First Contact War

The First Contact War of 2157 began several months after humanity started to explore the galaxy thanks to the Mass Relay stations. The war, fought between the Systems Alliance, the representative body of Earth, and the Turian Hierarchy, started when the turians found human explorers reactivating a mass relay. This was forbidden under the Citadel regulations after the Rachni Wars, but instead of negotiating, the turians opened fire. When a retaliatory force destroyed turian vessels, both species declared war on one another.

Jon Grissom led the fleet. Humanity used probes armed with Hiroshima-scale fissile warheads. With humanity's resources stretched thin due to exploration efforts, the turians managed to defeat several scout and patrol fleets. General Williams, Ashley Williams's grandfather, surrendered the Shanxi garrison.

The fighting lasted almost two months before the Citadel Council intervened to stop the fighting before it escalated into full-scale interplanetary war. It was at this time that humans learned that there were many more sentient species among the stars. 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.

Humanity's first contact with an alien race would later create a bad reputation for humans on the galactic forum. Also, some of the armed probes are still at large. Their existence remains an Alliance secret.

The turians refer to the First Contact War simply as the 'Relay 314 Incident'.

Human

 * Jon Grissom
 * David Anderson
 * Jill Dah
 * Navigator Pressly's grandfather
 * Ashley Williams's grandfather

Turian

 * Saren Arterius (possible) and his brother
 * Commander Vyrnnus