Commander M'kyala had reported back to the Citadel Council about the discovery of a new multispecies empire. Following their first contact protocol, the citadel council had sent a diplomatic envoy to the system that they encountered the Ascendency ship's.
The diplomatic envoy's mission was to establish a peaceful relationship with the new empire and offer them an embassy on the Citadel to allow for inter-species exchange with the other races and empires of the Galaxy.
When the envoy arrived, they had met with Miranda, who was given the position as the Head of diplomatic affairs which gave her the authority to negotiate with the empires of this new galaxy and make important diplomatic decisions. Assisting her was a representative from each race within the Ascendency.
The Citadel Council's envoy consisted of three members. A female Asari named Solara T'Veer, a Turian by the name of Caius Victus, and a Salarian known as Norsarth Ciben. They met onboard one of the Ascendency's diplomatic vessels and were escorted to the meeting room where both sides took their seats.
"I am Solara T'Veer," the Asari began, speaking on behalf of her colleagues. "We bring greetings from the Citadel Council and extend our hand in friendship."
Miranda nodded, making sure to show the proper diplomatic formalities that was established when negotiating with new species. "As do we," she replied, "on behalf of the Ascendency."
The meeting was long and filled with negotiations and explanations of how the Citadel Council works. After a few hours, terms were agreed upon for cooperation. The Ascendency had agreed to set up an Embassy on the Citadel for inter-species exchange and further cooperation with other species.
The Ascendency would become an associate member of the Citadel and be bound by the accords of the Citadel Conventions. Associate members may bring issues to the attention of the Council, though they have no input on the decision.
Despite the small number of benefits of becoming an associate member, Miranda saw it as a chance for them to gather intelligence from the other species and use that information to shape the Ascendency's strategy in navigating this new galaxy. Moreover, it was also a chance for them to broadcast their principles and gain potential allies.
The envoys left having accomplished their mission with Miranda following them towards the Mass Relay where she would go to the Citadel to finish establishing the Ascendency's embassy. They had just arrived within the galaxy, so they didn't have the information of where various places are at, so they would use the Mass Relay instead of their Warp drives.
Once they arrived within range of the Mass Relay, Norsarth Ciben the Salarian envoy explained how the Mass Relays were used. Before a vessel can travel, the relay must be given the amount of mass to transit by the ship's pilot, once that was done the ship approached the relay and would be propelled to the corresponding relay.
Miranda relayed this information to Axel who would send a science team to investigate the relay and potentially learn how it was created and who by.
Meanwhile on Shanxi, Governor Yin Lee was not faring well. The Turians had tightened their siege and were making relentless advances towards the city center. It felt like only a matter of time before they captured the entire planet.
The situation grew steadily worse, day by day. General Williams, who was in charge of the defense, was trying his best to resist the Turian army, but without reinforcements or supplies it proved to be extremely difficult to mount a proper defense especially when the enemy had aerial superiority.
Despite this, the Alliance soldiers continued to fight valiantly. They developed hit and run tactics, launching quick counterattacks only to disappear back into the ruined cityscape. But it was a losing battle without reinforcements or supplies.
Above the planet, a cloaked scout ship from the Ascendency was monitoring the battle from a safe distance. The scout ship was performing its routine scan of the system when it came across an ongoing invasion of a world. Axel, who was informed of this, ordered the scout ship to monitor the situation and watch its development. He wanted to know about the reasoning behind this invasion and why it was going on. There was no information on what two species were engaged in that battle as the scout ship had to limit the use of its systems to not get detected by the invading fleet.
A single Guardian Custode was placed on standby in case Axel decided to intervene in the conflict.
Meanwhile as this was going on, Nova had continued developing what would be the Capital planet for the Ascendency in this new galaxy. An orbital station was already being constructed which would be the main hub for ships coming to visit the world and serve as the launching point for expeditions. The station would also provide critical repairs and maintenance for vessels.
Once the station was done, an Orbital ring was planned to be constructed around the planet. On the moon orbiting Nova, it was beginning to be terraformed to become a place for the Yanme'e Hive queens to establish their hive colonies and start growing their species.
A suitable location to start building the dimensional slipspace gate was found within a nearby nebula which would block sensors from detecting the mega structure. A few Assemblers were moved into position within the Nebula and started the construction of the gate to connect the two galaxies to each other.
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A month later, the Ascendency had established its embassy on the Citadel and started to interact with the other species within the Galaxy. It was a surprise to the other species within the galaxy to discover a multi-species empire that existed within the Galaxy and adding to the average height across the races within the Ascendency, they had shown their physical superiority as well. The Ascendency representatives were towering figures that moved with a graceful power that drew the attention of anyone nearby.
Miranda was pleased with the progress they had made on the Citadel. She had managed to arrange several diplomatic meetings with representatives from other races, aiming to foster further cooperation and obtain valuable information about the political climate of their new galaxy. The study of these alien cultures was indeed fascinating, providing invaluable data to help shape their future strategies.
Above Shanxi, the scout ship had conducted weeks of information gathering and had discovered a surprising discovery. Using the information that they gathered from their Citadel embassy, they learned that the attacking force was the Turian Hierarchy, and the defending force was a colony of what appeared to be Humans.
This was a shocking discovery for Axel as the discovery of humans within this galaxy raised a lot of questions. Among the string of questions, the most important one was whether this Human race was exactly like their own.
Axel planned to find the answers to these questions, so he dispatched the Guardian Custode to go and intervene in the invasion. He also ordered Miranda to bring this situation up to the Council.