AN: It's exhausting to transcribe gameplay into words. If any of you has a better way than "watch and write", then please, PLEASE let me know.
Also, I had to split this chapter into two parts. Sorry.
Anyway, blah blah blah, I don't own Mass Effect or Halo, blah blah blah, I'm running out of ways to say that, here we go.
(—0—)
Arc I: The Drums of War
Chapter II: Contact
(—0—)
As the Normandy neared Harvest's surface, the first thing Chief noticed was just how different it was from the holo. The holo from before showed blue skies and green grass, whereas the planet he was seeing right now was tinted orange by the massive amounts of smoke and ash.
In the cargo bay, as Alenko and Jenkins did final checks on their weapons, Anderson was briefing the ground team.
"Your team's the muscle in this operation, Chief," the captain informed. "Go in heavy and head straight for the dig site. Link up with the colony's Superintendent if it's still intact."
"What about survivors, Captain?" Alenko asked as he racked the heat sink on his pistol, a Misriah M6H2 Magnum.
"Helping survivors is a secondary objective," Anderson said as the bay door opened. "The beacon's your top priority!"
"Approaching drop point one, get ready," Esparza reported over the intercom.
"Nihlus, you coming with us?" Jenkins asked.
Nihlus checked his shotgun before answering, "I move faster on my own." He then sprinted forward, before jumping out into the rushing air.
"Nihlus will scout out ahead," Anderson explained. "He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission. Inform him of any new enemies you find. Otherwise, I want radio silence."
"We'll make it happen, sir," Chief dutifully said.
"The mission's yours now, Shepard," Anderson finished. "Good luck."
"Approaching drop point two."
As the Normandy came to a halt above a small plateau, the Chief, Alenko, and Jenkins all got a running start, before leaping out. Their armors' mass effect fields lightened the impact, with the Mjolnir's built-in shock absorbers taking even more of the fall. Chief immediately unfolded his assault rifle, checking their surroundings for any unknowns. Jenkins did the same with his BR85 battle rifle, as did Alenko with his Magnum.
"Clear," Chief called out.
"Ship perimeter secure, Chief," Alenko reported.
"Looks like nobody's home," Jenkins said.
"I've connected to the city's Superintendent," Nihlus said over the radio. "This place got hit hard, Chief. Unknowns everywhere."
"Sierra-117 to Nihlus. No hostiles at my location yet, but we're staying alert," Chief responded.
"Good. Move towards the dig site."
The three then set off at a jog, weapons at the ready. They didn't want to be caught with their pants down by the new enemy. Up ahead, what looked like floating potato sacks hovered above a small pond.
"What the heck are those?" Alenko asked.
"Gas bags, they're harmless," Jenkins answered fondly.
The three then went over a hill, between two walls of stone. The sight of destruction met their eyes, black smoke rising from the rubble of a ravaged skyscraper.
"Oh no… what happened here?" Jenkins breathed, in shock at seeing his home in this state. Alenko was speechless, and Chief was likewise silent, but the Spartan only allowed himself to be distracted for a moment.
"We can't help them right now," he reminded. "We've got to get to the beacon. Help whoever we find along the way, but don't deviate from our course."
"...aye-aye, Chief," Jenkins eventually responded.
As they went down the hill, Chief crouched and raised a fist, signaling the others to halt. Crouching down and taking a look around, he saw nothing. It was quiet.
Too quiet.
He eventually waved the squad forward, with Jenkins taking point, battle rifle raised. It was at that point that a faint insect-like buzzing sound was heard, and it began to grow louder.
PEWPEWPEWPEWPEW!
Three of the largest bugs Chief had ever seen flew in from behind the rocks, weapons spewing out glowing green globs at a rapid pace. Jenkins, who had been out of cover, took the brunt of the ambush.
Chief immediately opened up with bursts from his rifle, downing one of the bugs in just a few shots. Alenko followed suit with his pistol, knocking off another bug's wing and causing it to spiral into the ground, where two more bullets finished it off. A final burst from Chief's rifle ended the last bug's threat.
The Spartan then took note of the unmoving Jenkins. The two remaining squad members walked over to his body, and Alenko crouched down next to him. His hardsuit was cratered and melted, with charred bone and muscle visible.
"Ripped right through his shields," the biotic somberly said as he closed the dead Marine's eyes. "He never had a chance."
"He'll get a funeral," Chief assured. "In the meantime, we need to move."
"Aye-aye, sir," Alenko responded, standing up.
Before they resumed their advance, however, Chief took a closer look at the bugs. They were most definitely insectoid in nature, but that was where the similarities to normal bugs ended. The bugs had four limbs, two arms and two legs. The arms had three fingers, with what looked like opposable thumbs, while the legs had two claws on the end. A brown carapace covered the alien, and two feather-like antennae sprouted from the head. Chitinous wings were attached to the back, but they seemed too small to allow flight in Harvest's gravity. Maybe he had somehow missed them using biotics. As for their weapons, they looked kind of like a blue horseshoe. Glowing yellow lines were on the side of the unknown pistols, and between the prongs was a green bolt of electricity.
Between the glowing pistols and Jenkins' melted body and armor, it wasn't too hard to realize what they shot.
"Sierra-117 to Nihlus, we have made contact with unknown hostiles. Some kind of giant bugs with what look like plasma weapons. Possibly biotic, and Corporal Jenkins is KIA," Chief said over the radio. Turning to the soldier with the aforementioned biotics, he asked, "Alenko, did you see these things use biotics?"
"Not from what I could tell, no," Alenko responded.
In other words, screw physics.
"Correction, negative on the biotics," Chief amended.
"Understood," Nihlus replied. "Be careful, energy weapons burn through barriers faster than bullets."
No wonder Jenkins died as fast as he did. "Copy that. Designating the new enemy as drones."
The two then got moving, ascending the next hill and taking cover wherever they could. As they crested the hill, more of the newly-christened drones emerged from the forest, but Chief and Alenko countered them before they could fire back.
"I've got some burned out buildings, Shepard," Nihlus said over the comms, "and a lot of bodies. I'm going to check it out. I'll try to catch up with you at the dig site."
"Copy that," Chief replied.
Walking through the forest, only one more drone harassed them, but it was dealt with quickly. As the Chief and Alenko took cover behind a pair of rocks, however, the Spartan spotted something he did not expect to see…
…the female Marine from the distress call.
(—0—)
Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was currently running for her life.
The unknown aliens had made landfall barely an hour ago from the big ship with the hooked bow, and had already wiped out the 212th, save her. Their numbers had been overwhelming, especially the scaly chimps with the backpacks. Where Alliance armor was muted, the aliens wore brightly-colored armor that made sure everyone knew about their presence. Their weapons shot freaking plasma of all things, tearing the humans' barriers and armor apart, along with some sort of handgun that shot explosive pink crystals. Right now, she was doing her best to ignore a massive plasma burn on the left side of her abdomen.
Behind Ashley, a pair of bugs were shooting at her with those strange pistols of theirs. A shot hit her barrier, taking a good quarter off of it and causing her to stumble. Thinking quickly, she dropped to her back and pulled out her pistol, an M6C Magnum, and took aim at the bugs. The first shot hit a bug in the head, causing it to explode into green ichor, and the second and third shots tore off the other one's wing, causing it to spiral into the ground at high velocity, killing it.
It was then that she looked to the left, and saw a barely-conscious civilian in the double-thumbed hands of two massive, yet lithe bow-legged saurians, one in blue armor and the other in red. The reptiles were lifting the man onto a tripod of some sort.
SHING!
"AAGH!"
A massive spike suddenly shot up from the tripod and impaled the civilian. In terror, Ashley got up and ran as fast as she could towards a massive boulder, swapping out her pistol for an old MA2B she'd scavenged after her Lancer had been sliced in two.
However, it seemed she had drawn the aliens' attention. The red one barked an order and took a massive, almost fish-shaped blue handgun from its leg, and the blue one pulled a purple, elegantly-curved rifle with radioactive-green lights from its back, before the two aliens then began to advance on her location.
THOOM!
The signature sound of an Avenger sniper rifle rang out, and the blue alien's shields flared brightly and snapped as its head exploded. As the red alien opened fire, a biotic throw caused it to stumble back a step, before an olive-green blur slammed into it. The blur began to pound at the alien's shields, and within a second, the alien's shields broke, and the blur dumped half a dozen rounds from a pistol into its chest, killing it.
Turning to her saviors, Ashley's eyes widened. The first one wasn't particularly remarkable-looking, being a male Marine in an Onyx light hardsuit, but the second…
He was tall, to put it plainly. He wore heavy olive-green plate armor, but from the way he walked it was as if it wasn't there. A red stripe bordered by white ran down his right arm, with a red stripe in the middle of his helmet. The helmet had a strikingly gold visor, and on the chestplate were two emblems: The right had "N7" emblazoned on it, and on the left was "117".
She was looking at a Spartan. A real Spartan. And not just any Spartan; she didn't need her HUD to tell her he was the freaking Master Chief, the Shepherd of Elysium.
"Thanks for your help, Chief," Ashley said breathlessly, ignoring the inner fangirl that was screaming in her head, as well as the burn that stung at her side. "I didn't think I was gonna make it." Straightening, she continued, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the two-twelve. You the one in charge here, sir?"
"Affirmative. You hurt, Williams?" Chief asked in a slightly husky voice, concerned.
"Burn on my side's the worst of it. Patched it up with medigel," Ashley reported, wincing as the pain came back. She'd need to see a real medic soon. "The others weren't so lucky."
"I need to know what happened," Chief said.
Ashley gestured towards the colony. "Oh man… we were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut off our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."
"What about your squad?" Chief questioned.
"We tried to double back to the beacon, but we walked right into an ambush," Ashley said. "Big lizards like the ones here, but they were purple and had active camo. I don't think any of the others… I think I'm the only one left."
"Don't blame yourself, Williams," Chief replied reassuringly, grabbing her shoulder briefly. "You did your best, and that's all anyone can ask."
"Yes sir," Ashley said, not entirely convinced, but the words were nice. "We held our position as long as we could, until the aliens overwhelmed us."
"You got any idea what these things are?" the other Marine, Staff Lieutenant Alenko, asked.
"No idea, but they must have come for the beacon," Ashley informed. "The dig site is close, just over that rise. It might still be there."
"You combat-ready, Williams?" Chief questioned. "We'll need all the help we can get."
"As ready as I can be, sir," Ashley affirmed. "It's time for payback."
Chief gestured in the direction Ashley pointed with his assault rifle. "Move out."
(—0—)
As the three began to move through the trench ahead, Chief keyed his comms. "Sierra-117 to Nihlus. Rescued a survivor from the 212th. She was under assault from two large alien reptiles in blue and red armor."
"I've seen a few of those, too," Nihlus reported. "Armor color seems to denote rank and shield strength. They're usually flanked by squads of small scaly aliens with backpacks and birds with what look like energy riot shields. The small ones don't have any shields at all, and the birds tend to scavenge from the fallen of both sides. Watch out for the reptiles in gold, they'll charge you with swords and have sturdy shields. Don't let them get close."
"Affirmative," Chief replied. "Designating the reptiles as elites, the small ones as grunts, and the birds as jackals."
As they moved forward, Williams piped up again. "The beacon's at the far end of this trench."
Indeed, the marker on Chief's HUD pointed to the end of the trench, but at the location, there were two more elites. These ones wore blue armor, and were surrounded by eight small, chimp-like aliens with triangular backpacks. The six in orange backpacks had plasma pistols, while the two in blue had purple handguns with glowing pink crystals coming out the top. These must have been the grunts. The elites seemed to spot them, and pointed in their direction before opening up. The grunts soon followed suit.
As the team took cover, Williams shouted, "Watch out for the needlers! The shards don't trigger barriers! Enough of them hit you, and you go up in a pink mist!" At her squadmates' stares, she replied, "You got a better name for those guns?"
Shaking his head, Chief got to work. "Alenko, on my signal, hit the left elite with a throw. Me and Williams will take him out. After that, we'll all leave cover and focus fire on the second one. We'll finish off the grunts afterwards. Prioritize the needlers."
"Yes sir!" Alenko affirmed, pooling biotic energy into his hand. The Chief waited for a lull in the plasma, and as soon as it came, he gave the call.
"Now!"
BWOOM!
The throw hit dead on, staggering the elite and giving Chief and Williams their opening. The Spartan and the Marine leaned out of cover and poured rifle fire into its shields and then its body. As the reptile collapsed dead, perforated like swiss cheese, the team spun out of cover, two rifles and a pistol emptying into the second elite. It's shields were quickly overwhelmed, and purple blood began to leak from its body as it fell. The grunts seemed to collectively panic as their leaders died, throwing their arms in the air and running around in a comedic waddle as they screamed.
Huh. So they were cowards. That made their job a lot easier.
It didn't take long to pick off the grunts after that. Chief and Williams immediately took out the needler grunts with bursts of fire, before moving on to the others. A shot from Alenko's pistol hit one of the grunts' backpacks, causing it to explode in a green fire that smelled of methane and took out another nearby grunt. Three of the remaining were taken out in quick succession, but while the squad was occupied, the fourth did something that surprised them: It pulled out a pair of blue orbs, clicked a button on them that caused them to glow a bright white, and charged.
"SUICIDE BOMBER!" Chief exclaimed, quickly snapping his pistol up and pulling the trigger as fast as he possibly could. One of the rounds managed to catch the grunt in the head, causing it to drop its grenades as it died…
…barely fifteen feet away.
The grenades flared before exploding in a blinding white. The blast overwhelmed Chief's barriers and caused him to fly back, but he was miraculously left unharmed, save for some sparks melting bits of his armor plating. A quick diagnostic program revealed that it wasn't compromised, but it would need repairs at a properly equipped outpost.
"You good, Chief?" Alenko asked as the adrenaline wore off.
"Armor plating's melted, but not compromised," Chief reported, standing up. "I'm still combat-capable. Let's move."
The team eventually reached their destination. Something glaringly obvious upon arrival was the distinct lack of a prothean beacon.
"This is the dig site. The beacon was right here, it must have been moved!" Williams exclaimed, seemingly to dissuade any concerns of foul play.
"By who?" Alenko questioned. "Our side, or the aliens?"
"Hard to say," Williams responded with a shrug. "Maybe we'll know more after we check out the research camp."
"Any survivors?" Chief asked.
"If they were lucky," Williams said. "Maybe hiding up in the camp. It's just on the top of this ridge, up the ramps."
As the squad moved in the prescribed direction, Nihlus called again. "Change of plans, Shepard. There's a small spaceport up ahead. I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there."
Reaching the top of the ramp, Chief was immediately hit by the sight of burning buildings. Very little remained intact. Additionally, to the left, there were five of those spikes, with more human silhouettes on them, but these humans seemed to be a sickly blue instead of the normal skin tones.
"Looks like they hit the camp hard," Williams morosely said.
"It's a good place for an ambush," Alenko reminded. "Keep your guard up."
SHREEK!
With an ear-piercing grinding sound, the spikes retracted, releasing the blue humans. They suddenly sparked with electricity, and the humans got off the tripods and began shambling towards them.
Actually, upon closer inspection, these weren't humans - at least, not anymore. The blue tone was the first sign, but the bodies below the upper torso seemed to be composed of thick black tubes. The fingers had been reduced to thin claws, and the eyes had been replaced with blue lights.
"Oh god - they're still alive!" Alenko exclaimed in shock.
"What did the aliens do to them?!" Williams breathed.
Chief took a moment to assess the situation. It was rather plain that not only were these humans (if they could still be called that) heavily modified, but they were hostile.
"Whatever happened, these aren't humans anymore," he asserted. "Take them out."
Three bursts from his assault rifle tore into one of the creatures, bisecting it, before another burst shredded its head as its still-moving upper half tried to claw towards him. Another burst took down another one, but a third one managed to get close in the chaos. It briefly curled up, before expelling an electrical explosion that overloaded Chief's shields. In response, he swapped his rifle for his shotgun, before putting a burst of buckshot into its skull, ending the threat. A quick glance showed that Alenko and Williams had taken down the other two creatures. With a quick glance at his motion tracker, the Chief confirmed the area was clear.
Up ahead, there was a locked prefab building. "That door, it's closed. Security lock's engaged," Williams noted.
Turning to the team's Sentinel, Chief said, "Alenko, get that door open. We still need to connect to the Superintendent, and we need an intact terminal to do that."
"Aye-aye, Chief," Alenko responded. Walking up to the door, he activated his omnitool and began fiddling around. Soon after, the control turned green and the door slid open, revealing two civilians in science gear, one male and one female.
"Humans! Thank the Maker!" the woman exclaimed in relief. She had short red hair and pale skin.
"Hurry! Close the door! Before they come back!" the man hurriedly whispered. He was balding, and what little hair he had was a light brown. His eyes had a crazed look to them, and he was slightly hunched.
"What are you doing in here?" Chief asked, folding his shotgun and stowing it before hitting a button to close the door.
"I'm Doctor Warren," the woman said. "I was in charge of this excavation. We hid in the shed during the attack. The aliens must have come for the beacon."
"Looks like you were right, Williams," Chief remarked. Turning to the scientists, he asked, "Was the Cole Protocol executed?"
Warren nodded. "All excavation data was deleted when the aliens came, but the beacon wasn't here. It was moved to the spaceport earlier this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to pack up the camp. When the attack came, the marines held the aliens off long enough for us to hide and delete the data. They gave their lives to save us."
"No one is saved!" Manuel blabbered. "The age of humanity is ended! Soon, only ruin and corpses will remain! No protocol will keep them away!"
"Is he going to be a problem?" Chief questioned as his hand edged closer to his Sidekick, not entirely sure of the man's sanity.
"Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit… unstable," Warren explained, palming her face. "Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin."
"Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope?" Manuel murmured. "No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left!"
"I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack," Warren said apologetically.
"...sit tight until the all-clear comes," Chief ordered. "Can you patch us into the Superintendent?"
"I can," Warren affirmed, raising her omnitool and tapping a few buttons. Soon after, a distinct 'ping' sounded in Chief's helmet.
"Superintendent connected," the colony AI reported. "Welcome, Master Chief Shepard.
Satisfied, he turned to his team's new recruit, and said, "Williams, take us to the spaceport."
"Aye-aye, sir," Williams affirmed.
After exiting the prefab, Alenko resealed the door, and the squad resumed their trek.
(—0—)
Nihlus kept his assault rifle raised as he made his way through the spaceport. Making his way forward, he took cover behind a short wall nearby. He waited a few moments, before spinning out with his rifle raised. However, he stayed his trigger finger when he saw who it was.
"Saren?" he said in confusion. The other turian was pale, lacking the tattoos typical of their race. Two spines extended from the sides of his head, and his left arm was completely prosthetic. It certainly looked like Saren.
The other turian turned to him. "Nihlus."
"This isn't your mission, Saren," Nihlus noted. "What are you doing here?"
"The Council thought you could use some help on this one," Saren explained, briefly putting a hand on Nihlus' shoulder.
If Nihlus was being honest, he could use the help.
The tattooed turian looked towards the spaceport, his back to Saren. "I wasn't expecting another hostile first contact. The situation's bad."
"Don't worry," Saren said. "I've got it under control. Arbiter?"
Nihlus froze. "What?"
SNAP-HISS!
"AAAAAAGH!"
Nihlus screamed in pain as twin prongs of blue plasma went into his back and out his chest. As the blade deactivated, he fell limply to the floor, his last dregs of life quickly vanishing. Before he died, however, he saw something that shook him to the core.
Saren was standing next to an elite in ornate silver plate armor with gold trim. The elite appeared to be blinded in its left eye, and it held no visible weapons save for the sword in its hand. What truly shook Nihlus was that the elite was not only not trying to kill Saren, but actively conversing with him.
Nihlus tried to raise his omnitool to take a picture, but found he hadn't the strength to do so before he died.
(—0—)
Codex: Cole Protocol
Soon after the First Contact War began between the humans and the turians, a human vice admiral by the name of Preston Jeremiah Cole made a grave realization. If the turians were to obtain navigational data from a captured ship, civilian or military, then every human world was at risk. It was with this in mind that Cole drafted Alliance General Order 098831A-1, more commonly known as the Cole Protocol.
The basic premise of the protocol is making sure that the enemy cannot get their hands on any data in the first place. If a ship is in immediate danger of capture, the crew are to wipe any and all data onboard and scuttle the vessel, and anything captured from the enemy must be extensively searched for tracking methods before being taken to a friendly system. Any relays in a system are not to be used, and retreating vessels must jump on a random vector before heading to friendly space. A notable example of the Cole Protocol's execution was when turian General Desolas Arterius docked his ship with a human one in preparation for boarding during the First Contact War. The human crew had set their ship's drive core to overload, with the blast consuming Desolas' ship in the process. Arterius did not survive.
Once lasting peace was achieved between humanity and the Citadel, militaries all across the galaxy have implemented similar protocols in recognition of its effectiveness. Asari Matriarch Lidanya, captain of the Destiny Ascension, notably drafted the Secrecy Order in 2562. Hierarchy General Adrian Victus filed potential improvements on the Desolas Act in 2575. The salarian Special Tasks Group sent representatives to the human Office of Naval Intelligence in 2581 to fine-tune the Cole Protocol. Outside the Citadel, in 2566, Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema introduced Bill 9384-81A to the Quarian Conclave, which would dictate that all Migrant Fleet vessels must ensure that, in the event of impending capture by hostile forces, any data on board does not fall into hostile hands by any means necessary. The bill passed by a narrow majority of 27,272 to 24,923, becoming law in 2567.
These protocols do not go without opposition, however. As stated before, Bill 9384-81H only passed by a narrow majority. One of the more vocal opponents of the bill was Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib of the Civilian Fleet, who claimed in an interview after its passage, "We [the quarians] are close enough to extinction as it is without blowing up our own ships", though he did acknowledge its merits. The Batarian Hegemony has notably decried these protocols as unnecessary, with a statement in 2564 saying that the protocols only delay the inevitable. Vice Admiral Cole himself countered that enacting the protocols buys time for a counter-offensive to be planned and executed, joking that "Delaying the inevitable is exactly the point."
(—0—)
Next chapter: Keystone
(—0—)
AN: And that is a wrap on Chapter 2. Man, translating gameplay into words is difficult.
Also, again, I had to split this chapter into two because it was getting too long. Sorry to make you wait for the Harvest mission to wrap up, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Am I using that idiom right?
…anyway, as you saw, I have a new sidekick for Saren. Those of you who have watched Halo Season 2 may know Var 'Gatanai. Again, say what you will about the show, I'm using bits of it. In addition, I know people would be up in arms if I made Thel a bad guy.
As for Benezia, stay tuned.
Concerning the Covenant, I'm primarily imagining them with their Halo Infinite appearances, with an exception for the drones because… well, they didn't appear in the game. So imagine the drones as looking like their Halo 2 Anniversary appearance.
Anyway, review responses. I'll probably be moving these to the opening AN of chapters going forward.
Guest 1: Crap, no AI's which means no Cortana anytime soon! Dammit, how the hell is Humanity supposed to develop Slipspace drives any time soon? And being reliant on the Mass Relays means that this UNSC/Alliance won't have the number of Worlds that the canon UNSC had prior to Harvest! Not to mention the Council won't immediately defend humanity, they will assume that Humanity messed up first contact and try to "smooth things over" with these newcomers, ultimately allowing the Covenant to acquire codex data on the location of EVERY inhabited Planet in the Galaxy, thus allowing Slipspace capable ships to burn Human Worlds with impunity! Also, when it gets out that Daren was behind the attack and the unleashing of a genocidal alien alliance on Humanity, no way ONI or Highcom will EVER trust the Councilors ever again (at least I wouldn't), and the Batarians will see this as an opportunity to join in on making the "primitive humans" suffer!
First: …did you read the prologue? Also, I won't say more on the topic, but Cortana is coming, just not for a long, long while, at least until ME2. I want to build up John as his own character before I stick an AI in his head.
Second: I haven't completely eliminated the possibility of slipspace use right now. As it stands now, if I do end up including it, it will be that slipspace is used by humans for FTL in a cluster, while relays are used for galactic-scale travel.
Third: In the ME-verse, FTL travel is possible without the relays, but it's massively slower, so that is typically limited to the cluster around the system the relay is in. Therefore, it's not necessarily impossible that my Alliance has about as many worlds as the UNSC.
Fourth: The Council situation will be answered in Chapter 4. As for codex data, see the Codex entry above.
Fifth: Politics.
Sixth: Screw the batarians.
six samurai of dragon order: You have my attention.
I sure hope I do. Also, cool username.
Guest 2: How long was this humanity exploring and colonizing prior to meeting the Turians if they have more territory than the canon Systems Alliance?
I'd say they were expanding rather slowly since around 2350. I'll probably come up with a more concrete answer in a future Codex entry.
Darth Tzar: Personally, I think the aesthetics battle don't really matter and don't actually achieve victory. Just look at star destroyers in Star Wars. They look cool but with a big tower on the back of the ship just basically screams shoot me. how about real life because brightly colored uniforms got people killed in the first world war and even the American Civil War for that matter when the officers were targeted by snipers.
Yeah, you make a good point. But the way I'm thinking is that before, the Alliance didn't have to contend with looking good in front of the other species. But after they got introduced to the Citadel, suddenly their ships looked brutish and unappealing. And of course, human politicians want to make the Alliance look good on the voting floor, because that gets them more favorable bills. In short, politics.
Besides, you can't exactly hide a kilometer-long dreadnought. That's why the Normandy's a prototype for stealth.
Guest 3: So basically just Systems Alliance with Halo's military institutions and a mix of technology from both. Also does the Alliance have AI or none at all or just reserved in anything the Alliance considers top secret since AI have been in use in Halo for centuries and were vital in their daily lives be it civilian or military.
Basically.
As for the AI question, the Alliance uses them in a prominent role, but they will be elaborated on in Chapter 4's codex entry.
Guest 4: Well this is interesting, this is basically HSA but 400 years more advanced so I think it's reasonable that they can keep 800 worlds or possibly 900 worlds if they went expansionist like the HSA.
As for their fleet size, if they're using the HSA shipset, then they should have at least 10 times more ships than the UEG simply because of the size and tonnage so 20K ships. I mean, if we assume that the industry is the same as canon UNSC, the one that builds cruisers the size of dreadnoughts, then they should be able to build that number.
But if they use UNSC shipsets, then they can keep the 2K numbers, but the repercussions would be massive as their big ass ships would literally destroy the Treaty of Farixen.
So it would make sense why humanity would be considered dangerous simply because of the ship sizes.
But even so, I can't wait for the Citadel-Covenant War because if the UEG is part of the Citadel, then there's NO way the Citadel are going to let this pass because they'll look bad for the Galaxy.
First: That's the mindset I'm working with. If the Alliance had a couple hundred years head start, then they could get to UEG numbers.
Second: One of the ways I'm imagining the UNSC ships is that they are downscaled significantly to keep in line with ME physics, ex. Infinity would be 1.6 kilometers instead of 5.7 kilometers. The other way I'm thinking is canon ship sizes except for anything above 1.5 kilometers. Anything larger than that won't be a thing in my universe because of eezo constraints. Readers, let me know which solution you prefer.
Third: I agree, the Treaty of Farixen is stupid, but until further notice, it is in effect.
Fourth: You're correct, the Citadel won't let it pass, but things will be- oops, no spoilers!
GreeNPizza: I like what you started writing and suggest some ideas that the main warships of the alliance are more like ships from halo. Well, due to the fact that the use of slipspace is much slower than mass effect drives, the alliance uses mainly its technology and slipspace has some more warships, you could add "infiniti" as one of these ships(I'm writing through a translator, so maybe some bullshit came out, but I hope you understood what I wanted to say)
First: Thanks for the encouragement!
Second: Not a bad idea, but in this universe, SA ships are post-First Contact, while UNSC ships are pre-First Contact.
Third: I'm still considering including slipspace, but if it does make it, it will be faster than eezo FTL, but slower than relays. As for warships, see above.
Fourth: Translators are fine, and you were perfectly legible.
ADeter: You probably need to upscale fleet sizes and that shitty treaty if they are going to be fighting covenant with plasma especially if the covenant have bigger ships I love the idea personally but ME tech is used so weakly by the citadel races like you telling me you use MassE cores to fling liquid metal like a particle beam of sorts and have FTL fighters but you cant fling a 20 kg round faster than 1.3 the speed of light? BS that magic space rock could fire plasma and fire a Fighter sized round at THE Speed of Light... goddamn ive gone and ranted
Again, I agree that the Treaty of Farixen is stupid. But in my opinion, part of the appeal of the Covenant is the fact that they are an overwhelming force.
As for weapon yields, first, it's 0.013 c, not 1.3 c for mass accelerators, c being the speed of light. Second, part of the Reapers' big trap is that societies based around eezo stagnate once they reach a certain point.
Darth Tzar: How about this? I've read in a mass effect halo crossover fanfiction where the mass effect drives can go quite a bit further if they star hop that's to say they go from star system to star system discharge their mass effect drives and then keep going. That would let the humans be much more expensive territory using that method than any other star nation. A little food for thought.
That's… actually not a bad idea. How about this: My Alliance has the same physical territory as the canon Alliance, but is more densely packed near the center thanks to the 'hopping' you described, and found the relays much, much later.
Also, can you link me that crossover?
mercerjames875: I love the idea behind this as I haven't seen anything like it that I know of, however if your using the halo timeline I'd say make humanity just as big as in the halo universe and not the mass effect universe.
Thanks for the appreciation! Also, with the new canon described in the last response, it allows for a semi-hard population of over 40 billion, in line with what is described in Halo canon.
Djangiti: with thewm already attacking harvest, will this immediately start the ME story with saren, or will this start the ... i guess I'll call it the "citadel-covenant war,"and instead of saren being the one bringing the reapers, it's the covenant, and it's gonna be paced either the same length as the original war or longer since i doubt that the covenant will leave council worlds alone wich means more ground to cover and possibly interspecies spartan III's... btw are the forerunners a thing here or not?
First: Saren or Covenant? My answer… is kind of a mix of both.
Second: I'm definitely gonna have the space between games take place over a longer period of time than ME canon.
Third: Concerning Spartan-III's, stay tuned.
Fourth: Concerning the Forerunners, again, stay tuned.
Guest 5: If the humans had 400 years more time than the canon SA to expand through the relay network their population and industrial base is bound to be larger than that of the canon UEG. Probably around as big as the Asari Republics or the Turians. The relay network prefers garden worlds, so lots of ready to settle real estate without the enormous resource and time investment needed for terraforming. The Council has data on 1% of the star systems in the galaxy, which means 1 to 4 billion star systems and all their planets. Or more planets than there are currently humans on Earth! Food for thought for all those who think "only" 1% of the galaxy is a small area. The universe is orders of magnitude larger than your intuition tells you.
Not that humans can settle all of this, but even a fraction of those worlds leaves lots of potential for expansion.
…wow, you did your math. The one thing I will add is that a 2013 Harvard Center for Astrophysics study found that there are at least 17 billion earth-sized planets out there. I can forward the article to anyone who asks.
P.S. Readers, please don't use the reviews to ask for the article. PM me instead.
Krieger Techpriest: This is a reat concept so far
Thanks for the encouragement! Also, out of curiosity, is your username a Warhammer reference? I wouldn't know, I don't follow 40K.
Anyway, please follow, fave, and review. Reviews in particular help me improve.
This is Believer218, signing off.