Chapter 4: Shackles into Swords

November 16, 228

Sigurd's Cradle, Decoris System

"Bogies at point three-four. Eight aerospace assets in staggered formation." Carlsen heard the sensors officer call out from her seat beside the helm, the bridge's weapons systems operator joining in a moment later.

"Vampire intercepted! Bogies at point one-seven and seven-six destroyed!"

"Admiral, CSV Mother of Exiles is on-station." Carlsen watched a quartet of friendly IFF pings appear on his tactical display, emerging from FTL at the tip of Carlsen's formation. At the head of this new battlegroup was the Republic-class Battlecruiser Mother of Exiles, The Council would consider it a dreadnought, but the Confederacy took a slightly different approach with these vessels. They were lighter armored and shielded than a standard Council dreadnought, but closer in speed and agility to a heavy cruiser. They could outgun anything that can outrun it, and outrun anything that could outgun it. She was flanked by a Fortitude-class cruiser and two Majestic-class frigates. Their gamble had paid off… this roving pirate band had finally been cornered.

A restrained cheer broke out across the bridge of the Geronimo as they watched a hypervelocity slug from the Mother of Exiles spear through the bow of a pirate cruiser, thin wisps of debris scattering off into the void as the round continued on a trajectory into deep space. With the main striking power of their ramshackle flotilla destroyed, the pirates decided to strike the colors and surrender, powering down their weapons and drives. In no time at all, shuttles ferrying marines docked with the few remaining pirate vessels. There was some resistance on these vessels, but it was quickly put down by the Confederate marines.

Carlsen was more than happy to forward the update to the nearest Confederate comm buoy. Yet another roving pirate band out of Omega had finally been cornered and brought to justice. With a quick swipe across the haptic display, Carlsen brought up a tightbeam communication to the nearby world of Sanctum, the recently-independent colony world that had reached out to the Confederacy for anti-piracy support. The small population of just over 200,000 residents hardly had the means to stop the constant raids on their trade convoys and settlements, and the Confederacy was more than willing to sharpen its fangs against the pirate threat.

"Governor Callux, this is Fleet Admiral Carlsen. Happy to report that the pirate flotilla has been intercepted and destroyed. We've managed to recover several tons of refined platinum and palladium seized from the convoy, along with six frigate-weight vessels. Give the word, and we'll tug the vessels into geo-stat orbit for recovery."

"Admiral, you have no idea how many people's lives you've improved today." The world-weary Turian governor's face fizzled into existence on Carlsen's projected screen. His facial markings showed him as a native of Haliat, and he had more than a few scars that criss-crossed his carapace. "Your people kept your end of the bargain, so I'll keep mine. When can we expect the Confederate advisors to be planetside?"

"They should be arriving within the next two standard days." Carlsen smiled, leaning back in his chair. It was a wonderful stroke of luck for the Confederacy that Sanctum needed help when it did. Now the Confederate Navy had a new refueling point, and the Army a new staging ground for peacekeeping and humanitarian missions into the greater Terminus. They weren't part of the Confederacy, but Sanctum was now squarely in the Confederate sphere. "Until then, we're moving to a defensive position over Sanctum."

November 28, 228

Sigurd's Cradle, Decoris System (Sanctum)

"Hey!" Amilee shouted out over the barking of gunfire. The short, two to three round bursts from the tripod-mounted HMG a few lanes to her right had caught her attention, and she saw a Turian awkwardly hunched down to fire the weapon very clearly designed for Humans. "Hey!" She shouted again, finally catching the Turian's attention. "It's a machine gun! Fuckin' send it!"

She watched the Turian look confused for a moment, followed by a soft chuckle. "Okay!" He nodded, jamming down on the butterfly trigger and sending a burst of nearly forty rounds downrange, earning a quick thumbs-up from Amilee. These deployments were getting more and more common for the Black Berets, not that Amilee was complaining. Running weapons familiarization with the Confederacy's new partner states was a cushy posting compared to some.

Sanctum had already agreed to purchase a wide array of Confederate arms and vehicles, lacking the industry to create their own. The effectiveness of the Confederate equipment was another great selling point. As if to accent her point, she glanced over to the left to find the platoon-level heavy weapons lanes going through the FGM-251 'Ballista' anti-tank guided missile system. "Spirits!" A Turian declared, surprised to see the shoulder-fired missile arc straight up into the air before screaming down on its intended target: an old rover that they had scrounged up for target practice.

"Good shit!" Amilee's comrade complimented, patting the Turian on the shoulder as he approached. After showing how to power down the fire control computer, he stood back upright and shouted out over the weapons fire that was starting to wind down. "Oi! Cold range! Power 'em down!"

December 25, 229

Erebus System, Atreus (Tessera)

"Generals, thank you for coming." Kerensky offered a hand to the assembled foreign officers that had come to participate in the hardware trials. There was a Turian, Salarian, Asari, and even a Volus that had attended to both see the effectiveness of their equipment in the upcoming trials, and to see this new style of warfighting that the Confederacy had seemingly pioneered.

"And thank you for the invitation, General Kerensky." The Turian, General Kieran Victus nodded, being the last to shake Kerensky's hand. "Truthfully, I'm surprised that your people are willing to produce foreign arms on license at all."

"We're still newcomers, we might still have things to learn." Kerensky smirked. Truthfully, even he didn't believe that. Even from his limited understanding, the Council races' definition of war was a radically different one from a Human's. They hadn't had a major conflict in centuries, and every conflict they did have devolved into static, attritional warfare. To them, a concept as seemingly obvious as the carrier was a foreign one, and they seemed to have a complete lack of heavy armor in their ground armies.

After the standard political meet-and-greet that Kerensky half paid attention to, they finally arrived at the purpose of the day, to see how the newly-organized Confederate Federal Army got on with this equipment. Being an infantry officer, Kerensky was especially interested in the small arms. He didn't hate the idea of the Council's standard designs; weapons that shaved off small shards of metal to be accelerated down the barrel, but he had to question the logic behind adding more weight and bulk to small arms if the act of 'reloading' was still needed in the form of thermal clips.

"Corporal." Kerensky nodded, patting one of his soldiers on the shoulder as he approached, looking downrange to see the surprisingly-poor grouping off the Turian-provided Phaeston rifle, even at 200 meters. "Your thoughts?" He paid close attention to the Turian general's expression as the infantryman explained his opinion on the rifle.

"Thing's front-heavy as all hell, sir." The corporal explained, powering down the inductive rails and placing it back down on the table. "And in the interest of candor, sir… the sights seem like more of a suggestion than a tool. Even with the internal optic, the rounds just… they don't go where the hell you tell them to."

"May I?" Kerensky gestured to the rifle, prompting the corporal to take a step back from the station to allow the General to put a few rounds downrange. Even just picking it up, Kerensky could immediately tell what the corporal meant. The grip itself wasn't the worst thing he ever held, but that was more subjective than anything. The weight was what immediately grabbed his attention. Gravity just wanted to yank the barrel down to the floor with all the added weight up front. The stock was equally atrocious, with Kerensky practically having to jam a jagged piece of polymer into his shoulder to get a proper cheek weld with the thing, though he chalked that up to differences in physiology. If the need arose, modifying the stock wouldn't be all that hard.

He flipped the weapon's internal power supply on, and sent a few bursts of five rounds downrange. The recoil dampeners were working as intended, he barely felt the impulse, but he truly understood what the corporal meant when he mentioned the rifle's inaccuracy. It wasn't that it shot too far in one direction, the rounds just seemed to fly all over. They all hit within the roughly human-sized target at 200 yards, but that 'accuracy' wouldn't hold out to 500 or 600 yards. With a hum, he made the rifle safe and placed it back down before stepping back.

While Kerensky was focused downrange, the Armax Arsenal representative had apparently joined them, seeing a Confederate Brigadier General firing his company's rifle. "I don't know how well I'd trust that rifle, frankly. For close-quarters and urban fighting, it'd perform admirably enough, but anything past 500 meters and the Phaeston would struggle."

"I understand, General." The Armax rep nodded, mandibles flaring for a moment. Kerensky didn't know the meaning of the gesture, but his tone was neutral enough. "When we designed the Phaeston, our main design considerations were a balance between precision and recoil mitigation."

"And believe me, the recoil dampeners are excellent." Kerensky nodded. "But… how do I say this? Generally speaking, Confederate soldiers don't fire their weapons on automatic unless they're a squad's dedicated machine-gunner or automatic rifleman. That's how they're trained, at least." Kerensky gestured to the First Lieutenant that was following their small group. "Lieutenant, care to demonstrate?"

"Yes, sir." She nodded, stepping up to the lane and removing the rifle from the magnetic strip on the back of her armor. Her rifle was the Federated Browning M206, a local design that was also in the running for the Confederacy's service rifle. It had served as the Valkyrate's service rifle for over twenty years already, and was well-liked from Kerensky's understanding. Victus and the Armax representative watched intently as the lieutenant took up a position at the shooting station and brought the rifle up to her shoulder, firing off ten rounds on semi-automatic at a relatively untouched region of the metal target, the red bullseye marker in the center. All but three of the rounds landed dead-center in the target, with the three 'misses' only missing by an inch or so.

"Certainly impressive, though I'm sure you understand that rapid, sustained fire breaks kinetic barriers far faster." The Armax rep nodded, subtly digging at the Confederacy's training.

"Impacts with sufficient kinetic energy also accomplish the same task." Kerensky nodded, grabbing a spare magazine from the Lieutenant after a quick gesture to her. He thumbed one of the cobalt-tungsten projectiles out from the magazine and held it up. "The Phaeston's projectiles are what, a gram, traveling at…?"

"About 1,847 meters per second at the muzzle." The Armax rep nodded.

"An impressive velocity, but the equation goes one-half mass multiplied by the velocity squared." Kerensky tapped the loose round with a finger. "This 6.8mm round weighs roughly 7.8 grams with a muzzle velocity of 1,524 meters per second. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just shy of nine times the kinetic energy from a single impact, no?" As the Armax rep was considering Kerensky's words, he continued. "I saw what this rifle could do on Aeia. Three rounds."

"Pardon?"

"Three rounds was all it took to knock out the personal shields of the Eclipse mercenaries on Aeia." Kerensky explained. "I'm sure your rifle is perfectly serviceable for the doctrine of the Turian Hierarchy, but I'm not sure it fits with Confederate warfighting strategy."

Likely out of curiosity more than disbelief, Victus asked to fire off a few rounds with the M206, to which Kerensky gave a friendly nod and gestured to the shooting station. After another ten rounds from the Confederate rifle, Victus gave a soft "Huh…" as he appraised the rifle in his hands. "You know… I can't argue with results." Victus gestured to the target, striking eight of ten rounds dead center. "I'm almost tempted to ask if these are for sale, the Blackwatch would love these things… with a few modifications for Turian anatomy."

The remainder of the day was relatively simple, with Kerensky jotting down notes on his datapad for what he would personally recommend for the Infantry. The M206 was a shoe-in, given how handily it outperformed every other offered rifle in the trial. When they examined the handguns on offer, it was a toss-up to him between the Donegal State Armory C-224 sidearm and the Asari-produced Acolyte. His only issue with the Acolyte was its complex nature, given how reliant it was on warp fields. Just about every other variety of small arm was a complete Confederate win in Kerensky's eyes. Every offered marksman's rifle from a foreign manufacturer was either too bulky and cumbersome or too specialized to be widely-adopted. The SMGs on offer from their foreign manufacturers were simply too inaccurate, even for a small-caliber weapon meant to be used at close range. To the General, it was relatively clear that in most ways, Confederate small arms were simply superior. Sure, there was an added layer to their logistics chain in the form of the slugs that the weapons fired, but in his eyes that wasn't a strong enough case to use clearly inferior designs for the infantry.

The armored vehicle demonstrations were even more hilariously one-sided. The Confederate Parliamentary Procurement Board didn't even bother putting tanks on the list of requests for foreign manufacturers, since it seemed like the Council races had little to no experience in tank design or doctrine. The closest thing any of them had to a traditional full-tracked tank was the infantry fighting vehicle. Even with those, the Confederate design that had been in use by Donegal's armed forces before the military reorganization seemed far more capable. Rather than the single large cannon and coaxial machine gun that most of the Council-provided IFVs were armed with, the Confederate design that was up for consideration featured a notably smaller 35mm autocannon, coaxial-mount HMG, and externally-mounted guided missile launcher that was capable of engaging both armored vehicles and slow-moving aircraft.

The observing foreign officers seemed impressed by the performance of the Confederate ground vehicles, but it was the aerospace craft that really impressed them. The Confederacy was so confident in the performance of its aerospace assets that they didn't even bother putting out an order for demonstration models from foreign manufacturers, and the Council observers quickly understood why when they saw the air show that the 1st Fleet's air wings were putting on.

The stand-out design was the Federated Lockheed S/F-75 Aerospace Superiority Fighter. The single-seat aerospace fighter could achieve blindingly-fast atmospheric speeds of Mach 3.4 at atmospheric pressures comfortable for Humans, and its fourth-generation element zero core in combination with its vectored thrust engines made it capable of blinding displays of maneuverability and speed in the void, even compared to the most advanced Turian or Asari designs. Its sister design, the F/A-76, was equally impressive as a naval strike fighter due to its small radar cross-section and reduced thermal emissions which allowed it to launch its ordnance at enemy vessels before the local point-defense could even register its existence. Kerensky could swear that he saw an Asari officer taking notes on the performance of Confederate aerospace craft.

By the time that the whole ordeal was concluded, Kerensky was confident that the weapons trials had fulfilled their secondary purpose. He wasn't sure until today, but the Confederacy had certainly proven itself far more capable than any of the other races had expected. Sure, the other galactic powers might try to replicate the Confederate designs and doctrines, but it would take them years to build up the expertise to use anything remotely like their equipment effectively. By the time Kerensky returned to his home at the edge of Tessera, he had already seen multiple articles on the Extranet mentioning the surprising capabilities of the Confederate military. The nonviolent show of force had worked wonders.

February 22, 230

Erebus System, Atreus (Tessera, Parliament Hall)

Judging by the sheer number of delegates in the room, the Confederacy's staunch stance on foreign policy in the Terminus had paid off. Its open offer of military and economic assistance to any neighboring state or colony had led to this moment, as nearly two-dozen delegates from seven separate Terminus states and the Quarian Migrant Fleet were sat around the conference table at the heart of Parliament Hall to discuss the creation of a pact of mutual defense. Much to Kerensky's surprise, it wasn't the Confederacy that had suggested the creation of this alliance; rather, it was a representative of the Quarian Migrant Fleet in the form of Admiral Ixia who had suggested it.

First Minister Ashton Severesk sat at the head of the delegation, having just recently been elected to his office a year prior. If all went well, he would go down in history as the First Minister that took the first steps to uniting the Terminus in common defense. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming." The olive-skinned First Minister nodded to everyone present. "I know that the journey here was more difficult for some, and that's what we seek to change today. Should everything proceed well today, I hope to formally welcome all of you to the Erebus Treaty Organization by the end of the year."

The past two months had been spent in preliminary talks for this very meeting, so everything went far smoother than Kerensky ever could have expected. By the time the first round of talks had concluded, they had already hashed out four articles of the treaty's charter. The first four articles included provisions that reaffirmed the treaty's primary purpose of ensuring peace and stability in the Terminus, abiding by widely-accepted galactic conventions for international relations and armed conflict, the commitment to democratic processes, mutual assistance in economic development, and fostering of friendly relations within the alliance.

On the second day of talks, the next six articles were hammered out by the present delegations, with the sixth being the single most hotly-debated. By the time of its completion, provisions were set in place that the signatories of the treaty would consider an attack on one to be an attack on all parties, and that in the interest of mutual defense, a unified command structure would be formed to present a united front to any attacker. These provisions didn't simply include the territories of the signatories, but it also included their forces, vessels, and space stations to cater to the interests of the Quarians, who didn't have any formally-recognized territory of their own.

On the third and final day of the talks, the final provisions allowing for future signatories to be added to the treaty, procedures for leaving the alliance should any signatory government desire, and the processes for ratification were all codified in the treaty. By the end of the week, translated copies of the treaty had been transmitted to the governments of all present delegations for their respective legislative bodies to ratify.

Color Kerensky surprised when he woke up, just over two weeks after the first round of talks, only to wander into the living room to find his wife and children watching a press conference taking place on the steps of Parliament Hall with the headline 'Erebus Treaty Organization Ratified by All Prospects.'. "Hate to tell you, hon… but it looks like you just got promoted." Kat began, tapping a small tablet by her side to rewind a few minutes of the conference to the First Minister answering a question from a Citadel-based news firm.

"What will the makeup of this security council be? Will they all be Humans?" The Asari asked, the camera panning back to the First Minister a moment later.

"The members of the ETO Security Council will be appointed by the heads of state of each signatory, so I can't speak for our new partners in the Terminus. I can, however, say that I'm hoping to appoint Major General Aleksandr Kerensky as the Confederacy's representative to the ETO Security Council."

"Ah, christ…" Kerensky sighed. He had to admire Minister Severesk's move there. It just got real hard for him to refuse the job offer now that it came with another star on the collar.

February 21, 2094 (Council Calendar)

Widow Nebula, Citadel

Councilor Tevos stared at the galaxy map in bewilderment. News of the Confederacy's new alliance with several smaller Terminus states had just fully reached the rest of the galaxy, and it was certainly making waves. Overnight, the balance of galactic power had shifted drastically. While the newcomers were untested in large-scale conflicts, they had already demonstrated a surprising level of military capability with their recent military procurement trials being opened to foreign manufacturers. With any other race, Tevos would have seen the widespread adoption of domestic equipment as a purely political move, but this was different. For their doctrine, the Confederacy's own equipment was leagues beyond anything the Council's could achieve. All that needed to be seen was if that doctrine could hold up.

Now that nearly a full quarter of what was widely-recognized as the Terminus Systems fell under a new alliance, that time might come sooner than anyone expected. The heart of the Terminus' criminal elements, the Omega Nebula, was squarely against the borders of this new Confederate-led defensive alliance. To make matters worse, there were rumblings from the Traverse that the Batarians were beginning to heavily militarize their unofficial borders with the Confederacy. While the primary members of the Council recognized the fact that the ETO was a purely defensive alliance, the Batarians very clearly viewed it as posturing, an attack on their interests in the Terminus, or both. Technically speaking, there was nothing in the founding charter of the Citadel Council that made its military assistance clauses purely for defensive wars, so it wasn't unreasonable to think that the Batarians would try to drag the rest of the galaxy into their war if they attacked the Confederacy.

The Confederacy had managed to situate itself perfectly in galactic politics a mere seven years after first contact. The nebula a vast majority of Confederate space resided in was awash with Element Zero deposits, provided an additional layer of defense for the Confederacy by obscuring their fleet movements and making intercepting their communications difficult if not impossible, and gave them access to the wider Terminus and the Traverse, with only one relay transit route to each of these regions. With how dependent many of the frontier colonies were becoming on Confederate exports for their own industry, the Confederacy had even managed to secure a good bit of economic influence over the Council. They could undercut Council Eezo exports and still turn a massive profit. At the rate things were going, the 'Confederate Dollar' could come to be more valuable than the Credit within two decades

The worst part of it was how hard it would be to sway public opinion against the Confederacy if the need arose. Their actions during first contact, their intervention on Aeia, and their continuing successes in stabilizing the independent colonies in the Terminus, while treating them as partners rather than client states, had given them a stellar reputation. It would be impossible to get the actual figures with any acceptable degree of accuracy, but the most conservative estimates projected that twenty million people of all species had already immigrated to the Confederacy, likely seeing the opportunity to build a new life in a young nation with vast opportunity as too good to pass up.

The Salarian Councilor was already proposing a small buildup of listening posts and defense stations in Salarian space bordering the Terminus, and the new Turian Councilor had already suggested an expansion to the Citadel Defense Fleet and an attempt to embed agents within the Confederacy to monitor their military action, but Tevos was quick to dismiss the latter suggestion. "We can't overlook the danger that the Migrant Fleet now poses to the rest of the galaxy." The Turian Councilor added. "The other members of this 'ETO' could view any attempt to keep the Migrant Fleet from clogging up interstellar transit routes as a justification for war."

Tevos sighed. She had to admit, the Confederacy had pulled off a political masterstroke with that move. Any negotiations with the Migrant Fleet, and Confederacy by extension, put both of them in a position of strength. The Confederacy had already escalated an attempted blockade on the Migrant Fleet's civilian fleet by the Batarians, and the Batarians had actually backed down. If anything, that might have the unintended effect of emboldening the Migrant Fleet to enter Council space with far more regularity. "Our best option at the moment is to open channels with the Confederate Embassy. I'm sure they will be understanding of both the security and economic concerns that come with granting the Migrant Fleet passage through a Relay."

"And if they aren't?" Her Salarian counterpart asked.

"Look, we can pick this up tomorrow." Tevos sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration. They had been talking in circles for an hour now. By the time Tevos had returned to her home on the Citadel, she couldn't shake the strange dazed feeling. The entire political status quo of the galaxy had been tossed out the window over the past few years. There had never been a first contact scenario like this in the entire, millennia-long history of the Council.

A pit formed in her gut as a realization slammed into her. If Aria were to try anything against the Confederacy, she might leverage her… old relationship with Tevos to get assistance. She shook her head, knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to contact Aria without compromising her position on the Citadel. She wouldn't be sleeping well tonight.