Terran Federation: Counterstrike

by L4 of the WEST

It's been 8 years since the end of the 2nd Bug war. Humanity is starting to enter its golden age in the galactic stage, with technology no one can replicate, with allies that no one has accepted, and a military capable of taking on any competitor it seems. But that will change, those who employ chains are circling like wolves, and an enemy thought dead return

14. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Central Terran Federation, Earth, somewhere in central West Russia, 2666GS/2338AD June 1st

~[==|==]~

Rico looked on in satisfaction, within the span of a few minutes the tactical nuclear warheads were set and thrown into the pond. Everyone looked away as the pond was flash evaporated into scalding hot steam, the explosion evaporating the pond and the pressure wave collapsing the tunnels beneath. Immediately Pathfinder scouts leaped forward with K9 units in tow. "Get me a subterranean scan, I want to make sure that network has been collapsed-"

"Rico! Don't know what you did but the bug forces just broke all across the line. Looks like a big time withdrawal. Right on the edge of overrunning my rear guard too!" Red Halloran's voice came over the radio, and Rico looked at his own cam feeds to see this was indeed true. Still. He must ensure the bug general's death.

But there was no time. "Deploy the CHAS units!" He ordered at a scream. Immediately the two logistics trucks they had with them pulled off three crates. The three crates opened up into the large robots. His own Marauder stomped before them, and he looked at them, "You all know your duty. We cannot remain here, but we must ensure the Bug General's destruction." He saluted them, "I bid you luck in your hunt."

The CHAS units had the information uploaded and immediately accessed the battlenet. They knew their duty, and they knew they most likely wouldn't return in one piece, the middle one replied as squad leader, "We hear you, sir! We'll get the bastard, you just come back for your mem-units sir, and we'll get you the bug's head. Come on you trash cans! You wanna live forever!" The two other CHAS units emitted a white screeching battlecry in reply as they all charged to the bug hole.

"Godspeed you apes." Rico mouthed before turning off. "Signal for pickup! We're getting out of here and rejoining the defense at our line." He ordered to Ace who made the preparations.

Central Terran Federation, Earth, Orbit 2666GS/2338AD June 1st

~[==|==]~

Naplon entered the orbit of Earth, the ship she currently commanded badly battered from the Federation's concentrated assaults on it and the many others like it. She had given as good as she got, but the enemy was too many, and the assault too fierce and continuous.

She had no time to regroup, she had no time to give orders, she was always under assault, and they would move in, strafe her, move out with the next line right behind them, giving them time to retreat as the line continued indefinitely, then the Terran home fleet made its strike on her rear, and with its power had crippled many of her plasma support ships then left as soon as she tried to turn her forces or the rear guard tried to hit Luna.

But the damage was done, her interdictors dwindled to a handful with the blasted Black Crossed ships flitting in and out, doing suicidal runs against her fleet to just get to them.

And now her general on the surface, his voice had quietened with a suddenness that marked death.

Naplon looked out of her view screen and saw the pale blue dot in the far distance. "Is the contraption ready?"

"Yes, my queen. This will certainly look like the real thing. I have no doubts the Terrans will consider it real as well." Her technician advised as he presented the viewscreen of the bomb to her. It looked like a central cylinder with 8 more strapped around it. Black and yellow, the letters NOVA was painted on it.

"Excellent. Open a call to the planet's surface."

~[==|==]~

Central Terran Federation, Earth, Honolulu Hawai'i 2666GS/2338AD June 1st

Alexander Williams looked over the screens bringing in intel from all over Earth, they'd done it, they held out through the siege and now reinforcements had arrived, and were slowing down the enemy armies in Russia and South America, and without any luck, they would commence operations to face the other Army soon enough. The victory was now more than possible and they could soon begin plotting up a counterattack against the bugs. At least that's what he planned to propose. Rico had yet to return form his deep strike, Frederico in South America was too busy fighting for clear communications, and the main Terran Fleet was a bit too far away for safe communications.

He looked out the window to the underwater metropolis and breathed in heavily, in a great sigh. There were no celebrations among the people, the surface a few dozen meters above was packed with ships transporting goods, the submarines below the surface moving freight and food. Rationing had gone into full effect worldwide, with everything being put under ration while the emergency was happening.

"Sir, a message from orbit." His aide reported.

"Leonidovna?" He asked hopefully.

"No, sir. It's coming from the bug fleet."

Williams paused before nodding. The message was routed through several communications relays throughout the planet before it finally reached his screen, "This is Governor Alexander Williams, of Shanxi. Whom do I have the honor of speaking to?

The voice at the other end was not what he expected it to be. It was soft, deep, deeper than any human throat could be, it reverberated through the speakers and it required the machines to be calibrated before a legible message could be put through, "I am Naplon, Empress of the Pseudo-Arachnida Empire, ruler of all that I see. I wish to enter negotiations. I believe I've made my point and sated the bloodlust of my lessers."

Williams paused for a moment before clearing his voice, "Empress, I'm not so sure you understand just what position you're in. Your armies are routing, your fleet has been crippled, and you're trapped between us and the combined fleets out there. And right now you've got about 8 billion pissed off Terrans looking to finish the job we should have done eight years ago."

There was silence, then a deep rumbling. Was she… Laughing, "Governor Williams I did not even send one-tenth of the Navy to this pathetic campaign you call a war." As a last deep rumble emitted in gasps before it subsided, "But that is beside the point. I'm no fool who thinks they can just demand to enter negotiations. What is your saying? Gunboat diplomacy? You see I scavenged something from a couple of your 'gunboats'. The Yorktown, John A Warden, and the Trafalgar. Does that 'Ring a bell'?"

William's blood ran cold. She couldn't have. They couldn't have been so foolish as to let those get in her hands. They'd have all died before that. Suddenly a picture came up on his viewscreen, no it was a live feed, spider-like bugs about three meters tall were all working on it with tablets and tools in hand.

It was a NOVA bomb.

"As you can see Governor, you will agree to the ceasefire. You will also agree to the return of many of the planets you took from the Arachnid Empire's core. Do this and we can all get back to more important things. Well I can, the Afroditi scum has gone too long without a punishment for their arrogance." The deep rumbling voice of Naplon came through and Williams still stared long and hard at the NOVA bomb.

Alexander's stomach felt like it dropped out of him.

"Of course I don't need to unleash those weapons, do I? I'm spoiled for options that I could use to turn your planet to slag. I just find the NOVA bomb ironic. You destroy our homeworld, we destroy yours. I mean I have a fleet of at least a few thousand combat capable ships, A few of them enter full sublight from here to there and crash into the planet, that should cause enormous damage to most of your population centers situated on the coast. Imagine a five-kilometer ship crashing full speed in the water. I can have the arachnids unleash their retrovirus. Turn your civilian population against your own forces. I can initiate full bombardment of your planet in but a few seconds with the fleet assets still in orbit. I can do a lot that will all end with Earth lost for good, and your Western and Southern fleets completely decimated with no chance of repairing them before my successor decides to turn the rest of your Federation into but a memory."

Williams was motionless, pale as snow.

She continued, "But. I'm impressed. I will fully admit, the Arachnida were monumentally stupid in their actions to attack you without warning or reason. From nothing but a few small colonies and the recent invention of FTL. To a star-spanning empire of half a dozen species, and hundreds of colonized planets. I'll reiterate. I'm impressed. I don't get impressed every decade. And in what? 40? 60 solar cycles tops? I'm hard-pressed to think if even destroying Earth in its totality will end this war. Not like the Petolemaic, and their fractured nature. No, you will prove to be enough of a thorn in the side of my glorious empire long enough for the wretched Afroditi to get the upper hand. And I can't have that."

"So governor are you willing to consider the terms I laid out for a peaceful solution to this potentially never-ending War?"

Williams paused, and swallowed the lump in his throat, "I will need to consult with a few people, but I'm a man with not inconsiderable voting leverage. Your terms are worth considering. But we can't walk away without something after all this. You must consider all the political ramifications!"

"I'm well aware of your human history, and to be honest, I find a new surge of 'extremist' activity in your political structure to be entertaining, and I'm eagerly awaiting the show it will put on. But if it will end this war, I will listen to some of your demands. Do not expect concessions though. We will reconvene in one hour, you better have the authorization of your government for I will not delay striking first if I believe you're trying to buy time." Naplon declared, the rumbling ceasing almost instantly after as the line was cut.

~[==|==]~

William's sighed, "So we're in agreement then?" All around him on various monitors were the faces of the top twenty most important commanders and political leaders of the Federation that could be contacted.

General Rico. Captain Carmen. (SpaceNAV) Admiral Leodinova. Governor T'Phai. Sky Marshall Prime Hathaway. Governor Frederico. Governor N'Daba. Governor Ali Sharifa. Governor Polskanski. Governor Marceau. Governor Tian. Governor Yang. Governor Kefa. Field Marshall Koskin. (WetNAV) Admiral Korinchkin. Ambassador Maghernus. Governor Isaac. Governor Essex. And Director of SICON Eireson.

Rico nodded, slowly, "IF. If she's telling the truth and good on her word. We need to take it."

Carmen also nodded emphatically, "Our combined forces could force the enemy and destroy them, at great loss to ourselves. It won't be quick, it won't be easy. We'd never beat them before they dropped their NOVAs or start bombardment."

Eireson's eyes were closed. He was the sole psychic in the call and a clairvoyant. Suddenly his eyes opened, "Take it. She's good on her word. The immediate alternatives are very much worse than a bad peace deal." He spoke with a steel like authority. Everyone was looking at him. Everyone straightened themselves.

"I believe. We should begin the vote." Maghernus suggested plainly.

"As the representative with the most voting power. I will abstain as I cannot accurately predict what my constituency will vote for. And therefore be the scorekeeper." Williams offered diplomatically.

"Agreed Williams." Sky Marshall Hathaway affirmed before hacking up a ball of phlegm again.

Setting up the system, Williams began, "All in favor of a negotiated treaty?"

Twenty green lights lit up.

"All in favor of continuing the war?" Zero green lights appeared.

"It is unanimous. A negotiated peace, to be preceded by a negotiated armistice." Williams spoke, deadpan. Then, "For the Federation, let us make peace for the good of all…" He paused in thought, "'Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.' We may all be remembered as those who threw away the sacrifices and deaths of hundreds of millions because we feared death. Because we feared death and the death of Terra herself. But I know that this peace will be a blessing on our hearts and a fire in our hearts."

~[==|==]~

Central Federation Zegema Beach, 2666GS/2338AD June 15st

Sky Marshal Straker contemplated the whirlwind of the last few weeks, he had been planning an offensive operation to learn of what was happening over Earth and the enemies disposition when things began to spiral out of control again. First bad news arrived in that the northern fleet was engaged against what could be best summed up as a socialist rebellion of some kind. It seems that after Admiral Trombley launched his attack against the prophet. Rumors had then spread that the North Fleet had all been destroyed in this attack. This then resulted in agitators militarizing to take control of what was then an already precarious situation and declare themselves independent of the Federation, probably to try and get a better peace deal with the arachnids when they came, or defect to the Coven for protection from the fourth and the Arachnids.

Unfortunately for them, the rumors were half wrong. The Northern Territories were always going to be a problem child of the Federation. They were so gripped by fear of the enemies around them that they just wanted a way out and now the way they had chosen was leading to a wasting of resources that could be best served saving the Federation.

He had been contemplating how to deal with this situation when the Governor Prime had offered a solution. He said, instead of sending more troops out the north to deal with the insurrection, they should instead hire and arm mercenaries and militias in the region. He had almost immediately discarded it. Despite the objection that there were many trustworthy sorts to be sent, there were only two forces large enough to serve their purpose, Black Cross, and Morita Security Services. The former was untrustworthy, the latter stretched to breaking by private contracts at this time. He may have been out of the military game for the last few years, but he kept track of what was going on in the various fronts the Federation was involved in, but the number of mercenaries and militia that the governor claimed they could get to their side was too large for what he knew was in the region. Skeptical he said he'd look into the possibility of using the idea.

That was a lie of course, the day he trusted militias and mercs to handle federal level peacekeeping was the day he frenched his service pistol. The sheer gall of even suggesting such an action was madness and had started a spark of paranoia in his mind.

He was quite thankful when Minister Carl Jenkins showed up with news of Earth and Rico. It was both good and bad good, as immediately deployed his Fleet to back up western and southern fleets.

However Jenkins had fanned the flames of his little fear, even mentioning that one of his agents, "Cerberus", and by god were they a nightmare to learn about, had detected a paper trail leading from the Central Federation to every radical up north causing Tremblay shit. This would account for the odd numbers if some of those radical factions happen to be in those militias and mercenaries the governor prime wanted to use. He didn't know what the governor Primes overall plan had been for sure, but he could put a couple things together and the governor had mentioned wanting to possibly create an official draft or conscription law to deal with the bug Menace.

With the announcement of the end of the war however, he had put the kibosh on any large scale legislation regarding the military as at the time it was not necessary. While there were a few planets engaging in unofficial conscription, he had been willing to let it slide as they were truly in a tough spot, but now that the crisis had passed, as Sky Marshal, he took the official stance of "No. Demobilize now." There were so many militias forming up now that he had to stamp down on it before they got any legitimacy or weaponry. Otherwise Central may end up like the North. Too many panicky people with guns ends up causing a lot of problems in a high stress end war situation

It was also unallowable for ideological reasons. With numbers like what was suggested, spread out across large segments of the Federation it would be impossible to confirm if everyone who asked actually saw military action. Why did the governor Prime want to weaken the concept of citizens? He himself was a citizen and should understand the bond and duty required of those individuals who arised to citizenship? That was very concerning for him, and he would have no part of the governor's Prime plot.

"And then things get even more fucked up." He muttered, looking over the treaty they were basically being forced to sign to end the war. Part of him did not want to accept this shit and just continue the war, but not only was he overruled by Sky Marshal Prime Hathaway, but things in the Federation was unraveling quickly, he'd gotten reports that the Skinnie in the System Alliances were protesting "Terran occupation" what happens if they broke into civil war? They get more spread and more useless and get a worse deal if one at all if they continued the war with the bugs. The bright side was the legion had so far kept the Batarians busy and the various legions there had, even he had to admit, done well, and done a very good job on putting the various fires in the east out.

The only option he had was to go along with this deal. Maybe get the Citadel to mediate bits of it as a neutral party. Once the bug war was over however, he needed to do a clean sweep of the Federation holdings, so they wouldn't have this weak point in Federal unity when the inevitable next round of fighting reared its ugly head. Most importantly was ending the current Sky Marshal system. Riverfield's war in the South was a stunning example for why one man having so much power was a bad idea. There were too many conflicts, to little oversight, and to many god damn aliens to leave the military in the hands of just four commanders. Hell, he doubted 20 would be enough for his purposes.

The soothing sounds of a bell like stringed instrument idled their way into his private office. So comforting and quiet. 'Maybe,' Straker thought, 'I should just close my eyes for a second. To think. Yeah.'

~[==|==]~

"-with the sighing of the peace treaty, the bug empire has promised to stay out of Terran space and remain in their quarantine zone, The bugs will also return captured Federal military personnel taken during the conflict in exchange for the return of several systems taken during the second bug war. According to the Federal Council, this will result in an honorable peace as this war has left both sides weakened and damaged, in need of recovery." Neither the reporter nor the current viewer of the TV set looked convinced.

"Governor Prime Charles Edinburgh was of an entirely different opinion, stating that the war should continue, however he was overruled by a fully reconvened council meeting conducted yesterday.

"With the liberation of Earth and the bugs badly bloodied in their assault on the Federation, the council was more than willing to agree to the peace terms-"

"BULL SHIT!" A remote control flew at the tv shutting it off.

~[==|==]~

Central Terran Federation, Earth, Budapest Military Hospital 2666GS/2338AD July 1st

Sergeant Tanya Lorenzo seethed in rage as she looked at the dumbest propaganda she ever saw, nothing about the stories there matched up to what she had seen, and knew about the basic military situation. Sure the bugs were pretty beaten up here on Earth… but that was Earth, the bugs still had reserves and other armies out west, there was no way the bugs just surrendered because they got bloodied here.

"Fucking lying shits, see if I ever believes Fednet again," she muttered and held her hand to the side across her abdomen, with the war over the doctors had time to spare to properly fix the internal damage, which had resulted in a few painful replacement organs and synthetic organs transplants, along with a few new organs implanted in her in the hopes of preventing her dying from gangrene, and who knows what else. She'd been through too much shit to guess what she picked up in the fields, and more likely or not having a half dissolved liver was not good for her. On the bright side, her surviving members of her unit had started to really get into calling her ironsides, now that she really did have ironsides as the implanted casings covering her synthetic organs, allowing for easy access by the doctors to maintain them.

Joking cries of, "If only it was so easy for your normal organs." Had met her ears a few too many times.

Besides sitting in this bed recovering, she'd been reading and watching the news, wondering what the hell was going on outside the confining walls of the hospital. As a result, she was getting a bit stir crazy. Sighing she pondered how much longer she would be interned in this hell before she could get back to her unit and make sure they were okay beyond the smiling faces they put on for her.

It was then an MP came flying through the closed hospital room door, snapping the surprisingly flimsy wooden door in half, "FUCK YOU! I'm seeing my goddamn bastard of a daughter right the fuck now!" A man dressed in a modified Terran Federation uniform demanded, tossing another MP off his shoulder as he entered the room.

He caught sight of her as soon as he entered, "YOU!" He declared with unbridled menace, "You're supposed to be in technical school young… Well you're no longer a Lady I can guarantee that! You better have one hell of an excuse! Do you know how much you've fucked me? We'll be lucky if she just murders us and not tortures us first!" Her father damn near yelled at her.

"Umm, I learned it from you?" Tanya explained shakily, quite literally now shaking in her bed, her heart monitors and various sensors in the room starting to spike as she was very much afraid.

"ME?! If you learned it from ME you would have committed manslaughter and be given the choice of conscription or hard labor! You're 17 young lady, you lied about your age, name dropped me, and fell through the cracks of the system to get into the military underage. Do you understand the magnitude of your actions?" He seethed, still fighting off the MPs with both his hands as they tried to wrestle him to the ground.

If she could, Tanya would have shrunk back into her bed, "You've managed to piss off literally everyone in the institution. The Traditionalists want your head for breaking the Oath of the Citizen, the New Guard want you whipped and drummed out for falsifying records, the Post K Column would love to see you in Federal service for the rest of your adult life as punishment. Right now the only reason you aren't picking up dead bodies on the battlefront before being shipped to a penal colony is because you've been crippled due to your injuries."

"Sir you have to leave! We can't have her exposed to anyone before the trial!" One of the MPOs shouted, trying desperately to wrestle his legs from under him, getting a boot to the face keeping him back for his efforts.

He looked to him with a death glare, "And I'm now her legal advisor for her court martial, so get away from me and my defendant."

The MPs looked at each other, one scrabbling over his arm, the other with a boot still in his face. After a moment of thinking they both came to the same conclusion. Pissed, they filed out. "Do you have to make an entrance where ever you go?" Tanya finally asked

She watched as he quietly shut the door, and then turned to her, the look of fury was still evident, "That wasn't an act. I'm angry beyond belief at you. I was serious, lots of people want your head, but they're all too afraid to take it public due to your parentage. The child of two Klendathu war vets, getting a court martial for putting her life on the line, saving a waiting disaster nearly single handedly, and fighting on despite grievous injuries to the bitter end. They're angry at you, I'm angry at you. Your mother was so livid when I met her that she nearly stabbed me with a service knife thinking I may be responsible." He breathed deeply before pulling up a chair and sitting in it. He looked deeply at her and his look of anger and fury dissolved away.

Tanya couldn't bare to look at him anymore, the shame and disgust that had always been there coming up like vomit. "I joined because of you. Mom always said good things about you, she had like a dozen boyfriends before she settled on Imran, but she never hid that picture of you both on Sanctuary, the last time you met right before K-Day. And then, years later, she finds you on the Citadel, drinking booze and convorting with two asari in your lap."

Her father nodded, almost sagely, and sighed, "I thought she was dead too. All records indicated it. The post Big K campaign was a mess, tens of millions thought dead returned from deep space or were recovered from worlds still kicking a decade later. I was hasty in assuming the worst."

"We… Haven't really talked about this ever. Have we?" Tanya finally admitted, looking down to her covered feet. Underneath the snow white comforter and sheets.

"No. No we haven't." They'd hardly met each other in fact, her mother had been so angry, so filled with pent up anger and worry, it had broken what had been between them and left a bitterness in the woman, and so her father she had only met a year or so ago in one brief day, left Earth and went to Shanxi, as far away as possible, with the most highest paying job he could muster to put her through school.

Tanya got on a more aggressive and derisive tone then she meant to, "Fuck I just wanted to be my own person!" She finally shouted out, "She always called me 'the last precious piece of him'. This man I never knew, I never could meet since he was most assuredly dead." Tears were starting to stream down her face, "I was that last precious thing, to precious to risk, to precious to ever let run wild. Everything was dictated in triplicate! I had to have perfect grades, I had to be perfect! AND she left sometimes a year at a time in the Fleet, fighting a war I was born into! Fighting for you! For your damned memory!"

"Goddamnit! What about me?! What about my memories of her? She wanted full control yet she was never there. Do you know how humiliating it is to return home to be told what to do by Sanctuary's upbringing AI? No boys, no friends, no nothing because she hadn't put in specific commands to it to allow them. And then you come back and she goes one eighty! Everything about you was bad, he was a bad influence, I was bad for being from him and I needed more oversight."

He nodded, "That better's. Let it out."

"Fuck I lied about my age, lied about where I was going. I was on EARTH! Fucking EARTH! No upbringing AI, just an easily distracted guardian for Luna technical college! I got the first shuttle to Earth I could possibly get and went to the first recruiting station I saw with a false ID I got on the premise of underage drinking! I didn't want to do what Mom said anymore! I WANTED TO BE LIKE YOU! To go it alone and survive on my own. To be you. Not mom in the Fleet." Tears were streaming down her face she was damn near bawling. She was still young.

There was a low chuckle, then it transformed to a mighty laugh, "Just like a Silva. Just like a goddamned Silva. You got the family luck." Tanya looked up, looked up to her father in a Legion uniform and a mighty smile with tears starting to form in his eyes, "Damnit kid." He showed the recording wand in his pocket, "I think that's everything we need to get you clear of these charges. Now, your mother will really be royally pissed, but I think she still loves you, and I know for a fact Tanya, that your trooper material, and that you did what you did not ot tarsnish what it means to be a citizen."

"Dad?" Tanya asked, not totally comprehending.

"I'm not lying kid, I'm your defender in court. But enough about that, it's time you met my side of the family." A scuffle on the other side of the broken door came back.

"What no you can't fucking enter! She's under police detention until-"

"Heeeeey squirt! Uncle Howen here to light up your day!"

"Yo I got the presents Jake, you fuck-"

"This place is swanky-"

"Pile in ya bastards! But no touching the kid she's fucked up!"

"Not as fucked up when we'll take her drinking!"

"Purple Lion needed some backup!? Blackie's here to return that favor."

"Can someone turn up the AC?"

People started to pile in the room, dozens in fact as it rapidly got crowded. She looked as each came by her bed and placed a small box or flowers on her body and started to squeeze in so as many people could enter as possible, she saw people of all colors and uniforms, and at the tail end, she saw her squad mates enter as well. Sergeant Major Ekdal, Sergeant Richtfeld, Kapmann, Jiro, Anderson. They stood before her bed, all smiling. Even Ekdal was smiling and she'd never seen him smile.

"This is your other family Tanya. And we won't leave you." Most of them were people she didn't know, and she looked across them all, not all smiled, but all looked at her with pride on their faces. "Come on let's introduce them all to you." Tribune Jake Silva said with a happy smile, "Hey Jo! JOOOO! Get your ass over here! Meet my teenaged fuck up! I don't care you're in that far corner that's no excuse!"

~[==|==]~

Central Terran Federation, Mars 2666GS/2338AD July 2

Ret. Colonel Roza Bereza looked at the burnt out remains of her farm with utter… Well rage would be expected but in actuality she as filled with remarkable apathy, she didn't let that show though, "God damn the bugs." She snarled, putting up a facade of anger that didn't exist past her skin. She did her job, she formed a militia, she fought the bugs.

But what dingleberry topped this shit cake was that Federal Command cracked. It was not hard to see this treaty as nothing more than surrender. The damn bugs had Earth by the balls and we blinked hard, and now, and now she had to hope the Federation didn't disintegrate.

She knew why they did it, a few of those bigger bug ships going STL straight into earth would just about destroy the planet ecologically and devastate the coastal regions. And if the Bugs offered a suitable olive branch, then yeah. All of them would swallow their pride, and honor, to accept that deal. She would have. It wouldn't stop opportunists though. Even with citizenship weeding out the incompetent and ideologically insane, people like Edinburgh would proceed to capitalize on it as much as they possibly could.

Looking around at her burnt-out shell of home, she kicked a red rock of mars, if the war was still going on this would mean something, she would have given this for the cause for ultimate victory and destruction of the vile monsters from the west. No, now it meant nothing just a burnt out home.

Sighing, she went back to horse and mounted up, she needed to get to the nearest town put an insurance claim, hopefully, this was covered and she recovered something from this smoking pile of ash. Yeah, get out of the inner systems. Maybe resettle on Shanxi or some other virgin world?

Her horse whinnies at the prospect.

"Agreed. Someplace quiet, someplace nice."

~[==|==]~

Central Terran Federation, Jupiter station 2666GS/2338AD July 15

Carl Jenkins relaxed as he sat at his desk, finally having returned home to the Joint Ministries Jupiter station. he'd been busy organizing a huge political conference so that the Federation could pull itself back together after the brief but ferocious war that had engulfed them and scattered the once tightly knit systems.

It had been a sobering reminder at just how VULNERABLE they had been. Even with their top of the line sensors, even with their best efforts and diligence. They had gotten complacent and allowed a previously thought dead enemy to return and cripple them in hours, previously hidden divisions in the Federation had erupted into full volcanoes of controversy and colonial patriotism. They had made the cardinal sin of empire making. In their haste and desperation to get ever more resources to fight a existential war, they had expanded too much too quickly. Even with their very lenient and well prepared colonial planning, they had left them alone too long to form their own opinions regarding their position in the Federation. Plans that would go through hundreds of years of work to form these colonies into self sufficient and self supporting members of the Federation were being overturned in the hope of being at the big boys table NOW, and not a hundred years later.

Normally it would have taken at least a few generations for this to have taken root, as many of the colonies were made up of people who had fled earth due to its increasingly inhospitable nature. Even their children could come and see the homelands of their parents and be amazed at the opportunity they had been given in the form of a new world, compared to the dry, desolate wastes of the arabian peninsula, compared to the humid equatorial hell hole that Australia had become. Compared to the marshy flooded shores of North America.

And now they wanted to revolt from their mother, the Federation, their homeworld, over minor, trifling differences? He had no evidence, no paper trail, only the words of the clairvoyants to work off of. Civil war had been on the horizon, someone was eager to make a power vacuum, and a discontented populace. It's what all the signs were leading to: plans to sacrifice earth, a full scale draft, funding of a massive civil war, a major political regime change in the works. It was all adding up but no one could be laid to blame.

He had no proof of course, but he could make moves off his assumption and see what happened, at worst he just makes Edinburgh's time as governor prime near fruitless, at best he prevents an authoritarian take complete power of the Federation and reshape it to his will. Though… Heliose Straker may be taking it a bit too far… Man had a good heart and a sharp mind to him, upon meeting him Jenkins would swear on his own life Straker would die before seeing the Federation become something it was not. But the man had become a radical in his time out of power.

The intercom chimed, "Sir, General Rico's out here, he says he's here to see you."

"Rico? Let him in, and prepare some tea please." Carl accepted, surprised. In the many years he been in the Special Service, Rico had never come visited his office, it was frankly ridiculously out of the way, mostly because after his last fuck up SICON wanted him as out of the way as possible so he couldn't fuck up yet another project.

After a minute, Rico entered in his grey military uniform, it was devoid of of his numerous medals and ribbons, and was slightly ragged, alongside the bags under his eyes, however at the moment he was bidden to sit and he smiled, "You know Carl, I expected it to be more..."

"Super villain like?"

"I was going to say nerdy, but I have to admit the spartan qualities of your office are refreshing. I also was surprised you don't have any ferret tubes."

Jenkins smiled, "Military installations like this tend to prevent me from keeping ferrets, or holes in my floor that open into a pit of tiger bugs."

Rico smiled, and then started to chuckle.

Carl's smile never faded, but a sad shade was in his eyes, "I knew you would hold the west and make it home with a larger army than most would have guessed, the makeup of the army was... Surprising but I knew you'd pull off a miracle. I know you well enough that I don't need to be a mind reader to know how you'll act." His tone was entirely serious.

'Probably because your a luckman' he mused to himself, Rico had taken the psych test with him and failed badly… statistically impossible levels of bad. There was no way to be sure of his theory, so he kept it to himself, that and if he was wrong he did not want to be the guy who tried to pull Rico from the front lines… but it would likely be neccesary in this upcoming poltiical shit storm.

Rico's smile didn't fade but he relaxed ito his chair and gently slumped enough to show the weight and fatigue that plagued him.

Carl folded his hands before him and looked him dead in the eye, his smile wiped way. He knew. He knew even before he scanned Rico's emotions, "Rico I know you hate the bugs, but the war is over. We lost. We gave one hell of a bloody nose but we lost the war before it even begun. There's no shame in admitting defeat when such odds were against us."

Rico's smile faltered then drooped, "Huh... you don't get it Carl, even after all these years. I mean yeah I personally want to go after the bugs, but I even I can see the situation. We weren't going to win, at least not cleanly. No I came here because I'm wondering if you have any connection to that three-headed dog that was running around while we were all busy trying to save the Federation."

Carl sat up. Rico understood strategic and tactical intelligence and espionage services, having basically rewritten the Federation's book on Maskirovka, but he had never shown any guile in the political or spy arena, "Rico I didn't think you had espionage bone in your body."

Rico's smirk returned, "That's true, but I have friends all over the place, friends who hear things, things like an organization that's gathering the intel you used to get Straker to break ranks with the Governor Prime, have been hunting down some weird shit, securing and containing it not just in Federal space but throughout the galaxy."

Carl looked pensive for a moment, "Well yes Rico I may be funding such organizations, but I don't see why you're interested in them."

"My interest does not lie with the organization itself, I'm more interested in that weird shit."

Carl blinked a few times, "What? Why?"

Rico looked past Carl to the window behind him, out to space, with Jupiter taking up almost all of the scene, "Why did the bugs back out of the war? Their war with the coven's gone on longer then we have been writing things down, The coven is the second oldest species we know about and leagues more powerful than us, but, as far as I know, they've never negotiated, when they put the Skinnies in the place we found them they never negotiated with them either. Maybe it's a one war at a time doctrine, but… when I think about the oldest aliens we met, the forth, who hide out in their space just being as isolationist and inconspicuous as they can be. Add in what we know from the Citadel and what happened about 50 thousand years ago. It doesn't add up… It got me thinking, maybe the bugs don't want a long costly war because they know something we don't. And that right there scares me, because that means they see us, either as a lesser threat to whatever they know, or they have plans for us. Remember what Naplon kept saying in the negotiations. 'It would be a shame to kill such a young player.'"

Rico's intense stare bored into Carl, "I think I see where your going with this Rico…" He thought for a moment, before sighing, and pulling up his computer, "I'll have Cerberus contact you with everything we know so far, and also, Juan, congratulations on your promotion to Field Marshall.".

"What? Field Marshal? I've not heard anything about that." Field Marshal was typically a position for prospective Sky Marshalls, to get them their required experience in other fields.

"Yup, Straker and Hathaway both agreed, you're almost certain to get the Marshallship of the West, whether you want it or not my friend." Rico looked worried on that, Carl just smiled, "Straker's making some big changes, but one thing he is not changing is that there will be one person in charge of keeping an eye on the bugs. And that's you."

~[==|==]~

Eastern Terran Federation, Shanxi 2666GS/2338AD August 1

Tribune Jake Silva huffed his way up the stairs to the old and former governor's manor, previously it had been General William's homestead before the Siege of Shanxi, and after it got leveled in the fighting, had been rebuilt by basically everyone who could to make a huge manor for their wounded war hero. As he became governor he made it the Governor's Manor, and after he resigned from office, left it behind as the traditional headquarters of MI on Shanxi and as a military museam, electing to settle down further east in the Mormon Forest with his family, away from the public eye. The place had been hastily repurposed for the military after William's moved out, as they began construction of a bigger Governor's Manor one on the other side of town, where they were planning to make a government district to house Colonial Command in the region.

The manor was beautiful US Colonial era style design, set atop a high hill with a carved marble stone stairway up the hill, surrounded on all sides by smaller squat bunker like protrusions where various command center and rooms were located under the hill, atop the level concrete protrusions were small stands or tables where dozens of military officers and tourists sat, to rest, eat, and talk.

The manor itself, was a three story tall building, the front facade was made of ten marble pillars set in the dorian style, with a wide iron reinforced door taking up the center, windows lined the entire building, peering into the hectic work of contractors and military engineer hastily moving out William's old furnishings, and implacing new furniture and sets for the museum and military work to be done.

While it was a beautiful building, made all the more impressive with how quickly it was assembled, he was annoyed he had to go to some damn meeting about babysitting the civilians that were coming out east. Most were coming from the west so they would know how to protect themselves for the most part, but with the slowly declining state of affairs with the Batarians they had to draw up plans and ideas for maintaining peace with the pirates in waiting.

The attack on Kamulon and several other systems have been just a taste of what was to come he was certain of it, while no one had solid proof, except MilInt, those creepy psychics, they had nothing to pin the attacks on the Hegemony. Therefore the Federation still had to nominally play nice with the Hegemony as well. Especially since they couldn't piss the Citadel council off, not when they owed the council a huge pile of money that needed to be repaid asap. The Federation did NOT want to be in debt ever, a lingering pain of the Disorders was the mass fear of national debt.

Frankly, Silva thought, the best thing that could happen to the Citadel, was to be integrated into the Federation, and he was sure he was not the only one who thought that, if the rumors about the appended deal being offered to the Quarians were any indication, the Federation was looking to include some of the more minor powers at the very least to be integrated, well either that or they were on the verge of civil war… probably for the best he was not the guy who decided diplomacy.

"I can't wait 'til I retire…" He muttered, hoping behind his mask of stoicism that being nearly twenty minutes late would piss off the Colonel Nguyen, some big wig from Zebra Division or something..

Reaching for the door before it blew off its hinges.

~[==|==]~

Dagar Dezor looked up from the bushes he'd been hiding in, the bomb he placed to kill off the Federation Commanders had finally gone off. With satisfaction, he knew sending in a letter bomb would work. The Salarian stood up and looked at the building as the fire began to spread in the former foyer. He didn't need to kill all the commanders, indeed, the contract was on the Tribune of the Foreign Legion, sent out by anonymous mail. Likely as retribution for what happened on Kamulon, a lot of Batarians wanted the man dead for what had happened there.

Having seen the commander go flying with the door smashing his entire body. It felt safe assume the man was dead now. He had decided to go big since he could never find a right time to kill that man when he was alone, he'd been trying for two weeks now, and each time something would interfere. Well, not this time this time he was damn sure-

There was resounding splash from the artificial pond behind him, followed by a continuous non-stop swearing in english. Confused Dagar turned and saw that the man who he previously thought dead was standing back up, remarkably uninjured. The solid metal and wood door floating around him, its surface scorched heavily, blood ran from a new scar on the left side of his face, where it was black and swollen, his eye there seeming to have been damaged by splinters from the door but was only bloodshot.

He stared at the impossible sight with dumbfounded amazement, if he believed in the cycle of life stuff he'd been taught when he was young, he'd believe this man did something very good in his previous existence to warrant such divine intervention and protection. At this point Dagar had enough of trying to do this quietly, the man was right here and vulnerable. Pulling out his concealed pistol he made to fire… He was about to fire when a crowd of military officers and other persons began running between him and his target, just like that time he tried to kill Silva with a sniper rifle before. By the time the crowd had run by he saw just a flash of Silva and fired. However as he fired he apparently hit an Asari, who now that he looked closely had been attempting to stab him.

As Silva lifted and threw the much lighter asari maiden away, he was immediately beset by what appeared to be her partner, a Turian with black face paint who moved to shoot him. This of course ruined his own shot as Silva, almost insanely, began to dodge and weave and narrowed the few meters between him and the Turian, tackling the Turian.

"YOU! YOU'RE DEAD MOTHERFUCKER!" Silva screamed, drawing a hidden knife on his person and proceeded to attempt to kill the Turian with his knife. Dagar took this chance, and sprinting up while no one was looking.

Silva was still struggling to force his blade into a weak point in the Turain's carapace at the neck. As Dagar leveled his pistol at the back of Silva's head he was tackled by a uniforme turian with black carapace and white face paint. Screaming obscenities regarding his parentage at his face.

As more people began to be aware of the second incident in their midst, they began to approach to try and restrain Silva from fully killing the Turian under his body, "WHAT THE HELL MAN!? I WAS LATE FOR TWENTY MINUTES! WHY DOES THAT DESERVE THREE ASSASSINS?!" Silva screamed, as he was physically dragged off the Urian and escorted away, cursing all the while towards the Manor.

~[==|==]~

To be continued

Sergey chapter 13

L4: Shakes fist GET AN ACCOUNT

But yes that name used on purpose if you back to the history I presented you see the USSR was overthrown at some time in the late 40s and replaced by Russian Union most likely due to an Operation Unthinkable before they got the nuke. Volgograd was not the name till the 50s so it still be Stalingrad but I doubt it would have stayed that way and with England's interfaces I would think whatever government would be put in place in Russia would be friendlier to what left of the Romanov (i looked up there still around) so they probably would have gone back to the old name Tsaritsyn (which is actually a movement over there, very small but a thing).

Blood: I can actually explain this. Stalin makes a few slightly differing decisions in world war 2 that resulted in it being longer and bloodier on the Soviets. He then after the war pisses off all of his generals by planning on sending many of the previously imprisoned and many soldiers to the GULAGs. So, during the last all hands meeting, all of his officers proceeded to stab Beria, Stalin, and his bodyguard to death, they then perform a Coup, politically destroying the Communist party for ever allowing a monster like Stalin to gain control, and not doing anything after he made numerous atrocities. The Western powers then influence them and they become a remarkably democratic nation after a few years of turmoil. In exchange for allowing their new satellite nations greater autonomy (With eventual independence), the Russians get cut into the Marshall plan and recover from the war in just a few years.

From that point the Sino soviet split is a LOT worse, with the first precursor to the Disorder wars happening during the latter end of the Chinese civil war when many Russian communists immigrate to China to get away.