A/N: This is just an idea which I had. I thought it was a cool one, but I don't have the time to write it up at the moment, so I thought I'd let all the lovely people out there on have a go.
Disclaimer: I own neither The Irregular at Magic High School nor the Mass Effect franchise.
The challenge is simply this: Write a crossover between Mass Effect and Mahouka Koukou no Rettousai, replacing canon!humanity with the MKnR version.
Requirements are below:
- The fic should be on a grand scale and should include a timeline of what happened to humans after the events of the anime/manga, how they colonised whatever they colonised, their relationship with the Mass Relays and so on. Please think this through.
- Humanity's ships and technology must be clearly explained in some fashion, whether through Codex entries or other means. Feel free to devise your own system of FTL or whatever you want.
- Magic should have advanced at least some from the days of the anime/manga, but please represent it believably. MKnR magic doesn't just go "Fireball!". Something I have always admired about it is that they managed to fit magic into a pseudo scientific framework, so if you could please follow suit, that would be excellent.
- Humanity should rely primarily on magic for advanced tech, as opposed to Element Zero. Otherwise they'll just be too OP. Feel free to have them use eezo, just make it not be the primary base of their technology.
- Humanity should not simply curbstomp the Council, and for God's sake not the Reapers. Magic gives them access to directed energy weapons and ways of manipulating the world that the council races can only dream of, but it does come with one major drawback: you can't automate it. Even if Magic Sequences can be stored, you still need magicians to cast them in the first place. By all means, make them powerful, but give us a story, not the account of a race of Mary Sues and Gary Stus.
- For the sake of the literary gods (and the sanity of your readers), please spell-check your fic, as well as make sure that your grammar makes sense. If you feel that your grammar isn't up to scratch, there's a free plugin, Grammarly, which can help you with that.
And a couple of recommendations and observations which might be useful:
* Focus on economics, politics and the grand scale, more than the minutiae of every single battle in the First Contact War. Battles are interesting, and a good break from slow-paced negotiations and the movement of vast fleets, but one after the other gets rather dull.
* A way to partially balance humanity would be to make their ships, although tougher and harder-hitting than the Council's, far fewer, as each ship would have to be personally imbued with magic sequences to make the hull tougher and such. Furthermore, if actual functions of the ship (reactors, shields etc) are to be based on magic, although those magic sequences can be stored and 'auto-cast' by devices, the devices still have to be imbued with those magic sequences by hand, limiting the rate of production. On the other hand, Reinforcement and Fortification magic would make their ships immensely tough, as would magic-based defensive barriers. As for the weaponry which magic enables, spells like an up-scaled Phonon Maser or Material Burst trump mass drivers anyday.
* Human magicians trump biotics anyday, but biotics can often use their powers faster than low- or mid-grade magicians.
* As demonstrated by Tatsuya, some humans are born with specific, inborn abilities related to the manipulation of Psions and Pushions. Introducing a couple of the characters - perhaps even Shepard - as having one of these unique abilities might be an interesting way to go, although they need not be as powerful as Tatsuya.
* There are non-human magical entities in MKnR, the vampiric Paranormal Parasites in particular. They could be an interesting resource to make use of in the story, either as antagonists of some sort or as - likely uneasy - allies for the humans. Just think of how good an infiltrator one would be.
* In ground combat, magicians would far outclass the Council's forces, especially if the A-rank or Tactical-class magicians are equipped with flight suits.
* Please come up with a better title than I could.
Anyway, if anyone's interested, could you please either PM me or put up a review here saying that you want to take up the challenge.
That said, good luck and happy writing!