"Every good thing in this world has one common flaw - it tends to end." That's what Laura Shepard thought as she packed her bags. Their such a wonderful and long-awaited vacation in the desert has come to an end. It's time to return to the Normandy and continue preparing for future battles.
If it were in her power, Laura would order time to stop, freeze, plunge into stasis forever and never leave it ... But, even Liara, the true master of creating stasis, could not stop time forever. How fast those thirty days flew by... Thirty short and at the same time - incredibly long days, spent by her only with Thane - the only creature in the entire Galaxy, for which Shepard went into battle at the Collector's Base. For Thane, she would gladly give all her blood to the last drop, and her life itself, too, on that damned base ...
She still couldn't quite believe that Thane loved her, that his heart, soul and body belonged to her alone. Laura was jealous of the Drell's own shadow and the sun's rays caressing his body. Heat was her rival, taking away Shepard's lover for almost an entire day. But, she could not fight this, and she did not even try to deceive Thane with a forced smile - it was simply impossible. His huge, like the Universe, eyes always looked directly into her heart and read her soul, like an open book. Laura could not lie to Thane, for where there is love, there can be no place for lies, and therefore she simply left him alone during the day.
Drell was grateful to her for this, because he saw and understood perfectly well that the hot and dry climate of this planet was clearly not a resort for a human woman. Thane knew that Shepard had gone to this solely for his sake, to fulfill his cherished desire - to see the desert. He saw that her "urgent business" far-fetched, but pretended to believe - it was better for both. The differences between their races only became sharper and clearer on a sultry desert afternoon. But how happy he was on those hot days, how glad he was to touch the burning rays and the healing dry air, inhaling which it became at least a little, but easier for the drell ... Or did it just seem?
For several days now, Thain had been listening carefully to himself and could not understand - was this really happening to him, or did he come up with an apparent remission? At any rate, the drell's breathing became easier, and the pain in his chest was not so irritating. Kalahira, but he didn’t feel it at all - that oppressive heaviness that threatened to take his life from him soon. Secretly from Laura, Thane returned to his usual training and exercises, and found that even increasing the load did not torment him as much as before ...
No, it's impossible, Thane told himself, easily performing lightning and deadly moves. “Laura doesn’t have hallucinations, so they started with me?”
Increasing the speed of movement made the heart beat faster and made breathing harder, but there was no excruciating pain that every Drell suffering from Kepral's syndrome felt.
“I must definitely go to Mordin,” Krios decided, “it seems that the disease has reached the brain, and I imagined that I was getting better.”
Shepard has seen that Thane has been behaving strangely for the past few days. She constantly listened to his breathing, anxiously watched the drell, but found no signs of deterioration. Or didn't want to see?
“As soon as we return to the Normandy, it will be necessary to urgently send Thane to Chakvas and Mordin. I must know what is wrong with him. Know the whole truth, whatever it may be,” Laura decided.
The team met them in a festively decorated dining room. Shepard was overjoyed to see them all again, and they were sincerely glad that the captain was back. Miranda ran into Laura, hugged and spun like a girl:
How glad I am to see you! You have improved so much! Tanned like a chocolate bar! And how they sparkle! Miri looked at the captain admiringly. - Listen, maybe I should get myself a drella, huh?
Miranda nodded towards Thane, who was being patted on the shoulder by Garrus, who was asking him something as he handed the Drell a glass of champagne. Thane smiled back, but his eyes were serious, and Krios did not take his eyes off Mordin, who finally emerged from the laboratory with an extremely worried expression on his face.
Try it, turn it on, - Laura smiled at her friend, but she could not deceive her.
Is he worse? Miranda asked softly, leaning into Shepard's ear.
I don't know, I don't know anything, Miri. Something is happening to Thane, but what?
I would not say that he is worse, he shines like a brand new coin, terminally ill do not look like that!
Your words, yes Amonkire in the ears, - Shepard finished her champagne. “I can’t live without him, you know?
I know, don't get upset in advance, okay? Find out the opinion of doctors, and then you will draw conclusions, agreed?
Deal! - Laura smiled and turned to Chakvas, who was in a hurry to hug her:
Finally! I miss you so much, my captain!
On the catcher and the beast ... - Shepard hugged the doctor. - I need to talk to you urgently.
Something happened? - Chakvas' eyes instantly became serious. - I have news for you too. Will you listen tomorrow when you rest?
No, if this is about Thane, I can't waste time. We still have it...
Let me intervene in your conversation. I need to explain something urgently. And to confirm some guesses, - Mordin materialized nearby, grabbed Shepard's hand and literally dragged her towards the laboratory. She managed to notice how Chakvas, smiling sweetly, took Thane's arm and led him to the medbay.
The thing is, - Mordin showed the captain strange medical diagrams, - I took a blood test from you before departure, if you remember ... and some other tests.
I remember - she was slightly embarrassed, remembering that Mordin ordered Chakvas to conduct a full gynecological examination of her body, and take the appropriate samples for research.
Again human squeamishness! - the salarian spread his hands, - I did it for a reason. I did the same with Mr. Crios. I was wondering how your organisms can react to the interpenetration of fluids into each other. After all, you know that with close ... contact, microtraumas of the mucosa invariably occur, through which various viruses can penetrate into the blood of a partner?
Are you saying that I could infect Thane with some kind of filth? But after all, after my resurrection, I had no time for men!
Exactly! - Mordin interrupted her, - after the resurrection! That's the whole point! Your body doesn't react to Drell the way a normal woman does. Accordingly, we can conclude that during your reconstruction, Cerberus slightly changed something in you. I was wondering if your modified blood could have a positive effect on Thane's blood? Even viruses can not only harm, Shepard, and here we are not talking about viruses, but about mutual ...
Professor! - she grabbed Mordin's hand, forcing him to interrupt the verbal waterfall. - What did you find out?
While I can not say anything! First, I must run new blood tests on Mr. Crios and yours. Only then can I draw conclusions that refute or confirm my hypothesis.
The hope that had flared in Shepard's eyes faded as Mordin quickly took a new blood sample from her and said:
Send Thane to me, captain. I'll post my findings tomorrow!
They started talking at the same time, interrupting each other, and involuntarily laughed. Laura leaned her forehead against his shoulder and muttered:
Mordin sent me for you.
And I'm behind you - Chakvas, - Thain answered, squeezing her hand.
Well, if that's the case, let's not keep them waiting." Shepard tried to keep her voice calm.
Don't worry, whatever it all means, while we're still alive.
You're right, - she lightly touched his lips and hurried to Chakvas.
Did you want to see me? Everything is bad? Shepard blurted out as soon as she crossed the threshold of the medbay.
Who told you this? Chakvas smiled, handing the captain a glass of water. - Sit down, drink and calm down! I'll tell you the main news tomorrow when all the results are ready, but for now I'll just say that miracles still happen, Laura.
The glass fell from Shepard's hand and shattered, dousing the captain with water, but she didn't even notice.
You want to say...
Yes, all signs indicate that the disease has receded.
Shepard felt her legs give way, and sank helplessly into a chair.
This happens with almost any disease. Stress, strong experiences can not only harm, but also force the body to mobilize and give a powerful rebuff even incurable disease. This has happened in all ages, and medicine shrugged it off. I can’t tell you exactly how Thain is doing at the moment, but I will find out in the next 24 hours, when the results of all the studies will be ready. So far, I can say with certainty only one thing: Thane is getting better. How much - you will know tomorrow. Now go and rest, you will need strength!
Chakvas helped her up and walked her to the door. Shepard went upstairs to the cabin, noticed that someone had left her travel bag on the threshold, automatically picked it up and threw it into a corner. There was a bottle of wine and two glasses on the table. Laura uncorked the bottle, poured out a full glass, and drank half in one gulp.
Join me.” She poured a second glass of wine and handed it to Thane. He approached, took a glass in one hand, and the other drew Laura to him:
Don't worry," the drell kissed her on the forehead, "in any case, we can't change anything. It is what it is. Sooner or later, both of us will go overseas.
I don't want to, - Shepard raised her eyes to Thane, feeling that treacherous tears still flow down her cheeks, - I don't want to, you understand! I don't want to lose you... I can't... understand, Thane, that I don't need this world, this ship, all this if you're not around...
Do not cry, Sikha, - Thain put an unnecessary glass on the table and hugged her with both hands, - I know that it is not easy for you with me, and you had a hard time in the desert. Be quiet! He put his finger to her lips, not letting her protest. - I've seen everything. I saw how you suffered from the heat, how you invented non-existent things.
I didn't want to disturb you, - through tears, the first tears since the resurrection, Shepard said.
And I know this too, - Thane kissed her lightly on her trembling lips - now it was his turn to feel the taste of human tears. - You gave me not just a month in the desert, it was a month in paradise, because that's what your people call happy world eternal bliss?
Yes, - she sobbed, hiding her face on his chest, - but how can I live to see tomorrow? What will they tell us - Mordin and Chakvas?
I don't think this will be bad news. Thane handed her a glass. - Drink, it will calm you down.
Thank you." She finished her wine, and then Thane sat Shepard on the bed, brought a bottle and glasses, and they drank it sitting next to each other, hugging, and not saying a word.
Then Laura stretched out on the bed, the drell hugged her, but they couldn't sleep. They lay huddled close to each other, listening to the beating of their own hearts, and counting the hours until morning. Shepard was afraid to believe in a miracle, she wanted to hear the final diagnosis, and Thane waited and feared this diagnosis no less.
Finally, the longest night of their lives was over, and both of them appeared on the threshold of the sickbay, equally frightened and awaiting the verdict. Chakwas instantly realized that neither Laura nor Thane had closed their eyes for a second that night, shook her head and pointed them to a chair:
So yes, my dears! I see you've been harassing all night! Is it possible? She looked reproachfully at Laura. - You defeated Saren, destroyed the Collector's base, and then you couldn't pull yourself together? Shame on you, captain! I told you miracles happen, remember? I can confirm this. Look here, both of you, - Chakvas called up holographic three-dimensional images of the lungs, and of the whole body of Thane, and began to explain:
See, a month ago metastases were here, here, and here? Now they are not. I cannot explain why this happened. This sometimes happened in the twentieth century with cancer, a deadly and terrible disease of that time. What was the reason for this in the past, and what has become the reason now - I do not know. But you see for yourself - the disease has stopped. Of course, a destroyed lung will not become healthy, but what continues to work will be enough for you, Thane, to live normally for many more years. The process of destruction in the second lung, - Chakvas pointed to the diagram, - stopped. Something has become a powerful mobilizing impetus for your body, Thane... But just what?
Let me explain, colleague! - when Mordin managed to go into the medbay, none of those present noticed. Chakwas enthusiastically explained what had happened to the drell, while Shepard and Thane hung on her every word.
I beg you, professor, - Chakvas smiled, - I myself am interested to know this.
The fact is that I did all the research yesterday. And he made an amazing discovery. Perhaps this will save not only you, Thane, but many of your kind. This will be the counterbalance of the genophage. If, of course, it is confirmed.
Professor! Laura and Thane pleaded.
Yes, here's the thing. I suspected that Shepard's blood was the reason for your improved health, Thane. My hypothesis was brilliantly confirmed! I will not bore you with an abundance of terms. I'll just say that one of the components of your blood, the captain, introduced by Cerberus during your resurrection (they replaced the missing elements with analogues unknown to me) got into the blood of Thane. It happened during your intimacy. I told you about microtraumas of the mucosa, captain. Your blood triggered a powerful response from Thane's body. This explosion just burned out all the metastases. The contacts were quite frequent, because the symptoms that prevent you - allergies and hallucinations - you, captain, did not observe. For the same reasons. Let's call it side effect Project Lazar. As a result, you, Thain, developed antibodies that completely blocked the development of Kepral's syndrome. Metastases are destroyed, the destruction of the lungs is stopped. We can assume that the disease is defeated.
I don't yet know if the elements I've isolated from your blood will work on other Drells, Captain, but that's easy to find out by experience. If my hopes are justified, - Mordin's face lit up with a smile. “I can consider myself the savior of an entire race. The genophage was necessary, but it was not easy to come to terms with the title of killer of the unborn. This vaccine will help me find peace. I don't have much left, - the salarian spread his hands, - I will be happy to devote the rest of my life to saving your race, Thane.
Are you saying that I won't die? - Thane slowly and hard uttered these words, not taking his burning eyes off Mordin.
I didn't say that! - the professor smiled, - we are all mortal, and we do not lead the most peaceful way of life. So, guarantee you long life I can not. But I'm pretty sure you won't die from Kepral syndrome! In addition, we have almost completed work on an artificial lung. This is how Chakwas, Ms. Lawson and I planned to prolong your life. Now everything has been simplified. The operation will give us the opportunity to replace the affected lung with its artificial counterpart. After that, you will have almost full lung capacity, corresponding to the parameters of your race. The operation will be carried out in a couple of months. I must finally be convinced of the correctness of my conclusions and bring the transplant to perfection. I want everything to be perfect!
So I won't die! - Thain repeated as if in a dream, and then he sighed convulsively and covered his face with his hands, wanting to hide the tears of distrust and joy flowing down his cheeks. Drell, like a child, buried his head in Shep's chest, and she hugged him and pressed him to her wildly pounding heart. Laura stroked Thane's trembling shoulders, not noticing that the same tears were running down her cheeks:
You are not deceiving us, professor? she asked, reading the answer in the shining eyes of Mordin and in the triumphant smile of Chakvas, who said:
I told you miracles happen, Laura. Not only bad things should happen to us. You deserve the right to be happy more than anyone in this universe, - Chakvas touched Mordin's shoulder, and they both left the medbay, leaving Thane and Shepard alone with their unexpected and great joy.
I did not think that it was possible to cry not only from pain and fear, - Thain raised his eyes to the captain, in which disbelief was still read.
You can, - Laura carefully ran her trembling fingers along his cheek, kissed him, again feeling the bitterness of his tears, as before, before Omega 4, when they first became close:
Forgive my weakness, Siha... I shouldn't be like that in front of you, - Thane took her hand in his, squeezed it tightly, - I'm ashamed...
You shouldn't be ashamed, Thane," Shepard leaned against the drell, feeling the trembling of his nerves through him, "it's not every day you know you've been pardoned." That life will not end in a year. So much more to come...
I know, - Thane touched her lips, - I've just come to terms with the fact that I have little left, that nothing keeps me here, that everything is already behind. But then you appeared, Siha. You gave me back my son and life, gave me your love and all of yourself. We survived that battle, but my sentence prevented me from fully enjoying my happiness. I was afraid to look into the future, even Kolyatu did not say anything about you and me.
Don't worry, she smiled. - There will be time. We can now talk about everything with your son, there is no hurry, Thane.
What a beautiful phrase, the drell said. - The gods showed me mercy and gave me another chance.
You deserve it." Laura rested her head on the drell's shoulder.
WE deserve it, - Thane smiled, - without you all this would be impossible, Siha.
It doesn't matter who gave us this chance, it's important that we have it, - she looked into his eyes. - The rest doesn't matter.
The logical continuation of the story in the story Mother and Stepmother.
The first impulse of Colonel Phorius, commander of the squadron, was the desire to stop by force the violation of one of the key laws of the Citadel space - a ban on the activation of any relays before obtaining permission from the Council, which is possible, of course, after studying the systems behind the relay. However, the small, fifty meters long ## ship did not pose a significant threat: it did not have an axial gun, or visible guns at all. Under the uneven elongated hull in the form of a cylinder, unsuitable for flights in the atmosphere, only the smallest kinetic weapons and lasers could be hidden. Zarik Phorius was still quite young and unrestrained turian, but he would not have been appointed to command so early if he could not control his emotions. He decided that it was not worth spoiling the first contact with an unknown species with a conflict ... at least until the need arose. After all, with one ship smaller than a corvette and a squadron of a cruiser, three frigates, and sixteen fighters in their hangars, the aliens would have to be suicidal to ignore a direct order.
Transmit the standard first contact data packet and the message to the unknown ship: "You are in space controlled by the Alliance of Races of the Citadel. Stop relay activation immediately and prepare the ship for screening. Do not try to hide, otherwise we will be forced to use weapons. Most likely it is more unknown civilization, which did not come into contact with the Council, - this is how the colonel explained the order to the signalman. “Their ship is quite primitive, so it’s possible that they still won’t be able to decipher the message. Prepare programs for deciphering the language, we are waiting for their message. Do not open fire without command.
Phorius had not been ordered to prepare the kinetic weapons for firing just because they were already ready. As innocuous as the ship of this civilization may have looked, caution on first contact has been a key rule since the Rachni Wars began, long before the turians entered Citadel space.
Commander, their ship has shrunk! - a loud voice from the observation post sounded over the link; on the screen, the colonel saw Captain Gurak. She looked scared and uncomprehending. - Sensors record a decrease in mass by fifteen percent ... The ship crumbles into dust!
Open fire! Forius commanded immediately. What happened was exactly what was worth fearing in the first place when contacting a new race: unknown technologies, the principles and consequences of which could not be imagined.
The alien ship performed an evasive maneuver, due to the high - too high, in comparison with the strongholds - acceleration was able to avoid the first shots. However, the very first successful hit pierced their shield and blew the starship's nose; the subsequent shot from the cruiser's axle gun broke the ship into two unequal parts, and they ceased fire.
“At least we stopped violating the laws of the Citadel. We did everything according to the Charter and did not make mistakes, ”Zarik Forius tried to calm himself from the excitement caused by such an unexpected and unsuccessful first contact. "Send the footage of the encounter to HQ immediately, continue broadcasting until the operation is complete," he commanded. - Frigate "General Adork" - look for survivors.
“The command will have nothing to reproach me with.”
Phorius thought the only thing left to do was pick up the survivors from the escape pods, if there were any. He couldn't have expected the ship's shattered hull to suddenly disintegrate into many thousands of ultra-small aircraft- one smaller than a newborn turian! - and most of them will head straight for the squadron, maneuvering with unimaginable overloads.
Fire! - anti-missile### lasers began to shoot down enemy drones even before the order of the colonel.
Almost fifty seconds ago, almost calm, Phorius sensed the approach of panic. The lasers were almost unable to damage the enemy - there were too many drones, and they were too evasive. No organic could have controlled them, and no virtual intelligence could have maneuvered with such efficiency. Yes, not a single organic would fit in drones ...
The conclusion was obvious - the ship was controlled by an artificial intelligence similar to the geth. And it doesn't look like the hits hurt him. If the ship from the very beginning consisted of a huge number of drones connected together, then the turian guns only destroyed a part of them.
Let's switch to SSD#####, immediately! - now Zarik could only save the squadron, even at the cost of a shameful flight. And is it shameful to retreat from soulless machines that will definitely not accuse the turians of their lack of military prowess?
Now... Now... thought Phorius. "Why don't the engines..."
A monstrous blow threw him face down on the dashboard. Several seconds passed before the Colonel rose to his feet and wiped the bluish blood from his face.
Report! Still trying to look confident, Phorius commanded, looking at the screen spattered with his blood.
Engines are damaged! Transition to superluminal speed is impossible! - but the senior engineer of the cruiser with the rank of captain could no longer hold back a panicked cry. - Something penetrated the protective field and blew up the engines!
The following reports from other ships of the squadron showed that this was not an accident. They had lost their turn in the same way, and now they continued to fire lasers to no avail, unable to either retreat from the AI drones or defeat them.
"An attempt to break into the ship's network," a flashing red message from the computer security system appeared on the screen. Phorius saw the virtual intelligence increase the threat level.
The Colonel finally calmed down. He could not win this battle, there was no way to retreat. It remained only to die with honor, not allowing him to be captured by monstrous robots.
## - Naturally, the length was named in the system of measures adopted among the races of the Citadel.
### - The first one who thought of calling space rockets torpedoes, will burn in hell forever. There are no torpedoes in space! Torpedoes float, rockets fly!
#### - In the space of the Citadel, a day is twenty hours (at the same time, the day itself is longer than Earth), 100 minutes in an hour, 100 seconds in a minute (canon). As a result, 50 seconds roughly correspond to our 25 seconds. It should be understood that "hour", "minute", "second" is precisely the approximate translation of the names of time intervals to the nearest earthly counterparts.
##### - Superluminal movement.
BioWare is a legendary company specializing in role playing Oh. Its employees are responsible for such masterpieces as Baldur's Gate, Newervinter Nigths and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Jade Empire also belongs to Peru, but the combination of role-playing elements and a real-time combat system was not to everyone's taste. Yes, simplified role system(only three parameters) not too pleased. But, fortunately, the masters of the genre did not blunder - great characters, interesting story, a huge number of tasks and non-linearity brought fame and success to the game. There was a lull for a while, and then the company announced the development of an exclusive for the Xbox 360 - RPG mass effect. Beautiful videos and vivid screenshots gave the game the status of a "hit" even before the release. The PR campaign was thought out perfectly, and the output of the project turned out to be like an explosion. Dozens of awards around the world, titles " Best game of the Year” and “Best Role Playing Game” at various exhibitions - all this went into the pocket of developers and publishers. The owners of the Xbox 360 rejoiced in their happiness and quietly laughed at the owners of the PC. Critics, on the contrary, argued that there was nothing to laugh about - the project would definitely be released on a computer. Few believed, but many hoped. And their hopes were justified. Soon there was an official statement about the transfer of Mass Effect to the kingdom of the keyboard and mouse. The fans held their breath and crossed their fingers. And now the bomb exploded again. As it turned out, much stronger than the first time ...
Introduction to the Universe
2148 year. Mankind is developing, in small steps mastering the solar system. First the Moon was colonized, then Mars, and then the unexpected happened - people stumbled upon the remains ancient civilization Protheans. Before this event, there were no contacts with extraterrestrial races, but here the earthlings found proof of the existence of life in space. Time passed, humanity climbed a little further and received a "package" from an extinct people - a device called Mass Relay. It made it possible to move in space at superluminal speed. People rushed to new worlds. The first destination is an Earth-like planet, Eden Prime. The colony is founded - the development of territories continues. It turned out that haughty guests were not welcome in the depths of the universe. Humans encountered another race - the Turians. A brutal war began, humanity could not oppose anything to the technologies of the future. Having suffered a defeat, the earthlings entered into an agreement with the "owners", and the guests were allowed to stay. As the years passed, the galactic empire developed. It owed much to the heritage of the Protheans. The center of the world was destined to become the space station "Citadel". The first races, the Salarians and the Asaris, established a Council there. It carefully monitored what was happening around, maintaining a balance between all races. It was impossible to allow the dominance of any civilization, since democracy ceased to exist on this. The main personnel of the Consulate are the spectra (Spectres). These are special government agents, superbly trained and trained. They have immunity, and their clan is a powerful force in the universe. Their main task is to carry out state tasks. Spectra are always right about everything, even if they are wrong. The slightest disobedience to their orders threatens with a term in prison or even death. 2183 year. Civilization develops, more and more new races come into the world. Democracy is receding into the background. Chaos is happening along with the prosperity of the empire, huge power is in the hands of terrorists. It's enough Time of Troubles A strange race of robots, the Geth, appears on the map. They move menacingly towards the outpost of humanity. And then - applause, the curtain rises - enters the stage main character.First steps
By tradition, we start our journey with character generation. You are free to do whatever you want with it - grow a mustache, choose a hairstyle, cover your body with scars, and so on. The commander is the commander of the Normandy spacecraft. And also - an employee of the Consulate, the same spectrum. There are six classes to choose from - three main and three secondary. Engineer (Engineer) - a lover of technology, but weak in close combat. Adept (Adept) - an adherent of paranormal abilities. And finally, the soldier (Soldier) is a rude warrior without fear and reproach. The three remaining categories are combinations of these classes. And we recommend that you take a closer look at them. Also, upon completion of a side mission on the moon, it will be possible to choose one of the additional six classes. Having decided on the path of development, we can safely rush into battle. The action is gaining momentum on a planet colonized by earthlings. She is attacked by the former spectrum, and now the renegade Saren (turian by birth). It is not known how, but he takes control of the robots and tries to find the Prothean artifact. The human colony is under attack, most are killed, some are turned into zombies. The Commander is trying to stop what is happening ... The Consulate learns about the incident, but cannot believe the guilt of one of its agents. Appearing before the court, Saren proves his innocence. old conflict on racial grounds flares up again, and people leave in disgrace. The valiant captain is not able to turn a blind eye to this and begins to dig under the traitor, trying to find out the reasons for the betrayal and figure out the accomplices. The character is initially "correct". But that doesn't mean he has to be kind. On the contrary, Shepard can become a bastard and a liar, but all his actions will be regarded as correct. Before him all the time will be a moral choice - the developers did not hesitate to present it in almost every mission. Choosing a good or not so good solution to the problem, the main character receives points in one of two scales. Moreover, a good deed will not get rid of negative points, just as villainy will not affect the amount of humane points. Most decisions are made in dialogues that are very unusual. Forget about long tedious replicas and minutes in search of the right phrase. Now you are watching an interactive movie, occasionally choosing the "color" of the words. Short offer develops into a long conversation, and you enjoy it, since the characters are voiced superbly. The only blunder is that the aliens speak a completely understandable language - English. To be precise, in its various dialects.moment of truth
Having talked enough with others, it's time to get down to business. Fortunately, the commander does not follow the winding path alone - he is accompanied by six partners. Everyone belongs to one of the nations, has its own specialization, opinion about what is happening and is always ready to chat. Friends issue tasks and themselves participate in their implementation. We monitor the development of assistants on our own, giving them new skills and abilities. The role-playing system is made quite interesting. It consists of twelve parameters, each of which includes twelve stages of development. Very often, in order to reach a certain part of the ladder, you have to acquire unnecessary skills. But it makes up for it with great bonuses. As for weapons, they are divided into five classes - pistols, machine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles and grenades. Each species has three characteristics that can be improved. The upgrade system worked out perfectly - the better the barrel and armor, the more holes for additional materials. The battles take place in real time. The camera hangs over the shoulder of the protagonist, and the project turns into a third-person shooter with tactical elements. On the battlefield, you can take two partners and give orders to each of them. All battles are very dynamic and exciting. They are diluted with periodic trips on an all-terrain vehicle equipped with a cannon and a machine gun. The SUV easily passes where a tank would stall.finish line
The passage of Mass Effect takes an average of 25-30 hours. During this time, you have plenty of time to admire the world around you, shoot and listen to philosophical conversations. There are no abstruse conversations on the topic of Good and Evil. And, by and large, there is no division into good and bad. Everyone is right, even the negative character Saren. Everyone has their own truth. BioWare has again been able to give fans a wonderful game, almost devoid of flaws. The only negative is not the most successful optimization. Undoubtedly, Unreal Engine 3 produces great picture, but the textures take too long to load. But this problem is nothing compared to the pleasure that you will get from traveling to distant stars! Our score: 9.5 out of 10| Graphics | The picture is great. The detailing of the world is indescribable, and the quality of the facial animation of the characters deserves only praise. Unreal Engine 3 did a good job, however, problems with long loading times and occasional drops in frame rate were noticed. |
| Sound | The voices of the actors, their intonations and lines are perfectly tuned for Mass Effect. They are as good as the game itself. True, it can be funny to listen to aliens speaking English dialects. As for the music, it is very good, the orchestra did its best. Sound effects are also "on the level", and at a very high level. |
| Originality | A new variation of dialogues in the style of interactive cinema is an original solution. However, as well as the fusion of a tactical third-person shooter with a role-playing game. Anyway, Mass Effect is original by its very existence. Even the eternal “correctness” of decisions is exclusive. |
| Control | Very convenient and comfortable. Porting from new generation consoles went completely unnoticed. The mouse is supported in the same way as the keyboard. All movements of the characters are perfected, and the distribution of tactical commands is simple and understandable. The same applies to managing the development of heroes. |
| Gameplay Single | It drags on for a long time. The plot is magnificent, it wags from side to side and constantly presents new surprises. The world is huge and multifaceted, the characters hide many secrets, the missions are interesting and non-linear. |
| For replay | A very interesting option, since this is one of the best role-playing games for Lately. After the finale, you want to run around the planets again and resolve conflicts in other ways, more humane or, conversely, cruel. |
| Gameplay multiplayer | Not provided. |
| General impression | Before us is one of those games that has not been removed from hard drive. And not because it has not yet been completed, but because it is a pity. This is a hit, a masterpiece, a project of excellent quality. No wonder BioWare made a bet on him and planned a trilogy, the second part of which has already been announced for the PC. You simply must see it! |
This article will focus on our solar system. It seemed that it had already been studied quite well, however, scientists admit that in fact they know little. It so happens that information from the Mass Effect Codex is mixed with real data here, but I'm sure that you can easily distinguish reality from fiction.
We will not talk about the Earth, because such a story will go far beyond the scope of this article. As they say, for detailed information, refer to the standard galactic encyclopedia of the Alliance. We can only recall that the population of the Earth by 2186 reached 11.5 billion people. "Mysterious" people have so polluted the orbit of the planet that at an altitude of over 85 km, ships are recommended to use a kinetic barrier. There are more than 20 large space stations at the fourth and fifth libration points, with an average population of about 10,000 people each. (The libration point or Lagrange point is the point at which a celestial body with a small mass (for example, a space station), moving under the influence of the attraction of two other bodies of significant mass (for example, the Sun and the Earth), can be in a state of relative equilibrium with respect to these two bodies). These stations were built from materials mined on the moon. That's where we're going now.
About 400,000 km from Earth, three days on a spaceship from the beginning of the 21st century.
The Moon, a quarter of the diameter of the Earth, exerts a strong gravitational influence on our planet. It maintains the angle of the earth's axis unchanged. If it weren’t for the Moon, the angle of inclination of the earth’s axis over a long period of time would fluctuate from 0 ° to 85 °, which would lead to sharp climate changes: in one part of the Earth the temperature would rise rapidly, and in another it would fall sharply. The moon is very important for life, it ensures the stability of the climate and the change of seasons.
Up close, the Moon resembles a deserted battlefield after being bombarded by millions of meteorites and asteroids. But now it's quiet. Obviously, there has not been a major collision here for millions of years.
It brings back memories - the Apollo 11 lunar module, the first footprints of Neil Armstrong. They seem to have been made yesterday, there is no air to change them. They must remain for long millions of years.
Today there is a theory that the Americans did not land on the moon, and, oddly enough, this theory originated in the United States itself. In addition, even now, some do not know or forget about who was the first to set foot on the surface of the moon. One American journalist approached passers-by on the street and asked who was the first man on the moon. He received different answers, and even this: "Armstrong walked on the moon, but I think it was Russian, I'm not sure." Be that as it may, in 2069, the Armstrong base in Shackleton crater became the first settlement of earthlings on the moon, most likely, it was founded by the Americans. The official opening ceremony took place on July 24, exactly 100 years after the first moon landing. The population of the base has already reached 4.1 million people. At one time, the Moon was one of the first sources of helium-3, but at the moment it is producing materials used in space construction.
I would also like to note that in 2183, at one of the training complexes of the Alliance, located probably in the southern part of the Sea of Crisis, near the landing site of the Soviet automatic station Luna-23, VI went out of order, resulting in the death of 17 infantrymen, but the Alliance soon managed to bring the situation under control. Rumor has it that the complex's security systems have been disabled by a team consisting of just three people but that's just not possible! According to some estimates, to capture the base, it would be necessary to bring in up to a platoon of special forces.
But let's keep going. Out of the darkness arises a friendly face, the goddess of love - Venus.
It is located at a distance of 0.72 AU. e. from the Sun. Venus rotates in the opposite direction to its orbital rotation. The sun here rises in the west and sets in the east. Venus rotates very slowly on its axis. It takes more time to make one revolution than it does to fly around the Sun, a Venusian day lasts longer than a year. The planet's spectacular yellow clouds reflect sunlight, making Venus the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. Venus and Earth are similar in size and gravity, but the Venus Express spacecraft tells us that these dazzling clouds are made of lethal sulfuric acid, and the planet's atmosphere is filled with carbon dioxide. Venus is an evil goddess.
The atmosphere is poisoned, the pressure is unbearable (90-100 atmospheres), hot - about 500°C. If we stayed here for a long time, our body would be corroded by acid, we would suffocate, be crushed and fried. Nothing can survive here. Like this device. This is the Soviet robotic probe "Venus", its solid casing was spoiled by the special atmosphere of the planet.
So attractive from Earth, this planet is scary up close. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps the heat of the sun, global warming is rampant here. If before it took over the planet, Venus was calmer, then the present of Venus may be the future of our planet.
Due to such horrendous conditions, there are only a few research balloons on Venus, the planet's population is 800 people (probably only in orbit). But on the other hand, the atmosphere of Venus was perfect for testing the Kodiak Alliance shuttle, which turned out to be very tenacious and well protected.
Something tells us that we do not need to stay here for a long time and it is better to continue on our way. The planet scorched by the Sun is Mercury.
This is what happens when you get close to the Sun (0.39 AU): here the temperature changes rapidly, at night it drops to -170 ° C, at noon it rises to 400 ° C. This is the widest temperature range among the planets of the solar system. Burnt, frozen. Look at these scars, a sign that Mercury had a violent past.
Mercury is the smallest terrestrial planet. Its radius is only 2439.7 ± 1.0 km, which is less than the radius of Jupiter's moon Ganymede and Saturn's moon Titan. Interplanetary station "Messenger" tells us something strange: for its size, this planet has a powerful force of gravity, it must be heavier than it seems. The planet resembles a huge ball of iron covered with a thin layer of rock - the core of what was once a much larger planet. Perhaps some rogue planet crashed into Mercury and destroyed its upper layers. Entire planets, free-flying, are capable of destroying anything in their path, even other planets.
The period of revolution of Mercury around its axis is 2/3 of the period of revolution around the Sun. As a result, in one Mercury year, Mercury has time to turn around its axis by one and a half revolutions. The speed of rotation of Mercury around its axis is very small, and the speed of movement along the orbit is uneven, and on some days the orbital speed of the planet becomes higher than the rotational speed. Being at this time on the surface of Mercury, you can see that the Sun stops and moves in the opposite direction. For an observer located at certain longitudes, the Sun rises (or sets) twice.
There are no such seasons on Mercury as there are on Earth. This is due to the fact that the axis of rotation of the planet is at right angles to the plane of the orbit. As a result, there are areas near the poles that the sun's rays never reach. One study suggests that there are glaciers in this cold and dark zone. The glacial layer can reach 2 m and is covered with a layer of dust.
One of the most noticeable details of the surface of Mercury is the Heat Plain (lat. Caloris Planitia). Its diameter is about 1550 km, larger than the British Isles. It is one of the largest impact craters in the solar system. The impact was so strong that seismic waves, passing the entire planet and focusing at the opposite point of the surface, led to the formation here of a kind of crossed "chaotic" landscape. We know that the crater must have been formed in the planet's early history, as its surface is also badly damaged.
At the "peaks of eternal light" at the south and north poles of Mercury, there are several solar power plants. By the way, today some scientists have calculated that if three interconnected solar power plants are created on Earth, each a couple of hundred km2 in size, they will be placed somewhere in Australia, Africa and Latin America, then it would be possible to meet the needs of all mankind for electricity and transfer all coal, gas and nuclear power plants to the category of reserve ones. Such a global solar energy system would generate electricity around the clock and evenly throughout the year. On Mercury, unfortunately, the further development of stations is complicated by the proximity of the planet to the Sun and its high orbital speed, the population is only 340 people.
The article talked a little about the Sun, but you can add a lot more. Our planet receives only one two billionth of the energy emitted by the sun. Scientists have calculated that the total amount of energy produced by the Sun is enough to support more than 30 trillion Earth-like planets. If you collect all the energy that the Sun releases in one second, then it would be enough to provide the United States with the same amount of energy for the next 9,000,000 years as it consumes today. Day after day, the Sun maintains this phenomenal level of energy production, sending light and heat to all corners of the solar system. This is a colossal fireball, in the center of which the temperature exceeds 15 million ° C. The temperature and pressure on the Sun is so high that it is not a solid body, not a liquid, and not even a gas. The sun exists in a form of matter called plasma. It is so hot that its atoms are literally torn apart. At its center is a source of energy that seems inexhaustible. The sun is so big and its core is so dense that it takes millions of years for it to nuclear power came to the surface. If the sun in currently suddenly stopped producing energy, this would have a significant impact on our planet only after 50,000,000 years.
And it all started, one might say, out of nothing. These are clouds of hydrogen molecules - one of the coldest zones of the Galaxy.
Temperature is very important because it is a measure of how fast objects are moving. These clouds are so cold that they move very slowly. Only in such intense cold can gravity capture the particles that make up these clouds. Over the course of millennia, they thicken. The smallest particles condense into a ball of enormous density. This, one might say, is the "embryo" of a new star, but stars are born after tens of millions of years. As the hydrogen clouds thicken, the pressure builds up. They begin to heat up, and finally, in the center, they become hot enough that the hydrogen atoms begin to fuse into helium atoms. Nuclear fusion takes place. The center ignites, the clouds stop being black, the life cycle new star. More than five billion years ago, our star, the Sun, was born. According to estimates, the age of the Universe is 13.73 billion years, that is, the Sun exists for almost a third of the life of the Universe itself.
But we will return to it later, but for now we will go in the opposite direction. This comet has come too close, it's being burned by the heat of the sun, and it's leaving a tail that stretches for millions of miles. The tail of a large comet can exceed the Sun in volume, while the mass is only a few thousand tons.
The comet is an icy waste from outer space.
But look at all that steam and geysers and dust. This is again the Sun, which melts the frozen "heart" of the comet, something like a huge snowball smeared with tar.
Almost the entire mass of a comet is concentrated in its nucleus, which, in all likelihood, has the size of a small asteroid. As a result of the decay of cometary nuclei, meteor swarms arise, upon meeting with which “rains of shooting stars” are observed in the earth's atmosphere.
The orbital periods of comets can reach millions of years. Only the orbits of a few comets are perturbed to such an extent that they become short-period. One of the brightest of these is Halley's comet; its period of circulation is close to 76 years. The total number of comets in the solar system is estimated at hundreds of billions.
We go further, beyond the orbit of the Earth (1.52 AU). The red planet is definitely Mars.
For centuries, we have been looking for company on Mars, traces of life. Somewhere out there may be an extraterrestrial civilization. Mars occupies our imagination more than the rest of the planets. What if there really is something here? If it exists, it lives on a dead planet. The red and dead planet Mars is a giant fossil. Interestingly, the southern hemisphere is higher and has a more complex terrain. The northern hemisphere is five kilometers lower on average, and the surface is younger because there are fewer impact craters. Sandstorms, huge, bigger than the biggest tornadoes on Earth.
Here the wind blows, and where there is wind, there is atmosphere. But the air is too rarefied to breathe, it is full of carbon dioxide. There is nothing here that could protect Mars from ultraviolet rays. Water is present at the poles, even in the atmosphere in the form of snow. But it's cold here - 80°C. It's hard to believe that there is something alive here. On a dead planet, there is no geological activity to replenish the minerals and nutrients in the soil, no heat to melt the frozen waters, and it's hard to see where we're going through this dust.
But we can't miss it - Mount Olympus.
A huge ancient volcano, the largest in the solar system, is three times higher than Everest (24 km). So wide that it would occupy almost the entire territory of Spain, its diameter is more than 500 km, it is framed by a sheer cliff 6 km high (this is the appropriate name for some new class of dreadnoughts - the Olymp-class dreadnought). Since its discovery in the 1970s, it has been declared extinct. It seems that something is happening on its slopes, as if lava was flowing over them.
But the lava flows have long been frozen and smoothed out by meteor showers, unless, of course, after all this monster still did not survive, if liquid magma is not found under the upper layer now - this changes everything. Volcanic activity can melt water frozen in the soil, restore minerals and nutrients. Against the backdrop of this giant canyon, our Grand Canyon is nothing more than a crack in the pavement. This canyon continues, it stretches for a distance similar in size to the whole North America, and its depth reaches 8 km. It is the largest canyon in the solar system. There are signs of activity here: erosion and what looks like a dry river bed at the bottom of the canyon. Perhaps volcanic activity once melted the ice in the soil and let water through the huge canyon. Maybe we have the ability to find flowing water. NASA's Opportunity rover moves through this desert landscape, finding evidence that these empty plains were once ancient lakes and oceans.
As probes orbiting Mars pass over these crevasses, they keep spotting more and more ravines. There is a lot of evidence that Mars is alive and continues to change, that water may be flowing under its surface, creating these ravines.
Mars, which we thought we knew a lot about, is no more. It was replaced by this new active, changing planet. And if we don't know Mars, the most studied planet in the solar system, what else don't we know?
Although by the end of the 22nd century, scientists had not found life on Mars, they did find traces of it. Yes, such that I had to rewrite historical books, break scientific works and turn our world upside down.
In 2103, the European Space Agency built the city of Lowell on Mars, which became the first permanent settlement of earthlings. Within ten years, the United States and China also built their permanent settlements.
A small digression: I don’t know if I’m right or not, but it seems to me that by that time Russia, Ukraine, Belarus (and, perhaps, many others) had long since joined the EU. I don't know what could have been different countries in 90-100 years, but somehow they all unite, the North American states and the Chinese Federation are formed. Alone, it will probably be difficult. In addition, the EU, the USS and the CNF not only founded cities on Mars, they also discovered the planet Watson almost simultaneously 62 years later. It seems that apart from them, no other terrestrial coalitions are exploring space so actively, but someone is creating such capitals in the colonies as New Yekaterinburg, the Altai Miners are successfully working on the planet Dobrovolsky. On the one hand, it will probably be difficult for Russia to establish colonies on its own, on the other hand, it seems unlikely that the EU, without such new members, would establish a city on Mars 10 years earlier than America with Canada and Mexico, and China, without some very important technologies - before Russia.
Let's go back to Mars. The south pole part of Prometheus Land was soon compared to the Bermuda Triangle. Satellites recorded scattered mass accumulations and shifting magnetic fields. In 2148, exploration geologists working in the Deseado Crater area discovered an underground complex that turned out to be a Prothean observation base. The anomalies were caused by the work of the Core, which continued to function despite being abandoned fifty thousand years ago. This news shocked the earth's population. The existence of alien life was obvious. The complex turned out to be an observational biological laboratory. The targets of the Protheans could not be established, but the decoded records indicated that the complex was constantly associated with automatic observation platforms located in Earth orbit and the visible side of the Moon. The six spaceships found on the territory of the complex with engines using the mass effect were most likely intended for personal observation. Also, a purified zero element was discovered here, which allowed mankind to create the first mass effect field generators and go into space at superluminal speed.
After the discovery of the possibility of travel at superluminal speeds, the development of Mars, once intended for colonization and terraforming, stopped. At the south pole of the planet is a historical reserve, created on the site of the Prothean ruins found there. Settlement and development is limited as the search for Prothean artifacts continues. The population of the planet is 3.4 million people, the distance to the Sun: 1.52 a. e.
I will not describe in detail the satellites of Mars - Phobos and Deimos. These are two "cobblestones", only about 25 and 15 km long. In total, there are from 145 to 177 planetary satellites in the solar system, depending on how they are counted.
Beyond Mars, at a distance of 2.8 AU. e. from the Sun, there is an asteroid belt - a place of accumulation of millions of stones, from a few centimeters to hundreds of kilometers wide.
This one is about 30 kilometers long. And look - it has a space research rocket on it.
It's not easy to park on an asteroid flying at 80,000 km/h. It takes a lot of effort to find the right ledge, a ledge that constantly collides with something, breaks off and falls to Earth in the form of meteorites. It turns out that it was precisely such protrusions that collided to create planets. By finding out the age of the meteorites we find on Earth, we learned that the planets were created 4.5 billion years ago.
The belt consists of several million asteroids, but they occupy a huge space and if you put them together, the resulting formation will be smaller than our moon. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, the space in the asteroid belt is extremely rarefied, the probability of not only a collision, but simply an accidental approach of a ship to one of the asteroids is extremely small, the distance between two asteroids can reach 1.5 million km.
However, among these stones is a large spherical object - Ceres.
This is a giant stone with a diameter of 950 km, the mass of which is equal to a third of the mass of the entire belt. Asteroids are lumpy, but Ceres is different. It is so large that it has enough gravity to take the correct shape. The structure of Ceres, unlike other asteroids, resembles the structure of the terrestrial planets. Inside is a stone core surrounded by an icy mantle, which is covered with a thin dusty crust. Therefore, in August 2006, when the International Astronomical Union introduced an intermediate link between planets and asteroids - dwarf planets, Ceres received new status, turning from the largest asteroid to the smallest dwarf planet. Dwarf planets cannot be considered ordinary planets unless they dominate their orbit and can clear space of other objects. For quite a long time it was believed that there was a planet in the place of the asteroid belt, torn apart during some kind of catastrophe, but now we know very well that the planet could not be here, it simply could not form. Something must have stopped those stones, something very strong... Jupiter.
Jupiter, located at a distance of 5.2 AU. e. from the Sun - a real monster. At least 1000 times larger than Earth. The planet is so huge that it can accommodate all the other planets. Something this big should have a significant effect on the neighbors. Jupiter's gravity prevents asteroids from turning into a planet. Jupiter is great.
But down there, everything may not be what it seems. This huge planet is almost entirely composed of gas. As soon as we land, we will begin to sink in its layers and may never reach a solid surface. Jupiter's atmosphere is so dense, and the force of gravity is so strong that when you dive 20,000 km deep into the planet, the pressure will be two million times greater than on the surface of the Earth. The fact that Jupiter looks so good is the product of unusually violent processes. The planet rotates very quickly, lifting winds that rush at speeds of several hundred kilometers per hour, twisting clouds into stripes, funnels and whirlwinds. All these frothy clouds create an electrical storm. Just one lightning here is 10,000 times stronger than any lightning on Earth. And the legendary Great Red Spot is the strongest and most violent storm in the solar system, at least three times the size of the Earth.
It was discovered almost 350 years ago, but it is possible that this storm has been raging for even longer. The Great Red Spot is in southern hemisphere Jupiter and rotates counterclockwise. This is an anticyclone, so it creates high pressure. It is possible that it was once white, but with an increase in the speed of rotation, it began to absorb matter from the depths of the atmosphere. The red color is most likely attached to the stain chemical compounds including phosphorus and sulfur. The storm towers 8 km above the planet's cloud cover. Winds rushing at 500 km/h are much faster than the most powerful winds generated by tornadoes here on Earth.
It seems safer to observe Jupiter from a distance, it's just beautiful. But the Geiger counter is going crazy, it seems that even instruments are in danger from radiation drawn from space by Jupiter's powerful magnetic field.
But the multi-colored satellite of Jupiter - Io.
These pleasant colors are actually molten stones and sulfur, volcanoes spewing air, hot ash and sulfur to a height of up to 500 km. The satellite literally breathes the heat of volcanic activity. One of its many lava lakes gives off more heat than all of Earth's volcanoes combined. It is the most volcanically active object in the solar system. Io is constantly changing shape. It always faces Jupiter on one side, like the Moon to the Earth. However, the gravitational fields of Jupiter and its other moons are constantly pressing on Io and pulling it in various directions up to 100 m. As a result of the resulting friction, the temperature inside Io is very high. This is the most changeable place that we met after the Sun.
How strange this place looks, and at the same time suspiciously familiar.
A bit like the Arctic with its ice, underwater rocks and cracks. This is Europe, and perhaps, like in the Arctic, this ice drifts on water, liquid water. It's an intriguing thought, but we're 800 million kilometers from the Sun. Of course, Europa is a frozen solid, unless Jupiter's gravity creates friction somewhere deep that prevents Europa from freezing completely. The depth of the liquid ocean under the ice can reach 100 km. If these assumptions are correct, then tiny Europa has twice as much water as Earth. Until humans sent a ship to drill through the ice (which probably had to be melted rather than drilled, as the ice may be hundreds of meters thick), Europa remained one of the solar system's greatest mysteries.
However, Jupiter's strong gravity and deadly radioactivity hinder the study of its moons. The largest human outpost remains the Nautilus of the Binery Helix corporation, located under the Europa ice sheet. The population of all the moons of Jupiter is 9,100 people.
9.6 a. e. from the Sun. This planet has captured our imagination, it often appears in our dreams. And here it is, spinning before our eyes. Saturn - gem in the corona of the solar system.
There is something magical about Saturn. It's a giant ball of gas so light it could float on water. It has the lowest density among the planets of the solar system (0.7), less than that of water. All four gas giants have rings, but Saturn's are the most prominent. These impressive rings can be stretched from the Earth to the Moon, but they are only a few hundred meters deep. Named alphabetically from A to G, Saturn's rings are made up of a huge number of narrow "rings" containing about 35 trillion tons of ice and dust, which is about 26 million times the amount of water on Earth.
Even more remarkable, scientists have counted 62 moons among the rings of Saturn, and these satellites change the height of the rings. When we look at the rings of Saturn from Earth, they seem flat, smooth, but there are regions where what can be called "mountains" are formed on the rings, comparable in height to the peaks of the Alps. The moons interact with Saturn's rings, lifting their material above the ring or lowering it as they orbit in the same orbit as the ring itself.
Cassini is picking up ghostly radio emissions, possibly caused by auroras around Saturn's poles. He also informs us that perhaps these rings are all that remains of a satellite or comet destroyed by the planet's gravitational field. Incomparable beauty created through total destruction. Billions of ice floes, some as tiny as ice cubes, others as big as horses. They collide, break up, and again fold into large ice floes. It's like a snapshot of our solar system as dust and gas orbited the newborn Sun. Once every few years, Saturn's rings seem to disappear. As the planets move relative to each other, sometimes the Earth crosses the plane of the rings. And since the rings are less than a kilometer thick, they are very hard to see.
But we must break away from this spectacle, we still have much to learn.
This satellite, tightly wrapped in clouds, is Titan.
It seems that there is an atmosphere on it. There is wind, rain, even seasons, and look at these rivers, lakes and oceans. Rain on Titan must be an amazing sight. Due to the density of the atmosphere, which is 4 times denser than the earth, and the weak gravity of the satellite, raindrops reach a size of a centimeter and fall to the surface as slowly as snowflakes fall to the surface of the Earth. From what we have seen, this place most closely resembles Earth.
Only it's not water, but liquid natural gas. There is hundreds of times more gas here than the oil and gas reserves on Earth combined. If we could only get it home, it would power our cities and fuel our cars for thousands of years. Or we could use it to run a settlement here on Titan. This is the Huygens probe, launched from the Cassini interplanetary station, which reports that the soil contains organic matter. But it is very cold here, -180°С.
In 2137, the Eldfell-Ashland Energy Corporation demonstrated to everyone a way to extract helium-3 from the atmosphere of Saturn, and since the 2150s, Saturn has been a source of helium-3 for fusion reactors.
Now those same hydrocarbons are being mined on Titan (it was then that the shares of some Gaz-Mass-Prom probably soared in price), and it also serves as a training ground for survival in extreme conditions for the Alliance infantry. Here is the fort named after Charles Upham, in which Ashley Williams took part of her training.
Most satellites of planets in the solar system are dead in a geological sense. Enceladus, which is only 500 km in diameter, is like such a quiet planet. But suddenly, colossal geysers of water and ice erupt through cracks in its surface.
Enceladus is the most amazing moon of Saturn. The processes taking place on it are different from volcanism on Earth, where hot magma comes out from under the surface of the planet. On Enceladus, liquid water erupts to the surface, jets of which rise many hundreds of kilometers into space at a speed of more than 2000 km / h. Scientists have counted at least 30 geysers located among geological formations called "tiger stripes" that are located in the south pole.
Hot water bursts out of underground voids in a powerful stream. When it meets the surrounding cold, it freezes to form ice particles. Matter leaving Enceladus fills up Saturn's E ring, or even formed it.
One of the factors for the emergence of volcanism on Enceladus may be tidal energy. Enceladus revolves around Saturn in an elliptical orbit. When it flies close to Saturn, the planet's gravitational field has a huge impact on Enceladus, and when it moves away from Saturn, a process is underway with the release of energy in the bowels of the satellite. These fluctuations in orbit help to melt the rock in the bowels of Enceladus and keep the water in a liquid state. Moreover, internal structure Enceladus may be heating up from the decay of radioactive elements. The mystery is how much water is contained below the surface. Some scientists believe that since geysers require a constant source of water, there may be an entire water ocean under the surface of geologically active regions.
Saturn population (in orbit and on Titan): 117,000 Capital: Huygens Dome
We are about one and a half billion kilometers away from Home and are already losing visual contact with the Earth. We stand on the edge of a cliff, looking at the mysterious outer expanses of the solar system. To reach the next planet, we need to make a jump. It is almost the same distance from Jupiter as Jupiter is from the Sun.
19.2 a. e. from the Sun. A planet invisible from Earth, unknown for most of history. We are on the edge of the outer solar system - it's like diving into the depths of the ocean. These rings… From Uranus, the disk of the Sun looks 300 times smaller than from Earth.
It seems that Uranus is so named because of its tilted axis, a wandering planet. The plane of the equator of Uranus is inclined to the plane of its orbit at an angle of 98 ° - that is, the planet rotates, "lying on its side." If other planets can be compared to spinning tops, then Uranus is more like a rolling ball.
During Voyager 2's first visit to Uranus, the south pole of Uranus was facing the Sun. The designation of this pole as "south" was established by the International Astronomical Union, guided by the fact that the north pole should be above the plane of the solar system. However, there is an agreement according to which, when referring to Uranus, they use the "rule right hand when it comes to its poles. Using this method, Voyager 2 "saw" not the south, but the north pole of the planet. As a result, the rotation of Uranus is reversed, like that of Venus, but it is done in different ways.
Due to its “lying position”, Uranus, while moving in orbit, turns out to be facing the Sun either by the equatorial region, or by one of the poles. Therefore, for a long time, almost the entire hemisphere of the planet can be illuminated by the Sun. At the poles, days and nights last, for example, 42 years each. Unlike other planets, the maximum amount of light and heat on Uranus is received not by the equatorial, but by the polar regions.
The magnetic field of Uranus is unusual in that it is not directed from the geometric center of the planet, but is deflected by almost 60 degrees with respect to the axis of rotation. Perhaps inside Uranus it is formed at relatively shallow depths.
The rotation period of Uranus is approximately 17 hours. The existing scatter in determining the values of this period is due to several reasons, of which two are the main ones: the gaseous surface of the planet does not rotate as a whole, and, in addition, no noticeable local inhomogeneities have been found on the surface of Uranus, which would help to clarify the duration of the day on the planet.
But after the invention of the superluminal engine, helium-3 mining began on Uranus, which was facilitated by low (for a gas giant) gravity. Today, Uranus is the main source of helium-3 for the Alliance.
Population: 371,000
Capital: Sakharov Station
30.1 a. e. from the Sun. Another "monster" rises from the depths - Neptune. Since opening in 1846. to our time, it has completed only one revolution around the Sun.
Scientists believe that diamonds rain down on Neptune. Yes, yes - rains of diamonds. As a result of modeling the atmosphere of Neptune, conducted recently at the University of California (Berkeley, USA), diamond dust was obtained. So, some scientists believe that due to the presence of carbon in the atmosphere of Neptune and incredible pressure, it literally rains from huge diamonds, and in the depths of Neptune, according to one hypothesis, there is a whole ocean of “diamond liquid”.
The blue color of Neptune is largely the result of the absorption of red light by methane in the atmosphere, but there is also an additional as yet unidentified chromophore that gives the clouds their rich blue hue.
Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune has an internal heat source. It radiates two and a half times more energy than it receives from the Sun.
This spot is an Earth-sized storm driven by wild winds that reach 2,000 km/h. Closer to the Earth, the Sun controls the winds, Neptune is too far away. Something else must be causing these fierce winds, but no one knows exactly what. Our solar system huge, it warns us of how little we really know about it.
Let's dive deeper. Finally, there is something to cling to. After all the gas balls in front of us is a solid satellite - Triton. Solid but unstable. Look at these geysers - cosmic "pipes" through which strange "soot" comes out.
And this satellite revolves around Neptune in the opposite direction to the rotation of the planet. The huge force of gravity on Neptune pulls Triton, slows it down, spins it. One day Neptune will crush its moon...
Despite the fact that Neptune, like Uranus, is rich in helium, its remoteness made it difficult to start mining before the invention of the FTL engine. The only permanent human habitation here is the research station on Triton.
Population (Triton): 70
At a distance of 39.5 a. e. from the Sun is Pluto. The International Astronomical Union awarded Pluto the status of a planet in May 1930 (then it was assumed that Pluto was comparable to the Earth).
But this ice ball bears little resemblance to what we know: all the planets move in a circular orbit, but he does not, all the planets are located in the same plane with respect to the Sun, but not Pluto.
Orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Pluto even has its own moon, Charon. It is unusual in that it largest satellite relative to the main planet. Both celestial bodies revolve around a point that is closer to Pluto, but outside of it, so Pluto/Charon is often considered a binary planetary system, and not considered just a planet with a satellite. Due to close masses and small distance, gravitational forces between Pluto and Charon have led to the fact that both of them always face each other on the same side. That is, on one side of Pluto, facing Charon, Charon is visible as a motionless object, and on the other side of the planet, Charon is never visible at all.
Since 1992, when the first object in the Kuiper belt was discovered, the status of Pluto began to be questioned, and in 2006 Pluto was transferred to the category of dwarf planets, and in 2008, when the concept of "plutoid" (or "ice dwarf") was introduced , he finally lost the status of the planet.
Pluto is singled out among the rest of the "ice dwarfs" only because in 2149 the translation of Prothean information on Mars led earthlings to Charon, which turned out to be a relay leading to the Arcturus system. Pluto is the gravitational anchor for the relay, previously covered in ice and thought to be natural companion. But in 2157, Pluto's orbit was flattened as a result of an operation to extract the relay. The Sun is so far away from Pluto that it appears slightly brighter than a bright star.
Population (stations at repeater): 9,300
Previously, it seemed that Pluto was alone and there was nothing behind it, but new frozen worlds were discovered. They form the Kuiper belt - a region of the solar system from the orbit of Neptune to a distance of about 55 AU. e. from the Sun. Although the Kuiper belt is similar to the asteroid belt, it is about 20 times wider and 20 to 200 times more massive than the latter. In contrast to the asteroid belt objects, which are mainly composed of rocks and metals, Kuiper belt objects are composed primarily of volatile substances such as methane, ammonia, and water. The number of known Kuiper belt objects has reached 1,100, and it is estimated that more than 70,000 more with a diameter of more than 100 km have not yet been discovered. In total, according to theoretical estimates, there are several billion.
At a distance of about 80 astronomical units (12 billion kilometers) from the Sun is the Gagarin station, the largest space station built by earthlings in deep space. Its construction began in 2142. The station was built to test some of the theories that made FTL possible, but only in interstellar space. The second, unofficial, name of the station was "Jump Zero", since it was assumed that it would become the starting point for the expansion of earthlings into the Galaxy. However, soon after the completion of its construction, Prothean ruins were discovered on Mars, which called into question the feasibility of the entire project. After a decade of unsuccessful efforts to generate revenue from the station, it was sold to the Systems Alliance in 2159 for a fraction of the cost of its construction. The Alliance refurbished the station, turning it into an educational and scientific center dedicated to studying the phenomenon of biotics, discovered shortly before. In 2169, the biotic training program was closed, and the Gagarin station became a research center. Its remote location and deliberate lack of extranet access make it a prime location for dangerous research, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence. "Eliza", the first stable AI developed by the Earthlings on the order of the Alliance, reached a reasonable state at Gagarin Station in 2172.
Currently, the permanent population of the Gagarin station is 9,000 inhabitants. A program was proposed to move the station to the Lagrange point of the Pluto-Charon system, which would make it possible to turn the station into an intermediate point between the Solar system and Arcturus station. The high cost of the project, caused by the large mass of the station, pushed back the timing of its implementation indefinitely.
The most distant object that orbits the sun is another small icy world named Sedna, discovered in 2003.
Some researchers attribute Sedna to the Kuiper belt, but even the point of its orbit closest to the Sun is far beyond the belt. The nearest point is 76 a. e. ~ 11 billion km (20 AU further than the Kuiper belt and only 4 AU closer to the Gagarin station), and the farthest point of the orbit is 960 AU. e.~144 billion km.
Now let's go back to the sun. The Sun has a strange atmosphere - it is a rarefied layer of charged particles, protons and electrons. For reasons yet unknown, the Sun's corona is much hotter than its surface. The temperature here exceeds one million degrees Celsius, which is about 200 times greater than the temperature of the visible surface of the Sun.
Every day, the most energetic particles of the corona break off from the very top of this atmosphere. The Sun emits almost 7 billion tons of corona matter per hour into outer space. These are gigantic hot streams of broken atoms, rushing at a speed of 400 km / s. They are called the solar wind. The solar wind - the breath of the Sun - begins its journey, penetrating into the depths of the solar system. Although the flow of the solar wind reaches the Earth, being already quite scattered, it rushes very quickly, there is enough energy in it to rip off the atmosphere from the Earth and carry it into outer space. Life on earth would not have survived under this deadly rain, if not for the miraculous protective properties of our home planet. She has a shield - a magnetic field generated deep in the planet's core. This wall, formed by geo lines of force magnetic field, and called the magnetosphere, pushes most of the deadly solar wind far into space. But our planet cannot completely avoid its influence. When the solar wind stream collides with the Earth's magnetic field, it compresses the field on the day side and pulls it out into a long tail on the night side.
At the same time, the magnetic lines of force behave like a rubber band, they stretch under the influence of the flow of the solar wind. Gradually, the energy accumulates and the magnetic field lines that go into the tail are stretched so that the magnetotail can no longer maintain its former form. Suddenly, the energy from it spurts out in the form of a stream of electrically charged particles that bombard the Earth's magnetic field lines near its poles. When these particles reach the atmosphere, the northern lights appear.
And beyond the orbit of the Earth, the solar wind continues its flight deep into the solar system, and wherever it meets planets with a magnetosphere, the northern lights appear.
Northern Lights on Jupiter
As the solar wind approaches the outer planets of the solar system, it becomes thinner, however, scientists believe that the northern lights exist on both Uranus and Neptune. Finally, far beyond the orbits of all the planets, having flown 16 billion kilometers, the last remnants of the Sun's breath begin to disappear. Incredibly, in this distance is a sensor that can determine exactly where the great journey of the solar wind ends.
The Voyager probe was launched in 1977. This device with the longest flight range sent by people into space. It travels with the solar wind. More than thirty years after launch, it is still regularly transmitting data to Earth, being 16 billion kilometers away.
Voyager reports that it has approached the end of the solar wind stream, it has found signs of the heliopause - the boundary of the invisible shell that separates our solar system from interstellar space.
Voyager found the end of the solar wind stream. But even so far from the Sun, his "empire" is not over yet. The main power of the Sun exists due to its very size. Our star is much larger than other objects in the system. The mass of the Sun is 99.866% of the mass of the entire solar system, the remaining 0.134% is all the planets, comets, meteorites and asteroids. The fact that the Sun has a gigantic mass means that its force of attraction extends incredibly far, capturing distant objects.
One researcher who studies comets from a roadside cafe gave a good example. He put a lighter in the center of a small table, and this is what he said. Comets are objects that are controlled by an invisible source of attraction that binds our solar system together. Imagine that the lighter is the Sun. From the Earth to the Sun 150,000,000 km. This is the so-called astronomical unit. Let's place the Earth one cm from the Sun (he put a small candy in a centimeter from the lighter). From Neptune to the Sun 30 AU. e, let's put it at 30 cm. The Kuiper belt - a strip of objects made of minerals and ice, where many comets that we see inside the solar system were born, is located at 50 a. e. from the Sun, on the edge of the table. This is how he depicted the solar system. The Voyager spacecraft, the most distant man-made object in space, flew 110 AU by 2009. That is, in the heliopause, i.e., a little further than a meter from the center of the table. The Sun's gravitational influence extends there as well, and persists much farther. Beyond the heliopause, space is a mixture of extremely rarefied gases and dust. However, from time to time there are large blocks of ice flying in huge orbits. They need millennia to fly around the Sun. At the very edge of the solar system there is a cluster of special objects - comets. This cluster is called the Oort cloud. It is from there that comets come from, from there they fly to us. The grip of the Sun is so strong that it also attracts the Oort cloud, which is at a colossal distance. This scientist left the cafe, got into the car and drove away from the cafe for half a kilometer. Getting out of the car, he said: “This is the distance from the Sun to the Oort cloud on the scale of our solar system.” As you remember, the distance from the Earth to the Sun is 1 cm, and here it is half a kilometer (about 1 light year). That's how far the Sun's gravity extends. It was this gravitational power that created the "empire of the Sun." Our star is surrounded by a gigantic flock of comets, which it keeps in their orbits with an extremely weak attraction.
The Sun, like the Solar System, is not that big compared to other stars and star systems in our Galaxy. For example, if you imagine the Sun as a ball, only 1 cm in size, then the star Arcturus will be about the size of a basketball, Gacrux in the constellation of the Southern Cross - just over a meter, etc. The largest known star, the hypergiant VY Big Dog, will be a huge ball, with a diameter of 21 meters. Its diameter is 2100 times the diameter of the Sun! If VY Canis Major is placed in the place of the Sun, then the star will reach the orbit of Saturn. The density of a star is approximately 0.000005-0.00001 kg/m³ (for comparison, the density of air at 0°C is 1.2929 kg/m³). The most massive known star is 265 times heavier than the Sun, and the most powerful has a luminosity of over 38,000,000 solar luminosities.
:Journey to the Edge of the Universe
The Planets. different worlds
7 Wonders of the Solar system
Series of films "Wonders of the Solar System"
Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius
Wikipedia
Innovative renewable energy technologies. D.S. Strebkov
Game Code and description of the planets
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