Nothingness
Two Thousand Club
Eons ago, there lived an aquatic race known as the Leviathans, while they believed themselves to be the first and only apex race, they took it upon themselves to be a form of guardian to protect and any and all sapient lifeforms to come to exist within the galaxy. As time went on and the Levithans observed their subservient races create synthetic lifeforms only to have them rebel against their creators, the Levithans were eventually forced to create an Intelligence that was to seek a way to preserve organic life by creating 'pawns' that would gather genetic information throughout the galaxy in search of way to help with the perseveration of organic life.
Eventually, the intelligence betrayed its creator, the Leviathans and sent out its pawns to slaughter and harvest them for their genetic material to eventually create the very first being that the rest of the galaxy came to know as a 'Reaper'. This first Reaper named itself as 'Harbinger' as it began a cyclical rampage throughout the galaxy, harvesting organic intelligent life as way to 'preserve' organic life as its original goal was set by its creator.
Centuries passed and eventually when the human race came to exist, when the time for another cycle of extermination of organic life came to sweep the galaxy, the human race was the first ever to be able to defeat a Reaper and with that single victory a new goal was set for the remaining races. No longer would the cycle continue and with the combined effort of every single race, they were able to eventually destroy Harbinger and bring what was believed to be everlasting peace to the galaxy.
...
Or so they thought.
...
While the Leviathans had stated that they were the first and only apex lifeform to exist, insinuating that there was nothing before them, they lied. Before the Leviathans, there lived another lifeform, one that was given the name as the 'Corrupted Plague' by the Leviathans due to it being a viral lifeform rather than purely organic. The lifeform itself is a perfect combination between both organic and synthetic, it appears to be able to self-replicate as well as 'infect' both living beings and technology alike. The only reason the lifeform never seen or heard from was because after the Leviathans realized the existential threat that the lifeform could bring, they dedicated nearly all their resources to contain the threat in the deepest and darkest regions of space, far from any other organic or synthetic life.
After the extinction of the Leviathans at the hands of their own creation and finally the destruction of Harbinger and its Reapers, nothing held back the Corrupted Plague. The first case of the infection was on Eden Prime, considered to be one of the first planets humans colonized after the discovery of the mass relays.
The viral lifeform arrived and spread through the planet in an airborne state, so it was near invisible other than sightings of strange green spores floating through the air that people were inhaling. While the first symptoms of the infection were more similar to the flu or common cold, after about a week or so, when humans began deforming and their skin turned metallic, panic quickly set in. The Corruption spread throughout the colonies, rapidly taking over other humans and even rewriting DNA as well as hacking into all different sorts of tech throughout the colonies.
When the Citadel had gotten the distress signal, it was far too late, every last human on Eden Prime had been turned into mindless beast, all of which were connected to a Hivemind of sorts. From there, the Hivemind spoke through one of its infected vessels, informing the rest of the Galaxy that they were known as 'The Nexus' and that they would spread throughout the remainder of the Galaxy to assimilate all life into a singular unified consciousness, it believes that individuality is a weakness and seeks to erase all diversity, turning the galaxy into a singular unstoppable entity with itself as the helm .
After communications were cut off, the Council believed that such a threat should not be announced to the rest of the races and that the issue should be resolved as quickly and secretly as possible to avoid panic amongst the public. Sending out multiple Spectres as they were known as the greatest tool in the Council's arsenal, even they failed in their mission to contain the threat, only being absorbed and infected into the mass of the Hivemind. Luckily a single Spectre was able to return from the mission alive and uninfected, explaining what they had witnessed was nothing less than gruesome nightmare and dying was a better option than what they saw happen to their comrades.
With the threat of The Nexus being more severe than what was originally anticipated, the Council sent out a message throughout the Galaxy, they were now recruiting any and all able-bodied individuals, regardless of race or background to come to the Citadel to assist with an important mission that had the same urgency as it did when facing the Reapers originally. Of course, this included a reward so that even criminals would see some form of interest into this as well. The recruitment message indicated coordinates to the Citadel and to meet in Hanger 001 for debriefing.
===
So, I've been craving a sci-fi roleplay as of late and just haven't been sure what kind of roleplay to join or to make. So, I just decided to come up with this...just as the title says, this will be an Alternative Universe to the Mass Effect series. So, no Commander Shepard...but as needed, some known characters might be playing roles as NPCs just to make life a little easier to avoid having to make whole backstories and further information for unnecessary reasons. I've got some more lore on the infection thing that I'll put up if the roleplay gets enough interest.
Eventually, the intelligence betrayed its creator, the Leviathans and sent out its pawns to slaughter and harvest them for their genetic material to eventually create the very first being that the rest of the galaxy came to know as a 'Reaper'. This first Reaper named itself as 'Harbinger' as it began a cyclical rampage throughout the galaxy, harvesting organic intelligent life as way to 'preserve' organic life as its original goal was set by its creator.
Centuries passed and eventually when the human race came to exist, when the time for another cycle of extermination of organic life came to sweep the galaxy, the human race was the first ever to be able to defeat a Reaper and with that single victory a new goal was set for the remaining races. No longer would the cycle continue and with the combined effort of every single race, they were able to eventually destroy Harbinger and bring what was believed to be everlasting peace to the galaxy.
...
Or so they thought.
...
While the Leviathans had stated that they were the first and only apex lifeform to exist, insinuating that there was nothing before them, they lied. Before the Leviathans, there lived another lifeform, one that was given the name as the 'Corrupted Plague' by the Leviathans due to it being a viral lifeform rather than purely organic. The lifeform itself is a perfect combination between both organic and synthetic, it appears to be able to self-replicate as well as 'infect' both living beings and technology alike. The only reason the lifeform never seen or heard from was because after the Leviathans realized the existential threat that the lifeform could bring, they dedicated nearly all their resources to contain the threat in the deepest and darkest regions of space, far from any other organic or synthetic life.
After the extinction of the Leviathans at the hands of their own creation and finally the destruction of Harbinger and its Reapers, nothing held back the Corrupted Plague. The first case of the infection was on Eden Prime, considered to be one of the first planets humans colonized after the discovery of the mass relays.
The viral lifeform arrived and spread through the planet in an airborne state, so it was near invisible other than sightings of strange green spores floating through the air that people were inhaling. While the first symptoms of the infection were more similar to the flu or common cold, after about a week or so, when humans began deforming and their skin turned metallic, panic quickly set in. The Corruption spread throughout the colonies, rapidly taking over other humans and even rewriting DNA as well as hacking into all different sorts of tech throughout the colonies.
When the Citadel had gotten the distress signal, it was far too late, every last human on Eden Prime had been turned into mindless beast, all of which were connected to a Hivemind of sorts. From there, the Hivemind spoke through one of its infected vessels, informing the rest of the Galaxy that they were known as 'The Nexus' and that they would spread throughout the remainder of the Galaxy to assimilate all life into a singular unified consciousness, it believes that individuality is a weakness and seeks to erase all diversity, turning the galaxy into a singular unstoppable entity with itself as the helm .
After communications were cut off, the Council believed that such a threat should not be announced to the rest of the races and that the issue should be resolved as quickly and secretly as possible to avoid panic amongst the public. Sending out multiple Spectres as they were known as the greatest tool in the Council's arsenal, even they failed in their mission to contain the threat, only being absorbed and infected into the mass of the Hivemind. Luckily a single Spectre was able to return from the mission alive and uninfected, explaining what they had witnessed was nothing less than gruesome nightmare and dying was a better option than what they saw happen to their comrades.
With the threat of The Nexus being more severe than what was originally anticipated, the Council sent out a message throughout the Galaxy, they were now recruiting any and all able-bodied individuals, regardless of race or background to come to the Citadel to assist with an important mission that had the same urgency as it did when facing the Reapers originally. Of course, this included a reward so that even criminals would see some form of interest into this as well. The recruitment message indicated coordinates to the Citadel and to meet in Hanger 001 for debriefing.
===
So, I've been craving a sci-fi roleplay as of late and just haven't been sure what kind of roleplay to join or to make. So, I just decided to come up with this...just as the title says, this will be an Alternative Universe to the Mass Effect series. So, no Commander Shepard...but as needed, some known characters might be playing roles as NPCs just to make life a little easier to avoid having to make whole backstories and further information for unnecessary reasons. I've got some more lore on the infection thing that I'll put up if the roleplay gets enough interest.
)
