What did you do today in ME?

I finished my second playthrough and instead of destroying all synthetics or changing the bio-code to match mine and thus killing myself, I argued with the VI because dammit I was in no mood to be spoken dismissively to by a shimmering glowing child! No regrets.

You know I just realized....no personal log today. If I am following the rules I have established and have been trying to follow in the beginning Shepard has not been back on the Normandy before the last time I played. I did the Quarian mission on the Citadel, Thane's Loyalty mission, and Garrus's.

The Thane Mission always gives me a minor heart attack. Its a good mission. Fun, unique, but man can it always be tough to pull off sometimes. And well considering how much it means to Thane if you don't do it, its very easy to lose his loyalty. On the plus side I got the 'its a bomb' dialog option so I was able to freak out that poor guy up there...love Jen Hale's little laugh up there.

On the other hand...I love Garrus's the end decision. So...natural. Both Cameron and Abigail tend to talk him through it. But Cam pushes it to the end, and Abigail lets Garrus kill him in the end when he talks about all the demons he faces. I just really liked doing that.

Though I did not get to kill Tallid. Damn.

I did most of the loyalty quests and the mission where you go on the Collector ship. I don't look forward to rejecting Tali. I already romanced her and I planned on doing Liara all the way this time, but I still get tempted to go through with it.

I just finished ME3 for first time, and I'm literally drowning in tears right now.

Yeah, the music is pure gold. Just catching up with the

this is worse than X-Files conspiracy theories. My head is going to explode, but I think I chose the right ending. I hope so, at least.

Mark Shepard:

Mars: We had to get access to a pedway but Liara determined that Cerberus had locked it down. That meant traveling outside. The giant dust storm we'd seen when we arrived was getting closer, right on top of us. Also noticed that Alliance forces were still fighting the good fight on the other side of the base. One we got over there we noticed the airlock was open and the lights were out. Everyone we saw inside was dead. They weren't shot. They died from lack of oxygen, a very painful way to go. Entirely unnecessary. So when we saw some Cerberus troops there was no mercy to be had. I sniped the first one and the rest fell pretty quickly after. We found a recording showing a Dr. Eva Core shooting Alliance marines and letting Cerberus in. Now we knew. Used the control panel to get access to a tram that would bring us right into the Archives.

Later, we found a room's decontamination protocols enabled. Cerberus had enabled it with the staff inside, something that killed them. This doesn't even make sense. Killing them gains Cerberus nothing.

Just before getting to the tram we encountered a heavy turret. It would kill us before we could shoot it down. We also needed to get past it to get to the tram. There were areas to take cover and Kaidan took the lead, charging right in. It was kind of hot but I couldn't dwell on that. Fortunately, the turret could only fire forward and to the sides. Once we got past it we were safe from it. Then we could turn off the turret. Another video showed Dr. Core locking down the trams and they couldn't be accessed from our side.

Kaidan suggested using the helmet communicator from a dead Cerberus soldier to trick them into sending a tram over. He went looking but when he removed the face plate we saw something that looked like it was partly turned into a husk. Kaidan wanted to know if that was what was done to me - if the man he loved was still inside. I told him my feelings about him hadn't changed. He'd hurt my feelings but I laughed it off and said maybe we could find some answers. Then I called Cerberus and they did agree to send over a squad to secure the station. Not sure they actually bought it but at least we'd have access to a tram.

We got across but had to fight plenty of Cerberus troops. Three biotics - one well-trained from childhood and the other two of us also marines - made us a match for anything they threw at us. With them out of the way we stepped into the Prothean Archives. Then a hologram of the Illusive Man popped up. He told me his goal was to control the Reapers rather than destroy them. He tried to tell me I was shortsighted for wanting them gone but I already knew from the suicide mission that his goal was to make humanity - with Cerberus at the helm - the dominant race in the galaxy. Not cooperation but subjugation. I can't see how any one race controlling everything could be beneficial. Still, I tried to get him to give me his resources because I did accomplish what I set out to do against the Collectors and he knew it. But he wasn't willing. In fact, as we spoke, he was deleting the blueprints we were seeking while uploading them elsewhere.

Kaidan looked around and found Dr. Core uploading the data. She knocked him on his ass and destroyed the console she was using. Then she went running and I was right on her tail. She could make a crazy leap which suggested she was enhanced in some way. I radioed Vega so he could get in touch with the Normandy. I did not want that woman to escape. Then she jumped into a shuttle and I thought it was over. James had other ideas, ramming it and forcing it to crash. It was on fire and I assumed that was the end of Dr. Core. But we still needed the data.

Moments later, the door to the Cerberus shuttle went flying off the hinges. Dr. Core emerged but it was now apparent that she was not human. She was a robot. She grabbed Kaidan by the throat and was given orders to kill him. She slammed him a couple of times into the shuttle hull before turning toward me. She was moving fast but I was faster. I shot her enough times to incapacitate her. The Normandy landed and I retrieved Kaidan while James grabbed the robot.

Normandy: I was a little unfocused when I brought Kaidan to the med bay. Liara had to peel me away from Kaidan to tell Joker to take us to the Citadel. There were no medical personnel on board and he would receive better care at the Citadel. Then I talked with Hackett and he told me I had to do whatever it took to get the Council on board with helping Earth.

Citadel: Kaidan was rushed off to Huerta Memorial for emergency surgery. Then Captain Bailey - or Commander Bailey as I'd since learned - showed up to tell me that the Council was waiting to talk to me. I'd wondered if they would since that wasn't the case right after Cerberus revived me. Bailey suggested I head up to Huerta Memorial beforehand. I was about to do just that when a military reporter flagged me down. Her name was Diana Allers and she wanted to be put on the Normandy. It was her plan to have firsthand reports from me that could help sway people into pitching in - or just having some hope. I thought that sounded like a good idea and agreed to have her.

When I reached Huerta Memorial, I decided to buy some Peruvian whiskey for Kaidan. We'd shared more than a few glasses of the stuff in the original Normandy and I thought he'd appreciate it. Then I saw Dr. Chakwas. She was working at an Alliance lab on the Citadel. She was exactly what I needed. I asked her to rejoin the Normandy and she was more than happy to do so. Then I walked into Kaidan's room. He looked like hell, all battered and bruised. It was hard to see. I gave a little pep talk to his unconscious body and then ordered him to get better. I knew I needed him. Couldn't stand it to lose another of my crew, especially one I was in love with.

I stopped by Bailey's office. Khalisah al-Jilani was there harassing him, trying to see the Council. But they weren't seeing anyone so it made no sense to blame him. I'd never really liked this particular reporter. She was anti-military and I always felt her interviews were meant to be a smear campaign.

Then it was on to the Council. They still didn't like me and didn't trust that I wouldn't sacrifice them for human interests. That's not what I had done. I simply focused on Sovereign and the Council died. Whatever. In any case, they weren't willing to give resources, even just to build the Prothean device. Admittedly, the turian colony of Taetrus has already fallen, their homeworld of Palaven was under attack and the Reapers were also in asari space. This meant they had their own problems. Still, we wouldn't win by fighting separately. We needed a united front.

The turian councilor told me if I rescued their primarch on Menae, Palaven's moon, that the primarch would likely be willing to offer help. Udina recommended I follow that course of action. This fell under Hackett's "whatever it takes" mandate so I was going to to it.

Next time choose Shepard and Kaidan over EDI and Joker.  I know I felt okay with it.  Just do a new game plus and make it happen!

Dear Ashley,

I'm still shaking over what I encountered on Aite... I really don't know if I can continue to work with these Cerberus guys... certainly not if there are more like Dr. Archer. He was so obsessed with his own ambition of controlling the geth that he hooked his own brother (who has autism) up to them... literally... with cables protruding from every possible part on his body you could imagine. It was horrifying. Ash... I wanted to beat him within an inch of his life... started to... then held back only because his brother was right there; and I realized it was just more important to get David out of there. All I could think of doing was to send him to Grissom Academy... hopefully, they can help undo the damage his own brother inflicted on him. I told Archer that I'd kill him if I ever even thought of finding his brother again and that the Illusive Man could fire me if he didn't like it. I actually really wish the Illusive Man would fire me... actually, I almost wish he had just let me join you in the afterlife... but I guess that wouldn't help the colonists though. I should get back to it.

Love you always,
V.

It can be a lot to process.  It took me a few playthroughs to become totally comfortable with my various interpretations of the endings (and there are several that are possible).  Try not to sweat over it too much...  I'm pretty sure they will not be connecting the endings to Andromeda at all... at least in this first game.

That happened to a husk in my playthrough. I loaded a shotgun with explosive ammo and shot at the wall. The splash damage took care of it