I couldn't make up my mind so the chapter came out short and this time it's up to you to decide.

The only comments I got this time are when the next chapter will be and about the spoilers. I do not answer these, so you will have to find out for yourself by reading.

Chapter 10

= place: Citadel, month after armistice =

After the ceasefire, the humans and turians stopped all offensive actions. Admittedly, skirmishes sometimes broke out on Shanxi, but you could tell it was over. Peace talks between diplomats lasted for two weeks. Finally, the following conditions were agreed upon:

-The Systems Alliance will withdraw all forces from the Turian Hierarchy.
-The Turian Hierarchy undertakes to pay compensation for lost property and human life.
-The Turian hierarchy agrees to try turian officers who committed war crimes, but only if a turian observer is in place.
-Both parties are required to abandon all captured prisoners of war.
-The treaty comes into operation on the day it is signed.

Officially, the treaty is due to be signed today at the Citadel. As the rest of the Citadel races weren't involved in the conflict, this was considered a neutral area. Before that, however, representatives of turians, asari and salarians met to discuss how to deal with the new race, their military strength, social structure, etc. Fortunately, Benezia managed to persuade people to give them a fraction of their information and their society and history. Their counterpart Codex, which they called Wikipedia, although truncated, provided a lot of information about human society.

"Then let's get started." - Tevos said - "What do we know about humans?"

"How races are unheard of on a galactic scale." - Benezia began - "It's as if someone took some of each known race from the galaxy and put them into one. The species itself may be equal, or even more diverse, than all known races put together. Even so, their government is an intermediate democracy with an extremely strong military."

"The most surprising thing is their technological advancement." - Valern said - "They have made a greater technological leap in the last 30 years than we have since the Krogan Rebellions. They also have a long tradition of intelligence forces, some of which operate at the STG level. The rest of their intelligence agencies are also at an outstanding level. If what they said to Benezia is true, the Hierarchy will have to replace all its ciphers and access codes."

"We have the least information about their army and navy." - Sparatus said - "We only know that they use many types of energy weapons and MassEffect. We also know that they divide their ships into 3 categories. Ships that were built before the discovery of MassEffect, ships based on MassEffect, and ships that combine the two. The only information we can provide 100% is that our ships have a greater effective range than their energy weapons."

"Actually, I believe I have discovered the reason for at least some of their military successes." - General Adrien Victus said. Due to his highly non-standard approach to command, he was designated as the person responsible for discovering the vulnerability in people's tactics.

"Speak." - Fedorian said.

"While browsing the human equivalent of the Codex, I came across what people call Star Trek." - said Adrien - "This is a Sic-fic series that started during what people call 'Cold War'"

"Determining intelligence information on the basis of some sic-fic. What a stupidity. " - Sparatus snorted insultingly.

"Let him finish." - Fedorian said calmly.

"I found information about how people imagined meeting an unknown race." - Adrien said - "A few actually, but it doesn't matter now. In the series itself there were so-called 'Klingons' whose culture would be based on honor and belligerence. What surprised me most was the similarity between their Klingon ships and our own. If someone would put the MassEffect cannon into their frame and it would be a turian ship."

"To the point." - Valern said.

"I was just on my way to the most important." - said Adrien - "After checking this, it turned out that many designs from this sic-fic could actually be used as actual warships. Then I searched briefly the other human sic-fic series. Surprisingly, almost each of these series described the operation of ships, the type of weapon and how to counter it. I don't know if consciously or not, but they accidentally created an unimaginable amount of tactics and the way they should be countered whenever possible. They have the equivalents of each of our Navy and how to counter it. They even have plans there in case you run into a race like Raknii. I can't confirm this, but the split of their forces seems like a mix of their 21st-century army and fleet, and one sic-fic known as Star Wars: Legends. Specifically, this is similar to the layout of the New Galactic Republic's fleet. They have to maintain a small elite armed force themselves, while each planet builds its own. During the war, these small fleets join the full-fledged fleet and go to the front."

"This arrangement would only allow for rebellions and internal struggles." - Sparatus said.

"I have to agree." - Tevos said - "Even the asari republics have a common fleet."

"Not necessarily." - Fedorian said - "According to information obtained by Captain Verilus, their SDF ships have no kinetic barriers, but during the Battle of Macedon, their ships definitely did."

"So their SDF must have secondary equipment to the System Alliance fleet." - Valern said quickly adding two and two - "Clever. In the event of any rebellion, government forces will have a decisive advantage. Low risk of rebellion combined with the maintenance of huge reserves with trained personnel."

"Dear gathered." - said Adrien, drawing everyone's attention - "May I go on?"

"I allow." - Fedorian said.

"There are almost no gaps in their defense system." - Adrien said - "Their forces can mobilize faster than ours. It is true that it takes some time to merge SDF and System Alliance fleets, but they can still do it faster than we can mobilize our own reserves. Their main forces are held deep within their territory. We would have had to break through several SDF systems beforehand, the fleets of which would be able to defeat almost any small raid or group of pirates on their own. Our best chance of weakening them would be to attack their SDF forces before joining the main fleet. However, I don't see a way to eliminate their main forces."

"All the races of the Citadel could greatly benefit from joining them." - Tevos said.

"Actually, I wouldn't count on that." - Benezjia said.

"No race has ever refused to join the Citadel." - said Sparatus - "Why should it be any different this time?"

Everyone looked at Spartacus as if he were an idiot. After a while, Benezia said - "I talked a bit with their crew and a reporter who asked very unusual questions. She asked about the Dreles, who were almost extinct on their planet, and why we didn't help them. According to her, if the council intervened, their home planet could be saved. She asked why we were preaching the Quarian ancestors who created the Geth. She asked why we never helped the Krogans assimilate into Galactic society. She asked if killing Raknii was really necessary. Many crew members asked my commandos similar questions. It seems that what we did is what they refer to as war crimes and the abandonment of allies in need. Even if they join us, they will try to help the Quarians at least somehow. Maybe they'll even try to contact the Geths."

"Don't be silly!" - interrupted her furious Spartacus - "It was impossible to do otherwise with both Krogan and Rakni."

"The Quarians have been warned of what could happen if they create AI." - Valern said - "They disobeyed and you pay the price. I will not even mention how dangerous it is to meet the geths."

"The Drelle destroyed themselves." - Tevos said - "When they were found by the Hanar, it was too late to act."

"But the Hanars managed to save over 300,000 Dreli." - Benezia argued - "And this despite having the smallest fleet in the entire Citadel. And those weren't all the things they can mention."

"It seems they have a very negative attitude towards slavery." - Adrien said.

"It's like all races on the Citadel." - Tevos said.

"Not all." - Fedorian said, then added - "How negative is their view of slavery?"

"We can expect a war between Human and Batarian within a decade. Probably faster." - Adrien said.

"The council won't let them." - Tevos said.

"If they find evidence that the Batarians will actually finance the attack on their colonies, then there is nothing we can do." - Valern said.

"A large proportion of the officers will want to join this war on the side of the humans." - Fedorian said.

"There is no war, so don't theorize just yet." - Sparatus said. This was very ironic considering that humans declared war on the Hierarchy in front of televisions across the galaxy and official peace had yet to be signed.

"Sorry to bother you." - Assistant Tevos said - "But the men came with 2 dreadnoughts, 12 cruisers and 24 frigates."
"WHAT?!" - Sparatus shouted - "Clearly we said a maximum of 40 ships and only 1 dreadnought can be carried."

"Take it easy, councilor." - Benezia said - "Humans field a much larger number of ship classes. Maybe one of these ships is just the size of a dreadnought, but it is not."

"We'll find out later." - Tevos said - "First we need to sign the peace and invite them to the Citadel."

= place: aircraft carrier Einstein =

On the carrier, the System Alliance delegation debated how to negotiate. The delegation included Admiral Kastanie Drescher, General Craig, Ambassador Anita Goyle and her assistant Donnel Udina.

"They will definitely want to invite us to this council of theirs." - Udina said - "Well, we will have to reduce our armed forces and surrender all our technological development."

"Take a look at the pluses too, Udina." - said Goyle - "We will get technological support ourselves and the entire galactic market will open up to us. GALACTIC. I know a lot of the things about this advice may not be to our liking, but be realistic. Even the Hanar economy is bigger than ours. We have no chance with them economically."

"We would also gain numerous allies." - Drescher said.

"At the cost of ignoring slavers, throwing the entire race to the slow extinction and genocide of Krogan, and murdering Raknii." - Craig said - "At least some of these things are unacceptable to our citizens."

"So our goal is set." - Goyle said. - "Friendly relations with the Citadel. The most important decision will be whether to join the Citadel or not."


Should the Systems Alliance join the Citadel council? - /hgkfbe25s

Can I add other Sci-fic universes?(Somehow it came to me while writing.) - /qjdyyc6gk

The full link cannot be added for some reason. If someone wants to vote, you have to enter the strawpoll and paste the ending given in the text


12.05.2021 - Correction of mistakes and explanation of how to enter the vote.