Alright, this is a concept story of mine, it's an AU where after the first contact war Humans go into hiding. Also a 200-year gap between contact war and 'now' Enjoy.

Garrus Vakarian stands tall on the bridge of his ship, The Avian, with his hands tucked neatly behind his back in a characteristically military stance as he thinks furiously, the situation for the Turian and his ship is dire. The Avian is beaten and bruised, and things are not looking bright as a Harbinger class capital ship has just this moment entered the system, looking for him.

Since the Reaper's discovery three years prior, Garrus has been a constant pain in their side, so much so that Harbinger, the most powerful of known Reapers, has frequently personally directed forces to ensure the Turian fails in stopping the mechanical abominations from their apocalyptic goals. Despite this direct intervention from Harbinger, be it a fool's luck or not, time after time the Turian managed to outwit and outfight the monstrosity; however, today is looking increasingly like the Turians last.

"There is one option." Liara T'soni's voice comes over the ship's intercom, "There is a relay not far, we can reach it before the Reaper."

Garrus knows his space charts, and this is the first time he has heard of a relay in this system, but before he can speak his thoughts an officer monitoring ship systems speaks, "With ME capacitors how they are, we will only get one more jump." Turning to the officer who just spoke he says. "If it leads away from here and that reaper then I'm taking it." He does not care that they will only get one jump on the ME capacitors because staying in this system is guaranteed to have his ship destroyed.

This is because Garrus knows that there is nowhere they can run to and hide within this system because the Reaper would catch them long before they arrived. "Chirper, get us there pronto." He commands the pilot of the ship.

"Course locked in, we will arrive 1 hour before the Reaper," Chirper tells him a moment after Garrus gave his order.

Just before they arrive at the Relay the comm system activates again, and Chirpers voice is heard, "Vakarian, to voyage the relay we need spectre authority."

The Turian's mandibles move slightly in an outward direction before he moves to arrive at the bridge, as he moves to the bridge he wonders why this relay requires Spectre Authority, and he has two theories. His first theory is that the relay is locked down still from the Rachni war or Krogan rebellions, the second is because there is something the council wants to hide behind it. Arriving on the bridge of the ship he looks at the Relay the Avian is positioned outside of, and it appears like every other relay he has ever seen, but something in his stomach tells him he should inquire about it. "Liara, why is this relay not on standard star charts?"

"Space behind the relay is not officially explored," Liara tells him, 'officially' here is the important word as it means the council have probably ventured the relay on the down low, "Also does the mention of Relay 314 stimulate any memories?."

"Relay 314." Garrus repeats, "Yes, it does, but we have no choice." After giving the codes required to pass through the relay, the Avian shoots off into space unknown to Garrus.

2 hours later

The moment the Avian drops out of their Relay jump Garrus turns to his sensors expert, "Find us somewhere to hide." He instructs. Garrus believes the Reaper will shortly arrive in the system as it had the last, it has followed them through five system so far, so there is no reason to believe it wouldn't follow them here.

The sensors officer looks at her numerous screens and readings as the Avian scans the system, and with enough information gathered, she declares, "We're in a binary system, one gas giant, a rather large asteroid field and nothing else."

Liara must be listening as she speaks next, using the ship's intercom, "I am under the impression there should be two planets, not one."

The sensors expert studies her terminal some before saying, "It is an enormous asteroid field, could be the remains of a planet."

Garrus does not like what he hears, but he shows no emotion, he knows he can not outrun the Reaper with FTL tech when it shows, the mechanical monstrosities are too powerful for that, and his ship is too damaged to hide in a gas giant, similarly, the Asteroid field would be useful if stealth systems are working, which they are not. "Any systems in reach with FTL?"

The sensors expert blinks, "System LFE11498, sensors indicate one relay, detectable power levels suggest it is not activated, and another Gas giant."

Garrus mandibles flare outwards again, "Liara, is it relay 314?"

"Yes."

The Turian is not happy, he does not like being in unknown space, especially with a Reaper on his tail, and a mysterious species in front of him that his own people confronted 200 years ago. After the 'incident' at Relay 314 the Council tried to find the mysterious species, and bring peace between them and the Turians but these Humans had vanished, not a trace to be found. Shanxi, the planet his species invaded, was also bombed to smithereens where the human colony was located, presumably by the humans. "Tali, how long till we can use the relays again?"

Tali is a young Quarian who has worked with Garrus for the last 3 years, and she is the best engineer Garrus knows of. "Give me two days to strip down the conductors, another..."

Despite how much he wants to order Tali to 'work faster', Garrus knows the Quarian is probably already going flat out. If she says two days, that means two days. "Understood. Liara, meet me in my office, Chirper, get us into dark space, then we are going to turn off everything and vent our engines, see if that hides us when it arrives." By doing this Garrus hopes he will reduce the Avians Heat signature to the point it can not be detected. "And tell everyone to grab a blanket, things are going to get cold."

Five minutes later Liara walks into Garrus's office and stops in front of him, her arms crossed. "What does your network know?" Garrus asks her, assuming the Shadow Broker already knows where they are, and what happened here.

"Relay 314 200 years ago." Liara tells him before adding, "And a mysterious species known as Humans."

"What else?"

Liara unfolds her arms to slide a datapad across the table, while saying. "I know your military locked horns with these Humans, you took a black eye and then retreated due to intervention from the Council so peace talks could begin. I also know that is the last anyone has seen or heard from them. Every attempt to find them and rectify the hostilities failed, so the council hid everything, not wanting to panic the galaxy by telling them there is an unknown species on our doorstep who's first contact with a citadel species was less than desirable. "

Garrus blinked at the Asari, something the Turian knew Asari as a species understood to mean 'yes.' "The attempts to find them did not fail exactly."

"I would not consider an automated warning to 'leave' in system LFE11498 as finding them, we know not of their homeworld or systems of operation."

"No," Garrus admits. "But the destroyed buoys with automated peace messages that were dispatched soon after retreat tells us where they are operating." The council decided with the news of destroyed buoys that Humans are likely going to be hostile to any first contact party and closed off the relay to access their space. "Do you know anything else which could be of importance?"

"Read the datapad," Liara tells him, "It contains all I've been able to gather in short notice."

3 hours later

It is estimated that if the Reaper followed them through the relay, then it is now that it would be emerging, despite only being one hour behind them in the previous system the speed one propagates a relay is directly correlated to mass, and a Harbinger Class Reaper is magnitudes heavier than The Avian.

Apart from a few portable lights, everything else in The Avian is shut down, and blowing out heavily Garrus can see his breath, with no heating turned on the ship is rapidly becoming dangerously cold, and while Turians can deal with the cold well, even he is starting to struggle. It amazes Garrus that the Asari crew, a species that come from warm garden worlds are still operating, Liara has taken to using her hard armour for its internal heaters. With all systems powered down Garrus does not have access to sensor information, so he can only hope that this suffering will be worth it.

Meanwhile

Shepard watches the alien craft from the bridge of her ship, the Ulrich Von Liechtenstein, the Liechtenstein is a grade 5 stealth vessel designed for one purpose only, espionage, meaning the Liechtenstein could be hovering right above a city and not a single soul would notice with thanks to the numerous stealth systems in use. The need for such an advanced stealth vessel became apparent to the Systems Alliance after the First Contact War, where the upper echelons of the Systems Alliance agreed among themselves that they could not risk another first contact. In addition to their stealth ships a monumental effort went into hiding Human assets and keeping an eye open for the hostile race that attacked Shanxi, should they ever try to return.

"Scans complete, Commander." A synthetic voice called as a blue orb formed in the Ulrich Von Liechtenstein's bridges observation window. "I detect three distinct species aboard the vessel, one is Turian, the species which attacked Shanxi, and the other two are Asari and Quarian. I have no quarrel telling you this is a Council Vessel." After the first contact war buoys were detected from a so called council, broadcasting a wish to establish contact, but humanity, still reeling from the attack on Shanxi dismissed the buoys as a deceptive attempt to lure them out into the open, especially as their aggressors had a seat on this council. When a significant time had passed from the attack and stealth technology had come to a level deemed as 'acceptable' a single ship was dispatched to learn all they could of this council. From what the stealth ship learned of the council's actions over the years, the leaders of Humanity had no doubt that they made the right choice in hiding.

Looking at the obviously damaged ship Shepard gained an idea, "EDI," She speaks to the ships AI whose sole purpose is dedicated to keeping the Lichtenstein afloat and protecting her in battle with reaction times far beyond any biological entity, "How damaged is that ship? What threat does it pose?"

"From what I can deduce from comparisons of the aggressor's ships that attacked Shanxi, and this vessel, it is significantly damaged from battle, it poses no threat. Further, all systems are shut down, I do not believe they could power their weapons in time to counter an attack, that is if the weapons will power up at all."

Shepard leans forward in her captain's chair that is decidedly plain, and not something one would expect on one of Earth's most advanced stealth ships, "Will it fit in Hanger Bay 5?"

A few crew members on the bridge turn to give Shepard a look, they know they are not to reveal themselves at any costs, so what is their captain thinking? "Captain?" Asks EDI, a silent question asks what most of the bridge crew wanted to voice.

Shepard expected the questioning, in fact, she would have been disappointed if she wasn't questioned. "The ship sat at the Relay like a guard dog is something we don't want to play with, it has an armament capable of destroying our largest of warships, and I want to know why it has followed this ship here, and if we should expect any others. Prepare docking bay 5 for our new guests, and have a team ready to board."

The Avian

Garrus shows no emotion as he watches the massive ship that could equal the Destiny Ascension in size extend black metallic wires towards his ship, the ship is unlike any he has ever seen, it is pitch black, the only reason he can see it is because of how it black's out the stars behind it. He knows when the black wires that are now clamped on his ship's hull pull tight that there is nothing he can do to prevent being pulled in.

Thanks to flushing the engines to hide their heat signature from the Reaper in pursuit they are simply too cold to start up in time to run away, and weapons require the engine to power them. Despite all this Garrus has still given Tali the order to start the engines, with the hopes that it will come useful later on. After a few moments of being pulled by the black wires, Garrus assumes he must have been absorbed by the black ship as everything out the observation window is black, with not a single star to be seen. Just as he is about to turn around and help his crew prepare the ship for whatever is about to happen a white light blinds Garrus, and when his eyes adjust to the light flooding in from the observation window, he feels his heart begin to race. An entire garrison of bi-pedal creatures is standing in formation outside his ship.

The creatures outside his ship are covered in the same black material as his captors ship so he can not see any features on them, only their outlines, but he assumes they are armed to the mandibles. In addition to the creatures there are two 300 metre long ships docked, or at least he thinks they are ships as their black nature does not let him see any noteworthy features, only their outlines.

"Garrus?" A female voice calls and the Turian turns to find Liara, she is holding his trusty old Krysae, a powerful sniper rifle in her hands and has all of her own weapons holstered. Accepting his rifle Garrus walks with Liara to The Avians airlock, where the majority of his crew have gathered, each holding whatever weapon they could get their hands on and are taking shelter behind impromptu barriers and cover. "If these are humans," Liara tells Garrus as they arrive at the airlock and take cover, "They have advanced significantly since the last contact with them."

Before Garrus could growl in reluctant agreement the Airlock hisses open, revealing the hanger bay they currently reside. With all guns raised and ready an easily detectable synthetic voice comes over the ship's intercom, "Garrus Vakarian, leave the safety of your ship and you and your crew will not be harmed."

Garrus wants to growl again, how had these aliens opened the airlock? That is only possible by using systems inside the ship, and who is that in the intercom? It appears to Garrus like his ship has been hacked. Turning to look at the airlocks camera Garrus says, "Who are you, and what do you want with my ship?" He assumes that whoever is in his ship's systems is also watching them as it is what he would do.

"All will be revealed soon; you may take two others, we are waiting."

Liara and Garrus look at each other, silently arguing with one another about what they should do before the Asari leaves her cover, saying "If they are willing to talk I'm willing to listen."

Garrus blinks as he stands from his cover, "Then you and Crux are with me. Ui you're in charge till I return, and someone purge the computers, I want them back under our control."

Before leaving the ship Garrus takes a deep breath to calm his nerves, and when ready a moment later he steps out the airlock and looks around, the black bi-pedal creatures are still stood surrounding their ship. Because of the severe dark nature of their armour, he can not easily distinguish one being from the next, nor their features, but no shots have been fired yet, meaning so far so good. As Garrus arrives at the bottom of the staircase, the creatures all move in unison to create a corridor between themselves, and at the end of the human corridor is another three of their captors, all wearing the black armour that is starting to make Garrus's head spin. It does not take long for the three figures to arrive, and when they do the one in the middle reaches up to their head and removes the black helmet, revealing a pale skinned creature that looks remarkably like an Asari. "What do you want with my ship?" Asks Garrus as he notes this captor of his is indeed a Human.

The human in the middle raises a hand somewhat, and a holographic display of the Reaper that is chasing Garrus down is shown. The Human says something in its language before a speaker somewhere on its black armour says, "What is this?" In perfect Galactic.

Alright chaps, there it is. If you're curious about the black armour research something called Ventablack, that is what I've based it on (Absorbs 99.96% of light to hit it. I've seen this stuff with my own eyes and it is something you have to see to believe)

Note: Unless I get massive requests for me to continue, I'm not likely to do so. I just like making the occasional one off concept stories like this.