Mass Effect: The Traverse

You were fast asleep when the ping came from your terminal informing you of a message and so you rose yourself groaning and walked over too it, the pain from your leg spiking as you suppressed it with barely a second thought.

You slouched your way over to the console blinking blearily at it, before seeing the words up on the screen before grinning. Your application had been a success, nothing too suspicious in your back ground, hell you were as loyal as the came and they knew it.

This called for a celebratory drink, as you instinctively reached for the bottle...only to stop yourself. You needed to be on the top of your game for now, when everything was fully settled, then you could have a drink…not now.

Going back to the form, you started to look through it in detail, which at the end of the day boiled down to no, reasons why you could not organise a colony after all you had the skills., just so long as you could prove that you had resources and people to actually make it happen.

Falling back into your chair you thought on what you had signed your soul away too and prayed that it would actually pay off. If it didn't then this entire operation was dead before it even hit the ground, and even then, it may come back to bite you in the ass and then you'd get a lot of good people killed.

Still you couldn't go wrong with

[] Corporate Sponsoring: after all it's been legal for citadel companies to pay for colonies to develop for years, and they make sure to provide all the necessary equipment for just about any situation and more. Selkur and Selkur, the largest mining corporation in the System's Alliance maybe a bunch of a moral gits, but at least they're competent a moral gits. You just hope that the mining rights will be enough to buy your colony out of effective wage serfdom quickly. Corporate start: Start with high quality starting equipment, with a focus on resource gathering quickly. Initial colonists will include more workers, mining experts and bureaucrats. In massive debt to mega corporation.

[] The System's Alliance Military: Saying Military is a bit vague, but that's effectively what it is in this case. No one exact branch approved this, but all the boys in brass generally agree that sponsoring you and getting a military base set up in the Traverse is good for everyone, and with your experience you're likely to get it done. They don't have the budget to give you the best stuff of course, but they can give you some old surplus ships and a bit of priority on defence details. Military start: Begin with medium to low quality equipment, albeit with good defences. Also start with surplus Alliance ships and a priority for reinforcements if attacked. Initial colonists will include more military folk. Expected to become a military hard spot.

[] SAI: The Intelligence Branch of the Alliance is somewhat underfunded compared to military, but recent events are giving it more power and resources than ever, including enough to do this. The spooks will be able to give you a lot of tools that will make sneaky stuff a lot easier, including basing a group of commandos on your world as soon as you have the facilities to support them, but you'll also have to network for them in various ways. Intrigue start: Begin with medium quality equipment everything that will make creating effective anti-crime forces easier and cheaper, in addition to establishing some kind of intelligence gathering mechanism. Additional support when the colony is more established. Initial colonists will include SAI personnel in larger numbers. Expected to provide intelligence to the Alliance and assist in its intelligence gathering.

[] A University: Specifically, the University of Oxbridge, the combined Oxford and Cambridge. The two merged fully in 2071 and are still one of the top human universities to this day and they want to cash in on the potential scientific opportunities offered by the expanse. They have gone all in on getting you the best equipment they can, although that does mean that there's not much of it, so your colony will be much smaller. They'll also cut off funding if you can't provide results. Research start: Begin with high quality equipment, but in smaller amounts compared to other starts resulting in a smaller research colony. Start with scientific equipment already. Will be able to get discoveries into wider galaxy quicker. Initial colonists will be scientists. Expected to submit scientific discoveries.

[] The Council: Now this was an interesting offer. In order to better integrate humanity into the galactic community the Council offered to sponsor a colony, which comes with its own benefits and problems. On the one hand they will be footing the bill with the best equipment they can put together and the colony will be getting alien experts, but the eyes of the galaxy will likely be on you to a greater extent. Certainly, the eyes of earth and the colonies, though the Council's reputation may protect you from those who've been active in the galaxy for longer. Diplomacy start: Begin with best quality equipment in large quantities. Start with a population of Asari, Salarians and Turians (Dextro food will be covered by the equipment). More connections with the wider galaxy. Initial colonists will be more Xenophilic. Expected to promote Xenophlia.

[] Nobody: You organised everything, got the people together yourself and through hard work and effort scraped together the cash needed to get this off the ground. Your equipment maybe bad, but you have determination, you'll tough it out and thrive right? Neutral start: Begin with poor quality equipment setting up will be much harder. Not beholden to any one group or faction.

In addition to whatever you pick here, choosing the ex-military background means that you get numerous military veterans as part of the initial colonists for free. These are Raynor's old friends and comrades, very skilled, but getting on in years like he is. They come with their own equipment and will make things like setting up a militia much easier as well as defend the colony from attack.

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Now we get to something very important.

Consider this carefully, as it will greatly impact the future of the quest.

I am ready to answer questions that might be asked.

Raynor's sheet is up on the front page.