What did you do today in ME?

Mark Shepard: [Extremely long post ahead but ME3 is done.]

Normandy: War Assets: 8217 x 99% = 8134. I can't think of anything that will go wrong as I head to Earth. Of course, Earth Systems Alliance Space is at 96% but still not going to make or break my ending.

Private Campbell said it all: "So much for Cerberus. All that's left now is Earth." So sorry, Cerberus, but you are out of business. Just wish it had happened before the entire organization was indoctrinated. Maybe we would have been to Earth already.

Joker: Doesn't seem like the "rah rah" type but in no uncertain terms he said I'd be kicking Reaper ass because it's what I do. So glad I've had this guy at my side for the past three years. Right from the moment when he made an "impossible drop" of the Mako onto Ilos, right to this very moment, he's done more than anyone could have expected. He's never flinched, not for one second, which is more than I can say for most anyone other than Chakwas or Garrus. (Yeah, Tali came along, but grudgingly - not that I blame her.)

Garrus & Tali: I guess emotions really do run high when death approaches: caught these two making out. I sometimes think the Normandy is more or a "Love Boat" than a warship.

Liara's Terminal: Turns out information from Miranda was extremely useful in avoiding ambushes and in taking the fight directly to Cerberus bases. I have great respect for Miranda, something I once thought would be impossible, but she's proven to be a good friend and a great asset. Glad Kai Leng didn't succeed in killing her. If we all survive this war, she's going to be needed to save lives on the medical side of things.

One last goodbye to space hamster and the fishies.

Lastly, Traynor. Thrown unexpectedly onto a warship when she was more of a lab rat, she has been amazing in every way. I've never seen someone track the enemy the way she does. I expect that she'll go far and believe she won't flinch if ever called to duty again.

Hackett boarded us to give the final orders. It felt strange to actually be taking orders. Ever since my resurrection it's pretty much me doing whatever I wanted, everything else more of a suggestion - with Cerberus I made my own decisions and as a Spectre I'm immune to Alliance orders if I so choose. I don't choose to disobey because getting things done is more important than calling all the shots.

Earth: I knew my fellow humans were itching to get boots on the ground so I made sure to take Kaidan and James with me.

We had a plan in place for when we got there but the shuttle carrying the squad that was supposed to take out the Hades Cannon was shot down. I decided nothing could go forward with that cannon firing on Alliance forces so I had Cortez drop us off to take care of it. Hammer forces, which were going to reach a beam in London that would take them to the Citadel, were prevented from landing until we were done.

Cortez tried to keep Harvesters off of us. It worked, briefly, but the shuttle went down. Somehow, he survived it. All I could think about were Jenkins, Ash, Pressly, Mordin, Thane and Legion, not to mention the entire crew of the SR-1. They had all stood by my side and all died because of the Reapers. I didn't want to lose any more. I know that's how things go when you're a soldier but I'd seen more death in the last three years than I had since I was a kid on Mindoir. I wanted it to end.

Found the downed shuttle and picked up the M-920 Cain. This baby had helped me destroy the Reaper core when retrieving the IFF and again came in handy against the proto-Reaper on the Collector base. Now it was going to take out a small Reaper, what we were calling a Hades Cannon. Success! The thing blew to pieces! Wouldn't never have worked on a real Reaper but this stationary device didn't pack quite the same punch. Too bad the Cain has limited firing ability or I'd carry it with me everywhere.

While we were fighting off banshees and the like, I looked off into the distance. I could see the beam piercing the sky. It looked so far away. I wondered how it was going to be possible to reach it. I was a little surprised when the shuttle that picked us up had Anderson aboard. Maybe not a coincidence. This man had been my mentor and sometimes he felt like the closest thing I had to a father since I'd lost my own 16 years ago. To be honest, I was happy to see him.

Once we got to what the human resistance was using as a base in London, we realized that most of the Hammer team wouldn't be making it. I sent Kaidan and James off while I conferred with Major Coats. Anderson told me to meet up with him later. Everyone still sees me as some sort of man-god who did things that couldn't be done, but I could see that here on Earth Anderson had also been doing the impossible in forming a formidable resistance. It wasn't that we were superhuman; we just didn't know how to quit, regardless of the odds.

Little chat with James. He's wanted back on Earth but all the damage and the massive Reaper forces has left him with some doubts. I told him not to give up, not to allow them to take away his will. It was what he needed to heart. Anderson had even set him up with a squad of his own.

Then there was Kaidan. He had found the Biotic Division. Easily, he could have slipped in with them, and maybe even thought that's what was going to happen. Why else would he say his goodbyes to me? He seemed certain enough that one or both of us might not make it that he kissed me in full view of the troops, regs be damned. I told him I'd be waiting for him when it was over and that he'd better show up. I meant every word.

They had a communications tech and I decided to make use of him to say some last words to some of my friends. I don't want to call them goodbyes but I wasn't sure I'd see them again. Jack seemed downright respectful. I think seeing Earth like this really put things in perspective for her. Maybe she'd shape up into a serious officer one day. Zaeed was also on the ground. I don't know if he'd have been present if there were anyplace to hide but the fact is that there was no safe place. It was fight or die. Steve had found his way to relative safety. I'm sorry he couldn't be here where I am. The guy's got heart. Kasumi promised me drinks in the aftermath. Ditto for Jacob. Samara also decided her place was on Earth, feeling that I'd done a lot for her and she wanted to return the favor. Grunt was with the krogan troops. For the first time ever, he thanked me for getting him out of the tank. I had been cautioned against it, by pretty much everyone, but I decided it was worth the risk. I don't regret it and I can see that, live or die, Grunt is happy he had the chance to experience life. I gave Miranda a confidence boost, trying to make her believe we'd survive. Every time in the past when I'd told her to be careful, she told me she couldn't make that promise. For the first time ever she agreed to the promise. That meant that she wanted to live life, free from her father, from Cerberus and from the Reapers, just she and Oriana.

I was surprised to see Primarch Victus here. He felt he should return the favor I'd done for him in person. Hell of a man. Exactly the kind of leader the turians need - someone who stands by his word to the letter.

Garrus said if we both didn't make it, and we had the same Heaven, he was buying drinks at the bar.

Liara wanted me to "embrace eternity" one last time. This was different, though. We weren't trying to uncover whatever it was that some ancient artifact had downloaded into my mind. This time we were simply sharing in the way that only the asari could. Remembering the insecure archaeologist I'd been a few years back I would never have guessed she would have become one of my closest friends.

Wrex delivered a hell of a speech to the krogan on Earth. He talked about be allies. He talked about winning a new future for their race. That's the kind of talk that doesn't suggest another rebellion but instead joining the galactic community. The fact that his firstborn was going to be named after a salarian - Mordin - said more about making peace than anything else could.

Javik said that we had done in this cycle what had never before been done. We rallied the galaxy together. When we some victory they watched themselves slowly be sacrificed for the greater good. We weren't playing that came and so we were succeeding. Javik had said he was the exemplar of vengeance, and that was surely coming his way. But he called me the exemplar of victory. I'd made a believer out of him. He was certain that the dead from all of time were watching this moment. Javik decided that when the war was done he would go to the Cronian Nebula to lay rest the ghosts of the Protheans, joining them in death. Then he passed on the echo shard so that it could be studied and so that everyone would know I was responsible for permanently ending the Reaper threat.

Tali said she was proud to serve with me, calling me captain, a rank I didn't actually have. To her, though, as Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, that's exactly who I was. She's been a good friend and I'm glad she joined me in this final fight. She wore that name like a badge of honor even those it was hung on her in an attempt to shame her. She surely could have claimed the name of a quarian ship, especially given that she's an admiral, but the fact that the Normandy had helped the quarians to retake Rannoch showed that her logic was unassailable in this regard.

EDI, an AI, was standing before the Alliance. Her kind are illegal but Anderson was wise enough to know that the calculations she could make were invaluable. Yet, I got the sense that she was afraid and so I pressed her. That's when he full confidence came into bloom and she said that though the Reapers had destroyed thousands of civilizations that hadn't destroyed this one - and never would. She also thanked me for being the one that helped her to feel alive, likely from all the talks we had where I told her to make her own choices about how to behave.

Spoke with Anderson. He said only 50% of Hammer reported in so I would be joining them. I would take two members of my squad with me and make my own way. But first I had to give them a pep talk. I talked about how the war had created bonds with us, even friendships, which was something the Reapers didn't understand and couldn't take away. I think about the things put before me: facing down Kaidan, the option of shooting Mordin in the back to stop him, or allowing krogan to continue suffering. There were more but this is the difference between friends and tools. Those before me are some of what I'd call the best friends I'd ever had. I told them the stakes and that, together, we would win.

When it came time to choose my squad, it wasn't all that hard. I trusted everyone present to lay their lives on the line to end the Reaper threat. First was Kaidan. No matter his fate in this war, I needed to know it. If he didn't survive, I wanted to be there for his last breath. The other was Garrus. Hands down my best friend, always there when I needed him. It was never even a question for him if he were going to join because if was always a yes.

Followed a Mako on foot that held Hammer troops. Wish I had one of those about own. I wonder if there would have been fewer complaints had Cortez been driving. But then this one took a bad hit and was on fire. Suddenly I was glad to be outside.

It was a difficult path toward the beam. We got to the Thanix missiles, but there were no survivors of Hammer present. The only way to that beam was through a Reaper and these missiles were needed to take it out. That meant we had to defend them until we could fire them. Problem was the beam distorted the missiles targeting system. EDI said she could use the Normandy's own system to help. Again, it meant defending the missiles while calculations were being made.

We lost the forces defending our left flank. While defending there, the Reaper ahead of us got a lot closer. Fortunately, EDI had finished targeting and I fired off the missiles. Only it failed. The Reaper was still too close to the beam. We had to let it get a lot closer to us so that it would fire properly. And we only had two missiles left. That problem aside, Anderson reported that Hammer was being overrun everywhere and that Reapers were converging on my location. I don't know if it was because of the missiles or me. I knew from as far back as when we fought the Collectors that the Reapers targeted me and those who were close to me. Could be either reason but I suppose it didn't matter. We had to defend these missiles and try not to die doing so.

Brutes were everywhere and a damned harvester landed right next to me! Then came the banshees, not to mention dodging beams fired by the approaching Reaper. Hated those banshees; Kaidan was hypersensitive to their screams. I wasn't so I attributed it to a flaw in the L2 implant. Damn, if we won this was, he was getting upgraded to an L5. No more headaches. Nothing holding back his full potential. They worked for Jack, they work for me, and they are going to work for Kaidan.

Finally, the Reaper was in range, we were alive and the missiles were intact. I fired them off and hit the firing iris just before it closed up. Then the remaining members of Hammer fired whatever heavy weapons they had. It destroyed that Reaper.

Now it was time to run like hell for the beam. Anderson said only a handful needed to make it. Kaidan did not like those odds. Meanwhile, Harbinger called out to me. This was the third time we were crossing paths (if you can't count it controlling some of the Collectors as a crossing paths). It knew exactly who I was and was firing on the last of Hammer. I remembered how the Collectors had targeted Kaidan on Horizon. There was a chance it might do so here.

Then a Mako exploded next to Garrus and Kaidan. They were badly wounded and I knew they couldn't go on. I should have left them behind and gone but I don't think I was quite rational at that point. I called the Normandy for an evac. When it arrived, I told Garrus to take him on board. Kaidan objected strenuously. He didn't want to be left behind again, as he had been when I forced him into an escape pod as the Collectors were firing on the SR-1. He'd lost me that day and didn't want to go through that again.

I did the only thing I could. I told him I loved him, caressed his cheek as best I could through my gloves, and sent him off. I could tell from his face that he thought he'd never see me again. I couldn't think like that. I did, however, thank whatever gods their might be for the Normandy's stealth system, which I think is the only reason Harbinger didn't destroy it.

I ran toward the beam but Harbinger struck way too close. I lost consciousness. My armor was mostly shredded and I had no weapons. I was having trouble breathing and couldn't focus on more than my goal. Harbinger told me hope was irrelevant but Kaidan was alive and so was I. I picked up a gun lying on the ground and began to limp toward the beam. Harbinger had been overconfident and left the scene, believing there was no further opposition at the beam.

I was within spitting distance of that beam when a few husks and a marauder showed up. They were all that stood in my way and damn it if I didn't take them out. Then I stepped into the beam and was gone.

Citadel: I was in a strange hallway. All I saw were human bodies and a few Keepers processing them. Anderson reached me over the comms to tell me he'd also made it. Must have gotten there ahead of me because I saw no sign of him. We decided that they were trying to make a new human Reaper, but this time it was the Keepers making it rather than the Collectors.

Anderson found a control panel and decided to investigate. Then I lost contact with him. All I could do was try to catch up to him and hope he was still alive. He was at that control panel when I got there. When he turned around he was moving strangely. He could barely speak normally. Then the Illusive Man showed up, dark energy swirling around him and in his skin. He took control of my body. This is what augmentation with Reaper tech had done to him.

We tried to convince him he was wrong but the Illusive Man forced me to aim my gun at Anderson. I wasn't liking how this was going. I liked it less when he forced me to fire on Anderson, but even then Anderson couldn't drop to the ground, forced to stand and bear it. We kept talking. He seemed so sincere in his belief that he could control the Reapers and that he was helping humanity. I had heard about prior cycles also working with the Reapers while believing themselves to be helping their people. Hell, Amanda Kenson became convinced that if the Reapers were allowed to come that everything would be better. Saren thought we'd all survive if we submitted to being slaves to the Reapers. They were all wrong because none of them had directly spoken to a Reaper like I had. I knew destroying us was their only goal.

I told him how humanity had been undone by his actions, how we were fighting each other instead of the Reapers. That seemed to reach him. He took Anderson's gun and killed himself. Then I made my way to the control panel and opened the arms of the Citadel, allowing the Crucible to connect.

While we waited for the Crucible to do its thing, Anderson and I talked. He regretted not having a family and didn't think it would ever happen. I told him I wanted one. He thought I'd be a good father. Then he said he was proud of me and died.

I heard from Hackett that the Crucible wasn't firing. I went for the control panel again but collapsed. Too much blood loss. But Joker refused to give up on me. He brought the Normandy to the Citadel and they retrieved me in the shuttle. The Crucible then fired, destroying the Reapers. We later had a memorial for Anderson, placing his plaque on the memorial wall. Unlike the others, his name went in the center. The original Normandy was meant for him and, had the Reapers not come, he would have had this one, too. [Note: Some of the stuff here is based on mods, specifically the Extended Final Anderson Conversation and MEHEM.]

I didn't waste any time marrying Kaidan. We survived this war and I'd be damned if anyone took that away from us. Then we got to work rebuilding, first Earth with the Alliance and then going out into the galaxy as Council Spectres. The new Council, composed of all races who contributed to the war effort, knew better than to separate us.

So because I did not post yesterday, I am again having play catch up (my appologies) *cracks knuckles*

From the Personal Logs of the SSV Normandy



I made my peace with the ending a long time ago, but its weird, even after all these years I still get a little tense when I hit Thessia. Probably something to do with the ending too. But, the constant realization that this might be the last time I play the MET. After all when MEA comes out, and if its a good game, pretty much Tier 3 or higher, I may not feel a need to ever go back and play it again. Its always been a hell of a ride, and I look forward to more.

I installed Mass Effect 2 on my Xbox One , I used my Xbox 360 collectors edition disc to do so ! , However I've lost my EA login etc so Gotta get the DLC again.

Good lord...just how many crazy bugs got away from mama.....





And so, the great Rachni Side quest Purge began....

Fired up my xbox one and got ME2 running used Genius for the first time which was pretty cool - I love ME1 and all but I just wanted to get to ME2 as ASAP.

Last night I started an ME3 new game plus. I chose a Shepard from August 2012. An engineer. What I want to do is not use any weapons. As an engineer, I will have 2 extra squadmates, combat drone and sentry turret, or as they will be called for this playthrough, Smith and Wesson.  What I didn't know is that this Shepard was from a default ME3 playthrough.

I'm playing on insanity and blew right through Mars. Now I will go see the council.

One thing I forgot to add in my Weaponless Playthrough, is that the player has to use a weapon to shoot the evabot that's running towards you. Too bad a biotic power or incinerate can't work.

Miriam Shepard's shore leave went pear-shaped...

Received a report that quarian marine Kal'Reegar died in action defending a turian facility. Damn shame, he was a fine soldier. Turians thought so too.

Returned to Citadel. Turned over recovered Cerberus encryption algorithms to C-Sec, then headed to the wards while Normandy grounded for maintenance.

Took possession of Admiral Anderson's apartment; he intends to stay on Earth with Kahlee Sanders after the war is over. Lovely apartment: modern, spacious, well-maintained, tastefully decorated. Shelves a bit cluttered with Anderson's large collection of books; will arrange for them to be forwarded to him.

Met Joker at a restaurant for sushi; turns out that he hadn't sent the invitation; was an ambush by mercenaries. Grabbed a pistol and some grenades from one of the mercs. Restaurant's glass floor weakened during firefight; fell through aquarium and down into commercial district. Received communication on encrypted Alliance channel from Maya Brooks, intelligence analyst with wobbly accent; learned all other channels were hacked. With Brooks' assistance, proceeded through commercial district to skycar dealership: nearest location with landing pad for extraction. Used Spectre protocols to bypass C-Sec lockdown. Encountered more mercenaries en route, including snipers with cloaks and techs with drones.

Found Liara waiting at skycar showroom. Awaited C-Sec shuttle for extraction; it arrived full of mercs with mini-guns. Neutralized mercs with unexpected but welcome assistance from Wrex, on Citadel for negotiations with Council. Secured landing zone; departed on Alliance shuttle with Joker and Brooks. Returned to apartment and met up with Normandy squad. Teased mercilessly by squad about falling through aquarium.

Liara traced pistol recovered at restaurant to arms dealer Elijah Khan, also proprietor of Silver Coast casino. Proceeded to casino with Brooks and Ashley, posing as partygoers. Brooks gained access to Khan's safe room; assisted her by disabling sensors via junction boxes on casino floor, with Ashley distracting pit bosses. Found Khan in safe room, dead. Redialed his telephone; made contact with someone using a voice filter, to whom Khan had been supplying weapons. Received direct personal threat.

Learned from Glyph that personal Spectre access code had been used at Citadel Archive. Geared up, then proceeded there with entire squad. Picked Wrex and Ashley for point team; rest of squad divided into two support teams. Entered archive; ambushed by mercs. Khan's contact showed herself: a Lazarus Project clone, created by Cerberus as an organ bank, never intended to be woken, but now intent on becoming "Commander Shepard". Clone fled deep into archive; pursued, neutralizing waves of mercs.

Archive was huge, consisting of capsule-like vaults, store-rooms for physical artefacts, and holo-projectors for digital recordings. Viewed recordings from various time periods, including First Contact War, Krogan Rebellions and Sovereign crisis (initially censored, claiming Sovereign was geth dreadnought; true record played upon detection of two human Spectres). Encountered several waves of mercs, including armoured soldiers with omni-shields, and Atlas heavy mechs. Wrex seemed to be loving the fighting; clearly needed to blow off some steam.

Caught up with clone, confronted her. Brooks revealed herself as traitor and mastermind, former aide to Illusive Man, became disillusioned with Cerberus due to recruitment of non-humans during Collector crisis, activated clone in order to recreate "Commander Shepard" as champion of humanity. Use of stolen Spectre code in archive was a ruse to lure Normandy party to either death at hands of mercs or abandonment in vault.

Escaped from vault with Glyph's assistance. Proceeded to Alliance docks with Wrex and Garrus to prevent clone and Brooks from stealing Normandy. (Liara expressed disappointment at not being chosen for infiltration team; EDI lamented rarely being picked for field missions).

Entered Normandy undetected using emergency hatch, sneaked onto flight deck, neutralized mercenary crew. Confronted clone in shuttle bay, now wearing N7 armour that she hadn't earned, and armed with Tali's M-11 Wraith. Engaged in combat: tough battle, clone had L5n implants and biotic amp calibrated purely for assault, relying on tech shields rather than biotic barrier for defence. Clone ordered shuttle bay opened during confrontation, launched shuttle to attempt shootdown of skycar piloted by Cortez, running interference to prevent Normandy jumping to FTL.

Overpowered clone, she was left hanging from shuttle bay door. Offered her a chance to redeem herself, but she chose to let go, falling to her death.

Ensured Brooks was taken into Alliance custody.

Returned to apartment for some actual shore leave.

[Discussing the clone without using any personal pronouns needed a bit of thought. I think I've managed to write these without once using a personal pronoun: to begin with, I was unsure whether I was writing from my perspective or Miriam's, so omitted pronouns to keep it ambiguous. I'm now 99% sure that I am writing as Miriam, but I've tried to maintain the same style anyway.

I know that not everyone likes the tone of the Citadel DLC, but I really do; I see it as the Mass Effect equivalent of a "breather episode", like the baseball episode in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. As someone who enjoys sci-fi/fantasy with its tongue wedged firmly in its cheek, I wouldn't have minded if the entire Mass Effect trilogy had been pitched like this, actually. On the other hand, much of why I think Citadel works so well is because it is tonally so different from the rest of the trilogy.

Of course I had to pick Wrex for my squad in the battles, gave him the Graal shotgun with an omni-blade, and he put it to very good use indeed. I didn't take him to the casino because I did during my first playthrough, so wanted to hear some different dialogue this time.

The CAT6 Heavies are what Cerberus Guardians should have been: armour rather than health, so can't be trivialized using Stasis, and shields that resist shots from guns with piercing mods. Of course, Pull still works; and there were a couple of times where Shepard and Wrex attacked one from opposite sides, so he was vulnerable either to Charge/gunfire or mêléeing, depending which way he was facing

One of my favourite moments in the archive sequence was where the whole squad is lined up on a ledge above the battlefield, raking hapless mercs with gunfire, then Wrex says something like "this is why I love hanging out with you guys, why shoot something once when you can shoot it 46 more times?"

It's a shame that so much of the amusing dialogue happens in the middle of firefights, when I'm too busy shooting things to be able to pay attention to it. That's a problem that Mass Effect 3 has in general, actually, but it's particularly noticeable here. I did pick up on a good line in the clone battle, though, it was along the lines of "Conrad Verner is better at being me than you are!" Ouch!

Died a few times in combat; the first section is quite tricky for a vanguard with only a pistol and no anti-shield power. The clone got me once too, but it was shortly after the mid-battle auto-save. The clone fight was pretty tricky, I must have been shield/health-gated more often than not. I'm very glad that the clone didn't have barriers that were refilled every time she Charged!

Among the upgrades I found in the archives was level IV assault rifle ultralight materials, so the Adas now has a pleasing orange glow.]

Everything is better with Tali alive