Quarians in their frenzied happiness ignored the situation before them. Not that Claudia cared, as she used her fleet to create a temporary research facility not far from the ocean and a forest full of Dextro lifeforms.
The Agravain-Class Heavy Duty manufacturing ships swiftly provided what she needed. The G-Force followed after her as her flagship and G-Force Carrier positioned itself above the new research facility.
As the Princess giddily returned to her research at the edge of the Tikkun system, space expanded and then retracted, spitting out Avalon, followed by close to a hundred warships, carriers and a huge escort of support vessels.
Marcus arrived in force; in fact, he took all of his retinue, as he was far from his territory, so might as well flex now that he had a chance.
"...What the…" The Quarian ships in orbit looked baffled to see the enormous armada moving towards Rannoch.
"That's a huge ship!"
"What is that!?"
"The ships next to it… It's an Imperial vessel!"
"What is it doing here?" Hal'Gerrel, the Admiral of Heavy Fleet, looked worried. That thing's main gun could rip through their entire fleet!
"Imperial Vessel, identify yourself." The Quarian Comms officer asked with a nervous tone as they watched the massive ship and its escort simply move towards the planet without giving a shit about them!
"This is His Majesty's Flagship Avalon. We are here to identify the reason why the Synthetic civilisation of Geth has left the system."
"..."
Hal'Gerrel was speechless for a second, but then he decided to comment on it.
"We don't need your assistance; your previous help is enough."
At that moment, Marcus popped up on every single screen, bypassing all of the firewalls and security without even trying.
"I do not care what you think you need or don't. 95% of your creations disappeared and moved somewhere else. I am here to do research of my own and decide what is what. If you don't like it, we can fight it out and decide right now."
"...Umm… Admiral… those battleships are aiming at us." The Quarian officer commented as the sensors were beeping like crazy.
"..."
The Admiral realised that he was manhandled before he could even formulate an appropriate response!
"...Fine…"
"Wonderful, I will share my findings after I am done. It's the least I can do." With that said, the fleet began to spread out and move to different locations. The massive Flagship positioned itself in orbit as it spread hundreds of drones that went to scan the facilities around the orbit and then at the servers around the sun Tikkun.
The Heavy Fleet and Patrol Fleet could only watch as the Empire worked like a well-oiled machine.
~~~
'The Geth were downloaded.' Marcus checked the logs that he was able to retrieve.
'They were not deleted, but moved. While the main databanks are gone, there are logs in energy management and other subroutines that we can rebuild a profile.'
The Emperor stroked his chin as he moved holograms like they were puzzle pieces.
"Any luck?" the maid Lacus brought some refreshments to Marcus.
"Apart from what I knew, only some minor discoveries. What I am assured of is that the Rogue AI was moved. Sad to say they don't have traffic control as we have in our Empire." He replied with a sigh.
"Well, a short break won't hurt." The Pinkette maid ended up placing a tray on a table.
"Indeed." He nodded as he took his seat and took a cup of tea before continuing to read the logs Legion compiled for him.
'Wait…I could try to figure out the source of the signal.'
At that moment, Marcus did search for the signal's origin. Signals are most of the time very similar to each other. The waves themselves have different characteristics, especially in modern and advanced technology.
Sensory data comes from multiple devices and boosters; each of them has its 'fingerprints', especially for his Empire, who are masters of waves.
After going through multiple data catches, he made a profile before running a databank check on the said profile.
"..."
Marcus found a match…
And it's exactly what he has in his vault.
"...Reaper…" He mumbled with a sigh. It was a sigh that confirmed his fears.
"So… it is one…" The maid behind him looked over his shoulder.
"Yes." He motioned to fill up his cup of tea, which she did.
"It emits the same frequencies. I fixed the Reaper's basic comms systems before just to store away its frequencies, and it paid off."
As he said that, he summoned a hologram and contacted his Comms Tower.
"Send the word to the Empire. The Geth have joined the Reaper Vanguard. I want everyone to be on heightened awareness and watch out for synthetic lifeforms and Geth spaceships in border and expansion zones." Marcus spoke sharply, dead serious.
"Understood, sending messages."
With that said, Marcus leaned into his cushioned chair, and the maid behind him moved closer and began to massage his shoulders.
"You should notify the Quarians about the situation." The Maid Lacus, reminded him that the ex-Nomad race should be aware of what is lurking in deep space.
"You are right."
He pressed a couple of holograms, compiled a file and sent it to the Quarians; they were up for a surprise, to say the least.
"...That is quite mean of you." The maid slightly chuckled. Instead of explaining in person about the reapers, the cycles of harvests, and the last Prothean's tales, he simply compiled a file and sent it to the migrant race that just recovered their homeworld!
"They acted like assholes, so I did the same thing," Marcus smirked slightly as he looked up at the maid's cerulean eyes.
"I am a bit surprised. Where is my naughty wife that you are taking over for her?" He slightly smirked, as he was well aware that the maid behind him was Plan B.
And there is Plan A…
"Big Lacus is cooking the fish that you got with your Turian Friend.
Truth to be said, I am surprised that you are making friends with literal aliens, far more often than people of your race." She said with a surprised tone.
"I suppose you are not wrong, but that is most likely because I have conquered my own race and it's hard to get friends when everyone around me worships me like a god." Marcus honestly said as he released a tired sigh.
"I guess that's how it is when you put it like that." The pinkette maid slowly nodded as she pondered what he said, but then the Emperor ended up pulling the maid into his lap.
The maid Lacus didn't complain; instead, she adjusted herself on his lap. It was a perfect moment for her to spend some time with him.
Though the pair didn't realise what kind of shit storm the Emperor just released on the Quarians as they just got intel on Reapers…
~~~
After confirming that it was, in fact, Sovereign that took the Geth, Marcus went to the planet to see his daughter.
What he found was a new facility built not far from the beach and one of the Tropical forests. From what he saw, Rannoch has two types of biomes: the deserts and the tropics, which are at the edges of the deserts and rivers.
From what he understood, the planet is more or less like Earth when it had the Pangaea supercontinent.
The weather is similar to that; the rain clouds don't reach deep into the land, and not only that, but the location of the planet is at the edge of the green belt.
The location is similar to that of Venus, but the sun is around 80% of the mass of Sol, somewhat balancing out the situation.
Though the continents are bigger than the oceans, Marcus already has some ideas about how to improve this place.
At the moment, Rannoch is considered Type 1 mid world, livable but some improvements wouldn't hurt.
'Wait, I bump it lower. It's a Dextro world.'
With that said, Marcus, with Lacus and Hadrian, strolled into the facility. What they found were Claudia's scientists already deeply at work; they were already scanning local wildlife.
"My, it has been only 30 hours, and you're already doing this." Marcus chuckled as he saw a beast from Rannoch inside a glass container.
"The flora and fauna here are wilder than I have considered. The lack of bacteria and means to pollinate flora made the animals evolve and do it for the bugs.
In other words, there are no bugs in this world. Part of me is relieved, and another is baffled that something like that is actually possible.
But like a certain scientist from the media once said: 'Life finds a way'." Claudia walked over with crossed arms as she explained to her father.
"My... Jurassic Park. Brings back some fond memories." Marcus smirked as he recalled the centuries-old movie.
"I'm still baffled that you tried to persuade me to engineer chickens to look like raptors."
The leading biologist shook her head, but Marcus continued as he explained his reasons.
"What can I say? Man's romance is ten-metre-tall and fourteen metres long theropods."
Lacus rolled her eyes when she heard that. It's either huge killer robots or big monsters with her husband.
"You know my answer, father. Theropods are overrated." Claudia shrugged as she looked at the animal that they captured.
"Though these things are unique to say the least. I wonder when evolution took such a turn that grass began to grow on its underbelly." She looked at the moss and grass growing on the predator's underbelly.
"We can only guess, but there is something that I must address, Father." All of a sudden, his oldest daughter got serious.
"My Xenomorphs… they can't consume Dextro-based lifeforms."
'Now that is not according to the script, is it? Once you create a biological killing machine, it can beat anything.' Marcus internally chuckled; it appears science doesn't want to agree to movie logic.
"I see, the stomach acids can't consume it?"
"Correct. Depending on how much they consume… if it's a little, it passes through its digestive system. If it's a lot… it can die as the stomach ends up blocked." The Princess said with a grimace as she had already witnessed that.
"That is why I am here looking for a solution," Claudia said with a sigh.
"You could add nanobots." Marcus shrugged, making her puff.
"I am not as flippant as you, father! I don't just add another branch of science if it's not working to solve the issue for me!" The 1st Princess complained, making the Emperor laugh in amusement.
"Whatever you say, Claudia." Marcus chuckled as he walked over and checked out the initial scans of the creature.
"That reminds me, since you are here, you already figured out what happened to the Geth?" The black-haired Princess asked, slightly frowning.
"Indeed. I will be leaving the army for you."
"...it's that bad…" Her eyes trembled, realising who it was… "Reaper Vanguard, isn't it?"
The moment the theme changed into the Reapers, even the scientists stopped working for a second.
"It is. I backtracked the signal that was used to communicate with the Geth. It was Reaper in its origin. I wouldn't know if not for the Reaper Carcass that I have in Avalon." Marcus said in a serious tone.
"I will finish my research here and return to Imperial-controlled space. You should speak with Scipio as well. He is in Terminus Systems, not far from here." Claudia reminded him that Scipio is not in the Empire either.
"I know. That kid is like a dog that got released from its cage. Sniffing around every corner of the galaxy." Marcus snorted as he shook his head and looked at his daughter.
"Don't take too long; your mother will start worrying the longer you are away from our space." The Emperor reminded her that her mother is a big worrywart.
"I know; she can just send my little brother to look over or arrive here herself." Claudia rolled her eyes. Her little brother, the 7th Prince, Theseus, has a decent retinue, big enough to travel around the galaxy without worrying about pirates or whatever.
"I suppose, though Anna's fleet is not built for space combat." The Emperor pointed that little detail out.
"That is why Mother can borrow Theseus ships or just take Big Blue's ships."
"You took half of those." Marcus shook his head as he reminded her that he gave half of those to her.
"Hmph, you can just build more of those."
"Tell Leila that. She diverted most of the resources to expansion. Whatever I 'privatise', she looks at me like I am the biggest criminal in the cosmos." The black-haired Inventor Emperor loudly sighed as he sounded resigned.
"Last time you had free rein with resources, you constructed your Arsenal, husband." Lacus, from beside him, teased the Ruler.
"And now I can build over three hundred battleships in a day when I want to!" Marcus puffed, defending his choice to build shipyards around a gas giant.
"Pretty sure you can boost the production into thousands when the GN drive creations pick up the pace." Claudia deadpanned as she was pretty certain that the ring around Big Blue is over 150 thousand miles long, as that's how wide the Gas Giant is.
"Yes, but for that a decent amount of resources need to be mined and prepared beforehand." Marcus didn't deny the actual capacity of his Arsenal.
"Precisely, but that is what it's capable of. So you can have ships ready in a matter of days if Mother wants to fly here." Claudia smirked for a second as she looked at her new research toy.
"So you can relax and let me do my work. I need to formulate a method to fix my xenomorphs."
"Very well. But you can do that after we have dinner." Marcus motioned to join him at the dinner table.
*Sigh*
"Fine, as you wish, Father." The black-haired girl sighed as she knew that she wouldn't escape from this.
~~~
"This has to be false! Why have we never heard about this before!?" Hal'Gerrel was horrified and baffled at the same time. The Emperor had shared this intel on what happened to their Geth.
The Rogue AI joined ancient machines! Machines that systematically purge civilised life every 50 thousand or so years. The more he was reading, the more freaked out he was.
"True, but there is no reason for him to lie about any of this." Shala'Raan's voice was shaky as she saw a picture of a dead reaper in Avalon, and then there was video of Javik talking about what happened to his people.
Seeing a Prothean talk is one thing; there is a bit of awe, but when he was talking about harvest, it was completely different!
"You don't know! You said that he wants Rannoch!"
"If he wants our world, he could easily take it by force. Don't pretend you can't see that. He has more than enough force to do that." Daro'Xen rolled her eyes.
"...But… for these to exist…" The Heavy Fleet Admiral had a shaky voice.
"I know… we must start preparing." Zaal'Koris, the Admiral of the Civilian Fleet, said with a heavy tone.
"The civilians need to be sent down to Rannoch! Whatever we can must be retrofitted for war." Hal'Gerrel somewhat recovered as he started barking orders.
"Indeed. We need to ask the Empire if we can use their manufacturing ships. We might be able to make some of our own ships." Daro'Xen commented as she wanted to see manufacturing ships in action.
"Good point."
As the Quarians were talking, more ships entered the system. These had a unique colouring of gold and red.
Soon enough, they joined the formation next to Avalon.
~~~
"..." Aria looked at the enormous ship that could rival Omega in sheer size… and it could move.
This was Avalon, the Emperor's seat of power and fortress, mothership and a factory packed in one place.
The sheer scale was humbling.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Scipio commented with crossed arms.
"This is father's project. Most of my mothers didn't like it at first, as it was a resource black hole. But over the years it became a symbol of the Empire."
"...I can see that happening." She shook her head as the Asari needed to snap out.
"Now… remember to behave."
Aria looked at him when she heard his tone become less confident.
"I will see what I can do." The Ex-pirate Queen sighed.
At that moment, a hologram manifested next to them; it was a black-haired man with cerulean eyes.
"Hadrian, what can we do for you, little brother? I hoped to see some action. Not every day one can fight rogue AI civilisation." Scipio commented with a bright smile.
"I wish it was that simple, brother." The 5th Prince grimaced for a second.
"That expression… it didn't go how father wanted? I don't see any wreckage in the system." Scipio checked the sensors.
"The Geth joined the Reaper Vanguard. The Empire is beginning its preparations for the harvesting cycle."
"..."
'What are they talking about?'
Instead of explaining to the Asari, Scipio summoned his hologram and showed her a folder full of info on Reapers.
As the pair of Princes were talking, the Ex-Pirate Queen was reading through some wild information.
As a long-living species, she felt strange when it came to extinct civilisations. Like the Prothean, but she was not an archaeologist, so she never bothered…
Not that actual archaeologists could figure out what happened to them.
But now she saw the truth, and it was worse than she had imagined.
'These things are going to invade from Dark space and harvest all of advanced civilisations…'
She would be sceptical if not for the 1st-person view from a recovered reaper memory bank. These things harvest life non-stop. It's their literal programming.
The galaxy they live in is a literal graveyard of civilisations.
After reading a bit more, she focused on what the princes were talking about.
"Father is going to scale up the exploration division further and will be sending scouts to Argus Rho, Maroon Sea, Gemini Sigma Clusters.
From what I understood, we will be exploring up to five clusters that are close to us at all times to have a buffer zone against the Geth."
"I suppose we shouldn't worry about the Reapers just yet." Scipio stroked his chin as his tactical mind was on.
"Yes. At the moment, the Vanguard should be working on activating the mass relay in the citadel. So we know its main goal.
The final battle will be there. So we can work around that fact." Hadrian nodded at his older brother.
"True. Now that we know what it wants and we know that the Geth is under its wing, we can work with these facts.
I can assume that the exploration units will adjust to that? The Explorer is in Argus Rho. We only have one mothership doing that." Scipio grimaced a bit. It was his idea to explore the galaxy; because of that, the Explorer is outside the expansion zone.
"Father wants to assume control of Ilos as soon as possible. There is a relay that leads directly to the Presidium of the Citadel. That area has to be secured no matter what." Hadrian was reminded of that little Prothean project in that world.
"Besides, Ilos' position, and Pangaea Expanse is in a decent place to watch over the Attican Traverse from the North."
'They want to scan and colonise the whole East side of the galaxy… that is quite a huge undertaking…'
Aria was baffled to hear the scale these people want to achieve… but from what she had seen so far. This race is most likely the only one that could do it.
"I see. I can assist in this endeavour." Scipio pondered as he was free now; he could assist the Empire in a different way apart from the time he was Grand Admiral.
"You can coordinate your efforts with the Exploration Division," Hadrian replied.
"I will do that. For now, where is father?" The 2nd Prince asked.
"On Rannoch, he was having dinner with Claudia."
"Nice. I will join~."
Family dinners are something that he likes! Most of the time it's barbecue! Something everyone in the family likes!
"Sure. Though, you will need to explain to your father why you deployed a Jeager."
"..."
There was no reply to that question, making Aria look at him with a raised eyebrow. She wanted an answer to that as well.
"Well, I will hear it anyway." With that said, the call ended, and Scipio rubbed his hair.
"I suppose that big mech was something those people of Lorek shouldn't have seen?" The Asari smirked a bit.
"You could say that."
"Regardless, I can't delay this any further. I need to see Father; once I have a sense of what I should, I can start working and preparing for the inevitable war against Geth and the Reapers."
"...Speaking of Reapers…" Aria grimaced when she mentioned them.
"You don't believe they exist?" Scipio asked as he looked at her.
"Hard to believe that something like that exists. But in a sense it makes sense. The Citadel, the Mass Relays…"
She recalled those things before looking at him.
"But at the same time your people can build those as well."
"Citadel has nothing on our orbital rings." Scipio bragged as he smirked.
"Wait until I show you Sol or Alpha Centauri; my old seat of power, New Rome, is not bad." He recalled those systems.
"...so you have a seat of power, yet you are pursuing a new world?" Aria was a bit confused. If he has a core world… why does he need a new garden world?
Especially so far from Imperial territories. Shadow Sea is more than two thousand light years away from the closest Imperial border system.
"There is a certain amount of prestige from owning a natural garden world. Everyone in the Empire knows Benning, Elysium, Eden Prime; now there is Dariuspolis, my little brother has.
Then there is Academia, a system dedicated to pure academics and research."
"...So it's prestige…"
"Of course. These natural garden worlds will have bigger populations than other terraformed worlds. Because we as people desire new things.
New garden worlds have unique alien lifeforms that we have not seen before. My new Antioch has unseen lifeforms as well." He explained as he slightly smirked. He will join a rare club of people who rule a naturally found garden world!
"And what will happen to your seat of power?" Aria asked. From what she understood, his old world is in the Arcturus Stream, a cluster that the Citadel Council lost access to many years ago.
That whole cluster is now full of Core Worlds that are full of terraformed planets.
"Most likely one of my mothers… no wait… it could be my mother." He pondered a bit. His mother is babysitting his other kids.
"Is there a difference?" Aria asked, confused. This guy speaks of many mothers but then ended up focusing on one.
"My father has many wives. From what I have seen, your kin has lifetime partners?"
"In a way we do. I had some over my lifetime; I am a matriarch after all." She said with a sigh.
"Right. It might sound strange, but he collected a considerable amount of women and made them his Empresses."
"I know, your family literally runs your species. Your father placed his mates and descendants in essential roles.
So it means your other mothers are your father's other women…" The Pirate Queen started to crack the whole Anaheim family formula.
"Indeed. But my true mother is in New Rome from what I recall."
"You don't even know?" Aria was speechless; even she knows where her daughter is! And she was a Criminal Underworld Boss!
"Hey! I was Grand Admiral of the Expeditionary Fleet, and I was guarding the West in Arcturus Stream for months, then I left on this journey that lasted over a month. I honestly have no idea where she is at the moment." He shrugged for a bit.
Most likely babysitting my younger kids." The 2nd Prince said with a sigh.
"Huh, so you truly are Emperor's son in that regard."
It wasn't surprising; Asari can easily have multiple kids over their thousand-year lifespan. But having many in the span of… around two hundred years is already considered 'impressive' even in Asari circles.
"You could say that. Though now I understand why my father is so picky with his women." Scipio sagely nodded. He went through what is considered a 'power trip', getting a bit overwhelmed by all the wealth and power he could have. He got 'swayed' by women early, and got 'low tier' companions in the process.
Only recently did he realise that it was a bad idea. If he is getting women, he should get those who have a character with a backbone.
"Oh, is that so? I suppose that is where I come in? Hmm?" The Asari crossed her arms. She found this amusing.
"You could say that." He looked at her for a bit more.
"Haha. I suppose we will see. The question is how your father will react to me. I am a notorious lawbreaker and all that, plus brutal. I killed a lot of people over centuries.
Do you think I am fit to be royalty?" She asked, amused by such an idea.
"Do recall that I killed a section of your people in Omega."
The Ex-Pirate Queen frowned a bit as she recalled that.
"The question is if you can follow when you need to follow."
Aria snorted when she heard that.
"I am well aware when to keep my mouth shut. People don't survive for long when they can't do fundamentals like that." The Asari rolled her eyes at his comment.
"Fair enough, then I don't need to say more. You know what you need to do." With that said, the pair walked out from the bridge and towards the lift that would take them to the hangar bay.
~~~
Aria looked at a baffling scene before her. There was an entire military camp that was surrounding a research facility.
What baffled her was the number of soldiers and even mobile suits that were guarding this place.
'I wonder if this is like that because of reapers or that the Emperor was here? Or it's both… honestly, the amount of personnel they use for even most basic things is a mind-boggling waste of resources.'
Moments later, the shuttles landed, and Scipio left first as he was followed by the Asari, who was looking around.
'Hmm… I expected more heat…'
Her eyes scanned the surroundings until she saw some sort of barrier technology that had encased the whole area.
"As expected of my old man. He even has dome tech with him." Scipio sighed in relief.
"I hate deserts." The 2nd Prince said to her.
"I assume that thing over there keeps the heat down?" She pointed at the barrier; the ripples in the air revealed that there was something there.
"Indeed. The wind and the sunlight get reflected. It's part of the terraforming technology that we have.
My father uses these when he decides to have a family gathering on some barren rock… it happened several times before." Scipio chuckled as he recalled one of the gatherings that they had where the night sky was insane. Well, that world became the New Maldives, but before that, the world was barren rock, so Marcus gathered his family there. When there is no atmosphere, the night sky is the best it could be.
"...Your father is strange." Aria was baffled the more she heard about the Ruler of Sol.
"You're not wrong, but even most basic moves like that have a reason. One of them was to test the technology; the second was to get our opinion on the solar system."
"...I see…"
The pair walked through a military camp. This is where Aria stopped in her tracks as she saw three-metre-tall creatures that had scales, fur, claws, fangs and spikes.
It was a bipedal creature that had eyes reminiscent of Krogan.
'What the fuck are these!?'
She felt a cold shiver pass through her spine.
"Down boy! Down boy!" One of the Imperials, with a hand motion, made the creature look down.
"Don't establish direct eye contact!" He said to the Asari as he made the creature somehow obey without effort.
"...What is that…"
"Claudia's Xenomorph army. My older sister is a premier biologist who works on terraformed planets' ecology.
In her free time, she made these." Scipio explained as he looked at the mix of wolf, cat, bear, crocodile… and so on. It was a literal chimaera.
"...She made these?"
"Yes, for the army. Her troops are the initial shock troops. You see, so far you only saw the retinues, not our actual army.
These are at the very front that purges the majority of enemies before the actual army makes landfall." He explained as he looked at the xenomorph.
"The best part is that they can adapt at an absurd pace when it comes to surroundings and enemies."
"...What is stopping them from adapting from your control?"
"Engineered dependency; they need Quantum Brainwaves so that they will listen. You think we didn't think of that? Claudia has spent centuries improving the formula of their creation." Scipio explained as he continued to walk, bypassing Imperials that were on mounts of creatures with swords for teeth.
'The army is more diverse than I have thought…'
She didn't expect to see classic cavalry after seeing huge mechs.
"I see…"
"Now come, I can sense father and sister." Scipio passed through the checkpoints without even being stopped, though his new friend had a couple of raised eyebrows from a few of Claudia's retinues.
Marcus's retinue already knew about the existence of the Asari in Scipio's fleet.
Once the pair were free, they went to see a dinner setup on the beach; there was a smell of barbecue in the air.
"Ha, I knew it, I'm right on time!" Scipio grinned as he saw his father cooking, while Claudia was speaking with Lacus at the table.
"Look who decided to return. The wayward son of mine."
Marcus, who was in an apron, looked at his son with raised eyebrows, but Aria was frozen in place when she saw him.
'What the hell is he? How can someone emit such pressure!? He is not simple, that's for sure!' The Ex-Pirate Queen was feeling goosebumps in his presence.
Asari, as a species, have a certain amount of connection to the spiritual, as they are born with Biotics and can meld their minds with other beings, so they are special.
But what she was feeling from this guy…
~~~
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