Mythos Effect

Chapter 13: War Rages On

Citadel

"In other news, today marks the second year of the war between the Turian Hierarchy and the New Earth Federation, undoubtedly with many more still to come. Neither side seems to be able to gain a decisive advantage over the other, but it is clear that the Turians are bearing the brunt of this terrible conflict. The death toll as of now is estimated to be easily in the tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, and will no doubt continue to grow in the coming—"

The Asari newsreader's voice was cut off as Councilor Torbel turned off the vid screen. He didn't need the Citadel's news network telling him things he already knew; his stress levels were high enough as it was. The Councilor ran a hand over one of his horns and sank down into his chair.

Two years. Two years since this pestilential war had started, and all because the Turians were so damnably inflexible. They couldn't have compiled a more insulting settlement if they had tried; demanding that the Federation completely dismantle their entire technological infrastructure and become associates of the Citadel in exchange for what amounted to pocket change? They might as well have said they were going to put all the humans into concentration camps and tear down their cultural icons while they were at it. And of course, they had chosen the most obstinate and disdainful Turian of them all to present their terms.

Sparatus was many things, but tactful was not one of them, and he made no effort to hide his derision for the humans. In his eyes, they were just an impudent, jumped-up race who had barely started spacefaring and possessed technology far too advanced for their own good. He, however, was a Councilor, a member of a ruling body in a galactic government and whose own race had been colonizing worlds before the humans had even mastered gunpowder. As such, the humans would be in awe of how obviously superior he was to them, realize how foolish they were being and do as he said because he clearly knew better.

Turian diplomacy; an oxymoron if there ever was one.

The anchorwoman wasn't quite correct in that the humans and Turians were evenly matched. True, the Federation hadn't made any significant gains since they invaded Digeris, but the Turians were still at a severe disadvantage. The Federation had no need for the relays and could strike anywhere at any time. As a consequence, while the Turians' industrial capacity was still strong, they had to concentrate on defending their worlds, hindering their ability to launch counterattacks. And even if they did manage to push the Federation back, there was no way they could capitalize on it. STG had confirmed that there were no mass relays that reached the Federation's realm. The humans could therefore remain comfortably behind their buffer of empty space, whittling away at the Turians and churning out more of their terrible war machines.

This was another thing that kept Torbel up at night. Mass effect principles had been the groundwork for galactic civilization, the standard by which all races were measured by. Mass effect technology defined everything, from interstellar travel to basic necessities. Those who could use its principles better were by consequence more advanced than those who could not. It was a nice and logical measurement. But now these humans had come quite literally out of nowhere and introduced an entirely different technological spectrum to the galaxy at large.

Arcanotechnology they called it; a fusion of science and magic. When he had first read that from the reports, he had scoffed. No one in their right mind would have believed such a claim. The top minds of the Union shared that feeling, though with considerably more condescension. Of course, they stopped sneering pretty quickly once they realized just what this field gave to the humans. Ridiculous or not, this "arcanotechnology" was incredibly advanced and nowhere was this more apparent than when it came to weapons tech.

Direct energy weapons were nothing new to galactic society, but it was also a very limited field. Plasma had long been regarded as an ineffective weapon as it had several critical drawbacks. Such weapons required tremendous amounts of energy to fire, produced dangerous levels of heat, and were prone to meltdowns. Charged particle weaponry faced similar problems. Even lasers were not as potent weapons as mass drivers. The humans, however, seemed to face none of these problems, and no one could say why.