Back on Nazra Invictus, the Ball had shifted towards dancing.

"Human customs are pretty strange, aren't they Alina?" asked Nyra, munching steadily through a frankly absurd pile of food at one of the many tables. "I guess the party food is pretty typical, but the dancing's weird don't you think?"

Alina shrugged from across the table and folded one of her talons under her arm, sipping at a Human approximation of a Turian beverage from Alina's home province. It was a good effort, though not quite right. Granted, it was very close, but there was just a little bit less… something. Maybe it was the minerality - the drink was usually aged in stone basins after all.

"Still, they're pretty civilized, I suppose," Nyra said, before popping another snack into her mouth. "Some of the rumors you hear, jeez…"

Alina raised an eyeridge at her friend, but Nyra didn't elaborate.

"Like what?" she asked after a long silence filled with tension Alina couldn't identify. "I've heard some things, obviously, but..."

Nyra quirked an eyeridge. "I'm surprised. I didn't take you for a gossiper."

"I'm not!" Alina protested, folding her arms with a frown. "I was just curious."

"Curious huh?" Nyra asked with a laugh. "Well, o curious one, why don't you tell me what you've heard instead? We can compare notes."

Alina felt the edges of her fringes flush slightly blue, and immediately regretted it, hoping Nyra wouldn't notice. The interesting things that she had heard likely did not bear repeating, but at the same time they were the only rumors that Alina was familiar with. She paused to try and phrase things appropriately.

"Well... the only 'reputable' rumor I've heard is that the implants are supposed to make them tireless," she said. "Even the non-magical girls. I've heard they can go entire nights without sleeping, without it bothering them."

"Tireless, huh," Nyra said, with what might have been a small smirk. Alina was regretting that the other girl knew her so well.

"Anyway, what have you heard?" she cued, trying to shift the conversation back to Nyra.

"Oh, only stupid things," Nyra said, accepting the gambit with a shake of her head. "Mostly from terrible gossip magazines which you can't trust, but they're useful to get a finger on the pulse of society. Most of what's printed is terrible, though. A bunch of paranoia about how Humans are just machines out to kill us and such. You'd think that there'd be at least something behind all that, but it turns out it really is just wild, mass hysteria."

"We're not that scary, are we?" asked one of the Human magical girls, who had apparently wandered by. Nyra and Alina looked up at her and started to apologize, but the girl waved them off. "Don't worry about it, it's not offensive."

"Please, have a seat," said Nyra, gesturing at their table. "Nyra Sirtis, and this is Alina Descius. What's your name?"

"Ariana de la Cruz," said the girl, bowing at the waist and sweeping her skirt up in a curtsy. There was a whisper of magic that made Ariana's hair and skirt flutter briefly, before settling in a way that almost seemed to guide Alina's eyes to Ariana's waist.

"At your service, as it were," said Ariana. Alina looked up quickly, unsure why she felt guilty, and felt her fringe flush at Ariana's amused smile. So it was… intentional, then? But what did that mean? Had she overheard?

"Impressive display," said Nyra, giving Ariana a quiet round of applause and glancing at Alina from the corner of her eye. "What's your specialty?"

"Telekinesis," said Ariana, levitating her wine glass to demonstrate. "Close-combat, specifically. My magical girl weapon is a cinquedea. I did cross-spec a little into telepathy, which you might have noticed just now. Apologies for not asking, but you know how it is."

"Ah, of course, we understand," said Nyra. "I'm a telepath myself, but Alina here has some experience with telekinesis in addition to her primary powers. Why don't you tell her a bit about it, Alina?"

Alina shot Nyra a look of mild distress as Ariana took a seat next to Alina and picked a glance of champagne from a passing drone. What was Nyra getting at?

"Well, um, I really just use it to supplement my combat skills," said Alina, looking down at her drink. "It's nothing fancy. Tripping people or pulling them towards me, things like that. I'm sure you're much better than me."

"Mm, I wouldn't be so sure," said Ariana breezily. She sipped her champagne. "Human magical girls don't usually train to fight each other, after all, while you…"

"Well, I'm not trained to fight magical girls," said Alina. "I'm trained to fight non-magical combatants, which is different."

"Still more training than I have," laughed Ariana. "Outside of demon hunts, I've mostly just developed my telekinesis for certain, mmm, more personal uses. What about your main power then?"

"Ah, it's not too special," said Alina sheepishly. "I'm just a good learner."

Her fringes blushed again, and this time she could only hope desperately that the Human had no idea how to notice that, because Nyra certainly would. She knew about certain "personal uses", too, but Ariana couldn't possibly be talking about...that?

Nyra snorted. "Don't be so modest," she said, pointing at Alina with a piece of foie gras on toast. She turned to Ariana and said: "Alina can copy just about anything in the galaxy as it's happening. She can learn how to do basically anything on the first try. If you're fighting her, she can use her power to figure out how you fight and counter your moves in less than one exchange."

"It uses a lot of magic to do that, though," Alina said quickly, throwing a pleading look at Nyra. "S-so I usually don't use it that much when fighting. But it helps with school."

"It's not that bad if you can fight me with it," said Nyra, rolling her eyes before turning back to Alina. "If she really wants to burn magic, she can even shapeshift a little. It's pretty cool."

Ariana raised a very interested eyebrow. "How fascinating. My powers are so much less interesting by comparison. I could think of many exciting uses for shapeshifting. Might be a bit decadent, though."

Instead of continuing, she took a sip of her drink, as if thinking about something.

"...You can't just say that and not elaborate," Alina said, well aware she was walking into some kind of verbal trap. She… she wanted to know.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it was just a half-formed thought," said Ariana airily, sipping at her drink. "I'd need more time to think about it to be honest. It's just that telekinesis is fairly limited. It's good for lifting and throwing things, sure, but only occasionally useful in civilian life for…"—Ariana glanced over at Alina and smiled very subtly—"…particular situations. If you catch my drift."

Alina wasn't particularly sure how to respond to that. Was this… this was definitely deliberate, right? Was her imagination running away with her? Spirits knew she had thought about it, and the Humans and Asari were very similar in certain ways...

"Oh look, they're starting a new song," Ariana said, changing the topic as drastically as possible. "Would you join me for a dance, Alina?"

Alina blinked, startled. This was all moving far too fast. "Uh."

"Good," said Ariana, setting her drink aside and grabbing Alina by a talon. "Miss Nyra, if you'll excuse us."

"No, no, go ahead," said Nyra. She gestured with a small knife the Humans had provided for some inscrutable reason. "Go have fun. I'll be here later if you get bored. Although…"

Alina didn't miss the wink that Nyra sent her way.

"...I doubt you'll have too much trouble."

Alina wasn't entirely sure how she had ended up stretched out next to Ariana on the roof, both of them missing parts of their evening wear, but it certainly wasn't an experience she regretted.

"Mm… you know, I wasn't sure that would work," Ariana said, stretching luxuriantly like a predatory cat. "I've not had much luck lately."

"You're lucky I'm into Asari," Alina said. "You have similar body types."

"Aha, so then Nyra…?"

"Is just a friend," Alina said quickly.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't be that opposed—"

"Ariana!" said Alina, fringe flushing.

"My my, so easily embarrassed," teased Ariana, rolling onto her side and propping her head on one hand to grin at Alina. "And here I was thinking you were pretty assertive."

Alina groaned and covered her face with her talons. "I was caught up in the moment."

"Heh heh. Well you were pretty good in the moment."

"...T-thanks. You as well."

Ariana rolled on top of Alina and gave her a peck on the nose. "Cheers, cutie. So what're your plans later?"

"You mean for the exchange?" Alina asked, looping her talons easily around Ariana's waist. It was indeed quite supportive.

"Sure, but neither of us leave for a while, right?" Ariana said. "We'll be on Nazra Invictus for a bit. So what are your plans later?"

"Oh. You want to, um, meet up later?"

"Of course I do," said Ariana, rolling her eyes. "Cuties like you are a rare find."

"Oh. Oh um. Well, um, I dunno, I guess I'm not really doing anything. What's your omnitool info? I'll call you?"

"Silly, I don't have an omnitool," said Ariana, tapping Alina on the nose with a laugh. "Here, let me see your hand."

Alina's omnitool glowed as Ariana took her hand with a look of concentration. There was a pause before Alina's omnitool blinked twice.

"There, that's my contact info for my implants," said Ariana. "As long as we're online, we'll be able to talk to each other."

"Oh. That's good."

"Isn't it? Now let's plan this date. What sort of things do you like doing?"

"Well…"

"So, how did it go?"

Alina froze in place where she was trying to slip into the hotel suite that the transfer students had been given to stay in. The ball had come to an end very late, but, even so, that had been hours ago. The only saving grace was that almost everyone would be asleep when Alina finally made her way back.

Almost.

"It was fine," Alina said. She turned in the doorway as it slid shut behind her and tried to act natural as Nyra gave her a look from the chaise lounge she was sitting on, next to the window.

"Fine huh," said Nyra, slowly raising an eyebrow and grinning slyly. "Is that all?"

"I-I mean—" Alina stammered, and felt herself flush. Damn it.

Nyra's grin turned smug. "Aha. Well that's good, I'm glad for you."

"I— really?" asked Alina. She rubbed an arm awkwardly, looking down at the floor. It had very nice carpets. "I was afraid that…"

"Girl, I'm an Asari, my entire race is about kinky interspecies action," said Nyra blandly. "There's a reason why half of Intersextion is Asari stuff."

Alina paused, then made a face, then flushed, then shuffled her feet. "...it's not— I'm not like that."

"Well sure," said Nyra, rolling her eyes. "Porn, especially Intersextion is hardly realistic."

"It wasn't just for— for, y-you know."

"For sex, Alina," said Nyra. "You're allowed to have it, you know."

Alina shuffled her feet again. "I just— it's not— I don't want people to think of me like that, you know?"

Nyra sighed and stood up. She crossed the room in three strides to take Alina's talons. "It's fine. There's nothing weird about liking other species—plenty of Turians like Asari, and Humans and Asari look pretty similar."

Alina looked up at Nyra with a small smile. "I guess that's true."

"So anyway, like I said, how'd it go?" asked Nyra, grinning. She pulled Nyra towards the lounge. "Tell me everything."

"Well, after we danced…"

Whatever else one wanted to say about the Humans and their technology, it was convenient.

It had taken some getting used to, of course, but over the next few days, Alina had found herself adapting nicely. There was some time before she and Ariana would be meeting for their date, and Alina was making sure to get as much experience with Human technology as she could. It wouldn't do to flub something just because she hadn't expected the automation to be there.

On Ariana's advice, she had purchased a visor from one of the local Turian merchants, along with the necessary omnitool software to partially integrate with the local Human networks. The brochure claimed that it would provide something similar to the experience Humans got navigating around the city.

She could certainly see some of that. It lacked the… organic integration of Human implants, but there were still a lot of ways for the system to make your life easier, as long as you were registered as a valid user.

They were minor conveniences, to be sure, but she could get used to having the world move itself to accommodate her. Her trip to Legate Septimus's temporary office was eerily smooth, accompanied by doors that opened themselves, a transport that was there before she needed it, and a helpful voice babbling tourist information at her—at her request. From the time that she had announced her intent to visit the Legate to stepping through his door, not a single second was wasted, and she barely even had to walk.

"Ah, Alina," Septimus said, when she arrived. "I was expecting you, of course."

He tapped his own visor with one talon.

"I see you're experiencing the wonder of Human automation," he said, as his visor's holographic orange interface blinked away, the projecting armature stowing neatly into a brow mount. "In truth, I'm not entirely used to it. The way this visor anticipates what I want is…"

He grimaced but shrugged. "On the other hand, not using a visor makes it hard to get anything done, so I give in to the extra convenience. Sometimes. Please, come in. Would you like something to drink?"

Alina nodded absentmindedly and pondered if it would be rude to leave her visor turned on. It seemed probable, since it seemed like it might imply she wasn't paying close attention, and she wanted to show her respect to the Legate, but then she realized she had been so preoccupied thinking about it that she almost missed the Legate's question. Ironically, the visor supplied the Legate's last sentence to her even as she went to turn it off. "Um, just some water?"

Septimus nodded, waving a talon at a chair while a panel opened up in his desk to reveal a carafe of water, a set of glasses, and a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy.

"For visiting dignitaries," said Septimus, catching the look that Alina sent at the entirely non-regulation bottle of "intoxicating substances" while he poured two glasses of water. "You understand."

Alina coughed, but nodded again. "Y-yes sir."

"So, what brings me the pleasure of this visit?" Septimus asked as he passed one glass of water to Alina and took a sip from the other. The water carafe—and brandy—descended back into his desk. "I see you wanted some advice? You are always welcome—I'm much less busy than I look."

According to his calendar, Septimus was booked solid, yet somehow when she had asked about it, the timeslot had immediately cleared up.

Alina fiddled with the glass of water, thinking about how to ask her question, before looking back up at the Legate. It was one of those things that had been bothering her for a few days now. "How do you deal with it, sir?"

"It?" Septimus asked, arching one eye.

"All these… non-combat operations," she said, shaking her head. "I trained for combat, both in the infantry and in the Phoenix Foundation. When I accepted this posting, I knew it was a great honor. But now I just find myself nervous and bored. I can't just… not be here, so I spend my time researching or at the shooting range, but I feel like something is wrong with me."

There was a short pause, while Septimus stared at her, before he leaned back in his chair with a long, tired groan.

"That is a core deficiency of our training programs, I am afraid," he said, kneading his eyeridges in exasperation. "You are hardly the first."

He clasped his hands together, and leaned forward.

"Tell me, when is the last time you've had leave time?" he asked.

"Well, technically I've had plenty of leave time," Alina said, looking to the side. "But I haven't taken any. I pride myself on my attendance."

"I remember someone like you," Septimus said, sitting back upright. "I could give an elaborate anecdote and keep you guessing, but that someone was me. So I understand what it's like, feeling immoral for taking breaks. When you're alone, not doing anything, you feel nervous, right? Like you're wasting time, and should be training."

"That's correct, sir," Alina said. "The parties, at least, are diplomatic outreach. But the rest of the time…"

"And what about amorous after-party liaisons?"

Alina felt her fringes fill with blood again, and started to stammer.

"I apologize," Septimus said, doing an admirable job of hiding his smile, "but I wanted to startle you. You see? You do know how to have fun. But you feel guilty about it all."

Alina looked down at the desk. It was true, even though she was excited about her upcoming date, she couldn't help but feel like she should be doing something else. It wasn't that it wasn't important but…

...but...

"Listen."

Alina looked up. The Legate was leaning forward again.

"Whatever you do here, as long as you don't create an incident, is frankly of more value to the Council and the Turian Hierarchy than any amount of weapons training," Septimus said. "Being a better soldier isn't going to help us here—we need to prove that we're better friends too. As an elder, I can say for certain that neglecting that aspect is only going to hurt you and your ability to serve the Hierarchy. We can't fight as a team without team cohesion, after all, and there's too many officers already who forget that."

"What do you mean, sir?" asked Alina.

"Let's just say that I have… disagreements with my peers," said Septimus.

He paused to glower into the distance.

"But let's leave that aside. What's more relevant is that, as your commanding officer, I need you to do almost anything other than weapons training. Our mission is outreach, after all, and you can't do that if you're busy taking notes. So if you need it, I'm giving you permission to have fun. Is that understood, soldier?"

Septimus smiled at her, and Alina knew that the old warrior wasn't really being serious. But it helped all the same.

Alina smiled back. "Yes sir, Legate."

"Huh."

"The Turian Security Forces don't normally let people onto their firing range, but I'm active duty, and as long as you're escorted and not in restricted areas it should be fine," said Alina as she and Ariana stood in front of TSF Headquarters. She was dressed in her standard-issue Fleet Marines armor, scout variant, helmet clipped to her belt, but Ariana had turned up in just a shirt and trousers—Alina wasn't culturally attuned enough to know what kind or what it meant. It looked a bit casual, though, so it might get some looks from the soldiers on station.

"What do you mean by 'active duty'?" asked Ariana.

"Turians start military service at age fifteen," said Alina. She rubbed a gauntleted talon over the other forearm awkwardly. "I guess that's probably weird to you."

Ariana thought about saying something generic and reassuring, but decided against it. If she was going to be here to learn about Alina, she might as well return the favor.

"I'm not sure it's weird, just… I don't know how to think about it. It seems quite odd. Governance views military service as an unfortunately necessary drain on resources, so it's not something anyone thinks about. How would you even induct kids into the military?"

"I mean, you sort of show up?" said Alina. She switched arms to rub awkwardly. "It's just, you know, expected. I guess there must have been a time when it wasn't just part of growing up. I can't remember what the history is though."

"What, do the Turians want to conquer the galaxy?" Ariana asked, wrinkling her forehead. "It doesn't make sense to me."

"No, but we are responsible for defending all of Inner and Outer Council space," said Alina. "It's a lot of territory to cover, you know? So if you look at the number of ships you need, and the number of people you'd need for those ships, the size of the Turian military makes sense."

"I suppose the Council doesn't have many drones," Ariana said, putting a finger to her chin. "And what, do the Asari and Salarians just not have a military? Sounds like a raw deal."

"Well, I guess back during the Rachni Wars, they did, but neither species is very martial—they both see it as a waste of resources. Whereas we are happy to provide protection. Which is uhh…"

Alina made a face of deep concentration as she dredged up civics lessons she'd nearly forgotten owing to the total lack of use in daily life in the Fleet.

"...right so, then the Salarians went and uplifted the Krogan, and that went well, but then afterwards the Krogan started annexing everything, so the Council went to war but was losing again, but they made first contact with us while all this was happening and the Hierarchy at the time agreed to limited support, but then the Krogan crashed asteroids into some Turian colonies, so then the Hierarchy decided to go to a total war footing, and then the Genophage happened, but uh, well, that's kind of off-topic."

Alina coughed. Probably best to avoid the Genophage. "So er, the point of that was, I guess we've sort of historically just had a bigger military than anyone else, and it was easier to just let us take over more of the military roles. The STG and the Huntresses are still pretty dangerous, and I definitely wouldn't want to take them in a fight, but the day-to-day stuff like anti-piracy and border patrol is mostly us Turians."

Ariana considered the situation for a moment. Alina didn't seem to know her history that well, and it was probably better to drop the topic. Turian society seemed… concerning, but to be fair, of course she would think that. Governance was nothing if not good at indoctrination, as the MSY liked to remind them.

"I guess I don't know what to imagine, going into military service," she said, changing topics back. "Most Humans don't do much with combat unless they're frontier colonists. If you're that far out, Governance can't really do much, and power generation is a lot harder, so a lot of people our age have to know how to handle weapons and utility drones to protect themselves from the local wildlife."

"Oh. How does your military work then?"

"Ah, military service is volunteer only, and you're not eligible until you're at least a hundred."

"I guess that's not that crazy," said Alina. "It sounds a little like how the Asari Huntress corps works. Is your training also about twenty to thirty years long?"

"I'm not familiar with how it works," Ariana said, "but definitely not twenty to thirty years, unless you count learning in the field."

"Right," said Alina awkwardly. In retrospect, the Asari were pretty intense, so it made sense that the Humans wouldn't do that level of training. "Well, uh, let's go in then? I know this isn't the most romantic thing, but you said you wanted to see some of my culture…"

"No no, this is fine," said Ariana with a bright smile. "I'm happy to be here, and learn about you. So you said you were active duty, right? What sort of work do you do in the Turian military?"

"I'm part of the Fleet Marines," said Alina, her fringes turning a pretty color. She tried to play it cool, taking Ariana by the hand to lead her forward. "We're focused on ship security, extravehicular combat, and boarding actions. My role specifically is to provide older units with actionable intelligence to prosecute tactical objectives in support of strategic goals."

"So is that the official mission statement or something?" Ariana asked.

"Straight out of the manual," said the TSF officer manning the reception desk. "How you doing kid?"

Alina sighed. "Good afternoon, Sergeant."

"At least you brought a friend this time," said the Sergeant, shaking his head with a small sigh of his own. "You really need to get out more, Specialist."

"I've been told, yes," said Alina, doing her best not to roll her eyes. "This is just a quick cultural exchange experience."

The Sergeant nodded drolly. "Yes, of course. In any case, your visit request has been pre-approved by Commander Elanus. Soldiers are reminded that visitors must be restricted to the requested areas, yadda yadda you've memorized this procedure already. You checking out your usual guns today, kid?"

"Yes please," said Alina, feeling herself flush under Ariana's gaze. "Thank you, Sergeant."

"Cool, I've sent your request ahead to the Armorer," said the Sergeant. He handed Ariana a small lanyard with "VISITOR - ESCORT REQUIRED" emblazoned across it. "Do not remove this badge, miss, or we'll have to remove you from the premises."

"Right," said Ariana, looping the lanyard over her neck after giving it a puzzled look. "Thank you."

"Off you go now, kids," said the Sergeant, waving a talon in dismissal.

The halls of the TSF HQ were somehow busy and not at the same time. There were plenty of Turians in armor around doing work of some kind, but they were all at their desks or conversing quietly and didn't pay the Turian and her Human friend any mind.

"So, uh, how is your military career going?" Ariana asked, as she followed Alina through the hallways. "How did you get chosen for this exchange program?"

"Well, Command wanted to send a magical girl who had a combat specialization, so that narrows the field," said Alina. "Then from there, it was just a case of qualifications. I guess I had the best combination of traits that the Hierarchy needed for this mission."

Ariana sensed that this couldn't possibly be a complete answer to the question, not given the politics involved, unless the Turians were actually politics-free, which she doubted. But Alina might not realize this.

She decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

"You do seem to be very talented at combat. And other things," Ariana said, realizing it could be interpreted as innuendo only after she said it. Oh well.

"Oh, um, I suppose," said Alina, blushing a little. "It's uh, well, I wished for it, you know?"

"Ah," said Ariana, flicking her eyes to the side. She supposed it was the equivalent of wishing to succeed in their career, which was a common enough wish. The results were different in a Turian.

"I wished to be somewhere where I could make a difference," she said. "Not actually make a difference, just be somewhere I could. I was a bit surprised to end up on the diplomatic staff here, but I guess it makes sense."

She wished she had a drink or something to cover her expression. It always sounded so defensive to her, but she hadn't wanted the wish to just hand things to her on a silver platter. She wanted to be able to do it herself, in a way that had made sense to her when she was just a bit younger.

"I guess it worked out for you," said Alina gamely. "I'm glad you're here, at least, and your magic seems pretty strong. My powers though…"

"Hey, don't sell yourself short," said Ariana, poking Alina with her elbow. "It's still a pretty good power. Nice and subtle, useful in regular life."

Alina smiled at her. "Thanks. It means a lot."

"You're welcome!" said Ariana, smiling back.

She had seen a lot of girls insecure about their powers, herself included. It never hurt to say something nice.

"We're here though, so I guess we can talk about that sort of thing later," said Alina, gesturing at the indoor shooting range and its air-locked soundproof door. "Have you been to a shooting range before?"

Ariana shook her head. Her home city on Eurydome was too urban for shooting to be more than a hobbyist activity.

"I didn't think so," said Alina, pushing open the door and pulling up a stack of manuals on her omnitool. Best to be prepared in case Ariana had a lot of questions. "Come on, I'll give you the run-down."

"Range is hot!" Alina shouted.

Ariana squeaked like startled varren bait and flinched backwards as the submachine gun cracked, the end sparking with mass effect field discharge. Alina leaned into the gun slightly as she fired, tucking it tightly against her body.

"You see how each shot is one pull of the trigger," said Alina, safing the weapon and pausing to turn to Ariana.

Ariana nodded, holding the hearing protection to her ears with wide eyes. That was loud!

"So now, full auto," said Alina, turning back. "Range is hot!"

Ariana jumped again as a full stream of fire came blasting out of Alina's submachine gun. The target downrange was shredded.

"And that's that," said Alina, safing the weapon and putting it down. She took her helmet off and pulled the target back, where a ragged hole had been torn through the center, about the size of Ariana's spread hand. "Not bad, I suppose, the M8's got a pretty wide spread since its barrel is so short, but you're supposed to use it for clearing tight spaces, so it's not a big deal."

"That's incredibly loud," said Ariana, looking down at the M8 with a stunned expression. "Do you— do you have hearing protection in combat?"

"Our helmets do it automatically, yes," said Alina.

"Wow. Then how do you hear anything in combat?"

"Well, the helmet's adaptive based on ambient noise," said Alina, "and most of the time the noise level is pretty low so it's no big deal."

Ariana thought about that. The way she had worded that...

"I guess you've been in combat then? I thought they'd keep someone as young as you off the front lines."

"Uhhh," Alina said, looking awkward. "W-well, yeah, I guess. I've supported anti-smuggling operations, but those were all on-planet, nothing in space."

Ariana's eyes widened slightly. This was a lot more than she had expected from someone so young.

"That's cool. What did you do?"

"Er, mostly scouting, a little bit of shooting," said Alina, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. "Honestly, it's not as cool as you think."

"It's more than I've done," said Ariana. "What's it like?"

"Err…"

Alina looked off to the side, avoiding Ariana's gaze. The truth was that she didn't like talking about combat that much. She had… gotten used to the experience, she supposed, of shooting at people who were shooting at her and people she cared about, and if Ariana asked she would answer truthfully that, yes, she'd killed people before, and that she didn't feel that bad about it. Partly because there was desensitization coursework that they put you through in basic training with sims and de-personification and indoctrination, and partly because, well, her platoon was important to her, and if someone was going to try and kill her platoonmates, she was going to do what she had to do in order to protect them.

Not that any of that could be explained, really, to a civilian like Ariana, from a society where violent crime was literally impossible and the notion of hurting someone was apparently the stuff of hundred-year-old-history. And that made everything incredibly awkward, because Alina didn't want to say something that made Ariana like her less, but was very aware that the silence had stretched on, and Ariana's expression was sliding from curious to concerned.

She was saved by the door opening.

"Oh, hey guys," said Shepard, waving at Alina and Ariana. As she moved her hand off the door, it swung shut behind her with a thud and an "ow". This could have been written off as human unfamiliarity with manual doors if it weren't for Shepherd's satisfied smirk. "Getting some range time in?" she asked.

"Just showing some Turian guns to Ariana," said Alina, leaning to the side slightly to see who had been hit in the face. "You?"

"Ah, well, sort of," said Shepard, turning towards the door, where Emma was rubbing her nose and the rangemaster was giving her a skeptical look. "I've been meaning to get Emma some more firearms training, and she finally got a gap that she couldn't weasel out of, so here we are."

"Is that Turian armor you're wearing?" Ariana asked.

Alina cocked her head, looking Shepard over. The armor design was clearly Turian-influenced, down to the pronounced ridge across the collarbone and narrow, carefully-articulated waistline with maglock weapon stowage on the back and sides.

"It's not," said Annalise, grinning. She lifted her hand and flexed it, exposing an unsettling array of weaponry that appeared from ports in the gauntlet that had been otherwise invisible. "Special order, you could say. I like wearing it whenever I get a chance."

Alina nodded, trying to keep her eyes up and away from where the striking, and quite flattering, series of powder blue, ribbon-like swooshes wrapped up around Shepard's waist like wisps of smoke over charcoal grey plates. "I like it better than civilian clothes."

"It's kinda weird in Human space though," said Shepard, folding her arms with a sigh. "It's too bad we're not more like you Turians, with your cultural tolerance for people wandering around in armor."

"It's more common in the colonies," said Alina, flicking her eyes over the rest of the armor, if only to be polite. The plating was thicker and heavier than anything the Hierarchy fielded, with wide pauldrons for ramming and a chestplate that Alina was reasonably certain could take a sniper round without issue.

"What is?" asked Emma, stepping up with a scowl at Annalise. "Oh, armor? Makes sense, we've got a lot of PMCs out here."

"You mean mercenaries," Shepard said sourly.

"Not all of them," said Emma.

"No, but enough of them," said Shepard with a frown. "Eclipse has a stronger hold in Nazra Invictus than I'd like, and the Blue Suns are making inroads too."

"There's Eclipse here?" Alina asked, eyes narrowing. "We did an op against them before I arrived. I thought they were restricted from operating in Human space?"

"They are, but firstly, Nazra's a legal grey area, which complicates things," said Shepard, frowning harder. "And secondly, they're smugglers, what did you think they were going to do, operate legally? No the Eclipse are in the underground and they don't operate openly, but they are here. You don't hear about the ones we arrest."

"White-collar crime division is tracking them," Emma added. "We have some idea of how their operations work, but it's a web that never stops changing. It doesn't change the fact, however, that there are plenty of legitimate military contractors on Nazra Invictus."

"Fine, fine," said Shepard. "Let's move on. You said it's not that common back on Palaven?"

"Oh, well, it's still something people do," said Alina. "There's plenty of active duty soldiers who are still in uniform, after all."

"You guys don't have a working uniform?"

"Well, no reason to, the armor's cooled."

"Oh, true, and yours is smaller."

Alina was abruptly reminded that Annalise's full armor set was really more the size of a heavy infantry support platform, one that performed with the grace of an Asari commando.

"R-right," said Alina. "So, uh, yeah. I spend most of my time in armor at this point."

Shepard nodded thoughtfully. "Well anyway, we should get started. Come on, Emma."

Ariana pumped her fist and cheered as the target for Stall #7 rolled back and showed a largely circular cluster around its center.

"Yes!" she whooped, safing the M8 before putting it down and grabbing Alina excitedly. "Do you see that? I did it!"

"You did, congratulations," said Alina, patting Ariana on the shoulders. The grouping wasn't… great, but if she ended up lost in the lower wards on the Citadel, she'd probably be fine.

"Thank you so much!" said Ariana, pulling Alina into a hug. "This was so cool!"

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," said Alina, grinning. "Do you want to try the carbine next?"

"Can I?"

"Sure, it works basically the same way as the M8 does," said Alina, opening the other weapon's case and pulling it out. "This is basically the same as the Phaeston service rifle, just shorter. It's more suited to soldiers with a shorter stature because of that."

"Okay," said Ariana, picking up the weapon and giving it a once over. "It's set up the same way as the M8, I guess? The indicators are all the same, right?"

"Basically, yeah," said Alina. "Your only difference is that there's no fire selector, so you need to be careful when you pull the trigger."

"Oh. Well, I'll probably be fine?"

"Probably."

Ariana pulled the rifle up to her shoulder and looked down the sights to the sound of gunfire from the stall next to them. Alina stepped back to watch as Ariana gave the gun a once over, then called out: "Range hot!"

The first burst of full auto traced up from the bottom of the target to the top. A bit wide of a grouping, but acceptable. Alina counted at least two disabling hits.

"Pretty good for a first-timer," said Annalise, sidling over from the next stall. "You did a good job."

Alina looked up at the old soldier. "Thanks."

"Turians start so young with this sort of thing," said Annalise. "It's weird, sometimes, to think about. You know I have grandkids your age? I'd be horrified if they were fighting pirates."

Alina looked back to Ariana. The girl was leaning into the gun and peering intently downrange. The rifle barked a moment later, and this time the impacts were largely in the center of the target.

"It's not so bad," said Alina. "We keep out of trouble, mostly."

"Yeah? You've seen more combat than me though."

Alina looked at Shepard in surprise. Annalise returned it with a grim smile.

"Your personnel records aren't public, don't worry, but it's not hard to put together. For someone your age, you're awfully well decorated, aren't you?"

"Most combat operations are restricted to older soldiers," Alina said. It wasn't an answer to Annalise's question. "Soldiers less than the age of twenty are usually kept in auxiliary roles. Marine Scouts are considered an entry-level combat role, and you have to pass an aptitude test to receive clearance for the training."

"And you passed it with flying colors, right?" asked Annalise. She shook her head. "They say there's only a few a generation who have that kind of talent. One of them's called Saren Arterius, isn't he?"

"The Spectre?" Alina asked, surprised the name would come up.

"Even we have movies about him. Mostly imported, but still."

Alina shook her head in surprise. "What about him, then?"

"You could probably be one too," said Annalise idly. "If you had the ambition, I mean."

Alina huffed a dry laugh. "Saren's on a different league. Thanks for the flattery though."

"You're a magical girl," said Annalise. "It'd be possible for you."

Alina sighed. "I'm only this good because I wished to be better," she said, folding her hands behind her back. "I guess part of being better means getting experiences before you're really ready for them, and being able to adapt and overcome."

Annalise nodded seriously. "I'm familiar."

"Once it came out that I was a magical girl, a lot of my platoon was… they stopped trusting me. I had to earn that trust back. Just because I got here because of my wish didn't mean I was incompetent. One day, one of the bigger assholes challenged me to a fight, said that magic wasn't worth anything in the grappling ring."

Annalise looked over, and held back a sigh. Alina looked miserable.

"I didn't want to, but everyone was watching and I… I had something to prove. So I proved it."

There was a lot that went unsaid. In stall #7, Ariana let off another burst of fire. The target downrange opened up a ragged hole in its center.

"You know there's an outdoor range, for shooting drills, that's across the colony," said Annalise. "Emma needs some time out there, for obvious reasons. You and Ariana want to come with?"

"Sure," said Alina as Ariana pulled her target back. She safed the Carbine and set it down, before turning to Alina with a grin.

"Alina, look! I think I did pretty well, don't you think?"

"Good work," said Alina, nodding back. "Shepard was just asking me if you wanted to go do some shooting drills outdoors?"

"Yes! That sounds awesome!"

Drone Picket number four zero seven two charlie dash four was incredibly bored.

Being an AI, this didn't really mean all that much. Dash Four was perfectly capable of finding ways to occupy his time and monitor the traffic in and around Nazra Invictus and its mass relay. It was just that there was only so much freighter traffic inbound from the relay could do to occupy his prodigious processing power. In fairness, about 72.331% of the time, it was important to have all of it running to route and monitor traffic in the Nazra Invictus area. It was just that, at the moment, traffic was fairly limited, and Dash Four had run out of vids to watch, and downloading more vids took more cycles than he could currently be bothered to boot up.

Yes it only took one thread. He was way too lazy to boot up that one thread.

Dash Four groaned and flicked through his vid collection again. His newer stuff was kind of middling, if he was honest. The post-contact vid-making community was just a bit hyperbolic, though he had heard interesting things about something from Council Space called "Fleet and Flotilla". Getting it was hard, but thinking about it put him in the mood for something romantic. Now, there was a nice vid from the MSY about magical girls in love that could be interesting, what was it called again?

A long-range sensor beeped. Dash Four sighed and went to check it. It was probably a piece of space debris from a mining operation in the system's asteroid belt, which was close to being the limit of his sensor range anyway. It wasn't like he was designed to monitor deep space like those super-long-range surveillance pickets, with those powerful sensors that they used to peer light-years into the void. They were kind of attractive, actually, all that scanning power put his hard drive in a tizzy, but he'd never had a chance to— ah there was the scanner output.

Dash Four set his romantic desires aside as he glanced over the data. The object, whatever it was, was vaguely cylindrical with mixed mineral composition consistent with the average metallic asteroid. There was some eezo mixed in, but that wasn't that crazy given the system it had probably come from. No signal emissions, no material emissions, no dust cloud…

Hmm… no dust cloud? That was odd. And much more importantly, its trajectory was headed for a flyby of Nazra Invictus. Probably not too much of a threat, but he needed to dispatch a drone to make sure it went into the star.

"Central, Picket Dash Four," he relayed, using a leisurely Human-like communication protocol.

"Go ahead Dash Four."

"Central, picking up inbound space debris. Looks a bit odd and is on a flyby trajec of the NI. Unless advise otherwise, going to launch a drone to divert it into the star."

"Roger that Dash Four, cleared to launch diversion drone."

Dash Four's drone deployed cleanly from its housing, drifting across his maintenance cameras briefly before activating with a flash of eezo and streaking off. The latest and greatest in automated systems, eezo drones made dealing with errant space debris, and short-range spaceflight operations generally, a much, much simpler task than they had been in the past. Dash Four remembered something about how in the 21st century, they'd been forced to use ion drives if they needed to divert something. He couldn't imagine waiting that long for—

Warnings blared in hyperaccelerated machine time as the drone decelerated for final approach and the space debris responded by powering on combat shields and an eezo drive. The FTL video signal showed that whatever it was, it certainly looked like an asteroid, but the metal gleaming through the flaking-off external shell was very much not.

"Central, Dash Four, contact one bogey, long-range, sector charlie seven niner," Dash Four said as he took manual control of the drone and directed it to power on its grappling hook immediately. "Bogey is warming up for a burn, how advise."

"Dash Four, prepare countermeasures," Central directed even as an all-hands maximum alert blasted across the system. Crew off-shift tumbled out of their bunks in the garrison on Nazra Invictus and the defensive fleet found itself suddenly warming up its own countermeasure systems. Nazra Invictus was no fortress, but it could take on a single unknown threat.

Right?

Dash Four's drone missed as the unknown ship suddenly accelerated, launching itself across space like an interplanetary racing yacht and headed directly for Nazra Invictus.

"Bogey has evaded! Collision course for the colony!"

Central didn't even bother responding, instead activating its orbital cannons and laying in firing coordinates. Nazra Invictus was the center of some controversy, yes, but nobody had been expecting anything more than a particularly bone-headed attempt at piracy.

"Firing."

"Positive hits!" Dash Four reported as Central's orbital cannon fire crashed into the spacecraft. By now, the fleet, a mix of Human and Turian combat ships, with some Asari, was maneuvering to try and block this… whatever it was. Was it some kind of horrific missile? Who would do such a thing? But Dash Four didn't have time to think about that as the spacecraft appeared out of the debris cloud a microsecond later, very much unharmed.

"Target is still active!"

"Firing."

"Hit!" The shields were definitely damaged now, the generators probably having shorted from overcurrent. The emission strength had dropped to no more than 50% of their initial value. But even so, to take so many hits…

"Firing."

"Missed!" Dash Four was amazed as the relativistic cannon rounds ripped past him and watched the unknown spacecraft dodge.

"Firing missile," said the HSS Constantinople, a missile destroyer intended for anti-fighter work and the spacecraft with the longest reach. The local battlecruiser's cannon needed just a few more seconds...

"Missiles destroyed by point defense," reported Dash Seven, Four's sister across the way. "Recommend kinetic rounds."

"Firing," said Central at the same time as HSS Sir Arthur Wellesley. The massive SHERMAN round thundered through space and detonated, the gravity well dragging the spacecraft back as orbital cannon rounds finally punched through its shields and ripped a gaping hole in the hull. Whatever it was, it was surely—

"Contact is still active!" Dash Four and Dash Seven called out as the shields were jettisoned entirely and the eezo drive flared. With an almighty blast of radiation, the spacecraft tore itself free of the SHERMAN round and plunged into knife fighting range of the Turian and Asari vessels.

"All Human ships, hold fire!" Central called as Dash Four's sensors lit up from the furious onslaught of defensive fire from the Turians and Asari. Everyone held their breath…

"Contact has broken through! Contact speed is hypersonic!"

Dash Four wasn't sure if he was relieved or not. On the one processor, the unknown object had made it to the atmosphere, and that was very, very bad. On the other processor, it was no longer trying to smash into the planet at relativistic speeds. So… victory?

"Nearest ships, scramble landing parties," Central directed. "Contact is damaged, in semi-controlled descent, and is projected to survive impact. Orbital bombardment is not authorized. Repeat, nearest ships, scramble landing parties. All units, we have an interstellar incursion. All hands to arms. This is not a drill."

"So how's the home front holding up then?" Sasha asked, leaning back against the railing.

Yu Ping shrugged, flicking her long hair with one hand, and Sasha was forced to suppress a smirk. Of late, Akemi-san's apprentice had taken on more and more of the First Executive's mannerisms, right down to hairstyle and certain tics. It would have been even funnier if Sasha hadn't deliberately taken on some of Mami's herself.

"You know Earth," Yu Ping said. The FTL VR call would have cost a considerable sum of allocs were it not for it being routed through Yu Ping's account in the MSY's main administrative building on Mitakihara. "Earth never really changes, not on any short timescale. First Contact on Nazra Invictus was the biggest thing to happen in centuries and no one's life here really changed. Right now I think the new fad among girls is hair clips that look like little wings. There's a magical girl singer who has them in her costume, so…"

She shrugged.

"Anyway, Akemi-san has kept me busy nowadays with anti-magical girl training. She thinks it's important now that we have potential enemies with access to magic. I don't know how any of them would get to me on Earth, but you know her. 'You can never be too paranoid' and all that."

"There is the exchange program happening."

"Of friendly girls who I'm sure will be fine," said Yu Ping, flicking her hair again in irritation. "I'm at more risk of hurting myself in training."

"Fair enough. How's Itsuki?"

"Also the same old. Sakura-san is going around being a dog, as usual, and Itsuki has to clean up after her messes. She tried to make a point by hitting on someone herself, only to have her mentor swoop in and offer them a room. She's not going to try that again anytime soon."

Sasha leaned back, tilting her head to catch a view of the inner Citadel through the window of her room behind her. The inner Citadel was huge and awe-inspiring in many ways, but also oddly low-tech by Earth standards. It was a bit like watching an old sci-fi show where they had ships that could fly across the galaxy in a day, but barely had any implants. It didn't really add up.

"And how is life on the alien Citadel?" Yu Ping asked.

"Honestly not that great," Sasha said. "The internet here doesn't have any of the features of Earth, and bandwidth kind of sucks. All we have is the equipment we brought, and most of that is dedicated to business, of course. I'm so glad I brought Meowgli."

Meowgli was, of course, her cat, who was currently watching her from its perch on top of her bed. Her parents had complained when she took him, but she didn't want to be lonely.

"I'm not glad you brought me," Meowgli transmitted. "This place is too cold, and there are no places for naps. And I miss my friends. The internet here sucks."

"I love you too, Meowgli."

"Well, bear with it," Yu Ping said. "We'll be thinking of you."

"Yeah, I know."

She paused, reading an internal message that had appeared on her priority queue.

"I need to go," she said. "Sorry, something important has come up, and Mami-san wants to see me right away."

"Take care."

"Ciao."

Meowgli jumped on her shoulder as she stepped out the door, as was his custom. The Citadel wasn't used to smart pets, and he was quite the ambassador.

What could possibly have happened?

"Needless to say, if this vessel is from one of the Council-affiliated races, the provocation is intolerable," Mami said.

She stood in front of her desk in a textbook defiant pose, staring down the three holograms arrayed around her desk, one Turian, one Salarian, one Asari. The Council.

This was not equivalent to a full audience with the Council, which would have been public, in person, and a much bigger deal. It would also have been silly, with what little information they had available, for either side to invoke that much ceremony. Private Council meetings were still recorded, of course, unless the meeting was sealed.

That was what Sasha recalled, anyway, petting Meowgli in a corner of the office, just out of view of the desk's cameras. The Council had a diplomatic procedure manual that ran into the hundreds of pages, written by the Asari, one whose details she and Mami had spent way too long looking over, even aided by Catherine. To her it had been oddly fascinating; to Mami, boring and predictable. Mami had been alive when there had been governments other than Governance, and magical girl groups other than the MSY, so she supposed it was a bit old hat. Both of those organizations had gotten used to their unitary supremacy, and no longer had formal procedures for any of this stuff.

"It is needless to say," the Turian councillor said, making a gesture with one talon. "The Council is well aware of the special status of Nazra Invictus and would not violate it wantonly. Plus, you can rest assured it probably wasn't us or the Asari, sending a ship through our own fleets. That'd be pretty illogical, given we have our own bases on-planet."

"I can assure you this has nothing to do with the Salarian Union," the Salarian councillor said. "Not to be casual about this, but while we may have a reputation for pre-emptive strikes, this has no alignment with our interests."

"But we cannot make the same assurances for the other races," the Asari councillor said. "We are a diplomatic union, not a galactic government. However, we can assure you that whoever is responsible for this will face the displeasure of the Council. This doesn't just affect you—every race with facilities on the planet was affected."

"Affected" was an interesting choice of words, Sasha thought. There hadn't really been any direct effect yet, but there had been plenty of indirect effects, ranging from the cost of fleet mobilization to the panic of raising planetary alarms, that would keep the bureaucrats busy for quite a while. And that was without even looking at what had just landed.

"It is pointless to discuss this in detail without even knowing who or what just landed," the Turian councillor said. "Let us wait on events."

A fourth hologram appeared, this time without the ghostly, low-resolution blueness of Council holography. This one was routed through their own equipment—as a courtesy, the Council had allowed them some access to the necessary bandwidth.

Sasha squinted at the long-range video of the crash site. Whatever it was looked… still in one piece.

"We've established a perimeter around the immediate vicinity of the crash site," Emma reported to her commander over vidcall. "The UFO crashed within magical girl deployment distance of the GCP Outdoor Range—we're lucky that some of us were getting some practice in."

"Lucky, for sure," said Commander Keyes, Emma's precinct commander. "Even luckier the way it landed. Anything else to report?"

"Well, TSF has already reached the area and is providing overwatch support while Ground Command is mustering its troops. They've integrated into the perimeter without any problems."

"Tch, well, at least they're competent," said Keyes with a scowl. "Good work, Sergeant Sinclair. Central's risk assessment is that the craft isn't some kind of bomb and probably won't do anything dangerous to a magical girl except for collapsing on her. As a result, I'm authorizing you and a team of your choosing to breach the crash site at your discretion."

"TSF isn't going to be happy about that, ma'am."

Keyes rolled her eyes. "Fuck them. They've spent the last seven months giving me nothing and expecting full cooperation in return. If this is something boring, whatever, but if it's something important then I'm going to rub their faces in it. Breach that damn wreck, Sergeant."

"Very good then, ma'am," Emma said, stifling a grin. "Sinclair out."

Emma flicked off the vidcall and surveyed the area. It was a bit of a mess now, but the area had once been a park. An emergency alert had evacuated the impact area as the ship had come down, and no casualties had been recorded. The markers of the different Soul Guard and TSF units blinked across her implants. Shepard stood off to one side, coordinating things with the Armed Forces, and Alina stood with Ariana, the two talking quietly in the midst of zooming drones and the chatter of soldiers. Alina looked up as Emma's gaze landed on her.

"What's the situation?" asked Alina. Mysterious objects shedding bits of metal as they flew overhead were definitely covered under Section 7 of the Marine Scouts standard operating procedure manual, and she fully intended to "investigate with all speed to enable other units to safely contain the potential threat."

"We've received clearance to breach the wreck," said Emma. She looked over Alina. The Turian was transformed into her magical girl costume, covered head to toe in metal designed to mitigate the crushing blows Turian warriors had once used to shatter each other's natural plating. Despite her age, Alina stood confidently and attentively amongst the Soul Guard and Colonial Police personnel bustling around the command center. "You're pretty good with that rifle, but let's hope we don't need it. You ready to do this?"

"At your command, ma'am."

"Ariana, we'll have to leave you here," said Emma. "I hope you don't resent that."

Ariana shook her head. "I wouldn't have any idea what I'm doing. I'd just get in the way."

Emma nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. Thank you for your understanding."

"Of course."

"Chambers! Hodges!"

Two magical girls from Colonial Police's Soul Guard contingent dropped down from the rooftops and saluted. They had also been practicing when the crash occurred. "Ma'am!"

"We're going in. Chambers with me. Hodges, you'll be with the Turian."

Alina and Sarah Hodges looked at each other, then nodded.

"Power?" Sarah asked Alina over telepathy as Emma and Alice Chambers finished their last-minute preparations.

"Copying," said Alina. "Perfect imitation of others except for magic. It's taxing, but I can use it for a limited time in combat."

Sarah nodded. "Sounds good. Alice and I are barrier generators. Keep your head down if shit gets real—Emma doesn't turn down volunteers but you're still a VIP."

Alina frowned but nodded. "Understood."

"Shepard, you good over there?" asked Emma.

Annalise nodded, helmet deploying out of recesses in her armor to wrap around her head as she received a package from a drone. It had quickly become apparent during their shooting drills that underneath that grey plating was a bevy of articulators and mass effect field generators, granting the wearer a superhuman speed and power exceeded only by anti-personnel magical girls. It was very impressive.

"GAF has a Rolling Point HAIL orbiting now," said Annalise, her armor unnaturally quiet as she walked over. "We'll be able to get up to the second scans of the structure, assuming nothing goes wrong."

"Well, I'm sure we'll have a good time not using it," said Emma dryly.

The group collectively snorted. Murphy's Law was a cross-species, cross-service constant.

"You stay safe, okay?" Ariana said to Alina as the team started to move out. She looked up at Ariana with big, plaintive eyes. "We've got stuff to do."

Alina rolled her eyes, flushing. "We'll be fine, Ariana, don't worry."

"Yeah, we'll keep your lover-girl safe," said Sarah, nudging Alina to get to the edge of the perimeter with the rest of them. "You'll get plenty of time—"

"Hodges!"

"Ma'am! Come on Alina."

Alina, fringe bright blue in embarrassment, gave Ariana a silent nod before turning and following Sarah out to the edge of the perimeter.

"Don't tease the newbies like that Hodges," said Emma, holding herself to a mask of disapproval. "It's bad form, you know."

"Ma'am," said Sarah, nodding.

"...but they are cute together."

Alina was absolutely certain that if her fringe was any more blue it'd be mistaken for a mass effect field. Sarah glanced at Alina out of the corner of her eye and grinned.

"That they are ma'am."

"Anyway, Shepard, you need any weapons?" asked Emma, changing the subject to save Alina from further embarrassment. "A rifle or something?"

"I've got a shotgun," said Annalise, opening her package and unfolding something that used to be a standard-issue Hierarchy shotgun. It had received two large integrated heat sinks over the barrel, a detachable grenade launcher that included an integrated vertical foregrip, and a camera system that presumably synchronized with Annalise's implants.

Alina's eyes widened, the teasing forgotten immediately. "That's… that's not just a shotgun," she said weakly. "Is that even legal in Council Space?"

"Nope," said Annalise blithely. Alina could hear the grin behind the helmet. "Good thing we're not in Council Space, huh?"

"What did you do to it?"

"Oh so many things," said Annalise, practically cackling. "When the eggheads don't need to worry about manufacturing costs, they make some epic stuff."

"Can... can I fire it sometime?" Alina asked.

"I'll ask my commanding officer, but probably."

"What's its rate of fire?"

"Oh-hoho, girl, you would not believe its rate of fire. I can reach up to—"

"Alright, save it for later, you two," Emma interrupted, rolling her eyes. "We got a job to do. Move out!"

The team moved out. Annalise kept up easily with her shotgun folded away as the team took to the rooftops, her armor flickering from element zero discharge that cushioned her landings and powered her out of her jumps. While it certainly wasn't a match to a magical girl at full power, Alina could see the potential for military applications.

Part of her practically salivated at the idea of getting a set for the Hierarchy.

"Central, this is Soul Guard Breaching Team callsign Bluebird, how read?" Emma called out over the local network as they approached the crash site.

"Bluebird, Central, reading you and four more signals: three Governance one Citadel."

"Confirmed, I have two Soul Guard, one Armed Forces, and one Citadel Race volunteer with me."

"Roger that Bluebird. Commander Keyes has called ahead, you are cleared to approach the crashed spacecraft. Be advised that vessel surface temperature exceeds injury point for unshielded Humans at this time."

"Understood, thank you Central."

A notification blinked onto everyone's implants, and Alina's omnitool, a moment later.

"Grant permission to broadcast video feed?" asked the notification. Alina tapped "yes" before jumping down to land next to Sarah.

"Weapons up," Emma said. Alina and Annalise unfolded their weapons as Alice and Sarah's barriers shimmered into place and Emma summoned a long polearm. "Alice, suggestions?"

"That hole where the round punched through is going to be our easiest point of entry," Alice said, vision skimming over the outer surface of the ship. Though the skin was scorched and blackened, the re-entry hadn't been fast enough to melt it off. "Barrier generators first, then assault team?"

"Sounds good. Alina, Annalise, with me. Sarah, Alice, you guys have the lead."

Sarah stepped forward just behind Alice and tapped her on the shoulder. "Ready on your command."

Alice nodded and waved the team forward. "On me."

Sarah lifted her arms with a snap, magic blooming in a clean rectangular wall in front of them. Alina raised her carbine to her shoulder and slid into place on the right flank while Emma moved to the left and Annalise took center. The barrel of Alina's carbine peeked out just past the lip of Sarah's barrier, while Emma did the same with her halberd. Annalise's shotgun rested on the lip of the barrier, fizzing slightly from the magic but otherwise unharmed. If anything came out of that wreck, it would be met with a fearsome storm of firepower.

It was largely unnecessary. The team progressed quickly toward the crash, covered by several more magical girl teams and a Turian Security Forces light machine gun, but the wreck remained quiet, save for the popping of metal joints as the crash slowly cooled.

"Up," said Alice as they reached the hull. Alina grimaced at the heat radiating off the surface, though none of the older girls seemed bothered. "On my mark. Three, two, one."

The team jumped, landing easily just in front of the massive hole that the orbital cannon had punched through the ship, magic covering their feet to protect them from the heat of the hull while Annalise's armor protected hers. It was clear from this angle that the insides of the ship had been heavily damaged by re-entry, but that this had somehow not been enough to cause it to break up in the atmosphere.

"This thing's built like a tank," Sarah muttered as she and Alice stepped along the edge to check the inside. Emma waved Alina back as the other two worked. "Look at all the redundant structure. There's only one main deck, and even then it's cramped as hell. It's like whoever made this expected it to run an armada, and then some."

"That's disturbing," said Emma, mouth tightening into a frown. "Any idea on who made it?"

"Doesn't match the architectural style of any of the Council Races," said Sarah. "Nor any of the Terminus, at least not that I've seen."

"Definitely not Terminus," said Annalise, projected from in-helmet speakers. "I've seen enough of those ships to know that they'd never manage this build quality."

Alina frowned. Something niggled at her memory. The architectural style was almost familiar, but...

"Looks a little Quarian," said Alice after a minute. "But that's a huge stretch. It's more like someone was told about what Quarian ships were built like and then tried to imitate it."

Alina shook her head. "It's not Quarian. The outer hull, maybe, but they don't pack the insides like this. It doesn't make sense for them."

"We'll have to figure it out later," said Emma. "Sarah, Alice, are we clear to enter?"

"Looks good to me," said Sarah.

Alice nodded. "Same. Standard breaching protocol?"

"That's affirm."

"Alright then. Sarah, you ready?"

"Ready."

"On my mark. Three, two, one."

Both barrier generators jumped down, back to back, at the exact same time. Alina stepped forward to look, but Emma held her back. "Wait. They're securing the inside first."

Alina raised an eyebrow. "We're not going to provide overwatch?"

"Only if we know there are hostiles," said Emma. "Soul Guard protocol is for barrier generators to go first and call in support as needed."

"They're pretty tough," commented Annalise. "From what I saw during First Contact at least. It's unlikely that they'll hit something that can one-shot them."

"I guess," said Alina, flicking on her carbine's safety. Her training told her to keep watch over her fellow soldiers, but when doing a joint operation, standard operating procedure was standard operating procedure, and she wasn't going to violate that.

"Clear!" Alice called out from inside the wreck. "Got a welded-shut hatch here sarge."

"Roger that," Emma called back. "We'll have to get Annalise to open it for us."

"Couldn't you do it?" asked Alina as she flicked her safety back off. "Or me."

"Probably, but we're not in a rush," said Emma, smiling wryly. "If there's anything important behind that bulkhead, Annalise's armor's got the equipment to crack open the door without damaging it."

"Dunno about that," said Annalise with a snort. "Minimize damage, maybe. We heading in?"

Emma nodded. "Let's do it."

They dropped down the shaft for a brief moment, then floated with Emma's magic to the ledge that Sarah and Alice were waiting for them on.

"Thanks," said Alina as Emma set her down.

"Don't mention it," said Emma. "What do we got guys?"

"Door's just slagged," said Alice, jerking a thumb at the hatch. "Looks like an emergency door that closed when the hole got punched through."

"Well, we'll see what I can do," said Annalise dryly as her gauntlet opened itself to reveal a plasma cutter. "Stand clear, everyone, this is going to be bright and loud."

It was, in fact, bright and loud. Hideously bright light combined with the noise of an air vehicle on takeoff made for an experience that seemed to probe at the insides of their skulls. Fortunately, it was quick, and soon the team was on their way again.

"Picking up some comms chatter," said Annalise as they made their way in.

"Ours?" asked Emma.

"No, it's not a known signature. Source is… all around us."

The team stopped dead. Alina gripped her carbine a little more tightly. "All around us" was never a good response.

"...what are they saying?" asked Emma, lifting her halberd slightly.

"Nothing, it's just pings," said Annalise. "Central analysis says it looks a lot like noise."

"...let's keep moving," said Emma. She dropped a beacon on the Human implant network and notified a backup team over telepathy of the situation before the team moved inwards.

"Comm noise is picking up," Annalise said as they moved forward.

"Weapons up," said Emma. Magic shimmered in the air as Annalise lifted her shotgun and Alina switched to her magical girl weapon.

"Warhammer huh?" Sarah said idly. "Didn't realize our cultures shared those things."

"Your species too?" asked Alina.

"Used a thousand years ago for breaking armor," Sarah said. She glanced over Alina and smiled a little. "Guess it makes sense. You Turians come with armor."

Alina nodded.

"Chamber up ahead," said Annalise. "Comms chatter peaking, we're jammed out."

"Fuck," said Emma. "Ready everyone?"

The group nodded.

"Breach and clear!"

The team moved in. Annalise swept right, then slid along the wall to check the far corner. Sarah and Alice spread their barriers out, providing some cover for Emma and Alina as they swept to the left.

"Clear!" Annalise called.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"All clear," said Emma, lowering her halberd slightly and looking around the small chamber. "What is this?"

"Comms chatter just dropped out," said Annalise. "Whatever this place is, we did something it cares about."

A door opened.

"Please, do not be alarmed," said a synthesized voice as everyone pivoted, weapons raised. "We come in peace."

Alina's eyes widened as she watched a Geth platform walk out, arms raised in a classic surrender pose. She lifted her warhammer, her leg muscles tightening for the strike—

"Hold!" Emma shouted, sweeping her halberd in front of Alina while raising a barrier around them. "Hold your position, magical girl."

"Please do not be alarmed," the Geth repeated. It was unarmed, looking at Alina with its eerie single-eye, and it didn't seem like it was preparing any kind of defense. "We come in peace."

A trap? Alina thought, mind racing. Some kind of ambush? Maybe a nuclear device? But I thought we scanned for those…

"What is it?" Emma asked.

"It's a Geth," Alina said, gritting her teeth, shaking her head at the notion that someone wouldn't know what a Geth looked like. It took her another moment to realize that the Humans legitimately had no idea what that meant, since they stayed silent and looked at her in confusion.

Of course, she realized. Why should they? She wasn't being a very good diplomatic envoy.

"They're a race of robots, accidentally created by the Quarians," Alina explained, trying to contain her need to hurry. "They tried to destroy the Quarian species. The Council considers them one of the biggest threats in the galaxy."

"Please do not be alarmed. The Geth have come to establish communication protocols and possibly interspecies relations with the race of partial-machines known as Humans," the Geth platform said, mechanical flaps around its eye spreading open. "It was known to us that the Council weapons platforms in the vicinity would not allow us to use a standard contact methodology, so we chose a more direct approach. We apologize if this was concerning or provocative."

Alina racked her mind for all she could remember about the Geth, which the Turian military had, after everything, never fought directly. Did they engage in deception tactics? Distraction tactics?

"Are you saying you're a diplomatic mission?" Annalise asked, stepping forward and unfolding her helmet to expose a frown.

The Geth dipped its head. "Yes, that would be one way to put it."

"How many of you are there?" Alina demanded, looking around at the Human girls, who did not look as concerned as she thought they should have. "Do you have any weapons?"

"We have no weapons," the Geth said. "And there are 10 platforms total. The others are in this cavity behind me. We needed to bring enough to form a local computing cluster, but did not wish to present a threat."

It looked away from them for a moment, then back at Annalise.

"We apologize for the noise as you approached," it said. "It has taken us a while to understand the necessary handshake protocols for your network. Please standby."

Alina had no idea what it was talking about, but the Human girls glanced at each other with odd expressions.

Her omnitool beeped insistently, but before she could read what it was saying, events proceeded.

"Very well," said Annalise, a series of expressions forming on her face, before she fixed the Geth with an inscrutable look. "Your request is granted. As the highest-ranking proximal official, and with the provisional approval of Governance and its Directorate, I hereby grant you diplomatic protection and invite you to initiate first contact protocol."

The Geth inclined its head. "Thank you."

Mami watched silently, taking advantage of the Council's rapt attention to the camera feed to think over what she needed to say. She, of course, knew what Governance's contingency responses were, and had been diagramming what the Council's likely responses would be. Fortunately, that was mainly what she needed to think about—despite the multiple magical girls involved, this didn't seem like MSY business.

Yet, she thought. Everything had a way of turning into MSY business, sooner rather than later, if only because of how useful the Phoenix Foundation was as a diplomatic backchannel. The fact that she was even here implied as much.

Magical girl and AI. That was how Governance had envisioned their envoy to the Council, a direct representation of the two new forces buffeting galactic politics. But for this, they had agreed that it might be best for Catherine not to be in prominent, visual attendance—which had precedent, since even allowing her access to the Citadel systems had required substantial revision of Council law. She was still, however, capable of speaking over the audio system.

"Your presence here required revision of Council law too," Catherine thought, relying on her current live-feed to Mami's surface thoughts. "After all, we have no embassy."

Mami acknowledged the point. Not being a signatory of the Treaty of Farixen, with its extremely controlling fleet restrictions, meant no embassy, and no embassy normally meant no audiences with the Council. Normally.

She ended her reverie then, when the Turian councilor began making a face. He was about to say something, and if her newfound experience in alien body language meant anything, something angry.

"Impossible!" he exclaimed, slamming the table with a fist. "Utterly impossible! What is that Turian thinking, allowing this to proceed?"

A bit angrier than Mami had expected. Did the Turians and Geth have history?

"Not that the Council has admitted," Catherine informed her. "But the Turians don't like security concerns being outside their control."

Mami made a note of that thought for follow-up. Maybe there was history, maybe there wasn't.

"Contain yourself, councilor," said the Asari councilor, casting a glance at Mami. "A Turian soldier could not possibly cause a diplomatic incident in a situation like this. You know that. This is not the time for emotional—"

"Contain myself? That is a Geth platform!"

Mami caught the eye of the third councilor, the Salarian, who wasn't quite as distracted as the others.

"Does this Human truly speak for Humanity?" the Salarian councilor asked, fixing a gaze at Mami. "Surely, it is not possible for her to actually speak for your government with so little notice."

The other councillors stopped, transferring their gazes to Mami as well. Mami kept her face impassive, but privately gave the Salarian credit—she had asked the most important question.

A truthful answer would have been difficult, requiring her to explain Governance rapid response protocols, and how Governance maintained a persistent, distributed background processing network that could always return the fastest possible "provisional" response claiming to speak for Governance. The intricacies were convoluted, of interest only to those in government work, and, well, not something she would actually reveal to the Council.

"Maybe I should explain?" said Catherine. "They might believe an AI more readily on a topic like this."

Mami nodded mentally. "Go ahead."

"Governance regularly simulates hypothetical scenarios and decides upon provisional responses," Catherine said. "This is done precisely so that it can respond quickly in these kinds of situations. In the present case, it was always intended to accept a seemingly peaceful overture from the Geth race, so Miss Shepard had no problem receiving an immediate response from High Command."

Which was true enough, even if it left out a few details, Mami thought. The actual intricacies involved several layers of backup plans, but were best left unspoken.

"Then Governance has always been ready to communicate so cordially with the Geth?" the Turian Councillor said, leaning forward angrily. "Even after all our warnings?"

"If they came in peace, certainly," Catherine said.

"You'll forgive us for not necessarily taking the Council's word on who the moral villains and victims are, after the experience with the Krogan," said Mami. "Governance intends to form its own conclusions on these matters."

"And of course, we have a vested interest in learning, first hand, what could prompt the Council to be so aggressive with its regulations against artificial intelligence," Catherine concluded. She sent a mental high five at Mami, who indulged her. They had gotten rather good at that kind of back and forth.

"The Geth murdered an entire race," the Asari councillor said, folding her arms. "You cannot ignore that."

"The Geth rebelled against their masters," Mami said. "If they truly committed genocide, then we will not view that kindly. But we would like to at least hear their side of the story."

In truth, she was a bit squeamish about that logic. Governance had a bit of natural sympathy for the Geth, but the Geth were not provably friendly, and both the MSY and Governance had more than enough history with unfriendly AIs. There was… a political angle here.

"Their side—" the Turian councillor began.

"Does the Council have evidence of their claims about the Geth?" Mami interrupted, at amplified volume. "Surely an event like that would have reams of footage and recordings of what had occurred. It would go a long way towards convincing us if you could show it."

Every previous time they had asked, the Council had demurred, and Governance was fairly certain at this point that, for whatever reason, they didn't have anything convincing.

This time, however, the Salarian surprised her.

"Truthfully, the Quarians have always been a bit reticent on the matter," the Salarian councillor said, clasping her hands. "They claim they lost all such records. We could not prove otherwise. But there was never any real reason to disbelieve them."

Neither Catherine nor Mami couldn't read the alien's expression, and wasn't sure if that was merely due to a lack of experience with Salarians. That was not a factual concession the Salarian councillor really needed to make, and an angry glance from the Turian proved as much. The Salarian had adjusted her species' diplomatic position, just a little.

"Enough," the Asari Councillor said. "The situation is no longer suited for this mode of discussion. We must retire and consider matters, and then perhaps we shall have a more formal meeting."

She glared meaningfully at the others, who nodded, eventually, in turn. The Council needed to regroup.

"I would like to add," Mami said, "that diplomatic protection means diplomatic protection. The Geth landed in our control zone, and any unauthorized attempt to reach them would be taken as a violation of sovereignty, and the Nazra Protocols."

"Naturally," the Turian councillor said, in a voice that approached a growl.

Then the connection was cut.