Arknights and Mass Effect
Arknights AU-verse
Major Changes (Beyond the ya-know, mass effect bits - SPOILER WARNINGS)
Talulah offs Kashchey before he can posses her, this obviously changes a lot down the line.
1096 Terran Time - As of this point all the various factions of Reunion exist, yet they do not attack Ursus. Instead they claim the wreckage of a previously abandoned, yet salvageable Mobile City and begin repairs.
December 27, 1096 Terran Time - The Rhodes Island operation to rescue the Doctor goes flawlessly. They experience no resistance during extraction and the Ursus Empire is unable to claim their involvement due to lack of evidence and an unwillingness to admit they had in fact kidnapped the renowned Oripahy expert.
January 1, 1100 Terran Time - After several years of work, Reunion has finally finished repairs on their new Mobile City, now named 'Home' - it is completely self sufficient and thanks to this Reunion has set off into uncharted territory, along with any Infected willing to make the journey with them. This action inspires much controversy and fear among the many nations of Terra. While some simply think they will die off in the wilds, others fear the possibility that they may grow strong in isolation… strong enough to truly challenge those in power.
July 22, 1124 Terran Time - Thanks to the relative peace - the Doctor has not only relearned everything he had forgotten in Ursus' 'gentle' hands: he has also done what was considered impossible and found a solution to Oripathy! Unlike traditional dreams of a cure, the Doctor's method does not remove or prevent Originium from entering the body, instead it allows the body to work with Originium safely. The Doctor names his miracle fix Amiya's Grace, much to the embarrassment of his now wife. This means that the Infected will no longer be cursed with short lives - however many do not claim the fix presented to them out of fear.
August 31, 1124 Terran Time - Unknown to the world, Reunion had kept an eye on the Terran Nations. With the fix to Oripathy from Rhodes Island being released to the public, Reunion once again enters the world stage… this time as a new global power. Reunion had indeed prospered in their isolation. They had found a previously unknown civilization in their self imposed exile. This nation was composed nearly entirely of Wendigo Sarkaz, meaning that the Wendigo are in fact not on the verge of extinction. They had no major prejudice against the infected, though they were glad that their Infected had a nice place to call home in Reunion. Patriot was overjoyed that his kind were not going to die out.
While the Infected can have children, it is ill advised as an Infected mother will always give birth to an Infected child. Due to this they could not truly leave behind civilization, otherwise their population would dwindle and die out eventually. Instead they left behind waypoints for future infected to follow. In this way they gathered the Infected and downtrodden from many nations. While their population as of now cannot rival the likes of Ursus, they are nearly comparable to Kazimierz in numbers - while being vastly superior in industrial output. Under brilliant Infected scientists Reunion has automized most of their industry, allowing their citizens to devote themselves to whatever pursuits they wish, be it luxury works or scientific pursuits. Some leaders like Faust or Mesphito decided to settle down, running an orphanage and a audio recording studio respectively. Others like the legendary Patriot decided to continue in their original careers.
As a show of courage in the global stage, Patriot steps forward and volunteers himself for treatment at Rhodes Island. While meant as a means of showing fellow Infected that they can trust those in Rhodes Island, Patriot's actions begin a new Ursus Civil War. His actions as a war hero in Ursus caused many citizens to doubt their leaders mandates and policies on the Infected. After all if such a great hero was an Infected, how bad could they be? Especially now that all the issues with being an Infected were gone.
February 18, 1125 Terran Time - In a shocking information leak, it is revealed that Patriot has developed an incredibly bizarre side effect from Amiya's Grace. Incredibly enough, the side effect is repeatable and now that people are looking for it, the signs are appearing in all who have taken the fix. Patriot seems to be, for all intents and purposes, getting younger. An over 200 year old man, Patriot was the oldest person with Oripathy alive. It seems that with the extra energy from the Originium flowing safely in his veins, his body was able to invest some of that in rejuvenating himself. While not a one way ticket to immortality, it is theorized that any Infected who has taken Amiya's Grace might live to see their second millennia! Those of hardier races like Patriot himself might live to see 3000 years pass! With this new revelation, countless people seek to intentionally Infect themselves overnight - thankfully Amiya's Grace is both cheap and well stocked.
Those of mercantile nations like Kazimierz and Lungmen find themselves populated almost solely by Infected nearly overnight. Other like Ursus find their civil war to be ramping up with this new knowledge. It is not an overnight thing, but experts hypothesize that by the end of the century, there will not be a single human on Terra who is not Infected.
September 23, 1127 Terran Time - The Ursus Cvil War ends with the total dissolution of the Ursus Empire. The surviving cities are either decommissioned or absorbed into neighboring nations… with in an ironic twist, most of the survivors joining the Nation of Reunion - as Patriot still holds the rank of General in their armies. Reunion's automatized industry becomes standard on a global scale - resources shortages become a thing of the past.
June 31, 1150 Terran Time - With the horror of Oripathy a distant memory, public fear returns to an ever present foe, Catastrophes. Thanks to global unity being at an all time high - the nations of Terra collectively announce that they will form a worldwide alliance. This United Terran Alliance will have two goals for the time being - the first is the full exploration of their home world of Terra. As shown by Reunion's encountering the Wendigo Nation, there may be more peoples out there in the unknown. They will try to find them and ask them to join the Alliance.
The second and much more ambitious, goal - space colonization! With the primary danger of Originium gone, related research had exploded in recent years. Allowing for the production of many technologies that experts deemed critical for space travel. They plan to have the first human being on the moon within the century.
July 20, 1169 Terran Time - To the amazement of the world, FrostNova becomes the first human to set foot on the surface of the Moon. [MOON RABBIT! I HAD TO DO IT!] She plants the flag of the UTA, along with the flag of the now defunct Ursus Empire, for the benefit of an old war hero.
January 1, 1200 Terran Time - At the turn of the century, the first Moon colony opens. It is named Leap, for punny reasons. Leap is scheduled to reach over 100,000 residents before the end of the year.
May 7, 1232 Terran Time - Blacksteel Systemwide unveils the next big game changer in technological and military prowess - the Artificial Arts Generator. Now with the AAG, the immensely personalized power of Originium Arts can be standardized and used for industrial and other applications! Unfortunately is it unusable on man portable scale as of this time. That does not detract from the appeal however, as gravity based AAG are immediately installed in landships for swifter travel as well as spaceships as artificial gravity generators. Though there have been issues replicating the more esoteric arts...
November 27, 1234 Terran Time - In an interesting derivative use of the AAG Gravity systems, Laterano scientists present the worlds first functioning fusion reactor! While less powerful than heavy duty Originium reactors, they are far more hardy, require less refueling AND the fuel itself is easier to store… making it perfect for space travel.
March 4, 1241 Terran Time - The first Terran mission to Mars touches down in the south pole of Mars. They then deploy a rover and begin exploring the red planet to the excitement of viewers back on Terra. To the shock of all however, the ground beneath the rovers collapses, revealing alien ruins! Subsequent missions are sped up considerably and modified to accompany heavy research on the alien ruins.
May 7, 1242 Terran Time - The people of Terra now know that the ruins belonged to a race of beings called the Protheans. Included in the technology found in the ruins is a rather bizarre material that the Protheans apparently called Element Zero - which immediately causes research to grind to a halt. After extended contact with the material, it was determined that the scientists involved began to develop lesions of the material around their nervous systems. Every speck of the material was gathered up and fired into the sun. All the researchers infected committed suicide by hitchhiking on the same capsule shooting the Element Zero into the sun. They left behind letters for their families and a public statement saying -
"We won't be responsible for bringing Alien Oripathy to Terra."
October 13, 1242 Terran Time - While research has gone at a much slower pace due to it being entirely unmanned, the secrets of the Prothean base have begun to reveal themselves. The main concern of the Terran's was how seemingly every last speck of the Prothean tech required Element Zero to function. Using what had now been termed alien Originium wasn't going to fly among the populace so obviously the Prothean ruins were a bust in terms of new knowledge. They got nothing out of them beyond the knowledge that there was another type of Originium and thus Oripathy out there and that they wouldn't touch it with a hundred foot pole.
December 31, 1242 Terran Time - The mass relay is discovered - not that they know it's a mass relay - much to the collective horror of the Terrans. The people argue over what to do with it for many days until eventually they decide to do the following. They will remove the mass relay's element zero core and as with whatever they'd found before - throw it into the sun. Then they will dismantle the rest of the relay and see if they get anything out of it. In the end they figure out how to produce the advanced alloys the mass relay is made out of - it will become a major stable in Terran life, used in everything from ships to kitchenware.
Using the alloy, now named nano laminate, the UTA begins the process of building several space elevators over Terra.
April 5, 1251 Terran Time - Terrans rejoice as Rhine Labs unveils a functioning terraforming system. It is called the Silent Ifrit or the SI - much to the annoyance/amusement to those who are in on the joke. SI systems are immediately deployed to Mars, Venus and Mercury as well as prominent moons of gas giants like Titan, Io and Europa. Terra's space elevators are finished. Space elevators are now planned for these worlds as well
March 7, 1284 Terran Time - Terran population throughout the Sol System passes 20 Billion. The system begins to groan under the weight of humanity's numbers and the race to find viable FTL travel escalates. The space elevators for all colonized worlds are now finished. In a bid to lessen the strain on resources, Reunion launches a massive program to industrialize the astroid belt with automatic mining fields and factories - if successful then the Sol system may find itself capable of supporting double the current population.
Space travel reaches affordability on the scale of buying a decent car hundreds of years ago. This of course leads to a surge of space piracy. To combat this the UTA moves to create a naval division for space.
June 28, 1288 Terran Time - Rhine Labs intentionally seeds Neptune with large amounts of Originium and is pleased to see the planet devolve into a near global catastrophe within weeks. This experiment was done with the intention to use the catastrophe's Originium producing properties in order to make more Originium in places where humans don't have to suffer for it. The immense yield from the gas giant is predicted to be enough to fuel Terran civilization for millennia to come.
February 18, 1292 Terran Time - Reunion's move to industrialize the asteroid belt pays off as immense amounts of resources begin to pour back into Sol. Not a moment too soon either as Human population surpasses 30 billion.
The UTA Navy capitalizes on this surge of resources building both warships and defense platforms alike - creating the defenses the Sol system has been sorely lacking since the beginning of their peoples ascent to the stars. Taking inspiration from popular media every populated planet in the system is protected with an array of orbital defense platforms - they mount weapons similar to energy projectors from Halo. Their number is dependent on population. Every 10 million people on the ground get you 1 defense platform. To Terra's population of 10 billion, this means over 1,000 defense platforms! Mars, Venus and Mercury each hold populations of around 5 billion meaning 500 defense installations a piece. The remaining five billion population is spread throughout Io, Europa and Titan at around 1.8 Billion each, with each moon having around 180 defense installations.
As stationary installations are a good deal cheaper, the navy itself is a good deal smaller having about 1,001 vessels total. Of that half of them are 600 meter long frigates, another 400 are 1 kilometer in length cruisers and the remaining 100 is evenly split between 5 kilometer assault carriers and dreadnoughts. The final vessel is considered to be overkill at best and a flying war crime at worst to the common citizen. At a whopping 25 kilometers in length - The Light of Sol is the flagship of the Sol defense fleet and is quite capable of wiping out a good portion of the rest of the fleet single handedly.
July 4, 1299 Terran Time - Terrans scream in triumph as much to the shock of many - scientists under the employ of Kazdel create the first commercially viable FTL engine! It is a variation of the Alcubierre drive concept. The drive is tested and reaches a speed of 20 light years a day - reaching the Alpha Centauri system in 3.5 hours. It is determined however there is much room for improvement. While Alpha Centauri has no habitable or even terraformable planets - it is highly resource rich, promoting Reunion to begin creating FTL capable resource drones to tap into these resources.
August 1, 1300 Terran Time - The entire Sol Defense Fleet has been equipped with the new FTL drives. In addition to that - a new fleet has been created. Consisting of 100 ships following the same fleet ratios as the Sol Defense Fleet. This new fleet has a special task - they are in charge of guarding the very first FTL capable colony ship on its maiden voyage to a recently discovered garden world. The ship is essentially a city floating in space - and when it arrives at the new world it will simply land and the people can begin life on their new world. Due to its immensely complicated subsystems - the first AI is created it run it. The AI is patterned off of the brain of one Dr. Kal'sit and is rumored to be remarkably snarky. The ship is named New Rhodes and it carries 10 million souls. It arrives at the new world within a day of launch - the world is named Eden Prime.
January 1, 1400 Terran Time - Human population reaches 100 billion with over 50 worlds colonized by Terrans in the last century. For the first time in history the population is higher outside the Sol System than it is within it. AI are now commonplace - though they are understandably limited in their functions. Only military grade AI are allowed to hack and whatnot. Recent advances in the Artificial Arts Generator finally allow for it to be build on a man portable scale. However it is deemed inefficient to be used in creating projectiles, thus all man portable arts generators are used to make either personal shields or to coat one's melee weapons in Arts energy. Though there is absolutely nothing stopping someone from simply attaining two AAG so that they can get both shields and Arts blades.
(If anyone's questioning how the population is growing so fast - pretty much no one is dying of old age anymore and they have tons of space to expand into.)
December 12, 1401 Terran Time -
The colony world of Shanxi was a quiet place. It had only been settled for a year and with one colony ship present the total population was a little bit above 10 million - meaning there was one orbital defense platform or ODP in orbit above this quiet world. The standing garrison for this quiet world was a good deal above average however, standing at 1 million strong. Normally you wouldn't get a military that big for a colony this small but here, there just so happened to be a great incentive to join up. It wasn't the pay or the glamour of the position, instead it lied in the honor of serving under the commanding general of the colony. Shanxi just so happened to be the most recent deployment of General Buldrokkas'tee or more famously known as the Patriot. He and his daughter Yelena, better known as FrostNova were currently on the colony really as a vacation. Not that the distinguished General didn't take pride in the fact that his presence caused such inspiration to the people of Shanxi - much to his daughter's amusement. She herself had attained the rank of Captain and led her Yeti Squadron with distinction. They went about their lives day to day, enjoying the peace of their current era. High above in the space beyond the planet however - something that would bring about a good deal of violence was about to happen.
In the Shanxi system sat a puke green gas giant. It was entirely unremarkable in the grand scheme of things. The planet didn't even have a number designation, much less a name. What was of significance to the exploration vessel in orbit around this puke green world was one of its moons.
Mook no.1: "What is it?" The mook asked with obvious interest.
Mook no.2: "I don't know - why the hell would a moon be asking us what our mass is? Still this is giving me some major deja-vu" The other mook said his part with obvious annoyance.
Mook no.1 had never liked his partner's attitude. He decided to humor the moon and send in their mass readings. Though neither of them could hear it - both of them could almost imagine the titanic cracking noises as they watched the moon start to glow and crack apart. Revealing the source of Mook no.2's deja-vu.
Mook no.2: "OH FUCK it's one of those things!"
He barely had time to start his ranting and cursing before a tendril of what looked like blue lightning shot out of the Mass Relay grabbing the Mook exploration vessel and flinging them off into the uncharted space beyond.
2157 Citadel Time
Admiral Brutius Patacos was irritated, very irritated. He was a decorated hero! He had led his fleet proudly against Batarian scum and pirate warlords… and yet just because he was 'too destructive' Palaven Command had seen fit to put him on patrol duty. They thought it would help him cool off - though to be fair an ice bath on Europa wouldn't help this particular Turian cool off. He was currently aggressively walking towards the bridge of his dreadnought - the Fist of Invictus - he paused before entering the bridge taking a deep breath. No matter how irritated he was, he was an Admiral, he had an image to uphold. Satisfied that he looked outwardly calm and collected he entered the bridge, the sight of his fellow Turians immersed in their duties helping him to actually calm down somewhat.
"Admiral Brutius, we are nearing Relay 314, we will drop out of FTL in 34 seconds." His navigator reported dutifully.
"Excellent, when we arrive in system have the fleet assume standard scanning formation. We should be able to wrap this up in a few hours and move on to the next one." After relaying the same orders as the last 15 dormant relay systems he sat down in his chair and watched the dim blue glow of the mass effect fields outside his mighty ship. He almost wished for something to come out of the relay - just for the excitement. He then saw the blue glow wink out alongside the slight vibration that signified the transition out of FTL travel. Before he could start barking order like any good Turian officer however - he got his excitement.
"ADMIRAL! RELAY 314 IS ACTIVE!" His sensor officer yelled out - silencing everyone else on the bridge.
"Detecting one unknown contact nearby the Relay." The sensor officer continued. Activating the Admiral's tactical mind.
"Fire on my mark - these lawbreakers have activated a dormant relay - however we shoot to disable. We need to know if they were acting alone." At his orders one of his frigates fired on the apparently unshielded vessel, trashing the engines - though doing much less damage than anticipated. He then ordered one of his frigates to move in for boarding operations.
Back on the Mook ship -
"I DON"T WANNA BE EATEN BY ALIENS!" Mook no.1 screamed as he watched the telltale sign of welding appear on the side of the ships hull. Unfortunately the likely concussed if not dead body of Mook no.2 would offer no response to his cries. So in his fear addled brain, he chose the next best option.
"SHIP! ACTIVATE SELF-DESTRUCT!" It took less than a nanosecond for the ship to process the request. It took about 5 seconds for the ship to fulfill this request. A 10 seconds after the request, all that was left of both the exploration ship and the Turian frigate was dust in the interstellar wind… In a feat of pure randomness and selfishness - the Mook has somehow denied the enemy valuable intel.
Back on the THV Fist of Invictus -
There was only silence as they watched the expanding debris field that was once a proud vessel of the Turian navy. The Admiral was shaking in fury but before he could explode he took a deep breath, hit a button to transmit his words fleet wide and spoke quietly.
"We will be going through the relay. Then we will show these lawbreakers justice. It is obvious that they are violent and primitive - only under the stern fist of the Hierarchy can they possibly contribute to the greater good of the galaxy… now advance." With that the fleet shot through the relay - unaware of the hornet's nest they'd already kicked - as well as the Salarian stealth corvette tailing them.
As the Turian fleet appeared in the Shanxi system - it did not take them long to find the sole garden world in the system. They were further embolden by the lack of a single ship in orbit - only one station of some type. They were not prepared for the beam of light shooting from said station to bisect a Turian cruiser. After taking a pounding ten times more than any dreadnought and destroying a dozen or so ships, the station was an expanding cloud of hot gas. The same could nearly be said for the Admiral's mental state. However his part was done - now he could pawn off the rest on General Desolas, after all he was in charge of space, not the ground.
The defense station may not have stopped the fleet entirely but it had given the people plenty of time to get to shelter and to mobilize the Shanxi Army… and for the General himself to don his armor. The Patriot was going to haunt the nightmares of the Turians after this.
This whole campaign had been one nightmare after another for the Turian army. The enemies - that they now knew to be humans - had the most bizarre mismatching of tech that they had ever seen. Personal shields more powerful than anything they could possibly imagine - yet every soldier came standard equipped with a blade or a crossbow of all things! That they were often energy blades was besides the point. Another odd thing was the sheer diversity of the humans. Every one looked like Asari but with seemingly random animal features - some had scales others fur - their ears coming in all shapes and sizes.
Still with liberal usage of heavy armor they had made progress… until 'it' appeared. The soldiers remembered it well - a sudden deep thumping on the ground - footsteps. They thought that the humans were fielding some sort of mech at first until 'it' came into view. It easily stood several meters tall, crowned with twisted horns, holding in one hand a shield bigger than an entire Krogan and looked just as heavy - the shield emblazoned with a faded double headed bird and a bright orange double helix. In the other it held a spear that was already soaked with blue blood - Turian blood.
The heavy armor immediately pelted the enormous figure with everything they had. Potential overkill be damned, dozens of rockets flew towards the behemoth, vehicle mounted mass accelerators blasting away. They impacted with a titanic crash, blasting up a cloud of dust obscuring their field of vision. Yet when the dust settled the figure stood tall - its shield barely scuffed by the firepower turned upon it, much to the collective horror of the Turians present. Then the figure hunched over and began to step forward picking up speed and holding its shield out before it - an old school infantry charge. For even the Terrans this would be suicidal… but Patriot was no ordinary Terran. He charged through the oncoming fire to smash into the enemy lines. Patriot chose a poor, defenseless APC as his first target. He swung down his shield upon it and like a a tin can, the armored vehicle crumbled - crushing those unfortunate enough to have still been inside. In the chaos of the Patriot's charge, the rest of the human front lines advanced - crushing all resistance. So long as he held the lines, the Turians could not hold any territory in the city for long. Not that the Turians were faring any better outside the city limits…
General Desolas' command tent.
SMASH!
With an immense crash, General Desolas swept a table clear of stuff.
"What is happening! We are Turians! The peacekeepers of the galaxy! HOW are we unable to crush some backwater primitives… that have yet to advance past the bow and arrow!" The General screeched at his subordinates. One brave soul stepped forward, mandibles chattering in the cold winds that had plagued the camp.
"Sir… the Primitives seem to posses a rather… bizarre mismatch of technology. We believe that due to the immense strength of their personal shields - any and all small arms are utterly ineffective. However, the much larger projectiles of their crossbows seem to be able to pierce their own shielding… with enough arrows that is." The General seemed to ponder this for a moment before responding.
"So you say that their… primitive… armament is likely a response to their advancing shield technology." The General seemed to say half to himself and half to his people. Unbeknownst to the General in his fancy armor, the temperature in the vicinity had only continued to plummet. Safely tucked in the command tent - both the General and his sub-commanders were utterly oblivious to the icy wraiths… picking off sentries one by one and looting their base.
FrostNova was enjoying herself. She had only really needed to put effort into the constant blizzard for the first few days, after that it was pretty low maintenance. The ice and snow seemed to be incredibly effective in messing with the aliens senses - allowing herself any her men to move freely to accomplish their objectives. Ambushing alien supply convoys - stealing their stuff. And it had allowed her to discover an important fact… these aliens couldn't handle the cold very well…
Yelena smiled and resumed her hunt.