Standard disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, nor any other content that you recognise. Some characters and systems are original creations. I am receiving no money for my work.
My thanks to HTM for sorting through my spelling and grammar.
Utopia System – Exodus Cluster
2101.05.18
Commodore Grissom stared at the display in the CIC of his Voyager class exploration cruiser, SSV Endeavour. When he had commanded the first Endeavour, the re-christened Prothean scout ship, through the Charon relay 15 years before, all of the crew had been completely terrified, himself included. It had been a wonderful first act for the Systems Alliance, leading humanity out of its home system and home cluster, showing the benefits that awaited all the member states as humanity finally spread its wings.
The Commodore frowned as he thought about the two deactivated relays that they had found in the Arcturus system, waiting silently. Now they were going to do it again. Only this time he wasn't just leading humanity out of their home system, or even their home cluster; this time he was leading them out of their home sector.
The Prothean maps recovered from Mars had explained the two types of relays. The secondary relays had a much shorter range, but they would connect to any other mass relay in that range. The primary relays only connected to one other primary relay, but they could send a ship far farther than the secondary relays could. Together they formed the sector-like structure of the mass relay network, with primary relays, like the inactive ones in Arcturus, linking the primary system in a sector to two or more other sectors's primary systems.
Meanwhile, the secondary relays connected all the clusters in that sector together. Here, in what the Systems Alliance had termed Arcturus sector, the secondary relays in the Local cluster, the Horse Head Nebula, the Exodus Cluster, the Petra Nebula, and the Arcturus Stream, ensured that the clusters were all connected to the primary cluster in the Arcturus Stream and at least one of their fellow clusters.
The secondary relays in the most far flung clusters of a sector had a large advantage though. They were generally just close enough to connect with a secondary relay in a neighbouring sector.
As a military officer, Commodore Grissom could see the benefits that the Protheans had had in mind. The primary relays offered safe, secure, and amazingly fast long-distance travel from sector to sector. But should they become damaged, or if the systems they were in fell to an enemy force, it was still possible to enter the sector by these back-door routes formed by the secondary relay branches. It would be terribly slow and inefficient, but losing a primary relay system wouldn't be the deathblow for the sector.
Apparently the Prothean military had had a significant input on the relay networks design, either that or their politicians and scientists were very different to Alliance ones. The Commodore snorted to himself as he remembered the civilians, politicians, and scientists alike, clamouring for the activation of one of the primary relays in Arcturus. He had almost wanted to facepalm in despair.
Yes, it would have opened the new sector centred on the Hades Gamma cluster to immediate and efficient exploration, exploitation, and colonisation. But it would have also given any hostile force waiting there a direct mass relay connection into the primary system of Arcturus sector. From Arcturus, they would be able to strike all the Alliance systems whenever they wanted, rather than having to fight through multiple systems and a single avenue of approach.
Thankfully, enough of the world leaders had backed the military's call for caution in the Systems Alliance Executive Council, and now they were exploring the proper way, the cautious way. Arcturus sector was connected to two others via the Zodiac Group–Arcturus Stream and Arcturus Stream–Hades Gamma primary relay links, but it was also connected to both of those, and a third sector, by secondary relay links in its outlying clusters.
The Horse Head Nebula secondary relay could link into the Zodiac Group sector's secondary relay network, the Exodus Cluster linked into the Hades Gamma sector, and the Petra Nebula linked into the Grand Nebula sector. The Hades Gamma sector had been chosen for humanity to explore next, due mainly to its primary relay link to Arcturus, and the fact that it was in the opposite direction from the system that the retrieved maps designated the Prothean capital.
That was something Commodore Grissom himself had lobbied hard for, using his fame as the first human to go through the Charon relay to its maximum effect. The maps retrieved from the Mars ruins only contained information on what the Protheans had designated the local super sector, but they did indicate that the Prothean capital, the Imperial Fortress, was to the galactic west.
Anyone else who had discovered Prothean ruins in the last 50,000 years would have undoubtedly headed straight for it, and the military had been very forceful in explaining how bad an idea it would be to meet them when humans were so new to mass effect technology. That was, ironically, one of the better case scenarios.
The more pessimistic scenarios included the idea that some shattered remnant of Prothean society still endured out there, somewhere in the galaxy. If it did, then their capital was a prime candidate for its location. Even a shattered remnant would be a completely overwhelming foe for the Alliance Navy, a navy that had only just learned how to put an FTL warship together.
Should these hypothetical Prothean remnants, or other aliens at the Imperial Fortress, object to humanity using their mass relay network, humans could soon find themselves blockaded, subjugated, or exterminated. There would be little the fledgling navy could do about it at this point. So, the Hades Gamma sector to the galactic east, away from the Imperial Fortress, was chosen as the next sector for human expansion.
Commodore Grissom was jarred from his thoughts by the reports of Endeavour's crew as the mission reached its climax.
"The Utopia relay has acknowledged our instructions and is sending the activation signal to the Han relay." Endeavour's science officer breathed a sigh of relief as the ancient relay received new telemetry following its activation signal. "Return ping received. The Han relay is confirming itself as activated and a viable destination."
"Conformation of successful activation of the Han system relay, providing access to the Gemini Sigma cluster, is logged and reported to the Admiralty and Utopia system control," Endeavour's communications officer reported. "The Governor of Eden Prime is reporting that the thoughts of Eden Prime, the Utopia system and the entire Exodus Cluster go with us."
"Beginning approach run on the relay now," Endeavour's helmsman reported upon receiving the command to begin the transit from the CIC. "Sending mass data, relay has accepted. Transiting the relay in 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
Though the internal dampeners kept everyone from feeling it, Endeavour was launched across interstellar space at phenomenal speeds, before slamming back to its original cruising speed on arrival. "Helm: move us away from the relay slowly. Navigation: confirm our position. Tactical: report," Commodore Grissom issued orders with a calm that gave confidence to every member of his crew.
"Helm reporting, drift just under 32,000 km, moving away from the relay at 50% of normal cruising speed. Heading is towards the planet provisionally identified as Patatanlis."
"Navigation reporting, Planet identification as Patatanlis confirmed. Location confirmed as Han system, Gemini Sigma cluster."
"Tactical reporting, no active artificial heat signatures detected. Threat board is currently clear, launching probes to expand sensor coverage."
Commodore Grissom nodded as the reports flooded in. "Good work everyone, we did it!" He allowed the cheering to continue for a few moments before bringing the crew back to their jobs. "Settle down, just because we don't detect any threats doesn't mean there aren't any. Stay sharp. Not to mention this is an exploration cruiser and I think our science crew might start clawing through the bulkheads if we keep them from their surveying much longer."
Good natured laughter rang around the CIC. Systems Alliance exploration cruisers were heavy cruiser hulls that had traded all of their torpedo launchers, a quarter of their guardian arrays, and a full third of the length of their main gun so that they could carry a truly impressive set of science and communication suites. The links connecting the CIC to these science labs were already filling with data as the chief survey officer commed the CIC.
"Commodore."
Commodore Grissom returned the salute of Lt. Commander Kovind. "Commander, what is the communications analysis suite picking up?"
"Nothing artificial in this system Commodore," the military scientist replied. "We would agree with Tactical's analysis that this system is uninhabited. We're also not picking up any transmissions from the surrounding systems, though as you know even the best equipment is far more inaccurate at detecting artificial signals across interstellar space."
"All the interference from natural sources makes it a guessing game at best without years of background data to compare against. Never the less, at first glance the Prothean maps showing this cluster to be uninhabited by any native species appear to be correct. There's also no evidence of the Protheans themselves so far, which should help you to sleep more soundly tonight sir."
"Thank you, Commander, keep at it," Commodore Grissom acknowledged the report, and the gentle teasing from his chief science officer, before closing the channel and addressing the CIC crew. "Well, it looks like we might actually have caught a break. Begin planning the survey of this system and remember we are not doing a full analysis. Our mission is to survey for spacefaring life that may pose a threat to the Systems Alliance, we only have 2 weeks to complete this task across the entire cluster before activating the secondary relay in Hades Gamma and moving on"
"We have a target of having the whole sector surveyed for spacefaring life by the end of next month, and I do not intend to go down in history as the crew that delayed the Arcturus-Hades Gamma primary relay activation because we were all resting on our laurels. Let's get to it!"
Inspired by the confidence and drive of their commanding officer, the crew of the SSV Endeavour jumped into action and began plotting a thorough and efficient path through the system for the exploration cruiser. One and a half months later, the first primary relay pair in Systems Alliance space was activated. On time.
Pax System – Horse Head Nebula
2110.04.06
Admiral Grissom stared at the display in the CIC of Endeavour, as if he could change it by sheer force of will. This time he had been unable to sway the public. It had only been 9 years since he last led his crew through an uncharted relay, but already all the habitable worlds in the Hades Gamma sector now supported colonies.
Granted, these were small colonies with centuries of growth ahead before the planets and moons supporting them could even come close to the definition of crowded, but the more important factor was that there were no unclaimed garden worlds remaining in Hades Gamma sector.
With Arcturus sector and Hades Gamma sector fully colonised, the Alliance member nations that had so far not received a colonisation permit for a shirt sleeve world were pushing for a third sector to be scouted and opened for colonisation. This time, the Systems Alliance had decided to colonise the sector based around the Zodiac Group cluster, a sector that was to the galactic west, towards the Imperial Fortress.
The Admiral sent a satisfied glance at the frigate wolf pack accompanying SSV Endeavour this time, at least he had been able to secure that. The concession that the SA would scout and colonise a single cluster before scouting the next one for colonisation had also been hard won. It would be slower than the method of exploration that had been used for Hades Gamma, scouting the entire sector first before opening it all up to colonisation at the same time.
The Executive Council had agreed, if only to silence those within the navy's ranks that were still very worried about expanding towards the Imperial Fortress, however far away it might be.
The Admiralty wanted the navy to secure the cluster connecting to Arcturus Sector before moving out into the rest of the new sector, announcing humanity's presence to anyone who may be there.
As the Alliance pushed further and further from Sol the chances of meeting an alien race increased proportionally, Prothean remnant or not. If this time was the time, if the exploration cruisers found aliens and they proved hostile, then the Admiralty wanted a chain of systems that the navy could fortify and fall back along, as fleet intelligence and fleet R&D studied the new enemy.
Admiral Grissom's eyes were drawn to another part of the display of the Pax system and they hardened in fury even as Endeavour and her escorts prepared to leave. There was Noveria, a white/blue marble on the display and one of the three dome worlds that had been given to the corporations of the Alliance. The Admiral felt his blood boil as he thought of the three entire worlds controlled by greedy businesses with no planetary government to keep them in check.
Granted, Noveria, Xawin, and Amethyst would have caused tension in the Alliance if they had been colonised by nation states, they would have upset the delicate ratio of member states colonisation permits, but there had to have been a better way to solve the issue. Even if the Alliance had stepped in and colonised the worlds directly as they had with Proteus due to its unique challenges, it would still have been better than this.
Admiral Grissom was shocked out of his musings by the crew reporting the progress of their mission. "The Pax relay has acknowledged our instructions and is sending the activation signal to the Theta relay." Endeavour's science officer breathed a sigh of relief as the ancient relay received new telemetry following its activation signal. "Return ping received. The Theta relay is confirming itself as activated and a viable destination."
"Conformation of successful activation of the Theta system relay, providing access to the Centauri Veil cluster, is logged and reported to the Admiralty and Pax system control. Noveria orbital control also acknowledges receipt of transmission," Endeavour's communications officer reported. "Our frigate escort has formed up with us and all ships are signalling that they are ready to proceed on Endeavour actuals order."
Admiral Grissom confirmed the order and the small patrol formation began moving.
"Beginning approach run on the relay now, sending mass data, relay has accepted. Transiting the relay in 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
Once more Endeavour was launched across interstellar space at phenomenal speeds before slamming back to its original cruising speed. This time the frigates accompanied it in its headlong rush across the stars and emerged in perfect formation, a testament to the skill of their helmsmen. The crew began reporting status as soon as Endeavour and her escorts cleared the relay.
"Helm reporting, drift just under 28,000 km, all escorts present and accounted for. Fleet is moving away from the relay at 50% of normal cruising speed and is maintaining position at the system limit until further orders are issued."
"Navigation reporting, location is confirmed as the Theta system, Centauri Veil cluster."
"Tactical reporting, no active artificial heat signatures detected. Threat board is currently clear, evaluation confirmed by our escorts. Launching probes and expanding formation to expand sensor coverage."
Filled with pride at his crew's performance, the Admiral's tones were still harsh as he brought their attention back to their stations. "Stay sharp people, I don't intend to assume all is well until we have surveyed this system thoroughly, we won't be caught with our trousers down if I have anything to say about it. Plot a thorough investigation of this system, leave no stone unturned."
The crew jumped to attention and carried out their duties with laser-like focus. If their Admiral had a bad feeling about this, they were going to trust his instincts.
Zodiac System – Zodiac Group
2112.09.24
It was delta shift aboard the Voyager class exploration cruiser SSV Voyager. As the name suggested, she was the first of the exploration cruisers and she was now beginning to show her age. Humanity's increasing understanding of the mass effect and Prothean technology rendered her increasingly obsolete with each passing year, which was why she had been left here in the Zodiac system while the main survey ships scouted the rest of the Zodiac Group cluster.
The reason was simple, as expected there were two primary relays in this system, one leading to Arcturus and the other off the edge of the retrieved Prothean supercluster maps, to the galactic south west. The relay to Arcturus was dark and dormant. The second primary relay however, was active.
A heated debate had ensued as to why the relay was active and yet the system completely silent. It was true that there were no garden worlds present in this system, but there were plenty of mining candidates and the Anglo-American mining company was already salivating over the publicly available surveys. Reports had been sent back to the Admiralty, who were now deciding what force to garrison the system with.
SSV Galaxy, primary exploration cruiser and flagship of the survey fleet, had left to survey the rest of the cluster after they had confirmed the system to be dead. Voyager had been left with the eight frigate escorts to compare the two primary and one secondary mass relays present in the system. Their mission was to try and find out why one had been active but the other two dormant, until their arrival.
Lieutenant Bahnini sighed and looked at the unchanging CIC display again. The frigates were in three distinct groups, a wolfpack led by SSV Bunker Hill was guarding the active primary relay, SSV Trafalgar and SSV Hastings were patrolling the inner system, and Voyager herself was stationary with her two escorts by the dormant primary relay that formed the Zodiac end of the Zodiac Group-Arcturus Stream primary relay connection.
Nothing was happening on board, except that Voyager's aging science computer suite was running simulations of that day's scans, preparing the data for review in the 'morning' by the alpha shift. Being the officer of the watch for beta or delta shift was a great way to make yourself stand out when it was time for promotions, but all the senior officers and scientists worked on alpha shift.
While there was always the possibility of an emergency, or indeed an attack – enemies didn't wait to see if it was 'daytime' before attacking after all – if something was going to happen it tended to happen on the alpha shift. When the senior officers were at their posts and the ship was the most active, which tended to make the other shifts very dull.
The comms array lighting up and making him jump out of his skin made him think this was going to be very different. "Holy Shit! Contacts, multiple contacts, I count four cruisers. Wait, another four cruisers? Who the fuck sends a cru-"
Lt. Bahnini leapt into action as the transmission cut off. "Action stations! Helm: get us moving! We're a sitting target! Tactical: bring all weapons online. Comms: alert the fleet that we have possible hostile contacts, then find out who that was and get them back on the line."
"Action stations, action stations, set condition one throughout the ship. Action stations, action stations set condition one throughout the ship." The alert claxon screamed as one of the junior comms officers called Voyager to battle stations, the computer displays became outlined in red as the strips of light set around hatches and along bulkheads changed from white to red and began to flash.
"Comms won't be able to raise them," Tactical spoke up in a mild panic as the communications officer immediately began contacting the other ships. "That was Bunker Hill, she was the lead frigate of the wolfpack monitoring the active primary relay. We've lost all telemetry from her and the rest of the wolfpack."
There was silence across the CIC for a moment before Tactical continued with their report. "The last readout from Bunker Hill's sensor telemetry indicated eight unknown cruiser class contacts and one heavy cruiser contact."
"Comms: check the status of Trafalgar. Tactical: do we have any other relevant data from Bunker Hill's telemetry?" Lt. Bahnini breathed a sigh of relief as Captain Michetti raced into the CIC, still pulling her uniform jacket on.
"I have the deck. Watch, report." The captain was studying the CIC display intently as Commander Jackson ran in behind her, both looked to the officer of the watch to get them up to speed with the situation and the actions Voyager had taken as fast as possible.
"SSV Bunker Hill reported four unknown cruiser class contacts and then an additional four before ceasing transmission. Sensor telemetry also suggests the presence of a heavy cruiser class contact. Voyager is underway at battle speed to present a minimal target, SSV Tuyuti and SSV Avay are in formation with us. SSV Trafalgar and SSV Hastings are at action stations and are returning from the inner system at flank speed, at this time I believe Bunker Hill and her wolfpack to have been destroyed by ships coming through the active primary relay ma'am."
The officer wiped his brow. "The unknown contacts would have had to sail right passed us or Trafalgar's patrol to surprise Bunker Hill from in system." The captain absorbed the information and Lt. Bahnin breathed a sigh of relief as Commander Jackson gripped his shoulder – in the American style of well done – before relieving him of his place at the CIC table. He quickly moved down to the place usually occupied by the First Lieutenant as he, and all of alpha shift apart from the CO and XO, had gone to damage control and other battle stations rather than risk a shift changeover in a combat situation.
Captain Michetti looked at the CIC telemetry of the system. The unknown contacts were clearly present, but little data was shown as they were only on long range sensors and there was no stored profile information on them. They appeared to be splitting up, one group of cruisers was turning towards the Trafalgar's patrol whilst the other group had formed up with the heavy cruiser and was heading straight for them.
Outwardly she portrayed absolute calm to her crew, the unshakable captain who would study the data and make the call. Commander Jackson however, caught her eyes and she could see the question he wanted to ask. It was the same as the one she was asking herself as she studied the CIC plot. Voyager and her escorts were outnumbered, outgunned and out of position. What the hell were they going to do now?
Codex Entry: Humans – Pre Mass Effect Colonisation – The Gas Giants
(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)
Sol system has two gas giants. The largest of the two is known as Jupiter and it is one of the largest gas giants in Citadel Space, massing more than two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in Sol combined. The harsh radiation produced by such a large gas giant has made significant development of both it and its moons incredibly difficult, except for one. The water world of Europa.
Europa the first planet to be colonised in what was intended to become a mini solar system, with additional colonies planned to follow first on Calisto, then later on Ganymede and Io.
Europa is a planetary ocean, kept liquid by the heat generated from the constant tidal flexing on Europa's mantle and core from Jupiter's immense gravity. The surface of Europa is a crust of water ice where the worldwide ocean meets the freezing conditions of space due to Europa's atmosphere being almost non-existent. The thin atmosphere that does exist – while being useless for traditional purposes – is made primarily of oxygen which was a huge boon for early colonies, as they were able to simply harvest the gaseous oxygen directly from the atmosphere rather than creating it from cracking water or another oxide compound present on their colony world. The micro gravity of Europa, being lower even than Luna, was a major problem before the installation of mass effect generators throughout the colonies to eventually establish Earth normal gravity.
Europa was colonised by the United States of America as their steppingstone to exploration and exploitation of the outer system. The thick ice sheet gave the colonists the all-important protection from the intense radiation blasted out by Jupiter that makes the surface of Europa uninhabitable for even short periods, while the liquid ocean provided heat conditions that were the closest to Earth of any location in Sol system, before the new mass effect powered cloud cities of Venus were constructed. Colonies on all other worlds in Sol, including Venus's original aerostat balloons, require either massive heating or cooling systems to bring their temperature into the human habitable range. On Europa, the ocean does 90% of that work for the colonists.
Such highly favourable conditions caused the colony to expand at a rapid rate. Initially. Unfortunately for Europa, Jupiter's intense radiation meant that any He3 operation there was doomed unless it was massively subsidised by a government. When the Systems Alliance was founded, the political exclusivity of the outer colonies – the fact that they were their parent nations, and only their parent nations steppingstones to the outer system disappeared.
No longer limited to Europa as their only refuel and resupply point when exploring and exploiting the outer system, American ships quickly made the decision to refuel at Saturn instead. The approach was a lot easier and safer, less radiation protection was required on their ships, and the He3 was cheaper. The US government would end its subsidy of the Jupiter Mining Corporation the same year that the Alliance was founded. The JMC didn't even attempt to continue trading without the subsidy, knowing it was impossible. They went into voluntary administration as soon as the subsidy was withdrawn.
Europa was left with only water, oxygen and algae/seaweed foodstuffs to export. Other resources had been intended to be extracted from the other three moons as the mini solar system was constructed, but those colonies had never been founded as the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Mars caused the plans for them to be abandoned, as there were far better colonisation prospects outside Sol system. Water and oxygen, despite being extremely valuable, were cheaper for ships and colonies to buy from the ice deposits on other moons in the outer system rather than fight Jupiter's gravity well and radiation belts in and out to Europa, and then go on to Saturn to refuel. Foodstuffs were more valuable, but still not enough to support the colony on their own. By all reasonable measures Europa's colony should have failed. But it didn't. Due entirely to the human preoccupation with romance.
Europa had already captured humanity's imagination, millions of people clinging to the underside of the water worlds ice sheet, inverted skyscrapers pouring light into Europa's giant ocean. Glowing stalactites thrusting into the deepest and most mysterious ocean in the system, watched over by the king of the gods. Europa continued to thrive despite the collapse of the JMC and today nearly 2.5 million people call Europa home.
Saturn is the most impressive of Sol's outer planets due to its magnificent rings. Its class 2 garden moon of Titan was colonised by the Peoples Republic of China and this moon would become the beating heart of the early human economy, allowing the quick and easy development of Saturn's Helium 3 mining infrastructure and providing the perfect launch pad for the exploration and exploitation of the outer system. With the founding of the Systems Alliance this moon was opened to all traders and trade boomed throughout the outer system.
The colony of Titan is an amazing place made, possible by its unique feature among the entirety of the outer Sol system. It has a significant atmosphere.
In the entire Sol System, only 3 terrestrial bodies have atmospheres worthy of the name. Venus, Earth and Titan. Mars also has a very tenuous atmosphere, but as it only creates a surface pressure of 0.6-0.9 kPa compared to 101 kPa of atmospheric pressure for Earth, the next thinnest, it is traditionally omitted from the list. Europa is unique in that its protective ice crust stops the loss of its ocean despite its lack of atmosphere.
Despite its thick atmosphere, Titan is very cold. Its surface temperature is minus 179.2 degrees celsius, giving it oceans, rivers and lakes of methane instead of water. Indeed, Titan's surface and weather is very like that of Earth, it simply rains liquid methane instead of liquid water. The seas of hydrocarbons at its poles are a major resource, providing the basic building blocks for Titan's plastic factories. The cold and low gravity make industry in general much more efficient, and the mining of Saturn's smaller moons provides the materials for the outer system industrial juggernaut. Titan's massive industry pours out goods and construction material much cheaper than hauling finished products all the way from Earth, even with mass effect drives, but its extreme cold has another benefit: Titan is a computing powerhouse.
Despite space being so cold, removing heat is actually very difficult. With no atmosphere to remove it, ships and stations have to radiate heat, which is a very slow and inefficient process. Titan is very cold, has a thick atmosphere making human working conditions a lot easier, has radiation protection, and has almost no oxygen in its atmosphere making fires very difficult to start.
All of this has combined to make the moon a massive cooling system for the humans' most powerful supercomputers. The Landauer limit, which governs the efficiency of non-quantum computers, is directly related to temperature. Halving the temperature doubles computing capacity for the same amount of energy, meaning that on Titan, a gigahertz processor can run on only 1 trillionth of a watt. As a result, massive computer facilities sprawl over Titan's surface, churning through computer modelling for all sectors of the Systems Alliance economy and military and scientific research industries.
It is also rumoured that amongst these hundreds of facilities, and truly biblical amount of computational power, is hidden a secret – and highly illegal – artificial intelligence development program. However multiple Citadel Council investigations, the most recent led by SPECTRE Tela Vasir, have failed to find any evidence to support these accusations.
Codex Entry: Humans – Pre Mass Effect Colonisation – The Ice Giants
(Citadel Codex, First Human SPECTRE Collector's Edition, 2183)
The last two planets of Sol system are both ice giants. Similar in appearance and behaviour to gas giants, the main difference between them and ice giants is in composition, with gas giants being over 90% hydrogen and helium by mass while ice giants have a makeup of less than 90% hydrogen and helium by mass, with the rest made up of other elements.
Sol's ice giants are only 20% hydrogen and helium by mass, the remaining 80% is made up of many other elements including vast amounts of water, ammonia, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur. Thankfully for all known species, most of these elements are locked in a liquid mantle while the thick atmosphere of hydrogen, helium and methane is perfect for helium3 mining. Uranus and Neptune have seen very limited overall development compared to Saturn due to the lack of garden worlds among their moons. Their colonies are focused almost exclusively on mining or are inhabited by groups wishing their own colony for social or religious reasons.
Founded three years after the discovery of the Prothean ruins, Miranda was colonised by the European Union as it is the main source of water in Uranus's orbit. The founding of the Systems Alliance while the colonists were still on route from the inner system removed the political requirements for the colony as a base for EU ships, which many believed would cause the colony to fail. Instead, it thrived, defying all expectations by taking advantage of Uranus's shallower gravity well and weaker radiation to set up a large He3 mining operation.
At first Miranda was just a refuelling stop for science ships exploring the far outer reaches of Sol System, but its importance increased as humanity left its home system and Saturn was often on the wrong side of Sol for departing ships. Uranus finally overtook Saturn in total He3 extraction in 2176 CE during the economic boom that followed the Humans becoming a Citadel Associate Race. To this day Uranus remains the largest producer of Helium3 in Alliance space and has consistently remained one of the top 10 He3 producer's galaxy wide.
Triton is the largest moon of Neptune, the eighth and final planet of Sol system. Containing the majority if the ice (and 99.5% of the mass) in Neptune orbit, Triton holds a special place in the hearts of humans. Triton was the first colony founded by the SA as a purely Alliance colony, and it was the last to be colonised before humanity started to produce mass effect ships.
This alpha and omega position, marking the end of humanity's imprisonment in Sol and the start of their exploration as a unified species, makes Triton an important symbol in human culture. As the only colony of Neptune, Triton is a major Alliance fleet base, allowing the warships of the SA entering and leaving Sol to re-fuel out of sight of Sol's civilian population. Though this has limited Neptune's He3 mining development, the operational security that this isolation gives the Alliance fleet and covert operations forces is considered well worth the price.
The jewel in the crown of Triton is Amon Din Station. Named after the first in a series of relay beacons that used fire atop mountains to allow the fictional kingdom of Gondor to call for aid in times of strife, this huge complex on Triton's surface is the heart of the humans FTL comm buoy network. A network that – uniquely for Citadel species – predates first contact. Although the majority of it was produced after the First Contact War, the core of the network was in place and functioning when the turians invaded Shanxi and Zapala, which greatly increased the human's ability to fight that war.
Though upgraded to Citadel standards and integrated with the Citadel's beacon network, the buoys in Alliance space are still produced and maintained independently of the Citadel, and the network is still controlled from Amon Din Station. A situation that many of the other Citadel species view as paranoid, but one that the humans have outright refused to change.
All FTL messages and extranet sites from outside human space are routed directly to Amon Din Station and enter the human FTL network there. Every FTL message that enters or leaves Sol system passes through Amon Din, and without it the fastest way to contact anyone is to take one of the fleet of courier boats that the Alliance still maintains for ultra-secure communications, or for emergencies that might physically or electronically disable the comm network.
The turians and asari consider the courier boat fleet to be even more paranoid and backward than maintaining an independent – if integrated – comm buoy network. The Salarian Union however, put its first courier boat into production less than a year after they first encountered the Alliance's courier boat fleet in action in the First Contact War.
The salarians now maintain a courier boat fleet significantly larger than that of the humans.
Timeline changes so far
First colony on mars: 27 years earlier than canon
Discovery of Prothean ruins: 64 years earlier than canon
Founding of the Systems Alliance (council of nations version): 63 years earlier than canon