[BREAKING] Rachni Re-Emerging in Ninmah, Tertiary Expansion Waves Confirmed

Rachni Re-emergent in Ninmah, Tertiary Expansion Waves Confirmed
via Shahin Mazanderani, Tayseri Times

[NINMAH] Stir in the Presidium and across the extranet today, as the time locks on the coded data packets distributed to one hundred of the galaxy’s major news corporations earlier this morning expired, revealing stills, videos, and charts of rachni troop movements across the Ninmah Cluster. Our sources confirm that they were streamed through the channels keyed to the remote Listening Post X-19 which has been under a military mandated communications blackout since 0500 hours local time. However, despite the lockdown, our investigative journalists were able to gain first hand access to the station and confirm the contents of the data packets via confidential channels. Their reports contain both firsthand verification and the interviews of a number of station personnel who, given the sensitive nature of the information, have spoken on condition of anonymity.

“We lost contact with most of the research teams first. We had two groups down on Suen’s surface, a batch of xenoanthropologists and xenobiologists working out of one of the dead hives. Whole thing was half collapsed, this giant sinkhole with tunnels around the edges. We thought it was just interference from one of the planet’s superstorms. But when finally got one of our satellites realigned the surface was just... crawling. Thermal signatures. Had to be hundreds of them, at least. Armored millipedes the size of IFVs, a bunch of these tanks on tendrils, and two or three of these, I dunno, bases on legs. They just punched their way out through the rubble like it was cardboard," claimed one of our sources.

Another recounted the naval movements that followed. “They jammed our comms before we could enact the emergency protocols. Took them about threeish hours before they made contact. In the meantime they let us see what they were doing. What I mean is, they left our satellite network intact. This huge fleet, wings of cruisers or gunships, or something like that, dropped out of FTL above Suen," they said. "They were towing this hollowed out planetoid. They were building or growing... I guess it must have been more ships. We saw at least another dozen [ships] on the way, and spent the time tracking what movements we could. Pretty much all of which is in the packets they requested we send in exchange for the civilian teams on the surface who they were detaining.”

The datapacket provided to the Tayseri Times indicates the restablishment of a significant hive network on Suen, secondary bases on Kashshaptu and a framework Helium-3 grid above Damkianna, plus an undisclosed number of tertiary hives with associated Queens and their retinues on Maldor, Inakhos, and the moons of Daganshtan.

According to further reports from on-side journalists, a Queen and her guard have boarded Listening Post X-19 as part of what appears to be a diplomatic mission, and is currently in communication with the Commander of the Listening Post, one Deix Resocanthias, whom was demoted and assigned to the Listening Post as a result of controversy over his judgment during the Reaper War in withdrawing his forces and the Terminus irregulars under his command at the expense of the life of the planetary governor they were assigned to protect. Quiet attempts by the Hierarchy to replace Commander Deix during these proceedings have apparently been rebuffed by the rachni Queen.

As of the time of writing it is unknown how the rachni Hives were able to achieve such a degree of military readiness or industrial infrastructure within such a short time. While a number of experts have indicated that the historical record shows that the species has returned from the brink of total extinction no less than twice (and possibly as many as three) they acknowledged that what the packet shows is, in the words of Dr. Florentina Armalasoi, “improbable to the extent of pure amazement. What we’re seeing is effectively a decade worth of work completed in less than three years.”

However answers might be forthcoming shortly. A geth Consensus naval battlegroup has been dispatched through the Pangea Expanse Relay, independently of formal Conclave decision, and a Council mission is expected to arrive shortly thereafter.

Oh wow, that was a surprise this morning! everyone is glued to the news screens, just like during ... you know what.
But this looks not like an invasion or something, maybe just their weird way to establish whatever contact they want.

I mean, someone worked with them on the Crucible thing, right? Everything is very secret though, barely confirmed that the rachni were there at all but nothing more. Well, I feel excited and curious on one hand, a bit frightened on the other.

But I am sure this can end well.

They are allowing you to lower your guard.


It can and it will. Never rule out the possibility of a worst case scenario.

...well then. That is uh...

that is a thing.

You'll have to forgive me, still in a bit of shock because, you know, holy fucking shit rachni. And this is them something like three generations in if they've already got tertiary hives set up, so, you know, tip of the iceberg and holy shit they already have a hive fleet and just

holy shit.

Okay.

Right.

Okay.

But no really this is a good thing, this is a very good thing. New tech. New markets. New cultures. New politics. Our diplomats might actually do their jobs instead of sulking about how the bug people don't want to talk to them. But seriously this is just...amazing. Utterly amazing.

...what? I'm still in shock. Give me like half an hour and I'll have something profound to say. But in the meantime:

Which two? There's the geth of course. And now the rachni though uh probably have a few decades before they're properly formidable. There's the krogan obviously (I mean they've already tried once). There's the quarians who have an enormous fleet and who aren't above a little self destructive genocide. There's the turians who have the most advanced and basically the hands down largest organic army in the galaxy. There's us humans who oh so kindly gave the galaxy Cerberus. There's the salarians and whatever weaponized hell they have kicking around. There's the batarians who have the shards of a frankly enormous military-industrial complex to work with. Something like a dozen or so Greater Terminus nations and empires that could plausibly wage a galaxy consuming war. The volus could hardfuck the galactic economy. I mean really even the Republics could make life hell if they wanted to (though how that would be distinguishable from them doing it on accident I have no idea).

Anyway.

Point being: being able to burn down a chunk of the galaxy is practically a prerequisite for being a galactic power. Untwist your chaps and get over yourself.

Proximity and/or they got tired of waiting on the Conclave to issue a formal decision and elected to swing their mechanical dicks around? Posturing would be my guess really.

2/10. It's not a joke it's just a reference, it's just going "hey this thing is like that other thing which is funny. LAUGH DAMN YOU." Kindly take this time to evaluate your life.

Which assumes that they even could right now. It hasn't even been three years, that they have anything approaching a legitimate fleet and orbital infrastructure is a miracle in and of itself.

Oh come on, like we could reasonably do anything about it even if it came to that. This is a species that's survived total annihilation and being blasted back down to a genepuddle like what...twice? Three times? That we know of considering how old they are as a race. The Protheans at the height of their power couldn't kill off the rachni. The entire krogan warmachine couldn't completely eradicate the rachni. What makes you think that a galaxy that's still in the "limping along" stage and a collective military that is about nine thousand percent done will do anything but kick the problem a few centuries down the line?

Come on you wrote a rant about not having rachni for business partners and now you're sand-assed about them showing up? You still got sand in your underwear and vorcha's sense of humour!

Uhhh... You realise the conclave doesn't actually have hold over the geth right? That it's the consensus you're thinking of?

Either way, it is possible to completely eradicate the rachni, it's just something that can't be done with an army or such. Rather, you'd need a huge mass accelerator, point it at ANY world the rachni hold and fire away until it's an asteroid field. Send in fleets afterwards to sweep any remnants. Ensure there's a total blockade in place, and any ship looking to be of rachni manufacture being shot on sight to keep them running through the relay and you'd eventually be successful.

Though I was say temper the excitement. While they are revealing themselves to the galaxy, we don't exactly know how their government operates, or how their economic system functions.

For what I can only assume are some horribly mutilated puns and more references I can award you no credit and will merely stand in awe of your anorexically slender connection to anything approximating humor.

May whatever God you believe in have mercy on your shriveled soul on your deathbed because the comedy-club lynch mob certainly won't.

I meant the Conclave in the context of "the two of you have at least make an effort at appearing to act in harmony of which decisions instituted by the Conclave are a major factor." The geth don't really have to go along with anything you say and I think basically everyone knows it but there's at least been the attempt at synergy and synchronicity.

There's none of that here, they mobilized a fairly significant set of military assets under their own authority and with what I presume was little to no input by the quarians. That's...that's not really a valid military strategy. That's just "what I would do if I had a budget that was literally just Yes, impenetrable sensor nets, enough manpower to outman the rachni, entire fleets of planet destroying superweapons, seamless coordination with every military asset on play and if things like warweariness, morale, and objection to genocide weren't things."

I mean if you're going to argue that turning Godmode on during war is a thing, I'm just going to point out that you could substitute literally anybody else in place of rachni; turians, salarians, anybody and it would be just as applicable.

Which is to say not at all.

No. No I will not temper my excitement. And it will take submerging in literal pools of ice to force it to go away.

Mr_Sandman, I think you misunderstood. I didn't mean destroy them. Maybe deal with them was misleading. I mean dealing as in... well, deal, having contact, having to do with them in general after millennia of basically nothing more than a nightmare memory.

I do not want war with them, on the very contrary. Let's do something else than war for a change, from what I see they may think the same thing.

And what I'm saying is what makes you think that we have any other remotely viable alternative to diplomacy? Like it or not. Fear them or not. We don't really have any choice but to talk with them. Isolation is just war-lite in this context, it deprives us of the most promising option for getting anywhere and allows the rachni to do what they want anyway. Still kicking the problem just with less accelerator fire.

I mean, it's not really a choice or concession or great moral victory on our part if it's the only rational thing to do now is it?

One day, the Council is going to call us to fight them again and we'll probably get another STG-brewn plague tossed at us for the troubles.

That is, if we don't strike first! Ha! But let's see what the Rachni are up to now and does it need krogan intervention.

Maybe there's something wrong in your translator because I neither think nor say I would think that. I am merely contemplating about my personal feelings towards the situation and the Rachni in general, given the (for me at least) not so distant past we share.

We do not yet fully know what exactly it is they want or what made them move now. Are there conflicting interests or is it indeed just a way to say hello?
In a way I envy the young diplomats who will get to meet with them, in a way I don't.

I find my inbox flushed with requests from my home republic this morning and there's a formal invitation to see representatives of this republic for a debate. That may take a while, I wonder if anyone there has more on this already.

Oh relax, I'm not looking to tear you up over something like this. For one I'm much too happy and for another I don't think we're actually disagreeing anywhere but in the implications of what was said. Which is, as things go, a minor quibble. Fear and trepidation is somewhat misplaced here just as a practical response but you are, of course, more than entitled to your opinion.

Give it a bit it's been all of what? Two days? Integrating supposedly extinct races back onto the galactic scene takes time. To say nothing of the clusterfuck that's brewing when you have a geth battlegroup, a Citadel flotilla, and a rachni fleet converging on a station that is either hosting a diplomatic mission or "occupied by potentially hostile forces" depending on your perspective.

I remember reading stories on the Rachni and the Rachni wars...
Keelah, I hope nothing goes wrong in the diplomacy.

Ahh, the Rachni! Only true hivemind as we understand to grace the galaxy in our lifetimes! Such a shame they were hellbent on exterminating us at first contact and beyond, but the rest of us prevailed, and proved we were stronger than them. The Hegemony could have learned so much from the Rachni!

Alas, my namesake is no more, and the orderly, ever obedient hives won't have a state to educate anymore, but the Na'Hesit, a remnant of a disgraced empire struggling for their right to exist at the hands of greedy peasants and workers.

you continuing to post is a worst case scenario