What did you do today in ME?

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 cont'd:

Omega Part 3 - Recruiting the Talons

As they made their way toward the headquarters of the Talons, Aria filled Shepard in on her history with the mercenary group. She described them as ruthless drug runners, but they were “the only game in town” and Aria had no qualms about using them as “cannon fodder”.

The fighting increased as they got closer to Talon territory - evidently Petrovsky wanted them eliminated badly, so they'd have to hurry or there'd be no one left to recruit.

They made it to Talon territory safely safely, despite Cerberus' best efforts to stop them. The also caught up with Nyreen Kandros – it turned out she'd been the Talons leader all along, having taken over the group some time ago. Her joining up with Shepard and Aria earlier had just been a ruse to find out what Aria was planning.

She wasn't keen on helping, but Shepard convinced her that they could help the Talons keep the people of Omega safe. Aria grudgingly went along with it, clearly not wanting to admit that she needed not only Shepard's help but now Nyreen's as well to have any chance to regain control of Omega.

Nyreen led them to Talon HQ, and they helped secure the outpost from the Cerberus forces attacking it. They planned their next move – Aria wanted to bring down the force fields so that the citizens of Omega could attack Cerberus, allowing Shepard and Aria to reach Petrovsky during the ensuing chaos. Nyreen wasn't happy about throwing civilians at Cerberus, but for once Shepard agreed with Aria – the citizens of Omega needed to join the fight to reclaim their home, just like everyone else in the galaxy.

Nyreen also filled them in on another new type of Cerberus troop – Adjutants, creatures created using tech The Illusive Man found beyond the Omega 4 relay. Cerberus lost control of them – because of course they did – and they caused carnage before they were contained.

Queen Aria broadcast a speech throughout the station, ensuring her subjects would be properly fired up when the forcefields came down. The Talons were evacuating the outpost, so Shepard helped defeat the last waves of Cerberus forces that tried to stop them, then she and Aria returned to Aria's bunker to figure out how to bring the forcefields down.

To be continued...

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 cont'd:

Omega Part 4 - Reactor

Aria's people had found the power source for the Cerberus forcefields that restricted access to much of the station – one of the main reactors located deep in Omega's eezo mining facilities. Shepard and Aria came up with a plan to infiltrate the area to shut down the reactor, and Nyreen showed up to volunteer her services as well.

The three entered the processing facility that would give them access to the mines and the reactor. It had been powered down, so they needed to restore power before they could proceed. As they searched in the darkness, they found numerous Cerberus bodies. When they heard Adjutants growling nearby, it became clear what had happened to them. Nyreen was spooked.

Once Shepard reactivated the power, the Adjutants came out of hiding and attacked. Another form of reaper monstrosity to fight, as if there weren't enough of those in the galaxy already. A total of four attacked, but they were able to defeat them and gain access to the mining facility.

Aria and Nyreen commented on how hard Cerberus was working the drills, apparently they were desperate for more eezo. Shepard couldn't speculate as to why, but it surely wasn't for anything good.

They made it to the reactor – lots of Cerberus forces tried to stop them, but no more Adjutants, thankfully. It was here that General Petrovsky sprung his trap, locking them in by raising a new forcefield around them. It wasn't too much of a surprise to Shepard – it stood to reason that the path they'd taken was free of forcefields because Cerberus wanted them to go that way, but what alternative did they have?

Petrovsky appeared via holoprojection to gloat about his “victory”, but he had gotten a little ahead of himself. Aria refused to accept defeat, and used her biotics to open a space in the forcefield so Shepard could get through. Say what you will about Aria – and Shepard had plenty of issues with her – but her determination and refusal to be beaten were admirable.

Shepard made it to the reactor controls and shut down the forcefields. She ignored Petrovsky's attempts to goad her into sacrificing civilians by taking down life support systems being run by the reactor, and took the time to reroute the power away from the forcefields safely. Aria wasn't pleased about being made to wait – she was still behind the forcefield with Nyreen fighting off Ramparts - but she'd survived.

The forcefields came down, and the citizens of Omega rebelled against their oppressors. Nyreen went back to the Talons, to help minimize civilian casualties and lead the frontal assault on Cerberus, while Shepard and Aria went to disrupt Cerberus attempts to cut off access to Afterlife.

To be continued...

Today in ME2...

- Finished up Grunt's LM.
- As soon as I got back to the Normandy, Mordin was like "Yo, we need to be on Tuchanka again." Back we went, taking Kasumi along with us because, why the hell not? Took out Clan Weyrloc completely and discovered Maelon, Mordin's protege, was there willingly. Sent him on his way but saved the data he had collected in his experiments on curing the genophage.
- Sent to investigate a Collector vessel that had allegedly been disabled by turians. After Horizon, I was deeply suspicious but there was no doubt we needed whatever intel we could find. Took Miranda and Zaeed with me. Discovered that the Collectors were Protheans repurposed by the Reapers. Then, as I was selecting a weapons specialization, CRASH. Wondering if it's the mods.

- Was able to complete Collector ship mission with Zaeed and Miranda. It was a trap, TIM knew about it and, as trustworthy as he is, he failed to let us know.
- Went to Haestrom with Garrus and Samara to recruit Tali. This time she joined up.
- Headed to 2175 Aeia to investigate the emergency beacon for Jacob's father's ship that had gone missing a decade earlier. The guy took command when the ship crashed and the captain died. To say he was bad at it was an understatement. He'll be spending time in prison as a result of his actions.

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 cont'd:

Omega Part 5 - The Assault on Afterlife

After taking out some more Ramparts and other Cerberus forces, and passing on the location of Aria's missing couch to Harot so he could collect his finders fee, Shepard and Aria proceeded to intercept a team of Cerberus engineers who were attempting to cut off their access to Afterlife by setting off bombs near the station's central support columns.

They made it to the central columns in time and disabled the bombs. The path to Afterlife and General Petrovsky was now clear.

As they made their way to rendezvous with Nyreen and the Talons, they encountered more Adjutants, including a lab with video logs which detailed the experiments Cerberus had performed on them.

They reached the rendezvous point in the Gozu district, where the Talons had set up a refuge for civilians. Shepard's old friend the batarian mad prophet was there, preaching The Word to the assembled masses.

As they got ready to begin the assault on Afterlife itself, they got word that Nyreen had gone ahead already. There were Adjutants threatening civilians outside the nightclub, and Nyreen ended up sacrificing herself to save them. Shepard and Aria arrived to late to help.

Nyreen's death sent Aria into a rage, and she charged into the club. Unfortunately, her grief and anger made her careless, and she ended up trapped in some sort of contraption the General had set to hold her. Shepard had to free her while holding off Adjutants and other Cerberus troops that to stop her. She succeeded, and her and Aria finished off Cerberus.

General Petrovsky had nowhere to go, and he knew it. He surrendered to Shepard's custody, correctly guessing that Aria would throttle him if it was left up to her. Shepard was surprised that Aria let her take him into Alliance custody, and Aria herself seemed taken aback, complaining that Shepard was making her “soft”. It was an amusing end to a stressful mission, but they'd succeeded. The queen of Omega was back on her throne, and although Shepard was convinced she'd never think of Aria as a friend, she knew she'd be a formidable ally.

How did you lose your saves? If you play on Origin, all saves are backed up online.  Not sure how it works with Xbox or PS.

I know this is not that kind of topic, but I am going to be playing Sentinel in ME2 on Insanity.

Its been a while since I played Sentinel. But does anyone have any suggestions for good builds for this class? All the powers on Sentinel are amazing. But what is worth maxing out besides tech armor, warp, overload, and the class itself?

I had been testing a mod but it didn't work out. Things were very buggy but I'm not clear on why. Ran "repair" on Origin and am using the mod again (along with a Coalesced mod that unlocks casual clothes). Now I've got Troy Shepard, Spacer/Engineer/Sole Survivor. Picked all the Paragon choices available in Genesis and made Anderson the Councilor (which, to me, is the Paragon choice). Kaidan is alive. No romances.

Mindset for a Paragon Sole Survivor is that Shepard very clearly remembers who was behind Akuze. That will drive all interactions with TIM, though I think he'll understand fairly quickly that his crew and squad were almost definitely uninvolved. He's also pragmatic when it comes to anything to do with Reapers because he knows the Council are a bunch of useless fucks when it comes to getting things done.

So far, all I did was survive the Lazarus Project and have a chat with TIM.

I am short on time, so here are two:

4 - Area Throw
4 - Heavy Warp
4 - Assault Armor
4 - Area Overload
0 - Cryo Blast
4 - Guardian
1 - Stasis

4 - Area/Heavy Throw

0 - Warp

4 - Assault Armor

4 - Area Overload

4 - Full Cryo Blast

4 - Guardian

1 - Stasis


Can switch out Stasis for Slam or Neural Shock

Build 1 is more about defense stripping and warp-bombing (requires teammates with Pull).
Build 2 is more about crowd control; freeze with Cryo Blast and hit 'em with throw.

Assault Armor with Guardian + shotgun also gives you good Close Quarters Combat. Someone once likened it to a walking hand grenade. Walk/run into enemy fire, have Tech Armor detonate to stagger/stun/knockdown, then  clean up with a shotgun. SMG also works early game. Shuriken is good.

I played the dlc without romancing anyone as femshep. I didn't wake up with Javik beside Shepard. I might be wrong about this, it will happen if femshep was drinking during the party. I chose to keep the party relaxing and quiet.
Don't recall if she was beside my Shepard or not. Most likely because I wasn't paying attention.

Spot Wally Wrex in the Picture.

Miriam Shepard, Paragon Floldier, ME3 Insanity:

Normandy: listened to Space Dawkins Javik talk at length about the Protheans' survival-of-the-fittest philosophy, the irony that his civilization failed to survive apparently lost on him.

Utukku: with Tali and Liara, searched for a missing krogan scout team, supported by Aralakh Company commandos led by Urdnot Grunt. Discovered a breeding ground for Reaper-enhanced rachni. Released the rachni queen from captivity. Aralakh Company took heavy losses, but Grunt survived.

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Tali exited the elevator and found Miriam waiting for her in the armoury.

"Hey," said Miriam. "I have something for you." She gestured towards a weapons bench. Atop the bench sat the M-300 Claymore heavy shotgun that they had recovered from the scout camp on Utukku.

"I really can't use it," said Tali. "I want to! But my enviro-suit doesn't have an ergo package like your armour. The kick would rupture the seals and break my arm."

"Ah, but what if you replaced the mass effect core?" said Miriam. "With the one from this, perhaps?" She hefted a battered-looking M-92 Mantis sniper rifle that had clearly seen extensive use in combat, its barrel scored with tiny notches representing a kill tally.

Tali gasped. "That's... that's Garrus' old rifle."

"Yeah," said Miriam. "I kept it after the Omega-4 mission. Didn't seem right to part with it. He'd calibrated the ME core for 20% additional power. The Claymore is also a single-shot weapon, so it occurred to me that it could work. You'd have a powerful shot with recoil that you can manage."

Tali paused for a moment. "But, to cannibalize a memento..."

"Do you think he'd want his old rifle just sitting around gathering dust?" said Miriam. "I think he'd be pleased to see it being used to help defeat the Reapers."

"Hmmm," said Tali, "the core isn't going to just fit. I'd need to adapt it somehow... might take a bit of work..."

"The armoury and fabricator are yours to use," said Miriam. "If you run out of omni-gel, feel free to recycle a crummy SMG that no-one's using."

"Right," said Tali, determination in her voice. "I will have it ready before our next mission."

"Great," said Miriam. She smiled at her friend, then turned and began walking towards the elevator.

"Oh, before you go," said Tali. "Liara mentioned that you named your rifle? After Primarch Victus' son, who died on a mission?"

"Yeah, it's called Tarquin," said Miriam.

"Well then," said Tali, patting the Claymore's barrel. "This will be called Archangel."

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