Radioactive Sunshine of the Spotless Galaxy, Redux

Or

The Author finally has a decent plotline for a Fallout x Mass Effect Crossover, but remains too lazy to find a different title, so he recycles the title of the first disastrous attempts (Which included the Longest Timeline Ever Written, not that it did it any good).

Fair Warning:

This will be slightly on the HFY-side, long term, but I've grown a bit weary of fics where the Council Races only use rifles and body swarming, or who remain unrealistically stuck in the same technological lull for millennia. Twice more so if races who have been space-capable for thousands of years and intermingled in a rather integrated society remain ignorant of concepts and knowledge we have in RL, present day. I understand there can be reasons to explain this technological stagnancy (Asari schemes, Reaper manipulations, etc…) but to me, it's unrealistical.

So, as you'll see both in story and in the Codex entrances at the end of every chapter, I've given the Council Races plenty of reasons to dislodge themselves from the tech-stagnancy mire and develop new or better stuff on the basis of the ME tech-base. Which, if one considers the Geth weaponry, kind of allows for plasma weapons, though of a different sort and mechanism from the Fallout tech-SCIENCE!-base.

I'll use LogicalPremise's documentation-type stories in some aspects of the Council races. LP is such a great man that he's put those document stories up free for anyone to use as a resource, and the amount of work and care there is simply astonishing. So hey, thanks, man! (/GUSHING).

Of course, this fic will be heavily AU for all intents and purposes. For both the universes involved.2727 GTS (Galactic Standard Time) - 179 Years since the Battle of Haestrom.

Hourglass Nebula/ Sowilo System/ Hagalaz.

Deep within the only cruiser capable of navigating the perennial storm cells of Hagalaz, Matriarch Trellani sat before the Shadow Broker, comfortably ensconced in a posh hover-chair. As one of his Hands, the highest rank within the Shadow Network short of the Broker himself, this was far from an uncommon occurrence for the ancient Asari.

It was somewhat more uncommon that the information she brought before the yahg was enough to spark the next galactic war, but then again, only just so. She was approaching her ninth century when the Morning War exploded and rapidly ended, less than two centuries before. As a maiden, she'd fought under Matriarch Dilinaga in the tail end of the Krogan Rebellions. And as an Agent in the Shadow Network, more compromising and society-shattering information than she cared to remember had passed through her hands over the centuries.

After a while, even the unholy alliance between T'Loak and Ganar, or the ritural execution of the Batarian Hegemon's entire extended dynasty only became amusing distractions or nuisances to deal with, not so different from the STG's trite schemes.

Some days, she wondered if the likes of Jona Sederis hadn't the right of it, losing their minds and everything that came with it. Boredom, it seemed, was the curse of the long-living.

Today, however, Trellani couldn't deny the thrill of expectation coursing through her cartilages, stiff with age.

This was personal.

The Broker finished perusing the datapad, hundreds of pages of documents absorbed in a matter of minutes. His six beady eyes settled on her, contemplating.

"How much of this are your theories again?"

Trellani kept her face calm and inclined her head in acknowledgment. Inside, however, she blistered. "My last attempt lacked a... critical insight into Matriarch Dilinaga's mentality, I'll admit that. That's not the case any longer: Matriarch Aethyta, my fellow apprentice under Dilinaga, unwittingly gave me the last missing piece to obtain the correct reading key. The translation is as accurate as it shall ever be."

"A reading key that Glyph couldn't find before?"

"The Matriarch's madness had layers to it. It went beyond words, or even her philosophy." She flared her biotics briefly, the fields rippling in specific patterns that even a trained practitioner of the Art would miss. The Broker's eyes saw more than most, she knew, but biotics was one field where theoretical knowledge could only carry so far.

The yahg's upper eyes blinked in acknowledgment. "The University of Serrice will contest every word of this. You have no credibility left. The Council won't spend a single credit."

"I thought we weren't doing this for the credits?" A thin, sardonic smile graced Trellani's lips. "Their Prothean Studies faculty is little more than a joke in bad taste, considering what we both know lies in the Temple of Athame. They're just a sieve, a screen to maintain the status quo and keep the asari as the leaders of the Galaxy."

She shook her head, her leku brushing against her neck. "True, if presented publicly, the Council would dismiss my translation as the ramblings of another student being swept away by the same tide that drowned the teacher. But the Quarian Synod is eyeing the Traverse again, and this time, Aria and Okeer will support their push, should it come to war again. The Council cannot afford to dismiss this out of hand... and neither can we. Not if this 'Arca' is indeed what the Tho'ian asserts it is."

The Broker didn't speak for long moments, the labyrinthine panes of his face a maze of frightening ponderation. He set the datapad on his desk, then his meaty fingers touched one of the many info-feed screens surrounding his station. Several encrypted comm-lines were opened on top of the constant flux of data.

"You make sense, Matriarch, but the Council has demonstrated to be rather recalcitrant when strong-armed into a sudden change." Trellani nodded. The volus and the elcor were proof enough of that, if one looked cared to look close enough. The two races had been politically pitted one against the other for a Council seat for over a century now.

Now and then, the asari or the salarians threw them a morsel - an extension to the treaty of Farixen here, a SPECTRE candidate there - to discourage them to seek better profits and acknowledgment outside of Council Space, namely in the growing power of the Terminus.

The juggling had been going on for so long, even a blind varren would notice the trend, at this point.

"A stronger incentive is necessary," the Broker continued, "and the windfall won't hurt our other endeavors either. Nor will the opening of a new market."

Trellani tilted her chin up in interest. The Broker handed her another datapad, and her leku twitched in surprise. Still, she was a Matriarch, nearly five times the age of the yahg. That was the only concession she allowed herself.

"Evidence of a new race, on the other side of Relay 314. Fascinating." She scrolled further into the summarized version of the report, promising herself a more thorough read later. Then she frowned. "Right on the site indicated by Dilinaga's writings. Where does this come from?"

"A salarian automated long-range explorer vessel. It traveled the long way around to Relay 314's end system, in order to circumvent the Relay ban. Balak intercepted it on the way back." The Broker smiled, a rictus full of flesh-rending, razor-sharp teeth. "Far too long a voyage to be a viable first option for a larger fleet, not to mention the complications of First Contact. No, we'll let the Council and the quarians will shoulder the hardships, and then reap the rewards."

Trellani leaned back into her chair and crossed her hands in her lap. A placid smiled graced her lips.

"War it is, then."

The Broker pressed the forward button on his holo console. Quicker than a thought, the Broker's adjutant AI, Glyph, compiled the automated message with the unique specifics of the Broker's offer and sent it to what, in simplistic terms, could be defined as the most prestigious and dangerous newsletter in the Milky Way.

All across the Galaxy, the monitored, encrypted omni-tools of the powerful and mighty pinged and flashed with Shadow Priority communications.

Councilors Quirinus of the Turian Hierarchy, Tevos of the Asari Republics, and Jarrol of the Salarian Union were notified by their aides at the tail end of an open Council session. So were the volus and elcor ambassadors, not ten meters below on the petitioner's stage. Uncaring of the glaring breach of protocol, the Councilors retreated to a secure meeting room deeper into the Presidium Tower, while the press and variegated audience were ushered out in all haste by C-Sec, the indignant ambassadors among them.

On the Quarian Homefleet's flagship, the QSV Raya, Fleet Admiral Rael Zorah vas Rannoch was alerted by his geth adjutant. The ongoing tour of the Outer Veil's colonies and shipyards was immediately halted, and Rael Zorah retreated to the ship's QEC node.

Twenty-seven standard minutes later, the entire Synod was in session.

On Omega, in the sprawling suite above the Afterlife, the Queen of Omega Aria T'Loak perused the Broker's offer with growing amusement. The gears in her head started to spin and overclock. Looking up from her omni-tool to her bedmate, Aria wasn't displeased in seeing Dr. Ganar Okeer deep in thought.

It'd be entertaining, and probably frustrating, to see who between the two of them would come out on top this time, asari or krogan.

The invitation to the Broker's auction for an untouched Prothean Cache, combined with the proof of the existence of a new species on the galactic chessboard to vassalize, reached every figure of worth and power across the Galaxy, from the High Priest of Khar'Shan and the hanar First Enlightened, to the Court of Corporations in Illium and a select few asari Matriarchs on Thessia.

Other messages were delivered at every level of the multi-pyramid of the Shadow Network. The content varied widely in details based on need and rank, yet remained pertinent to the auction that would soon throw nearly two centuries of precarious peace between the Council, the Quarian Synod and the Terminus out of the window.

From a disaffected CouncilSpectre, to a quarian Captain, to a turian logistics officer on the Citadel, to a humble salarian janitor at the University ofSerrice, hundreds of Associates and Agents received suggestions, bargain offers, and straight-up orders.

Matriarch Aethyta Sederis stood in her office at the top of the Trident Spire, overlooking the city of Trident, capital of the asari fortress-planet of Cyone. The First Marshal of the Cyone Militancy and grey eminence behind the Eclipse Security Firm glanced at the message and laughed a throaty laugh, long and liberating.

"Well played, Trelly. Well fucking played." The asari chuckled heartily, then a bloodthirsty smile curled her lips. "The second move's yours. Mother would be proud."

Codex: The Morning War

Prelude

For almost two millennia, the Quarian Synod maintained an embassy on the Citadel. For half that time, long before the rachni, the krogans or the turians came onto the galactic stage, they pushed for a seat on the Council. When the turians were granted one for cracking down on the Krogan Rebellions, the quarian leadership was by all accounts rather displeased. Relations didn't improve with the sudden competition on the relatively scarce number of available dextro-planets, exacerbated only by the turian's newfound authority and their extremely rapid breeding rates.

Quickly growing outnumbered and affronted, with the Perseus Veil being the Council-aligned area closest to the Terminus, the quarians searched for a solution.

They found it in the geth.

Initially advanced VI mass-produced by the quarians as a cheap labor force and military power multiplier, the geth soon started to develop a form of what is known today as a Collective Artificial Intelligence. Alerted of this by an attentive step-by-step monitoring, the quarians, however, failed to resolve the complication before it grew beyond their immediate control.

Soon Rannoch, the quarian homeworld and the major geth production hub, was on fire with a geth rebellion.

Preemptive safety measures and the destruction of all comm-buoys off system managed to prevent the Geth Collective on Rannoch from spreading to the platforms beyond the planet. For six months, the quarian lay siege to their own homeworld, until the Synod made the call and the geth main production plants were destroyed in a heavy orbital bombardment by the quarian Homefleet blockading the planet.

The damage to Rannoch was extensive, but not enough to render the planet inhabitable. The Council's aid was locked pending the cessation of all AI experimentation and a thorough SPECTRE inspection of all facilities related to the geth development, and the immediate termination of all geth platforms outside Rannoch. The quarians, stubborn and affronted, refused.

Later, the only quarian SPECTRE informed the Council that the quarians were already working on a new form of geth, one whose associative abilities would be contained and severely limited to avoid another insurgency, or worse.

The Council unanimously vetoed the quarians' actions, promising sanctions and repercussions if the geth development wasn't dropped immediately. The quarians replied that they would comply as soon as the Council contributed to the defense of the Perseus Veil from the Terminus and guaranteed the quarians' colonization rights in the Attican Traverse.

In 2468 GTS, the Council refused and the quarians recalled their Ambassador from the Citadel, shutting down all forms of official communication with the Council. Quarian activity outside the Perseus Veil dried to a trickle, as did the number of quarians travelers in Council space.

SPECTRE investigators and diplomatic parties were rebuffed firmly and the Council considered forcing the matter when a diplomatic ship was nearly fired upon.

Ultimately, despite the Turian Hierarchy campaigning in support, the motion wasn't approved by the Salarian Union and the Asari Republics. For the following eighty years, STG teams would try to penetrate the Perseus Veil with few successes to show beyond linking more and more quarian activities with the Queen of Omega and the exiled krogan clan of Ganar. For most of that time, the Council's Third Fleet would remain parked in the Far Rim Cluster, until mounting tensions with the Terminus Warlords and a particularly destructive raid deep within the Black Rim didn't force the Fleet back into Council space.

Then, in 2548 GTS, the quarian Second, Third, Fifth and Sixth Fleets jumped out of the Perseus Veil.

AN: The Broker Newsletter scene was inspired in no small amount by John Wick 2. You know the scene. As for the quarians containing the Geth Rebellion, there are a few inconsistencies when it comes to the formation of the Migrant Fleet. The most poignant point, pervasive incompetence aside, would be that if the quarian Fleet was orbiting Rannoch at the time of the escape, why didn't they shell the Geth's nodes and servers from orbit?

Anyway, chapter's brief, but I hope you enjoyed. The Fallout perspective is next. Feel free to leave a review. Can't know if I'm fucking this up (again x3) without some solid feedback.