Chapter Text
For Eons, the reapers ruled the galaxy with an Iron fist.
And for eons, none have resisted their culling. It began as always with the dream and desire to explore. New races, exiting the confines of their respective atmosphere, would soon enough encounter the ruins of their predecessors. From this discovery came the Age of Exploration and the desire to explore further. Their next step and foray into the galaxy came with the discovery of the Mass Relays.
Large, indestructible structures hanging silently in the void. Dark, cold, and waiting for their turn to shine.
These mass transit devices are scattered across the Milky Way, typically located within specific star systems. It is here that they form the first stream in an enormous galaxy-wide network, enabling rapid interstellar travel. Hailed as one of the greatest achievements of the now extinct predecessors by those who stumble upon these great Structures. A mass relay can transport starships instantaneously to another relay within the network, allowing journeys that would otherwise take years or even centuries with only FTL drives to occur in only a handful of days, or even hours.
There are two kinds of mass relay, primary and secondary. Primary relays can propel a ship thousands of light-years, but only link to one other relay, its "partner". Secondary relays can link to any other relay over shorter distances, only a few hundred light-years. Such was the simplicity of the technology and network that nobody questioned the relays, nor did they spend any effort studying them.
After all, with every new relay opened comes new star systems, new homes, new resources, and new technologies of the past just waiting to be discovered. With new resources and technologies came new opportunities and the ever-expanding desire to explore and exploit. As such, all races became dependent on the mass relays and the technologies of the past.
And here lay the insidiousness of the trap. By using the relays and the Citadel, galactic civilizations evolve along the paths the Reapers desire. In addition, the relays serve to accelerate the rate at which those civilizations advance, shortening the time between harvests and streamlining the process of galactic extinction.
After all, why research new technologies if each opened mass relay leads to ruins filled with past tech, in some ways more advanced than their basic science could offer, just waiting to be discovered?
Why terraform old worlds if new garden worlds await, with each open relay allowing for rapid expansion and empire building? And why limit themselves to their current holdings if they could quickly acquire more and more resources if they open more relays?
After all, the fastidious speeds of the relays would inevitably lead to conflict as numerous species would collide with one another for dominance and control. Thereby limited their expansion and growth as they fought one another for the resources and control over the network.
Already limited in thinking by the exposure of advanced technologies gifted by ruins, the Reaper's meticulously and strategically placed near their homeworlds. Their downfall was all but assured.
When the relay network was shut off and the reapers poured into the galaxy like a horde of locusts. There was no resistance. Nobody expected an enemy on the scale and size of the reapers.
Nobody ever expected the citadel, which was the heart of the network, ever to be the site of the first attack, the first battle, and the epicenter of the invasion. There was no shame in never foreseeing that calamity.
The Citadel was too protected, surrounded by the best ships belonging to the race or civilization that currently occupied it. In addition, the Citadel was the center of the relay network's largest junction. As such, any attack on the citadel will immediately be reinforced by any friendly systems.
All in all, the Citadel was well protected, and one had to be insane to launch a direct assault against it. Well..., anyone who was well within their conventional line of thinking, anyway.
Unfortunately, for many races consumed by the endless cycle. The reapers were anything but a conventional foe. They were far too strong and far too insidious for anyone to ever consider.
They never expected the reapers to pour into the galaxy via the Citadel. They never expected the structure itself to be a Mass Relay. Nor did they expect the Citadel to be its main control center.
When the relay network shut off. The apparent limitations and overall reliance on the ancient network became all too apparent. Entire fleets that once shuttered the stars were suddenly bisected. Cut off from friendlies and any support.
Star systems became disconnected as nobody in one star cluster could reach the other in any reasonable travel time. From the lack of travel and transport came the crashing of the interstellar economy. No trade meant no money flow, and with no money flowing. Jobs were lost, and the very way of life that civilization once enjoyed was now a distant memory.
It was like a never-ending nightmare that would never stop. In one fell swoop, the reapers dealt a blow that the current galactic cycle would never recover from.
Then came the slow grinding death as the Reapers took their merry time harvesting one star system after the other. As if in an act of cruelty, the reapers choose not to destroy the interstellar comms buoys that enable near instant communications across the galaxy.
Consequently, that meant everyone saw who they were fighting and the impending disaster that came. But no one could do anything about it. But even if they tried, it was all for nothing. The reapers were too strong, too technologically advanced, and too numerous.
No matter how many had tried, they would all meet their end at the hands of the reapers anyway. It would take decades if not centuries, but in the end, their fall was all but assured.
Some star systems and star clusters would be lucky, having the industrial capacity, the ships, and the infrastructure for a siege. While others weren't so lucky. This pattern of the reaper's conquest would always repeat itself, and many times the reapers saw each race's effort to survive but fail in the end.
And when the last star system is scourge for survivors, and when the harvest is complete. The cycle was finished, followed by the next one. Once again, the reapers prepared, sowing the seeds for the next conquest, for the next harvest.
Ruins containing technology of the past were the seeds. The relay network, as the fertilizers. And thus, it was the reaper's eternal duty to seed, guide, and harvest the countless races of the galaxy.
Of course, one had to ask oneself, how do the reapers account for the unexpected?
After all, they have been operating this cycle business for roughly one to one and a half billion years, or more, of these harvest duties. Surely they would have encountered any unexpected variables? Like, for example, a race developing technology independent from their initial plan.
How do the reapers account for this? One might ask. This, my friend, is where lies the true secret of the reapers. The reapers are known for their advanced technologies. From the creation of the Mass Relay Network to the technique of indoctrination.
A form of mind control, perfected from countless cycles, allowing the reapers to bend organic minds to their will. To the conversion of organic matter and minds into their own. Thereby creating more of themselves and expanding their already near-endless numbers.
But for all that achievement, all of it pales to the true magnum opus of the reapers. The Probability Engine and the Simulation Matrix were often referred to by the Reapers. Its existence was the apex of Reaper science and technology alongside their understanding of mass effect physics.
In layman's terms, the following description of the tech is as follows. The probability engine, as its name would suggest, is an advanced space-time computer. Solely dedicated to the various quantum calculations to ensure the reaper's success in the next cycle.
Using advanced Mass Effect Physics to compute the various quantum calculations down to the very quarks. The reapers will always know their probability of success in the next cycle. The Probability engine takes into account the various factors that would affect the harvest and computes the success rate for each cycle. Taking data from basic observation from new species and throughout the interludes between the cycles via spyware in the mass relays and said species' comm network, and via the countless stealth probes launched by its vanguard.
This can come in many different variables. From rate of growth accounts for population growth and civilization expansion across the relay network. To the average technological development, the probability engine will compute all that and then compile a final result of the probability of success.
This comes in five major results: the overall success rate, the average rate of resistance, the error factor, the potential of unexpected variables, and finally, the outliers. The rest is background data and other miscellaneous calculations supporting the five results.
It is thanks to this advanced computing technology that the Reapers, or rather their central guiding intelligence, will determine the necessary resources and take necessary action to ensure each cycle is harvested as efficiently as possible.
But the probability engine doesn't show the reapers the full picture. After all, what it just shows are numbers and pure data. If they truly want to prepare, they would need to see what this data would become and, therefore, prepare for the upcoming cycle.
This is where the Simulation Matrix finally comes in. From the data generated by the Probability engine, it is then fed into the Simulation Matrix, where the reapers can finally simulate and see what they are up against.
The Simulation Matrix, built from the same technology as the Probability engines, is the apex of Mass Effect Physics in the field of computing. An untold centillion of calculations are computed every second, allowing for millions upon millions of complex simulations to be carried out by the vast reaper armada to train, coordinate, and plan accordingly for the next cycle.
If there are any unexpected variables or outliers, the Simulation Matrix will have them all, from data fed by the Probability engine. As such, the reapers were always prepared if the unexpected would always occur.
For example, if a race was found in an area devoid of eezo, the possibility of them developing technology to artificially create eezo or worse, a new form of FTL travel was immediately rectified. A massive Dyson sphere was created nearby stealthily to seed eezo across the star cluster and beyond.
And the person behind the new tech was taken out by carefully placed indoctrinated agents. If the worst comes, the reapers would send a covert force and wipe out the species before they could disrupt the entire carefully crafted system.
It was because of this that the reapers were so successful in crafting the galaxy to their will and image. No outliers would ever leave the reapers' sight, and everyone is assured to use eezo tech as designed by the reapers.
And so for countless eons, the reapers have endured. The Probability Engine and the Simulation Matrix never fail them, and they have no reason to distrust them. After all, it had worked for so long, the reapers never really questioned it.... Until now.
After a long, brutal harvest against the last cycle races, which proved to be very stubborn and very destructive. A rare feat for a cycle race, but something not too unexpected, as the Matrix and Engine had already foretold and prepared the reapers for this struggle.
Something odd happened. When the reapers prepared for the next cycle, hoping it would be an easy one after the last. The result was shocking.
The probability Engine did not show a low chance of succeeding. No, it was a confirmed 100 percent total defeat for the reaper forces. Not just a 100 percent total defeat, but their complete and utter destruction and the end of the endless cycle.
The reaper collective was in an uproar when the results became evident.
How!? And why?
Why, after so long of predicting success after success, did the Probability matrix suddenly show these results?
Was the machine broken? That's quite a reasonable explanation, after all, it has been eons since it was built, so its failing from age wasn't all that unexpected. But the machine was replaced ages ago with new parts and had undergone numerous untold maintenance cycles, so that theory was out.
Even worse, when the reapers brought back the old parts, the result was still the same. 100 percent total defeat and destruction. This meant it had to be something else at play here.
So the reapers scoured looking for the answer to this problem. They initially thought their collected data had an error, but it did not. Then they thought their probes had malfunctioned, but they did not. Then they thought they had missed something from the previous cycle. That was preposterous; countless races had done something similar and left something behind that would escape their sweep. Hoping that what they left behind would ensure the next cycle would escape their fate. But it was futile. At least that is what the reapers had thought.
The Probability engine was specifically designed so that the Reapers would account for such variables. So what exactly went wrong here? But regardless, the reapers kept searching and searching.
It wasn't long before they found what they were looking for. Tucked in an area nearly devoid of eezo deep within the Orion arm was a star system. It wasn't a special star system as it only contained a yellow dwarf star, 8 planets, an asteroid belt, an outer debris disk, and an unusually large outer debris disk. It had one garden world, as listed in the past cycle records. Known for its unusually high biodiversity, out of anything they have seen.
Inhabited by a species, the past cycle referred to as Humans. Truth to be told, the reapers, having seen many species of all kinds and shapes, didn't see them as special from the first discovery. Yet, from the evidence they gathered, they were the ones to end the endless cycle.
But how was going to wait, first the reapers need to deal with the humans before finding out why. But before they could do that, they needed to feed their plan into the Probability engine. They needed to see if anything was going to change.
The reapers had high confidence that their pre-emptive strike against the humans who were in the era known as the Holocene Cro-Magnon period would be enough to change that fate. After all, it had to be an outlier, right? To much of their horror, it changed nothing.
Once again, why? Why did the Probability engine still make this prediction? Once again, they checked it for faults. Nothing, everything was in working order. But how could that be? The Reaper collective thought in unison.
They tried other methods, including destroying Earth completely, reducing it to ash and space dust. Still, the probability engine predicted a total 100 percent defeat. But in that case, their defeat was delayed by many cycles until their end.
And so, the reapers were left with one last option. They needed to see what they were going to encounter if this projected defeat would come true. To their suprised, the results were as fascinating as the initial prediction by the Probability Engine.
Instead of a few hundred scenarios, they didn't receive one thousand or one million, but trillions of different scenarios on how humanity or the various creatures that the Sol system would give birth to will result in their defeat.
Through these scenarios, the Reapers again and again found themselves humbled, frightened, and educated on the nature of the human condition. For the most part, a lot of the simulations focused on humans primarily, as they will be the ones to end their existence first.
For the first time in eons, the reapers were stumped. They had never anticipated the various defeats they would experience. Nor did they expect so many outliers and variables that would come together and bring about their defeat.
Humanity frustrated them, yet it intrigued them by far. There was no need to rush after all, they had the time they needed to watch all about humankind until the next harvest, the intelligence guiding the reapers as well as the wider collective will seek to learn all they can about humanity through the endless possibilities generated by the Matrix.
And when the Harvest comes, the reapers would begin their cycle not to cull but to test humanity. Should humanity prove itself capable of defeating them? Then the stewardship of the galaxy will be passed, and it will be up to mankind to decide how they will govern, nurture, and grow the galaxy in the wake of their defeat.
Until then, the reaper shall watch and learn all they can.
Welcome to the Simulation Collective.