Council Private Chamber, The Citadel, October 7, 2192.
"Are you insane?" Tevos all but shouted at her Krogan peer. "We had a working plan to deal with the Batarians for centuries. This is a terrible risk." She continued as she rubbed her temples.
"A massive risk, yes, but also one we can mitigate." Yorgal replied as he poured a glass of Ryncol for himself to drink.
"Democracies are incredibly unstable; at least the Hegemony brought an amount of certainty and predictability with its rule. This Batarian democracy could go in any and all other directions!" She said, basically scolding the Krogan that was 200 years older than her. "There's a reason why we don't give Maidens equal representation on the forums."
"Oh come on, you don't think I didn't have a plan, did you?" Yorgal said nonchalantly has he downed his drink.
"*wheeze* It better be a good one! Keeping the Batarians in line is the only thing stopping the Terminus *wheeze* from becoming a major threat. Without them, none of the dozens of warlords would be preoccupied enough to ignore us." Bola now joined in. "I'm willing to give you the benefit *wheeze* of the doubt."
"By the end of their conflict, the winning side will be malleable. Angry, but malleable. We can use that to our advantage. It's just a matter of which side to back. Once that's settled we can approach them covertly and make up a ruse on why we can't do it officially." Yorgal explained.
"The Matriarchs will favor the Hegemony. Their oligarchic system makes their ruling class susceptible to our control." Tevos says. "The Maidens will obviously back the Free Batarians. Ignoring the Matriarchs will lose us long term political influence, ignoring the Maidens may cost us the war effort in many republics, especially among able-bodied Asari."
"Vaheel Doctrine would want us to place political yes-men in the most influential seats." Toraph now weighed in from his seat. "It would be difficult to pull off on a democratic state with various checks and balances. However, keeping the Hegemony around will make it challenging for STG and SPECTRE agents to infiltrate them."
"*wheeze* Democratic economies are more susceptible to foreign influence at a broader level. *wheeze* Puppets being heads of state on a totalitarian government *wheeze* could help us get a good slice of their resources, but we risk outrage from their population. *wheeze* That makes it difficult for us to get good relations. My mind is firmly in support of the Batarian Republic."
"But their military could become uncooperative." Yorgal argued. "Democracies despise wars. Their armed forces would be very much reluctant to support our efforts, especially the ones that which are less than legal."
"We can try to flood the Free Batarians with powerful Citadel corporations that are loyal to us. Have them establish a firm hold on their political system, and make sure they can't do anything that remotely displeases us without massive repercussions." Tevos now suggested. "The Matriarchs may need convincing, but I think they would likely agree. The most powerful Matriarchs control the largest companies in Citadel space."
"We could also use those companies to skew their democratic process." Toraph added. "Make them influence the voters in our interests."
"*wheeze* whichever direction we take, we need to make sure we remain in control so that we could mitigate it's danger to us."
Oh, if only the good Volus knew how dangerous their game was becoming.
-000-
Caldur City Military Base, Anhur, October 13, 2192.
Force Commander Junius and his Blackwatch squad walked into the busy command center, carefully moving around the busy Batarians that were moving around and reorganizing the chamber.
"Commander, welcome to ground zero!" A Batarian at the center of the room loudly called.
"Colonel Cathka, it is good to meet you." Junius then said, saluting the Batarian officer.
"Ah, it is General now, mind you. Most of the professional officers are siding with the Hegemony; we're rushing the training of a lot of officers to make up the count. We've got a whole lot of troops eager to fight, but nobody to lead them." He explained.
"And I suppose that's why my squad is here, to train your officers." Junius said.
"The Turians have the finest officer corps in the Galaxy. I would have preferred the Humans to help train us, as they are closer to us territorially and that I believe their doctrine is quite excellent. However, they're unwilling to help train us at the moment. Nobody but the best should be leading us to the better future, so we called you." Cathka said as he led the Turian to a newly installed hard-light projector. The Hegemony had been willing made due with outdated screens, but the Free Republic was more than eager to get their hands at better equipment.
There, Junius looked over the different numbers and statistics being displayed by the projectors. The galactic balance of power, Hegemony and Republican troop movements, and troop counts were clearly displayed, as well as a galactic map to boot.
"I see we outnumber the Hegemony." Junius commented.
"Numerous troops mean nothing if they don't know how to fight. The majority of the Hegemony's fighters are battle hardened veterans, much more skilled than our rank and file troops." Cathka now explained as he changed the statistics being displayed to comparisons between the two sides. "We've been running VI simulations all morning, and each time the results were… disheartening to say the least."
"What were they?" The Turian now asked.
"On an equal 1-to-1 fight, we're hopelessly outmatched, we can deal damage to them –sure- but the bulk of the Hegemony's advanced equipment was quickly seized by their special forces: the Hegemony's Special Intervention Unit. In addition to having superior equipment, we've gotten word that the SIU is going to be deployed onto the field now, which tips the odds to their even more so. The VI estimates that during this kind of engagements, we'll be the losing side 88% of the time."
"What of the remaining 12%?"
"Ambushes where we can deplete their material and numerical advantages early on, even then casualties will be high on our side."
"What kind of advantages will it take for us to win?" Junius followed up. "And how much do we have to stack on our side before we can be assured of it?"
"At the very least we need a 5-to-1 advantage to be able to defeat them, though that will still result in a massive 3-to-1 casualty ratio. If we want to truly call it a decisive victory, we need an 8-to-1 advantage, with a calculated casualty ratio of 2-to-1." The General rather somberly said.
"I take it you're not too fond of those numbers."
"Needlessly sacrificing lives will not be the future of the Batarian people. This is why we need you and your support. When we can engage the Hegemony with equal capabilities and skill, only then can our numerical advantage truly be used effectively."
"Understood. How long can your deployed forces hold out until we can finish training your officers?" Junius asked once more.
"However long it takes, we can hold on. With the megacorporations siding with us, the Hegemony's industrial capability is crippled greatly. They still hold a massive stockpile of weapons, vehicles, and fuel, however. It will be harder for them to replace material losses, but once their factories come back up to speed, they're going to be fighting us on equal footing." Cathka answered as he showed a graph of the Hegemony's production. As he could see that ever since the Anhur Uprising, production took a nosedive.
"Well then," Junius said. "We better start evening the odds."
-000-
The Silver Office, Arcturus Station, October 15, 2192.
"Mr President, Representatives Zhao and Krotoshinsky are here to discuss foreign policy plans." Harper's secretary said to him over the intercom.
"Let them in Max, I'm expecting them." He said.
The door opened to reveal two well-dressed politicians. The two of them entered the office and Harper ushered them to their seats before sitting across them.
"Good afternoon President Harper." Zhao greeted as she leaned back into his seats.
"Good afternoon Zhao, how's Taipei these days?" Harper replied.
"All is well, fortunately."
"Good afternoon to you too Krotoshinsky; I hear you have a child on the way?"
"Yes, my wife is due very soon, so perhaps we should make this quick?" the representative said through his thick Polish accent.
"Quick it is then." Harper said.
The President placed a couple of folders on the table, inside which were the plans he and Nabwana had worked on a few days ago.
"Alright, we don't have much of anything to play against the Council right now, but as much as I hate it, we have the victim card to play." He now explained .
"So we play to their emotions, make them feel bad for us." Zhao continued as she read the folders she received.
"And we leverage that so that they give us favorable terms, as well as an exchange in technologies." Krotoshinsky said.
"Exactly. The Batarians are essentially client nations of these Citadel aliens. We can pin a large portion of the blame on the three races by accusing them of not monitoring and managing our attackers." The President explained.
"Guilt by association; it could work." Zhao said as she gathered her thoughts on the plan.
"While I don't doubt this is good leverage, I worry that the aliens could use this same reasoning against us in the future if, and this is simply an example, a rogue member of our military struck against them." Krotoshinsky forwarded an issue. "We must make sure that our arguments are as bulletproof as possible."
"On that, I can agree." Zhao said.
"Which leads up to my second point nicely. A few individuals like us can't handle foreign policy by ourselves, which is why I'm drafting up a proposal to form a proper Department of Foreign Affairs. Goyle has already agreed to this, and will most likely be our ambassador. Right now, I wan't input from your parties, respectively." Harper now said, producing another pair of folders. "I know that your Globalist Party has been pushing for the department for a while now Zhao. I know that Krotoshinsky's Nationalist Party is generally reluctant to set up one, which is why I want the input."
"This certainly is a surprise, but a welcome one." Zhao mused. "As far as I am concerned -and by extent the Globalist Party- the sooner we set up a proper line of communication with the Aliens, the better. Goyle is an excellent diplomat and I have no doubt in her abilities, but her Department of International Relations is equipped better to deal with the Old Nations on Earth, and the New Nations in the colonies. Her department is ill equipped to deal with Alien diplomats at the moment, but I believe that reformation and expansion of the DIR should make ends meet."
Krotoshinsky responded to this.
"The general situation has changed, and the Nationalist Party's position on communicating with the Aliens has changed as well. However, we still adamantly believe each of the Nations that comprise the Alliance should have their say in foreign affairs. The Alliance's duty should remain specifically to safeguard its constituents and people, be it militarily and as it would seem in the coming future economically. I personally suggest the formation of a Bureau of Foreign Affairs under the Department of Defense."
"Unacceptable. For an effective relationship with the Aliens to be established, it needs to be possible to make decisions independent of the Department of Defense. Relationships require both parties to open up with each other and having these decisions be subservient to the DOD, who's primary concern is the defense of the Alliance no matter what, will only impede on these relationships." Zhao countered her counterpart's response.
"But that is exactly the problem with having relationships with these Aliens. They are not us, and therefore we can't look at the situation the same way we look at the Russo-American Cold War, or even the European Wars of the 2060s. The catastrophes of diplomatic fallout with these Aliens could be cataclysmic in scale. They will not hold back against us the same way we held back against our fellow Humans. There will be no commonality that will stop them from annihilating us as they did with the RachniAliens, who are quite extinct if you read the files provided to us."
Harper was quickly taking notes as the two continued to exchange their points. Being an independently registered candidate, he lacked the deep insight into the inner workings of the political parties of the Alliance. He was often called 'The Great Mediator' by the people simply because he can bring together the different parties in the Alliance to work together, even before the War had started.
As the two opposing politicians in front of him continued to bicker, Harper's belief in his role as the Great Mediator was only confirmed. After all, if nobody stopped those two from continuously arguing, nothing would be achieved and the Alliance itself would only tear itself apart slowly.
That would be a massive disaster, and Harper couldn't afford another one of those.
-000-
A/N:
Hey folks, its ya boi Dovahcheese back at it again with another chapter of this story I've neglecting for waaaay too long.
So, I've been in college for week over a month now, and it's emotionally exhausting. Most of the Professors I got this semester are pretty chill, but the same can't really be said of my classmates. On the bright side, my chances of getting a girlfriend is way up, though an incremental increase from point-oh-one isn't that much of an improvement but… Well, I've gotta keep myself going somehow.
Anyways, I'm going to have to go redrawing the political landscape on The Great War, 'cause right now, it's a doozy. I'm going through my notes again and having to revise a lot of stuff I planned out a few months ago. Turns out reflecting on my past choices brings them up to perspective. Like, I can't believe I was expecting the Council to take losing their influence over the Batarians lying down. Jeez, I come up with shit ideas when my brain is dazed because I decided to go half a week with barely any sleep.
I went into this story fully intending on giving the Batarians and Quarians a 'happy ending' but after reworking so many things… I'm not so sure I can do that anymore.
Speaking of Quarians, I still haven't gotten a chance to show y'all their take on this entire mess, how they are in this Galaxy, what their deal with this incarnation of the Geth will be, and how much belligerency will they have. Well, I intend on working on it the next chapter. I mean, it's not going to be too radically different from their canon states, so don't expect cybernetic Quarians with Geth programs that live in harmony alongside them in Rannoch and that their completely isolationist and have super advanced plasma weapons, crazy computer tech, non-Mass Effect FTL drives and all that other jazz. Those totally aren't what I first drafted them as. Nope. Not a chance.
Anyways, I got the message from some-a-y'all: Event Logs aren't the coolest things since sliced bread. So I'll be ditching them entirely.
Review or message me what you think about The Great War so far. I don't always reply or directly address what you write/send me, but I do take these into consideration, so don't worry about your concerns falling into deaf ears because they're not.
As always, thanks for reading and have a nice day.