"What's taking so long?" he snapped at his navigations officer.
The helpless tech shrugged. "We're getting a strange response from the gate: 'Waiting for other. Your position in queue is 1,817,983.'". The tech frowned. "Now it's saying 'Waiting for other. Your position in queue is 2,133,172.' The number is increasing!"
The general was quiet for a moment, then spoke softly. "The Reapers must have built the Mass Relays. So they have administrative access. No. If they did, they would just lock down all non-Reaper travel. Instead, they have priority access. They're adding themselves to the front of the queue! But who's ever heard about a single location having so many ships travelling to it that it's caused a queue to form…"
His fleet surrounded him, bristling with impotent turian might as he could only watch as the number of Reapers ahead of him in the queue increased.
2,382,224. 2,379,872. 2,377,182.
2,519,993. 2,518,914, 2,517,120.
2,784,102. 2,784,101. 2,784,100.
3,001,819.
"Spirits help humanity."