A/N Alright so here is the latest chapter that I have put up, I would also like to say that I am happy to see that there are those who appear interested in seeing where this story goes and I hope you all enjoy it. Also, while I got this out within a day, I don't expect to be able to keep up that kind of a pace and, as the story goes, I may be increasing the amount of time it takes to upload these chapters.


Arcturus Station

-2157

Grand marshal Hackett sat in the station's war room, listening to reports from across the spreading empire. "Sir" Hackett looked towards the young soldier as he saluted the Grand Marshal, "Our vanguard forces in the Attican Traverse have encountered a race of aliens calling themselves, Batarians."

Hackett nodded slowly, turning to the emperor's emissary, "Opinions?" he asked.

The emissary stood up and slammed his fist on the table in front of him, "We should eradicate these vermin, who dare to step on imperial property." he shouted.

Hackett heard a polite cough to his left and looked at his chief strategist Karin Shepard, "With all due respect to the emissary, sir." She said, "I do not believe that we should begin a war with a race that has, as of yet, not shown any hostile actions towards us."

The emissary grunted before planting himself back into his seat as Karin continued, "Instead, I would recommend that we monitor the species and see if we can not either integrate them into the empire or, at the very least, from an alliance with them."

Hackett nodded to his strategist before standing and addressing the war room, " Very well, have the vanguard forces keep and eye on these Batarians but avoid direct confrontation if at all possible, also send in the infiltration units to see if we can't find a way to integrate them into the Empire." The soldier saluted and turned to leave the room as the doors were loudly thrown open.

Everyone in the room turned their heads to the messenger who had come bursting into the room. Hackett stood up and glared at the new arrival, "What is the meaning of this intrusion?" he shouted.

The messenger approached Hackett and his advisors, "Sir" he panted, "We have communications from the security team at relay designation 314, they are under attack by an unknown enemy."

Hackett thought for a moment before responding, "Send out the 1st fleet to relieve the security forces at the relay." he ordered, " and send orders to ramp up production of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fleets, I have a feeling that we may need them."

Karin grabbed Hackett's shoulder, "Sir, if we send the entirety of the 1st fleet, then Arcturus station will be largely undefended if this enemy attacks here."

Hackett nodded, "It is a risk we are going to have to take, if we can project a large amount of strength in one area then perhaps we might trick the enemy into thinking have more military strength then we do have."

Karin nodded her head, "But, couldn't we at least pull back the vanguard forces as a precaution?" she asked.

Hackett thought for a moment before shaking his head, "No, these Batarians have me concerned and it would leave out latest colonies undefended." he said.

Karin nodded her head before leaving the war room to prepare some potential strategies for the coming fight.


Relay 314

1st fleet flagship, Constantine

"Sir, we have arrived just outside of the relay." the ship's flight lieutenant reported to Hackett, "It appears that the security forces have been largely decimated, but the enemy forces are still sitting here, they may be waiting for reinforcements."

One of the Constantine's analysts reported to Hackett next, "Sir" she saluted, "After a quick analysis of the enemy ship, we have determined that the hulls of the ship wont last long against our forward particle guns, however, their guns appear to have a longer range, based off of how thoroughly they destroyed the security forces and our hull wont last long against a prolonged bombardment." she reported, "We would suggest coming up behind the ship and firing before they know what is happening."

Hackett nodded at his officers, "Very well" he said, "take us in quickly and quietly, and signal the rest of the fleet to fire as soon as they are in range, but shoot to disable, I want prisoners to interrogate.


Relay 314

Turian dreadnaught Kepral

"Sir, our scanners are picking up multiple hostiles appearing behind us, their IFFs are showing the same signature as the ships around the relay."

Victus stood up and began ordering his crew, "Spirits, turn the ship around and begin firing as soon as we are in po.." Victus stumbled as the ship was rocked by the impact of the enemy fleet's weapons.

The Kepral's navigation officer spoke up, "Sir navigation has been knocked out and our weapon systems are offline."

Victus growled as another officer tried to get his attention, "Sir one of their ships is coming up along side us, they appear to be trying to board."

Sidonis grabbed the intercom, "Attention all hands prepare for boarding, I want to see covering fire throughout the hallway leading from the docking port." he said, "Don't let a single alien into the command deck, For the Hierarchy."


Relay 314

1st fleet flagship, Constantine

Hackett looked out at the damaged alien vessel as his boarding officer approached him, "Sir, we are ready to board the vessel." He reported.

Hackett nodded, " Send in the 3rd and 4th infiltration regiments, tell them to knife any point of weakness they can find, if they can't find one, then short range with their side arms should do the trick." he ordered, "Also send in a couple Wraiths to be safe."

The officer looked up at Hackett in shock, "Wraiths sir? isn't that a little excessive?" he stammered, "I mean, you know how they are."

Hackett glared at the officer, "Major, the Wraiths are the best of our operatives and have guarded the emperor since their creation, you should be honored to have them serve in this boarding action, especially if they can keep you and your men from being slaughtered."

The Major nodded his head solemnly before saluting the War Marshal and heading to carry out his orders. "And remember, anyone holding a weapon is to be eliminated, with an exception to obvious commanders, everyone else is to be captured and prepared for interrogation."

The Major turned around and saluted Hackett, "As you command, sir."


Relay 314

Turian dreadnaught Kepral

Sidonis looked over to Victus, who was staring intently at the Kepral's virtual schematics, "Don't worry sir, anything comes through those doors and our men will annihilate them."

Victus slowly shook his head, "I'm not so sure Sidonis, something feels off about this, I mean look at how easily they managed to disable our ship."

Sidonis laughed, "Ha, just a few lucky shots when we had our backs turned." He asserted, "They are nothing but a bunch of cowards, not capable of standing up in a fight against true Turians."

Victus was about to respond as sirens began blaring throughout the ship, "We have multiple hostiles on our scanners in the hallway but we can't make any pinpoint definitions on their locations, something appears to be blocking our scans."

Victus looked over at Sidonis before they heard another report from his Security officer, "Sir, our men are being decimated down here but we can't see any kind of enemy down here until they fire their weapons."

Victus glared at the ship's schematics before pointing towards the hallway leading to the command deck, "Captain, I want you to retreat to Deck 3-06, provide suppression fire throughout the retreat and make sure to keep up the blanket, if we can't see them then we will have to fire blind and hope something dies."

The Captain looked at what remained of his security force and transmitted their new orders. As they began their retreat, they noticed that they had began hitting enemy soldiers, the soldiers were dressed in what appeared to be short coat uniforms with little armor or shielding. He was also shocked to discover that the men were only armed with a small side arm and a short blade like weapon.

As the Captain made his way to the designated position, he began to regain his hope that they would be able to press back and, ultimately, destroy their enemy. He turned on his communicator to contact Victus, "Sir, we have begun to take out their stealth units and they appear to be lightly armored, I think we can win this." he reported, as his hope began to rise along with the enemy body count, the Captain failed to notice the drain coming on his strength or the pair of brightly glowing figures coming around the corner.

Victus began to feel a sense of elation at the Captain's report. Then he heard the screams coming through both the channels and the door leading into the hallway that the security forces had retreated to, "Captain?!" he shouted, "Captain what is your teams status?" the communication line was silent, that was when they heard banging begin on the door.

The door began to bend and crack from the force of whatever was hitting it, until it was blown open in a sapphire explosion. "Spirits, those doors should have stopped anything short of a matriarch from entering." he said as two figures appeared from the smoke.

Victus noticed that the figures were wearing long black coats with what appeared to be a hollow head silently screaming embroidered on an emblem on the right side of their chests. They both had shaggy grey hair and what looked like crimson, cybernetic eyes. Before Victus could stop him, Sidonis had drawn his weapon and attempted to fire at the figures but one of them glowed brightly and threw him up into the air, crushing him against the side of the ship.

In the next moment Victus found a gun pointed at his head as a soldier appeared out of thin air next to him and saw that most of his crew was in a similar situation. He looked over towards the two odd men and noticed that one of them appeared to be bleeding from bullet wounds sustained when came through the security team. Victus was amazed that the man appeared to be standing without any problem.

The other man walked towards Victus and in an empty voice spoke to him in a language that his translator could barely understand, "Your ship, ours, your lives, ours, Empire wants answers." despite the difficulties from the translator Victus had a good guess of what these men wanted him and his men for.