Disclaimer: The Mass Effect series and all its associated products, characters and storyline belong to Bioware. This is a fanfiction with which no profit was made.

Author's Note: This is my second fanfic. Like in my first, any form of review, from hellish flaming to hero worship and everything in between is welcome. The whole thing will be heavily AU with a strong and independent humanity. Most of the story will be from the viewpoint of the council and citadel races. Pairings are undecided. I will try to use as many known characters as possible to preserve the unique atmosphere of Mass Effect.

But most importantly this time round the hyper-cookies will be delivered by kittens with laser-eyes.

Chapters One: Facing The Unknown

„... concerning the situation in the Verge..."

Sighing heavily Councillor Tevos leaned back in her luxuriously upholsterer chair. She eyed her Salarian counterpart wearily.

"I was not aware there is a situation in the Skyllian Verge that may require our attention at this moment my dear Valern.", said Tevos, asking herself not for the first time how a species so short-lived like the Salarians could speak for so long about, in her opinion, minor bits of military intelligence.

The Citadel Council held their regular discussion on day to day policy in a grand chamber heavily secured against any form of recording. The computer system used by the councilors in this chamber was completely independent and isolated from the galactic extranet as well as the citadel's own network to make any attempt of hacking futile right at the most basic level. The air was filtered and recycled through a separate system and in the large windows holographic screens to project an image of an empty chamber or one of the councilors working alone to prevent lipreading.

Councilor Sparatus, representing the Turian Hierarchy, spoke in his dual-tone: "I was under the impression our generous concessions towards the Hegemony stabilized the region."

The Salarian councilor Valern sat up straighter. He knew presenting his concerns at the end of a rather long meeting was not the most prudent tactic, but he hoped his colleagues would approve his suggestions simply to get out of the meeting. He would settle for impatient dismissal, if consensus could not be obtained at such an early stage of the intelligence gathering.

"I concur this seemed to be the case when the Batarians first started their expansion in the Skyllian Verge. Their colonization efforts seemed to stop the pirate activity in the region, if only for the fact that was now their own space the pirates would be robbing." Sparatus did not even try to hide a sneer at this rather accurate assumption of his Salarian counterpart. The Batarians had claimed to set out to stop piracy. What they had done was simply stop sending their corsair flottilas and sanctioned pirates into the region. It was a rather clumsy but effective method to establish themselves as the Galaxies new golden boys.

"I can sense a rather large but. Do you suggest our efforts to stop the Verge's descend towards the level of the Terminus Systems were fruitless in the end?", tried Tevos to hurry Valern along. She longed for a large glass of Thessian wine and the arms of one of the Consort's more talented Acolytes.

Slightly miffed at the interruption Valern continued: "We gathered indirect, but nevertheless clear, evidence of strong opposition against the Hegemony during recent months. Batarian production of military vessels is at an all-time high. Recruitment efforts increased significantly. STG-teams intercepted more than one message from the batarian military to the civilian government and back with instructions to prepare their economy for a military budget at least twice the current level."

"This is nothing to concern ourselves with." Sparatus reached for his drink and continued. "It seems natural they would increase their efforts. Seeing they try to stabilise a whole region of the galaxy. One could even go so far and assume they optimistically prepare themselves for a larger role in citadel-space in the near future." Tevos nodded at this while gesturing towards her commando for a refill of her own drink.

"Neither the number of their ships nor their troops increase." said Valern like a master gambler, revealing his winning hand at skyllian five.

"What?!" As always Sparatus masked his confusion with anger. Tevos on the other hand felt herself intrigued despite her former annoyance. She could however not deny herself the pleasure of further annoying the Salarian. " Prey tell what do you mean, my dear Valern."

Valern hardly acknowledged his colleagues reactions and busied himself with handing them several encrypted OSDs.

"As I said before... the Hegemony seems to prepare for larger military efforts. Nothing that could endanger the Council directly or even any of us alone very much, but nonetheless...", he paused to glance at one of the OSDs. "If we define the military capacity of the Batarian Hegemony as 100 % at the start of their expansion in the Verge they should be at least at 128 % considering their recent efforts. And this estimate accounts for the usual loss of personal and material during operations such as this, accidents, regular repairs and scheduled decommissions. They are in fact at 82 %."

"Your conclusion?", asked Tevos now seriously concerned.

"I think they are facing an unknown enemy of, compared to the batarians, considerable power."

Tevos found herself nodding again. "It seems possible. The Skyllian Verge is largely uncharted and the regions beyond are just blank spots on the galactic map."

Sparatus waved a talon dismissively. He highly doubted there was anything there, which could hold a candle against the might of the Hierarchy. "Send a Spectre, if you must."

Grinning at the positive development of the discussion Valern leaned back in his chair. "I have just the man..."

Jondum Bau sat in Afterlife, Omega's most notorious, but strangely safest nightclub. Well... keeping in mind what Aria T'Loak, resident crime-queen, would do to anyone causing a scene at the club she chose as her palace, it was not that strange. He had no doubt, that Aria knew of his presence the moment he stepped on the station. Which was why his first order of business had been a moderate tribute of credits and information to the Queen of Omega. Large enough to show respect, but humble enough not to catch to much attention. It was not in his interest that Aria would assume he was doing something important or even worse, profitable without her knowledge, consent and participation.

Just like Afterlife's safety seemed strange only at first sight, so was Omega with half a galaxy between the station and the Skyllian Verge only at first sight a foolish place to start the investigation the council had send him on only a standard week ago. But the unofficial capital of the Terminus Systems was not only brimming with Batarians, both of the Hegemony and of pirate syndicates and merc-bands, but also sported a direct connection to the Mass Relay of Shadow Sea well within the Verge. So Omega was ideal. Therefor, just as planned, the presence of his contacts from Khar'shan had gone completely unnoticed.

Jondum walked the short distance from his table to the bar on Afterlife's main floor, where he sat down next to the unassuming Batarian he had identified as one of his agents. The exchange of OSD against credit-chit happened as quick as it happened in silence, before Jondum returned to his table, smiling faintly. All according to plan...

Aria T'Loak sat in her private suite overlooking her club. Her palace. The center of her empire. She chuckled slightly at her own theatrics.

She would have been angry with Jondum. This Salarian Spectre, who waltzed around her club with impunity. Going all cloak and dagger on her. Well to be fair his efforts had been good. But Aria was better. Centuries better. And she was playing on her very own turf. 'Fucking foolish youngster.', she thought not for the first time this evening. Not bothering to peel her eyes from the delicious ass of the young Asari maiden gyrating her hips in front of her, Aria addressed Moklan, who was stoically guarding the entrance to her suite:

"Moklan! Go and cripple Bau's ship."

She did not really care what piece of information the Salarian had obtained. She knew it was of little consequence to her at the moment, but the fact that he tried the whole thing directly under her nose all but screamed for a little slap on the wrist.

"And hack his bank account while you're at it!"

...or maybe two slaps.

Tela Vasir stepped out of the shower just as her terminal signaled an incoming transmission. Rolling her eyes at the timing, she quickly threw on a light rope and answered the call. The worried face of her fellow Spectre Jondum Bau appeared on the glowing holo-screen.

"Jondi! Your timing sucks more than every whore on Omega. What do you want?"

"Tela. Need favor. Council business. Confidential. Will redirect payment with bonus from my own sources of course."

"Go on..."

"Require you to travel to Skyllian Verge immediately. Will send you coordinates. Batarian started some kind of secret war against unknown enemy. Obtained most likely date and place for next Batarian offensive. Needs to be observed."

"What? Why me? You do know where I am? I'm from Tuchanka on route to the Citadel. I will need three to four relay jumps just to get to the Verge! Do your investigations yourself."

"Impossible. Ship crippled. Minor squabble with Aria need time to smooth things over. Alternative transport not possible either. You will need your long-range stealth fighter to observe Batarians without detection. No such vessel on Omega. You are only one with required skill and equipment."

"Double your pay from the council plus a complete retrofitting with state of the art weaponry for both my fighter and the corvette and you got a deal."

Jondum sighed. He knew Tela as a greedy cloaca and was prepared to pay even more. He was bound to fulfill his mission. Even if this meant to get someone else to do it.

"Very well Tela. Will buy you diner as well. But leave now. Please inform me of progress."

"Will do Jondi", chirped Tela immensely pleased with herself. "See ya..."

Little over a week later Tela sat in her Asari made fighter in some uncharted system deep within the Skyllian Verge. With her emission sink active she was impossible to detect and had followed the sizable Batarian fleet for two days now. What the damn four-eyes wanted with three dreadnoughts, ten heavy cruisers, five light cruisers and twelve frigates so deep within a region of the galaxy that housed no civilization to speak of was beyond her. It was common knowledge in citadel-space, that the Verge was nearly devoid of intelligent life.

"So why are these idiots wasting resources parading a heavy fleet around like a pet warren?", she murmured just as the two heavy cruisers, which formed the vanguard of the Batarian fleet exploded in a sudden flash of blue-black light. Before her eyes eight sleek black ships appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Judging from their size it seemed to be cruisers. They were angular and strangely alien in design. Massive and stubborn yet deadly graceful their sight send chills down Tela's spine.

Five of the ships moved lazily forward, almost taunting the Batarians, who were frantic to get the fleet in battle formation. The remaining cruiser opened fire. The thirteen blue lines produced by the Hegemony's newest mass accelerator canons streaked towards the unknown enemy, concentrating on a single vessel. To Tela's shock the alien ship was absolutely unscathed. Just as she tried to fathom the immense power necessary to produce kinetic barriers with this might it was the aliens turn to fire.

At both sides of each alien vessel slowly appeared a streak of glowing red light. Had Tela's blood not been blue like all Asari. She had likened the red planes of light to a gruesome smear of blood.

The five ships, which had moved towards the Batarians, emitted a massive golden-red beam which cut into the dreadnoughts seemingly ignoring the barriers. While the supposedly mighty ships exploded taking several of the frigates with them the remaining three unknown ships fired dozens of small missiles at their enemy. Each Batarian that was hit with more than three of these missiles was either heavily damaged or outright destroyed.

After the battle Tela glanced at the ships chronometer. The whole slaughter had not even lasted two standard hours. It truly was no battle but a slaughter. Never in her life was she more thankful for the stealth feature of her fighter.

She cursed herself. The battle had been so captivating and sudden, that she had no vid-footage. She hastily wrote a quick report for the council. She would have to report back with a more detailed description of the events, but this would have to suffice for the moment.

She was finished as she looked again at her instruments. They were gone! All but one of the alien ships had vanished. How could this have happened? The remaining vessel turned towards her fighter. No. They could not possibly detect her. Panic started to rise as a small alarm announced an incoming transmission.

Send by: UNKNOWN

Source: WITHIN SYSTEM

Language: UNKNOWN

The alien had made contact. No. No . No. No. Impossible. She opened the message with trembling fingers. It was a short text written in a language neither she nor her VI could decipher yet seemed eerily familiar.

The Alien Ship opened fire. One of the missiles which only minutes before had obliterated so many vessels shot towards her. With a speed only possible in her state of utter terror Tela Varis, Asari commando and Council Spectre for more than two centuries wrote a few lines, attached the alien message, send both her dying words and her reports to the council and...

simply perished.

Once again Councilor Tevos sat in her luxuriously upholsterer chair within the secure confines of the chamber. One of her commandos entered and wordlessly handed her an OSD. She quickly read the contents and turned toward her waiting colleagues.

"We have a report from Spectre Vasir regarding the situation in the Skyllian Verge. Her report states, eight ships, possibly cruisers, of unknown make and origin destroyed a large Batarian Fleet in under two hours." She looked gravely at both the Salarian and the Turian. "The alien ships suffered no losses."

"Preposterous! Utterly ridiculous!", screamed Sparatus. Tevos only raised a hand.

"There is a second message. It reads: 'Alien vessel made contact. Attaching message. Am under fire. May the goddess guide my soul to the oceans.' Let me open the attachment..."

Valern and Sparatus observed as the Matriarch read the message from these supposed aliens. With every line she grew paler. After she was finished she wordlessly handed them the text. Neither understood the strange language.

Valern was first to voice his confusion, while Sparatus once again resorted to silent anger. "What is this? I have never seen this language."

"It is a very ancient Asari dialect. It translates to:"

"Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And our warrior's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Athame by her side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the beasts of war."

On board the black ship that had remained in the system as Tela had written her quick report a human gazed grimly upon the battlefield. He turned towards a heavy door at the back of the CIC and thought:

"Now let us see if the council can handle the waking of the sleeping giants."

AN: The lines of the contact message are from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I adapted it slightly so it can be understood by an Asari. The significance of this well be revealed later. I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

The Batarian Hegemony tries to expand into the Skyllian Verge with the Citadel's consent. The Councils hopes this will bring stability in the large uncharted region. Never would they have guessed that an unknown race waits within the darkness. It is time humanity emerges from the shadows. It is time for System Alliance to cry havoc upon the galaxy. Very AU. Strong independent Humanity. There will be pairings with Liara and Tali! Who gets the Shep and who the OC is not yet decided.