Plan for the Galaxy Chapter 62

PFTG

A/N Hi everyone! I managed to get this one done really quickly and had planned to space out the uploads so that I didn’t just drop them all at once and make you wait ages before the next update, but I messed up so you are getting two updates for PFTG in a single day.

A few things are beginning to happen now. I don’t want to ruin anything, but as you can see from the last chapter, things are likely to get changed. Hope you enjoy the chapter!

…

Chapter 62 – Truth on Thessia

Valern POV

The trip to Thessia was not a pleasure cruise, that was for certain. He had plenty of work to do, which necessitated his stay in the quarters that had been assigned to him, along with using the ship’s comms system every time they dropped out of lightspeed to get updates on the situation in the Temple of Athame.

There was no way that he was going to let the asari remove that beacon before he got there.

He had frequent conversations with both David, the human councillor and Sparatus, the turian councillor, but he didn’t speak a word to Tevos. Partly because she didn’t leave her assigned rooms from the moment that she arrived on the ship, and partly because he had no wish to speak to her.

It was common knowledge that the asari dominated the technological market, except perhaps in stealth technologies. That was the salarian domain. But domestic and military technologies, starship drives and nearly every single other technological innovation was always compared to the asari standard. The Destiny Ascension was a living monument of how much more advanced their engines, sensors, shielding and MAC technology was compared to all of the other Citadel races. No other race had the ability to build such a large ship without destroying itself.

Not that that was the salarian way. The Union was much more focussed on efficiency, even if it might not appear that way at first. They focussed more on building cruisers and frigates than dreadnoughts. Stealth corvettes were a mainstay in the salarian naval doctrine. The Alliance and the Hierarchy building a frigate that was as good as, if not better than, the salarian corvettes was a sticking point in salarian pride.

He had to admit, the dalatrasses had been… jealous, of human and turian technological ingenuity.

It was a novel situation.

Of course, the destruction of that frigate meant that the Union was back on top in the stealth game and they were far more concerned with having their ships make it through engagements but sneak attacking an enemy, than they were building the biggest hulking monstrosity that they were able to throw credits at.

Besides, now that this new mysterious race came onto the scene, the asari military dominance was now more a thing of the past.

He blinked and focussed back on his reports and messages to his dalatrasses. They were still demanding answers that he didn’t have to the situation regarding the asari beacon. None of them were demanding an immediate cancellation of the previous treaties, nor the dissolution of the Council. None of them were even asking for the asari to lose their Council seat. Nothing like that would come until the conversation with the VI where they would be getting more information.

It wasn’t the salarian way to act rashly.

That didn’t mean that they were happy with the latest developments. Not at all. No dalatrass survived the salarian political process by being stupid, and all of them were able to piece together the possibilities that the matriarchs had been preventing salarian advancement. Previously it had been believed that the fault had been from other salarians, rivals of the scientists and their families. Either that or just poor luck and circumstance that they had become victims to random piracy as they travelled.

He shook his head at his previous naivety. After Brock Nielson had shown him the information that he had on the dalatrasses ordering slaver attacks on each other and the other races, including a larger scale focus on the Alliance, he had suspected that the human businessman and militant agent had as much, if not more, similar information on the other races. Now, he wondered if the human could be persuaded to share any such information about the other races to hit the Union.

He huffed. Not likely. If the human was as smart as he portrayed himself to be, he wouldn’t share that information with anyone. After all, if one of the matriarchs was highlighted, they might try and pass on information regarding the misdeeds of other matriarchs in an attempt to shift focus. Which would then do nothing more than double to potential fallout, which had the potential to get worse as they would likely announce the sins of other matriarchs to save themselves.

The asari were rather predictable that way.

The comm on his terminal beeped as he received an incoming call.

“Valern,” he identified himself as he answered the call.

“We have arrived at Thessia, Councillor,” the turian voice on the other end announced. “The other Councillors have been notified and they are making their way to the shuttle bay to get ready for travelling to the planet.”

“Understood,” Valern said. He shut off the call and copied all of his work to his omnitool. Once that was done, he erased everything that he had done on the terminal, making sure that none of it was left behind for the next person. No need to give sensitive information away, after all.

He left his room and made his way to the shuttle bay, the two salarian Spectres that had been standing guard following silently in his wake. It might not be exactly what they were meant to do as part of their duties, but they were willing to be paid to do the job every now and again. It was easy money for them.

Thankfully, with the potential for hostility from the asari, a platoon of turian cabal troops were waiting to board a troop transport shuttle that was parked next to the Council shuttle.

He nodded a greeting to the other Councillors, ignoring Tevos who he noted was looking glum and tired. He doubted that the trip was very pleasant for her. That and the anticipation of what was going to happen at the temple was likely going to cause a significant amount of contention among the asari matriarchs, who would be likely firing Tevos once this was all done.

It was short-sighted, but he understood that was how politics went with the asari. Actually, in most races, now that he thought about it. The truly guilty superiors would always find a scapegoat to throw the blame on so that the lower classes didn’t rise up against the ruling class.

Now that he thought about it, didn’t a king and his family get executed in human history for that? It sounded familiar. Something about an autocrat not having anyone else to blame. Clearly not a thinker.

The group of councillors and their guards, Tevos being the only without any as David was borrowing a spare turian Spectre, Maximus, who had been an arena fighter for a time after he was discharged from military service, entered the second shuttle and sat as it took off towards the planet.

“Has anyone tried to stop our approach?” Sparatus asked from where he stood between two turian Spectres.

Valern blinked and looked down at his omnitool. “Yes,” he replied simply. “Our agents have reported that there were three direct requests from the ruling matriarchs to stay on board while their security was organised. Once that failed, they attempted to slow us down through other means. One enterprising matriarch attempted to have us shot down as we approached.”

Tevos flinched heavily at that from the corner of his vision but didn’t say anything.

“Fortunately,” Valern continued, “our agents were in position to intercept the call and notify both the Fleet and make sure that the matriarch in question was… unavailable to make further requests until after our departure. She also doesn’t have any gunships on route to distract the fighters escorting us.”

Tevos sighed. “I suppose I should be grateful that the matriarch wasn’t killed,” she said, her tone resigned. “Which one was it?”

Valern looked at her. “T’Kosh,” he said simply.

Tevos nodded with a sigh. “Yes,” she accepted. “Matriarch Bilua T’Kosh is one of the firmer individuals on the side of keeping the beacon hidden. She brought up the subject moving the beacon before our arrival no fewer than four times in the last session. She was always ready to act with less information and therefore made more mistakes.”

Valern could see that. The matriarch in question seemed to think that yelling everything was the best way to get her point across. “Are we likely to get into any trouble with her or her house?” he asked.

“Possibly,” Tevos shrugged. “The other matriarchs are firmly on the side of waiting to see what this ‘supposed’ VI has to say; their words not mine. We can expect a large number of them there at any rate.”

“As long as they stay back and don’t ask any questions while we are dealing with the VI then I don’t care,” Sparatus said. “If they seek to interfere, I will have the whole place destroyed from orbit.”

It was said so casually that someone might have thought that the turian was joking. Valern knew better. David Anderson might have been new to the Council but he also clearly suspected that Sparatus was being honest, from what the suspicious and concerned look on his face suggested.

Tevos judging by how fast her face went pale, knew very well that Sparatus was not joking. And while orbital strikes might be condemned from a main MAC weapon, smaller MAC weapons, such as those from a frigate or light cruiser were more acceptable.

Besides, even if MAC weapons from a dreadnought or heavy cruiser were banned, they were also part of the founding treaties. And if the asari had set the precedence of breaking founding agreements, or outright ignoring them…

He shook his head. No need to go down that particular pathway. Not yet anyway.

The shuttle shook as it entered the atmosphere, but Valern ignored it. He had experienced it too many times to worry about it. David and Sparatus, former military men and experienced campaigners, also didn’t appear affected by the momentary shaking. Tevos, on the other hand, flinched at every large jolt as though the shuttle was under fire.

That said, considering how contentious the last two days had been among the asari, it might not be far off.

The shuttle made good time as it didn’t even bother going to the spaceport, but rather headed straight to the Temple of Athame. There were no windows to let him see the outside, but that was fine. He was too busy getting constant updates to bother looking outside.

“We have some local air traffic that seems to be trying to head this way,” Valern reported, not taking his eyes from the omnitool. “Our fighter escort is warning them to stay away. And we have received requests from local media for attendance to the scene.”

“We should probably let them,” David spoke up, rather unexpectedly. Valern looked up at the human, noting that the other councillors were also looking at him in confusion. “Just one or two of the more noteworthy ones. Not to hear what is being said, but to prove that there is a beacon hidden in the temple. That way we could stop some of the rhetoric that would label us as acting incorrectly and show that the asari have actually been hiding a beacon here.”

“That makes sense,” Sparatus said thoughtfully. “I would expect the matriarchs to cause a certain amount of pushback for this. Showing the galaxy, through asari media, would go a long way to placating the people.”

Valern nodded at the logical points and quickly looked up some of the STG profiles on asari media personalities to find those who would be more trustworthy. Finding two that he deemed acceptable, he tapped out a sharp reply, requesting for the two news anchors to be at the temple ten minutes ago, on a potential case of galactic security.

“We are five minutes out,” the pilot called from the cockpit. Well, at least he had a timer for their arrival. “The troopers will be down approximately two minutes before us and set up a cordon.”

No other reportable issues happened before the shuttle began its landing in front of the asari temple, leaving the shuttle in a stilted silence.

Finally, once the shuttle came to a smooth stop, the doors opened and they exited the vehicle, right in front of the asari temple. The building was certainly grandiose, he supposed. Fitting with early space-flight asari construction, but not their pre-space flight architecture. It must have been built around the time that they came into contact with the salarians.

He wasn’t an expert in asari architecture by any stretch, so it wasn’t a surprise that he hadn’t noticed it before. However, he would have thought that someone over the last two and a half thousand years would have noted the difference. Perhaps they did and also mysteriously ‘disappeared’.

Valern shook off those suspicious thoughts for the moment and blinked as he saw a large number of asari standing in front of the building, being held back by the platoon of turian troops. He recognised many of them from the STG profiles on the Council of Matriarchs. He tilted his head slightly to comfort himself with the presence of his Spectre guards. He exchanged looked with Sparatus and David, noting their concerned expressions as well. Both of them had hands twitching towards their waists, where Valern could see slight bulges in their clothing. It looked like they had decided to arm themselves for this trip, just in case.

The group of councillors and their guards made their way to the temple entrance, where the matriarchs were waiting for them. The Spectres moved forward in front of the group, making sure to stay between the matriarchs and the councillors. Valern made a mental note to reward them later.

As they approached, one of the matriarchs stepped forward past the troopers and gave a small bow. “Honoured councillors,” she said, her voice firm and confident. “I am Matriarch Regis, Chair of the Council of Matriarchs. We wish to speak to you regarding…”

“You may speak to your treason at a later time,” Sparatus said dismissively, not slowing down as they moved towards the group, the Spectres raising their weapons but not quite aiming them at the asari matriarch, with the platoon focussing more on the others. “For now, you will stay silent. If you attempt to stop us, the Spectres will assume you are acting with hostility and you will be put down. If anyone tries to be clever and take us out before we hear anything, the fleet above us has orders to consider such action to be a declaration of war and act accordingly.”

The matriarchs looked stunned at the abrupt dismissal and stiffened at the threats. Many of their faces look like they wished to object, but didn’t say anything out loud. The one that had spoken to them looked furious for just the briefest of moments, before declining her head a fraction.

She turned to the asari councillor. “Tevos,” she said, her voice sounding frosty now. “A word.”

“Councillor Tevos will stay with us for the time being,” David said firmly, before Tevos could move. “After we determine the truth of this matter, we will all speak to you together.”

Regis’ eye twitched at having been dismissed so quickly by the human councillor. Valern had noted that the matriarch in question had a tendency to look down on other races, deeming them as young and uncouth. Valern could understand that, but the humans had shown they were willing to sacrifice a lot to defend the Citadel without having to be promised a reward first. The Alliance had a step up on the integrity ladder right now, and the asari was at least smart enough to not bite back for the moment.

The sound of a shuttle approaching rapidly drew all their attention. Valern warily eyed the vehicle, but when it slowed down quickly and turned so as to not threaten the group he relaxed slightly.

The new shuttle set down heavily, favouring speed instead of comfort, and before it had even fully shut down, the doors opened and two asari ran out, news drones trailing after them.

Ah, the reporters. Good.

He blinked. That was probably the first time he had ever had that thought.

The two reported arrived, panting slightly from their exertions. “Sorry, councillors!” one of them wearing a blue and white dressed wheezed slightly. “Sorry if we kept you waiting. Teliassa from Thessia Global News Network.”

“Fintilli from Citadel News Network, Thessia correspondent,” the other asari, wearing a red and gold dress introduced herself, rubbing her side as she caught her breath.

Valern had already memorised their profiles and didn’t need to bother looking at them again. “Good,” he said. “Thank you for coming. We are going inside to see the active prothean beacon that has been hidden here on Thessia. You will begin recording now and have the transmissions go out live to this destination.” He tapped at his omnitool and their own devices pinged. “I will tolerate no false narratives, nor will we tolerate delayed broadcasts to allow for unauthorised editing. Understood?”

Both news reporters nodded their heads quickly and took a moment to program the broadcast address, which was an STG news coverage crew back on the Citadel, into their drones. Once they both nodded, he turned back to the whole group who were standing here.

“For everyone who has not been clued in,” Valern said, speaking up to the whole group, “the reason that we, the Citadel Council are here on Thessia is that there has been a breach of one of the founding agreements under the Citadel Charter. For more than two thousand years, the asari have kept hidden an active prothean beacon. it is the reason that the asari have managed to maintain technological dominance over the galaxy.”

There was a muttering coming from the gathered matriarchs and Valern could see some of the turian cabal troopers looking at each other unhappily, but no one cried out against them.

“In the aftermath of the attack on the Citadel by the geth,” Valern continued, “we received the rather shocking information of the beacon from a credible source. Brock Nielson, President of Shieldstar Corporation, was part of the team that attempted to stop the traitor Saren. It turned out that Saren had managed to discover another prothean beacon. during the mission, Brock Nielson managed to recover that beacon from the planet Virmire. He has been holding it in his company’s possession until appropriate measures could be made to hold it by the Citadel Council.”

There were some more, rather upbeat, mutterings this time. Even out here, Brock Nielson had managed to run a successful propaganda campaign, it would seem.

“During their examination of the prothean beacon,” Valern carried on, “it was discovered that there was another functioning beacon right here on Thessia. The beacons apparently could talk to each other. They found this out by circumstance, due to several things that had also been discovered on Spectre Shepard’s mission to stop Saren.”

No need to go on about the Feros mission.

“Through his efforts, and that of his people, they discovered that the prothean beacon was not fully active and gave Councillor Tevos the means to fully activate the prothean beacon on Thessia. The reasoning for this, instead of simply allowing the asari to keep their secret beacon, was that once activated, the asari beacon had a fully working prothean VI, which would come alive as long as no one found to be indoctrinated was in its presence.”

Some shocked gasps from the asari matriarchs came this time. Though, Valern could see that Regis and several other matriarchs were very unhappy with these revelations being made public.

“How do you know that the information given from this, Brock Nielson,” a derisive voice called out.

Valern looked over to see Matriarch T’Kosh was scowling at him; the same matriarch that had wanted their shuttle to be shot down.

“Brock Nielson has been part of anti-slavery operations for years,” Sparatus spoke up, surprisingly in defence of the human businessman. Valern would have thought David would have done that. “He has been involved in the repatriation of thousands of former slaves; he was able to give vital information that assisted in the defeat of Saren’s forces; was able to come up with a way to identify indoctrination; and with his people, helped in the defence and safety of the Citadel and her citizens during the Geth Invasion. Right now, Brock Nielson has far credibility than you.”

The bluntly said words made many of the matriarchs recoil as they seemed, for the first time, to realise that their image had been tarnished as badly as it was. That said, a few unhappy faces made Valern think that Brock Nielson was going to be receiving unwelcome treatment from asari businesses for the foreseeable future.

He doubted that would end well for the matriarchs.

“The information provided,” David continued, “has also been verified by Alliance Intelligence, Hierarchy Intelligence and the STG. Unless you are going to claim that all three of those intelligence organisations were compromised, I think that we are going to believe the information right now.”

Regis looked angry, but sat with her lips pursed. A few of the other matriarchs were clearly looking to her for direction. Somehow, Valern didn’t think was going to go well for Tevos today.

“Before we go through,” Valern spoke up again, bringing the attention back to himself, “everyone will be subjected to a scan. It is a prothean designed device, found from the beacon in Mister Nielson’s possession, that will determine if anyone is indoctrinated. If you wish to enter, this is a mandatory search. And don’t worry, it will be just like a scan from an omnitool.”

He gestured to Tevos, who passed him the device that Brock Nielson had given her when he gave his first warning. He scanned himself, then the other three councillors, showing how simple the scan was. The ‘No indoctrination detected’ was clear for all to hear.

Judging by the asari behaviour, Valern had expected to have at least one of the matriarchs be found as being under indoctrination. Sadly, none were. The behaviour was all of their own doing. If that wasn’t almost condemning their character, he wasn’t sure what was.

They entered the temple, looking around at all of the ancient scripts and busts that were about the place. Before they could go further, two asari in robes of some sort moved before the group.

“Greetings,” one of them said as they both bowed. “We are priestesses of Athame, here in the temple. I am Emeia, this is Likathe. How might we serve you today?”

“We’ve come to activate the beacon and see the VI hidden inside of it,” Sparatus said, his tone frank.

“There is no such VI,” Likathe objected. “I’ve worked here for more than three centuries. I came here straight from my maiden days in an orphanage, while Emeia came here nearly three centuries before I did, after she took a pilgrimage across the stars! Neither of us has ever seen any prothean VI.”

Valern blinked and shared a look with Sparatus. “The beacon has not been fully activated,” Valern informed them. “It may be that until it is fully activated that the VI will be unable to show itself. If you please come to me, I can just run a quick check on something and we can proceed.”

The two asari looked at each other, before they stepped forward. Valern raised the small device and scanned Likathe first. ‘No indoctrination detected’. He turned the device to the first asari, Emeia and scanned again.

“Indoctrination detected,” the device beeped.

“What?” several asari said, sounding confused, even as three Spectres and several turian troopers pointed their weapons at the priestess.

“Th-there must be some mistake!” Likathe said as she stared at the other priestess, whose face was completely placid. “There’s no way…”

“Put your hands where we can see them and kneel on the ground,” the turian Spectre, Maximus, ordered the priestess.

Instantly, the priestess started glowing as she activated her biotics. “You’ll never defeat my masters,” she shouted, her voice starting to sound multitoned. “You insignificant…”

Bang!

The blue glow of biotics died off as the asari grabbed at the new hole in her stomach and dropped to her knees. She looked up, her face stricken.

“I-I’m sorry!” she grit out, as Maximus stepped forward and applied a biotic restraint. “The… voices were… too strong.”

A shock to her head dropped her to the floor, unconscious, as Maximus and Jondum Bau started applying medigel to the wound.

“It would appear as if she encountered something during that journey you mentioned,” David said, looking at Likathe, who was staring like she couldn’t understand anything that happened. “Something that took over her ability to think for herself.”

“I-I don’t… what happened?” the remaining priestess stammered out.

“That’s one of the things that we can find out,” Valern said, looking over at the matriarchs. All of them seemed stunned at the display, though several were already recovering from what they had witnessed. “We best leave her to the Spectres and move on.”

He led the way forward, feeling the rest of the group falling in behind him, until he came to a stop in front of the statue of Athame. Everyone else gathered close to him, but left enough space that no one crowded him.

Once they were all standing in front of him, Regis decided to speak again.

“Well, councillor,” she said, her voice just short of blatantly disrespectful. “Where is this prothean VI you decided we have?”

“I will remind you, Matriarch Regis,” Valern said flatly, “as apparently your memory seems to be failing you in your old age, that the beacon must first be activated. There are, in this building, hidden by four of the artifacts in this room, switches, that will activate the beacon. I have been assured that, for certain, the first one is at that mural over there.” He pointed to his left, seeing as he was looking away from the statue. “Councillor Tevos will now go and activate it.”

“And she will not try to deceive us,” Sparatus spoke up, fixing her with a hard stare, his tone biting.

Tevos pursed her lips, but didn’t look at the matriarchs as she turned away and moved to the stone mural in question. David and two of the Spectres followed. Once there, the salarian Spectre scanned around the device with his omnitool, then pointed at a spot. Tevos reached in and touched something.

Everyone gasped in shock as a green light, looking like mist, started to flow from the relic to the statue. Even the matriarchs following Regis looked almost bewitched by the statue.

“There should be three more,” Valern said, bringing Tevos out of her shock. “Go find them.”

Tevos blinked for a moment, then nodded enthusiastically. She and the two Spectres quickly hurried off and started scanning the other relics. It wasn’t long before another green misty light activated, connecting to the statue.

Excited babbling broke out among the matriarchs as they witnessed something they had never seen before or never even knew was possible. The two reporters were stunned, eyes glued to the statue behind him. He did notice, however, a certain hunger on the face of Matriarch Regis and a few others as they stared at the statue.

That would bear watching. He caught the eyes of a turian Spectre and made a discreet signal. The turian’s eye’s flickered to the matriarch and back. A miniscule nod was enough for Valern to feel confident about continuing.

The last two switches were found in short order and Tevos activated them. A rumbling took place and Valern moved away from the statue just as it came apart. Several of the matriarchs cried out in panic, the priestess loudest among them. Valern could understand that; after all, she had been a caretaker for the statue for three hundred years. Still, it all paled in comparison to the prothean beacon that came into full view as the dust settled, glowing green as proof of its full activation.

“It appears as if the intelligence passed on to the Council was correct,” Sparatus mused, his eyes fixed on the beacon. “Brock Nielson was right.”

David nodded, while Tevos stared at it, her mouth wide open. Valern ignored them and stepped forward to the console, activating the beacon.

A small round ball of light detached from the beacon and flew down to their level, pulsing and twitching.

“Obtaining chronological log,” a flanged voice came from the light, making many of the matriarchs jump and cry out in amazement. Even many of the turian troopers twitched. It almost sounded like it was coming from under water. “Hold. Timescale established. Post-prothean cycle confirmed.”

The ball floated up into the air and spun about. “No reaper presence detected,” the voice announced, making Valern blink. The reapers. Something that Shepard had stumbled across while chasing Saren, but no one had found any evidence of since her death. Clearly this was the important information that Nielson wanted them to find. “Extinction terminus not yet reached. Hold. Attempted activation of Citadel Relay detected. Extinction terminus nearly at conclusion. Preparing Last Chance Protocols.”

That didn’t sound good. He needed to stop this before they lost any chance of reclaiming the data. “Wait!” he barked at the ball of light. “We need information!”

The ball seemed to freeze, before dropping down and coming to a stop in front of him. “What information do you need?”

He steeled himself, remembering the cameras that were watching him right now. “First, what are you?” It might seem redundant, but this was being recorded for posterity.

The ball pulsed for a moment, then moved slowly back and changed forms. It became a tall alien with an elongated cranium, four eyes that faced mostly forward, three fingers, two arms and two legs, though the alien appeared to be wearing armour of some sort.

“I am called Vendetta,” the VI introduced itself. “An advanced virtual construct of Pashek Vran, Overseer of the Crucible Project and inventor. He died fighting the reapers the battle of Tranbir 9. Your remaining time is almost at an end.”

Valern blinked as the matriarchs looked at each other unsurely. From the corner of his eye, he could see both David and Sparatus stand up straighter, looking more alert as they focussed on the VI.

Well, Brock Nielson did say that he needed to bring up this topic to the VI, and seeing as… Vendetta, managed to do so first, he might as well stay on topic.

“Very well, Vendetta,” he said, looking straight at the glowing construct. “Tell us about the reapers.”

…

(Aleria POV)

It was the first meeting of its kind in Shieldstar. One that had the potential for something amazing.

When Aleria became pilot of the Hidden Enterprise, that was it. The one and only ship that Brock Nielson owned. Now, there was nearly a whole fleets worth of ships. If you combined the total capable firepower of every ship that had already been retrofitted, there was enough firepower to outlast probably most of the races.

Even if they lost, whoever beat them would be damaged almost beyond repair.

But ultimately, that was what this meeting was about; creating a proper Shieldstar Fleet.

There were now twelve fully retrofitted ships, with six more in the works. The ever-expanding shipyards were slowly working their way through the list of cruisers that Shieldstar had to their name. the bulky freight-designed cruisers all had the advantage of the massively empty cargo holds, which allowed for the installation of the Heavy MACs without being detected.

Of course, it wasn’t just having the space that needed to be done. The amount of work that was placed in strengthening the inner bulkheads to handle the pressure of the main gun was a lot. You couldn’t just put a large gun on a small rail and expect nothing to go wrong when it was fired, after all.

On top of that, the crews for each of the ships had all been chosen. Nearly all of the captains were former slaves, having been ship captains at the time of their captures. It made it easier to find experienced people. On top of that, their loyalty was fully with Brock and Shieldstar for getting them out of that hell that they had found themselves in.

Aleria was not the only one that hadn’t been a slave. There was one more, a former turian naval captain, who had been in charge of a frigate that had been damaged during a routine exploration. Captain Nevus had been willing to go on, but once his sister, who had been a freighter pilot for a private escort company, had been captured by slavers on a run through volus space, he had resigned to look after her family.

Once we had rescued her and helped her recover, she had contacted him and he had joined Shieldstar shortly after in gratitude.

All told, that meant that eighteen captains had already been chosen, with six more to be added in the next six months. All of them were here in this conference room on the Balrog, with their first officers.

Aleria could only look around in wonder at the progress that had happened in a few short years. It was truly magnificent to see what her boss, friend and missed opportunity had done in such a short amount of time. A fleet of his own made up nearly completely from former slaves, or rescued people from Eden Prime.

It wouldn’t be legal in Citadel space. They had a lot of restrictions regarding non-government warships, and none of the Shieldstar cruisers would pass the requirements that the Citadel would put in place, or rather the restrictions, to be allowed to operate in Citadel space.

That was fine, though. After all, Citadel space was less than half of the known galaxy. The Terminus was massive, with plenty of petty warlords. It would provide more than enough training for this fleet.

The door hissed open and Aleria sat up straighter as Brock walked in the door, followed by Persei.

Everyone fell silent as they watched their leader approach the head of the conference table, anticipation rife in the room.

“Greeting to all of you,” Brock said as he stood behind his chair, addressing the room. “Thanks for coming today. We have a lot to get through and not much time.”

He looked out over the room. Aleria felt a familiar thrill at the commanding presence that he had, even among experienced captains. He was able to hold all of their attention and they knew he was in charge.

“I understand that you have all been informed of the threat of the reapers that we will be facing in the next few years,” he continued, looking around to make sure that this was the case. The mood of the room chilled slightly as people looked at each other. “I am not so stupid as to think that this is something that we can, or need to, face alone. As we speak, the Council are all on Thessia, where an active prothean beacon contains a working VI. They should be learning a great deal more about the reapers now, which will give them time to make preparations of their own.”

“What?!” an asari shouted out in shock. Aleria looked over and saw that it was Merylla, first officer of a medium cruiser named Freedom’s Call. She blushed as she noticed everyone looking at her, her own captain not looking all that impressed at the interruption. “My apologies, but are you sure about that?”

Brock nodded. “Yes,” he replied. “And I know that the rest of the Council know about it now because I told them about it myself. I have known about it for years, but I was not in a position to tell anyone about it without consequences I could not control that would have left me incapable of doing anything about this at all. After all, the matriarchs would have had me silenced and discredited before I had the chance of doing anything to let the other leaders know. That was if I didn’t immediately come down with a sudden and irreversible case of death and dismemberment.”

An awkward silence filled the room as the asari winced and gave a slow nod as she sat back down.

“As I said, I have now told the other members of the Council and they are either on their way, or already on Thessia to verify the information I gave them and ask the prothean VI about the reapers.”

A soft murmuring came from the officers present, mostly in approval from nearly everyone. Aleria couldn’t blame them. When she had first heard of the beacon on Thessia, she had instantly thought of how risky that would be if anyone ever found out about it. Not that the other races would be able to do too much without risking the asari response. After all, the Republics still controlled the vast majority of known eezo deposits in the galaxy. All the other races were reliant on that crucial resource.

The element zero that Shieldstar was selling was not insignificant, but it was also a known and finite resource. Unless they were able to find more of it, or remember where the other five asteroids that Brock had seen from his old organisation, they would be able to hurt the asari, but eventually the other races would be forced to turn back to the asari to get their precious supply. It might be a couple of centuries if they dragged it out, but it would happen eventually.

If only they were able to get an asteroid as large as the one that Omega was on. That thing was as large as the Citadel. They could use the eezo from that for centuries.

She blinked as that idea resonated in her mind. Maybe…

“But that is beside the point,” Brock continued, breaking her out of her thoughts. “And also, not the point of this meeting. What the meeting is for, is to begin the next phase of our plans in preparing for the reapers and their servants.”

Aleria saw more than a few curious looks exchanged between the officers present. Even her own first officer was looking at her in confusion.

“Servants?” one of the other captains, a salarian named Molesk queried. “You mean the geth?”

Brock tilted his head to both sides in a ‘kinda’ gesture. “Not just them,” he replied. “I am also talking about the race that mysteriously travels around the Terminus sectors known as the Collectors.”

Several sharp intakes of breath told Aleria that there were a few people that had either heard of the Collectors or come across them before.

“I understand that several people here have come across the Collectors in some fashion or another,” Brock said before anyone could ask. “But here is what we do know for sure about them. First, the Collectors live in an area beyond the Omega 4 Relay, from which no other ships are known to have returned. Second, the Collectors won’t appear before the Citadel and join the known community there but will only deal in the Terminus and mostly through Omega. They will trade resources, a lot of the time that means slaves, in exchange for pieces of advanced technology that even the Citadel races don’t have access to.”

Another soft murmuring came from the gathered officers. Aleria was sure that if that information was only shocking to a few of the people here, the next piece of information was going to blow their minds.

“The next piece of information that we have on them,” Brock’s voice cut through the talking, drawing them to be silent once more, “is that the Collectors are actually protheans.”

Dead silence couldn’t cover the abject shock, before several voice roared out in surprise or protest. Aleria hid her grin as nearly half the captains and first officers started objecting to the information or fighting against each other. Brock let them go for a moment, before he raised his hands, calling for calm once more.

“It’s true,” he reiterated. “From the records that I was able to see, when the reapers appeared in the prothean time, there was a large number of them who were indoctrinated and as a result were brought into reaper service, just like Saren was. It was actually the reason why the protheans decided to make a device that could detect indoctrination, which we now have and are using on everyone in our organisation on a monthly basis. Everyone, including me, will be tested regularly to make sure that we are not being subverted in our fight against the reapers.

“The protheans who were indoctrinated fought against the remaining Prothean Empire forces and were the only protheans left once the Empire was wiped out. They then withdrew to the Omega 4 Relay and have at least a base there, if not more.

“While of the ships sent through there ever returned, as I said, people did manage to capture individual Collectors and study them. It turns out that at some point, each of the indoctrinated protheans have been subjected to advanced cybernetic replacement of their organs and natural tissues. Their brain matter is nearly completely gone and what remains is installed with control mechanisms so tight that they are each under the direct influence of the reapers. There is no longer enough of themselves left to be considered either alive, or prothean. At this point, they are more like geth with skin tissue.”

Silence once again pervaded the room as everyone absorbed that information. Aleria had known about this for more than a year, of course, being one of Brock’s most trusted people. Still, she could remember how shocked she had been once she had been told. If it hadn’t been for the memory of what happened the last time before that, that she had gotten completely drunk and what she missed out on because of it, she might have headed straight to the bar to try and process it through a bottle.

Still, it meant that she could empathise with how rattled the others in the room felt.

“Other than the Collectors and the Renegade Geth,” Brock went on, changing the subject again, “we do know that there are artifacts that have been left around the galaxy that is also capable of causing reaper indoctrination, which means that anyone that stumbles upon them is already a potential agent for the reapers.

“But back to my original point,” he brought the lecture back on track, “the reason for all of this is that there are more things we can do to prepare ourselves. As you see here, we have the captains and first officers of all ships that are currently in service, or about to be, that have a Heavy MAC installed. We know that each ship is extremely capable, but we don’t know exactly how the reapers fight. More than that, one ship is strong, but a Fleet is stronger. What each of us will be doing is learning how to operate in a Fleet. How to move and fight as a Fleet. How to win, withdraw and survive as a Fleet.

“We are going to begin training in simulators that are specifically programmed to work as a proper Fleet should and we will continue to increase our capacity as more ships come online. And a Fleet, also needs an admiral, or at least an overall commander in charge.”

A wave of anticipation came through the room and Aleria saw several faces turn towards her. She merely smiled back. Brock had already told her how this would go and she was fine with it.

“An admiral will not be chosen today,” Brock said, causing the speculating glances to stop and fix back on their leader. “As part of the simulators and training, each of you is going to take turns in leading as the admiral in a vast array of situations. Once that is done, your performances will be measured and we will also talk to each of you individually. The person who will lead this Fleet will not be chosen out of nepotism, but by who is the best person to lead it. Just as each of you is the best person to be a captain or first officer, only the best will lead the Fleet.”

A more excited murmuring came throughout the room, but Aleria did see one of the asari captains raise her hand, a questioning look on her face.

“Yes, Mirellia?” Brock asked, pointing at her.

“Are you not going to be the admiral?” she asked.

Brock chuckled. “While I don’t deny that the role does have a special appeal, no. I am not trained to be a ship captain, let alone an admiral. I don’t have the experience in ship-to-ship combat or even moving in the omnidirectional format of space that I would need to qualify for leadership.” He shook his head ruefully. “No, I will remain on the Balrog and it will be my ship for now, but it will be removed from the command structure of the Fleet, unless it is for specific battles or situations. I am much more comfortable fighting on the ground, or in atmosphere with a weapon in my hands. I will leave the space battles to those who are capable.”

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to train with us,” Aleria spoke up, smirking at him. “If nothing else, it would give you a better understanding of what’s going on and even learn about how to command if necessary.” She gestured at the group around them. “After all, even if you aren’t in charge of the Fleet, everyone here will still acknowledge you as our leader and probably respond to any orders you give in a combat situation anyway.”

A collective group of nods brought a chuckle out of Brock. “Fine,” he conceded. “If that’s how you all feel, I will train in the simulators with you if I have time. But I will also be very busy doing other preparations. I will be occupied in the short term with contacting the independent colonies in the Terminus regions and increasing our presence out there. We are also going to continue and even expand our anti-slavery operations when possible and we are also going to look into recruiting through the whole ‘indebted servitude’ situation through Ilium. We are going to need a lot of capable people going forward. That doesn’t even touch the increased load of work into the prothean ruins on Eden Prime and Mars, nor take into account however the Citadel is going to respond to the prothean VI on Thessia.” He shook his head with a chuckle. “It is going to be a turbulent time.”

He turned to Persei and she made a note on her omnitool, before showing him his schedule. Her boss pursed his lips for a moment before nodding and turned back to the group. “Apparently,” he said with some mirth, “the Council have heard what the prothean VI had to tell them about the reapers. I’ve been asked to head to the Citadel for a private meeting with the Council.” He gave a lopsided smile that still made Aleria’s stomach flutter. “Apparently, Councillors Valern, Sparatus and Anderson are guaranteeing my safety. I feel so comforted!”

The group chuckled at the irony of the joke of guaranteed safety with a group of former slaves who had likewise thought they were safe once.

“Anyway, that’s all for now,” Brock said, his tone indicating the meeting was over. “The simulators will be placed on each of your ships to make it easier for the crew to attend as a whole. Training is going to be mandatory and you will all be expected to attend with your bridge crews so make sure that you schedule plenty of time in stationary orbit around the planet and have your backups in place. I’ll have the Balrog and two more as my escorts. The Safety and Free Hands should be fine. Everyone else, you should get your schedules. You’ll either be in dock or on defence duty. Watch yourselves and keep our people safe. Dismissed.”

The group nodded and Aleria watched as he gave her a fond smile, before leaving.

That was another thing that she was hating the reapers for. She didn’t get to spend as much time as she wanted to with her… friend. He was always so busy trying to organise things so that they would make it through the end that he told them was coming.

Aleria believed him. After all, this had gone on so long that there was no reason to keep lying about it. Especially when he was using as much money and resources. Then the invasion of the Citadel basically cemented in every single one of his people’s minds that the reapers were real and they were coming. Sure, the majority of the invading forces were geth, but that reaper dreadnought was not something that Aleria was ever going to ignore or forget. Neither would anyone else.

Then again, Vigil had also been a massive convincing factor that the reapers were real. She knew that the efforts of the prothean team that had been started in Shieldstar had really picked up the pace on trying to get stuff out of the Eden Prime ruins. Apparently they learned something from Vigil, but Brock has been so busy that Aleria felt guilty asking him. He wouldn’t have a problem with it, she just wanted him to rest when he could

She got up and moved with her first officer to the bridge with a sigh. Whatever would come, would come. Aleria just wanted to make she that she could help her friend and boss be prepared and make it through it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

It was what she wanted more than anything.