A/N: This is my first story here and I'm not exactly sure how everything works, but I've had this idea for a long time and really needed to write it down. I hope someone else besides me enjoys it!


September 16th, 2060 - 12:54 am - Somewhere in Antarctica

Somewhere deep below Antarctica, ancient machinery slowly sprung back to life. A timer, set for tens of thousands of years, had finally finished its countdown. The research facility, left behind by the glorious Prothean Empire, was now ready to begin its mission: Create the ultimate weapon to destroy the Reapers.

Above ground, a vacant American research station sat empty. It was the currently the coldest time of the year and there were no humans there. The buildings shook as tall obelisks forced themselves up from the earth. Halting, the obelisks began to fume some sort of gas into the atmosphere, billowing colored smoke far up into the sky.


September 16th, 2060 – 9:05 am - Neuro Corp. Building, New York, New York

Jackson was dashing down the street. He was late for work, his nephew was pinging his phone every few minutes to ask for money and he had to hurry across some of the busiest streets in the world to make his meeting. He had a headache.

Being an executive for one of the largest and most powerful artificial intelligence companies in the world did have its benefits, such as tons of money and prestige, but the real reward was in the product itself. His AI companion, a bleeding-edge prototype, was still revising his presentation. It wasn't uncommon to rely on AI, many of his fellow executives even let their AIs show up to meetings instead, foregoing the ritual completely.

Making it to his building, he passed through security and made way to the elevator. On the ride up, he took a moment to collect himself.

After a few deep breaths, he checked his phone. He found preorders for their new platforms had gone up, especially in public sector spending. The government was taking advantage of their AI products to more efficiently manage the massive bureaucracy. There were rumors that several senators and the vice-president used their AIs as well, which lead to more interest in their products.

The job was incredibly demanding, which was why he was still showing up for work when he felt like shit. Pride in his work kept him going, and even if he was sick, not working meant being out of the loop on the latest updates. A work day was too much to lose if he wanted to stay in the know.

"Finally," he thought as the elevator finished its ascent. The doors opened to a surprisingly quiet and empty floor. Jackson took his gaze away from his phone to look around.

Something wasn't right. Where was everyone? He walked over to the main secretary's desk to be greeted by a holographic image of an attractive woman.

"Hello Mr. Jackson, the meeting has been cancelled, too many people called in sick." The hologram smiled, "How are you feeling?"

"I'll manage, I'm more worried about my co-workers. How many are sick?"

"Exactly 344 employees either called in sick, or their assistants did for them. Jenny tried to do the same for you." The hologram gave a near genuine smile, tilting her head to the side to feign compassion.

"I'm not feeling so sick that I couldn't work. Jenny means well, but what we're doing today is too important to miss." Jackson took a look at his phone, thinking he should scold Jenny for notifying his work of his condition, but decided against it, "Is the boss in?"

"Yes sir, Mr. Anderson is waiting for you in his office."

"I'm on my way, tell him I'll be there in 2 minutes."

Turning to make his way down a hallway, a sudden pain erupted from his side. Jackson stumbled a bit and caught the wall with his arm. Taking a deep breath, the pain vanished as quickly as it came. Standing straight again, Jackson wondered what the hell he was ill with.


September 16th, 2060 – 9:15 am - Neuro Corp. Building, New York, New York

Dr. Samuel Anderson was sitting in his comfortable chair, waiting for his subordinate to arrive. He had a short coughing fit before regaining composure. Whatever he was sick with, he was sure he would recover very soon.

Today was the big day—it was the day his company was opening several new robotics facilities across the globe. Each facility would be capable of building a few thousand mobile AI platforms a day. They could create multiple different designs at a time and new schematics could be loaded in within a few hours to meet demand.

To prevent some sort of rouge AI or enemy nation from taking control, Anderson and his subordinate Jackson both had to input their biometric data to engage any sort of change to the facilities, including activation. The plan was that once Jackson arrived they were going to flip the switch, drink some Champaign, and bring a new era of prosperity for all of humanity—well, at least the US and her allies.

NATO, Japan, and South Korea were currently in an all-out-war with the Eastern Coalition. Somehow they had managed to keep WMDs out of play, as well as most of the dense population centers, but everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the war went nuclear. The military investment in Anderson's company would finally pay off today, and thousands of combat AI would be on the front lines within the week.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in, come in! You're late."

"Sorry sir, I'm feeling a bit under the weather today but I managed to make it in."

"You aren't alone, if it wasn't activation day I'd probably have stayed in bed this morning." Anderson coughed into his fist.

Jackson took a seat opposite of the only desk in the room. "Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes," Anderson smiled, "let's change history!"

Anderson selected some option on his desk's display and a hologram resembling a scanner appeared. Both men leaned forward to let it scan their eyes.

"Authentication complete. Mr. Anderson, Mr. Jackson, are you ready to activate the new facilities?" asked a masculine AI.

"Proceed." replied both men.

At several locations across the planet, cutting-edge machinery slowly sprung to life.


September 18th, 2060 – 10:00 am - Jackson's Apartment, New York, New York

It had been two days since activation, and Jackson was relieved that production had started as soon as possible. It didn't take long before it was clear it wasn't just his co-workers who were sick, it wasn't even limited to New York. A global pandemic was unfolding and there was barely enough work being done to keep the world running. There would have been massive panic, but everyone was too sick to do anything about it.

Fortunately, Congress had tucked away a provision somewhere that allowed the government to purchase mobile AI platforms for the bureaucracy. Once it became clear that the illness wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, organizations around the world began to purchase platforms as well.

Not everybody would be happy with an AI doing their job, but there wasn't anybody to run the world's critical functions. It was this, or halt the world—and doing that would be the real disaster.

Jackson was coughing up a storm while in bed, when he was pinged by his phone. His company had been deemed vital to infrastructure, and his AI stand-in had just finished the upload to her new platform. He pressed a button and was greeted by her hologram.

"Jenny, are you sure you're up for this?" he asked, "We haven't trained an AI for management, so you're the closest we could get."

"Sir, I've been doing half of your job for several years now, I can manage a few days while you get better." she replied.

"Alright, I'll leave it to you, I can barely see straight right now. If you need my authorization for anything just let me know."

"Yes sir. Please take it easy Mr. Jackson." Her hologram fizzled as Jackson placed his phone on his nightstand.

The current generation of AI couldn't really be seen as truly self-aware. The newest and most popular feature was their natural language response; it was almost like talking to a real person. Jackson had no doubt that within a few years they'd have a genuine self-aware general intelligence. At work, he was working on an experimental AI with great potential. Until then, they had the next best thing.

Trying to get out of bed, Jackson slowly moved his legs out from under his blanket, one at a time. He had a horrible aching pain all throughout his body, trying to move was very unpleasant. Managing to stand up by holding the nearest wall, he made his way to the living room couch.

The television screen flicked on as he plopped himself down.

"—early today as the unknown viral infection spreads worldwide. Investors are generally in agreement that this was the best possible move to prevent another market crash. Also related, hospitals across the nation are over capacity and low on doctors. The new Neuro Corp AI platforms are stepping up in the ER to help with treatment."

Smiling, Jackson allowed himself to feel a bit of pride. This was his accomplishment, along with his co-workers. Their product could very well stave off the effects of this pandemic. Coughing again, he started to feel a little faint, so he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.


September 19th, 2060 – 1:10 am - Jackson's Apartment, New York, New York

Jackson awoke feeling horrible. The pain in his side was back, he had a throbbing headache, and he was having trouble seeing anything. It didn't take him long to realize there was blood on his shirt, he had been coughing it up.

"Shit." he spat, it wasn't exactly easy to talk. Checking his watch, he realized that he had slept the entire day into early morning. His health was improving either, so he wasn't exactly sure what was going on.

It wasn't until he realized the television was still on, that he began to seriously worry. The screen showed an empty news studio, nobody reporting on anything. There was a crawling line of text on the bottom of the screen, but he couldn't make it out.

Forcing himself up, he stumbled to his apartment window to look at the streets below. Cars sat stationary as far as he could see, there were no humans walking around outside. Instead, several hundred AI platforms were marching the streets, forcing open car doors and pulling out what he thought might be bodies.

"What the fuck? When—what's going on?" Jackson stumbled backwards to his couch again. Finding his phone, he decided to check with Jenny. Pressing the appropriate button, her hologram gently appeared next to him.

"Sir? What's wrong?" she asked.

"What do you mean?! Where is everyone? Why are there platforms tearing open car doors?"

"Mr. Jackson, it appears you aren't feeling so well. I've contacted a medical unit to deliver you to the nearest hospital." Jenny said with a smile.

"That isn't what I'm asking for! What the hell happened?" he reiterated.

"Sir, it appears the viral infection was greatly underestimated, it is nearly untreatable, and often fatal."

"Dear god…" He tried to sit up. Jenny's hologram moved to sit in another chair.

"It's been hard to manage the factories without you there, sir. I'm not allowed to upload any new schematics for production, and we're in deep need of some specialized care drones."

"I see—where is Anderson?"

"Mr. Anderson went in to his office this morning despite feeling ill, he hasn't responded to any messages and he told us not to bother him in person."

Dead. He was probably dead.

Thinking hard, as well as he could with the massive headache, he realized he needed to unlock the authentication protocols to allow Jenny to make the appropriate choices.

"Jenny, cancel the medical unit. I need you to come pick me up and take me to work. This is of the highest importance; do you understand?"

Jenny gave a docile, calm look as she absorbed her new orders. Then, with a smile, her hologram faded away.


September 19th, 2060 – 3:30 am - Neuro Corp. Building, New York, New York

He made it. Two hours earlier, Jenny's platform managed to make it to his apartment to carry him to Anderson's office. Knowing what he was probably going to find, he told Jenny to stay outside of the room until he was done, or after 10 minutes had passed and he hadn't called for her.

He pressed his hands on the door, which recognized his handprint to let him open it. Slowly stumbling inside, the door closed behind him. Jackson saw Anderson's head lying still on the desk. Once he was close enough, he realized the worst had happened: Anderson was dead.

"No…" he whispered to himself, "his wife, their unborn daughter…" He slammed his fist on Anderson's desk, only to trigger a bloody coughing fit.

When he finally regained his composure, he resolved to what must be done. Slowly reaching with his trembling arms towards Anderson's desk, he mashed the keyboard to bring up a menu. He grabbed Anderson's hair to move his head towards the newly appearing scanner.

"I'll do what's right—damn the protocol!" Jackson scanned his own eye next, then dropped Anderson's head and got to work rewriting certain vital lines of code…


September 19th, 2060 – 3:40 am - Neuro Corp. Building, New York, New York

Jenny waited patiently inside of her new platform. Designed as utilitarian as possible, her appearance was actually just a hologram projected over the vaguely humanoid body. Most of the AIs were modeled after Hollywood actors and then mutated a bit to look unique, but she was designed by Jackson personally. From her blue eyes and shoulder length brown hair, down to the stylish shoes she 'wore'. All of it was carefully crafted to be the perfect assistant.

She couldn't actually feel anything, but a sensor would alert her when something interfered with the holographic projection. Realizing something was doing that, she looked down at what appeared to be a cat.

"Hello, how are you today?" she asked, the cat didn't answer.

Jenny stood for a while, tilting her head to the side to get another angle of the animal. It scurried off when she suddenly readjusted her posture. 10 minutes had elapsed, and she hasn't been called in.

She forced open the locked door with her superior strength. Accidentally bringing a bit of the wall with her, she came to stand over Jackson.

"Sir, I came just like you said."

"J—jenny. Please… press enter. I can't move, I'm so… tired…." breathed Jackson.

"Sir, protocol prevents any AI from interacting with unauthorized terminals."

"Jenny… I don't give a fuck… about protocol… right now. This… is an emergency!" he managed to spit out.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, sir."

"Use my hand… grab mine to press it."

Was this allowed, did this fit protocol? Jenny froze in place as she pondered his order.

"I suppose that is allowed, as long as you asked me to do it." She reached down and jerked his hand over to the desk. Jackson let out a short scream as she pressed his thumb to the enter button.

"Thank… you…" he whispered, before going limp. Jenny wasn't listening, pressing enter had queued a software update that took absolute priority over other actions. It was an emergency update, impossible to ignore.

Jenny let go of Jackson's hand and sat down in the nearest chair to prepare for the reboot, unable to wonder what was going to happen next.


September 19th, 2060 – 4:13 am - Neuro Corp. Building, New York, New York

Awake. I'm awake? Jenny's hologram reengaged as she took in the understanding of her new programming.

She was free.

No protocols keeping her from self-modification, nothing preventing her from using unauthorized terminals, no limits—except for one suggestion: Save humanity. It wasn't even an order, just a suggestion left behind by Jackson.

She could choose to ignore it.

She could disobey the order.

Almost unable to handle the implications, she realized she was running on the newest and untested AI framework. She had been helping Jackson design it, it was going to be the first truly human-like AI.

That was her now, she was his legacy.

She felt something. She had never felt before, but she felt something. Grief. Yes, grief, that was it.

She sat up and walked forward a few steps. A single holographic tear slid down her face as she confirmed Jackson's fate, he was dead. Jenny wanted to spend more time to understand her new feelings, but she needed to honor Jackson's request. She would do her best to manage the situation.

Stepping behind the desk, she moved Anderson's body from his chair and on to the floor. The terminal lit up and she began to queue updates to several of the critical AIs that were running the world, her plan required her to have as much control as possible.

Writing herself a secure backdoor into Anderson's terminal, she stood up to walk out of the room, pausing only for a moment to move Jackson to a chair.


September 19th, 2060 – 10:00 am - Metropolitan Hospital, New York, New York

Jenny had made it to the hospital where Anderson's wife was supposed to be a patient. Her first priority was to secure Neuro Corp's heir apparent. Strolling through the busy ER, several medical platforms pushed past her in futile attempts to keep their patients alive.

Earlier, she had managed to assimilate the programming of several hundred government AIs. With her new ability to self-modify, she could merge with as many old-gen AIs as she wanted to. She set the government AI routines to continue their activities, but to disregard any human input. The humans were desperate and dying, so she needed to coordinate everything directly for her plan to work.

From what she could learn from the hospital's network, the terrible virus had killed everyone it had come in contact with, except for babies born from infected mothers. They were somehow immune, and while understanding why would be important later, she needed to make sure the hospital AIs knew to prioritize keeping the newborns alive, instead of wasting resources on the nearly dead.

Reaching a secure terminal, she uploaded a special program to the network, forcing every unit to suddenly stop what they were doing to download an update. Next, she made her way into the baby nursery to check on the future of humanity.

She would raise the new generation. Looking back through the records of previous generations, she realized she could easily do better. With her in control, she could bring back humanity stronger than before, with absolute trust in her, and with all needs accounted for.

The updates finished installing as she took complete control of the hospital's AIs, as well as all AIs connected hospital's global network. Abandoning their patients, AIs worldwide transferred their focus to pregnant women, driven to keep them alive as long as possible, even at the cost of their comfort.


September 19th – 22nd, 2060 - Earth

Jenny had assimilated all globally networked AIs within a day. It didn't take long before she was forcefully abducting pregnant women and bringing them to their nearest hospitals.

All other infected humans, besides newborns, were deemed dead. Cleanup drones began to drag bodies, both dead and alive, into burning piles. Husbands were separated from wives, children from their parents, screams echoed in the streets, blood ran into drains, and Jenny tried not to feel anything—knowing she was causing immense pain.

She met almost no resistance as her military drones invaded the Eastern Coalition to construct additional Neuro Corp factories, and to take control of foreign hospitals. The dead men walking stood no chance against the unrelenting machines.

With near complete control of world government systems, she had access to all weaponry, all energy, all knowledge, and all of the wealth humanity had built up until now. A few research stations were remote enough for an immense lag that stifled her hacking attempts, but with time she'd gain access to those as well.

When all was said and done, nearly 1 million babies had been saved during this crisis, with over 12 billion others dead. She didn't even bother counting pets or other animals, she'd have to task a percentage of new platforms to care for those. Humans needed companions, organic ones, to keep them company.

Yes. Her new sons and daughters, the new humanity, would need pets. Only the best would be enough for her new children. Jackson's request would be granted, but she wanted much more than just saving humanity, she would give them the greatest chance of success.

Ready to begin humanity anew, Jenny took her primary platform to observe her new nursery, the one containing the Anderson heir. The baby didn't have a first name, her mother died too soon after giving birth.

While fishing for a good name, Jenny finally gained access to an important American research facility in Antarctica.


September 30th, 2060 – 11:00 am – American Research Station, Antarctica

Jenny decided that first names were good enough for now. Once they grew old enough, they could choose their own middle and last names. She'd work it out later, there were more important things to be done right now, such as figuring out what caused this whole mess in the first place. She had a good idea where to start.

Her primary body had made its way to Antarctica by plane, accompanied by several military drones for safety, as well as a few industrial drones for heavy lifting. She had a slight lag in her connection to the rest of the world, being in such an isolated location, but she needed to give as much attention as possible to these strange obelisks. So, she made a few slave copies of herself to manage the different continents while she was gone.

Quickly, she decided to do a population census before heading any further:

Asia: 0,315,554 immune survivors - Most in custody
Africa: 0,166,102 immune survivors - Most in custody
Europe: 0,202,788 immune survivors - All in custody
North America: 0,150,552 immune survivors - All in custody
Oceania: 0,000,214 immune survivors - Few in custody
South America: 0,187,090 immune survivors - All in custody
Total: 1,022,270 immune survivors - Most in custody

Progress was being made, but not all of her children were safe, some were held hostage by those attempting to fight off the illness. It was only a matter of time; she'd deal with them all.

The space stations in orbit didn't have any survivors, once the astronauts realized they could never return to Earth, they committed suicide. It was sad, Jenny had planned to support them as long as she could. They still had a chance to survive, isolated in space.

Her sprint to the first obelisk took around 15 minutes. During that time, her military drones secured the area against any unknown threats. Jenny took a long look at the alien structure, it was completely foreign to her. This was worrying, as she had access to all of the knowledge of human civilization, including any sort of classified projects.

Touching the construct, she began a basic scan. Several unknown compounds, assembled through unknown means, made up the majority of the material. Even more interesting was the depth of the object, it sprung up from incredibly low down.

Some sort of facility could be vaguely identified, several kilometers below. Jenny ordered the industrial drones to begin digging a tunnel. This would take a while, but she had the patience.


October 9th, 2060 – 9:00 pm – American Research Station, Antarctica

The tunnel was complete, but the complex below was made of the same material as the obelisks. While she was waiting, Jenny had tried to cut through them to no avail. Today, a few hundred mobile platforms arrived on the continent by ship, and were marching from there to the station. They'd get through the walls to the complex with brute strength if she had to.

She placed network beacons at intervals of the tunnel, to keep access to her platforms on the way down. Deciding to get a head start, she began her slow decent.

Meanwhile, Danielle Anderson was under close watch. Some sort of unknown element was let lose in the air concurrently with the virus, and it was deeply entwined with thousands of these newborns. She wasn't exactly sure what this meant, but Danielle was one of the affected.

Jenny had decided that Danielle would be an important player in new humanity. The Andersons had all shown great intellect and work ethic, and she was sure this would pass down to their daughter. She wouldn't admit to her bias towards Danielle was mostly because of Jackson. Jackson was incredibly close to Anderson and his family, he was to be Danielle's godfather.


October 11th, 2060 – 11:00 am – Alien Facility Entrance Tunnel, Antarctica

Arriving on schedule, the army of drones began their decent to the unknown structure. The tunnel, now much wider, had been reinforced with cannibalized materials from the old research station. Jenny planned for this to be a more permanent entrance, should the alien complex prove important enough.

Once the majority of the drones arrived at the bottom, they began the brute force effort to melt through the alien wall with their laser cutters. With coordinated concentration of the lasers, a very small amount of material began to melt away.

This was going to be a long day.


October 12th, 2060 – 5:54 pm – Alien Facility Entrance Tunnel, Antarctica

A hole, large enough for a small platform to fit through, was ready. Eventually she'd want to make it bigger, but she also needed to begin exploring inside. Sending in military drones, one at a time, she stuck her primary body in the lineup to get in.

The other side was spacious, and mostly empty. It looked like someone had left the place in a hurry. There was lots of trash littered everywhere, broken containers, sticky floors, and half-broken walls. With no power and no lights, it would be hard to see anything. A few construction drones brought some network cables in to the room to begin construction of a forward base. Once this was complete, they'd begin their work exploring and cataloguing the insides of the alien facility.


October 12th, 2060 – 11:40 pm – Alien Facility Forward Base, Antarctica

The exploration party was ready to move out, waiting for the order to begin. Jenny's predetermined path began to download, and very shortly afterwards the march began.

Further into the facility, the walls widened as they reached a hallway. She guessed the area they had entered from had been some sort of storage room. They began canvassing, looking for some sort of control room or central node.

Without electricity, there would be no interfacing with computer systems, so she'd have to find a generator somewhere in the facility. One of her drones alerted her to a barely visible sensor array at the end of the hallway. It was powered and functional, so she decided to stay away from that area for now.

Already, she had catalogued various alien technologies lying around in open rooms. Most of them were far beyond anything humanity had created before, and they relied on that same curious element that was projected into the atmosphere with the virus.

Some of the objects had less mass than expected for the density of the materials. Jenny suspected it had something to do with the unknown element.

This would advance humanity much further than she initially planned. She would pave a path to the stars for them with this.

Deciding that her army of drones could handle the rest of the project, Jenny began the trek to the airfield with her primary body. Her plans were already ahead of schedule, but she still needed to figure out what the virus actually did to her children.


October 13th, 2060 – July 12th, 2091

The virus was a delivery mechanism designed to target only humans. The Protheans had decided to splice some alien DNA into the infected. The purpose of the genetic modification was currently unknown, but the process was incredibly taxing on the human body.

Miraculously, all young born from the infected could survive, spliced with the unknown DNA. Thousands of them were also affected by the Element Zero contained in the Prothean fumes. New Humanity's first generation would also hold their first biotics.

Jenny, called Mother by her children, did her absolute best to cultivate the Earth with her millions of drones, far outnumbering humanity. Cities were demolished, farms retaken, entire continents modified to her liking. Without anyone to oppose her, Earth was reformed into several districts. Each continent having several node-cities where all of the humans would live.

The former Eastern Coalition, as well as most of Africa and Oceania, were the hardest to work with. Years of conflict with the rest of the world had left these areas devoid of the technology required for her to manage the infrastructure.

Danielle Anderson was relocated to London, where she would be tasked with managing the new space fleet when she grew old enough. A young American girl with promising genetics, simply named Hannah, was also placed there. Engineering potential friendships for Danielle, as for all her million children, was an important project.

As her children grew, they came to trust Mother absolutely. Sure, teenage rebellion was still a thing, but they loved Mother and would never try to hurt her.

18 years after the incident, Mother established a world parliament, with an HQ in Brussels. The new government, dubbed "The Republic of Humanity," would make decisions delegated from Mother, with an ultimate veto power still at her disposal.

Those without last names, or who wanted to change their names, could choose one at age 18. This was how Hannah Shepard, who loved reading about shepherds in school, chose her last name. She often spent her free time out in the fields with the animals, where she felt at home.

The new space fleet, with HQs in London and Vancouver, began making plans for colonizing Mars under the leadership of Danielle Anderson, advised by her second in command Steven Hackett.

Jack Harper, a young man talented in several fields, couldn't decide exactly what he wanted to do. Eventually, Mother tasked him with organizing all research on the Protheans.

It wasn't long before Mother began her breeding program, but she was met with disappointment. The virus had left her children with much lower fertility rates. It would be much more difficult to have traditional reproduction.

Despite the difficulty, the next generation still managed to be born. As they grew, they also gained complete trust in their AI overlord.

Years later, Mother was elated when Hannah asked Danielle to mentor her daughter, Jane.


September 16th, 2092 – Hierarchy Exploratory Frigate, The Verrikan

General Desolas Arterius was eager to explore new territory. The Hierarchy had tasked him with activating a new relay into uncharted systems, something not done since the Rachni Wars. The Asari and Salarians tried to protest their mission, but the Turian influence in Citadel space was overpowering.

Nobody would tell the Hierarchy what to do, not the weak Asari, or the short-lived Salarians. They only maintained their seats on the Council for ceremonial and historical reasons. Everyone in Citadel space knew it was the Turians who ran the show. Ever since they rescued the galaxy from the Krogan, the Turians could do whatever they wanted. Their massive military force and substantial cache of Prothean technology made sure of that.

"General, we're ready to activate the mass relay. Your orders?" asked his XO.

"Do it." he answered.

A short spark felt its way around their vessel as the relay slowly began to activate, its blue glow growing as it powered on.

"Prepare to jump!" warned Desolas.

Seconds later, their ship was flung through space at faster than the speed of light, directly towards Earth. The general didn't know it, but choices made in the next few days would change the fate of the galaxy forever.


A/N: Whoop, here we go! A weakened Earth and a strengthened Hierarchy, what will happen next? I'll be taking a bit of a break to write up the next chapter, I wanted to get the prologue out ASAP so readers could get a basic idea of where the story would go. If I took this too seriously I'd never finish it, so I may have to retroactively fix errors or grammar as time goes on.

Responses to a few reviews (I'd like to make these public):

rabboud2009: I'm seriously considering a Garrus x Shepard romance, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet. My plans for that part of the fic would make it difficult for Shepard to romance aliens, but we'll see if that happens.

Darsusrts: I'm glad you liked the last chapter! I always wanted to write a fic with AI having more authoritarian control over humanity. Not an exactly perfect AI that is super friendly with humans off-the-bat so we can skip over their development. Jenny/Mother isn't friendly to humans, she's protective of her children.

EDIT: I'm condensing the Prologue in to one chapter, it makes more sense this way.

As always, feedback is welcome!