Well I'm back. This preface is spoilers to the original Uplifted series. Either go back and read that psychodrama or read the cliff notes here and move onto the main story.
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Title: Overview of Quarian First Contact / Quarian biology, origins and exile/ Interference into National Socialist Germany/ Power structure in the Greater German Reich
Document Type: CREST
Collection: VOYAGERS
Document Number (FOIA)/ESDN (CREST): CIA-QRI71-9481-9J001100042143-3
Release Decision: RIF
Original Classification: C
Document Page Count: 22
Document Creation Date: 20 May 1995
Document Release Date: 14 December 1991
Sequence Number: 3
Case Number: 2443607823-1
Publication Date: 7 July 1948
Content Type: SUMMARY
File Location: CIA-QRI71-9481-9J001100042143-3
Opening Statement from the Director of Central Intelligence
Gentlemen,
If you have been assigned this reading material, you have been handpicked by a committee of supervisors and trainers. You have been acknowledged as the best of the best that this young intelligence agency has produced thus far. You are to be both envied and pitied.
As intelligence operatives and information gatherers posted throughout Europe, you have entrusted your very lives to further combat the scourge of rampant Teutonic militarism, supported by an alien race hell bent on using their new servants as foot soldiers in a war across the stars. In return for your willingness to sacrifice for all the free peoples of the world, we will entrust with you all the knowledge which we have gathered – both the official account by the quarians and unofficial – on the situation in Europe as of the end of this decade.
Our foe may no longer be wrapped in the swastika, but make no mistake, these are the same men who supported the previous criminal regime which plunged our world into a second global war. Hitler bought their loyalty though the murder of his own men; they gleefully invaded the entirety of Europe and bombed whatever they couldn't. They assisted in the wholesale extermination of religious and ethnic minorities.
These new men in charge – using a puppet Kaiser and government as cover - may even be worse. They had no principal to stick to the Hitlerites and accept their inevitable defeat, and instead sold their souls to the intruders now residing in North Africa. They have traded survival in exchange for trinkets and the blood and tears of their future generations.
God bless you all, each of you shall be in my prayers
Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter
Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Section 1 - Origins of First Contact
1 August 1936 Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler gives a speech opening the 1936 Summer Olympics. In it Adolf Hitler is quoted to say "I proclaim open the Olympic Games of Berlin, celebrating the Eleventh Olympiad of the modern era." Little did he know what it would unfold.
The speech was the first internationally televised event which was capable of breaking through the earth's ionosphere and broadcasted into space. The television signal was picked up by the lead scout ships of the quarian migrant fleet. The fleet admiralty board deployed scout ships to monitor the situation on Earth.
Determining mankind was a suitable race for the process of "uplifting" – the act of speeding up the technological progress of the species – the quarians monitored all the major power players and determined that of all the parties, National Socialist Germany would be the best candidate. As a monoculture with a significant industrial base, military prowess, a totalitarian state that would not debate the matter, the quarians found a perfect first step into life on Earth.
Initially Nazi leadership – in particular the Schutzstaffel under the direction of Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich– was pleased to be given this attention. Relationships changed however as the true extent of what the National Socialists were became more apparent and the discovery of the extermination programme to the quarians – a race who themselves were near exterminated.
Section 2 – Origins of the quarian race
Originating from a planet called Rannoch the planet orbits a star known as Tikkun astronomically older than our own sun. The planet is primarily an arid one, with the average temperate at 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) resembling that of the North African plains, which made it the primary candidate location for settlement. Other notable sits included the Gobi, the Mojave and Atacama Deserts. North African Sahara was preferred due to proximity to their German allies. Quarians prefer warmth, but with a large conclave (estimation of the population 50 thousand and growing) now living in the Reich as well as volunteering in the Wehrmacht against the Soviet Union, it appears they are very adaptable.
A significant difference between Earth and Rannoch is that insect life never developed on the world. Plant life evolved to use animal life as their primary means of pollination. Days are 32.3 hours long; as a result quarians have initially had a difficulty in adjusting to shorter days. Quarian population appears to have adapted to the new shortened day length.
Section 3 – The Exile
Little information has been obtained as to why the quarians lost their home world that hasn't been vetted through the quarian Mandates' censors. For the sake of the reader, the usage of the Julian calendar is in place of the Rannochian traditional calendar dates. The official story follows:
Sometime in the year of 1883 (estimated month November), the quarians lost control of a vast networked intelligence program known as the geth. Geth in Khellish (language of the quarians) translates to "servant of the people" the artificial intelligence network was connected to machine bodies which functioned as a workforce. Their duties ranged from menial labor, to military service, hazardous jobs, to even serving as caretakers to the young. The intelligence network developed its own sentience and rose up against the quarians using the robotic platforms as a physical manifestation of rebellion.
With so many platforms built, and the factories that built them automated and controlled by the intelligence, the quarians were overwhelmed and the war quickly turned into extermination. The geth believed their survival depended on the eradication of their makers, as failure would inevitably lead to their own destruction. The extermination commenced following the exodus. The exodus was an evacuation operation conducted by the Naval arm of the Rannochian Defense Force. The navy managed to organize as many ships of civilian and military make and managed to gather nearly 17 million quarians and evacuate them out of the Perseus veil. The geth did not pursue past this point.
The quarians, as members of a vast alien cooperative known as the Citadel races went to the leadership of this galactic union and asked for military aid to retake Rannoch. Not only was it refused, they were entirely expelled from the organization. The council had a ban in effect on Artificial intelligence and the geth had fallen into that purview. Whether it was an excuse or not remains up for debate.
For the next 3 years, the quarians waged several offensives against the geth, but each time the geth were stronger and quarians lost precious ships and combat personnel. Rannoch was abandoned to their fate, the geth did not pursue and with that a race of 7 billion from Rannoch to all of their colony worlds was reduced to 17 million. In other mathematical terms, about 0.0024 percent of the species has survived the geth extermination.
Unofficially, quarians dissatisfied with the governments allegiances with the German Reich as well an arbitrary move to uplift members of the human species to combat the geth have suggested to Anglo-American intelligence assets that the quarian leadership and science communities were warned that not only was geth sentience an inevitability but also an offense against Citadel laws. Hubris, it seems, was the downfall of the quarian race and now they intend on making our race their latest subjugated people.
Section 4 - Quarian species and racial markers
Quarians biological structure is similar to that of humans. There are differences. Height is generally shorter stature, possessing bow legs similar to that of canines, three digits on their hand that have shown to have remarkable dexterity, Females possess three toes, males two. Their eyes, tinted bright are capable of seeing ultraviolet light. Teeth are sharper, a more carnivorous racial origins. They are naturally omnivores, however their diets shifted to a vegetarian due their inability to cultivate livestock on the Migrant Fleet for the past six decades.
Additionally, quarian DNA is of a dextro-protein reverse chirality. In layman's terms, they are unable to safely consume human food. Tests shared by the ROP (Rannochian Outreach Programme) concluded that no nutritional value was received by quarian consumption. Reactions to consumption were mixed, from being inedible and passing through the digestive system with no nutritional gain to fatally poisonous. Most subjects of the trial experienced an acute allergenic reaction.
As a result the quarians have started to reclaim vast sections of the Sahara desert as well as greenhouse facilities on the moon and Mars. The quarians call it Sal'varu – translated as land reclamation - the closest term we can ascribe to the concept would be 'Terraforming' a term developed by science fiction writers. Livestock too is being introduced in contained environments meant to simulate Rannochian environments. The animals brought into existence through cloning of samples gathered before the exile. Meat is still a luxury to the common quarian; however this reintroduction of Rannochian fauna to their new environments has slowly begun shifting their society back into an omnivore lifestyle.
Their internal immune systems have always weak compared to mankind, as their homeword Rannoch had an arid environment which rarely produced pathogenic microbes to challenge their bodies. They are now immune compromised as a race after six decades of sterile environments due to their survival on ships. This has led to environmental suits a vital part of their people's character. In particular, their newest generation is the most affected, having been born with a minimal immune system. As of 1949, a majority of quarians are still in their suits, but with the rise of Daeth'lia Medical Foundation the process of making the quarian citizen independent from their environmental suits has begun.
Quarians remarkably have few differing racial traits, there appears to not be any significant racial separation between them as there is for example the Caucasian / Negro / Asiatic / Semitic races. It has been hypothesized by science advisors inside the agency that Human DNA is significantly more diverse. This is perhaps due in part to our younger origins in comparison.
Section 5 - Interference in National Socialist Germany and the Civil War
Upon discovery of the extermination programs enacted against the Jewish, Roma and others, along with the wholesale slaughter of eastern Slavic peoples for the concept of Lebensraum the quarian admiralty board decided that a more direct approach was needed and that the National Socialists would never be mouldable. Key members of the Wehrmacht, whose allegiance to the Nazi Party was questionable were made aware of the quarian presence, and presented with an alternative option to Adolf Hitler.
Wehrmacht leadership aligned with quarians suggested approaching Wilhelm III about a restoration of the crown. Not preferable with the spectre of Kaiser Wilhelm II still present; however between the failure of the Weimar republic and the rise of the National Socialist dictatorship a compromise like this was surely welcomed. Wilhelm III rejected the offer put forth, acknowledging he was out of place and instead nominated his then 36 year old son Louis Ferdinand to assume the positon of Kaiser in his stead. Louis Ferdinand accepted their support and has been striving since the collapse of the National Socialist government to create a democratically elected government for his subjects.
With a leadership chosen, the Wehrmacht committed to either assassinating Adolf Hitler or capturing for trial on a later date. An infiltration on the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest, Hitler's personal getaway house) was committed and on 18 February 1943, Hitler was abducted by a Waffen-SS turncoat known as Joachim Hoch and taken off planet, placed in custody of the quarians.
That night at the Sportsplast in Berlin, Dr. Joseph Goebbels gave a speech to the audience announcing a policy of total war was to be enacted. The defeats at Stalingrad and El-Alamein had rattled the country and the desired outcome was to reinforce fear of communist westward expansion. For his troubles, the Doctor was shot down by an honor guard led by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, who took the podium, declared that Adolf Hitler was out of commission and Nazi Germany was to be turned over to the Wehrmacht. It did not take long for the country to split in two in civil war.
There were several unspoken agreements made by both warring parties. No matter their grievances, the enemies outside of the Reich took priority. Wehrmacht troops would not be pulled from the front and troops being sent to the lines would not be attacked. How the rebellious officers convinced their armies to fight the loyalists was curious. Reports were suggested that the Wehrmacht rebellion told their subordinate a Council of generals was being formulated to continue the war and that the Nazi government was clinging onto power.
The quarians, having received blueprints and designs of Wehrmacht equipment from their Nazi party insider Albert Speer supplied the rebellion with manufacturing plants on Mars and the moon, thereby preventing any sort of damage that could have been inflicted on German heavy industry if the two warring parties fought for the resources. Focus on the conflict instead turned to clearing out Nazi activity city by city until reaching Berlin in May 1943.
The Nazis, placed in a desperate situation, commissioned their finest special operatives Otto Skoreny and Adrian von Fölkersam (Further readings on their post war activities in Paladin Group are available at this time) to infiltrate the quarian fleet, stealing a quarian shuttle craft and returning to the Kareon, the vessel housing Adolf Hitler. Hitler was liberated returned to the Italian Alps where a bunker complex was being built inside to serve as a national redoubt. The quarians traced him there, and for the first time took a direct attack. The first orbital bombardment occurred. Hitler was dead, the National Socialists were dead in the water, the Wehrmacht was seizing control over all avenues of the government and the quarians had revealed themselves to mankind in full.
Section 6 – The State, the Wehrmacht and the Kaiser
While Germany is only locked in a singular war with the Soviet Union, most conflict now centers on establishing long term leadership for the German Reich.
Following the 1918 defeat and Hitler's inability to stop getting the Wehrmacht locked into quagmires throughout the Second World War, The Wehrmacht leadership decided that the only way to remain totally apolitical was to operate above the government entirely. Although the German government exists, it is the Wehrmacht Council that still calls the shots.
The Wehrmacht council consists of members of the three branches of the German military apparatus. Headed by Gerd von Rundstedt, Adolf Galland and Erich Raeder along with many advisors and officers, these men oversee Wehrmacht procurement, conduct the war against the Soviet Union, negotiate technological leaps with the quarians and administrate the eastern European occupation. They act in total independence from the German Government. They permit Kaiser Louis Ferdinand to sit in on meetings, who in turn acts as liaison between the two mortal enemies.
In contrast to the Wehrmacht's singular minded vision of Germany as a return to the Prussian stereotype of being "an army with a country", the Reich government has struggled to rebuild a more peaceful reputation to the state as they attempt to return rights to the common German citizenry. However, with the reputation of Weimar still lingering, independent democratic governments are deeply unpopular with the Wehrmacht.
With their weakness obvious, the state has formed an unspoken pact with industrialist groups inside the country. Men who broke bread with Hitler not even a decade ago have been courting the government and have drawn up economic plans for the state. Including in that is a sort of pan-European economic organization. With Germany's reputation as poor as it is, it is unlikely such a concept will get off the ground in any serious capacity. However, if the quarians were to join this union, serious pressure would be placed on all of Europe to follow suit. Germany would have the continental Europe in the palm of their hand, and this time without firing a shot.
The Kaiser is well within his right to rule autocratically as his Grandfather had twenty years prior. He would likely have both the support of the governement as well as the Industrialists who recognize that Germany cannot stay in perpetual war with the Soviets for much longer. He also possesses a number of royalist Junkers who recognize the crown. He could in theory call the council traitors and oust them, but has not done so yet. The shadow the civil war lingers long over the idea. Germany is finally getting back on her feet, the last thing the Kaiser wants would be to set her back again.
The quarian government situated in Na'uaris has taken no official position in the struggle. They support the Kaiser's decision to approach the struggle between the Army and State as mediation. They need all three in harmony and thus have been playing nice with all sides. There are reports from inside the Mandate that the Mandate government's First Minister has grown mistrustful of the Council. These reports are unfortunately unsubstantiated.
Section 7 - Assessment of Kaiser Louis Ferdinand von Hohenzollern
Louis Ferdinand von Preussen, born 9 November 1907 to Crown Prince Wilhelm III and Duchess Cecile of Meckleberg-Schwerin, he was the second born son behind older brother, Wilhelm. Wilhelm renounced the title of head of House Hohenzollern in order to marry a German commoner Dorothea von Salviati. He had since been invited back into the fold. Wilhelm subsequently died in France, 26 May 1940. Louis married Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia in 1938, whom was pregnant with their first born at the time.
Issues:
Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (9 February 1938)
Prince Michael (22 March 1940)
Princess Marie Cécile (28 May 1942)
Princess Kira (27 June 1943)
Prince Louis Ferdinand (25 August 1944)
Prince Christian-Sigismund (14 March 1946)
Empress Consort Kira is currently pregnant, sex of child undetermined. (Update: Princess Xenia was born 9 December 1949)
Kaiser Louis Ferdinand has decided to abolish the long standing monarchal tradition of recognizing the first born son as the Crown Prince. He has decided instead to wait until all of his children were grown into early adulthood before he determined whom he felt was the right Kaiser (or Empress if desperate) to take on his position.
Assessment of Louis Ferdinand is relatively positive in comparison to the Wehrmacht Council and the German government. Following the 1918 collapse of the Kaiserreich Louis Ferdinand spent his youth travelling, including a long stint in the United States where he studied engineering. Following his brother's renunciation of the throne, he was recalled back to Germany and spent his time home in the German aviation industry, including a brief service in the Luftwaffe, until the death of elder brother Wilhelm during the Battle of France.
A forward thinking patron of art, Louis Ferdinand has been vital in establishing a working civilian oriented democracy and has forced back the Wehrmacht Council out of a position of governance and redirected their focus back to the ongoing war against the Soviet Union. He has been sending out ambassadors to countries outside the German sphere of influence to varying degrees of success. Tellingly he has been pushing for complete withdrawal from Western Europe (with an exception to France) ever since his coronation.
The Kaiser wields significantly more power than he uses. He has the ability to dismiss ministers and cabinet members he feels are incompetent or trouble makers; he can dismiss the government entirely and assume control over the State. With the fear of Weimar republic and the rise of National Socialism fresh in their minds, having a Kaiser ready to assume command over the nation is a refreshing alternative to most common citizenry. To his credit, the Kaiser has never utilized any of these powers, and allows the fragile German government to build itself on its own accord.
Interestingly he has also pushed for transparency to the Nazi era extermination programs including the Wehrmacht complacency and involvement with their liquidation programmes. In many circles in the Wehrmacht he is considered an enemy to his own military apparatus. Regime change is off the table. The Kaiser has the full support of the Quarian government, which has made it quite clear that if anything were to occur, the quarians would support the government and royal family in all forms.
Important to note: The Kaiser, while having significant conflict with the Wehrmacht Council, will always present a united front against outsiders who attempt to interfere. This unity is mutually exchanged with the Council. They know that without the Kaiser and the government, they do not have anything to hide behind.
While Louis Ferdinand has shown himself to be a remarkably forward thinker, as a Kaiser he has been slowed at every avenue by the Wehrmacht. His battles with the Council have been long and hard, but at the end of the day he is just one man, and the council is many, with apprentices to these leaders ready to step up and continue the fight as soon as they retire. One day in the near future the Kaiser will break down and the Wehrmacht will have a docile puppet emperor as they had at the end of the First World War.
Section 8 - Conclusion
Germany is stabilized through fear of the other. The government fears the Kaiser, who still retains the right to dismiss them and rule autocratically with quarian support, the Kaiser fears the Wehrmacht, which could reignite a new civil war, and the Wehrmacht fears the quarians who could decimate the leadership and then appoint younger, more malleable men into the power vacuums. Only players without concern are the quarians, whom have inserted themselves in all avenues of German power players. So long as they keep the factions rolling into the next century when projected war against the geth is to happen, they are content.
While the political situation is in constant flux, the danger Germany is to the peace of the world is as high as it was on the evening of 1 September 1939 and should not be understated. The German state is steadily revamping their infrastructure along the same technological level as the quarians have shown in their Mandate. There will be a technological gap of centuries and the world will be held at hostage, not by quarian opportunists, but by a clique of Prussian officers who could destroy nations with minimum resistance on any provocation.
It is likely that within the next twenty years as the memories of Imperial German and Nazi aggression begins to fade, more and more nations will drift towards the German and quarian alliance with desires of technological exchanges in exchange for assistance in the inevitable galactic conflict which the quarians will need as much manpower as they can to throw at the geth.
More worrying is that the nature of the quarian future war will be substantially larger than any we have seen before here on Earth in all of recorded human civilization, with monumentally higher stakes than even this last great one. The concern stems from the unspoken hypothesis the quarians have never addressed: What happens if they were to lose this war.
The geth, who spared the Migrant Fleet before after seeing no threat from them, would see a renewed threat of a quarian race that now had a planet to continue to exist on even after a failure of achieving their objectives. What would stop them from crossing out of geth occupied space after the offensive failure and cleansing both species?
These questions will be answered in time. Until the present or future administrations are willing to approach the Mandate or German Reich through diplomatic channels, our agency remains the only eyes and ears into the growing shadow of new dual superpowers who will have no rivals to keep in check.
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You probably have a lot of questions. So I'll answer the most obvious ones in as concise way as I can. Feels a little conceited, but I know people have wondered.
Q: Where the hell have you been?
A: I had a total creative slump. I spent a full decade writing, then felt nothing sparking. If it wasn't going to work anymore, then I had to step away. Truth is, all the reviews and PMs these past few years, I didn't even look at until recently. There was a strange shame. Like if I didn't read them I could just pretend it wasn't there. Weird logic, but mental health is rarely straightforward. I am sorry for what it is worth.
Q: Why are you back?
A: Lockdown gave me nothing but time on my hand to think, and thinking sparked a renewed interest in writing this series. I spent the first 5 months plotting the story out, another 5 months writing the prelude. Writing the 1940's was like pulling teeth. Then again, my brain has been switched off from writing mode and I was rusty. Now that I am warmed up, writing in the time period this will be in is a breath of fresh air.
Q: This is your third attempt at this second generation. You had a full story in the second generation at one point. Why did you remove it.
A: I read it, I read my notes and it quickly became obvious how edgy the first one was. The second attempt quickly became evident how "Humanity, fuck yeah!" it was going to be and so I scraped it. This iteration, (as ironic as it will be once you read who the protagonist will be) feels far more down to earth. I have put a lot of work into the main protagonist, and I feel they will be more fleshed out than Joachim Hoch was with far less edge needed. Now, there are elements of the earlier story that I like (primarily the Hoch family I built) and will be a part of the story, but this will not be their story primarily.
Q: What sort of update pace will be?
A: Entirely at my discretion. In the past I have succumbed to the pressures of the reader to release as soon as humanly can. It leads to the same route: burnout. I intend on writing in chunks. That is working on several chapters. As of right now I have four full chapters I will release once a week. I am enjoying the no pressure for updates and have been writing in large chunks rather than writing and releasing chapter by chapter. When what I have is released fully, I ask for patience and for you to refrain from sending me the dreaded review/PM "Update soon." With how much easier a flow I get writing in the primary era that wasn't the past the updates may be quicker. Whatever happens, I will not be taking requests for expedience. I'm sorry if it sounds rude, but this wave of creativity I have is still delicate. I am very worried about a collapse again.
Q: You are writing in a whole new era of internet culture where we all take more carefully thought out steps. You wouldn't be able to get away with the shit you wrote about back in the early to mid-2010s.
A: I'm sorry for the very boomer question posed above this. Anyways, I really didn't get away with it back then. Got a lot of unpleasant implications especially with how unflinchingly Nazi jingoistic the first Uplifted story was. Once the rest of the series came out, that accusation eased significantly. This story is set half a century following the collapse of the Third Reich. I felt the new German state was originally painted to nicely in the first couple attempts at this story. I feel this iteration is more accurate. I hope you will feel the same.
Anyways, enough of that self-aggrandizing; one final note, I am going to be changing my penname in the near future. I hate it. So if you're interested, put me in as an author's alert and don't be surprised if the next update has a different pen name.
Thank you and I hope you enjoy this new attempt.