I don't own Mass Effect, it is the property of Bioware and EA-Games.

2091, L2 Lagrangian point, Earth Union station Prometheus

Space around the Earth orbit is not really what it ones were, back a hundred years ago. Around the entire Earth orbit are dozens and dozens of space stations. All built for different reasons. There are the metal industry stations. Since any metal that is forged in space has a four to five times better quality than any Earth build materials including nano-lathed materials.
Than there are Bio-technology stations, where perfect protein-crystals are grown with whom new medicaments can be made that are tailored to combat any known Sickness.
And there are stations for the computer technology, where exotic crystals are grown that enable computer to work with light speed.
Not to forget the cleaner-stations, whose duty it is to rid the Earth orbit of space garbage.

But all those stations are all rather small, only allowing a crew of maybe a dozen people and some are completely automated. But they all pale in comparison to what is found in the second Lagrangian point. The Prometheus station.

The Prometheus station was founded by the Earth Union in the 2070's. It had several purposes.
For one Prometheus was meant to be a shipyard and build the first true space ships of mankind.
It was a scientific observatory where experiments where done, that really shouldn't be done on Earth. And with 1.5 million km away from Earth it was deemed save enough, at least for most experiments. Anti-matter experiments still drive panic to all the end-of-the-world paranoids, at this distance. That they were done for the last 15 years without incident didn't matter to them.

Another function of the space station is to catch Asteroids in order to get the needed materials for ether the stations own shipyard, or the various production stations around the Earth orbit.

But one thing that made this station really famous was the perfectioning of the Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster, or just the MPD, or for all the lovers of classic science fiction shows, the Impulse drive. With that invention did the Earth Union herald the start of a new age of space exploration.

And that is why before the Prometheus station we can see three giant constructs. But in order to know what with giant is meant one should know that Prometheus is 6 km in diameter. The size of the station was not an attempt by the Earth Union to show how great they are, also admittedly that might have been a reason too. No the real reason why the station is that big, is that only at that size can one simulate artificial gravity without any health consequences. And considering how many people are living and working in Prometheus, anything else would be an unacceptable health risk. The people working in the production stations at least travel regularly back down to Earth; those working on the Prometheus station do not have that luxury.

And the three constructs before the Prometheus station are all one half the size of Prometheus. Those three ships, where the first colony ships that were about to travel to Mars. Well ship is probably not the right word for them, because in reality were they a space station just like Prometheus. When they finely arrive on Mars will these ships dock together and form a 9 km in diameter space station. From then on will the people on board travel down to the surface and begin with the construction of a domed city.

August 16th, 2091, Mars

Mars, the red Planet. Since the dawn of time did the planet fascinate the human race and from the very beginning of the space program was the red planet the goal most wanted to reach, just after the moon. But after over 120 years after the first manned mission to the moon, was the only presence of human life on Mars only unmanned probes and satellites.

But today, on this very date, in August 16th in the year 2091 was the date that that would change.

"Captain the dock sequence is finished and the reactor output of all the three sections has intermixed, we are now officially one big space station." resounded it from the helms officer.

Captain Michael Lambert gave only small smile in satisfaction that quickly vanished and he replayed in his deep voice "Good, than I do hereby declare the Earth Union station Odyssey for complete. Congratulations ladies and gentleman. And now that we have the celebratory part behind us, get me some gravity in here. The travel from Earth to Mars without it was bad enough." The rest of the bridge crew broke after this out in laugher, which was exactly what he wanted.

"Aye Captain, We will have Earth standard gravity in about 15 minutes. So now is the time to remember how it was to feel as light as a feather." resounded it from the science station.

"Ok than boys and girls, it's finally time to start working and to do for what we were trained for. Sensor-station I want a detailed Scan of the entire Mars surface down to 3km below the surface."

"Aye sir, satellites are sent and are beginning with detailed scans."

"Science, I want a complete scan of our systems and I want to be immediately informed if something doesn't work even slightly as it should. While Earth stands ready to send assistants at a moment's notice, I don't think that anyone wants that humiliation, for the first Mars mission in human history."

"Personal, I want a report about the crew. The military garrison, the civilians and the scientists. Most of them are probably eager to start working and will more than likely start do bombard us with request to work faster and to just let them down to the surface soon.
The rest knows what you have to do."

"Aye."

Over the last few hours everything worked just as planned. The crew did start to bombard the bridge with requests. Well at least the scientists did. The construction group was pretty patient. No one wants to start working on unknown territory, even if most of the work is done by nanolathing and claytronics. The hydroponics will manage to feed the population without problem, until new ones were built on the Mars surface to alleviate the pressure on them.

All in all Captain Lambert was really proud of his crew. And he was really enjoying his work. He felled like those explorers of old, just with better hygiene and better equipment. The fact that unlike the explorers of old, that with the new MPD-Drive Earth would be able to send help in a matter of days (3-5 days to be exact) instead of weeks, month or not at all, is happily ignored.

Then he began to notice that his sensor-officer Ensign Veronica Simmons began to show signs of unrest. He decided to wait; his crew doesn't need him breathing down their necks for things they are more than able to handle alone. But when after 15 minutes she was still hammering on her holographic keypad. He did begin to worry.

"Ensign Simmons. What is the problem?" She seemed so entranced in her work that his sudden words caused her to flinch but she quickly regained her composure and began to address him.

"Sir I started scanning the Mars surface like ordered. And at first everything worked just fine. But then did our Satellites start to show problems to scan the area near Promethei Planum. So I combined the scanner of our Satellites with our own and even than I had to increase the power output for the scanner to five times normal capacity in order to push through the interference. And well what I found, I just couldn't believe."

That began to worry Captain Lambert and the rest of the bridge crew seemed to agree with him. "What did you found Ensign Simmons?"

"Well if I have to believe the scanners than down there are several tones of highly refined titanium, carbon, palladium and other metals and even some unknown ones. Captain such highly refined materials cannot come into being by natural means. But that is not even the most shocking thing." With that did she touch a button on her keypad, which caused a hologram to appear in the middle of the bridge. On it was a real time video of Mars, with a red dot marking the Promethei Planum area, and all the information that the scanners have discovered. "The most shocking thing is that down there is a very low energy source, roughly comparable with an old combustion power plant."

The bridge was as silent as a grave and in all that shock, probably even because of the shock, was that the very first thought of Captain Michael Lambert not the impossibility of the information but 'What nowadays all goes through as a low source of energy.'

"OK I want everyone to keep their head clear and focused. OK Ensign I want you to send down a flight drone and a worm. Let's see what those will show us. And keep the hologram on; I want to see what they will find out.

"Yes sir."

Worms are a new form of intelligence drones that dig into the ground and search via the means of infrared, sound waves and minerals scanners after hidden anomalies, like underground caves or like in this case, perceived hidden facilities.

It didn't take long for the drones to reach their destination. And while the flight drone had it easier, as she only had to withstand the reentry into the Mars atmosphere, the worm truly showed that it was a high quality product. To enter the atmosphere of a planet, to travel several hundred kilometers in free fall only to crash into the ground and then start digging as if it were a common day occurrence, says probably everything about the worm.

And what they saw on the holograms, laid rest to any remaining doubt.
The flight drone didn't see anything strange, only red rocks and red sand. But the worm did found something, and before the crew on the bridge flew a hologram on which for everyone easy to see, was a layout of a truly alien construct, that went 500 meters below the surface of Mars.

"Contact Earth, the Union needs to know this." Was the only thing that Captain Michael Lambert had to say.

August 30th, 2091, Mars

Two weeks went by since the discovery of the alien construct. Two weeks since a political storm was started on Earth. And while for the average Joe on Earth, everything went as planned, the military and politicians where worried as hell. For the normal citizens the mission was a total success. The station Odyssey arrived at Mars, scanned the planet, found a suitable place to build a doom city, and celebrated the date of the first human setting food on the Mars surface on 20th August, 2091.

There were a multitude of reasons why the discovery was kept a secret.
1: No one wanted the first time humans where setting food on the Mars surface to be a military operation.
2: People knowing about the discovery would just worry or worse panic, without knowing what it is.
3: The Earth Union wanted to know what the hell they were dealing with. Was it a staging ground for an alien invasion? Was it an alien colony? Or was it just a strange place for an alien waste dump?

So after the celebrations where over, and with the construction of the city having started, the Union found it save to found an operation to the construct.

Author note: OK I tried to write the scene were humans entered the Protean outpost about 6 different times and I was every single time not the least bit satisfied with it. So I decided to just ignore it.

Next chapter will be the reaction of the Earth Union and its people and the construction of the first space fleets.