First off, I'm still traveling so chapters are all still iPhone written.
Luckiswithyouall: Who says the Citadel Council will prevail? And if you read the codex, the treaty of Firaxen says that the Turians only get to have 38 dreadnoughts. So no luck for you and the council will not be buffed. Given their lack of change in a few millennia, I did not see the thirty-five years generating any real change for them compared to the growth it would bring the post war UNSC and Sangheili.
The Skipper's Commandant: You've asked what really a pretty nasty question in terms of its complexity, but I'll do my best to answer you fully.
To myself at least, halo tech will always be superior to mass effect tech and their civilizations will share a similar position in terms of advantage for the following reasons. First off, the world of mass effect, without a human presence, is incredibly stagnant. In the five hundred years since the first space flight, humanity has advanced from massive chemical rockets with only a few hundred pounds in payload to the massive ships that are the 1.2 km cruisers and 3 km carriers that the UNSC fielded during the war. They've advance from those rockets for payload boosting to orbital elevators hundreds of meters in diameter and thousands of kilometers tall, things that exceeded what even the protheans managed in their entire existence and comparatively in terms of complexity far exceed even the relays. They one a 27 year war that saw some four hundred colonies destroyed and dozens of billions dead yet humanity came back with avengence.
In that same five hundred years, there has been the xenocide of the Rachni and the Krogan rebellions which saw perhaps a few billion dead and the destruction of one race and nearly the death of another. They had the Geth rebellion but rather than figure out what they had done wrong, the Council labeled the stud illegal and severally stunted any growth that could ever occur for computers.
Besides that, the council species have been using the same weapons for thousands of years where it took just four years for the UNSC to have energy projectors and they even had lasers and energy shields before the end of the war.
In other words, Halo tech advances far more rapidly than the Citadel species ever have. Next support is that against covenant ships, which can take numerous attacks before even losing shields and have demonstrated the ability to keep going even with holes clean through their ships far outmatch even the Reapers. The Reapers and everyone else rely on kinetic barriers which don't stop energy based weapons which is the entirety of the covenant arsenal and even some parts of the human arsenal meaning that Mass Effect things just can't defend themselves properly against Halo things.
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Hood stood looking at the three holo projections standing before him, communicated by signal from other ships to display a hardlight replica of the person on the other end. It was based on forerunner devices used originally for combat but adapted for communication. As he faced the three projections he knew each of the people on the other ends were seeing the exact replicas of the rest of their group, allowing for them to communicate in a more realistic fashion compared to the standard view screen.
"Admiral, Supreme Commander. As agreed by the Arbiter, the Sangheili Council, and the UEG government, your orders are as follows," he said calmly, his iron calm filling the words with solidarity.
"You will jump together to here," he pointed out a region of empty space on the galaxy map, deep within turian territory, but far from any colony or relay. "There you divide your combined fleet into eight battle groups and await our orders to either stand down, join us at the Citadel, or to advance into the turian held systems."
When both commanders nodded their agreement, Hood continued speaking saying, "If you are ordered to the turian systems, you will begin a live feed across all bands to every available ship and station of our negotiations if they are still on going. If negotiations have broken down, you will begin with assaults upon all orbiting and spacefaring constructs within each system after providing them with a five minute warning to evacuate. After five minutes, you will destroy any and all space born objects in system besides the Mass Relays and then await further orders. Please make sure no stray rounds hit the populated planets, we have no need to cause excess civilian casualties. You will hold your systems unless you feel the situation is untenable and will await further orders from either the Arbiter or myself. Are your orders understood?"
"Yes Lord Hood."
"Yes Admiral."
"Very good, move out the Arbiter and I expect that we will arrive at the Citadel within the hour," he replied before ending the communication with the two commanders to speak privately to the Arbiter.
"Something on your mind Arbiter?" he asked solemnly.
A nod answered him before the Arbiter began to speak, his voice deep and low as he asked, "Is this the best course of action Lord Admiral Hood?"
Hood gave a slightly tired sigh before replying as he said, "For a second time, humanity has been forced into war without offering provocation. The information we've harmed shows that this Citadel is the center of Council space and where we'll find their government. I feel that it is in our best interests to make a tremendous show of force, even a violent show if needed, to demonstrate that these aliens have bitten off more than they can chew and had best capitulate. Besides that these turians keep numerous other races in a subservient position, not unlike how the unggoy were treated in the Covenant. And that enslavement, gilded or not, is something humanity cannot condone."
"Then we are in agreement as both myself and the council reached a very similar conclusion with this addition: if we don't confront them now, we won't be able to regulate our borders well enough in the future as they might know other routes into our space."
"A good judgment. Then let us be done and begin," Hood replied before muttering to himself as the communication closed.
"Before we have to kill all the damn bastards..."
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At the Citadel, things were moving at a frantic pace rarely seen in the chamber that represented the height of galactic culture to those that used it. At the current time though, no civilians or reporters were present in the entirety of the building, instead they had been grudgingly forced out of the building by C-Sec guards only to have their mass replaced by a massive influx of ambassadors and military commanders from nearly every species in Citadel Space barring the Yahg, the Quarians, the Geth, and the Krogan.
All of them had been brought together for the express purpose of putting together a special first contact package and devising possible strategies for facing their frightening foe.
And despite the severity of the situation and the briskness with which the peoples there went about their business, there was still a measure of calm in the room, but that calm was shattered in an instant as nearly every omni-tool in the room began signaling incoming communications, only the Councilors hearing the message truly clearly as the holo projector to the right of their stand activated to display the form of the Asari matriarch in command of the dreadnought Destiny Ascension.
"Councilors, two massive spatial anomalies have been detected seventy-five kilometers off the open end of the Citadel arms," she reported, making the dubious attempt to sound in control.
Sparatus was the first to react, calling out a question and an order in the same breath. "How large are they? And someone get the sensor reading up here on the display!"
"Unknown how truly large they are Councilor, but both anomalies are significantly larger than the one witnessed beyond the 314 Relay," she said, her voice cracking in panic as suddenly the anomalies solidified so to speak and ships began to pour forth in the sensor display before the council which was now crowded with soldiers and ambassadors trying to see what was happening.
What was happening was the two slip space portals had suddenly divulged dozens of dreadnought sized vessels before one portal spat forth a pair of 25 km long monstrosities while the other let out a trio of 15 km ships, the two sets wildly different ships making a clear species distinction.
The portals weren't done though, after briefly shrinking, each one suddenly swelled and swelled before a ship began to exit each one.
One ship pearly white and organic looking, the other gun-metal gray and industrial in appearance.
Both of them though were over sixty kilometers long.
Both of them were larger than the Citadel itself in every sense of the word.
As the various people struggled to recover from the site, a booming voice suddenly issued forth from every hidden speaker in the room to fill the building with an angry voice as someone spoke.
"To the Citadel Council, we have come to either secure peace or take revenge for the unprovoked attack upon our people. How this confrontation shall proceed will be up to you, but be warned, we will not wait forever."
OoOoO
Lord hood listened as the sound of the Arbiter's declaration faded from the communication waves and waited. They had broadcast in the Turian's own language so he knew they understood them, really it was just a matter of waiting until they responded in some fashion, hopefully a peaceful one.
Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long.
An image appeared on the forward view screen showing what appeared to be a meeting hall where three beings stood at relative attention, doing their best to look impressive. He watched as the very human, blue alien in the center began to speak before listening as the translation of the Aline's voice came to life.
"We are here. I am Tevos, the Asari Councilor and my companions are the Turian and Salarian Councilors, Sparatus and Gelor respectively," she said, gesturing to each in turn before continuing as she said, "we have told you who we are, please inform us of your identity for the sake of easier communication."
There was a brief pause in the communication before Hood saw holographic avatars of himself and the Arbiter appear in the view of the council chambers as someone worked a little magic on their computer.
"I am the Arbiter, the leader of the Sangheili race and my fellow is Lord Admiral of the Fleets Sir Terrance Hood," the arbiter's projection said, towering over the council as he growled.
"We will soon board your space station in order to continue these negotiations. If you do not wish for our presence you my ride by shuttle to one of our ships where we may speak in private. The choice is yours," the Arbiter said cooly.
There was hesitation in the three aliens in the picture that told Hood they clearly weren't used to having the terms of a situation dictated to them. To the credit of the Salarian, it was only a moment before he replied saying, "Very well, we will wait for you in the council chambers to continue."
Looks of horror met him from his fellow Councilors before the communication cut out and the Arbiter reappeared on the screen.
"Lord Admiral, I trust you are ready to travel to this council and conduct our business with them?"
"I am. My pelican has been prepared for drop and I will be departing momentarily. See you down there Arbiter," Hood replied with a grim nod before cutting the channel and heading towards the launch bays where a pelican waited to take him to the meeting.
Already aboard were six fully armed Spartans in Mark-XII Mjolnir armor.
With a sigh, he took a seat in the dropship and strapped in for the ride down.
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Oh wow. Over 45,000 hits, 273 followers, 204 reviews, and 177 favorites. I can honestly say I never expected this story to get so popular which is a tremendous encouragement for me to keep up my work, so thank you so much.
