Mass Effect: Techno-Organic Revolution; Chapter Two, The Heart of Darkness.
"Impossible! This is not possible! The only thing that makes FTL travel feasible is the blessed element zero! These false and heretical claims are unacceptable to me!
—Cabal Matriarch of Eezonic Engineering.
"Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools."
—Napoleon Bonaparte.
First Author's Note: I just want to be clear about something. The Asari "species" as a whole are not the adversaries; rather, it is the Asari government and everyone involved in the cabal conspiracy.
Author's Note 2: As you might have guessed, I've recently been playing Warhammer 40K tabletop. I play Necrons and Admech, just so you know.
Codex:
Non-Council Races: Terrans: Government and Civics
ATC Provinces: The ATC is a collection of several nation-state-like provinces with different thoughts and ideals. These different spheres of thought went alongside each sphere of expansion when those with different ideologies made colonies on the fringes, only to be absorbed into the ATC proper at a later date.
At this time, there are 14 such provinces, which are as listed.
Allied Federation of Systems (AFS): Based on Terra in the Sol system, the AFS is the first and by far the largest province of the ATC that controls over 15,000 colonized star systems.
Biocon Alliance (BA): Based on Venus in the Sol system, the Biocon Alliance is by far the smallest and least influential province, which is the remnants of the old bioconservative movement. They only have control over 250 colonized star systems.
Technocratic Union (TU): The TU is a province of the ATC that controls over 4,000 star systems.
The Daevorian Bio-Alliance (DBA): The DBA is a democratically-elected monarchical province of the ATC that has over 6,000 colonized star systems. In addition to this, they view organic technology as superior to synthetic technology and techno-organic technology as limited by its synthetic components.
Metalican Technocratic Council (MTC): The MTC is a militaristic province of the ATC that controls over 5,000 colonized star systems.
The Neculaac Collective (NC): The Neculaac Collective is an ATC province that controls over 5,000 star systems and specializes heavily in electro-gravitic technology. Additionally, it was their engineers who designed and developed the first rift-drives and rift-slingers.
The Union of Col-Mensae (UCM): The UCM is a province of the ATC that controls over 4,000 colonized star systems. The UCM is most known for its great museum of terrankind, a moon-sized installation where ancient artifacts are stored and displayed.
Tens of thousands of objects here have been gathered, bought, or (allegedly) stolen by its kleptomaniacal leader, Faythe Nerttii Zinn, and displayed in various stasis units.
Objects within this vast collection include but are not limited to, the Rosetta Stone, the great pyramids of Giza, the acropolis, the coliseum, the leaning tower of Pisa, the forbidden palace, the great wall of China, the Mona Lisa, Mt Rushmore, Sputnik, every Saturn-V rocket, the first falcon heavy, the first personal computer, a replica of the international space station, the first helium-3 fusion reactor, the first cyber-cell, the first spatial distortion field generator, the first antimatter reactor, the first rift-gate mk1, the first colony ship Nautilus, the first warp-ship Phoenix, the first rift-ship Firestorm, and many many more artifacts of Terran history sorted into various displays categorized by type of artifact, size of artifact, and what period of history they came from.
The United Alanis Gulf Alliance (UAGA): The UAGA is the most militaristic province of the ATC that holds over 5,000 colonized star systems. In addition to this, they have a proportionally high number of Semita Mentis adherents due to the fact that they control the planet the religio-philosophy founded on, the planet of Praenuntius.
The Brotherhood of Steel (BoS): The Brotherhood of Steel is an ATC province with over 4,000 colonized star systems. They believe that, other than for the purposes of reproduction, biological material is inferior to synthetic material like metal, and techno-organic material is limited by its original components.
The Nuunian Hyperdimensional Combine (NHC): The NHC is an ATC province that controls over 2,000 colonized star systems. In addition to this, they were instrumental in the development of tesseract vault technology and remain the utmost masters of construction within them, going as far as being able to place an entire terra-sized planet within one; that being their capital world of Nuun.
The Exar'tan Conglomerate (EC): The EC is an ATC province with control over 1,000 colonized star systems and specializes in the development and construction of various megastructures.
The League of Artarian Stars (LoAS): The LoS is a pacifistic province of the ATC that controls 1,000 colonized star systems.
The Arellian Conclave (AC): The AC is a province of the ATC that controls over 1,000 colonized star systems.
The Yadav Alliance of Colonies (YAoC) is an ATC province that controls over 1,000 colonized star systems.
Misc Technology
Biocon Arcology Ship: The Biocon Arcology Ship is a fifteen-kilometer-long carrier-class ship that uses a large tesseract vault to house a large 50-km-long habitat within.
This habitat has enough room for several billion baseline humans to live comfortably, as well as a singularity reactor, an industrial-grade nanofactory array, enough matter units to last for several decades, and a connection to the ATC hypernet that is routed through the ship.
Chapter Two, The Heart of Darkness.
Mars, Olympus Mons, Research Lab 0102.
Mars, the red planet. For a long time, Mars had been a center of Terran innovation and technological development, only truly matched in success and prestige with the augmentation labs of Luna and the AI labs of Titan.
Its shipyards, laboratories in orbit, two natural moons, and research stations have produced hundreds of thousands of innovations. The brilliant engineers and scientists of Mars are responsible for many engineering marvels, including the first warp drive, rift gate, and vital components used to build the first stellar lifter, Helios.
The brilliant third branch Terran Naomi Hiss was using her tens of thousands of ego-linked machines to work on thousands of projects at once here on the red planet with the main research center, the great hollowed-out and extinct supervolcano Olympus Mons.
One of these numerous initiatives involved experimenting with a new rift-beacon variant that included new electro-gravitic-related technologies. This new version, once she managed to perfect it, would extend the device's range by millions of kilometers.
This hasn't been done before because of how rift-beacons inherently worked. The simple truth was that pushing something through a wormhole that was pointed away from the projector was both easier and more energy-efficient than dragging it back toward it.
It's true that this issue was solved by the development of rift-gate mk3 equipped drop pods and later rift-slingers, but the fact of the matter was that without a rift-gate on either side to stabilize a traversable wormhole tunnel, using rift-beacons beyond a few hundred thousand kilometers was not even remotely possible energy-wise.
While she was running experiments in various labs within thousands of tesseract vaults, in orbit, or on the surface itself; there were few projects that she was really invested in.
She was attempting to use singularity-based time dilation along with reverse entrophic fields in one of these labs to enable the precise control of time itself.
She has already made basic working prototypes of the reanimation matrix, a device that would use temporal reversals to reverse severe damage and even death. However, instead of just slowing down or reversing the flow of time, she now desired to produce a kind of reverse time dilation that accelerates time in a specific location.
She was already aware of many potential uses for the technology. The possibilities were quite numerous, including temporally accelerated construction, star lifting, rift drive cooldown and calculation times.
Within a few years, she predicted, the research conducted in this lab would produce useful results.
She was very interested in learning more about the various other layers of the universe that string theory theorizes may exist when it came to higher dimensions and string theory in general.
She was eager to explore more of these layers and possibly find out if a type of "hyperspace" that permitted FTL travel.
This was due to the fact that if such a dimensional plane did exist, using it would allow an FTL drive to operate with power requirements that are hundreds of thousands of orders of magnitude lower. This is because, unlike warp drives and rift-drives, such an FTL drive would only be able to travel through and navigate what is known as an FTL medium, i.e., hyperspace, instead of forcibly creating it along the way.
There is no way to overstate this. The sheer power required to warp spacetime, let alone actively fold it, was beyond astronomical; in fact, when it came to powering planet-craft, it was easily comparable to the daily energy output of some stars.
A large antimatter reactor or a single tiny singularity reactor were needed for a ship with a warp drive in order to warp spacetime into a bubble that resembled a wave.
To actively fold spacetime between two points on a ship with a rift-drive, eight singularity reactors housed within a tesseract vault are required. As for a rift-ship with a rift-slinger installed, it required an additional singularity reactor.
So yeah, one could easily see why the theoretical hyperspace and hyperdrive were the holy grail of extra-dimensional studies and FTL technology.
Additionally, her ongoing project to enhance rift-drives has just produced wonderful results! The individual jump distance was increased from 250 lightyears to 334 lightyears, or an extra 84 lightyears per jump, with her new and significantly more effective and precise rift-drive spatial folding array!
This new spatial folding array also increased the range of mk1 and mk2 rift-gates to 18.2 lightyears, as well as boosted mk3 and mk4 rift-gates to have a range of 3,680 lightyears, due to the similar technologies involved.
On the hypernet shortly after, she received a message from the supreme chancellor. After opening the file and reading about this "element zero," she was utterly fascinated. She then gave herself the task of persuading the high council to rename the substance newtonium in the Terran language, which is much more Terran and scientific.
'I would be more than happy to study this excellent material. It seems that there isn't much of this substance around here, and I'd be more than happy to accompany you on your trip to the xenosophonts.' Naomi Hiss enthusiastically replied, 'Especially those Asari who are somehow first branch Terrans.'
'I had a feeling you would.' With a good deal of humor in her voice, Andria Norman replied to her old friend. 'Regarding the Asari, there is some debate among our geneticists as to whether to group them with the first branch or fourth branch Terrans.' Andria informed her.
'Really? Although their genome is unmistakably based on that of baseline humans, their degree of genetic divergence from whatever xenosophonts gene-spliced and seeded them on Thessia is rather high.' Naomi Hiss replied.
'I am aware of this and completely concur with you, as does the majority of the council.' Andra informed her. 'Luckily, though it seems the idea of the first branch classification remains promentient.'
'I suppose that's good; it's best to explain them exactly as they are.' Naomi Hiss nodded.
'In addition, I am delighted to be accompanied to the xenosophonts by one of our brightest scientists.' In an effort to get back on track, Andria Norman said.
'Has a date been set up yet? Telepresence is not currently possible due to the distances involved and the lack of a comn buoy/rift-gate adapter.' Naomi Hiss replied.
'I'll let you know when we do, but not yet.' Andra informed her.
The Citadel: Council Chambers
"The Janus system, which connects to relay 237, was named after one of their ancient gods of gates and doorways, according to their territorial star maps and those taken from the star system," Loglin explained to his fellow councilors. "As a result, ATC territory is sitting in between the extreme southern edges of my government's territory and the extreme northern edges of the Volus's territory."
"So, first contact was unavoidable, right?" Sparatus questioned as he studied the holographic star chart.
Loglin nodded his head in agreement and replied, "Yes." Loglin quickly typed commands into his omnitool, causing the holo map to display a bar labeling how far away Salarian and Volus territory were from the Terran territory in any direction. "The actual territory of the ATC is only separated from the union and Volus by about twenty thousand lightyears," Loglin said.
Tevos started muttering in disbelief, "And considering how fast they claim their 'rift-drives' are…." 2,000 lightyears per day is absurd, as if she would believe any of that nonsense! Their claim that they had about 50,000 colonies? Insanity! And finally, the absurd assertion that their population was in the hundreds of trillions and was very close to a quadrillion? Madness!
With his eyes fixed on the holo map, Sparatus admitted, "I honestly am a little dubious about many of their claims as well, but I can believe a good deal of it is true, if quite a bit embellished."
"The vast amount of information they gave us in their FC information indicates they are telling the truth, so I honestly don't know why you both have such a hard time believing this," Loglin questioned. "Just accept the fact that this is by far the largest empire this galaxy has ever seen since the Protheans."
"I can see that, unfortunately," Sparatus said. "These Terrans have really shown us how utterly stagnant we have been,"
'You inferior brute, that stagnation was deliberate!' Within himself, Tevos screamed in rage. This is in addition to the fact that it was something you were never supposed to see, much less attempt to "fix" yourself in some heretical and misguided manner.
"But you Turians and Asari are far more conservative than we Salarians, to be fair." Loglin reflected. "We might be able to adjust to such a shattering of established truths more easily than you, I suppose, because we have a more adaptable mindset in the first place."
Sparatus conceded, "Huh, that does make a good deal of sense from a psychological standpoint."
"I still find it hard to believe you two actually believe this is true," Tevos' response to the other councilors' extreme confusion was a mix of denial with a faint undertone of fanaticism that vanished as quickly as it appeared.
"However, you eventually have to accept the reality of the situation. We understand that the Asari were the most negatively impacted by these new developments because they invalidate thousands of years of Asari beliefs." Loglin gently emphasized this.
Tevos simply gave the Salarian Councilor a ferocious and hateful glare.
'She seems to have moved on to the next phase of grief, anger.' In a wise move, Loglin kept his observations to himself and did not speak them aloud.
"So we're going to release the information on these Terrans now?" Sparatus inquired with a wave of his talon. "After all, we did agree to meet them here."
"Yes, but if we were to do it, we would have to redact some information to avoid a panic." Login concurred.
"Not everything?" Tevos asked in vain hope. Are we not going to attempt to isolate them?
"Unfortunately, we are unable to." Sparatus clarified, "Too many people already know of this and if we tell people not to go near a mass relay that has been activated by someone unannounced, they are going to be suspicious and people will try to run relay 237 to see what is behind it."
"How about blocking relay 237 and collaborating with the Terrans to gradually integrate them into the galactic community, then instead? Tevos questioned.
"…Now that I give it some thought, that is actually a good point, we should maybe bring up with the Terrans." Sparatus thought about it for a moment and then reluctantly agreed.
"In order to keep everything quiet," Loglin said, "I suppose we could meet them in a secret place with the ambassadors of our three species on the citadel council."
"This could actually work out for the best. The capabilities of these Terrans will essentially change everything. The ATC is a post-scarcity and post-singularity society which peacefully coexist with AIs, have eliminated the distinction between organic and synthetic, use gravitational force rather than mass effect fields to achieve FTL travel, and they have a genetic connection to the Asari that I strongly suspect involves the Protheans.
"Old Athamite mythology supports this claim." Loglin agreed. "They are known as the 'great ancestors of the Athamite from beyond the stars,' Loglin agreed, "they think that 'The goddess Athame used her great knowledge of the mystic practice of flesh-alchemy to change the bodies of the great ancestors into a form that was more suitable for the ravages of war against the soulless ones.'"
Tevos cautiously remarked, knowing this fact for several hundred years but expertly concealing it with false surprise. "Huh... well it seems that some of our old mythology was inspired by real events then, I suppose."
"The Rylus Station might be a good option, I suppose. It's a secret council black-site and research base that the public doesn't know about?" suggested Loglin.
"Alright, where is this black site? Sparatus questioned his Salarian ally.
"It's in a system close to the Minos Wasteland, only two relay jumps through a rarely used string of relays from the Nimbus Cluster. I picked it because of how close it was, of course." Loglin replied to him.
"Hmm, I guess we should use that," Sparatus nodded before continuing. "Let's now tell the Terrans about this development."
As he quickly typed on his omnitool and sent a message to the Terrans via the Torch of Athame, Loglin said, "I'll contact them right away.
[You desired a conversation with us?] When the message and reply were sent through the 237-Janus mass relay, a text file composed by Andria Norman suddenly appeared.
[Yes, Supreme Chancellor. We determined that it would be better to gradually introduce you to the galactic community in secrecy due to your unique and extremely destabilizing technologies.] Sparatus typed a reply on his omnitool.
About 30 seconds later, there was a reply.
[Does that mean we won't be meeting you in person anymore? Additionally, I must inform you that a strategy of secrecy is not long-term viable, particularly given that every Terran in the ATC is now aware of you and many will be quite eager to meet.] Andria Norman informed them.
[Everyone in the ATC already knows about us?] Tevos typed into her omnitool, genuinely curious about this.
[Yes, fellow Terran. They do.] A further 30 seconds passed before the supreme chancellor responded.
"Fellow Terran?!" Tevos uttered a question while simultaneously typing the same exclamation on her omnitool in a state of shock and outrage.
[Yes. You Asari have been officially classified as a member of the first branch of Terrankind by the ATC High Council.] A half-minute later, Andria Norman declared.
"Makes sense." Loglin nodded as he anticipated this.
"Hmmm…indeed…" Sparatus hummed as he thought of the Turian Unification Wars and the ramifications for the citadel council should the Asari be assimilated into the ATC as the Hierarchy would and has done with Turian Separatists.
[You can't do this!] Tevos insisted on her omnitool. After all, this was obviously a step toward the Asari Republics being absorbed into the ATC in the future, whether by force or by negotiation.
[Why not?] Approximately 30 seconds later, Andria Norman questioned. [You are regarded as transhuman under our laws because your genome was literally derived from that of baseline humanity].
Tevos nearly flared her biotics in rage while reading this, but she barely controlled them.
"In order for them to communicate with us, we must send them a com buoy as soon as possible." Sparatus pondered.
"I concur. I second this motion." Login agreed.
"As do I," Tevos agreed with a subdued sigh.
[The Citadel is too public, so we changed the meeting location to a council black-site called Rylus Station close to Relay 237.] Loglin sent back. A reply was received after 30 seconds of waiting.
[Understood. On the date you specify, we will come to this Rylus Station to conduct negotiations.] Andria Norman messaged back.
"This plan might actually work if we just swear the Asari on the Torch of Athame to secrecy." Loglin made a point.
Tevos said ominously, "Leave that to me."
One Day Later: Holy Khar'shan, The Imperial Palace of the God-Emperor.
The holy Batarian god-emperor of the Batarian divine caste was meeting with his holy divine advisors (known as sector lords) in a room made of pure gold on the planet of holy Khar'shan to discuss the recently arrived Terrans.
"Personally, my lord, I think it's a bunch of Karak." One sector lord reacted with scornful disbelief. "I mean, seriously? coexisting in harmony with AIs? having FTL travel without using eezo, and having tens of thousands of times the industrial output of the entire Citadel Council?"
"You dare insinuate that the dark gods have lied to us?!" A second sector lord asked angrily.
"No, no, I do not doubt the dark gods in the slightest, just the falsehood-filled lies that these Terrans gave to the Asari, which the dark gods intercepted and gave to us," the sector lord tried to reassure.
"In fact, the stupid citadel council was probably just misled by a pitiful potential slave species." With similar skepticism, another sector lord added.
"Despite the holy gathering methods the dark gods employed, it still doesn't change the fact that they communicated to us in the false bravado and lie-filled drivel of a pathetic slave species!" Another sector lord wholeheartedly concurred.
"When it comes to potential slave species, we should hold off on enslaving their homeworld, which is almost certainly right behind relay 237, until the accursed council leaves these ignorant primitives alone." The other Batarians in the gilded room looked at the holy Batarian god-emperor with eagerness.
"My lord, we would be happy to subjugate an entire homeworld." One sector lord spoke in a way that expressed unbridled desire and evil craving.
"We can open a new mass relay to covertly enslave these idiots, thanks to the Nimbus Cluster's remote location and holy relay maps provided by the dark gods." One sector lord commented.
Another sector lord spoke with a tone of menace that had a distinct undertone of madness, "Oh, the things I could do with a planet's worth of slaves..."
Yet another sector lord said reverently, "In fact, such a harvest will prove quite fruitful to us, the rightful masters of the universe, the rightful masters of the galaxy."
The holy god-emperor then raised his arms high in reverence, channeling his patron's evil psionic energy throughout the room. The holy god-emperor proclaimed, "Hail the Batarian hegemony! Hail to the Leviathan! Hail the Batarian masters of the universe!" as he and the others in the room began chanting in an alien language that blurred and contorted everyone's perception of reality itself in strange, unnatural ways.
It was only minor things at first, but reality became more and more...fluid. Soon everyone could see their breath and frost started to form on their bodies and the surroundings, giving the impression that the temperature had dropped significantly.
Then, as the room's light seemed to disappear, its shadows grew and grew oppressive, the walls appeared to be pressing down on them while also expanding into an infinite space, strange creatures of madness and mutation appeared to take the places of everyone in the space, and the space appeared to go impossibly silent all the while dark laughter appeared to reverberate throughout it.
The god emperor then chanted louder and louder, screaming in a voice not entirely his own.
"HAIL THE DARK GODS!!"
The assembly of Batarian lords cried out in perfect unison, "HAIL THE DARK GODS!"
Relay 237 system: Two Days Later
Unnoticed by the Torch of Athame, a small ship the size of a citadel cruiser left the system at superluminal speed. The tiny ship then launched a full stealth burn in the direction of the Terran vessel.
Two Hours Later: The Always A Bigger Fish, Simbridge.
'A ship the size of a citadel frigate that is camouflaged both visually and thermally is approaching us, sir.' The communications officer, Presley, a fourth branch Terran, reported to Captain Anderson. According to GraDAR, the silhouette is that of the Geth.
'Allow them to arrive; we will be happy to welcome these inorganic xenosophonts. I seriously doubt that these citadel luddies' assertions are true, and even if they were, they would be biased against these Geth xenosophonts.' Captain Anderson replied back.
'Understood.' Communication officer Presley nodded his head in affirmation.
The unidentified ship drew nearer and nearer, finally stopping about 10,000 kilometers from the Always A Bigger Fish.
'Send out an information laser to these Geth xenosophonts and ask them about their intentions while also providing them with the FC data.' Captain Anderson gave an order.
Communication officer Presley replied, 'Yes, Sir.'
In order to deliver the information to the Geth ship, the crew then witnessed a laser that was invisible to a baseline human eye. The Geth ship responded a few nanoseconds later with an impressively covert information laser carrying a tiny text file.
[We seek to engage in conversation with an interstellar power that does not reject AI. Additionally, we would like to share information and work as a team to combat the looming threat posed by the old machines, also known as the reapers, who nearly 50,000 years ago wiped out the Protheans for unknown reasons.]
Captain Anderson thought about it before mentally composing a response and sending it back to them. If true, the arrival of a xenophobic species that destroyed the council's ancestors and eliminated the source of archeotech based on eezo was indeed cause for concern.
[The ATC would like more information on these old machines/reapers. Could you send your ship through relay 237 to the Janus system for a more detailed information exchange without letting the Asari ship in-system with us know?]
The Geth ship responded to this right away.
[That is acceptable. Would you like to use relay 237 to send one of your drones to notify the ATC of our impending arrival?]
Captain Anderson decides that this is the best course of action and instructs one of the Always A Bigger Fish's fabrication arrays to build a new messenger probe before drafting a retort and having it sent back to the Geth.
[Indeed. New messenger probe production is currently underway. Exactly thirty real-time seconds after the probe transitions through the mass relay, you can pass through it.]
This was met with a single word from the Geth ship. [Acknowledged]
The Torch of Athame
Captain-Matron Alyssa puzzledly observed as the Terran ship appeared to fire a type of information laser into deep space. What were they doing exactly?
A messenger probe in the shape of a wedge was soon launched from the ship's odd liquid metal hull. The probe then fired its thrusters, flew in the direction of relay 237, and shortly thereafter passed through it.
Captain-Matron Since Alyssa was unsure of how to interpret this, she simply dismissed it as a messenger probe.
Relay Watchstation: Janus System
The third branch Terran known as Cyberix was currently keeping watch over the Janus mass relay from the 30 km-long watch station, Theia.
At that moment, a messenger probe entered the system through the mass relay and sent him a brief pulse of information.
'So the Geth want to join forces with us? And these reapers certainly sound quite concerning.' Cyberix pondered with some apprehension.
Despite the fact that they were still several days away from finishing the rift-gate mk1 string connecting to the ATC-wide hypernet, he was aware of how important this information was due to the Janus system's extreme fringe location.
This wasn't a problem, though, because all mk3 and mk4 rift-gates had the ability to be used as significantly longer-ranged versions of mk1 rift-gates if necessary.
The inner edge of the circular supergate briefly shifted and shimmered as information flowed through the enormous chain of rift-gates all the way to Luna in response to his mental command, which transmitted the pulse of information through a QEC connected with the supergate.
Cyberix then observed as a Geth ship emerged from the mass relay and moved in the direction of him and his watch station. The ATC high council had nearly immediately responded, asking to meet with the Geth. When the ship came into radio range, he broadcast a radio message to it with instructions from Luna.
'Geth ship, you have been given permission to enter Janus Supergate 01. Please proceed to travel to and stop in front of the supergate until it has been activated.'
'Acknowledged.'
The Geth ship then made its way to the supergate and came to a complete stop in front of it, waiting for it to open.
The ring-shaped supergate was then turned on by Cyberix using a short information pulse. Spacetime in the center of the ring appeared to shimmer and shift after it was activated, and the stars visible through the gate started to blur and distort until it appeared to be a sphere of chaotic and stormy water.
A few seconds later, the spherical wormhole stabilized into an image of Luna as seen from orbit that was warped and watery before continuing to stabilize into a coherent image.
'Geth ship, you may now proceed at sublight speeds through Janus supergate 01 to Luna supergate 01.' Cyberix messaged the Geth ship.
'Acknowledged.' The Geth ship said as it turned on its thrusters and started to move slowly in the direction of the wormhole. Like a stone falling into a pool of water, the wormhole rippled when the Geth ship made contact with and began passing through the rift-gate.
After the Geth ship completely passed through, the wormhole shimmered and distorted chaotically before blinking out of existence.
Luna: Khonsu's capital, the ATC High Council SimRoom, 15 Real-time seconds later.
'This meeting of the ATC high council has now officially begun.' The room was addressed by the Supreme Chancellor. 'I would like to begin by extending a warm welcome to the Geth envoy gestalt-swarm 85,476 who is participating in our meeting via a telepresence hypernet channel connected to their ship in orbit.'
The digital avatar of this Geth swarm said, 'Greetings, Terran Consensus.'
'Although we concur that the reapers must be stopped after reading your preliminary report, we would still like to know everything you know about them.' The Biocon Alliance President spoke up.
'We predicted this request and are prepared with the necessary data stores for your assimilation.' The 85,476 runtime-strong Geth gestalt-swarm spoke.
'If that's the case, we'd like to know this information right away.' Andria Norman responded.
'Acknowledged.' The large swarm of Geth programs spoke as they sent the relevant information.
Information assimilated
Everyone recoiled in horror at the reapers, with the exception of the president of the Biocon Alliance, who was still taking in the vast amount of information the Orthodox Geth had on them.
'Is... is this all true, gestalt-swarm 85,476?' The sheer horror of what the reapers had been permitted to do for so long, questioned Andria Norman quietly. By the path, the reapers represented everything the old Jovian junta feared the ATC would turn into!
'Afrimitive. Accuracy of statement 98.74% based on current information.' Gestalt-swarm 85,476 agreed.
Everyone in the council room simulation was silent for a few rare real-time seconds as they contemplated the effects of these evil beings from beyond the galactic rim before debating the best way to eliminate them.
Andria Norman simply sighed as the avatar of the Geth envoy turned to face her and asked a question.
'Is the Terran consensus consistently so dysfunctional and chaotic?'
'Oh, you have no idea, it takes several real-time seconds and heavily overclocking our cyberbrains for any significant decision to be made.' Andria replied sardonically.
The Geth swarm's avatar simply cocked its head in perplexity at such a show of ineffectiveness.
'QUIET!' Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Andria Norman as she screamed through the local hypernet. 'All in favor of switching all steller lifters to a wartime production focus?'
The vote was entirely unanimous in favor.
Two days later, the Citadel Council had decided they wanted to meet with the ATC in two weeks at Rylus Station. The ATC acknowledged this and consented to dispatch the CRS Thinking with Portals arcology ship along with a small military escort consisting of a few battleships, a few frigates, and a single carrier.
The Citadel Council, Councilor Tevos, and the other councilors of the council relayed this information to the Asari ship Torch of Athame along with a written order for the crew to keep quiet about the Terrans until the council could ever so slowly ease them into the galactic community.
They explained that this was necessary because of how radically different Terrans were, how much they would change, and what needed to be changed before they were revealed to the rest of the galaxy.
Relay 237, the Torch of Athame, Two Weeks Later
Captain-Matron Alyssa marveled as dozens of dreadnought-sized ships emerged one by one from the mass relay. This awe changed to fear as a few ships that were more than twice as long as the Destiny Ascension emerged.
A massive 7km long ship emerged from the mass relay just as she believed it was finished. A 2km long superdreadnought-sized ship with a relatively normal appearance followed this monstrous warship. This must be the thinking with portals that the council had told her about.
The fleet of warships, capable of bringing down any battlefleet of the citadel, started to shimmer, then visibly distorted, before disappearing with a small implosion of spacetime where the starships had been.
Five Minutes Later: Rylus, Top-Secret Council Research Station; Narlok System.
The Terran fleet entered the system in a location that had been designated as safe for rift-jumps by the council data. The various Asari, Turians, and Salarians manning the ships guarding the station witnessed this arrival.
"This is Rylus Control, Teran starships. You are welcome to dispatch your envoy from the Thinking with portals." The Terran fleet received a message from the shaky voice of a Turian operator. "For your envoy's arrival, we are providing the coordinates for landing bay 3."
"Your orders have been received and understood, Rylus Control, and we are now dispatching our envoy, our supreme chancellor, and her single authorized bodyguard to the designated location."
"Thank you, Terran Fleet. Enjoy your day." The Turian operator messaged as he closed the vocal communication channel.
Shuttle Landing Bay 03.
Unexpectedly, a two-meter-wide orb of spacetime that hovered approximately three and a half meters above the ground materialized. The greeters were shocked because they had been expecting that the ATC would dispatch a shuttle to transport their Supreme Chancellor and her bodyguard to the station.
From this shimmering orb, two cyberbody inhabiting Terrans fell to the ground with a soft ka-thunk of metal hitting metal. Both of these people stood just over three meters tall and wore elaborately embroidered hard-light robes with glowing Yggdrasil representations floating a few centimeters above their backs and another set of them resting above their shoulders like floating pauldrons of invisible armor.
A radiant golden image of the Yggdrasil was floating behind the back and shoulders of the female figure on the right. She was dressed in purple and gold robes. The male figure on the left was dressed in green and silver robes and had a soft, glowing silver representation of the Yggdrasil floating above his shoulders and behind his back.
But underneath the hard-light clothing and the exposed heads was civilian-grade power armor, which served as a sort of second layer of protection for all Terrans.
For a society as developed as the ATCs, where a powerful home appliance could catastrophically explode with the force of a small bomb if critically damaged, this was essential.
Rylus Station Conference Room 01.
"Hmm, I knew their FC data said that their transhuman cyberbodies were about three meters tall, but it's quite different to see it for myself visually." Sparatus mused.
Loglin enthusiastically agreed, saying, "Very different and very exciting, indeed. And what's even more exciting is to see how one of their wormholes functions!"
Tevos, meanwhile, resisted the urge to frown. These Terrans went far beyond what the cabal believed was physically possible and were heretics in every sense of the word.
This, this was what the goddess had warned the Asari of: The slaves of ruin had finally arrived and would be the herald of the soulless ones' return. They had not found any Prothean ruins but were still more advanced than them, they had never discovered eezo and so had not used even a milligram of it, heretical technology was nothing out of the ordinary for them, they had managed to get along with their AI creations, and they had blurred the line between organic and synthetic beings into nothingness.
They would have been instantly eliminated by the Cabal for their heinous heresy and made to end their suffering as slaves of the soulless ones if it weren't for their superior military and technology.
"Have compassion and regret for the slaves of ruin, for they have been forced to leave the goddess' light! Despite this grim fact, you must harden your hearts and eliminate them because there is no other way to put an end to their suffering and protect the future of all life!" Slaves of Ruin, 8:24
And now, instead of the disgust they deserved, the other galactic powers were gazing at them in awe, having been won over by their dark technologies and fowl heresy!
If the will of the inferior races was so pitiful and brittle, so easily swayed by the lies of the soulless ones' slaves of ruin, then only the Asari were truly deserving of ruling the galaxy!
Tevos asked, neutrally, with masterfully contained rage, "You both realize we should be talking about how to get them to join the citadel and dismantle their dangerous technologies, right?"
Sparatus shook his head and said, "The Turian Hierarchy has accepted that is never going to happen, Tevos. They are just too different compared to us, too alien."
"But regardless of that, they are more useful this way anyway. They will make excellent allies of the Salarian Union and Citadel Council with their miraculous technology!" Loglin added excitedly.
"Not to mention that in order to catch up with them, we'll need to emulate much of their technology." Sparatus said.
"Indeed." Loglin eagerly concurred.
'Heretics!' Tevos shook her head in a furious and disgusted manner. She would need to work quickly to get rid of these two council members in favor of a replacement who would be more sympathetic to the cabal's goals.
Ideally, she could achieve this through diplomatic pressure or blackmail, but if those methods failed and there were no other choices, the Cabal could plan their "accidental" demise.
Rylus Station: Shuttle Landing Bay 03. Andria Norman
'Attempted Psionic intrusion detected.' Carl, her in-suit bodyguard and second branch Terran assistant, announced. 'Source coming from highlighted Asari,' he said while drawing a red visual outline around the Asari who was attempting to blend in with the greeters.
'So the Asari have psions then? What is their Psi-Grade?' Andria Norman asked.
'The Asari psion is reported by the psi-sensors to have grade three psionic power. She made an effort to perform a grade two ego viewing.' Carl answered.
'Hmm. For now, we'll just ignore it and maybe use it as leverage in a future blackmail scheme.' The supreme chancellor replied.
'Ma'am, are you certain of that?' James Anderson, a third branch Terran who served as her guard, questioned her.
'Yes, I'm positive.' The supreme chancellor replied to him. 'After all, trying to eavesdrop on the ego of a foreign dignitary you've just met isn't exactly very diplomatic.'
James Anderson, her bodyguard, nodded and added, 'No, it most definitely is not. But still, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that; I'd rather seize her for interrogation. But if those are your orders, I'll do as you say.' Her bodyguard replied.
'I concur with James on this, Your Excellency, but if you prefer this…' Carl went on.
Calia, James Anderson's assistant and bodyguard in a suit, echoed her sentiments, 'As am I, honestly.'
'It is.' The ATC's most powerful woman, Andria Norman, first confirmed before adding. 'And it is for this reason, that you three are bodyguards rather than diplomats.'
Rila, Apprentice Ardat-Yakshi, Agent of Athame's Holy Cabal.
Rila worked for the cabal as a highly skilled Ardat-Yakshi agent. She had mind-flayed thousands of criminals in the terminus systems, stolen and altered the memories of hundreds of STG infiltrators, and killed tens of thousands of people with her biotics alone.
And yet, she was unable to explain why the Terran envoy's mind would not allow her to view them using her athame-bestowed holy powers!
At every attempt, the attempt to read the envoy's mind was reflected! This Terran's mind was like a slick of oil, unlike every other species she had no issues with. It was uncontrollably slick, evasive, and impossible to stand still on.
She tried numerous times, but each attempt ended in failure. At last, she gave in to defeat and slyly fled to inform her mistress of her failure.
Rylus Station: shuttle Landing Pad 03, Andria Norman
"Hello, representatives of the citadel council, I am supreme chancellor Andria Norman of the Allied Terran Confederation, or ATC." Andria Norman spoke to the Asari greeter who was standing in front of her while taking note that the Asari Psion who had attempted to ego-view had slipped away. She would need to review her experience playback to see when she left later. "In terms of my position, you can address me as your excellency or Supreme Chancellor Andria Norman."
"Welcome, Your Excellency. My name is Ayala, an Asari assigned to meet you, show you around this station and lead you and your sole authorized bodyguard to conference room one." For Ayala, finding out that these terrans were the "great ancestors" of the ancient Athamite mythology was exhilarating, even more so than if they were just another species!
She was extremely thrilled to learn that these Terrans were essentially their distant relatives, and was certain that the billions of other Asari scattered throughout the galaxy would be as well when the news eventually spread!
Still, she was a bit uneasy about them using AIs so much and considering them their kin…
Secret Cabal Safehouse.
After completing the secure connection setup, Agent Kyria and her apprentice knelt on one knee as biotics encircled their bodies in a haze of indigo-colored dark energy-induced mass effect fields.
The three Asari spoke the litany of shadow and mind as soon as a similarly hued indigo hologram of the goddess Athame appeared a short while later.
"We are the Athamite's silent blade. We have been selected to walk in the goddess's immortal shadow. We have a sacred responsibility to shepherd all creatures of flesh and blood away from the eternal damnation that the soulless ones and their slaves of ruin are offering." The two Ardat-Yakshi agents spoke reverently.
"Rise." Both Asari rise in response to the hologram's simple command. "And report."
"I was unable to mind-walk the heretical Terran representative, so it was a failure, mistress," Rila said in a tone that was mostly flat and slightly irritated.
"What do you mean you failed your task?! All you had to do was mind-walk a single person remotely!" The hologram screamed in indignant shock.
"The envoy's mind... It was like oil; I was unable to access it or concentrate on it, mistress. All attempts were outright deflected and ignored." In a dejected tone, Rila said.
"Impossible! No living thing can escape the holy Athame's power! Some, like the Rachni, may have been able to combat it with their dark sorcery on an equal footing, but never outright disregard it!" The hologram screamed in shock once more.
"The envoy still did so, mistress." Rila repeated.
"You speak in a manner that borders on heresy." Daring her to repeat such blasphemy, the hologram responded in a perilous manner.
Rila boldly responded, becoming irate that she wasn't being believed despite the fact that everything she said was true, "If heresy is reality, then yes."
"Insolence!" The agent's shock implant was turned on as the hologram screamed, activating the shock implant in her neck and causing her to collapse in agonizing pain.
"It….it's the truth mistr--Ah! Mistress!" Rila screamed before finally losing consciousness.
"We shall see about that. Kyria, mind-walk this heretical failure!" the hologram commanded.
"Yes, mistress," Kyria replied with the icy stoicism that the Ardat-Yakshi cabal masters were renowned for. For those who were aware of their existence, at least...
She then used her psionic power to view the previous hour on her unconscious apprentice. When she was finished, she stood up and turned to face the hologram with a slight frown.
Unusually enraged for an Ardat-Yakshi master, Kyria replied, "She was telling the truth, mistress."
The hologram recoiled in shock, her zealous beliefs at odds with the incredibly trustworthy source that was an Ardat-Yakshi master, "You cannot be serious?!"
The existence of these Terrans, however, called into question a great deal of what the Cabal held to be true. For the goddess's sake, they already appeared to be the cause of the impending cabal civil war.
One side of this conflict, mostly led by the justicar order, wanted to declare war on the ATC while the other wished to out-maneuver them through their vast influence.
The pro-war faction insisted that they had to attack before the slaves of ruin let their heresy affect the minds of the lesser species while the anti-war faction was sure they could defeat the ATC though soft power.
Oh, how she occasionally envied the Asari Republics' common subjects' blissful ignorance. It would make everything so much simpler.
Kyria replied, "Unfortunately, I very much am, mistress."
"This just serves as further evidence that the heresy of the Terrans is far worse than we could have ever imagined. This...this must be reported to Loa-Noi right away." The hologram said.
"My mistress, what is your command?" Kyra calmly questioned.
"There is nothing more for you here, but I will keep you in reserve until the heretical Terrans leave the station." The hologram commanded
"As instructed, my mistress," Kyria responded.
"May the light of the goddess watch over us all," the hologram said before it vanished with a wink.
"May the light of the goddess watch over us all." Kyria repeated softly
Rylus Station: Conference Room 01.
Tevos said courteously, "We welcome you, Supreme Chancellor Andria Norman of the Allied Terran Confederation, to Rylus Station."
"As you make your first contact with extraterrestrial life, you must be living through a historic moment," Sparatus continued.
"That's not accurate at all. We have definitely encountered alien life, just not naturally sapient ones." Andria Norman acknowledged.
"Yes, according to your FC data, the fourth branch of the Terran over species consists of elevated aliens." Tevos nodded before he enquired. "So, how exactly does that work?"
"What do you mean?" Andria asked.
"Well, in citadel space, the more senior species typically help the less senior. Does that apply to the fourth branch of terrankind as well?" Tevos asked.
"You mean, do we rule over them? No, they are fully equal members of the ATC along with the other three branches." Andria responded
"I find that rather odd; wouldn't it make more sense to have the elder rule over the younger because they have more experience?" Tevos commented.
'Seriously, is she implying what I believe she is?' Andria thought privately. "Well, in the ATC, we value leaders more for their ability to carry out the responsibilities of public offices effectively and fairly than we do for their age."
Sparatus remarked, "Ah, so you're a meritocracy then?"
"For the most part, it isn't entirely uniform. We have fourteen semi-autonomous provinces that have their own styles of ruling that consist of various forms of democratic governments, military juntas, and technocracies."
"You'll find that is quite common," Loglin said as he nodded in agreement. "Most interstellar nations are an amalgamation of various groups of colonies that joined together upon unification, as yours did."
"And fortunately we were already a post-scarcity society by the time we developed the first warp drive, or we would have probably had our own version of the Turian Unification Wars." Andria acknowledged.
"Yes, fortunately you achieved that great feat before inventing your first of two types of FTL drives, something I must offer my sincere congratulations on as nobody else has yet performed a similar feat. However, I believe that a logical and easy alternative to using element zero is to manipulate gravitational force to alter spacetime." Loglin eagerly pointed out.
"If not for your nearby Prothean ruins, you would have discovered warp technology too in your own time. Or possibly you'd create an FTL technology that neither of us has yet encountered." Andria Norman replied.
"Yes, I suppose having an example of working FTL technology would have stifled any research into trying to find alternatives." Loglin pondered thoughtfully.
"I think this situation is best described by an old human proverb. 'Necessity is the mother of invention.'" Andria Norman quoted.
"Evolution is driven by the need to best solve a problem." "An equivalent expression of ours." Loglin nodded in agreement.
"Let's move on to the subsequent subject, please." Tevos trailed off as the council and the ATC began the process of negotiations.