Mass Effect is the property of Bioware. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien/Predator franchise.
We have reached the point in time where my first story, Someone had heard them scream, ended. By now the ships involved in that encounter are back home.
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Earth, Geneva
The assembly room was packed. With the exception of chairwoman Hammerstein's seat, which would remain empty until a replacement had been elected, not a single member was absent. It had required some arm-twisting, for many of the Assemble members had been poised to flee the city for fear of the rioting citizens. But in the end, sufficient pressure had been brought to bear. It was necessary. On an occasion such as this, simply having a majority, or even a quorum, just wouldn't do. Everyone HAD to be there. Everyone HAD to vote.
"We are faced with unique circumstances. Circumstances that no-one could have predicted. Circumstances, that are rapidly spinning out of control."
Assembly member Charles d'Orsinio had the floor. That was a rarity. D'Orsinio almost never spoke in public, preferring to wield his influence in the background, but today it was necessary. Someone had to speak; and d'Orsinio, lacking clear ties to any political party of movement, was the ideal person to do it.
Though perhaps lacking practice, d'Orsinio was a competent enough speaker; at least, competent enough to hold his audience for the short period that was required.
"The time for deliberations is past. The time for talking is past. It is time that we, the General Assembly of the United Systems, show that we CAN be decisive; that we CAN take action when required, that we CAN provide the leadership that humanity needs in time of crisis. However, in order to do so, we need to hear the voice of an expert. For that reason, I yield the floor to the United Systems Military chief-of-staff: General Thomas Spears."
Shanxi orbit
"You're going home, little brother."
General Arterius looked down on the still form of his younger brother. Saren was heavily sedated and had been unconscious most of the time since the survivors of his team brought him back from the infiltration attempt. It was fortunate that the two remaining team members had managed to evacuate him so quickly, and that the medics attached to that particular legion had been exceptionally skilled. They had managed to stabilize Saren just in time before he bled out. Now the wounded turian was back in orbit on board a transport that Desolas had detached to carry those wounded that needed further treatment back to Aephus.
Desolas flexed a talon as he contemplated the latest reports. His forces in the human city were stuck, again. So was the legion surrounding the human industrial complex. The same complex where his brother had fought, and nearly died. It was the same story as the day before, and the day before that. Turian soldier would advance, run into human resistance, and stumble to a halt. They would call in reinforcements, air support, anything to give them an edge in firepower. Usually they managed to kill the defenders, or at least drive them off, only for the same process to repeat itself. They had inflicted serious casualties, but still the humans fought on, clinging to each building as though it was their last, and extracting a heavy toll from the Hierarchy troops.
Time for a change. He had tried to do this the polite way; he really had tried, but it just wasn't working, and with each day that passed there was an increased chance that something would change on the political front. Either the Primarch would get tired of the delays and commit the full might of the Hierarchy, setting off the kind of large-scale war that Desolas had wanted to avoid; or someone, the Citadel Council or one of Desolas' political opponents, would convince Fedorian to have Desolas recalled, perhaps even giving up on the whole operation and turning the turian hierarchy into the laughing stock of the known galaxy; and throwing away everything they had endured, including his brother's sacrifice. Time to show these creatures what it REALLY means to defy the Hierarchy.
As though the thought had wakened him, Saren stirred and opened his eyes. Between the weakness from his injury and the sedation his gaze seemed far from clear, but his remaining talon reached out.
"Desolas!"
Saren's voice was soft, almost inaudible, but the desperation came through with every word as he tried to make himself heard.
"You have to continue! Don't make it... Don't make it all for nothing."
Desolas nodded and briefly rested his talon on his brother's shoulder.
"Don't worry, little brother. One way or another, I'm going to finish this."
Shanxi City, Shanxi
Beta company, 4th battalion, of the Shanxi planetary militia was spread out over a large office building in the commercial center of Shanxi City. They were a good unit. Unlike many of their fellow militia, they had stood and fought, and held their ground wherever possible; earning the grudging respect of the marines fighting along side them. Now, after more than a week of fighting and taking steady losses, the company was at less than two-thirds of its original strength. Unfortunately, there were no replacements to be had. Shanxi's militia was a young organization and lacked any kind of on-planet reserves. That was bad enough. Even worse was the increasing scarcity of supplies. Neither the marines nor the militia had the kind of massive stockpiles of consumables that were necessary to support them in a protracted fight; and the young colony lacked the industry to produce spare parts or ammunition locally. So far the massive firepower of the human infantry units, compared to their turian adversaries, had played an important part in their ability to contest the city. That was beginning to change. Increasingly, requests for resupply were being denied, or at least postponed.
-o-o-o-
A platoon of turian infantry moved cautiously through the deserted streets, checking every door, and every window. One of the soldiers spotted movement behind a window. Only for a moment, but that was enough. These were the survivors of two weeks of urban combat. They had learned the hard way not to take risks. That experience showed.
The platoon scattered in all directions, even as several grenades landed in the street. For most of them, quick reactions saved their lives, though not for all. Two soldiers fell to the ground and stopped moving. A third, wounded, tried to crawl away only to be cut down by a burst of rifle fire.
The encounter was not unexpected, and at least they had identified the position of the human defenders, allowing the lieutenant in charge of the platoon to mark the location on his map and report to his superiors. They had established a routine for this. The first unit to make contact would stop advancing and take cover. Neighboring units would move forward cautiously, probing along a wide front until the extent of the human position had been established. Once that task was completed, the entire regiment would fall on the defenders from as many different directions as possible. It was a frustrating, time-consuming approach that ran contrary to established doctrine, but it yielded results. This time, things went differently.
"Withdraw and wait for orders."
The platoon obeyed.
High in orbit above the city a turian cruiser adjusted it's position, aligning its spinal axis directly on the planet.
-o-o-o-
It happened faster than either human or turian eyes could follow. One moment everything was quiet, the next, a streak of light, emanating from somewhere high in the sky, connected with the office building. The ground shook, glass from the windows of a dozen nearby buildings shattered and rained down on the streets. Another streak of light appeared, and another, and another. Around the impact point, a massive dust cloud rose up, obscuring all vision. It took several minutes before anyone could begin to see what had happened. When the dust started to settle, an area nearly two hundred meters across had been turned into a rubble-filled crater. Turian soldiers, advancing slowly through the still-swirling dust, encountered no further resistance.
Citadel, Asari councillor's private chambers
"... and that was pretty much the end of it. Three of my people dead, one wounded, still a near-perfect first-contact, and then those strutting fools just had to toss it all away." Captain Shiana Armali's anger, suppressed for the duration of her return voyage, was now boiling over. Upon her arrival on the Citadel, she had requested a meeting with the asari councillor. Somewhat to her surprise, it had been granted within hours. It had provided her with a welcome opportunity to finally vent her rage.
"While I appreciate the sentiment, captain," the councillor answered. "it would seem this captain Victus didn't have much choice in the matter. There was no way for him to know what occurred, and his assumptions were not unreasonable."
"I don't blame Victus, councillor. He isn't the real culprit. That was that moron... what was his name, Livestian, who screwed up his first contact.
"Captain-"
"Councillor, if I could make a peaceful first contact under the circumstances I was faced with, he should have been able to do it as well." Shiala took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. "If I may ask, what is happening now? Victus said something about a turian move to solve this problem, but he was very evasive about what it entailed."
Councillor Tevos cast her a look, keeping her face carefully expressionless. "Invasion."
"What?!"
"I'm sure you heard me the first time, captain. The Hierarchy has launched an assault on a human colony world. The idea is to occupy the planet and force the humans to negotiate to get it back. That way the Hierarchy can make peace without losing face."
Shiana had the feeling that her thought-processes had frozen for a moment as she tried to make sense of what she heard, and of the kind of mind that could come up with such a concept.
"And... and what if they don't? Negotiate, that is. What if they keep fighting?"
"An excellent question, captain. Perhaps you should ask the Primarch. I, for one, would be most curious to hear his answer. Unfortunately, I suspect that it would be something along the line of: 'These aliens can not possibly have the strength for a protracted war against the full might of the Hierarchy!' Never mind that we still have no idea of their strengths and resources, or that the fact that they cannot win doesn't necessarily mean that they won't try, especially since they almost certainly have no idea of the total strength of the Hierarchy either. All well and good, if he is correct, but frankly, I doubt it. If these humans were going to ask for negotiations, they would have done it by now. No, you are almost certainly right. They won't negotiate, which means that, unless the turians have overwhelming numerical superiority, we're looking at a large scale war, potentially galactic in scale."
"Councillor, we both know that the Hierarchy's economy cannot sustain a long term military effort without support from the other governments, not unless they give up their patrol duties. Sooner or later, they'll come calling for help and then what?"
That, of course, was the Varen in the room that no-one wanted to discuss. What would they do, if the Hierarchy demanded the support from the other governments?
Councilor Tevos sighed. There were days she wondered why she had ever agreed to take this post. The idea behind the Citadel Council had been a noble one. A way for different species to retain their independence, while still cooperating toward a common goal of galactic peace. Unfortunately, it never seemed to work that way. Faced with the rachni menace, earlier councilors had chosen the easy way out, uplifting the krogan to do the fighting for them. That had worked out very well, until the krogan decided that they didn't really need the other races. The only solution at the time had allowed the turians to leverage their way into a council seat, which, in turn had made the Hierarchy the de-facto military of the Council and given the turian Primarch enormous influence over Council decisions.
Then, 300 years ago, her predecessors had been faced with the Geth problem. The Council had held back and looked at the turians to do something. But the turians, puffed up with their own importance and tired of competing with the quarians for the rare dextro-aminoacid planets, had been in no hurry to help them. In the end the Council had been forced to publicly condemn the quarians and refuse aid, for to do otherwise would have exposed their inability to do anything unless the Hierarchy signed off on it. Of course, that left the Geth problem. The Council had promised the galaxy at large that they would seek a long-term solution, rather than the short term solutions of the past that always seemed to come with long term consequences. The solution had indeed been long-term, but only in the sense that the problem still hadn't been solved three centuries later.
And now? The turian peacekeeping force had initiated first contact with an unknown species, and made a mess of it. Then they had magnified their original blunder a thousand times by escalating it to the level of an actual war. That was bad enough, but it might not have been a complete disaster, if they could have finished it quickly. Unfortunately, they had been trying to occupy the human planet for nearly two weeks and still the humans fought. Unless something changed quickly, the small war they had started would rapidly become a big one; something the turians, with their overburdened economy, simply couldn't afford. When that happened, they would be forced to go to the other Citadel species for financial support. A distinctly unpalatable choice: either alienate the Hierarchy, one of the three Council species and by far the strongest military force, or start pouring money and other resources into a cause that none of them would willingly embrace.
"To be honest, captain, I don't know. Much depends on these humans. As long as they are no direct threat to citadels space, I don't see either our own republics, or the Salarian Union giving more than token support. The elcor will certainly follow our lead, and I don't see the hanar getting involved in a turian war. Of course the volus won't have much of a choice but to follow the Primarch's orders, given their status as a turian client race, but even they can only be pushed so far."
"And the batarians?"
"Dubious. Right now the ambassador seems torn between laughing at a turian screw-up and hoping for a share of the loot. They would probably be willing to help the turians out, but they'd exact a steep price."
"Typical"
"Indeed. Of course, everything will change if the humans are stronger than we think. If they counter attack into citadel space, we'll have no choice but to join the war."
-o-o-o-
After the captain left, councilor Tevos stared for a long time at the report that Shiana had given her. It really was too bad that the turians had interrupted so soon. There had been a beginning of true communication between both parties. Goddess knew what could have been achieved with only a little more time. Still, it was, at least, a start. The human ship had escaped and would return to its people, who would then see an alternative to the turian aggression. For the moment that would not be much use, but things could change. Perhaps, given time, another opportunity would present itself.
The councilor activated her personal VI.
"Send a message to Matriarch Lidanya aboard the Destiny Ascension. Ask her to join me for diner. Then open a link to Thessia. Inform Matriarch Benezia T'Soni that I would like to speak with her at her earliest convenience."
Shanxi, underground command centre
"They did what?!"
"Orbital bombardment, sir. They destroyed three city blocks and completely wiped out the militia unit we had stationed there."
General Williams sat down, slowly.
"What about civilian casualties. Where there any left in the area?"
The aid shrugged. "It's impossible to tell, sir. As far as we know all civilians had been evacuated, but ..."
The general nodded. They had done their level best to get all civilians out of those areas that were directly threatened , but the task had been impossible. Moving civilians was like herding cats. Too many of them didn't want to leave their homes and Williams simply didn't have the manpower available to go door to door. Besides, where would they go? Shanxi was a new colony, with most of its population concentrated in its capital. There just wasn't enough readily available living space elsewhere to accommodate several million people. So far civilian casualties had been light, but if this was a new enemy policy, rather than an isolated incident ...
Geneva, Earth
"Today we stand on the edge of a precipice; we have been attacked from outside and betrayed from the within."
General Spears was standing at the speaker's podium in the center of the assembly hall, delivering what was undoubtedly the most important speech of his career. Half a dozen junior officers had agonized over it for the better part of two days.
"But humanity is never better than when it faces a challenge; and we will meet this new challenge as we have met all challenges in the past. With our hearts, with our minds, with our very lives."
He looked around the Assembly Hall, which was more quiet than it had ever been in living memory. Beyond that room, Spears knew, the world was watching; and, once the broadcasts had been transmitted, all of humanity, earthbound and colonial alike would hear his words.
"We humans..., we have a bloody past. We are a violent species, and our history shows it. These days, it has become fashionable to look back at that past with shame, with disdain; to claim that we have progressed beyond that stage, that we have become better than our ancestors; to claim that we have become a peaceful species. THAT STOPS HERE AND NOW! We should NOT be ashamed of our past! We should be grateful for it. A peaceful species would have given up long ago. It would never have persevered and reached the stars. A peaceful species, attacked by off-world aliens, would lie down and die. Every drop of blood we have spilled on this planet, every life we have taken in war, after war, after war, has prepared us for this moment. The moment when all of our experience in warfare, all of our talent for destruction, will be called upon to safe our species. It is in this spirit that I stand before you today and ask this assembly to declare a state of war with the political entity that calls itself the Turian Hierarchy."
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y1fellas: I know. I made Saren look a bit like a fool. My idea is that right now he is still young and very convinced of turian (and his own) superiority. (According to the ME wiki timeline he would have been 18 years old at this time. I see him a bit older, the equivalent of a human in his twenties.) He's had a very nasty shock, and he'll be getting a few more. That'll shake him out of his complacency, but also set the stage for what he'll become. Part of the problem is the tradition he's grown up in: For all their bluster, turians lack any recent experience in large scale warfare. Compared to humans the turians are amateurs. Their last major war was the krogan rebellions, 1500 year before the first contact war. For humans (in my timeline) that's about the time that Charlemagne conquered his empire. And it shows. These are the people that put a base on one of their moons and called it 'a brilliant strategy', rather than 'the obvious thing to do'.
If anyone has played Dawn of War, you may remember the 'Indrick Boreale destroys Kaurava' video on youtube and what he thought about people that put bases on moons. Just watch it again, but substitute the names:
'Commander Shepard took it as a personal affront that the turians had build a base of operations on the moon. Of course, almost anything could offend commander Shepard; and (s)he would have come to attack the turians sooner or later, JUST BECAUSE THEY WERE THERE!' etc etc.