Preterhuman (Mass Effect Fanfic)

For the planet-side fight, I want you guys to pick who shall be the one to fight the Protheans


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Holy baloney.

For such a short piece, it is beautiful, yet horrifying.

And that last sentence makes me ponder a lot of possibilities.

It makes me want to unleash one of the Duchala upon the 40K and other settings where grimdark is the norm.
 
Holy baloney.

For such a short piece, it is beautiful, yet horrifying.

And that last sentence makes me ponder a lot of possibilities.

It makes me want to unleash one of the Duchala upon the 40K and other settings where grimdark is the norm.

Duchala: suddenly exists

Chaos

Chaos Gods: curiosly pokes it
Duchala: "Warning. Dimensional corruption detected. Purging protocols commencing."
Chaos: Confused screaming.

Imperium

Random explorator tech adept: "okay... So in this place up is down, left is triangle and there are dragons made out of freezing cold stellar plasma that shoot imposible colored Lazer beams out of their eyes. Also we are still breathing Even though there is no air and my tent is like... 50 times bigger on the inside than what's on the outside. Also, My mind bares a great pain!!!!"

Orks

Orks: Waaaaeeooourrgiiiaaaalalalallalaaoooiiii.... Errr.... Wot just 'append?
Ork weirdboy: I absolutely have no idea good sir. Suddenly everything turned rainbow and poor Orgurg over there turned into a giant talking mushroom.
Orgurg: Yo soy Orgurg.
Weirdboy: See?
Orgurg: Yo soy Orgurg.

Necrons

Random cryptek: circuits overloaded. Please initiate reboot sequence.... Reboot sequence failed. Self destruct in three.... Two.... One...

You can make up the rest
 
Last edited:
Duchala: suddenly exists

Chaos

Chaos Gods: curiosly pokes it
Duchala: "Warning. Dimensional corruption detected. Purging protocols commencing."
Chaos: Confused screaming.

Imperium

Random explorator tech adept: "okay... So in this place up is down, left is triangle and there are dragons made out of freezing cold stellar plasma that shoot imposible colored Lazer beams out of their eyes. Also we are still breathing Even though there is no air and my tent is like... 50 times bigger on the inside than what's on the outside. Also, My mind bares a great pain!!!!"

Orks

Orks: Waaaaeeooourrgiiiaaaalalalallalaaoooiiii.... Errr.... Wot just 'append?!

Necrons

Random cryptek: circuits overloaded. Please initiate reboot sequence.... Reboot sequence failed. Self destruct in three.... Two.... One...

You can make up the rest

With more details about the capabilities and background story of the Duchala (the same goes for the Obscurus humanity), some great crossovers could be made, not necessarily as a HFY, but how the concept of humans (in this context) differs in different settings.
 
Okame 1: 42k The Shape of the Dream to Come
@Black-Aengel-01 I hope you like this omake.


The Human Condition



As scholars, discussions and disputes pertaining to the "human condition" take a lot of space, even compared to more significant matters related to management of affairs and developing or upgrading the individual and the community to suit ever progressing conditions. Interpretations and formalities of the "human condition" may differ on a case-by-case basis. However in form, it relates to the same narrative structure and response.

"Human condition" describes the state of mankind within either static or fluid, which under certain contexts can either mean the steady degradation of the race into a state of depravity and ruin, a fragmented ascension that may either result in stagnation with a divided humanity or a united humanity ascending without any hinges. However, there are very rare cases in which the ascension is complete, yet fragmented along a duality, and that ascension is prompted by an eldritch patron.

Eldritch patrons usually either toy with mortal races or outright abuse them malevolently. It is rarely seen or completely unseen for an entity defying logic and sanity to have a vested interest in the transcendence of a race that is for all intents and purposes beneath its attention and capabilities. And yet it happened.

While its real name was completely incomprehensible, the pronouncable name of "Obscurus" described a fragment of its real intentions. On surface, the being had a complete interest in the ascension of mankind, yet the reasons for it doing so are completely obscured behind a veil of complete darkness. For all we know, Obscurus might have done it fort he hell of it.

The result of its experiments are as alien as itself, yet the dominant human psyche and an attachment to forms of past make some deductions nearly recognizable. For instance, artifacts of great power and mind boggling properties are akin to video games for them. Their methods of offense, infiltration and intimidation, even with all of the sorcery and alien form surrounding them, carry traces of human culture which can be easily identified by careful eyes. Easily identified, and yet no means to counter them. Or maybe we don't want to counter them.

On the other hand, on the other side of the coin, there is something else. Something beyond the visage and potency of Obscurus. Something even more insane and logic defying than this version of humanity. Something hungry and madness-inducing.

To give it a name is feeble and fruitless. The only fragment before their brains were haywired baffled us even more: The Duchala. What is even more baffling is that they too have traces of humanity, however slim they are.

These two instances should have been impossible in another lifetime. Yet they happened. And the walls holding them back are becoming ever thinner. The effects are felt by all instances of humanity in existence. We hear the song calling us to embrace the greatest destiny. The song is heard by xenos too, no matter how faint it is.

Farseers in the surviving Craftworlds are convulsing and spasming at the sight of things that are even more revulsing and alien than the Ruinous Powers. Their fallen cousins in Commorragh are holding their heads in pain, deprived from pleasure at times. Their human slaves laugh at them with a sensation mocking their glory. And there are times that these slaves are vanished from their cells completely, without any trace.



The Orks are hearing the call of a war not like any other, just as they have desired during their whole lifetimes, yet some part of their fungal nervous systems tell them that this is a war that they are definitely going to lose. The C'tan shards in possession of the remaining dynasties are cowering in fear, the reason unknown to their captors, yet awakening something close to curiosity and wariness in their soulless cold shells. The captive beneath Mars can only stay silent in contemplation.

In the lobes of Tau, senses of inevitable extinction are surging. The hive mind of the Tyranids has a surge in its synapses that halts the endless hunger for the first time in many years.

And no one knows what is happening. No one… except him.

He would awaken from his torturous stupor after what amounts to eons, in a ruined church. He would instantly recognize the church. It was the last church that he would burn on his path to relieve mankind from religion. And it was here that he would have that discussion to affirm his beliefs.

"It looks the same as you have left it."

He would turn his attention towards the source of the raspy voice. A very thin man wearing a pitch black business suit and glasses.

"Which party do you represent foul creature?"

The old thin man would sigh.

"No need for profanities my dear friend. As for your question, let's just say I am an intermediator between both interpretations."

"No surprise, your essence stinks of both of them."

Suddenly, the old man would instantly appear right in front of the man wearing the golden armor, bearing the symbol of Aquilon.

"And yet, you, for all of your grand might, can't deduce what I really am."

The man in golden armor would breath heavily, something he hadn't done for many millennia. The old man would walk towards the altar, looking up to the orange sky.

"You can hear the song, can't you? And you hear every note, every frequency, every rhythm, more intense than the others?"

"I can hear it. I know what you want to do and I am not going to allow it."

The old man would turn towards the other man.

"Hmph. In your current state, it is a bit impossible."

Walking towards the man known as the God Emperor of Mankind he would say "For you being such a master of deceit and manipulation, it is a bit discouraging to see that for once the threads are taken from you. Are you out of touch? Or maybe you are losing confidence."

The Emperor would extend his armored hand, strangling the old man.

"You can't force ascension upon mankind. Not like this."

The old man would only laugh, appearing right behind the Emperor.

"And your methods seem to work wonders. Your Imperium is crumbling right around you, besieged from all sides. Your sons are either dead, missing or fallen. The End Times are knocking right at your door. You believe yourself to be undainted, master of every possible angle and consequence. And yet, deep down at your very core you know that you are as much as fallible as all humans are."

The Emperor would suddenly shout.

"You don't know me! I have already made contingencies for every possible occasion. If you arrive, you will ruin all of it!"

"On contrary, when one of the parties arrive, or even both of them arrive, none of them will be necessary. And all of them will be powerless to stop it. That includes you, even if you become the Fifth."

The Emperor would be silent for a long while.

"I visited you, just to tell you that there is no point in resisting us. The ascension will happen one way or another. Either by the hands of the ones that still retained some semblance of humanity. Or either by the hands of the ones that transcended all conceivable notions."
 
Huh humanity got recked by reapers 2.0 when they meet this galaxys reapers there going to over react in a big way. Would be funny if the story here is humanity wipe the protheans out then vanish till the events of mass efffect one.
 
@Black-Aengel-01 here is another omake. I hope you like it.

Warning: Some profanities and some gore are abound.

The End of Depravity

From slave to master, the tale of Asdrubael Vect would be an inspiration for masses, if not for the circumstances turning him into a monster viler and more capricious than his former masters. He was calculating, calm, patient and one step ahead in his rise to the rank of the supreme overlord of Commorragh, the sole haven for him and his depraved kin in the Webway, protecting them against their more wayward cousins, the mon'keigh Imperium, other xenos and most importantly, from She-Who-Thirsts.

If it was not for the fact that they had to stay vigilant all the time, lest the Prince would absorb all of their souls, his life could have been a bit better. Still, being the Archon of the most powerful and influential Kabal, and having the pulse on every deception and politics of the infinite city pretty much secure his position for an indefinite time, alongside with the usual benefits. Fresh slaves were coming to the ports constantly, torture quotas were filled daily, the dead weights were eliminated through myriads of conspiracies and etc. His position was secure for the time being, strengthened by the current state of the galaxy and his ability to maintain his composure even during the most tenuous times. Life was good for the most time.

Yet these last few days were anything but good. In fact, it was becoming extremely difficult for him to maintain his composure and to a rate his supreme authority over the city due to the events that transpired for the last few days.

It would start with some of the ships that were returning from the occasional slave raids disappearing. It should not have been a significant matter, if not for the fact that the search parties could not find a single trace, not even a single clue. After many searches, they would find debris of the ships, with some being torn apart like paper and some being twisted into impossible angles. Their findings of the occupants of the ships were strange too. All of the human slaves were nowhere to be found amongst the debris, while alien slaves were either left to die or were taken by something else. As for the slavers… they were either torn apart, bended like pretzels or died with an empty look on their faces, apparently being scared of something.

Vect and his confidants would put a public facade of these incidents being the work of uppity mon'keigh, their prudish cousins and lucky lowlife aliens, trying to maintain some semblance of status quo and authority in Commorragh. But deep down, their worries were boiling more and with the incidents piling up, they did not know how long they could continue the facade. Then incidents in the city itself would surge.

It would begin with something similar that happened in the ruined ships. Human slaves, no matter what happened to them, no matter what their state was, would disappear in numbers. Even with all possible measures being taken, the slaves would be gone out of the sight of the Drukhari in seconds. The records were not helping either, since the moment before disappearances was pretty much nonexistent. To add more strain, Commorragh itself was having its own problems. Spontaneous explosions in many of its ports, systems not responding to input and output, the wraithbone infrastructure reacting to unknown factors, the core of the city dimming and shining at irregular intervals and etc.

Then the murders would begin. They were so bizarre and gruesome to a rate that even the Drukhari would be reviled by the act. Butchered corpses nailed to the walls, dried out husks put into praying positions, still alive heads piked on spikes trying to breath, screaming bodies bent into impossible geometrical shapes and etc. And at each scene of crime, they could hear one of two different songs, or even both of them. One song would say "WE ARE COMING" and the other would say "WE ARE ALREADY HERE".

It was obvious that someone or something was hellbent on torturing Drukhari endlessly, or even ending it completely. A council had to be gathered to discuss these recent matters. In the personal quarters of Vect, other prominent figures of the damned city were gathered. From Lelith Hesperax, the favourite of the Commorragh gladiatorial commosions and the leading Wych, to Urien Rakarth, the greatest Haemonculus to ever grace Commorragh, all of them were whispering the same thing: Vect finally lost his cunning demeanor and he should be replaced with someone more competent if they are to survive this particular occasion. All of their mumblings were interrupted immediately, when the supreme overlord himself harshly entered the chambers, like he was in a rush to resolve this matter once and for all.

All of them were around a wide table, eating, drinking, smoking. This should have been a joyous occasion, for the tastes of what they were taking in their bodies were beyond what could be found in the wider galaxy. Yet there was no enjoyment. The taste was bland, even painful, burning their throats. Vect would be the first one to break the long silence.

"As all in this room knows already, we are getting through unusual times that require finesse and true leadership to be resolved. Even if the task at hand seems to be impossible, I can assure you that it will be resolved in due time."

"Cut the crap Vect, there is no need to sugarcoat what is actually happening. Commorragh is under a complete and focused attack, and your pathetic hide can't determine the source of it."

It was Hesperax that interrupted Vect's speech. He always felt that the Wych was too upfront and bold for her own good, yet he couldn't bring himself to get rid of her, for she was still a sight for the eye, within the contexts of both his personal desires and the benefits brought through the gladiator games.

"Now now my dear. No need to get agitated and muddy waters. How bad could it be? It might be those pesky mon'keigh getting lucky, our pious cousins or even those critters munching everything on their path. No need to worry this much."

"Maybe you are blind Vect, but all of us can see the writing on the wall. And no matter how much you try to deviate from this issue, it will still stay the same. We all know that not even Trayzn and the surviving dynasties are capable of something like this. We need answers immediately and this meeting is just a complete waste of time."

It was Rakarth this time acting bold. For an individual of a scholarly stock, he was becoming more interested in political matters, thought Vect. Even if he didn't realize it at the moment, Vect was losing the discussion and soon enough he would lose his throne, if he didn't do something. With each passing minute, more voices would drown the room.

"Who the fuck cares? We will hunt all of them anyway."

"As long as the festivities continue, we should move on from this insignificant matter."

"We should move the city somewhere else."

"Hesperax should lead us."

"We should strike a deal with the Craftworlds."

"Or maybe all of you should just sit back and enjoy the show."

That last sentence would come from a feminine voice accompanied by a chorus of countless. All of the Drukhari in the room would turn towards the source of the voice. It was coming from the human servant serving them their commodities. Around the dried husk that was the slave, an eerie light was glowing which was becoming brighter with each passing minute. The body of the servant was becoming pitch black, while his eyes would widen, becoming akin to balloons glowing with the same eerie light.

"You. How did you-" would stutter Vect.

"Oh my dear child. If I were you, I would just shut my mouth for a minute and listen to what this poor soul has to say. Then you could go on with your rambling as much as you like."

"You. Are you responsible for all of this? What do you want from us?" would shout Hesperax.

"And there is the sharp one. Or maybe not so sharp. I might be the responsible one. Or maybe I am not. Or maybe it is one of my kin. Or the other side of my kin. But all of us want the same thing."

"And what could that be?" asked Rakarth.

"The ascension of what you perceive to be lowly. The ascension of all mankind, one way or another."

A laughter would come out abruptly. It was Vect laughing like a wild hyena while the others were in great awe and fear.

"As if the mon'keigh are capable of such a thing. And you are going to help them?"

"Maybe me. Maybe not me. But it is inevitable."

"Huh. I wouldn't be so sure. Look at their current state."

"And look at yours. What does that make of you? In mere moments, we could end all of it and none of you, not even the Four, especially that whore that you are escaping from could do anything to halt it."

All of them would revulse with the mention of the Prince.

"Oh. If anything in this existence would make you revulse with a simple mention, it would be Him/Her/It. But do not worry. When I am gone, you will begin to fear me. You will begin to fear mankind."

Vect would mockingly ask "And what makes you say that you cretin? Who even are you?"

"Oh, I am just a humble servant for grander things. And I am also a testament to what mon'keigh will become inevitably, soon enough."

With that last sentence, everyone would gasp, while Vect would laugh mixed with fear and curiosity.

"No, no! You are lying. You are just a lowlife sorcerer that will be gone for good."

"Am I? Or are you looking for excuses to deny the true call of future? The signs were there, yet since your almightiness couldn't comprehend them completely, you deviated the deadline until it was at your doorstep. Like I said before, we could end all of this in mere moments, yet we went on and on up until this moment. Have you ever wondered why?"

Bile was gathering up in Vect's throat.

"Why?"

"Because it would be boring to just end it all. Toying with you with a minutiae fraction of my true capabilities is much more fun. It gives me more delight to mess with you, until you realize the predicament of the situation you are in. And from where I stand, all of you still are in complete denial."

Anger would take control of Vect's faculties.

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up! Why do I even pay all of you? Don't just stand there and kill this lowlife!"

With his command, the entity possessing the slave would be assaulted from all corners with perfect timing and synchronicity. It would amount to no avail. Mere seconds after, all of the attackers, including one Lelith Hesperax, were on ground, groaning in grave pain either due to loss of limbs or psychological torment. All Vect could do was to look in complete despair.

"It was really rude. You shouldn't treat your guests like this."

The entity would walk towards Vect. All he could do was to pin himself in a corner, cradling like a child.

"I know that despite millennia of experience, you still have a thick head, so I am going to tell you this only once. I and I only will empty your precious city of human slaves to include them in our ranks, and no matter what you do to them, they are still going to be picked. There is no tool or sorcery in your possession that can stop me. And when I am done here, I might move on to other places, unless someone else desires to take up the task. All in all, the humans will join the ranks of divinity one way or another, and that includes your special prisoner, the lost son of wind and speed."

Vect was on the verge of crying, but tried to save face.

"Hmph. This poor soul I am possessing is malnourished. Maybe we should pick up something for the road."

Thirty dragon heads made out of ethereal darklight would pop out from the slave's head, launching towards the unlucky Incubi and Wych that were on the ground. The heads would feast themselves with their innards and souls. After a while, the entity would be gone.

Vect thought that torment at the hands of Slaanesh was preferable to what he lived through.
 
Protheans
-INITIATING DIRECT TELEMETRIC-PSYCHIC LINK-

FROM: CERBERUS DIRECTOR, THARN HARP, ID C.3-M071D9-FF83HT6-W03-77ZXS-207F.

TO: XENO-ANALYSIS RESEARCH TEAM GAMMA.

SUBJECT: Protheans.




Seriously Harp? Why are you calling us now? The full Prothean report will be done in a day or so. We still have much to go through. Seriously, we can only give you partial data on it. You don't care, you just want it with you already?

What the Void, fine, we'll comply. So where should we begin?

The basics, right.

So, Protheans. From what we managed to gleam from the bodies and tech we recovered, we are dealing with the dominant power in the galaxy and we just threw down the gauntlet on them. Lucky we have longer range FTL than them and metatech or else we would be in a world of hurt. Might even be forced to fire up the Empyreal Deep Dive Drives and jump to another galaxy.



Anyhow…Biology:

Protheans are a carbon based, humanoid race of pseudo-arthropoidal creatures with a two caste system being part of their actual species (more on that later) that derive from the world of Nerr Atrined, which roughly translates as Origin of Principality (Pretentious much). We say pseudo-arthropoidal because they have, or rather had, both an endo and exoskeleton, though natural selection had pushed the organisms into loosening the exterior skeletal frame and converted it into armor plates across their body, but unlike actual arthropods, they have an active breathing system, and efficient cardiovascular organs.

Remember the exoskeleton and endoskeleton? Good, because this is where it starts getting nice. Prothean exoskeleton armor is made from protein polysaccharides not too dissimilar to chitin, but it is also rich with polarized silicon which is a very inert, heat resistant, flexible polymer. Meaning that these buggers are tough and can take a serious beating and have great environmental resistance. Though not as much as a fully adapted magnad. They don't have all the redundant systems and highly adaptive biology we do. These exo-plates are mainly found on the head, neck and body, providing protection to most crucial organs and they can retract their head into their shoulders slightly for protection. The endoskeleton though isn't that impressive, aside from the bones having hollow pockets to make them slightly lighter than us.

The skin can be a pale blue-gray or brown color mottled with muted yellow spots and is filled to the brim with specialized receptors which are the basis for their unique ability (which we will discuss below) and are most prevalent on their hands and tongue. Their hands each have three fingers, and their feet each have two widely-spaced toes.

Prothean blood is colored red, but it isn't iron based. Rather, it's actually a pigment that blocks radiation that freely flows through the system. If you remove that pigment though, their blood turns into a nice golden ichor. On a biochemical and genetic level, these creatures have a strange CMS (Coding Molecule System) that is very distinct from DNA, one which operates on a quad-strand structure, where two of these strands are designed for protecting the actual coding strands from chemical and radiation damage, further reinforcing that these aliens are well adapted to a high radiation environment. Their protein chains are also surprisingly resistant to anomalous folding meaning that they do not suffer from prion diseases.

They are also naturally 'biotic' and most disturbingly, also a psionic species. This will be elaborated further under abilities.

As for senses, they have quite the package. They possess two pairs of eyes with each eye possessing dual pupils, and three pairs of nostrils. Each pair of eyes, as well as their nostrils, operate by processing different information independently from the rest. For instance, the larger eyes are focused entirely on processing the black/white spectrum and movement, providing them superb night vision, while the exterior eyes only process colors (Red, Green, Blue, UV and a few other spectrum). Collectively, they have a very acute sense of vision. Touch is heightened, but pain is not. In fact it is very likely that Protheans have higher pain tolerance than an untrained organic. As for hearing, Prothean hearing is done via fluid filled cavities at either side of the head, and is not that sensitive though.

Now for the Castes, this will also be talked about significantly in the psychology and culture section, but an overview, the species has two castes (outside from the assimilated races) we have the Netraad (translates to High Breed, but we are just gonna call them Nobles) and the Ortraad (Translates to Common Breed, or Normies).

The Netraad are larger, stronger and much smarter than the Ortraad caste and are genetically predisposed to be the rulers of the Prothean society. They also have the strongest biotic abilities and psychic powers among the race. The Ortraad are the common folk, the basic description we discussed above. Nobles have larger head plates, grown to the point that they become an actual crest. Nobles are usually white skin with light colored plates and darker eyes than their lower born brethren.

Expanding into lifespans, Protheans have a natural lifespan greatly surpassing Sapiens, with the Normies living about two hundred and fifty and only beginning to suffer from the degenerative effects of aging at their two hundred year mark, while the Nobles go beyond, to the four hundred year life span, but suffer from aging comparatively much sooner at roughly the three hundred year margin. Though medical anti-aging treatments counter these effects. Pretty impressive, though not that much when compared to us who are biologically and functionally immortal.

Prothean sexes and reproduction is not exotic in any way. They are bigendered and give birth to live young. Though unlike us, they do not find much pleasure in the act of sexual intercourse and the offspring's gender is not dependent on genetics, but environmental pressures like those of Terran reptiles. Females are nearly identical to males with the few indicative differences being a shorter frame and longer arms… as well as the reproductive organs. Oh and males' penis is long (+ or – 45cm) can move like a tentacle… gross. Adding to the report, females have a gestation period of our standard year and give birth to two offspring.



Psychology and Culture.

We have some data here and there, but culture is basically bare bones and we will only include some data on it, just for you to know Harp.

Now that we are done with that, let's move on to the most challenging part; xeno-behavior. We had to do several bio-simulations of the species, and steal data from their neural cortexes through psi-nanite injection. As a consequence to low data, we do not have much to go on, but a picture has formed regarding what we are dealing with. Hint, it isn't good.

Prothean mentality and culture revolves around a hierarchy based upon the foundations of dominance and proof of skill and power, touched upon by a Darwinistic attitude towards life. This can be said as the following. If two Protheans were to meet, they will immediately make a hierarchy through the Touch, analyzing each other and he who proves greater takes the lead on all actions and the inferior gladly and happily lets the greater take control. But this does not mean that the inferior will not try to up his superior by improving itself until it can supersede its fellow. In fact this is a central part of their psychology, each individual always trying to claim a higher and higher place on the ladder. Either through intellect, strength or cunning.

And this mentality is applied to other species as well. If you are not strong enough to claim your manifest destiny among the powers in the galaxy then you do not deserve it. End of the argument.

Ironically, this isn't some quirk of domination for the evulz, but it is… from their twisted point of view… a good thing for the subjugated species.

The Protheans justify this cultural reconditioning by claiming that if the races who opposed them were actually stronger than the Protheans, then they would take the Protheans' place as the galaxy's dominant civilization, and the Protheans would have no issue with this at all. It was in keeping with their belief that evolution, or the 'Cosmic Imperative' as they termed it, was the prime driving force of life in the universe and that the strong must flourish by dominating the weak for the greater good of all. Keep that in mind. They do not want to dominate us because they want us dead or enslaved, but because they believe it's the right thing to do!

This is further brought to evidence by the fact that while the Protheans are the higher Caste members of society (High and Middle caste is almost exclusively dominated by the Protheans themselves while Low caste is delegated to the subjugated aliens species), various aliens species have shown skills that allow individuals to rise into higher castes and the Protheans consider them worthy of every ounce of respect they claim. It's weird… but it makes some twisted sense…

The reason why the Protheans dominate the higher castes is because they are stronger, smarter and more skilled than the other races under them. But even so, those beneath are not treated like slaves at all, even if they are looked down upon by those above. It's weird. A society like that in the old sapiens species would quickly fall to corruption and abuse, but these guys managed to pull it off. Comes to show that aliens are indeed alien. Just like we would be for them, a harmonious egalitarian collective like ours is practically impossible for them to accomplish.

Protheans have no issue with eating even other sapient life forms, not surprising given their cannibalistic tendencies. Yeah, you heard that, no this isn't an exaggeration Harp, they are cannibals, and despite what you may think, it makes sense. Read the Abilities part and it will make sense. As a result, when one of their numbers die, they are usually consumed so that the individual's skills and memories are preserved, culturally granting the diseased a form of immortality by passing on their lives to the living. This ties to their olden day religions, where it was seen as the highest form of honor and grandeur among them to be consumed by as many as a population as possible, making the dead forever remembered in the hearts and minds of the living, becoming a strange form of ancestor worship. Also, as a consequence, it is a great honor for a member of the lower castes to be eaten by one of a higher one after their deaths. Not eating your ancestors, friends or family when they pass is seen as the highest act of disrespect and barring special circumstances would warrant excommunication from the rest of their community.

The Protheans designated certain individuals as Avatars, or exemplars, of particular traits or acts: Battle, Knowledge, Cunning, etc, and they mentally alter themselves to excel at this one aspect of their choosing. It is an act not taken lightly and those who choose to walk this path are seen with an odd mixture of pity and awe. But likewise anyone who leaves this path of life is seen as weak and a disgrace of untold proportion among their people and ostracized until their act of failure is washed away by cleansing their own life from existence through ritual suicide. Harsh. Also, Avatars are only allowed to consume a fellow Avatar and only of a compatible embodiment (Vengeance and Battle, War and Annihilation, Knowledge and Truth, are close enough for this to happen), though in the past it was only of the exact same trait. Eating an Avatar of another embodiment is seen as a terrible crime and punishable with execution. A disgraced Avatar's body isn't eaten in any circumstances though.

Also Protheans practice selective breeding and has resulted in the separation of the commoner and high caste into two subspecies. Subspecies so utterly different that you would be excused for believing them entirely different creatures. And we don't mean physically (though there are no shortage of differences there either) but psychological. Ortraads are pretty similar to us, once you separate all those little quirks that make them different from humans. They can feel love, loss, sympathy, fear, have desires and a sense of self similar to our own (more or less). Guilt is a bit weird though. But aside from that we could have a normal argument with each other… if we can prove to be on a similar level of 'power' to them and ignore their cannibalistic tendencies.

Netraads though, these are scary, and here is one of the reasons why they are the High Breed Caste. These Superprothean monsters are utterly fearless (They are incapable of feeling fear, like at all!!) and while they do have self-preservation instincts, they face death smiling and laughing and will not, I repeat, will not break under any circumstance. Read addendum 4.77 B where Shin Arata (one of our few remaining Engels) had to spend nearly twenty minutes hunting that Noble down and still the bloody bastard managed to deny us a body to work with by disintegrating himself with what they call a warp. They have a single purpose drive to dominate and become superior at whatever they deem (Which has resulted in various dynasties, each focusing on a particular niche to play in society.) and will not stop until they die or are at the very top of the food chain and even then they have to work to maintain their place in society from other rivals. And worse of all, they seem to use their immense biomancy to guide their civilization to whatever they see as the right course of action. When the Netraads set themselves to do something then they will accomplish it, no matter how much blood and sweat is spilled and only crushing them completely would make them stop. And to make matters more interesting, a Netraad in the field makes all other Protheans fight just as fiercely and fearlessly as the bastard himself and his elimination is not a guarantee that the unit will break. And when one dies, they are devoured by as many people as possible, ensuring his will lives on through his subjects forevermore. This is how the High Breed Caste as ruled uncontested for millennia, though sheer power, strength, cunning and manipulation. Do not underestimate the nobles. Ever.

Various Netraad Dynasties include, but not limited to, the Borhnaat (Bloodthirsty warriors, the whole lot of them), Aigdotha (Mad scientists 90% of the time and abstract LSD artists the other 10% of the time), Nyneeba (Navy captains of and void masters), Urgaraada (Traders and administrators), Lephet (Genetic specialists and socio-cultural experts (and manipulators)), etc… There are also mythological Dynasties like Rureiel and Balgaroth, but I have no data on them.

And this is the problem we find ourselves. We did not win against them, not in their eyes. They made a miscalculation and loss and that can admit to that, but not until we prove, beyond every shadow of doubt, our own superiority and strength to them they will not stop until we are subjects to them.

What we faced? That probe that entered our system reported back and told them that we did not have any Eezo. Because many of our transmission technologies use the metaphysical principles, they were not able to deduce that we were so advanced, so they brought in a token force to subjugate us, thinking we were some bumbling primitives.

Well…now that they know, they will treat us accordingly. As a fully fledge interstellar empire and will bring their full might to bear.

Thankfully or FTL drives have longer reach and our tech is considerably more advanced than theirs. By the time they find us, if they ever do, we will have the power to demonstrate them without a shadow of doubt that we are not to be trifled with.

We will still use the rules of the Grendel Conventions though Harp, so no matter how satisfying is to see some imperialistic crazies get invaded by extra-dimensional monsters, we are not doing planned Meta-incursion into their worlds. It's not nice to them and we would be forced to clean that mess up afterwards.



Abilities.

Okay, we have two things to work with. We will begin with the thing that is the newest stuff for us. Biotics. We… we just got our hands on this substance, and we have very little idea what it is. But Taroth Auphilon proposed that this is an actual hybrid particle that exist partially in-between the Realspace and the Terminus Obscure, but it is also strangely psycho-reactive in a way that we have not seen before. More details attached. Anyway, this strange exotic substance seems to be exclusive to this galaxy and allows the creatures of this region of the universe to manipulate the dark energy and dark matter that permeates the Terminus Obscure and phase it into Realspace. In other words, it allows them to manipulate gravity, distort the phase state of particles and alter their mass-speed ratios and how they are subjected to the laws of Realspace in ways we never have seen before. Heck, we have only begun scratching the absolute tip of this monumental iceberg and the possibilities could be endless. And the Protheans seem to be very skilled at this. It allows them to play the game of sorcerers even if what they are doing is completely different and unrelated. (Take note that even Herma Mora got his ass handed to him for a while and had to use the Closed Hand Technique. And let's not forget what Daviel En-Matt was subjected to and what Shin Arata had to do to catch that High-Breed.) We should see if we can incorporate some of these tricks into our own military.

Now… this is the part that should get you all worked up. Protheans (and from what we can tell, a whole lot of species in this galaxy) are a psionically active. To be more precise, they are psychometric biomancers. The entire lot of them are! This means they can tell a whole host of details from any organic life form they encounter by a mere touch. And take note that a large demographic of species in the galaxy have these abilities, but only the actual Protheans themselves have it so extensively enhanced to the point of consuming skills, knowledge and abilities from one another through consumption, ergo the immense significance of cannibalism in their culture. But this is not the only ability this psionic power grants them, and the High Breed Caste has expanded it upon to be able to guide the will of those beneath and even have a frightening insight in the processes of biology. And more so, despite the fact that they may not know much about the finer reasons why their abilities work, they have managed to replicate it upon their machines, meaning that their Artificial Intelligences have the same (if somewhat reduced) abilities as the organics. Talk about innovative…



Technology:

Ask Marathi for more data on that. But a simple overview is that while it is sturdy and reliable and operates on principles we haven't encountered before, ours beat theirs by a decent margin, especially more so when we take into account our understanding of metaphysics.

To give you an example. Let's take their plasma weaponry.

It operates by… sigh, okay, short summary. It uses these 'Mass Effect' fields to rapidly charge and excite the particles within a condensed canister of ionized gasses and metals. Then it launches them at supersonic speeds through a narrow field corridor, causing a potent explosion of radiation and heat at the point of impact. But check this, while many components are analogous to our own plasma weapons, they require this Eezo substance to accomplish their task and release the ionized particles in the form of a projectile at a distance considerable for ranged combat.

Ours, on the other hand, can easily do without this Mass Effect field and while they would lack the range the Prothean plasma analogues possess, that is easily rectified by our usage of metaphysics and basically reprograming the laws of the material universe to bend over and do what we want. Ergo, we can put several times more range, power and accuracy than whatever they can produce with our understanding alone. When we begin taking in their designs… well… let's say that getting a bolt of solidified uranium plasma to the face would be the least of their worries.

However… thanks to their biomancy, we should be seeing a species with a frightening degree of biotechnology. Though none which could affect us greatly since we have redundancies to redundancies among other things.



Threat Level:

As we are now, considerably high as they could drown us in numbers.

If we get a chance to properly develop back to a stable population number and build our fleets and legions? They are a minor threat.

…?

Our technology only works for us yes but… cloning us with the bio samples that remain in Mundus? Yeah, I really doubt it Harp, cloning a cybrex like me is a pain in the ass, imagine a magnad. Or worse, a void wyrm.

Sure, they may be skilled with biology, but one can only clone any one of us if they knew the right alchemical formulae to catalyze the partial metaphysical nature of our biology. The Protheans don't have the tech, knowledge, skill or psionic power to do so. Much less the ability to tap into the Void of Dreams. So no Harp. I really doubt that they would be able to clone us.



---------------------MEANWHILE IN OROSIA--------------------------

P: Our research into cloning has yielded nothing! If the crazy fool's words are true-

I: We have little reason to believe the contrary. Much evidence points to him being correct and the technology of these… preterhumans, being designed to interface exclusively with them on a level we cannot comprehend. Many even believe it may be on some mystical level also.

P: Please, don't tell me you have bought that garbage!

I: Garbage or not, we are having great difficulty explaining what that invisible… thing that accompanies him is. So far it has eluded every attempt at study. It's nonphysical, immaterial, but we all know is there. It defies all reason by existing, yet it still persists in its presence right before us. Even Itradima Aigdotha herself has no clue on how to begin explaining the 'Ghost'.

P:…… I have an idea.

I: I'm listening.

P: Read this. I want you to bring her to us.

I: … You're insane. That crazy bitch is absolutely yvarrshit insane! Avatar of the Flesh or last member of the House of Ruleiel, that woman cannot be trusted either way! You know what her House did! Or how she killed every single one of them! May the Ancestors preserve my blood and bone, you are insane to take her out of her cell.

P: I know. But she is what she is; the best of all gene-crafters in the entire galaxy. Bring her to us. If there is someone who can unravel the mysteries of these alien's annoying biology, it's her. If not, then all our plans to deciphering this tech are gone.

I: How do I entice her? She isn't in the best terms with anyone and she has refused to aid expand our knowledge in biology. In fact she has modified herself using unknown technologies to make her flesh not only venomous, but mentally corruptive as well.

P: Not just corruptive. It overwrites your mind with an imperfect copy of her own.

I: ……You're telling me that those weren't just myths?

P: No. It is why we haven't executed her and still keep her alive, in the hopes of ever uncovering how she did it. She is the best of us all, but she cares not for any besides herself and her research. Ergo, why she is forever sentenced to an eternity in prison.

I: …… Alright, how do I get her to work for us?

P: I will handle most of the talking. But, give her these, sort of a…incentive to work with us.

I: Genetic samples of the preterhuman species?

P: If there is one thing that can spur her into action is a challenge. I have read her profile, she will not resist the temptation.

I:… Yes milord.

-----------Three weeks later-----------------------------------

Dark gates opened as he was permitted entry into the Penitentiary World of Lomis Dat, the place where they kept the worst of the worst in the entire galaxy.

As he and his entourage of Blackbane giards walked through the hallways and elevator passages containing the most dangerous rogue minds of fellow Protheans of all castes and those of enemy aliens, the prothean reached the level labeled EEE. The lowest depth in the facility of Lomis Dat, within these cells were the kings among the insane and criminal in sheer terms of wickedness and malevolence.

And now, he was headed to one, if not the worst of them all. EEE-AR 142.

He motioned to the Blackbane guards to open the cell and watched as the seals were opened for the first time in ages. Dark metal steel doors opened, letting fresh air come into the black, dark cell. The air within stale and dry. Devoid of life and saturated with sterile chemicals to deny the inmates within any sense of the outside.

He saw her. Her perfect white skin and silvery carapace glimmering in the limited light that entered. Her body refined to such an absolute perfection despite the decades without a proper meal. Such perfect beauty bound and shackled to such a malevolent mind. Now he saw why many fell for her at first sight. How her perfect, red eyes were seen with such exotic beauty that defied reason and demanded love to be given to them at every moment. Love she used to conduct her cruel experiments. Love she greedily consumed and used to ensnare and dominate.

But he knew that it was the dark allure of such a creature. He could tell it from the Touch. She wasn't hiding her malevolent aura, did not need to.

"Mhm… a visitor coming to see lil' old me?" She purred. "How may I be of service my dear boy?" She hummed. "Wait, so you're Perferix's little assistant?" He froze. "My, and he has an offer for me. Do show me the bait, my dear Ibrimeth."

He was horrified. There was no contact, nothing. No means of using the Touch, not one that he knew was possible and yet, this woman… this thing already knew everything…… it was impossible.

But then again… this was the reason why she was so feared.

He said nothing and simply placed the three data shards containing the genetic material of the three Preterhuman races on the floor. Then one of the guards used an extended rod to take them to her while maintaining as much distance from her as possible. Such was her infamy that no living being was allowed within seven units from her cell.

She wordlessly collected and examined them, analyzing them closely with her crimson eyes. Then she took one and opened her mouth, letting out her long tongue and made contact with the shard. And then the strangest thing happened.

Ibrimeth had taken three weeks to get the credentials and travel to Lomis Dat. In those three weeks he had been familiarizing himself with the creature he was staring at, and in every depiction of her, he always saw her smiling. It was not that there were the only images of her he researched, no, it was the fact that never once, has this woman expressed anything else, than a knowing smile.

Not once since she became the Avatar of Flesh.

But now, Ibrimeth and all the accompanying guards were staring in shock at her, as for once, they saw her show an expression of something else. Something they never could have envisioned in their whole lives.

Shocked wonder.

There was genuine, unbidden awe in her eyes. As if she was beholding the Aramma Datra itself. And she could not contain it.

Tears slowly began to trickle down her eyes as a reverence filled smile slowly tugged upon her lips.

Not wasting a single second she released the shard and went for the next one, only to be left aghast once again. And then when she took the last one, the one that Ibrimeth knew was the one that contained the Wyrm gene sequence and he actually was starting to believe his eyes were lying to him.

For she was openly crying. Tears of joy.

She, the most dangerous Prothean Netraad in present history, she the most sadistic and murderous monster in the galaxy, the horror made flesh and embodiment of evil in the universe, was genuinely happy.

"To have the chance to live in an age as filled with great wonders as this. Never once in my life have I had the joy of experiencing such beauty as this…" She said. Her voice cowed with the knowledge she had witnessed. "Say no more… for you have my undying loyalty and support." Those were words of absolute truth. "I, Athame of house Ruleiel, will follow your command and wish, until the end of my times. All for this, all for the chance to unravel the secrets of the flesh of these beings!" She proclaimed and bowed. "I will not disappoint you… I cannot! For to be handed such a gift as an opportunity like this demands equal greatness of loyalty as a reward!"

There and then fate had been decreed.





And somewhere far in the void of space, in a ship built upon foundations of paranormal technology, Director Tharn Harp sneezed.

-----------------------------------------------

AN: Sorry for not posting anything in a while. Life has come back with a vengeance and I want to finish all the Codexes first before I move on with the story. Also, my other story has taken a bit of my attention lately, but haven't gotten the chance to do anything much thanks to uni.

Hope you like this little Codex/story expansion. And I hope I made the protheans suitably alien.
 
Director Tharn Harp is going to get a Prothean GF, isn't he/she/it.

Oh by the Worm... what is wrong with you?! I'll have you know that Director Tharn is happily engaged to his sixty ton Phantasm wife and is expecting children within the next decade. Though they haven't actually decided on how would they be. Should the boy/girl be a magnad? Or should the girl/boy be a Phantasm? Which one will come first? Because phantasms take like... sixteen minutes to be gestated. I mean, they are magical AIs after all...
 
Oh by the Worm... what is wrong with you?! I'll have you know that Director Tharn is happily married to his sixty ton Phantasm wife and is expecting children within the next decade. Though they haven't actually decided on how would they be. Should the boy/girl be a magnad? Or should the girl/boy be a Phantasm? Which one will come first? Because phantasms take like... sixteen minutes to be gestated. I mean, they are magical AIs after all...
.... I see no problems with this...
I mean, literally magical AI- why not?
Also, this story is GREAT. More!
 
Any remotely enamored prothean/preterhuman interaction that deals with the protheans and the Void Wyrm strain is going to be more along the lines of this.
www.pinterest.es

Pint that's Gross | Creature drawings, Creature concept art, Monster art

Jan 20, 2013 - Description Jeih trolls Aryian via Pint, 's giant chalku monster. See Jeih this is why you guys never get along. (Silver drew an awesome response to this image here.)

But under these scales. Let's say that Void Wyrms are big... really, really big.
www.pinterest.es

Hey Ary by *beastofoblivion | Monster concept art, Creature concept art, Alien concept art

May 18, 2012 - This Pin was discovered by Kira Bulycheva. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest
 
Any remotely enamored prothean/preterhuman interaction that deals with the protheans and the Void Wyrm strain is going to be more along the lines of this.
www.pinterest.es

Pint that's Gross | Creature drawings, Creature concept art, Monster art

Jan 20, 2013 - Description Jeih trolls Aryian via Pint, 's giant chalku monster. See Jeih this is why you guys never get along. (Silver drew an awesome response to this image here.)

But under these scales. Let's say that Void Wyrms are big... really, really big.
www.pinterest.es

Hey Ary by *beastofoblivion | Monster concept art, Creature concept art, Alien concept art

May 18, 2012 - This Pin was discovered by Kira Bulycheva. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest

I SEE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS.
Seriously- humans have freaky fetishes in weird places. I can only assume some aliens do (albeit in alien ways). With the Prothean cultural and psycological 'submission to the superior' effect, perhaps some will just register the human-descendants and other beings as superior?
No idea, but if I know ONE thing about humans, is that reality is no reason not to attempt banging something.
 
I SEE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS.
Seriously- humans have freaky fetishes in weird places. I can only assume some aliens do (albeit in alien ways). With the Prothean cultural and psycological 'submission to the superior' effect, perhaps some will just register the human-descendants and other beings as superior?
No idea, but if I know ONE thing about humans, is that reality is no reason not to attempt banging something.

A psychic race that has intimacy through both deep physical and psychic contact with their partners. The same psychic race that researches brain shattering technology and nonsensical equations on a daily basis. The same species who has standard procedures for containing, counteracting and sealing soul eating, mind raping DAEMONIC incursions whenever the weekly science experiment goes fubar. The same species that draws much of its power from a realm where dreams are real and has a long distance relationship with reality... at best. The same psychic species who every child has gone through several courses of basic metaphysics before graduation... and you want them to bang a primitive minor psychic race who have none of the metaphysical defenses as them....

I know how this is going to end.

Harp: Okay, so let me get this straight.
Random Cybrex Girl: *Swallows nervously*
H: You got this Prothean guy in bed with you...
RCG: yes...
H: And you started to have sex.
RCG: It was going fine the first few minutes...
H: And then as we all know, and do, you could not resist the urge to form a mental link with him.
RCG: *Squirms*
H: And then, he started screaming about demons coming to eat his soul.
RCG: *Nods*
H: And then he tried to kill you, calling you a darkness demon spawn from hell.
RCG: More like unholy thing from which the darkness comes to swallow all life... and i am just stammering...
H: Uh-hu... and then he managed to destroy your body with a biotic blast and by the time you downloaded from your phylactery ha had already began making a summoning circle with your corpse... Which then triggered the latest metaterrestrial incursion of the week...
RCG: Yes...
H:.... I fucking owe Hermaeus twenty Axions...
 
A psychic race that has intimacy through both deep physical and psychic contact with their partners. The same psychic race that researches brain shattering technology and nonsensical equations on a daily basis. The same species who has standard procedures for containing, counteracting and sealing soul eating, mind raping DAEMONIC incursions whenever the weekly science experiment goes fubar. The same species that draws much of its power from a realm where dreams are real and has a long distance relationship with reality... at best. The same psychic species who every child has gone through several courses of basic metaphysics before graduation... and you want them to bang a primitive minor psychic race who have none of the metaphysical defenses as them....

I know how this is going to end.

Harp: Okay, so let me get this straight.
Random Cybrex Girl: *Swallows nervously*
H: You got this Prothean guy in bed with you...
RCG: yes...
H: And you started to have sex.
RCG: It was going fine the first few minutes...
H: And then as we all know, and do, you could not resist the urge to form a mental link with him.
RCG: *Squirms*
H: And then, he started screaming about demons coming to eat his soul.
RCG: *Nods*
H: And then he tried to kill you, calling you a darkness demon spawn from hell.
RCG: More like unholy thing from which the darkness comes to swallow all life... and i am just stammering...
H: Uh-hu... and then he managed to destroy your body with a biotic blast and by the time you downloaded from your phylactery ha had already began making a summoning circle with your corpse... Which then triggered the latest metaterrestrial incursion of the week...
RCG: Yes...
H:.... I fucking owe Hermaeus twenty Axions...
Hilarious!

Also, that just means they can only have these sorts of relations with a bit of, shall we say, protection.

Possibly an iscolating ritual circle too.... But you know it's going to happen more than once, and people will find a way.

EDIT: And we ALL know it's going to be someone who's in college. Probably male too. We don't exactly have the best track record as a sex of NOT sticking things into other things that they were never intended to be stuck in.
 
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Eldritch Condoms! For when you want to have mind-shattering sex without causing metaterrestrial incursions!

....

I'm not sorry. This concept is just too amusing.
 
Hi it"s me your favorite french reader from Spacebattle forum so i decided to join this massive fuck fest on space battle forum . Let's see FOR THE EVIL CHOICES THAT I WILL MADE MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (Sometime i wonder if i'm a dickhead) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
For my choices it would be :
4 (Cause i want really everyone of the young races to have a massive fuckfest by killing themselves just to have some toys . It is fun and hilariously stupid ) For this , it would be all the younger races showing their corruping heart and showing how the Asari who prone vertue are in fact a parasitic race that deserve to be BURNED . It"s going to create tension inside the council space that would lead fragmentation if not destruction of the galactic order and the beginning the fall . This massive fuckfest give birth to a Tumor god due to the corruption of the Arena and the non-maintenance that would have been possible if the preterhumans show up . Creating a massive tear in space who cause a massive defaillance in the mass realy Network
9 ( I wanted some group like the Quarians or the Geth to have a questline to find something that would give them . But then you ask me" Why " . Because one have lost everything and the other one didn't have or knew if they have a thing that they want ! A soul and finally . The quarians want to run far from the fuck fest of the actual state of the galaxy but they still want Rannoch when they can simply go hiding the time that everyone is killing each other . Instead of that ,their pride goes up after they have found some information they have obtained from a abandonned protheans archive telling them a potential device that will grant everything . Little did they know that the Geth also found the information and want the graal to give them fully autonomous sapiency for each units and potentially souls but they don't know that this device would require something so far beyond what they are capable and leading to a catastrophic event (Think like the Saint Graal incident of Fate except in galactic scale )
5 (cause i love dragons but i want it at the last order after all they are going to meet a potentially hyperevolved Void dragon preterhumans who is gonna to be pissed of ) . This is the last because i think the final one should be when they meet the gods , the preterhumans who are mentionned by the protheans and the Reapers as the one they should not pissed off . After tens thousands years , the preterhumans have evolved and advanced technologically speaking having an technology level incomparable ( I was thinking on Asgard SG and Necron technological level ) . But little did they knew that there is one preterhumans who have managed to follow the human fleet and survive , adapting and evolving to all kind of horror and manage to get strong yet he/she slumber in almost near-death state like while releasing a massive power that force everyone gone to rambjo fuckest crazy . The darkness and light approach and soon all the humanity would awake into new evolving state like so beyond what the galaxy could handle . The Dragon god awoke and the eternal wave of destruction would come soon for the fools who are desecrated and stagnated just for power .
 
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Chapter 2.1
Preterhuman

2.1


--Line--


Spinning through the tackles void of space, a space station orbited the galactic currents in its eternal orbital free fall. Its black and grey hull, decorated with the gold, green and white trim aesthetics indicative of the Prothean Empire.

Surrounding this station spinning in empty space, a small fleet of vessels maintained their dedicated vigil for any divergences in the norm. Their orders were simple and straight forward, should any of the contingencies fail to contain what is within, they should make use of their full arsenal to destroy everything. Everyone who worked within the station knew this. They knew their task and their purpose and the risk of failure.

The source of all these contingencies and security protocols set in place were none other than the most dangerous criminal mastermind and sadistic scientist in the entire Prothean Empire. Athame Ruleiel.

"Yrss' El da'ah naithre temphemot uo!" The near frantic shouts of a mad woman echoed across the research chambers, the sounds of her voice like that of broken glass and weeping chalk on a board. Her arguments counter discussion returning to her with equal amounts of zeal and vindication both in speech form and Touch.

"Io!! Nos'tr el de ed na Yrss' A!" It was another copy of her mind in another body. Another her, arguing with herself over the research they were so deeply invested in. But it was not a mere argument between twin minds in different bodies. This was a heated debate between ever increasingly divided factions born of a single being. And there were over sixty individual copies desperately trying outshouting each other.

The reasons for such extreme division in ideologies were the many hundred impossibilities that each was seeing, and how each and every single one of them saw them differently. The genetic material of the each of the pretersapiens was far and above the realm of possibilities. A paradoxical machine of chemistry, particles and coding operating though indecipherable algorithms of non-Euclidean principles and nonsensical, uncrackable mathematics. An anomaly and a profanity against all that they knew about the universe, but one so glorious and beautiful that no one could have ever conceived of it.

From a monitoring room watching down from a vantage point, seventeen security personnel were watching the scene unfold. For the newest members of the security detail, it seemed that the shouting match would devolve into a battle of claws any minute now, seeing the sheer fanaticism in the voice of each of the creatures bellow.

Yet those who have been here for more than a month could easily tell that despite appearances, this was rather cordial, and no matter how heated the debates became, not once had they devolved into anything resembling a bloodbath.

There was one thing that unified the many groups of bellow in their near insane passion; something so transcendental that no one else besides them cold hope to grasp and that necessitated the creation of a whole new language to explain the esoteric sciences the copies of the being were conducting. Such was their fervour. Such was their zeal. Such was the need to understand the work of something that may truly be divine. It was to understand the Preterhuman biology.

However, those who have been keeping an eye on Athame and her copies since the ten years they have been at work, felt something else.

Unease.

Fear.

They were there since the beginning. They have seen her slowly and deliberately devolve into rambling insanity that despite all logic to the contrary was slowly and ever so slightly making sense. It was a madness that kept, despite all reason, beginning to produce results. Of all research teams working in the Preterhuman sciences, they were the only one showing results.

Results that were equal to the most horrid of nightmares.

"They still at it?" Ibrimeth asked, seeing the recent verbal battle and taking note of this being one of their longest spats.

"Seventeen hours milord." One of the guards responded, "By the Ancestors, they are insane." Ibrimeth snorted. Of course they are, this is Athame of House Ruleiel who we they were talking about. That woman was the epitome of lunacy. Except she may now be pushing the goal post in terms of insanity.

"That we can agree upon."

Ibrimeth had seen enough of these antics of hers and was about to take his leave when suddenly.

"STOP!!!" Athame's voice reverberated throughout the room. Loud enough that the speakers in the security room suffered from auditory feedback. That alone caught the attention of Ibrimeth and he opted to stay a while longer and see what had caused the source of their headaches to become so agitated. "El sh'srr un ada vel rheth be." Not that he would be able to understand her nonsense, but he could see from her expressions that she was amidst the cusp of further insights. "Non ui sudikhan…." And when her words exited her white lips, she reached it. "…..Non ui sudikhan! Shire!" She repeated, and this time the entire collection of copies became wide eyed at the realization they all suffered. "IT'S NOT BIOLOGY!!" She exclaimed, much to the confusion of everyone in the security detail. "No… it's much more than that…. Its perfection…" She voiced those words with complete awe.

She did not waste a single second running for the interrogation room. Her every stride one of purpose and of exhilaration.

"Well… I guess that is my cue." Ibrimeth muttered, getting the curious attention of those in the room. "If you'll excuse me." And he disappeared into a nearby elevator headed for the interrogation room.

When he entered the chamber he paused for a second to examine it. It was a bit bigger than before, more heavily armoured than the last time he and Athame had seated on opposite sides of the tempered opaque glass window. Apparently when she threw her fit months ago and demonstrated to everyone just how much stronger she was than a regular Netraad, even without her biotics, it was decided to reinforce the walls and doors, as well as any other means she could use to escape.

Even if she had, for her entire stay, done nothing to show she desired to leave her predicament behind. Then again, she may be doing this until she achieves her personal mission and once she succeeds she may attempt to escape and wreak untold havoc, necessitating the destruction of the base to ensure her wicked malevolence doesn't escape into the wider galaxy. But that is a line that must be crossed when the time comes though, as she is far too precious to lose at this point.

Ending his musings, Ibrimeth finally seated on a chair and pressed a button to make the hardened glass transparent. The sight on the other side was that of an ecstatic snow white woman with blood red eyes staring at him as if she had found the Aramma Datra itself… and then the Tablet of Litatromis Douiesut.

"I believe you had a moment of epiphany." He commented to which Athame snorted.

"Such limited words cannot begin to describe what I am feeling." Oh he could imagine. In fact he can feel some of the excitement exuding from her though the Touch Sensitive Telemetric Link he had installed in the chamber. Limited of course, no one wants to have that crazy bitch mind shackle them out of nowhere.

"I know…" He leaned forwards. "So… what do you have for me?"

"I'm volunteering one of my copies for the D-Ascension Program." Ibrimeth became deathly silent. "I don't care what it takes, I need a P-MC AI on my side. Not only that. I require the presence of your best AI scientists, nanobot experts, cyber engineers. Everyone that deals with machines, Artificial Intelligences and technology. Especially nanotech." She leaned forwards with the look of a madwoman on a mission. "Everyone!"

Ibrimeth was left flabbergasted. How in the blessed flesh of the Avatars did she know that?! That program was not only absolutely classified, but reserved only for the highest ranked members of the Netraad Dynasties and only those who have written their name in eternity. The only reason why he even knew of that was because he was working directly for one of them and had certain privileges in knowing things others would not be allowed to. Then he remembered the day he visited Athame's cell and realized that the woman had the most advanced Touch in the galaxy. All she needed was to see him and it was enough for her to know anything!

Damnation! But that did not matter in the end.

"The D-Ascension Program is classified. It's not for the likes of you. Especially for you. In fact, the conditions of allowing you to work for us come with an exhaustive list of limitations and clauses. One of them is this." He responded icily. "Or have you forgotten why you were in prison?" Because she was a sick, twisted murderer and a unrepentant exploiter. A heartless monster who has a kill count of thirty million people, at the very least, and is responsible for slaughtering three noble houses and destroyed two entire dynasties, including her own. All in the name of her mad sciences.

But Athame didn't have any of it. She immediately turned frantic and slammed herself against the tempered glass window, digging her intense glare into Irimeth who out of instinct jumped back. "You don't get it! You have no idea what you have in your hands! In our blindness and ignorance we have assumed them to be mere beings of flesh and bone!" She shook her head wildly, as if she was berating herself mentally over something beyond Ibrimeth's capacity to know. "Such limited thought! Such lack of creativity! Its… its….ITS A SIN!!" She shouted and the sheer volume of her voice made him flinch. "They truly are the embodiment of perfection. They are a work of art unparalleled! Every time we dive into the coding of their flesh we always come out short! Always uncovering a new puzzle that itself leads the way to another deeper puzzle. Always! Because they are not biology!" They are not? But… but they have DNA! One of the many coding polymers of carbon based life. But then Athame spoke and her answer was as disquieting as it was illuminating. "….nor are they machines… They are both and neither. There is no line to distinguish one side of the coin from the other. Such blended perfection. Mechanical cells powered by chemical engines operating with mathematical precision, ever perfecting and ever evolving!" She proclaimed. "There is no flaw in the design. No error in the engines!" She became silent, as if whispering a prayer. "This is the work…. It's…." Then she slowly sank back into her seat, silent. They sat there for what amounted ten minutes of uneasy silence. But just as Ibrimeth was about to incite a reaction from her, she looked up to him, meeting his gaze. "I want to see them."

He did not understand. "Pardon?" She was about to answer again, but becamse silent. She shook her head, negating some stray though and corrected herself.

"No… I am wrong… I need to see them!" She spoke, demand and plead in her tone. "I need to create one! I need to understand them! I need to see them!! I would give my life to see them!" Then she realized. "Take me to him…"

Ibrimeth became already more suspicious, especially considering her increasingly erratic behaviour and improbable knowledge. "To whom?"

"The Ble…. The one who saw them…" Did she mean… No…. She didn't mean him. It was beyond her to ask that. "Take me to Lotris Prat."

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AN: I think I found the cure for my hiatitis syndrome caused by my musus diminutus progresiva. Make chapters shorter and make them have cliff-hangers. Loads of cliff-hangers!

So help me feed my muse. My greedy, greedy muse. She needs the nourishment as uni has returned with a vengeance!
 
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