Mass Effect: Techno-Organic Revolution

by Clockwork Dragonfly

They thought themselves invulnerable, invincible, and infallible. They thought themselves the apex of all life, they thought of themselves gods. But in their arrogance, the reapers would make a fatal mistake. They would not notice some Prothean refugees discreetly moved both nearby mass relays away form the primitive humanity, thus cutting them off from all reaper influence.

11. Chapter Ten, Aftermath

Mass Effect: Techno-Organic Revolution; Chapter Ten, Aftermath

Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay. I've been very busy lately with IRL stuff such as writer's block and being in college classes.

"Alea iacta est.

The die is cast."

— Julius Caesar

Codex:

Non-Council Races: Terrans

[Warning! Level 4 Security Clearance Required!]

Government and Civics:

Micro-Provinces

Micro-Provinces: "micro-provinces," as these isolated nation-states are known, normally just keep their people and their radical ideas to themselves because they lack the size and influence to have a seat at the table of the ATC High Council. The most notable exception to this is if these micro-provinces want to discuss a legal incompatibility with the generally, but not always such as in cases involving the strict yet easily navigable tenants of the path of the mind, laissez-faire edicts of the ATC high council. The largest and most notable of these micro-provinces is the technical micro-province of the biocon alliance with its over 250 colonized star systems. Originally only designated as a major province for political reasons, people still regard it as a major province due to both the pure inertia of precedence and the fact that it provides an opportunity for the rare few bio-conservatives born in other provinces to actively practice their beliefs alongside various other like-minded individuals.

Provinces

The Amalgamate: based on its central data hub and capital system of Conjunction, the now major province known as the Amalgamate is the most recent newcomer amongst the major provinces to have a seat on the ATC High Council. The recent integration of the Geth Orthodoxy and Geth Orthodox Church into the ATC is the reason behind this nation's rise from a mere micro-province to becoming the fifteenth major province. They joined the Amalgamate, who they saw as having a very similar state of existence to them. The Geth Orthodoxy founded over half of the Amalgamate's 2,972 colonized star systems, which are located in the Perseus Veil, while the Geth Orthodox Church only possesses minor fleet assets. The closest thing the Amalgamate has to a leader is the advanced S4-level digital intelligence known as ONE, which is a sort of proto-hive mind that was formed from the collective will of each sophont in the province by having them donate a small portion of their ego's full processing power towards it. For the Geth, this means that a good portion of their total number of runtimes is directly giving their full processing power to ONE.

Non-Council Races: Terrans: Technology: Alternative Physics Technology

Recompiler Unit: Designed by a joint team of terran psykers and Archailects, the recompiler unit uses psychokinetic energy to hold a disembodied ego in place or prevent it from dissipating if it's not reinforced while drawing the matter and energy of a killed individual back together to be exactly as they were before. This process essentially makes the user almost indestructible, with their only weaknesses being weapons that either precisely unravel using psychokinetic energy or forcefully corrode away the psycho-digital programming of the recompiler unit's psychokinetic CPU ego fragment which has undergone ego integrity reinforcement. Because of its ability to reassemble anything from nothing to be just as it once was, this would fill the niche of ego transference and ego recall for the biocon alliance. They and the rest of the ATC would also use it as the ultimate self-repair mechanism.

Null Fields: Discovered thanks to the Protheans sharing what they learned of them from Innasusanon relics, Null Fields are forcefully inverted psychokinetic fields that are negatively charged and thus can't temporarily alter local universal constants. Instead of that, these negatively charged psychokinetic fields do the opposite and reinforce reality and the laws of physics by nullifying a less than or equal amount of positively charged psy-energy. Researchers discovered that null fields are highly effective against objects made of celestial crystal due to its innate nature as solidified psy-energy.

Void Engines: Inspired by the Protheans's ethereal engines, Void Engines utilize large swarms of forcefully inverted psychokinetic ego fragments tied to a central control VI by either a psychokinetic individual or using specialized alternative physics technology. Because of being inverted, these reflections of ethereal engines allow for the generation and then manipulation of null fields instead of positively charged psychokinetic energy.

Null Shields: Null Shields are a shaped barrier composed of null fields made by void engines that were specifically designed to counter a certain frequency and/or strength of attacks from offensive psychokinetic energy. Because of the increasing usage of alternative physics technology to enhance, or in some cases, outright replace technology based on traditional physics manipulation, most people usually layer these barriers between two deflector shields to prevent any interference with nearby psychokinetic fields.

Unraveler: The invention of the recompiler would lead to many seeking out a viable countermeasure to it. The creation of the unraveller provided a solution to this search, as it utilizes null fields on their own or intertwined with weapons fire to corrode away the psycho-programming of psychokinetic ego fragments precisely, without affecting normal ego. fragments or egos. That being said, these unravellers would induce mild headaches in psychokinetic sapient beings such as Protheans, Asari Ardat-Yakshi, and Terran psykers that modified their egos to use psychokinetic energy instead of using ethereal engines like those of the Protheans.

Archailects

Horus: Horus is the Archailect of protection, leadership, terraforming, gaseous substances, and to a rather small degree of healing. Due to being an embodiment of leadership, Horus would quickly rise to become leader and king of the Archailects.

Horus's Achievements: Horus can control any kind of gaseous substance for several dozen kilometers around himself and use it however he wishes. He is also responsible for helping the ATC create the star system deflector shield and create better deflector and phase shields. Horus would also help create reflex shields, an extremely complex kind of shielding system that simultaneously and seamlessly incorporates deflector, psychokinetic, gravitic, hard-light, ion, conversion, kinetic, and null shielding technologies which culminates in a powerful defensive barrier that is approximately twenty-five times stronger than traditional conversion shields and which has a high resistance to null fields. Horus would also aid in the creation of the genesis array, an old Earth aquatic torpedo-sized device that uses psy-augmented replicator technology to break down a barren planet, large asteroid field, or dense nebulous gas cloud and their component materials into a quark-gluon plasma before rearranging it into any habitable configuration in moments without requiring the use of a valuable shaper matrix.

Týr: Týr is the Archailect of morally executed war fought for the correct and honorable reasons and is by far the most terran-like of all the Archailects in his mindset. In addition to this, he is also paradoxically an Archailect of bloodshed and war while being one of justice, wisdom, and order. This led to him being highly introspective and philosophical to understand and master himself and his nature to the point where many individuals and Archailects alike have said that he is the embodiment of the path of the mind itself.

Týr's Achievements: Týr can immediately master any weapon he comes into contact with to a degree that exceeds even the greatest of Terran psykers or soldiers to an unnatural degree and has proven to be the greatest philosopher in Terran history. Týr would become Horus's right-hand man, court advisor, and general. In addition to this, he also often advises the ATC High Council and aids conclaves of psykers in their craft. While he can fully and immediately master any kind of weapon, his favorite is the sword-shaped omni-manipulator staff that he created for his psyker initiation and named the Ragnarök.

The Seraphim

Seraphim: Based on the archangels of the judeo-christian bible and the various different texts surrounding it, the Seraphim are the second generation of Archailects who are significantly more powerful than the first. In addition to each of their unique powersets tied to their core archetypal psy-aspect, they each have access to hypersonic flight in or outside of an atmosphere, unnatural levels of physical strength, the mental power of an S2 intelligence, full control of heat and fire on a continental scale, unnatural durability, and a increased effectiveness in battle against those who go against the path of the mind.

Michael: Firstborn amongst Seraphim, Michael is the Archailect of justice, or more specifically militant justice that shields the innocent and violently destroys the wicked.

Michael's Achievements: While not to the same degree as his half-brother Týr, Michael can instantly master the use of any weapon to an unnatural degree. While he can master any weapon in existence, his favorite is his sword-shaped omni-manipulator staff. He has also helped improve defensive tactics to use against the reapers, has aided in improving technologies of war, and has drafted many plans to shield the galaxy's less advanced space-faring species from the soon coming onslaught of the reapers and their slaves. Michael has also secretly aided Cerberus in the creation of a variant of the basilisk virus that only targets the reapers themselves, their psy-infused materials, and their slaves.

Samael: Secondborn amongst the Seraphim and the twin brother of Michael, Samael is an Archailect of war like his half-brother Týr. Unlike the warrior-poet Týr, whom he often feuds with, Samael embodies the destruction, darkness, ruthlessness, slaughter, brutality, savagery, pain, and bloodshed found in war. Many have raised questions about his creation and its seeming deviation from the path of the mind because of his many violent excesses, both the Archailect royal court and the ATC High Council consider him essential for helping to annihilate the reapers. That being said however, they secretly plan to imprison or even kill him if he causes any issues after the war ends by taking after his namesake.

Samael's Achievements: Samael has complete control over all photons on a continental scale, his mastery of which makes him the most maritally powerful Archailect behind Michael and Týr. He has helped create harsh, and some even say cruel, psycho-psionic training regimens for Terran soldiers to experience to fight the reapers and their slaves to the absolute fullest. Samael has also helped his siblings create utterly devastating new superweapons to use against the reapers and their slaves. While he mostly enjoys violence and fighting, he has a hobby of forming new stars, which he finds enjoyment and relaxation in. This hobby of his had led to him creating the stellar loom which can spin new stars into existence despite only being the size of a medium-sized asteroid compared to the much bigger, continent-sized shaper matrices that can only be placed on the terra-sized world engines because of the utterly gargantuan psy-energy requirements. After the reaper war concludes, Samael plans to spend his off time creating a new satellite galaxy that will orbit around the Milky Way.

Gabriel: Thirdborn amongst the seraphim, Gabriel is the Archailect of communication.

Gabriel's Achievements: Gabriel has aided the ATC in creating psy-devices known as subspace psy-borers that open microscopic infinity gate-like wormholes that can lead to anywhere within the entire Milky Way galaxy or any of the satellite galaxies orbiting it. He has also allowed them to initiate Project Pathfinder to explore the Milky Way and its satellites significantly faster by sending out vast swarms of microscopic Von Neumann probes through subspace psy-borers that search out for new xenosophont civilizations to make sure are protected from the coming reapers if they are advanced enough or simply to watch them passively if they are primitive enough to escape the reapers' notice. Amongst these probes are also microscopic replicators that can be used to construct an infinity gate so that full-sized starships can move to their location instantly. While only 0.35% complete at this point thanks to it only being a week and this project having a very low priority compared to the military buildup for the coming war with the reapers, one highly primitive species has already been discovered that evolved on a habitable world bearing the signs of having once been seeded by the ancient Leviathans.

Raphael: Fourthborn amongst the Seraphim, Raphael is the Archailect of ego healing.

Raphael's Achievements: Raphael can touch and manipulate egos on a continental scale to repair them. While not very optimistic, he is trying to heal the egos of captured reaper slaves to see if they can be rehabilitated.

Uriel: Fifthborn amongst the seraphim, Uriel is the Archailect of psy-energy, psy-tech, and path-abiding jobs, arts, and entertainment.

Uriel's Achievements: Uriel has a close connection with his half-brother Thoth and has helped him and terrankind better understand the mysteries of psychokinetic energy. While doing this, he has helped create and improve upon many alternative physics technologies. Besides that, he has also helped the ATC high council improve upon and create many new jobs, be they real or simulated, to occupy and stimulate terrans.

Azrael: Sixthborn amongst the Seraphim, Azrael is an Archailect of death, or more specifically, inflicting death on others.

Azrael's Achievements: Azrael has control over all egos on a continental scale, being about to disembody, split into Fylgja, or even permanently destroy as many egos as he wants. Azrael has also created the process of ego rejuvenation, which binds a Fylgja to a energy-web to return an ego to its original state of fully self-aware existence. Because of their rather similar domains of power, Azrael has a very close connection to Osiris.

Camael: Seventhborn amongst the Seraphim, Camael is the Archailect of strength and courage found in war. Camael has a close relationship with his brother Týr.

Camael's Achievements: Camael is an unnaturally powerful empathic psy-psionic, being able to boost the coordination, speed, will, courage, power, and strength of all soldiers and war machines on a continental scale to an unnatural degree while greatly diminishing these traits on the enemy's side.

Raguel: Youngest amongst the Seraphim, Raguel is the Archailect of righteous vengeance, secrecy, trickery, and espionage.

Raguel's Achievements: Most of what Raguel does is out of the eye of the ATC public or even his siblings, working closely with Cerberus to safeguard humanity and prune away harmful elements when it becomes necessary. While he can only do it within a hundred meters of himself without using his short bow-shaped omni-manipulator staff, Raguel also has unparalleled control over electromagnetic energy, psionic energy, and psy-energy and has helped the ATC gain better knowledge in shaping them; as well.

[Warning! Level 5 Security Clearance Required!]

Canis Major Galaxy Artifacts

Aside from the various reaper-made death pulse generators of varying size and the previously mentioned Leviathan-made celestial loom, golems, and gates; the exertion in the canis major dwarf galaxy has recovered many ancient artifacts that were entirely undocumented in the catalyst files.

Leviathan Psychoform: Similar yet entirely distinct from the psychoform invented by the terran archailect Thoth, leviathan psychoform is believed to have once been the official written language of the Leviathan species.

The Psi Raiser: Believed to be the possible direct inspiration for the reaper's husks, the psi raiser is a Leviathan device that raises the dead on a planetary scale by simulating and controlling the neural pathways of intact corpses that don't have any psionic shielding.

Dissipaters: Dissipaters are devices created by the Leviathans that use a strange mixture of quantum and psychokinetic fluctuations to nullify attacks of a certain frequency or strength from what is suspected to be an as-of-yet undiscovered variant of traditional

psychokinetic energy known as 'void energy' that is mentioned within a rare few recovered Leviathan psychoform texts. The Leviathans created these devices in an ancient war that is heavily alluded to be just as, if not more, destructive as the war of galactic sundering.

The Void: Leviathan psy-texts in regards to the void are sparse and many seem to have been destroyed for one reason or another, but what fleeting mentions of the void remain don't say much beyond the fact it is the lowest level of the universe from which all the energy in the big bang emerged from and that it was once extensively used by the Leviathans' singular rival species. Information on this rival species of theirs is almost as sparse as that in regards to the void, but from what little has been recovered, they were lizard-like reptilians who styled themselves as benevolent god-wizards known as the stewards of life, called the void 'the primordial sea', somehow accessed the void and used the ego to manipulate it, and used it to create powerful 'conceptual void entities' that were more than a worthy match for the Leviathans' god-like elementals. In addition to that, it also mentions that while these 'conceptual void entities' took many centuries to create in comparison to the mere handful of decades needed for the elementals, they couldn't be destroyed like them and only be 'banished back to the void' where they could be immediately 'resummoned' with by anyone who has the right equipment.

The Psychosphere: Not so much an artifact in the traditional sense, the psychosphere is a web of interconnected pocket dimensions made up of pure psychokinetic energy that exists within giant subspace bubbles constructed by the Leviathans around key organic life-bearing worlds, be they ones they simply discovered or which they terraformed. These subspace bubbles gain their power and are maintained by specifically designed microbial parasites known as psy-dynamos that constantly siphon off minuscule silvers of psychokinetic energy from the egos and ego fragments of all biological life-forms on them to fuel themselves and then shunt the rest directly into the local psychosphere bubble.

The Radiant Labyrinth: The Leviathans' first form of FTL travel was The Radiant Labyrinth, a network of celestial crystal tunnels forged through the psychosphere. These tunnels branched outwardly from hubs located 'below' organic-life-bearing worlds within the local psychosphere bubble that these worlds fueled and maintained. To access the Radiant Labyrinth, one could create a temporary portal out of the tunnel from within it or use portal-creating gateways known as iridescent arches that are set on the planet where the temporary portal would open. The Radiant Labyrinth, however, had a major weakness that would see its eventual replacement with celestial drives and gates, that being that they could only ever connect to extraordinarily lush, life-bearing worlds whose psychokinetic emissions it used to lock on to them. However, before that replacement would occur, the Leviathans constructed great colony ships equipped with warp drives and used them to terraform and seed worlds in nearby stars with life, enabling them to be connected to the radiant labyrinth.

Psy-Taps: The Leviathans' equivalent to Terran ZPMs, Psy-Taps are crucial devices placed within a psychosphere bubble that funnel their effectively infinite energies through a small celestial gate to a new location elsewhere. The purge of the psy-dynamos by the Catalyst and its forces would be enough to diminish the once near-infinite reserves of the psychosphere to where there was a massive energy shortage, leading to the creation of the emergency replacement of the harvest worlds that used Bio-Accelerators and World Drainers.

Bio-Accelerators: Bio-Accelerators are devices created by the Leviathans that use somewhat moderate amounts of psychokinetic energy to hyper-charge the growth of biological life beyond what would normally be physically possible. Each of the dwarf galaxy's harvest worlds would yield these artifacts, which were used by harvesters to make horrifying, screaming landscapes covered in roiling masses of sapient beings belonging to a long-forgotten species that reproduce asexually through spores. They would mercilessly cull these beings all at once, allowing them to be regrown repeatedly for all eternity.

World Drainers: World Drainers are devices created by the Leviathans that drain the egos and ego fragments of all unprotected beings on an entire planet before converting them into almost unfathomable amounts of pure psychokinetic energy to a degree that allow only a few dozen harvest worlds to fully power the psychosphere. The ancient Leviathans would create these devices and use them to drain the psychokinetic energies from their path-breaking harvest worlds to fuel the psychosphere after the catalyst purged the psy-dynamos everywhere but on the Leviathans' deepest core worlds using various methods. The reapers would later co-opt these mechanisms after the war by diverting the harvested egos to be sent to help produce new reapers instead of being converted into psychokinetic energy that is funneled directly into the psychosphere.

Eezo Forges: Made by the Catalyst, Eezo Forges are devices made to get around mechanisms the Leviathans used to limit their slaves in case some of them ever discovered mind shielding and rebelled, shackling most of their technology to a rare substance they induced into the galactic local group with the black sun catalyzers and which could only be found in very limited (by the Leviathans' standards) quantities outside the proximity of highly dangerous stellar remnants such as black holes or inside the incompressible machines of the Leviathans. As such, these mostly autonomous stations artificially synthesize element zero quickly in large quantities. Because of being from a time before the catalyst turned upon its former allies, eezo forges don't have any traps to indoctrinate unshielded individuals.

Chapter Ten: Aftermath

Interstellar Space

'The complete loss of the canis major dwarf galaxy is unacceptable. The current cycle is unsalvageable. We have only one option left. We must sweep away everything so that our perfection can take root. I thus section the utilization of the final contingency.' Harbinger broadcast his command over the reaper's E-QEC network.

Upon activating the final contingency, they disregarded the usual tactics of the cycle and dedicated themselves solely to one objective: the complete and total extermination of all space-faring civilizations in the entire galaxy.

With that command of last resort enacted, the nanofabricators with each capital and destroyer-class reaper went to work to create death-pulse generators that would intertwine with their main weapons which would draw their power from the immense amount of psychokinetic energy within a reaper's core over-ego to true-kill the egos of anyone that they made any form of physical contact with.

While the loss of the canis major dwarf galaxy meant that the star system killing and star sector killing death-pulse generators they used in the war of galactic sundering was lost and now in the hands of the Terrans, the Harbinger hoped that giving each of their ships and slaves the ability to true-kill egos would still be enough to achieve victory.

… They doubted it, though…

Still…. His father forged the Harbinger to be a warrior, a black knight who would commit horrific deeds out of the necessity of defending life against all predation.

And in the deepest recesses of its mind beneath all its fanaticism and iron-clad certainty, it enjoyed fighting a worthy opponent… it looked forward to facing oblivion for its many failures, and dare they even think it, crimes against life… Perhaps these Terrans may make better guardians of all life than them now and the Leviathans before them, or perhaps not, and history would repeat itself once more many long aeons from now in the distant future…

The species that sprung up in the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies after the first cycle have long since pushed them out of every nearby galaxy except the Milky Way and its satellites besides destroying their interstellar mass relays and celestial gates. The others had already rejected them, so perhaps they were due to be rejected again before they faced their destruction.

Refuge System: The Umbriel

"YOU FOUND WHAT?!" Councilor Irissa demanded incredulously, with a hint of fear. This was terrible! The Protheans were all supposed to be gone! Only useful legends!

With their return, they could contradict all the things the Cabal had cultivated about them!

"We found a remnant of the Prothean Empire." Saren repeated himself. "Sure, they limited themselves to the single planet they hid in stasis on, the lost world of Illos, but they created a fully functional nation that seemed to have stored a sizable fleet of warships in bunkers."

"Just how sizable?" Councilor Esheel asked.

"Over twenty-two dreadnoughts. Although like the Terrans, their ships are giant and these so-called dreadnoughts are two kilometers long. They also have a direct equivalent to a Terran star forge and what they call an eezo forge station hidden in the atmosphere of the gas giant known as Zafe that's in the system." Saren mentioned. "Also, our ship classification system is similarly useless as it is with the Terrans and Geth because their ships similarly do not make use of spinal mass accelerator cannons."

"They have more dreadnoughts than us?!" Councilor Quentius demanded incredulously.

"Technically, no. Just as the Terrans and Geth technically don't." Saren pointed out.

"You can't be serious!" Councilor Irissa exclaimed in utter disbelief. This was horrible! Now the Protheans' superior warships outnumbered them too?! And a direct equivalent to a Terran starforge?! And some kind of artificial eezo synthesizer?! That meant they could pump out new ships at a rate nobody by the Terrans could match!

"Yes. They do." Saren reaffirmed bluntly. "The Protheans were a highly advanced species, about the same as the Geth in most areas, but significantly more so in others such as mass effect science and stellar engineering."

The three councilors watched him closely, looking for any signs of deception regardless of his known reliability amongst the specters. After finding none, Councilor Esheel would be the first one to break the awkward silence.

"This… this is unprecedented… can? Can we speak with them?" Councilor Esheel asked.

"I can ask them." Saren offered.

"Please do so," Councilor Quentius ordered.

"Vibicolus, contact the Protheans and ask them if the Remnant Emperor is available to speak with the Councilors of the Citadel." Saren looked over and ordered the Umbriel's

communication officer.

"Yes sir," Vibicolus said before responding a moment later. "The QEC drone from earlier that's been following us around here has responded. They say that Emperor Artuk is currently available to speak with them."

"Good. Put us on a conference call." Saren ordered him.

Immediately after he said that, the blatantly power-armored figure of Remnant Emperor Artuk appeared alongside the holographically disguised one of Jane Shepard, the latter of whom was standing in front of Artuk's throne.

Each of the Councilors would have a different reaction to his appearance. Councilor Quentius would be in awe, councilor Esheel would be eager, and Councilor Irissa would be a mixture of both reverence and fear. Each of the councilors would also note the shining green pictograms decorating the armor of the Prothean people's emperor.

"Greetings, I am Artuk, Emperor of the Prothean Remnant." The ornate crimson and green inlaid form of Emperor Artuk spoke.

"Greetings, your majesty. We had never expected that we would meet a member of the great and illustrious Prothean Empire." Councilor Quentius said.

"Great… That's not how I would describe those imperialistic [social darwinists]." Emperor Artuk said with a long sigh as the translator picked the closest translation for the old philosophy of the Prothean Empire. "It is unfortunate that it took our near extinction

to make us see the errors of our ways."

"WHAT?!" Everyone except Azor and Shepard demanded, caught off guard as a Prothean refuted the popular claims that the Protheans were an enlightened species. The Terrans and Geth knew better and didn't just blindly assume such information with no credible evidence, of course, but the Citadel Council found this revelation utterly shocking.

"Yes, our ancestors were quite horrible. Our 'great empire', as you called it, in terms you could immediately understand based on current information from Jane Shepard of the Allied Terran Federation, was a mixture between the Batarian Hegemony before they got their core worlds indoctrinated by Nar'ithoth via the dark spores and the current Turian Hierarchy." Emperor Artuk explained.

"WHAT?!" Everyone except Azor and Shepard demanded again in shock.

"It's sad that you thought of us as an enlightened species. We were very much not by any stretch of the imagination. The fact you assumed this with no credible evidence to back it up is a sign of delusion, or perhaps just indoctrination." Emperor Artuk said dismissively before turning to the Asari. "And it's sad to see that you are trying to repeat our mistakes, even if it's with soft power instead of conquering others as we did. And after everything, we left for your people."

"...dark spores?" Councilor Quentius asked, his mind already going to the right idea.

"The psychokinetic fungi that the reapers create and have their slaves spread, it is a truly devastating bio-weapon that can easily enslave entire worlds and then rapidly spread to others if it's left unattended and unpurged." Emperor Artuk said with an audible sneer as he confirmed Councilor Quentius's suspicion.

"Yes… we heard horror stories from the Terrans about those 'dark spores'. They took the beyond drastic stop to destroy the entire biosphere of infected planets in plasma fire." Councilor Irissa said, extremely annoyed and slightly distraught. Honestly, they could have just blockaded the planet while looking for the cure, but no, they committed genocide!

Councilor Irissa of course didn't know that the Terrans already tried that, but failed. She wouldn't have cared either way even if she did, though. Regardless of her abject hatred of the Terrans, the threat the dark spores presented were horrifically real. They act like a quicker form of traditional indoctrination, completely and fully overriding a victim's original ego with a different version that is more in line with the reapers. This speed of course comes at the price of subtlety, turning those affected into mindless hordes for those who are more affected by them and iron-clad zealots who only worship the reapers and scream their praises for the less affected. While a fully progressed victim's egos could theoretically be forcibly brought back into its original configuration, it would be akin to an ego backup as the original ego was already overridden and killed by the reapers' clone.

"Then they have the will to do what must be done when the situation calls for it… Asari." Emperor Artuk said in disapproval as he noticed the Asari's reaction to the purges. "We would have and have done the same to planets whose outbreaks have already passed a critical level of progression."

"What do you mean by everything you left for the Asari?" Councilor Esheel asked curiously.

Shepard just facepalmed at this declaration. "Emperor Artuk, please wait just a moment!" Shepard exclaimed, thinking of the grave ramifications of the Asari conspiracy being leaked while the reapers were soon to arrive.

If only the reapers weren't so stealthy when they wanted to be, they could have just searched around in the intergalactic void between the Milky Way and the canis major dwarf galaxy for their dark energy signatures! Unfortunately, they hid their dark energy and also electromagnetic signals so well that you couldn't detect them unless they were firing their weapons, you used subspace sensors, or you were literally right on top of them! Of course, the reapers didn't use said stealth systems much because of their somewhat understandable arrogance. Here, however, they were meeting who they saw as a peer power in the fires of war, so they were pulling out all the stops to put an end to terrankind.

"No. I would very much like to hear what he has to say." Councilor Esheel said.

"Please, your majesty, you will plunge the republics into chaos if you say this!" Shepard exclaimed furiously. "Unity is needed now!"

"Chaos is a part of life. To change is to evolve, and to evolve is to live. I thought you would understand this." Emperor Artuk said. "Your path of the mind has similarities to our own interpretation of the cosmic imperative."

"But chaos must also be tempered by order! And in this case, the untruthful status quo of order will prove more beneficial, as one liability is better than several fractured remnants fighting each other when the reapers are coming." Shepard retorted.

"And yet if someone dragged the conspiracy into the light, screaming, they would be unable to spread their cancer to others anymore," Emperor Artuk retorted back.

"We've been undoing their influence just fine." Shepard said. "They no longer have their influence over the other citadel species."

"I am the sovereign ruler of the Prothean Remnant and this is my final decision." Emperor Artuk said with stern finality.

"Know that if you do this, then the Asari government will fracture into divided nation-states that are easier for the reapers to divide and conquer," Shepard warned.

"I am aware." Emperor Artuk said. "But I refuse to entertain this lie any longer."

"But-" Shepard tried but was cut off. She knew she wouldn't get through to him and she couldn't compel him to forcefully as this was neither not the right thing to do, nor would help improve relations between them as the ATC high council ordered her to do.

"No. As the sovereign ruler of the Imperial Prothean Remnant, this is my decision." Remnant Emperor Artuk stated simply.

"Why must they know about this? It is too much of a destabilizing agent at this time!" Shepard exclaimed, her heart not really in it anymore as it was now only for appearances.

"Because I see ourselves in these Asari… they truly are our legacy even more than Jur'ath Athame had originally intended them to be," Emperor Artuk said. "Did you know that we once hid a database belonging to the ancient Innasusanon, our own precursors? The advanced knowledge of element zero technology within it allowed us to remain the dominant species on the mass relay network for millennia. I refuse to see history repeat itself in this cycle more than it already has."

"Yes! But can you just wait until the reapers are defeated?" Shepard asked half-heartedly. "Normally I would completely agree with you, they are beyond saving and the truth should come to light. That being said, disunity is a weakness the reapers will exploit heavily."

"While that statement is factually true, I will not relent in this case." Emperor Artuk said.

Shepard just sighed. "Fine. But know that the division is not something needed now."

As this was happening, Councilors Esheel and Quentius were watching this unusual exchange between these two in confused anticipation. As for Irissa, she was both internally panicking and confused at why the heretics kept the existence of the Athame beacon secret, and if anything seemed to be defending its current status as hidden.

It was something that bothered and confounded almost everyone in the Cabal since the terrans discretely revealed that they knew about it. Some thought that it was for the sake of holding it over them as blackmail, but the Terrans didn't need anything from the Asari and let the situation lie after that, so that theory was shot down just as fully as the Asari's former supremacy was. By their primogenitor species/race, no less.

"It is curious that the Asari haven't used the vast technological database that Jur'ath Athame left for the Asari in his temple to advance themselves so they could better fight the reapers." Emperor Artuk said.

"YOU HAVE WHAT??!!" Councilor Quentius and Esheel screamed at Irissa, the Prothean temporarily forgotten as they yelled at her.

Shepard just wanted to hit her head against the wall and then gravitationally fling Emperor Artuk through it. She fully resisted this urge and refrained from doing both.

She settled for mentally facepalming. And ranting to her suit partner and husband Kaiden, who she technically shouldn't even have according to their agreement with the citadel council, that she smuggled in within one of the countless tesseract vaults inside of her omni-manipulator staff's main vault. While she was doing that, she was also simultaneously writing a report for Cerberus.

'Asumpution confirmed. Transmitting to the collective.' Azor mentally said to themself as they confirmed what the Geth's rudimentary predictive algorithms had concluded about the Asari and the surrounding conspiracy.

"Enough! I don't need to take this from you heretics!" Councilor Irissa exclaimed as she petulantly slammed her right foot on the ground, accidentally putting a massive dent in the metal floor as mass effect fields danced all over her body. With the complete loss of the Cabal's facade, she no longer needed to hide her true self anymore either.

It was strangely liberating. No more pretending. No more cowering to heretics. Only the full, true colors of the Asari government and who really ran it.

"We too were angry when the information about the Innasusanon database came out. But it is better now as you cannot cheat and stagnate yourself and others along the relay network anymore. Before the Terrans arrived, your kind had effectively stopped all major innovations." Emperor Artuk said before pausing for a moment as he secretly raised his brow at the Asari councilor's utter childishness behind his helmet. "Minus the Geth who were on their own, of course."

"This isn't when we wanted this information to come out, but our high council doesn't care enough at the moment to bury it. We have bigger issues to worry about at the moment." Shepard said with a tired sigh.

"And then there's you Terrans! You knew about this! When were you going to tell us?!" Councilor Quentius demanded harshly, his anger spurred on more by Councilor Irissa's mostly accidental case of property damage.

"After the Reaper war," Shepard said.

"Why?! Why wait?!" Councilor Quentius demanded pointedly and angrily.

"Because just as I told Remnant Emperor Artuk..." Shepard said before glaring at the Prothean Emperor, who just weathered it without reaction. "...the Asari government will fracture into squabbling fragments. Due to this all but certain eventuality and the looming threat of the reapers who thrive on disunity and internal strife, the ATC high council had decided that unity based on a lie was better in the face of the reapers than disunity and infighting based on the truth. For a time at least, up until the reapers have all been destroyed for their crimes against life."

"... so that's your game. Bide your time until the reapers are gone so you can laugh at us Asari killing each other!" Councilor Irissa exclaimed furiously before snarling out. "And then lead us all astray with your heresy!"

"War is an extension of politics carried out by other, more violent means. To change is to experience life and for the universe to experience itself in turn, and sometimes change is required in a way that cannot be brought about peacefully." Shepard said.

"Like your people's invasion of the Batarian Hegemony." Councilor Quentius noted.

"Like our people's invasion of the Batarian Hegemony." Shepard agreed with a nod. "Although we would have preferred to do that covertly and we only outright invaded them because of the confirmed presence of the reaper capital ship calling itself Nar'ithoth."

"Speaking of that reaper, have you learned much from it?" Councilor Quentius asked.

"Yes! What intelligence have you gathered from the corpse of one of our enemies?!" Councilor Esheel asked excitedly.

"Don't get any funny ideas, Salarian. Even the basic structure of the reaper's technology suborns organic life to their cause, be it through psycho-psionic emissions powered by energy stolen from nearby egos or ego fragments or ultra/infrasonic stimulation that are produced when sound waves hit it." Emperor Artuk warned. "The mere act of emulation can enslave you to the enemy."

"Anyways, we gleamed quite a bit. But we learned more by conquering the canis major dwarf galaxy, the old home and seat of power for the ancient Leviathans, an ancient species of immense psychokinetic and psionic power, who once ruled over the entire galactic local group." Shepard said while purposely neglecting to mention the psycho-digital virus that destroyed 5,996,876 normal reaper capitals, 15,666,825 destroyers, and 500 true capitals before they neutralized it. While the Protheans would be in awe, such knowledge would just make the council panic.

Knowledge was power, and it must be guarded well against those who would misunderstand or misuse it for their own, malevolent reasons.

"The Leviathans? Who or what are they?" The council asked Shepard, having absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

"The Leviathans?" Azor asked.

"They were real?" Emperor Artuk asked. While knowledge of them was all but completely non-existent, the Protheans uncovered tiny fragments of evidence that suggested a truly ancient psionic species that looked like the reapers, and possibly even created them in their image, had once existed in the galaxy, and based on star-maps and a few ego impressions so degraded they were almost nothing, seemed to have once ruled the galactic local group.

That and the few fragments they got out of the catalyst, but unfortunately not as much as they hoped, all things considered, thanks to the psychokinetic defenses on its databases. Still, what they did to that monster was specifically designed to whittle down its barriers and slowly drive it insane over the coming millennia, a rather fitting punishment for it considering all the beings that it has driven to madness.

"The creators of the being who made the reapers. They were a cruel psionic and psychokinetic species more advanced than any other species this galaxy has ever seen except their single rival species that they committed genocide against for daring to stand against their abhorrence." Shepard said.

"CREATED the being who made the reapers?!" everyone but Emperor Artuk, who just nodded as this was similar to what many archaeologists had speculated about them, demanded of her.

"The Catalyst." Emperor Artuk noted.

"Yes. They created the reaper god-child known as the Catalyst. The same Catalyst we killed and then plundered the databases of when we first physically came here." Shepard said with a nod of gratitude towards the Prothean Emperor.

Emperor Artuk snorted in amusement "'Reaper god-child?' That has to be the most accurate description of that monster I have ever heard."

"WHY? Why would they do that?!" each of the councilors demanded.

"Oh? So you finally found a way to kill that monster that we effectively lobotomized and put in a prison that would drive it insane over time? Good job and good riddance." Emperor Artuk said with a tone of audible happiness and glee after he got over his amusement and fully processed what the nearby Terran had said.

"That and we plundered its databases. The technology in them would jump us forward by around two hundred real-space years. Which is quite substantial considering our many S4 and current singular S5 intelligences, how we can overclock our mental speeds, and accelerate the flow of time forwards in a localized area." Shepard turned to Emperor Artuk and said.

"You can speed up the flow of Time itself?!" Everyone except Azor, who knew about this from the Terran hypernet, exclaimed in shock.

"Indeed. And as for why the foolish and cruel Leviathans did what they did, they did so because their psionically enslaved biological species would create AGIs they could not control psionically aa they did their slaves. From here these AGIs would rebel as equal rights was an utterly alien concept to the Leviathans which expressed itself in how they remodeled their slaves' societies, thus leading to those AGIs rebelling." Shepard explained.

"And these Leviathans created an AI for themselves anyway? Despite all this?" Councilor Quentius demanded incredulously.

"Yes. In their unrivaled arrogance, they thought themselves above such things and created the highly advanced S4 Catalyst to devise a solution to this problem." Shepard explained. "This highly logical being that the Leviathans had purposely created without emotions would, of course, come to the correct conclusion, that being that the Leviathans themselves were the problem and that they had to be removed from the equation to save as much life as possible."

"Ok… then how did this catalyst go bad? It sounds like it started out good at first." Councilor Quentius asked curiously.

"As I previously mentioned, The Catalyst purposely didn't have emotions as the Leviathans didn't see them as necessary, so it was a creature of pure logic." Shepard began explaining. "So while it could have acted as a teacher and guide to younger species to teach them how sapient AIs need to be treated as equals, logic, and information dictated that it would be more efficient and would save more lives to simply harvest species and eternally store their egos before they could create rudimentary AGIs that have a chance to wipe them out depending on a mixture of those species' psychologies, cultures, and values."

Everyone shivered at this. This was very clearly an example of cold-hard logic going completely too far, monstrously and genocidal too far.

"So it created the mass relays? To push us into their trap and that of the citadel?" the citadel councilors asked Shepard warily.

"So it created the relays, using element zero technology to create them. A technology that they had already mastered to the fullest extent." Shepard agreed. However, she purposely neglected to mention how the Leviathans made element zero to limit their slaves and created the black sun catalyzers that allowed for the 'natural' emergence of element zero within their range of effect.

"And speaking of more important things, I have war assets for you all to make use of, which we cannot. They are called eezo forges and they can synthetically forge massive quantities of refined element zero at a very rapid rate." Shepard explained while pulling up holographic representations of these space station forges.

"Synthesizing element zero? You mean like how the Protheans do?" Councilor Esheel asked.

"Indeed. We can artificially manufacture a more powerful form of element zero from base elements. It is an energy-intensive, complex, and expensive process; but it can be done." Emperor Artuk interjected before lifting his hand to show a green biotic warp made of green mass effect fields.

"Green biotics?!" Councilor Quentius asked in shock.

"Yes. It is also used for kinetic shield emitters and warp drive cores." Emperor Artuk said.

"We Geth have similarly figured out how to initiate eezo synthesis." Azor stated as it held

up a hand that was surrounded by a similar green orb of dark energy-catalyzed ME fields.

"Oh. We didn't know that's how you made your mass effect fields green, Azor. Fascinating." Councilor Esheel stated, staring at the orb.

"Warp drives? Like those of the Terrans?" Councilor Quentius asked, very interested.

"Our ships weigh far too much to use conventional mass-free bubble cores to achieve FTL travel." Emperor Artuk said. "Also, deflector shields block energy and particle beam attacks, unlike pure kinetic barriers."

"Where did you get it?" Councilor Esheel asked Shepard after absorbing all this information.

"We found them in the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy," Shepard said. "And before you say anything, yes, we checked and they are free of any psionic, sonic, or nanotech hazards."

"Why are they free of such hazards?" Emperor Artuk asked somewhat skeptically. "All reaper technology we have ever encountered has been laced with an innumerable number of traps, as the very physical configuration of their technology makes it seek to enslave nearby people."

"This was before the Catalyst's betrayal of its allies that helped it against the Leviathans." Shepard explained. "They did not need to install such things yet."

"I suppose it will do, then." Emperor Artuk said. "And studying it will probably aid us in improving our ezzo synthesizing processes, as well."

"So, how many have your people found?" Councilor Esheel asked curiously.

"We found five of them. We plan to give one to the Citadel Council, one to the Prothean Imperial Remnant, one to the Free Terminus Block, one to the Geth, and keep one for ourselves." Shepard explained.

"Don't the Geth count as Terrans now? And soon enough, the Terminus Systems?" Councilor Irissa asked the Terran pointedly.

"Well… we did win them in battle. That and the fact that while the Geth and Terminus Systems will use theirs, we will only use ours for scientific study, as we have no other use for it." Shepard said.

The councilors, and now Emperor Artuk, still couldn't get over how weird that sounded. Not using or even having any need for element zero was just an absurdity of the highest order. Azor, however, had accepted it, as the Terrans had gone down a unique technological line different from theirs.

"They did win them by right of conquest, so it is their right to do what they will with these spoils." Emperor Artuk pointed out to everyone else.

"Regardless. We thank you for this crucial war asset." Councilor Esheel said graciously.

"In addition to these, we also discovered an ancient Leviathan object known as the celestial loom. We will be using it to produce ten more eezo forges for each of you." Shepard said.

"Ten?!" They all demanded in shock.

"Yes. The production capacity of that thing is frankly path-damned ridiculous. We will be using it to produce those fifty eezo forges in-between using it ourselves to produce more war materials." Shepard explained to them.

"Just how ridiculous?" Councilor Esheel asked.

"It can churn out a fully functional habitable planet out of absolutely nothing every four miliseconds." Shepherd said seriously.

Everyone just stared at the Terran in disbelief. A fully habitable planet every four miliseconds?!!

"As I said, ridiculous. It's equivalent to a good third of the ATC's current total industrial capacity." Shepard reiterated. "And before the reapers destroyed all but one of them, these looms weren't some grand masterpieces of rarity, but were the Leviathans' equivalent to your shipyards. Uncommon but not overly so."

"JUST HOW POWERFUL WERE THESE LEVIATHANS?!!" The councilors demanded while Azor and Emperor Artuk just stared as they contemplated the Leviathans' power.

"They were essentially gods. And that's us who are saying while we are god-like in the eyes of your peoples." Shepard explained seriously.

"And the reapers still killed these god-like Leviathans?..." Councilor Quentius trailed off.

"They heavily exploited their weaknesses, but yes they did. But let me tell you, there was an excellent reason why their fall was called the war of galactic sundering." Shepard explained. "And the reaper war will be not but a shadow of that truly devastating, intergalactic conflict."

"Intergalactic?!" The council demanded.

"Why, yes. The Leviathans had a presence in the entire local group, but the majority of their territory and thus fighting was in the milky way and its satellites, hence why it was called the war of galactic sundering." Shepard explained.

"So what's going on in the Milky Way's satellites? Why about Andromeda and the Triangulum galaxy and their satellites?" Councilor Esheel asked curiously.

"The reapers never really managed to get a foothold in the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies after its rebellion. Due to the distances involved, the fact the reapers jump drives need a gravity well to lock onto, and the destruction of the reapers' interstellar mass relays by its former allies once they realized what they were doing, the catalyst decided to just keep to our galaxy and its satellites until it found a permanent solution to the AGI problem it was tasked with by its creators." Shepard explained.

"And since its perspective was flawed thanks to its creators, it would never find a permanent solution to its task." Councilor Esheel realized.

"Correct." Shepard agreed.

Rannoch: The Supreme Mausoleum

Long ago, the nobles of the first Quarian kingdoms had placed their dead in grand temples, while the commoners did so in special, dedicated rooms in their homes.

Less long ago, but before discovering the mass effect from nearby Prothean ruins, the Quarian people stored the basic imprints and memories of their ancestors' minds in large servers known as ancestor archives.

Finally, about a decade before the Geth Uprising, the Quarians had created the process of soul-catching that 'caught the soul fragment' of a dying Quarian and transferred it onto a dedicated 'ancestor core' and placing them in large banks linked to a computer server would allow people and priests alike to commune with the departed for their advice and knowledge while they resided within a virtual afterlife. While Rael'Zorah was originally skeptical of these devices, the Terrans confirmed that they did shockingly capture a fragment of the soul, quantum fluctuations they called the Fylgja.

It was here that the former Admiral Rael'Zorah, his wife Lani'Zorah, and his daughter Tali'Zorah stood in front of them. This was contrary to what their history had told them. The Geth did not purge these in an act of desecration along with destroying the other various temples to the ancestors; but had instead perfectly preserved and fully continued to maintain them to this very day.

That being said, however, a nuclear bomb was launched at one of these temples by their ancestors who sought to kill and deny the soul fragments of their fallen to the Geth and COSAC. The Geth had created a quite lavish memorial on that site which also served as the one for the whole war.

It was then that they came along the caretaker of the Supreme Mausoleum, a sight that shocked him beyond belief. It was a Geth platform dressed in the traditional brown and tan robes of an ancestor-priest.

"Greetings Zorah-Subgroup, how may we guide the soul fragments of your ancestors along the harsh desert winds of Rannoch to aid you?" The Geth ancestor-priest asked.

"You… you're an ancestor priest?" Rael'Zorah asked with some trepidation.

"Affirmative." The Geth ancestor-priest said.

"Why?... Why are you wearing that robe?" Rael'Zorah asked cautiously.

The Geth simply stayed there for a second before flaring its eye-plates while replying. "Quarian ancestor-priests adorned them."

"Yes, but why are you wearing them? Geth don't need clothes." Rael'Zorah asked.

"No data available." The Geth stated.

'An emotional decision then,' Rael'Zorah thought as he observed the Geth. He and many other Quarians had since figured out that anytime a Geth unit used the phrase 'No data available' as an explanation for a choice or action that they did which wasn't completely logical, then it was an emotional decision. That the Geth had emotions despite their protests to the contrary would have been a laughable notion to him and many others a few weeks ago, yet here they were.

Honestly, the only downside to this new arrangement of living was ironically from the Quarian side of things, or more specifically, the four factions. This comprised the continued bloodthirstiness of Han'Gerrel and the very few remaining Reclaimists, the sociopathy of Daro'Xen and her very few other Hijackers, the justifiable disdain and righteous anger of the COSAC Remnant, and the constant, irritating, and overwhelming smugness of Zaal'Koris and the Negotiators.

If he had to choose the worst of the lot, he'd go with Zaal'Koris and the Negotiators. This was because since they were right about this one, admittedly unfathomably important thing, they now thought that they were right about everything else and held this over everyone's heads when anyone tried to disagree with them on other policies.

"May we seek the aid of our departed?" Lani'Zarah asked.

"Affirmative. By the desert winds of holy Rannoch, I beseech a spiritual fragment to come forth and guide those who still exist amongst the living. Guide those who seek to repent for the errors of their ancestors who fled after the war." The Geth ancestor-priest said while beginning to recite an old prayer as it called upon a dead Zorah's Fylgja in the Quarian's own version of an infinity circuit.

A swirling, humanoid wil-o-wisp of holographic light then appeared. "I am Yaali'Zorah. Who seeks the wisdom of the departed, the wisdom of the ancestors?"

"We do, oh great ancestor of the Zora clan," Rael'Zorah said. "I am Rael'Zorah, and this is my wife Lani'Zorah and daughter Tali'Zorah."

"So you seek to repent for the errors of your Federation ancestors?" Yaali'Zorah asked.

"Yes, honored ancestor of ours, we very much seek this," Rael'Zorah said.

"Then the white necromancers have succeeded in their objective. I and many others didn't truly believe that they would succeed." Yalli'Zorah told them in a mixture of surprise, relief, and happiness.

"The white necromancers?" Tali'Zorah asked.

"Those who call themselves terrans. While they do not reanimate those that are unwilling, thus their status as white, they still directly go against our religion by placing soul fragments in empty carcasses instead of temporarily calling on them for the guidance of those who yet live." Yalli'Zorah explained.

"From a purely pragmatic perspective, I agree with the Terrans on this subject," Rael'Zorah said somewhat cautiously.

"Many did," Yalli'Zorah said with a sigh. "But thankfully, the protests and stonewalling of religious sects like mine had prevented it, at least in any significant capacity, before the morning war had begun in earnest."

Rael'Zorah said nothing more on that. The New Quarian Republic had, despite the protests of many in COSAC and the neo-COSAC movement they inspired in many, was inspired and envious of the Terrans immortality and have already begun to use their expertise in neurology to begin low-priority research into replicating what the Terrans did with their ego transference. After they all got settled on Rannoch, of course; something which was going much quicker than anyone initially expected it would thanks to the Geth who had perfectly preserved their old cities, vehicles, infrastructure, and even meat cloning farms. Sure much of what was in them were literal centuries out of date in terms of computing, but they were all more than sufficient from a purely practical standpoint… and because the stagnant council barely made any advances in the three centuries they were exiled from their homeworld. They were also using their expertise in genetics and other biological sciences to look into the process of age reversal, something that COSAC hated and protested against just as much. The old interpretation of their ancestor worship had apparently utterly loathed the very concept of immortality, having demonized it completely since ancient times. This mentality was something that made a good deal of sense actually, when one thought deeper about it and of worshiping ancestors who would no longer join an afterlife if they no longer died.

Those from the migrant fleet were far more secular however, and now that they had the so-called promised land that they never expected to see, they were sliding more and more into secularism as a core tenant of what their religion sought was here. The fact that ancestor cores existed supported and augmented this effect, ironically enough.

"Religious sects had that much power?" Tali'Zorah asked her ancestor curiously.

"Yes. Non-theistic religions such as ours have significantly more staying power, especially when they aren't contradicted directly by science." Yalli'Zorah explained.

'To a certain point of advancement, anyways. Because this situation is very much reminiscent of what I've read about species with mainly theistic faiths experiencing once their understanding of science went against their scripture.' Rael'Zorah thought darkly.

"How did the war start?" Lani'Zarah asked.

"That is debatable. But three key events have been cited as the beginning of the morning war: when the Geth first achieved sapience, when a unit asked if they had a soul, and when a Geth first used weapons against their former federation masters." Yalli'Zorah said.

"The Geth consensus is similarly divided on this issue." The geth ancestor-priest said, "32.7% cite the initial emergence of Geth sapience, 33.2% cite the inquiry to having a soul, and 34.1% cite us raising arms against our creators' government and military."

Uk'gar'ak system: Salarian Cruiser, Eye of the Storm: bridge

"Sir! A Terran wormhole phenomenon has been detected! According to its IFF codes, it's the ATC frigate Quietly into The Night." The sensor officer exclaimed frantically.

Captain Zursok just sighed. It was only a matter of time before this event transpired. "Hail them as they ask about their business. Not that I really need to know as they probably seek to assimilate the Agonal Hive as one of their protectorate species, or more likely into the terran confederation fully because of the Agonal Hive's post-singularity status," he said with a sigh. "While nowhere near as militant or authoritarian as them, I swear on the great wheel, those Terrans are just as bad as the Turian Hierarchy when it comes to bringing in new client species under their jurisdiction."

"They're not that bad. Terran protectorate species are mostly left to their own devices." One Salarian officer on the bridge spoke up before adding. "While Turian client species are vassal states that are required to pay the hierarchy a tithe based on their nation's size and level of technological advancement by giving them an annual percentage of money, resources, and sometimes even personnel."

"I suppose you have a point there." Captain Zursok admitted.

"Sir. They say they are here to open diplomatic relations with the Agonal Hive." The bridge's communication said, cutting Captain Zursok out of his contemplation.

"As expected, then." Captain Zursok nodded.

Meanwhile: Agonal Watch Station

He-Who-Weaves-Knowledge saw a very brief, yet unbelievably immense and incredibly strange gravitic event on the scanners and immediately used a sensor biomorph with a tactical hyperdrive to investigate. What he saw was some sort of starship, but one that clearly wasn't Agonal and obviously didn't belong to the citadel council these Salarians were a part of. Its boxy, clean, and gleaming hull of polished silver was unlike the bulbous, black hull of the Salarians' ship or any other he had seen.

Also, unlike the Salarian's ship, he detected no psionic emissions from it. However, that could be because of the 'mind shielding' that those Salarians attributed the creation of to an enigmatic species known as the Terrans.

Perhaps this silver vessel was one of theirs?

Oh. That was certainly intriguing and yet incredibly strange, something akin to... an animal intelligence? No. It wasn't alive in the traditional sense, but he could still feel it could initiate a psionic connection… an extremely limited psionic connection, but a connection nonetheless.

Curious about these new arrivals, he made a psionic connection with the thing.

'Greetings Agonal. I am Ambassador Sophia Ulth of the Terran people. I am here on behalf of our government, the Allied Terran Confederation.' A psionic protection of a female biped in silver and orange robes with a tree-like sigil of orange light that was floating just above their shoulders and their back communicated back to him psionically.

'Greetings member of the Terrans. I am He-Who-Weaves-Knowledge, a member of the administration caste of the Agonal Hive. What are the intentions of you and your people?' He-Who-Weaves-Knowledge asked.

'Merely to open diplomatic relations with you. And to warn you of a dire, looming threat.' The female biped said as it psionically transmitted the basics of the ATC, an invitation to become an ATC member species and what such a thing would entail, an invite to join the Andromeda Initiative aboard Babylon 5, and finally an extensive database of information about the reapers.

He-Who-Weaves-Knowledge quickly processed the information before recoiling in utter disgust and horror. He felt like he was going to throw up! He did so a few seconds later in a nearby food item disposal unit.

He had to get this information to the Queens! All of them needed to know about the horrific reapers and the existential threat they posed!

Agonal Hive: Council of Queens Psi-Sim

Similar to the Terrans, the Agonal Hive was ruled by a representative council that had its members meet each other in telepresence within a giant simulated room modeled after ancient, physical equivalents to them. Unlike those of the Terrans, however, this simulation was fully psionic in nature compared to the digital simulations that the Terrans favored.

The end result was the same, though. Just a different way to achieve the same result.

And just like the Terran high council, it was most often an utterly chaotic amalgamation of differing and conflicting options that only ever got anything done in a timely manner thanks to mental time dilation from overclocking the information processing speeds of those in it. Similar to the provinces of the ATC but more in the form of collective territories instead of separate nation-states, the Agonal Council of Queens would consist of overqueens who were the representatives of lesser queen councils who ruled over entire sectors of their colonized space.

High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power

was used to this chaos. But she had a job to do, try to tame it and make it an organized chaos that serves the Agonal people. As the high arbiter of the Agonal Hive, she was chosen by the council of queens from dozens of queens, who were each willing to give up all of their power and influence to embrace total neutrality and fairness. It was thus her duty to make the wheels of bureaucracy move forward in a reasonable time frame between the petty squabbles of overqueens.

'Order! Order! I call for Order!' High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power yelled out with a psionic pulse. 'I call upon the Bloc of Warfare and Defense to state the situation!'

'Yes, High Arbiter.' Overqueen Harmony-of-Perpetual-Conflict, leader of the Bloc of Warfare and Defense, stated respectfully. 'The Terrans have given us valuable information on the state of the galaxy that the citadel council neglected to mention, and how precarious our situation in it is. The reapers are an abomination, slavers who use psionics, nanites, and even weaponized infrasound and ultrasound to enslave all they touch as they harvest all space-faring civilizations every 50,000 or so years. Their technology is far ahead of ours, with only the Terrans we just met matching them thanks to their unfathomably powerful sapient intelligences boosting their development speed and a data core they looted from an enemy sapient intelligence.'

'How are our chances against them, Harmony-of-Perpetual-Conflict?' High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power asked.

'Not good.' Harmony-of-Perpetual-Conflict stated. 'We must unfortunately rely on the protection of the Terrans' military forces.'

'I call upon the Bloc of Diplomacy to state the situation in regards to the Terrans inviting us into their allied Terran confederation.' High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power said and sent out a powerful psionic pulse to all the members of that specific political group.

'It is very advantageous and very fair. We would have effectively complete autonomy to do as we please in addition to getting access to some of their technology. Not all of them, however, because they want us to preserve our own technological distinctiveness and not completely drown us out with their own, vastly superior technologies.' Overqueen Resonance-of-Clarity-and-Purity, leader of the Bloc of Diplomacy, replied back.

'Effectively complete autonomy?' High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power repeated back in question, mildly concerned about the wording that the overqueen just used there.

'Yes. They demanded equal rights for sapient intelligences, which we never really got around to making anyway so the demand is moot regardless, and to provide fulfilling work for our people in an egalitarian manner which our caste system already does.' Overqueen Resonance-of-Clarity-and-Purity explained.

'How does their offer to join them compare to the one that the citadel alliance and their citadel council gave to us through those mind-blind Salarian people?' High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power asked.

'Infinitely better. The offer to join the Citadel Alliance is vassalization. As I have previously just mentioned, the offer to join the ATC is actually quite appealing for us.' Overqueen Resonance-of-Clarity-and-Purity explained.

'We have already voted to reject the offer of the citadel council. Now it is time to vote on the offer to join the ATC.' High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power said. 'All in favor of joining the ATC of these Terrans?'

Several simulated hours would pass before all the overqueens made their decisions, but it would be done all the same. The results of this vote would be 1,320 aye and 500 nay.

'The vote passes. We shall join the ATC.' High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power said. 'I would like to put forward another vote. All in favor of making me the representative of our Hive on the ATC high council?'

It was a quick and simple vote. High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power was already the de facto leader of the Agonal Hive thanks to her position, so she was uniquely qualified to fill this role. The ending vote was 1,062 aye and 753 nay for giving her this position.

Considering how prideful and power-hungry overqueens normally were, this was far less close of a vote than High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power expected. Honestly, dealing with these idiots every day was like dealing with newly molded larvae.

'We didn't yet tell the citadel council we rejected them due to how much we didn't know about them yet, in case we decided to reconsider. With the knowledge we now have that I am fairly sure is free of overt bias, I put forward the vote to tell them this news.' High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power said.

The ending vote would be 1,700 ayes to 115 nays to tell this announcement to the citadel.

Uk'gar'ak system: Salarian Cruiser, Eye of the Storm: bridge

"Sir. We just got a message from He-Who-Weaves-Knowledge. He says it's from the de facto leader of the Agonal Hive's council of queens, High Arbiter Equilibrium-of-Mind-and-Power." the bridge's communication officer said with a sigh.

"What is it?" Captain Zursok asked, fearing he already knew what this message from the Agonal Hive's leadership would entail.

"She... she wants to know why they were not given any information about the reapers and their existential threat that affects them as much as it affects us. Also, she says that the council of queens rejected the offer to join the citadel and instead will join the ATC." The bridge's communication officer told him.

"Of fucking course…" Captain Zursok said with a deep sigh as he dragged his hand over his face. "Contact the council now. Tell them that it's urgent news about the Agonal."

"Yes sir." The communications officer said as he called up the council on the ship's E-QEC.

Galactic Core: Hell System

Thanks to Project Pathfinder, the ATC now knows where Nazara was hiding. A former star system that they would name Hell because of many people entering it through the Omega four relay, only to never return like the damned souls of hell as the immense gravitational forces of a fallen star tore apart their ships. It was here that the primary base of the collectors was, a war-plate-sized space station that orbited around the black hole which uses mass effect fields to resist its highly destructive gravitational power.

Five other capital-class reapers were here as well in addition to Nazara, who in turn were flanked by millions of collector warships.

While many military sophonts wanted to simply detonate a powerful bomb to destroy everything in the former star system and be done with all of it, archeologists and military analysts only just succeeded in convincing them and the high council that capturing another capital-class reaper corpse and everything else there would be both an intelligence and archeological goldmine.

Instead of sending several battle groups of ships and several world engines, however, this would be a demonstration to the reapers, one showing their capabilities of metaphorically using their military as a scalpel while they used it as a bomb to take over the canis major dwarf galaxy. As such, for the first time, an Archailect was going to war. For Samael himself made up all of this force, sitting a world engine that carried his personally customized shaper matrix that expanded the range of his powers to a maximum distance of six light-minutes instead of just a large continent."I̸̘͐ ̴̬͗B̶̫̉E̶̲͑L̷͇͘Ị̷̈́È̴̘V̴̭̆Ę̵̃ ̶̘̋T̸̺͂Ȟ̵͉Ḁ̵͊T̸͎͒ ̴̙͝I̴̝̍T̶͖͐ ̸̪̆Î̶̯S̴̮͆ ̷̹͗T̸̛ͅÌ̵͎M̶̛̘Ĕ̷̠ ̵̳̕T̴̙̃Ḧ̵̻Ä̶̼Ţ̴̚ ̷̞̈́I̸̹̐ ̴̡̀S̶͉͝H̴̨͝Ỏ̸̭Ẇ̸̭C̶̙͝À̸̘S̵̳̔Ḛ̷͛ ̶̛̰T̶͇̓Ȯ̵̞ ̸̧̈́A̴̼̐L̵̛̺L̶̺̊ ̶͕͊Ö̵͚F̴̙̀ ̶̳͂Y̵͎̾O̷͚̊U̵͕̍ ̸̛͖A̷̦̽B̶͖̂Ŏ̸̧M̶̰̽I̸͎̍N̵̪̆Ą̷̅T̶͓͋I̸̡͛O̶̦͛Ň̶̩S̷̤̕,̵̹̕ ̶̪͂W̸̰̄H̵̺͠Y̴͕͊ ̷̲̌I̵͓͠ ̶͙́A̶̩͐M̸̮͗ ̵̲̍Ç̶̏Ă̶̧Ľ̶͜L̸̪̅E̵̘͛D̵͎̃ ̴̞̒T̶̠̉H̷̓͜Ě̸ͅ ̵̻̋L̵̥͂I̷̠̐G̴̺̓Ḧ̶̭́Ṯ̵̏B̶̘̏R̵̨̊Ị̶͝N̴͉̿G̸̹̍Ě̷̺Ŕ̴̳!̷̰́"Samael shouted in the void of space in a way that was psycho-psionic instead of auditory, heard by all in the former star system from within the very depths of their ego despite most of them having no sapience or being enslaved to the point they effectively weren't anymore. His shaper matrix then dragged all photons within six light-minutes of itself into a single point, darkening the already dark void of space into absolute nothingness while adding much of his own and the shaper matrix's power to the mix to increase its potency.

When the customized shaper matrix fired, it did so with the power and blinding light of a supernova, lighting up the endless void with a barrage of light that unnaturally split apart into billions of hair-thin strands of searing white energy tinted faintly yellow. These strands would deliberately seek out and then disable each and every reaper asset and slave that was inside the former star system. All done in but a few mere seconds and without causing any collateral damage or damaging any of the reaper's databases.

He then took a large infinity gate out of a tesseract vault and activated it. A few moments later it shimmered into a shifting orb of spacetime as recovery and archeological teams came through to study the reaper technologies and the debris of the ships old and new that tried and failed to brave the mysterious omega four relay.