Author notes: I want to clear the air here quickly. Before anyone gets all hot and bothered by it, NO, I didn't come up with the last line in chapter 4. The credit goes to a guy by the name of Peptuck, another fanfic author who wrote "Renegade," (among other things) a C&C/ME crossover that focuses on the GDI/NOD timeline. It was a deliberate shout-out to him, and I couldn't help but use it, since it was so damn funny, and since he helped inspire me to write TDoM. He deserves the credit there, even if Mammoth Tank crews would piss themselves at the sight of a Doom Fortress.
Chapter 5: Hearts of Iron
Zaeed Massani looked over the all but abandoned streets of what had only a week ago been a thriving city on the planet of Shanxi. The Turians had really done a number on the city with their orbital strikes, and it would take months for the city to recover from the damage. The Alliance Fifth Fleet had just managed to kick the metal faced bastards out of the system with their tails between their legs, but the Fleet's three day trip from the planet of Rapture had given them enough time to land an invasion force. If Shanxi had an orbital defense network, things might've gone differently, but the PRISM satellites were too damn expensive to put over every Human colony, and Shanxi was too new and too small to warrant having them.
"God'amn metal-headed bastards. I wish some more of the assholes would show themselves so I could cook 'em." Zaeed mused.
"What was that, Sergeant?" asked General Williams. After the fighting had died down, Zaeed had made his way to the General's command center: a large, mostly undamaged building near the edge of the city. As soon as the area was secure, he'd moved into it from one of those rolling monstrosities they called Doom Fortresses. The damn things cost more than a cruiser, and they were a bit too… impersonal for his tastes. Still, it and three others like it had helped Williams take back the city with relatively minimal losses. Zaeed wasn't sure what had surprised the Turians more: seeing the behemoths charge towards them at seventy kilometers an hour, crushing everything in their paths, or seeing three dozen Terror Drones suddenly burst forth from the wreckage of the one they'd managed to destroy. He'd been there for that, and had really enjoyed seeing the little mechanical bastards "dismantle" the battalion of soldiers and tanks the Turians had thrown at the Fortress.
"Nothing, sir. Just wish I had more time to educate the metalheads on Tesla technology."
" 'There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare,' Sergeant. If you want to prove to me that I made the right decision in giving you a field promotion, you'd do well to remember that."
"Yes, sir." Zaeed replied, turning to the General.
"Now, where is this collection center for synthetics, as you call it?"
"It's not what I call it, sir; it's what the Turians call it. I managed to question one of 'em before you made it topside. He was… reluctant to say anything, but I convinced 'im to talk." replied Zaeed, his smile grim beneath his helmet. Small arcs of electricity jumped between the fingers of his suit as the memories of the past few days came to mind.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, Sergeant. What happened between you and the Turians stays between you and the Turians, understood? This building, correct?" he asked, pointing at the holographic map on the table between them.
"Yes, sir. I figure they were using the stadium for detainment since it was made to hold lots of people."
The General nodded. "Good assessment, Massani. What I don't understand is why the prisoners haven't made it out of the building yet. Most of the Turians surrendered three hours ago. If they hadn't, I'd still be in the Fortress."
"Yes, sir. I got a bad feeling in my gut, thinking about it that way."
The general turned to his right. "Major Boyle, have your men clear the structure. Only use commandos and legionnaires. If the Turians left any surprises behind, they might need to leave in a hurry."
"Yes, sir." said the major, snapping a salute. He held a finger to his ear, activating his com unit. "Bravo, Charlie, and Delta squads, move in and secure the stadium. Alfa, you're on over-watch for the general. Stay frosty ladies, the Turians might've left us some party favors."
The general turned back to Zaeed. "Massani, any intel on other the holding areas? We know they've got around a dozen, but we're not exactly sure where, or what to expect."
"Some, sir, but not as much as I'd like. I know they've got one in what's left of the chronoport, and there's another at a convention center not far from here. Unfortunately, there's no word from the inside. Best we can do is clear 'em like the stadium and extract the prisoners as we go."
The general was about to continue, but Boyle interrupted him. "Sir, my men are reporting the structure's clear. They're requesting you inside."
"Already? That was damn fast, even for commandos. What sort of resistance did they meet?"
"Apparently none, sir. The Turians cleared out a while ago."
Williams got a grim look on his face at the news. "Sergeant Massani, you know that bad feeling you were talking about? I think it's catching."
It didn't take long for that feeling to get much, much worse. Five minutes later, Massani, Williams, and Boyle entered the main chamber of what had once been a sports arena. A few weeks ago, children and teenagers had been playing little league baseball and peewee football in here. Now though…
"I think I'm gonna be sick." said Boyle, his face turning a light shade of green. Zaeed shared the sentiment.
In the middle of the stadium there was… a pile. It was nearly three meters high, and ten meters wide. The entire thing was made of nothing but bodies and pieces, and the sight of it caused bile to rise in Zaeed's throat. He'd seen things like this in vids and photos from WWIII, but seeing historical documents and seeing the same horrors in reality were two different things. The whole mass was filled with the parts and pieces of what had once been synthetic people. There were arms, legs, heads, torsos, and things that Zaeed couldn't identify. The worst part was the faces. Men and women with looks of terror and anguish painted on their faces gazed out from the mass at the trio, seeming to stare directly into their souls. And it wasn't just adults. Some of those bodies were too small for even a diminutive adult.
"Oh, Christ." wheezed Williams, a look of horror and dismay coming to his face. He'd been a general for nine years, and a soldier for twenty before that, but this…
Zaeed approached the… mound… slowly, fighting back the urge to empty his stomach. The urge got harder to resist when he heard Boyle vomiting noisily behind him. Bending down slowly, he gently turned over the remains of what had once been a young girl, no more than ten by the size of her body. There was a gaping hole in her stomach where a round had shredded the delicate electronics, and a similar one where most of her head had once been. Delicately tapping a few spots on her breast, Zaeed felt a small surge of relief when a small panel popped open and revealed a black metal box a few centimeters across in the center of her chest where an organic's heart would be. It was intact.
'Maybe there is a god.' he thought as he lay the poor thing back down.
"General Williams. You need to see this, sir." he said, calling over his shoulder at the general, who'd been talking quietly to the major.
"What is it, Zaeed?" he asked, walking slowly over to the mass grave.
"It looks like the metal fuckers didn't know about Binds. They just shot whatever presented itself at the moment."
The general looked down at the girl's damaged form and let out a small sigh.
"Dear Lord, we commit these bodies to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless them and keep them, the Lord make His face to shine upon them and be gracious unto them, the Lord lift up their countenances upon Him and give them peace. Amen."
"Amen." repeated Zaeed. He might not have been religious, but there are no atheists in foxholes.
The pair stood there for a second, giving the victims a moment of silence and gathering their thoughts. Williams broke the reverie first.
"We'll have to get somebody to work through them to find survivors. They'll have to be careful: if there are memory circuits intact, we can't risk damaging them. These people will have a hard enough time recuperating without losing their entire lives as well. For those that lost their Binds, we might be able to recover some memories for their families." He paused for just a moment. "God damnit."
Boyle spoke next, causing the distraught pair to jerk as they turned suddenly. They hadn't heard him approach.
"Sir, I'd like to take the Sergeant here and some additional Tesla Troopers to help question the Turians we have in custody. I think his experience could be valuable."
William's face got hard as the major spoke, a glint of raw, unfettered rage and hate coming to his eyes. "Red, you have no idea how much I would love to give that order right now. But we cannot, we will not! lower ourselves to the same level as these fucking barbarians. I have no doubt that we will come for them. We will find them. And we. Will. Kill them. But it will happen in a court of law. If we bring ourselves to the same plane as these blue-blooded animals, then we're no better than them, and after seeing this, I think I can safely say that any Human being short of Yuri himself is a better man than any Turian alive."
Zaeed nodded at that. "You're god'amn right about that, sir. Makes the Quarians look like bloody saints by comparison. They might not like synthetics, but they're not mass murderers like these metalheaded motherfuckers."
Williams nodded and continued. "In the meantime, we need to secure the rest of the… collection centers" he snarled, his voice on the ragged edge of control, "and keep most of the grunts from seeing this horror show. If they do, they'll rip the POWs limb from limb, and I'm not about order the guards to turn their weapons on my own people to stop them. I'll have to tell Hackett about this so he can report to FleetCom. If the Turians want a war, then we're going to give them one."
Lieutenant-Commander David Anderson was nervous. It was the same nervousness he'd felt a thousand times before. When he was in the Geists, he got this same feeling before every op, and the feeling didn't change a hair when he transferred to the Alliance Navy. Anyone who said they weren't at least a little scared before a battle was either lying or crazy, and he was neither.
"Alright, squad, listen up. I know you're wondering why we've been out here for three days, floating in a small transport deep behind enemy lines, with nothing but a micro gap generator and hopes & dreams to keep us hidden. We're taking a hell of a risk being this far from home, but it's not without purpose. We just received our final orders from FleetCom: we're going to chrono down to the surface of the planet and extract a single Turian target. According to G-2, he's supposed to be a bigwig in their command and control structure. I've uploaded individual briefs to your omnitools, so go over them thoroughly. We can't afford any mistakes here. As soon as we grab the target, we shove him in the cryo pod and bug out."
"Sir, are we leaving any presents behind for the Turians to find?"
"No. The brass wants this done fast and quiet. We had a hard enough time getting out here in the first place. Getting back's gonna be damn near impossible, and kicking the hornet's nest won't make things any easier."
"Why haven't we moved before now?"
Anderson sighed and shook his head. "Not sure, Alcatraz. The orders didn't say. And it doesn't matter. The advanced psychic radar on this ship picked up the target about six hours ago, and it's been tracking him ever since. We need to move now, before the thing burns itself out. If we let that happen, it's total mission failure. Any other questions?"
When no one responded, he nodded. "Alright. Get to the transit area. We only get one shot at this, and even if things don't go FUBAR, the capacitors for the 'sphere will burn out after two uses. We go down, hit 'em hard, bag the target, regroup, and chrono up, and we've only got ninety seconds to do it."
The six N7 Marines entered the small embarkation area and took their positions in a ring around the cryo pod in the center of the room. They faced outward, preparing themselves for a hot insertion, ready to neutralize anything hostile in the vicinity of the drop zone. Anderson took position at the front of the pod, his modified chrono suit feeling unnatural on his frame. The thing had been hastily put together for this very mission, the modified Tesla Coils in the arms designed to incapacitate the target without causing damage. He thought a Taser would've been a hell of a lot easier, but the Alliance always did like flashy toys.
"Alright, boys. Lock and load."
"This is... unfortunate."
"Sparatus, I hardly think the word unfortunate covers what we've gotten ourselves into. Disaster would be more apt." replied Tevos.
"There's no need to be snide, Tevos. We may have suffered some setbacks, but the Humans can't hope to match the might of the Hierarchy when it's fully martialed."
"Setbacks!?" yelled Tabril, his eyes going wide and his mouth growing thin. "You call the abduction of the Turian Primarch and the Salarian Dalatrass a setback?! Even the STG is incapable of something like that! Not to mention the fact the kidnappings weren't even discovered until hours later!"
"And if the Asari had a centralized government, they likely would've taken our leader as well. Besides, I'm sure you both received the same… warning as I did?"
When Tevos had woken that morning, she hadn't noticed anything was wrong at first. It was only when she heard the clatter of metal on metal that she saw the Human-made projectile on the floor next to her bed where it'd rolled off her body. The urgent message waiting for her when she reached for her omnitool to call C-Sec made it clear what had happened.
Sparatus couldn't fully hide his anxiety at the half-question. She thought as much.
"It's clear to me now that we've badly underestimated what the Humans are capable of. Our governments are bleeding information to their military, probably due to the help they're getting from the Quarians. Meanwhile, we continue to scramble in the dark, suffering setback after setback as they reveal more and more of their technology to us."
"Yes." said Tabril. "Orbital defense grids, capital ships made to carry nothing but strike craft, and this electro discharge technology they seem to have mastered, just to name a few. And we still have no idea how they can detect our scouts, even when they take every precaution, nor how they managed to sneak at least three infiltration teams through thousands of light-years of Council space without being seen. We know they possess teleportation technology, but if they could teleport that far, they'd have little need for the Mass Relays. I fear we have no choice but to negotiate for peace."
"Negotiate!?" yelled Sparatus, his voice growing angry. "We can't negotiate with the Humans! That should be obvious by now. They're little better than the Rachni!"
"Sparatus, are you blind, or simply stupid?" asked Tabril. When Sparatus stuttered at the open insult, the Salarian continued. "If the Humans were as violent as the Rachni, they wouldn't have bothered to take nearly fifty thousand Turians prisoner, they would've simply slaughtered them. And they wouldn't have wasted the time to capture our leaders or threaten us. They most likely would've simply teleported fusion bombs into our rooms and killed us as we slept."
"That's my point, can't you see that?" he asked, his voice growing desperate. "They use nuclear bombs. The only race to actively use nuclear weapons in a war was the Krogans, and they turned out to be nearly as bad as the Rachni. We can't let them do this!"
"And that's exactly my point, Sparatus." replied Tevos, her patience with her Turian counterpart wearing thin. "If we continue to engage the Humans without learning their capabilities, we'll only be throwing away resources and lives for naught. The defeats we've suffered thus far are nothing compared to what they're capable of, which is frightening considering that the Hierarchy Navy has already lost nearly a fifth of its total strength in two weeks. And that's not counting the nearly ninety thousand casualties you've suffered. If we push them too far, they may start using their nuclear weapons for more than just ship-to-ship combat. They could obliterate an entire planet, and we'd be helpless to stop them."
"I agree with Tevos." said Tabril, cutting off the Turian before he could begin. "At the time, engaging the Humans was the correct course, given the data available. Now, we must consider alternatives. We agreed that they must be stopped, no matter the cost, and a negotiated peace will be far less costly than a prolonged war."
Tevos picked up where he left off. "With that in mind, I've already contacted Matriarch Benezia T'Soni. She's one of our most respected and powerful Matriarchs, and she has nearly a millennia of experience in dealing with these matters."
"Well, if you two insist on this doomed peace envoy, then be my guest. But I wouldn't be surprised when your respected and powerful diplomat comes back with her head in a box."
Tevos ignored her obstinate colleague as she continued. "The only difficulty will be determining what we can offer them to halt this war before it becomes unmanageable. If we'd simply talked to them earlier, we wouldn't be in this position."
"They will almost certainly insist on monetary reparations, as well as whatever technology we possess that the Quarians haven't already given them." said Tabril. "They may even insist on taking a large swath of Council space."
Tevos sighed. "Unfortunately, we can't hope to know what their demands will be until we meet them. The best outcome would be to convince them to join the Citadel as an associate member, but I doubt they'll accept that. Even if they do, it'll likely cost us far more than simply letting them remain independent."
"Well then, what exactly is it you would suggest, Tevos?" asked Sparatus.
"I believe the best course of action is to give Benezia a free hand. If she speaks for us, she may be able to shield us from the worst of it. I trust her to do what needs to be done, even if we find it distasteful. After all, we can hardly afford to balk at any offer they do present, no matter how unpleasant we find it."
"Very well, Tevos, Tabril. Send your diplomat. In the meantime, I will be martialing our forces for their response."
Tevos just shook her head. "Sparatus, if this doesn't work, their response could be far more than we can handle."
Hannah Shepard was tired. She'd been tired for more than three weeks, but this was a different kind of tired. The short break she'd taken to Arcturus to spend with her son John had helped, but that was before the news of Shanxi arrived. Now, her fatigue was deeper, almost seeming to extend from her body into her soul.
"Are you sure about this, Admiral? The only thing we've seen Council ships do when we encounter them is fire at us. After all that's happened, I find it hard to believe they'd suddenly send a peace offer."
"So do I, Shepard. Then again, it was hard to believe that Traft and Eden could open a dialogue between the Federation and the Alliance, and we've all heard that bedtime story." said Hackett in a dull voice. He looked older now than he had a few weeks ago. "And from what the Quarians have told us, the Asari are the diplomats of the Council. It makes sense that they'd be the ones to try and negotiate."
"I've been meaning to ask about that, Admiral. How've the Quarians been settling in?"
"Surprisingly well, all things considered. There've been some harsh words and veiled threats, but it hasn't come to blows yet. We've already made some surprising leaps with their help. Our cyber-warfare and hacking capabilities have gone through the roof, and production on new ships has sped up by nearly thirty percent. Almost to a man, they're some of the best damn engineers and technicians we've ever seen."
Hannah grinned at that. "Well, what do you expect, sir? They survived for nearly three centuries with nothing but their wits and determination. What about their civilian fleet?"
"That's slower going." he said. "They've decided on a handful of moons and planets to begin settlements on, but seventeen million Quarians is a lot of people to move. Our best estimate is that it'll be at least six months to a year before the infrastructure needed to sustain the main body of their population can be finished. There is one bit of good news, though."
"Oh?"
"Some of the Quarian scientists were sublet out to the Sirta Foundation, a subsidiary of GE. They were originally supposed to be working on perfecting the racemic medigel and advanced immunoboosters we promised them, but they made a breakthrough that's got them more than a little excited. Apparently, they've developed some sort of retrovirus that can damn near replace their immune systems. It's not even in the testing stages yet, and it'll be years before it's ready, but if it works, they should be able to ditch their suits for good."
Hannah's grin turned into a full blown smile at the news. "I'm sure they're happy to hear that. It should go a long way towards earning some good will with their people. We might even be able to convince them to join the Alliance."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Shepard. There's plenty of people back home who've never even seen a Quarian." His face deepened into a frown. "When news of Shanxi gets out, there may well be anti-alien riots. We're getting people in position to keep the Quarians in our facilities safe, but we can't keep the media out of this for much longer."
Hannah's mirth was gone. But she still had a job to do. "I've been thinking about that, Admiral. There might be a way to get people to focus their attention away from the Quarians. Most of them know about their anti-synthetic sentiment, but we may be able to spin that to our advantage."
"Spin? Did you turn into a politician when I wasn't looking, Hannah?" he asked, a small smirk bending the corners of his mouth.
Hannah frowned. "We still need to have a nice, long chat about this appointment, Steven. You could've warned me what I was stepping in beforehand."
He grinned widely. "Now where would be the fun in that?"
She groaned softly. "Regardless, I don't see it as politics as much as I see it as a battle. We're fighting a war here, Admiral, a war we can't afford to lose. 'All warfare is based on deception,' and if we need to…. bend the truth a little to succeed, then so be it."
"Well, what did you have in mind?"
"We should preempt the media on this one. We need to cut them off at the pass and make sure the first version of events people hear is the one we want them to hear." She grimaced as she spoke, suddenly feeling unclean for what she was about to suggest. "I think if we have the Quarian Admiralty Board make the announcement about Shanxi, and denounce the Turians, it'll win a lot of people over. The Quarians might be known for being anti-synthetic, but if they can be seen reacting with the same disgust at what the Turians did as we are, it'll make them look like our best friends. As they say, 'To fight the raven you may make alliance with the serpent until the battle is done.' "
Hackett seemed taken aback by her idea. "Well I'll be damned Shepard. I never thought I'd hear you suggest something that… sneaky."
"I prefer to think of it as pragmatism, Admiral."
" 'A rose by any other name,' Shepard. Though this is the most twisted rose I've ever seen."
Benezia floated in place, deep in a meditative trance, held aloft by her own biotic abilities. She tried to focus her thoughts. She'd just received word that the Human envoy was on its way to meet her aboard her ship, the Aureolis. She'd spent the last three days reading and rereading every piece of information the Council had been able to provide on the new race, and it was far too little for her liking. If only they'd been less hasty in provoking the Humans when they were first encountered.
"Goddess damned proud idiots." she murmured under her breath.
Her concentration broken, Benezia slowly uncrossed her legs and rose. She had almost a thousand years worth of experience in dealing with more difficult problems than the Humans, and she wasn't about to let her anxiety win out over her control. A moment later, a voice came from the communicator on her omnitool.
"Matriarch, this is Shiala. The Human ship has just docked with the Aureolis. We're only reading one life sign on board, but there may be many more synthetics that our sensors can't detect."
Making her way to the conference room near the rear of the small ship, Benezia couldn't help but be a little surprised at the revelation. She'd brought a half dozen of her followers, including Shiala, and the idea that the Humans would send a lone diplomat puzzled her. Perhaps they feared a trap and were simply wary of risking too many people on the mission of peace, but she had a nagging feeling she was being played.
Sitting in the flowing chair that was situated on the far side of the lone table in the room, Benezia needed only wait a few minutes before the door opposite her slid open. A lone Human female walked into the room, flanked by two of her Asari commandos. While her followers weren't armed, they didn't need to be. Each and every one had been selected for their potent biotic abilities, and they were more than capable of handling anything a single Human could do.
Benezia studied the woman that was her counterpart. She had short, shoulder length brown hair and deep blue eyes. The way she held herself made her look almost like a Turian: her arms were crossed behind her back, and she moved with a rather stiff gait, as if used to marching or standing at attention. 'So, a military type then.' That was unexpected, but not unplanned for.
As the Human sat in the chair opposite her, Benezia smiled and held out her hand in what was apparently a Human custom for greeting a stranger. "Hello. My name is Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, of the Asari Republics. I represent the Citadel Council in these negotiations, and speak for them. I'm pleased to meet you."
"Captain Hannah Shepard." she said, somewhat gruffly. She grasped Benezia's hand and shook it slightly.
'This woman is no diplomat. Do they really expect to negotiate a treaty with a ship's captain?'
"Before we begin negotiations, Matriarch Benezia, I need to contact my people and have them send over my associates." said Hannah.
"Associates? Very well. You may do so."
While Benezia hadn't been expecting this kind of reception from the Humans, it was understandable, given the circumstances. Sending a military volunteer ahead of the main diplomatic body made sense in a potentially hostile situation, which is what the Humans clearly perceived this as. Apparently, they seemed to prefer the same methods of diplomacy as the Turians, and Benezia sighed internally as she realized that it made her task much harder than it had to be. It would, however, explain why the person she was facing wasn't a diplomat.
What it didn't explain was the ten heavily armed soldiers that suddenly popped into existence in the small room.
Benezia's eyes widened in surprise, and she jerked slightly as the soldiers trained their weapons on her two bodyguards. While she quickly managed to suppress her own shock at the incredibly aggressive move, her commandos fared much more poorly at hiding theirs. Both of them snapped into battle stances, their forms surrounded by the telltale blue glow of biotic energy.
"Lindara, Shiala, both of you stand down at once." ordered Benezia, hoping to prevent the negotiations from being turned into a bloodbath.
Well trained by hundreds of years under her tutelage, her two acolytes quickly relaxed their stances and released their holds on their biotic powers. However, that didn't stop them from trying to watch all the Humans simultaneously.
"Stand easy, men." said Shepard, her voice cold as ice. "This is a diplomatic mission, after all."
"Captain Shepard, I must say that your form of negotiating is somewhat more… forceful than what I'm used to dealing with."
"That's because I'm not a diplomat, Matriarch. I'm a soldier, and I don't have the time or the patience for playing word games. I came here to negotiate a ceasefire with the Council and put a stop to the violence, so why don't we bypass the flowery speeches and skip to the important part."
Once again, Benezia was momentarily stunned by the candor of the Human emissary. She recovered quickly, but she could not afford to be caught off guard like this again.
"I'll be blunt, Matriarch. We've got the Council over a barrel, and we both know it. Neither of us wants a war, especially given the destructive power our forces can bring to bear. I have a list of demands that my superiors feel are non-negotiable, and if you find yourself unwilling to meet them, then we've nothing further to discuss."
"I see. And what are these demands, Captain?"
Shepard extended her arm and typed a command on her omnitool, bringing up a series of pictures and videos. In each one, Benezia saw images of large piles of what looked like destroyed and damaged synthetic Humans. The images played for several seconds before Shepard cut them off with another short command on her 'tool.
'Oh Goddess. This must be the work of the Turians on the Human colony they invaded. The Humans view synthetics as people, so to them, this is mass genocide.'
"These images were taken from a number of mass graves left by the Turian invasion force on the planet of Shanxi. These people were massacred in cold blood, and as soon as the Human general public knows about it, they'll be screaming for revenge. As far as I'm concerned, there's only two ways this situation can end. The first is that the Council and the Turian Hierarchy publicly denounce those responsible as war criminals and terrorists, whereupon they will be tried for their crimes, and in all likelihood, executed by Human military tribunals."
This was going badly. "And the second?" Benezia asked, afraid of what the answer would be.
"We turn the entire planet of Palaven into a burning nuclear wasteland."
Very, very badly. "You can't be serious, Captain!"
Shepard leveled a hard gaze at Benezia, cold fury radiating from her in waves. "Do I look like I'm joking?"
"I… what are your other conditions?"
"First, the Citadel Council will pay fifty trillion credits in reparations to the United Systems Alliance over the next twenty years in a manner to be determined by treaty. Second, Council law will be altered to make synthetic life forms equal to organics in every way. Third, the laws of the Alliance will supersede those of the Council within Alliance controlled space, the extent of which will be determined at a later time. In exchange, Humans and Quarians will join the Citadel Council as full members with Council seats and be written into the Treaty of Farixen, maintaining a 9:7:5:3:1 ratio of large capital ships, including dreadnaughts and carriers, with Humans being the nine and Quarians being the seven."
With a slight whimper, Benezia's eyes rolled up inside her head and she fainted dead away.