Author's Note: Nothing to say right now. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!


Chapter 39: Citadel Part 4

Samara looked down at the cold dissection table, a headless heavily tattooed Asari corpse with several piercings was laid out on top of it, the head that went with it sitting on the table to the side. Samara picked the head up and examined it.

"Yes. This is Morinth." Samara breathed deeply, the hell had finally ended. "Where do I sign?" Skeletor handed Samara a data pad depicting the death certificate and she took it, writing out surprisingly neat Asari-styled hand writing on the digital dotted line.

"Are there any arrangements you would like us to make with the corpse?" Skeletor asked as he took the tablet back.

"I buried my daughter hundreds of years ago, do whatever you will with the corpse." Was this a wise course of action? Of course not. But contrary to what she was saying Samara was grieving and she wanted this nightmare over already.

Permission received the 'Lich' decided to see what kinds of experiments they can do with the corpse.


Nerves had been reconnected, bones welded together, blood vessels sutured and medigel applied where appropriate including fixing the eyes, Grunt had once again returned to the pinnacle of Krogan physical perfection he was born to be and was now rolling his shoulders.

"Explain the rite of passage." Shepard stated looking at both the young Krogan and his doctor who was also his 'father' in name only.

"Nothing complicated." Okeer shrugged his shoulders. "If this was Tuchanka he would be taken out to one of the maw hammers alongside two of his krant and turn them on, the activity attracts all kinds of Tuchanka's wild life to the area that Grunt and his Krant has to either fend off or kill for at least three hits." Hits in this case probably refers to when the maw hammer strikes the ground, a fancy way of saying waves.

"That might be problematic, we're not going back to Tuchanka every time one of these kids get thawed out." Shepard stated letting out a sigh.

"It doesn't have to be Tuchanka, back during the Rachni wars wave of the bugs were used instead, During the Rebellions dozens of different clans would use waves of council troops in lieu of Tuchanka's wild life. A poor substitute I know, but the idea is the same, thrust the kids into the heart of battle, adapt and overcome what the battlefield throws at you, let the rhythm of the battlefield beat in your veins and calm your mind." Okeer looked at Grunt judging. "He isn't ready yet anyway, hasn't tasted battle, there's a difference between my simulations and reality, as he has already confirmed."

"For now focus on getting the Krogan less riled when they wake up, I'll try to settle the big guy down somewhere. Maybe get him some food." Shepard stated patting the Krogan that she may have traumatised into submission on his back.

"Hmm. Food." Maybe Krogan are just made out of harder stuff than humans are.


The Thorian strikes yet again, chemical synthesisers produce DNA, feed it to the Thorian mass, it produces a clone of the animal or plant in question and from there the local cooks take it apart and turn it into meals, ideally several meals but still, after that the Thorian would be fed the crew's excrement and replace it's lost organic matter. Grunt was looking over holograms of the meals he could order, that he would be ordering, he was a big boy after all and he would eat like the half tonne toddler that he was. Shepard made some recommendations, everything looked good.

"So who's this handsome young man?" Grunt turned to look over the bar, his programming struggled to identify the little creature but only for a moment.

Flerkin, female, small most likely a child but the grey hair suggested otherwise, an elder? He thought Flerkin grew to be bigger than this, did she shrink?

"Hey there Granny. Just getting the kid here some grub." Shepard indicated Grunt with her thumb.

"He looks so small." The Cat lady who had no right to be saying that gasped in surprise. "Is he eating enough?"

"Only vat fluid thus far." Grunt admitted while shrugging newly stitched shoulders. The longer this conversation went on the hungrier that he got.

"Unacceptable!" And immediately the little lady worked to correct this travesty.

"I haven't even ordered yet though." Grunt made his confusion known as Shepard gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

The cat woman and her crew got to work immediately, in one corner cloves of garlic were crushed and mixed in with bread before being baked, in another mushrooms were being sliced and layered with cheese, in a third meat was chopped to pieces before being thrown into a stewing pot with various vegetables, at a fourth station a cider was being mixed with fresh cracked cinnamon. Grunt was born knowing every language of union and council space, alongside various interpretations of slang, so he had a basic idea of what 'granny' means.

"So that's your grandmother?" Grunt asked making his confusion known.

"That's our Grandmother. Mine, theirs, theirs and yours." Shepard stated as she made a sigh pointing out the various individuals in question.

"I don't understand." Grunt was confused by all of this to no end.

"You will in a little bit." And then lunch was served, a multi-course meal consisting of beef stew, Mushroom Gratin, whole wheat garlic bread, sausage and for the drink Apple cidar spiced with cinnamon.

"Made with love~!" 'Granny' stated as she filled a flagon for Grunt.

"Love smells good." Grunt stated as Shepard just shook her head pityingly, it wasn't long before Grunt started scarfing down the food put in front of him. He didn't even notice that Shepard had left until after he had finished off the three course meal. And then the empty dishes on a wooden platter were taken away and replaced with another near identical course.

"Made with Love~!" Well Grunt wouldn't say no to another. After another hour Grunt was leaning back into his chair, rubbing his full belly through his scrubs. And then he looked at at the table with the familiar sound of an empty food platter being dragged away and replaced with an full one. "Made..." And again. "With." And again. "Love~!" And again.

Grunt managed to stumble out of the mess hall after the sixth course of 'love' had been served to him, he didn't eat it, just ran away before he popped.

"Love..." Grunt put his hand over his mouth to keep himself from spewing 'love' all over the hallway. "Bites!"

"Usually we just have food delivered to our rooms." For all of the Lich's love of gothic architecture ships such as these are basically giant floating nurseries, they tend to hire crew and staff with a maternal bent to them. Well if she keeps feeding Grunt like this then she knows they'll be able to out run him at least. For now Shepard just helped Grunt to his room, one of several hundred tubes that slide into the walls for him and the rest of his 'siblings' to live in. "This is EDI." The holographic console inside of the tube whirled to life. "She'll answer any questions you may have." And then Shepard left leaving Grunt to his musings. His extranet searches would later record various generals across several cultures and a variety of dangerous and formidable animals from several hostile worlds.


They had gotten to Morinth rather swiftly, as they were instructed to the Custodians had subjected the Asari to the Irradiation process that would kill off all the bacteria in her body preserving her corpse for the conversion process. Obviously, the first step was reattaching the head, a simple process with the right cybernetics. Afterwards was wired muscle and a grey box to help take care of the problems she would have down the line in advance such as loss of muscle tissue and grey matter. With the physical preparations completed they could proceed with the spiritual ones. Luckily the Asari was already a suitable size for a human sized corpse suit, so she was quickly fitted into one and sealed inside. Three Lich's emerged from a nearby room and surrounded Morinth's corpse in a triangle formation.

"Subject Morinth, Asari, clinically dead for two hours. Subjected to radiation bombardment, cybernetic augmentation and replacement where necessary, an appropriately sized suit has been sealed around her body. All steps necessary for the ritual of reanimation to proceed." Skeletor nodded as the ritual proceeded.

Psionic energy swirled around the three Lich's, a split the thickness of a cup opened as various grasping hands reached out trying to escape their fates, one was grabbed and pulled out of the crack before being put inside of the body. Morinth's eyes shot open with an ominous blood red, but they weren't her eyes any longer. Redish green energy pulsed and the body's new occupant slowly rose into a seated position looking around the room.

"Name?" Skeletor asked while the other Lich's took a step back. "Mor... Gan..." The corpse shook her head. Newly awakened Lich's were touch and go, a mixture of memories from both the corpse and the soul lost in the shroud that now inhabited it. She was subjected to psionic therapies by the three lich's as her new identity settled into place. "Mor'gan." A mixture of Morinth's name and what she could remember of her old one, appropriate.

"We have a routine of occupational therapy prepared for you to help you get used to your new body." Her grey box will contain a basic package explaining her new condition but it will take a while before she'll be able to fully come to grips with her new reality. "In the mean time we're hoping you can help us with an experiment."

"An... experiment?" The synthesised approximation of Morinth's voice echoed as Mor'gan slowly came to terms with her situation. "Oh... oh..." She softly swayed, her hand reaching over her mouth as she came to terms with her new body and memories. "I... I'm a Lich?" Lich in her native dialect meaning 'abomination.'

"Yes you are." Skeletor held up a canister. "This is called the Thorian, it is a parasitic psionic fungus with the power to eat DNA and reconstruct the creature it came from. In theory we can inject that body, reconstruct it, heal you. I suggest you wait..."

"I... I can't even vomit? Give it... give it to...! I can't...! I can't be a Lich!" The newly raised creature broke down onto the floor, her synthesised voice weeping. Escaped one hell only to fall into another, he can't blame her. "I can't... I can't..." Normally, this would be the part where they start her on month's of therapy, to adjust her to her new normal, to heal her, to let her escape this downward spiral.

"Get her on the table." The Lich's did as they were told, the Canister's contents were mixed with another and then flushed into Mor'gan's body, and then she started screaming.


After Adek was a prolonged period of travel between the Terminus system and Union space, reluctantly the jump drive was utilised to shorten the trip. Still time was left open to turn attention elsewhere, on the far side of Citadel space where a polite political discourse that the council is known for was taking place.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!" Sparatus slammed a console out of his way with enough force to send the sparking piece of equipment skidding across the floor of the room, Din Von was sipping on his milkshake as he watched Sparatus absolutely loose his Mot at Esheel.

"Now Sparatus I know you're upset-" Esheel was slowly backing away from Sparatus hands raised placatingly, or perhaps to defend herself if he decides to repeat the console with her head.

"That is the understatement of the year!" Sparatus simultaneously growled and yelled, already C-Sec officers were rushing into the room, but the Turian's had no idea about how to report their Councillor attempting to murder the rest of the council. "The Yahg!? The gnikcuf YAHG!? HAVE YOU PEOPLE LEARNED NOTHING FROM THE KROGAN!?" Esheel didn't need a universal translator to tell her what the censored word was, and it wasn't because she was fluent in Turian.

"I-I didn't know abou-" Esheel had grabbed both railings on the stairs leading up to the podium as she walked backwards down the stairs, followed closely behind by the fuming Turian.

"I am really getting sick and tired of the representative of the race that's supposed to know everything that's going on in Council space playing ignorant to what their own people are doing!" Sparatus had effectively cornered Esheel at the bottom of the stairs as he got into her face and growled.

"Sparatus calm down!" Tevos put her hand on Sparatus's shoulder to which he forcibly threw her off.

"Oh you would like me to calm down!?" Sparatus rounded on Tevos, having instantly switched the target of his rage as he mimed a pen and note pad. "Perhaps you would like to sign a treaty and then ignore it for Twenty-Five hundred years!"

"There were extenuating-" Tevos should be congratulated for holding her ground, Sparatus might not be a blood raging Krogan but if you squint hard enough you might mistake him for one right now.

"The circumstances were that you signed a treaty of mutual benefit and then failed to hold up your end over and over again for literal thousands of years!" Turian's were not known for their ability to perform political maneuvers, but that only leads to a simpler more honest form of diplomacy, if you make a promise you should keep it. And yet a cynical part of his mind said 'of course they were lying, all politicians seem to act in their own benefit.' And yet even that was falling apart. "Not only do you seem to have problems with telling the truth, but you also seem to have problems with lying, because not only have two of your oldest most massive political kcuf-ups revealed, but we have gained nothing of value from it!"

"The Ardat Yakshi are-" Now Tevos was just plain insulted.

"A hundred? Three hundred maybe? You oldest secret gets revealed and all we have to show for it is a few hundred telepathic spies, tank operators and scouts!" Sparatus snapped questioningly.

"And no shortage of Union Technology!" Esheel piped up, to her regret.

"'We have a tiny amount of Union technology that we barely have any idea of how to build more of.' Is that what we're reduced to? Chasing after the Union's heels for scraps like mangy Varren!?" Esheel dropped her finger. "Not to mention what we would have had the two of you, and by that I mean your entire failures of species, done what you should've done in the first place!" The Crucible, or the Gene-forge as the high lord liked to call it, a machine containing technology that could remake a person, imagine the countless diseases, injuries and deficiencies that could've been cured if they had access to technology like that from the beginning. Imagine the thousands of other pieces of technology that must've been contained within the crucible, imagine what they would be like if they, like the Lich's, had access to this information from the beginning?

"The Turian's aren't exactly faultless either!" Esheel attempted to counter, and got glared into submission by Sparatus. "You're people are war mongers! Tyrants! Dictators!"

"Oh this is quite true. No need to bring up points of pride to me!" Sparatus countered making light gestures with his hands as if saying 'so what?' "If we had our way the Krogan would've been killed to the last man, or conquered and beaten into submission. At least then they would be able to face death with dignity unlike what your people did to them, were still doing to them!" Sparatus seems to have maneuvered the other two Councillors so that he could back them both away at the same time.

"You were the ones to deploy the Genophage!" Esheel snapped by way of reply.

"That you created after a mere ten years of conflict following your mismanagement spiralling out of control. And you may also recall that we wanted to at least be honest with our genocidal intentions unlike some people." Sparatus glare at Esheel at that. "As a compromised we also proposed rounding them up and folding them into the existing council military, at least then we wouldn't have to deal with a thousand years of Krogan mercenaries sticking their quad into whatever promised them the most 'glorious death.'" Sparatus eyed Tevos this time, who made a point of clearing her throat as she failed to make eye contact. "The Quarians on the other hand?" Sparatus seems to be taking the opportunity to air all of his grievances. "Would've been welcomed into the fold of Turian space with open arms! As would the Geth! For our people to truly shine on the field of battle we require skilled engineers to build our arms, armour and ships, Spirits know I find them more amicable by the day compared to dealing with you two! Void we wouldn't even have to import Deoxide food for them!" As he continued to talk Sparatus brightened up more and more as he spoke at length about all the things that he would do if he wasn't out voted two to one so often. "The Batarians attack our colonies and enslave our people? We would go get them back, or failing that ensure that they did not do such a thing a second time! An unknown mystery force appears from the edge of unknown space seeking an alliance against an unstoppable implacable enemy? You already know the answer to that now don't you? You've experienced it already!"

Sparatus just let out a sigh, as if he had a limited capacity for emotional outburst per day he just spent it all, his fantasy having collapsed back into reality. Suddenly the Turian about faced and left the Council Chambers. The Next day Sparatus put in his formal resignation as a Councillor, the Turian Hierarchy didn't waste time with elections and democracy, they promoted the next Turian in line and sent her over to do her duty.

The Council had bigger problems to worry about. The fact that the Salarian's had secretly been plotting to raise an army of Yahg seems to have been the final straw that broke the back of the Stellar Union's patience. Dozens of Normandy class ships each with their own 'POL' room full of Grey boxes and telepathic mushrooms being escorted by squadrons of Union ships started sweeping through Salarian space. Some worlds were flatly ignored. Others? Laboratories full of Biochemical compounds, many of which were flatly illegal by even Citadel standards. Gene alteration facilities creating monstrous chimeras of different species. Weapons facilities containing the kind of fire power that would make a Krogan blush and Turian drool. Secret underground bunkers containing Yahg and other species in cryo-stasis.

The Union's sweep probably dismantled hundreds of different criminal organisations on the Council's most wanted list, and thousands more that they weren't even aware of. Arrests were conducted in mass, the remaining clans were pooled together and politely informed that if the Stellar union ever has to perform a second sweep well... no one would be confusing the Salarian Union for the Stellar Union in their short hand anymore. Surprisingly enough it was Sparatus who had extended an olive branch to the clans now seeing mass arrests.

After all he needed an excessive number of skilled engineers to work on the new 'Kwunu' class ships he had proposed, ostentatiously named after the Volus who negotiated the current client status of the Volus people. Sparatus liked to think that they would reflect his new 'can do, get stuff done' lease on life.

To Everyone's surprise, Din Von was even able to convince the Lithoid Trade Federation to 'Donate' a sizable chunk of Eezo to the project, and in the process an important discovery was made when the Eezo refinery the material had been sent to was suddenly torn apart by a biotic pulse. For the convenience of transport, the Eezo had been left in the ultra high density form that the Lithoids had pulled it out of the black holes in, which meant Neutron Density Element Zero, or Neu Eezo for short. With the Molecules shrunk down energy could now pass through thousands of times the amount of Eezo as it could before, producing Mass Effect fields at thousands of times of strength. Of course these 'Neu Eezo' cores would have to undergo extensive fine tuning to see usefulness, but in the mean time the Kwunu was taking form.

Asari 'Silaris' ship plating, composed of neutron density Cuprate Carbon Nanotube material capable of being 'locked' into an exact form via a powerful Mass Effect field. The Turian manufactured Thanix Cannon's carrying a molten mixture of Tungsten, Uranium and Iron capable of being fired out of its man gun with enough force to theoretically crack open a planet. The guts was Salarian technology, components and design layout specifically chosen so that broken or damaged components could be quickly gotten to and repaired/replaced, swept for spyware by Tebrid hackers which as it turned out was many, the Tebrid's had proposed fixing the systems but the General refused, instead he turned to the Quarians and their expertise in linked VI programs to maximise the cyberware of the ship and minimise it's crew. The Union provided secondary and tertiary weapons, Energy Siphons and Matter disentegrators, at a sharp discount no less so long as they stayed pointed at Reaper threats. The entire thing followed Volus design philosophy, 'unnessary' components like life support, hallways big enough to support creatures taller than two feet, enough crew quarters to support small armies were removed and replaced by redundant shields, energy cores, weapon systems and the large data stacks that would be used to support the ship's massive linked VI contingent and massive stores of replacement parts, omni gel and fabricators. Once the perfected Neu Eezo cores are installed the Ships will be everything that Sparatus could ever hope for in an instrument of death and destruction.


Shepard was watching TV, the Kruban easily capable of receiving signals from citadel space even in the void between Citadel and Union space. Grunt was sitting off to the side bib around his neck like the grossly oversized child that he was, his mouth gaping open and drooling his morning cereal all over his bowl.

"Something you'd like to say Grunt?" Shepard had no idea how she ended up being the one looking after him, Okeer just said that 'positive female role models' were good for him in the long run. Grunt made a wet smacking sound as he immediately clamped up and swallowed.

"Normally, I don't like Turian's that much." Considering the fact that he flew off into the blood rage the moment he saw Garrus? Yeah kind of an understatement. "But that guy?" Grunt used a spoon to indicate Sparatus as he stood proudly in front of the hologram of his creation that was still months if not years away from development. "I like him, he seems okay."

"The hallways and rooms on his proposed ship are too small for the Krogan to ever fit inside." Shepard pointed out drily and Grunt frowned by way of response. "I knew there was a catch." Once again Grunt reaffirmed Turian's as the embodiment of all evil while he pouted and ate his breakfast. Shepard changed the channel over to the viewing camera for the outside of the Kruban, where the familiar ring of planets and moons of the Eden System was now visible.


Review Section:

RonaldM40196867: True. Well the Reapers are still alive so I've got a few wars left to write.

Guest: Neat.

thelastspartan98: They'd have to wait until their respective genomes get deciphered.

Kadzuki Kurokami: Glad you liked it.