What did you do today in ME?

I haven't done that part of Leviathan yet, so he can be upset later over both solos. I've taken him everywhere since getting him back. Even kept a couple missions I normally do early (Cerb Lab and cannon on Tuchanka) in reserve. Missed out on delivering the goodies but I think I can live without a few war assets this time around.

I'm trying to play the original trilogy as female Shepard. I've tried it before but always got bored halfway through and never finished. I'm really liking my character this time though. Part of it is the superb voice acting. For some odd reason I used to really dislike Jennifer Hale's voice for fem!Shep but now I'm very much liking it. Odd how things like that can change.

So today I destroyed both the Rachni and the Thorian.
"Do you take pleasure from committing genocide, Shepard?"
"Depends on the species, Turian."

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME2:

Normandy

Kelly told Shepard she did well to get Samara on side, describing the Justicar as "elegant and gorgeous" but was a bit put off by her cold manner. For her part, Shepard admired Samara's strength and stoic nature.

Mordin wanted to speak with Shepard about a personal matter. He'd received intel that a former protoge of his, Maelon, had been captured by Blood Pack mercenaries on Tuchanka. Maelon worked with Mordin on the STG team that modified the genophage, so him being in krogan hands could be bad news. Shepard agreed to help Mordin get him back.

Emails - Lizbeth Baynam from Exogeni passed on her thanks for the help provided to Shiala and the Feros colony.

Tali was busy cleaning up the engine, Garrus was still calibrating, Kasumi mentioned Liara's growing reputation as an information broker. She'd also heard the rumours that Shepard and Liara were an item. Burt was still being a creep apparently, or maybe Kasumi had forgotten she'd already told Shepard about him.
Shepard spoke to the new recruit Samara for her thoughts on their mission. She expressed admiration for Miranda's strength of character, and considered Jacob "earnest." She offered plans she had acquired that would help the Normandy's fuel efficiency.

Shepard asked her about her life as a Justicar. She had worked alone for around 400 years, and expressed pleasure at having someone to "chat" with. She was reluctant to discuss the "Ardat-Yakshi" fugitive she was tracking, however, calling it a deeply personal matter.

[Full disclosure - at this point I used the Normandy Crash Site exploit to unlock all Loyalty missions up to and including Samara's. I wanted to reach the Collector Ship as soon as I could, but I wanted Loyal Samara (with Reave unlocked) for the mission, and I wasn't sure the loyalty mission would be available before the Collector Ship triggered otherwise].

Emails - Detective Anaya revealed that the Eclipse band that had been giving her trouble had gone quiet, and that her superiors had backed off as well. She didn't think it was a coincidence, and thanked Shepard for the help.

Kelly mentioned that Grunt was feeling “anxious”, so Shepard went to see him. He talked about a “blood rage” in his head, and how he was agitated, tense and could barely control his violent tendancies. He wanted to go to Tuchanka to find out what was wrong with him. Shepard agreed to get there as soon as they could.
Garrus had found a lead on Sidonis, his former team member who had betrayed the squad and gotten them killed on Omega. Shepard promised that the next time they were on the Citadel they would follow up.

Samara also had a lead on the fugitive she had been tracking on Illium. The information Shepard had obtained from Eclipse revealed that the Ardat-Yakshi was on Omega, going by the name Morinth, and Samara wanted to apprehend her before she went to ground again. Morinth was a mass murderer, with a genetic disease that left her addicted to killing. Samara also dropped the bombshell that Morinth was her daughter. Stopping Morinth was the reason she became a Justicar, and the most important thing in her life for 400 years. Shepard agreed to head to Omega right away to stop her before she got away.

Omega: The Ardat-Yakshi

Shepard, Samara, and Tali boarded the Omega station to begin the search for Morinth. Near the docking bay, they ran into the famous mercenary Zaeed Massani, who had been hired by Cerberus to help with their mission. He was finishing up a bounty on Omega, and was ready to join up. He indicated that Cerberus had agreed to help with a contract of his in return, and naturally had neglected to inform Shepard. She told Zaeed that they would be glad to help and told him to board the Normandy whenever he was ready.

As always, Aria T'Loak was the most likely source of intel they needed, and she did indeed point them in the direction of a recent murder in the apartments near the club as a place to start their investigation. As a gesture of thanks for her help, Shepard handed over the datapad she'd found that contained evidence of Omega's mercenary gangs plotting to overthrow her. She wasn't happy that the intel had escaped her own security and wasn't shy about telling them so. Shepard was wary about strengthening Aria's hand, but figured since "Archangel" had already eliminated the mercs the impact of the revelation was likely negligible. Despite how distasteful Shepard found her personally, Aria did seem to be more ally than enemy. It might be good to have friends in (not so) high places.

Shepard and Samara went to the apartment of Diana, the mother of the murder victim. A brief interview quickly confirmed Morinth as the prime suspect. She had met Diana's daughter, Nef, at the VIP room of Afterlife, befriended and then seduced and killed her. Shepard and Samara promised Diana they would get justice for Nef and headed for the VIP room.

Using information obtained from examining Nef's diary, Shepard and Samara came up with a plan to lure Morinth into a trap. Shepard would be the bait, and Samara would intervene when the two were alone and take Morinth down. It would be dangerous - Shepard would be unarmed and alone with a predator who had been murdering people for centuries - but it would be their best chance at stopping Morinth.

Shepard entered the nightclub and began trying to attract Morinth's attention. At the entrance she spoke to a man named Vij who was captivated by an asari (not hard to guess who) looking for tickets to a band called Expel 10. On the dance floor, a Turian looking for "good times" was harrassing an asari before turning his attention to Shepard herself. He received a punch in the jaw, and the good times were over for him.

Another asari invited Shepard to dance, and seemed quite impressed with the "Shepard Shuffle". Shepard took a break and chatted with a man named Horftin, who turned out to be an investigative reporter distraught because his undercover partner was about to be discovered and killed by a gang leader. Shepard saved the day by delivering a passphrase to the reporter, Moirall, as a warning.

All of this convinced Morinth that Shepard was "the most interesting person" in the place, and she took the bait and asked Shepard to join her in her booth. Shepard used the information gathered from Nef's journal - on subjects like art, travel, and the vid "Vaenia" - and named-dropped Expel 10 to convince Morinth that the two had much in common. It worked, and Morinth invited Shepard back to her apartment.

When alone, Morinth attempted to dominate Shepard's mind. Unlike her last victim, however, Shepard was no insecure, lovestruck teenager, and was able to resist. Samara entered, and a fight between mother and daughter ensued. As they battled to a standstill, Morinth attempted to presuade Shepard to side with her, saying she could be just as useful as the Justicar. There was no way Shepard would betray Samara, however, and she intervened on her behalf. Morinth was defeated and killed by Samara.

The Justicar was now free to focus on their mission, but Shepard couldn't imagine what she was feeling now that her centuries long quest to hunt down her own daughter had ended. The two left Morinth's apartment, rendezvoused with Tali and returned to the Normandy.

One morning, Lilith Shepard looked into mirror and didn't like what she saw. She decided it's time for a change, to correct the jaw line and cheek bones. And it was also time for a new haircut.
So she let herself into the hands of a very talented plastic surgeon (or that's what she thought) named Gibbed. But the result was hilarious and even her trustful Garrus raised a brow...err, a brow plate or whatever and tried not to laugh when he saw the new her. Lilith went back to the plastic surgeon, put him to reverse the changes and then she pulled a renegade interrupt and killed him. She's her own once again, ready now to relax and do shopping while Normandy is in dry dock (and reapers ravage the galaxy, but who cares about this now?).

Seriously, I spent 2 hours from my precious time (taking into account that I usually come home from work around 9: 00 pm, with very little time to play) trying to install a hair mod using torture tools like texmod and ME3 explorer. Of course, stupid me did not manage, cursed everything and everybody... only to notice that not only somebody was so kind and packed the mod as DLC on Nexus, but also I had downloaded this mod a while ago...
Now, back to game. Maybe this time I manage to get some progress.

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME2:

Normandy

Shepard checked in with Kelly, to get her thoughts on their newest recruit, Zaeed. Kelly called him "surprisingly well adjusted" given the life he'd led. Based on first impressions, that's not a description Shepard would have used, but she figured Kelly was the expert on such things. She supposed she see for herself soon enough. Kelly also mentioned that Tali was upset about something and wanted to see her in engineering.

Joker was disturbingly intrigued at the prospect that Shepard might have recruited Morinth the space-vampire instead of Samara. Shepard was starting to think Joker needed to get out more.

Kasumi informed the Commander how appreciative Samara was for the help with Morinth. Samara herself was glad to be "free", but full of regret all the same. Despite everything, she was proud of her daughter's strength in the face of the unfairness of her illness.

Zaeed told some stories about some of the old missions he'd been on - taking on a krogan warlord, bringing down a turian frigate, that sort of thing. The takeaway from each tale was that everyone died but him. He also thought Jack was "a hell of a girl" and that he could have used someone like her on some of those missions. He was also quite fond of his Avenger assault rifle, "Jessie".

Ken was expressing his appreciation for Miranda's uniform. Gabby was less impressed, both with the uniform and with Ken.

Tali had received a message from the Migrant Fleet informing her that she was being charged with treason. The idea that Tali would betray her people was the dumbest thing Shepard had ever heard and she promised to help her friend any way she could. Tali said there would be a hearing, with the Admiralty Board acting as judges, not as formal as a trial you might get on a place like the Citadel. Shepard agreed to get Tali to the Migrant Fleet as soon as they could.

Hawking Eta: Corang - Project Firewalker cont'd

The Normandy arrived in the Verr System in the Hawking Eta cluster to continue the search for Doctor Cayce of Project Firewalker.

Shepard, Tali and Samara took the Hammerhead vehicle down to the surface of Corang to investigate some survey sites where Dr Cayce had been running tests on artifacts. Unfortunately the geth were also looking for Dr Cayce's location, and had the same idea.

The geth forces were defeated, and Shepard retrieved the project data from the research sites. Still no sign of Cayce, but the data obtained did contain clues on another potential Prothean site.

I have to say that while I am enjoying my trilogy run right now I am beginning to have doubts that I can knock it out before Andromeda comes out. Normally my ME 3 runs take about two weeks and I am not even close to finishing my ME 2 run since I back load most of the DLC toward the latter end of the game.

Been playing a lot of DAI lately. Also, bought a new laptop that meets max system requirements for MEA. Anyway, back to Jarec Shepard:

- Killed my way across Mars, Kaidan got hurt badly and I got a new [though currently inactive] robot. (But, weirdest glitch happened and my gun wouldn't fire when Dr. Core was running toward me. Took like four tries to be able to switch guns fast enough to get one that fired.]
- On the Citadel, Kaidan was taken to Huerta Memorial, Bailey said the Council wanted to see me and I recruited a reporter named Diana Allers to use her words to help win the war.

Well today Nathan traveled to the Migrant fleet and cleared Tali of the charges that were filed against her by yeling a the Admirals. Then he traveled to Pragia with Jack and blew up the Teltin facility. Is it just me or does the renegade dialog Shepard uses when he tells Jack to shoot Aresh just sound downright psychotic? Going to try and get more in tonight. Going to knockout Firewalker DLC and Overlord if I can. Gotta ramp it up if I want to knock out the trilogy before Andromeda releases.