Codex

History of the UNSC

2170: Expansion

A unified Earth government was formed in the wake of the Interplanetary War. Now, the victors were forced to deal with a less obvious but equally serious threat: overpopulation and a massive military that had no enemy to fight. In the postwar period there were massive population surges and the overpopulation, coupled with the destruction and famine bred by the Rain Forest Wars, threatened to destabilize the economy.

2291: Faster-Than-Light

A team of researchers, physicists, and mathematicians working in secret developed the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, a practical means of propelling spacecraft across vast interstellar distances. This new engine allowed ships to tunnel into "the Slipstream" (also called "Slipspace"). Slipspace is a domain with alternate physical laws, allowing faster-than-light travel without relativistic side-effects. Faster-than-light travel is not instantaneous; "short" jumps routinely take up to two months, and "long" jumps can last six months or more.

The SFTE generated a resonance field, which when coupled with the unusual physics of the Slipstream, allowed for dramatically shorter transit times between stars; however, scientists noted an odd "flexibility" to temporal flow while inside the Slipstream. Though no human scientist is sure why travel time between stars is not constant, many theorize that there are "eddies" or "currents" within the Slipstream—there is generally a five to ten percent variance in travel times between stars. This temporal inconsistency has given military tacticians and strategists fits—hampering many coordinated attacks.

2310: First Wave

The Earth government unveiled the first in a line of colony ships—and volunteers were in great supply. Conditions on Earth had deteriorated in the face of overpopulation, so hitching a ride out to a colony became an attractive option.

Each colony ship was assigned military personnel and escort ships to help better utilize the massive (and expensive) standing fleets that, in the collapse of armed dissent, were soaking up a great deal of funding and resources.

Because FTL travel in this period was still fairly new and expensive, colonists and military personnel faced a stringent regimen of physical and mental testing. In theory, only the best-qualified citizens and soldiers were allowed to colonize "nearby" worlds. This was the birth of the Inner Colonies.

2362: The Odyssey

The Odyssey launched on January 1, 2362. The lead ship in a fleet of colony vessels, the Odyssey—laden with troops and terraforming gear—spearheaded the colonization of a new world. This sparked the first wave of human expansion beyond the confines of the Solar System.

2390: Inner Colonies

By 2390, the colonization of the Inner Colonies was fully underway. There were 210 human-occupied worlds in various stages of terraforming, and the population burden across human-controlled space was largely stabilized.

2490: The Birth of the Outer Colonies

Expansion continued at a rapid pace, and by 2490 human space encompassed more than 800 worlds throughout the Orion Arm of the Milky Way (ranging from fairly well-tamed planetary strongholds to tiny hinterland settlements). Outward expansion continued, and the Inner Colonies become a political and economic stronghold, though they relied heavily on raw materials supplied by the Outer Colonies.

During this period, the planet Reach (orbiting Epsilon Eridani, right on Earth's metaphorical doorstep) became the UNSC's primary Naval yard and training academy. Reach was a major producer of warships and colony vessels, as well as a training ground for covert operatives and Special Forces.

2494: The Insurrection

This year saw the beginning of the most destructive conflict in Human history, a Civil War which would claim 5 billion lives, the destruction of dozens of Inner Colonies, and which could have resulted in the collapse of Human civilization and a Dark Age of technological regression and barbarism lasting centuries, had the UNSC not emerged victorious over the Insurrectionists. Despite the devastation of the war, it did result in many technological innovations, such as improved Slipspace travel, advances in ship-to-ship combat weapons, the development of MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armour currently utilized by UNSC Special Forces, and improved shipboard Fusion Reactors.

2587: Aftermath and Reconstruction

At the close of the Insurrection, the UNSC engaged in an extensive period of reconstruction in order to restore stability to the colonies that suffered heavy damage during the war.

2597: First Contact

The Outer Colony Harvest comes under attack by a multi-racial Citadel Council taskforce consisting of Asari, Turian, and Salarian warships.

Author's Note

I've always wondered: what would happen if the Covenant's discovery of Harvest was delayed by a century, and the Insurrection was allowed to run it's course? Technology tends to advance quickly during conflict, so what kind of advances would the UNSC achieve during the Insurrection, if it was uninterrupted by an alien invasion? What would happen if the Citadel Council was the first alliance of alien races encountered by Humanity, and how would they influence us? How would we influence them?

That's basically the premise of my fic.

Rather than jumping head first into the story, I want to present a series of Codex entries to introduce interested readers into my Alternate Universe and see what the reception is; if it's positive, I'll proceed. If it's negative, I'll drop this fic like a bag of roaches. Naturally, as this is AU, there will be certain changes to canon.

1: The Human-Forerunner Connection will be as Bungie originally intended, with Humans descended from the Forerunners; not because I dislike Bungie's retcon or the direction 343i is taking the series, but because I want to explore how this will define Humanity's relations with the Covenant and the Citadel races.

2: The Quarians have succeeded in taking back their homeworld and destroyed the Geth, as the Reapers weren't there to interfere, so the Geth are completely vulnerable to the Quarian's new weapon; thus, they have spent the last 500 years rebuilding their civilization and reclaiming their lost colonies in the Perseus Veil.

Mass Effect: First Contact is going to be the first story of many, and it will focus on the invasion of Harvest by the Citadel Council(why have Asari, Turians and Salarians invading together? Because it wouldn't be HALO unless Humans are threatened by many races; I want to capture that feeling of having the whole galaxy against you). My second story, Children of the Gods, will be about the Human Covenant War. The third story, Reclamation, will be about Humanity reclaiming the Forerunner's old empire and technology, while dealing with Covenant remnants, Citadel Council terrorists, the Created, and a lone Forerunner who looks down on the "primitive" UNSC, and seeks to restore the Forerunners to prominence.

I'll have other stories afterwards, dealing with the Flood and the Reapers, but that's a long way off.

Anyways, the next chapter will give details about the Insurrection.

R&R