(AN: If you see any errors, please report here)
The aliens who were sent to the Shanxi system to negotiate for peace were duly informed of his nation's intent to further talks on their Citadel, and that they be arriving near their equivalent of midday.
That should give them plenty of time to prepare for their arrival, but not only that, Hood knew full well that their arrival would be shocking.
One, their fleet's disregard for their Relays would hammer in the fact that they wouldn't be bound by its transit paths, meaning should they enter open conflict for whatever reason, they wouldn't be bogged down into a chokepoint, unlike them.
Second, they would definitely be either again shocked or cowed at the sight of the vessel that was made of the delegation fleet, there was the downside of showing the aliens some of their biggest guns, but some battles are often won that way, case in point the former Covenants Assault Carriers and the rarely seen Super-Carriers, however the 'Keys Loop' did well to counter such points, but then again, that manoeuvre only destroyed the escorts not the Assault Carrier itself, it just fled after what a small little destroyer did.
Nevertheless, this Citadel Council did little to instil any sense of dread, sure he will be wary of them, but from what their available Codex, stolen intelligence, and firsthand account from the being called 'Kelly' from the Voyagers told them was that they were a paper tiger.
Their so-called Dreadnoughts are only on average a kilometre in length, whilst sporting an impressive fast-firing but underpowered MACs and being deliberately limited in number, making it a 5:3:1 ratio amongst them, so that meant 37 for the Turians, 20 or so for the Asari, probably 16 for the Salarians, whilst any other race not on the Council was limited to only 8-5 or non at all.
So the number it brought up in his point of view is 77 potential light cruisers and one singular heavy cruiser, no carriers of any caliber aside from defensive fighter wings, and thousands of frigates and corvettes, a significant force, one he had no wish to fight with and not because of the number or technology they had but because of how draining such a war would be.
While the UNSC Navy of today is far more powerful than it was 30 years ago, it was also the smallest it has ever been as well, despite the rebuilding they've been doing in these last 4 years.
Hood would most likely never see their original numbers come back up in his lifetime, but even if he died, he still would feel a sense of security with the power humanity has accumulated over the years.
Now his thoughts wandered over to the Voyagers and their claims of being ancient wayfarers, and honestly, with everything they revealed about the Citadel Council and small titbits about other things unrelated to them, that statement may actually be true.
The information they gave was scarily accurate, they cross-referenced everything said with the Citadel's Codex and the stolen intellectual property of the Turian vessels, most of what was said was true, with some other things being needed for more clarification, especially with what they meant by the Council races falling for a supposed technology trap.
Once their meeting with the Council was done, he'd order the Infinity to sail towards the Red Tear so he could have a personal talk with them, their ship still hasn't left the Shanxi System thankfully, however, new intel showed that their ship was creating new vessels from that monster.
He was dreading that future meeting more than he was with talking to the Council.
His thoughts were interrupted when an officer began informing Captain Lasky about something, something urgent, considering it sent a spike through the old Fleet Admiral's spine.
"Sir, the Red Tear just jumped to their version of Slip-Space, they have left the Shanxi System." That did not bode well for them.
Tracking objects going through Slip-Space was not one of the UNSC's strong suits, even with their recent advancements, that was something the former Covenant was renowned for, despite the stockpiles of their tech in their R'n'D holds.
Until they found them again, they were as good as gone until they decided to say hello again in the far future.
"Another thing to add to ONI's to-do list" Terrance said to himself, uncaring of the current bridge crew hearing him or not.
With barely a few minutes left until they reappeared at the Citadel itself, Hood gave orders to both the Infinity and its accompanying fleet on what to do once they exited to real space, while also informing the best Spartan II teams to get prepped for their bodyguard duties for the remainder of their future talks.
"Attention all hands, we are exiting Slip-Space, all personnel are to abide by standard procedures during the duration of this venture, that is all" the Captain finished informing his crew and not a second later, the dark blue of the eleventh dimension gave way to real space and what greeted the bridge crew was the sight of a rather impressive space station of alien make.
The ship's AI, Roland, placed the station at around 45km give or take, he was also tracking a number of outgoing and incoming traffic to the megastructure, along with a sizable defence fleet.
Seeing them on the optics and holographic displays showed the difference between them, the Turians with their bride of prey look, the Asari with their graceful designs and the Salarians with their sleek hulls, the civilian craft showed an incredible amount of different designs, which made all too clear that this was a coalition of various aliens working together.
'Too much like the Covenant,' a darker part of Hood's mind whispered to him, and begrudgingly he accepted it.
Standing up from the command chair, the sound of popping joints reminded him of his aging body, ignoring it he gazed at the captain before speaking.
"Time for us to have a talk, alert Blue and Black (AN I know he comics showed them dying, but I didn't really like it, so they live) Team to board the Condor, I'll be down with them soon, keep watch until we get back."
Lasky gave a salute to the old man before bidding him a safe journey.
[]
Upon walking through the airlocks, the UNSC away team was met by fresh recycled alien air and a barrage of flashes and alien tongues.
The Spartans of Blue and Black Team moved without showing any fault in their posture, their helmets barely moved from side to side, but they were looking everywhere, looking for potential threats both within the crowd and away from it.
As they walked following a alien guard detail showing them the way to the Council Chambers, they also carefully made sure to keep a good distance away from them as well.
The groups didn't talk nor acknowledge the partially translated question being thrown their way, they kept stride with the guards and slowly but surely they entered the elevators, taking them up to the Council Chambers right at the centre of the citadel.
Yet before they could make their way further, they stopped by a checkpoint.
"Alright, I'm going to need you all to drop your armaments here at this station, weapons are not allowed in the Council Chambers," a C-sec Turian said to the diplomatic team, specifically to the Spartans.
Hood frowned upon hearing this.
"No, I don't think so," he said curtly.
"Sir, this is a standard procedure that everyone has to go through the same thing." The alien replied, trying to seem unmoved.
"Then we will have the meeting here, or does the council prefer to come aboard the ship that brought us here for the talks, I assure you that their guards will be allowed to keep their weapons…so what will it be." The guard fidgeted, an orange holographic interface appeared over his right hand.
He tapped away at it before talking in his native language.
There was a pause, but his facial expression seemed to shift ever so slightly, Hood didn't know what it meant, but the slow nod of the head indicated he was acknowledging orders.
"You're clear to pass, but we'll be watching you, any hostile act towards the Council will not be tolerated."
Hood raised an eyebrow but nodded.
Soon they were walking past the checkpoint and up some stairs, passing through a garden-like area before it gave way to an open space with balconies on the side, while at the back of the area was a raised platform, up on it where the three Councillors, each representing the races who decided what was best for everyone else within their galactic community.
Once the UNSC delegation reached the proverbial centre of the room, the hall noise seemed to quiet down.
"Welcome, new gentle beings, to the Citadel, I am The Asari Councillor, Tevos," she gave small bow of greeting.
"I am Valern, Salarian, pleased to meet you," the hooded said while gazing intently at the Spartans.
"And I am Avatus," the Turian of the group answered gruffly, almost in a dismissive way.
The old Fleet Admiral looked at each of the Councillors, taking in their measure, from the way they dressed to introducing themselves to their current expressions.
He saw the scheming politician, the prying intel agent, and the old general.
Almost in the exact way the Codex portrayed them.
Almost.
"I am Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance Hood, Chief of the United Nations Space Command's Navy." he left it at that, allowing his UEG colleague to introduce himself.
"Ambassador Samuel Clemet, representing the United Earth Government."
With the introductions done, Tevos led the next opening words.
"Now that we've introduced ourselves, we can begin, is it the unanimous opinion and desire between the Turian Hierarchy and the United Earth Government to an end of hostilities."
"It is, no objections," Clemets said.
"No objection," Avatus said as well.
What next followed was a brief session of both parties giving a summarised account of each other's histories and how they came to be.
Wars and atrocities committed were obviously left out.
Next would be the outlining of borders, but the humans left out the locations of their worlds aside from Shanxi, but then again, from Hood's understanding, these aliens would never be able to reach any human world with their current FTL method, so he felt at ease.
Then came a question that felt as though the Councillors expected only one response to.
Joining the Citadel Council.
"No"
Stunned silence is what met them upon that single word declaration.
"I'm sorry, but could you repeat that?" Tevos said, bewilderment still showing both in her words and face.
"It is as the Admiral said, the UEG will not be joining any sort of alien Covenant," Clemets nearly spat the last word out.
"Declining to join the Citadel is not wise, the benefits you stand to gain outweigh going alone," the Salarian said.
"Our answer remains the same, humanity will not abandon its sovereignty and future to the whims of another society no matter how well intentioned they seem to be." Despite the unwavering conviction, many in the stands couldn't believe what this being was saying.
"Please reconsider, such a young space-faring race like yourself would find itself unable to grow, think of the good you could do to the community"
"We've had 500 years of going at it alone, besides, many of your laws are simply incompatible for us to abide by"
The rest of the session would be a back and forth of the council trying to entice humanity's representatives to join the Citadel, while the latter would reject all notions.
By the end of it all, the Councillors had to accept the fact that Humanity would not bend to their whims, thus they left, setting the boundaries and keeping Shanxi as the only point of access into UNSC space.
Further negotiations into the more mundane aspects of life, like civilian trade, would take place at a later date.
[]
As for the whereabouts of our godlike family.
They had traversed near to the core of the galaxy to set up their new home and base of operations.
A stroke of luck, they found a nice Earth-like planet to lay down the groundwork for their home, which would end up looking like some sort of high-tech palace, much like the Imperial Palace from 40k.
Mom, Mother, and Charlie would focus most of their time decorating the planet below.
Meanwhile, Leo and Kelly stayed in orbit right at the moon above the settled world, setting up massive shipyards that would construct Kelly's little thought empire ships.
Other planets and asteroids within the system already had mining vessels venturing out to secure the needed resources to fuel the necessary construction of such vessels.
The whole fleet making process, while quick and efficient thanks to the advanced fabricators that they possessed, would still take months, perhaps a year or two, before a sizable armada would be ready and that's assuming that they had an ample amount of resources or if their Mother directed them to other tasks, which would delay the ships they were building.
This prompted Leo to focus on constructing the Type-M class Battlebarge first before anything else, the extra factory output would certainly boost production greatly.
As it stood, the home fleet was small with only a dozen or so vessels, by the end of the year, that number should double, but it would be eclipsed by the Systems Alliance modified vessels, with only the Star Citizen mercenary fleet being slightly larger than the home fleet by that time.
Before all that, though, a curious situation made itself known to the family.
An unknown signal was being picked up by the Red Tears communications systems.
It was decided that they would send in a scout, one of the Normandy's an SRS1 would be sent to investigate.
After five days, they would get confirmation, and it would send Charlie into hysterical laughter.
But for everyone else, it proved to be a monumental headache.
[]