Nothing like an updated Codex and a bunch of new models (which will be appearing in this chapter) to inspire a new chapter!

Also, I'm aware that ME canon has the turian councilor as Sparatus. You will recall back in Chapter 8, which was written before ME 3 came out, that I named them. I will be sticking with that for the rest of the story.

Balak eyed the collection of beings before him, each bearing the mark of one of the ruinous powers. There was the reptilian creature whose mind he had felt when he first contacted this realm, a woman who had started out human but what she would become when Tzeentch was finished with her no one could guess, a mountain of pestilence that might have been human or xenos, and another woman. The last one he could not tell if she had been xenos or human due to the mutations Slaanesh had seen fit to place upon her.

All and all, a most unusual combination, but such is the way of Chaos.

The reptile stepped forward. "Illuminator, you call yourself. Illuminate, then, why you see fit to waste our time with these weak creatures. The Blood God calls, and they are unfit for his service!"

Balak did not let his irritation show. He kept his voice calm and even as he said, "Remember who you are talking to, Weyrloc. I know far more about the Blood God than you ever will. I recommend you exercise patience. I will not divulge my knowledge until I deem it proper."

The alien snorts, shaking its head. The Word Bearer despised the fact that he had to deal with the likes of it, but there was much that needed to be done, and his brethren could only enter in limited numbers. Servants such as this would therefore be a necessary evil.

The xenos would, of course, have to prove that they were worthy in service of Chaos. This brought him to the first order of business in this galaxy. "I was informed that one of you possess a servant of the unenlightened powers in this region of space. Bring it forward, I need it."

The slaaneshi brought forth a bound female humanoid in black and red armor. It looked frail, and the flimsy, polished armor it wore gave the impression of transience. It would be worn for a short time then discarded, unlike the weathered yet majestic human-made armor Astartes wore that could and did endure for millennia. With a swift but careful yank, he tore the alien's helmet off, revealing a blue-skinned humanoid with tentacles protruding from her scalp.

She gasped for breath, struggling in the harsh and thin atmosphere of this world. Balak leaned over her, letting the full weight of his brutally intimidating form press down on her. "What is your name, alien, and who do you serve?" It was stated not so much as a question as an order.

The asari struggled to catch her breath. She spoke haltingly, "Valaria T'relek, Citadel Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. Who are you, and what gives you the right to hold a Spectre against her will?"

The Wordbearer spoke. "I am Balak the Illuminator, Dark Apostle of Chaos, champion of the Word Bearers, Master of Serpents, Commander of the Die Profundus. I operate by divine mandate; it is the will of Chaos that brought me here, and it is by that will that I hold you. I have a task that I require you for."

"If you think for one moment," the spectre said between breaths, "that I will help you, you are even more diluted than I thought. I'll have nothing to do with whatever deranged cult this is, except to report you to the Council-"

Balak motions for her to be silenced. "Nephiliam," he said to his companion, a powerful sorcerer who he had long fought beside, "the brand." Nephiliam handed him a palm-sized disc emblazoned with the Star of Chaos. Taking it in his hand, he placed it against the struggling asari's forehead. As she cried out in agony, Balak looked to the skies.

Above him wheeled the stars of an unsuspecting galaxy. Let it prepare, for it would never be the same when he was finished.

The Normandy swerved and dived, evading the Reaper frigate on its tail while charging its Thanix cannon. The cephalopodic alien ship maneuvered unnaturally, but the unquestionable skill of the Normandy's pilot kept it just out of the enemy's sights. Ruby-red beams of energy lanced forth, coming close but never striking the sleek craft.

"Hold on," Joker shouted as he evaded yet another volley of fire. "I'm going to try some fancy flying." His hands rapidly flew over the orange holographic displays in front of him.

The Normandy spun around on its z-axis, but maintained its forward momentum. Flying backwards, it faced its pursuer. The vessel shuddered as it fired its Thanix cannon directly into the glowing maw of the enemy ship, cracking it into pieces. Secondary explosions blossomed across its hull as it disintegrated, torn apart by g-forces as its mass effect field failed.

Commander Shepard nodded, but could only feel a token sensation of triumph. They had destroyed one enemy ship, but there were far too many remaining.

The start of the battle had went far better than he'd expected. The first wave of Reapers emerged from FTL directly in the sights of the Tau gravatic launchers. The Reapers were obviously unprepared for the great range of the Tau weapons, and were still powering up their kinetic barriers when the first salvo hit. The vanguard of the Reaper fleet was vaporised, and the radiation and wave of superheated gas generated by their destruction obliterated the less powerful of the remaining Reapers, destroying a third of the remaining fleet, and crippling several others. A followup salvo finished off the first wave.

It had been far too easy. Shepard knew that the only reason the first wave had been so easy is that the Reapers had been testing their abilities. Now the Citadel had tipped their hand, and the Reapers would be ready for them.

His fears had proven correct, as the second wave had been four times as large, and came out of FTL at multiple vectors. The Tau were unable to deliver a volley before their barriers were up, and as a result the Reapers sustained significantly less damage.

The Reapers closed, and the Citadel forces opened fire. While their spinal mounted guns, once considered the most powerful in the galaxy, were an order of magnitude weaker than the gravatic launchers of the Tau, they were able to punch through some of the weakened Reaper barriers. The Reapers returned fire, and a seventh of the fleet was destroyed in a single volley.

Realizing they couldn't win at these ranges, the Fleet closed in on the Reapers to engage at point-blank range. At the very least, they would be able to take a few more of the Reapers down with them.

Now, the Normandy sped in between the massive vessels, taking shots of opportunity as they came up. Commander Shepard felt useless; his ship was one of the best in the galaxy, but it didn't pack enough punch to impact this battle. Where he really wanted to be was on the ground, but the battle would have to go a lot worse before it came to that.

A turian dreadnought listed, several fires raging within visible through the cracks in its hull for the brief moment before they were extinguished by vacuum. The ship was obviously dying as one of the larger Reapers descended upon it, arms opening up as though to devour it like the kraken of legend it so resembled. Even so, the turians continued to fight, the weapons never falling silent even as every other light on the ship faded away.

All of a sudden, the dreadnought's maneuvering thrusters fired, causing the vessel to spin on a new axis. As Shepard watched, he realized what the ship was about to do, but so did the Reaper. "Joker, take us in! Target the joint on the outer arm, and then get us the hell out of here!"

The Reaper was raising one of its arms to destroy the dreadnought's engine pod, in an attempt to prevent its own destruction. Fortunately, it could not react in time for the Normandy to make an attack run, successfully destroying said arm. The turian ship was free to commence its final assault.

On the bridge of the dreadnought, General Praxis looked into the waiting maw of the Reaper. For years he had denied its existence, all but calling Shepard a madman in his efforts to protect the galaxy. Whether these events would have turned out differently if he had supported the human spectre couldn't be known to him, but it didn't matter. He had failed as a leader, and now the galaxy was paying for it.

He watched as the bow of his ship lined up with the mass effect core of the sentient warship in front of him. It was time to atone.

"Fire the primary cannon." A super-accelerated round fired from the front of the ship, impacting the Reaper and piercing its heart. As the Normandy sped away, both turian and Reaper were destroyed in the explosion.

Shas'O Lynu'elan examined his suit's holographic strategic display. With a keen eye, he surveyed the planet-wide battle fought by over a dozen Fire Caste cadres, supported by Citadel and other coalition ground forces. Opposing them was a horde of the biosynthetic abominations known as husks, combined with heretic geth platforms. According to intelligence, the geth had raided pirate and other outlying colonies before launching their attack on the Tau to build their army.

The space battle was not going well. The Reapers had pushed the coalition forces back to the orbit of this world, called Eta Rho VII by the Citadel. A barren rock, it served as the primary base for the Clee'san sept's outer defenses. The coalition had foreseen this; the Reapers had fallen into a trap. The Earth caste had covered the planet with its newest weapon; surface-to-orbit Fusion Cascade missiles. These were currently being used against the foe to devastating effect.

The Reapers had of course responded by launching ground forces to destroy the missile launchers, putting responsibility once more on the Fire Caste to protect the empire. The fixed nature of the launchers had required Lynu'elas to eschew the convention of hit-and-run tactics the Tau were accustomed to. His cadres were entrenched at the launch sites; several were held in reserve ready for rapid deployment into zones where the battle was turning.

Just south of his position, a Reaper Titan was slowly advancing on his position. His cadre's Broadsides kept up a mighty barrage from their railgun rifles, but the Reaper's barriers were holding, and the geth colossi were keeping his larger weapons from being brought to bear.

"Shas'el," he said to his second-in-command, "I am deploying to Sector 124-Q. Take command of the launch site's defenses, and do not fail the Ethereals." The shas'el gave an affirmation signal from her suit, and Lynu'elas rocketed off to the frontline.

The XV104 Riptide Heavy Battlesuit was the pinnacle of Earth Caste technology. Over twice the size of the Crisis model, it was nonetheless highly agile and maneuverable. The suit he currently piloted was equipped with an ion accelerator cannon, smart missiles, and due to the nature of the husk army he was fighting, he had fitted it with twin-link flamers. These quickly incinerated a mass of cannibal husks as he flew over them, giving his fire warriors the ability to take ground and bring their massed pulse rifle barrages to bear against the heavier Reaper units.

The shas'o arrived at the sight where the colossi were pinning his crisis teams down. The geth had improved their designs since the last battle, using improved weapons and plasma-resistant armor. Before they could target him, he fired a blast from his ion accelerator. The geth walker was blown to pieces by the beam of energy.

His suit landed, and he fired another shot from his accelerator. As he scored another kill, the remaining colossi all fired a mass volley of their energy-pulse weapons. Reflexively, he transferred all power to his suit's shield, saving himself. Even as he did so, a smart missile launched from his suit, guided by a nearby pathfinder, and blew the legs out from under the lead colossus.

The crisis suits, given a temporary reprieve from the onslaught, retaliated with fusion blasters and plasma rifles. The colossi were forced to divide their fire, letting Lynu'elan bring his ion accelerator to bear once more. The bolts struck rapidly, leaving a dead colossus wherever they landed.

The crisis suits rescued, the shas'o turned his attention to the Reaper titan. "This is Commander Lynu'elan. All forces, concentrate fire on the Reaper." The entirety of the Tau line opened up on the approaching menace. Its barriers flickered, then were extinguished. The myriad, multicolored streaks of plasma, rail shot, and ion blasts impacted against the hull of the titan, slowly melting through. In response, the Reaper raised its legs, scything ruby-red beams over the defenses.

O'elan took to the skies. Flying in close to the Reaper, he targeted the weak joints of the titan's legs. Ion pulses blew them off one by one, as the Reaper shifted his target from the lines to the commander. The main "eye" lense of the Reaper tracked the Riptide battlesuit, firing a massive beam of deadly red energy. Lynu'elan struggled to avoid the beam, but the high-velocity maneuvering was straining the power supply and structural integrity of his suit. He was forced to put down.

Just as the titan was getting a lock on his position, the shas'o launched a barrage of missiles from the nearby Sky Ray gunships. The warheads impacted along the flanks of the titan, causing its mass effect field to fluctuate. Unable to support its weight on its few remaining legs, the Reaper collapsed on itself. Sparks of crimson energy flashed along the hull as it slowly crumpled under its own weight.

Commander O'elan walked directly in front of the Reaper, peering into its angry eye. The gaze of the dying nightmare machine looked as baleful as the demons of legend its visage invoked in the primitive cave-dwelling populations of ages past. The commander activated his suit's experimental Nova Reactor. All systems surged with excess power, lighting up as though a great storm raged inside the suit, contained only by its shell of technology.

Diverting this new power to his ion accelerator, the commander targeted the lens of the Reaper's main weapon, and the primary power source that lay beyond it. Feeling a sense of calm fury, he depressed the firing stud of his weapon's control, and the storm of righteous fury surged out in a single bolt of lightning. The augmented ion blast pierced the Reaper's eye, and burned all the way through to its core. The resulting blast wave shook everything to nearly half the planet's distance away. Fire warriors hunkered down in their bunkers, battlesuits gripped the ground, and husks were blown away like chaff in the wind. At ground zero, O'elan held firm as the turbulence shook his suit nearly to the point of collapse, but it held.

Grim resolve filling him, he looked over the smoking crater that was his former enemy. Beyond it, three more Reaper titans approached. He raised his suit's fist in defiance and challenge.