Hey guys, TheDoctor1998 here with another chapter! Last time, the Alliance attacked Torfan with extreme prejudice, freeing those captured during the Skyllian Blitz while slaughtering the pirates. And just for good measure, they'd completely annihilated the moon to demoralize the pirates via glassing beams and the most powerful nuclear weapons the Citadel has seen to date.
Now, on with the show!
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01-01-2672
Face the Galaxy Headquarters
Citadel
Widow System
Tiala B'Nyx was once again airing on the Extranet. "Good day to all the viewers across the galaxy, my name is Tiala B'Nyx."
"And I am Nara Taree." A Turian woman said, having replaced the late Nakar Jar several months ago.
"And this is Face the Galaxy." The Asari finished. "In today's news, we'll be talking about what people are already referring to as the Great Pirate War."
"To recap for those of you who've missed the news, the Systems Alliance's territories within the Skyllian Verge have been attacked by the largest pirate raid in galactic history, one surpassing most of the battles during the Krogan Rebellions." Nara summarised. "Reports have indicated millions of dead or injured, and even more captured, including a sizable amount of the newly discovered primitive Na'vi species."
"In response, the Alliance has engaged in an extended conflict with all pirates involved." The Asari continued. "As an opening salvo, the UNSC has completely obliterated the homebase of the notorious Turian pirate Elanos Haliat by invading it before his fleet could return. They'd subsequently slaughtered whatever forces remained, freed the slaves, and taken back all of the stolen goods before igniting the gas giant as Haliat and his fleet returned, killing almost all of them, likely including Haliat himself as well."
"For those of you wondering just how the Alliance managed to do it, they'd done something they refer to as a Viperidae manoeuvre, named after the first gas giant the UNSC had used it on during the Great War between Humanity and the Covenant." Nara explained. "In summary, they'd ignited the gas giant with nuclear fusion, briefly turning it into a star before the planet blew itself up, taking the entire pirate fleet and their bases with them."
"In related news, the Alliance has also raided the long standing blight that was the moon Torfan." Tiala said, somewhat switching topics. "After raiding the various bases, eliminating all resistance, and rescuing the various slaves, which includes both civilians of Citadel Space and all those kidnapped during the Skyllian Blitz."
"After which the Alliance bombarded the moon with enough force to render any garden world completely lifeless." Nara said, shocking many of her viewers. "Utilizing both Covenant Glassing Beams and the most powerful nuclear weapons ever seen in galactic history, which were also used to ignite Theshaca, the Alliance quickly turned the surface of Torfan into a molten world steeped with enough radiation to kill any known form of life."
"For context, Covenant Glassing Beams are weapons used by some of the former Covenant species to shoot an enormous beam of plasma, which can be used to melt the surface of a world given enough time and effort." Tiala added.
"Also joining us today to bring some added context for the situation is Acting Ambassador Tortor of the Free Unggoy States." Nara said, the camera zooming out to show the diminutive methane breather next to her.
"Formerly Acting Ambassador, Miss Taree." Tortor corrected. "The Systems Alliance has already elected a permanent replacement for Anita Goyle."
"Alright then, Mister Tortor." Nara nodded. "Can you tell the people on the Citadel's side of the galaxy just why the Alliance has decided to act in such an extreme manner?"
"Certainly." Tortor nodded. "There are two main reasons. One, vengeance. Some of the Alliance species are much more violent than others for one reason or another. Both Humans and Silurians have a tendency for violence when they or their loved ones are threatened, the Sangheili have a culture of proud warriors who don't wish to stand by when injustice runs rampant, and the Jiralhanae have a temperament similar to the Krogan. All this combined with similar mindsets in the other species means that the Alliance won't let something as blatant as the Skyllian Blitz slide."
"And the other?" Tiala asked, somewhat frightened as she remembered just how close the Citadel came to war with these people.
"A message." Tortor said simply. "We show what will happen to those who wish to destroy or exploit us. The debris that once formed Theshaca and its moons and the altered surface of Torfan will stand as permanent reminders, to warn idiots who don't learn from the past of exactly what their futures would look like if they try to attack us." He then started chuckling. "Besides, these two worlds won't be the only examples of the hubris of these pirates."
"Really?" Nara asked, interested.
"These pirates have been allowed too much leniency." Tortor said. "Now, while the Alliance was more than willing to simply let them be before, that's no longer the case. As we speak, Alliance fleets are already clearing out any pirate base in the Terminus Systems that had anything to do with the Blitz. And in those cases where the bases aren't on a garden world, they'll simply get destroyed with a Shiva warhead or a Glassing Beam. It won't be as extreme as it was on Theshaca or Torfan, but the ruins will still serve as a reminder across the Terminus not to screw with us."
"Fuck around and find out." Nara mumbled.
"Excuse me?" Tiala turned towards her cohost, slightly shocked at the swear.
"A Human expression I heard once." Nara explained. "If I remember correctly, it basically means that if you hurt someone from a powerful organization such as a nation with a powerhouse of a military, you can expect them to respond with overwhelming force."
"A bit of a simplification, but yes." Tortor nodded. "The pirates fucked around with our people, and now they'll find out by paying with their lives."
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03-01-2672
Afterlife
Omega
Sahrabarik System
Aria T'Loak was many things. Ruthless, a pirate queen, a powerful biotic, ruler of the greatest hive of scum and villainy in the galaxy. Not to mention incredibly hot, if she does say so herself. But one thing that Aria never was, was an idiot.
She knew where this blitzkrieg of the Systems Alliance was heading. She knew from the moment that Haliat raided the Alliance and took their people that there would be hell to pay. She knew that the moronic Turian was basically a dead man walking, and so too were the mercs he hired.
True, she didn't expect the Alliance to annihilate the surface of Torfan and turn Haliat's gas giant into a highly unstable star, but in her defense, who would? Regardless, the Alliance has done some good work, even if she hated to admit it.
Even as she merely saw it via the Extranet, she could tell that the Terminus Systems stood no chance against the full might of the Alliance species. Every single pirate base that had anything to do with the Skyllian Blitz was completely obliterated, with only those that held slaves lasting for more than a few seconds. And even then it was only because the Alliance didn't want to kill them. If they cared any less for the innocent, there would be no doubt those bases would've been annihilated in an instant.
All over the Terminus, there was ruin brought by the fury of the Alliance. Radioactive craters, molten rock that'd quickly turn to glass, hull breaches caused by beams of pure energy. The only pirate bases that could still be identified as such were those on garden worlds, and they were only there because the Alliance was honoring its treaty with the Council about WMDs on such worlds.
But there was still one pirate base within the galaxy housing mercs and pirates who participated in the Skyllian Blitz, one place in all the galaxy that drew the Alliance's ire. And to Aria's luck, she happened to be the one who ruled over it with an iron fist.
Again, Aria wasn't an idiot. She knew the Alliance would come sooner or later, and that they wouldn't leave until they had their share of bloodshed. She couldn't rely on Omega's kinetic barriers either, even though they could resist the fire from a Citadel dreadnought. Even if they could resist a MAC round from an Infinity Class, which she doubted, there was no way that they'd block the heat from a Covenant plasma weapon, or even do anything against the Energon weapons of those Cybertronians.
Thankfully, there were slaves and civilians alike on Omega, meaning that the Alliance would have to take this station the hard way. Not that that'd stop them, of course, but it would buy Aria some precious time.
Still, there was always the possibility of working with the Alliance to avoid annihilation. After all, Aria herself hadn't anything to do with the Blitz, nor did any of her subordinates. It was some of the independent gangs that called Omega their home who answered Haliat's call to action, not her.
So, in order for Omega and, more importantly, herself to survive what was coming, Aria decided to simply give the Alliance a little gift. "Keep it moving people! I don't want any of these idiots anywhere on my station aside from the docks!"
Aria was personally overseeing her men round up all the gangs who worked with Haliat on that fateful day. Each of the gang members were heavily injured, with some being doomed to join a pile of corpses if they didn't receive medical attention ASAP. But that didn't matter to Aria. All that mattered was that the Alliance could easily get them without turning this station inside out.
"You won't get away with this, you bitch!" One of the Batarian gang members shouted at Aria, spitting a bloody loogie on her chest. Only to receive a punch into his nose, courtesy of the Asari herself.
"Survival of the smartest here, little punk." She then looked over all the gangsters trapped in the hangar. "It seems that everyone here forgot the one rule in this place. Don't. Fuck with me." She said, glaring at everyone here.
"But we didn't." Another merc pleaded, hacking up some blood.
"Oh, you definitely did." Aria said. "You see, when you attacked the Skyllian Verge, you guys fucked with the Alliance. And now, you guys are likely the last people involved in that skirmish who are still breathing. So, to make sure your screwup won't be the death of Omega, I have to clean house."
"Glad to see that someone on this side of the galaxy has some brains." A new voice said. It was quickly revealed to be a Human man, clad in some kind of armor as he decloaked, causing every single one of Aria's own mercs to point their guns at him.
"Hold your fire, you idiots!" Aria snarled. "Why are you here?"
"Originally, I was sent ahead to see what you were doing." The armored Human admitted. "If you were bunkering up to fight us, I'd have killed you and your more competent men before the fleet arrived. But now? I'm just gonna stand and watch as you throw these bastards out of the airlock."
Aria pointedly tried to ignore just how easily these guys could've killed her. "Can't say I've got all of them in here, though. Some of them managed to get off of Omega before I started gathering them up."
"It's fine." The Human shrugged. "After Torfan, the pirates started getting smart enough to get away. Can't get them all, you know?"
Then, another group of mercs was thrown into the room. "That's the last of them, ma'am." The Batarian in charge of this roundup said, glancing at the Human.
"Alright." Aria nodded before looking at her men. "Anyone who had nothing to do with this mess and doesn't want to die, get out!"
Quickly, all the mercs under Aria's command left the docs, the ones who followed Haliat being bound in place. Once Aria and the armored Human left, the entrance slammed shut, sealing this portion of the docks from the rest of Omega. "So, do you want to do the honors?" Aria asked, handing the Human a tablet showcasing a big red button.
"Nah, I had my fill of killing pirate scum." The Human denied before looking at Aria. "You do it."
Aria glared, recognizing the power play. If she followed his command, the Asari would be showing weakness. Yet if she didn't, there was a good chance she'd die here. Out of the corner of her eye she saw another Asari bang on the window, the poor girl desperately wanting to live. She remembered her as a more recent one night stand, one who came to Omega for adventure. Pity, she had the potential to become a better person if the maiden had a chance to become a matron. "Honestly, the only reason I didn't was because I thought you guys wanted to do it yourself." She said, pressing the button with no hesitation afterward.
Back at the dock with all the mercs, the kinetic barriers separating Omega's internal atmosphere and the vacuum outside were suddenly switched off. In an instant, all the air at the dock was sucked out of the space station, dragging everything and everyone inside who wasn't attached to the room itself with it. Before the mercs could react, they were suddenly watching the stars and Omega outside of the station, choking from the lack of air as their bodies were burning from Sahrabarik's radiation. As expected, none of them survived, their screams of pain being silent due to the lack of air.
"Oh, one more thing." The Human piped up. "Your slaves. We're taking them."
Aria knew there was no way she could say no to these people, so she might as well roll with it. "Fine. Slavery's a stupid idea in this day and age anyway. Why try to break a person to become your personal servant if you can just get a mech to do the job of a slave with greater efficiency?"
The Batarians in the room weren't exactly pleased with what they heard, but they were smart enough to comply with the Alliance's demands. They saw what happened to those who were stupid enough to follow Haliat, after all.
Several hours later, the various slaves of Omega were gathered in the same hangar where the mercs got executed. "I hope you're not planning on spacing them." The Human joked, albeit with a warning laced underneath.
"Just making it easier for you people to get them and leave me to my own machinations." Aria said, rolling her eyes. "So, when's an Alliance ship coming to pick them up."
"Right about now." The Human said as a Slipspace rupture opened mere kilometers away from Omega, allowing a cargo ship to enter Omega's docks. "Get all the former slaves on there, and we'll be out of those weird head tentacles you Asari call hair."
Pretty soon, all the slaves were put into the ship, the armored Human walking in when the job was finished. "By the way." He called back. "We'll be doing some routine checks to see if you're gonna continue using slaves. And word of advice, you really don't want to do that."
And before Aria could say anything about it, the cargo ship closed its hatch and left, diving back into that esoteric reality that is Slipspace and moving back into civilized space.
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03-01-2672
Station X
Planet X's orbit
Sol System
Planet X. To some, this planet was a legend. To others, a theoretical object that would explain some of the anomalies within the orbits of Pluto and other dwarf planets littering the edges of the Sol System. But to ONI, it was the perfect hiding place.
The ice giant was so far removed from Sol that it barely reflected any light, making it nearly impossible to find unless you already know where it is. The sheer distance was almost enough to make this planet lost forever, were it not for the slight variations within the orbits of the dwarf planets that couldn't be explained otherwise, with the planet barely managing to hang on to Sol's gravity well.
When Humanity breached the light barrier, a new search for Planet X was made, with ships quickly scouring the empty space between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. However, space is big, to say the least, and even something with the size and mass of planets like Uranus and Neptune could easily get lost in such emptiness. Hell, from Planet X's point of view, Sol was indistinguishable from any other star by the naked eye.
Eventually, after literal centuries of searching, Planet X was found by ONI. Seeing the opportunity, ONI built a space station in orbit of the hidden planet, allowing them to conduct their operations from the heart of the UEG, with only the highest members of the UEG and the UNSC even knowing of Planet X's existence. To the average civilian, Olympic Tower on Reach was the headquarters of ONI. To those in the know, however, it was clear that Station X had that honor, with Olympic Tower merely being the main base of ONI on Reach.
Even the Covenant couldn't find this hidden world, though that was only because of sheer luck. If there was a Reclaimer in the station during their arrival, the Covenant's Luminaries would've revealed their presence. Thankfully, though, reverse engineering of the devices did allow them to create a jamming station for the Forerunner devices, allowing them to hide the entirety of Planet X from the Luminaries after the Alliance had formed.
After the ONI Purge, though, things had somewhat changed. People like Parangosky were arrested and executed for their crimes against Humanity and its allies, and it became clear that ONI had to be restructured. While Station X did still hold its position from back during the Great War, the leadership had changed.
For example, Section Zero had been transformed from an internal affairs department into the Ethics Committee, a branch that discreetly oversees all the other four sections of ONI to make sure they weren't doing something that benefited ONI or individual agents at the cost of the UEG. They were, after all, there to protect Humanity, not rule over it. They were there to make sure there was some oversight within ONI.
Sections One through Four hadn't changed much over the century. Section One was still the main intelligence branch of the organization, Section Two had some subtle influence in the media to protect state secrets and to boost morale as much as they could in times of crisis, Section Three still researched new technologies alongside their civilian counterparts, and Section Four still explored the grander Universe alongside the military and government. Honestly, the only real thing that changed with ONI was the Ethics Committee and the organization being more transparent about things that wouldn't form a danger to be transparent about.
That said, the upper echelons had been changed. Instead of a single person at the top, there was a council. The Omega Council, otherwise known as Section Five, consisted of thirteen secretive individuals drawn from the other sections. Almost nothing was known about them, not even their names, with only the Ethics Committee being granted the clearance to know about them.
O5-13 and O5-12 represented the interests of the Ethics Committee, making sure that ONI's actions wouldn't cause harm to the UEG or its allies. O5-11 and O5-10 represented Section One, gathering intel across the galaxy. O5-9 and O5-8 Section Two, making sure morale across the UEG and UNSC wouldn't drop, as well as guarding state secrets. O5-7 and O5-6 Section Three, continuing its research. O5-5 and O5-4 Section Four, exploring the great unknown.
The last three O5's were different, though. O5-3 was a liaison of the UNSC, making sure that ONI knew its place as a subordinate of the military instead of the other way around as they'd grown to believe prior to and during the Great War. O5-2 represented the civilian government, effectively being O5-3's civilian counterpart and doing much the same as them. And finally, there was O5-1, who oversaw more grand projects that needed all the other sections of ONI working together and being the effective leader of the Council, even though their official power was no greater than any other O5.
There was also the Administrator of course, a Dumb AI hardwired to make sure all five sections of ONI followed the law, and reporting directly to the President of the United Earth Government if they didn't.
Some might say that this restructuring would've left too much room for corruption from at least one of these bodies, but that was simply not the case. Previously, Section Zero was essentially powerless, especially considering the Chief of ONI could've easily overridden them whenever they pleased. Combine that with the fact that Sections One and Three had enough awareness to adapt and Section Four was so secretive that Section Zero didn't even know about it, and you'd create enough of a mess for the Chief to completely take ONI over.
Now, with the O5 Council, the Ethics Committee, and the Administrator, it became practically impossible for any one person to take the organization over. The Ethics Committee could easily countermand any order if it was deemed to be damaging towards the UEG as a whole, the O5's simply couldn't take over each other's duties, and the Administrator would act as a failsafe to inform the civilian government should ONI go rogue. And to prevent the President or any politician from having too much power over ONI in turn, the Ethics Committee was allowed to make sure the more corrupt ones were quickly weeded out by airing their dirty laundry through the Waypoint.
Despite their new shackles, ONI was still the best intelligence organization in the known Universe. Sure, the STG from the Salarian Union tried their best, but with their more primitive tech and lack of AI there wasn't much they could do. Same went for the Shadow Broker, a mysterious individual who buys and sells information of all kinds. Normally, ONI would be willing to work with them to gain intel, but it was clear that the Broker couldn't be trusted. So, the organization entered a quiet war of intelligence with the individual. ONI trying to locate the Broker to kill them, and the Broker trying to gain access to Alliance tech. And the Council had to admit, whoever the Broker really was, they were good, even with the primitive tech.
That said, the O5's weren't forbidden from simply talking with one another and giving each other advice. It'd become impossible to run ONI as a singular organization if they were. O5's 11 and 10 had really come through a few days ago, with Section One having managed to steal irrefutable evidence from both the pirates and the Shadow Broker that the Batarian Hegemony was the one behind the Skyllian Blitz.
O5-1, being the only one on the Council who directly communicated with the outside world, quickly and quietly sent the information towards the leaders of the UNSC.
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10-02-2672
Hegemon's Holy Grand Palace
Khar'shan
Harsa System
The Hegemon. If anyone in the Batarian Hegemony was asked anything about him, they'd say nothing but positive things that either bordered or crossed the line of religion. Some would say he and his family were chosen by the gods themselves to lead Khar'shan, and therefore the rest of the Universe. Others would say his bloodline birthed the greatest heroes and leaders the Universe had ever seen. A few would even say that in older times, one of the gods descended upon Khar'shan to bed the most beautiful Batarian woman and birth a demigod prince, whom became the first Hegemon to lead their glorious species. They'd even go as far to say that his very blood was divine, and that each of his sons were just as divine, going down the male bloodline with all the Hegemons over the centuries.
In reality though, these tales were nothing but lies. The First Hegemon, whose name was lost to time, was born as nothing but a peasant birthed from a peasant mother who was raped by nobility. Over time, through sheer charisma inherited from his monstrous father, the Hegemon managed to convince large swaths of people that he was both a prophet and son of the gods, born from a virgin mother to bring the Batarians to the Holy Land. Through this, he'd managed to convince his most fanatical followers to engage in a holy war.
The more peaceful religions of their kind were quickly swept away, and all those who didn't follow it were either thrown into slavery or executed outright. Under their rule, many things that even a primitive civilization would consider immoral became normalized for the upper castes, such as rape, pedophilia, and slavery of the most brutal kinds. And though the First Hegemon never managed to fulfil his dreams of global conquest, he had managed to destroy the nobility and nation that had once oppressed him alongside many of their allies.
As the centuries passed, many Batarian governments popped up. Some were authoritarian, others were democratic, with many having rival religions within them, but none were powerful enough to truly stop the Hegemon's Movement. Thankfully, at the time, the Movement wasn't powerful enough to commit to global conquest. Alas, all good things must come to pass eventually.
The Movement started infiltrating the more democratic governments of Khar'shan, many of them presenting themselves as more moderate members of the Movement who still revered the First Hegemon as a perfect holy prophet for whom any criticism was considered blasphemous, while actively denying his more deplorable acts to make him seem more appealing to the masses.
And it worked. Over decades and centuries, the Movement managed to erode these governments, which had started growing lazy and apathetic. They'd quickly started framing any criticism against their beliefs or individuals as hateful and xenophobic, attacking those they deemed their enemies while managing to uphold their mask of an innocent religion that's trying to defend itself. Terrorist movements even managed to spark a war with a religiously dominated democratic nation, and due to the Movement's influence over the democratic world, they managed to paint themselves as the victims even as they committed genocide on the other religions.
As for the other democratic governments, they'd managed to erode the pillars of democracy over time. Introducing hate speech laws that impeded any criticism, even as large amounts of individual members of the Movement murdered and raped the citizens of the more peaceful nations. And as the Movement grew in these nations due to conversion and birthrates, tensions started rising and rising. Until something snapped.
Nobody knew what ultimately triggered that fateful day. Some say a more peaceful member of the Movement, either duped into the religion or actively following a more peaceful flow, was stabbed to death by someone who truly hated the Movement. Others say that a young girl was executed in the streets by Movement members for being gay. Some historians even thought it may have always been the plan of the Movement whenever they'd gathered enough members. But whatever it was, it caused people to simply snap.
Civil war ensued within the democratic nations, Movement members on one side and those who resisted them on the other. Unfortunately, the Movement ultimately won, destroying all pillars of democracy on Khar'shan and stripping all non-Movement members of their basic rights.
As for the authoritarian nations, they'd simply watched and laughed as their enemies were slaughtered, until it became their turn now that the balance of power had shifted. The more religious nations were quickly wiped out outright, whatever survivors that were left quickly being enslaved. The smarter dictators, seeing where things were going, quickly surrendered to the Movement before fighting could ensue, under the condition that they could retain high levels of power.
Eventually, the Movement managed to conquer the globe. Thankfully it had happened before nuclear weapons were invented, as such an existential threat could've easily triggered a nuclear war. Over the centuries, though, the religious power of the Movement started waning. It was only natural, as the higher castes started learning more and more about the wider Universe. Eventually, over many generations, the Hegemons quietly reorganized the Movement into the Batarian Hegemony. Were it anyone else, they'd have been executed for even daring to rewrite even minor portions of the holy books. But as these men were the direct descendants of the First Hegemon, they were given unchecked power, with none that could possibly oppose him even imagining to do so.
Then, the Prothean ruins on one of Verush's moons, Bira, were discovered. The revelation that the Batarians weren't alone in the Universe truly managed to bring the final push into their society, even if the database inside turned out to be one of the most damaged examples after they'd contacted the Citadel.
Still, even as the more spiritual elements of the Movement became less central, the core principles remained. The rigid caste system, extreme power over those lower than yourself, and a near deific worship of the Hegemon, who is always the eldest son of the previous Hegemon.
As for being heroes? That couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, every single Hegemon was guilty of some of the most deplorable actions. Slavery, mass executions, ethnic cleansing, rape, even the odd cannibal here and there. From the moment they were born, these boys had all empathy stomped out of them. Even the ones who were little more than figureheads simply lived in luxury at the cost of others, thanks to the actions of their ancestors.
And then there was the current Hegemon, Hegemon Torsek. If one were to ask one of his followers what he was like, they'd describe him as a wise god king, who had the holy right to rule over the entire Universe. If one were to ask someone without bias who knew everything about him, they'd say he was a moron and a tyrant. But considering the millennia of inbreeding caused by every Hegemon's blatant refusal to sire offspring with the lower castes, alleviated only by other members of the higher castes sometimes bringing in new genetic material by buying woman simply to have children without having to bed their cousins, this was not wholly unexpected.
Lately though, the Hegemon had been acting more erratically than normal, getting angrier and angrier as he watched the news, leading him to decide to secede from the Citadel for good. And for good measure, he also tried to attack the Alliance, wanting to take slaves of several species that even he didn't have access to before. And this was a man whose harem included every known spacefaring species aside from the mechanical Geth, prior to the First Contact War. Any slave owning Batarian could say they had an Asari as a sex toy, but there were few that could say the same of a Quarian due to the difficulty in keeping them alive.
However, the plan had backfired spectacularly. Any sane military commander of the Hegemony would've said that it'd be suicide to try. Unfortunately, the Hegemony wasn't the kind of nation that rewarded talent over bloodlines. And even then, much of the perceived power that the Hegemon thought he had was grossly overestimated, as all those below him had a tendency to overstate how strong the military was, right down to the recruiters. Not to mention how they tend to cut corners with maintenance and development.
At the time, the Hegemon thought he'd add several Na'vi or Human girls to his ever growing harem of slaves. Not women, girls. But right as the Hegemony was about to get the slaves from Torfan, disaster struck, and now Torfan basically didn't exist anymore. And worse, the Hegemon lost out on his new slaves.
The petty tyrant had been fuming for the past month. Not only was he personally slighted by these upstarts, but the vast majority of people officially outside the Hegemony who wanted to do his dirty work had been brutally exterminated in retaliation. He was severely tempted to send in what he thought was a vast armada of state of the art warships to exterminate the Alliance, but even his malformed brain could understand that that was a bad idea.
Still, when one of his advisors entered the throne room, he could already tell that he wasn't going to like what he's going to hear. "Speak." He ordered the advisor.
The nervous man was shaking. "Sir Hegemon, we've received word that a Sangheili fleet has attacked our colony of Sakesh."
"What?!" The Hegemon roared, causing all the men around him to flinch. They knew that if the Hegemon got angry, somebody was going to die. Usually the fool who gave him the information that caused the rage to begin with.
"There's more, sir." The advisor said, desperately trying to find anything for him to simply survive. "We've received a message from their flagship, the SOS Shadow of Intent."
The advisor sent the message to the throne room's holographic projector, quietly sneaking out to avoid the Hegemon's wrath as the message played. "To all slaver scum within the Batarian Hegemony." The Sangheili on screen said, an elder one who had lost two of his mandibles. "I am Fleetmaster Rtas 'Vadum, and I have been given the honor of informing you cretins that your final days have arrived. Too long the Alliance has stood by as you committed atrocity after atrocity, willing to let you exist as long as you didn't bother us. Now that you tried to take our people, we will no longer have such restraint."
"Preposterous!" The captain of the dreadnought guarding the Mass Relay within that system scoffed in the recording. "The Hegemony had nothing to do with the attacks on the Skyllian Verge!"
"We have found evidence from the exterminated pirates that says otherwise." The Sangheili growled. "We know you've funded them. We know you directed them to attack us. We know that you wish to enslave our people." The growling grew to snarling, hate evident in the reptile's eyes. "No more. From now on, the Alliance will not rest until the Batarian Hegemony falls."
The recording switched to the outside of the dreadnought, showing how tiny it was in comparison to the Shadow of Intent as the latter fired its plasma weapons towards the Batarian fleet, utterly annihilating it.
"Sir!" Another advisor rushed into the throne room, followed by multiple guards. "We've detected Slipspace ruptures across the entire Hegemony! We are under attack!" The guards quickly guided the Hegemon to the escape craft, knowing that time was of the essence. At any moment, the enemy ships could arrive in the Harsa System itself.
In the chaos, nobody noticed a Batarian woman of the Hegemon's harem quietly hide away. The Hegemon wouldn't care, he had more women and girls to keep himself entertained to worry about his distant cousin, especially considering the situation. He could always get another good looking Batarian girl to replace her, neutered if she was of a caste that was too low of course.
For the first time since the Krogan Rebellions, the Batarian Hegemony was truly at war. Not a few simple raids via state sponsored pirates, not some "peacekeeping" of unapproved or disloyal pirates across their borders, but an actual war. And what few sane members there were in the upper castes knew that there was not a damn thing they could do to beat their enemy if even the combined might of the Council couldn't do so.
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11-02-2672
UNSC Infinity
Slipspace
En Route towards Harsa System
Fleetmaster Del Rio was, for a lack of better words, giddy. After a quick rendezvous with the cargo ship leaving Omega to pick up Fireteam Osiris, the Infinity and the rest of the First Fleet were heading straight for the Batarian homeworld.
One of the reasons he was eager to start? He would be one of the first to see the newly deployed Spartan IV teams in action, the first time such a team was even active since the Great War.
After the Fall of Reach, all records of the Spartan Program were quite simply lost. The I's, while providing a good step in the end, were useless in terms of data these days. The II's were quite simply legendary, but had a lot of child sized skeletons in its closet, even if the data regarding their creation was lost with Reach. Not to mention the loss of Halsey complicating matters.
The III's had much of the same problems as the II's, if not more so. Less effective than the II's, prone to falling into psychosis, and the even greater pile of child sized skeletons in its own closet. The only advantages it held were the greater numbers and lesser cost. But after Onyx quite literally fell apart after the reveal of it being a Forerunner construct, whatever data there was about their creation and the other Spartans was lost for good. There were rumors of offsite databases of ONI, but these held fragmented knowledge at best.
But finally, over a century after the last Spartans went either KIA or MIA, a replacement was finally created.
The Spartan IV's were, by all accounts from the War, less effective than their functioning predecessors. The Arbiter himself fought against them in training, and said to their faces that they're a poor imitation of the Demons of Old. Arrogant, reckless, and overall less skilled were words the Sangheili used to describe them. Yet, even he had to admit there were advantages.
For one, the IV's were the first successful supersoldier program that didn't require them to be trained from childhood. The augmentations had advanced enough to be used on adults, and the technologies of Mjolnir Armor had become able to be worn by non-Spartans. Not to the same degree as with even a Spartan IV, but still.
Now that the greatest stigma of the Spartans had been successfully removed, the new ONI saw fit to continue with the creation of the Spartans. There was some grumbling, of course, but it was clear to both the UEG and the UNSC that ONI didn't create child soldiers once again. The O5's had clearly learned of the old ONI's mistakes.
While the IV's certainly weren't as good as the II's, or even the III's at their height, they were still a step in the right direction. Hell, maybe ONI would one day create a supersoldier that surpassed the II's.
Back in the present, though, Del Rio watched as the esoteric waves of Slipspace gave way to the sight of Khar'shan, bathing in the light of Harsa as it had done for billions of years. "Fire at will." He quite simply said.
Out in space, the Infinity and its accompanying fleet engaged with the Khar'shan defense fleet. And contrary to what the Batarians on board expected, they were quickly massacred.
Without even trying, many of the secondary weapons on the UNSC ships brought the Batarian kinetic barriers down with laughable ease, almost accidentally destroying all those ships. It was only thanks to the sheer restraint that the AI collective had that the ships weren't blasted into the afterlife. Normally, they wouldn't restrain themselves like that in such a situation. But there was one factor that prevented the UNSC from completely annihilating the Batarians.
The slaves.
As expected from a civilization as disgusting as the Hegemony, slaves were everywhere in the system, including military assets. Much of the maintenance crews of these ships were enslaved, as well as other people in servant roles such as the chefs and cleaners, and the Alliance had no desire to destroy these people.
That said, it was inevitable that some of these victims would die. Either in the crossfire, or because their masters would rather kill them or use them as meat shields before setting them free. Innocent people would die, it was a simple fact of war, regardless of how justified the war itself was. Is it a tragedy? Yes. But considering the alternative would be to let these monsters go and the innocent suffer further, it was considered an acceptable loss.
Especially considering that, in many of these cases, death would be preferable to whatever sick and twisted things their masters do to them.
Still, the Batarian fleet stood no chance. Once the engines were disabled, either through firepower or cyberwarfare, each ship was quickly boarded. Hegemony soldiers were slaughtered, slaves were freed, and within the hour, no Batarian ship around Khar'shan held any living creatures.
There would likely be some trouble on the ground, but plans had already been implemented to counter the bigger issues.
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10-02-2672
Hegemon's Holy Grand Palace
Khar'shan
Harsa System
Lord Sorek, a member of the high caste and default leader of the Hegemony Military, didn't know what to do. Before he was even informed of what was happening, most ships within the Hegemony's territory were disabled or outright destroyed by the Human invaders.
Of course, the Humans weren't the only ones invading. Their allies in the Alliance were aiding the wretches, both in space and on the ground, and Sorek saw footage of it all. Humans opening fire with brutal efficiency, Pureblood Silurians infecting slavers with their venom, Children of the Night striking from the shadows, Sea Devils striking from the lakes and oceans, Ice Warriors using their greater strength to quickly overpower Batarians. And those were just the Earth species!
Sangheili stabbing with energy blades, San'Shyuum in their Scarabs bringing destruction to military bases, Huragok going through battlefields to heal and repair, Mgalekgolo pairs stomping through Batarian defenders like beasts, Kig-Yar sniping from great distances away, both Yanme'e and Unggoy swarming from the skies and ground in great numbers, Jiralhanae going berserk and slaughtering slavers and soldiers alike, Yonhet and Dazreme standing next to the Sea Devils in the waters, Glacius using their subzero environmental suits to blast Batarians with high pressure and extremely cold gasses, Locusts assisting the Jiralhanae in their rampages, and Cybertronians acting as living tanks to overrun the Hegemony's soldiers.
And unfortunately for the Batarians, there was seemingly nothing they could do. While Sorek saw that some of the invaders managed to get eliminated, it was clear that the Batarians stood no chance. "Where are the additional privates?!" He growled to the commander of one base over the comms.
"There don't seem to be any!" The commander growled back. "The cowards must've run away!"
Sorek sighed. As much as he tried to counteract it, it seemed that various levels of corruption within the Hegemony caused the existence of "ghost recruits." These ghost recruits were merely an invention by the recruiters, who get paid for each successful soldier trained. But due to the blatant corruption they tend to have, they only send the bare amount of evidence needed for training while doing basically nothing to train them, in addition to stating there are far more recruits than there really are. It was fine for some time, as there was no reason for anyone to attack the Hegemony, and all their offensive battles were done through pirates. But now, it's come back to bite them in their collective asses.
The best that Sorek could possibly do was to coordinate his forces as best as he could from the Palace's war room.
"Send in the slaves." He concluded. "Give them guns, tell them that any act of disobedience will result in the detonation of their control devices." These devices were often used in slaves of the Hegemony, implanted directly into the skull without any form of anaesthetic, and capable of blowing up whenever the owner of the slave feels like it.
Then, another Batarian walked into the room. Sorek recognized her as Lady Bakira, distant cousin of the Hegemon and a member of his harem. Like him, she was of the uppermost caste, though she was still considered lesser as a female. Even if she could've been the Hegemon, had both she and other ancestors of hers been males.
"What are you doing here, Bakira?" Sorek growled. "This is no place for a woman."
"Oh, I disagree." Lady Bakira said softly, and before she could be reprimanded, there was a purple blur in her hands that shot something at all the other Batarians in the room.
Sorak looked down at his abdomen, seeing a large purple crystal sticking out of his gut. He recognized it as needler ammo, something used by the Covenant species. He knew what it would do, and that he and the rest of the admirals in the room were dead already. "Why?" He managed to grunt out as he fell to his knees.
"I could give you all the reasons, but we both know you don't have that much time." The bitch smirked. "But the Humans have a saying for this in one of their lesser used languages." She leaned to his level, moving her mouth near his ear. "Viva la revolution." She whispered, pressing a button on the needler, causing all the crystals within the Batarian military leaders to explode.
Bakira quickly stepped over the various corpses, not caring about the act of mass murder and treason she just committed. She quickly started typing into the central computer, sending orders to the Hegemony's military which, while appearing normal, were designed specifically to send all forces into various traps.
She then went to the slave database. Bakira had to hand it to her cousin slash rapist, his paranoia did help out here. While the remotes of each control device was in the hands of the owners of a slave, the Hegemony's centralized network could easily usurp control over the slaves. It was considered natural, of course, as everyone in the Hegemony, regardless of caste, was property of the Hegemon. If there was anyone who was allowed to take slaves of another for their own, it was the Hegemon.
Too bad for him that this also meant that someone infiltrating the Palace would be able do anything with any control device in the Hegemony, including committing mass executions in an instant during a rebellion as intended. But it could also be used for something a Hegemon could never imagine.
It could grant freedom to every slave there was.
While she didn't have the authority to do so herself, she did have a few friends in high places. "The fields are clear." She said into the communicator, broadcasting on an open channel. Pretty soon, the controls of the master computer were wrestled away from her.
"Huh, I honestly didn't expect you to be serious." A voice came from the computer.
"My uncle and cousin have made it pretty clear that the Batarians are not on the right path." Bakira snorted. "Still, glad that there's someone aiding the Batarian Revolution. Those idiots on the Council were useless."
"Well, it was either this, or completely eradicate the Batarian civilization." The voice continued. "And considering our history-"
"No need to explain." Bakira interrupted. "Despite Torsek's best efforts, enough of your history trickled through the censorship for me to get a good picture."
"Alright then." The voice continued. "We've completely wrestled control over the slave network, time for phase two. Have you sent the data about the soldiers?"
"As much as I could." Bakira answered, grabbing a device from her robes. "But rest assured, all omni-tool ID's belong to soldiers loyal to the Hegemon."
"Good." The voice replied. "I suggest you lay low until we get there. Infinity out."
Bakira nodded to herself as the comms switched off. She saw that the AI on the Infinity had full control over the network, though she also knew that there was always the possibility the Hegemony could take it back. It was slim, of course, but the chance was always there.
So why not make sure they can't?
Reaching into her robes again, Bakira pulled out several explosive devices, which she subsequently placed throughout the war room. Once everything was set, she quickly vacated the room, not looking back as everything exploded behind her.
"Guess I need to lay low for a bit." She muttered, walking away with the needler in hand towards a new future, free of her family's wrath.
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And that's a wrap. The Alliance has shown its wrath to the Terminus Systems, including Omega itself, and is now on a warpath with the Hegemony. Also, the existence of an underground rebellion within the Hegemony has been revealed, with even one of the uppermost castes having joined it.
There are some other things I've added as well. The theoretical Planet X, the O5 Council from SCP being grafted into the story as the new leaders of ONI, and a backstory for how the Hegemony formed.
Also, a big thanks to the people of the Mass Effect Community, Mass Effect: First Contact Alternate Universes for adding this story to their list!
TheDoctor1998 here, signing out!