AN: I rewrote the first few chapters because I didn't want the Stargate humans using deadly force to intervene. It built them a different set of morals than I was going for.

SSV Everest

Captain's Quarters

"Stalling?"

"Yes, as much as we can," answered Drescher. "As motivating as your speech was, the fact is we haven't even thought of war for decades. Only the paranoia caused by the Mars Archives and the Relays kept our budget intact, you know that as well anyone."

"And the lobbying from the military industrial complex," muttered the Prime Minister. "How would stalling benefit us? Obviously these aliens want to come to the table, and we're at a position of strength right now. If you're right about our... precarious situation, surely we should sign a treaty as fast as possible?"

Drescher paused, she looked over at the holographic sensor read out in her quarters. The alien ship was just floating out by the relay, Alliance ships mpving in and out of the wreckage around it. A few alien escape pods had been located and sent towards the diplomatic ship, as a small gesture to show they were willing to initiate peaceful interactions.

"That's the key: they want to come to the table. If they're willing to send a delegation in the midst of an all out fleet battle; they will wait a few weeks, even months to finalize any talks," said Drescher. "And if we're right, and they don't have carriers, we've proven ourselves to be at a huge strategic advantage. Researching, designing, testing, building a whole new type of ship is a decade long process; we're not going to lose this edge."

"You still haven't answered, why stall?"

"We now know that there are at least two species in contact with each other, that doesn't bode well for us. We hardly kept up a military over the last hundred years, but these aliens? Even if they're the best of allies, you can guarantee they've been keeping together sizable armed forces just in case. Best case? Their standing armies are ten times the size of ours. Worst? Over a hundred, a thousand, times larger."

"So you want to stall to give us time to build more ships? Enlarge the military?"

"If these talks go south, we need a backup plan. Just ironing out a translator between us could take months, a few weeks to decide on a neutral meeting location. We could pretend that their ambassador insulted us, set back talks another month. To be honest, we could drag this out for a very long time. Look: just finding and training more workers for ship building takes forever. We also need a surge in the supply chain in everything from small arms to ship grade armor plating. Many of our systems will need expansion of facilities, heck if we want more than two carriers going at a time we're gonna need another yard. We need time."

The truth was that the Alliance couldn't fight a war. They would very quickly run out of men, guns, ships, anything and everything. They didn't have the ability to wage a prolonged conflict. Drescher's counter attack was for the sole purpose of gaining time, and establishing a buffer for the Alliance to ramp up production.

"And in the meantime you could turn that system into the next Korean DMZ zone," continued the PM.

"Ideally, yes. Look, just getting the Dallas and Chennai barrier emitter replacement parts has been a nightmare. We're not on a war footing, hell we're not even on a peacetime footing. Our ability to replace losses is nonexistent ."

"If we get a peace treaty now, we won't have to worry about our military size."

"But do we really know that? We know nothing of their cultures, they may renegade on a treaty with no care for their earlier promises. Also, we need time to look over this dreadnought we've captured. You can bet they're gonna want it back, nonnegotiable. But in a few months we could have the whole thing taken apart and scanned."

"You're starting to convince me. But what about these... projects... I hear that Admiral Stevens in pursuing?" questioned the PM.

"Some have promise. Especially the dedicated defense platforms. We can make dreadnought scale cannons much faster than we can make the ships. Put a few around the Shanxi relay and blow away anything that comes through before it can even try to get back to FTL. Surround the Relay with anti-matter mines, ground based dreadnought cannons to prevent orbital bombardment... he is inventive for sure."

"His son died on Shanxi?"

"During the counter-offensive. It's gotten him very involved in thinking how we could prevent something like this from ever happening again."

The Battle for Shanxi turned into more than just a border conflict. The frigate that accompanied the relay activation team had a little under two hundred personnel aboard. The science ship itself had a few dozen. That could've been waved away as a misunderstanding, if causing a short term negative sentiment in the population.

But the thousands killed during the initial invasion? Thousands more killed during orbital bombardment? All the people still lost in the rubbled of the city? The counter offensive had decimated the Shanxi militia as much as it did the aliens. Three more ships lost during Drescher's arrival, putting another thousand dead. The wounded were the worst, the micro-bullets of mass effect rounds turned limbs into mangled messes.

The pictures of Jinyang, burned and collapsed, already made their way back to Earth. The aliens were going to have shaky relations with the Alliance for a long time. Drescher could already imagine it now. An unprovoked attack that killed tens of thousands and wounded more would never be forgotten. If the Alliance was in better position, and knew more about the enemy, a continuation of war would have been almost certain.

Drescher knew one thing. The public would see Shanxi as an unprovoked attack and thus every death tantamount to murder. You don't just forget that a species began dialogue by dropping ordinance from orbit. Anytime there is death, the people remember.

"I think your idea has promise, if only to give us more time to think about how we should proceed. I'll let the ambassador know we don't want a hastily resolution," agreed the Prime Minister.

Alliance Security Council

Arcturus

The council was a collection of Members of Parliament that dealt with military appropriations and oversight, cabinet level military positions like the Minister of Defense, high ranking members of military, intelligence department heads, and the Prime Minister.

"This is a recreation of the orbital events around Shanxi immediately prior to William's counter offensive," presented the Intelligence Command Head Marcus Garret.

The video showed the alien fleet hanging above the world, before suddenly the dreadnought and supply ships fell out of position with the rest of the fleet.

"What are we looking at, exactly?" asked an MP.

"That was exactly what we were wondering. These four ships seem to just.. shut down. It wasn't anything we did, and the chances that four ships malfunctioned at the exact same time is astronomical," said Director Garret.

"So someone did this."

"Exactly. There wasn't anything detected on radar, no new heat signatures, so we began to suspect sabotage. But then we checked the LMS Satellite, that is the Long-term Magnetosphere Research Satellite. It was miraculously saved from destruction by the aliens, probably because it isn't military in nature and is very low profile in emissions. It probably looked like debris."

The intelligence director flipped the main screen to show a graph, prominent for a massive data spike right in the middle.

"You're looking at what a scientist would say is data from a minor coronal mass ejection hitting the atmosphere. However, from data collected by solar observation satellites orbiting Shanxi's star as well as the lack of geomagnetic storms and auroras, we know this is not the case."

"So what is it?" Asked the Prime Minister.

"You're looking at the affects of a massive artificial EMP being set off right next to a planet's magnetosphere. If you compare results to the United State Starfish Prime High Attitude Nuclear tests from July 9, 1962 you will see a startling similarity. This data was captured right when the alien ships went dark," said the Intelligence Director.

"Well obviously there was no nuke," countered the PM.

"You're saying the alien's ships were hit by an EMP, obviously not nuclear but there are theoretically other ways. And since it wasn't us, and the aliens sure as hell didn't do it to themselves, then someone else," asked General Davis rhetorically.

"Definitely artificial. The EMPs were perfectly aimed at the ships in a direction away from the planet, so much so that nothing even reached Jinyang below. If it weren't for the affects of the magnetosphere, we would've never known," agreed the Director. "Someone else was hitting the aliens over Shanxi.

"Perhaps we should also mention mercenaries Jack Harper and Eva Core," prompted General Davis.

"Another.. intriguing situation. They claim to have been set free by a third party, cell door ripped right out of the wall. Whoever -whatever- also retrieving an advanced artifact from the aliens, now known to be Turians. We can confirm this partially, their associate Ben Hislop was full of some alien nanotech and we did find evidence in the designated cave system that some sort of artifact was on the planet," reported Garret.

"Full of... nanotech?" Asked parliament member John Dobson.

"We're only just scratching the surface. You should get a report and funding request sometime in the next week. Hislop had all these cybernetics pushing through the skin, and when his blood was filled with nannites. They were ruined, probably a self destruct feature, so we have no real clue how they work. Mind you, it took an electron microscope to see them. Highly advanced."

"If they are ruined why so you want funding?"

"Just because they aren't working doesn't mean we can't investigate. Just by looking at Hislop's body we know they've done major augmentation to create some sort of super soldier. Things done to muscle and bones we've only written fiction stories about. From what Harper reports, the artifact they encountered turned anyone too close into its own soldiers."

"Sound crazy..."

"I agree. If we didn't have the body I'd never believe it. Harper was reluctant enough to come forward with it. If we didn't have this evidence I doubt he ever would."

"So another species of aliens came to recover their technology from the Turians? Why attack their ships," asked the Prime Minister.

"We don't really know anything. Whoever sent the EMPs might not be the same species as the one that made the artifact. But that brings even more questions; like why they decided to step in, what they wanted with the artifact. Maybe the EMPs were accidents caused by the Turians, but then who set the mercenaries free. Where'd the artifact go, maybe its still with the Turians," said Director Garret.

"Maybe the data off the dreadnought will shine some light," mused another MP.

"Hopefully."