Never forget that the only reason GDI and Nod fought the Scrin was because they were standing in the way in the middle of the battlefield.
Red Alert: Mental Effect (Red Alert 2: YR and Mass Effect)
- Thread starter Spartakrod
- Start date
Never forget that the only reason GDI and Nod fought the Scrin was because they were standing in the way in the middle of the battlefield.
Chapter 1d
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Citadel Council, Three days after the Incident
The Council Chambers were selected based on their ability to look as bombastically impressive as possible first, and for their capacity to host meetings second. The window down to the gardens? Certainly not practical, but it definitely looked nice. At the seats of the council were the representatives of what were deemed to be the "core" species of the Citadel, certainly not just three, as such would be incredibly undemocratic; but rather, a Turian, an Asari, a Salarian, a Volus, an Elcor, and a Hanar. If so needed, a tie-breaker would be called from whomever was elected to that position by the general populace of the Citadel.
In their hands (and tentacles) lay the most influence in the galaxy in any one seat of power. And it was currently abuzz with activity. The earlier talks of how to pressure the Batarians into abandoning their "odious statutes of forced labor" and continuing tensions with the Quarians over yet another attempt at settling on a world they had no legal rights to, as well as reports of "mysterious synthetic activity" that had bubbled up from the stuff of tabloids to their attention, had been postponed.
First contact with not one, but two interstellar civilizations with radically divergent tech trees had been established. Other matters could wait for the time being, this demanded their attention now.
"I want them watched carefully. If they so much as sneeze I wish to be aware of it." Octavian Augustus said, his mandibles clenched with seriousness. His expressions carried weight behind them, his intense stare intimidated many he had come across. But Augustus was not councilor for nothing after all, he represented the militarily most powerful government in the Galaxy, he had to be nothing short of intimidating.
"I agree, we should keep a very close eye on them, STG is already working to worm it's tendrils into their systems. I already have a wealth of data unlike anything you could imagine at my fingertips." Virgol said, the Salarian producing a datapad and quickly skimming through it for news.
"Advising Caution, While it is best to spy on both, it would also be advisable to work towards drawing them in over the long term, allowing for culture changes to those more acceptable to the Citadel." Jomok said, the Elcor remaining stock still as it spoke, eyes keeping a close watch over all the other members of the discussion chamber.
"I'm inclined to side with Councilor Jomok, this is something we can't rush, especially if we want to leverage our economic superiority over the Earth-Clans. Being too overt would lead to them trying to shut us out." Councillor Din Korlack said, and despite being easily the shortest being in the room, he certainly had one of the bigger presences here.
"I third that, we can take our time. And for all the violence in their recent history, we can work to push their culture towards something better. We need only lay for them the bowl so that the-" Tevos said before Din interrupted her.
"Lay the bowl for them." The Volus said as pendantically as he could to the brief chuckles of the Salarian and the Turian.
"I am the Councilor of the Asari and above grammar." She said beneath her breath, gritting her teeth slightly. "So that they can one day be part of our community." She finished, giving Din a glare afterwards.
"This one also concurs. Let us have these talks in hopes of future integration of both polities. But this one also suggests favoring the "Alliance". They would be better suited to the Citadel in the long run." Ersandrix said, the Hanar writhing somewhat as it spoke.
"I disagree, Epsilon is clearly the more viable polity here. Though I admit distaste for some of their technology, they have the greater economy and manpower base, and it is they who hold the human's homeworld." Augustus countered, waving a hand dismissively.
"Tepid agreement, Epsilon is a more stable society. I am wary of Yuri however." Jomok chipped in.
"I cannot in good conscience support a faction that relies on such...genetic monstrosities for it's dirty work. Nor do I approve of their method of ensuring unity." Tevos said, a frown forming across her blue lips as she pondered the information passed back to the Citadel about the Dominion.
"It would likely be best to reach an entente with and profit from the both of them. Our strategic depth and reserves are superior, and we stand to gain more from them than they can from us. Sooner or later, their clans will be drawn in." Din said, trying to make sure he wasn't overlooked by the other Councillors.
"Hmm, it seems that they're having the talks hosted on a space station they claim will be built within a month. But they are building a number of recreational facilities for the fleet's troops to use. On the other hand, a large cordon of off-limits space has been drawn up, under the premise of it being the host of "matters of national security." Oh very interesting." The Salarian councillor said as he looked at his datapad.
"Just how deep does your people's intelligence web go?" Augustus asked, his mandibles clenching with half-joking suspicion.
"My dear Augustus, we are everywhere." The Salarian grinned.
********************************************
About a month later at the "Unity" station constructed as a goodwill gesture by the Alliance
For ambassador Clikki, the rapid fabrication of the station was fairly standard procedure, especially when the prefab parts were so easy to manufacture with Tiberium, and the fleet was there to quickly assemble the bits and pieces. For the ambasaddor, the fact that roughly half of the Station's sapient usable volume was devoted to aquatic life forms was just something that made sense. For the ambassador, the fact of him being a dolphin on a space ship wasn't even worth an eyeblink, and to the other humans and cetaceans on the ship, his presence wasn't really noteworthy either.
Evidently, the Aliens didn't have too much time adjusting to the fact that they were speaking to something on the other side of a tank at the negotiation table, even as the water loving mammal periodically interrupted his dialogue to breathe in some air through his top blowhole. Clikki guessed this meant that this "Citadel" contained such a frightfully vast array of species that a Dolphin just seemed like an every day thing to them. They certainly seemed much more concerned about the Valiant next to him; the somewhat feminine Synthetic's gunmetal endoskeleton covered by blue and red plates and her head; somewhat like a riot officer's helmet if the riot officer's visor was a black screen displaying the Valiant's "face" image, currently set to a simple blue sinewave that went up and down when she spoke amidst a black background. For her part, Valiant Edna remained friendly even with all the ugly looks thrown her way.
Sure negotiations could have been started earlier, but the Parliament didn't feel that the trigger happy yahoos of Hellenia were the right people for the task, and the time spent bringing him and his crew up meant time to build this station to impress upon them the nature of Alliance power, as well as allow for some mingling among the people so that the whole "first contact tension" thing could be defused just a little.
Speaking to him was something he learned was called an "Asari", though she probably would prefer to go by the name of Viara. He was sure that someone might have found her attractive, but to him, her short face, long, gangly limbs, protruding lumps of chest fat, those hair horn things, and flapping lips made her about as appealing as a crocodile in a tutu. Still, he had a job to do, even if that Hanar ambassador seemed delicious.
All he had to do was wait for the arrival of Epsilon's chosen diplomat. Should be easy enough, they probably wouldn't send one of their genetic monstrosities over, after all it would be bad form to try and scare everyone involved shitless when everyone was trying to maintain good relations.
"EVA, can you tell me the ETA on the Epsilon diplomat's arrival?" He said, flicking his eyes towards the ceiling as the EVA unit's somewhat feminine voice crackled in immediately.
"She is already here." The digitized female voice said, and the face displayed on Valiant Edna quickly turned into one of surprise and shock, forming an <:O face out of blue pixels as she got the news of who was coming through her connection to the local EVA unit.
He heard some gasps of awe over the lines, but he chalked that up to rookies seeing Epsilon personnel for the first time up close.
What he did see however, made his testicles jump into his stomach.
Through the door came a shape that everyone in the Alliance had come to fear *intensely*, no, not the night terrors that stood next to the figure, those were just conventionally terrifying. No, no, the girl between them was what made the Dolphin want to breach the hell out of his tank and landhump his way to the nearest ship. Even Valiant Edna flashed a large yellow "!" on her "faceplate" as the figure stepped forward, flanked by powerful Epsilon psychics on either side.
With white hair kept somewhat past her shoulders and burning red eyes and skin that clearly needed to see more of the sun, the figure moved in a cloaked purple and black military uniform with an expression of dispassion that could probably kill even without her legendary psychic abilities. The symbol of psicorps was prominently displayed on her outfit at the shoulders, and with a quick unclasping of the brown and purple cloak, she took her seat.
The peacekeepers and armored security dolphins acting as Clikki's guards similarly stood suddenly stock still, though the guards and Aides of the Aliens clearly didn't seem to understand the magnitude of her presence. But he caught one word "Libra." The head of Psi-corps being here meant that Epsilon was going to be taking these talks very, very seriously.
In a moment, Clikki was very glad that being underwater meant that no one could possibly see him sweat. Metaphorically anyway, Dolphins don't have sweat glands. Valiant Edna also recovered her composure and her usual "face" in a few seconds, letting out a small "cough" to get everyone to settle down.
Once everyone's aides took their seats, Clikki spoke up with a click.
"So, I hope everyone is properly settled in." The Dolphin squeaked.
AN: LIbra is from mental omega, check her out under the Epsilon Infantry section.
Citadel Council, Three days after the Incident
The Council Chambers were selected based on their ability to look as bombastically impressive as possible first, and for their capacity to host meetings second. The window down to the gardens? Certainly not practical, but it definitely looked nice. At the seats of the council were the representatives of what were deemed to be the "core" species of the Citadel, certainly not just three, as such would be incredibly undemocratic; but rather, a Turian, an Asari, a Salarian, a Volus, an Elcor, and a Hanar. If so needed, a tie-breaker would be called from whomever was elected to that position by the general populace of the Citadel.
In their hands (and tentacles) lay the most influence in the galaxy in any one seat of power. And it was currently abuzz with activity. The earlier talks of how to pressure the Batarians into abandoning their "odious statutes of forced labor" and continuing tensions with the Quarians over yet another attempt at settling on a world they had no legal rights to, as well as reports of "mysterious synthetic activity" that had bubbled up from the stuff of tabloids to their attention, had been postponed.
First contact with not one, but two interstellar civilizations with radically divergent tech trees had been established. Other matters could wait for the time being, this demanded their attention now.
"I want them watched carefully. If they so much as sneeze I wish to be aware of it." Octavian Augustus said, his mandibles clenched with seriousness. His expressions carried weight behind them, his intense stare intimidated many he had come across. But Augustus was not councilor for nothing after all, he represented the militarily most powerful government in the Galaxy, he had to be nothing short of intimidating.
"I agree, we should keep a very close eye on them, STG is already working to worm it's tendrils into their systems. I already have a wealth of data unlike anything you could imagine at my fingertips." Virgol said, the Salarian producing a datapad and quickly skimming through it for news.
"Advising Caution, While it is best to spy on both, it would also be advisable to work towards drawing them in over the long term, allowing for culture changes to those more acceptable to the Citadel." Jomok said, the Elcor remaining stock still as it spoke, eyes keeping a close watch over all the other members of the discussion chamber.
"I'm inclined to side with Councilor Jomok, this is something we can't rush, especially if we want to leverage our economic superiority over the Earth-Clans. Being too overt would lead to them trying to shut us out." Councillor Din Korlack said, and despite being easily the shortest being in the room, he certainly had one of the bigger presences here.
"I third that, we can take our time. And for all the violence in their recent history, we can work to push their culture towards something better. We need only lay for them the bowl so that the-" Tevos said before Din interrupted her.
"Lay the bowl for them." The Volus said as pendantically as he could to the brief chuckles of the Salarian and the Turian.
"I am the Councilor of the Asari and above grammar." She said beneath her breath, gritting her teeth slightly. "So that they can one day be part of our community." She finished, giving Din a glare afterwards.
"This one also concurs. Let us have these talks in hopes of future integration of both polities. But this one also suggests favoring the "Alliance". They would be better suited to the Citadel in the long run." Ersandrix said, the Hanar writhing somewhat as it spoke.
"I disagree, Epsilon is clearly the more viable polity here. Though I admit distaste for some of their technology, they have the greater economy and manpower base, and it is they who hold the human's homeworld." Augustus countered, waving a hand dismissively.
"Tepid agreement, Epsilon is a more stable society. I am wary of Yuri however." Jomok chipped in.
"I cannot in good conscience support a faction that relies on such...genetic monstrosities for it's dirty work. Nor do I approve of their method of ensuring unity." Tevos said, a frown forming across her blue lips as she pondered the information passed back to the Citadel about the Dominion.
"It would likely be best to reach an entente with and profit from the both of them. Our strategic depth and reserves are superior, and we stand to gain more from them than they can from us. Sooner or later, their clans will be drawn in." Din said, trying to make sure he wasn't overlooked by the other Councillors.
"Hmm, it seems that they're having the talks hosted on a space station they claim will be built within a month. But they are building a number of recreational facilities for the fleet's troops to use. On the other hand, a large cordon of off-limits space has been drawn up, under the premise of it being the host of "matters of national security." Oh very interesting." The Salarian councillor said as he looked at his datapad.
"Just how deep does your people's intelligence web go?" Augustus asked, his mandibles clenching with half-joking suspicion.
"My dear Augustus, we are everywhere." The Salarian grinned.
********************************************
About a month later at the "Unity" station constructed as a goodwill gesture by the Alliance
For ambassador Clikki, the rapid fabrication of the station was fairly standard procedure, especially when the prefab parts were so easy to manufacture with Tiberium, and the fleet was there to quickly assemble the bits and pieces. For the ambasaddor, the fact that roughly half of the Station's sapient usable volume was devoted to aquatic life forms was just something that made sense. For the ambassador, the fact of him being a dolphin on a space ship wasn't even worth an eyeblink, and to the other humans and cetaceans on the ship, his presence wasn't really noteworthy either.
Evidently, the Aliens didn't have too much time adjusting to the fact that they were speaking to something on the other side of a tank at the negotiation table, even as the water loving mammal periodically interrupted his dialogue to breathe in some air through his top blowhole. Clikki guessed this meant that this "Citadel" contained such a frightfully vast array of species that a Dolphin just seemed like an every day thing to them. They certainly seemed much more concerned about the Valiant next to him; the somewhat feminine Synthetic's gunmetal endoskeleton covered by blue and red plates and her head; somewhat like a riot officer's helmet if the riot officer's visor was a black screen displaying the Valiant's "face" image, currently set to a simple blue sinewave that went up and down when she spoke amidst a black background. For her part, Valiant Edna remained friendly even with all the ugly looks thrown her way.
Sure negotiations could have been started earlier, but the Parliament didn't feel that the trigger happy yahoos of Hellenia were the right people for the task, and the time spent bringing him and his crew up meant time to build this station to impress upon them the nature of Alliance power, as well as allow for some mingling among the people so that the whole "first contact tension" thing could be defused just a little.
Speaking to him was something he learned was called an "Asari", though she probably would prefer to go by the name of Viara. He was sure that someone might have found her attractive, but to him, her short face, long, gangly limbs, protruding lumps of chest fat, those hair horn things, and flapping lips made her about as appealing as a crocodile in a tutu. Still, he had a job to do, even if that Hanar ambassador seemed delicious.
All he had to do was wait for the arrival of Epsilon's chosen diplomat. Should be easy enough, they probably wouldn't send one of their genetic monstrosities over, after all it would be bad form to try and scare everyone involved shitless when everyone was trying to maintain good relations.
"EVA, can you tell me the ETA on the Epsilon diplomat's arrival?" He said, flicking his eyes towards the ceiling as the EVA unit's somewhat feminine voice crackled in immediately.
"She is already here." The digitized female voice said, and the face displayed on Valiant Edna quickly turned into one of surprise and shock, forming an <:O face out of blue pixels as she got the news of who was coming through her connection to the local EVA unit.
He heard some gasps of awe over the lines, but he chalked that up to rookies seeing Epsilon personnel for the first time up close.
What he did see however, made his testicles jump into his stomach.
Through the door came a shape that everyone in the Alliance had come to fear *intensely*, no, not the night terrors that stood next to the figure, those were just conventionally terrifying. No, no, the girl between them was what made the Dolphin want to breach the hell out of his tank and landhump his way to the nearest ship. Even Valiant Edna flashed a large yellow "!" on her "faceplate" as the figure stepped forward, flanked by powerful Epsilon psychics on either side.
With white hair kept somewhat past her shoulders and burning red eyes and skin that clearly needed to see more of the sun, the figure moved in a cloaked purple and black military uniform with an expression of dispassion that could probably kill even without her legendary psychic abilities. The symbol of psicorps was prominently displayed on her outfit at the shoulders, and with a quick unclasping of the brown and purple cloak, she took her seat.
The peacekeepers and armored security dolphins acting as Clikki's guards similarly stood suddenly stock still, though the guards and Aides of the Aliens clearly didn't seem to understand the magnitude of her presence. But he caught one word "Libra." The head of Psi-corps being here meant that Epsilon was going to be taking these talks very, very seriously.
In a moment, Clikki was very glad that being underwater meant that no one could possibly see him sweat. Metaphorically anyway, Dolphins don't have sweat glands. Valiant Edna also recovered her composure and her usual "face" in a few seconds, letting out a small "cough" to get everyone to settle down.
Once everyone's aides took their seats, Clikki spoke up with a click.
"So, I hope everyone is properly settled in." The Dolphin squeaked.
AN: LIbra is from mental omega, check her out under the Epsilon Infantry section.
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Legend Of Desu
Frustrated easily by Rudeness and Stupidity
I'll be honest, some of this punched my Literary-Dick hard...
There's more but my Break's over. Anyways, do you need a Beta? I'll be one for you if you want.
Just stop punching my Literary-Dick, yo.
There's more but my Break's over. Anyways, do you need a Beta? I'll be one for you if you want.
Just stop punching my Literary-Dick, yo.
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Made some quick edits, that better?
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
Actually, she's not; in the Epsilon mission where you have to sabotage the Chinese Psychic Beacon, there's a hill on the map where a truck is located and you get a bit of dialogue asking if you're here for "her" - the truck itself starts rocking around due to psychic energy emenating from the rear of the truck, and you hear some very creepy girly-sounding laughter as well. It's heavily implied (nigh, practically anvil-dropped) that this truck is carrying Libra, and so she's likely Chinese in origin.
Though we can probably just go for saying that Yuri 'adopted' her as his 'daughter'. So it's technically correct.
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Well her official picture doesn't look particularly Asian but I suppose that may just be because of the artist and I took the "apple in his eye" tidbit quite seriously.
Should the next post feature a snippet of NEXUS or just be all about the talks?
- Location
- Birmingham, AL
Libra's design was based on this:
Which is a very anime-style design. Anime characters rarely actually look like Asians anyways, right?
As for her being "the apple in Yuri's eye", I think that's more of Libra being the second most powerful psychic in Epsilon, with only Yuri above that.
Still, you already have her as Yuri's (adopted) daughter, so just run with it.
As for NEXUS or the talks... eh, flip a coin. Either works.
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Rechecked the mission and huh, so she is.Libra's design was based on this:
Which is a very anime-style design. Anime characters rarely actually look like Asians anyways, right?
As for her being "the apple in Yuri's eye", I think that's more of Libra being the second most powerful psychic in Epsilon, with only Yuri above that.
Still, you already have her as Yuri's (adopted) daughter, so just run with it.
As for NEXUS or the talks... eh, flip a coin. Either works.
For NEXUS I'm going for a very, very...Yandere robot intelligence. Super creepy and obsessed with bettering things even if it means short term suffering on the mass scale. NEXUS is the kind of thinker that would see the Holocaust as a net gain for Judaism due to stigmatizing anti-semitism and being the impetus to the creation of Israel. And it just wants to help us. To make us feel better and make papa Einstein proud.
It's honestly much creepier than the fairly generic skynet wannabe presented in Robot Storm.
Discussions should be...interesting to say the least.
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Jack of Olives
Rolled a '3' on their Con score
- Location
- The land of fruits and nuts (California)
For a minute there, I thought you were going to introduce Yuriko. Nice bait-and-switch if it was intentional.
Anyway, keep up the good work!
Anyway, keep up the good work!
Generalissimo
Generalissimo of SufficientVelocity
- Location
- Tropico, Tropico
What a twist~!
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Japan is part of the Allies under the Pacific Front in Mental Omega (which as far as I know, includes South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, the Phillipines, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, and assorted tiny pacific island nations no one cares about). So she'd be on the Dolphin's side if I do have a Japanese psychic commando show up in the story.
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Chapter 1e
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
For ambassador Clikki, the rapid fabrication of the station was fairly standard procedure, especially when the prefab parts were so easy to manufacture with Tiberium, and the fleet was there to quickly assemble the bits and pieces. For the ambasaddor, the fact that roughly half of the Station's sapient usable volume was devoted to aquatic life forms was just something that made sense. For the ambassador, the fact of him being a dolphin on a space ship wasn't even worth an eyeblink, and to the other humans and cetaceans on the ship, his presence wasn't really noteworthy either.
Evidently, the Aliens didn't have too much time adjusting to the fact that they were speaking to something on the other side of a tank at the negotiation table, even as the water loving mammal periodically interrupted his dialogue to breathe in some air through his top blowhole. Clikki guessed this meant that this "Citadel" contained such a frightfully vast array of species that a Dolphin just seemed like an every day thing to them. They certainly seemed much more concerned about the Valiant next to him; the somewhat feminine Synthetic's gunmetal endoskeleton covered by blue and red plates and her head; somewhat like a riot officer's helmet if the riot officer's visor was a black screen displaying the Valiant's "face" image, currently set to a simple blue sinewave that went up and down when she spoke amidst a black background. For her part, Valiant Edna remained friendly even with all the ugly looks thrown her way.
Sure negotiations could have been started earlier, but the Parliament didn't feel that the trigger happy yahoos of Hellenia were the right people for the task, and the time spent bringing him and his crew up meant time to build this station to impress upon them the nature of Alliance power, as well as allow for some mingling among the people so that the whole "first contact tension" thing could be defused just a little.
Speaking to him was something he learned was called an "Asari", though she probably would prefer to go by the name of Viara. He was sure that someone might have found her attractive, but to him, her short face, long, gangly limbs, protruding lumps of chest fat, those hair horn things, and flapping lips made her about as appealing as a crocodile in a tutu. Still, he had a job to do, even if that Hanar ambassador seemed delicious.
All he had to do was wait for the arrival of Epsilon's chosen diplomat. Should be easy enough, they probably wouldn't send one of their genetic monstrosities over, after all it would be bad form to try and scare everyone involved shitless when everyone was trying to maintain good relations.
"EVA, can you tell me the ETA on the Epsilon diplomat's arrival?" He said, flicking his eyes towards the ceiling as the EVA unit's somewhat feminine voice crackled in immediately.
"She is already here." The digitized female voice said, and the face displayed on Valiant Edna quickly turned into one of surprise and shock, forming an <:O face out of blue pixels as she got the news of who was coming through her connection to the local EVA unit.
He heard some gasps of awe over the lines, but he chalked that up to rookies seeing Epsilon personnel for the first time up close.
What he did see however, made his testicles jump into his stomach.
Through the door came a shape that everyone in the Alliance had come to fear *intensely*, no, not the night terrors that stood next to the figure, those were just conventionally terrifying. No, no, the girl between them was what made the Dolphin want to breach the hell out of his tank and landhump his way to the nearest ship. Even Valiant Edna flashed a large yellow "!" on her "faceplate" as the figure stepped forward, flanked by powerful Epsilon psychics on either side.
With white hair kept somewhat past her shoulders and burning red eyes and skin that clearly needed to see more of the sun, the figure moved in a cloaked purple and black military uniform with an expression of dispassion that could probably kill even without her legendary psychic abilities. The symbol of psicorps was prominently displayed on her outfit at the shoulders, and with a quick unclasping of the brown and purple cloak, she took her seat.
The peacekeepers and armored security dolphins acting as Clikki's guards similarly stood suddenly stock still, though the guards and Aides of the Aliens clearly didn't seem to understand the magnitude of her presence. But he caught one word "Libra." The head of Psi-corps being here meant that Epsilon was going to be taking these talks very, very seriously.
In a moment, Clikki was very glad that being underwater meant that no one could possibly see him sweat. Metaphorically anyway, Dolphins don't have sweat glands. Valiant Edna also recovered her composure and her usual "face" in a few seconds, letting out a small "cough" to get everyone to settle down.
Once everyone's aides took their seats, Clikki spoke up with a click.
"So, I hope everyone is properly settled in." The Dolphin squeaked.
"First order of business is of course, that you all agree to recognize that the Hellenia system and any other place we labeled as key to national security in the datafile we sent to you is off limits to persons from your governments and corporations registered under your government. These are incredibly important asset sto our government and we simply cannot have foreign nationals without clearance in it, clearance which none of you have or are likely to get in the foreseeable future." Clikki said with a squeaking voice translated into a classy baritone British accent, with murmuring going across the table as ambassadors spoke with their aides, and in the Citadel's case, the ambassadors of the various member nations speaking with one another.
"We can accept this." Came the conclusions from the various Citadel Ambassadors in various slight variations of that message.
"Epsilon sees no reason to object." Libra said, ceasing her fidgeting with her fingers as she spoke with that cold voice of hers. To think she used to be a manically psychotic woman-child in the twentieth century, only to blossom into this icy flower sitting before the nervous cetacean.
"My people would be made substantially more comfortable if both of your governments would agree to establish embassies on the Citadel for ease of correspondence." The Ambassador for the Turian Hierarchy, some tall (even by Turian standards!) bloke named Varro Varius who had currently placed his hands in a pyramid formation that Clikki would never be able to replicate.
The enormous eyed Salarian Ambassador soon joined in with a breath-taking rapidity of words the instant he looked up from his datapad. "Agreed, your arsenals are a cause for worry, the enigma shrouding your capabilities and intention, also problematic. Permanent embassies would be a gesture of good-will, would also suggest consulates on your capital worlds."
"You would have us place consulates on our worlds, but have our embassies be on this space station of yours?" Libra said, a snowy eyebrow of hers quirking up as the girl leaned ever so slightly forward in her seat. Certainly enough to make Clikki's skin crawl.
"Explaining the reasoning, the Citadel allows for quick contact with all of our member states and direct access to the Council; our highest diplomatic authority. Continuing elaboration, consulates on our political capitals would also be permitted, but would be there to speak to the individual governments, and not the supranational body of the Council." The massive Elcor diplomat monotoned. A translator that put her tone or intent at the start of every sentence or somebody polite enough to do just that themselves when they spoke? May as well have told Clikki Christmas had come early.
"That I can deal with, we'll provide you the land needed as soon as possible." Clikki squeaked, lazily drifting back up to the surface of the tank to suck in a large volume of air through his blow hole, water spraying outwards as he breathed in and out several times. So far, nothing being proposed seemed too far out of line based on the plan set for the meeting by Clikki's superiors. That was good, and that made Clikki a happy dolphin even as he submerged.
"We will accept this of course." Libra said as her arms moved from the table to fold across her chest. What was going on in her mind on the other hand, was an enigma. She tilted her head slightly to the left, but soon brought it right back up with a quick snapping motion with her head.
"Pardon this one if it would be speaking out of turn in your culture, but this one has noticed that your science is lacking in the touch of the Enkindlers." The Hanar spoke up, it's self-echoing voice full of reverence and curiosity in equal measure, drawing the eyes of every human and cetacean in the room.
"An Enkindler is what again?" One of Clikki's aides asked, her voice clicking as she spoke, idly doing a roll in the water as she shifted her attention from a glowing screen submersed in their tank to the other delegates.
"The Kahje-Clan's term for the Protheans, from whom we've adapted much of our technology. Element Zero, the Mass Effect, the Relays, the Citadel? All Prothean. We've made our own touches and adaptations, but much of the big stuff? Theirs. Most species got started in space when we examined some of their ruins and reverse engineered it. On that note, we would like for you to share any Prothean or "Hyksos" data or relics you uncover for the benefit of the galaxy as a whole." The Volus Ambassador said, drawing Clikki's eyes to the deep voiced but positively diminutive rotund being. The constant breathing from the Volus, Lor Hulguk, certainly didn't do much to disguise his respectful tone, even when speaking for the dead martian civilization that predated even the Prothean base.
"Our ruins were largely overshadowed in importance by the vast wealth of Hyksos technology we discovered. I mean, it was deemed to be worth a look, but we left a lot of the tech by the wayside in the end. Only had so many resources to throw around in those days, and when we expanded we thought, gee what we've got is nice...we should probably branch on from there!" Clikki said, nodding his head as he spoke, briefly surfacing to suck in some air through his blowhole before ducking back down into the water. He definitely seemed pretty proud of what his comrades had managed to accomplish so far.
"Most of what we have? Off-shoots of what we've thrown at each other or dug up in war. Plenty of fun stuff really!" Clikki said cheerfully, trying to make his position seem as strong as possible. His government couldn't afford to look weak here, not when it was, strategically speaking, deeply outmatched. It could hurt either party, maybe, just maybe win against Epsilon, but it would lose in the long run if it came to a contest of might. No, no, he wasn't going to let it come to that.
"Neither of us use those mass-relay things either. Didn't seem smart to poke around with them when we couldn't tell where they went. As for your ancient Aliens, I have no objections." Clikki also said, to the approving nod of many of the Citadel ambassadors, Varius in particular seemed to appreciate the wisdom of this decision. Blindly activating relays lead to both the Rachni Wars and the Krogan Rebellions, so knowing that these humans wouldn't open the gates to some other spirits cursed menace from the ass end of the galaxy was a relief.
"With bemused curiosity, Then why were your troops meddling with Relay 314?" The Elcor asked, shifting her body very, very slightly forward, daring to cast a look over to Libra. This whole meeting was unlikely to have occured without that incident, and all parties were grateful that it did not erupt into a wider war, so any questions relating to it were definitely ones that deserved answers.
"The vessels were scanning for dormant mirage drone ships to destroy them before they could be called in for an ambush. A disguise as...audacious...as a mass relay would not be totally out of the question." Libra said, sighing under her breath as a face remained a mask of dispassion if not complete disinterest, her posture remaining fixed in a way that Clikki found unnerving. He was just so used to humans always fidgeting in little ways.
"Speaking of your technology, going over the data you've sent us, we have cause to be concerned about this "Tiberium" of yours. You use it on a massive scale and I haven't seen anything with a higher capacity for environmental devastation in my time. I would ask that you hand over what you can of it, or at least information on it for study." Viara said, though just about as soon as the words came out of her mouth she got a resounding "No" from both Libra and Clikki. A frown formed on her face as she got an answer she was expecting, but hoping not to hear.
"You can have the information, sure, but if we're going to trade it, we'll need to do it under controlled circumstances. That stuff is incredibly dangerous." Clikki said emphatically, his squeaking and chirping growing stronger as he spoke. Tiberium offered so many advantages that freely giving it was deemed unacceptable in no uncertain terms by the Parliament and he couldn't imagine that the Inner Circle of Epsilon would be any more generous. If it was going to be traded, it'd have to be under controlled circumstances to make sure they were getting their fair shake. Then came the moment for Libra to raise a hand. A bit of a squeak came from the Dolphin, a short and rapid backstroke of the tail pushed it backwards through the water and away from her.
"In recompense for those who have died in your attack on our assets, we would wish to advance our desires for your technology. We are most interested in your "mass effect" technology and would ask for schematics, information, and examples of your faster than light communications and travel technology, as well as your hyper-dense materials. We will in turn, decline to ask for monetary reparations. Is this a fair trade to you?" She said, pushing her head very slowly forward until it rested on the finger bridge she had set up with her now propped up arms.
"My people could abide by this, agreed. We will ship what you need as soon as possible." Varro said, pleasantly surprised by the lack of demand for financial compensation. Though to Clikki, it may just have been that the crew were all vat-grown clones; and thus didn't have any family to have reparations paid to.
Damn, now Clikki was going to have to find some leverage to get some of that tech immediately rather than wait for ASBCIN or the market to obtain it, the dolphin thought as he snapped his jaws in frustration.
"We of course, are going to ask for the same thing, but we'll offer you something back. We can help you understand how to project energy over longer distances and help you out with how to better automate and speed up production even without tib. We can even show you something of our robotics too." He offered, swimming right up to the edge of the tank and peering through it's transparent walls, opening up his jaw in a facsimile of a smile to make himself seem as friendly as possible.
Ignoring Libra's glaring at him, he soon got the answer he wanted.
"That's more than reasonable, of course we'll agree." The Asari said for them, and with that, Clikki was definitely relieved. The Parliament wasn't sure what it could get away with trading while still maintaining its tech lead in its preferred fields, and so long as the Citadel could be kept friendly, the risks of offering them that seemed to be more than worth it. Hell Clikki was so pleased that if the ceiling were high enough to allow for it he would have probably jumped out and did a flip for them!
"Curiously: What is your synthetic assistant over there, exactly?" The Elcor ambassador asked.
"I am Valiant Edna. I'm Clikki's junior partner and also extensively experienced in diplomacy. I am distinct from the EVA units aboard this ship, who serve as management A.Is. How may I help you?" Edna said for herself, her sinewaves going up and down as she spoke.
"The Alliance has a great many of them and other A.Is. We on the other hand, make use of biotech more ourselves. Our own A.Is are cybernetically linked to grown brain matter." Libra said, shifting just a bit as her awesomely powerful mind picked up the constertation of the Citadel's representatives when they casually dropped the mention of A.I.
"This one would wish to request that you...elaborate on how much intelligence your machines have." The Hanar ambassador said, its voice clearly showing some signs of being suspicious.
"I am capable of the full range of sapient actions. The EVAs are much more...restricted, they don't have personalities and they just do as they're told. Epsilon's CABAL units have more personality to them but are kept strongly shackled." Valiant Edna explained in a happy to help kind of tone though she slowed herself as she detected the disquiet growing on their side of the room.
"The conventions of the Citadel ban A.I research except under specific circumstances due to the risks of a galactic war with a synthetic army, and you yourselves according to some of those I have asked have had a war with an A.I called NEXUS. I feel obliged to ask that you dismantle these...Valiants and CABALs before we find ourselves with another morning war on our hands. As for you Libra, we find your reports of...mind control intensely disturbing, there are those of us who would wish you either to abandon this field of "Psionics" research or make it available to us." The Asari diplomat said cooly, and one could practically hear a pin drop in the room as all the diplomats on the Alliance side went cold and Libra quirked a brow.
"If you think we're going to comply with committing genocide against nearly sixty percent of our citizens you can take your citadel and fuck yourselves with it. We're not doing mass murder for you, fuck off. You want to murder our people? You'll have to come and do it yourselves!" Clikki said, tempers flaring as he sensed a direct threat to the well being of one of his closest friends in Edna.
"I have my rights as a citizen! The basic law prohibits the execution of the alliance's citizenry except in case of insurrection! You can't ask us to vote to kill ourselves!" Edna said, her sine waves turning red as she displayed a sudden flash of anger, her tone rising with outrage at this ridiculous suggestion as Libra snorted and even let out a small, cackling laugh; throwing her head back as the Epsilonists seemed to respond with amusement, cold contempt, or raw anger.
"Do you think we would break the basic tenets of our faith and forsake the path of enlightenment...because you think it's immoral? The entire of our followership is Psychic. You might as well be asking us to lobotomize our entire population you fools. The CABALs form the basis of our bureaucracy. You will get nothing from us on that front." Libra said, a feral grin on her face as she leaned in a little closer, a telepathic aura of dread emnating from her and making all the organics in the room, Clikki included; shake with terror, with even Edna quivering slightly.
Seemingly realizing that these high demands were unfeasible, the council's ambassadors seemed to quickly come to the agreement that they should now haggle down and try and get a little if they couldn't get the whole deal.
"You feel that your synthetics are equal citizens?" The Asari ambassador asked, more sympathy in her tone as she realized the offense she had caused and pondered at the tone of genuine outrage that her alliance counterparts had displayed.
"Yeah they're people just like you and me. What's it to you?" Clikki said. And although the Asari probably couldn't see it, he was glowering at her as she turned to her Turian counterpart and whispered something to him, then to the Salarian and then to the Volus, Hanar, and Elcor.
The Volus was the first to speak, clearing his throat with a little cough. "What about your EVAs?" He said, trying to sound as calm and sympathetic as he could.
"The EVAs don't have personalities, emotions, or really...even all that much initiative of their own. They're very, very smart, but they can't really be called people. More like...super-tools really." Edna said, her sinewaves turning blue again as she calmed down and clasped her hands together.
"Would you be willing to...offer these to us as a token of good faith? Send us some good will missions of Valiants too, not to be studied but perhaps...to put our governments more at ease that you really aren't just another set of Geth waiting to go off?" The Volus ambassador said with a warmer tone in his voice between his breaths to try and get the Alliance ambassadors to relax; which to his credit, was working with Clikki and Edna.
"I think, I think we can do that yeah. But I think our citizens would riot if you made any more threats like that again." Clikki responded, his own tone now being more relaxed in turn.
"I suppose it's only fair. Most societies do not take suggestions of mass purging very well. Particularly of a majority demographic. Do note that if your Valiants ever do become problematic. We have taken extreme measures before. We are not likely to hesitate to use them." The Salarian ambassador said with an apologetic nod.
"I'd recommend looking at the history of the Krogan and the Rachni as well as the Quarians and the Geth. We're not doing this to be malicious. We're doing this to keep innocent people from suffering a third galactic war. We've all got reasons to be wary of people who don't fit the usual mold of civilization. And if we came off as hostile, I'm sorry. But try to look at it from our perspective, we've had two galaxy spanning total wars and now we've got tensions all over and nobody can say for sure what the Geth are up to. Now you come along and not only do we have to worry about you and your weird tech, but things like NEXUS, the Scrin, and Tiberium. We've got a galaxy to keep the peace in, and we'd appreciate any help we can get on that front." Ambassador Varro said, sighing a bit and doing his best to look resigned and tired to draw some sympathy, which earned him some nods from the Alliance's side; less from Epsilon's but still a few.
"Now this one would wish to turn to the honored one they refer to as Libra. You are unwilling to abandon your psychic research, and this one believes you would also reject citadel law on genetic modification and cloning as well. However, this one would wish to offer a solution. This one would ask that you open some of your facilities and research on this "psionic phenomenom" and humbly suggests that some students from C-Space be allowed in. As for your genetics, this one would wish to inquire if the Dominion would be inclined to offer some genetic expertise. This one's government would be willing to forgive much if cooperation to cure conditions such as Kerpal's syndrome and extend lifespan could be acquired. This one humbly requests the formation of a multinational medical foundation, through which the Dominion and Alliance could be of help in sharing their medical knowledge, while we may share some of our own discoveries that are sure to be of use for our civilians. If such would avoid conflict, this one would be greatly pleased if you would accept." The Hanar ambassador said, making Libra think a bit, stroking her chin slightly.
"Sure. That sounds good enough." Libra said, looking up as she thought before she lowered her head back down to look at her Citadel space counterparts.
"With Sudden Realization: We have an issue with the Quarian Migrant Fleet and the political tensions it has caused with our citizenry. I have just realized that perhaps your people might be better able to come to an understanding with them. Hopefully offering: I would like to suggest that you open your borders to the Quarian Migrant Fleet so that with good fortune, we may come to a resolution regarding the Quarians." The Elcor said. What Clikki wasn't aware of at the time was that C-Space greatly disliked the Quarians and was largely attempting to make them someone else's problem. What everyone but Libra didn't know was that Epsilon would only be too delighted to have a fleet of poor and desperate pariahs travel extensively through its borders.
"Oh I think we can do that yes." Libra said with a small, girlish smile, her own aides nodding to one another while Edna showed a check sign on her face to demonstrate her approval.
"About this time travel you've mentioned in your files on your history...would you agree to have that severely restricted and put under study? The idea of playing with history on that sort of scale is...very alarming to say the least." Ambassador Varro said as he squinted at the files.
"We already have such agreements in place between ourselves. It'd be a cinch to extend them to you." Edna said, pushing forward a datapad with the relevant information.
"Excellent. We'll have to bring this up again when we've fully read through these but keeping this out of the hands of the wrong people, and believe me the list of people I'd put on the list of "the right people" to trust with time travel is very small, should be a priority for all nations. I'd advise that we set up means to cooperate in case non-signatories try peering into this technology. Whatever our differences, I think we can all agree on the dangers of this technology proliferating beyond a handful of centuries old machines." Varro said, getting him nods from the other powers' negotiators.
"Now, my clan has drafted up these economic trade treaties that I feel we should all discuss immediately." The Volus said with relish as he brought out a datapad full of trade pacts he hoped to turn into proper agreements. Oh damn, this was going to take a while.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Human similarities to Quarians and Asari spark fascination
"In a stunning case of convergent evolution, it has been discovered that one of the new species encountered at Relay 314 has a remarkable degree of morphological similarities to the Quarians and the Asari. Like female Quarians and Asari (along with a handful of other species), female humans possess receptacles of fat on their chest with which they can produce a nutritious liquid with which to feed young from modified sweat glands referred to as "Milk" in one of the more common human languages. Like Quarians and a number of less well known species, Humans possess hair primarily on their heads, though concentrations of it can be found elsewhere on the body. Indeed, morphological similarities are to the point that interspecies attraction is a relatively easy hurdle to cross. Those who expect to have half-human babies are likely to be disappointed; as that's simply not how biology works. Other Earth native sapients, such as Parrots, Cetaceans, and Cephalopods, are interesting to the scientific community due to the cultural dynamics questions they raise, but have attracted rather less interest from the Galaxy's interspecies romance connoisseurs, though some have expressed interest in Cephalopods for the same reason some are drawn to the Hanar."
Panic as word of the Scrin spread!
"Contact with the Earth native species encountered at Relay 314 has spread disturbing news of a previously unknown polity referred to in Earth-native texts as the "Scrin Infestation", so referred to due to a common belief that the Scrin are more akin to a virus than a standard civilization. Signs of Scrin presence include the rapid spread of a toxic, mutagenic, and radioactive self-replicating and assimilative substance known as "Tiberium" with remarkable adaptational capabilities that even when contained; has rendered vast stretches of many Earth-Native controlled planets uninhabitable, which upon reaching a terminal stage where a massive liquid Tiberium explosion ignites that signals a harvest fleet to arrive and attempt to purge any remaining life."
Treaties reached with Forgotten Confederacy
"As the Earth-native factions are brought into the wider galactic community, the Forgotten Mutant Confederacy has made a number of agreements with Citadel Space to recognize it as a sovereign state in it's own right as well as to decide its place in the galactic community. As Tiberium mutants can live in places where carbon based life cannot survive, it was deemed reasonable to allow mutants to purchase property in tiberium infested areas. The Confederacy considers itself the protector of all mutants, regardless of species, and strenuously argued to reach an accord similar to what it had reached with most other earth-native states where it would be allowed to send representatives to defend mutants in courts of law, as well as establishing space for discussing relations between mutated and carbon based life."
Numerous earth-native corporations settle outside of earth-native dominated space
"A large number of earth-native corporations that had settled in a number of nations of varying size separate from the Confederacy, the Alliance, and the Dominion have started to expand their business into C-Space and the Terminus systems, looking to expand their business opportunities. Generally unwelcome in the Socialist Alliance and minor Socialist human states aligned with the Alliance and the left-leaning and traditionally suspicious of corporate influence Confederacy and with the Dominion preferring its own corporations; these companies have proved incredibly eager to expand farther than they ever have before; at a faster rate than their prior colonization efforts have gone too. Some smaller states have also applied to enter C-space, and others have begun settling into the Terminus systems or in uncharted space."
Psychic powers are real! (Charlatans still wrong!)
"With contact with the Earth-Native powers has come confirmation that Psychic powers do indeed exist. However, anyone who told you that they had them and that it totally wasn't biotics until encounters with Earth-Native species was probably still lying to you. However, a handful of some of the more esoteric stunts or tricks utilized in the galaxy are being re-evaluated, as it seems that a great degree of will power and focus can create some psychic effects even without the aid of implants, conscious training, or genetic manipulation. First discovered among humans by the human dictator Yuri while under the employ of Stalin; Psychic abilities have formed the bedrock of the Epsilon dominion, while its rivals have struggled to keep up. However, mention that the Scrin also displayed Psychic ability and that other Earth-native sapients can utilize psychic effects have shown that this is not just a human thing. Could Psychics appear in C-Space soon?"
******************************************
Codex entries:
Polities: Unitary Epsilon Dominion;
Considered the foremost human power, the Epsilon Dominion has the honor of holding Earth and has held it since the late twentieth century, and later came to hold the entire Solar system by the 2050s. Once an elite research division within the Soviet Union, Yuri has long since broken ties with his former government. Once thought defeated in his bid for hegemony for humanity by the Allies and Soviets, Yuri returned and managed to attain military victory, resulting in the forced withdrawal of both of his former enemies to the planet Mars.
Several further wars established Epsilon as the sovereign of the Earth, and with the withdrawal of the Alliance, of the Solar System as a whole. While Epsilon is seen in a negative light by many, it has continued to remain a stable government for centuries and citizens report a high rate of happiness, and it's policies are highly egalitarian and immigrant friendly. However, Epsilon's massive military has also been the cause of concern and the inspiration innumerable technothrillers of dubious quality. Due to a heavy usage of cloning and vat grown creations it is difficult to truly ascertain Epsilon's population.
Epsilon has multiple capitals. It's religious capital is placed in Sarajevo, it's political capital of Cluj-Napoca is based in Transylvania, it's official financial capital is placed in Moscow, and it's official cultural capital is placed in Constantinople. All four are considered sites of great human cultural heritage, and Epsilon takes much pride in "watching over humanity's history", to the chagrin of the Alliance. Both the Alliance and Epsilon share the Lingua Francas of Russian and English.
The Epsilon Dominion is a state that tends to have very close relationships with its allies, most of whom have been heavily changed by Epsilon's aid, and poor relations with most everyone else. While the council generally remains divided on which human polity to favor, with the Turians perhaps being the most pro-Epsilon with the Asari being the most vehemently anti-Dominion, it is the general opinion of geopolitical analysts that Epsilon is the most dangerous human polity and while it may not win in a war against the Council and the Alliance in tandem; it would make the price of any such victory too much to stomach.
Epsilon's government is considered to be a technocracy with oligarchic and religious bents. Those in power wield a great deal of it, but there is a tremendous deal of pressure from above to ensure their continuing competence lest they be faced with summary dismissal and shame for failing the expectations of Yuri. Economically, it is a Corporatist system, with the favorites of Epsilon's inner circle working to curry favor for their massive enterprises by proving themselves better than their rivals. It remains a matter of debate as to how free and fair the government of the Dominion is, though proponents of secular government take issue to the existence of an official and heavily promoted state religion. The most important factions within Epsilon can be separated into Headquarters, Psicorps, Chaos Faction, and Scorpion Cell; derived from prexisting divisions in Epsilon's command structure.
Polities: Alliance of Soviet Democratic Socialist Nations;
A merger of the once opposed blocs of the World Socialist Alliance and the Alliance of Democratic Nations, the Alliance of Soviet Democratic Socialist nations has long forgotten the former rivalry of it's constituent members, instead directing their animosity towards the Epsilon Dominion as part of a grudge that spans centuries. Priding itself as the combination of the best traits of the Allies and the Soviets, the Alliance have taken quite well to being exiles from their home.
Once based off of Mars; the fourth world in humanity's native solar system, the Alliance are now based on the world of Midgard, which they have extensively settled over the course of over three hundred years as the heart of their network of colonies. It is here where the federal government of the Alliance rests, where cases requiring the attentions of the highest courts are overseen, where the executive branch of the government presides, and where the legislature gathers to vote, in the All-Union Central Executive Parliament, consistent of the Parliament of States representing the individual states within the Alliance, and the Parliament of People's Deputies who represent the whole of the Alliance while the people themselves can immediately voice concerns over the extranet, and if a sufficiently large number of people vote, the people can override representatives.
A "Matryoshka" (named after a form of nesting doll) system of direct and participatory parliaments extends throughout every level of government, encouraging people to be highly involved with their government. In terms of economy, certain industries deemed of critical importance are managed by the federal government itself, while others are left to the local parliaments (often also called "soviets"), and thanks to the avenues opened up by their production technology, most live in what is often called "post-scarcity light", where the majority of light industry products are easily handled by local cooperatives at essentially no cost worth mentioning, with the wider government mostly works to ensure that standards are enforced to ensure compatibility.
The Alliance government typically has something of a cavalier attitude to politics and works to promote it's values of freedom, socialism, equality, and justice across the galaxy. Oligarchies and Autocracies are seen with distaste at best, and outright loathing at worst on the simple principle that they are not accountable to the people. In spite of this, the Alliance have taken care to establish friendly relations with the Citadel, believing the Council to be a natural ally against the Epsilon Dominion and the Terminus systems, though there sometimes strained relations due to differences of economic policy.
Being the smaller human polity by a good margin, theAlliance have taken care to ensure that they never seem too weak to defend themselves, and as such have invested in a massive and powerful military as well as an enormous amount of resources into the pursuit of more advanced technology and developed infrastructure. The primary languages of the Alliance are English and Russian, though other languages are also spoken within it.
Polities: Forgotten Mutant Confederacy;
The Forgotten are a loose confederation of Tiberium afflicted humans formed in the early twenty first century (by human reckoning) who have chosen to exile themselves out of a belief that proper society has forgotten them or that society rejects them. Existing between Epsilon and the Alliance has taught the Forgotten that their status as an independent policy is dependent on their ability to play off larger powers and ensure that they possess enough strength of their own to make forceful assimilation a painful prospect.
While certainly lacking in infrastructure and technology compared to the "big two", the Forgotten Confederacy is tenacious and resourceful and is a master of guerrilla tactics as well as scavenging and looting. In addition, the Forgotten are an extremely hardy people and typically far exceed the standard human physically speaking. This has resulted in them being quite popular as mercenaries or allies in both the historical conflicts of the Alliance and Epsilon and later on as they integrated in galactic society.
While the official line of the Forgotten Confederacy's leaders is that they wish peace, a number of Forgotten believe that the time has come for the Forgotten to themselves hold a great and powerful empire. These terrorist groups ironically often find common cause with supremacist groups of other nations as well as various warbands and petty nations found throughout the Terminus systems. Ever since the Forgotten's introduction to galactic society they have been a cause for much grief.
As per multilateral agreements, the Forgotten Confederacy is regarded as it's own independent nation with it's own colonies and is frequently granted reserves on other worlds, though typically in Tiberium contaminated areas. The Forgotten have developed their own private language, but nearly all are multi-lingual. The Confederacy is regarded as something of a curiosity in politics and has drawn sympathy from the Quarian fleets and Krogan.
Synthetics: NEXUS;
NEXUS is the designation for a Human built rogue A.I that began an Organic-Synthetic war in the second half of the second human interplanetary war after assessing that the only way to resolve the conflict was to take control of humanity itself. Defeated by an alliance of the human polities, NEXUS withdrew itself and it's remaining forces into the void of space with primitive Chrono-jumpers and Heisenberg drives and has not been seen since.
Whereas the Morning War left the Quarians with a deep seated fear and hatred for Synthetics, the "Robot Storm", has not had the same effect on humanity. The typical opinion is that NEXUS was simply defective and since their later efforts into computer science have not lead to a repeat of the Robot Storm, they feel vindicated by their decision. Nevertheless, NEXUS has lead to generally more cautious ventures into the field of Computer Science in it's wake.
Following the revelation of it's existence, the Citadel has been on a look out for traces of NEXUS, however it's ability to travel extensively beyond the Relay network and the sheer scale of the Galaxy means that it is possible that no encounters with NEXUS will be recorded for thousands of years to come. It is also possible that in the intervening years, the A.I and it's creations have either had a redress of priorities or finally met their doom.
Nevertheless, it is still considered unwise to be completely unprepared for a possible return of the rogue synthetics and it is believed that there are contingency plans in place to deal with it should it make itself apparent once again. Any further information that does not date back to the second interplanetary war is however, almost entirely speculative, making discussions on the present of the A.I extremely difficult.
Species: Scrin;
An enigmatic species known only for it's devastating invasion of the Solar system in the third interplanetary war, the Scrin have not appeared since and speculation on their full capabilities and motivations continues largely unabated. What is known is their lack of effort in attempting to communicate with the Solar System's polities, their mastery of psionics, directed energy weapons, and Tiberium; as well as their complete lack of Eezo based technology.
What is also known is their role in the destruction of the Pre-Prothean Martian Civilization known as the Hyksos, who constructed the Tacitus as a manual on how to battle against the Scrin that sought their extinction as well as the Tiberium they spread. Finally, efforts at studying the Scrin focus heavily on trying to understand the pair of enormous towers they left in the Solar System in the River Tiber and on Olympus Mons. Due to being nestled deep within the least inhabitable portions of Earth and Mars, studying them is intensely difficult. Furthermore, the Towers have proven to be invulnerable to all effects.
Dating of the Tacituses and Hyksos relics confirms that the Scrin are at the very least, millions of years old as a recognizable entity. This has lead to lead many to speculate that the force that caused so much devastation to the Earth was not in fact, a military invasion force, as a truly serious strike force most likely would have the technological capacity to trivially eradicate humanity. That the earthborn nations were nearly brought to their knees by this force in any case is considered a cause for disquiet.
Due to their psychic abilities, the consensus among those interested in the subject is that the Scrin utilize a hive mind rather than any conventional form of language. Somewhat akin to, but not precisely the Rachni. Like the Rachni, the Scrin showed arthropodal morphological traits, though it is considered tremendously difficult to tell what is truly Scrin and what is merely machine.
Evidently, the Aliens didn't have too much time adjusting to the fact that they were speaking to something on the other side of a tank at the negotiation table, even as the water loving mammal periodically interrupted his dialogue to breathe in some air through his top blowhole. Clikki guessed this meant that this "Citadel" contained such a frightfully vast array of species that a Dolphin just seemed like an every day thing to them. They certainly seemed much more concerned about the Valiant next to him; the somewhat feminine Synthetic's gunmetal endoskeleton covered by blue and red plates and her head; somewhat like a riot officer's helmet if the riot officer's visor was a black screen displaying the Valiant's "face" image, currently set to a simple blue sinewave that went up and down when she spoke amidst a black background. For her part, Valiant Edna remained friendly even with all the ugly looks thrown her way.
Sure negotiations could have been started earlier, but the Parliament didn't feel that the trigger happy yahoos of Hellenia were the right people for the task, and the time spent bringing him and his crew up meant time to build this station to impress upon them the nature of Alliance power, as well as allow for some mingling among the people so that the whole "first contact tension" thing could be defused just a little.
Speaking to him was something he learned was called an "Asari", though she probably would prefer to go by the name of Viara. He was sure that someone might have found her attractive, but to him, her short face, long, gangly limbs, protruding lumps of chest fat, those hair horn things, and flapping lips made her about as appealing as a crocodile in a tutu. Still, he had a job to do, even if that Hanar ambassador seemed delicious.
All he had to do was wait for the arrival of Epsilon's chosen diplomat. Should be easy enough, they probably wouldn't send one of their genetic monstrosities over, after all it would be bad form to try and scare everyone involved shitless when everyone was trying to maintain good relations.
"EVA, can you tell me the ETA on the Epsilon diplomat's arrival?" He said, flicking his eyes towards the ceiling as the EVA unit's somewhat feminine voice crackled in immediately.
"She is already here." The digitized female voice said, and the face displayed on Valiant Edna quickly turned into one of surprise and shock, forming an <:O face out of blue pixels as she got the news of who was coming through her connection to the local EVA unit.
He heard some gasps of awe over the lines, but he chalked that up to rookies seeing Epsilon personnel for the first time up close.
What he did see however, made his testicles jump into his stomach.
Through the door came a shape that everyone in the Alliance had come to fear *intensely*, no, not the night terrors that stood next to the figure, those were just conventionally terrifying. No, no, the girl between them was what made the Dolphin want to breach the hell out of his tank and landhump his way to the nearest ship. Even Valiant Edna flashed a large yellow "!" on her "faceplate" as the figure stepped forward, flanked by powerful Epsilon psychics on either side.
With white hair kept somewhat past her shoulders and burning red eyes and skin that clearly needed to see more of the sun, the figure moved in a cloaked purple and black military uniform with an expression of dispassion that could probably kill even without her legendary psychic abilities. The symbol of psicorps was prominently displayed on her outfit at the shoulders, and with a quick unclasping of the brown and purple cloak, she took her seat.
The peacekeepers and armored security dolphins acting as Clikki's guards similarly stood suddenly stock still, though the guards and Aides of the Aliens clearly didn't seem to understand the magnitude of her presence. But he caught one word "Libra." The head of Psi-corps being here meant that Epsilon was going to be taking these talks very, very seriously.
In a moment, Clikki was very glad that being underwater meant that no one could possibly see him sweat. Metaphorically anyway, Dolphins don't have sweat glands. Valiant Edna also recovered her composure and her usual "face" in a few seconds, letting out a small "cough" to get everyone to settle down.
Once everyone's aides took their seats, Clikki spoke up with a click.
"So, I hope everyone is properly settled in." The Dolphin squeaked.
"First order of business is of course, that you all agree to recognize that the Hellenia system and any other place we labeled as key to national security in the datafile we sent to you is off limits to persons from your governments and corporations registered under your government. These are incredibly important asset sto our government and we simply cannot have foreign nationals without clearance in it, clearance which none of you have or are likely to get in the foreseeable future." Clikki said with a squeaking voice translated into a classy baritone British accent, with murmuring going across the table as ambassadors spoke with their aides, and in the Citadel's case, the ambassadors of the various member nations speaking with one another.
"We can accept this." Came the conclusions from the various Citadel Ambassadors in various slight variations of that message.
"Epsilon sees no reason to object." Libra said, ceasing her fidgeting with her fingers as she spoke with that cold voice of hers. To think she used to be a manically psychotic woman-child in the twentieth century, only to blossom into this icy flower sitting before the nervous cetacean.
"My people would be made substantially more comfortable if both of your governments would agree to establish embassies on the Citadel for ease of correspondence." The Ambassador for the Turian Hierarchy, some tall (even by Turian standards!) bloke named Varro Varius who had currently placed his hands in a pyramid formation that Clikki would never be able to replicate.
The enormous eyed Salarian Ambassador soon joined in with a breath-taking rapidity of words the instant he looked up from his datapad. "Agreed, your arsenals are a cause for worry, the enigma shrouding your capabilities and intention, also problematic. Permanent embassies would be a gesture of good-will, would also suggest consulates on your capital worlds."
"You would have us place consulates on our worlds, but have our embassies be on this space station of yours?" Libra said, a snowy eyebrow of hers quirking up as the girl leaned ever so slightly forward in her seat. Certainly enough to make Clikki's skin crawl.
"Explaining the reasoning, the Citadel allows for quick contact with all of our member states and direct access to the Council; our highest diplomatic authority. Continuing elaboration, consulates on our political capitals would also be permitted, but would be there to speak to the individual governments, and not the supranational body of the Council." The massive Elcor diplomat monotoned. A translator that put her tone or intent at the start of every sentence or somebody polite enough to do just that themselves when they spoke? May as well have told Clikki Christmas had come early.
"That I can deal with, we'll provide you the land needed as soon as possible." Clikki squeaked, lazily drifting back up to the surface of the tank to suck in a large volume of air through his blow hole, water spraying outwards as he breathed in and out several times. So far, nothing being proposed seemed too far out of line based on the plan set for the meeting by Clikki's superiors. That was good, and that made Clikki a happy dolphin even as he submerged.
"We will accept this of course." Libra said as her arms moved from the table to fold across her chest. What was going on in her mind on the other hand, was an enigma. She tilted her head slightly to the left, but soon brought it right back up with a quick snapping motion with her head.
"Pardon this one if it would be speaking out of turn in your culture, but this one has noticed that your science is lacking in the touch of the Enkindlers." The Hanar spoke up, it's self-echoing voice full of reverence and curiosity in equal measure, drawing the eyes of every human and cetacean in the room.
"An Enkindler is what again?" One of Clikki's aides asked, her voice clicking as she spoke, idly doing a roll in the water as she shifted her attention from a glowing screen submersed in their tank to the other delegates.
"The Kahje-Clan's term for the Protheans, from whom we've adapted much of our technology. Element Zero, the Mass Effect, the Relays, the Citadel? All Prothean. We've made our own touches and adaptations, but much of the big stuff? Theirs. Most species got started in space when we examined some of their ruins and reverse engineered it. On that note, we would like for you to share any Prothean or "Hyksos" data or relics you uncover for the benefit of the galaxy as a whole." The Volus Ambassador said, drawing Clikki's eyes to the deep voiced but positively diminutive rotund being. The constant breathing from the Volus, Lor Hulguk, certainly didn't do much to disguise his respectful tone, even when speaking for the dead martian civilization that predated even the Prothean base.
"Our ruins were largely overshadowed in importance by the vast wealth of Hyksos technology we discovered. I mean, it was deemed to be worth a look, but we left a lot of the tech by the wayside in the end. Only had so many resources to throw around in those days, and when we expanded we thought, gee what we've got is nice...we should probably branch on from there!" Clikki said, nodding his head as he spoke, briefly surfacing to suck in some air through his blowhole before ducking back down into the water. He definitely seemed pretty proud of what his comrades had managed to accomplish so far.
"Most of what we have? Off-shoots of what we've thrown at each other or dug up in war. Plenty of fun stuff really!" Clikki said cheerfully, trying to make his position seem as strong as possible. His government couldn't afford to look weak here, not when it was, strategically speaking, deeply outmatched. It could hurt either party, maybe, just maybe win against Epsilon, but it would lose in the long run if it came to a contest of might. No, no, he wasn't going to let it come to that.
"Neither of us use those mass-relay things either. Didn't seem smart to poke around with them when we couldn't tell where they went. As for your ancient Aliens, I have no objections." Clikki also said, to the approving nod of many of the Citadel ambassadors, Varius in particular seemed to appreciate the wisdom of this decision. Blindly activating relays lead to both the Rachni Wars and the Krogan Rebellions, so knowing that these humans wouldn't open the gates to some other spirits cursed menace from the ass end of the galaxy was a relief.
"With bemused curiosity, Then why were your troops meddling with Relay 314?" The Elcor asked, shifting her body very, very slightly forward, daring to cast a look over to Libra. This whole meeting was unlikely to have occured without that incident, and all parties were grateful that it did not erupt into a wider war, so any questions relating to it were definitely ones that deserved answers.
"The vessels were scanning for dormant mirage drone ships to destroy them before they could be called in for an ambush. A disguise as...audacious...as a mass relay would not be totally out of the question." Libra said, sighing under her breath as a face remained a mask of dispassion if not complete disinterest, her posture remaining fixed in a way that Clikki found unnerving. He was just so used to humans always fidgeting in little ways.
"Speaking of your technology, going over the data you've sent us, we have cause to be concerned about this "Tiberium" of yours. You use it on a massive scale and I haven't seen anything with a higher capacity for environmental devastation in my time. I would ask that you hand over what you can of it, or at least information on it for study." Viara said, though just about as soon as the words came out of her mouth she got a resounding "No" from both Libra and Clikki. A frown formed on her face as she got an answer she was expecting, but hoping not to hear.
"You can have the information, sure, but if we're going to trade it, we'll need to do it under controlled circumstances. That stuff is incredibly dangerous." Clikki said emphatically, his squeaking and chirping growing stronger as he spoke. Tiberium offered so many advantages that freely giving it was deemed unacceptable in no uncertain terms by the Parliament and he couldn't imagine that the Inner Circle of Epsilon would be any more generous. If it was going to be traded, it'd have to be under controlled circumstances to make sure they were getting their fair shake. Then came the moment for Libra to raise a hand. A bit of a squeak came from the Dolphin, a short and rapid backstroke of the tail pushed it backwards through the water and away from her.
"In recompense for those who have died in your attack on our assets, we would wish to advance our desires for your technology. We are most interested in your "mass effect" technology and would ask for schematics, information, and examples of your faster than light communications and travel technology, as well as your hyper-dense materials. We will in turn, decline to ask for monetary reparations. Is this a fair trade to you?" She said, pushing her head very slowly forward until it rested on the finger bridge she had set up with her now propped up arms.
"My people could abide by this, agreed. We will ship what you need as soon as possible." Varro said, pleasantly surprised by the lack of demand for financial compensation. Though to Clikki, it may just have been that the crew were all vat-grown clones; and thus didn't have any family to have reparations paid to.
Damn, now Clikki was going to have to find some leverage to get some of that tech immediately rather than wait for ASBCIN or the market to obtain it, the dolphin thought as he snapped his jaws in frustration.
"We of course, are going to ask for the same thing, but we'll offer you something back. We can help you understand how to project energy over longer distances and help you out with how to better automate and speed up production even without tib. We can even show you something of our robotics too." He offered, swimming right up to the edge of the tank and peering through it's transparent walls, opening up his jaw in a facsimile of a smile to make himself seem as friendly as possible.
Ignoring Libra's glaring at him, he soon got the answer he wanted.
"That's more than reasonable, of course we'll agree." The Asari said for them, and with that, Clikki was definitely relieved. The Parliament wasn't sure what it could get away with trading while still maintaining its tech lead in its preferred fields, and so long as the Citadel could be kept friendly, the risks of offering them that seemed to be more than worth it. Hell Clikki was so pleased that if the ceiling were high enough to allow for it he would have probably jumped out and did a flip for them!
"Curiously: What is your synthetic assistant over there, exactly?" The Elcor ambassador asked.
"I am Valiant Edna. I'm Clikki's junior partner and also extensively experienced in diplomacy. I am distinct from the EVA units aboard this ship, who serve as management A.Is. How may I help you?" Edna said for herself, her sinewaves going up and down as she spoke.
"The Alliance has a great many of them and other A.Is. We on the other hand, make use of biotech more ourselves. Our own A.Is are cybernetically linked to grown brain matter." Libra said, shifting just a bit as her awesomely powerful mind picked up the constertation of the Citadel's representatives when they casually dropped the mention of A.I.
"This one would wish to request that you...elaborate on how much intelligence your machines have." The Hanar ambassador said, its voice clearly showing some signs of being suspicious.
"I am capable of the full range of sapient actions. The EVAs are much more...restricted, they don't have personalities and they just do as they're told. Epsilon's CABAL units have more personality to them but are kept strongly shackled." Valiant Edna explained in a happy to help kind of tone though she slowed herself as she detected the disquiet growing on their side of the room.
"The conventions of the Citadel ban A.I research except under specific circumstances due to the risks of a galactic war with a synthetic army, and you yourselves according to some of those I have asked have had a war with an A.I called NEXUS. I feel obliged to ask that you dismantle these...Valiants and CABALs before we find ourselves with another morning war on our hands. As for you Libra, we find your reports of...mind control intensely disturbing, there are those of us who would wish you either to abandon this field of "Psionics" research or make it available to us." The Asari diplomat said cooly, and one could practically hear a pin drop in the room as all the diplomats on the Alliance side went cold and Libra quirked a brow.
"If you think we're going to comply with committing genocide against nearly sixty percent of our citizens you can take your citadel and fuck yourselves with it. We're not doing mass murder for you, fuck off. You want to murder our people? You'll have to come and do it yourselves!" Clikki said, tempers flaring as he sensed a direct threat to the well being of one of his closest friends in Edna.
"I have my rights as a citizen! The basic law prohibits the execution of the alliance's citizenry except in case of insurrection! You can't ask us to vote to kill ourselves!" Edna said, her sine waves turning red as she displayed a sudden flash of anger, her tone rising with outrage at this ridiculous suggestion as Libra snorted and even let out a small, cackling laugh; throwing her head back as the Epsilonists seemed to respond with amusement, cold contempt, or raw anger.
"Do you think we would break the basic tenets of our faith and forsake the path of enlightenment...because you think it's immoral? The entire of our followership is Psychic. You might as well be asking us to lobotomize our entire population you fools. The CABALs form the basis of our bureaucracy. You will get nothing from us on that front." Libra said, a feral grin on her face as she leaned in a little closer, a telepathic aura of dread emnating from her and making all the organics in the room, Clikki included; shake with terror, with even Edna quivering slightly.
Seemingly realizing that these high demands were unfeasible, the council's ambassadors seemed to quickly come to the agreement that they should now haggle down and try and get a little if they couldn't get the whole deal.
"You feel that your synthetics are equal citizens?" The Asari ambassador asked, more sympathy in her tone as she realized the offense she had caused and pondered at the tone of genuine outrage that her alliance counterparts had displayed.
"Yeah they're people just like you and me. What's it to you?" Clikki said. And although the Asari probably couldn't see it, he was glowering at her as she turned to her Turian counterpart and whispered something to him, then to the Salarian and then to the Volus, Hanar, and Elcor.
The Volus was the first to speak, clearing his throat with a little cough. "What about your EVAs?" He said, trying to sound as calm and sympathetic as he could.
"The EVAs don't have personalities, emotions, or really...even all that much initiative of their own. They're very, very smart, but they can't really be called people. More like...super-tools really." Edna said, her sinewaves turning blue again as she calmed down and clasped her hands together.
"Would you be willing to...offer these to us as a token of good faith? Send us some good will missions of Valiants too, not to be studied but perhaps...to put our governments more at ease that you really aren't just another set of Geth waiting to go off?" The Volus ambassador said with a warmer tone in his voice between his breaths to try and get the Alliance ambassadors to relax; which to his credit, was working with Clikki and Edna.
"I think, I think we can do that yeah. But I think our citizens would riot if you made any more threats like that again." Clikki responded, his own tone now being more relaxed in turn.
"I suppose it's only fair. Most societies do not take suggestions of mass purging very well. Particularly of a majority demographic. Do note that if your Valiants ever do become problematic. We have taken extreme measures before. We are not likely to hesitate to use them." The Salarian ambassador said with an apologetic nod.
"I'd recommend looking at the history of the Krogan and the Rachni as well as the Quarians and the Geth. We're not doing this to be malicious. We're doing this to keep innocent people from suffering a third galactic war. We've all got reasons to be wary of people who don't fit the usual mold of civilization. And if we came off as hostile, I'm sorry. But try to look at it from our perspective, we've had two galaxy spanning total wars and now we've got tensions all over and nobody can say for sure what the Geth are up to. Now you come along and not only do we have to worry about you and your weird tech, but things like NEXUS, the Scrin, and Tiberium. We've got a galaxy to keep the peace in, and we'd appreciate any help we can get on that front." Ambassador Varro said, sighing a bit and doing his best to look resigned and tired to draw some sympathy, which earned him some nods from the Alliance's side; less from Epsilon's but still a few.
"Now this one would wish to turn to the honored one they refer to as Libra. You are unwilling to abandon your psychic research, and this one believes you would also reject citadel law on genetic modification and cloning as well. However, this one would wish to offer a solution. This one would ask that you open some of your facilities and research on this "psionic phenomenom" and humbly suggests that some students from C-Space be allowed in. As for your genetics, this one would wish to inquire if the Dominion would be inclined to offer some genetic expertise. This one's government would be willing to forgive much if cooperation to cure conditions such as Kerpal's syndrome and extend lifespan could be acquired. This one humbly requests the formation of a multinational medical foundation, through which the Dominion and Alliance could be of help in sharing their medical knowledge, while we may share some of our own discoveries that are sure to be of use for our civilians. If such would avoid conflict, this one would be greatly pleased if you would accept." The Hanar ambassador said, making Libra think a bit, stroking her chin slightly.
"Sure. That sounds good enough." Libra said, looking up as she thought before she lowered her head back down to look at her Citadel space counterparts.
"With Sudden Realization: We have an issue with the Quarian Migrant Fleet and the political tensions it has caused with our citizenry. I have just realized that perhaps your people might be better able to come to an understanding with them. Hopefully offering: I would like to suggest that you open your borders to the Quarian Migrant Fleet so that with good fortune, we may come to a resolution regarding the Quarians." The Elcor said. What Clikki wasn't aware of at the time was that C-Space greatly disliked the Quarians and was largely attempting to make them someone else's problem. What everyone but Libra didn't know was that Epsilon would only be too delighted to have a fleet of poor and desperate pariahs travel extensively through its borders.
"Oh I think we can do that yes." Libra said with a small, girlish smile, her own aides nodding to one another while Edna showed a check sign on her face to demonstrate her approval.
"About this time travel you've mentioned in your files on your history...would you agree to have that severely restricted and put under study? The idea of playing with history on that sort of scale is...very alarming to say the least." Ambassador Varro said as he squinted at the files.
"We already have such agreements in place between ourselves. It'd be a cinch to extend them to you." Edna said, pushing forward a datapad with the relevant information.
"Excellent. We'll have to bring this up again when we've fully read through these but keeping this out of the hands of the wrong people, and believe me the list of people I'd put on the list of "the right people" to trust with time travel is very small, should be a priority for all nations. I'd advise that we set up means to cooperate in case non-signatories try peering into this technology. Whatever our differences, I think we can all agree on the dangers of this technology proliferating beyond a handful of centuries old machines." Varro said, getting him nods from the other powers' negotiators.
"Now, my clan has drafted up these economic trade treaties that I feel we should all discuss immediately." The Volus said with relish as he brought out a datapad full of trade pacts he hoped to turn into proper agreements. Oh damn, this was going to take a while.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Human similarities to Quarians and Asari spark fascination
"In a stunning case of convergent evolution, it has been discovered that one of the new species encountered at Relay 314 has a remarkable degree of morphological similarities to the Quarians and the Asari. Like female Quarians and Asari (along with a handful of other species), female humans possess receptacles of fat on their chest with which they can produce a nutritious liquid with which to feed young from modified sweat glands referred to as "Milk" in one of the more common human languages. Like Quarians and a number of less well known species, Humans possess hair primarily on their heads, though concentrations of it can be found elsewhere on the body. Indeed, morphological similarities are to the point that interspecies attraction is a relatively easy hurdle to cross. Those who expect to have half-human babies are likely to be disappointed; as that's simply not how biology works. Other Earth native sapients, such as Parrots, Cetaceans, and Cephalopods, are interesting to the scientific community due to the cultural dynamics questions they raise, but have attracted rather less interest from the Galaxy's interspecies romance connoisseurs, though some have expressed interest in Cephalopods for the same reason some are drawn to the Hanar."
Panic as word of the Scrin spread!
"Contact with the Earth native species encountered at Relay 314 has spread disturbing news of a previously unknown polity referred to in Earth-native texts as the "Scrin Infestation", so referred to due to a common belief that the Scrin are more akin to a virus than a standard civilization. Signs of Scrin presence include the rapid spread of a toxic, mutagenic, and radioactive self-replicating and assimilative substance known as "Tiberium" with remarkable adaptational capabilities that even when contained; has rendered vast stretches of many Earth-Native controlled planets uninhabitable, which upon reaching a terminal stage where a massive liquid Tiberium explosion ignites that signals a harvest fleet to arrive and attempt to purge any remaining life."
Treaties reached with Forgotten Confederacy
"As the Earth-native factions are brought into the wider galactic community, the Forgotten Mutant Confederacy has made a number of agreements with Citadel Space to recognize it as a sovereign state in it's own right as well as to decide its place in the galactic community. As Tiberium mutants can live in places where carbon based life cannot survive, it was deemed reasonable to allow mutants to purchase property in tiberium infested areas. The Confederacy considers itself the protector of all mutants, regardless of species, and strenuously argued to reach an accord similar to what it had reached with most other earth-native states where it would be allowed to send representatives to defend mutants in courts of law, as well as establishing space for discussing relations between mutated and carbon based life."
Numerous earth-native corporations settle outside of earth-native dominated space
"A large number of earth-native corporations that had settled in a number of nations of varying size separate from the Confederacy, the Alliance, and the Dominion have started to expand their business into C-Space and the Terminus systems, looking to expand their business opportunities. Generally unwelcome in the Socialist Alliance and minor Socialist human states aligned with the Alliance and the left-leaning and traditionally suspicious of corporate influence Confederacy and with the Dominion preferring its own corporations; these companies have proved incredibly eager to expand farther than they ever have before; at a faster rate than their prior colonization efforts have gone too. Some smaller states have also applied to enter C-space, and others have begun settling into the Terminus systems or in uncharted space."
Psychic powers are real! (Charlatans still wrong!)
"With contact with the Earth-Native powers has come confirmation that Psychic powers do indeed exist. However, anyone who told you that they had them and that it totally wasn't biotics until encounters with Earth-Native species was probably still lying to you. However, a handful of some of the more esoteric stunts or tricks utilized in the galaxy are being re-evaluated, as it seems that a great degree of will power and focus can create some psychic effects even without the aid of implants, conscious training, or genetic manipulation. First discovered among humans by the human dictator Yuri while under the employ of Stalin; Psychic abilities have formed the bedrock of the Epsilon dominion, while its rivals have struggled to keep up. However, mention that the Scrin also displayed Psychic ability and that other Earth-native sapients can utilize psychic effects have shown that this is not just a human thing. Could Psychics appear in C-Space soon?"
******************************************
Codex entries:
Polities: Unitary Epsilon Dominion;
Considered the foremost human power, the Epsilon Dominion has the honor of holding Earth and has held it since the late twentieth century, and later came to hold the entire Solar system by the 2050s. Once an elite research division within the Soviet Union, Yuri has long since broken ties with his former government. Once thought defeated in his bid for hegemony for humanity by the Allies and Soviets, Yuri returned and managed to attain military victory, resulting in the forced withdrawal of both of his former enemies to the planet Mars.
Several further wars established Epsilon as the sovereign of the Earth, and with the withdrawal of the Alliance, of the Solar System as a whole. While Epsilon is seen in a negative light by many, it has continued to remain a stable government for centuries and citizens report a high rate of happiness, and it's policies are highly egalitarian and immigrant friendly. However, Epsilon's massive military has also been the cause of concern and the inspiration innumerable technothrillers of dubious quality. Due to a heavy usage of cloning and vat grown creations it is difficult to truly ascertain Epsilon's population.
Epsilon has multiple capitals. It's religious capital is placed in Sarajevo, it's political capital of Cluj-Napoca is based in Transylvania, it's official financial capital is placed in Moscow, and it's official cultural capital is placed in Constantinople. All four are considered sites of great human cultural heritage, and Epsilon takes much pride in "watching over humanity's history", to the chagrin of the Alliance. Both the Alliance and Epsilon share the Lingua Francas of Russian and English.
The Epsilon Dominion is a state that tends to have very close relationships with its allies, most of whom have been heavily changed by Epsilon's aid, and poor relations with most everyone else. While the council generally remains divided on which human polity to favor, with the Turians perhaps being the most pro-Epsilon with the Asari being the most vehemently anti-Dominion, it is the general opinion of geopolitical analysts that Epsilon is the most dangerous human polity and while it may not win in a war against the Council and the Alliance in tandem; it would make the price of any such victory too much to stomach.
Epsilon's government is considered to be a technocracy with oligarchic and religious bents. Those in power wield a great deal of it, but there is a tremendous deal of pressure from above to ensure their continuing competence lest they be faced with summary dismissal and shame for failing the expectations of Yuri. Economically, it is a Corporatist system, with the favorites of Epsilon's inner circle working to curry favor for their massive enterprises by proving themselves better than their rivals. It remains a matter of debate as to how free and fair the government of the Dominion is, though proponents of secular government take issue to the existence of an official and heavily promoted state religion. The most important factions within Epsilon can be separated into Headquarters, Psicorps, Chaos Faction, and Scorpion Cell; derived from prexisting divisions in Epsilon's command structure.
Polities: Alliance of Soviet Democratic Socialist Nations;
A merger of the once opposed blocs of the World Socialist Alliance and the Alliance of Democratic Nations, the Alliance of Soviet Democratic Socialist nations has long forgotten the former rivalry of it's constituent members, instead directing their animosity towards the Epsilon Dominion as part of a grudge that spans centuries. Priding itself as the combination of the best traits of the Allies and the Soviets, the Alliance have taken quite well to being exiles from their home.
Once based off of Mars; the fourth world in humanity's native solar system, the Alliance are now based on the world of Midgard, which they have extensively settled over the course of over three hundred years as the heart of their network of colonies. It is here where the federal government of the Alliance rests, where cases requiring the attentions of the highest courts are overseen, where the executive branch of the government presides, and where the legislature gathers to vote, in the All-Union Central Executive Parliament, consistent of the Parliament of States representing the individual states within the Alliance, and the Parliament of People's Deputies who represent the whole of the Alliance while the people themselves can immediately voice concerns over the extranet, and if a sufficiently large number of people vote, the people can override representatives.
A "Matryoshka" (named after a form of nesting doll) system of direct and participatory parliaments extends throughout every level of government, encouraging people to be highly involved with their government. In terms of economy, certain industries deemed of critical importance are managed by the federal government itself, while others are left to the local parliaments (often also called "soviets"), and thanks to the avenues opened up by their production technology, most live in what is often called "post-scarcity light", where the majority of light industry products are easily handled by local cooperatives at essentially no cost worth mentioning, with the wider government mostly works to ensure that standards are enforced to ensure compatibility.
The Alliance government typically has something of a cavalier attitude to politics and works to promote it's values of freedom, socialism, equality, and justice across the galaxy. Oligarchies and Autocracies are seen with distaste at best, and outright loathing at worst on the simple principle that they are not accountable to the people. In spite of this, the Alliance have taken care to establish friendly relations with the Citadel, believing the Council to be a natural ally against the Epsilon Dominion and the Terminus systems, though there sometimes strained relations due to differences of economic policy.
Being the smaller human polity by a good margin, theAlliance have taken care to ensure that they never seem too weak to defend themselves, and as such have invested in a massive and powerful military as well as an enormous amount of resources into the pursuit of more advanced technology and developed infrastructure. The primary languages of the Alliance are English and Russian, though other languages are also spoken within it.
Polities: Forgotten Mutant Confederacy;
The Forgotten are a loose confederation of Tiberium afflicted humans formed in the early twenty first century (by human reckoning) who have chosen to exile themselves out of a belief that proper society has forgotten them or that society rejects them. Existing between Epsilon and the Alliance has taught the Forgotten that their status as an independent policy is dependent on their ability to play off larger powers and ensure that they possess enough strength of their own to make forceful assimilation a painful prospect.
While certainly lacking in infrastructure and technology compared to the "big two", the Forgotten Confederacy is tenacious and resourceful and is a master of guerrilla tactics as well as scavenging and looting. In addition, the Forgotten are an extremely hardy people and typically far exceed the standard human physically speaking. This has resulted in them being quite popular as mercenaries or allies in both the historical conflicts of the Alliance and Epsilon and later on as they integrated in galactic society.
While the official line of the Forgotten Confederacy's leaders is that they wish peace, a number of Forgotten believe that the time has come for the Forgotten to themselves hold a great and powerful empire. These terrorist groups ironically often find common cause with supremacist groups of other nations as well as various warbands and petty nations found throughout the Terminus systems. Ever since the Forgotten's introduction to galactic society they have been a cause for much grief.
As per multilateral agreements, the Forgotten Confederacy is regarded as it's own independent nation with it's own colonies and is frequently granted reserves on other worlds, though typically in Tiberium contaminated areas. The Forgotten have developed their own private language, but nearly all are multi-lingual. The Confederacy is regarded as something of a curiosity in politics and has drawn sympathy from the Quarian fleets and Krogan.
Synthetics: NEXUS;
NEXUS is the designation for a Human built rogue A.I that began an Organic-Synthetic war in the second half of the second human interplanetary war after assessing that the only way to resolve the conflict was to take control of humanity itself. Defeated by an alliance of the human polities, NEXUS withdrew itself and it's remaining forces into the void of space with primitive Chrono-jumpers and Heisenberg drives and has not been seen since.
Whereas the Morning War left the Quarians with a deep seated fear and hatred for Synthetics, the "Robot Storm", has not had the same effect on humanity. The typical opinion is that NEXUS was simply defective and since their later efforts into computer science have not lead to a repeat of the Robot Storm, they feel vindicated by their decision. Nevertheless, NEXUS has lead to generally more cautious ventures into the field of Computer Science in it's wake.
Following the revelation of it's existence, the Citadel has been on a look out for traces of NEXUS, however it's ability to travel extensively beyond the Relay network and the sheer scale of the Galaxy means that it is possible that no encounters with NEXUS will be recorded for thousands of years to come. It is also possible that in the intervening years, the A.I and it's creations have either had a redress of priorities or finally met their doom.
Nevertheless, it is still considered unwise to be completely unprepared for a possible return of the rogue synthetics and it is believed that there are contingency plans in place to deal with it should it make itself apparent once again. Any further information that does not date back to the second interplanetary war is however, almost entirely speculative, making discussions on the present of the A.I extremely difficult.
Species: Scrin;
An enigmatic species known only for it's devastating invasion of the Solar system in the third interplanetary war, the Scrin have not appeared since and speculation on their full capabilities and motivations continues largely unabated. What is known is their lack of effort in attempting to communicate with the Solar System's polities, their mastery of psionics, directed energy weapons, and Tiberium; as well as their complete lack of Eezo based technology.
What is also known is their role in the destruction of the Pre-Prothean Martian Civilization known as the Hyksos, who constructed the Tacitus as a manual on how to battle against the Scrin that sought their extinction as well as the Tiberium they spread. Finally, efforts at studying the Scrin focus heavily on trying to understand the pair of enormous towers they left in the Solar System in the River Tiber and on Olympus Mons. Due to being nestled deep within the least inhabitable portions of Earth and Mars, studying them is intensely difficult. Furthermore, the Towers have proven to be invulnerable to all effects.
Dating of the Tacituses and Hyksos relics confirms that the Scrin are at the very least, millions of years old as a recognizable entity. This has lead to lead many to speculate that the force that caused so much devastation to the Earth was not in fact, a military invasion force, as a truly serious strike force most likely would have the technological capacity to trivially eradicate humanity. That the earthborn nations were nearly brought to their knees by this force in any case is considered a cause for disquiet.
Due to their psychic abilities, the consensus among those interested in the subject is that the Scrin utilize a hive mind rather than any conventional form of language. Somewhat akin to, but not precisely the Rachni. Like the Rachni, the Scrin showed arthropodal morphological traits, though it is considered tremendously difficult to tell what is truly Scrin and what is merely machine.
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- Location
- Birmingham, AL
"Religious capital being Sarajevo"? "Official and heavily promoted state religion"? "High happiness rate among its citizens and highly egalitarian and immigrant-friendly policies?"
Mind control technology is written all over this. And the Brotherhood of Nod.
The Citadel Council would be absolute morons to trust anything that Epsilon claims. Which they probably would. And the Allies & Soviets will laugh at them for their stupidity.
Mind control technology is written all over this. And the Brotherhood of Nod.
The Citadel Council would be absolute morons to trust anything that Epsilon claims. Which they probably would. And the Allies & Soviets will laugh at them for their stupidity.
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Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Who said anything about trusting Epsilon farther than they can throw it?
STG's already working it's magic while the Inquisition and ACBIN are still working out what's going on.
I'll get to the Forgotten and NEXUS soon.
Kane's working his own games in the background as Kane does. He's having a real hoot.
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Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
New Chapter.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Piracy is undoutably the greatest concern of our time, tied with terrorism."
- Tevos
"To safeguard the holdings of the dominion is to safeguard the progress of humanity."
- Yuri.
Planet Dracul, 3rd of June, 2467, thirty years post contact.
Anton Cioban examined the information presented to him by the terminal. All readings so far indicated normalcy. Given the nature of the work at the Giorgi biological research plant, that was good. Headquarters got testy when resource grants were wasted upon failure and mediocrity with no further development apparent down the pipeline, and Anton had no intention of failing to live up to expectations.
He looked to one of his colleagues, a big bearded fellow who seemed almost too large for his lab gear, and then spoke up. "Grigor, could you test the thought inhibitor?" Anton asked, giving the larger man a datapad with some stored files.
"Yes of course. Is it acting up?" He asked as he shifted his gaze from his colleague to the datapad.
"Unfortunately." Anton sighed, briefly placing a hand on the right side of his face and shaking his head as an expression of exasperation.
"It's still growing, give it time, and I'm sure it will calm down." Grigor said, slapping Anton on the lowermost part of his left shoulder and causing him to jolt forward a step or two while he felt the sting of a thousand bees ride up his back.
Control your god damn arm. Anton cursed beneath his breath as he checked the instrumentation again before looking at the feeds into the chamber where they were growing their newest project. An attempt at creating a new sapient species for combat, one that would help cement Epsilon's position in the universe.
Covered in a carapace of varying shades of grey, lighter on the bottom and darker on the top, the creature had an angular; stealth bomber like appearance which were only enhanced by it's vast set of wings. A hooked beak was flanked by a pair of lower mandibles; meant to provide extreme bite strength, and it's compound eyes were aligned in a long strip across it's armoured head. Including it's wings, it had eight limbs, all slender but possessed of powerful musculature, densified and enhanced by careful application of Tiberium, two large limbs ended in scythe like grabbing appendages while two smaller manipulator arms had clawed hands. A long, skeletal tail dragged out from behind, ending in a wicked scythed spike.
About the mass of a fair sized dinosaur at ten tons with a wingspan longer than most whales were from head to tail were from head to tail, the creature seemed to regard the cameras with clear distaste. A sense of the thing staring right at him through the cameras was unshakeable, it's baleful gaze and dreadful clicking seeming to intensify.
He could scarcely imagine what it went through in the testing. Constant recalibrations of infusions, psychic neuralization, forcible biotic implantations, constant updates for it's psychic implants. Well, now it was time for new implants. He would need a long night with his wife and daughter to forget what he was about to do, and he shut his eyes as the process began.
As the process began through the walls of the facility and as the hours rolled by, he could hear it's anguish. A cry quite unlike anything he had ever heard, an ululating, low warbling shriek of pain, one that only faded when it was subdued, and one that picked right back up as it began to awake to post-surgical soreness. And sometimes, he could swear he heard it calling his name.
With the hours past, he prepared to head home, Catalina and Anastasia were waiting for him. He had plans to drown his angst with a healthy supply of alcohol and a warm bed. As he walked his way to the entrance of the facility, he saw a figure in black and green armor of a make that he couldn't identify, the emblem of a black spiked skull flanked by two lightning bolts while a black skeletal hand reached for it; all laid into a green octagon, a helm that seemed ever so vaguely reminiscent of a blank face ribbed with vents on the cheek area capped with a stahlhelm, with a leering corpse green T-visor staring out at the world. On the shoulders stood green hexagons with crossed black daggers at their center.
A brief moment passed as he stared at the figure. He didn't recognize the armor, or any of the symbology. What he did know, was that it was not authorized, and he was certainly not able to take it on in combat. It rippled with a cloaking device and disappeared, leaving Anton scrambling to activate the alarm with a mental command. But it seemed the wraithlike figure was faster with pushing a button.
Before the thought could be completed, his world was filled with smoke, fire, and noise. A series of thundrous blasts ripped through the facility, and when he finally regained control of his senses he found that his view had dropped several feet and tilted sideways, leaving him to stare up at the figure who had reappeared, almost as if to taunt him. He tried to push himself up, but the wraith stepped over him and walked out of sight just before a flood of mutants and Terminus raiders appeared.
The emblems on the mutants he finally recognized, Crystal's Fury...the howling aliens they brought in, blood pack.
A number of initiates filed in, bringing focusing carbines to send forth their pyrokinetic bursts towards the intruders, three of the forgotten went down; burnt to cinders, screaming for a brief moment, making a few motions of running before dropping to the ground as charred corpses that reeked of a vaguely pork-like smell.
In an earlier age the Krogan taking point would have used a light machine gun firing mass accelerator rounds. In this modern age however, he used a particle casting version of the same. Spectacular streaks of energy licked out as heat resistant vorcha helped him take aim, some dying, some initiates already falling to the fire, but the initiates soon learned to bow to the Krogan as one was sliced in half; his upper torso going flying while his legs flopped to the ground steaming, another's head burst as soon as his shields and armor failed, a body with nothing but a charred stump slumping over deployable low cover panels, a third had holes torn through her that definitely signaled the end of her life.
The Krogan sniffed the air before looking down at Anton, who was currently doing his very best to play dead.
"This Pyjak's still breathing." The Krogan snarled as he kicked the scientist in the side while the forgotten terrorists gathered around, assuming positions to ensure that all was clear before advancing.
"He's a scientist, take him, we need him to release the creature. I don't want him hurt anymore than he has to be or I swear I am docking your pay." One of the hooded mutants hissed at the Krogan who snorted.
"Fine by me." The Krogan snorted as he had one of the Vorcha heft up the terrified scientist while accompanying Varren; some showing clear signs of Tiberium alteration, soon followed up to their masters, snarling at the Tiberium fiends the Mutants had brought along for much the same purpose.
"Get your asses in gear, we've got payday waiting for us!" The Krogan warlord shouted, and finally, now in some control of his senses, Anton was able to see some tiberium growth on the Krogan, which would explain his greater size and the ease with which he held that heavy machine gun equivalent proton gun. So much for the Tiberium embargo, he thought as more mercenaries and terrorists flowed into the building like ants invading a termite nest.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
AN: Yes that's supposed to say 2467, I moved the date forward some, I dunno, I thought the several centuries worth of added time would make things make a bit more sense in terms of how much influence humans have. In canon, humanity is some bigshot player despite having been FTL spacefaring for what...thirty years? That's silly.
I also added more time from first contact to the reaper war as I also felt that some more time for the galaxy to settle into the new paragdim would better fit into the crazy story I plan on telling.
As for who's going to be seen and who's not, human canon characters are very likely to be butterflied into nonexistence as my plans stand right now. Alien canon characters are more likely to survive in a form you'd recognize, perhaps with their dates jumped forward a bit.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Piracy is undoutably the greatest concern of our time, tied with terrorism."
- Tevos
"To safeguard the holdings of the dominion is to safeguard the progress of humanity."
- Yuri.
Planet Dracul, 3rd of June, 2467, thirty years post contact.
Anton Cioban examined the information presented to him by the terminal. All readings so far indicated normalcy. Given the nature of the work at the Giorgi biological research plant, that was good. Headquarters got testy when resource grants were wasted upon failure and mediocrity with no further development apparent down the pipeline, and Anton had no intention of failing to live up to expectations.
He looked to one of his colleagues, a big bearded fellow who seemed almost too large for his lab gear, and then spoke up. "Grigor, could you test the thought inhibitor?" Anton asked, giving the larger man a datapad with some stored files.
"Yes of course. Is it acting up?" He asked as he shifted his gaze from his colleague to the datapad.
"Unfortunately." Anton sighed, briefly placing a hand on the right side of his face and shaking his head as an expression of exasperation.
"It's still growing, give it time, and I'm sure it will calm down." Grigor said, slapping Anton on the lowermost part of his left shoulder and causing him to jolt forward a step or two while he felt the sting of a thousand bees ride up his back.
Control your god damn arm. Anton cursed beneath his breath as he checked the instrumentation again before looking at the feeds into the chamber where they were growing their newest project. An attempt at creating a new sapient species for combat, one that would help cement Epsilon's position in the universe.
Covered in a carapace of varying shades of grey, lighter on the bottom and darker on the top, the creature had an angular; stealth bomber like appearance which were only enhanced by it's vast set of wings. A hooked beak was flanked by a pair of lower mandibles; meant to provide extreme bite strength, and it's compound eyes were aligned in a long strip across it's armoured head. Including it's wings, it had eight limbs, all slender but possessed of powerful musculature, densified and enhanced by careful application of Tiberium, two large limbs ended in scythe like grabbing appendages while two smaller manipulator arms had clawed hands. A long, skeletal tail dragged out from behind, ending in a wicked scythed spike.
About the mass of a fair sized dinosaur at ten tons with a wingspan longer than most whales were from head to tail were from head to tail, the creature seemed to regard the cameras with clear distaste. A sense of the thing staring right at him through the cameras was unshakeable, it's baleful gaze and dreadful clicking seeming to intensify.
He could scarcely imagine what it went through in the testing. Constant recalibrations of infusions, psychic neuralization, forcible biotic implantations, constant updates for it's psychic implants. Well, now it was time for new implants. He would need a long night with his wife and daughter to forget what he was about to do, and he shut his eyes as the process began.
As the process began through the walls of the facility and as the hours rolled by, he could hear it's anguish. A cry quite unlike anything he had ever heard, an ululating, low warbling shriek of pain, one that only faded when it was subdued, and one that picked right back up as it began to awake to post-surgical soreness. And sometimes, he could swear he heard it calling his name.
With the hours past, he prepared to head home, Catalina and Anastasia were waiting for him. He had plans to drown his angst with a healthy supply of alcohol and a warm bed. As he walked his way to the entrance of the facility, he saw a figure in black and green armor of a make that he couldn't identify, the emblem of a black spiked skull flanked by two lightning bolts while a black skeletal hand reached for it; all laid into a green octagon, a helm that seemed ever so vaguely reminiscent of a blank face ribbed with vents on the cheek area capped with a stahlhelm, with a leering corpse green T-visor staring out at the world. On the shoulders stood green hexagons with crossed black daggers at their center.
A brief moment passed as he stared at the figure. He didn't recognize the armor, or any of the symbology. What he did know, was that it was not authorized, and he was certainly not able to take it on in combat. It rippled with a cloaking device and disappeared, leaving Anton scrambling to activate the alarm with a mental command. But it seemed the wraithlike figure was faster with pushing a button.
Before the thought could be completed, his world was filled with smoke, fire, and noise. A series of thundrous blasts ripped through the facility, and when he finally regained control of his senses he found that his view had dropped several feet and tilted sideways, leaving him to stare up at the figure who had reappeared, almost as if to taunt him. He tried to push himself up, but the wraith stepped over him and walked out of sight just before a flood of mutants and Terminus raiders appeared.
The emblems on the mutants he finally recognized, Crystal's Fury...the howling aliens they brought in, blood pack.
A number of initiates filed in, bringing focusing carbines to send forth their pyrokinetic bursts towards the intruders, three of the forgotten went down; burnt to cinders, screaming for a brief moment, making a few motions of running before dropping to the ground as charred corpses that reeked of a vaguely pork-like smell.
In an earlier age the Krogan taking point would have used a light machine gun firing mass accelerator rounds. In this modern age however, he used a particle casting version of the same. Spectacular streaks of energy licked out as heat resistant vorcha helped him take aim, some dying, some initiates already falling to the fire, but the initiates soon learned to bow to the Krogan as one was sliced in half; his upper torso going flying while his legs flopped to the ground steaming, another's head burst as soon as his shields and armor failed, a body with nothing but a charred stump slumping over deployable low cover panels, a third had holes torn through her that definitely signaled the end of her life.
The Krogan sniffed the air before looking down at Anton, who was currently doing his very best to play dead.
"This Pyjak's still breathing." The Krogan snarled as he kicked the scientist in the side while the forgotten terrorists gathered around, assuming positions to ensure that all was clear before advancing.
"He's a scientist, take him, we need him to release the creature. I don't want him hurt anymore than he has to be or I swear I am docking your pay." One of the hooded mutants hissed at the Krogan who snorted.
"Fine by me." The Krogan snorted as he had one of the Vorcha heft up the terrified scientist while accompanying Varren; some showing clear signs of Tiberium alteration, soon followed up to their masters, snarling at the Tiberium fiends the Mutants had brought along for much the same purpose.
"Get your asses in gear, we've got payday waiting for us!" The Krogan warlord shouted, and finally, now in some control of his senses, Anton was able to see some tiberium growth on the Krogan, which would explain his greater size and the ease with which he held that heavy machine gun equivalent proton gun. So much for the Tiberium embargo, he thought as more mercenaries and terrorists flowed into the building like ants invading a termite nest.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
AN: Yes that's supposed to say 2467, I moved the date forward some, I dunno, I thought the several centuries worth of added time would make things make a bit more sense in terms of how much influence humans have. In canon, humanity is some bigshot player despite having been FTL spacefaring for what...thirty years? That's silly.
I also added more time from first contact to the reaper war as I also felt that some more time for the galaxy to settle into the new paragdim would better fit into the crazy story I plan on telling.
As for who's going to be seen and who's not, human canon characters are very likely to be butterflied into nonexistence as my plans stand right now. Alien canon characters are more likely to survive in a form you'd recognize, perhaps with their dates jumped forward a bit.
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Chapter 2a
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Warlord Virog liked his new gun. Particle casters were still something of a rarity, expensive too, but he bet his hide that they'd become the standard soon enough, even as Mass Accelerator rifles continued to advance and new exciting weapons flooded the market. Anything that could let him mow down enemies better made him a very happy Krogan to say the least.
He and a bunch of other mercs were being paid good money to storm this facility. Not just money, he reminded himself, but Tiberium too. Tib fetched excellent prices, and was incredibly useful even if you didn't sell it anyway.
He was brought out of his musings by a storm of railgun fire from the gatling weapon of a harpoon, forcing him to take cover as the genetically altered armoured freak of a cyborg stood tall, gargling angrily as more jump jet using initiates quickly blasted up onto high vantage points while more cover panels unfurled.
Rage gas grenades were thrown into the area, he quickly barked an order to pull back. "Get out of there, Biotics I need you to push that crap back!" He shouted through his helmet as he took any cover he could from the withering barrage of rounds from the Harpoon's roaring weapon.
He needed only see one of the Crystal's Fury terrorists start firing into his own units to know that an adept level telepath had also entered the fray. One of the Biotics unfortunately he scowled as he popped up long enough to make some shots at the Epsilon guards, ducking right back down when the Harpoon turned the sweep of it's gatling cannon right at him.
Damn, he had to respect firepower like that. Not respecting that kind of firepower would get him killed, and while he was certainly no bedwetting Pyjak, he rather liked living.
He threw a fusion grenade bought from the Alliance, hurling the miniature nuclear device over his head and throwing himself to the ground when the whump of the shockwave and roar of the blast cut through the already roaring noise of the room, he looked up and the Harpoon was gone and the Adept was busy collecting his senses, just long enough for the Krogan to chop him down with his heavy particle caster, he heard a scream and the squelch of flesh being crushed into a pulp even as it was flung about in all directions and charred beyond recognition, hissing all the while.
"Did our friend turn off their defense turrets?" He asked over the commlinks as he advanced through the now cleared room, taking a right just as the very thorough map he had acquired from his employers directed him to.
"Yes Warlord. What do you plan on bringing in? Gunships?" Came in the reply as the krogan grinned, evil thoughts rapidly forming in his mind.
"You think too small. I want a drop of tank company Wrecker one klick from my position due north by north east, and yes, bring in the gunships." He grinned viciously as the forgotten kicked in another door, letting out a spray of weapons fire into the room to suppress the telekinetic adept they almost immediately ran into.
He instinctively threw himself to the side, hearing barriers collapse and bodily tissue getting obliterated as a series of forgotten were torn apart by a hellstorm of metal shards hurled by the adept while the distinctive "deewp" sound of initiates letting loose pyrokinetic bursts began to fill his ears.
"Flank their positions damn it or I will eat your fucking heads off." He shouted at the Vorcha under his command as he threw in some grenades to get the defenders to recoil at least somewhat, if only for a moment. His instincts buzzed and he dashed as far away from the door as possible, leaving the wide open door behind him as a miniature sun's worth of glowing green starflare plasma exploded and incinerated the Vorcha, Humans, Mechs, and assorted terrorists, pirates, and mercs who were just standing there moments ago.
"Damn, they've got a night terror." He grumbled, gritting his teeth as the facility shook with heavy mass accelerator fire. He definitely needed some bigger guns to deal with an enemy that big. Or at least, a more clever plan than what he was thinking of until just now.
"Aww yeah, now that's what I'm talking about." He whooped as a trio of heavy rounds slammed into the building and broke open some of the walls, letting the night sky's dim lights on into the building, if he read the plans right, they might even be able to provide some indoors support in some places. That made him giddy, ah the destruction they'd wreak.
The launch of another plasma blast quickly snapped him out of his musings and informed him of the need to find a better spot to push his advance through.
"Where's those flankers I asked for?" He snarled into his commlinks as heavy footsteps informed him that the creature with it's support had emerged to start a sweep maneuver; it's gatling cannon revving up and letting loose the storm, his ears once again being assaulted in the moments before his helmets' compensators kicked in.
"I need reinforcements, now you lazy whoresons!" He roared into the comms as his cover rapidly disintegrated under the fire of the nightmare, but even through all the noise of battle he was able to tell when a plasma cannon was being charged.
And as if to answer his summons, a tank smashed straight through the wall, dozens of tons of steel and fury dragged it's turret as the initiates fell back in good order, feeling the stinging attentions of hastily added particle casters mounted on the sleek, angular vehicle while the nightmare bellowed his challenge.
He had heard stories of the prowess of nightmares, but he never quite imagined that a Turian made MX-731 Mawblade tank would be reeling from a direct hit from a starflare cannon, nor that the thing would actually start walking towards the vehicle, the antares cannon on it's back slowly raising itself into position as it gurgled incomprehensibly beneath it's thick suit of armor. After doing a brief spin from a glancing shot to the shoulder by the main gun of the tank that caused quite the score into the pauldron as it slid off, the thing decided to charge in, enormous pincers on it's suit seeming all too noticeable now.
Crystal's Fury terrorists frantically scampered back, firing away with their mass accelerator rifles; having had difficulty acquiring particle casters or directed energy weapons of which their fire was punctuated with but a smattering of such weapons. Some grenade launchers made themselves known on the hide of the nightmare, but the initiates guarding them accounted well for themselves as the Telekine adepts crushed more than a few forgotten into pulp with but a squeezing action of their minds. Even more ground was lost to them when the harpoons came roaring in with gatling weapons, forcing them into cover while Biotics tried to bring up shields to slow down the counter-offensive from Epsilon.
The results of the clash between monster and machine were obscured to him as a dream weaver's clicking behind him made him acutely aware as to it's presence. Like organic terror drones, the creatures scuttled forward to him, clicking and buzzing as they oozed rage gas out of their pores. Yet more initiates followed behind them, lead by a trio of electrokine adepts whose streaking arcs of Thor's fury zapped him to the ground, twitching as stars danced behind his eyes while the dream-weavers rushed forward to draw fire from those members of his group that survived.
Most would have probably been killed outright by the lightning he received, but he was a old, strong Krogan who had willingly infused himself with Tiberium, his armorsuit had a good combination of insulatives and conductors in the right place in the anticipation of having to face tesla weaponry, and he had placed on some magnetic shield projectors to bolster his defense. As Varrens and Fiends sought to jump on and claw at the five meter night terror as it started tearing into the tank, he picked himself up, not even flinching as several vorcha and mutants were burned to ash by the adepts and initiates. He didn't even blink as a Krogan was torn apart by the dream-weavers.
No fear was displayed when he dived for a missile launcher dropped by one of the dead vorcha, hoisted it up, and loaded a fresh warhead. Not even when the tank that had driven into the wide open hallway was finally crushed by the victorious night terror did he show any hint of being scared. Rather, he pulled the trigger and let loose a warhead, reveling as it exploded among the adepts with a fusion warhead and cleared a large path through it's scouring nuclear flames. Oh he had to duck back under cover alright, but now the way was clear for him to trudge on by while the Crystal's Fury terrorists rallied with renewed support from the Blood Pack and fresh troops coming in from the entrances.
He turned around to let loose with his particle beam caster, laughing raucuously as enemies were mowed down by his beloved gun. Violence and noise swirled around him, snipers sought to add their instrument to the cacophany just as heavy weapons fire was traded. Bodies hit the floor, filled with holes, charred, torn apart, flensed, crushed, or otherwise mutilated in a supremely intense fire-fight. A harpoon went down, consumed by a biotic warp that violently ripped the specially crafted supersoldier to pieces and finally silencing it's lethal gatling gun. A Krogan was struck by a virus round from a sniper, and gagged before exploding into toxic green gas.
Initiates struck by shotgun fire from charging mutants went down with bloody, pulpy holes in their chest after repeated fire, only for the mutants to burn from unfolding antares thermal wave turrets disconnected from the external defense grid, the lucky ones flash frying into cinders and the unlucky ones screaming as they flailed and cooked in the heat of fires leaping across their body. Varren and Fiends that had sought to pull down the night-terror found themselves faced with dream-weavers as the armored colossus swept it's fire across the room, the defeated hulk of the tank lying in smoking ruin while antares blasts, plasma spheres, and gatling guns made their presences unmissable.
Soldiers turned upon each other, guided by the will of Telepaths, though to Virog's annoyance the Telepaths Epsilon had were just more numerous and flat out better, forcing him to devote snipers to taking them down whenever they made their presences known. But numbers were on Virog's side. By the time grotesquely mutated and hugely muscular brutes and archers started to make themselves known, the Epsilon guard forces were losing. The night-terror had gone down, focused down by anti-tank fire, biotics, and psychics until it finally tumbled down and ceased to breathe due to multiple holes ripped through it's body and the fire of two more of Virog's tanks smashing into the hallway.
The archers, while certainly unusual due to their reliance on seemingly outdated technology, and certainly responsible for their fair share of havoc with their variable warhead superheated bolts that incinerated many an asset, had come too little, too late to change the tide and went down in time. The brutes, while fierce, were not capable of averting defeat for the security forces. And with the commander at the helm of their EVA system having already been dealt with by their wraith-like friend, the coordination of the security forces slowly began to disintegrate.
Rushing forward and bellowing his battle cry, Virog had switched to a massive shotgun, a six gauge by human reckoning, but entirely manageable for the mutant krogan. And when it spoke, it spoke with the kind of voice that let him turn men into meaty chunks and bits of armor and uniform, and the kind that was most assuredly welcome for it's ability to give pause to even brutes.
When he came face to face with a brute, he was quick to get out his battlehammer, deeming the action too close for the shotgun. The huge, hulking mass of muscle made the first step, roaring as it swung a fist at him, making him try to do his best to roll with the hit, stumbling to the left to get some range to get a good swing going with his weapon. The brute staggered, stumbled, but brought his fists down for a double hammer fist that made his shields flare with effort.
A kick to the face similarly made Virog stumble backwards, reeling from the blow, but he brought his hammer down again, smashing the brute back and setting the grey skinned beast up for a leftward blow to the head, more than enough to daze and dizzy it as he finally got enough space to bring out his shotgun and unload an automatic clip into the beast. Though the genetically engineered monster stood for a while due to shields and sheer toughness, soon it went down in bloody pieces and Virog could rejoin the rest of the fight.
After five more minutes of intense struggle, the fighting finally stopped. No more forces loyal to Yuri were throwing themselves at them, though he respected their ability to make him pay for every millimeter of advance in blood. He would have loved to remove his helmet to take in a whiff of that blood filled air, but he knew the risks of going barefaced in an arena that had just seen the kind of chemical warfare filled contest they had.
"Get some explosives on that door, I want it breached yesterday!" He shouted, looking through his HUD to see who was still left. Casualty rates were high, but nothing he wasn't expecting. Good, those who made it out of this would be stronger for what they've just gone through.
"Where's the scientist? Is he still breathing?" Virog snarled as he stepped out of the way of the krogan packing the detonation charges.
"Yes Warlord, we've kept him out of the firefight." One of the Vorcha snarled, almost barking at the Krogan through the comms Feh, he'd need a clubbing on the head for that tone, Virog thought as he made a mental note.
"Our catch isn't much farther away according to this map, just one more hall way that our friend should have cleared for us. Everyone, I expect you to keep quiet, I'll be fucked if I know what other freaks they have in this facility" Virog said, bringing up the map on his omnitool so that everyone could see how close they were to their objective, relishing in the excitement his soldiers were displaying.
Some echoes of combat continued to reach his ears, probably other groups of soldiers drawing away the guards he thought. His troops, he thought with pride. The other merc companies hired decided to take the longer, safer routes, but it seemed to him that their gamble hadn't paid off. The roar and snap of breaching charges assaulted his senses once again, but with the hole in the door now available, he was able to just walk through and take a short path through the hallway that followed.
A number of guards were seen, thoroughly dead via exotic weapons fire, leaving their corpses to decorate the room with all manners of bits and pieces of them missing. Almost certainly their wraithlike friend's doing.
The final door was already opened, and before them stood the chamber where the fruit of project Biomagus' labor was observed and administered from. The armoured black and green figure of the mysterious wraith awaited them, giving a subtle nod to the scientist and the console with which he had conducted many an operation on the bizarre creature seen on the view screens. So many lights, panels, screens, projectors and interfaces, all displaying data that Virog honestly wasn't interested in. All he cared about was the creature, and the bonus he'd get for being the first one to obtain it.
"Now, either you can do this for us and I let you go, or I'm going to have to have one of the telepaths rip the information from you, and I start remembering how useful a pet scientist can be."
"You can't expect me t-to turn my back on Yuri! If I were to do this, I would be a dead man anyway!" Anton protested, drawing a scoff from the krogan warlord before he motioned in over one of the surviving telepaths.
"How little you must value your family. To deprive them of you because of your belief in the cause." The wraith finally spoke in a professional, chilling voice as it flipped through his personnel data files, that spine tingling voice modulated through his helmet as the telepath started tearing into his mind, picking his brain to find what they needed.
"But what you forget, is that if you do not devote yourself to the right cause, the cause will show it's lack of devotion to you." The Wraith said as the Telepath, upon receiving what it needed to know, the Vorcha forced his hand onto the biometric scanner and implemented the command lines needed to start releasing the creature, who almost immediately exalted in seeing the doors of it's cage opening with a series of ululating clicks synchronized with the most unearthly roar imaginable as it stampeded out of the facility.
"All troops, pull out to the ships and get ready to collect the package. We've got what we came for." Virog ordered as the wraith regarded Anton closely.
"Let us see what your creation thinks of you, shall we?"
"Hey, I want him working for me, you hear?" Virog said, glowering at the Wraith.
"Epsilon has what it takes to preserve his brain. The rest of him is not necessary." He responded, prompting an evil grin to form beneath Virog's helmet as he produced one of the brain preservation kits, a jar filled with special solution and numerous tools for the extraction of the cerebrum, a grin that widened when Anton's moan of terror was heard. Soon, they had pushed the man out into the fields outside the facility, where the creature had emerged into the open, it's terrifying frame snarling and baying when it's ears caught wind of the name of the one it came to hate.
With a few tremendous steps, the six and a half meter tall creature had closed the distance to cioban and made him very aware of how big it's jaws were. It's hot breath lashed at him and prompted all those who felt it to step well back away from the monstrous winged abomination as it leered directly at Cioban.
"You...are...Cioban." It said in a voice like the rumble of a volcano, it's mandibles clicking onto it's lower jaw as it came within mere centimeters from just biting him in half where he stood.
A terrified squeak was all Anton could answer with. What went through his mind besides all consuming terror, was how it learned how to speak.
"You caused me...pain...suffering. But I heard your words...your noisey electric buzzing and sound...and I learned...I learned more than what you wished. And I learned...to hate you." It said, finishing it's last sentence with as much menace as possible as it reared it's head back, seemingly ready to deliver the killing blow.
"We'll give him to you, just save the head will you?" Virog asked of it, not even flinching from the massively larger organism.
"We ask that you join us, mighty behemoth! Help us smite the foes of the forgotten, so that our name will be remembered!" The mutant in the most ostentatious armor around said, throwing his hands apart and shouting at the monstrous thing.
"Pah, would you work with those Wimps? Why not join us, we've got real firepower and a place for something like you." Virog countered, sensing an opportunity in the engineered monster.
"We had a deal Krogan, the beast is ours!" The Forgotten shouted indignantly.
"You can have anything that we leave behind, but this one's got promise." He said, stepping forward to edge himself closer to the monster.
"I am...no one's...but I will be willing to hear an...offer." It said, it's words somewhat halting as it was still new to vocalizing them through it's throat.
"You hate Cioban. I can offer you the information to make him hurt more than if you just kill him. " The Wraith interjected, drawing the attentions of all three other speakers, each of them swiveling their heads towards the figure bearing the mark of the black hand.
It brought out a projection, a map with their current location highlighted, and another location not too far away similarly marked. A marking that made Anton shiver.
"His family and friends." The wraith offered as the engineered monster clicked it's mandibles as it brought it's head close to the wraith. The being studied the image closely, mentally plotting a course through skills implanted into it's brain. Yes, this would do for the creature, Virog could tell, he had a knack for telling when others were plotting. A quick lunge of it's head was enough to bring it's jaws to a position to snap Anton in half.
Virog didn't flinch like many of the mutants did, he actually smiled as the thing scooped up his legs and snapped it's beaked jaw shut, the crunch of bones shearing and wet squelch of flesh giving way being drowned out by screams of pain and the sound of the two halves of it's chitinous head slamming together before it took to the air with a jump and powerful beats of it's wings, letting him bleed out with full knowledge of what was to come, first it would level the homes of any friends he had made, then it would deal with his family.
He and a bunch of other mercs were being paid good money to storm this facility. Not just money, he reminded himself, but Tiberium too. Tib fetched excellent prices, and was incredibly useful even if you didn't sell it anyway.
He was brought out of his musings by a storm of railgun fire from the gatling weapon of a harpoon, forcing him to take cover as the genetically altered armoured freak of a cyborg stood tall, gargling angrily as more jump jet using initiates quickly blasted up onto high vantage points while more cover panels unfurled.
Rage gas grenades were thrown into the area, he quickly barked an order to pull back. "Get out of there, Biotics I need you to push that crap back!" He shouted through his helmet as he took any cover he could from the withering barrage of rounds from the Harpoon's roaring weapon.
He needed only see one of the Crystal's Fury terrorists start firing into his own units to know that an adept level telepath had also entered the fray. One of the Biotics unfortunately he scowled as he popped up long enough to make some shots at the Epsilon guards, ducking right back down when the Harpoon turned the sweep of it's gatling cannon right at him.
Damn, he had to respect firepower like that. Not respecting that kind of firepower would get him killed, and while he was certainly no bedwetting Pyjak, he rather liked living.
He threw a fusion grenade bought from the Alliance, hurling the miniature nuclear device over his head and throwing himself to the ground when the whump of the shockwave and roar of the blast cut through the already roaring noise of the room, he looked up and the Harpoon was gone and the Adept was busy collecting his senses, just long enough for the Krogan to chop him down with his heavy particle caster, he heard a scream and the squelch of flesh being crushed into a pulp even as it was flung about in all directions and charred beyond recognition, hissing all the while.
"Did our friend turn off their defense turrets?" He asked over the commlinks as he advanced through the now cleared room, taking a right just as the very thorough map he had acquired from his employers directed him to.
"Yes Warlord. What do you plan on bringing in? Gunships?" Came in the reply as the krogan grinned, evil thoughts rapidly forming in his mind.
"You think too small. I want a drop of tank company Wrecker one klick from my position due north by north east, and yes, bring in the gunships." He grinned viciously as the forgotten kicked in another door, letting out a spray of weapons fire into the room to suppress the telekinetic adept they almost immediately ran into.
He instinctively threw himself to the side, hearing barriers collapse and bodily tissue getting obliterated as a series of forgotten were torn apart by a hellstorm of metal shards hurled by the adept while the distinctive "deewp" sound of initiates letting loose pyrokinetic bursts began to fill his ears.
"Flank their positions damn it or I will eat your fucking heads off." He shouted at the Vorcha under his command as he threw in some grenades to get the defenders to recoil at least somewhat, if only for a moment. His instincts buzzed and he dashed as far away from the door as possible, leaving the wide open door behind him as a miniature sun's worth of glowing green starflare plasma exploded and incinerated the Vorcha, Humans, Mechs, and assorted terrorists, pirates, and mercs who were just standing there moments ago.
"Damn, they've got a night terror." He grumbled, gritting his teeth as the facility shook with heavy mass accelerator fire. He definitely needed some bigger guns to deal with an enemy that big. Or at least, a more clever plan than what he was thinking of until just now.
"Aww yeah, now that's what I'm talking about." He whooped as a trio of heavy rounds slammed into the building and broke open some of the walls, letting the night sky's dim lights on into the building, if he read the plans right, they might even be able to provide some indoors support in some places. That made him giddy, ah the destruction they'd wreak.
The launch of another plasma blast quickly snapped him out of his musings and informed him of the need to find a better spot to push his advance through.
"Where's those flankers I asked for?" He snarled into his commlinks as heavy footsteps informed him that the creature with it's support had emerged to start a sweep maneuver; it's gatling cannon revving up and letting loose the storm, his ears once again being assaulted in the moments before his helmets' compensators kicked in.
"I need reinforcements, now you lazy whoresons!" He roared into the comms as his cover rapidly disintegrated under the fire of the nightmare, but even through all the noise of battle he was able to tell when a plasma cannon was being charged.
And as if to answer his summons, a tank smashed straight through the wall, dozens of tons of steel and fury dragged it's turret as the initiates fell back in good order, feeling the stinging attentions of hastily added particle casters mounted on the sleek, angular vehicle while the nightmare bellowed his challenge.
He had heard stories of the prowess of nightmares, but he never quite imagined that a Turian made MX-731 Mawblade tank would be reeling from a direct hit from a starflare cannon, nor that the thing would actually start walking towards the vehicle, the antares cannon on it's back slowly raising itself into position as it gurgled incomprehensibly beneath it's thick suit of armor. After doing a brief spin from a glancing shot to the shoulder by the main gun of the tank that caused quite the score into the pauldron as it slid off, the thing decided to charge in, enormous pincers on it's suit seeming all too noticeable now.
Crystal's Fury terrorists frantically scampered back, firing away with their mass accelerator rifles; having had difficulty acquiring particle casters or directed energy weapons of which their fire was punctuated with but a smattering of such weapons. Some grenade launchers made themselves known on the hide of the nightmare, but the initiates guarding them accounted well for themselves as the Telekine adepts crushed more than a few forgotten into pulp with but a squeezing action of their minds. Even more ground was lost to them when the harpoons came roaring in with gatling weapons, forcing them into cover while Biotics tried to bring up shields to slow down the counter-offensive from Epsilon.
The results of the clash between monster and machine were obscured to him as a dream weaver's clicking behind him made him acutely aware as to it's presence. Like organic terror drones, the creatures scuttled forward to him, clicking and buzzing as they oozed rage gas out of their pores. Yet more initiates followed behind them, lead by a trio of electrokine adepts whose streaking arcs of Thor's fury zapped him to the ground, twitching as stars danced behind his eyes while the dream-weavers rushed forward to draw fire from those members of his group that survived.
Most would have probably been killed outright by the lightning he received, but he was a old, strong Krogan who had willingly infused himself with Tiberium, his armorsuit had a good combination of insulatives and conductors in the right place in the anticipation of having to face tesla weaponry, and he had placed on some magnetic shield projectors to bolster his defense. As Varrens and Fiends sought to jump on and claw at the five meter night terror as it started tearing into the tank, he picked himself up, not even flinching as several vorcha and mutants were burned to ash by the adepts and initiates. He didn't even blink as a Krogan was torn apart by the dream-weavers.
No fear was displayed when he dived for a missile launcher dropped by one of the dead vorcha, hoisted it up, and loaded a fresh warhead. Not even when the tank that had driven into the wide open hallway was finally crushed by the victorious night terror did he show any hint of being scared. Rather, he pulled the trigger and let loose a warhead, reveling as it exploded among the adepts with a fusion warhead and cleared a large path through it's scouring nuclear flames. Oh he had to duck back under cover alright, but now the way was clear for him to trudge on by while the Crystal's Fury terrorists rallied with renewed support from the Blood Pack and fresh troops coming in from the entrances.
He turned around to let loose with his particle beam caster, laughing raucuously as enemies were mowed down by his beloved gun. Violence and noise swirled around him, snipers sought to add their instrument to the cacophany just as heavy weapons fire was traded. Bodies hit the floor, filled with holes, charred, torn apart, flensed, crushed, or otherwise mutilated in a supremely intense fire-fight. A harpoon went down, consumed by a biotic warp that violently ripped the specially crafted supersoldier to pieces and finally silencing it's lethal gatling gun. A Krogan was struck by a virus round from a sniper, and gagged before exploding into toxic green gas.
Initiates struck by shotgun fire from charging mutants went down with bloody, pulpy holes in their chest after repeated fire, only for the mutants to burn from unfolding antares thermal wave turrets disconnected from the external defense grid, the lucky ones flash frying into cinders and the unlucky ones screaming as they flailed and cooked in the heat of fires leaping across their body. Varren and Fiends that had sought to pull down the night-terror found themselves faced with dream-weavers as the armored colossus swept it's fire across the room, the defeated hulk of the tank lying in smoking ruin while antares blasts, plasma spheres, and gatling guns made their presences unmissable.
Soldiers turned upon each other, guided by the will of Telepaths, though to Virog's annoyance the Telepaths Epsilon had were just more numerous and flat out better, forcing him to devote snipers to taking them down whenever they made their presences known. But numbers were on Virog's side. By the time grotesquely mutated and hugely muscular brutes and archers started to make themselves known, the Epsilon guard forces were losing. The night-terror had gone down, focused down by anti-tank fire, biotics, and psychics until it finally tumbled down and ceased to breathe due to multiple holes ripped through it's body and the fire of two more of Virog's tanks smashing into the hallway.
The archers, while certainly unusual due to their reliance on seemingly outdated technology, and certainly responsible for their fair share of havoc with their variable warhead superheated bolts that incinerated many an asset, had come too little, too late to change the tide and went down in time. The brutes, while fierce, were not capable of averting defeat for the security forces. And with the commander at the helm of their EVA system having already been dealt with by their wraith-like friend, the coordination of the security forces slowly began to disintegrate.
Rushing forward and bellowing his battle cry, Virog had switched to a massive shotgun, a six gauge by human reckoning, but entirely manageable for the mutant krogan. And when it spoke, it spoke with the kind of voice that let him turn men into meaty chunks and bits of armor and uniform, and the kind that was most assuredly welcome for it's ability to give pause to even brutes.
When he came face to face with a brute, he was quick to get out his battlehammer, deeming the action too close for the shotgun. The huge, hulking mass of muscle made the first step, roaring as it swung a fist at him, making him try to do his best to roll with the hit, stumbling to the left to get some range to get a good swing going with his weapon. The brute staggered, stumbled, but brought his fists down for a double hammer fist that made his shields flare with effort.
A kick to the face similarly made Virog stumble backwards, reeling from the blow, but he brought his hammer down again, smashing the brute back and setting the grey skinned beast up for a leftward blow to the head, more than enough to daze and dizzy it as he finally got enough space to bring out his shotgun and unload an automatic clip into the beast. Though the genetically engineered monster stood for a while due to shields and sheer toughness, soon it went down in bloody pieces and Virog could rejoin the rest of the fight.
After five more minutes of intense struggle, the fighting finally stopped. No more forces loyal to Yuri were throwing themselves at them, though he respected their ability to make him pay for every millimeter of advance in blood. He would have loved to remove his helmet to take in a whiff of that blood filled air, but he knew the risks of going barefaced in an arena that had just seen the kind of chemical warfare filled contest they had.
"Get some explosives on that door, I want it breached yesterday!" He shouted, looking through his HUD to see who was still left. Casualty rates were high, but nothing he wasn't expecting. Good, those who made it out of this would be stronger for what they've just gone through.
"Where's the scientist? Is he still breathing?" Virog snarled as he stepped out of the way of the krogan packing the detonation charges.
"Yes Warlord, we've kept him out of the firefight." One of the Vorcha snarled, almost barking at the Krogan through the comms Feh, he'd need a clubbing on the head for that tone, Virog thought as he made a mental note.
"Our catch isn't much farther away according to this map, just one more hall way that our friend should have cleared for us. Everyone, I expect you to keep quiet, I'll be fucked if I know what other freaks they have in this facility" Virog said, bringing up the map on his omnitool so that everyone could see how close they were to their objective, relishing in the excitement his soldiers were displaying.
Some echoes of combat continued to reach his ears, probably other groups of soldiers drawing away the guards he thought. His troops, he thought with pride. The other merc companies hired decided to take the longer, safer routes, but it seemed to him that their gamble hadn't paid off. The roar and snap of breaching charges assaulted his senses once again, but with the hole in the door now available, he was able to just walk through and take a short path through the hallway that followed.
A number of guards were seen, thoroughly dead via exotic weapons fire, leaving their corpses to decorate the room with all manners of bits and pieces of them missing. Almost certainly their wraithlike friend's doing.
The final door was already opened, and before them stood the chamber where the fruit of project Biomagus' labor was observed and administered from. The armoured black and green figure of the mysterious wraith awaited them, giving a subtle nod to the scientist and the console with which he had conducted many an operation on the bizarre creature seen on the view screens. So many lights, panels, screens, projectors and interfaces, all displaying data that Virog honestly wasn't interested in. All he cared about was the creature, and the bonus he'd get for being the first one to obtain it.
"Now, either you can do this for us and I let you go, or I'm going to have to have one of the telepaths rip the information from you, and I start remembering how useful a pet scientist can be."
"You can't expect me t-to turn my back on Yuri! If I were to do this, I would be a dead man anyway!" Anton protested, drawing a scoff from the krogan warlord before he motioned in over one of the surviving telepaths.
"How little you must value your family. To deprive them of you because of your belief in the cause." The wraith finally spoke in a professional, chilling voice as it flipped through his personnel data files, that spine tingling voice modulated through his helmet as the telepath started tearing into his mind, picking his brain to find what they needed.
"But what you forget, is that if you do not devote yourself to the right cause, the cause will show it's lack of devotion to you." The Wraith said as the Telepath, upon receiving what it needed to know, the Vorcha forced his hand onto the biometric scanner and implemented the command lines needed to start releasing the creature, who almost immediately exalted in seeing the doors of it's cage opening with a series of ululating clicks synchronized with the most unearthly roar imaginable as it stampeded out of the facility.
"All troops, pull out to the ships and get ready to collect the package. We've got what we came for." Virog ordered as the wraith regarded Anton closely.
"Let us see what your creation thinks of you, shall we?"
"Hey, I want him working for me, you hear?" Virog said, glowering at the Wraith.
"Epsilon has what it takes to preserve his brain. The rest of him is not necessary." He responded, prompting an evil grin to form beneath Virog's helmet as he produced one of the brain preservation kits, a jar filled with special solution and numerous tools for the extraction of the cerebrum, a grin that widened when Anton's moan of terror was heard. Soon, they had pushed the man out into the fields outside the facility, where the creature had emerged into the open, it's terrifying frame snarling and baying when it's ears caught wind of the name of the one it came to hate.
With a few tremendous steps, the six and a half meter tall creature had closed the distance to cioban and made him very aware of how big it's jaws were. It's hot breath lashed at him and prompted all those who felt it to step well back away from the monstrous winged abomination as it leered directly at Cioban.
"You...are...Cioban." It said in a voice like the rumble of a volcano, it's mandibles clicking onto it's lower jaw as it came within mere centimeters from just biting him in half where he stood.
A terrified squeak was all Anton could answer with. What went through his mind besides all consuming terror, was how it learned how to speak.
"You caused me...pain...suffering. But I heard your words...your noisey electric buzzing and sound...and I learned...I learned more than what you wished. And I learned...to hate you." It said, finishing it's last sentence with as much menace as possible as it reared it's head back, seemingly ready to deliver the killing blow.
"We'll give him to you, just save the head will you?" Virog asked of it, not even flinching from the massively larger organism.
"We ask that you join us, mighty behemoth! Help us smite the foes of the forgotten, so that our name will be remembered!" The mutant in the most ostentatious armor around said, throwing his hands apart and shouting at the monstrous thing.
"Pah, would you work with those Wimps? Why not join us, we've got real firepower and a place for something like you." Virog countered, sensing an opportunity in the engineered monster.
"We had a deal Krogan, the beast is ours!" The Forgotten shouted indignantly.
"You can have anything that we leave behind, but this one's got promise." He said, stepping forward to edge himself closer to the monster.
"I am...no one's...but I will be willing to hear an...offer." It said, it's words somewhat halting as it was still new to vocalizing them through it's throat.
"You hate Cioban. I can offer you the information to make him hurt more than if you just kill him. " The Wraith interjected, drawing the attentions of all three other speakers, each of them swiveling their heads towards the figure bearing the mark of the black hand.
It brought out a projection, a map with their current location highlighted, and another location not too far away similarly marked. A marking that made Anton shiver.
"His family and friends." The wraith offered as the engineered monster clicked it's mandibles as it brought it's head close to the wraith. The being studied the image closely, mentally plotting a course through skills implanted into it's brain. Yes, this would do for the creature, Virog could tell, he had a knack for telling when others were plotting. A quick lunge of it's head was enough to bring it's jaws to a position to snap Anton in half.
Virog didn't flinch like many of the mutants did, he actually smiled as the thing scooped up his legs and snapped it's beaked jaw shut, the crunch of bones shearing and wet squelch of flesh giving way being drowned out by screams of pain and the sound of the two halves of it's chitinous head slamming together before it took to the air with a jump and powerful beats of it's wings, letting him bleed out with full knowledge of what was to come, first it would level the homes of any friends he had made, then it would deal with his family.
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Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
The intention is what you'd get if you stuck a Xenomorph, the Hokmuto, and Ridley in a blender. Plus innumerable augments like psychic implants, biotic add ons, subdermal cybernetics, and so on.
Epsilon has a lot of bioweapons projects going on, this is just the first time they tried to scratch build a sapient species.
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Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
I got the fanfic up on FF.net in a much more cleaned up format if you're interested in a re-read.
I also got my first nonsensical review.
"yui die"
Wat?
I also got my first nonsensical review.
"yui die"
Wat?
- Location
- Best England - United Kingdom
Might be Yuri die *shrug*
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
I think FF.net could do with a discussion thread attached to every story so that the review space could be reserved for well...reviews.
I'm still waiting for my invite for Archive of Our Own before posting it to there.
Next snippet will come either today or tommorow, then I'll focus on the setup for the Protagonist from the Allied-Soviets, much as how this chapter was built on setting up for the Epsilon Protagonist.
Spellsmith
First Nagato-type Armored Aircraft Carrier, Nagato
Never expect anything from ff.net's reviews. Once in a blue moon you'd maybe get an in-depth analysis review that is actually useful, while the rest of the time you'd get either nonsensical, template praises, and/or flames.
- Location
- behind you
Reviews on ffnet seem to be a byproduct of some one bashing his head on a keyboard
Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
Oooh I think I found the perfect replacement for the Blue Suns in this setting.