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(AN: If you see any mistakes, please let me know, it will improve my writing)
Once the enigmatic Black Fleet left the Shanxi system, the remnants of the Alliance blockade fleet set about doing everything they could to help the ground forces with their wounded and dead, along with securing the aliens left behind as prisoners.
The whole battle was an eye-opener to the way combat was conducted; many lessons would be learned and incorporated into future training manuals and in boot camps for the future.
The Science Branch would be having a field day with the spoils of war acquired from their alien foes, it would see all equipment used in both civilian life and military life receiving monumental upgrades, as Turian tech was leagues better in different departments than current human equivalents.
But alien remains were not the only focus of their reclamation efforts.
There were a couple of wrecks belonging to the Black Fleet, mainly parts or hulks from Paris and Stalwart Frigates, floating dead in space.
Commander Gallen directed a good chunk of his available fleet to secure those hulks first, as he had witnessed the awesome firepower of their main cannons, he also hoped they could secure the FTL cores and the navigational data.
Unfortunately for him, these ships would never point him and the Alliance in the direction of Kali's main base and occupied worlds under her watch.
Alliance Marines were the first to enter the ship's hulls, and as they traversed the corridors in zero gravity, it was becoming incredibly unsettling the deeper they went in.
"Sir, why aren't we seeing anyone, much less a bloodstain?" This was a common topic of discussion among the Marines who boarded these vessels.
The ship crews swept through the hulks drifting in space and they had yet to see anyone or anything make its way out or into the wrecked ships.
So one of the more vocal reasons for boarding was Search and Rescue, yet the deeper they went, the more they found nothing being there in the first place.
"Could these ships be automatously controlled?"
"They can't be, there are too many living spaces and we've found a cafeteria, so they must have people."
"Yeah, so where are they?"
No one could answer that unsettling question.
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Weeks would flow by as Shanxi received a more dedicated force to defend the System.
Alliance High Command had finally decided to send in the big guns, all three Everest Dreadnoughts were now in system with two rushly built Einstein Carriers, and they were escorted by just under 120 ships, followed by a support fleet of civilian haulers and tankers pressed into service with more transport ships bringing in more troops and earth-moving equipment to properly transform Shanxi city into a proper military fortress.
The new commander of the fleet was none other than a Young Admiral Kastanie Drecher, who after hearing and reading through the various reports from Commander Gallen and General Williams, ordered probes equipped with nuclear devices to be sent through the Mass Relay to gather intel on the star system on the other side.
The Nukes attached to them were a preventative measure to deny the alien enemy access to their equipment and gathered intel, the Turians in turn would see this as another breach in galactic law.
The Admiral also ordered small scout flotillas through, as they couldn't just rely on their probes to do all the heavy lifting and this would cause small-scale skirmishes to break out with the Turians mainly coming out on top.
but should another Turian battlefleet were to be spotted, the probes and scout groups would act as early warnings and allow the main Alliance fleet ample time to ready itself for another battle.
The next objective was to get all the debris hanging in orbit back to dedicated research centers, back in Alliance space, the alien ships, along with their few alien prisoners, would greatly contribute to future human prosperity, doubly could be said with the derelicts from the mysterious human splinter group dubbing themselves the Black Fleet.
The reports coming from the boarding teams were disturbing to put it lightly, Admiral Drecher couldn't fathom how those Cruisers didn't show any signs of life aboard them despite the fact that there was plenty of living space and many stations where human interaction was necessary to get a ship functioning properly.
They were advanced vessels as they didn't utilise any Element Zero, technology that her kind and the aliens it seemed, along with the Relay used on a daily basis, everything on those ships was absent of the Element.
This of course, was a boon as they recovered fully intact Power Cores and their FTL drives, and that tech would augment the Navy along with every other piece of tech in the Alliance, not only that, she further found out that while they had no coordinates for main bases or worlds nor any valuable personnel files, they did find plenty of data within the medical wings and engineering sections of the vessels.
The Admiral was not an expert in those fields, but she could easily understand just what such a discovery meant for the medical and engineering communities, in fact, all communities would be greatly impacted with the knowledge they have acquired.
Still, a sense of unease welled in the back of her mind, worry for the future actions regarding the Black Fleet and the alien enemy that were identified as Turian.
She shook such thoughts away and continued reading through the reports, she had just gotten to something called a Codex that was found aboard the aliens' ships, it was partially translated so Drecher didn't expect to find anything significant in it.
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Within a nebula, hiding amongst the clouds, a fair distance away from a Mass Relay sat a massive megastructure called the Citadel, coming at 45km, it had five massive 'arms' called Wards by the denizens, each arm was connected to a ring base known as the Presidium where the upper class resided and was the area where you'd find all the Embassies from all alien races who mingled, feuded and made deals on the daily, and at the center of it was Citadel Tower where you would find the Council, government appointed leaders who decided on all matters regarding the galaxy at large.
In the thousands of years of history, there were only three Councilors in office.
The Asari, a female-only species with life spans that reach a thousand years, were the first to find the Citadel, they are known as the most technologically advanced of all races and the most diplomatic of them all.
Next to join the Citadel were the Salarians, amphibious lizards with short life spans due to their high metabolism, this however enhanced their mental capacity, allowing every member of their race to be seen as geniuses to the rest of the galactic community, yet they are more known for their espionage than anything else.
These two species created the Citadel council, a superstate led by these two races, to guide and enforce laws upon all other alien civilisations that joined their society.
The Council would gain a third member in the Turians, they gained the seat due to their contribution during the Krogan Rebellion, during such a time they showed off their might and military acumen, but now in the present day they are more focused on being the main policing force within the whole galaxy as they boast the largest and arguably the strongest fleets of all races as being they had the most amount of Dreadnoughts among the Council races.
Inside one of the many private meeting rooms atop Citadel Tower, the three Councilors were discussing a particular issue happening around a Mass Relay known to them as Relay 314.
It started with a report to the Turian High Command that the Relay was open and the sector patrol in the area ventured in to enforce Citadel Law within the region of space, they lost all contact with them.
Alarmed, the ruling Primarch ordered a sizable combat with a Dreadnought as a flagship to be sent in to find out what had happened to their lost patrol force, half a day later, a trio of Cruisers, along with half a dozen Frigates, limped back out worse for wear.
The intel and combat footage they brought back sparked intense debate on what to do, as the Primarchs argued.
Unknown to the Turians, a monitoring Salarian STG team stationed near the Relay easily caught the traffic of Turian warships entering the newly opened Relay and after seeing the sorry state of the return vessels, they didn't hesitate to send word back to their bosses, after weeks of back and forth this situation found its way to the Council Chambers.
It wasn't ideal to find themselves here, nor to hear they may have another Rachni situation on their hands, they argued amongst themselves on what to do.
Councilor Spartus favoured further conflict to bring these aliens to heel, but also understood it wasn't the best solution, he wasn't stupid like that, but he knew that only such an option should be present if the aliens they found wouldn't surrender, or worse, poured through to kill them all like the Rachni did.
Councilor Tevos naturally favoured a more diplomatic approach to this situation, sending in an Asari was perhaps the best solution, as the aliens were less likely to fire upon a different species than those they were just fighting against.
And Councilor Yol, he preferred gathering more intel on these new aliens as he did not like how they knew nothing about them, not just their battle tactics or technology but nothing on their history and philosophy.
It would take weeks for them to make an agreement that all parties would follow through on, yet they agreed on sending in an Asari diplomatic vessel guarded by Turian warships.
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Kali meanwhile, was already expanding out of human space.
In slip-space she was sitting on a command chair comparing two images to each other.
They were both galaxy maps, one was bought from the [Store] and the other was from the Codex, which was looted off a Turian corpse.
The Codex map was far more detailed, but it missed the location markers on the [Store] bought one that had markings from all 3 Mass Effect games, the reason for comparing these maps was to choose locations that were off official maps in this universe so that she could set up bases for future operations.
But she would also place bases on planets near important Relay locations like Omega and at systems in which Cerberus, if they existed here, would entrench themselves on.
It was tiring work, she spent hours organizing fleets and giving orders to NPCs that would follow her commands with no question asked to build up anchorages, listing posts and stashes in systems to use in future crises.
For the Fatui she summoned every so often, and the humans who were willingly joining her ranks needed homes, and Kali had to survey worlds well beyond the influence of the Relays to find suitable planets that would sustain a population and would not be a threat to the new migrants settling down.
Fenja, bless her, had already given her various files on potential areas as well as handing her dossiers on people who would be great leaders and advisors, people whom she could trust to command her NPCs.
But not the Fatui, only she and the Fatui themselves would direct their actions.
With every interaction, giving information, providing information along with homes a place of belonging, and in exchange telling what she wanted from them, their power to be used against the scum and vile monsters and for the war that would engulf the entire galaxy.
But something interesting happened with the Fatui.
The Fatui's existence is odd, for they all knew they should not exist, they knew they were clones of real beings that existed in another reality filled with elemental gods and everything else in-between, they had memories of their true selves expressing loyalty to a god, a being whom they would serve until the end.
But they were clones in this world, created by a being who by their observations had ever increasing qualities of a leader worth following, it showed in the openness of their behaviour towards them, they were truthful in their dealings, sought reasonable deals for them to assist her in her campaign to save the galaxy from an extra galactic horror while also battling against the darkness that already existed.
In the beginning, they were distrustful and greatly weary, as well as confused about their own existence, yet with time moving on and with them learning about this version of humanity and watching the events of the First Contact War passing by, and now the obvious growing power of their summoner every so often, along with the way they treated them.
Unknown to Kali, a sentiment was forming among them, they were starting to see her as an Archon, someone to follow, to place their trust and loyalty in, someone to idolise, to erect statues of, to pray to.
And Kali's System registered the new power signature immediately.
[Notice: New Energy Source Is Being Directed To The Host Substantial Changes In Biology And Metaphysical Existence Detected]
[Observation: Host Will Become A Divine Existence Time Till Accession Currently Measured In Centuries Yet More Subjects Expressing Faith Accelerate The Timeline Considerably]
[Conclusions: Administrators Gain Inspiration For New Ideas And Are Satisfied With More Entertainment Value]
[New Directive: Push Things Along Towards Greater Entertainment Value]
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