[Spencer]

HISTORY

RACHNI WARS

The Rachni Wars were a series of conflicts beginning in around 1 CE, when an expedition from the Citadel races activated a dormant mass relay. This relay opened a route to territory controlled by the rachni, a species of highly intelligent space-faring hive-minded insects. The rachni were alarmingly powerful, having massive strength in numbers, and extremely hostile. Negotiation with the rachni was impossible; their leaders, the rachni queens, dwelt in deep underground nests, on worlds so hostile no one could survive them.

This period saw the Citadel races fight a losing war against the rachni for nearly a century until the salarians "culturally uplifted" a new species, the krogan. The volatile krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, had been ravaged by a nuclear winter caused by a krogan civil war. The salarians helped the krogan by giving them advanced technology and relocating them to a planet not cursed with lethal levels of radiation, toxins or deadly predators.

The true purpose of this salarian altruism soon emerged; the krogan were needed in the Rachni Wars as reinforcements. Unlike most Citadel species, the krogan had an extremely rapid breeding cycle. They had not only the numbers to drive the advancing rachni back, but the ability to endure the harsh conditions of the rachni planets. The krogan pursued the rachni to their home worlds, descended deep underground to find the rachni queens, and systematically destroyed both the queens and their eggs. The Citadel Council would normally have objected to such total destruction, but after centuries of relentless war, complete eradication of the rachni seemed the only possible solution.

In 300 CE, the rachni were declared extinct, bringing the Rachni Wars to an end. After that, it became a law not to open a mass relay without knowing where it leads, to avoid another such encounter.





KROGAN REBELLIONS

The causes of the Rebellions stemmed from concessions the Citadel Council made to the krogan in gratitude for their service in the Rachni Wars. The krogan were given the conquered rachni planets along with several pristine, habitable worlds. However, due to the harsh conditions of their homeworld Tuchanka, krogan birth rates were quite high in order to sustain their numbers. When they spread to other planets, their naturally swift breeding cycle and lack of sufficient predators resulted in the krogan spreading throughout the galaxy like a plague.

The Council became concerned as the krogan began to annex territory from other Citadel races. The krogan became more aggressive as other races tried to protect their worlds, until the krogan attempted to settle the asari colony of Lusia. When told by the Council to leave, the krogan refused. Their representative, Overlord Kredak, stormed out of the Council chambers, daring them to take their worlds back. War broke out afterward.

The Council had taken precautions. The finest STG operators and asari huntresses had been drafted into a covert "observation force", the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. The Spectres opened the war with crippling strategic strikes. Krogan planets went dark as computer viruses flooded the extranet. Sabotaged antimatter refineries disappeared in blue-white annihilation. Headquarters stations shattered into orbit-clogging debris, rammed by pre-placed suicide freighters. Unlike the Citadel races, however, the krogan could replenish their numbers very easily and a krogan victory began to seem inevitable.

Finally the Council turned to the turians, newcomers on the Citadel who had a massive fleet and a militaristic culture. Establishing hidden command centres, like Pinnacle Station, turians were able to defeat many krogan bands. But the krogan responded with characteristically horrific attacks on turian worlds, using asteroids as weapons and rendering three planets totally uninhabitable.

Unfortunately this was exactly the wrong approach to take with the turians. Turian military doctrine was (and remains) not simply to defeat an enemy, but stop them from ever becoming a threat again. Far from turning turian public opinion against the war, the ferocity of the krogan only served to stiffen their enemy's resolve and unite every turian against them.

Seeing that the krogan did not generally surrender upon a defeat, and understanding the krogan could effectively call upon limitless reinforcements, the turians contacted the salarians, who had engineered a powerful bio-weapon called the genophage. This was intended to produce a genetic mutation in krogan that could result in only one in one thousand krogan births being a success.

The salarians had never intended to use the genophage and planned to use it as a deterrent. But once the turians received the genophage, they deployed it, and krogan numbers began to dwindle. Coupled with a renewed military push from the turians, the krogan soon realised their position was hopeless. Without hundreds of krogan offspring being produced at one time, they could not hope to stand against the turians. A female krogan warlord, Shiagur, actually used her rare fertility to draw the strongest males to her band, but even she couldn't hold out against turian peacekeeping forces, who finally killed her at the Battle of Canrum. In retaliation, many of the turians responsible were hunted down and killed by vengeful krogan males. Canrum was the last krogan push before the Rebellions ended.

Finally, besieged on all sides and knowing the survival of their species was at stake, the krogan surrendered. That was not the end of hostilities, as many rogue warlord and insurgents refused to surrender, and had to be wiped out by turian task forces. Some even vanished into frontier systems to become pirates.

FIRST CONTACT WAR

After discovering the Charon Relay, humans began a rapid expansion thanks to their new-found connection to the mass relay network. Hoping to expand their territory and driven by immense curiosity about the galaxy, they began activating every mass relay they could find.

However, in 2157, their actions caught the notice of the turians, who found human explorers reactivating an inactive mass relay known as Relay 314. This was forbidden under the Citadel regulations after the Rachni Wars, but instead of negotiating, the turians opened fire. One starship escaped to warn the Alliance; a retaliatory force destroyed turian vessels, and the situation quickly escalated into war.

To the turians, it was merely a police action against an ignorant species violating Council law; to humanity, it was their first encounter with another intelligent race - and it would shape their views of the galaxy for decades to follow.

Not knowing what enemy they faced - at first, some even wondered if these aliens might be Protheans - humanity sent probes into turian space, armed with nuclear fusion warheads to prevent the probes from providing dangerous insights into human technology. With humanity's resources stretched thin due to exploration efforts, the turians managed to defeat several scout and patrol fleets. However, there were also extraordinary acts of human bravery. A soldier named Tadius Ahern was sent with a small squad to retrieve a data module, only to be beset by dozens of turian soldiers. With just a couple of defense turrets to assist them, a small strong point and no cover, Ahern and his men managed to fight the turians off for five minutes until their evac arrived.

Eventually the turians broke through to attack Shanxi, the closest human colony to the mass relay, and settled in for a protracted orbital siege. With the turians in a superior position, able to kill any human soldiers from above, the Shanxi defenders began to starve, unable to get food or supplies without risking civilian lives. Eventually General Williams, Ashley Williams' grandfather, was forced to surrender the Shanxi garrison.

The turians - who were also suffering logistical problems, as they had to ship in all their food - believed they had defeated the bulk of the enemy forces. But they would be proven wrong when a month later Admiral Kastanie Drescher led the Second Fleet against Shanxi, catching the turians by surprise and evicting them from the planet. The turians and humans prepared for full-scale interplanetary war, drawing the notice of the rest of the galaxy.

Fortunately, the Citadel Council then intervened to negotiate a peace and bring the war to an end. From the Council, humans learned of the existence of the Citadel, and that there were many more sentient species in the galaxy who co-existed peacefully. In the end, only six hundred and twenty-three human lives were lost with slightly more turian casualties. The only notable engagements were the turian attack on Shanxi and its subsequent liberation by human forces.
There were political and cultural ramifications for both sides. Humanity's first contact with an alien race would later create a bad reputation for humans on the galactic forum as aggressors, and created a climate of xenophobia amongst the Alliance public. This later lead to the emergence of extreme pro-human groups like Terra Firma and, later, Cerberus. Some of the nuclear-armed probes sent into turian space remained at large; their existence remains an Alliance secret that could result in political consequences from the Citadel if revealed. However, the First Contact War also demonstrated humanity's extraordinary military capabilities, which has drawn the interest of the Council.

For their part, the turians were ordered by the Council to pay heavy reparations to the Alliance. Veterans on both sides would harbour mistrust for a long time; Saren Arterius nurtured a hatred for humanity for the death of his brother and became an outspoken critic of human policy.

In recent years, though antagonism remains, relations have improved slightly. The two races are now trade partners, and the construction of the SSV Normandy, which was designed and built by engineers of both races, began to mend the antagonism between humans and turians.

[Spencer]

Our Story


The Alliance is strong, humans place in the galaxy is stronger than ever before thanks to the efforts of a key group. They have also been brought onto the council, though grudgingly. The Citadel and Alliance work in collaboration on projects of colonization, exploration, and scientific study. The Galaxy is in mostly peace, aside from strained relations with the Terminus Systems, which seems to be more common than naught through history. The Migrant Fleet is once more within Citadel Space, making everyone suspicious..as per usual, however they have almost passed through into the dead space, where they are preferred. The Krogan numbers seemed to have fallen as more and more are staying on their home world, as it seems a very new age minded warlord has taken power, forcing change on the reluctant clans, striving to bring them from the warmongering self destructive nature that as dominated them for centuries.

However even though things look at peace, there is something stirring within the Veil. The beautiful, near impenetrable haze that separates Geth space from the Terminus Systems, and beyond them...council and Alliance space. The Geth have been seen outside the Veil, while not compelled by any unseen force as within the Mass Effect games, they do have a purpose, one that may bring the entire galaxy to it's knees....or maybe further. Whispers of dreadnoughts, warships and attacks on small, scarcely populated plants are emerging, however it has been a slow subtle coming, so few believe it. Many wonder if the Council purposefully blinds its self, choosing to rather live in their own mental security blanket than accept the truth.

The Alliance has sent out ships, along with the Turians, and while small skirmishes are met on the border worlds, nothing large enough to suggest a full on war has been sighted. And so things stay the same, soldier bleed and die, mercenaries destroy, slavers capture and pillage, life as we know it carries on. What story will you make?