The Cerberus Files: Historical Analysis of Citadel and Terminus Space
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DAEDALUS-SEVEN-NINE-TWO
ACKNOWLEDGMENT HANDSHAKE ACCEPTED
To the Three:
The second half of the introduction is completed. As requested, I've reviewed the Citadel Council itself.
Cerberus Message of the Day: Humanity's survival is never enough. Human dominance ensures not only that we survive but thrive - a slave can survive, but that is no existence to pursue.
The Citadel Council
The governance of Council-dominated space is the ultimate responsibility of the Citadel Council. Rather than an elected government, each one of the primary races of the Council seats (in addition to their ambassador) a single powerful representative. The three decide on laws that are proposed by the various subcommittees and interface with the racial ambassadors to communicate their wishes.
This is, bluntly put, a three-part dictatorship. There is neither appeal nor redress from the Council, to disobey it's mandates is to have your race's ambassador removed and to have no input on galactic law whatsoever. This has happened to the krogan and quarians, while the batarians did so voluntarily. The hanar and drell did not ever 'qualify' for ambassador status.
The Council is comprised of an asari (Tevos T'Sael), a turian (Tarren Sparatus), and a salarian (Erdat Valern). I plan to detail these figures in more detail in the relevant racial sections. In short, however, Tevos (she prefers going by her first name, like most asari) is cunning and manipulative. Sparatus is militaristic, sarcastic, and cynical. Valern is crafty, looking for angles and cold. The three rarely fully agree on anything, with some seventy four percent of votes being 2 to 1 in approval or disapproval. Notably, the outlier more often than not is the turian.
The Council does not officially answer to its member governments, nor does it technically command them. A Councilor is functionally a head of state equal to that of the SA President or turian Primarch, but may end up honoring requests of their member governments. Tevos, in particular, is little more than a mouthpiece of the Thirty, while Valern is usually acquiescent to the requests of the High Dalatrass. Sparatus is more deviated from the wishes of the Primarch, but is normally at least somewhat in line.
The Council has a staggering level of power – they command a full 20% of the ships from each member race, as well as several private armies. They can levy taxes across the entire galaxy as well as duties and excise fees, giving the Citadel government staggering levels of income. Furthermore, they control the rents and property taxes on the Citadel itself, adding more to their coffers.
Council Subcommittees
The Council has six subcommittees that meet to discuss laws, proposed taxes, military orders, and the like.
The Subcommittee of Defense controls the Citadel armed forces and sets laws on military behavior, fleet sizes, and approved weapons.
The Subcommittee of Commerce regulates taxes, commercial laws, commercial regulations, inspections and tariff rights.
The Subcommittee on Sentient Rights regulates the laws that pertain to criminal behavior, the rights of sentient beings, slavery, trans-mortality and treatment of aliens.
The Subcommittee on Health deals with matters medical and cybernetic, as well as regulations on food and drink products and workplace safety.
The Subcommittee on Habitability deals with the Citadel's infrastructure and the conditions aboard the Citadel, sets rules and laws for colonization rights and legislates settlement fees.
The Subcommittee on Science regulates research laws and limits, biotic research, experimentation, testing protocols, and research into VI and AI technology.
The subcommittees are comprised of three representatives from each Council race, along with three additional representatives for the asari, salarians, and turians each. They meet twice monthly and the meetings are open to the public. Membership is decided by the race in question, using whatever methods they prefer. Anyone can petition to have an issue discussed by the subcommittee, but they chose what they will and will not review.
Council Military Forces
Every Citadel race must contribute either goods and services or military forces to the protection of the galaxy. The turians contribute 50% of their fleet, the asari and salarians 35%, the humans and elcor, 20% and the volus 40% plus a sizable economic fee.
This makes the Citadel Fleet a powerful tool. For the lesser Council races, their contribution fleet is left in the hands of the respective races. For example, Fifth Fleet is humanity's contribution, but most times it takes orders from the SA. In times of war or danger command is transferred to the Citadel. The turian, salarian and asari contributions, on the other hand, are permanent assignments.
The Council also has access to some sixty thousand asari commandos and two million turian soldiers, as well as three thousand salarian Shieldbreakers, that form the Citadel Defense Force. Only twenty percent of this force is active at any one time, stationed aboard the Citadel to prevent a hostile force from taking it.
The Council also controls C-SEC, or Citadel Security, a two-hundred thousand person force that acts as the police for the station and as customs investigators and agents for the galaxy.
The SPECTRES
The Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel Defense Force is comprised of roughly ninety elite-level special agents with complete legal immunity and top-level equipment that handle difficult issues for the Council. Their stated goal is to preserve galactic stability.
Spectres are usually gifted with a command vessel by their sponsor, which can be a government or a group of corporate sponsors for a race. Spectres are paid outrageous sums by the Citadel, can requisition anything they need, and have total carte blanche to do their jobs. Assassins, saboteurs, spies, and lethal fighters, Spectres are commonly seen as super-agents doing the Council's bidding. Their records, operations, and activities are completely classified.
The Council Special Tasks Group
Some fifteen salarian STG teams answer directly to the Council, usually to aid in Spectre operations.
The Council Special Operations Group
Nine units of the elite Turian Blackwatch and two storms of asari commandos lead by three war priestesses form an additional emergency reaction force for the Citadel. There are rumors that this force is backed up by salarian biotics, but no proof exists of such.