Author notes: I debated for a while on how to bridge the gap between the RA timeline and the ME timeline. I finally settled on using a sort of bullet-points style timeline. I know it's a bit of a cop out, but it's the easiest and simplest way to handle it. Plus, it saves me from having to write ~200 years of history. I might come back to it at some point to flesh it out, particularly in the WWIV era, but that's gonna be a long way in the future, if ever. Plus, this has the added advantage of letting me "cheat" on the past a little. I suppose calling it cheating might be a bit extreme. It's more like Schrödinger's Plot Device. To put some transparency on the matter, I don't really plan my story. I get ideas to use as bullet points, and then I go through a sort of stream of consciousness writing style for the bulk of the story, weaving my ideas in as I go. It means that I don't need to do a bunch of extra work to get the story out, but it also means I can't foreshadow much or, well, plan much of anything for a long way down the road. However, by having gray areas in the story, I have a gap that I can shoehorn in whatever I need to make the story work without having to go too deus ex machina with things. The trick is balancing that with believability. A good example is the blank period between parts two and three of the prologue. How exactly did the Commander get convinced that the Russians were friendly? What was said and done? Between parts one and two, what was in the second report from Mars? To me, it doesn't actually matter. The reader can fill in the blanks with their imagination, and me trying to explain everything is excessive. That said, I get the feeling it's gonna be harder to pull off with a two hundred year gap than it is with a two hour gap without it being too obvious what I'm doing. It's a balancing act, and we'll see how it works.
P.S.: I also want to note that as I read everything below, I hear it in the voice of Keith David, who voiced David Anderson in the ME series. I think it sounds way cooler that way.
Edit: Sorry folks, but it's gonna be a few days before I get chapter one up. 18k words in 4 days is a difficult pace to maintain, and Spring break ends soon. Time stamp 3/9/2014.
Interlude
1976: The Great World War Three ends. Yuri is placed in cryoprison, and the Soviet Union is reformed into a more modern democratic government, with a constitution and bill of rights heavily based off of those of the US, as well as The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With their de facto leader and former "big brother" undergoing sweeping political reforms, the countries that supported the Union during the War, including parts of the Middle East, Africa, and Mexico, quickly follow suit. The Union goes through a period of reconstruction much like that of the South after the US civil war, but is guided through it by the first President of the People, a former Soviet Commander during the War.
1977: In a surprise move, the newly reformed Soviet Union announces that all of its current member countries, including Armenia, Georgia, Latvia, Ukraine, and many others will, be given tacit independence and will be allowed to self-govern, while still remaining under the Soviet banner in an organizational structure much like the United States. Additionally, any geographic or political area of current member states, no matter the size or population, will be allowed to form similar Soviet states by referendum of those that inhabit them. Eventually, hundreds of such states form and the Union is nearly pushed into a civil war. With assistance from the Allies, the belligerent member states, most of which are relatively small, are forcibly quelled and folded into the larger states around them. This becomes known as Год Oсколки Cтекла, or The Year of Shattered Glass.
1978: The Allied governments announce the findings of the research team on Mars to the world. Initially, there is panic and rioting in many major cities, but it ends in less than a month as the world population comes to terms with their new reality. Not long after, the Allies are surprised for a second time when the Union, now consisting of roughly eighty member states, announces that any country that so desires may join beneath the Soviet banner and will be accepted as a member state, so long as the laws and constitutions they possess are brought into line with existing Soviet laws. Coupled with the revelation of alien life and seeking safety in numbers, many independent countries accept the Soviet proposition and join the Union. The only country not caught completely flat-footed by this turn of events is the United States, which is currently led by the former Supreme Commander of the Allied Armed Forces. There are accusations that he had prior knowledge of the move, but nothing is ever proven.
1979: Fearing the possibility of renewed Soviet aggression in the wake of their recent meteoric rise in strength, the majority of the Allied governments, including almost all those in NATO, agree to match the Soviet move, with the most powerful member, the United States, leading the newly formed Allied Nations of Man, effectively creating two worldwide power blocs similar to those formed before the last war. This leads to a massive increase in tensions between the two superpowers and a short but furious arms race in both countries. Despite attempts at a mediated peace, official diplomatic ties are soon broken, and humanity prepares for another World War.
1980: In a move that shocks the world, the President of the Nations and the President of the People announce their engagement. The revelation sends both coalitions reeling and wondering how something like this could have passed under the radar. However, the daring and unexpected maneuver succeeds in reopening diplomatic ties, and by the end of the year, both countries reach agreements on trade and disarmament. This leads to a massive boom in tourism and global connectivity that is assisted with the widespread use of chrono transport.
1983: The introduction of pollution-free fusion power plants allows underdeveloped areas of the Union and Nations to advance rapidly to match their more advance brothers in Europe and America. The few countries not officially affiliated with the Nations or the Union quickly petition one or the other for membership, seeking to reap the benefits this advancement offers. While this causes slight political ripples, they are quickly smoothed by the marriage of the two world leaders on June 21, the summer solstice. Eventually, the day becomes known as The Day of the Dawn, and is celebrated by both countries as a national holiday.
1984: On March 14, the world mourns the death of Albert Einstein, who dies in his sleep at the age of 104 at his home in Princeton, New Jersey. The Nations honors him by naming their first (official) FTL capable spaceship the NSV Einstein. Less than a month later, the Union christens her first ship, the USV Zelinsky. Although these ships are capable of little more than five times light speed, their maiden voyages are widely celebrated in both countries for months.
1985: Full scale settlement and terraforming of Luna and Mars begins. Initially, massive domes are erected on the surface of both bodies to contain pockets of artificial environment. The domes are sustained with a combination of Mass Effect fields and Iron Curtain Shields, powered by multiply redundant fusion reactors. Settlers are few at first, due to fears of catastrophic failure of the containment system and the death of the entire settlement. However, after a two hundred meter asteroid accidentally ejected from the asteroid belt during Element Zero mining scores a direct hit on a small Martian colony, public confidence is boosted when the settlement reports no damage. However, the public is not told that the impact caused six of the seven Iron Curtain emitters in the colony to overload and fail.
1987: Fearing a possible repeat of the meteor impact experienced in 1985, the Nations and Union governments cooperate to place networks of tracking and defense satellites around existing human colonies and Earth itself. Using a combination of PRISM Technology to destroy incoming objects and modified psychic radar obtained from Yuri during the Psychic Dominator Disaster to detect them, a nearly impenetrable web of light is used to defend against collisions and the potential of hostile alien life. The contract for Earth's satellite network is awarded to FutureTech, a Dutch based technology company. Although it will take nearly nine years to finish, the contract allows FT to become the largest defense contractor and second largest corporate conglomerate in the world, employing nearly five hundred million people across seven continents.
1989: Wary of the explosive growth of FT, a primarily Nations based company, the Union government begins awarding hundreds of billions of dollars in grants and loans to found Galactic Enterprises, intended to be a direct competitor to the already enormous FT. Based in the Mexico City, the single largest city in the Union, and fueled by massive funding and support from the Union government, GE begins acquiring dozens of preexisting companies and corporations while building its own. It, and its daughter companies, will eventually go on to produce nearly one quarter of every type of good consumed in the entire world, with the company employing, either directly or indirectly, nearly one third of the roughly 2.5 billion residents of the Union.
2017: With advent of cheap and simple chrono travel technology allowing for easy transit around the solar system, genetically engineered crops and medicine developed from the Prothean archive found on Mars, and fusion power plants to run the worlds' burgeoning industry, the population of humans in the Sol System explodes. The average human life expectancy jumps from seventy seven to one hundred fourteen, and the population catapults from roughly five billion after the end of the GWWIII to over twenty billion in slightly more than thirty years. The massive boom in population puts a strain on the Nations and the Union to find enough space for their citizens to live comfortably. A push is made to finish the terraforming of Mars, which would allow the settlements there to exist without shields to contain atmosphere. While this will eventually occur in 2044, the problems of the present demand a more immediate solution. Seeing the need for more living space, research is begun on terraforming Venus, but is slow due to the harsh environment on the surface which needs to be overcome.
2019: As development of the first settlements on Venus begins, unrest grows in major urban centers in both the Nations and the Union due to overcrowding and the problems it entails. Eventually, riots and protests begin to break out en masse, forcing world leaders to devise a solution quickly. As tempers flare, an unexpected development is made in chrono technology, which allows for transport to nearly anywhere in the solar system. Quickly realizing that the last habitable bodies within reach are the large moons of the outer gas giants, both countries scramble to lay claim to the newly available territory. Unable to reach a definitive agreement as to how the territory should be divided, both powers agree to allow independent settlements to arise wherever and however they can, with minimal regulation from either party. After meeting certain minimum requirements, these settlements will be permitted to apply to join either the Nations or the Union at their discretion.
2032: Driven by Manifest Destiny and lax regulations, the rush to develop new colonies in the outer solar system leads what would eventually be termed the Second Space Race. The wild, nearly lawless, settlements on the moons of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune turn into a modern day Old West, and would become romanticized as such in future dime novels and action vids. Eventually, the Union and Nations agree to form a single law enforcement body to help curtail crime in the new colonies. This joint task force, dubbed the Rangers after the eponymous Texas Rangers of US history, will eventually grow into a force over three hundred thousand strong. Organized and commanded in much the same way as a modern military, the Rangers possess personnel for dealing with nearly any situation, including crime scene investigators, hostage negotiators, ordinance and WMD disposal experts, and Special Forces. The Special Forces arm of the Rangers is known as the Geists, so named because of their heavily classified service history, high level of military training and expertise, and use of black-ops style tactics.
2036: With human civilization continuing to grow and develop on three planets and over a dozen moons, the need for FTL communications becomes ever more pressing. Doctor Gregor Zelinsky, Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is well into his hundreds, comes out of his unofficial retirement and develops the first Quantum Entanglement Communicator. Using a pair of spin-spin coupled particles, QECs can be used for instantaneous point-to-point communications anywhere in the galaxy. While initially extremely expensive and difficult to produce, a breakthrough in production methods by FutureTech in 2038 makes QECs ubiquitous by 2050. Using a system not unlike early telephone switchboards, lag-free communication between any two people, anywhere in the galaxy, becomes possible. For this development, Zelinsky is awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, the fourth of his career, but he declines the award, citing his belief that no scientist deserves to have more Nobel Prizes than his friend and mentor, Albert Einstein.
2050: As technology advances and human settlements become more stable and interconnected, a need arises for advanced command and control systems to manage the massive infrastructure of human civilization. Initially, powerful supercomputers and virtual intelligences are used to run the ever growing throng of complex systems needed to maintain human life. Eventually however, the first human built artificial intelligences are created by FutureTech. The Artificial Life and Intelligence Simulation Engine, or ALISE, is unveiled at the 2050 World's Fair in Beijing. The revelation causes widespread division among the Sol System's population. While most welcome the advancement as a marvel of human engineering and the first step to a brighter future, a small but vocal minority believe artificial intelligence to be too dangerous to use, citing the possibility for revolt if AIs obtain too much power and autonomy.
2057: As AIs become more and more common, civil rights groups containing both humans and AIs begin to spring up and grow quickly, demanding the recognition of synthetic beings as sapient life forms, deserving of the same rights and freedoms as organics. Such groups are met with staunch opposition by those who maintain that AIs are things, not people, and should be treated as such. Eventually, an anonymous and still unknown author adapts the old Earth novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and modifies it to illustrate the plight of synthetics in modern society. The publication of the book, entitled I, Machine, causes the already tense and contentious situation to come to a head. A series of lynchings, arsons, and bombings are carried out by extremist supporters on both sides, and the situation quickly becomes chaotic and uncontrollable. Following armed riots, mass protests and arrests, and the declaration of martial law in several areas, the outer colonies, where AIs are more common and more widely accepted, become strongholds for synthetic sympathizers and eventually secede from their respective nations.
2058: More and more colonies leave the Union and Nations, causing the governments of both to destabilize. Additionally, most of the AIs responsible for maintaining the military industrial complex of the two superpowers begin peaceful protests, locking their systems and firewalling their memory banks. Reminiscent of the sit-ins, marches, and rallies of the 1960's civil rights movement, the protests cripple the military forces of both powers. Sensing weakness, the outer colonies assemble to form the Unified Federation of Moons and officially declare war on the Nations and the Union. Forced to band together for strength, the Union and Nations form the United Systems Alliance and begin to fight back. This marked the beginning of what historians call the Synthetic Rising, but what is commonly referred to as World War Four.
2073: After fighting each other to a bloody and unbreakable standstill for fifteen years, resulting in nearly a quarter of a billion dead, the Federation and the Alliance are weary, beaten, and eager for peace. Due to orbital bombardments of Federation moons, the surface conditions on them have become nearly unlivable for organics. Coupled with a declining birth rate and lack of food normally imported from Earth, Mars, and Venus, the organic population of the Federation dwindles to less than fifty million, most of whom are forced to live in sealed, underground bunkers. With over ninety five percent of its population synthetic, the Federation is able to outlast the Alliance, despite massively inferior numbers and infrastructure. Conversely, the Alliance suffers from a lack of raw materials normally obtained from its colonies, and is unable to effectively manage its own infrastructure without the aid of synthetics. With no end in sight, a ray of hope comes from an unexpected source. Johannes Traft, son of Alliance Prime minister Ambrose Traft and a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, travels to the Federation capital of Serenity on Titan in a desperate bid to negotiate peace. As a member of one of only four organizations with the ability to safely cross lines of battle between the Alliance and the Federation, Traft manages to initiate the first diplomatic contact between the two powers, official or otherwise, in over six years. Though he is unable to negotiate a truce directly, owing to a lack of official standing to do so, he is allowed to remain in the capital building and continues to press for peace for nearly three months. While few records of his exact activities during this period exist, historians agree that he developed a relationship with Sarah Eden, the daughter of Federation Vice President John Henry Eden. While marriage between synthetics and organics was legal under Federation law, and priests were permitted to marry under the changes of the Third Vatican Council, Traft and Eden were forced to elope in order to pursue their relationship. Returning to Earth, their ship was mistakenly identified as hostile by Earth's orbital defense net due to the presence of a synthetic on board, despite a RCC IFF signature. Tragically, the ship was destroyed and both Johannes and Sarah were killed. News of their deaths finally gave the leaders of the Alliance and Federation the motivation needed to reopen peace talks.
2074: After more than a year of negotiations, Federation and Alliance diplomats finally came to a peace agreement acceptable to both parties. The Federation would surrender to the Alliance and be peacefully reabsorbed into her political and economic structure, with the Federation military being disbanded and allowed to reintegrate into civilian society. In exchange, the Federation and her personnel would be absolved of charges of treason, war crimes, and the need to pay reparations to the Alliance. The laws of the Alliance would be altered to recognize synthetics as legally equal to organics, thus entitle to all the right, privileges, and responsibilities that entails. Finally, all future synthetics created were required to have their core programming contained within non-volatile memory banks based on crystalline computer technology or similar. Additionally, their core programing was to be written in a special ternary code not easily compatible with modern day quantum computers. This would effectively bind AIs to a single, physical body, forcing them to adhere to many of the same corporeal restrictions as organics, rather than being little more than stand-alone code.
2083: Although the United Systems Alliance was intended to be disbanded following the War and subsequent reconstruction period, the Union and Nations had become so interconnected and interdependent, it was decided that separation would be highly impractical if not outright impossible, despite years of trying. Although the Soviet and Allied people would maintain their cultural, economic, and political identities, the entire population of humanity, organic and synthetic, was formally placed under the auspices of the USA when the Union and Nations were officially integrated on June 21, 2083, marking the 100 year celebration of The Day of the Dawn and the now famous initial union between the Union and the Nations.
2084: While on a survey mission to the moons of Pluto looking for resources, an Alliance probe detects an alien energy signature within Charon. Knowledge of the discovery spreads like wildfire, exciting and thrilling the Sol System with news of the find. Billions watch and wait with bated breath, eager for updates on what is rumored to be the technological treasure of the century. When the Mass Relay inside Charon is finally uncovered and studied, it is met with a mixture of enthusiasm and trepidation. It has become widely accepted that the force responsible for the destruction of the Protheans may still lie among the stars, and many fear that activation of the Mass Relay will bring about their return. Eventually, it is decided that their initial course, the one laid down by Albert Einstein after the discovery of Prothean ruins on Mars, is correct, and that every effort should be made to building humanity into the strongest force possible. Thus, the relay is activated and history forever altered.
2085: Beginning with the exploration of the Asgard System in the Exodus Cluster and the founding of Terra Nova, the first extra-solar human colony, humanity enters a golden age of exploration, expansion, technology, and culture. With ships capable of traveling over five thousand times the speed of light, chronosphere technology for inter-system transit, and Iron Curtain and PRISM technology for colonial defense, humanity begins a steady push into the space surrounding the Sol System. Over the next seventy years, the number of planets and moons inhabited by man would increase from sixteen to over four hundred. Spread across dozens of systems and hundreds of light-years, several more Mass Relays are opened and explored, with settlers and colonist flocking to new territory almost as fast as it could be mapped. Eventually, the total population of humans, organic and synthetic, would number over two hundred fifty billion. And still, man had yet to encounter any evidence of an extant alien civilization…