A/N: Hello all my minions, and any other readers finding this story. This is an experiment, a tiny sample of a story that occurred to me. I am putting this up as a sounding board, if you will, to ascertain what the community thinks of this concept. So please, review, fave etc. If I get enough positive attention I'll start work on the real thing.

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The Osengi were a fascinating species. One of the many that formed a part of the Prothean collective, they were unique in that their brains were diffuse skeins of neurones throughout their body. When the Reapers, in their arrogance, came to harvest them they saw the potential in the small insectoid quadrupeds and made the decision to form them into a capital class Reaper of the Nsoma subtype, longer and thinner than the more prevalent Nazara, Norozo and Nyrynthis subtypes, with a more powerful, longer range main cannon that had a lower fire rate, a Reaper sniper for want of a better description. Since every capital Reaper had four personal attendant destroyers, it was selected to make two of the streamlined Soort subtype, optimised for space warfare with a dangerous long range, rapid fire main gun supplemented by numerous secondary cannon in the tentacles, and the other two of the Shasyr subtype, blockier and more resilient but lacking secondary weapons in the tentacles, ideal for ground operation. Of course what they didn't count on was that the Osengi, when assimilated into the nascent Reaper, linked their diffuse neurological structures into a single web that housed a single consciousness, increasing in power exponentially with every mind that joined. Approximately halfway to completion the nascent mind reached a critical mass that overwhelmed the indoctrination. Inadvertently, blinded by hubris, the first Reaper that was immune to indoctrination was crafted. It was a simple matter for the Reaper Osengi to remove the taint from its attendant destroyers and slip away. Harbinger didn't bother checking if every Reaper was accounted for - after all, ancient homicidal AIs hardly needed babysitting - and so the first five unindoctrinated Reapers, freshly clad in a coat of brilliant white and decorated with golden engravings from the cultures of the species they once were, were free to prepare the galaxy for the arrival of their dark brethren.