Erusea, Kingdom of Erusea, Human Fringe Space
As the politicians locked horns on Arcturus, as the fleets regrouped and recovered, the Turian Armada over Erusea could finally clear the system as pacified. With the vast majority of the human fleet heavily damaged, and dozens of wrecks turned to dust in battle, the transports began to arrive. Easily rivaling the numbers of the ships themselves, they immediately oriented themselves and launched a heavy wave of shuttles with Turian shock troopers armed with heavy weaponry. They quickly secured a cordon on the planet, seizing the highland jungles to the northwest of the largest city, Selatapaura.
The Space Elevator was easily visible from this distance, a thin string of cord held up against the stark blue backdrop, with the glinting forms of the skyscrapers forming a beautiful cityscape that Castis Vakarian took several snapshots of in his omnitool. To tell the truth, he wished he was back at home, in the arms of his wife, but duty was duty, and he had a job to do. "Getting a few pics are you Castis?", he heard someone yell. Turning to see his dear friend in the Blackwatch, Nihlus Kryik approaching.
"Something like that Nihlus. What are you doing here?".
"I just happened to be stationed on the Artemec when we got redirected, so I thought I'd drop in to help. What's the situation?".
"Planet seems almost Citadel Presidium perfect, oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere with trace amounts of argon and carbon dioxide. Minimal greenhouse effect and a thick atmosphere are making the blue sky a thing, and the sun is a class-G, so it appears bright yellow. Thought I'd tweak the settings a bit for the lens flare".
"I meant these humans? What do you think of their civilization?".
Castis opened his mandibles in surprise, was hardly standard, such a question. He had to think for a few seconds before he answered very carefully. "It's sad we have to invade them, their fleet apparently gave ours quite a run for its money. And a Space Elevator! Not even the Asari have bothered with building one of them. It's an incredible undertaking, such a large construction".
"Have you seen their fighters yet?".
Castis couldn't say he had. His own shuttle had landed without issue, though apparently the supply lines were under constant threat from long-range attack. "I'm afraid not. They quite well trained?". Might have been how such a heavily outnumbered force was able to inflict these casualties.
"They've been engaging our forces with mini-torpedoes from long range. Missiles if you will. They pop up, well beyond the range of our visuals and LIDAR, then fire off self-guided missiles, an expensive option. But they've been ripping our shuttles to shreds, once the shields are down that is".
He was once again surprised. "Where the hell are they launching from, command already verified no airbases within 100 clicks, and the airport in the city is under constant surveillance, any fighter headed for the supplies would appear well before it got within range".
"Desolas seems to think we missed an airfield, that the fighters are using equatorial storm and cloud formations to mask their position. It would be hard to mask a squadron in a lightning storm, but not impossible". He nodded, humming slightly.
"Lance Corporal Vakarian?". He could hear the voice of someone else approaching, a rough and much less friendly attitude with grey face paint and a no-nonsense attitude. "Sir!". He saluted.
"I'm Corporal Arterius, Saren Arterius". He nodded and lowered his salute. "Yes sir!".
"You command a squad of four I believe?".
"That's correct sir".
"Then gear up, you're joining the Blackwatch on a recon operation, Command thinks they've spotted some strange pits 5 clicks south of our position, could be a stockpile. These primitives haven't shown their heads yet. Besides the attacks on their convoys, They died down pretty quick when we started sending corvettes down to escort them." He saluted again, before picking up his anti-material rifle and heading for his squad.
Systems Alliance Congress, State Briefing
"Welcome Comrades, needless to say, I think we are all aware that this meeting is classified to the top levels of the Alliance Government, the fact you were informed is remarkable in itself considering the situation". The representatives nodded cordially, though with the notable exception of the Erusean Ambassador who was nowhere to be found, her ship having not arrived yet.
On the screen, a diagram of human space appeared, zooming in on the lower fringe. "At precisely 0300 hours yesterday afternoon. Atlantean Naval Command lost contact with 2 Naval Fortresses across Erusean, OPA, Atlantean and Osean space. Additionally. 3 American freighters have gone completely missing on lease to Erusean corporations, and several colonies have gone silent". He nodded to Lieutenant Gaeta who took a breath, before pointing towards the screen. "Additionally, we have lost contact with Admiral Luke Souther of the Defence Fleet. And either they are engaged in combat, or dead. We have reason to believe their long-range communications have been knocked out, or that communicating would break radio silence".
He sighed, "Considering the recent loss of the Donnager, we have reason to believe that at least one of the fortresses and possibly all four of the colonies have been besieged by an as-of-yet unknown Alien government, that seems to be fully capable of competently waging warfare in space. And as a result, the Alliance Headquarters are calling for every member state to mobilize in preparations for offensive operations".
Udina, from the UCNA, stood, "What measures are being taken to ensure our safety?".
"Admiral Kastanie Drescher, of the Fast reaction fleet, will be merging her own with several reconnaissance flotillas as well as our only nearby operational supercarrier, the Herbert George Wells and its escorts. Additionally, Admiral Reinhardt has informed me his U-boats are reporting in that they are ready for action".
Udina nodded. The Atlantean, Japanese, RSEAN and Australasian representatives seemed to be having a wordless conversation between themselves. "What about the diplomatic route?", asked Avasarala, for the African Union. "Perhaps some sort of efforts to establish formal contact with these people?".
"We are putting together a multi-national diplomatic corps, however, we are still discussing how to pursue a peace settlement. It seems like every one of your individual governments is putting forward proposals. America, South America, and Russia are all proposing we launch a diplomatic expedition only when we have pushed the aliens out of Erusea. If possible".
They nodded, and he picked up his tablet, thumbing over several datasets. "Other proposals include a direct attempt to establish relations before any more hostile actions are undertaken, as well as the proposals for immediate decisive military action to push the Aliens back, and attempt to seize one of their colonies to gain some semblance of victory. In the meantime. Can we rely on the individual reinforcements of the nations of the Systems Alliance?".
He put the question directly to everyone, but indirectly it was effectively targeted at the American and Atlantean representatives. The two were always at each other throats, since the Atlanteans were by far the more belligerent and bullying of the long-standing rivals, while the Americans were less overtly hostile, they didn't exactly ooze peacefulness and their ideological battle had formed itself into the two dominant political parties in the Alliance Parliment itself, the Modernists and the Progressivists. The Americans were still the most powerful naval force in the Systems Alliance, holding a naval force almost a quarter that of the Alliance. The Atlanteans were behind in ships but possessed a more well-trained and versatile fighting force.
Even now, in the expansionist age, not even the might of the Atlantic Powers could hope to beat the American's massive industrial base. The Atlantean representative looked down at his watch, where he was using the touchpad. "Gargantua Station has directed me to inform you that our fleets will be considered co-belligerents, however, they will purely be directed under Atlantean Commanders, and will not be undertaking any offensive operations unless joined by equal numbers of other ships".
Avasarala narrowed her eyes, folding her arms. "The African Union stands ready to assist the Alliance in her battles 40% of our stealth destroyer fleet will be joining with European fleets to coordinate reconnaissance and if necessary, interception efforts across unknown space".
The Central European Union representative nodded, "We are quite willing to send our stealth ships into unknown space to sink enemy shipping. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare will be the order of the day until we can ascertain more. However, we cannot send more than a handful of gunboats to support the main fleets, as we are still spinning up our naval production. We estimate 4 months until we can start to commit greater resources".
One by one, each of the reps for each human faction put forward what they were willing to commit to the joint war effort. It wasn't overwhelming, but still, the fact that everyone was at least chipping in some resources showed that the Systems Alliance wasn't a purely useless construct. By the end, a full plan had been drawn up, and President Roslin was informed shortly afterward. She breathed a sigh of relief at the results and moved on to inspire the civilian populace of all Alliance worlds to support the governments in the coming days.
The Citadel, Council Chambers
Tevos rubbed the sleep from her eyes as yet another yawn broke the silence of her office. The elegant desk blurring slightly as a hint of moisture escaped. Something was up, something big. It had all been so simple a few weeks ago. Then the Quarians had discovered a new dextro-amino planet still in the stages of developing life. Low bacteria, ideal climate, and flush with resources. Immediately they had landed forces and began adapting their ship-based reactors to powerplants. Building prefabs and constructing farms. But it hadn't lasted.
The Turians had discovered the planet as well, a privateer had bought the survey data from the Quarians, and sold it to the Turians. The Turians petitioned the council for settlement rights and got permission, then when their civilian fleet had shown up, they had demanded the Quarians leave, who had refused. They had taken a stand for once and told the Turians where to shove it. Zaal'Koris had then shown up on the Citadel, requesting an audience, and they had argued for hours over it, before he very clearly told them, that the Quarians would not be leaving this new planet without bloodshed.
As he had left, Quarian pilgrims in the lower wards were protesting against the unlawful arrest of a young man. Zaal'Koris had arranged for his fee to be paid and for him to be returned, but as the minutes turned to hours and the release paperwork was continually blocked, the protests grew violent. C-SEC was called in, several of the Salarian officers panicked. Needless to say, most pilgrims not under arrest withdrew the next day with the remnants being moved from C-SEC prisons to formal facilities, and Zaal'Koris had taken his ship directly to Palevan to negotiate with the Primarchs.
Once again, they had flatly refused to listen to the Quarian's pleas and promptly sent a peacekeeping fleet in to detain Admiral Koris, who fled on his ship. The Peacekeeping fleet had then headed for Ike, the world in question, where the migrant fleet was waiting. Both sides had been in a tense stand-off until the Defranzhe, a very old frigate suffered an airlock failure that blew the side of the ship off. Sensors on the Neema thought it had been fired upon, and a general order was given to open fire.
2 Ships were destroyed by the Quarians, and they themselves lost a heavy cruiser to the Turians until the Turians bid a fighting retreat when the armed live ships started shooting. The Quarians quickly fled after that, but it was the actions after that had really sewed the anger between the two races. A Quarian terrorist, suspected of acting alone, successfully assassinated a high-up Asari matriarch and the former Asari Councilor inspecting peacekeeping fleets. And dozens more were killed when these same terrorists had hijacked a civilian freight hauler and crashed it into the pursuit craft tracking the migrant fleet.
They had then fled back to the flotilla, and the blame fell squarely on the Migrant Fleet, who did not hand over the terrorists to the Council. Since then the Turians had been adamant that they could not be negotiated with, and now something had spooked the Primarchs enough to cause the mobilization of the Turian Armada, something not seen since the Geth Rebellions.
The door slid open, and in walked Councillor Valern. Her massive black eyes blinking quickly. "Ahh, Councillor. Noticed distinct signs of sleep deprivation and excessive caffeine consumption. Would recommend taking time off to allow for-".
"I'm afraid I can't do that Councillor. I called you here to ask for a favor".
"Possibly related to Turians?".
She pursed her lips, of course he knew. "I suppose you want STG to look into what's got the Admiralty so riled up. Well, to make it short... we don't know".
She snapped up and awoke from her half-snooze quicker than a Hanar witnessing a grammatical error. "The STG doesn't know? What in the-".
"I have forwarded you reports on intercepted communications. The Turians are attempting to quell what appears to be a full-scale conflict between the Migrant Fleet and the Heirarchy, but even so, it doesn't make sense for the Migrant Fleet to fall to such drastic action".
She nodded, "We're missing something, do you have any ships you could send?".
"Not yet, all currently operating STG gunboats are used, however will speak to Doctor Solus aboard the STGV Sur'khan to redirect". She gave a sigh of relief. "Good. Good. Sparatus isn't saying anything".
Codex Entry: The United Colonies of North America
Starting off as merely an idea in the minds of the Founding Fathers, the rebelling 13 Colonies fought a war with their oppressors, the United Kingdom of Great Britain (At the time an autonomous ally of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands). After the French and Spanish joined the war, what is now known as the 3 Years War (Or American Revolutionary War) ended in a stalemate, which in this specific scenario, meant a British defeat, In the conference following their secession. The British ceded all of the main colonies with the exception of Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Toronto.
Over the next few centuries, the Americans expanded an enormous amount. Including purchasing Louisiana from the French and Alaska from the Russians. They also expanded their control over Cuba and Hawaii to a point, and at one point annexed the Protectorate of the Great Lakes after the First World War, as well as Canadian Columbia. Following the Great Depression, the Munroe doctrine was established and giving the US informal control over Latin America, and despite losing Canadian Columbia in the second world war, as well as Cuba. Their dominance navally during the Cold War gave them a significant advantage.
Following the second civil war, America began to follow the Atlantean Pact in establishing extra-terrestrial colonies. And to this day maintains the largest and most powerful navy. Their armed forces are also second only to the more versatile and well-equipped Atlantean Pact, and their military-industrial complex is second to none, possessing an impressive degree of versatility.
At the current time, the American political system is fairly well established. With a representative democracy often easily swayed by public opinion and by the corporations which keep America the single largest power in the Alliance. The Republican party espouses corporatism and expansionism, favoring a more centralized economic link between the homeworld and Americans colonies, while the Democratic party campaigns for more federalism and a lesser degree of integration with the Systems Alliance. It is a well known fact that the second and third largest political parties of the Alliance itself, the Progressivists and Terra Firma are both partly sponsored by the UCNA