Mass Effect: Transcendence
"Your mind is software. Program it. Your body is a shell. Change it. Death is a disease. Cure it. Extinction is approaching. Fight it." —Eclipse Phase, first edition guide page one.
Author's Note: In this story, Eezo based FTL Drives are warp drives and Mass Relays are devices that create short-lived wormholes.
The reapers in this story use phase-drives instead of the far more primitive Eezo warp cores, allowing them to become intangible by removing the constraints of the laws of physics from themselves. These phasedrives can reach speeds of six thousand lightyears per day in addition to allowing them to exist partially out of reality to let non-spatial disrupting attacks simply pass right through them. As for such attacks, the titanic kinetic barriers of the reapers will easily handle any disruptor torpedoes.
As for weapons, the reapers no longer use their stupid molten metal hydro cutters, but devices that fire crimson beams of superheated plasma at several hundred million degrees kelvin.
Timeline
TSC (Terran Standard Calendar)
-67,783: The Prothean Empire opens up various new relays and comes upon the relay and Eezo sparse Orion galactic arm in what they name the Aji'ur cluster. As they rather slowly map this seemingly useless cluster, they eventually come upon the Sol system and discover the primitive humans. As per standard, various tests are performed and these humans were deemed worthy to one day join the empire.
-53,829: a Prothean mad scientist by the name of Jurn'an Athame takes some humans from Earth and genetically modified them into a new race forged into his image. This race would become the Athamites (Later Asari) and would be seeded upon the world of Khean'ssian (Later Thessia), a barren rock he had terraformed into a levo-based and Eezo rich garden world with an extensive biotic ecosystem. Jurn'an Athame would secretly commit treason, a crime punishable by being spaced the nearest airlock; by secretly giving the Asari a beacon containing a data repository of all Prothean knowledge and technology.
He did this as he saw his creations as the children of the Prothean race who deserved to inherit their legacy. This action was discovered by Prothean intelligence and forwarded to the emperor who tolerated this action as he saw it as a fallback plan against the reapers.
-48,000: The Reapers arrive through the citadel dark space relay and take the Prothean empire by surprise as they expected them to invade from the edge of the galactic rim, not the center of their territory.
The reapers shut down the relay network, slicing apart all advanced spacefaring empires into tiny and easily manageable pieces.
It was that they began the harvest of the Aeil'vyga and all other spacefaring species by using census data and star maps from the titanic citadel databases.
-47,800: A small Prothean mining convoy escapes the reapers and travels to the Sol system, a system with a known primitive race, through conventional mass effect FTL while sleeping in cryogenic stasis to try and prepare them for the reapers in the coming cycle. Upon finding ruins belonging to their species on the fourth planet from the star, they drag and drop an asteroid onto the site to prevent them from discovering mass effect technology.
They do this as they realize that Eezo based technology, a technology mastered to its fullest extent by the reapers over millions of years, cannot be used to beat them.
They understand that these primitives must seek out alternative technologies or be stuck in their solar system, a situation in which they would hopefully find some alternatives in time.
To facilitate this, they must hide the relays, another major aspect of the great reaper trap, from this species so they may have time to develop alternative technologies.
As such, they start assembling scaffolding around the locked and dormant mass relay and push it out of the system and deep into interstellar space using fusion torches.
-47,782: The Prothean mining convoy then travels through conventional mass effect FTL to the Arcturus system so they can push the relay into interstellar space where it will not be found. As they know their race is essentially extinct, they commit suicide by traveling into the star Arcturus to hide the nearby primitive race and to deny themselves to the reapers.
-46,987: The Reapers plant less advanced Prothean technology near the homeworlds of various species without records of facilities or starships being placed during the previous cycle.
They then unlock the mass relays and return to dark space through the citadel relay. Nazara is left behind as the vanguard of the reapers and is thus tasked with watching the future ships and information passing through activated mass relays to plan the harvest accordingly.
1957: John W. Campbell publishes the book Islands of Space. Islands of Space is generally credited with introducing the concepts of hyperspace and the warp drive to science fiction.
The 1960s: String Theory is first theorized.
1969: Humanity lands the first man on the earth's moon.
2036: Humanity returns to the moon to colonize it, creating the colony of Armstrong.
2040: The first helium-3 fueled aneutronic fusion reactor is created on the moon. This reactor is powered by helium-3 extracted from lunar regolith. Lunar mining and refining infrastructure rapidly begins construction.
2042: Graphene batteries replace lithium-ion batteries.
2049: The first large-scale regolith mines and refineries are created. Refined helium-3 gas is sent back down to earth on autonomous space planes sent out of a large mass driver on the moon and back down to earth.
2054: Fusion-powered railguns and coilguns become common on military vehicles.
2059: The US deploys the first laser broom autonomous spaceplanes to start cleaning up harmful space junk.
2067: Japan begins construction on the first skyhook by sending materials mined and refined on the moon into earth's orbit to begin assembly. This system would be anchored in a low earth orbit via a group of magnetic tethers powered by the earth's magnetic field and defended from space debris and micro memories by point-defense laser turrets.
2075: The Rajin Skyhook finishes construction. Space travel is now far, far easier, and cheaper. Other countries scramble to start creating their very own skyhooks based on the Japanese model from their moon bases.
2085: Helium-3 Fusion and Hydrogen Fuel Cells entirely replace fossil fuels. Synthetic hydrocarbons created using fusion power replace fossil fuel drilling and mining.
2086: The richest nations in the middle east collapse with their oil drilling being rendered obsolete. Petroleum companies are forced to switch over to the creation of artificial hydrocarbons or become bankrupt.
2092: The CCP collapsed as their eagerness to return to their communist roots from their current fascist system destroyed their economy. China breaks apart into several different countries.
2097: The first near-earth asteroid is captured and brought into lunar orbit for mining.
2112: The International Collins Foundry Station (IFS) is created in lunar orbit to aid in the mining and processing of near-earth asteroids. This station is the first to include artificial gravity using centrifugal force in its large habitation ring.
2125: Seeing humanity will soon be creating interplanetary colonies, the UN convenes to discuss the creation of a supranational government to handle colonial affairs. Many countries are initially against this but are eventually convinced to partake through a mixture of promises of benefits including high levels of national autonomy and having direct and equal access to the vast amount of resources coming out of asteroid mining.
The UN reorganizes into the United Earth Government (UEG) to reflect its new position.
2142: The first human colony ship, The Nautilus, finishes being created in the shipyards of the Collins Foundry. This ship would allow humanity to colonize the planet Mars.
2147: The Nautilus leaves for Mars with two hundred passengers living in a rotational habit.
2148: The Nautilus arrives in orbit of Mars and sends down autonomous robots to construct habitats in ancient martian lava tubes.
2156: Ninety-five percent of the passengers aboard The Nautilus travel down to Mars and live in humanity's first martian colony of Romulus. The Nautilus is repurposed into the first orbital of Mars and foundry station.
2160: Construction is planned for ten more collins-class forges to be built in the orbit of Luna.
2172: The Remus Skyhook begins construction in the upper martian atmosphere. As Mars doesn't have a magnetic field, the Remus Skyhook will remain aloft using powerful ion thrusters instead of magnetic tethers.
2177: An elevator going directly from Romulus to the surface of Mars begins construction. This elevator would connect to a surface base used as a spaceport for spaceplanes and send out both manned and unmanned exploration rovers to explore the surface of Mars.
2183: Exploration rovers discover life and a complex biosphere deep within the lava tubes connected to Romulus. This sends massive shockwaves through both the scientific and religious communities of the UEG and its colonies.
Due to not having access to sunlight, energy in this underground biosphere comes from microbes living off geothermal energy much deeper underground. Closer to the surface though, a more normal biosphere exists where pitch-black pigmented plantlife gathers light to perform photosynthesis from bioluminescent fungi.
2186: The Remus Skyhook and The New Rome spaceport, elevator, and research outpost are completed and unveiled on the same day, that day due to popular demand, was a Tuesday; the sacred day of the Roman god Mars.
2190: All ten additional forges are completed in lunar orbit. Plans to create various rotational habits and colony ships to send elsewhere in the solar system begin.
2202: Humanity sends dozens of colony ships to the asteroid belt to mine it and gain the truly massive amount of minerals within.
2207-2400: The Age of Construction occurs with the mass construction and mining of asteroids in the asteroid belt. The UEG gets a truly titanic influx of resources thousands of times beyond anything available on Earth.
Tens of thousands of rotational habitats are set up in Earth, Lunar, and Martian orbit. These habits are considered a part of the planet they orbit for the sake of simplicity in governing them.
2404: Lunar helium-3 extraction isn't cutting it anymore so the first three colony ships are sent to Saturn in the outer solar system to colonize its moons and to harvest helium-3 from the massive amount of it in the gas giant's atmosphere.
2420: A colony ship is sent to the Jovian moon of Calisto as it has water ice and is safely outside the dangerous radiation zones of Jupiter's titanic magnetic field.
2422: Probes are sent to the Jovian moon of Europa from Calisto. These probes tunnel deep into the moon and find a liquid water ocean warmed by tidal forces. This ocean is found to have various forms of non-sapient aquatic life residing in it and a biosphere similar to that of the one beneath Mars except it's fully aquatic. Scientists rejoice as this is the third place in the solar system life has been found to exist.
2423: The probes sent to the Saturnian moon of Titan arrive and begin searching for possible lifeforms. These probes do find life, but compared to Mars and Europa which have highly complex and evolved macroscopic ecosystems, other than some highly advanced yet very quite strange silicon-based microbial life forms, nothing else has evolved yet and is not predicted to do so for millions of years.
2511: Quantum computing becomes advanced enough to replace most silicon-based computers.
2520: The first Digital Human Intelligence (DHI), a perfect simulacrum of a human brain on an extremely powerful quantum computer is created. As they are essentially just digital humans, they are almost immediately given equal rights by the UEG.
2562: Hyperspace, a lightless, non-einsteinian, non-euclidean, super spatial domain of existence that proves the validity of string theory is discovered by running bismuth of all things through a particle accelerator to create a nanosecond-lived dimensional tear in reality when they slam into each other. Research into ways to expand these hyperspace ruptures begins.
The 2590s: Quantum Computers are miniaturized enough that DHIs can walk around on mech platforms in a central computer the size of a basketball.
2632: Quantum stasis technology is created that can freeze atoms in place using high amounts of power. This technology would be used to halt radioactive decay, create stasis-pod machines to save room on generation ships, and provide soldiers short moments of invincibility.
2644: The first molecular nanofactory is created. This machine would revolutionize UTF industry and would allow the UTF to become a post-scarcity society.
2653: Regenerative Molecular Nano Armor, an armor that can regenerate from anything that doesn't rapidly break molecular bonds or somehow overtaxes its regeneration factor, is created and becomes the standard issue in every military application from body armor to starships.
The 2680s: The Interplanetary War occurs when the outer colonies of Sol rebel against the extremely harsh colonial rule of the UEG. After ten years of war, the rebels take earth and abolish the earth's various governments in favor of a federation of mostly independent colony nations each with a single ruling government. This would be named the United Terran Federation (UTF).
2691: Developments in quantum mechanics allow for the creation of hyper-tear expanders; machines that expand the short-lived and unstable hyperspace rifts into traversable hyperspace rifts that are so far only traversable by electrons.
Also created were Hhpercoms, devices designed to send highly focused beams of electrons through hyperspace.
2727: The first generation ships are sent to Alpha Centauri at 10% lightspeed. These ships are equipped with hypercoms to allow for FTL communications.
2750: Ion Shields, energy shields capable of blocking both kinetic and electromagnetic energy, are created using charged ions contained in a magnetic bottle.
2777: The sleeper ships arrive in Alpha Centauri. Proxima Centauri B, a tidally locked garden world is discovered and colonized within the habitable zone of the planet where life exists. This first human colony world is named Eos.
2892: The first quantum-realspace projector (QRP) is created. This device allows for the projection of a tiny pocket of four-dimensional spacetime to surround physical matter and thus allow for it to enter hyperspace. These first QRPs can so far only protect a few molecules.
2908: The first hyperspace reactor is created. This device sends QRP-shielded matter into hyperspace and drops the shield. From here this matter will be forcibly shredded down into electrons and output a truly titanic amount of energy.
The 2940s: Hyperspace reactors become commercially available and replace the largest helium-3 fusion reactors. Smaller household-level fusion reactors and fusion cells remain in widespread use.
2972: Using the extreme energy output of a (somewhat) miniaturized hyperspace reactor and QRPs, the first hyperdrive has been created. This first hyperdrive is equipped on a retrofitted one-kilometer-long colony ship that would allow for FTL speeds of nine lightyears per day.
2973-2980: The mass building of hyperdrive-equipped starships begins in preparation for a massive wave of interstellar colonization.
2985: The stellar exodus begins with the UTF sending out dozens of colony ships equipped with hyperdrives and hypercoms to colonize nearby star systems. It is discovered here that hypercoms have a fifteen light-year maximum range, a fact that would cause UTF scientists to create the hypercom relay, a device that would act as a signal extender residing in interstellar space on the edge of the range of standard hypercoms.
3032: Project Starforge begins over Sol. This project aims to create a stellar lifter/factory hybrid that can output material at an unprecedented rate. This is done to feed the UTF's increasing need for raw chemical components that while the nanofactories stated for a good while, are still limited by the speed in which these components are acquired.
3042: Quantum Computers have advanced enough that DHIs can fit in a central computer the size of a golf ball.
3064: New hypercoms are created that have much greater bandwidth and range. These new hypercoms send a tight-beam information laser through a tiny QRP-shielded tunnel through hyperspace and have a far greater range of forty-five lightyears.
3109: Due to a greater understanding of manipulating hyperspace gained in creating the new hypercoms, new hyperdrives that are twice as fast with speeds of eighteen lightyears per day have been created.
3222: The second wave of colonization occurs as gene-mods and cybernetics are created that allow humans to easily live on terrestrial bodies with significantly higher gravity than earth. Rotational habitats fall out of use on colonies with lower gravity than earth.
3274: The hypershield is created that sends incoming projectiles and energy harmlessly into hyperspace where it is shredded down into electrons before being recycled to send the additional power to the hypershields, temporarily strengthening them.
That being said, these shields are not invincible, as spacetime distorting weapons such as hyperbombs will disrupt, overload, and eventually destroys these shields; giving a chance for railguns and other weapons to be used before the ship's self-repair mechanisms repair the hypershields. That being said, only large installations and bigger starships have powerful enough hyperspace reactors necessary to use these shields.
3351: The first Promethean body, an artificial transhuman body that has all the capabilities of a normal human body, including reproduction, is grown from cyber-flesh composed of mecha-cells. These cells are entirely cybernetic in composition and greatly enhance the capabilities of the bodies they are used to create.
Many DHIs start inhabiting these bodies to become closer to their creators. DHIs who enter rename themselves Prometheans to differentiate themselves.
3570: The first hyperspace corridor projector, better known as the hypergate, is created using upscaled hypercom technology and allows instantaneous travel to any other hypergate within two thousand lightyears. These first hypergates are small and can only allow a small vehicle or smaller to pass through. Due to this and their massive power needs, they are stationed on planets.
3632: Due to a greater understanding of manipulating hyperspace gained by creating the hypergates, much faster hyperdrives that can reach two hundred lightyears per day have been created.
3636-3651: Long web-like strings of hypergates are created on large installations located on terrestrial planets and moons to instantly link all of UTF space.
3732: The first G-Ion Blaster is created. This handheld weapon sends out a blue-white beam of hyperstimulated gallium ions at 98% lightspeed. G-Ion Blasters replace coilguns and are scaled up to replace railguns.
3807: Project Starforge is finally completed above Sol. This massive 552km long space station draws stellar matter from the star is the processed or is rearranged through atomic transmutation into required heavier elements. before being processed.
This processed material is then sent to onboard massive nanofactoriy arrays to build whatever is required at a rate infinitely faster than what is possible with conventional asteroid mining. This station has thousands of onboard hypershield generators, ion shield generators, and newly created G-Ion Cannons (massive and far, far, far more powerful G-Ion Blasters) to potentially protect itself in addition to its massive industrial capacity.
3822: The first supergates are created by the Starforge. These massive hypergates are large enough for entire starships to travel through and are equipped with onboard hyperdrives to allow them to be rapidly moved into useful positions across UTF territory. These hypergates are also designed to be somewhat collapsible so that each one can travel through another hypergate themselves.
3951: The first human has their consciousness transferred into a Promethean body. The majority of the human population enters these bodies.
4007: A UTF exploration ship discovers an unknown alien artifact far beyond the edges of UTF territory. Just in case, a hypergate is created is moved in-system to allow for a military force to be instantly sent in if required.
4008: A lightly-armed UTF science ship begins studying the artifact and discovers the object is some kind of alien supergate equivalent. This science ship then activates and travels through the device that transports it tens of thousands of lightyears away through a short-lived wormhole.
This ship then comes into contact with an unknown alien species. This species is observed to be using the theoretical but long thought defunct warp drives as they warp into the system…
Chapter One: Unexpected Meetings
When people think about relay patrol missions, most people think of the Turians. And while this is mostly true, other races regularly patrol the relays in their territory.
The Nimbus Cluster; Asari Dreadnought: The Blade of Athame
Matron Alyssa was sitting in the command chair thinking about how boring relay duty was when her pilot, Matron Ala'iini, brought her out of these thoughts.
"Exiting warp in thirty seconds ma'am."
Matron Alyssa nodded. "Excellent. Now I don't expect much to happen on this boring mission, but we still need to be alert all the same."
"Exiting warp in 5…4…3…2…1."
The blue swirling tunnel of mass effect fields disengaged as the ship exited warp. What was seen on the viewscreen was not what anyone was expecting.
There was an unknown cruiser-sized ship sitting in front of the now active mass relay 217.
"First Contact.." Matron Alyssa breathed out excitedly. "Send out the first contact package and a translation matrix of Prothean to Asari."
"Yes Ma'am!"
Now came the hard part. The waiting, translating a new species' language, even if they managed to translate a portion of the Prothean language, was an extremely hard and time-consuming process.
In the meantime, however, she decided she was going to notify the council.
"Comns officer Lyseria, contact the private frequency of councilor Tevos, priority one plus, and bring it up on the viewscreen."
"Aye, aye, Ma'am"
The viewscreen flickered before showing her counselor Tevos with a highly annoyed look on her face. "Matron Alyssa, I hope this is an emergency of some sort; you've called right in the middle of a council session."
"I wouldn't call it an emergency, but it's still extremely important all the same. I've made first contact with an unknown alien cruiser at the formerly dormant mass relay 217. We're waiting for them to translate our language from the first contact package we sent them."
Tevos's eyes widened before she started saying something offscreen and the call was transferred to the main council holographic display.
"Mayron Alyssa, I wish to know everything there is about this cruiser." Councilor Tevos asked.
"Sensors officer Alena, I want to know what the sensors picked up."
"Of course, but it is rather difficult to scan for reasons I will get to. For now, I can tell you that it is a seven hundred meter-long ship. As it has no spinal mass accelerator, I'm thinking this is an unarmed or lightly armed exploration ship.
That being said, there are two extremely strange things about this ship, firstly there is an unusual cloud of some kind of ions around the ship that is interfering with energy readings, and secondly, there is no sign of any kind of gravitic emissions."
"In that case this species onboard this ship likely have their homeworld right behind this relay. The ship does look like a basic rectangular box that a primitive race without eezo would build…" the Salarian councilor mused out loud.
"...Alright, they've made a viable translation software in a frankly inconceivable amount of time it would seem..."
"Excellent! Tell us about them!" Loglin said happily.
"It says they're the United Terran Federation, or UTF for short, and they're known as Terrans."
"Alright, what else?" Councilor Tevos asked.
"It says they are from Terra, a garden world a few thousand light-years away from the other side of this warp-gate? They must mean the mass relay, and that they are extremely curious about how we have access to warp drives, something that has been only a theoretical device for over two thousand years for them."
"They don't have access to Eezo?! And yet they've managed to create some form of FTL drive?!" Councilor Sparatus asked in extreme surprise and disbelief.
"It would seem so, there are pictures of a multitude of different worlds in their FC package." Officer Lyseria reported before panicking slightly. "Ma'am, the unknown ship is doing something!"
"Be careful and just watch. That being said, have the weapons on standby just in case." Matron Alyssa said firmly.
The crew of the ship and the councilors watched closely as the ship released a small twenty-meter-long orb and sent it back through the mass relay.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief, it was just a messenger drone. That made sense, after all, they wouldn't have whatever they used for FTL communications link to this side of the relay yet. "Everyone relax, it just seems to be a messenger drone. Whatever they use instead of comn buoys for FTL communications doesn't link to this side of the relay." Matron Alyssa said in relief.
"If they even have FTL communications, they may have to do everything through messenger drones like that one…" Tevos mused quietly.
"Still very exciting! A way to travel at FTL speeds without warping spacetime is unheard of!" Councilor Loglin said giddily.
"Aren't we working on those QECs? Those don't use Eezo do they?" Councilor Sparatus said while he started speculating.
"We are, but without mass effect fields interacting with the entangled particles to form a quasi-wormhole, QECs could only transmit and receive signals at the exact speed of light." Councilor Loglin corrected him.
"Oh, that rules that out then," Sparatus said.
"Matron Alyssa, tell these Terrans that you are having your superiors discuss them. We will send ambassadors soon, just say put." Tevos told her.
"Of course, madam councilor." Alyssa bowed her head and turned off the screen.
The Citadel: Council business room
Councilor Loglin's face then lit up while he was reading over the new information the Terrans gave him on his Omnitool's holoscreen. "Oh! Now that's beyond fascinating!"
Sparatus looked at his Salarian colleague. "What is it?"
"I'm looking over the information they have given us, but that's beside the point; are you familiar with string theory?" The Salarian asked.
"Not really, I vaguely remember some things about it back from when I was in school. Something about subatomic particles."
"Well, it also includes alternative dimensions, you see in string theory it is thought there could be up to twenty-six alternative dimensions. As it happens, the UTF's method for FTL travel, hyperspace, seems to be one of these twenty-six extra-dimensional planes.
By navigating the hyperspatial topography of this unusual plane of existence that has rules very different than our own in ways similar to how three dimensions have different rules than just two, the UTF's so-called hyperdrives can essentially take a shortcut through a higher reality.
That's what I gathered from the limited information on the subject from their FC package anyway." Loglin explained.
"So you're saying it's like the mass effect but with a thousand extra steps in between with infinitely less versatility than that provided by Eezo?" Sparatus asked.
"In most ways, that is ultimately correct..." Loglin confirmed. He then went through some more files and his smile started to waver ever so slightly. "Are all of you aware of the effects of zero gravity on the body?"
"Yes? Isn't it really bad for the body over an extended time?"
"Well it seems that these Terrans laws are simply incompatible with ours, they seem to have advanced in ways to negate these negative gravitational effects."
Sparatus sighed at that. "In what ways?"
"Genetic engineering, cybernetics, the citadel conventions, the treaty of farixen, and finally artificial intelligence; of which the latter they somehow managed to coexist peacefully with," Loglin informed them.
Tevos looked at the Salarian like he sprouted a second head. Peacefully coexisting with artificial intelligence? That was utterly preposterous! "You cannot be serious?!"
"Any race that can peacefully coexist with artificial intelligence must be as warlike and savage as the Krogan!" Sparatus exclaimed.
"Oh but I very much am, these Terrans are shockingly rather similar in terms of ideology, that of technology notwithstanding, to the Asari."
Sparatus quieted down at that and looked at his Salarian colleague with the same wide eyes his Asari colleague did.
"They have not only done just that, but have also developed cybernetics and genetic engineering to the point the line between synthetic and organic has ceased to exist!
That and their main weapons can be classified as a tier-three WMD in the citadel conventions!" Loglin exclaimed seriously. "In addition to all this, they have made mass relay equivalents, sure they may only have a range of two thousand lightyears each compared to the tens of thousands of those of the Protheans; but still, they. Have. Their. Own. Relays." Loglin stressed.
"Oh, and apparently, they can effectively link together to extend their range indefinitely and each one acts as primary relays in that they can connect to any other relay within their initial two thousand lightyear range." He added on.
The other two councilors looked a bit fearful at this news. It was always assumed that the citadel council was the most advanced group of species in the galaxy and was the center of civilized space.
But if that were wrong, if these Terrans were telling the truth, if these Terrans were even comparable to the Protheans themselves in their technology; then a great many notions the council took as indisputable facts were wrong…
The citadel council had weathered many threats and had come out victorious; the hunger of the Rachni, the savagery, and destruction of the Krogan, but this… This was not an unstoppable horde seeking to consume all that had to be met with military action to survive…
…This was an ideological threat to their power, and in many ways, such a threat was far, far more dangerous than the threat posed by both the Rachni and Krogan combined.
Sparatus sighed. "Any other disturbing revelations?"
Loglin nodded and pulled up a holo labeled 'baseline human DNA' and placed it next to another labeled 'Asari DNA'
"Now, the progression of these Terrans is similar to that of the Quarians minus their use of AI and have only been spacefaring for two thousand and a few years, as such; I implore you both to look very carefully at these two DNA strands," Loglin said matter of factly as he highlighted their similarities.
Sparatus had his mouth agape and muttered a quiet "Protheans.." while his Asari colleague was internally panicking.
The Asari higher-ups had gleaned from the beacon in the temple of athame that the Asari owed their ancestry to a primitive species from a random backwater that an Prothean mad scientist by the name of Jurn'an Athame picked up and spliced with various other genes to create "The Perfect Species" in his image.
This secret was one of the best-kept secrets in the galaxy, alongside the athame beacon itself, tactical information on the moon of Menae, and the location and identity of the shadow broker.
Now that the secret is out and there was no way to explain the genetic similarities, she audibly sighed as knew she had to explain or they would let this out certainly….if she could perform damage control in this small room of three people…
"Yes, it's true. The Prothean Jurn'an Athame took some members of a then-unknown primitive species and spliced them with various other genes to eventually create the Asari; we didn't evolve naturally." Tevos confirmed.
Both Sparatus and Loglin had their jaws hit the floor again.
"You- anProthean took some primitive humans and genetically modified them to create your species?!" Sparatus exclaimed in shock at the confirmation of his theory.
"Jurn'an Athame? So your goddess truly existed and was a member of the Aeil'vyga species?" Loglin pieced together. "I think I need to study the old Athame doctrine your species used to follow in more detail, it was most likely what was taught by Jurn'an Athame and could reveal insights to the Prothean species as a whole."
"The temple of Athame was likely built on the site where their ships touched down and released the Asari onto Thessia." Sparatus theorized. "The then primitive Asari would no doubt see the feats of the Protheans as divine and think them gods, or well, goddesses in this case, just as the primitive Hanar did."
"You can see why we would want this to stay hidden. How would you feel if your species were forcibly taken from your homeworld by those you thought were gods, only to be experimented on and forcibly spliced with random genes to create an entirely new and separate species planted on a terraformed planet based on the one that your ancestors were stolen from?" Tevos asked carefully.
"The Hanar would leave the citadel citing blasphemy if they found out about this… All species have criminals and malcontents, it only makes sense that the Protheans had them too…" Loglin thought aloud.
"Agreed. Despite the paragons of virtue and law that my species is generalized as being, there are plenty of barefaced criminals no better than the slavers from the hegemony in the terminus systems and our prisons." Sparatus agreed.
"Not to mention Aria T'Loak. She goes against essentially every single common idea about the Asari. If I knew it didn't truly work that way, I would say she directly inherited her massively over inflated ego, ruthlessness, and general cloacaness from her Batarian father." Loglin said.
Tevos wanted to defend her secret bond mate, but she wisely kept her mouth shut.
"We're getting off track, this meeting isn't about developmental sociology in regards to offspring taking after those commonly around them," Sparatus interjected.
"Agreed," Loglin said quickly. "We're discussing these Terrans."
A few moments of silence followed before Sparatus decided to speak up.
"I recommend we take a few hours of leave to study the wealth of information the Terrans gave us and to come to terms with the…revelations… they bring… All for?"
"Aye," both Tevos and Loglin said simultaneously.
"Alright then, let the frustration and confusion begin…" Sparatus muttered.
Meanwhile, in upper lunar orbit within cyberspace aboard Aldrin Station, the fifty kilometers in diameter O'Neill cylinder that acted as the capital of the UTF, Andria, the current prime minister of said government, met with the telepresent consciousnesses of the high council to discuss first contact.
"I honestly think there is value in interacting with them. The sheer potential in the ability to manipulate mass, and thus spacetime, will have a revolutionary effect on our technology... Imagine what we could do in the field of manipulating hyperspace using these mass effect fields…" The martian representative, as usual, had his tech-giddy mind only on the subject of new and possible technological advancements.
"I am against it, despite the potential technological impact of this material our space seems to be rather dry of, this citadel council seems to be just as ridiculous and ludicrous as those Bioconservatives from Sanctuary."
Said Bioconservatives, of course, had sent an extremely basic and borderline but still nonsapient AI in their stead that was, ironically, was very much the soulless machine they accused them of being. "Declaration: the scions of life would think that meeting with these like-minded non-humans would prove beneficial."
"I think we have no choice but to do so, if in a limited fashion. We Terrans have always strived to break limits and to explore the unknown and unseen, regardless of what the authorities at the time thought on the matter." The Uranian representative imputed.
"Hmm, the Uranian representative has a point, if you directly tell a Terran to do something, then some will inevitably do the exact opposite; if only to be a contrarian." The Nalasian representative said with a brief nod.
"I am in favor of it. Imagine if we could find a way to synthesize this wonderous element zero within the matter transmutation arrays of the Starforge…" The Starforgian representative spoke up.
"I am in total agreement with the Starforgian representative. " The Martian representative responded.
Conversations like this took place for several more hours over a few milliseconds, but eventually, prime minister Andria got their attention.
"Let us put it to a vote. All in favor of initiating contact with this citadel council, not to join them, but to open a peaceful dialog between two separate interstellar powers to facilitate a trade of cultural items and limited technology on our end?"
A few milliseconds later, the vote was in.
558 Ayes to 123 Nays.
"The ayes have it, we will presume limited contact with the citadel council." Andria declared. "Now let us discuss who we shall send as diplomats to this citadel of theirs."
Two Hours Later (over a few milliseconds) the high council had decided to send Andria Norman herself as the representative of the UTF to the citadel.
As they didn't yet have schematics for whatever the council used instead of Hypercomns, they couldn't yet create a suitable adapter. This forces her to take her physical body to the citadel instead of being there through telepresence.
She boarded her ship, the TSS Prometheus, and had it and her small military escort travel with her to the nearest Supergate. From here the pilots cleared their travel to the furthest edges of the network to the star system in which the warp-gate resided.
Her ship and her escorts then pulled up to the two parallel pillars that projected the Hypertunnel.
"Requesting hypergate alignment…alignment request accepted…forging hypertunnel chain…" Her ship's pilot began as spacetime began to shift and ripple in between the two pillars before shifting into a swirling blue rift. "hypertunnel chain forging successfully…beginning hypergate approach…"
Her ship and their escorts then traveled towards and into the shifting blue vortex. A tunnel of black then greeted the visual sensors before they were spat out at another location over a thousand lightyears away to the view of the so-called mass relay.
"Hyperspatial transition successfully, welcome to the Janus system."
"Send a messenger probe to them that we are willing to send diplomats to their citadel at their convenience. In the meantime, I'll be doing my job via telepresence. "
"Aye, Ma'am."
Relay 217 System: Blade of Athame
"Ma'am! Relay 217 is hot, something is coming through!"
"Probably more Terrans. Point the sensor arrays in the direction of relay 217." Matron Alyssa ordered.
"Aye, Ma'am."
It was then that another of their messenger probes exited and started approaching the Terran cruiser. Once it was in range, it let off a short but small burst of energy towards the ship.
"The probe has sent a small and short burst of energy significantly higher in power, but similar in its EM profile to an information laser, Ma'am."
"It's one of their messenger probes going off the design, likely to relay information from their superiors to their exploration cruiser." Matron Alyssa stated matter of factly.
This hypothesis was proven correct when they got a pure text message sent to them from the ship itself.
'We are willing to send the leadership of the UTF high council, prime minister Andria Norman, to your citadel at your convenience. Please notify us when you wish us to come and we will send them to you. Don't worry, our ships, especially our exploration ones, are designed to survive long journeys and can wait until you are ready.'
Matron Alyssa became extremely serious as she had to relay this to the council. "Get the council on the comn now!"
"Aye aye, Ma'am."
Said council then appeared from three different holo sources. Tevos took the initiative to go first.
"You have news, Matron Alyssa?" Tevos asked.
"Yes, they sent us a message back via probe through the relay. It said, and I quote." She looked down at her Omnitool and read it. "We are willing to send the leadership of the UTF high council, prime minister Andria Norman, to your citadel at your convenience. Please notify us when you wish us to come and we will send them to you. Don't worry, our ships, especially our exploration ones, are designed to survive long journeys and can wait until you are ready."
"Thank you for the update, Matron Alyssa. Now we have many things to discuss privately concerning these Terrans. Tevos out." Tevos said as the three holos fizzled out of existence.
Deep Space: Reaper Observatory.
Nazara knew these…these heretics, who dared mock the perfection of ascension and had access to hyperspace technologies, a gravely threatening field of technology to the reapers that they had seen before a few times, but never being held by species this advanced…
It had to contact Harbinger, and thus it did and sent them the files.
It could feel the cold rage coming from its master's cybernetic processing core when it assimilated the information.
"My lord, what will we do?" Nazara asked.
"What we have always done, the cycle must continue despite attacking these Terrans would technically be attacking our kin. It is an acceptable logical solution to designate these Terrans as heretical ascended, thus allowing us to destroy them." Harbinger boomed.
"Of course, my lord. But how will we overcome their technological advantages?" Nazara asked.
"You are young Nazara, you were born of the Nazar only a few cycles ago. You do not remember the last time we faced a crop who held some technologies that were equal or superior to our own." Harbinger stated dismissively.
"But the heretics have relay equivalents..." Nazara voiced his doubt.
"It matters not, my servant. We will do what we have done in these exceedingly rare but costly cycles, we shall overcome their technological advantages through our vastly superior numbers. We will grind them down into dust, no matter the cost, until we overtax their capacity to construct new warships and field more troops. From here we shall be victorious, just as we always were and always will be."
"I understand, my lord. What are your altered plans for this harvest?" Nazara asked.
"We shall follow standard procedures and turn off the relays, the separated cycle compliant crops will prove easy prey and an excellent source of new utilities and ascended ones to fight the heretics." Harbinger stated.
"And what if I encounter heretic starships, my lord?" Nazara asked.
"Disengage and phase away if you can, go into sleep mode to evade sensors if you absolutely must. Your top priority is to not let the heretics learn of our existence and to shut down the relay network when the heretics do not idle within the crucible system." Harbinger ordered.
"Am I to do this now, my lord?" Nazara asked eagerly.
"Unfortunately no, my servant. Thanks to the meddling of those insufferable Protheans…" Harbinger seethed in anger at the name of that species.
"...We must first have our pawn Desolas Arterius find the conduit and the Biokey, without these devices in our possession, we can not undo the damage to the crucible wrought by those blasphemous meddlers!" Harbinger roared in fury.
"Of course, my lord. I will double my efforts." Nazara vowed.
"You would do well to do so, the catalyst is not as forgiving as I am..." Harbinger warned menacingly before cutting the connection.