This story is mainly a side-project so don't expect regular updates or fix chapter size. Sorry. I will use NWoD previous to the God-Machine. The M rating is there because, even though there is not a lot in the prologue, it wouldn't be a World of Darkness story whitout some gothic horror and a couple of 'I have no mouth and I must scream' moments. Also, aggravated damages.

Thanks to DeathAdder 47117 for the spell checking.

Review in bad or good.

Mass Effect belongs to Bioware and World of Darkness belongs to White Wolf.


Prologue: Encantado

The club wasn't a place to talk. The loud repetitive music, the fast blinking blinding lights, the fast moving bodies on the dance floor, the overpriced selection of fast acting alcohols, the half-hidden drug dealers in the shadowy corner and the scantily clad asari waitresses made that pretty clear. It was a place to lose yourself, a place where people went to forget about their day, about their imperfect lives, their imperfect wives, their imperfect jobs, their imperfect whatever and, more recently, it was a place where people get to forget about. Of course, Manira didn't know about the last part but she very well intended to do the other things. Working for Citadel News, the galaxy's biggest news group, as a lowly assistant that constantly gets ordered around by stick up their ass Matriarchs was, surprisingly, not as entertaining as she had imagined it when she got that job. Now she was going to be the one giving the orders and she had just the right servant for the night in sight. The human was sitting at the bar, dressed with clothes that made him stand out of all the bodysuit wearing costumers. With his dark overcoat with a hood, real leather boots that stopped just under his knee, grey pants, belt full of pouches, black vest over a white shirt with a pinned pentagram, his red and silver scarf, armored brassard, black gloves with gold thread that formed symbols she didn't understand and an odd looking armament, a sword and strange looking firearm that definitely wasn't a mass accelerator, he really had a sort of strange anachronistic aura that attracted her. She sat on the stool next to him, setting her gaze on him and displaying all those things humans are attracted to.

"Hi. Can I buy you a drink?"

It wasn't the best or more subtle approach but human males were crazy for asaris so it should be okay.

"Thanks, but no."

Almost as if all of this had been planned on advance with the barman, a jaded looking turian put a small glass half filled with a dark amber liquid in front of him the moment he spoke those words.

"But I'm sure someone in here will take your drink offer."

Now that was something new but she wasn't going to back down for so little.

"Too bad. Care for a talk then?"

"This is not a place to talk." His voice was barely over a murmur, yet she could hear it perfectly. Her, on the other hand almost had to scream all of her words, but she was too upset to pay attention to that fact. Humans don't usually resist when asaris go at them, their libido has been and is still the subject of many crusty gossip between maidens after all. But now, this one wanted to give her a challenge, oh well, no problem then because she was going to win it. Discreetly, she unzipped the front of her suit just a little more, exposing a bit more cleavage, took a quick shooter and turned back toward him. While she was doing that, he had slip a thin smoking tube between his lips and set his gaze upon a small disk shaped thing that made a faint tic-toc sound she probably shouldn't have been able to hear and which was resting in his palm.

"What's that thing?"

She came closer, putting her arm against his.

"Time keeper."

"Isn't it a little big?" Yeah, why bother with that when you could simply use your omni-tool clock app.

"Maybe, but this one doesn't get fooled as easily."

What did he meant by that? That he was afraid of someone hacking his clock app? Why would someone do something that pointless? Anyway, he put his strange clock back inside one of his vest pocket and shifted his gaze to her. He had red amber eyes that were only lit by the weak glow of his smoking stick. It was the only part of his visage not hidden by the shadow that his hood casted down on his face, even the club lighting could not pierce them.

"So, miss Manira, since you insist what can I do for you?"

It was as if he had dropped a bucket of ice on her head.

"How do you know my name?"

He smirked. "I know a lot of things, your name, from where you are, of your job at Citadel News, of your apartement on the Wards, I know that your little sister will come to visit next week and that it makes you worried because you don't know if you will have enough credits to pay this week's rent and I know of your dept to Banro, a volus who deals in human cocaine."

She rose from her stool and rushed to the bathroom. The combined action of the way stronger than she had thought shooter and the stranger's creepy talk had pushed her on the brink of throwing up and of a panic attack. She washed her face with cold water, her mind boiling underneath. How did he know all of those things about her, some she hadn't told anyone about. Was he one of Banro's dept collectors? Shit, coming here had been a bad idea, a really bad one. She had simply been trying to forget about her shitty life for a couple of hours. Was that really too much to ask for, to forget just for a little while. After a last deep breath, she plunged her hand into the water full sink, splashed her face one last time and ran away. Well, she would have except that something suddenly grabbed both of her hands, keeping them underwater.

"What the..."

She pulled again. Uncertainly at first, then violently when her hands continued to be kept in place and she began to feel vicious bony fingers tighten around her wrist. She tried to scream, but her voice came out as the faint sound of glass being scratched against glass and that hurted her throat like as if she was swallowing a knife, making trying to speak for more than a second an agony. By that point, she was already completely terrified and panicked, unable to understand what was happening. Then, her fearful eyes set upon the mirror over the sinks. Rather than her own terrorized and dishevelled image, the reflection was the one of a fresh looking maiden in formal looking clothing and with a journalist hover-cam. She was smiling, a smile that was making Manira cringe her teeth and made her want to run away even more which, considering her situation, gave a good idea of how scared she was. If that wasn't already enough, it began to talk.

"Manira."

Her voice was gentle, sensual, and confident that made the asari want to rip her ear tubes out.

"Come with me."

The pressure on her wrist was such that the water had begun to be tainted purple with her blood.

"I will make you forget about it, about everything. Come party with me."

Manira felt the pressure against her back and the salted breath on her neck. Something, something that isn't supposed to exist outside of fiction, something she didn't know anything about, was whispering at her ears and was being goddess damn persuasive.

"I know pleasure that will make you scream."

She could feel hands running along her body, caressing her, appeasing her. She didn't even feel her painful wrists anymore, neither did her hands and forearm.

"Come with me."

The yes was on Manira's lips when there was suddenly a sound extremely out of context, a sound akin to a whiplash and which was accompanied with a brief flash of light and heat. The seductive murmur of the thing changed to a screeching howl that shattered the mirror and made half of the bathroom lights explode, sending glass fragments flying everywhere. At the same time, the asari felt herself being dragged back from the sink by something whose strength was more on the level of a Krogan than anything else, breaking both of her wrist in the same motion. She and the thing crashed on the ground, violently and painfully. Dazed, she turned her head in what she hoped was the direction of the sound, what she saw was a cloud of white surrounding the cloaked man from before with his odd fuming pistol in his raised left hand. From behind her the thing let go of another eardrum piercing scream, literally. It's hands had lost their delicate touch, replaced by sharp claw like nails that dug inside her arm's skin that made her want to scream, except she couldn't.

It wasn't so much the fact that every word felt like as if someone was sweeping her throat with a ball of iron filings that made it so. More likely, it was the world had exploded into chaos as, in what seemed to be an instant, the man drew his strange sword, the thing leaped at him with a howl and the last light gave up. What followed was a concert of screams, grunts, painful yelp, screeching, the slicing of flesh by sharp metal, the boom and flash of a lightning bolt, more yelps but weaker this time, then, the sound of something being crushed, something being cut and, finally, fire. Standing over the burning corpse of the thing that looked like an asari, that smelled like an asari, that sounded like an asari and yet wasn't an asari no matter which way you looked at it was the man with the bloody sword. In the eerie shifting light of the flames, he looked like some kind of monster hunter from some fantasy novel. The problem was, of course, that she certainly wasn't in a novel.

His sword now mysteriously clean, he slid it back into its sheath and shifted his sight from the creature to her. His eyes were two bright incandescent embers while his entire body was surrounded by thousands of tiny blue sparks. The air around him was vibrating with heat and power and it was as awesome as it was terrifying. That was the last thing she saw before passing out.


The sound of her alarm clock rang inside Manira's small apartement and the blue light of Thessia's oceans appeared live on her computer screen, forcing the asari awake. She let her still half asleep self be bathed by the calm blue shades of light as she tried to order her fuzzy thoughts.

"Wow, that was a strong shooter."

It wasn't her first drunk black-out, actually, considering she had woken up on her bed and not in some smelly den belonging to a shady turian or, goddess forbid, a batarian, it was one of her tamest alcohol induced black-out. Inside her mind, last night's events were already beginning to fade and rearrange themselves into something that, though a lie, was at least acceptable for her conscious self. The creature that looked like, sounded like and felt like but wasn't an asari was slowly being changed into a blurred memory of a violent drunk, the man of a sword became a C-Sec officer, his lightning aura the one of a biotic, all until it was nothing but another night at the club, yes, that exactly what it had been. In a little time, she wouldn't even need to repeat it to herself in order to belive it. In one move she rose from her bed, ignoring the weak pain coming from her wrist and going on with her usual hangover morning routine. She didn't have a hangover but that wasn't going to stop her.

First, shower, hot shower. She dropped her tainted clothes, glancing over the purple marks and small cuts at the sleeves. What was the saying already, if you don't look at it, it will go away. Anyway, that's what Manira told herself under the hot streams. Losing herself the moment, she didn't notice the incoming call on her omni-tool before it began to sound aloud.

"Manira, it's Banro speaking. I am happy to see you have finally paid your dept to me. When you will need more of it, come see me at the usual place."

'What?' She didn't remember paying him back. She wanted to but she never had the credits to do it, not in a million years. What was going on here? Had he just went insane or fucked up is calculation? Improbable but if she was free of him and his constant threats, then good riddance. Once that part was over, she got dressed, drank a concentrated coffee substitute, damn this thing was a lifesaver, grabbed a cab and went on to work.


Citadel News has many offices scattered on the Citadel in order to always be the first on the scene. One on each Ward, small ones around the docks and the main one at the Presidium. When she had been hired to work at the last one, Manira had thought herself lucky. Then she had been inside, over the shiny secretary desk and immaculate waiting area, inside the heart of the beast. There, assistants passed by faster than bullets, hired in the morning and leaving in tears the evening. With a month of seniority, she was the oldest one, that gives an idea of the working conditions. With two other poor souls, Manira was the all but in name slave of matriarch Vali'T Den, executing her every wish with no questions asked. It was actually because of her that Manira had gotten into the whole drug thing. Hey, that was it; it must have been her who paid back Banro. Guess she wasn't as heartless as she thought she was. With that in mind, she entered her boss office. Behind her desk and wearing the latest in designers clothing, the Matriarch was peering over the last hour's reports.

"Yes?"

She spatted the words in her direction like one would snap a whip.

"I simply want to thank you for the reimbursement." Manira said whit a slight bow.

There was a slight pause, than another snap.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. There are reports on your screen; I want them corrected in an hour. And make sure nobody comes to bother me."

Troubled, Manira backed off from the dragon's lair to her shared office, finding the two others girl completely focused on a computer. What a perfect way to not further question the origin of the mountain of credits from nowhere.

"What are you doing you two?"

One of them turned toward her, she didn't bother to learn the name of people before a week with them and this one had only been here two days, even so she was already showing signs of heavy stress and lack of sleep.

"Manira, you were at the Vortex last night right?"

"Hmm, yes why?

The asari dragged her in front of the screen.

"Look."

It took Manira a moment to understand just what she was looking at. It was a video from what seemed to be a cheap security camera depicting a bathroom. An asari enter and, even though her face remained concealed, Manira could clearly recognize herself. She watched as she approached one of the sinks, the face of the asari still hidden, and reproduced all of her last night's movements.

"Now that's when it gets interesting." One of the girls whispered.

The image began to blur and distort, freezing for a second before restarting, and for some strange reason, the darks became deeper and the white shifted to grey. Behind what looked to be herself, something crept out. It was a mix of shadows that seemed to always be just too much outside the screen to be clear and when it wasn't the image screeching made it impossible to discern anything of it. The form mixed with the asari on the camera and began murmuring. The camera didn't have any micros of course, but the words rushed through Manira's mind, still clear like if the thing was whispering them in her ears. She could feel her wrist and the place where the thing had touched her become cold, as if an ice spike had been jammed into her.

Again, the video jumped forward, showing the dark form violently jerk backward out of the frame as the man entered it, brandishing its strange armament and as blurred as the thing was. The image then became dark and stuttered for a couple of seconds before freezing on a frame. On it, the cloaked human was struggling against what appeared to be some sort of creature, a mix between a human female and an asari with long blue liquid like hair that touched the ground, slim limbs that bent at weird angles and ended with black red nails, or where they claws? The most striking and terrifying detail about it was its face. It was the one of a beautiful Matriarch but her mouth, her mouth was just too big. Her lips went from the base of her left ear to the right, forming a sick grin, and was nothing but rank after rank of small black triangular teeth. With his sword, the shadowy man was pushing the creature back while his left hand was fizzling with pure lightning sparks. Then, the video stopped.

"So, what do you think?"

Manira was at a loss of words and brain cells.

"W... what?"

"What do you think about this? It appeared on the extranet a couple of hours ago, no author, no title, no nothing. My bet is on a teaser for a new human movie."

Manira simply looked at her with empty eyes.

"They even trashed the Vortex bathroom last night and you were there so, did you see anything?"

She stared blankly at the frozen image for a moment before answering.

"No. I didn't see anything."

"Oh, too bad."

In some sort of second state, the shocked asari walked back to her desk and dropped on her chair. On automatic, she summoned the video from the extranet where it was pretty much the sensation of the moment and paused it on her screen. Silently, she scanned the picture for details, any detail that might give her something more than a pair of burning eyes to search for.

"What are you?"


Codex Entry

Human occult

Humanity's occult history is a fascinating subject to many asari scholars. It's depth and richness is surprising to many of the Citadel races, especially to those who have distanced themselves long ago from their old beliefs. The youngness of the human race compared to the others is the main theory explaining their large occult culture, as is the only recent unification of the humans for the diversity of it. Human scholars studying the occult history of humanity have acquired a reputation for strangeness and odd quirks amongst their peers from other races. Though, this might be due to the 'bad luck' reputation associated by humans to the field as well as the higher than usual number of odd deaths for the people involved in this academic discipline. Recently, an asari and salarien archaeologist expedition disappeared while exploring the ruins of an old human empire called the Aztec Empire. Human officials have offered no comments as of yet.


Next chapter will be with the main character, the man, either in first or third person. Can anyone guess is 'race'?


Timeline

This timeline might be uptaded in the future.

2148 CE: Humanity Discovers Mass Effect Physics

-Humanity discovers a small cache of highly advanced Prothean technology hidden deep beneath the surface of Mars on the south polar region of Promethei Planum. Building on the remnants of this long extinct race, humans quickly explore the science of mass effect fields, leading to the development of faster than light travel and beginning detailed exploration of the Sol system.

-A cabal of the Free Council and Mysterium fought against a Seer cabal over the more archeological remain of the Prothean cache, looking to decipher the most of it. Though the two Pentacle's cabals did manage to translate most of the remaining texts and learn of the Prothean fate, the Seer cabal managed to destroy the immemorial treasures with explosive and a precise application of magic that buried the remain and hid the destruction under an avalanche.

2149 CE

-Following information from the translated data cache on Mars, humans discover that Charon, Pluto's moon, is actually a massive piece of dormant Prothean technology, a mass relay, encased in ice. Once activated, Jon Grissom leads the first team of explorers through the relay, which instantaneously transports them to another relay in Arcturus, 36 light-years away. The explorers discover that the mass relays are part of a vast network, making travel across the galaxy possible.

-Using their influence over the NASA and the CNSA, the Seer of the Throne manipulate the eighteen largest nations on Earth to sign the System Alliance charter. Several well hidden clause of the charter virtually kill all competitions in the Space sector by establishing a monopole between several Seer controlled companies. The Alliance soon becomes the military and exploratory spearhead of humanity.

2150 CE

-Miranda Lawson is born.

-The Systems Alliance begins the first surveys for colonization prospects outside the Sol System. One of these surveys discovers the planet Terra Nova.

-The Silver Ladder takes hold of the FKA and ESA, now reduced to a shred of its former, already small, size and reorient them. Limited by the System Alliance chart, their new official goal is to explore new system for future mining or other commercial endeavours.

2151 CE

-To defend its expanding territory, humanity begins constructing a massive military fleet and space station at Arcturus, the nexus of several key mass relays, even though they have yet to encounter another intelligent spacefaring race.

-An accident at Singapore International Spaceport exposes hundreds of humans to dust-form element zero. Roughly 30% of the children born in Singapore after element zero exposure suffer from cancerous growths. After his mother is exposed during the accident, Kaidan Alenko is born later that year with biotic potential.

-The System Alliance militarization start to drain on the military and scientifical resources of all the members. Through the NASA and the military-industrial complex establish an unofficial monopoly on the System Alliance military branch.

2152 CE

The Delta Pavonis Foundation, a major consortium based on Earth, begins settlement of humanity's first extra-solar colony world, the planet Demeter. Later that year, additional colonies are founded on Eden Prime and Terra Nova.

-Thane Krios is submitted for training as an assassin under the hanar.

-The FKA and ESA complete their fusion as the PESA (Pan European Space Agency) and began the building of a trading fleet

2154 CE

-April 11: Shepard is born.

-There is a second publicized accident involving the exposure of humans to element zero.

-With the rise of mass accelerator and barrier, a Cabal of Adamantine Arrow began searching for a way to bypass the latter and get rid of the problem of the former. They ended up creating the Disruptor ammunition for firearm.

2155 CE

-Saren Arterius is promoted to active service in the turian military at the age of 16.

-The Systems Alliance occupies completed portions of Arcturus Station, intended to become the Alliance's headquarters.

-Several sections of Arcturus Station disapear from the blueprints as well as the employees having built them who all succumb to a rare form of cancer in the months following.

-Jeff "Joker" Moreau is born.

2156 CE

-Arcturus Station is formally inaugurated.

-A small number of human children exposed to element zero exhibit minor telekinetic abilities.

-Many of those children's attract the attention of various supernatural groups. Several are kidnapped over the following year and experimented upon. Realizing that those abilities were completely natural, many such group either converted the kidnapped children or disposed of them. Small human like bones are found in the Arcturus Station. Investigation is pending.

-Kai Leng is born.

2157 CE

-Pluto's orbit becomes circularized as a result of mass relay operations.

-Jacob Taylor is born.

-David Anderson graduates from Officer Candidate School with the rank of Second Lieutenant.

-Several mages gifted in the Time arcana and other creature with the gift of foretelling learned of a looming threat from space and alien origin that would soon befall the colony of Eden Prime. Plans are being put into place.

Council Era - Advent of Humanity (2157 CE - 2183 CE)

2157 CE: The First Contact War

-Humanity makes violent first contact with another spacefaring race: the turians. The turians observe human explorers attempting to activate a dormant mass relay, a practice forbidden by galactic law after the Rachni Wars, and attack. Over the next three months, a brief but tense conflict known by humans as the First Contact War and by turians as the Relay 314 Incident ensues.

-The events of Mass Effect: Revelation begin. Admiral Jon Grissom travels to Arcturus Station to congratulate graduates of the Systems Alliance's N7 training program and meets David Anderson. Grissom announces that an unknown alien force has attacked an Alliance post at the colony of Shanxi.

-The First Contact War culminates in the turian siege and occupation of Shanxi, the first human world to fall to an alien race. Admiral Kastanie Drescher leads the Second Fleet in battle against Shanxi's occupiers one month later, catching the turians by surprise and evicting them from the planet.

-A Cabal of Adamantine Arrow joined the militia and made several raids against the turian elite troops, looking for signs of supernatural activities.

-Using a favor some mage owned them, a group of vampire from the Order Dracul made their way to the planet and the large forests around the equator to play with the turian. They soon were renamed the Impaled Forests by the alien.

-A pack of werewolf using an original T-34 spiritually awaken as their totem roamed through the North hemisphere, engaging several turian units. By the end of the three months war, it had destroyed 89 enemys armored vehicles and damaged much more.

-Several turian high ranking officer disappear, sometime from their own room, and many were never found even after the war. Of the total of 27 kidnapped turian, the Pentacle Orders only recognized having taken nine and claimed having returned them with only their memories missing. Though the declaration of the Guardian of the Veil is, as always, considered suspect.

-During the war, a record of 47 major time rewind (More than 12 hours) are recorded.

-The turians prepare for a full-scale war against humanity, but this draws the attention of the Citadel Council. The Council intervenes before hostilities escalate further, revealing the existence of the greater galactic community to humanity and brokering a peace between them and the turians.

-The events of Mass Effect: Evolution occur. While aiding the human resistance effort on turian-occupied Shanxi, mercenary Jack Harper becomes embroiled in a plot by turian general Desolas Arterius to use an ancient alien artifact, the Arca Monolith, to convert the turian race into an army of invincible "meta-turians". Harper convinces Desolas' brother Saren of the dangers of the Monolith, which is "devolving" the turians into mindless beings under the Monolith's control. To protect his people, Saren orders the destruction of the building holding the Monolith, Temple Palaven, with Desolas and the meta-turians inside.

-Jack Harper awaken as a Mastigos and soon join the Silver Ladder.

-An anonymous extranet manifesto is published following the end of the First Contact War. The manifesto calls for an army, a "Cerberus", to be established to defend humanity against inevitable alien attacks. Derided as "survivalist rhetoric written by an illusive man", the manifesto is quickly forgotten by the media.

2158 CE

-Humans learn the potential of biotics. An international effort to track element zero exposures begins. Roughly 10% of recorded exposed children show indications of biotic ability.

-Jack Harper quickly rise through the ranks of the Silver Ladder. Cerberus stop its first STG team. April 14: Ashley Williams is born.

-Solomon his born.

2159 CE

-Saren Arterius becomes the youngest turian to be inducted into the Spectres.

-The Systems Alliance purchases Gagarin Station for a fraction of its construction cost, and converts the facility into a biotic research and training facility.

2160 CE

-The Parliament is formed.

-Through the System Alliance, the Seer of the Throne strengthen their hold on the extra-solar colonies educational system.

-The PESA trading company expand into Council Space, managing to establish themselves even against the Asari companies opposition. Magic might have been involved.

-With the existence of human biotics firmly established, the Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training (BAaT) program is set up on Gagarin Station to train potential candidates and develop biotic implants.

-The biotic drug red sand is first used. The Cheiron group, a branch of the Sirta Foundation, see its profits skyrocket.

-The Blue Suns mercenary group is founded by Zaeed Massani and Vido Santiago in the Skyllian Verge.

-Kasumi Goto is born.

2161 CE

Amid concerns over gene therapy and genetic modifications being misused, the Systems Alliance Parliament passes the Sudham-Wolcott Genetic Heritage Act. It imposes sharp restrictions on controversial uses of genetic engineering, but provides government subsidies for beneficial applications. Again, controlling most of the Parliament, this Act allow the Seer to establish another monopoly on gene therapy.

-Tali'Zorah nar Rayya is born.

-Jack is born.

2162 CE

-Construction of Arcturus Station is completed.

-A survey team working for batarian entrepreneur Edan Had'dah discovers a mysterious artifact orbiting an unnamed planet near the Perseus Veil.

2163 CE

-The Alliance secretly begins illegal AI research at a base on Sidon with Dr. Shu Qian as project leader. Lt. Kahlee Sanders is assigned as a tech analyst.

-The PESA also began research on IA. Unbeknownst to those working on the project except for a cabal of Free Council, the research is directed by an actual AI that was created back in the 21th century by the Free Council who, as a homage, was named Hal.

-The first experimental L1 biotic implants are used in humans. Some countermeasure in case of rebellion are added in secret.

-A series of starship drive failures are orchestrated by the Seer over populated areas on human colony worlds, causing widespread exposures to element zero. This results in a second generation of humans born with biotic potential.

-The Leviathan of Dis, a genetically-engineered living starship believed to be nearly a billion years old, is discovered by a batarian survey team on the planet Jartar. The Leviathan disappears under dubious circumstances after a batarian dreadnought passes through the Dis system.

2164 CE

-Ivor Johnstagg is sentenced to 21 years in prison for attempting to assassinate Venta Tox, the volus ambassador to the Citadel. Although Johnstagg claims to be acting on behalf of the radical human political party Eternal Earth, no connection is found and Johnstagg is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Backlash from the assassination attempt jeopardizes the Systems Alliance's bid for an embassy on the Citadel.

-The Guardians of the Veil denies any implication.

2165 CE

-Humanity continues to expand, founding more colonies and establishing trade alliances with many of the other species who recognize the authority of the Citadel Council. In 2165 CE, the Council makes official recognition of humanity's growing power and influence in the galactic community. Humanity is granted an embassy on the Citadel, the political and economic heart of the galaxy. Tensions grow between humans and batarians as they compete for territory in the Skyllian Verge.

-The Obscurus system is cut off from the Relays network by mages and the terraforming of its thirteen planets began.

-The events of Mass Effect: Revelation continue. After an Alliance research station at Sidon is attacked, David Anderson searches for those responsible alongside Kahlee Sanders, and discovers an Alliance scientist, Dr. Shu Qian, was conducting illegal AI research to unlock the secrets behind a mysterious artifact discovered near the Perseus Veil. Eventually, Anderson is assigned to work with Saren Arterius to track down Dr. Qian and his batarian supporter, Edan Had'dah. However, Saren instead kills both Dr. Qian and Had'dah, blames Anderson for the mission's failure, and uses Dr. Qian's research to search for the artifact himself.

-Terrorists steal antimatter from the Alliance cruiser SSV Geneva. The sole figure arrested names his sponsor "Cerberus". This is the first such incident of sabotage connected to the Cerberus organization.

-After a disagreement between Vido Santiago and Zaeed Massani over hiring batarians into the Blue Suns, Vido betrays Zaeed and leaves him for dead. All records of Zaeed's involvement in the Blue Suns are erased.

-Jack is abducted by Seer of the Throne agents on Eden Prime. They fake her death and take her to the Teltin Facility on Pragia as part of a project intended to improve biotic potential in humans.

2166 CE

Commander Vyrnnus, a turian mercenary, is hired to oversee the training of human biotics at BAaT. The Seer of the Throne intent is to both train the human biotics and make them develop deep xenophobic feeling.

2167 CE

-L2 biotic implants are first developed and used in humans. Kaidan Alenko is among the first to receive the new implants.

-The magazine Fornax is launched.

-Several independent scientific groups tries to raise awareness about possible secondary effect of the System Alliance gene therapy. Notably in the development of some higher cognitive functions. Discret blackmail and assassination managed to shut up most of those groups. Those left and protected are still embroiled into a Lawyers war with the System Alliance.

2168 CE

-Kaidan Alenko accidentally kills Commander Vyrnnus after being provoked. The diplomatic fallout with the turians results in BAaT being shut down a year later.

-Shepard receives secondary exposure to element zero. Permanent biotic inclination manifests.

2170 CE

-The human colony of Mindoir is attacked by batarian slavers. Many colonists are killed or captured.

-Solomon awaken as an Obrimos.

-Cerberus, in face of the growing batarian slavers problem and divination of future attacks, manage to ally several Cabal from all of the Pentacle Orders around a large project. Many of those still form the core of Cerberus.

-The PESA announce that it will began the construction of a mega hauler ship.

-Another human colony, Yandoa, suffers catastrophic dust-form element zero exposure to its atmosphere when an Eldfell-Ashland Energy ship explodes in orbit. Many children suffer birth defects; thirty-seven biotic children are born, including Gillian Grayson.

-Biotic training for humans is outsourced to the military, selected R&D companies, and renamed divisions of the defunct Conatix Industries.

-L3 biotic implants are developed after L2 implants prove to be dangerous.

-The first A-61 Mantis Gunships are produced.

2171 CE

-In protest at the refusal of the Citadel Council to limit human expansion in the Skyllian Verge, the batarians close their embassy, withdraw into their home systems, and effectively become a rogue state.

-Shepard is officially detected as a biotic and fitted with L3 implants and conditioned at Arcturus Station.

-Solomon join the Adamantine Arrow.

-The Guardians of the Veil fails to prevent the assassination of Pope Clement XVI on Earth via rosary beads coated with toxic substances; his death is attributed to age and heart failure. His successor, Pope Leo XIV, espouses beliefs more in-line with the Seer's ideals.

2172 CE

-April 11: Shepard enlists in the Alliance military.

-November 14: Kai Leng enlists in the Alliance military.

-On Gagarin Station, "Eliza" becomes the first sapient AI created in the Systems Alliance.

2173 CE

-A fly-by over the world of Armeni discovers odd surface protrusions. Upon closer inspection, they are identified as elaborate crypts made by the zeioph, an extinct spacefaring race. Various human universities seek to perform excavation, but Council laws that hold burial sites as sacrosanct prevent this. An ongoing debate over the issue ensues.

-The Mysterium does not care for politics and some cabals start archeological dig on Armeni.

-Terra Firma is involved in a Nashan Stellar Dynamics kickbacks scandal, forcing Inez Simmons, the current party leader, to resign. Charles Saracino becomes the new party leader after his opponent, Claude Menneau, is assassinated by Seer's operatives while en route to Shanxi. Publicly, Menneau's disappearance is never explained.

-Kaidan Alenko enlists in the Alliance military.

2174 CE

-Ashley Williams enlists in the Alliance military.

2175 CE

-On a survey mission to 2175 Aeia, an important colonization prospect for the Systems Alliance, the MSV Hugo Gernsback disappears and is presumed destroyed.

-Cerberus organise a massive Forum with representatives from several of the supernatural races. Though plagued with problems and even some death and one case of banishment from time and space for a hundred years, the Forum is something of a success.

-Cerberus covertly contacts Michael Moser Lang, a political dissident on Earth, and provides him with funding to purchase weapons. Cerberus continues to monitor him after contact ends. One year later, Lang assassinates United North American States president Enrique Aguilar and Chinese People's Federation premier Ying Xiong, two Seer pawns. The resulting political shuffle benefits Cerberus' shell companies and plans for the Systems Alliance Parliament.

-Alice and Elizabeth escape their Keeper and traverse the Edge at Auschwitz.

2176 CE

-Batarian-funded pirates and criminals launch a surprise attack, later known as the Skyllian Blitz, on the human colony of Elysium. The assault is repulsed by the Alliance Navy and ground teams, officially. Rumors of blood drinking humanoid monsters tearing the pirates into pieces are considered fabulation by the System Alliance at best and baseless accusation at worse.

-The Mega-Hauler ship is reported destroyed by the PESA as it was doing his trial run around Elysium at the moment of the attack. T

-he cruiser Atlantis, based on the iconic ship because the Free Council was responsible for most of the construction, see its first combat against batarian ships.

-Solomon leave the Perfected Adept legacy temple and join the crew of the Atlantis. There, he met Raven and Lilith.

-Rumors of a ghost ship with long range laser weaponry and an impenetrable armor hunting batarian and slavers ship start to pop up. The STG, asari commandos and Spectres do investigate the rumor, but the sheer outlandishness of it combined with its supposed ability to disappear and zone of action, the batarian territory and human frontier, make all investigations short and inconclusive.

-The Jon Grissom Academy is commissioned over Elysium, and becomes home to the Alliance's new biotic training program, the Ascension Project.

-The Anhur Rebellions, a civil war waged over the practice of slavery, begin on the human and batarian colony world of Anhur and spread throughout the Amun system. Abolitionism supporters hire the Eclipse mercenary group to fight the batarian pro-slavery Na'hesit faction with the help of Cerberus funding.

-James Vega enlists in the Alliance military.

-Kai Leng is awarded the N7 designation by the Alliance's Interplanetary Combatives Academy, but later that year he is dishonorably discharged and imprisoned for first-degree murder.

-Miners at the T-GES Mineral Works facility on Mahavid uncover a Leviathan artifact. The miners are enthralled by the Leviathans for the next ten years and are used to carry out numerous experiments.

2177 CE

-During a recon mission to find a missing colonial pioneer team on Akuze, a unit of fifty Alliance marines is wiped out by thresher maws.

-Lilith find the shell of the Revenge inside an iceberg in the North pole.

2178 CE

-In retaliation for the Skyllian Blitz, the Alliance launches a major offensive against the moon of Torfan and destroys the criminal bases there, mostly populated by batarians. The threat against human colonies from batarian extremists is curtailed.

-The Atlantis is spotted by several System Alliance ships around Torfan, along with the destroyed shell of several heavy cruisers. No visual or electronic record can confirm this rumor.

-Cerberus tracks several pirate FTL exit vectors over a period of six months using covert monitoring devices planted on Theshaca's moons, leading the Atlantis to eight major pirate anchorages. Since the "Theshaca Raids", no ships from the Terminus Systems have entered the Hong system.

-The Anhur Rebellions end with the abolitionist forces in power, and the reconstruction of Anhur commences. The Orders establish a strong presence on the colony, financing most of the rebuilding and working to elevate Anhur as a new trade point and spaceport.

2180 CE

Solomon, Alice, Elizabeth, Raven and Lilith get together as the crew of the Firefly.

2183 CE

-Humans and turians collaborate on an engineering project co-sponsored by the Citadel Council: an experimental frigate with a prototype stealth system, the SSV Normandy. David Anderson is given command of the ship, and Commander Shepard is assigned as executive officer.

-The events of Mass Effect: He Who Laughs Best occur. Jeff "Joker" Moreau is assigned as the pilot of the SSV Normandy.