What did you do today in ME?

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 cont'd:

Normandy

Joker congratulated Shepard for “ending a war by yelling” on Rannoch. EDI was appreciative that Shepard gave a synthetic race a chance, and noted that Legion had become a fully actualized individual right before his death.

Admiral Raan emailed to update Shepard on the status of the quarian and geth fleets, and Admiral Xen's work on the Crucible. Diana Allers asked for an interview regarding the resolution of the geth-quarian war.

In Engineering, Tali described how she'd gotten word back from Rannoch about how the geth were helping the quarians resettle. She thanked Shepard for helping resolve the conflict.

Citadel

Shepard delivered various artifacts and resources to various people on the Citadel who were looking for them.

Garrus invited Shepard to go target shooting at a secret spot on the Citadel. After an intense battle, Garrus was awarded the prestigious title King of the Bottle Shooters.

At Ashley's request, Shepard joined her and her sister Sarah at a small memorial for Sarah's husband.

James had decided to join the N7 program, and was “making it official” by getting a new tattoo. To each his own, Shepard thought.

Shepard met with Tactus, the spokesman for the refugees that Dr. Chakwas had requested Shepard talk to. It took some convincing, but Shep was able to convince him to trade his military grade medical supplies for some surplus supplies Chakwas had.

An elcor ambassador requested Shepard's assistance to try rescue some soldiers trapped on Dekunna. Shep promised to help as soon as she could.

Shepard spoke to Miranda by vidcom. She warned her that Kai Leng was still on the loose, and Miranda promised to be on her guard. She revealed that her father was involved in something with Cerberus, and was also responsible for the disappearance of Oriana. Miranda wasn't prepared to move against him yet – she had to deal with Cerberus assassins that were after her first – but promised to keep Shepard in the loop.

At the request of Primarch Victus, Shepard investigated the volus ambassador, Din Korlack. Eventually she learned that Korlack had gotten mixed up with Cerberus somehow, and when as a result some mercs came after him and took him hostage. One of the bounty hunters turned out to be Zaeed Masani. Once Zaeed realized Shepard was investigating, he took out the other bounty hunters so he and Shep could question Korlack. The volus gave them intel on a turian colony that Cerberus was planning to attack, as well as ships from the volus bombing fleet for the war effort.

Ashley was relaxing for a bit on the Presidium, so Shep joined her for a chat. “Nice to get away from the war for a while.”

Liara was also taking in the view on the Presidium, and described how the scenery it reminded her of her childhood and her mother.

Tali was on the Presidium as well, near the spot where she had been shot by Saren's assassins all three years earlier. They reminisced a bit about those days, and how much things had changed.

Shep then met up with Jack in Purgatory. Despite her complaining about duty rosters and other tedious tasks, it was clear that Jack and her students were doing well (considering the state of the galaxy and all), and that Jack was more or less happy, possibly for the first time ever.

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 cont'd:

Tuchanka – Rescue Lt. Victus and the Turian Platoon

Primarch Victus had asked Shepard to assist with a super-secret mission the Turians were running on Tuchanka. Contact had been lost with a platoon of soldiers, led by Lt. Tarquin Victus, the Primarch's son.

Shepard, Liara, and Tali took a shuttle down to the surface to investigate. They found survivors of the crash battling Reaper forces, and assisted where they could. They eventually made it to the site of Lt. Victus and the rest of the surviving members of the Ninth Platoon.

They found the turians at each others throats. The troops blamed Lt. Victus for the poor decisions that led to the crash. The lieutenant considered the mission a failure and wanted to abandon it. Shepard convinced him that the mission had to continue, or his people's sacrifice would be in vain, and offered the assistance of the Normandy.

Lt. Victus revealed the nature of their mission. Cerberus had discovered a large explosive device buried in the Kelphic valley, planted centuries ago following the Krogan Rebellions by the turians as a “safeguard” in case the krogan became aggressive again. Cerberus was working to detonate it, potentially killing tens of thousands of krogan, and destroying the krogan – turian alliance in the process.

Shepard and her team (Liara, Tali) returned to the surface and fought their way through the Cerberus troops guarding the bomb site. When they noticed Cerberus starting to withdraw, they knew time was short – they were getting ready to detonate the device.

They met up with the Ninth Platoon at the bomb site. Lt. Victus began working on deactivating the explosive while Shepard and friends defended him from the Cerberus counter-attack. Lt. Victus ended up having to climb up onto the bomb and deactivate it manually. He succeeded, and the bomb was disarmed, but he fell to his death in the process.

His sacrifice saved the krogan and prevented war between them and the turians. Wrex was reportedly angry, but according to Admiral Hackett the actions of the Primarch's son and the rest of the Ninth Platoon were enough to keep the peace.

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 cont'd:

Exodus Cluster: Eden Prime - Recover Prothean “Artifact”

Intel had been received from Alliance Command that the Eden Prime colony had been attacked by Cerberus. Evidently a “major Prothean artifact” had been discovered, and Cerberus was after it. The nature of the artifact was unknown, but the Alliance wanted to stop Cerberus from getting their hands on it.

In the shuttle ride down the colony, Shepard, Liara, and Tali reminisced about the last time Eden Prime had been attacked, by Saren and his geth heretic allies, after the discovery of a Prothean Beacon. It had kicked off their campaign against Sovereign, and brought them all together.

They landed near the dig site, finding the immediate area deserted. As they searched the nearby buildings for survivors, they stumbled upon logs left by Cerberus that could be valuable to the Eden Prime resistance movement fighting to kick Cerberus out of the colony. Liara promised to get it to them user her Shadow Broker resources.

They arrived at the dig site, and discovered that the “artifact” was actually a stasis pod with a living prothean inside. Cerberus had been unable to open the pod, and had damaged it in the attempt. They needed to find information on how to open the pod safely without killing the prothean inside.

They searched the colony, and naturally Cerberus deployed forces to try and stop them. They found labs with information terminals that Shepard could access thanks to the Prothean Cipher given to her by Shiala. Shepard saw images of the Prothean war with the Reapers, including plans to hide hundreds of thousands of soldiers in stasis, so that the empire could be rebuilt once the Reapers left. Most of the pods were damaged in the fighting – the one Cerberus had found seemed to be the only one that had survived these tens of thousands of years.

She also obtained the information needed to deactivate the status pod safely, as well as more intel to help the resistance. They returned to the dig site and deactivated the status pod.

While the pod finished processing the deactivation signal, they eliminated the remaining Cerberus forces in the area that had tried to stop them. They were finally able to open the pod. The prothean had indeed survived, and as he staggered out of the pod he was understandably shocked at what he saw. As Shepard grabbed his shoulder to try and steady him, her mind was flooded with images of the prothean's last few moments before entering the pod. Evidently technology that existed in things like the prothean beacons – the ability to transmit memories directly to the brain of others - mimic abilities that were inherent in prothean physiology.

Once the prothean – Commander Javik - had calmed down, they tried to answer his questions and update him on the state of the galaxy. He agreed to return with them to the Normandy, and that “we will see” about joining the fight against the Reapers.

Normandy

Admiral Hackett asked Shepard to try and get Javik's help constructing the Crucible. Shepard and Liara met with their new guest to see what they could learn. Unfortunately, Javik was a soldier who knew little about the Crucible or the Catalyst. He couldn't help with the project, but he pledged to help destroy the Reapers - “I have no other reason to exist.”

Shepard and Liara asked about the prothean's war with the Reapers, prothean history and culture, their sensory ability, the Crucible, and his mission. Javik was not exactly the friendliest, but Shepard hoped he would prove to be a valuable ally.

- Recovered and recruited Grunt.
- Also, got on a mShenko fanfic kick which is what got me playing again.

I am nearing the end of my female Engineer run on insanity. Engineer was a lot more fun than infiltrator. I think there are going to be a lot of casualties on this run. I've already done 3 loyalty missions since the crew got abducted. I forget how many before they all die minus Chakwas. But I think I am going to not do Kasumi's because she contributes next to nothing to the story and I feel more attached to her as broshep anyway. I think Garrus might bite the dust for the first time ever for me in ME2.

I plan to actually replay ME2 on insanity again as a Vanguard (hopefully the bugs won't get me killed too much) while romancing Ashley too.

Went to Horizon, got a particle rifle, saved half the colony and had an unsatisfying encounter with Kaidan.

Did a lot of upgrading of the SR-2, plus personal stuff for Mordin, Jack and Grunt.

Headed to Ilium. Got intel from Liara on Thane and Samara. Headed to Dantius Towers to find Thane. Game crashed just after rescuing first group of salarians locked in a closet.

Miriam Shepard, Paragon Floldier, ME3 Insanity:

Rannoch:

1. with Tali and Liara: rescued Admiral Koris who had been stranded on the planet's surface after being shot down;
2. with Tali, James and Legion: cleared Reaper infection from a geth server, liberating geth programs and Prime units from Reaper control, and deactivating fighter aircraft that had been threatening quarian liveships.

----------

"My people have been in exile for centuries. To be standing here in the land of my ancestors..."

Tali's voice was shaky. She paused.

"I'm sorry, I just need a moment."

"Sure," said Miriam. "We'll get moving. Catch us up when you're ready."

"Actually, Miriam, would you stay?" asked Tali.

Miriam glanced across at Liara, who nodded her acknowledgement and scouted on ahead. Miriam waited for Tali to compose herself, standing at a respectful distance.

"Okay, let's go," said Tali after a minute or so, her voice steady.

"Are you alright?" asked Miriam, patting her friend's shoulder.

"Yes, thank you," said Tali, a small smile in her voice. "Damned helmet, though."

Miriam understood, remembering the Alarei. Because of her hermetically-sealed suit and helmet, Tali was unable to dry her eyes.

----------

Media:

As far as I know, Liara is the only one that can tell you that Seryna has information on Thane's location.  I believe if you try and talk to Seryna beforehand, she'll just say something about being busy and not having time to talk.

If you've already done Shadow Broker and Liara is at the Broker base, the terminal in her office should have the info needed to recruit Thane and/or Samara (I've never done Shadow Broker before recruiting them, though, so I've never seen it myself).

Not sure how it would be possible but am planning to skip LotSB.

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 cont'd:

Citadel

Aria T'Loak requested a meeting with Commander Shepard to discuss retaking Omega from Cerberus. Aria made her case by highlighting how Cerberus' control of the station hurt the war effort, but Shepard needed little convincing. It was a clear case of “the enemy of my enemy is a friend”, so was therefore eager to assist. She felt Aria could be trusted to a point, she just hoped the asari kept the theatrics and posturing to a minimum.

Aria gave Shepard some background info on General Oleg Petrovsky, the leader of the Cerberus forces on Omega. She also promised to contribute eezo and mercs to the war effort if Shepard helped, but insisted the Normandy and “the company you keep” stay behind. Shepard grudgingly agreed, and made arrangements to rendezvous with Aria's fleet.

Omega - Invasion

Aria's invasion plan involved using a stolen Cerberus cruiser to infiltrate the Bahak system and cripple the ships defending the station, then launch the invasion of the station itself. The first part went fairly well; the Cerberus fleet was fooled by Aria's ruse and their command ship was disabled. However, Petrovsky had beefed up Omega's defence cannons, and Aria's fleet took a bit of a beating. Aria and Shepard had to use escape pods to get on board the station.

Aria had requested Shep's presence specifically for the ground war phase of the invasion, and agreed to follow the commander's lead. They fought their way to the defence system controls, so they could disable them and allow the rest of Aria's transports to land.

It was only after they went over the next stage of Aria's plan – to meet up with her forces at a secret command centre on D Deck - that they realized Petrovsky had spy cameras in the defence system control room. Oleg knew where they were headed next, which could complicate things. No one said it would be easy...

To be continued...

To recruit Thane, you have to talk to Liara, but you do not have to ask her about Thane. 

When you talk to Liara on Illium, if you give her the Shadow Broker information (assuming you have the Shadow Broker DLC) before you ask her about Thane and Samara, she will give you access to her terminal which has the information you need about Thane and Samara which is supposed to allow you to talk to Seryna and the other Asari port attendant (I forget her name; does she have a name?).

NOTE: The terminal is glitched, however. While you will see entries for both Thane and Samara, only Thane's works. You can read Samara's entry on the terminal, but it will not add the quest to your journal and you will not be able to talk to the Asari port attendant to get the location of Samara.


The good news of course is that you do not need to talk to Liara for very long, and you can skip through most of the conversation with her anyway.