What did you do today in ME?

Took my updated broshep for a spin and I like how he turned out. I basically used the same model for the first broshep I made, smoothed out some rough edges on his face (made his nose less gigantic, trimmed the chipmunk cheeks and the massive jawline). He looks a lot more appropriate now hitting on Ashley.

And after talking to Ashley once again, I will never understand how she gets the categorized as a racist. She's actually pretty cool and I understand where she is coming from also.

This is absolutely glorious.

Given how dingy the Normandy interior is in ME3, they should have painted the whole ship.

Ahmed Shepard spent more time in the combat simulator and helped the simulator engineers fix a memory leak. Of course, fixing that memory leak required to Ahmed to beat a tough simulation with the safeties turned off, but he did that once before at Pinnacle Station so this was nothing new. But unlike Pinnacle Station, this was by accident, so Ahmed created a few new swear words to adequately express how he felt about the situation.

Next up: meet up with some crew members on the Silver Sun Strip, then finally head off to meet the Quarians. I actually look forward to playing the main game again.

I started a new playthrough yesterday after spending over an hour fighting with the installation that worked fine earlier this year. MEUITM appears to be the culprit, but I thankfully got it working again. I think.

Anyway, here's Alex Shepard, Earthborn/ruthless vanguard. I'm aiming to make him full renegade, and probably will romance Ashley.

So last night Tracy and her crewed were lured by a fake Turian distress call to a collector ship which appeared to be disabled. Turns out it was a trap that she and her crew barely escaped though they did learn some important things while on board the collector vessel. They learned that the collectors were once protheans that had been altered and repurposed by the reapers and they learned from data mining that the omega 4 relay linked directly to the galactic core. Now they will have to get a reaper IFF from a derelect reaper but Tracy is not going to take then through the relay until she is sure the NOrmandy and it's team are ready and they aren't ready just yet. Afterwards Tracy went to Omega with Samara and helped her hunt down and kill a dangerous Ardat Yakshi she had been pursuing for centuries who also happened to be Samara's own daughter. Samara plays it tough but having to put down her own daughter had to be hard.

"Hi Alec,
what a day it has been. It all started yesterday when the quarian admirals boarded the Normandy after we had arrived at the Dholen system. They had started a war with the geth in order to try and reclaim their homeworld. And if that wasn't bad enough in a time where the focus should lie somewhere else, they were losing. The geth had now pinned them in their home system and they asked for my help. A Reaper signal that originated from a geth dreadnought there had started to broadcast to all geth, and under Reaper control they were significantly stronger and smarter. We had to board this thing as fast as we could to disable it, so we headed there right away.
To my surprise, Tali was now appointed as an admiral, and came aboard the Normandy as well. I was really glad to see her. I've missed her and wondered whether I'll be able to see her again someday. We had time to catch up a little, and she told me how she opposed the war with the geth, thought there was a chance for peace due to her time with Legion, but that only Admiral Koris was on her side. The current situation isn't easy for her to cope with. Through her father's research aboard the Alarei, Admiral Xen had developed a method to cripple geth ships in combat, and that's why they initiated the attack in the first place. It's not Tali's fault, and I assume she knows it, but I can relate. Feeling responsible for everyone, just like I feel responsible for about every single soul in the galaxy. It's a lot of pressure, and we both know we cannot save them all. I will support Tali any way I can from here on out.
Then it was time. We checked our gear, made sure everything is ready. Tali and EDI accompanied me, as they both could provide valuable tech skills and knowledge on a geth ship. We met a lot of resistance aboard the dreadnought, but we got through with relative ease. Hacking geth never gets old.
We eventually made it to the drive core, where we found the source of the signal. And not just that, but Legion too. Legion had been hooked up to some Reaper device and its platform was used to broadcast the Reaper signal. I was weary about it being hooked up to Reaper tech, it could be hacked or whatever, but Legion said it was not under control of the signal, only broadcasting it. I decided to trust it. It helped us before. We disabled the signal, released Legion from the device and it disabled the drive core as a gesture of goodwill, disabling all weapons and barriers.
It also helped us escape the dreadnought. Because while we were in there fighting the geth that came at us, this bloody madman Admiral Gerrel fired at the dreadnought in order to take it down, instead of retreating like we had discussed earlier. We only made it out because Legion flew us out of there with a geth fighter. I was so fucking pissed at Gerrel. He should've taken his people to safety, instead he did his own damn thing. Working together with them might be a real pain in the ass.
After this little incident I spoke to Legion. It told me that prior to the Reapers enhancing the geth, the quarians were winning. In their desperation, they accepted the Reapers' offer for the upgrades. I guess I can see where it's coming from, but geth under Reaper control is bad. Real bad. And it isn't even over. There's a Reaper base with another, short-range signal located somewhere on Rannoch. Legion couldn't pinpoint it yet though, so now we have one more problem on our plate to figure out.
Damn quarians, starting this fucking war right now. The timing couldn't be more shitty, and I kind of feel for the geth, too. They didn't want the war. Some other problems arose as well, Admiral Koris has crash-landed on Rannoch because he disabled a planetary defense cannon there, and Legion told me about some geth fighter squadrons that are targeting quarian liveships. It's important to stop these fighters first from doing anymore damage. I hope the admiral can hold on a little longer.
Fuck all this. I'm heading down to Steve. I need some time away from all this crap, and he always manages to get me into a better mood. He's a bloody keeper.

-Dee"

Pics:

So Ahmed Shepard infiltrated the Geth Dreadnaught to shut off the Reaper signal. It was rough because there was a ton of Geth in the way (I hate the Geth faction and their stunlock), but Ahmed and his team finally made it to the signal source and found... a unique Geth platform. It looked a little like the Geth platform he left on the Normandy for the Alliance to study, but it was more holographic.

The Geth VI explained the Reapers were using it to boost the Reaper signal to all Geth. It volunteered to help Ahmed if he would free it from the hardware shackles. Ahmed freed it, and then it shut off the Dreadnaught's drive core as a gesture of good faith.

When the drive core was shut off, the Dreadnaught's shields went down. With the shields down, Quarian Admiral Han Gerrel took the opportunity to order the Quarian fleet to engage the Dreadnaught to destroy it. Ahmed did advise Gerrel to counterattack, but considering he was still on board the Dreadnaught, Ahmed was a little less than pleased at the enthusiasm Gerrel showed at following his advice.

The Geth VI helped Ahmed and his team escape the Dreadnaught on a Geth fighter before the Dreadnaught was destroyed. Back on the Normandy, 'Angry Ahmed' became angry and punched Han Gerrel before (almost literally) kicking him off the Normandy. The Geth VI was welcomed aboard and informed Ahmed and the Quarians that the Geth still had Reaper upgrades. It also told them that the long-range signal had been destroyed, but a short-range signal was still being used at a Geth base, location unknown.

The Geth VI also told them that a Geth server was housing Geth programs that were flying fighters attacking the Quarians. It said it wanted help shutting off the server to stop the fighters. So Ahmed Shepard went to the server with the Geth VI, where Ahmed would use a perfected Overlord Project VI interface to interact with the Geth network and shut down the server.

And then my controller batteries died and my the batteries in my second controller were also dead, so I had to shut off my Xbox.


(I wanted to write up a fictionalized extended version of the argument between Ahmed Shepard and Han Gerrel, but it is really late and I am really tired and I doubt I would have time tomorrow to write it. Too bad.)

The past is the present is the past again. Captain Janeway was right about one thing: Timelines and paradoxes were enough to cause the worst headaches. Especially when the biggest fossil ever discovered turns out to be the jerk of the century.

While enroute to Tuchanka, the Normandy made a stop at Eden Prime to investigate some important Prothean ruins. Being on Eden Prime brought back memories and it was a joy to see Liara's face light up when talking about the Protheans. Any chance to see Liara revisit the subject that she is most passionate about is a good one. It was hard not to get lost in her smile as she prattled on about the artifacts that they found.

Korynn did not appreciate having her mind hijacked again, but understood the necessity. She was shocked and felt bad for Liara that they didn't interface with her. Perhaps it was that Korynn interfaced with the Prothean relay directly whereas Liara only received images translated by Korynn's mind. Like the other images she had received from the Protheans, they were disturbing, but she didn't have time while they were on the planet to fully digest them, nor did she want to. Perhaps with Liara's help later, she will try to make sense of it.

More Cerberus goons killed the mood fast. As always, it was an easy fight between Korynn, Liara, and Garrus. During the firefight, she got into a good rhythm with Liara creating biotic explosions and could have sworn that Liara was giggling by the end of it. At one point, Garrus asked them to save a few for him (fic).

Then there was Javik. Unearthing him was more than incredible. Korynn could only imagine what it was like for him: Having been unfrozen after 50,000 years to find out that your civilization is gone and the new one that had taken its place needed your help to save it again. It was disconcerting to have been brought back to life after 2 years and adjust to so much change, but fifty-thousand years. Of course, Liara was starry-eyed.

Regardless of what he has been through, Korynn hasn't been shy in letting Javik know how she feels. She is less than thrilled about his arrogance, and his attitude toward Liara has been enough to make her blood boil. As if there needed to be another thing to give her more gray hairs than are already there. The way that he describes the Protheans, if true, they certainly weren't the advanced civilization once thought. Part of her wasn't all that surprised given Earth's own history with its past societies. Still, it was hard to see Liara's life's work being picked apart. Javik asked Korynn why she keeps referring to him as "Encino Man." Korynn hopes that a special showing during Movie Night will prove enlightening. It was the least she could do for making Liara cry.

Afterward, Liara had dinner with Korynn in her quarters. She treated Liara to some home cooked Asari food and relished the idea of getting to cook for her for once. Despite the chiding from Garrus, she is a decent cook and not prone to setting the kitchen on fire. Unlike some Turians on board.

Korynn reminded her beloved that Javik was a man just like anyone else on the Normandy and may not have all her answers. Liara admitted that she tends to romanticize people. Korynn reassured her that this quality wasn't a failing, but advised her to try and remain as objective as possible for the sake of her sanity and the success of the mission. She seemed to take the message well, but there was also disappointment in her face that can only be assuaged by Liara living with the reality. Korynn hopes that Liara can put her stubbornness aside and embrace the truth instead of the dangers of a lie. Liara is an educated, sensible woman. However, like Korynn, Liara is an emotional soul and that can sometimes cloud her judgment. This is an incident that has the ability to change this aspect of her personality. Liara confessed to being more in love with Korynn than before, and the two spent the remainder of the evening falling asleep in front of a vid. (Fic)

Before resuming course, the Normandy stopped to scan a few planets and recover some more items/units which will be useful for the war and Korynn received an urgent message from Aria.


--------

After that, I played a few multiplayer missions on solo:

Guns, grenades, hooray! Quarian Infiltrator Ryni responded to a Cerberus threat in the Terminus Systems and did what she could. Hopefully, the Alliance appreciates her help.

Asari Valkyrie and former Spectre candidate, Inosha T'Rynn tackled some Cerberus goons at Earth. Despite her colorful reputation with the Alliance and the Asari government, her services were greatly appreciated and she was rewarded handsomely which she promptly blew at Purgatory (fic).

"Hi Alec.
Our rescue mission did not quite go as intended. Steve took us in with the shuttle, but in order to contact Admiral Koris via radio, we first had to disable a jamming tower. The geth also had installed AA guns, so before we could actually do something about the jamming tower we had to land a tad away from the AA guns and disable them on foot first. Once it was done, the plan was for Steve to take down the jamming tower with the shuttle's cannons.
Geth were all over the place, but we made it to the jamming tower just fine. Shortly before reaching it, we found a wounded quarian. We had seen quite a few bodies already on our way, so I had hoped that some medi-gel could save at least him, but he said it was too late. Damn it, Alec, he was just a civilian. Cleaned bloody engine parts. Never held a gun in his whole life until today, poor sod.
After he had died we took care of the AA guns and had to deal with even more geth. But once everything was clear I called in Steve and he hit the jamming tower. With that thing gone I heard Admiral Koris on the radio, calling out for the quarian we had just met. I told him he passed away and that we would come for him to get him out of there. He told me he was pinned down by geth, that he had been separated from his crew. He begged me to save them, not him. You know me, Alec... Those quarians were innocents in all this, and I remembered what the dying quarian had told me. They had no experience fighting. They would've all died if we hadn't gotten them out of there. And the Civilian Fleet didn't even want this war.
Admiral Koris is dead. We heard an explosion on his end shortly before we got to his crew, or rather what was left of it. His sacrifice meant a lot to the quarians. I hope for all their sakes it was worth it and that we can end this war soon. Only one more hurdle in the way.
We'll be at the Reaper base soon, so I should go and get my gear ready. I'll let you know how this ends.

-Dee"

Some pics:


I now have all Silver weapons up to rank X in ME3MP, yay! Now it's time to work on getting some new characters The games last night were really fun and good again! I annoyed my friends with the Batarian Brawler's Lash by throwing enemies all over the map

From yesterday, sprinkled with even more headcanon

"Hey Alec.
I'm back from the Reaper base. It didn't work out how I had hoped. The geth are destroyed...
Shit, man, that was some intense stuff. We made it through the facility until we found our target deep below us, but it wasn't just some Reaper tech sitting there. It was an actual Reaper. With the help of one of Admiral Xen's toys I had with me, a syncing laser, I had targeted what I thought was the Reaper base and the Normandy fired a precision shot, waking this damn Reaper up. Legion, who helped us once again, provided a quick exit with one of their vehicles. It saved my ass more than one time.
The Reaper targeted us while we escaped, but an orbital strike from the quarians slowed it down. It wasn't dead yet, but I was working on that. Legion suggested to leave while we still can, but I needed it to end right there. With the laser I could make it work, we found their weak spot. The firing chamber. I synced up the laser to the whole quarian fleet and faced this Reaper alone by a cliff. The adrenaline ran through me and I just did everything like in trance, dodging the Reaper's laser, painting the firing chamber for the fleet. After a couple hits this monster went down. Before it went out completely, it tried to sell me what they do as humanity's salvation. Right, fucking bastards. I'm glad this thing died. It was another success. For the Reaper on Tuchanka we had help, but now we took one down on our own.
Legion confirmed that the geth were free from the Reaper influence, then suggested to upload its own upgrades it got from the Reapers to all other geth so that each unit would become a true intelligence, stronger and smarter in the process. I was a little weary about the Reaper code, but I trusted Legion on this, and I really wanted to give the geth a chance. I wanted peace.
It wasn't meant to be. I told Legion to start the upload, and Tali to call off the fleet. But of course, Han'Gerrel didn't listen to her. Without the quarians stopping their firing, the geth would fight back once Legion had uploaded its code, and wipe out the quarians. I had to pick a side, and the quarians had the larger fleet. It was not a choice I made lightheartedly... but I had to stop Legion. Facing annihilation, it turned on us. Tali stabbed it to save my life. Legion was a friendly geth, and it had been an ally. It's a shame we couldn't broker peace. Could've been an interesting time for all of us.
After I had spoken with the admirals one final time, Tali and I sat down by the cliff. She wanted to join us on the Normandy, and I am glad to have her by my side again. She's one of my few closest friends left from when this all started. It's damn good to have her back.
Steve came to pick us up. The moment I saw his face, filled with relief to see me, I knew what he must've gone through while I was down there with that Reaper. We hugged. I told him I'm fine, and that I was sorry for being so reckless and scaring him. He just smiled and said nothing can stop me anyway, not even a Reaper. I appreciate his constant positivity, even though I know he doesn't always really feel like it. But I guess we all could use a bit of that attitude, and we did just kill a bloody Reaper again.
Now that I'm back here on the Normandy and the dust has settled a bit, I can't help but wonder about the question Legion asked us. The question which started everything.
"Does this unit have a soul?"
Did it have a soul? I don't know. I guess. Yeah, I guess it did have a soul. I'm still having trouble seeing AI as truly alive, but there sure are some situations where they really seem like it. They all are driven by something, they all fight for something. Just like us organics. Does it really make them so much different from us?
Alec, if you were alive right now I'm sure we'd discuss the crap out of this. It's interesting what everyone thinks. Maybe I'll ask Steve, but not tonight (need some sleep so badly), and certainly not tomorrow. It's not a topic I want to go into on our special day.
One month already. Time bloody flies and I had totally lost track of it in all this. Good thing Steve's thinking for two in these times. Told you he's a keeper. I'm glad we're able to spend this day together, just the two of us. Until we get to our next location, he's going to have my undivided attention.

-Dee"

Pics:

I finished preparations for this ME3 re-import by doing the Arrival DLC in Paragon style: sneaked into the prison undetected, tried to warn the colony after activating the Project, and didn't shoot Kenson during the standoff.

I did the whole thing on Insanity. It was not my best work and I died several times; that said, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be, and was also less of a chore than I remembered it being.

Media:



Additionally, I loaded up a very old ME2 save from my very first playthrough (sentinel) and had a go at the derelict Reaper mission on Insanity. It wasn't a perfect run, but I made it through without too much difficulty. Tech Armour detonation is very good for clearing husk mobs as long as their armour can be stripped before they start mêléeing. The trouble I had with this mission during my infiltrator run seems to have been an anomaly.

So apparently I had no motivation on Sunday, so the completion of Ahmed Shepard's journey will have to wait one more week. But now, let's recap!


1. Ahmed Shepard went with the Geth VI to the Geth Server, where he went into the Geth Concensus and helped the Geth VI shut down the server. It worked, and the Geth fighters stopped attacking the Quarian liveships. However, once Ahmed got out of the server, the Geth VI revealed that it had extracted Geth from the server and loaded them into Geth Prime platforms. Luckily for everyone involved, the new Geth Primes were willing to join them instead of fighting them. Ahmed was relieved, but still miffed that the Geth VI had not informed him of the plan earlier. He made sure later to voice his displeasure to the Geth VI once they were back on board the Normandy.




2. Admiral Korris's ship had crashed on Rannoch. Korris was believed to be still alive, and they needed to rescue him before his fleet mutinied and tried to escape. (The Geth would slaughtered them if they tried to escape.) Geth jamming towers were blocking their scans, so they had to disable the towers first before they could locate Korris. Complication: AA guns were protecting the jamming towers, and Geth were guarding the AA guns.

But Ahmed and his team were resilient. They killed the Geth and shut down the AA guns so Steve Cortez could destroy the jamming towers with the shuttle. With the jamming towers down, they were able to make contact with Korris. Korris told them to rescue his crew instead (they were non-combatants), but Ahmed was smart enough to know that Korris was a better tactical resource. Ahmed convinced Korris to give them his location, then they went and picked him up before the Geth overwhelmed him. It was too late to go back and rescue the crew (the Geth killed them), but with Korris alive, his fleet remained with the Quarian flotilla.


3. It was finally time to hit the Geth base and shut down the Reaper signal. Geth jamming towers were preventing the Quarians from auto-targeting the base, so Ahmed was given a giant laser pointer that would give the Quarians a target. On the way to the base, the Geth VI dropped a bombshell: it was still carrying Reaper code upgrades. Ahmed fumed. The Geth VI continuing to harbor its own agenda and doing a poor job of hiding it was really rubbing Ahmed the wrong way. After fighting through the base -- ending with a big fight against three Geth Primes, Ahmed pulled out the laser pointer and painted the Reaper broadcast antenna.

Welp, it turned out the Reaper antenna was attached to a Reaper Destroyer, and that destroyer was pissed at being shot at. Ahmed managed to keep pointing the laser at it until the Quarians hit it enough times that it went it down for good.

With the Destroyer down, the Geth were disoriented. The Geth VI told Ahmed that it could upload its Reaper code upgrades to the rest of the Geth, allowing them to become true AIs. Ahmed started to let it upload. When Admiral Raan objected, the Geth VI said the Quarians had made their choice, and if they were destroyed it was their own fault. The council had once accused Ahmed of committing genocide when he destroyed the last Rachni Queen, but he was not about to stand idly by and watch the Quarians get wiped out. Ahmed stopped the Geth VI from uploading, and when the Geth VI attacked Shepard, Raan shot it. The Quarians then shot the Geth fleet into oblivion.


4. Back on the Normandy, the Asari councillor asked Ahmed to come back to the Citadel to meet her in person so she could give him an important message. On the way back to the Citadel, Ahmed stopped off at a Fuel Depot that had gone silent. With Captain Riley's help (a fellow N7), they stopped a Reaper sabotage at the reactor.


5. Back on the Citadel, Ahmed returned some packages to people and met some of his squadmates on the Silversun Strip. He also talked with Miranda on the Citadel. She asked for access to Alliance systems, and while Ahmed was reluctant to give her access, he gave it to her anyway because he trusted her enough that she was not a traitor.

Ahmed then met with the Asari councillor, who told him that there was an artifact on Thessia that could help with the Crucible. She could not say more, but Ahmed was grateful for the help.

On the way back to the Normandy however, Ahmed cam face to scaly face with a very angry Urdnot Wrex. Wrex had another inside source other than Mordin and he had gotten hold of the recording of the Salarian Dalatrass asking Ahmed to destroy the genophage cure in exchange for full Salarian cooperation. Ahmed tried to deflect, but Wrex was beyond listening. Wrex told Ahmed that he was calling off support for Earth, then he tried to kill Shepard. C-Sec stepped in and shot Wrex, then Ahmed fired the kill shot.

Ahmed, for once in his life, was not angry at someone who had tried to kill him. He was not exactly sad at having to kill Wrex, but he sure was not happy about it either. He wished Wrex had never found out, and wished that Wrex would have bought the Salarians' fake research story instead. But sadly it was never meant to be.