A/N If only I owned this I wouldn't need to write fanfiction.
Hi everyone! Well, in continuing the amazing growth this story has seen, this story now has more favourites than my main story. Pretty impressive. Glad to see that you readers are enjoying it. I am now trying to go chapter for chapter with the other story. Updates are still a little slow as I am very busy with school but I will continue on as I make time for it.
I am looking for some good 'dad jokes' to put in the story later for a scene with King Kai. If anyone feels like putting a joke forward for a chance to have it published later on then please either put it in the reviews or just PM me. Keep it clean though. King Kai has always seemed to enjoy the lighter jokes. He isn't Master Roshi, after all.
Also I hope that none of you were caught up in the mass shooting in Vegas. Stay safe friends.
Comments:
.549, victor0606, guest, Chaszcz, m6102032 – thank you all.
Guest-Questioner – thank you. You definitely are trying to help me get the story right! I am going to with the Mass Effect timeline though. I am not as familiar with the DBZ timelines and don't want to mess it up. ME timeline is easier for me to understand.
Statess – all mastered, not chasing them down as I think that would be inconsistent with their normal behaviours. They tend to let people fleeing get away. Reviving will take place after first introductions. Going to wait and see whether or not the turians get revived too though. Don't want to spoil the story!
On with the story!
…
CHAPTER 5 - AFTERMATH
Valern stood in the private meeting chamber that was reserved for quiet meetings between himself and his fellow Councillors, reading the last updates of the STG team that had provided him. It was troubling. The numbers that the turians had quietly mobilising was something that had not been seen since the Turian-Batarian War. The batarians had been lucky to come out of that relatively unscathed, other than the massive loss of life, resources and ships. It was probably luck that the turians were dextro-forms instead of levo-forms. Otherwise they might have demanded to keep the world that they had taken.
Now, in absence of any known conflict, other than whatever was going on beyond relay 314, the turians were marshalling their reserve fleets.
The door hissed open and Councillor Tevos entered, walking with a dignified air about her. He had little patience for the asari, despite the long running positive relations that their two species shared. Salarians were beings that had short lives and as a result tended to get things done quickly. Debates took hours at the most until whoever the leader was in charge of it decided who had the best argument. After that, action was taken and results were achieved. But the asari, no. Debates took months or years. The winner was decided, not due to merit but according to whatever political play was going on in the background.
The other races spoke often that salarians worked in the dark towards their own end. He couldn't completely deny that. But at least they worked towards something. At least the asari were generally against open conflict, though that had also backfired historically. The Krogan Rebellions being just an example.
Turians were better and worse at the same time. So focussed on who had the bigger gun, they tended to almost be completely devoid of subtlety. As a result they often came across as brutish and abrasive. Schemers were those that looked for promotion through manipulation of events that allowed them to show their combat might for whatever end. It was going to lead them to a conflict one day that would easily be preventable. Maybe they were there now.
"Valern," Tevos greeted smoothly, her face not giving anything away behind that smooth mask of calm politeness. "Sparatus is only a few moments away."
Valern nodded. "Thank you Tevos." He went back to reading the report in front of him and ignored the asari. He wasn't trying to intentionally be rude but there was a lot of detail. Besides, having Tevos be even slightly annoyed behind that mask wasn't a bad thing from time to time. Besides, if things were going the way he expected then it was likely that he was going to be seeing his asari counterpart really losing her polite indifference.
A minute later the door hissed open again and Sparatus entered. Valern watched him closely as he made his way to the table. There was something off about him. He looked like he was trying to keep casual but it was a little forced. Valern had a feeling that the turian knew why this meeting had been called. Now he would see how honest the turian was.
"Valern, Tevos," Sparatus, nodded to them as he reached the table and sat down. "Seeing as we are all here, shall we start? I have a few important things that I need to attend to.
I bet you do, Valern thought to himself. He tapped out a few things on his omni-tool and sent a file to each of them.
"Very well," he said. "As of forty eight minutes ago I received reports from STG operatives that large elements of the turian fleet had gone to little explored regions of space. The reason it was brought to my attention was because the only thing that might have been of interest there was an inactive relay, number 314. What was concerning was that not only did an entire fleet of more than three hundred and fifty ships go to this area of space, including two dreadnoughts, but a separate dreadnought task force followed them only two hours later." He looked up at his fellow councillors. "Anything to add, Councillor Sparatus?"
The turians mandibles were clenched tightly against his face as he stared back at Valern. "No, just some military exercises," he said, his light tone in direct contrast to his facial cues.
Tevos looked back and forth between them, her face starting to lose its neutrality and beginning to look a little suspicious.
"Indeed?" Valern continued. "That was the same thing that Primarch Fedorian said when he was asked." He flicked over another report to their omni-tools and they began to read as he continued. "So imagine the surprise of our ST agents when they entered the system and discovered that relay 314 was no inactive, and that the fleet was missing. The only ships in sight were a standard rear guard of two cruisers and a frigate pack."
Sparatus's whole body went rigid for a moment before appearing to wilt in his chair. "It's not what it looks like," he said, his voice already protesting.
"What it looks like is that the Hierarchy fleet illegally opened a relay and is investigating the other side," Tevos spoke up, her tone acidic.
"No, the Hierarchy didn't activate the relay," Sparatus said, his voice turning stiff. "It was activated from the other side.
Valern's mind flew with the possible ramifications of that statement. Tevos visibly stiffened. "A new race," she said, her tone low but starting to build. Just like Valern knew it would. "A new race activated the relay and your first response was to send a full fleet in! And a task force after it!"
"We were complying with the law against activating relays," Sparatus bit back. "The law clearly states…"
"That law is only in force for those who are part of the Citadel Council races, as you well know," Valern interrupted sharply. Things were going from bad to worse. "In any event, the law also states that you are to inform both the councillor for the Salarian Union and the Asari Republics in the event of discovering a newly activated relay, which you did not. In fact, your primarch lied directly to my face about it when asked." There was only one reason that they wouldn't, now that Valern knew the truth. They were looking for a new client race before the rest of the Council could intervene. "Instead, you have launched an invasion on a new race's sovereign territory."
"By the Goddess Sparatus," Tevos exclaimed angrily. "Do you deliberately seek to alienate the Hierarchy from your allies here on the Council, or do you think we are merely stupid?"
"Neither," Sparatus barked back. "I only found out what had happened after the general in charge had already begun his operation. And the reason that I found out was because the request for Admiral Tyraenus's task force to reinforce the fleet came to my office twenty minutes after he had cleared the relay. I was giving time for the Hierarchy to clear up the mess."
"You mean you were intending to delay informing us until you had a new client race," Valern challenged him. "Enough of your excuses. What intelligence do you have on them?"
Sparatus growled audibly for a long moment before he stopped and composed himself. Tevos was glaring at him openly.
"We don't know much about them," Sparatus said, ignoring the glare Tevos was sending them. "From the image that was sent with the first transmission, the aliens appear to be similar in appearance to the asari, except for fur on the eyebrows and the top of their head. They also appear to be a pinkish white colour." He fiddled with his omni-tool for a moment and a ping sounded on Valern-and-Tevos's omni-tools.
Valern looked at the image that was sent. The similarity was uncanny.
"We found their world to be defended by a fleet of thirty vessels, none larger than a heavy cruiser," Sparatus continued. "The general in charge felt threatened and opened fire."
"A full turian fleet felt threatened by thirty alien ships?" Tevos sounded sarcastic. Long gone was the calm demeanour she had displayed when she entered. "Oh yes, that sounds like the perfect excuse to start a war with this new species."
Sparatus actually flinched. "I know, as I said, this was the information passed to me after the fact. And it turns out that the alien force was formidable. Those thirty ships managed to destroy half the fleet."
A shocked silence fell around the chamber. Tevos stared at Sparatus with her mouth open.
"Thirty alien vessels destroyed more than a hundred and fifty turian vessels?" Valern asked, taking notes. "How?"
Sparatus shook his head. "No idea. The reports suggested that they used gravity as a weapon, far more than any eezo weapon could have done."
"Fascinating."
Tevos finally snapped out of her stupor. "Fascinating?" she asked incredulously. "The Hierarchy sent a fleet to subjugate a new alien race and lost half of it and you find it fascinating?"
"I apologise," Valern said, his tone placating. "I don't mean the death, only the science behind using gravity. My old interest of technology got the better of me."
She paused a moment then nodded. "Anything else?" she asked Sparatus, her tone now weary.
The turian took a deep breath in. "They sent two messages to our dreadnoughts; once at the beginning and once near the end. The transmissions appeared to be in several languages that we didn't understand, except one. Prothean."
Unlike the earlier bombshell that had made Tevos speechless, this one had the opposite effect. She completely fired up. It was a side that most people never saw of the usually placid councillor. Valern had only seen it once himself and it was after she had met with the batarian ambassador.
"Prothean!" she screamed. "You are attacking the protheans! Did that ever occur to your people or was the commander just too stupid to realise what it might mean?"
"It wasn't a prothean!" Sparatus shouted her down. "Rest assured we checked in the aftermath but the physical profile matched nothing like the very few records and images we have. The only thing that we know for sure though was that they were able to translate their language into prothean. All that means is that they had access to a prothean site of some kind."
They yelled back and forth for a moment and Valern watched, feeling slightly entertained. This sort of confrontation was so rare that it was amusing when it happened. However he knew he had to step in.
"Were you able to translate the message?" he asked, which shut Tevos up immediately.
Sparatus took a moment to breathe deeply and calm himself down. "Yes, or at least we think so. Here." A ping later and Valern had the message up.
He frowned. Not good. Very not good.
"Your people have set us on a course of war," Tevos growled, looking up from her own omni-tool. "You will order your military to stand down and return from this new race's territory and a diplomatic team will be sent today. If we are lucky and they are considerate, then maybe we can prevent further devastation."
A chime of a call sounded on Valern omni-tool, marked urgent, level 1. That was a crisis level. He opened it up immediately and sent it to the large hologram on the table.
"This is Valern."
A salarian in black C-SEC gear nodded. "Apologies for interrupting, Councillor Valern. We have a priority message from a Captain Daryxus of the HSV Fist of the Hierarchy incoming for the Council."
Valern frowned. That was the second dreadnought from the fleet that had gone through relay 314. "Patch it through. I have the other councillors with me."
A moment later and the turian captain came into view on the hologram. "Captain Daryxus," Sparatus said as a greeting. A rather unfriendly greeting if Valern was any judge.
"Councillors," the captain replied, bowing respectfully. Valern frowned. The man looked like he had been directly involved in the fight. His uniform was slightly scorched and there was a bandage patch on one mandible.
"You have news?" Valern asked.
The military man visibly flinched. "I do," he replied in a very subdued tone. "I have already informed Primarch Fedorian but I felt that I had a duty to inform the Council. General Desolas Arterius, Admiral Tyraenus and all other ships that went through relay 314 are dead."
Valern's heart froze momentarily, matching the expression on Tevos's face. Sparatus merely looked confused, the fool.
"Dead?" Sparatus asked dumbly. "What happened?"
The captain looked uncomfortably at both Tevos and Valern and hesitated. "We already know about the mission through the relay," Valern said. "We know about the aliens you encountered. Tell us what happened."
Captain Daryxus straightened, his expression clearing up. "I don't rightly know, Councillors," he said. "One moment we had destroyed all enemy vessels over the planet and had set up our blockade. The next moment there was several bursts of energy and a few frigates and cruisers were destroyed. A moment later and we were being ordered to bombard the planet by General Arterius…"
"Orbital strikes from your ships against a garden world," Tevos nearly shrieked. "That is a blatant violation of Citadel law! Tell me that the order wasn't followed, Captain Daryxus!"
The turian winced, giving Valern all the answer he needed. "My ship did not," he said, clearly trying to mitigate his own role. "Our main cannon had been damaged in the initial battle and we were at the rear of the formation attempting to begin repairs. But most of the rest…"
"Spirits," Sparatus breathed. "How bad was the damage?"
"There was no damage."
It took a second for that statement to sink in to the other councillors. "What do you mean 'no damage'?" Valern asked.
"I mean that nearly every ship was firing their MAC cannons at the planet but there were nearly no impacts on the ground. Like the rounds were going through a hologram."
Definitely not a hologram, Valern thought to himself. Shielding? Portal technology? Some other technology from protheans? Need more!
"Only a few seconds after the order to fire had been giving, something else attacked the fleet," the captain continued, interrupting Valern's thoughts. "It was some sort of energy from a miniscule ship that moved far too fast compared anything that our technology is capable of replicating. We never saw what it was but we do know that we never detected any element zero from it."
Another shock went through the room. Valern's mind whirled with thoughts. No eezo? Current technological understanding would have said impossible. Advanced knowledge of prothean language, alien civilisation, may have found a way.
"The only ships that escaped are the eight that came with me and the twenty that were guarding the relay," the captain finished.
"Do you have data or footage of this weapon?" Valern asked. This was vital.
"One moment." The turian gestured to someone out of range of the receiver. A moment later a data package was received and he opened it up and played the video. A bright blue blur that fired off some form of energy and was able to completely fly through the entire fleet at a velocity that no known vessel could match, short of flying at lightspeed. It took less than two minutes before every ship, save the eight that had left and were making for the relay, was destroyed.
"Goddess," Tevos groaned, her purple face in her hands. "What have you turians got us into?" She looked up, her expression pained and her face paler than usual. "This is an enemy we cannot defeat."
"Of course we can," Sparatus predictably objected. "We have the might of an entire galaxy behind us! Surely we would be able to…"
"Silence Sparatus!" Valern barked, feeling his patience level for the warmonger waning. "We don't know anything yet about this race. We need more information before we can decide on a course of action!"
"What we are going to do," Tevos interrupted furiously, "is send a diplomatic party today! It may be the only way now to prevent a war. A war that we clearly don't know if we can win. I will be sending Ambassador Irissa as soon as this meeting is over."
Sparatus grumbled softly to himself as he sat back in his chair but he didn't speak up.
"Captain, you will maintain a watch over the relay," Valern spoke up in the silence to the turian who had been watching awkwardly. "If any ships head through before our ambassador arrives then contact us immediately and hail them. Diplomacy first."
"Uh, yes Councillor Valern," the turian responded uncertainly.
"Good. We will relieve you when able." He cut the line.
…
Gohan looked around the city, seeing the clean-up had already begun. Half the people were looking at him suspiciously, the other half looked like they were about to worship him. He sighed to himself. He had seen a little of this during his brief time as the Great Saiyaman. Nobody challenged them though, so that had to count for something.
Their existence was out now. No going back. They had protected the people, fought against the aliens. Now it was up to see if his dad and Vegeta could do their part.
Speaking of which, he closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. Dad, you there?
Hey Gohan! How did it go?
We saved the colony. I tried to stop the aliens without killing them. Tried to let them surrender but they refused. They tried to shoot the planet from orbit but Garlack, Andur, Kori and I were able to stop any of their shots hitting the people but there was some damage to the areas outside of it. There are prisoners though.
Oh man, I hate it when they don't surrender. Hang on, I am going to get that Atkinson woman. There was a moment of weird expansion as a new consciousness was added to the conversation. Colonel, you there?
Who is this?! Get out of my head!
Whoa! Take it easy! It's just me, Goku and my son, Gohan. Just letting you know what happened in Shanxi.
Oh. Even in her mind she sounded both suspicious and hopeful. Go on then.
Gohan took over. We defeated the aliens. Their ships were firing at the planet so we had to destroy them. We managed to stop anything hitting near the city but there were a few shots that did some damage to the outer forests. He hesitated slightly. There were a lot of people that were killed before we got here. They are still clearing out the buildings that got destroyed, looking for survivors.
I see, the colonel replied, her mind tinged with sadness. At least you were able to get there before any worse damage had been done. Were there any surviving aliens?
Yes, Gohan replied. A person that calls himself General Williams is taking care of them with his soldiers.
Good. Our fleet will be there within the next day or so. Could I impose on you to stick around there until they arrive, just in case there are any more aliens that come attacking?
Sure I can do that, Gohan replied. Something else came to mind. Hey, just give me a second to speak with my dad, Colonel. We will be right back with you.
Goku cut the connection to Colonel Atkinson off, his mind curious. What's up Gohan?
Are we going to use the dragon balls to bring the humans here back to life?
That's the plan, Goku confirmed. Why, what's the problem?
Maybe just wait until we see if there are any more of the aliens. We don't want to use them now only to need them later if more aliens come for a fight.
Good idea. I will let Dende know. But if we are waiting then it will be better to wait until we are about to use them to tell the military lady about them. Don't want to do things too early.
Great, I will let Andur, Garlack and Kori know that we will be here for a few days. Just let me know if things change and we will tell you too.
They cut their connection and Gohan opened his eyes to see General Williams walking towards him, three bodyguards in tow. He looked about middle age but had a fierce personality. He hadn't really spoken too much to the saiyans though.
"General," he greeted casually, nodding his head at the man.
The general glared at him for a moment. "So what are you?" he demanded. "You clearly aren't human, no matter how much you look like one."
Gohan felt his annoyance rise. "Well, I am half human and half saiyan. I was born on Earth but our people are mostly on the planet New Namek. The other three are all full saiyans that were born on New Namek. We are being given a new planet for helping save your lives here."
"A whole planet for saving a few lives?" the man grunted. "Well, I guess I should thank you for saving us in any event."
"You're welcome," Gohan replied, keeping his voice respectful.
The general looked around at the clean-up still in progress. "So what are you and your people doing now?"
"Your Colonel Atkinson has asked us to stay here until your fleet arrives, just in case the aliens send reinforcements."
"Right. Well if you could help keeping the alien prisoners secure until the fleet gets here that would be appreciated. We don't have any way to communicate to them in the meantime so I figure it would be enough to wait until we know what Alliance Intelligence says about it."
Gohan frowned at him. "I can talk to them," he said. "I did to the one in command of the alien ships just fine. Well, not talk but I used telepathy."
The human eyed him. "You fly, shoot lasers blasts from your hands, appear out of nowhere in an instant and use telepathy. Are you gods or something?"
Gohan chuckled. "Pretty close, though that is a talk for another day."
The general grunted. "Well, if you can help then I will take what I can get. I am not in a position to turn down free help. My soldiers can watch the prisoners if your men could continue helping with the clean-up." His lips compressed a little as he raised an eyebrow at Gohan. "Seeing as you are the only ones that lift the broken tanks in a hurry we could use the assistance. I'll come with you to interrogate the prisoners. Come on, let's see if we can find us an officer to deal with."
He turned and led the way, Gohan falling into step behind him.
…
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