WELCOME TO THE CITADEL CODEX INFORMATION DATABASE.

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Codex Search Entry: Quarians

Quarians were once a part of Citadel Council and were regarded highly for their ship building and technological skills. That all changed with the creation of the geth. Geth were the main labor force of the Quarians, and were highly prized for their functions and durability. However, due to unknown reasons, the geth gain a sentient awareness. The quarians attempt to shut them down, but were unable to. This lead to the short, but brutal battle that forced the Quarians off their planets. If that was not enough, the Council reprimanded the Quarians for the geth, kicked them off the council with very little support, and forbade them to colonizing any planet

Since then, the Quarians had wander the galaxy. Any attempt to colonized a planet was met with Council forces and warnings. This forced the Quarians to capture and repair abandon or damage ships they find, gather and salvage anything they can get their hands on, and live in ships in tight confines. Eventually, they started to send people out to gather resources from various planets. This soon became a coming of age practice, sending their people to experience the galaxy.

This changed in 3158 when the leader of the Equestria, Queen Celestia, and her Military Adviser and Leader of the System Alliance, Commander General, extended a hand of friendship to them, along with the krogans. While wary at first for deceit or sabotage, the Admirals had sent Admiral Fordan Galzen vas Rayya along with Rael Zorah and Lela Dars to talks.

Talks had nearly been brought down when the Quarians started to make demands, they will only joined if they, the System Alliance, would help them with the geth. Commander General has pointed out multiple times that they were foolish and childish. They were being offered a home and resources for them to build up their fleets, but were making more demands from them. The SA was not going to be drag into another war for their sakes, especially given when the geth had never been seen outside the Perseus Veil for almost 300 years. The final statement was driven home to the quarians.

“And then what if you do win? Hmm? You think the geth will LET you on the planet they fought so hard to kick you off! They probably wait until you are all on the planet before destroying it with some sort of superweapon or nuke it so you can't use it to anymore! What if you LOSE! You have families on board! CHILDREN EVEN! You are going to sacrifice the lives of all of them just so you can have a hunk of rock that you don't even know the status of?! All of you are idiots if so. Its time for you to let go! Move on. We will let you colonize any of these planets we offer, we will help you free yourselves from the suit, we will protect you from the corrupted galaxy so your children will know something known as peace. You're willing to throw that away?!”

With the offer being passed around the Migrant Fleet for 5 days, a vote was called for. Over 70% of the population was in agreement with the treaty. They were tired, and they wanted to call a planet home.

3159 was the year that quarians began to disappear from the galaxy's view. Soon afterwords, reports coming from Illium stated that Quarian Indenture Servants began to go missing. Any attempt to ask the Migrant Fleet was blocked by the SA, stating that they were under their jurisdiction and not the council's.

Council began to make demands that the SA terminate the treaty between themselves and the Quarians, the SA refused to comply. When the council began to limit or outright cut off trade with the SA, the SA simply shrugged its shoulders, not really caring about it. Council races on the other hand, began to question this wisdom. The Council would later retract the sanctions when they realized just how big of a market the SA had made for themselves and was actually hurting the economy as well as the technology that was lost when it came to studying.

To this day, no one had seen the Quarians outside of SA space, and few traders and merchants would swap stories to those outside about seeing quarians walking outside of their suits among the populace. It is considered that the Quarians are now part of the SA.

Codex Search Entry: Krogans

Krogans are a violent, bloodthirsty species that were upraised ahead of their time during the Rachni War. The consequences of that led to the Krogan Rebellions. A war that almost destroyed the galaxy itself.

Afterwords, the krogan fell back to being mercenaries and bodyguards for the rest of the galaxy. Always lending out their talents to highest bidders. It wasn't until 3158 that the krogans would get the help in the form of the System Alliance.

Urdnot Wrex was called towards the meeting with Queen Celestia and her adviser Commander General. Wrex informed both of them that he will think about it. It will be on 3162 that Urdnot Wrex will return with several clan leaders from Tuchanka on the Arcturus Station to speak with the SA leaders.

The krogan clan leaders were not impressed with the SA military, and even tried to fight several of them on many occasions just in the first 2 days. Commander General was not impressed with the bravado that the krogan leaders were boasting. He then order an upcoming and promising officer, 1st Lieutenant David Anderson, to fist fight the one of the krogan clan leaders.

It will be a completely one sided fight.

For the krogan.

Due to the fact that weapons were not allowed in the fight, the krogan attempt to simply run over the LT. However, brute force was not the forte of SA soldiers, it was skills and finesse. For about 5 minutes, the clan leader was on the receiving side of vicious blows and kicks that would make any krogan wince, the clan leader got angry enough to use biotics to send LT flying. Well, Command General let LT use his own form of energy, magic, to even the playing field.

The krogan need medical attention afterwords.

Seeing that a single soldier, a lowly officer, beat down a clan leader, a battlemaster, so easily, allowed the other krogan to realized that there was more to the SA than the council let on. The krogan were introduced into a realm of magic. Here, anyone could be as powerful as a krogan warlord, silent as a drell assassin, discipline as a turian sergeant, smart as a salarian scientist, or as kind as the asari diplomat.  The SA represent everyone and everything around them. Here, they can have a future. They can test themselves against powerful allies and grow stronger.

The krogan agree to the treaty. The were able to choose several planets that had hostile life on the planet, to test and grow stronger. A single planet was chosen as a Sacred Clan Meetings. Here, they will gather, trade, test their strength, and discuss future plans for themselves.

These days, you will rarely see krogans  running around. A majority of them leaving towards SA space, only the Blood Pack remains, and even then, they have ties to the Krogan Clans in SA space.

Codex Search Entry: Citadel Council Relations With the System Alliance

To say they were on good terms with the council would be like saying an orange was an apple. The council has kept the System Alliance at arms reach, and the same can be said of the Sato the council. While the System Alliance have always been wary of Council and their people, the council has been paranoid about them. Different tech, different skills, and abilities that comes straight out of a fairy tales put them well beyond uncomfortable. The fact that they are not under council control was even worse. Here was a group of species that wielded power that could not be easily explained by Council reports, nor can they wield it.

Relations got worse after the Mindoir Assault, the Council had received several notices from the Batarians, stating they were willing to trade several items they 'liberated' from the SA scums for credits and resource. Sufficiently to say, when the deal was conducted on the Illium, all members, both the Batarian slavers as well as a group of specters and STGs, were killed in such a brutal fashion that there was very little left of them. The only thing that was there was a card with a yellow and black symbol with the words:

'We guard the light of Equestria and her colonies from the darkness and chaos of the Galaxy. We listen, we wait, we are all seeing, we are Cerberus. And we guard the gates of hell.'- The Illusive Man

Unable to move action against the SA, they simple let it go, unable to do anything. Word got around that the Shadow Broker himself was attempting to find out more about the SA and gain intel. Instead, he and his forces are caught in a shadow warfare, his forces being routed and destroyed before they even set a foothold in SA space.

If word even gets out about any SA species under control against their will in Council or even Terminus Space, they will find themselves under attack from the black ops group, Cerberus

Codex Search Entry: System Alliance Ships

While most ships in the galaxy use Mass Effect engines and other similar technology. System Alliance ships use a different source all together. Few that seen the inside of a SA ship will all say the same thing. The power source is enormous as well as odd.

Instead of an ME Core or reactor, they use a large crystal to power their ships. Tough and hard to break, these crystal store large amounts of power, how these crystal are initially powered is classified. They can be charged several ways, the main way is simply to skim a star for the ship to draw power (How this is done is nothing short of astonishing as well as insane), another is to absorb the excess magic being used. What is know is that the ships can absorb several different types of energies and convert it to its use it.

The shielding used in SA ships are also mind blowing. Able to shield itself from a solar flare with ease, even absorb it, the shield can shrug off ME ship slugs with very little thought. Even guardian lasers are no match for it. Even if one were to overpower the shielding themselves, the plating on the ships are made of titanium, several meters thick. An added bonus is that most ships have runes inscribed on all of the plates as well, to strengthen the already impressive plating even further.

The ships railguns of the SA are surprisingly similar to ME railguns. Only difference is how they shoot and how fast. ME railguns have trouble in long drawn out fights, due to overheating. The same could not be said about SA railguns, they still have trouble with overheating, but only with the barrel of the guns melting due to friction and need to be replaced. Only the largest ships, carriers and dreadnoughts have DEW on their ships, and could only be fired every few minutes due to large draw of power.

The SA use a similar faster than light travel and can use the relays. They also have one more way to travel, Subspace travel. Taking a simple teleporting spell, and increasing it a thousand fold. All ships can use this form of travel. While not quicker than using a Mass Relay, it does have a form of defense. That no one can hit them or ambush due to the unknown  area in which they will arrive. It is this form of travel that makes the SA so dangerous to tangle with in ship to ship battle. Far range travel may take awhile, but close range jumps are instantaneous. Meaning that one moment the ship will be several thousand miles, taking pot shots at you, the next, it is literally sitting next to you to let a salvo of missiles baring down on you.

Codex Search Entry: SA infantry weapons

Infantry Weapons of the SA are actually based on ME specs. The few ruins that were found in SA space revealed several Alien weapons schematics as well as weapons themselves. Carefully taken apart for analysis, they were stun at the simple designs. However, since the SA doesn't use ME tech for pretty much anything, they simply had to adapt and improvised.

They all function the same on a based level, but are power completely different. The guns themselves have special runes inscribed inside to cool the from overheating, but soldiers are forced to carry ammo blocks and Recharge crystals to power the gun itself. They can still overheat, but not as much as a ME gun, but the draw back is the power consumption of the weapon. All SA weapons will run out of energy due to runes and interior designs functions, thus forcing several soldier to actively force magic into the weapon.

Griffons, diamond dogs, pegasi, earth ponies, and  minotaurs however, cannot channel magic or have trouble doing so. This called for the creation of the Recharge Crystals. These crystal are set in a special pouches that absorbs magical energy around them, and due to the fact several companies and platoons have mixed squads of species, thus giving them an easy means to recharge.

Codex Search Entry: Skyllian Blitz

An attack that cause SA to become more strict with relay travels to their systems. The Skyllian Blitz was the work of dozens pirates, mercenaries, slavers, and surprisingly enough Aria T'loak, the Queen of Omega.

Why Aria T'loak got involved is a story in itself. Her issue with the SA is that a group of the SA Medical Company had arrived in 3165, to give free aid to those on the station of Omega. Instead, they were captured and held hostage by Aria. The demands were that the SA gives them their tech and the knowledge to use it. The response she received was not one compliance.

'Don't mess with us Aria, you are a mere child compared to me. Don't test my power. Or my people. Let them go. You have 5 days before I let the guard dogs come in. And its teethes are sharp.' -D

5 days later, the entire station began to fail. Fires, firefights, explosions ripped through the station and all Aria can do was watch. She attempted to execute the prisoners, only to find them gone. The only thing she found was the calling card of Cerberus.

'You should of heeded our warning.' -The Illusive Man

While she manage to save the station, she lost a lot of men and found herself constantly battling other groups to keep the station.  

The plan would take over a year to set in motion. To smuggle men and weapons, as well as ships with merchant Identification codes, as well as set men on the ground to lay the traps. By the time the plan was set in motion. Over 600 ships of pirates, slavers, mercenaries, and others were in SA space. Each one was in different sectors and maintain minimum contact so they would not be discovered. The planet they chose was the closes to the Relay for escape, Elysium.

Over 600 ships with over 25000 men rushed forward towards Elysium, while on the planet itself, various bombs taken out all the Inner Core Reactors on the planet, leaving the planet mostly defenseless. And with only 120 various ships to protect her, they would be overrun before long.

The call for arms and evacuation to the bunkers were called.

Here, the Sword and Shield of Elysium was born. Commander John Shepard and Sergeant Major Destiny Sparkle became a part of history.

-Elysium Valley Bunker-

Elysium was burning, a familiar sight for Shepard. Over the comms, he heard surviving ships rallying together for one last defense, soldiers on the ground shouting for backup or air support, and the attacking group were ransacking everything.

Shepard watch with tired eyes, his shotgun gripped lightly in his hand. Destiny was calling over the crowds as they made their way across the bridge to the bunker in cliffs. This was the last one still open as groups surged forward to safety. His eyes narrowed as he saw men in the distance began to fall. Griffons and pegasi falling out of the sky as they tried to cover their comrades on the ground.

“Destiny....” Shepard called out, pointing at the dying troops. The pony gritted her teeth, angry at the senseless loss of life. A minotaur soldier, towering at over 10 feet in height ran to him before saluting him.

“Sir, all civilians are inside the bunker.”

“Good.” Shepard stated, “Seal her up.”

The minotaur gave a hand signal, but frown when he received a negative. “What the hell is going on?”

“Sir, the controls are not functioning.”

“WHAT? Then repair it!”

“I can't one of the hydraulics are shot, and it will take time to make repairs.”

“Time we don't have.” The minotaur muttered. “Alright men, lets get ready. We got to protect this bunker at all cost!” he roared. Shepard gritted his teeth together, he wasn't going to allow these men to throw their lives away. He turned towards Destiny and nodded to her.  Destiny gave a small smile before her horn began to glow a deep purple.

“Alright men, we stand he-” The minotaur, along with all other soldiers vanished from sight, appearing inside the bunker in shock. They saw Destiny manipulate the controls before destroying it and vanishing outside before the bunker doors closed.

Shepard watched as the last man fall, he pulled out a specially crafted sword from his back and held it at his side. Destiny reappeared at his side.

“You should of stayed inside.”

“And leave you out here. I don't think so. So, how about the bridge?”

“You can handle that right?”

“Of course. Lend me a grenade.” Shepard tossed one at her, she caught it with her magic, a small smile on her face as she poured a lot of magic into the small device. Once she was satisfied, she tossed it towards the far end of the bridge near the bunker doors.

A massive explosion ripped right through the bridge, bringing it down. She then turned back towards the advancing invaders.

“So.....now what?”

“Up for a little magic show?”

“Always.”

She began to glow, while Shepard held his shotgun at shoulder level with one hand and his sword above him in the other. His entire form glowed as well as he called onto his magic. The invaders began to rush at them with blood lust in their eyes.

“Destiny?”

“Almost ready.”

The invaders got closer, almost at 300 yards.

“Anytime now.”

“Almost....” Her horn began to glow a deep red, her mane began to float off her back. Shepard began to glow with a deep blue, his shotgun and sword began to glow as well.

The invaders were taking shots at them. Their shields flickering with each hit.

“Des....”

“Now....”  Destiny's mane caught on fire, her coat glowing pure white. Shepard's body began had bolts of lighting rushing around him with a small smile on his face. Destiny finally let loose the spell she had been building up.

Shepard saw the invaders began to slow down, almost as if they were moving through thick mud. His armor had several runes glow across his body. His shields became visible with power with the same was happening to Destiny. She quickly stood up on two legs and placed her back to Shepard's. A confident grin spread on both of their faces.

“Showtime...” They whispered.

Both vanished in a flash of lighting and flames and the bodies of the invaders began to drop like flies. All the invaders saw was a flash of fire and lighting before death descended on them. To the duo, everything was slowing down even further. They appeared in a group of the invaders, cutting, stabbing, shooting, and throwing bolts of magic at all of them, before vanishing in another area.

Up the street they went, the street filled with the invaders, flashes of fire and lighting everywhere they went. They finally reached a courtyard filled with invaders setting up a temporary base, before flashing around the area cutting them down. The last body hit the ground before they teleported in the center of the courtyard, falling to their knees.

Destiny let out a large gasp of air, her horn felt like it was melting off and her skull felt like an inferno was inside of it. Shepard wasn't much better, he lost all feeling to his body, feeling like it was numb, and his limbs jerked around for a moment and slight feel of something ripping in throughout his body.

“Des....Des....you....ok?” Shepard gasped out. Destiny moaned, holding her head with her hooves.

“Nooo.....”She moaned out.

“I...I think....we....over did it.”

“My head....and horn....hurts....I hate you....”

“Love you....too.” Shepard coughed out. He pushed his magic beyond what was needed tore at his body. It help maintain the spell Destiny casted on them, pushing the limited amount of time the spell further. However, he also pushed magic into his shotgun and his sword, the Lamina Animas, a sword forge by his Master, Commander General. The sword was made from titanium steel and runes inscribed all over the blade, making the blade very durable and sharp. It also was easy to use magic on it, for him it was kinda like a wand of sorts....only very sharp and pointy. The sword glowed softly, its edge white hot due to the amount of armor it had to cut through.

His shotgun on the other hand, was totaled. It stop firing near the end of the attacks, so he just used it as a mace of sorts. Shepard dropped the gun, not caring if it landed on his foot, he couldn't feel anything anyways. He used too much of his magic, and just like using a muscle to much, he felt something akin to total muscle failure.

Destiny wasn't any better. Both herself and Shepard had use their advance forms for a much longer period than ever before. It was only used when they need to boost their strength in emergencies...and while this was an emergency, they used it far longer than was necessary, they were almost fully helpless. The fact was even worse for her as she solely used magic as her choice of weapon. She was practically defenseless now.

“Great....here comes some more.” Shepard growled as he saw more invaders come down. Destiny shakily got back on her feet. Shepard stood in front of her, his sword gripped lightly at his side.

“Des....Do me a favor.” Shepard asked quietly. Destiny look up at Shepard's back.

“It depends....what do you need?” She replied, looking as the invaders formed a half circle, using cover to protect themselves.

“Once they start firing....I want you to run....I want you to run and hide as best as you can until help arrives.”

“I....” Destiny stop, remembering the lessons she received from the queen, “I can't....Your my friend, I can't leave you here by yourself. We stay together...and thats final.”

Shepard smiled, shaking his head at her comment. “You were always stubborn.” A shuttle landed some distance away, a single batarian stepped off, smiling at the scene around him. He then saw the two defenders.

“So.” he called out, “You two did this?” he waved his arm at the sea of corpses.

“Yeah, whats it to you.”

“You killed most of my men, human scum.”

“Yeah, well. I am not exactly crying my eyes out here.” Shepard flipped him the finger, “Should I care why? Who are you and maybe I will care after you say your name.”

“Its Balak, Ship Commander of the Batarian Hegemony, and your people belong to us.” Balak said with grin, unaware that his words, namely his name, sent a shock into Shepard's mind. He was also unaware of the speech Balak was about to give.

-Flashback-

“Who attacked my homeplanet, Master.” Shepard asked, his head on the ground, pleading for Commander General to give him a face to who sent his planet in grief.

Commander General stood in silence for a moment before answering, “Balak, a batarian with deep ties into the slavery....One thing Shepard, do not search for him.”

“What!? WHY?”

“Its a dark path you are teasing, if you search for revenge, you will find yourself in a place devoid of light....Promise me this.”

-End of flashback-

“Shepard?” Destiny saw Shepard shoulders shake.

“Him.....He order the slavers to Mindoir....why we suffered so much for.” Shepard whispered, causing Destiny to gasp in shock before narrowing her eyes at Balak.

“We should-”

“No.”

“What?” Destiny blinked as she saw Shepard shaking had stopped.

“We are better than that. We fight to protect, not for revenge....no matter how tempting it is.” Shepard said as he lowered his head. He then start to chuckle, “I think he is on a roll.....give me a minute.”

Balak had just finished his long speech, laughing all the while. “So human, what do you say about that?”

Shepard had taken out of his journal from his armor pouch at some point of the speech and was currently writing in it. “Very good Destiny. Thats a good idea for future reference.” Destiny stared at Shepard like he lost his mind.

Balak roared, “HEY! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!”

Shepard blinked, looking at Balak. “I'm sorry, did you say something? I was busy with some plans I was making with my friend here.” Balak's face contorted into rage and embarrassment, he turned around and marched back into the shuttle.

“Don't blow off his head, leave it intact so I can mount it on my wall.” He growled. The shuttle took off, leaving the all the invaders chuckling at the embarrassed leader.

“My work is done.” Shepard said quietly while turning to the back of his journal. Destiny manage to get on two legs and read what was on there.

“Is....is that a list!”

“Yup!”

“And you are checking off......'Wait for the opportunity to make a crimelord/slaver/general/ancient evil/etc go on a long winded tale of them talking about their evil plans/ambitions/wishes and destroy their confidence by not paying attention to them....whatsoever.'.....Really John?”

“What? Blame Master for it. He showed me all those ancient TV shows so I can get ideas for moves for us and I couldn't help but write them down and hope I would run into something like it.”

“HEY!” they both turn and saw the invaders staring at them. “YOU GOING TO DIE AND YOU ARE JOKING AROUND!”

''So, why do you guys care?”

“We....GAH! Kill them already!” Yelled one them roared, every invader raised their weapons and began to fire. Destiny tried to raise a spell but blinding pain ripped through her skull. She collapse to the ground. A shadow fell over her and she looked up to see Shepard cover her with his body, sacrificing himself to save her. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain to descend on her. For a full minute, she lay there, waiting for the sound of bullets to roar out and rip them to pieces, she shut her eyes tighter, mentally cursing on what was taking so long.

“Why are you shutting your eyes so tightly?” a voice broke out.

“What?” Destiny eyes shot open, and found herself not in the corpse filled court yard, but a very clean library. She turned to see who was talking to her, and nearly fainted. A familiar purple coated pony with stars on her flank stared back her. She knew this pony well, there was pictures of her in the history books and in her family's large photo albums.

“I asked why are your eyes shut like that?” Twilight Sparkle asked her, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

End of Part 1.

Ha! ….at least I think I got the cliff hanger part down. What you guys think?

Please Review.