A/N- I am currently struggling with a writer's block with regards to A Special Task, so I've decided to release the timeline and codex of this fic. It'll be on a back burner until I can finish Special Task, so don't expect updates unless I'm struggling with the aforementioned fic.
The following is a timeline of Humanity's advancement since the first alien war.
October 21st, 2015- A daring assault on the Ethereal 'Temple Ship' ends, as a 6 man XCOM squad successfully eliminates the alien's leader. In a final act of revenge, the so called 'Uber Ethereal' attempts to transform the ship into a black hole, only to be stopped at the last second by Colonel Daniel Shepard. Shepard sacrifices himself, destroying the ship before it could become a singularity, the day being remembered as VS day. A single hyperwave transmission is recorded before the ship is destroyed, aimed at an unknown area in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing is found in the area. Technology gained by humanity: Meld (used for advanced prosthetics and genetic modifications), Elerium, Alien Alloys, Plasma, laser and fusion weaponry, Cloaking devices, gravity wave propulsion, psionics, hyperwave communication, and much more.
October 26th, 2015- An Ethereal 'Overseer' class craft appears in atmosphere. It transmits a hyperwave signal signifying its occupants' willingness to sue for peace. Upon landing, the XCOM team sent to meet it is met by a delegation of Ethereals, Mutons, and a Cyberdisc. They express their utmost gratitude towards XCOM for freeing them from the 'Overlord', or the Uber Ethereal killed onboard the Temple ship. Although greeted with skepticism, the aliens do nothing to invalidate their claims. When asked about other races, such as the Sectoids and Thin Men, the Ethereal's response was that due to the extensive genetic rewrite of said species, they had been rendered sterile, and had died within a week of the Temple ship's destruction, as the ship contained the main clone bay for said races. The alien surrender is accepted, and they begin the long, slow process of integrating themselves with human society.
December 1st, 2015- XCOM is officially de-classified, and is revealed to the public. XCOM Memorial begins construction in Geneva. The memorial commemorates all lives, XCOM and otherwise, all 2.3 billion of them, lost in the Ethereal war. Presence of surrendered aliens is also revealed, with public outrage following. Much of the technology discovered/reverse engineered by XCOM is disclosed to the public, with several corporations beginning to develop a thriving augmentation industry, developing expensive gene mods and cybernetics.
January 23rd, 2016- Forever known as Unification day, all of Earth's major nations, as well as many smaller ones, unify together under one government, the council formerly guiding earth's defense.
February 1st, 2016- Humanity, with alien aid, begins to re-appropriate the thousands of alien craft in orbit around earth. Hundreds of alien battleships, abductors, scout craft, and supply barges, as well as new UFO types, have been recovered successfully. XCOM becomes the new world military, with alien warships being pressed into the newly formed Terran Navy.
April 11th, 2016- Much of the public outcry about the liberated aliens has died down, allowing said aliens to begin working together with human companies, as well as with XCOM, to develop new technology. Among the knowledge shared with humanity is the knowledge of synthesizing Alien Alloys, now known as Etherite, as well as the ability to produce Meld, Outsider Crystals, and Elerium. The ability to create Meld significantly reduced the cost of Gene mods, allowing the general public to have access to them, as well as opening up a huge market for both civilian grade and military grade Gene mods. Genetic modification becomes widespread in the civilian population over the next month. Meanwhile, Elerium based technology makes most pre-alien war tech obsolete, with corporations diving head over heels to acquire as many elerium tech patents as possible.
March 10th, 2018- Psi-testing of human population reveals that approximately 85% of the human population is psionic, and that number is increasing rapidly. Psionic classes become mandatory in all schools across the world.
April 13th, 2018- While studying Meld, a startling discovery is made. Meld allows for gene mod integration by re-writing the subject's very genetic code so that it perceives the genetic modification as normal. This discovery reveals that Gene mods are hereditary, and are dominant traits, allowing for said genetic modifications to rapidly become widespread. Gene mod prices balloon up, as corporations find out that if mods continue to be cheap, then they would go out of business in a few generations. In addition, this discovery shows that military grade gene mods, such as mimetic skin and adrenal neurosympathy will become widespread among the civilian population.
September 5th, 2021- An unidentified submersible craft is seen in the gulf of mexico. XCOM begins investigation, which turns up nothing.
June 8th, 2022- XCOM Memorial is finally completed, with the current leader of the liberated Ethereals giving a speech expressing his people's gratitude towards XCOM for their newfound freedom.
November 19th, 2025- The Coral Queen, a cruise liner, disappears in the pacific ocean. XCOM investigation finds that an unidentified submarine, similar to the one spotted in 2021, was involved. XCOM begins work on aquatic combat technology.
July 5th, 2029- Dr. Raymond Shen dies. The elderly engineer was mourned by all surviving alien war veterans, and was buried at the XCOM Memorial Cemetary.
April 8th, 2041- Second alien war begins. A race of aliens related to the Sectoids begin massive aquatic assault of human ports and water travel. XCOM aquatic division retaliates, and the war begins. Coastal cities are evacuated within weeks of the war's beginning.
September 10th, 2041- Humans discover the location of an underwater alien city ship, the T'leth. It serves as the alien base of operations on earth, and it has only just started to activate.
February 28th, 2042- A human team is sent down to the T'leth in a new Leviathan heavy submarine. The alien ship is destroyed after 3 days of fighting. The second alien war is over. The destruction of the T'leth, however, is catastrophic for the aquatic environment, with massive tsunamis sweeping out of the gulf of mexico, and millions of tons of contaminants released into both the oceans and the atmosphere. Global temperature is reduced by an average of 2 degrees Celsius for several years, causing a mini ice age. Aquatic ecosystems are devastated, and billions of dollars in damage is done by tsunamis. Civilian casualties, however, were much lower than those from the previous war, as most of the coastal cities were evacuated to landlocked safe zones. Ecological damage forces humanity to think of colonizing other worlds. Technology gained from the war- Molecular control (aquatoid equivalent of psionics), Aqua plastics, Zrbite (an easier to produce elerium equivalent), sonic weaponry, significant amounts of combat gene mods.
December 1st, 2042- Mandatory combat courses for 6 year olds and up are added to the education system. All terran citizens, of all species, must then serve for at least 6 years in the Terran Armed Forces. Combat grade gene mods from the first war are, by now, almost universal within the human population, as are psionic abilities.
March 8th, 2048- Future Terran city of Mega Primus is established on a terraformed mars.
March 25th, 2048- Exploration team discovers alien information cache on mars. It belonged to an as of yet unknown race called the Protheans. Terran military spending increases threefold after this discovery, as the people of Earth become wary of a third alien invasion. Mass effect technology, as well as element zero, is discovered. Mass effect based personal weaponry becomes available on the market soon afterwards. However, mass effect tech is deemed inferior to fusion and elerium based technology.
October 16th, 2056- Mega Primus is completed, with a population already over 1 billion people. Due to lack of regulations, Mars becomes a corporate paradise.
May 19th, 2057- The Cult of Sirius makes its presence known. The organization, rumored to be an offshoot of the infamous EXALT terrorist group, worships aliens as gods. A counter movement, known as the Inquisition, composed of anti-alien radicals, engages in warfare with said cult. Weapon corporations arm both sides, and the war ends with the Inquisition being destroyed.
December 21st, 2069- A plasma bomb goes off in the Terra Firma political party's headquarters on Mars. The Pro-human group has long been associated with the Inquisition, and the bombing is suspected to be an action by the Cult of Sirius. Not enough evidence is found to convict. The Terra Firma party never recovers, and soon ceases to exist.
August 5th, 2084- Dimensional rifts open above Mega Primus. Alien craft are seen exiting. Soon, aliens are sighted in the city, attempting to infiltrate human organizations. Due to every single human being combat trained and augmented, these actions end in predictable failure. Regardless, this is considered grounds for war, and the Third Alien War begins.
September 28th, 2084- The human fleet begins to undergo refits, allowing them to enter the alien dimensional gates. Meanwhile, alien attacks on Mega Primus begin to focus more on collateral damage, dropping overspawn and megaspawn into population centers. This only serves to piss off humanity, speeding the refit process.
November 12th, 2084- The human fleet finishes its refit program and takes the fight to the enemy. Two days later, a single message ship emerges. It transmits a simple, two word message: "We've won." The Third alien war ends. Technology acquired: Disruptor weaponry, Dimensional travel, Disruptor shields, Teleportation technology, Significant amounts of Biotechnology, Anti-alien toxins, and significant amounts of Gene mods.
June 9th, 2089- An object is discovered to be orbiting Pluto. This station is shown to have a massive element zero core, and seems to be used for near instantaneous long distance transport. It is deemed too risky to continue to exist, as it is an effective back door into human space, and is slowly broken down into component materials through use of enzymes bioengineered from those used in extradimensional alien Entropy Launchers. It is revealed to be made of an extremely strong alloy, although said alloy is extremely difficult and expensive to manufacture. As such, it is only used in construction of military vessels.
December 29th, 2100- The 5000th terran starship, the TSV Apex, is completed. It is a massive, 5 kilometer long dreadnought, armed with an extremely powerful 10 man class 50 Psi amplifier, an axial fusion lance capable of shattering a small moon, as well as massive batteries of heavy disruptors, plasma cannons, fusion lances, and laser point defense guns.
June 17th, 2119- An Ethereal scientist, Sil'ran'Earth, perfects singularity drive. Terran starships have begun refits, as the new drive gives them FTL capability. However, this FTL drive is found to still be far too slow, only capable of 50 light years per day. While humanity is now capable of exploring the local cluster, true galactic exploration remains beyond them.
May 11th, 2121- Contact is made with a race known as the Eli'ranas. The human frigate TSV Washington enters their system on a mission of exploration, and is spotted by the space station in orbit. The Eli'ranas are an insectoid race with a hive mind mentality. They were at cold war levels of technology when the Washington discovered them. They initiated contact, and requested to join the Terran Alliance. Uplift procedures began immediately.
January 15th, 2122- Hasboro's controversial kid's TV show, 'My Little Chryssalid: Fight for Earth' premiers. It is intended as a tie in for Hasboro's new genetically engineered Chryssalid pets. It quickly gains a large fanbase, and becomes the most popular children's show in Terran space. Genetically engineered Chryssalid pet sales skyrocket. The Genetically Engineered Chryssalids are bioengineered to be perfectly docile in the presence of an Alliance race, and have been engineered to look 'Cooler and Combat Ready!' by Hasboro scientists. The controversy surrounding the pets increases, as the Chryssalids are found to be actually combat ready, with 'Long Range Poison Spines' and 'Super Acid Spit' being just a few of the combat augments given to the pets. The human military buys them in bulk, to be used in conjunction with military dogs in K9 units.
September 30th, 2131- The Dimensional gate network, a human counterpart to the mass relays, begins construction.
April 6th, 2134- An Avian race is discovered in human space. The Aiva, as they are called, are in their planet's Bronze age, so contact and uplift have not yet been attempted. Aiva are a matriarchal society, with females being the dominant gender. Several XCOM explorers have been sent in to study the civilization and asses its upliftability.
March 12th, 2148- Dimensional gate network is completed. Effective FTL travel is finally available to humanity.
February 27th, 2157- Additional mass relays are discovered in human space. The Terran Alliance moves to begin eliminating them.
May 16th, 2157- The Alliance council approves the proposal to uplift the Aiva. A fleet is dispatched.
May 17th, 2157- A relay is discovered in the Shanxi system. Human ships move to destroy it and its counterparts.
A/N- Don't worry, I am not dropping A Special Task for this. I am just writing this to get over a writer's block, so this story will not be frequently updated until Special Task is finished. Maybe.
Anyway, enjoy!