No Peace Amongst The Stars

by highvalour

Space was not as the idealists thought, no prosperity or enlightenment. Humanity has been at war, with itself and with alien races, since it first left the Sol System. The Innies, the Zealots and the turians failed to beat the UNSC and Shepard will be damned if he's gonna let some ship with a god complex succeed. Not on his watch.

5. NOT A CHAPTER: BIG INFORMATION DUMP!

ATTENTION! STOP READING NOW IF YOU WILL BE UNHAPPY THAT I 'SERIOUSLY UNDERPOWERED THE HALO UNIVERSE'... THIS STORY IS MEANT TO BE A BALANCE BETWEEN BOTH. HUMANITY WILL NOT BE SUPER OP JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT THEM TO BE... IF YOU HAVE A COMMENT BEYOUND "UNDER UNDER-POWERED HALO" AND WANT TO ARGUE THAT POINT, PLEASE LEAVE IT IN A REVIEW OR PM. OTHERWISE THANKS FOR READING THIS FAR, BUT STOP NOW.

Right, I should have done something like this at first but I didn't want to. The CODEX forum thread was meant to be where I'd answer any questions, with the answers left there for others to come along and read as well but I've been getting plenty of people asking questions [and more than a few bitching] about changes I made for my story.

I am going to go through the basis of the story and cover the following issues; Humanity's decision to replace their old gas operated guns with the Mass Accelerator. Why humanity doesn't have plasma weapons as standard and why kinetic barriers are used in place of Energy Shielding, Human-Sangheili relations, Human-Citadel Relations [broken down by Council race] and humanity's barely contained hate for 'Independent Colonies' which exist scattered through the Attican Traverse and along the Terminus Systems.

*Minor Edit 03-01-16 to fix mislabelling of turians as quarians and to insert word AI where site removed for some reason.

{Bold} is Author's Notes

UNSC Battle Dress Unifrom Vs. Hardsuits

The Marine Corps Battle Dress Uniform, commonly shortened to just the BDU, was the main combat gear issued to members of the Marine Corps since the formation of the United Nations Space Command until it was officially replaced by the OPI Technologies produced 'Reclaimer' hardsuit. The BDU was made up of ballistic armour which provided protection to the torso, shoulders, forearms, the thighs and the lower legs [on Marine variants only]. The BDU was never equipped with energy shielding. While the Spartan-II's got shielding, and the ODSTs where fitted with weaker versions near the end of the war, it was considered too expensive to outfit every single soldier with Energy shields {to quote Batman Begins "Bean counters didn't think a soldier's life was worth 300 grand."}. The BDU variants used during the Shanxi War did have kinetic barriers, but these where basic and mostly ineffective.

Humanity improved their shields by reverse engineering technology to upgrade their own from salvaged turian tech during the war and then from black-market purchases out of the Terminus Systems. A company, called OPI Technologies, decided to create its own version of a hardsuit suited to humans since they combined the qualities of armour and Haz-Mat/EVA suits. The company bribed several high ranking UNSC personnel to get the contract but their product proved insufficient. Their follow up, 'The Victor', fared little better and the company lost the contract. Later going bankrupt over it. Aldrin Labs took over making armour for Marines and Army personnel. Thee hardsuits they produce, the Onyx and Hydra, draw on the BDU for inspiration with layers of ceramics, metal plating and recoil/heat absorbing gel layers. By 2783, the outbreak of the Eden Prime War, human shields are at about 83% the power of turian shields but the armour of the hardsuit itself is close to two and a half times that of the turian suits. This makes humans the second toughest soldiers, after krogan, to down in firefights.

The only troops still in BDUs are the Orbital Drop Shock Troops. Their suits are near identical to the design used during the Human/Covenant War with the only changes being an updating to VISR and newer Energy Shields being included.

{More info on hardsuits and ODST BDUs can be found in the CODEX thread}

Magazine Fed, Gas Operated Guns VS. Mass Accelerator Weapons

Some people argued that adapting these guns was 'dumb' {One person bitched pretty hard} but the reasons the UNSC switched over are as follows. Mass Accelerators use internal blocks of metal for ammo, each block is uniform across all weapons, and can provide between 5,000 and 10,000 rounds depending on the specifics of the weapon firing them. This offers several advantages in the eyes of UNSC top brass. Firstly, it reduces the carry weight a soldier has as s/he has no need to carry addition magazines. Secondly not needing to reload reduces the risk of jamming, especially for newer soldiers under fire, and the risk of overheating forces all troops to practice good trigger discipline. Thirdly, while a Mass Accelerator weapon is more to build the cost saved by not having to produce billions of rounds regularly more than covers it.

UNSC weapons still fit the same mould as their earlier versions, literally as Misriah Armory just adapted the production lines to install the ammo blocks and mass accelerators. At the time of the Shanxi War the weapons where less effective, early models that had only just replaced the older versions as standard. By 2783 the weapons perform on-par if not better than the older versions with rate of fire and DPS matching or surpassing older weapons. Human weapons in comparison to Citadel weapons stand out for their durability. While salarian weapons tend to deal more damage of fire more rounds before overheating they tend to be susceptible to malfunctioning and Asari weapons tend to be more comfortable to carry and have less recoil but tend to fall down in either damage or 'magazine' size. Humanity is known for being able to beat a krogan to death with a rifle butt and then fire like it was nothing {this is canon in Halo to a degree for the assault rifle, which is built to take ungodly damage and still work fine}. This ruggedness and general simplicity allows humanity to equip their troops with mass produced weapons and deploy anywhere, in any conditions, with consistent weapon performance.

Misriah Armory is not the only human weapons manufacturer, but they are the ones with the contract to supply the UNSC. Other manufacturers such as Hahne-Kedar, Kassa Fabrication and Rosenkov Materials are permitted to manufacture and sell a wide range of semi and fully automatic weapons to the public, providing strict record keeping and set limits are maintained. While these privately owned weapons are not as robust or powerful as Misriah Armory's weapons they still hold to the simple and durable design standards.

{A brief overview of all standard UNSC weaponry is listed in the CODEX thread}

Ballistic Weapons VS. Directed Energy Weapons

The biggest limitation to humanity developing plasma weaponry is resources. Human controlled space simply lacks large enough quantities of specific minerals and metals used by the Former Covenant races to build their weapons. These resources unfortunately play a vital role in allowing troop portable weapons to generate and direct the superheated plasma. This lack or resources, added to Sangheili unwillingness to provide the resources since that would weaken their own military, greatly hampered humanity's research {Loss of ONI, and the data it possessed, didn't help either}. However the sangheili have little to know use for Eezo and their worlds have several untapped, naturally occurring, veins of Eezo which they are willing to provide humanity with in exchange for a commitment of troops to battling the Jiralhanae Empire and assisting the sangheili in achieving complete agricultural and industrial self-sufficiency {More will be touched on in the section on Human/Sangheili relations}. Humanity does have one useable, infantry operated, plasma weapon. The P94 Energy Caster, which works more like a flamethrower than a rifle, is tricky to use effectively and poses a risk to the user. It is employed as an Anti-Flood weapon and assigned to members of a special group nicknamed The Blackwatch whose job is to search human space and protect it from the Flood.

The M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, Spartan Laser, is no longer made as an infantry weapon {Same reason as marines didn't get Energy Shields} but is instead manufactured as M8C Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Cannon. The M8C is mounted onto vehicles and used as a high power anti-armour weapon. Ship mounted versions, called a M10G Nonlinear Battery, serve as humanity's version of GUARDIAN Lasers. For ship mounted plasma weaponry there is the XJZ11 Nonlinear Pulse Cannon. The XJZ11, commonly referred to as the Surtr Cannon, is based on long term study of former Covenant vessels and the Energy Projector that served as the main weapon of these ships. The weapon generates and expels a massive burst of superheated plasma which, even if it fails to make contact with the enemy hull, can potentially cripple an enemy vessel. The amount of heat radiated by the plasma when it impacts an enemy vessel's shields is enough to warp the metal hull and possibly result in compromised bulkheads.

UNSC Vessels

When the turian patrol discovered Shanxi and reported in, they noted a collection of ships ranging in length from 150m to about 600m. The turians assumed, based on their own ship sizes, these to be the bulk of humanity's frigates and cruisers. As such, when this rather small fleet was destroyed the turians presumed the human navy was gone. As such when the Fifth Fleet emerged from Slipspace it caught the token force left to oversee the pacification of Shanxi completely off guard. 150m turian frigates found themselves being battered by their cruiser sized human counterparts, TriFire cannons pounding their shields apart. Turian cruisers found themselves going toe to toe with destroyers, heavily armed and armoured human frigates which had traded speed and manoeuvrability for sheer staying and stopping power. The human's Dreadnought sized cruisers each let off a single XJZ11 shot before moving towards the planet's service, intending to deploy their companies of ODSTs and Marines.

Following the Treaty of Taetrus, a council brokered ceasefire which saw the release of all prisoners and the return of all captured territory, the turians had a chance to step back and simply look at the human vessels. Working with translation programs and studying data from the numerous battles of the Shanxi War the turians provided the following comparison between their own vessel classifications and humanity's:

· Corvette: Turian/Relay Race 90-100 metres in length – Human 150 metres in length

· Frigate: Turian/Relay Race 150 metres in length – Human 470-570 metres in length

· Destroyers: Turian/Relay Race No Version – Human 480-580 metres in length

· Light Cruiser: Turian/Relay Race No Version – Human 1,170 metres in length

· Cruiser: Turian/Relay Race 500-700 metres in length – Human 1,192 metres in length

· Heavy Cruiser: Turian/Relay Race No Version – Human 1,425 metres in length

· Super Heavy Cruiser: Turian/Relay Race No Version – Human 1,518 metres in length

· Dreadnought: Turian/Relay Race 900-1,600 metres in length – Human No Version

· Carrier: Turian/Relay Race 1,900 metres in length – Human 3,000 metres in length

The Shanxi War saw the first real defeat in battle the turians had suffered since the early days of their involvement in the Krogan Rebellions. The war revealed that while the turians had the largest Navy anywhere in Relay Space, they did not have the strongest. Human vessels where larger, more heavily armed [although each individual mass Accelerator was weaker than a turian one the use of TriFire cannons compensated for it] and had significantly thicker hulls which meant even when their shields fell the ship could still take fire without being destroyed outright.

Human vessels are armed with the following weapons, depending on size:

· M10G Nonlinear Batteries. The numbers vary depending on size of vessel, these laser weapons are employed as part of every ship's Point Defence System. The lasers move at light speed, they cannot be dodged by anything moving at subluminal speeds. Unless the beam is aimed poorly, it will always hit its target. In the early stages of a battle, GARDIAN fire is 100% accurate. It is not 100% lethal, but it doesn't have to be. Damaged fighters must break off for repairs.

· 50mm point-defence guns. These massive automatic turrets are fired in between shots from the M10G batteries. Not as fast moving, nor as powerful, these weapons function best by sending a wall of projectiles at oncoming fighters or missiles forcing hostiles to redirect or be ripped apart by high velocity rounds. Larger vessels sport a considerably larger number.

· Archer missile pods. Ship-to-ship missiles carried by UNSC capital ships for engaging enemy warships in space combat. UNSC ships usually carry large numbers of them, their sheer numbers making up for their underperformance against both kinetic and Energy shielding. Against unshielded hulls however, Archer missiles can be deadly. Each pod consists of thirty missiles, all of which are fired at their target simultaneously with on-board targeting plotting erratic courses to prevent chain detonation should one missile be taken down by enemy defences.

· Vishnu -class Nuclear Missiles. A starship and starfighter-launched thermonuclear weapon used by the UNSC. The Vishnu can be outfitted with various payloads and explosive yields. UNSC forces only use nuclear weapons, such as the Vishnu, when human forces are severely outnumbered, and/or tactical situations that demand the use of such weapons. {The Vishnu-Class missile is a newer iteration of the Covenant War era Shiva nuclear missiles. The name of this version was chosen in reference to Oppenheimer's quoting of the the Bhagavad-Gita}

· TriFire Mass Accelerator Cannons. Three linked Mass Accelerators, each capable of propelling a twenty kilo slug at 1.3% the speed of light which share targeting and firing sequences. Each slug impacts with the force of 48 kilotons TNT and while each slug is weaker than the UNSC's earlier Magnetic Accelerator Cannons the drain on power and fire rate from earlier MACs made continuous usage during firefights next to impossible. The number of cannons varies depending on vessel size with frigates having only one while the large Super Heavy Cruisers possess four cannons plus the devastating XJZ11.

· XJZ11 Nonlinear Pulse Cannon. A single, high powered, direct energy weapon so large it can only be mounted to cruisers. This weapon, while unable to deliver a continuous stream of energy unlike the former Covenant's Energy Projector, is able to cripple if not outright destroy any non-Dreadnought vessel fielded by the Relay Races. The superheated, super charged plasma generated and collected by the cannon is fired via innovative use of eezo fuelled Mass Accelerators at close to 1% the speed of light.

· Disruptor torpedoes. Eezo loaded torpedoes which create random and unstable mass effect fields when triggered. These fields warp space-time in a localized area. The rapid asymmetrical mass changes cause the target to rip itself apart. A new addition to the UNSC's arsenal, these weapons are regarded as cheap to manufacture and readily disposable due to humanity's access to large scale, pure Eezo mines scattered throughout both the former Covenant space and newly colonised systems.

To protect their ships humanity makes use of both old and new methods. Up to ten metres of Titanium-50 alloy, which was specifically toughened at the molecular level, and kinetic barriers fed by massive central batteries. While humanity had experimented with using reverse engineered Covenant energy shields on their ships the issue of firing through the shields, which required a portion of the shield to be dropped to allow the projectiles to pass through them, proved problematic. The development of kinetic barriers, which block incoming but not outgoing fire, saw the prothean derived technology win out. To compensate for their shields being comparably weaker than Relay Race versions, and not as effective as Energy Shields, human vessels often come with backup batteries to allow for instant reactivation of shields. Depending on the size of the vessel humans can immediately reactivate their shields, to a limited percentage of total effectiveness, multiple times.

UNSC

The United Nations Space Command Defense Force is the military, exploratory, and scientific agency of the Unified Earth Government. While the UNSC had all but taken complete control of every facet of human government during the Human/Covenant war, either through voluntary passing of power or the effective dismantling of democratic rule throughout the colonies, the outcry over atrocities commented during the suppression of Dark Worlds and the details unearthed during investigation into the White Scandal saw increased civilian oversight which led to the eventual recreation of the United Earth Government and a return to democratic rule. The UNSC's military arm, the UNCSDF, is split into four major branches.

· The UNSC Navy is the branch of the UNSCDF responsible mostly for naval operations in space, though they sometimes operate in the oceans with their terrestrial arm. Its roles include ship-to-ship combat, orbital bombardment, the deployment of atmospheric and space fighters, and the delivery of UNSC Marines, especially ODSTs, into combat. The UNSC Navy is the largest branch of the UNSCDF and arguably the most important. The Navy is vital in protecting trade and enforcing UEG control across all human space while also being the primary protector against alien aggression. While the Navy is not the largest active in Relay Space, that belongs to the turians, it is the most powerful with ships designed and armed to clash against the power of the Jiralhanae Empire. With vessels ranging from a hundred or so metres to over three kilometres long the UNSC Navy is a force that all, former Covenant and Relay Race alike, are hesitant to antagonise.

· The UNSC Air Force is an aerial division of the UNSC Defense Force (UNSCDF) along with the UNSC Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The UNSC Air Force serves as an aerial defence and support force, primarily deploying from UNSC Navy vessels or from terrestrial airbases. Piloting everything from the latest state-of-the-art Broadsword broadswords to the older but invaluable Albatross, plus everything in between, the pilots of the UNSC Air Force play a key role in the deployment and support of the UNSCDF's primary offensive branch the UNSC Marine Corps.

· The UNSC Marine Corps is a branch of the UNSCDF that is responsible for land-based military operations, as well as the protection of Naval vessels and installations from attack. A rugged and diverse assortment of well-equipped and well trained men and women, one of the Marine Corps' most notable conflicts was fighting against the Covenant's highly superior technology and numbers. Drawing on many military traditions from Earth's history the Corps is the most diversified branch of the UNSCDF with regiments that can trace their deployment history as far back as pre-colonisation of stellar bodies. Years upon years of bloody warfare and harsh training conditions have shaped all marines into lethally efficient killers. While it is generally accepted that the Turian Hierarchy has the most disciplined army of any race operating in Relay Space, with the Asari boasting the most experienced, the UNSC Marine Corps strikes that ideal of numbers and experience. {Turian grunt is better trained, human vet is better skilled and much more experienced due to a lack of active wars the turians are involved in}.

· The UNSC Army is a branch of the UNSCDF, primarily responsible for land-based military operations. They deploy primarily from pre-established bases located on a planet's surface as opposed to the Navy vessels that the other branches of the UNSCDF deploy from. The 'shield' to the Marine Corps 'sword' the Army is charged with protecting all UEG aligned colonies, instillations and bases from both foreign and domestic attack. It was thanks to the Army garrison stationed on Shanxi that, although the garrison was all but destroyed, allowed the colony to hold out against the devastating turian attempts at pacification.

Penal Squads

While the idea of sending convicted criminals out as the first wave in battle has existed for centuries the UNCS never officially employed this tactic during the Human/Covenant War. While prisoners were released and armed on several occasions to aid in the defence of colonies it was not until after the war, when the UNSC was attempting to regain control of planets which had seceded from UEG control under cover of the war. Faced with the daunting task of taking these planets, which had avoided the horror and drain of a prolonged war, back to wheel with a greatly exhausted military the decision was made to offer imprisoned insurrectionists a choice; Having explosives implanted into their bodies as insurance and be sent off to fight or face the firing squad. Only a few accepted. Better luck was had with the criminals and political dissidents the insurrectionists had imprisoned. These men and women, bitter and angry at those who had imprisoned them, relished the chance to exact revenge on those like their jailers and gladly took the deal. Nicknamed the Devil Dogs, in reference to a no longer used slang term for Marines, the first incarnation of the Penal Squads were brutal. Promised their freedom in exchange for a set time of service, with rumours of time off for high bodycounts, the criminals tore a bloody path through any and all opposition. By the end of the Dark World Wars many insurrectionist groups would surrender rather than risk having the Devil Dogs massacre them and their families.

The Penal Squads have undergone several major overhauls since those dark days. Now the system serves as a feeder program, preventing members of the numerous street gangs that plague human cities from entering the prison system where they can hone their illicit skills under the eyes of more experienced inmates. Special schemes, geared towards education and upskilling, within the Penal System are common as a way of providing a better chance for the criminals upon release. For those who wish to remain in the military the option to transfer into the Marine Corps with a rank befitting their service record is available. Those who show potential are even offered an Officer Aptitude Evaluation, which allows them to fast-track their way towards becoming commissioned officers. In recent years the UNSC has offered service in the Penal Squads as a means for citizens of Independent Colonies to earn UEG citizenship.

'Dogs of War'

Following the conquest of the Skyllian Verge humanity was left with thousands of batarians living in their territory. As they had assigned the batarians the same rights as civilians they soon had combat trained, but otherwise unskilled, batarians applying to serve in Penal Squads as a way of obtaining full citizenship. While this was allowed on a trial basis the number of 'friendly fire' accidents soon led to the UNSC segregating the batarians. A reshuffling of the Penal Squads soon after led to the batarians and Independent Colonists being assigned to separate squads from the common criminals.

A misreporting of these batarian soldiers caused many to presume humanity was offering contracts to alien mercenaries and resulting in many adventurous asari and more rebellious turians applying for employment. Mixing these mercenaries in with the batarians and humans seeking citizenship led to the passing of the Special Task Force XI Act and a swell of xeno-mercs being sent to face the jiralhanae. Their primary nickname comes from an attempt of humour by a sangheili general quoting Shakespeare.

{I don't intend to go into too much detail since I have plans for a possible side story that follows a batarian, and several other Xeno-mercs, fighting against the jiralhanae. If/When this story gets going I'll have more info for them then}

Dark Worlds and Independent Colonies

The original Dark Worlds where a scattered group of planets on which Insurrectionists claimed power during the Human-Covenant War. Falsifying reports that indicated the planets had been decimated by the Covenant and suppressing any and all outgoing signals the Insurrectionists banked on the UNSC being too preoccupied with the war to register their disappearance. They were right, for the most part as the UNSC never suspected that entire colonies worth of resources and weapons existed hidden out there. These colonies were able to remain hidden and flourish for some time before survey vessels, dispatched to access the devastation and lay groundwork for memorials, discovered their existence. What followed was, is and forever shall be the worst crimes ever committed against humanity by humanity. Criminals allowed free reign in 'dealing with' resistance, Marine Corps officers turning a blind eye to the atrocities and all done in the name of a unified humanity. When the Army, who was following behind to oversee the garrisoning of the colonies, came across the slaughter the UNSC faced a full blown mutiny. The risk of losing control of the Army, coupled with shifting public opinion as images and reports of the carnage leaked out, forced the UNSC to crackdown on the Penal Squads and Marines. The horrors of the Dark World Wars contributed to HIGHCOMM handing power back to the UEG, citing the dehumanising effects of the war as why they could no longer lead. Today there are no real Dark Worlds, the term existing mainly as an insult to Independent Colonies and as a warning to planets on the verge of rebellion.

Unlike rebellions on colonies, which are met with brutal and immediate retaliation, the formation of Independent Colonies by groups wishing to live outside UEG governing is accepted. The reason for this is that while rebellions on UEG worlds means the loss of investment, of time and resources to establish the colony, an independent colony has all costs and difficulties covered by the settlers. Another, more practical, reason is that allowing those who would reject the UEG government leave means they don't have to be bothered with. Independent Colonies are often formed as communes based around ideological or religious systems the UEG refusing to accommodate. Independent Colonies however are completely ignored by UNSC patrols, which makes them prime targets for raiders and slavers along humanity's borders. Some critics have noted this exposure to attack often pressures the Independents into eventually accepting UEG rule in exchange for the protection the UNSC offers, effectively granting the UEG a ready to develop colony without the initial start-up cost. Citizens of independent colonies can apply to return to the UEG, as civilians. UEG civilians are unable to vote or hold public office and have further restrictions on careers they may follow. Agreeing to serve time in a Penal Squad, and surviving it, grants full citizenship.

The Office Of Naval Intelligence And Its Successors

The Office of Naval Intelligence was the reason humanity survived their war with the Covenant. Its manipulating of facts to maintain morale, its acquiring and reverse-engineering of alien technology and the horrific crimes it committed to safeguard humanity ensured human survival. These details, or at least what little was publically known about them, meant that ONI grew in power and influence after the war. However the corrupting influence of power, and extreme paranoia, led to several risky actions following the war. The arming of Servants of Abiding Truth and fuelling of the Sangheili Civil War being a major example.

For many years ONI remained the true power in the UNSC, using black-ops and False Flag operations to sabotage any progress towards a return to democracy or any weakening of their influence. But all this ended when one low level data analyst was assigned high clearance by a clerical error. Stumbling onto secret reports detailing the origins of the Spartan-IIs, and the difficulties ONI was facing in establishing a new generation, data analyst Eric White leaked the information to the public. While ONI was able to discredit the information as slander and Insurrectionist propaganda a failed assassination attempt on White prompted HIGHCOMM to launch a full-scale investigation into ONI. This investigation led to the military police, supported by ODSTs, raiding many of ONI's bases. What they found was empty bases, littered with the corpses of low level ONI operative, and empty data stores. Admiral Parangosky, head of ONI, was killed while 'attempting to resist arrest' when MPs moved on her private residence {Conspiracy theories exist that Parangosky was killed on orders from HIGHCOMM to ensure she did not go to trial and give damning evidence against them}. On her person was a datapad which had been used to relay a message to all ONI personnel. The word 'Tartarus'.

For some time after ONI disappeared the UNSC was hesitant to risk a repeat. As such intelligence groups where set up and disbanded on an as needed basis. While this ensured no group could become as powerful as ONI had been it also greatly limited the effectiveness of the groups' intelligence gathering capabilities. Eventually the UNSC did establish a permanent intelligence agency, the Naval Intelligence Division, The NID was to be partly under civilian oversight, to provide the morality many career military had been forced to sacrifice to survive the Covenant War, and was under constant scrutiny by a committee comprised of HIGHCOMM officials and UEG investigators. While nowhere near as effective an intelligence agency as ONI had been, the NID is effective enough to gather and supply effective data through a network of spies, remote drones and deep cover agents scattered across UEG territory and beyond.

For nearly fifty years following ONI's disappearance the UNSC refused to replace either its intelligence gathering or its R&D divisions for fear of a repeat. Short term task forces, established to work on a single issue before being dissolved, where used instead. This paranoia, coupled with the loss of the decades of research data ONI had amassed, is believed to have stunted human technological development by close to a century if not more. However, when construction work in Mars' southern region discovered previously unknown alien technology a more permanent group was needed to accurately study the new technology. This group slowly expanded to encompass all UNSC funded research, with each new duty bringing more and more scrutiny to prevent abuse. Eventually the group was turned into the Department of Research and Development, DRD. While the DRD now studies any and all alien technology its primary objective is the study, reverse-engineering and improvement of Mass Accelerator technology… A task which became infinitely easier once the Terminus Systems' black market as discovered. Using humanity's vast resources to procure weapons and armour the DRD studied, dismantled, studied, reassembled and studied the equipment as a means to bridge the gap between humanity and the Relay Races.

The Shanxi War

A nine month long war between the Turian Hierarchy and the UNSC {Canonical First Contact War lasted three months, and saw a little over a thousand casualties total}. The name comes from its main event, the Siege of Shanxi, where the turian military spent the six months it took the UNSC to fortify the surrounding systems and gear up for Total War trying to take what they thought was the human homeworld. The fighting was so intense, and the human resistance so fierce, that the turians were forced to use safe camps and their hastatim execution squads, which have only ever been needed against the turians themselves. When the UNSC relieved Shanxi the planet's garrison of UNSC Army soldiers had suffered near total destruction and the civilian population had been cut nearly in half but resistance was still strong.

While the turians held the advantage in ground combat, better technology and access to biotics allowing them to inflict massive casualties, they were unable to deal with many of humanity's tactics. Moves such as ditching shields, whose energy signatures can be tracked, to allow for ambushes, and turning the weapons of fallen turians against them were things the turians never considered in battle. The human use of IEDs, either simple shrapnel bombs or the more advanced 'thermite surprises', made foot patrols incredibly risky while the armour piercing capabilities of most human weapons limited the effectiveness of turian APCs. The level of resistance and brutal attacking prowess of the humans led general Desolas Arterius to christen the humans 'Nodra Krogatz', the 'Next Krogan' {this is the turian's scientific name for humanity like how our own scientific name for human is 'Homo Sapiens Sapiens' or 'Wise Man Wise'}.

When the UNSC Navy arrived and decimated the turian ships above Shanxi the turians initially thought they were under attack by another race, of whom the humans must have been a client race. This was due to the sheer size of human vessels and their use of plasma weaponry. Ship mounted easily predicting the turian tactics, and a considerably thicker hull, meant that turians could not match the enemy vessels in battle unless they had a significant numerical advantage.

While it is rarely mentioned, many observers believe that had the Council not stepped in the turians would have ultimately lost. The use of Slipspace, plus their atomic and plasma, weaponry meant that humanity have simply 'Glassed' the turian worlds and moved on without needing to ever engage in ground battles where they were at the disadvantage.

{I don't intend to go into too much detail since I am considering telling the story of the Shanxi War either through flashbacks by characters who were there as an independent side story}

Alien Races

Sangheili

A bipedal race hailing from Sanghelios the sangheili here one of the two founding races of the Covenant Religion, in which the served as the primary military caste. Physically superior to humans, and possessing technology well beyond anything the humans can develop, the sangheili battled against the UNSC for the majority of the Human-Covenant War. Following their betrayal by Prophets, and the schism in the Covenant, the sangheili fought alongside humanity to end the empire they had formed. Following the war centuries old grievances and difficulty adjusting to existence outside of the Covenant's caste system led to a Civil War. When ONI's involvement in the Civil War was revealed the tension between the sangheili and humanity boiled over culminating in the Isstvan massacre, where a sangheili fleetmaster refused to render aid to the UNSC's Third Fleet which was attempting to 'break the back' of jiralhanae power.

During the near century of isolation which followed the sangheili found themselves struggling to adapt and survive the massive social changes they were undergoing as well as steady and aggressive attacks by the jiralhanae. Under pressure from the numerically superior jiralhanae the sangheili were forced to end their acceptance of the status quo and begin innovating with weaponry. Much like humanity the prolonged war led to rapid advancement with weapons like the T-55 Directed Energy 'Storm' Rifle being developed. By the time dialogue was re-established with humanity the sangheili vastly overpowered the jiralhanae in terms of weapons and shielding but lacked the numbers to fight aggressively. Bartering access to older weapons systems, and mineral rights to resources not vital to sangheili interests, in exchange for assistance with agriculture and military support the sangheili have since reclaimed all their former territory and begun taking planets from the jiralhanae.

Interaction between the sangheili and the Citadel Council has mostly been limited {suspected to be a deliberate action by humanity to prevent Relay Races bartering aid in exchange for technology} with only one official meeting between representatives, a meeting brokered by humanity. The sangheili seemed to show some measure of respect for the turians, information gleamed from humanity about the Shanxi War having shown the turians to be a powerful and effective military force. The sangheili interaction with the other diplomats was not as good, the representative showing little interest in the asari delegate's words and found the salarian's dalatrass highly condescending. Other than this one meeting the sangheili only ever really see Relay Race species when human hired mercenaries support Penal Squads during joint-ops against the jiralhanae.

Jiralhanae

Following the dissolution of the Human-Sangheili alliance in 2563 the jiralhanae tribes found themselves with time to recover and regroup. Due to their tribal government and less time in the Covenant's caste system the jiralhanae adapted to life without the Covenant faster, uniting under a new and powerful Chieftain of the Jiralhanae. This chieftain then sent his fleets to capture and secure the homeworlds of the other former Covenant races, providing him with the resources and military force needed to begin expanding jiralhanae control.

The jiralhanae are currently locked in a brutal war against the humans and sangheili while simultaneously using garrisons and the threat of Glassing to suppress rebellions from the other races within their 'empire'. They have had no contact with the Relay Races and where it not for the Dogs of War it would be possible they are would not even aware of the existence of such races.

Turian

An avian race hailing from Palaven, the turians have served as the military power behind the Citadel Council ever since their involvement in ending the Krogan Rebellions. Possessing the largest standing army, and allowed the largest amount of dreadnoughts under the Treaty of Farixen, the Turian Hierarchy has filled the role of Peacekeeper for over a millennium. The turians where the first Relay Race to encounter humanity, and the only Relay Race to declare war against the UEG. The Shanxi War, named for the planet the majority of the war was fought on, lasted for a total of nine months and saw some of the most intense and bloody battles the Hierarchy had partaken in for centuries.

Following the Council brokered treaty, signed above the occupied turian world of Taetrus, the turians found themselves forced to play buffer between the rest of the Citadel Races and this new race. When talks aimed at bringing humanity into the galactic community broke down, humanity's refusal to bow to pre-existing treaties and salarian attempts to steal classified data being the primary reasons, a solo attempt at talks by the turians fares much better but still fails. The decision to release the designs for what humans would later call HOLOPADs by the turians as a good-will gesture aids in a second round of talks which secures a Non-Aggression Agreement between the Hierarchy and UEG. Since then the two governments had signed minor trade agreements while their respective militaries have occasionally run joint operations against Terminus System pirates and slave raiders who operated along the border areas.

The Shanxi War showed the turians, and Relay Races at large, that while the turians may possess the largest military they did not have the most powerful fighting force. Their soldiers lacked the experience and instincts that only long-term combat can provide, their ground forces only winning thanks to superior numbers and hardware. This insight into their shortcomings has led to an increasing number of cases where the turians adopt a more active approach to dealing with Terminus pirates as a way to increase the experience of their troopers. The way also showed several flaws in their ship construction techniques, namely in the inability of the hull or the shield generators to handle extreme temperatures. Joint research with the Salarian Union saw the turians attempt to counter these issues by perfecting Cyclonic Barrier Technology (CBT). By rotationally firing their mass effect field projectors ships create rapidly oscillating kinetic barriers instead of static ones a CTB equipped ship should be able to deflect the plasma generated by XJZ11 instead of just stopping the plasma, allowing it to 'sit' atop their shields and radiate out enough heat to compromise the ship's hull beneath. Thankfully, for all concerned, the turians have never tested this theory as the peace between the Hierarchy and the UEG still holds.

*Interesting Note* the Flood is unable to infect the turians due to their dextro-amino acid nature.

Asari

A humanoid, mammalian species the asari where the first race of the current cycle to discover the Citadel. Believing in negotiation over battle the asari are often regarded as a race of scholars and diplomats. Possessing a robust cellular regenerative system the average asari can live up to one thousand years, discounting illness or injury. A race of natural biotics the asari military, while small in comparison to the likes of say the turian military, is one to be feared and respected. Due to their potentially millennium long lifetime the biotic commandos the Asari Republics send against their enemies are regarded as some of the most dangerous soldiers in the known galaxy.

The asari first learned of the existence of humanity in the final weeks of the Shanxi War, when the Turian Hierarchy began to pull all peacekeeping troops back and started to gear for Total War. Working with the Salarian Union the asari discovered that the turians where engaged in a brutal and bloody war against a paradoxically technologically inferior/superior race. Rushing to intervene the asari flagship, the Will of Thessia, managed to enter the Mactare system just before what would be the final battle of the war. The arrival of the dreadnought inadvertently broke the stalemate that had developed between humanity's Fifth Fleet and the assembled turian armada {Both races mistook it as the first arrival of turian reinforcements}. In the ensuing battle the asari struggled to get both sides to stand down as the Will of Thessia took considerable damage. The battle was finally stopped when on-board salarian agents managed to hack the turian COMMs system and retrieve all gathered linguistic data preluding to humanity.

When humanity finally agreed to a permanent ceasefire, as increased jiralhanae activity had them concerned about attempting to fight on two massive fronts, the asari went ahead with what they felt was the next logical step, inducting humanity as a Council associate race. These talks failed when humanity straight up refused to downsize its fleet to match the Treaty of Farixen, on the grounds that they needed their fleets strong to fight the jiralhanae, and their utter refusal to even consider accepting the Citadel's restrictions/ban on . When humanity walked away from the talks it was with no form of treaty or agreement between the UEG and the Asari Republics {This has since changed, with small-scale trade between the space ports of Shanxi and Illium}. While several Matriarchs used to rapid changes and uncertainty that the discovery of humanity, and its powerful military, caused to push for a more militarised asari their electronic democracy saw these 'warhawks' outvoted by those who chose to see humanity as potential trader partners and possible mates. as such the asari military has seen little to no change following humanity's appearance on their radar, save the adoption of carriers.

Salarian

The salarians are a warm-blooded amphibian race that serve as the technical experts of the Council, providing both cutting edge technology and near constant intelligence gathered from just about every source possible. Officially the Salarian Union became aware of humanity at the same time as the asari but their constant infiltration of turian channels means they most likely knew about the younger race much sooner.

Always needing to be at the pinnacle of technological ability the salarians have the most hostile relationship with humanity, unhappy at humanity's refusal to provide the details of their plasma weaponry or the secrets of Slipspace travel. The UNSC's counterintelligence agency is constantly uncovering salarian cyber-warfare incursions which are capable of penetrating all but A.I encoded encryptions. The salarians, simply practicing what they do on every race while hiding behind their mutual defence treaty with the turians, are constantly forced to declare any STG taskforces discovered as 'having gone rogue' to avoid the full extent of humanity's retaliation.

The salarians are the only Council Race without any form of trade with humanity, all products going either are purchased second-hand from turian retailors with the relevant licenses. They are also the race who is most vocal about taking humanity into line with Council laws, the outlawing of and distributing of technological data retrieved from both the Prothean runs on Mars and humanity's independent development.

Other Relay Races

The volus benefit from all trade agreements humanity has with the Hierarchy due to their status as a 'client race'. The hanar and drell have some minor trade with humanity, via the turians, but it is rather limited. The elcor, whose products are not all too useful to humans, have no exports to humanity but to import a notable amount of high-grade palladium and iridium produced by human companies.

Batarian

The turians first became aware of humanity following the Shanxi War but did not make first contact until sometime later when humanity, with a higher population growth rate and more effective terraforming techniques, began advancing into the Skyllian Verge. While the batarians tried to have the Council declare the region of 'batarian interest' in an attempt to prevent human expansion the fact that the UEG/UNSC was not a Citadel Race meant any declaration would just be ignored. Angered by the Council's refusal to assist the Hegemony closed its embassy and decided to fund and arm pirates and slavers from the Terminus Systems in the hopes of making the humans think the Verge was too hostile to bother with.

This policy backfired spectacularly in 2778 when humanity raided the slaver based on Torfan. Uncovering damning evidence that the Hegemony was using its colonies in the Verge to finance attacks on human worlds, both UEG and Independent, the UNSC was sent to 'secure human interests in the region and end possible dangers to human expansion.' On July 7th 2778 the batarians received on uncoded message warning that they should have 'let sleeping dogs lie' and an official announcement that humanity intended to annex all of the Skyllian Verge. In a series of Slipspace attacks the UNSC broke the back of the batarian military and forced them back to the Kite's Nest cluster. Hundreds of thousands of batarians where left behind on their occupied planets at the tender 'mercy' of a race they had been informed where monstrous. Humanity offered a simple choice to all batarians in the Verge, remain on your worlds as civilians of the UEG {Effectively making them no different to Independent Colonists who returned to UEG space} or be transported to the Kite's Nest and return to Hegemony governance. Almost 100% of the lower castes chose to remain while close to 70% of the upper caste members fled. Many former batarian military and state police officers now serve in the Penal Squads, using a loophole that allows them to earn full citizenship just like Independent Colonists can.

The Batarian Hegemony, their military all but destroyed by human assaults in the Verge or desertion, now find itself too busy trying to protect their remaining worlds from attack by the very pirates and slavers it had once funded and supplied.

Krogan

Humanity and the krogan have never officially made first contact due to the krogan lacking any form of unified government the UEG can deal with. The distances between their territories, and that krogan territory is in the middle of a DMZ, being the main cause for this. Humanity is aware of them due to encounters with the Blood Pack, and later mercenaries hired to fight for humanity, and generally holds a 'case-by-case' opinion of the race.

The same information mostly holds true for the vorcha as well.

Geth

Despite multiple attempts to contact the synthetic race humanity has not made first contact with them. Almost all attempts have resulted in their signals being ignored, a single reply of 'begone' was received once. While humanity, and their AIs, have considerable interest in meeting the geth the foreseeable future see no contact between the two races.

Quarian

Humanity first made contact with the quarians in 2765 when several quarian scout ships enter a human controlled system. After a tense first encounter where humanity threatened to destroy the ships if they did not relocate, as they had entered the system in the coordinates the sangheili used for emerging from Slipspace, the two races managed less than two hours of diplomatic talks before quarian bias against AIs led to humanity simply telling them to go away. Now standard policy is for the Migrant Fleet to announce itself before entering human territory, be provided an armed escort away from any potential Slipspace Exit points and sent on their way.

Some quarians, mostly those on pilgrimage, can be seen on humanity's outer colonies working and providing technical advice for money. A much smaller number elect to serve as mercenaries in human employment, being sent to act as combat engineers alongside Penal Squads against the jiralhanae for large sums of credits.

*Interesting Note* the Flood is unable to infect the quarians due to their dextro-amino acid nature.

Original Characters Of Note Who Will Be Mentioned In Background Talk Or In The Dogs Of War Side Story

Wotanizus

A minor jiralhanae chieftain who earned his position by killing his former commander. A young nephew of the Chief of all Jiralhanae Wotanizus has vision and an intense desire to find out the source of humanity's new technology and use it to further strengthen the Jiralhanae Empire. A rarity amongst his race, Wotanizus believes defeat can be more beneficial than victory if you learn from it and refuses to punish defeated sub-commanders if they fail. Respected by the jiralhanae under his command, and beloved by the unggoy, Wotanizus will do whatever he feels will most benefit his people.

Joww Bal'serah

A lower caste batarian biotic who trained in the special intervention unit, batarian special forces. Born on Camala he and his family remained when humanity offered the chance to leave or stay. Fighting to earn full citizenship, and so his wages will pay for his sibling's education, Joww is a brutal and effective shock trooper. His call sign of 'Spike' comes from his use of a jiralhanae Type-25 Carbine in place of a standard issue ICW. { An Early version appeared in a short scene in chapter 18 of Chaos in the Cosmos}

Weyrloc Grawl

An old and powerful krogan battlemaster, Grawl is the uncle of Chief Weyrloc Guld and one of the original krogan to take control of the Blood Pack from the vorcha. Old enough to remember the Rebellions Grawl has survived a millennium and a half of warfare by being the biggest, toughest and most dangerous thing on the battlefield. A beneficial genetic mutation has left Grawl a giant of a krogan, easily as large and as strong as a jiralhanae, the battlemaster earned his call sign of 'Hunter-Killer', or simply 'HK', by actively seeking out mgalekgolo to kill "For the challenge".

Vas Nedas

The quarian known as Vas Nedas, quarian for 'crew of nowhere', is a former quarian marine exiled for the attempted murder of an Admiral. Following his exile Vas Nedas has become loyal to the mission alone and will not hesitate to abandon his fellow soldiers if doing so will ensure the mission's success, he will not hesitate to sacrifice himself for the mission either. His call sign, Visor, refers both to the faceplate of his environment suit and the fact he has replaced the quarian programed VIs in his suit with a modified VISR. {This guy is basically HUNK from Resident Evil, only with just two fingers and weird legs}.

XXXXX

And I'm ending this here because I don't want to double the word count of No Pease. Last wee bits are as follows:

Council opinions of humans is different to canon; Turians are supportive, asari are neutral and salarians are hostile.

ONI and their research was wiped out to prevent humanity being WAY too overpowered. ONI still exists, as the backers/real power behind Cerberus.

Covenant Remnants {Badguys from Halo 4} are still around but slightly different. Here they are a cult that opposes changes to sangheili ways and refuses to use newer technology, sticking to the older Covenant Era plasma rifles etc.

{Not really in relation to the fic, but to my writing. Please note if something is marked by XX a location and then XX that is a scene change. If there is a – and then something like a date or a note about time in there, that means there is a time difference between this event and whatever came before it! Pay attention to that, because this story will see flash-forwards and flashbacks as time goes on}

This is Highvalour saying, hope this helped and if you

Got more questions post them on the forum.

I will answer and it saves repeats if people go there.