Shanxi System, September 2066
As soon as the Wuhan came limping back through the relay, chinese command knew they had problems, mostly because command of space assets now fell to the Wuhan's commander, since the rest of the flotilla was probably destroyed beyond the relay.
He immediately ordered all civilian ships to retreat to the planet, and for all smaller warships to consolidate around Shanxi to defend the colony. He also sent the word to the leadership on the surface: "Exploration fleet destroyed, unknown enemies, probability of alien forces high, sending scan readings from enemy's ships"
Shanxi command was in disbelief the moment the message hit them. The unknown vessels were not of any known design, but who's to say what kind of perverse technology the capitalist americans may have invented? The reading indicated all the components of human starship design! Shields, eezo cores, spinal mounted weapon...
Despite their doubts, at least Shanxi leaders decided to mobilize their defense forces. All civilian population was to scatter trough the countryside, to supply depots hidden in cave systems or farm villages if they happened to know someone there. A small proportion of urban dwellers went to the few city bunkers there were, and some of those were drafted to help the army in defending the city.
Their plan was simple: armored spearhead attacks against landing sites, while anti-space missiles targeted ships entering atmosphere and anti-aircraft systems lay waste on shuttles and planes and drones. If it failed, them the orders were to fall back to the city proper and hold the enemy in brutal street fighting until the garrison could be relieved.
But local authorities made one fatal miscauculation tha day: They still trully believe to be facing only a small force, most likely severely depleted by Captain Zhao's actions, so they sent no requests for immediate aid to Beijing. By the time the scale of the invasion was known, there would be no communication to Earth left.
Tau System, Vicinity of Relay 314, September 2066
When Captain Hilatis ordered his men to communicate with Palaven command, he expected trouble.
What he could not foresee was the absolutely staggering amount of trouble heading his way in the form of one General Desola Arterius, infamous Turian supremacist and all-around awful person. Now waiting on the comms room of his ship, he could not stop fidgeting with his fingers, but stopped immediately when the General flickered to life in front of him
"Captain", the turian's voice was harsh, and there was a terrifying scowl on his white face, marred with blue markings and scars. "Care to explain the catastrophic loses your forces incurred on a routine patrol mission?"
Hilatis told the general every single detail of his mission, from the active relay to the shuttles of unknown origin to the spirits damned fleet that appeared after the shuttles were destroyed. He told about the strange communications on an alien language and the alien vessel turning away, and how he did not know who shoot first, only that everyone shot each other in the end.
The general heard his subordinate with attention, only nodding when the poor man thought he may have some questions. By the end of the tale, he simply nodded a final time and said: "It appears, captain, that your forces, on a mission to our Galactic Council, encountered an unknown race activating a relay, which is a crime, and them they shot your ships without any warning, right?"
Hilatis paused for an instant. The aliens tried to communicate, and so did he, but the general was planning something, and he was not liking it, but he went along. "Yes sir"
Desolas continued: "And an unknown race not only fought on equal footing a small turian flotilla, but manage to inflict severe losses to said flotilla, right? Albeit, of course, at the expanse of almost all of their forces."
Desola, or at least his projection, grabbed the possible rail in front of him, light years away, and leaned on Hilatis, as if looking the man directly in the eyes. "Captain, such a barbarian species, that not only disrespects common sense, but resorts to aggression at the first opportunity is a security risk for the galaxy. I'm in command of all forces in your current sector, and I will send a battle fleet to investigate their system, we'll be there in two days."
And with that, Hilatis was once more alone in the comm room, wondering where the hell he got himself into.
New Shanghai, Shanxi, Shanxi System, September 2066
Jack Harper was sitting at an outdoor teahouse, enjoying the afternoon sun and his cigarettes. Officially, he was a managerial consultant to a Chinese firm looking to expand its agribusiness in the newly formed colony. Non-officially, he was sent by the CIA to keep an eye on just what Beijing was doing on the Traverse.
One could say that a white American man, with a passable, at best, knowledge of Chinese was a not a very good spy. But Harper wasn't the only quasi-illiterate (in Chinese) western in New Shanghai. The colony was supposed to be the first off-world food production center for the Chinese, so foreign help was necessary. On his quaint teahouse, he could see a pair of Brazilians excitedly chatting in Portuguese, and he met a European lady at his hotel lobby yesterday.
So, his cover was not that bad, and he could still do his real job. Like noticing how jittery the colonial officials were for the past two days. Rumors of lost spaceships were abounded, and the government was "advising" its citizens to be prepared for a quick escape from the city. Rendezvous points off to the countryside were made known, evacuations had started, and even some civilians who elected to stay in the city and go for the bunkers were called up to help civil defense. There was something wrong, something completely more serious than the official party line of "abundance of caution because of reports of pirate activity".
As his mind raced to understand what was happening, several tanks and IFVs passed by the street. He could see that those soldiers were not going to a drill, and they were packing live ammunition. He paid his bill, and got up, a stroll trough the city could help illuminate the current situation.
He didn't even manage to cross the river without seeing the full-scale mobilization happening. The building that housed his "consulting firm" was closed and on the roof, a anti-aircraft gun was being deployed. Soldiers were hastily building defensive positions and armored units were rushing to, presumably, their assembly points.
Jack went home, he had to alert Langley about what the fuck was happening. Problem was, he didn't know what was happening. It couldn't be an American attack, since he was the local CIA asset and, presumably, he would know one was about to happen before it happened. Maybe a European assault? The motives weren't clear, Europe had cordial, if a little distant, relations with China and, besides, they weren't interested in this part of space. A chines civil conflict was even less plausible, Shanxi was the poster colony for Beijing. The only other option was, beside actual pirates, aliens….
His thoughts were suddenly stopped by the sounds of battle that started raging outside his window. He looked trough his window and saw the intricate dance of AA rounds crossing the sky, looking for targets to hit. Shuttles, several of them and all alien looking descended into the maelstrom of fire and lead. He saw, obscured by the clouds, the forms of bigger ships, frigates maybe. Then, just outside his home, one of the shuttles got an AA missile to her thrusters. The landing wasn't pretty, but it seems the crew had survived. When the doors opened, Jack gasped in shock for the first time in his life.
An actual fucking alien
STG REPORT: HUMAN WARFARE DOCTRINES
Given the shockwaves humanity's entry sent into the galactic stage, we find necessary to assess the tactics of our potential foes, or allies, during wartime. As many of you may know, humanity is composed of several competing nation states, so each one of them possesses distinct doctrines. This report will focus on the naval and ground doctrines of the so-called "big three": China, Europe, and the United States. Please note that the following report was compiled using:
-information widely available to all in the form of news reporting, government announcement and unclassified material
- primary sources within each big three's military services, and from other human nation's militaries
-observation and data from recent military engagements against other races, primarily the Relay 314 incident and anti-slaver operations near Batarian space
-testimonies of council race's military personnel that, in some capacity or another, have served alongside human militaries
NAVAL DOCTRINE: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
American Naval doctrine is a continuation of American ocean navy doctrines established one hundred years ago. After a conflict known as "Second World War", battleships and cruisers with big guns fell out of favor with human navies, and the aircraft carrier rose in prominence, especially in the USA. The carrier is a massive ship, as long as a battleship, with the main purpose of transporting fighter planes and drones into battle. It is lightly armed, with only a few points defense stations and missile launchers, and lightly armored, the flight hangar presenting a major vulnerability. Its main offensive weapons are the strike craft it carries, capable of establishing space superiority, overwhelm point defenses, and dealing crippling blows with the use of specialized torpedoes and missiles. Given their small size and excellent maneuverability, they are virtually immune to big guns fire.
The American carrier deploys far away from the battlefield, far enough that most weapons cannot reliably target them. Planes use micro FTL jumps to close the distance and engage enemy ships. Cruisers and destroyers are tasked with defending the main carrier force. To that end, American cruisers are the only ships to carry spinal cannons, as they are tasked with flanking protection against capital ships, although they do carry an impressive array of heavy anti-ship cruise missiles. The destroyer is a smaller ship, carrying only missiles, mostly anti-aircraft, and torpedoes, and are used to provide area defense and finish off ships crippled by fighter attacks.
Their fleet is also superbly suited to provide space to ground support. The vertical launching systems presented on most of their ships being able to fire a variety of air-to-surface cruise and ballistic missiles, and the carrier can support a large invasion force if equipped with enough shuttles.
NAVAL DOCTRINE: THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Chinese naval doctrine grew as the country became a superpower, rivaling the USA during the first decades of the current century. As such, their fleets were designed to combat the carrier first and foremost, both on oceans and in space. The solution found by the Chinese was the liberal use of missiles capable of engaging targets at stand-off range, so to not put the launching ship in harms way. Their flagships are enormous missile ships called "Missile Battlecruisers", equipped with more than 600 vertical launcher cells, and carrying a variety of cruise missiles and heavy torpedoes with different warheads: nuclear, shaped charge, anti-armor, EMP capable, designed specifically to counter various defense mechanisms on an enemy ship. Their missile technology is advanced, reports state that their new generation of ordnance can perform FTL jumps to close in faster with their target and evade most forms of defenses.
As is common with human navies, their cruisers are the most similar ship to ours (and by ours, I mean council species). They have spinal mounted guns firing mass accelerated rounds. But the Chinese cruiser also has hangar facilities to deploy fighter jets to counter enemy fighters, yet another design choice made explicitly with American doctrine in mind. Also common in human navies, the Chinese destroyer is tasked with area protection, using anti-aircraft and anti-missile missiles and cannons.
NAVAL DOCTRINE: EUROPEAN FEDERATION
The "wildcat" human navy, their doctrines do not stem from direct competition with other navies. Instead, their ships were designed following the old battleship doctrine of human navies pre-World War.
And it resulted in a navy surprisingly like ours.
The European's capital ships are basically battleships but, instead of a very powerful main gun spinally mounted, and several less powerful broadsides, the European battleship carries its main guns in turrets, capable of rotating and covering a 270º angle. Each gun is somewhat less powerful than the average turian's cruiser's main gun, some 40% of energy output. But each turret carries 3 of these guns, and each ship has 14 turrets along its dorsal side. Unlike Council's ships, they do not fire kinetic projectiles accelerated using mass effect fields, instead, they use molted alloys, accelerated via powerful electromagnetic rails. We believe this type of particle lance was retrieved from the Prothean Archive in Mars and is, in fact, the technology preferred by the Protheans. Why no other Earth nation decided to use such technology is unknown now. Instead of broadside cannons, European battleships have an impressive array of chemically propelled anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns, firing slugs ranging from 30mm to 150mm, mostly as anti-air fire. Some short-range missiles for point defense are also observed.
Their cruisers are scaled down versions of their battleships, and serve, much like ours, as flagships for small formations and as screening forces for large fleet actions. Their destroyers, like for the Americans and Chinese, act as a mobile anti-aircraft/anti-missile platform, protecting the main fleet against small, fast-moving targets.
As for their tactics, it's the opposite of what you'd expect from a council race. Their fleets do not stay at extreme ranges, engaging with their main weapons (although they can do so, all turrets in front of the bridge can fire fowards at the same time, given different elevations of each turret of the pair and the sloped geometry of the hull). Instead, they prefer to micro FTL jump right into knife fight range. Since their main guns are turreted and can turn faster than a whole ship turning to bring its main gun to bear, they have an extreme advantage over council's capital ships. The most glaring example of this tactic is the European "Battlecruiser": a battleship without 2 of its turrets, lightly armored and overly shielded, and carrying two eezo cores, making it possible for the ship to jump in the middle of an enemy formation, unleash fire, and quickly jump back, without having to recharge or vent their cores.
HUMAN GROUND WARFARE
If their naval tactics are highly variable between themselves, human ground warfare tactics are surprisingly consistent between countries, and will be familiar to turians.
Humans fight their ground wars with overwhelming force, making use of combined arms operations and fast-moving offensives to encircle enemy formations and destroy them. Any weakness on a foe's front will the site of a breaktrhoug led by a spearhead of tanks and armored vehicles bent on destroying all supporting units behind enemy lines. Infantry is mostly used to mop up the encircled pockets and for urban combat, as it is fundamental to protect the armored columns from enemy ground forces hiding in buildings or other urban terrain.
On the defense, humans like to establish a multilayer, muti-depth defense system. If a part of their line is broken, it's common for the defenders to fall back, lure the attackers into predeterminate kill zones and slaughter them. They call this tactic an "elastic defense".
Tying down enemy forces on hard to conquer objectives, like fortresses, mountain ranges or cities also allows humans to launch devastating counter attacks once the enemy weakens its flanks to support the main thrust.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
One thing worth noting is that, althoug extremely capable war vessels, no human capital ship can be considered a Dreadnought in the terms of the Treaty of Farixen, as the treaty defined said ships by the lenght of its main gun. The only vessels equiped with spinal mounted cannons are cruise-size, and even then, the europeans do not use them.
A/N: Our first cannon characters appear! Desola and Jack Harper,who in this timeline is a CIA spook
Edits: Some typos, some corrections to the internal logic of the AU