2206: 20 years after the end of The Reaper War:
Life finds a way. Even now, two decades after the population of an entire galaxy had nearly been eradicated, life continues. People, civilisations, everyone, even the Reapers, had a future now. As Terry Gallowell looked out at the stars through the observation window of the SSV Paris, he couldn't help but think about the War again. The Reaper War, The Last War, The War To End All Wars, there had been many names for the conflict against the machines. He had been there, on the frontlines, watching friends and enemies alike die. In the space of several months he had witnessed the genophage cured, the Krogan-Turian alliance, the Geth-Quarian alliance, he saw the vids of Earth, Palaven, Thessia and all the other worlds burning, he had even been present at the last battle of the war, Earth. Terry remembered Admiral Hackett's big speech to the allied fleets, he had always been a sucker for heroic speeches, made him feel like a big man. He saw it all: Earth, the Citadel, the hundreds of Reapers orbiting the planet. Fighting on the streets of London had been the toughest fight of his life, he remembered standing on Westminster Bridge as a Reaper Destroyer landed in the water next to him, he fired a few shots, knowing it was useless against the huge machine. Then, just as it was about to destroy him and his squad, he had seen a green light coming from behind Big Ben. It engulfed the Reapers, the clock tower, then himself. He had expected it to kill him but felt... different. He couldn't describe it but it felt good. The Reapers then departed, all across the planet, just leaving. It was only later that he found out that the event had been caused by the Crucible, an enormous miracle weapon the allies had been constructing in secret throughout the war, he had heard a few superiors mention it, the objective was to fight to the Citadel and open the arms for it to dock. The Crucible fired, the fleets retreated not knowing exactly what it would do. After the battle, when everyone was still figuring out what had happened, the chain of command was reestablished and Hackett had given a speech across the planet:
"Soldiers, civilians, friends. Many of you are wondering what has happened to us. Well to be completely honest with you all we don't quite know ourselves. Something has happened to us, we've all been changed, this has happened across the entire galaxy to everyone everywhere. It appear though that these...changes, are completely beneficial and in no way harmful to us. What I can tell you is that the war is over, the Reapers have ceased all offensive action against us and retreated, we did it! They appear to have dropped all hostilities and are rebuilding the Mass Relays, which were destroyed in the Crucible Firing Event. I promise you this: we will defend you to the last soldier if the Reapers attack. We will also update you as soon as possible on the state of the galaxy. Hackett out."After that the galaxy didn't know whether to celebrate or reload and wait for the next attack. Several hours after Hacketts speech the Admiral was contacted by an intelligence identifying itself as The Catalyst. It stated that the Reapers had abandoned their harvest of the galaxy and were now fully focused on helping it rebuild. It said the Crucible had solved a problem it had been chasing for millions of years: organic-synthetic war. The Event, which it called "Synthesis", had combined organics and synthetics into one. Organics had been changed and now were practically cybernetic, but at the same time it was all completely natural and organic. Synthetics, like the Geth, had been given a true understanding of life, and could see things from an organics perspective. It also revealed that the change had been brought on by Commnder Shepard, the man who had pretty much the face of the whole war. The Effect had killed him, but had given the galaxy a chance for true peace. After this had all been revealed, many saw Shepard as a God-like figure, one who had sacrificed himself and spread his energy throughout the galaxy. Most just recognized him as the hero he was. Two months after the war was officially over, and immediate search and rescue priorities were out of the way, a galaxy wide memorial was held to remember those who died to win us this future, and Shepard was declared a Galactic Icon of peace.
And now, 20 years later, Terry had given up the military life for one of exploration. The Reapers had gone their own way, each their own being. Terry was snapped out of his nostalgia when an alarm sounded. He rushed back up to the bridge to see what was going on.
"Whats happening?" he said to the captain
"We don't know, not yet" replied captain Marco
"Unknown ship approaching!" one of the navigators shouted
All of a sudden, a massive Reaper capitol ship appeared out of FTL next to them
"So that was what was approaching us" Terry said, relieved
"Negative sir, we still have an unidentified ship approaching us" the navigator replied
Then they saw it, an enormous vessel, roughly the same size as the Reaper next to them, approaching
"what the hell is that?" asked the captain
Something opened up on the front of the ship, what looked like a blue light. It glowed brighter and brighter until it discharged some type of energy at the Reaper, killing it instantly.
"get us out of here! That thing just destroyed a Reaper in one shot!" Marco yelled
"Sir its targeting us!" yelled the navigator
Terry could only watch as the vessel's weapon glowed brighter.
Then it fired, and everything went black.