Mass Effect: Sol's Armageddon

Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the property of BioWare

A/N: Some of you may have noticed a plot hole last chapter about the coming destruction of the Prothean Archive on Mars and how that will affect ME3. Have no fear for this is planned and will be elaborated on in coming chapters.

Chapter 2:

After consuming Mercury as well as Venus and burning Earth to a crisp the Sun began its final stage of life. After burning through it's last remains of Hydrogen and Helium only Iron remained. Iron being to heavy to fuse efficiently caused the Sun's process of fusion to stop. The sudden stoppage of energy generation caused the core to collapse and the outer layers of the Sun fell into the core. The infalling layers collapsed so fast that they `bounced' off the iron core at close to the speed of light. The rebound caused the star to explode in a supernova.

This by no means was normal when concerning the death of most stars the size of the Sun. And although still an enormous explosion, it was very small compared to the supernovae of other more massive stars.

This was extremely fortunate for humanity as most supernovae are estimated to be dangerous up to 50 light years away. Considering Arcturus and humanity's new capital were merely 36.66 light years away a supernova of normal size would have caused large scale damage.

Immediately after the Sun's death the Systems Alliance took on the role of humanities sole governing and representative body. With the destruction of Earth and the nation states that formerly existed upon it there was a large power gap that the Alliance needed to fill; otherwise chaos would rein and disturb the accomplishments of the last decade.

Another note however being that Earth was not the only loss suffered during Sol's demise. Mars, though much farther than Earth from the Sun was nevertheless destroyed by the supernova. Realizing years beforehand that this was inevitable a large project occurred to try and save as much as the archive and the data contained within as possible. Often forgotten and overshadowed when compared to the evacuation of Earth such a feat was truly miraculous considering over 95% of the data in the archive was saved. Colony ships which were not being used for the evacuation were retrofitted in dry dock with thousands of the most advanced supercomputer ever developed by humanity. These vessels were then linked through an experimental QEC system to the archive which allowed the data to be transferred with 100% accuracy and no data corruption.

These starship supercomputers were then heavily escorted by an Alliance battlegroup through the Charon Relay and into Arcturus where they would later deposit their data in a state of the art facility on one of the many moons of Themis, a large hydrogen-helium gas giant. The data still however remained untranslated and undecoded, it merely sat within Alliance computers now instead of Prothean ones. The facility while stuffed to the brim with thousands of supercomputers was significantly more massive than the original Prothean Archive on Mars, showing just how much more advanced the Protheans were as they contained all of that data within 1 supercomputer. Work to translate and decode the data was estimated to take many centuries if not millenia still.

It was now 2173 and Arcturus Stations third stage of construction was completed. Most construction during the evacuation of Sol had been halted due to the thousands of ships passing through the Charon Relay and had significantly delayed the stations overall completion. During the evacuation Arcturus found itself as the control center for almost every vessel in system and it's staff and VI's were overloaded daily while trying to maintain order and ensure all vessels passing through the system were authorized. Despite this numerous incidents occured ranging from collisions to core malfunctions, and even unauthorized vessels trying to bypass the Alliance in the chaos. These vessels mostly contained criminals and terrorists who couldn't get onto any of the official evacuation transports without being caught and arrested, and so a large off world smuggling ring formed to transport these individuals out of Sol. Most of these vessels were intercepted by Alliance patrols, but many escaped in the chaos and made a break for the farthest and most outer colonies of humanity. This would cause the Alliance many problems in the future and was the beginning of what would later become the Crimson Insurgency.

The next 2 decades would see the metamorphosis of humanity as the destruction of Earth deeply scarred and altered the human psyche. For many the loss of their homeworld, the cradle of their civilization and the world which had remained the center of every human culture for millennia was unimaginable. How does one wrap their head around such a fact? Some cried and wept, but most simply didn't know what to feel. Earth was gone, sure, but humanity lived on and would survive relatively unscathed. The world billions had called home just years prior now seemed distant, like a memory in the wind. The worlds deep emotional connection to most humans had degraded slightly for it was no longer the sole place in the galaxy which humans existed. Sure most every human once viewed the world as home, even those born on the colonies, but it was to a large degree sentimental.

During and after the evacuation of Earth humanities core world's of Demeter, Benning, Terra Nova, Bekenstein, Neo Berlin, Reach, Lantea, and Arcadia found themselves flooded with millions of new colonists. New cities were constructed in years and on Terra Nova, Bekenstein, Reach and other worlds mega cities even began to develop.

Terra Nova was one of the Alliances first extrasolar colonies and to humanity's good fortune was very Earth-like. The world was mildly tropical however with a much more temperate climate and 2 small polar ice caps. This made it popular primarily with people from Earth's southern hemisphere who were looking to settle in a place similar to their former homes. The world had a population of around 760 million contained primarily in numerous major cities with it's capital of Samail having a peak population of around 34 million.

Bekenstein, though founded after Terra Nova, was also founded during the Alliances first wave of colonization. The world quickly became a center for numerous corporations as it sat at a central location from the agrarian world of Demeter as well as a dozen other resource and mining colonies. The food and resource shipments often stopped at the world to unload their hauls and take on HE3 fuel. The resources unloaded were then refined, processed and shipped all across human space. Large amounts of metals were almost always shipped directly from Bekenstein to Arcturus Station as well to help supply the massive projects needs. It's capital of Milgrom quickly became known as humanity's commercial and industrial center. The world had a population of around 400 million.

Demeter was an agrarian bread-basket world. Food from here was shipped to Bekenstein and then across the Alliance. The world is special among other colonies for being humanity's first extrasolar colony. With a population of around 19 million, mostly farmers and their families, the world is moderately populated and covered in mostly VI operated super farms. Its capital is Wheselton which was named in honor of the planets first colonist Jim Wheselton who died ironically in a farming accident.

Lantea is unique among human colonies as it is primarily covered in water. 91% covered to be exact in surprisingly almost totally fresh water. The world for some reason or another had a relatively low amount of salt which quickly dissolved into the vast seas. The world has two small continents with numerous large island chains and peninsulas formed from volcanic activity long past. The planets capital is Jutland which is spread across a large island chain. The world is known for its vast fisheries, magnificent beaches and has a population of around 230 million.

Benning is a relatively arid world with sparse grasslands and temperate forests around its equator. The planet is home to around 300 million people with a handful of large cities while the rest of the population is spread out in large communities. The people are very friendly and well known for their hospitality. The world's capital is Eggen.

Neo Berlin is a rocky alpine world located in a binary star system. The planet is extremely valuable to the Alliance as large deposits of Eezo are found in the systems numerous asteroid belts. The common belief that Eezo is only formed when stars go supernovae is actually incorrect. Eezo is actually formed due to extreme conditions of gravitational force acting upon something. While supernova is the most common way this can occur as large amount of Eezo are formed very quickly during the explosion; other conditions can lead to Eezo's formation. Neo Berlin's twin stars once had an unstable orbit which resulted in passing planets occasionally being grabbed and 'fought' over by the opposing gravitational forces ripping the worlds apart and forming the systems now Eezo abundant asteroid belts. The planet has a population of around 350 million who were mostly attracted by the world's large and booming economy.

Arcadia is a beautiful world at the very edge of the Arcturus Stream. Covered in towering forests, snow topped mountains and cascading waterfalls it is a popular vacation world with an economy primarily based on tourism. The planet has a mild to cool climate often compared to an eternal fall only broken by a pair of modest anual winters. The planet has a population of around 130 million.

Reach is the pride of the Alliance and humanity, a symbol of perseverance in the face of the cataclysm which destroyed Earth. The world had a major influx of colonists during the evacuation of Earth and developed rapidly. An alpine world dotted with asteroid impact craters from long past, mountains, and numerous glaciers it was an odd choice for so many to colonize before factoring in the planet's wealth of heavy and rare metals. Massive deposits of Titanium, Platinum, Iridium, and Palladium are found all across Reach. Such a wealth of resources has made it a center of Alliance military and naval production containing the largest Alliance shipyards outside of Arcturus. Its capital of New Alexandria, often famed for its towering skyscrapers and vibrant nightlife, is colloquially known as the 'crown jewel'. The world has an extremely large population of 2.1 billion, making it the most heavily populated human world in existence. Many once argued for it to be named as humanity's new homeworld but the passionate counter-argument that no world could ever replace Earth ended such a prospect. Even then Reach's influence is only second to Arcturus and is considered by the Alliance as almost a second capital.

A/N: Here's chapter 2, a little short on the continuation of the timeline as I branch off into an explanation of the Alliances 8 core worlds. I also explained the survival of the Prothean Archive and did some foreshadowing for the Crimson Insurgency. More on that in chapter 3 :D.