An Arcanist's Citadel 0

Tag: 2nd story in the series, mass effect, self-insert, crossover characters, worm CYOA v.3 powers from previous story, au

-VB-

An Arcanist’s Citadel

Prologue

-VB-

How did humans survive in a galaxy that obviously wanted to chain it down? 

It was a question that someone like Commodore Boris Mikhailov found himself asking time and time again. 

The Systems Alliance was the biggest interstellar human confederation, composed of some one hundred eighteen colonies and their dependents. 

That wasn’t to say that there weren’t independent human colonies and nations out there. There definitely were. However, those weren’t his problems. His problems were the one hundred eighteen colonies and their dependents, which included smaller colonies that were founded by other colonies. 

Elysium was not one such dependent but a full and proper member of the Systems Alliance. It had its own fleet, militia and guard, and infrastructure to keep itself afloat even if all contact with the outside galaxy came to a grinding halt should something atrocious happen to the mass relay in the system.

And something similarly atrocious almost happened to the colony. 

Just two months ago, a batarian slave raid came down upon the colony with the intent to empty it of all colonists for their blasted slave trade. They came in one hundred ships, most of which were frigates. These one hundred ships were too much for the colony’s defense fleet, which had been composed of 1 cruiser, 2 destroyers, and 5 frigates. After losing ten of their own in space combat, ninety ships landed on the planet itself. 

And then promptly died. 

Yup. 

The batarians all got killed and their bodies were piled up at the outskirts of the city like trash. 

And no one knew who did it. 

The militia never saw the defenders who killed the raiders and no camera caught sight of them either. 

Of course, this was causing a lot of issues. The Elysium colonists were accusing the Alliance of not providing enough defense and patrol in their region of space. The Alliance was accusing Elysium of hiding a dangerous paramilitary organization capable of taking out nearly a hundred ship’s worth of batarian raiders. The Citadel was accusing both sides of hiding human experiments, because, on paper, neither side should have been able to defeat such a huge fleet in such a quick time while securing the ships with almost no damage to said ships. 

Officially, he would have to say that he condemned any paramilitary organizations who operated without the Alliance’s consent on Alliance worlds. 

Unofficially, he would probably buy the fellows who butchered the slave raiders a round of drinks, a handshake, and, just maybe, subtly ask if they need any equipment upgrades. 

Unfortunately for him and everyone else, no one could find the perpetrators behind what the Alliance haters were calling “Elysium Massacre.” Did those bastards forget that the “victims” of said “massacre” were slavers raiding a human colony? 

-VB-

Councilor Tevos did not care for the humans or batarians. 

To the Asari Republics, an out of the way human colony repelling a slave raid meant very little. It didn’t matter if the humans or batarians won. It didn’t matter because the truth of the matter was that associate races always waged their shadow wars. For the batarians, they knew that they couldn’t ever be considered for the councilor race, assuming it ever came up, so their shadow war was “bring everyone down to their level.” 

A despicable tactic, but one that, due to the nature of interstellar politics, could not be called out on. 

The council races learned what happens when a race has nothing to lose. The Krogans made sure everyone learned that when they burned over a hundred garden worlds. It was why the salarians still kept up their blockade of the Krogan homeworld.

Humans, being the new race, was still a race that Tevos was trying to get a grasp of. So far, they showed tenacity and aggression comparable to turians, a level of technological advancements and innovation on par with some of the lesser salarians, and wisdom and foresight comparable to … an asari matron who’s had some rough maiden years.

Humans were unique in that they had no specialty. 

Slower birth rate than the salarians, shorter lived than asari, weaker than turians, less unified than the Hanar, oft cruel but less so than batarians, and so on. 

But apparently, she was forgetting something, because the humans were more secretive than the salarians and definitely more apt at espionage than the asari if this rumored superhuman project was true. 

And considering the evidence laid against them, it really might be. 

But she doubted it. 

Humans wanted to be accepted into the galactic community. That much was clear on all levels of their societies, if one ignored the very fringe groups and racists who made up a minority of a minority in their society. 

So. They were no different than other races in that regard. 

That’s why she didn’t care. 

So the fact that she had to stand here and listen to the batarian ambassador about the injustice and horror the humans committed…

Really? 

Yeah, no.

Tevos looked up and glanced at Sparatus. 

Sparatus looked back at her with his own dead eyes.

She turned and looked at Valern. 

Valern glanced at her with his own dead eyes. 

Yeah. 

The decision was clear. 

Once the batarian ambassador stopped ranting (the Hegemony chose someone both ill-equipped to do the job and perfect for distractions), they would vote to … move on from the matter.

Because it didn’t matter what the associate races did in their shadow war. The batarians bringing the events of their shadow war to the forefront of Citadel Council politics was their stupidity, and why they would never be a council race should a position ever open up.

-VB-

“Dad, but I love him!”

Dad looked at her and her boyfriend before opening his mouth.

“BAH!” he let out that annoyingly dismissive and obnoxiously loud “grunt.”

Amy’s eyebrows twitched at Dad’s obvious dismissal, but she wasn’t going to just walk away because he gave her a single non-verbal comment! 

Mom sighed as she came over to the side and set down a cup of coffee in front of Dad. It was probably so sweet that it could burn most other people’s tongues. 

And her boyfriend, James, did a good job not staring at her Mom’s boobs! This was one of the reasons why she loved him, even if he was almost a decade older than her. He was the perfect gentleman. She knew that Dad didn’t like that age gap. 

“Dad!” she nearly shrieked. “Say something!” 

“BAH!” he repeated himself. 

Tatsu-mom came over and cuffed him over the head. “Alan, speak words. You’re not an animal.”

Dad grumbled but still didn’t say anything. 

Tatsu-mom glared at Dad, and he remained firm. Stupid Dad! 

Shrugging, Tatsu-mom turned to look at her. “Amy, we get that you love him and that he loves you.”

“I do!” James asserted. 

Tatsu-mom ignored the interruption. “But the problem is both your age gap and the fact that you are still in high school. You aren’t getting married until you’ve at least graduated high school. Do you understand that?” 

Amy bit her lips. 

“Or are you so insecure that you think James will leave you because he had to wait three years?”

“I’m not!” 

“Really? Then who convinced the other to come and ask your dad for his blessings for marriage today?” 

She looked away. 

“Hmm. Hime, talk to her, please.”

Mom sighed, again. 

“Come on, Amy. We’ll go talk elsewhere while your Dad, uh, talks to James.”

“But last time he talked to my last boyfriend, he ran away!”

James chuckled weakly. “I think I’ll be fine, Amy. Go on.”

She looked at him before biting her lips and nodding. 

And just like he promised, he didn’t run away. 

But he still looked like a ghost by the time Dad was done talking to him.