United Nations Headquarters, New York City, FC+ 6 days
The circular table was full, behind it, several more chairs were currently occupied by even more people. The tension in the room weighing heavy on everyone's shoulders.
"Gentlemen, I've called for an urgent session of this Security Council because my government has come into possession of sensitive information regarding the situation at Shanxi", said the American envoy to the UN, Jon Grimson. Before he could even finish speaking, Guo Wei, the Chinese envoy, rose from his seat and spoke in protest: "The United States has no rights to meddle with Chinese affairs! This is an absurd breach of national sovereignty!"
Secretary General Hernandes also rose, trying to rein in what could very well turn into a diplomatic disaster. "Gentlemen! Please, let us hear what our colleague has to say, it may be information vital for Chinese security".
From his seat across the American representative, Fyodor Vasylov of Russia also spoke: "While indeed I'm not very enthusiastic about American meddling in other countries' affairs, I'm also curious about what kind of information that eluded China could the Americans get their hands on."
Satisfied with the unexpected support from his Russian counterpart, Grimson kept going: "I have intel suggesting that Shanxi was, in fact, attacked." He took a pause, for dramatic effect, "by extraterrestrial forces".
The silence in the room was palpable, then, laughter. "Please", said Wei, "What could you possibly have that proves your wild accusation?"
Grimson frowned, the telegram the CIA got was nothing more than a couple of words long, but still, it was unquestionable that it came from Shanxi, CIA's tech ensured no one could spoof a point of origin, not even themselves. By dropping the proverbial bomb, he hoped to throw his Chinese colleague into a wall, and that Wei would do the rest of the job for him. But the old man was sharper than he looked.
Undeterred, Grimson said: "intelligence reports coming from Shanxi confirm it, our sources on the ground are good, and we can verify 100% the point of origin from the transmission" He didn't know how the hell the telegram was sent, blackout and all, but it was, and timestamp put it at just 7 yours prior to this meeting.
"A simple text message is barely proof of anything" said Vasylov, somewhat disappointed at the "proof's" lack of quality. "And how the hell could your man in Shanxi send everything with a blockade in place?"
For the first time the European representative decided to talk. Julia Koopmans straightened her back in her chair and said: "That's because China is maintaining the blockade, even though the original cause is long gone. Official data is being sent and received by classified channels. The Americans probably just hijacked part of the bandwidth to send theirs. Oh, and by the way? Totally alien invasion, we confirmed it just a couple of hours ago"
This time it was Grimson who looked exasperated. "And how do you know that"
Koopmans just smirked: "Wouldn't you like to know"
Before Wei could launch another tirade of "national sovereignty and western imperialism", Vasylov gave a small chuckle. "You can keep your secrets all you want my friend" he said, looking Wei straight into his eyes, "but if the aliens come here to Sol, looking for the people who shot them, I'll be pointing at Beijing and enjoying a good vodka when they blow your country up, the way I see, if you are dealing with this alone, the consequences are yours alone too. It's not a human problem, it's a Chinese problem"
Wei looked defeated, no way he could control the narrative if anyone else already knew the truth. Fernandez, diplomatic as ever, offered him a way out. "If your government agrees to disclose the whole truth, that Shanxi was invaded by an alien force and is in need of assistance, we can try and sent help, I'm sure my friends here wouldn't want to be left out of a possible victory against alien forces."
Wei's spine suddenly propped back to standing. "That won't be needed, dear general secretary, for the Chinese fleet that left Arcturus days ago has already destroyed the enemy's armada in the system".
Everyone looked surprised at the revelation, Wei smirked and kept talking "the continuation of the comms blockade was just to ensure people back home didn't know the truth too soon, if these aliens sent another force to avenge their fallen, it could turn into a very difficult situation to Beijing should we lose this battle. We wanted to be safe"
Fernandes frowned, angry at the subterfuge of the Chinese diplomat. "Still, my offer stands. Go public with this information, and sent us whatever you have on the aliens, and UN fleets will be there to help you in case of a new attack"
Asari Cruiser Neframe, en route to Shanxi System, FC +6
Matriarch Benezia was, just four hours ago, enjoying a quite evening, drinking wine and watching a sappy Salarian sitcom (not that she would ever admit doing so to her kid or, goddess forbid, her ex) when a rather desperate Councilor Tevos called her. The poor Matron was practically begging her help, apparently the Turian's concept of "first contact" involved space battles and ground invasions.
So here she was now, on a Asari cruiser en route to the system at the heart of the latest conundrum, acting as a Council's envoy to try and mediate peace. Privately, se was anxious and excited, not every day one could actively participate in a First Contact. She thanked the goddess for the proximity to Thessia also, long voyages on military ships were never something she was fond of. She returned to the dossier sent to her by Tevos, apparently based on reports of a certain Rear-Admiral Gaius, who was involved in the fighting. These… "human"? The admiral wasn't sure about it, looked terrifyingly like Asari, minus the head fringes, and apparently were duo-gendered, if the quite different silhouettes of two "specimens" were indicative of males and females. She even got a (very) basic translator, based on intercepted communications the Turians got and processed through a linguistic VI the Salarians made.
Her musings were interrupted when the ship's communications system alerted all crew to relay transit. She felt the slight unease that always came after a successful jump and gave a little smile, going back to her work. Until she received an urgent message through her quarter's speaker
"Matriarch Benezia, please come to the bridge, your presence has been requested by Captain Enala"
She turned her data pad off but stopped before leaving her quarters. What could the captain want with her? It wasn't a security breach, at least for now, that would have generated a ship-wide alarm. Could be that the probable Matron wanted to ingratiate herself with a Matriarch of her standing?
Her doubts got even bigger when she exited her quarters and went to the bridge. The closer she got, the more… erratic the situation became, sailors were going in all directions, some even shoving her, apparently in great haste. Entering the bridge, she found her answers in the form of a very scared Matron and three very menacing ships right in front of the Neframe.
"Matriarch", said the captain, "We're being hailed by those ships, they look human, but nothing like the schematics we got from the reports. The language is also… different."
Benezia was taken aback. They should not be in this system! Surely, it was close to Shanxi, but if the Turians were right and Shanxi is a colony, it meant that their reach was even wider than everyone thought at first. And this was not even the biggest news. Humans, but in different ships, and speaking different languages! That could mean that this was truly a multicultural empire! Normally, language and military hardware were the first to fall into standardization, to see such a diversity!
But the cynical in her, damn Aethyta, pointed that it could be the exact opposite: a race so fractured that unification or at least cooperation was never achieved by them, and several nation states existed in a state of competition. Not since the Krogan had the Asari found a civilization still on the nation state period! And never had one been able to achieve spaceflight before!
"Open the comm link Captain, let's hear what they want to tell us"
The image flickered to life, and a woman who looked human, but not human like the ones the turians found was sitting on a chair. Her face was darker, and her eyes had a different form, they were rounder, not narrower like the humans in Shanxi. Her translator also clearly failed to work on their strange language.
She had an idea, if they were from the same species, surely, they could recognize one of their other languages, so she turned the contraption on and said "Greetings my friends, my name is Benezia T'Soni, and I come in peace"
The reaction on the female indicated to her that her theory was right. She quickly disabled her speaker and conferred with other people outside the camera's view. That went on for a few minutes until, finally, she came back, with a bulging earpiece. "We greet you, Benezia T'Soni. I'm commodore Clara Asfield-Salah, from the battlecruiser Bagration, you have entered European space. We'd kindly ask you to disable your guns and state your intentions."
Benezia could tell that the message had been translated more times than recommended, because the garble in High Athena she was hearing was barely comprehensible. Still, she got the gist of the message. The human kept talking
"Also, we would like to ask, politely of course, why do you know how to speak in Chinese?"
Ah, here's here answer. Various cultures, same planet, not a unified language. What an intriguing discovery! Her Little Wing would surely love to study this fascinating people.
"We have contacted your race earlier this week. Apparently, they spoke this language you call "Chinese", I was an envoy to try and diffuse a serious situation that happened"
All color drained from the woman's face. She once again cut the microphone from her end and the murmuring started anew, only this time it seemed… louder, more chaotic. Benezia was worried, what if she said something wrong? One could never underestimate what can and cannot be a grievous offense to other cultures.
ESV Bargation, Exodus Cluster, FC + 6
Commodore Asfield-Salah was confused, to say the least. First, they discovered actual aliens entering the system they were patrolling. Then, they discover that the aliens flying the giant manta-ray ship looked like blue women with tentacles (very beautiful woman also). And now, apparently, they spoke Google Translator Chinese and had been in contact with the actual chines for days? No one told her nothing about that! Unless… Unless the Chinese were hiding the fact that the blue space beautiful girls had started a war against them, she did say she was going to defuse a serious situation. Thinking again, the whole situation with the blackouts out of Shanxi were sketchy…
She immediately placed a call to her superiors, and, after explaining the situation, they told her to call their superiors and finally, someone picked up the phone. And it was Vice-Admiral Baltazar, chief of Naval Intelligence and rumored to be one of the most ruthless intelligence officers Europe had.
"Greetings, Commodore. By now I imagine you had quite a lot of questions, and they can all be answered in time. But first, we should go somewhere more private, the information I'm about to divulge is not for all ears"
With that ominous warn, Asfield-Salah got up from her chair, gave a half-hearted apologize to Benezia, asked them to please wait a little bit and that they would power down their weapons as a gesture of friendship, and went to her quarters. Once there, she picked up the call again, and confirmed to the Vice-Admiral that she was, indeed, in a secure location.
"Ahh, very well commodore. Do you remember the first news about the communications blackout with Shanxi? They started about five days ago but had been going on for quite some time before", she nodded, "a solar flare didn't cause that, evidently, and Europe has spent the better part of a week trying to figure out what happened. Our assets in the region were able to confirm, a day ago, that a first contact with a hostile race had occurred, and a battle was raging in Shanxi. The Chinese had not broken the news for the wider world, and Brussels has instructed us to keep quiet as well. But now, with your discovery, we may be able to use this in our advantage."
Knowing that denying the wishes of a spook was the surest way to an unmarked grave, she decided to go along with whatever crazy plan he had in mind
"Invite this… Benezia to talks abroad your ship, tell her the truth, that we are not the ones that were attacked in Shanxi, and try to discover if the attackers are even from her own nation. We cannot presume there is only one alien race, or that it is a unified one. We'll be sending representatives from the Foreign Ministry and the Intelligence services to help you; they are expected to arrive at your location in 36 hours. Until then, stall her. Tell her that she may not invade sovereign European territories, which is true, and she have to wait for our rulers to solve this unfortunate situation."
Great, he wants her to arrest or kidnap the pretty alien traveling on a very big ship.
"See that it is done, commodore Asfield-Salah, your success will have enormous benefits to the Federation, you will have my commendations and the thankfulness of High Command."
With that, the Vice-Admiral flickered from existence. Clara was confused, worried and a thousand other sentiments she could not even name. Oh, the things you do for your country…
A/N: I think it got a little bit confusing, but all those events are happening at the same time, more or less. Gaius sent the report to the Council and Tevos immediately sprung to action, trying to defuse the situation. At the same time, Harper's telegram hit Washington. The Security Meeting at the UN, where the Chinese came clean about the causes of Shanxi and Benezia's team entering a new system happens at the same time, roughly a couple of hours after the reports are sent and verified.
Other thing I thought important to let you guys know is a timeline for my au, here we go:
2020': aftershocks of Covid, responses to climate crises intensified, political instability. The USA's strategic shift to the indo-pacific intensifies, making China the priority and relegating Europe to the background, EU integration deepens in response to this. Russia starts suffering civil unrest.
2030': as renewables grow in importance for earth's grid, so does space exploration. Teams start landing in Mars. Prothean ruins discovered in 2033 by a joint American-japanese mission. After months of discussions, it was decided to invite all countries to research the massive data banks found.
2040': Prothean tech revolutionize human tech but starting from the basics: how to achieve cold fusion, new alloys and ceramics, and the basics of eezo and the mass effect. Launching space vessels becomes as cheap as launching new cargo ships. Using a fusion torch as the main engine, it's feasible to start exploring our solar system. The abundance of material discovered led to an enormous boom in manufacturing. GDP growth was higher than 10% per year in most countries.
2050's, first half: As nations start to get used to life in space, some decide to make space their new home. Lowel City is built on mars, and several projects for terraforming Venus and Saturn's moons are underway. The welfare of the common citizen is greater than ever.
2050's, second half: an exploration on Pluto's moon Charon revealed that it was in fact a giant alien superstructure of unknown capabilities. Studying the data present at the archives, nations decided to activate the "gateway" and it works, sending Mr. Grimsom's ship several thousand light years away, in what is now know as Arcturus Strems. Several more relays are discovered in Arcturus, each leading to a different one. Expansion into the galaxy is deemed problematic without checks and balances. The Treaty of Jakarta is borne.
2060's first half: major superpowers carve their fiefdoms close to Sol and Arcturus: Europe has only one main system: The Exodus Cluster, but it contains 2 other systems, both with highly desirable colonizable planets. They also maintain a heavy presence on a system close to Arcturus stream, where a habitable planet, Benning, lies. The Americans centered their empire around Petra Nebula and expanded eastward, into territories claimed by the batarians. Horsehead Nebulas was Shanxi's system and continues to operate as the main Chinese hub for expansion. Argos Rho cluster has been recently added to their dominion.
Some small countries, unable to compete with the resources the big three poured at the colonization drive, found ways to claim their own personal fiefdoms inside human space: The Russian have built habitats around mercury, some countries like Brazil and Japan, built dome cities in planets such as Mars and Luna. Also, their most controversial decision was to form group of countries interested to colonize beyond the Big Three's borders. Colonies of Mindoir and Horizon were borne out of a heavy influx of immigration from places like Brazil, Canada, Australia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and others. Mindoir was even presented as a "joint colonization effort" by russo-canadian-mercosul (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) interests.
UN protested this by claiming that "their assets were on thin ice" and they could not reliably provide protection to far away colonies. Since it's not their jurisdictions, Europe or China could very well deny any aid to those colonies. Even after just 5 years, conflicts between the colonies and the metropolis are brewing
2066, second half: First Contact
Also, do note that I'm taking some poetic liberties with the placement of planets and Relay junctions. The official lore never gives a exact location to places like Shanxi or Mindoir, but since the former is attacked by turians, it's safe to safe it's close to Council space, and Mindoir is far enough into the Traverse that raiders can hit it.