Chapter 150

The news on the 5 Clans battle had spread throughout Tuchunka and had effectively got rid of the War fanatics who were gathering. Of course there are still more Krogan out there who want war, probably more than some people think, but without a central leader to unite them, they would not be a problem for a while.

Clan Gatatog had become the leading clan on Tuchunka, not because of their numbers as other Clans had that, but because they were one of the few clans who do more talking than fighting amongst the Krogan clans. They are an Ancient Clan who is known for losing the Krogan Rebellions centuries ago which made most clans consider them weak.

But with the Ascendency's support, they have become the voice of Tuchunka and have risen their small clan into a much larger clan to contend against the other clans. The remnants of the 5 clans, mostly women, children, and a few Krogan who didn't want to wage war against the galaxy had joined Clan Gatatog, boosting their number of clan members.

In addition to that, they also had a few clans, mostly small clans who began working alongside them to reform Tuchunka as their population continues to rise.

Being supported by the Ascendency was a major thing that helped them become the representatives of the Tuchunka. And when the 5-clan incident happened, they were the first to speak out about it.

Contrary to what everybody believed they would say, they instead condemned the actions of the Ascendency, calling the massacre of 5 Krogan clans to be unnecessary. At least that's what they said openly to the other Krogan clans, while in secret they were glad that the war mongering faction of Krogan clans that were gathering is now gone.

The Ascendency's spokesperson had replied with, "If it is unnecessary for the Ascendency to protect people against those who wish to wage an unwarranted war, then what is necessary?" he asked bluntly during an open interview at Atlas station.

The 5 clans not only waged a conflict with the CDEM but had also started aggressively recruiting Krogan's to their cause, blinding them with the idea of war and filling newborn Krogan with the idea of taking revenge for a centuries old grudge that would have resulted in an even harsher punishment for the Krogan when they lost their rebellion for the second time.

Of course, no actions would be taken by Clan Gatatog as the current power that they have was because of the Ascendency, and what could they do against the Ascendency who was the strongest empire in the galaxy that wielded strange technology that surpassed even the Asari and Salarians.

———

Leaving the matter of Tuchunka alone, the Ascendency had discovered various new ancient Prothean ruins which they had begun studying and deciphering to understand what happened to them and about the threat of the Reapers. As the ruins and ancient knowledge was being researched and translated, they had also found various stasis pods that were all unfortunately no longer active meaning that the Protheans inside were dead.

This was to be expected since the stasis pods were reportingly some 50,000 years old according to studies conducted by the other races. There is a chance that somewhere out there, a few stasis pods could have survived, but at the moment all the Ascendency found were non active stasis pods.

The study of all the Prothean ruins had revealed a lot about the Reapers before they were completely wiped out. The Atlas research team had discovered various new information and found information they already knew.

From what they could decipher, the Reapers were not a naturally occuring species, but artificial constructs. They were claimed to be created via an unbroken cycle of annihilation and rebirth, which had been happening for countless iterations of galactic history. The Reapers were as old as time itself, and their existence seemed to be bound by some unfathomable law of the cosmos.

The ancient Prothean texts also hinted at a possible way to disrupt this cycle, though the specifics were lost or heavily obscured in cryptic Prothean language and symbolism. A team of Ascendency's best linguists and archaeologists was working round-the-clock to decipher this vital piece of information.

———

3 years later 2180

The research by the Ascendency's linguists and archeologists proved to bring about a lot of answers. Combined with their research on Ilos, it revealed the Reapers to come from dark space beyond the known galaxy, returning periodically to harvest all advanced sentient life.

It seemed that the Reapers' purpose was not just to destroy, but to harvest civilizations when they reached their zenith of development, to 'reap' what they had sowed.

The key to all of this was the Citadel which was revealed to be a huge mass relay that could send a signal to the Reapers in dark space and invite them in for another invasion of the galaxy. The VI within the ruins on Ilos had told them that thousands of years ago, a Prothean research team had awoken from stasis and continued their research on the reapers.

They found a way to alter the signals from the Citadel to the keepers to prevent them from activating the relay. They used the Conduit, a prototype mass relay that links to the Citadel, bypassing its defenses, to travel to the Citadel and thus preventing Sovereign, a reaper from signaling the keepers.

This was a great discovery by the Ascendency which provided them with a lot of knowledge involving the reapers and how they would come into the galaxy. Unfortunately, the Citadel was controlled by numerous races, but that wouldn't stop him from infiltrating the station. Through agents they could monitor the station every second of every day to ensure that if the signal somehow gets sent, then they would know.

Combining agents and AI would be the focus of their intelligence efforts on the Citadel. At the moment, nothing the Citadel had could block an Ascendency AI from accessing its network because of how restricted the VIs of the citadel are. The Ascendency already used the Citadel to gather various information from political figures and monitor the actions of each councilor to ensure that another incident like the one with former Turian Councilor Kaitus didn't happen again.

The Ascendency already warned the other species about the threat of the Reapers, and even with the amount evidence that they constantly publicly post, many of the other species dismissed this information and continued to deny the reapers are a threat.

Axel only shrugged his shoulders at this since he already knew what was going to happen in the future once the reapers invaded. The other species would come running to the Ascendency once the Reapers invade, but Axel was not going to simply throw Ascendency soldiers' lives away to save a galaxy that wasn't even their home galaxy. They would defend their allies of course, but for the most part, he planned to use MCU's to help the other species.

Back to the Ascendency research team, their expeditions had turned into finding more Prothean stasis pods since it was possible that there was some even if just one, Prothean Stasis pod still active out there somewhere. If they found it, they could bring back the ancient race that had fought the Reapers and gain some valuable insight into how the Reapers fought and worked.