Chapter 3

They looked like Asari. That was all Uto could think about as he was taken to see the Vice Admiral, they looked like paler Asari. He was being escorted in one of their transports, a pelican they called it, to their flagship. He tried making conversation with the two soldiers inside, but they were definitely not like the Asari, more like Turians, they stayed silent the whole flight. It unnerved him how silent the black-armored beings were, with only their faces visible through clear visors; they gave the impression of emotionless machines.

The flight was longer than expected; the pelican was slower than any shuttle he'd been in before. It gave him far too much time with his thoughts, these humans were a complete unknown; they could be taking him to his death for all he knew, or maybe they were controlled by A.I. overlords, or just really wanted to see how Quarians tasted. His thoughts were silenced when the sounds of the engines shifted dramatically from the loud roar of thrusters, to a humming sound.

"We're here" announced one of the soldiers suddenly. The ramp of the transport began to drop almost as the soldier finished speaking. Uto stoop and the soldiers moved to flank him, walking down the ramp he saw the greeting party. Standing in what looked like a large fighter bay stood rows of armed soldiers, enclosed in green and black armor, stood on either side of a walkway. Halfway down the walkway the soldiers changed, clad in bulkier armor than the previous warriors they towered over every other being in the room.

Standing at the end of the rows of soldiers stood a lone human in a gray uniform and a clear helmet. As he approached the human, he noticed it looked older than the soldiers escorting him, the fur on its head looked like it was turning gray.

"Captain Uto'Kaddi, I am Vice Admiral James Ryan Haywood," the figure spoke, its words not matching the movement of its lips, "We spoke briefly before, it is good to meet you in person."

"It is good to meet you as well Vice Admiral James Ryan Haywood," Uto replied.

"Captain if you would follow me we have prepared a room to begin talks," The Vice Admiral said, with a smile on his face that did not look quite right for some reason.

Following the Admiral through the corridors of the massive ship Uto noticed how empty it felt. The corridors were spacious, and looked well like they were built for a lot of traffic. He supposed they didn't want to spook him, which was fine by him as the giant soldiers following him were particularly terrifying. He wasn't even sure the soldiers were organics; he couldn't see their faces through their gold visors to make sure, if those were visors and no some form of sensor for synthetic killing machines.

Their arrival at a tram stopped his paranoid internal ramblings. Admiral Haywood informed him the tram would take them deeper into the ship, to a conference room they had set up for the meeting. As the party entered the tram Uto had the sudden realization that he could be killed at any moment and no one would ever know, the Migrant Fleet had no idea where he was, the Batarians could care less, and his crew was in the same situation.

As the full gravity of his situation hit him the tram arrived at its destination and the Admiral led him into the conference room. The room was a gray like the rest of the ship, but oval shaped, in contrast to the sharp angles of the corridors. In the center was an oval shaped table surrounded by chairs, and on the opposite side of the doors several banners hung limp on metal poles.

Taking a seat on the far side of the table Admiral Haywood gestured to a chair across from him, inviting Uto to sit. As he sat in the chair, a holographic figure popped up in the chair next to the Admiral.

"Greetings Captain Uto'Kaddi vas Honorata, I am Minerva, the A.I. assigned to monitor these talks-"

Almost as soon as the thing told him it was an A.I., Uto stood up so fast his chair fell over. In his haste to back away from the A.I. he almost tripped over his fallen chair, and almost didn't notice the soldiers aiming their weapons at him. Only the realization that he was most likely about to be killed brought his mind back to the situation, that and The Admirals harsh voice.

"Captain Uto'Kaddi," he said, "Is something wrong."

It came out sounding more like a threat than a question, and was punctuated by the soldiers aiming their weapons directly at his head. He realized he probably should explain in he like having a head.

"My apologies Admiral, but my people have had bad experiences with A.I." Uto said, "Specifically when they turned on us and drove us from our homeworld."

"Ah," Said Haywood, "my condolences captain."

The guards at his sides lowered their weapons and stepped back, and Haywood gestured to the chair beside the one Uto had knocked down.

"Captain I can assure you our A.I. would never rise against us, they have been a part of our society for centuries and have been nothing but loyal to our people" at Haywood's words Uto began to move towards the chair previously gestured at.

"How can you be certain?" He asked

"Because even in our darkest hour they did not abandon us, they will stay true to our cause as long as we are here to have one." Haywood said by way of answer, "And Captain neither of us has the time to argue over this, you've put us in a tight spot, so if you could start with these 'Batarians'."

"Uh, yes, the Batarians," began Uto hesitantly, "they're governed by the Hegemony, I don't know much about how they operate other than they pay and supple pirates and slavers to keep their economy going, they group you fought off will likely send someone to find out what happened to their fleet, you're not likely to encounter numbers like the group that followed us."

"They use pirates and slavers to fuel their economy?" the A.I. asked.

"Yes, their whole economy is based on slave trade." Uto answered tersely.

"And nothing has been done to stop this?" she asked.

"Ah, no, the council doesn't see them as a large enough threat to do anything about them."

"This council," Said the Admiral, "you briefly mentioned them earlier, what is it exactly?"

"The Council is the governing body of the known galactic community; it's made up of a representative of the three most powerful races and they basically influence or control all of known space." Uto explained.

"I'm going to need more Captain," said Haywood, with a grin that gave Uto the strangest sense of foreboding.

{UNSC UNSC UNSC UNSC}

[Unknown system UNSC Edge of the Abyss]

[06:08:2621 MSC 10:00 MST]

Fleet Admiral Thomas Lasky sat in a circular room with a black conference table in the center. Around the table sat the Commander-and Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence (CINCONI) Serin Osman, Commander Jack Harper from ONI section one, and General Norman Hughes. The meeting had been hastily convened to determine the UNSC's next move in regards to first contact with the Batarian and Quarian peoples.

"Our most immediate concern is Batarian retaliation," commented Hughes.

"There's nothing to retaliate against," replied Osman, "from what we can tell they don't even know we're here, and the 12th and 16th fleets should be more than enough to deal with them."

"It's the council that's going to be our real issue," said Harper, "from what the Quarian has said and what we took from their systems our legal systems aren't very compatible."

"Ignoring the blatant breach of protocol Commander Harper is right, but we're going to need more information," said Lasky, "Osman?"

"Prowlers are being prepped as we speak, we have a list of high priority worlds lifted from the Quarians and we'll be monitoring all of them within the week," Osman answered, "and it was Admiral Haywood who gathered the Intel, none of my spooks were involved."

"Haywood hasn't really been one for the rules sir," added Hughes.

"Alright, let's move on," Lasky conceded, "The device they used to travel, the 'mass relay', do we have anything to shut it down?"

"No, but we do have this," Harper said, handing a data pad to the Fleet Admiral.

While Lasky read through the data, Hughes turned to Harper with a questioning glace. Harper simply shrugged and gestured to Osman, who was not amused it the slightest.

"How long have we you known about these things?" said Lasky minutes later. Angry after having read the reports of another pair of relays that ONI had found and kept secret.

"Two months," returned Osman, "You were going to be informed next week."

"Amazing," he muttered, "Perhaps it would suit ONI to be more transparent with such important information in the future,"

Osman offered no response but a tight smile, both of them knew that wouldn't happen. The discussion stopped as the two most powerful individuals in the UNSC held an intense staring contest, waiting for the other to look away first.

"We're getting a bit off topic," said Harper trying, and failing, to diffuse the situation, "This Council could pose a serious threat to the UNSC."

"True," agreed Hughes, "from what Haywood found the Turians could match us ship for ship, albeit their ships are significantly less powerful, if our encounter with the batarians tells us anything."

"And the other two Council Races, they could have similar martial power," added Hughes.

"But they're constrained by the relays; they could only hit Shanxi," said Lasky pulling himself from his contest with Osman, "The simplest solution is to turn the colony into a fortress."

"I concur," said Osman, "With the proper defenses we could hold those of the council indefinably."

"The Quarians could also help against the council," suggested Harper further directing the discussion, "They already have grievances, if we offer them a good enough deal, they'll abandon the Council."

"Then we make them an offer they cannot refuse," Lasky said with grim finality.

{UNSC UNSC UNSC UNSC}

PLNB PRIORITY TRANSMISSION [CLASSIFIED]

ENCRYPTION CODE: [CLASSIFIED]

FROM: CODENAME CONSTABLE

TO: CINCONI

SUBJECT: [CLASSIFIED]

Successful transference of cruiser weight entity, further testing required but as of now, BIFROST is operational.

END TRANSMISSION

Author's Note

Well chapter 3 suffered a slight delay as the Master Chief Collection just came out (so much new info), and with Dragon Age just around the corner I wanted to get this out before any more delays. Still a bit short, but it is still more setup.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, your input is incredibly valuable.