Loyalist

//sigh

that was the thing about shepard. maybe it was one of the things that made her so great. she harbored no hate towards aliens. never has. she’d fight anyone that was against her, but if there was a soul on her side, it didn’t matter their past, or if they were from across the galaxy. the mission was always the one thing that would matter. the fight. she just wanted a better galaxy - as cliche as it was. the green eyes that had fallen upon him were soft, even with the battle worn features that surrounded them.          ’ yes. ‘ the commander spoke truthfully. she wasn’t familiar with his race, but edi did massive amounts of research. ' do you know anything of the reapers? '

//> reap - er. Noun. A person or machine that harvests a crop.

"Ah, I am afraid not. I have not farmed a day in my life," he replied brightly, the suggestion of a chuckle leaving his pale throat. It was important within Forerunner culture that one never let any great degree of emotion be displayed in public, but a fair amount of mirth seemed to spill through his barely reserved expression.

Aquamarine eyes met Shepard's green, the faint outline of circuitry within his corneas clearly visible when one looked directly.

A small notification indicating a proximity alert flicked on in a long dormant part of the metarch's network, the machine's attention diverted to detection alarms emanating from a pair of Line Installations in a distant region of space.

//> Line Installations 32-36/33-36 report unidentified frigate-class vessel entering firing range.

//> Weaponry primed and ready.

//> Vessel appears free of contamination/infection.

//> Monitor 331 requests permission to destroy unidentified vessel as per Ecumene protocol.

//> ...

//> Permission temporarily denied. Weaponry on stand-by.

Within the vessel a power fluctuation would dim the lights for a brief moment, a small blue glyph appearing in the corner of all holographic displays as the metarch burrowed his way into the frigate's electronic systems. It took little more than an instant before the shipboard PA crackled to life, a soft and mildly amused voice echoing outwards.

It wasn't often that Offensive Bias felt a presence within his reign that did not bear his brother's signature, the entrance of a new mind within one of the far-flung areas of his domain drawing the attention of a primary extension. Within the Forerunner network he was represented as nothing more than a soft blue glow, the immense strength of his compound mind powering him through any distance he needed to cross to address foreign items. Descend upon the new presence he did, slicing off the sub-network's connections and building a hundred thousand new safeguards where the old ones had failed to prevent the breach, his representation splashing downwards in a gentle expansion of light.

/\ Didn't your creators tell you that it's rude to access systems that you do not have the proper authority to enter? Aya, apparently common decency died with the Ecumene.