What did you do today in ME?

Miriam Shepard investigated Sanctuary...

Diverted the Normandy to Ontarom in the Kepler Verge to retake a communications hub captured by Cerberus. Fortunately, weather was clear; have heard bad stories about that place during sandstorms. Took Liara to give her a distraction from Thessia; and Garrus as much for moral support as combat support. Found the site defended by Cerberus force including elite "Nemesis" snipers and "Phantom" biotics. Neutralized opposition and regained control of facility, aided by Alliance engineer Grace Sato.

Traynor traced Kai Leng's shuttle through the relay network to Sanctuary, supposed refugee haven on Horizon in the Shadow Sea. Ordered the Normandy to Horizon and took a shuttle to Sanctuary with Javik and James. Comms were jammed. Found clear evidence of a firefight at the landing zone. Observed Cerberus shuttles evacuating, then shot down by Harvesters.

Entered Sanctuary, examined logs; seemed benign aside from the no-comms policy. Further in, found clear evidence of Cerberus and Reaper forces fighting to mutual destruction. Found video log left by Miranda revealing that Sanctuary is a front for a Cerberus operation.

Located concealed entrance to facility interior. Discovered laboratories with video footage of refugees being turned into husks. Proceeded through laboratory; encountered significant Reaper forces including Banshees, and mobs of former refugees. Pieced together the truth from video, audio and textual logs: Henry Lawson reverse-engineering Reaper control signals using refugees as test subjects; "spare" individuals indoctrinated and converted into Cerberus cannon fodder. Reapers attacked after identifying research as a threat.

Gained access to control tower. Encountered Miranda confronting Henry, with Oriana taken hostage. Persuaded Henry to release Oriana. As soon as Oriana was safe, Miranda threw her father from the tower using biotic power.

Kai Leng not present on-site; had been dispatched to collect research data. Miranda planted covert tracking device on his shuttle.

Returned to Normandy. Traynor analysed tracking data, pinpointed Kai Leng's destination, likely location of Cerberus HQ.

Normandy crew appalled by Sanctuary atrocities. Found Tali in crew lounge, nursing bottle of turian brandy. Garrus pledged to carve names of turian refugees into Illusive Man's skull.

Would like to hit Cerberus HQ immediately, but Hackett recalled Normandy to Citadel for maintenance. Seems wrong to be taking forced shore leave at this stage in the war.

[The Ontarom mission felt so much like a multiplayer devices objective that it didn't occur to me to take all the enemies out before activating the devices, I did it MP-style while under fire. Died once when I got distracted by a Phantom and didn't see the Centurion flanking me

Somewhat surprised that I made it through Horizon without dying. It's not the Banshees that are difficult, it's the Ravagers, they hit hard on Insanity. They're especially annoying when sitting right next to barrier engines!

(Aside: I'd quite like to have seen shield pylons/barrier engines added to the later waves of multiplayer games, in preference to simply throwing more and more Banshees and Phantoms at the players).

Aside from the trickier combat, this went exactly as my first playthrough; Miranda was alive and loyal, and Shepard's reputation was maxed, so no reason not to go full Paragon.]

I did play some ME after all I played through Priority Horizon 5 times because I continued my Vega Dialogue project.
In all my playthroughs, I never saw that there's a vista that can be activated right when entering the Sanctuary hall

I did good. I shot all the holograms on "Dear God Why" add-on Station.

I got the best biotics amp though, go team Shepard's Apartment! RNG smiled upon me!

Savant X, you are the chosen one!



The precursor to biotically headbutting everything in the universe.

Onward Mako!ONNNWAAARD TO NOVNARNIA! TO GET BIOTICALLY SHOVED INTO BOXES BY BLUE WIFE'S MOM!

Oh hey its my weekend and I can still come in to update everybody on what I am doing, now I just have to remember what I have been doing.

From the Personal Logs of the SSV Normandy:



Also, of course, played a crap ton of multiplayer. The highlight was running with a group of three who all had headphones, and some of them were like "A Salarian Infiltrator...what's that?" "I never have known someone who plays a Salarian good." And...well. I showed them. Only time I died was when a Banshee grabbed me.

Though it did glitch.

Speaking about glitches though during the 'Jacob Mission' the screen went black transitioning from the getting the AA guns online to the interior and would not come back online. So, I had to reload and well...that was frustrating, though only brielfly. lol. Tough mission for me for some reason though. I mean might have been a bit stupid but you kind of expect three Talon blasts to the face to be good enough. *shrugs*.

I think you can remove weapons from squadmates in ME3. Would you consider doing a "real" weaponless playthrough?

If they can be removed, I would imagine that can only be done on the pc and not a console. I play on the ps3.

But yes. If that was possible, I would

Dear Ashley,

We came within just 15 minutes of letting the reapers into the galaxy to start their harvest. I had to destroy a mass relay and an entire Batarian system to stop them... more than 300,000 dead. I can hardly live with myself... but it had to be done. Hackett's friend, as it turned out, was indoctrinated. Amazingly, he doesn't seem to blame me for anything and has promised to keep the Alliance and the Batarians off my back until I get this Collector mission done; although he does say I'll eventually have to show up "with my dress blues on, ready to take the hit." I think they should give me a medal, but "f*ck 'em" as Jack would say.

I'm sorry, Ash... I think I'm falling for her. She's so different... tough and sassy, crazy as hell. She might be the only woman in the galaxy (other than you) who could put up with this crazy life I've got... and she was there when I got back; and you weren't.

I still do love you, though.
V.

P.S. Well, you're still my only girl. I must have messed up with Jack bad and given her the wrong impression. After I got back from helping Garrus clear up a little unfinished business (shooting a traitor who was on his old squad) and then helping Thane set his son on the straight and narrow by not allowing him to assassinate a anti-human politician (much as I wanted to let him), Jack told me that she has no hard feelings, but she doesn't "want to play." Sad thing is... I wasn't just playing with her at all.

Not this time. I was looking for it but couldn't find it. Have seen it in the past. I stick to my actual experiences in each PT in order to make what I write more authentic.

Mark Shepard:

Citadel, Silversun Strip: Went for a joyride with Cortez. He showed me how a true pilot can make the experiencing amazing. He also expressed how gravely he takes his responsibility to get me safely to the ground, that he wouldn't trust anyone else to do it. There's something about him...if I weren't with Kaidan - but no point following that line of thought because I couldn't be happier with my choice.

Met with Jacob at Castle Arcade. He was helping some orphans. Gotta tell you that this puts him in a better light that I've seen him in the past. So when he wanted the kids to see him as a shining star I decided to let it happen. We played Shattered Eezo, a robot boxing game. I'm not saying I threw the fight but I may not have given my all. It made the kids happy and that mattered more than my ego.

Checked in with Avina. I asked her about Purgatory. She had no information, which is damn strange. Best guess is that it's for a certain type of crowd and not meant for the average tourist to find - a place where a person could let down their hair and no one would bat an eye. The famous could go to not be seen and the press were not invited. Also learned that Ryuusei is under repair so people will have their damned sushi restaurant back!

Date night with Kaidan. I wanted to go out and he wanted to stay in and impress me with his cooking. I suppose, given that fights usually break out wherever I go, it couldn't hurt to stay home. He did burn the garlic. I played dumb but I knew damn well why he was so distracted. Nevertheless, he made a fantastic beef liver with bacon, garlic and onions. We spent the night together and hoped that one day it would be home for both of us.

Miranda came by to chat. She'd heard strange reports about me, but then found out about the clone. She recognized what a crazy life I have. Yet, if I didn't do things this way would we have ever gotten this far? Hell, the Reapers might have invaded three years ago when we had no chance of defending ourselves. Like with Cortez, in another life I could imagine myself with Miranda. She's interesting. She and I would make a good match.
i
Held a memorial service for Thane. I'd say more but a Glyph-related glitch made it not happen.

C-Sec told me there was an incident involving Grunt. I have to admit that, despite the property damage, it was all very amusing - from his hospital breakout to lighting a C-Sec shuttle on fire with ryncol. Still, I made him apologize and immediately decided he should be at my party.

Invited Cortez and Vega over to watch a game. Glyph tried to interfere but unlike with the funeral nothing got in the way of beer and a game! These guys also took bets on the winner, but didn't let me in on it. Turns out they had decided that I couldn't lose and whoever I chose would win. It sounded all very superstitious to me but I couldn't argue that the Seattle Sorcerers - my pick - won.

I invited Traynor up and...I got a memorial for Thane. Full blown memorial service. This one had Bailey, the salarian councilor, Joker, EDI, Tali, Garrus, Samara, and Kolyat. Thane's choice to change his life for his son resonated strongly with Samara. Kolyat and the councilor took some time to discuss medical research. Salarians were the people most likely to come up with a cure. I offered my help but Kolyat said the councilor was already interested - the fact that Thane risked his life for the salarian was not something she forgot. I had a good feeling that Kepral's Syndrome wouldn't be a life threatening illness for much longer. Gratitude can go a long way. Kolyat has also found messages Thane had tried to send me while I was locked up on Earth. It was kind of sad but he was trying to let me in on the events of his life. How he moved near Kolyat and emulated good behavior, and how he ended up at Huerta. He was looking for a friend. Wish I could have been there for him sooner.

Samara came over. I wanted another goodbye. I imagine I wouldn't have had anything like this had I chosen Morinth. No doubt her daughter would inevitably tried to seduce me. Based on the one encounter, she would have succeeded and I would be dead. So...here's to good decisions. We played a game of trying to guess the story behind the people on the street. Samara came up with some great stuff.

Met with Miranda at the Sun Coast Casino. Miranda was in a slinky red dress while I wore the outfit that I'm eternally grateful to Kasumi for buying for me. Sure, it was so we could do her pet project but for me dressing up had always meant dress blues. A nice suit was perfect to pull out for occasions like this. Not only did I get to see Miranda try something new, something she wasn't good at, but I got to see her laugh. So glad we had this time together.

Finally, it was time. Despite my reservations about who Joker and Glyph could invite, I really wanted all those who had fought with my here. I wanted to celebrate our lives because this might be it for us. Last chance to celebrate before the end. With what we were heading into any positive outcome seemed almost impossible. Still, Javik called it when he read me on the Normandy: I had confidence and believed I was winning. This remained true. With all the forces we'd brought together we were going to win. The only thing I didn't know was if myself or anyone I cared about was getting out of it alive.

Party highlights: Steve, James, Kaidan and Jack relaxed and toasted to taking a break; the ex-Cerberus crowd (Joker, EDI, Miranda and Jacob) discussed the downfall of Cerberus; Traynor let me know I missed out on Chakwas's gift of Serrice Brandy; headbutting between Grunt and Wrex; Traynor was inexplicably in my bedroom in just a bra and panties (presumably from when inviting her initiated the memorial); Grunt made a phenomenal bouncer; a man emergency for Joker; art critics; Miranda and Jack needed to make out; EDI made Traynor and especially Tali VERY uncomfortable; I overheard Miranda say Cerberus was wrong about Jack. Wow.; biotics vs muscle contest - considering I could take Vega in a fight he had nothing; embarrassed Joker into dancing with EDI; target practice; biotic supremacy in action; Grunt asleep in the shower; Kasumi approved of my underwear choices; danced with my friends; group photo; woke up next to Kaidan (half-naked Traynor still present); musical performances of Mordin. Most of them were feeling it in the morning, particularly Tali and Liara. Samara was fine and meditating while Jack and Jacob were exercising. James made eggs for everyone.

Finally, our time was up. The retrofits were done and we'd had a blast after the bit with my clone was behind us anyway. Right before we stepped back on board the ship, Kaidan said he believed in me, that I'd find a way to win. But more importantly he said he'd be waiting for me when I did. That's the kind of thing I need to hear at times, a reminder of why I'm doing all of this. I can't let him down.

-Need coffee.



That idiot but I gots good mods from it.

More from Novnarnia: CSI!



I spy with my eye: PLOT Device in the open! DUN DUN DUUUN.



and Liara's mom hates me: