Mass Effect: Another Time, Another Place

Chapter 4: Wyatt Takes The Citadel, Part 2

Summary:

After meeting a Krogan for the first time since his arrival, he is about to have another first time encounter with a different species, one of which seeks to help him. He makes a startling discovery, and theorises about evolution, revealing he is more than a simple point-and-shoot man...

Chapter 4:

SIA started talking as I walked down the steps back down to the Embassy greeting area. "That was a Krogan. They are mostly mercenaries. They are very fearsome combatants. They also have multiple instances of major organs. These secondary and where applicable, tertiary, systems are capable of serving as back-ups in the event of damage to the primary biological structures. They have two hearts, four lungs, and four testicles. This reflects in their slang, where they often speak about a "quad" where a human would use the words "balls" or "pair". Krogan also have a secondary nervous system, meaning they are almost impossible to paralyze. Aside from redundant systems, the legendary Krogan "blood rage" adds to the race's reputation for being notoriously difficult to kill or incapacitate in normal combat scenarios. In this state, Krogan become totally unresponsive to pain and will fight to the death regardless of injury level, with the side effect of reducing their capacity for logic and self-control." she informed me as I reached the bottom and stopped dead... These things sound very fucking deadly.

As I continued walking, I saw some kind of... Holographic... Person... Thingy... "Welcome to The Presidium CITIZEN ID UNAVAILABLE." it spoke to me and I chuckled. Yeahhhh, a few hundred year old dead human won't have an ID in a galactic community. I just walked away with a slight smile on my face. I walked around 'The Presidium' as the VI had called it... Wow. Galactic version of luxury. It amazed me, but this life wasn't for me. I was boots-on-the-ground, in the mud and the dirt with my fellow soldiers, no matter how high I climbed the ranks.

I walked around and saw a massive statue of... Was that a Krogan?! "Blimey, wonder if my statue's still standing...?" I asked no one in particular. "What's this one commemorating I wonder...?" I asked aloud as I observed the statue.

"The Rachni Wars, Commander." came SIA's voice. "The Krogan were exceptionally violent, and yet became industrial. However, this made life too easy on their home planet which resulted in a population surge, which resulted in nuclear winter from clan warfare. The Salarians uplifted them prematurely into the Galactic Community, offering help in exchange for serving as shock troopers in the ongoing Rachni War. The Rachni were a race of spider-like creatures that had a hive mind structure with Queens and drones, like ants, although they were exceptionally intelligent. They could communicate verbally, but chose not to. It is unknown why they suddenly attacked. The Krogan succeeded in wiping them out completely. This statue was built to thank them. However, they bred out of control and began colonising worlds not their own. Eventually, the Council intervened and The Krogan Rebellions started. The recently discovered Turians deployed a bio-weapon developed by Salarians on the Krogan homeworld and other colonies, which resulted in the Turians joining the Council. This was called The Genophage. It eliminated the Krogan number advantage by reducing the birth rate to 1-in-2000." she explained to me in detail as I listened intently the entire time. I just nodded dumbly...

"Holy fuck..." I managed to say finally. "Seems a bit fucked... While understandable." I sighed. I knew about having to make those kind of decisions. Well... They didn't extinct them, just reduced their birthrate to stop their numbers.

There was another statue of sorts there as well... Huh. "SIA?" I asked simply as I looked over it.

She was quick to explain to me. "This is a statue of a Mass Effect Relay. The real thing is much larger." she told me and I nodded and whistled. So this is what allowed travel between systems? Impressive indeed. I looked around myself at that point.