Mass Effect Fanfiction
After the galaxy was engulfed in the red energy that brought the reaper war to an end over Earth's orbit, the galaxy may have survived to avoid being harvested like the countless cycles before them, but the effects of the crucible that brought about the end of the Reaper's billion-year-old cycle of destruction, as well as destroy the mass relay network that allowed instantaneous travel across the galaxy, delivered another set of problems for the galactic races. The various species that were divided on diverse issues that rarely existed in black and white, but rather in the gray were more or less "resolved" by the actions and sacrifices of Shepard and the crew of the Normandy, they would be hit by a new set of problems, that being how to deal with one another in a permanently transformed galaxy; reorganizing the Batarians, a resurgent Krogan empire, Salarian prowess, and a uncooperating Yahg.
The Asari, who have been the first species to discover the citadel after the Prothean extinction founded the council alongside the Salarians, and have been the diplomatic voice of citadel space for over two thousand years, are now near the bottom in terms of military strength and political influence. The fact that the Asari government hid the fact that they had a Prothean beacon that share the secrets of a missing component of the crucible superweapon for so long during the Reaper war, just to maintain their prestige had stained the Asari's image in the galaxy. Some within the rebuilding galactic community wanted to strip the Asari of their status on the citadel council, however many others disagreed that doing so would only create more wounds in a time of healing.
The Turians were a very strong and disciplined people and out of all the races, were putting up the greatest fight and doing the most damage to the invading Reapers, even though the damage was only minuscule, and that the Reapers inflicted far more trauma. The destruction on the Palaven and their colonies were later but eventually repaired by the organized populous, and still wanting to determine terms within the new galaxy, quickly focused on putting back together their navy.
The Humans, whose home planet Earth had been the site of the single most important battle of Galactic history, were now in charge of accommodating the forces of the various alien races and rebuilding the Charon relay that brought the allied forces to take Earth back. After helping to re-establish the Citadel, they forged closer ties with the Turians and opened relations with the newly formed Krogan Empire, due to Krogan leader Urdnot Wrex's friendship with Commander Shepard, he has a strong impression of humanity.
The new Krogan empire, formed of various clans under the Emperor Urdnot Wrex, have created a new constitution of to promote peaceful co-existence with the other civilizations, including the Turians. There are worries within the galactic community that Krogan will use their high birthrate to take over the galaxy and wage an endless war just like the they did in the Krogan rebellions, which only ended when the genophage was deployed the Krogan to have stillbirths. The Krogan promised to keep their birthrates in check after Commander Shepard cured the genophage.
Salarians, who have been mostly untouched by the Reapers, have become the dominant power in the galaxy, since their homeworld of Sur'kesh was untouched during nearly the entire war, most of their forces not taking part in battle to take Earth back from the Reapers and the devastation that the Asari had taken, have placed themselves as the top power of the galaxy. Unbeknownst to the galaxy, the Salarians were secretly in contact with the Yahg, and helping them in achieving FTL travel, in the hopes that they would be a reliable ally against a potentially hostel Krogan government.
The Quarians have resettled their homeworld of Rannoch, having re-entered abandoned buildings and homes where no Quarian has stepped foot on in over three hundred years. The synthetic Geth, a race of machines created by the Quarians, had attained true artificial intelligence for a brief period gave their undying support against the Reapers, they also allowed they're creators to live with them, despite three hundred years ago, as it was the Quarians that were trying to wipeout the Geth over fears that they would one day rebel and takeover, in a conflict known as the morning war that resulted in the Quarians to exoduses from their homeworld. In the final battle to take back Earth, Commander Shepard activated the crucible superweapon that not only wiped out the Reapers, but also took along the Geth as well, since the energy fired from the weapon did not discriminate when touching technology. But years after the war's aftermath, the Quarians have visited the idea of recreating the Geth.
The destruction of the Batarian home systems have made them a minority race in the galaxy, as such were not in the position to cause trouble as they've been known before the Reaper invasion. Before, the Batarians have taken aggressive actions with the Human Systems Alliance, funding slavers and terrorists to attack human colonies due to colonial competition in the region. Now they have been reduced to an endangered species, and were forced by the other races to reform their culture, such as illegalizing slavery, which they have staunchly defended. After much of the dust have cleared, humanity helps the Batarians rebuild and try to start a on renewed terms, though tensions remain.
The Hanar, and their Drell counterparts who both share the ocean world of Kahje, have lend many labor crews, mostly consisting of Drell to help repair the damage while many Hanar doctors and Nurses help bolster the thinly stretched Intra-galactic medic staff tending to the large number wounded from the war.
The Elcor introduce the idea of a "Common Galactic Security" army consisting if members of every species for the sole purpose of peace keeping missions.
The Volus begin to think if they should reform their culture and become more militarily adept like their Turian counter-parts. They have also considered whether they should continue being a protectorate of the Turian Hierarchy for protection.
The Rolai become the first race to join the citadel who were not a part of the Reaper war, and as such, and are considered the new kids on the block.
The Vorcha continue to have a low place in the galaxy, due to their violet culture, short life span of 20 galactic standard years. There have been talks of uplifting the Vorcha for their role for providing labor and pilots to the galactic war effort against the Reapers, despite how minor it was. Some human scientists have even proposed the idea of genetically modifying them to lengthen the Vorcha's lifespan. However, there is considerable opposition to the prospect of uplifting due to the Vorcha's resilience and amazing adaptability, traits of which even caused the Reapers to have such a difficult time trying harvest the Vorcha, as the Reapers tried bombarding their homeworld of Heshtok, trying to deplete what little resources there and make life harder, only to have the Vorcha bounce back and resist.
The Yahg were another problem that the galaxy needed to worry about, as they are a hyper aggressive and very cunning as a sapient species. Years before the Reaper invasion, a delegation was sent to the Yahg homeworld of Parnack by the citadel council, instead of peacefully accepting the gifts brought by the delegation, the Yahg massacred the entire delegation party. In response, the citadel council quarantined the Yahg's home system, making it illegal for anyone to land on Parnack. However, at the time of the reaper war, the Yahg were close to creating their first spaceship. The Salarians began to observe developments on Parnack, and even captured a few specimens to study their biology and behavior, and have even considered uplifting them to use as military allies, though they such a scheme could turn out terribly for a galaxy ravaged by war.