Commander White wasn't nervous, her ability to feel that emotion having been dulled, it took something truly awful to shake her stoic demeanor. But she was cautious, the decades of war having made that mindset a constant companion. It felt like her mind was being held together solely by momentum, and she had no intention of letting herself slow down. Not until she was done, she didn't deserve to stop.

Arranging a meeting with the humans leadership had been deceptively easy, one of Balistraia's shell companies had simply mentioned knowing something about why the Turian fleets had stopped appearing to a few people, and the rumors had spread.

Then a government agent had sent a vaguely threatening message for a meeting to the CEO, who was a heavily vetted resistance android. The android had gone to the meeting, alone, and had apparently had a perfectly reasonable conversation with a few agents, and mentioned that the companies 'benefactor' wanted to arrange a proper diplomatic meeting.

The humans, not being stupid, agreed. And eventually the CEO was sent a time and a place.

Which led to now, Commander White in her traditional outfit, even if the fabric was now far more durable and contained shields. Freshly maintained, Balistraia had threatened to sick The Maker on White if she continued to delay routine maintenance cycles. Standing before a teleporter with Anemone by her side, who looked equally jaded.

There had been some debate about allowing a machine to attend the meeting, But it was decided that the first meeting would be between the androids and humans alone.

Commander White glanced at her internal clock and noted that there was still a minute before the meeting would begin "Are you ready to finally meet a human?" The question from Anemone was almost expected and White thankfully already had her answer "Does the Maker not count? But… I believe I am" Her attempt at a joke fell flat, which was a shame. She'd never been the best at humor.

The minute passed before either spoke again, and the both stepped into the teleporter in unison.

They appeared in a cool well ventilated room, visibly startling the three diplomats who stood at the table. Diplomates was perhaps the wrong word, there were two military advisors, and only one actual diplomate. But that was well within the androids expectations for the meeting. It was only sensible to have people knowledgeable on military matters there to offer immediate input.

The moment the humans' shock at their sudden arrival wore off White noticed their eyes immediately drift downwards. Not unlike some of the less subtle scanner's she'd worked with. That was … annoying, while her outfit was admittedly revealing the average android wouldn't care. More things to adjust to.

After another half second of gawking the diplomat leapt to his feet with a single smooth movement, before smiling at the glowering pair of androids and speaking "Sorry for the lacking welcome, we had expected you to…" He trailed off and Commander White spoke up "come through the front door I suppose?" and the diplomat nodded, "exactly that"

"It would have taken more effort than we considered worthwhile to bring a shuttle capable of atmospheric flight to your world" Commander White lied, there was a full sized ship in orbit, of human make and identification but filled with The Maker's works. There were numerous shuttles onboard, this was more a show of technology than anything else. Point to point teleportation was something the humans could do, but recent breakthroughs by The Maker allowed androids to teleport anywhere within one hundred miles of a teleporter as long as they input the location data. The humans would doubtlessly realize the tactical potential the ability brought.

The diplomat smiled at that, and White pretended not to hear the other humans muttering to each other before they slowly stood up as the diplomat spoke again. "I am Ambassador Langley, and these are Naval Advisor Pyatt and Combat Advisor Beals, I take it you are our mysterious benefactors?" On a technicality that was true. White doubted the Maker would have helped the humans if the androids hadn't been present, or that he would have waited a while longer before intervening. So she nodded at that "We are"

That finally caused the Navy advisor to speak up "And we thank you for that, without your aid we would have lost hundreds if not thousands of sailors" More than likely more than that. Anemone spoke "we were glad to help, and a single ship to stall the Turians war effort was no great expense" The navy advisor nodded at that before speaking, "Still, only losing one ship to the Turians, that's impressive" White immediately saw where the confusion was and clarified "No, we only sent one ship. It returned intact" she then ignored the advisor's mutter of 'just one?'.

It was only to be expected that the Maker's tech would be leagues ahead of an aliens. The diplomat went to speak, but the Combat advisor beat him to it, exclaiming "Cut the shit, you called us here. What do you want?"

Also not an unexpected reaction, the Maker and Balistraia had warned that humans could be volatile, Anemone spoke up "I take it you are aware we are not human?" She got a few nods before the Ambassador spoke up. "We have a few scanners in this room, and you certainly aren't." Anemone nodded "We are androids, specifically we are androids made by an alternate version of humanity. And wish to open diplomatic channels with all races, starting with the one we are most familiar with."

The Ambassador looked at her with obvious disbelief, though she could tell he was trying to hide it. "...And would these 'alternate' humans be willing to meet with us?" Commander White stepped in, having had far more time to come to terms with the truth than Anemone "Until recently I would have been forced to say 'no', as humanity had been extinct for thousands of years. And even now, though there is a human he has left diplomatic matters in our hands" That was a polite way of saying he didn't much care about the humans now that they weren't in overt danger, not that White had thought the maker cared over much even when they were.

Anemone added "though we are willing to take a few humans on a tour of our world, if the Maker was going to make an appearance he'd do it then" Both the military advisors perked up at that offer, likely looking forward to sending engineers or spies to try and figure out the androids technological capabilities. They were welcome to try, most of it had been built by the Maker and none of her engineers had been able to replicate anything unless they'd been using his machines to do it.

The diplomat smiled at the offer "we'd be glad to send a proper delegation once one has been assembled, but… where exactly would we be sending them?" That was an odd question to ask, but she had an answer as she pulled a transmitter from her digital storage and placed it on the table with a deceptively heavy thud. "Simply press the button on this device and ask for transportation, a ship will likely be within range to teleport you to a portal nexus, and if one isn't one will be sent within the hour"

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Humans weren't stupid, they were foolish, stubborn, and shortsighted yes. But not stupid. And when things didn't add up they noticed, first it was a few companies arising from nowhere, nothing too out of the ordinary but the immediate success? That drew eyes, but nothing more than that. When that company got military contracts and started making ships far more reliable and durable than any other the number of eyes simply grew, though they'd play their role later.

Then the war, dozens of Turian ships wiping out an entire fleet. And then? A few dozen Turian ships at best attacking human space, and never for long. Nothing like what even the most optimistic estimates were. Add onto the random information added to their system 'gathered' from hacking Turian ships and networks. Well that got investigated, reports of an unknown ship occasionally being spotted as it left relays, only ever glimpses.

A more dedicated effort was put into scouting for ships, either Turian or belonging to the mystery faction. But they only ever found disabled or destroyed Turians vessels. But that was proof that something beyond paranoia was going on. More ships were dedicated, and when Turians could be found on the disabled ships they were integrated. Always telling the same story of ship system's being hacked, weapons failing, contradictory orders from their superiors, and in a few cases actually mentioning metal monsters shaped like giant spiders crawling on the hull of their ships. Fearful mentions of the 'geth' launching an attack.

But no other signs of the ship, or the mysterious 'geth' that were helping them. With the end of the war most of the leadership simply accepted the fact they wouldn't be getting answers.

A call from one of their intelligence agents that they'd found a lead changed that, and the meeting that followed would change humanity forever. Synthetic life? That alone was a momentous discovery, that said life apparently came from an alternate dimension implied so much more.

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It had taken another hour for the conversation to wind down and the androids to vanish in the same way they had appeared. Beals was the first one to speak up "We'll need some way to counter that teleportation, as far as we know they can get anywhere." That got nods from both the other humans in the rooms and Pyatt spoke up next "Can we even be sure they're not listening? I'd say we assume anything electronic and connected to the internet could be compromised. But they could have gotten bugs onto the air gapped servers without us knowing."

That got Langley to shake his head "We have to assume they did, but we have to hope they are honest in their stated goals. Could we deal with them if we had too?" Both advisors looked frustrated as they thought before Beal spoke "Even with just what we know about their ships and teleportation tech… Anyone with half a brain would teleport a strike team to take out the leadership on a grand scale, and important infrastructure on a tactical one" A nod from Pyatt ``One bomb teleported to a ship's reactor, or the bridge and that's a ship down. We can only hope there are some limitations we are unaware of, like needing the schematics or visuals to ensure they don't teleport inside something. But given they teleported here… they either have the schematics for this building, or have sensors which can at the very least see us."

They also couldn't help but remember just which company had won the bid to produce the militaries latest hardware, weapons, parts and even whole ships, and the fact that that very same company already had hundreds of the ships it produced, both military and civilian, going through human territory, with who knows what hidden onboard.

Beal countered "we're making too many assumptions, and none of us are techs, leave the guesswork to them." Langley added "We should focus on what we learned, and I made a few disturbing observations" that got a snort from Pyatt and muttered "a few?" but Langley continued on undeterred "First off, The androids that arrived. They weren't trained diplomates." A nod from Beal as he added "if we can go off body language… I'd have to say they were combat veterans. They immediately scanned the room for threats and they remained prepared as if they expected to have to leap into action." Pyatt thought for a moment before speaking "Which means they've fought someone on equal footing before, I doubt fighting the Turians ingrained that behavior"

Langley concurred before adding "Secondly their forms… Commander white was… Flawless and Beautiful by any human standard, And Anemone was more 'approachable' less disturbingly perfect. Their forms might have been crafted to get us to drop our guard or hold them in higher esteem. Humans are conditioned to think better of more Beautiful individuals and we have to assume they knew that." But Beal shook his head at that "It might not have been obvious but I could see wear on Anemone's outfit, it was old not something made specifically for this. And it was perfectly fitted. If they'd changed their bodies I'd have to assume they'd get new clothes for it. That and if they really were made by people the beauty makes sense" Pyatt scoffed "I doubt they were, alternate dimensions? It's absurd"

Beal shrugged as Langle spoke "well we have to assume it's true until we know it's not. I'm more concerned about this 'Maker'" He had spent some time launching probing questions about the androids, trying to figure out clues about their society and how they thought. But the only thing they seemed to care about discussing was the human they said had saved them and "rebuilt our entire world in days and made it greater in weeks" Which could mean they only had one world or that it was more their metaphorical world. If they one had one world it made sense that'd they only sent one ship, they might not have all that many. "It almost seemed like they deified him, And a man with a god complex and an empire behind him is not a good thing. We need intel on him as soon as possible" Almost was a light word, Anemone at the very least had been vocal about the things the man had apparently done. Pyatt spoke next "Do we think the man could actually be human? A lost explore perhaps? That could be why he encouraged them to save us and make contact" Bael just gave Pyatt a look "They said he explicitly didn't care about us and didn't want to be contacted"

Langle got a thoughtful look at that "What if they just don't want to risk their 'god' or savior leaving and lied about it? Hoping we wouldn't seek him out. If that's true we are practically obligated to at least make sure he's okay. Can't risk a rescue mission exactly, but we can determine if ones needed, or use him as an inside contact."

The group seemed to collectively shrug before Bael spoke "All of this seems like stuff for the delegation to decide once they've finished analyzing the discussion."