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Ah, good to see a man of culture on QQ. Very nice quote, especially for the setup.The lights are going out all over this galaxy, and we will not see them relit in our time.
Well, you could say that the United States was far stronger militarily at the end of WWII than at the start, as were most of the Allies. Even the Soviet Union had started rebuilding and was at least as strong when the Germans surrendered as they had been in 1941 despite their country being ravaged by the scorched earth tactics (although that was primarily by mustering their forces and through lend-lease providing equipment, it took them years to rebuild their industry). On the other hand the Axis were in shambles.While this would ostensibly mean the Reaper Invasion would basically be a walk in the park for the mecha-cuttlefish if the timeline stayed the same, an amusing thought is that Sovereign would actually wait to start Reaper invasion; the stated goal of the Reapers is to let organics flourish and reach a reasonable level of general unity/stability before starting the Cycle. Which... would mean that they'd want to wait a bit longer for things to settle down and the Galaxy to fully unify again. But then Shepard isn't around, and so the Reapers still win? Shrug.
The events of the Mass Effect series are generally implied to be a 'best it's ever gonna get' situation for the fight against the Reapers, and even then - with the entire Galaxy united in one massive fleet - the Reapers still win if the player doesn't choose one of the Red/Blue/Green endings. Changing even a little to make things worse... yeah, incoming Bad Times Ahead.
While this would ostensibly mean the Reaper Invasion would basically be a walk in the park for the mecha-cuttlefish if the timeline stayed the same, an amusing thought is that Sovereign would actually wait to start Reaper invasion; the stated goal of the Reapers is to let organics flourish and reach a reasonable level of general unity/stability before starting the Cycle. Which... would mean that they'd want to wait a bit longer for things to settle down and the Galaxy to fully unify again. But then Shepard isn't around, and so the Reapers still win? Shrug.
The events of the Mass Effect series are generally implied to be a 'best it's ever gonna get' situation for the fight against the Reapers, and even then - with the entire Galaxy united in one massive fleet - the Reapers still win if the player doesn't choose one of the Red/Blue/Green endings. Changing even a little to make things worse... yeah, incoming Bad Times Ahead.
The events of the Mass Effect series are generally implied to be a 'best it's ever gonna get' situation for the fight against the Reapers, and even then - with the entire Galaxy united in one massive fleet - the Reapers still win if the player doesn't choose one of the Red/Blue/Green endings. Changing even a little to make things worse... yeah, incoming Bad Times Ahead.
Ah, good to see a man of culture on QQ. Very nice quote, especially for the setup.
This. I assume they either left shanxi totally uninhabited as a monument, or far more likely turned into such an ludicrously armed fortress that Cadians would be envious of how well defended it is.
You should probably threadmark this, given that it's over 1K and contains a lot of good info.
fucking seventh...... I have not read about anything this heavily fortified that was not in Warhammerall in, out of the dozen most fortified systems in Human space, Shanxi is at place number seven.
I don't get the reference, and Googling "Terranis" doesn't seem to help.Hmmmm....
Needs more.
Shanxi needs to become a Terranis.
Terranis will hold. Always.
I don't get the reference, and Googling "Terranis" doesn't seem to help.
Given that the humanity was initially behind in terms of mass effect tech and didn't go for integration into Citadel economic space this time around, are we going to see more divergent technologies like medigel as opposed to "make same things as everyone else, but more and bigger"?See, I don't buy that.
The entire Mass Effect series has the galaxy hilariously lightly-armed (I wouldn't call any of the canon fleet sizes enough military assets to adequately cover one star system, never mind thousands) due to operating under pre-WW2 style military treaties, riding high after several millennia on a peacetime footing, and essentially technologically stagnant. It can very readily be read as having been done by design, there's already a vector to do so via - indoctrination - and a vessel through which to indoctrinate everything and the kitchen sink; the Citadel itself.
It can be read - and this fic assumes as I strongly dislike apocalyptic endings and not to put too fine a point on it found the canon ending of Mass Effect eye-rollingly bad - that the Reapers use the Citadel to make the biologicals defeat themselves via stagnation, complacency, disarmament, and the installation of a comically blinkered government prone to 'dismissing these claims'.
The result of an utterly runaway cold-war arms race is a very, very different animal indeed. Quite a lot darker, quite a lot more violent, but VASTLY more heavily armed. By the time of the planned segment about the flashpoint our unnamed Asari Matron fears there are more, and more advanced, dreadnought-class warships in any one of the eight squadrons making up the Sol Home Fleet - effectively the human home defence force - than there were in the entire canon Mass Effect galaxy. The entire combined militaries of every canon Mass Effect race put together would be insufficient to make up one squadron of one fleet of any major player's navy - and the most advanced warship in Mass Effect canon would be considered hopelessly obsolete.
Given that the humanity was initially behind in terms of mass effect tech and didn't go for integration into Citadel economic space this time around, are we going to see more divergent technologies like medigel as opposed to "make same things as everyone else, but more and bigger"?
The temptation is to start hurling hard SF at Mass Effect and see what sticks. Bomb-pumped lasers anyone? Casaba Howitzers?
I'm not sure about the latter, ME armor is pretty advanced still, and kinetic barriers seem to be at least partially effective against particle weapons - Collector particle projectors and Geth plasma weapons pierce barriers much easier than any conventional mass drivers, but there's still some resistance first.The temptation is to start hurling hard SF at Mass Effect and see what sticks. Bomb-pumped lasers anyone? Casaba Howitzers?
It's simply a frame with a targeting computer, a power source, an FTL engine, and attachments to hold the projectile(s). All it does is aim at the target from several light seconds/minutes away, getting to that spot via its own FTL drive, then accelerates to 99% light speed, releases the projectile which is just an inert bit of metal, then slows itself down while the projectile continues on it's way at 99% light speed while the missile returns to the launching platform.
One very simple but absolutely devastating weapon I haven't seen used is a near FTL sabot missile. It's even perfectly within the capabilities of the ME-verse, no external SF needed.
This. ME fields make ships lighter so that they can move faster with less momentum and also fuck with properties of space around the ship so that they don't actually cross or even approach c locally while travelling at FTL speeds from outside perspective. Nothing in that generates real energy that'd be released during impact.I like the idea, or even more simply slamming FTL shuttles into them, but I'm not certain they'd work. I think the FTL in Mass Effect works by reducing the mass of the ship. If that's the case then the total kinetic energy shouldn't actually be any higher. Also when the projectile is loosed from the carrier it would leave the mass effect field and immediately slow down to it's 'proper' speed.
My best guess is that they don't use that principle there, converting electricity into real thrust without involving pseudo-speed at any point.I don't know how that is reconciled with mass effect projectile weapons which do maintain their velocity though.
This. ME fields make ships lighter so that they can move faster with less momentum and also fuck with properties of space around the ship so that they don't actually cross or even approach c locally while travelling at FTL speeds from outside perspective. Nothing in that generates real energy that'd be released during impact.
In this particular instance, at least, it does.For the second time, your theory does not match Mass Effect canon:
https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/..._-_Taetrus.27_Capital_Obliterated_After_Blast
Could potentially be explained as the mass effect field itself impacting.
In this particular instance, at least, it does.
An interstellar freighter weighting tens, possibly hundreds thousands tons burning full thrust until its out of fuel would produce that kind of impact just fine at a fraction of percent of c of real speed it could reach that way. Using FTL on top of that would not increase that energy any
Which snip is that?there is a direct statement that the result would have been far worse if the ship had been able to get closer to (or actually reach) FTL.
That works as well, as the source of damage for that would be speed and ME core power rather than speed and ship mass, so how fast or slow its realspace speed was before FTL transit becomes largely irrelevant.For the context of this fic, I'm going to use the explanation that the damage is caused by the ship's mass effect field - specifically, the same thing that creates a kinetic barrier - impacting a solid object with a very high relative velocity.
Also when the projectile is loosed from the carrier it would leave the mass effect field and immediately slow down to it's 'proper' speed.