Hello Ladies and Gentleman. First I would like to say that english is not my mother tongue, so pleace have mercy with this poor soul. Second, This story will not include any crossover or any other alien species that are not part of the Mass Effect universe, so don't even ask about it. Third, while I took the liberty to accelerate the advancement of some technologies that are currently researched, there will not be any technologies that todays scientists say are not possible.

That beeing said, on with the Prologe

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

The not so sleeping giant

The 21st century was supposed to be a start to a golden age. What idiots. The 21st century was pure and simple chaos and nothing else. It even began in chaos, with the terror attack in 9/11 back in 2001. And it only became worse. But it wasn't really the fear for terror that became the biggest threat in human history. No it was technology and our economy that was totally unprepared for the sudden and dramatic advances in tech in that era.

In the thirties of the 21st century nanotechnology got the breakthrough that all were waiting for. It was a time for joy, for celebration. It was the beginning of our problems.

At first nanotechnology was the be all, end all. A lot of our economic scientists warned the world to be careful and not to overdo it with the advancements. No one really listened. The people where high with the possibilities that where suddenly open to them, and thus it became a shock to the world when in 2039, the year in which the first nano-forges where built, the markets fell into a bottomless pit. Everywhere in the world the currencies lost their worth. The Dollar broke down, the Euro didn't fair that much better, and so did the British Pound. And so the world spiraled down into the greatest economic disaster in human history, that no one really knew the solution to. The world economy was depended on the imbalance of supply and demand, which was a good system, back in the 1950's. The inadequacies of that system where already shown a few decades before the collapse. Granted it was still controllable and the world prospered, but one could still see the problems if you looked just close enough. But the problem was that with the introduction of nano-forges this imbalance was heavily altered. Supply was no longer a true point of interest any more.

It didn't help in the leased that one of the few resources that couldn't be produced by nano-forges was the one that became ever rarer.
Oil.

In order to get any fuel, one had to pay exorbitant prices and that in the midst of a giant inflation. That only helped to ensure that the crisis humanity found itself in became even worth. A lot of people could no longer go to work because they no longer could afford to pay for the fuel. That in return ended up with them losing work and with no work no income and even less money, which ended up that the governments had to somehow find a way to make sure that there people get some food or that say don't end up with millions of people on the street.

Over years that went on and the situation became only worth. Curiously even with all the problems in the world, scientists still managed to come up with new technologies.
The very first good news in these years was the development of a true workable fusion reactor. That at least solved the energy crisis, humanity found itself in by 2045.

Of course that good news couldn't go without anything bad. Nanotech advanced even more somehow in those years and now scientists in there unending quest to improve humanity created true claytronics in 2052. While a marvel of technology and while in the future it really helped to improve the lifestyle of mankind, back than it only helped to worsen the situation.

The situation in the world was not all that good. And to make things complete the different companies in the world tried to make a play for power and take control of the world. Good thing that the government bodies in the world in that point finally began to do the right thing. At the beginning of the crisis we where near a world war 3, when the different countries in the world where at each other's throat in the misguided attempt to find a scapegoat for the misery the world was in. But in the end the world came through and the different governments came to the conclusion that alone no one will solve anything that either we work together or we will fall together. A unified government body was founded that had the authority to tell the different nations of the world what to do and what not to do. In essence a version the UN with real power.

In 2055 the Earth Union was born.

The first order of business was to first list the problems of the world in order solve to them to get out of the crisis.

The biggest problem was that because of the nano-forges and the untold different applications of nanotechnology made construction work more or less a thing of the past. This ended up with millions of unemployed people that would have difficulties in finding work in a non-physical application outside the military.

The economy was still more or less in shambles. Granted is has adapted and evolved over the years it is still not jet a solid economic form.

In order to change the employment problem, heavy founding in schooling was the solution, at least as a stop-gap solution. Because physical labor was a thing of the past, people had two choices for their professional career.
One: You can go and find work in the cultural aspect of life. Meaning working in theatres, become an actor, musician or just in general an artist. Well that works for about 15% of humanity, tops. So we go to option two.
Two: Go into the sciences'. Work with your mind.
That of course had one critical error. Just not everyone had the needed gray matter up in their head.

So in order help at least somewhat The Earth Union had all schools in the world upgraded with modern tech to make it easier for the next generation of children to keep up with the ever increasing knowledge pool of mankind. That as in itself was only a temporary solution. By 2060 the Knowledge that our children were expected to learn and understand by the time they finish there A-Level exams was comparable in some cases to a masters degree back in the first decade of the 21st century. Even with the best equipment in the schools in the world their where obviously still people that couldn't keep up.
The solution for that came in 2077. Where French scientists figured out how the human brain saves its information, where what information is stored, in what order and anything else one can only hope to know about the brain. With this they were able to build neurological nanites that were able to download knowledge into the brain.
That of course came with a complete restructuration of the school system. The school was obviously not abolished; just how they worked was changed.
With the ability to download knowledge schools where no longer institutions to teach knowledge, but became institutions where the applications of said knowledge was conveyed. Every school year some knowledge was downloaded in order to get the brain used to it, and then the children are shown what they can really do with that knowledge. (For example built a combustion engine in 6th grade)
That had the additional benefit that most children found in school already what they enjoy doing and what path they would like to go in their lives.

The problems in economy where more or less solved with this too. The biggest problem in the entire crisis was the extreme amount of unemployment in the world. Still some things where still done. Every city in the world became vertical city-farms. And with the help of robotic farming, modern hydroponic und aeroponic farming, made food an easy to produce and easy to afford consume good.

With nano-construction and claytronics entire cities could be build in weeks, which made rent easily affordable.

By the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's of the 21st century order and prosperity came back to the world.

And while the different nations of the world still existed, under the leadership of the Earth Union, could Humanity for the first time look together, united into a bright future.

It was the beginning of a golden age.

Or not?

OK that was the Prologe. So what do you guys think?