Mass Effect: Knight of the Old Republic

“I have the updates on the fleet construction you asked for, Empress Revan.” Reesa'Hurah announced as she entered the office, crossing the room and handing the Sith a datapad.

“Good, any surprises I should know about?”

“It’s in the summary, but several engine components are going to be delayed due to manufacturing errors that were discovered. It turns out that the waldos the Geth used for their own ships were just barely within tolerance. But trying to run them continuously like that weakened some of the structures, made some of those tolerances slip, and it wasn’t caught until later in the QA process. We’re going to have to scrap most of the parts we already made, rebuild the waldos properly, and remake the necessary parts.”

Revan sighed inaudibly. That was a delay they didn’t need but there wasn’t much she could do about it now. “How is that affecting the fleet?”

“Luckily we caught the faulty parts before they were installed on much, but most of the escort classes are going to be missing engines until the issue is fixed. By the end of the week we will only have five Harrowers fully operational, ten Centurions, and thirty Terminus-class destroyers. Not to mention we are still bleeding operational warships as we decommission and break them for materials. Admiral Han’Gerrel in particular was concerned about how many ships we have going to the breakers and how few replacements we have.”

“Remind him that the new ships we are building are worth any three of a similar class he already has. That should calm him down.”

“Yes, but I think his concern is more about the displaced crews.” Reesa offered. “A lot of them are going a little stir crazy being locked planetside.”

“The appeal of the Homeworld is already wearing off, hmm?”

“N-no, not at all!”

Revan merely glanced at her secretary. One of the benefits to dealing with a race that used full bodysuits was that she barely needed to use the Force to convey her disbelief in that statement. Her body language was plenty.

“Okay, maybe a little. It’s not that we are ungrateful, but several of our more active members have grown…bored. And thanks to the Geth automating most of the work planetside, there isn’t much they can do to distract themselves.”

Revan nodded and made a note to see what could be done there without compromising their timeline more than it already was before checking a holo for the time. She still had a few minutes to spare but if possible she wanted to wrap this up.

“Is there anything else I should know about?”

“No, Empress. Everything else is in the report. Other than that, your ship is ready to leave for Omega once you’re on board.”

“Then let’s not keep them waiting.”

-o-

Very little had changed on Omega as far as Revan was concerned since the last time she was here.

It was still a hive of scum and villainy barely kept from total violence out of fear of messing with the ‘Queen of Omega’s operations. And those that ignored that fact were quick to either find themselves with some rather ruinous debts or simply disappeared…if they were lucky.

It was also the kind of place she would rather not make many investments in because if Aria was ever deposed, the resulting chaos would almost certainly see those investments ruined or stolen. Unfortunately, the asteroid station was also the largest supplier of Element Zero in the Terminus Systems and her Empire needed that.

Eezo was simply too integrated into most modern designs and without a stable supply, a great amount of her already stressed industrial base would simply shut down.

And while Revan knew she could eventually replace some of that dependency with technology from her home galaxy, that would be a labor taking years to complete at minimum and be fairly worthless if the logistics to feed those technologies wasn’t in place.

Which wasn’t to say she hadn’t already tasked the Geth with gathering certain materials when possible.

The Sith sighed and refocused on her meditation.

Aria was already late for their meeting and Revan knew it was deliberate. Unlike Shepard, who despite her fame - was a mere soldier and commander of a single ship, Revan was something of a peer. Which naturally meant she couldn’t just walk on up to the ruler of Omega. No, that would be far too easy. Instead Aria needed to put on a show of making Revan wait.

And Revan was inclined to let her. After all, all she lost was a bit of time to let Aria approach their meeting when she felt comfortable.

But after another fifteen minutes and no sign of Aria asking her to join her for an audience Revan is forced to assume they’ve skipped past the pleasantries and moved straight to the part where Aria tries to see exactly how far Revan would allow herself to be pushed around.

Forty five minutes should be enough to show respect but not deference. And if it wasn’t…well Revan wasn’t exactly desperate for Aria’s help specifically.

The Sith smoothly rose from her meditative position and made her way out to the dance floor of Afterlife and then made a direct line for the observation booth Aria used as her ‘throne room’.

A Batarian guard attempted to get in her way, but a wave of her hand had him pinned helplessly against the wall as she walked up the stairs and into Aria’s space.

“I didn’t invite you up here. If you know what’s good for you, I’d leave before I decide to learn who you are.”

Revan had to give the Asari one thing. She certainly had the aloof and disinterested act down pat. She also didn’t believe for a second that Aria hadn’t been watching her the entire time.

“Let’s move past the games, shall we? You may enjoy them but my time is more valuable than that.”

“That’s not the attitude of someone coming to ask for a favor, Revan.”The Asari Pirate Queen dropped the pretense of not knowing her guest.

“Because I’m not asking for a favor.” The Sith Empress replied. “This is simply a business transaction.

“You say that, but what you’re asking goes beyond just business. Sixty percent of Omega’s Eezo export? Even if you can afford it, that's going to upset people. Especially the nosey ones out in Citadel space that think they have a say in what goes on here. I don’t know if you’re worth the effort.”

“I would think that would be a decision for Omega’s mining companies to determine.”

Aria’s smile was a vicious little thing. “Maybe Shepard didn’t tell you before she ran off to blow up an entire star system. Omega doesn’t have a titled ruler because it doesn’t need one and there is only one rule to follow. Don’t fuck with Aria.

The reason for that is simple.

I. AM. Omega.

So, convince me why I should put up with some old ladies’ whining for some backwater warlord.”

Revan didn’t bristle at the frankly mild insult. Instead she leaned forward and prepared herself for a probably very annoying conversation where the both of them tried to wring everything possible out of the other without giving up too much.

“I’m sure I can give you some incentives…”

In the end they didn’t come to an agreement. At least not a long term one.

Aria eventually sold Revan a good amount of Eezo that would satisfy her needs for a few months, but had absolutely refused to commit to anything like a long term contract. Which was especially frustrating for the Sith because she did not have the time to come and personally negotiate a sale every time her empire needed to buy Eezo.

Maybe next time she came, it would be on one of the almost completed Harrowers. She always found stubborn leaders much more flexible when a dreadnought was nearby. Even Omega’s large collection of mercenary ships would be cautious of picking a fight with an Imperial battlegroup. Especially if they didn’t have a unified command structure.

Revan brushed those thoughts away and stood to leave, but paused when Aria had one more thing to say.

“Before you go, you should know there has been a group of Asari poking around looking for you. Weird religious types. Normally I wouldn’t say anything, but they’ve been annoying me. Thought you would like to know.”

Religious Asari looking for Revan specifically? It didn’t take a leap in logic to guess they were connected to the knock-off Jedi Order she had encountered on Illium.

“I see. Thank you for the information.”

Aria smirked. “It’s no trouble. Either you take care of them for me or they take care of you. No matter what, they won’t be my problem any longer.

-o-

Despite her desire to know more about a Force Sect that had somehow managed to make its way to this galaxy, Revan had no intention of searching them out just because Aria had dangled some information in front of her nose.

In fact she had been fully intent on just leaving Omega immediately to return to Rannoch.

Yes, she would need to deal with the Pius Dea and whatever issue they had with her eventually, but that could wait. There were simply too many bigger plans in motion to dedicate time to hunting down a single Force sect. Not with an entire Fleet to modernize and update, several planets to fortify, and a war with the Batarians to plan.

Because time was ticking down until the Reapers arrived. And the galaxy was not ready.

It had been a bitter relief when Shepard had sent her a message about what had happened at the Alpha Relay.

The Reapers had indoctrinated an entire research team tasked with looking at different artifacts from both the Sovereign Incident as well as a few others discovered elsewhere, and had used them to reconfigure the Mass Effect relay to retrieve them from darkspace in a similar way the Citadel was supposed to be used.

Revan didn’t know the full story - Shepard’s message was woefully brief besides the facts - but it had resulted in the Commander crashing an asteroid into the Relay which, weakened by the slapdash modifications made by the indoctrinated scientists, went critical and destroyed the system along with a batarian colony of about 300,000 citizens.

Shepard finished the message saying that she was heading back to Alliance space to surrender for trial regarding the incident. A move Revan understood given Shepard’s personality but couldn’t help but be frustrated with on a strategic scale.

The Reapers had just shown they could still use the Relay Network to return at any point and were only stopped by what was essentially a large amount of luck. And Revan’s biggest ally in driving the need to prepare for the Reapers outside her own powerbase had just been taken off the board.

And there was nothing stopping the Reapers from making the same modifications to another Relay somewhere anyone not indoctrinated would notice.

So yes, Revan considered anything not an immediate threat as something that would have to wait until her fleet was ready at the least.

And why she was incredibly annoyed when a man in a Cerberus uniform stepped out of a corridor and prevented her from getting back to her ship.

“Excuse me, Miss Revan, but the Illusive Man has a message for you…”

“I’m not interested.” She quickly refused, trying to sidestep the man only for him to move to continue blocking her path.

“Oh, but I insist.” The man continued as several more humans in rather bulky armor suddenly surrounded them, guns trained on the Sith. “It would be in your best interest.”

Revan looked at the armed soldiers and then back to the man. There was a slight current of warning in the Force, she best not underestimate them.

“Fine, you have my attention.”