Author's Note: Since I won't be posting tomorrow, Happy Halloween! Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 13: Tribulation of Omega Part 1
The Krogan had been intrigued by the presence of the Prethoryn, and until a line of communication was established with the Queen it would be back to invading planets and popping zits. For now a contract was negotiated between Clan Urdnot and the Union. Individual members of the tribe would go into the battlefield in order to destroy or capture key tactical targets, the Union would supply the necessary supplies, armours and weapons the latter two being returned if they were not purchased properly. In lieu of Solar Credits as payment Wrex bought irrigation systems, power plants, fertilisers, automated turrets and radiation proofed plants and began a wide scale irrigation program. He personally went to the other tribes demonstrating his Union born weapons and armours to the other tribes of Krogan, making them intrigued by the offers.
Most of the other tribes had opted to directly buy the weapons and armour that the Union had offered, a foolish move in Wrex's opinion. Most of those armours and weapons would be scrap after three or four engagements against the Prethoryn, and they would not get the credits back nor would the Union make them pay to replace them had they not bought them, it was basically throwing Credits away for nothing. No matter. While most of his fellow tribes were sending their young off to fight the Prethoryn Wrex had arranged for a fleet of Tebrid Custodians to install the facilities around what would become clan Urdnot's own farm lands.
"So... this is just a simulation?" Wrex asked watching as a Tebrid oversaw the construction of a farm on Urdnot grounds.
"It is to him." Shepard stated as she indicated the Tebrid on a platform next to the farm. "Most Tebrid's are so badly disconnected to reality they wouldn't even notice if you held a shot gun up to his head."
Wrex just shook his head. "So why are we relying on this thing?" Wrex asked as his opinion on the engineer Shepard had hired for them worked, or rather played as the case may be.
"Because he's also building a water filtration plant and a geothermal power plant as well." Shepard stated bluntly. "And we aren't relying on him to teach your people how to do maintenance on the facilities."
Tali was very much the definition of a beleaguered assistant. She had managed to get top marks, highest Quarian that is, in several Tebrid sims and so naturally was the most qualified person to teach the Krogan how to use the machines that the Tebrids were in the midst of building for them. Most of the Krogan had been requested to be put on turret work, which is why she was saving that for after they finish work on the other facilities that they were supposed to be working on, call it a reward if you will. Of course this earned her no shortage of bellyaching and at least one death threat. Wrex had biotically picked up that one guy who did threaten and threw him around like a rag doll before sending him to the suit zombie to get put back together again, last time she checked he was complaining about 'running out of gauze.'
"Bosh'Tets." Tali just complained while she worked to explain again.
The Union had even supplied several Tebrid consoles so that she could make her lectures 'fun.'
"I must admit Wrex, you have... my respect if nothing else." Bakara was over looking the farm lands. It's been a long time since they've looked this well off.
"Hard part's yet to come Bakara." Wrex stated as he looked over at the horizon. "Ah speaking of which." Wrex threw Bakara a set of binoculars which she then used to have a gander at what he was looking at. A massive caravan of Krogan were coming their way.
"What do you make of it?" Bakara asked as she lowered the Binoculars.
"Phase two." Wrex stated as he got to planning. "We're going to need you for this one Bakara, I'm not very good when it comes to diplomacy."
Krogan women were not treated well in their society. If you're fertile then you're a bargaining chip with someone else, if you are infertile then you're a sex-toy. When Wrex arrived at the other camps he revealed that clan Urdnot is being led by a legendary Krogan battle master who had managed to gain the loyalty of the notoriously difficult and powerful Union who were already working to supply them with energy and food. Now also take into consideration that every camp Wrex visited also had all of their young men and veteran warriors removed from them in order to fight the Prethoryn and earn even more Solar Credits from the union, leaving behind only the weakest males in the process. In layman's terms the most abused and mistreated females of every camp were taking the opportunity to escape to safety and comfort. Naturally Bakara was sent out to meet them properly, many were shocked, a clan leader appointing his woman to act as his envoy was almost unheard of, for now the size of the female camp had managed to sky rocket.
"We need you to build houses!" Wrex looked like he was having a hard time communicating with the starfish. "Houses!" Shepard tapped Wrex on the shoulder and handed him a tablet. She had already typed out the command to the little starfish he just had to press send. "Tebrids." Wrex stated as he pressed the button in question.
"Tebrids." Shepard agreed with his conclusion. A few moments later the engineer had received a new quest, paid a moment of attention to it, and then programmed the huge blocky factory that had come with him to start printing out parts for houses while custodian drones carried them to the female camp.
"Maybe I'd get his attention if I insulted him like what Zaeed did." Wrex shoved the tablet back into Shepard's hands. "Also you need to make that thing bigger, or figure out a way for me to type with my biotic field like what I do with my omni-tool."
"I'll let the Tebrid know." Shepard stated and Wrex let off a frustrated groan in response.
"While you're at it tell that thing we'll be having enemies arriving at the camp soon." Wrex stated and was grateful Shepard didn't tease him this time.
It wasn't long until Bakara had settled the incoming refugees that Tomkah's came charging in, rumbling along the roads the males of the other camps, what few of them were left, had not taken their females leaving them so well. Ah well time to establish the new management. Wrex dropped out of a Union shuttle and landed on one of the Tomkah's, his heavy armour augmented by his biotic power and used to flip the enemy truck over. Immediately the other trucks opened fire, but their opponent was a Krogan Battle Master with armour made from the scales of a dragon. Their pitiful slugs bounced off of his form and then he really let them have it with a singularity, followed up with a discharge of exotic plasma, creating a explosion big enough to send the trucks flying flying.
"Shepard, I have some prisoners for you." In his other arm Wrex fired the laser rifle tearing off the left tire of a Tomkah that was screaming down the road, the sudden loss of balance combined with the high speed caused the thing to roll onto it's side. Wrex looked to the side of the truck and saw that another one was coming towards the camp and so in response he slammed a biotic fist into the truck that was in front of him and smacked it into the incoming truck. More shuttles were coming in as the various Krogan were promptly disabled and filed away.
Although there is a centralised Union government leader, elected from a variety of representatives from the member species, there isn't an army directly under its command. Instead the Union army is composed of each of the individual armies and fleets of the various representative fleets, the reasoning for this is very simple: all of the Union representatives forces are pulled into one force, so none of them are able to go around picking fights with each other instead. Wrex had implemented a similar tactic, he baited all of the tribes into going off world to fight on his behalf and now there was no one left who could cause trouble. And now he had justification to wipe them out.
"We aren't exactly flooded with personnel either Wrex." Bakara was wondering what Wrex had planned for his next move now.
"Shepard. We need more Tebrids."
To Wrex Tebrid culture was bizarre, when they found colonies rather than taking it for themselves they just build and manage it for others, things like total resources, population, overall quality of life, they were just scores in a game for them. Tebrids are asexual, a new one will spawn naturally every few years, if they relied on their population alone to expand they would only be able to do so at one one-hundredth the rate of other colonists, so this was the most efficient method for them. Even better orders can be given to them in the form of quests so they act as general managers while listening to the actual heads of the colonies. In this regard Wrex knew exactly how to deal with the other Krogan camps that were on Tuchanka, on top of that he can also limit and corral the extent of their antics by limiting the technology that they can get their hands on by manipulating their tech trees.
The one Tebrid in the Krogan camp at Wrex's request sent out invitations to more and soon more Tebrids were arriving at Tuchanka, settling into the largely empty space, some focused their efforts on cattle ranching while others focused their efforts on growing crops, others the prefab buildings whose parts could be taken elsewhere and built on the spot. In the mean time more refugees kept arriving and with that enemies kept coming to get themselves killed or arrested, because of that clan Urdnot was able to gain control of over seventy percent of Tuchanka and petition to join the Union.
Then a couple of days after the disastrous operation on Khar'shan...
"Yo." Shepard called to Wrex in the middle of his office, a freaking office! Wrex feels like one of those Pyjak councillors back on the citadel. "Got the all clear from the zombie a couple of minutes ago, and my marching orders." Shepard smirked knowingly at Wrex.
"Shepard I'm too busy managing those chirping horrors." Wrex stated, even he'd prefer to be out cracking heads with Shepard, there was no Krogan who would prefer to be here, but he had to get things done.
"They found Desolas~!"
Wrex's suit made a sound of escaping air as he assuming a sitting position, while he wasn't looking the Tebrid's installed a chair function into his armour. "Where?"
"Some shit hole called Omega." Shepard stated positively grinning.
"Grab the Quarian, I don't think the boys quite appreciate having a normal person teaching them. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that." Wrex left a message to Bakara telling her that she was in charge until he got back, sighting diplomatic matters that he had to tend to. "We get paid for this right?"
"Of course."
Increasing the treasury was always an important part of national affairs.
Saren was rotating the new shoulder, a cybernetic arm to replace the one he lost fighting on Khar'shan. Pressing a button on the underside of his wrist with two of his mechanical fingers a cylindrical device flipped out resembling a handle, aiming his weapon at a target he fired a laser destroying the target, then he applied a biotic field to the weapon, fired again and produced a energy blade like a sword. Saren released the energy blade and flicked his wrist again making the arm look like a seamless part of his armour. Credit where do, Saren sacrificed a new arm to get a intel capsule out of the Union, as soon as he has the free time he's going to have this thing looked at, and he he's going to demand blue prints for this thing as well, chances were good that laser blade for lack of better term has given a pretty good idea of how to use some of the rare materials they gave the Council too. Ah it was beeping too, so they did include the built in Omni-tool like he wanted. And since so few people know his number...
"Councilor!" Saren Saluted even though Sparatus couldn't see him on the other side.
"How's the new arm?" Sparatus asked bluntly.
"Ready and waiting for orders just like I am." Saren replied as he gave his arm one last roll for good measure. "Gonna need to have our boys in Armax pick over it with a fine tooth comb though, don't want to pick up any union bugs."
"It will have to wait. Your brother's on Omega, the Union is sending their usual favourite thugs, go grab your mentee and kill the son of a *Beep.*" Saren had no arguments here, aside from his brother threatening the safety and stability of the Citadel from what he heard about the Reapers there shouldn't be too much left of his brother at this point. He would have to simultaneously kill and avenge him.
"Aside from that though..." Sparatus audibly sighed. "The Quarian's have finished becoming recognised as a part of the Union, and the Krogan are on their way to do the same."
Saren was legitimately surprised.
"Krogan? How did that happen?" Saren couldn't wrap his head around it. "The Union's Battle Master puppet tricked them into de-fanging themselves." Wrex had made alliances with all the Krogan tribes smart enough to focus on survival over conquest or revenge. All of the other fighting fit Krogan have gone into Union territory in the name of claiming weapons and armour, leaving their various camps free to become occupied, reportedly there was a great flood of women into the Urdnot camp requesting to officially join them. Wrex had seized the entire planet, and was now filing the paper work to formally join Union space.
"Between the Batarian Space, Quarian Space, and Krogan space they now have control over the entire terminus system."
"Aside from Omega that is." Saren stated before his face made a screw. "Don't tell me...?"
"Omega is run by thieves, pirates, and mercenaries. After tearing apart the Batarian databanks they have more than enough to hand out sentences like candy. They mean to conquer it." Saren just smacked himself in the face. "Our stance?"
"The Turian Hegemony doesn't pick fights it can't win." Sparatus stated in no uncertain terms. So they weren't doing anything to fight back, prepare to fight back maybe, but they weren't going to pick a fight if they can't win. "And the other two?"
"Salarian's are sneaking and Asari are politicking. What else?" Right now the only thing the Union really wanted from them was Desolas's head, and the heads of anyone who's working with him, and one other thing. "Build ships and build up our technological base." Sparatus stated in no uncertain terms. "The Reapers, or whatever they are, are coming, if we can't find your idiot brother they will be coming a lot sooner than they want them to. Either we can be treated as allies or Cannon fodder, I know which one I'd prefer."
The Union could be full of crap about the Reapers. But it was wholly irrelevant. A malfunctioning mining tool nearly destroyed a planet. They casually make ships easily as big as the Citadel itself if not bigger, their technology outstrips them in every category and that's just what they know for certain. The Union claims that their total space outstrips the Citadel ten to one, the ships of the enemy matches their's one against a hundred, and out number them a thousand to one. Building up their strength is not the top priority, it is the priority!
Omega was built out of a meteor the size of a small moon, one that is considered rogue due to not being bound to the orbit of another celestial body, though extremely rich in Element Zero it's thick metallic crust made mining nigh impossible in the era of the Protheans, then a collision with a phenomena of unknown origin obliterated approximately half of the asteroid exposing the rich element zero core inside. Upon it's discovery over a thousand years ago a massive scramble by every race and corporation of the citadel to claim it ensued. Dozens of mining outposts were built extending outwards into the void of space for the sake of conserving space, rather than cooperate to mine the asteroid a bloody war ensued. Criminals were drawn to the conflict, able to use less than legal means to stake their claims and seize control of the territory, the overall situation snow balled from there. Despite the vast reserves of Element Zero still in the asteroid the Council eventually had to ban the entire thing for the sake of peace between their factions.
Officially. Unofficially ever since the station was abandoned numerous criminal factions have moved in and claimed the station on a repeated basis, continuing to add onto the station, docking and welding entire ships into place in a nightmarish miss-mash of technology and architecture while continuing to carve out and hollow the vast tunnels of Eezo, which despite the influx of narcotics and weapons still remains the station's chief most export. Between the giant half ball of metal and Eezo and the huge towers of technology that sprout from it like some kind of nightmare forest of metal the entire thing looked like a mushroom, or a jellyfish.
"Hmm." Sam pondered the station and it's implications as she tapped her fingers.
"Hm." Ashley had a similar look of contemplation as she tapped her fingers into folded arms.
"I'm leaning Jellyfish." Sam stated four eyes looking over the station with a glare.
"I'm leaning mushroom." Ashley replied bluntly.
Wrex just looked at the two super soldiers and shook his head in the negative at their antics.
"What are we waiting for again?" Wrex asked looking at Shepard suspiciously.
"The Union wants to send a message out before they take the station." Shepard stated as she prepared her own weapons for the mission. "Something about the usual 'we come in peace' bit." Shepard explained bluntly.
"Was it peace that led to the Union to take over Adek?" Wrex asked looking at Shepard suspiciously.
"The destruction of several Tebrid scout drones and the discovery of the Batarian's depraved activities is what led to Adek to be conquered." Shepard bluntly informed.
"You're wasting time." Wrex stated bluntly. "I already told you where Aria is right?"
"Yes." The ship shifted slightly as it prepared a projectile to fire directly into the station itself. "Yes you did."
Aria T'Loak had thus far the longest reign of any other ruler of Omega, she had humble origins, an exotic dancer working in the afterlife club that she now ran. Starting with Afterlife Aria took over Omega one district at a time until the entire thing had been placed under her control as it's defacto leader, her office a lounge on the second floor of Afterlife. She's seen the video's from Batarian space, seen the hoards of zombies that rose up in every slave pit across the entire slave owning empire. But so what? This is a space station, there are dedicated corpse disposal specialists across the entire station, every time a dead body is found it's either incinerated on the spot or brought into any number of dedicated Hydroponics bays to be used as fertiliser all for the sake of preventing diseases from spreading out across the station. The Union's most infamous weapon has been beaten by Aria's janitorial staff. All across the station dedicated deflector shields redirect any and all projectiles away. All across her station millions of mercenaries are preparing their guns to unload into choke points where only a few union troops would be able to force their way inside at a given time, hundreds of projectiles against a suit of armour, it's a tactic that's even enough to kill a Reaper, compared to that what is a mere dragoon going to do?
"Matriarch." One of Aria's attendants saluted her and placed a communicator on the table. "They're broadcasting on the same frequency used by the Batarians." Use to be used by the Batarians.
"Open a channel." Aria stated in no uncertain terms and a nearby console lit up.
"Where's Desolas Artorias?" Admiral Shepard asked in no uncertain terms.
"Hiring Mercs probably. It's why most council puppet soldiers come to Omega for, when they're not buying up Eezo like crazy that is. Thanks for that by the way." Aria held up her wine glass in a toast. "Because of you, people are buying up Eezo like crazy." Even though the non-Eezo based technology of the Union has proven its superiority, people are still panic buying the stuff like crazy to build weapons and protect themselves.
"And you Aria are one of the biggest suppliers in the galaxy." Admiral Shepard let out a sigh.
"Don't blame me, you guys were the ones who let people know about the weaknesses of your ships. They exhaust exotic plasma which detonates when it comes into contact with biotic fields. As time goes on more of your weaknesses will be exposed. You're mistake was not in simply conquering the galaxy while you had the chance." Aria stated in no uncertain terms. "I'm not scared of you."
"Whether or not you know fear is not my problem. For one thing you seem to be under the mistaken impression that we brought all of these ships here just to arrest one rogue Turian." Admiral Shepard stated in no uncertain terms.
"Oh and what are you going to do? Destroy Omega?" Aria asked as if finding the very concept highly amusing.
"Sadly. No. The records from the Batarian's indicate that the relay next to you is where a certain monster we've been hunting down has made it's base of operations." Omega had its very own Relay, the Omega 4 Relay to wit the station has been named. Fully active too, however no ship that has gone beyond it has ever returned, numerous theories have been spawned, that the world on the other side of the relay is such an idyllic and paradisaical place that no sane being would ever dream of leaving, not even to retrieve their friends and family still on the other side of the relay. Other more grim individuals have concluded that whatever is on the other side of the relay is such an absolute death trap that whenever something goes through the relay is instantly killed. Aria has lived on this station for over a century and she's never seen hide nor hair of anyone or anything passing through the relay to come to this side. "As such what's most important is seizing control of the giant space station sitting directly next to the relay and re-purposing it for the use of killing the creature in question before it's able to escape back through to the other side. You have two options, bring Omega's forces under your control this instant and legitimise yourselves as a legal cartel or be boarded and watch as your precious little empire is irreversibly destroyed."
Aria burst out laughing at that.
"Are you stupid!? Thousands of attempts have been made to take omega by force just since I've been here, no one has succeeded! This station is my bitch! And if you step foot on it you will be too!"
"I have no intention of stepping foot onto Omega." Admiral Shepard explained bluntly while shrugging her shoulders. "After all if the Admiral dies then what will the rest of the fleet do?"
"What?" Aria asked looking at the face before her suspiciously. And then the Tribulation of Omega began.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: True. Thank you. He takes no shits. In real life? The corner stone of technology in Mass Effect is Eezo, a entirely fictional substance that has no real life basis, unless we are able to come up with a way of duplicating the phenomena then achieving the same level of technology is easy.
Guest: Thank you.
Clown2107: It's not going to be very mature. Then they would go extinct, or be brought very close to it. One thing you have to understand is that A They're extremely paranoid, and B that they're not just limited to Salarian space, they live across all sectors of citadel space, for another they're also fully capable of Asexual reproduction, rebuilding Salarian society with just a handful of Females wouldn't be hard if they lifted their laws on reproduction. I agree, and will go a step further and site the treatment of the Volus as a example of them taking a race that should've been made a founding member of the council as a chance to lord their superiority over them.
Chronus1326: Thank you for saying so.
scyfly: Thank you for your criticisms. I'm currently rewriting some of the past chapters in reference to this.
Gianfranco Cembran: So long as you're actually reading and not blindly posting reviews.
