Idea: A fic taking place in a timeline where the Fithp (from Footfall and The Race (from Turtledove’s Worldwar) attacked Earth simultaneously in 2036
(I used some armies art from The Fire Rises to show up what roughly human militaries (at least the infantry) would look like at that time (except the mini mechs, those would come around at half point of the war)
Basically in this idea roughly in the next 1-6 years we detect the burning of The Race conquest fleet torch drives and separately the ram-scoop of the Fithp colony ship.
For the next years world governments essentially panic as all of the sudden Earth needs to get its shit together because we have possibly two alien invasions knocking at the door and prepare for the first contact.
(In this timeline The Race panicked even harder as they saw we already had nukes and were starting to have once again interest in space travel so they sent a invasion fleet x3 bigger that the Worldwar one because OH BOY, they will need the manpower.)
Despite mankind more advanced development than when both species fights it in their respective books this war proves still extremely brutal on so many levels.
In the first week mankind essentially uses up most of their nuclear arsenal during the race first landing (the Fithp ship was untroubled by the nukes because lol, gamma ray lasers go BZZZZZ) and due to our advanced electronics the Race’s tactic of frying them by detonating nukes in the stratosphere is partially successful essentially killing the civilian internet.
For most of the war both aliens try to stir away from eachother (mainly because they know a three-ways war would be suicidal for them, so The Fithp want to first expand the herd with the humans so it is easier to eventually defeat and incorporate in the herd the smol lizards, meanwhile the Race is trying to conquer as much of the Tosev 3 (Earth) industrial areas because they are going to need them if they even hope to attack the ‘Bigger Uglies’)
That unspoken non-aggression pact breaks when the Fithp deploy the Foot (giant ice asteroid goes YEET) and landing near India it kills a lot of Race soldiers where they had some of the strongest footholds plus partially terraformed Tosev 3 into a colder planet (and being them a specie evolved on a hot af planet you can guess how much that pissed them off).
After about 5-6 years of war everyone is a standstill, the Race only managed to hold onto Australia, the Amazon Rainforest, central and Saharian Africa, some areas of South-east Asia (few and uncomfortable due to the Foot) and Nevada, New Mexico and Northern Mexico specifically.
The Fithp still managed to enstablish their first colonies in South Africa and India (where they share a uncomfortable border with The Race.
Humans are exhausted and tired of this fucking bullshit so they manage to broker a peace treaty with the other two races pretty much allowing them to keep the territory they obtained (no one (especially the humans now under Race or Fithp control) are completely happy with the outcome but further war would probably kill the entire planet)
Decades and a Race Colonization fleet left partially disappointed later, mankind’s not-empires discover FTL by stringing together their own developed technologies during the war, some of the Race technologies and whatever they could scrounge up from the Thuktunthp of tbe Fithp with their consent, forcing The Race’s Empire into direct diplomatic talks (you can imagine every Empire citizen screaming as a human ship appears over Home out if nowhere).
Nearly a century from the First Contact war later the three species respective wounds seem to be starting to heal finally, humans even managed to visit the Fithp homeworld and the aliens inhabiting Earth have now mostly neutral or friendly relations with the humans (albeit some human nations/groups still push for completely retaking Earth from the aliens and the Empire is still trying to plot how to get the upper claw over the Big Uglies not-empires without at the same time unmaking itself)
Then in the litteral vigil of the First Contact War, 90 years later in 2136 a exploration mission containing:
-2 human astronauts
-1 Race diplomat and 1 race bodyguard (they are friends (and in race society friendship is a bond as strong as for us is brotherhood)
-1 Fithp xenologist (many Fithp inhabitants of Earth became fascinated by how different the culture and mentality of other races could be from their own and became interested in the study of it to see if it is possible to implement them in their idea of Herd).
-1 slightly paranoid, red haired, human pilot (which doubled as security in case the lizards onboard try any dunno business
Makes contact with the Venlils.
What do you think of this idea? What would the three specie reaction be to the Feds and Arxurs? What would the Venlils think of the ‘mini-Arxurs’ the ‘Weird Mazics’ and a mankind that looks like is collectively being held to mental sanity by a thread?
I wonder if Tarva would initially try to make the Fithp of the crew defect to their side thinking the predators are keeping them as cattle.
This idea is heavily influenced by Worldfall, a fanfic that is essentially Worldwar x Footfall in modern days: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/worldfall-worldwar-footfall-invasion-in-modern-times-completed.40569/