Major Espinoza,
It is highly unlikely we will encounter these creatures, but they nevertheless require documentation. I have no doubt you will not only meet my expectations, but exceed them.
-Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov, Head of Special Projects Division
Political and Military Threat Analysis: Volus
The volus are a diminutive high-pressure ammonia dwelling race native to Irune. Galactic stereotypes of them include a strong Napoleon complex, a fascination with money, and blatant cowardice when confronted with force. Without having yet met any volus (or aliens at all, for that matter) I cannot in all honesty say how much truth these stereotypes hold.
Volus history runs a bit further back than I expected. They were the third race to discover the Citadel after the asari and salarians, but did not become Council members. The volus had long eschewed military conflict due to a cultural emphasis on swift conflict resolution and a higher value placed on financial strength than physical. It must have been a shock to them to arrive at the Citadel and discover two races, both physically stronger than them, with one excelling in diplomacy and the other in intelligent problem solving. To them, the volus must have appeared ridiculous.
To the volus's credit, they wasted no time wallowing in self-pity and instead worked on creating a unified galactic credit. They succeeded, securing themselves an image of being able bankers. Following the Great War, they were the race responsible for determining Koprulu Sector credit exchange rates, as well as eventually persuading the Terran Dominion and Umojan Protectorate to adopt the galactic standard.
After a few centuries of prosperity but relatively little respect, the volus found themselves unexpectedly useless as the rachni invaded. While their monetary contributions to the war effort were greatly appreciated, the rachni were not fighting for conventional reasons, and the volus became forced for the first time to fight. Casualties escalated very quickly. Good thing the salarians brought the krogan. Post rachni extinction, the volus opted to invest in their own fleets to a greater degree, but became rightly convinced of their own relative weakness. War was not their way. Some workaround would need to be found.
When the Krogan Rebellions rolled around all-too-quickly afterwards, the volus found themselves not only outmatched, but already relatively militarily and financially exhausted from the previous war. Their economy had propped up the Citadel until the counterattack could truly begin, but now the salarians' folly was at their doorstep. Then … here comes the turians.
It's hard to say exactly how the idea of serving under the turians as a protectorate species came about, but what writings I could find at that time suggested an extreme attitude of pessimism and hopelessness within the volus nation at that point. They bemoaned that the galaxy was "eternally at war" and that another conflict would no doubt follow the termination of hostilities with the krogan. The turians, able to hold back the tide and eventually deploy the Genophage, must have looked to the volus as an excellent counterpart to their own species: physically robust, aggressive, but also possessing very little financial prowess and seemingly baffled by the Citadel community at large. Signing up with them to the volus might have felt like a coup; they would indirectly secure themselves a seat at the Council, would be able to maintain a relatively small military, and (reading between the lines here) believed they would be able to shape the turians into a shape they found desirable, using the Hierarchy as a tool with which to secure their interests. Suffice to say, the turians proved far cannier than the volus initially suspected.
The volus nation exists nowadays purely as an extension of the Turian Hierarchy. Turian garrisons dot the ammonia-ridden volus countryside of every world, and turian ships patrol their space continually. The turian councilors throughout history have typically dismissed the concerns and opinions of the volus, seeing them as whiny little money-making machines who had to be prodded to do anything remotely brave. The volus councilor has typically reciprocated this antipathy, although they are in no condition to do much about it.
For the rest of the volus and turians, relations were mixed prior to the Great War. The turians admire the volus's ability to mass produce weaponry and manage their finances, but also widely regard the volus as "useless," and a frequent complaint among citizens is the volus not pulling their weight in patrolling their own space. The volus found the turians stationed within their space well-mannered and behaved, and pirate attacks were viciously repulsed. During the rare police action, however, public opinion tended to turn quickly against their allies, as turians never relent when engaging a perceived enemy. Certain volus clans began protesting turian presence on volus planets, ignoring the enormous risks said turians were taking by stationing themselves willingly in a high pressure ammonia environment.
The Great War has all but shattered trust between the turians and volus. How and why this happened is multifold, although most simply attribute the volus's recent antics to the slowness of the turian response in clearing out infested worlds post war. While this was indeed a significant source of anger for the volus, it goes beyond that.
Unsung Heroes: The Ammonia Front
First, it is worth noting that the volus bore the brunt of the zerg attacks into turian space, as well as Council space until the invasion of Thessia. The zerg demonstrated a very visible reluctance in attacking turian worlds; only one turian colony ever reported an attack during the Great War during the very early stages, and the zerg found themselves pushed back very quickly. Turian worlds are heavily fortified and garrisoned, and turians are quick to switch up their tactics and strategy if they find it isn't working. The zerg found themselves routed. The zerg, however, seemed to sense the relationship between turians and volus.
No less than eleven volus worlds came under attack by the zerg during the Great War, including their homeworld of Irune. Turian garrisons found themselves outnumbered and at great risk whenever they engaged the zerg; there are many, many images of the aftermath of battles on volus planets, showing the effects of high pressure environments on turians whose hardsuits were punctured. While turians fared better once the shock wore off and renowned salarian scientist Mordin Solus began broadcasting zerg strategies and weaknesses over the extranet, the effect on morale for many turians was done. The Great War produced more cases of turian PTSD (or, well, the turian equivalent) than any other race, even the asari.
The Ammonia Front has been mostly forgotten by the galaxy outside the volus and turians. The colonials barely know of it, the asari have far bigger events to dwell on, and the salarians only speak of it to sow further dissent within the hearts of the volus. Most of the galaxy thinks back to Thessia and Dekuuna when discussing the Great War, leaving the Confederate struggle and volus's fight for survival unmentioned. Having gone through the footage and reports, however, I am personally of the mind that the Ammonia Front was easily the most unpleasant theater of warfare six years ago, at least until the Overmind manifested.
The volus prop up the Citadel economy. When their worlds were hit, several major banks actually became threatened with extinction – as in their employees were literally being killed or infested down to the last man. While the more major banks had branches on other worlds, the vast majority of executives tended to remain in volus space. While this may seem an odd thing to point out, imagine one day waking up and finding all of your deposited money is gone and your credit card no longer works until either the Hierarchy or the Citadel itself can handle the transfer of your account. Disruptions like that to the daily routine … can easily lend to panic. And in the Great War, it did.
The volus are not suited to combat. They are physically small, weak, and their culture prefers buying off an enemy or hiring someone else to fight rather than retaliate. Their own forces were caught flat-footed by the zerg and many were initially completely routed – it took the turians driving their people back to the front by any means necessary for the volus to rally themselves and contribute.
Even when the volus and turians began to properly resist, the conditions were brutal. A single hardsuit puncture would end the life of any turian soldier, while the volus were forced to face down bestial creatures who equaled or greatly surpassed their size and frequently closed to melee distance. To make it worse, the majority of the battles occurred not in the volus countryside, but within major cities.
The volus specialize in mechanized warfare wherever possible, preferring bomber frigates in particular. The turians supplied the armor and infantry, the volus provided support with limited biotic and technical units, while also providing an outrageous amount of air support. Specifically, air support that nearly always had the phrase "danger close" attached to it.
On the turians' order, the volus became relentless. They carried out intensive bombing campaigns on their own cities in the hopes of taking out more zerg than they did volus, and did not always succeed. Brave volus pilots ran suicide runs over (and sometimes into) zerg hive clusters, diving through thick clouds of zerg fliers in order to strike at the zerg's hive structures and disrupt the endless offensive while combined turian/volus fleets clashed with leviathans in orbit. More explosive tonnage was dropped on Irune than Thessia and Tarsonis combined – an impressive feat given that the turians attacked the surface of Thessia with dreadnoughts.
The turians held. They reinforced and deployed all over volus space and beat back the zerg slowly but steadily, even without the terrans and protoss. And the volus fought alongside them, their pilots accruing massive kill counts while their support specialists recharged turian barriers on the frontlines, keeping them from the deadly atmosphere.
It was here, on these battlefields, that the volus felt that most queer and foreign of sensations after literal centuries of ridicule and casual disrespect. That feeling … was pride.
The Separatist Movement
Nationalistic fervor gripped many volus following the Great War. Even with feral zerg now rampaging across their worlds, the volus did not falter. A flame had been lit inside their hardsuits, and there was nothing within the galaxy that could stifle it. While turians pulled out of volus space to assist with asari evacuations and geth purges of known hive clusters, the volus remained and held the line against the now mindless bugs.
Unfortunately, a series of complications arising from a short-lived and inadvisable attempt by General Desolas to fully free the asari world of Sanves tied up a significant portion of the fleet responsible for defending volus worlds. This left the volus with a mistaken impression that their worlds had been abandoned so the turians could curry favor with the asari. By the time the turians returned, it was to an embattled and bitter volus populace.
When the batarians left the Citadel on the grounds of unfair treatment, it prompted a fresh movement from (now former) volus ambassador Din Korlack. Outraged at the lack of respect offered to non-terran contributing species as well as the asari's removal, Korlack threatened outright secession from the Hierarchy in a moment of passion at the Citadel Tower. Fringe elements (chiefly volus veterans) clung to his statement and began open protest. Many were swiftly imprisoned or gunned down by stationed turians, fanning the flames.
Din Korlack, surprised by his success at inflaming the hearts and minds of his people, and outraged over the continued mistreatment, wrote the Irune Manifesto, stating formally his intention to remove the volus people from the "forceful thumb" of the Turian Hierarchy and officially creating the Irune Ultranationalist Party. The turians, wary of sparking yet further conflict with the people supposedly under their protection, stayed their hands but refused to compromise.
Five years later, little has changed for the better. The Ultranationalists have still failed to persuade the Hierarchy to grant independence, and a vote held on Irune itself proved that a slim majority of volus wish to remain a protectorate species. Din Korlack is no longer an ambassador, and a replacement has not been found that would appease both the Ultranationalists and Loyalists. The Ultranationalists are covertly being assisted by several factions, including the asari, Umojans, and salarians, but their region of space is now heavily patrolled by the increasingly enraged turians. With each fresh protest and terrorist attack, the turians grow more heavy handed and provide the Ultranationalists with a fresh means to incite the populace. With the conflict with the salarians on the horizon, the Hierarchy is confronted with the unpleasant reality that granting the volus the independence they crave might be a wiser move than allowing them to join the salarians and tie up their fleets over their worlds.
It is worth reminding that millions of turians died to defend these worlds in the Great War. Relinquishing control of them would be a sorry blow to turian sovereignty, an insult to many veterans, and indeed threaten the very core of turian imperialism. The turians are in a far more serious and pitiable position than the volus, even as the little bodies pile the streets.
Political Relations
Salarian Union: The salarians actively encourage the volus's dissent, and have even been caught supplying weapons to Ultranationalist members. This has done little to engender feelings of trust in any of the involved parties. While the volus are aware that the salarians are using them for their own ends, freedom is too tantalizing. The real question is what the salarian/volus relationship will develop into once and if the volus achieve independence.
ITSA: The volus are openly envious of the ITSA's status as an independent terran faction that should by all rights be under Mengsk's control, and often cite their existence as reason enough for their own dream of a volus nation to come to pass. The ITSA, on the other hand, are hard-pressed to keep track of all the aliens running around, and have little time or resources to spare the volus. They are sympathetic to the Ultranationalist cause, however.
Elcor Remnants: The elcor and volus have traditionally been close, if only because they are usually lumped together as "minor Council races." The elcor are sympathetic to the volus's plight, but categorically reject the Ultranationalist Party's violence, and slap down any ploy made by them to generate pity. The elcor lost far more than the volus did during the Great War.
Krogan: The krogan approve of anyone killing any turian for any reason. Krogan mercenaries are also commonly hired by Ultranationalists as bodyguards and hitmen.
Quarian Refugees: The quarians fled for the Koprulu Sector before the Ultranationalist movement was created. Historically, however, there has usually been mutual disdain between the two races.
Geth Consensus: Given the history of the geth and typical volus antipathy towards the quarians, I am inclined to believe that the two races might find some common ground. However, there is little to no recorded political interaction, and anticipating the opinions and actions of machines is next to impossible.
Threat Level: Green
The volus are more dangerous than they seem, and the Great War proved that when pressed into a corner, they are ultimately as courageous and vicious as any other race. That being said, their internal political divisions between Loyalists and Ultranationalists, as well as their ongoing conflict with the Hierarchy, means that they pose little threat to anyone save the birds.
It seems likely that when the salarians fire the first shots, the volus will rise up against their masters at great cost to themselves and the Hierarchy. It is at this time that the Directorate must decide whether to take a side and, if so, whom.
Geth next, maybe? (Only krogan, salarians, ITSA, geth, elcor, and quarians left. Let me know which one interests you.)