Humans. A divided race with an overactive imagination, an extreme paranoia, and a barely restrained bloodlust just waiting to be released. They are social creature that are perfectly willing to wipe themselves out over the littlest of things. More than 20 times the Citadel Council prevented their extinction and humanity always proved that it was worth it. Today we will look at some of the changes humanity brought to the board with their introduction during the 2nd Geth war.
Plasma weapon.
Encased in a heat resistant material the shell holds a device which turns the internal gases into plasma. Far lighter than tradition ammo the shell can travel faster when fired from a MAC. Designed to activate after reaching a curtain distance from its target the shell quickly fills with plasma and impacts the shields of enemy targets. Upon shattering the shell the plasma slows down and splashes the hull or walls of a target. Massive heat transfer occurs and this is where the true damage happens. Do to it slowing down significantly from impact the now free plasma passes through the barriers of a target and transfers heat to an target slightly melting it but causing a massive temperature spike. Mass effect weapons are known to overheat and need time to cool down. The additional heat from the plasma causes them to shut down or risk melting. It can also melt sensitive electronics and cook the crew if stays on long enough. With the addition of disruptor tech the shells can now directly hit enemy targets and a variant with a laser drill can inject the plasma into an enemy target. The plasma is keep from melting the shell through the use of magnets.
Gatling system.
Used in starships, heavy weapons, and vehicular weapons, the falling systems uses multiple heat sinks to store heat. For gatling guns, mini guns, and sentry turrets this means it can fire faster for longer without increasing cooling time. For MAC cannons this allows them to fire and then rotate out the used heat sink to cool and immediately fire again. This drastically increases the fire rate of any weapons platform in the alliance and allows their ships to fire much faster than the citadels.
Nanite missiles.
Filled with non-replicating nanites the warhead hits a target or its shields and then dispenses its payload. The nanites then either hack or take apart a target. Do to the very real danger of out of control nanites they cannot replicate and are programmed to destroy any nanites that start to. Variations are used to spy on targets or sabotage them. The more there are the deadlier they become. All nanites created for destruction purposes come preloaded with instructions and do not have the capabilities to receive signals. As a result they cannot be hacked en mass and must be hacked by hand. This prevents them from targeting non hostiles. Upon completing the objective destruction nanites begun to attack each other and tear each other apart until only 1 remains functional while the others remain as piles of resources that cannot be put back together. The last nanites then self terminates its program. Grenade variants exist of the destruction and hacking nanites. Bullet variants only exist in the sniper and anti vehicular shell. Designed to be released upon penetrating a target they can tear enemy armour apart and mean any shot is fatal if it remains in a target.
Gravity bombs.
By using the same technology as artificial gravity generators, the gravity bomb increases the gravity of itself. This increased gravity rips targets apart and crushes them. It can tear the hulls of starships it detonates near and crush anything that gets pulled into the gravity well. So to its nature the bomb us short lived and destroys itself upon activation. Limits to the weapons gravity are put in place to prevent the creation of mini black holes and it is banned for use on planets or stars. The reason being that the gravity well could absorb and compress to much mass before it dissipates and it could great a short loved black hole which could devastate a planet or destabilise a star of it gains enough mass. Anti gravity grenades exist to lift targets out of cover and into a weapons sights. Gravity grenades can flatten targets like pancakes.
Thermal ammo clips.
A hybrid between thermal clips, power cells, and ammo clips that are inserted into a rail gun, mass effect weapon, or hybrid weapon system. The clip itself looks like a standard weapons clip however it was designed to extract the heat from a weapon as its fired. The ammo is not chemical propulsion based and as such there is no risk to it detonating in the clip. As the projectile is loaded into to weapon it extracts the heat produced and stores it to be either used to recharge shields or disposed of. Different clips hold different amounts of ammo but it is designed to reach maximum heat capacity when it runs out of ammo meaning you only need to replace 1 clip once. Special ports for the clips are attached to armour that drain then of their heat and allow for either the heat to be converted into a useable energy to charge armour systems like shielding or targeting. The larger size of the projectiles compared to citadel weapons means an increase in the energy required to fire them. This results in humans having bigger bullets that pack bigger punches but heat up the gun faster. Original designs took the heat produced by the magnet to charge the weapon butler not enough heat was produced to be effect so a power and ammo pact was worn to both automatically charge the weapons clip as well as reload it. With the addition of eezo to the weapon enough heat was produced to successfully charge the weapon or shields but not both.
Electric weapons.
Electric guns are useless in space but in atmosphere they work by firing a magnetized projectile which creates a path that the electricity follows. This can be used to short out shields, shock opponents, and shut down drones and droids. Depending on the charge it can either stun or kill a target.
The electrified monomolecular blade is a variant of standard monomolecular blade and is designed to add extra damage to a target. It is advised to wear clothes that are not conductive as its charge will travel through metal floors.
Monomolecular blades are blades of super hardened carbon that have been sharpened down to the width of a molecule with lasers and as such can slice through most materials. Do to its sharpness the blade has a magnetized core that activates in its shielth so that it doesn't cut its way out and fall.
Electric variants have lines of conductive material that branch out towards the edge and faces of the blade and draw power from an internal battery in the hilt. It slices and shocks enemies.
Swarms.
Drones designed to either create localized emps, jam communications, or act a explosives, the swarm is made up of hundreds of small centimeter long drones making them difficult to destroy.
Explosive - They can easily slip past shields and detonate.
Emp - They create an emp by discharging all electricity in them. Forcing them to shut down and short out any unprotected systems.
Jammers - They create a sphere around a target area emit electromagnetic radiation that blocks any EM signal from leaving.
It doesn't work QECs.
Direct energy weapon.
Mounted on vehicles the DEW fires a pulse of EM radiation at a target and can melt sensitive equipment. Do to energy requirement the weapon is not handheld but is used with flack guns to target missiles and aircraft on starships.
FTLMAC. The Faster Than Light Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is an experimental weapons system installed in the Arcturus Stations ODN system. It fires a slug at 1000 times the speed of light and devastates anything it hits. The weapon requires massive amounts of energy and can only be avoided by performing an FTL jump out of its targeting range. It fires a 500 tonne slug from a 6km rail gun that can gut any starship. Length 6km width .5km height .5km
Magnetic mines.
Small magnetic explosive mines use VIs to target ship based weapons like point defense systems. Upon attaching to a target they detonate and disable the weapon. They can also target structural weak points.
FTL kamikaze drones.
Drones with FTL capabilities increase their mass and target enemy ships and move at FTL speeds from outside of sensor range. Upon impact massive amounts of force are released and swarms of these drones can quickly drain shield and gut starships. Similar to their ground based cousins these drones are a nightmare to any who face them. You won't detect them until they impact and when they do they can cripple any target. Smaller variants wait until they enter the shields of a target before accelerating to FTL allowing for a direct attack at an enemy hull. However while they are accelerating and before FTL they are detectable and can be shot down by point defense. All are shaped for armour piercing and have on board VI targeting systems as well as a small mass effect engine.
MPGs magnetically propelled grenades. A metallic round with a core filled with a high yield explosive such as the c series of plastic explosives or thermite. Upon impact with shields or piercing enemy armour the thermite or explosives ignite and deal more damage. They are fired from a rail gun at high velocities. With the addition of eezo to the weapon, the speed of the MPG was greatly increased at the cost of increased heat. Damage is done in 2 parts. First the piercing, second is the chemical core.
Shielding and armor. With the Citadel races sharing their shielding technology during the 2nd Geth war, human soldiers now had more protection than just their carbon nanotube Kevlar weave. Advanced power armours use titanium alloy or ceramics with the weave. Power armor was once thought to be a dream but with citadel research into neural links providing additional data to make an armor that acted with instead of reacted to the signals of the wielder. Expensive to make, power armor is reserved so the elite of the elite. Shield generators are under layers of armor in human power packs and are closer to the skin than human ammo.
Ammunition. Human ammo is unique in that it is the largest projectiles used by any modern military. Most species use the ammo block system but humans seem to be insulted by it even if it grants the user near limitless ammo. Despite this advantage a human General was quoted as saying "All the ammo in the world is useless if you can't use it." because of the slow cool down time leaving troops vulnerable, humans prefer their clip system even if it means they are at risk of running out of ammo. Despite this flaw human ammunition is notoriously powerful due to eezo reducing the mass of a round before firing it allowing for said round to be accelerated to a much higher velocity than precariously possible. This increase in velocity counteracts the decrease in mass allowing for the force to remain the same. The ammo itself is a bullet shaped projectile that varies from chemical filled, technological, eezo, solid, or hollow projectiles.
Chemical projectiles are broken into several types such as thermite-incendiary, liquid nitrogen-cryo, white phosphorus-incendiary( banned under citadel and human laws but still produced and used by black ops units in Human space whenever they are trying to make a statement), hydrochloric and sulphuric-acid( banned but still produced by black ops) a large variety of other harmful chemicals and radioactive materials are also used but are banned. During the Batarian-human war and the Human-terminus war, alliance soldiers were reported to use organic bullets with either a levo or dextro core to poison enemy troops even creating a grenade variant that could cripple anyone of the wrong acid type.
Technological ammo. Despite disruptor ammo exiting for ages upon receiving it humans took it to its extreme. Disruption doesn't just stop when the shields are pierced but continues on when the bullet lodges into its target. Each bullet can last for 1 minute on its limited power supply prevent shields from charging and leaving a target vulnerable. Electric ammo is an ammo created to fight the Geth and its effectiveness against mechs and vehicles was nothing to scoff at. It's casing is shielded to prevent the magnets from damaging it during acceleration. The shock can temporarily shut down vehicles or completely overload mechs if proper shielding isn't in place.
Eezo rounds come in two types, the first randomly fluctuates creating an unstable warp upon impact and can tear through shields and rip armor apart, the second, drastically increases its mass upon impact with its target changing the mass of the bullet to compensate for the loss in velocity allow the force to remain even after shattering shields or piercing armor. Due to its use of eezo and the risk of eezo poisoning the debate on whether to ban the round is ongoing. It doesn't help that it is the most expensive bullet type.
Solid bullets are nothing more than chunks of metal or alloys designed to pierce. Their variants are based on the materials used to make them and can range from fragmentation to radioactive. Many types of solid ammo have already been banned due to their ability to cause unparalleled pain as opposed to simply killing a target. They have the greatest force of all non explosive bullets.
Hollow bullets are designed to pierce enemy armor before shredding their insides. This ammo type is best known for its use in the Batarian war when it turned a Batarian slaver ship into pulled pork. Despite being called hollow some larger variants are equipped with disruptor technology to bypass shields. All hollow bullets come with a solid tip to pierce enemy armor. Once shields and armor have been bypassed the shell fragments and tears apart anything in its way. Ethics committees are still debating on whether or not it should be banned.
Due to the size of human ammo a larger variety of bullets can be used and it makes specialization easy. By switching the bullet type one can turn a sniper rifle into an anti tank rifle in an instant making the Human soldier one of the most versatile in the galaxy.
Implants. All humans are implanted with a translator at a young age. Ocular implants allow one to read any language while war implants allow for them to understand any language spoken to them. Military officers are also equipped with a variety of more advanced versions allowing for one to hear ultra or infrasound as well as see in any wavelength of the EM spectrum and more including creating implants that allow one to truly see in those spectrums and even see colors that ordinary humans can't imagine. Neural implants are mandatory for all human forces allowing for them to track each other, monitor their teams health as well as creating the Human battle-net. The battle-net allows humans to keep in contact and even see what their squad mates see. All these implants take time to adjust too but when combined allow for a simple colonial garrison to behave like special forces. Once battle-net was implemented following the 2nd Geth war human effectiveness in fighting skyrocket by more than 600%. It's effectiveness was proved in the skyllian blitz when human forces successfully stayed in contact and coordinated a counterattack before any slavers could escape.
All the innovations humans brought to the galactic stage changed how warfare was fought. Human naval doctrine saw dreadnoughts lose their shock value and paint them as targets to be swarmed instead of avoided. Human ships are often considered ugly by other races due to their blocky shapes. Most vessels look like large rectangular prisms with 2 slanted 'wings' near the bottom. The wings main purpose was to carry extra torpedo bays. (Thing unsc ships with alliance wings attached near the bottom.) Humans prefer using drone piloted strike craft to overwhelm point defense systems and destroy enemy ships while dreadnoughts act as long range artillery. With the introduction of the Human carrier and the dangerous pre programmed drones, drones that cannot be hacked remotely due to them being incapable of receiving signals, naval warfare saw a shift from to a much more tactical variant. Dreadnoughts which were once the main attack vessels saw a shift towards a more supportive role.
Human weapons are diverse and can often cause devastating results. Following the Batarian Human war humanity began implementing what is known as the relay trap. Positioned around a relay are their magnetic mines and FTL drones designed to destroy any ship that doesn't have a friendly IFF. Being too small or too fast to track any ship it registers as hostile is rammed with massive force. During the Reaper war this strategy drastically weakened reaper shields allowing for defending fleets to destroy far more than before. FTLMACs are currently banned from ever entering a system with a habitable planet do to their ability to crack a planet's crust in one volley. They are massive and expensive using more eezo than the destiny ascension and being 3-6 times longer than the largest vessels at 6km. Being a 6km eezo powered rail gun anything that gets in its way is obliterated with terrifying ease. It's power requirements results in it having no less than 10 thorium reactors attached to it. The heat produced is siphoned off to also help power the massive cannons.
Unlike most species humans thrive in conflict. If they can't overcome something they adapt and try again. They are tenacious, viscous, imaginative, and loyal. If you are their enemy you will not live long enough to regret it. If you are their friend you will live long enough to enjoy it. Despite their fractured state when push comes to shove they can unit almost instantly. The chairman of System Alliance said during the start of the Reaper war was that "The only race that is allowed to wipe humanity out is itself, and may God have mercy on any who try for we will have none."
As a race humans are extremely varied and believe that their extinction is acceptable so long as they bring their enemy with them. They are not ashamed to stoop to their enemies level. Supreme leader Urdnot Wrex was quoted as saying "Humans are the craziest race you'll ever meet. They'd kill an entire planet if it pissed them off enough. They've got a quad that would impress any krogan and if you piss them off well, just ask the first Batarian you meet what they call them."
Truly humans are a terrifying race. I'm just glad when we first meet them that insanity was pointed at the Geth.