Well, that took a while due to the extreme lack of computers. I have to say that I am quite surprised that this story got a lot of people following it and turning it into a favorite despite having only one chapter. It's quite nice to see majority of the reviews that I got but I'd like to address something:

Yinko, I have to ask what sources did you draw out from about the Citadel Council and where do I find them? Is that actually canon or did you just use the template that majority of the First Contact AUs that I've managed to read?

Honestly, the Citadel's plain looking out for the greater good of everyone under their membership. Yes, the Genophage is bad but it was a choice between getting Zerg rushed by a warmongering, asteroid dropping, reptilian natural super soldiers who haven't gotten over their thirst for combat and keeping the galaxy in one piece. Yes, the Quarians getting the shorter end of the stick is bad but the Quarians did gave the galactic community a browned pants thanks to their creation of the Geth and the Quarian's attempted genocide on the Geth. Citadel maybe a dick at some point but Krogans and Quarians are also dicks at some point as well. Every form of government and races has its own sets of flaws and mistakes; even my take of the Systems Alliance has its own sets of flaws.

Also, do not discount Mass Effect technology as inferior since it also has its own unique benefits. Manipulating physics and gravity mages are not only awesome to have but also a bitch to deal with. Unlimited ammunition is also a soldier's wet dream, despite the heat issues but nothing science cannot fix. Scoffing off Mass Effect technology is plain stupid if you ask me, despite how much it failed in sounding scientific in its own way. Just look at the Reaper's Thanix Cannon and the canon Systems Alliance's Cain.

If I was using the generic fanon Citadel, complete with childish, evil, obstructive, tyrannic and amateur politicians that many ME fanfic writers enjoy writing and ME readers like you enjoy reading, then my story's Systems Alliance wouldn't be joining them but since it starts becoming AU when the Krogans withdrew from the galactic community after the Rachni War and the Quarians seceding from the Citadel after they were ordered to destroy the Geth, lots of changes happened in all aspects.

Xenoguyver, Reapers are not the only thing that will want to see everything dead thanks to SRW's side. To clue you in on what they will fight: Lovecraftian tentacle monster gods who wants to reset the universe, human alien empires that are occasionally terrible with diplomacy and thinks of themselves as superior thanks to having weird appendages, self-entitled pricks who were supposed to be dead thanks to evolution, mentally unhinged and insane terrorists with a set of obsessions on child soldiers, misery-eating Chaos God possessed scientist with a giant mech and an army of mechs and genetically enhanced humans, nuke resistant parasites that assimilates organic and inorganic materials, insurgent space colonists who are disgruntled about the treatment towards them and developed some overpowered tech to stop the oppression, dimension hopping warmongers who believes that evolution happens when everything's 40k levels of clusterfuck and stuff that would make fighting Reapers look like a vacation. Have I also mentioned that some of them might appear during the Reaper War?

blackcomet1224, Super Robots are not cut off. SRW wouldn't be complete without them and I wouldn't cut them out. Grungusts are used during the war with the human aliens, mostly on Zuvorg and Shura. As for Soulgain and Axel Almer, they're going to be a part of this story, though that part will come in the future along with a certain crazed Darwinist warmonger and his army from an alternate dimension.

The True Skull, who said anything about me limiting the SRW tech with Mass Effect standards? Trust me, that was already thrown out on the last chapter after the appearance of the mechs and winning against their enemies when in reality, they aren't supposed to work.

Now that those are said, let's get into the story then.

Ever since humanity have joined the Citadel Community on July 9, 2048 C.E./ 31 T.A., the entirety of the Citadel are now looking at a new age of prosperity thanks to the humans joining the galactic community. Though a few discontented voices within the greater Citadel Community say that the humans are nothing but a threat to the galactic stability and the council's superiority by simply existing, the majority of the Citadel's populace has high opinions about the humans despite their major role in the Batarian Secrecy.

No one's really keen on going against the humans for solving what was the most problematic alien government that continuously uses the culture card for their use of slaves that came from other races and their own and continuously supply the rogue elements of Terminus space with weapons and equipment.

In the first months of humanity's membership to the Citadel, humans are seen as a strange Asari look-a-likes and exotic at best due to them being a rare sight. Small numbers of business spaces within the Citadel Station were bought for human businesses and at least three human restaurant and bar establishments were opened in the Citadel Station as per request of the human diplomatic team, which became quite popular to Asari, Salarian, and Batarian after their grand opening. Two hundred eleven human civilians have moved into the Citadel Space Station and four hundred twenty seven have visited it as tourists. Negotiations on allowing Citadel races to visit the Human worlds have been granted though the humans reminded the Citadel that the only planets that they have near the Relays were Shanxi and Gaia Alpha and the Systems Alliance do not have any Mass Relays within their territories to allow their civilian ships any passage.

Turians, despite the Relay 314 Incident, did not hold any grudges against the newcomers. They see humans as warriors after the summarized historical informations, specifically the military conflicts that humanity have, were released for the public to see. They were impressed as well on how they won against alien invaders despite the oppositions' technological advantage and brutality (if using an atmosphere burning superweapon to subdue the rebels and live space colonies as ammunition for orbital bombardment wasn't brutal, they shudder to think about the worst that the humanity's former enemies could do).

Salarian found the humans intriguing for their ability to develop in a short time. Unlike majority of the Citadel species, the humans took them few centuries to make a transition from planet-locked to space faring and Salarians think that the newly found race moves just as fast as they are.

Asari sees humans as either long-lost cousin who had a rather tragic past and would be better off slowing down instead of moving fast for someone who can live three times longer than a Salarian and... well... Aliens-I'd-Like-To-Meld, though some Asari who believed in their race's superiority over everyone in many aspects that humanity's existence alone is already a threat to them, the Asari's relations with humans are friendly at best.

Hanar sees humans as a race that is unenlightened by the light of the Enkindlers, the Protheans, due to humanity never coming across any Prothean artifact and tend to have some of the humans that they start a conversation with to discuss about their religion and the Protheans.

Volus's positive view on humans increased after Brian Midcrid, the chosen human representative of the Systems Alliance, gave their species the Systems Alliance's support for a seat to the council. The Systems Alliance had been watching over the activities within the Citadel Space for a while and agreed that the Volus achieved something that should be compensated with a place within the council, though some say that humans are being suspicious for giving their support to a race that they know nothing of.

Elcors see humans as ingenious and hardworking. The Elcors developed a liking on ancient and classic human literatures and video recorded plays. When a rather old recorded play of Macbeth was shown in the holoscreens of Elcors, it became popular to many Elcor that when one human advertisement of a theatric group playing Macbeth in Shanxi has appeared in the ExtraNet, the play's many tickets were bought by Elcor than anyone else including the humans combined.

Batarians consider humans as their allies and friends. Not surprising since they worked together to engineer and facilitate the fall of the Hegemony and the majority of the Batarians who like humans are the ones who were once enslaved and unjustly treated as well as the veterans of the Great Batarian Civil War.

The Citadel Community found Humans and the Systems Alliance as polite, enigmatic, battle-hardened, intelligent and somewhat crazed beings who holds a lot of technologies that are not Prothean in origin and unwittingly changed the galactic perception on science and technology, though the latter caused numerous criminal factions to put large bounties on any human technology, engineers, and scientists that can be found.

Luckily, the ones who took up the offers are somehow stupid enough to remember that the few humans that could be found outside their territory are in the Citadel Station, the two Alliance planets with relays nearby are heavily guarded by Turians, Batarians, and Humans and adult humans are armed all the time. The STG attempted to plant spy probes within the human space but only ended in complete failure before they could get past the Shanxi or Gaia Alpha Relay.

Other than that, there are some things that the Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council have disagreed upon during their stay.

The star maps for the Balmarian and the Gradosian space were not given by humans due to the two space flight human alien races not ready for any contact as of now and heavily guarded by both Human and Zuvorg fleet. Though the borders were shown during the Human-Citadel discussions, the insides of the borders that the two races inhabited were not shown. The humans also added that if their star maps were given, chances of rogue elements from the Citadel Space might attempt to target the two weakened space flight races. Though Councilor Adava speculated that the Humans are isolating the two races, she did not push through the requests despite the opposition of Councilor Pharesi. The coordinates for the Zuvorg space was not given as well since the Zuvorgs themselves refuses to have any contact with them for the time being as the diplomat spoke the words of one of the Zuvorg councilors.

Trade requests for Black Hole Engines are rejected due to the dangers of it without any AI supervisors. Salarians and Asari scientists spoke of using large numbers of Virtual Intelligences in place of the AI supervisors but the Systems Alliance's current leading authority on Black Hole technology, Dr. Alexei Ivanov, said that the processes required to keep a miniature Black Hole Engine from imploding on its own and taking with it at least thirteen miles radius of land will destroy VIs faster than the Systems Alliance could make AIs. Councilor Decius asked how they managed to harness such volatile technology, which the invited doctor answered with three words.

"Barren planet laboratories…"

Many joint scientific researches on human technologies such as Tronium, Direct Energy Weapons, Terraforming Technologies, Tesla Drive, and Antimatter are thoroughly rejected out of trust issues. Understandable due to human's experiences of having their own weapons be used against them during their short war with the Zuvorg Alliance. Though mech research and development had been given a green light and Asari, Turians, Salarians, Volus, Elcor, and Hanar immediately asked a number of mech engineers from the Systems Alliance and the Batarian Confederation to help them build their own mechs.

Joint colonization projects on the garden worlds that humanity have found outside the Relay network had been put on hold unless the Citadel develops a better FTL drive. The Councilors at first tried to ask for humans to guard the possible colonies outside the Relay Network for a generous sum of credits but the Alliance refused. One of the military representatives that are with Ambassador Brian Midcrid commented that they are too busy policing two former alien empires, patrolling their territories, escorting civilian ships to new colonies and guarding trade routes that they have no spare ships to use in order to guard their outer Relay Citadel colonies despite the generous offer of funds and materials for humans to use.

"Our Armed Forces are soldiers, not mercenaries, Councilor Pharesi." one of the military representative said to the Salarian councilor, "We are not selling our military services like the defunct Batarian Hegemony once did to any stripling colonies in the Terminus Systems nor are we the Turian Hierarchy who patrols your territories. Our duties are to our people and our people's safety, first and foremost."

Acknowledgement of human built space colony stations as garden worlds had been an ongoing negotiations, something that the United Colonies, one of the largest and autonomous space nations in the Systems Alliance along with other space colonists frowned upon. The Council was more than surprised when the Humans told them that they also have citizens that lived on orbiting space stations instead of a nice garden world willingly to the point that humans treat space colonies as they treated a garden world that they have colonized. One Asari who visited one of the United Colony space station orbiting Earth along with an entourage of tourists from the Citadel commented on human engineering and science being near the levels of a Prothean when they were given a tour in one of the Branstein Family's large farmlands and forest reserves and questioned one of the guides on how humanity ever managed to bring a piece of a garden world into space without any problem. Humanity hopes that the negotiations will end with space colonies being considered as garden worlds.

The Presidium, Citadel Station

November 1, 2048 CE/ 31 Human Tronium Age

Ambassador Brian Midcrid, now sitting in a black leather office executive swivel chair, is spending his free time reading an ExtraNet forum thread about military on his Datapad HL, a tablet shaped, Mao-Itsurugi Industries portable computer that uses hard light holograms as an input-output interface and can switch to the basic touchpad mode if hard light interface is not easy for humans to use. This is also humanity's equivalent to the Citadel's Omnitool, something that annoyed some of the producers of the said product.

The forum thread's human topic speaks about the mechs that Systems Alliance military and civilians use and what would they do if ever they get to pilot one.

BlackwatchBadass44 : Huckbeins are much better than the Lion and the Gespenst series. I mean, the former can strain the hell out of the pilot thanks to them being transformable fighters and the Gespenst are only good in space and ground combat. Huckbeins are able to fight in ground, air and space environment. Why you humans rely on Gespensts and Lions more than anything else bugs me a lot. I'd like to pilot one and get me some giant ass rifle.

DalatressOfFast : Psh, what's their use if they couldn't even fight in a speed battle. Lions have built-in Sonic Drivers and Rail Guns, which can be used for Lions to cut your general purpose mechs into pieces before you could even react and shoot you from afar.

TehC0L0N157 : Oh man, this thread's already becoming weird to me. Have you guys been playing Burning PT or something?

XxXxXThessianXxXxX : After the 314 Incident, the counter operations that you guys did against the pirates and warlords of the Terminus Systems and the approval of the mech development in Citadel, interests towards mechs are high. I can't wait to try what our developers might build.

BlackwatchBadass44 : By the way, I saw one vid about a giant ass mech cutting down a Dreadnaught class ship with giant sword. Is that legit or some clip from your old movies?

TehC0L0N157 : You must have seen Dynamic General Guardian in action Blackwatch, the clip's not fake and what you've probably was taken during the second Balmarian War.

DalatressOfFast : Dynamic General Guardian? What the hell's a Dynamic General Guardian?

TehC0L0N157 : A really huge mech series that Dr. Bian Zoldark made. Larger than the standard mechs the army uses and piloted by people who are either insane, talented or both. Though only four were fielded and saw a lot of action during the Balmarian Wars and the Zuvorg War. The one that Blackwatch saw was once by piloted by the late Colonel Sanger Zonvolt, a freaky swordsman and pilot ace that has the highest ship kills using a Super Robot class mech. By the way, most of the ship kills were done in melee range and we haven't fully developed any personal mech barriers back then.

"Come on out, you cowardly, usurping, deceitful, two-eyed, shaved pyjacks!" an angry shout was heard outside the office, causing the human ambassador to sigh and palm his face.

"Don't pretend that you did not hear us, you warmongers! The Hegemony of the Glorious Batarian Nation will never forget your actions for controlling our people with your lies and deceit!" another shout was heard as well, "We know you are in there, human degenerate! Do you think that you've broken the true and honest Batarians with the use of those false Batarians?"

"Death to the Systems Alliance and Humanity, long live the Hegemony of the Glorious Batarian Nation!" Midcrid saw smoke slowly rising from the window, followed by sound cackling stunners and riot shields being clattered by batons.

Ever since the Systems Alliance joined the Citadel, the remnants of the defunct Hegemony's upper castes and loyalists had been causing problems in front of the embassy by blockading it to prevent visits from other Citadel ambassadors and attempt to break into the embassy in order to avenge their people by killing the human "deceivers".

Councilor Decius addressed the stupidity of the Batarian aristocrats whenever he visits the System Alliance's embassy and the Hegemony remnants' blockade is preventing him from doing so while listening to them whine and complain about why the Hierarchy did not even show the humans their place in the galaxy and how they should have just bombed every human worlds for lying about the Mass Relays. The Council also ordered the increase of security of the Presidium and allowed humans to have increased security detail after the near successful assassination attempts by the remnants.

Midcrid saw numerous Batarians outside the embassy through the windows, all are dressed in gaudy Batarian cultural dresses that they use to show their superiority over the lower castes, guarding a burning model of a human and a badly made caricature of a flag of the Systems Alliance behind them and are being held back by the ten man strong and armed Security detail that are blocking the entrance of the embassy. He realized that their numbers were a lot lesser now. Either the old guards of the Hegemony realized their errors and silently live the rest of their lives in a quiet exile or the C-Sec's security got even better after months' worth of illegal assemblies and constant attempts to kill human diplomats, Midcrid is more inclined to believe the latter since watching multiple video clips about the Batarian Hegemony propaganda and clips showing the exact details of how a Batarian labor camp works, it convinced the ambassador that the Batarians that support the caste system that continuously damage their economy and standing in the galactic community were beings of questionable intellect.

The Alliance's ambassador sighed and went back to reading the human threads made by the aliens. He found one thread about one alien tourist spreading captured images of the places in her tour on Terra II. One of them is a steel statue of an armless Gespenst Mk. 1 kneeling down and surrounded by ten soldiers behind a makeshift barricade of scrap metal and stone that memorializes the sacrifice of the Human militiamen of Terra II as they fought against the Balmarian slave army where there are five percent chance that one slave soldier that a human militiaman was fighting was a brainwashed acquaintance, family, friend or lover.

He also saw one video attachment in the thread that shows the Asari tourist's attempt in playing one of the human's favorite video game past times, Burning Personal Troopers or Burning PT. Apparently, the Asari along with three Turians, a Salarian, and two Volus decided to try playing the game. When the seven alien tourists entered the virtual pods, they all tried to pilot assortment of mechs that the humans built and seen during war. One Turian asked why they let a supposed to be a military hardware is used as a video game, which a human, a retired mech pilot and celebrated war hero David Rutherford, answered:

They're the watered down version of what the military actually have. Piloting a mech's more complex than just finding the buttons needed to make the thing work and remembering the combination buttons to win a fight. Do you think that a video game console is what the actual military mechs have for mech control panels and consoles? Also, piloting a mech with nothing but video game experience is insane at best and the only ones I know who pulled that one off are either Mao-Itsurugi Industry's top engineer or enjoying a life of a family breadwinner on Earth.

He chuckled a bit when the tourists continuously fail on piloting a mech unit and asked repeatedly on how to activate built-in weapons and systems since they tend to lose their handheld mech weapons. Nevertheless, the alien tourists had fun in playing a game on mech piloting and battle simulator.

The ambassador closed the thread and looked for a new thread to read. He found a few thread titles that boiled down to "Humans are upstarts that needs to be know their place." that were locked after two or three pages worth of xenophobia and racism towards humans and white knighting by alien usernames. Midcrid knew that the thread was either started by the Batarian Liberation Front who ignored the fact that humans wanted nothing to do with wars anymore after having a near century's worth of it or the Asari Supremacist League who deems humans as usurpers of the Asari's superiority in terms of technological and scientific levels.

"Ambassador Midcrid." A soft voice of a woman spoke after the melodious chime on the intercoms, "The Elcor Ambassador Mero wishes to see you."

The human ambassador smiled when the Elcor Ambassador visited him. Ever since Systems Alliance joined the Citadel, the Elcor was the first to thank them for their part in the Batarian Revolution and freeing the galaxy from the belligerent Batarian Hegemony and the problems that it has caused. The Elcor slaves in the defunct Batarian Hegemony were said to be treated as pack animals and work animals. They are also as numerous as the Asari slaves and unable to last too long due to the strains of the work that they are forced to do. When the first batch of freed Elcorian slaves were returned to Elcor territory, they thank the Batarian Confederation for liberating their people and later, the Systems Alliance for their part in the revolution, causing uproar to the loyalist refugees of the Batarian Hegemony.

"Jovial. Good day to you, Ambassador Midcrid..." the hulking Elcor in dull blue Elcorian suit monotonously said to the Ambassador, "Amused. Have you seen the latest ExtraNet threads about humans?"

"Good day to you too Ambassador…" Midcrid smiled to Mero, "I've seen the human threads and find most of them quite amusing."

The Systems Alliance's Ambassador still finds it strange that Elcor speak what emotion that they feel when they speak, literally. He once asked Mero on the reason why they do such a thing, which the Elcor Ambassador answered that most of the beings that they have met are not used to reading Elcorian subtlety and body languages, thus their speeches starting out with their current emotions.

"How did you get past the blockade, Ambassador?" Midcrid asked Mero.

"Amused. The Batarian blockade was dispersed by the C-SEC and the embassy guards." the Elcor's answer caused the Human to chuckle, "Recalling. I remember one Batarian saying something about the Citadel supporting rogues, dictators, tyrants and terrorist states, ironic..."

The Elcor Ambassador can still remember what his old predecessor told him when he dealt with the Batarian Hegemony. Most of the Batarian ambassadors to the Citadel were either pompous, spiteful, arrogant, self-privileged, unprofessional when scrutinized or all of them at the same time. Batarian Ambassadors with a decent personality and ethics were a rare sight before the Hegemony's collapse since they were usually recalled back to Khar'shan for reinstatement to "important" government positions.

By important, it meant not in a good place to influence the Galactic Community and harm the policies of the Hegemony.

His predecessor tried to talk to the Batarians after finding evidences on their funding activities on every pirate and slaver groups and their attacks on every merchant, civilian vessels and colonies that the Elcor owns. Apparently, the Batarian Ambassador did not expect that the so-called "dullards" and "hulking pack animals" (in their opinion) managed to acquire enough evidences to get the entire known galaxy look at the Hegemony with even greater suspicion. When a decision was made in order to put a stop on Hegemony funded pirates and slavers, the pirate and slaver activities on Elcor territory and vessels tripled overnight.

Typical Batarian Hegemony elitists and their inability to give up their hubristic ideals…

"Ironic indeed…" Midcrid agreed with Mero's comment about the Hegemony's hipocrisy, "Anyway, on to business, Ambassador." the man said to the Elcor as he sat straight, "Care to let me know of the nature of your visit?"

Apian Colonial Industries, Apian Crest

November 1 2048 C.E./ 30 T.A.

Ever since the start of the Project Hyron, Xanadus Nero, a Turian scientist felt that every second that they spent in creating the mech is a second closer to bring the Turian Hierarchy to greater heights. Quite a shame that they did not thought of building pilotable giant mech walkers in the first place but that wouldn't stop him from building one anyway.

He looked at the digital model of what the Hyron prototype would look like once finished by next year.

Its body frame is slightly taller than the Gespenst by four meters and lacks the bulky architecture and form of the said mech. Its left arm has a built-in Hard Light blade that they have recently developed that can deploy once activated and one needs to fight in close quarters. Its booster modules are not as developed as the Batarian's Martyr series or the Huckbein to allow the Hyron longer flight but it does make them run faster than the Gespenst. The head of the mech resembles a Turian if it was a robot but the optics is blue, unlike the green ones that the Batarian have and the pink or yellow of the Humans and instead of two hidden vulcan modules, it has four hidden modules with the Hierarchy planning to make the hidden weapons be Mass Effect cannons.

It may not be in par with the ones that the humans have. But in time, we'll soon catch up with them.

Nero remembered the words of his colleague and the optimism behind it, something that the Turian haven't seen in a great degree ever since the Krogan Incident in the 1994 C.E..

No Turian has been able to forget the day they nearly lost their credibility as an entire species ever since they nearly started a war with a dying race that saved the entire galaxy from the Rachni. The cause of it was a Krogan diplomatic vessel being forced to power down due to breaking the laws of it being too large despite the Citadel Conventions on star ships. Something that the Krogans are not inclined to follow since they are not a part of the Citadel. Ever since that incident, the Krogans refused to return on the grounds of the Citadel being policed by "brainless, metal plated birds" and its temerity to call their actions as just and correct despite nearly killing off the entire crew along of the Krogan civilian vessel along with the civilians themselves who wanted to see what is outside their system.

In a Turian sense, that would be justified but once galactic standards and ethics are considered, the Turians are the ones who are wrong. Turian honor was stained thanks to the incident and it took time before the stain is removed from the honor of the Turians.

They were lucky that the Humans were not as outraged as the Krogans when the Relay 314 incident happened or else the Turians will be seen in a newer shade of negative light. Not an ideal situation due to their duties as peacekeepers.

"Contemplating on the past, Xan?" Nero turned his head to the source of the voice that is currently standing near opened door of his office.

A human female of Chinese origins with light red and short hair on her head and her face sporting a wide grin on him while she looked at him with her dark brown eyes, one arm holding a datapad and the other holding her hip, she wore a gray, fitting shirt and pants with a white laboratory coat draped on her shoulders.

If Nero didn't know any better, he would have thought that the human female was an Asari, only mutated and bi-gendered.

"Xi Li, are you sure that you're not like those freaky telepathic guys that your people keep talking about?" the Turian asked the human named Xi Li as she walked into the room and the door automatically closed behind her.

"I'm not a Psychodriver, Xan." Xi Li chuckled at the Turian's thought of her as she gave him the datapad, "Anyway, the mobility frame of the Hyron is estimated to be done by the end of two Turian weeks. I really wish that I could do a better job in helping you guys develop a proper frame but..."

"The funds for mech development aren't large enough for us to develop a better one." Nero sighed at the thoughts of being unable to provide a space worthy mech unit for the Hierarchy to use like what the humans have in their army retinue, "Not to mention, the limited knowledges that your people gave us on mech construction. Ground based mechs will have to do for now, Xi Li. We'll try to figure out a way to develop a Zero-Gravity capable mechs on our own." he added with resignation.

"You're not mad about it?" Xi Li asked the Turian, who chuckled lightly after hearing her question.

"Xi Li, we understand why your people only gave us the... as you humans call it, watered down versions of your tech." Nero said as he remembered the Relay 314 Incident, "Besides, we've always wanted to develop something that isn't based on Element Zero."

"Like Tronium?" the Turian nodded when Xi Li mentioned the newest mineral that the humans use extensively as an energy source.

Tronium is humanity's answer to the incredible lack of Element Zero in their systems. The said mineral, once refined to its fullest, can actually give more power than any eezo core that can give off. It is also be used to power advanced Energy Weapons that they have and larger space colonial structures that humans have, though the downsides of Tronium includes being a radioactive material before refinement and the long process that it requires to become safe for handling and use. The scientific community of the Citadel space pondered why humanity continues to use Tronium despite finding better and safer alternatives, even the Black Hole reactors are much safer compared to Tronium. He'd like to get his talons on the said human mineral but the problems involved humanity's trust on them.

Some Asari once said that humans are closet xenophobics due to how they don't fully put their trust on the Galactic Community but the Turian knows that the humans are just too careful since going to war against four alien races with some of them covertly uplifting them before attempting to enslave them hammered those traits too well. Were the Turians put into the same position like the humans, where they are constantly at war with Turian-like aliens before they could even find a mass relay just because of their war driven past, their availability and expendability as slave soldiers and their mere existence alone and prevailed against all of them, they would have been far more advanced than any known Citadel race in the galaxy.

But then the price would be countless of their people's lives and multiple worlds being turned into uninhabitable barren planets. He still couldn't believe that humans won against all four of the human alien empires despite the great numbers of casualties and losses inflicted upon them. To think that the Systems Alliance are still rebuilding and reclaiming the planets and colonies that they have lost and counting their dead and missing citizens during their dark times.

"I have to admit, Xi Li..." Nero looked at the human who is now standing in front of him, "Your people are just as impressive as the Krogans."

"Really?" she gave a Turian a confused look and a raised eyebrow, "I'm not sure if comparing us to a hermetic race of a hermetic nation is a compliment."

Ducim, Grados

November 1, 2048 C.E./ 30 T.A.

The Gradosian Empire was once great and powerful. They have more power compared to the Zuvorg Alliance and the Ze Balmary Empire before their war with the Systems Alliance started. They thought that their war against humans was righteous due to how they will cull the violent race of warmongering apes whose history had more wars and conflicts than any of them and turn them into upstanding sapient beings.

Turned out that they were wrong after the human decimated ten of their military expedition fleet and their Grand Admiral Ru Kain, developed weapons more powerful than what they already have and broke the back of the Gradosian Empire and the Ze Balmary Empire's pride…

"Damned apes... They should have taken up our offer..." the embittered words of a grizzled blonde man with an eye patch and wears dark green tunic and white padded pants is heard across the nearly empty bar as he watched the monitors hanging on one of the ceiling's support beams while sitting on a stool near the barkeep, "If only those Zuvorg bastards kept their noses out of our businesses."

"Koril, the Zuvorg attacked because their alliance with the humans became absolute after we've attacked their colonies." a blue haired man in a gray Gradosian military fatigues with a slender looking pistol strapped on his side spoke to the grizzled blonde named Koril as he took a long gulp from his alcohol-filled glass, "Besides, those humans won because they've turned our people against the military and the government."

Koril bitterly recalled the last stages of their war against the humans. The Gradosians was expected the humans to throw every weapon that the humans created for the sake of slaking their thirst for war. They were ready to defend their remaining colonies that they still control. What they did not expect was for humans to take control of their media satellites and communications to display footages of war crimes and immorality that the Gradosian army has caused. Every secret that the higher echelons of the Gradosian Empire about their war against the humans were made into public knowledge, every atrocity that the Gradosian Empire's army have caused and caught in footage was seen by every Gradosian citizen.

Knowing how the Gradosians uphold righteousness and morality more than anything else and how their government's poor attempts to hide the fact that they were waging a war without any justified reasons (even the majority of the Gradosian citizenry consider a war against a race due to their warring past as an invalid reason) with a race that did not even want to fight and a newcomer to boot, every Gradosian held territories went on an open revolt in order to voice out their disagreements on the war they are currently waging against the humans.

Civil revolt while a war with another spacefaring race is ongoing is not an ideal situation unless one seeks to fight on all sides.

Gradosian Empire fell apart faster than anticipated.

The people responsible for approving the war and the use of tactics of highly questionable moralities were tried for crimes against the sapients and those who were wrongly imprisoned for advocating peaceful resolutions with the humans were set free. Demilitarization took place, preventing the Gradosians to have anything more than a few defense fleets and peacekeeper troopers that they can use to defend their territories. They are also being policed by the human peacekeepers in order to enforce the Gradosian demilitarization pact. Compensations made by the Gradosians for every human-held planetary colony that were turned into uninhabitable wastelands by Planetary Ozone Destruction Satellites and space colonies that were used as asteroids were astronomical but the Gradosians agreed upon it.

It is something that made Koril sick as he downed another glass filled with the finest Gradosian alcoholic beverages.

"Our people are suffering because of those damned apes, Parran!" Koril angrily said to the man as he slammed his glass on the table, "If they weren't spending their entire lives being violent and uncivilized and just accepted our offers in uplifting their damned race, we wouldn't be suffering the worst economic depression!"

"If the military and that damned councilor did not keep the full details of that damned war to themselves, we wouldn't be in this predicament at all." Parran answered back to Koril's accusation against the humans.

"Human sympathizing scum…" Koril threw his glass on the monitor and left the establishment, drunk and angry.

Parran couldn't help it but to sigh at his friend's aggressive behavior towards mankind. Humans made the Gradosian race look terrible after the war. They were once known as the most peaceful nation in the known galaxy and have a robust and efficient industrial machine on their side. They were once known as pacifists and philosophers and were proud of it as well.

But then the nameless councilor (whose name is forever struck from the records of the Gradosian archives) secretly started a war after discovering the humans during their early stages of space colonization due to the warlike past of the humans. He silently thanked Null Albatro, also known as Eiji Asuka, for warning the humans of what the nameless councilor have planned for humanity or else the war would have been much bloodier than anticipated. Gradosian reputation went down horribly, their military forces' became known for their infamy during the Great War.

[In other news, the Systems Alliance's efforts in rebuilding the colonies that they have lost during the Great War are slowly bearing fruits as three planets that were glassed during the Great War are terraformed to be able to support life.] Though the monitor's screen is broken, the speakers continued to report the news without fail. [Although the planets are said to be able to support life, there is still a long way to go before they are returned back to their pristine conditions…]

Parran also noted the speaker's short pause when the mention of glassing was heard. He knew that most of his own people are so ashamed of what it had done to the humans that they stopped mentioning their military forces and do their best not to make any references about them. No amount of denial will remove the taint and the embarrassment that the Gradosian military and the nameless councilor and the actions that they have took.

"Heh… War with the humans changed us…" he took out an empty glass and a bottle of Gradosian alcohol from the shelves, "From morally upright and just…" he poured a small amount of the said drink in his glass, "To ashamed and shadows of their past glories."

Unknown Location, Unknown World

November 1, 2048 C.E./ 30 T.A.

"My Lord, we have located the prince of planet Fleed."

"Good, he will soon learn that he cannot hide from us. Where is he found?"

"The prince is at a backwater human colony known as Gaia Alpha."

"Humans?"

"A race of apes who cannot hope to win a war against us, my Lord. What are your orders?"

"Prepare the Vegan fleet. These humans will be the first race to kneel before the might of the Vegan Empire."

And that is all for now. The entire chapter could have been longer but the problem involved my old laptop going to the big electronics shop up in the clouds along with every file that I've stored in it. Took me two months to get me a new laptop as well…

Anyway, this will be all for now and I am really sorry it took me too long to post this. Also:

Extra: The Chancellor of the Failing Hegemony

Chancellor Tol'hah Ahkallah G'erra watched Kullah, Khar'shan's crown and jewel burn from the safety of his luxurious underground bunker in horror along with his wife and three children on the city-wide security feed. He couldn't believe that a measly, ragtag, caste-less group of liars and weaklings led those of the lower castes along with some of the traitorous upper castes into an uprising that is now tearing apart the Hegemony of the Glorious Batarian Nation into pieces.

The rebels used handheld energy weapons that can cut down the heroes of the Batarian Internal Defense and the Batarian Armed Forces' kinetic barriers without fail. They have shields that seem to never run out of power unless heavy weapons were used. Their junk ships can travel faster and are more powerful than their masterwork ships that defended the Hegemony from dangerous elements. They use cowardly tactics that prevent their peacekeepers and order bringers to do their duties to the Hegemony.

But those did not bring fear to the Chancellor. What made him know fear unlike any other was the twelve stories tall mechanical Batarian-like bipedal walkers that are currently standing and flying over the city.

Ever since the fall of Camala, the giant walkers that the rebels used have not only provided a morale needed by the criminals and slaves to rise up against their masters but they also destroyed multiple galactic standards of modern warfare.

The giant walker that resembles a Batarian bears the red and black color scheme with the rebel's emblem of broken chains held within a Batarian's clenched hands on its round shoulder guards. It is equipped with the gigantic versions of the handheld weapons that the rebels use and has a built-in kinetic fist on its right arm that can tear apart a Ladra-class frigate with ease and take down a Hegemony-class dreadnaught if used on the right spots. Not only were they surface weapons platform, they were also useable in atmospheric and space environment when they broke through the Torfan's ground defense grid with ease and deployed during the siege of the Moria Cruiser Factory at the space of Anhur. But the worst part of it all was that the Batarian walkers have are their eyes.

The bright green eyes that Hegemony's unnamed heroes saw before they were bathe in searing waves of energy and light without mercy. The bright green eyes that bear no emotion as it destroys the atmospheric systems, hangars, engines and escape hatchets of a Dreadnaught with its fists as the finest hands inside it die from exposure. The bright green eyes that a Batarian Rider see as their Interceptors get shot down with energy projectiles or be grabbed from midair and be crushed by its kinetic fists. The bright green eyes that horrified Batarian infantrymen see before their barricades, their own selves and their vehicle support are crushed by its feet or fist. The bright green eyes that are seen amidst the flames and smoke of burning slave markets, important government buildings, military installations, prisons and labor camps that they've destroyed. The bright green eyes that march towards the true and loyal Batarians who defend the Hegemony at the time of its great need as they warm up their boosters and weapons while many of their weapons' fire barely affect them.

The Chancellor now feared that at the rate that the revolution is taking itself into, the Hegemony will be destroyed and the lesser beings will capitalize on the weakness of the Batarians. Countless generations will be rendered without culture or racial identity as the rebels destroy what is written in the stone since time immemorial. The Batarians themselves will be enslaved by the Asari or the Turians who doesn't understand their caste system. The Hegemony of the Glorious Batarian Nation will be a puppet to the lesser beings for centuries to come.

"My fellow friends and family who joined our pursuit for freedom!" the Chancellor sat straight when he saw one grizzled and ragged light red skinned Batarian wearing a prisoner's uniform which is a torn orange suit that is designated for political dissidents and rebel leaders on top of a Hegemony tank's carcass, "Kullah, the symbol of the Batarian elite's opulence and excess and the capital city of the same Hegemony that refuses to let us aspire and chained us has now fallen to our hands!"

Batarians, Asari, Turian, Salarian, and Elcor revolutionaries and former slaves cheered while others held their weapons on the air. Chancellor G'erra is livid when he started recognizing the Batarian that spoke. His wife was now horrified when she saw who the Batarian was. Their children however:

"Why is Uncle Garrak on the holovid?"

Garrak Vydekas, formerly a celebrated professor in Batarian history and culture turned rebel leader after finding questionable materials that undermine Batarian history and culture that the Ministry of Information and Propaganda had editted. The man who was thought to be locked deep into the hellish prisons in the Helje Maximum Security Prison and left to rot after spreading lies and misinformation for twelve years.

A dishonest, traitorous and criminal Batarian who was once a pacifist and a lover of knowledge before he turned his back to his people…

The Batarian that his family has once considered as friend and a brother in all but blood by the Chancellor...

Now, that very Batarian is leading the revolution. The Chancellor couldn't believe it despite seeing him with his own eyes that his former friend who did not even have a stomach to push a slave around is now bathing his very own nation with the blood of his people.

"We have suffered just to slake the materialistic and egotistic thirsts of our so-called leaders." Vydekas shouted angrily as he showed his fingerless hand for everyone to see, "They mercilessly exploit and rape our bodies just because they can do so and show their dominance over our unbroken spirit." Chancellor G'erra looked at his wife, who is now kneeling down on the floor and sobbing uncontrollably while her children looked at each other with confusion, "They corrupted the true culture of our people just to suit their needs and have the temerity to call their perverse and crooked ways of living as the Batarian's truest identity! Will we let these madmen continuously run our race to the ground and alienate us further from our birthright of being born free and aspire to become greater? Will we let these madmen chain us away from our freedom just to order us to spoonfeed them? Will we let these madmen go unpunished for every deed that they have done to our people?"

"Never!" the rebels shout once more while the Chancellor's face darkened as the leader of the rebels incite slaves further into depravity and evil.

"Then we march forward to the future and to the cure from the sickness that is the Batarian Hegemony!" Garrak took out his energy pistol, "This day, the Hegemony will pay for the sins and suffering that were done to the galaxy and to our people!" on cue, the Chancellor saw the building far behind the speaker that was once his palace and seat of government be crushed in the arms of three Batarian giant mechs, "Today, the Batarian Confederation will rise from the ashes of the Hegemony!"

After the speech, the Batarian Chancellor and his family heard an explosion, gunshots, and screams of the skirmishing Batarians outside their room... and the security detail of their bunker are losing. For the first time, the Chancellor of the Hegemony acknowledged that the Hegemony, after centuries of its glorious culture and might, will inevitably crumble.

See you in the next chapter.