Manifest Destiny

by ThreeCatsinaBarrel

"What do you believe? And how much are you willing to risk on that belief? Would you risk your existence, and the existence of your species, on a hunch? A whim? The word of a prophet a thousand years dead?" Book of Science 1 Rating may change.

1. Timeline

Edit: All chapters checked for spelling mistakes and continuity errors.

UPDATED: New timelines and plots added.

A very special thanks to the following people for allowing me to use their creatures in this story:

IonutRO

Melosians

Endir

Irude

Akrili

bh18

Lor

Takaiteishu Naruto

Kylos

(and the subsequent creation of the Yuuks)

An idea I've had for some time but couldn't get it out until now. I'm aware that I've been away for some time but I've had to get over some very bad news. As such, this story, a crossover between two of her favourite games, is dedicated to Sarah.

Sarah

1989 – 2011

Don't Fear the Reaper

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mass Effect / Spore ~~-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Manifest Destiny

Timeline

6,000,000,000 BCE – An unknown power begins to systematically destroy all of the mass relays in the Second Arm of the Galaxy and badly damages the Great Relay which connects the arm to the rest of the galactic Mass Relay network, effectively cutting off the arm and sparing it from the Reaper genocide cycles.

During this time a meteor ploughs into the primitive ocean of Apher, a planet located halfway along the second arm. This meteor both scars Apher's moon, and kick starts evolution on the planet.

The Birth of the Apherian Empire.

1,000,000,000 BCE – Prehistoric Age: Ulies learn to make and control fire. They are hunter gatherers so the semi-aquatic mammals live in nomadic troops following coasts, rivers and lakes, constantly searching for food and following prey migrations. Most fights between troops are the results of food shortages but these were probably very rare occurrences and mostly within arid ulie territories.

990,550,000 BCE – Tool Age: Tools made from stone and wood are developed and religious shamanism is embraced by a majority of ulie tribes.

990,500,000 BCE – Poske Age: Metal-hard poske coral becomes widely used as the main material for tool making. The coral's living form can be knapped like flint and sharpened, when the coral dies it becomes metal hard from the minerals it absorbed from the ground. The wheel is created and the first forms of primitive warships are developed, since the ulies are marine mammals, these ships are mainly used as transports for warriors.

990,494,000 BCE – Poske Priming Age: Poske coral is discovered to take on characteristics of any metals it is allowed to grow on, allowing for it to be used in many other ways. Copper and tin (bronze) became the primary metals mixed with poske and was used mainly for weapons. Swords become widely available and medicine advances.

990,492,800 BCE – Crimson Age: Iron became the metal that was primarily mixed with poske and the Crimson Nation begins the Thousand Generations War, the only open conflict between ulie nations in recorded history. Before the development of more sophisticated ships the Crimson nation was unable to send warriors to the other nations and had already subsumed every other tribe on their continent.

990,490,600 BCE – Golden Age: The spiritual Golden Nation begins to become the main force keeping Crimson powers from gaining strength and they begin to spread their influence to other nations.

990,486,900 BCE – Knowledge Age: With the development of better ships and artillery weapons the Thousand Generations War sees a rise in conflicts between the Crimsons and other nations across Apher. Calculus is invented and the laws of motion were discovered soon afterwards.

990,482,200 BCE – Rebirth Age: The ulie Rebirth Age came from the Golden Nation when it had subsumed all other nations on its home continent and the Crimson war machine seemed to be slowing to a standstill. Many hoped it was the end of the war, but hostilities would peak again after the Nuramhera Fleet Massacre, where Crimson warships destroyed a Brown Nation trader fleet.

990,475,600 BCE – Industrial Age: Microbiology is discovered and biofuels are developed. Safer and cleaner to use than previous sources of energy, biofuels soon account for roughly fourty two percent of Apher's energy. Flight is achieved by the Brown Nation which is now a part of the Golden Nation.

990,473,000 BCE – Flight Age: The Crimson Nation begins a major push of its borders, capturing the Blue Nation port city of Capia and using its inhabitants as slaves, a concept ulies from other nations had never seen before. The aircraft and tank are introduced to the battlefields by the Crimson, Forest and Golden Nations. The Golden Nation retains its air superiority despite the Forest and Crimson Nations eventually developing their own aircraft.

990,472,800 BCE – Atomic Age: The Golden Nation takes Capia away from the Crimsons and begins to rebuild its broken citizens, they also offer aid to other Blue Nation cities that are under attack from Crimson forces. Radar, jet aircraft, helicopters and atomic weapons are introduced into the arsenals of war. The first Atomic Bomb used by ulies is released on a major Forest Nation city by the Crimson, this act sees the Forest Nation unable to resupply its famous fleets which patrolled the oceans against Crimson War Fleets. The Golden Nation increases its air power and uses the void left by the Forest Nation to grow its own naval fleet.

990,472,100 BCE – Biological Age: Sees the perfection of jet aircraft, biofuels and poske coral production. The Golden Nation develops prototype battlesuits and trains heroic warriors to wear them into front-line battles against the Crimsons.

990,470,000 BCE – Digital Age: The Thousand Generations War ends with the Golden and Forest nations besieging the Crimson's settlements and capturing their capitol city. Battle armour and battlesuit technology reach a stage where suits are capable of being mass produced at a reasonable cost thanks to the dying embers of the war.

UPDATED: The Prophet of the All Maker's Canvas: It was during the later centuries of this age where the argument between Evolutionists and Creationists began to become a matter of public concern. The argument of whether ulies evolved or were created by the All Maker had been a debate for many centuries but had slowly begun to boil over as the conflict with the Crimsons ended.

Brieze Wyter, a student engineer, would come to live much of her life with a troop of Saint Ruteda Sisters at a monastery close to the university she was attending and would explain how she could see that evolution was the All Maker's tool of creation. Basically, life is a masterpiece of artwork, the rock of Apher was a blank canvas and the All Maker used evolution to give the world colour, filling the world with animals and plants. The Head Sister would write about Brieze's ideas and the world would read the articles.

Eventually, Brieze's ideas were adopted and accepted by some influential leaders in religious and scientific circles and was embraced by many among the general populace of Apher both in the Golden Nation, their allied Nations and even the Forest Nation. She was named a Prophet after giving birth to, and successfully raising, identical twins; there had been no record of such events before. The twin girls were considered a sign that Brieze was right and her popularity increases.

She was sainted when she died at a grand age of ninety seven. By the Enlightenment Age, Brieze was the most popular Saint in ulie religion.

990,463,700 BCE – Enlightenment Age: Battle armour and battlesuit technology continued to advance despite the end of hostilities between ulie nations. The Blue Nation allows itself to become part of the Golden Nation making the Golden and Forest nations the only nations left on Apher. The Crimson settlements are divided between the two nations but no hostilities arise between them. In the later years of this age the Forest Nation and Golden Nation merge together with most attributing success to the Goldens. Apher is united and the ulies truly start focusing their eyes towards the stars.

990,461,100 BCE – Space Age: The ulies continue to advance and eventually colonize Apher's moon, other planets and moons in their solar system and begin stockpiling biofuels.

990,453,700 BCE – The Apherian Empire develops the first primitive slip-space generator. The first drive that was deemed safe to test was only able to transfer a ship nine hundred miles through slip-space.

990,453,100 BCE – The ulies develop the first generation of slip-space generators capable of covering the distance between close by solar systems.

990,449,600 BCE – A new colony on a frontier world called Thedas, uncovers a highly aggressive native species that show strange powers using dark matter fields and willpower, the ulies first contact with biotics. Pups born the year these creatures begin to attack the colony begin showing the same powers and grow to become the only force capable of effectively combating the threat of the Darkspawn, so named for their extraordinary numbers and because so very little is known about what they actually are.

Reaching adulthood, the ulie pups that first exhibited these powers create the Grey Wardens order of warriors to combat the aggressive species and successfully drive them back into the subterranean lairs of the planet.

Within three hundred years of the colony's founding all colonists born on the planet are natural biotics. The Grey Wardens watch over the entrances and exits to the lairs to keep the Darkspawn at bay, they also become an elite warrior sect of the Apherian military and train young pups who exhibit biotic powers across the empire.

'In war, Victory

In peace, Vigilance

In death, Sacrifice'

Grey Warden prayer

990,400,000 BCE – The ulies have colonized their entire home system and many close by neighbouring systems using their interstellar drives and slip-space generators. With the development of better slip-space generators a new wave of colonization begins.

With the ulies being such social animals and with strong bonds of kinship, the Empire ensures it maintains contact with its outer rim colonies and so avoids isolating them, preventing civil war.

UPDATED: High Judge Kem Ors funds a project to begin a penal colony to rehabilitate the worst ulie criminals of the time and leads a terra-forming fleet, a colony ship and a large prison colony ship to the outer reaches to the Apherian Empire. Just as the penal colony was about ready to accept new criminals the colony goes dark and contact is lost.

UPDATED: 990,398,000 BCE – As the ulies expand into new systems an Exploration vessel has to make an emergency land on a planet that shows signs of habitation. The Apherian Empire rediscovers the penal colony of Kem Ors, which went silent two thousand years ago and has undergone extraordinary changes. Genetic modifications brought about by religious fanaticism have created a huge new breed of ulie; strong, fearless, unfeeling and incapable of responding to pain these terrifying, nightmarish new ulies are called Silents. Almost immediately after being rediscovered the Silent ulies begin to bring the most dangerous criminals from across the Empire to their colony, very few ever return to society.

"We are the anger of the All Maker made flesh.

The All Maker is angry."

Silent Ulie belief and warning

987,000,000 BCE – The ulies have explored their entire star cluster and colonized many of the solar systems. With their advanced interstellar drives and slip-space generators they begin to push out into neighbouring star clusters.

Pre-Council Era

985,900,000 BCE – The ulies make first contact with the Valea, a race of herbivores, that share similar beliefs with the ulies. Some centuries after first contact the valea allow their own empire, the Kurysse, to be subsumed into the Apherian Empire after witnessing an Apherian Terra-Forming Fleet transform a desolate T-0 planet into a thriving T-3 paradise world. The valea believe the ulies are their prophesied spiritual leaders. "Those closet to Spode."

"Spread the light and wisdom of the Ulies.

For in doing so, you spread the light and love of Spode."

Ocvhetr Wjak Yuredds, High Priest of Spode

985,200,000 BCE – The Apherian Empire (AE) make first contact with the Horpetters, a race of traders, and an alliance is quickly formed between the AE and the Horpetter Trader Alliance (HTA) through trade routes and slow technological exchange.

'We only concern ourselves with how to make everyone happy.'

Tablet of Prosperity. Aspiration 6.

985,000,000 BCE – The AE and the HTA are discovered by the Devios, a race of flying mammals, who open friendly diplomatic relations with the two empires.

"'Every sentient being matters.' To these Apherians, every sentient being is the same as they are.

They do not want our problems or our worries, they do not want our wars or our respect.

They want to help us overcome our faults, to face our fears, they wish to help us find our peace and they want only our friendship."

Moders La Pa'Leny Devio, first Devio diplomat to meet the Apherian Empire diplomatic team at First Contact.

970,000,000 BCE – The HTA and the Devios Empire (DE) join the AE. Bringing about untold prosperity to their systems as ulies and valea spread their culture, technology and wealth to their new colonies and races.

967,990,000 BCE – The AE is attacked by the Racion Wheaifurb Coalition (RWC). The racions, a race of aggressive flying avians, known for their brutality and slaving fleets which are capable of enslaving the populations of entire planets. The Apherian Empire takes steps to defend itself but after it becomes clear the racions are slavers and pirates (something the ulies outlaw in their empire) they begin to mount an offensive to free the RWC's slave races.

967,989,500 BCE – The racions are pushed back to their innermost systems and the AE discovers their homeworld. When the RWC refuses peace talks with the AE and begin to mount a huge counter-attack to push the Apherian fleet back, the ulies use an experimental weapon on the racions' home planet, Rqneu. The GSSDRE-04 warhead is fired at Rqneu and completely destroys the planet. With their warlords and generals killed, the racions could not mount a proper defence and surrendered to the AE. The remaining racion populations are grounded on their planets and their millitary disbanded.

The ulies, a race dedicated to the preservation of life, see the destruction of Ryneu as a sacrilege against the All Maker's will and immediately stockpile the remaining 9 GSSDRE-04 warheads (termed Planet Busters) at a secret location on their home system's last planet. Each warhead is placed in a white casket with yellow trim (the colour of Racion blood) with the warning 'Only when ALL hope is lost' engraved onto each casket.

The Order of the Ceatroan is formed by the Admiral of the war fleet that shot the Planet Buster into Ryneu, which begins to aid the racions sympathetic to the AE after the war. The Order quickly becomes a secret organization working behind the scenes of the AE government to protect all races within it from those who would seek to harm them.

Later the racions will become one of the AE's most powerful peacekeeping forces.

'We enslaved whole worlds, killed whole populations, turned once bustling cities into ghosthavens and earned the sneers and distaste of billions. We thought ourselves immortal. Above all others.

And then came the Ulies.

With the Ulies came the hatred of a galaxy we had wronged, the mourning of the planets we had purged of their peoples, and the payback for a thousand years of pervertedness.

With the Planet Buster, we found freedom in eternal shackles to the Empire.'

Remembrance Brand. Tattooed onto every racion soldier once they have completed their military training.

890,950,000 BCE – The AE make first contact with the gekans and the tohels, two races which joined together for mutual benefit. The gekans are not capable of full military prowess and enlisted the aid of the tohels some several thousand years ago after they helped rid the tohel race of a virulent disease which was driving them to extinction. Together the gekan and the tohels form the Orpulik Alliance (OA) and begin diplomatic talks with the AE.

"When the galaxy, evolution, Gods of us mortals and Demons of the Void come against us, all we have is each other".

Gekan/Tohel saying. Based off of ancient text found on a weapon blasted moon by the Orpulik Alliance which dates before even the ulies' earliest ancestors.

890,500,000 BCE – The AE are successful in creating a fully functional and economical slip-space generator, allowing near instantaneous travel across their empire.

UPDATED: 450,235,501 BCE – A civilization making its last stand tries to fire a mass accelerator weapon of mass destruction (WMD) at a Reaper fleet but hits nothing. The WMD continues moving through space for the next 4,000,000 years.

37,000,000 BCE – An unknown spacefaring race fires a mass accelerator round at a Reaper near the planet Mnemosyne. The round penetrates the Reaper, disabling it, and continues moving through space, eventually striking the planet Klendagon and creating the geological feature there known as the Great Rift Valley.

UPDATED: The AE is discovered by the kylos, a race of semi-aquatic reptiles, who are embroiled in a war with a race of highly aggressive bat-like creatures called yuuks.

After several years of war with the yuuks the AE and the Kylos Grand Senate of Planets (KGSP) finally get the yuuks to surrender. The AE and the Ceatroan Order begin immediate work to provide support to the decimated and weakened Yuuk Empire, much to the chagrin of the KGSP who believe that the yuuks should be allowed to remain weak for beginning the hostilities in the beginning.

Despite this, however, many kylos state planets vote to remain in contact with the powerful new Empire, if only to keep an eye on the power struggles.

For many hundreds of years the kylos keep hold of their hatred for the yuuks and develop a dislike for the peaceful devio race, who bare an unfortunate resemblance to the yuuks.

"We are nothing alike, we are kylos, you are devio, they are ulie. The difference between us is like a weakening vine growing up a pillar support to one of our great temples.

We are the pillar, you are the vine."

An overheard argument between a kylos warrior and a devio trader.

UPDATED: 3,540,401 BCE – The avian melosians take to the stars and in less than a century manage to establish five extrasolar colonies.

UPDATED: 3,540,352 BCE – The endir, a race of creatures who show a number of both avian and mammal traits, take to the stars and in less than a decade they establish their first extrasolar colony.

UPDATED: 3,540,023 BCE – An ancient WMD is two years away from impacting with Tur, the irude home star, astronomers from Ash's greatest houses discover this and the world's Matriarchs panic, their top scientists determine that there is no way to stop their impending extinction, the information is released to the public after months of conspiracy theories flying around and all irude prepare for their deaths.

UPDATED: 3,540,022 BCE – The endir discover the WMD and map it's trajectory to Tur where they discover the irude, a mammalian race, and in less than 12 months they manage to evacuate 4 billion irude off-world.

UPDATED: 3,540,021 BCE – Tur is struck by the WMD and 7 billion irude die in a swift and painless supernova.

UPDATED: 3,536,964 BCE – The milosians make their first contact with an alien species, the endir and the irude, and soon a trade agreement is made.

UPDATED: 3,536,524 BCE – Milosian and endir colonies start going dark, when both sides discover that the other is not to blame they start a joint military operation to find and stop the culprit.

UPDATED: 3,536,523 BCE – The unknown assailants reveal themselves to be a race of synthetics who claim that all organic sapience is an affront to their Gods (their organic creators who had gone extinct long ago). Since any intelligent life that was not created by their Gods in unholy and has no right to exist it must be exterminated. The milosians and endir formally become allies and start planning for full scale war.

UPDATED: 3,536,482 BCE – An endir-made electronic virus is released into the synthetics hive-mind disrupting their long range communications thus leaving individual fleets and stations cut off from the rest of their forces, this allows the Alliance to quickly decimate the disorganized synthetics in less than two years.

UPDATED: 3,536,480 BCE – With the war finally over the Alliance starts reclaiming all of its lost territory and begins expanding again.

UPDATED: 2,920,123 BCE – First contact between the Alliance and AE is made.

A terraforming fleet is led to the frontier systems held by the Melosian / Endir Alliance (MEA) by radio signals picked up by their sensitive equipment. It is a distress call from a colony where gigantic storms are destroying cities. With their terraforming knowledge the ulies realise that this is the beginning of Planet Environmental Instability (Pei) and unless action is taken the planet's ecology is doomed.

The terraforming fleet stabilizes the planet and meet with Alliance diplomats.

'Violence is not an unnatural thing. It is the normal state of being.'

Stones of Force. The Second Observation.

298,000 BCE – The ancient arthenn race flourish in the Zelene system, living on the planet Helyme until being destroyed in an unknown event that wiped out all complex life on the planet. They also maintained a presence on other planets in the system including Epho, which bears the scars of an ancient orbital bombardment, and Gaelon, which may have been mined for helium-3.

The AE make first contact with the attix and their empire of Yefkaresdca, the attix are cat-like primates ruled by a matriarchal society, diplomatic relations quickly benefit both empires with trade routes and technology exchange.

"There are few things in life that remain certain. One of the few, is the generosity of the Apherians."

Matriarch Reunt Eir, after an Apherian merchant ship brought much needed food supplies to her people during a terrible drought, free of charge.

125,000 BCE – Ancient spacefaring races called the thoi'han and inusannon fight over the planet Eingana, littering the planet with the debris of hundreds of starships. Refined element zero scattered by broken drive cores contaminates the environment, causing many native species to go extinct and those that survive to show a tendency to develop biotic powers.

48,000 BCE: Fall of the Protheans – The protheans, the sole spacefaring race in the galaxy at the time, establish a galaxy-wide civilization (excluding the Second Arm) linked by the mass relay network before mysteriously vanishing. Their legacy, ruins and technology scattered across many worlds, survives and influences later spacefaring civilizations.

6000 BCE – Seeking to escape the imminent explosion of their sun, an alien race constructs an AI- managed starship equipped with supercomputers containing a virtual world, into which some one billion of the aliens transfer their consciousnesses. The starship begins a journey throughout the galaxy which lasts for the next 8,000 years.

1,800 BCE – A supernova propels the Mu Relay, the only point of access to the remote Pangaea Expanse, out of position. Concealed somewhere in the dense nebula formed by the supernova, the relay's position is effectively lost for centuries. Later, the rachni rediscover the relay.

UPDATED: The AE discovers several hundred new systems right on the edge of the galaxy and send an exploration fleet to investigate the new sector. They discover a new race, the lor, secretive reptiles who the AE exploration fleets help stabilize the environment of one of their frontier worlds.

Despite their exceptionally reclusive nature they opened quiet diplomatic talks with the ulies and became one of the quieter member species of the AE, for the Empire's expertise in Terraforming and subsequently environmental stabilization of planets ,the lor dedicate many of their best warriors to the AE 's military, forming the very first 'Spirits'.

"Silence is the sound of your destruction."

Spirit saying.

580 BCE – After developing faster-than-light spacefaring capabilities based upon prothean technology, the asari begin to explore the mass relay network and eventually discover the huge Citadel space station at the hub of many mass relays.

520 BCE – The salarians discover the Citadel and open diplomatic relations with the asari.

Council Era: Formation

500 BCE: Founding of the Citadel Council – The Citadel Council is formed. The ssari and salarians together colonize the Citadel and establish it as a centre of the galactic community, led by the Council. This year is also known as 0GS, the beginning of the Galactic Standard (GS) timeline.

As a gesture of openness with their new asari allies, the Salarian Union opens the records of the League of One. Under threat, the League responds by assassinating every member of the Union's inner cabinet; Special Tasks Group operatives then hunt down and eliminate the League.

First contact is made with the volus. Eventually, the Citadel Council commissions the volus to draw up the Unified Banking Act, which establishes a standard galactic currency known as the credit and links all galactic economies.

The Turian Unification War occurs. The increasingly isolated and xenophobic colonies on the frontiers of turian space go to war with each other. After years of fighting, the Turian Hierarchy sweeps in and pacifies the remaining factions. Animosity between turian colonies continues for decades.

200 BCE – The Council grants the volus the honour of being the first non-Council species with an embassy at the Citadel, rather than a Council seat.

First contact is made with the batarians. They are granted an embassy a century later.

The asari discover the elcor home system and help the elcor locate and activate their nearest mass relay. "Within one elcor lifetime" they establish a regular trade route to the Citadel and are granted an embassy.

First contact is made with the hanar and the quarians. Both races are later granted embassies.

Council Era: War and Rebellion

1 CE: The Rachni Wars – The rachni, a species of highly intelligent hive-minded insects, are discovered when a Citadel expedition opens a dormant mass relay leading to their star system. The rachni prove to be hostile and begin a war with the rest of the galaxy. Negotiation with the rachni Queens is impossible because they cannot be contacted in their underground nests on the toxic rachni worlds.

80 CE – The Rachni Wars continue. The salarians make first contact with and uplift the primitive krogan, manipulating them into acting as soldiers for the Citadel Council. The krogan prove able to survive the harsh environments of the rachni worlds and pursue the rachni into their nests, systematically eradicating queens and eggs.

300 CE – The rachni are declared extinct. In gratitude for their aid during the Rachni Wars, the Council rewards the krogan a new homeworld. Free of the harsh environment of Tuchanka, the krogan population explodes.

300 – 700 CE – The krogan begin to expand exponentially, colonizing many new worlds. Growing concerns about their expansion lead to the founding of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel.

700 CE: The Krogan Rebellions – Krogan warlords leverage veterans of the Rachni Wars to annex territory from the other races in Citadel space. Eventually the Council demands withdrawal from the asari colony of Lusia, but the krogan refuse. A pre-emptive strike is made on krogan infrastructure by the Spectres. The Krogan Rebellions begin.

The Citadel Council makes first contact with the turians. In response to the threat posed by the krogan, they declare war. After the krogan devastate turian colonies with weapons of mass destruction, the turians respond with a salarian engineered bio-weapon known as the Genophage. The krogan population starts its decline.

The turians accept the volus as a client race within the Turian Hierarchy.

800 CE – The Krogan Rebellions end, though scattered krogan insurgent actions continue for decades. The turians fill the military and peacekeeping niche left by the decimated krogan.

The Citadel Conventions are drawn up in the wake of the conflict.

Council Era: Expansion

900 CE – The turians are granted a seat on the Citadel Council in recognition for their service in the Krogan Rebellions.

UPDATED: The AE discovers the warrior race, the Akrili, who have a large empire at the tail end of the Second Arm. First Contact is not peaceful and while the AE has both the advantage in technology, numbers and support for frontline troops, the sheer ferocity and brutality of the Akrili allows them to hold their own against the AE.

1,400 CE – Extensive and unchecked industrial expansion on the drell homeworld Rakhana begins taking a significant toll on the planet's environment.

1,600 CE – The first sightings of the Collectors are reported in the Terminus Systems. In Citadel space, the claims are dismissed as unsubstantiated rumours and tall tales.

1,755 CE – Samara's three daughters are diagnosed as Ardat-Yakshi. Rila and Falere accept exile, but Morinth flees. Samara takes the oaths of the Asari Justicars and pursues her errant daughter for the next several centuries.

1,880 CE – Aria T'Loak arrives on Omega, a space station in the Terminus Systems regarded as the region's nominal capitol. Aria is hired by the station's warlord as an enforcer and quickly becomes one of his most trusted lieutenants.

UPDATED: The Akrili Conflict ends in a ceasefire. Unable to topple the AE's numbers and with their supply lines dwindling to non-existence by constant attacks from AE Stealth teams and Spirit operatives the akrili issue a 'ceasefire' to the AE. While several AE races petition the Apherian High Council to order the akrili into total surrender and bring them to heel, the decision is made to accept the ceasefire but Spirits are ordered to keep an eye on the aggressive race and large fleets of racion and kylos ships constantly patrol the border with the Brutes.

Realising the akrili follow the Stones of Force, ancient tablets left by an unknown and scattered all over the Second Arm, The Ceatroan Order trades a complete set of the Stones the ulies found many centuries ago with the akrili. This gesture of openness and understanding of their ways eventually allows the proud akrili in accepting help from the AE and opens cools diplomatic relations.

1,895 CE: The Geth War – The geth, machines created by the quarians as a source of cheap labour, become self-aware. Fearing a geth uprising, the quarians begin dismantling them. The geth revolt against their quarian masters and, in the resulting war, systematically drive the quarians from their worlds. The surviving quarians are reduced to living as spacefaring nomads aboard the Migrant Fleet. Contary to expectations, the geth do not venture outside the former quarian systems into wider Citadel space, instead isolating themselves from the rest of the galaxy behind the Perseus Veil. As punishment for creating the geth, the Citadel Council closes the quarian embassy on the Citadel.

1,921 CE – The geth begin construction of a mega-structure designed to house and simultaneously run every geth program in existence. Completion of the mega-structure, which would allow the geth to maximize their collective processing capacity, is the long-term goal of geth civilization.

1,961 CE – April 12: Yuri Gagarin aboard the Vostok 1 becomes the first human to travel in space. Humanity becomes a spacefaring race.

1,969 CE – July 20: Apollo 11 lands on Luna. Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on an astronomical object other than Earth.

1,977 CE – August 20: The Voyager 2 probe is launched.

September 2: The Voyager 1 probe is launched.

1,980 CE – Aria T'Loak assumes control of Omega after defeating the space station's previous warlord in single combat. She mockingly bestows the title "Patriarch" on the broken krogan, and uses him as a reminder to her enemies of her power.

1,983 CE – September 26: Able Archer Incident - The Soviet orbital missile early warning system (SPRN), code-named Oko, reports a single intercontinental ballistic missile launch from the territory of the United States. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov was involved in a motoring accident and his position is replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Luke Volk. He fails to recognise the attack as a computer error and the USSR launches a nuclear warhead against the USA. The computer error was the result of the systems being new and malfunctioning along with a rare alignment of sunlight on high-altitude clouds and satellite orbits.

Over the course of roughly twenty years, the resulting nuclear war causes the human population to crash to under half it's numbers of post World War 2 population charts and leaves them facing harsh nuclear winters for many centuries afterwards.

2,000 CE – The drell make first contact with the hanar around this time. With their homeworld, Rakhana, severely depleted and no spaceflight capability, the drell were poised for a massive population crash by 2,025 CE. Agreeing to help, the hanar mount a large-scale rescue operation and evacuate approximately 375,000 drell to their own homeworld, Kahje, over the following decade. The remaining 11 billion drell on Rakhana gradually perish, warring over the last reserves of food and water.

2,070 CE – Tundra ulie billionaire Vis Ertrah, begins funding his own private expedition to find artefacts across Apherian controlled space. These expeditions find no valuable artefacts during their founding years but do help the AE find planets perfect for agricultural colonization and biofuel production.

2,076 CE – One of Vis Ertrah's expedition vessels discovers an 'anomaly'. Bringing the object on board it is discovered to be a spacecraft of unknown origin. A golden disc is found on the dead craft and is examined. The Voyager 1 space probe is discovered by the AE.

With the data gathered from the gold disc of the Voyager 1 probe, Vis Ertrah commissions the AE Senate of Species to begin a similar probe and disc, but this time with data on their own species and the AE. With backing from the public and dealings made by the Ceatroan Order, Ertrah is given permission.

2,077 CE – Liara T,Soni (asari) is born.

Vis Ertrah and his team replicate the sounds and images from the Voyager's record disc with sounds, music and pictures of the ulie race and some of the other races of the AE. Ertrah begins sending his expedition teams further into space with backing from the AE and its high government to locate the makers of the Voyager probe.

2123 CE – A human movement on Earth begins to bring the fractured population together again. Learning from their ancestors downfall, most of these descendants come together to form a large clan to try and rebuild their shattered world. Though progress is initially slow, desperation begins to force cooperation.

2,125 CE – The yagh, an intelligent pre-spaceflight race, are discovered on the planet Parnack. Ambassadors representing the Citadel Council arrive on the planet and attempt to open diplomatic contact. After the ambassadors are killed by the predatory yahg, the Council ceases all contact with the yahg and declares Parnack off-limits.

Not long after discovery, one yahg is captured for the Shadow Broker to study. With the Broker's assistance, the yahg rapidly ascends within the Broker's organization as "Operative Kechlu". Eventually, the Broker becomes wary of "Operative Kechlu" and attempts to have him terminated, but the order is sent too late. The yahg assumes the mantle of the Shadow Broker and directs the organization for the next sixty years.

2,137 CE – Davin Ackersan (Common ulie male) is born.

2,139 CE – Saren Arterius (turian male) and Kahlee Sindars (Common ulie female) are born in this year.

2,146 CE – Thane Krios (drell male) is born.

2,148 CE: The Apherian Empire Discovers Humanity and the Mass Relays – Ertrah Exploration, a small fleet of exploration vessels run by Vis' grandson discovers a T-3 world recovering from nuclear fallout and intelligent lifeforms rebuilding a once vast planetary civilization. Word quickly gets back to the AE who send a science fleet to research these creatures which call themselves humans. It is quickly established that these creatures were the makers of the Voyager 1 probe and the AE launches an investigation as to what happened on Earth for such dramatic changes.

During a routine scan of Humanity's solar system an anomaly is discovered inside the moon of the system's furthest planet. Preliminary results suggest that it is some sort of technology and the AE start immediate research into it, perhaps this artefact had something to do with Humanity's downfall. Since the structure is encased in ice the decision is made to evacuate a viable number of humans from Earth in case the structure should pose a threat to the re-emerging race.

2,149 CE – The ulies begin to gather humans from all ages and ethnic groups and start proper study of the intelligent and curious creatures. Some human children are adopted by ulie researchers and their troops where it is quickly observed that humans are a very adaptable race and are able to learn ulie speech and body language.

Now with full knowledge of human language the ulies return to the poske disc that Vis Ertrah had made and include translation of themselves speaking in English (the language that seemed to be most used on the Voyager 1 golden disc) so that when Humanity begins to retake its steps to become a space race the Voyager 1 probe can be returned to its makers with the new messages.

2,150 CE – Miranda Lawson (human female) is born.

A Terra-Forming Fleet is assigned to help the Sol System researchers excavate the alien structure out of Pluto's moon, Charon.

2,151 CE – Kaden Amenka (Common/Tundra ulie male) is born.

2,152 CE – Thane Krios is submitted for training as an assassin under the hanar.

2,154 CE – Zanthi Shenpar (Common ulie female) is born to roving female Jotei Shenpar on Apher.

2,155 CE – Saren Arterius is promoted to active service in the turian military at the age of 16.

Jen "Joker" Mora (Tropic ulie male) is born.

Miranda Lawson is taken into Apherian custody along with a younger sister after it is learned that her father may have deliberately used modified genes to introduce biotics into his daughters. It is also later revealed that several older siblings mysteriously disappeared at young ages when they discovered they did not respond well to the altered biotic genes. The two sisters are adopted by a troop of Ceatroan funded scientists on a makeshift facility on Mars to help further Apherian understanding of Humans. They also observe to see if the biotics have any negative effect on the young females as they grow.

2,156 CE – The alien structure within Charon is fully excavated and scientists begin to examine the alien technology inside, discovering the structure is a mass relay. They discover coordinates for other relays within the Second Arm but the AE have found no other relay on their expansion. Several exploration teams are hired to go to close-by relay coordinates to discover if any other mass relay's can be found.

Using their slip-space generators they reach the coordinates to find no other mass relays, however, one team does return with metal wreckage similar to that of the Charon relay and agree that the mass relays must have either perished or been destroyed.

Still, the Charon Mass Relay gives coordinates for another mass relay of 'obvious importance' and exploration teams, a Terra-Forming fleet and several colony ships begin to push out in the direction of the this 'supreme' relay.

2,157 CE – The AE discover the destroyed Great Relay and begin a long term plan to restore the structure and hopefully reconnect the Second Arm to the rest of the galaxy. The local planet of Sanzi is chosen as the colony world for those who will be helping to rebuild the alien technology.

Jacue Taulor (Arid ulie male) is born.

Davin Ackersan graduates from Officer Candidate School with the rank of Celebrated Captain.

2,159 CE – Saren Arterius becomes the youngest turian to be inducted into the Spectres.

Council Era: The Apherian Empire

2,160 CE – The Shattered Relic War

A quarian prospecting crew are chased through the Silent Relay, the partner to the Shattered Relic Relay (found by the AE) by pirates.

The ulies repair the quarian ship and treat the crew of their depleted immune systems. The crew ask the ulies for help with the Migrant Fleet's health and the situation with the geth. The AE refuse to involve themselves with the geth situation, but do send a diplomatic team to the Migrant Fleet.

The distress call that the quarians broadcast before jumping through the relay has been picked up by a turian patrol which travels through the Silent Relay to discover the forces of Sanzi and, believing the forces gathered here to be an invasion force, attack. The ulies are unprepared for the attack but send the turian patrol fleet retreating back through the relay with their superior weaponry.

The turians call for reinforcements and Sanzi prepares for another attack calling in warships from neighbouring systems and setting up stealth teams near the Silent Relay to ambush the turian fleets when they return.

The turians renew their attack. The turians have brought a large fleet, thinking Sanzi is the ulie's homeworld. The stealth operators infiltrate the turian vessels and begin to spy and sabotage turian plans. Ground forces reach the planet surface and are engaged by ground forces led by General Wikenas, a tohel. A squad of turians reach the ulie birthing grounds and, mistaking the mothers, pups and the Pale Guards as just animals they use them as target practise while awaiting orders from the fleet. The Pale Guard attack and the event is witnessed by stealth teams on the ground. When General Wikenas hears of this tragedy he gives his troops the order to leave no turian ground forces alive.

With General Wikenas issuing his orders to kill all attackers the order is sent to the stealth teams on the turian vessels to incapacitate the turian leaders and force surrender. The stealth teams bring the conflict to an end and the turians are forced to surrender.

For the turian ground forces, the order comes too late. The last pocket of turian resistance is cornered against the Tyrafaw Cliffs and the sea and are gunned down by ground troops and aircraft. This period in the Shattered Relic War will become known as the Tyrafaw Massacre.

The Citadel Council finally steps in to prevent the Turian Hierarchy from declaring all out war with the obviously more advanced AE.

The AE and the Citadel Council races meet to discuss reparations of the war.

The ulies return the surviving turians to the Citadel and diplomats meet at Sanzi to see the senseless fighting brought by the turian fleets.

It quickly becomes obvious to the Citadel races that the races in the AE are much older than even their sainted Protheans. The ulies are the oldest race they have come across and are exceptionally intelligent because of their species age. The Council races, even the Protheans, could be considered children by the ulies.

The AE refuse to join the Citadel races, and their 'dated' treaties. Since several races in the AE are machine and even cyborgs they would have to genocide whole races to join.

The Migrant Fleet accept the AE's offer of refugee status within their empire and begin immediate operations to set them up on new planets and repair their immune systems.

General Wikenas is censored for his ruthless actions against the turian ground forces at the Tyrafaw cliffs and stripped of his right to lead troops.

On Apher, Jotei Shenpar dies defending Zanthi from a ladroth attack.

2,161 CE – The AE makes first contact with the cybri, a race of AI robots seeking to revive their makers, the race of xytars, after they were almost wiped out by a genetic flaw which developed in their DNA. Many of the cybri's makers were stored in great cryogenic labs manned by cybri overseers. Until the genetic flaw is removed from the xytar it is not logical to revive them from their cryogenic sleep.

Dr. Si Qun (male valea) offers to help the cybri discover the genetic flaw and appoints Kahlee Sindars as tech analyst of both the cybri and the xytar.

Kaden is biotically assessed by the Grey Wardens. Found to have an uncommon control over his biotics for such a young age he becomes a pupil at a Grey Warden academy.

Asher Wikenas (tohel female) is born.

2,163 CE – After the Shattered Relic War a high ranking member of the Ceatroan Order funds a private campaign for there to be a designated sector of AE politics with Citadel influence to rebuild friendly diplomatic bridges between the two. The Apherian Alliance Parliament (AAP) is formed. Designed to act as the voice of the Apherian Empire High-Council to the Citadel Council and as a face of the Apherian military.

The Blue Suns mercenary group is founded by Zae Masosani (Tundra/Arid ulie male) and Vido Sastangi (Arid ulie male) in the Skylian Verge.

Kaden's skill sees him become one of the most promising Grey Warden students for over fifty years.

Kasumi Goto (human female) is born.

2,164 CE – Tali'Zorah nar Rayya (quarian female) is born.

Jax (attix female) is born.

Zanthi finds a damaged cybri drone left by a cybri merchant ship. Zanthi repairs and upgrades the drone's dated systems and names the drone Poske after the coral that most of ulie technology is built with.

2,165 CE – A survey team working for batarian entrepreneur Edan Had'dah discovers a mysterious artefact orbiting an unnamed planet near the Perseus Veil.

2,167 CE – The Leviathan of Dis, a genenetically-engineered living starship believed to be nearly as old as the ulie race, is discovered by a batarian survey team on the planet of Jartar. The Leviathan disappears under dubious circumstances after a batarian dreadnought passes through the Dis system.

2,169 CE – The Alliance continues to expand the AE into the rest of the galaxy, founding more colonies and establishing trade alliances with many of the other species who recognise the authority of the Citadel Council and several races from the Terminus Systems. Some batarian politians cause tension between the Apherian races and the Hedgemony as they compete for territory in the Skylian Verge, but most batarians can see the benefit of trading with a technologically advanced people (despite the ulies placing tight restrictions on what the batarians can trade for given their slaving and pirating history).

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

Jax is abducted by agents of the Red Lotus, a split section of the Ceatroan Order, on Eden Prime. They fake her death and take her to the Teltin Facility on Pragia as part of a project intended to improve biotics. The Ceatroan Order attacks the facility and rescue the subjects, Jax however, was intended to become the project's main focus and cannot be returned to Eden Prime. The Ceatroan Order instead raise her to become a biotic soldier for the Apherian Alliance.

Zanthi Shenpar becomes the Alpha of a small crèche troop (a troop made up of young ulies mostly under the age of 15).

2,170 CE – Commander Olu Vyssar (Arid ulie male) begins to see great potential in Kaden and takes him under his personal tutelage.

2,171 CE – The magaine Fornax is launched.

Zanthi's troop catches a rogue predator terrorizing a town on Apher. Due to the the predator being caught and killed in a pattern of small streams the townsfolk gave Zanthi's troop the name of the Red Streams.

2,172 CE – Kaden Amenka seriously injures his father when the older male kills Commander Vyssar after an argument between the two about how Kaden is treated within his family troop (his gifted biotics secluded him from his family and scared some of the harsher minded adults). After the incident, Kaden disowns his family troop and becomes a Grey Warden Acolyte.

Zanthi Shenpar enlists her troop in the Alliance Parliament's Military Education Programme.

2,174 CE – The new ulie colony of Mindor is attacked in its early stages by batarian slavers before a strong fleet could be garrisoned to protect the solar system. The attack is fought off but some colonists are captured. This year sees the beginning of batarian / Apherian Empire relationships dropping drastically.

Apherian Stealth teams led by Spirit operatives secretly recover captured colonists (mainly youngsters) from the medium sized fleet that attacked Mindor. Once most of the colonists are secured on stealth ships shadowing the batarian vessels the Spirit operatives rig the batarian ships to explode.

Another ulie colony, Yonda, suffers catastrophic dust-form element zero exposure to its atmosphere when a hanar ship explodes in orbit. Many children suffer birth defects, thirty-seven biotic children are born, including Gillian Grayson (human female).

The first A-61 Meltur Gunships are produced.

2,175 CE – In protest at the refusal of the Citadel Council to appeal against Apherian expansion in the Skylian Verge, the batarians close their embassy, withdraw into their home systems, and effectively become a rogue state.

2,176 CE – Zanthi and her troop decide to become a security group in the town they have settled in and go by the name of the Red Streams, they also accept pleas from neighbouring villages.

Other rover troops begin to join Zanthi and learn from the Alliance codes and practices.

2,177 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 Apherian universities seek to perform excavation, but since the planet comes under Citadel space, Council laws hold burial sites as sacrosanct and prevent this. An ongoing debate over the issue ensues.

Kaden Amenka takes his first mission Grey Warden mission with the Alliance military.

2,178 CE – Asher Wilkenas enlists in the Alliance military.

2,179 CE – On a survey mission to Aeia, an important colonization prospect for the Apherian Alliance, the MSV Huga Gersbak disappears and is presumed destroyed.

Zanthi decides to leave the Red Streams to focus on a career in the military and enlists with the Alliance. Zanthi donates half of her wages to the Red Streams organization throughout her career, she has lived on less money than an eighth of what she earns as an Alliance warrior.

2,180 CE – Batarian-funded pirates and criminals launch a surprise attack on the Apherian colony of Elysia, a main trading hub with the Citadel, later known as the Skylian Raid. The pirates had help from hired AE mercenary groups and stolen ships. The assault is repulsed by Alliance ground teams taking shore leave. Zanthi Shenpar is able to rally the civilians and warriors to launch a counter-attack on enemy held locations. Zanthi Shenpar is labelled a hero (the Roaring Ladrothia) and is given a large amount of land to call her own on Elysia. Zanthi donates this land to the Red Streams who build a huge barracks and training centre, recruitment for the Red Streams sky-rockets.

In the wake of the attack, the AE mercenary groups that were hired by the slavers are shut down by the AE and their members either executed for war crimes against the Empire or imprisoned indefinitely on Silent colonies. Many of the individuals facing the Silent colonies commit suicide before reaching Silent controlled space and planets.

The Red Streams become a mercenary group, that follow a doctrine of fighting for the right cause and opposing the wrong cause, whatever the cost.

Zanthi is promoted to rank of Renowned Commander.

2,181 CE – The Anhur Rebellions, a civil war waged over the practise of slavery, begins on the attix and batarian colony world of Anhur and spread throughout the Amun system. Abolitionism supporters hire the ulie Red Streams mercenary group to fight the batarian pro-slavery Na'hesit faction.

2,182 CE – During a recon mission to find a missing colonial pioneer team on Akuze, a unit of fifty MEA warriors is wiped out by thresher maws.

2,183 CE – In retaliation for the Skylian Blitz, the Alliance and the AE launches a major offensive against the moon of Torfan and destroys the criminal bases there, mostly populated by batarians, Apherian forces then spread to neighbouring systems, flushing out pirate and slaver organizations and taking the systems for their own as a show that attacks against Apherian citizens will no longer be tolerated. The threat against Apherian colonies from batarian extremists is curtailed by the sheer force and adaptability of the Apherian forces.

Riding the waves of the Torfan conflicts, the Alliance tracks several pirate FTL exit vectors over a period of six months using covert monitoring devices planted on Theshaca's moons, leading the Alliance to eight more major pirate anchorages that had fled the Torfan conflicts. 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 Red Streams become a major force in mercenary circles after this victory and smaller forces of Red Stream warriors stay behind to police the planets in the wake of the conflicts.

Jax enlists with the Red Streams auxiliary branch, leaving the Ceatroan Order and the Alliance behind her. With her powerful biotics she quickly gains respect from the higher ranks of the Red Streams.

2,184 CE – Admiral Kihalko of the Apherian Alliance begins investigating the Ceatroan secret order.

2,185 CE – Apherian and Citadel engineers collaborate on a project co-sponsored by the Citadel Council: an experimental frigate with a prototype stealth system, the SEV Capia. Davin Ackersan is given command of the ship, and Legendary Commander Shenpar is assigned as executive officer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mass Effect / Spore ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATED: New timelines and plots have been added.

If anyone sees any continuity errors please inform me and I'll fix them as soon as possible.

I'll add a codex later, but if you want explanations right away, ask in a PM or a review and I'll do my best.

If you want to see what an ulie looks like go to Deviantart and look up Threecats0430, or do a search for "Spore ulie breeds".