Hello

Is me again.

With a different story

I'm sorry.

This story is me going full nerd and playing around with not only Mass Effect but also the Scarlet Traces Graphic Novels, real earth politics and a healthy dose of my own hyperactive and decidedly odd sometimes imagination.

Anyhow, hope you all enjoy and please feel free to leave your ideas, suggestions, and desires.

A Million to One

(song references: The Chances of Anything Coming from Mars, War of the Worlds)

It is hard to say where this story begins.

Did it start with that fateful day on Eden Prime, or was it earlier?

Did it start with Shepherd's birth or the violent confusion of First Contact?

Or does the beginning go back further, to the day Humanity's eyes were opened and the wonders of space were thrust upon them.

We shall start, dear reader, with a clear summers morning in 1890, in the village of Horsell on the Outskirts of London.

Any Child's history text book will tell you of the Martian invasion, of those dreadful and horrific months where the fate of Britain, her empire and the world teetered on the brink of extinction. They will tell you of how the Martians were defeated, not by the might of the British Forces, or the fortitude of the British People, but by the merest of microbes and bacteria.

However, it was only after the Martians had gone, that the world truly began to change.

Europe, Russia, and America had watched the devastation from afar with interest, their eyes turned to the vast British Empire, but their greed was discouraged by the remaining and relatively undamaged strength of the Royal Navy and the determination of the British garrisons.

Out of all these nations, only one country leant aid to Britain. The newly formed nation of Germany, headed by its powerful, and cunning Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, extended the hand of friendship to her cousin Britain.

With German help, Britain was back on her feet within a year, but much had changed. In the confusion of the Martian invasion, Britain's long-time rival France, seeing her channel ports flooded with refugees, decided to use this as the moment to expand. Sending forces from Algeria, French units quickly bypassed British forts in Egypt and captured the Suez Canal. When the re-established British Government demanded the return of the gateway to the Indian Ocean, France threatened the lives of the British refugees unless Britain withdrew all claims of ownership on the Canal.

As the Negotiations continued, Britain and Germany quietly prepared and in the winter of 1893 France was attacked, British forces, supported by the Royal Navy and the newly established Royal Airship Corps landed on the Coast of Brittany, liberating most of the internment camps the French had created to house the refugees, The Germans, using a similar tactic to the Franco-Prussian conflict a few decades earlier were able to quickly surround Paris before linking up with British Forces in Northern France.

With the tables now turned, France was forced to withdraw all her forces from Africa, where upon Egypt was reoccupied by the British and Algeria was placed under German Control. In the Treaty of Cherbourg, the nation of France was split into three, Germany occupying most of eastern France and gaining useful naval bases on the northern French coast while Britain took control of the Western coast of France. The French government retained control of a thin strip running the length of France, her military was greatly reduced to only 100,00 troops and limited cavalry and artillery while her overseas possessions were divided between Britain and the burgeoning German Empire.

While all this was occurring, the newly created Ministry of Martian Affairs was stockpiling the Martian Technology which had been left on Earth and, with the finest minds Britain could produce, was frantically looking for a way to make the inhuman technology theirs, to harness the terror of the Heat ray and the black dust, to create their own tripods and flying ships.

The first secret to be recovered was the secret of flight, realised with Lieutenant Roger Hammerwell R.N. being the first man to take flight in a Sopwith Saucer in 1896

Within five years the Royal Air Fleet was christened. Martian technology allowed for ships the size of ironclads to be launched into the air and to fly and in 1905 the first Air Dreadnought, "The Thunderchild II" was launched into the sky over Dover.

The first land dreadnoughts were launched a year later. These monstrous land iron clads moved on six articulated legs like Martian tripods with the largest carrying the armament of a full dreadnought and the smallest being small two-legged scout pods equipped with maxim machine guns crewed by a single pilot.

Throughout the first decade of the 20th century Germany and Britain maintained their relationship while the rest of the world looked on with concerned and envious eyes. Britain shared much (but not too much) of their new-found technology with their German friends but slowly the relationship began to sour, spies were caught by both sides, Germany accused Britain of hiding technology and Britain retaliated by accusing Germany of spying on military secrets. In 1912 a British corvette was sunk by a German mine in the North Sea and as the situation deteriorated politicians scrambled to prevent full blown war.

It was in the summer of 1912 as the clouds of war loomed on the horizon that Britain had a rude awakening. The morning of the 16th of June 1912 dawned just like any other, but at 10 o'clock a mighty explosion shook London. Northern Separatists had smuggled and detonated explosives deep beneath the newly built Martian reactor power station at Chelsea killing hundreds. The Capital was thrown into chaos as power was cut across the city, with initial belief being it was German Sabotage riots broke out across the nation. Only when the attackers handed themselves in to Scotland Yard was the truth finally reported and Britain realised the darkness in her borders.

In their rush to make use and profit of the Martian technology, the great industrial centres in the North of England and Scotland had all been automated leaving hundreds of thousands out of work and starving. The Government, not appreciating the seriousness of the issue merely ignored the reports and supressed the news coming to the rest of the country.

The ensuing scandal forced a new election as the nation struggled to find a way to care for its workers. Finally, a solution was reached, the use of Martian technology was restricted to only vital positions in factories and the new government promised to subsidize the factory owners until economic stability had been achieved.

By this time the British people were no longer interested in war and the situation with Germany could be resolved peacefully.

Then in 1914, the British cracked both the secret of the heat ray and space flight.

The British had, right from the moment the last Martian tripod had fallen, had been searching for a way to take the fight to the Martians and with this breakthrough, the British and German militaries formed a combined space program named the Coalition Astronomical Force. Separate from national militaries, the C.A.F. had its own training, uniforms, insignia, and equipment. Officers and General staff wore Prussian based uniforms of Dark Royal Blue with silver trim and standard peaked caps, the crest of the C.A.F. on the left shoulder, while front line marines, pilots and sailors wore simple khaki, red and black jumpsuits, or British based Battle Dress. It was further decided that while personnel would have to be bi-lingual, commands and conversation would be in English and official documentation would be in German.

With National HQs in both London and Berlin, it was decided to place the main headquarters of the C.A.F. in the Commonwealth nation of New Zealand while the research and construction facilities were placed in the outback of Australia, far from the prying eyes of French Nationalists, the Americans, or the Russians. Construction of the facilities was completed in 1920 and the first manned space flight occurred in 1922, a Raumpfiel class rocket, carrying commodore William Code of the Royal Air Fleet and Kaptun Whilem Kofter of the Imperiale Luftkriegskraft,

this first successful flight caused a flurry of concern in the corridors of Washington and Moscow.

In Moscow the Tsar still held to his power, though tempered by the Duma government.

With Space flight now achieved, more flights were planned and in 1925 construction was slowly started on the first space station, known to all as simply "Station 1".

The roaring twenties boomed across the world as two nations struggled to bring space and the Martians with in reach for revenge.

Then the great depression hit.

Even though the economies of Britain and Germany were not totally tied to America, their economies still suffered. Even with three space space stations and a space dry dock completed, budget cuts caused difficulites with construction of the Imperial Space Fleet.

It wasn't until 1935 that full scale military preperation resumed. In Germany, communist riots and attacks began in earnest while Britain (who had kept her eyes to the sky since the invasion) spotted Martian Cylinders bound for Earth a second time. While rockets launched from silos on the Isle of Wight succeeded in destroying the cyclinders, the panic caused around the world showed that something must be done.

Germany had managed to crush the uprising by late 35 and with Britain began earnest construction of a joint space fleet.

Thanks to increased funding and drastic recruitment, the First Solar Expeditionary Force or the S.E.F. was ready to go by 1940, it consisted of three fleet carriers, 14 cruisers, 36 destroyers, over 80 troop carriers and support ships as well as six dreadnought class vessels, headed up by the flag ship the H.D.S. (Humanities Defence Ship) Gotterdamurung.

Due to construction during the late thirties the ships were able to get to Mars in a matter of weeks instead of months thanks to a magnetic relay built on the moon, this relay, using simple magnetic rail gun technology went around the moon five times, enabling even the largest vessels to work up enough speed to be catapaulted towards Mars across the voids of space.

However, when Mars of reached, it was discovered that not only were the martians just as strong as remembered, they were ready and waiting.

The ensuing conflict lasted 7 years, during which time almost 20% of the male population of both Germany and Britain was killed. Finally in 1947, the last Martian stronghold fell and humanity claimed victory.

It was in the immediet aftermath of the final battle that a discovery was made that would change everything...

"C'mon you lazy buggers! Move!" The sergants were bellowing to the blood-stained and distinctly thinned ranks of marines. "There's tunnels there need clearing!, check your 'rays and make sure your filters stay bloody well clear!"

Private William "Bob" Green traded a glance with his friend Private Klaus Becker as they wordlessly checked each others heatray rifles and mask filters. They had been amoung the lucky ones to survive the final storming of the Martian vault and neither of them were too happy about pushing their luck any further down in the tunnels. "Come on men!" came the call from their last surviving officer, a fresh faced (not that you could tell through his helmet) young twit of a lieutenant by the name of Dani Schuman. The young chap had only arrived a week ago and despite the carnage was still treating war like a noble jolly game.

Bob sighed and shouldered his pack as he formed up with Klaus and the handful of survivors from his unit. The entrance of the tunnels stretched before them big enough to take two tripodes side by side. Lieutenant Schuman hoisted his heatray and lead them down the tunnels, radioing in every intersection and marking them on a geo map being generated on his Command pad, the glowing light flickering on the walls of the tunnel.

Suddenly the tunnel got a lot lower, and thinner, now it was only big enough to take a single martian science tripod, roughly 3 meteres high and 3 meters across, the tunnel continued in this vein for around a hundred meters before ending in a metal hatch.

The lieutenant made his way to the hatch and was examined it for a few minutes before beckoning on of the other marines forward. Bob had to suppress a chuckle as he saw the familier hulking shape of Corpral Robert "Bomb" O'Rouke, the units pyro maniac, a.k.a. demolitions expert.

Ten minutes later the door was blasted of its hinges and the squad burst through the dust left by the explosion, their heatrays primed and glowing.

Nothing moved

Nothing at all

Infact the only sign of life at all was the gentle hum eminating from the mass of strange green glowing pillars in the center of the rooms.

"What the hell?", murmured Klaus as their squad spread out, covering as many angles as possible.

Bob didn't say anything, prefering to keep his eye on the lieutenant as the young man made his way to a glowing screen at the base of the pillars and ran his command pad over it.

As Bod watched, the young man suddenly stiffened and tore his pad away from the screen. "Private!" he yelled to Bob, "Run back and contact the Field Marshall. This isn't Martian!"

Bob's eyes widened but as he turned to go the lieutenants voice stopped him in his tracks, "And it's talking!"

Ohhhhh dun dun duuuunnnnnn.

Yes this chapter is quite short considering the time it covers and yes i know I have other stories I need to finish, I am sorry.

At present I am struggling for inspiration and am having a poke around my many fandoms and passions and seeing where this can fit in for a bit of fun.

Remember, take nothing to seriously!

If you have any ideas about where this story could go, please let me know, I'm thinking aobut jumping forward to the early 2000s and doing a fist contact scenario, before the jumping forward to the 2040s with Commander sheperd and the Reapers. But its all up in the air.