History FanFic / ProtocultureEffect

** Also, the introduction of the Sentinel Alliance's potent robotechnology has inspired massive advances in weaponry from nearly every race. For example, the asari have learned how to make particle rifles similar to the ones Javik uses in Mass Effect 3, while the batarians have created a reflex-cannon-esque plasma gun and have unlocked weapons secrets from the Leviathan Of Dis, specifically Thanix weaponry.

** In their attack on Terra Nova, the Batarians have brought their own mecha.

* [[BearsAreBadNews Everything's Worse With Bears]]: In the Relay War, this was definitely the case for the turians, who had to fight Power-Armor equipped Karbarrans... who resemble upright, sentient bears. It's mentioned that their handheld guns are normally considered crew-mounted weapons.

** The Sentinel Alliance doesn't like the Citadel Council, though, for their handling of the Relay War. When the conflict was only between the Humans and the Turians, the Citadel (in the Alliance's eyes) did nothing to try to halt the war so long as the Turians were "Punishing an Upstart Race." But as soon as the rest of the Alliance took to the field in an invasion of a Turian Colony, the Citadel scrambled diplomats to try to secure a peace with this new interstellar coalition of species. This unfortunately gave the Citadel the appearance of a callous and uncaring group of bureaucrats to the Sentinels, and is one of the reasons for the Cold War between them.

** WordOfGod is that Shepard could have children with aliens if he embraces the Invid side of his heritage.

* OriginalCharacter: Kilika, a Batarian Special Intervention Unit operative assigned to Shepard's command. Not a Mary Sue.

* RockBeatsLaser: Surprisingly averted for a Mass Effect crossover, which have a tendency to make the Citadel much weaker. By WordOfGod, the Citadel and the Sentinels are about even, tech-wise, with both sides having advantages over the other (The Sentinels have the advantage in energy weapons and FTL, while the Citadel has a far more extensive knowledge of Element Zero technology, and so on).

* HumansAreSpecial: Lieutenant Commander Tyune Satarn (aka [[NicknamingTheEnemy "Boney von Richthofen"]]) firmly believes this. Averted, however, in that when she says "special," she means "touched in the head."

* HumansAreSpecial: Lieutenant Commander Tyune Satarn [[NicknamingTheEnemy (aka "Boney von Richthofen")]] firmly believes this. Averted, however, in that when she says "special," she means "touched in the head."

* HumansAreSpecial: Lieutenant Commander Tyune Satarn (AKA "Boney Von Richtofen") firmly believes this. Averted, however, in that when she says "Special," she means "Touched in the head."

* InterspeciesRomance: "Boney von Richtofen," an extremely talented turian pilot who was among the first to shoot down a veritech, eventually settled down with a veritech pilot (This being Robotech, of course it was the pilot she had a rivalry with during the Relay War). Note that "Boney" is not her real name, but is instead a [[NicknamingTheEnemy nickname given to her by her enemies]], as a shout out to the World War One fighter ace "The Red Baron."

* OhCrap: Double Subverted when the turian forces attacked a hill on Shanxi and ran into a pair of antique Tomahawk destroids (that's ''Warhammers'' to you TabletopGame/BattleTech fans, only with even ''more'' guns and missiles). First, they got scared, then they started laughing, then the destroids opened fire and the laughter quickly ended.

* CurbStompBattle: The first fight between Turian fighters and veritechs did ''not'' go well for the turians. Most battles in "Blue and Red" are told from both perspectives. The first fighter battle had to be all-Human simply because there ''weren't'' any Turian survivors.
-->"Don't get me wrong. They were good pilots; they knew how to fly. But when you're flying a fighter and using tactics all built on the same principles your enemy discarded as obsolete a century and a half ago, you're pretty much screwed."

* TronLines: the armor that Benezia and her minions (said to be the Asari answer to Cyclones) have these.

* WrestlerInAllOfUs: Kaidan, in a veritech, grabs a geth fighter in midair and ''piledrives'' it.

* CurbStompBattle: The first fight between Turian fighters and veritechs did ''not'' go well for the turians. Most battles in "Red and Blue" are told from both perspectives. The first fighter battle had to be all-Human simply because there ''weren't'' any Turian survivors.

* CurbStompBattle: The first fight between Turian fighters and veritechs did ''not'' go well for the turians.

* CurbStompBattle

** Sadly, the codex was taken down from FanFiction.Net, but entries are still put into the chapters of the main story.

* [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Robotech-Equipped Spectres Have Standards]]: While Shepard is confused by it, he allows Tali and Liara to undergo Cyclone trials so they can go on ground missions... as long as no one makes a Cyclone that works for Krogan.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Slightly averted with Operation Nutcracker, an operation undertaken during the Relay War (the equivalent of the First Contact War in canon). The Sentinels discovered that a planet in Turian space (Telos) had massive orbital refueling complexes and was being used as a waypoint that turian fleets could use to get to Shanxi. Operation Nutcracker involved going there and blowing up those stations to prevent fleets from hitting Shanxi. It worked... except that while, yes, the turian fleet did use Telos as a stopping point, it was so that they could discharge their FTL drives in the magnetosphere of the planet, ''not'' so that they could refuel (the complexes were just an afterthought). So while the planet was an important stopping point, it was ''not'' for the reason the Sentinels thought, and Telos continued to be used for the rest of the war.

** The armor that the asari use (when in service to Matriarch Benezia) is described as using "compressed diamond" as part of its armor composition, which indicates Silaris Armor (one of the upgrades you could get for the ''Normandy SR-2'' in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.)

* ContinuityNod: several.
** The armor that the asari use (when in service to Matriarch Benezia) is described as using "compressed diamond" as part of its armor composition, which indicates Silaris Armor (one of the upgrades you could get for the ''Normandy SR-2'' in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.)
** The particle beam rifles that those same asari use are clearly based on Prothean particle beam rifles, such as the ones you get once you recruit Javik in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''.

** Garrus finds a laser rifle which can ignore kinetic barriers, has decent power, and superb accuracy... as long as it is properly calibrated. Also, it needs lots of calibration.

** The armor that the asari use (when in service to Matriarch Benezia) is described as using "compressed diamond" as part of its armor composition, which indicates Silaris Armor (one of the upgrades you could get to the ''Normandy SR-2'' in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.)

** Sadly, the codex was taken down from fanfiction.net, but entries are still put into the chapters of the main story.

** The armor that the Asari use (when in service to Matriarch Benezia) is described as using "Pressed Diamond" as part of its armor composition, which indicates Silaris Armor (one of the upgrades you could get to the ''Normandy 2''.)
** The Particle Beams that those same Asari use are clearly based on Prothean Particle Beams, such as the ones you get once you recruit Javik in Mass Effect 3.

* DocumentaryEpisode: ''Blue and Red'' is told primarily as a series of interviews between human and turian veterans of the Relay war, usually on opposite sides of the same battle(s).

* FantasticRacism: Ashley is an... interesting case. She's suspicious of the Council races, like she was in canon... but she grew up in the Sentinel Alliance, which has such races as Garudans, invid, Karbarrans, Perytonians, and Tirolians. She even has zentraedi blood in her. So she's not prejudiced against ''all'' aliens, per se... but she does hold the Citadel Races with a measure of caution, because while they ''gained'' the respect of the other races through combat (beating the Haydonites, the zentraedi, the Robotech Masters, and the invid), the only time the Council and the Sentinels have gone to war, the end result was inconclusive and led to somewhat of a cold war between them.

* HalfHumanHybrid: Ashley Williams is known as the Butcher of Torfan in this timeline, and a very good soldier. This makes a lot more sense when you learn that she has both the blood of zentraedi and Praxians in her veins (zentraedi being genetically programmed for war, and Praxians being essentially a race of Space Amazons).

* AllThereInTheManual: Like many Mass Effect 'fics, this one has a [[http://fanfiction.tenhawkpresents.com/viewstory.php?sid=350 codex]]

* DocumentaryEpisode: ''Red and Blue'' is told primarily as a series of interviews between human and turian veterans of the Relay war, usually on opposite sides of the same battle(s).

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Hunter for Fem!Shep. There was also a third friend of the two named James [[StealthPun Farmer]] (Shepard is Colonist/War Hero (Ashley was Ruthless), Hunter is Spacer/Ruthless, Farmer was Earthborn/sadly ''not'' Sole Survivor (that was Kaidan))

* EarlyBirdCameo: A number of characters who appeared in later games show up here. Most notably Jacob Taylor driving the Mako.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Hunter for Fem!Shep. There was also a thrid friend of the two named James [[StealthPun Farmer]] (Shepard is Colonist (Ashley was Ruthless), Hunter is Spacer/War Hero, Farmer was Earthborn/sadly ''not'' Sole Survivor (that was Kaidan))

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Hunter for Fem!Shep.

** The Sentinel Alliance doesn't like the Citadel, though, for their handling of the Relay War. When the conflict was only between the Humans and the Turians, the Citadel (in the Alliance's eyes) did nothing to try to halt the war so long as the Turians were "Punishing an Upstart Race." But as soon as the rest of the Alliance took to the field in an invasion of a Turian Colony, the Citadel scrambled diplomats to try to secure a peace with this new interstellar coalition of species. This unfortunately gave the Citadel the appearance of a callous and uncaring group of bureaucrats to the Sentinels, and is one of the reasons for the Cold War between them.

* EverythingsWorseWithBears: In the Relay War, this was definitely the case for the turians, who had to fight Power-Armor equipped Karbarrans... who resemble upright, sentient bears. It's mentioned that their handheld guns are normally considered crew-mounted weapons.