It was a beautiful sight, Revan decided, as she watched the majority of the Migrant Fleet slowly drift past a gas giant. Little probes occasionally shot down towards the planet or back towards the fleet, busy harvesting the He3 needed for the bigger ships’ reactors.

It was calming. Especially since the Quarians had the process refined to an artform. A coordinated dance of vessels all buzzing around to keep the fleet as a whole supplied in the shortest time possible.

She couldn’t watch much longer though, there were still several things she needed to do today. Such as dealing with the meeting that was about to start.

Several holobanks lit up right on time and the forms of the Quarian Admirals flickered into view. Revan was briefly reminded of the disappointing meeting with the Citadel Council and her brief lesson on politics with Shepard and Anderson. Though that was mostly just because they were all using holotanks and not because there was a deliberate snub on any of their parts.

Unlike what happened at the Human Councilor’s office, there was simply too much to do to justify all of them traveling to one ship just for a face to face meeting. There were hundreds of ships to coordinate, updates and ready reports from various sub leaders to shift through, and dozens of other tasks to deal with. Each.

It wasn’t everyday that two previously warring species prepared to combine into one entity afterall.

So Revan could forgive the Admirals wanting to make sure everything about today went as smoothly as possible rather than play political games. She actually respected them for it. Especially since her ego wasn’t so fragile she needed the constant assurances to how great she was for allowing this to happen or some such like Malak had degenerated to after his betrayal.

“Are we ready to begin then?” The Empress questioned once the connection between them all stabilized. Mostly rhetorical at this point. Too many things were already in motion to simply stop now.

“The Heavy Fleet is standing by. We’re ready for FTL as soon as we get the word.” Han’Gerrel confirmed.

“We’ve sent a message to all vessels to cease resupply efforts and return to their ships.” Zaal’Koris said. “Once that is complete the Civilian Fleet will be ready as well.”

“Special Projects are secured and waiting on our…escorts…to arrive.” Daro’Xen added, still upset at being forced to acknowledge the Geth would not be subordinated to the Quarians again and would be operating as equals. Which, oddly enough, made her group the hardest to control.

Revan had thought the Heavy Fleet full of Quarians itching for a fight would be the ones she needed to keep an eye on, instead it was the scientists who just couldn’t seem to understand no really meant ‘no’ when it came to trying to enslave the Geth.

“Good, then we are just waiting for the Geth fleet to link up with ours. Admiral Raan, what’s the timeline look like?”

“Forward elements of the Scout Fleet are on their way back after confirming the escort fleet. We should link up with them within an hour and then we will be ready to make the jump to Rannoch.” Shala’Raan reported.

Revan nodded, everything was on schedule then. Something of a novelty when it came to fleets with the numbers they were dealing with but once again, the Quarians had honed this aspect of space travel to a fine art.

“Excellent, then shall we end this now? I’m sure there are still matters that each of you need to address before we go to hyper- to FTL.” she corrected herself.

“Actually, Revan, we had some concerns we wanted to raise and figured this would be the best time.” Shala’Raan spoke up.

Revan’s hand paused over the disconnect button but she had no issue turning to meet the admiral’s own visor.

“Concerns, Admiral?”

“Yes, specifically about the orders to abandon some of our older ships.” Raan clarified. “It’s not that we don’t understand the desire to phase out the more damaged ships, especially since we would be able to relocate the crews to Rannoch and not overstrain the support systems of other ships, but…” She trailed off, apparently having trouble coming up with how to phrase the next part.

“But we don’t trust you.” Han’Gerrel stated bluntly after it was clear Shala’Raan wasn’t going to find a polite way to say things. “You or your Geth. And without those ships we won’t be able to evacuate everyone if this is some elaborate trap. We would be forced to leave some behind for you to do who knows what with.”

“Ehem, not that we are expecting some sort of treachery at this point.” Zaal’Koris jumped in, in a pacifying voice. It actually amused Revan how quick the Admiral spoke up to shield his companion from any anger his blunt statement could have generated. “But we need to keep the safety of the Fleet in mind and several of the ships you have listed for priority dismantling are too important to simply abandon for little reason.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“I understand your hesitation, Admirals. But the reality is that that isn’t your call to make anymore.” Revan reminded them. “And we all have too much to do to repeat this dance of you all saying you cannot trust me and me telling you to do so anyway.”

“We are aware, which is why we wanted this cleared up now rather than let suspicions fester.” Shala’Raan played peacekeeper once again.

“Very well, what questions did you have specifically?”

“Why the sudden demand to have these ships decommissioned?” Han’Gerrel demanded. “Even with the space on Rannoch to live there is no reason to phase this many ships all at once.”

Simple enough. “We need the metal to finish building the fleet that will replace them.” Revan replied. “The Geth were able to supply nearly all of the material needed for the frames and armor without issue but the interior plating is harder to come by since the Geth do not require compartments to be airtight in their own designs.”

“New ships?” Daro’Xen quirked her head. “I wasn’t aware that we would be commissioning new vessels, though I suppose with the Geth’s infrastructure it would be hard to accomplish. I don’t see why this is so important then, yes some ships in the fleet are…less functional…than we would like, but anything you replace them with will not be too much of an overall improvement based on designs available for purchase.” The scientist paused. “…unless you are converting Geth designs to be usable for an organic crew, I suppose. In which case I would be happy to lend my expertise in correcting any flaws-”

“We aren’t using Geth designs.” Revan cut her off. “Modifying those for efficient organic use would take years. The Geth, and Quarians once the initial settlement efforts are completed, will be working to build the designs that I have provided. As for why you haven’t heard about this…I believe we had a meeting scheduled two days from now to discuss shipbuilding. It would have been covered there, but the files are already available for you to look at.”

Daro’Xen immediately pulled up her omnitool and presumably began digging through the files Revan had shared. The others glanced at the files but after a moment dismissed them to look over later.

“That…is another thing we were hoping you would clear up.” Zaal’Koris said hesitantly. “All these designs, they are completely different from anything I’ve ever seen. You talked about technology being given to the Geth, the same Geth who are more advanced than most races in the galaxy. Which really begs the question…who are you? Who are your backers? Because this is beyond you being the face of some splinter group.”

Revan had wondered when they would get around to asking something like that, though she was a little disappointed it hadn’t happened after they arrived at Rannoch. It would have made for fewer distractions.

“I don’t mind answering but is there a particular reason you feel this can’t wait?”

“Is it unreasonable for us to be curious about our new leader?” Shala’Raan said innocently, though she didn’t fool Revan for an instant. It seemed the admirals had picked up her distaste for most of the using Tali’Zorah’s trial as a means to advance various plots and upending Revan’s plan at the same time and were using Shala’Raan as a mouthpiece since Revan had a better impression of her overall.

“I suppose not. What do you want to know?”

“Where do you come from? We know you aren’t human or asari.”

“Very well, this is a bit of a long story but at l suppose you deserve to hear it. In a galaxy far, far away there is a planet named Dantooine…”

-o-

“We might have an issue.” Councilor Valern said as the rest of the councilors settled into the meeting room.

“Another vague rumor about our favorite Empress that deserves our full attention despite doing nothing countless other leaders are doing and hundreds of more pressing matters to discuss?” Anderson sniped but went largely ignored. All of them knew he was due to be replaced in a few weeks and most of them were not even bothering to pretend to respect each other at this point.

“Councilors, please, let’s at least try to keep things civil.” Tevos pleaded. “Valern, what issue do you have to bring up?”

“As it so happens, it does have to do with Revan.”

Spartacus groaned. “What, did she manage to convince the Batarians to join her empire? Are we going to have to seriously consider war with the Terminus Systems now?”

“Thankfully not, but we may have to consider a war between them and the Asari Republic instead. They would be mostly justified as well.”

The other three councilors perked up at the unexpected news.

“Excuse me?!” Tevos practically shrieked in an uncharacteristic break in composure. “What Goddess damned reason could the Republic have for trying to start a war?”

“The attempted assassination of their head of state by a Justicar and a team of Huntresses.” Valern replied, pulling up a file from his omnitool.

The Council watched several camera feeds cut together that showed the masked form of the Sith Empress walking down a city street before she was ambushed. From there it showed her pursuing her attackers, snippets of various traps being set off from security cameras, and a significant amount of collateral damage being done before the Sith headed towards a park area and confronted the Justicar and her team.

The quality was abysmal, but clear enough to show the Justicar’s side was the same that had initiated the hostilities…

…it also showed them getting annihilated by a single combatant.

“This is just some of what the STG teams in the area managed to piece together.” Valern continued. “More instances are being uploaded to the extranet every hour as more people go digging for details. Unfortunately the only footage we’ve retrieved of the main fight has been incidental background shots from cameras that just happened to be pointed in the right direction. Anything directly pointed at the park has been blocked or disabled but they were able to determine all of the Justicar’s team was killed except for possibly one. Which may be a blessing in disguise for us.”

Sparatus leaned forward on his podium. “This is on Illium, correct? Why is this even being broadcast, the governor should have put a lid on everything until we could work out a response.”

“The initial broadcast was made from the governor’s office.” Valern said helplessly.

Tevos seemed to snap back to attention. “What possessed her to do that? Anything involving the death of a Justicar, especially one involving a major public figure should have been fully investigated before any action was taken!”

“It seems she was using this incident to distract from a major gun fight that was ravaging other parts of the city. A full conflict between Jane Shepard and her crew, Liara T’Soni, and the Shadow Broker’s forces. We’ve also held back Revan’s status from the public until we had more information and could avoid causing another Geth panic. Governor Raus didn’t know who she was attempting to use as a distraction.”

“Damn, if a Spectre was implicated in causing the death of a Justicar, that could have kicked off its own war. Is there a chance we can wash our hands of this by disavowing Shepard as a Spectre?”

“Now hold on a minute!” Anderson objected explosively at the Turian Councilor. “I have yet to see any evidence Shepard was even involved with this other Justicar. I won’t let her take the fall for us just because it would be convenient!”

“It wouldn’t work anyway.” Tevos sighed as she cradled her head. “Revan wasn’t seen leaving with the Normandy so it would be easy to say there was no affiliation. It also doesn’t help that there was another Spectre involved with this mess, so if that ever comes to light we will lose all credibility.”

Valern nodded. “Yes, Spectre Vasir. She submitted a report about being involved in some capacity. Thankfully she was not captured on recording just yet but we can’t risk it coming out later. Disavowing Shepard without solid proof is not possible either.”

“I think the obvious thing to do is figure out why an Asari Justicar decided to launch a full assassination attempt on what should be to the wider galaxy a completely random person.” Anderson said drolly. “Rather than just trying to figure out how to blame someone else for our problems.”

The other three councilors exchanged glances but ultimately agreed.

The clock on controlling the narrative of what happened in Nos Astra was ticking. And if they wanted to be the ones to come out ahead, they needed a more complete picture on what happened.

Especially if they wanted to avoid the newest warlord in the galaxy using this as leverage to make demands of her own.