The Reaper War

Starting from when the reaper fleet enters the Milky Way after the destruction of the Alpha Relay in 2186, this timeline describes the events that took place during this grand scale extinction event.

The Fall of Khar'shan
After the Alpha Relay was destroyed, the Reapers entered the galaxy through the Vular system, near the heart of batarian space, and quickly advanced on Khar'shan. Batarian response to the assault was uncoordinated. Back in 2163 CE, the Hegemony recovered the Leviathan of Dis, a billion-year old Reaper corpse, from Jartar. They issued total denials of its existence then began secret intensive studies of its advanced technology in the hope of reclaiming the batarians' place in the galaxy. This allowed the Leviathan to indoctrinate the science team and prominent batarian officials. When the Reapers invaded in 2186 CE, the indoctrinated officials sabotaged Hegemony defenses and broadcast misleading messages, allowing the Reapers to easily conquer batarian systems and crush their navy.

As with most races suitable for combat integration, the Reapers converted captured batarians into Cannibals and dispatched them to numerous battlefields across the galaxy. Those that managed to get away found themselves refugees on alien territory, with some even taking refuge in the Citadel itself.

The Fall of Earth
The Reapers took Earth in a matter of hours. The Alliance knew the first wave would arrive from batarian space, but they were unprepared for the speed and scale of the attack.

The Reapers bypassed the Sixth and Seventh Fleets at Terra Nova and Eden Prime, flying straight from relay to relay where they could neither be tracked nor intercepted. The tactic was unexpected, since the navies of organic species would never risk coming out of FTL within combat range or leaving enemies at their backs to threaten supply lines.

At Arcturus Station, more than a dozen Reaper capital ships engaged the Alliance's Second, Third, and Fifth Fleets. This was mere screening for the main force. Dozens more capital ships continued through the Charon Relay, where the First Fleet had been lying in wait but was soon destroyed. The Fourth Fleet, near Earth, had a few minutes of advance warning. It stood no better chance.

After destroying Earth's comm buoys, smaller Reaper destroyers wiped out all GPS and communications satellites in Earth's orbit and cut the undersea fiber-optic cables that linked the continents. Earth's resistance now relies on outdated radio towers and a few quantum entanglement communicators whose matched pairs happen to be on other continents or outside the Sol system. Communication is so limited that the fate of entire nations remains unknown.

The capital ships bombarded defense installations and industrial centers, annihilating entire cities with populations in the low millions, including Adelaide, Hamburg, Al Jubail, and Fort Worth. Meanwhile, Reaper destroyers descended into the atmosphere to melt roads and capture population centers with minimal loss of life. This is not an example of the Reapers being merciful. More likely, they are herding their prey to make the coming harvest that much easier.

The Fall of Taetrus
The Reapers' first attack on turian space followed an age-old maxim: hit them where it hurts. A populous colony dating back centuries, Taetrus was already embedded in the turian psyche as the site of the worst terrorist attack in turian history. Wounds were still raw from the Vallum Blast, in which a separatist revolutionary slammed a starship into the colony's capital, killing more than a hundred thousand turians. Hierarchy forces responded with a massive invasion of the planet to stamp out the separatist movement. It was a catharsis for the turians, reassuring them that heroes would always triumph over evil. And so the Reapers struck Taetrus first.

By the time Taetrus went dark, the turians had already learned that the batarians and humans were under attack. The Hierarchy responded with what they believed was overwhelming force, only to walk into a trap. Reaper ships were waiting on the other side of the relay to Taetrus, and they released devastating firepower the moment the fleet emerged. Turian leaders observing the one-sided battle were faced with a choice: reinforce their side of the relay to defend against a Reaper invasion, or throw more resources into an offense. With soldiers and civilians alike clamoring for retribution against the Reapers, the turians continued the assault. The Hierarchy sent warp bombs through the relay to clear a path, fighting tooth and talon to inflict casualties against the Reaper fleet. It was a valiant effort, but doomed. The Reapers emerged victorious from the relay and began broadcasting a signal to turian comm buoys--images of Vallum, Taetrus's capital, once again a smoking wreck. The fight for turian space had begun.

The Fall of Palaven
When Taetrus fell, the turians knew little about the Reapers except that they wanted to enrage the turians. Staying calm, the turians massed in force around Palaven, their homeworld. Fleet Admiral Irix Coronati, in what became known as the "Fifteen-Minute Plan," stationed only two carriers, Undaunted and Resolute, near the system's relay. When the Reaper fleet emerged, the carriers launched swarms of unmanned fighters and spy drones. These were quickly destroyed, but the drones transmitted vital data on the Reapers' effective range, fleet composition, and exact location. The turians' other ships then deployed to defend the system in earnest. Knowing that the Reapers' weapons had a longer effective range than any of his own, Coronati made a short, daring FTL jump--landing his dreadnoughts in the middle of the Reaper fleet. The dreadnoughts then turned to line up their main guns on the Reapers, which also needed to turn to fire on the turians. This ploy used the Reapers' size against them--because they could turn faster, the turian dreadnoughts locked targets first, and their concentrated firepower downed several Reaper capital ships.

The Reapers countered instantly. Their destroyers performed a jump of their own to the skies above Palaven, beginning orbital strikes on turian cities. The turians, forced to defend the planet, found themselves in a pitched battle far from the relay, from which emerged a seemingly endless line of Reaper ships. After massive casualties, Coronati ordered retreat.

The turians insist that Palaven is not lost--the battle has merely moved to the ground. Reaper troop transports have dumped hordes of husks to capture Palaven's inhabitants, but met with little success. Reaper capital ships are destroying city after city. But much of the turian fleet was still operable, and the citizenry was heavily armed. The turians refused to be intimidated. This was costly for them.

Reaper forces, including hundreds of capital ships were redirected from other locations and sent to Palaven where they tore through the turian's military once and for all. With their main lines of defense now broken, the turians on the ground fell apart at the hands of the reapers. An artificer was then set up on the smouldering remains of Cipritine which now creates mauraders by the thousands.

The Battle of Rannoch
The quarians' plan to take back their homeworld was risky, and could easily have led to their annihilation if a peaceful solution had not been found.

In an initial battle against the Reaper-upgraded geth ships, the quarians found their Heavy Fleet and a portion of the Patrol Fleet outmatched. To stave off defeat, the quarians retreated at FTL speeds to rally with the Civilian fleet on the far side of Rannoch's sun, Tikkun. Temporarily hidden, but with only minutes of advance warning should a geth scout spot them, the quarians planned counterattacks to disrupt the geth link with the Reapers. First preying on a damaged geth dreadnought, the quarians followed by sending strike teams to Rannoch's surface to destroy the Reaper that was transmitting improved software to geth forces.

When the Reaper uplink was disrupted, the geth suffered momentary downgrades in response time and intelligence, allowing the quarians to press their advantage. But an emergency order from Commander Shepard and Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay broke off hostilities before the geth's full capabilities were restored. It is to the quarians' credit that all three fleets obeyed the order to cease fire, even the Civilian Fleet, which had little combat experience. The geth, for their part, bore no ill will towards enemy combatants and broke off hostilities with perfect discipline.

With Rannoch inhabited by a small geth presence and non-sapient life forms, reaper troops are spread thinly across the planet. With the reapers focused elsewhere, the Perseus Veil, a place once deemed as one of the most dangerous places in the galaxy to travel, is now one of the safest.

The Cerberus Coup
Councilor Udina's attempted coup will no doubt be analyzed for generations to come, but a  clear picture is beginning to emerge. Udina had contacted Cerberus to coordinate what was intended to be a bloodless takeover of the Citadel, in which he would force the other councilors to grant him emergency powers so that he could command the Citadel Fleet. He would then direct the fleet to liberate his homeworld, Earth.

The plan fell apart early when Executor Pallin and the salarian councilor caught wind of it. In defense of the plan, the Illusive Man dispatched his top assassins, commanded by Kai Leng, to kill them. Udina had little choice but to support the assassins with an armed force sufficient to hold the Citadel. Captured confidantes have indicated that Udina and Leng's alliance was relatively fragile: Udina may have planned to turn on Cerberus once the fleet was his to command, and Leng departed when he calculated that Udina would not succeed.

Persistent rumors suggest that Udina might have been a high-functioning victim of Reaper indoctrination. His actions played right into the Reapers' plans: even if the coup failed, it would damage Citadel governance. If it succeeded, his plan to retake Earth would likely have turned into a military blunder that Council forces could ill afford. However, there is no direct evidence of his indoctrination, nor obvious opportunity. It is more likely that Udina acted out of desperation, and in doing so, cost humanity its councilor.

The Fall of Thessia
The assault on Thessia did not go as smoothly as the Reapers' strikes against other races. While other species met the Reapers head-on, the asari resorted to dangerous hit-and-run tactics to harass their attackers. By engaging in guerilla strategies--blasting a Reaper ship, then jumping to FTL where they could not be tracked--the asari forced the Reapers to remain on the defensive.

Unfortunately, the Reapers' greater numbers allowed them to accept certain losses, so they soon ignored the attacks against them and began orbital bombardment of Thessia. This in turn forced the asari to defend their homeworld with a more traditional stance, facing the Reaper forces directly. As soon as the Reapers landed on Thessia, the harvesting began.

A swift and brutal slaughter of the asari ground forces followed. Resistance from trained biotics barely slowed the attackers down. In the end, Thessia's minimal military forces, combined with unpreparedness in the face of an overwhelming enemy, resulted in the fall of the planet.

The Fall of the Citadel


''“Never before have so many come together--from all quarters of the galaxy. But never before have we faced an enemy such as this. The Reapers will show us no mercy. We must give them no quarter. They will terrorize our populations. We must stand fast in the face of that terror. They will advance until our last city falls, but we will not fall. We will prevail. Each of us will be defined by our actions in the coming battle. Stand fast. Stand strong. Stand together. Hackett out.”''

The Galaxy and all of its combatants launch an all-out assault on the Reapers in a last-ditch effort to retake Earth and the Citadel via the Crucible. All gathered War Assets combine into three different groups, codenamed Sword, Shield and Hammer.

While Sword engaged the Reaper fleet above Earth, it acted as a distraction to allow Hammer to land on Earth and engage the Reapers on the ground to aid Admiral Anderson's resistance forces. Meanwhile, Shield was held in reserve to escort the Crucible into position to dock with the Citadel. Sword and Shield consisted of all allied fleets and starships, and Hammer consisted of all ground forces.

Immediately, Sword and Shield began to take heavy losses. Though they were able to distract the reapers long enough for Hammer to reach the ground, they did not last much longer than that. Some ships were able to realize this and call a retreat, but their forces were scattered. Only a few made it out.

During the battle on the ground, Alliance soldier Commander J. Shepard boarded the Citadel via a transport beam and opened the Wards to allow the Crucible to attach to the station. Shortly afterward, Shepard met the supposed "Catalyst" - now revealed to be the Intelligence that controls the Reapers.

From that point onward, all communication with Shepard was cut off. It is still unknown what happened after Shepard met with the Catalyst. All that is known, is that the Crucible was never activated. The organic fleets outside the Citadel were unable to keep up with the reapers overwhelming presence, and the vast majority of them destroyed. The Citadel station was the subsequently overtaken by reaper forces and is still considered lost to the enemy.

It was the battle to end the war.... And the galaxy lost.

As for the survivors; 73% of Sword, 89% of Hammer, and 98% of Shield were deemed either KIA or MIA.