Mass Effect: Sol's Armageddon
Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the property of BioWare
A/N: Ch 1 and Ch 2 were combined, added to and streamlined into a new Ch 1
Chapter 1:
It was the beginning of a new age for humanity. Space exploration was beginning again in earnest and already making significant gains with the establishment of Armstrong Outpost on Luna in 2069 and the later founding of Lowell City on Mars by the European Space Agency in 2103. Future expansion, though costly, continued at a steady pace across the solar system with plans being made for the possible extraction of resources in significant enough amounts to aid Earth in order to decrease future drain on the world's natural resources and assist in decreasing the effects of climate change.
Eventually it was this new goal that finally galvanized the world into the belief that Humanity's future lay in space. A thirst to exploit it's vast untapped and infinite resources to aid Earth led to more strides eventually leading to the founding of multiple settlements and scientific outposts across the solar system.
But it was in 2148 that everything changed and Humanities view of space would be forever altered. Explorers on Mars discovered Prothean ruins and eventually a surviving data cache. Revealing the secrets of the Mass Effect and Element Zero the world's 18 most powerful nations drafted the Systems Alliance charter to expand and defend humanity. Less than a year later in 2149 information from the archive led the Alliance to Charon which was eventually revealed to be a Mass Relay.
Human expansion occurred rapidly and Alliance territory expanded to a dozen new colonies all funneling a wealth of new resources to Earth. It was seemingly the beginning of a new golden age. But it was not to be; for in 2157 a team of Alliance scientists researching the effects Mass Relay operations had on the solar systems gravitational fields discovered something terrible. The researchers while analyzing the data noticed several anomalies in the sun. While at the time the sun was experiencing a significant period of solar activity and flares it was deemed to be a, while dangerous phenomenon, one that posed little risk to any current human activity in Sol at the time. But the Alliance researchers realized to their horror that the solar activity was merely a prelude to armageddon.
Somehow the sun's natural process of nuclear fusion was being disrupted and the stars core was beginning to fluctuate causing subtle effects across Sol's gravitational fields. Why it was occurring and how could not be determined. But what was certain was that within the next decade or two the sun would rapidly expand its outer layers burning Earth in the process and making it impossible for life to exist on the world. And then the young star would explode in a relatively 'weak' supernova destroying Sol and everything in it.
At first the researchers panicked and began arguing amongst themselves. Some argued that it was impossible, but numerous rechecks made said otherwise. In defiance of all understood astrophysical laws the sun was dying.
Others thought that the world should know immediately and made to publicize their findings; but this was soon deemed folly after an intense debate. What would occur if the world suddenly realized armageddon was at their doorstep, merely a decade or two away? Panic would ensue and mass riots and religious fanaticism would run rampant possibly killing thousands and damaging infrastructure on a global scale while millions would make immediately try to get off world stalling any coordinated evacuation plans. Eventually though, a consentive decision to contact the Alliance directly at the recently inaugurated Arcturus Station was made. Although far from completed, the station was already a center of Alliance governance.
The reason the Alliance was contacted and not the nations of Earth was simple in the Scientists eyes. While a minor political body at the time the Alliance was a singular entity which would allow a much stricter control of information to prevent information leaks, thus leading to the aforementioned chaos. And that chaos could not be allowed before plans were made and enacted.
The Alliance estimated they had about 7-8 years until anyone else began to notice something was wrong. This was primarily because the gravitational fluctuations would only grow to a size large enough for other researchers to notice and pay attention to around this time. But plans were made for premature discovery nevertheless.
The Alliances first act was to slow down it's rapid outward expansion. All efforts and resources needed to be focused on developing Humanity's current worlds to prepare for a massive influx of population in the near future. The rapid expansion was spreading the Alliance thin to begin with and time spent exploring was time not spent harvesting Eezo and constructing as many ships as possible to evacuate the billions still on Earth.
Though the Alliances decision was met with outrage by many at first it was quelled by the not insignificant number of worlds already open for colonization, a few even being garden worlds. And the public's realization of the dangers of rapid expansion soon allowed the Alliance to adopt a slow and steady approach. This let the Alliance open up more Mass Relays to discover more resources and garden worlds for the soon to be displaced human population while ensuring that those worlds could be protected.
Meanwhile the construction of Arcturus Station was accelerated and it's planned size increased to allow more personnel and colonists to pass through at a more rapid pace. At the same time on Earth massive media campaigns encouraging colonization and joining the Systems Alliance were launched. These campaigns had an almost immediate effect swelling the Alliances numbers and allowing it to grow its annual budget and increase productivity. With these steps now taken critical infrastructure began to be moved off Earth and out of Sol or built elsewhere to ensure humanity's industrial base would not be destroyed with Sol. It was at this point that four years had passed, it was now 2161 and the second stage of the new construction of Arcturus Station was finalized. Originally planned to be primarily an alliance fleet base it's plans were expanded to be suited not just as a fleet anchorage but as a civilian station as well; capable of holding tens of thousands. And hopefully one day hundreds of thousands while also acting as Humanity's future capital.
For the first time in history as well, a significant portion of the human population no longer lived on Earth. Around the 2100's Earth's population peaked at around 9 billion and remained relatively consistent until the 2140's when the Mass Effect was discovered. After over a decade of colonization almost 2 billion people had left Earth for a new home in the stars. A few million spread out across numerous mining, farming, and resource colonies to feed humanities ever expanding needs while a majority concentrated on 8 separate class-1 garden worlds. These 8 world's were Demeter, Benning, Terra Nova, Bekenstein, Neo Berlin, Reach, Lantea, and Arcadia. These worlds would become the Alliances first core worlds.
It was in 2163 though when the Alliances closely guarded secret about Sol's coming doom came out. An astrology center in Argentina was taking highly detailed scans of the Sun's photosphere and began noticing multiple oddities. After a week of detailed observance and comparing data from a dozen other telescopes and research centers they pieced together what was happening.
By the end of the week the entirety of the Union of Incorporated Nations was aware and the Alliance was forced to show its hand. Though met with fury at first; the necessity for their actions soon became apparent. Faced with the coming doom of humanity's homeworld there was little room left for political maneuvering or finger pointing. A significant factor that limited the criticism the Alliance suffered however was due to its growing political power and presence in everyday life. The Alliance was now viewed as less of a minor NATO type organization that answered to individual nation states but as a developing future government for humanity as a whole.
While its presence on Earth was still limited, its increasing number of recruits and large influence over the colonies began to encourage the Alliance to become a true governing force for humanity. With complete authority over almost all off-Earth military forces and its new emphasis on colonial support and defense many colonists began to see the Alliance as the government they owed their allegiance, not some nation state on Earth. This, while allarming to some was seen by most as the natural progression of things. Why wouldn't humanity want to be united under one banner in face of the vast and unknown cosmos?
It was barely a day after the revelation of Sol's coming demise to the UNIN General Assembly when the information somehow made its way to the public. At first most thought it was a hoax until the Alliance felt it unreasonable to wait any longer and confirmed that everything was true.
Global panic ensued and the world was thrown into chaos. Massive riots occured and religious extremists took the opportunity to say it was the foretold end of days. Others blamed technology, specifically the mass effect, Eezo and the relays. Although suspicious considering the timing of the discovery of the mass effect and use of the relays was a little over a decade beforehand; no connection between the two events could ever be determined. The sun's condition was later discovered to have been a process taking centuries which had entered its final stage and apex. Indeed it was rather famously said by Alliance Prime Minister Jakob Batkowski that, "The relays are not our doom; for they are our species salvation."
The Prime Minister was most likely correct, for if the relays and the mass effect had never been discovered humanity would still be largely confined to Earth and the solar system with no way to escape. No escape would have meant humanity's death in solar fire helpless to flee.
It took the supreme effort of the Alliance and all of humanity's will to get through the next decade. Immediately after the revelation of Earth's coming demise and restoration of relative order through the global declaration of martial law hundreds of millions made to get off world. It was then that the Alliances last 6 years of planning and construction paid off. Calculations put successful evacuation of the entirety of Earth's population of 7 billion within the next decade requiring 360,000 people to get off-world each day. Though severely strained the quotas were met and even exceeded most days.
Thanks in large part to the Alliances preparations and the colonization boom occuring at the time large numbers of civilian transports and colony ships were available. By 2168 nearly 3.5 billion people had been moved off world. Ahead of schedule.
While normally such a refugee crisis would cause massive logistics issues and economic strain, such a sudden increase in the demand for jobs and a need for large amounts of construction quickly to provide new homes for the displaced billions quickly began to turn around and even correct what was foreseen to be an economic depression of unimaginable scale. Even then however it would take decades for any true economic stability to reassert itself.
In 2171 the sun's increasing instability began to show itself more frequently. Large bursts of solar flares across the system caused moderate damage to more vulnerable civilian electronics and disruption to all communications coming in and out of Sol. However that was nothing compared to the loss suffered during a particularly nasty coronal mass ejection on August 17 of that year. A large civilian convoy leaving Earth began its slow trek to the extremely long line to use the Charon Relay when they were caught in the massive CME. Their vessels didn't stand a chance and the ejections preceding burst of radiation and magnetic fields severely damaged and disabled every ship in the flotilla. Unable to escape and rescue ships to far to assist they were blasted in superheated solar plasma. Half the ships were turned to molten slurry while the rest were unrecognizable balls of melted metal dosed in enough radiation to kill anything living. The poor souls were practically baked alive inside a metal container during their last few seconds. 49,571 people died.
It was this tragedy that pushed the final convoys out of Sol until the Alliance declared the entire system unsafe and implemented a blockade at the Charon Relay. A few sporadic escorted flotillas made final runs back and forth from Earth, mostly carrying the carefully collected and preserved samples of every known plant and animal species on Earth. Among these so called green-ships were numerous carrying cultural artifacts and relics as well. Despite this it was estimated that 65% of species on Earth had yet to be discovered and were left behind to their doom.
Doomed with these unknown species was nearly 200 million people who for numerous reasons refused to leave the planet. The Alliance was unwilling to leave anyone behind but a lengthy court battle in 2168 which lasted nearly 4 months determined that all those wishing to stay and die with Earth were free to do so as long as they understood the consequences of doing so. Most of these people stayed either due to religious, cultural or even emotional reasons. Nearly half of those who stayed though were the terminally ill or elderly on the verge of death who wished to stay with mother Earth to the end. Most were provided with a drug to euthanize themselves before the solar radiation did it in a much more painful way.
And so on November 9th 2172 that the Sun began to rapidly expand slowly consuming Mercury and Venus. Earth, while to far to be consumed in the sun's corona was blasted in extreme amounts of radiation and heat which quickly boiled away the former blue-green worlds oceans and biosphere. The Blue Planet soon looked like a larger version of the now destroyed Mercury.
A/N: Happy Veterans Day! (11/12/18)