Lifetime of War
Chapter 14: Even Peace may be purchased at too High a Price.
Thirty years since the war began. Ten years with the Humans on the defensive and twenty for them to claim a half of our outer systems and a fifth of our inner systems. For the longest time the warmongers and hardliners on the Council were convinced the Humans would be the single biggest threat to galactic peace.
When we found out the Humans had survived to get into space we feared nothing. Were we not the most dominate military force in the galaxy? If it weren't for us the Rachni would have purged the galaxy of all life. If it were not for us the Korgan would have plunged the galaxy into a state of constant warfare.
We were determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past. We could stamp out races that would destabilize galactic society before they discovered Element Zero. Ironically, we were correct in assuming the Humans were our single biggest threat to our way of life. But our current leaders and policies have been as unpopular with the general population as the war kept dragging out.
So it is that today we all sit at the peace table ready to negotiate them our terms of peace. I do not know what we could offer the Humans and their Allies. Not to mention the Korgan would have surely pressure the Humans and Quarians for an unconditional surrender.
Three months passed. Three months of stall tactics, bravado, and actual negotiating. But one race was notably absent from the negotiation table—the Krogan. What had happened to them? Perhaps the loss of the Krogan was the very reason why we were sitting at the negotiation table.
As the fourth month dawned, dozens of civilian ships landed on the Citadel each of them carrying Turian, Asari, and Salarian refugees. That was their claim at least. In truth they were the vanguard of what was to be our final defeat.
First they cut off all signals to and from the Citadel tower so the arms could not be closed. The Citadel Traffic Control center was the next to fall swiftly followed by an attack on C-Sec headquarters. Next, hundreds of Quarian and Human warships appeared out of FTL.
Stunned that any power in the Galaxy would be so brazen as to directly assault the Citadel fleet, the attackers held the initiative the entire time. Within an hour the Citadel fleet was reduced to small pockets of resistance. As to the whereabouts of our other fleets? They were defending the relays that directly lead to the Citadel itself from the Humans and Quarians.
With the war sapping so many resources, many C-sec officers were pulled away to serve on the front lines leaving the Citadel lacking in security forces save for a few civilian militias. The remnants of C-sec were overwhelmed along with our civilian militia. Humans and Quarians kept flooding in killing anyone who took up arms against them. Eventually they reached the Citadel Tower which was guarded by the handful of SPECTERS that were on the Citadel when the invasion began.
While the SPECTERS are, as the Humans would put it, the top one-percent of the Crème de la Crème of the Special Forces, they were no match for the sheer numbers of the Humans and Quarian soldiers. The SPECTERS, with the help of any C-Sec officer and militia to make it to the Citadel Tower, laid booby traps, mines, and marked out ambush points. All would be ready for when the first squads arrived.
Wave after wave and squad after squad were sent to their deaths as they charged the up the stair case to the Petitioner's Stage. Hours passed before the last SPECTER fell, the ground of the Council Chambers leading up to the Petitioner's Stage was covered in at least two layers of dead bodies.
When the guns fell silent the Council surrendered themselves to the first squad that breached the Private Chamber door.
That day, we signed an unconditional surrender. For the first time in our history, we lost. Our leadership and prestige officially a thing of the past. But it was a small sacrifice for the thing we had longed desired for the past thirty years. While it wasn't ideal, we had peace.
I can only hope the very people we declared on would treat us better than we treated them.