AN: Hello everyone, it's been a while. "MEleeSmasher," rule of cool is usually what I go with for mechanized/aero-spacial combat. You'll see if I do that later. "Slim A Lou Prime," the Imperium's tech is SO far advanced above the ME races that it IS boring to fight them. "sonic3461," in order…Rule of cool…Orders…and the Citadel can't do shit about it. "Captain Titus Invictus," I have plans on that front. So…How will the council weedle their way out of this one?

Speech

Thoughts

Radio/machine speech/scene change

314: The Negotiating Table

Citadel Station: One day later

The initial contact between Matriarch Benezia and "Legion Commander Shrike" had gone as well as the inhabitants could have hoped…But at the same time it was worse than many feared it might have been. While Benezia had secured a cease fire and gotten the "Imperium" to send an envoy to the Citadel to continue negotiations; the Turian military had been humiliated, and their home system was essentially being held hostage by the massive warship of the "Legio XIX."

While this was a worst case scenario, communications were permitted, and thankfully the reports from the Palaven system, while painting a grim picture militarily, showed that these new comers had restraint, as none of the "civilian" areas had been attacked. Though this was small comfort to the Citadel alliance, due to how badly the Turian Navy had been bloodied.

They had been told to expect the Imperial representative today, and as such the Citadel defense fleet, supplemented by dozens of fleets from the races that made up the alliance, had gathered into a parade formation…to display the power of the Citadel Alliance.

The sudden flash of unknown energy alerted them to the fact that the diplomatic ship was arriving soon, as such the Destiny Ascension, a three kilometer long dreadnought and the flagship of the Citadel Defense Fleet, alerted the Council that the Imperials were arriving. They were expecting a diplomatic cruiser, at most three kilometers long. But what arrived bearing the Imperial diplomat was much larger.

The craft that was visible once the light died down was a TEN kilometer long vessel, it bore similarities in shape to the Corvus; however unlike the very obvious warship, there were no visible weapons aboard the ship, and it was more decorative, indicative of its role as a diplomatic vessel. Across the bow in the Eldar language was the name: "Ishta's Tears."

After getting over their shock, Citadel Control swiftly set about confirming that this was indeed the diplomatic vessel the "Imperiasl" had sent…confirmation they swiftly received. Obeying earlier instructions, they directed the diplomatic vessel to send a dropship to hanger 84 G, a medium distance from the Citadel tower itself, but not far enough as to offer potential insult.

Bridge of Ishta's Tears:

On the minimalistic bridge stood one of the few high ranking Farseers left over from the Craftworlds, Eldrad Ulthran. The Eldar had amused himself while the craft was forged and crewed by studying the "codex" the Imperial AIs had hacked from the Turians during the assault on Palaven. He was quite frankly astonished that so many diverse races were able to work together with minimum friction, but their multi culturalism made them weak and easy to divide along cultural boundaries…something he would exploit if needed.

As the Eldar Psyker made his way to the hanger where the diplomatic shuttle was waiting, he remembered the orders he had received from his goddess and her husband. He was to secure the eastern border of the Imperium against surprise attacks by ensuring the Citadel Alliance would at least stay neutral to them.

When he reached the hanger, two of the Emperor's Custodes fell in behind him. While the Eldar didn't think that they were necessary, he would have been a fool to turn down having two of the greatest warriors in the Imperium as escorts.

As the transport, a descendent of the older gunships of the founders of the Imperium, left the hanger, Eldrad noticed that his two bodyguards were uncomfortable: "I suppose it's strange for you to be back in armor after all these years."

For a second the Custodes hesitated to respond, but when one of them did it was with a voice that sounded like it belonged to an Englishman: "It is a little…To be fair both me and my companion think that just showing our oiled musculature would've been enough to intimidate these xenos myes."

If this was one of the UNSC's anime, Ulthran was certain he would have a very visible sweat drop on his helmet. He had forgotten that these were two of the so called "stripperstodes," or "pillarstodes" if you prefer; it was no wonder the Emperor was so keen to get them out into the galaxy and into armor again.

Thankfully the dropship arrived at the docking bay the "Citadel Control" staff had directed them to at that point. As the main ramp for the dropship descended, the farseer passively scanned the Citadel station for psychic beings…He got lots of minor returns, none of them were worth noting power wise really, and there was no reaction to his scan from any of the signatures, though the sheer number was a little interesting; but it as it was not important to the mission at hand, the Eldar put it in the back of his mind.

Hanger 84 G: Field Reporter Yeeshara Darev: Ten minutes before the dropship leaves the Tears

Yeehsara was a light purple skinned Asari, a decade or so short of hitting her Matriarch stage. In her role as a field reporter for Citadel Channel Eight News she had seen many events; ranging from new laws to the introduction of a few new "minor races," ie not full-fledged members of the Citadel…But none of it compared to today.

The Turian Hierarchy's military, the bulwark of the Citadel, had suffered two crushing defeats in the span of twenty four hours. It was inconceivable. When the Primarch Julius had informed the galaxy of the worst Turian military set back since the Krogan Rebellions, she had been stunned into silence. But then came the "Battle of Palaven," she snorted. It wasn't a "Battle"…it was a massacre.

Now these new comers, this "Imperium," had sent a diplomat to the Citadel. Hopefully the Council would be able to resolve the situation without more lives being ground up by the war machine the Turians had aggravated…Already tens of millions of Turians were dead, and an astronomically small number of Imperials had died in comparison.

Catching sight of the Imperial "diplomatic vessel", the Asari activated her camera drone, can had it focus on the craft. As she waited for the channel supervisors to get their acts together and switch to her camera feed, she briefly studied the ship. Its smooth lines were similar to the ships of her race, but the wedge shape and "wings" on the vessel gave it a unique look.

Her Omni tool gave her a warning that the studio was about to switch to her live feed. Clearing her mind of her musings, the reporter focused on the present. A click from her drone told her that she was live now, and began her report: "This is Yeeshara Darev with Citadel Channel Eight News, today has been an extraordinary day in the history of the Citadel. The Turian Hierarchy, undoubtedly the strongest military in the Citadel, has suffered the worst string of defeats in their existence…"

Shanxi Prime: Prison Camp Ten, Saren Arterius

Saren bolted upright in the military cot he had been laying on, gasping in shock and grasping where his arm once was…Only to encounter a metal object. Glancing to the side he saw a new artificial arm, it was a bare bones copy of his original arm. A sigh escaped his lips as he saw it, he knew that the army or navy surgeons didn't attach it, as otherwise it would have been a lot closer in appearance to his original arm…that meant that one of the aliens had made this arm.

He was of two minds on this. On one side, he had a new arm, and as he flexed it he found it reacted just as well as his old one did. But the other side was that the aliens who had killed so many of his fellow Turians had been the ones to craft it, and give it to him. He was debating taking a knife to it as soon as possible, when a medic from Seventh Cohort walked in. She was un-helmeted, revealing her rather attractive face and planetary markings, she was from Palaven.

Bringing up her omnitool the medic spoke as she flipped through her files: "Good to see you up and about corporal. It seems like the artificial arm the Imperials created for you is working fine…"

Here Saren interrupted her: "About that, is there any way to get this new arm removed? I don't like the idea of relying on a piece of tech from people who were trying to kill us not long ago."

The medic shook her head as she powered down her omnitool: "Unfortunately not, orders from the General…He hopes that when we get back to our space the scientists will be able to remove the arm and learn something of their tech…So for now you're going to have to put up with it."

As the newly promoted soldier got up a thought crossed his mind: "Wait, 'corpral?' I was a private when I went unconscious."

Helping Saren to his feet, the female replied with the same calm tone she had been using: "Battlefield promotion. Your squad suffered roughly seventy five percent casualties before command surrendered; your new Sergeant, Tobrias, promoted you to lead one of the fire teams whenever your squad gets reinforced."

Shakily getting to his feet, the male took it all in. It made sense, in a morbid way, high casualty rates were not surprising, and did lead to promotions…But it was still not something he liked hearing, most of that squad had been through Blackwatch training with him, and it was a heavy blow to him to hear about how badly his squad had been mauled.

The medic helped him get out of the tent, and as he looked around the younger Arterius was begrudgingly impressed. The camp they were being held in had massive walls with guards patrolling along its length; towers dotted the walls in key points, with heavy weapons…More than likely the walls stretched so far down that tunneling out would be impossible.

After getting his bearing, he nodded to the medic, and headed towards the largest tent, around which most of the inhabitants of the camp were gathered around, which he assumed, was a mess hall of some description. He was both right and wrong. It was indeed the mess hall, but it also had a massive television screen in it, easily twice the size of a movie theater's screen.

The biggest shock was what was playing on the screen. It was a live feed from one of the Citadel news networks. He recognized the reporter, an Asari by the name of Yeeshara Darev. The report she gave, even though it was just a summary of the last fourteen or so hours, shook him to his core. Palaven, attacked. Its defenders, defeated...not just defeated but all but annihilated. The only good news to come of it was that civilian targets had been left alone, and that the Citadel had managed to negotiate a temporary cease fire in preparation for actual negotiations.

His trained eye picked up the gunship leaving the massive "diplomatic vessel" a second before the camera zoomed in. It was sleek and angular, no weapons were visible on the craft, but that meant nothing…The level of technology employed by these "Imperials" made it impossible to tell what was armed and what wasn't.

Hanger 84 G:

Eldrad Ulthran waited for the two to exit the ship first, this was the first time these primatives would see Imperials in person…And few things matched the intimidating presence of seeing the almost ten foot tall armored bulk of one of the Emperor's companions. Something confirmed from the waves of emotions the Eldar psyker could feel through his psychic abilities.

Exiting the craft, he walked forward to meet the C-Sec group loitering around the hanger area. It was a small platoon sized group, forty officers with a variety of weapons, ranging from pistols and shotguns to assault rifles and even a few "saw" type weapons. The platoon leader was easily identifiable as a Turian due to his armor, "My unit has been instructed to escort your group to the Council. This way please."

The C-sec officers formed into a protective cordon around the Imperial delegation, per standard operating procedure…though they would soon find that it was unnecessary to do so. The short trip to the elevators was uneventful; but when they exited the elevators on the floor the elevators to the Citadel Council Chambers were, shot rang out.

A dozen of officers went down in seconds as heavy automatic fire rained from concealed positions…The officers took cover and returned fire, and called for backup, but to Eldrad and the two Custodians it was a waste to take cover. The weapon fire from the attackers bounced off the armor of the Imperials like rain off a steel plate, the Imperials were content to absorb fire for a few seconds…But then they MOVED.

Within miliseconds they were among their attackers, blades flashing through the air carving the pitifully armored attackers to ribbons; each swipe of the Custodies halberds felled two or more enemies with their wide powerful blows, while the agile witch blade carried by the farseer claimed foes in rapid succession with cuts and thrusts that bypassed armor with ease. Witchery wielded by the Eldar fried dozens of foes with each blast, charring their bodies with the other worldy energies wielded by the psyker. Every once in a while a burst of fire from the Custodes' pikes would lash out and claim a life.

It was over in mere seconds. By the count of the C-Sec officers over four hundred mercenaries from various bands, ranging from minor leaguers all the way to Eclipse and Blood Pack, lay dead. The question though remained, who had gathered this ragtag band of mercenaries to attack the Imperials, and why.

But that was an answer for another time, at least for C-Sec…Eldrad had already ripped all the pertinent information form the leaders of the various bands, they had been hired by the Shadow Broker to hopefully steal their tech for study and to sell to the Citadel powers to make the Broker a wealthy being.

After eliminating the mercenaries, it was an extremely easy and short elevator ride to the Council chambers.

Citadel Council Chambers: At the same time as the ambush

Bromides growled lowly in his throat as he was informed that the delegation from the Imperium had been ambushed. While he may be angry at the humiliation that had been dealt to his people, the fact that a group was even allowed near the Imperial delegation, let alone had been able to ENGAGE them in combat, was an even higher insult!

He was unsurprised, unlike his colleagues, when the platoon called in to inform them that the situation had been "resolved" by the Imperials. He had read the reports from Palaven with the eyes of a military man, and understood how woefully large the gap between the citadel and the Empire…His colleagues however had been unable to fully grasp this gap until now; Tevos' centuries of peace made her complacent, and while Lorkar might be used to espionage and back room diplomacy, he was no soldier, and that left him easily caught off guard by developments such as the ease with which the Imperials put down their attackers.

But as the C-Sec officers escorted the three Imperials up the stair to the chamber, he pushed any thoughts beyond negotiating as good an end as possible to the conflict out of his conscious mind. As he considered various options the Turians could offer, he missed Tevos' scripted welcome…but he did catch the Imperial diplomat's reply: "Yes yes, I'm sure that usually gets people to be more amenable and willing to see your point of view…But that is when you are dealing with factions on equal footing or inferior to yours. The Imperium is neither."

A cold chill filled the room when the black and white armored dignitary, who had killed hundreds with some kind of lightning from his hands, said those words…And he wasn't done either: "I'll cut to the chase. I have been instructed to offer this deal, the Imperium will reconstruct all defenses and infrastructure damaged by our counter attack as well as return all prisoners from the failed assault…All we demand in return is a buffer zone of territory to fortify to ensure that such an attack will be impossible in the future."

The Turian councilor mentally applauded the Imperial envoy, he had not only cut down the confidence of the Asari councilor, but destroyed the status quo in one moment. Never before had a foreign power dared to even attempt to dictate terms to the Citadel…And it threw off his colleagues, even the vaunted diplomatic skill of the Asari mattered little against this level of aggression, and will.

While his colleagues tried to argue for better terms for the Hierarchy, and by extension the Citadel, Bromides took the time to study a map of the galaxy. The systems immediately around the one beyond relay 314 in Citadel space were of little strategic or economic value to the Citadel, as such it made tactical and strategic sense to surrender them. As he sent his reasons for accenting, and got an agreement back from Tevos and the Turian government, Lorkar put his foot in his mouth: "And why exactly should we even be negotiating with your barbarous people? If the full might of the Citadel is thrown against you, we would be able to crush your 'Empire' in days."

Brutruns expected many different reactions to the impetuous comment of the Salarian councilor…what he didn't expect was the three Imperials to burst out laughing. One of the golden armored figures retorted through gales of laughter: "Oh sure, your pathetic fleets will be sent against us…And die in their billions and trillions against the Shanxi Gate. Your worlds would become lifeless husks as our fleet bypasses your own and destroys everything that your races hold dear. And only then, would we come for the Citadel, and destroy it utterly."

Tevos spoke in a tightly controlled tone, but everyone could tell she was shaken: "Is that a threat?" The other golden armored soldier spoke: "A threat is something that a nation has no intention of backing up. This is a promise. If you reject peace with us now, your Citadel Alliance will be utterly annihilated by our war machine."

Bromides shouted at that point: "ENOUGH! My race has every intention of accepting the peace deal proffered by your Empire, but it seems that my 'esteemed' colleague from the Salarian Union needs to relearn how to handle diplomatic incidents." Glaring at Ax for almost escalating the war to unmanageable scale, the Turian continued speaking: "The Turian Hierarchy agrees to the terms of the peace treaty…"

He was cut off however by Eldrad: "Unfortunately due to the rudeness of your compatriot, I have another demand. The Citadel Alliance will let any race that wants to join the Imperium do so unmolested. And to cut you off, there is no way in hell that the Imperium would EVER join an alliance that limits its members to such an absurd degree."

Chastised and with no choice the Council agreed to all demands. As they were leaving the black and white armored 'diplomat' spoke in a highly amused tone: "Oh, by the way, you remember the Quarians?"

A sense of dread filled the councilors', and the rest of the Citadel species that were watching the meeting, stomachs. Tevos spoke hesitantly: "Yes?"

Farseer Ulthran's mirthful voice conveyed news that horrified them: "They just joined the Imperium. So any hostile action against the Quarians is a hostile action against the Imperium, and will be met with appropriate force. I consider harassing and insulting them to be hostile by the way. Have a nice day."

As he left cackling, there was only one thought on every person in the Citadel Alliance's minds: "What a dick!"

Next time: Interlude: The Quarian Question, and Days of Peace

Codex: Imperial starship technology vs Element Zero powered ships

An analysis of the brief battles between the Imperium and the Turians revealed some startling facts. The Imperial warships held every conceivable advantage over the forces of the Hierarchy, except for one. Combat speed. Imperial weaponry could burn through the primitive and nearly useless kinetic barriers and armor of the Turian navy with ease; while sustaining little damage in return for each individual shot. They also could reach their targets quicker through FTL than the citadel's mass relay network could send their own warships.

The one advantage of Citadel ships could out maneuver the more heavily armed and armored ships of the CDF and the Legion in real space…However all the speed and maneuverability meant absolutely nothing against laser weaponry. Despite this fact, Imperial engineers are working on ways around the speed issue to make it harder to outmaneuver future Imperial warship designs.

Of course the Citadel is also working on upgrading their warmachines…though the designers of the Citadel races will be the first to admit that Ezero has a limit in what it can do. Unless they get access to better technology, Citadel analysist predict that their alliance will sink into obsolescence and the pages of history within a century.

Codex: Imperial Navy Report: Operation Exodus

As per instructions from the Emperor, four Fleet Carriers have been used to relocate the entire Quarian Migrant Fleet from near the Perseus Veil, to within Imperial borders. There were some issues with the operation. Primarily the shock of having those massive transports making several "Patrol Fleet" vessels firing on them. This fire was less than effective, and the ship commanders had been instructed not to return fire on the Quarians.

Secondarily several stubborn Quarians tried to stay in the Citadel region, believing that standing on their own would be preferable to joining our empire. They were quickly talked down or if necessary subdued by Quarian security details.

After dealing with these minor issues, all that was left was loading the Quarian ships aboard our carriers. This was carried out without a hitch; in fact three alone might have been enough to transport the entire fleet. Just before leaving the Carriers noted a small but rapidly growing pirate fleet at the very fringes of the system. While they did not attack, it may be worth keeping an eye on the fleets in the Terminus space as well as Batarian controlled space.

From the offices of Admiral Spire

Codex: Carryall Class Fleet Carriers

A new addition to the Imperial Navy, Carryalls are behemoths intended to literally carry entire fleets inside their hulls. These seventy five kilometer long, fifty kilometer wide, and fifty kilometer tall transports can carry hundreds of destroyers and cruisers, and if necessary produce even more using quantum lathes once in the battle zone.

With such a massive ship, defense is paramount. Five hundred meters of armor is built into the design, as well as dozens of redundant shield generators all along the ship. However it's offensive armament is only equal to a Battle Barge, as its main role is to carry warships, the combined firepower between them all more than making up for the lack of direct weaponry of the ship.

However despite its power, these colossal ships are very slow in real space. In the time it takes to cover four times its length, a mobile suit can cover twenty times that distance. This lack of speed leaves them sitting ducks, and Imperial Navy doctrine dictates that the Carryalls are kept in the rear of any fleet formation, or indeed another system over where they can produces squadrons of reinforcements.

Codex: Next Generation Imperial Warships

The newest Imperial warship designs are already in production. While the Legions may not need new warships, the Navy and CDF do. As such Imperial designers have learned from the designs of the Legionary warships, and applied those lessons to the new designs. Despite this there are still some small issues, the CDF ships are, despite sharing the same design as the Imperial Navy, less well armed and armored.

There is also the issue that all these ships are heavily automated, AI is used extensively to fill roles traditionally filled by human personnel. The former members of the Adeptus Mechanicus fight tooth and nail against these designs simply off this one fact.

Despite these glaring issues these new designs that are slowly being brought into production are amongst the best warships designs to ever exist. Once they fully replace the current generation of Imperial warships, analysists are confident that no threat will be a match for the Empire's might.

Review please and thank you