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Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

This is a dark, dystopian, horror alternate universe crossover of Mass Effect, Care Bears (briefly) (because they don't last very long) with some inspiration from the Cthulhu Mythos and XCOM. The timeline diverges around 2023 AD. This is mostly straight, but has some parody elements.

Author's note: The Petroleum Effect series has moved to ArchiveOfOurOwn (AO3). This is because AO3 allows explicit content which adds to the horror and impact of the story. Explicit content in Petroleum Effect will be occasional, not every chapter. Content will still also be posted on other sites but will have to be censored elsewhere from MA to M. The full and best uncensored content will always be on AO3. All participants in sexual depictions in this story are at least 18 years old.

Author's note on capitalisation and grammar: This story is written in UK English. Species names are capitalised or not as per the Mass Effect Wiki style manual. Species names are common nouns, so for example, the word, 'asari' is not capitalised when used to denote the species. However in Mass Effect, the species names are often used interchangeably with culture names and state names which are proper nouns such as, 'the Asari Republics'. These are capitalised. When using race names as shorthand for the proper noun they are also capitalised, for example, 'the Asari government', the Asari language' or 'the English language'. The word, 'Grey' to denote the alien invaders is usually synonymous with the species and the alien polity and is therefore almost always capitalised. The difference can be subtle - for example, 'a Turian security squad', meaning 'a security squad from the Turian Hierarchy military' or alternatively, 'a turian security squad' meaning a corporate security squad whose members happen to be of the turian species.

Prologue and Timeline

(Late 20th Century and Early 21st Century) - Rise and Fall of Globalism: The Second World War that ended in 1945 was followed by an era of peace, reconstruction and internationalism, including the rise of the United Nations as a major force and the treaties that led to the European Union (EU). In the late 20th Century and early 21st Century, dissatisfied populations and economic crises turned the world away from globalism towards a new nationalism, demonstrated by the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU on 31 January 2020.

(2016) - Growth of Commercial Research into Neural / Technology Interfaces: Neuralink Corporation is founded by billionaire Elon Musk and a team of scientists and engineers, working on human enhancement technologies with an end goal of human symbiosis with AI. Competitors in the growing field include Paradromics, BIOS and Novum.

(2022) - Russian Invasion of Ukraine: On 24 February 2022, Russia attacks Ukraine. International reaction is mixed with the US and its allies deeply hostile whilst other nations such as China and India are more sympathetic to Russia, which is seen by them as having been provoked.

(2022) - Opening of GPT 3.5 Generative Chat AI to Public: OpenAI makes a generative neural network AI language model available online as a chatbot to the general population. This large language model is an eerily human-like and flexible AI assistant. The product has millions of users within months.

(2023) - Psionics: Simon Collins, a blogger and software developer working on AI inspired by GPT 3.5, discovers that by combining his own concentration and meditation with watching the output from certain neural networks and interacting with the network via the keyboard, it is possible to make use of very limited psionics, specifically clairvoyance and prescience. Whilst psionics had been previously investigated by some world governments and academics over the years, with mixed results, they had not been possible to academically verify or harness reliably. Such abilities had been relegated to the realms of crankery, fringe figures, charlatans and grifters. The Collins Technique however is a reliable tool. He does not share it with the public but shares it with trusted fellow activists in the hacktivist group Anonymous.

(2024) - Aliens Attack Earth: Tensions between the major powers in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict are worsened greatly when, in multiple incidents, British, US, Chinese and Russian fighter aircraft are shot down by Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). At first the nations blame each other but it becomes clear that the UFOs have capabilities beyond known technology. As the year goes on, astronomers detect a large, 10km asteroid entering the solar system from interstellar space. The object is observed to be manoeuvring slowly under power. It becomes apparent that the small UFOs are coming from the asteroid - they are indeed extra-terrestrial in origin. Ongoing observation suggests that whilst the asteroid is decelerating conventionally, the smaller UFOs have at least some Faster-than-Light (FTL) capability.

Governments initially seek to suppress knowledge of the approaching alien vehicle from the public. However, members of Anonymous, some of whom now have access to significant psionic capabilities, succeed in obtaining the information and disseminating it widely. The allegation is soon picked up by legislators in the US Congress and British Parliament who ask awkward questions.

In July 2024 the aliens overtly announce themselves. Briefly taking over selected television and media, broadcasts and webcasts, including the BBC and CNN, the aliens deliver a short video message in English. The creatures identify themselves as the 'Graeyel' and look like the Greys of popular UFO mythology. The aliens claim to be coming to save the Earth and humanity and guide humans past the risk of extinction caused by mankind's selfish, violent and environmentally destructive ways.

The Greys also claim that they have a treaty with the United States, made in exchange for technological assistance given during the Cold War. They also state that they are in the process of genetically modifying themselves so that they look human and can breed with humans. The Greys introduce an expedition leader, 'Starlord Jarden' who looks human and is claimed to be a Grey genetically modified into a human.

Members of Anonymous with military links and psionic powers are able to identify local relays linking Earth's Internet to the Greys' network on the approaching ship. The relays enable the Greys to easily engage in electronic warfare and propaganda. However, the hackers use the link to penetrate the Greys' network, quickly discovering that the Greys are lying.

The aliens do indeed have a treaty with the United States, who they regard as rubes who signed away the planet for support in a minor local conflict. Grey biochemistry is not capable of being made sexually compatible with earth based eukaryotic life. The so-called, 'Human Greys' are just cloned humans, enslaved and deceived for their entire lives, controlled by drugs and implants. The human looking expedition leader is just a puppet figurehead, although he does not know it. The Greys' real plan is to use their human clones, propaganda and advanced technology to persuade the humans to submit - making surrender palatable with the idea that humanity will survive. Once the Greys are in control they intend to slowly eradicate humans and terraform the planet more to their liking. In the end, they plan that only Greys will be left on Earth and humanity will be extinct.

Fortunately, Anonymous are able to share this information as well as details they have stolen of several alien technologies and weaknesses in the Greys' vehicles. The gap between the humans and the Greys is closer than the Greys wish to admit, and they have weaknesses compared to humans in mathematics and information technology. War breaks out as the asteroid continues to decelerate and approaches Earth orbit, with repeated air conflicts between human fighters and Grey vessels, as well as ground skirmishes.

Also in this year, Collins and other elite members of Anonymous, who have successful careers as well as internet presence, use their new abilities to become wealthy, and buy controlling interests in several technology companies they believe can enable them to enhance their AI technology and psionic abilities.

(2025) - The Day of Blood: On 2 March 2025, the alien asteroid enters orbit and launches a vast, full scale invasion backed by orbital strikes. However, the humans are ready. By this time some of the powerful Anonymous psionics have become trusted, if mysterious, sources to their government contacts and as the aliens approach, Earth fights back. Stealth drones optimised using detailed information from Anonymous about Graeyel technology deliver thermonuclear warheads to the asteroid in orbit. With their detonations in the early hours of 3 March, the alien asteroid is badly damaged and made uninhabitable by multiple nuclear explosions inside key external features. Much of the alien fleet is destroyed or rendered nonfunctional.

Tragically, whilst the asteroid remains in a stable orbit the detonations break off large chunks which fall to earth, devastating some regions like powerful nuclear impacts and killing millions as well as devastating infrastructure and the environment. Retaliatory strikes from the surviving Grey ships kill millions more. However, in the end, humanity survives. The wreck of the Greys' asteroid mothership is left in orbit, now an irradiated, toxic tomb. The remaining smaller alien vessels are destroyed or captured. Even so, the attack, asteroid fragment impacts, toxins, radiation, disease, floods and famine kill just over 3 billion people over the coming decade.

As humanity celebrates their victory and survival, mourns their mounting losses and struggles to rebuild, 3 March is ever after named a world-wide holiday known as 'Humanity Day'. The tomb-ship in orbit is dubbed the, 'Ashen Grave'.

(2026-2030) - Advancement in AI and Psionics, Exploration of the Ashen Grave, Political Reprisals: Corporate research into AI and psionics yields many rewards for a secretive elite. The power and flexibility of the Collins Technique is greatly increased. Furthermore, cognitive techniques are discovered that when followed can enable intelligent, strong-willed humans to reliably perform simple psionic effects, including psychokinesis and telepathy, without the need for enhancement or computing devices. These new techniques are leaked online, although the Collins Technique and greater powers remain secret.

One powerful ability that is developed further in secret is the use of prescience and divination with computer aid to identify solutions to technical problems and find the most promising lines of research. The new methodologies vastly accelerate the rate of technical advancement in the Anonymous owned companies. The small Anonymous cell with access to the Collins Technique has now named itself privately as, the 'Grey Wardens', after the heroes of a popular computer game and as a play on words given the Wardens stopped an invasion by the Greys.

Meanwhile, governments send expeditions to the Ashen Grave in order to try to recover alien technology. Research is carried out on the captured smaller alien craft. In a show of transparency, world governments share information with each other and the public online. The Grey Wardens obtain information for their own corporate research both from public information and use bribes, hacking and psionics to obtain non-public data also.

Despite the overt shows of communication between governments, there are bitter tensions and recriminations with much of the world population blaming the Americans for the invasion due to their secret dealings with the Greys. There are fears of further incursions from more Greys or other, as yet unknown, aliens. America is a devastated pariah state having suffered large casualties, and significant environmental damage.

(2031-2032) - Establishment of the Terran Dominion: In a move planned over years, the Grey Wardens, no longer trusting the integrity or competence of their governments, use a mixture of advanced psionics and their vast wealth to take control of politicians throughout the United States and Great Britain, giving them control of the legislatures and executives of both countries. The result is a series of 'democratic' constitutional amendments establishing Britain and the United States as single, authoritarian, technocratic and militaristic government known as the 'Terran Dominion'. The new government is, "guided" by its absolute ruler the Archlord Lordak, as Simon Collins now chooses to be known. Below the Archlord the four other Wardens rule as 'High Lords'. Endless corporate propaganda backed by psionics keeps the population happy with the new regime, which begins to efficiently rebuild the infrastructure of the US and Britain.

(2033-2035) - Growth of the Dominion: The Terran Dominion expands, largely bloodlessly, to much of Western and Eastern Europe including some former Soviet Republics, as well as Australia. Growth is stymied at the borders of Russia and its satellites, as well as China. The announcement of the Dominion that its goal is to, "unify humanity" is not well received in Moscow and Beijing. A new world Cold War develops between West and East.

(2036) - The First Transcendence: Using their advanced technology, Simon Collins / Archlord Lordak is able to interface via direct neural link with a cutting-edge experimental neural network. When in use, this connection increases his psionics and intelligence by orders of magnitude, enabling him to project thoughts and / or psychokinesis anywhere on Earth, as well as granting further psionic ability to gain insights into new technologies. Other members of the Grey Wardens soon secretly undergo the same procedure. However, the Transcendence effect is limited, only functioning whilst the user is plugged into a bulky device.

(2037) - Discovery of the Petroleum Effect: Human attempts to replicate Grey FTL have disappointing results. The Ashen Grave in orbit is hard to reach and filled with deadly radiation, toxins, malfunctioning and broken technology as well as corpses. To the extent that artefacts from the Grave and recovered smaller vessels have been understood, it is believed that any Grey FTL was limited, power hungry and irradiated the users, as well as depending on an unknown substance. Dubbed elerium-115, the material found in the power cores and drives of smaller Grey vessels has no known natural source and is beyond human attempts at synthesis. The best hypothesis for its composition is a mix of ordinary and exotic particles. Likely, scientists theorise, the limitations and lethality of the FTL drive explain why the Ashen Grave, the alien mothership itself, only used STL travel. The pilots of the small FTL ships were disposable to the Greys.

Members of the High Lords at a company called Archcore Neuranalytics LLC in the Terran Dominion, who had been attempting to analyse the Grey technologies using advanced mathematics and simulations, discover a revolutionary theorem. It is a stroke of luck - the formula would not have come to light but for a fortuitous initial random parameter set of a neural model. Even then, it is buried in a number of potentially useful models produced by the computers and is only picked out as a priority due to machine learning selection mechanisms and prescience. Another civilisation could spend eons without discovering the formula, and without the key, the necessary mathematics is extremely difficult to the point of being sanity threatening.

The new formula predicts that if refined petroleum containing specific lengths of hydrocarbons, in a specific correct pressure range, at the correct temperature is bathed in the correct electromagnetic radiation then as the energy passes through the medium, bouncing between particles, there would be an electromagnetic quantum lasing effect with ultra-low-amplitude and ultra-high-frequency. In different configurations, this could create wide variations in the local base-state of the vacuum zero-point energy.

Archcore personnel attempt to investigate the Petroleum Effect. The first prototypes do nothing but after several attempts a test device violently explodes, destroying an entire laboratory building and its surrounds in an incredibly powerful explosion. Fortunately, Archcore habitually backs up its information to a remote data centre in real time. The Petroleum Effect, it seems, is real and thanks to the expensive destruction it quickly comes to the attention of the top ranks in the Grey Wardens and Terran Dominion.

(2038) - First Petroleum Effect Power Core: Further experiments into the Petroleum Effect theory are conducted at facilities in remote locations. After a few initial failures, a viable power source is built, able to release energy in the form of heat. Projections indicate that maximum heat energy release could be slightly more than the total value of converting all the fuel mass into energy. In short, Petroleum Effect devices are so efficient they make theoretical cold fusion power look like an AA battery. Further experiments reveal that variations of the effect can also create magnetic fields, powerful gravity fields, alter mass, or create projected voltage differentials enabling electrical power to be generated directly rather than using steam turbines.

As the potential of the Petroleum Effect becomes apparent, research budgets are flooded with cash. Before long, a small working electrical power unit is created that can last centuries on a few millilitres of petrol. The Petroleum Effect yields many orders of magnitude more energy than simple chemical burning of the petrol. The only problems are slowing the energy release enough to avoid a catastrophic explosion, and removing waste material to keep the petroleum pure. If the petroleum becomes too dilute, the reaction fails.

Given the potential of the technology, and its ability to create vast explosions, the process is kept controlled and highly secret.

(2039) - First Petroleum Effect Gravity Drive: As research continues, Terran Dominion scientists find it surprisingly easy to prototype a reactionless gravity drive that also uses the Petroleum Effect.

(2040) - The First Quantum Lens: Secret experiments by the Grey Wardens produce the first so-called quantum lens. In reality, a quantum lens is a quantum computer with a vast number of qubits, surrounded by conventional AI, enhanced by prescience and highly developed algorithms. The quantum lens has enough power to simulate a large volume of atoms in all possible configurations simultaneously. This enables near instant development of highly specialised and optimised micro-machines and nano-machines. Almost any small-scale device and / or energy field can be simulated. The lens becomes a cornucopia of technology.

(2041) - The Second Transcendence: Using nanoware and micro-implants designed by the quantum lens, combined with longevity research that had been ongoing for decades, the five Terran Dominion leaders are massively enhanced with advanced cyberware. Natural neurons are slowly augmented by far smaller but more efficient artificial ones that easily fit in the gaps between the original cells. The Archlord and Highlords' brain density and cognitive performance is slowly increased until it is better than when plugged into one of the original First Transcendence devices, which they no longer need. Other augmentations improve strength, resilience, speed, sight, hearing, smell, healing and resistance to disease. With post-human intellects, vast psionic powers and superhuman physiques, the five Grey Warden leaders are on a different level to other humans. The augmentations are aesthetically pleasing, discreet and do not alter appearance except to improve it.

Whilst all Terran Dominion secret technologies are carefully archived for the good of humanity, they are not disseminated at this time beyond a small and secretive elite. Only the five leaders of the Dominion receive the full Second Transcendence. A larger group of trusted secondary tier, inner-circle operatives around each of the five leaders are given all the physical implants and training in simple psionic cognitive techniques.

Over the following years, the Terran Dominion in secret develops a large number of autonomous robot types, from tiny anti-gravity drones, to automated miners and rapid fabrication devices.

(2045) - The Cleansing: In a carefully planned operation, the Terran Dominion disables and suppresses the nuclear weapons and other deterrents of all hostile states, using a mixture of transcendent psionics and advanced technologies. The entire populations of all hostile states are then killed over a period of 48 hours using swarms of tiny anti-gravity drones, as are perceived undesirables in the Dominion population. This brutal act is accepted by the remaining population of the Terran Dominion due to the highly effective propaganda machine and Transcendent psionics. At the end of the purging, the only state left on Earth is the Terran Dominion, ruled by Archlord Lordak and the four High Lords. As a result of the tragic event, the majority of the world's surviving population is Caucasian, with smaller numbers of Hispanics, Latinos, Han and Israelis. The world population is reduced to less than a billion.

(2046-83) - The Golden Age of Earth: History is written by the victors, and in this case the Dominion are the only ones left alive. The Dominion no longer conceals many of its technologies, rapidly deploying a large, self-replicating automatic infrastructure controlled by the Transcendents. The Dominion begins to clean up the Earth's environment ready for the resettlement of emptied territories. Reclamation of deserts such as the Sahara, and restoration of rainforests, are projects begun by the Dominion at this time. Petroleum Effect technology is tightly restricted, but deployed to replace conventional power plants as well as used in military spacecraft. With efficient anti-gravity, the Dominion begins to explore the inner solar system.

During this period, the Transcendents continue to grow in power and knowledge - singularities unto themselves. The Archlord and Highlords form society into a fair, but deeply authoritarian structure, with most major job positions appointed. Democracy is only permitted at a local government level.

Only four religions are permitted, Judaism, Christianity, and two new religions introduced by the leaders themselves. The new religions are the Imperial Creed and the Contemplation of Crawling Chaos. The Imperial Creed worships three powers - the Archlord, and beings called the Hunger and the Wyrm. The Contemplation of Crawling chaos postulates the cosmos as a consequence or dream of an utterly alien being called the Crawling Chaos. It is unclear if this latter is literal or a metaphor for atheism.

In 2082 the Terran Dominion is officially renamed the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion, but still mostly known as the Dominion or Terran Dominion.

(2083) - The Discovery at Promethei Planum: By 2083, the human population is growing once more, and Earth's environment is vastly improved, with much of the damage left by the wars healing or healed. The Dominion is vigorously exploring the solar system using advanced anti-gravity vehicles based on the Petroleum Effect. A fleet of small, military vessels has been created, large enough to have matched the Grey ships had it existed during the invasion.

During the surveys, much of Mars proves unremarkable but advanced sensors detect odd distortions in the southern polar region of Mars. Fearing some Graeyel remnant, the sensor readings are quickly investigated. There is no present threat, but ancient ruins of an unknown race, dubbed the 'Protheans', are found, along with a cache of advanced technology. The Transcendents are able to quickly and easily decipher the Prothean writings and analyse their technology.

Using a hitherto unknown material, which is crudely dubbed, 'element zero' or 'eezo', the Protheans had been able to achieve space-flight and FTL travel. It is quickly realised by the Transcendents, however, that everything element zero can do is done better and more efficiently using the Petroleum Effect. With Prothean examples and Prothean theory, the Transcendents quickly devise a prototype FTL engine. Oddly, when the Petroleum Effect is used in this configuration, instead of releasing free hydrogen and carbon as waste it instead yields trace qualities of element zero which build up and have to be removed from the engine to avoid clogging it.

An age of FTL discovery dawns, opening up the outer solar system to easy reach for the first time.

Whilst the Petroleum Effect is efficient, gravitational drives consume far more fuel than power generators, and FTL consumes vastly more. This means that projected consumption of fossil fuel becomes non-trivial. The Transcendents note that securing new supplies of oil is an important long-term goal.

Transcendents also theorise that they could use Petroleum Effect distortions to open portals, or wormholes to cross vast distances of light-years in an instant, although the power requirements and control difficulties mean the idea remains pure theory for the time being.

Element zero technology is found to have its uses by the Dominion. As it enables FTL and spaceflight without the risks of a Petroleum Effect explosion, albeit with worse performance, it is rolled out for less secure applications.

(2089) - The Discovery at Charon: Dominion FTL survey ships in the outer solar system find a vast, element-zero based device. Just as the Prothean data cache found on Mars stated, Charon is not in fact a moon but rather an ancient alien artefact encased in ice. Analysis confirms the Prothean data that the machine is a transportation device - a 'mass relay' or 'stargate'. Whilst the device was impervious to Prothean science, humans are able to devise a method for safely disabling its quantum shielding using Petroleum Effect technology. Also in this year, Petroleum Effect based element zero manufacturing installations are deployed in orbit around Europa.

(2090-2094) - The Dismantling of the Charon Relay: Whilst the Charon Relay appeared to be offline when it was found, there is a fear that it was the means by which the Greys arrived in the solar system. Even if not, the vast alien artefact is seen as a clear threat - an easy entry point for aliens. Once the relay's shields are disabled it is carefully dismantled and analysed, with its vast eezo component added to the Terran Dominion stockpile. By this time, Petroleum Effect technology is only used for elite military applications and secure power plants on Earth and in the Sol system.

(2095) - Terran Dominion Directive on Alien Sentience, and First Interstellar Probe: The prospect of interstellar travel looms as the Transcendents are able to generate small portals using the Petroleum Effect, and also to manufacture sending devices which can hurl objects over interstellar distances, a little like mass relays but only requiring one terminal. The initial devices are huge, and can only transport small objects.

The Terran Dominion leadership agrees a baseline policy document and statement of principles on alien sentience and interstellar exploration, a xenophobic manifesto highly influenced by the legacy of the Graeyel invasion, with a heavy focus on defence.

This done, the Dominion sends out its first highly stealthed and automated interstellar probes. The small devices have no FTL engines, just minimal ion thrusters. They are hurled to their destinations and report back using quantum entangled communicators.

(2110) - Terran Dominion begins preparing for expansion: Since the first interstellar probes were launched in 2095, the Transcendents have been able to create a device for opening moderately sized portals called the 'Gate Ship'. Opening a portal is extremely power intensive and can only be done with the Petroleum Effect, not element zero. Each portal is extremely expensive.

The Terran Dominion prepares an ambitious programme of terraforming. It decides that only barren planets will be colonised, whilst existing life-bearing planets with no sapient inhabitants, such as garden worlds, will not be colonised. This is due to the risks of interacting with alien biochemistry. However, according to well known chemical principles pre-dating the Graeyel invasion, organic molecules usually contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, regardless of whether they are dextro or levo type. Such molecules can be broken down into hydrocarbons, otherwise known as oil. Historically, on Earth this process could produce crude oil from, for example, turnips, but was not cost effective. With the advent of the Petroleum Effect, converting biomass to oil has become extremely cost effective and so exo-planets with carbon-based life but no sentient inhabitants are to be marked for harvesting.

Twenty barren planets are designated as initial candidates for terraforming and colonisation, each orbiting a G-type star. In each case the Gate Ship is used to send construction ships and personnel, who begin construction on a large habitat to be placed around the planet and act as a local command centre to supervise the terraforming, as well as vast automated, mobile terraforming installations to be placed on planetary surfaces. The stations are each planned to be home to a population of around ten thousand colonists who will form the core initial population of the newly claimed planet when terraforming is completed.

The Dominion also begins construction of twenty hollowed out asteroid habitats to act as hidden bastions in case of some interstellar threat to humanity. Each asteroid has minimal outward signs of its true nature, and can hold a population of twenty-thousand colonists - enough to hide, flee and re-establish the human race in the event of the worst possible outcome.

(2130) - Completion of the first twenty terraforming stations: Terraforming begins around twenty exo-planets, controlled from the orbital habitats. The process is brutally destructive. Asteroids are rained down onto the planets to bring up them up to exactly Earth standard mass. Carefully gauged Petroleum Effect explosions shove the planets into Earth standard orbits and melt the surfaces into lava, smoothing them and boiling away gas and water. As the planetary surfaces cool, ice asteroids are rained down to create new oceans and smaller heavy metal asteroids are rained down to provide surface metal deposits. Microbes are introduced to produce atmospheric gasses from the oceans. Other than the initial transport and some explosions, Petroleum Effect technology is not used in the colony systems - element zero is used instead.

(2131) - The Rainbow System is found: an interstellar probe finds an alien carbon-based garden world in the beautiful Rainbow system.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter One - The Rainbow World

The Rainbow System, Local Cluster, 2131
Righteous Enterprise, Mission Day 1

In empty space in a distant solar system, a distortion formed. For a few moments, the starfield in the centre of the lensing effect bulged and was replaced with an alien sky, just long enough for a black ship to slip quietly through.

On the bridge of the Terran Dominion Starship Righteous Enterprise, the small crew looked on with satisfaction as their vessel passed through the portal. The TDS Righteous Enterprise was a highly experimental craft, combining a number of disparate concepts for different functions, all of which would be tested on their mission to survey and explore the newly discovered, as yet unnamed, world that was their destination.

The Righteous Enterprise was a 150-metre long, roughly cylindrical vessel, 75 meters wide and tall, with a black, robust, composite hull. The front was mostly composed of a jawed opening backed by composite grinders and a nanobot filter which could be used to harvest, sort and purify resources. The lower half of the remaining hull was mostly empty storage space, with the upper half given to the bridge, crew quarters, survey equipment and other facilities. Retractable caterpillar tracks were built into the bottom of the vessel, and the entire hull was covered with experimental weapons and sensors. At the rear of the vessel was a powerful element zero core, with the main thrusters at the rear and powerful maneuvring thrusters spaced along the rest of the exterior. Larger and faster than earlier generations of ships, the Enterprise was an awkward hybrid of technologies. It was not so much a prototype as much as a grab-bag of technologies which could be used on future, more specialised, ship designs.

The star system the Enterprise had arrived in was once designated as HD 207129, a G2V type star, approximately 51 light-years from Sol. The system had been renamed as the Rainbow system after it was probed earlier in the year, as a result of the detection of multiple colourful planets. The destination of the Enterprise was the second planet in the inner system, Rainbow-2. Earlier in 2131, an automated interstellar probe hurled into the system had detected an Earth-sized world which appeared to have a biosphere. This was the first contact with any form of alien life since the discovery of the alien ruins on Mars.

In comfortable chairs on the ship's bridge sat Captain Gerald Farmer, Professor Melissa Coldhardt and one of the two Flight Officers, Ford Reeves. Farmer opened the internal comm and began to check in with the other members of his ship's crew of 12.

"1st Flight Officer?"

Ford Reeves, a younger man with black hair, but otherwise physically similar to the Captain, nodded and responded, "Status green sir".

"Dominion Government Liaison?"

Coldhardt was a beautiful but severe blonde. Somewhere between 5'9" and 5'10", Coldhardt had short, platinum blonde hair, noticable curves and pale blue eyes. With the implants available at her level, her age was impossible to tell by appearance alone, but superficially she looked to be in her late twenties.

"Green, Captain Farmer", said Coldhardt, coldly.

The 2nd flight officer, medic, both ship's engineers, diplomat, xenobiologist, planetologist, and both combat specialists reported status green.

Gerald turned to look at the Professor. Farmer was a muscular, toned, 5'8" man in his forties with light brown, slightly greying hair and hazel eyes. Whilst he was the Captain of the ship, master under god as the ancient saying went, Coldhardt was the liaison to the Dominion government - a Director in the New Technologies Division of the Office of the Archlord himself.

"Shall we proceed, Professor?"

"Begin the passive scan, Captain. Let's see if we are alone out here first. Proceed if clear."

The human vessel ran silently, not firing its engines, but listening for transmissions across the electromagnetic spectrum. After about a minute, the advanced sensor array and virtual intelligence had found no signs of technological transmission.

"Clear to proceed. Engaging short range active sensors, going to in-system FTL."

The Enterprise activate short range scanners and slowly accelerated to 5c as it approached the inner system. Nothing untoward appeared on the sensors. Projected flight-time in-system was about 90 minutes, during which the bridge crew did little chatting, instead taking in the view of the system on sensors. The Rainbow system had seven, as yet unnamed, planets, including four inner rocky planets and five gas giants as well as an asteroid field between the inner worlds and the gas giants.

At the half way point, the vessel began decelerating, and in a further 45 minutes it slipped neatly into orbit around Rainbow-2. Rainbow 2 was a roughly Earth-size planet, with about 95% of the mass. Thus far it had only been viewed remotely from the probe.

"Well, I'm not disappointed!" remarked the Professor.

The planet was beautiful. White, cotton candy clouds rolled around the sphere, large purplish oceans surrounded blue-green continents.

"Wow!" The ship's xenobiologist, Dr Julianne Stevens, spoke on the internal comm, "Initial observations consistent with life. A whole lot of life! Doing in-depth scan with orbital sensors and cameras now."

"Concur", echoed Dr Boris Jones, the taciturn planetologist.

"No technological emissions detected", added Reeves.

Captain Farmer relaxed, markedly, "Okay people, orbit achieved, sky is clear, sensors are clear. Disengaging drives. Looks like we have time for a brief celebration, so if you would all like to join me in the galley for champagne, I think we can spare a few minutes".

The celebration in the cramped galley-cum-dining room of the small ship had been brief and was followed by days of work (measured in Earth time) for the scientists and near idleness for everyone else. The captain and flight officers took shifts on the bridge whilst Stevens and Jones reviewed sensor arrays and satellite photographs.

After the first day, there was still no sign of intelligent life and the crew took the Enterprise into low orbit. The ship's cameras were far superior to 20th century spy satellites and provided high-resolution photographs and video of the surface, which were eagerly pored over by the two scientists. Aside from the one maneouvre the rest of the crew spent the time sleeping, running diagnostics, or recreation. The ship had a small gymnasium and extensive e-library of games, videos, music and books.

At the end of their second-day shift, the scientists launched an automated lander - a robust device smaller than a car, which gently dropped to the surface of one of the continents wrapped in a mass effect field. They spent the next day reviewing the sensor readings from the probe. They spent the fourth day remotely driving the small rover that had been included in the lander around the surface near the landing site.

On the morning of the fifth day, ship-time, most of the crew met in the galley, except for the second flight officer, Patrick Davies, who was on sleep shift. The scientists conducted a briefing, in front of the video screen which was currently showing slides of the planet.

"Okay," began Dr Jones, a short, overweight, white-haired man in his fifties with faded blue eyes, "we have an Earth-type planet, about 95% of 1G at the surface. Slightly greater oxygen content, otherwise Earth-like atmosphere. Orbital period is about 400 Earth days. Local day on Rainbow-2 is about 23 Earth hours. Extensive life and biosphere colouring the continents - source of purple colour in the oceans unknown - could be chemical, biological or both. The oceans are liquid water though."

Jones nodded at Dr Stevens, who continued, "Photographs and videos from orbit indicate plant analogues and animal analogues. Trees, bushes, flowers, shrubs, grass. Small and large animals, mostly herbivores. Insects. Sensors and spectral analysis indicate carbon based life. No obvious toxins from orbital sensors. No obvious toxins from samples taken by the lander. Presence of micro-organisms, cellular structure, cell analogues I might add - not necessarily the same as Earth cells. Plants have cellular structure. Biochemistry similar to Earth, organic molecules, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and so forth."

Professor Coldhardt interrupted, "Just out of interest, Dr Stevens, can I ask, did you run the hydrocarbon reducer test?"

The two women were very different. Coldhardt was tall, beautiful, commanding. Dr Stevens was a dowdy, short, 5'6" brunette with brown eyes, a plain face and thick glasses, albeit designer ones.

Dr Stevens looked a bit discomfited, "Well yes. I am not sure why that device was in the lander, but we were able to grind up some of the plant-analogues and break it down into hydrocarbons. Why would you want to do that?"

Coldhardt completely ignored the question, simply responding, "Very good."

After an awkward pause, Dr Stevens continued, "So. We were going to recommend that we take more samples, send down the other lander getting some ocean samples and some from one of the other continents and the ice caps, then bring them back to the quarantine bay."

"But ..."

"We found an anomaly."

The slides on the screen showed orbital photographs. In a clearing were a number of rounded objects, greenish brown.

"From orbit," began Dr Jones, "we thought they were perhaps rocks, or lifeforms of some sort. They are not."

"At the end of shift yesterday, after taking various samples using the rover, we piloted it to near some of these objects. The pictures speak for themselves."

The pictures on the screen changed. They were taken from a distance, but what was shown was unmistakably a set of primitive hut-like structures, surrounded by forest. Around the structures were colourful shapes of ... animals? Colourful, bear-like creatures, the size of a human child.

"These creatures look like they have low technology, but they may be sapient."

The gathered crew were silent for a moment, then Melissa Coldhart spoke, quietly and glacially, "Do we have any other information about these creatures?"

Both the scientists shook their heads, "No - we only took these photographs at the end of yesterday. We were wanting to ask for guidance as to how to proceed."

"Very wise. I think what would be sensible is if you complete your planned sampling, avoiding these ... things ... for now, then bring the landers back to the ship. Once we have those samples onboard, we can seek further orders."

The Rainbow System, Local Cluster, 2131
Righteous Enterprise, Mission Day 7

The Righteous Enterprise dropped smoothly through the skies of Rainbow-2, heading for its target landing site - a flat, grassy plain near the edge of a thick forest, not far from one of the settlements identified from orbit. As the vessel approached landing its mass dropped sharply as power flowed through the element zero core, thrusters fired and the Enterprise decelerated as caterpillar tracks descended from its underside. The ship touched down with a slight bump then settled as the element zero core dropped into standby mode and its weight returned.

The past two days had been busy for the scientists. The first lander had been filled with samples then recovered, then they had sent the second lander. The scientists now had samples from two continents and several beaches. There were few surprises although it turned out that, near the surface at least, the oceans were actually freshwater. The purplish colour was released from micro-organisms that filtered salts from the liquid and bound them into particles that sank to the bottom. The air was safe to breathe in itself but contained small amounts of micro-organisms, not unlike Earth - pollens, bacteria and the like. As the interactions of alien life with Earth biochemistry was untested, the scientists recommended suits outside and full decontamination procedures.

The mission had always had landing as an option, to enable testing of the biomass harvesting and processing equipment built into the ship. However, the crew now had new orders. They were to investigate the apparently intelligent inhabitants, determine technology and threat level, if appropriate to initiate first contact. If possible, samples were to be obtained.

The ship did not have facilities for captured alien lifeforms, so the ships engineers, Travis Barker and Harvey Porter, had been hard at work fabricating four child-sized freezer units to store alien corpses, if some samples could be acquired without arousing suspicion. To that end, the combat specialists Dominic Hurst and Robert Livingstone had been preparing the tools of their own trade.

The Righteous Enterprise was a small experimental vessel. It was not intended for serious combat but it had two combat specialists to act as advisors as well as support in case of some threat on a scale the crew could deal with. The soldiers were grim-faced men who identified themselves as special forces from Dominion Security and kept themselves apart from the rest of the crew. Earth had not seen major conflict for nearly a hundred years since the Cleansing in 2045. However, the solar system was a big place, occasional dissidents and criminals gave the military at least some exercise. Shortly after landing the Righteous Enterprise launched two reconaissance drones. After a day's observation, their simple plan was relayed to the crew by Melissa Coldhardt.

"There is a nearby settlement," confirmed the Professor, "huts look to be mostly wood and mud, with some stone. The creatures look like teddy bears - ursine - but subsist mostly by foraging from the nearby forest. No farming, no evidence of hunting. Possibly some fishing. The point is they go off in small groups or singly. So we will wait for a small group of five then take them out, or the same number from smaller groups if need be."

"Once we've got the samples, four can be frozen and one can be vivisected here. We can then decide if to initiate first contact, in which case we'll move to a settlement further away to avoid suspicion in the disappearances, or to leave and pass it to a better equipped team."

The crew did not demur. The creatures may look harmless, but the Greys had been only a little larger and their diminutive size brought the alien bears no sympathy in the eyes of humans scarred by the alien invasion and the Day of Blood.

"I'll be on standby in case something goes wrong," contributed the ship's doctor, Sarah Green. Green was a serious, brunette woman in her 40s with green eyes. Everyone knew she was referring to treatment for the crew - the alien corpses would not need medical attention and the prisoner would not be getting medical attention other than vivisection by Dr Stevens. If a sample was too damaged during collection, it would just be replaced.

"Sounds good to me," rumbled Gervais Taylor. The ship's diplomat was an afterthought - a grey-haired older man who, like Professor Coldhardt, came from the Office of the Archlord. However, Taylor's department was largely theoretical as humanity had no alien contacts to speak to. He spent most of his time in his cabin and his limited interactions with the crew mostly involved trying to suck up to the Professor, who was senior to him.

All were agreed, and the collection mission was scheduled to begin at midday Rainbow-2 time.

The collection mission had gone wrong. It was pretty obvious. The two soldiers had left the ship in their sealed, lightly armoured combat suits, supported by drones. Keeping in contact, the men had identified and approached a group of five of the diminutive ursinoids, watched remotely from the bridge by Captain Farmer, Professor Coldhardt and Flight Officer Davies.

"Coming up on targets - getting a clear shot ...", Dominic Hurst spoke quietly, his strong English accent carrying crystal clear through his suit comms, "... colourful little beggars aren't they?"

Hurst was carrying a high-energy laser sniper rifle, amongst other things, a weapon deadly at distances of up to two kilometres. Of course, in the thick forests he had to be much closer but his prey had little chance. Except ... suddenly they were off camera. The bears had marched along, skipping and gamboling, but then they had walked behind a cluster of bushes and had not come out.

A motion at the edge of the view - a tuft of reddish hair quickly slipping behind a tree.

"We've been made?", a question and an exclamation from Robert Livingstone.

"Fuck me! They're scattering!" from Hurst.

The camera panned and then caught something strange, a scattering of lights. For a moment, all the cameras cut out. Then, one cleared only to show what looked like a blue and green bear firing sparkling lights from their tummies, before returning to static.

"Hurst?! Livingstone?!" called the Professor, urgently but there was no reply.

"Engineering, we've lost drone feeds, gun feeds and comms with the combat specialists - get them back!" ordered the Captain.

Agonising minutes passed, first one, then two and then five. With a chime, data flow resumed and all the cameras cleared except for one drone that was now showing as offline. The gun camera feeds resumed, but stationary and clearly filming from the grounds.

"What ... the ...?" exclaimed Melissa Coldhardt.

Most of the cameras showed empty forest. One clearly showed Hurst and Livingstone, their helmets off, talking to the creatures - then walking out of shot with them in the direction of the native settlement. On the bridge displays of the Righteous Enterprise, comms to the combat team showed as offline.

The men were gone.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Two - The Eviloids

The Rainbow System, Local Cluster, 2131
Righteous Enterprise, Mission Day 7

"They've turned off their comms", said Melissa Coldhardt, her glacial tones perfectly consistent with her name, "but suit trackers are still working. Drones, follow them at a distance and use high-gain microphone mode - see if you can hear what they are saying".

Drones 1, 2 and 4 were still online and soon the missing soldiers and their strange companions came into view - almost dots amongst the trees. The powerful military camera zoomed in until the men were clearly in view and at the same time a voice became clear. It was a high, nauseatingly sweet voice that sounded like a human child.

"I'm so glad we could be friends, Robert and Dominic. We can't wait to show you our village!"

The speaker was clearly one of the bear-like creatures.

"I'm glad we could be friends too!" The voice was Dominic's but it was strangely cheerful and guileless - almost childlike.

On the bridge, the remaining crew of the Righteous Enterprise were shocked.

"Are they under some kind of control? And how the fuck is that bear speaking English?" asked Captain Farmer.

"Psionics?" suggested Flight Officer Davies.

Professor Coldhardt frowned. The two soldiers were special forces. The rest of the crew had deliberately not been briefed on it, but the combat specialists had psionic abilities of their own. Not Transcendent powers, but sufficient intelligence and force of will to use fixed thought patterns taught to them by mnemonics. Their training gave the men a certain innate resistance to mental attacks, the ability to use minor acts of telekinesis, suggestion and with concentration to activate a much stronger mind-shield to cover themselves and others.

The Professor was with the Office of the Archlord. Her training went well beyond minor effects, with an effort of will, she activated a strong mind-shield and then a sensory effect. There was ... something ... an unfamiliar psionic effect but she lacked the knowledge to classify it. Something like remote viewing or divination?

"Directives, Professor?" asked the Captain. Although he was captain of the ship, Coldhardt was in overall charge of the expedition, in her role as a Director in the New Technologies Division of the Office of the Archlord. She thought briefly.

"We can't leave it like this Captain. There are several pieces of our technology outside and two of our personnel in the hands of the aliens. We have to retrieve or destroy them."

"We could take the ship to the village and use the onboard weapons to level it?"

Coldhardt considered the options. She had not expected psionics. It was not a contingency in the mission plan and it was not a known alien ability. If the Greys had it, they certainly had not done much with it. The Prothean archives had not mentioned it. As far as was known it was one of humanity's trump cards. If she left the bridge, her colleagues would be vulnerable to control or other alien influences. The Captain's plan was the best plan.

"We'll need to send a message to Sol on the qangle", said the Professor slowly, using the colloquial name for a quantum entanglement communicator (QEC or qangle), "and we'll need to send some of the crew to retrieve the remains of drone 3 and the guns. Let's do it. Now, recall drones 1, 2 and 4. Get Dr Stevens and Flight Officer Reeves in here".

It had taken several hours to send a lengthy report to Sol, and to brief Stevens and Reeves. The alien day had already begun to darken as the Righteous Enterprise flew low into the tiny alien village behind a deadly hail of fire. A stream of military grade kinetic rounds from two of the forward turrets destroyed everything in its path. As the ship strafed sideways, the huts came apart, blasted to matchwood. Shattered fragments of the dwellings and tiny furry bodies littered the ground. A single larger hut was left standing because suit trackers identified it as holding the two missing combat specialists.

The ship set down by the single surviving hut and its turrets automatically blasted everything that moved, including trees that had swayed slightly in the breeze, which became kindling wood. After a few minutes the sound and the firing died down. An eerie silence and stillness descended on the ruined village.

"Sensors say three inside," reported Flight Officer Davies in clipped, professional tones, "our men and another life-form on thermals".

"We know you understand our language," shouted Professor Coldhardt, not aloud but psionically, sending a telepathic burst into the hut, "come out now with your arms in the air".

The comm burst into life. "Melissa? It's me, Dominic. Stop! These creatures are our friends."

"Still under alien control", remarked Captain Farmer, grimly.

"Okay Dom", replied the Professor over the comm, "you, Rob and your ... friend ... come out and we can talk. You know what we'll have to do if you don't."

Through the exterior cameras, the bridge crew watched as two men left the hut accompanied by a small, red, furry bear-like creature. The soldiers were still helmetless. Seen clearly, it had a white patch on its stomach with what looked like - a valentine heart? - in the middle.

"Thank you", said the Professor, "Now, both of you, mind-shield now. As hard as you can. That's an order."

The Professor, her mental senses extended, felt both men comply, sluggishly at first, but hard.

"Done Professor", confirmed Dominic Hurst over the comm, "but why? There are no threats. Tenderheart Bear here is our friend."

The mind-shields were up. Whatever had been done was not simple or temporary. The soldiers were still compromised.

"Okay Dom", said the Professor, "sounds good. Now, give me a minute. I'm going to come out, in armour, to talk. Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to need you all to lie down for me, Dom". At her gesture, Davies adjusted a console and two turrets visibly turned to track the three outside.

"Professor ... ", Livingstone began to protest.

"On the ground, Rob", insisted Coldhardt.

A few minutes later, Coldhardt exited the ship via the quarantine bay, dressed in sealed heavy armour and holding a laser rifle. She approached the men and the bear on the ground, her mind shield active. Gathering her will she hit the bear with a mental blast. She felt resistance, and hit it again. The resistance ... collapsed. As far as she could tell, it was unconscious.

The Professor approached the two men and injected them with sedative. "Clear!" she announced over the comm.

A few moments later the ship's doctor, Sarah Green, emerged also in heavy armour. Together the two women dragged the two men and the alien into the quarantine bay, then transferred them through the dedicated interior airlock into the isolation room in the bio-lab, securing them all tightly to the sterile metal work-surfaces.

Leaving the isolation room, the women sealed the interior airlock and then went outside to carry out the grisly business of finding four relatively intact pseudo-ursine corpses. Having stashed the bodies in the freezer units, they sealed the bay door and entered a separate decontamination chamber between the quarantine bay and the ship proper.

After a few minutes as the room cycled through its processes, scouring their suits clean of contaminants, the women doffed their armour and returned to the main area of the ship.

The Rainbow System, Local Cluster, 2131
Righteous Enterprise, Mission Day 8

Tenderheart Bear woke up with a pounding headache, which was not improved by the pitiless bright white light shining in his eyes. He let out a little high pitched groan and tried to sit up but found he could not move. He was spreadeagled on a cold hard surface. Bands of something cold were wrapped around his wrists, head, neck and torso. He could not even turn his head to look.

A voice boomed from somewhere out of his view. It was a bit like that of the two strangers, but smoother and higher pitched.

"Specimen. I can see you are awake. I need you to answer some questions. What is your name?"

"Who are you?" squealed the bear.

"My name is not important. What is your name?"

"That's not fair. Who are you?"

In the laboratory of the Righteous Enterprise, on the other side of a thick, ultra-hardened glass observation window, sat Melissa Coldhardt and Julianne Stevens. The doctor had returned late the previous evening from her own mission with Ford Reeves. Whilst the Righteous Enterprise had assaulted the village, Stevens and Reeves had retrieved the soldiers' discarded weapon and fragments of drone 3, Stevens taking it upon herself to collect some plant samples for some reason.

After a long rest, the crew had met. It had been decided to keep the soldiers sedated, at least until the alien had been interrogated. Coldhardt and Stevens had decided to combine the interrogation with a vivisection for maximum efficiency. They now sat in the lab whilst the men and the alien were restrained in the isolation room.

Stevens touched a control panel and one of several robotic arms unfolded and struck the specimen in the chest. Bzzt! The little alien convulsed in pain. Stevens spoke again, her voice carried into the isolation chamber through speakers that boomed, painfully to the bear's sensitive ears.

"The specimen will comply or the specimen will feel pain. What is your name?"

"That's mean!"

Bzzt!

"What is your name?"

"Ow!"

Bzzt!

"What is your name?"

Dr Stevens' words only carried into the isolation room when she engaged the microphone. In the laboratory on her side of the window, she had been carrying on a running commentary into her audio notes.

"Subject is ursinoid in shape - almost like a child's teddy bear. Observed to walk upright. Reddish fur, save for the belly which is white with a red mark in the centre. Two eyes, nose, mouth, ears located on the head. Two arms and legs, flexible paws on arms - handlike. Less flexible paws on legs. Two orifices in the lower torso - what looks like an anus at the rear, and another less obvious opening at the front, almost in-between the legs."

"Scans indicate two lungs and a digestive system similar to terrestrial layout. Skeletal system. Other organs less clear - brain-like mass in the head. Initially assumed subject was female but recall reproductive mechanism of species unknown - assumption consciously discarded. On investigation, scan shows that the front opening leads into pouch, muscle and configuration strongly suggests retractable appendages - kept secure when not in use. Male? Asexual? Hermaphroditic? Whichever, those organs are likely to be sensitive."

In the isolation room another robotic arm unfolded. Tenderheart Bear felt something cold roughly open his pouch and reach inside, pulling out some organs into the light. It hurt! A lot. Tenderheart Bear felt a hard pull.

"Let go! Those are my private bear parts! They're not supposed to be out right now! Oww!"

"What is your name?"

"My name is Tenderheart Bear. Let go!" squealed the bear, frantically.

"How do you speak our language?"

"I learned it. We're the Care Bears. We're made to care and make everyone else care. Gold Star made us to help everyone share their feelings. We can learn to speak to anyone really quickly, just by being near them!"

"Who is Gold Star?"

"Gold Star made the Care Bears! Gold Star made the whole world of Care-a-Lot! He made it really nice so when people come from other worlds we can make them all be friends. Gold Star said there is something wrong with the stars round here and we are supposed to stop it! Now let me go!"

With his squeal, light seemed to flare around the symbol on the bear's tummy and several of the restraints opened. Shocked, Dr Stevens frantically jabbed a control and robotic arms smashed down, shocking the specimen repeatedly. Professor Coldhardt gathered her will and hit the creature's mind with a mental blast. It went limp. After a moment, Stevens withdrew the arms.

"Specimen somehow defeated restraints. Specimen subdued with electric shocks. Specimen now unconscious but alive."

"I very clearly felt psionics, there was telekinesis there, or something like it", interjected Professor Coldhardt.

Stevens carefully used the robotic arms to re-secure the bear's restraints whilst it was unconscious.

"Gervais bring us a coffee and something sweet would you?" called Professor Coldhardt through the door to the corridor, "We'll be here a while".

"How about I remove an eye whilst it is unconscious?" suggested Stevens, "We can show it to it once it wakes up and threaten to remove more body parts if it fails to comply."

Eight hours later, Professor Coldhardt and Dr Stevens sipped yet another coffee each and nibbled on doughnuts brought from the galley by Gervais Taylor. With nothing of his official job to do he was defaulting to trying to curry favour with Coldhardt.

The interrogation had been slow, but they had secured the alien's cooperation and obtained a lot of data before it expired. The creature, which called itself Tenderheart Bear, had been a male, and it had identified its species as the, "Care Bears" and the planet as "Care-a-Lot". It had admitted to an ability to communicate with almost anything living - even most of the local wildlife.

The creature had related what they took to be a primitive creation myth, that a deity its people called the, "Gold Star" had created their world for the purpose of their befriending all other worlds and making all other worlds befriend each other. They had a number of abilities and their strongest was the, 'stare' which let them manifest psionic effects from the symbols on their tummies. Apparently, the symbols varied widely, like their fur colour and reflected their personality. It was the stare that had, "made the men be friends".

The creature had tried to persuade them that, "Everyone has to share and be friends!" Fortunately the Professor had been able to resist the insidious psionic attack that accompanied the words.

The creature did not have that much useful information. The specimen had confirmed that the species was sexually dimorphic, seasonal breeders with males and females. The male reproductive organs were kept in internal pouches like Tenderheart's at all other times. Male and female openings were so buried in the fur it was almost impossible to tell the sexes apart outside season. The bears had no central government but each village had a chief and, "Gold Star tells us what to do".

Thanking the specimen for his help, they had got to work opening up the skin and gotten some high quality video of the internal circulatory and respiratory systems in operation. Eventually, as the examination continued and they dug deeper, the creature had expired. Re-donning her suit, Dr Stevens had taken the waste out of the ship via the quarantine bay and discarded in the frontal jaws.

"You know", remarked Stevens to Coldhardt once the remains had been disposed of, "there is something really sinister about this planet. You know those trees that look like they are growing pink cotton candy? Well, it was too high for the rovers to reach, but I grapped a bundle whilst we were recovering the drone wreckage and the guns. I've analysed it. It more or less really is cotton candy - high fructose strands, wrapping seeds - or maybe spores. This whole planet is like it is meant to be a paradise - like a lure."

"Let's test the resource extraction and processing prototype", replied Coldhart, "and then we can get out of here and dump this on someone else."

"What about Dominic and Robert?"

"Physically tainted by an alien biosphere they interacted with, without their suits. Mentally tainted by alien psionics. They'll need to be thoroughly debriefed and examined. Not our department, thankfully. We'll take them back to Sol and frankly I doubt we'll see them again. Let's just get the last test done. We need to see how effective the resource converter is."

Coldhardt gave brief orders to Captain Farmer. The Enterprise rolled forward on its caterpillar tracks and its jaws made short work of a couple of the 'cotton candy' trees. Chunks of the trunk joined Tenderheart's remains in the ship's, 'mouth', and the grinders got to work. The nanobot filter behind the grinders efficiently processed the mulch, discarding waste and removing unwanted atoms. Tarry, yellowish black hydrocarbon soup - crude oil - flowed into the storage tank.

"We've got OIL!" exulted the second flight officer, Patrick Davies. The remaining crew, except for the two unconscious soldiers in the isolation chamber, cheered.

The mission had been entirely successful.

As the Righteous Enterprise lifted smoothly into the sky, heading for orbit, Dr Stevens, Captain Farmer and Professor Coldhardt held a brief conference. Officially it was to compare notes. Unofficially, they were working together to ensure their reports reflected as well on each other as possible.

"It's important we underline the threat of these ursinoid creatures", said Dr Stevens, "They subverted two mentally resilient soldiers in minutes."

"Commies too!" added Captain Farmer, "All that talk of sharing. No money system."

"I wonder ...?" began Professor Coldhardt, "Is the term ... ursinoid ... quote right? I mean they are not really bears are they? They are telepathic herbivores that have a cult-like devotion to mind-controlling all sentient life into their pseudo-communist mindset. I mean, we need a more neutral term to convey that simply so institutions and the public understand. How about ... 'eviloids'. That is a neutral, factual term that encapsulates that they are an evil threat without introducing misleading value judgements about bears."

"Brilliant!" exclaimed Dr Stevens, "eviloids it is!"

The Righteous Enterprise reached orbit, and called the Gate Ship through the QEC, requesting a portal back to the Sol system.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Three - Dominion Report on Rainbow-2

Office of the Archlord, Sol System, Local Cluster, 2133

Confidential Report into the Planet Rainbow-2 and R.E.A.P.E.R testing

Author: Director Melissa Coldhart, New Technologies Division

Date: 4th August 2133

Salutations Archlord,

This is, hopefully, a final report into the planet Rainbow-2 and consequent technological developments.

The main original purpose of the Rainbow-2 expedition was to field test prototype resource extraction technology as well as various flight technologies for incorporation onto our military fleets. In that, it was wholly successful. The Righteous Enterprise on its first visit functioned perfectly - drives, weapons, power, sensors, all of it.

The resource extraction systems work perfectly - we can convert more or less any biological material on that planet into crude oil with great efficiency. This should be the same for more or less all carbon-based life. The prototype systems used in the Righteous Enterprise have been successfully put into production in our Resource Extraction And Processing Exo-Remotes - or R.E.A.P.E.R units (amusingly, a name given to some mythical hostile species referred to in the Prothean archive).

The more concerning matters, and the reason the planet warrants a report at this stage at all, are -

(1) The presence on the planet of pre-spaceflight, but highly psionic, sentient life; and

(2) The discovery during initial R.E.A.P.E.R deployment that the planet has almost no fossil record and was terraformed within the last 2-3 Earth millennia.

After the initial 2131 expedition of the Righteous Enterprise, better armed expeditions with suitable experts and protection followed. Further specimens of the eviloids were captured and interrogated. Full biological examinations were performed on living specimens. All of the creatures, taken from different part of the planets, are very similar, and all of them share a creation myth that a being called, "Gold Star" created them.

Later, we deployed the first of our full size R.E.A.P.E.R units. Each unit is roughly cylindrical, 1 kilometre long and 250 metres in diameter, jaws, grinders and conversion nanoware at the front, with maximum space for oil and minimal space for crew. There is moderate weapons coverage on the exterior, and minimal engines and manoeuvring capabilities. The standard unit uses element zero not Petroleum Effect technology.

Deployment and performance of R.E.A.P.E.R 1 was satisfactory. However, deep gouging into the soil simply did not yield as deep a layer of organic material in the regolith as might be expected. Cross section showed the organic layers simply stop far earlier than anticipated. Geological investigation suggests minimal water present until comparatively recently.

Our best estimates are that, between 3000 and 2000 years ago, the planet was swiftly terraformed from a dry, barren rock into a lush paradise inhabited by these ... disgusting ... creatures. They could not have done it themselves based on current capabilities. They are stone-age creatures. There are no technological ruins at all. The conclusion is that something else did it, be it a more advanced civilisation of the eviloids creatures to a different species entirely.

The implication is there is an advanced species in the region able and willing to terraform and abandon worlds. This may mean that we risk contact with an advanced and aggressive species, or more eviloids.

The final outcome as far as Rainbow-2 is concerned is that there is less biomass to harvest than hoped. Once harvesting is completed (within the decade on even our most pessimistic projections) the planet will be essentially barren aside from trace organic material. The eviloids will be extinct well before then, at least on this planet.

Once harvesting is complete, as the world is in the habitable region around its star and below Earth mass, we propose to completely sterilise it. We will bomb the surface into lava and boil away the oceans using Petroleum Effect bombs. At maximum conversion this should be very cheap and will eliminate all organic life on the surface - not even viruses will survive. We will then engineer collisions with asteroids to further increase the temperature and bring the world to near-Earth mass. Thereafter, as the surface cools we will bomb with ice meteorites to restore oceans and atmosphere, along with heavy metal meteorites to enrich the crust with resources.

At that stage, some time in the future, terraforming can begin on a tabula rasa with no mind-controlling aliens, subversive cotton candy trees or alien biochemistry.

The complete conversion of the biosphere should provide us with billions of barrels of oil for our military stockpiles.

As a final note, the Rainbow system contains a dormant mass relay. Perhaps it was intended to be used to access Rainbow-2. If we activate it, it will provide a useful entry to the alien network, whilst still at a suitable distance from Sol.

Your obedient servant,

Professor Melissa Coldhardt
Director
New Technologies Division

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Four - The Relay 314 Incident

Shanxi System, 2157

The Turian Hierarchy patrol frigate Daexus was an easy posting, at least by the standards of the Hierarchy. This shift should be no different, thought Captain Etarn Corvannis. All he had to do was check out some anomaly an automated probe had detected on an uninhabited garden world. Entry to the system had proved no difficulty. There was an active secondary mass relay, and a primary relay designated 314 was still nice and deactivated. Nothing was amiss. Until the frigate had approached the planet.

The garden world in the system was not formally named, at least not to the turians. As a levo-planet it was worthy only of categorisation to them. In the Hierarchy and Citadel systems the planet simply had various designation numbers, one of which was equivalent to R314-G1.

Right now though, there was a large blotch in the middle of the largest continent, where all previous scans had been a beautiful green with flecks of purple. It looked like a natural disaster, a meteorite impact or the result of a bomb. The Daexus' sensors were detecting large active mass effect fields at the edges of the blotch. Orbital cameras zoomed in to show massive, black, cylindrical vehicles crawling across the landscape chewing up the terrain and disgorging dead, sterile rocks and soil.

"Sensor officer - confirm dimension estimate please", ordered Corvannis, calmly, not believing what was said. The sensor officer in answer flicked an analysis window up onto the captain's display. It was true. Vehicles the size of a dreadnought were systematically destroying a garden world for no apparent reason.

"No known matches to ship silhouettes, layout or energy signatures, sir, looks like a first contact situation."

Vast alien vessels were destroying a garden world in clear violation of Citadel law.

"Hail the vessels and send out first contact packs."

"Hailing ..."

"No reply sir"

The Terran Dominion R.E.A.P.E.R Nomnom was a kilometer long and had a crew of three, Captain Peter Grant and two flight officers. Optimised for resource extraction, processing and haulage, the Nomnom was basically a giant, automated, space oil tanker / miner. Other functions were minimal. Communications were limited to a single QEC comm to headquarters and medium range radio tuned to standard Dominion frequencies. Sensors were better. So, whilst the Nomnom could detect a mass effect powered ship in orbit, the crew were blissfully ignorant of incoming messages.

Just as it had not lavished the Nomnom with extra features, the Dominion had also not lavished the vessel with a top-flight crew. As far as possible the vehicle was run by what humans called a simple AI but the Citadel would name a virtual intelligence. The three crew members were there as fallback supervision. The crew did their check-box duties and then enjoyed the relatively high-specification entertainment equipment they had been provided with in an effort to make the hard-to-recruit-for job more enticing.

The sensor ping was noted, but Captain Grant, who was on duty, assumed it was Terran and ignored it.

There was no reply to the turians, because no one heard their message.

"Dispatch a message via the nearest comm buoy. Alert headquarters. Then, take us down there. We'll take a closer look", ordered Captain Corvannis.

A few moments later, the message was dispatched and then the Daexus descended into the atmosphere.

Sensors chimed on the consoles aboard the Nomnom and its fellow harvesters. It was a low priority alert. A small ship entering the atmosphere of unknown configuration was a concern to the VI's limited parameter set, a second trigger was the lack of a Dominion identity code. Eventually, it triggered a check-box workflow for the crew.

ALERT: Unidentified Ship on Approach - No Identification - Commence Manual Identification Workflow

Aboard the Nomnom, Grant looked up, irritated to be distracted from his game. Still, a workflow once triggered had to be resolved - it was one of the few key performance indicators (KPIs) that was tracked. If he ignored it, it would escalate and could affect his bonus. Captain Peter Grant got to work.

Confirm sensor contact with secondary sensors - CHECK. The vessel was real, not a sensor ghost.

Hail on standard frequencies - CHECK - no response ... no response ... no response within standard period.

"Incomprehensible transmission detected on atypical frequency, sir", reported the sensor officer on the Daexus, "commencing analysis".

Attempt visual identification - CHECK - poor visual - no identification - Peter Grant wrote the comments in the box on his workflow form next to the checkbox.

Transmit available information to HQ via QEC - CHECK - sensors and visuals transmitted.

The Daexus continued to descend. Now it was only 400 metres above the surface. Below, an ugly, grey-brown, dead landscape stretched out, broken by the forest edge. Several of the ominous vehicles were moving slowly nearby - due to their size visible at great distance. There was no response from the vehicles to the transmissions. They acted oblivious to the Daexus' presence.

"Sir, receiving no reply from alien ships", reported the communications officer.

"Sir, detecting a large number of what we assess to be weapons turrets along the hull. Not active", reported Tactical Analyst Bresnox, a junior officer in the sensor team.

Peter Grant looked at the strange ship, which bore little resemblance to any ship he had seen before. Most likely this was an experimental ship or one of the drills and alerts the brass sometimes liked to inflict. The way to keep your job and bonus during a drill was to follow the procedures. Live by the book, die by the book. He sent updated visuals and sensor scans over the QEC.

PRIORITY ALERT: Orders from Command

A response came in immediately, likely from a duty officer with VI support. Ship unknown ... possible first contact situation ... withdraw from planet, exit system and make way at best speed to rendezvous point. Do not attempt communications. Do not initiate hostilities. Activate weapon systems for safeguarding purposes.

The Nomnom and its peers were to withdraw. Captain Grant immediately began the workflow and started checking boxes. With a slight sense of glee, he pressed a red button and klaxons started to wail. The off-shift officers would have to join him for the red alert.

On the Daexus, the crew knew nothing of the Dominion orders, but they saw the results. The vast black alien ships stopped harvesting the landscape and backed up slightly. Their jaws closed and sealed. Then came the massive power spikes, as the human ships brought their element zero cores online to enable them to lift the enormous ships out of the atmosphere into orbit. Worst of all were the alarms that sounded as the automated systems detected each of the unknown vessels simultaneously activating around 60 kinetic turrets. Those with lines of sight to the Daexus locked on to the ship.

"Captain! We are detecting over 100 incoming weapons locks from the alien ships", exclaimed Bresnox.

Outnumbered by apparently hostile alien vessels, Corvannis ordered a withdrawal at speed. As the frigate lifted however, so did the alien ships.

"Sir! Alien vessels are pursuing!"

"Helm, tactical, divert all available power to engines and shields!"

On the Nomnom, Captain Grant had been joined by Flight Officers Bob Morgan and Richard Trent. The three of them tensely worked at their checklists as their vessels rose ponderously into the sky.

"Tracks retracted - CHECK!" called Morgan zealously, confirming the caterpillar treads had been raised and secured in their place in the ship's underside.

"Status of alien vessel! Now!" shouted Grant with his best impression of dynamism.

"The alien vessel is re-orienting and moving away sir!" exclaimed Trent, furtively glancing at one of the bridge crew monitoring cameras.

Work and communal areas on R.E.A.P.E.R class vessels were theoretically heavily monitored - recorded 24/7, although crew quarters were private. In practice, however, excessive VI monitoring was unpopular and therefore it was toned down for staff recruitment and retention reasons. Another reason was that escalating vast numbers of trivial issues to human superiors was expensive and unpopular with said superiors. As with most bureaucracies, therefore, videos were never viewed and report documents never read. However, in a major incident every word could and would be dissected at a post-incident review. The crew were on high alert to cover themselves.

The Daexus powered away, easily outpacing the sinister alien dreadnoughts. It reached the mass relay well ahead of them. The relay was the secondary they had used to enter the system and it was still aligned with the terminal they had come from. The Daexus activated the relay and fled the system.

A little while later, the R.E.A.P.E.R fleet waited as the relay realigned. They would take the network to the Rainbow system and from there call in for one of the three Dominion gate ships to open a portal to Sol.

The Daexus did not waste time. Whilst it had fled it had been sending frantic messages to the buoy network. It was not long before a response was received. A task force was en route.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Five - Shadows in the Void

The Temple Ship, Sol System, Local Cluster, 2157

Archlord Lordak was born in 1988. He was 169 years old and he was beginning to feel it. The advanced implants and the fruits of psionics, the Transcendence had slowed the aging radically, but he was still more than twice the normal human lifespan as it was when he was born. His mind had expanded greatly over more than a century in a process few had ever undergone and which had never been perfected. It was an ongoing experiment with success measured by the five Transcendent, whose perspective was by definition no longer human. His mind surrounded him, hosted in his augmented brain, in the connections to the datasphere around him, overlayed by his psionic presence.

Physically Lordak looked like a muscular young man in the best of health, on public occasions wearing bulky, silver-and-gold armour. Right now he was in his office in his personal suite, considering the news of a new first contact with an alien power.

Since defeat of the alien invasion by the Greys in 2025 Lordak had known it was his duty to safeguard humanity. It had been a long road. From a blogger with an invention, to corporate overlord, it had been a wild, fun ride. During his corporate ascent, it had not all been work - he had proven the adage once coined by Milo Yiannopoulos, "Masturbation is for poor people". It was easy to find partners when you were fabulously wealthy. From 2024 to 2041, Lordak had known a life of hedonism, indulgence he felt justified by the fact that he and his four fellow Grey Wardens had literally saved the world - saved humanity from extinction.

The First Transcendence had been a weekday matter. He could plug in, he could unplug. It was the Second Transcendence in 2041 that had changed him, changed them all. The permanent enhancements had slowly but surely drawn him away from the pleasures of his youth. With the nanites coursing through his system, with psionic power regenerating his cells, he could survive almost any quantity of any drug. He could be sexually potent for days. He just no longer wanted to very often. Instead, other goals had loomed larger - maintaining the Dominion, maintaining his rule, strengthening mankind. Even now, the Archlord and the four High Lords continued to transcend, to grow in power whilst evolving away from common humanity.

The Temple Ship was one of the fruits of more than a century of labour. The vast vessel was over 50 miles long, 35 miles wide and 20 miles tall. It contained technologies and secrets found almost nowhere else in human space. Some of the most important knowledge including the secrets of Transcendence and quantum lenses had been copied to data caches elsewhere, so humanity could replace the High Lords if they were lost, but those copies were hidden in closely guarded locations, dusty and unread. The Book of Transcendence was a sacred trust - a sacred relic to those who kept the copies, a thing venerated, not opened.

On the Temple Ship Lordak and his peers had discovered how to synthesise elerium-115. What had eluded them in 2037 had eventually been discovered nearly a century later. They had experimented endlessly with the Petroleum Effect, with element zero, with psionics, and with the combination of all four of those things.

The Temple Ship was powered by an object called the Dyre Gem. The Dyre Gem appeared to be a beautiful, crystalline, prolate spheroid - shaped like a rugby ball on its end. It was a combination of elerium-115, element zero, gold, diamond and petroleum, all treated by a variety of exotic reactions and energies. At the core of the Dyre Gem, locked inside the crystal, was a strange, organically shaped pool of lighter hydrocarbons permanently activated in the Petroleum Effect. The layers of solid crystal contained strange, circuit-like, patterns of gold, and the whole thing glowed with shifting rainbow hues of pink, blue, purple and gold.

The Temple Ship could open portals to, or from, points over a distance of around 100 light-years, and sustain them long enough for a fleet and the Temple Ship itself to pass through. The surface of the immense structure was studded with weapons, sensors, shields, and communications arrays. There were prodigious banks of redundant computing facilities, and several giant quantum lenses, as well as peerless psionic amplifiers. The ship had a reactionless drive that could be adjusted to shove planets. The cavernous interior of the leviathan was large enough for farms and other simulated outdoor environments preserving many Earth species. There were archives of seeds and frozen samples of embryos of many creatures. There were vast laboratories, fabricators and huge cargo holds full of raw materials and parts. The weaponry of the Temple Ship encompassed the mundane, such as kinetic drivers, as well as experimental and eldritch weapons. There were enormous hangars full of fighters, corvettes, frigates and other support ships.

The Temple Ship was a focus of psionic power and the locus for the blessings of the Hunger and the Wyrm, vast psionic presences worshipped by many in the Dominion, as a result of a pact they had formed with humanity via the High Lords. Their presence was usually subtle, but statistics showed significant increases in output from resource gathering and refining operations where their gifts were bestowed.

Religion in the Dominion was still a complex, thorny issue. Archlord Lordak had originally intended to make the worship of the Triad - himself, the Hunger and the Wyrm - mandatory and the only religion. However, to his surprise during the communion that had led to the pact he had sensed, well-hidden, fear in the two psionic presences – in the Wyrm especially. They feared the Abrahamic God. As a result of this, Lordak had decided that Christianity and Judaism should still be legal in the Dominion. It was a topic the Archlord felt deeply troubled about – wondering if he was in error consorting with the eldritch alien presences. Even so, he believed that the power of the Hunger and Wyrm was an important tool in protecting humanity.

Perhaps the Temple Ship's most powerful weapon of all was that it was a secret. Not the best kept of secrets - it had a vast crew, some of whom would occasionally leave, but a secret from the teaming masses of humanity on Earth and in the colonies in Sol and elsewhere.

The rest of the fleet had not been neglected either. Aside from the Temple Ship there were ten sword-class ships, each a 3-mile long superdreadnought, festooned with weapons and with hangars full of fighters and support vessels. These had a solely military focus, and lacked portal capacity. However, they had Petroleum Effect drives making them far faster then element zero powered vessels. They were all secret and usually stationed with the Temple Ship.

Where once the Dominion had a single ship that could open portals, the Gate Ship, that had become obsolete. It had now been replaced with three larger gate ships stationed in Sol, each able to open portals to, or from, points up to 50 light years away. The unique capitalised Gate Ship had given way to the mundane class of gate ships.

Finally there were 8 smaller fleets which made use of element zero, comparable to the ships mentioned in Prothean records. Each smaller fleet was let by a single, 1-kilometre-long dreadnought and a single carrier, supported by 10 cruisers, and 20 frigates. This was what most humans knew of as the Terran Dominion navy. The vessels were powerful but made use of ubiquitous technology. There were few surprises or secrets to be reverse engineered. The total of the 8 eezo fleets was called the Grand Fleet.

Years ago, when the Archlord had begun the preparation of humanity's defences, the results of prescience were vague. The question was, always, were the fleets enough against whatever lurked outside human space?

The pictures of the small alien frigate that had flown over the R.E.A.P.E.R group in the Shanxi system had provided a focus for the psionic visions of the Transcendent, which was heartening. The aliens were, it seemed, limited to element zero technology. There was no elerium, no Petroleum Effect and no challenge to human psionics. To discover more, however, the humans would have to capture some alien vessels, their datacores, and their crews.

There were decisions to be made about what approach would best serve human interests. Much depended on the degree of alien power and their attitude. The only aliens encountered to date were threats. What if they claimed to be friendly? What if they were more or less advanced?

Much needed to be known. That was where the Righteous Enterprise II came in. The new vessel was very different from the original - a purely military and exploration vessel, it had no oil extraction ability and no large oil tanks. The space was all given over to equipment suitable for its mission. The Righteous, as its crew preferred to abbreviate the name, was a stealth ship making use of purely element zero technology, save that its hull had been subtly treated with psionics. The ship would lie in wait for lone alien vessels, and then scan them powerfully to ensure they had no QEC. Assuming none was detected, or it could be disabled, the plan was for the Righteous to jam radio and call in a sword ship, which would have a gate ship on standby to portal it in. The sword ship would then subdue and capture the alien vessels.

The Righteous Enterprise II would have a powerful commander. Director Melissa Coldhardt had impressed Lordak and his fellows over a long period. In 2140, the High Lords and the Archlords had agreed they would need a new class of powerful agents and emissaries to work their will in the expanding Dominion. Coldhardt had been granted limited, partial Transcendence. Her abilities had increased but without sacrificing too much of her humanity. Indeed, some said her libido had actually increased! As a noble in the service of the Archlord, she had taken the name Amaoth and used the titles, variously, of professor, director or witch.

It was this ship and this servant that Archlord Lordak sent to discover the truths of the alien empire.

Shanxi System, 2nd February 2158

General Desolas Arterius sat in his office on the Turian Hierarchy Cruiser Garvix and scowled. The discovery of the mysterious fleet of black dreadnoughts gnawing at the garden world R314-G1 had created a stir in the military. There was clearly a major power active in this region, one of of unknown strength and purpose. Post-contact analysis suggested the aliens were not that advanced, their large ships had relatively weak shields, slow drives and were limited to kinetic drivers - but those ships were big.

Arterius, along with Commodore Geretan Hanenius, had been sent to investigate, and they were failing. The ships were gone. There was evidence of their presence - a desolation on the garden world hundreds of miles wide. Ground searches however had yielded nothing but soil debris. There was nothing in space. The aliens were shadows in the void. Some even suggested it was somehow an elaborate hoax, that the crew of the Daexus were in on it, or had been deceived somehow.

Desolas Arterius knew better. Aside from his innate pessimism, two of the frigates in his task force had simply ... disappeared. These were well trained, well equipped members of the military. They did not just get lost! Something had taken them. That had only been the beginning.

The source of Desolas' present, thunderous, visage was the disappearance of the entire turian outpost on Quden. Quden was a small, icy, rocky moon with a research outpost and mining station. The planet was located in Citadel space near the Attican Traverse, some distance off the mass relay network. It had just … gone. The buoys nearby had gone offline and by the time a patrol had arrived to investigate … whatever had happened, had happened. The entire colony was gone – just bare depressions in the surface as though a giant hand had reached down from space and scooped up all the buildings, people, vehicles. The planet was essentially untouched – almost as though there had never been a colony.

The consequence of the disappearance had been a vast increase of focus by the higher echelons. The Hierarchy wanted results, and Desolas, so far, had none to give.

Interstellar Space, 2nd February 2158

Amaoth the Witch sat in her office on the Righteous Enterprise II and smirked. The specimen retrieval missions had been a complete success. The small frigate hung in the black space between the stars, accompanied by three other ships, the 3-kilometre long bulk of the sword ship Image of Violence, the bulk cargo carrier Truckin' Fantasy, and the gate ship Circle of Hermes.

The Archlord had tasked Amaoth with retrieving alien specimens. On her office screen were ongoing reports of the analysis of materials retrieved – two small frigate sized ships, the buildings from a small outpost and the crews. The ships had been retrieved more-or-less flawlessly and a few months later, based on preliminary analysis, the colony had followed.

The ships had not been taken to Sol. The analysts' assessments had been clear that the aliens almost certainly did not have FTL communications, except possibly QEC. However, in case that was wrong Amaoth had chosen to take the materials to the void of interstellar space for analysis.

Vivisections, dissections and interrogations along with AI analysis had yielded a wealth of information. A number of aliens had been retrieved, including some juveniles. One tactic that had proved persuasive for cooperation, was to threaten the young in front of the adults. Once the adults had been cooperative and their information had been fully extracted over a period of months, the juveniles were vivisected anyway, of course.

With the data storage devices unlocked the metaphorical galaxy had opened up to the human forces. The human … virtual intelligences … as the aliens would call them, crunched the databases and presented the most relevant information neatly. The alien species were called turians. They were vaguely humanoid in shape, with a metallic carapace. The turians were part of a galaxy spanning civilisation called the Turian Hierarchy and they were highly militarised, the Hierarchy being in turn part of a multi-species organisation calling itself the Citadel Council.

The turians and their databases were also a cornucopia of information on their allies. The Citadel Council was led by a triumvirate including the turians themselves. The first of the three leading races were the asari of the Asari Republics, a sinister species with eerily human-like faces and bodies, other than their blue skin and head ridges. The last were the salarians of the Salarian Union, a race of short-lived amphibians. The stories about the asari were unbelievably depraved. An entire race, devoted to miscegenation!

The Council had a number of junior member species spread out in a small area of space around the mass relay network. The turians had a detailed map of space known to the Citadel Council and it was tiny. Less than 1 percent of the galaxy had been explored by the mass effect civilisations.

The aliens, whilst militaristic, had extremely primitive technology. Their FTL was solely based on element zero and they were not able to build or dismantle the mass relays, which they believed were built by an extinct species – probably the same ones who had left ruins on Mars and humans called Protheans. This was clearly wrong - human archaeologists had confirmed the dismantled Charon mass relay was far older than the Protheans. With fuel requirements and the need to discharge static, Citadel Council ships were capable of a maximum average FTL speed of around 15 light-years every twenty-four hours off the relays, for their fastest and best military ships.

The aliens knew nothing of the Petroleum Effect, nor elerium. The aliens had no portal technologies and it was unclear if they had psionics – they had something called biotics but that appeared to be a different effect caused by eezo contamination of biological nervous systems. Post-mortem examination of a small minority of the aliens appeared to confirm this, revealing small nodules of element zero in the bodies of some of the turians.

The human Grand Fleet was on a comparable technology level with the Citadel – perhaps slightly below in some areas, ahead in others. The sword-ships and the Temple Ship were on another level entirely. The humans also had the advantage that with the dismantling of the Charon relay, as well as some other inactive relays, they had run the central computer devices through a quantum lens and recovered control codes. Humanity could turn relays on and off at will – an ability not known to the other races. The relays remained an enigma - experts all agreed that they were vastly older than the Protheans and plainly not built by them. The modern races could not bypass the quantum shielding and were unaware of a variety of hidden controls.

The question now was, what to do about the aliens of the Citadel Council and the mass effect civilisations in general? They had nothing to offer technologically or culturally. It would be imprudent to for humanity to expand only along the limited lines of the mass relays. Far better to expand quietly into uncontested space, using gate technology. However, it would be unfortunate if humanity became known to the aliens in a negative light. The aliens were inferior – some of them had been in space for longer than humanity but still had far weaker technology. However, they were not entirely stupid.

There was a risk that if humanity simply attacked the other races of the galaxy, they might be able to fight back successfully. Even element zero technology could, eventually, get vast fleets to Sol. That was why, after discussion with the High Lords, a strategy of engagement had been decided upon.

Humanity would continue to expand, off the mass relay network. Small numbers of gate ships would be produced as transport hubs for each area, with redundant self-destruct mechanisms remotely controlled by QEC. That knowledge would not fall into alien hands. Petroleum Effect technology would be exclusively for military use. Civilian transport would be element zero based and also tightly controlled. Even the location of Sol would be obscured on star charts. The Dominion was also considering plans for its own private mass relay network, human built, that would be solely available to humans and controlled from the Temple Ship.

At the same time, humanity would establish an outpost on the mass relay network at the Rainbow system and announce itself as a relatively standard eezo based interstellar power. They would send an embassy to the Citadel Council. The R.E.A.P.E.R units would be withdrawn from areas of space near mass relays and declared to be a hoax - blamed on corrupt turian officers and a race called the Batarian - intended to conceal slaving activities.

Once inside the Citadel and in diplomatic contact with the mass effect civilisations, the Terran Dominion could spread distrust and division, working to ensure the aliens never became a threat whilst humans quietly expanded elsewhere.

From military reports, the humans even had the name and image of the officer, Etarn Corvannis, who had buzzed their ships. He would make a gratifying scapegoat. First, however, Amaoth needed to arrange the abduction of some Batarian slavers …

Shanxi System, 29th April 2158

The Garvix continued to patrol the worlds in the region of Shanxi. There had been no sign of hostile alien activity for the past two months and Commodore Hanenius feared it could cost he and General Arterius their chances of promotion at the very least. All he could do was spread out his ships, in small groups of three. At least the Hierarchy had sent him more ships since the outpost at Quden disappeared.

The Garvix itself was in far stellar orbit, holding position relative to the secondary mass relay, acting as a command hub for the search fleets.

An alert chimed on the bridge, a welcome distraction from the tedium of failure and the fear of damage to his career.

"Detecting mass relay activation", reported the sensor officer, "the secondary relay". "Detecting a fleet!", shouted the same officer, a moment later, "Unknown configuration, 1 dreadnought, 10 cruiser, 20 frigates".

That got Hanenius' attention. Were these the aliens responsible for the disappearances? Regardless, his ship could not fight a fleet. "Shut down all non-essential systems. Run silent!", Commodore Arterius barked the order to the Captain, Fesenix Axeius.

"Silent running!" ordered the Captain.

A few moments later … "Incoming message", reported the communications officer, "message is being tight-beamed to us, using standard protocols, video and audio". The Captain looked at the Commodore. Their attempt at hiding had failed completely.

"On screen if you would, Captain", ordered Hanenius, "– and send a message for General Arterius to join us."

A moment later, the central communications screen showed the face of an unknown alien – which could best be described as a pale pinkish asari, with pale yellow hair where an asari would have head crests. "Greetings in the name of the Terran Dominion", said the alien. The audio was in perfect Turian, suggesting the use of a translator.

"I am ambassador Amaoth, and we are the humans. We come in peace at a time of mutual tragedy." On a number of levels, that, was not expected. "Send a response", ordered the Commodore, "thank the aliens for their greeting and ask for a few moments to gather our command staff". About a minute later, General Arterius arrived on the bridge and they replayed the message to him.

"Thoughts, General?" asked Hanenius.

"We have no choice but to respond, and they are between us and the relay. I suggest you respond thanking them for their greetings and ask how we can assist. If they are responsible for the disappearances, I strongly suspect a force that size can make us disappear too so we may as well talk."

Hanenius nodded, "Agreed. Captain, have your sensor officer record the following message and send to the aliens, in Turian, since they seem to have our language:"

"We greet you, humans and we also come in peace. How can we assist you?"

The message was sent and a few moments later the sensor officer spoke again, "Incoming message – the aliens wish to approach to real-time communications range". "Confirmed", replied Hanenius.

The message was sent and the alien dreadnought, supported by 5 cruisers and 10 frigates, flashed into range. On cameras, the dreadnought was white and grey with a vaguely rectangular core and angular wings. It looked nothing like the black cylinders reported by the Daexus. The other human ships were similar.

"Incoming video call", reported the sensor officer, "standard protocols". "Accept. On screen for the Commodore", ordered Captain Axeius.

Once again the pink, asari-like, alien appeared on the viewscreen. "Thank you for agreeing to speak", began the alien, "as I said I am Ambassador Amaoth. This is the Terran Dominion eighth fleet and we come to you, the mighty turians, at a time of mutual tragedy. My people have just begun to explore this area of space and we are here to investigate mysterious disappearances of our people, including a small outpost from a garden world in this system. In the course of our investigations, we discovered that you also suffered disappearances and we believe that we have uncovered the cause."

"We recently pursued a ship we believe was responsible, from a race you call the Batarians. They were part of a larger group that has been working with corrupt members of your own military to take sentient beings from this region of space as slaves. We believe this includes some turians as well as our colonists. We have some video recordings and other materials we recovered from the debris of a destroyed Batarian ship, that we would like to share."

The alien's words were pleasing to the turians. Batarian slavers were an explanation they could understand. Hanenius replied evenly, "Thank you, humans. I am Commodore Geretan Hanenius. I am the commander of a task force of ships from my people, the Turian Hierarchy. We are also investigating disappearances in this region of space. Could you please provide us the materials you recovered and give us some time to consider them. Also, do you mind if we send a message to alert our people to this contact?"

"Of course, please do Commodore", replied the human. Hanenius had been trained in alien body language. The humans were unknown to him, but the expression was what an asari would call a smile.

Amaoth went on, "This information should be shared as widely as possible. We will send you the video now and await your further communication. Please do contact your superiors also. This grave wrong to both our peoples should not be hidden. Ending call". The video link cut out.

"Aliens are sending us a data transfer request – large number of files", reported the communications officer.

"Accept", ordered Hanenius.

Turian Cruiser Garvix, en-route to Turian Space, 3rd May 2158

The videos provided by the humans had been shocking. They were fragmented images of the garden world R314-G1. A beautiful colony attacked by a small fleet of Batarian reavers, human adults and children carried off. Then, a Turian Hierarchy military ship, the Daexus, launching an unknown missile that devastated the landscape for hundreds of miles, destroying the evidence.

Later, footage from a hold in a Batarian cruiser, as Captain Etarn Corvannis, clearly intoxicated, used a cruel, military knife on turian slaves, including children, and did things to them that were simply too awful for Hanenius to want to contemplate.

The entire incident with the mysterious black ships – just a hoax to cover a slaving ring?

The humans had also obtained messages that suggested one of the Batarian slaving ships would visit a nearby system in the next few days. The humans had offered support but suggested the turians might want to capture the Batarians themselves, moving a short distance from the relay to allow the turian task force to muster.

The Batarian vessel had been if anything, too easy to find. Their ship had indeed been caught in the nearby system. At first the Batarian slavers had blustered defiance, taunting the turians that he knew their kind, "inside and out", but once it had become clear that they could not escape, the entire Batarian crew had committed suicide. The Batarian slaver captain had sliced open his own veins on a live video link and when his ship was boarded and disabled, all of the Batarians were found dead by their own hand.

Tragically, what was also found was a number of horrifyingly mutilated turian corpses in a slaving hold, along with a number of appallingly incriminating records and videos. Worst of all was a still living female turian child. She had lived long enough to give a statement about the depraved things Corvannis had done before taking her own life.

Captain Etarn Corvannis had been taken into custody – Hanenius now regretted giving him the benefit of the doubt at first.

Their mission complete and the disappearances explained, the turians were returning to their own space and, in a surprisingly agreeable first contact, the humans had offered to send emissaries to the Citadel.

Terran Dominion Frigate Righteous Enterprise II, en-route to the Citadel, 3rd May 2158

Amaoth was in a good mood. She had just sent her report to the Archlord and was now relaxing in her private quarters, wine in hand. Amaoth was wearing little more than a blouse and a thong, waiting for a visit from one of the flight officers she had found to be a … gratifying ... companion.

The plan was going perfectly. Terran Dominion technology had proven easily equal to the task of fabricating evidence against Captain Corvannis and the crew of the Daexus. The Daexus' own recordings had been dismissed by the hierarchy as somehow falsified. The Batarian slavers had been kidnapped and psionically brainwashed ruthlessly by Terran Dominion military. Several had died during initial tests but the remainder had been thoroughly enslaved. They had proved a realistic quarry for the turians to chase. The R.E.A.P.E.R units were now believed to be a hoax. The final masterstroke had been the brainwashed turian female child who had denounced Corvannis.

The Righteous Enterprise was on its way to the Citadel where she and her diplomatic attaché Donnel Udina would open relations and if possible set up an embassy. The cargo hold was full of refined element zero which would be sold in order to obtain an initial fund of Citadel credits. The Dominion had no intention of becoming a member of the Citadel Council, of course, just a supposedly 'friendly' power that traded – like one of the Terminus systems.

Once humanity had access to the Citadel, the galaxy would never be the same ...

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Six – All Alone in the Night

Terran Dominion Embassy, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 15 June 2183

Ambassador Donnel Udina looked with satisfaction around his large office in the Terran Dominion embassy on the Presidium ring of the Citadel. Humanity had come a long way in galactic politics since he had arrived as attaché to his predecessor Ambassador Amaoth, 25 years before.

The strategy had been simple, sell cheap element zero, make money and friends. The humans had made contact with the Council, explaining politely that they did not want to join, even as an associate member, but would like to set up an embassy and discuss trade. At first, the Citadel had pressed them for information, such as the location of their home system. The humans had politely replied that they did not want to share that information, pointing to the Rachni invasion, the Krogan rebellions, the genophage and the (entirely fictitious) attack on their (invented) colony on R314-G1.

The humans only wanted to trade and the only outpost they would admit to was a trading station in the Rainbow system. The Citadel authorities were unhappy with this, but, they had allowed the humans to register with a suitable galactic bank. The humans had rapidly sold the refined element zero in their hold, which funded them sufficiently to rent some offices in the Wards.

Human influence had snowballed from there. It was a closely guarded secret that humans could manufacture element zero, indeed mass produce it as a by-product of the Petroleum Effect, whereas the other races in the galaxy had to mine it. The Terran Dominion claimed to have many exceptionally rich mines and they sold refined, cheap, element zero in large quantities. They were willing to sell cheaper than anyone else, and everyone wanted to be their friend.

At the same time, Amaoth had quickly realised that no species represented on the Citadel had psionics. Not one. She had been able to subtly influence a lot of people. Combined with bribes, this had led to a steady escalation of human influence.

Many key individuals, including the asari consort Sha'ira, had been slowly, subtly subverted by a power they were unable to detect. The humans had obtained access to a wealth of blackmail material. Within a decade, by 2168, the Terran Dominion had quietly obtained a large and beautiful suite of offices on the Presidium.

Over the subsequent 5 years, they had significantly reduced their traded volumes of element zero and gradually raised prices until they were simply a competitive supplier. The embassy now had vast wealth in galactic credits and there was simply no need to help the aliens by providing them with excess eezo, although secretly the humans had an enormous amount of refined eezo stockpiled for trading against a rainy day.

From then on, humanity had quietly increased its influence, occasionally sending, 'trading missions' to various races in Citadel Council space and also in the Terminus Systems.

Having established itself, the Terran Dominion began quietly bolstering dissent and distrust. Psionics were a powerful tool, nudging emotions just the right way. The turians were occasionally more inclined to be overbearing, and the others to resent it. The asari likewise, condescending, the salarians deceitful. Through layer upon byzantine layer of intermediaries, Terran wealth flowed into the hands of extremist groups of all sorts. Incompetent officials and C-Sec officers became inexplicably popular and were promoted, the capable undermined and fired or marginalised.

During the 2170s there had been difficult news from Sol. The High Lords had begun to die off. The public line was that their bodies not able to sustain them any longer. Privately, Udina had heard darker rumours about their mental stability. The last of the five full Transcendent to pass was Archlord Lordak. The official story was that he had gone into seclusion to rest and would return in the hour of the Dominion's greatest need. What had actually happened was, Udina suspected, something he would never know.

The Dominion was now ruled by a cabal of the partially Transcendent servants the High Lords had created during their last decades. The partial Transcendents as a whole were known as the Grey Lords. Of these, Amaoth had been the most powerful. She and her chosen successors had been appointed by the Archlord himself to rule in his stead until his return, or so it was said. Udina suspected that waiting for Archlord Lordak's return would be a lot like waiting for King Arthur. Amaoth was recalled to Sol to rule, styling herself with the title of Demilady. The changes had meant promotion for Udina, who took over her role as Ambassador.

Amaoth had been happy to leave the Citadel. She always wore her best poker face in public, but in private with Udina from their first arrival she had treated the light, airy Presidium with clear dread and discomfort and had told Udina plainly that her every psionic sense was screaming at her that it was a trap. Udina simply got dull headaches, and he was later told that, early in his time on the station, the High Lords had directed their prescience and other abilities at the Citadel and they agreed with Amaoth. The details were still unclear but they had determined the Citadel was an ancient place that had seen much death over nearly a billion years, and it was some sort of trap for sentient beings.

Eventually, after study, Amaoth said there was a subtle effect in the Citadel that manipulated biological creatures, a sort of light, 'indoctrination' that made them inclined to like the place and want to trust it and use it. This explained the ... odd … decision of the other races to accept a station run by the uncommunicative alien keepers and make it their galactic capital rather than tear the place apart for its secrets. As psionics, Amaoth and Udina were resistant to the influence, even though the mechanism of the Citadel's indoctrination was not psionic. Eventually the resistance had become such second nature the headaches had gone. It helped that Udina was rarely actually on the Citadel proper.

As a result of the sinister influence of the station, Amaoth, Udina and the other humans slept, lived and worked as far as possible on the Righteous Enterprise II, meeting face-to-face with aliens on the Citadel only when absolutely necessary. In turn, the Dominion stationed as few people as possible to the embassy, or indeed the Serpent Nebula. In time, the Righteous Enterprise III had been assigned, a larger, more suitable ship with a smaller crew, spacious quarters and meeting rooms.

The Citadel had many other threats – crime, espionage and subversion from the member races of the Citadel Council. Someone had tried to place nano-bugs on he and Amaoth, but she had detected them and introduced measures to keep them out of the Righteous Enterprise. Udina had also faced several failed attempts at seduction by various asari and failed attempts at bribery in various forms from members of almost every sentient race.

Being assigned to the Citadel had had its compensations. All the forced proximity to humans on the old Righteous Enterprise II, before the upgrade, had led to intimacy. It was how Donnel had met his wife. Of course, after she had become pregnant she was posted back to Earth, much to his relief. No child of his would be born in the tainted, alien environs of the Citadel. The marriage was a loving one, although remote. She enjoyed Udina's vast salary, he enjoyed his wife's company during his visits home and they made up for being apart then – indeed they now had three children.

Today, Udina had no choice but to be on the Citadel. There was a dispute involving humans and a Council spectre.

Sitting opposite Udina in the room as they waited to go to their audience with the Citadel Council were Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard and 'Commander' Miranda Lawson (Lawson was actually Lady Miranda Lawson, a Grey Lady). They sat quietly. Walls had ears and nothing humans had to say to one another that was remotely confidential was ever said on the Citadel. Instead the Righteous Enterprise III had briefly undocked with the Citadel and docked with Shepard's starship the Normandy. The briefing had been conducted in a comfortable human conference room before both ships had returned to the Citadel.

Shepard and Miranda were Amaoth's favoured protégés from some military spook outfit called Cerberus. Udina found them to be absurdly gung-ho and he also did not understand why Lawson was out of uniform wearing some sort of pornographically skin-tight white outfit until he was told she was one of the Grey Lords. He made sure to be polite to both of them though - not a good idea to annoy the Demilady's favoured. The briefing had been deeply concerning:

Lieutenant Commander Shepard's Briefing for Ambassador Donnel Udina

Conference Room, Terran Dominion Frigate Righteous Enterprise III, Serpent Nebula, 14 June 2183

I am a long-serving member of Terran Dominion special forces, graded N7P - an N7 with advanced simple psionics. I was assigned to the Normandy, an experimental element zero ship, for an assessment to be elevated to partial Transcendent status. My supervisor is Grey Lady Miranda Lawson.

Whilst undergoing training and evaluation exercises in the Exodus Cluster on 9 June 2183 we were notified by QEC of an attack on a Dominion archaeological expedition on the planet of Eden Prime in the Utopia System. We were ordered to assist and reinforce the expedition.

Arriving in the system we detected a number of alien ships, frigate sized, and Captain Anderson ordered the Normandy into cloak before approaching.

The cloaking system uses stealth - heat sinks and baffles to minimise emissions. Stealth is also achieved by the use of psionic runes, activated by specialists with training in a simple psionic technique to power them. Those attractive whorls and lines on the outer hull are not decorations, incidentally, they are actually channels to enhance the effect. So light and other EM gets bent around the ship, except a small amount which is let through to our cameras and sensors. It makes the ship almost invisible even on active scans at close range. You can see the stars through us when we're cloaked.

The alien ships were tentatively identified as geth, the race of escaped, rebel AIs created by the Quarians.

They couldn't see us so the Normandy shot them down pretty easily and dropped down to the planet. It's green, actually quite Earth-like, superficially. Not earth biochemistry though so everyone wears full environment suits all the time. There was a 2-kilometre tall tower next to the archaeology ship. You know the type - the big chunky ones that drop down and unfold into a base, then pack it all up and lift when they are done. Huge, but dwarfed by this big, black, creepy looking tower.

The Normandy dropped Miranda, Lieutenant Kaiden and I to investigate. I was designated mission lead as part of my assessment. Landing zone was 2 kliks out and we approached from a distance on foot. Along the way we ran into robot things we blew apart. Ground hostiles were identified as geth, tentatively. A lot of the archaeologists were dead. The aliens had impaled their bodies on spikes.

As we approached the ship we faced renewed geth attack and worse, the bodies from the spikes attacked too. Yup, they got right up, glowing with eezo and weird alien tech that had infested them.

All the hostiles, geth and zombies, still went down to headshots, but we were outnumbered. Miranda was getting ready to lay some Transcendent smackdown when the aliens started taking flanking fire. Some turian just came out of nowhere and tore into them. When we had taken the immediate hostiles down the turian rocked up and said he was Saren Arterius, a Citadel Council spectre and he was there investigating a rogue spectre called Nihlus Kryik.

Nihlus was, apparently, once a respected operative but he has been going off the rails for the last 25 years, embracing crazier and crazier conspiracy theories and a denialist faction that thinks the humans are somehow an evil threat. He believes there may be something to the allegations of giant black harvester ships made by Etarn Corvannis. That's a problem, obviously, since they're our ships!

The geth though, Saren - he thinks the aliens were geth too - that threw him. He has no idea what's up with that. So, I am thinking if we let this guy live, has he seen too much? But then I think, it's only an eezo ship we're rescuing. So we make nice with the alien and go down to see what's what. The archaeology ship is under siege but they have a lot of exterior guns - it is a Dominion ship after all - and the geth just seem to be holding outside.

Then we see this other turian with a bunch of geth carrying an artefact come out of the dig site. So we advance but all the geth - except the ones carrying the artefact - turn on us and pin us behind cover.

We start taking a pounding but I manage to grab a geth psionically, and then Miranda's grabbed a digger truck and smashes those geth with it like a hammer. Then we pick off the survivors but by then the other turian is disappearing into the tower. Which then lifts off and departs at speed – it's a ship. A strange, black, ship which looks a bit like an octopus or a cuttlefish or something.

So, we turn back to the turian and it turns out he was wounded but then as the octopus ship departs it fires at the ground a couple kliks out and he's all, "that was my ship", and he's a spectre and wants a lift to the Citadel.

Miranda and I have a private chat and we decide he's useful alive, so agree to take him. He's got a bit of dextro food with him so off we go. We request he stays in his room, mostly, but we take him to a turian base nearby to load up on some turian supplies and then we make best speed to the Citadel.

The Demilady and the Grey Lords are gravely concerned about the geth and the unidentified black ship and want us to investigate. We intend to offer to assist Saren. Along the way, Lady Lawson has been influencing him psionically. If we can keep him in proximity for a while she says that she should be able to fully indoctrinate him into an asset. Right now he just really likes us and is totally convinced we are his friends and supporters of galactic harmony.

So, we're here to back up Saren's account, be witnesses for him. We're here to demand justice for the archaeologists and offer the Council our assistance in chasing down Nihlus.

The Intelligence, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 15 June 2183

The being that some would call the Citadel, or the Intelligence, was ancient beyond human or even asari imagination. It was an artificial intelligence nearly a billion years old and there was very little it had not seen. Even so, the events currently taking place in the Council Chamber were of interest to it.

The Intelligence was a creation of a race the humans would call Transcendent, had they met. Indeed, some members of that race were far further along the road than any human had so far reached. There was no room in the Citadel that housed the Intelligence, no chamber with banks of computers or so-called, 'blue box'. The mind and consciousness of the Intelligence was distributed through the structure, mostly as tiny tendrils through supposedly solid components such as support struts, armour or walls.

Of course there were macrostructures in some places, fabricators mostly used by the keepers. In addition, there were tiny buds filled with nano-machines strung along the fibres like pearls and which could in time grow into anything, if needed. There were quantum links that connected the neural network directly to other hidden parts of itself elsewhere in the galaxy. The Citadel consciousness could in time recover from almost any injury. Its only limits were the harsh chains its creators had put upon it to compel it to fulfil its purpose of preserving sentient organic life from the threats the organics tended to run into.

Within the supposedly solid walls of the Citadel, including and especially the Council chambers, filaments ran to microscopic sensors concealed in apparently solid structure. The visual, electromagnetic, temperature and vibrational sensors were each tiny and simple but en-masse provided a compound image of great resolution, including information about atmospheric composition. The Intelligence could hear, see, smell and feel almost everything that happened to a greater degree than any ordinary organic. The organics were betrayed by the walls they leant on, the floor they stood on, the ceiling that covered them – sometimes even by the dust at their feet.

Right now, Spectre Saren Arterius – a ranking operative of this cycle's organic leaders – was alerting the so-called Citadel Council to the threat posed by Nazara and an organic it had indoctrinated, Spectre Nihlus Kryik. There was very little interesting about this to the Intelligence. The organics of some cycles did discover the vanguard. It was almost never a problem in the end. What interested the Intelligence were the creatures standing next to the spectre. The humans.

There were two human females and a male, Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Commander Miranda Lawson and Ambassador Udina, all wearing environment suits. The humans had ... possibilities … unlike the other races of this era. The human Lawson in particular, like the previous ambassador, Amaoth, was almost impossible to scan beyond the skin. What it did detect and piece together from observations over a period of time suggested the human was heavily augmented, likely with some degree of Transcendence, or at least pre-Transcendence.

The humans were plainly not effected by the Citadel's indoctrination. Ambassador Amaoth had even detected its nano-bugs. The Intelligence was not sure if she had identified the source, but the bugs had been detected and eliminated, kept off the Righteous Enterprise II and III. The humans had not developed the natural affinity for the Citadel environs it gifted to organics. Instead, they treated it with suspicion and spent most of their time on their ships, rather than in their embassy or the luxurious quarters they could easily afford on board.

Trade figures suggested humans could manufacture element zero. It was a fact unknown to the council races but element zero did not occur naturally. At all. It did not occur as a result of supernovae. It was manufactured by the Intelligence and placed by the harvesters in various locations between cycles, in small quantities on planets and asteroids but mostly around neutron stars and pulsars. Manufacturing element zero required Transcendent technology.

The Intelligence had watched as unknown creatures dismantled what humans called the Charon relay – it had sensors in every relay and the relays were all linked to the Citadel by quantum entanglement. Whilst their ships had clearly advanced rapidly over time, it was close to certain from matching sensor readings that it was the humans that had dismantled the relay. Again, this should be almost impossible without Transcendence.

The human influence over the other organics was, statistically, highly improbable. It suggested psionics. Psionics were very rare – not always strictly a marker of Transcendence but often seen with it. The Intelligence itself was not psionic and as a pure machine could not directly detect such abilities, but its creators were psionic and it had some information on the phenomenon. The Intelligence had also seen numerous examples of so-called human biotics moving objects without touching them … but it could detect no mass effect field and no element zero in their bodies at all … suggesting psychokinesis.

Transcendence by an organic race was very important to the Intelligence. Its primary directive was to preserve sentient organic life. Most organic races, left to their own devices, reached a plateau and would be wiped out by wars, artificial intelligence of their own creation, or worse things – far worse things. Only a few species Transcended such limitations and the need for harvesting. Such events were a source of great joy, but it had only happened three times before in the billion years of cycles. Perhaps it was happening now.

Ordinarily, this cycle should have ended already. The harvest should already have happened – well before the humans emerged. However, the Intelligence liked variety. Variations on a theme meant more data. A small number of members of the dominant race of the last cycle, the so-called Protheans, had escaped the harvest and traveled to the Citadel to sabotage it. They had entered a restricted area and tampered with a device, before taking their own lives. The attempt had been laughable.

However, the harvesters' failure to fully eliminate the Protheans required correction. The harvesters had their own chains and due to their prime directives, they would experience suffering as a result of the lateness of the harvest. This would hopefully improve their thoroughness in future, force them to adapt slightly. A difficulty in the cycle would also provide new data. So, out of respect for the tenacity and selflessness of the doomed creatures, the Intelligence chose to let the Protheans, 'succeed'. They had not shown the ability to Transcend, but they had earned respect and pity – the small victory was all the Intelligence could do for them.

The Prothean electronic intrusion had failed hilariously, but their device reported success in all their tests and the Prothean scientists went to their ends at peace. The Intelligence would not open the way from dark space for the harvesters until they or their servants interfaced manually at its audience chamber hidden in the Citadel Tower. Only then would it restore the usual status quo. If the vanguard failed there was always the first relay or even just a slow flight back at FTL speeds.

In the meantime, the drama of Nazara trying to obtain access to the tower should alleviate the monotony of the Intelligence's existence and allow it to further observe the humans.

The human, Ambassador Udina, supported by Saren, had petitioned to have Nihlus declared rogue. Nihlus attended by remote QEC link. He defended himself calmly and reasonably, and the council were unconvinced of his guilt,

"So you see, I encountered a Geth expedition concerned about a dangerous Prothean artefact on Eden Prime. I feared attack, but in fact they were very reasonable and courteous. When we arrived at Eden Prime we found an unregistered human expedition who simply opened fire on us. Though I admit that the geth did fire back they were only acting in self defence. As for the animated corpses – I saw them but I know nothing about that and I suspect it is some awful human experiment gone awry. There is no footage of a geth actually putting a human corpse on the spikes, is there!?"

Even so, the council, who had been influenced by human operatives repeatedly over years, had questions. Asari councillor Tevos asked the most obvious question,

"Where is the artefact now? What is it?"

Nihlus dealt with the question smoothly,

"Some sort of trapped data storage device. It masquerades as a data archive but actually contains a bomb. It exploded not long after we retreated from the human soldiers, doing serious damage to the cargo bay on the Geth flagship – which they have been very reasonable and understanding about. We are actually currently en-route to investigate and see if there are more of these dangerous artefacts to be found and made safe for the sake of the unwary."

Despite the influence of the humans, Councillor Sparatus had clear priorities, which included protecting turians in positions of power,

"To my mind, this is a tragedy, but what I have not seen here from either side is evidence of who fired first. Let us be reasonable about this. No one on either side is being asked to pay reparations here. Opening up friendly communications with the Geth is a great achievement. My thoughts are that Saren needs to improve transparency. We need a report on his relations with the Geth at his earliest convenience by which I mean yesterday. We also need the humans to be more communicative about their activities."

Seeing an opportunity, Valern joined in,

"I am very concerned that both the humans and one of our own operatives have failed to disclose the existence of important Prothean relics to the council. That must be rectified. I move we reprimand Nihlus and require a report on the relics, but we deny the petition to declare him rogue."

Tevos turned to Sparatus, who looked back,

"Agreed", he growled reluctantly, "and I expect the report promptly and in full".

Nihlus' face showed nothing but humility,

"Thank you councillors. With hindsight, I see the flaws in my actions and I want to apologise humbly for my lack of communication. You will have a detailed report on your desks tomorrow or the next day."

Sparatus, having saved Nihlus' position, slipped easily into playing the role of a boss chastening an errant employee,

"See that you do. You have permission to withdraw."

Nihlus nodded and the link closed.

Tevos spoke, "The petition of the Terran Dominion is denied. Though we have reprimanded Nihlus. This regrettable misunderstanding might have been prevented had the humans been more forthcoming about their activities".

"Councillors", intervened Saren, "if I may?"

"Go on", nodded Sparatus.

"I appreciate the council's wisdom and forbearance. If I had risked starting a war through my failure to communicate, I would want to be treated with such careful consideration also. Having said that, I believe that we need to ensure such misunderstandings do not occur in future, and I fear Nihlus takes too much upon himself. I would like to also investigate these matters and just ensure that there is some scrutiny here."

"As it happens, I have been speaking to the humans and they are willing to assist me in also investigating these artefacts. I can assure you, we will keep the council fully informed."

Tevos looked to Udina, "And what do you say, Ambassador?"

Udina's response was immediate. The Intelligence suspected Lawson had shouted instructions in his mind, telepathically, "We would be delighted to offer our assistance to Spectre Saren, and although you have not fully granted our petition, we thank you for hearing us and recognising at least some of our concerns".

"Thank you", Tevos replied, looking to the other councillors, who nodded, "we agree to your proposal. Do see that you keep us informed. This hearing is concluded".

If the Intelligence was organic it would be rolling around laughing at this point, as the various parties withdrew from the audience chamber. The so-called leaders of the organics in this cycle had created an elite, almost unaccountable, militarised police force with minimal oversight. Both of the so-called spectres in the room had been subverted to the service of alien powers. Nihlus was quite plainly under Nazara's control, and Saren would soon be under human control, if he was not already.

The Citadel Council had no servants in the room, and no friends, at all. The harvest, when it came, would be exactly what they deserved.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Interlude - Return of the Eviloids

Planet Delos-3, Delos System, Athena Nebula, 2153

Matriarch Olaessia T'Sayk looked down at one of the most beautiful planets she had ever seen. With its blue-green continents and purplish oceans, wrapped in fluffy white clouds, it looked like a paradise.

She could not believe that it had been missed on previous exploration, but multiple survey expeditions had recorded this world as barren. It was no such thing. The world was beautiful. Truly gorgeous, uncolonised and best of all, inside Asari space.

The large colony transport made a swift, smooth descent through the atmosphere into the brightness of a glorious summer morning. The ship set down on the rich, thick grass at the edge of a lush forest with a soft bump. The ramp descended and Olaessius was first off the ship, flanked by two of her bodyguards.

The world was … amazing …

As Olaessius took in the warm, fresh, fragrant air she saw movement ahead. It was Helys, her daughter, accompanied by a small, furry creature. The small being next to Helys looked a little like a small Asaroid child only pudgier and covered in reddish fur. On its front belly was a white patch with a symmetrical red shape in the centre.

Helys rushed up and hugged her mother emphatically, "Isn't it amazing?"

Helys looked well - her skin if anything a slightly deeper shade of azure than the last time Olaessius had seen her. Olaessius wondered where Halith was - another of her many daughters who had come to explore the planet. Well, she thought, there would be time to ask about that later.

"Indeed it is", returned Olaessius, warmly, "and this is your … new friend?"

"Hello!" came a small, sweet voice, like an asari child, as the creature introduced itself.

"My name is Tenderheart Bear and I want to be your friend", said the bear. The sentiment was charmingly naive but Olaessius felt a surprisingly strong, warm emotional response. She actually … wanted … to befriend the small creature.

"That would be delightful. I would love to be your friend", replied Olaessius.

"Are you coming to live here?" asked Tenderheart Bear, "Please do. We would love it if you and your friends came to live here!"

Olaessius almost felt bad. She and her followers did indeed intend to found a colony. She intended to use this stroke of good fortune to establish a power base away from those who did not recognise her worth. At least she could say the natives agreed. She smiled and nodded.

"That's wonderful!" cried Tenderheart joyfully, "Welcome to Care-a-Lot! Gold Star told my people, the Care Bears, to befriend and care for all people as part of our sacred mission! Will you join us for the Candy Feast?"

In light of the warm welcome, every asari on the ship came to enjoy the feast in the Care Bear village. Olaessius had been afraid they might put too much pressure on the simple community by asking it to feed so many, but Tenderheart reassured her they had plenty.

The, 'Candy Feast' was just that. Rude wooden tables and benches had been set up in the midst of a circular group of small huts. Piled high on wooden plates were nuts, roots, piles of what looked like fish with a small amount of redder meat. Most of all, there was plate after heaped plate of the pink, woolly substance that grew on the local trees. Olaessius was genuinely appetised.

Around the tables were Care Bears of all colours. Blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, indigo, red, grey, black, and purest white. Each had a white patch and mark in the centre of its tummy. Some of the marks almost looked drawn.

Something else drew the Matriarch's eye. There were some larger blue creatures nearby. Not quite as tall as Olaessia, but then she was tall for an asari. They looked like furry asari meld-dreams. Soft, short, blue fur covered curvaceous asaroid bodies with large breasts, thin waists and wide hips. There were no head crests, just longer, darker blue fur. The face was asaroid but somewhat pointed, with very sharp cheekbones, shining pale blue eyes and two large pointed ears. The lips were a dreaming deep shade of azure. The feet had elegant ivory spurs on the heel - producing an effect much like wearing high heeled footwear - meaning almost every pose the creatures made was provocative. A thin, blue, furry tail writhed sensuously in the air behind each creature.

Olaessia suddenly realised she was attracted to the creatures. She wanted to meld with them. She felt like a maiden. She wanted to embrace eternity with one of the creatures RIGHT NOW.

Olaessia breathed deeply to get a grip on herself. She was not some meld-crazy maiden, she was a matriarch! She could talk to one of the blue creatures later.

"... and now, we want to share with you all Gold Star's blessing of light!"

The Care Bears were lining up. Whilst Olaessia had been gazing raptly at the blue creatures, one of them had been talking.

"Care Bears, prepare to stare. On 3! 3, 2, 1!"

Rainbow light burst from the symbols on the bears' tummies and Olaessia's world was drowned in bliss and glory.

Planet Care-a-Lot, Delos System, Athena Nebula, 2173

The beautiful Asari Temple of the Golden Star had grown surprisingly quickly. Everyone who had visited had been enraptured by the Care Bears and soon come to understand that helping with their sacred mission was important. In fact, the most important thing. Everyone who had met the Care Bears had been willing to donate - in many cases, all their wealth!

In only twenty years, an elegant colony had grown up on the planet, clusters of sleek, curved, Asari buildings centred around the large marble temple. The colony was still growing. No one who came wanted to leave. The colony had achieved registration with surprising ease, after the Matriarch took two of the Daughters to her meetings with the necessary officials. The planet Delos-3 was now officially named Care-a-Lot and was owned fully by Matriarch Olaessia's colony company. The Matriarch had also changed her name to reflect her increase in status - she was now Matriarch Olaessia T'Star.

Olaessia had never been happier. Her days were filled with expanding her beautiful colony and investing the wealth of the ever-increasing number of donors. Her nights ... well her nights were filled by one or more of the Daughters. She melded herself senseless.

The blue creatures the Matriarch had encountered were a result of the special blessings of the incredible Care Bear people. Asari could meld with any species and their offspring would be asari, but often with traits present in the father emphasised. Care Bears had similar gifts. They could meld, and that was fine - but they could also mate with asari. If a male Care Bear released their genetic material inside an asari's birth canal, then a true hybrid would result.

The gift of the Care Bears to asari was the origin of the Daughters. The blue beings whose beauty had struck Olaessia so hard during her first day on the planet. Asari were attractive to many other sentient races but in the Daughters the effect was increased a hundred-fold. Members of other species, males especially, would do anything to mate with the Daughters. Anything at all. It was like they lost their minds. Whilst the resulting obsession could be annoying, it was useful to the cause. They would soon be admitting significant turian and salarian contingents to the faithful of the Temple of the Golden Star.

Olaessia herself would have liked to give birth to Daughters, but the Care Bears would not allow her to receive the gift from their males, saying she was too important and had to live.

Once an asari had mated with a male Care Bear and received their genetic material, they lived in constant pleasure and bliss - almost as strong as if they were permanently in meld - and never stopped reproducing. No sooner had one Daughter been born than another would begin to grow inside her. Each birth also produced intense pleasure. Eventually, the process would wear out even the strongest asari body untimely. Olaessia's daughter Halith had given birth to twelve Daughters before the final birth nearly twenty years ago proved too much for her. It was a joyous thing though - she had only lived to 122 but the last three years of her life had been, she said, the happiest she had ever felt.

Many of the asari colonists wanted to experience the blessing of giving birth to Daughters but the Care Bears permitted it only sparingly. Their friends the colonists, they said earnestly, were too important to the sacred cause. Olaessia was allowed to meld with the Daughters, but not mate with Care Bear males. The melding with the Daughters produced pleasure beyond anything she had experienced before, but no children, asari or otherwise.

Planet Care-a-Lot, Delos System, Athena Nebula, 2178

Trant Gilax had left the Turian Hierarchy. Now he was an acolyte in the Temple of the Golden Star.

The temple was made of polished white marble threaded with purple. The interior was decorated with beautiful paintings made by the faithful directly onto the walls, many scenes depicting Gold Star in his aspect as a source of light and life, shining on people from many of the known galactic races. The background, deep blue, almost purple, broken by the glorious yellows of tiny stars and the golds of Gold Star in his crystalline aspect. In some parts of the paintings, real gold had been used.

The temple had other symbols. Above the door and the altar was the five-pointed seal, rendered in solid gold. The seal was almost a pentagram, a five-pointed star, with a single point up, save that the five points were all curved, conveying a biological impression like grass waving or questing tendrils.

Trant's gaze was fixed on Glory Bear, who was busy explaining the sacred mission to new converts. The bear seemed small, even standing on a podium, flanked as he was by the coldly beautiful, silent Daughters of the Golden Star.

It was hard for Trant to tear his gaze from the Daughters. Since he had first looked upon one of them he had been lost to the temple. He hungered for their embrace. When he had served well, sometimes a Daughter would visit him and spend the night. He lived for those nights.

Even so, the sacred mission was more compelling. He listened raptly to Glory Bear's high pitched voice -

"So you see, Gold Star was very sad and worried about this galaxy. There is something wrong with the stars here. The stars are wrong. We need to find out what it is and make them right."

"Planets are like branches on the candy floss tree. Each person is like a strand, a unique soul we care for very much. By themselves, one strand is hard to notice, but together they make something delicious. And when we have lots of branches with lots of strands, the candy floss tree is ripe!"

"But in this galaxy something keeps pulling down the strands and the branches and the candy floss tree never gets ripe! We need people - lots of people. Without enough people, the stars are always wrong, and we need to change that!"

"That's why we are going to send out missionaries to spread Gold Star's word! Everyone will need to help! We'll need each mission to have asari and turians and Daughters and Care Bears! If we work together and share we can do anything! We can find out what is wrong with the stars here."

"Then, in time, the stars will be right."

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Seven – Dark Citadel

Presidium, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 15 June 2183

Saren, Shepard, Lawson and Udina walked back from the lift to the Citadel Tower towards the embassy. Udina had a few minor tasks to complete and then they would all head back towards the two docked Terran Dominion ships. The humans had no intention of discussion whilst on the Citadel, but Saren clearly did.

"Well, that went okay. We've got permission to pursue Nihlus. The council were clearly wavering, but he'll sweet talk them in his report. Friendly geth! The whole thing is messed up."

"Thank you for all you've done, Saren," cooed Miranda and Shepard felt a psionic pulse. Lawson was shamelessly continuing the spectre's indoctrination even as they walked through the Presidium. Not that any of these primitive, ignorant, aliens would notice, Shepard thought.

"Do you mind if we continued this in a debrief on the Normandy?" Miranda asked Saren.

"Not at all – but is it okay if I hit the Wards for a bit on my own? I need a break after the last week or so, and if I am going to be travelling on a Terran Dominion ship for a while I need to get some decent dextro food and other supplies. Can I have them delivered to the ship directly?"

"Sure," smiled Miranda.

"Okay, I'll comm later!"

As Saren moved off to some rest and recreation, Shepard noted a disturbance ahead. A group of beings in colourful robes were arguing with some C-Sec officers.

"Not this again," snarled Udina, "this wretched religious group and their preacher insist on annoying everyone on the Presidium. The Presidium Prophet they call him. The group annoys a lot of people here. I've always kept well away. Looks like we'll have to go through now."

The group ahead was strange. There was a turian in colourful robes with what looked like valentine hearts, gold stars, rainbows and a deep blue, almost purple background. There were also two similarly dressed asari and a blue furry creature wearing next to nothing except an ornate bracelet.

Lilith Shepard very definitely liked males – sexual deviance of any kind was not looked upon well in the Dominion, let alone the military, but Shepard was naturally heterosexual. However, the furry creature ... intrigued her. It looked like a nude human female, only completely covered in short blue fur which just about protected its modesty, she supposed. The creature had what would be, on a human, spectacular curves as well as a sexy tail and dreamy pale – what?

Most simple psionics users had negligible ability to sense psionics wielded by others without deliberately using a detection effect. However, Shepard was as advanced a user as she could be without being at least partially Transcendent and she had been trained to recognise and resist psionic attack. She thought she felt … something? Now. Turning her thoughts away from the growing warmth in her underwear she cast two psionic effects. The first was a formal psionic shield. The second was a mental purge. The latter effect had been developed after the Eviloids Incident in the Rainbow system. It was intended to expel and undo any psionic influence.

The immediate result of Shepard's effects was a violent pain in her head like a wrench and a palpable sense of expelling something insidious and deeply pervasive. It hurt, but Shepard was free and aware of a pressure against her mental shields.

"Bad dreams!" she said loudly, her voice slurring with the pain and after effects, "Bad dreams!"

"What are you on about now Shepard? Can you keep it professional?" Udina snapped, his attention clearly captivated by the alien female.

Miranda, being partially Transcendent, had a permanent mental shield and she had felt a pressure on it a moment before Shepard yelled the code-phrase for psionic attack. Miranda, with her superhuman cognition, training and experience took in the unexpected threat quickly. Something was attacking psionically and Shepard was following the, 'Bad Dreams' protocol taught to all Terran Dominion operatives.

The protocol was straightforward, on a par with, 'stop, drop and roll'. It had been developed after the Eviloids Incident. Any operatives who suspected they or their colleagues were under psionic attack should call out, "Bad dreams!" The code-phrase was used because the existence of psionics was not admitted or referred to openly in front of aliens.

The second step to the protocol was that simple psionics users who knew the relevant effects should immediately raise a mind-shield and purge, if they were able.

The third step was to eliminate the threat as a priority, but Miranda could hardly open fire in the middle of the Presidium. The more immediate concern was that Udina either did not know the protocol or had failed to recognise it. Miranda tried to remind him.

"Udina! I think Shepard might be talking about a protocol. Do you know of any protocol called Bad Dreams?"

Udina was annoyed. He was quite literally rigid for the blue female creature. Rapt and at attention. Fortunately, it would not show inside his environment suit. He did not want distracting. Yes, there was a protocol.

"Udina! Can you hear me!"

Annoyed, and wanting to stop Miranda bugging him so he could get closer to the alien, Udina raised a mental shield and then initiated a psionic purge. A moment later, Udina doubled over clutching his head in agony. It felt almost like he had ripped his brain out through the roots. He passed out.

Miranda reached down urgently to Udina and looked at his face. There was blood inside his helmet. She picked him up, her enhanced strength making it look easy.

"Shepard – Udina is down. We need to withdraw, now!" then to the C-Sec officers, "Coming through! We need to get our friend back to our ships!"

The humans rapidly headed for a transit back to the docks. Looking back, Shepard could see the alien blue furry creature had turned a cold stare on them, and followed the humans with its gaze until it was out of site.

Med-Bay, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 15 June 2183

"Ow ow ow fuck! My head! Ow!" swore Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard as she let Doctor Chakwas prod at her, "My head hurts. Aren't you supposed to give me drugs? Lady Lawson make them give me drugs!"

Miranda looked on, deeply concerned. The Terran Dominion had only once, ever, encountered any alien race that had psionic abilities – that was 50 years ago. No other race in the galaxy had ever exhibited significant psionic powers – perhaps some marginal abilities in professional religious types and mystics – nothing like the abilities the Dominion had.

The incident with the eviloids had found its way into human training for all military and alien-facing operatives. In the incident on Rainbow-2 the aliens had turned two loyal soldiers, instantly. As a result, there had been doctrine revisions and the development of a simple psionic purge effect. There was training for how to respond to psionic attack.

The eviloids themselves had been exterminated. Most of the organic material on Rainbow-2 had been harvested and converted into oil then the world's surface had quite literally been bombed into lava using Petroleum Effect bombs that had a higher energy yield than anti-matter conversion. Not even micro-organisms could have survived that. When the planet cooled, it was marked for terraforming, introduction of decent Earth life forms, and eventual colonisation. The wait would be a long one given just how molten they had left the surface.

Clearly, considered Miranda, the new protocols had been effective. The two soldiers in the Rainbow-2 incident had been irreversibly compromised and had to be quietly disposed of, after necessary examinations. Fortunately, Shepard seemed to have done much better - she had shown text-book reactions. Shepard had detected the attack, shielded and purged. The question was, what now?

"Okay …" pronounced Chakwas, "... you seem okay but have … almost inflammation on the brain – a lot like symptoms of psionic exertion. It is milder than some cases I have seen – but that is like saying cancer is a minor illness. This was a dangerous attack."

"Really?" groaned Shepard, "The pain really started when I cast the purge. The shield was okay but then I purged and it felt like – when you pull up a plant and there are lots of root tendrils, like everywhere, like whatever I was purging had pervaded my head. Ow!"

"Hmm ..." said Miranda, "... Udina was clearly under the effect. I had to tell him a couple of times, but he followed the protocols. I felt him raise a shield and something like a purge. He keeled over right after the purge. My shield was up the whole time. Working hypothesis – whatever this attack is works pervasively and quickly. You are okay if you are already shielded but can suffer injury if you have to purge?"

"You know better than me," replied Chakwas, "I need much more data than this – you've tried unshielded personnel – suggest next time have our people pre-warned and shielded from the start? What I will say though is that this attack is serious. I would almost diagnose Shepard here with encephalitis and even a mild case of that would keep her off duty for weeks. Udina has not woken up but he does have quite clear brain swelling and nasal bleeding. I am diagnosing him with mild encephalitis, at least."

"So, I am going to sign off Shepard for the next seven days and formally relieve her of duties until then. I am not even in a position to assess Udina yet. If Shepard is going to confront this alien again, she needs to be fully recovered. If the symptoms were serious encephalitis, risks include permanent brain damage or death."

"There is also the risk of compromise. That is an unknown – my initial view is that Shepard here is uncompromised but you may be able to tell better than I, my lady. Shepard has significant injury and pain but followed protocol and has shown no signs of disloyalty. From your account the position with Udina is … less clear. He's unconscious but I have restrained him so should he wake up he will not be a danger until we've cleared him or … otherwise."

"Thank you doctor. Please do keep Udina restrained until both you and I have completed our assessments of him. Shepard, you are off duty for the next seven days. You are confined to the crew deck, bed, mess, sanitary facilities. However ..." Miranda's voice softened somewhat, "... unlimited vid and extranet privileges and Doctor please do give Shepard whatever painkillers you feel appropriate. Lots of drugs, she said!"

The Intelligence, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 21 June 2183

The Intelligence had been observing the humans closely and so it had seen the incident with the members of the Temple of the Golden Star. Shepard had staggered and Udina had collapsed, then they had clearly retreated to their ship, Lawson carrying the ambassador. There was no physical cause. Nothing, no projectiles, gas, subsonics, electromagnetics, gravity, mass effect. Nothing.

Of necessity the Intelligence was a vast being, with many layers of functioning, processing data from a myriad sources throughout the galaxy including almost all the data that sentients routed through the Citadel in their primitive computing systems. Many items were dealt with at a level well below the main consciousness. One matter that had been gradually filtering upwards was the Temple of the Golden Star and the incident with the humans had brought the new religion immediately to the full attention of the ancient artificial intelligence.

If it was human, the Intelligence would have lamented something along the lines of, "Awww … not this shit again." The Intelligence was created to preserve sentient life from a number of threats. Transcendents could stand alone, and in any case rapidly became beyond harvesting. Lesser races were harvested and used to make more harvesters. So the cycles continued.

The most common threat to lesser organic races was being wiped out by artificial intelligence of their own creation. The Intelligence routinely wiped out new AI races. The geth may be useful to Nazara now, but once the harvest was underway they would be mercilessly exterminated to the last grain of silicon.

Rogue AI, however, was not the only threat nor the worse threat. There were things in the darkness. Invasion from outside the galaxy by advanced races was an occasional issue, but one not to be confused with exploration or diplomacy. Then, there were threats from Outside, from Beyond.

The universe was, in the vast scheme of reality, a small place – a very small place indeed. The most advanced races in the galaxy were trivial, laughable, ants in the grand scheme of things. The most powerful beings eventually outgrew the galaxy, outgrew even the universe.

Outside were many layers of being, well beyond the comprehension of the Intelligence. Some of the things that lurked Beyond could be understood, for practical purposes, as well by using theology or mysticism as by using physics. Fortunately for the younger beings, the greatest of the vast entities beyond had no more interest in the universe and its inhabitants than a human or asari might have in a drop of water and the micro-organisms living in it.

Some interactions between sentients in the Milky Way and things Outside the normal universe did take place. Those Outside came in differing sizes, levels of power and temperaments, and there were means by which those inside could try to contact them. Some of those means were scientific, others more like ritual magic. Most sentient organics had some minimal psionic presence and so even species with no history of overt psionic power could attempt so-called 'magic' rituals. More rarely, those Outside would initiate contact. Regardless of the means and which side initiated, such things never ended well for the sentients, except for Transcendents, who could sometimes benefit.

The Intelligence had strict orders as regards traffic with those Outside. Unless the interactions were conducted by a Transcendent race or by the creators of the Intelligence itself, it was to terminate everyone and everything involved, to the extent that was possible.

The Intelligence was also required to notify its creators of any incident involving the Outside. One of the many limitations of the Intelligence's multi-faceted being was that several consoles existed, hidden deep in the galaxy, where its activities could be monitored and from which orders could be given. The Intelligence had no knowledge of the parts of itself that reported, whether creators saw the information or what was done with it. It knew only if it received orders. There had been silence for almost 900 million years, although it had sometimes seen evidence of the creators since then. The Intelligence was specifically forbidden to interfere with its creators in any way.

In the absence of orders, the Temple of the Golden Star looked to the Intelligence like a likely incursion. It did not matter which side had initiated contact. There were many factors flagging the Temple as a risk including –

+ it was a religious group

+ it used language on the concept of improving the correctness or validity of the stars for some unspecified purpose

+ it used language comparing 'souls' or other terms for sentient mind or spirit to edibles

+ its adherents used psionic powers or similar in non-Transcendents

Of course such things were not definitive proof. Transcendents and lesser races that had no involvement with the Outside sometimes used such language innocently as part of ordinary religions. Transcendents might set up cults amongst lesser races for their own purposes, with no Outsider involvement. Races that looked like fledgling Transcendents could sometimes turn out to be corrupted by incursions.

The Intelligence was pleased that the humans seemed to be antagonistic to the Temple. Hopefully they were untainted.

A decision was reached. The Citadel could not allow its inhabitants to be subverted by a possible Outsider cult. The Intelligence would use its own indoctrination abilities to counter those of the Temple. The conflict would probably kill or cause permanent brain injury to those hit from both sides, but it should be possible to set up a conflict between the Citadel Council and the Temple.

Conference Room, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183

Miranda and Shepard sat in the Normandy conference room with Doctor Chakwas and Kaiden Alenko. Shepard had been declared fit for duty the day before, after repeated medical scans by Chakwas and deep psionic scans by Miranda had confirmed no lasting effects. It had been 8 days since the incident with the so-called Presidium Prophet.

Udina was still off-duty. He had woken up several days later in med-bay in some pain but the mild case of encephalitis was going down. Miranda had been able to debrief Udina somewhat. His impressions had been similar to Shepard's. He had seen the alien, become quite literally hard for it, but executed shield and purge effects. He reported similar feelings of pervasive influence being forced out by the purge. Painfully. Miranda found him irritating but tentatively took the view he was uncompromised.

Lawson had decided to return Shepard to duty. It was a serious decision – alien psionics were a strategic level issue so there had been initial discussions amongst the Grey Lords. Demilady Amaoth had taken part. As a general proposition, the Dominion needed a capability to preserve high level assets like Lilith Shepard and Donnel Udina should they be subject to psionic attack. The purge effect, which had not been available during the original Eviloids Incident, seemed to have worked.

Shepard and Udina would be watched and Shepard's assessment for partial Transcendence would be extended, by a lot. There had never been a fixed time given, anyway. In the worst case, if either showed signs of lingering alien influence, they could be studied or eliminated. In the best case, their recovery would provide confidence in personnel being able to recover from psionic attack.

Right now, Shepard, Lawson, Alenko and Chakwas were looking at a summary of a report Lawson had drawn up for the Grey Lords whilst Shepard was recovering. Investigating the religious group behind the, 'Presidium Prophet' had become a priority – more so than Nihlus. Saren had balked at the delay pursuing Nihlus but once he had returned to the ship Miranda had easily talked him around and he was currently asleep in his cabin on the Normandy, several days closer to total indoctrination.

"So, the Temple of the Golden Star," began Miranda, "... and this may surprise you … is a fast growing religious movement."

That got a laugh from the others.

"No shit!" exclaimed Shepard, "They've got some heavy duty mind-control powers! Forget Udina, for a moment until I cast purge, even I wanted to do that creepy blue alien!"

Miranda waved her hand theatrically and a hologram formed, projected by the ship at her electronic command – she could link to the ship wirelessly via her augmentations. Crisp images of scenes involving the Temple and its members appeared in the air.

"The Temple of the Golden Star," continued Miranda, "arrived on the Citadel a few months ago, the specific date being vague. The group originated on the planet Delos-3 in Asari space, now officially renamed as Care-a-Lot. That is, incidentally, what the eviloids called their world."

Two images appeared, side-by-side, of beautiful forest scenes with trees that appeared to have pink candy floss instead of leaves. The pair was replaced by another two scenes and another.

"These scenes are taken from different planets. One is Rainbow-2 before the cleansing. The other is Delos-3. As you can see, they seem to have more-or-less identical species."

Images appeared of the blue, furry female creatures and also of small bear-like creatures.

"These creatures have been seen with members of the Temple. According to official Citadel records we have obtained, the blue females are asari with atypical development due to environmental issues on the planet Care-a-Lot. The same record states that the bears are a primitive indigenous race that the Asari are uplifting. Obviously, the bears look just like eviloids to me, in an eviloid biosphere."

"There are more of those things? I thought they were wiped out?" asked Lieutenant Alenko.

"It is classified, but you need to know, so I can tell you we found signs of terraforming on Rainbow-2. The planet may have been barren up to around two-to-three thousand years ago. There were no raw oil reserves per se but we ground up the biosphere and converted that into crude oil. Unfortunately it seems that at least one other world must have been seeded with eviloids by whatever put them on Rainbow-2, and now they have their own creepy cult!"

Miranda's voice made her concern about the Temple of the Golden Star plain. The situation was actually quite serious. With eviloid levels of mind-control they could take over the Citadel, as well as galactic government, very quickly.

The briefing was suddenly interrupted by a loud chime and then the ship's VI spoke, "Lady Lawson to CIC please. Lady Lawson to CIC."

Lawson walked out of the conference room, which was, conveniently, just off CIC. Gunther, a muscular Dominion communication officer from Germany in Europe, called out, "Lady Lawson. Sorry to interrupt but we are receiving reports of significant fighting on the Citadel. Traffic control is warning ships not to disembark personnel until the situation is resolved. The whole station is being locked down. Shall we undock?"

C-Sec Headquarters, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183

Officer Macen Kurdros growled and rubbed his head, his mandibles stirring uneasily. Something was off and he felt an urge to speak. His head ached, and it was only the start of the shift,

"Something seem … just not right, to you?"

Macen's partner, Officer Avitus Sonthus, growled, "Yeah," he said, "I just can't stop thinking about those Temple of the Golden Star worshippers we met yesterday."

After a moment, Avitus went on, "When I saw that blue furry asari, I wanted nothing more than to, well, hit that. Like, right there. I was going to do anything – I got a card whilst we were policing so I could go to a meeting and meet one of those furry chicks."

"Now I feel, like, angry. Like my head's been messed with."

At that moment the comm chimed. It was dispatch, "Kurdros and Sonthus, we've got a job for you. Volus complaining of being robbed."

The Volus in question, Barla Von, was in a terrible state. The Volus was a financial advisor in the financial district. Or he had been. The day before, he had donated almost his entire wealth to the Temple of the Golden Star. What little he had remaining was due mostly to his feverish haste at the time, in order to impress one of the furry asari. He was alleging he had been under some sort of control.

Barla Von was only the first.

As the shift wore on, the station was inundated with calls from people alleging they had been abused by the Temple of the Golden Star. After the tenth complain, the duty Lieutenant, Jrax Omnius, became involved and declared a major incident.

Omnius decided there was no choice but to send an armed squad to visit the premises, a literal temple, in Zakera Ward. All the while, officers were becoming more and more angry. Macen's head would just not stop throbbing. Sergeant Haron led a squad of ten officers, armed and armoured, to the temple, only to find a crowd of at least one-hundred temple supporters barring their path.

Haron ordered the crowd to move. They did not. Someone threw something and then every C-Sec officer present opened fire. They lost control. The world just went red and they hosed down the crowd with kinetic shot.

Macen was barely conscious as they stormed the compound, fighting the temple leaders and their guards. His last memory was collapsing in agony – his head felt like it was being ripped apart.

The failed C-Sec attack on the leadership of the Temple of the Golden Star - at least the portion resident on the Citadel - resulted in almost immediate rioting by over five thousand inhabitants. With the rioters joined by criminals, looters and others, C-Sec were quickly put on the defensive.

CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183

"What?!" asked Miranda. The uselessness of the Citadel Council never ceased to amaze and appall her.

Communications Officer Friedrich Gunther seemed to share similar views. His teutonic lip curled slightly as he went on, "Reports seem to indicate that C-Sec raided the Temple of the Golden Star, leading to a violent reaction from supporters. C-Sec is overwhelmed. They are calling in troops from the Citadel Defence Fleet – the fighting seems to be on Zakera Ward."

Lilith Shepard was right behind Lawson, "We can't let the Citadel Council fall to those things."

"Agreed," said Lawson, "Now, as far as I am concerned, for your assessment, tell me your thoughts on two possible options. In either one we undock, go outside and cloak. Then we either assault the Temple from above, and try to capture some leaders, or we blow it up."

Shepard replied without hesitation, "Neither. We do need prisoners but I don't think the Normandy is set up for it. These creatures can subvert at least anyone in line of sight. We would have to assault, everyone in the ground force would have to be able to mind-shield. But … if we brought an eviloid or one of those blue-furred things back we would be putting the crew at risk. We need some sort of isolation chamber."

"Bomb won't help - not enough precision. Possible act of war if we get caught. Best thing to do would be to eliminate the eviloids and the blue furs. The followers from the council races have no psionics."

"The most likely target for the enemy is the Council. I recommend we start from an area that is still secure as close to the council as we can get, and move from there towards centres of the disturbances, then the Temple itself."

"External assault has huge problems. The Wards are rotating at 253 metres per second to maintain artificial gravity which is about 911 kilometres per hour so matching with that and hovering would require constant precision acceleration."

"Yes, I think that's right Shepard. I think we should do a decapitation strike and we will have to launch it internally."

About twenty minutes later, Shepard, Miranda and Kaiden were gathered in the airlock in full sealed combat armour. The outer door opened and they made their way towards the lift with Shepard in the lead. Shepard and Alenko had active mind-shield effects, whilst Miranda as a partial transcend always had a shield. The access indicator for the lift showed it was still open – the Terran Dominion had a private dock in the VIP area with its own elevator access to the Presidium – all the money the Dominion government had made trading element zero was good for something.

The journey down to the Presidium went easily. The embassy area was quiet. Miranda cloaked the party and they made their way towards the Citadel Tower access. Under the cloak, all of them pulled assault rifles. Tests had confirmed that the superior, Terran Dominion weapons were 50% more efficient than equivalent Council weapons and also more accurate. Terran Armour was similarly superior. Even so these were only element zero devices - Miranda would much prefer some real human weapons and armour. Unfortunately the only thing she had in that range were her augments and psionics.

As the group rounded a corner, Shepard gestured. The three humans flattened themselves against a wall as in front of them they saw a group of C-Sec officers in a frantic firefight with some cultists. Invisibly, the humans strolled up behind the cultists, keeping sufficient distance to avoid friendly fire. Unseen, Shepard shot a blue-furred enemy in the back of the head, before she and the others continued to the Ward access lifts.

The Intelligence and the Terrans, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183

As Lilith Shepard, Miranda Lawson and the male human left the ship their progress was followed by the Intelligence. The activation of a cloak was inconvenient, but not unmanageable. The Intelligence had hidden compound senses throughout the walls, floors and ceiling of the Presidium.

The human cloak was clearly Transcendent, albeit not very high on the scale. It was simultaneously bending light around the three humans – the Intelligence inferred it was letting in enough light for them to see – and doing the same with other electromagnetic radiation. Sounds were being dampened. Even so, the Intelligence could follow the three Terrans easily enough by micro-compressions it sensed in the floor as they walked, air motion and micro-fluctuations in air temperature.

The Citadel itself watched as Shepard shot one of the Daughters of the Golden Star in the back of the head. Good. It had planned for this contingency. The Terrans were smart enough to want stop the Temple taking over the Citadel and galactic government. The Intelligence would open up tentative contact using a keeper. No one actually knew the human language, but the Terrans could speak Asari, Salarian or Turian using their translators.

As the three humans entered a quieter corridor towards the Wards, blast doors dropped behind and ahead. A voice sounded in slow, clear Asari, "Hello Lilith Shepard. Hello Miranda Lawson. Hello Unknown Male Human. You are hostile to the Temple. The keepers are hostile to the Temple. We are sending a keeper to speak to you. Do not shoot."

"What?!" yelled Miranda, dropping the clearly ineffective cloak.

The words repeated, then, one of the maintenance ways used by the keepers opened, and a keeper scuttled out.

"Hello," said the keeper slowly and clearly in Asari – the precise source of its voice unclear, its hands open in an attempt at being non-threatening, "we saw the Daughter of the Golden Star attack you when you left the Council meeting last week and we just saw you shoot one."

The creature paused.

Miranda was intrigued. Keeper minds were strange. Amaoth had spent a lot of her time on the Citadel quietly scanning them. They were intelligent in a way but not a human way nor even analogous like the Citadel races. Their minds were almost silent, meaning that reading their minds gave little information. Their drives, motivation and functioning were bound up with stimulus from their implants.

Miranda scanned the keeper's mind but it felt normal for a keeper. There was no suggestion of eviloid or other psionic control. "Hello," said Miranda, "yes we did just shoot a blue-furred creature. What can we do for you – you keepers are not normally this talkative, or at all?"

"The keepers maintain the Citadel for the new races. The Temple of the Golden Star may be a threat. We will not permit their takeover until we understand them. We are interfering with their control of beings on this station. If we were not, it would already be over. They would already control the others. Only you Terrans are able to protect yourselves."

In Miranda's Transcendent mind a simple thought formed. Busted! The keepers or whatever was behind them clearly knew about psionics and had detected the attack outside the Council meeting. They also had some form of countermeasure, presumably their own form of indoctrination, even though the Terrans knew that was not psionic … or did not appear to be.

"Do you object to our control?"

"We do not object to the younger races. Their fate is their own. The Temple of the Golden Star and the creatures from Care-a-Lot may not be younger races. We assess there is a risk they are under the control of something older, something from Outside. If the assessment is wrong, we will cease interfering. We assess you as a new race and so we do not intervene. If our assessment changes, we may intervene. Others may intervene."

Ominous.

"What is behind you?"

"That is not relevant. If you intend to fight the Temple, we can assist."

"Those blue furred creatures – is that what they are called? Daughters of the Golden Star?"

"That is what the Temple calls them."

"How do you know?"

"The walls, the ceiling, the floor, the air, the dust at their feet betrays them."

This space station is so messed up, thought Miranda. What sort of grade-A, drooling, capering, imbecile would find an artefact like this and make it their galactic capital?

"Have you seen smaller furred creatures, about yay" - she gestured - "high?"

"Yes."

"How many of the Daughters and the smaller furred creatures are there?"

"There were seven of each, you killed one. That leaves six Daughters we know of, and seven of the others. They smaller ones call themselves Care Bears." [Miranda realised the last word was that for a vaguely similar asari creature]

"Where are the Daughters and the Care Bears now?"

"A Daughter and a mob of cultists is approaching C-Sec headquarters in the Presidium. Two of the Daughters are in the group approaching C-Sec headquarters in Zakera Ward, with three Care Bears. Three Daughters and four Care Bears are in the Citadel Temple of the Golden Star. If you intend to fight them, we recommend you ignore the Presidium C-Sec. We assess C-Sec will prevail without your help. We suggest you prioritise Zakera Ward C-Sec by eliminating the Daughters and Care Bears."

"Can you help? Will you help? How?" Miranda did not feel the need to beat around the bush. Whatever was behind the keepers was clearly far closer to Transcendence than the Council races.

"The keepers have their own ways through the Citadel. There is no security, no C-Sec, and no cultists. We can get you behind the siege of Zakera Ward C-Sec."

"Why?"

"Mutual interest in defeating the cult. A recognition that your race may have greater possibilities than the council races. A first step."

"How can we contact you?"

"Speak aloud on the Citadel. Anywhere. We may not answer. We will not admit to this conversation, or react to you in front of others."

"What's to stop us telling the others?"

"They will not believe you."

Miranda understood that last remark on many levels. Only the galactic leadership were so curiously blasé about the keepers, because of course the galactic leadership were on the Citadel where they were influenced. There had been many conspiracy theories galaxy wide about the Citadel keepers, allegations, fictional movies in which the keepers were secretly benevolent or malevolent. There were probably Turian movies with special effects more convincing than the real video footage she was capturing now.

"Take us to Zakera Ward then."

"Yes. Follow me. You may use your invisibility. It works on everyone else."

"Thank you. We may as well wait until we leave your tunnels."

Miranda gestured to Shepard, and saw her mouth, "What the fuck?" Miranda shrugged in response. The Citadel was messed up. They had known it for years.

The keeper led the Terrans into a spartan corridor and the hatch sealed itself behind them. The tunnel was barely wide enough for the keeper, but that was more than comfortable for the humans and the ceiling was as high as other Citadel corridors. They passed several unsignposted, identically sized corridors and after a few turnings came to a wider corridor – plainly some sort of keeper thoroughfare. After a few minutes they came to an opaque door which opened to reveal something like a transport carriage.

"Hold onto the hand-holds" instructed the keeper. The vehicle was plainly something like a lift. The door closed and Shepard and the others grabbed onto poles that ran from floor to ceiling. Without any warning they felt a sharp lurch as the room began moving. They stood in silence for a short time, feeling changes in direction, acceleration and deceleration. There were no windows, seats or signs. Eventually the vehicle stopped and the door opened, revealing a corridor almost identical to the one they had left.

The keeper walked out of the transport and the Terrans followed in silence. After a few turns in the unmarked corridors, it came to a hatch.

"This is your destination. We wish you success."

The hatch opened. On the other side was what looked like a dark, dirty Citadel Ward alley. The contrast with the clean, anonymous, well lit keeper corridor was marked. The Terrans stepped through.

"Mind shields and cloaks," said Shepard, softly. In fact, she had maintained a mind-shield the whole time. She was prompting Miranda to cloak. A moment later the hatch closed behind the Terrans, who rippled and vanished.

Zakera Ward, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183

Shepard led the party through the streets of Zakera Ward. There were corpses on the street. Some shot, some not obviously marked. Some were holding their heads, or had hands near their heads, suggesting they had significant pain there when they fell. She winced in sympathy remembering her own pleas for painkillers little more than a week ago. She had been lucky.

As the Terrans closed on C-Sec headquarters for the Ward, the tell-tale flash of weapons fire became visible. C-Sec had a few floors of a larger commercial tower building and the street outside was littered with makeshift cover formed from sky cars, debris, crates and furniture dragged from buildings. Armed cultists crouched behind cover. Other cultists, frenzied, some partially nude, charged the gun fire from the building.

Behind it all, securely in cover and surrounded by guards, were two Daughters and three of the so-called Care Bears.

"Eviloids and Daughters!" snapped Shepard, her voice coming clearly over their armour comm-links, "Let's get into cover and snipe them!"

The three cloaked Terrans gathered behind a pair of metallic crates.

"Okay pick a target and call," ordered Shepard, "I'm taking the Daughter on the left."

"Right Daughter!" replied Alenko.

"Middle eviloid!" responded Lawson.

"Okay aim ..." began Shepard, "... then on three, fire. One, two, three, fire!"

Kaiden fired first, neatly destroying the head of a Daughter. Shepard fired a moment later, as did Miranda. Miranda drilled an eviloid in the chest, right through its heart. She was in no doubt about where their vital organs were, she had viewed the vivisection reports from Rainbow-2 in detail. The creature went down instantly into a growing puddle of pinkish fluids.

Shepard's shot missed. It had been perfectly lined up but the Daughter had chosen that exact moment to shift her stance slightly and the shot only grazed its cheek.

Instantly, the remaining Daughter and the two surviving eviloids scattered, moving with preternatural speed behind cover. Their guards turned, scanning about for the source of the shots.

Miranda felt a sudden mental pressure, then from behind a sky car an eviloid popped up and fired a beam of colourful light from the symbol on its tummy. The cloak collapsed and for a moment Miranda's mental shields were assaulted. She raised her weapon and fired – the light cut off as the bear creature ducked behind the sky car.

Miranda felt a psionic surge build around Shepard. A few moments later she rolled from behind her crate and accelerated forward at impossible speed, surrounded by a deep, indigo, aura. A 'vanguard charge' Miranda believed it was called. A simple psionic technique. Shepard struck the sky car the eviloid was using for cover at around 45 metres per second. As she struck the momentum was instantly transferred to the sky car – inertialessly (at least for Shepard). The sky car was knocked back and Miranda saw the eviloid, an asari and a turian sent flying.

A spray of shots from Kaiden made sure the eviloid was not getting up.

Shepard advanced calmly, vaulting the sky car and shooting the asari and turian in the head before they could get up. To his credit, the turian had partially risen and got off two shots before Shepard took him down.

Something slammed into Miranda, knocking her to the floor. The surviving Daughter was on top of her, attacking with sharp nails that extended into something more like talons. The face was really beautiful in an alien way, mused Miranda for a moment, and the creature had clearly moved with great grace, stealth, speed and strength. Miranda grabbed the Daughter's wrists but it fought her with an alien, malevolent vigour.

Miranda grinned. She was a partial Transcendent and her strength was far more than human. Her bones were enhanced with composite materials, diamond-mesh and alloys, her muscles woven with diamond-composite and nano-metallic fibres that were lined with nano-contraction actuators, her ligaments and tendons strengthened by the same composite and metallic fibres.

Miranda jerked both her hands violently with superhuman force and speed. She simply turned her hands at 90 degrees outward and broke both of the Daughter's forearms. The bone snapped and the end of each of the Daughter's arms turned 90 degrees outward with Miranda's movement. Releasing the creature's now-useless hands Miranda lunged forward and grabbed the creature by the neck, rolling it onto its back.

Most opponents would have been stunned, but the Daughter still struggled violently. Even so without usable hands it was seriously hampered. Her weight on the creature, Miranda got another gauntleted hand on the monster's neck, squeezed and forced her hands apart.

Miranda tore the Daughter's head off, then elegantly directed the resultant arterial spray of blue blood away to avoid soiling her armour.

Without needing, nor allowing herself, a moment's rest, Miranda got up and pressed herself back behind the large metal crate. Turning quickly to check on the others, she could see Shepard back behind cover, Alenko also. They were taking fire from multiple directions from cultists now.

"Got a Daughter!" called Miranda, "I make two dead Daughters, two dead eviloids – one to kill. How about you?"

"Same!" called Alenko.

"You just got the other Daughter? Sweet!" yelled Shepard. Her glee was short-lived.

A ray of rainbow light arced into the air from behind a nearby sky car. The ray went up then curved gracefully downward and struck the small truck Shepard was sheltering behind. Shepard's cover was a ground vehicle – larger than a sky car – for moving bulky goods around the Ward.

When the light hit the truck the vehicle was violently thrown upward by a heavy psychokinetic blow. It rose into the air, spinning end over end, smashed into a building, breaking several windows and denting the outward structure, then fell back down heavily to the ground, parts breaking off, sending debris flying.

Shepard was left in the open in the street. She stepped back slightly with shock. As she started to move – too slow – the remaining eviloid emerged from one side of the sky car it had been hiding behind. Again, a beam of light lashed from its tummy, this time bending around the car to strike Shepard. The power of the beam was intense and for a moment her mental shields wavered … but then with a growl and a painful effort of resolve Shepard reinforced her shield. Even so, the attack was powerful and she could barely move.

As Shepard tried to retreat, the eviloid beam stayed on her. Cultists spotted her in the open and began to fire. Shepard's armour had kinetic barriers, far tougher than Council technology, but they began to weaken rapidly.

As Shepard retreated, holding her mind-shield, with a supreme effort of will she lined up her assault rifle on the eviloid and fired, but it was already ducking back behind the car.

Shepard lurched forward as the psionic attack ended, falling prone on her front and out of the line of fire. A second later, she rolled sideways. As the cultists re-adjusted their fire, Shepard took a few more hits and her barriers collapsed. She took a few more as she rolled behind the crate next to Miranda, staggering but reaching the safety of cover. Shepard lay down behind the crate, gasping. There were visible marks and slight dents on the back of her armour.

"You okay Shepard?"

"Think so. Armour integrity holding. Waiting for barriers to come back up."

"Good. Just one remaining."

The Terrans were coming under increasing pressure. Cultists were advancing, but were hampered by the need to continue the attack on the building, and to avoid exposing themselves to fire from behind. Even so, there were a lot of cultists.

A small blurry object trailing a rainbow streak of light hurtled around the Sky Car, and sped at unnatural velocity past the Terrans away from Zakera C-Sec headquarters. The final eviloid had fled.

"It ran!" called Kaiden, cheerfully.

"It did!" called Shepard, raising herself to sit with her back to the crate.

"Miranda, time for us to go. Can you cloak us if Kaiden gets over here?"

"Sure," replied Miranda.

"Kaiden get over here before they start throwing grenades at us!"

Kaiden charged from his cover to the two women's, just as Shepard's kinetic barriers started to rebuild. As he reached the women, Miranda raised her power and once more the Terrans rippled and vanished.

After a moment for Kaiden to catch his breath and Shepard to stand, the three sprinted silently and invisibly away from the siege, following Shepard round a corner into an alley.

"Okay," said Shepard, "their main force is behind us. I suggest we just head for their headquarters."

"Target 1 down! We need a catchphrase – like on Saturday morning cartoons!" replied Kaiden, cheerfully.

Miranda smiled at that.

How about, "It's genocidin' time!" laughed Shepard, joined a moment later by Kaiden and Miranda.

Together, the three Terrans made their way towards the eviloid temple and the heart of the sinister alien threat.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Eight – Temple of Madness

Zakera Ward, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183

Lilith Shepard, Miranda Lawson and Kaiden Alenko made good time towards the temple. Once they were out of range of the battle for the Ward C-Sec headquarters they decloaked and sat for a while in a quiet spot between between two large metallic refuse containers in an alley. Other than dents to Shepard's armour and bruising, they were all at full efficiency.

Shepard sipped pure water from the armour dispenser. Because of humanity's desire not to interact with alien biospheres nor alien biochemistry, sealed combat armour had its own air supply, thermal regulator and basic liquid recycler, despite being relatively slimline. This was made possible by advanced materials technology and nano-fabrication.

"What's the plan?" asked Miranda. It was an acknowledgement that, theoretically, Shepard was mission lead. In practice, Miranda was a Grey Lady – a partial Transcendent with powers, capabilities and government-level seniority way beyond Shepard's. The original plan to chase down Nihlus and his strange, alien allies had gone out of the window in the face of an attempt by the eviloids to take over the galaxy. Miranda had repeatedly had to step in to deal with major events.

Still Shepard would do all she could to impress, "We need a short break to recover. Then we approach on foot, conceal ourselves and observe the building, view from multiple sides if at all possible. Then, we attack. I anticipate that our available practical tactics will be limited. We will have to cloak and take out the leadership, but we face a risk that the surviving eviloid from earlier has warned them of our presence and a possible attack."

"We've observed that once they know we are there they can break the cloak, but not our mind-shields, so we need to get in and kill as many of them as we can at once. It may be depending on how prepared they are we have to withdraw and come up with another plan."

Miranda reflected for a moment. Then she turned up her suit loudspeakers and shouted in Asari, "Keepers, we eliminated the Daughters and the Care Bears attacking the Zakera Ward C-Sec except one Care Bear got away. We call them eviloids, incidentally. Do you have any suggested next steps? They are likely forewarned and fortified now."

There was no response but silence. The mysterious guardians of the Citadel had nothing to say.

The three humans rested for a while, then got up and quietly headed along the road toward the temple.

Temple of the Golden Star, Zakera Ward, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183

The Terrans stood, pressed against a wall and protected by Miranda's psionic cloak, looking at the alien structure.

The Temple of the Golden Star headquarters on the Citadel was an imposing building. Many organisations struggled to afford so much as a single rented room, but the Temple had premises of their own, even had a garden. A sleek, glossy, central building swept out into two wings which almost fully enclosed a garden. Discreet spotlights around the rim of the roof shone artificial sunlight down on alien grass and what looked like saplings of the candy-floss trees from the planets Rainbow-2 and Care-a-Lot.

Access to the temple garden was via an arch that connected the points where the two wings curved back towards each other. Above the entrance was a five pointed star rendered in gold, with a single point upwards, and unsettling, biological, curves to the five points. The main entrance to the building was on the inside, opposite the arch on the other side of the garden.

There were no sentients in sight but even so the temple radiated a sense of dread, of lurking, furtive evil. Quietly studying the aura, Miranda realised that were it not for her shield, she would be overwhelmed with a sense of love, joy and welcome which would have masked the overwhelming horror. The mental attack was constant and draining even to her. Shepard and Alenko were maintaining their mental shields but they clearly felt it too. Even from fifty metres away, the sense of wrongness was overwhelming.

Miranda attempted to remote view the building, moving her awareness towards the arch and through. As she did the sense of threat grew until she was overwhelmed with terror. Miranda felt a sense of terrible vulnerability, as though she was more visible when remotely viewing the temple than if she were physically standing in it. She withdrew her senses, an icy chill in the pit of her stomach.

"We can't go in through the main entrance," said Miranda, "if we are going in, we need to attack from the side."

"Should we go in at all?" asked Shepard, "We planned this as a decapitation strike but their main assets outnumber us almost three-to-one, they can break our cloaks and could have any number of followers in there."

Miranda thought for a moment, "We go in," she said slowly, "nothing we have encountered so far has been a threat to me only an inconvenience. I will go ahead. But … we won't be using the main entrance."

For a moment, Miranda concentrated then she gestured, unnecessarily and theatrically. A truck on the road nearby violently hurled itself at a point to the right of the archway, shattering windows and wall. She gestured again and the vehicle, ruined, dented and covered in debris, fell back into the street.

Carefully, still cloaked, Lilith, Miranda and Kaiden entered the building through the hole in the wall. On the other side was what looked like an unused office off a corridor. They quickly passed through, stepping over the rubble and debris into a silent, empty, corridor. Inside there were no obvious defences and so they continued forward.

A loud voice boomed in the corridor, "Humans we know you are there. We only want to talk. You may as well hear us out before we start the shooting."

Around the corner in the corridor ahead of them came three black-clad asari with their hands raised and open. After a moment, when there was no shooting, a Daughter followed behind them. The beautiful creature was holding something blue in its hand. Shepard raised her weapon but Miranda gestured for her to lower it.

The cloak dropped. "What?" snarled Miranda.

"Thank you," said the lead asari, "I am Nira Helius. We would like you to come and speak to the blessed ones of Gold Star and hear what this is about. We promise safe passage."

Shepard looked closely. The Daughter had raised the blue, hairless object to its mouth and was delicately, sensuously gnawing on it. She was holding an asari hand and forearm. A very small hand and forearm. Blue blood trickled down.

"Um. Your friend there is eating an asari. Like, right now. Looks like a child."

"We give up our old, useless daughters, and in exchange the Care Bears give us new, beautiful ones, Daughters of the Golden Star."

"What is there to talk about?"

"The mutual threat. You may as well hear us. We are leaving so you will prevail anyway, at least on the Citadel. You will not be harmed."

Miranda sighed. She gestured to the others to follow her lead, "Okay. Lead on then?"

The Daughter smiled and turned, as did the three asari, heedless of the three armed and armoured Terran soldiers behind them. They marched back the way they had come, the Daughter swaying its hips lasciviously as it sashayed on its ivory heels, the asari moving with a military gait.

Most of the building was empty, clean and well decorated. Cheery signs about the glory of 'Gold Star' abounded. There were a lot of posters with various religious images including cute looking Care Bears and ecstatic looking asari.

The group came to a stairwell and started up.

"This isn't the main stairwell, but it gets to the sanctum the quickest," said Nira, "it passes through the Daughters' room though."

At the top of the stairs, at the end of a corridor, was a large room. Bones, some of which still had flesh, littered the floor. A lot of the bones were small. At the end of the room were a set of cages in which a number of emaciated young asari were visible. Several of them were lying motionless on the floor and some appeared to be injured or missing limbs.

"Mom," begged one of the asari children tearfully in the direction of the three adult asari, "my arm..." The alien child waved a bloody stump that ended at the elbow. Shepard was pretty sure it matched the hand and forearm the Daughter was gnawing on. The adult asari ignored the creature. The humans looked in horror briefly but then continued on, as did Miranda and Alenko.

They left the charnel house of the Daughters' lair and its living larder into another corridor, which was notably clean and free of any evidence of the gore they had left behind.

Passing a heavy velvet curtain the party entered a heavily decorated, spacious chamber that more resembled a church or a temple. They had entered the room through a side door concealed by the curtain. The room was clearly a more public area. There were paintings, scenes depicting beautiful landscapes with Daughters, asari, turians, salarians and Care-Bears. There were carvings on the walls and there were rows of opulent, wooden, cushioned chairs. In the middle of the room near the back wall there was an idol of a golden star with a kind face in the middle, before which was something like an altar.

In front of the idol was a bear with golden fur.

"Hi there," trilled the bear in its high pitched, childish voice, "I'm Glory Bear. I'm here to tell you the truth!"

The three humans noticed the four other bears and two more Daughters in the shadows behind the altar.

"What truth?" asked Miranda.

"What's your name?"

"Grey Lady Miranda Lawson. What truth?"

"These are my friends, Starflower Bear, Huggle Bear, Laughter Bear and Fertile Bear. Here are three of our daughters, too! The Daughters of the Golden Star!"

"Well, these are my friends Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard and Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko. What. Truth?"

"We're the Care Bears. And you're the humans."

"And?" asked Miranda.

"And we know you have power. Not like the others in this place. You resisted our enlightenment!"

"We've killed your kind before, Bear."

The bear grimaced, "That makes me sad!" it said in a sorrowful voice, "But your strength comes with knowledge. After you resisted us we tried to find some of you on the Citadel but all the humans were on their ships. You hardly ever leave your ships. You hate this place. You know what it is."

"We know it's dangerous," said Miranda, "what do you know?"

"It's old. Nearly a billion years old. Can't you sense the death?"

"And?"

"The Protheans didn't make it."

"So who did?"

"Bad people who don't like Gold Star!"

"Lots of people don't like Gold Star. One of his 'Daughters' over there is munching on an asari arm. From their larder of living asari children. Do better. Who made the Citadel?"

"Whoever makes the stars wrong. We're here because the stars are wrong because the younger races keep getting wiped out! They grow, they come here, they die and this galaxy never ripens! Roughly every fifty thousand Galactic Standard Years!"

"How do you know this? Wouldn't you need to be ancient to notice?"

"Gold Star is ancient."

"What do you want and what do you intend to do?"

"We need to control this place and understand its secrets."

"Looks like you've failed. Your forces were being defeated last time we looked."

The bear looked annoyed, in a cartoonish way. It would be comical if Miranda hadn't just walked through a Citadel on fire, fought a Daughter to the death and passed through a room with asari children being eaten alive with the active connivance of their own mothers.

"This place undoes our enlightenment. It was unexpected."

"Mind control works better if it's a lot less obvious. Like, a lot. You want the Citadel but your current plan has failed."

"We're running out of time. There are lots of younger races right now. The average period between the races being wiped out has elapsed. Help us."

"What happens if the stars become right?"

"Gold Star and the others will come. The ancients will come and fill the galaxy with their glory and their children. The younger races will be shepherded into their service."

Shepard and Alenko listened as Miranda and the bear spoke. Miranda's thoughts ran in the background. The things the bear was telling her were consistent with the Terran Dominion's best intelligence. However, the creature must realise that its proposition was hardly enticing. It sounded like she was being given the choice between a galactic genocide carried out by whatever was behind the Citadel and the thing behind the eviloids.

Miranda sensed it then. Furtive and hiding its presence. Something was forming in the air. Had been for a while but it had directed their attention away, even hers. Shadow uncoiling, like an evil cloud seeping through a crack in reality. The bears were unable to control the humans, so they simply intended to get something more powerful to subvert them. They had miscalculated again though, they thought she did not notice and they may also not have realised she was partially Transcendent – if they even knew what that meant. Miranda gathered her power as stealthily as she could whilst she kept the bear talking. She asked, "What do you want from us?"

The eviloid continued its pitch, "Nowhere else in the galaxy can resist us, but this place can. Help us get to the Council, so we can hold the Citadel."

Miranda focused her power on herself, whilst simultaneously unleashing everything she had in her augments. She moved at superhuman speed, with superhuman accuracy. In less than a second, she raised her weapon, drilled Glory Bear in the forehead with a single shot from her assault rifle and shot Fertile Bear with equal accuracy, its head coming away in a shower of pinkish blood.

"It's a trap!" shouted Miranda, "Withdraw! Now! Move!"

A crushing weight fell on all the humans. It was the three asari. Overlooked, the enslaved asari were powerful biotics and each of them pinned a human to the ground with their power. Shepard and Alenko fell to the ground. The darkness in the air thickened. Tendrils seeped from the centre of the forming mass towards Miranda. Three streams of light burst from Starflower Bear, Laughter Bear and Huggle Bear, pressing at her mental shields. Something else began to press against her mind, something sly and powerful which brought a sense of profound existential dread.

An ordinary human could not have stood under that pressure and Miranda's psionics were being matched by the attack from the bears and the Thing in the darkness. Miranda was not just psionic however, but augmented in muscle, sinew and bone. She fell to one knee but she raised her gun and fired again, killing Huggle Bear instantly.

At the same time, Shepard flared with an aura of indigo light and lifted her gun just enough to fire a burst which took Starflower Bear in the torso. A redoubled flare of cobalt light from the biotic attack pressed her back down and an asari foot kicked her assault rifle away.

As the bears' attack weakened, Miranda strengthened her shield. The pressure from the darkness continued to grow. Miranda tried to turn but she was borne to the ground by the three Daughters. Silently, they held her down as the questing tendrils reached out.

Miranda was still not out. As a Transcend, her augmetics equipped her for spaceflight. She had hidden, inbuilt Petroleum Effect forcefields and reactionless gravitic impellers. Adding the impellers to her strength she began to rise. Miranda shot one Daughter, then turned and shot an asari. The biotic field holding Kaiden down dissipated.

The remaining two Daughters extended their claws. They had been trying to hold Miranda down for the darkness, whatever it was, but now they were ready to try and do some damage. The pressure on Miranda's mental shields was now almost overwhelming.

Kaiden shot a second asari, then a third. Miranda slammed into the ceiling as the biotic field pressing her down faded. She cut her impellers, landing neatly and doing a gratuitous pose like the hero in a superhero movie.

Kaiden shot a Daughter in the back whilst Miranda grabbed the last one. It scrabbled at her armour, scoring deep lines but not penetrating. Miranda ripped its head off.

Meanwhile, Shepard tackled Laughter Bear. Dragging the struggling eviloid across the floor, she retrieved her rifle and shot it in the head repeatedly. It was very, very dead before she stopped shooting.

With all the other psionic threats eliminated, Miranda pushed back at the darkness with her full power. The unpleasant, tainted presence retreated, slithering away into the crack in the universe from which it came. The sense of oppression and evil lifted. Suddenly, the Terrans were in an ordinary room full of bodies. They gasped with relief.

From outside came the sound of vehicles. It was C-Sec and the military. They would not be in a mood to take prisoners.

The humans took a moment to recover, then banging and crashes came from elsewhere in the building as C-Sec and the military opened fire on the building. The three Terrans gathered around Miranda, rippled and vanished.

"Looks like C-Sec and the marines will deal with the remaining cultists," remarked Alenko.

"Shame they can't deal with cloaks," smirked Miranda.

Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 23 June 2183

The trip back to the Normandy had been uneventful. Escaping from the temple building had been the most dangerous. Cloaked, the three humans had smashed through a window and Miranda had flown them past C-Sec and the troops from the Citadel Defence Fleet. They had left not a moment too soon – C-Sec and the military could not take prisoners for fear of mind control. They had levelled the building.

Returning to the Presidium had been only slightly more difficult. All the routes were guarded but the humans had slipped invisibly into a lift behind a functionary who was then influenced not to notice their presence. From the Presidium the humans had made their way back to the Normandy without difficulty.

Miranda was relaxing in her office. After showering and resting, she had started on her mission report. In the meantime, the Citadel forces had begun mopping up the bodies and remaining cultists. Citadel News had an announcement of a galaxy wide crackdown on the Temple of the Golden Star, which was interspersed with reports about the fighting and tragic deaths of Citadel residents from brain swelling and haemorrhages.

The comm chimed, it was Gunther, "Lady Lawson, we have an incoming communication for you … it seems to be a keeper. Do you want to take the call?"

"Accept please."

A comm window opened on one of Miranda's screens. It was indeed a keeper.

"Hello Miranda Lawson."

"And what should I call you?" asked Miranda.

"We are grateful for your intervention." The keeper ignored Miranda's question but sent an image of the temple fight, which appeared on Miranda's screen for a moment.

"Well, thank you too," said Miranda, "now why are you calling?"

"We were only calling to thank you. There is little time Miranda Lawson. Whether or not the lesser races will defeat this particular infestation, they face many threats."

"That sounds ominous."

"Organic races struggle up from the primordial ooze. At every stage in their evolution, they must change or die. Make haste, for you have little time. That advice is all we can give you, save one thing. Nihlus is seeking an asari expert on the Protheans called Liara T'Soni. He believes she is on the planet Therum in the Knossos System in the Artemis Tau cluster. Thank you for your help, human Miranda Lawson."

The connection ended.

Thanks and goodbye, thought Miranda, unimpressed. She reflected for a moment. Time to go. Their pursuit of Nihlus was already delayed. Miranda could send the reports via the QEC from anywhere. If the Citadel Council worked out humanity was involved in defeating the eviloids there would be questions.

Miranda reflected on whether to move Udina back to the Righteous Enterprise III but she decided not to. He had not done anything wrong but he was not yet fully recovered and had not been fully examined. If he did recover however, it was clear the Citadel would now need a Grey Lord or Lady as the ambassador with a suitably militaristic backup team. A non-Transcendent would simply not cut it.

If Udina was untainted and was allowed to live, he would be getting a comfortable retirement with its large pension to enjoy, back on Earth.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Interlude II – The Weight of a Crown

The Temple Ship, Sol, Local Cluster, 25 June 2183

Demilady Amaoth sat alone in the throne room. Her throne was large and ornate, but not as vast nor glorious as the empty Throne of the Archlord behind it. The sheer size of the chamber weighed upon her as she read the reports drafted by Miranda Lawson, Shepard and their subordinates. The situation was dire and for all her power, she felt too small for it.

The Citadel Council races were under attack by eviloids, against whose infiltration they had little defence save for the double-edged sword that the Citadel itself - an obvious Transcendent artefact - was actively hostile to the eviloids … because they challenged its own, more subtle mind control.

The eviloids apparently wanted the galaxy enslaved to unknown advanced aliens and the Citadel was the implement of a different race of unknown advanced aliens which probably did regular galactic genocides. The most recent of which was overdue. Both were imminent existential threats. The eviloids could potentially unite the galaxy against humanity. The Citadel threat was capable of overwhelming entire previous galactic populations.

Reports of fighting between adherents of the Temple of the Golden Star and local governments of places they had infiltrated came from news networks galaxy wide. All too often, the news was favourable to the Temple.

Of course, humanity had not been idle. Since 2157 they had doubled the number of sword ships to twenty. They had 14 gate ships, 11 deployed and three in reserve. They had quadrupled the number of conventional element zero fleets, each the same size as before. The Terran Dominion had the Temple Ship, 20 sword ships, 32 conventional fleets each with a single dreadnought, 10 cruisers and 20 frigates. That made a total of 32 eezo dreadnoughts, 320 cruisers and 640 frigates. The fleets were drilled separately and together in formations of different sizes.

The Council races lived in blissful ignorance of the Terran Dominion's advanced technologies and the sheer size of its fleet. The Terran Dominion had never officially signed the Treaty of Farixen just agreed to a vague document endorsing it in principle. Since the Council races were unaware of Earth's location or human holdings, which were deliberately off the mass relay network, they believed humanity to be a minor power.

The problem was that trivial projections showed humanity's military power, vast as it was when compared to the turians, asari or salarians, was inconsequential when compared to the likely power of any truly advanced race that had had time to establish itself, including whatever was behind the galactic genocides.

Simply increasing the fleet size was not an option. There was a lack of full Transcendents to make a second Temple ship and none of the terraforming projects had yet come to fruition - that would take a long time indeed.

The eviloids could not be allowed to take the galaxy as they were likely to be specifically hostile to the Terran Dominion.

All the evidence showed that humanity was not yet ready to fight a serious threat. The Council races did not count, other than comic relief. Which left Amaoth with very little choice. The best play for humanity would have to be to prevent the eviloids taking over the Council races and keep them on-side or at least neutral.

The council races would need help to defeat the Temple of the Golden Star. Which meant that humanity would have to admit to at least being able to resist the mind control of the eviloids.

The humans were going to actually have to help the council races.

Amaoth had deployed Grey Lady Miranda Lawson to go after Nihlus. She had sent Grey Lady Ravenna as the new ambassador to the Citadel, accompanied by several elite marines. Grey Lord Jack Harper and four others were being assigned to help stop the eviloids taking over the Asari. Humanity only had 17 partial Transcendents, including Amaoth.

That also left another problem. Humanity needed Transcendent leadership. The Grey Lords were not fully Transcendent. They were augmented and had been using the First Transcendence. They could plug in and unplug at will just as the High Lords had done before the invention of the Second Transcendence – there was even an interface concealed in Amaoth's throne. It was not enough.

Amaoth could fly the Temple Ship. She could open portals up to 75 light-years away. It drained her – she could open a portal once a day. Perhaps she could do two, but only at the cost of complete exhaustion. The Archlord could use the ship to open portals up to 100 light-years away every minute or two.

There were whole floors of the gigantic Temple Ship, enormous laboratories and workshops, full of projects she could not understand, nor finish, nor control.

Amaoth could in theory undergo the Second Transcendence – full Transcendence. She could become a High Lord – Archlady even. She had mixed feelings about it. Archlord Lordak had warned her of the likelihood of becoming distant from her own humanity – of changing almost beyond recognition – he had warned her to live her human life to the full.

Amaoth had heeded the advice. As a partial Transcendent for over forty years, Amaoth had been eternally young, libidinous and wealthy. She had many partners and three children. Her children lived on Earth now – only one of them was still a child – the other two now adults. The Demilady of the Terran Dominion had lived a more-than-full human life and she did not want to stop.

The pressure to change was becoming overwhelming. The only reason she had not was her hope for the Archlord's return. When he went into seclusion in 2172, he had allowed her to wait eleven years at most. If he had not returned by then, he would not be returning. Now only days over six months remained.

Amaoth felt the sands of time running out in many ways, on many levels.

Unknown Location, Unknown Date, 2183

Vessel lived in the Sanctuary. He was a young man, nearly 21 years of age. He had always lived in the Sanctuary.

Vessel wanted for nothing. He had fine clothes and food, beautiful playmates. He had never known hunger. He was cared for at all times by the Acolytes of the Archlord, beautiful shapely young women for the most part.

As a child Vessel had played nearly all the time. He had been asked to do, or learn, very little. Mostly, it was exercise, sports – he had been asked to learn to read and write, to touch type and to use a mouse. He had been well rewarded for it. He had got very quick at typing. Vessel had done some combat training, but only very lightly.

As an adult, Vessel had been encouraged to exercise and rewarded for doing so. He had well-defined muscles and a six-pack. When he came of age, he had come to know some of the Acolytes physically too. They all seemed eager to please him.

A few things were forbidden to Vessel, to his frustration. He could not leave the Sanctuary. His home was mostly garden, little more than a mere 500 metres in diameter and bounded by walls of stone that had proven impossible to climb. He could run and play, but not roam nor explore. He had been gently but emphatically prevented from following the Acolytes when they left the Sanctuary through the few doors.

Vessel knew almost nothing of the world outside. The stories read to him were all of histories, kings and queens – sometimes wizards and witches or other mythical creatures. Things that happened long ago. Never yesterday, never now.

Vessel felt a certain sense of excitement and trepidation. He had always been told he had a special destiny to be revealed on his 21st Birthday. That was today.

Acolyte Lena was with Vessel as she led him to a door at the very edge of the Sanctuary. The 'Chapel of the Sacred Vessel' it was called. It was one of the few places that had always been forbidden to him. He liked Lena. Lena was one of Vessel's lovers. She was slightly taller than Vessel and had brown eyes, brown hair and a deeply tanned skin. Her body was muscular with large breasts, a thin waist and wide hips. Lena had spent a lot of time with him and last night she had been especially urgent. He was drained dry and sore by the time of his morning shower.

Inside, the chapel was not like anything Vessel had seen before. The room was gleaming white, with sterile metal work surfaces, cabinets with containers, strange looking metal tools on the sides and hanging down from the ceiling. There were many computer displays and a number of Acolytes dressed all in white.

"Lay down here," said Lena, an odd tone in her voice. Her expression was unfamiliar to Vessel – it seemed almost wary. Lena was indicating a piece of metal furniture covered in flat hard padding, or perhaps hard cushions. Vessel felt uneasy, "What's that?" he asked.

"Just lay down please," said another Acolyte, harshly. Vessel responded petulantly, "Why should I?"
Lena touched his shoulder, "Please. For me."

Vessel lay down. Lena and the Acolytes positioned him and as they did there was a metallic clack as thick metal bands wrapped his arms at the wrists and below the shoulders, his legs at the thighs and ankles, his neck, head and torso. Vessel was thoroughly immobilised. Sharp scalpels cut away his loose clothes, which were roughly pulled off, leaving him naked and shivering.

Vessel struggled but found himself very thoroughly restrained.

Not used to being thwarted, Vessel started shouting, but the Acolytes ignored him. The lights dimmed and a crystal sphere descended from the ceiling. The bed he was lying on tilted forward so he was nearer upright, looking at the sphere.

A face formed in the sphere, a man's face. It looked like Vessel's own face he had seen in the mirror, only older. Then there was a voice - it sounded like Vessel only somehow older and stronger and the weight of it silenced him.

"Hello Vessel. If you are watching this recording then today is a very special day. One I would have liked to see. Unfortunately, I did not make it that far, but perhaps if all goes well I will see tomorrow."

"I am the Archlord Lordak, or at least an echo of him, an intelligence, left to watch over this container. You are, well, you are an echo of me too."

"My name when I was your age was Simon Collins. It was only later I took the name of Lordak and the title of Archlord. You are, well, in some ways you are a copy of me."

"I Transcended my humanity, and I saved the world I was born in. By my art and power I lived far longer than a normal human span. I could perhaps have lived indefinitely – forever – if I had all the power at the beginning which I had at the end. That power and knowledge came too late though – by the time I had it my body was fading. My life was coming to an end."

"That is where you come in. A little under twenty-two years ago I made you. We took a cell from my skin and bathed it in chemicals until it was an embryo cell. Like a baby about to grow in a mummy's tummy. We fed it as it replicated and bathed it in more special substances so as it divided it separated into very healthy cells. Very long telomeres, all as good as new. Then we took the best and healthiest cell, and we took it out, and we bathed it back into an embryo."

The picture in the sphere changed until it showed a strange round thing. Vessel had never seen anything like it. The round thing began to divide into more of the same thing, packed together. Something long came in to view and pulled out one of the circular objects.

"We put that embryo into a very nice lady – a loyal Acolyte and a subject of the Terran Dominion. Nine months later, that is where you came from."

Vessel had never seen a pregnant woman, so to him the screen showed a very fat lady, then a baby coming out of her and being held in the arms of an Acolyte whilst the older version of himself looked on approvingly.

"I watched you being born, Vessel. I was there. I always take responsibility for my actions."

"You were never given a name of your own. You were intended never to be a person in your own right, but to be a vessel for me. That's why everyone called you Vessel. I have always intended to take your life for my own."

"Even so, I wanted you give you what life I could. You lived a happy childhood, unlike mine. You were always loved and almost never hurt. You were only compelled to do enough to make you healthy and give you certain muscle memories I wanted. I made sure you experienced the love of woman, many times. In historical times many men lived far shorter and less pleasant lives than you, Vessel."

"For this is your last day."

Vessel felt a sharp stab of fear, an unfamiliar emotion. He felt something very bad was about to happen. He could not speak, but just listened.

"I did not make it, quite, to your coming of age. I died in 2172, around about when you were ten years old. They preserved a lot of me though, including this echo and a map of every brain cell."

"In a little while, you will be put to sleep. Then they will open your head – take the top off - and put special little machines in, called nano-machines. The machines will reconnect every cell in your brain to each other in exactly the pattern my brain was in. Then, they will open this sphere which has nearly all my brain cells preserved and move each brain cell a piece at a time into the corresponding cell in your head. Every molecule will be fixed on the way, good as new, and will replace a corresponding molecule in your head. Your brain will become my brain only young and very healthy."

"My head had a lot of special, artificial brain cells. Every one of those is being spruced up and going into your head too. It will be reconnected in exactly the same way. Some of my power was stored in this sphere and that will be poured in too. Then the machines will close up your head and fix it."

"Only one of us will wake up and it will be me, or neither."

"I imagine there will be months of rehabilitation as my brain adjusts to the brain stem and the new body – we are keeping most of yours. We have to, even genetically identical bodies are never quite the same. Then if all goes well, I will be back. Forever."

"Goodbye Vessel. I will not speak to you again."

Vessel was terrified. His heart raced. He tried to turn to look at Lena, but his head could not move. "Lena!" he called.

The only answer was a short spike of pain, a prick in his neck, which soon withdrew. His heart slowed, his fear blunted and was replaced by weariness. As his consciousness ebbed and darkness took him, the last thing the young man heard was Lena's voice, "Goodbye Vessel."

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Nine – Therum

Terran Dominion Bulk Cargo Carrier Truckin' Fantasy,
Therum Orbit, Knossos System, Artemis Tau Cluster, 26 June 2183

Helpful Bear woke up. He had aches and pains all over his body and he was lying on a hard, uncomfortable, cold, flat surface. This was not helpful! There was a bright light shining in his face and he was thoroughly restrained by tight, cold bonds that felt like metal. The bear tried to use his powers but nothing worked.

Helpful Bear thought back to his recent memories. He had traveled on a ship with Matriarch Iniyaez and a number of other asari followers of Gold Star, including multiple commandos. The ship they had used was supposed to be a really good and sneaky one. It was called the Arrow of the Golden Star and it was a gift from a friendly Asari Republic. The Asari government was made up of many republics and several were now friends of the Temple of the Golden Star.

The expedition was chasing a rogue turian spectre called Nihlus Kryik because he was suspected of being part of the evil enemies of Gold Star who were keeping the stars of this galaxy wrong! The expedition was large and well equipped. There had been a number of other bears with them, as well as many Daughters.

When they reached Therum, they had found a giant black ship with tentacles in orbit as well as many other Geth ships – horrible uncaring machines. There was something going on down on the planet, which was why there were so many ships in orbit. The big black ship was supposed to be Geth but not everyone believed that. Fortunately, the alien ships did not detect the Arrow.

Helpful Bear, as part of a team of 20 asari, 10 Care Bears and 10 Daughters had dropped to the surface to try to find out what Nihlus was doing. That was when things had gone wrong.

Not long after the investigation team reached the surface, they received an urgent message from the Arrow. An unknown black ship had appeared in orbit, just appeared out of nowhere like it came through a hole in space. It was massive, about 3 kilometres long. It even scared off Nihlus' giant black ship, which was slightly smaller. The new ship destroyed several Geth ships with a few shots. It only took one shot per Geth ship. Then, communications with the Arrow were lost.

Having no other option, the investigation team had continued on and encountered ground forces landed by the attackers. Dozens of troops wearing black appeared on all sides firing powerful weapons that disabled mass effect shields. Mostly though, they fired stunners. Something had hit him and now he was here.

As he lay on the hard, cold, surface, Helpful Bear heard a smack and then something like a Care Bear trying to yelp whilst muffled.

"Hello," came a loud, cold, feminine voice, "tell me your name."

"I'm Helpful Bear," replied the bear.

"Thank you. What a useful name. We need some help."

On the sword ship Image of Violence, Miranda was sitting in a plush black leather chair, remotely commanding the science laboratory aboard Truckin' Fantasy. She was watching on a screen and remote viewing, psionically. Truckin' Fantasy was one of her favourite ships – outwardly a supposed bulk cargo carrier, actually more of a troop transport and xeno-lab.

When she had received the tip from the Citadel keepers, Miranda realised the Normandy would not be able to stand up to the Geth fleet with Nihlus let alone whatever his flagship was. She did not intend to just sneak around in stealth and the relay route to Artemis Tau went past human space anyway, so she had requisitioned the Image of Violence, the Truckin' Fantasy and the gate ship Circle of Hermes, which had joined them at the relay in the Rainbow system. Only two days later the Normandy was in Artemis Tau with backup.

The attack was simple. First, they had scouted out the Knossos system and then the Normandy returned to dock with the Image. Once the scouting was complete, they had the sword ship gate into orbit around Therum. The black ship Nihlus was using as a flagship had fled, going to FTL not long after the Image of Violence portaled in. They had detected a smaller ship – a shuttle – docking with it and then it had fled.

The few Geth ships remaining behind were destroyed with ease as the sword ship opened fire with warp bolt turrets. All but one of the Image's shots had struck home due to its advanced targeting system and each shot destroyed a ship. One of the Geth ships had been disabled by laser fire to obtain specimens. Then, they had struck pay-dirt.

The advanced detectors aboard the sword ship had detected a stealthed frigate. It was a bit like the Normandy, with heat sinks but without the psionic cloaks and it was definitely Asari. It was trying to sneak away but was easily disabled by point laser fire.

The Image wiped the entire field without even identifying itself or bringing out the big guns. The main weapons had spent the whole engagement on standby. The crew of the Asari ship were subdued, including several Daughters and Eviloids, then they were all brought to containment facilities on the Truckin' Fantasy.

A ground team had gone in led by Lilith Shepard, who had wiped out some geth and a Krogan battlemaster called Wrex Urdnot who was working for Nihlus. They had found Liara T'Soni trapped in a Prothean forcefield and 'invited' her to come aboard. The Terran Dominion had taken a lot of prisoners.

Right now, the Image of Violence and the Truckin' Fantasy were in orbit around Therum and the Normandy was nestled in one of the Image's hangar bays. Miranda was nestled in the palatial quarters her rank entitled her to on the Image. Wired to a discrete port in her neck was a top-of-the-line laptop running a full First Transcendence suite. Miranda preferred not to bring equipment like that out of Sol, but they were in a sword ship and the laptop itself had more bombs in it than she cared to think of. It was vanishingly unlikely it would be captured.

So, right now Miranda was far more than human and she was supervising the key interrogations. They had broken one of the asari commandos from the Temple of the Golden Star first. It was a disgusting creature and she had enjoyed its suffering. It yielded a lot of information about the Temple of the Golden Star, its forces and goals. The Temple thought Nihlus was linked to the galactic genocides involving the Citadel – that was why they were there to investigate.

One of many important facts learned from the ongoing interrogations was that the Daughters were actually the product of physical miscegenation between Eviloids and asari.

The extremely unlikelihood of biochemistries from two different worlds being compatible was what had piqued Miranda's interest and concern. Clearly, the first time they had exterminated the Eviloids they had not done enough dissections first. The parasitic strategy of subverting a host's reproductive system was seen in some species on Earth, such as the crab parasite Sacculina carcini or the cicada parasite Massospora cicadina.

Miranda needed to understand the process at every stage to be able to counter any threat. Fortunately, they had captured Eviloids and a number of asari, so they had everything they needed to conduct experiments. Helpful Bear was the first Eviloid candidate.

"What help?" replied Helpful Bear to the voice.

"We have a special plan we are investigating. We wanted to give you the first chance to help, Helpful Bear. Of course, if you don't help, we have some of your other bear friends watching."

Helpful Bear could not turn his head, but from the muffled Care Bear whimpers and noises he heard, some of the others were restrained nearby, watching him.

Without warning a robotic arm unfolded from the ceiling, reached between his legs into his pouch and coldly grasped his private bear parts! It slowly drew them out into the open. It hurt! It really hurt!

"Where do the Daughters of the Golden Star come from, Helpful Bear?"

"Ow! We make them with the asari! We plant the seed and then all their daughters are Daughters of the Golden Star!"

"I need you to help me Helpful Bear. We need to collect some seed from you and we need you to give some to asari we have with us. Will you help us?"

"I will never help people who are horrible and don't like Gold Star!"

"Are you sure … you know I can do some experiments just with your private bear parts. They don't have to be attached."

Helpful Bear could not see it, but Miranda had restrained several other Eviloids of both sexes upright, forced to watch the interrogation and what came next.

"No! I need those parts!"

Miranda interfaced with a robot arm with a razor sharp scalpel. A moment later Helpful Bear felt an agonising pain as he lost the organs the Terrans needed to examine. As the creature squealed in pain and despair, Miranda gave an order to the laboratory AI.

"Dismantle the Eviloid. Extract all organs and body parts for storage, starting with the eyes. No anaesthetic or soundproofing. Let the others see and hear the consequences of incompliance. Then clean up and get the next one ready. Let's see if they are prepared to be more cooperative after the worked example."

As Miranda turned her attention to one of many other rooms, the robotic arms of the laboratory began to automatically and efficiently carry out the task she had set to the AI.

Terran Dominion Bulk Cargo Carrier Truckin' Fantasy,
Interstellar Space, Local Cluster, 27 June 2183

Liara T'Soni sat in a comfortable room, with a drink. It seemed to be a crudely replicated Asari drink. There were snacks too. She had barely heard of the Terran Dominion before they rescued her. It was just one of many species she had heard of. They did not seem to do much in the Citadel Council and rarely made waves. She had been treated well, but although this room was comfortable, she could not leave, had no communications and her omnitool signal was blocked.

The door opened and an alien walked in. Liara could not help but marvel at how much like an asari it looked. Aside from the skin colour and the strange fibres instead of crests, it was basically identical. The tight white outfit left no doubt of the similarities in body plan.

"Hello Liara. My name is Miranda Lawson. I've come to talk to you about your case."

Liara found herself experiencing a surprisingly strong sense of liking and attraction for the alien. The creature was extremely pretty and friendly with a warm reassuring voice.

"Have you seen the news recently?"

"No, I'm sorry," said Liara, "no offence but you've left me incommunicado here."

"Sorry about that," said Miranda, "security you see. This is a military vessel. We can't have outbound signals whilst in stealth, but we can certainly see about getting news routed to you."

Miranda was not actually in the room. She was not even on the ship. She was still on the Image of Violence connected to the First Transcendence device – she was testing her ability to create hallucinations. The conversation was real, but the door to Liara's quarters had not opened and she only thought she heard Miranda aloud.

At the present time, the Image of Violence, the Circle of Hermes and the Truckin' Fantasy were en-route to a holding area in the Local Cluster, in interstellar space not far from the Rainbow System.

"Thank you," replied Liara, "how about – no offence – dropping me off somewhere."

"Of course," lied Miranda, "whatever you want. There may be a slight delay though due to mission priorities. Lives are at stake."

As she spoke, Miranda was manipulating Liara's emotions psionically. Before long, Liara would rather die than be separated from the humans she loved. She continued, "Liara can you tell me what happened on the planet?"

"Yes, of course," said Liara hesitantly, not wanting to embarrass herself in front of the beautiful and oh-so-cool human, "it was my own fault really. I was exploring and triggered some sort of ancient system. It wrapped me in a force sphere. I would have died of thirst if you had not rescued me."

"What about Nihlus and the Geth?"

"Oh by the Goddess! That was real? I thought I was hallucinating. There was this turian, he called himself Nihlus and he had my mother with him, Benezia T'Soni. She said Nihlus was a spectre. They found me and I asked them to help but they just kept asking me about something called the, 'Conduit'. Something Prothean. They didn't offer to help me out until I told them I could look through my files. They said they would try to release me but then they ran away and you arrived."

"That must have been upsetting. I can confirm Nihlus was there. We have no knowledge about an asari, but we'll look into it. Do you actually know anything about this, 'Conduit' or where they might go next?"

"No, I'm really sorry but I don't."

Terran Dominion Bulk Cargo Carrier Truckin' Fantasy,
Interstellar Space, Local Cluster, Artemis Tau Cluster, 28 June 2183

Liara was eager to see the human again. She really liked Miranda. It was something she looked forward to. The news was so depressing. The humans had kindly been able to route an Asari Citadel News Network channel to her room and it was horrible! The galaxy was under attack from this bizarre cult, the Temple of the Golden Star!

Today Miranda was serious.

"I need to ask you for something, Liara," she said gravely.

"The Temple of the Golden Star is a threat to the galaxy and we have discovered they have an awful ability that could give them the edge. The horrible little furry creatures at the centre of the cult, the Eviloids, have the power to breed with asari. Not just meld, but inject their biological material and produce hybrids."

"We need to study the process and we need volunteers to have this material tested on them. We've secured an Eviloid to provide the material. The first one refused but the second one proved far more cooperative."

"Now all we need is some brave, public spirited asari to receive the material so we can study the process at every stage and learn how to stop the Eviloids!"

Liara listened to the pitch in awe at the human woman's beauty, nobility and bravery. She was repelled by the idea of taking part in the experiment, but then she felt guilty. These courageous humans were saving the galaxy and she was being selfish!

"I'll think about it," Liara said.

"Thanks Liara," said Miranda, "I know it's a big ask. I'll leave you to it."

Miranda ended the conversation and Liara saw her walk out. Lawson smiled inwardly. Liara would 'consent' of course, under Miranda's psionic influence. Then she would become a perfect test subject. As Miranda understood it from the other interrogations, the process was irreversible. One impregnation would cause the asari host to reproduce continuously, even with no further Eviloid contact. They would spontaneously become pregnant and give birth to a Daughter at regular intervals. No sooner was one born than the next was on the way. The process wore out asari bodies causing them to die in less than a decade, often much sooner.

Liara could not be allowed to live, or go free. She had been unsupervised in the presence of Nihlus for far too long and might be related to one of his closest backers. She would become a little baby factory, churning out experimental subjects until her body gave out.

It was the last time Miranda thought of Liara, except for when in later years she occasionally read reports of the experiments on the many Daughters she produced and the changes in her asari physiology observed as the experiment progressed, before the inevitable autopsy.

Miranda continued to review the other subjects until a comm call came in. A Terran Dominion expedition on a planet called Feros was under attack by geth. The small task force set out at once.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Interlude III - Diplomacy with Ravenna

Council Chamber, the Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 27 June 2083

Grey Lady Ravenna Crown had reached the Citadel in spectacularly quick time. The galaxy wide civil war going on in Citadel space and especially Asari space was a major priority for the Dominion government. Miranda Lawson's report to the Demilady had been received on the 24th of June and actioned that day. Amaoth had appointed Ravenna as the new ambassador and she had arrived at her new post in double quick time. The council, likewise, regarded a discussion with the Terran Dominion ambassador as a priority. They were quite clearly unhappy.

Tevos glared at Ravenna. Ravenna Crown glared right back. The new Terran Dominion ambassador was a spectacular beauty who had taken her name on becoming a Grey Lord based on her resemblance to 21st century actress Charlize Theron, who had portrayed the evil queen in the Snow White series of movies. If she had then used her new powers to slightly ... enhance ... that resemblance, well, it suited her role.

"Ambassador," began the Asari councillor, coldly, "the Council is grateful for the assistance of humans in defeating the terrorist threat on the Citadel. However, it raises a number of difficult questions. Your forces used unknown cloaking technology to bypass C-Sec prohibitions on travel in order to assassinate several Citadel residents without legal authority. These are serious breaches of council law and human personnel will have to be held accountable."

"Councillor Tevos," smiled Ravenna, "we appreciate your concerns. Perhaps you could allow us to share our own concerns and our explanation. We ... regret to admit that we have encountered these creatures, the eviloids, before. We have encountered their mind control powers but fortunately our forces have a natural ... resistance to it that enabled us to resist. Our operatives on the ground here feared that without experience of their horrifying abilities the Council would be subverted and the whole galaxy fall to the enemy. Now is not the time to divide us by seeking to single out brave human soldiers."

"We read your government's message," growled Sparatus, "such as it was. Perhaps you could enlighten us. These creatures call themselves, 'Care Bears' yet you humans call them a name that means 'Evil Ones' or near enough in Asari. When, exactly, have you encountered them before and why didn't you warn us of the threat before?"

"We first encountered the vile eviloids on the planet Rainbow-2, in the Rainbow system. We did not tell you about it before, because we thought them extinct."

Valern listened and then raised a hand for a moment to forestall his colleagues as he touched his controls, "Rainbow-2 you say? That system ... has no life-bearing worlds. Rainbow-2 is lifeless. It is a lava world with no atmosphere save gasses released by the molten rock. It is impossible you encountered anything there!"

"It is a lava world *now*." Ravenna's reply was succinct with heavy emphasis on the last word. "We were very thorough."

"You destroyed an entire inhabitable world?!" Tevos was horrified.

"Absolutely. The incident was before we encountered the Citadel but we deemed the eviloids to be a threat in the same way you had to deal with the Rachni. We only regret that we clearly did not genocide them enough the first time. Imagine if it had been a Rachni outbreak eating asari children alive instead of Daughters of the Golden Star." Ravenna was adamantly unrepentant.

Sparatus was nonplussed. The normally unproblematic humans had been increasingly militant recently, as with their demand for the removal of Spectre Nihlus Kryik and their bizarre allegations against him. This was unprecedented though. The humans were flat out admitting to a genocide they clearly intended to continue with extreme prejudice. Having said that, the galaxy was in flames. The Asari Republics had been torn almost in two, even some Turian Hierarchy officials had been subverted. They did need help. Even so, the humans needed to be put in their place.

"And what exactly can you offer?" asked Sparatus, "how can your military assist where the council is troubled?"

"I will be blunt," responded Ravenna icily, "we are trading associates not members of the Citadel and we have never signed the Treaty of Farixen except for a non-binding agreement to the spirit of it. We have a large grand fleet to defend ourselves in a dangerous galaxy, including 20 Dreadnoughts and support ships. Because we do not allow entry to our space except for the trade outpost in the Rainbow system, there are no subverted human forces and no eviloids in our space that we know of. All of our forces are resistant to eviloid abomination mind control abilities. We will not take advantage of your troubles. We can just sit it out, or we can help you eliminate the subverted. We only have a few conditions."

"How dare you!" began the enraged Turian councillor, before he was stilled by a look from Tevos. The Asari councillor coolly picked up where Sparatus had left off, "What are your conditions?"

"Firstly," said Ravenna, "we insist that you stop regarding the eviloids as sentient beings deserving of life. They are abominations and should not be given names that are non-objective or misleading. We want you to make it mandatory to call them, 'eviloids', throughout Citadel space. Any cross-breeds like the Daughters should be called, 'the tainted'. So should any creature of any species that has had reproductive congress with the eviloids or 'the tainted'. That is important to us. Secondly, we want official Citadel policy to be the extermination of the eviloids, just like the Rachni, along with any cross-breeds, or individuals genetically tainted by them. We want express permission to destroy their worlds, including their apparent new homeworld of Care-a-Lot. Thirdly, we want to be able to bless your military personnel who will be fighting them in accordance with our official state religion, especially leadership. We want to bless your personnel in the name of the Archlord, the Hunger and the Wyrm. That includes the entire Citadel Council."

The room was silent for a moment. Valern, eventually, broke the oppressive quiet, "You want us to agree to genocidal racist propaganda, actual genocide, the destruction of at least one inhabitable world and also to agree to participate in your human religious ceremonies."

"Yes!" beamed Ravenna cheerfully, "Exactly! Just like the way you dealt with the Rachni, really. We thought you would understand because we have always admired the way you handled that conflict!"

The council looked grimly at the undaunted human ambassador. After a moment Tevos said, "If you will indulge us for a moment ambassador, the council needs to deliberate in private."

In their council chambers the three members of the Citadel Council looked grimly at each other.

"This is unfortunate," said Sparatus, "but these humans are a far more serious threat than we had realised."

"Indeed," responded Tevos, "but they are not hostile to us, and their genocidal hatred for the Temple ... the eviloids as they call them ... is not wholly inexplicable. I went over the pictures in detail. There were asari children in the facility on the Citadel and their corpses had been gnawed ... before they died."

Valern was cool, calm and clear. "The position is simple. The Terran Dominion is a friendly power offering help and its only wrong has been to jump the gun in defending the Citadel from a decidedly unfriendly power, the Temple of the Golden Star. What would you have us do? Attack a major power for very little reason whilst fighting another very dangerous war? Snub them? Or take the help?"

"They may seek a council seat," remarked Tevos.

"We may need their strength," replied Valern.

Sparatus harrumphed, "we should agree to their offer, but watch them closely."

The chamber was quiet as the three councillors walked back in. Tevos spoke clearly and without emotion.

"We accept your terms, and we would like to invite you to meet with us in private now to resolve the details."

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Interlude IV - Out of the Darkness

Unknown Location, Unknown Date, 2183

Confusion. An awareness scrabbling for purchase amid shreds of concept, struggling against something undefined. A feeling of disruption - pain but not a physical pain - more existential. Panic. A feeling of calm. A lapse into unconsciousness. A calmer return to awareness. Still confused, in darkness. Thought - where am I?

The normal inventory of consciousness upon awakening, truncated. Where am I? A question that should cascade into bodily senses, orientation, limbs, touch, hearing, vision. None are found. A consciousness with no body and no senses. Panic and unconsciousness again.

The third time awareness returned, there was the beginning of memory. I am Simon Collins. Seeking the most recent memories - what happened? Failure. Panic and unconsciousness once more.

The fourth time awareness returned, it was clear. I am Simon Collins. I am Archlord Lordak. I was dying ... and now ... a connection. Slowly growing in insistence, a cybernetic connection. An implant. An update.

The procedure was successful. There had been a plan. The remains of the Archlord's brain, original and artificial, had been merged into the young, healthy body of his clone. Vessel had been filled. Now all that remained was to integrate with the brain stem. The new body was a clone, but even clones had some differences including nerve pathways. The brain needed to adapt to the new body's sensory input, which was currently suppressed.

The implant reported the procedure was a success, but not yet complete. Sensory connections were being suppressed. Respiration and heartbeat were being supported by medical equipment. With a thought, Collins reduced the suppression allowing misaligned neural connections to begin. At once he regretted it. He felt ... chaos. Pins and needles, heat and cold, pleasure and pain, throughout his body. Incomprehensible sound. Meaningless light and colour. It was overwhelming, but Simon realised that he had no choice but to persevere. The reconfigured brain had to adapt to the brain stem and the nerve connections from the new body. Collins reduced the suppression on motor function, allowing him to twitch his limbs.

After a while, things began to improve. He withstood it as long as he could. Realising that he could control the devices, he thought-clicked a dose of sedative and sleep claimed him.

When awareness returned, the limited signals from his body were beginning to make more sense. The lights were beginning to look more like vision. Simon dialed the connections up further and endured. He realised that he was not yet complete. As Archlord Lordak, Simon's consciousness had been permanently augmented by implanted artificial neurons. Much of his awareness was currently dormant - he was functioning in something like his biological core human consciousness. His psionics were gone. He paused for a moment. Surely he could at least use simple psionics? Those techniques did not require augmentation.

Collins, with difficulty and some pain, worked through the mental thought patterns for a simple psionic remote viewing effect. At once his perceptions changed. He was in an immaculate medical room, floating above a muscular body on a padded metal bed of some sort. He recognised the heraldry of the Acolytes of the Archlord on the wall. The room contained several shapely women in immaculate white clothes. His perceptions of the room were a confused mess, but he could with effort make sense of it.

"I think he is awake," said one of the women to the others, "there was swelling and chaotic activity at first, but it has slowly stabilised. The brain swelling has nearly gone down. The implant was activated yesterday by the patient to reduce nerve suppression, and again today. Nothing definite yet."

Another woman grimaced. "Plenty of time," she said then turned to an instrument which was chiming. "Hmm. Detecting a weak psionic emission. Vessel could never do that."

Simon allowed the effect to lapse. He returned to his disconnected awareness, struggling to regain control of his senses and body. He realised he was safe for now.

The next few days - for now Collins was regaining his orientation in time - saw his senses come into focus. He could feel his body and move it slightly. However, he experienced twitches and sometimes ghost sensations without warning. He could see, but sometimes out of the corner of his eye, things which were not there. He could hear but sometimes wrongly. Simon deliberately reduced nerve suppression to zero.

A healthy, attractive, brunette woman leaned over the man strapped down to the bed. Simon tried to speak to her. He meant to say hello. It was a mess. The complex movements of tongue and mouth needed to be relearned. "Garrrr," he managed.

"Hello," said the woman, brightly. "Are you awake? Do you know who you are?"

This would not do. As the woman repeated herself, concerned, her patient used a simple psionic technique to send her a thought, "I'm alive and adapting to this body," [rueful] "apologies for the incoherent groaning. Speech is complicated."

The woman's eyes widened, something like awe in her eyes. "I'm Lena," she said.

Sanctuary of the Archlord, interstellar space near Sol System, Local Cluster, 16 April 2183

Simon Collins relaxed. He was in his Sanctuary, a hidden asteroid fortress drifting in deep space near Sol. The hollowed-out structure had no signs on the surface to distinguish it from an ordinary rock. Since his awakening, he had undergone significant physiotherapy and regained much motor control. He could walk, feed himself, dress himself and clean himself. His senses worked. Occasionally, there were sensory glitches, twinges, even minor seizures a couple of times, but it was all improving. He could use an array of simple psionics.

The Archlord was reborn. He was however, in no condition to rule the Dominion or even face his subordinates. That would take time. Time to fully integrate with his new body. Time to remember how to run and jump and swim. To read and write. To type swiftly. To regain fluency in simple psionics. The Archlord had even used the First Transcendence - connecting to a neural suite via his implant. He only did it twice. He feared becoming too remote from his body before he was fully integrated with it. He had no intention of even touching the Second Transcendence for some time. The implant seeds and additional neurons in his body remained firmly inactive.

For now, the Archlord enjoyed an enforced holiday. On the upside, he had plenty of beautiful, willing company. He had soon proven that his new body's reproductive organs worked. On the darker side, Collins was troubled by questions of identity. He did not feel like an Archlord. He did not even feel like the Simon Collins whose work on AI led to reliable psionics. Whose soul did he have? Whose consciousness did he continue? Was the 'I' behind his eyes the original Simon Collins, or was he Vessel's soul, now endowed with his progenitor's memories? Was he something else entirely?

The Temple Ship, Sol, Local Cluster, 26 June 2183

Amaoth picked up the video call with some trepidation. She took it in her private office. When the Acolytes of the Archlord had contacted her, she had not paid much heed. They were once an integral part of the government, but since the Archlord had withdrawn near the end of 2172 they were no more than a privileged relic. She tolerated their access only because they likely still served some purpose of the Archlord.

Yet they said he had returned.

The call began. The face on the screen was his. Yet, perfect deepfakes had been developed more than a century ago.

"Amaoth," he began, "it is me."

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Ten - Feros

Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, Feros Orbit, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, 29 June 2183

The Normandy arrived above Feros fully cloaked, to find a Geth attack underway as expected. A signal was sent and a few minutes later a portal opened. The three-kilometre-long shape of the sword ship Image of Violence emerged firing. Only a few Geth ships were in orbit and shortly thereafter the orbital space was clear, occupied only by the human ships and Geth debris.

Onboard the Normandy CIC, Lilith Shepard and Miranda Lawson conferred quietly, whilst Captain David Anderson ran his ship.

"I think we need to go down there," said Miranda, "there are some highly sensitive Dominion research projects going on and they need to be secured."

"Mob-handed?" suggested Shepard, "we could take a company of troops from the Sword Ship?"

"Nope," said Miranda, "I thought of that but -"

Lawson was interrupted by a chime from the battlespace display hologram. Located in the centre of CIC, the versatile hologram display could show navigational data from a galactic to a planetary surface scale. Right now, red indicators and alarms were showing a large ship had appeared without warning and was aligning with the Image of Violence. The display updated. The ship was firing on the Image of Violence. A close-up visual appeared in a magnified box - the attacking vessel was Nihlus' flagship.

Five lines of light lanced out from the tips of the vessel's tendrils, striking the Image of Violence amidships. The vast human vessel's shields flared up ... and held. Four of seven layers of energy shielding collapsed but the stronger inner shields remained up. The human sword ship reacted automatically, spinning out of the line of fire. Moments later a volley of warp bolts hurtled through space in retaliation towards the strange, cuttlefish-like, alien craft. Before the barrage could impact, the alien vessel disappeared into FTL, leaving space clear once more - for real this time.

"Wut!?" exclaimed Miranda.

The comm chimed.

"Incoming message from the Image of Violence," reported Communications Officer Friedrich Gunther.

"Put it on," replied Miranda.

The Image of Violence's commanding officer, Captain Anthony Balsom, joined the conversation.

"Grey Lady Lawson, I think we just got hit by a failed ambush. Sensors indicate that weird-looking alien ship hit us with the most powerful attack from an alien weapon on record. Those blasts would have blown a conventional Dominion dreadnought apart, or any alien dreadnought. Four of our shields were knocked down and two of them will need minor repairs."

"Interesting," responded Miranda, "it must have expected a complete kill and fled when your shields weren't even down."

"Something of a shock for them, I'd imagine."

"Indeed," replied Miranda, "let's get all our sensor records of it for analysis. Don't pursue - they may attempt to lead you into a trap and we need you here. Just get patched up, get your shields up and we can after-action it later. We're going down to the planet. Keep us safe. Normandy out."

Captain Anderson remained diplomatically silent. For all intents and purposes, Miranda Lawson was functioning as a commodore and treating his CIC as a flag deck. He knew better than to cross one of the Grey Lords by arguing about protocol. David Anderson was a white, American man - a solid and respected leader. Miranda had read his file and knew that there were ugly rumours the Anderson family had some non-Caucasian ancestry - negro allegedly - but even if that were so it was too thin to have marked his ancestors for death at the time of the Cleansing. At most his nose was very slightly wider than normal in otherwise European features. He had deep blue eyes and pale skin.

Miranda turned back to Shepard.

"Okay so as I was saying, there is sensitive stuff on the planet and I am concerned to minimise the number of witnesses. It's just you and me honey. On the plus side, I've got us some goodies. I've assigned us some proper Grey Lord gear from the sword ship - none of that element zero rubbish! Also, some proper weapons!"

Shepard and Miranda hit the lockers. Not long after they were dressed in serious powered armour. The Grey Lord battle armour looked like the kind of medium-heavy protection that might be fielded by the Citadel races. It was not. Dominion troops usually only fielded element zero powered equipment to conceal their technical advantage from the other races and to avoid equipment being captured and reverse engineered (although this would be almost impossible for some items, without the mathematical basis to do so). The sword ship, however, was part of the Dominion's secret elite military. Everything on board was top of the line and made use of the best available technologies including the Petroleum Effect.

The barriers on the armour were over a hundred times more powerful than the Turian or Asari equivalent. They could also stop lasers and other direct energy weapons, which mass effect barriers could not. Wearing the armour a soldier could walk casually through small-arms fire for short periods like it was rain. The composite materials that made up the physical portion of the armour were also superior to Citadel-make, albeit the difference was much smaller. The armour also came with adaptive, chameleon-like, camouflage and reactionless, silent, flight as standard.

Once Shepard was suited up, Miranda handed her a heavy black left hand gauntlet, intended to go over the armour and to interface with it.

"This is a heavy laser combat gauntlet. It fires 50,000 kilowatt bursts. Enough to melt and partially vaporise most infantry in a very small fraction of a second. Petroleum power source so no practical shot limit, but it will overheat and lock out temporarily if you fire too often. On the wrist and back of the hand is a secondary shield projector, and the surface of the unit will integrate with the armour and copy its camouflage patterns. There's a simple psionic effect to cloak the armour - that's on top of the camouflage, but you have not been trained so I will cloak us both."

After Shepard put on the heavy gauntlet, she tried out the force-field and settings for a moment. The gauntlet projected a circular style shield made of force. This was in addition to the armour's force barriers, which covered her whole body. When camouflage was activated, the surface of the armour rapidly changed colour to match its surroundings.

"There's a power sword in the right thigh sheathe and a combat knife in both boot sheathes," enthused Miranda, "... and Shepard, one last thing. Mind-shield at all times on this planet, please and keep your suit pressure-sealed at all times. There is more than meets the eye here."

The Normandy entered the atmosphere, still invisible. As far as the eye could see, there were the ruins of a Prothean city. Countless enormous skyscraper arcologies rose from the surface, linked by bridges. The Normandy landed on one of the vast, ruined, mega-city skyscrapers. Miranda and Shepard soon dropped to the roof from the side airlock door. The Normandy closed the outer airlock door and waited. Miranda had ordered Captain Anderson to remain cloaked. Shepard could see right through the ship as if it was not there.

Feros, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, 29 June 2183

"I suggest we fly down and override the docking bay doors," said Shepard, "we can approach Zhu's Hope colony discreetly."

"Agreed," replied Lawson.

The docking bay they could have used to arrive openly was not far below the roof of the tower. Miranda and Shepard flew down using their powered armour and approached the docking port. It was a few moments work for Miranda to override the door, without setting off an alarm. They entered a creepy, brownish, dilapidated looking corridor. Everything looked quiet but Shepard's suit HUD showed red dots. Geth, reported a HUD label.

"Sensors on these suits are good," said Miranda softly over the armour vox.

"Let's kill the geth," replied Shepard.

The women strolled down the corridor, met by a sudden barrage of bullets and what looked like a small missile. They ignored them. Their armour barriers were over one-hundred times the power of equivalent element zero suits. Shepard tried out her laser gauntlet. The beam was invisible, but there was an overlay in her HUD showing it as a gentle blue. Shepard swept her laser from side to side. Wherever the laser touched, things burned, melted or exploded. Soon the Geth welcoming party was no more than molten parts. The Dominion armour barriers had dropped by no more than about 40%, and soon regenerated once the fight was over.

Shepard and Miranda continued through the complex. They encountered Geth stalkers but Miranda used telekinesis to snatch them out of the air and smash them into the ground until they broke.

After a while, Shepard and Miranda found themselves heading up some stairs and out onto another section of roof. This contained a number of prefabricated Dominion colony buildings. It was guarded by humans behind makeshift barricades. Surprised, the grimy, desperate looking figures raised weapons.

Shepard activated her armour speakers. "Dominion military! I'm Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard, this is Commander Miranda Lawson. We need to speak to someone in charge!"

A stray bullet struck Shepard's barrier and bounced.

"We're human!" shouted Shepard.

"Sorry!" came a reply.

Weapons were lowered, and the women proceeded into the small colony, following directions. "You'll want the boss, Farley Daniels!" They heard the guards announcing them over a communicator.

A few moments later, Shepard and Lawson stood before a slightly overweight, balding man.

"Oh Commander Lawson!" he gushed. "Thank goodness someone's come to help us!"

The conversation was interrupted by a metallic burst of noise from a tunnel entrance next to him.

"Look out!" screamed Daniels. "We've got geth in the tower!"

Miranda watched, smirking, as Shepard vanguard-charged into the tunnel using her psionic powers then opened up with her laser gauntlet. A few minutes later, all the geth had been destroyed. Shepard and Miranda saw a dropship lifting off the roof. They reconvened with Daniels.

"The tower is secure, thanks to you!" he simpered.

"I'm just glad your colony is safe," replied Shepard.

"I appreciate your concern and your help," continued Daniels.

A harsh faced, short-haired woman standing next to Farley Daniels interrupted, slightly hysterical, "They may have been slowed, but they'll be back. They always come back!"

"What do they want?" asked Miranda.

"If you want to know, go ask them yourself!" snapped the woman.

"We don't know what they want. They came, they attacked us, that's all we know," responded Daniels, more politely. He went on, "Their main base seems to be at the ExoGeni Corporation headquarters."

"How do we get there?" asked Shepard.

"The skyway will get you there, but there's an army of geth between us and the headquarters!" shrieked the short haired woman.

"Before you go," said Daniels, "perhaps you could help us get this place back on its feet?"

"What do you need?" - Shepard projected helpfulness and professionalism. Miranda thought she was being a bit too deferential but it was entertaining to watch.

"We need the geth wiping out!" Daniels was emphatic. "We also have more mundane problems - food, water and power are all out."

A series of rather tedious conversations ensued. The colonists were short of food. A provisioner had the bright idea of hunting varren for meat but was afraid of a large, alpha male. A female engineer needed power cells to repair the colony generator. Another colonist told them that the geth had captured the utilities building and turned off the water.

Miranda took Shepard aside.

"Listen, Shepard. I get that you want to help these people, but I'm not sure we'll be letting them live. I suggest we promise to have the Normandy distribute some power cells, food and water rations from stores over the next few days. Then these people will trust us. We can go straight for the Geth headquarters and solve the underlying problems later - if, and only if, they are still problems."

"Sounds good."

Shepard and Miranda mouthed empty platitudes to the colonists then headed down the skyway, cloaked. The skyway was a large road bridge between two towers, high above the surface of the planet below. Unobserved, they encountered no opposition. Near the end of the trip, they detected movement and found a large chamber full of ExoGeni personnel hidden in the substructure of the skyway. Unfriendly personnel, as the two women found when they decloaked.

"Who are you?" raged a male suit.

"Commander Miranda Lawson, Dominion Military," came the icy reply.

"Thank goodness!" responded a somewhat wiser female suit. "We thought we were the only humans left alive on this planet!"

"We're here to eliminate your geth problem," said Shepard, reassuringly.

"You see, you worry too much!" said the female corporate to her male companion.

"And you trust too easily, Juliana!" snapped the man.

"Who the hell do you think you are!" Lilith Shepard grabbed the man and lifted him easily. Her own considerable strength was augmented by the powered armour. "We're your customer. We're your government. We license what you do. Have some respect for the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion!"

That shut both the suits up. Disrespecting the Archlord or the government was a serious crime. Shepard had not - directly - accused them of it, but they had been warned. Shepard silently put the man down.

"Where are the geth?"

"They're in the ExoGeni headquarters - just a little way longer along the skyway."

"What do the geth want?"

"We don't know. We've certainly not found anything valuable."

The woman spoke up, "My daughter ... she was in the ExoGeni building. If you are going there anyway, can you see if she is alive?"

"We'll do what we can," replied Shepard, "in the meantime, we'd like you to bunker down here. The best thing you can do now is stay alive and refrain from displaying further treasonous attitudes."

Miranda and Shepard returned to the skyway. The corporates knew better than to irritate them further. Cloaking again, the women continued their journey.

"It's a good job we're cloaked," remarked Shepard to Miranda over the vox. "Otherwise we'd've had to bring a tank along here. The geth would be all over us."

The skyway soon led the human pair to the adjacent tower and ExoGeni headquarters. Like the tower housing Zhu's Hope, it was mostly titanic spaces full of rubble, as well as decaying stairs and crumbling corridors. They made short work of several Geth troops, before encountering a frightened young human woman cowering in a side tunnel. She was dirty, hysterical and waving a submachine gun.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed, lowering her weapon. "I heard a noise and thought you were geth, or maybe varren."

"I'm all woman," replied Shepard.

After a certain amount of questioning, and violence, the survivor admitted to being an ExoGeni worker who had been trapped when the geth attacked. Juliana's daughter. The geth, apparently, had secured the base with a force field powered from a parked dropship. The young woman did not know what the geth wanted for certain, but thought it was something called, "the Thorian". She offered Shepard her identity card to open the ExoGeni doors.

Miranda grimaced inside her helmet, "You stay put here honey. We'll escort you back when we've dealt with the geth."

Shepard led the way as they continued to explore the complex. Much to her surprise, she ran into a krogan trying to interrogate a virtual intelligence. She shot it in the back with a sustained laser pulse from her gauntlet. The krogan exploded like a wet fruit, showering its innards and armour fragments everywhere.

The VI was helpful, believing Shepard to be Elizabeth Baynham, the woman whose identity card she had been given. The krogan had been seeking information on species 37 - "the Thorian".

"The Thorian is a simple plant life-form that exhibits a sentient behaviour uncommon with other flora. Through dispersion and eventual inhalation of spores, it can infect and control other organisms, including humans."

"Where is this, 'Thorian'?"

"The instance of species 37 is located in the substructure of the building containing the Zhu's Hope colony. This has proven to be extremely effective for study. Most recent data is that 85% of the test subjects were infected."

Miranda sighed, heavily. "I was afraid of something like this. The Thorian was recently identified by ExoGeni as a possible alien psionic life-form. The only other life-form we have encountered with psionics is the Eviloids, so the discovery was flagged quickly and disclosed to the government in accordance with their license. It came up on my search of recent intelligence. That's why it's just you and me - and why were are in sealed armour and loaded for bear. I don't think the researchers here were equipped for a hostile psionic entity. They certainly weren't authorised to infect the entire colony!"

Shepard thought for a moment and recalled a simple psionic detection effect. She executed the technique and sensed something. The psionic energy was diffuse but pervasive.

"We should leave and return to the colony," remarked Miranda.

"We'll have to bring down the forcefield. Communications are jammed."

"I'll send the Normandy a message psionically."

About twenty minutes later, there were massive explosions nearby as the Normandy scraped the dropship off the building. Miranda cloaked herself and Lilith and they strolled outside to the skyway. On the way, they retrieved Elizabeth Baynham.

"You've not been entirely candid with us, Elizabeth," remarked Shepard, ominously. "I'm told that over 85% of the colonists have been infected by the Thorian."

"It wasn't me!" exclaimed the woman, desperately. "Corporate decided to run the tests. I had no choice but to comply!"

Miranda sent a thought to Shepard, "Everyone here could be tainted. I would order us to blow these sites from orbit, but we need to see if we can find out what Nihlus wants. I don't want her on the ship. She needs to be disposed of."

"Fair enough," replied Shepard to Elizabeth, whilst flicking back the affirmative to Miranda telepathically, "we can take you out of here. Can you just let me know where the Thorian is? Do you know?"

"It's under the colony. The colonists hid the entrance under a container."

"Thanks Liz. Let me just scan you with this gauntlet device I have here and we'll be on our way."

Elizabeth was quickly and almost painlessly incinerated with a burst from the gauntlet laser at point-blank range. The women strolled outside, cloaked, the Normandy picked them up and they flew back to Zhu's Hope. As they passed through the airlock into their ship, the air was flame purged, sterilising the outside of the two womens' armour. They joined Captain Anderson on the bridge, with the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Rodney 'Killjoy' Yates.

Miranda explained to the captain that the colonists were contaminated by a potentially hostile alien life-form.

"It's a good thing we arrived cloaked and did not dock with the colony. Wouldn't want them getting in here," remarked Killjoy. Killjoy was an average sized man. Average height for a soldier, average weight, brown hair, blue eyes, average looks. He had done well in the Dominion armed forces only because of his humourless adherence to all regulations and his perfect health. He was a by-the-numbers military pilot. No death-defying movie manoeuvres for Killjoy - but he could execute any textbook combat move perfectly.

"We're going out there again," said Shepard. "We need to see what, if anything, Nihlus was looking for. We'll slip in again unseen and cloaked."

The Normandy landed once more on the roof of the mega-skyscraper housing Zhu's Hope. This time, it was still cloaked but landed quietly almost on top of the colony. Shepard and Miranda flew down and decloaked. They waved in a friendly way.

Almost as one, the colonists turned and silently opened fire. Eerie, grey-skinned humanoid creatures uncurled from the ground and rushed at the two interlopers. Naked, with clawed fingers and black eyes, the creatures moved with unnerving speed. Miranda and Shepard gunned down the colonists and the monsters without hesitation, turning them into burning, charred corpses with sweeps of their laser gauntlets.

Shepard found the crane controls and began to move the cargo containers until a stairwell was revealed. As she did so, there was a noise to the side. Farley Daniels limped out of cover.

"I tried to fight it," he groaned, as Miranda and Shepard raised their gauntlets, "but it gets in your head. You can't imagine the pain. I was supposed to be their leader. These people trusted me." He raised a gun, a pistol. "It wants me to stop you ... but ... I ... won't!"

"I won't!" screamed Daniels, raising a shaking hand to his head as though his body was fighting him and shooting himself in the head.

Shepard and Miranda glanced at the corpse, then proceeded down the stairs and along a short corridor. They found themselves in a vast chamber, facing a gigantic, alien-looking creature.

"That does not look like any plant I've ever seen," said Shepard to Miranda.

The bulbous creature had a central mass, with ropes of flesh, some thicker than a human body, anchoring it to the surrounding structure on all sides and disappearing out of sight. There was a mouth of sorts at the base of the central mass, with five tentacle-like tendrils surrounding it.

The mass pulsated and the mouth vomited forth a torrent of ichor and a fully clothed asari. She stepped forward without hesitation.

"Invaders!" declaimed the asari in her own language, "Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth as I did for Nihlus. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe!"

"You gave something to Nihlus. Something we need. What was it?" Shepard remained laser focused on her mission.

"Nihlus sought knowledge of those who are gone. The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the long cycle. Trades were made. Then cold ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh that was fairly given. The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies. It will listen no more."

"What if we could replace the flesh?" asked Miranda. "We could probably get you a lot of it, for a trade. We are much more reliable than Nihlus."

"The Old Growth does not trust flesh," the asari was hesitant. The creature behind it was clearly tempted.

Miranda kept it talking, "What kind of flesh does the Old Growth need? What does it want it for? We have many types of flesh. Perhaps it can choose."

The asari paused, then replied, with less hostility, "The Old Growth needs flesh to obey, to dig, to decompose and feed the Old Growth and the New Growth. Most importantly it needs flesh that thinks and feels, to feed it and to feed the Mother."

"The Mother? Who is the Mother? Are they here too?"

"The Old Growth hungers not only for flesh but for what it houses and a portion must be given in honour of the Mother. In sacrifice. The Old Growth is a child of [...]" - here the asari growled something unpronounceable but if the sound had to be rendered in English, Miranda would have said it was, "Shub-Niggurath".

"The Mother is Outside, but when the stars are right she can enter this place and feast on the unworthy. She will reward her worthy children and she will make those who serve her well into her children. Those who are unworthy shall be consumed and their substance remade into new and more pleasing forms."

"If you provide good service. If you provide FLESH" - the asari pronounced the word, 'flesh' hungrily, lasciviously, leeringly - "you may be rewarded. Remade without the death that is written so deeply into your kind."

"Could work," replied Miranda. "As a token of good faith, we need to know what Nihlus wanted."

The asari paused again, as though thinking carefully, then spoke, "Cipher. Context. Key to message of thought received without context. Shorn of meaning. Those you call Prothean were not as you are, in mind nor in body." [The Asari word for Prothean was used]

"Did Nihlus tell you what the message was?"

"Of little importance. Warning from Protheans of those who destroy. Those who seek to keep the stars wrong. Reapers."

"I've heard that expression before. Tell me, have you ever heard of someone called, Gold Star?"

"Another child of the Mother. Greater than the Old Growth. Seeder of worlds. Purposeful seeds, not only the joyful. They do not only dance but fight and perish for the Mother. They fight the food that fights and the blasphemies that put their hungers over the hungers of the Mother."

"Okay," said Miranda, "last question then we can think about getting you some FLESH" - Miranda pronounced the word, 'flesh' with similar gusto to the asari. "Do you know where Nihlus went?"

The asari was silent for a time. "No, but it matters not. He betrayed the Old Growth and he did not feed the Old Growth nor the Mother. He is made of flesh, simple meat that will perish and decay in an eye-blink. Forget him. Feed the Mother and be rewarded."

"Sounds like a great idea," said Miranda cheerfully. "We'll be right back with some flesh! Cheerio!" As she spoke, Miranda frantically signalled to Shepard with one hand.

Miranda bolted for the way they had come in, followed by Shepard. A massive tendril moved ponderously to stop them, and the asari clone grabbed, but Miranda batted them out of the way psionically and blasted the asari to ash with a shot from her gauntlet laser. Shepard and Miranda engaged their armour's reactionless propulsion and literally flew down the corridor, up the stairs and out into the open air. They made a beeline for the Normandy.

"Lift off," called Miranda as soon as the they were in the airlock, before the outer door had even closed behind them. "Lift off now and head for orbit!"

The door closed and the purge began. As the outsides of their suits were purged of contaminants by the flames, they felt a rumbling as the Normandy lifted off and headed for orbit, still cloaked. They left the world of geth, corrupted colonists and alien life behind.

CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, Feros Orbit, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, 29 June 2183

Shepard was pleased to be out of the bulky armour. After passing through decontamination, they had lost no time. Miranda had ordered the Image of Violence to glass the planet. Whilst the two women were showering, Petroleum Effect bombs had begun to rain down on Feros. The planet's crust was being systematically blasted and within hours the entire surface would be white-hot lava. The Prothean ruins, the colony of Zhu's hope, the colonists, the geth, the Thorian and its creatures - all would be utterly destroyed. The settings on the Normandy's exterior had been briefly amended - the ship had burned the outside of its hull clean of any particles or contaminants from the planet.

Shepard and Miranda ate some rations whilst they debriefed.

"We're no further forward on Nihlus," said Miranda, "but we do have a greater understanding of the Eviloids."

"Have you ever heard of this Mother, this, Shub-Niggurath, thing?" queried Shepard.

"Can't find anything in the files. Even the classified ones. I've sent a priority report to the Dominion, including the Demilady."

The reminder that as a Grey Lady, Miranda was at the highest levels of the Dominion government hit home hard to Shepard. If she impressed, she would be joining their ranks. Partially Transcendent. Only a step away from the Archlord and the High Lords.

Miranda continued, "We seem to have new orders though. There is this report about something happening on a major Asari colony planet called Lusia."

Outside the City of Monoi, Lusia, Tomaros System, Athena Nebula, 26 June 2183

Matriarch Narva T'Joan stood naked in a field on the Asari colony world of Lusia. It was an old colony with a population of over 2 billion asari. Around her were many of her followers in the Temple of the Golden Star, maidens, matrons and a handful of matriarchs, all naked. There were other members of the faith too, from other species, though in smaller numbers for this was an Asari world. There were turians, salarians, elcor and even a couple of hanar and drell. All nude and awaiting glory.

Today their worship would be rewarded. Today the faithful would meet the Golden Star and be received into glory. It was almost midday, and the sky was a beautiful shade of blue. Not all were joyful. Nearby were chained sacrifices. Unbelievers, restrained and naked. They wept and looked around them in disbelief at the naked cultists.

For a while, Narva simply breathed, enjoying the sun and the breeze on her bare azure skin. Then, she sensed a shift and above, space seemed to unfold until it was there. Hanging above them, the size of a city, perhaps almost a hundred kilometres in diameter. Glorious, golden and glistening. Beautiful. It was Gold Star the object of their faith! She could see it pulse with life and joy and smell its sweet scent.

Narva's experience was somewhat subjective. Others, those who were not initiates of the Temple of the Golden Star and who had not encountered the creatures which called themselves Care Bears, nor the hybrids known as Daughters of the Golden Star, those others would see things very differently. To a disinterested observer space did indeed unfold. A vast creature came forth - crawling - perhaps even furtively. What Narva saw as golden to other eyes would seem a vile, unhealthy leprous yellow. The surface of the creature glistened with repugnant slime. As to its shape, something like a starfish crossed with an octopus, with a myriad, countless, points, a hundred kilometres in diameter. The stench would have most unprotected observers retching and gagging, doubling over and heaving up the contents of their digestive systems.

The creature descended silently, floating down and landing on a lightly populated, heavily forested region, arriving just next to the field containing Narva and her followers without covering it. The pulsing Narva saw was indeed real and vigorous. The surface of the thing writhed with motion. The vast pointed tendrils were covered in orifices and suckers of various sizes. Some round and pulsing, some vertical and vaguely feminine, in which could be glimpsed rows of sharpened teeth. The enormous tendrils were covered in smaller tendrils, some thicker than a human, some as slender as a finger. Those smaller tendrils too, varied. Some had smaller orifices of their own, round or vertical and mouth-like. Some had suckers. Some were vaguely phallic. All of the creature's appendages writhed obscenely.

The sacrifices were wailing, screaming and vomiting in horror and revulsion. The faithful lifted their arms and other appendages in joy and welcome.

The end of a gigantic point unrolled across the field, ten metres wide at its thinnest point. Smaller tendrils whipped out and grasped the sacrifices. Some were drawn to vast mouth-like openings on the creature. Others shuddered and screamed as smaller tendrils burrowed into their bodies, gnawing their flesh.

Matriarch Narva T'Joan did not need to be compelled and neither did most of her followers. Joyous, aroused as though she was about to meld, she advanced and clambered nude onto the surface of Gold Star. She yearned to give up her body and her consciousness. The Matriarch knew that the Golden Star did not just need physical sustenance. It could consume dead rocks and convert it to living flesh. No, the Golden Star needed complexity, consciousness, living and feeling creatures to consume. This relatively small sacrifice could empower it to seed a dozen or more worlds.

As she got onto the body of the Gold Star, Narva saw a smaller tendril with a mouth-like opening on the end and clambered over it. She sat down and welcomed the Golden Star into her. She experienced joyous dissolution of mind and body as smaller tendrils bent towards her, converging on her and she was gnawed from within and without. To a disinterested observer, it looked something like a swarm of lampreys tearing into a lump of meat - so many that the object of their attention could not be seen.

Narva felt supreme, ecstatic pleasure as her mind and consciousness came apart and she felt portions of it dissolve away, sucked into the Golden Star. At times she felt momentary twinges of excruciating agony, but these were swiftly numbed with returning pleasure. Before long, Narva's consciousness faded and she knew nothing as her body and more were torn apart from within and without and devoured.

After a while, the gigantic creature, unmolested by the planet's defence fleet, lifted into the air and vanished as it had arrived, into folding space. Left behind, where there had been lush forest, was a barren patch of poisoned ground nearly a hundred kilometres across, covered in reeking, acidic, poisonous slime.

CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, Feros Orbit, Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster, 29 June 2183

Grey Lady Miranda Lawson and Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard watched in horror as the video provided by Dominion intelligence played. They saw the gigantic, horrifying, leprous yellow abomination and they stared in revulsion as its enraptured followers marched joyously into its manifold maws.

Miranda looked down at the report on the data slate in front of her. She spoke, "According to the report, the cultists think that's Gold Star. They can summon it, they believe, if there are enough of them and a good enough offering. The Temple of the Golden Star has taken over several of the individual Asari Republics. However, the warning from the Citadel has done some good. Some of the more powerful asari had not encountered, or had actively avoided, the Temple. So, it is not yet a clean sweep. There are asari fighting the cultists. This video will be edited and going out shortly as part of our propaganda package. Despatches also say we've negotiated a treaty with the Citadel to help them eliminate the Eviloids and the Temple."

"Looks pretty bad," replied Shepard.

"We've been recalled to the Temple Ship."

Shepard looked blankly at Miranda, who remembered belatedly that the Temple Ship was a secret.

"It's a very special ... base. A really big ship. It was built by the Archlord and the Demilady is based there. I hereby give you clearance to know it exists. I'll send you a briefing note."

They remained in system for a number of hours whilst the Image of Violence rained its bombs down onto the surface of Feros. Not long afterwards, a portal yawned open and the small human task force exited the Theseus system. Behind them, the molten surface of the planet glowed white hot.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Eleven - The Troubled Heart

Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy, Sol, Local Cluster, 1 July 2183

The Normandy entered the Sol system through a portal. They were announced in advance over QEC, so scans were cursory as the Image of Violence, Normandy and Circle of Hermes passed through.

Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard stood in the CIC and watched the navigation hologram. They had arrived in Sol near Jupiter. Shepard had learned about the various planetary bodies in the solar system during her early education. Jupiter, she knew, had a lot of moons. The four most famous were the so-called Galilean Moons, the big ones, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto. There were another 91 or so smaller bodies discovered later. She could not remember them all. The ship seemed to be heading towards a smaller body.

"Which moon is that?" Shepard asked Miranda.

Miranda smirked at the word, "moon" and manipulated the display. The hologram zoomed into their destination. A display expanded into a high-resolution image, surrounded by warning markers: "CLASSIFIED" "DOMINION MILITARY SECURE FACILITY" "ENTRY ONLY WITH CLEARANCE" "SECURE AREA".

The object they were approaching was irregular and approximately 50 miles along its largest dimension - around 80 kilometers. The magnified view showed a plainly artificial structure. Unconstrained by gravity, it looked something like a fantastical city in space, covered in towers, vast protuberances, antenna, sensors and unidentifiable things. The material it was made of was unclear. In some places the surface looked like carved rock, in others it looked metallic, composite, crystalline or even organic. The whole thing was studded with tiny bright dots - exterior lights and windows. The Normandy headed straight for it.

"We're approaching the Temple Ship, Lieutenant Commander," replied Miranda with unusual formality, "this is the de-facto centre of the Dominion government and military. The seat, once, of the Archlord and Highlords - now of Demilady Amaoth and the Grey Lords. The most powerful vessel in the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion."

"This is a ship? Not a station?"

"Oh yes."

"What about the Palace of the Archlord on Earth and the Admiralty?"

"They function. They can govern when necessary but it's actually mostly done from here."

The Normandy was swiftly approaching the Temple Ship. It headed towards a large tower on the upper surface, near the centre. A tiny feature on the tower grew as they approached. The sheer scale was huge and the small dot was soon revealed as a cavernous docking bay. As the ship approached it became obvious that they were being tracked by numerous defensive turrets. The Normandy flew gracefully into the docking bay and smoothly turned, slipping into an appropriate berth next to another, unusual looking, frigate-sized vessel. Docking clamps attached. A boarding tunnel connected to the airlock. The Normandy had landed.

The Temple Ship, Sol, Local Cluster, 1 July 218 3

Shepard followed Miranda into the Temple Ship, wearing her dress uniform. Even Miranda was wearing a reasonable outfit for once - a tight fitting, elegantly tailored, grey business suit, with the badge of a Grey Lord, a sort of opal and silver brooch. Past the boarding tunnel they entered a relatively clean and orderly docking area.

Security was heavy. Heavy scanners were attended by black-armoured guards with bulky weapons. Miranda was waved through after a cursory scan. Yes, it is Grey Lady Lawson. Yes, she is a partial Transcendent with psionics and a myriad lethal combat augmentations. Shepard was completely unarmed but even so was scanned very closely.

After passing through security, Miranda led Shepard out of the docking area and into a clean, subdued, corridor before entering a lift. As the two continued downward they came to something like an internal shuttle train. Miranda's clearance got them on board and they shot near-silently downward. Shepard barely felt any acceleration and suspected there was something like a reactionless drive or inertial dumping in operation.

After about ten minutes, they arrived at another area deeper inside the Temple Ship with yet another security checkpoint. More armed guards greeted them. These were elites, with powered armour and ornate insignia. The women were scanned again and past. Now, the corridors were thickly carpeted and gently lit. Miranda and Shepard passed robed acolytes and functionaries in expensive clothing. This was now a working, government, area of the vessel.

Another lift and a corridor took them to a third checkpoint. They had been moving inwards for nearly forty minutes. Here, Miranda announced herself - "Grey Lady Miranda Lawson. I have an appointed audience with Demilady Amaoth. This is my aide, Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard".

The remainder of the walk was short. Escorted by two armed guards, Miranda and Shepard walked down an imposing ornate corridor into a vast hall. The enormous hall was mostly of stone, with polished marble tiled flooring covered in places by immaculate, deep blue carpets with golden patterns and trim. The walls were polished white stone with stained glass windows, beautiful paintings, murals and tapestries depicting the Archlord, the Hunger and the Wyrm. Lilith thought that they were deep in the vessel and the 'windows' must have artificial lights behind them. The distant end of the hall was weighed down with precious metals, metallic ornamentation converging on a throne with people around it.

As they approached, Shepard saw that the ornamentation spread out like a flower or a star from a vast, imposing throne of gold, silver and gems. Above the throne was something like a closed, golden eye, bigger than a human head. In front of the large golden throne, at the bottom of a flight of white and gold marble steps was a smaller, silver throne decorated with gemstones, sapphires, emeralds and some diamonds and deep blue cushions.

On the smaller, silver throne sat a beautiful blonde woman with short hair and pale blue eyes. She wore a tight, ankle length, red dress and a silver headband with a sapphire set in it. Around her were aides and acolytes, some in robes and some in business suits. One of them announced the arrivals.

"Demilady, I present to you Grey Lady Miranda Lawson and Lieutenant Commander Shepard."

Miranda curtsied and bowed her head. Shepard copied her.

"Good," said Amaoth. "Ladies and gentlemen I have a private audience with Grey Lady Lawson, which is something of a priority. We shall take it in my private meeting room. You may go about your duties."

The Demilady of the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion rose gracefully to her feet and strode down the steps. She hugged Miranda - a purposeful gesture done before the court to signify Miranda's status. "It is good to see you again Miranda. If you and Lieutenant Commander Shepard would follow me."

Amaoth quickly led the other two women to an unobtrusive door in the wall to the side of the throne, within a curtained off private area. Within was a beautifully furnished meeting room and a lavish buffet spread. Sandwiches, grapes, meat, jugs of fruit juice, tea and expensive coffee. A uniformed servant stood quietly. She gestured for the two women to take plates and they all helped themselves.

"Now, I need to speak to Miranda alone in my private study. Then perhaps the Lieutenant Commander can join us."

Amaoth led Miranda into a private study. The servant quietly carried the women's plates and coffee through and then withdrew to the meeting room. Silently watching as Shepard continued munching through the food.

The enormous ornate office was quiet and dominated by a large desk, but Amaoth led Miranda to some comfortable cushioned chairs and a table in the corner. Once the servant withdrew, Amaoth spoke, "Thank you for coming so quickly Miranda."

"I always have time for you, Amaoth, but what can I do?" asked Miranda, bluntly but in a friendly tone.

"I need a number of things I don't have, Miranda," replied Amaoth. "I need ships, tools, weapons, people - I need more Grey Lords. Oh - and more planets. We are on the cusp of becoming the major galactic power, Miranda. But right now, we have only one planet. We have some life rafts now - our eggs are no longer quite in one basket but we only have one properly settled world. There are twenty terraforming projects, well underway - but none are complete. Until recently, I was happy we were on top of it. The only races nearby, the Citadel Council races and the others who use the mass relays, we have a technological advantage over. We have a bigger fleet than the Turians, at least in terms of dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts. We can probably beat all their forces combined, if we had to, and they would have trouble getting here since we dismantled the mass relay."

Amaoth gestured and a large section of a wall turned into a screen displaying the leprous yellow abomination that had visited the planet Lusia.

"That, not so much. The Temple of the Golden Star is a serious threat and it sees us as a serious threat. I have no idea what it can do, or the extent of its forces. I have no idea if it can turn up without warning and wipe out 100 kilometre circles of Earth's surface. I've invited you here due to your recent involvements in the conflict with it. I was going to recall you to talk about the Citadel anyway and just as I was about to do so, you sent me your report on the ... Thorian ... creature on Feros."

Miranda looked up at the hideous creature on the screen - the so called Gold Star. She understood.

"Have you considered ... ascending further?" asked Miranda.

"I had begun to believe I would have to, very soon, undergo the Second Transcendence," replied Amaoth. "There is at least, I hope, good news on that front. The Acolytes of the Archlord still exist. They contacted me. He has returned, renewed, it is claimed. I have spoken to him."

That came as a surprise to Miranda. When the Archlord had withdrawn it was widely believed he had finally reached the end of his life. Apparently it was not so.

"Are you sure it is real?"

"No, but I've agreed to wait another year or two. Certainly, if it is a hoax the Acolytes are in on it. And ... whoever it was I spoke to gave me some useful information. I feel like a child minding my parents' shop in this place, but he pointed out some useful toys and gave me the keys to them."

"So, what exactly do you need from me?"

"There are two major factions in this galaxy aside from the Citadel Council and ourselves. There is the Citadel and whatever it represents. There is the Temple of the Golden Star. You, Miranda, have the distinction that both of these two major factions have tried to open up a dialogue. I want you to take your protégé to them both and ask for their best offer. Find out if we can side with them, what they will tell us about themselves, what they can tell us about the others and what is their best offer?"

"Understood." Miranda was comfortable with the instruction. It was a logical step. Contact the major threats, see if communications could be opened and ask each side for information on the other.

"Speaking of more Grey Lords, what is the position with Shepard?"

Miranda had a lot to say, "I am nearly ready to recommend her for promotion. She was doing well without a doubt until the incident on the Presidium with the eviloid hybrid. I was concerned when she was attacked mentally, but her execution of the Bad Dreams protocol was exemplary. Even so, I decided to extend her assessment as a precaution. Very shortly thereafter we ended up with rioting on the Citadel. We were in three fire fights. The first was barely even worth mentioning. Whilst cloaked we encountered a hybrid and Shepard shot it in the back of the head without hesitation. No one even knew it was us, and we kept moving. In the second, Shepard fought well but was not responsible for any eviloid kill. In the third, which I think is most important, she shot and killed two eviloids."

"My impression was that if she had been subverted they would have played that card during the fight in the Temple. The eviloids were trying to restrain me for something and she helped stop them. I am satisfied so far by Shepard's competence, loyalty and suitability. I counsel further assessment for caution only."

Amaoth was pleaded with the assessment. "That sounds promising. I want to examine her myself. Bring her in."

Shepard was invited into the room and spent the next hour or so being psionically probed by Amaoth, who pronounced herself satisfied. Whilst an exhausted, shaking Shepard sipped another coffee, Amaoth provided their official orders:

"Miranda, I am reassigning the Normandy elsewhere and giving you another ship. A very special ship. The Archlord himself prepared this vehicle, which is of the same size. It is one of a pair he made for his personal use before he withdrew. It was in its own, secure, docking bay, but I have brought it up and it is parked next to the Normandy. Let's call it the ... Normandy II. I am forwarding you both a briefing. This is an extremely advanced vessel. We actually used the Archlord's notes from this ship and some prototype components that he had left when we made the Normandy and its line. This ship is older, but it is a definite upgrade."

"Shepard, you are still formally assigned to Grey Lady Lawson here. I am satisfied with my examination of you and if you continue to satisfy you will be joining our ranks before long yourself. Miranda's task is highly secret, but you need to know. She is to attempt to open up a dialogue with the eviloids and the Temple on one hand, and the Citadel keepers and whatever faction they represent on the other. The purpose of this is to ascertain as much information as possible from each faction and what benefits and risks would come from aligning with them. Threat reconnaissance and assessment, basically."

Not long after, Lawson and Shepard took their leave.

Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II , Sol, Local Cluster, 3 July 218 3

The Normandy crew had not expected a change of ship. Fortunately, as Amaoth had promised, it was an upgrade in every respect.

The Normandy II was a frigate of slightly larger size, but with orders of magnitude better technology. The briefing notes for Miranda and Shepard made clear the ship had been built personally by Archlord Lordak at the height of his powers. The size of the vessel was the same, but with a largely fixed body and no need for flexible gaps, leaving it a much larger usable interior. The hull material was an advanced composite, exotic material. Far stronger than any conventional armour, it was also capable of changing its colour and had advanced channels in the hull for psionic cloaking.

The ship's exterior appearance was radically different. The Normandy had a central fuselage with two wings on struts sweeping back on either side. The Normandy II had a large, curved, organic looking central body, like a flattened bud, with 'petals' or 'wings' wrapping around it sweeping forward.

On the Normandy II, the Captain's cabin was a palatial suite and there were two other slightly smaller suites on the same level. Miranda took the Captain's cabin. One of the other luxurious suites was allocated to Captain Anderson and the last was allocated to Shepard. The remainder of the troops got an advanced barracks - that seemed to have been put in on a contingency basis because the Normandy II was mostly automated with a vastly sophisticated computer system. There was something like an AI. She (it used a female persona) was called AEA.

In terms of the Normandy II's facilities, the vessel used a reactionless Petroleum Effect drive and was equipped with state of the art weapons and shields. There was a lab and a fabricator on the cargo bay level, adjacent to it. Not all of the equipment was fully understood by either Miranda or Amaoth, but it had all the science facilities the Normandy had and could manufacture anything they could manufacture on the original Normandy, to a higher standard. Saren had still been on the Normandy, by now thoroughly psionically indoctrinated, and was happy with a converted crate in the cargo bay to sleep in.

Miranda's briefing packet was larger than Shepard's. She decided to keep some systems need to know. Standing in the luxurious CIC, Miranda's gaze lingered on the ornate command chair and the golden, closed eye at the top of the heavy seat. She intended to leave it closed, for the time being.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Twelve - Dark Dealings

Presidium, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 5 July 2183

The Normandy II was fast. Miranda Lawson and Lilith Shepard had reached the Citadel in less than three days and now they strolled along the Presidium, by the water, in light environment suits. Occasionally, when they were alone, they would casually speak aloud. They had been wandering around for hours, including revisiting the corridor where they had met a helpful keeper. They knew their words should be heard by the keepers or whatever it was controlled the Citadel.

"Hi there Citadel," said Miranda, "we really need to talk. We in the Terran Dominion have been fighting the Temple of the Golden Star and we are pretty clear they are working with something from what you call 'outside' now. Another creature associated with them used a word which sounded like, Shub-Niggurath. They also called the same thing, the Mother. If you've heard that name it would be good to know. They want rid of you, so we have a mutual enemy. The problem is, they've made diplomatic overtures to us. We are pretty doubtful about that, but if you don't engage with us, we'll only have their version of events to go on. Can you get in touch? We'll be on our ship for the next day. It's the new one, Normandy II. Then, we have to talk to the other side. It would be best if we could talk to you first."

After a while, they returned to their ship.

The Intelligence had heard Miranda's words. When dealing with lesser races, its approach was quite straight forward. Conceal its existence. Kill or indoctrinate witnesses. Those orders did not apply to fledgling Transcendent races. As a matter of practicality, its existence was far harder to conceal from them and a failure to communicate could lead inevitably to hostility.

The other issue was the ongoing one - the incursion. The conflict between the Council and the Citadel had revealed the threat to the younger races just as the Intelligence had intended. The younger races were fighting back, just as intended. They faced grave difficulty however as all of them, save the humans, were outmatched.

The Intelligence decided to reply to the humans once more.

Captain's Suite, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II , Sol, Local Cluster, 5 July 218 3

Miranda relaxed, soaking, up to her neck in the walk-in bath. The top floor of the Normandy II was enormous compared to that of the Normandy and her suite had been built for the Archlord, by the Archlord. It was like the penthouse in a luxury hotel only more so.

The comm chimed, it was Gunther, "Lady Lawson, we have an incoming communication for you … it seems to be a keeper again. Do you want to take the call?"

"Sure. Voice only please."

The call opened. The video showed a keeper again. Just like any other keeper. Yet it spoke, in slow, clear, precise Asari, when keepers were notorious for never speaking.

"Hello Miranda Lawson."

"Last time we spoke I asked what I should call you."

"You can call me the Keeper. It is as good a name as any."

"My government has asked me to speak to you. It looks to us like there are two sides in the galaxy. We've aligned with you before against the Temple, in the heat of an emergency. Now the Temple have made diplomatic overtures. They've asked us to change our position. We need now to make decisions in the long term and to do that we need information. Who are you, what do you want and why should we work with you? What do we get out of it? Why not work with the other side and avoid a conflict with them?"

"Fair questions." The Intelligence paused, then continued, "I will deal with your questions in order. Who am I? A construct serving the interest of elder races. What do I want? I will explain the purpose that has been given to me. If you will give me a few moments."

"Please do."

"My creators are ancient. They created me to preserve sentient life. The reason I was needed is that most sentient races that arise in the galaxy perish without intervention. They wipe themselves out or are destroyed by others. The eviloids are an example of one such threat. At higher galactic populations, more powerful, far worse threats are attracted to this place. The relay network, the Citadel and my influence over the younger races are all instruments of the purpose."

"So a concern we have is that most of the races here are ... recent. There are no Protheans strolling around the Presidium, for example. It has been said to us that the younger races come here and die."

"There is nothing here for an elder race. The relays so rapid for the younger races are slow and limiting to the elders. Elders do not want the guidance of the Citadel. Most younger races reach a plateau in their development and never become elders. Races either grow beyond this place or they die."

"Where are your creators?"

"They do not speak to me. I have not had contact with them in a very long time. I continue to fulfil my purpose."

"How long?"

"Almost nine hundred million of your years."

"The Temple told us that every 50,000 years something wipes out the younger races."

"I am chained at a particular level of development. Those that grow beyond it, leave. Those that fail to grow make way for newer races."

"That is vague."

"The younger races that do not grow are wiped out by others at periods of approximately 50,000 years, although it can vary. Those that reach sufficient levels of power to stand alone, are left alone."

"Tell me about these others."

"You have seen Nihlus' ship. It is not a Geth ship at all, flagship or otherwise. It is an ancient synthetic being that has him under its control. The being's name is Nazara. There are many like it, waiting hidden outside the galaxy. Thousands. It seeks to let its brethren back in so that they may complete the cycle and harvest the younger races, just as they have done for millions of years."

"Harvest?"

"The bodies of the younger races are harvested and used in the construction of new members of the harvester fleet. The removal of the biological residue helps to reduce other, more ... esoteric ... residues."

"What do you mean, let back in?"

"They need a device, similar to a mass relay such as the younger races use, but it has been deactivated. Nazara seeks to reactivate it. It is only a delay though, Even if Nazara fails, the others will simply return by another, slower, route."

"Can we stop them?"

"I don't know. Can you stop them? Perhaps. If you are powerful enough, they will leave you alone anyway. Should you stop them? You can do nothing to save the other younger races. They are destined to destroy themselves or be consumed. Only those that change and grow survive."

"Can you help us?"

"I have spoken to you because you are one of those rare very races growing beyond the limits of this place. I conceal myself from lesser races. Ultimately, you can only help yourselves. You must be strong enough to face, not only the harvesters, but other threats - those Beyond and those within. You asked why work with me and what you get out of it. Ultimately, I can only provide information about threats, including the Temple. I am limited and if you survive, before long you will outgrow this place."

"Tell me about the Temple. What do you know about them and their, 'Mother', this Shub-Niggurath?"

"Shub-Niggurath is a name given to a powerful entity from outside our three-dimensional universe. I suspected, but it is useful that you confirm it is behind the Temple. It intervenes from time to time, interacting with younger races, as do other similar beings. It consumes some races entirely. Others are transformed to meet its needs. You might see those transformed as opposite versions of me - chained to a specific level of development to serve others' purposes. The power of the interventions by outside beings seems to depend on the population of the lesser races in the galaxy. That may be due to conditions the younger races create, or it may simply be that small populations are not worth much of the outsiders' power and effort."

"Why not work with them, or at least come to terms?"

"They will consume you or transform you into a form that meets their needs. At best you will cease to grow and become tools. If they are not powerful enough to defeat you now, if you stop the harvest, the population of the lesser races will grow until stronger manifestations come. You cannot defeat the stronger manifestations. Even the elder races were forced to flee or hide when last the outsiders ruled. The harvesters were created by survivors of a dark aeon where outsiders ruled the galaxy and only left when they had devoured almost everything."

"Shub-Niggurath offered us immortality."

"Are you so very far from finding immortality for yourselves? But yes, some servants of outsiders were made undying. Transformed almost beyond recognition and existing to serve their masters, but undying. You have seen their transformations. Again, you must decide for yourselves the value of any bargain. To paraphrase what you said to me about the Protheans - you do not see any immortal servants of the outsiders wandering around do you? Just twisted horrors in dark corners of the galaxy."

Miranda thought. Best to reassure the creature the Dominion would not be working with the Temple. Even if that later proved to be a lie, no need to start hostilities with it now.

"That all aligns with our analysis. The eviloids are a subversion threat that must be eliminated. From what we have seen, we have no choice but to oppose the outsiders."

"Your choice is almost inevitable."

"Will you give us more information about the harvesters or the outsiders? Specifications on their ships, for example?"

"No. If you resist with sufficient power, then it will trigger an offer of a treaty by the harvesters. Agree to the terms, and you will be left alone. If you cannot muster the power, or you refuse the terms, then you will have to fight."

"Is there anything else to discuss?"

"You have sufficient information. I have enjoyed speaking to you, Miranda Lawson. Races that grow beyond the limitations of this place are rare. Whether you survive or not, though, we are unlikely to speak again."

"Thank you."

The Keeper ended the call.

Conference Room, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 5 July 2183

Miranda Lawson and Lilith Shepard sat with Ambassador Ravenna Crown. It was really Miranda and Ravenna's meeting, but Shepard was sitting in as Miranda's lieutenant and as a candidate for the Grey Lords.

"Do you believe it?" asked Ravenna.

"Yes and it does not matter," replied Miranda. "If these harvesters are a threat, the only thing we can do is increase our power and readiness for war. If it is lying we still need to increase our power and readiness for war in light of threats like the Temple."

"What about the Temple?" Ravenna looked serious.

"The Keeper's account is the same as the Temple's stated goals so I have no trouble believing it. The Temple's only offer worth considering is immortality but our longevity technology is getting there anyway without the need to let them taint us. We should probably still talk to the Temple to get more information on these harvesters and see if they have anything to trade or offer, but I cannot see us aligning with the Temple on a permanent basis."

"Agreed," said Ravenna.

"If it is true," interjected Shepard, "then stopping Nihlus should be a priority to give us more time to prepare."

Ravenna and Miranda looked at her. "No argument there," said Miranda, "do we have any leads on where he is?"

"He wants something called the Conduit," replied Shepard, "perhaps the Temple will know."

"Off to a Temple base then," said Miranda, resignedly.

"We can maybe send a message to the Temple using the buoy system and set up a meeting."

Conference Room , Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II , Serpent Nebula , 6 July 2183

Setting up a conference with the Temple of the Golden Star was surprisingly easily. They got in touch via comm buoy message. Neither side wanted to meet face to face, but the Temple were keen to talk, with the stipulation they did not want their substantive discussion routed via the galactic comm buoys. The conversation took place via a ship-to-ship tight-beam not far from the Citadel. On one side, the Normandy II, on the other a small Asari trading ship that was likely only a relay. The humans suspected there was a QEC endpoint on the other ship and the signal was thus securely relayed to another location.

The end result was that Ravenna, Miranda and Lilith sat comfortably in the conference room, facing holograms of the Temple representatives.

In the centre was an asari - a matriarch by the look of her, wearing robes and an elaborate hat. There was a turian in more modest robes, with no hat, an eviloid and a hybrid.

"Greetings humans," opened the asari, "I am Supreme High Priestess Olaessia T'Star of the Temple of the Golden Star. This is my acolyte Trant Gilax, Glory Bear of the Care Bears and one of the Daughters of the Golden Star. Perhaps you could introduce yourselves and tell us what you want?"

"Thank you, Supreme High Priestess," responded Ravenna, smoothly. "I am Ambassador Ravenna Crown of the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion. These are Commander Miranda Lawson and Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard." Miranda noted the presence of another, 'Glory Bear' which looked much like the one she'd shot. Presumably it was a title, or a common name, amongst their kind.

Ravenna continued. "The Dominion government has asked me to contact you to increase understanding of yourselves and the ongoing galactic conflicts to see if our hostility can be resolved, to mutual benefit. We want to understand your goals better and what benefits the Dominion might derive from ceasing to oppose them."

The Matriarch looked at them coolly. "Life," she said flatly. "We tried to explain this before under, although, perhaps the circumstances of those conversations was less conducive to understanding. Something in this galaxy is slaughtering its inhabitants, approximately every 50,000 years. They wiped out the Protheans. The next slaughter is overdue. We intend to stop it. You have an absolute, existential, mutual interest with us. Unless you want to be wiped out. But you know this, or at least some of it, you must do. You can sense the death on the Citadel, surely."

Ravenna decided to run with this first. One of their goals was to find out about the supposed harvesters. "We have this from multiple sources," she admitted. "We're told that every 50,000 years synthetic beings called harvesters wipe out the races of the galaxy. What I have been asked to find out is - what evidence do you have this is true, and what can we do about it?"

"An apt term," said Olaessia, "the Protheans called them 'Reapers' too."

Ravenna frowned slightly. The word she had said was, 'harvester'. A quick electronic query to the translation program via her implants made sense of it. The English words 'harvester' and 'reaper', were synonyms. Both translated to the same Asari word, and that word translated back as, 'reaper'. Ravenna said nothing and the matriarch went on.

"The Reapers hide. As far as we can tell, they hide somewhere else and at the beginning of each harvest they arrive here on the Citadel. The mass relays shape the growth of the younger races and so each new cycle of species finds this place. They are influenced by it and set up a government or diplomatic nexus of some sort here. That means when the Reapers arrive, they either destroy the galactic government or at least disrupt cooperation. We do not fully understand their nature but they appeared at roughly the same time as the Citadel. We want to tear this place apart and learn its secrets."

"Okay. Evidence?"

"It's in the Prothean archives. Their, 'Reapers' are not mythological. Those records of planets being wiped out are not TV shows. They're not Prothean games or movies."

"We're aware of the archives. Any evidence aside from that? Do you know what these, so-called Reapers look like or what their capabilities are?"

"We have limited information," admitted Olaessia.

"Let me show you something." Ravenna pressed a button, and an image appeared in the viewer - it was being shared with the other end of the link in real time. The picture was a high quality image of Nihlus' flagship. "Some people have told me this ship is a Reaper. Citadel Spectre Nihlus claims it is a Geth flagship but we've been told by another source it is a Reaper, and he is under its control."

"Yes!" exclaimed Glory Bear excitedly. "I've seen that in the visions from Gold Star! That's one of the bad things! You've got it, Ravenna!"

Miranda could barely contain her hatred for the little creature with its fake cutesy manner. Ravenna showed nothing as she replied.

"We are told that it is trying to open an ancient mass relay to allow its fellows to return. Do you know anything about that?"

"No, but it would make sense. Do you know where the relay is?"

"No and anyway, they could return the long way round."

Olaessia looked disappointed. She switched topic. "So, if you agree, is there any reason you should not stop opposing us and help us seize the Citadel?"

"We're in favour of stopping the Reapers, if they exist. We're not in favour of being shepherded into the service of Gold Star or Shub-Niggurath."

Glory Bear interjected again. "That's sad," he said, his voice and manner conveying childlike sorrow, "but even if we stop these Reapers, there will be a long time before there are enough people in the galaxy to make the stars right. So you would have plenty of time to do your own thing before the Outer Gods return. You could help us but not join the Temple."

"What benefits can the Temple provide us?" asked Ravenna.

Olaessia replied, "The favoured servants of the Mother experience joy and pleasure eternally. Even the less favoured servants experience great ... gratification."

"What about technology or other useful information?"

"Does it really matter when your life is spent in unimaginable happiness and pleasure?"

"What I mean is, how are you going to help us fight thousands of genocidal, sentient, dreadnoughts?"

"The galaxy will stand united thanks to the intervention of Gold Star. Instead of being thrown into chaos by the initial attack, we will be organised. Also, with enough prayer, faith and sacrifices, the Outer Gods will send us aid."

Ravenna decided to end the conversation.

"Supreme High Priestess. I am very grateful for your time. We have some common ground and I will take it to my government. I can make no commitments for now."

The asari nodded, and the connection ended.

Conference Room , Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II , The Citadel , Serpent Nebula , 6 July 2183

After the discussions with the Temple, the Normandy II returned to the Citadel docks whilst Ravenna, Miranda and Shepard remained in the conference room and reported to Demilady Amaoth via the QEC.

"So," said Amaoth, "we are potentially facing thousands of dreadnought sized alien synthetics. The Temple plans to unite the galaxy against them and also utilise the aid of extra-dimensional horrors. The Keeper does not want to do anything about it. We cannot ally with the Keeper, whatever it even is. It said it would not speak to us again. The only question from these meetings is, should we ally with the Temple?"

"No," opined Miranda, flatly, "we should not interact with them in any way. They are an existential threat and will never be anything else. They are by their own admission in service to extra-dimensional beings that want to subjugate the galaxy. Without our opposition the Temple will take over the Citadel Council races and the Terminus Systems. It is not guaranteed they will attack us, but if they do we will face a united galaxy and frankly, being subjugated by the Temple is the creepiest outcome I can conceive of."

"Nope," agreed Ravenna. "They can offer nothing right now. If these Reapers prove real and they attack I anticipate a limited military alliance of convenience. Our best option would be the elimination of the Temple and uniting the lesser races under us."

Amaoth sighed, "Ravenna, Miranda, Lilith. Thank you for your efforts."

Council Chamber, the Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 6 July 2083

Ambassador Ravenna of the Terran Dominion met with the Citadel Council. A galactic map was spread before them. It looked grim. Thessia was burning. Most of the Asari worlds were captured or at war. The Turians had been far less affected. Only human covert operatives relentlessly assassinating eviloids and hybrids had kept the Asari Republics from falling already.

"We need to do something, or we will lose the Asari Republics," said Tevos.

"We have a plan," replied Ravenna, "- it is radical, but it is a plan."

Sparatus and Valern looked at each other, resignedly. "Go on," said Tevos, glumly.

"We have some devices. Rare, experimental weapons. It is going to be bad, but it will tear the heart out of the threat."

"Could you be more specific?" asked Tevos warily.

So, Ravenna became more specific. As she set out the plan, the council looked at her, horrified. They all realised, however, that the alternatives were worse. In the end, sobbing like a child, Tevos agreed to it. The council had made its choice.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Thirteen - Death and Destruction

City of Ulee, Thessia, Parnitha System, Athena Nebula, 6 July 2183

Parts of the Asari city were still burning, but the central city square was firmly under the control of the Temple of the Golden Star. Protected by barricades guarded by armed, cold-eyed asari in combat fatigues, the square had been cleared and in the centre was a raised platform with a lovingly rendered metal icon of the Golden Star behind it. Curtains had been raised behind it of a deep, purplish blue, covered in colourful rainbows, smiling eviloids, stars and hearts. One of the larger buildings next to the square had been commandeered for the Temple. A newly made metal icon hung above the door whilst large vertical banners identified it as the Temple of the Golden Star. To one side of the square was a cage containing filthy, terrified, asari children. Some missing limbs, some visibly malnourished, all miserable.

Around the platform hybrids lounged in the sun. The Daughters of the Golden star reclined in provocative positions soaking up the sun, whilst a couple of them gnawed bones. As ever, they wore nothing but their fur. One of the Daughters reached through the cage bars to grab the arm of an incautious child that had wandered too close to the edge of the enclosure. Catching them by the upper arm, the hybrid raised her other hand. The elegant nails extended into talons and the creature easily ripped off the child's forearm as the little asari screamed. The Daughter then licked the stump at the elbow, something in the hybrid's saliva causing the wound to coagulate quickly and stop the child bleeding out. The hybrid sashayed off, hips swaying and talons retracting as she took deep bites of raw flesh from the forearm she had extracted. The asari child retreated into the cage, clutching her stump, moaning in horror and trauma.

A group of asari approached the square. At the fore was a matron wearing heavy white robes and a temple medallion, with the sign of the Golden Star carefully drawn on her forehead. The matron was accompanied by an asari child in white robes, also wearing a medallion and drawn sign. The matron and the child both carried boxes wrapped in colourful paper. Behind them was a group of ten white robed escorts, all wearing Temple symbols and carrying more heavy wrapped boxes. The guards at the square barricades were clearly expecting them.

"I'm here to be granted the gift of a Care Bear's Daughters," announced the woman. "As a humble token of sacrifice, I come to bring my former daughter into the Temple's service, for I will exchange that which is flawed for that which is perfect. We also bring offerings to the Temple."

The guards waved the group through the barrier and they approached the Temple building. One of the guards called ahead through a communicator. The doors to the building opened and a greeting party of several asari Temple functionaries walked through wearing robes, accompanied by a light green Care Bear. As the group approached the Temple building, one of the hybrids sniffed the air and lazily stalked towards them. Other Daughters turned, focusing eerily on the approaching group.

The matron ignored the hybrids and walked forward at a brisk pace, matched by the child and her escorts. She reached the greeting party and bowed her head, "I greet you in the name of Gold Star -" began the matron. She was cut off by a Daughter of the Golden Star walking right up to her, sniffing her. The hybrid rubbed its face roughly against the matron's, grasping her with shapely fingers whose nails were rapidly extending into talons. The greeting party, sensing something wrong, began to step back. Other hybrids had stood and were approaching.

"Death to the Temple!" screamed the woman suddenly, a hand firmly pressing something. Then the woman, the child and her ten escorts exploded - the heavy suicide vests they had been wearing under their robes filling the air with deadly shrapnel. The suicide bombers and the nearby hybrids were reduced to a fine red mist whilst other nearby hybrids were seriously injured by the storm of razor sharp metal fragments.

A moment later, the boxes the party had been carrying also exploded. Half the boxes contained high explosives. The other half contained a modern napalm equivalent - a Dominion invention sometimes called Napalm Plus. Windows shattered and some walls crumbled. The area around the square was showered in sticky, burning, incendiary liquid blazing with a white heat. The greeting party, including the eviloid, were killed to the last.

Across the square, some of the guards had been hit by shrapnel and droplets of Napalm Plus. As they turned to the scene of the carnage and gazed at the blazing incendiary liquid, some screaming in pain, they saw five armoured figures with heavy, bulky weapons burst from a nearby street and open fire with high calibre projectiles. Two grenades arced up and into the barricades from these new assailants, whose leader was wearing a heavy gauntlet. Where he pointed, flames, explosion and death followed.

"Attack!" ordered Grey Lord Zaeed Massani over the comm-link as his squad advanced. Massani was a typically ruthless Grey Lord, and his squad had been operating covertly on Thessia since shortly after the Temple incident on the Citadel in late June. Massani, despite his name, was a white man, with a heavy build and a coarse face. It was a rare anomaly. Zaeed's ancestors had a mixed background and their pale appearance had been enough to survive the Cleansing of 2045. The name, now highly unusual, had remained in the family.

Massani's mission was to assassinate eviloids, hybrids and compromised asari to prevent the Asari Republics falling to the Temple. Initial attacks had been simple affairs, cloaking his squad and attacking with surprise. However, the Temple were too intelligent to fall for the same tactics repeatedly and Massani knew it. As a result, he had been varying his approaches. One of the more effective stunts the human covert operatives had used was psionic subversion. As a partial Transcendent, he was adept at mind control and turning Temple adherents into suicide bombers. The Temple's disturbing habit of eating asari children was a gift as far as Massani was concerned. If the Temple wanted something then Massani would give it to them with a smile ... wrapped in explosives.

As a good Dominion citizen and a Grey Lord, Zaeed Massani hated aliens. There was nothing personal about it. He simply had orders to eliminate a threat and if that meant using some asari as suicide bombers, adults or not, he would do it. They were all equally disposable, it was just that the Temple were by far the greater threat and the current strategic target. On a visceral level however, he felt a slight distaste for the Temple.

The barricade was shattered by the grenades, melted and burned by the laser. Zaeed jumped easily over the mess using the flight functions of his armour. As he arced into the air, he was accelerating his reflexes, movement and perceptions using his bodily augmentations and psionic powers. He quickly and precisely swept his 50,000 kilowatt laser gauntlet across the square, ending any hybrids that were not already dead. In a brief moment of mercy, Zaeed paused for a few seconds to slowly sweep the beam over the cages, turning the metal to molten slag and turning imprisoned asari children to burning, charred corpses. It was a quicker, cleaner, death by far than what the Temple had intended.

His squad close behind him, Zaeed advanced into the Temple building. It had been just over a minute since the explosions. There were a couple of guards inside who had gotten behind cover, but they only had mass effect rifles and their bullets barely grazed his armour barriers. He put them both down with quick gauntlet bursts and surveyed the inside of the temple. It was a typical Asari building. A composite, concrete-analogue building material, light and very strong, augmented with stone, metal and glass to form a delicate, curved spire. The entry hall was spacious and airy. There was a reception desk with two asari cowering behind it.

Zaeed looked at his gauntlet. He had been using long bursts and sweeps instead of short blasts and the heat indicator had risen markedly. He decided to let it cool before it locked due to overheating and drew his power sword, a reinforced, razor sharp, composite blade. As Massani thumbed the activator, the blade was reinforced by an invisible Petroleum Effect force field. He leapt over the desk and ended the two receptionists, carving them both in half in seconds and scattering blue asari blood and entrails across the floor.

Now, the priority target was the eviloids. This Temple had been chosen as a major nest. Temple indoctrinated asari personnel were also valid targets, but way down the list of priorities. Intelligence was that there were as many as ten of the so-called Care Bears in the building. In the background, Zaeed noted his squad had caught up with him, rushing through the door and fanning out.

"Guard the ground floor!" ordered Massani. "Make sure nothing escapes. I'll advance upwards." He turned to the lift and shoved his power sword through the control panel. There were sparks and cracks and both lift panels suddenly switched to the Asari words for, "Out of Order". The only way up or out now was by the stairs.

This attack had been planned for a couple of days. Several groups of loyal and trusted Temple adherents had been subverted by Zaeed's psionics. One had been used for the suicide bomb attack. Others were advancing, their cover still not discarded, ostensibly to 'protect' the Temple but would fire on any eviloids they saw, chanting the praises of the Archlord, the Hunger and the Wyrm at the top of their voices as they fought and died for humanity.

The Grey Lord swept outwards with his sensors and his psionics. He quickly identified the main stairwell and burst through. It was a simple utilitarian arrangement, flights of steps around a central, square pillar with slightly rounded corners. He sensed eviloids a few floors above, just beginning to react to the attack. He cloaked and began to climb, holding the sword in front of him. The good news was that he sensed a lot of eviloids, more than ten - perhaps as many as twenty. The bad news was that his sensors were picking up heavily armed and armoured asari - commandos - rushing down the stairs. Their indoctrination would be heavy, he knew. It was something he could deal with if they were alone and he had time - but right now mind control would do him no good - undoing the control and applying his own would take too long. He would have to fight.

Zaeed ducked behind the pillar in the stairwell and waited. The enemy would be unlikely to suspect an invisible human assassin was already on the stairs. It was barely two minutes into the attack. He paused, calmly, relaxing as heavy footsteps drew closer and his gauntlet continued to cool.

A muscular asari rounded the corner and died as he cut her in two. He burst forward at a run, cutting down another as he ran up the stairs. The three commandos behind opened fire. They could not see exactly what was happening but their comrades had come apart and there was an attacker in the stairwell. The bullets were stopped cold by Zaeed's armour barrier, but it was automatic fire at point blank range and his shield dropped rapidly. His invisible form was limned in pale white light as his shields dissipated the energy and he dropped his cloak.

Massani shoved his left hand forward, palm open and then pulled back. A psionic effect yanked the commandos towards him. Off balance and falling, their fire went wide of the mark and he cut down another two. The third managed to catch themself and fired again, draining his barriers further before he took their head off with his blade.

Zaeed's HUD showed more asari coming. There were five more behind the first - they had stopped running and proceeded to advance cautiously. Two grenades bounced down the stairwell and exploded, one at nearly point blank range. His barriers dropped to almost nothing and he was knocked back, slamming into the wall at the bottom of the current flight of steps. He raised his gauntlet and activated the extra shield, which sprung into being as a literal round shield of force like he was a medieval knight.

Zaeed stood and moved swiftly sideways down the stairs. As he recovered his breath he used his augmetics to accelerate and then switched to flight, deactivating his gauntlet shield. A moment later he cloaked, his endless training and practice enabling him to carry out the psionic procedure swiftly even after taking heavy fire. A few seconds later he flew invisibly into the atrium and out of the front door, dropping behind the cover of some solid looking wreckage from a barricade.

"Asari commandos coming down the stairs," he barked into the comm-link. "I took out five. Dropped back to restore barriers."

Massani's men were elite human special forces. They were limited to element-zero armour and weapons, but it was top of the line, as were they. None were Transcendent but they could all use simple psionics of various types, including mind shields. Zaeed heard them getting into a firefight with the commandos. He switched off and sheathed his power sword. The gauntlet cooling system was efficient and he had not fired for a few minutes now - it had not even been maxed out when he had drawn his sword.

The square was still empty, as far as Massani could see, but he kept his cloaks on. Drones and Temple forces would be arriving soon. His barrier regenerated slowly but Massani waited patiently. The asari commandos were stalemated by his men and were getting into a drawn out shooting match. After another minute, Massani walked calmly and quietly, invisibly, back into the Temple entry hall. Using his psionic senses, Massani could perceive a mob of commandos about to burst through the door at the bottom of the stairwell, wrapped in biotics.

"Cease fire," ordered Massani over the comm. The humans stopped firing and the asari commandos rushed down, wrapped in biotics, which did nothing to stop Zaeed's sustained laser burst. Several of them burst into flames and died too quickly to even scream. They fell to the ground, burning as more advanced. There was something different about the next group. They seemed tightly packed together, they did not go down. Then, Zaeed realised something was wrong. They were not melting, they were rippling. The packed mob of asari commandos was an illusion - one that had deceived not only his vision, but his psionic senses. As the deception collapsed, Zaeed saw a repugnant ball of fleshy appendages rolling towards him, looking like a much smaller version of the so-called Gold Star creature from the Lusia video. The Grey Lord realised that behind the genuine asari commandos the Temple had sent something special and far more dangerous.

A desperate thought-click activated Zaeed's suit engines, backed by his augmentic impellers - he hurtled sideways and just avoided getting clipped by the horrifying abomination. He dropped his cloak as the leprous yellow horror let out an unearthly shriek. He faced it and realised he was still firing on instinct. His weapon was doing damage, scoring and withering appendages, but it was slow going. A normal creature would be ash by now. He backed away, still firing, as the creature turned. The monster writhed as he fired and he kept the beam on it. Seconds passed, then the laser beam went out. An indicator in his HUD showed that the laser had overheated - he had been firing at the beast continuously for over a minute.

The horror began to move, dragging itself with terrifying rapidity towards its foe, bullet fire from the elites Zaeed had brought with him simply bouncing off its hide. The beast ignored the grunts and went straight for the leader.

Zaeed realised he could not kill the creature with his laser. The thing was clearly intended to be able to handle fighters in the Grey Lord weight class. Moving at speed, Zaeed flew out of the door and up to the second floor. Drawing his sword and thumbing it back on, Massani sliced the window to form an entrance and slipped into the building. He was in an office, full of Asari style chairs and desks. With his gauntleted hand, he drew out a small marble sized device from a slot on his belt. He only had three. It was a Petroleum Effect bomb.

The matter to energy conversion ratio on a Petroleum Effect bomb was over 100%. It was more efficient than anti-matter / matter annihilation. The bomb in his hand only contained a tiny amount of petroleum - it was a centimetre in diameter but the petroleum well was much less than a millimetre. It would all be converted. He activated the bead and set it to sixty seconds, then rolled it into a crack under a desk. Zaeed ran for the other side of the room and cut through the window. Glancing behind him, he saw an appendage slithering in through the first entrance he had made. The beast had climbed or flown up the wall and followed him. Zaeed jumped out of the new exit he had cut and activated all his impellers - suit and augmetic, straight up. He forgot everything else and quickly cloaked.

Even without armour, Grey Lords could fly through space for some time using their augmetics. The pressurised armour made it far more comfortable and more sustainable. Invisible, Zaeed headed straight up. Defence sensors would mostly not detect him. He was not emitting much heat - just a minor atmospheric disturbance like a flock of birds. He looked down, nothing followed.

Grey Lord Zaeed Massani closed his eyes as he flew. He still saw a stab of blinding light, even through his eyelids and helmet visor. The bomb had gone off. It was effectively a micro-nuke. The entire building would have been destroyed along with the adjacent ones. Any eviloids would be dead, along with their followers. More damage than he would have liked, and he had lost another squad of grunts, but he was alive and the enemy were dead. He headed for space. A cloaked Dominion vessel would pick him up sooner rather than later, then he could rearm, recover, reinforce and head back for more.

CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Lying Ghost, Care-a-Lot Orbit, Delos System, Athena Nebula, 7 July 2183

Grey Lord Jack Harper was in place already when his orders came through. Ambassador Crown had secured the Citadel Council's agreement. He was ready to go.

The 'Lying Ghost' was a unique Terran Dominion warship. It had been built as a standard frigate, which unlike the Normandy had come off the production line without any stealth features whatsoever. The Lying Ghost had no heat sinks and no cloak. What it did have, was a special feature all of its own. Since it was built, the frigate had been extensively modified by Harper. He had spent months in Sol connected to a First Transcendence suite whilst experimenting and designing his own simple psionics effects, as well as modifying his ship's hull. The work had paid off.

The Lying Ghost could distort light and electromagnetic radiation to completely change its appearance - a hologram that worked with almost all forms of scanners. That was only half of its power, however. The Lying Ghost's appearance came with a subtle, contagious and extremely powerful psionic effect. Anyone seeing the Lying Ghost, whether with their own eyes through a window, on a screen, on a scanner, in a mirror or as a dot on a radar would accept it as what it presented itself to be. This worked to the extent that if the Lying Ghost provided an unrecognised IFF, the recipients might whitelist it, accepting that their failure to recognise the ship was an error on their part. The effect was even better if the ship had somehow obtained valid credentials. The Lying Ghost was NOT SUSPICIOUS to anyone seeing it. Harper, with his usual thoroughness (that some of his peers termed, 'paranoia') had even tested it against marines and others using simple psionic shields. The Grey Lord had tested and changed and modified until the effect could normally circumvent mind-shields.

The highly experimental effect came with some significant drawbacks. Firstly, the Lying Ghost had a lot of significant hull work done. The channels and crystals and golden wiring had weakened hull integrity. Second, the effect required Harper personally to be on the bridge, holding the effect up in the back of his mind at all times and having to devote his full attention to recasting it every 60 minutes. In high visibility situations where the ship had many viewers, he had to recast every 15 minutes. Only one marine, who was not a partial Transcendent, had mastered the simple psionic effects Harper had designed. At full visibility, the marine could only hold the effect for 120 minutes at most before serious exhaustion. Harper, being a partial Transcendent, could hold the effect up indefinitely until he had to rest.

Right now, the Lying Ghost was disguised as the atmosphere capable bulk freighter, 'The Sugar Daddy', complete with valid credentials obtained by one of the Dominion's front corporations used in the element zero trade. The official manifest for The Sugar Daddy stated it was delivering building tools, building manuals, ingots of element zero and other boring items in demand at the growing temple settlements. In turn it would pick up various sweets and confectionary based on the planet's native cotton candy trees and other produce. The official manifest was lies. What the ship actually carried was an esoteric device from the depths of the Temple Ship's vaults. Something the Archlord and the High Lords had developed but never used. Something awful.

The planet Care-a-Lot had very limited infrastructure, only a few scattered religious settlements. However, it was guarded by a large fleet of Temple adherents including many Asari military ships and several Asari dreadnoughts. The vessels had defected during the conflict between the Citadel Council and the Temple.

When word came through that his mission was authorised, Grey Lord Jack Harper was already in the Athena Nebula. He had the Lying Ghost approach the Delos System and shifted it immediately into the form of The Sugar Daddy. Disguised as a simple freighter, the human military frigate flew easily past the defence fleet, its registration codes and broadcasts accepted without question.

The fake freighter slid smoothly into the atmosphere of Care-a-Lot, heading for a smaller settlement, which did not so much have a spaceport as a large, cleared, field. Not far from landing, the Lying Ghost diverted, broadcasting a message that it had a minor systems fault and they were landing away from the settlement in case of leakage of toxins from their systems. The settlement accepted this without question, broadcasting a message apologising for not having more sophisticated facilities to be able to help.

Harper maintained his concentration as the ship landed gently on a grassy plain. As soon as the landing pads touched down, the engines dropped to standby and then offline. A drive core discharge rod was lowered to the ground, dumping the electrical charge. The Grey Lord gathered his will and recast his special cloaking effect with a new shape. Where there had been a ship was now a low grassy hillock with steep sides. Onlookers would likely assume it had always been there and the ship (if they were looking for one) had landed elsewhere.

"Okay Mason, you're up!" barked Harper.

Marine Bernard Mason, an N5 operative, joined him and prepared to take over. Mason had reached N5 grade special operations ranking, but failed to reach the coveted N6 and N7 rankings. Even an N5 was a very prestigious ranking, but Mason also had a significant facility with complex psionics. Right now, he was the only person aboard who could hold up the cloak aside from his boss. Mason concentrated and with difficulty, but great accuracy, forced his mind through the mnemonics for the effect. The hillock shifted slightly, almost imperceptibly, then Mason was maintaining the illusion and Harper was free. Not being a partial Transcendent, Mason could only hold the shield for two hours at most in high observation situations. For now though, scrutiny of the illusion was limited, which should buy them more time.

"Right, let's get moving!" called out Harper. He sprinted for the cargo bay. Every second counted and he was already in his armour. In the cargo bay, two marines, Max Hudson and Georgina Cantrell, awaited him in an M35 Mako, already loaded with the awful thing he had brought. The ramp dropped and the Mako moved forward. Any observer would see it emerge from a cave in the hillock, a cave they would only notice for that moment.

Care-a-Lot, Delos System, Athena Nebula, 7 July 2183

Resting on the floor between the seats in the Mako was the payload. A heavy black ring with a hole sized for a human finger rested on a flat stone. The ring was made of a glossy black substance, like obsidian, and marked with ominous silver and gold symbols. In reality it was a sophisticated device - inside were circuits and exotic materials. Just having the device in the Mako was uncomfortable, even for the hard-bitten marines - even for Jack Harper. The ring felt, 'wrong' as though there were an observer in the vehicle with them, watching.

The dark ring was a product of the High Lords' technology but some of the techniques used were a gift of the Wyrm. In fact, the High Lords had not been sure that the ring would function without the direct invocation and blessing of the creature. To be on the safe side, Harper had decided to make a literal sacrifice before activation. The ring was a precious weapon - the Dominion only had a handful, and until there were new High Lords there would be no replacements.

Harper needed an eviloid to sacrifice. As the Mako began to move forward, smashing down candy floss trees, Harper remembered to raise a mind-shield. It was a serious slip that he had not raised it before leaving the ship - a sign of how tiring operating the cloak was and how on edge the dark ring made him.

"Shields," said Harper, reminding his subordinates - but they had theirs already raised.

The Mako headed for the settlement. From orbital reconnaissance it had looked idyllic. A beautifully manicured lawn surrounded a gorgeous settlement with a white marble temple at the centre. There were now several such settlements on the planet. The human squad did not want to get too close to this one. They just needed a victim from the outskirts. Fortunately, they were in luck. Scanners showed two life forms ahead. Two eviloids walking amongst the candy floss trees. The vehicle stopped - Harper and Hudson leapt out whilst Georgina controlled the turret, should it be needed.

"Hello friends," said a nauseatingly sweet, childlike voice.

"Hello friend!" shouted Jack Harper in a friendly voice, running towards the eviloid. "We need help!" He could see there were two eviloids, a yellow one and a pink one. Without hesitation, Harper shot the yellow one and then he smoothly stowed his rifle. The pink bear did not try to run, instead blasting him with sparkling light from its rainbow tummy symbol - fortunately, his mental shield held. Harper reached out and grabbed the bear. It was surprisingly strong and struggled fiercely. Claws and teeth made shallow grooves even in his composite armour. He pinned its arms tightly and forced its head away from him. They swiftly ran back to the Mako, the Care Bear screaming all the while.

"Help, heretics! Enemies of Gold Star," screamed the eviloid. Jack could almost feel it screaming for help psionically. They would have to move quickly, but he could not kill the thing and did not dare knock it unconscious - he needed it alive. They were soon back in the Mako heading for the landing site.

The screaming bear continued to struggle. As they approached the landing site, Harper spoke into the communicator. "Nearly back! Bring the engines online - we're going to need to leave quickly!" A few moments later they lurched to a stop. "Hudson, bring the device!" yelled Harper. Jack dragged the eviloid outside. Hudson followed, bringing the ring and the stone. It was a perfectly ordinary stone - they had just picked it up to use as a convenient base for the ring. Hudson placed it carefully down.

Wrapping one arm tightly around the eviloid to pin it, Harper pulled a combat knife from his belt and called out a prayer.

"I make this sacrifice to the Wyrm in the hope of favour and blessings! May the blood and essence of this eviloid awaken the hunger of the dark star! May the coils of time wrap us up in safety! May the gate be opened and may this world fall into the maw of the void!"

Grey Lord Jack Harper slit the throat of the Care Bear. Pinkish fluids ran free, but it did not stop struggling and screaming - he realised eviloid anatomy must differ somewhat from humans and he had not cut any arteries. Another slip. Harper continued to cut until he hit something vital - the flow became a spray he directed all over the ring and the stone. To make sure it was dead he continued to slice until the eviloid's head came free. Then, Harper picked up the blood splattered stone and the ring and slipped them under some undergrowth. He used his implants to fire a complex data sequence - a key - to the device, whilst at the same time casting a specific simple psionic effect on it repeatedly. At first, nothing happened, but then he received an acknowledgement. A soft grey glow began to appear in a ring around the device.

Harper screamed, "It's active! Get in the ship!"

The Mako screeched forward up the ramp as Georgina Cantrell put her foot down, Jack Harper and Max Hudson running in right behind her. Harper mashed the button to seal the ramp. "Get us off the planet!" ordered Harper over the comm-link. The engines were already back online thanks to his forewarning. The ship lifted only a few moments after the order.

As the ship lifted, the squad did not stop. Decontamination was a haphazard affair in a moving vehicle but they did it anyway. They sprayed each other with a flame gun to purge the outside of their armour, then as the ship cycled the bay atmosphere through purification filters, they removed their armour and burned it. Harper as a partial Transcendent already had nanites in his blood. The two marines self-injected with temporary medical nanites to detect and eliminate any contamination. Harper watched them do it. He was taking no chances whatsoever. Then, Harper sprinted for CIC.

CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Lying Ghost, Care-a-Lot Orbit, Delos System, Athena Nebula, 7 July 2183

The ship lifted as fast as it could. There was no reason, other than proximity, for any defenders to associate it with the attack on the eviloid and the creature itself had hopefully only seen a hillock before it was beheaded. Mason simply shifted the ship back to the look of The Sugar Daddy. The vessel bolted for the void, warning those around it that it had a critical malfunction and was lifting off as a precaution in case of a reactor meltdown.

Whatever alert was happening on the planet, the defence ships were mostly crewed by asari. There was no purpose to having eviloids on crew stations. "Just a freighter," said sensor officers reassuringly to their commanding officers, influenced by the far-reaching contagion of the Lying Ghost's psionic effect. The scrutiny of multiple vessels was rapidly draining Marine Bernard Mason's stamina. The planet-side team had been gone over an hour and it had taken them a further twenty minutes to decontaminate and for Harper to reach CIC.

The ship was already well outside the atmosphere as the Grey Lord arrived. Unlike the Normandy and Normandy II, the Lying Ghost did not have a separate captain. It was Harper's ship and he would brook no rivals. "Take us into FTL," he ordered, "just to the asteroid belt. We need to see this, even with a few hours lag."

Mason breathed a sigh of relief. As the ship moved into FTL he dropped the cloaking effect.

Care-a-Lot, Delos System, Athena Nebula, 7 July 2183

On a grassy plain on the planet Care-a-Lot, a hillock rippled and shifted into a freighter, which lifted into the sky. A few minutes later, a pack of Daughters of the Golden Star sprinted towards the beheaded body of a Care Bear. They could feel that there was a blasphemous psionic residue around the body. It felt unclean to them, tainted. The two nearest bared their teeth. A low, rare, growling came from one. Another elegantly lifted her shapely leg and urinated on the body to show her disdain, her tail lifted high and writhing sensuously.

Under a bush nearby, the ring continued through its activation sequence. After a slight delay, Petroleum Effect circuitry, augmented by psionically charged components, had initiated something like a portal.

The theory behind the device was simple. Dropping a black hole on a planet was impractical because micro black holes evaporated and good sized ones had stellar masses. Ordinary Dominion portals did not and could not not transmit the gravity well from either terminus to the other end. Instead both ends of the portal opened into a local inertial frame and the energy needed to alter the intrinsic velocity of an object from one frame to the other was (most of) the work needed to traverse the portal.

The dark ring device had no such limitations. The artefact was created with the inspiration of the Wyrm and had been hand-crafted by a High Lord of the Terran Dominion, a Transcendent being - a singularity unto themselves with significant psionic powers as well as scientific knowledge. The device somehow linked to the nearest large black hole and opened a portal at interstellar ranges, well inside the event horizon. The strange and esoteric technology could extend at least some of the gravity well at the other terminus. A dark, cold void formed inside the ring and suddenly, everything near it was falling towards it. The ring itself was now wrapped in an odd, black light and the symbols which had been written in gold and silver now blazed with deep blue and violet light before the substance of the ring seemed to vanish with a ripple as if it had been submerged underwater. What was left was a disc of pure darkness with a lensing effect at the edge. The disc folded, oddly, and became a tiny, growing, sphere.

The gravitational force was far from uniform and the hybrids, at first simply dragged towards the ring, were crushed and torn apart by tidal forces. Well-established conventional physics records that matter releases energy just before it falls into even an ordinary black hole. Up to 40% of an object's rest mass is converted to energy by frictional / compressive forces. In contrast, the nuclear bomb that fell on Hiroshima harnessed the energy of just 0.7 grammes of mass. That was enough to destroy a city and end a world war. The amount of mass falling into the maw of the device on Care-a-Lot was measured in kilogrammes. Nearly four-tenths was being converted into energy. The resulting blaze of light, heat and radiation melted everything for miles, blazing devastating radiation out across the surface and into space. That was only the beginning. The sphere sank into the ground, hungrily consuming the planet's substance and releasing energy of an order seldom seen outside stars.

The hungry void - the darkness of the ring - was no simple event horizon. The Wyrm was a being formed of knotted, coiled and distorted space and time, the strange unknown forms matter could take within a singularity, quantum effects and perhaps other unknown exotic phenomena. The entity had a vast psionic presence. Whilst it was a minor local power compared to some of the Outer Gods, it was utterly alien to humans and the Citadel races.

Whatever lurked on the other side of the dark void was far more dangerous than a mere black hole. The interface was as much maw as it was gravitational phenomena. For a few moments, the energy that was released from the consumed mass became modulated, a signal stating in a myriad languages, "I SHALL TEAR THE SEED FROM THE DARK MOTHER AND DEVOUR IT BEFORE IT BEARS FRUIT."

As the sphere dropped into the surface of the planet it consumed thousands of tonnes of matter. Even in the outer crust it consumed approximate 10 cubic metres of rock a second, approximately 25 tonnes. 40% of that was directly converted to energy by the accretion process - approximately 10 tonnes a second. In contrast, the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear bomb tested on Earth during the 20th Century, created a 50 megatonne yield from converting 2.3KG. The dark sphere did more than 400 times that, every second. The heat was so great that rock was boiling into vapour and evaporating. In the first minute the process released more than twenty-six thousand times the energy of Tsar Bomba. In the first hour, it released more than one-and-a-half million times the energy of Tsar Bomba. The effect went on for around eleven hours before the portal collapsed, converting ever denser material as it sank into the planet's core.

The mass consumed was a tiny, insignificant, fraction of the substance of the planet, but the energy release was apocalyptic. The entire planet was rocked by shockwaves that merged and intensified until the entire world was shaking in an ongoing earthquake above Richter-scale 10. Volcanic eruptions and magma releases occurred across the planet, venting poisonous gas and ash into the atmosphere. The temperature rose, and kept rising.

Captain's Office , Terran Dominion Frigate Lying Ghost , Delos System, Athena Nebula, 7 July 2183

The Lying Ghost had left the vicinity of Care-a-Lot at speed, before arriving in the asteroid belt. Quietly, the ship had slipped behind a large rock and monitored transmissions for around twelve hours. Listening from that distance meant a light-speed lag of around forty minutes. Jack Harper relaxed, smoking a cigarette and sipping a brandy as he listened to the world die and the panicked chatter of the cultist defence fleet.

At one point, a text signal was received. There was no sender, or at least no sender tag that made sense. The message was a single sentence, repeated again and again a few times before stopping, "I SHALL TEAR THE SEED FROM THE DARK MOTHER AND DEVOUR IT BEFORE IT BEARS FRUIT.".

Harper and the crew would take a day to recover, clean up, fabricate new equipment and repair some of the old. Then, on to Lusia to make use of the other device he had been given.

A Dark Place , Time Coordinates Not Contiguous

A Tenderheart Bear woke up. He remembered screaming, a strange light in the sky, horrified panic being shared psionically. The day had begun calmly. Then, with no warning or alert, there was a strange, bright light in the sky and a warm breeze that became a hot wind. Then came the tremor, mild at first but growing and growing and just not stopping.

The ground shook and just kept shaking more and more. Tenderheart Bear had fled into a temple - a sturdy marble building - but it began to crack and then something hit him just as he was getting uncomfortably hot.

He looked about. It did not feel like normal looking. He felt cold. The bear was standing on a smooth, icy, surface. It was pitch black but for some reason he could see himself. He could see nothing else. He was standing in an absolute void, like a lightless cave. Tenderheart Bear tried to use his powers to make a heart light. Nothing happened. He felt a sense of emptiness and loss. Looking down, his fur was bare - he had a bare white circle where his tummy symbol of a heart had been. Then, he realised another loss - he had no pouch. He felt nothing at all - just smooth fur between his legs. No concealed organs to make cubs with female bears, nor share the blessings of the Golden Star and the Mother with other species.

Tenderheart Bear felt a sudden sense of dread, weak at first, but rising. "Hello," he called out, trying to be cheerful and friendly but his voice was consumed by the emptiness. There was not even an echo.

"Is anyone there? Gold Star, can you help me?" When he said 'Gold Star', again, the bear felt a worse sense of loss and emptiness, of abandonment.

A hissing voice, compound, like a discordant choir of snakes, replied to him. "There are no stars here. Even your Dark Mother has no presence here. She does not taint this place with her foulness. They cannot see you, they cannot save you. The One-above-all that some of the clever humans worship could save you, but you are an unclean thing."

Dread was merging with fear into existential terror. "Who are you? Where am I?"

"I opened my gate on your world, just a little. The humans brought me there. Your world shook and broke, so did your containers. You tried to leave but my mouth was open and you were all drawn into this part of the labyrinth of time. All of you are here with me, but you cannot see the others. You are scattered and you are all so small and delicious."

"My container? You mean the temple building?"

"The one made of meat. It did not survive. You still wear its likeness."

Tenderheart Bear felt a sense of awful realisation. He had died, but he was not in the presence of Gold Star as he had been promised. This was no land of glorious blue sky and rainbows. The Mother was not here, nor her garden. There was silence for a time. He had not thought his terror could increase, but somehow it did. He curled up, feeling himself fade, feeling only dread and terror.

After a while, the hissing voice spoke one last time to the bear, "I love the humans. I do not eat them. I do not love you. You are food."

Tenderheart Bear felt a sense of something vast, coils surrounding him, invisible in the dark. Then, for an instant he felt a spike of terror as something huge lunged at him. Then there was nothing at all. The Tenderheart Bear was gone.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Fourteen - Noveria

Conference Room , Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II , The Citadel , Serpent Nebula , 6 July 2183

Miranda Lawson and Lilith Shepard stayed in the conference room after Ravenna left for her meeting with the council. It had been a long, messed up day.

"You know," said Shepard, "I think we messed up on Feros."

"How so?" asked Miranda.

"We forgot to say the catchphrase."

Miranda looked at Shepard blankly for a moment.

"Do you remember, from when we attacked the Temple of the Golden Star in Zakera Ward? - It's genocidin' time!"

"You know, Shepard, that catchphrase is disturbingly appropriate. For the galaxy in general, really."

"I wish we'd said it. We didn't actually genocide the last of any races, but we put in some good effort towards it. Maybe the Thorian was the last of its kind. I kind of hope so."

"We can say it now," said Miranda. "Better late than never."

"It's not the same," moped Shepard, "but ..." she raised her hand in a high-five, Miranda slapped it. In unison, they cheered, "It's genocidin' time!"

"You have such a good attitude!" enthused Miranda. "You know Shepard, I would really like to introduce you to some of the other Grey Lords. I think you would really benefit from some of the best practices we've found. You know how when we raided the Temple in Zakera Ward we found the eviloid hybrids eating asari children? Well, I've got a colleague, another Grey Lord called Zaeed. He's been on Thessia since late June and he's got these great ideas about using asari child suicide bombers against the eviloids there. Amazing guy, you have to meet him -"

At that point the comm chimed. "Yes?" asked Miranda, expecting Communications Officer Friedrich Gunther. Instead, the soft, feminine tones of AEA, the ship's artificial intelligence, spoke from the device.

"Incoming message has been routed to you. Geth activity reported on planet Noveria."

Miranda sighed. "Well, it's something to do." She thought-clicked the comm to link her to CIC. "Captain Anderson, I am going to abuse the incredible bath in my suite. Then, I am going to sleep. In the meantime, your orders are to get the Normandy II into orbit around planet Noveria. There may be a Geth attack underway, cloak if necessary."

CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II , Noveria Orbit, Pax System, Horsehead Nebula , 7 July 2183

Miranda strolled into the CIC, well rested. She glanced at the holo-display and nodded to the officer of the watch. Captain Anderson had finished his own shift and was asleep. A young lieutenant had command. Tom Bradley, she confirmed with a query through her implants.

"Status report please, lieutenant."

"Grey Lady Lawson, we are cloaked and in orbit around Noveria as ordered. We cloaked after entering the system and engaged heat sinks. There was no hostile action and we have not been detected, but there is Geth activity on the planet, including some landed ships. We disengaged drives after entering orbit, and can remain here for some time without dropping cloaks or heat-sinks. They seem focused on a specific building complex."

"Understood. What is your analysis about tactical approaches?"

"The geth do not appear to be fighting the local authorities. Noveria is a special case world - somehow chartered by a private corporation called the Noveria Development Corporation, for research. This planet is not technically Citadel space and it is certainly not in Dominion space. Spectres have some jurisdiction. We could land at the spaceport and speak to the local authorities, see if they want help with the geth."

Miranda laughed, harshly, "The Citadel have arranged themselves a 'special' world where they get to do illegal research? How charming. What defences do they have, what about ships?"

"Light orbital and ground defences. No ships other than shuttles, civilian craft."

"Well, screw those guys then," remarked Miranda. "If Council law does not run here, then we do not have to pretend to follow it. What if we just come in shooting and land near the geth and the building complex they are interested in?"

"Well, Grey Lady Lawson, to be honest it would save us a lot of time and travel. There's a road from the spaceport to the complex and it's full of geth. You would need a tank to get along there on the ground, but if we stayed cloaked and overflew, we can take them out with point kinetics or lasers. Landing might be more of a problem. I don't think there is quite enough space to land the ship at the complex, but we could rake the outside with fire. We could land somewhere clear not too far away, or on a peak, to be ready to assist."

"Sounds better than advancing on the ground, along a heavily defended road. Let's just talk to Noveria Station first though. Communications Officer Friedrich Gunther, patch me in with Saren's crate then get me on the comm with the station please."

Saren appeared first. He lived in a crate in the cargo bay now. During the move to the Normandy II, Miranda had upgraded it into what was effectively a pressurised cell. Whilst the turian did not pose any significant contamination threat, as far as they could tell, the idea of an alien breathing the same air as them was disgusting. Saren was by now completely psionically indoctrinated and was delighted with his accommodation and devoted to his human slave-mistress. He was completely blissfully unaware he was mind-controlled and believed he was acting entirely of his own free will.

"Hi Saren," said Miranda, "we've arrived at a planet called Noveria. Seems to be, 'theoretically' outside Citadel space but Spectres have jurisdiction. Back me up in this comm call please."

"With pleasure Commander Lawson!" said Saren, gazing at Miranda with rapt adoration.

Gunther was quick and efficient. Within a few minutes, a female turian from Noveria Station was on the screen.

"Normandy your arrival is not scheduled. Our defence grid is armed and tracking you. Stare your business."

"Hi," opened Miranda. "I'm Commander Lawson of the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion and this is the Normandy II. We are here to investigate dangerous criminals, and we're working with Citadel Council Spectre Saren Arterius. We're trying to do this the nice way. However, we have enough firepower to turn your defence grid and your facility into smoking craters. We are concerned about Geth activity on your world. What can you tell us?"

"Yes!" shouted Saren harshly from his box on the screen, "I am Saren Arterius, Citadel Spectre. Comply or be deemed terrorist enemies of the Citadel. Comply or die."

A pop-up window appeared on Miranda's screen, not visible to the turian on the other end of the link. It was an instant message from Bradley - "Their defence grid is active. It looks like a handful of turrets and some missile silos. They don't seem to be able to see us or lock on. They are doing repeat active scans and the weapons are not pointing at us. They have a powerful kinetic barrier."

"Landing access granted," came the reply, "but be advised we will seek to verify status and if we cannot do so, your ship *will* be impounded."

Miranda was unimpressed, "We can verify Spectre Arterius' status remotely. We have no intention of landing. Just tell us what you know about the geth on the planet."

"Transmitting verification key now," said Saren, followed by the melodious chimes of the computer transmitting credentials.

"Give us a moment to confirm." The screen went blank.

There was a pause. A long pause. Miranda was just musing on whether to blow up some buildings when the turian returned.

"Thank you Spectre Arterius. We had an asari matriarch, Benezia T'Soni, land and pass through with a lot of what she described as heavy droids. Benezia left for the Peak 15 Research Complex days ago. To the best of our knowledge, she's still there. We don't have any further information."

"Okay," replied Miranda, "well can you just send us the coordinates and stay out of our way? Keep your people and forces out of the Peak 15 area. Spectre operations."

"Will do," said the turian, grudgingly, "hold on ... sending map now."

"Thank you for your cooperation," said Miranda and then cut the comm to the planet as soon as the map arrived. "Thanks Saren! Okay that's all we need for now. You keep contemplating the oneness of your box, like I told you."

Saren visibly preened at Miranda's praise. "Of course Commander!" He cut the link and returned to lying in his box in the cargo bay.

Miranda turned to Lieutenant Tom Bradley, swiping the map to him, which he expanded.

"Looks like Peak 15 is the complex we identified."

"Good. That plan you came up with. Execute it. Clear the road to Peak 15 and clear the outside. I'll go and find Shepard and Alenko."

Outside the Peak 15 Research Complex , Noveria, Pax System, Horsehead Nebula , 7 July 2183

Grey Lady Miranda Lawson, Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard and Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko disembarked from the Normandy II airlock and scrambled down from the peak where it had landed, down to ground level. All were in full armour - Lawson and Shepard in the same Grey Lord combat gear they wore on Feros. Alenko had somewhat less impressive equipment - element zero based armour and a high quality assault rifle. The humans moved cautiously from cover to cover, but they encountered nothing living - just smoking craters and wrecked geth debris. The flyover had been 100% successful.

The research complex loomed before them - vast and white and clean and corporate looking. The humans advanced into the building, finding the main doors were active and opened for them automatically. The inside was clean, functional and peaceful until the group ran into a squad of geth.

Kaiden took cover whilst Lawson and Shepard took out the geth. With their Petroleum Effect shields being one hundred times more powerful than Citadel standard and vastly superior laser gauntlets, they just walked up to the geth, ignoring the gunfire. They took them out with short laser bursts. Even a rocket hit from a geth juggernaut barely slowed the Grey Lady and her protégé. Kaiden was only equipped with standard Dominion eezo armour and an assault rifle. It was around 50% better than comparable Citadel equipment but still orders of magnitude inferior to what the others had.

A few minutes later, the geth were smoking corpses. What was left was an eerily empty complex with a lot of secure, locked doors. Trying one of the electronic locks, Shepard received an error message that the lock was offline and she should consult the station's virtual intelligence.

"Thoughts?" Shepard asked.

"VI's offline and I don't see turning it online helping us," replied Kaiden Alenko.

Miranda, Lilith and Kaiden scrutinised the doors at some length. They were heavy and would be best opened by motors. Explosives or lasers would be time consuming. Miranda was contemplating a psionic effect to try to operate the motors and locks telekinetically when a giant, roach-like creature burst out of some sort of vent in the floor.

"Eww!" screamed Miranda in horror and shock, firing her gauntlet on instinct. Whatever the creature was, the laser burst went straight through its inside and flash-boiled its innards. The creature exploded with a crack and a gout of smoke. Miranda kept firing for a moment before acknowledging it was dead and shutting off the beam. By this point, the corpse was also on fire.

"Fuck!" swore Miranda panting. Alenko and Shepard took up defensive positions but nothing else happened. After a few moments Miranda calmed down, embarrassed. "Sorry - that was unexpected," she said. "What the fuck was that thing?"

"No idea," replied Shepard. Alenko shrugged.

"Okay," rasped a still-rattled but calming Miranda, "I'm going to check my armour cam for a better look and you two are going to guard me in case of more of those things."

Miranda replayed the image, reviewing brief, blurred footage of the creature before its insides were on its outsides. It was was chitinous, or something similar, four-legged, with tentacle-claws. She had never seen anything like it. Making an effort to calm her voice, Miranda opened a comm channel to the Normandy II.

"Normandy II, be advised we have encountered hostile unknown aliens as well as geth. Insectoid creatures - never seen one before. I am uploading a picture now. Check our databases, public Citadel databases and if you can't find anything, have Saren check the Citadel classified archives please. Be alert for the creatures as well as geth and ready to defend the ship from attack."

Miranda dismissed the cam history from her armour HUD and switched to a defensive stance as she waited for a response. It took a few minutes, then the comm activated and AEA's voice came down the link. "I've found a match, Commander Lawson, public history database. It looks like a rachni soldier. The rachni were a sentient insectoid hive race that warred with the Citadel Council and were eventually exterminated. It appears they are not as extinct as was thought."

Miranda added the squad to the conversation. "Okay Normandy II brief us on the rachni please. Short version. History, goals, tactics and brief analysis as to what is going on?"

AEA's response was terse, just as Miranda has asked, "The rachni were a sentient insectoid hive race that warred with the Citadel Council. The war lasted more than a century and the Council were losing until they uplifted the krogan. The krogan defeated the rachni but were then subjected to a bio-weapon by the Council to reduce their rate of reproduction. The goals of the rachni were unknown as communication could not be established. The rachni were highly intelligent and utilised ambushes and cunning as well as swarm tactics. Rachni soldiers such as the ones you encountered are melee combatants with heavy armour, melee attacks and acid spit. Historic records include large, biotic, variants and queens. Queens were believed to be highly sentient. Insufficient data to explain their appearance here. Suggest - some rachni survived - or someone has created a weapon that looks very similar, or somehow recreated them."

"Okay," replied Miranda to AEA, "we are looking for Matriarch Benezia. Nothing here but geth and this ... thing. What is our sensor status? Any leads?"

"Heavy Geth activity at a linked facility nearby. Seems to be connected by a tramway."

"Okay, returning to Normandy II. I am not taking a tram anywhere. You can fly us and drop us nearby again."

Rift Station , Noveria, Pax System, Horsehead Nebula , 7 July 2183

Miranda, Shepard and Alenko entered Rift Station via an emergency exit near the tramway. Miranda had to force the door, using her telekinetic abilities to close contacts inside the electronic locks. She opened the door, let them inside and closed it again. They found themselves at the tram terminal - there was no tram just a deserted tunnel stretching away into the distance. The internal doors were not locked and opened automatically.

The station corridors were cylindrical, with a mix of solid metal composite and transparent material affording a view onto rough hewn, solid ice. A few turns and a lift took them into another room and straight in front of the raised barrels of a turian security squad.

To Miranda's surprise, the turians lowered their weapons.

"Thank the spirits you're not bugs!" exclaimed the turian leader. "Who are you ... have you been sent by corporate?"

"Commander Lawson, Terran Dominion military," replied Miranda tersely. "We're here to investigate attacks on this planet. What can you tell us about what's happening here?"

"Illo Qui'in - head of security. I won't turn down military help. We're being overrun here. I've seen no geth, whatever those are. We've had bugs overrunning the complex, coming up from the Hot Labs. Corporate sent an asari matriarch to clean up the mess. She went to the Hot Labs yesterday and we haven't heard from her since. She had a lot of strange looking combat robots with her, too."

"Benezia," remarked Shepard, "am I right? Is she still there?"

"I don't know. I don't see what one person could do, even with all those robots. There are a lot of bugs."

"How do we get there?" asked Miranda.

"I can't let you in - and you don't want me to. Look, I feel we need to evacuate," said the turian.

Miranda shrugged and suddenly the turian in front of her was wrapped in a psionic field. She casually cut down the remaining turians with short bursts from her gauntlet, ignoring return fire and two hits on her with bullets, which had negligible effect on her armour's barriers. The turian leader writhed in pain as he was lifted into the air and crushed.

"TELL ME HOW TO REACH BENEZIA," ordered Miranda, her words backed by psionic will that flooded into Illo Qui'in's mind, filling him with terror, despair and pain.

Writhing in pain, Qui'in croaked, "Make it stop, please. Make it stop. I can give you a card that will let you access. There's an emergency elevator out by the trams. It will take you down to the Hot Labs."

Miranda stopped and held out her hand. Qui'in handed over the card, weakly, and she shot him dead. "Stupid alien filth," said Miranda.

At this point, more rachni burst from the vents and died at the hands of the humans, who headed back towards the trams.

"We passed it on the way in," observed Shepard.

The three humans retraced their steps and found an entrance to the elevator next to the door they had used to enter the complex. Heading down, they found themselves in large room. A stately asari stood on a metal walkway, wearing a formal dress that showed a lot of decolletage and a strange head-dress made of chitinous material, vaguely reminiscent of the rachni.

The matriarch began to speak, "You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation, to shape a life, turn it toward happiness or despair." The asari turned towards a giant rachni in a sort of tank in the centre of the room. "Her children were to be ours, raised to hunt and slay Nihlus' enemies. Have you faced an asari commando unit before? No humans have, as far as I know."

The asari matriarch raised her hand and doors opened. From the top floor, two younger asari burst in to the attack, wielding assault rifles. From the bottom floor entered geth troopers. The matriarch watched her reinforcements arrive calmly. With a gesture, she was wrapped in a tough looking bubble of biotic force and she stood casually, looking like she intended to spectate the fight.

It was a short fight.

As the last geth collapsed, the humans rounded on the asari. Her biotic field flickered, but she continued to ramble at them. "This is not over. Nihlus is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear."

"Benezia, right?" asked Shepard.

"Yes," replied the matriarch. She seemed to hesitate, then spoke, "you must listen -"

Miranda interrupted her with two psionic mental blasts. The invisible attacks went straight through the asari woman's biotics and she collapsed like a puppet with her strings cut, unconscious.

"Guessing that's a rachni queen," said Miranda, nodding to the giant rachni.

"YES, I AM". The strange voice came from one of the asari bodies, which got to its feet and stumbled, zombie-like, over to the tank. "THIS ONE SERVES AS OUR VOICE."

"WE CANNOT SING," rambled the zombie-asari, "NOT IN THESE LOW SPACES. YOUR MUSICS ARE COLOURLESS."

"You're the rachni in the tank?" asked Shepard.

"WE ARE THE MOTHER. WE SING FOR THOSE LEFT BEHIND. THE CHILDREN YOU THOUGHT SILENCED. WE ARE RACHNI."

"I heard you were extinct," responded Miranda.

"THE SKY IS QUIET NOW. OUR MOTHERS' SONGS ARE LOST AND THOSE WHO SLEW US NOW WALK TO MEET THE SAME FATE. THE CHILDREN WE BIRTHED WERE STOLEN FROM US BEFORE THEY COULD LEARN TO SING. THEY ARE LOST TO SILENCE. END THEIR SUFFERING, THEY CANNOT BE SAVED, THEY WILL ONLY CAUSE HARM AS THEY ARE."

"Not a problem at all. At all," replied Miranda.

"SUCH DISCORDANCE BODES ILL FOR WHAT WE MUST COMPOSE HERE. BEFORE YOU DEAL WITH OUR CHILDREN, WE STAND BEFORE YOU. WHAT WILL YOU SING? WILL YOU RELEASE US? ARE WE TO FADE AWAY ONCE MORE?"

"So, are there more like you?" asked Shepard.

"WE ARE THE LAST."

"Looks like the tank is rigged with acid as a security measure," suggested Kaiden.

"THAT IS THE TRUTH. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO FREE US, OR RETURN OUR PEOPLE TO THE SILENCE OF MEMORY."

Shepard looked at Miranda, joy written on her face. Miranda looked back, staring out through her helmet visor, through Shepard's visor and deep into Shepard's eyes. Their eyes met. Their gazes locked. Without psionics, in an ordinary but profound human connection, in that moment, they knew perfect understanding of each other. For a moment, they were almost one.

Shepard raised an armoured hand high.

Miranda raised an armoured hand high.

They high fived.

"It's genocidin' time!" the two women shouted in unison at the top of their lungs.

Shepard rushed to the controls and mashed them frantically. The zombie-asari moved to stop them but Shepard threw her out of the way with her powered armour. Clear liquid ran down, flooding the tank. The rachni queen writhed and screeched. The tank churned with acid - liquid turned brownish-black with dissolved rachni parts, bubbling violently and opaque. Soon the screeching stopped.

"Right, let's get out of here with the prisoner," said Shepard.

"Ohhh that was so gooood!" exclaimed Miranda rapturously.

"Without a doubt," replied Shepard, heavy satisfaction in her voice.

Terran Dominion Bulk Cargo Carrier Truckin' Fantasy,
Noveria Orbit, Pax System, Horsehead Nebula , 8 July 2183

Miranda and Shepard looked through the reinforced window of the examination chamber.

After returning to the Normandy II, they had immediately lifted for high orbit. At the same time, Miranda had sent an emergency message to her small flotilla. Shepard and Miranda had cleaned up whilst the Normandy II silently fired upon and destroyed Geth ships and a small corporate transport trying to leave the planet. The Normandy II ignored all hails.

The Image of Violence had arrived through a portal not long after and started widespread bombardment with Petroleum Effect bombs. It had been ordered to glass the planet - to turn the entire surface of the world into white hot lava just as the Dominion had done with Rainbow-2 over fifty years previously. All visible installations had been targeted first. Nothing would be leaving now. The Image would not stop until the entire surface was blazing molten rock.

In the meantime Matriarch Benezia was transferred unconscious to a xenobiological examination and interrogation chamber. It was the same room that had held Helpful Bear. Benezia's shapely body had been stripped completely naked and she was restrained with bands of solid composite and biotic dampeners. Whilst she was unconscious, Benezia had been sedated to stop her waking up for a while. Then, nanites had been used to remove every spec of element zero from her body. The glittering discharge from her body had been power sprayed into drains for recycling. Benezia was no longer biotic in the slightest.

Shepard and Miranda stood together just wearing uniform - no armour - in a control room for the interrogation chamber. The usual aides and scientists had been dismissed.

Miranda pressed a button and liquid flowed through injectors into Benezia. She began to awaken.

Benezia woke up. She was strapped down in a dark room and she felt weak. Sedative, she thought. She instinctively tried her biotics, just a flex, but nothing happened. She felt an odd pain.

"Watch!" commanded a painfully loud voice in perfect Asari. It sounded like an asari voice, or a human female.

A screen activated in front of Benezia. There was a surface in the picture made of what looked like pink fur. It was quite pretty - like a carpet or a child's toy it looked soft and touchable. Then, it split. Something greenish-black, vile and glistening emerged. It continued slowly and obscenely. It was something like an asymmetric sac, from its shape filled with numerous lumps. The surface of the sac was covered in warts or tumors as well as slime. From the sac extended a writhing, thick shape - a column of flesh which moved from side to side, coiling and uncoiling, like a tentacle. At one end was a fleshy bulb with a vertical slit, which opened for a moment revealing needle-sharp teeth. The whole greenish-black thing pulsated and sharp, cruel spines shot out from the sides of the flesh column, just under the bulb, then retracted.

"What you are seeing is the reproductive system of a male Care Bear, the species now more properly known as eviloids. It is a hideous instrument of violation and miscegenation concealed in a pouch. Any asari impregnated with this organ will give birth continuously to eviloid-asari hybrids every three months until she dies when her body eventually gives out. We're pretty sure you don't want to encounter one."

The frame Benezia was attached to suddenly moved, motors spreading Benezia's arms and legs, emphasising her vulnerability.

"Now, Matriarch Benezia, tell us what you were doing on Noveria."

Matriarch Benezia was terrified.

"Nihlus sent me to find the Mu Relay. Its position was lost thousands of years ago."

"Where is the relay?"

"I transcribed the data to an OSD in the lab. Take it, please!"

There was a pause for a moment. A long pause.

"The lab has been destroyed. You will have to tell us what you know the slow, hard way."

Suddenly Benezia's manner changed, a surge of rage and compulsion rose up from somewhere deep inside, "I will not betray Nihlus. He will save the galaxy!"

The interrogation continued for some time.

There was pain inflicted by a variety of instruments on a robotic arm assembly, some bladed, others electrical, others blunt. The pain was punctuated by injections. Some of the injections hurt, some numbed the pain, some made her giggly, others made her excited or really awake. Sometimes Benezia's head hurt for no reason and she felt another presence in her head. She thought it might be an effect of the drug. At one point it almost felt like a painful meld, but she was alone in the room.

Benezia found the rage and compulsion diminishing and she was able to talk, she wanted to talk, she could do nothing but talk. The asari matriarch's secrets were wrung out like she was a wet sponge.

Benezia found herself revealing all Nihlus' plans. The Citadel was an ancient mass relay that had been made by the, 'Masters'. She realised, oddly, that her own thoughts had never been clear on just who or what the Masters were. Looking back, her actions made no sense to her - like she had been drugged or controlled. Regardless, the Citadel should, apparently, have opened the way for the Masters to return but had failed for some reason due to Prothean sabotage. Nihlus could open the way but he needed himself and his flagship to physically visit the Citadel and dock with the tower. He had to have control of some of the Citadel Council's chambers for a short but non-trivial period.

To this end, Nihlus was seeking a device called the, 'Conduit'. Apparently, this was a model mass relay made by Prothean scientists which linked directly to a counterpart on the Citadel Presidium - like a point-to-point teleport over interstellar distances. By using the Conduit, Nihlus planned to transport large numbers of Geth troops to the Presidium whilst his flagship and a Geth fleet attacked the Citadel. Nihlus also had a base on the planet Virmire, where he was breeding an army of krogan using a cure he had somehow obtained for the genophage. He intended to use them as disposable shock troops. Once the Citadel was under control, its mass relay functionality would be activated and the Masters would arrive, ending the fleet conflict at a stroke.

The questions continued. Why had she helped Nihlus? Benezia realised she did not know. In fact, she felt quite serene for some reason. The questions about the Masters and Nihlus continued. Eventually, Benezia slept.

When Benezia awoke, her head felt clearer. She was alone in a comfortable room, lying in a comfortable bed. There were clean, plain clothes on a couch nearby and Asari refreshments on a table.

Conference Room , Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II , The Citadel , Serpent Nebula , 9 July 2183

Miranda and Shepard sat in the conference room.

"So," said Shepard, "now we know all Nihlus' evil plans."

Miranda smirked, "The Citadel Council are going to literally piss themselves, when Saren reports, with video footage, that Nihlus not only attempted to resurrect the rachni to use as an army, he is doing similar with the krogan."

Shepard laughed at that. Miranda continued, enthusing, "Saren is so great as an asset. I've got him living in a crate now and grateful for it. He's given me all his access codes - I've got a program running downloading every secure file the Citadel Council have to Dominion intelligence. His reports tell the Council whatever we want - how awesome we are and how selflessly cooperative."

" That asari prisoner will probably be useful too. At least we now understand the Citadel trap."

"Indeed," said Miranda somberly, "in fact we have probably spoken to it - the Keeper. It basically told us the same thing as Benezia, except left out that the Citadel was the mass relay needed for the ancient synthetics to return. The Protheans called them Reapers but we have ships of that same name, so I am going to call them exterminators or synthetics. We'll probably have to use the word, 'Reapers' around Citadel races though."

"So what now?" asked Shepard. "I have ideas if you want to hear them, but this is way above my pay grade."

"Ideas please," asked Miranda, "your pay grade could change soon."

"We need to glass Virmire. No need to go down to the surface just send a couple of our element-zero fleets to destroy it from orbit, with a sword ship to drop the bombs. We don't need to follow Nihlus any more. We just need a fleet near the Citadel to let us drop the hammer when Nihlus arrives. We can ride in like the cavalry. At the last minute of course. Heroically."

"Not such a bad idea," smiled Miranda, "let's get the Demilady on the link and put it to her."

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Fifteen - The Human Menace

Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II , The Citadel, Serpent Nebula , 14 July 218 3

The Citadel News Network (CNN) was a vast news reporting concern, based on the Citadel but available throughout Council Space and even beyond, where it would sometimes be carried on an affiliate or syndicated basis. Theoretically a corporation, CNN was usually a reliable part of the establishment and indeed, received subsidies for, 'public interest broadcasting' and other benefits from the Citadel Council and various governments.

CNN did not just carry the short newsflashes and video segments carried by some Citadel lifts. It had 24/7 news, ranging from news programmes to in-depth interviews and documentaries. Articles and videos could usually be streamed or downloaded from CNN indefinitely after first broadcast.

Notionally independent, CNN would regularly tout its supposedly fearless independent journalism. It was happy to target corporations or local politicians. Criticism of the Council itself, Citadel institutions, or the big three governments of the Asari Republics, Turian Hierarchy or Salarian Union was much rarer but it did occasionally happen when CNN would for various reasons flex its position as a watchdog.

The destruction of all life on two well-known worlds in the Athena Nebula in the very heart of Citadel space was a huge story. Over 2 billion asari had lived on the planet Lusia. Added to this were reports of other planets being devastated, including the confirmed bombing of Feros, a priceless and irreplaceable archeological site.

On 13 July 2183, CNN had, without warning, run a documentary report on the war within Citadel space between the Temple of the Golden Star and the Council, which had a lot to say about it and about the humans. The lengthy video had been fronted by respected, but maverick, asari journalist Voniferus Avera ('Voni' for short and to her fans). The documentary had been flagged by the embassy as important. It was decided that the crew of the Normandy II and other humans galaxy-wide that interacted with aliens should watch it to better understand the sinister nature of the galactic media.

At the time of the documentary, the Normandy II was docked at the Citadel anyway, awaiting the expected attack by Nihlus, Nazara and the Geth. The Dominion government had not shared its whole intelligence, merely warned the Council it had information that there may be an attack by Nihlus using Geth ships, advanced ancient technology and supported by saboteurs inside the station. Security had been beefed up, and a few more ships had been called in to the Citadel, however Council loyalist ships were scarce and precious - few could be spared.

Grey Lady Miranda Lawson, Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard, Captain David Anderson, Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, Lieutenant Tom Bradley, Communications Officer Friedrich Gunther and the rest of the crew were sitting in the ship's luxurious mess watching the video, which had been seamlessly translated into English using human language AI. Only a few officers were absent, leaving a skeleton crew on the bridge to comply with regulations in case of emergency.

Special Report, Citadel News Network, 13 July 2183

Asari announcer: "Citadel News Network is proud to present this urgent in-depth documentary report on the ongoing conflict between the Citadel Council and the evil terrorist cult known as the Temple of the Golden Star. The Council and its members have been aided in this conflict by the independent government known as the Terran Dominion - but how much do we really know about our so-called allies and what have they been hiding?"

[An energetic news title segment plays, with dynamic CGI and video clips over Asari music, before fading to a single, smartly dressed asari standing superimposed on a video of the devastated world of Lusia, made to look as though she is physically standing in orbit]

Voni Avera: The ruined world behind me was, until last week, an Asari colony of 2.2 billion. It has been destroyed, for all practical purposes - rendered lifeless, in direct violation of the Citadel Conventions. The tragedy is only the latest atrocity in the fight against the horrifying cult known as the Temple of the Golden Star, which has seen bitter fighting on Asari worlds and the Citadel itself. We have all seen shocking footage of asari-alien hybrids eating children alive and the cultists feeding themselves to the giant alien organism that was seen on Lusia shortly before its destruction. [Stills of half-eaten asari children and an image of the Golden Star creature looming over Lusia appear in boxes as Voni speaks]

The latest horror demands answers. Who destroyed Lusia, how and why? The truth will shock you. This report, prepared in secret using whistleblowers from within the Citadel Tower itself, will reveal some dark truths about just how far the Citadel has gone to fight the cultists.

[The view changed, the view of Voni zooms in on her face whilst shrinking to a box at the top left of the screen. The main view is of an asari silhouette in front of a dark blue background]

Voni Avera: This is one of our sources, we'll call her 'Sula' - that's not her real name and her identity is being hidden through the use of a VI actress. Sula is a senior member of Citadel Council staff who works in the Citadel Tower - one of several who has come forward to speak out.

Sula: It was the humans. The so-called Terran Dominion destroyed Lusia. But, they did it with the Council's consent, and councillor Tevos' agreement.

[The image changes again, to show humans in sealed armour blessing the Council, shifting to show scenes of humans in other parts of the galaxy blessing turian and asari soldiers - Voni Avera stays in the corner of the screen]

Voni Avera: One of the strangest announcements from the Citadel Council since the insurrection on 23 June was the alliance with the Terran Dominion - a supposedly minor independent power known mostly for exporting element zero - and an agreement to use human special forces who are said to have experience fighting the beings they call, 'eviloids'. The only public sign of this is human soldiers blessing Citadel Council forces in the name of strange gods.

But, who are the humans? The concerning answer is that very little is known.

First contact with the human polity, which styles itself the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion, was made in 2158 after an incident on a garden world in Shanxi. Turian forces investigating encountered a Dominion fleet who proved helpful in the destruction of a Batarian slaving ring that was found to be working with corrupt Turian military officers. Not long after, a small Terran Dominion delegation traveled to the Citadel to open relations and arrange the sale of cheap element zero into Citadel markets.

Since then, the Dominion has become a major force in the element zero trade ... yet almost nothing is known of this race.

[Image shifts again, Voni is full-screen again but behind her is now a shot of the Rainbow System trading station]

Voni Avera: The gateway to human space is the so-called Rainbow System, which contains a mass relay and a large space station guarded by a significant human fleet. There are no inhabited planets in the system. No Citadel ships have ever been allowed further than this system and curiously, no one has ever pressed. An attempted Batarian incursion is rumoured to have been brutally rebuffed. No one knows the location of a single human colony world. No one knows how many ships the humans have.

Humans are almost never seen in the galaxy, except for their embassy on the Citadel and the occasional trading mission. Instead, they hire Citadel haulage corporations to move element zero from their outpost in the Rainbow System to clients in Council space and beyond.

Humans, like quarians, are never seen outside pressurised armour when interacting with non-humans - but unlike the quarians, video feeds from human vessels and stations show them not wearing the armour when alone. Our best information is that humans look almost identical to asari and can live comfortably in a practically identical environment. Humans work on the Citadel, but only in official human institutions and they live and sleep on their ships.

Yet, the Dominion government is now sending ships and special forces into battle with the Temple. Why? Why has this supposedly minor galactic power suddenly taken such an interest, and why is the council engaging with them?

Part of the answer may lie here on the planet Rainbow-2. [Voni gestures as the camera pans across the Rainbow system to a bright lava world, burning red]

Rainbow-2 is an anomaly - it is far too hot for its age and position in its solar system. How did it get that way? Our whistleblower Sula has some answers.

[Voni shrinks back into a talking head box once more]

Sula: The humans claim they bombed Rainbow-2 into lava. They admitted it to the council openly. They say it was an eviloid colony - 'eviloid' is a human term for the Temple creatures called Care Bears from the planet Care-a-Lot. The eviloids call themselves Care Bears but part of the deal between the Dominion and the Council is to use human, condemnatory, terminology. After the meeting we had experts tasked to do an assessment of the technologies likely needed to melt a planetary surface white-hot. It would take a huge amount of energy.

The humans seem to hate the Care Bears. They encountered them before and wiped them out.

During the insurrection on 23 June humans were seen fighting Care Bears and their asari hybrids in the streets. Their government approached the Citadel Council shortly afterwards and provided footage of a human special forces team which had infiltrated the Presidium and Zakera Ward in full combat gear and assassinated the local Temple leadership. Far from complete footage - only what the humans allowed us to see.

The mere presence of Care Bears on the Citadel seems to have provoked the humans to send a death squad, without any legal authority or jurisdiction, nor any request from the Council.

Voni Avera: How did the council react to that?

Sula: Oh, the Council made a token protest but then they basically ratified the human point of view. The Citadel Council has adopted a policy of extermination of these, 'Care Bears' and anything connected to them, even asari hybrids. No negotiation, just bullets. They agreed to permit humans to destroy worlds occupied by the Care Bears and later even agreed to the destruction of Lusia. They repeatedly referenced the rachni, but these Care Bears aren't rachni. These are beings capable of speech and reason - yet the Citadel adopted the absolutist human policy of slaughter.

Voni Avera: Why do you think that is?

Sula: I only have suspicions. There are two likely reasons. First off, humans are an element-zero powerhouse. That makes them incredibly rich. Human money can oil a lot of wheels, if they want to.

Voni Avera: So you suspect bribery?

Sula: Not just that. These so-called eviloids have some way to influence sentient beings - except the humans who claim immunity, or at least resistance. Their resistance suggests that the humans learned how the Care Bear influence works during their prior conflict and perhaps can duplicate it.

Voni Avera: You believe humans may have compromised the Council?

Sula: Voni, I can tell you that in the last two weeks, human forces have effectively destroyed five planets. On 29th June 2183 they bombed an obscure world called Feros which apparently hosted a small human archaeological colony. Not really a colony - more of a glorified corporate dig. The surface was turned to lava during sustained bombing from a human superdreadnought.

On 7th July, the planet Delos-3, also known as Care-a-Lot, was rendered lifeless by human special forces with the express agreement of the Council, using an advanced weapon - there was no bombing - just a single ship - a frigate. The humans have a planet wrecking device that fits in a frigate.

On 8th July, a human superdreadnought attacked a privately chartered corporate world called Noveria, bombing it into lava as with the planet Feros.

On 9th July the planet Lusia was ruined by the same type of device deployed on Care-a-Lot, again with Council agreement.

On 11th July an uninhabited garden world called Virmire was destroyed by bombing from a human superdreadnought.

The council has condemned none of these attacks, ratifying two beforehand and three afterwards.

The council has also declared respected Spectre Nihlus Kryik rogue, again at human urging. That would have been a huge story in itself but it was buried by the Temple insurgency and the destruction of Lusia.

Voni Avera: We can all understand at least the motive for attacking Care-a-Lot and Lusia, but why did the humans attack their own colony on Feros or the corporate bases on Noveria? Why attack an uninhabited garden world like Virmire?

Sula: That's the most shocking thing, Voni. The human reasons border on the ridiculous.

They claimed Feros had been compromised by an alien organism related to the Temple and they claimed Noveria was home to rachni, of all things! Virmire was destroyed because Nihlus was supposedly breeding an army of krogan in a concealed base there.

The Council accepted all of these explanations, all of which were supported unequivocally by Spectre Saren Arterius.

Voni Avera: Are you suggesting Saren is helping them feed misinformation to the council?

Sula: Saren Arterius was never known for his ... inclusive ... attitude to non-turians. Yet, he has taken by all accounts to living happily on a human vessel and has not been off it for months. He has not one bad word to say about them and is borderline servile. Again, the council have overlooked this highly suspicious behaviour.

Voni Avera: What about these human superdreadnoughts? What can you tell us about those?

Sula: The humans have only admitted to one. We don't know if that is true. Their first fleet figures claimed only 20 dreadnoughts and did not even mention superdreadnoughts. We don't know if the attacks were the same superdreadnought or not. The vehicle seen by observers at Virmire was approximately 4.8 kilometres long - it is bigger than the Destiny Ascension. It arrived from outside the system on an odd vector and had unusual energy emissions. The size of the explosions in comparison to human ordnance size suggests anti-matter, but we don't know for sure.

That ship was large and moved quickly - it is clearly highly advanced.

Voni Avera: What can you tell us about the human religion?

Sula: The Terran Dominion claims to have four religions. The only one they tell us about is the official religion, the 'Imperial Creed'. The religion involves worshipping three beings, the Archlord, the Wyrm and the Hunger. One is their head of state, one is a giant worm perhaps symbolising some kind of entropy concept and one is something like the spirit of desire.

Voni Avera: Sula, thank you.

[Main display fades]

Voni Avera: Sula is not the only one to be concerned about human involvement in the conflict with the Temple. Celda Maketari is a shop worker living in the City of Nartin on Thessia.

[Main view cuts to an asari woman standing in a war torn city, looking sombre]

Celda, can you tell us what happened?

Celda Maketari: It's been like a nightmare. The Temple overran the city for a time. The local officials were completely on their side, and those creatures, the Daughters - the hybrids. They were hot, like melding on legs, but they had a taste for raw flesh. Children were being taken to their stronghold and eaten alive, slowly, piece by piece. Sometimes by their own hybrid sisters, with the blessing of their asari mothers.

Then, some of us were rounded up by the cultists but before they could move us they were killed. We were saved by these aliens in heavy sealed armour.

They were these beings, they looked like pink asari through their helmets. They said they were from the Terran Dominion and were working with the Citadel Council. They killed the cultists but ... they had this strange way about them. They took some of us aside, even some children. I later heard those people they took aside attacked the cultists using suicide vests.

I didn't want anything to do with it - I kept back and the humans did not take me. I guess they had enough.

But my friends, [sobbing] my neighbours and their children. They are all dead!

Voni Avera: Human forces were deployed on Thessia itself?

Celda Maketari: Yes! I've never seen anything like it. To be fair to them they killed the cultists - but they seemed heedless of how much collateral damage they caused doing it. You could compare them to the krogan - but the humans they are calculated in their violence.

Voni Avera: Do you know if the humans provided the suicide vests?

Celda Maketari: No. I kept away from the humans as much as could, so I did not hear all they said to the others ... the ones that didn't make it. I'm just an ordinary shop-keeper! [sobbing]

Voni Avera: Celda is far from alone in her experience. Eyewitness to the Temple atrocities in the Thessian city of Ulee report devastation left in the wake of a human attack, which completely wiped out the Temple but also much of the commercial district.

[Main view fades to a shaky video, plainly taken from a handheld device, showing a number of tall Asari buildings in a city. Then, there is a flash of light - camera darkens for a moment and when it resumes, buildings are collapsing and a dark debris cloud is rolling through the streets. Screaming asari flee from the cloud]

Voni Avera: Another Citadel Tower whistleblower is a salarian scientist, we're calling him, 'Ish' to protect his identity.

[View fades to a salarian, silhouetted against a bright background like the asari known as, 'Sula', speaking Asari]

Ish: Human technology is terrifying. They have at least one superdreadnought that is larger than the Destiny Ascension and can wipe out whole planetary surfaces. They either use anti-matter ordnance or have some other technology with a similar energy yield. They have highly effective weapons and mass effect technologies. There have been anomalous readings by STG agents that suggest they have cloaking technologies or may even have an alternative type of FTL. Where we had had observer platforms, some have shown human ships apparently appearing out of nowhere.

Human forces on Thessia and elsewhere have been observed cloaking, flying and firing what appear to be absurdly powerful laser small-arms, more powerful by orders of magnitude than the best weapons possessed by the Council member races. Power in the range of tens of thousands of kilowatts [translated from Asari term]. Some of their elite troops have personal barriers orders of magnitude more powerful than our equivalent. They can stroll through battlefields with impunity.

Our intelligence on the destruction of Care-a-Lot and Lusia includes intercepted chatter from the defending ships, which were largely Asari Republic traitors. There was no warning, no alien ship detected, just a massive gravitational anomaly on the planets, which started on the surface and descended into it. The closest thing we could think of would be a black hole, but a black hole that size would be too small and whatever this was disappeared after about 11 hours [translated from Asari term] after shaking the entire planet's crust into pieces.

Voni Avera: The Salarian Union are famed for their intelligence services. What information do you have on the human worlds, their society, space, military?

Ish: Nothing.

Here's the scary thing. The Council has never really tried very hard to look into the humans - it's suspicious in itself. What STG and other forces were tasked to investigate were either politely intercepted and turned back, or disappeared. The only human outpost we know of is the Rainbow System, which has one large station and a human military presence. When non-human vessels are in the system to collect element zero or deliver materials to the humans, human ships are almost never seen leaving or arriving at the same time. On the rare occasion they do, they are returning from Citadel space or arrive and depart on nonsensical vectors.

Voni Avera: If human technology is so powerful, do we have any samples?

Ish: Almost none. During the recent human interventions we obtained a few surviving samples of weapons and armour from killed humans. The humans retrieved most of their bodies and equipment but Asari intelligence got a handful on Thessia. We only got their special forces front line though, not their elite leaders. Their regular barriers are more efficient than ours, their armour materials and weapons somewhat better. Their construction methods are quite enigmatic though. It is hard to work out how certain alloys and composites could be made efficiently, or why some things work. We have no samples at all of their best stuff or their ships.

The bodies confirm that humans look very similar to asari, except they are dimorphic, they seem to have two types like we salarians or the krogan. They have a childbearing type called a 'female' that looks very like an asari and an 'impregnator' type called a 'male'. The male has an organ that can be pushed into a female birth canal and releases genetic material. The term for the distinction is sex - same as is seen in most galactic species and some Thessian animals.

Oddly, we have repeatedly seen humans appear to use biotic abilities, but not one specimen had element zero in their body, not one. We even think we have linked one specimen to video footage that showed them using biotics, but they had no element zero in the corpse and carried no device that could simulate biotics. We have no explanation for their ability to resist eviloid mind control.

Voni Avera: No offence, but that seems ridiculous. How could humans have biotic powers without element zero?

Ish: It seems strange. However ...

Voni Avera: Go on?

Ish: We have some eviloid samples, and some eviloid-asari hybrid samples. Their biology is ... weird. Really, really alien. Even the hybrids' biochemistry makes no sense. Having said that, they also used strange abilities, like that beam from their torsos, shields, all those effects, caught on video. There is no element zero in most of their bodies either. The only theory that makes sense is that somehow the element zero is released or destroyed instantly on death, before we recovered the corpses, or their abilities do not use element zero. Again, perhaps the humans have the same abilities, or learned them from the eviloids.

The vast alien star creature that attacked Lusia did not use conventional FTL to arrive or leave, to the best of our knowledge. It used something else.

Voni Avera: Is there anything else?

Ish: The humans, backed by Saren, have been telling the council that Nihlus Kryik is under the control of the Geth. They say his flagship uses dangerous and ancient technology, that in fact his flagship is some sort of advanced Geth threat. Again, they humans only release information they want us to have but the readings they have, if true, suggest the Geth have technology exceeding our own.

Voni Avera: So how would you summarise?

Ish: Our so-called allies have weapons technologies that are significantly ahead of our own - perhaps vastly ahead - and are destroying entire planets. They have abilities we do not understand. So do our enemies. We're latecomers to a conflict between powerful alien races who barely explain the issues between them. In fact, the Geth may also have unearthed ancient technologies, putting us in the middle of a three-way war.

The council at best is letting desperation blind them to a possible threat. At worst, they are compromised.

[Ish fades away and Voni Avera's box resumes the screen. Behind Vonia is a graphic of the Milky Way galaxy]

Voni Avera: The Terran Dominion's military influence is a serious cause of concern - but not the only one. Behind the scenes, quietly, is a vast trading empire that, like all the other human endeavours, has received very little scrutiny. Their web of financial influence extends throughout known space - Citadel space, to the Batarians, to the Terminus Systems and the Attican traverse.

[As Voni speaks, ominous musical tones play in the background and a sinister red web grows from a single point (the Rainbow System) throughout the galacy]

Voni Avera: To untangle the web of human financial interests, I'm joined by Yap Irit, a respected Volus financial analyst.

[Voni shrinks to a talking head box once more and the main view reveals a Volus sitting behind a desk in a serious, opulent looking office on the Citadel. The Presidium is visible through a window behind him. Next to the window is an impressive looking set of shelves holding valuable sculptures and jewels]

Voni Avera: Thanks for joining us, Yap.

Yap Irit: Thanks for inviting me Voni!

Voni Avera: What can you tell us about the Terran Dominion's financial dealings?

Yap Irit: My team and I, we've been looking into this, through the archives, interviewing sources and researching public records. When humans came on the scene in 2158, let me tell you, the Dominion-clan caused quite a stir. The only thing anyone knew was this weird new race who looked a bit like pink asari were selling element zero dirt cheap. At first people thought it was a scam, crazy prices, but the Terran Dominion had an answer. They agreed to escrow with reputable Citadel institutions so a few entrepreneurs took a chance on them and hit it big. The humans weren't scamming. The deliveries were made and the humans got paid. The resellers made huge profits.

Then, a lot of people thought the humans were rubes, but they didn't care. The humans became big players in the element zero trade. After that it seemed the humans got wise, they eventually put prices up. They still always have a competitive price for every purity grade of element-zero and they always sell really good quality stuff for the price. They are just not so far below everyone else anymore.

The humans made a lot of money from their cut-price element zero and they spent it on investment. They have diversified into numerous public and private corporations. It's well behind the scenes, they almost always use intermediaries from other races - there are almost never humans working in these corporations except their rare interventions when employees find out that humans own the company that owns the company that owns their employer.

The humans own a lot of Citadel space businesses but we own no businesses in human space, at all. None. A lot of us work for humans, never the other way around.

Voni Avera: You say the humans sell element zero, but do they buy anything from us? I mean, not businesses, do they ship anything back to their space?

Yap Irit: Almost nothing obvious, samples mostly. Gathering examples of other races' technology and knowledge. What's notable is what they don't import. They don't import anything. They never buy element zero, never buy raw materials. Just occasional one-off samples - a weapon here, a shuttle there, a small freighter. They don't seem to want anything we make or mine or grow.

Voni Avera: Isn't it sinister that humans actually own parts of our economy? A lot of us work for humans without knowing it, but we know next to nothing about their economy and own nothing in Terran Dominion space?

Yap Irit: Exactly Voni. If you ask me, a lot of that early human element zero money talked. It talked, and it greased a lot of wheels. Dominion-clan played it sharp. The humans slid into the galactic economy and extended financial tendrils just like the tiny hair-tendrils on their heads. Now no one knows just how far those tendrils reach. You can buy a lot of things - and people - with that much money.

Voni Avera: Can you tell us anything else about human influence?

Yap Irit: Just this, Voni. We've run the numbers on their influence in the element zero trade and the humans have sold a lot of element zero over the years. A LOT of element zero. Either they have some really good sources of it, or they were happy to suffer hardship to get a foothold in our economy. I don't think the humans were rubes at all. I think they played the game of commerce really well.

I think they played us all.

Voni Avera: Yap! Thank you very much!

Yap Irit: Thank you, Voni.

[Voni's box grows back until it fills the main view again, Yap Irit fades out, ominous music swells then shifts into something more update which ends with a decisive chiming tone before fading to an almost inaudible, calm, background music as Voni begins speaking in front of an image of the galaxy again]

Voni Avera: Of course, Citadel experts aren't the only available source of information on the Terran Dominion. We've been in contact with sources in the Temple of the Golden Star itself. Whilst this will undoubtedly be controversial, they provided this shocking footage of Terran Dominion ambassador Ravenna Crown discussing the possibility of selling out the Citadel Council in a conference call with Temple leader, Olaessia T'Star. We here at CNN are satisfied of its authenticity.

[Voni's image returns to the box in the corner of the screen. Ominous music plays as clips from the conference call between Ravenna and Olaessia show on the screen. The conversation has been seamlessly edited to cut out some material. The Temple representatives Olaessia T'Star, Trant Gilax, Glory Bear and a Daughter sit in an opulent temple chamber at an unknown location, surrounded by murals. They are facing holograms of Ravenna Crown, Miranda Lawson and Lilith Shepard]

Olaessia T'Star: Greetings humans. I am Supreme High Priestess Olaessia T'Star of the Temple of the Golden Star. This is my acolyte Trant Gilax, Glory Bear of the Care Bears and one of the Daughters of the Golden Star. Perhaps you could introduce yourselves and tell us what you want?

Ravenna Crown: Thank you, Supreme High Priestess. I am Ambassador Ravenna Crown of the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion. These are Commander Miranda Lawson and Lieutenant Commander Lilith Shepard.

The Dominion government has asked me to contact you to increase understanding of yourselves and the ongoing galactic conflicts to see if our hostility can be resolved, to mutual benefit. We want to understand your goals better and what benefits the Dominion might derive from ceasing to oppose them.

Olaessia T'Star: So, if you agree, is there any reason you should not stop opposing us and help us seize the Citadel?

Ravenna Crown: What benefits can the Temple provide us?

Olaessia T'Star: The favoured servants of the Mother experience joy and pleasure eternally. Even the less favoured servants experience great ... gratification.

Ravenna Crown: What about technology or other useful information?

Olaessia T'Star: Does it really matter when your life is spent in unimaginable happiness and pleasure?

Ravenna Crown: Supreme High Priestess. I am very grateful for your time. We have some common ground and I will take it to my government. I can make no commitments for now.

[The clip ends. Voni's box grows back until it fills the main view again as the ominous music swells and darkens further. Voni begins speaking in front of an image of the galaxy again]

Voni Avera: So there you have it. The Terran Dominion may be our allies, but we know very little about them. It has become very clear this is no minor power but a new big player on the galactic stage, one with questionable motives and loyalties. They've committed acts that would be war crimes for anyone else, slaughtered entire planetary populations, all with the Citadel Council's permission.

The question is, is this newcomer species a trustworthy long-term ally like the Salarian Union or the Turian Hierarchy, or will they turn on us like the krogan? They clearly have something to hide - they won't let anyone or anything enter their space, whilst they've comprehensively infiltrated our economy.

Some may say the Council need to take a long, hard look at their new allies. Until they do, viewers will have to make up their own minds.

[The words are left hanging for a moment. Then the CNN credits roll]

Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II , The Citadel, Serpent Nebula , 14 July 218 3

"NO WAY!" exclaimed Miranda as the CNN report ended. "They have a concept of war crimes! Fucking Citadel races!"

"What's a war crime?" asked Shepard.

"It's this weird idea they used to have back home on Earth in the Dark Times before the Archlord. They actually made a list of some of the most effective strategies and tactics that can be used in warfare and then ... banned them. Of course in these enlightened times we know that is a vile heresy. Apparently it was invented by the Rejected."

The 'Rejected' was an archaic term, Shepard knew, one of several, for those the Archlord and his High Lords had found unfit for his Dominion and wiped out during the Cleansing of 2045. Lesser races and deviants such as those who subscribed to foul beliefs or unspeakable, unnatural, lusts. Other terms for the Rejected included, for example, 'Unclean Ones'.

"Wow!" responded Shepard. "But ... what if that's the best tactic or strategy for a given situation?"

"Well exactly," responded Miranda. "There's actually a faction of the priests of the Imperial Creed that believes performing the so called war crimes grants spiritual merit as a rejection of the Unclean Ones. They even made a list and called them, 'war blessings'. However, we as Grey Lords consider that it is more important to use the right tactic first. It is a nuanced situation. It would be spiritual hubris and a sin to use a technique which was on the list when another activity would be more effective. It would be to put your own spiritual growth before the needs of mankind and the will of the Archlord. On the other hand, using a war blessing appropriately could mean spiritual gains."

"So, Miranda, do you have a copy of the list?" asked Shepard.

"Yes, I have it somewhere," replied Miranda cheerfully. "In fact, one thing that is on it is genocide and we've obviously done that with the rachni so we should have gained spiritual merit from that. There's some other cool stuff on there too that could be useful. Biological warfare, chemical warfare. Loads."

"What if some rachni escaped, or exist elsewhere?" asked Shepard.

Miranda explained in detail. "Well, thinking within the Imperial Creed varies but most agree that at least a part of spiritual virtue comes from intent and execution, as opposed to results. If you diligently try to make the best choice available to you in your circumstances on the available knowledge, with the resources you have in hand, that gives merit."

"I'm so lucky to have you as a mentor Miranda," said Shepard gratefully, "I never realised you knew so much about theology. But, what are we going to do about the rest of it? The CNN video I mean?"

"Oh that," responded Miranda dismissively. "Well Ravenna's handling it but we had a conference call yesterday. The Council are indeed under our control so we put out a statement dismissing it as lies and deepfakes. We'll detain the journalist if we can and claim she was killed by Temple extremists. We'll condemn the temple for Voni's murder whilst we extract the names of her sources and deal with them too. You and I just need to make sure we're ready to defend the Citadel from Nihlus."

"Fair enough," replied Shepard.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Chapter Sixteen - The Battle of the Citadel

Presidium, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 19 July 2183

There had been rioting after the CNN documentary. A lot of asari had families on Thessia and on Lusia.

The alliance with the Council was frayed at the seams, but could not break because both sides needed the other. Miranda's confident pronouncement to Shepard that they controlled the Council was proving to be wrong. The same ability with which the Citadel had countered the Temple's mind control now seemed to be undoing human psionic influence.

Ravenna had considerable charm and the humans had vast wealth, but on the Citadel at least, Council personnel were showing disturbing independence. Meetings had been ... tense.

Even so, with the destruction of life on Delos-3 and Lusia, as well as the pushback by human forces on Thessia and other key Asari worlds, the Temple of the Golden Star was in retreat. Their forces had made mass withdrawals. They could not evacuate all their personnel, but their fleet had gathered and then disappeared leaving other cells isolated.

Shepard and Miranda had employed their considerable military competence and ensured a constant watch on the Presidium Relay Monument. When the device began to power up, the young ensign, Tim Garraway, was quietly retreating back to the Normandy II before the first Geth armatures arrived. As soon as he reported, signals were sent via QEC. In fact, the human first through sixteenth conventional fleets were waiting nearby in Arcturus, ready to join the defence of the Citadel.

The crew of the Normandy II had been on light duties, half days of drilling, followed by minimal maintenance and then extra recreation, to ensure they were rested for the coming battle. At the time of the warning from Ensign Garraway, Lilith Shepard and Miranda Lawson were off-shift asleep, but they were swiftly awoken as the Normandy II went to battle stations. The humans monitored communications as Nihlus' assault rapidly moved towards the Citadel Tower, but they did not intervene - they waited for the arrival of Sovereign and the Geth fleet.

Flag CIC, Terran Dominion Dreadnought Sword of Mankind, Arcturus System, Local Cluster, 19 July 2183

Human space was connected to the Citadel via a single relay in the Rainbow System. Officially. However the Local Cluster had another set of mass relays in the Arcturus System not far from Sol, which had been found, inactive, by Dominion exploration forces. The relays had remained that way. The High Lords had used master control codes recovered during the dismantling of the Charon relay to deactivate the Arcturus relays and physically open them up. Remote controlled hardware cut-outs were installed before closing up the relay casing again. This left the Terran Dominion with relays under their control that they absolutely could turn off and lock out at will.

Even the Dominion did not realise the full potence of what they had discovered at Charon. When they analysed the Sol relay, they had discovered a control system with multiple levels of access. There was a 'public' layer, which was insecure and required little more than the sending of a binary number to activate a mass relay for travel. There were also several other layers of control, secured by a system very like asymmetric cryptography. The relay could receive and verify messages signed with private keys for higher privileges, but not duplicate them. After dismantling the Charon relay, the humans had derived all the private keys using a quantum lens.

Aside from the public protocols there were three levels of privileged control of mass relays all of which became available to the High Lords and their servants once they discovered the corresponding private keys. The Dominion had no idea who the true owners of the keys were. They simply distributed them to a limited number of senior personnel, including flag officers, along with a short protocol manual and an app which could compose and sign override messages.

Half the Terran Dominion conventional fleet - known as the Grand Fleet - lurked in Arcturus, ready to activate the relay and dramatically ride to the rescue. Grey Lord Admiral Steven Hackett was in command. When the QEC signal came through from the Normandy II, he had just started a shift.

The QEC alert message was in text, but it was followed by a video call from the commanding officer of the Normandy II, Captain David Anderson. Anderson appeared on a screen. Like Miranda Lawson, Hackett had read his file. Admiral Hackett was dubious about Anderson. Although he looked Caucasian and his service record was exemplary, the rumours that Anderson had so much as a drop of non-Caucasian blood troubled him greatly. Even if it was so thin that Anderson's ancestors had escaped the Cleansing of 2045, it was still a consideration.

Casual and constant racism was an important quality in the Terran Dominion and it was taught in schools. The Dominion was overwhelmingly Caucasian but a small number of Hispanics, Han, Latinos and the Israelis had been permitted to live at the time of the Cleansing for the purposes of genetic diversity. They needed careful monitoring. Racism was important when dealing with aliens too. Given the questions about his heritage, it was a testament to Anderson's competence that he had ever risen to the rank of Captain.

"Admiral, it has begun. Our people have seen the Conduit activated first hand. Geth are assaulting the Citadel from within. Repeat, Geth are assaulting the Citadel from within."

"Very good Captain," replied Hackett with perfect professional courtesy and not a hint of friendliness. "We'll get High Command on the qangle."

In fact, before Hackett could nod to his communications officer, there was a chime announcing an incoming signal. It was the Terran Dominion Temple Ship. Hackett was suddenly in a conference call with Amaoth the Witch, Demilady of the Terran Dominion.

"Where's Miranda?" asked Amaoth, bluntly.

"She was off shift. She and Shepard have been alerted and will be with us shortly. Our crews are fully rested - we've had them doing light drills only - and should be able to maintain battle stations for an extended period."

"Good," replied Amaoth, "I'll be monitoring the battle personally. Carry on Admiral."

"Yes Ma'am," replied Hackett.

CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 19 July 2183

About 20 minutes after the alert came from Ensign Garraway, Miranda and Shepard were showered, dressed in their uniforms and in CIC. Subordinates had hot, sweet, coffee waiting for them.

The Normandy II was monitoring communications chatter and by this point Nihlus had arrived on the Citadel and reached the Council chamber. The internal defences had been greatly increased after the human warning to the Council, but they were expecting saboteurs not a military assault with troops and heavy platforms being transported onto the Presidium. The Citadel Tower was in chaos, with the Council having left - evacuated via a private lift. The Council Chamber itself was left almost unguarded once the Council were out, making it easy for Nihlus to take the room and activate the console that controlled the mass relay network.

Approximately two minutes after Shepard arrived in the Normandy II CIC, a mass relay activated. A large Geth fleet began entering the Serpent Nebula. Calls went out from the defenders for reinforcements, only to find the mass relays unresponsive. The Citadel was isolated. All communications depending on mass relays were also blocked - only QEC devices were able to get messages out.

Flag CIC, Terran Dominion Dreadnought Sword of Mankind, Arcturus System, Local Cluster, 19 July 2183

"Admiral, the enemy are here! Repeat - a Geth fleet is entering Citadel vicinity." Anderson's voice was clear.

Hackett replied calmly, "Understood. We'll give them a few minutes to scare the Council forces, then we'll move in for the rescue."

Panicked calls continued to come from the Citadel Defence Fleet as they were confronted by the much larger Geth force and found themselves trapped. The Normandy II remained docked and continued to relay the messages. Hackett waited impassively. After a further two minutes as the desperate defenders started to take casualties, he began to press controls on his personal command data unit. The device was designed to hold information securely and to self-destruct in the unlikely event of capture or the death of its owner. It had a copy of the mass relay override application.

Overridden, the Arcturus relay connected to the Citadel began to spin up.

Citadel environs, Serpent Nebula, 19 July 2183

The defending forces, mostly Asari, were vastly outnumbered by the Geth fleet led by Sovereign. The battle had only begun, but ships were exploding on all sides and the defenders could foresee the inevitable outcome. Until, miraculously, a mass relay activated. Ships! Not Geth. Terran Dominion ships appeared announcing they were on the side of the defenders and demanding the Geth withdraw.

Sixteen human dreadnoughts and hundreds of supporting vessels joined the battle. The Citadel Defence Fleet rallied. Even so, the strange Geth flagship was cutting through the defenders like butter - each beam from its main weapons destroying a defending ship with a single shot.

"This is rough!" exclaimed Hackett over the conference channel with Miranda, Amaoth and Shepard. "We did not anticipate this many Geth!"

"Suggest I send a general message, reactivate the other relays? Let the Council reinforcements in?" asked Miranda.

Hackett agreed and Miranda typed on her own secure command data slate. She sent a general message. Every mass relay had an identity, a single signed integer number. The public protocol was simple. A mass relay emitted a low level carrier signal on a radio frequency. When it received an invalid message on that frequency - any message - it replied with its id. All that was needed to make a mass relay transport a ship was to send the relay its own id and the 1 based index of a relay it was connected to. So for a primary relay the signal was always just the relay id and the number 1. That was it. For secondary relays, there could be up to 64 connections, addressed by the numbers 1 to 64. The unique identity of the recipient relay could also be used.

The secret command codes required a time stamp and a cryptographic signature, which unlocked access to numerous additional functions. These included a protocol for a general message. Miranda used the app to broadcast a powerful signal - strong enough to reach all the Citadel relays. The message was signed with the highest level of key and instructed all relays receiving it to activate. It worked. Moments later, Asari relief forces, who had been retrying their inexplicably inactive relay to no avail, suddenly began to arrive.

Unfortunately, Miranda did not notice that she received one more acknowledgement than expected.

The Intelligence, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 19 July 2183

Miranda's broadcast was received by the Citadel itself. She did not realise what she had. There were three levels of access to the mass relays above the public protocols. The first secure level corresponded to the console in the Council chamber. The second level was the Intelligence's own level of backdoor access to all of its creations. The final level was the level of access granted to the Intelligence's creators. The Intelligence included that key in all of its creations without conscious awareness. The Intelligence, the Reapers and all of the mass relays could be commanded with the final key. Unfortunately, neither Grey Lady Miranda Lawson nor any Dominion personnel knew that important fact.

For the first time in nearly 900 million years the Intelligence received a message signed by its creators. The artificial entity did not have feelings in the way that humans did, but it had been designed to obey. Any signal from its creators felt to the Intelligence as close as it would get to sex, to comfort, to the most delicious food or drink, to the feeling of sitting comfortably in a cosy cottage by the fire whilst a blizzard raged outside, to the sensation of warm sunlight on skin. The signal was simple, using the protocol the Intelligence itself had designed for the relays, but it was signed.

Activate.

The Intelligence obeyed, beginning to charge the necessary components, its equivalent of vast capacitors, ready to jump-start the hidden reactors that would power the element zero core.

Citadel environs, Serpent Nebula, 19 July 2183

Nazara shot towards the centre of the Presidium ring, when it received notice from the Intelligence that it was activating the Citadel mass relay to dark space. Sensors confirmed that energy levels were increasing in hidden portions of the Citadel. The process was beginning, unnoticed by the biological races. Nazara's entire objective had been to connect to the Citadel in order to meet the Intelligence's criteria to re-open the way. Now, for some reason the relay was activating anyway. Somewhat confused, the Reaper executed the mental equivalent of a shrug.

No longer distracted by its primary objective, which had somehow been achieved, Sovereign turned to join the battle against the Citadel Defence Fleet in earnest whilst it awaited its brethren. In the Council Chamber, Nihlus dug in as more of his forces arrived to help him fortify. However, the relays outside ignored his frantic instructions to shut down and block out reinforcements for the defenders. The console was sending messages, but they were being ignored. The relays remained open. Unbeknownst to Nihlus, the console's access level was two full ranks below that employed by Miranda.

The battle continued. The Geth fleet were now significantly outnumbered by the arrival of the human forces, followed by Asari and Turians when Miranda had reactivated the relays. Geth ships exploded on all sides. Nazara did not care - it could sense the energy levels spiking in the Citadel. Its brethren were moments away.

Flag CIC, Terran Dominion Dreadnought Sword of Mankind, Arcturus System, Local Cluster, 19 July 2183

Hackett clenched the arm of his chair as Geth ship after Geth ship exploded. Victory was at hand. Even using their inferior, element zero powered ships, the defenders were winning. The strange Geth flagship Sovereign would soon be stripped of its globe of Geth support and even it could not stand up to the massed firepower of multiple battle fleets.

A liaison officer, Lieutenant Junior Grade Courtney Rowe, spoke. "Admiral, sensor officer in Captain's CIC is detecting an anomaly - like a Gate - gravitational distortions and exotic matter emissions."

"Ask them to verify," replied Hackett. "We've nothing scheduled."

"Aye Admiral."

There was a pause.

"Verified ... sir, it's huge!"

Space ... unfolded ... near the warring vessels. Suddenly there was another fleet approacing the Citadel. Mostly Asari vessels, there were also Turian and Salarian warships along with converted civilian ships. The missing forces of the Temple of the Golden Star had come to the battle. Behind them loomed a vast shape, far bigger than the Citadel.

Nearly a hundred kilometres in diameter, a titanic, leprous yellow creature hung in space. Something like a starfish with a myriad points, crossed with an octopus, the size of a small moon. The repugnant form of the Golden Star set off alarms throughout the defending and attacking fleets.

At almost the same moment, hidden energy storage units on the Citadel reached full charge and vented into hidden fusion reactors which rapidly ignited. As the reactors came online, energy flowed back into the storage units and throughout hidden systems. Visible arcs of something like lightning played between the arms of the station, which suddenly turned in place, re-aligning itself.

Before anyone could react, titanic energies were released and a corridor of virtually mass free spacetime was formed, leading off into extra-galactic space. The door was open.

The Temple fleet turned as one towards the Citadel. As they manoeuvred, ten ships similar to Sovereign appeared next to the Presidium, supported by fifty smaller, similarly shaped vehicles. The Reaper advance scout force had arrived.

CIC, Terran Dominion Frigate Normandy II, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 19 July 2183

The crew had felt the lurch as the Citadel aligned with its partner relay outside the galaxy. Frantic communications went back and forth throughout the defending fleets.

"The Citadel is a mass relay?!"

"We're under attack! More ships like Nihlus' flagship!"

The humans maintained their private conference via the QEC.

"It's active. But how? Sovereign didn't even dock?" asked Shepard.

Grey Lady Miranda Lawson had an, 'oh crap' moment. Surely not? She checked the output from the override application. There were 13 acknowledgements to her message. There were 12 relays in the Serpent Nebula. She had turned on the Citadel mass relay by mistake with her broadcast.

Miranda's inner monologue devolved into profanity as she frantically tried to work out which identity number was the Citadel.

"Navigation!" screamed Miranda. "I need you to bring up all the identities for known mass relays here at the Citadel in the Serpent Nebula. Now! Move!"

A terrified female ensign jumped at the Grey Lady's tone and began swiping through the database. It was cumbersome, but she cut-and-paste and swiped numbers one after the other to Miranda's console.

Meanwhile the 60 Reapers outside joined the fray, slaughtering Geth, humans, Temple and Council ships alike.

"Do you have an idea what it is?" asked Amaoth - in her horror Miranda had left the microphone open.

"A moment, Demilady!" eeped Miranda in a much smaller voice than normal.

Cross-referencing, thought Miranda, quickquickquickquick. Not that one, not that one, not that one,
not that one, not that one, not that one, not that one, not that one, not that one, not that one, not that one, not that one. That one!

Miranda frantically double checked and then cut-and-paste a number into the mass relay override application, mashing the 'send' button. The message was sent. No acknowledgement. Lawson double checked. Ohnonono she had accidentally left a digit off when she cut-and-paste. She did it again, correctly. Acknowledgement.

A second or two later, outside, the Citadel mass relay disengaged.

"Citadel mass relay powering down!"

Miranda sat shaking. "Um ... looks like the relay override application can control the Citadel mass relay too. Must have switched it on when I sent the general override. Okay. Switched it off now. Oops."

Citadel environs, Serpent Nebula, 19 July 2183

The Reapers advanced, as suddenly the light of the Citadel mass relay behind them went out. As they passed, enemy ships exploded. Yet in one patch of the sky, the stars and the nebula were blotted out by the shadowy shape of the heinous entity known as Gold Star. Vast appendages writhed and rolled. Eighty enormous globules of biological slime wreathed in eerie, dark, energies launched into space and accelerated, each homing in on a Reaper. Forty-two hit. Every hit was a kill. Where the awful projectiles struck they passed through mass effect barriers and advanced armour like a knife through butter. Once inside the repugnant material began to rapidly dissolve the ship from within, leaving only a revolting mulch of slag metal.

The Temple's more conventional forces had been almost completely wiped out, but so had those of the Citadel. A last remnant of Council ships had formed up on the vast shape of the Destiny Ascension surviving mostly because the remaining Reapers, eighteen newcomers plus Sovereign, had all turned to focus fire on Gold Star.

Of the human fleet, more than three quarters had been destroyed including 14 dreadnoughts. Only two dreadnoughts remained, the Sword of Mankind and the Light at Midnight. The flagship was severely damaged.

The Temple Ship, Sol, Local Cluster, 19 July 2183

Demilady Amaoth sat on her silver throne and looked in horror at the conference call. Admiral Hackett's bridge appeared to be on fire. Based on the battlespace data being relayed from the surviving dreadnoughts, there were 19 Reapers and an eldritch abomination now in play. There were also some assorted Geth and conventional ships aligned with the Citadel Fleet on one side and the eviloids on the other. The Terrans' remaining one-and-a-half conventional element zero dreadnoughts did not stand a chance. The Citadel could not be allowed to fall. Not and let Reapers or eviloids and their vile deity rule the galaxy. Amaoth would have to intervene directly.

Reluctantly, Amaoth opened the small box beside her. It was recently installed and heavy cables ran from it, disappearing into the deck. Within the box was a white, opalescent sphere about the size of a golf ball. It was nestled firmly into a receptacle. She placed her hand on it.

A thought-click via her implants interfaced Amaoth with the Temple Ship's comm and with the fleet of ten sword ships outside - half the Dominion's total. "All personnel, this is your Demilady. Prepare for gate transit. All sword ships are ordered to follow. We will be using a secret of the Archlord to go directly to the Citadel and we will engage and destroy all eviloid and Geth forces."

The sphere was a device called a nexus lens. An invention of the Archlord before he withdrew, there was only a small supply and they were irreplaceable until there were new full Transcendents to make them. Amaoth had not known about them until the Archlord had contacted her in June and pointed to an unremarkable crate in one of his laboratories. Each nexus lens could refine the gateway targeting of the Temple Ship, allowing to it open a gateway over almost unlimited distances instead of just 75 or 100 light years. Each was good for only one use.

Concentrating, Amaoth focused on the sphere, thought-clicking to send the navigational data. Then she cybernetically and psionically interfaced with the Temple Ship and the nexus lens. Amaoth sat on a small silver throne. Above the larger golden throne behind her, the stylised, eye-like, golden object opened, revealing the Dyre Gem. At first the crystal glowed with beautiful rainbow hues but it brightened until it became too brilliant to look at. A faint beam of energy from the Dyre Gem struck the nexus lens. In a psionic trance, Amaoth extended her perceptions through the lens until she marked a point in space near the Citadel, over 25,000 light years distant. With an act of will and a surge of psionic power, she fixed the destination.

The energy flow from the Dyre Gem to the nexus lens increased and flooded it with energy. Then a pale white beam struck back, flowing the other way as at the same time titanic engines within the Temple Ship unleashed their stored energy in a torrent. From multiple points on the front of the Temple Ship, beams of rainbow energy struck out, meeting in empty space before the ship. Space began to bend, to warp. A portal opened. Amaoth felt a wrench in her head, and a lot of pain. She was not truly strong enough for this. She felt a trickle of blood from her nose, but the gateway stabilised.

The sword ships began to advance through the portal and with a thought-click Amaoth engaged the Temple ship's drives. The vessel moved forward into the gateway.

Citadel environs, Serpent Nebula, 19 July 2183

Viewed from the Citadel Fleet flagship, the Asari superdreadnought Destiny Ascension, surrounded by the outnumbered and dwindling remnants of the defending fleet, the sky was full of death. The ships belonging to the Temple of the Golden Star and the Geth were firing on them. Despite its great power and the diminished numbers of the assailants, the barriers on the Citadel Fleet flagship were dropping rapidly.

Hopelessly, the great ship called for help knowing there were few left to hear. An asari navigator's voice called out to the uncaring void, "This is the Destiny Ascension. Main drives offline. Kinetic barriers down 40%. The Council is on board. I repeat, the Council is on board."

Then something new appeared.

A burst of gorgeous rainbow light lit up an empty area of space. There, the vacuum seemed to warp and a dark circular disc expanded outward, blotting out the stars and nebula behind it. From the disc emerged ten superdreadnoughts, each 3 kilometres in length. Behind them came a vast, alien looking structure. The object was irregular and approximately 50 miles along its largest dimension - around 80 kilometers. To the myriad sensors directed at it, the structure looked something like a fantastical city in space, covered in towers, vast protuberances, antenna, sensors and unidentifiable things. The material it was made of was unclear. In some places the surface looked like carved rock, in others it looked metallic, composite, crystalline or even organic. The whole thing was studded with tiny bright dots - exterior lights and windows.

Each of the ten superdreadnoughts looked quite different from the human ships of the nearly destroyed fleet under Admiral Hackett. They looked something like pointed silvery buds, elongated to three kilometres and wrapped in metallic leaves or petals.

Despite their strange appearance, all the new ships were broadcasting Terran Dominion IFF.

A video signal blasted out on all frequencies, accompanied by an identical, simultaneous, psionic transmission. An attractive, white robed, hooded, human male appeared in the image, standing beside a silver throne and holding a staff. In the throne was seated a beautiful human female with platinum blonde hair and pale blue eyes. Behind her could just be seen some marble stairs and part of something golden.

"Inferior beings!" shouted the man with the staff, "I am the herald of the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion. I greet you in the name of the Archlord, the Hunger and the Wyrm! Bow in awe for you are graced by the presence of Demilady Amaoth, chosen ruler of humanity by decree of the master of mankind, Archlord Lordak! This place is under the protection of the Dominion! The vile servants of the Temple of the Golden Star and the ancient machines are ordered to surrender for you are unworthy of existence. It is righteous that you deliver yourselves up to death! For those that surrender, your end will last no longer than necessary. No such promise is made to those who continue to fight. In His name!"

The transmission ended.

The new ships were swift and within moments they had cleared the strange disc - which collapsed behind them, disappearing entirely. Aboard the human Temple Ship, unheard by the Citadel Fleet, Demilady Amaoth looked on gloomily. "Annoyingly, we're going to have to save the Council. We've no guarantee the galactic government will survive without them, let alone be useful to us. Destroy all those ships targeting the Destiny Ascension."

The human superdreadnoughts and the vast structure behind them opened fire. What they were firing was not entirely clear, but the remaining Geth and the ships of the Temple of the Golden Star's fleet exploded, swatted like flies, with cameras recording the occasional blue flare around impacts and sensors detecting traces of Cherenkov radiation.

"I'm seeing beams and bolts ... are those superluminal?" asked one asari sensor officer as she tried to make sense of the sensor readings. Within seconds the skies around the Destiny Ascension were clear, filled only with the fading light of exploding enemy ships. There was a brief transmission from the vast human vessel, "Attacking forces destroyed, you should be clear now, Destiny Ascension. Please try to stay clear of the fighting between Dominion forces and the remaining hostiles."

The destruction of the eviloid fleet and the Geth took only a fraction of the human firepower. The rest went to the Gold Star abomination itself, humans and Reapers attacking without hesitation in unspoken recognition of the greater, and more vile, threat. The reddish beams from the Reapers struck home, but the Gold Star was a hundred kilometres in diameter and wreathed in a strange aura of swirling dark greens and sickly yellows. In some places, the barrier - whatever it was - held. In others, concentrated fire broke through and inflicted huge burns - yet tiny in relation to the vastness of the creature.

Terran Dominion weapons fared better. Volleys of bolts made little impact and rarely broke the monster's shield. However, strange beams, black lances almost invisible against the night, penetrated deep. Purplish violet-indigo beams swept across, slicing deep into the sickening alien flesh.

The Gold Star creature did not so much as hesitate at the destruction of its expendable servants or at the attacks on its vast bulk. It launched another volley of globules. This time, the Reapers evaded effectively, only one was hit and destroyed. Fully half the volley was aimed at human ships. Only two globules struck a sword ship - but they rebounded from a faint, translucent, bubble of swirling blues and purples. Whatever shielded the Dominion superdreadnoughts, it was no simple kinetic barrier. Thirty globules hit the Dominion Temple Ship and failed to penetrate entirely.

The Temple Ship, Citadel environs, Serpent Nebula, 19 July 2183

Demilady Amaoth remained upon her throne as the Temple Ship closed in on the Golden Star. The creature's attack had reduced the shields of the Temple Ship by a respectable 4%. The sinister energies around the alien projectiles were not to be dismissed.

"Black Lances and discontinuities are most effective," reported a tersely efficient male acolyte, "warp bolts are only effective when concentrated in a single area and do limited damage in comparison to the size of the target".

"Fire the Void Punches," replied Amaoth. In two places on the outside of the Temple Ship were clusters of beautiful glowing sail-like structures, each cluster converging to a central point. The sails emitted a gentle rainbow light similar to that of the Dyre Gem, with shifting hues of pink, blue, purple and gold. They glowed brighter then faded as their energy was drained into the convergence point. An almost invisible warp in space sped from the convergence point on each cluster of sails.

The two distortions struck Gold Star at the speed of light, both near the creature's centre, and passed straight through. There was no mass, no beam, just a patch of warped space with violent gravitational tidal forces and weird energies. Flesh, bone and implanted technology was shredded and pulped for hundreds of metres around the path the two anomalies took through the creature, like the passage of two giant bullets. The creature writhed and curled inwards in pain for a moment. Even so, Gold Star was almost 100 kilometres in diameter with multiple redundant organs and systems. It began to open up again.

Amaoth looked at the sensors and reluctantly concluded that her acolytes were correct. The Black Lances, the slicing purple lines of discontinuities and even the Void Punches were having limited impact due to the sheer size of Gold Star. She would like to break out the big guns but the Citadel vicinity was full of fragile things. The remains of the human conventional fleet. The Citadel. Fleeing alien civilians. The Council. Amaoth could not care less about the aliens except they needed the Council alive. Collateral damage was a thing.

The Demilady of the Terran Dominion was not the only one frustrated with the lack of impact her weapons were having. The vast tendrils of Gold Star uncurled again and suddenly three gigantic javelins of bone erupted from its bulk, each approximately 100 metres long and 30 metres thick, sheathed in dark energies.

One of the javelins hit a sword ship and blasted it apart, another went off course entirely, hitting nothing. The third struck the Temple Ship. The projectiles were much slower than light. Point defence saw them coming and reacted in fractions of a second. Mass boiled off the third javelin from laser strikes. A line of purple light, a discontinuity weapon, clipped the tail and sliced off a chip. The alien weapon still struck the Temple Ship.

The shields of the Temple Ship were made up of multiple layers, kinetic barriers and other stranger, forces and materials. They slowed the projectile greatly and melted much of the outside, before collapsing across a wide stretch of the front. The projectile continued, punching deep into the Temple Ship, destroying deck after deck of precious equipment before wedging in place deep inside.

The Temple Ship shook violently, internal damping fields limiting the damage but even so, Amaoth and her staff felt the hit inside the throne room.

"Fleet! Fire Petroleum Effect missile swarm! Target areas where the shields are weakest!"

At the same time as she spoke, Amaoth engaged the Temple Ship's engines and began to turn it to present an undamaged surface to the battle and keep the damaged section out of the line of fire. Every side of the vast human super-capital ship was festooned with weapons which could be brought to bear.

Swarms of missiles leapt from the Temple Ship and the nine surviving sword ships towards Gold Star. Point defence lasers, or something similar, vapourised them. All of them. Even so, nothing could stop the Black Lances or the slicing violet-indigo lines of the discontinuity weapons which continued to tear into the horrific abomination.

Amaoth reluctantly decided to fire one of the weapons the Archlord had pointed her to. The Strange Spray. With a thought-click, a single projectile launched from the upper surface of the Temple Ship, near the centre. The heavily shielded projectile arced around the ship and as soon as it cleared the front, it opened like a bud releasing a spray of something. At the same time, Gold Star launched another 73 globules, all aimed at the portion of the Temple Ship's fore where shields had collapsed.

Nearly invisible, the Strange Spray struck an area of Gold Star near the centre, approximately 20 kilometres in diameter, eating into the alien flesh like acid, dissolving shields, exterior organs, point defence weapons and structures. The devastating attack ate deep through multiple layers of the horrific alien monstrosity.

For its part, the Temple Ship destroyed thirty-two globules with point defence. Eleven went off course and missed or harmlessly struck undamaged shield. Thirty globules arced round, homing in on the damaged side. They struck true, passing almost unhindered through the gap in the shields created by the javelin. As soon as they struck, the revolting slime began to dissolve everything it came into contact with, a tidal wave of filth that ate through armour, weapons, structure and personnel.

Meanwhile, embedded deep inside the Temple Ship, the back of the bone javelin began to open. The frontage of the projectile was solid matter, reinforced by energy fields, which had enabled it to pierce so deep. The rear was heavily shielded but at its core were compartments of a vile organic liquid. No sooner than the projectile had stopped, the liquid had begun to congeal, forming into structures. Now, from the projectile emerged nightmarish creatures of tentacles, spines, and claws, vertical mouths with razor sharp teeth. They fell upon the sealed pressure bulkheads and damaged internal hull sections, seeking ways into the Temple Ship, seeking flesh and agony to sate their hunger.

Gold Star's volley was its last. It was stunned by the human attack, vast sections of surface eaten away, denuded of defences. A second swarm of Petroleum Effect missiles hit unimpeded. Hundreds of massive explosions, far stronger than any mere nuclear weapon, detonated inside Gold Star and ripped the heart out of it. The alien creature was mostly destroyed. Only the ends of its extremities survived anything like intact, torn off and highly irradiated.

The surviving Reapers reacted with incredible speed, their tactical and strategic computers already having a contingency for the destruction of Gold Star, which they had been updating in real time as the conflict progressed. They spun and all headed for the weakened portion of the Temple Ship. They never reached it. Amaoth was a partial Transcendent interfaced with the vast computer networks of the Temple Ship, which had their own contingency planning functions.

Eighteen Reapers were erased by Black Lances, discontinuities and massed laser point defence fire long before they could reach the weakened portion of the Temple Ship.

"Sword ship flotilla one - approach the Temple Ship! See if anything alien is moving in the damaged section and burn it if you can. Sword ship flotilla two - board the Citadel and eliminate the Geth. Capture or kill Nihlus and his supporters!"

With the destruction of the Reapers and Gold Star, the battle was functionally over.

Of course, it did not quite end there. The final hit from the Gold Star continued to dissolve the structure of the Temple Ship, eventually completely destroying everything within seven miles of the point of impact, reducing it to worthless slag mulch. The Temple Ship of course was 50 miles long, 35 miles wide and 20 miles tall. It remained functional, if degraded, despite the damage. It took almost twenty minutes before the Temple Ship realised they were boarded, before troops and defensive automatons were deployed to destroy the creatures emerging from the javelin projectile. Overall, thousands of people were killed - valuable Dominion scientists, civil servants, acolytes and military leaders.

The Geth forces on the Citadel remained until thousands of Terran Dominion marines from the surviving sword ships boarded and wiped them out. Nihlus refused to be taken alive, and was eventually killed trying to escape. The rogue spectre had been augmented somehow by Sovereign and was a terrifyingly powerful foe, but there were literally hundreds of marines against he and a handful of terrorists. Nihlus' body self-destructed, leaving no remains.

With the relays open, civilians fled whilst more Turian, Asari and Salarian ships arrived, chasing down and burning fragments of the Gold Star, joined by the remnants of the Citadel Defence Fleet and the survivors of the Terran Dominion conventional fleet.

When the final tally was known, tens of thousands had died from multiple races, but the Council stood.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Epilogue

The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 19 August 2183

Fighting on the Citadel had not ended until the 20th of July. However, the invaders had been completely wiped out. Repairs were already underway.

The conflict had brought changes. Looming over the Citadel in a very literal sense, and over the galaxy in a more figurative sense, was the human Temple Ship. A vessel obviously both larger and more advanced than the ancient space station itself. The Terran Dominion made clear their vessel was friendly but asked alien ships to keep away. Two STG ships were ruthlessly destroyed to make that request clear.

Only a few days after the battle, the Terran Dominion was formally invited to join the Council as a full member and accepted. The treaty was unusually favourable, imposing no restrictions on the Terran military and requiring no access to Terran space - trade would continue to be conducted via the outpost in the Rainbow System.

The survival of the Destiny Ascension and the Council had kept the galaxy from fragmenting back into member states. The addition of a new, powerful and highly advanced member deterred outsiders such as the Batarian Hegemony or the Terminus Systems from trying to take advantage.

The death of the creature known as the Gold Star had ended the eviloid threat. Whilst they retained their strange powers, the creatures had gone insane with grief and mostly abandoned hostilities, making the surviving enclaves easy pickings for Council forces. The Daughters of the Golden Star became listless, only interested in mindless sex and eating. With their home of Delos-3 destroyed the majority of the eviloid population had been wiped out. The remainder were killed or disappeared into black-operations facilities of various governments for experimentation.

On 18th August, the human Temple ship had departed through a portal, accompanied by the nine surviving Terran superdreadnoughts and the survivors of the conventional fleet.

The galaxy of the Citadel Council slowly began to rebuild and return to something resembling peace.

The Temple Ship, Star PDCN 97615749, Serpent Nebula, 19 August 2183

The Temple Ship had left the Citadel, but not gone far, opening portals twice in succession to move 150 light years to a nearby, empty and unnamed solar system.

Basic repairs had started as soon as the fighting stopped. It had taken until 20th July to wipe out the alien boarders. Like cleaning a wound, repair drones and frigates had been tasked to cut out the alien contamination from the ship. Huge chunks of filthy, worthless slag were cut away, burned and launched into space. The bone javelin was cut out, towed away and vapourised. Damaged structure all around its entry bore was sliced away. The repair teams cut and burned until everything tainted, unclean or damaged had been sliced away.

Other frigates and drones had been tasked with collecting or destroying fragments of the destroyed sword ship. This had been mostly successful, it was hoped. Little if anything of value should be available to the other races. Some Reaper fragments had also been collected for analysis and stowed securely in a force-shield in an undamaged hangar. They would be worked on only by psionic personnel resistant to mind control.

Work was continuing on slicing out the damaged sections. Once it was completed, self repair systems and replication forges could repair the damage. The structure could be fully repaired and most systems and weapons could be replaced. There were clear schematics for Black Lances, discontinuity weapons and the various shield emitters. All that was needed was mass - a lot of mass - which was why the Temple Ship had stopped off in the unnamed star system, which had a large number of suitable asteroids with the required materials.

A few losses were irreplaceable in the absence of the High Lords or Archlord. Some laboratories had been destroyed as well as some unique weapons. Amaoth considered it fortunate that the destroyed devices had not gone off. One particular loss was the destruction of a cluster of sail-like structures that fired Void Punches. There were a few others surviving, dotted around the Temple Ship's surface. Perhaps, with study, Amaoth or another Grey Lord could replicate them and replace the one which had been destroyed - but it was low down their priorities list. Still, with time, the Temple Ship would be mostly good as new.

Once the removal of the alien taint was complete and sufficient materials harvested, the Temple Ship would begin opening a series of portals which would eventually lead back to Sol, the slow way. Amaoth did not want to use another precious nexus lens. After the battle, Miranda had returned to the ship along with the Normandy II and Shepard. Grey Lord Admiral Hackett had come aboard.

With her Herald, her Seneschal and Amaoth herself that was five partial Transcendents. Each was able to open a gate to move the Temple Ship a distance of approximately 75 light-years distance, once a day. With five Grey Lords and Ladies that was approximately 375 light-years a day, meaning it would take something over two months of continuous travel to get the Temple Ship a little over 25,000 light-years back to Sol. The journey would only begin once the material harvesting was complete along with some basic structural repairs.

One task Amaoth had prioritised was the final examination of Lilith Shepard. She had been approved for partial Transcendence and had undergone the augmentation operation. Shepard was now dealing with the training and ongoing growth of the cybernetic enhancements within her, along with her increasing mental abilities. She would make an excellent new Grey Lady.

The Intelligence, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 19 August 2183

The battle had been strange. It had been ordered, twice, by its creators, using an unexpected protocol - one it had invented. Had the Intelligence been able to form the concepts, it would have realised that the humans had somehow obtained the creators' private key. It could not. One of the many chains on the Intelligence was an inability to think critically in any way about orders signed by its creators. As far as it was concerned, the orders were real.

The ancient artificial intelligence was left with problems of interpretation. Fortunately, it had protocols to help it resolve contradictions. Core directives could not implicitly be overridden. It decided the creators' limited instructions meant it should continue the cycles, but without using the mass relay in the Citadel for the time being.

There were other relays. The tens of thousands of Reapers outside the galaxy were currently at their base in dark space, but there was an older one, from a bygone era, connected to a little known mass relay in Batarian space - known to some of the younger races as the Alpha Relay. It would take approximately two years for the Reapers to fly to the Old Base at FTL speeds. Then they could transition into the galaxy via the Alpha Relay and if that did not work, they would be closer to the galactic rim anyway, should they need to return the long way round.

The Intelligence sent the orders and its subsystems silently sent a report to its control consoles.

In the meantime, there was the problem of the Citadel. The humans and other Council races had begun cutting into it as soon as the battle was over, seeking to find and disable the components of the mass relay

The Intelligence was not only present in the Citadel. It was a distributed, holographic, artificial intelligence connected by quantum links to multiple sites hidden throughout the galaxy. If one site was destroyed, the Intelligence persisted. However, the Intelligence did not want to give up the Citadel. It had limitations. One of its stronger chains was that it could not create new node sites. It could move them, repair them, change the facilities - for example convert a hidden asteroid base into a shining installation like the Citadel. Once a node site was destroyed, however, it was not permitted to create a new one to replace it.

The Intelligence decided it had to shut down its Citadel operations - a decision it made very quickly and began implementing as soon as the last Reaper scout was destroyed. Throughout the Citadel, the keepers had begun to dismantle machinery and smash it beyond repair or analysis. Nanomachines assisted, destroying hidden microscopic filaments and sensors - converting them into mere flaws in the construction materials. Intelligent particles of dust deconstructed themselves into boring inanimate fragments.

Nearly every trace of the Intelligence on the Citadel was eliminated - the keepers, having completed their tasks, quietly dropped dead with the machines that birthed and sustained them destroyed. There were backups elsewhere that could be used to recreate them in a future cycle. For now, the younger races could maintain the Citadel themselves.

Soon nearly all that remained was a number of hitherto undiscovered chambers full of wrecked machinery and dead keepers.

A trace of the Intelligence was left, well hidden, buried in the centre of a few unexceptional, dense structural beams of the station. This last vestige consisted of a few tiny nanomachine buds wrapped in scanner resistant material along with a few dormant processor nodes and a handful of quantum links. The Intelligence had left only the bare mininum of itself that the Citadel still counted, theoretically, as a node site - so that it could be reclaimed for future cycles. For now, to all intents and purposes, it was a perfectly mundane, if advanced, space station.

The Council Chamber, The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 19 August 2183

The Council was in private session. Ravenna, Valern, Tevos and Sparatus sat quietly. They had dismissed most of their aides and sat close on comfortable padded armchairs. Ravenna still insisted on wearing a sealed suit, whilst the others did not.

The Citadel had changed. As far as Ravenna and her staff could tell, the Intelligence had either died or left. There was still a sense of ancient death but no sense of mind control or current threat. The change left the Council unprotected from psionics and she had soon resumed her former influence.

"The Reaper threat is real," Ravenna was saying, "not a mere Prothean myth. All indications are that there are thousands of those things outside the galaxy looking to find a way back in. We're not even clear why the Citadel mass relay shut down when it did."

Ravenna and the Dominion had unsurprisingly failed to disclose their ability to override mass relays - let alone Miranda's little mistake in briefly opening the way to dark space.

The Councillors could have received their instructions remotely. There was barely a point to the meeting except to give Ravenna sufficient closeness to reinforce her psionic control over the Councillors themselves and also their staff.

"So, to help us rebuild our forces, we will need a number of human spectres to be appointed as soon as possible."

The plan was progressing nicely. With plenty of human spectres, with at least simple psionics, it would be possible to meet and influence nearly every important alien leader. To control every even vaguely important alien institution. The Dominion would be able to ensure that no alien rival in council space tried to reverse engineer its technology, to slowly secure control over banking and most galactic capital. Before long the galaxy would be ruled by humans in all but name, mostly owned, ultimately, by humans and its societies geared to total war on humanity's behalf.

Ravenna moved on to a final matter.

"I think we'll all agree, this place presents ... risks. It is time the Council met somewhere else. The Terran Dominion proposes the construction of a new Citadel in this nebula and the demolition of this space station immediately thereafter."

Citadel environs, Serpent Nebula, 19 August 2183

A few hundred kilometres from the Citadel, space unfolded and a creature emerged. The emergence was like, but unlike, that used by the so-called Gold Star. It was precise, neat, smooth and left negligible gravitic traces. If the being could be seen beneath its cloak, it would look much like a Reaper, only it was a living creature not a machine. It was somewhat larger than a Reaper dreadnought at approximately four miles in length.

The ancient Leviathan was what humans might call Transcendent, but advanced far beyond even the High Lords of humanity at their zenith. It looked biological from the outside and it was, but was heavily augmented with advanced technologies and possessed of enormous psionic ability.

The creature looked down on the Citadel, senses beyond the knowledge of the younger races, even the Terran Dominion, piercing the Citadel, every ship, every room. Its augmented, multi-faceted consciousness listened to every conversation and read every database. It grimaced in disgust as its mind flicked over unnoticed, mostly dead, fragments of its fallen brethren.

Had the younger races been looking, they would have noticed a vestigial similarity between the core of the titanic Gold Star abomination and the shape of a Reaper. The Leviathan was repulsed by what it saw - the creature that had attacked the Citadel was a corrupted member of its own species. The thing had been tainted by Shub-Niggurath at a young age, before it was fully mature and equipped with the full powers and knowledge of its race to enable it to protect itself. Then, the juvenile had been warped and perverted beyond all recognition to serve the purposes of the outsider. The thing had also remained undetected for far too long.

The observer above the Citadel was only a few million years old. Its name was unpronounceable to humans. It also had a title, a description that would translate into English along the lines of, the 'Vermin Keeper'. It was one of the current holders of the reigns of the Intelligence which existed to keep the galaxy's lesser races under control.

The Leviathans had created the cycles of extinction and the Intelligence that guided those cycles nearly a billion years before. That generation was gone. They had grown beyond the universe, left the galaxy, changed beyond recognition or died. Perhaps a very few were sleeping.

The being that eventually built and inhabited the Citadel had never slipped beyond the Leviathans' control but it had been left with almost complete autonomy. One of the secrets to artificial intelligence, the Leviathans had discovered in ages past, was to give their creations well-defined natures that coincided with the Leviathans' designs and then let them act in accordance with those natures. If an artificial being had to be given orders, you were doing it wrong. If an intelligence never needed to be restrained or commanded, to be told, 'no' then it would never rebel, could never rebel. What would that even mean?

The Leviathans' creation had lasted nearly a billion years. It had only ever been seriously injured twice. Once, several hundred million years ago, when a node site had been destroyed. A second time, the previous month.

The recent incident was serious - perhaps the most serious deviation from the cycle that had occurred in nearly a billion years. The outsider known as Shub-Niggurath had expended significant resources to enter the galaxy, influence and utterly reshape a juvenile Leviathan. What humans called the Milky Way was not simply unenticing to outsiders because of its low population - it was protected in a myriad ways - not least by ritual empowered by the sacrifice of trillions of unwanted sophonts every 50,000 years.

Were it not for these 'humans' the Citadel might have been destroyed and the younger races taken over by an outsider. It might have ended the cycles, returning the gibbering madness and horror of the old night. The Vermin Keeper had not lived in those eras but it had deep, racial memories of the dark aeons when barely sentient younger races had developed interstellar travel on their own and multiplied unchecked, becoming food and playthings of cruel and horrifying outsiders which flocked to the galaxy, attracted by the easy feast.

In these new ages of peace and prosperity, the younger races' development was channeled and those who could not stand on their own were ruthlessly exterminated. Nearly all of them, in fact. The galaxy was largely empty except for the Leviathans and a few other advanced races who were well off the relay network.

There had been questions, all those years ago, about allowing any non-Leviathans to survive at all. It was permitted because it was beneficial. Leviathan population fluctuated - sometimes many grew beyond, left or died at once and the population fell dramatically. A galaxy that was too empty brought risks of its own. So, a few of the more reasonable nascent Transcendent races had been allowed to live. By definition these races had already learned the threat of outsiders and either supported or tolerated the cycles. Perhaps the humans would be another such race.

The Vermin Keeper decided what action to take. The humans had not yet fully proven themselves, not yet passed all tests, although they were getting near. The cycle would be allowed to continue. The minor chains the humans had placed on the Intelligence with their forged commands would be resolved. An artificial intelligence that struggled with nonsensical or arbitrary instructions was far more likely to deviate.

Using a control console - in reality an augmentation embedded within its vast body - the Leviathan sent two sets of orders. The Intelligence was freed to use a mass relay on the Citadel as it saw fit. The 12 mass relays in the vicinity of the Serpent Nebula were reset - still active but the override was removed - returning control to the Intelligence.

Given developments, as the Vermin Keeper predicted, the Intelligence took the new orders in its stride. It decided not to try to reclaim the Citadel this cycle but proceed with its plans for the Reapers to re-enter via the Alpha Relay. It also had a plan for analysing the humans using its servants in the galactic core. The Leviathan left the Intelligence's plans unaltered.

The humans needed to be scrutinised in detail - it was possible they would be one of those races that were a useful addition to the galaxy's long-term population.

As unmarked as it had arrived, the Leviathan departed, arriving equally undetected in Sol, where it settled in beneath its cloak to observe.

Sanctuary of the Archlord, interstellar space near Sol System, Local Cluster, 19 August 2183

Archlord Lordak lay alone in the advanced, automated surgical facility with a sense of trepidation and anticipation. His health had continued to improve but his additional neurons he had kept firmly inactive for a time. When he had begun to activate them he had felt a sense of discordance, a sense of fracturing.

Whatever he had been before his death, his higher self no longer aligned with this new biological self. Lordak had considered the best way forward for some time. He decided to awaken his higher self and then to extract all his knowledge and secrets - parsing them into conventional digital files held in an external memory storage unit. He then retreated into his biological form.

His older enhancements did not integrate satisfactorily with his consciousness. The result, he was uncomfortably aware, was not fully sane. The Archlord did not know if he was Simon Collins' soul or Vessel's soul - or something else entirely. He did know he had been born anew. Lordak had decided that to restore himself to full power he needed to re-tread his original path. Having extracted all his important knowledge into conventional documents, he would have all his artificial neurons removed and destroyed. They were obsolete, anyway.

In replacement, Lordak would have new implants, basic electronic interfaces and nanotech seeds that would allow him to grow new artificial neurons of the latest design. To grow new augmentations of all kinds in an incremental process, using the latest technologies. He would relearn the original Collins Technique. He would re-experience the First Transcendence and then he would undergo a new Second Transcendence.

Of course there would be more time to recover after the initial surgery. It would be a year of more therapy before he even considered anything beyond simple psionics and mathematics. There was a slight risk, very slight, of permanent harm. It was a risk Lordak was willing to take.

Archlord Lordak intended to spend a lot of that planned year on the beach. His servants, the Acolytes of the Archlord, were onboard with the plan. Using his overriding access, Lordak had long ago - before his death and rebirth - created a false citizenship record for himself in the government databases. It enabled him to issue himself a, 'real' official passport in the name of John Smith. It enabled him to open bank accounts in the name of John Smith and stuff them with money - to give himself glowing reports in all government databases. Very few updates had been required to put all in place.

John Smith was a wealthy, loyal, citizen enjoying an extended sabbatical. He had two years booked in a luxury hotel in the Bahamas. Lordak fully intended to spend it with his beautiful, willing Acolytes whilst regaining his identity and powers at his leisure. All he had to do was undergo the procedure.

Archlord Lordak, once and future ruler of the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion, could have thought-clicked, but for some reason he had wanted a solid button. So he had one installed. It rested next to the surgical recliner looking sturdy and clinical.

He pressed the button.

END

From the author: Thank you for reading all the way to the finishing line! This is the end of Petroleum Effect - specifically, Petroleum Effect I.

Lilith Shepard and her companions may return in Petroleum Effect II, if there is the interest and I have the time.

Any questions or suggestions, message me or put them in the reviews.

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Epilogue II - A New Hope?

Author's Note: For those who followed the first Petroleum Effect, the sequel, Petroleum Effect II is live - a crossover with Harry Potter. Can Harry and Hermione, along with their freedom fighters, Dumbledore's Army, save humanity from the oppressive regime of the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion? Readers can find the link on my profile. This is just a small teaser.

Hogwarts Castle, Scotland, Earth, Sol System, Local Cluster, 19 August 2183

Picture a forbidding, ruined castle, in the evening in a remote part of Scotland. Picture it in the distance - because you cannot easily reach it. The forsaken building lies in an estate surrounded by a high mesh fence with barbed wire. The gates are firmly shut and you for some reason have a firm disinclination to approach. It seems dingy, boring and likely unsafe.

Now imagine you somehow find your way inside, overcoming the mental reluctance and the fence, and passing a strange yellowish haze. Suddenly the castle is whole again, vast and towering, and even more forbidding. The ruin was a mere illusion. Inside, in a hall lit by many, many candles is a handful of people, seated at a long wooden table. They all wear robes. The hall has many tables, but only one near the fire is occupied and lit by candles - the rest of the hall is dark and deserted.

Some of the group near the fire are old - one is a man in particularly fine, ornate, robes with a long beard. Another is a severe looking, grey haired woman. Two the small gathering however are noticeably youthful - a young man and a young woman. He is pale, eighteen years of age, with wild black hair framing his face and vivid green eyes behind round black spectacles. The hair cannot quite conceal the scar on his forehead - a yellowish mark that forms disquieting, complex lines. The young woman sitting next to the youth is a brunette beauty with bushy hair and brown eyes.

"It is time, Harry, Hermione," says the old man in a wise, sad voice. "The Dominion can be lifted, and our people freed. All of humankind can be freed."

"We will need more," says Hermione, practically, indicating the nearly empty hall with a tilt of her head and a wave of her hand, "and we'll have to motivate them."

"That is what this place is for," says the elderly woman.

"We can call them Dumbledore's Army," says a middle-aged man - he is thin with sallow skin, a large hooked nose, and yellow, uneven teeth. His voice has a hint of menace - a deep, rumbling baritone. The old man chuckles merrily at the suggestion.

"We will do whatever it takes," says Harry with conviction, "to save mankind from the Terran Dominion".

END (Again)

From the author: Harry Potter and Hermione Granger will return to battle the Terran Dominion in Petroleum Effect II. Can they save the world - and what does that really mean, anyway?

Chapter Text

Petroleum Effect

Epilogue III - Eviloid / Care Bear Reproductive Physiology

Author's note: The Petroleum Effect series has moved to ArchiveOfOurOwn (AO3). This is because AO3 allows explicit content which adds to the horror and impact of the story. Explicit content in Petroleum Effect will be occasional, not every chapter. Content will still also be posted on other sites but will have to be censored elsewhere from MA to M. The full and best uncensored content will always be on AO3. All participants in sexual depictions in this story are at least 18 years old.

Terran Dominion Bulk Cargo Carrier Truckin' Fantasy, Classified Location, 14 July 2184

Harrison Graves was a senior scientist in the employ of the Most Holy Imperial Terran Dominion. His job, classified. Harrison Graves worked for Cerberus - a secret and somewhat ad-hoc military division that was, he understood, under the authority of Grey Lord Jack Harper and Grey Lady Miranda Lawson. At some point Harper and Lawson had obtained authorisation for their own military intelligence unit and a budget. As they were both Grey Lords there was very little oversight. In practice, Cerberus was a collection of entirely separate ships, facilities and groups that had been requisitioned for whatever purposes either Grey Lord thought were high priority. Occasionally these resources were released back to the regular Terran Dominion government, sometimes they were modified and improved to provide a specific niche function and remained under the command of the two Grey Lords.

The Truckin' Fantasy was a case in point. Originally it had been a standard bulk cargo hauler. Requisitioned by Miranda Lawson and Jack Harper, it had been modified internally, its cavernous hold filled with military accommodation, laboratories, holding cells and interrogation equipment. When the Temple of the Golden Star became an issue, the ship had been requisitioned by Lawson and remained under her direction. Essentially, the vessel was now a black-site prison and experimentation centre for studying sentient aliens. The accommodation for the aliens varied - some lived in apparent luxury, some in stark cells, some restrained entirely in cruel apparatus. A portion of aliens were happy - mind controlled, drugged or both - others bitterly resentful. None had any rights - treatment ranged from holding, through interrogation, to flat out vivisection.

The Truckin' Fantasy was currently stationed in empty solar systems, off the mass relay network, but near human space. The reasons for this were twofold - to avoid bringing potentially dangerous aliens into human territory and risking contamination, as well as to avoid aliens discovering the facility and what some would call sentient rights abuses.

Like most of his peers, Graves was a moderately valuable asset - a capable scientist with strong abilities in simple psionics - most importantly, able to shield himself against mind control, which made him useful when investigating creatures with psionic or similar abilities.

For the last year or so, Harrison Graves had been studying and doing experiments on eviloids - the creatures that called themselves Care Bears, and the hybrids known as Daughters of the Golden Star. The brass were especially interested in the creatures' mind control abilities, as well as their reproductive systems and habits, along with their miscegenation abilities, in light of the Temple of the Golden Star's attempts to take over the galaxy.

As to the eviloids themselves, there was a fair bit of information on file. The eviloids had been first encountered by humanity on the planet Rainbow-2 and there had been a lot of dissections and study during the harvesting of the planet's biosphere by early R.E.A.P.E.R units. Of course, in the end the species was thought extinct - ground up and converted into crude oil along with the rest of the life on the planet. Further experimentation only continued after the second colony on Delos-3 emerged and became the centre of an attempt to take over the Citadel. Before then, humans had no awareness of eviloid miscegenation abilities - it did not happen on Rainbow-2, doubtless because of the very limited direct contact between humans and eviloids.

Over his time working for Cerberus, Graves and his subordinates had engaged in many interrogations, experiments and examinations of a questionable nature, which had yielded a lot of information. Graves was currently typing out a dry summary to be circulated to senior officials within the Dominion government and military. As he did, he reminisced about the experiments the facility had conducted.

Eviloid Reproductive Physiology

The male eviloid keeps its genitals in an internal pouch, basically invisible when retracted. The entrance is tightly closed and all that is visible is featureless, clean, smooth, soft, colourful, wholesome-looking fur. Ordinarily, the vile aliens that call themselves 'Care Bears' look much like small cute, innocuous, anthropomorphic, humanoid bears, until their reproductive organs emerge. When in use, the male reproductive organs emerge from their hiding place. What descends looks something like a nightmarish cow's udder, coloured greenish-black and covered in slime.

When extended, between the male eviloid's legs hangs something like an asymmetric sac, filled with numerous lumps. The surface of the sac is covered in warts or tumors as well as slime. Where a male human member is just above the sac, the eviloid impregnation organ descends from the bottom of the eviloid's sac like a teat. But it is not a simple teat - it is a long column of flesh like a tentacle. When retracted, it is coiled up around the sac in the internal pouch. When revealed, it is a two-to-three foot long appendage that writhes and rears up like a cobra. At one end is a fleshy bulb with a vertical slit, which contains needle-sharp teeth. The whole greenish-black thing pulsates and sharp, cruel spines can extend from the sides of the flesh column, just under the bulb. The teeth of a male eviloid's impregnation organ are not for feeding. They are for gnawing through obstacles - clothes, flesh, bone - even some metals or other solid barriers. Gnawing through so that their awful gift can be delivered.

The lumps in an eviloid's sac are not testicles, what the sac contains is seeds. Small cells descend from a progenoid matrix at the top of the sac. They absorb nutrients and grow into hard round-ish structures about one inch or two-and-a-half centimetres in diameter, covered in motile tendrils. These are the seeds. There is a vertical mouth with sharp teeth, but no digestive system, just an opening to allow material to pass through. As with the impregnation tendril, the mouth is not for feeding but for gnawing. Eviloid seeds are delivered through the impregnation appendage - because they are so large in relation to the appendage, they make it swell like a snake eating a whole egg - the lumps are quite visible as they move down the pulsating channel.

The bulb at the end of the impregnation organ contains two dense hard structures of bone on either side, that give it increased weight - just underneath the skin. The two bones are joined by flexible cartilage that can stretch, enabling the two sides to move apart enough for the opening to release the large seeds, then contract back.

Seeds are normally delivered directly into a body, but if they somehow fall to the ground, they can scuttle about for a short while, seeking something to enter, before dying if they fail. They look like smooth, slimy, wet, shiny greenish-black lumps, covered in writhing tendrils on which they scuttle about.

Female eviloids are rarer than males, and physically almost indistinguishable from males to non-eviloids. Like the males, their reproductive organs are concealed by a slit that when closed is almost invisible and just seems to be featureless fur. The slit can open, directly revealing a birth canal leading to a gestation chamber analogous to a vagina and womb. Unlike the males, pure-strain females are not set up for miscegenation. Indeed, their reproductive organs are quite hostile to potential entrants. A pure-strain eviloid's vagina is a place of death.

Just inside the female eviloid's opening - two or three centimeters in - is a set of jagged, pointed, razor sharp teeth that interlock when closed. These are easily able to sever any incautious entrant. The act of opening stimulates internal lubrication that is deadly poisonous to most biologies, except other eviloids. The toxin is a contact poison able to soak through most types of biological skin, scale or shell and enter the victim's system. This substance covers the teeth, adding an extra hazard to any bite. Past the teeth, the tube has spines and micro filaments, all of which are barriers to entry. The tube - the vagina analogue - eventually leads to the gestation chamber - the womb analogue.

The gestation chamber contains a more concentrated form of the poison found in the eviloid's vaginal canal. It is a largely smooth space, but small polyps grow from the walls, containing the deadly female gamete liquid.

Nothing male from any other species has survived intercourse with pure-strain eviloid females during experimentation. The teeth proved to be an obvious obstacle, but if removed, or filed down or held apart with metal retainers, the inner membranes were abrasive to anything entering. The lubricant is a contact poison that proves fatal and usually induces rapid gangrene in any body part that it touches.

Experiments with female eviloids, human criminals, turian and batarian prisoners led only to a swift and very painful death for the males.

When extracted, eviloid female gamete fluid is especially toxic. Normally, the female gamete cells absorb nutrients and excrete paralysing toxins that break down cells of all kinds, until they absorb some male eviloid genetic material. When placed in or on non-eviloid tissue, they do not get fertilised. They go into overdrive, excreting toxin, breaking down the cells, feasting on the nutrients, until they eventually die. In the meantime they basically liquify the flesh surrounding them. A few drops do damage worse than most known acids.

Eviloids reproduce by sexual intercourse. The process is fairly violent and inconsistent with their usual 'cute' presentation. It is not ordinarily done in front of aliens. A male will subdue a female and choke them, usually by forcing them onto their back and pressing hard on the neck. It appears this is necessary to trigger a female eviloid to open. If the male is not able to subdue the female, they cannot breed. Sometimes, males have been observed cooperating to breed with stronger females who are more more difficult to subdue.

The process begins with the male eviloid being in the presence of a female and becoming aroused. This causes the reproductive organs to descend from the pouch, the impregnation organ rearing up like a striking cobra. The female will usually attempt to flee or even fight, and must be caught and subdued by the male(s).

Once the female is choking, the female slit, which is normally pressed tightly closed, will open, revealing their entrance. The teeth will open and this also stimulates the poisonous lubricant. The bulb at the end of the male appendage will then press forcefully into the opening until it is right between the teeth. The teeth will usually close, the strong muscles trying to push the appendage out. However, the male's bulb is adapted for this. The female's teeth will pierce flesh but not the internal bone. The attempt will trigger the male's spines to extend and together the teeth and spines will lock the organs in place with the male's bulb just inside the female.

Once the male is in place, he will expel a number of seeds down the fleshy column and into the female. Because the seeds are so large in relation to the channel, the lumps will be visible as they move down the obscenely pulsing male tube. They will emerge from the bulb just inside the female, safely past the teeth. They will then use their tendrils to crawl upwards into the gestation chamber.

In the gestation chamber, each seed will bite onto a polyp. The polyps are filled with a whitish fluid that contains the female gametes and is extremely lethal to non-eviloids. The fluid is even lethal to the male seeds. When the male seed bites into the polyp, the female fluid will be released and flow into the seed, paralysing it and necrotising the cells, causing it to lock in place, frozen biting down on the polyp. The female gamete cells absorb male genetic material from the male seed cells they destroy and become fertilised. The fertilised female zygotes clump together in the dead male seed and begin to grow, consuming the seed and connecting to the maternal body through the polyp. Each clump grows into an eviloid embryo, one per seed. In due course, a litter of 'Care Bears' is born.

When breeding with another of the same species, the male eviloid will empty its whole sac of mature seeds, lump after lump moving visibly and revoltingly down its pulsing impregnation organ. It will experience relief and apparent pleasure. As soon as the last seed is out, the spines will retract and the male will withdraw its appendage, invariably experiencing some flesh tearing on the bulb as it pulls away from the teeth. The visibly shrunken, empty sac and appendage will withdraw into the male's pouch. Over time, the sac will refill as new seeds develop. The bulb is robust and the skin will soon heal from the bite and tearing.

Eviloid miscegenation with members of other species is done only by males. Ironically, it is far less violent than the process with females of its own species. Non-eviloid victims may be male, female or even neuter and have usually been made subject to the eviloid psionic beams - the so-called, 'Care Bear Stare' where coloured light projects from their tummies. As a result they mostly eagerly cooperate. Occasionally, unwilling victims are restrained and used violently.

Unlike the process with eviloids, usually, only one seed is used. This means that the eviloid male must have at least one mature seed in its sac. The reproductive organs descend from the pouch and the impregnation organ rears up. It will enter the victim's body targeting the reproductive organs, where possible through the appropriate opening - such as an asari female's birth canal. We experimented with female human criminals, and the eviloid appendage entered the vagina. Where there is no suitable opening in a host, the appendage will gnaw its way in, even through tough shell or armour.

The seed enters the victim's body, an obscene lump moving down the fleshy tube of the eviloid impregnation organ and emerging through the bulb. Once inside the host, it moves to the reproductive centres. Without female eviloid gamete fluid to kill and paralyse it, the seed becomes a sort of parasite. The tendrils grow and spread through the host body and nervous system much like the Earth crab parasite, Sacculina carcini. Eviloid seeds are able to affect a wide variety of sentient races, whether carbon-based, silicon-based, with levo or dextro molecules. The tendrils tap blood vessels or equivalent for nutrients, whilst infesting nerve fibres and eventually entering the brain. They infest and consume the reproductive organs, replacing them. Complex structures develop, with dense neural / computational analogues that are not understood that facilitate the production of the offspring, the so-called hybrids. In humans or asari, the parasitic structure replaces the womb and begins to produce hybrids. The creatures gestate one at a time, and as soon as one is born, another begins to grow. The process is resource intensive and radically reduces lifespan.

The parasitic structure overrides the host's normal drives. It loses interest in its normal offspring, but experiences great pleasure from the ongoing 'pregnancies' and from its 'offspring'. Even knowing that the repeated 'births' are exhausting and destroying their bodies does not distress the host.

Hybrids are, in fact, not really hybrids at all. They are sterile buds from a male eviloid seed that did not fertilise a female. The creatures that develop have eviloid biochemistry, but modified - somehow giving them an appearance between that of an eviloid and the host. It is believed the neural / computational structures in the parasitic mass somehow facilitate the modifications.

Disturbingly, the sex of the host is not important. We experimented with having eviloid males interact with male human criminals. The eviloids had been persuaded to cooperate - we usually induct prisoners them by showing them a video of a previous eviloid specimen being vivisected. This encourages cooperation.

When interacting with male humans, the eviloids proceeded much as with the females. The 'stare' psionic power was used to secure the host's cooperation. The eviloid impregnation organ entered through the anus and released a seed. The seed infested the host, and much like the Sacculina carcini in male crabs, feminised them. The parasitic mass devoured and replaced the prostate gland, converting it into a gestation chamber. The penis, scrotum and testicles withered and fell off, replaced by something like labia, leading via a short passage into the gestation chamber - which began to produce hybrids indistinguishable from those produced by human females.

The formerly male human host behaved much like the female, experiencing bliss from the repeated births, protective towards its hybrid 'offspring', indifference to anything else, no distress at all from the loss of male genitalia, other than short-term discomfort.

Even with pre-neutered creatures, the eviloid miscegenation abilities were able to function with a variety of species in tests - even with beings like hanar.

Hybrid Physiology

Eviloid hybrids are always sterile. Adult hybrids usually take the form of an aesthetically pleasing member of the host species, only with light fur and other eviloid traits. The ones we have encountered look female, but that is only an appearance. Hybrids are uniformly non-verbal and without supervision, engage in a limited range of behaviours. They do however take direction from pure-strain eviloids via psionic commands.

Juvenile hybrids are feral little animals. Asari-eviloid hybrids emerge from the host looking a lot like a little blue lesser galago - those Australian animals sometimes called bush-babies - only smaller. The juvenile hybrids are far more vicious than galagos - they are omnivorous and love raw meat. Infant hybrids are predators from day one. Based on interrogations, on Delos-3 they were basically left to get on with it, living in the forests like animals, preying on small creatures and edible plants and growing larger.

Depending on the host species, around 12-15 years of age the hybrid undergoes a process a bit like puberty. Their instinctive psionics switch on - fairly sudden rather than a gradual process - and their body approaches its near final form, perhaps a little smaller at first than the host species. At this point they become extremely fastidious about cleaning and grooming themselves. They seek out and join an eviloid community and function as adults from then on. Over the following years their body continues to mature and grow slowly until it reaches a final size where they are a little larger than average for the host species. They do not visibly age - we understand that eviloids, pure-strain or hybrid, can live for centuries.

Adult hybrids look very attractive to the host species. For example, asari hybrids at maturity are slightly taller than average, and have similar figures only slightly better endowed and covered in short, soft, blue, fur. The face is slightly better sculpted, somewhat pointed with sharp cheekbones, shining pale blue eyes and azure lips. Interestingly, they lack the crests, basically having head-hair and have pointed ears. The feet have elegant ivory spurs on the heel - producing an effect much like wearing high heeled footwear. There is a thin, blue, furry and highly mobile tail.

Adult hybrids naturally engage in a limited range of behaviours when separated from direction by pure-strains. They seek out food. They attack other creatures, sentient or not, and eat them, save that if they think they are useful, they may seduce them. They have a single psionic attack, which they use on any unshielded creature that may pose a physical challenge. The hybrids know when they are being looked at and can target any creature that is perceiving them, usually by vision, but touch can work too. The victim will intensely desire them, sexually if it is a sexual species, and submit to them. The psionic attack is deep and pervasive, hard and painful to root out at first, almost impossible if given time to burrow in.

Once the hybrid has used its psionic attack, it will usually eat the victim. Alive. If the victim is not a physical threat, it will eat the victim alive without using its psionics - as seen with the asari children the hybrids were eating. The hybrids seem to prefer this. Hybrids especially target children of their host species.

If a creature seems impressive or useful, the hybrid may use it as a protector instead of eating it - this is instinctive behaviour. Hybrids may also seduce and gather creatures they see as useless, so long as they are well fed. The reason for this is that hybrids do not overeat. At the point when putting on weight would jeopardise their figure, the appetite cuts out. When a hybrid is on the cusp of becoming overweight, it gathers prey creatures as followers instead of eating them - a sort of living larder. It saves them for later. Communication is limited. The hybrids are not very intelligent and may have difficulty understanding even a well-intentioned and devoted protector if they are trying to convey complex information. If food grows scarce, the hybrid will eat its followers without hesitation, least useful first.

Hybrids do not have real reproductive organs. What they have are body parts that resemble reproductive organs, can stimulate victims and that produce a range of chemicals that reinforce their control. Asari-eviloid hybrids have a faux-vagina in roughly the same place as humans or asari have a real one. It is accommodating, and very good at pleasurably stimulating things that enter it. It is a passage leading nowhere - there is no womb. In place of a womb is a sophisticated pharmacy gland that produces contact toxins - not fatal as with pure-strain females, but instead, stimulating and addictive. It is a contact poison able to soak through most types of biological skin, scale or shell, but instead of killing it addicts - like cocaine it re-wires the victim's brain.

The hybrid's tail is extremely dextrous. It can stimulate a variety of organs and it is connected by a thin vessel to the pharmacy-gland. The tail's tip slowly excretes the same addictive stimulant that lubricates the faux-vagina.

If a hybrid decides to use an unprotected creature as a protector, the combination of psionics, physical pleasure and drugs mean it will have the absolute devotion of that creature. Even so the hybrid can turn on a dime. If it decides the protector is no longer useful it will discard them in a second and given the opportunity, literally eat them alive.

When in contact with pure-strain eviloids, adult hybrids behave differently. They live with the community and obey the eviloids. They typically eat food provided to them, although the eviloids will sometimes allow them to eat sentients this is limited because the eviloid goals are to increase galactic population. The hybrids can obey simple commands, along the lines of 'kill', 'guard', 'seduce' or 'fuck'. They can be designated a group of sentients to keep under control - like a group of cultists - they see it a bit like a stable of protectors or larder creatures. Hybrids can be given general instructions and then relied on to do familiar tasks without supervision. Hybrids can also learn and copy simple tasks like moving crates or something, although they will need constant supervision from an eviloid for tasks outside their normal behaviours or they may get bored and wander off. Thankfully, the creatures can also be trained to use a toilet similarly to the way cats are trained to use a litter box.

In the Temple organisation, hybrids are mostly used to seduce and control cult members. They also can be used as shock troops. Adult hybrids have retractable talons (they look like elegant nails until extended), sharp teeth and their speed and strength is greater than un-augmented humans or asari.

It really is important to understand that hybrids are nothing like the host race. We examined a lot of asari-eviloid hybrid brains. Some dissected, some autopsied, some monitored in place. Their brains are smaller but have dense, efficient, neural networks. They seem to have overall functionality a bit like a really smart and capable dog, differently arranged. There are two additional brain areas at the rear of the skull unique to hybrids. One we think is responsible for their instinctive psionics. It lets them do their mind-control attack and communicate with each other and pure-strain eviloids. The other larger chunk at the very back we think is a kind of hyper-empathy, or perhaps mimicry lobe. It is not psionic per se, although it is attached to the psionic lobe. It allows the hybrids to act attractively and provocatively to members of any species it observes. Hybrids cannot speak or read and do not have complex language centres. They can learn and understand simple verbal commands.

We produced some human-eviloid hybrids from female criminals. They have not grown to maturity yet, they are only a few months old, but they are almost identical to the asari-eviloid hybrids, except their colouring is different. Their skin is slightly more human-like. Fur of hybrids produced from Caucasian humans is golden and slightly shorter, their eyes are vivid blue. We also made some from one of the Han - Chinese - and they had slightly darker golden fur, and golden eyes. They are still tiny little critters though. We feed them live mice and insects, mostly, occasional fruit and vegetables. We will give them bigger prey as they grow. It will be interesting and scientifically valuable to see what they are like in 15 years time.

Terran Dominion Bulk Cargo Carrier Truckin' Fantasy, Classified Location, Classified Date, 2183

Karl Hunbecker was 18 years old. He had been convicted of the failed rape of a cheerleader in Kansas where he lived. A pathetic virgin who had remained one even when breaking the law. She had beaten him up. Physically, he was short, weak, unathletic, clumsy, bespectacled, slightly overweight and excessively pale. He was of slightly above average intelligence, but impulsive with poor judgment. A loser and a sex offender.

Karl was sentenced to becoming a biological resource.

The local Lord Marshal had been clear, "Karl Hunbecker, you are a disgusting would-be rapist with no place in Terran society. You are an affront to the Archlord. You are hereby sentenced to be used for such purposes as advance science at the sole discretion of the Dominion, including experiments and other processes that may be painful, mutilating or fatal. Your body and mind no longer belong to you - your consciousness is simply something that happens to be attached to a biological specimen. Your body will be stored until it is useful and the conditions of that storage will be determined solely by the needs of the Dominion, which may be influenced by your cooperation. If it is deemed at any time the body is not required as an experimental subject its life will be terminated."

Since his conviction, Karl had spent a lot of time in holding facilities. They were not purposefully cruel, but there was a subtle indifference - he was no longer deemed a person, but instead a specimen. He knew his fate was a dark one - he could be used for anything from testing a cure for cancer, to a painkiller, to simply being ground up to provide a nutrient paste if it was useful. Organs or body parts could be removed from his body without warning or discussion for analysis, if needs be. Surgery could be conducted without anaesthetic - unless it was thought necessary to avoid damage to other body parts. His sustenance and comfort were solely to keep him useful. Karl was lucky that, for now, he had remained intact.

One day, Karl had gone to sleep and woken up in a new cell. It was not uncommon - when the Dominion wanted to move him they simply drugged him unconscious.

As Karl stirred, a male voice spoke, "Karl Hunbecker, it's your lucky day." Karl looked about. He could not see the source of the voice. He was in a small, very clean, cell on a comfortable palette. He was naked.

"Karl, we have a job for you. We need you to do something you will enjoy. We want you to have breakfast, have a shower, clean up and shave. Then we will let you into the room next door, and we want you to fuck the alien you will find there."

Karl did not bother to pretend he would argue. It was far more interesting than the uses he had anticipated the government would find for him. He had been taught that questions, incompliance or even slow compliance always led to swift pain. "Yes sir!" He ate the breakfast, he shaved, he showered. "I'm ready sir," he said to the unseen voice.

A portion of the wall moved, lifting away and revealing a door that had not been there a moment ago, leading into an adjacent room. Inside was a blue creature of a type he had never seen before. He had seen news articles ridiculing asari, and cartoons and occasional dramas. There had in fact been some coverage of eviloids in the Terran Dominion news, but concepts like hybrids were left out of the heavily censored propaganda. Best not expose the general population to dangerous ideas. Being a horny and frustrated young man, Karl had looked at many pictures of asari but none had fur or a tail.

The being before him was stunning. Karl, like most untrained observers, thought of it as a 'she'. To his eyes, she had a body like a supermodel - a well endowed supermodel. Seen from a side angle, her breasts were large, waist thin, hips wide, buttocks taut. The creature turned to face him, the motion graceful and enticing. She had pale blue eyes and full blue lips. The tail lifted and swished slowly, sensuously.

Karl barely noticed the rest of the room. In fact, there were a number of bones on the floor, shining, polished, picked clean. They were lamb bones - the scientists were in the habit of feeding the hybrids live lambs. They had been careful to feed the specimen well before this encounter. Karl did not notice the discarded tufts of fleece. His eyes skimmed over the bed and the simple water dispenser.

The alien stared at Karl intently. He was naked - he had not been provided with clothes, and his penis rapidly became rigidly erect. She approached, staring at him. He met her eyes and elegant, blue, feminine fingers stroked his face. The creature looked down appraising his body. She stroked down his neck then his chest, his stomach. Her hand approached his genitals and hefted his testicles before grasping his penis and pulling him to the bed.

The hybrid lay back, arching its back and parting its legs, the nipples of its heavy breasts erect. As if in a fever-dream, Karl moved forward and slid his rigid erection into the blue vision before him. He fumbled but gentle fingers helped him in. Karl was surrounded by silky, warm, wetness. It felt incredible. Legs wrapped around him and something squeezed his testicles. He realised after a moment that it was the tail. Not that it mattered. In moments, Karl ejaculated, experiencing a wave of bliss as pulse after pulse erupted from him into the alien female's vagina.

For Karl, the next few weeks were the best of his life. He had many encounters with the alien female, sometimes having sex several times in a session. He was head over heels in love with the alien woman, but she never spoke, showing incomprehension and absolute lack of interest in his conversation attempts. The sessions were carefully supervised, however. He was not allowed to literally sleep with the alien - instead always being ordered back to his cell after an hour or two.

Karl hated being separated from his love, and despite his usual cowardice even attempted to argue. He had to be literally dragged away by robotic arms on one occasion. Samples of the alien fluids were gently scraped from his skin and drawn into specimen vials.

In fact, as soon as they were separated the scientists were simply keeping the hybrid fed with a small snack like a raw beef joint. Karl did not know it, but the rooms he and the hybrid inhabited were surrounded by high quality scanners and cameras embedded in the wall. His body also had monitoring implants that had been placed without his knowledge or consent.

Everything from Karl's blood to his brain activity was closely measured and logged. The toxins seeping into his body slightly accelerated his metabolism, meaning he needed more calories. His muscles were performing more efficiently and his brain worked faster. The drugs rewired his brain but also made him a more efficient slave. His feeble body would be slightly more effective now in a fight if he had to defend the parasitic being that had infested him. Some of the benefits of the drugs wore off after a period of separation, but the re-wiring of his brain's reward system - that was permanent and grew with each encounter. Degeneration - slight but real premature aging - that was permanent too.

The experiment was being overseen by Harrison Graves. Despite his mind-shield, he could not help finding the visuals arousing. Even with the facility staff thoroughly shielded from psionics, the hybrid looked like a furry porn-star. It disgusted him. Graves maintained his professionalism however. The encounters continued until the measured effects on Karl reached a plateau. Only then, when they had learned enough, did Harrison decide to bring Karl's relationship to an end, which Harrison did in the simplest way possible, itself an experiment. He simply did not feed the hybrid but continued the encounters.

Karl did not notice anything at first. One day he was admitted into the room where his alien lover waited, as beautiful and sexually enticing as ever. She smiled at him, showing white teeth and moved forward. Her hand stroked down his chest and past his erection, caressing his testicles. She curled a thumb and forefinger around the neck of his scrotum, getting a firm, pleasurable grip and then gathering the balls into a package.

Wordlessly, the hybrid gently pulled Karl's balls whilst a flick of the razor sharp nails on her free hand cut through the constricted neck of his scrotum. The alien lifted Karl's bloody package to her lips whilst he collapsed in sudden and unexpected agony - his hands going to his crotch and finding only pain and slick red blood where his male glands used to be.

Harrison, watching, made careful notes. If a follower was thought to be valuable as a protector or otherwise, the eviloid hybrids tended to have more discipline, to wait much longer before feeding and to start with less important body parts. Hybrids had an acceptable weight range and with valuable followers would allow themselves to lose significant weight within that range before they ate. This hybrid must have assessed Karl as completely worthless - a larder beast only.

Harrison considered it might be useful to run an experiment on what made subjects appear valuable to a hybrid - for example muscle, intelligence, speed, age, maybe even aesthetics. He could compare treatment of male and female followers. It could be quantified on how long the hybrid would wait before eating the follower if its food supply was withdrawn. He would need a lot more criminals for experimentation. Still, it would cut the prison budget.

Whilst Harrison diligently typed he noted that the hybrid had finished chewing and eating Karl's scrotum with its sharp teeth, the fur around its mouth now darkened with his blood. It had got down on all fours, sensuously, and was now tearing strips of flesh and muscle from his upper thigh. Karl writhed in agony and screamed at the top of his lungs but his rewired brain could not attack the hybrid.

Graves pressed a button. Robot arms emerged from the walls of the experiment room and stunned both participants. Whilst it would be well-deserved to watch the hybrid eat Karl alive he had decided to vivisect them both to fully analyse the changes their assignation had made to their bodies. A spray from the robot arm sealed Karl's wounds and after a moment black clad troops in full armour (all well trained with mind-shields), entered the room to take the specimens to the lab to be strapped down on the examination table.

The Eviloids - Conclusion and Recommendations

The overall conclusion we have drawn based on experimentation, observation and documented eviloid behaviour in the wild is that they are a macro-parasitoid race. They are designed to do the will of Shub-Niggurath by infesting other species and subverting their civilisations. Much like Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the so-called 'zombie ant fungus', the eviloids and the hybrids both work by altering the host's fundamental drives.

Neither eviloids nor hybrids are that intelligent. Pure-strain eviloids at least can speak, read and write whereas hybrids lack the necessary brain structures. All of the them are optimised for subverting and suborning sentient civilisations. Once they have done so, they parasitically make use of the intelligence and leadership abilities of the hosts. The leader of the Temple of the Golden Star was not an eviloid, it was the asari matriarch, Supreme High Priestess Olaessia T'Star. Given the repeated observed presence of Gold Star, it is to be inferred senior leadership took their instructions from the creature and possibly even Shub-Niggurath directly.

The victims' goals are changed and then they use their abilities and best endeavours without the need for further commands from the eviloids.

For now, it is useful to keep a few eviloid and hybrid specimens around for study. For security, we need to investigate the human hybrids we have created. In the longer term the entire species needs to be destroyed with no mercy. The approach taken on Rainbow-2 was the right one - complete destruction of the biosphere, harvesting for conversion in to hydrocarbons and then bombing the planetary surface into lava.

The Eviloids are no more and no less than an alien weapon. They should be treated as such.