A/N: Sorry for the delay. House of Wolves is out, and I've spent far too long playing! The first chapter has received a little retooling, but it mostly fits. Chapter two hasn't changed at all, though.

"Is this the paradox?"

The Warlock shook his head. "No. When the paradox that ensured your existence happened, it was years in the future."

"Then why are we now? I understand pushing the Guardian to the Heart you found during your time among the Vex. But why now?"

"It wasn't time that I spent among the Vex. You cannot spend time in a place outside of time."

The Warlock's companion sighed softly before replying, "Still, why are we now and not then? Or later?"

"Because the shepherd will need allies to make the paradox. And although everyone respects violence, only the Fallen and Cabal will admit it. Well, them and the Krogan. We must unite the races on the Citadel with the Traveler before the incursion of Darkness. There was disunion when the Traveler finally fell. Only together can the Light stand against the Darkness."

"I will give them a common enemy."

"They already have a common enemy. Make them realize it before war breaks out."

Captain Sequivus wanted to groan. He'd been patrolling the most important part of space. At least, that's what high command claimed. They said that he was, "The first response to an alien invasion, the leader to ensure that barbarians never get a chance to strike a blow at home. At Palaven." Sequivus hadn't been born on Palaven, but he had visited when he was young. The cities stood proud, promising freedom and safety for all the Citadel species. The buildings were beautiful, and Sequivus couldn't count the number of times he'd wished to be a Palaven native. Then, rather than patrol a quiet sector of space whose only resource was rocks, he could be a part of the Palaven defence fleet. Or maybe on the Batarian border flighting off definitely not government sanctioned pirates. Any other job would have more action than watching dormant relays to make sure that they stayed dormant. But, because he hadn't been born on Palaven, he could hardly hope to both captain a ship and protect the homeworld. Oh, there wasn't any official rule, but there were only so many leadership positions in the fleets, and every Turian went into the military. Palaven natives had just had more opportunities to attend more prestigious universities, so they looked much better in charge.

But all that was about to change. Sequivus knew it; the promise was under the edges of his plates and it really itched. But he could hardly scratch it while all of his subordinates looked on. Sequivus was a proud Turian, and he would act like one.

As if in answer to that promise of change, Lieutenant Vakarian addressed Sequivus, "Captain, I'm getting a message from Command. Shall I patch it through?"

The captain nodded and said, "Put it on screen." With a few deft movements, the face of Admiral Fedorian appeared before Sequivus.

Sequivus snapped to attention, talon raised in salute. Eventually, Fedorian dismissed the salute with a small gesture. "To what do I owe the pleasure, admiral?"

"No pleasure, captain. Have the ships in your patrol found any unusual activity near the relays?" Sequivus was confused; admirals didn't call captains on a whim. It was the captain's job to report anything unusual, so a call from the admiral was bad.

Sequivus shook his head. "No, sir. We'll be coming up on the last relay in the sector soon, but everything has been all quiet."

Admiral Fedorian's mandibles flared as he said, "No captain, everything has not been all quiet." Fedorian's tone suddenly changed as he said, "So check that last relay, because I want it checked yesterday."

"We're getting there as fast as we can, but why do you need us to mess up the patrol schedule? I'm sure that you're aware of the need for constant, regular checks."

Admiral Fedorian released a pent-up breath. "Three cycles ago, Irune declared a state of wartime emergency, prompting the Volus Protectorate to pass military leadership to the Turian Hierarchy, per our initial agreement. We finally have realtime data about the invaders and can confirm that initial panicked descriptions are chillingly accurate."

"With all due respect, sir," Sequivus said, "I don't doubt that the Batarians can be needlessly cruel when trying to take slaves, but how can it be chilling?"

"Because they're not Batarians. The invaders aren't anything I've ever seen. They aren't anything anybody has ever seen. So now do you see why I want you to have finished the relay patrols?"

Sequivus blinked. This was making his scales itch in an entirely new way. A new species. A new, violent species. A new, violent species attacking Hierarchy space. "Yes Admiral. I will inform you of my findings."

Admiral Fedorian said, "Good. Fedorian out," and cut the comm channel from his time.

As soon as the screen had blanked itself, Captain Sequivus looked down to address his crew. "You heard the admiral. I want us running the engines until they're almost hot enough to fry us, and we're skipping the normal discharge protocol. We'll have to live with a little danger in the air until we get to Relay 314 and discharge there." Sequivus paused for effect before almost shouting, "Do I make myself clear?"

In unison, the bridge crew chanted, "Aye, captain," before turning to delegate jobs. Sequivus could feel the thrum of his ship change and speed up as engineering crews modulated eezo frequencies and fed extra fuel to the engines. He relaxed his posture and got ready to outwait the rest of the trip.

Fierce Deity decelerated, bringing its mass up above zero. On the bridge, Sequivus watched as the two other ships in his patrol as they did the same. Indomitable and Steadfast were both frigates, meaning that their commanders deferred to him, as the only cruiser captain in the area. Lieutenant Kalliks turned from his position at the sensor array feeds and said, "Captain, I'm detecting a lot of odd energy in system, like there's a moon made out of element zero."

Sequivus cursed under his breath and told Lieutenant Vakarian to, "Contact Indomitable and Steadfast. Tell them that we're not discharging at this relay. Instead, we'll jump straight to Relay 314 to see what it's doing."

"Aye, captain," Vakarian said as she turned away and began flipping switches and muttering into her headset. Shifting his attention, Sequivus watched as his ship dove into FTL.

A minute later, the three Turian warships tore out of nothing and into orbit around Relay 314. Captain Sequivus adjusted his stance so that he could see Relay 314 out the thin window strip at the fore. The sleek lines of the relays were always impressive, but the swiftly spinning rings spiraling the core drew the eye away from the grace of the Protheans' legacy. Sequivus enjoyed studying the inactive relays, since they were still life; a beauty in an entirely different way. There was just one problem: Relay 314 was not inactive.

Sequivus flew into action, ordering the bridge crew to, "Start a conference call with Indomitable and Steadfast. Then get Admiral Fedorian on the line!" The Turians under his command rushed to comply, and within a few moments, Admiral Fedorian's tribal marks resolved themselves on the screen. Sequivus saluted as Fedorian said, "Captain, I can only assume that you're calling me to report on the status of Relay 314."

Sequivus dropped his salute and said, "Yes sir. We emerged from our massless tunnel and detected excess energy in the system. Visuals confirm that Relay 314 has been activated and used recently. Orders, admiral?"

The admiral nodded slowly and was clearly thinking about his response when the comms officer spoke up. "Captain, the relay is spinning up! I can't override from this distance. What should I do?"

Sequivus was about to order weapons free to destroy the invaders when Admiral Fedorian cut in. "Run weapons hot, targeting free. Charge your spinal cannons, but do not engage unless fired upon first. Open all radio channels. We need to establish contact." Reluctantly, Sequivus closed his mandibles and let the ships' crews listen to the admiral's orders.

The wait was long. Had the good captain been more poetically inclined (or slightly more Asari), perhaps he would have compared it to the epic detailing the forbidden love of ancient Justicar Dameena and her childhood friend Porybyss. But Captain Sequivus was not, so he merely thought that the elapsed time was about ten times longer than any relay jump had any right to be. When Relay 314 finally did disgorge its contents into real-space, Captain Sequivus was confused. He'd seen the statically charged tendril that normally chased ships out of a relay, but he couldn't see anything else come out. "Petty Officer Kalliks, what's going on?"

The petty officer's nostril plates bowed inward in confusion as he said, "I'm not sure. Active scanning sensors report three objects the size of fighter craft, but there's no element zero in any of them, and power outputs are minimal."

Sequivus blinked. It was impossible for asteroids and other space debris to trigger relay jumps, and mass relays were very safe; there were never problems that could turn a ship into a derelict during a jump. He couldn't think of any times fighters had been sent through a relay, but Sequivus doubted that that would cause any problems, since much larger ships used relays quite routinely without difficulty. Maybe it was a trick?

But it wasn't Captain Sequivus's call to make; Admiral Fedorian was still on conference call with the patrol. However, he didn't have all the information about the aliens. Of course, neither do I. The thought drifted lazily across Sequivus's mind, asking, What do I really know about the aliens invading Irune? Captain Sequivus made a decision. He made a proper, Turian decision. He deferred to the chain of command. "Orders, Admiral?"

"Fighters couldn't hope to destroy a frigate, much less two and a cruiser. Hail them. Standard first contact package." Sequivus nodded diligently and motioned for his crew to send the message. For a few moments, it was all hustle and bustle as Lieutenant Vakarian started prepping the transmission and translated it into Prothean while everyone else pretended to be busy.

Finally, Vakarian spoke. "Message is away. Repeat. Message is away. No immediate response."

Jack adjusted the throttle, leveling off the Fangs of Nyx relative to the mass relay his fireteam had just exited. Eva and Ben were right behind him, both piloting their own Fangs of Nyx. He glanced out the window, taking in the stars and marveling at the Universe. Or rather, he tried to. There were three large ships blocking the stars. He could feel them, nestled in the space between atoms, the void. They didn't look friendly; steep angles and long lines hid weapons poorly and suggested a blade, slipping through armor to rend flesh. And the ships were far larger than his own. Not larger than a Ketch or Cabal warship, but large.

Jack's mind spun counterclockwise, warping into multiple realities and rending apart atoms with its sheer presence as it found unity in the bisection of a river of thought made of stars and made of the stuff in between the stars that shine like plasma dripping slowly out of a leaking canister and pooling and cooling into something less big and mercurial and important as the Traveler and what was in the Traveler was a secret because the Traveler was god but not God and that was Good because God is not good because conflict is the nature of reality and duality is the archetype that conforms to reality so there must not be God but instead god that can be pitted against god out here in the vast infinite stretch of nothing where those ships sit thinking themselves superior to a god that has seen the true nature of reality and has become unbound to the mere fabric of it by the act of seeing those ships floating in the void and knowing that the air he breathes and the water he drinks are less essential to him that the existence of this soulful stretch of unblemished space that they think they can own without touching and knowing and embracing the void and drawing life and energy from it. Jack opened his eyes. Not the ones made of flesh with imperfect vision that cannot see everything. The strings of fate resonated as Jack plucked at the comm channel, telling Eva and Ben, "Plan nine. Just in case. There are warships out there, but their might is minuscule next to ours. Nevertheless, I do not yet smell hostile intent from any of them. They are curious babes, unknowing of what they have stumbled upon."

At Jack's order, the three ships spread apart, drawing into a loose triangle, as though to block the much larger ships' passage toward the relay. Hopefully, the pattern wouldn't appear hostile, but it would prevent targeting of all three ships while giving each one plenty of room to move and dodge. "All right. I'll establish contact with those ships, try to warn them of the Hive's sudden spread. If we can make friends, it'll be much easier to gain a foothold and force the Darkness out of here."

Ben's rich, deep voice boomed over the radio, somehow sounding even more intimidating coming out of the tiny box. "Maybe they're why the Hive is suddenly expanding aggressively. I mean, even if these guys are satanic demon worshipers who practice ritual sacrifice; bloodletting; kitten eating; statutory rape; and jaywalking, they still wouldn't be evil enough for the Hive."

"While I'm not disagreeing with you, Ben, these aliens can't have just appeared overnight. There has to have been something additional to have stirred the Hive with enough ferocity to make them attack an unknown planet. The last time they tried something like this, they were led by Crota. But Crota is defeated. His soul is trapped in the netherworld below the Moon and will remain so provided that guardians can disrupt the dark ritual the Hive keep trying to perform to summon Crota."

"Wait!" Jack's Ghost interrupted, "I'm getting a signal from the biggest of those three ships. I'll try clearing up the signal and matching it to possible audio-visual." The Ghost spun, trying to scrub the data. "Hmm. If I do this then it transforms like that, so if I," Ghost muttered to himself before abruptly pausing his spin cycle and pulling together. "Oh. Oh. That is interesting."

Clearly annoyed, Eva called out, "Well, what's interesting? Did your space magic accidentally blow something up?" over the comms.

Jack let Ghost talk for him, because dealing with Eva was a pain sometimes. It was worth it though, because she was very good at her job. "No, guardian. What I found is so very much better than an explosive mishap. I believe that the language is similar to the language we've decoded in those ruins on Mars, back before the Cabal landed. I'm combining it with data that William's scouts have recovered from the planet, and I think I can translate the speech."

Jack allowed himself a rare grin at that. "Pipe it through. Let's hear what these aliens have to say."

Ghost dipped his head and a bass rumble with a flanging echo filled Jack's ship. "Hello. On behalf of the Turian Hierarchy, I am Primarch Chavin, and I wish you a hearty welcome to the galactic stage. Once familiar relations between our peoples are established, we can welcome you into the fold and bosom of the Citadel species."

As the translated transmission ended, Jack could swear he heard Eva blink in disbelief. "There is no way that that is how they normally speak."

Jack cut in, saying, "Which is why I'll be speaking with the big ships. Shh. Ghost, link us up and run the translation." After a few moments, a light beeped green and Jack began. "Hello Primarch. My name is Jack Harper, and I wish your Light be forever brilliant and untainted."

The bridge was tense. The trio of alien fighters had formed up. They weren't in any recognized combat formation, but they were doing something. The alarms blaring in the background did not help matters. And the aliens still hadn't responded. Captain Sequivus did not want to be remembered as the Turian who started the next interstellar war. But if the aliens didn't respond, or they ran . . . Well, he had three battle ready ships and the aliens might make assumptions. Backup was not known for asking questions first.

So when Lieutenant Vakarian said, "Sir, the lead ship is hailing us," Sequivus's relieved tone could be forgiven as he rushed to order the lieutenant to accept the communication.

The words that issued from the speakers were garbled, but the language was Prothean, the computer claimed as it began translating. "Greetings Primarch. It calls itself Jack Harp and I wish you endless, pure and bright light."

The palpable tension was at once removed and replaced with dead silence. With a shrug, Vakarian shattered it and suggested, "Translator glitch?"

A/N: I am so sorry that that took so long. I'll try to post faster in the future. Just to reiterate, I am updating chapter one just a little bit to comply with HoW.