8Contact Light
Summary: My attempt to make the history of Mass Effect match the capabilities demonstrated by humans in the games—and the consequences! Told in vignette form.
Disclaimer: I owe a lot to Bioware for their wonderful intellectual property, just... taking it out for a metaphorical spin, here. I don't own La Marseillaise either, except in the sense that we all own it.
Introduction: Hi internet, this is my attempt to create a humanity that is a force to be reckoned with in a way that makes sense. Some of that involves buffing the humans (you'll see how), and some of that involves nerfs to everyone (for instance, it's never really explained how 'FTL buoys' work, so I'm scrapping that. Everyone has to send physical messenger drones! Oh, and QECs are BS in the real world, so none of that either). Of course, this will include some of my own personal biases, but I hope the science (political and otherwise) makes some sense. Except for the mass effect and eezo, that's space magic. Recently, I decided to add a little bit of an additional topspin to the backstory.
1.
November 11, 2182
T'Soni Residence
Armali, Thessia
Shepard took a sip from her drink as she leaned back against a sweeping balustrade. An Asari—a matron, Shepard guessed—was trying to get her cooperation on some business idea of hers. "We are prepared to exchange license rights to many of Serrice Council's biotic amp patents for compute time on one of your AI clusters." The matron paused and looked over her shoulder at the object of Shepard's attention. "If you could simply give the idea a leg up in your Parliament, I would be pleased to introduce you to the maiden T'soni." She now had all of Shepard's attention.
"If I wasn't interested in the offer before, I certainly am now. Of course any deal would be contingent on finding an amenable AI." Say that five times fast, Shepard thought wryly to herself.
"Yes, we had much the same thought. I take it that constitutes an agreement to our little plan?" The matron, whose name Shepard now remembered was Osiya, extended her hand out in the traditional human gesture.
"Deal. I believe that's enough business for the night."
Osiya performed the Asari gesture of acknowledgement in a gently satirical fashion and started taking Shepard in the right direction.
A voice rang out from maybe ten meters to the left. "Shepard! Fancy seeing you here. Did you run out of naive Asari maidens to charm at the consulate?"
"You're only saying that because you're jealous, Vakarian." Excellent, her wingman was present, and just tipsy enough to distract most of the small circle of socialites surrounding T'soni.
Garrus crossed his arms in an exaggeratedly offended stance. "Me, jealous? You must be joking. All the Turian ladies can't keep their hands off of me." He looked at Osiya. "Who's this?"
Shepard laughed. "Garrus Vakarian, meet Osiya Keppa." They shook hands and made a couple minutes' worth of small talk. "Want to meet the lovely Liara T'soni? I wouldn't mind a little help from my friends, if you know what I mean."
"Now now Shepard, you know I don't swing that way."
"Shut up, Garrus."
"Aye aye, ma'am." He always called her that just to annoy her.
"That's sir to you, Lieutenant."
"I'm not wearing my uniform tonight, so I can call you whatever I want."
Shepard muttered under her breath. After grabbing some hors d'oeuvres from couple passing waiters, the odd trio continued on their way.
I.
Udina: Well, what about Shepard?
Anderson: Of course you'd pick the diplomat, Udina.
Udina: You can't deny that she's our best face on Thessia.
Hackett: More to the point, Anderson, you're well aware of her ability. You trained her, after all.
Anderson: All good points, but I want to make sure we don't play favorites here.
Hackett: The fact is that she's one of our best covert ops specialists. I'm sure you remember Elysium.
Udina: We certainly can't question her cunning.
Hackett: It may be unfortunate to pull her away from her duties now, but she's the single best candidate for the job.
Anderson: [pauses] Humanity needs a hero. And Shepard's the best we've got.
Udina: I'll make the call.
In the year 2045, French cosmonauts on Mars discovered an ancient outpost of an advanced civilization. Soon these ruins revealed the secrets of a new physics.
Humanity used it to reach out to the stars.
The people they found there called it...
The Mass Effect.
i.
November 20, 2045
Near Deseado Crater
Mars, Solar System
Heinrich drove the rover across the craggy terrain of Mars with a practiced hand, whistling softly to himself.
With luxury and pride surrounded
"Rover Marcel Five Seven, we are detecting gravitational anomalies in the crater. Forwarding coordinates now."
"On my way, ground control." He continued,
The vile insatiate despots dare,
It would be difficult getting into the crater safely; he would have to use the onboard altitude control thrusters to descend. And his radar was insistently pinging him. A dust storm.
Their thirst of power and gold unbounded,
to mete and vend the light and air!
Crunch. A messy landing, but all systems still reported green.
Like beasts of burden would they load us,
Like gods would bid their slaves adore,
But man is man, and who is more?
Then shall they longer lash and goad us?
Then a flash of weak sunlight glinting off some surface. Glass from the formation of the crater?
To arms, to arms, ye brave!
The avenging sword unsheath,
March on, march on!
All hearts resolv'd
On victory or death!
The crater's rebound was oddly regular. Heinrich felt oddly compelled to wipe off some of the Martian dust and rock, and—with a mechanical whisper, a door opened in the rust red dirt.
Codex: The Space Race
"Contact Light."
- Buzz Aldrin, first landing on Luna.
The victors of the Second Great War quickly realized that the great advances in rocketry made during the war could be put to use in improving radio communications. In 1957, they launched a satellite named Compagnon 1, sparking the Space Race. The United States would not be able to launch a satellite until the end of that year, with markedly poorer performance. The first Human in space was a Frenchman named Jean Plessis; the United States' first man in space was badly burned on reentry, marking the start of a string of intermittent tragedies for that nation. On 1969, Buzz Aldrin and Lance Armstrong were the first men to reach Earth's moon, Luna. However, their landing craft malfunctioned and they were marooned on Luna's surface. The competing project run by the Communist bloc was able to rush its schedule enough to just barely rescue the two men. This was one of many factors which precipitated a coup in the United States; the new government was thoroughly denounced by most Human nations, but was able to commit far more of its economic output to space exploration. They were, however, beaten to the symbolic victories of first space station and first Lunar base by the European Space Bureau. In 1991, the ESB deployed the first Human base on Mars. Within a year, the United States government collapsed.
Author's Note: I've copied a bit from my profile here; hopefully it helps with anyone who doesn't like the slight political bent. Let's get something out of the way: the fic does not reflect my personal politics. I like some of the ideas I mention and dislike others; furthermore, I'm glad to live in the United States. It could be better, but it's certainly pretty good in the historical perspective. Anyways, the point is to write something interesting; I feel one way of doing so is to write something you're personally grappling with. So the politics and personalities will involve reflections (through character actions) on what government is, how people interact with each other, and so on. After this chapter the 20th century governments pretty much don't matter.