Arcturus Station

2157

Grand Marshall Hackett found himself sitting in the war room once again, despite the victory at Relay 314 and news of the success in the Traverse, he couldn't help but feel a growing sense of dread.

The officer overseeing the vanguard forces stepped forward to give his report to the Grand Marshall, "Sir, our agents have managed to learn more about the Batarians." Hackett nodded for him to continue, "It seems that they are ruled via a totalitarian government, from their home planet of Kar'shan. Our strategists believe that if we could send some operatives to their planet we may be able to either start or assist a revolution on the planet and potentially integrate the race into the empire."

Hackett nodded at the officer, "Thank you for the report General, see to it that the operatives are sent in, and do whatever is required to bring the Batarians to us." The General saluted Hackett before heading out to follow his orders.


Arcturus Station

1st fleet flagship, Constantine

Karin Shepard calmly walked into the interrogation room the Victus was being held in, "So, I'm assuming that you can understand me, considering I'm using one of your translating devices that we recovered from your ship."

Victus glared up at Shepard, "What is it you want Alien?"

Shepard looked at Victus for a moment before chuckling to her self, "I suppose we would be aliens to you wouldn't we, funny I had never thought about that." Shepard shook her head before sitting down across from Victus, "Well to answer your question, I want to know why you attack our security forces and why you were invading Imperial space."

"Is that all?" Victus questioned, "Well it is pretty simple, you aliens were violating Council laws and it is the duty of the Turians to ensure that any who violate Council laws be punished."

Shepard cocked her head to the left in confusion, "What Council?" She asked, "And what laws?"

Victus simply grunted, "It doesn't matter, the Hiearchy already knows about your transgressions and when we fail to report back, they will send the fleet."

Shepard looked at Victus in shock for a moment, "Damn." she said as she rushed out of the interrogation room and began to head for the war room.


Arcturus Station

Hackett found himself nearly running into Shepard on his way out of the war room. Shepard quickly stood straight and saluted the Grand Marshall, "At ease Shepard, what has you in such a hurry?" He asked.

Shepard nodded to Hackett as she relaxed, "Sir, it seems the Aliens, apparently called Turians by the way, were able to get a message to their government." She reported, "And they are likely to send a fleet to attack us."

Hackett nodded, "Damn, I was afraid of this." he stated, "We don't have the ships or manpower for a protracted war, as things stand now anyways." Hackett began to pace before Shepard stopped him.

"Sir, what about those Batarians?" She questioned, "Do we have any news on them? They may be able to shore up some of our weaknesses and give us a fighting chance."

Hackett nodded, "There has been slight progress but it will be some time before we will know if anything comes of it, and I do not think these Turians will politely wait for us to get stronger." Hackett sighed, "I guess we will just have to pray that the gods of war do not abandon us yet."


Imperial Colony: Shanxi

Turian Flagship, Khulan: 2158

Commander Corinthus looked down at the conquered colony below the Dreadnaught, "Pathetic humans, they didn't even put up a fight when we arrived." he muttered to himself.

Sir, the few holdouts still on the colony are putting up minimal resistance." a private reported, "However, our projections are reporting them to be crushed in potentially three weeks."

Corinthus nodded at the private, "Very good Private, now let's prepare the colony for..." Corinthus stopped talking as the ship's sirens began blaring.

"Sir, we have Human vessels appearing on our scanners." Reported one of Corinthus's monitoring officers.

Corinthus nodded, "Very well, signal the fleet to keep it's distance and begin firing as soon as they are in range, if their ships get close we will be dead in space."

As Corinthus began to focus on the enemy in front of him, another one of his monitoring officers began to report, "Sir, we are seeing what appears to be a Batarian fleet approaching from behind us."

"What?!" Corinthus shouted, "Spirits, we can't deal with the damn Batarians at the same time here." Corinthus thought to himself for a second, "Attempt to hail the Batarians, let's see if we can get them to join us in attacking the Humans." Corinthus's communication officer nodded.

The communication officer hailed the Batarian fleet and managed to get what appeared to be the Batarian captain on screen in front of Corinthus, "What do you have to say Turian?" said the Batarian.

Corinthus stared at the Batarian for a moment, noticing the odd uniform that the Batarian was wearing, "Your fleet appeared to be coming towards ours while we were in the middle of a police actions, unless you intend to help maintain galactic peace, we will have to insist that you immediately leave this space."

The Batarian laughed at Corinthus, "You Turians, so high and mighty, thinking yourselves the police of the entire universe." he mocked, "Yet you aren't even aware of the political climate of those around you." The Batarian slowly shook his head, "No, you will pull your forces back, or we shall annihilate you all, for the Arcturan Empire." The Batarian cut the channel.

Corinthus stared at the dead screen for a moment, "Spirits, signal the fleet to retreat past the relay, we wont survive this type of a pincer." Corinthus ordered.

Corinthus shook his head as he thought about what just happened, "How did those Humans manage to gain the allegiance of the Batarians?" He muttered to himself.


A/N Alright, I feel as though I should explain the reason for the naming system I am using for Turians in the story. Quite frankly, I'm not quite good at making names for the species that are convincingly Turian, they have always (even the canon ones) sounded too... human to me, so I am largely trying to use canon family names for small part Turians where I can.