Chapter 2: Prologue Part 2

Disclaimer: Het kei goeie spel Mass Effect is van de ge-wel-dige gassies van Bioware en helaas nie van mij.

The Systems Alliance had not only lost the majority of it's fleet, a blow from wich they never fully recovered, they also lost the mineral rich Outer Colonies. As the need for minerals rose they began to expand their inlfuence in the Asteroid belt, but their lack of ships became more and more apperant.

After the war the Cyber Union became stronger every day. As cybers did not need sleep or food and could aid in the research of new technologies, the mining of rescources and the production of new goods. It did not take long before they surpassed the Systems Alliance in economic and militairy might. But they too hungered for asteroids to mine.

This led to rapid expansion on both sides. Previously untouthed asteroids were turned into mines or military strongholds, sometimes both. Due to ever changing bordes they became unclear. Incidents were the result. Political tensions rose so high, one spark would be enough for war.

Social tensions rose along side the political ones. On Mars violence against cybers and trans-humanists became more and more common. The Human Brotherhood, an anti-cyber organisation, became increasingly populair among the human population. As their popularity rose so did their power.

In 2236 they began their crusade against the cybers on Mars. Because the Cyber Union did not have any real miliary precense, the Cyber Militia was created. They would defend the cyber communities on Mars instead of the CUAF, the Cyber Union Armed Forces. The Militia had no official ties to the Cyber Union but were secretly supplied by them.

At first the war between the Brotherhood and the Militia was nearly unnoticible. But as time went on it got worse and worse. The Brotherhood outnubered and their soldiers were fanatics, but the Militia had superior technology and soldiers. One squad was equal to an entire Brotherhood platoon. At first the Militia suffered many defeats, but as more and more cybers joined the tide turned. The Brotherhood were pushed back to the cities and captured cybers were set free.

One of those captives was Conrad Verner. Famous for his advances of cyber militairy technology, he was forced to build weapons for the Brotherhood. In 2239 a team led by Jason Stellar, an officer in the Cyber Militia, assaulted the complex where Conrad was kept. The assault destroyed the stored weapons and supplies and most importantly Conrad Verner was set free.

This was a major victory for the Militia and they continued their offensive. But it would soon grind to a halt as the qualitiy of Brotherhood troops and equipment rose quickly. The Militia was completely taken by suprise. The result were a few Brotherhood victories and the war grinded to a halt.

Both sides desperatly tried to break the stalemate, but failed. The Militia began to raid enemy supply lines and training centrums. During one of those raids it became clear that the Systems Alliance was training Brotherhood soldiers and suppling them with weaponry. As a result tensions between the Cyber Union and the Alliance rose and on April 1st 2240 the Cyber Union began an offensive in the Asteroid Belt. They gained a lot of progress as they outnumbered and outgunned the Systems Alliance who were still using balistic weaponnry and the CUAF was fully equipped with laser weaponnry. In just 4 months they had conquered nearly half of the Alliance territory and were and began planning to assault on Mars.

The Cyber Militia was being forced back by the combined forces of the Alliance and the Brotherhood. It was almost certain they were going to lose. Then the Cyber Fleet assaulted Mars' orbital defenses. After one week of fighting they finaly broke through and setup a supply line. This allowed them to drop in soldiers onto the surface. At long last the tide turened and the Systems Alliance was pushed back. The surivors of the Militia including Jason Stellar became part of the CUAF.

In 2243 the Cyber Union controlled 60% of the Red Planet. At first progress had been slow, but now the lack of rescources became an immense problem for the Systems Alliance. As a result the Cyber Union could advance much more rapidly. However as more territory was gained by the Union, less rescources were spent by the Alliance. As a result the offensive of the CUAF began to slow down. They still had the winning hand but the soldiers of the Alliance were giving no mercy and went to extreme measures to stop the advance.

This all became apperant in 2244 when Prime General Jason Stellar, who was extremely feared by the Systems Alliance for his ferocity, led the final offensive of the Martian Campaign. 1 million cybers assaulted Fort Aurora in the Promethei Planum region. When it became clear the cybers would win the commander of the fort, General Williams, ordered the detonation of an experimantal nuke, wich instead of focussing on explosion size focused on radiation, located underneath the base. The base was destroyed and the explosion formed an immense radioactive cloud.

Luckely, most of the planet could be evacuated before the radiation spread across the planet. But the Martian ecosystem could not be saved. As the radiation spread, it began to destroy the weaker ecosystems. But the devastation would not limit itself to those areas and after 3 years Mars was once again a barren desert.

During this time the war continued as the Cyber Union now began to assault Phobos and Deimos. Phobos was the first to fall as it was the brunt of the attack. After the assault the Union showed great interest in the Phobos Monolith and began to study it. A few days later Deimos fell and the Cyber Union was now ready to assault Earth.

The Systems Alliance began to prepare Earth for the Cyber assault. But the attack never came. When spy drones were lauched to Mars they revealed that it was abandoned. Not a single lifeform was detected. This greatly surprised every single being in the Alliance. Not long afterwards they began an counter offansive to take back the Asteroid Belt and the Outer Colonies. But these regions were abandoned as well. But the greatest shock came when the Systems Alliance fleet began to land troops on Ganymede. When the marines entered the cities all buildings were completely empty.

After this the Alliance began to rebuild. It would take many years before the damage would be undone. On Mars the explorers arrived to see what was left. As they discovered it was not much. In 2245 they began to resettle Mars and Lowell City was founded. Not long afterwards new settlements began to appear. During one of the expeditions to the Promethei Planum a strange complex was found. When the explorers entered the ruins they found it was a remnant of an ancient alien species called the Protheans.

The Alliance immediately sent a researchers and they found that the complex was an archive and observetory containing data and resources to create a FTL drive using a mysterious element called Eezo. They also found the reason for the strange events in the Kuiper belt. Orbiting Pluto there was a device called a Mass Relay. Apperently there were many of them spread throughout the galaxy and they allowed ships to travel great distances in nearly an instant.

Only a year later the Alliance launched the first ship using a Eezo drive core and began to spread among the stars via the Mass Relays. Thirty years later they made first contact with an alien spesies called the turians and we all know what happens afterwards.

Now the Systems Alliance won the Second Interplanitary War and made contact with the Citadel Council. We all know what happens next so I won't make a chapter for that but instead continue with the story.

Sorry for not updating in the time between the old chapter 2 and this one. I had just gotten a job and a few other things popped up. So once again: sorry.

Many you will most likely wonder what happened to the Cyber Union. This will be explainded further in the story. I have some nice ideas for the next chapter, but I can't predict when it will be out.

Also I would appreciate if any of the readers would review this story so I know how I am doing. You can also PM me if you have any sugestions or quistions

As always:

Houdoe en tot ziens mensen!