So... I forgot to add my review response on to the last chapter - sorry! I had a total brain fart there.
Also correction to the last chapter, I had the Praetorian as an SSV vessel, whereas in every other chapter human space assets are under the command of the UNSC. I'll be going back to fix that this week hopefully. I've also realised Irissia is the councillor who replaces Tevos, but I've kept that error up for too long for me to change it now.
RR
Kira-117: Being able to build all that stuff in quick time is great - if you have the resources. I'm going to take this down the line of capability, but lack the resource type of thing. Right now, in this story, if the Citadel sent their Containment fleet through, Humanity would be in for a wold of pain.
Darkcush: Humanity is a small fish in a big pond, they are going to need allies, and what you suggest will be one way for it.
Prodigy of War: Cheers!
IHateGenericCereal: Thanks! I have to say, it takes me far longer than I care to admit to think of things for them to misread. I want small things we would know easily enough, but big enough at the same time to cause problems.
Greatazuredragon: Thanks!
CReaper210: First of all, thanks for all your reviews in the last month or so! For the number of hours we can sit down and type this stuff out its nice to get people reviewing the old chapters. By the HFY! you were right, I had a military thinking mindset - this humanity would get curbstomped if the Citadel wanted to go to war, but I was also thinking when I get to it, in the economic and resource terms. Humanity will be competing with organisations that span across the galaxy from a single solar system - if the citadel get out done by this Humanity its either cos I'm playing them up too much, or because they are incompetent. I've tried to make the Citadel affiliated a competent force.
Tela Vasair sits down on a royal purple sofa in a single elegant motion before crossing her right leg over the left and sliding down the chair, giving her a seductive pose. To Tela's side stands Urdnot Wrex in his scratched, battle-tested armour, his beady red eyes are scanning the room, taking in its every detail. "Master shall be along shortly." A slave Batarian informs, "Would you like refreshments in the meantime?"
Wrex is the first to respond. "Ryncol," Is his single worded request. Tela opts for a more delicate water - drinking on the job is unprofessional.
By the time the 'Master' comes, Wrex has been served two servings of Ryncol, and Tela has become most bored, the Batarian has used a common Hegemony tactic on her of making her wait for him. As he approaches the sofa, Tela does not stand as is expected, if the Master wants to play games by making her wait, then she too can play her games. "Your late." She says with an obvious lack of interest expressed in her tone; she offers no form of greeting - an insult in Batarian culture. "And that's close enough, I can smell you from here."
The Master shows no reaction to not being greeted or her initial statement, and instead brushes it off to say, "The Council will always come second to his Hegemony, Spectre." Silently Vasir is impressed she did not receive a bite to any of her previous comments.
"Well," Tela says as she moves to stand from the sofa, "You have wasted enough of my time. Let us get this transaction over with."
"Yes, I suppose we should," The Master replies before looking to Wrex, "Your creature for sale? For a Krogan he is unusually large."
Tela hears an audible rumble from the Krogan to her side before hearing his loud footsteps as he takes a few strides forward and towards the Batarian, "Do I look for sale?" He asks pointedly, his red beady eyes looking into the Batarians own - even Tela silently admits to herself that she would squirm under such observation.
Unsurprisingly the Master quickly back steps from the Krogan and says, "This way," To Tela. "Leave your brute here."
As Wrex grumbles something along the lines of 'thought not' Tela falls into step with the Batarian. "So," Tela asks, "Is there anything I need to know about it?"
"Other than the fact we have no means to talk with it, and Asari can't meld with it; no." The Master says before leading Tela through a thick wooden door and into a small living area with numerous beds set up. "There it is." The Master then says while gesturing to a Human laying lazily on a bed.
Tela has seen the first contact report released by the Council, and the more secret reports, so she knows that this creature is actually a Human and not some dim-witted prank by the Hegemony. What does surprise her is despite knowing what they look like, the pictures and videos do not do the species justice; they look even more like Asari in person. Looking around the room, Tela also notices another occupant, a one she will be back for later, a one related to Aria T'loak. Tela could not believe her luck when her Council tasking had her going to the exact same place as her job for Aria.
/.../
AEV Destiny Ascension.
In the small-time they had before the Humans arrived, it was argued what type of affair this event should be. Some corners of the First Contact team argued that this should be a grand affair, with all the bells and whistles, but others argued that it should be a small but formal event. Eventually, it was decided that the affair would be a small one, in order to replicate what the Humans had done for themselves, that way, it would not look like they were trying to outshine the Humans. At this point in the negotiations, everything needs to be done in a way that makes the Humans feel comfortable, all to increase the chances of positive relations. Yes, making the new species feel 'comfy' may be a costly manner of doing things, but the riches that come after far outweigh negative relationships. Once an initial peace deal is signed, and some positive relations are made, then and only then would one think about trying to show off.
Waiting for the Humans to disembark from their shuttle are four representatives of the Council species, so a Turian, an Asari, a Batarian and a Salarian, along with a few other officials such as the Captain of the Destiny Ascension and Matriarch Benezzia whose role is to assist with translations. Of all those gathered, only the Turian and Asari representatives are actually trained in First Contact protocols. The Salarian representative is actually a diplomat whose most exceptional work includes negotiating trade deals with the reclusive Quarian Fleet, and the Batarian is the admiral of their fleet. This is because Salarians live short lives meaning that the chances of experiencing a First Contact in one's life are slim, so a 'calculating' Salarian would not waste their short lives in training for something highly unlikely to happen to them, and as far as Tevos is aware, Batarians do not hassle with 'First Contact', preferring to leave that to the Council - when not in their space. The true reason the Batarian is in attendance is that his fleet is currently with the rest of the Council fleet, and due to their proximity to Human space, it would be prudent to include them. Truthfully, including the Batarians' is more for Humanity's own protection than to make Citadel diplomacy easier with the Hegemony. The only other addition is the Ascensions Media officer whose job it is to record the event, they have no role interacting with the Humans.
Of those gathered, Tevos stands to the back, preferring to let the professionals handle the situation, but she also wishes to be close enough to witness the event first hand. After all, first contacts are usually historical events, and the Councillor has no doubt this will not be a moment for the history books. The news cameras are already rolling, and the Humans are yet to step out of their craft.
After a small period in wait, a ramp at the rear of the Human shuttle lowers with a mechanical whine to make contact with the floor of the hanger, and just as the ramp touches the floor a familiar Human with green hair begins to walk down the ramp. Fortunately, the Human is not in armour, carrying weapons, or walking with a demeanour that could cause concern, instead, the Human is dressed in plain clothes and walking with a little caution as they look around their new alien surroundings. Tevos recognises the Human immediately, the alien is the one responsible for rescuing the Avians crew and providing security on the tour of their homeworld. It is worrying that Humanity would send their soldiers for the negotiations, but it is also curious as to why this soldier is not wearing her armour; unless she is not here in an official capacity.
After a small-time period a second, then third, and finally forth person follows the green-haired Marine down the ramp. All the Humans look different from one another, they do not wear the same clothes, they don't have the same hairstyle, skin colour, facial features, no, they are truly diverse from one another - maybe by design. To the contrary, all Asari are almost indistinguishable except from slight skin tone variation, all Turians are at least the same height and the same metallic colour and all Salarians at least have the same skin tone, along with their trademark black eyes.
The initial greeting seemed to go well from Tevos's perspective, with the green-haired soldier leading, there was an initial bow of the head towards the Asari, but a more unsure shake of the hands with the Turians and Salarians, with the Batarians they seemed even more uncertain, maybe even cautious. Why they are careful of the Batarians Tevos is unsure, so far the Humans have not shown too much caution for anything they have done in person. Eventually, it comes evidently to Tevos that the Humans have obviously gone over any recordings they have made, and have realised that Asari typically bows their heads in greetings. In contrast, Turians only have verbal greetings, and Tevos would come to learn later that the Humans had tried to say these, but their vocal cords are physically unable to make the notes required, much like her own species. Salarians are able to greet one another by flushing the skin on their faces with a chemical that creates a small glow outside the Asari visible spectrum. Tevos doubts the Humans are even aware of this; it took the Asari an embarrassingly long time before someone realised. The longest part of the entire initial introductions was the Salarian announcing his complete name and the Humans trying to repeat it. After all, any given Salarian will have six names, the 'first' name is their homeworld, followed by nation, then the city, trailed by district, then clan name, and last of all, is their given name. This particular Salarians name is Rannadril Ghan Swa Fulsoom Karaten Narr Eadi Bel Anura.
After the initial greetings pass, it comes apparent that the Marine is only in attendance to provide a known and friendly face and is only here to try and make the initial disembarkment from the shuttle to go a little bit smoother. It also comes clear that while the Citadel Fist Contact team were expecting ten Humans, this was a mistranslation, and only five are in attendance, the Marine, the three diplomats, and an unseen pilot who is still onboard their shuttle. This mistranslation silently raises the question if the interpretation team is up to the task of negotiating a peace deal, but this will have to be seen.
Realising that the Marine will be returning to their shuttle, having no part to play once past the initial greeting, an idea was quickly posed by the Captain of the Ascension; while the diplomats do their thing, why not give the two other humans a tour of her vessel? After all the Humans had openly invited them to their home, so it would be rude not to return the favour, even if she could only offer the Destiny Ascension at this moment in time.
The flouted idea caused a conversation among the Humans in their native tongue, most likely so her people would not understand. Eventually, it was settled that only the Marine would attend this tour - their pilot is to remain on the shuttle for 'opsec' reasons. Tevos may not be military, but she understands the intent of this, they are leaving a person behind on their shuttle to stop any unwanted visitors from sneaking on board when no one is there and having a good snoop around.
When the diplomats leave the hanger bay to go into what will most likely be long-drawn and dry discussions with one another, Tevos, the Captain of the Ascension and the Marine are left behind and to their own devices for the tour. While one might expect more security due to a Councillor being in attendance, the fact the Marine is known to Tevos, and both herself and the ship's Captain are powerful biotics, it's decided that no more security is needed. Had the Marine been armed, or had the Aliens shown less desire to get to know the Council species when in their home system, then the likelihood would be that some security would have been provided, or Tevos would not participate.
When the Human realises who is to be her guides, she turns to Tevos with a slight frown, "Prothean?" She asks.
Tevos points to her omni-tool as she replies in her own native tongue, "In a fashion." A small implant resting on her audible nerve provides her with a real-time translation, and her omni-tool translates her native language into Prothean. This was not previously available on Earth as the software required to make the translation was not available.
"And yourself?" The Human asks the Captain.
"Much alike." The Captain replies, which makes the Human look a little relieved, probably because it's going to have someone to talk to. "My name is Irissia, and this is Tevos." The Captain gestures to Tevos, "If I am correct, you were with the ground team and rescued the Avians crew?"
The Human waits for the omni-tool to complete Irissia's translation before asking, "Your Prothean difficult, say again?" Irissia does as asked, allowing the Human to say, "Correct. Name is Shepard." The Human holds her hand out, resulting in Tevos and Irissia shaking her hand in turn. "So, where to?"
Usually, a tour of the Destiny Ascension would start at the docking port, where a small room is set aside to explain the origins of the ship, and why such a ship was dreamed of by Matriarch E'Lenor, but Captain Irissia feels like such an explanation is not needed. The Human does not need to know of two galactic wars, an AI uprising and the Councils general fear of the unknown - yet. Instead, Irissia asks the question, "Where would you like to start? We have the engine room, the..."
The Human cuts Irissa off, in a polite way, to ask, "Show me you." The request at first causes some initial confusion, but it's quickly realised what the Humans intent is; she wants to see the Asari. The aliens request at first seems simple, but thinking on it, how does one show the 'Asari' on a warship that is not the embodiment of the Asari themselves? Would Humanity claim they could show their own species off on a warship? Irissia doubts it, but she is not afraid to shy away from the challenge.
"Then we start on deck 19."
Deck 19 is the 'amusements' deck, for those on the vessel with a day off, it contains restaurants, gyms, entertainment halls, and numerous other means to keep the 10,000 strong crew busy on their down days. Arguably, the deck is one of the most important as it keeps morale high and Asari sane on long missions.
The first 'challenge' was passing through security, where the Human managed to set off some alarms, how, Tevos is not initially sure of, the Human was just walking, and she had nothing on her except herself and her clothes. With a wave of the Captain's wrist to head of security, the warnings are silenced, and the tour continues, but Tevos makes a note to investigate why the alarm went off. Getting to deck 19 itself was not too difficult, it required a short walk along some half busy corridors to an external elevator and then a ride 21 decks up. As the elevator slowly makes its way to the top floor the Human perks up, saying, "So, you're the Captain of this vessel, but I'm not sure who you are." Once more a few words need to be clarified for a full understanding of the Humans Prothean. Before either Tevos or Irissia can respond and deflect the question to hide the Councillors true identity, the Human continues to speak, "Your people surprised to see you, as much as myself."
Irissia starts to reply, but a look from Tevos stops her, allowing the Councillor to say, "When we first met, you said something to me, what did you say?"
The Human gives a rather Asari like frown, before saying, "leader."
Tevos quickly blinks her eyes, "I am a representative of my people on a Council. How did you know back then?"
"A job role I have is to protect important people," The Human confesses, "The spikey guys, the Turians? they give you away." The reply Tevos gets is broken, but she understands the gist of the message.
"And what is your job?" The Captain inquires.
"I am a soldier." The green-haired Human admits as she takes to looking out a window in the elevator. The elevators window allows the Human to look outside of the Destiny Ascension, and onto the rest of the fleet that is hovering in nearby space.
"Then how do you know Prothean?" Tevos asks. The Councillor knows if she asks in the right way, she may gain some insight into how much technology the Humans have from the Protheans.
The Human turns from looking out the window of the elevator to tap her head, the first word she says Tevos takes to mean computer, the second word, however, is unknown to Tevos's translator. Eventually, after some back and forth, it is settled that the Human is saying a 'head computer.' The Councillor takes this to mean that she, much like herself, has a chip in her head that allows her to translate, but from the sounds of things, unlike her own, it will enable the Human to speak Prothean real-time, making it far more advanced than Tevos's translation tech.
Feeling necky, Tevos asks, "How did your people learn Prothean?"
The Human has an initial hesitant look as if they are debating about telling or not, but after some seconds to contemplate she says, "Talking word book. You?" This does not really confirm much to Tevos, the Humans have had to have come across a beacon of some sort to know the language; what she really wants to know is just what type of beacon they came across. The problem is, Tevos does not feel like she will get that answer - yet. The Human in front of her is military, and military people are usually trained to keep their tongues tight on security matters; to this Human this type of information is probably 'security' enough to stay quiet - if she even knows.
"Similar," Tevos eventually responds while knowing full well that there is a large Prothean data cache hidden away in a temple on Thessia. The Human seems to shrug her shoulders like this was no big deal, allowing her to go back to looking out the window as the elevator slowly makes its way to the 19th deck.
After a while, the Captain asks, "Do you have Faster Than Light?"
The Human seems uncertain of her answer before saying, "Not my place to say." She then taps the elevators thick glass, pointing to a ship in close proximity to the Ascension. "What type of ship." It is an obvious attempt to distract from the question, and Tevos can't blame her. The question asked can reveal just how vulnerable Humanity is.
The ship the Human has pointed to is the Turians QRF Dreadnought. "HWV Accipitridae. Turian dreadnought." The Captain informs. "Does it look anything like your dreadnoughts?" This could tell the Captain a lot of information about how Humans fight their battles.
The Human shakes her head, "That ship is kind on eyes. Ours not so much." Irissia thinks on the answer and understands where the Human is coming from. While Turians are very practically minded, they do also like having vessels that sacrifice some practicality for aesthetics - after all, they like to show off their military to regularly remind people they have the biggest stick. In short, the Turians want people to look at their vessels, so they need eye-catching ships. When hostilities arise, this approach often goes under review, and vessels that favour function over aesthetics quickly return. Eventually, the Human turns from the window to ask, "This ship bigger?"
Irissia is sure the Human probably already knows that it is, but is trying to make some conversation. "Yes, the Ascension is 1km long, 1.7 wide by 2 tall."
As the Human, now known as Shepard, and Irissa go on to talk some more about the ship, Tevos receives a notification on her omni-tool and loads it up to find a message from the ships security department. With a small frown, she flicks through the email, skimming its essential details, and eventually, she lands on a scan of the Human that is standing just a few feet away from her. The Human must have undergone some extensive augmentation procedures, she has bones reinforced with graphene, muscle weaves, and embedded technology inside of her, all of which is highly illegal in Citadel space. More curiously, Shepard also has traces of Eezo in the graphene of her reinforced bones, meaning she has either been exposed to it recently, or she is biotic. The latter is something Tevos doubts, her reasoning being from Shepard's reaction on Earth at seeing her own and Benezzia's little biotic show.
With a frown, Tevos closes her omni-tool as the door to the elevator opens, exposing deck 19. The Humans presence at first seems to cause everything to come to a halt, if this Shepard notices, then the Human doesn't mention it as she steps out the elevator and looks around. Immediately in front of her is a dozen or so street vendor style food courts, and a large comfortable seating area. At the moment, maybe a hundred Asari are sat down eating, and maybe a dozen others are at the stalls, waiting for food to be cooked for them. In Tevos's opinion, the food in this court is junk food, it is fast to make, and filled with chemicals and sugar to make them edible, but she can't deny that the vendors serve tasty food.
Instead of asking to get stuck in and try some food, or find out what else is on offer, the Human asks for something different, she asks for directions to the nearest toilet.
UNSC Praetorian.
The Captain of the vessel follows the Doctor around the room as the Doctor shows multiple different screens and sets of data to him. Over the last twenty minutes, dozens of his crew have come down with sickness, and the Captain fears a bug has broken out on his ship, but the Doctor thinks differently. The Doctor can find no viruses in people's blood, no bacteria infections, nothing, instead, the Doctor thinks they are experiencing radiation sickness, but not one sensor onboard the Praetorian has detected a leak of radiation. In addition, the 4 stealth ships that have joined them are reporting something similar among their own crew. Seeing another person come into the medical bay looking a little unsteady on their feet the Captain scowls, something has happened to his crew, yet nobody seems to know what.
Looking back to the Doctor the Captain suppresses a grim scowl as he points to his own nose, his Doctor has come down with a nose bleed - and the Captain bets it is related. Thinking on his feet the Captain can only think of one thing, that dam alien device they just travelled through has done something to them.
Cheers for reading. I'm sure most of you have already figured out what is going on.
ALSO, I hope you are all safe in this crazy mad time. I wish all the best for you, so keep safe wherever in the world you are reading from.