The quarians hate the geth too much and the geth are way too wary of the quarians who, in Legions words, "The Creators attack us 100% of the time." for there to be any kind of peace, especially considering the SA/Krogans aren't the 'for the evulz' dirtbags they were in the 1.0 version of the story and aren't going out of their way to enslave and subdue races that aren't belligerent to them (exhibit #1: the Asari).
Agree with lloyd. The Empire/Citadel conflict would really in no way push the Geth and Quarians together. The Quarians would see the war as the Citadel and the Turians primarily trying and failing to put their jackboot on humans and getting the shellacking of the millennium for their trouble. The Geth would see the conflict as organics(Turians and Batarians) trying to impose slave/serf conditions on other organics(humans) and getting far more than they expected. The Geth would see the fact that humans have the game changer, antimatter, and seemingly use it in every battle as dangerous. Geth consensus would probably be to exercise extreme caution and monitor the situation, as everyone expects/knows that the peace will not last. Thoughts?
There's another problem with anti-matter bombs that I want to ask about; how to stockpile it. Once it's made, it has to go off one way or another. It cannot be disarmed or dismantled without it going off. Is it made on demand or is there large stockpiles of it waiting to go off? One successful attack on such stockpiles will destroy whatever planet/moon/asteroid its on.
in 1.0 the geth might have stepped up to save what was left of the quarians, but i don't think its that bad yet
One of the more interesting social dynamics we encountered among the stars was the Volus. Their culture limited emotional ties to those near them thanks to the method of advancement their clans had. They would trade members or even take them in combat, though combat tended to be brief with a loser quickly capitulating rather than dealing with heavier losses of life. As such, their race fractured during the conflict between the Empire and the Turians long before the Salarian involvement began. The major response to the Volus left in Imperial hands was one of confusion. Excerpt from Species At Contact
It wouldn't really matter how the Turians treated them. The Volus essentially trade parts of their clan to advance their clan in different ways. Clan membership seems to bounce around alot. While they have some combat, most of it is to make a show of strength. The visibly weaker clan tends to give away clan members in exchange for security. Same with other resources.
I'm a little confused. Is the question the Empire has what to do with the Volus on the worlds they captured? I don't see humans, being against the client race/slave dynamic the Turians and the Batarians practiced, relating to the Volus that way. The reading I got off your analysis in the snippet is that trading hostages is the way Volus settle their disputes and the client race arrangement with the Turians is an extension of that allowing for aliens(Turians). For humans, who the Turians were looking to do the same to, having the Alliance and then the Empire come back at them, first resisting, then fighting back with a vengeance all the way back to Palaven, was a shock. To the Volus, humans might seem kind of crazy, disregarding losses to make the Turians bleed, using WMDs as standard practice, and playing under total war conditions to the point where they beat the Turians decisively, shattering the myth of Turian military superiority. Also, if you could talk a little about the condition and disposition of the big 3 Citadel races and the Batarians please? Obviously the Batarians are in 1st place for getting brought down a peg, the Turians 2nd with the Salarians a very close 3rd on war damage. What;s the official word, SotF?
The Turians don't really get justification to complain about excessive force. THEY applauded having a massive raid on Terra, including having a Dreadnought accidentally crash into its capital, not to mention having the balls to attempt to claim Humanity as another client species, then whining when we didn't roll over and surrender. Not the wisest set of moves to do. Brought down a peg? If I've read the 1st snippet correctly, the Batarian homeworld now exists as a asteroid field. That's not even counting what happened to their colonies...
The major thing with the Volus is the way their culture seems to be set up. Your first conversations with Din on the Citadel point out that they tend to dislike combat, but they are capable of it. They willingly put themselves under the Turians, probably for the same reasons. The turians looked powerful and it would be easier to work under them rather than needing to fight anyway. Humans tend to operate differently, leading to a lot of cultural confusion as they try to figure out how the hell they're supposed to deal with the Volus on worlds under their control as peace comes about.
Huh? Why would the Turians consider the Volus puppets? The Volus were the ones that approached the Turians about becoming a protectorate and in OTL, it's mentioned that the Turians basically let the Volus do what ever they want and just apply a small tax...
There's also the fact that volus worlds aren't exactly a joy to garrison. Heavy gravity ammonia filled worlds usually aren't. As for combat, the volus would have pulled their bombing fleet back to Irune, or sent it to help the turians at palaven. Speaking of which, is palaven one of the worlds ceded?
Yes. Along with a single dreadnought-class warship that's armed with nothing other than thanix weapons.
Sorry, when I saw that the Volus were a client race of the Turians, my mind made a pretty wild jump to a incorrect conclusion.
The Volus focus on air power and heavy bomber frigates and leave ground combat mailnly to the Turians. Most Volus weapons are knockoffs of higher quality Turian kit. They follow the Turian line regarding foreign policy and provide auxiliaries in combat. That means some Volus may have fought the Empire, but it was likely not personal like it was for the Hierarchy. The issue that may arise regarding Volus for the Empire is that they may not want to be responsible for the Volus in the same way the Turians were. After all, humans fought so hard to keep their right to self-determination as a species independent of the Turians. Then after the strike on Earth the Batarians fucked up royally and basically made themselves a target when they had no business getting involved in the conflict. It was greed and lust for profit that motivated the Batarians. The fact may be that the Volus cannot stand on their own militarily. Land combat is not for them, and bombers only go so far. Thoughts, SotF?
Momentary peace led to opportunity. The oldest ships were brought off the line, replaced with the newest models. Some of which had been in service since near the beginning. Relay travel opened up once more without the ambush possibilities they presented during open warfare, though several systems left the battlefield hazards about them rather than risk them becoming gateways for enemy action in the event that hostilities resumed. It took an unconventional solution to defend the relays that were opened. A solution in the form of some of the larger asteroids towed near them and armed with the best weaponry available, utilizing both barriers and their massive bulk as a defense for armored bases carved into them. Then came the major jump in the Imperial arsenal as the planned advancement of VI systems into AI began. Taking the lessons of the Citadel species, the AI development followed a different path. Licensing research combined with a mix of easy to obtain licenses with penalties for unauthorized research opened up doors. When one of the Asari diplomats questioned someone of the policy, the response was that they equated AI to children, and if someone were to develop one then there had to be steps to protect it just as their would be to protect any other sapient entity. The genophage issue shifted as a partial cure finished development. It wasn't something that would remove the issue entirely, but it shifted the Krogan reproductive cycle to minimize the influence. Total fertility was decreased, but survival rates of the children soared within months of implementation. But all was not well on either side of the peace. Several of the soldiers were not quite ready to lay down arms on either side and leaving forces on both sides of the border attempting to deal with the militants intent on restarting the war. The largest post war battle occurred between one of these groups and a batarian fleet over the unaligned system of Jartar before both Citadel and Imperial elements arrived to enforce the cease fire. Recovered remains of an unknown vessel found amidst the wreckage has been classified at the highest levels. Excerpt from A Try For Peace
Leviathan of Dis/another Derelict or damaged Reaper? And please answer if you would, what are the states, social, military, foreign of the Citadel and Associate Races? What is the disposition of the Batarians and of the overall Terminus? What does Aria, Queen of Omega have to say about the upstart humans who have overturned 1000+ years of the established galactic order? I can only imagine the human response to Terminus piracy and other criminal behavior was harsh at a minimum. Is the Empire committed to keeping the Batarians down and disunified? I would imagine that they used the destruction of Khar'shan as such a shocking event that the entire Batarian Hegemony was too paralyzed to act fast enough for a human blitzkrieg against the main Batarian population centers, industry, fleets. How many fights are the Batarians away from being a galactic footnote? A resurgent Batarian government would undoubtedly dedicate virtually all of its efforts towards revenge. Thoughts, SotF? One other question...what are the terms/specifics of the peace treaty/armstice? Will you cover the breakdown in a future snippet?
The Leviathan of Dis is dead, it kind of prompted a bunch of militia on both sides to fight over the discovery and ended up being blown apart with both the Citadel and Empire getting parts of it taken from the wreckage. And it was a Reaper. For what races are allied with the Citadel, you pretty much still have the same ones, the remaining Batarians are still nominally a citadel race though suffering a massive loss to their population. The Batarians would be in hot water with just about everyone if their own government wasn't wiped out over the course of the war. The Terminus systems are in disarray and most of the mercenary or pirate forces are laying low if they weren't coopted by one of the other nations involved in the war between the Salarians, Turians, and Batarians looking for any additional firepower they could get. The Batarians are in a major state of change, a lot of the pirate bands they had ended up in positions of power within their government because of their experience when invited back. Their current objective is to rebuild as quickly as they can while dealing with the groups that want them back in the fight before they're ready. The number of colonies they possess is in the single digits...
Do those single digit colonies include the "unofficial" colonies the batarians retained in the terminus?
During the Siege of Palaven, it was said that the weapon to force the Turians and Salarians to step back from the issue was not the one they dubbed the "Anti-Nuke" but a development that had taken years. The same designs that would later give rise to the defense platforms defending the relays was first used to develop a weapon. The Juggernaut class mobile defense station remains as the largest vessels developed by the Empire. Fully the size of the Citadel itself, the Juggernaut was essentially a colony in and of itself. It's design a response to the lack of dedicated military installations on several of the smaller colony worlds that could support actions in their area, and the incursions into enemy space that followed the early strikes. Starting from the bulk of a world consumed by a nova millenia prior, it was awe inspiring when it entered the direct conflict for the first time in the Turians home system. With seventeen years spent in construction, and nearly a mile thick armor, nothing that was in our foes fleets could harm it. But it's arrival was to late for the thousands of ships lost before it was sent to break the Turian forces. Codex: Juggernaut
The Juggernaut sounds impressive, but you could probably build a fleet for how much eezo that beast uses. Was it one of those shock and awe weapons? Partially of actual use, but more psychological terror of the implacable enemy? Mile thick armor means dreadnought fire is close to useless. But the thing that comes to mind is if antimatter can be produced in bulk, wouldn't a better policy to break the Turians have been massed antimatter missile alpha strikes, in waves? 100 missile first salvo, then bump it up to 300-500, then 1000 missile strike to clear away the extensive orbital defenses over Palaven? You use scout or stealth ships as artillery spotters to keep track of the flow of battle and direct proper munition spread while the main fleet concentrates on stand-off combat, farther away from enemy retaliation and just dumps antimatter at the enemy until everyone is dead. If antimatter is so cheap in this AU, humans should be playing that to the fullest. Missile oriented warfare, scouting for mass antimatter strikes. Heavy guns should be secondary for more close in work. Let the Citadel keep their big gun dynamic and go around them. Eventual reverse engineering of Reapertech from the Leviathan of Dis, such as the thanix cannons, etc. Thoughts SotF?
Well, its creation could also have served political/psychological reasons for the "Empire" as well. This could also be following an internal policy of fortification above all else as well, which would explain why the Turians weren't fucked moreso than usual as wel.
