Spent the past week dealing with headaches and not being able to sleep sorry
Interplanetary space, Theta Lyrae system, July 27th 2257 0919HRS Coordinated Universal Time
Kongō-class battleship SSV Kirishima
There wasn't many people who could say that they've negotiated humanity's first ever peace treaty (well, technically, cease-fire, but who cares) on the ready room of a ship that bore the same name as them, but Kirishima was one of them. Glancing at one of the asari diplomats sent for this meeting, after the turians had sent a first contact party of their own in the day before, she took another glance at the diplomat in charge of this whole negotiation—Matriach Benezia, if she remembered correctly—as her sister internally evaluated the situation via her onboard computers and calculated them, balancing between responses and points that could be best presented to the asari diplomat for this occasion. Kirishima in the meantime tugged lightly at the end of her miko outfit to adjust it while her free hand also adjusted her glasses, constantly evaluating the situation and gauging herself the best things to say.
She was herself a Diplomatic Corps envoy on leave; there was literally no time for a proper diplomatic envoy to be sent all the way up from Vienna. As part of her vacation she decided to tag along with her colleagues on a tour of the Kirishima just as the battleship departed for a two-week training exercise, a routine training mission that happened to be open to tours so that civilians could see in real-time how the Alliance Naval Arm fights it's battles, only for it to be cut short after news of Shanxi hit the forums and Rear Admiral Drescher ordered the fleet to divert course towards Theta Lyrae as fast as their engines could take them, not even stopping to let off the civilian tourists onboard the vessel—there was literally no time to do so. Obviously the battle ended up being a complete and utter rout, and after first contact with a multispecies alien race calling itself 'the Citadel' or whatever the hell it was called—she ended up being called up for this momentous moment largely because she was the only ones in the system qualified enough to do so. Her colleagues, as well.
Her older sister, Haruna, was also a Diplomatic Corps envoy enjoying her vacation only for Shanxi to throw a wrench into that and send her into a repurposed ready room to negotiate the peacedeal with the alien diplomats currently present—a certain Matriach Benezia, an asari diplomat sent by this 'Citadel' as their representative for this cease fire. She sighed mentally; honestly, she'd rather have been on some beach somewhere back down on Earth than here right now, but what can you do? Besides, she had to admit that this was kind of exciting—the chance to speak to someone from an entirely different species? This was unheard of! Not even her colleagues could claim that.
Matriach Benezia, dressed in a ludicrously form-fitting bodysuit not unlike what a diver would usually wear coupled with a ridiculously over-the-top headdress that looked almost like what the Archbishop of Paris would usually don whenever she saw a religious ceremony every time she came back to visit her husband's extended family in France—a badge of rank and status, apparently, if she remembered right, but it still looked dumb nonetheless. It was hilariously bulky nonetheless and combined with the matriach's diving suit made it look like the crappiest fashion choice ever thought of by mankind—seriously, who designed this woman's dress sense? And speaking of fashion, Kirishima herself was dressed in a traditional kimono miko outfit that showed off her long black hair which flowed freely behind her, although said outfit was slightly modified to allow easier movement of the wearer compared to the original outfits worn by shrine maidens on Japan back during the pre-spaceflight era—a gift from her late husband, before he passed away last year. Kirishima herself wore it mostly out of nostalgia and respect for her husband's memory, really, since she preferred wearing her casual day-to-day outfits most days.
Behind the asari diplomat were several more asari diplomats and other officials who came along for this cease fire, each and everyone of them decked out in similarly stupid outfits—honestly, who the hell designs these women's clothes? They look absolutely ridiculous, and they were probably impractical as hell too—Kirishima guessed that this was probably a cultural thing. At least the turian ones present had a much better fashion choice that actually suited their 'dinobird' appearances pretty well—Admiral Macen Arterius was also present, if her memory served her right—and behind them was Admiral Drescher herself, who had chosen to watch this entire exchange silently unless she deemed it necessary to speak up, although Kirishima knew that she would butt in if needed. Probably. Hopefully. If everything goes south, at least.
Kirishima took another glance at Admiral Drescher as Haruna internally evaluated the situation once more through her onboard computers and calculated them, balancing between responses and points that could be best presented to the asari diplomat for this occasion—probably deciding whether or not to interrupt this whole thing. The human admiral stood at attention next to her crew, with her hands clasped firmly behind her back and her expression completely neutral despite the circumstances—her blonde hair left hanging loosely with a sakura five-petal flower embedded in a hair-clip as decoration. She was dressed in full Alliance Navy dress uniform, complete with the epaulettes on her shoulders and the badges pinned onto her chest signifying her rank and position within the Alliance Naval Arm, along with several medals that she had earned throughout her naval career. Kirishima guessed that Drescher wanted to appear professional—more so than usual—in front of their new alien friends, although Haruna wondered why the admiral chose to forego her cap, something that Kirishima agreed with. Then again, hats were never Admiral Drescher's style.
Kirishima then glanced at the turian admiral present, Macen Arterius—if she recalled correctly, he was a decorated officer with over twenty years of service under his belt and had earned the nickname 'The Butcher of Palaven' for his brutal tactics when fighting against pirates and slavers alike, as well as earning his place as one of the top admirals in the Turian Hierarchy. He stood at attention next to his own crew, with his mandibles flared slightly and his arms crossed across his chest—decked out in turian military uniform similar to Admiral Drescher, except he forewent his cap as well due to the fringe on his head probably getting in the way or something. Kirishima couldn't tell; Haruna guessed that this was probably a cultural thing. Honestly, turians were weird. Still though, she had to admit that Admiral Arterius did look pretty imposing and regal standing there in front of her like that, especially considering the fact that he was covered in scars and other battle injuries that he had sustained throughout his naval career. Kirishima guessed that this was probably a cultural thing too. Honestly, aliens were weird.
Kirishima then turned her gaze back towards Matriach Benezia, who in turn gazed back at her with those piercing blue eyes. "Greetings, I am Envoy Dadalier Kirishima, Diplomatic Corps envoy from the Alliance of Colonized Systems of Earth and Her Colonies, though we just refer to it as 'the Alliance' save for the most formal occasions. Pleased to meet your acquaintance," she greeted formally, bowing slightly as she did so, as per the customs of her homeland. Haruna also bowed slightly in greeting before continuing on— "Now, let us get down to business. Shall we?"
"Indeed. Let us begin our negotiations," Matriach Benezia replied coolly.
Haruna nodded before stepping slightly backwards and to the side to allow the asari/turian/salarian/whatever diplomats to enter the ready room, which itself was sparsely furnished, with a single Alliance flag hanging on a pole at the far end of the room on one side of the Alliance Naval Arm's emblem that was emblazoned on it, the flag's red-gold-red stripes flanked on the other side of the emblem by the Rising Sun flag of the Japanese shipbuilders who had built the Kirishima and launched her from the dockyards of Kure Naval Arsenal in 2217 just as the battleship SSV Haruna also launched from Enoshima Fleet Yards at Fujisawa. "Apologies for the lack of room and other furnishings, this was the best we could scrounge up at the moment given how short notice this whole thing was," Haruna stated apologetically as she gestured towards a circular table near the Alliance Naval Arm emblem where she had placed a map of Shanxi prior to this meeting taking place— "Please, make yourselves comfortable. Feel free to sit anywhere you like."
Matriach Benezia merely nodded in acknowledgement before making her way towards the table along with the rest of her entourage, sitting down in one of the chairs available—which were standard issue Alliance Navy foldable metal chairs brought in earlier specifically for this occasion, alongside the round metallic table itself of course, which itself was also standard issue Alliance Navy foldable metal tables brought in earlier specifically for this occasion as well. Admiral Arterius followed shortly afterwards along with his own entourage, although Admiral Drescher remained where she was standing at attention alongside the rest of her crew behind Kirishima as Haruna walked towards the round metallic table herself before sitting down on one of the foldable metal chairs brought in earlier specifically for this occasion, opening the folder filled with notes she had hastily scribbled down about the asari/turian/whatever races—something that Kirishima found utterly adorable—before laying it gently on top of the map of Shanxi as she started to shuffle through its contents...while occasionally pushing her glasses up slightly on her face again, something that Kirishima found equally adorable. She always was such a workaholic after all.
Anyways, as far as Kirishima was concerned, both her and Haruna's careful calculations so far had come to the conclusion that it was best to let the asari matriach begin the conversation, seeing as how they were the one who reached out first during Shanxi's initial contact. Which was still infinitely better than being shot at by slavers, as far as she was concerned. Still though, Kirishima mused inwardly while Haruna began to read through her notes—this was going to be interesting. Very interesting indeed.
"I believe that the opinion of your species towards us didn't get too sour after the unprovoked attack made by the batarians upon your colony?" Benezia began bluntly after taking a brief moment to compose herself— "While it may seem somewhat hypocritical coming from me, I wish to apologize on behalf of my government for such uncouth behavior displayed by them, and hope that it doesn't reflect badly upon us as a whole."
'Testing the waters' question, Kirishima noted mentally and forwarded it to Haruna via neural uplink, who replied back with— Agreed. Best play along until we know their angle better.
Kirishima nodded slightly before responding— "We hold no grudge against your species as a whole for the actions taken by the batarians alone, Matriarch. After all, you were not responsible for their actions—only they are. We did get fed up by a good deal, though. It did subsidize by quite a bit after you chose to show up with the 'Citadel Council' and intervene, but our opinion may still be quite low compared to what you'd like. We're still pissy about Shanxi."
Haruna added— Plus, they did shoot at us first before you showed up.
Benezia took in the information as-is before nodding; something that made Kirishima and Haruna's job infinitely easier now that there was no difference in body language to worry about. "Understandable. Your species is still new to galactic society—such occurrences are bound to happen," Benezia continued on— "Still though, I must ask—what is your stance on the batarians as of now? Would it affect any future negotiations between our species?"
Kirishima replied— "We still dislike them immensely for shooting at us first before you showed up, Matriarch. However, we aren't holding a grudge against your species as a whole for their actions alone—only they are. As long as they keep themselves in check, we won't do anything drastic against them."
Benezia nodded in acknowledgement. "I offer my condolences on behalf of both the Citadel Council and the Asari Republics. Given that, however, the fact that you had not only completely and utterly defeated the enemy fleet but also made the enemy flagship operational. I believe that they might have gotten their deserts well enough. Presumably you haven't found much trouble in finding turncoats within the ranks of the enemy prisoners of war to pilot it?" Benezia asked curiously— "It would be useful to learn about their tactics and strategies, at the very least. Maybe even reverse engineer their technology."
"We made the flagship operational easily enough, the Wings of Glory," Kirishima replied. "Obviously, the computer security features on that ship was pretty ineffective at stopping our remote override subroutines that we installed onto the ship's computers from the start, but some of the captured turncoats also offered their assistance and made our jobs infinitely easier. I can say for certain that the ship is completely and fully operational, and given our expertise in computer technology, our engineers might have even managed to improve and streamline her performance by a significant amount."
"Plenty of them, in fact..." Fubuki, one of the N7 fleetgirls assigned to be security for this negotiation, mused from her spot at the far end of the room. "Especially the turians. Once we convinced them that we ain't going to eat them, they became mellow easily enough."
"You ate turians?!" Matriach Benezia exclaimed in surprise.
Kirishima mentally facepalmed— Fubuki you bloody idiot! What the hell were you thinking?!
Haruna quickly interjected— "No, we didn't...I'll just put on the record for the time being that turians are visually similar to a species of bird known as 'chicken', it happens to be a major part of our cuisine, and while there are many different ways to serve it one of the most iconic methods is served hot, wrapped in spices and flour and deep fried in oil, named 'kentucky fried chicken'...when we were interrogating some turian mercenaries that we captured the day before one of the guards decided to play a game of psychological warfare on him, he said something that essentially amounted to 'I'll make 'kentucky fried chicken out of you if you don't comply with us', and the joke kinda spread throughout the whole place like a running joke and throughout the internet as a meme. That the guards parodied it as a song didn't help things, either. Pretty hilarious if you ask me."
Matriach Benezia calmed down considerably— "Oh. Apologies for jumping to conclusions like that...still though, kentucky fried chicken sounds delicious. Perhaps I should try it sometime."
"Sure. I'm sure that there's a recipe on the internet that you could follow," Haruna replied nonchalantly before continuing— "In any case, yes—plenty of turncoats. Most of them volunteered their services in order to prevent us from using lethal force on them...scratch that, they were mightily scared out of their skin and thought that we were literally going to cook them for dinner...although I guess that the turians were more scared out of their skins than the others."
Admiral Arterius spoke up— "Well, considering your reputation on Shanxi...I can't blame them. Especially after we saw footage of how you guys fought on that planet. You humans fight dirty. I mean, seriously—who uses nukes to solve their problems?"
"You won't like the last war we've fought..." Shigure spoke up from her spot directly beside Fubuki, sipping away at her drink for a short while, before trailing off. "Sorry, none of your business anyways. Point is—we fight dirty when we need to. Doesn't matter if it's a pirate group, slaver organization or a hostile alien invasion fleet—we will fight tooth and nail to defend ourselves, and we will use whatever means necessary to achieve victory, regardless of consequences. The total annihilation of the batarian fleet alone might stand as a testament to that, and if it dosen't, well, a respectable amount of time spent researching our history will."
Arterius blinked owlishly— "Point taken. Anyways, moving on—how exactly did you manage to capture their flagship in the first place? I know for a fact that they wouldn't go down without a fight, much less surrender willingly. The batarians are a stubborn bunch."
"A special forces team boarded the enemy flagship, stormed the crew, and took the flag officers prisoner after systematically killing all opposition in rapid succession and then broadcast the status of the flagship to the rest of the slaver fleet using the commandeered communications array, apparently, most of the remaining slavers surrendered after that," Kirishima answered, leaving out the fact that she herself had been part of the boarding team and had even herself sliced apart some of the hostiles using a Japanese katana. "As for how we got onto their flagship in the first place—one of our prowlers snuck close to the enemy flagship and deployed a boarding party via EVA, allowing said boarding party to breach a few hangars on the enemy flagship and gain entry into the interior of the ship before proceeding to sweep and clear the interior of the ship with extreme prejudice using firearms and melee weaponry."
Kirishima shrugged mentally as she provided the information. The information recovered from the batarian databanks as well as from combat logs and AARs gave humanity a picture far brighter than she expected, even, especially for a first contact. The last one saw one of the fiercest conflicts in human history that saw them facing an opponent so vastly superior in numbers and technology that they were almost like ants facing an elephant—even then, humanity held their ground and kept the invaders from taking the Sol system until they broke the back of the enemy's invasion force, forcing them to retreat, and while the casualties were high and the cost steep it allowed humanity to secure their foothold in space, allowing them to survive nonetheless. Despite that the death toll was estimated to be in the billions—hell, humanity lost roughly a dozen, billion during that conflict. And that was the low end.
Even then humanity pushed on, rebuilt, adapted, and eventually rearmed and retooled themselves to be able to defeat the enemy in the next engagement. While they weren't exactly prepared for the batarians, they at least had plenty of experience on dealing with enemies vastly superior to them in terms of numbers and technology—especially with regards to naval warfare, where they excelled greatly in, and Kirishima wagered that humanity would've won regardless of the outcome. Obviously.
A major perk of rearming, retooling, and rebuilding things to counter the Abyssals, to anyone who had fought against one, was simply a tendency to counter the enemy's tendency of building everything to the ludicrous extremes. Cruisers a kilometer and a half in length, battleships two kilometers long, low end, and carriers capable of ferrying whole divisions and air fleets to battle to completely annihilate a planetary garrison or devastate a fleet of escorts, regenerating hull armor, adaptive shielding, the list went on and on. Humanity, both the Alliance and the Empire, had went long ways in developing similar and equivalent equipment and technologies to counter the potential threat of the enemy's return—not to mention, they had developed countermeasures that could actually hurt the enemy. Counter Abyssals were their specialty, really, and they've been doing it for roughly a decade and a half now, albeit with the enemy absent. Still, their threat of return was too great to pass up, anyways.
The average Alliance/Kaiserliche vessel was roughly twice the size of an equivalent Council ship, at least, alongside the Council (and the even crappier versions Terminus merc groups fielded)'s usage of mass-effect technology compared to humanity's grav-lift fields making it more so, which essentially amounted to the average Alliance or Imperial fleet being capable of completely and utterly outgunning any Citadel fleet, let alone Terminus, in open battle, unless the latter had a significant numerical advantage, and their inferior fusion torches compared to human antimatter systems meant that they would have to dedicate more space per volume of ship to their propulsion systems, although that was offset by the nature of mass-effect fields itself.
Council ships were, however, nonetheless held back by inferior kinetic barriers which could only stop kinetic impacts as opposed to adapting shields that could stop both kinetic and energy impacts (though kinetic barriers could still adapt to enemy fire, if they were advanced enough), weaker and thinner (non-regenerative) armor, crap electronic warfare, and inferior (but still interesting nonetheless) laser-based point defenses, and slower (but bigger) missiles that would often make up for it in raw destructive power, but still didn't amount to much after a few volleys of Rapiers over Shanxi annihilated the bulk of the batarian missile salvoes. Their order of battle was also oversimplified and too rigid, having only frigates, cruisers, and dreadnoughts (battleships), lacking destroyers for escort and instead slaving that role to the frigates, as well as the total lack of carriers in any shape or form, not even at the escort carrier level. They also lacked heavy cruisers to stand in a battle-line as well; apparently, it was seen as being of little value due to the lack of a carrier doctrine that made the need for a command-and-control heavy cruiser to lead a vanguard against carrier attacks redundant. Humans, however, fielded battleships, battlecruisers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and cruisers, as well as dedicated carriers—essentially making humanity's order of battle infinitely more flexible and adaptable compared to theirs, not to mention more powerful. Although their lack of carriers would nonetheless be fixed soon the moment they realized the dangers that fighters—equipped with micro-FTL drives for pinpoint hit-and-run attacks—could pose to a fleet.
Matriach Benezia, in the meantime, got herself back to business. "Anyways, shall we proceed with the negotiations? I have the full permission from the Citadel Council and my government to negotiate a full-on treaty and agreement between both parties, acting in place of the mercenary groups present for the attack...unfortunately. Do you have the same permission from the human government?"
"Technically," Kirishima responded, eyeing the confused look on the Citadel envoy's looks before proceeding. "If my memory serves me right, when asari negotiate a peace treaty, both sides send ambassadors to a neutral location guarded by a third party, hostages are exchanged, and both ambassadors come to a complete, formal treaty that is either ratified by both sides or rejected, and the hostages are returned before restarting the conflict."
"Exactly," Benezia confirmed.
"We negotiate peace treaties differently from the way you do," Kirishima continiued. "First, we negotiate a pact referred to as an 'armstice' or a 'cease-fire', depending on the way you interpret it. But, for all intents and purposes, an armstice is a pact that stops all hostilities from both sides of a conflict that ceases all firing on both sides throughout a set time duration, hence 'cease-fire'. The terms vary depending on the war being fought, but throughout it's duration, all hostilities come to a halt as ambassadors from both sides meet at a neutral location to work out the basic, general points of an agreement, which is then sent back to their respective governments for further clarification and approval, alongside further points that their respective governments may send across. Once the time duration expires, the resulting treaty is either ratified into law by both governments, the armstice is extended for further negotiations, or talks break down completely and both sides restart the war."
Benezia raised an eyebrow. "That seems awfully complicated and bureaucratic. Why not just settle matters peacefully?"
"Because both sides usually have different priorities," Kirishima answered bluntly. "Usually, the main reason why wars start is because of a dispute between nations. Sometimes, that dispute can be solved peacefully, sometimes not. If it cannot, then both sides tend to escalate the situation until the other side finally caves in and gives up, and sometimes, that escalation goes to full blown war. This can be done peacefully, but usually isn't, and tends to drag on for longer than necessary unless the aggressor side does something drastic that ends up breaking the stalemate in their favor. Of course, there are exceptions—usually, they're called 'peacekeeping missions', and they involve sending in troops from a neutral third party to quell the fighting on a war zone and restore order, often with limited military aid provided by the third party as well."
Haruna nodded her confirmation. "As far as we are concerned, the Alliance government has been yet to give us the full authorization to negotiate a full peace treaty, as of yet—we haven't the time to call for a proper diplomatic party to be sent all the way from Vienna, unfortunately. We do however have the permission to negotiate for a cease-fire. It might not be ideal for you, but unfortunately, that is the best we have right here; I myself am not a regular diplomat but merely an envoy on leave enjoying her vacation before Shanxi threw a wrench into that," she explained.
Benezia sighed. "Very well then, we shall negotiate a cease-fire for now. Hopefully, once the cease-fire is in effect we could call for proper ambassadors to come over to wherever you choose to hold these talks, and we could finally hash out a full peace treaty. Now, shall we continue?"
Kirishima smiled inwardly. Excellent. Our calculations proved correct. She wants the peace treaty. Time to press the advantage.
"Of course. Now, the traditional terms for one are...a set time-frame, firstly, maybe sixteen weeks? During that time, as a diplomatic party—a proper one, this time around—will meet up with yours for negotiating the terms of the treaty. In the meantime, neither side will reinforce the frontlines and leave them as-is, damaged ships and equipment as well as sick and wounded personnel may be rotated out, and damaged infrastructure can be repaired, but the reinforcement of troops and equipment to the frontlines, as well as the bases supporting them, will be barred. All captured material, equipment, and personnel in the meantime will remain with their current controllers unless a prisoner or equipment exchange is agreed upon separately by the leaders of both governments."
Welp, their prisoners anyways, Haruna mused to herself over neural comms. They didn't manage to get any of ours before they got recked lmaao.
"Sixteen weeks is too long for negotiating a peace treaty, I believe that we should cut it down to eight," Benezia answered after a moment's pause. "Otherwise, those terms are agreeable."
Kirishima glanced at Haruna mentally. Eight weeks? Sounds reasonable.
Agreed.
"Eight weeks is acceptable," Kirishima answered. "We'll dismiss this meeting from here, as the document needs to be drawn up for signing, and you might need to relay this fresh development to the Citadel, no?"
"...given how this negotiation differs heavily from what we are expecting, yes, most likely. When shall we meet again for the signing?"
"Let's see...at around 07:19 Coordinated Universal Time tomorrow morning should suffice. Does that appeal to you?"
Benezia raised an eyebrow. "I can relay the matter to the Citadel within the hour and have a printed document ready for signing by the next. Why the delay?"
Fubuki merely chose that moment to speak up. "Tomorrow is July 28th, 2257. Upon the same date of the year 2220, roughly 37 years ago, we fought and won the battle of Nämberch, Sorelia IV, the final battle of the conflict that we refer to as the Second Abyssal War. It proved the largest war we ever fought in our history. Our enemies, the Abyssals, swept into our territory in 2212 without warning and used their superior technology and numbers to force our backs to the wall for the next eight years in a fierce and brutal war fought on a scale and ferocity never before seen. It was essentially for us, a war of survival. Our enemies numbered in the billions and were vastly superior to us in every single way imaginable—they wielded cutting edge technologies that we had yet to develop, superior numbers and firepower, as well as regeneration and adaptive hull armor that made them near-invulnerable to our weapons of war. Nonetheless, we fought on, battle after battle, each one giving the enemy a bloodier nose than the last, until finally, we were able to go up against them on even, equal terms. It was around then that we developed our most powerful weapon of war yet; the Class 7 nuclear weapons, a single blast from one capable of destroying an entire planet and shattering it into a million pieces—both literally and figuratively. Nämberch was where we deployed it for the first time, and it worked splendidly. We destroyed the bulk of the Abyssal forces in that single decisive strike, and after that battle, the rest of the enemy, either fearing retribution by our hands or calculating that the war was unwinnable, withdrew entirely from human space, and to this day, they have never been seen since. But despite our victory, the death toll was equally immense; both of our spacefaring nation-states each had no less than ten billion dead between them combined, with twice as many displaced from their old homes and worlds, now little more than charred remains of what once was a garden world. Needless to say, rebuilding and recovery took decades to achieve, and to this day, it is considered mankind's darkest hour. Tomorrow marks the anniversary of our victory, and as such, it is considered by many as a day of mourning for those who had fallen during that war. That is why we wish to delay the signing ceremony to tomorrow. I myself find it fitting, perhaps...to end the first war in our history with an alien race on the anniversary of the end of our worst."
Kirishima also sighed. "I myself was a veteran of that conflict, and so was everyone else inside this room...everyone who had stormed the batarian dreadnought was also a veteran of that war. We know loss better than anyone else, and tomorrow, we shall honor those who had sacrificed their lives for our freedom. If you wish to attend, Matriarch, you are welcome to do so, but please, respect our customs and traditions. Please."
Benezia looked visibly uncomfortable. "Apologies for bringing up such painful memories. Shall we adjourn this meeting for now and reconvene tomorrow at 07:19 Coordinated Universal Time, then?"
Kirishima nodded. "Thank you."
The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, 10.14.0717 0700HRS Galactic Standard Time
"I take it that the humans will arrive at the Citadel anytime now?" Matriach Tevos Callis, Councillor to the Citadel Council asked as the holo-vision display on the far end of her office located within the highest point of the Citadel Tower, currently showing an asari reporter interviewing the assigned liaison for this event, Benezia T'Soni, about the new species that had made first contact with the Third Patrol Fleet of the Navy of the Hierarchy of Palaven during the events of what the media was dubbing the 'Relay 314 Incident'. The humans had more or less agreed to send their diplomats to the Citadel for the welcoming ceremony and subsequent peace talks that would be held on the Presidium, and they would he here probably at any moment now. Their spokesman had said that their liaison would be sent aboard their flagship alongside a corresponding detachment of escorts for parade and security purposes, and the Citadel had agreed to provide the basic overall security for the peace conference that they would be hosting later in the day.
"They scheduled their their arrival for 0702 our time, which corresponds to roughly 0800 their time, approximately," Lugholn, the salarian councillor, responded, watching intently the live broadcast while his turian counterpart watched the bustling cities that were the Citadel's wards from his vantage point, the window extending from the top-most section of the office and all the way to the floor making the view even more complete. "Human time-system illogical and interesting. Relies on a base 60-60-6-24 as opposed to a base 100-50-50-20 that we all currently use. Oddly specific, and yet highly interesting. Their year is also 365 days long, with a leap day every four years to account for a minor inconsistency in their homeworld's orbital period, as opposed to our 200-day year."
Councillor Oraka said nothing for a while as he internally pondered some thoughts, looking intently at the wards outside with halos of atmosphere being held in place via mass-effect fields around them as well as the Citadel's defense fleet outside, with the faintly visible outline of the asari superdreadnought ARH Destiny Ascension in the distance, running lights flickering in the void like stars twinkling in the darkness of space. Outside the Citadel, the galaxy continued on as normal; merchants traded goods and services, diplomats discussed, travelers passed through, pirates plotted, and mercenaries planned. Truly, it was a beautiful sight to behold. But for Oraka, it wasn't quite the sights outside that caught his attention. Large fleets weren't uncommon within the galaxy, and neither was the presence of capital ships; but this one had been a revelation for him.
Eight dreadnoughts comparable, if not surpass entirely, in size and firepower to the Destiny Ascension, not one, but eight; the combined firepower of which would be sure to rival the combined firepower of a full-on patrol fleet, if not vastly outgun and outclass them in their entirety. And the matters weren't as simple otherwise, either. STG had went over the report sent back by the Third Patrol Fleet, including the sensor return data and the first contact package, and had more or less confirmed Admiral Arterius's suspicions that the hundreds of dreadnought class contacts within the human fleet he encountered were, in fact, cruisers, and while their exact performance was still unknown, the few images they managed to compile didn't paint a bright picture for the Council should things go down south and they both came to blows, either, if the images of ugly, jagged messes of armor plating bristling with nothing but armaments and armor with little, if any, attention to aesthetics was of any indication. Sure, the Destiny Ascension had plenty of guns and armor as well, but at least it looked pretty. Those human dreadnoughts, however, looked like someone took a bunch of bricks and slapped on armor plates onto them before putting a gun somewhere along the hull. Ugly, but undoubtedly effective.
If STG's reports were to be believed, then the Citadel would have to contend with having almost all of their military rendered obsolete; a problem that had given him and most of the Admiralty at Palaven sleepless nights trying to figure out a solution to. It was almost like during the time of the Krogan Rebellions millenia ago where the Hierarchy made their first contatc with the Citadel, and the average turian cruiser being roughly on equal footing to a krogan frigate, but that time around, at least turian dreadnoughts were on equals with their krogan counterparts. Now though, humanity had somehow managed to completely and utterly revolutionize naval warfare as they knew it—their cruisers alone would put turian dreadnaughts to shame, and the fact that they fielded hundreds of them already in service only made things worse.
They'll have to completely re-define what counted as a 'dreadnought' in a follow-up amendment to the Treaty of Farixen and build up a completely new generation of ships from scratch by the time they were done with the humans, and all the plans the engineers had managed to draft up at the moment were either thrown out of the window or otherwise too impractical to be feasible largely because of the powerplant; it simply wasn't easyto make a generation of dreadnoughts larger than the previous one by a factor of two when a ship a kilometer long was already pushing the limit, and the sheer size of the Destiny Ascension only capable of being described as an engineering marvel, and even then, it took up so much resources that constructing one took as much funds as a good eight turian 1st-line dreadnoughts. It even started an inside joke within the Admiralty that they would have to get their hands on 'unobtanium' to be able to meet the required specifications. Still though, at least humanity hadn't shown hostility towards the Council—yet, at least.
He signed; then he turned back towards the table to pour himself another glass of the finest turian brandy and gulped down it's contents in one go, savoring the strong taste of alcohol as the dextro-animo acids washed down his throat, he then turned to the holo-vision and the live feed it was projecting in anticipation of the historic moment. He'll have to deal with the headache later on, both of alcohol and politics, but at least, he could just forget it in it's entirety right now.
Just for now.
Then, the holo-vision flared to life as the audio transmissions began to flare to life.
"SSV Yamato, hull symbol BB-411, alongside Battle Group Nihon. Also present is SMS Edelweiß, hull symbol BB-310, alongside Battle Group Edelweiß of the Kaiserliche Marine. Requesting permission to disengage from FTL cruise speed and enter realspace within Citadel controlled space, over."
"Citadel Traffic Control, we copy," came the response, albeit a little confused. "Permission granted SSV Yamato, SMS Edelweiß. Proceed to dock at docking bay C-Sec Alpha-Three-Delta, over."
"SSV Yamato copies, traffic control. Disengaging from FTL cruise speed in three...two...one..."
A ripple of light made itself known in the distance before opening into a flash of light and erupted into a pillar of nothing but solid mist as a portal with glowing blue tendrils made it's appearance in the middle of the interstellar void, emerging forth from it a ship unlike any other in raw size alone. An ungodly large beast of ship showed itself clearly for all to see on the live camera footage from news cutters nearby, easily dwarfing even the Destiny Ascension by a significant margin in overall size and length, sporting the ugliest and most utilitarian slab of armor and weaponry that Oraka had ever laid eyes on in his life, bristling with nothing but guns and armor with little, if any, attention to aesthetics whatsoever, but the ship still looked menancing nonetheless, especially with the hull markings painted on it's hull clearly stating it's identity as SSV Yamato, hull symbol BB-411, alongside Battle Group Nihon of the Systems Alliance Naval Arm. Behind it emerged it's accompanying battle group, ships emerging in similar fashions in neat, coordinated rows after rows of vessels all in uncanny synchronicity with each other, perfect rows and grids of the Systems Alliance Naval Arm alongside the giant, lumbering vessels that formed the Battle Group Edelweiß of the Kaiserliche Marine, the SMS Edelweiß itself a ship boasting a different emblem and overall makeup compared to the Yamato but still being just as equally large and menancing with a cross-shaped emblem emblazoned on the broadside of the vessel glistening and gleaming in the light of the Serpent Nebula. The sheer size of the human capital ships alone was enough to intimidate any turian dreadnought captain worth his salt out of his skin—the Destiny Ascension itself barely came up to the Yamato's midsection, and that was without the accompanying battle group behind it.
Oraka couldn't help but feel intimidated.
Tevos and Lugholn, meanwhile, felt the same feeling of awe and shock and surprise mingling with the feeling of intimidation and fear as they stared slack-jawed at the live feed projected by the holo-vision on the far end of the office, watching as the human flagship lazily drifted it's way into the designated docking bay alongside it's accompanying battle group closely following suit behind it, with the smaller escort vessels effortlessly slipping past it's massive bulk before entering the nebula and disappearing beyond visual range. Meanwhile, the Yamato itself gently slowed it's forward momentum down to a crawl before fully stopping itself entirely in front of the designated docking bay, waiting patiently for clearance as the Citadel defense fleet hastily scrambled to clear out the area. Engines flickered off from a brilliant blue glow to a dull idling afterglow as the ship engaged it's forward thrusters in the process, coming to a halt steadily right before the Citadel itself, casting a garguantuan shadow onto the station's residents below. Needless to say...
"SSV Yamato, SMS Edelweiß to Citadel Traffic Control, requesting permission to dock, over."
...the humans had arrived.
"...Citadel Traffic Control, you have been cleared for landing at Bay 16 via shuttle."
"We copy. Our ships are too big for your docks to handle, eh?"
"...affirmative. Bay 16 is the biggest dock the Citadel can offer. You will have to transfer your personnel via shuttle instead."
"No worries. SSV Yamato copies, proceeding to Bay 16 via shuttle. Over."
The defense fleet let three squandrons of fighters off on an intercept course towards the ships while at the same time both giant flagships sent off a pair of their own oversized fighters to cover and escort for the shuttles carrying the envoys they would be sending to the Citadel, the human fighters peeling off and away in perfect, uncanny coordination once they reached the halfway mark as if this was a parade maneuver they had (evidently) practiced hundreds of times before, a few news cameras zooming onto them revealing for all to see the garguantuan oversized munitions they carried underneath their wings in external hardpoints as they did so, each warhead rivalling the size of a shipborne torpedo. In the meantime, the shuttles proceeded with turian fighters now acting as a parade escort formation overhead as they smoothly transitioned into Citadel controlled space, passing by the Destiny Ascension's defensive screen as they did so, and Oraka couldn't help but watch intently as the shuttles approached.
Meanwhile, Tevos contacted the Defense Forces directly via neural link. "Are we prepared for the reception?"
"Affirmative ma'am," came the reply. "We've got the ceremonial guard ready for the reception, and C-Sec is standing by in case anything happens. Everything should go fine."
"Good. Keep me updated in case something does happen. This is a big day for galactic history."
"Understood, Councillor."
Matriach Benezia T'Soni kept her eyes on the human shuttles as they approached the landing site, the turian fighters escorting them dropping back shortly before they entered Citadel airspace and left them to continiue unimpeded, engines glowing a hot blue as they eased the shuttle down onto the landing pads and kicking up a cloud of dust as they did so, leaving the arch-and-stars of the Systems Alliance to reflect the surrounding light alongside a cross-shaped emblem of the Kaiserreich, if she remembered correctly, gleaming in the lights of the largest space station in the galaxy as well as the de facto seat of government for it. The shuttles themselves, she noticed, were rather simplistic and functional in design, lacking the sleek and streamlined curves and lines that asari ships often had and instead opting for a more utilitarian approach to design—rough, square edges, straight lines, and flat surfaces—as well as the color scheme, colored a plain white instead of the colorful colors that asari ships often sported. But that was a question to be reserved for later. Her task for the moment was to greet the delegation and lead them to the Presidium where Tevos and the other Councillors would meet with them at the base of the Citadel Tower and deal with the media who would undoubtedly be on them like a pack oof hungry wolves converging on a meal. Questions could be asked later, when things were more convininent for them, after all.
The shuttles touched down gently with a thud onto the landing pad, the engines quickly flaring off and the heat dissipating before the doors swung open, making way for their occupants to exit. Several humans, all of them wearing rather sinister-looking vests layered over their clothing and holding their slugthrower rifles in their hands or keeping them slung over their backs, ambassador guards, apparently. Some wore what evidently was the humans' equivalent to a uniform while others had more mismatched attire, but they still got the Don't Fuck With Us message across well enough. Krogans would dwarf them in size easily enough, but many of them still looked nonetheless like they could hold their own against any krogan in a fistfight. Or even beat them outright, if they were lucky. They exited the shuttles in practiced, precise movements, forming a perimeter around the entrance to the shuttles as they did so and scanning their surroundings thoroughly with trained efficiency and professionalism, looking every bit like professionals doing their jobs.
Next out were a complement of troops all armed with their usual rifles, but this time around, wearing a uniform that looked fancier than most of their standard ones, a parade uniform apparently, all of them marching off the landing ramps of the shuttle in perfect, synchronized steps, the leading ones holding a flag-pole at an angle that allowed the patterns of the banners they were bearing to be visible to all; the flags either three alternating stripes of red-gold-red or three horizontal stripes of black-red-gold, with the image of an avian creature with red claws and a beak offset to the upper left (or right) corner in a golden square. These were presumably ceremonial guards, the ones responsible for guarding important figures and places alike, although judging by the looks of the rifles they were bearing, these ones seemed to double as combat guards as well. A total of twenty walked off the shuttles, splitting up into groups of five each, and stood at the side before taking up position for a ceremonial guard. Then, the humans who exited earlier took up position next to them.
Then, several humans dressed in what appeared to be dress uniforms stepped out of the shuttles, each of them clad in what looked to be a tunic resembling a coat but with two panels instead of four, fastened by gold buttons on the front alongside epaulets on the shoulders, decorated with various ribbons, medals, and pins, and under the jacket, they wore trousers and boots polished to a mirror shine, as well as a belt containing a slugthrower pistol and several pouches alongside their ceremonial sword, and an officer's cap. Some of them had their regular, organic ears on either sides of their head, but others still nonetheless sported the protrusions with/without antennas on them in place of regular ears, something that STG found worrying, to say the least. It didn't matter to her at the moment, however, that could be reserved for later, her best bet for the moment would be to play it safe and stick towards the to-do instructions booklet on how to handle a first contact—religiously.
Forming four parallel lines extending from the shuttle bay doors with 'pathways' between each duo of columns as they marched out, they then all turned a quarter-circle and stood facing the line opposite them, snapping into parade positions before standing at ease, facing the line opposite them, and to a lesser extent, anyone who would come down that pathway. And then...
"Present arms!"
...they all snapped into parade positions again, bringing their rifles upwards and pointing upwards from their previous positions of slung over the shoulders with their butt end resting on the hands, held vertically in front of the wielder, all done in one swift, synchronized motion as if this had been something they had done countless times before. Standing at parade-attention with arms present at the vertical, in the meantime, the flag-bearers all twirled their banners around in a pattern referred to as a 'figure-of-eight', filling the fabric banners up with artificial wind and making them flap audibly before standing at parade-attention alongside their comrades, flags proudly bearing their nation's colors in full glory for all to see. Benezia herself couldn't help but be impressed. Clearly, these humans took great care in presenting themselves—military discipline ran deep in their culture, evidently, and they certainly meant business with it.
The human officials then began stepping out of the shuttles, followed by a few extra guards as they stepped off the ramps and through the 'corridor' between the rows of ceremonial guards, all of them headed towards the waiting transports meant for them while the sea of reporters waited impatiently beyond the cordon set up by C-Sec to keep them contained. Despite that, there was little they can do to stop the cameras, however.
Matriach Tevos Callis looked intently as the human ambassadors along with their guards disembarked from the automatic sliding doors of their transports, the guards themselves keeping their weapons slung across their backs alongside with their signature mismatched attire as they stepped out first, but they still looked like they can reach for their armaments at a moment's notice and defend both the ambassadors and themselves. They scanned their surroundings thoroughly for potential threats before letting the ambassadors step out of the transports, their slugthrower rifles in hand or slung over their backs, and finally, the human ambassadors themselves stepped out of the vehicle.
Councillor Valern looked onto the approaching humans as they began to walk up the steps towards the lobby of the Citadel Tower while C-Sec looked onward, both at them and at the crown of reporters and onlookers straining the barriers to get a better view of this historic moment. The humans themselves walked calmly towards the lobby, their entourage of guards fanning out and securing the area for them as they did so, all of them looking menancing nonetheless, even without their weapons stowed away.
The first out of two human ambassadors had golden hair flowing all the way down to her waist with piercing green eyes to match, a confident smirk on her face as she strode down the landing ramp of the shuttle, a faint biotic aura crackling around her as she did so alongside a pair of humans walking alongside her, wearing a slightly different version of their dress uniforms with a hat sporting a golden wreath with an eagle perched atop it instead of an ordinary cap, although they had antennas as well. Her outfit was simplistic and yet still pleasant to look at, a testament to human fashion styles nonetheless, a jacket resembling what a turian would use in his uniform, but unbuttoned and left hanging loosely around her waist, a white collared shirt with a red strip of cloth tied around the throat, done up in a knot at the front and a 'skirt' if her memory on human attire pieces served her correctly, and leggings that reached to just above her knees underneath, with knee high leather boots adorned with gold trimmings alongside gold-colored insignias of a bird of prey clutching a branch with thirteen berries on it. All in all, her entire ensemble gave off an impression of a woman who meant business, and yet, at the same time, friendly enough.
At the same time, the other ambassador, slightly shorter, and this time with white, but still flowing nonetheless, hair that came down to waist level, but chad in a gray-and-dark-blue outfit with the dark blue 'skirt' having an extension that came up to cover the chest, while the shirt itself had a different collar design to it with a blue ribbon tied neatly at the center of the collar, a pair of cables draped over the shoulders that appeared to be holding up the skirt, and red leggings that came up to stop short of her knees complimented by a pair of shoes with strings tied neatly on them into knots. A yellow ribbon was tied into her hair as it waved around and about in the wind as she too walked up the steps to the base of the Citadel Tower, where so many historic first contacts have been made with all the species of the Citadel Council, and this time, it wouldn't be of any exception.
"Welcome to the Citadel, Ambassadors," Tevos greeted warmly as the humans approached. "I am Matriarch Tevos Callis, councillor to the Citadel Council. May I introduce you to Councillor Oraka of the Hierarchy of Palaven, and Councillor Valern of the Salarian Union, my fellow colleagues and Councillors to the Citadel."
"Ambassador Anita Goyle of the Systems Alliance," the blonde-haired one answered, bowing slightly at the Councillors due to the distance between the two. "May I also introduce my friend and colleague from our neighborhooding nation-state as well as our closest ally."
The other ambassador stepped to the front as well shortly afterwards and dropped a slight bow at the Councillors as well, before straightening herself back up and let her scarlet red eyes focus on Tevos directly. "Prinzessin Illyasviel von Einzbern, heir to the throne of the GroßEdelweiß Kaiserreich. Gluten tag, Councillors, on behalf of the Empire."
Codex Entry — Humans — Human wars and conflicts — the First Inner Planets War
The First Abyssal War did not spell the end of inter-human conflicts, but rather, it merely set the stage for another, one merely larger and more bitter then the last. The Soviet Union, the United States, Japan, among other countries, divided unofficially between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, now without a common enemy to fight, found themselves in a newfound arms race as all sides began to reverse engineer captured examples of Abyssal technology and began to employ knock-offs of them in their own armaments and other equipment. While a method to properly replicate them was yet to be developed, Abyssal anti-gravity crystals were nonetheless employed in the first generation of interplanetary vessels taking to the stars for the first time, the devastation from the war seeing the Cold War preceding it last well into the 21st century. In 1990, the Soviet Union and the United States both landed on Mars, claiming separate regions of the planet in 1992. Over the course of the next decades, tensions rose even higher as both sides began constructing fortifications and outposts, with Japan and other non-allied nations establishing footholds on Mars as well. By 2001, the first permanent settlements began to be founded on Luna, Earth's moon, and by the turn of the decade, excavated Abyssal terraforming equipment had began to be used to simutaneously terraform Mars and Venus, leading to colonization efforts beginning there as well. China, having entered an ideological split with the Soviet Union since the 1970s, played neutral, but secretly supported NATO nations whilst continuing to maintain cordial relations with the Warsaw Pact, seeking to avoid getting involved if possible.
The tension remained, but due to the rarity of space-faring ships and equipment needed to maintain interplanetary settlements as well as a threat of nuclear-induced mutually assured destruction on the homeworld, the tensions never truly escalated into full-scale conflict, however, with all sides already working on ways to replicate and mass-produce Abyssal anti-gravity crystals either on their own or jointly with other nations, it was known to many that the balance of power would only be temporary, and temporary it was indeed. In 2020, a Japanese—South Korean research team managed to create a viable replication of the crystals, the result of which they dubbed 'navitasium', by exposing quartz crystals as they are grown in a lab-induced enviroment directly to dark matter from Abyssal dark matter portals excavated around Fukuoka, creating a crystal with colors depending on the equipment used in it's creation that can create anti-gravity fields to lift or lower objects once subject to an electrical current at will. Once news broke out, navitasium quickly became the primary energy source for equipment and vessels, allowing for faster interplanetary travel and construction, and along with it, FTL travel. The first attempts at an FTL drive, now with navitasium to power them, began in earnest, and by the turn of the decade, the first drive was tested on a space prove—successfully. Three years later saw the SS Argo, a jointly funded project between NASA, the ESA, and JAXA be the first FTL-capable ship in human history, and less than a month later, the Soviets also tested Vostok, their own manned FTL ship. It didn't take long for people to realize that the Second Space Race was now up, and with the highest stakes being the resource-rich colonies that can be founded on other planets, tensions began to rise once more, and this time, they were far higher then ever before. 2040 saw the first colonies founded on Eplison Eridani (Nürnberg) and Proxima Centauri (Pandora), and by 2050, the amount of interstellar colonies had increased past the three-digit mark with hundreds of settlements scattered across dozens of planets. Despite the fact that many of them were either greenhouse planets or barren, atmosphere-less worlds that still orbited within the 'Godilocks zone' of their parent stars, nonetheless, humanity's experience, and now, the ability to produce on their own the equipment needed to terraform planets, made short work of the problem. Tensions rose nonetheless between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, but despite that, the 21st century mostly remained peaceful, dotted here and there by wars raged by proxy over isolated pockets, but things would soon change by the dawn of the 22nd.
By 2101, humanity had settled hundreds of planets across hundreds of systems, and with navitasium now producing facilities popping up all across Earth and other colonies, tensions reached it's peak. On January 11th, 2112, a Soviet spy satellite detected a base being constructed on the Japanese colony of Haguo, and seeing it as a clear breach of agreement regarding the colony itself, ordered a strike force to eliminate the installation. NATO claimed it was merely an automated facility meant to collect data, but the Soviets called BS and promptly declared war on NATO on January 16th, prompting Japan, NATO, and South Korea to declare war on the Soviet Union, while the Warsaw Pact took the opposing side, thus sparking the First Inner Planets War.
Both sides were by this point quite evenly matched, with both NATO, the JMSDF, the ROKN, as well as the Soviet Navy and the other military forces of the Warsaw Pact having vast arsenals of naval space-capable warships in their arsenal, ranging from destroyers to cruisers to carriers and submarines, alongside thousands of smaller space-to-ground fighter craft designed to fight both in space and in atmosphere. The initial battles were swift, bloody, and costly, with both sides suffering major losses early on. Despite NATO having the edge in terms of starship production capacity, the Warsaw Pact quickly gained the upper hand due to possessing superior numbers and ground forces, as well as the fact that they possessed several fleets stationed near the American colony of Columbia, allowing them to launch a surprise attack on it and seize control of it within mere days. However, a joint attack by the JMSDF and ROKN saw Columbia liberated within weeks, and the war continued. Battles raged on across the colonies for years, with neither side gaining an upper hand, and despite major advances made by NATO in the outer solar system and the inner solar system, the Warsaw Pact maintained the upper hand due to their proximity to Earth. However, by 2118, NATO began pushing the Warsaw Pact back, seizing control of several colonies and launching major offensives on others, while the Soviets struggled to hold on, now forced to fight a war on two fronts as the JMSDF and the ROKN attacked multiple Warsaw Pact colonies simultaneously alongside the USAF and NATO's combined naval forces, catching them completely off guard.
On the surface of Earth, the originating place where all nations began their first forays into space, things were no different, either. The use of spatial combatants was refrained from due to the simple risks included in multi-digit gigatons of shells being rained onto a planet, but there was literally nothing to prevent terrestrial-based armies and aircraft to wage war against eachother. Cities all across the globe suffered from bombing raids and artillery barrages, and despite navitasium making armor plating and shielding capable of protecting buildings from shells and bombs alike, these measures were rendered less effective as shield-piercing missiles and cruise missiles struck civilian targets. Millions died as a result of the conflict, German, Italian, and Austrian troops pushing into Poland through the borders while Japanese—Korean forces charged through Vladiostok via Sakhalin Island. Despite NATO having the upper hand, the Warsaw Pact still held it's own, holding key positions in Eastern Europe and maintaining firm control over the Baltics, Central Asia, and Russia itself. As the war dragged on, casualties grew on both sides, and resources began to run low as navitasium production facilities were seized or destroyed by either side. By 2120, NATO had lost Columbia to repeated attacks from the Soviets, but managed to push back the Warsaw Pact from Luna and reestablish control over it, while the JMSDF and ROKN had taken control of almost half of the Warsaw Pact colonies, crippling the Soviet economy and turning the tide of the war, albeit slowly. By 2125, NATO had recaptured Columbia and began retaliatory strikes against the Warsaw Pact colonies, while the Germans in the west and the Japanese in the east launched a massive offensive on Russia itself, capturing Vladiostok, Novgorod, Moscow, and St. Petersburg within weeks, forcing the Soviet government to move their capital to Kiev in Ukraine. By 2128, Warsaw fell to NATO, and by 2129, the war came to an end as the remaining Warsaw Pact nations surrendered following the capture of Kiev. The Second Space Race ended in a draw, and the Inner Planets War ended in victory for NATO.
However, the war had devastating consequences. The death toll alone numbered in the billions, and the cost of the war totaled to trillions of dollars. Resources were scarce as navitasium facilities across human space were either damaged or destroyed, and reconstruction efforts lasted well into the 2140s, and while the UN was reformed in 2132 and attempted to mediate, it's efforts were largely ignored or rebuked. The Warsaw Pact nations splintered into individual republics and kingdoms following the end of the war, Germany regained former territories lost during the Second World War, including Bradenburg, Silesia, and East Prussia, Poland and other European countries were similarly de facto re-instated to 1936 borders, Japan annexed the lower half of Sakhalin Island, and got restored to post-1905 borders, and the Soviet Union itself collapsed following the occupation of Kiev, with the nation now dissolving into dozens of small, independent nations, such as Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. Former Soviet and Warsaw Pact colonies were either annexed by the victors or gained independence, while others retained ties with their respective nations. Earth suffered the worst, however. Hundreds of millions of civilians perished during the fighting, and much of the damage was irreversible, especially in areas hit by bombing runs, artillery barrages, and orbital bombardments. The environment was heavily polluted, and many cities suffered heavy damage, with Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, London, New York, Tokyo, and many others sustaining serious damage and requiring major reconstructions. Reconstruction efforts took nearly fifty years to complete, and the UN's authority waned as many countries went independent following the war, leaving little to no influence on world affairs anymore.
Russia, the de facto successor state to the Soviet Union, and the aggressor in this conflict, took the brunt of the blame following the conclusion of the war, and was placed under a strict economic embargo by the rest of Earth, causing it's economy to collapse. Hyperinflation reigned as prices soared just like Weimar Germany after the First World War, and famine struck as agricultural industry suffered due to sanctions preventing the export of crops, causing widespread food shortages, further worsening the situation. Crime skyrocketed as police forces were stretched thin trying to keep law and order, and protests rocked the streets of Moscow as starving citizens demanded for relief, but none came. The situation at least began to improve by the 2140s onwards as the embargoes and sanctions began to relieve their pressure, but the country never fully recovered. The intense nationalism that resulted along with the bitterness felt at the United States for being the primary factor in plunging their country into so much poverty and famine would also see the Russian Federation join the side opposing the United States during the Second Inner Planets War of 2171 as well as being one of the direct triggers to the conflict in earnest.
A/N:
Navitasium as a concept (energy crystal cube lolz) is once again not mine, it belongs to Hieda no Ankyū. It's effects, and methods of production, however, are my creation.
Also for the past week I was dealing with headaches and being unable to sleep, sorry (expect the next few updates to be also kind of wonky too until I can get my damn sleep scedule back in order)
Addendum (11/1/2024): Should've added this yesterday, but forgot, dem
'Turian Fried Chicken' as a concept belongs to Knight Viligant Korean, I read her work, The Fourth Council Race, as I was writing up the basic drafts for this chapter, and the joke was just too good to pass up for me lol