A/N: To respond to a couple of reviewers: We're not even close to the main section of the story. The real meat and potatoes are the Reapers and War arcs, everything else is mostly exposition. I could have done the entirety of the story so far in references and codex, but I chose to make it in story format. Yes, there's a lot going on. This is just underpinning the situation. Trust me, when we get to Reapers you'll see a radically different style of storytelling, one which you guys will probably take to much more readily than this info-mishmash. Again thanks for sticking around and making The Space Race my most successful story ever. You guys are beyond awesome, even the ones who leave bitchy flames for me in PMs. I love you all.
In particular I'd like to thank the following readers: AiSard and mivpus, for patiently reading the inane rumblings I send them as I bounce ideas and plot points off them like Steve McQueen in the Great Escape.
One more thing - I did in fact model the Krogan Alliance infantry squads on the Space Marine squads from Dawn of War. Several of my real life betas pointed that out.
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The Illusive Man sat wreathed in shadows, anonymity and cigarette smoke. Miranda couldn't help but feel a little unnerved by the figure. If anything his vices made him seem more threatening. They gave the impression that the Illusive Man was human, not a computer or AI, and his manipulations seemed effortless. He was like a spider, fat and lazy in the middle of his web.
"Good work on the Temple, Miss Lawson. Leng was impressed. You're reassigned to Phantom training, effective immediately. Good luck."
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Inamorda leaned out of the open sided gunship, one hand tightly wrapped around the overhead handrail as the other lightly rested on the stock of his Obliterator heavy shotgun nestled in the small of his back. Beside him, the Jorgal strapped into the portside Minigun position swung the weapon around, the entire armoured pod swivelling on a hydraulic arm. The pod could actually hang clear outside of the gunship for a wider range of fire, but thus far Inamorda had yet to find a Krogan willing to leave the gunship interior in the weapon pod. After one thousand five hundred years of no aircraft operating on Tuchanka, Krogan weren't great with heights.
In the cabin of the gunship, Liara sat in the shotgun seat, listening to the comm chatter between the pilot and the control tower through headphones. Beside her, Aphrodite frowned as she concentrated on the gunship controls. She was one of the female Silvers Liara had recovered three years ago when the Suns finally tracked down Okeer. She and her sisters had been kept in medically induced comas and used as living incubators for other Superkrogan, the foetuses being transferred to the breeding tanks after a week inside their surrogate mothers. While their unit was deployed on Tuchanka the female Silvers couldn't engage in frontline combat without distressing a lot of Krogan so for the time being they were sticking to support roles, manning the gunships and artillery platforms loaned to the Alliance. They weren't happy about it either.
The gunship came to hover over the Weyrloc artillery emplacement, miniguns stitching lines of bullet holes across the position as the artillery crews dove for cover. The Jorgal gunner roared in savage joy as his weapon raked across the makeshift barricade, sending up clods of dirt and chunks of masonry.
Inamorda waved his squad forward.
"Let's go!"
The ten crest squad descended from the gunship on rappelling lines, already firing one handed with heavy pistols as they slid down the thick cables and onto the ground. Immediately on landing the warriors whipped out their weapons, six of them carrying Obliterator shotguns, the other four being the heavy weapon specialists. One carried a heavy flamethrower, a Pyrocaster model, already aiming and snapping out huge spurts of flame. Next to him, the enormous Drau carrying the squad's Gritspitter braced himself, setting his feet apart in a wide crouch to absorb the punishing recoil of the four barrelled weapon as it let rip, torrents of heavy caliber bullets filling the air. The two other heavies were that rarest of breeds, Krogan twins, each one bearing the red crest of Urdnot and a heavy grenade launcher and a missile launcher respectively. For the time being they kept their weapons in hand but didn't fire them, the explosive radius risking damage to the artillery they were supposed to be capturing intact. As soon as the fusillade lessened the six warriors unburdened by heavy weapons charged, Inamorda at their head swinging his war blade from its position on his back as his other hand clutched a HAGR rocket pistol, a particularly destructive Seu'Seun weapon that fired clusters of self propelled explosive rounds. The squad's biotic specialist threw a Singularity that plucked three Weyrloc off their feet, to be finished off by three shotgun blasts. Then the two forces clashed.
There are few things in a galaxy more violent than a Krogan melee. Unlike Turian melee, which is usually over in three or four hard, straight jabs or kicks, or Asari martial arts where two combatants can slither around each other for fifteen minutes without landing a single hit, Krogan fought brutal, using their mass and momentum to smash through foes and pound them into pulp while relying on their regeneration to outlast the other guy. Inamorda swung his war blade, dense titanium-palladium-eezo alloy blade cleaving through a grey armoured arm, drawing forth a hot spray of orange blood and a pained roar as he followed up his attack with a headbutt, sending his foe reeling as he blasted his HAGR point blank into the unfortunate man's guts. He wasn't dead yet, but he'd be out of it for a good while and Inamorda didn't have the time to finish him off. He moved on to the next enemy, a corridor opening up in the chaotic melee and allowing him to charge, building up a good deal of momentum as he swung his war blade in a high arc, bringing it smashing down hard enough to cleave into the Ruttan receiving the blow vertically, biting into his hump and cracking his crest as he roared a challenge, lilac skull plate instinctively darting forward in a headbutt. Inamorda used that to his advantage, dipping under his chin before driving upwards, an armoured shoulder slamming into the fleshy throat of his opponent. A quick double jab broke their death grapple, the Ruttan's arms grabbing for Inamorda's wrists as he snapped up his pistol, blasting a cluster of rockets into his opponent's head. That was one injury not even a Krogan was getting up from.
He spun around, searching for other targets. Three of his warriors were down in regenerative fugues but they had wiped out the poorly prepared defenders, taking the artillery battery for themselves. Already a team of Suns technicians were rappelling down from the gunship to comb the weapons for booby traps before turning them on the Weyrloc defensive line.
For almost a week Weyrloc had managed to repel the Alliance attack at the final line of their camp. They were surrounded and had nowhere left to run, but they weren't dying without a fight. It was Wrex's hope that a gunship raid could seize the three Weyrloc artillery batteries and turn the guns on the defenders. Then they could finally break the siege and take Weyrloc for themselves.
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Wrex smiled in smug satisfaction as the Weyrloc clan shaman approached. To bow before Urdnot was a bitter pill for Weyrloc to swallow. Of course, the clan leaders of every clan who had opposed the Alliance was dead, leaving it to the shamans to pledge their fealty in their stead. The Krogan were united.
Wrex couldn't quite believe it. He had united every Krogan on the planet. By Krogan law he was now Overlord of Tuchanka. Of course, the unification of the Krogan people had only been part of his quest. Now it was done, the real work could begin.
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A/N: This marks the end of Innocence Lost. I know, it's far shorter than you expected and I planned, but here it is. I ran out of stuff to say, so instead of making you guys wait while I wallowed in writer's block I just decided to amputate and move on.
Next chapter is the first chapter of the Reapers arc. At the time of writing this author's note I've already made major inroads into the first chapter and I have to say it's turning out even better than I hoped. I'm super pumped about finally getting into the real story here and I hope you guys will share my enthusiasm for the new arc.
Finally: I know that there are many, many plot points left unresolved here. Fear not! Everything that has happened up until now will have some relavence either in arc 4 (Reapers) or arc 6 (War).
Again, thank you to everyone who took the time to review my story. Even the butthurt ones.