User blog:Tanooki1432/What if...

What if history happened a little bit differently? What if, the Prothean station on Mars was annihilated in some way (Mars is subject to frequent meteor strikes, being so close to the Asteroid Belt) and as a result, humanity didn't learn the secrets Mass Effect stuff when we did.

What do YOU think would have happened?

I'll get the ball rolling.

Me? I think Humanity would have eventually discovered some other form of FTL travel. Like what's used in Star Trek with a controlled matter/anti-matter reaction or some other form of FTL travel in another sci-fi flick. Humanity would have begun exploring the galaxy, but at a much, much, much slower pace. Weapons and defensive technologies would have taken a much different path (again, humanity does NOT have Mass Effect stuff. No mass accelerators and no kinetic barriers), but eventually evolving to something more advanced, like actual deflector shields and directed energy weapons as the main way of kicking ass and taking names. Humanity's exploration would, again, be much slower.

What happens next depends on what happens on Eden Prime. If say for example some other race (like the dope Batarians) colonized the planet and discovered the Beacon, Saren (or somebody else), does what Saren tried to (no Commander Shepard to save the day) and the Citadel races we know and love and hate become Reaper meat, but since humanity is expanding at a much slower pace, they are much more confined, and as a result, missed by the rampaging Reapers.

Eventually, after a century or several, we eventually run across a Mass Relay. However, with no knowledge of its purpose, its regarded as a scientific curiosity and a landmark to put on the navigational charts (Crazy floating tuning fork here! A navigational landmark with surprisingly clean restrooms! Fun for the whole family! See it float there doing nothing but spinning around! Visit our gift shop!). Eventually, more are discovered, and perhaps somebody even discovers that they seem to be pointing at each other. Scared, we slow down our exploration of space as we have no idea what's going on with these things. We fortify our holdings and focus our resources on securing our borders and enhancing our defensive technologies.

After a few decades of "nothing happening", we begin to reallocate resources back to exploration. At some point, humanity finds the Serpent Nebula. At this point, our navigational technology has improved to the point that we can safely navigate the nebula and discover the Citadel, and we discover our first alien species: The Keepers (or maybe the Geth 'cuz the Reapers were like "Screw you, bug guys!") intrigued, we start to poke around. At this point, we discover the secrets of Mass Effect stuff and the purpose of all those floating tuning forks (which at this point were relegated to navigational landmarks), as well as this conveniently positioned space station at a hub of all these relays. Paranoia sets in again back home in the council chamber of our futuristic government (at this point, I suspect it's about the 25th, 26th maybe 27th century). However, since it really is a nice space station, people relocate there, but our government stays back on Earth (because at this point Earth is a REALLY nice place with shiny cities and a massive network of orbital and land based defenses because we really don't think we're alone).

Side Note: Now I know it took several centuries for the Reapers to wipe out the Protheans, and eventually we might run across the Reapers doing what they do best, but I figure that a barely unified government like the Citadel Council wouldn't be able to put up nearly as much resistance as a single unified galactic-wide empire. Plus, you have the Terminus Systems which really wouldn't take THAT long to eat up. As such, I figure that it takes the reapers MUCH less time to wipe out the galaxy.

After a few decades, we start using the Mass Relays to get around, where we discover the still smoldering ruins of the Salarian Union, Asari Republics, Turian Hierarchy, Batarian Hegemony and the rest of the galaxy. Shocked at finding all of these ruins, that are so fresh, only having become ruins several centuries ago, we again stop exploring and allocate resources to securing our borders and improving our defenses. Despite the Citadel's appeal, the leaders of humanity decide NOT to relocate the seat of power there, and treat the Citadel as another colony (albeit, an important one).

After several more centuries of expanding, colonizing, etc., (at this point I think it's around 31st century) we eventually draw the attention of the Reapers. The Reaper vanguard, shocked that this civilization has sprung up in only a few centuries after the last cycle of extinction, springs into action! The Citadel is alerted, and the Reapers pour through and annihilate the colony there, but are shocked to discover that this isn't the Seat of Power. It's somewhere else. Meanwhile, our leaders, safe and sound back on Earth also spring into action, mobilizing fleets across our civilization to combat this threat (remember, all of our central command stuff is on Earth, not the Citadel). And this is where things get different: because we never discovered the Charon Relay, we've had to maintain an efficient and effective means of NOT traveling by the relays so ships can get from Earth to the nearest relay (which is a couple hundred light years away). As the Reapers flail about trying to figure out where the food is, we've mobilized our forces for the fight, despite the Mass Relays not working because the Reapers are jerks like that. When the Reapers finally DO figure out where to go, they're blasted out of the sky by weaponry that is far beyond anything they've seen. After several frantic months of combat, the Reapers are space garbage, and humanity goes on to live for a very, very, very, very, very long time.



The other possibility is if the Prothean Beacon was NOT discovered, and Sovereign continues to flail about wondering what the crap to do.

Again, eventually we'd find a giant floating tuning fork and it would be left as a navigational landmark with surprisingly clean restrooms (and a fantastic gift shop!). However, we'd eventually run into somebody (probably the turians 'cuz they seem to patrol around like that). What happens next depends on where we meet them. If we meet them at a Mass Relay (and we're installing our fantastic gift shop and surprisingly clean restrooms), they might mistake our bumbling curiosity as attempting to activate the relay and the First Contact War is over even faster (because, remember, we're using entirely different and more powerful weapons and defensive technologies) and once again, the Citadel Council intervenes before the turians go ape and a delegation of our ambassadors is taken to the Citadel (we can't really go there ourselves with our not mass effect tech). After a massive exchange of technology (our defensive technologies for mass relay transportation) we join the Citadel.

At this point, the Reapers (who are starving) are like "Screw the damn Citadel! We gotta eat!" and proceed to come to the galaxy the way they're currently coming to the galaxy. At which point, they're again, reduced to space garbage by the more advanced weapons tech humanity brought to the playing field. And we live happily ever after.



So. What do YOU think would happen if humanity did NOT discover the Prothean ruins on Mars and were forced to explore the galaxy in a different way?