I Own Nothing of the Copyright Materiel Present in the Story.

Sorry the update took so long, and that the chapter is on the short side. I simply don't have much free time anymore so updating is a last priority. I will try and make it more frequent for all of my stories from here on though.

Honestly, I miss writing to much to not make time for it now. Like an itch that just has to be scratched, you know.

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TSV Perseverance, Fourth Fleet, Patrol Flotilla

Capt. Caeldus walked up to the bridge of his ship, the irritation rolling off of him in palpable waves. He had spent the last week exterminating pirates from the terminus system, his routine patrol into the Ismar Frontier should have been a simple one.

The cluster was in the midst of colonization by the Asari, it was practically council space.

Someone would have to be mad to outright attack it, only no one ever accused pirates of having an overabundance of good sense.

The raiders had been caught attacking a Volus merchant convoy in the Elysta system, we hadn't been there in time to save most of them. When the pursuit began, we believed it was only a handful of overreaching cutthroats.

The large flotilla of ramshackle raiders waiting for us near the Aquila system relay put those thoughts to rest.

Caeldus had lost two frigates in the engagement, the spirit of the fourth fleet most assuredly weeps for their loss. His only consolation was that while he had lost two out of his twenty vessels, the pirates had lost half of their thirty.

Something in this, however, simply wasn't sitting right with him. The destruction of the two frigates had been done by one ship, a Batarian cruiser that had been at the head of the pirate flotilla.

Why would they be involved in this?

Batarians' generally only attacked the humans so blatantly, and even then it was always through intermediaries. Expatriates maybe…there was no telling how many rouge elements the Hegemony had lost control of in its own government.

Who was behind the raids is unimportant, at least for the moment, what mattered now was putting the last of the pirates down before they fled out of reach.

We had followed them through the relay to the Imir system in the Eagle Nebula, it was the only cluster of the terminus system to boarder official council space. Even so, it was a bog of slavers and merc groups…if only the Hierarchy would give the order for its purge.

The fighting between the two groups had been an exercise in frustration. Hit and run tactics from the raiders had only served to thin their own numbers, but still they insisted on trying. It would have been a simple thing to wipe them out in a standing engagement, but the cowards fled after every lost ship.

It's likely they were trying to force the eight frigates left at the relay to blockade it into coming to the flotillas rescue. Caeldus smirked at the thought, it was a decent plan, too bad they were shit at combat, or it might have even worked.

Now all of those skirmishes were irrelevant, after a day's flight to pursue the last fleeing remnants to the Strabo system, a star with a single gas giant, sitting alone at the far end of the nebula, they would put an end to this annoyance.

"Captain, they seem to be heading into the far end of the asteroid belt."

"Pursue, this chase ends today."

"Yes, Sir." The helmsman continued the course, passing by the gas giant Antigar and the abandoned Jarrahe Station as they rapidly gained ground on their fleeing prey.

It was another hour before they reached the asteroid field, the sight the greeted them was one of surprise and horror. The Batarian cruiser was hovering protectively…in front of a dormant mass relay, and the center ring was beginning to spin.

"Tell me they're not about to…"

The Helmsman never got to finish the sentence, the relay quickly spun to life, and the Batarian cruiser with the four remaining pirate vessels were shot off to systems unknown.

"Orders, Captain?"

All the bridge stared, waiting on baited breath to hear their CO's order. Caeldus had never seen such foolishness, to activate a dormant mass relay. Were the Batarians trying to start another Rachni war? Hadn't the whole galaxy learned their lesson about the dangers of this kind of reckless stupidity?

Even the most vicious Terminus warlords didn't activate dormant relays, the risks were simply too high. The humans were the only race to even try within the last few centuries, but they're primitives who hadn't known better.

The Batarians though, they've been part of Citadel space far too long to plead ignorance. None of that mattered now, however, a dormant relay had been used…

He couldn't risk another Relay 314 incident…

He could only quietly sigh to himself, thinking how easily this could escalate. Most of the galaxy still questioned our actions with the humans. General Desolas Arterius did nothing technically wrong there, but there were still many that criticize the General, and by extension the Hierarchy, for firing first instead of hailing the foreign vessels.

"Helmsman, send would for all ships to form a blockade around the relay. Call the rest of the fleet here as well, no point leaving them where they are now."

I watched for a moment as the shell shock soldier shakes himself awake and starts relaying my orders.

"Lieutenant, get me a line to the council…we'll do things the Asari way for now."

NSV Stendarr's Bounty, Supply Transport

"Captain, unidentified vessel is approaching on to the starboard side!"

"Pirates?" Captain Arvin looks to his helmsman, a young Argonian who had transferred onboard back on Grey March. Pirates were rare in the Empire, but sometimes desperate men who couldn't make it in the Thieves' guild would steal a ship and start raiding.

It never ended well for them in the long run, no Emperor's ever tolerated such actions for long. These men tarnished everything the "Thief" stood for, their actions simply brutality, no skill or finesse to them.

"No, sir, their vessel doesn't match any know specifications."

"…See if you can hail them, but get the hive core ready in case we need to jump."

"Yes, sir" A thick silence descended over the crew as we all waited for the unknown vessel to respond, we were only a cargo vessel after all, making first contact with another race wasn't something any of them were prepared for.

Sure, most on board were official military, but they were the civic service branch of the legion. He could only hope they didn't open fire, the wards on cargo vessels were only a small fraction of their combat oriented cousins. Taking a closer look as the Vessel, Arvin realized something that made his Nordic blood run cold, there was a cruiser in the midst of the rather motley looking collection of ships.

A cruiser class vessel meant powerful forward weaponry, if that ship opened fire, they were all likely dead. "Lieutenant, relay the vessels appearance and position to the Legion garrison on Kyne's Garden. Helmsmen, has there been any response?"

"No, sir." The alarms on the deck blared to life, as the cruisers crude escort fanned out around it in what looked like a firing line.

"Shit, get us out of here!"

It was too late for that however, before they could jump the cruiser opened fire. The hive core couldn't activate quick enough to save the ship, the explosions rocked throughout the vessel as the transport is all but ripped in two.

The Captain only has enough time to get a short message off before the entirety of the ship erupts into flames.

"Vessel lost, unknown's hostile…"

BHSV Hauler, Hegemony Scout Vessel

"Any signs of life?"

"No, Sir. The ship has gone cold."

Barak smiled, the Turion patrol had been annoyingly persistent, but he now had his prize. A new sentient race, what's better is that their ship technology seems to be pitiful if that ships shields were anything to go by.

"Scan the system, I want to know their world is." They scurried about after He'd given the order, the slavers that were picked up on Omega were pliant enough, so long as the promise of credits and flesh were kept. The cheap, worn-out, slaves he'd placed on each ship, for their amusement, had silenced any grumblings over their dead compatriots.

Besides, to them it only meant more wealth to go around.

That was fine, so long as they remembered who got the new flesh first…

When the Admiral of the third fleet had assigned him the mission, originally Barak had thought it a dead end. After all, most dormant relays that were activated had been uninhabited on the other side. Still, the mission was a success now, and the new race would bring new riches to the Hegemony.

So long as they grew to love their chains...

Well, such things could be taught, eventually.

"Commander, we've found their world. It's about five hours due east."

"Set course, and order all raiding parties to get their asses geared up and down to the hangers in two hours. Or I'll put the collar around their throats myself." The last was spoken in a threatening growl, slavers were the perfect expendable fodder, but unfortunately, they took orders with equal diligence.

After a few hours' flight, we came into view of the worlds, a large garden planet, easily twice the size of Khar'shan...It seems the Hegemony just found a new bread basket for itself. Already populated with a health supply of slave labor as well, there was a good deal of luck to be had today.

There were only three settlements on the world, however, which meant the planet was likely an early colony attempt. At least it meant the slaves would have strong backs from the labor.

Shame their first colony would end such failure really. The cruel smile the spread crossed his face at the thought made some of the new blood raiders cringe.

"Deploy!"

With the command, the slavers descended on the waiting world bellow.

If they knew what was awaiting them…perhaps they'd have fled back through the relay.