Stranded: An Asari Web Revolution (Mass Effect AAR)

[Silfae]

Index:
Prelude: System suxs. Kthxdie (2200)
Chapter 1: *Neoillium, actually. (2200)
Chapter 2: new home sweet home :’( (2200)
Chapter 3: Relay-free FTL FTW (2200 - 2201)
Chapter 4: Didnt realized the 3-way (2201)
Chapter 5: So sorry but not sorry (2202)
Chapter 6: Scanning some f***ing rock (2202 - 2203)
Chapter 7: Gone & Unforgotten (2203 - 2206)
Chapter 8: hard 2 do in space (2206)
Chapter 9: F*** reasons (2206)
Chapter 10: friendly girl-to-crone chat (2206)
Chapter 11: embrace her 4 me (2206 - 2207)
Chapter 12: evrtng hrtz again, bt wutevA (2207)
Chapter 13: Details plz (2207)
Chapter 14: tactical evaluation (2207 - 2214)

Chapter 15: f**king on First Contact (2214 – 2220)​

Leaders

Prelude: System suxs. Kthxdie​

“Hello, sisters and daughters of Mothership Larelei!” the automated voice echoed over the smoking corridors and the moaning of the wounded.

“This is your friendly assistant Lewina speaking, on behalf of our sweet mama Matriarch Faraldae, who is very busy right now checking on the wellbeing of all of our precious crew and passengers!”

The holographic interface of the virtual intelligence appeared in the few platforms still working, but barely anyone of the active crew was minding to it, with all the work needed to help the victims of the crash and to quell the various fires.

“She’d like to tell you that “New Matrons” project is still up and going, I know we’re all very excited about that! She’d also like to inform you again not to worry about our current ship malfunctions, especially now that our operators have confirmed we are in an entirely Reaper-free zone. We might have had a rough start, but Matriarch Faraldae wants you to know that she really thinks we are on the right track now!”

The passengers’ quarters, on the other hand, filled to the brim with Matrons and Maidens, had most of the asari surrounding the holographic images of the VI, but, even then, the majority of them were looking down, typing on their extranet devices.

“...We know you all have many questions and the Matriarchs cannot wait to answer them all to appease your curiosity and your doubts. My VI friends and colleagues are already tirelessly working to order and prioritize your queries, please feel free to forward more: deliberation will occur within the next four hours and we need to have all of your opinions to do this right! And a fair day to all of you!”

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Blood Moons – Group Chat​

Imina207: O-M-Goddess this is SO stupid!
DrP333m: ikr?
Mob_Overruled_01: Just calling it now: we’re lost 4ever.
DrP333m: orly? That bad?
DrP333m: What’s the real word in control room?
Mob_Overruled_01: Your so good drP, not hacked that yet?
DrP333m: Lolright. Guess it’s really bad. Mashed engines n stuff?
Mob_Overruled_01: >.>
Mob_Overruled_01: <.<
Mob_Overruled_01: >.>
Mob_Overruled_01: ...maybe so…
Mob_Overruled_01: ...maybe worse.
lilTramp121: lol
DrP333m: **** me ggss.
lilTramp121: Where’s Elio and Lys?
Mob_Overruled_01: Planet was pretty lucky landing though. Breathable air et al.
DrP333m: Whoopety-****ing do.
Pterosiame: Elio’s on the Matriarchs’ chat, lilT, I think Sulysy is still working in the control room.
DrP333m: Oh you’re here ptero.
lilTramp121: k thx
=EVLani=: World still falling guys?
DrP333m: What?
Mob_Overruled_01: Hi EVL.
lilTramp121: hi
DrP333m: Yeah, hi
Pterosiame: Hello, EVLani.
Imina207: hi
=EVLani=: Imina, sorry about your mom, just heard about it.
Imina207: Thx, EVL.
Pterosiame: Why? What happened to her?
=EVLani=: Just saw her name on last confirmed casualties list.
DrP333m: ****ing navigators can’t drive for ****.
DrP333m: Sorry about that, Imina.
Pterosiame: I didn’t know either, there’s so much happening I can barely keep track.
lilTramp121: yah
Imina207: Don’t worry about it, guys. I’ll be fine.
Imina207: What were you saying EVL
Imina207:?
=EVLani=: right
=EVLani=: Was in Mama’s chat, Elio’s roasting some dumb Maiden on the four hours delib. and the whole New Matr.
=EVLani=: I think she’s coming up on soon.
=EVLani=: Told me to check if your all ready.
Pterosiame: What?
=EVLani=: You know...
Pterosiame: ...
DrP333m: c’mon ptero, don’t be an ***** now.
Mob_Overruled_01: Ptero
Mob_Overruled_01: trust me
Mob_Overruled_01: If you knew what we know, you’d be totally on our side on this.
Pterosiame: It would help if you told us.
Mob_Overruled_01: Elio’s gonna do it soon anyway.
Mob_Overruled_01: If you don’t trust us, trust Lys. Cos mama Far & her ****s totally screwed us with this trip.
Pterosiame: We could have been dead if not for them. Or worse.
DrP333m: c’mon! youre one to talk
DrP333m: how many dumb maidns here could’ve been enrolled?
DrP333m: uh?
Pterosiame: I know,
DrP333m: ****ing mamas got us running off cos maidens get to tell them what to tell everyone.
Eliokoyakshi: Maidens r stupid.
=EVLani=: #NotAllMaidens
DrP333m: #ButAllMatrons
lilTramp121: lol
lilTramp121: & hi Elio!!!
HZ=Alara: ELIOOO!
DrP333m: matrons get their maiden kids to vote like they want.
DrP333m: gotta follow the tides.
Imina207: **** tides.
DrP333m: **** system ****ing *** censorship.
Eliokoyakshi: “poor me I just wanna party and be safe plz help me mama govt how’s my le’kus lookin?” dumb *****. **** tides.
Pterosiame: Not much success I gather?
Eliokoyakshi: Lys & I tried, but those dumb ****s can’t grow a ****ing spine even when their life depends on it. We’ve got enough clout to get some dumb “exclusive” ten minutes chat with miss Moderator _BlueHawke_.
Eliokoyakshi: Just turn that channel on and keep ready.
Eliokoyakshi: DrP?
DrP333m: ya
DrP333m: I got it
DrP333m: you just say the word.
HZ=Alara: SOOO excited for debate!
Pterosiame: Hmpf.
Eliokoyakshi: You just link with Lys, Ptero. She’ll tell you what you need to know now.
Pterosiame: Fine.

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*****************​

Elioka quickly glanced away from her omni-tool, leaning over the corner of the corridor to see if it was still empty, then at the watch on her screen, at the locked door on the left and finally back at the half-written post.

Come on, Ptero, she thought, let’s get on with this.

She let out a sigh of frustration as the new message from the Assistant Moderator Leilana T’lukon appeared on the main screen, quickly overflown by ‘Like’ points and positive comments, cluttering the side screen.

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_BlueHawke_: I understand your concerns, Eliokoyakshi, let me tell you that you’ve raised some very interesting points (which is why Matriarch Faraldae asked personally to speak with you on this matter, by the way) […]

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Elioka interrupted her read to roll her eyes.
Sure she did…

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_BlueHawke_: [...] We understand that some of our youngest and more adventurous Maidens would have preferred to join the rest of our sisters of Thessia and our brothers and sisters of the Alliance, and test their mettle against the Reapers, but, as you can see from what happened just a few hours ago, there’s a lot of adventure and excitement to be had here as well. And we cannot stress enough how important your task will be in the next years. You’ve been chosen for this very special project, which, though it pains us to say it, could be fundamental for the survival of the Asari. And I know you might feel a little frustrated, all cooked up in this ship for all this time, I can see why you might feel some peer pressure, but that’s no reason to get so antagonistic, don’t you think? These are extreme circumstances, you might think our system is not working at its best now, but just you wait until we’ve started to colonize New Thessia, and start meeting new people and exploring new worlds, that frown will turn upside down in a minute.

Eliokoyakshi: Goddess I thought I was making conversation with an actual asari, not another dumb bot. It is kind of funny how easily you get to avoid every point I’ve made, just spew some sugary gibberish and get a crowd cheering. But I suppose that’s what you get when half of the crowd is made up of people which any other sentient species gifted with one lick of sense would not consider fit for any sort of decision-making, let alone politic & military deliberation. But I guess it’s just fine. It’s just fine that we had to abandon our sisters in the hour of need, to deceive all our allies (many of whose genetic material has been stolen by the above-mentioned half of the crowd), to spend precious money and troops for our selfish need of self-preservation, money and troops that could have helped to save not only our sisters back home, but the entire Galaxy. All well and fine. I guess some of our dear expectant ladies in the passengers’ quarters are even proud of having turned themselves into gene-stealing baby-making slimes. It must be why some of them sound so indignant when we other reasonable and rational citizens object to their policies…

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As she expected, a lot of negative ratings and comments were quickly attached to her response, but she had little time to scroll through them, before a noise from the corridor caught her attention again.
Vethy was coming towards her, accompanied by a few commandos, armed and ready.

“Finally!” syllabled Elioka, with a look of exasperation on her face, before gesturing her to come closer and look at her screen.

“Only three minutes.” Said Vethy, crossing her arms. “Maybe you should stop and focus on the-“

“No, this is important too.” Interrupted her Elioka, already typing a response while waiting for the next message. “The dumb ditz is taking her time this round, this oughta be good.” Glancing at her expression, Elioka shook her head and led out a snort. “Goddess, Ptero, try and be a little more invested, would you? This is pretty exciting stuff, why you have to be such a doormat?”

“This is no silly matter.” Answered Vethy.

“Whatever. Just have yours keep an eye on the door and corridors, I’m almost done here. Ah! There’s the azure’s answer!”

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_BlueHawke_: These are some pretty toxic statements you are making, Eliokoyakshi. Many of the people you are so brazenly insulting had to abandon their families and loved ones for this mission, they might never see them again, and now, on top of that, they have to listen to you, cheapening their sacrifice and calling them thieves? I’m sorry if my words offend you, I’ve been trying to discuss this kindly with you, but you do not seem willing to take part in this discussion with an objective mind. And let’s not even get started on all the vicious rumors I’ve been hearing about your private club, these “Blood Moons”. We all understand the need for a young Maiden to vent out frustration every once in a while, but that is no excuse to make your other sisters feel miserable when they’ve done nothing, is it? Once New Thessia will be established, nothing will stop you from searching your happiness and adventure elsewhere, but you’re not making that day come closer if you keep obstructing the system with these nasty, fascist ideas. Or do you think that your personal happiness counts more than that of all your sisters of the Mothership? Try and read again what you’ve written, and this time pretend you are a Matron (and I’m sure you’ll be a wonderful Matron, in a few centuries!), would you like to be told that you don’t deserve to speak anymore, just because you want to have a family of your own? Would you feel happy about that? And what if we were to silence you, just because we disagree? Don’t you see that this very system you despise is the one that gives you a platform to express yourself, just the same as everyone of your sisters? We might agree that it is not perfect, but it is certainly the best possible option at the moment. You have the opportunity to have a voice, regardless of where or who you are, to directly affect politics and easily involve as much or as little as you like in the system, with full transparence. This is such a unique and wonderful system that we asari have created, and you’d like to regress backwards?

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Elioka had already finished most of his response; she gave a passing read on the new message to make some slight adjustments and sent it immediately after.

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Eliokoyakshi: Oh, I see. So we’re not going to talk about how polarizing Matriarch Accounts tend to attract support only because they’re old hags, or holo-stars just because they make some Maiden’s azure wet. We’re not going to talk about how last year, Ennae T’sariune, a ****ing glorified porn star, had more than 200k idiot followers voting for anything SHE voted for just because they liked her ***? We’re not going to talk about the VI matrix scandal of six months ago? VI scrutiny patterns being reprogrammed by Matriarchs to give the spotlight to specific users to rig the votes on the Reaper War? I bet this whole “New Matrons” project has been voted on that skewered excuse for a democracy. We’re not talking about Maidens getting encouraged to wasting one third of their lives as *****s and grunts on foreign worlds, letting old hags run the show in their place? We’re not talking about Matrons being vilified for taking asari mates for idiotic obsolete superstitions and encouraged to not care about their alien mates since “they’re gonna die soon anyway”? We’re not talking about how this oh-so-equal democratic system still employs backward-thinking mass-murdering vigilantes who are endorsed by the States, but answer to no one, who are idolized by idiotic girls and mainstream media even though they get free leave to slaughter petty thieves and litterers? Alright. If we’re not talking about this, let’s talk about how this totally perfect direct democracy is currently withholding information from the general population of this ship regarding the state of the Larelei (engines and shields completely destroyed), and on how the officers were so desperate to flee from the Reapers that they managed to have the “last hope of our species” to crash on an unknown planet of unknown system of unknown GALAXY with no contact left with Thessia or the Alliance, and no Mass Relay in the vicinity. Which, for those reading who don’t understand basic space travel, means that we’re STRANDED HERE FOREVER UNLESS SOMEONE COMES TO SAVE US WHICH THEY WON’T BECAUSE THEY’RE DEAD OR HUSKS NOW. I guess it’s only transparent as the Matriarchs want it to be.

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This time the Blood Moons were the first to Like and share the comment, managing to balance the negative backlash against Elioka’s response, but, not to her surprise, there was still a slight majority downrating her. Leilana’s retort was quick and short, probably to hold off negativity until she managed to cobble together a more complete argument, but Elioka had no more time for that. She looked at the watch and gave a quick nod to Vethy, who looked more and more impatient as the time passed, and had already ordered two her commandos to place themselves at the sides of the locked door.

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_BlueHawke_: Citations needed, dear Eliokoyakshi. I’d also like to remind you the etiquette of this public forum, you’ve breached a lot of rules with your last post. Perhaps you should calm down and think more before typing. We know tensions are high, we’ve been through a lot recently, but if you want to be taken seriously when you put yourself amongst the “rational” people, you might want to show more composure in your responses.

Eliokoyakshi: You slimy duplicitous ****. Not even gonna try and answer any of my points? **** you. I’m gonna plaster the ship’s deck with your ***ing unused *** brain.

_BlueHawke_: You’re so transparent. Maybe have some time out, clear your head? I’m not really going to lose my sleep for some empty threats sent through an extranet conversation. I guess that’s another advantage of this system.

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The corridors lights went out and Elioka heard the distinctive click of the door’s automatic lock being disarmed. Putting away her omni-tool, she raised her hand towards the unlocked door, slamming it open with a biotic push.
Some of the asari officers on the other side let out a chocked shriek, before the commandos opened fire on them.

“Actually...” gloated Elioka, moving towards the Assistant Moderator, frozen in the center of the room.
“...your system sucks.” She enveloped Leilana’s neck in a pulsating glow and raised her from the ground, before sending her crashing with her head towards the ceiling.

“‘Kay-thanks-die.”

*****************
*****************
*****************​

No Screenshots?
This is just the prelude, ingame screenshots will appear from the next chapter and following. Everything is happening in the mothership in this part, so there really wasn't anything to use.

But what about the Sheelikoi?
I had to put the Hypercoil on hold for a while, since the sector emancipation bug makes impossible to run a non-collectivist slaver Empire (in fact, the Sheelikoi aren't even tecnically a playable race in my rooster anymore, since apparently their Spiritualist/Xenophobe ethos is no longer compatible with the Decadent trait).

 

[Silfae]

Chapter 1: *Neoillium, actually.​

Elioka slammed the mangled body across the room and onto another asari, then whipped out her gun and joined the shooting alongside Vethy and the other commandos.
In a few seconds, the auxiliary control room had been taken over, with the few surviving officers taken into custody.
Elioka gave herself a look around, while typing on her omni-tool to establish a comlink with Peeemsy. Vethy, in the meantime, had reached the back of one of the consoles, where Sulysy had found cover during the shooting, and seemed to be checking on her.

“You still in one piece, Lys?” Shouted Elioka, giving a distracted glance in the couple’s direction. “Don’t get all mushy now, guys, still a lot of work ahead.”
Vethy nodded, helping Sulysy to get up and giving her a passing caress, before moving back to the center of the room, addressing her commandos. “Have all the captives escorted to a safe location, separated. Anyone tries something funny, knock them out.”
“Yes ma’am.” The soldiers answered readily.
“Elio?” asked Sulysy, already at the main control panel of that post. “Can you get Peem to-?”
“I’m on it, I’m on it!” interrupted her the asari, with impatience, tapping her foot on the ground while waiting for the connection. “Peem? Peem! You better not be f***ing leaving us now, I swear I’m-!”
“What?” the voice came muffled in Elioka’s ear.
“Finally! First phase all good, we need power back on this section, so Lys can do her thing.”
“One moment.”
“It better f***ing be one.”
Elioka crossed her arms, nervously looking around in the dark room, lit only by the few torches brought in by the commandos. She could hear some alarm bell going off in the distance, which increased her sense of urgency.
Come on come on come on! Every second we lose the mamas will be better prepared!
Some of the captives being dragged away were trying to ask what was happening still, but the commandos just ignored them.
“Done.” Peeemsy’s voice was accompanied by the lights switching on again and a sigh of relief from Elioka.
“About bloody damn time. Now, let’s get this show really started. Lys, I want you first-thing to track down the Justicar, you zero in, Peem locks their area up ASAP. Check the passengers section first, sure as s*** they’re either getting here to smoke us, or there to protect the poor poor mamas. I don’t want any of them mucking it up while we march to main control.”
“On it.” Sighed Sulysy, typing on her console. “I can’t believe we’re actually doing this...”
“I know, right? It’s kind of intoxicating, really. Come on, Ptero, let’s go kick some wrinkled Matriarch tzu.”
“Right behind you...” answered Vethy, in her usual monotone, giving sign to a couple of commandos to follow her.
“Goddess’ tits, Ptero.” Sneered Elioka. “We’re in the middle of a battle making bloody history here, at least pretend some excitement, will you?”
“She saves that warrior-gasm for the post-battle with Lys, you know.” Chuckled Peeemsy through the comlink.
“Pfh-!”
“What was that?” asked the commando, a few steps behind.
“Nothing.” Answered Elioka, holding back a smirk.

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With elevators, monorails and most of the lights out, moving through the Mothership was a slow and dangerous process, but Elioka had spent the last weeks patrolling and studying the structure of that vessel, preparing for that day, and so she tried to lead her squad as fast as she could.
Most of the corridors of that area had been left empty after the system shut down by Peeemsy, the squad only found a few strugglers and some scared crewmembers hiding in corners. Elioka knew that most of the defense forces were either entrenching to defend the Matriarchs or being diverted to the other areas, where the other Blood Moons were creating louder distractions. Their group chat was filled with the last updates on the users’ shows of military prowess, but at that moment Elioka could only give it some passing glances every once in a while, to get an idea of how things were going on the other fronts; she had to be focused on the path ahead.

The second control post had quite a few huntresses protecting the officers; Elioka and Vethy used their biotics to force the door half-open, while the other commandos shot through.
“Elio, we got something.” Peeemsy’s voice reached her ear over the fight’s noise.
“A little busy right now. Make it quick.”
“Turns out some of the Justicar were sent on a recon mission this morning.”
“Outside? How nobody knew of this?!”
“I don’t f***ing know, but Lys says they’re scheduled to come back in half an hour.”
Elioka moved on the side, exerting more pressure on her portion of the door to let a few of the commandos in. “Alright, we might have some change of plans. This is too good an opportunity. Keep me posted on anything new.”
“’Kay.”
Elioka was still focusing on her biotics and thinking how to better exploit that new intel, when one of the commandos shouted from the inside: “Area secure, ma’am.”
“F***ing-A.” Elioka nodded to Vethy and they jumped in together, letting their hold go, which made the door slam close behind them. “We’ve got some major development, Ptero.”
“Ma’am,” asked one of the commandos. “What should we do with them this time?”
“Uff...” Elioka looked impatiently at the new captives. They didn’t have time to drag them away to a safe zone from that area; if it had been for her, she’d just have them killed, but she knew Vethy might have not appreciated that. “Just stun the c***s. Oh, and link this post on Peem’s shadow grid. ...Come here, Ptero...” She put an arm around the lieutenant’s shoulder and moved on the side, lowering her tone.
“Peem says some of the Justicars are out of Larelei. I doubt we can get this thing sorted out to prepare a welcoming party before they come back, so I want you to take some of yours and head to the nearest hangar, take some star-fighters and blast them from above.”
“What about you?” asked Vethy.
“What about me? I’ll be fine, not many commandos still loyal to the big mamas, the Justicars are our main concern.”
Vethy sighed, still not entirely convinced about splitting the squad, but finally agreed with her.
“That’s it!” said Elioka, giving her a pack on the back and turning to address the rest of the squad. “Let’s get moving, guys, lots of shooting ahead of us still.”

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With the squad reduced, Elioka had to proceed with even greater care. Ironically, the defense on the next post was led by a tough, old commando, whose huntresses managed to hold off Elioka’s first assault, kill one of her own and wound another two before being taken down.
The two posts after that offered less resistance luckily, and, after those, she joined with two of her other lieutenants, gaining some much needed reinforcements for the final push. In the meantime, Vethy had managed to take off, outside of the Mothership, only to discover a lot of other asari had thought about hightailing for the hangars when the lights went out. Elioka was forced to order a few other squads to go cover that front, some at the Mothership’s defense stations and some at the other hangars, to secure more ships and fight back. With the Mothership unable to take off anytime soon, they needed to have at least a majority of the star-fighters under control: if they allowed some of the loyalists to gain the upper hand on the air space, they would’ve been trapped in the Larelei.

Elioka bit off another chunk of energy bar, looking at the new prisoners being handcuffed and dragged on the other side of the room. The captive huntresses looked mostly ashamed or resentful, but the officers and moderators seemed just scared and confused. It was as if they didn’t even comprehend why they were being attacked by other asari. Perhaps some of them thought they’d just been indoctrinated.
Once finished her meal, she stretched her arms and pulled herself up. “Alright, guys, time’s up, break’s over.”
After some indecisiveness, she decided to put back her Acolyte pistol and equip her shotgun instead. With most of the Justicars out, she didn’t expect to find a lot of biotic resistance in the following points, but, more importantly, she had already wasted a lot of energy up to that point and didn’t want to reach the final battle so tired to not be able to even use her biotics. It had been nearly five hours since the hostilities had started, her squad had been moving through the Mothership restlessly, to gain as much ground as possible and catch as many loyalists unprepared as possible.
As she unlocked the expensive Disciple gun, one of her mother’s many gifts, she couldn’t fail to think about her.
Illium was holding pretty well.. maybe she’s still alive. Of course, who knows when we’re even going to get back there now. If at all...
It was all surreal, in a way. It wasn’t as if Elioka had never fantasized about overthrowing the corrupt asari government by force in the last few years, but she hoped that it would have been something global, straightening up Thessia to make it better prepared to fight against the Reapers. Instead, they were just squabbling for control of a ship of survivors, lost in foreign space. For all she knew, the Asari Republics might have been destroyed by then. And, if the Reapers found a way to get to the Larelei, all of her work would have been for nothing: they were in no position to fight nor to run.
She shook her head to free her mind from those ill thoughts, and signaled her squad to assume formation.
I can’t think of this now. First we take over the Larelei, then we think about what to do with it.

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Blood Moons – Group Chat​

HZ=Alara: Check it out guys
HZ=Alara: etrn://zapphiresnap.the/Alara/archive/latest?fp=21084127962962
HZ=Alara: Totally wasted a commando through her nose.
HZ=Alara: She didn’t got time to shoot back.
DrP333m: nice
SuperMicco777: Hey DrP, where’s all the others?
DrP333m: busy fighting n stuff
SuperMicco777: Ya, I know.
SuperMicco777: I mean
SuperMicco777: Y no updates?
DrP333m: lots of heat where’s elio & ptero
DrP333m: too busy now
eeeEEE000EEEeee: **** YOU PSYCHOS YOU KILLED MY FRIEND!!!
Mob_Overruled_01: O sod off.
DrP333m: what a tool how’d you even got in here
eeeEEE000EEEeee: YOU ****S!!!!!!!0!0!
HZ=Alara: Coming for you next
HZ=Alara: fair warning
=EVLani=: lol

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Elioka rolled on the ground to avoid the first series of gunshots, and raised her hand to form a biotic shield to stop the second. Still kneeling on the ground, she shot back at the enemy commando, blowing up one of her legs.
She barely had the time to cheer, that she felt dragged away from the ground and towards a whirling warp sphere, shining and pulsating in the middle of the main control room.
“Oh, F*** ME!”
She slammed on a couple of desks and one of her commandos while flying towards the anomaly, desperately trying to hold onto something, when she finally saw the Matriarch generating the sphere and shot a burst of laser to her chest. Having fallen painfully back on solid ground, Elioka quickly crawled behind cover, trying to get an idea of the general situation.
They had finally reached the main control room and, as expected, it was a mess: biotics on both sides twisting and blowing up people, bullets and laser beams changing trajectory or getting pulverized before reaching any target, automated turrets rattling all over the ceilings... it was hard to even understand what was happening at times.
Elioka quickly peaked out of cover to discharge her gun a couple of times, before getting back down. She saw an enemy huntress running on her left side, holding her wounded leg, and shot her; then, enveloping her corpse in dark energy, she tossed it back across the room, hoping it would crash into some of the other loyalists.
With her tech shields recharged, she gave a few deep breaths and moved again outside of cover, running at the first commando she saw; she slid on the floor at the last second to avoid her fire and shot her from below. Elioka flipped, catching the opponent as she fell and using her as a shield against another enemy as she got back up, then she slammed her against a huntress with another surge of dark energy.
The strain made her black out for a second.
When her vision cleared again, she saw another Matriarch trying to conjure up a new warp sphere, and she fired a shot at her, barely aiming.
Other Blood Moons were gaining ground, and one of her squad came to her side, offering her shoulder to stand on.
“Are you alright, ma’am?”
Elioka nodded, clearing her throat and trying to keep her gun up. “I’m fine, let’s just-”
The other asari suddenly pushed her down, falling with her, to avoid a sudden burst of fire from one of the turrets.
“Stay here, ma’am, you’re wounded.”
“The f*** I am!” only after shouting the answer, a surge of pain made Elioka realize she had a stream of blood running over her arm. Silently swearing against her clumsiness, she begrudgingly gave a nod to the soldier. “Fine. I’ll stay here. Go back fighting.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The other Blood Moon remained near her for a few minutes still, shooting from her cover, before moving away. Elioka tried her best to stop the bleeding with her omni-tool and some medigel, then accessed her group’s chat to check on the progress on the other fronts. While she scrolled through the last messages, she decided to also call for Peem on her private interlink channel.
“Peem, you’ve been one quiet b**** recently. Is there something I need to worry about?”
“Don’t you have a control room to take over?”
“I’m on a break.”
“Right...”
“Just-” Elioka interrupted herself, recoiling at a particularly close shot. “-answer the f***ing question. And why is the chat filled with bimbos posting selfies with corpses!?! Just purge that s*** out.”
“Really? You calling me to take care of that now? Really? It’s just some girls having fun.”
“No! Are you crazy? There’s all sorts of people reading that, I don’t want to give that image while we’re in the middle of a f***ing revolution, have our enemies tell everyone that we’re CORPSE-F***ING PSYCHOS! Get it off!”
“Sheeeh.. someone’s jumpy. Fine, fine, whatever. I’ll make some cleanup. Anything else?”
“What’s you and Lys doing? And what about Ptero?”
“We’re all pretty good, here. Got to reprogram a couple of VI b****es still, but my grid is pretty stable. Once you’ve taken the main control room, we can reprogram the entire thing and have complete control over the Mothership.”
“Ptero. What about Ptero?”
“She confirmed two more Justicars taken down outside. The heat is steaming off now, but the bad news is that’s because a lot of them is just fleeing.”
“What? The Justicars?”
“Nooh.. the other mamas’ b****es who got to the ships. Thinking they snatched some other stuff too before calling it quits.”
“The f*** are they even going?”
“I don’t know? Not far, that’s for sure.”
“Fine, we’ll deal with that later, if Ptero asks, tell her to keep near the Mothership and focus on the Justicars, the cowards we can deal with later.”

*****************​

Spending the last part of the final battle tucked behind a control panel did not do well to improve Elioka’s disposition, but she could at least take solace in their impending victory, after a while.
Once the main control room was pacified, Elioka dragged herself to the central panel and linked in Peeemsy, who quickly reset the system. Finally, on the brink of exhaustion and with a medic tending to her wound on her side, she opened the main channel, sending a message throughout the entire ship.

“This is Elioka T’lakai, Commander of the Blood Moons. I’m forwarding this message to all the crewmembers and passengers of Mothership Larelei: we’ve put an end to the corrupt Thessian government which has failed the Alliance, our species, and which has led us to our current predicament in this unknown world. All Matriarchs and high officers have been neutralized, all political chats are indefinitely closed until further notice. All decisional and judiciary powers will be soon reassigned to those amongst us who have shown the skill and the integrity to own them. To all the huntresses and commandos still fighting, I say this: it is not in our interest to prolong the bloodshed. Surrender and you shall be treated fairly. I understand that most of you were just following the orders of a corrupt system, but the government you obeyed to no longer exists now, there is no sensible reason for you to continue your resistance. To any Justicar listening: as the new commander-in-chief of this vessel, I hereby strip you of any authority and power within the premises of Mothership Larelei. Your dogmas and practices are the barbaric remnant of an age long past, which will not be tolerated under our rule. Consign yourself now or be branded as enemy of the State, your choice. ...Finally, it has been brought to my attention that some of our enemies have spread the rumors in the past few hours that my colleagues and I have been indoctrinated and are acting on behalf of the Reapers. These are nothing but slanderous allegations, spread by the Matriarchs to further divide us and brainwash you. If my words are not enough to convince you, then rest assured that my actions in the coming days will.”

*****************​

Already half-sleeping, Elioka jumped on her bed in her new room, formerly Matriarch Faraldae’s cabin.
“S*** this is way too soft!” she grunted, while opening the group chat on the omni-tool and scrolling down to the last messages, barely keeping her eyes open.
Most comments were celebrating the recent victory, though there was already someone discussing on what to do next.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blood Moons – Group Chat​

Eliokoyakshi: Glad everyone’s having fun.

HZ=Alara: ELIOOO!!!

xXLys4evrXx: sup Elio!

Mob_Overruled_01: Yeah, how’s the arm?

Eliokoyakshi: Too tired to complain.

lilTramp121: lol

Eliokoyakshi: Good job to everyone who knows. Screw you to the rest.

Eliokoyakshi: You know who you are.

Mob_Overruled_01: So, are we already thinking of when to do some exploring next thing in the morning?

DrP333m: lolmyra so excited to start diggin new thessia

Mob_Overruled_01: SURE AM! ^-^

Eliokoyakshi: **** that, we’re gonna call it Neoilium.

Imina207: *Neoillium, actually.

Eliokoyakshi: Just for THAT it’s gonna be Neoilium now.

Mob_Overruled_01: -.- my OCD bleeds, pleas no.

DrP333m: lol let’s put that to a vote

=EVLani=: lolnope

Mob_Overruled_01: Ugh, nevermind.

Eliokoyakshi: Neoilium it is then

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

 

[Silfae]

Fun premise, the last hope of a species that may or may not have their home galaxy completely destroyed by the Reapers.

Thanks, I didn't expect to spend so much time to set up the premise, but it appears it will need another half of a chapter to give a proper explanation on why they are in an unknown Galaxy and so forth.

The basic premise was that, according to Mass Effect lore, Asari Republics work on "internet democracy", which might sound nice to hear, but, when thinking about it realistically.. less so.

 

[Silfae]

I do quite enjoy your thoughts on how "Internet Democracy" would boil down.

Thanks.
We'll see now that it is being subverted what will be the consequences...

And I can't help but chuckle at the fact that we both started Military Republic plays at about the same time, with entirely different background concepts.

Well, tecnically it's an oligarchy, but we are pretty close, yes.

 

[Silfae]

Chapter 2: new home sweet home :’(​

“Hello, b****es and w***es of Mothership Larelei!” the candid, automated voice echoed over the smoking corridors and the moaning of the wounded.

“This is your friendly assistant Lewina speaking, on behalf of Commander T’lakai, who is very busy right now making sure you don’t choke on your own f***ing self-entitled pretentious s***s-for-brains!”

The holographic interface of the reprogrammed virtual intelligence appeared in the few platforms still working, but barely anyone of the active crew was minding to it, with all the fighting and rewiring still going on across the Mothership.

“She’d like to remind you that the full quarantine is still in effect, and will continue to be so until all hostilities have ceased. Mind you, this is for your own good, since you cannot fight for s***. So, if you have any friends or family that you know of that are still fighting against the Blood Moons, please contact them and convince them to stand down, otherwise, feel free to report their probable location to any of our interfaces!”

The passengers’ quarters, on the other hand, filled to the brim with imprisoned Matrons and Maidens, had most of the asari surrounding the holographic images of the VI, shouting and cursing against it.

“...We know you all have many dumb questions, but we can’t really be bothered by them, since we have much more important things to take care of, like: how do we get Mothership Larelei back together, and how do we get back home to fight the Reapers? Don’t you worry, because, unlike the wrinkled azures previously in charge, Commander T’lakai is actually going to keep all of you posted on any new update on the situation! And a fair day to all of you!”

*****************​

Elioka woke up with the rumbling echoes of artillery shots. She had had only a few hours of sleep, and even then, they had been plagued by nightmares about Illium and Thessia. She spent the final hours of the night to reassess the situation with her lieutenants, reorganizing patrols and granting permits for food and equipment distribution.
When she finally had a moment’s time to have breakfast, she had Lewina call for Sulysy, Myrayme and Vethy, and have them meet in one of the Matriarch’s emptied cabins.
The first to come was Sulysy, still in her officer’s clothes but with her rank removed. “Good morning, Elio.”
“Lys.” Elioka got up to shake her hand and make a polite smile. “It’s been too long.”
“It is, isn’t it?” she chuckled, sitting next to her. “It’s kind of weird, when you think about it... We’re in the same place for months, talk all the time, but barely even meet in person.”
“I know right? Reality’s too big.” Elioka smiled, briefly crossing Sulysy’s eyes before getting back to her breakfast.

Sulysy was just a couple of years older than Elioka, and the oldest of her friends, but that was just the second time they met in person, not counting the brief exchange they had in the control room the day before. Elioka still felt somewhat uneasy around her.
She’s just so calm and solar, we’re in the middle of a war! I would’ve thought a salarian-born was supposed to be neurotic or something…
“So, Elio...” she said, cutting a portion from her dish. “Why the closed meeting? I thought you’d be wanting things done as quickly as possible. We could’ve done this over on the chat. It seems yesterday I missed some pretty weird stuff going on there...”“That’s part of the reason why we’re not doing that there. I’d.. I’d rather have us talk here first. I don’t know how safe is the chat right now, and I haven’t called everyone. Once we’ve settled stuff amongst ourselves, we tell to the other BMs, then to the rest of the crew.”
“Fair enough.” Sulysy smirked. “So, who else is in this spooooky secret meeting?”
“It’s just-”
“Hello, everyone.” Said Vethy, entering in the room, still fitted in her armor, and with clear signs of sleep deprivation. “I hope it’s important, Elio, I was patrolling for Justicars.”
“It is.” She answered, dryly, gesturing Vethy to take a seat as well. “Did you even rest, Ptero?”
“What do you think?” she sighed, sitting near Sulysy and exchanging a smile with her, then addressing Elioka again: “Can you start talking already? Spare us some time?”
“I just said Lys t-”
“Hey, you guys!” Myrayme peaked from the door, waving her hand.
“Well, there you go..!” answered Elioka, opening her arms. “We’re all here. Myr, get a chair and pick what you like, we start immediately.”
“Oh. Ok.” Myryame shrugged, taking her place in front of Sulysy, on Elioka’s right. “FYI, the chat is on fire, maybe you should do something? Issue a statement?”
“I know, just.. let’s get this over first, then we’ll speak with others in the chat. I want this to be between us first.”
“I guess...” she rolled her eyes. “Peem is probably spying on us anyway already.”
“Hmpf. Anyway...” Elioka took one last bite from her meal, leaving half of the dish full and getting up. “I know we still have to kill a few Justicars and break open some sections of the Mothership...”
“Not counting the loyalists that managed to escape.”
“Yeah, Lys, not counting the f***ing cowards that got away, thanks for f***ing reminding me.”
Sulysy shrugged. “Sorry?”
Elioka gave her a conciliatory look as she started to walk around the table. “What I’m saying is, unless one of us screws up royally, we’ve got this fight in the bag, we need to start thinking on what to do next. I mean, concretely think about it.” She put her hands on her forehead and slowly breathed out, passing them over her le’kus. “You guys spent more time in the control rooms studying this stuff, and you’re the only one of us who’s been out there yet, Ptero, so I need to know what our situation is. Are we really stuck here forever? Where is here?”
Sulysy gave a passing glance at Myrayme, as if asking permission, before turning at Elioka to answer her. “It’s.. it’s really bad.” She nodded and let out a sigh. “It’s like I told you yesterday: we’re way beyond Alliance mapped territory. There’s no Mass Relay in this system, nor are there any fluctuation of eezo that would lead me to believe there’s any Mass Relay in the nearby ones.”
“Maybe we’re just in some, I don’t know, a backward batarian sector?”
“Sh-no.” chuckled Myrayme, with a sour tone. “We’re no longer there, in that Galaxy.”
Elioka kicked her chair, holding it still with her hand. “S***, Myr, I thought you were just f***ing around yesterday, how can that even BE? HOW?!”
Myrayme showed her palms and shrugged her shoulders, letting out a nervous chuckle. “I don’t f***ing know, sis!.. But the projections of the starcharts of the nearby systems and the nearby sectors are pretty bloody damn well clear. There’s no way we’re in Thessia’s Galaxy.”
“It’s not just that, Elio.” Continued Sulysy, in a more conciliatory tone. “If what Myrayme and I think is correct, this misplacement was caused by some malfunction in the Mass Relay we’ve used to get here. The Reapers were blocking access and the Matriarchs had some weird virus in place to break through during the jump. Which means, we might not even be in a galaxy within the Relay network.”
“Aw, come now, Lys.” said Myrayme. “That’s just speculation. We don’t really know anything about this Galaxy, the Relay network could still reach it. In fact, it is somewhat safe to assume that it does. Just because we can’t zero in on an MR from this planet, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t at all in the whole galaxy.”
“That’s true.” Admitted Sulysy. “But I wouldn’t keep hopes up until more information is found.”
“Whatever.”
“Without a Relay...” started Vethy.
“...we’re f***ed.” Concluded Elioka. “If we’re in some other Galaxy, there’s no way we’re getting back to Thessia without a Mass Relay. Of course, that’s still assuming that we get this wrecked mess up in space at all in the first place!..”
“We won’t.” said Sulysy. “Sorry. It’s not exactly my area of expertise, but I’ve gone through the details with Peem, she said the Larelei is f***ed. She’s never getting up again. Buuutt-!” she quickly added, seeing the livid expression on Elioka’s face. “She has some plans to get us into space again. You should talk with her.”
“Hm.” Muttered Elioka, still holding the back of her chair. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, to try and process the new information without losing her temper, but it didn’t prevent her from twisting the metal bars she was grasping, with a surge of dark energy.
“Hmmrrrrggnfffine.” She abandoned her hold and started to walk around the table again. “Let’s try and stay positive, let’s try and stay positive...”
“Elio,” said Myrayme. “it’s not like, I mean, in these conditions, even if we did get up in space by some miracle and we found a functioning Mass Relay and we got it to send us back home, what.. what difference the few of us can make?”
“Oh, gee, thanks, Myr you sure know how to make me ffFFF*** YOU!” she shouted so loud and suddenly to make Myrayme startle on her chair. “Are you really gonna say that to ME?! To my FACE!?! We have our sisters fighting and DYING for our homes right NOW, what are we gonna do, Elio? What are we gonna do, eh? EH? We’re useless anyway, let’s just lay down in this Reaper-free paradise and skin-f*** ourselves to eternity, sounds good? WAIT, where did I hear that plan already? Wasn’t it driveling from some wrinkled Matriarch’s C***? I guess we can just free them ALL then: we’re very sorry, big mama Faraldae, turns out that we wanted what you wanted ALL ALONG!!”
“Alright, that’s enough!” Vethy moved in, separating Myrayme from Elioka, who, in her rant, had moved closer and closer to the scientist, making her progressively recoil in fear on her seat.
Elioka, with her face contracted by rage, stared at Vethy for a long moment, contemplating the idea of smashing her through the room, but in the end she turned around and moved away, letting out a long sigh.
“Sorry about that, Myr.”
“Yeah, hum.. don’t wor-”
“But you should know,” she quickly turned around, making Myrayme startle again, even with Vethy still standing between her and Elioka. “That is a sensitive subject for me.”
“Alright, alright!..” Myrayme raised her arms in surrender. “I promise I won’t mention that again.”
“That doesn’t make it untrue, Elio.” Added Vethy, in a stern tone.
Elioka pointed at her with her index, trying to retort something, but the only things that were crossing her mind at the moment were more insults, and that was finally enough to make her realize that she needed to let go of the subject.
“Fine.” She threw herself back on her chair, with an empty gaze and a sour tone, trying to hold off the anger. “We’re stuck. For now. Let’s get to the bloody chat and have a talk with Peem then. Maybe she’ll be giving me some good news, for a change...”

*****************​

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Blood Moons – Group Chat​

=EVLani=: So how about a party or smthing?
=EVLani=: Not celebrated the big win yet.
HZ=Alara: **** yeah! Let’s get together somewhere and bring this Mothership DOWN
Eliokoyakshi: Brainless Maidens make parties.
HZ=Alara: Awwww
=EVLani=:
DrP333m: somebody is n a bad mood today...
Eliokoyakshi: Peem
SuperMicco777: hi Elio!
Eliokoyakshi: don’t even get me started.
Mob_Overruled_01: lol no kidding.
Eliokoyakshi: Cut the **** everyone. There’s serious stuff to talk about.
Eliokoyakshi: First of all: we’ve confirmed there’s no way back home that we know of
SuperMicco777: ****
Eliokoyakshi: that means we’re gonna stay here for a long time if nothing changes.
HZ=Alara: ****ing mamas ****ed us.
Imina207: Seconded
Mob_Overruled_01: new home sweet home
lilTramp121: Wtf are we gonna do?
Eliokoyakshi: Myr
Eliokoyakshi: You’re still within punching distance you know
xXLys4evrXx: Peem, Elio wants to know your plans for the ship.
Pterosiame: That’s what we’re deciding now, lilT.
DrP333m: ya
DrP333m: so
DrP333m: elio
DrP333m: I guess lys & myr gave you the bad picture
DrP333m: but there’s some gud stuff in it too you know
DrP333m: larelei has some weird experimental devices stacked in storage
Eliokoyakshi: Like what
DrP333m: like weapons, sensors, pre-fab stations
DrP333m: engines
Eliokoyakshi: What kind of engine
DrP333m: brace yoslf
DrP333m: I think it was some kind of ftl prototype
DrP333m: maybe
Eliokoyakshi: the **** didn’t you tell me sooner?
DrP333m: I got **** to do with the grid YOU told me to do that first
DrP333m: I just got around looking at the neat stuff in store
Pterosiame: How would this engine work? Doesn’t it still need a Mass Relay?
Imina207: which we don’t have.
DrP333m: not something
DrP333m: I mean I don’t know for sure
DrP333m: but I think no
DrP333m: I think some other scientist was supposed to work on this
DrP333m: come up with an alternative to MRs
DrP333m: they prolly sent it with larelei so she could work in peas
xXLys4evrXx: Cant we find who was working on it? It would simplify things a lot.
DrP333m: already checked, she’s missing
Mob_Overruled_01: ****
DrP333m: either is dead or fugitive
DrP333m: in fact
Eliokoyakshi: Just perfect...
DrP333m: wouldn’t surprise me if she was escaped
Eliokoyakshi: If she is, that can still be fixed.
Eliokoyakshi: But in the meantime, I want YOU to work on that prototype.
Eliokoyakshi: We’ve got to get back in space as soon as possible.
DrP333m: will work on it
Pterosiame: What were you saying about pre-fab stations? Is there something we could use sooner? Maybe it could help setting a perimeter, just in case the loyalists return.
DrP333m: ya
DrP333m: there’s something like dat
DrP333m: we could put it in orbit
DrP333m: would actually make my work easier
DrP333m: experiment more stuff there
DrP333m: in safety that is
Pterosiame: Oh. That’s even better than what I was thinking of.
Eliokoyakshi: Yes
Eliokoyakshi: a military orbital base
Eliokoyakshi: that’ll make me sleep better at night
Pterosiame: Same here.
HZ=Alara: ditto
Pterosiame: Speaking of which, Elio. I was thinking of reorganizing the ships we’ve secured yesterday in a proper defense force.
Eliokoyakshi: Yeah, sure.
Eliokoyakshi: obviously
Pterosiame: Good.
Imina207: Won’t that leave Mothership with too little guards?
=EVLani=: yeah it’s not a nice picture
=EVLani=: the passengers quarters I mean.
=EVLani=: If we’re staying here for long, we can’t keep holding so many hostages.
Imina207: Right.
Pterosiame: Speaking of that, there’s also the problem of food. Don’t we have just enough for a year?
DrP333m: well
DrP333m: if we feed everyone
Pterosiame: Of course we are.
DrP333m: I don’t know
DrP333m: are we
DrP333m: elio?
Eliokoyakshi: Yes
DrP333m: oh
DrP333m: ok then
=EVLani=: Really, not doing that would just make it worse.
Eliokoyakshi: Matrons are useless, but we’re not just making our own starve to death.
Eliokoyakshi: the younger maidens we can still work on
Eliokoyakshi: if we convince them to be on our side, for real I mean, we can have them trained and there’s no problem with having most of the BMs on star-fighters anymore. I don’t trust any outsider with the ships, so it must be other people taking care of the ground.
Eliokoyakshi: Other Maidens can be taught how to hold a gun, that doesn’t take long, once they know who’s side they have to be on. The ones that can’t even trusted to do that, we can still make work outside to fix stuff or search for food.
Eliokoyakshi: isn’t the planet habitable?
Mob_Overruled_01: Yeah
Mob_Overruled_01: sorta
Mob_Overruled_01: Actually, about that, Elio
Mob_Overruled_01: There’s a lot of seismic activity we caught up yesterday
Eliokoyakshi: are you ****ing kidding me? Even the planet is trying to kill
Eliokoyakshi: us
Mob_Overruled_01: Well
Mob_Overruled_01: more like drown us.
Mob_Overruled_01: more reaserch is needed.
Eliokoyakshi: Right. And you wanna go out exploring space already.
Mob_Overruled_01: That’s also needed. If we have to leave in a hurry, better to already know where to go.
Mob_Overruled_01: have alternatives.
Eliokoyakshi: yeah your right.
Eliokoyakshi: Fine.
DrP333m: what bout the big mamas elio
DrP333m: ?
Eliokoyakshi: They can stay locked up for now. I’ll think about it later. Just make sure they get sedated the moment they start glowing.
Eliokoyakshi: Or do anything weird, really.
DrP333m: it’s just so risky
Eliokoyakshi: yeah I know
Eliokoyakshi: but we’ll think about it later.
HZ=Alara: #BurnthemAll
lilTramp121: lol
Eliokoyakshi: Alright, guys. I know some of you’re waiting for this, so let’s get this over to clear things up and get back to work
Eliokoyakshi: these is the new official ranking:
Eliokoyakshi: Lys stays my second in command. If I’m out, she gets to call the shots.
Mob_Overruled_01: awwww

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Myrayme’s chuckle after sending the message was cut short by a sudden biotic slap on the back of her head.
“Hey! You a**!”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Eliokoyakshi: Ptero gets to be in charge of the military operations.
Eliokoyakshi: That is, the rest of them.
Pterosiame: Right.
Eliokoyakshi: Myr, if she can stop ****ing around for one ****ing second, gets to be in charge of the exploration and xenobiology.
Mob_Overruled_01: still mad at you now
Eliokoyakshi: whatevs
Eliokoyakshi: Peem, you and Imina get to work on the prototypes and the shadowgrid. I want security tight and everything that can be salvaged BE salvaged.
Imina207: Ok, I guess
DrP333m: np
Eliokoyakshi: Lani you get to work the maidens, there’s more people knowing you you have better chance to gain their trust, etc.
=EVLani=: yup
=EVLani=: thanks, Elio. I won’t disappoint.
Eliokoyakshi: That’s it then.
Eliokoyakshi: For now.
Eliokoyakshi: I’ll get working on securing the last rebel sectors of Mothership today.
Pterosiame: Good luck with that.
Eliokoyakshi: We’ll talk later.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Silfae]

Their situation is beginning to sink in and the rest of the higher-ups are being assigned... Good for them to be establishing a power hierarchy.

Yes, at the very least now it should be clearer to see who's who in the chat.

 

[Silfae]

Totally loving it!
Stranded Asari... good story. And i love the means of communication!

Thanks, yes, that is actually being somewhat hard to write...

How you are going to incorporate Asari who live to 1000 years old to this? Mod them immortal?
Hmm, and even better, their mating habits?

I'm using my own mod, which already increases the lifespans and gives some other perks and malus to the race, so yes, they will be living a long time.
Reproduction means will be mostly roleplayed though.

 

[Silfae]

And so they find themelves having to build a colony on an unknown world and survive in an unknown galaxy. Well at least there's no Reapers here. Yet.

Yes, there's some internal turmoil still, but I should be able to write more about the new galaxy now that the new government has been established.
Sadly, I don't think I'll manage to write another chapter today, but I should be able to tomorrow.

 

[Silfae]

Chapter 3: Relay-free FTS FTW
(Leaders tab)​

“Keep it steady!” shouted Elioka, leading the efforts of another couple of asari commandos in counteracting the biotic pull of the Justicar. The whirling waves of dark energies were violently clashing against each other, their pulsing center of collision slowly moving one moment closer to Elioka’s quad, the moment later back towards the lone Justicar, cornered on top of the coastal cliff.
With no side managing to crush the other, the two violent opposing fluxes eventually collapsed in a bright flash; Elioka tried to minimalize the damage creating a barrier at the last second, but the backlash was still strong enough to send her and the other two commandos on the ground. The Justicar was still standing, but the strain to contain the gravitonic explosion had taken its toll on her. Elioka shot a few rounds at her, weakening the dome of biotic energy that she was still sustaining to protect herself.
“Just surrender with dignity!” she shouted. “Your kind is no longer needed.”
The two commandos pulled themselves up together, but, before they could fire one shot, the Justicar turned the barrier into another pull, hurling them away; Elioka, still on the ground, managed to hold onto some of the rocks to resist the biotic attack. She gave a frustrated glance behind her shoulder, at the falling commandos, but she was relieved to see more huntresses coming out of the wreckage of their transport and running towards her position.
She kept her gun pointed at the now defenseless opponent and prepared to shoot. “Last chance, Welima.”
“You delude yourself, villain.” Answered the Justicar, jumping off the cliff.
Elioka swore after her, pulling herself up and running to the edge as the reinforcement joined her.
“Are you alright, Commander?” asked one of the huntresses.
Ignoring the question, Elioka shot repeatedly at the falling opponent, only to see the shimmering light of a new barrier forming around the Justicar to deflect the fire and slow her fall, allowing her to start running away on the surface of the sea.
“F***ing show-off.” Elioka looked nervously around, took a few steps back and ran off the edge as well, with the huntresses screaming behind her: “No, Commander, wait!!”
Her heart started racing even faster as the water became closer and closer and she tried to weave a new energy field to slow her fall. She had already expended most of her energies to survive the transport’s crash and the first confrontation with Welima, but she couldn’t bear the thought of the Justicar escaping them right after blowing one of their few precious working ships.
In retrospect, as she saw the surface of the sea becoming rapidly and dangerously closer to her, she admitted to herself that might have been a poor choice.
Stupid temper...
Elioka painfully splashed halfway into the water, finally arresting the fall when the water reached her thighs; with another surge of energy, she pulled herself out and jumped forward across the waves, trying to close distance with the fugitive and starting to shoot at her once more. This time she managed to pierce through her defenses and put a bullet through the back of her left shoulder, but, rather than sinking into the sea, as Elioka hoped, the Justicar turned around and projected herself towards her, quickly covering the distance between the two and ramming onto her.
“Your rashness betrays you, tyrant.” She scolded her, grabbing Elioka from the neck and violently pushing her beneath the surface of the water. “May you find peace in the embrace of the Goddess.”
Elioka tried desperately to struggle, kicking and shooting blindly above her, but the Justicar’s grip just grew tighter. Her vision was starting to blur, when she felt a sudden pressure on her back. She managed to glance behind her shoulder, only to see a strange shadow, quickly rising from the depths of the sea. In one final moment of struggle, Elioka pushed herself on the side, grabbing the Justicar’s arm with both hands and trying to drag her down.
With a sudden burst, the sea monster emerged from the water, blasting both Elioka and Welima in the air, and trying to catch either of them with its jaws.
Finally free of the grip on her neck, Elioka took a deep breath, holding back the urge to cough and using her last biotic energies to push herself away from the gaping jaws of the monster and towards its back, finding one fin to hold onto to take a quick rest. In those few seconds of action, Welima had a similar thinking, and managed to land not too far from her opponent. The sea creature, lost its momentum, sank back into the water, but neither of the two asari had enough energy to do anything but keep holding onto it. Elioka tried to shoot a few times at Welima, but her vision was still blurred and her arm was shaking. She swung her body on the side, bracing for impact with the cold water; the sea creature shrugged and started to nervously spiral downwards. In all that confusion, Elioka realized that the Justicar’s wound was leaving a trail of blood, and, while struggling to hold on the fin, she started to kick her opponent’s shoulder. Welima finally lost her grip, but still managed to conjure a warping field around the monster and her opponent, before quickly swimming towards the surface.
Elioka let out a silent scream, feeling the burning of dark energy beneath her skin; water started to fill her lungs and she lost her grip on the dying creature, losing consciousness soon after.

*****************​

“Did she at least manage to catch her?” asked Peeemsy, moving back from her console and making her chair slide towards the holographic image of an asari huntress.
“No, ma’am. We’ve found no trace of the Justicar, though she could have drowned.”
“S***. How bad is it?”
“She’s going to need a few weeks of complete rest and care, but the VI says she should make a full recovery.”
Peeemsy let out a sigh. “Alright, keep me posted.”
“Yes, ma’am.”

The asari scientist closed the contact and returned to her work. She had barely any time to sleep in the past weeks, trying to make everything in the new base work while also coordinating with the new military branch to defend the colony from the remaining loyalists. With Elioka and Vethy always keeping themselves on the front lines, she was still surprised none of them had died yet; she thought it to be a very unstable policy to maintain, considering Vethy was one of the very few experts on astronaval strategy, and Elioka was the appointed leader of their movement. With all the tension remaining between Blood Moons and Loyalists, Peeemsy was afraid that the sudden death of one of their military leaders could lead to a collapse of the entire government. And, with all the help she had provided to subvert the Matriarchal rule, she didn’t expect neither the people nor the Justicars to be merciful towards her, if that happened.
Luckily, there were plenty of performance-enhancing drugs in the Mothership to help her with all the work without getting too much distracted by all those worrying hypotheticals.
She had managed to oversee the construction of the experimental orbital station over Neoilium and, later on, the reactivation and repair of several other ships and pre-fabricated modules, which were now being already employed on the colony or placed in the orbits of other planets, following Myrayme’s progress in the exploration of the system.
Even though research on the alternative FTL travel was still inconclusive, Peeemsy was sure she was close to the solution of that problem too; everything would have been just perfect, with a considerably fast progress on almost all fronts, if it weren’t for the constant resistance coming from certain factions in the population, and the Justicar-led loyalist cells still squatting on Neoilium, organizing ambushes, possibly with the support of the splinter group of fugitives, whose new hideout was still unknown.
Supposedly, Elioka was meant to ambush and kill one of the last important Justicars hiding in Neoilium, Welima, but the last news didn’t make Peeemsy too hopeful of her success.

*****************

“Dr. M’jalus, please!..” shouted one of the researchers over the radio. “It’s not safe here, we have enough data.”
Myrayme, wrapped in her environmental suit like the rest of the squad, gave a look at the incoming sandstorm, whose wind and debris were already starting to fill the valley of the barren world.
“Fine.” She admitted. “Let’s get back to the Illapan, we’ll analyze what we’ve got.”
The group of asari slowly made its way back to the research ship.
“Helm, we’re all in.” said Myrayme, removing her helmet after leaving the decontamination chamber. “Take us out.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Answered the pilot from intercom.
“How are you gonna call this one, doctor?”
Myrayme stretched her arms, walking through the corridor while the ship started to take off. “I was thinking about New Illium. It would totally screw with Elioka.” She chuckled, while typing the passcode for her cabin. “I’ll take a five, we’ll work on the samples later.”
She dismissed her colleagues and dropped herself on her bed, opening a browser on her omnitool and patiently waiting for the connection to pick up. The Illapan was almost at the other edge of the star system compared to Neoilium, but Peeemsy’s new space station had managed to boost the signal of the new network enough to make it at least somewhat workable, even at that distance.

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Blood Moons – Group Chat​

Mob_Overruled_01: sup guys
Mob_Overruled_01: Just explored another planet.
Mob_Overruled_01: normal day of work and all ^-^
=EVLani=: At least your having fun.
=EVLani=: I’m just
=EVLani=: like
=EVLani=: surrounded by entitled ****es every day.
=EVLani=: And by the way, speaking of that
=EVLani=: Peem, you should have kept that thing with Elioka hush hush.
DrP333m: #notmyfault
=EVLani=: Now the Matrons will get all uppity again, you’ll see.
DrP333m: so
DrP333m: hose them
DrP333m: news already spread when I got it
Mob_Overruled_01: Sry, connection just picked it up. What’s with Elioka?
DrP333m: got owned by justicar
=EVLani=: ya the **** tore her ship down from the sky and tried to drown her.
Imina207: How can a biotic be so powerful? Elioka had an entire squad of commandos AND some huntresses, against ONE Justicar?
DrP333m: that why its better to blast them from sky
=EVLani=: yup
Mob_Overruled_01: 0_0
Mob_Overruled_01: feeling so bad right now. How’s Elioka?
DrP333m: she’ll be fine
DrP333m: though
DrP333m: kinda serves her right
Imina207: cmon Peem
DrP333m: I mean
DrP333m: she should stay back
DrP333m: have the commandos do that sorta job
Pterosiame: That’s not the problem, Peem.
DrP333m: maybe now she’ll learn that
Pterosiame: The problem was, that she just jumped to fight her alone when the Justicar escaped.
Pterosiame: She wouldn’t have ended like that if she acted rationally. I bet the Justicar just taunted her into following her alone.
Mob_Overruled_01: Sorry guys, connection is breakin up.
Mob_Overruled_01: We speak leater, send hugs and kisses to Elioka, hope she gets better soon.

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*****************​

When the holograms of Enlikla and Peeemsy appeared in her cabin, Elioka instinctively attempted to get up, resulting in another stitch of pain going through her body. It had been almost a week since the confrontation with the Justicar, but she was still too weak to get up of bed. The forced period of confinement in the heart of the Mothership had made her restless and extremely frustrated. Every hour that passed without her being able to do anything was precious time wasted. She had the VIs report on what was happening in the colony and the system as often as possible, but she suspected Peeemsy could have programmed them withhold some information to not upset her; on the other hand, talking with the rest of the Blood Moons directly in those days had proven to be even more difficult for her.
The fact that it had been Enlikla asking to have that conversation just made Elioka certain things were going particularly badly.
“I hope we’re not disturbing you, Elio.” She started, uncomfortably rubbing her arm. “How- how are y-?”
“Cut the crap.” said Elioka, trying to clear her hoarse voice. “What is going on?”
“Well, it’s actually Peem’s fault, you see, she’s been pestering me for-”
“Aw, come on!” Interrupted her Peeemsy. “I’m making a valid point, it’s not my fault you can’t grow a f***ing spine.”
“What.” Elioka narrowed her eyes with impatience.
“Well, the fact is,” continued Peeemsy. “That, according to Lani’s last checks on public opinion, there hasn’t been the expected increase in support for the Blood Moons.”
“What I’m saying is, that it might be better to open new public chats for the civilians, the Vis could monitor what they’re saying a lot more easily that way, especially now that we have them all scattered on the isle. There are so many things they complain about, we must give them at least something; just ignoring them is not working, it just encourages them to support the Loyalists.”
“Nu-uh” retorted Peeemsy “if you start giving into their whims, they’ll just ask for more and more and more. They’ll ask we give special treatment to the Matrons, then that we release the Matriarchs, we’ll be back to where we started in no time. You know that, Elio, come on!”
“Well...” stated nervously Enlikla, twisting her hands. “Giving some concessions to the Matrons might not be that bad of an idea. I’m not saying permanently, or for all of them, but, Elio, many of them have reached the advanced stage of their pregnancy, they aren’t really that productive anyway.”
Elioka was trying to keep a clear mind, but that last suggestion, mixed with her constant pain, was making her lean more and more towards Peeemsy’s stance. One thing was opening some token chat to make civilians waste time complaining about how they chipped their nails working in the fields; another thing was to exonerate the Matrons from work. Most of them had melded with aliens of all sorts as part of the “New Matrons” project right before abandoning the Council and fleeing on Mothership Larelei.
During the entirety of the voyage, up until the mutiny, Elioka had to bear their endless complaints about everything and their smug entitlement, the result of constant pandering and celebration of their role in the Matriarchs’ secret project by the government.
Elioka had nothing but contempt towards them, and her first instinct upon hearing Enlikla’s suggestion was to dismiss the entire matter. Yet, that part of her that had been blaming her own lack of care since the moment when she jumped from that cliff in pursuit of Welima, allowed Elioka to resist the urge to immediately and completely side with Peeemsy.
“Public chats can be reopened. Better have them official, then wait for another-” she coughed. “another shadow network springing under our noses. As for the Matrons... we can have them rest for the last months of pregnancy.”
“What!?!” shouted Peeemsy. “Maybe you should sleep this off, Elio. You sure it’s not the drugs talking?”
“I like it less than you do, Peem.” She sighed. “But Lani is right. We can’t just keep antagonizing the people.”
“It’s not just the Matrons today,” Enlikla nodded, coming to Elioka’s aid. “Many Maidens might want to settle down in a few centuries, if they see how that sort of thing is treated, they’ll just feel abandoned. We can’t change asari culture just like that, these things take time, progressive change...”
“Yes.” Agreed Elioka. “That is why, when the new generation is born, we’ll keep them separated from the rest.”
This time was Enlikla’s turn to be shocked. “Wait, what? You can’t be serious! Separating the children from their mothers?”
“Yes, on birth. If we want this thing to turn around, they must be properly educated, properly trained, from the beginning.”
“But but but-! No one will accept that! It would be even worse! We could have an open revolt if we do that!”
“It is your job preventing that from happening, Lani. I said we reopen chats, use those to affect the tides. We just need the Maidens’ backing. We don’t need to, like, say that we’re separating anyone. Matrons will have to go back working outside Mothership once their pregnancy is over, you can’t have babies roaming in an alien world, or around dangerous machinery. It is in their interest for their kids to be kept safe inside. You just need to ride that story for as long as possible, or something like that.”
“I guess.. I just don’t think that it-”
“If you want my opinion...” Peeemsy interjected herself. “...if you do all this stuff, you should also have the Matriarchs executed.”
Elioka sighed and rolled her eyes. “Again with this, Peem?”
“Dude, it’s almost a year now, we’ve got to turn that page. Until Matriarchs are alive, everyone that is against us can hope that they can be set free and put in charge again. That’s without saying that it’s so f***ing dangerous and expensive to keep that sort of powerful biotics imprisoned for so long. I know you think they can be valuable and stuff, and people aren’t going to take well them being killed off, but, would it really be that different from what they think of us now already? There are all sorts of stories about how we’re just torturing them all the time, just for the lolz.”
“We don’t touch the Matriarchs yet, Peem.” Was Elioka’s dry answer. “I know what I’m doing, just trust me on this.”
Elioka wasn’t entirely sure of her reasons on that last point, especially in her current conditions, but somehow she felt like the Matriarchs could have been still of use alive. She might have been wrong, but she didn’t want to discuss it when she was barely capable of keeping her eyes open.
She saw Peeemsy looked still torn on the subject, so she tried to divert the conversation before the scientist could talk again. “What is our progress in space, Peem?”
“I’m really close, Elio. We’re talking about some built-in device, following hyperlanes, specific clean routes linking systems together. Jumps are shorter, you can’t just hop from here to the other side of the sector, but, if it works, it’s gonna be Relay-free FTS FTW. I’m having the first set of prototypes built right now, we’re gonna test them soon enough.”
“Finally some good news.”
“It’ll be just about time, since Myr just finished her survey of this system.”
Elioka’s throat already hurt from all that talking, so she tried to just nod in response, but it resulted in an equal amount of pain.
“I don’t care if I’m still stuck here when it happen, I wanna know the moment you crack that thing, Peem.”
“Right.”
“I’m serious. The moment the first ship is shot into another system, you got to be on the line telling me.”
“Sheesh, Elio!” She sighed. “I said I will, right?”

 

[Silfae]

Yeah, we'll see, the asari trait gives a sensible increase in ethics divergence, the population's resistance against the new militaristic regime is not a purely roleplayed matter.

 

[Silfae]

Aww, these Justicars never have the decency to even die properly....

Eh, not easy, most of the Blood Moons are young and inexperienced.

And that is brave, risking over 50% failure anomaly...

Well, no, 30% actually.

 

[Silfae]

Chapter 4: Didnt realized the 3-way
(Leaders tab)​

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Blood Moons – Group Chat​

DrP333m: yo b***es
DrP333m: ready for some fireworks
lilTramp121: hi Peem
DrP333m: about to test the new hyperlane prototype
Mob_Overruled_01: fingers-crossed
Mob_Overruled_01: Reeaaaally want to explore Brynnis system
Mob_Overruled_01: got a good feeling about that one.
DrP333m: whatevs
HZ=Alara: lol peem, you checked the Neolemia chat recently?
DrP333m: nope
DrP333m: too busy bending laws of physics
DrP333m: like a salarianf***ing boss
lilTramp121: What’s happening
lilTramp121:?
HZ=Alara: Dumb bimbos reacting to Matrons getting their babies taken.
SuperMicco777: rotfl
Imina207: At least now they have a reason for crying all the time, I guess….
HZ=Alara: babies or matrons?
DrP333m: lol
SuperMicco777: Matrons are just useless. Maidns are just scared because they think they’ll get to be Matrons for sure when they grow up.
HZ=Alara: QFTW
HZ=Alara: I mean
HZ=Alara: 400y just making & growing babies?
HZ=Alara: f*** me
SuperMicco777: So much for growing, most of them end up being entitled w***es anyways
=EVLani=: Guys, c’mon, don’t be too mean.
=EVLani=: at least
=EVLani=: not outside the chat.
HZ=Alara: screw that.
=EVLani=: I get to clean up your mess later, easy for you to just point&laugh.
Pterosiame: Lani is right. Especially now that they’re no longer encumbered, Matrons could organize a unified resistance. You antagonizing them is not the way to go to create a better society. Remember that we’re still all asari.
Imina207: Yeah, I did always feel kinda bad for them.
HZ=Alara: lol Peace&rainbows from the Admiral, so much for tough military
Pterosiame: Alarai, you get to shut the f*** up or we’re having this discussion again irl.
Pterosiame: You’d like that?
SuperMicco777: lol, she just ran off already
Pterosiame: That goes for you too, Micco.
Pterosiame: I’m sick and tired of this “all maidns r dumb” “all matrons 2”.
Pterosiame: So is Lys, so is Elio.
Pterosiame: You do know we’re all Maidens too, right?
Pterosiame: And, like Imina said, we’re all asari. And we might be the LAST asari left, so we better bloody stop trying to kill each other, or make each other miserable.
Pterosiame: Many of those Matrons sacrificed their life to give a chance to our species. Considering we’ve been in Neoilium for a year now, no Reapers no contact with Thessia or any Council government, you might want to re-analyze things in perspective.
DrP333m: so touching much feels
DrP333m: but shut up ptero now
DrP333m: no offense but making history right now
DrP333m: go to my streaming if you havent already
DrP333m: ship’s about to start up.
Mob_Overruled_01: O pleaaase pleass please WORK

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​

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Blood Moons – Group Chat​

Mob_Overruled_01: OMGss
Mob_Overruled_01: is that what I THINK IT MEANS!?!!!
DrP333m: yup
Mob_Overruled_01: YESSSSS!!!!!
lilTramp121: congrats, Peem&Imina.
Imina207: Yeah, this is awesome.
Imina207: we just need to make a few more tests, but I think we’re on the right path.
DrP333m: don’t spoil this imina
DrP333m: we good
DrP333m: other tests are just safety s***
Mob_Overrruled_01: WOOHHOOOOO!!
DrP333m: f*** need to call elio ASAP
DrP333m: have fun you guys
Pterosiame: This is a pretty big achievement, from what I understand, not just for us.
Imina207: ya, it’s awesome. If the war’s still going, we’re gonna kick some Reaper a** with this.

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*****************​

“One year.” Elioka grunted, focusing dark energy in her hand before releasing a violent burst towards Vethy. The Admiral had to use both hands to contain the discharge, but was able to shift it towards the padded wall of the training room without too much effort.
“Yes.” Answered Vethy. “And we’re still fighting to keep things running.” She ran towards the Commander, deviating at the last second to avoid another biotic pull and reach melee range.
“Things are-” Elioka interrupted herself as she was dragged on the ground, struggling to break Vethy’s hold. “-settling.. down...”
“Hmpf.” Scoffed Sulysy, glancing for a second away from the holographic browser opened on her omnitool to look at the two friends wrestling in the middle of the room. “I wouldn’t be so sure.” She crossed her legs, searching for a more comfortable position, and went back scrolling through the browser. “There’s some pretty nasty rumors about you brewing in the chats, you know...”
“Oh, please..!” Elioka tried to twist Vethy’s arm, but it was to no avail; Vethy had always been stronger than her in physical combat, and the prolonged period of convalescence did not help in reducing that disparity. Feeling that she was about to be grounded, Elioka focused herself to discharge another wave of dark energy, lifting Vethy from the ground and temporarily denying her weight.
“There are always bad rumors about me. There were from before we even founded Neoilium.” She finally said, getting back on her feet, grabbing Vethy from one arm and starting to whirl her around. “What’s the new ones, anyway?” She finally released her opponent, tossing her weightless body towards one of the walls.
“You know...” said Sulysy, distracted by her own work. “...there’s the usual theory that you are vorcha-bred.”
Vethy managed to disrupt the field just before crashing; she created a biotic barrier to soften the impact and used the wall as a leaping point to jump right back at her opponent.
“Ah.” Chuckled Elioka, preparing herself for the impact. “Classic.”
“Also,” added Sulysy “that you really are an Ardat-Yakshi.”
Elioka grimaced; her moment of distraction was enough to have Vethy grapple her again.
“You know...” continued Sulysy “...that you are secretly sucking the souls of the Matriarchs and stuff.”
“Idiot...” Elioka swore, with her face pressed on the ground “...Maidens…” She enveloped her fist in dark energy and punched Vethy on her side, getting her off of her.
“Username sounds kinda like it: MUST BE REALITY!”
“Maybe you should do something?” asked Sulysy. “Issue.. a statement?”
Before Elioka could finish her off, Vethy jumped back on her feet, kicking her in the process. The Admiral reached for her forearms and head-butted her, forcing her once more on the ground.
“Nnnngh-” muttered Elioka. “Nah.” She tried to struggle again, but this time Vethy managed to create a biotic bubble to contain her counterattacks, keeping her pressed on the floor until she grumbled her surrender.
“I agree with her, actually.” Said Vethy, helping Elioka up on her feet. “You alright?”
“Not really. There are still places I’m not hurting yet. Let’s make best out of ten?”
Vethy shrugged. “It’s your pain...”

“Anyway...” Elioka slowly moved back to the starting position, keeping her eyes on her opponent. “...we reopened the chats, that’s the kind of garbage that happens on the public chats. Only decent thing to do...” she enveloped herself into a biotic barrier and pushed herself a couple of meters in the air, before diving down towards Vethy. “...is to ignore.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Admitted Sulysy. “But that doesn’t change that things are still pretty intense. Rumors or no rumors, the people are upset about the babies. Poor Lani can’t catch a break, this PR s*** is wrecking her.”
“Hmmpf-” Elioka caught Vethy’s hands, and two opposing surges of energies enveloped them. “-still wrecks less than a Justicar to the face, I can tell you that.”
“Would it be too much to make the mothers at least visit them, say, once a week?”
“And.. taint.. them? I.. don’t.. think.. SO.” Elioka, already breathing heavily, started to feel her grip slip and her feet slowly slide back, as Vethy’s pull increased. “It just starts.. with once a week.” She could have probably dodged it, but that wasn’t the point of her training, she needed to get back in proper shape as soon as possible.
“Those kids.. might be.. productive members of society.. in a couple of decades... I’m not making them spoiled brats.”
“You’re pulling it too far.” Warned her Sulysy.
“Psh-yeah, I wished.” Chuckled Elioka, still sliding back.
“No, I mean: with the people’s patience.”
“Lys is right.” Added Vethy. “We’ve made some progress, but if we keep going like this, we risk losing it all.”
Elioka’s flux broke and she was tossed against the padded wall, a few meters away. “S***!!”
Vethy ran towards her, to see if she was fine and to help her to get up again, but Elioka waved her hand at her, signing her to stop for a break.
“Oh, I see.” She said, with hands on her knees and discontinued breathing. “I didn’t realize this was three-way fight. With a weakened opponent, nonetheless. No matter, I like challenges.” She finally managed to stand straight again by herself, but, just a few seconds later, she was forced to lean back against the wall, catching her breath.
Stupid dumb krogan-f***ing Justicar shaking my f***ing goddess-damned molecules...
“You’re both...” she took another couple of deep breaths and limped towards the rack to recover her towel and clean her face from the sweat. “You’re both way too focused on the kids.”
“One fourth of our current population is made up by infants since last week, Elio.” Vethy crossed her arms, giving her a condescending look. “Did you forget that?”
“And did you forget, Vethy,” Elioka moved towards her, trying to straighten her walk. “That we’ve got Relay-free FTL travel? Look, I understand that there must be some appeasement here and there, I get it, ok? Didn’t I open the public chats? But all of this talk of pleasing the Matrons, extending the colony, repurposing the Mothership... It just seems like you’re losing focus of our real objective, right now that it’s closer than ever.”
“That doesn’t change things: we’ve still responsibilities towards the people of Neoilium.”
“We have responsibilities towards our entire species. Most of which, we’ve abandoned. This new technology could make us win the war! Do you have any idea how much we can do, once we don’t need Mass Relays to move around, every strategic point changes! We can attack Reapers from virtually any angle! What we should do now is to speed up the maidens’ training, stop all these time-wasting projects of colony expansion and focus on making ships. Peem says the orbital station could be repurposed as a true spaceport, we just need more people working there. Then, when we have enough to transport everyone, and when Myr has found the way back home, we jump aboard and give the Council the help it needs.”
“Then what?” asked Vethy, with her voice dripping in sarcasm. “We swoop in to save the day with half the fleet filled with kids and civilians?”
“What, you rather want to leave them alone here?”
Sulysy shrugged, closing the holographic browser and getting up. “The planet is somewhat unstable, yes, but there are still no hostiles in sight. Well, except for the loyalists, who would not attack the civilians if us Blood Moons leave.”
“So you just suggesting to give in and let them win?”
Vethy sighed, placing herself, between Elioka and Sulysy. “I thought you said the priority was saving the Council races.”
“Yeah, but.. that doesn’t mean that.. you know...”
“What?”
“We’ve fought for so long to take the Loyalists down, now that we’re so close to getting just that, I don’t want to lose everything!” Elioka turned her back on her, making a few steps away. “All the battles we’ve fought with the Reapers have been holding off the inevitable, for once there’s an opponent that we can defeat and you-!”
“So this is just about yourself?”
“It’s NOT about me!” Elioka turned around, going back towards Vethy. “S***, Ptero! Are you blind? Aren’t you seeing all that we’ve accomplished during this year alone?”
“I saw a lot of needless fight and death. In fact, if we hadn’t rebelled, the new hyperdrive might have been developed even sooner! We could have already been helping the others on Thessia right now, rather than be stuck here killing each other!”
At that insinuation, Elioka was unable to keep herself from punching Vethy, but the Admiral caught her fist midair, stopping it a few inches from her cheek. Before she could charge another blow with the left hand, Vethy pushed her away with a wave of dark energy.
“How can you?!” Elioka clenched her teeth, looking at her opponent from the ground. “How can you take their side? They weren’t thinking of returning, ever, you’re just deluding yourself!”
“Says you.”
“Says the record!” She got up again, but remained at a distance from Vethy. “Even if the Matriarchs wanted to, the Matrons would have never, NEVER voted to return back home so soon. Or to be abandoned here while the huntresses and the fleet went back to help everyone else.”
Elioka was about to run at Vethy again, but this time it was Sulysy putting herself between the two of them, forcing her to stop. “Elio.” She said. “We understand that. Vethy is not trying to question our past actions... but we cannot move blindly in the future. Even if we admit that the old government did bad things, that doesn’t mean that it made only bad things. That prototype could help in the war, if the war is still happening, but the people couldn’t. Vethy, and yourself too, are still training the new huntresses, we barely have any ships, we don’t have an army, we only have enough security forces to barely keep order in the colony, which is becoming harder and harder because of all this hate against civilians you’re condoning or ignoring.”
Elioka cleared her throat, nervously and uncomfortably moving her gaze down, trying to think of an answer. She was still mad at both of them. She just wanted to have a relaxing and challenging training session with her friends, and they just stabbed her in the back with that sudden debate about politics, knowing that she was still recovering from her wounds. To add on that, the issue was one of her least favorites, since she had yet to have a clear mind on that particular subject and didn’t want to discuss it until she knew exactly where she stood personally on that matter. Finally, it didn’t help that it was more difficult for her to answer harshly to Sulysy when they were talking in person.
“Is this just because you fear I’m going to come for yours too, if you make a kid later?” her retort clearly upset Vethy, but Sulysy calmed her with a quick look, and shook her head at Elioka.
“This is beyond us, Elio. We were supposed to do better than the Matriarchs.”
“I’m just...” Elioka crossed her arms and looked away. “I’ll think about it.”
“I know it has not been a good period for you, Elio.” Continued Sulysy, placing a hand on her shoulder. “But we can’t just keep ignoring this.”
“We can continue to support the colony, I guess. The new constructions I mean.” She rolled her eyes and sighed. “But no visits to the kids. Not yet. We’ll see what Myr finds out in outer space. See if home is close enough to be reached now. Then we’ll decide once and for all what to do with the civilians.”

 

[Silfae]

Edgy

Thanks.

Ah, new FTL travel. It would help against the Reapers, but I'm betting it was a one-way trip getting here.

Eh, more than likely; still, they don't know that.

 

[Silfae]

So, this basically means that Asari, led by Elioka the Angry, loose on the poor unsuspecting galaxy? I feel for the galaxy...

Eh, we'll see...

Hmmm, modding the Ptherowhatevertheywere into reapers too?

That would have been interesting, the fact is, I didn't even meet them once in any playthrough since I started, so I have yet to experience how their event chain is in vanilla in the first place.

 

[Silfae]

We'll see; if Elioka has not enough influence when the oligarchic election comes, that could imply a shift in power; and of course, if the story goes in a certain direction, a switch in government is still possible.

 

[Silfae]

Chapter 5: So sorry but not sorry
(Leaders tab)​

“They want me to talk, or something.” Elioka rolled her eyes, moving her attention from Myrayme’s hologram to the window looking on the colony. It wasn’t really a window as much as a wide, long breach in the Mothership’s external hull, covered in transparent omni-gel, which, for whatever reason, had never been properly repaired. Beyond it, the Commander could see the colonists working outside, under the watchful eye of the new recruits of the Blood Moons’ militia.
“By looking at it you’d say it’s fine, but Lani swears we’re this close to riots.”
“If it’s so bad...” said Myrayme, her voice distorted by interferences. “...what would a speech do?”
Elioka sighed, rocking restlessly on her chair. “She said it might be a good moment to make our new supporters trust us more. ...By the way, speaking of that, do you know we have another Myrayme now?”
“What.”
“Yeah, she’s one of Vethy’s new recruits, pretty damn good on a ship. Kind of a nerd like you too.”
Myrayme crossed her arms and sneered. “Maybe you should call her to ask about your speech problems?”
“Psh. Anyway, I’m not that much against doing it, I mean, I agree that it might work. So does Lys.”
“But?”
“But I don’t like the concept, you know? The only way I’ve ever pictured myself talking to the asari people was to tell them what a bunch of c***s they are, not to make them like me.”
“Which, really, will never happen.” Chuckled Myrayme.
“I know, right?” Elioka gave a light kick to her desk and crossed her legs. “Even if, I don’t want that kind of popular support, we’d be doing just the same as the Matriarchs” she mockingly clasped her hands near her cheek. “Oh, I love you all, girls, please comment, like, follow me on the extranet! And don’t forget to vote like I do in the next election!”
“I know what you mean.” Myrayme scratched her le’kus. “But that’s not really my area of expertise. For me, we could just dump all the whiners on this rock and jump back home. Or the next best thing. If Lys and Lani say it might help, maybe do it? I don’t know.”
“Well, that’s why I called you: everything is up in the air until we find our way home. It has passed another year and we’re no closer than we were the past one.”
“At least there’s no longer attacks.”
“For now. But that makes me wary. Until all the fugitives are accounted for and the last Justicar has died, we’ve got a problem. If you could just give me some good news, I could just have the VIs spread those through the public chats, I won’t need to make up s*** speeches and all, you know? Just give the people something concrete.”
“Yeah, I feel you.” Myrayme cleared her throat. “Well, I have good news, but not that kind of good news that you’d like...”
Elioka lowered her eyes and shrugged. “Shoot. Better than nothing at all.”
Myrayme typed something, making a small hologram appear on the desk, representing the recently explored systems.

“Tests on Hiklam and Crimdor systems were pretty good. Two of the planets there are compatible with asari biology. They’re ocean planets, like Neoilium, Crimdor III is actually a pretty big one at that, but with way less seastorms and seaquakes. At least, from what I could gather during my survey.”
“That’ll put Lys at ease, but...”
“They’re not a way back home, I know. Still, good to have a backup place to go to if Neoilium collapses or gets taken over by the loyalists.”
“I guess... not much good for the average Maiden, though.” Elioka pointed her finger into a dark mark. “What can you tell me about that blackhole? I remember we talked about it on the chat a few weeks back.”
“Yeah, Miklor’s Vortex. Nasty piece of antimatter. Securing a safe passage around that thing should put us in a position close enough to make a hyperjump on the outer arm.”
“Which might take us closer to home.”
Myrayme shrugged and wrinkled her nose, uncertain. “That’d be going into rampant speculation. We can’t really say until we are on the other side.”
Elioka leaned back on her chair, crossing her arms behind her head. “So? Get to it.”
“Yeah, about that.. there have been some strange preliminary readings on Brynnis, and I don’t know, maybe we could wait for a bit before going there? Until Ptero has a bigger fleet? To send some help?”
“Come on! Is this all of your adventuring spirit, Myr?”
“I’m just saying...”
“I don’t want you to just say it, I want you tojust go for it.”
“Fffine.” Myrayme crossed her arms. “I’ll be your b****, just going into the unknown, for the good of the cause, with no backup.”
“Pfh, don’t be such a crybaby and get to it.”
“If I die, I want at least a square named after me.”
“Yeah yeah...”
“...maybe a statue...”
“Any specifics for the epitaph?”
The scientist grumbled something and closed the communication, leaving Elioka alone in the cabin, with the last holographic reconstruction of the Vortex revolving around her desk.

*****************​

Elioka looked down from the top of the derelict Mothership. The platform she was standing on had been repurposed for defense the past year, after an air strike by the loyalists, but it had never been used up to that point. Peeemsy had had some of her workers rearrange part of it to serve as a balcony for the speech after Elioka had confirmed her decision to do it. If nothing else, it gave a nice view on the colony.
The Commander leaned on the railing, taking a long breath. Once they had abandoned the idea of fixing the Larelei, constructions had proceeded a lot faster in the area around the broken ship, cannibalizing broken material from the Mothership, alongside the prefabricated packages, to set up rudimentary extraction mines and power plants to support electronic services. In nearly three years, the wreckage site had been turned into a flourishing city; it was almost surprising to Elioka that the entitled Maidens and Matrons of the crew had managed to submit themselves to so much hard work and cooperation to achieve all of that.
In a way, it was a promising thought, that they could change for the better, if pushed hard enough; yet, Elioka was unsure of what to think about the goal they were shifting towards: the more the city grew, the more time and resources were needed to guarantee its safety and maintain order inside it. More importantly, Elioka knew that, the more they remained there, the more improbable their return to Thessia would seem. Lys insisted that that wasn’t an entirely bad thing in itself, since stability reassured the people: they had already left their homes to build a new colony in a safe space, once the Blood Moons had proven that they could provide stability and prosperity for the rest of them, opposition would likely decrease. But, for Elioka, that implied forgetting about home, something she could not bear herself to do, nor wanted any of the asari to do.
We could be the last left, and that’s what everyone assumes, but if we aren’t? Three years aren’t that many, the war could still be going on. Even if it’s just massacre, the Reapers aren’t going to kill every asari in the entire galaxy in such a short amount of time. Isn’t our responsibility to help those that might still be resisting?
Not all Maidens could have been turned into proper huntresses, at least not all of those belonging to her generation, she had admitted that to herself by that point, though she still held onto the hope that the newborns, if properly taught from birth, could have.
But why am I even thinking about them? The twenty-thirty years they’ll need to get big enough to hold a gun and we’ll either be already all dead or we will have destroyed the Reapers. Is this some sick, twisted way the maternal instincts are getting to me? Bleah.
With the Loyalists having suddenly halted their attacks, things had become harder for her to work out: she couldn’t just delay thinking about issues anymore, using the immediate danger as an excuse: she needed to tangle with all those problems now, and she needed to solve them for her friends not to lose faith in her. She had been always so focused on toppling the corrupt government of the Matriarchs, but now she realized just how much unprepared the Blood Moons, herself included, were to take its place. On one hand, she couldn’t bear the thought of failing in establishing a new, proper government to replace the old one, on the other hand, the more time she thought about solving that problem, the less she could focus on returning to Council Space to resume the war.

“Commander.” Called one of the technicians. “We’re ready whenever you are.”
Elioka nodded and left the railing, moving towards the center of the balcony, so that the projectors could create a re-sized holographic image of her, amplify her voice to reach the people working on the square beneath her, and transmit her speech live to every omni-tool device in the colony.

The awareness of being in the spotlight unsettled Elioka. She was accustomed to speak with most of her circle of friends by then, and to taunt her enemies on the battlefield, but that entire framing felt wrong: she was going to make a speech to all asari in the colony, most of whom she didn’t know at all, trying to convince them to cooperate.
Without bargaining chip or a proper threat, how are they even going to listen? Any ethical or pragmatic arguments I can make we’ve already all made in the past years. Why should they listen now that I’m saying them by voice, if they didn’t when I sent them through the extranet? Hm. Thinking again, that might actually have been the problem... Oh, well...

She uncomfortably cleared her throat and darted down on the first asari assembling on the square, attracted by the giant hologram taking form on top of the Mothership.
“So, anyway, this is your Commander...” she mentally swore to herself and straightened her position. “...this is your Commander, Elioka T’lakai. I’m sure many of you know me, well, not personally, but... oh, f*** it. Here’s the deal, people: I know a lot of you think just because there’s some s***fest in the public chats, that that means we must be getting scared or whatever, and maybe if you complain and cry hard enough we’re gonna give you what you want... But that’s the thing that you’ve always gotten wrong: what you do on the extranet doesn’t matter. It’s what you do in reality that does. I know there are some entitled little s***s that spend most of their free hours posting complaints and garbage about what us Blood Moons are doing, but guess what? We’re not the f***ing Matriarchs, and I don’t give a F*** of what your scales look like after a week of hard work, or how much your precious little brain hurts because you’ve used biotics to move heavy machinery all day long. I don’t give a F*** of what you post on the f***ing public chats! You can post whatever the f*** you bloody like, as long as you do your job, I don’t f***ing care. And, for all of those sanctimonious and oh-so-concerned c***s that try and stir up riots for ‘ethical’ reasons, another specially packed F*** YOU. We are stranded in an unknown world, in an unknown galaxy, trying to keep everyone safe and go back to save our sisters in Thessia and Illium and all our other worlds as well, and your main concern is how quickly you pretentious t**ts can make us kill each other? And by the way, for all of your whining and all of your objections on what a bunch of fascist c***s us Blood Moons are, how much did we accomplish in these past three years? The Matriarchs’ plans were for this colony to be built in twenty years, we did it in TWO! F***ing TWO!.. Do you think this sort of motivated asari work could have helped us in the Reaper war? Because I very much think it f***ing would have. And it will. I mean, look at yourselves! Don’t you even realize how many gifts we’re born with, how much potential? All of us have the eezo to move mountains, yet half of you has barely trained enough to move a pebble on her lucky day! We can live hundreds of years, yet, at the end of it all, most of us has done less with her life than a f***ing human can in one TENTH of that time! And on you complain, about how f***ing precious and fragile you are, and how your rights must be respected! So, sorry, but not sorry, I’m not gonna let our entire species go extinct to accommodate your precious petty little needs. And I know that a lot among you agree with me, deep down, but are afraid to come out and say it plainly, because otherwise your idiot f***wit friends are going to turn on you, and call you a bigot. Well, screw that! What do you care? That your ‘Like’ rate is gonna go down? Have you looked around?! We’re fighting for survival and you worry about what some idiot that you never met is going to call you on a chat?”
Elioka took a moment to catch her breath. She really didn’t want it to devolve into a rant, but, given the sensitive topic and the uncomfortable spotlight, it was hard for her to remain calm.
“Listen...” she breathed out. “...I know it might feel suffocating for many, to realize nothing you say is listened to, and that you cannot actually do everything you want... Well, welcome to the f***ing club! It’s called reality! I didn’t take away that from you, I just showed you you never had it! You just followed what the tides were. Well, f*** the f***ing tides! That s*** is gone, forever! I’m not getting the dumb, crazy paranoid, spineless mob decide what it’s best for us asari. We’re gonna roll with some quality over quantity-sort of policy from now on around here: if you want to speak, and you want your voice to count, you’ve got to earn it first, turian-style. And if you think that you just don’t have what it takes to fight and die for your sisters, then guess what? YOU DON’T GET TO F***ING DECIDE FOR THEM!”

​

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blood Moons – Group Chat​

Mob_Overruled_01: So, Lani, who came up first with the “let’s make Elioka talk” idea?
Mob_Overruled_01: You or Lys?
=EVLani=: T__T

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ​

 

[Silfae]

Depends on how it is received...

 

[Silfae]

Well, thats one way of putting it. I'm not sure the general population will buy into that under anything less than total reaper siege, but hey its a start

Yeah, it might appeal to some, but the majority of the population is another matter...

 

[Silfae]

I wish our fucking politicians would get off their tits and deliver speeches like that.
Doesn't matter if you fucking like it or not, just there is no fucking way you'll sleep through the speech!

...But the mainstream voter!

 

[Silfae]

Chapter 6: Scanning some f***ing rock
(Leaders tab)​

“Dr. M’jaius.” Called the pilot from her position. “You need to see this.”
Myrayme left her last report on the side of her chair and leaned forward. “Yes?”
“We’ve located the source of those strange emissions. They appear located around the orbit of Brynnis VI.”
It had been only a few weeks from her chat with Elioka; the Illapan had interrupted its survey of the lower systems, as ordered, to focus on the exploration of the route through Miklor’s Vortex. During the first days, Myrayme’s attention was more on the reports coming from Neoilium: Elioka had followed her public speech with new laws and training programs for the Maidens, and many Blood Moons of the inner Circle were very interested to see what would have been the long-term reaction of the population. Sadly, once the Illapan had left the Elempar system, it had become progressively harder to receive updates from Neoilium.
More to the point, worries about the possible dangers of her travel had started to creep on Myrayme’s mind, forcing her to turn her attention to the task at hand.
She had initially entertained the idea of just flashing through the systems, to immediately reach the outer arm of the galaxy and then return back to base, but, once her expedition had reached Brynnis, the archeologist in her compelled her to start surveying the local worlds as well. Since she had taken command of the Illapan, she had hoped her travels would bring her to discover signs of civilization in that new galaxy.
The most likely and preferable result would have been prothean ruins; after all, it had been a mass relay that had stranded the asari on Neoilium. Yet, in fact, anything could have been possible: a new galaxy meant for Myrayme the chance to discover all sorts of new and extraordinary things, not only uncovering ruins of past civilizations, but also possibly discovering new sentient species as well. That would have been a childhood dream come true for her.

“Magnify the image.”
The Illapan had spent a few days roaming through the asteroid belt of the Brynnis system, but they had finally found the source of the strange emissions that had Myrayme worried for some time. She had originally thought them to be the result of an anomaly coming from the system’s molten planet, but the pulse seemed to have shifted outside of the asteroid belt since her last examination.
“The course cannot be the result of an orbiting body.”
“Could be a comet of some sort?” asked one of her helpers.
“Hmm...”Myrayme looked at the image on the screen, showing nothing but a small source of light, moving across the space. The Illapan’s scanners did not read any sign of solid matter. “It is as if it were some sort of microscopic star... that can’t be it. Perhaps the emissions are shielding it from some of our scanners? Take us closer.”
“Dr. Mjaius...” the assistant gave her a worried look.
“What?” Myrayme asked. “It seems some sort of energy source, as long as we keep on its tail, it shouldn’t be a problem. Now that I think of it, it might be the residual of some energy projectile, still travelling through space.”
“But we’ve found no trace of debris in this system, at least until now.”
“Yes...” Myrayme rubbed her chin. “...I’m not sure, it might have been fired from an astronomical distance. In that case, though, it would imply a weapon of-”
“Doctor!” the pilot interrupted her. “The anomaly it’s changing course!”

“What!?!” Myrayme looked at the screen, where the holographic projections of the light bulb’s movement were being automatically rearranged, putting the Illapan on the object’s new route. “...the f***? How’s it even-? Maybe it’s some reaction to our engine emissions? Let’s make a full stop, switch to auxiliary.”
A few seconds passed, but the cloud of light did not change its new course.
“Any more data?” She asked.
“No new information from the scanners.” Answered her assistant.
“Hm.” Tapping her fingers on the armchair, Myrayme gave herself a few seconds to think about the situation, before signaling the pilot to re-ignite the engines. “Alright, let’s not risk contact, we can still-”
A bright flash suddenly enveloped the screen, accompanied by a loud explosion of energy inside the Illapan’s command room. The electrical shock pushed Myrayme and her assistant shaking on the ground, with their vision blurred.
“W-w-w-...” Myrayme held onto her face, trying to overcome the stifling pain. “...q-quick! Take us out!”
The pilot shouted something back, but she couldn’t understand a word. Seeing the fires on a control post nearby and the sudden lack of light, she realized the strike had compromised their systems.
Myrayme turned on her elbows, still holding her head with her hands, and started crawling towards the pilot, who was still stuck on her post, but, before being able to reach her, a second explosion crossed the room, enveloping the entire starship.

*****************​

Elioka tried to cover her ears, but the booming shriek of the Reaper still echoed in her mind. She was stuck in the trench, the white buildings of Thessia burning all around her. The monstrous machine was slowly moving through the buildings, shadowing the entire street, crushing and vaporizing anything on its path.
“Get down!”
“Elioka! The barrier, Elioka!”
Soldiers were screaming and shooting all around her, mixed with the grunts and shrieks of the misshapen husks raining from the skies. Elioka forced herself to take away the hands from her ears and point her arms forward, to create a new bubble of energy and protect the other huntresses, but, right at that moment, the twisted shape of an harvester dived from above and started to shoot at them, each blow weakening the barrier and making her teeth stutter.
“Hold on! Hold on!”
The creature wailed at them, turned around and prepared for another attack.
“We need to get away from here!”
“Run!”
“Let’s go, Elioka! Run!”
“Fall back!”
Elioka stopped holding the barrier together and jumped out of the trench, running as fast as she could. She covered several meters already before realizing that no one else was following her. She glanced behind, only to see her comrades still stuck in place, waiting for the harvester to strike, shooting at it and screaming for help.
“But.. you said..? No! NO!”
She tried to turn around, but her legs did not obey, making her run further away from the trench. She stretched her arm, trying to create a new barrier from afar, but it was too late: the harvester’s cannons released another couple of red beams of energy, destroying the entire section of the street.

Elioka startled in her cot, her eyes frightfully darting around the dark tent. It had been some time since she had her last nightmare about the Reapers, she couldn’t remember any had happened after she had left the Mothership Larelei with the new recruits.
She left the cot and moved tentatively in the dark, searching for her canteen. It was still hours before dawn, but she didn’t feel like sleeping anymore. She drank a few sips of water, and then sprinkled more of it on her face, to shake off what little torpor she still had. That microcontinent they moved to was humid and thick with jungle: even during the night and with the ocean so close, it was still overwhelmingly warm for an asari. She left her tent putting a jacket over her underwear, and started to roam through the encampment.
She kept away from the flashlights of the huntresses on guard duty, taking advantage of the situation to test both herself and them, to see if any of them would be able to spot her.

Getting away from Larelei had been a hard decision initially, but it helped Elioka to relieve some of her stress and better meditate on her course of action. Some part of her knew that it was just another way for her to avoid discussing sensitive topics with the other Blood Moons, but she couldn’t deny that what she was doing there was also important for the long-term stability of the colony as well. Her public speech had not been particularly popular with the Maidens, and even less so with the Matrons, but, alongside the new policies she had implemented right after, it had resulted in several new young asari stepping forward to join the Blood Moons. Since Vethy was still busy training their pilots and working with Peeemsy to repair what little fleet they had, Elioka had decided to take up on the training of the new recruits entirely upon herself, moving them away from the Mothership.
The way she saw it, her decision had two main advantages: on one hand, with Sulysy and Enlikla ruling the colony in her absence, the people would have had a more moderate and conciliatory leadership, which might have lessened the tension caused by her speech; on the other hand, having the new recruits cut off from the rest of Neoilium would have allowed Elioka not just to train them in combat, but to let them embrace her ideology without external influences meddling with her work. Finally, it was an opportunity for them to explore more of Neoilium, building new observation and defense posts along the way.
“Alt!” a flashlight shone behind her, making her silently swear against herself. “Identify yourself.”
Elioka kept her hands up, slowly turning around. “At ease, soldier. It’s me.”
The huntress, with her rifle already pointed at her, narrowed her eyes, then gasped in surprise. “...Commander? What’s your identification code?”
“1D4FF7813.”
After a quick check on her omni-tool, the huntress finally put down her weapon. “I’m sorry, I-”
“There’s nothing to be sorry.” Elioka lowered her hands and walked closer to her. “You were doing your job.”
“Yes, ma’am.” With a somewhat uncomfortable tone, the guard teetered a step back. “I will be going then. Good- good night, Commander.”
“Let me accompany you for a while. Do you mind?”
“No, ma’am.” The huntress answered readily, quickly moving on the side to give Elioka some space.
“What is your name, recruit?”
“I am Anika T’serei, 2nd battalion, ma’am.”
“You have very keen earing, T’serei.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“You already trained?”
“Yes, ma’am. I was allocated on Niacal for a few years before the war. There was one time my squad had to track down a band of smugglers led by a rogue STG infiltrator. That sort of thing has a way of improving your earing and eyesight.”
“Ah! I bet.” Elioka glanced at her for a moment. “Niacal. How did you end up on Mothership Larelei then? I thought they had time to take only Thessians.”
“That is not entirely wrong, Commander. My squad oversaw the transport of bioengineered crops from Niacal to Thessia a few months before departure. I believe the Blood Moons are still using them now to feed the colony.”
“Oh, yes! You’re right.” Elioka chuckled and facepalmed. “Too many things to keep track of these years...”
“I understand, ma’am.”
“Were you in charge of your squad?”
“By the last weeks, yes. Our Captain was killed during the first Reaper assault on Thessia, I was next in line.”
“Hm.” Elioka was tempted to ask Anika her age, but decided not to. She could already tell that Anika was older than she was, probably older than she’d have liked to know, and didn’t want to make the conversation uncomfortable for both. All of the new recruits were young Maidens, but that category included asari who were as much as three times older than Elioka was. She had never had been bothered by it until she started training them.
According to the old asari society, they would have been all considered little more than children: only after one century of life an asari was accepted as an adult. From her talks with Myrayme, the biological basis for that stance was somewhat skewed, but not entirely a fabrication of the Matriarchs: an asari’s body and mind were nearly fully grown by her thirties, she could already meld with other people, but it was not advisable for her to have children before at least her hundredth birthday, to avoid complications during pregnancy. The argument regarding the general lack of wisdom in asari below the hundred years’ threshold was harder to verify, since, in the old culture, asari encouraged their daughters to leave home early with little official education, to make them gather their own experiences in life. Elioka wrote many times on the extranet that that was the real reason for the rampant immaturity amongst Maidens: they were just abandoned to her own means, encouraged to waste decades of their lives pole-dancing or shooting people for money. Having the new recruits separated and to be trained properly was an opportunity for her to prove her point in practice, yet, once put to the challenge, she was starting to find out her own lack of experience was hindering her efforts.
The military training was one thing, she could handle that, but when it came to speak with the other recruits, to explain the reasons why she felt the need for a stronger and well-unified asari government, or when she tried to discuss with them the benefits of the Blood Moons’ ideals, she often found herself at a disadvantage, looking for answers as much as her students.
Maybe there’s some truth in that s***. I mean, I haven’t really had any experience teaching, but that’s the point! I have to learn, just like they are learning from me. It’ll just take more time. Once I’ve had practice enough in this s***, I’ll be able to teach to the new generations even better.

She chatted for a while longer with Anika, until the first rays of sun came through the foliage, and then allowed her to go to rest, so that the recruit could be ready for the morning drill.
Elioka returned to her tent as well, to dress up and check her omni-tool for messages. She had tried to cut as much the ties with Mothership as possible in those months, to avoid getting distracted, but she needed to check in at least once a day for possible important news from her friends of the inner Circle. It had been hard not to write on the chat for so long during the first weeks, but she knew resisting that urge was part of her own training: that desire to voice every opinion on the net was a remnant of the old e-democracy, which she needed to get rid of.
Sadly, that morning there were a couple of messages from the Larelei tagged as high-priority, one from Vethy and one from Sulysy, both regarding the same matter: the disappearance of Myrayme.
After a quick check to the clock, Elioka typed both of them a message to establish an immediate connection. Vethy was the first to answer the call, appearing on the holographic screen only a few minutes after.
“Morning Elio. It’s about time: Lys has been trying to call you since last night.”
“You know I keep my omni-tool silenced. I don’t want to be distracted.”
“What are we gonna do?”
“Can you give me a quick report first? I just read the subject, I-”
Vethy sighed. “It has been nearly three months now since Myr’s last report.”
“She told me she was expecting interferences once near the blackhole, which would have made it harder to call back. Also, it’s pretty far away from our sensors’ reach, we don’t have proper comm buoys yet, Peem said it would have been impossible to contact us until she came back from the outer arm.”
“I know, I know...”
“You know how Myr is, once she’s on a track, she gets distracted. She’s probably too busy scanning rocks to bother checking in.”
“She’s been away for too long.”
“She probably hasn’t found the trail back home yet, that’s all.”
“Yeah, that’s what Lys was-” Vethy was stopped by Sulysy finally joining the call as well.
“Finally!” she said from her half of the screen; Elioka could see she had clear signs of sleep deprivation as well.
“What is it, Lys? Why so upset?” she asked.
“Elio, we need to do something.” Said Sulysy, in a worried tone. “I don’t like this at all.”
“Do you think I don’t like it either?” answered Elioka. “I wish every night to wake up in the morning with a message from Myr, telling me she’s found the way back home.”
“Psh-yeah! That’s the problem, Elio!” retorted Sulysy. “You shouldn’t have told her to keep going until she found one. I’m surprised that you, of all people, would make her just go like that, without requiring constant reports!”
“But we don’t have comm buoys yet! To do that she’d have to go back and forth from Neoilium every f***ing time! This way she can cover much more territory.”
“Provided that she’s still alive.”
“Oh, come on, Lys! She knows what she’s doing.”
“What if the loyalists took her?” asked Vethy. “You could be waiting for results that will never come.”
“That’s precious, Ptero. ...She has Peem’s hyperdrive, at the first sign of trouble, she can zap herself right back here in Neoilium.”
“These engines are still prototypes!” shouted Sulysy. “You just trust them not to break? What if there was a malfunction in the Illapan and she’s stranded somewhere, with no way of contacting us? What if something else attacked her? We don’t know!”
“I know it’s a risk,” Elioka sighed. “I understand that, but-”
“No buts!” Sulysy interrupted her.
“Yeah,” Elioka retorted. “lots of buts! I know what you two are calling for: you want me to tell Vethy to mobilize the rest of the fleet to go looking for her, which means leaving the colony exposed. You know that the loyalists are just waiting for that slip-up. The moment we lower our guard, they’re gonna strike again.”
Vethy shook her head. “We haven’t had sightings of loyalists for more than a year, Elio. For all we know, they’ve starved in their ships, or worse.”
“Until I have the charred corpses of the last Justicar on display, I’m not taking that chance.”
“It’s Myr, Elio! We can’t abandon her!” shouted Sulysy.
“Even from a practical standpoint, Elio.” Continued Vethy. “If something has happened to the Illapan, and we don’t know it, then we’re wasting time without even knowing it. If something happened, Myr is not searching for a way back to Thessia, you’re just waiting for nothing. We must re-establish contact.”
“Hmmrrgh...” Elioka tapped her fingers on the forehead, nervously moving back and forth. “Alright, alright. Take the ships, Ptero, but be quick about this. I don’t want to lose everything just to check on Myr.”
At her words, Lys immediately appeared more relieved. “Thanks, Elio.”
Elioka shook her head, grumbling. “She’ll be just scanning some f***ing rock.”