Title: The What-If First Contact
Rated: T (just in case)
Summary: Galaxy is a huge place, right? Well, this story will explore the what-if situations in first contact scenario. How the Mass Effect races react to different race or different version of human? Each chapter is one-shot.
Warning: This is AU Mass Effect aliens races are from different franchises or similar to those in different franchises. They are own by their respective owner(s).
Disclaimer: This story is purely written for fun and not for profit. Mass Effect is owned by EA.
"Text" is speaking
"Text" is thinking or sound without ""
"Text" is screaming
Chapter 6: Extinct, no. Advanced, yes.
Protheans. Some of the historians would briefly describe them as an ancient alien race that once ruled the galaxy and achieved many great things such as creating the Citadel and mass relays. But if curious people were to ask the historians about HOW does a great galactic empire like Protheans disappeared 50,000 galactic years ago, leaving nothing but the Citadel, bunch of mass relays, surviving buildings and sites, technology caches, and some other historic junks. The historians would give unsatisfactory answer such as "I don't know" or "They just disappear".
What about their appearance, some people asked. The historians would give similar but still unsatisfying answers: "Who know", "We theorize that they have-", "No, wrong. Their appearance is-", "Wrong! What they actually look like is-", and "We don't know".
Which is why Captain Serptus, a Turian who is in charge of 1 cruiser and 5 frigates, is staring with undisguised skepticism at a holographic of unknown alien whose head in distinctive shape with 4 eyes, 3 pairs of nostrils, and a mouth. A skepticism shared by the rest of the ship, all Turians.
You see, the Turian patrol ships were just performing another round of patrol, doing mindless tasks of saying "No, sir. Nothing happen" for every 5 galactic minute for the last 7 galactic hours. And suddenly, the patrols detected one of the relays just activated briefly before deactivated. Being the closest, the patrol sent the detection report to the closet Turian military command located on Galven before engaging the relays to investigate or to catch the perpetrators in act and beat th-arrest them for violating the Citadel law.
Just right when the Turians reached to the their destination at Relay 333 that is paired with a relay that was activated for short while before getting de-activated, a wormhole appeared out of nowhere for no explainable reason that Turians could think of. With a larger-than-dreadnought ship of unknown design emerging from a said wormhole and as soon as an unknown ship spotted 6 Turian ships, it immediately somehow jammed and locked all 6 ships before sending its 'First Contact' transmission in perfect Turian language that started with "Greeting, primitives. We're Protheans and we are re-claiming this pair of relays as our own."
"That's absurd! You can't be Protheans! They went extinct 50,000 something galactic years ago!" Captain Septus refused to believe that this larger-than-dreadnought ship is of Prothean. And these so-called Protheans are reclaiming the relays? Granted that the Citadel and even non-Citadel races have been using and enjoying the "safe" relays along with mass effect technology left by the Protheans, but there still the laws against activating the dormant relays.
"And you can't reclaim the relays! They're our and you just broke the Citadel law!" Captain Serptus finished, causing a non-Prothean to laugh.
"Hmm hmm hmm! We don't care about whether you believe me or not. And we definitely do not care for your primitive law. We're reclaiming this and every single relay as they are rightfully ours. Which is why we're going to let you primitives go to whatever your government-"
"Primitives? We're one of the Citadel-"
"Citadel? Don't me you primitives are using THAT Citadel as the center of your government." A not-Prothean rudely interrupted without caring about what a primitive shipmaster thought. Only that this primitive race is using the Citadel. The same Citadel that the Prothean Empire had used before their 'disappearance'.
"Yes, don't tell me you're reclaiming the Citadel. It belongs to the Asari, Salarians, and us! You better-" Protheans or not, Captain Serptus will not let them disrespect the current authority.
"I see you primitives have this 'element zero'. The mass effect technology." A not-Prothean's voice became serious as if contemplating something.
"That's right! We use it everyday like you, if you are the 'Protheans'." Captain Serptus emphasized the last word of his sentence as he believed that he is dealing with fake and not authentic Protheans.
"In that case, tell this Citadel that we, the Prothean Empire, will send our envoys and we WILL reclaim it. Good bye." Without a warning, a hologram of not-Prothean disappeared and all Turian ships went from jammed to normal status. Before the Turian ships could do anything, the not-Prothean ship opened a wormhole and went into it, disappearing. A wormhole closed afterward, leaving the Turian patrol alone.
Almost two galactic days later…At the Citadel…
"…"
The Councilors could be seen staring silently at the display of on-going battle between the Citadel Defense Fleet and the supposedly not-extinct Protheans with various expressions on their face. Tevos has shocked expressions with terrors in her eyes. Sparatus has his mandibles slightly spread open with his eyes showing disbelief and anger. Valern has mouth formed in 'o' shape with blank face but within mind, he is fretting.
The supposedly Prothean envoys turned out to be a fleet of 76 ships of various sizes, all armed. How armed? The Citadel Defense Fleet have learned the firepower very personally when all Prothean ships, out of sudden, fired volleys of extremely destructive lasers that just bypassed the kinetic barrier and destroyed almost 28% of the Citadel Defense Fleet. Laser! The Salarians, Turians, and others have been trying to figure out how to create functional and viable weapon that shoot laser for decades after decades and still failed.
Recovering quickly and realizing that the Citadel is being attacked, the defenders fired back with their mass effect weapons only to found out that the attacking ships have strong shield, resulting more Citadel ships to be teared apart. The defenders, seeing the ineffectiveness of their scattered shots, changed the strategy to focus fire while the attacker ships, while firing their lasers, simply moved to form what the Citadel aliens would describe it as a school of fish with the small attacker ships rotating around the larger ships.
Suddenly, a seemly swarm of something appeared from the attacker ships. The fighters of various shapes. By the Spirit or Goddess, they are numerous and they shoot lasers as well! In response, the defenders unleased their own fighters to engage the attacker fighters. Crashed or destroyed crafts could be seen floating. The ships and fighters on both side continued to trade blow after blow with the Citadel ships getting destroyed as if they were a mere butter tanking a scorching hot knife.
Matriarch Lidanya, seeing that the defenders already losing badly, ordered the communication officers to call for the reinforcement when one of the largest attacker ship whose size is nearly twice as big as Destiny Ascension, somehow jammed the Citadel ships' communication that followed by weapon system, causing the defender ships to be effectively fish out of water.
To the horror of the Citadel people, more attacker ships appeared out of several wormholes, bringing the number of attackers up to 171 ships. Few supposedly Prothean ships could be seen heading toward the Citadel relay while the rest moved toward the Citadel, raining their laser upon the arms that have just started to close. Just when the Citadel's arms were about to completely close, the arms began to open, much to the shock, confusion, and hysteria among the Citadel side. Why the Citadel is opening when it should be closing?
Within next 25 minutes, the Citadel is completely wide open as it were before. The Prothean ships wasted no time to bombard the arms, killing countless lives of the Citadel citizens and visitors including the C-Sec and military. The attackers slowly made their way toward the center of the Citadel, leaving corpses, debris, and destroyed defender ships in trail. Not even those who attempt to flee were spared.
With the Prothean ships…
Staring at the tactical display of the ships and their position over the damaged Citadel, a tall and muscular Prothean whose uniform indicated high ranking officer in the Prothean Empire military could be seen with grim satisfaction in all four yellowish-orange eyes and his arms folded behind his back.
"Fleet master, we are now beginning to send our package to the Citadel." One of Prothean crew members called out. Fleet master Javoronik merely said "Proceed." He continued to monitor the tactical display, focusing on the center of the Citadel. This is it. This is the beginning of the Prothean Empire's return to the 'abandoned' galaxy.
To reclaim the lost territories and to destroy the greatest enemy at the same time. The vile machines will learn what it likes to be on wrong end of genocide. The Protheans, thanks to their ancestors', have been prospering in different galaxy, slowly rebuilding themselves and eventually, expanding its economy and military for 49,980 galactic years. With aid of their special ability of learning experience via touching and the lack of 'Element Zero', the Protheans have been forced to adapt while learning about the vile machines.
Passing on experience for the next generation after next generation, each and every Prothean has sworn to destroy the greatest enemy without mercy. Thus, they have developed the strategy to wipe every single vile machine, starting with the Citadel. The Protheans have been honing and creating new technology after technology (making the mass effect technology obsolete) in addition to building more and more ships and breeding more Protheans, the Empire decided that the strategy will be executed now.
Unknown to the primitives, the Protheans have modified the relays prior to launching the attack on the Citadel. The modified relays would prevent any attempt from the non-Protheans to warn or call for reinforcement. Because of the preparation, the primitives were oblivious to the attack of the Citadel. Once the Citadel has been modified as a trap for the vile machines, the Protheans will proceed to the next stage: denying the enemy from having armies.
Meaning, the extermination of the primitives including the pre-space-faring ones as to prevent the vile machines from indoctrinating and using them. The Protheans, off course, became immune to the vile machines' indoctrination. The past experience and new technologies ensured it and the nearly thousand years of studying the primitives will ensure their annihilation. The Protheans will strike without warning and without mercy. The Empire does not need the non-Protheans to fight the vile machines. The past experience of traitors and in-fighting taught the survivors and the new generations of Protheans painfully, but clearly.
For every relay, the Protheans reclaimed and modified it. For every planet with any sign of life, the Protheans struck without warning through their own creation of plague and orbital bombardment, turning habitable planets into inhabitable. The Protheans could revert the planets' condition back to habitable once the vile machines are completely annihilated. The Prothean ships prevented any primitive from escaping the genocide. Once the planet is cleared of non-Protheans, the Protheans moved onto the next planet to repeat, spreading plague that destroys the non-Protheans from inside and lethal hyper advanced technology.
No non-Protheans were spared. Not even Quarians that fell in record of shortest amount of time. Not even Geth that all suddenly deactivated and destroyed. And definitely not the Collectors that were promptly destroyed without bothering to engage them in person, only by the ships. As cruel as it sound to the terrified primitives with no explanation given by the attackers, the Protheans do not care. The galaxy will not miss them anyway. Only the Protheans matter.
In near end of ME3 time…
The vile machines aka the Reapers could not understand how the Protheans survived the harvest from previous cycle. They were precise and effective at harvesting and yet, they somehow missed a small percentage of the Protheans who managed to escape by unknown mean, out of their reach. Because they went to the dark space to hibernate, the remaining Protheans aggressively multiplied and deviated from the mass effect technological path set by the Reapers and advanced from there. For an entire cycle in the Reapers' time.
When for the first time in their existence, the Reapers were unprepared. When they woke up, they activated the Master Relay that is connected to every single relay in the galaxy including the Citadel. They first attempted to head to the Citadel only to quickly fell to the ambush set by the Protheans. After losing what the Reapers deemed unacceptable, they tried to head to different relay only to end up at the Citadel. Again, the Prothean ships ambushed them and destroyed them with unseen technology hat disable all the Reapers that appeared at the Citadel.
The Reapers, after learning that all but the Citadel are inaccessible, tried to invade the Citadel in greater number where some will engage indoctrination. They suffered another failure as the Protheans were able to match their number and beyond without showing any sign of being indoctrinated. Seeing that the relays couldn't be fixed and the Citadel is a death trap, the Reapers tried to travel through the dark space toward any planet. Only to fell to the minefield and traps, which shouldn't be possible, according the calculation.
How this is possible, the remaining Reapers wondered. They should be undetectable when traveling the dark space and yet, the Protheans were able to. Or better question, how the Protheans were able to make exponential progress in term of technology and military? According to their calculation, the Protheans, even if in prospering term, shouldn't be able to sustain the rather numerous ships and replace the lost ones. The Reapers could not figure out nor able to get answer from the Catalyst, who has not been responding at all.
"Organic ships detected." The Reapers' system reported. That should be impossible as they are in the dark space and once again, the Protheans shattered that notion and wasted no time attacking. No word has been spoken between two sides. Only destruction.