Wow this was a really good blend of real world history and mass effect into something awesome, and believable, but didn't make the alliance OP to the point of it being unbelievable, it gives them weaknesses, fracture points that if pushed hard enough could result in what i imagine something akin to a second collapse of the USSR with multiple human states and factions. Maybe throw another civil war in there and you have a good time.

what about the geth

You know, with your Systems Alliance being pre-1900 Germany, you almost can make the Quarians into an allegory for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, that through total cooperation, the Systems Alliance is saving. An ally worth having.

Even if you don't continue this, it is absolutely wonderful to see somebody work historically allegory into fanfiction and I'm happy to see you did it. One day 'Blút und Eisen' may continue.

i think this story may have some potential to be a great story dont discard it

So, Shepard is basically a younger, SpecOps version of Patton? The Human-Terminus War being WWI and the Reaper War as WWII?

Dude you can totally complete this once the Halo fic is done with

I wonder what the geth (Reaper) attack on Eden Prime would have done to the human-Quarian alliance? Might it have brought the two species closer together, or create a considerable tension in their relations?

Okay, so this chapter here just kind of made me mad.
Needing the Batarians to maintain the Terminus? That's just kind of stupid. While it may seem like it might work, if the Council honestly tried their hardest, they could completely negate the need for the Batarians, and make everyone except the Batarians happy.

it is excellent chapter i look forward to future updates.

Great story so far! I especially liked the battle with the Batarians. Keep up the good work!

I love this 'consolation prize' myself. As a history major, one who is most interested in war history, I quite enjoy these timelines. Honestly wouldn't mind if the whole story was like this.

an impenetrable shield of schadenfreude

:/

Very cool to see you writing this, even if it's just a synopsis. I'm down to beta if you want. This reminds me of Renegade Reinterpretations but with historical references to flesh out the details and point out the relevance of certain tactics. I love your stories, but I have to say that broad overviews like this are currently where you truly SHINE. That's not to say you shouldn't get down into the personal interactions, just that overarching storylines are where the real meat is currently in both your ME stories and your Halo ones. (on that note, let me know your thoughts on Halo 4 will you?)

One thing I would've liked to see in the Mass Effect series is the easy solution to some of the tough choices. By that I mean anything between delegating decisions to making the "evil" choice. Don't want to sacrifice someone on Virmire? Sacrifice Kirrahe's team. Not sure what to do about the Geth heretics? Let someone in your squad decide. That sort of thing could have interesting ramifications, more than just being a "quick fix". Sure it might solve immediate problems, but the easy solution could cause additional problems down the road. These decisions can remain complicated, and most importantly even if you do satisfy your personal urges or refuse responsibility those decisions may leave you with guilt that will stay with you for the rest of your interactions with the relevant characters (even if actual gameplay isn't heavily affected). Just my thoughts on how a future BioWare game could play out, whether it be a Mass Effect game or something else. They did experiment with this in Dragon Age 2, but considering the negative feedback they tended to get from it, they might not continue with the interesting dialogue choices they provided in that game. I suppose we'll see.

Once again, nice story.

Speaking of "Art of War", ARE YOU GOING TO UPDATE SOON!?

God damn. This is the most fantastic piece of world building I've seen in about three months. The sheer scope of what you're doing is already terrifyingly huge, but you manage to pull it off at extremely high levels of detail as well. If I may suggest that you leave the world building as a separate "fic" while doing the Mission in a separate story? I'd rather that the whole world building sections maintain a solitary presence.