Chapter 3 - Sea of Blue

AN: I apologize if it feels like this chapter switches POV to much, but I have two scenes to do in two different systems, as well as the fact that if I didn't switch POV when I do, then I think I won't be able to express how both sides are reacting to the FC. Also, there's the other fact that in another case, if I don't switch POV, you will be swarmed with pointless dialogue as we wait for the plot to happen.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed, both positive and negative, it has helped me great.

The Highmarkian Senate operates in a similar fashion to the Asari Republics, each world that falls under the Highmark flag is represented by ten to thirty representatives, depending on the size of your planet of origin. These representatives leave their parent Wave and join the Servant Wave, or become politicians as aliens call them. Each planet is given a purpose that suited the planet, it would set the path for which Wave dominated that planet.

While ultimately the Senate chooses the course of action the Highmark shall take, the Highmarkian Council, which is made up of all the Wave leaders expect the Servant Wave, has major political pull and often become the deciding factor. As those who had left their first Wave would still feel bound to that Wave, and the leader of the Wave, so they would be less inclined to disagree, out of respect if nothing else.

On a planetary scale, the government types depend on the dominant Wave of that planet. Economic Wave controlled worlds often focus more on communal government, each person voting to pass law, judge others, elect representatives who merely speak of what their world wants, and so on. Warrior Wave controlled worlds follow strict dictatorship that comes with military life, however, this dictatorship is not an emperor, but the Fleet Commanders and Legion Commanders in charge of the planet. Worlds that are dominated by other Waves are either a presidential system or a parliament based government. Each government official only serves for twenty five years, then returns to the Wave of their birth.

For those of you wondering about military government officials, these are often Sub Commanders.

- Documentary on the Highmarkian political system

August 6th - 2200

The falcon class interceptor flew through space like a hawk would the sky, it's engines glowing a bright blue, a beacon in the void. For the past five minutes Josh had been following the waypoints Thor had established, flying to individual planets and asteroids, to moons, gas giants and even a cluster of unknown debris. Everything had been surveyed, mapped, catalogued and given a temporary name. It was in the cockpit, shielded by the orange canopy, did Josh and Thor feel as bored as ever. Flying a cruiser was surprisingly more fun than flying a falcon, at the moment at least.

"Third planetary ring surveyed, mapped, catalogued and named SGP-T3/665." Thor stated in a monotone voice.

"Gah! I can't stand this anymore." Josh complained "Why don't we go do a little exploring?"

Thor gave Josh a questionable stare, he didn't realize they were already exploring?

"Josh, we are exploring, space ya' know?"

The falcon interceptor flew of course wildly as Josh though his hands into the air and exclaimed.

"No! No! No! We're exploring nothing fun, let's land on one of those planets, become tomb raiders." Josh instantly put his hands back on the controls and adjusted their course towards the third planet.

"Geez Josh! Are you trying to get us court marshalled?"

"No, I looked it up! Protocol FEPT-3-ALP, or Falcon Explorers Planet Tier 3 Authorized Landing Permitted! Yeah, that's right, I know some protocols!"

Wow, Thor thought, maybe he is as dumb as I thought.

"That's a fake-"

"Would you please scan for a landing zone? My wings are gonna be burning soon." Josh asked.

"Fine, but this is your head."

Thor looked towards the geographic data retrieved over their first fly over, it was displayed on a 2D screen. At their current trajectory they would enter a valley, a dangerous place for interceptors travelling at max speed, but there was a wide clearing in the valley. It was just before a waterfall, but Josh would have more than enough time to switch to VTOL mode and hover to a stop.

"Sending the waypoint to your HUD, you'll need to switch to VTOL mode as soon as we enter the valley though." Thor instructed.

"Yeah, yeah, hey Thor?"

"Yeah Josh?"

"What's that blue stuff?" Josh asked.

"What?" Thor said, surprised, what was Josh going on about now?

"There, look!" Josh ordered.

Josh was pointing out to the left of the canopy, there was some kind of blue mist, Thor quickly checked his geographic data, it shouldn't be there.

"Strange, data says it wasn't there a few minutes ago."

"Maybe it formed when we were on the dark side of the planet." Josh suggested.

"Nah that's not it, the substance, it's not natural for the planet." Thor dismissed, the geographic data was sure that this mist was not supposed to be there "I'll check the Highmark element database, try and identify it."

"Yeah, while you do that i'll be Alice and follow the, I guess, blue rabbit down the hole." Josh laughed.

Thor tuned his gaze back to Josh, a grin of his own forming.

"You know you just called yourself girl, right?" He teased.

"Uh, this never happened."

"Really?" Thor asked "I seem to remember it happenin-"

The terminal Thor had used let out a soft ding, letting him know that a match had been found in the Highmark database.

"See?" Thor looked at the terminal "What the?"

The interceptor jolted to a crawl, as Josh switched the falcon into VTOL mode, below them were humanoid figures, some armed and aiming at the interceptor. Crashed into the side of the mountain was a ship, a heavy frigate by the size of it, the star like ship was leaning on the valley wall, uneven cracks on th left side indicating that an arm or something had been there. The right arm, that stuck out into the air, looked intact enough, but the bottom arm was all squashed down to nothingness, as for the top arm, it stuck out like a sore bone alright.

"Thor..."

"Element Zero ship, crash landing, surprised its still relatively intact." Thor muttered.

"Thor, aliens!" Josh shouted.

"What! Where?"

"Below us, to our left, near the ship, they have guns pointed at us. So, should I land or fly away? Your opinion would be greatly valued right about now." Josh said with impatience evident in his voice.

"Well, training dictates that the pilot, you, lands the craft and initiates first contact. Meanwhile the navigator, me, remains in the craft, ready to either blow it up or take off." Thor explained quickly.

"Great, just freaking great!" Josh shouted as the falcon began to descend.

The falcon landed with a thud, sending vibrations through the craft. Josh quickly slid the falcon's canopy open, his half retracting downwards to the nose and Thor's half retracting to the back, and stood up. He saw the aliens all backing away from him, towards some other aliens further back. Josh hopped over and landed on the left side, short, prong.

"Good luck, Josh, if you don't make it..." Thor started as he climbed into the front seat.

"I'll be back in no time, don't worry." Josh assured him.

"Its been an honour being your partner, all the way since the academy." Josh slid the canopy shut, saving Thor the trouble and pain of having to shut his best, if not only, friend out.

Josh jumped off the prong and landed in a crouch, he flicked his head towards the floor, shutting his orange visor off, so his face was revealed. These aliens would no doubt want to see his face. There were three dozen, maybe more, a dozen were clearly armed but were pointing their barrels down at the grassy surface, others were glowing, with what, Josh had no clue. Though he must admit, it looked stunning, the view not the aliens, the crashed ship was like architecture built into the valley, the sun setting down right behind the ship.

An unarmed, unglowing alien approached him, passing the others with what Josh assumed to be knowing looks. He stopped a few metres from this figure, this alien, she stopped to. Yes, she, this alien was dark blue, with head tentacles, and Human facial features, except the eyebrows, they lacked that at least. Something Josh realized was that they were all female, not a single male, why? Were they an all female race? How would that work? Perhaps their men are so few that the females treasure them as kings? Or this could be a civil war between females and males.

I hope it's the first reason. Josh thought.

"I am," Josh pointed to himself and said slowly "Star Navigator Joshua Bahti, of the fifty first patrol group, eighth fleet, of the Human Highmark. Welcome to..." What had Thor named it? Wait, was it theirs to name? Could they somehow be offended by them naming it? "To this planet."

The alien smiled, smiled! Of course Josh knew she wouldn't understand him, but hopefully she would hear that he was nice, friendly, and hopefully learn his name. But, then, what if they were a warrior race? Nice and friendliness would be frowned upon. He looked at the armed ones, they were definitely prepared for combat.

"Šï mãbèãrch Benezia." The blue women said just as slowly.

Josh looked at them, really looked at them, and realized something, they were all wearing something tight, something that showed parts off. The armed and glowing ones were in tight, black, leather looking armor, that seemed to move when they move, gracefully, just like Highmark armor, the graceful part. The one he was talking to, this "Benezia", was displaying her breasts. Suddenly Josh felt like he was at some questionable bar, and not in a first contact situation, his hormones were taking control.

This "Benezia", did another strikingly Human gesture, she extended her arm out and pulled it back in again. She wanted him to go to her. Mustering all his courage, he closed the gap between them in a few strides, that's when he realized how tall they truly were. From the distance he had thought that "Benezia" and he were the same size, but now, as he looked up at her, he realized he was wrong. Josh was still growing, so was under the average height for his age, six feet five inches, yes he was only five feet six inches. This lady was clearly six feet four inches. But it was those eight inches that made him feel small, inferior, dominated. He cursed protocol and wished Thor had come as well, he had finished growing and was a giant six feet seven inches.

Benezia raised her hands and placed them on his each of his skull's temple, then lifted the helmet and gave it to another alien. He wasn't concerned about a security risk, the HUD was biometric to his DNA only, it was just a shell for them. To his surprise the alien didn't try and scan it, like he had thought she would have, instead she placed it carefully on the ground. What was going on? Whatever it was he wished it would hurry up. There was Element Zero in the air and without his helmet, it was beginning to get into his lungs.

Without warning "Benezia" raised her hands back to his temples and whispered.

"Èmãrce ëtrîñe!"

"Centurion G! Message from falcon 2-2, message as reads: FIRST CONTACT, FIRST CONTACT, FIRST CONTACT, IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE REQUESTED, NO HOSTILE ACTIONS." The Star Manipulator at the communications station reported.

The sudden message had taken the sleepy Centurion, who had been doing nothing but sleeping and eating, had tossed him around and thrown him into alertness. He immediately stood up from his chair, looking amongst his crew, each of them had their faces hidden by orange visors, but he knew they were shocked.

"No hostile actions." Muttered Kailua "Order wolfpack Dagger to accompany us to the falcon's message location. Leave as soon as possible."

He had sent Josh and Thor out there, in the falcon interceptor, as pay back for shocking him into nearly losing his launch in front of his crew. The thought of puking in his helmet, in front of his crew no less, would be all to embarrassing. So they were supposed to endure an hour of boredom, torture for the overactive Josh, then return with the geographic data of the two nearby systems, they were not supposed to run into aliens.

Then again, vengeance is never what you expect it to be.

"Wolfpack Dagger acknowledges, they are forming around us." Reported the Star Manipulator at the tactical table.

"Entering slipspace in five seconds." Announced the Star Manipulator at the navigation terminal.

Kailua braced himself for the darkness of slipspace.

Benezia stood in the mind of this alien, of this Human, of this "Joshua". Memories of childhood events, his actions and decisions, everything that made him who he was now was laid before her, and she greedily sucked up the knowledge. He was born on the planet "Reach" a couple dozen light years from his race's home system, there he had been raised by loving parents who had retired from active military service, at the age of fifteen he was accepted into Highmark Aerospace Training Academy, where he finished his normal study and showed great skill in piloting.

He had met his best friend, the man still in this "falcon" class interceptor, Thor, here. Thor had stood up for Josh when some of the more senior students had decided he was more trouble than he was worth. The two had gone on to form a formidable team. Benezia slowly withdrew from the meld, ashamed of herself for straying from her original task of just gathering his language, but the information of this "Human Highmark" was well worth the effort.

As reality flooded back around them, the otherwise blackness of the meld gone, Benezia was shocked at what her eyes saw. One of her commandos had Joshua in a strangle hold, a gun pressed to his temple, while Thor in the interceptor was hovering overhead, guns ready to kill.

"Let go." Benezia ordered the commando "They are confused and scared."

The commando looked between her and the interceptor, sizing up whether or not she should follow the order. Hesitation. That was something the Asari could not afford right now, especially when it came a trained commando who had sworn an oath to follow her orders without thought.

"Commando. We must stay on this species good side. They are the key the Asari need to securing our safety. Stand down, now." Her tone was commanding, unwavering in its resolve.

Begrudgingly the commando realised Joshua, the smaller man dropped to his knees, gasping for air, air that was poisonous to him.

"Joshua, your helmet." Benezia said in the same tone, he couldn't die.

Josh grabbed the helmet that had laid at her feet and attached it to his head, he flicked his head downwards and the orange visor quickly hid his face.

"I can understand you?" He asked between deep breathes.

"Yes, what I preformed was a meld, where our minds become one, our memories shared." Benezia explained.

"Mind shearing, just what everyone boy wants." He muttered, barely loud enough to hear.

Josh rose from his kneeling position to stand as tall and as proud as possible, but the fact that he had been all but thrown to the ground by a female had wounded his ego, an ego built on his flying skills and his skills with the ladies on his birth world.

"Thor, land that thing and get me out of here!" Josh said into the Battle-Net, silently thankful for the comm drones that had been sent ahead of them.

"Relax Josh, Centurion Kailua is on his way, he'll be here soon. In the mean time, see if they need help." Thor suggested.

He knew Thor was right and was disappointed in himself for not wondering if they were in trouble, after all, their ship had crashed and was obviously damaged beyond repair. Josh turned to Benezia, she looked cold and had bags under her eyes, letting him know she had had little sleep and by the smell of most of them here, they hadn't showered. Not that he could blame them.

"Do you need help? Are you stranded?" He asked.

"I am afraid so, our ship is to damaged for flight and our fleet is busy fighting off another wave of Batarian hordes."

"Batarian hordes?" He wondered "Never mind, hordes usually lead to something bad. If you can wait, our superior officer is coming to assist."

Benezia inwardly smiled, her little wing, and the rest of the wounded, might just be saved after all.

"Yes, thank you."

"Thor, activate a beacon and land that thing." Josh said.

"Alright, coming down."

"We have entered the third planet's orbit." Announced the fourth Star Navigator of the HSV Boston.

"Sir, Falcon 2-2 is hailing us." The Star Manipulator at the communications said.

"Accept the hail." Kailua ordered.

Before the still sitting Centurion, a Star Navigator in standard combat and flight gear was projected before him, his head tilted to the floor. It was Thor no doubt, Josh wasn't one to make reports to his superior officers, his mouth and undisciplined attitude had given him a yellow flag many times until Thor had taken over.

"Sir," Thor started "we need immediate medical assistance. The aliens we made contact with are wounded."

"Communications, alert medical, I want medical shuttles at Thor's location asap." Kailua ordered without a second thought.

The medical nanites, that solved nearly every problem, would map the alien's biology and identify how to solve the problem. After that, the nanites would carry out the necessary repairs then transmit the biology to his ship, and finally, once they were done, they would simply dissolve and exit the body the next time the user had to pee.

"Yes sir!" As the communications officer began to distribute the orders to the five ships, Kailua turned his attention back to Thor.

"What. Happened?"

Centurion S class Ricky Bhatt walked around the diamond bridge of his frigate, the HSV Dawn of Justice, he was stretching his legs as he was a Star Centurion, or captain as the twenty first century would call him, walking for long periods of time was not an option on his small ship, but even he needed exercise, and because he was on duty he couldn't pay a visit to the gym yet. Whispers had already began to buzz around the ship as to why their lead cruiser, and four other frigates, had departed to save just one recon team. It rased the all important question "What had happened to them?".

"Communications, why do you think Wolfpack Dagger and the HSV Boston went to save a recon team?" Bhatt asked, as he sat down at the centre of the bridge.

The Star Manipulator looked up, clearly startled by the sudden break in the peaceful silence of the bridge.

"Well, a recon team would warrant a frigate to rescue them, not four. So it can't be a Search and Rescue mission. In fact, the only thing that might warrant a cruiser is..."

"First Contact." He finished "Or a pirate base trying to restart the golden age of piracy."

"It would most likely be the former, as stealing and pirate related things have been forgotten by the public, as nearly everyone has a job now. Actually, what little crime remains is murder, espionage between corporations or unbecoming behaviour." The XO added to the conversation, as she entered the bridge.

Whoever designed female armor was clearly a fool, most likely attempting to distract on duty and off duty males for whatever reason, it showed every curve and assets the wearer had. A really distracting sight. Luckily most Highmarkians respected each other to much to stare, but for the more inappropriate ones, well only a matte black cloak blocked their view. It wasn't worn by females in combat of course, unless she believed it wouldn't get in the way.

"Right," the Star Manipulator agreed "so... First Contact."

"So it would seem."

Matriarch Benezia winced slightly under the touch of a human legionarie, his grip was firm on the old woman's left arm, she felt a pin prick on her shoulder, then he let go.

"The nanites will heal all external and internal wounds, they will map your biology then do their jobs. Afterwards they will transmit the data to other nanites to save time, and then dissolve into waste." The man said calmly, strangely unfazed by the fact she was an alien, maybe it was because they looked similar.

"Thank you." Benezia thanked, he then went off to treat another Asari.

She was still the only alien who could speak English, so communicating between the Asari and Humans were difficult, but the Human treatment method didn't involve talking, only a reassurance on her part and a needle to the arm, so the problem of communication could be ignored, for now at least.

Matriarch Benezia slowly stood up from the crate she had sat on, she could feel the nanites flowing through her body, mapping Asari biology in seconds and determining the best solution for her wounds. The feeling was weird, to say the least, they were like a tingling feeling all over her body. It was to be expected, the medic had told her, that these nanites were designed for Human DNA not Asari, it would take them a short period of time to adept to their alien biology. The aging Matriarch was stunned at just this piece of technology alone, but she knew they had crafted even greater technologies, inventions that the Asari would no doubt use in the ages to come.

She made her way over to Matriarch Lindanya, she had just taken a dosage of nanites and was beginning to stand up. As the battle hardened Matriarch finally stood up, she casted a look over the organized chaos that was before her.

"I wouldn't mind their easy job," She muttered, barely loud enough for Benezia to hear "just inject a needle and the jobs done."

The two walked towards the lone interceptor in a field of shuttles, they walked down the corridors of people, all of which were in varying states of injury. Purple blood stained the grassy fields, while Eezo visible drifted in the air, they were immune to it as the Asari had evolved in Eezo, however, the Humans weren't as lucky, for them it was toxic. Wearing helmets at all times was a must for them, and because their visors weren't transparent, she was the only one who had gotten a good look at them.

"Then I got mind sex." They heard Josh use his child's voice, as they approached the interceptor.

Mind sex? Benezia had told him they had shared memories, not performed a Union, but then again he could be exaggerating, or had she gone to far in her search for answers? She hoped not. While Josh was attractive, by her standards anyway, he was simply to young and she to old, plus, a forced bondage is not a good way to start a new relation with a new species.

"Of course, whatever you say Josh. Tell the alien leader that a diplomatic vessel is already on its way, escort them up to the HSV Boston, they must be hungry." The holographic image of a Human commander said then muttered something nearly to quite for Benezia to hear "They must also smell, so they can shower as well, these "Asari" cannot meet the Master Oracle smelly."

Josh laughed.

"Your right," he said a little to loud "they kinda do..." he didn't finish as he spotted the two Matriarchs staring at him "I take it you heard that?"

"Contacts!" The Star Manipulator at the sensors terminal bellowed "fifty, sixty-one, ninety three ships have just entered the system."

"Sir, the HSV Dawn of Will, the HSV Dawn of Iron and the HSV Dawn of Hope has been alerted, the Will is moving to protect the scientists, the Iron and Hope are forming up on us now." The Star Manipulator at the communications terminal reported.

"Comms, order the Deimos platoon to bunker down, prep all of our legionarie details and raise shields. Status of the unknown fleet?"

As frigates were patrol vessels, they were required to have at least one squad of combat capable legionaries, meaning the eight frigates of a patrol group would have forty eight legionaries and two combat medics, a whole platoon. While the combat medics and twenty four legionaries had gone after the recon team, he was sure that the eighteen legionaries that would be near the unknown fleet could capture a ship.

"The unknown fleet, or should I say fleets, are firing on one another. I have scanned their vessels and have confirmed these are made from two different factions, I'd say two different species judging by colour and vessel design."

"Which side is winning?" Bhatt asked.

"It's hard to tell as the two sides have merged, but... I think the less advanced side is winning. Sir, the Mantle states-"

"I know what the writings of the Mantle." The Centurion snapped.

The Star Manipulator recoiled at the sudden harshness in his superior officer's tone, Centurions were lifers, those who decide to remain in the Wave for their entire life. As it was the duty of the Warrior Wave to enforce the Mantle, they had all been indoctrinated to live by the tenants of the Mantle, willingly of course. It was for this reason, and a few others, not many Warriors left the Wave as it was all their studies had focused on: becoming a warrior and enforcing the Mantle. They simply weren't suited for other Waves, this would be true for their children as well.

It defied the way how Human society was suppose to work, but this had been a problem since the dawn of man, if you kill in the name of you country, your government, and so so over and over again, it is hard to reintegrate with civilians that have no blood on their hands. Such was the reason Veteran villages existed, secluded towns for warriors who's time had come.

"Order the Iron and Hope to make a corridor, full power to shields, split the forces in two. Ancilla, try to hack their ships and force them to stop fighting." He ordered.

"The Iron and Hope acknowledges, they are moving into position."

"I have successfully captured all unknown combatants, parting them." The Ancilla reported "Monitoring alien conversations and language databases, cross referencing, compiling translation."

"Displaying sensor data."

A holographic map of the system was projected before the Centurion, they had quickly reached the fourth planetary ring and had arrived at the two unknown fleets coordinates. Each unknown fleet group was displayed in grey, the groups were designated group one and group two, with two green icons in between the two groups and his ship, a blue icon, approaching the "centre" of this cluster.

"Ancilla, how long until a translator in created?" Bhatt asked the ship.

"Thirty minutes and fifty five seconds."

"And what can you tell us of these factions?" The XO asked, as she stood beside the Centurion.

"These fleets belong to two different species: Asari and Batarian, as far as I can tell. The Asari are an all feminine race who lean toward peaceful solutions, and the Batarians are slavers that use other races for manual labour and a sign of social status, at least this is what I have observed in their respective fleets databases."

"Ancilla, prepare a Slipspace drone bound for Centurion Kailua, we need his presence. Send all relative data."

"Acknowledged, report secured and away."

An eerie silence encompassed the bridge, the ship's Ancilla was still working on a translator so there was nothing for the organic crew members to do, except maintain the ship and await for the completion of a translator.

Liara walked amongst the "Human" crew on their dreadnought sized ship, her mother had melded with her on the shuttle ride here along with Matriarch Lindanya, and shared with them the language of Humans. This new species fascinated her in a way that not even the Protheans could, their ships and technology was clearly advanced, perhaps more so than the technological tree of Element Zero. For Goddess sake, they have a one kilometre long ship in the atmosphere of a planet! Only Citadel frigates could do that! The Humans looked at her with what she assumed to be curiosity, maybe fear, or was it lust? She couldn't figure out which one was the best fit, then again who was she to guess, she rarely understood Asari facial expressions.

She walked over to the food counter and saw a variety of food that looked like it belonged on a cruise ship, not a military vessel, although Liara decided not to complain. After spending days eating military food, anything would be better. Liara looked at the food with a curious, worried expression, she had been standing there for what felt like ages, trying to decide what to eat. It was all so alien to her. She could just walk away and not eat anything, but she was hungry, it might also appear rude, as if she was too good for their food. If she did eat something, she could find it disgusting then spit it out, who knew what would happen then?

"May I suggest the Qui'arne?" A voice from behind her asked in English.

Liara hesitantly turned around to see the face of a Human female, she blinked in surprise at what she saw: the Human had removed her helmet, showing her well toned cheeks, her eyes were marvellous, large purple iris dominated the eyes, and long yellow hair fell down her back.

'So this is what Human females look like.' Liara thought.

"The the the Qui'a?" She stuttered, realizing she had been staring.

"Qui'arne." The Human corrected "it is a collection of fruits melded with sweets, it is more of a party food really, but the chef made a tray full of them, this is, after all, a special occasion."

Liara looked back to the food counter, there were dozens of trays full of food lined up, which one was it?

"Here," The Human pointed, picking up a plate from the tray and handing it to Liara "be warned: unless you have a fast metabolism, this can make you very hyper."

"That will be no problem." Liara assured her "Would you sit with me?"

The Human gave Liara a small smile and nod, she had probably expected the question as, if Humans were as perceptive as was to be believed, the female already knew that Liara was socially awkward and would need help settling in. Of course she would have preferred her mother or guardian to be here with her, but the duties of Matriarchs came before her, it stung to be considered less important than their jobs, however, complaining would only follow the stereotype maiden, something Liara had planned on never following.

"Sure." The Human grabbed her own plate of Qui'arne, then led Liara over to a empty table in the corner.

"I could not recognized any meat available for selection." Liara mentioned as she sat down.

"That is because there was no meat available, eating meat has be illegal for several decades now." Her companion said before starting to eat a red ball with sprinkles on it.

An all vegetarian race? The thought was disturbing, all species needed meat, the protein it provided, but for several decades all they ate and will eat is vegetables? It was time for a Q and A session, as the pilot Josh had called his questions of the Asari people.

"Truly?" Liara wondered aloud after swallowing a piece of a red ball with sprinkles on it, the sweetness was delightful, magical even "Does your species not require protein?"

"Of course we do, we use genetic modifications so that eggs, beans, nuts, anything really, will provide the protein we need. Eating meat is just wrong in our eyes, it is against the Mantle of Responsibility."

Genetic modification? Maybe they had cybernetic modifications too? And the Mantle of Responsibility!? This Human and her kind were such a mystery, one that needed to be solved.

"What is the Mantle of Responsibility?" Liara asked.

CODEX:

Fall of The Council:

The Citadel Council was the latest galactic government to fall. It once stood as a beacon of light in the darkness of this galaxy, uniting dozens of species under the collective rule of The Big Three. Pretenders to the Mantle. When their time as fake caretakers came, it was not from the legions of the Highmark, nor from any other outside force, but from one of their most trusted "Spectres".

A one Saren Arterius, the longest living Turian Spectre at the time, had interacted with a "Prothean Beacon", it transmitted the Turian images of the fall of the Prothean Empire. He set about finding information of these "Reapers", visiting hundreds of Prothean dig sites and even enlisting the help of an Asari Matriarch. After months of searching Saren was approached by a Reaper known only as "Sovereign", it confirmed the Turian's suspicions of the Reaper threat and tried to indoctrinate him. For a time the Reaper was successful, gaining the support of religious Geth and discovering the Conduit, a mini Mass Relay left behind by the Protheans.

Saren used the Conduit as a back door to the Citadel Presidium, there he made his way to the Council Chambers, awaiting for him was his old student: Nihlus Kryik. Seeing the young Spectre, ignorant of the threat, gave Saren the strength to break the indoctrination and warn the young Turian of the Reapers. He orders a full evacuation of the Citadel, to which only Nihlus and a few other Spectres follow, then makes his way to the core of the Citadel. While Saren fights Sovereign in his mind as the Reaper and the Geth army invades the Citadel, he arrives at the power core for the Citadel, the Mass Effect field generators, Reaper built power plants, and the Mass Relay leading to Dark Space. He successfully overloads the power core, causing a giant explosion that destabilized the Mass Relay, the energy realise from both explosions destroyed the entire system, and Sovereign, in seconds.

Months after the Destruction of The Citadel, Nihlus, and the other Spectres who had followed Saren's orders, reported to the Asari, Turian and Salarian governments. Unity amongst the three species is soon lost, as the Hierarchy defends the actions of Saren: stopping a potential threat to the galaxy, while the Asari see his actions and the Hierarchy as nothing more than warmongers, trigger happy primitives, that will see to the destruction of the galaxy, while the Salarians are outraged at the loss of dozens of Dalatrasses and the technology on the Citadel.

The Big Three soon split, taking the younger races as client races or forcing them into exile. War quickly follows, with hundreds of Asari-Turian-Salarian battles raging across the galaxy.

With the galaxy in chaos, and no one doing anything to stop it, the Highmarkian Council has called for order.