Mass Effect: The Terran Gambit

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Hello, I'm the informed terran and this is the prologue for the Terran Gambit.

Standard Fanfic Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, its content and characters, etc.

This is an Alternate Universe (AU) fic, with many new OCs, and familiar names you may know.
Its a Sci-Fi story, with plentiful mix of Action, Humor, Suspense, and Drama,
and bits of more throughout the story.

Here, humanity learns of the Reapers early on and devote itself to stopping them.
However, most do not know this is the case.
It is humanity's most guarded secret.
A secret that had been the unknowing driving force of man.
And the simple knowledge of such a dark secret
can dictate the course and actions of entire races, and even the galaxy!

This humanity differs somewhat from the Mass Effect humanity, initially anyway.
Humanity will, thanks to their own natural swiftness in advancement,
(And what they could find from the ruins)
have a distinctive tech edge versus the Council,
But they are not outright more advance,
A fact to haunt both sides when the time comes.

Before we start, I wish to give a shout out to two authors: ProfFartBurger and Full-Paragon.
Their stories were the first fanfics I ever read, which inspired me to write my own.

More importantly, a special thank you to my beta-reader, MoonSword1994.
My deepest thanks for helping me write my fanfic.

This prologue will be quickly followed with the first chapter.
I hope to publish once every one to two weeks.

Thanks for your interest. I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to give review and feedback.

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Full Description Summary

The Galactic cycle is nearing its end.
Its inhabitants, merely crops grown by greater beings, are unaware of the great threat that is about to reap what they have sown.
But as the several millennia long civilizations rest on their thrones,
a new up-starter takes to the stars.

After a sudden burst of technological, social, and political advancement in the late 21st century,
a united humanity, the Terrans, reached out into the stars.
Inspired by the stories of old of the potential of what they may find, they expand and advanced at seemly impossible rates.
They were insured that they could face whatever they find.
The Terrans were optimistic that fate and destiny was on their side.

But when they discovered the Prothean ruins on Mars,
the leaders of Terra discovered somethings far greater than technology and Element Zero.
Their optimism gone, they readied their fledging nation.
They prepare to survive the coming of what the Protheans simply called
"The Reapers".

Now at the dawn of First Contact, the Terrans have taken their cause to the rest of the galaxy.
Here they shall make the ultimate gamble to ready the entire galaxy to fight a threat of truly galactic proportions.

Here begins the great Terran Gambit; to ready the galaxy against the coming of The Reapers.

"There… are forces in the works. Ancient beings that look down on us…
They go by no name. But the Protheans themselves had a word for them… Reapers, Saren."

– Jack Harper; Section 14

Prologue

2040: As oil fields across Earth run dry, unrest spreads across the world. The new world powers scramble to restore order as each competed with each other for dwindling resources. After a minor nuclear exchange and a series of stressing wars, more power is invested into the reformed United Nations to resolve the great energy crisis as new powers form and the old ones reorganized for the times ahead.

2058: In what is considered the Great Miracle of '58 and the start of the Atomic Revolution, a UN lead science group consisting of the greatest minds from across the world succeeds in the development of compact fission and high yield fusion power. Under an emergency mandate by the UN and approved with the backing of the Security Council, this new technology is distributed across the world, with heavy funding from the world governments to have nations and businesses adopt it as the main power source across the planet.

2061: In three years, the energy crisis slowly becomes a thing of the past as near unlimited energy and advance energy efficient technology spread a new wave of global progress and advancement. Where there was once war for resource and survival, a new era diplomatic and cooperation begins, though tensions remain on more ideological lines.

2061: While a new global initiative among the people of each world power spread for the unification the Humanity, many once bitter national rivals begin to channel their old competitiveness with the start of a new space race to determine which nation shall lead humanity into the final frontier. Humanity pours it effort into leaving their now conquered Earth for the stars, with everyone watching for which country will lead the way.

2063: The US takes the initial lead, amazing the world scientific community with the creation of the Alcubierre-Cochrane Warp Drive, named after both Miguel Alcubierre, the twentieth century scientist whose initial FTL theory was the basis for the drive, and the fictional Zefram Cochrane for the twentieth century TV show "Star Trek", who in the show's lore created the warp drive in the same year, with the show being the initial inspiration of Alcubierre's theory. The US tests the first warp capable ship in April, and succeeded in warping a small crew to the edge of the solar system, send a message at light speed back to earth, and return to hear said message days later with the rest of humanity.

2070: Each major nation begins construction of large colony ships to send humanity into the stars. The next Space Race is born. New organizations and treaties are formed, including the Russo-American Star Alliance, the Greater European Union, the British Star Empire, the Pan-African Union, and the Pan-Asian Coalition; Each power racing to reach the stars.

2078: Quantum Dimensional Theorist Maria Cooper unveils working proof into the concept of 'Hyperdrive'. Too advance for its time, the possible method of FTL is scrapped as more focus is placed on creating sustainable space fleets and colonization.

2090: Global protest emerge as numerous colonies from each power fails to establish humanity's reach into the stars, the disaster of Alpha Centauri being the latest failed extra-solar colonization. With combinations of different failures among each power, many began to feel that they and thus humanity would be stuck on Earth for the foreseeable future. The economy begins to sink as the failed colonies draw resource for the still depleted Earth and investors begin to favor inter-solar exploration to bring resource to the home world.

2095: Numerous colony ships from each power all happen upon a planet in the newly explored system of Utopia in the UN named Exodus cluster, several thousand light years from Sol after a year of travel. Lacking FTL communications to ask for new orders from Earth, and having somehow discovered that each other's ships have the material or people needed to really form a theoretically successful colony, the captains of each ship agree to pull their resources and ships together to form a unified colony. The colony was, after a rocky start from the merging of different people, a resounding success, quickly forming new cities across the planet.

2099: The unified colonists of Utopia-2 prosper in the new eden they have created. With the old ships and limited manufacturing on the agricultural planet, they succeed in constructing a return craft to Earth and renamed the planet Eden Prime as a testament to their world. The arrival of the ship to Earth was a sudden surprise to the global powers, which, having discover that they sent ships to the same planet a few years back, were now on the verge of an all-out war. The New Year and new century is celebrated with the success of the colony and avoiding the fourth World War. The new global Union-Nationalist party uses the news of a unified colony to win support in several governments to push world unifying agenda.

2101: Explorers on the Alliance Starship USS Armstrong, while researching the reinstated planet of Pluto, discover that the ice ball moon of Charon seem to contain a large metallic object in it. Upon close approach, a signal was sent to the ship from the object, having translated simply as a request for the ship to respond with information about its mass. Captain Albert Donnelly ordered a reply be sent. Suddenly the entire moon evaporated as the huge object fires a lightning bolt on the Armstrong, sending the ship in seconds to an entirely new system, with an identical object at the end. Upon repeating the process to return to Earth, new reports begin to flood in of identical objects in other systems, including Utopia. Discovering quickly enough that each one is linked to one another in a relay like design and on the general method of how it was able to send ships hundreds of light years across space in seconds, they were quickly named 'Mass Relays'.

2101: Terraform scientists on Mars come across an ancient ruin while drilling for underground aquifers. The ruin contains ancient, but advance computers and stores of an unknown material. Archeologists quickly decipher some language and announce, just days after the public announcement of the Mass Relays, that the ruins were clearly alien in nature and of a very advance race at that.

2105: Humanity, now coping from the proof that advance life exist in the galaxy and were so close to Earth, underwent a massive social and political revolution. The two main global political parties, the Terran Nationalist and the Terra Firma party, began rallying the collective might of humanity to form a single unified government to run the homeworld and her colonies. While divided over several issues on the baseline ideology for such a new government, both work together to create a unified humanity.

2110: The leaders of the world meet in New York in the UN headquarters to sign the Charter of the United Earth, unifying Earth and the home world humans. The creation of a global government is put into effect, with each of the major world powers investing token amounts of power into it.

2112: UE Scientist creates the first sentient Artificial Intelligence. Consisting of the most advance coding to date and the neural structure from brain scans of the greatest minds in history, it displayed near-infinite processing, tapping into the very nature of quantum mechanics with is quantum CPUs. But in what is considered the most important aspect that scientist point out to be the proof that AI development can be successful, showed human qualities of understanding and morality. Being however very unstable, its kernel collapsed, but not before leaving the scientist a vastly weaker but stable code to allow future AI creation.

2120: The second generation of AIs was created. While not as advance as the first, now called by both humanity and the self-referred synthetic humans as Adam, they showcase very human behaviors, with advance computational intelligence and thinking. Though their personality matrix is considered bland, like any organic humans, they develop in personality over time.

2121: The nearby relays around Sol are mapped out, leading to new colonies both within the path of the network and off the beaten path in systems far from a relay. Due to more garden worlds being located along the Galactic east of Sol, exploration in the designated Beta Quadrant is extensive while very few colonies exist in the Alpha Quadrant, west of Sol. Human populations outside Sol increased at an exponential rate.

2122: Fears escalate that the large amount of colonies off Earth, totaling now at four billion Humans to Earth's nine billion, might want to secede from a government that they have no voice in. This fear, echoed especially deeply among American home worlders and colonist alike, pushes both the Nationalist and the Firmist to form a new government that gives the colonies an active voice in how the unified government of humanity will work.

2123: United Earth intelligence, with help from the AI syntha-humans, finishes decoding the proclaimed "Prothean" ruins' computers on Mars. After a review with the highest members of each of the governments on Earth, the info was declared classified and official news state a dead-end in research into the ruins. With increased interest on other Prothean ruins on other worlds, interest on Mars wanes, the new military shipyards in orbit taking interest instead.

2125: The United Terran Federation is born. With a grand compromise, the Nationalist and the Firmist working on the unifying constitution shall forever be known as the Founders, the men and women who would unite all of humanity. On June 1st, Unification Day was declared, the political moniker of Terran being adopted as the name for all its citizens. Many hope and long for the day such a title no longer simply refers to humanity. By August, all of the world's militaries were merged into the Federation Army and Star Navy.

2126: Several companies and private science groups working on a joint venture to apply quantum physic studies on Massatianium accidentally discover the technology to create cheap and abundant antimatter. In spite nearly being killed by their initial discovery, scientist quickly rush to utilize it as a fuel. Almost immediately, the Federation announces its adoption as the main fuel for all ships.

2127:With help from the science team of famed FTL Theorist Henry Bowman, a modern illustration of the Hyperdrive is created and adapted to be hybridized with the proven Warp Drive. With the now mostly understood Massatianium that was discover on Mars and being discover across the Beta Quadrant being a key part of maintaining antimatter reactors, demand for it increases for both that and in industrial uses. Scientists remain stumped on how it is able to project a field that changes an object's mass, pushing greater research into quantum physics.

2131: The first wave of modern exploration begins across the galaxy, spearheaded by the first hyperdrive capable ships of the Terran Navy. Lead by notable figures such as Jon Grissom, Anne Darya, and Jonathan Bowman, they push out into the unknown areas of the surrounding galaxy. Though the decade long exploration leads to new planets for colonial candidates and a new wave in scientific discovery, all official reports indicates the lack of any intelligent life in their discovery. When exploration on a large area of the Beta quadrant not connected by any known relay ends with several loss ships, exploration ends and increase interest in colonizing discovered area continue.

2135: The Federation Congress approves a new twenty five year plan to expand the Navy and Army. For the Navy, a unified fleet of standardizes ships consisting of scout ships, light, and heavy cruisers are to make the bulk of the fleet, and are to bolster both the scientific and military might of the fleet. For purely military purposes, Battlecruisers and Aircraft carriers are to be built, not to the same amount as the dual purpose ships but to a very large degree. Then, large Flagships are to be built to act as mobile centers of the fleet and to be built to be large and purposefully intimidating. Finally, large starbases are to be built across the Federation to defend main and secondary colonies and key junctions. In spite of the huge budget needed, many key Founders voiced their support to ensure the safety of the Federation against unknown threats. Combine with the Firmist gaining control of the congress in the 34' election, the plan passes, plunging the government into hundreds of trillions of Federation Dollars in debt for the next few decades.

2138: Children that were born near areas containing large concentration of Massatianium, including Fleetyards and mining worlds, begin to exhibit what is only able to be classified as telekinetic abilities. Congress begin to track and monitor humans with such abilities, going as far as passing a new Human Evolution Progression act to give the government the right to do so.

2139: After discovering that trace amounts of the still mysterious Massatianium found embedded into the person's nerve system was the key to how they can do such abilities. Scientist discover that exposure to the compound in dust form during embryo would cause such abilities. Warnings are quickly issued however to avoid exposure, since a vast majority of pre-natal exposure results in dangerous cancer and tumors.

2140: Shipyards are constructed all over the core region of the Federation. In spite protest over the staggering size of the navy at a point when the Terrans lack any existing foreign threat, twenty thousand ships are pushed into service, from small 50 crew frigates to 2000 crew battle cruisers. Five thousand are put into the Sol Fleet to guard Sol and Earth while the rest are put into the First, Second, and Third fleet. An additional fifty-five thousand are still planned to be built. While creating an economic boom and the belief among colonist that the federation colonies are safe, massive protest over the expansion and cost continue.

2142: The first flagship is built at just over four kilometers long and over 4 million tonnes. Its approval came due to a political move to have them classified as 'mobile starbases'. With one planned for each thousand ships, each cost nearly the same as a hundred battle cruisers, but in spite protest, more are built. New projection puts construction at eighty trillion over budget and a ten year delay. Paranoia on the home world increases over increase government power.

2149: The Great Revival, a major social experiment orchestrated by subversive elements within the Federation Intelligence Force, leaves a bitter scar throughout the 2140s, testing the unity of humanity to the extreme after a devastating uprising and subsequent war on Earth. The timing is still considered ominous as a colonial Golden Age reign across the young Federation, while the Sol system was completely blockaded to hide the war on Earth. Though the Federation emerged politically stronger than ever before, the human homeworlders of nearly ten billion distance themselves from the colonist and spacer humans that outnumber them by now fifteen billion. A combination of military conscription and aggressive laws are implemented to make homeworld humans leave to explore the stars, leaving the more conservative Earth behind.

2155: Government and social programs are commissioned to train the "Masskinetic" humans to use their powers in the outer world. With both the Nationalist and Firmist parties divided on the issue, the Federation military opens its door to them, leading the way on what new jobs the kinetics can do, and integrate them into society. Laws are passed to prevent any form of discrimination.

2160: Construction finishes for the sixty-fifth thousand ship, leaving the Federation with twenty five thousand in the Sol Fleet, and ten thousand in each of its four fleets. A combination of personnel and maintenance expenses become a focal point of budgets in the federation congress. Market analysts predict a decline as the rest of federation space is colonized.

2164: Running on a moderate platform for the Nationalist, former Admiral Jonathan Bowman wins the Presidency, taking a solid 65% of the popular vote. This leaves his closest opponent in the Firmist at only 28% and 2% for third party candidates. 5% abstained their vote, an option on the ballot in a nation with mandatory voting. It shall become the largest abstaining since the first election in 2128.

2165: The network of Star bases and outpost are finished across the core and main region of Federation space. The 75th thousand ship, the flagship FSS Thunder Child FGCC-1897 is pushed into serves, acting as the head of the newly minted Fifth fleet, with the young, talented Steven Hackett acting as the newest Fleet Admiral. The Army expands to twenty five million strong with the Navy at a hundred million, the marines making up twenty million of that number. With over thirty billion citizens and ¾ of them able to serve, the estimate of nearly two hundred million service men and women takes up less them a percent of the population. Economic analysts remain divided on whether the massive debt can be paid back. The newly invented Atomic Forgers, or 'Replicator' makes maintenance cost far lower than predicted, but large personnel expenses keeps the military consumption at nearly 40% of the annual budget, with the threat of economic collapse looming over the nation.

2167: The Federation renews expansion into the Alpha Quadrant, the southern region, and the border between the Beta and Delta Quadrant.

2167: First Contact.