Here's the third chapter. Enjoy!
* Review response:
Impstar, well, Human-Prothean alliance be quite different from Systems Alliance form canon. Even the compositions of their navies will differ. Actually, you'll get the first glimpses of that in this chapter.
edboy4926, TomorrowsHerald, Shin1gam1, MEEKVERSEFAN2.0, Gyre, FranticHamster, davycrockett100, OMAC001, Dragonfire781, JPElles, BigWilly526, Tirion I, thank you for your reviews, folks!
shadowrwriter, IMO Protheans were more like Quarians - too meritocratic to have gender-based segregation. As for codex... I don't want to invent too much about the Protheans, so there won't be (much) about their culture or whatever. Though, I might still do some and insert it into the story proper when Javik is unearthed. As for AIs... Whatever we have right now would look positively DUMB when compared to Avina - itself no the brightest AI in the settings. And I don't foresee any breakthroughs in the near future. In other words, humanity's 'AIs' are actually worse than ME VIs.
roughstar333, considering that there are only 12 of them right now? It's not like they can rebuild their Empire with this much. So, who knows, one of them might become a king to Hanar ;)
Radji, kind of: Collector will start going after humans (and Protheans that hang around them) way before 2180s. On the other hand, humanity was space-faring for only 40 years in canon when Collectors 'chose' them as the source for the newest Reaper. Here, the humanity will be building its resources up in relative isolation for some time, before introducing itself to the galactic community; in the end, it might be more than those 40 years between the humanity's first interstellar flight and a 'war' with Collectors.
Watcher123, while there will be no "overnight" leaps in technological levels, 15 years might still be too quick for going from chemically-powered rockets to Mass-Effect interstellar travel...
ssv warsaw, I actually have no plan on having any version of the "Relay 314" incident taking place in the story at any point.
* AN: I'd like to issue a challenge to you, my dear readers.
For this challenge, you will have to write a crossover between "Mass Effect" and "Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio" where Thanatonium/Graviton technology of the Fleet of Fog was originally developed by Nazara during the last days of their war against the Reapers as an alternative to the Mass Effect technology. Admiralty Code here would be an AI in charge of determining, whether the sapients of whatever planet it landed onto are worthy of this technology and, thus, the Fleet of Fog is this AI's instrument for testing the humanity.
If the Sovereign ever makes an appearance in your story, the minds of Nazara people inside it should recognize their technology and rein up the Reaper to let the Alliance kill it and grant them freedom in death.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Mass Effect" franchise. No profit is being made. Same goes for any books, video games, anime or manga I may or may not use for ideas.
"speaking"
'thinking'
"speech not understood by humans"
Guides for the Young
chapter 3: A Step out of the Cradle
The stellar age for the humanity began with the establishment of the Sol Alliance, the representative body for both the Earth nations (as well as any future colonies) and the remaining Protheans. The Alliance's economical and political power came from the UN backing, while many of the highly advanced technologies as well as the star charts of the known galaxy came from the Protheans.
At the moment of its establishment, the Alliance had access to only two FTL-capable vessels, both of which were Prothean shuttles recovered from Mars. But it wasn't going to stay like that for very long: with countless scientists and engineers all over the world working tirelessly to uncover the secrets of the Mass Effect technology, the humanity was ready to begin building its own space fleet within mere ten years.
It wasn't an armada of mighty warships that was laid down at the shipyards, though. The quickly dwindling supply of refined Element Zero from the Prothean cache – and lack of any reasonably-rich deposits of the substance in the Solar system – saw to the first ship being built being essentially a mobile mining and processing facility. And to make sure no resources mined are wasted, it would be accompanied by a multi-purpose manufacture vessel, equipped with prototype molecular assemblers.
Of course, nothing said that these mostly-civilian crafts would be unarmed or even operating without some sort of a military escort: several destroyer-carrier hybrid warships as well as their fighters were being built at the shipyards as well... The concept of such a vessel was rather new to the Protheans: while their Empire did use fighters and even dedicated carriers, the idea of attaching a few fighters to a ship so small never happened to them. Nevertheless, given how limited the supply of the available refined Element Zero was at the moment, everyone agreed that this was probably the best way to arm up the humanity's fledgling space fleet.
Once completed, this fleet would travel to the alpha of Canis Major, Sirius. While this binary star system some twelve light years away from the Earth lacked any garden worlds or even the planets that could reasonably be terraformed into something habitable, the asteroid belt there was rich with Element Zero and other resources. At least, it was so according to the data provided by the Protheans.
There was another reason why that star system was chosen: it contained a Mass Relay. A Mass Relay that could be used as the point of access to the Earth instead of the one hidden inside Pluto's moon Charon. Of course, mere twelve light years wasn't that much of a distance for any decent Mass Effect vessel, but that would still be enough to let the Earth be forewarned in case some hostile entity decided to launch an attack.
And speaking of giving warnings, it was decided against actively seeking contact with the current 'galactic' government to inform them about the Reapers: no one believed that right now such a warning would be taken seriously right now. After all, would you believe a group of aliens that appeared out of nowhere with such an outrageous claim, especially when the said group of aliens doesn't even possess enough military power to protect its own home world?
The construction of the mining 'fleet' was not an easy task – literally hundreds of the technologies that the humanity haven't even dreamed about mere two decades ago were necessary to build a Mass Effect spaceship – but in the end, after five years of hard work, the crafts were finally ready. And, on July 26, 2087, the seven vessels departed from Earth.
But before the 'fleet' would head to Sirius, it made a test voyage to the Kuiper belt in order to make sure that all systems were functioning properly. Of course, not everything worked properly, but nothing that couldn't be fixed by the crews themselves in a few hours had broken... The top men of the united space agencies decided that such results were acceptable, and the fleet was allowed to begin its interstellar journey to Sirius binary star system.
This voyage took a few days, but, in the end, the fleet arrived to its destination safely. Once again, a few systems here and there had failed during the FTL jump, but, thankfully, none of them were critical and their repairs didn't take much time. Still, these failures were rather embarrassing... With the full list of the systems that needed reinforcing sent to the engineers back on Earth – hopefully, those eggheads would figure some way to deal with this problem soon – the vessels began exploring the star system they were now in.
And, even with their imperfect scanners, it quickly became clear that the Prothean had been telling the truth: the asteroid belt around Sirius B was very rich with Element Zero and light metals. A few prominent deposits of heavy and rare metal were surveyed as well. Even based on the rough estimations, these resources could cover the needs of the Earth's industries for decades to come!
The leaders of the Sol Alliance were very pleased with these findings and ordered the fleet to found a mining colony as soon as possible. And once the fleet received this order, they immediately began looking for a good place to set the base up at. They didn't have too look very far: one of the large asteroids near their current location had pretty much everything needed: a large supply of readily-available and relatively-clean water ice along with large amounts of Element Zero and light metals to be extracted. Yes, this asteroid – already dubbed Ngwenya after the oldest known mine on the Earth – was the perfect place for a mining colony.
With the location of the future colony decided upon, the four civilian vessels detached from the 'fleet' and landed on the asteroid. The mining and fabrication units immediately went to work, breaking the rocks in raw materials and converting them into building blocks necessary to construct relatively-comfortable habitats for the workers and several greenhouses to keep the colony's population supplied with fresh food and clean-er air.
In just three weeks the colony expanded from just four not-so-big ships landed next to each other into something that actually resembled a real settlement. And now that the building mostly done, the workers concentrated on doing what they've actually came here for: digging the Element Zero and other resources the Sol Alliance and its shipyards needed up.
By the mid-October of 2087, the first freight of mined and refined – not to the level of the Prothean cache, though – Element Zero was ready to be shipped to Earth. As were the freights of light metals and sheets of polymer armor. Alas, there were no freighters to haul these riches: the only vessels still capable of the trip back home were the three destroyer-carriers from the military escort. And those ships had a very limited internal space, definitely not enough to accept all this cargo.
The choice of what to load onto the warships-turned-freighters, though, was obvious: everything but Element Zero could be produced on Earth. Thus, two of the three destroyer-carriers – the third one remained in orbit around Ngwenya to watch over the colony – began their journey back to the Sol system carrying nearly seven tons of refined Element Zero each.
And seeing as the engineers had identified and likely solved at least some of the problems that caused various systems to fail during the FTL jumps, the two warships currently en-route to Earth – SA-SSV Dauntless and SA-SSV Intrepid – will be placed into docks for a retrofit upon their arrival. Their sister-ship, SA-SSV Courageous, would undergo a similar retrofit at a later date...
As for what the first freight of mined Element Zero would be spent on... Aside from the two freighters that would be hauling the cargo from Ngwenya from now on, the Sol Alliance began construction of the Shields – a group of military orbital platforms that would be the Earth last line of defense against the possible attacks by alien or even rogue human forces. Finally, the nameship of the Hephaestus-class mobile shipyards was laid; while en extremely expensive project at this point, no one doubted that it would pay off in the long run.
~/ *** \~
While a great deal of the Earth's population supported the Sol Alliance – or at least didn't care too much about it – there also were those who actively opposed it. And those could be split into two main group. The older one consisted of those who believed that the only chance to survive the Reapers' return is to destroy all advanced technology and hope that those mechanical monsters would dismiss humanity as a pre-spaceflight civilization.
The second group was much younger but had a noticeably-bigger supporting base. These people didn't have the problem with Prothean tech being used; no their problem with Sol Alliance stemmed from the ridiculous budget the UN gave it – those billions upon billions of dollars can and should be spent on helping the poor here on Earth!
This second group wasn't all that bad at first as the limited supply of Element Zero at least somewhat limited the Sol Alliance expenditures. That changed when the Ngwenya mines started producing humanity's own Element Zero: there now wasn't much that could reign the Sol Alliance's expenditures in. Hell, SA-SSV Hephaestus and the Shields cost more than all wet-navy ships in service combined! This much money certainly could be better spend on improving education and health care in the third world countries.
And so these people decided that it was up to them to show the UN that extensive expansion into the galaxy should wait until all of the major problems here on Earth were solved. Had these people chosen a different method to deliver this message, they might have even been listened to. Alas, they chose vandalism or outright terrorist attacks as their method of communication with the powers that be.
Thankfully, the Sol Alliance employed competent security personnel and the attacks against the facilities were usually stopped before any serious damage to them could be made. Not that it stopped the outlaws of the anti-Alliance faction from trying again and again with different tactics...
On May 22, 2088, some crazy man installed a powerful jammer onto a Cessna, loaded it with explosives and flew it to the Element Zero processing facility in North-West Texas. This was something so unexpected that only when this flying bomb was on the facility's territory something was finally done about it. Alas, it was too late by then: even if it was shot down before it could actually be rammed into the facility, the plane crash-landed right next to it, and the resulting explosion still heavily damaged the exposed systems. That, in turn, caused a major fire that led to the detonation of some less-than-stable compounds used for Element Zero processing. This explosion obliterated nearly half of the facility, killing many of the workers, and caused nearly a ton of Element Zero dust be ejected into the atmosphere.
The 'sponsors' of this attack were eventually apprehended and brought to justice, but... Meanwhile, eight months after the attack, the Sol Alliance and the Protheans got a new problem to deal with: the first of human biotics were born.
Codex update:
Humans
Bipedal levo-amino-acid-based oxygen-breathing sapient mammalian species that are native to planet 'Earth' within the 'Sol' system. Humans possess great genetic, phenotypic and cultural diversities, but are unable to make the most of this due to their selfish ambitions. On the positive side, humans appear to have strong wills and great determination.
Estimated population: 7.1 billions on 'Earth', ~1000 on the seven extraterrestrial colonies.
Average lifespan: 83 human years.
Protheans
Bipedal levo-amino-acid-based oxygen-breathing sapient viviparous reptilian species that ruled the galaxy around 50 000 years ago. Their Empire was destroyed when the Reapers began their latest harvest, but a few Protheans managed to survive into this cycle via cryogenic stasis. Protheans have unique quad-strand DNA and possess an ability to share information – even with inanimate objects – through touch.
Estimated population: 12 (17) confirmed survivors.
Average lifespan: 96 human years.
Reapers
Sentient warships of an unknown origin that appear every 50-or-so thousands years to harvests all sufficiently-advanced life in the galaxy. Reapers possess incredibly-advanced technology, ability to influence and more-or-less mind-control organics, and are nearly impossible to kill.
Estimated population: unknown.
Average lifespan: ageless.
Prothean Particle Rifle
A personal weapon developed by Protheans during the later years of their war against the Reapers. Particle rifle requires no ammunition and fires a continuous beam of accelerated particles. The designs for the particle rifle were passed to the Humans by the surviving Protheans.
Particle Cannon
Essentially, a sized-up version of the particle rifle that was developed by Human engineers to be used for warships' guns. Unlike the particle rifle, the particle cannon fires discreet 'packages' of high-energy particles. Smaller rapid-fire particle cannons are designed for anti-fighter and anti-missile defense, while bigger ones fire much more powerful shots to inflict massive damage on relatively-stationary protected targets.
UFC X-62a "Space Hornet"
Remotely-controlled attack drone that was developed as Humans' first generation space-fighter. Despite their size, these drones pack some serious punch – the big cannon they are built around is identical to the Dauntless-class destroyers' main caliber cannons – but suffer from jerky controls and rather weak defenses. They are also a maintenance nightmare since repairing many internal components requires partial disassembling of the craft.
Length: 10.8 meters
Width: 2.8 meters (beam), 4.3 meters (with wings)
Height: 2.75 meters
Armament: 1x main particle cannon (6 shots), 2x anti-fighter particle cannons, 6x rockets.
Crew: none
Dauntless-class destroyer-carrier
The first class of space-navy warships built by Humans. Built around the same philosophy as wet-navy Guided Missile Destroyers, these vessels can operate independently for considerable periods of time and are equipped to fight against nearly any conceivable type of a target. Their main problem is the lack of internal space and, subsequently, less-than-luxury living conditions for the crew.
So far, three of these ships have being built: SA-SSV Dauntless, SA-SSV Courageous and SA-SSV Intrepid.
Length: 140 meters
Width: 25 meters (beam), 55 meters (with wings)
Height: 18 meters (with fins)
Armament: 10x main particle cannons on 5 active turrets, 80x rapid-fire particle cannons as the point defense system, 16x missile launchers
Attack drones: 4x UFC X-62a "Space Hornet"
Crew: 34 + 4 drone operators.
Project Shield
Project Shield is a group of large heavily armored and armed orbital platforms that would form the Earths last defense line against enemy attacks. Each of these six massive platforms positioned above the planet's equator on the geostationary orbit is roughly four time the size of an Olympic stadium and should be powerful enough to survive a battle with a dreadnought and its escorts.
To placate the Earth's governments fearful of these mighty installations and reduce the chance of them being used against the Earth itself, no cannon aboard can be aimed at the planet's surface without a significant adjustment to the platform's positioning – something that would take at least half an hour. If nothing else, the compromised platform can be bombed to hell in this time.
Length: 950 meters
Width: 950 meters
Height: 120 meters
Armament: 240x main particle cannons on 60 active turrets, 1000x rapid-fire particle cannons as the point defense system, 120x missile launchers
Attack drones: 240x UFC X-62a "Space Hornet"
Crew: 8500
Hephaestus-class mobile shipyard
Essentially, this is a very large spacecraft that houses facilities necessary to construct or repair smaller vessels within its enormous internal bay. While it isn't heavily armored or armed – it isn't expected to ever find itself anywhere near the front-lines – it is still capable of a token resistance by itself.
Length: 1200 meters
Width: 320 meters (beam)
Height: 320 meters
Armament: 240x rapid-fire particle cannons as the point defense system
Crew: 2800
That's all, folks
Read and Review!