Fanfic / Warverse

The Warverse is a Mass Effect Alternate Universe Fan Fic series by ProfFartBurger And yes, that is indeed his name. As of January 2019, two fics are complete - The First War and The New Face of War - and a third fic, The Civil War, is ongoing.

The Premise behind the fics is that the Protheans, while they certainly left a base behind on Mars, have emptied it out when they left; there wasn't anything in it when the Humans came 'round. This led to the Humans evolving along a very "Halo" path. (Though the Author acknowledges the similarities between Warverse Humanity and Halo's Humanity, he claims that they are separate. He's not entirely wrong... )

However, it doesn't stop there. After developing a mode of FTL Travel, and weaponry that blindsides the galaxy, the Humans of the Systems Alliance make contact with the Quarians instead, and summarily enters war with the Turian Hierarchy, due to previous circumstances the Humans and even the Quarians, to some extent, didn't know about.

The second fic starts right afterwards, although the main action starts a couple years later. Humanity is on decent enough terms with the Council without being a part of it. However, there are some internal rebellions, a war with Batarians, some geniuses are plotting... And in the background, a new generation of super soldiers is being trained. Orphans raised in The Spartan Way since six. And the best of them is John 2-15. Born as John Shepard.

The third fic is summarized thusly: "A house divided cannot stand. Following an explosive first contact, and the cementation of their place as a galactic superpower, the Systems Alliance must now deal with the consequences of their choices and the aftermath of their wars. Earth is set ablaze, Sparta is torn apart, and below it all simmers an ancient, apocalyptic plot."

The author says he's working on improving the 'sub par' beginning.

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Examples of Tropes Found In Warverse:

• Adaptational Villainy: Councilor Sparatus, in canon, is simply an Obstructive Bureaucrat who eventually comes to his senses and becomes openly helpful during the Reaper War. Here, he's a bullheaded, arrogant Blood Knight who is perhaps the main reason the war got so bad.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Normally, Humanity is the one race that manages to avert it. However, The New Face of War reveals that Nikola plays it straight... due to imperfections in the technology used to create him, he's gone senile years ago.
  • Fridge Horror kicks in when it's implied that all AI like from his generation could be reaching senility.
• Arc Number: The writer seems to really love 612. Lampshaded at one point, when Christopher McGraw tells Benezia "Remind me to talk to you about the cult of six-one-two, fun story, that".
• Art Evolution: The quality of writing improves after the first few chapters. The Author Says that the Grammar/Tense mistakes in the beginning were because he was switching from a First Person Present tense to the Third Person omnipotent tense.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: An idealistic example. The Humans resort to utterly ruthless tactics to defend Earth, but most Turians realize full well they're being dragged into a war purely to nurse Sparatus' wounded ego, and the rest of the Council spends the entire fic trying desperately to slap some sense into him.
• Bullying a Dragon: The Turians invading Earth. Then the Batarians attempting to enslave the Saltorians.
• Cargo Cult: The Saltorian religion.
• Clone Army: The Rebels attempt to clone an army of SIGMA's from one of the renegades who joined them. Miranda nukes the compound along with most of the clones, the rest are unarmored, so John takes them out.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Humans' defense of Earth, and subsequent invasion of Palaven. Is a perfect example.
  • They later do it again when they figure out that the invasion of Mindoir was sponsored by the Batarians Hegemony.
• Deflector Shields: Seeing that Quarian Kinetic Barriers are largely useless against Magnetic Accelerator weaponry, the Humans make it better. It works better than expected, but doesn't really make an appearance until the end of the story.
• Dodge the Bullet: The SIGMA soldiers have reflexes fast enough to see a bullet coming. However, dodging one isn't always physically possible.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Subverted, The Human Ambassador tricks the Galaxy into thinking they utilized the Nuclear Option to end the war.
• Enemy Mine: Once the Batarians realise what Saltorians are like, many decide to throw in with the Alliance.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's a war fic, so it's light on plot and heavy on action, though that's not to say the plot itself is weak.
• Flawed Prototype: Nikola, due to the AI creation technology being imperfect, turns out to be vulnerable to senility.
• Flatline Plotline: Turns out Reaper Indoctrination uses subatomic nanobots that run on brain electricity. Killing yourself for a couple of days is a good day to get rid of them.
• Energy Weapon: Saltorian guns.
• From Bad to Worse: The Batarians attempt to enslave the Saltorians to fight the Alliance. Excellent! That means they have to fight a race of Heavyworlder Knight Templar... with durability and Healing Factor sufficient to shrug off their weapons... who captured their warships... and have a deliberately starved Rachni swarm at their disposal.
• Gone Horribly Right: The Turians hit Earth, Humanity hits back.
• Guinea Pig Family: Christopher McGraw was implanted with intelligence increasing nanobots by his father. It has Gone Horribly Right.
• Hand Cannon: The Saltorian sidearms are called that.
• Healing Factor: Nanite based for SIGMA, natural for Saltorians.
• Heavyworlder:The Saltorian homeworld is five gees.
• He Knows Too Much: John learns about the Sixtysixers Ducard tries to get him killed.
• Hope Spot: Just when it looks like Dasd might make it through thanks to Alliance medics, a Saltorian slits his throat. And the medics', too.
  • Inverted for "nuking" Palavren-that was a bluff after the Quarians convinced the humans to not use the Planet Killer, which did have the effect of finally breaking Sparatus' spirit.
• Hot Blade: Saltorians use them.
• Improbably High I.Q.: up to 1000, though that requires artificial enhancements.
  • Christopher McGraw believes that Miranda Lawson could naturally reach such heights, due to the way she was made .
• In the Local Tongue: During the fight on the Citadel, a few of the Spectres are sorry they don't understand the Human chatter, since they might be discussing combat tactics. In reality, a lot of it is Green-Skinned Space Babe jokes.
• Kill It with Fire: During John's battle against a Saltorian, he realises its Healing Factor is too efficient with regular wounds. Unfortunately, he has no incendiaries, only biotic explosions.
• Knight Templar: The Saltorians are an entire race. As if they weren't dangerous enough already.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: John is implanted with a device to erase his memories of Miranda for political reasons. An implanted AI removes the block later... he doesn't react well.
• Lizard Folk: The Saltorians.
• Lodged-Blade Recycling: During a battle with John, a renegade SIGMA stabs him with a blade that breaks apart. After John's armor extracts the shards, he grabs a piece and stabs back.
• Mêlée à Trois: One chaper has the Saltorians, Batarians, local wildlife and a bunch of Rachni all thrown together. The Saltorians win.
• No Gravity for You: John tries this against the Saltorian Wraith. The advantage isn't as big as he expected, but there.
• Oh, Crap!: Batarians, once they realize how dangerous Saltorians truly are.
• Only a Flesh Wound: At the end of John's battle against the Saltorian, the alien is fried extra crispy, while the SIGMA is "only" medium rare, but with a gaping chest wound. Both can still fight.
• Plucky Comic Relief:
  • Christopher McGraw. Word of God Calls him a 'mix between Stephen Hawking, Einstein, Myself, and George Carlin all in one'.
  • Doubles as Deus ex Machina The guy either directly or is indirectly responsible for making Humanity the Warrior Race The Author so desperately wants it to be. Though, kind of subverted, Given the origins for his intellect.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: It doesn't help, but the Citadel Councilors not named Sparatus tries desperately to deescalate the First Contact War upon realizing what kind of bee's nest the Turians kicked and repeatedly remind him he provoked Humanity in the first place.
• Revealing Cover Up: Inverted. SIGMA's have weapon storages everywhere in case of an invasion. When one person asks how they managed to keep it secret, he was told they simply started a rumor on the net.
• Rock Beats Laser:
  • Because the Human bullet-based weaponry is so 'archaic', due to its chemical propellant, the projectiles move too slow to be detected by Turian Shields, meaning that their shields are useless against Human Weapons. Which is strange because in-canon shields activate for melee attacks, which are much slower than a bullet.
  • Same goes for all Human Tech, really. Human armor is designed to protect against bullets, so the miniscule Turian slugs can't penetrate it. Human Naval Weaponry is designed to pierce through, and their armor is designed to protect against that, as opposed to Turian Naval weapons, which are designed to flatten and expand, meaning their armor and weapons are more or less useless against Human rail guns unless used en masse.
  • John suggests SIGMA II's concentrate on practicing melee combat when it becomes obvious a war is imminent between them and the I's. Chris does provide them with high-tech nanorocks for the purpose though.
• Shoot the Bullet: The SIGMA's are good enough to pull it off.
• The Spartan Way: SIGMA II Program.
• Stupid Evil: A plot point; Sparatus' own inability to swallow his pride and admit he was reckless and made a mistake escalates the First Contact War far beyond what either his own species or Humanity wanted.
• Super Soldiers: The Alliance's SIGMA program - 7+ feet tall, reinforced bones, nervous system, and all kind of other things. Once they meet the Turian Ghost Corps (which has all that plus a few centuries of simulated reality training), they hold their own reasonably well, but it's close enough to start a new program combining all that with The Spartan Way - 612 orphans aged six to seven are taken in secret as a first batch and are subjected to Training from Hell. Well, 611 orphans and John Shepard - his biotic talents convinced the recruiters to stretch the rules a bit.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway:
  • John is forced into combat with two renegade SIGMA's before his final augmentations can be tested or even adapted to properly. He makes it, though just barely.
  • He also tries a few biotic improvisations against the Saltorian Wraith. Some backfire.
• Uriah Gambit: Ducard attempts this against John by sending him into combat without proper gear. And he hires Thane to shoot him as well.
• War Is Hell: The first fic depicts the First Contact War as a completely avoidable tragedy which absolutely nobody on either side wanted.
• We Have Reserves: The Illusive Man depressurizes the entire Cronos space station in order to get rid of potentially indoctrinated personnel.
• Wham Episode: The last couple chapters of The New Face of War sure do their best to flip some of the characterizations upside down.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The Illusive Man and Chris are understandable. But Ducard attempting an Uriah Gambit agains John?
• Worf Effect:
  • During the First Contact War, the Alliance defeats the Turians.
  • John, mere hours after his augmentations are complete, fight and kills two seasoned SIGMA soldiers. Admittedly, neither victory is that easy.
  • John against a Saltorian Wraith can be read to be this in both directions. A centuries old Heavy Worlder versus a Super-Soldier, both raised The Spartan Way, John heavily undergeared and not quite recovered from his last fight. It's close.
• Your Head A-Splode: A real Tear Jerker moment with Tali's mother. Her daughter went into shock, trying to push the remains back into the helmet.

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