Mass Effect: Singularity Effect

by Clockwork Dragonfly

This is a story featuring Transhumanity based on Transcendent Humanity where Sol is a backwater world in an Eezo dry area and over 30 light-years from the nearest relay. Humanity of course wouldn't let a lack of the substance everyone bases their entire civilization off stop them through and they will develop on an entirely different path

5. Equal and Opposite

Mass Effect: Singularity Effect: Ch 5: Equal and Opposite

[The point of the Alten race is to show that Eezo is not an inherent weakness but a material that is quick as easy to utilize but slow to advance beyond the scope of mass alteration due to its ability to be used in almost anything compared to spatial distortion based technology that needs to be used in conjunction with technological alternatives to Eezo based solutions]

Element Zero

Pros: Lots of easy advancement and applications right off the bat for very little energy requirements in comparison to spatial distortion

Cons: stalls advancement in other areas due to overreliance and cuts off other trees of technology that would come about without Eezo

Spatial Distortion

Pros: has a far higher rate of advancement over a long period of time once it starts going, no need for mining or trying to create the exotic material of Eezo, you can build anything as large as you want with common materials, trees of technology closed and/or rendered redundant by Eezo are open for study and utilization

Cons: slow to start off, takes a long time to figure out FTL, requires lots of energy in the form of antimatter or singularity generator based power systems

Codex: The Alten Hive

The Alten Hive are a race of winged insectoids who fled their dying star and doomed garden moon of Serranos by creating their own version of uploading and using scavenged Eezo from an Eezo rich asteroid that impacted it to create a basic FTL drive using multiple small Eezo cores

The Alten traveled through space, looking for a suitable planet for over 500 years before they found it, New Serranos

From here they began rebuilding their civilization over the next eight thousand years they expanded throughout the Nyra and close-by systems. Knowing they needed to avoid another catastrophe they invested in FTL capable virtual habitats and star manipulation and stabilization which led to widespread usage of steller manipulators, large singular hexagonal ring-like shapes surrounding the equator of a star in order to manipulate them. Also created were the void slings which fulfilled the roles of mass relays but used four smaller Eezo cores working together instead of a singular one

After six thousand years the void assemblers were created to forge element zero itself which only boosted their production as it was more efficient the mining the material

One thousand years later the Alten created the void lattice, a giant network of solidified bridges of dark energy physically and quantumly linking all of their space.

Two thousand years later the Alten discovered their first mass relay, a primary relay mass relay that headed to Rannoch

Chapter 5: Equal and Opposite

The Beshr: 40km long exploration ship: simdeck

Sgenar looked at the unknown object in curiosity, twitching his virtual antennae in thought, and rubbed his wings in excitement as this object proved alien life actually existed "what even is this thing? It's not very aesthetic, now is it? It would be so much better if it were a rectangle.. .oh or maybe a hexagon"

Desur his first officer looked at his sensor before looking at the captain, gesturing an appendage towards him while rubbing his legs in uncertainty "it appears to be an alien equivalent to a void sling, captain"

Sgenar was already excited they discovered evidence of alien life but a void sling equivalent? That meant they were advanced alien life. "Is it active?"

Desur "I believe so, it is asking for a location to choose from 12 destinations"

Sgenar rubbed his antennae in thought "choose at random"

Desur looked at him before going back to his virtual console "yes captain"

The crew saw the familiar yet different sight as a singular large blue-purple bolt of energy compared to the usual four smaller ones of a void sling launched the ship through the cracks in reality to another system

The system they came upon had three different styles of ships, geometric ones that felt the most familiar and was a familiar size of 20kms long but still were extremely alien to them, much smaller insectoid ones that looked similar to their closest evolutionary ancestor of the Alturi, and more small and extremely alien ships that were for some reason curved and round but bearded some resemblance to the insectoid ones.

Over by the far end of the system, he also saw a ringed object about the size of the void sling which a ship came from out of from nowhere "I think we might have found not only the creators of the void sling equivalents but another race who has the dark gates of an early iteration of a void lattice's equivalent"

Desur leaded back as he read the readings "were being hailed! Some kind of first contact message and translation program!"

Sgenar clicked his antennae in excitement "then let us get started on that!"

Rannoch relay watch outpost

Naal'zaran couldn't believe how unlucky she was, watching the relay instead of being on the homeworld they just got back? Really? Really?! But she supported someone had to the job.

Her Omni tool lit up to show the image of a Geth platform as her suit bound Geth swarm, one of the first ever to help fix their immune systems which she named abundance, alerted her to some interesting information "creator Naal'zaran, the relay is active, no scheduled transit can be found within the databanks"

Naal'zaran sighed "please don't tell me we have to deal with pirates already…."

The relay activated and out came the strangest ship she had ever seen that was easily transhuman ship sized proportions of 40km long, but the architecture was all wrong

Instead of cubic and rectangular designs of silver and grey metal, this ship was roughly hexagonal and was a mixture of blacks and oranges

"Creator Naal'zaran, the unknown ship is giving off Eezo signatures. This is a first contact with an Eezo using species clearly far more advanced than the council. How much so cannot yet be determined with current information"

She instantly sat up "to send out the first contact message and translation program!"

The Transhuman Council

Leadership "Well, this is unexpected. We all assumed Eezo to be the inferior system but now we can clearly see it is merely destroyer influenced Eezo technology that is inferior, likely to allow an easier harvest." "Science, I want you to begin researching Eezo based technologies but disregard all citadel or destroyer information. I want you to mine Eezo directly from the source and go from there as clearly we made a mistake in assuming this"

Science looked excited yet thoughtful. "Clearly the citadel's primitiveness and the destroyer's reliance on pure numbers instead of technological strength has blindsided us." "I will begin researching dark energy and element zero technologies"

Industry looked over and interjected "we have a reserve of Eezo we never knew what to do with but keep in storage from when we recently started building the Elysium shell before the battle that happened in that system, I will send some samples to science's people"

Science nodded "thank you, Industry"

Leadership "Diplomacy, I want you to have your voice go to Rannoch and meet these new aliens and have them hopefully ally with the Coalition. It's not like the STG can penetrate our cybersecurity so they will not know about it until we tell them"

Diplomacy "of course, Leadership"

The Beshr: Simdeck

Desur flicked his antennae "we have successfully translated their languages"

Sgenar rubbed his wings together "tell me about them"

Desur "well it appears they are multiple races known as the Coalition which is the rival of a 'citadel council'"

Sgenar rubbed his antennae with excitement "excellent! Dozens of advanced alien lifeforms!"

Desur leaned back in surprise after reading the first contact information further "not exactly, only one of them can be considered our equal but not entirely as they are stronger in some areas than we are while we are stronger in others. Ironically, while being our peer they do not use element zero"

Sgenar just deadpanned at his first officer "what?"

Desur too had a look of surprise on his face and was clicking his wings in uncertainty "It appears they evolved in an Eezo dry cluster and somehow found an alternative method in the form of spatial distortion-based space-time manipulation instead of our mass alteration based methods. They call them gravity waves which gave rise to singularity cores that can act similarly to our Eezo cores in all ways except mass manipulation"

Sgenar clicked his antennae "that is thoroughly fascinating, but what should we do?"

Desur "I've read the laws of both the Coalition and the Citadel Council and the Coalition is far more fit for us as much of our technology would be illegal in their eyes just as the Transhumans similar technology is as well" "but we all know this is a matter the Overqueen must know about"

Sgenar nodded "agreed, I'll send the report"

Just as the Transhumans had their aspects who made up the Transhuman council, so too did the Alten have the Overqueen, a manifestation of their gestalt will who ruled their race

The Digihive, home of the Overqueen: New Serranos

The Overqueen looked over the information and agreed with the workers in question. Clearly, these Transhumans had much to teach them in non-Eezo based technology and they had much to offer in Eezo based technology. She then sent her avatar herself to The Beshr to become material and meet with this Coalition

The Beshr: Simdeck

Sgenar was about to plan his next move when a swarm of yellow code appeared on the bridge and came together to form into Alnioa, the Avatar of the Overqueen herself

All members of the crew on the Simdeck digitally kneeled before her, deferring to her and by extension the Overqueen herself

Alnioa spoke in a voice that commanded respect and had the digital weight of their entire civilization behind her "rise honored servants of the Overqueen, for you have been chosen to help me make contact and ally with this Coalition and set up simple diplomatic ties with this Citadel Council

Sgenar rubbed his wings in excitement "of course, Lady Avatar, we would be honored to help you!"

Alnioa, the Avatar of the Overqueen then spoke "then let us contact them and go into the physical world as only the Geth and Transhumans are like us even though the Quarians are well on their way"

Rannoch: City of the Ancestors: Conference room; later that day

Zaal'koris greeted the aliens around him before speaking "As the host of this meeting due to the location of first contact I will introduce the rest of the room to the Lady Avatar as a courtesy" He waved towards Diplomacy "This is Anita Goyle the Voice of Diplomacy. Diplomacy who is a part of the Transhuman council which while being more individualistic than your Overqueen fulfills the same role and Anita Goyle here fulfills the same role as you Lady Avatar but only for the aspect of Diplomacy"

Lady Avatar nodded in respect and understanding to the one who shared her burden and responsibility, even if only a singular aspect of it "as we are peers you may have the high and extreme honor of directly calling me by my name of Alnioa, Anita Goyal voice of Diplomacy"

Anita Goyle stood up trying to make herself more presentable "I thank you Alnioa"

Zaal'koris "I am Zaal'koris, the elected president of the Quarian Conclave" he then waved to the female Batarian in the room "This is Bekroa, the elected official of the Batarian republic" then waved towards the Quarian hologram "this is Thael'vossa, the spiritual leader of the virtual Quarians who the Transhumans suspect to be a future representative of the nascent gestalt will within the land of the ancestors. She has come up with the name of Chosen for herself for when the gestalt will fully manifest itself"

Alnioa rubbed her antennae together in understanding "Before the Overqueen we once had ones such as yourself, normal Queens who got random inspiration and insights into us"

Anita Goyle then interjected "we too had ones such as yourself before the emergence of the aspects who created the Transhuman council"

Thael'vossa's hologram looked grateful "I thank you Lady Avatar, Voice of Diplomacy"

Zaal'koris waved towards Legion "and lastly we have our artificial intelligences we created, the Geth"

Legion moved his eye flaps "We greet you Alnioa-Avatar"

Alnioa knew it wasn't a sign of disrespect but simply how the Geth categorized living beings

Alnioa rubbed her antennae "we too once had AIs but over time the difference between AIs and Uploads became nonexistent, together we are one, we are Alten"

Anita Goyle looked down in thought "we never figured out AIs but Uploads fulfilled that role and more, I suppose we just skipped a step" she then looked at Alnioa "let us begin helping you integrate into the Coalition as you have asked to. Unfortunately, not everything is right in the galaxy, a storm is approaching us that if we are not prepared will blow us away off the face of the galaxy"

2 weeks later; The Citadel Council Chambers

Tevos drunk some of her alcoholic Thessian blue tea as she read her omnitool with a new message from the Transhumans out of all people

"We came into contact with a new hyper-advanced, Eezo using, insectoid race roughly our equals who are known as the Alten, no they are not a hive mind like the Rachni, who joined our Coalition and want to set up diplomatic ties with the Citadel Council even if they are not to be joining you. We'll be there in 2 months, we think that will be enough time for you" - Anita Goyle, The Voice of Diplomacy

Tevos spat out her expensive tea in shock and outrage "What?!!"

To no one's surprise, this direct message to the councilor was intercepted by no other than the STG as well as the Shadow Broker

STG Headquarters

The Delathrass looked at her subordinate "is this message genuine?"

STG Agent nodded "yes it is"

The Delathrass began pacing "This is troubling, we are being left behind. I don't care about council law anymore, restart all programs curbed due to being illegal in council space immediately"

STG Agent "right away Delathrass"

The Shadow Broker's Office

The massive Yagh threw his desk in outrage, this was the last thing he needed, another Transhuman level race! The Reapers/Destroyers would not be happy with this! Then again he hasn't been contacted by them since the destruction of the collectors so maybe he still had a chance of surviving their onslaught as one of their agents