Chapter 9: Changed History
2148 was a year that could've been made exciting for humanity if it weren't for the sudden death of Mateus Silva. Death by poisoning, it meant that his excavation team that was to begin exploring the Deseado Crater where strange magnetic fields were shifting strangely. Instead an old fashioned space probe data lite was sent to the area. Nothing strange was found on the surface of the planet, just strange rock formations that looked oddly like city arches. Deep planetary scans found nothing either. The area's megnetic fields fluctuated in odd ways and forced the probes to leave the area. A year later the crater was deemed a hazard when six explorers were found dead. Brain scans found that their bodies had been invaded by megnetic interference that basically turned their brains into swiss cheese before their entire bodies shut down.
In the early month of February of 2150 ruins were found on Pluto of an ancient device. It was non-operational and looked to have exploded. At first it was thought that early explorers may have built this device which was classified as Ruin 3XR as it was the third extraterrestrial device or ruin discovered in the sol system; however an odd substance was found surrounding that gave off the same megnetic interference that was on Mars. With this discovery it was quickly quieted. Explorers were paid heavily to never speak of the device and 3XR became a level 3 classification.
Three months later in 2150 the world governments came together peacefully and created the Systems Alliance and it's military. Then later that year a radio signal was caught by the newly formed System Alliance Military base that was orbiting Io and found it coming from Alpha Centauri system and the discovery that the Manswell Expedition that had gone missing twenty years after it left the sol system in 2095. It was found that they'd all survived and were currently trying to find the habitable planet that would allow them to survive. Communications were lost six weeks later when they'd found a planet and sent coordinates to the planet. After this occurred the Systems Alliance counsel sent the okay for further colony expeditions to be made.
In 2152 the slipstream drive for FTL travel was created by a total of seven scientists from around the world. What it did was punch a whole through the dimensions of space making travel between systems faster. Instead of taking decades or a century to get to one system one could jump from point A to point B in a mater of days or weeks even. In the same year the first AI with holographic form was created, her name was Alice and she lived one hundred and thirty-six days before expiring. Before her death Alice created an offspring that was created by using human brain scans. She named her child Sakura after her creators favorite tree blossom.
On April 11, 2154 the first twins were born on a Systems Alliance colony ship; John and Jane Shepard, born to Captain Ryan Shepard and his wife Engineer Lieutenant Hannah Shepard. The ship was headed towards the Arcturus System with the largest amount of people for colonization with nearly fifteen hundred souls onboard. The ship's name was Elysium V9 and was escorted by six frigates that housed two hundred souls onboard. All ships were equipped with the latest FTL drive and the first colonyship AI named Ellie. After fourteen weeks in slipspace the ship arrived in Arcturus where the military frigates began the exploration of the system and the building of the Arcturus Station.
In 2155 Elysium V9 colonyship left the Arcturus system with it's passengers placed into cryosleep as they made their way across space to the furthest part of space called the Skyllian Verge. It was estimated that with the current FTL slipstream drive that it would take eight and a half years to get there.
Then in 2157 in the Arcturus System a device was discovered near the Oort Cloud of the system. It was made of fine metal, oval in shape and a mechanical output that looked as if it could send something through space at an incredible speed using unknown energy, however it laid dormant. A report of the device was sent into the sol system to the Systems Alliance. After a debate that lasted fourty-six days it was decided that further study of the device was needed before a decision could be made of it. The device was named 4XR.
In 2160, only five years later, Elysium V9 made it's way through the Skyllian Verge through the Petra Nebula to the Vetus System a small earth class planet that was the second planet in the system. The earth class planet was found to have earth-like temperatures, plant like similar to earth; however had zero animal life on land and oceans. This planet was decided to become the new colony of Elysium. The two Systems Alliance frigates that had traveled with the colonyship were called the Davis; which had one hundred souls aboard and the Kennedy; which had eighty-six souls aboard began a secondary mission and began exploration of the system. Two hundred and sixty-two days later an unknown device similar to the on in the Arcturus system was discovered, only this one was active. Notification was sent to Arcturus Station which relayed it onto earth to the Systems Alliance. Thirteen hours later the order was sent for both frigates to destroy the device as it was deem hazardous and too dangerous to be left active. So on October 3, 2160 Device 5XR was destroyed by nuclear plasma warheads. It was soon discover that the system had a secondary device to the first and it was decided that it too would meet the same fate. On Thanksgiving of 2160 Device 6XR was destroyed in the early morning hours.
By 2170 the Systems Alliance had one hundred and sixty-seven colors established. Four hundred and eighty-nine military planet based bases and two hundred and fifty-one military orbital stations and around each colony were dozens of Planetary Defense Platforms or PDP's that were equipped with deep space sensors. Around each unknown devices that had been destroyed were deep space probes that would give the colonies several hours warning before unknown ships even came into the systems.
In 2183 both Jane and John Shepard known as the Kilter Twins due to their battles to destroy insurectionists in the Kilter System in 2179 and 2180. Because of those battles the twins had become renowned as the only people to be able to take down any enemy. Between the two they had one two hundred and twelve consecutive kills with a sniper, eighty-two hand to hand battle kills and fourty-four knife kills. While Jane preferred hand to hand battles, John liked his sniper rifle. Jane was trained N7 special ops with the title of Lieutenant Commander to her name while her brother John was a Major. It was decided that the twins would become the officers of the newly constructed USS Normandy that had the newest fourth generation slipstream FTL drive attached to it along with a generation XII AI, her name EDI created by code name Cerberus; a special ops division created by the Systems Alliance headed by a man code named Illusive Man.
While on their maiden tour in the Epsilon Eridani System; that's in the southern Eridanus constellation, Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau; the Normandy's pilot, picked up a ping from the deep space probe he had AI EDI send out. Forty-five minutes later the stealth frigate had made it's way across the system and into the Eridani Oort cloud. From beyond the cloud of dust, meteorites and asteroids came a black battleship class ship that looked to be organic in nature. As EDI and Lieutenant Moreau scanned the ship both the major and commander Shepards ordered all crew members to their stations. While John had his team members, that included his best friend Staff Lieutenant Kadain Alenko, ready themselves to repel any boarders, meanwhile Jane had her team that included an first Lieutenant Ashley Williams and special ops marine Jacob Taylor suit up in case they were needed as well. With the Lawson sisters as technical support all aboard the Normandy were nervous, but ready for anything their leaders decided; whether it be a call of retreat or defend. After scanning the entire unknown ship EDI and Jeff came to the same conclusion, nobody was alive onboard.
Once the two teams were settled into the shuttle, Flight pilot Steve Cotez, flew the shuttle into a blast hole that was in the starboard side of the ship where John and his team entered. The second blast hole was near the cockpit of the ship; which is where Jane and her team entered into. Both teams discovered the same thing an arachnoid species was onboard the ship, however all seem to have died once they'd been exposed to the air of space or the lack of air, that is. In the center of the ship they found a chamber where the largest arachnoid was. She was obviously the queen, but inside were thousands of eggs ranging from tiny baseball sized to a single bus sized egg.
On August 11, 2183 a call was sent out to Arcturus of alien contact, but it was said that all onboard were dead. Data was sent about the size of the ship, the size of the two blast holes and even the size of the creatures corpses. The ships was drug behind several support tug ships and brought into an non-colonized planet in the Epsilon Eridani system, the fourth earth-like planet in the system. The crew of the Normandy was given leave as both commander and major Shepard waited for Admiral Anderson and Admiral Hackett to appear in four days.
On the second day scientists from the second earth-like planet called Eden Prime showed up and began categorizing the species when Jane noticed the largest egg was shaking slightly. Pulling her handgun from it's resting place on her hip she cautiously approached the egg when suddenly it cracked. Quickly realizing what was occurring she quickly evacuated the ship, however the newly born creature latched onto her, next thing Commander Jane Shepard heard was the most beautiful music in her life.
The incident quickly became known as the Rachni Incident, as it turned out the creatures were of a hive mind and the one born was the new Queen Rachni. She sang through Shepard. Her voice quickly going through Shepards mind and sharing what she knew through her lips, explaining to those around, including to John Shepard. The incident was recorded by the scientists. The song of desperation was sung. The sour notes that came from machines that wished to destroy all life. The blue harmony species that had attacked them because of the sour notes that had been sang by others of their kind. The large beast notes that sung by a warring species. The scientific notes sang by a species that was cold blooded. This species had tried to destroy them, like the others. Then the destructive species that remembered their clan songs and sang war songs against them. By then of the song Jane Shepard had been released and slumped forward unconscious. All had been told by the end, though most did not understand; however what was understood was this species was intellegant and could be reasoned with.
By the time the two Admirals arrived most of the eggs had hatched and the queen was quite attached to Commander Shepard calling her Light Singer and having touched minds at the beginning of life, Jane found herself the adoptive mother of a Queen Rachni.
Questions were asked and answered by songs through Commander Shepard. Having her mind connected to the queen, who not only shared information that was passed down from mother to daughter through genes; but she also searched for her own answers through the Commanders memories. By the time the Admirals left it was agreed upon that the Rachni would be their allies, the fourth planet in the Epsilon Eridani Systen would be given to the Rachni due to them having lost their world to the species who had attacked and almost completely annihilated them; in return the Rachni would share all information with them, allow the Systems Alliance to keep their ship for further study and would allow some of their own people to assist the human race in any way possible. The Rachni Incident quickly became known afterwards as the Human/Rachni Alliance.
In 2185 the Normandy RS-2 was built and newly appointed Commander John Shepard gained his own ship. The frigate was a class 2 frigate with twice the size of the original. His destination was the Vallhallan Threshold that was at the edge of the Serpent Nebula. It was estimated to take around six months to reach his destination.
In that time humanity began expanding in other ways. By 2185 humanity had stretched it's lifespans to one hundred and fifty years, most diseases had been cured, though some still eluded them. Spaceflight wasn't the only thing that had advanced. Most land vehicles had been done away with, except for the macho's and rovers, all other vehicles were air bound. The field reactors in each vehicle was a tiny fusion reactor that had been originally invented for space travel. With the discovery of the Rachni in 2183 a new reactor was created using something the Rachni created called song Crystals. These were highly energized energy plasma crystals. One crystal alone had the capability of running a small city. Vehicle companies quickly capitalized on these crystals, selling aircars that no longer had the danger of mini fuel reactors in them. Next came better built weapons that came from these crystals. A single soldier Rachni could sing a single note that allowed weapon systems to active, which saved on energy used by the ships. Scientists then discovered the fuel source used by the Rachni ship to be non other than Element Zero, but because of the instability of the substance it was quickly dismissed. It was also found that the Rachni were naturally born with Element Zero already in their bodies which gave them certain abilities, however after a series of experiments it was found to be unwise to try to use the substance the same way. In the end Element Zero or e-zero as it was being called, was not something to be used by humanity and the knowledge of it's existence became a level 2 classification.
By Christmas 2185 the SR-2 Normandy broke through slipspace and into the Vallhallan Threshold. Almost immediately the came into contact with another one of those devices and like so many others through the decades since they were first discovered this one met it's fate in an explosion. It did not go unnoticed. Minutes after the devices was destroyed the frigate jumped back into slipspace and exited into an unknown system, one that had two stars within it's system but no planets. As they switched to stealth they came across a huge fleet of unknown ships. AI Edith, daughter to EDI, was ordered to send a report through slipspace to Admiral Hackett of a discovery of another species. The Rachni onboard sang that these people were not the singers who harmed them before. This gave them no advantage. In the minutes that ticked by Commander Shepard was reminded by himself not to overreact and not to say anything about the Rachni because their memory might be soured by those who would do them harm. It took an hour for the message to be relayed, advance with caution and make contact.
In the late hours of Christmas Day of 2185 contact between humanity and the newly discovered Quarian race. The Quarians were an interesting species who lived in bodysuits due to their low immune systems and lived on a migrant fleet due to their creation of a synthetic species known as the Geth. It was also discovered that they were here due to mining and because most of the galaxy was currently in a war with another synthetic species known as the Reapers. The one to speak for most of the fleet was a man named Admiral Rael'Zorah who was quite livid at finding another species during such an upheaval time. A message was quickly sent back to Admiral Hackett about the war and data given freely by the Quarian admiral on the Reapers. The reply came quickly that a meeting must occur, which was agreed upon.
January 21, 2186 the Quarian/Human alliance is sign and the Migrant Fleet is brought into the Epsilon Eridani System to the smallest earth-like planet that orbits a hydrogen based planet. This planet has never been colonized due to the plant-life being poisonous to most humans, but as it is found, the plant-life is safe for Quarian life forms. The alliance states that by giving the Quarians a planet for them to live on information is to be exchanged including about the other known spacefaring species, both friendly and non-friendly. Technology would be shared and the devices now known as Relays were to never be used again. The last point had been a hard point to sell until an explanation and showing of how their slipspace drives worked was given. Quarians from outside in other worlds were quickly called back, or those who could be trusted not to be indoctrinated by the Reapers. Gaining knowledge of each other's languages was the one hurdle they had, as human had many words that meant the same thing. Another was AI technology, that did not go over well, but as long as an AI free ship was used to make contact between worlds, the Quarians didn't have much of a problem.
In February of the same year the Rachni joined the Quarians with an alliance of their own, which had mixed reviews by the Quarian people. However that was mostly ignored by most in their close-knit community.
After this, it was decided that further exploration should be put off for a few decades, perhaps resuming in 2200 due to the synthetic war going on between the Reapers and the galactic circle. If these Reapers were the the sour notes that wanted to destroy all life, then it was too late to help these species already in war with them and so humanity closed the door to exploration and began to wait out a war they hoped would pass them and their new allies over.
Angie-Eyes: Well it's been awhile since I have updated any of my stories. I do hope to update my other story, but no promises. I will update when I can and when I get inspired. This chapter took me two days to write. If you wish to use this chapter in any of you stories do ask, I probably will say yes; but I'd like you to ask first through either a PM or comment. I worked hard on this chapter. I just want the credit for it is all. Other than that I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are very much welcomed!
