What did you do today in ME?

Helped Tali with geth files and absconded with some prothean ruins and artifacts.

Never again, am I ever, ever sabotaging the cure. Worst mistake of my life! I'm furious at the actions I was forced to take; it's not fair.

That's why I don't do it.  It's also why I make sure Wrex is alive and Maelon's data is saved.  Any other choices lead to a dubious future for the krogan and the galaxy.

I was doing a mirror playthrough where I made every opposite choice to what my intuition has told me. Sometime's it's been glorious; for the most part it's been awful and sickening.

Oh I'm mapping out my canon as I go along. I have a new canon character all planned.

Felt the same about Reave.  It seemed stronger in ME2 than in ME3.  It's what got me interested in Lash.

Good because I worry about that boy.  I find it difficult to believe that anyone with a conscience could leave David with his brother.  Though, I suppose someone could be playing a sociopathic Shepard, who by definition lacks a conscience but may still be willing to do the "job" of saving the galaxy.

Lilith Shepard, Infiltrator, ME3

Chill-out day on Normandy and Citadel.
I toured the ship and talked to everybody, including the "guests". Victus wants me to retrieve a turian platoon crashed on Tuchanka. He won't tell me what's all about, only that his son is in charge. Wrex, on the other hand, comes with troubling news: the rachni might be back. This cannot be, not after I pushed that button myself and watched the queen melting in acid. Will check this out.

Mordin installed himself and "Eve" in Med-Bay. I had a good talk with him and the female krogan; he has good chances to cure the genophage, but I still don't know if this is the right solution.

Found an old friend down in engineering.


Citadel, running errands for Aria. I started by meeting the Blue Suns "leader" (really??? at least Vido put up a good fight before he died); of course, nothing is simple, and he has a "small problem" to be taken care of, namely a general turian who does not have the decency to retire and keeps making problems. Well, it happens that I don't feel a great respect for the respective general, so I ended placing a kill order on him. Now the Blue Suns should be in Aria's pocket. I am happy though that Garrus wasn't with me, busy organizing support for wounded turian troops in refugee camp, and I hope he won't find out how I chose to secure Blue Suns support.

Liara sent me to Barla Von - apparently, some merc group needs to be saved from reaper-controlled territory. Why she couldn't tell me this herself?

Kaidan accepted the Spectre offer from Udina - I congratulated him, but afterwards, I made sure I told Udina my honest opinion - this won't end well.

Did some shopping and then managed to sneak back to Normandy avoiding Miranda who was waiting for me in D24.

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME2:

Normandy


Omega


Omega - Recruit Archangel


Normandy

Keep shooting those bastards.  And remember, one of them could one day be Jack's pet.  

Yay for Gavin Archer being slapped down!  It's funny because in my very first playthrough of the entire series I was afraid to make any Renegade choices.  A year later and I love doing some nasty things to people - but only the ones who deserve it.

Busy day for Lilith Shepard, infiltrator, ME3

I took Garrus and James with me to Grissom Academy, now under attack by Cerberus. Specialist Traynor was very useful in pointing out the threat. The mission went well, and, to our surprise, the instructor defending the remaining biotic teenagers was... Jack. No other than my crazier than me good friend Jack. We made our way to the escape shuttle, crushing the remaining Cerberus troops on the station, with biotic students letting loose and throwing everything they got to Cerberus. We found David Archer in one of the hallways; I was glad to see he’s fine and I convinced him to help with the Crucible. Had some fun in the end in an Atlas stolen from Cerberus – nice to fight the enemies with their own weapons.

Lilith dispatching an Energy Drain to some unfortunate Cerberus:



I took my time to search the systems nearby for resources and survivors. We recovered the Shadow Broker Wet Squad Barla Von mentioned and some kind of turian banner. I’m sure I’ll find somebody on the Citadel who knows what to do with it.
More Cerberus on Tuchanka, so before going to save Lt. Victus‘ ass, we went down to investigate. There are some old krogan cannons there, and Cerberus wanted to put their hands on them. Naturally, didn’t let them and used the cannons to take down a Cerberus frigate. Point for us, again.

I decided to try EDI’s new body in combat and took her and Garrus to extract the turian survivors. Garrus and EDI exchanged some thoughts on the burden of father celebrity and military failure while fighting reapers and saving Victus‘ men. We took down 4 harvesters, a brute and countless cannibals, marauders and husks to get to them, but none of them put any problem to us. EDI’s new body seems to be fit for combat.
We found Victus‘ platoon on the edge of starting a riot. Listening to Victus, it looked to me that he didn’t have much of a choice – casualties were to be expected either path open to him. What’s more troubling is the fact there’s a huge bomb – presumably Cerberus – and they were sent to defuse it. I yelled at Victus – he seemed to forget he’s in charge over his men – and finally he put his men back in line. We’ll probably accompany them in this bomb mission.
Primarch Victus refused to tell me anything about this bomb. I’m in dark here, and I hate this.
****

On a side note, I’ve always had a biotic in my squad. Is the first time I try without any (Garrus + EDI / James) and it went flawlessly. And I'm playing with Expanded Galaxy Mod installed (I admit, some small advantages coming from this mod, making Insanity even easier than before) and

Miriam Shepard visited an asari temple...

Met with the asari councillor; learned of an artefact sealed in the Temple of Athame on Thessia that may provide information about the Catalyst. Received instructions to meet a science team at the temple. Councillor seemed cagey; temple off-limits to all except highest-ranking government officials.

Returned to the Normandy and ordered best speed to Thessia. Arrived to find Reapers flooding the system, dropping troops in a large invasion force. Took a shuttle to the surface with Liara and Ashley. Learned from Liara that the temple holds relics supposedly left by Athame's prophets Janiri and Lucen, traditionally believed to have brought civilization to the asari.

Landed in the middle of a war zone; asari ground troops scattered by overwhelming Reaper ground forces. Fought through fierce resistance including Banshees and Harvesters; observed destroyer-class Reapers touching down. Liara understandably distressed; assault on Thessia far more serious than early stages of invasion of Earth.

Arrived at temple to find it under military-grade lockdown; overridden by Liara using Shadow Broker protocols. Found science team inside, throats cut, not consistent with Reaper tactics. Examined relics, including murals and busts of prophets. Athame and prophets clearly Prothean; Liara shocked by revelation that modern asari are product of Prothean uplift.

Statue of Athame contained Prothean beacon; responded to cipher, activated "Vendetta" VI. Vendetta explained that Prothean war effort failed largely due to indoctrinated separatists who believed in controlling Reapers rather than destroying them. Indicated that Reapers are not in control of 50,000-year cycle but are merely part of something more fundamental; correlates with history revealed by Leviathan race. Vendetta shut down before revealing Catalyst information due to nearby indoctrinated presence.

Cerberus agent Kai Leng revealed himself; had killed science team and waited for beacon activation. Activated comm link with Illusive Man who could not be convinced to join the fight; insisted that controlling Reapers is possible. Cerberus gunship attacked temple, overwhelmed Normandy party, permitting Kai Leng to escape with Vendetta.

Returned to Normandy as more Reaper destroyers landed on surface. Watched Thessia fall.

Loss of Vendetta to Cerberus is a career low. Spoke to Anderson on the comm; received pep talk. Felt better.

Yelled at Joker for making a sick joke about asari. Received pep talk in return. Felt better, amazingly.

Broke up a heated argument between Liara and Javik about the true nature of asari civilization. Persuaded Javik to give Liara pep talk. She returned to her cabin. Visited her in private and gave her another pep talk, assuring her that she alone could not have prevented Thessia's fall, and the war is not yet lost.

Anyone else need a pep talk?

[Took Ashley rather than BSN-favourite Javik from a role-playing point of view, reasoning that Liara would appreciate having a friend along.

Three deaths on this mission, and two of them were at the very beginning for failing the barrier defence. That was a lot harder than I expected on insanity! The third death was during the Kai Leng fight when I found myself out of cover when the gunship started shooting.

I had to play most of the battles here quite cautiously; especially immediately before the temple, under constant fire from Ravagers and Harvesters. Did that by sticking to cover and mainlining medi-gel...

I did manage some vanguarding in the bit with the first Banshee; basically pinballed around from Cannibal to Marauder, staying out of the way of the Banshee, then finished her off when the field was clear. The second Banshee managed to corner me and I expected to get synced, but it turns out that dealing enough damage to get her out of sync mode is actually pretty easy when one's character is set up for damage-over-time and firesplosions.]