Chapter 10

Random Anon- Don't worry about the Chaos faction. Eventually, I plan to do things with them that may make them more interesting. Maybe.

Operkoi- No, I'm afraid you're wrong on that. According to the wiki, at least, it's the females that mine the crystals that are pivotal in their technology.

Asgardian warrior- Yeah, this may cause some dislikes from people, but I tend to write short chapters on occasion because I feel like anymore for certain chapters is too much, like the last chapter. So, some updates will have longer chapters and others have very shorts one. Can't promise a regular schedule for either as I just tend to write what I feel like is an appropriate length for a chapter.

3/30/21- Updated to include a bit more information.

Normandy

Few hours before arrival to the Citadel

"We're on our way to the Citadel, commander." Said Joker over the intercom as Shepard gathered his away team. "ETA is around an hour. Word of advice, though, commander. Don't go bringing the bug guy or bird guy that isn't Garrus. Don't want to tell the Tau that we lost two of their guys because we decided to bring them to the Citadel." Shepard rolled his eyes at that before responding.

"Duly noted, Joker." Said Shepard. He hadn't been planning on bringing either Xavur or Garuk to the Citadel in the first place. They'll just bring too much attention to them and that wasn't something that Shepard needed right now as both tasks that brought the Normandy here required a bit of subtlety.

Thane's son had started out as a hired gun and was at the Citadel for some easy kills. Thane didn't want the life of an assassin for his son, wanting him to be a better man than what his father became, so had asked Shepard to help him stop his son before he committed his first act of murder, to which Shepard agreed to immediately.

It also helped that Garrus' own request for Shepard was also on the Citadel. He found out that Sidonis was on the Citadel and used some forger on the Citadel called Fade to carve him out a new life on Citadel Space, complete with a new identity as well. As a result, Garrus asked Shepard to help him exact revenge on the man that betrayed him on Omega. So, with two objectives on the Citadel, it was an easy choice on where to go next.

To Shepard, it was a no-brainer on who to pick for those two missions. Both their Kroot, Geth, Vespid teammates will attract too much attention on the Citadel and attention was the last thing they needed for both Thane and Garrus. The same would go for Yurievich with his Tau equipment. A human wearing Tau equipment would draw way too much attention as well, perhaps even more than a Kroot and Vespid. So, he didn't bring any of the Enclave personal with him, something that they all agreed to, seeing the necessity in stealth in the missions at the moment.

In addition to them, he didn't bring Grunt or Jack into the Citadel, knowing both were not suitable for the tasks at hand. They were far too…loud for the lack of a better term and would give their positions away in a heartbeat just to hurt or kill something. So, with all those restrictions in hand, Shepard decided on which team members will be the most appropriate for the missions for both Garrus' traitor and Thane's son.

For starters, Thane and Garrus had to be apart of the away team. Garrus would be crossed with him if he never brought him along to get Sidonis and he needed to bring Thane with him when he confronted his son, Kolyat. Not only did he know his own son the best out of all of them, but he wanted to say some things to him. Things that he should have done a long time ago.

Apart from them, he was bringing along Tali and Kasumi, two of their best techs, in case they needed to hack into some terminals or systems on the Citadel in order to get to either Sidonis or Kolyat. He was also bringing in Samara and Miranda for some biotic support as well as Zaeed, a mercenary Cerberus hired to help him out, for some extra muscle. With all that done, all he had to do no was wait for the ship to dock on the Citadel so they can get this over with.

Once their business on the Citadel was over, he was going to deal with Jack's own problems. And then it'll be onto Samaras' and then whoever else needs some personal issues resolved so that they can move onto their main objective.

Now waiting for Joker to inform him that they've dock onto the Citadel, Shepard crossed his arms as he pondered on who to do first.

Meanwhile

Monun was currently tending to one of the pulse rifles given to Shepard's team, the human warrior named Jacob walked up to him, carrying a Tau pulse carbine.

"God to admit, I've never seen equipment like this in my entire life." Said Jacob before placing the weapon on the table in front of both of them. "Your weapons aren't compact like the mass accelerator weapons used by everyone else, but it makes up for it in punch. Scanned the thing with my omni-tool and the results befuddled me. This thing is a damn plasma gun. A real-life plasma gun. I didn't get a chance to see the codex entries about you guys, but I imagine it talks about your guns, don't they?" Monun just nodded.

"I imagine they do." Said Monun as he looked at Jacob Taylor. "Our pulse weapons are based on technology that our Earth caste developed centuries ago. It was this technology that allowed our people to advance our civilization to what it is now." Jacob Taylor nodded at that.

"If that's the case, then you're the envy of the Salarians and the whole scientific community for that." Said Jacob. "Plasma technology for military weapons technology was considered by every other galactic government to be infeasible on account of expenses and mass accelerators being far cheaper and more reliable. Course the Geth are known to use plasma tech for their weapons, but they're robots and they already had a head start on technology because of the Quarians. You guys made plasma technology on your own with no assistance from the Protheans."

"That is correct." Said Monun. "In fact, there were no Prothean ruins on my people's homeworld. And none still when we began colonizing other systems." Jacob gave a whistle at that. Nearly all of the spacefaring races in the galaxy currently had access to Prothean technology one way or another to help jumpstart their spacefaring technology before they found the nearest Mass Relay. Those that didn't have access to it were only noted in galactic history because of one of the older races uplifting them, such as the Krogan. To hear that the Tau not only accomplished reaching the spacefaring technological level without ready access to Prothean tech but also get impressive technology on their own that surpassed anything the human had seen further impressed him.

"You guys are one of a kind, you Tau." Said Jacob. "I'm guessing you uplifted the Vespid and Kroot as well? Brought them into your fold?" Monun nodded at that.

"Correct." Said Monun. "We found their homeworlds during our travels in space. We uplifted them, integrated them into our civilization and they've been productive members since."

"Although it was done through force for one of them." Thought Monun darkly as he recalled the rumors surrounding the Vespid's when they first joined the Tau Empire. How they readily accepted being integrated into the empire when the first of their kind were given communication helms. How devastated he was to learn they had actual merit to them and for it become another point to why the Farsight Enclaves needed to avoid being reintegrated with the larger Tau Empire led by the Etherals.

Jacob, hearing all that, then changed the subject, seeing no point in continuing the conversation.

"Well, if it isn't too much to ask, how did you get Yurievich into your enclaves?" Asked Jacob. "He's human and he's part of your enclaves. Didn't really see that coming."

"Yes." Said Monun, knowing the full fabricated backstory of Yurievich in case any of the Normandy crew asked him of why a fully grown human man was working for the Farsight Enclaves when they weren't supposed to. He also had Garuk and Xavur learn about it as well in case anyone tried to ask them, much to Garuk's displeasure. "I suppose it should be expected that you would wish to know about Yurievich and why he's working with my kind." After seeing Jacob nod, Monun continued. "Well, for some strange reason, a slaver ship was encroaching on Geth territory, specifically an area where the Geth and my people were patrolling together, an effort to strengthen ties with each other." Jacob nodded as he listened to all this. "Closer inspection of the ship revealed that it was damaged, likely from some last-ditch attempt of defiance by whoever they were attacking or they've attacked something that was more heavily defended than they anticipated and retreated upon suffering damage. Anyway, when we found the slaver ship, we disabled the ship and boarded. We killed the slavers when we realized what they were and freed their captives."

"And that's where you found Yurievich?" Asked Jacob. Monun nodded before continuing.

"Yes." Said Monun. "Unfortunately, he lost his parents to the slavers. I won't go into detail about what they did to them. It's not for the faint of heart." Jacob nodded in understanding. He knew the depths some slavers will go to with their slaves in order to break them. "It was only him and his little sister left. As a result, in order to give both him and her a life, a stable one, he begged us to take them in. To use him however we pleased so long as they gave them a roof and food to eat. The Tau in charge must have seen Yurievich's desperation and honesty, so he inducted him into our military. Yurievich went through gruesome training and constant checkups in order to see if he's a viable soldier for the Enclaves or if he's a spy from Cerberus or the Shadow Broker, but he took it all in stride, never questioning our attempts to gauge his loyalty. Perhaps he feared what will happen to his sister if we judged him unfit for duty in the military. Eventually, he was deemed an honorary member of the Farsight Enclaves and has been serving without issue ever since." Jacob nodded at all that before speaking.

"Quite a story." Said Jacob. "And I'm guessing he was chosen to help us because of him being human, right?"

"Correct." Said Monun. "Our leaders thought that Yurievich would help alleviate any sort of tensions between us, acting as a sort of middle ground between my people and commander Shepards'. Do not worry about his skill on the battlefield. He has been trained by some of our best instructors and has proven to be a capable soldier in all the simulations that he's been put through, both in team and solo exercises."

"Maybe." Said Jacob. "But simulations don't matter much in a real firefight. And they don't match what experiences can bring to a soldier." Monun nodded in agreement.

"Indeed." Said Monun, remembering all the Tau soldiers he saw lose their lives because they were not used to the real tragedies of war, losing their lives to more experienced warriors and soldiers. The most recent example being Mu'Gulath bay. It was only through sheer luck that Monun managed to get away from that battle alive and with all his limbs intact. The Imperium of Man was, if anything, a battle-hardened culture that produced strong, capable, soldiers. Sighing, Monun spoke up again.

"Anyway." Said Monun. "Is that all you wish to know about Mr. Yurievich?" Jacob nodded.

"That was." Said Jacob before bringing up his omni-tool. "Our shift is just about over. Want to get some food together?" Monun nodded at that.

"I would enjoy that." Said Monun before the two left to get some food. As they walked, Monun couldn't help but feel a bit guilty about lying to the human soldier that was Jacob Taylor. He seemed like an honorable, kind soul that didn't deserve to be lied to regarding the origins of his allies. But Monun had no choice. Farsight had forbidden any reveals about the true origins of the Tau until they deemed Shepard trustworthy enough for such information. And until then, they had to go with their fake backstories. Though it pleased Monun, somewhat, that the fake backstories held much truth to them. A good lie is one that has a part of the truth to it.

Yurievich did indeed come from slavers and his sister was real as well. And he indeed begged them to take them into their fold. And he was indeed a warrior that has proven to be loyal to the Farsight Enclaves. One that earned the respect of the eight during the battle of Mu'Gulath bay. The only lie was the involvement of the Geth as well as the omitting of who exactly the slavers were. He didn't think they needed to know that information anyway. Not when the likelihood of seeing them here was slim to none. At least he hoped so.

As the elevator took them down to the mess-hall, Monun wondered how long until Shepard was deemed worthy of their complete trust. Hopefully soon as he very much doubted any of Shepard's crew, Shepard himself included, will appreciate being lied to regarding the origins of the Tau. Even if some of the truth was sprinkled in with the lies they spoke.

Meanwhile

Unknown location

The time had come again. For them to, once again, begin the procedure of acquiring more specimens for the process of creating more Adeptus Astartes. While they had an ample supply of human specimens for that task, it never hurt to acquire more, especially with the stock they had at the moment.

Xyphas had recommended the Bahak system to the other leaders of the Warband, claiming that there was an ample human slave population there, working hard in the mines of the system's only habitable planet. He also told them that one of the individuals they selected to held their tomes was there and they were performing the rituals needed to summon them as they spoke. Thus, once again, they have to 'liberate' the slave population of the Bahak system.

This time, it was both the Iron Warriors and the Thousand Sons that will be participating in the endeavors in Bahak. The Thousand Sons because the one that was summoning them was one of their choosing. The little girl that Ahriman choose to bear the tome specifically. And the Iron Warriors were participating because Volmas was eager to be on the battlefield. To see if the new recruits of the Iron Warriors were worthy additions to the legion.

Around a hundred warriors, each were participating in this assault along with the appropriate vehicles necessary to transport the humans of Bahak to their ships and hold them in place until processing can be done on them. Also coming with them was a few hundred or so human soldiers that will provide the menial labor for them.

Much like the Chaos Marines themselves, it was common for human soldiers and citizens of the Imperium to turn traitors and ally themselves with the Chaos Gods. Some of them were little more than rambling hordes that are no threat to a Space Marine while others were professional soldiers that were considered adequate enough to support the Chaos Marines in their endeavors. There were also those that were born in the Eye of Terror or systems so embedded with the powers of Chaos that their inhabitants were devout followers of the Chaos Gods from birth.

As there were not enough Chaos Marines to perform the duties required to operate a ship, even one affected by the powers of Chaos, the Warband had an ample supply of human mortals to work their ships as well as provide support, aka meat shields, for the Chaos marines during their retrieval missions. A good percentage of them came with them when they began this operation while others came from this galaxy. Those that were deemed unfit to be Chaos marines but were still useful as human soldiers, were then given to their mortal followers to be beaten and trained into being followers of Chaos and soldiers worthy of fighting with the Astartes.

Looking at the assembled warriors, Ahriman spoke to Volmas, who was also staring at the warriors before them.

"Let us see if our new warriors are indeed worthy of their ascension." Said Ahriman as he looked at the relatively new Chaos marines. He can tell because of the relatively youthful souls contained within them. Ones that, though contained the hate and malicious expected from a Chaos marine, were not as old or experienced as those that fought in the Horus Heresy.

"Indeed." Agreed Volmas as he glared at the new Iron Warriors. "If they fail to meet standards, they will regret wasting the gene-seed used to ascend them." Ahriman just stayed silent, knowing what Volmas will do to those that fail to meet his standards. If there was anything that he can say about the warpsmith, it was that he was cold and calculating, even for an Iron Warrior, and will not give mercy to those that fail him, even if they failed because of reasonable causes.

Needing to get back on track, Ahriman began to conduct the rituals needed to link said rituals with those being conducted in the Bahak system. It didn't take long for him to link them and begin opening a portal to the Bahak system. Once the portal was open, Volmas led the Iron Warriors forward with the Thousand Sons close behind. Ahriman was the last to enter, but once he did, he felt a sense of foreboding come across his body. One that told him that something was terrible was going to happen soon and that he needed to prepare for it.

Wondering what such a thing would be, Ahriman nonetheless walked through the portal just as it closed to do battle with the Xenos on the other side.

Meanwhile

Bahak system

Aratoht

Commander Garek Rofgakk stood vigilant as he monitored the status of the mining camps of Aratoht. His loyal subordinates were hard at work at ensuring that nothing got past the security cameras placed throughout the mines and the surrounding camps that will disrupt the Hegemony's glorious efforts on stripping this world dry of it's minerals and making Aratoht a habitable place for all Batarian kind. And Rofgakk was proud to be apart of such an endeavor.

It took a few favors, but Rofgakk managed to be assigned to defending Aratoht from invasion, as well as ensuring, that it remains a productive member of the Batarian Hegemony.

Before Aratoht and the Bahak system became a system of the Batarian Hegemony, they had been claimed by the Human Systems Alliance for colonization. However, the cowardly humans backed away from colonizing the system, deeming the efforts to colonize the system for humans far too expensive on account of Aratoht's low oxygen and pressure levels, especially when there were far more viable worlds and systems in the Skyllian Verge. The Batarians, seeing a chance to prove the superiority of the Batarian race as well as one-upping their rivals, claimed the system for the Hegemony and began the grueling and costly task of terraforming the world for the Batarian people.

So far, they improved the planet's oxygen levels by a fraction of one percent, something the Hegemony parades around as a sign of their eventual success of terraforming Aratoht for their people as well as creating a valuable mining community that helps to fund the terraforming process of Aratoht, enough that slaves were now coming in to help alleviate the worker upkeep needed to continue mining operations at a low cost. And Rofgakk was tasked to ensure that the slaves don't do anything to interfere with the mining efforts.

To ensure that no one dares to disrupt the Hegemony's glorious efforts to make Aratoht a shining symbol of Batarian architect, Rofgakk had one in every batch of five slaves be randomly beaten every day. Not enough to severely cripple their ability to work, but enough to crush any thoughts of rebelling. He also had the slaves be separated to only groups of three and to have the groups constantly swap members on the hour to prevent any sort of communications efforts between slaves as well as constantly monitoring the slaves at all times, ensuring nothing gets past the Batarians. Rofgakk was not going to tolerate any slave uprising during his supervision of Aratoht's mines. He will not disappoint his family by failing such an essay assignment. Thus, he had the entire military garrison at a constant readiness in the unlikely case of invasion by Citadel races, mainly the humans, as well as, the even more unlikely case, a slave revolt. The entire Batarian military presence was ready to fight with just a word from him.

Not that it'll help them much with what was coming.

Running his shift with the same vigor and determination since he arrived to Aratoht, Rofgakk was manning his post at the command center of Aratoht's military garrison when one of his sensor operators in charge of monitoring the mines spoke up.

"Sir, we have a situation developing in one of the mines." Said the operator. Springing into action, he ordered the operator to explain.

"Are the slaves revolting?" Demanded Rofgakk, not caring how unlikely the situation of a slave revolt is with the security measures he placed to ensure such things never happen if a slave revolt was happening, it needed to be put down to prevent massive loss in profits for the Hegemony. The answer what he got confused him slightly.

"It's not the slaves, sir." Said the operator, causing Rofgakk to go towards his station. "It's some sort of black mist that just formed out of nowhere and it's spreading to the rest of the mines." Confused at this, Rofgakk looked at the man's monitors to see what was going on.

Black mist was indeed forming in mine three and was spreading to mines two and four. Within that black mist was blood-red smoke that drew the attention of both slaves and Batarian guards. Before any of them could do anything, a sudden blast occurred that blinded the security camera for a moment. When it refocused, Rofgakk was stunned.

Coming out of the black mist were massive warriors that surpassed Krogan in size and were obliterating anything that they saw with their massive weapons. With them were heavy vehicles and human-sized soldiers, who were also shooting down anything that they saw. Shaking off his shock at seeing all this, Rofgakk went into action.

"Get everyone down to the mines now!" Ordered Rofgakk. "I want every soldier down to the mines to deal with these beings! I want them all dead now!" As everyone scrambled to relay his orders to all military personal, both on duty on off duty, they failed to notice the door leading to the command center opening and out came Volmas himself.

With precision, he sent out his tendrils fitted with drills and claws at the Batarians just as one turned around to see him. As they impaled a few of the Batarians, the rest of the tendrils fired whatever weapons they had installed on the rest. Only Rofgakk managed to survive the onslaught through sheer instinct. Ducking behind cover as the onslaught happened, Rofgakk pulled out a heavy pistol, built for piercing through the armor of a Krogan, both natural and artificial. It took a big payment and a few favors in order to acquire it, but Rofgakk was going to see his investment pay off today by killing the ones responsible for this attack on the command center, who were likely also responsible for the strange occurrences happening in the mines.

Holding his pistol tight, Rofgakk rolled out of his cover, firing two shots at the, to his shock, the sole individual in the room beside him that was still alive. He looked exactly liked those giants he saw in the security cameras, only with mechanical tendrils on his back. Before he could even put this information at the back of his mind so he can continue fighting, the being's massive halberd being tossed with expert aim at his throat. Caught at said throat, Rofgakk was thrown towards the floor. Gurgling on blood, Rofgakk looked at the being as it walked towards him. Staring at him with monstrous optics, the being uncaringly grabbed the hilt of it's halberd before ruthlessly pulling up, slicing the Batarian's head in half before it crushed the halves with it's metal boot.

Volmas, after killing the sole remaining Batarian in the command center, went to the central console and began uploading the activation rites necessary to activate the scrape codes the Alpha Legion had implemented in the planet's defense network. Without a way to communicate with each other, the Xenos will be utterly helpless as they ravaged this world for whatever humans that were present on the planet as well what other riches they do wish to take.

Though some of his cousins and brothers considered only the humans viable for ascension to an Adeptus Astartes to be the only thing worth taking from this pitiful galaxy, Volmas saw them all worth taking. After all, he needed all the humans he can get in order to for his project to succeed where Honsous' failed. He also needed test subjects for his other, more mundane, but still vital works that can see him alleviated in status within the Iron Warriors and perhaps even be recognized by the Warmaster himself.

As he uploaded the activation rites, Volmas spotted something happening that caught his eyes. On one of the security cameras, Volmas spotted a black armored individual overlooking some of the Thousand Sons before disappearing in a blink of an eye, leaving a short, but bright, shower of blue and white particles in it's place. Upon seeing the individual, Volmas contacted Ahriman, telling him they may have uninvited guests. Before he could explain in detail, Volmas' instincts kicked in. Sidestepping out of the way, Volmas was greeted with the sight of several more of the black-armored individuals warping in around him, their red optical lenses glaring at him as they readied their blades and guns at him. Uncaring on being outnumbered, Volmas readied his blade and attacked.

Asteroid

In the asteroid base built by humans of the Project, there was nothing but dead bodies everywhere. One moment, everyone was handling their day-to-day assignments in the base and the next people started dying as gunfire came from all directions. If the first wave of gunfire hadn't killed them, then the next wave did.

In one section of the base, a lone human guard was trying to reach for a gun when a spear came down his head, killing him. The owner of the spear pulled it out, revealing themselves to be a female.

She wore an armored breastplate that hugged her upper figure well that came with armored gauntlets, back winglets, and a helm with runes etched on the forehead. They also came with a skirt and cape that were also etched with runes.

Swiping the blood off her spear, the female contacted the rest of her kind that were in the process of both purging this facility of the mon-keigh filth. She also contacted those present on the only habitable world in the system, to see if their targets were present on the planet. Otherwise, they wasted precious resources for nothing.

To her delight, both reported in no casualties from their people as well as the presence of their targets on the world, attempting to steal other mon-keigh for their own nefarious purposes. As a result, she ordered the continuation of their plans. With the deaths of two of the Warband's leaders, they'll hopefully be able to stop the disastrous future that she had foresaw.

With that, the woman swiftly left the area to begin the necessary procedures to hurl this rock into that artifact, that'll cause the destruction of this entire system, hopefully taking Ahzek Ahriman and the Iron Warrior leader with it.

Okay, since it's pretty obvious who was introduced at the end, the 3rd Warhammer race in this fic that'll play a significant role in this fic are the Eldar. So, to recap, the races/factions here are the Tau and their auxiliaries, Chaos, and the Eldar. That is it. Now hopefully, I won't muck this up so much because I added too many Warhammer factions into this fic.