Star Wars/Mass Effect Crossover Scenario

[Ave Dominus Nox]

I've been bouncing the idea around about writing a Star Wars/Mass Effect Crossover (surprise!) for some time and I'm looking for some feedback on the idea. Now I study history so the maths and calcs aren't going to be my strong suit but bear with me on that.

The setting will be the Milky Way about 2000 AD (1500 Council Era).* However this will be AU in that there will be no humans native to the Milky Way. This saves me from either ignoring the contrivance of a species evolving to be identical in two separate galaxies or being forced to invent a reason. Also unless the story goes on far longer than I suspect the Reapers will not come into play.

The state from the Star Wars galaxy will take place in Legends-verse with the exception that the Empire defeated the Rebel Alliance at Endor and continues to dominate the GFFA.* (Vader lives and remains Vader while Luke was killed by the Emperor). I thought about doing it post Bastion Accords but realized that would later limit me in what I can do and have the Imperials can bring.

The background will be in the years following Endor the Emperor desires to expand his realm even further and using Project: Outbound Flight as a influence arranges a secret expedition to another galaxy. The expedition's orders will be generally either to begin the colonization of a new galaxy, subjugate it and eventually incorporate it into the Empire or if a threat is detected destroy it if possible or prevent it from reaching the GFFA.

My idea is for the story to start out as a first contact situation which at some point evolve into a shooting war between the Council Races and the Imperials with maybe some of the "Outcast Races" maybe siding with the Empire... still working on it. One of the potential allies I was thinking of was the Quarians who during this period have been in exile for a little over a century and have no reason to love the Council and perhaps are looking for allies to defeat the Geth.

One of the things I'm specifically looking for is opinions on who should led the Imperial Expeditionary Forces. If I'm going to use a preexisting character my first and most likely choices were either Grand Admiral Thrawn or the Lord Darth Vader, because both are awesome and my two favorite SW characters.

Thrawn seems the most logical choice in universe because not only does he have experience in leading expeditions with minimal outside support (the Unknown Regions expedition) he's not as much a threat to Palpatine as Vader would be if he was left to his own devices. By that I mean that Palpatine can surround Thrawn with Imperial Royal Guardsmen under orders to kill the Admiral if he gets to ambitious. The only problem with Thrawn is that writing genius is hard and I'd never actually have him as a POV character, I think that detracts from his mystique, and would have a "Watson" actually be the POV.

Vader is awesome and I'd mostly want him so I can have at some point a Force vs Biotic fight.* The problem in-universe is that I feel that Palpatine would be hesitant to allow his apprentice so far away from him and his influence, especially because Luke Skywalker is dead and Vader's proably not too happy. Also there is that tricky and complicated relationship between Sith apprentice and master. While I believe Vader would kill Palpatine if he believed he could win I don't believe its within his character to lead formulate and conduct a military coup against Palpatine. Though that could be a latter plot...

Moving on, as a part of laying the groundwork I laid out an order of battle for the Expeditionary Fleet. Just the military ones I'm still working out how I want to do civilian colonists, corporate assets etc. Also I'm loosely pulling this formations out of my ass because the what SW typically has naval formations is kinda weird so I tried to make something sensible.

Order of Battle: Imperial Expeditionary Fleet

Fleet Command Squadron
Executor Class Star Dreadnought
4 Imperial Class Star Destroyers
8 Victory Class Star Destroyers

Battlegroup (4 in the Fleet)(Commander name) (Vice Admiral)
4 Interdictor Star Destroyers
20 Imperial Class Star Destroyers
40 Victory Class Star Destroyers
80 Lancer class frigates
Assorted support ships

Squadrons (4 per battlegroup)(phonetic alphabet) (Rear Admiral)
1 Interdictor Star Destroyer
5 Imperial Class Star Destroyers
10 Victory Class Star Destroyers
20 Lancer class frigates

Task Force (5 per squadron) (Ship name)(Captain)
1 Imperial Star Destroyer
2 Victory Class Star Destroyers
4 Lancer frigates

Fleet Support
1 Arc Hammer Class Construction Ship
assorted refit, space docks and supply vessels

Example

Battlegroup Talus
Aurek Squadron – Imperial Star Destroyer Venerable (Vice Admiral Talus)
Task Force Venerable
Imperial Star Destroyer Venerable (Vice Admiral Talus)
Victory Star Destroyer
Victory Star Destroyer
Lancer Class frigate
Lancer Class frigate
Lancer Class frigate
Lancer Class frigate
Task Force Relentless
Imperial Star Destroyer Relentless (Captain Dorja)
Victory Star Destroy Steadfast (Commander Blackhead)
Victory Star Destroyer Vanquish (Commander Stein)
Lancer Class frigate Pulsar (Lt. Commander Kell)
Lancer Class frigate Swift ( Lt. Commander Tarnier)
Lancer Class frigate Rage (Lt. Commander Quelle)
Lancer Class frigate Wrath ( Lt. Commander Ski)
Task Force Starfall
Imperial Star Destroyer
Victory Star Destroyer
Victory Star Destroyer
Lancer Class frigate
Lancer Class frigate
Lancer Class frigate
Lancer Class frigate
Task Force Merciless
Imperial Star Destroyer
Victory Star Destroyer
Victory Star Destroyer
Lancer Class frigate
Lancer Class frigate
Lancer Class frigate
Lancer Class frigate
Besh Squadron – Imperial Star Destroyer Nightfall (Rear Admiral Donelly)
Cresh Squadron –Imperial Star Destroyer Implacable (Rear Admiral Trigit)
Dorn Squadron – Imperial Star Destroyer Fidelity (Rear Admiral Beston)

I also idea I had for a kind of Imperial ruling council for the expedition and the new territories

Expedition Council
Supreme Commander
(TBA)
Sector Governor
Moff Darren Hadrad
Imperial Security Bureau
Deputy Chairman-Austtrav Pampmore
Military High Command
Fleet Admiral Skor Tret – Imperial Navy
Surface Marshal Roland Kolin – Imperial Army
High General Daine Jir – Imperial Stormtrooper Corps
Vice-Admiral Jannoth Geer – Imperial Intelligence
Corporate Council
Alec Sienar – Sienar Fleet Systems
Jo Vexrt – Kuati Drive Yards
Cull Hann – Corellian Engineering

Most of the current names are placeholders that I may or may not actually use. I plan to have probably half a dozen main POV characters maybe a few more with a handful or more of one shot POV.

Also again math not being my strong suit and realizing the speed of the hyperdrive is in contention how long do you thing it would take a fleet to cross say 2.5 million light years (Milky Way to Andromeda for reference). Assuming the fleet had been retrofitted to carry the most advanced SW engines possible. For my understanding the limiting factor in hyperspace based travel is mass shadows caused by celestial bodies and without them you could conceivably travel far faster than you could within the galactic disk.

If the travel time isn't reasonable I'll either have to invent something or use a wormhole, which i'm trying to avoid.

I'd be interested in what anyone has to say or think and ahead of time thanks for any responses.


* In universe I'll use CE (Council Era) to measure time when from the perspective of the Council Races which is -500 years when compared to human AD or CE (Common Era) http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline
* This prevents the Rebels showing up in the new galaxy which is something that I personally annoying in a lot of Fics
* Somewhat like with Vader I don't think Palpatine with deploy any of his Dark Side Adepts (Dark Jedi Inquisitors etc) or even his Hands to a situation beyond his influence so to speak. So without Vader I don't think we'd realistically see any Force users in the Expedition.

[Vendetta]

Mass Effect is one of the lowest power settings, Star Wars is one of the higher.

The Imperial Expeditionary force quickly asserts complete military control of the galaxy, particularly because the Mass Effect galaxy is intentionally built with a single point of failure.

[Adam Reynolds]

As much as I love Mass Effect, it goes down to almost everything in terms of firepower. Even Reapers are barely a threat against most other settings. If they tried to attack Earth from Star Trek or Babylon 5 they would likely lose.

The main gun of a ME dreadnought is only in the double digit kt. Just about every other setting is in the MT range at least, with SW generally assumed to be in the GT or higher range for main guns.

[PREDATOR490]

Mass Effect will lose hard without a gigantic amount of writers fiat to weaken Star Wars.

- Mass Effect defences are almost exclusively built around Kinetic Barriers to defend against Kinetic Weapons. Those barriers may not work properly against SW weapons or not work at all.

- Transit in the Mass Effect galaxy is dependant on the Mass Relays which is a gigantic strategic weakness. The Empire could feasibly destroy Mass Relays and systematically conquer every region as an isolated threat. This is essentially what the Reapers do and built their entire cycle system on.

- The ME universe may not be pleased with the SW usage of droids / AIs. Quarians and Geth may be a problem in that respect.
Geth trying to convert or otherwise liberate SW Droids might be interesting and is about the biggest problem the ME could feasibly pose to the Empire.

- Mass Effect ships are pretty small. The biggest Dreadnoughts come in at the 800m range and are built around a main gun concept. Even the biggest Reapers are coming in at 2km. By comparison, the Victory Class Star Destroyers are 900m and have significantly stronger and more numerous weapons.

- Even ignoring the firepower difference, the Empire can reliably escape and dictate the range of any engagement with their FTL.

- Nasty strategy for the Empire expansion - Build bases away from the Relays which essentially makes them unreachable by ME forces and / or forces the ME ships into a nasty chokepoint. The Empire can systematically lockdown the Relays until all ME Empires cannot move without submission to the Empire.
Even the Reapers would be screwed in this regard because they need Mass Effect Relays to get around as well.

- It is extremely unlikely the Reapers would ignore the arrival of the Empire but the Reaper invasion would be completely averted. Sovereign is the only Reaper running around Pre-ME 1 and a run in with the Empire will have Sovereign turned to scrap. Without Sovereign to fix the sabotage to the Citadel, the Reapers are stuck wherever they were.
The ONLY chance ME has is on the possibility the Reapers can use their indoctrination on Empire forces. If the Reapers can mind-control some or all of the Empire forces they might put up a bit of a fight.

Fun note: If the Reapers are sitting dormant in the space between galaxies. It is entirely feasibly the Empire could 'accidentally' bump into them in the transit from the SW Galaxy. That would potentially see the ENTIRE Reaper fleet engage the ENTIRE SW force.
Alternatively, it plays out like a cartoon with the SW fleets zipping past at FTL while the Reapers double take trying to figure out what just happened.