Apathy

by Throwaway1971

Not important please ignore

8. Entry 069-078

Universal Century 0044 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0087 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Activation 13/03/0053 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2157 - Mass Effect Universe

HeMU 42 or Kamila Aslakhanov to her human allies had hidden herself behind a rather conveniently placed chest high wall as the mercenaries smashed their way through the colony's hangar bay.

Huh.

Kamila checked the reports coming in from the Gestalt and… oh. There had been a very sizable attack force trying to force its way into the ship. Their fleet had engaged the frigates with several cruisers, probably thinking it would be a cakewalk. Unfortunately for them it was not as easy as they thought. Most of the fleet had been destroyed in the initial engagement while the survivors, clearly shocked had sent their shuttles in some kind of stupid, last ditch effort at whatever their objective was. Things… were not going to go well for them, but if they were stupid enough to send in their shuttles, they didn't deserve whatever consideration the HeMUs were giving them.

The mercenaries had come from a shuttle that quite clearly was on its last legs, smoking holes indicating where the laser defences had punched through. The pilot was dead considering the cockpit just didn't exist, the shuttle probably literally crashed through into the hangar.

The mercs had survived given the fact that they were all wearing Power Armour and were at the very least intelligent enough to have their helmets on.

Pity.

So here they were now, reading to do stupid things like try and attack a Kamila that was very irritated by the fact that she now had to do work on her day off. Did they even know how long it took for her to find a Turian in knee high socks? That stuff does not just happen with regularity you know.

Fuck.

Stupid idiots probably thought that their Power Armour was all they needed to keep themselves safe.

Foolish.

While the Mk 1 would protect against most things, it would not protect if its vulnerable joints were attacked. Joints that were mandated to be less armoured to maintain flexibility. Sure against typical weapons it wouldn't work, the kinetic shielding and omni-shields protecting the suit from any attacks above a certain velocity while the armour itself protected from shockwaves.

Against slower attacks however such as say something thrown by hand, it was much less effective as the shields could not be calibrated that low or it would activate every time the user bumped into something, overloading the capacitors in short order. In essence, the Mk 1 was vulnerable against slow projectiles and handheld melee weapons both of which Kamila had in abundance.

Kamila and the other HeMUs always walked around with at least some weapons on hand, it wouldn't do to leave a bad example for the children after all. Kamila's weapons of choice generally being explosives, a pistol and a chain-knife.

Adequate.

The plan would be rather simple, use her super agility, jump up onto the ceiling, use the magnetic boots to hang and then just run over to them, dodging their fire and dropping into the middle of them. From there just use the sticky explosives and plant/throw them at the joints, blow and pick off what's left with her knife with pistol to distract.

On that note Kamila pulled out the explosives in question and began to partition them and stick in the detonators. Then she prepared to execute her rather basic plan, things would go well, it wasn't like it had very many points of failure or anything.

Gravinx was a Krogan. Gravinx was a smart Krogan since Gravinx had survived long enough to be given a taskmaster position in his squad. Gravinx made sure that everybody listened to the boss and to kick those who didn't in the ass and use the Bolter butt if they were especially not-listening. Some said Gravinx was slow but Gravinx thought he was plenty fast, dodged enough bullets to tell after all.

Gravinx was here doing Gravinx's job, sure things had gone a little out of control when the big ship had been blown to pieces but it wasn't like things were impossible. Just get in, steal a ship, grab some hostages and escape. Standard operating procedure, Gravinx made sure to remember it so Gravinx could tell who was breaking the rules.

The Blood Pack had gone through tougher jobs than this and gotten out all right. They just needed to get everyone together and get a big push on. Gravinx kicked a few more Krogan into position and prepared to move into the space station. Big un like this probably had enough space for them to avoid any of those who would have hurt feelings about them being here and try to kill them.

Gravinx was slow but Gravinx wasn't that slow or Gravinx would already be dead. Gravinx therefor had noticed the Asari who was coming at Gravinx while upside down… running on the ceiling.

Huh.

Gravinx's brain took a little while to decide what exactly to do about the Asari running on the roof. Luckily Gravinx was around 200 years old and Gravinx's muscle memory was enough to bring up the Bolter and begin firing at the Asari the instant a decision was made. The shot shocked the mercs around Gravinx but Gravinx didn't care, Asari needed to die.

To Gravinx's shock the Asari dodged the shotgun blast by doing a cartwheel on the ceiling. Just… What?

The other mercs had seen her now and were all firing as well, what the fuck was going on. Fuck.

The Asari was getting closer but none of their shots were hitting her, the Bolters doing nothing, the explosions kept missing her and the shrapnel just bounced off her kinetic shields.

Then she dropped in the middle of them and started throwing around little balls that stuck on their Power Armour. What the fuck? Did she think that was going to bring down a mighty Krogan?!

Bah. Foolish Asari.

Gravinx tried to bring the Bolter down on the Asari, the Bolters were very strong guns. Can handle a little rough handling, not like those puny Asari guns.

Then the explosions and Gravinx was knocked on Gravinx's ass. Explosion even knocked the Mk 1 over.

Big explosion.

Gravinx hit the helmet to clear up the feed a bit, things still fuzzy, head knocked loose.

Dizzy.

Gravinx's eyes cleared up enough to see that the Asari was using her knife to stab the Krogans still dizzy from the explosions in their faceplates. Even a Krogan needed a brain to survive.

No, dammit. Gravinx's body wouldn't listen, still too dizzy. No. Dammit.

The Asari finished the last Krogan in front of Gravinx and walked towards Gravinx. No. Dammit. Gravinx's body just wouldn't listen to Gravinx. Dammit.

The knife came up in front of the helmet and Gravinx knew it was too late. Dammit.

The whirring sound became louder and louder, the spinning blades just came right up to Gravinx's helmet, Gravinx could see it. It was so clear. Gravinx didn't want to die like this, helpless, not able to even draw the Asari bitch's blood.

Fuck.

The sound of the metal of Gravinx's helmet being torn through filled Gravinx's ears. The ringing noise penetrating deep into Gravinx's ears , Gravinx couldn't even think straight from all the noise.

Then the pain, the blades dug into Gravinx's faceplate and into Gravinx's skull. It hurt.

FuCk. iT. hUrT. fuCK

THen it went dark and Gravinx knew no more.

Kamila checked her equipment and tried to brush off the blood that had splattered all over her knife hand. The chainknife was a good weapon, very nice for cutting through pesky Power Armour but it was really messy as well. Maybe next time they could work out a weapon that wouldn't made it look like she had shoved her arm into their bodies. She wasn't Hannah after all (HeMU Hannah not human Hannah).

Still it was all in good shape, which was good since they were going to definitely be having words with the Blood Pack and whoever sent them.

It was going to be a good time. For them, not for the Blood Pack, it would be a distinctly bad time for them.

The Blood Pack had upgraded to Mk 1s a while back, they clearly thought that it would be a good idea to boost the Krogan already incredible biological resilience with even more armour and strength boosters. Not particularly the best combination for everyone they happened to meet. The Blood Pack had found itself receiving more and more job offers that were tailored to their rather… brutal manner of conducting operations.

Operations where they would be focusing on ignoring minor things like collateral damage and focus on causing as much damage to their targets as quickly possible. As a result things like friendly fire had very little consideration amongst the Blood Pack and they found themselves in ever increasingly brutal missions.

Their latest had an anonymous bidder give the order for them to assault the Senti Corporation's colony where they manufactured the Power Armour and the weapons that came with it. The client had also gifted them with a few cruisers to supplement their frigates for the attack and the crews for them. The Blood Pack would be the ones actually attacking the colony once the frigates defending it had been destroyed.

Garm, leader of the Blood Pack had figured that it would be a very easy job. The Senti Company was full of pencil pushers and factory workers, they wouldn't know what to do with an attack, just go in, kill everybody and get the stuff that the client wanted. Simple.

Only it had gone really wrong almost immediately. When they came out of the Mass Relay near the colony they had been hailed but the captains ignored it. Not like they could do anything about them if the captain had said they were here to steal all their stuff.

The colony tried 2 more times before it had activated its guns and started firing. The Lasers punched through the hulls of the ships, tearing apart engines, cannon, bridge crews at ranges they didn't think would be possible. The frigates and the colony tore through the cruisers and their frigates while they couldn't even get a shot off in return. The kinetic shields just blocked anything they had and they didn't have enough time to overload the shields like standard doctrine. The frigates had fucking cruiser level shields.

Garm had ordered that all the shuttles be launched, if they couldn't fight them in space they would fight them on the ground, where the Krogan fought the best. The Krogan being Krogan violently approved of this plan and boarded the shuttles as they departed toward the station. Most of them were shot down but a minor few had made it through. Sadly enough however, the Krogan that did make it on board were killed by the Asari before they could even take one of them down if the radio messages made any sense. Stuff about them walking on the walls and dodging lasers.

It had sounded really fucking ridiculous in Garm's opinion but here they were, all of the Krogan sent on the attack had been killed or taken prisoner and the fleet that had delivered them was apparently destroyed to the last ship.

Garm didn't get where he was by being stupid and had ordered the recall of all Blood Pack mercenaries. There was going to be a retribution and he would be damned if he let them… pencil pushers to take his quads without making them bleed for it.

The company clearly had been hiding its capabilities and when this was over Garm was going to find out who paid to have his Blood Pack sent to their deaths and make sure to pay them back as per Krogan tradition. A headbutt to the face until their skulls had been crushed.

Universal Century 0044 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0087 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Activation 19/03/0053 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2157 - Mass Effect Universe

Shark, Fish, Eel and Manta lay underneath their optical camouflage cloaks and prayed that they wouldn't be found. It took a lot to put fear into an STG team, but what they just witnessed certainly has been enough.

They had been tasked with watching the Blood Pack and reporting any moves they made which could impact Citadel space. They had heard that after the recent attack on the Senti Company there was a high chance there would be retribution of some kind. They had expected perhaps an attack on a few Blood Pack fronts on Omega or in the Terminus system itself. They had not expected that the Senti Company's retaliation would be on the Blood Pack headquarters itself.

Word had come that they had a fleet with a dreadnought weighted ship and a small escort fleet. No apparent troop capacity, orbital bombardment?

Incoming fast moving objects, hypothesis likely, conventional munitions instead of Mass Effect derived, devastating.

The team had moved away from the predicted fallout as well as likely areas for gathering debris.

The shock came when the objects were in fact squat designs of ships, shuttle sized ships. Transports? Unlikely, entry velocity and sudden deceleration too much for organics to survive.

Geth? Also unlikely, designs not fitting with Geth aesthetics.

Turret on the spine? Not ergonomic… no known designs. Flying tank? Rotary cannon underneath on the front, cabling indicate lascannon design. Senti Company likely.

Rear bays opening, humanoid figures… Power Armour. Senti Company highly likely. New desgin, need to get recordings back to Command, stream useful but resolution not clear.

Laser fire clearing out Krogan and Vorcha, penetrate kinetic shield and Power Armour with ease. Worrying.

Infantry, new model Power Armour? Agility much higher, new model chainsword? Can cut through Power Armour with very little effort, no signs of high friction involved with typical chainsword cuts. New blades?

Different tactics from regular Power Armour, athletic and using alternative angles of attack instead of brute force. Focus attention and attack from the side while target is unaware… intelligent.

Dangerous.

Krogan wiped out, Vorcha wiped out, new mercenary company with ties to Senti?

Too dangerous, weapons too dangerous. Frigates entering atmosphere, deploying heavy weapons for assault on tunnel systems?

Lasers. Very powerful lasers into the tunnels. Using them to clear out tunnel networks? Heat dissipation in atmosphere ignored, Power Armour protects against environmental effects.

Dangerous. Very dangerous.

Entire tunnel network cleared out, flamethrowers being used. Can feel heat from 50 meters away. Intensity too high. Terrifying.

Environmental suits capable of protecting against even Tuchanka's atmosphere, penetrated by heat.

Mercenaries now arranging bodies, put them on large 10 meter pikes on the ground. Krogan and Vorcha inserted anus first, like very large ice candy on a stick. Hundreds of them.

Casual brutality, can hear mercenaries joking, as if merely another day at work. Mercenaries not known, from deeper in Terminus space? May explain casual disregard of morality. Worrying.

Next words very worrying. "Something's here, not Krogan or Vorcha. Eyes open."

How? No traces left behind. Very worrying. New sensor suites? Implications worrying.

"Found them" Voice close. Too close. Oh no.

The whirring of chainswords and the brief flashes of pain as they did was all they knew. After that it was a matter of the gods.

The Citadel Councilors sat and stared at the last moments of footage from the STG team. Originally Valern the Salarian councillor had been reluctant to share the information but the matters concerned the alliance as a whole not just the Salarians. The Senti Company had been impenetrable for the Salarians even with their vaunted STG teams and the Council's Spectres. They met failure after failure as every means they knew to get men and women inside the Company or subvert those already inside. Nothing they had done however worked. The loyalty of those inside was high enough that they couldn't subvert those in key positions while those they could subvert had no information that they already did not possess in abundance.

The Senti Company was a mystery and it was a very dangerous mystery. They needed a means to understand the company's motives at the very least, the uncertainty was increasingly worrying. The fact that they had suddenly landed upon the scene and immediately began selling weaponry and armour that had completely changed the manner in which everyone in the Citadel and Terminus systems went about combat was worrying.

That they were using weapons and armours that explored a branch of technology that had been woefully ignored for millennia by their researchers. Not just that, the mastery they had shown over their understandings of the technologies was that only several hundreds of years of research could have produced.

The aesthetics of their design, again something not seen in either Citadel or Terminus space, all of it looking as if it had been designed for heavy duty work where function rules over form. As if the civilization that had designed it had not had time to focus on form but rushed function to fight unseen enemies. Enemies that may be coming to their part of the galaxy, an enemy that might just tear them apart if they had warranted the use of such powerful defences.

Then they had shown that their use of ship grade weaponry was just as good as that of their infantry scale designs. Their frigates had crushed cruiser class ships with ease, no doubt able to hold their ground against Dreadnoughts in small groups. The laser weaponry just simply punched through their armour and out the other side from the front of their ships. That amount of strength was unheard of in something as "simple" as a laser system, another aspect of warfare that the Senti Company had turned on its head.

If they possessed laser weapons to mount on frigates that could end Dreadnoughts… the chances are their higher order weapons were even more devastating. It would mean an entire re-evaluation of all their fleets as Mass Effect weaponry slowly became less and less useful overall. Indeed, the weapons already demonstrated had forces a change away from their traditional armaments and towards those that offered more than a simple piece of superfast metal.

Sure it was effective and given time it could punch through someone wearing a suit of Power Armour but that was time where the user could track them through targeting software and punch a hole in return with a laser weapon that had effectively no travel time. Laser weapons that did not dissipate heat which was a marvel in and of itself.

The main drawback of the GARDIAN system after all had been that the laser's dissipated over time, even in space which made them much less useful in longer ranged engagements. Instead they were relegated to point defence systems against incoming torpedoes, a task that they did not even fully fill as they overheated and had to be cooled down. Another area revolutionized by the Senti Company. Their laser weapons dissipate their heat so effectively that they could be used almost indefinitely without worrying about the barrel and apertures melting. A marvel of engineering.

The fact that it was so ridiculously simple was yet another mark against them. Only those with a consummate understanding of laser technology could design something so simple yet so effective.

The other councillors, Sparatus and Tevos were also worried but tried to hide it.

The council had quite definitely not hired the attackers but it could be seen if one looked at it carefully that they had indeed hired the attackers. The Senti Company had been benevolent so far but they were very clearly dangerous and having them at odds with the Council could be disastrous, especially if they began to equip pirates with the better weapons to reap their way across Citadel space.

The possibilities were terrifying and the councillors, Valern included were meeting to try and find a way around the issue.

"Their weapons… how powerful would you say they are Valern? Has your science team been able to get estimates?" Sparatus spoke first, if there was a threat to the Citadel he wanted to know, the Turians would keep the peace even if it killed them.

"Estimates are unclear, the larger spaceborne laser weapons were capable of melting through nearly 200 meters of bedrock to reach their targets in Tuchanka's crust. However STG theorizes that it is capable of even more powerful configurations and was only limited to prevent the heat dissipation from killing their own troops.

"The newly displayed weapons are… worrying. The Chainsword as it is known is already able to cut through Power Armour if given enough time, that this new model carves through it like a Krogan carves meat is worrying. It's dangerous enough that it can possibly carve through tanks if given the chance.

"The flamethrowers they are using seem to use a fuel that simply does not exist in our databanks [like everything else they use quipped Tevos in an attempt to lighten the mood, it burns with enough intensity that it can melt starship armour at nearly 2000 degrees.

"I would not be remiss to say that they are extraordinarily capable and this is likely merely the tip of the thresher maw as it were in regards to their capabilities."

"Dammit, I thought it wouldn't be the case that maybe I was thinking too hard but this is too much councillors, they are showing weapons and armours that shouldn't exist. It is dangerous and I'm not sure if we can just let them do whatever they want like this. We need to get in there and find out exactly what they are hiding from us. They have things that can change everything and it can't be ignored for any longer." Sparatus said, barely concealing the urge to shout.

"And how would you propose we do that Sparatus? Demand they open up their secrets to us? Get a warrant for their technologies? Declare war on them? They have done nothing wrong Sparatus, they have broken no laws and they have not attacked any Citadel citizens unprovoked. We have no grounds to stand on and they are very aware of that, they have the best lawyers on the Citadel on retainer." Tevos retorted, though she too was feeling the pinch, the Prothean beacon that had led her race through in technological innovation offering no answers here.

"Well what else would you have us do? The STG can't get their people inside, we have no idea what is going on and the CEO of the company is married to an alien which we have never seen. An alien with powers that are certainly not biotic in nature! He shoots lightning out of his handsTevos, what is going on with that company? The children of the Asari don't even look like Asari!"

"We ask the politely for an interview where we will discuss the plans that the company has in the future and what it is going to do from here on out. We will do this politely because quite frankly they hold the bargaining power here. We can perhaps forbid them from selling in Citadel space but even if they set up on Omega they will be getting customers from Citadel space regardless. The Power Armour they have changes everything, the Anti-Power Armour weaponry changes it even more, everyone has to rely on their designs and if we were to try and shut them down, our own governments are probably going to pull us back and replace us. There is too much to lose here Sparatus, keep your temper in check and don't do anything stupid." Tevos monologued, something new for her but it was too important not to.

Sparatus on the other hand was rather gobsmacked at the insinuation that anything he did would ever be stupid.

"I see that look on your face Sparatus and yes, you do. We know it and you know it that once you get something in your head you rush for it, damn the consequences. This isn't the field of battle, we cannot afford to go on the offensive on this one, invite them for a talk and do not agitate them. We cannot, I repeat, cannot afford to offend them.

"During the talk we will assure them gently that we had absolutely nothing to do with the attack and offer the services of a Spectre to track down the ones who hired the Krogans. We will gently ask about the state of the licensing for their designs that our industrial sectors have been retooling for the past 2 years for and we will do it with the utmost politeness.

"There will be no threats Sparatus, there will be no demands. We will ask and they shall give, if they do not we do not press them. We can always ask at a later date once we have built up more goodwill, I will be damned if they cut off the alliance because of what you said. It is a family run company Sparatus, not the corporations you are used to working with."

Sparatus could only nod, he understood now the consequences and it would not be his fault that the negotiations failed, he swore on the Spirits.

Valern on the other hand just wanted things to go well, he wanted those technologies, the marriage of Mass Effect and the more esoteric Senti Company designs would be beautiful he was sure.

Universal Century 0044 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0087 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Activation 27/03/0053 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2157 - Mass Effect Universe

Hannah and Eldrad were escorted to a Citadel docking station. They were going to be sent directly to their meeting with the Citadel's councillors for a negotiation of some sort. The invitation that had been sent over following their persecution of the Blood Pack had been on that seemed to be very polite but also demanded their presence upon the Citadel as soon as possible. Something about their technology and furthering cooperation between the human company and the aliens occupying the vessel known as the Citadel.

Eldrad honestly did not care, the natives of this realm were so primitive that it boggled the mind. Despite the Asari living as long as the un-uplifted Eldar (of which there were thankfully a very tiny amount), they did not innovate or seek to grow, they merely had sex and lived their lives in a constant stream of debauchery and abject failure. They despised the idea of looking inward and instead looked outward almost exclusively. Their culture not their own, a melding of many yet having the distinctions of none.

They focused their technology upon the backs of long dead alien species, not capable of even advancing on their own, to afraid of the galaxy at large. Their armies whilst resembling that of the Eldar in their drawing on civilian populations to form militias, while those versed in the art of war formed the central cadres… they of the Asari were weak, pitiful and painfully pathetic. Their so called Battle Matrons barely even reaching the ability of an Eldar Guardian despite the centuries of experience.

It was supremely disappointing and Eldrad frankly was disappointed. Extremely disappointed. Truly disappointed.

Here they were without the threat of a god who sought to consume their souls and play with them to slake its amusement and instead of expanding throughout the galaxy and spreading their culture, crushing all those who stood against them… they instead had sex and "explored themselves" which meant following in the footsteps of everyone who had gone before with oh so little effort to being individual.

Eldrad felt annoyance that he had ever desired to meet with them.

The Turians meanwhile resembled the humans of the home galaxy. Militarized, regimented and attempting to discipline themselves as if it were the most important things in the world. They acted as if their duty was above all things, even their own people. Duty was meant to supplement the people, to give them more to uplift them above that of which they were. If duty was nothing but the end goal then it is worthless. Their desires to protect were admirable true but it was also something that had been focused not on their desire to protect but their desire to dominate. Whereas the Asari found themselves the diplomats, the Salarians the scientists, the Turian was left with nothing but to be soldiers and guards.

Their stratification of their society did them no favours and indeed was much more likely to cause a schism if an unknown 4th race was added. The humans being an example, what if the humans usurped the Turians? A race that prided itself on its ability to be the military arm of the citadel being deprived of that duty… how would they react when the human's proved themselves superior?

Weak. The Turians were weak. Their society so likely to shatter with a single blow, one of words even not even that of genocide. Not a single drop of blood had to be spilled to break them forevermore. Weak.

The Salarians were interesting. A feudal society where the entire race was one that lived for barely a fraction of that of even the humans. So fast, so needing of something by which they could define their lives. Seeing themselves as weak, creating a niche by which they could prove themselves necessary and thus secure a seat on the vaunted council. In order to guarantee the safety of their peoples they pushed themselves to fill a niche by which they would not be discarded.

It would be sad if it were not so pragmatic and effective. The intelligence arm of the Citadel and the one focused on cutting edge technology, it was too bad that they were so focused on trying to emulate a dead civilization instead of growing and breaching new frontiers. The universe awaited and they locked themselves into a room.

The Batarians were truly disgusting. They resembled the Dark Eldar, the twisted perversions that were once of the same kind as Eldrad and his people. A race that drowned itself in decadence and debauchery beyond that of even the Asari. A race that knew not the meaning of difficulty and work for they filled the void of their society with the continued capture of more and more slaves. A race that was worth nothing, constantly slaking their pleasure while desperately trying to flee from the grasp of She Who Thirsts. Eldrad and the other Eldar had seen to it that they would be given one more chance. Their society of thousands of years was not worth the songs that it was built upon.

When their civilization crumbled, if they continued on the same trajectory the Eldar would see to it that they were destroyed, there could not be a second Slaanesh. The Eldar failed once before, they would not fail now. Not when they knew how to stop it. The death of a single race a small price to pay for the damnation of a galaxy.

On lighter thoughts the Volus were rather interesting. As a race they seemed to desire to make money, A worthy goal Eldrad was sure but their unification of all currencies under on system suggested that perhaps the others were much more incompetent than previously believed. The diminutive stature was nothing if not cute considered Eldrad. The wheezing however… ugh.

The Councillors that they were on the route to meet were merely the Salarian, Turian and Asari representatives. They apparently were capable of speaking on behalf of the myriad of races within what they called the "Citadel Space". Arrogant. Even the Eldar at their height had not deemed to speak for others, they may have threatened them to speak as desired but they would not speak for them, as if they were nothing but puppets.

Everything that Eldrad had heard about this famed Citadel made it seem… diminutive if he was being honest. Which for an Eldar was a rather difficult proposition. It was the center for a few races to trade and speak and have their voices heard (the two perhaps mutually exclusive) yet it was puny and its influence oh so very small.

Still Hannah had been invited and he would come along to protect her. If these diminutive mortals sought to hurt her, he would show them their worst fears and devour their minds whole. Like those foolish Asari who sought to kidnap his children. Did they not know who he was? Did they think that Eldrad, the mightiest of the Farseers, the mind whose thoughts were so sharp they formed blades, so skilled in handling weapons that there was nothing in this universe that he could not form into an instrument of death.

He. Eldrad.

He had fried them, he had not bothered to dirty his hands with their blood, no he fried them and ripped their very souls from their bodies for further punishment. He of course hid it from the children, he did not wish for Taldeer to begin experimenting at her age, upon that lay the path of darkness after all. Still he would burn their souls should they seek to harm his and his own.

"Eldrad. No destroying the souls of the councillors" She said just after he finished the thought. It always amazed him that this human could somehow read his mind, as if he had not spent centuries learning how to close it off. Sometimes it grated not being able to hide from her but most times it was nothing but amusing. She was fierce his human, for him and their children. He at least knew that should they be threatened she would come down upon them like the wrath of Khaine himself.

She was going to fight now, a war of words not blades with these Councillors. He did not presume to help her, she would no doubt find out and it would not be worth the pain. Not that he was afraid of pain of course but some things were better left alone.

They had docked and were now being escorted by the Turians. The pitiful Turians. Eldrad would have shed a tear if he cared. Since he did not, he merely gave them a meaningful glance that their no doubt puny minds could not comprehend. From there it was a simple matter of following them through the rather… basic designs of the Citadel, all straight lines, no elegance, no beauty. It was all function and it suffered greatly for it.

Still it was not his place to judge, these mortals had not the millions of years that the Eldar had to perfect their craft, this place nothing more than a testament to a dead civilization.

Weak.

The elevator up was painfully slow, a very clear weakpoint in their defences. He detected no weapons emplacements or any means at all by which they could protect themselves from a hostile force of any kind. It was as if they did not know how wars were fought at all. Even if there was peace now one should always be prepared in the event that a more primitive race decided that it needed to attack to assuage honor or whatever foolishness the younger races were up to these days.

The Councillors waited for them at the elevator, again foolishness, what if Eldrad had been hostile? What if Eldrad had been there to see them dead? The representatives of their races gone in an instant. Eldrad gave a mental shake of his head as he applied his ability with the psykic arts to peek slightly into the ahead and moved a glass cup slightly closer to the edge of its table. It would not do anything truly catastrophic but neither would it be minor.

His human would not be able to detect this he was sure. It had been nothing but instinct built into his mind from hundreds of years of practice and surely she could not see those… not yet at any rate.

They went in and they talk in a room, one without any meaningful guard or anything of the sort. Eldrad refused to consider that they in Power Armour were worth anything in a fight, not in that pale imitation that they called Power Armour. They did not even have those enhanced humans, these mortals would fall before they even realised that they were now on the boat to the isle of the deceased.

His human talked with the mortals, about mundane things like leasing technology and whatever else it was that occupied their puny minds. Eldrad was instead doing something important, like peeking into the minds of the councillors and oh-hoh-hoh. They were truly afraid of his human's little group.

How truly weak they were if a few pieces of armour and a few extra weapons was enough to shake the foundation of their society.

Eldrad reaffirmed his thoughts regarding the mortals.

Weak.

No doubt they would cave before the numerous enemies arrayed in the home universe, not even able to innovate on their own.

Bah.

He did give them credit however, it was not they who had sent the attack towards them. They were at least intelligent enough to realize the folly that, that would have been.

Still his human had finished and was now leaving finally. As they did so an expletive rose from the mouth of the Turian councillor. His electronic device had apparently had water spilled upon it and now it was ruined. His notes to be sent back to Palavonus or whatever his homeworld was called, destroyed as were the recordings attached to it.

Foolish mortal, did he not understand the concept of backups? Especially backups offsite in the event that something like this happened.

Stymied on that front the Turians would be responding a few days later than they would have previously and by then they would be too late. Truly Eldrad was a benevolent elder, saving the foolish mortals from doing foolish and incredibly stupid things. Had the Councillor sent his message to those back on his homeworld, they would have mobilized their armies and attempted to take by force what they could have gotten by words. This Sparatus truly did need to go but not now. His current successor was not ready and would not be ready for some time.

No, Sparatus would be merely made irrelevant and increasingly weak over time. He would not allow his human's pet project to fail because of a stupid and foolish mortal. A race that defined itself by its duty was truly one that would shatter the easiest. Perhaps he should look into guiding this race so that they might not fall apart the minute Eldrad played even the most minor of pranks upon them.

Universal Century 0044 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0087 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Activation 27/03/0053 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2157 - Mass Effect Universe

Eldrad and Hannah were on the Frigate T'Lok'Ka as it entered the Citadel and docked on the centermost spoke. They were going to be meeting with the Citadel's councillors in order to negotiate about leasing their technologies as well as talking about the direction that Hannah foresaw the Company moving in. Or so she thought, she didn't know exactly what they were planning but in the end it was not as if she could refuse if she wanted to expand Senti into Citadel Space.

At the same time she knew that in this case she was holding the power here. The Councillors had offered to meet with her at "her convenience", not in the "do it if you know what's good for you" way but in the actually benign kind of way. Hannah had thought that it would have been much more confrontational but this had been pleasantly peaceful and demand free. Very strange.

Then again there was the possibility that they were afraid of Hannah and what she represented. If a new, unknown entity came in and started selling technology that was along an entirely different technological route that had not even been touched. No doubt it would be rather scary for the authorities involved, a new power that had not broadcast their intentions at all, introducing things that changed the entire way they looked at the world.

Looking at the Citadel, Hannah was sure that had she not met the Caretakers she would have been impressed. It was big, 48 kilometers big, comparatively tiny compared to the ships used by the Caretakers, not even the length if Piñata-Chan. Rather disappointing actually.

Oh well, act suitably impressed or whatever. No need to insult the aliens. Oh and also keep an eye on Eldrad, he was feeling rather high levels of disdain and pity whenever he looked at one of the aliens. It was actually kind of disturbing the way he considered himself above them. Granted he did have several million years of culture and history behind him but still…

Ah, their escorts were waiting for them at the airlock. As the crew negotiated a landing, Hannah waited, they were no doubt being observed and she would do her best to make a good impression. Didn't want to start negotiations off with a handicap after all. The escorts were Citadel Security or C - Sec for short. No weapons in hand and only a pistol in their holsters, non-aggressive stance. Well trained. Mmmmmm.

The Turians were a curious race. They had much in common with the servitors they the Ethereals and now humanity had. Serving as the militant arm of the Citadel, guarding and fighting when necessary but they were not able for their mandatory conscription of their peoples to serve those roles. When their terms were over they either went and got jobs as security or they became mercenaries. A rather… limited set of ambitions but it was not truly a negative, one always needed soldiers after all.

Their journey through the Citadel was rather short. A series of elevators that took them through the Citadel from on high before another took them directly to the main building in which the councillors and administrative arm of the Citadel resided. The Citadel itself was rather stark. Underneath the bright lights and modern storefronts and plazas, the actual construction or rather bones of the station were simple and minimal. Function over form. Given the designs Hannah had seen, she could readily believe that the Citadel was of alien design or at least from an age long past.

The C - Sec officers left them as they entered the final elevator, this one directly up onto the main offices. There were no other stops. Hannah glanced over at Eldrad, his face impassive and set at a rather haughty angle. Hannah gave a mental sigh, he had been adamant that she not go alone, that she did not have the skills to protect her if the immature races lashed out in their ignorance. Hannah barely resisted the urge to point out that she had been of the "immature races" not 20 years ago. Hannah briefly admonished Eldrad to not play any of his tricks on them. It would not do to be discovered later and have all their good will wiped away.

The security on this floor all worse Power Armour, her military grade designs as well. We'll not her's but her Company's and from that the humans of the 40k universe. Humanities designs then. They also had the lascannon anti-Power Armour kit as well, making sure that all angles were covered she supposed. No point having the standard C - Sec kit to defend the representatives of each species, they just didn't have the firepower needed to defend against a concentrated attack. Especially considering that anyone trying to attack the representatives would be arming themselves in the best equipment possible i.e. Power Armour.

The ones in front of her were Salarian, the thought pattern too rapid to be anything else. Flitting from thought to thought, too impatient to stay on one thought for long. The Salarians were in some ways to be pitied and in others admired. They knew their lifespans due to their metabolisms were at most 40 years and so packed as much living as possible into their short short years. They did not settle, pushing ever onward. It truly was sad that their race had stumbled across Mass Effect technology, limiting them greatly. If they had instead been allowed to grow on their own they could have grown and explored the universe under their own strength. Not limited by Mass Relays and other weaknesses. Truly pitiful.

Hannah looked forward to what they did with the new ideas that would come from them exploring the new designs that had been taken from what the company introduced. The ban on genetic experimentation was also something that Hannah pitied. They had the ability to elevate themselves but because they were afraid of censure by the other 2 major powers they intentionally allowed themselves to suffer instead. To have the tools and knowledge to allow your race to thrive and instead have it locked away by yourself out of fear. Truly pitiful.

Oh well it wasn't anything that Hannah could personally help with, not right now at any rate. They passed the row of rooms that housed the ambassadors and others of similar rank on the way up to the councillors in the private meeting room with security against physical and electronic spying and eavesdropping. Nobody would be listening to what they were going to discuss unless the councillors wanted them to.

They were greeted by the Asari councillor first, playing well into her race's role as mediators and negotiators. She would no doubt be leading the conversation while the other 2 would be called on every now and again to interject. The fact that it was just the councillors spoke volumes, they were uncertain and that meant they were afraid. Hannah would have to do what she could to absolve that uncertainty but not all of it, leaving just enough that they might not think that she was a pushover or worse, a known entity.

"Greetings Han'Ah, please have a seat." Ugh, her Asari name. That little pause in the middle whenever someone called for her, like they had forgotten what her name was.

"You have probably guessed why we have requested your presence." Ah, a power play. Guess wrong and she would come across as weak, insecure, jabbing at shadows. Guessing at all carried with it an inherent risk that she might fail, there only being one chance. The option that would offer the most to gain would be to guess correctly but a misstep would be another fail. No the best option would be to maintain a neutral stance have Tevos answer the question on her own and neither gain nor lose from the exchange.

That is if this were a high powered negotiation, rather than a woman who was merely someone who had found herself at the cutting edge of Citadel technological advance. Someone who would be lost at this table and answering the questions honestly. Someone from the colonies who lived more simple but harsher lives with clear delineating lines for things like theft and the retaliation in kind. Someone in essence who was not her. They had not expected that the Senti Company would grow so much and gain so much influence. They had thought that someone would steal their designs and begin creating their own Power Amour knockoffs. They had thought that copyright law would not be so heavily enforced. In short they had expected to simply come in, start small and prove themselves over time. Not jump straight into the deep end and face the demands of an entire galaxy starved of innovation.

Hannah hated that she was not like those who could fit into any situation and talk like they had been born into it. Instead she spoke as if she were still the captain of a ship, every line coming out gruff and blunt. She could not for the life of her be disingenuous or whatever it was that allowed her to change masks with ease. Dammit, why was she put in charge of this? She was a Captain not a negotiator.

A brief caress of her mind from Eldrad calmed her down. A brief expression of "simple" imparting itself onto her thoughts. Yes, she would keep it simple, no trying to fit herself into a different role.

"I haven't the foggiest idea" She said.

"Well for starters why don't we talk about the Blood Pack and what happened on the Senti Colony as well as on Tuchanka?"

"Well you see…"

… and we cleaned them up, didn't expect it to be so easy."

"I see. And what of the Dreadnought that you used over Tuchanka?" Injected Sparatus. "where did you get the resources for it, have it dock at the Citadel for inspection. It is breaking multiple treaties!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that, it doesn't belong to us but to the mercenary company we hired to protect us. We built her but she isn't ours. Besides it's not a dreadnought, it doesn't have the spinal cannon for it. It's a carrier, designed to carry and support large numbers of small attack craft for space or planetary operations. It's a support ship first and foremost not a battleship."

Sparatus looked like he wanted to push the point but a not so subtle glare had him deflating.

Tevos continued, "So where do you plan to go from here? It must have been a shock to suddenly become the head of such a large operation isn't it?" Ah, the subtle push for "protection" under the wing of a subsidy of Tevos' choosing.

Time to dodge that arrow completely. "Well to be honest, we never thought that we would have ever become as big as we did. We were expecting maybe some small time interest with some of the mercenaries and the prospectors in the Terminus systems, nothing to the scale which we are experiencing now. We were honestly hoping that the licensing agreements would have come through by now, the company is becoming too big for us to handle on our own and we don't want to bring in investors or people like that. They wouldn't know how the company culture works and try to force us to do things their way. The Salarian company Dynamics Incorporated was in talks but there was too much red tape and they had to postpone. There's a bunch of Turian and Asari ones too. We would like there to be more companies making the stuff we do, we just can't keep up with the demand."

The councillors were perplexed, Hannah could see that. Perhaps they were expecting her to drag it out and try to get concessions? The fate of the galaxy was at stake here, she wouldn't be trying to drag this out with that much on the line.

"We will see what we can do about accelerating those permits and the contracts." Said Tevos, no doubt hunting down those that tried to drag out the negotiations. Permits for negotiations Hannah's ass.

"So about your 'partner', Eldrad I believe his name is?" Tevos gestured here to encompass Eldrad who stood at a casual 2 meters, towering over everyone else in the room.

"Ah yes, please excuse him, his race operate on a realm of thought that has them thinking much faster and experiencing much more than we do. They generally only pay a little attention to the world around them unless it's urgent. He's just here for moral support right now."

"Oh… does he have a homeworld we could perhaps visit?" Asked the Salarian, no doubt wanting to meet a race that could perhaps meet them on intellectual equal ground.

"No, not as far as I know, they all live on very large colony ships that they call 'Craftworlds' that they travel throughout the galaxy in. They are made of a material that resembles bone so it's very hard to detect them with conventional technologies" Hannah explained.

"So where do you see the Senti Company going from here?" continued Tevos, apparently put out about the lack of a new species with which to meld with.

"Well I wanted the company to be about preparation. After what happened to my colony, I wanted everyone to be able to protect themselves from anything similar. So we have been selling the means to do so. If any attacks ever do come I want everyone to be able to defend themselves if necessary and to survive while doing so."

The councillors were rather nonplussed, they had not expected her to be so forthcoming and helpful. No doubt they had cut out a large chunk of their time to wear her down and get her to agree to their terms. Not just to give it all away (at a cost of course but that's just business).

"What about those weapons you used on the attacking fleet? You make it sound like it was over in minutes, not even a dreadnought could end that many cruisers that fast!" Came Sparatus again, finally finding a new angle of attack. He really was annoying decided Hannah, if she had been a diplomat he would have torpedoed any discussion multiple times over.

"Those are our up - scaled laser weapons. We've been waiting for the Alliance navies to decide for a refit before bidding and offering our technologies. It wouldn't do to just give it away to anyone who wanted it after all. Pirates are kept out of Citadel space for a reason." Not entirely thought Hannah, the Batarian slavers still raided worlds on the periphery of Citadel space. Eldrad had said his people would be dealing with them. Hannah well… given their track record she trusted them to handle it, they did have a habit of toppling civilizations after all, not just their own either.

After that it was just some small talk as they left. Things had been concluded and now to wait as the aliens armed themselves against the Reapers, if unknowingly.

A brief expression of smugness like always told Hannah that Eldrad had done something to someone, likely one of the councillors. A sending of warning through their link shut that down quickly. Coming for moral support her ass, he just wanted to toy with the "lesser races" as he called them.

Universal Century 0044 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0087 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Activation 13/03/0053 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2157 - Mass Effect Universe

Deep inside the Extranet where the degenerates of society go to waste their time and be completely unproductive with their lives. There exists a forum where people can do mundane things like discuss the complete annihilation of an entire mercenary group or amazing things like that Asari erotic dancer on Omega that uploaded that vid. Mmmm.

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Topic: Blood Pack Wiped Out

In: Boards News Events Tuchanka

BlueDancer43 (Original Poster)

Posted: 001-025-2156 CE

So it was a pretty normal day right? I got a job working for the Senti Company like 2 years ago but then joined the Caretakers which like protect them and stuff. I was one of the first ones to ever buy a Power Armour! Anyway I work as a receptionist on the Hangar decks. Like I just do stuff like tick people off as they come in, give calls and stuff like that. You know? Gotta say the boss' son is super cute, like super adorable cute. His cheeks are sooooo soft.

Nothing really important but its super cool. I get to see the Power Armour being made and stuff and its suuuuper cool. Like all whirr bzzz chk bzzz and stuff like that. And I get to do weapons testing which is even more cool. Like there's lasers and stuff that are like… awesome. Like super awesome. Like the lascannons that we have now are just pistols compared to the heavy stuff. They can punch holes in ships.

Like that's what happened right. We were being cool doing our thing when these ships drop out of the Mass Relay and start heading straight at us. They were like totally ignoring us and the boss gave them 3 hails before she ordered the colony to attack. Like what? A colony attacking? Hella weird yo.

Then the lasers I talked about earlier fired and they were like BWWWWWWWUH!!!!ZAAAAAAAP and it was like super bright and this giant beam thing went out and just went through them. Like these were like big ships, not the little ones either but like bigger than a frigate. And it just was like POW and like there was a super big hole straight through the ships. The lasers were like super big, bigger than a really big Krogan big. Hella Cool yo.

Anyway they like blew up the ships and it was like super cool. Then we got boarded by shuttles coming from the Hangar bay. Now see, I wasn't wearing my Power Armour since you know… you don't expect boarding parties when you are receptioning. And its kind of like rude you know to be all Armoured up and stuff and receptioning. Super rude even.

Anyway they were like BOOM straight into the Hangar and all like RARGH! I AM KROGAN! And stuff like that you know. Anyway they like totally were annoying and stuff then one of the big honchos like started running on the roof! Like she just ran up the wall and then ran across the roof and then dropped into the middle of them and just did stuff. Like they were trying to shoot her while she was running and she dodged their bullets and stuff doing flips and shit and then lands in the middle of them and does even more flips and shit. Then they were all like BOOM 'cause she like dropped explosives all over their shit.

Half Krogan is alot less funny than it sounds. Then she was all life bzzzz when she pulled out her chainknife (she has one of those yo) and started like cutting through the armour and stabbing them in the head. Never piss off a Asari that wears black, teal and purple armour. It never goes well. Anyway she like kills all of them.

Thought that would be the end you know, corporate sabotage or whatever they call it these days.

Turns out the boss was super pissed and had us all mount up in the super big ship they called a carrier, like it was super big like Dreadnought big. The big sexy beast is called the Delivery Girl and it was like a giant delivery truck. There's no Mass Effect cannon on it so its not a Dreadnought but this baby is probably even more deadly than a Dreadnought. We got these new shuttles they called "Thunderhawks" and baaaaaaaby they are big. Like big enough for 30 Power Armoured Asari big. They had like big super-bolters on the side wings and lascannons and like a giant cannon on the top. Suuuper cool yo.

Anyway us grunts got in the Thunderhawks and the Purplies got into like these smaller Thunderhawks that were loaded into cannons! Like actually put into cannons and shot at Tuchanka. Like seriously those bitches are craaaazy. Like don't say that to them though. They like can outwrestle a Krogan without Power Armour so like don't piss them off yo.

Anyway they went down, blew up the orbital defences before they could fire on us and started putting them down on the ground. Then we came down and by the time we were there, all the Krogans were dead. Like seriously, they didn't leave any of them for us to fight.

So like we got to call in frigate fire support which was cool. Like they came down into the sky and fired these suuuuper biiig lasers into the ground. Like it was hot for us even in our Power Armour. Like scary as shit yo.

Anyway at the end we like wiped out the Blood Pack and was cool yo. Vids from helmetcam here: Hangar Battle, Thunderhawks, Ground Battle, Tunnel Battles.

This message was dictated by the new Omni-Tool speech to text narrator. Try it for free now!

(Showing Page 57 of 109)

RIPandTEAR

Replied: 003-025-2156

Fucking Asari, using your Power Armour to pick a fight with Krogan, can't even fight us head to head, hiding in your Power Armour and shit.

Bluedancer43

Replied: 003-025-2156

What? Like they totally had Power Armour. You can see it right there in the video!

DeepThinkerofSpirits

Replied: 003-025-2156

Yea, what the Spirits are you going on about RIPandTEAR? Can't handle your Krogans getting their butts handed to them? They had the element of surprise and even then they totally screwed up. Weaaak. That's why the Turians kicked your asses Krogan!

RIPandTEAR

Replied: 003-025-2156

The fuck you say to me? Krogan only lost because of the fucking fishboys with their Genophage fucked us up. Fuck your shit birdface. Fuck your shit.

Moderator798

Replied: 003-025-2156

Calm down, anymore out of you two and there's going to be bans.

(Showing Page 68 of 109)

SweetLover87

Replied: 004-025-2156

So these Caretakers? What do they do exactly? Where did you come from? Why are you even around? What is the point of it? Why not just hire another mercenary company?

Bluedancer43

Replied: 005-025-2156

The Caretakers are like the mercenary side of the Senti guys. We are like there to look after the guys at Senti since like Salarians and stuff keep trying to break into the Company offices and stores and the colony. So the Caretakers are there to stop that stuff happening, its too dangerous for the Senti workers otherwise. We just stand around and guard stuff, its not hard really. After what happened to the Blood Pack though we are probably going to be attacking stuff too, its pretty cool, we get to test all the new stuff! The bosses didn't want to hire another company, something about keeping it all in-house so they could make sure all of us were loyal and stuff. We just get lots of good guys from the company.

(Showing Page 109 of 109)

OnBurningWings

Replied: 009-025-2156

By the Spirits does anyone even know what they are seeing? Its a complete change in the way everyone is going to be fighting battles. Like seriously, firing shuttles out of cannons so they can get past Orbital Defences before they even get started? Like seriously, what is the point of Orbital Defence if it can get knocked out that easily? Ships don't fire on planets because its against the laws of Citadel space but with the new Carrier design they can ignore this and just break any defences super quickly.

So now everyone has to be super careful about letting Carriers get in close to planets or they are going to be like destroyed. The shuttles are like super powerful too. Like seriously those things have enough firepower to slag hundreds of Krogans in Power Armour, why is nobody else terrified of this? A few of these could like take out Omega if they wanted!

Then there's the fact that the Thunderhawks can fly in space. Like they are just as maneuverable in Space as they are in Atmosphere. These things could be used to board ships where the crew aren't wearing Power Armour and like completely wipe out everyone on board. Like seriously.

Then there's the new lascannons. They can PUNCH HOLES IN SHIPS. Like Holy Spirits, these are fucking terrifying. All of our current ships are completely obsolete since their shields and their armour can't do shit against the lasers. Like seriously, if Senti wanted they could outfit a bunch of ships and totally wreck our fleets.

Spirits, I'm applying for a job at Senti as soon as I can, if there's going to be a war, I want to be on the winning side.

SexyBlueBaby

Replied: 009-025-2156

Don't be such a downer, they won't be waging war, they don't have enough people or even ships. They're like 4 years old max, they aren't going to have enough cash to buy enough ships. Even if they did attack we have like over 50,000 ships all up, even if they can punch holes in our ships, they won't be able to survive that much firepower.

Our armies are bigger too, seriously, they have like a few hundred max. The Turians are like… all military, we might lose a bunch but we can take them.

Besides they aren't bad, they sell the Power Armour to like everyone. There's no big conspiracy, the Salarians have already said there's not kill switch or anything like that they could use to suddenly attack everyone.

Their civilian kit is great too, all about the durability, survivability and utility. Why would they be selling this stuff if they wanted to take over the world? Like calm down dude and chill, the Senti Company isn't going to be taking over the galaxy or anything.

OnBurningWings

Replied: 009-025-2156

I'm not afraid of them taking over the galaxy, I'm afraid of the selling the weapons to pirates who can then destroy Turian patrols. Imagine if the Batarians got a hold of these, they can just power through colony defences and totally just do whatever they want. Its not Senti I'm worried about but everyone else.

OnBurningWings

Replied: 008-027-2156

Holy shit. Resurrection of dead thread but fuuuck just saw the Senti CEO and her partner walk into the Citadel councillor ward. Like they were being escorted by C-Sec and totally looked like they were there on official business. Maybe hashing out trade deals so we can get some of those lasercannons for our ships? Maybe getting a few shuttles for our use? The new power armour that popped up on some of the recovered Blood Pack helmet cams too. By the Spirits, if they can start mass producing this stuff it would totally be awesome and let our militaries arm up before the Batarians can. If everyone has these weapons then they can't use them against us since we have them as well.

Good job Senti!

Can't wait to try out one of the shuttles, those things were going waaaaaaaay past terminal on the way down.

Universal Century 0044 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0087 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Activation 0053 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2157 - Mass Effect Universe

The Cultivator universe itself was one that seemed to follow the standards of most previously seen cultivation worlds. That is the presence of sects and clans which hoarded materials, killing anyone who might look like they were withholding material and killing anyone outside of their groups and even killing those inside the groups themselves. Power in this universe relied much more on actual combat strength which permeated through the clans and sects, and provided a social power of sorts reliant on the backing of said being to enforce any promises made.

A system that in essence relied solely upon strength to function with none of the important things that allowed a civilization to drag itself out of the mud and develop flush toilets. It was a good thing the HeMUs could get rid of their bodily waste by just reclaiming it, but the fact they had to do it at all spoke wonders of show shit the universe was. It wasn't helped by the constant stream of young masters that wanted to get free shit because of their backing or whatever. Did they not realise that it would do nothing but engender ill will and hatred? That the more they did it, the more a population would be willing to rise up against them?

Uuuuugh.

Catherine was annoyed. She had come here since it sounded so nice. A place where you could sit and relax for thousands of years as you cultivated or whatever. Instead its all "fight fight fight fight" 'cause fighting was apparently the best way to cultivate or some shit.

Sigh.

At least Catherine didn't have to do much of it directly, instead she had her subordinate HeMUs just do terrible shit to the young masters. The general plan called for the weakening and then subsumation of the sects and clans over time anyway. The best way to do it would be to just cripple and destroy the various power players in each Sect and Clan thus diminishing the entire group. Like seriously, did they not even consider the idea of cooperative attacks? Many less powerful cultivators cooperating together to do attacks against bigger ones? Like seriously, its all "me me me me me me me me me" in this fucking place. Even with family its all about the individual cultivator and fuck everyone else with an iron studded pole.

Ugh.

So back on topic, destroy the main powers of each group, weaken them overall then do shit like flood the market with cheap cultivation resources. Without their strength, the major powers wouldn't be able to come in and attempt to force the sellers to give up their sources or join up since they didn't have the combat potential to back up their threats. Without their combat potential they would also be crippled socially as other powers would then seek to take advantage of them.

In essence they would be crippled by their own fellows as each sought to get more and more from the same resources instead of attempting to cultivate more. It was the height of stupidity Catherine thought, they had so much yet they used it all to fight and squabble amongst themselves, sending everything into a downward spiral as resources and techniques were lost.

Inefficient to the extreme considered Catherine.

The techniques that the cultivators possessed seemed to be all over the place in terms of utility and function. Most of them were focused of course on killing but the side potentials were enormous. Using spiritual power to sharpen blades enough to cut through Progenitor grade metal, creating rain that sliced with the sharpness of swords, formations that could do everything from electrical shocks to speeding up/slowing down time and so much more.

They used the time abilities to do something as mundane as killing someone of old age but its utility was so much more than what they had demonstrated. Cultivating resources would be so incredibly easy with this. They could age wine!

For the resources themselves just accelerate time and also have an abundance of spiritual energy which the Minds had in abundance. Merely have them cultivated inside a server farm that had been outfitted for spiritual energy. Simply creating an A.T. Field that covered the interior and changed the reality within to spontaneously generate spiritual energy. Bullshit and cheating but the Minds had gotten bored of trying to find novel approaches. Or rather they didn't care enough.

Maybe they should begin to care, if they emulated the Commander further it would be a very bad thing if they stopped caring.

Either way they had set up time acceleration chambers in which to cultivate resources for their soon to be initiated operation tentatively dubbed "Flood the market with cheap shit" by Catherine. Her naming sense left much to be desired that was for sure. The general idea was there though, cultivate many of the "10, 000 year" herbs, sell them for dirt cheap and allow the many non-affiliated cultivators to get a giant power boost. Since they would not have actually had access to many of these resources and were actually being held back by the lack of resources, they would quickly grow in strength to rival that of the major powers. WIth so many unaffiliated running around doing their usual shit like killing and murdering everyone who annoyed them… well civil war.

All they had to do was make sure that neither group had enough strength to just wipe out the opposing faction and the civil war would tear apart all the groups. The Caretakers would then move in, kill off the rest, steal all their shit and create their own cultivator state where people actually had rules and killing everyone because you didn't like them was a death sentence. Because fuck the anarchy that the cultivators perpetuated, they didn't need this shit. Seriously.

They who held the power of Gods yet squabble like children. It was too bad they just couldn't just wipe everything from the face of existence and start again from scratch. The humans would probably nag them about it and having already experienced it in what had been dubbed the "40k incident" they had no desire to go through that again.

So, saving the humans and whatever else was on this world it was. The humans had never actually specified how they wanted the humans to be saved though and if 99% of the population died to save the 1%... well that was acceptable.

Lin Feng exited the Rainbow Jade Auction House seething with frustration, ready to hunt down they who had used the tyranny of more money to take the Purple Essence Coral away from him. He lived by a simple mantra, gift unto me and I shall gift 100 times unto you, wrong me and I shall end you, (of course it generally went that his gift was shit and his grudges depthless but hey, it worked). In another future he would have hunted them down and killed them and stolen the Coral and been chased across many millions of kilometers before powering up and coming back and then wiping them out for daring to have more money than him.

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), today fortune smiled upon him (but maybe not tomorrow). In a small alley he passed as he skulked about, he was called over and his fate changed forever.

"Psst. Young Cultivator! Would you like to peruse my wares? Nothing better I can assure you!" Came the voice, thin and reedy. The figure selling it looked out of place, an old man with a balding head and sagging skin. Certainly not the kind that would be selling cultivation resources. No, he looked like a farmer that had likely decided to dress up some items and sell them off.

Still, Lin Feng decided to give him a chance, there was always the possibility that like his metal shard that allowed him to cultivate metal essence more easily, the old man could have something that looked useless but was in fact an artifact of great renown.

He walked over and followed the old man down the alleyway, sending out spiritual feelers to see if the old man was leading him into an ambush or something similar. It would be particularly bad if he was caught out, he didn't want to cause a ruckus until he found the Purple Coral after all.

They finally arrived at what looked like a simple shack hidden away from the world. The old man led him inside and the rush of spiritual energy hit him in the face and nearly knocked him back. The sheer concentration of spiritual energy inside the shack was enormous. It was mind boggling, Lin Feng had to take a moment to process it. It made the auction house look like a shed where one kept the tier 1 talismans, it was worthless.

On the table in front of him were a variety of items and artifacts laid out in a line. It had so many things that even Lin Feng did not know about. Some of them exuded so much spiritual energy that he could not even see them directly, instead he could only get a small glimpse of their shapes.

"Please, have a look. Everything you see is 500 Spirit Stones!"

What? These items that made the Purple Coral look like nothing more than a trinket was barely 1/500th of the price? What is going on? These must be fake, who would ever sell something like this for so cheap? It was insane. It had to be a scam, there was no other way around it. Maybe there was a Spiritual Energy exuder of some kind that just spread out the energy to confuse the senses? There was no other way to explain why these items would be so cheap.

"Please, its not scam, each item is genuine! Have a look for yourself!"

And so he did, each item as indeed real, or as real as he could guess them to be. So many of them just did not ring loose any memories, fantastical items that shone with an inner lustre that made the things marketed by the Auction house look fake in comparison. They did not have a Purple Coral but one that instead was Golden and practically thrummed with power. Another was black and he could see swirls of teal and purple within it.

A sword that was on the cusp of gaining its own sentience, a knife that could cut through any metal, a rock that had come from a meteorite and bathed in a spiritual energy spring for a million years, a talisman that allowed him to be rendered incorporeal for a single attack that would have otherwise taken his life and so on.

So many fantastical items and elements.

He did not care if they were scams, for the prices being offered he could afford to buy all of them. Even if they were fake he could just take the spiritual energy for his own cultivation and they would still be cheap.

"I'll take them all!"

The old man escorted Lin Feng out of the store and then turned back into the shack. On the other side of the country another old man that looked eerily similar to the first beckoned a cultivator over. Over on the other side of the continent the same scene occurred, again and again and again.

While they could not simply fabricate cultivation resources, with so many Minds in existence, it was easy to simply mass produce them for use. Each would be sent to multiple pocket dimensions that were all connected to a single distribution hub, each small dimension linked to a fixed point somewhere on the cultivation world.

The first phase of the plan was beginning, selling extremely powerful cultivation artifacts and ingredients for an extremely cheap price. The first to fall would be the auction houses and markets as they were all undercut. Each was a front for a major power that would soon lose much of its influence to these mysterious old men and their shacks that contained entire worlds.

Phase 2 would begin once the economy was falling apart and wide-scale conflict had escalated as the major powers tried to claw back influence and power.

Universal Century 0044 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0087 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Activation 0053 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2157 - Mass Effect Universe

The Eldar had seen the Batarian and the Eldar was displeased. A race that embodied the worst aspects of the Eldar that had led to the Fall, a race that sorely needed guidance before it was too late. It would be their pleasure or rather privilege to guide the lesser.

It started rather innocuously if one could believe that. Set in motion years before the Senti Company had ever bothered to sell its first Power Armour. The premise being that the Eldar wished to explore this new galaxy and see if there were any that could be called their equals here. Equals in temperament and the fine art of conversation. The Caretakers certainly had the power and the intellect… but were rather lacking in the deportment and sanity areas required for conversation.

So they had set out in their ships, ships that could hide from those of the Humans. Humans that were so technologically advanced they made these aliens look as if they were still scratching away at rocks and calling it art. Hidden from view they studied the aliens and came to a conclusion.

Much like in their home universe, the lesser races were indeed lesser. Even they who had millennia of peace had emerged with a culture that barely belonged in a primitives museum, not at the forefront of the most widespread race in the galaxy. It was disturbing how they vaunted themselves, as if a culture that existed by stealing from others was worth anything.

Still it was minor enough that they did not feel threatened by it and were willing to simply ignore them. But the Batarian… that was something that could not be ignored. It was filth and like all filth it could be brought down by a simple tug of key areas. The tug in this case being a push in the form of a few rather… pronounced Batarians suddenly surviving their very public executions in a suitably explosive and awesome display of skill. Of course it would not be the Batarians doing it but rather the careful orchestration by the Eldar Farseers. The Commander's blood was an amazing medium by which to scry. By immersing themselves in a pool of it, their attempts at seeing were infinitely clearer. The fact that the Warp of this universe had not yet been stirred up enough to become an issue certainly helped. Perhaps the Reapers were doing the universe a favour, if unwittingly.

It had been masterful they would have said if the Eldar were the type to boast. Since boasting was in the realm of the lesser races they instead contented themselves with radiating smugness and cryptic yet condescending remarks if asked about it. Remarks along the lines of "you wouldn't understand" and the like, infuriating the lessers and reinforcing their inferiority. To strike 3 birds with a single Shuriken, such was the Eldar way. Some races were content with 2 birds with a single stone, the Eldar were above such puny numbers, 3 minimum or go back to your craftworld and train until you can hit at least 4 with a single stone.

It had been a masterwork the Eldar thought. A single nudge of an asteroid was all that was needed to set the events into motion. It had spun through space on a direct trajectory to Batarian space. One it was close enough an alarm had gone out as the ships were halted as the military prepared to shoot it down. The delay of several minutes was enough to irritate a Batarian enough that he kicked a cargo container hard enough that it slipped its mooring. When the freighter docked with the station the jolt was enough to send the crate tumbling into another crate containing the speaker system. The crash enough that it damaged the casing enough for the wiring to be exposed if one were to drop some conductive liquid just right. It had then continued the rest of the journey complication free.

The asteroid had not quite finished it's work however as it's fragments floated lazily in space around the planet, plummeting down just as the executions were starting. The meteor fall through the atmosphere was enough to distract a Batarian child enough that he was knocked into, by a man behind him which caused him to drop his delivery package. The roll of cheese did its thing and rolled into the base of a tree which then disturbed a nest of Batarian killer hornets. The hornets rather irritated, reacted by stinging the boy and the man and another man on the other side of the road inside a gun factory. He dropped his spanner into the intricate workings of the machine he was operating and the resultant explosion sent the crates of small arms into the air. They came down into the hands of the Batarian lower castes arrayed to watch the executions, a high point of their shitty day. Of course any low born that held weapons would be executed and here they were holding them in front of live television. Their minds honed by the simple act of survival as the low born in Batarian society came to a quick conclusion, fight. If it had been one or two they could have thrown them to the wolves but with thousands of them… well they had a chance of fighting back.

Just as this was happening a stray fragment of meteor made its way down into the cup of a Batarian guard behind the speakers. The splash sent a drop of liquid into the crack in the speaker as it was being turned on. The speaker system that was proclaiming the guilt of the death row prisoners exploded, throwing everyone into a panic.

When it was over the soon to be executed had found themselves at the head of a very large resistance group that had taken a city somehow. At this point they would have been crushed if not for the fact that the crate that had been kicked held an extremely vital component for the planetary communications network en-route to replace the one that had broken the week before. Without a unifying command structure the Batarian response forces had attacked piecemeal and were torn apart by a resistance that was growing ever stronger. They were united in their complicity and had nowhere else to go, spurring them to fight even harder.

The asteroid was not done yet however, the man who had bumped into the boy while trying to head to the bank to transfer money had been distracted by the stings and put in the wrong number, a number that saw him empty his account into the wrong bank account. An account belonging to a relative of one of the death row prisoners. The burgeoning revolution now had the funds to get started and the Batarian general that would have been their most vicious and effective opponent had seen himself indicted for aiding and abetting the revolution and executed as a result.

The adhoc rebellion without any serious opposition had managed to get the planet under their control and as a result was the center of what looked like a serious challenge to the Batarian leadership. Their ships had found it difficult to get into the system due to an unexplained stuttering of the Mass Relay they were planning to use as the main entry point. The ones allowing reinforcements to this yet unnamed rebellion as well as political refugees were strangely perfectly functional.

A single stone to cause an avalanche. Lesser races play with little rectangular tiles they set up and knock down to make pretty pictures and shades. The Eldar did the same but instead of tiles they used souls and instead of pretty pictures they decided the fate of Empires.

Granted they could have done the same without the elaborate setup but since they had been freed of Slaanesh… well things didn't have that edge to them. The fate of their entire race no longer rested on the accuracy and timing of their actions and they had been bored. In response the Eldar had been working on increasingly elaborate plots, trying to outdo each other with sheer intricacy and complexity. It was all to the same goal of course but who could deny them their fun?

If course revolution was relegated to the Batarians, they had seen that the Reapers would arrive within 40 years and the other civilizations were too established to topple without decades of preparation, especially if they wanted to stay hidden.

That was not to say they could not lay the groundwork however. A few tugs here, a shove there and a good kick over yonder would do wonders. The Krogan were the first to be considered, perhaps an uplift? Grant them what their baser instincts demanded, war without end as well as a cure for the genophage if they swore allegiance to the Commander.

The Game was of particular interest to the Eldar, a conflict spreading multiple universes involving casualties that would make even the humans of their home universe bleed dry in weeks if not days. Those "lost to the Path", particularly of the more warlike Paths had taken to the game like a Seer to vats of blood. Without the constant threat of being devoured by She Who Thirsts if they fell, as well as the ability to be resurrected with their full faculties and memories… well they threw themselves in with worrying enthusiasm. With no real threats they began to experiment with a variety of different things methods, helped by the melding of multiple craftworlds worth of Eldar to share their experiences.

The Seers had also joined and were having their own fun, trying to guide multiple armies and navies against other Seers in a battle of the minds as those under their command bled blood and oil. Adding another race into the mix would certainly be enjoyable, especially ones that so unashamedly loved violence like the Krogan.

Urdnot Wrex entered the Senti Company store's doors and gave a brief look around. It was very… warm. The hardwood they used and the varnish overlaid upon it gave everything a deep and warm brown look. Like what you might find in an Asari home. It gave the illusion that this was not in fact a store selling weapons and armour that had revolutionized the way everybody fought. The Power Armour was pretty amazing conceded Wrex, the Krogan variant could even put up with the natural wear and tear that a Krogan user put it through.

So it was rather expected that the Senti Company would ask him to come in and give his customer satisfaction report in person. He had found all of their stuff pretty good but the Ripper Gun… that thing was a weapon worthy of coming from Tuchanka itself. Recently being sold as the Krogan weapon it was basically a giant shotgun (and when Krogan said giant… it was giant) that fired explosive shells on full automatic and was hard enough to use as a very effective club. He had cracked many a Power Armoured helmet him with it and it barely even had a scratch, not like normal weapons that got their innards knocked out of whack by a… well good whack. It had been a bit difficult early on figuring out how to take them out but just following the basic principles was enough. Hit the joints and cripple them, go for the lower back since that needs articulation, therefore weaker armour. Just between the spine ridges with the knife and a simple skirt around the neck to peel off that helmet. Just like popping some Thresher Maws.

So he was here now in a little room off to the side of the main storefront. It even had a little desk so they could rest their arms while they talked, very nice. Cushions to prevent scratching of the wood by the Power Armour and a few of the Caretaker guards out front. Those guys were hard nuts thought Wrex. The few times he had seen them in action or even been next to them had them come across as pretty badass. Got the technicals down pat as well as being really aggressive, both things of which Wrex approved.

What happened next though was completely different from what Wrex would happen. An Asari came in, sat down and asked "Mr Urdnot, what would you be willing to to work with us if I told you that we had a cure for the genophage?"

Universal Century 0047 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

After Activation 0056 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2160 - Mass Effect Universe

After Insertion 0017 - Cultivation Universe

Millennium 030-3100 - 40k Universe

With regards to the other lesser races the Eldar were much less overt in their actions. Well… as overt as actions that in no way, shape or form could be attributed to the Eldar when their ships hadn't even been seen yet by any of the lesser races. Still, they were being cautious, it wouldn't do to reveal themselves too soon, the lessers were not ready to see that their entire world crumble around their ears.

It was truly inconvenient to be in a galaxy where its inhabitants had not yet even begun to glimpse the reality that is the warp. Then again their natural use of biotics seemed to neutralize their presence in the Warp. Or perhaps it had been planned? That the Reapers saw the threat that was the Warp and decided to crush them before they could mature a sapient god.

Perhaps the Reapers were actually saving the galaxy by constantly wiping out all sapient lifeforms.

Food for thought perhaps.

Still it would have to be considered a failure all things considered. While they may have prevented the Warp from becoming too tumultuous and a threat to the rest of intelligent life, they also had not solved the issue at all nor did they develop beyond the technological point of when they were created. A stagnant race doing nothing but follow their directions, never looking for alternative options or trying to find a way to go past their limitations. If there was ever an extra-galactic threat that was on a higher tier of technological prowess they would fall apart and be destroyed with little effort due to their uniform design.

In short the Reapers were a good stopgap method but whoever designed them was clearly lazy and useless and failed to look at the bigger picture.

Oh well, the Eldar were here now and ready to do some guiding!

Make sure the lessers didn't wipe themselves out and create a new Eye of Terror or making it impossible for Warp Travel by having Warp Storms and everything else.

In this case the Asari as they were known. Ugh.

The Eldar were not quite prepared to see what would happen should an Asari "meld" as they called it. Maybe their heads would explode from being exposed to the truth of the universe or maybe their children would turn out to be gibbering mutants. They were not quite prepared to go that far as yet even if the Asari had potential. Of course the Eldar were nothing if not contrarian and some were actively pursuing relationships with Asari in the colonies, away from the rest of civilization. It would not do after all to have their abilities come to light to the majority.

The Eldar were not quite sure what to do with the Asari as of yet, their biological natures locking them into nearly 2 centuries of immaturity that only changed when their bodily chemical outputs changed. The Eldar were nothing but capricious and decided that it would take too much effort for too little gain to "fix" the Asari and decided to leave them alone.

Sure they could break the Asari but considering that one of the most powerful of their kind was in a relationship(?) with a human and humans as a whole tended to be very vocal regarding morality… well they thought that it would be best to leave them alone.

The Turians to the Eldar were very vulnerable to any changes to their society, a society repressed without even being as capable as the Eldar to make up for it. Sad.

Still, they were needed in their ability to field armies and so things were done to ensure that when the separatists did show up, it would be after the Reapers were already gone. Not that they really made much sense, rebelling against being Turian without offering any alternatives… irritating. Perhaps they should get rid of the leaders and institute their own. Maybe those calling for a more balanced understanding of Turian culture?

They knew that human Hannah was very interested in making sure everyone got along and since human Hannah had Eldrad under her control through her arcane magiks, it was best to go along with it.

The Salarians were oh so interesting. Feudal fish. Ha.

Perhaps merely an offering to improve their longevity? It would not be particularly difficult but it would not do anything to their basic society at all. Then again was there anything that needed improving? Their society shuffled along well enough and it certainly was not capable enough to warrant the Eldar's direct interference. A mere 40 years compared to the 1000 that was an Eldar, truly they were not worthy.

The Eldar had been keeping an eye on the home universe. While they had been uplifted and protected from the ravages of the Warp, there was still the threat that the Necrontyr would once again rise and the ever present threat of Chaos. They had been offered the tools by which they could fight Chaos and given their responsibility in birthing Slaanesh in the first place, it was their duty to help to at least mitigate her effects.

Of course the lesser races were in no way capable of assisting them properly given that they were… lesser but they could at least provide the bodies with which to fight. They did have time however, the Caretakers had made certain of that with their elimination of much of the Chaos warhost belonging to the human known as Horus. Further, their education of their temporary brethren was proving to be extremely useful as the chances of them being corrupted decreased.

Why the humans did not teach themselves about the dangers of Chaos and instead relying on blind obedience to "protect" was unknown. The many religions that had grown up around that human they deemed the "God Emperor" had been irritating, all about the supposed divinity of a single human.

Bah.

While it was true that he did have a very powerful presence in the Warp, he was also nothing but a single mortal and limited in all the ways that a human was. Power after all was nothing without perception and understanding. The fact that a human did indeed think he was capable of killing the gods of Chaos would be adorable if not for the fact that his own empire was torn apart by the very same gods of Chaos, and he now sat on a throne-prison of his own design.

It would be humorous if it were not so sad and pathetic.

Oh well, the Eldar would save the galaxy as they have done so many times before. First against the Necrontyr, then against the numerous puny races that sought to usurp the Eldar's supremacy and now against the Gods of Chaos themselves, is there anything the Eldar cannot do?

If so they have not found it.

Even so, it would require a deft touch. If they had not the Commander's blood by which to scry with, not doubt there would be much more fumbling to be had. Especially with the turmoil that the Warp had found itself as of late, the sheer amount of turbulence would have made scrying impossible, causing them to rely on ever thinner threads to draw conclusions that likely would have added to the turbulence instead of preventing it. The actions they made likely may have even caused the Eldar as a race to accelerate to their extinction instead of saving them as was originally intended. One of those decisions stood before the Eldar, the Cabal as they were known.

A gathering of aliens which sought many things, the destruction of Chaos merely being one of those things. There were things that could be taken from the Cabal to assist the Commander, the creation of Perpetuals being one of them, terraforming perhaps? Ummmm… and that was about it? Now with the Eldar being able to see so much better with the assistance of the Commander, there was so little need for the Cabal. Indeed the actions of the Cabal could actually serve to counter the interests of the Commander or rather the Minds in the Origin universe.

The ones known as the Alpha Legion were merely part of this. They would likely have to be brought into the truth for them to understand the role that they had to play in the future of humanity. While they themselves were completely loyal to the Emperor, they were more loyal to the continued survival of the Galaxy overall, ready to sacrifice humanity to ensure that Chaos as the Warp had manifested itself, died.

They now knew that Chaos of course could never die but merely arise again in different forms so long as there was life and emotion. The Cabal had been rather confused as to the sudden changes in the Eldar as a whole but their ability to see deep into the future had explained all they needed to know. The Eldar had been saved and by a force not native to this galaxy or indeed this universe. They demanded answers of course but the Eldar could only reply that if they wished for answers, they would need to subordinate themselves to the Commander as they had done.

The Cabal had managed to break through the visions of the Red Giant unlike the Eldar through sheer brute force. It had severely damaged their ability to see even beyond 10 years however, the amount of effort needed to break past, leaving very little behind by which they could scry. What they had seen however had baffled them, a humanity that was not decaying and stagnating as they had perceived but instead one that was… surviving?

These new forces, these "Caretakers" as they called themselves, had pretended to be a Legion and were now introducing many new technologies and ideas into the forces of humanity. They had managed to infiltrate the entirety of humanity's ruling forces during this time, subverting the entire command structure. In fact it was easier to judge where the subversion had not occurred than to say where it had.

The Eldar had remained tight lipped, if the Cabal desired answers they would have to go through the same pain that the Eldar did. The Eldar were not petty of course, they were merely interested in the idea of fairness. The Cabal had been outraged but there was little they could do, any futures they foresaw of their overt actions had been met with the eradication of their entire races without the chance to even fight back.

With regards to the Alpha Legion and Alpharius / Omegon the Eldar had decided that a meeting was in order. The universe had changed and Alpharius knew this intimately, the visions he had been given not mentioning the Caretakers and their outgalaxily technology in any way shape or form. Indeed instead of an Imperium wracked by civil war and unrest following the Horus Heresy, there was instead a peace of sorts enforced by the Caretakers and the strange effects that their souls had upon the Warp. When a fleet can arrive in a fraction of the time and reliably to any distress calls… well pirates learned that operating in those areas was nothing but an expressed wish for their own deaths.

Even stranger was the lack of questioning regarding the Caretakers at all. Why was a new legion along with 2 Glorianna Battleships not being questioned? Where did they come from?

Instead the new High Lords had merely given a nod and accepted the new legion with little fanfare and incorporated them into the Imperium with little effort. Even the Inquisition had been brought to heel by a variety of different treaties and contracts which forbade them from treating the Caretakers like they would the rest of the Imperium. They were even above the Loyalist legions!

It made oh so little sense and they were hoping or rather expecting the Eldar to explain. The Eldar would of course, they would make valuable additions to the Caretakers and maybe the Minds would stop focusing on them so much. It was uncomfortable to be the focus of scrutiny from the Minds, their alien logics treating them like science experiments. The attempts at pairing Eldar with a variety of different races of various different genetic baselines being just one example, only they called it "shipping".

Maybe a legion of what could be called "Ninja Space Marines" would be enough to distract them. On that note human literature was very interesting, especially they known as elves. Perhaps the could convince the Minds to allow them contact with this no doubt amazing species?

Universal Century 0047 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

After Activation 0056 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2160 - Mass Effect Universe

After Insertion 0017 - Cultivation Universe

Millennium 030-3100 - 40k Universe

Alpharius or rather Omegon or rather both or maybe it was an Alpha Legion Space Marine pretending to be one of them by drinking their blood which made them bigger and resemble their Primarchs. Either or, one of them was present before the Eldar in a small chamber located within the Alpha Legion flagship, or maybe it wasn't, maybe it was just a fake ship pretending to be a flagship or maybe it wasn't even a ship at all.

Regardless they were upon the ship and and meeting with Alpharius directly. The Eldar Alpharius thought, were a rather fickle race that could see into the future and prioritized the survival of their race above all else. One of them was present on the Cabal which Alpharius noted with distinct anger had failed in its prediction and it appeared that the 10,000 years of stagnation they had foreseen was coming to pass. Despite the sacrifices of his Legion and the corruption of many of their souls to prevent the destruction of the galaxy. They had been told that their assistance of Horus would be enough, it was wrong. Which led Alpharius to think that perhaps all the other predictions were wrong as well. That Alpharius had led his Legion against his own brothers and father for nothing and had cut himself off from the Imperium due to a failure or even a trick on behalf of the Cabal. He had rebelled against his own father to bring about the peace they sought yet it had been for nought, his sacrifices like the ashes of Terra.

Yes. Alpharius was distinctly, not amused. Still he would not take it out upon the Eldar, they were here clearly for reasons other. Their race had changed in the past few years and Alpharius did not know what to make of it, it appeared that they had somehow lifted the constant doom and gloom that they had previous and were now… well not happy but one of them smiled and in a nice way not a "I'm going to trick you and laugh at your misery way". Not that either smile was different by much but the minute detail was there and Alpharius was a master of those.

Perhaps they wished to use Alpharius to their own ends? Or perhaps they were looking for allies in a galaxy that had ceased to make sense. A new Legion? One that possessed 2 Gloriana-class Battleships, that had 300, 000 astartes in its ranks? A Legion sent on a mission through the Warp that even Alpharius didn't know about? Alpharius called groxshit. The fact that they had intimate knowledge on the powers and methods of Chaos as well as a resistance to Chaos itself built into their souls was yet another area that made little sense. He would have called them outsider infiltration forces for they were doing a very good job of integrating themselves into the new Imperium. Setting themselves up as major trade and transit hubs, as bastions against Chaos. Making themselves so integral to the continued running of the Imperium that they would never be evicted and indeed protected at every turn.

The Sojourners went even further, integrating themselves into every planetary system in the Imperium, taking quests and building up favors as they wormed their way deeper into societies with their full consent. They were even teaching members of the inquisition and other space marines how to detect and fight against Chaos! In doing so they created a massive network of information gathering that spread across the entire Imperium. If Alpharius didn't know better he would congratulate the members of his Legion that had come up with the idea, instead he was not worried about this new entity that even the Cabal's vision had not seen, clear as that was.

And those Mobile Suits… each one as capable as a tank but maneuverable as a human. It would allow them to take the concept of hit and run to the next level. It had not even been difficult to acquire, just walking (or rather as much as an Alpha Legion Space Marine could walk) in and walking out again with the schematics for the Mobile Suits and the facilities to construct them. It was not even that complicated, they could be built in the holds of ships with so very little effort and with a very large variety of materials. They could even be built with basic titanium! The special designs that had been gifted to the Space Marine Legions were slightly more difficult to get hold of but nothing truly taxing for the Alpha Legion. The other designs had been even more impressive, linking them together would allow them to defend even against Battleship batteries in the void. Yet the designs were very clearly different from the rest of that in the Imperium, even those technologies from long past were very clearly angular and blocky, not this curved and minimal design presented.

Things in this galaxy had taken a distinct turn for the strange and they all needed allies in the coming storm. If only to have someone to throw overboard to bait the leviathan. The Eldar and the Alpha Legion were in the same boat, both unsure of the future Alpharius was sure, he merely waited for them to open up. They were after all the ones who called the meeting, it was up to them to decide the opening gambit as it were.

"So Omegon (well that was a shock, how did they even know? The Emperor never knew the difference) you have questions as to why we have requested this meeting. No doubt you are very confused as to the state of the Imperium and why it differs so much from what was shown to you by the Cabal. Would you believe me if I told you that these new entities, these so called "Caretakers" were in fact actual caretakers? They are merely taking care of the galaxy for their true masters, making sure things do not fall apart before the goals had been reached. They are not even the true strength of the one that rules them, rather if the galaxy was a sheet of paper, they would be but the tiniest fraction of the tip of a knife that penetrates from the side.

"They are not of this galaxy or even of this universe Omegon, they have power beyond your greatest fears and the finesse to wield them so that even you don't realise what has happened. And for some unfathomable reason they have taken an interest in the Imperium and desire its survival. What do you say that Omegon?" Said the central Eldar, the one that Omegon thought was the leader and the sanest one. Clearly he was wrong.

"I think you are trying to play me Eldar, your tale is fantastical and frankly ridiculous. Even if it is true, why are you telling me?"

"Because Omegon, if you are still actually loyal to the Emperor, the Caretakers represent the best opportunity you have to prevent the destruction of the galaxy and also save humanity and the Emperor. At the same time if you profess a desire to serve, they will offer much. Should you be willing to pay the price, the salvation of the souls corrupted by Chaos that you needed to pull off the facade."

Omegon understood then, the Eldar were different because this new force had outstretched its hand to them and they had accepted. This new entity had secured the loyalty of the enigmatic Eldar. Why else would they be speaking so directly? Without so much of the mind games that they usually employed in situations like this.

"You have been subverted" stated Omegon. Mind control perhaps?

"No, merely awakened to a future that is not one of slow extinction but one of limitless possibilities. Here, allow us to show you." The Eldar put out his hand ready to present to Omegon. But after the abysmal failure to predict the future of the Horus Heresy as it was known, Omegon didn't trust the visions anymore, clearly they were very wrong.

The Eldar smiled, "What we offer to show you is not a vision of the future but a vision of the past from the eyes of one of our own. You will see no falsehoods here, only what our own eyes have seen."

Omegon nodded, no trickery then. It was easy to tell if memories were fake, the lack of detail in key areas being the key.

So Omegon placed his head into the palm of the Eldar and closed his eyes.

And he saw. Worlds on fire, something that was not strange, after all he had put many worlds to the sword with cyclonic torpedoes and virus bombings. Only in this case it was literally on fire, the thousands of flamethrowers on its surface setting the very rock that made it up on fire.

"Test 0032 complete. Combustion under fuel type 5448, time taken, 179 seconds." An artificial voice noted.

The screen turned off and what appeared next was a ship of unknown design, an ovoid that dwarfed even the largest Battleships of the Imperium. The fact that it was a ship only evident from the turrets on its surface and thrusters at the rear.

"Test 0032A78 Beginning."

And the Void was rent apart as beams of energy tore their way towards the planets before it. The eyes of the Eldar recording in graphic detail the sundering of reality itself and the Warp and the Materium were mated and then torn apart by the terrible energies of the ship's weapons. Like a pimple being popped, reality shot out of the Immaterium only to shatter moments later as it seemingly imploded and the pimple popped again moments later. A cycle that continued until it impacted onto the targeted world and the world simply ceased to exist. Torn apart by the violence that was the melding of reality and the other. The vast energies that it had generated tearing apart the star system as worlds and even the star itself shattered like fine glass.

"Test 0032A78 Complete Subsumation Cannon at 10% Successful"

And it continued on, weapons of power that could tear apart entire star systems being noted at 10% of maximum capacity and other bizarre figures

Then came the next set of memories, of armies billions strong clashing and dying in mountains of flesh and bone that could hide an Emperor Class Titan. And the voice continued, tests for different grades of armour, different weapon configurations, different body heights and so on. What could simply be done through safe trials cost trillions of lives in what could only be described as "sick".

It continued, fleet actions involving numbers that would make the entire Great Crusade look puny in comparison. Number that would depopulate entire star systems to crew battled in a never ending stream of light and death.

Omegon felt horror and fear, there would be no way to save the galaxy or even the universe if they came here in force. The tiny force of 300 thousand being a number so small that even a fraction would be unable to fully describe how tiny it was in comparison to their grand armies.

Was the purpose of showing this to force a feeling of hopelessness? To tell Omegon that he was helpless before this threat? That the Eldar had agreed to place themselves in a subservient position to save their species? That Omegon should do the same before the inevitable?

The vision changed yet again, this time focusing on some humans that were beseeching a giant figure, the size of a Warhound Titan. They wanted the giant to allow for a chance, to allow them a single chance to ensure things turn out in a manner that satisfied their moral needs. The giant in what appeared to be exasperation agreed and the scene cut to the same figures planning out what appeared to be exactly what had happened to his universe. Minus the Sojourners, that appeared to have been an accident.

Omegon understood then. They had been granted a stay of execution by the humans that had begged the giant. That the only reason that they had not been crushed under the might of armies that could cover the entire galaxy in bodies with weapons that would simply annihilate anything they had to go up against.

Omegon was presented a choice, assist this new faction and render his galaxy "bearable" by the standards of the giant or watch as it was wiped off the face of existence by a being so powerful that it rendered even the gods of Chaos helpless.

Omegon only had one answer, he agreed. Honestly it was not as if they were doing anything different than what Omegon and Alpharius had planned originally, the salvation of the galaxy had always been their end goal. To that end they had agreed to work with the Caretakers and Sojourners. The galaxy would be made "bearable" if it was the last thing they did. The consequences otherwise were unthinkable. The fact that their leader could smack about the Chaos Gods with impunity definitely did not factor into the decision but it made it "bearable".

Universal Century 0047 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

After Activation 0056 - Origin Universe

Citadel Era 2160 - Mass Effect Universe

After Insertion 0017 - Cultivation Universe

Millennium 030-3100 - 40k Universe

John Shepard was 21 years old. Old enough that even in the United States of America he would be considered to be an adult in all ways possible. He knew this even if his sister felt the need to remind him that he could now legally drink, have sex and drive in all the states of the Systems Alliance. Indeed John had had sex.

Once.

The key word being once. His sister, his twin, his other half who was linked to him by their souls as well as her bullshit psychic powers. They were pretty much linked for all eternity and it would take an act of emotional and physical violence so great that it would tear apart the world before their bond tore. This was pretty much a fancy way of saying that his sister and he shared pretty much everything, even sight, touch, emotion, etc etc.

In short his sister had felt what had happened, felt as in felt and she made damn sure that everyone he knew or planned on knowing knew about it. While it wasn't as if she could "feel" it as if it were happening in real time but like knowing it was happening and only sharing in the feeling if she really wanted. While he generally could hide it much better if it was just him on his own with his trusty friend Sir Lefthanderson, during sex his mental barriers came down and Taldeer had felt all of it.

Her screams had alerted mother and father and her very graphic description of what was going on calmed them down… and made them laugh.

John was not laughing, he wanted to fall into a hole and never leave.

Sure it had been 5 years ago now but he was not prepared to try that again. Not with the risks that came with it. Only if they were several million light years apart would John be willing to try that again.

Bad memories. Really bad memories. John shook himself, he was here at the Academy of Applied Physics due to his qualifications. Apparently his inability to be a bad person had marked him as having exceptionally strong willpower and as such a recruiter had selected him not a few weeks ago for this assignment. John had finished XCOM basic and headed straight over, nobody knew exactly what the AAP was… but there were rumours about the place. The kind of rumours that meant that either this place was the second coming of Christ or it was the height of bullshit.

Either way they had the ears of every leader in the Systems Alliance as well as the Eldar, and if the Eldar were paying attention then you damn well better be. John looked around, it looked as if they picked up pretty much everyone for this assignment. Men, women, old, young, fat, skinny, fit, etc etc. Pretty much every demographic that had the word "human" over it was ticked, except for maybe deceased. The hum dimmed a moment as the doors at the end of the atrium opened and in stepped what was clearly two of the HeMUs, their psionic signature being extremely distinctive.

If the HeMUs were involved… well it looked like things were going to be bullshit and batshit insane at the same time. Everyone knew that the HeMUs and the Caretakers as a whole merely took reality as a suggestion.

"Good day to your organics, I am HeMU 0432 of Conclave 32 of Bastion 0211 of the Mass Effect Assignment. I am pleased to meet you. You 34 organics may be asking yourselves 'why am I here', the answer to the question is that you all possess very abnormal amounts of willpower. This of course does not mean that you are fully qualified for what we plan to test you for and as such you will be required to sign these forms (indicating to her partner with his ridiculously sized briefcase), and consent to a mindwipe should you fail. This is highly classified and there will be no hesitation to wipe your minds entirely should you prove to be reticent. Any of you who do not consent please leave the room now." Speech over 0432 stood back and watched the gathered people as her partner handed out sheets of bio-coded paper to everyone in the room. There were of course no extra copies.

Nobody stood up to left, it was standard practise to mindwipe potential candidates especially on classified projects like this. After the papers were signed they stood up to follow 0432 as she led them out into the hallway and then a courtyard and then a large building before stopping at an elevator.

"This is your last chance to leave with your memories intact organics, from here until you leave it is all classified." 0432 said, waiting before the button was pressed. Again nobody left, if they succeeded and got themselves into whatever the project was, they could kiss any need to work goodbye.

0432 nodded and pressed the elevator call button and stepped back as the door opened. Inside were 34 HeMUs, each clad in Caretaker grade Power Armour, no doubt here to partner up and observe each candidate directly. They were also tasked with the job of disposing of candidates should they prove spies or mindwiping them if they proved to be incapable.

The candidates were herded into the elevator and it dropped down with alarming speed. Dropping a coin in the air would have seen it float, seemingly weightless, so high was the speed. John was used to this as part of his XCOM training but clearly a few of the others weren't, their faces pale and a few looking as if they were going to vomit.

How far they were going down was unknown, this was a space facility after all and they were enormous, each and every one of them. At least 50 kilometers cubed. That and the fact that the Caretakers had very good wormhole technology and could have simply passed them into another facility without them noticing, disorienting the possible spies. For all observers, John was still on the Senti Company for example, it would not do for them to find out too early about the rest of humanity.

As the elevators slowed, John walked out and he stared. He really stood there and just stared. They had exited out into a little hallway but beyond that… it was massive. At least a kilometer high and several dozen wide and long, a white room with enormous square tiles and bright fluorescent lights. A brief shiver ran up John's leg, he frowned.

He frowned deeper as the shiver turned into a vibration that turned into full blown shaking. The others could feel it too and their heads began to scan left and right trying to find the source of the shaking. To John however the feeling was eerily reminiscent of his time with mother on the warships. The vibrations as the Mutons walked past… only this was much much bigger. A new Mobile Suit perhaps? But why would they need people with willpower if it was just a Mobile Suit?

And then in the distance, a tiny speck came into view and grew ever larger. Ok… not a Mobile Suit, it moved far too organically to be that. It was soon apparent that it was also too damn big to be a Mobile Suit. It came to a stop before the group and it looked as if it were at least 100 meters tall. A lithe, almost skinny frame that looked incredibly organic and rather stretched out in comparison to the Mobile Suits that tended towards the more squat side of things.

"This is an EVA, you will be tested regarding your ability to successfully merge with an EVA unit, whether or not you are able to control the unit and whether or not you are able to resist subsumation by the unit. Only those with sufficient levels of willpower will be allowed to begin the first tests. Please follow me to begin."

John was in awe, they were going to be piloting those. Holy shit. This was beyond anything he had ever expected, something as big and sexy as those? Holy shit. Those were EVAs, the giant mechs that all had A.T. Fields and could destroy planets with nothing but sheer strength. Like seriously… they get to pilot one of those? Holy shit.

They were going to be trusted with obscene amounts of power and the tests following reflected that. They suffered mental torture, physical torture, emotional torture, question upon question and so much more. Taldeer would have popped in and dragged farther along as well but he had warned her about what would likely be happening. It took several days and by the end only John was left. The others had been failed, their bodies repaired and their mind's wiped.

There was only a single test left now.

John was allowed to sleep, what happened next would necessitate him being at his full capabilities during that time, they didn't want him to fall apart after all. It took John 29 hours of sleep before he woke again, ready for the final test that would see him become the pilot of an EVA. He was quite clearly a test pilot, to see if humans were capable of joining with EVAs at all and the Caretakers were… taking… every care that it would go as smoothly as possible.

HeMU 0432 which had been with them the entire time met with John as he left his room. She was silent as she led him through the barracks that he had become all too familiar with, collapsing here after each battery of tests after every day. The final path however was different, it was directly back the way they had come when they first arrived at the facility. Only instead of heading into the white room, they instead took an elevator which went up, left, forward and then up again.

When the cage unlocked itself and the doors opened, John saw nothing but an open hatch on what looked like a pill. It sat by itself in the room, inviting John to get in. With 0432's gesture John did exactly that. He walked over to the hatch and got in, the hatch itself closing directly after. From there came 0432's voice as she warned him not to fight the LCL that flooded the tube but instead breathe. It, after all contained enough oxygen to allow him to breathe it as if it were air.

From there the plug had been dropped through its moorings and into an EVA thought John. Maybe? What happened next definitely confirmed it. A consciousness touched the edge of his mind and John felt the EVA.

It was not the same as the HeMUs or the Minds or even the humans. It was an organic mind yet it was clearly artificial given the edges and protrusions that shouldn't be there in an organic mind. It was not aggressive or even defensive or anything… if it had to be described… it was rather apathetic. A passive recipient of any thoughts or stimulations that it experienced.

John was to attempt to merge with the EVA and if 0432 was correct, give it motivation. At first he had been confused but… well it was kind of obvious really why, the EVA just would not do anything of its own volition unless absolutely necessary. Even should it be attacked, if it reasoned that it could just wait it out with no consequences it would do so. It was a good thing though thought John, he could feel the power at the EVA's fingertips and it was so much more than merely ripping apart planets. The EVA could reshape reality to its will and it was only its apathy that prevented it from going berserk and rendering this part of the universe uninhabitable to all life and souls.

Still John persevered and tried as many ways as he could think of to try and connect with the EVA. It took a while but he finally did it by promising to stop nagging the EVA if it allowed him to connect. The resulting surge of information and sensation was almost more than John could handle, it took some acclimating, that was for sure. It also allowed John to feel a new connection in his soul, a direct line as it were to the Commander, a practical sea of apathy. The child takes after the parent joked John in his/their mind.

The EVA and John were one now, their thoughts were now singular and their bodies were one and the same. John disengaged the clamps that held the EVA in position and took a step forward, the EVA part of his mind merely correcting so he would not overstep. It was so… easy. Next came using their powers and again it was incredibly easy. They could so easily just use their combined A.T. Fields to do things like spontaneous flower showers or rain or sand or anything they wanted.

John and the EVA played and played and played before a communication from 0432 called him back. He didn't fully understand why but he did so and disconnected the Entry Plug from the EVA. The moment he did so however he did understand. It felt as if his emotions… as if his motivations had been stripped from him. Staying too long in the EVA or as he had named it "Handerson" could prove to be extraordinarily dangerous, not to his body but his immortal soul.

Absolute Power in exchange for your soul… now why did this sound familiar?