Chapter 3

Cry of Silent Stars

Helltanz's notes: A lot of this story will be split between three focuses, that being the Citadel, events on or around Earth, and then with Sheppard. Further sub focus will be put towards Vizier's, and Sovereign's, musing, certain Turians, Asari plotlines, as well as other matters like the shifting politics of the Human Clans within their space.

This chapter deals a great deal with background information, and setting for things in the coming chapters.

Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

Summary: Nearly 50000 years ago the Prothean's gave their final parting shot against their enemy before being hunted to extinction. In 2107 Humanity tested successfully the Kearny Fuchida Drive, following this humanity begins colonization of the stars. Forty one years later they discovered the Prothean Ruins on Mars and other objects of extraterrestrial origin on the red planet. It is in 2157 the First Contact War begins. Humanity has finally encountered an alien society.

-Chapter Begin -

Akuze was just the start of the shake ups that occured in 2177. Shortly after that the Clans, who were only nominally in contact with the Citadel as whole, discovered a primary relay in their latest space they were expanding into. Under Citadel law, which at the best of times humans barely paid lip service to, their place in the Treaty of Farixen, or at the worst outright ignored, as was the case in regards to genetic engineering, activating a dormant relay was forbideen or at the very least heavily restricted.

Its announcement raised another buzz of issues, and once again brought certain things to the front. The Clans as a whole again flaunted their disdain for the Citadel's bylaws, and more to the point this was a direct snub meant as a response to the actions of the Salarians over Akuze. With the Alliance, and by proxy the Great Houses, and their subordinate megacorporations diplomatic relations with the Citadel were maintained. This contact was primarily in the interest of trade, and anti piracy operations, as well as easy facilitation of communication with alien life. The Clans, being self sufficent, and uninterested in diplomacy or trade were unconcerned.

For years it had always been an issue the human fleet, and their explorative tendencies. The Great Houses of Man commanded fleets of vessels, most of cruiser size in accordance with human fleet doctrine, but the Clans were vastly more militant than the main stream of humanity, and that was the issue. It was a reminder that was constantly driven home, more than ever in this. The more ambitious clans saw this as an opportunity, an opportunity that they would seize.

Even despite their own anger the Wolf Khans were amongst the few counciling a more moderate path, a path that was not winning many supporters with the unaligned clans, and even within the Wolf Clan itself. Ultimately the vote came down to a rather solid majority, over sixty percent. A majority that in this case meant risking things. All political shifts aside the Turian Hierarchy did still have a sizable command staff intransient to going against Citadel bylaws.

There was one other matter, and that was the other half of humanity. Cameron had finally had enough, the Star, the symbol for the greatest of Humanity's Great Houses, had blanketed the networks in a release. Humanity had been offended; if the Salarians had even the faintest involvement with the Thresher Maw attack there would be war, that much was promised, but other than that Humanity would wait, or rather the Houses could wait.

House Kurita knew when to back down, and this was it. There was a reason House Cameron was the uncontested leader of the Great Houses. Of course that declaration had been before the Clans had blantantly activated a primary relay live for all Citadel, and Human, Space to see. If anyone had cared it would have demonstrated the differing political schools of thought between the Clans, and Alliance's leadership.

Akuze had been a blood bath, but the Prothean laboratory confirmed what long had humanity suspected. The more important fact was it contained for the most part intact Prothean Star Charts, and amongst those charts attached information regarding planets. That was to say the light years around earth had been artificially terraformed, by at least two seperate powers in the, from a point of view of cosmic history, recent ancient period.

The galaxy looked at the changes, and everyone continued to form there own opinion. There were still many things yet to unfold, and secrets that would come out in the coming months. The year twenty one seventy seven was by no means done yet, there was much more to tell in this year's story, and of the year's lasting consequences on everyone.

Everyone. Humans and Alien. Citadel and not. Alliance and Clan. Kurita or Liao. Steiner or Davion. It didn't matter there were changes coming, and not everyone would react well. No that was wrong to say. Some people just managed to a little less worse in response than others that was the kind of year 2177 would turn out to be.

-scene break-

Dante manifested, "Contact with Virgil has been established. Links with other installations' monitors remain offline, and are thus unavaible at this time." Blake frowned.

"I see," He muttered, it was a pity Dante was specifically built with biological sciences in mind oh well now that they had contacted Virgil they'd be able to further look into the matter of the Prothean. Blake was 'officially' subordinate to House Cameron, unofficially given some of the things he could get done, or had access to he was nearly as influntial as any high rankin member of any of the Houses. This of course came at a price, especially given precisely what the man was involved in, and encouraged.

The Prothean VI 'turned'. "Regarding operations to locate remaining military elements of the starfleet, unfortunately the war with the Reapers was centuries in its duration."
"We are aware," House Davion's head added calmly, "Do you have a suggestion Dante?"
"Not at this time, my task was with regards to your evolution and development I am of limitted capacity to comment on this issue. Virgil may have suggestions with regards to accessing other research programs, though these maybe been destroyed during the conflict with the Reapers. Speculation on my part is, as I have said before," The VI remarked testily, "of minimal value."

House Steiner's leader nodded, "The installation nearest the Clans is theoretically intact though?"
"Speculation Leon, it is unlikely to be undamaged, but it may be of limitted function." Responded the VI. "Salvage is possible, but unlikely. I doubt the installation survived forty plus thousand years with possible battle damage."

Leon scowled. "Verdammen," He grunted. "But the Clans, they can recover it yes?"
"Indeed," The prothean created intelligence responded, "the other human polity can safely reach that region of space with relative ease with faster than light travel that exists. Actual gain from such, is far more circumspect."

"Excellent, contact the Clans." Cameron smiled, and it wasn't a nice one, "Oh and Kurita-dono please ready the Eighth Fleet. Humanity must show solidarity in these deeply trying times." The Council Races were good trading partners, yes the Asari's expertise in certain fields was welcome, and the Turians were great for helping to keep piracy down, but there were certain things that humanity wouldn't tolerate. It didn't help the Salarian's were rather common as apart of piracy based out of the local Terminus systems, which served to trouble Alliance, and Citadel space.
"Hai," Was the response, "A show of unity would remind less than pleasant neighbors we stand together against outer threats." He murmured. The real goal of this was to public make a show of reaffirming solidarity

Liao Sun nodded, "This may raise issues with certain Asari Republics. Still the Turians will likely agree with us a joint stance with them would deter trouble. Still the STG team we detected is unnerving."
Cameron nodded, "Yes it is hardly a reassuring matter. We will deal with it shortly. Clan Redhawk is being most helpful in this issue." The High Lord remarked. "There is however of the matter of the increasing militancy most promiently amongst the Batarians."

"Political fallout from a war would be bad."

"And I agree with you," Cameron responded, "Still the Salarians are risking too much for this kind of political climate, not with everything as it is."

And this was true. In fact, not that he would ever confide this unless he had proof, Cameron was concerned that there might be members of the Salarians' government working with the Batarian Hegemony. This was not helped given the social structure of Salarian society, or their view towards immediate gains either. If it was true Humanity could gain some benefits of it on both sides of the galaxy, those kind of points were well remembered in the history books. That kind of backroom dealing would be useful for dealing with the various Citadel Races, most importantly the Asari, and Turians.

"That doesn't change the fact we have hundreds of hundreds of terabytes at the very least of raw data to deal with," Liao Sun interjected. "biological data, on humans, those genetic tags are marked, and we've found them in our own studies of the human genome."

-Scene Break-

For years the relay had been dormant, this reason of course for this was the nebula of the Citadel, and the stealthy nature of the relays themselves. When it finally had been discovered in the aftermath of the Rachni centuries past the council chose to leave it alone as per their new plan for dealing unactivated relays. When it activated the council was greeted to the sight of the emergence of a proud warship of the Human Clans. The discovery of Mass Effect based technology effected human ship building, but it was not what had defined their ship designs as had been the case with the Citadel Races. This was of course a by product of their initial forays into space.

Human Super Carriers, such as the Alliance Warship Rommel, and the Alexander, were massive constructs. This was true of most human vessel which generally outmassed their Citadel simply because of Human design strategy. Humans who had not discovered easily applied shield technology until less than half a century ago had focused on advanced composite materials to form armor taking full advantage of their already impressive superiority in material sciences. This lead to human ships mounting several meters of armor to each meter of armor thick compared to average Citadel combat vessels. Of course that human shielding had only recently, only post First Contact War, been relatively lower grade compared to the Citadel this made sense.

As a result of this, and human directed energy weapons development, a Human Cruiser, whether Clanner or Alliance, was generally around eight hundred meters in length, and far more heavily armed. This contrasted heavily with the 'anemic', as Human's called them, Salarian Cruisers, which tended to be smaller. Roughly though this size put them at parity with the Turians, and Asari who favored far larger ships though for vastly different reasons.

In simpler terms Salarian cruisers were samller, more easily produced, underarmed vessels. As far as things went in human terms they were what would be called light cruisers. Asari cruisers reached nearly into the restricted dreadnought class, being slightly larger than either human or turian cruisers, and were almost elongated spheres in shape, and quite a bit more massive. Turian cruisers were roughly the same length as their human counterparts, varying with each class, and mounting amongst the Citadel Races what were considered heavier guns, mass accelerators, and with their distinctive avian shape.

Admiral Kurita had barely received word from his aide before the attention of CSEC and the Council turned to the bulk of humanity's represenatives. What followed was of course the usual concerning, what the Citadel tended to call, reckless exploration from the Asari and the Salarians joining in.

The Salarians joining in was political maneuvering, and little more. The salarians lived too short of lives for that. The Turians were lacking in response. Rather their response was distinctly lacking in its usual strength. The Hierarchy was a meritocracy, and there was an increasing split along three political bends. Exploration was looking to be the next great step towards improving the Hierarchy according to some. It'd take the traditional hardliners time to muster through to get a condemnation, just a little though, but it'd still take time.

"I will reiterate. The Clans exploration is not controlled by the Alliance. The Alliance only sets policy for the House Explorers," He reminded, which was for the most part true the Alliance government stipulated where Terran subordinate explorerers went. The Alliance certainly wasn't going to admit to certain off the books projects that were looking for alien technology.

"This was a deliberate political statement because of Akuze," Came the more than a bit reckless response.
Shin Kurita gave a blank stare. "Akuze, you say? Perhaps it was perhaps not, who can say." He stated in a calm secure voice. "Your distress should be taken up with the Khans of the Redhawk Clan. It is there decision. House Kurita has no hand in dictating Clan policy. Thank you." He bowed slightly, and left. The snub was there, but at the same time it was the truth, for what the truth was worth in politics. Even so the clans risked taking things too far regarding the Salarians, who were to the clans all black caste. Still there was an advantage to the clans, while the Turians would eventually come around to condemming this move they themselves were divided along clan lines, so humanity as whole would more than likely get a pass.

There would be political repercusions to this. It wouldn't simply be amongst the Council though. The Salarians were offended at being caught red handed but the associate races were the real issue. Of the dozens of species represented by embassies on the Citadel there was an increasing resentment towards the growing presence militarily. One that the Salarians would not be above exploiting in their own interests. The Batarians were also the other issue, increasing militancy was a large concern to the human fleets, specifically now that reports were filtering in about Batarian naval programs.

No the issue would not be the Turians, but rather the Salarians stirring things up. That would be how things would be played, both sides going back and forth until someone went to far, or something bad happened.

-Scene break- Earth Tokyo

The milllenium had brought as many changes as the century before it. From the great industrial power bases of the nineteen hundreds these great powers had become the dominant powers of the world economy. What first became the so called neo colonialism quickly became the colonization of space following the advent of fusion technology in the first twenty years into the new millenium.

From the return to prominence of nationalist and culturally centric standpoints in the early years of the millenium, and without a violent pair of world wars to supress these movements they became standardized points of view. In twenty sixteen Japan drafted a new constitution, in this new constitution it reformed the Japanese Self Defense Force, into again an Armed Forces.

That had been more than a century ago, but that change had set the foundation for what would become Japan's contribution to the Great Houses of Man. Following the final, and obvious, conclusion of the Korean war Japanese, namely the modern Zaibatsu, and Korean economic interests made billions rebuilding what had been both North and South Korea, as well as the regions of Japan hit by North Korean missiles. This influx of funding, and the sucess of the military supported the Kurita Clan, which grow into one of the great houses.

Fusion powers development didn't change anything immediately. It wasn't in fact until the thirties that the change really became felt, and that was only in the developed world. Cheap, and safe, electricity meant a lot. It didn't change the facts about power grids, and maintaining them, but fusion power meant plenty of energy, and a vastly lower carbon foot print. It was only one part of the technological revolution that brought the world towards what it was today.

Officially the Kurita were well the New Shogunate of Japan, officially, and publically they were quite subordinate to the Empress of Japan, and thats how they liked to be portrayed as Samurai. It helped with their local image, both here on Earth and amongst the colonies. Brave warriors, and all, after all when people thought of Kurita thats what people tended to assume military officers, as opposed to old men controlling Japanese Megacorporations conducting backroom deals.

"Cameron thinks the Clan's demonstration will alleviate some of our problems." A wizened voice announced. "We hope he is right,"

A younger man stepped away from the balcony overlooking Tokyo bay. "He's going under the belief that the Citadel will want to avoid a war, and that we're willing to push this that far."
Earth of the twenty second century was very different than the Earth of the century prior. Massive space colonies were arranged at the Lagrangian points, but more stunning was the artificial rings of mined out asteroids that had been used to fuel human development, that had fueled the houses rise to power.

"Seventy years have passed, nephew, since we banished the nay sayers into the void," and that was true in more ways than one. "by developing faster than light travel." That development had sparked the most massive human population boom in history. The now powerful houses who had pioneered the development of space technology, and colonization had financed hundreds of colony ventures, and now they were reaping the rewards. They had pressed forward development of space, and fusion technology, and then the implementation and further development of ftl.

"And you born when those same luddites thought such was a waste of time, and they are dead, and you are alive." That was another key point, the rich could afford bio treatments to extend their life, especially as technology continued to develop. Space colonization was popular because it was a whole new adventure. Preservationist ideology had begun to fall to the wayside as they began to die out, or was helped along, and colonization continued in force. "Besides the Citadel has a difficult enough time keeping their own affairs in order."

"The Empress has invited the council to tea, to hear our report of the domain, which is sheltered by the Dragon of the Chrysanthemum Throne" The older Kurita remarked finally. To think two hundred years ago such as this would have all been shocking, not that Kurita Hayama remembered that, he'd been born in the early days of the advent of fusion power. By the time he had been a boy Japan had already been rearming, and in the start of a population boom. What Kurita Hayama remembered was the beginning of great prosperity, a prosperity for all. It was a prosperity he wanted to see continued. "We are greatly fortunate of course the Prothean Laboratory can answer the many questions we have about the facility on Mars and others."
The younger man nodded, "Yes, that is so." and indeed it was. All the others might benefit from this, but Kurita was set to capitalize on studying the data with its subordinate Yamatetsu Megacorporation, well known for its specialization in biotechnology, and genetics, and likewise the Shiawase Megacorporation already lined up for access to the information. Whichever of the two Kuritan subordinate corporations produced results would be rewarded, potentially not just by the Great House, but by the Empress.

-Scene Break- Akuze

"Is it just me or are there a lot of Kuritans around?" Sheppard asked, it wasn't like there was anything bad with House Kurita, per se, but this was just odd. It wasn't so much they were all actually members of the family, but it was pretty clear who they worked for. It could have been worse, when he'd been recovering Blake had had some of his more fanatical troops, who had, strictly speaking, more cybernetics that was probably healthy.

One of the 2nd lieutenants turned, "You didn't hear sir? The Empress of Japan met with the house yesterday," He shrugged, at Sheppard's how do you know that look "I grew up in the bay area, its got a significant population of dual citizens, you know, I like to watch home's news." He admitted a little shyly.

Dual citizenship wasn't as big of a deal these days of course. An Alliance Nation was Alliance, and that was that for the most part, but regional politics still mattered, and so did culture, and those were the important things. The Empress was a major deal for the Japanese and her colonies, even if House Kurita was more visible portion of international relations.

Politics... but still important."Duly noted, so what's this about?"
"Hell if I know sir," The new guy responded, "they're brining in an orbital colony though."

Sheppard's brain shut down for a few minutes... they were bringing a colony... into orbit... of what had practically been a warzone. Well that once again proved that HIGHCOM was fucking insane as all get out. "Its not populated is it?"
"Basic colony, sir. Estimated population one hundred sixty thousand, or thats scuttlebut at least." The younger soldier responded, "I can check though sir, but thats what I heard."
Sheppard shrugged, "No it's fine. I'll look into it later." Hopefully there had been some kind of miscommunication, and what they were calling a colony was actually just one of the converted O'neill cylinders the military liked to remodel, or commision for themselves, for mobile bases.

As it turned out all evidence was pointing to it very much not being a military O'neill cylinder that was coming, but, as feared, an actual civilian colony according to most people. That wasn't good the small fleet in orbit was minimal, it was as if Alliance High Command wanted someone to try something. A carrier, and a Clan Battleship plus associate ships wasn't enough if they were bringing in a colony this didn't make any sense what so ever.

The doctrine of Humanity's Polities differed greatly from that of the Citadel. Simply put at anything closer than tens of thousands kilometers humanity would win simply due to directed energy weapons. Naval Particle Projector Cannons, and Capital Ship Lasers of varying types were effective even at eight thousand kilometers against human designed ablative armor, which in itself was superior to Citadel material science. The primary issue with this was that primary mass effect cannons, spinal mounted railguns, had ranges far in excess of the common directed energy weapons found on human fleets, and still managed, in the case of what the Citadel translated as Dreadnoughts, to hit with nuclear level yields. Most combat according to Citadel naval doctrine was based on keeping the enemy at a distance. There in was the issue of course FtL differences, a human fleet could charge their FtL drive and drop frigates on top of enemy combatants, or do worse. It had been part of the reason that the Turian Hierachy Fleet Command had considered an upgrade program to their interception systems.

High above Eden Prime Vizier contemplated the situation. The massive living biomechanical vessel was effectively invisible. Infrared sensors wouldn't detect it as heat sinks carefully absorbed and carefully disappated heat, not that it would matter. The living ship had no interest in fighting but short of the Naval Particle Projector Cannons its own plasma based shielding could hypothetically shrug off most of the fire of the fleet for a few minutes at absurdly, stupidly, close range. The 'eyes' as most sentients would describe them that dotted the ship's hull were in fact dozens and dozens of Free Electron Laser arrays, which were easily capable of totally bypassing Kinetic Barriers with trivial ease.

That in was the problem Human's relied on Kinetic Barriers because they were an easily reproducable technology, even while they worked towards designing effect energy based shields. And they were progressing, Vizier noted amused, the Rommel's shields were energy hungry but would absorb directed energy weapons as well as kinetic energy bombardment. True it was a primitive system, and slightly familiar, but it was a good first step.

The Reaper in question of course was more interested in other things. Monitoring the Citadel races was easy, seeing as they relied on the Mass Effect Relays themselves for most of their FtL, making it very easy to eavsdrop as it were. These 'Turians' were so thorough it was greatly useful to his inquiries, and so easy to get access to their databanks. That they considered the 'humans', as they called themselves, 'friends' was a distinct plus most the information that Vizier wanted was readily accessible, well most the information... there was positively nothing on those filthy heathens, that he didn't already know, the called Protheans, less than he already knew really. Still he had some of what he wanted, and a chance to insure the 'universe was restored to its proper social order' as some of the collective would put it. So fortunate that the 'Turians' weren't still at war with the 'humans', for the Turians. If Reapers could smile, well it would be a bad sign indeed, and terrible thing to behold. The only that would make this better, for the Reaper, was if the Prothean's bastardized version of the Artificial Biotic Soldier Population hadn't reached maturity, and wasn't in a position of power amongst the spacefaring younger races.

Down below on the surface of the planet Sheppard twitched. He'd have been concerned about any remaining Thresher Maws, but there were tanks galore now, and extensive seismec sensors up and running ensuring the safety of the surounding region. Humanity did not want a repeat of a few weeks ago. The additional security prescence wasn't enough, not if they really were going to keep moving in all these science units. Even counting the unit of Alliance Army Corp of Engineers, the unit in question originating out of Japan, the prescence was less than imposing... not that Sheppard expected something like Cameron's Royal Guard, or something... like that would happen House Cameron's worlds were well and far away from any potential danger the chance of Aliens daring to set foot on them was the same as them committing ritual suicide as soon as entering the systems in question.

Sheppard shook his head, orders had still loosened up after the last few days so officially he was off duty for the time being. Other than the medical check up today he had nothing to do today, so he might as well head off and find out what was going on.

Scene Break - Citadel

Humanity had been 'in space' for more than two centuries. It was the first half of the twenty first century where widespread space travel actually became commonplace, and colonization of Mars, and other bodies in the solar system along with space colonies began to take shape. In the last seventy five years the new revolution had been of course the discovery of Faster than Light technology, first with the human developed KF drive, and then with Mass Reduction technology. In this three quarters of a century humanity had shifted from colonization of its own solar system, to wide spread extrasolar colonization. Even greater than the space colonization boom the population growth as a result of extra solar colonization was immense.

Immense colonization drives were organized, primarily by the Great Houses, several times a generation, every generation in order to settle the many terraformed worlds that were surrounding Sol. The Citadel Races with the relative static stasis of their space meant their populations rarely underwent any major population growth except when a new species joined, and that was short lived lasting up until the species acclimated to the galactic community. Batarians were the only other race coming close to having a similiar population "issue", which was outstripped by humanity because of the drive to colonize the terraformed worlds within reach of Sol.

While the Citadel was larger, and better protected, due to the alien material it was constructed out of, which human and Citadel race alike had yet to figure out, than human space colonies it had a fraction of the population for its size. It was of course also stupidly easy to hide things, and that was coming to bite them all in the ass. The Batarians were the real issue right now though.

Guns thundered, the screaming roars of railguns' as they propelled rounds past hypersonic velocity, across the Presidium, as did the occasional explosion from man launched rockets. "Ambassador, please follow us."

Kurita Shin smiled slightly as his heads up display fed hiim the new information. "Ah please excuse me detective there seems to be little need now, thank you." For a moment the older Turian detective and his partner were confused. This lasted only long enough for their thermal sensors to detect something amiss and catch red flashes burning through the air. Senior detective Vakarian's manibles twitched as the admiral continued, "So good of your elevators to have designed for such heavy lifts, no?" The human remarked, and the older Turian nodded.

"Whats going on, sir?" His younger partner asked.

"Clanners," Was the single word utterance as Vakarian dropped back behind cover after firing another burst in the direction of the batarian terrorists.

"What, which clan of humans? What does it matter right now? I'm all for more help-," Shin pulled the rookie detective down as the ground thundered.

"This is a slighty different," He remarked, ignoring the shaking of the ground as a twelve foot tall suit of armor crushed a sign. He missed the human's name, as the leader of the Elementals declared himself a colonel of the Red Hawk clan, but let it slide since the human's had probably caught it.

A batarian was reduced to paste as another massive suit of armor came crashing down on the terrorists' impromptu cover. "under the direction of Khan Liam Arthur, commander of Argosia, all batarians are summarily labeled Black Caste, reinforce security personel."

Vakarian bit back an angry complaint, as apparently reinforced, meant firing freaking laser beams across the Presidium. It did have the desired effect as the large power armors suit mounted lasers, were joined by a fifth elemental unleashing a flurring of guided submunitions as the lead elemental fell back to the human embassy staff's position.

The Colonel ignored the Ambassador turning to face the Kuritan Admiral. "Admiral, my Khan demands you withdraw with al ldiplomatic personel to the carrier with all possible haste."

Vakarian let his heat sinks do their job after taking another pot shot at one of the batarian positions, finally some sense, but he had enough time politicing to know not to say that. "With respect admiral thats probably for the best, the Batarians won't be able to get through headquarters, that'll insure all diplomatic personel are safe until we can transfer you to the Clan Capital ship."

Aboard aforementioned Red Hawk Carrier Khan Liam Arthur was not pleased, and a nearly two meter tall clan khan not being happy was an immensely bad thing... being a 'crusader' did not fucking help at all the situation. He'd expected a peaceful visit to the Citadel, and instead his third day in 'port' and those filthy black caste had attacked, what was this nonsense exactly. He wished for more human ships, filled with good honorable men, and women, and many stars of elemental heavy infantry, that would solve this so well. Even so, bad situation or not, calling for reinforcements was without any point, they were winning. The terrorists, while possessing a scattering of military grade arms, even then outdated, were loosing, and everyone knew it but the carnage wasn't the real issue it would be pulling aside the rubble, and rescuing the civilians. Of course that was Citadel Security's Job, but how many bombs had been placed was a more pressing concern.

"What do we know?"
"Evidence indicates the armaments were definitely scattered in caches years ago, they're all at ten or twenty years old. The scattering of recent weapons we've identified are for the most part probably scavenged." The Clan Intelligence Officer remarked. "In any case Citadel Special Response are geared up, and deploying,"
The Khan rumbled standing up, "And?"
"They have asked us not to deploy any more troops."
Of course they had, he snorted, "And what about the data?"
The Intelligence officer smirked, "My subordinates, are already aboard the Citadel and will see its destroyed, my Khan, certainly before the Batarians can even think of accessing it."

"See to it that they do, this is all far to convienent for my liking."

Abruptly one of the communications officers stepped up. "My Khan, Council Spectres are deploying on the Citadel." Well that meant things had just gotten worse,

"Do we know which ones?" Really that was the question, not that it really meant anything, Spectres were much to annoying to begin with, especially since they were already on Citadel territory. Still if fortune favored them a more amiable spectre might have the good sense to stay out of their way.

-Chapter conclusion-

Helltanz's notes: Happy Samhain all, the events of the game are still a while off, and as you can see this will diverge quite a ways from canon. The Batarians have some trouble to look forward too, and the Protheans were busy little bees. Then of course there is Earth, and we see some more diversity in the future.

I'll be, eventually adding the background information to the wiki, I can't believe still I was convinced to actually make one in the first place, but once its up it'll be a decent resource I think.