What did you do today in ME?

Didn't get much chance to play ME3 during the last few days - at this rate, the reapers will surely finish harvesting this cycle and possibly the next one until my Shepard gathers allies and the Crucible is ready. Anyway, some progress today. Long post!

Lilith Shepard, ME3, infiltrator
Omega part 2
We've made it to Aria's bunker, but her forces are decimated and we needed new alies - in the end, Nyreen, the Talons' leader, was "persuaded" to join us in retaking Omega. To do so, we need to get rid of these deadly force fields, they appear to be powered by a reactor somewhere in one of Aria's eezo mine, so here's where we were heading.
Met these adjutants Nyreen is so spooked about. Ugly beasts, but they die as any other creature in my path, easily enough I'd say.
The reactor was a trap. Petrovsky lured us there and activated a force field around us. Before he was able to enjoy his little victory, Aria managed to make a hole in the field, big enough for me to sneak out and overload the reactor. Force fields were destroyed for good.



As a downside, thousands of Omega citizens died - the reactor also powered life support on several station wards. Just wondering if when this is over - if this fight against reapers will be over and we win - they'll trial me as mass murderer. As far as I'm concerned, this blood is on Petrovsky's hands. I had a reputation even before Cerberus resurrected me, and Petrovsky didn't strike me as stupid - he couldn't possibly believe that some Omega lawless will keep me from reaching my goal.

We separated - Nyreen went to lead the Talons on the streets, while I and Aria reached the Afterlife on our own, after dealing with Cerberus trying to bomb the support columns. Oh, and found Aria's couch on our way.

Nyreen died, taking some adjutants with her. A pity. Another trap laid by Petrovsky, and a crazed Aria went directly into it. Lucky for her, I was there to free her and finish all Cerberus troops and more adjutants - well, that's why she wanted the best with her.
Petrovsky intended to surrender into my custody. For a moment, I was tempted to take him, thinking at all the intel he could give on Illusive Man. But I couldn't take away from Aria the pleasure of revenge, not after Nyreen died. I watched her strangling him, slowly. She'll keep her promise to provide troops and eezo for the fight against the reapers.



Citadel - Cerberus Coup
Back on Normandy (I surely missed her and my team) and heading to Citadel, to check on the salarian councilor who wanted to discuss with me about some illegal actions of Udina.
Turns out that Citadel is under attack by Cerberus (again Cerberus? I am tired of them!) so I took Garrus and James and deployed in a shuttle to C-Sec HQ. We found Bailey, who pointed us to the executor's office, where the salarian councilor might be.

We saved the salarian councilor, but Thane was badly hurt by a mysterious biotic assasin with a... sword. It appears that Udina works with Cerberus, and he took the other 2 councilors with him, to dispose of them, probably. Our Cerberus assasin was after them as well; we crossed paths in the elevators shafts and managed to jumps on the Council elevator.

Kaidan, in his new position as a Spectre, was with the Councilors. Udina tried to turn him against us and I was ready to shoot Kaidan. Fortunately for him, he trusted me in the end. I took pleasure in killing Udina, I was waiting for this from the moment he locked the Normandy on the Citadel some long time ago, when I was chasing Saren.

Thane didn't make it. Before he died, I did something I never thought I'd do - went along and recited a prayer together with his son to whatever gods drells have. The prayer was for me...



I got Kaidan on the Normandy again. He's a good soldier after all, didn't want to lose him.

*******
These missions seem shorter and less complicated every time I play. Hacking mechs and turrets was fun. I was so afraid of Afterlife part, but using a combination of Tactical Cloak and "run like crazy", I managed to get the generators keeping Aria down in no time. After this, it was easy to run, hide and snipe them down.

Ali Shepard:

1. Since it was in the same system as my new home, I went to coordinates Wrex gave me so I could find his family armor. Tonn Actus and his Turian buddies put up a big fight, but in the end they were no match for us and we took the armor from a safe. Wrex seemed pleased.

2. Next we travelled to a system from coordinates found while on Noveria. We found a research base that had been overrun by Rachni. We took out the Rachni and found a terminal with information about a supply drone that had dropped off a supply of Rachni. That was bad news. We also found a distress call from a nearby system that was requesting assistance.

3. We travelled to the other system and found some Alliance marines barely holding out on a outpost. We held off some waves of Rachni, then took out the nest. The Rachni should no longer be a problem on that planet.

4. We found the supply ship, but it was running automatically. We found some logs that indicated Cerberus was responsible for shipping the Rachni all over. I'm really starting to hate them. Not sure if it was the same Cerberus group I took out earlier, or if it is a much larger group than I had originally thought. Anyway, we armed some charges and got off the ship before it blew to smithereens.

Yeah, even with the 10% shop discount it is hard, particularly if you are buying all the weapon mods from the shops.

Although if you do two playthroughs through ME3 with the same character, it is easier to upgrade all non-DLC pack and non-Spectre Terminal weapons to X with some strategic planning without needing to farm credits in the arena. But considering that the DLC pack weapons are some of the best weapons, it kind of defeats the purpose.

I definitely want to play more trilogy runs as well (heck, I even have the characters planned already!). I want to peek in here when MEA is released, I'm just scared of spoilers, so I guess if I just stay away from the MEA board I'd be fine. I'm counting on people to not let this thread die

Melody Shepard, Colonist/Sole Survivor/Infiltrator, ME1 Hardcore:

Therum, Artemis Tau cluster: took Garrus and Kaidan. This was my first real taste of ME1 Hardcore combat (Eden Prime being a warm-up really) and I derped a few times before hitting my stride. Unlocked Assassination and had lots of fun sniping geth with it; going to level up the shotgun next to unlock Carnage. I got the squad out of the Mako to deal with as many on foot as possible for maximum XP; softened up the Colossus using the Mako and finished it off with small arms.

Pleasingly, I was able to do the the two set-piece battles -- the Armature and elite troops before the ruins, and the krogan inside the ruins -- in one attempt apiece, though the Armature one was a bit of a nail-biter. I mainly used the shotgun for the krogan battle, then switched to the SR to kill the geth sniper. Did have a bit of trouble keeping the squad alive though.

I took Paragon and neutral conversation options when conversing with Liara and the krogan battlemaster. Didn't seem appropriate to go Renegade on the krogan for some reason.

Normandy: chatted with Garrus about his father. Gently explained to Ashley that she needs to trust non-human allies. Listened to Kaidan's "brain camp" backstory. Learned about asari culture from Liara.

Citadel: disembarked with Garrus and Liara, who will be Melody's permanent squad until the achievements are unlocked. Listened to Rear Admiral Mikhailovich insult turians and asari to their faces. Took a respectful-through-gritted-teeth line with him while wishing that this game had Renegade interrupts.

Upgraded Melody's armour from light Onyx I to medium Onyx III. I haven't settled on a "look" for her yet; was hoping for medium Explorer armour, but none has dropped. Will stick with default N7 for now.

Adam "Tango" Shepard, ME3, non-imported file (still following protocol of no interrupts, neutral dialogue when possible, and otherwise upper right dialogue)

As expected, Tango did not save Admiral Koris, but opted to save his crew instead. He also decided to allow the upload by the Geth VI and then just make a very half-hearted effort to get to Tali as she flung herself over a cliff on Rannoch. Shepard also wound up sleeping with Allers, but had fortunately not yet spoken to Liara on the Citadel, so she was willing to start a romance with him regardless of this previous indiscretion. He also spoke with Steve after speaking with Liara, so they only wound up as friends this time around. (I'm pretty sure that, had I spoken with Liara earlier, Shepard probably would have wound up pissing her off by sleeping with Allers and I had just romanced Steve on a previous ME3 playthrough, so this organization was intentional to ensure a romance with Liara). EMS is currently at 2563, so I should be comfortably out of Low EMS range. Without the EC installed and no way to play multiplayer, I'm definitely not going to get a breath scene; but it should be high enough to be offered the synthesis ending if I want it.

Jarec Shepard:

- Rescued several salarian workers, recruited Thane and watched Nassana Dantius come to a well-deserved end.
- Installed a Modular Probe Bay to double my available probes.
- Freed a quarian slave, earned 2000 credits.
- Helped Miranda with his "twin" sister, Oriana. Had to kill her best friend to do it but Miranda was happy in the end.
- Miranda and Jack got in a fight. I stopped it.
- Returned a family locket to an asari.
- Gave a salarian the Kirosa Generation Archive data.
- Recruited Samara, found evidence she sought, took out Elnora - the killer of the volus merchant.
- Installed Helios Thruster Tech for increased fuel efficiency.

"Plot armor" is the description I've heard.  No way he should have survived Thessia, let alone been any kind of credible threat on Cronos Station.

System requirements say I can't play MEA.  So it may end up being a wait.  Have to decide if I really want to invest in a new computer.  Console isn't an option.  That said, supposedly I also couldn't play DAI and Fallout 4 but they both run well on my system.

Had a delightful dinner date with the Codex guy. I ate, he read. I would have returned the favor on the secondary entries, but alas, he was just a recording. And it's frowned upon by tech support to stuff food into the computer. No idea why.
Anywhos, Karan let some bugs free, then killed some bugs, did tech support with bullets and gained the prestigious title of Skipper. Which would have been fantastic, if his destination wasn't Tali. But on the other hand, drama.

Yesterday Kim made contact with the last of the party people, so I suspect her next session will be loud with copious amount of drinking. Also, Eezo! Yay. Him and Urz are the best doggies.
Oh and she's been using the Disciple shotgun because of fantastic wordplay and stagger. Thanks for the tips stephenw32768

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME2:

Normandy

Shepard checked in with Kelly, who told Shepard how much she liked Tali, and how she was curious about what quarians were like under their suits. She also mentioned Jack wanted to speak with Shepard down in her “hidey-hole” on the lower deck.

Joker was glad to have Tali back, though he seemed suspicious that someone might impersonate her, since you never saw a quarian's face. Shepard wondered to herself if working for Cerberus was turning them all into conspiracy nuts. EDI was still trolling Joker, reminding him that he did insist on manual control.

Emails - the Quarian Admiralty Board approved Tali's request to transfer to the Normandy, but made it clear that they held Shepard responsible for her safety. They had nothing to worry about.

Shepard headed to engineering to see Jack. On the way, she overheard Ken tell Gabby that sharing a deck with a krogan was “peachy”. Ken's mouth would likely see him on the receiving end of a head-butt before the mission ended, if not from Grunt then possibly Gabby.

Tali provided the specs for some shield upgrades that would come in handy. She was glad to be on the new Normandy, and seemed to like Gabby and Ken, but missed “the old faces” - Pressly, Adams, etc. She reiterated her mistrust of Cerberus, but Shepard reassured her that they would be ready to take Cerberus down when (not if) TIM turned on them.

Jack had used the Cerberus databases Shepard had provided to her to locate the facility where she had been held as a child. She claimed that had tortured and experimented on her, trying to create some sort of super-biotic. She wanted to destroy the now abandoned facility. Shepard agreed, hoping that this would help Jack start to put her life together again.

Illium

Tali and Jack accompanied Shepard to Illium, where they planned to check in with an old friend and hopefully meet some new ones.
They were greeted at the Nos Astra docking bay by Careena the concierge, who gave them the run down on what they could find in the city, and mentioned that Liara T'Soni was working as an information broker and had built up quite a reputation over the last couple of years.

Shepard wanted to catch up on what was happening around the galaxy so she found a Galactic News terminal and listened to various stories, including one about Shepard being sighted on Horizon. The Council was still denying that Shepard was working for them as a Spectre - or even that she was still alive - thereby maintaining her cover as a "rogue Spectre". Evidently the ongoing attacks on the colonies had the other Council races nervous, but there was no indication that the Collectors were interested in anything but human colonies in the Terminus.

An asari flagged Shepard down, saying she had a message from "an old friend on Noveria", who turned out out to be the Rachni Queen. The asari's ship had crashed and she was near death before being rescued by the rachni. In her message to Shepard the Queen promised to help against the Reapers, who the Queen claimed had controlled the rachni during the Rachni Wars and forced them to into the conflict. Shepard hoped that was true. Getting more races involved in fighting the Reapers was going to be critical to their survival, and a strong rachni would make a great ally.

Another old friend from Noveria was enjoying a drink in the market. Gianna Parasini was on a stake out, looking to stop a merchant who was smuggling weapons tech. Shepard helped her with a sting to take the merchant down, and they had a chat to catch up. Shepard asked her about her work. She loved going undercover, and she had wanted to join the police or C-Sec, but her family's financial situation meant she needed a better paying corporate job. Working internal affairs on Noveria was a great compromise.

Shepard and her companions found Liara's office, and met her assistant Nyxeris. Liara greeted Shepard with a kiss hello and they talked for a bit. She claimed she was unable to join their mission, that she had things to do on Illium, "debts to repay." Shepard was disappointed, but understood. She didn't expect to just walk in a pick up where they left off after all this time.

Shepard offered to help with Liara was working on, and Liara asked her to hack some terminals so she could obtain some intel she needed. Shepard and her team headed back out onto the trading floor to find the terminals.