hands, all the science facilities she'd terminated, and all nights she'd stared down at her fucking hands wondering what the hell she was doing . . . that meant nothing. They wouldn't have peace on their terms.

Ami glanced at the floor, "Interesting".

The Princess of Mercury launched herself at "King Endymion". She could call him that because he was transformed. She wasn't. Her right hand closed around his throat and she slammed him into the wall. With some effort she then lifted him up by the neck and continued to strangle him. His face turned blue. He just stared at her. After all her augmentation he was still a head taller then her, and he had no visible scars. She stared back at him. He didn't flinch. She let go. He dropped to the floor.

"I'll stay out of the war. For her."

"I'm glad to hear that Ami"

He could still talk? After she'd- Ami looked at the Mamoru sized cracks in the wall, and then she glanced back at him. Now he was back on his feet like nothing had happened. Ami thought about transforming just so she could hit him with magic and make sure he wasn't a droid.

"I hate you", declared Ami Mizuno.

"Your shoes are untied", responded Mamoru Chiba.

She paused. The sheer childishness of his ploy hit her with concussive force. She gave Mamoru a serious Bitch Please face. He gave her a shit-eating grin. She looked down, saw her untied sneakers and snarled. She looked up. He was gone. And of course the bastard actually left a blue rose on the floor where he'd been, just like what he did when he beat her at chess two centauries ago!

She picked up the rose. It matched her hair. It smelled like old Tokyo used to smell after the rain. Ami smiled ruefully at this cruel memento. "Its been 1900 years and you haven't changed. Thats why I hate you"

Codex: Crystal Tokyo Auxilary

By the 22nd Centaury most of the earths nations recognized the preeminence of Neo Queen Serenity. There were dissenters, and they took to the stars. And as the humans pressed further into the void they found ancient technology that corrupted bodies and bent minds. Humans encountered the alien. Heavy casualties were sustained. The ability to quickly replace the fallen tipped the scales in humanities favor.

Their victory came at great cost. When Queen Serenity arrived at the region of space known as the to edge she found a broken people. The Queen took immediate action. She absorbed the region and started a gradual process of demilitarization. Limits were set on how many years a human could serve. She brought in the Princess of Mercury, Mizuno Ami, to create facilities for the deconstruction of combat forms and rehabilitation of their hosts. In her great wisdom the Queen also opened up the region to colonization by loyal citizens from the Sol system. On many planets they arrived in sufficient numbers to diffuse the culture of the original colonists.

Now the worlds that once belonged to the disloyal separatists produce a small number of auxiliary units to assist Crystal Tokyo in pursuing its regional interests. There are currently 35 million combat capable personnel in the auxiliary.

Small Arms of the Auxilary

XI-91- Compact dual fed bullpup magnetic accelerator carbine. Three rates of fire, 100 round capacity, 4.9 mm steel bullets. Its primary fire mode, anti-personal/anti-material, has a fire rate of 550 rpm. The secondary fire mode achieves a higher fire rate of 1,200 rpm with a small recoil reduction by lowering the muzzle velocity to 760 meters per second. Its third fire mode, suppressed, brings the muzzle velocity down to 320 m/s and reduces the rate of fire to 400 rounds per minute. The XI-91 uses electronic sights linked up to an auxiliary soldiers visor. It is a standard issue weapon.

Revolver Auto .44 1C- Fully automatic 7 round .44 HESH standard issue service revolver. The service revolvers rate of fire is close to 500 rpm. Its high explosive squash head rounds give the weapon its stopping power. Like a number of other weapons designed 1700 years ago it uses iron sights. The Revolver .44 1C is a standard issue weapon.

XI-6- Magnetic Accelerator rifle equipped with a two round 25mm under barrel fully automatic grenade launcher. Its 14.5 mm copper-jacketed steel core round leaves the barrel at velocity of 1,810 meters per second. The weapons 725 cyclic rate of fire coupled with its 12 round magazine limits its ability to maintain fire superiority. It uses primitive electronic sights that link up to an auxiliary soldiers visor. It is a standard issue weapon, used in the grenadier role.

Khad- A Recoilless 30 mm squad based Designated marksmen revolver Auto canon that uses an electronic scope. The weapon weighs 38 kg unloaded, its fed by an 8 round magazine, and its ammo is heavy. It is a standard issue weapon, used in the DMR role.

Maveryk- Reusable shoulder launched anti-material launcher. Its warhead protrudes out of the 80 mm launch tube. The Maveryk is a somewhat touchy weapon since its warhead is actually an sawed off unstable magnetic accelerator that was discontinued. Interestingly enough the 80 mm rocket launcher that the Maveryk was developed from was phased out due to the insufficient payload of its original warhead. The Maveryk gives credence to the idea that two wrongs do make a right. It is a (dangerously volatile) standard issue weapon that's used in the Anti-material role.

S IV Machete- Standard issue close quarters weapon. Its 45 cm blade is made out of low grade shock resistant steel. Effectiveness is reduced by enemy armor. So if their blade can't cut through something then Auxilary may resort to bashing the blade into it while their buddy preps a Maveryk. Results may vary.

Vehicles of the Auxiliary

Heavy Tank- The Turret less warfighter of old that's still rocking a 90 mm magnetic accelerator in the age of magic. Its engine, Electric armor, and main gun all draw their power from the same power supply. So a commander has to weigh their priorities. Charging up a bunker busting shot with 95% of the vehicles charge can deliver a shot that'll harm a heavily shielded craft. Pouring power into the engine lets the tank back pedal at 42 km/h through heavy foliage. Even a half decent amount of charge set to the Electric Armor lets the Heavy tank reduce the effect of plasma or vaporize an incoming kinetic round. Its physical armor is pretty thin and mechanically speaking its no masterpiece. Just a twenty six ton tank with a hull mounted gun that's had some pretty good crews over the last thousand years.

Wren- Most of the Auxiliaries equipment was put through its paces during the Fight for Dorcene, a habitable world with some dark secrets. In that conflict the enemy owned the skies and everything in orbit. Only two human craft could challenge their dominance. One was the peak of human achievement, the SA8-R orbital fighter. The other was the Wren. A tiny tilt jet aircraft that could jerk around the battlefield, draw fire from everything, and then do a barrel role through a hailstorm of plasma to ruin somebodies day. Plenty of pilots died pulling of stunts like that. Opening up on heavily shielded opponents with an outdated 30 militmeter autocanon and four AIM-9S missiles was a gamble. It was a risk. It's the kind of thing that kept the war going until Dorcene and everything in orbit could be taken out by a Storm of atomic fire.

SA8-R- Six nuclear ramjets engines, four 76 mm magnetic accelerator cannons, and an rugged titanium airframe. It was supposed to be enough. When the Advanced Augment had to be dropped into position they called upon the SA8-R. When enemy ships came into Orbit they still called upon the SA8-R. The Pilots would come in at Mach 4. They'd fire their cannons. They'd keep on accelerating and they'd try to fire their cannons again before everything went to black. A nuclear powered aircraft crashed into the alien ship at Mach 7 with four overcharged MAC guns. It was enough.