Codex Entry 2: Timeline of Human Expansion
The rapid progress of the human race's advance into the galaxy, whether officially under the Systems Alliance or unofficially in other ventures, has startled even those species that aren't as long-lived as the asari or krogan. Most contribute this to the remarkable luck of finding an advanced archive of prothean technology, though a section of academia posits that the protheans, perhaps while studying the early evolution of humanity, saw some unknown potential in humanity and planted their archive deliberately on Mars. Below is contained a snapshot of human history from Arthur Brookman's 'A Distilled History of Humanity', to illustrate the remarkable rapidity of expansion achieved by what would become the Systems Alliance.
2072: The European Space Agency establishes a permanent colony, somewhat wryly named 'Lowell City', in Mars' Eos Chasma, stimulating interest in the potential resources the red planet might hold.
2080: Orbital prospecting scans pick up an unknown energy signature in the Promethi Terra craterlands. An expedition from Lowell City digs toward the signature and discovers alien ruins, along with caches of an unknown element.
2085: As technological progress leaps forward with the deciphering of the most basic diagrams able to be studied in 'The Archive', the moon of Charon is discovered to be an ancient alien structure. Having accidentally activated it, an expedition, led by a young John Grissom, travels in crude ships that barely survive what is evidently a journey to the Arcturus System.
2089: As the mass relays, known for the 'mass effect' produced by what is now known as 'Element Zero', are explored further, the nations of Earth formalize the creation of the Systems Alliance, to serve as a representative for not only the governments of Earth in space, but for any colonies that are established.
2100: The Systems Alliance celebrates the turn of the century after a decade of voracious expansion, Earth and many of the colonies in the Sol System experiencing 'The Voyage Out', a great emptying of humanity out into the stars, as colonies such as Elysium, Benning, and the recently established Eden Prime are constantly joined by colonies as large as populous cities and as small as remote research villages.
2140: Near the colony of Shanxi, on one of the more developed edges of Alliance space, an expeditionary force working on the cluster's mass relay encounters an unknown force that promptly destroys most of it, a single ship escaping to the colony to warn the Alliance of it's first, violent contact with alien life. In the coming 5 months, what would be known to humanity as the First Contact War would play out, with several people becoming famous, or infamous, as they prosecuted it. Eventually, the galactic representative body known as the Council intervened, preventing the conflict from spiraling into true intergalactic war, and showing humanity just how big the galaxy really was.
Author's Note: I'll start by saying that I make it a point to ensure that I don't have to make the sort of retroactive changes that you'll read about in this note, especially when it comes to something as profound as timelines. That said, it's not a secret that, if you look at Mass Effect's canon timeline, things look a little... squashed into each other to many onlookers. As eventful as history can be, it often strains credulity to have humanity, in a third of the span of the current lifetime expectancy, go from largely confined in our solar system to having spread out amongst the galaxy to the point of becoming prolific, having not one, but two Spectre candidates, and even having a decent shot at becoming the next Council member. So... consider this the first big, flashing sign of AU nonsense, because to make this universe have a little bit of breathing room, we have to go back a while.
As well, this change in timeline necessitates at least two prominent figures - Admiral Hacket and Captain Anderson - being 20 years older than they already are. And while many would probably balk at 60, with the advancement of medical technology expanding the human lifespan significantly, I think Anderson would still be quite spry in his midlife.
This also, of course, necessitates some changes to existing prose. However, that change is also rather minimal, confined to the first chapter, which will be edited accordingly. They are as follows:
[The Protheans. Nate had heard somewhat about them, those ancient rulers of the galaxy. Most of the technology that connected the galaxy was supposedly their legacy. The last Prothean relic of any kind had been found under the surface of Mars over a century ago.
"Prothean?" Nate said somewhat incredulously. "Why aren't we sending a bigger research group?"
"The Council has the final say on all physical aspects of Prothean technology," Nihlus replied. "Whatever data you're able to collect from your studies, however, is yours to share."
"This is big, Shepard," Anderson said. "The last time we found a Prothean artifact, we compressed almost two hundred years of advancement into half a century. But as to your suggestion, there's just not enough time to set up advanced enough facilities to handle a Prothean artifact. The Citadel has those facilities."]
So, with that major history lesson out of the way, I hope you can continue to enjoy this fic.