A/N; So, here we go again. Another chapter for this lovely little story of mine. This chapter is dedicated to the many people who wanted to see some real diplomacy going on, I can only hope I delivered something worth while.

So please, leave a review telling me what you thought of it.

I don't own either franchise, only OC's and OC races are mine.

UNSC Dauntless, November 11, 2587

The human ship was beyond anything Fal had ever seen, at three and a half kilometres he knew it wasn't the largest human ship but he had heard one of the Librarians aides mention how it was on par with a Forerunner Dreadnought, whatever one of them was. The empty halls were clear and wide, a massive difference compared to older UNSC and all Tal'Sae ships, walls were covered in smooth silver and white panels, not even markings on the walls to show which way to go for a particular part of the ship, it was all clean. How did the crew know where to go?

He might have struggled to remember where to go through the maze of halls and elevators but the Librarian seemed to know her way around despite never being on the ship before herself. The bridge was at the top on the thickest part of the hull, despite being buried under three meters of some new human alloy there was still a view port at the front of the bridge from which the crew could see into space. Unlike the UNSC Bite Me the bridge was far more spacious, each station had incredible 3D holographic controls that could be moved and manipulated by the crew member. In the centre was a command chair, although it looked more like a throne than simple chair to Fal, was that a good sign or a bad one? The back half of the bridge was raised and separated, in it contained an odd looking table that glowed blue and atop it was a hologram of the planet they were inside of.

The Librarian seemed to frown at the command chair on the raised platform and decided to stand by it instead while the crew efficiently started the ship up for the first time outside of trial runs. The Commander stood on the other side of the command chair while his large human compatriots took positions at important looking stations, their large hands manipulating the holograms with ease. Before he really knew it the massive ship was lifting up into the air and transitioning into Slip-space, the blue and black portal always looked unbelievable whenever he saw one. He spent the time in slip-space talking with other members of the delegation while his aides did the same.

After speaking to the Shipmaster and Tribal Leader he found that the two races, Sangheili and Unggoy used to be at war with the humans before Fal had even been born. According to the Shipmaster it was a war that nearly saw the destruction of the entire galaxy and that despite everything the humans were willing to forge an alliance to prevent another war on such a scale, but something happened and the two races now only spoke in diplomatic talks when absolutely necessary like the discovery of a coalition of aliens that matched the old Covenant.

"The large humans I have only heard of in tales, demons that could kill entire armies single-handedly. I heard a story where it was just one of them and the Arbiter against the Parasite and Loyalists and the two came out victorious; they stood atop the corpses of a thousand brutes and surrounded by the Prophets destroyed army." The Shipmaster said in a hushed tone.

"You mean you never heard about the battle of Onyx? Hundreds of thousands of Covenant with air support and armour against thirteen combat capable soldiers, we killed them all. And just remember this, Spartans never die." A female voice said from their left, it was the female with red hair and eyes so green they reminded Fal of an Esmaraldagem. The Sangheili and Fal both bowed in respect causing the human to roll her eyes, something that made Fal's own eyes hurt just thinking of performing it. Instead of saying anything she just shook her head and walked away, it rustled Fal's fur at being shown so much disrespect but she probably didn't mean it in such a way. Ambassador Chance had informed him that many humans thought of bowing as a rather old fashioned gesture and that only certain cultures still did it in human society.

Fal also spent some time looking into what information the UNSC had available on the government they were going to meet with. Other than being based on a space station in the middle of a nebulae and comprised of the three leading races, Turians, Asari and Salarians the UNSC didn't know all that much about them. Half an hour before arriving the Librarian gathered everyone's attention without raising her voice, which in itself was like silk in the air, beautiful and majestic. Something no one ignored.

"We do not know much about this government system, only that it has certain laws for which every species must abide by. Except we will not, unlike them all our races have created artificial intelligence's, some more advanced than others, where as this Citadel Council has not and had decreed that they are too dangerous and they should be disabled. However, due to humanities and Forerunner heavy reliance on them we will argue this point. It is up to your individual governments on how you wish to proceed in these talks. The Citadel Council also expect you to minimise your fleets and military powers so that they can take over the need to defend your space." As she was saying this Fal felt his blood burn in his veins at the thought of reducing his peoples military power just for some aliens to defend his people for him, the growl coming from the Sangheili Shipmaster was an indication that he wasn't the only one who disapproved of that idea.

"I have a feeling that the Citadel Council won't like that we're not going to bow down to their wishes, from what I heard they're used to getting their own way and think that they are the most powerful force in the galaxy, apparently it's a great honour to be asked to become an affiliate race to the Council. God knows that isn't going to happen." The UNSC General said. "They also don't like genetic manipulation so it's a god damn good thing we ain't joining up with them otherwise we'd have to try and put down the most powerful soldiers in the galaxy, I feel sorry for anyone who tries to enforce that."

"Indeed. Now, we know a general idea of what they will ask of us in return for their protection and alliance. It is up to you on your stance with them." The Librarian said, although Fal knew his stance before he even left Zion, the humans were their protectors, the humans were the protectors of the entire galaxy if certain rumours were true. When the Dauntless entered normal space again it was surrounded by an expansive pink-purple nebulae, a small twinkle of stars in the distance was their destination, the Citadel.

Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System, Fire Base Epsilon, 1652, September 28, 2587

It was a mess. The entire base was nothing but smoking ruins after the assault, Marines and ODSTs were sorting through the ruins, looking for the dead so that they could be given a proper burial back on their home worlds. Marcus Knight just looked over the growing rows and columns of black body bags. One of them was Eugene, or Train as the team used to call him, one was filled with an alien body, the Turian that nobody in the team knew the name of simply because they couldn't be bothered to learn it. Coulson was being carted off to the Hopeful, along with hundreds of other wounded, most of them from here, the rest from various other fronts all across Shanxi. Marcus ran a dirty and bloody hand across his equally dirty and bloody face, as he tried not remember the events of the last two days, he'd lost two friends and far too many brothers in arms.

"So, Felix how are you after all this?" A distinct voice said as a black armoured body sat beside him. Sergeant Nick Medhurst looked just as worn out as Marcus felt, he could see the Sergeants team milling about, doing what ever they needed to do.

"Shit. Really, really shit. I mean, we've raided Innie strongholds and pirate bases and come out without so much as a scratch but here? Two fucking days and we loose Shepard and Train and Coulson's mortally wounded and on the Hopeful. Two Turians are gone, Adrien and Vakarian are on the horn with their command for instructions." Marcus replied.

"Well, I don't know what will happen next but I do know it's over. What remains of the batarian forces are either surrendering or dead." Medhurst said, he clapped a hand on Marcus' shoulder before continuing. "Anyway, Captain Dixon is going to be mighty pissed if she sees you slacking off Felix."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get the hard part over and done with." He said and indeed it was the hard part, anyone of the dead could be somebody he knew and were now nothing more than statistic and a memory to those who knew them. It was hard for anybody to drag the dead out from collapsed trenches and ruined bunkers and buildings.

UNSC Hopeful, Orbit over Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System

Walking through the whitewash halls of the oldest and most decorated hospital ship in the UNSC Navy gave most people perspective. Perspective on how lucky one might be to be picked up by the old ship and how lucky they were to be alive, but for Admiral Lasky the bright halls and white panels everywhere just gave him a headache. Doctors and medical technicians moved out his way as he all but barrelled through halls, the two marines either side of him was just extra encouragement to stay out the old Admirals way.

When he arrived at the room he wanted he found a doctor exiting the room, she was looking down at a data pad and updating the patients status. Looking up she seemed shocked by the appearance of the Admiral.

"Admiral, can I help you?" She asked almost hesitantly, she reached up and pushed a pair of glasses up her nose.

"Yeah, how's the patient doc?" He asked, making a gesture to the door she'd just come out of, the doctor looked back at the door and than back at the Admiral.

"Stable, he's just come out of surgery. He's lost his left arm and right eye, we can't start cloning any replacements until he's awake and coherent enough to give consent. He's pretty lucky to be alive Admiral, I don't know of anybody to survive being thrown out of a crashing escape pod." The doctor replied, she double checked the data pad in her hands just in case she missed anything.

"He's the luckiest person in the Navy other than the Chief but he also has a habit of being in the wrong place at the right time." Lasky said.

"Yeah, no kidding." The doctor said, "We also found this in a pocket on his uniform." She said, pulling out an A.I data crystal from her breast pocket on her perfect white lab coat before handing it to Lasky.

"Thanks doc, I'll take care of that. Keep an eye on the Commander doc, HIGHCOM will want him after that stunt. Let me know when he's awake and coherent doctor." Lasky said before turning and leaving before the doctor could even utter a reply. On the way back through the Hopeful Lasky held Lorelie's chip in his hand, he wondered what she had to say about the whole situation.

Serpent Nebulae, Citadel, Presdium Tower, Council Chambers, 2156

Tevos was nervous. Today was the day history was about to be made- the first diplomatic talks between two galactic powers and she was right at the centre of it. Her actions could make the difference between a long and peaceful alliance or it could end with a long and bloody war whose victor was still to be determined and if it ended with war her place as the Asari councilwoman would be stripped and she would be lucky if she could find work in a strip club.

Of course they would extend the offer of joining the citadel but deep down in her gut she knew it wouldn't be that simple, the humans, as they were called, were far more advanced than originally believed and were just as adapt at war as the Krogan and Turians. General Oraka had forwarded as much information as possible before delivering his report in person, the humans had needed time to rebuild their land and to organise a diplomatic team for the talks with the council. The good General had also informed them of certain aspects of human civilisation that he had been privy to and not all of it was pretty, in fact some of it was just as bloody as the Krogans own history. He had informed them of a certain feud between human colonies, a group of Insurrectionists as the human crews and soldiers called them, were using terrorist actions against the very government that had fought and bled to protect them during 'the bloodiest war in human history'.

The humans had given a date for the first diplomatic talks before all but forcing Council ships out of their space and back into council space, it wasn't the best start one could hope for but it was better than a war and they were at least willing to talk. General Desolas had also mentioned some rather unfavourable facts such as the presence of another race that was 'very well muscled and would no doubt be more than a match for even the strongest of Krogan', and the humans liberal use of artificial intelligence's, an illegal creation in citadel space. Sparatus, the Turian Councillor was almost furious at the revelation of A.I's and how the human Navy was apparently on par with Turians own, something else that was technically illegal in council space, but the Council didn't have authority over the humans or any allies they have and until they did Tevos and Sparatus was unable to enforce those laws.

Humans had apparently mastered a form of FTL that didn't use element zero, mass effect or mass relays which allowed them a wider range of tactics in space combat and they were faster then the councils own fleet in FTL, a lot faster. A trip that should take weeks could be done in hours, this marvel of technological advancement had nearly every Salarian drooling at the thought of the science behind it. When the human vessel arrived Tevos had expected it to just appear in a flash of light like in the pre-space flight vids most cultures have, instead it appeared in a brilliant display of blue and green light that swirled around a powerful gravitational field that emitted so much radiation nearby ships were going into lock-down as their internal sensors malfunctioned.

The human ship was three kilometres long and was covered in a thick grey armour that provided more protection than a council Dreadnought and it emitted more energy per second than all the Cruisers in the Citadel Defence Fleet, other than the advanced FTL drive Tevos couldn't fathom a guess as to what would need that much power, after all the ship had no obvious weapons apart from some small cannons dotted around the hull and unless they were more powerful than they looked she figured that they didn't need that much power. Before too long a small shuttle departed the gargantuan vessel and moved towards the Citadel with a speed that would make fighter pilots green with envy. By the time it had touched down at the specially reserved dock Tevos had dismissed the handmaidens from the private chambers where the meeting would take place, a precaution so that if things didn't go the way the council hoped than they wouldn't lose face with the public.

Fal stepped out of the diplomatic shuttle and took in the sights and smells around him, while everything looked peaceful and calm Fal could smell the anxiety and fear and excitement in the air, the dock had been closed off from the general public but as he stood around the hatch waiting for the other ambassadors to gather round he could see a crowd of aliens being held back by more aliens in blue armour, his ear twitched in irritation at the misuse of a royal colour but he said nothing as these people were aliens and not used to his peoples traditions and therefore not aware of the offence caused by it. Small drones hovered above the alien crowd, they were recording the arrival of foreign dignitaries, not an uncommon thing to do when meeting a new race for the first time, his own people had done it when humans first landed on Zion and the humans had done it when the Tal'Sae first visited Earth, the only difference between than and now was that Fal and the Tal'Sae people had been scared of the humans and their more advanced technology, now Fal was more on equal terms meaning there was no need to be submissive to this new government.

A dark coloured alien with a head crest walked up to them, he was a Turian according to the data on the Dauntless, he too was dressed in the blue armour but his was coloured with red highlights, an indication of higher rank Fal presumed. He was proven correct when the Turian introduced himself as Executor Pallin and the head of Citadel Security, the Executor was well cultured and mannered Fal figured, but than again he lived and worked on a space station that was home to millions of people from a dozen different races so he was bound to be. Citadel Security was not comprised of a single race which implied a heavy amount of cross species cooperation and for a space station like this that was good as there wasn't really room for cross species feuds to take a hold or it would be chaos and their carefully crafted civilisation would crumble. Human marines acted as an escort, dressed in their iconic green and grey plated armour and armed with their powerful assault rifles they were the centre of hushed conversations between the Citadel Security guards, while others spoke about the large Spartans that were now fully armoured in an almost menacing armour configuration which Fal figured was done on purpose as a slight intimidation technique, they all had weapons attached to their backs although if the stories the Shipmaster had said were even remotely true than he doubted they would need them to get out of here. Other guards spoke about the large Sangheili Shipmaster and the squat Unggoy Tribe Leader, a few even spoke about him, a blue female alien had made a remark about his royal blue and silver fur and how she wouldn't mind 'learning everything he had to offer', a lewd remark that made bile rise up his throat which he quickly swallowed again lest he spit it out in front of ancestors knew how many people, not exactly a good first impression.

The walk up the tower to meet the actual council was a bore for Fal, he had no interest in seeing where various things happened in the tower, he only wanted to meet with their leaders and get it over with, the bored expressions on the humans faces showed that they felt the same. He knew it was rude to listen to the hushed conversations between their alien escort but he couldn't help himself, it wasn't his fault that he was born with a far superior sense of hearing than them, whenever a Tal'Sae wished to have a hushed conversation they didn't, on Zion during the olden times it was a crime punishable by death and while that was no longer true it still held a certain social stigma that discouraged hushed conversations or you could be seen as untrustworthy and the higher up the social chain you were the worse the punishment was, an Alpha male like himself would be exiled and caste away never to return to his place of birth, an Alpha female would be pushed into the slums and neutered, both were the ultimate humiliation a Tal'Sae could endure in the modern age and it was because of this that he always spoke loudly and clearly if he had something to say, a trait he was also teaching his pups.

"The Council is just in here ambassadors, it was an honour to escort you here and to show you the Presdium Tower." The Executor said, despite the pleasant manner in which he spoke Fal could hear the slight fluctuations in his voice that showed the Executor was lying, he was just as bored as the rest of them and wasn't happy about being their escort, he was happy it was over and that he was no longer directly responsible for their well-being, what worried Fal however was why he was concerned for their well-being in the first place.

Two large wooden doors with golden linings opened up to an impeccable room, the air was clean and lacked the smells of a well used room. It was decorated with simple drapes and flowers, paintings of what was most likely past councillors dotted the walls white and silver walls. There was no window in the room, either they were at the very heart of the tower or this was a room for more private conversations to be held in, which was another thing that was not uncommon with most species except his own. Sat at a plain metal table was the three councillors, the blue female alien race, an Asari, was sat at the centre with the Turian and Salarian councillors on her right and left flanks respectively. It was a subtle but powerful power play technique, the Turian councillor represented power and authority on her right while the Salarian represented underhand and less than honourable techniques on her left and she represented order and balance in the centre. It was a ploy any educated Tal'Sae would see through in an instant, a quick glance at the human General and ambassador showed that they too were thinking something similar.

"Greetings and welcome to the Citadel." The Asari said in a silky smooth voice, unlike the Librarians voice though the Asari's voice felt more like venom that burnt his veins, it was all he needed not to trust her. "I am Councillor Tevos, representative of the Asari Republics and Thessia, to my right is councillor Sparatus, the representative of the Turian Hierarchy and Palaven, to my left is councillor Valern, representative of the Salarian Union and Sur'kesh." The councillors nodded and greeted them with their own cultural greeting, a salute, a bow and a hand over the heart and lowering of the head. The greetings were returned in kindness before the Librarian introduced herself.

"I am the Librarian, a Forerunner Lifeworker and lead representative of our delegation." The Librarian said, her voice reminded Fal of the tone his mother used when singing him a lullaby as a pup, he felt himself give a slight purr in appreciation of her voice. She reached out with her right hand over the table and placed her hand with the her palm open to ceiling, for the Tal'Sae it was a gesture of peace and trust as they had a major artery running through their wrists, to expose it showed that you trusted whoever it was with your life. Tevos reached out slowly with her hand and rested it next to the Librarians own. The old Forerunner lady grabbed Tevos's hand and positioned it in the proper way to greet her for future reference.

"General Howard Black, UNSC Marine Corps. A real pleasure." The General spoke around a cigar, an oddity that humans liked to smoke. He spoke with pride of his rank and affiliation but with sarcasm and displeasure for the greeting. He held out a hand for the three councillors, unlike the Librarian he held it vertically, it didn't take long for the three councillors to figure out the greeting.

"Ambassador Richard Groundwater from the Unified Earth Governments. Humanities civilian government and civilian oversight of the UNSC during peacetime." The ambassador said with a much more genuine tone. He shook grasped their hands as he shook them, a peculiar but noticeable difference between the two humans, while Fal had learnt that no two humans were the same he also understood the difference between the two handshakes, the Generals spoke of a lack of interest and lack of trust where as the ambassadors spoke of friendliness and openness.

"Shipmaster Ferz 'Vadum, part of the Vadum keep on Sanghelios and Shipmaster of the Glorious Conquest." The Sangheili said, he struck his right arm over his left heart in a Salute. He spoke with a type of pride that few could, he was proud of his origins and proud of his position. All to quickly Fal realised that it was his turn to introduce himself.

"I am Fal'Cai, Alpha male of the city of Tol'Daem and leader of the Tal'Sae people." He spoke sincerely but with a hint of authority, a subtle way to shift the power over to his side of the table even more. They didn't know how small an area of space the Tal'Sae controlled or that their borders where patrolled by UNSC Navel vessels.

"And I am Tribal Leader Mamaw Dadab of the Icy Plains on Bohalo. I represent the Unggoy people in the wider galaxy." Fal had done his research on the Dauntless and he knew that Mamaw had been the one to ask the humans for help with their collapsing ecostructure and civilisation. After hundreds of years of being used as nothing more than manual labour and cannon fodder the Unggoy people were unable to support themselves without the Covenant until Mamaw did what every other Unggoy thought was suicide; ask the humans, who were quick to welcome them with open arms as they repaired the damage done to the Unggoy homeworld and helped restore the old Unggoy way of life.

"It is an honour to meet you all." Tevos said with a human like smile. "I must admit though, I was only expecting to be having these talks with the humans so I'm sure you can understand if we are surprised to see so many different races."

"Of course, the humans are indeed the ones in charge of this delegation however they asked me to oversee the diplomatic missions between yourselves and the humans as their last attempt at first contact with a government similar to your own ended in disaster and they wish to avoid it happening again." The Librarian said. It was than that Fal realised that the Commander hadn't introduced himself in the greetings, he was a senior member of the delegation so why was he and his team stood against the walls while the rest of them sat down, bar the Marines of course.

"I see, if that is the case than I hope we can all leave this meeting happy." Tevos said. Than came the part that Fal hated; history time. The Council races had led a rather boring existence, they had fought an insect race known as the Rachni and had only won with the uplifting of a violent race called the Krogan who quickly rebelled against the council. The Krogan Rebellions were ended with the arrival of the Turian Hierarchy and deployment of a bio-weapon called the Genophage. That particular detail had caused some strife amongst the two groups, the Librarian was disgusted with it's use and intention. The human General had a little more to say on the matter though.

"I won't condone the use of unconventional tactics to defeat an enemy but seriously? You neutered an entire race for two thousand years and wonder why they want to kill you? I suggest you lessen it's effect before you wipe out the Krogans." General Black said, he sounded more like he was growling than speaking.

"Absolutely not!" The Turian councillor rebuffed the idea in an instant. "They would wage war on the Council within a heart beat once they got the numbers."

"Maybe you should teach them to stand with the galaxy rather than rail against it." The old General quickly replied with a smirk. What he'd said had caught the Council off guard, they hadn't thought of that, no, instead they had buried their heads in the sand, metaphorically speaking.

"They're too violent, they are incapable of being productive members of society." Valern said in a sure manner.

"Someone said the same thing about humans once too. Now look at us, here we are having a diplomatic talk with an alien species and no war to boot. And back when that was said, we were a little worse than the Krogan." The General said, that little revelation was a surprise to any non human in the group it seemed.

"How so?" Tevos queried. Her question was answered with a shrug and dismissal wave of the hand.

"Does it matter? It happened millennia ago, plus, it's classified."

The talks stalled for a while before the Librarian intervened and pushed them forward, the council members carried on with their history. Things got interesting around sixty human years ago when a species called Batarians had decided to try and take control of the galaxy, their surprise attack had given them an early advantage but Turian fleets were quick to halt them and push them back to their home world. Some had managed to escape before their defeat, it had been that conflict that had caused the Batarians to enter human space and take control of the human colony, there had been no counter attack because the humans couldn't spare the ships due to the Covenant. Ever since than Batarians had been banned from council space and those that were left were tied to their homeworld or stuck in an area of space called the Terminus Systems. Now came the humans turn to tell their history.

"I won't bore you with the details of everything in human history. But I guess we could start with the formation of the UEG and UNSC. It all started during the First World War, between 1914 and 1918 with the formation of the League of Nations. The League was disbanded before too long and replaced with the United Nations after the Second World War which lasted from 1939 to 1945, from there it wasn't really until 2160 that something happened with the out break of the Interplanetary war. In 2162 United Nation military forces became united under one banner, the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC, the UEG was formed when all of Earth's nations agreed to a single ruling government to prevent another war on the scale of the Interplanetary war which left tens of millions dead and Earth's largest Rainforest in ruins.

"We had a tough time after that, we had an overly large military, we suffered from famine, overpopulation and nearly suffered an economic collapse that would have destroyed our civilisation. It wasn't until the creation of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine in 2291 and first colony ship being deployed in 2362 that things finally started looking up for us. For the next hundred and thirty years we colonised space, by 2492 there were eight hundred worlds under our control. We had the highly developed and industrialised Inner Colonies and the more rural and agricultural Outer Colonies who provided the raw resources needed to maintain the Inner Colonies. Unfortunately our lovely era of peace came to a sudden and horrific stop when an entire colony rebelled and tried to succeed from the UEG and form it's own inter-stellar government. The UNSC's approach for dealing with the trouble makers was... harsh to say the least, we raised the entire colony, turned it into a nuclear wasteland and killed everybody on it. Not our most proud moment I assure you.

"Two years later a full blown Insurrection occurred in the Outer Colonies, but rather than fight a conventional war which they would surely loose the Insurrectionists used terrorist actions, they had no qualms with bombing everything from schools to government buildings. Hell they even detonated nukes in major cities and killed hundreds of thousands. This civil war of ours was forgotten about in 2525 when we made first contact with an alien conglomerate known as the Covenant. In fact, the Shipmaster and Tribal Leader here are both species that used to be apart of the Covenant. They were religious nut jobs that were hell bent on our destruction because their leaders knew that humans were the heir to the Forerunner Empire and not them, we didn't know it at the time so we were shocked when we get a message say that our destruction was the will of the gods, who were the Forerunners, and that the Covenant were their instrument. Needles to say we lost a lot of people and a lot of colonies to the Covenant because they outnumbered us and out gunned us." The General explained dispassionately, he had given up being passionate a very long time ago. The councillors were shocked at the bloody history of the human race, and to think that they were still around in the galaxy spoke volumes on just how tenacious humanity was.

"You used nuclear devices on a garden world? Are you people insane? Garden worlds are rare and can't be destroyed by petty squabbles of an upstart race." The Turian Councillor said, to Fal's surprise the General just smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand.

"Seriously? The Covenant destroyed nearly seven hundred worlds by turning them into glass and murdered thirty billion people in the name of false gods and you call my people insane? And for that matter have you even heard of terraforming technology? It's this amazing thing that lets you turn an uninhabitable rock into a beautiful 'garden world'." General Black snapped.

"Terraforming a planet like that is not possible, and I highly doubt that an advanced conglomerate of sentient beings would destroy seven hundred worlds by turning them into 'glass', even if it were possible to do so. I'm certain your people must have provoked this 'Covenant' into a war, if they were advanced as you claim than they should have surpassed the need to pointlessly wage war." Sparatus said dismissing the human General, for what was probably the hundredth time Fal was again surprised when the Shipmaster spoke up instead of General Black.

"It is true. The Covenant did wage war against the humans for the reasons he claims, some of my people still do to this day. The Kaidon of the Vadum Keep fought in the war against the humans, he used to tell us tales of how he led entire fleets of the Covenant's mighty warships and conquered human worlds before using his ships energy projectors and turning the surface of the planets into glass to wipe the human presence from them." Ferz said with sorrow lacing his every word, almost as if he felt guilty for what his people had done despite not being born until after the war had ended.

"I think that is enough for one day, no? We shall return to our ship and continue these talks tomorrow before something is said that might be regretted." The Librarian said, cutting off whatever the Turian councillor had to say.

"Agreed, it has been a long day with many startling revelations. A rest would be beneficial to both parties." Tevos agreed. On the way back to the docks Fal heard General Black and the Commander talking.

"That bastards lucky Chief, I nearly punched his stupid bony head in, the nerve of that guy- doubting our struggles as nothing more than fantasy and provocation and lies. I'd like to see him tell that to the thirty billion souls the Covenant took from us."

"Yeah, I understand sir. Might I suggest you show him some evidence next time if he tires to dismiss the war again."

"Hmm, good idea Chief. Any ideas on what to show him?"

"I was thinking of Psi Serpentis, Draco III and Reach, sir. Show them something to make them realise how bad the war got." The Commander replied. Fal couldn't understand why General Black was calling him 'Chief' but he had his reasons, Fal was sure.

"Cole's Last Stand, the Draco III Massacre and The Fall of Reach? Damn Chief, you trying to make the guy crap himself?" General Black said.

"Just showing them we weren't lying is all, sir." General Black shook his head and gave sadistic laugh.

"Sure Chief. Whatever you say." Black said before leaving the Commander and slowing down to talk with Ferz and thanking him for 'sticking up for their mutual history'. The Asari councillor had been right, it had been a long day and Fal looked forward to a good nights sleep before continuing with the talks. For him he had learnt a lot about the galaxy and that one needed to be ruthless from time to time and not be afraid to do it, was that why humans were protectors of the galaxy? Because they weren't afraid to bomb planets into dust and eradicate their enemies or turn those enemies into friends? Fal didn't know for certain but he was sure it had something to do with it.