Tevos was tired. More so than she'd been in a long time. In fact, the last time she felt this exhausted was after a day-long session with the Batarian ambassador some century or so ago, when he'd been…something. It had something to do with females of his race, but it was long enough ago, and unimportant to her that she honestly had forgotten the details, other than that the hateful man had wound up dead at the hands of a SPECTRE shortly afterwards for some crime.
Regardless, today had been a rollercoaster of emotions, revelations, and just in general. She'd had to take several sedatives just to keep the headache she knew was coming under control, as stress always made her head hurt. And this was the worst stress she'd felt in her life, as she now knew those monsters in the Beacon at the Goddess' Own were not just a distant threat, but were actively moving against them, coming for them, within a Salarian lifetime.
It was almost enough to send her back to Thessia, to spend her final years with her daughters, even calling back her sisters to the homeworld, that they might know some familial love before the end came. But she was not that weak. She had been in her position since before the Terran's Robotech Wars, and she would, by the Goddess, be in this position when their two societies, pressed together by circumstances neither could face alone, would become a single unit.
That was, at the end of the day, her personal dream. She hadn't shared that with her Turian or Salarian counterparts, but since that day two and some decades ago, she'd been angling for it. Oh, she was certain, given her age, she wouldn't BE Councilor when it happened, at least not originally. Her plan had been gradual, as the galaxy was shifting, but it was only by uniting that the Terran Federation and the Citadel Council could avoid an ugly war sometime in their future.
Now an entirely different ugly war would accelerate all her plans. All her little pushes were bearing fruit in soil being fertilized by fear, and soon blood. Better, she could now see that it wasn't just her wish. Someone on the Conclave had been helping her, knowingly or otherwise, and that was gratifying to see. That someone in the Terran's leadership could see things the same way she did. It would still take time, only one generation had passed for the Terrans after all, but it would happen someday, and they would be sitting beside one of her people, deciding the fate of the galaxy.
If there was a galaxy, that was. The things the Terrans already knew were…disturbing. They gave as good as they got, of course. That one, Breetai, had been most put out to find out that the Council was well aware of several Code Black level secrets, including the most important one of their engagement with an active, if damaged, 'Reaper' at the end of the Titan War. Apparently he had thought them blind to that sort of thing, rather than understanding that information about an invincible ship needed to remain secret.
Of course, they'd not known just HOW invincible it had been. Their information had placed it as being damaged by the Terran's efforts to stop it. According to Prime Thinker Exodore, that was not the case. Even damaged, with a patchwork on its hull, the thing had proven impervious to Terran protoculture weapons. Even their missiles hadn't been able to get through the monstrous barriers, and it had cost them thousands of lives and dozens of ships, lives and vessels they simply did not have the numbers to sacrifice, to take even one down.
Worse than that was the revelation of the Citadel's nature. She'd suspected, given her own knowledge, that there was something special about this facility, but to know it would be the heart of the invasion? That was beyond her worst nightmares. That had sent all of them into a long debate, before even the Conclave admitted that evacuating the Citadel, right now, would only fan the flames of panic across the galaxy that were already going to be burning white hot when news got out.
Luckily, they did have some bargaining chips in this little tug of war to prepare. For one thing, the Protheans were in need of certain bits of technology. They had only fourty-two members of their species left, and would have to clone more, especially given not all of those were able to breed. However, their physiology, like Asari, had eezo baked into it in a way, and while the Terrans had the facilities to make more of themselves, the techniques and specific technologies to make biotics were not in their wheelhouse.
Obviously, she'd agreed to put them in touch with the best Thessia had to offer, which she'd shot a message to the homeworld to have one of those contact Exedore over a closed channel sometime in the next few hours. Being accommodating now would help smooth over the wrinkles, after all, and in the end, she was seeing, possibly within her lifetime, a Council with representatives of all the species on it, guiding the Galaxy for the good of everyone, not just for a few.
It would still need a steady hand, of course, but given how they'd expanded with diligence and care, she was willing to believe that the Terrans would, in fact, be on par with her own people in helping provide that hand. They would keep the corporate interests from scattering to the winds, exploiting every world they came across, and leaving nothing but dead husks behind. If they survived this crisis, at any rate.
Finally, Tevos was drawn out of her thoughts by a chime, and she stood up. She didn't straighten her dress, but instead stepped into the circle, allowing the tingle of a new mass effect field to interact with her personal one. As before, she sent out the coded message, one that only her sisters could understand. It took seconds for their images to appear around her, their own mass effect fields joining with hers in a moment of blissful 'embrace'.
"Aria, Aethyta, it's good to-," she began, but was cut off, as Aethyta did the mass effect field equivalent of slamming her hands on the table before her, startling both Tevos and Aria.
"Cut the crap and tell me what's going on with my daughter!" she demanded in a shout that ran through Tevos' body. She was about to question what she meant, before she remembered a bit that had slipped her mind.
"Oh, you mean Ms. T'soni," she said, and Aethyta looked almost as violent as Aria on her worst days.
"That's your damn niece! Now what's going on with her? Last I followed, she was on that Terran colony that got blasted to atoms, and then the only surviving ship shows up on the Citadel, so that means if she was there, then she's either on that ship or…" she trailed off, and Tevos, for all her annoyance, not helped by the headache coming back, felt pity, and nodded.
"She's here, her reports were included with the others involving the Protheans aboard the Terran/Council joint vessel, the Normandy," she said, and Aira actually smirked at that.
"So, that little side hustle of yours proved to be useful after all. Goddess, that means I owe you a drink, does it?" she said with a chuckle, and Tevos smirked back, nodding.
"It does. As for Liara, she's currently staying aboard that ship to be with the Protheans. They are her life's work, after all," she said, and the other two nodded, before both stopping, and then slowly turning towards her. She smiled at them, just a bit mirthfully, not quite the smirk of before.
"Indeed, sisters. Protheans walk the galaxy again," she let that statement hang in the air, as both of them processed that, before her expression turned down, and she let out a sigh.
"They bring with them the news I think everyone who's aware of the Goddess' Own Temple's secrets feared. The destroyers of the Prothean civilization, called Reapers, are not only real, but one is active in its attempts to bring its brethren back into this space, so they can do to us what they did to the Protheans, and apparently many, many others before," she told them.
"I'm assuming the Terrans are already working to brace for the coming tide of death?" asked Aria, and Tevos looked at her.
"If you're asking if they can, perhaps, save us from the Reapers, it turns out we overestimated their ability. The fight with Leviathan of Dis was apparently a far harder, and far more costly, battle than we'd assumed. And despite being able to damage this specimen, we're now aware that was the result of luck, not skill, and that luck will not happen a second time," Tevos responded, causing the leader of Omega to fall silent, as she took in that information and let it process.
"I assume you didn't call us simply to tell us it's hopeless. You always have a plan, Tevos, and you better not pull any of that mysterious matriarch crap on us. We need to know the details to get our people ready," said Aria at last, and Tevos nodded.
"I do have a plan, but we must know the state of all the other galactic powers to make it work. To summarize my idea, before you complain, I want to bring everyone, Terrans, Terminus, and all the minor powers of this galaxy together in mutual defense of our own existence. If we don't, then everyone, everywhere in this galaxy will be ground to dust, as have countless species before us," she said, seriously, and the two nodded.
"Not like that was hard to guess being your final aim, Sister. Still, the Terminus, despite what some news organizations claim, is not really united under my rule. They merely know not to fuck with Aria, as all smart people should. Thus if I say hop, they do so and never bother asking how high. But getting them to work together like this? It will take some time to arrange even broaching the subject, let alone making it happen," admitted the self-styled Queen Bitch of Omega.
"As for the other powers. Tell the Hanar that Protheans are walking in the galaxy again, and you know they'd come floating to them, fast as their ships could carry them, and they'd bring the Drell and a few other 'saved' races with them, ones that might be able to hold a gun in a fight," added Aethyta, which Tevos wanted to glare at her for her dismissal. After all, on ground they might not be the best, but a Hanar in the pilot's seat was the best you could ask for, and their ships were known to be quite…difficult to deal with in combat situations.
"The Volus are already building another Dreadnaught. They've been angling to show that they're not the 'protectorate' species the Turians take them for anymore, so they'll jump at the chance to fire off all their big guns," she added.
"The Elcor…I'm honestly not sure what way they'll go. Their government is slow, but I can probably put a field under them to make them move faster, if you think it's necessary," she said, looking to Tevos, who shook her head.
"We need to move fast, but not that fast. We currently have one enemy to deal with, and until that changes, we need to make sure there's not panic in the streets of every world. Encourage them all to start gearing up for conflict, use the threat of a war with the Terran Federation if you have to for the moment, but not too hard. When the time comes, they will be our allies against the real threat," she said, and the other two nodded.
"Beyond that, I need deployments in these systems, and resources diverted to…" Tevos began, slowly giving her sisters the things they could do to help prepare the galaxy for the inevitable war to come, as even if they were to beat this enemy they faced, the horde would come not long after.