What did you do today in ME?

Shame that there's such a selection of gifts for Ashley, but only whiskey for Kaidan. What if he'd prefer flowers?

Jarec Shepard, imported into ME3, Vanguard/Butcher of Torfan/Earthborn, switched from Reave to Slam as bonus power. Skipped Arrival DLC in ME2 because it's long and I wanted to move on. On with the show:

- Been in "protective custody" at Alliance HQ in Vancouver for 6 months now after turning myself in. Found out Kaidan was promoted to major. Also, Reapers are invading and the Alliance Council has no idea what to do. Fortunately, they all die and no longer have to consider the implications of ignoring my warnings for the past three years.
- Refusing to listen to me led to a full scale Reaper invasion. Earth is under siege. Escaped on the Normandy with Alenko and Lt. James Vega when Anderson ordered me to the Citadel to get help.
- Once in flight, a transmission came through from Hackett ordering me to Mars to get plans for some kind of super weapon to destroy the Reapers.

Can you even give Ash the other stuff? Benjamin tried buying her a non Tennyson book to extend her range of poetic knowledge, but he never gave her the book. Could also just be that he was greedy and kept it to himself.
I think Kaidan should have gotten a teddy bear. And he'd be like "Ok...cool" and given Shepard this "Really?" look. But then later on the Normandy, you'd see the teddy propped up on one of the lounge chairs. Maybe with a small glass in his paws.

Oh and for ME1 biotics, I find Damping tends to cramp their style. I think Tali and Garrus have it. Even if it only hits one, it's one less direction to dodge singularity from. Also Neural shock can help as well. Can't toss singularity when you are writing on the ground in pain after all
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Dealt with Virmire yesterday. Karan picked Ash despite the coin toss constantly picking Kaidan. A final note in Kaidan's ledger. The sad music on the Normandy was nice. Karan then took Tali and Ash to kill some Geth in Kaidan's honor. 

Biotics in ME1 are so OP. I loved being able to lift entire rooms of things. When I imported my Adept into 2 and then 3, my level of disappointment at no Lift ability was monumental. It was the best power in ME1 and they took it away!

Ali Shepard:

1. Found an asteroid heading toward the planet Terra Nova and noticed that it was being accelerated by fusion torches. It did not look good. When I landed, someone tried to communicate with me, saying that they were under attack and asking if I could disable the torches.

2. I found out who was attacking when I went to disable the first torch: Batarians. Pretty much the same scum that attacked Elysium all those years ago. I ended them with extreme prejudice. I found out the person who contacted me was named Kate. A lead engineer named Simon was also alive and he asked me to find some of his engineers. Spoiler: they were all dead.

3. I disabled the second torch, but overheard from a terminal that the Batarians captured Kate. They also sent someone to stop me.

4. I disabled the third torch. Some more batarians showed up, obviously the ones that were sent to stop me. I got the drop on them and attacked first. I found a keycard to the main facility off one of the dead bodies.

5. the Batarians entrenched well in the facility, but we made progress before the leader showed up, a big ugly guy named Balak. He tried to justify his actions as revenge for Elysium (they attacked first) and humans taking their colony rights (they ran and hid). I tried reasoning with him, but he refused to listen. He offered me a choice: he would let the hostages go if I let him leave. It was tough call, but considering this was likely state-sponsored terrorism, I could not just let him go. Well maybe I could have -- would the Batarian Hegemony have let him try again if he had failed? I don't know. I chose to fight him, and he detonated bomb in the room with the hostages, killing them. That just made me angrier.

6. I won't lie: it was a tough fight. Both my squadmates went down at the end but I managed to avoid getting shot just long enough to take the rest of the terrorists down. Balak somehow survived, wounded though he was. He rambled on about a Batarian rebellion, so I decided to keep him alive and send him to the Alliance. Hopefully he will be more cooperative with them.

7. With the Batarians gone, Simon was able to get the asteroid turned around and back into a stable orbit around Terra Nova. With disaster averted, I headed back to the Normandy.

Yesterday evening with Melody Shepard, Garrus and Liara:

Gemini Sigma cluster:

MSV Worthington: found the vessel adrift. Triggered booby-traps while exploring: fusion cells rigged to explode. Found a brain-dead crew member, Jacob, on life-support and logs indicating his partner Julia turned on the crew after they decided to switch the machine off. Encountered Julia who attacked the party on sight. Neutralized her and turned the life-support machine off.

Mavigon: stormed another crime boss's hideout following another tip from Helena Blake. Hideout was defended by missile turrets, atop a mountain, on a blizzard planet; crime boss obviously thought himself safe.

Citadel:

Confronted Nassana Dantius about her lies. She found Melody sufficiently Intimidating that she authorized sales of Armali Council prototypes.

Broke the news about the marine squad to Admiral Kahoku. He supplied intel that a rogue black ops group called Cerberus may have been responsible.

Ran into Conrad Verner again. He acted a bit creepy and asked for Melody's picture. She firmly refused and he stormed off.

Horse Head Nebula:

Amaranthine: met with Helena Blake at a remote engineering outpost. She seemed to think she could continue where the dead crime bosses left off. Melody disagreed and dispensed summary justice.

MSV Majesty: had been reported missing by Garoth, the brother of the captain. Found the derelict freighter with a faint trail leading to a nearby planet...

Xawin: eliminated another thresher maw. Found a beacon that turned out to be a geth trap; eliminated four armatures. Raided a privateer stronghold and found the body of the MSV Majesty's captain.

Noveria: docked at the Port Hanshan and went ashore to investigate geth interest. Melody used her Spectre privileges to firmly insist that the local police permit her and her squad to retain their weapons. Despite her Spectre credentials, Administrator Anoleis refused to let Melody proceed past the spaceport. Melody refused to spy on Mallene Calis' corporate rival, but agreed to help businessman Lorik Qui'in expose Anoleis' corruption.

Obtained the evidence from Qui'in's office, neutralized a bunch of bent cops who were in Anoleis' pocket. Melody pressured Qui'in to turn the evidence over to corruption investigator Gianna Parasini. Obtained permission to leave Hanshan from Gianna; learned that Matriarch Benezia had passed through with a commando squad and a load of crates, heading for a locked-down lab.

Melody departed Hanshan and was immediately ambushed by geth.

Aside from a couple of derps with the thresher maw, the combat in this play session was enjoyable and fairly smooth. I've given up on trying to maintain a consistent "look" for Garrus and Liara; instead, they get whichever armour is most likely to keep them on their feet. Garrus currently has light Silverback IV, which is at least blue; Liara has light Mantis IV. Melody is in medium Onyx IV at the moment, I can use an armour mod an an omni-tool to augment its mediocre shields.

I also played a few rounds of ME3MP and remembered why quarian female infiltrator with Claymore is such a fun combination Looking forward to Melody's ME3 run already....

My ME3 Insanity trophy finally synced to my N7HQ page as well.

Just finished another quick playthrough of ME1. I only played it to take a break from playing DAO/DA2.

Melody Shepard, Colonist/Sole Survivor/Infiltrator, ME1 Hardcore, with Garrus and Liara on Noveria:

Proceeded to Peak 15 in the Mako, stopping periodically to deal with the flashlight-headed contents of Benezia's crates. Lots of opportunity for sniper rifle fun here!

Entered Peak 15, encountered krogan mercs. Melody dropped one mid-charge with a sniper shot Explored the facility, encountered rachni as well as geth. Derped on my first attempt at killing a rachni soldier. Reactivated the mainframe by playing Towers of Hanoi, learned of containment breach and attempted mitigation. Restarted reactor (on second attempt, after getting ambushed by a rocket trooper) and passenger tram; proceeded to main labs at Rift Station. Learned from security captain Ventralis that Benezia had gone to the hot labs.

Proceeded to hot labs, no sign of Benezia. Learned that Binary Helix had attempted to raise "tame" rachni army with predictable results. Purged hot labs with neutron burst. Melody hit her Immunity and legged it through the horde of rachni back to the elevator before the purge killed them all.

Returned to Rift Station, discovered that Ventralis was working for Benezia. Neutralized him (on second attempt) and his squad. In my previous playthroughs, I've always done the hot labs sequence after the boss fight, so Ventralis' squad turning hostile was new content for me. Explored Rift Station, rescued the volus scientist Han Olar from a commando.

Proceeded through maintenance area to secure lab. Confronted Benezia, standing next to a tank containing the rachni queen. Defeated her squad of commandos and geth snipers (eventually). Obtained information about Saren's destination from Benezia while she was lucid; when Saren's mind-control kicked back in, Liara had no choice but to help Melody defeat her own mother (on their zillionth attempt).

The rachni queen took control of a dead commando and started to speak through her. This monstrous alien behaving in such a bizarre fashion took Melody right back to Akuze; her fight-or-flight instinct kicked in, adrenaline coursing through her veins. Against Liara's protests, she hit the emergency switch and flooded the tank with acid. It may be a decision she will regret in the future; the queen's dying screeches will haunt her nightmares.

Toured the ship, chatted with the crew. Melody politely but firmly explained to Kaidan that she is not interested in him in any way beyond being his comrade and commanding officer; checked in on Liara; and learned about Tali's family and the pressure on her. She also learned about Ashley's family and belief in a higher power, which she shares: "no atheists in foxholes" is pretty much her whole backstory. (Rachni and thresher maws being creations of the same higher power is something she prefers not to think about). And she learned from Garrus about his nemesis, criminal geneticist Dr Saleon.

Citadel: broke the news to Garoth about his brother's death.

Ran into Conrad Verner again. Melody didn't even give him the time of day this time.

Planted a bug in C-Sec to leak information to Emily Wong for her report on overworked traffic controllers.

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Oh boy, the Benezia battle... The first time, I started the final stage of the battle with Shepard's health at about 25%, and the sniper rifle equipped. There was no time to hit First Aid, and change to the shotgun, and unleash some powers on Benezia before the commandos dropped the squad. I did try a few times, but to no avail. So I took a break, watched some YouTube videos of people playing Insanity, read some articles and decided to try again from the beginning, using the pistol. This is the first time Melody has actually used the pistol in combat; with Marksman active, it dropped Benezia very rapidly, and then it was a matter of running to cover before being overrun by the commandos. It did take two or three tries, but I got there The pistol is such an effective weapon that the "correct" thing would be to use it all the time, I suppose, but the SR and shotgun are more fun in general combat. It breaks immersion a bit, but I don't mind switching tactics for boss battles when necessary.

I know I've made Hardcore difficult on myself by playing as a new Shepard rather than an NG+. No way I'd attempt Insanity with a new Shep

Unlocked the sniper rifle achievement during the initial stages of the boss battle on my first attempt, so was something at least. Got enough credits for a Spectre SR now, so we'll see how that performs.

Today Nathan shot a bunch of mechs along a beach front and reunited Jacob with his father.

Today Karan acquired and birthed a baby Krogan. It was a beautiful moment indeed.
He then tried to get himself a little super biotic, but was thwarted by his players lack of skill. I can't remember if the spawns are infinite and I need to move forward or if I can just bunker up and chill, taking them down as they come and walk over the bodies. Hopefully it is the latter.
On a positive note he has been getting in plenty of headshots. And is then promptly gunned down as he's admiring the kill. But still, yay for headshots!
Edit: Whoop. He made it and is now on Omega. Will probably end his session by dying multiple times while fetching Archangel. 
Was also reminded how much I loathe Aria. Blech. 

Because of course you did.