Disclaimer: I own all of this. IT"S MINE... Nah, I'm just kidding. Mass Effect is Bioware's treasured property that I'm just borrowing.

A/N: Well, I really don't what much to say about all of this. I mean, my primary focus, in terms of fic writing, is the Halo: the Art of War. But damn you Tikigod, he talked me into at least laying a foundation for a Mass Effect fic idea. So here it is, a little time line that sets the stage for a fairly AU fic. The general premise is that Humanity had more time to prepare for first contact, that it is only somewhat weaker than the entire Council, and that it's not completely friendly for good reason. Anyone who studies German history will see a lot of similarities here, particularly with the Terminus War. But I don't really have a fully thought out plan for this (I don't even know if I should set this in ME 1 or 2). Let's just see where this takes us.

As always, credit to Tikigod for both betaing and talking me into writing this.

On a final note, if anyone notices some random skipping of multiple words in sentences, please inform me. I don't know why, but the FF doc manager keeps screwing over my edits.

2148 CE: The Great Leap

Humanity discovers a small cache of highly advanced Prothean technology hidden deep beneath the surface of Mars on the south polar region of Promethei Planum. Building on the remnants of this long extinct race, humans quickly explore the science of mass effect fields, leading to the development of faster than light travel and beginning detailed exploration of the Sol system.

Following information from the translated data cache on Mars, humans discover that Charon, Pluto's moon, is actually a massive piece of dormant Prothean technology, a mass relay, encased in ice. Once activated, Jon Grissom leads the first team of explorers through the relay, which instantaneously transports them to another relay in Arcturus, 36 light-years away. The explorers discover that the mass relays are part of a vast network, making travel across the galaxy possible.

2150-2154 CE: Exploration

The nations of Earth begin the first surveys for colonization prospects outside the Sol System. One of these surveys discovers the planet Terra Nova. Overpopulation, though stabilized after 2050s by the progress of global urbanization, still lingers. With still over 9 billion people on Earth and the global biosphere only beginning to recover from global climate change, mass colonization became an attractive proposition for many around the world.

Further mining and refinery developments in Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and the discovery of mass effect induced hydrogen-helium trigeneration fusion conclusively solved humanities energy problem for the foreseeable future. Trigeneration fusion flatlined fusion fuel prices by using a mass effect field to alter hot hydrogen nuclei inertia so as to control its high energy neutron emission and transmutate other hydrogen atoms up its isotope chain, eventually becoming Helium-3.

2154 CE: The Founding

The Systems Alliance charter is signed by the eighteen largest nations on Earth. The Alliance soon becomes the military and exploratory spearhead of humanity. To defend its expanding territory, humanity begins constructing a massive military fleet and space station at Arcturus, the nexus of several key mass relays and the only relay choke point to Earth, even though they have yet to encounter another intelligent spacefaring race. Notable representatives such as North American Union Marine General Mac Olendorf and Chinese Admiral Han Shaoquan noted at the time that the Alliance suffered from the same commitment reserve clauses from member nations, better known as "caveats", that ultimately caused the quiet and ignominious demise of NATO in 2037. All warnings, however, were ignored.

An accident at Singapore International Spaceport exposes hundreds of humans to dust-form element zero. Roughly 30% of the children born in Singapore after element zero exposure suffer from cancerous growths.

2155 CE: The First Wave

The Delta Pavonis Foundation, a major consortium based on Earth, begins settlement of humanity's first extra-solar colony world, the planet Demeter. Later that year, additional colonies are founded on Eden Prime and Terra Nova. Almost immediately, the first signs of the coming colonial insurrection were evident. The new colonies became a hive for those who wished to escape the law, ranging from criminals to religious extremists and hardcore ideologues.

Arcturus Station is formally inaugurated. It proved to be just in time as growing smuggling and human trafficking forced a greater security presences in the new colonies. The problem was further aggravated as nations back on Earth began focusing more and more of their national resources at repairing their damaged environments at the cost of colonial assistance after the Yellowstone Caldera Eruption and the Great Transpacific Tsunami of 2152.

A small number of human children exposed to element zero exhibit minor telekinetic abilities.

2157-2172 CE: Liberty and Order

Pluto's orbit becomes circularized as a result of mass relay operations.

The first terrorist attack on Mars occurred as the Colonial Liberation Alliance sought a complete break with their mother countries back on Earth. Colonial expansion ceased as the nations of Earth grappled with their colonial insurgencies.

Within the known galaxy, the Batarians succeeded into consolidating its home world nations and their colonies into one cohesive government dubbed the Batarian Hegemony. In a surprising move the Batarians turned their efforts from colonial expansion to extending their influence over other species in the the lawless Terminus systems. Realizing the benefits of a stable Terminus under Batarian sway, the Council dropped its demand on universal emancipation for merely the Batarian guarantee of ending further slaving operation in of Council claimed space.

Poaching and slaving expeditions several prominent to the Yagh home world resulted in the capture of several FTL capable ships and their crews. After forcing the crews to cooperate, the Yagh quickly achieved a vast technological leap to their new status as a spacefaring species.

2173-2183 CE: In Flames

Finally forced by events to acknowledge the flaws of the Alliance charter and of the UN General Assembly that is hampering the counterinsurgency effort, the member nations amended the requirement for collective action from a unanimous vote to 3/4 majority and to make all United Nations General Assembly's action legally binding. This was by no means a cohesive world government, though, as there is still no unified economy, military, or legal code. Still, the so-called "Caveat" jurisdiction restriction problem was left unsolved.

As the war progressed, weapons technology escalated to new levels as element zero enhanced electromagnetic kinetic weapons finally displaced chemical fired weapons. The variably parted shear block ammunition concept becomes the dominant munition for its increased damage capability from fragmentation and special load capacity compared to the proposed laser particulate shear block concept. Kinetic barriers for both ships and ground forces made their debut. Advances were also made to increase the range and combat endurance of ships, especially with shipborne trigeneration fusion reactors, Eezo isotope warheads, and the so-called "Bussard Discharger" that increases the electrostatic charge capacity of ships by bleeding off some of the Element Zero electrostatic charge difference into interstellar gas; these advances contributed greatly to battlefield successes by allowing national and Alliance forces to remain on stations for much longer and to ambush insurgent forces. Sirta Foundation of Mars pioneered several medical advancements, particularly with the invention of Medigel and cybernetic microfiber weaves. Limited genetic modifications begin for the first time for front line troops.

2184 CE: Reform

Frustration over the insurrection finally boiled over back on Earth as the "Caveat" issue finally forced the Alliance General Assembly to create a true unified fighting force with full transnational jurisdiction under the command of the Alliance Secretary General. To mollify the member nation's nationalist constituencies, however, the newly born Alliance military was kept relatively small. Calls for volunteer enlistments were made with the greatest number coming from members of the North American Union Marine Corp. N Level training begins as the Alliance creates the Marine Corp Special Operations Command. The MCSOC was special in that it was a Special Operations Capable force, one that fights both conventional battles as well as performing black operations.

2184-2188 CE: Turning the Tide

The major actions in the Attican Traverse, spearheaded by the Alliance Fleet and Marine Corp turned the tide of the war. The insurgency began to lose steam as the growing corruption and cruelty of many insurgent formations and the horrible price paid by the Alliance to avoid civilian casualties turned the colonial public towards the Alliance.

The Alliance military is expanded as many colonials came to trust Alliance soldiers more than their own national militaries. Marine Corp N7 Force Recon becomes the preeminent special forces unit of humanity.

2190-2195 CE: Reconciliation & Stabilization

The Arcturus Peace Accords are finally signed. Earth's control over the colonies are reestablished and reinforced while most of the former insurgents are granted amnesty. National militaries and Alliance forces remain in wide deployment for the next decade to make sure that the peace survives as the colonial reconstruction begins.

The Omega Protocols are signed by most members of the Terminus systems, placing the Batarian Hegemony in a dominant position over its vassals. All Terminus signatories agreed to pay tribute in resources and slaves and signed a military alliance with the Hegemony. For the first time, the Terminus systems have something close to a unified government. Serious talks begin over a potential Council seat for the Batarians, though they are continually stymied by continued Batarian use of slavery and the protection the Hegemony affords to many criminal organizations in the Terminus. The exact political status of the new Terminus systems hang in limbo.

The Batarian Hegemony begin full regulation and patrol of the Terminus border. This has a direct impact on the Quarian Migrant Fleet as the flotilla is not welcomed in Council space. Khar'shan attempted to force tribute and vassalage from the Migrant Fleet, though the Quarian Admiralty Board and Conclave gave its unanimous refusal. Thus began the so-called "Trail of Sorrow" as the Migrant Fleet attempted to navigate its way around towards the unclaimed sectors of the Attican Traverse, all the while harrassed by the Hegemony and its warlords and minor vassals.

2195-2266 CE: Postbellum

Reconstruction is officially declared over by the UN General Assembly. Alliance members of Earth begins demobilization of their armed forces. Immediately, there are calls for the end of the Alliance military as member nations sought to claw back their national sovereignty. A voracious defense by several outspoken colonial politicians, however, prevented the complete demise of the Alliance military, although it was severely downsized. To maintain its troop standards for any future mobilization, the Alliance military retained its most experienced and battle hardened officers and placed them in lower ranks. All further recruitment were made under very tough standards.

The human genetic advancement project, long delayed by the colonial war, finally takes off as a joint project between Sirta Foundation and the World Health Organization. Genetic engineering, previously restricted to the elimination of genetic diseases, was made available to the general public for the first time. The advancements ranged from the uncontroversial caloric intake regulation, enhanced tissue regeneration, zero gravity adaptation package, and cellulose digestion to the revolutionary element zero adaptation therapy. The latter item makes the human body resistant to the worst effects of element zero poisoning by gathering eezo particles into bundles loosely connected to the nervous system where it could not do much harm; the added bonus was that for the first time, the majority of humanity possessed very weak biotics that could affect a person's own body physics such as weight and velocity but was too weak to be weaponized.

The first post insurrection generation saw a population boom, driving the second wave of colonial expansion that was already pent up with would-be colonist held up by the war. This time, though, there was a very heavy military presence along with the colonial expeditions. The Alliance retained its use and manpower by a modern variation of the ancient Chinese Tuntian system, having garrison forces double as a major construction force to help accelerate colonial development and provide job training for it members while training local militias and constabularies to keep the law. Reservists were also maintained with pension packages and colonial settlement plots. Combined with the general desire for peace and tranquility after two generations of war, Alliance service became an attractive prospect for many young talented people.

In the Sentry Omega cluster, Terminus forces under Yagh warlord Utam'lo Khoratai dealt a devastating blow to the Migrant Fleet by destroying one of the three massive live ships, the Nimpo. Starvation breaks out in the Flotilla and the Quarians are forced deeper into the galactic rim, the barren exterior of known space.

2267 CE: First Contact

In October, Humanity makes violent first contact with another spacefaring race: the Turians. The Turians observe human explorers attempting to activate a dormant mass relay, a practice forbidden by galactic law after the Rachni Wars, and attack. The colony of Shanxi became the site of a pitch battle between Turian and Alliance garrison forces under General Mathias Williams. After a bloody space battle, the Turians landed ground troops. William's force of regulars and militia fell back into the countryside and, assisted by a group of old former insurgents helping them to live off the wild, began an asymmetrical campaign against the invaders.

Meanwhile, Earth was in political chaos. The UN General Assembly proved unable to make a collective decision. It was later discovered by New York Times that several nations, particularly the Arab Federation and the African Union, have let their armed forces atrophied far beyond what was known at the time because of their historically understandable aversion to armed conflict. Left with no choice, the combined bloc of the North American Union, the Chinese People's Federation, the Russian Federation, and the Latin American Republics turned to the Alliance General Assembly and forced a vote to mobilize and commit Alliance forces. After a slim majority Yea vote, the call went out for full mobilization of all Alliance assets.

As Alliance and willing member national forces assembled, Alliance Special Operations Command dispatched the 3rd "Black Guards" Battalion of the 2nd Marine Special Operations Regiment under Commander Tadius Ahern to reinforce and resupply General Williams.

One particular incident in New Tianjin proved to be a major thorn in Council-Alliance relations for years to come. A particularly oafish Turian soldier inadvertently incited a citywide riot that forced the Turian fleet above to pour massed orbital fire on the civilians, causing the deaths of over a hundred thousand civilians.

By December, the Council had reviewed the situation and reprimanded the Turians for their overzealous response. General Tiran, the commanding officer of the Turian expedition and the one who first fired on the humans, was removed from command and an Asari peace delegation was dispatched to Shanxi. However, the delegation arrived mere days after the massacre at Tianjin and all attempts at negotiation were rebuffed.

2268 CE: Counterattack

By January, the 1st Alliance Fleet was ready for the counterstrike. In coordination with General Williams and Commander Ahern, Alliance forces staged a simultaneous attack that destroyed the Turian fleet and captured a Turian frigate, the Haliat, intact. The Asari peace delegation were killed aboard the Turian flagship as it was destroyed by Alliance warships. The Turians asked for no quarter and none was given by Admiral Kastanie Drescher, resulting in the complete destruction of the Turian force. Taking advantage of the moment and of the captured intel, the 1st Fleet immediately struck out against the Turian's staging ground at Enchati. Surprised by the unexpected Alliance attack, the Turians were quickly defeated and the colony occupied. Alliance reinforcements soon followed, as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Fleets poured into Enchati. Further lightening strikes followed as Alliance ships fanned out and secured key Mass Relays, effectively locking down the entire Attican Traverse.

Both the Humans and Turians responded to new developments with further escalation. By unanimous vote, the members of the United Nations agreed to full mobilization and the draft in all nations and passed the Enforcement Act, making the the 3/5 majority the only requirement for legally binding UN General Assembly actions. The UN General Assembly also passed the Unified Command Act, subsuming all member militaries to Alliance command during war. For their part, the Turian Hierarchy also began calling up their reserves and calling on the Salarians and Asari to do the same.

As both the Humans and the Turians slide closer to total war, the Asari Republics dispatched another peace delegation, this time led by Matriarch Lydania on the dreadnaught Destiny Ascension, to intervene. Matriarch Lydania arrived just in time as the 1st and 2nd Alliance fleets were minutes away from engaging the Turian 8th and 12th Fleets at the Delta-9 mass relay. This time, a ceasefire was made and the Alliance withdrew to Enchati. The Enchati Peace Accord was signed where the Asaris, on behalf of the Council, apologized to the citizens of Shanxi and paid reparations while the Alliance, representing humanity, agreed to not activate any more relays. Though angered by the fact that it wasn't the Turians that apologized, Alliance forces nonetheless withdrew to Shanxi as per the Enchati Accords.

2269-2271 CE: Second Chance

The first human diplomatic mission arrives on the Citadel. Humanity becomes a signatory for the Citadel Conventions, including the Treaty of Firaxin that limited the number of dreadnaughts the Alliance and Earth nations may have.

Nonetheless, the Alliance military and the national militaries of Earth begin laying the foundation for a quick and massive expansion of humanity's combined might. The captured Turian frigate Haliat was secretly dissected to learn the strengths and weaknesses of humanity's potential foe. The United Nations passed the Modernization Act, a massive modernization program for all of its member nation militaries to bring all of humanity's military potential up to date. New major shipyards were commissioned by the dozens for potential naval expansion. The hulls of forty Everest-class dreadnaughts were forged, compartmentalized, parted, and hidden to escape inspections; the Everest-class hull was specifically designed as a "dual use" system whose individual compartments could be plausibly argued to be of civilian use. Cruisers were secretly upgunned and reinforced to the point that a standard Alliance Metropolitan class cruiser could take on any of its counterpart in the known galaxy with confidence of victory. Frigates were phased out in favor of heavier destroyers, though its true performance was hidden from all observers. In addition, the Alliance military adopted a new doctrine based primarily on the former Soviet operational and strategic concept of Deep Battle. Rather than seeking a decisive head on engagement, the Alliance fleet would emphasis mobile warfare that seeks to encircle the enemy on a strategic level with deep penetration into an enemy's strategic depth to induce a catastrophic and systemic collapse of the enemy's operational capability.

First contact was made with the Batarians, Yagh, and the lesser Terminus races after an Alliance supply convoy was attacked by Terminus pirates.

The Quarians were first encountered by Alliance forces in the Attican Beta cluster. For the first time in nearly a hundred years for the Quarians and the first time ever for humanity, a first contact encounter was peaceful. The desperate shape of the Migrant Fleet, now reduced by a full third of its numbers before the Trail of Sorrow began, and the preceding technical reputation of Quarians resulted in a lucrative trade agreement. The Flotilla would send computer and VI experts to aid humanity in network security and modernization in exchange for shockingly low prices on medigel and He-3 fuel as well as access to human starship markets.

The People's Daily of China released a bombshell on the eve of General Mathias Williams' promotion to Lt. General, revealing that Williams was on the verge of surrendering to the Turians during the battle for Shanxi before Commander Ahern's reinforcements arrived. Envoys from William's staff had attempted to approach the Turians for terms, though the Turians failed to understand the envoy's peaceful intentions and wiped out the mission. While technically there were no actual violations and the general retained his position, William's promotion was scuttled and his family was publicly disgraced.

The biggest Terminus raid on Humans so far occurs on the colony of Mindoir. The colony's milita and regular garrison fought a vicious battle and inflicted significant damage on the slavers, but could not prevent the capture of nearly a third of its inhabitants before the Alliance fleet forced the pirates' withdrawal. The Batarians claimed no responsibility as it was conducted not by the Hegemony's forces, though they reiterated that the point of origin of the slavers are under Batarian protection and breaching it would be an act of war. Human slaves were soon spotted on the Batarian home world of Khar'shan. Alliance complaints to the Council came to naught as the Council claimed to have no jurisdiction over the Terminus Systems.

As a direct result, Cerberus is founded and its manifesto, penned by one "Illusive Man", is found circulating through the extra-net. Though initially considered nothing more than some concerned citizens or conspiracy theorists, Cerberus convinced all doubters of its sincerity by launching several daring operations which included the assassination of Turian General Tiran and the humiliation and political (and occasionally actual) assassination of several dovish politicians of the European Union and the Latin American Republics. Afterward, the Alliance and the United Nations distanced itself from Cerberus and the Council officially labeled the organization as racial terrorists.

2272-2275 CE: Threats and Promises

The human economy makes it debut in the galactic economy. Eldfell-Ashland Energy and Sirta Foundation in particular quickly took large market shares due to Medigel and high grade He-3 fuel in staggering quantities thanks to trigeneration reactor technology.

The United Nations passed the Military Expansion Act, forcing all member nations to expand their militaries with universal service and reservist retention in addition to allocating more funds to expanding the ranks of the Systems Alliance military. Weapon systems, command and control systems, and logistics were standardized for all human forces for the first time. Frontier colonies, with help from Alliance garrison forces, began a massive fortification campaign to prevent another Mindoir raid. Several more frontier raids occurred, though they ceased after several Alliance anti-pirate sweeps and the growing strength of colonial defenses.

The first Batarian-Alliance diplomatic summit took place on Earth. It proved to be diplomatic disaster and a portend of things to come. Both sides approached the conference with specific and opposing grievances. The Alliance demanded an end to further slaving operations, the repatriation of all human slaves within the Terminus, and negotiation on disputed worlds. The Batarian envoy wished to discuss nothing more than the pace and terms of Humanity's vassalage to the Hegemony under the Omega Protocol, which included regular shipment of slaves. The summit ended with both sides walking out in outrage. A cold war begins as the Attican Traverse and the Skyllian Verge saw a massive build up of human and Batarian forces prepared for potential conflict. The Alliance General Staff, led by Admiral Steven Hackett, began laying plans for war with the Batarians, which resulted in the so-called Hackett plan.

The Quarian Migrant Fleet becomes the United Nation's biggest trading partner, something shocking in and of itself considering the size of the Quarian population. Demand for experienced engineers and technicians brought a Quarian migration into the frontier colonies, a mixture of those going on their pilgrimage and sojourners seeking to earn some credits for their ships and families back in the Flotilla. For the first time in four centuries, the Quarians stationed a permanent diplomatic mission on an alien home world to negotiate further trade deals. Remittances by Quarian sojourners and pilgrims fund the construction of the Shaha kor Kheela Station, a joint Human-Quarian venture using a massive hollowed out asteroid in the Ming system to provide a safe, reliable, and steady supply of food for the Migrant Fleet. In addition, the Quarian demand for civilian ships fueled a ship construction boom in Alliance Space.

Cerberus achieves its greatest coup so far: publishing a joint Salarian-Turian analysis on the potential threat of humanity. In the nine hundred page document, Humanity was regarded as a second rate power, though a very tough one that was more technologically advance than Council species in certain notable area such as reactor technology, theoretical physics, and medicine. Though capable of initial upsets the likes of the Enchati offensive during the First Contact War, humanity could not last in a serious war because of the inherent disunity among the nations of Earth in the political, economic, and military realm. In its conclusion, any human territorial gains would be small and temporary at best and that humanity would inevitably be swallowed up by the Batarian Hegemony. Still, humanity's economic power should not be ignored and the frontier colonies closest to Council space should be considered for future annexation by the Turian Hierarchy. However, there was a final corollary in the report that warned of the massive potential economic and military strength of a unified humanity and that it would serve the Council's interest to prevent that from happening. The consequences of this release was explosive, galvanizing the previously weak movement to unite all of humanity into one single cohesive political order. The most extreme of the unity movement coalesced into the Terra Firma Party, which quickly found roots in nearly all the nations of Earth.

2276-2294 CE: Rivalry and Escalation

Human colonies in the Attican Traverse and Skyllian Verge begin to grow in ever greater numbers as the Batarians proved to be unable to successfully grow and maintain their colonies in the disputed areas. To even the odds, the Batarians secretly began commissioning pirate and slaving raids into the disputed zone, though to only minimal effect.

The first economic analysis of the Human economy done by the University of Thessia was released. The report noted that the current economic and industrial potential of the humans were seconded only to the Volus and Asari economies and had significant growth potential, though it is severely hampered by the factionalized laws and internal competition among the many nations of Earth and her colonies. Attempts by Council species investors to get in on the action, however, were blocked by UN laws against potential technological export that were championed by Terra Firma.

Cerberus again makes the news in a series of daring raids against famed warlord and slaver Forlant Seegak, culminating in the assassination of the warlord himself. Among the thousands of slaves rescued during the raid were many witnesses that claimed to have seen Cerberus operatives cooperating with Alliance personnel, though the Alliance vigorously denied involvement.

Increasing incidents of border clashes over the years between scouting forces of the Alliance and the Batarians threatened to escalate into open war with both side calling for partial mobilization, though Asari mediation maintained the tense peace. Still, the Council eventually declared that any of its citizens going into the Skyllian Verge and Attican Traverse do so at their own risk.

The Quarians signed a free trade agreement with the United Nations. This great improvement in Quarian-Human relations were made all the more stark by the fact that Council species still have not yet lifted their tariff barriers for fear of being flooded with medigel and He-3 fuel among other products at such low prices that they simply could not compete with. Quarian Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay became the first alien to address the United Nations General Assembly, securing several large lines of credit that was used to finance the repair and restoration of the Flotilla's defense force. In a secret agreement, Admiral Raan committed the Quarians to provide material and technical assistance in advent of a war with the Batarians. The Quarians purchased over five hundred Alliance cruisers and destroyers, three of the new Kilimanjaro class dreadnaughts, and thousands of fighters at giveaway prices that were officially for the Flotilla defense force though they were to be given back to the Alliance once war began. Quarians engineers and technicians secretly collaborated with their human counterparts to streamline and update the forty unfinished Everest-class dreadnaughts to the specs of the Kilimanjaro-class.

2295 CE: The Skyllian Blitz

Several criminal organizations, warlords, and minor species of the Terminus assembled a large fleet of over three hundred warships and transports for a massive raid into the Skyllian Verge with the Human colony of Elysium as their first target. This was secretly done with the Batarian Hegemony's financial backing and political blessing to halt the Human colonial expansion that have so far proved unstoppable. This was the beginning of the Skyllian Blitz.

The attack on Elysium should have by all rights succeeded. The combined Terminus fleet broke through the orbital defenses and destroyed the Alliance patrols before landing ground troops and slaving parties. While most of the cities on the planet were able to raise their city shields and their garrisons and militia held off the enemy, the capital city of Grissom, home to over a million people, was hit particularly hard during the first hours of the battle and could not sustain its shields and defenses. Realizing their opportunity, the invaders focused their efforts on Grissom. However, by chance, the 1st "Totenkopf" battalion of the 1st Marine Special Operations Regiment under the command of Commander Nathaniel Shepard was stationed at Grissom at the time. Though lacking sufficient heavy weapons and outnumbered nearly 5 to 1, Shepard rallied the tattered militia and regulars and drew the Terminus forces into vicious street fighting at point blank range to neutralize enemy artillery and air strikes. At the most critical point of the battle, Shepard himself stood alone in the face of the primary enemy thrust into the city center where the civilians took refuge, holding the line himself until the gap in the line was plugged. Against all odds, Shepard not only succeeded in protecting the civilians, but encircled the invaders and forced their surrender. Alliance reinforcements later arrived and destroyed or captured the remainder of the Terminus raiders. For his actions that day, Shepard was awarded the Star of Terra.

Among the captured ships and prisoners of the Elysium, Alliance intelligence found evidence of Batarian backing of the attack and revealed it to the galactic media. Seeing their hand revealed, the Batarian Hegemony declared war upon humanity and launched a massive preemptive strategic offensive. The Terminus War has begun.

2295-2299 CE: The Terminus War

With the final collapse of the Batarian-Human affair, the Council declared its neutrality and locked down its borders with both powers. Opinions were split among the Council itself. As per previous assessment, the Batarians' actions were both expected and inevitable considering the attitude of both the Batarians themselves and of humanity. Among the Turians, there were still many who wanted to see the humans humbled after the their own chance was taken from them by the Asari mediation in the First Contact War. On the other hand, there was still a general disgust with the Batarians over slavery, their acceptance of criminal organizations, the brazen aggression of their attack. Ultimately, the fact that no one in Council space wanted war kept the Council out of this conflict. The outcome was already a foregone conclusion in their eyes as the Batarian fleet alone was almost three times the combined Human fleet and almost five times stronger when the Terminus minors threw their forces in.

The combined Human forces enacted the Hackett plan as envisioned almost a decade ago. The intent was to fight a series of delaying actions to attrit the Batarians and to preserve their own forces while the Alliance and national militaries finished their mobilization and the colonists of the Skyllian Verge and the outer Attican Traverse evacuated. The initial Batarian offensive met stiff resistance before the Combined Fleet fell back deep into Human territory. The Batarians then fanned out to seize the disputed worlds, but each time the fleet ran into heavy resistance from remaining colonial garrisons, militia, and fortifications that held them off long enough for the naval forces to arrive and counterattack. Alliance ships often bypassed the Batarians' relay choke hold and flanked their opponents by using their superior inter-relay range and endurance. Eventually, the Skyllian Verge fell to the Batarians, though it had cost the Hegemony nearly a third of their combined fleet. After spending three months to regroup and consolidating their supply lines, the Hegemony launched the invasion of the Attican Traverse. As per the Hackett plan, the Alliance fleet denied the Batarians a decisive battle by committing just enough forces to drive back each attack despite not inflicting serious casualties on the Batarians. The Batarians fleet, though, grew weaker and weaker as they were forced to strongly garrison nearly every system they had conquered in the Skyllian Verge. This was primarily due to a concerted Alliance campaign of commerce raiding and commando strikes. The Alliance employed a revolutionary new class of stealth attack frigates and the ability to track ships through FTL travel. Wolfpacks of these stealth frigates, operating with carriers and fighter support wrought havoc on the Batarian supply lines and helped to bring their offensive to a halt. From their heavily defended anchorage at the Attican Beta, the Alliance Fleet launched several simultaneous counteroffensives that heavily mauled the Batarian 4th and 11th Fleets, which combined with the Batarian overextension brought the two combatants to effective parity. By this point, even the Batarians were forced to concede that the pound for pound, the Alliance was qualitatively superior to their own forces in both training and technology and that a great numerical superiority was needed to defeat the humans. Left with no choice, Khar'shan committed its remaining strategic reserves and called upon its vassals to provide auxiliary forces to take over garrison duty behind the lines.

With this reinforcement, Batarians launched their offensive on New Tehran with the aim of bludgeoning the humans into submission, whatever the cost. New Tehran was at the time the primary Alliance anchorage for the outer Attican Traverse and was home to over 52 million human colonist and the 6th Fleet under Admiral Kahoku. Deliberately trying to draw the Alliance Combined Fleet into decisive engagement where superior numbers would carry the day, the Batarians laid siege to the colony rather than try to overrun it. The next six months in New Tehran devolved into the single bloodiest battle in recorded galactic history as the Alliance fleet fought desperately to save the colony and the 6th Fleet and to evacuate the civilians. The battle also marked a shift in the war as protocols of the Citadel conventions regarding the treatment of civilians and prisoners of war were discarded by the Batarians and in turn the Alliance. From this point on, the maltreatment and execution of prisoners became more and more common. The New Tehran campaign, now commonly referred to by humans as "the 2nd Leningrad", ended in a draw. The Batarians succeeded in destroying the Alliance anchorage, annihilated the entire 6th Fleet, and savaged the 3rd and 8th Fleets. However, the Alliance in turn managed to hold the colony and exhaust much of the Batarians' strategic reserves. The unambiguous losers, though, were the citizens of New Tehran, who lost over 20 million soul to mostly starvation and Batarian slaving parties as well as the near apocalyptic damage to their colony's infrastructure and biosphere.

After New Tehran, both sides pulled back to make mend their losses and rethink their strategy. The Alliance was able to not only make good their losses, but grew stronger as more men and ships, especially the forty Everest-class dreadnaughts, flowed out from their dry docks and training centers. The Quarians proved critical here. Lingering memories of Trail of Sorrow and their growing diplomatic and economic ties with humanity drove the Quarians to give every effort short of belligerency to aid the Alliance. The Migrant Fleet had returned the five hundred Alliance built warships and dispatched tens of thousands of technicians and engineers to help Alliance dock crews build new vessels and space stations and repair damaged ones at an astonishing rate. Quarians were even recruited as spies for the Alliance. At the same point, the Batarian allied auxiliaries proved unreliable in battle, costing the Batarian several operational opportunities as they were forced to rescue their allies that were on the verge of being overrun; the many species of the Terminus have little desire to fight to the death so that the Hegemony could expand its reach. The most critical outcome for both sides, however, was that the strategic initiative, the overall momentum of the war, was now up for grabs.

The war meant to secure Batarian dominance in and around the Terminus is proving to be fiasco for the Hegemony. Growing unrest throughout the Terminus from disgruntled minor species and warlords forced to contribute to the war effort had all but developed into a full blown insurgency, one that was being fanned by Cerberus and Alliance financial support. Most importantly, the growing attrition of war had all but bankrupted Khar'shan and consumed the finest soldiers and ships of the Hegemony, threatening the long term prospects of Batarian dominance in the Terminus. Under intense public pressure to do something to end the slaughter, the Council called for a ceasefire to discuss a peaceful resolution of the Batarian-Human conflict which both sides accepted to lick their wounds. Batarian demands for the ceding of the Skyllian Verge eventually gave way to an offer of status quo ante bellum, though the Alliance rebuffed all offers as the war was clearly turning in Earth's favor. Realizing that they need a significant leverage over the humans to conclude this war, the Batarians made an incredible strategic gamble. Concentrating the cream and body of their remaining forces while leaving their allies to guard their operational flanks, the Hegemony launched a large scale offensive against a target the humans are certain to defend with all their strength: Earth.

The Battle of Arcturus saw the largest naval engagement in the history of the known galaxy, eclipsing even the battle for Manae during the Krogan Rebellion nearly a millennium ago. A Batarian fleet of over a fifteen hundred warships smashed through all human resistance on their way to Arcturus, the gateway to Earth. Seemingly caught off guard, the Alliance could muster only the Fifth fleet and its one hundred and eighty five warships to reinforce Arcturus' extensive defenses before the Batarians cut off the last accessible relays. Attempts to break through and reinforce Arcturus by the Alliance 2nd, 3rd, and a reconstituted 6th fleets were blocked by the Batarian rear guard; Arcturus would have to stand alone. Some additional reinforcements did came as all available ships in the Sol system ranging patrol cutters to training fighters were placed in Hackett's disposal. Trainee pilots from the Luna Naval Academy's class of 2399, coincidentally graduating a mere 18 hours before the first Batarian ships were projected to arrive, were rushed into service, defiantly marching in parade before Alliance Secretary General Al-Fulani before going straight into battle. The battle became a bloodbath as the Batarians threw themselves at Arcturus defense network. At several points during the battle, the Batarians broke through the lines, but each time Admiral Hackett counterattacked and plugged the holes. At the end of the third day, the Fifth Fleet was exhausted and decimated with Hackett himself seriously wounded. Arcturus was on the edge of breaking. But the battle ended with a surprising Batarian strategic withdrawal from the entire Attican Traverse as the rest of the Alliance Combined Fleet executed Operation Sickle Stroke, a massive strategic offensive deep into the Terminus systems with over eight hundred warships.

Within the first three days of their attack, the Alliance overran the weak and unreliable Terminus allied fleets and took back most of the Skyllian Verge, severing the Batarian supply lines. The Alliance Combined Fleet then invaded the Terminus Systems themselves, taking seventeen Batarian worlds by bypassing the Batarian relay defense networks. Cerberus once again proved itself to be a force to be reckoned with, providing critical intelligence to overcome several fortified worlds, launching large scale cyber attacks, instigating large scale uprisings, and assassinating half a dozen Batarian admirals and generals. For their part, the Batarians had little with which to stop the Alliance offensive as the last of their strategic reserves had already been committed far away against Hackett at Arcturus. Rather than taking worlds by assault or wiping out its inhabitants, the Combined Fleet simply destroyed all its spaceborne assets, rendering the world useless for the Batarian fleet. As the Batarian Fleet rushed back to defend their own territories, they were continually stalled by the Alliance fleets as the campaign now shifted to favor their great strength in free flowing battles of maneuver. Delaying actions fought by the Alliance 2nd, 3rd, and 6th fleets along with the 5th fleet, repaired and reinforced, strike into the Batarian's rear guard at the Iera system were the first stage of a strategic encirclement of the entire Batarian fleet on a scale never thought possible by anyone. Meanwhile, several Alliance battlegroups spread out throughout the Terminus to strike at the worlds held by the Batarian allies. These raids were punitive in nature as well as practical, sending a clear message of the consequences of aggression against mankind. In the words of Commodore Junichiro Ishiwara, the commanding officer of the raid on the Blood Pack HQ on Bahak: "Make Humanity remembered in the Terminus for the next ten thousand years so that no Batarian, Krogan, or anyone else will ever again dare to even squint at a Human!"

With the Batarian fleet effectively contained and cut off from their supply lines in what became known as the Caleston Pocket, the Alliance fleet fought their way to Torfan, the main anchorage of the Batarian Fleet and the final line of defense before Khar'shan. In the only truly decisive ground action of the war, the 1st and 9th Marine division landed and attacked the ground based anti-ship batteries and the main Batarian fleet headquarters at the capital city Nar'pon even as the naval battle raged above. Commander Shepard and the Totenkopf battalion once again made their presence felt as they led the bloody assault on fortified positions. The Totenkopf were nearly decimated as they threw themselves against the Batarian 20th Lance. Though costing nearly ¾ of the Totenkopfs' numbers, Shepard succeeded closing the trap, capturing the ground based batteries, and preventing a counterattack on the neighboring 194th Marine Regiment's flanks which undoubtedly saved many more lives than lost. In an incident that marred Shepard's reputation and confused both his supporters and critics, the Commander personally executed every human mercenary he could get his hands on while, surprisingly, treating every alien POW with courteous respect.

After the fall of Torfan, the Batarian Fleet attempted to break out of their pocket to defend their home world. By this point, the Alliance fleet was superior in both skill and numbers thanks to the heavy casualties the Batarians have sustained from direct attacks and from being out of supply as well as the desertion of many of their allies. In a series of running relay battles, the Batarian fleet was, for all intents and purposes, destroyed as they threw themselves at the Alliance relay choke points, each centered on a squadron of dreadnaughts. With the final major naval engagement at the Omega-19 relay that competed the destruction of the Batarian Fleet, Khar'shan was left at the mercy of the Alliance. Initially, the Batarians attempted to negotiate very generous terms for themselves using the over two hundred thousand human slaves still held on Khar'shan as hostages. However, the Alliance proved its unwillingness to settle for anything less that total capitulation by bombarding the very areas where the human slaves were suspected to be held, killing well over a thousand of their own in addition tens of thousands of Batarians. Seeing their last leverage gone, the Batarians offered their surrender on the terms stipulated by Earth. The final treaty was signed on Elysium. Of all the signatories present, the most surprising was Admiral Kahoku of the 6th Fleet who had been thought to be killed at New Tehran but instead had been captured and subsequently liberated.

The final toll of the biggest interstellar war since the Krogan Rebellion left over 80 million dead on the Alliance side and 68 million for Batarians and their allies. Over a hundred planets saw major battles both on land and in space. The Batarians and their allies lost almost seven thousand warships of all sorts and tens of thousands of civilian crafts while Humanity lost roughly fourteen hundred warships and countless civilian crafts. Critically, though, the economic infrastructure in most of the Alliance's territory survived scarred, but mostly intact while the infrastructure of the Terminus systems were utterly destroyed.

2300 CE: Unification

The stunning upset by the humans in the Terminus War completely upended the galactic order of things. The Treaty of Elysium forced harsh terms on the Batarians. All disputed territories were ceded to Humanity along with a fairly large war indemnity. Non-human population on those worlds ceded to the Alliance were forcibly expelled into the Terminus. The Hegemony release all the minor species of the Terminus from servitude and emancipated all slaves of all species. A demilitarized zone was placed within Batarian space, the violation of which was to be considered by the Alliance as an act of war. All Batarian political influence and prestige was lost as the devastated Terminus powers blamed the Batarians for launching its war of aggression and for its devastating consequences. Khar'shan itself later fell into civil war as the Hegemony fractured back into individual nations.

Within humanity itself, the Terminus War was a catharsis. Though victorious, the blood of the fallen forced humanity to acknowledge the need to present one united front to a hostile galaxy. The United Nations General Assembly, as its last act, passed by unanimous vote the Unification Act. For the first time, all of humanity answered to one sovereign state: the Systems Alliance. An Alliance parliament was finally formed with the former national governments and colonies becoming subsidiary states. All military and economic assets passed onto the Alliance government and incorporated into a unified body. In a further surprise, the Illusive Man for the first time appeared in public in New York, protected by an impenetrable shield of schadenfreude, to congratulate mankind for its accomplishments. In multiple media interviews, he vowed that Cerberus would continue to protect humanity from the shadows and would be happy to work with the Alliance.

On the galactic scene, the Council was left aghast. With the defeat of the Batarians, the Terminus Systems quickly slid back into absolute chaos. In an outrage, the Alliance responded to attempts by Council Specters to enforce the Treaty of Firaxin by withdrawing from the Citadel Conventions. Earth announced that it has no intention of either respecting Specter authority or to scrap the forty five dreadnaughts they had secretly constructed with Quarian help. In the now famous tirade at the Council Chamber, Ambassador Udina all but dared the Council to enforce the treaty and reminded the Councilors that Humanity does not need the Council. In an even bigger shock, the Alliance parliament passed the Human-Quarian Treaty of Friendship and Alliance. For their priceless assistance during the war, the Quarians were granted several dextros-environment worlds on frontier near the Batarian demilitarized zone to settle and protect. In exchange for guarding the frontier, the Quarians entered a mutual defense treaty with Systems Alliance and formed an economic union with humanity. In a final insult, the Salarian STG discovered, perhaps deliberately allowed so, that the Alliance and Cerberus have carried out talks of cooperation and even integration as humanity's intelligence and black ops organization. Several Specters and STG teams in deep reconnaissance were captured by Alliance Force Recon Marines in cooperation with Cerberus agents and showcased before the galactic media before repatriation, confirming Alliance-Cerberus reconciliation to be fact. After the fiasco, the Alliance diplomatic mission was expelled from the Citadel and the Council recalled its ambassador from Earth.

Still, the Council could not allow relations with the newest major galactic power to turn sour. Previously considering a feisty but untenable minor power, the Alliance proved itself to be a first rate galactic power in all sense of the word. With the conquest of the resource rich Attican Traverse and Skyllian Verge, the already strong Alliance economy was made all but self-sufficient; this rendered economic coercion impossible. Considering the understandably xenophobic state of mind of the human masses and the mobilized, enlarged, brilliantly led, and battle hardened Alliance fleet that equaled the Turian fleet in peacetime strength, a war would be utterly inconclusive and devastating to both sides. A Salarian STG analysis concluded that the combined Alliance-Quarian fleet could defeat any one Council member in an offensive war, outlast two in a defensive war, and make any conflict with all three members a war to the finish and a Pyrrhic victory for the Council at best. So complete was the militarization of human society that the report concluded that the humans were more "a military with a nation than a nation with a military". On the other hand, the Human-Quarian alliance did serve as a powerful buffer against the chaos of the Terminus systems from one side of the galaxy and were at least viewed as civilized. In the public realm, humanity still commanded significant favor as the victim of aggression and for their forcing the Batarians to return the Council species' loved ones held in slavery, though that was somewhat balanced out by fear of this new rising superpower. The Council had no choice but to recognize that there is now a serious rival galactic power over which they have little influence, one that they cannot stop from rising and will only grow stronger with time. The Council recognized the Alliance's post facto withdrawal from the Citadel Conventions. After several months of quiet to cool volatile passions, the Alliance diplomatic mission was readmitted and Council space was reopened to Alliance trade.

2301-2306 CE: A New Cold War

Despite the victory over the Batarians, Alliance military spending have not fallen back to their pre-war levels. Indeed, defense spending has actually increased both at absolute value and proportional to the new united and much larger than before Human economy. Major funding have been directed to rebuilding and fortifying not only the Terminus frontier, but also the Council-Alliance border. Under question from the understandably frustrated and indeed frightened Council, Ambassador Udina only offered the reason as "security", declaring that Earth would never again allow itself or her colonies to be at the mercy of any foreign powers. Most worryingly for the galaxy at large, though, was the growing size of the already formidable Systems Alliance Fleet. The Turians began fortifying their own frontier with the Humans, though the project was abandoned after a group of Turian generals led by General Adrian Victus reminded the Council of how easily the Alliance fleet had bypassed the entire Batarian relay defense network, which was built along Turian lines. In response, the Hierarchy begins laying the economic and political ground work for a massive expansion of the Turian military. Palaven stepped up reservist training, secured massive lines of credit from the Volus Protectorate, and pressed the Council to give its blessing to increasing the standing strength of the Turian fleet, though the decision is currently deadlocked with the Asari dead set against an arms race the Humans and Quarians while the Salarians were curiously split on the issue.

Diplomatically, the situation is also deteriorating. Several outer Terminus minor powers have been courted by both the Alliance and the Council. Rumors of a number of proxy wars within the Terminus have met vehement denials from both Earth and the Citadel. The Council, specifically the Asari, have several diplomatic missions in Batarian space to urge reconciliation and reunification, something perceived by the Alliance and Quarians as an attempt to contain and surround them. However, the primary focus of all Terminus watchers was the Yagh, who have finally established themselves as a significant power by conquering most the Nemean Abyss. Popular rumors postulate that their sudden rise in power was due to Salarian interference to create another serious Terminus rival to the Alliance now that the Batarians seem unable to take up that role.

Human-Quarian economic, political, and military cooperation increased to a level that rivaled the Council species. With their population finally settled on solid ground, the most space worthy and spacious ships of the Migrant Fleet were quickly refurbished and formed into the third largest merchant marine fleet in the galaxy, offering the Quarians a major income source as commercial transports. The Alliance stepped up its effort to bolster its own military as well as that of their new found Quarian allies, ostensibly for defense against potential Yagh incursions. The most shocking products of this relationship were the Fuji-class dreadnaughts and the Normandy-class Stealth Attack Destroyer, both built by Alliance industrial muscle with a hybrid of Quarian and human designs. The Fuji-class dreadnaught was the first dreadnaught of any navy in the galaxy to unambiguously eclipse the Asari's Destiny Ascension-class dreadnaught in firepower, speed, and protection, making them the most powerful ships in the galaxy. Of the five Fuji-class dreadnaughts built yet, four were formed into independent battle groups while the last was handed over to the Quarians to become their first new dreadnaught since their exodus from the Perseus Veil. The Normandy-class stealth destroyer built upon the experience during the war that showed the older Nautilus-class stealth frigate simply did not pack enough firepower to exploit its stealth capability. The first squadron of the Normandy class destroyers were placed under the command of the famed wolfpack skipper Commodore David Anderson and integrated into the Fifth Fleet. In response to all this, the Council finally authorized the doubling of the Turian fleet's standing strength as well as setting aside a significant portion of their annual revenue for an emergency war fund.

Amidst this deteriorating situation, several high profile cases of espionage occurred on the Citadel. The most notable of these cases were the arrest and execution of three suspected Cerberus agents with two more waiting the firing squad. The assassination of two Specters near the Alliance-Council border and the arrest of three suspected Asari and Salarian spies in Sirta Foundation are are suspected to be Cerberus reprisals with Alliance backing. Tension rose as suspicion was answered with more suspicion. The diplomatic scuffle finally ended with a joint Hanar and Elcor mediated summit between the Systems Alliance Prime Minister and Quarian Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay on one side and the full Citadel Council on the other, resulting in both sides exchanging prisoners. Rumors are that the Asari warlord Aria T'loak of Omega and the Shadow Broker himself were the real prime movers for the summit, though it was denied by all participants.

The first report leaked to the galactic media that the Council have plans to diplomatically engage the Alliance to ease tensions and to invest the Alliance in the current galactic order. Among the myriad of proposals were free trade agreements and to eventually offer humanity a seat on the Council. As one of the first steps, the Council plan to offer mankind a chance to induct one of their own into the Spectres. Humanity, however, has been quite divided over the issue. For the moment, there is no hint on what the Systems Alliance will do with this opportunity.