Plan for the Galaxy Chapter 61

PFTG

A/N Apparently I am more sleep deprived than I thought. I uploaded the wrong chapter update for PFTG. I completely missed this one. Thanks r4p16 for letting me know.

Anyway, here you go. I deleted the other chapter and am re-uploading it to make sure they are in order.

…

Chapter 61 – Beginning of the Fallout

(Tevos POV)

It had been fifty-two sleepless hours since that meeting with Brock. Fifty-two hours since she found out that the asari’s biggest secret, their secret to technological dominance in the galaxy, was going to be released to the entire galactic community.

Fifty-two hours of listening to the Council of Matriarchs screeching at the fact that their dominance of the Citadel community was being threatened. Fifty-two hours of hearing supposedly wise and powerful leaders complaining and demanding like fresh maidens on their first job. Fifty-two hours of arguments that led nowhere. Fifty-two hours of threats, counter-threats, dismissals, denials and calling out bluffs.

How little the supposedly wise Council of Matriarchs knew.

She had known Brock Nielson for about two years, perhaps a few months more than that. While she didn’t deal with him directly too often, she had done so. She had also been keeping watch of his exploits; either directly, through the Spectres, or through Aria. All of it had shown her that he was a driven, motivated human, that he was charismatic when he needed to be, vulnerable when he had to be, and capable of intrigue, manipulations, and connecting with people very easily.

It was those very qualities that had drawn her to him.

But it had also let her know that there was something else about Brock Nielson, something that those Matriarchs who had never had direct dealings with him would not know. Something that made them either underestimate him or dismiss him out of hand as a conman or someone bluffing his way about the galaxy.

Brock Nielson always followed through on his deals and promises.

Even now, when nearly a dozen of the Matriarchs were calling for an immediate execution of the human to safeguard the asari secret, Tevos had to call for calm and convince them that doing so would be worse than letting the secret get out. After all, Tevos had seen the files that Brock had shown her regarding the misdeeds of the asari on the Council of Matriarchs. The information in those files were enough that war would be declared. Goddess, a civil war would start. By the time it finished, there would be no Asari Republics left.

What made it worse, was that many of those criminal perpetrators were part of the Council of Matriarchs calling for some form of action against the man. They had no idea the dangers that they were heaping upon themselves. If, no, when they acted, was not in doubt.

Some action would be taken, but ultimately it would be targeted towards Brock and his people. Shieldstar and its people were about to become considered just as unwanted as the quarians in asari space. They might be able to enter, but anyone bearing the Shieldstar logo would find no warm welcome. Prices would be gouged, purchasing opportunities would disappear, business opportunities would dry up. Only the truly desperate in asari space would have any dealings with Shieldstar right now.

Not that it would matter much. Shieldstar was making massive amounts of money from multiple different markets, which would likely only grow in response to this whole incident. They were getting plenty of credits and valuables from raiding pirates and mercenary bases in the Terminus; at least, that was the intelligence on it she had seen from the Spectres. They made plenty of money just from the sale of element zero on the open market which, again, would likely only grow for a little while as it was likely that turian and salarian businesses and governments were going to lash out against asari suppliers in the short term.

Then there were the orbital defence platforms that they were putting out on the market. Going by the prices that they were being sold for and how many of the smaller governments were making deals for them, the credits weren’t stopping anytime soon.

Goddess, the videogames that Brock’s company had been putting out was earning them far more money alone than any other gaming or toy company in the galaxy. Except possibly Lego. Brock Nielson had been able to get so much money from that that the human could run his company for the next ten years on the profits of those games alone.

Alas, the Council of Matriarchs being what they were, nothing definitive was decided in the last fifty-two hours. They always needed more time to talk and contemplate. That led her to now.

It had been four hours past the time that Tevos had been given to tell the other three Citadel Council members from her own choice. Unfortunately, that was the one thing that the matriarchs had agreed on. They wanted to call Brock’s bluff. The fools.

Well, the bluff had been tested, and found out to not be a bluff. She wasn’t a hundred percent certain what exactly was said, but she knew that Brock had passed on the knowledge to the other three Citadel Council members exactly forty-eight hours after their talk. It had taken nearly the last four hours before she had received two urgent calls for a Council meeting to be held immediately.

The Alliance, via David Anderson, had politely requested more information. At least they weren’t attacking her yet. Though, she doubted that would last. Humans seemed to like complaining about the smallest grievances. Udina had certainly led the charge in that respect.

Still, she now stood in front of the door, leading to the Council chamber and she couldn’t stop the dread that she was feeling before she headed inside. This meeting could lead to one or several of the possible ramifications. A public censure was guaranteed. Fines most likely.

The problem is that there was also a very real concern that the end of the asari dominance on the Citadel Council had come. The Republics had been found guilty of maliciously failing to comply with one of the oldest treaties in Citadel space. They themselves had put the measures in that all races were to share prothean technology with the other members. It was one of the founding agreements of the Citadel Council They just had deliberately ignored it.

One does not lightly ignore a founding agreement. Otherwise, the reason for having the agreement goes away. After that, the union formed by the founding agreement dissolves.

The possibilities of that terrified her.

Still, she had held back as long as she reasonably could. As exhausted as she was, it was time to breathe the mist. A human might say it was time to face the music. She shook her head, squared her shoulders, and opened the door, walking into the chamber.

Three pairs of eyes hit her the moment she stepped in the room. Only one pair looked at her neutrally. David Anderson wasn’t making any judgement, or was doing a better job at hiding it.

The other two didn’t bother hiding their anger in their gazes. Sparatus was always the more emotional of her previous companions, so she couldn’t really say that it surprised her that he was angry. Valern though, his anger made her swallow involuntarily.

She had seen the evidence from Brock about the actions that had been taken against salarian scientists and inventors who had found a way to make technology that outpaced the asari. How they were either outright killed or ‘disappeared’. Valern wasn’t an idiot. He would be able to make the connections if he knew about them. Luckily, unless Brock released that information at the same time, Valern wouldn’t have any proof of it.

Her heart froze in her chest. Brock didn’t give that information on, did he?

“Tevos,” Valern said, his tone emotionless as he pointed to her terminal. “Now.” It was not a request.

She hid the wince at the order as she walked towards the terminal at a measured pace and stood behind it. Valern pressed a button on his terminal and the lights flashed and the door locked.

“This emergency Council session has now commenced,” Valern said, likely out of habit. “We all know why we are here. The asari have decided since the beginning that honouring some of our most basic and essential agreements for the continuation of the Citadel community was not something they felt the need to do. All three of us have received the same data, along with the evidences to prove it. I have already had the validity of the data checked by the STG and it is genuine.”

“I also presented the files to the Hierarchy Intelligence Corp,” Sparatus spoke up to her dismay, his eyes completely fixed on her, like a predator watching its prey before it struck. “They have done their own independent checks and have confirmed that it is not faked.”

“Alliance Intelligence likewise has assessed the information and confirmed its validity,” David said, still eyeing her neutrally.

“With that in mind, is there anything you wish to say on behalf of the Republics?” Valern asked, his tone now sounding formal.

Oh. That wasn’t good. That meant that this was not a real discussion. It was a hearing.

She cleared her throat for a moment. “I cannot state for certain the reasoning behind the Council of Matriarchs decision to hide the existence of the active prothean beacon on Thessia,” she said, doing her best to divert blame. “I can only assume that they believed that the decision was weighed over heavily and that they believed that the decision was made for the greater good of the galaxy.”

“Even if that were so,” Valern cut her off, “which it is not, that does not excuse the fact that you have continued to hold off telling the rest of the Council races of the existence of the prothean beacon for the two thousand, three hundred plus years since that time. You could have come clean at any point after that, but you chose not to. You could have mentioned something when the turians were made Council members more than seven centuries ago, but again, you chose not to.”

“And don’t bother using the excuse of worrying about the security of the other races,” Sparatus said, speaking up before she could defend herself. “While it may have been relevant in regards to the krogan or the batarians, or even the geth, you could have made it known to the Council at any point. None of those races had a seat on this Council. We all know that there are secrets that are only available to the highest levels of our respective governments. This could have been part of that.”

“The very fact that we didn’t should have shown our concerns were and still are valid!” Tevos argued, despite knowing that it was futile. “Could you imagine how bad things would have been if the krogan had taken the beacon during the Krogan Wars? Or if the geth had somehow found a way to get the beacon for their own purposes?”

“I realise that I am new to the Council,” David cut in, still looking at Tevos. “I also am very aware that our people do not have the same history with your peoples that you three have with each other. But from our reading of Citadel history, it was the asari that forced the other races who joined in their alliance that all of the prothean data was to be shared equally, was it not?”

“That is correct,” Valern said, looking over at the human.

“And it was objected to by the salarians initially when it was proposed, though they later recanted their objections?” David continued. “That after the signing, the asari sent several agents on behalf of the Council to investigate and ensure that the salarians were in compliance with the treaty? And that when the turians joined in during the Krogan War, one of the first things in that alliance was that the entire knowledge that the turians had gathered regarding the protheans was required to be submitted for inspection, and that the War hadn’t even finished before the asari started to push for that?”

“That is also correct,” Sparatus confirmed with a nod to the human, though he didn’t take his dark eyes away from Tevos.

“As you all know from our own treaty signing, it was required that we allow Council agents to have access to all of our known prothean sites,” David went on. “Additionally, all future prothean discoveries, including all beacons and active prothean technology were required to be disclosed to the Council and remanded into Council authority. The only assurance that we had was that at every prothean discovery from Alliance territory, our own prothean teams would be allowed to participate in the research of said technology.”

He blinked and shook his head in disappointment. “It appears that our agreement was not the same as every other race, as we were informed prior to our signing it.”

“It would still have been a requirement to sign,” Valern said, looking at the human. “However, it can be acknowledged that the false representation given to the Alliance to ensure their compliance with that treaty would be grounds for at least a temporary suspension of the treaty in its entirety.”

“As you all know, I don’t have the authority to disclose secrets of that magnitude to the Citadel Council without the approval of the Republics’ leadership,” Tevos said.

“We know,” Sparatus cut her off. “That just makes it worse. Now it sounds like a conspiracy from the entire asari government, and not just the actions of the councillors.”

“The fact remains that you, and when I say you I mean that Asari Republics as a whole,” David said, “have acted like the Batarian Hegemony.” Tevos winced at that, in her view, excessively harsh comparison. “It also makes me wonder, if passing our knowledge of the protheans on to you was not considered to be a security risk, why is it that passing yours on would be? Your people have apparently decided that whatever rules you have enforced on your allies was only done because we were less than you, that we were not worthy of that knowledge. Or, in the worst case, you deliberately wished to remain the dominant species of the galaxy, attempting to ensure some form of technological subservience to the asari.”

Tevos couldn’t help feeling the dread that came along with that statement, given so calmly and rationally. It somehow made it worse. And if that was indeed how the rest of the galaxy saw this, or at least the leadership of the various governments, then this was not going to end well for the asari. And quite clearly, the human was not as neutral towards her as she had hoped he would be.

“When we received the verification of the data that we received,” Valern spoke up, “the three of us met up earlier. The meeting was to determine the level of punishment that would be levelled at the Asari Republics for this betrayal to their supposed allies. And trust me, I say supposed because at this point, we are not sure if there is any real alliance between our peoples.”

The horror she felt at that statement threatened to overwhelm her and she couldn’t help some of it appearing on her face.

“It was, and remains, a very real question of whether or not we vote to expel the Asari Republics from the Citadel Council,” Valern finished very matter-of-factly, staring unblinkingly at her.

Panic instantly flooded Tevos as she heard that. If that happened, she would be executed by the matriarchs. There was no question about that. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t her fault; it was theirs and their predecessors. They would blame her for not controlling this situation in an attempt to prevent themselves being blamed.

She needed to put in contingencies. All her previous ones of disappearing into asari space were going to be useless. Even going to Omega would be problematic. Aria wouldn’t stick her neck out if it meant that the matriarchs were going to start causing problems for her. She would need to find asylum somewhere…

“However,” David spoke up, cutting off her panicked thoughts, “along with the information that he passed along to us, Brock Nielson also passed on a message. He said that we needed to wait until we go see this prothean VI in person before we make any drastic decisions. He also told us that you had been given the means to be able to access the VI in a way that it had not been activated before. He further stated that we needed to hear what it said regarding the reapers before we made any rash decisions.”

“Despite my thoughts on the matter or my questions on exactly how that possibly happened,” Sparatus grunted, finally looking away from Tevos, “I believe that it would be a good idea to hear what it has to say. Especially if Brock Nielson was so insistent. After all, the man has proven that he was willing to defend the Citadel.”

“Don’t believe that this is absolution for the crimes of your government,” Valern warned, his gaze sharpening as he continued to look at Tevos. “It may be that this is nothing more than a stay of execution. And while we can acknowledge the logistical issues of bringing the prothean beacon here quickly, do not believe for a moment that we are going to trust you blindly at this time. I personally sent salarian and turian Spectres to monitor the beacon site two hours ago. Not only that, to prevent drastic action from your matriarchs, we will be travelling to Thessia along with the Turian Fourth Fleet. This is non-negotiable if you do not wish for the asari to lose their seat on this Council.”

Tevos swallowed. Clearly all credibility for the asari had been lost, at least for now. She didn’t doubt that Valern had also sent other units to secure the situation. While he might have told her in the past, right now, she was going to have to weather the storm of their ire to prevent the situation getting worse.

Still, she felt obliged to point something out.

“The matriarchs will not be happy,” she spoke up, feeling tired. “Never before has a full fleet from a foreign government been sent to another race’s home world. We have treaties against it.”

“Isn’t fortuitous then that the asari have already set the precedent of breaking treaties without a care,” Sparatus said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “This is happening, Tevos. If they attempt to stop us, it will be the start of a conflict between your people and the rest of the Citadel. If your matriarchs attempt to keep us captive, it will be an act of war against the Citadel. If they try to move the beacon before we get there, it will be an act of treason and begin a conflict with the Citadel. Your matriarchs definitely don’t realise how close you are to being expelled from the Council, Tevos. This is no minor treaty violation. This is a founding agreement. They are significantly more important, even if they seem minor.”

David tapped his terminal, deactivating it. “We are prepared to leave as soon as this meeting is over. We will be going straight to the Council docks, where we will take a salarian shuttle to the dreadnought, Pride of the Hierarchy. From there, we will be going straight to Thessia.”

“There is no need for you to worry about getting ready,” Sparatus said, deactivating his own terminal. “In preparation for this journey, clothing and toiletries have been sourced for you and will be on the shuttle when we get there. Spectres and STG agents will be accompanying us to the shuttle and providing security on our journey.”

The turian stepped out from behind his terminal, as did the human. “Valern has requested a personal word with you before you leave the room. We will see you at the shuttle.”

Without a further word, the two other councillors left the chamber, leaving Tevos alone with Valern.

The silence was almost as unbearable as the threats and accusations had been. Valern stared at her without blinking. She couldn’t help swallowing as she remembered the reports again of the matriarchs ordering the deaths of salarians that would bring their technology to the next level. That would bring them out from under asari dominance. In that moment, she knew that Valern knew.

“I believe you know why I wanted this private conversation,” Valern said stiffly, his fingers twitching as he stared at her. “Though, perhaps conversation is a generous term for what this will be. This is a private warning to your matriarchs. One that you will pass on. You may do so discreetly, or not. It doesn’t matter to the dalatrasses. What matters is that this is a formal statement from my government to yours.”

Tevos clenched her own terminal to stop her hands from shaking, her knuckles going pale blue. She couldn’t have said a word if she wanted to. They refused to come out of her mouth.

“The dalatrasses are not stupid,” Valern said, still not blinking as he stared at her. “In light of the new information regarding the beacon and its implications in your technological prowess, and how it manages to stay a step ahead of even the best of salarian ingenuity and innovation, we could not help but notice that any time someone manages to invent a new path of technological production, or any time one of our people has managed to advance our technological capabilities far beyond what the asari have managed to do, or in a differing methodology to that of element zero, that scientist or inventor has either been tragically killed or gone missing. We also notice that in those moments, we were forced to remain behind the asari on a technological level.

“We also noticed that an increase in targeted pirate attacks appeared to happen around that time. Once might be a coincidence. Twice is explainable. Three times can even be reasoned for. However, there were at least twelve incidents over the last five centuries where our brightest minds have met a tragic premature end. That is not coincidence. That is planning and design.

“As salarians, we can understand and even appreciate those actions being necessary against an enemy. After all, the genophage wasn’t done just because we felt like hurting a race we uplifted; it was a response to a legitimate concern about our enemy. However, the salarians and the asari have the longest continuous alliance in the galaxy. Our races are closer than even the turians. There is no such enemy between us, or we didn’t believe there was. That has now been amended in the minds of the dalatrasses.”

His eyes narrowed further. “Just know, that while we know that the asari are now likely to be the ones behind at least most of those attacks, the only reason that the alliance still stands is because we have no hard evidence. If we find some, you can be assured that there will be those calling for war with the asari. And I cannot even be sure that it will be from the minority. And while the asari might be more martial than us, I can guarantee that you will not want to fight a war against my people.”

He deactivated his terminal with a tap and stepped out from behind it, making Tevos tense unconsciously. “We are going now to see what this prothean VI says,” Valern said, his tone firm. “If there is to be any chance of our alliance surviving past this event, you would remind your matriarchs that now is not the time to attempt to be clever. And there will be no asari Spectres present during this meeting. Now come.”

Tevos could only purse her lips and follow silently behind her salarian counterpart; well, for as long as her remained her counterpart. While she was smart enough to know that doing anything to jeopardise the alliance between the Council races was a fool’s errand, she couldn’t worry that maybe, just maybe, some of the Council of Matriarchs had not yet learned the meaning of consequences yet. It wouldn’t remain that way; either between the Citadel races, or by going after Brock Nielson, she knew that it was very likely that they would be educated before long.

Somehow, that was not the comforting thought she wished it was.

…

(Brock POV)

I looked up from my terminal as I considered the latest reports from our eezo sales. Already, the salarians and turians had boosted their order requests by six hundred percent. While this was a significant increase in our own sales, and we had plenty of raw eezo left that I didn’t have to worry about overselling or running out anytime soon, it wasn’t yet the majority of the market share of eezo sales that the two races would need to completely cut themselves off from the asari.

Not that cutting off the asari was the goal. I didn’t care about the politics involved with this whole beacon thing. What I did care about was finding a way to get all of the major races to massively boost their efforts to prepare for the reapers with enough time to make it count.

I had been getting regular updates from the quarians through Ely and Hectar. Their population was steadily increasing, now that they didn’t have to worry about keeping their numbers low due to being stuck without a planet. They were already projecting an increase of their population from seventeen million to nearly nineteen million by the time that Shepard gets woken up. Most of these would no longer be living in their ships. In fact, more ships were being decommissioned nearly every day, with their crews being either sent to their planet to build up their home, or being reassigned to other ships in the Flotilla.

The Alliance had announced that they would be doubling their dreadnought numbers and increasing their other ships. Apparently, from what I was hearing from their military circles, they were planning on having two more full Fleets within five years. I don’t know where they were going to get the materials for this, but they had also started buying more eezo from me. That said, they hadn’t really decreased their asari purchases by much; after all, they were not the ones that had been betrayed for centuries, or nearly three thousand years like the other Council members had been.

Human pragmatism at its finest.

I wondered how much they would be increasing their fleets after they saw the prothean VI. As long as the asari didn’t try and play silly buggers.

My terminal beeped with an incoming call, breaking me out of my thoughts. Huh, Aria. I hadn’t spoken to her in a while. Not since her daughter came to take up space on my ship. Though, considering that Liselle was also Tevos’ daughter, I imagine that she was probably unhappy with how this was pressuring her.

Still, no point dragging things out. I accepted the call.

“Nielson,” Aria barked at me. “What the hell is going on?”

I considered how to answer. “Well,” I said slowly, “after continuing looking at the information that I had been able to collect from the prothean sites, we found quite a few more things about the reapers…”

“What?” Aria cut in, looking confused. “No, I don’t care about that. I meant about Liselle!”

I blinked. “I’m going to need more than that,” I said. “I haven’t heard of any problems with Liselle.”

“And the fact that she is sleeping with your security man?” Aria growled. “I suppose that’s new to you too?”

I was stumped at that. “Huh. I haven’t been around your daughter for some weeks now, Aria. Beau has been very busy doing other work for the company and I haven’t had much time to socialise with him. But thanks for the reminder that I need to catch up more with my people to see how they are doing socially.”

“Cut the crap!” she barked. “This is my daughter! I won’t let her have her heart broken by some moron just stringing her along for a good time!”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “From what I saw last time I saw her personally, she was the one that seemed interested in him. Has he forced himself on her?”

She glared at me. “No,” she bit out reluctantly.

“Is she objecting to their relationship?”

“No.” It came out like a grumble.

“Then I am confused as to why you are objecting,” I said, feeling a little amused at the tiger-mum behaviour that Aria was exhibiting.

“Dammit Nielson!” Aria growled at me. “I didn’t send her to you so you could have her hook up with your people like that!”

Honestly, the fact that I was having a conversation about her child’s dating life was something I found hilarious. I probably would have laughed out loud if it wasn’t Aria. I couldn’t help a little smile breaking out on my face though.

“Fine,” I conceded. “I will talk to him and make sure that he is not just looking to get his dick wet and that he doesn’t do anything to hurt Liselle. Good enough?”

Her face twisted in disgust. “That’s my daughter,” she objected. “I don’t want to think about him putting anything in her! Don’t be so crude!”

I coughed once as a burst of laughter threatened to escape. “Fine,” I choked out. “But I will tell him to make sure that this is a proper relationship, not a hookup. All right?”

She grit her teeth at me through the call, but eventually conceded. “Fine,” she spat out.”

I let myself be amused for a moment longer as she didn’t hang up. Still, I hadn’t expected the call to go like this and this was a chance to see how things were going in asari space.

“You know,” I said conversationally, “when you called, I thought you were going to say something about me revealing the prothean beacon in the Temple of Athame on Thessia to the other Council member races.”

She blinked at me. “So that’s finally got out there, huh?” she mused. “Well, anything that gets the itch up those bitches’ asses is fine with me. But,” she considered, “I can see how Tevos would probably not be happy. And because it was you, she won’t be happy with you specifically. But she hasn’t called me yet.”

I shrugged, not really surprised that Aria knew about the beacon. “Not like I can help it,” I replied. “There is a functioning prothean VI in that beacon and we need to see what it says about the reapers. If I didn’t say anything to the turians, salarians and Alliance then you know damn well that the Republics weren’t going to say anything first.”

“True.” She seemed to tap away at her terminal. “Oh, hell. It looks like the turians at least are taking this seriously. I got a report that all the councillors are heading to Thessia in a damn turian fleet. The matriarchs are going to be really unhappy with you.”

“Huh.” I guess that there were more hurt feelings than I expected. Lucky for me, and the asari too, that I said to wait until they heard about the reapers from the VI before they made any decisions regarding punishments against the asari. It made me wonder how this was going to affect the next couple of years. “Anyone made any threats against me, yet?”

“Several of the matriarchs,” Aria confirmed, looking at her terminal. “I would suggest staying out of asari space for a while if you can help it. Don’t be surprised if they send a Spectre or a Justicar after you.”

I nodded. “Gotcha.” Not that it would be completely possible. After all, a lot of the refuge stations and the groups that dealt with creating new colonies in the Terminus systems were organised through different organisations on Ilium. I remember the second game that a volus was basically making fun of colonists because he was overcharging them for premade structures. Though, maybe sending some of my asari people under a private ship would be the way to go here.

Actually, bringing up the Justicars reminded me of something. “Oh, if you get an Ardat Yakshi there, let me know. I heard rumours that one had escaped and was making the rounds.” It might let me get a little ahead of Samara’s story if I could get Morinth for her.

Aria looked back at me. “Why would that matter to you?”

I grinned. “It might give me some leeway if those Justicars come after me.”

She snorted. “Doubt it, but fine. I’m out. Don’t let my daughter get hurt.”

With that, she hung up.

I shook my head. That had been a surreal experience. I had never expected Aria T’Loak of all people to have a hint of a nurturing side. It had been a strangely more personal call than I would have ever thought Aria was capable of having.

My terminal beeped with more incoming messages, reminding me that there was work I needed to do.

…

(Horaxus POV)

It was a novelty, moving to a facility on a brand-new planet. Well, not new new, but a planet that was suddenly theirs.

He wasn’t really kidding himself. The planet was claimed for Shieldstar, of which Horaxus had been made an executive officer, Executive Director of Small Arms Research and Development in point of fact, and was also the head researcher. After working on the weapon systems of the Grim gunships for a while with that young Nelathie, Horaxus was happy to get back to his preferred weapons.

Not only that, but all of the people employed by Shieldstar were given land on their planet, along with a house on that land, as well as any other amenities that people living there could want.

He wasn’t confined to the planet, either. Anyone could leave whenever they want. The planet wasn’t a prison. However, due to security measures, they were also taking care to minimise the chances of someone tracking them to the planet, at least until they were ready, so departure shuttles left the planet regularly enough, but with staggered times to prevent predictability. And, if he wanted to leave in a hurry, as an executive officer, Horaxus even had a corvette of his own that he could take anywhere.

More important than that, Horaxus had a proper workshop, filled with any tool and toy that he could imagine. He had plenty of fabricators and more omni-gel than he would ever be able to use in a single life time. And while plenty of them were used for mass producing their more popular weapons and assorted parts, he had set aside several just for his own personal use. They were where he worked through his designs.

The place was almost a paradise unto itself for him. He was allowed to run wild, with no need to restrain himself due to a budget. All Brock asked for was the best weapon in any of the categories; sniper, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, grenade launcher and submachine gun.

The Butcher took care of both the shotgun and assault rifle needs. That was a weapon he was most proud to put his name too. The Thumper was also something that he could happily say was his innovation. The Foehammer as a pistol was good, but he thought he might be able to make some improvements. Now, he just needed to make a better sniper rifle and submachine gun to round out the set.

He sniffed at those Mantis and Widow options. The Mantis had more shots, but the power was not even enough to punch through a target. The new Widow was powerful, but the trade off of two shots and overheating was counterproductive. And that wasn’t even taking into account the weight of the Spirits-damn thing!

No, he wanted something better. Something powerful, yet without the loss of portability. Something with punch, but wasn’t going to melt after a few shots.

He had taken a lot of inspiration from human weapons with his other creations. It was a good starting off point. But turians were also expert gunsmiths too, better in many ways than humans. Something big, but collapsable; bold, but reliable; powerful, yet sustainable.

He felt a tingling in his plates. Oh, yes. He was looking forward to playing in his new workshop. If he had things his way, the reapers wouldn’t even know what hit them!