Author's note:

This is my first story on this site, mostly as an experiment. I am attempting to lay out a more realistic progress path for Humanity, specifically human technology in the Mass Effect Universe without making any drastic changes to the rest of the setting (mostly. Some changes need to be made for the plot because I don't want to come up with a million new OCs). And fore warning, I'm going to delay the first contact war because, I find getting into a war less than 10 years after discovering FTL very annoying. Yes I understand this would make humanity very OP, but don't worry, they're gonna need it later. More things will be explained as we go along.

Chapter 1: A Journey through the ages.

50,000 BCE

The Prothean Reaper war begins, and over the course of the next centuries the advances Protheans fight an arduous but losing battle against the tide of the even more advanced race of biosynthetic ships called Reapers.

By 48,000 BCE the Protheans have been rendered extinct. But they manage to leave behind caches of advanced technologies, and beacons warning about the Reapers.

2021-2044 The Era of Conflict

Starting in 2021, a series of major and minor wars all across the globe destabilize the power balance and economy of the entire planet. The Russian economy crashes due to the Russo-Ukrainian war and the sanctions levied on it. China seeing the imminent collapse of it's population, invades Taiwan in 2039, and signals the beginning of the Third World War. It lasts for almost 4 years, Russia attempts to aid China but pulls out due to it's own worsening economy, and internal strife.

2039-2043 The Third World War

Started by the Chinese Invasion of Taiwan, WW3 was fought between China, Russia, NK, Burma, Pakistan & others on one side, AND the the Coalition consisting of the US, EU, India, Japan, SK, ASEAN and other US allies on the other side.

As soon as the Chinese offensive into Taiwan began, the USA and it's Indo-Pacific Allies quickly came to Taiwan's aid. India, while attempting to stay neutral in the beginning, is pulled in when China along with Pakistan invade Indian Kashmir to secure a steady Oil supply from the Middle prompts India, reinforced by the US to put a naval blockade in the Malacca Strait, effectively cutting off China's oil supply.

China, unable to send it's navy to two fronts, focuses on the Pacific while putting an increased focus into a Land invasion of Kashmir along with Pakistan. But decades of strategic preparation and strong allies, allow India to hold off China to the north, while pushing into Pakistan.

As Islamabad is captured in March of 2040, and Pakistan is knocked out of the war, India begins a push into Chinese territories through Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh.

All the while, the navies of the US, Japan, Korea and the ASEAN countries have been holding off China in the Pacific Theatre. So far a land invasion of China has not been possible due to the Air and Artillery stationed along the Chinese coast, making approach difficult. But the opening up of the Himalayan theater allows for just that. It is also at this time that in November of 2040, Russia is convinced/forced to pull out of the war, due to a collapsing economy, internal strife, and negotiations with the US and India.

By September of 2041 Burma, and NK have been captured or their capabilities of waging war have been destroyed. Other chinese Allies have similarly been knocked out of the War or subdued.

Pushed into a corner, China fights ever more fiercely, even violating the Geneva conventions on multiple occasions, and employing a no surrender policy, leading to many deaths. The worsening economy, mass unemployment, and the loss of life, leads to major internal uprisings and protests in China, which are brutally put down. Which leads to even more civil unrest, and mass desertions.

In July of 2042 southern China, partly occupied by Coalition forces, goes into open revolt against Beijing. As Coalition forces finally break through the Sino-Korean border. The CCP in a last bid for victory, orders the launch of their entire Nuclear Arsenal, but most of their officers refuse to launch and go into open mutiny, and less than 200 nukes are able to be launched. Most of them are struck down by air defense systems due to prior warning, but some slip through the cracks, and manage to impact.

Los Angeles, Honolulu, and New Delhi are hit. In retaliation, the US and India launched few of their tactical nukes, targeting mostly military targets. But One American nuke hits Beijing, destroying it along with most of the Chinese Leadership. Over the next few months coalition forces march across china with little to no resistance, till they reach Nanjing.

In April of 2044, China surrenders at Nanjing, thus ending WW3. Almost a billion lives had been lost, and the property damage was incalculable.

Immediately after the war the global economy faces a major crash, and the UN is rendered Defunct.

WW3 is deemed the most pivotal moment of the 21st century, as it is the spark that burned down the old world.

Over the next year, humanity as a whole realizes that things need to change.

2045-2047 The Rebuilding

Soon after the war, the Coalition nations understood that the global policing system needed to be improved. Therefore The Committee of Global Security (CGS) was formed at the head of the Global Conference of Nations, the new UN. The CGS is comprised of Nations which fulfilled certain criteria of freedoms, individual rights and legal powers given to it's citizens. Their primary job was to maintain the GCN defence force, which would intervene in situations that could threaten global stability. The GCN overall took a much more agressive intervention policy than the UN with Veto powers granted to no-one except the Elected president which would switch every 2 years.

Moreover, new laws were made to curb the influence of large corporations and preventing monopolies. Safeguard for democracy and freedom of speech were also put in.

Over this time most of the Coalition Nations decided to unite under a Semi Super state, named the Confederation of Allied Republics (CAR). where they would keep some autonomy in the form of legislation, but share a currency, economy, industry and military. There would be a local head of state, and a President for the entire Confederation, all elected democratically. This decision was taken to circumvent the different shortcomings of the different coalition nations and to pool resources for faster rebuilding.

2047-2073 The Resurgence Era

While WW3 led to great loss of life and destabilized the global economy, it also caused an explosion of new technologies. During the four years of war, more and more new technologies were developed in order to beat the opponents. After the war ended these technologies were then brought into the civilian sector, to help recovery.

New technologies developed were tank mounted DEWs, mounted railguns, drone swarms, Vastly better AI, Nuclear Fusion generators, improved prosthetics, greater industrial automation, Powered armor, improved medicine, more efficient electronics, better propulsion systems etc. This introduction of new technologies led to vastly faster recovery speed than estimated, and caused a boom in scientific development. The world moved to almost complete carbon neutral in this period. And more and more nations joined the Confederation due to the benefits.

It was at this time that a new focus was put on space exploration.

The first lunar colony was set up in 2049.

The first manned Mars Mission in 2051.

Using the Moon as a launch pad, First Mars colony was set up in 2056 inside lava tubes near Arisia Mons.

By 2058 the Lunar colony housed more than 1000 individuals, with the primary export being He3 for fusion reactors on earth.

By 2060 the first human child is born off-world, on Luna she is named Amelia.

In 2064 the first space elevator is completed over Tokyo.

By 2067 the lunar colony has grown to more than 12,000 people, and the Martian Colony stands at around 1500 people.

By 2073 a permanent a large 2km long space station has been constructed at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point. Due to the commercialisation of space travel, the population on Mars and Luna has boomed. Commercial space spaceports have been constructed at most major cities. And the damage caused by WW3 has been almost completely repaired.

Earth Population: 9 Billion

Lunar population: 38,000

Martian population: 15,000

2073-2148 The Era of Advancement

On Most parts of the Earth Cities have been scaled back dramatically, with a focus on very compact, vertical structures with a low ecological impact; giant arcologies with entire metropolises living inside them, with ample room for farms, factories, and forests inside them as an alternative to cities. There are floating cities in the oceans, cities in the arctic and cities deep within mountains. This has allowed for the massive ecological damage caused to earth to be somewhat reversed. The largest Megapolises include The Bengal-Delhi megapolis, The Tokyo megapolis, The West Coast megapolis, the New York megapolis, and The European megapolis.

New Lunar cities have been founded. New martian cities are inside lava tubes at the summit of Pavonis Mons, at Hellas Planitia, and at Valles Marineris. They follow a similar governing system as the CAR, but just in this case with the GCN.

In this period the orbit of earth has also been cleaned of garbage from the early space exploration.

Many technological strides have been taken, in this period, including nanotechnology, quantum computing, automation, neural links, cybernetics and medicine. The ageing process has been understood to a great extent and the Average lifespan has increased to almost 300 years due to progress in genetics and medicine. Humans overall are stronger, faster, and sturdier with faster reflexes.

A deeper understanding of Quantum physics has allowed for QEC based FTL communication, allowing for the internet to be expanded to both Luna and Mars. AI assistants are very common, and while not Sentient, they get very close to appearing as such.

The CAR now covers most of the nations and the GCN has become somewhat redundant.

In 2095 construction on the Sol Dyson Swarm begins.

Earth Population: 12 Billion

Lunar Population: 70 million

Mars Population: 3 million

2148

An Exploration team looking for suitable locations for new cities on Mars find trace amounts of an unknown element. Further exploration, leads to s discovery that would change humanity's perspective of the Universe. An entire complex of research labs of Alien origin. Alongside a vast cache of the new element and alien technology.

This causes a scare among the populus, as the idea that an alien species watched and maybe interfered in primitive humanity, is a frightening thought.

2149

Data Mining the cache, which has somewhat degraded, reveals that the race of Aliens were called Protheans and they disappeared some 50,000 years ago, due to unknown reasons. And that Charon, the moon of Pluto is a Alien construct. Two reasons are put forward for this, they left, or they were destroyed by another race. The idea of a plague is not even considered, as an Interstellar civilization could quite easily quarantine any plague.

This causes another mass panic as their return, or the return of their destroyers could threaten humanity.

Simultaneously studying the new element reveals that it is a form of non-baryonic matter that uses the Higgs Boson to manipulate mass. This would in theory allow for negative mass densities, which could then be used to make Faster than light engines. The new element is named Planium.

The FTL engine found in the Prothean cache is deemed too inefficient due to the exponential requirement of Planium with size.

Other major Planium technologies possible are gravity based weapons, Hover vehicles, artificial gravity, point singularity generation etc.

2150

The CAR and other members of the GCN decide to unite under the Sol Confederation or SoCon, following a modified version of the old CAR system. Where there would be a local legislative government and a Centralised Confederation government with a president and a prime minister. All leaders elected democratically, each term of 10 years. With a centralised Military, Navy, Economy, industry etc.

This is accepted and signed in Geneva as the Sol Charter.

In the same year ships are sent to charon to find this so-called 'Relay' and put mines around it in case anyone tries to invade.

2151

After many failures, Dr Arya Ghosh, invents a redesigned Alcubierre Warp drive utilising Planium. This new drive is named the Arya-Alcubierre Warp drive. It starts out slow, at about 2 LY/day, but can accelerate exponentially, such that it can cross the galaxy in a month.

Within the month of this discovery new designs for ships are drawn up by SoCon as it begins a major revitalisation of the defense industry, with new Shipyards being constructed at Saturn.

New research begins into making wormhole ftl possible.

2152

Colonization inside Sol continues with ever increasing fervor as survey expeditions are launched to nearby star systems using the AA-warp drive. Fusion gas extractors are dropped into Jupiter to allow for extraction of gasses. Construction of the Sol Dyson Swarm finishes.

The partially complete Saturnine shipyards begin to churn out ships at an astounding rate.

Not relying on Prothean FTL drive has allowed for far larger ships, with a lot less Planium. But still the lack of Planium in Sol presents a possible bottleneck.

2153

An expedition consisting of 12 ships is sent through the relay while a contingent of 42 ships, ie the complete Sol fleet waits on this side.

The expedition finds that the relay leads to the Arcturus system a mere 36 lightyears away, but concerningly, Arcturus has more relays. SoCon takes the Decision to dismantle the Charon Relay for security purposes and to get the massive amount of Planium inside it. But to ensure safety in case of any accident, it is moved to a few light years below the galactic plane.

2154

The Charon relay is partly dismantled using cell sized nanobots equipped with gravitic blades. They are unable to affect the superstructure, but are able to extract almost all the Planium inside it. Though extraction would take a few years.

2155

The Saturnine shipyards are complete. At 70 kms long it can produce and repair dozens of ships simultaneously.

Despite the extensive mining operations in the Asteroid belt and the Oort cloud, a stellar lifter is planned to be constructed for Sol, using most of the Planium extracted from the Charon relay.

Charting of all the star systems in 100 LY from Sol is completed.

2156

The extraction of Planium from the Charon relay is complte. The Sol fleet numbers around 1000 vessels, and seeing the demand for extra solar colonization, SoCon presents a plan for systematic and controlled expansion of humanity. Where Expansion will take place in waves and the next wave will begin only when the existing colonies have been sufficiently developed.

2157

The first wave of Expansion begins. In 20 LY from Earth 3 habitable planets are found. "Sanctuary" In Alpha Centauri, "Tau Prime" Tau ceti, and "Reach" in Gliese 832, which is re named to Outreach system.

Nanomachine developments now allow them to manufacture even complex objects and machines if given enough resources.

2161

Consolidation of the 3 colonies is completed. Each one now has a planetary garrison,and a dedicated defence flotilla.

In the same year a grid of defence satellites is constructed around Earth and plans to have similar defence grids around Mars and other colonies.

The Mass Relays in Arcturus are slated to be dismantled for their Planium.

The secret to wormhole FTL is finally cracked. Utilising quantum entangled particles, a wormhole can be opened between the two particles which can then be stabilised and used for travel. But the energy requirements were too high for any single ship and the larger the distance the more the energy would be required. Hence it was decided to make stationary gates in every system. This would also be far more economical than relays as these gates use only a fraction of the Planium of a relay. It was also noticed that multiple such wormhole gates could link up, and allow for instantaneous travel, though to establish such a linkage could take some time.

2162-2300 The First Era of Expansion

In this period humanity expands within 250 lightyears from Sol. Consolidating and growing at a measured pace, all the while removing and dismantling mass relays. While not vast, the Region under SoCon is densely packed. With planets, space habitats, space stations etc. Nanotechnology and improvements in medicine have increased the human lifespan to around 2000 years. With overall more robust physiology, they are faster, stronger, smarter, heal quicker, react faster etc.

Society is post scarcity, as plentiful resources, and automation have eliminated the need for currency and labour. The only currency used is the Energy Credit or the ECred, which is a measure of how many units of energy is required to produce a particular item.

2300 SoCon Statistics

Planets: 137

Population: 1.2 trillion

Fleet: 470,000 ships

End.

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A/N

All reviews and criticism welcome.