Pilot Episode:

It began as always with the desire to explore. In the mid-21st century, the first colonies were established on Mars followed by a wave of colonization across the inner planets of the solar system. In the next few centuries, mankind would expand rapidly across the solar system including a multitude of settlements across planets, moons, and stations. To facilitate faster travel, a new type of engine was needed. This incentive led to the creation of the technology known as the Interspace Drive. An engine using principles of Alcubierre's theory of warping space. This eventually lead to the development of an engine that would allow a spaceship to travel at 1 percent of the speed of light. This speed would eventually increase as research and development continued. With the invention of this drive system. The outer solar system was now available to humanity, triggering a new wave of colonists.

But that was never enough, as mankind in its very nature was always greedy for more. From that greed grew the increasingly tyrannical control of those who held power safely protected within the inner system. As a result, a rebellion would break out that would see these colonies become independent and the inner system in ruins. In the aftermath of this short and quick war, the inner planets had few options. They can either attempt to take back their colonies, engage in trade or try something new. In the end, they choose the latter due to the latest advancement of spacefaring technologies, and thus began the next era of mankind. This era was known as the stellar exodus. The day when mankind made their first journey outside of the solar system and set foot on a completely new but alien world.

It was a monumental achievement for mankind, but also for the inner planets. With the ability to set foot on a completely different star system also came the incentive to colonize and extract resources to feed the ever-growing industries of the solar system. Moreover, seeing these efforts make a it worthwhile investment. Mankind needed a new way to travel quickly to these distant star systems. Thus, began the next series of technological development. The Interspace Drive proves insufficient to allow faster-than-light travel, with the newest model only allowing for 20 percent of light speed and a massive amount of energy needed to achieve such speeds in the first place. Man needed a new way, method, and technology to travel. This development was a long and slow progress. During this time humanity would rely primarily on slower-than-light ships. For example, generational ships, sleeper ships, seed ships, to Embryo space colonization. All in an effort to colonize these distant star systems. By the 4th millennium, mankind had colonized star systems within a three-hundred-sixty light-year radius from sol.

This method would continue for some time, as during the 4th and 5th millennia. A series of interstellar wars would erupt between the various powers back on Sol for control over these distant colonies. Emboldened by the success of their counterparts. The outer planets had also begun to explore the idea of interstellar colonies. But these ventures were often too expensive or too draining to their respective economies. Thus, they began to wage war with little they had against their more successful brethren in the inner planets. It was only after this great war that mankind realized that they can not continue this path. Therefore, it begins a new era, known as the cooperative era. This was also referred to by the majority of humanity as the First Golden Age. Taking place across the 6th to 8th millennium. It was during this time, megastructure projects began in earnest. The concept of constructing a massive construct of such scale was explored. Structures such as orbital rings, ringworlds, and Dyson spheres were explored in detail to their feasibility.

Moreover, it was also the period that the first development of faster-than-light travel was achieved. Using an ancient theory known as the Krasnikov tube. Using this theory mankind was able to construct massive megastructural "tubes" or portals of transit that connected one-star system after the other. It allowed for the first time to allow mankind to travel quickly and efficiently across their interstellar possessions. Moreover, began a new wave of interstellar expansion expanding the current territories by ten times. However, this technology didn't come with a few problems though. One of these issues nearly caused the destruction of the Sol System almost causing the complete collapse of human civilization. Due to some freak accident, Sol was hit why a massive gravitational displacement event that saw waves of destruction sweep across the Sol system. It ended the first golden age of man, as humanity struggled to recover from its man-made apocalypse. With help from their interstellar brethren mankind was able to rebuild Sol. But things have changed. The Solar System was different, transformed from a single star to a trinary star system that consists of another G-type sun-like star just 0.16 light years away. And a small red dwarf is currently in orbit the current original solar system.

It also included new planets already present in the original star system such as four habitable moons, one orbiting venus, and two orbiting two new habitable planets in the asteroid belt. And a physics-defying habitable moon in orbit of Jupiter. The red dwarf system also has nine new planets while the other star had six. The newly arrived star systems, planets, and moons gave mankind what it needed to rebuild Sol. But also allowed them to expand their current core domain. With Sol, the rebuild began the next era of exploration and the golden age. Having been stagnate for thousands of years after the disaster. By the 13th Millennium, mankind quickly revised their current FTL technology, learning the lessons of the previous disaster. Mankind was able to utilize it without any problems this time around. Technologies that were put on hold after the disaster were brought back in full force. Such as the creation of synthetic stars, Stellar Engines, Dyson Spheres, and their variants, and artificial megastructures such as ecumenopolis, artificial worlds, habitats, terraforming, orbital rings, ringworlds, Alderson disks, stellar lifters, Artificial Intelligence, Advance computing, robotics, harnessing the power of black holes, vacuum energy, etc.

It didn't end here, with the early periods of interstellar colonization also giving birth to a new type of ship design. One is the massive city-ship to the equally massive craft worlds. Moving ships the size of planetoids, moons, and entire worlds. Mankind was unstoppable, with a standard of living of humanity that was comparable to that of the gods. Man lived longer than ever, medical technology was the best of the best. By the 18th Millennium, mankind just as the other age had entered. They had already entered another Golden Age of technological advancement and human improvement. But one question still eluded mankind. Were they alone? The existence of aliens has been in the minds of human imagination for thousands of years. But no definitive proof had ever been found. Thus, mankind continued on without giving it much thought.

It is now the 26th millennium of the human calendar. Mankind is at the crossroads of its history. Alien life has just been discovered. It was a routine exploration mission by a small exploration ship. Until they discovered a mysterious tuning fork object buried deep within the moon. By this point, mankind had colonized an area of five thousand seven hundred light years from Sol. Most of these colonies were sparsely inhabited. Mainly due to the fact that a majority of humans find the core of humanity. Being the Sol System more at home than they were out in deep space. Sol was home to all of mankind's megastructure and astronomical projects. Holding countless quintillions of humans in massive megastructures or in virtual space powered by a matryoshka brain built around an artificial star. Therefore, mankind had no real need to colonize the distant star systems unless it is to extract resources. The star system they colonized was filled with people who either wanted to get away from the busiest such as Sol. Or wanted to live a simple life of solitude.

Some planets and moons were privately owned by individuals or corporate entities. While some were massive resorts, paradise, and sites of wonderous entertainment, which welcome trillions of visitors per year. Therefore, mankind's population spread was considered unique when they came into contact with other alien races of the galaxy. When mankind finally unveiled the device from the icy moon where it was discovered. Questions about where it came from and its purpose ran rampant across human space and social media. A great debate raged in the chambers of the Interstellar Assembly as men, women, uploaded humans, and synthetics began debating what they should do with the device. It raged for day and night and eventually an agreement was made. The device was to be activated and they would see what it would do. In one instance, a small survey ship was caught in the activation before shooting off into space. Before any panic reaction can take place, the ship suddenly returned showing humanity the true purpose of the device.

An FTL transportation device that was similar to their Krasnikov Tubes. For the next eight years, mankind would quickly and eagerly explore the route that the newly dubbed "Phase Gate" would take them. With some even optimistic about meeting friendly aliens. It was an optimism that quickly died during first contact. During that event, a small exploration ship was about to open a Phase Gate when it was suddenly attacked by several unidentified ships. The ship was destroyed not until it sent a distress message to a nearby planet where an exploration outpost was located. The human force in the area quickly mobilized and destroyed the attackers. Unfortunately, this will not be the last encounter with them. This time, a fully fledge alien fleet entered the system. The battle was brutal, mainly for the aliens. By the time the human was done, they began their assault on one of the alien frontier world. In an effort to force the aliens to the negotiating table and bring peace. This was easy said than done as the aliens prove to be unreasonable. Calling themselves the Prothean, they demanded mankind to submit to their rule and obey their law as for they were the masters of the galaxy so they claim.

Having taken offense to the aliens' arrogance humanity refused and predicably the war continued. This time, humanity decided not to mess around and attempted to get the Prothean to understand their current standing by unveiling their advanced weapons of war. Weapons that were developed during the golden ages as purely theoretical designs, became nightmares to the Prothean military. This had the unintended side effect of changing the Prothean perspectives. No longer were the Prothean waging wars of conquest. This was now a war for survival, against what they perceived as a genocidal race. This war was quickly known by the Protheans as the Metacon Wars. As the war became ever more destructive as time went by. The Prothean became more and more desperate to turn the tide. They began a massive campaign of subjugation across the galaxy. Opening new relays to find cannon fodder species to help them fight the war. While the Prothean had the numbers, they didn't have the technology capable of defeating or winning any engagement with the human forces.

Humanity had many destructive weapons, all purely theoretical as they had never imagined they would need to see fit to have them deployed. As of now, they had no idea what would happen if they were to deploy such weaponry. However, enough was enough, when it became apparent the Prothean wasn't surrendering. Humanity made an attempt to contact the Protheans to try and negotiate. They did so much to their surprise, but the damage was done. Entirely all of Prothean Space was devastated, the economy was on the verge of collapse, and billions of vengeful aliens. In the aftermath of the war, a tense peace existed between the two sides. That is until an unknown force known as the Reapers invaded. Already weakened by the War with the Humans the Prothean was off-guard and their empire was sliced into pieces with the deactivation of the Mass Relay. A total collapse was only prevented when the Humans intervened by them placing their Krasnikov Tubes across parts of the Prothean empire. This was the opening stage of the Reaper war. And they prove to be more than a match for humanity. They were numerous and near-limitless, and mankind now faces extinction at their hands. Thus, they pull out all the stops to destroy this threat. The galaxy burned, literary.

In this cataclysmic war, fearsome weapons of highly advanced technology were unleashed by both sides. Mankind, they have in possession of massive thinking machines called mechanivores were deployed, which tore open great chasms in a planet that extended to the core and were capable of lifting entire continents into space. The mechanivores absorbed space-time itself as if it was data. The sun snuffers were incomprehensibly vast serpentine machines that devoured stars. In the void, the sun snuffers uncoiled into colossal structures that dwarfed Saturn's rings. The most pervasive and perhaps most dangerous of the terrible weapons were the omniphages. Which were swarms consisting of intelligent nano-machines, that in less than a solar day consumed everything on a planet's surface.

The Reapers, lacking any WMD, to begin with in the first place, had to resort to blowing up mass relays causing supernovas to occur through the galaxy. The Reapers had access to vast numbers making their losses almost negligible. While mankind had advanced technology, it didn't have enough of it to protect its territories. As such, one by one resistance across the galaxy fell. Eventually, humanity was left alone to fight the enemy. After evacuating as many alien races of the galaxy as possible. Mankind began a slow but brutal defense of their space as the Reaper forces began a long siege. After more than a thousand years, only Sol was left standing. Mankind at this point was exhausted figuratively and literary. The long siege had drained mankind, during the early start of the siege, mankind had to abandon their frontier interstellar colonies. As the war progressed more and more colonies were abandoned. Evacuating centuries-old colonies, and bringing people back to Sol. By this point, mankind had become the single most difficult species the Reapers had ever faced. They took more losses than any cycle they had faced currently.

But in the end, they still were winning. With only fifteen years before a final all-out Reaper offensive. Mankind had very few options to work with. As the Reapers have boxed them in with no hope of escaping or anywhere to retreat to. Thus, a desperate plan was attempted that would hope to give the races of the galaxy a second chance. The idea was Time travel, which was a longshot idea proposed by their best scientist. But with all other options exhausted, High command gave the green light for research. Unbeknownst to the human and alien allies forces, the Reapers themselves were in a serious dilemma. The long war against the races of the galaxy in this cycle had drained them of almost all of their strength to even continue fighting. This left the existence of the cycle in jeopardy as they may not have the strength to even begin a new cycle or continue it. The seventeen-hundred-year siege against the humans did little to help with the situation. Therefore, their attack on Sol in fifteen years' time was an act of desperation on their part.

Therefore, in the last few years, they planned an attack on Sol. They have attempted several scouting missions in hope of finding a weak spot in their defenses and ending the war before it becomes a liability to them. The decade pass as tension rise between both sides, before finally erupting into the planned all-out offensive by the Reapers. The Battle lasted for six months until something occurred. A massive space-time anomaly engulfed the star system and the Reaper forces who were attacking the fortified lines of defense quickly found themselves shredded by the shifting of space-time. In an instant, a massive explosion took out the initial invading force in a supernova-like event. When the Reaper scout ship came to verify what had occurred what they found was the shattered remains of their fleet and the star system they were assaulting nowhere in sight. They had won but with a tremendous cost to their forces. It was a pyrrhic victory at best, they had lost most of their combat-ready forces in the explosion. Now they had to pick off where they had left off.

The war not only delayed the cycle by two or three times. But it had left a dent in the Reapers' forces one that will take a very long time for them to recover. Morale was broken and at an all-time low with some Reapers ascendant even questioning their purpose and suffering. But the others led by the Harbinger the first Reaper were unconvincing as their fanatical belief of the cycle. Their reasoning was that they had the time to prepare and this time ensure that something of this magnitude must never happen again. Therefore, they enacted protocols to ensure the species not chosen for the cycle to be deliberately brought back to the stone age via artificial means as the Reapers recuperate their losses from the long war. For the next one hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand years. The Reapers would slowly rebuild, it was barely a fraction of what they had expected to be able to recover. The numbers pale in comparison to the size seen during the long war. But it was sufficient to continue the cycle. And so they continue the cycle as they have always done in the last two billion years. Nothing can and will threaten them now, or so they think.

When the explosion that seemly took out the Sol system occurred. The Reapers believed the WMD the humans were developing against them had failed. However, this was a little side effect to the true nature of the device. The time travel device was completed and was activated once word came around the Reapers had broken through the defense line. However, due to its prototype nature, the travel was uncoordinated and thus, the Sol System was thrown across time and space. Emerging to a timeline where the Reapers had least expected. And now with the Sol System safe temporarily, it was time to rebuild, rest, recover, and finally take revenge against the force that had denied them the thing they had wanted for so long, peace.

A/N:

This story here is a pilot episode of what is about to come. My creative juice had run dry in the last month with classes starting and the new semester beginning. I wrote this little piece as the idea was in my head, and at the time I didn't want it to go away or stored it for later. I wanted it to come to life so I had it written down here. This is the basic idea of how the story is going to go.

The story will be told from two perspectives; one of Emily Shepard Commander of the Solforce navy. The Military armed forces of the Solar Government of the Sol System. And James Vega who is also a Marine of the Solforce. They both served on the same ship the SFS SR-1 Normandy before getting caught in the time displacement which caused their ship to be split apart. Causing Shepard and Vega to be sucked out and thrown across space and time before arriving in the current present era.

Emily Shepard will land in a colony of the System Alliance where she will be taken care of by a small family. While James Vega will land on Fehl Prime where he will land in the midst of the colony being attacked by the Krogan Blood packs. The System Alliance here is actually a human nation formed from an ancient colony that was left alone by the Reapers for lack of importance. The Reapers would do experiments on the remaining human survivors of the colony to find out why they were so effective at resisting their harvest. But ultimately abandon it and reduce some surviving humans back to the stone age across multiple worlds while harvesting the rest.

The pair would arrive 150,000 years into the future after the Long War. They will survive while trying to get into contact with the rest of their forces on Sol. The rest of the galaxy is soon made aware of the existence of Sol and the Reaper threat. When the time of the harvest arrives. The Reapers will quickly find out, that the Long War hasn't ended yet and the humans and their alien allies are back for round two. To finally end their atrocity once and for all. Somewhat follow the Mass Effect timeline but with a few differences.

Note: Warhammer 40k Reference, Cybernetic Revolt