Author's Note: So after some thinking, this will be the final historical chapter. I'm gonna hold the other one or two for another day when I'm stumped and need something to throw in to buy time.
A couple of things before we get to the chapter itself.
Vincent1875 I had completely forgotten the fact that Ilos was a known world. Um, I'm going to go with a combination of hyperspace inaccessibility due to navigational hazards and other various issues. Plus it's on the other side of the galaxy, still a long trip thanks to all the other races that fell into the Reaper trap. Flimsy, yes. But I don't really want to change a whole bunch of background at this point.
The Ironman name is due to the fact that the inventor was anonymous at the time, and due to visual similarities in the technology (though EG is more spherical and cylindrical in build than Arc-tech, visually similar effects). Prometheus is 'cause I like the name, and it's common in fiction for humanity's first starship to be named that. Stargate, Honor Harrington, Babylon 5, and others all had a Prometheus.
Once more: Humanity's plan A is a large, technologically advanced fleet. Plan B is the Crucible. The salarians and asari are drawn to the idea of such a device due to their cultural traits. Humans and turians like the large fleet idea because it's useful for so much more and a lot more reliable than a superweapon. But it's good to have a backup.
As for the incorporation of humanity into the galactic community at such a rapid rate, humanity is basically blitzing/shock and awing the galaxy into accepting it. The original plan was a whole lot more subtle. Show up in 2100, play nice for a couple of years, be friendly yet powerful and gradually earn trust by building up the rest of the galaxy to get the Council seat. They're earning a bit of ire from how fast they're pushing but at this point they're beginning to slow their push down. As to individual species, really just the batarians and volus are annoyed. And even there things are mixed.
Humanity does have an option for a superweapon that isn't the Crucible. Not going to get into it, just that it is very low on the list of options.
As for other back-up plans, there are a few. Saving them for later. The colony ships fleeing aren't one of them, those really are various fringe groups leaving the Alliance behind for various reasons. They're staying in touch in order to be polite, but otherwise are independent. Think the Terminus colonies in canon, just a bit further away.
But without further ado here's the chapter. I don't own Mass Effect, Bioware does, and I thank them for creating it
September 24th, 2016
Earth Orbit
It was boxy, clunky, and grey. And despite the rather boring appearance, it was the most advanced piece of technology that humanity had put together.
The SSV Prometheus was only 75 meters in length, shaped like an arrowhead with a bulge in the center of the craft containing the crew quarters. It was a test-bed of sorts, put together quickly due to the enormous pressure to actually get to Mars and explore the ruins that had been revealed just two years before.
A lot had changed in those two years. Shipyards across the planet were being converted to begin construction of starships. The first three warships, Lexington, Concord, and Hastings would be completed in two years. It was an almost manic construction effort, bankrolled by a combination of fear, determination, and the potential riches that awaited in space. Smaller shuttles were already ferrying materials into orbit so that larger orbital shipyards and defenses could be constructed.
Earth had whipped itself into a frenzy, but its children were still coming to terms with the future they faced. Some groups relished the challenge before them, others prepared for the end of days, and some were concerned with the wealth that would come with this new era.
For Captain Michael Summers however, his concerns were with the Prometheus, and the fact his crew would not only be the first to step foot on Mars, but also travel through Hyperspace. Which was unnerving to say the least. Oh the probes that had been sent to explore nearby space were functioning well enough. But it was a little more daunting to actually be traveling faster than light.
"Where are we Lieutenant Richards?" He asked hoping most of his trepidation was well-hidden.
"Well, if the sensors are working like they should be, and they did go through a thorough testing period, then we're green across the board." the surprisingly young flight lieutenant responded. "Engineer Fujikawa reports that the subspace core is operating well within optimal levels, and that the hyperdrive system is charged and ready."
Turning around to grin at the captain, she gave a thumbs up. "And the scientists on-board are itching to get over to Mars so we can start figuring out just how screwed we are."
As if on cue one of the video screens from the tiny laboratory on-board the ship lit up with the face of the lead physicist on the expedition. "Well Captain, are we good to go? "
"Yes Dr Jacobs. We were just running through the final checks before we got the all-clear from Houston. How's our resident prothean expert doing by the way?"
"Casey? He's holding up well enough, aren't you?" Turning to someone off screen the young physicist grinned.
"It is a bit exciting to be up in space. But if you want Mass Effect 5 to come out on time, I suggest we get a move on."
"All right Captain, you heard the man. We'll be getting the ground team prepped and ready." With that the screen cut out, and Captain Summers simply shook his head and opened up a channel to mission control.
"Houston, this is Mars One. We're reading green across the board up here, and the boys and girls in back are getting anxious. Requesting permission to begin hyperspace jump to Mars."
"Copy that Mars One. You are clear for hyperspace jump. Good luck out there, and be careful."
"Copy that Houston, we'll make sure to bring everyone back in one piece." Looking at the clearly eager flight officer, Captain Summers nodded his head, "All right Jeanne. Sound the alert and get us out of here."
"Yes sir!" hands flashed over the controls in front of her as she began spooling up the main thrusters and hyperdrive system. "All crew prepare for hyperspace entry in five, four, three, two, one."
And with that the ship found itself swiftly pulled into the strange dimension inside a bubble of real-space. It was a bit disquieting, and Captain Summers found himself to be slightly queasy as the ship hurtled through hyperspace at around twice the speed of light.
"Ugh, I wonder if it's going to feel like this every-time we make a jump." A couple of people had reported feeling more than a little nausea when the ship went FTL, and it would appear the Lieutenant was one of them.
"If I remember the briefing Dr Jacobs gave us on what was actually occurring, we're not actually moving inside the bubble of real-space. The bubble essentially pulls itself through hyperspace, or that's how he chose to explain it. I've heard a couple of ideas on what is actually occurring." The captain replied with a grimace. Apparently the math could be read a couple of ways, unfortunately the physics community was still trying to figure things out.
"So why is it that half of us either feel like losing our lunch, or actually did lose our lunch? Sir."
"Not really sure Lieutenant. That's part of the reason we're testing this thing out. My money is on it being psychosomatic, your brain knows you're moving quickly, so your body reacts to that information. But it might be something else." Shrugging his shoulders the captain focused again on the data readouts in front of him.
"Great sir. Then hopefully we just get used to it."
"Don't worry lieutenant, Dr Jacobs assured me that nausea is probably the worst we'll experience. The shields will be able to deal with whatever Cherenkov radiation we produce, and since there shouldn't" he made sure to stress that word carefully, "be anything we can interact with physically, that should be the most dangerous bit."
"Sir, all I'm hearing is that we're operating on a whole load of assumptions about how things will turn out." There were a couple of chuckles on the bridge at that crack.
"Well someone would have to figure this out at some point. And it's our luck and honor to be the guinea pigs."
Fortunately, the ship reached Mars without incident. And once safely, relatively speaking, in orbit of Earth's neighbor the crew began scanning the surface of the barren world around Deseado crater for any indications of an entrance.
While the crew did that, Captain Summers and Doctor Jacobs stared at the new addition to Mars' collection of planetary scars. At just over a hundred kilometers in diameter, the crater stood as a testament to the sheer destructive power the universe could bring to bear on a world. The energy equivalent of nearly a hundred million megatons of TNT had been released at that point, a truly staggering amount when one thought about it.
"Heh, even if that blast hadn't uncovered the ruins here we probably would still be gearing up to expand." The young physicist said quietly.
"It really does drive home just how dangerous our position is on Earth doesn't it?" Captain Summers replied. It was one thing to look at it through the images sent back to Earth by the various probes orbiting the planet. It was something else to see it for one's self.
"Just an inch to the left at some point in history, and we might not have known about the ruins here for another century."
Their reverie was broken by a shout from one of the techs in charge of scanning the service. "Found it! It looks like it's on the southern edge of the crater towards the pole. We'll have to get closer to find an obvious entrance, but that shouldn't be a problem. There's no significant weather activity in the area."
"Excellent work Ensign. Lieutenant, take us down toward the surface. We'll figure out where we want to land when we get a clearer view of where the entrance to the complex is." Turning to face Dr Jacobs, he nodded at the physicist as he spoke, "I'll let you prep the ground team. Though I will make sure you bring two marines with you as an escort."
"Sounds good Captain. I'll get everyone assembled."
It hadn't taken long to find the hangar doors, and despite close to 50,000 years of dust and grit buildup, they had been cleared by simply using the shuttle thrusters as an improvised blower-system. And while it did take close to 20 minutes, it gave them time to figure out how they were actually going to get in while they did so.
Which turned out to be relatively easy as the same mechanism which had raised the base's defenses against debris from the cometary impact opened the doors.
"So is anyone else creeped out by the fact the doors opened on their own?" Sergeant Maxwell asked as the 10 man team exited the two shuttles. "I mean, I didn't play the games, but from what I heard this place is not supposed to be functioning."
"That was what we wrote." Casey Hudson said as he exited the shuttle. "Of course, humanity in our games discovered the prothean ruins 130 years from now when an eezo core was malfunctioning and throwing off weird gravitational and electromagnetic fields. But as far as we can tell, that's not happening here." Maxwell couldn't see Casey's face as he was currently moving toward some door towards the back of the hangar, but he could tell that he was concerned.
Looking around, Maxwell noticed two things. First there was a surprising amount of space in the hangar. There were only two small craft left in the base, and already two of the scientists had wandered over to begin inspecting them. A couple of crates were tucked away towards the back of the room, if he had to hazard a guess, they likely contained this element-zero substance they were specifically to look for.
It was surreal. Here they were in an alien base on Mars, and it was more a matter of checking off the things on their list they expected to find as opposed to discovering new things. The mystery was gone, and it was now just a mad rush to figure things out and work out some means of defense with whatever time they had.
"Got it." Casey called out over the comm system after a few minutes inspecting the door with Dr Jacobs. Even as he spoke, the door ground open about a foot before coming to a halt.
"Right, the hangar bay doors open after 50,000 years, but the door to the rest of the facility doesn't." Maxwell said with a snort.
"Probably separate power sources." Hudson responded quickly, " Corporal Jeffries, could you come over here and throw some weight behind this door? The locks have been disengaged so you don't have to worry about that, and the lower gravity means it should be easier for you."
As the corporal braced himself, Hudson continued, "We made the protheans to be strong biotic users in the games. So they could probably just pull them open that way in case of a power outage. Unfortunately, we don't have any biotics. Yet."
With a grunt of effort the door to the rest of the facility was pushed open allowing the team to continue their search. With little fanfare they made their way further inside the base, cracking the occasional door open to see if it lead somewhere important. Most were simply empty, a few others contained trinkets and pieces of equipment which had not been removed when the protheans evacuated. Pictures were taken for later analysis and initial reports sent back to the Prometheus.
What was most worrisome however were those rooms that had suffered some form of collapse. The expedition's geologist had, using the Prometheus' sensor suites, come to the conclusion that the collapse had come about from tremors brought on by the cometary impact.
Twenty minutes later however they reached their goal, what appeared to be the central hub containing the prothean archives. The monolith before them was humming with power, a testament to the protheans' engineering prowess. And to the power their destroyers had brought to bear on their civilization.
Shifting before the tower, Dr Jacobs took the lead. "All right, let's spread out from here and try to find the power source. If we can figure out how much power is left here, we can-"
"Wa-a-rning. P-ow – er sys / / tems low." Springing into existence before the assembled team, the base's prothean VI began speaking, cutting off the team lead off. "Sys – tem int-er/ / /face dam / aged due to geo / logical /-/ tre / /mors. Fail—ure imminent."
"Can we upload it to the systems aboard Prometheus somehow?" Jeffries asked.
Whirling about for a moment to compose itself, the VI answered "Negative. Your computer systems are incom / /" flashing for a moment the VI paused before bringing itself under control again. "incompatible with this interface. Secondary programming taking precedence. Analyzing species self-designate: humans."
"Don't suppose we can just ask it to unlock the data in the beacon huh?" Maxwell asked as something similar to a barcode scanner passed over the team.
"I think that's what it's trying to do." Hudson said while looking at the flickering hologram. "We didn't have a VI active in the Mars Archives in Mass Effect, but again, we're a hundred years before humanity found them then. It's possible the thing would have cut power to itself to preserve the rest of the base systems."
"Affirmative. Interface power systems at .3%." Flickering once more, the VI resumed its duties. "Estimated life remain/ /ing is 23 local years at minimum expenditure. Warning: species lacks biotic interface capability. You will be unable to interface with Archive in optimal fashion, preparing system re-coding. Query: you possess knowledge of Archive prior to discovery."
"Uh yes, somehow we knew you were here based on a video game the company I worked for made." Casey said.
"Precognition not poss / / ible. Scans indicate genetic and neu / /ral abnormalities in subject." Suddenly the VI destabilized momentarily before coalescing again. "Warning. Interface failure imminent. Archive will not be completely re-coded before system failure. Prioritizing Reaper countermeasure."
"The Crucible. Dammit, you mean the Reapers are real?" Dr Jacobs said quickly, "We were kind of hoping that wouldn't be the case."
"Aff / /irmative. Prioritizing relevant data. Warning: quantitative data on Reaper abilities lacking. Reaper purpose: unknown. Reaper numbers: unknown."
"Can you unlock any data on the other species we may encounter in the galaxy?" One of the biologists asked. "It might help us prepare them for the Reapers."
"Acknow / /ledged. Warning: Unable to re-code both Crucible and " Once more the VI fizzled out of interface, this time for several more seconds than before. "other prim / / itive species information."
"Prioritize the information on our counterparts" Dr Jacobs responded. "We can figure out the Crucible at a later time. Knowing where our potential allies are will be more handy in the immediate future."
"Acknowledged. Automating data re-coding. Including failsafe programs. Sys/ /tem failure imminent." Once more the interface collapsed for a few moments before forcing itself back to life, this time flickering at a much more rapid rate.
"You have reached further than my creators imagined. You would have brought much to the Empire." Looking at the humans assembled before it, the VI bowed, "You / / will avenge us."
And with that the VI destabilized one final time leaving the humans alone in the prothean ruins.
"Well," Dr Jacobs said after a moment of silence, "Let's not make this a wasted sacrifice. We'll hook up a power-cell from one of the shuttles into the base power grid. That will keep it up and running while we set up shop here. So lets get to work."
Had a VI pop-up because I had defense systems activate in response to the cometary impact (Which is a real possibility, Siding Spring, 1/100,000 chance right now O.o) Then I killed the VI because it didn't exist in Mass Effect, which suggests that it lost power at some point before the ruins were discovered. And since Vigil was "dead" after it lost power, so was Vigilance when it "died" here.