An Anthem x Mass Effect Story
I do not own Anthem or Mass Effect, both are owned by BioWare. The only things I claim in this fanfic are my OCs. This is my first fanfic so any and all criticism will be greatly appreciated. There will be three initial chapters; the Codan timeline, the Citadel timeline, and the beginning of First Contact, and at the bottom of each chapter after the timelines will be a more in depth codex entry. Fair warning, Humanity is going to reach the stars a bit faster here, mostly because they don't have a lot to build up on their homeplanet with the cataclysms, and also because unlike Prothean tech in Mass Effect, Shaper tech is EVERYWHERE, with their planet being practically a scrap yard for all of the Shaper's busted toys.
LV = Legion Victorious Era
CE = Citadel Era
Basic Codex:
Anthem: Also known as the Anthem of Creation, it is a force that makes up the entire universe and has unfathomable power to create, destroy, and mutate.
Coda: The world which contains humanity, the urgoth, the anzu, and the scars. Said to be made by the shapers, who stopped on the third day, out of nine days.
Shapers: Possibly godlike beings who created machines to wield the Anthem of Creation, yet disappeared mysteriously.
Shaper Relics: Leftover pieces of machinery and tech used by the shapers who "shaped" the world of Coda using echoes of the anthem. Will occasionally "overflow" and cause a Cataclysm. The most well known shaper relics are the Cenotaph, the Monuments, the Auspex, and the Manifold.
Cataclysms: Cataclysms are what happens when Shaper relics are overwhelmed by the anthem. They radically alter everything around them to an extreme extent.
Anzu: A term used for creatures created in the beginning of the world, such as the Urgoth, elementals, scars, and possibly humanity
Urgoth: One of the Anzu. Enslaved humanity when it emerged and held control over the world of Coda until humanity and the Legion of Dawn rebelled and fought in a war of genocide and won.
Legion of Dawn: the rebelling faction of humanity who, led by General Helena Tarsis, fought back against the Urgoth with the first Javelins, and piloted the legendary and unique Javelin of Dawn.
Javelin of Dawn: One of the first Javelins. Made with the finest materials, and no known Javelin comes close to in power, and it was said that not even Helena Tarsis knew the true extent of it's power.
Javelins: Powerful exosuits wielded by Freelancers. Original four configurations are the Ranger, Colossus, Storm, and Interceptor.
Freelancers: The general term for those who use Javelins. Freelancers are responsible for defending humanity outside of the walls of settlements and cities, while also being in charge of guarding arcanist expeditions and silencing Shaper Relics.
Striders: Massive, four legged walkers that can house freelancers and be used as mobile bases. Used as the main transportation on Coda, and can be weaponized
Arcanists: the researchers and archivers of all knowledge learned by the human race
Cyphers: People born with a sensitivity to the Anthem of Creation that grants them telepathic communication abilities, heightened mental calculation, and the ability to process incredible amounts of information. Usually serve in support roles for Freelancers by citing in an Amplifier Chair and communicating with them, while also calculating their weapon's trajectories.
Codan Timeline
1 LV: The Legion of Dawn drives the Urgoth back to the far north, but Helena Tarsis is slain, causing the legion to break apart. Magna Stral, a legionnaire and close friend of Helena Tarsis, takes a group to the north in a rage, wanting to slay every last Urgoth, forming the paladins and founding the kingdom of Stralheim and its capital, Sundermark and would later form the Dominion. Arden Vessa, the inventor of Javelins, stays to form Antium, the capital of bastion, and becomes the first Emperor. Liatrelle the Unbroken forms the Sentinels, who serve the Royal House of Bastion and protect the people. Midderon, a page for the Legion of dawn, goes on to found the Freelancers, who work closely with the sentinels, the arcanists, and the engineers.
456 LV: The Dominion makes itself known. The battle of freemark, an ancient stronghold, has been lost, causing the reputation of the Freelancers and Sentinels to go in decline, and all evacuees are spread out among Bastion through various cities such as Fort Tarsis, Antium, Heliost, and others as the Heart of Rage rips through the landscape, causing incredible damage and unleashing Elementals on the world en mass.
466 LV: The first attempt to silence the Cenotaph is made by Freelancer Haluk with a team of 20 freelancers and 3 Cyphers. All but him and one other, a rookie by the name of Adam Shepard are either KIA or comatose, with the reputation of the Freelancers now in tatters, with even the sentinels turning on them.
468 LV: The Freelancer, Adam Shepard, finds the Javelin of Dawn and constructs a Dawnshield. A second and final attempt on Silencing the Cenotaph succeeds as Adam Shepard fought and destroyed Armas Brom, or more commonly known as the Monitor, while also recovering his Javelin, though despite constant study by arcanist and engineers, there has been no progress in recreating it. Shortly after, Doctor Harken is found and lets himself be captured by Corvus, while other agents have found Evidence of the urgoth surviving in the far north, before it is revealed by Doctor Harken that the dominion had been fighting them for some time, as well as rebelling Paladin Factions.
469 LV: Corvus finds the Sunken Cell, and Adam Shepard leads a freelancer team to infiltrate and shut it down, gathering as much research material as they can, as well as killing the oversized Fury known as the Unfathomable. After they do this, Harken reveals that the facility was experimenting ways to consistently keep making Furies, which it succeeded in, leading there to be a stable Fury population on Coda. Meanwhile, Corvus has also found Owen, who had stolen and left with the Javelin of Dawn, dead. They have since given the Javelin back to the freelancers and Sentinels, letting them decide as to who keeps it.
450 LV: Adam Shepard flies his last mission, into the Echoes of Reality Cataclysm that was caused by The Monitor's sister, Vara Brom as she tried to control the anthem, and in the process of silencing it and removing her spear, mortally wounded her and being wounded. Following this, the spear is recovered, as it was found to be made of the same material as Shaper Relics. Adam Shepard's body is also recovered, and is buried in Antium as a hero, becoming an inspiration to his family and countless others who plan to join the freelancers. Finally, in another place, Matthias, Erryl, and Sumner discover with the help of Herschel that the Crystals spawned from the Echoes of Reality, as well as any other cataclysm or shaper relic, can be used as potent fuel sources when combined with Ember and Seals, and revolutionized the way Striders work, giving them virtually limitless fuel sources.
455 LV: As the world is calming down, Antium decides to rebuild Freemark, gaining the help of countless Sentinels, Arcanists, Engineers, and Freelancers as they rebuild the walls, and fill in the hole left behind by the Cenotaph, strengthening the defenses and building an underground complex around it to house Forges and Sentinel barracks, connecting them directly to the new walls from underneath, as the Freelancers build on top, restoring the original topside of Freemark. The Fortress of Dawn is also being explored, with the sword of Helena Tarsis being recovered, and similar to Vara Brom's spear, is also made of "Shaper Metal". Meanwhile, in Stralheim, the Urgoth are being pushed back, but the Dominion is slowly losing any support they once had as the people are putting more and more faith in the Paladins, who follow a refined form of Magna Stral's ideals.
457 LV: The Urgoth have been completely wiped out by the dominion, but it cost them too much, so they are quickly set upon by the Paladins, and before long Sundermark, and all of Stralheim are under their control once more, and all dominion forces on Bastion are left headless and abandoned, with frequent fights and civil war happening everywhere, before they eventually disappear.
472 LV: Freemark is finally rebuilt, with the Emperor of Antium himself coming to view it as it's been restored to its former glory, and with its position on the map reclaimed, many Strider Locks are opened across Bastion as the routes become safe again, guarded by sentinels and freelancers. Stralheim soon comes across the Sundric sea to properly meet and apologize, explaining that the Urgoth are now gone, and the Dominion have vanished. Steps are put forward to peace, and soon an Alliance is formed, where the ruler of Stralheim reveals that there wasn't just one Legion, but four, one for each of Coda's biggest continents that contained humans. To the North was the Legion of Evening, while Bastion had the Legion of Dawn. With this knowledge, it builds a need to rebuild the Fortress of Dawn, as well as the now discovered Fortress of Evening, and spurs forth a colossal effort on both fronts from countless Arcanists and Engineers.
475 LV: An expedition to the western continent is formed, where the combined forces of Stralheim and Bastion discover a massive rainforest, pitted with countless caverns underneath filled to the brim with Shaper Relics, and even cases where there's just hunks of Shaper Metals. They don't even notice the locals until they drop right on top of them in lancers of their own. They explain that they are trespassing in their lands, Abrigo, and that they wish to know their business. Soon they explain everything, and diplomatic channels are opened between the various peoples of three continents, where the emperor of Antium and the king of Stralheim meet the Tlatoani of Abrigo at their capital, Lar Divino, which was built on top of their legion's headquarters, the Fortress of Day. It was also revealed that, while the Javelin of Dawn resembled Colossus Javelins the most, and the Javelin of Evening helped inspire the creation of Valkyrie and Storm javelins, the Javelin of Day most closely resembled a more powerful Ranger, with a bow made of Shaper Metal. Together, the three kings pooled even further resources, reinforcing their homes in the massive trees and tree tops in Abrigo, building higher walls and deeper homes for those in Bastion, and making life more comfortable for those living in Stralheim's eternal winters. With this new nation, Freelancer, Sentinel, and even Paladin numbers surged as more locks were opened in bastion, and Strider Locks were being built on Abrigo and Stralheim, not to mention the Fortress Project being accelerated.
476 LV: As the diplomacy comes to a close with the alliance expanded, the three rulers send fleets to the final and fourth continent to the East. They don't have to go far, however, as they're immediately stopped by great walls bordering the sea, with countless guns and defenses trained on them, before they're ordered to state their purpose, and prove that they're not working for the Urgoth. They are quickly believed however, after a Stralheimein captain, offended by such a notion, shows off an Urgoth's skull. They are quickly taken to the leader, known as the Shogun, of the continent, the name of which is Kyoten. They arrived at the capital, Kinzan, and the four leaders met, explaining the death of the Urgoth, the restoration of the fortresses, and the Alliance of Coda. The Shogun explains that, like Bastion, the Legion of Midnight's practices became their way of life, with the Javelin of Midnight being set as a statue in the fort. With the Shogun now joining the Alliance, uniting the four continents of Coda, they focus on building up as much defense for their territories as they can, as their Arcanists look upwards for expansion, deeming Codan wildlife and Shaper relics too dangerous for serious colonization for more than 40% of the planet. Meanwhile, a new government is established, with each nation governing themselves, but forming a council to decide select rules that should apply to all, with the heads of this being the Emperor of Bastion, the King of Stralheim, the Tlatoani of Abrigo, the Shogun of Kyoten, the Grandmaster of the Freelancers, the Lord-General of the Sentinels, the High Paladin, the Forge Master of the Engineers, the Director of Corvus, and the Head Researcher of the Arcanists, with future members planning on being added for every world that is settled.
(2069 CE) 482 LV: An engine utilizing a core of Ember, Crystals, and Shaper metals is devised that, when paired with the appropriate thrusters, is capable of breaking the atmosphere. Once realizing they can make these in large quantities, due to the relative cheapness of the other materials, and the drive itself only needing a small amount of shaper metal, projects were put in place to make small exploration fleets for their Solar System, starting with their moon. It was discovered that Coda was the only planet to have Shaper Relics, so they instead put up as many mining operations in asteroid belts, expanding to the closest planets, and finally harvesting Helium-3 from gas giants. Arcanists then took interest in an ice moon of the farthest planet, but due to costs the project was put on hold.
(2077 CE) 490 LV: By the time the material need is finished, all but the planet closest to the sun have mining outposts, with Javelins having been modified to withstand and maneuver in the vacuum of space for extended periods of time, making asteroid mining and station building much easier. When the time comes to examine the ice moon, everyone is shocked as it shatters, revealing a massive, circular ring made of Shaper metal. A ship, filled with brave volunteer Arcanists and Freelancers, was sent through not long after, and when it came back, it reported that the portal led to the star of The Guard, otherwise known as Arcturus in the language of the Urgoth. Soon, the want for expansion booms as humanity sees several more "Shaper Gates" in the Arcturus Stream. When a world that was in the Habitable Zone was seen as nothing more than a barren rock with massive mountains, Arcanists everywhere were wondering how this could happen, until they found two massive Shaper relicts, just like the Monuments on Coda, and went against direct orders and activated them. Instead of a cataclysm, these Monuments seeded life back into the dead world, forming what Arcanists had dubbed as a "garden world". Unwilling to cause another, incase they revert the world back to its dead state, the Codan Alliance makes it illegal for any Shaper Relic to be tested on a Garden World, with secure facilities being created on world outside the Habitable Zone to allow further testing of smaller Shaper relics, such as the Manifold.
(2079 CE) 492 LV: Due to Humanity expanding rapidly, it was expected that they would eventually find life among the stars, what they didn't expect to find though, was the Urgoth on Eden Prime. The paladins found them first, just as the Urgoth were leaving the ground, and without hesitation, the Paladin captain in charge of the mission killed them, and slaughtered all the Urgoth on the ground via Kinetic Bombardment. After this incident, dubbed the "Fall of Eden", rules are put into place so that any Urgoth, or other pre-spaceflight species, is to be observed. When they do achieve space flight, they are to be contacted. Also, Orbital Bombardment using the main guns of ships are dubbed a War Crime without good reason, said reasons are the destruction of a shaper relic causing a cataclysm comparable or bigger than the Heart of Rage, a biological weapon, or another race using this tactic first. Due to finding a possible enemy among the stars though, the Alliance starts construction of the Arcturus Station, dragging many metal-rich asteroids to construct it and turn it into a staging operation for further colonization.
(2080 CE) 493 LV: Humanity settles it's first, permanent extrasolar colony on Demeter, causing once again, another boom in efforts to expand colonization, despite Demeter being just as vicious as Coda, with random Shaper relics and hostile wildlife, not to mention the nasty shock of Scars.
(2085 CE) 498 LV: As more and more worlds are rushing to be colonized, more Shaper relics are found, along with the occasional quarantine zone of Urgoth controlled worlds, none thankfully anywhere close to spaceflight, or even metal tools. Arcanists, meanwhile, have started to decrypt the Shaper language, and learned that the Scars and Urgoth were both created to be soldiers and weapons in sort of a "mirror" to apparently another threat. At the same time, the heads of the Alliance, now including the leader of Demeter, have moved to Arcturus.
(2090 CE) 503 LV: A lot of Humanity has left Coda. More research is constantly being put into the Legion Leader Javelins, but until they learn more, both the Javelins and the weapons are given to the "defense and offense" of their civilizations, with the Sentinels receiving the Javelin of Dawn and Helena's greatsword, the Paladins receiving the Javelin of Evening (aka. The Monitor's Javelin) and its spear, and the Freelancers receive the Javelins of Day and Midnight with their Bow and Katana respectively.
(2104 CE) 517 LV: Coda Nova (Terra Nova) is founded and quickly turns into the most powerful ship building planet there is, with many orbital drydocks in place as the planet itself was rich in natural metals and ember, causing many "Megaforges" to be created on planet by Engineers, making entire cities essentially into massive, environmentally friendly factories, with talk of making entire space stations into a "Hyperforge" for rapidly churning out ship parts.
(2138 CE) 551 LV: More worlds join everyday, ship building is higher than ever, and the first Hyperforge station is built, with many more slated to be built within a decade, until every metal rich planet has at least one. The Alliance military is now 10 fleets strong, each led by a flag ship, with at least two more dreadnoughts and 3 carriers, in each fleet, with the main guns of each dreadnought being the powerful Chimera Cannon, that utilizes seals, magnetic rails, and ember to coat rounds with different effects ranging from explosive to emp, and fling 600-ton ferric slugs at 30 km/s, with the slug itself holding the strength of 64.5 kilotons, not counting the elemental effects imbued by the Ember, being able to be fired once every 4 seconds.
(2154 CE) 575 LV: The minor colony Shanxi is founded, with a strange object being found just on the edge of what is later identified as a temporal anomaly, and when follow reveals that it curves around them, almost like a shield. When viewed out, star charts can't recognize the night sky, and upon further inspection with a data cache containing data on another alien species known as Protheans and their Mass Relays, puts it at approximately 50,000 years before where it should be. What is later learned is that the Protheans were at war with the shapers, explaining why the Shapers were making the Urgoth and the Scars. With the knowledge gained from the data cache, and many shaper ruins and caches as well, humanity's fleet building is put into overdrive, desperately preparing in case they need to pick up their creators' war, all eyes turned in fear at the Relay at the edge of their system.
(2156 CE) 577 LV: The anomaly collapses, revealing what the void should truly look like, and the Relay, originally encased in an ice moon, shatters open, yet doesn't activate, causing a collective sigh of relief. Humanity finishes creating 2 more fleets, bringing the total number up to 12 as Shanxi's walls are built higher, and Shaper relics are continuously silenced.
(2157 CE) 578 LV: A small research group is sent to examine the Mass Relay, when it suddenly starts spinning up. First contact is established.