PALAVEN

APIEN CREST

TREBIA SYSTEM

EARLY MORNING, NOVEMBER 16TH, 2188

THE VESSEL APPEARED OUT OF A LITERAL NOWHERE.

Salvaged scans showed only that space seemed to 'fold-over' itself. There was no warning and no turian ships in orbit had time to react.

The ship was of immense size, a kilometres-long cylinder in an elegant arc with graceful curved spires that projected backward like skeletal wings. It was the colour of dried blood, covered with symbols in a stark glacial white, easily many times larger than any turian dreadnought. It was accompanied by a single vessel the size of an arm of the Citadel, bone-white and shaped like a sword. It ignored all hails, all calls to stop, all threats. The two vessels then moved only to park themselves in Palaven's orbit.

A large object tumbled from it and then the vessel removed itself from orbit and vanished as it had arrived. The accompanying vessel ploughed through the few ships that could challenge it and the single dreadnought that managed to engage the white vessel died with two shots that shattered it and dispersed its remains. It likewise disappeared.

The object 'dropped' to Palaven and those same scans showed it to be rife with unstable dark matter, surrounded by a thick magnetic bubble and a field of energy that resembled a kinetic barrier but was immensely stronger than any in operation. There was little doubt as to its purpose. The bomb dropped through Palaven's atmosphere and impacted the ancient city of Tal'Vashokli almost dead-centre, the kinetic force leveling the city and killing all inhabitants - and kept going, punching into the ground like a boulder dropping into deep water.

Scans lost it after it had passed into the planet's mantle. Alarms sounded all over the planet and those who could ran for ships – anything. Palaven was in no shape, however, the Reapers had devastated much of the infrastructure and decimated its population. The fleet in orbit scrambled to get to the surface, every ship that could, did. Every allied ship that could be spared made best speed for Palaven. Everything on Palaven that could make orbit was stuffed to capacity.

Those who could be saved were saved, the rest could only be mourned.

Approximately 55 minutes after the ship had appeared and the bomb 'dropped', Palaven ground sensors and orbital stations registered an immense pressure building inside the planet. Denakk'alli Volcano, the largest on Palaven, situated in the middle of the Hollolan Sea, exploded with a force never seen before, sending fifty metre high tsunami blasting ashore to flood many kilometres inland, wiping the land clean of every structure and living thing. The pyroclastic flows followed, flash-steamed the floodwaters, roasting the few things to survive in their wake. The plume of ash rose thirty-five kilometres into the air. Denakk'alli spawned others almost immediately.

That evening, fault lines began to split open all across the planet, appearing as orange tears on the surface from space. One huge one speared through Palaven's capital city, engulfing that city in an immense and sudden burning sinkhole a hundred kilometers across.

More followed over the next two days, with the same result. The Galaxy could only watch in horror as Palaven split from the inside. A few frantic calls for aid crackled through the now-sulfurous and choked sky. Some ships dove in on desperate sorties and didn't return.

The atmosphere went black and started to burn, a hellstorm that consumed everything.

The planet went silent save for the crackle of its death-throes. The fifteen thousand year civilization a hundred Reapers and fifty million husks could not destroy was erased.

By one ship. With one weapon. In two days.

Palaven was dead.

ACROSS THE GALAXY people reeled with shock and dismay. Whole turian colonial populations wailed. Hundreds of personnel in the turian navy committed suicide, mostly officers, citing 'dereliction of duty'. Only an executive order halted any more until reason could prevail. What was left of fleets and armies were called to mobilize but everyone knew the score – if it was an invasion, the perfect time had been chosen. Relays were clogged with ships rushing to defend their homeworlds. Half of the barely-there comm buoy network crashed with the sudden flood of communication. People saw invaders everywhere.

Some governments fell amidst explosive riots and thousands died in an unreasoning wave of violence that swept the Galaxy with the news of Palaven's destruction.

By the time the news reached Ilmnos, there was no one there to hear it.