What did you do today in ME?

I've never actually seen a keeper move his head before

Well now I have 9 days to knockout ME 3. Going to savor and enjoy it though. I have a feeling this is my last trilogy run in a while. Will of course come back to the trilogy from time to time but if Andromeda has as much content as I am thinking it will have it will keep me quite busy.

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME2:

Emails - Captain Ysin'Mal vas Idenna emailed her thanks for the rescue of Lt Forzan from the crash site of the quarian scout ship.

Valhallan Threshold: Quarian Migrant Fleet - Tali's Trial

The Normandy caught up with the Migrant Fleet in the Valhallan Threshold, and Shepard, Tali, and Kasumi were given permission to board the Rayya for Tali's hearing. They were met by Captain Kar'Danna, who advised them that Tali had been charged with endangering the fleet by bringing in active geth as part of a research project. Tali insisted on her innocence, claiming she only sent parts that were deactivated and no threat.

Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, a member of the Admiralty Board and an old friend of Tali's family, greeted her as "Tali'Zorah vas Normandy", which was a bad sign - stripping her of her quarian ship name was as good as "declaring me exiled already", in Tali's mind. Raan informed Shepard that as Tali's captain, it was now her responsibility to act as Tali's defence counsellor at the Conclave. Tali was OK with that, so Shepard promised to everything she could to help.

At the hearing, the Admiralty Board revealed that geth had seized the lab ship where Tali's father, Admiral Rael'Zorah, was running experiments on new weapons. All the crew of the Alarei, including Tali's father, were presumed dead. Shepard immediately recommended postponing the trial to deal with the geth threat to the Fleet, and offered the Normandy's assistance. It was agreed that Shepard and Tali would attempt to retake the Alarei and find any evidence that might prove Tali's innocence.

Tali wasn't too happy with "Auntie Raan" or Captain Kar'Danna for deceiving her - and she gave them both a piece of her mind when the hearing ended - but it was clear Raan was trying to give them every advantage she could. Tali's shocked reaction to the news about her father would have shown people she wasn't involved in any of this, but it didn't make it any easier for her.

Before leaving for the Alarei, they spoke to various officials to gather as much information as they could. Veetor and Kal'Reegar were there to put in a good word for Tali based on there experiences working with her. The three voting members of the Admiralty Board - Raan had to recuse herself due to her friendship with Tali - all indicated that the trial was nothing but a sideshow for the bigger debate going on in quarian politics at the moment - whether to try and take back the homeworld or find a new colony. Admiral Xen came right out and admitted that Tali's trial was pointless. The board was divided, with Admiral Gerrel and Admiral Xen supporting war, Admiral Koris wanting peace and Raan on the fence.

Shepard, Tali, and Kasumi took a shuttle to the Alarei and began clearing out the geth forces. They found various log entries that hinted at what Rael'Zorah had been up to - including ominous mentions of bypassing security protocols - but nothing definitive that would prove Tali's innocence. There were hints that they were deliberately activating and networking geth to test out new hacking techniques. While reviewing a research console, Tali and Shepard had a debate on the larger issue of the quarian's future, with Tali insisting that retaking their homeworld was the only viable option for her people.

As expected, there were no quarian survivors on board, and eventually they discovered the body of Rael'Zorah. Tali was devastated, as expected, and Shepard comforted her as best she could. Tali found a recording her father made instructing them on how to shut down the remaining geth, and asking her to bring the test data to Xen and Gerrel. They defeated the geth forces guarding the central hub, and found the data.

The data exonerated Tali, but unfortunately left no doubt about Rael's guilt. Tali didn't want the evidence revealed at the hearing to prevent her father from being declared a war criminal, and was even willing to be exiled to protect him. Shepard admired her loyalty, but hated the idea that she could be wrongly punished for someone else's crimes.

They returned to the Rayya, and the hearing resumed. Shepard respected Tali's wishes, and attempted to turn the tables on the Admirals, accusing them of dragging Tali into their dispute about the war with the geth, and playing up Tali's heroics when Saren and his geth forces threatened the galaxy. The board relented, and found Tali not guilty based on her past service and lack of evidence.

Afterwards, they said their goodbyes to Reegar and the Admirals. Shepard tried to convince the quarians not to be too hasty in going to war with the geth, but she didn't think she changed anyone's mind. Besides, Gerrel had a point, the quarians had been "riding around in space, doing nothing" for centuries. One way or the other, the Geth-Quarian conflict had to end, and it seemed unlikely it would happen at a negotiating table. Shepard just hope there would be someone still standing when it was over.

Just finished a quick playthrough of ME2. Legion and Zaeed were killed on the suicide mission. The reason why was because I wanted to see if Zaeed's name would show up on the wall if he die's on the suicide mission not being loyal. I played the first part of ME3. His name was not on the wall, but Legion's was.

Karan's session went pretty much as planned.
Miss Biotic Darter was no match for the Arc Projector + Chitika + Battledrone. The ship stroll also went well, surprisingly with no crashes at the lightning room, like it usually does.
Even if Mr.Broker had learned my tactic of hiding on the upper platform, he still hasn't figured out a way to corner Shepard up there, so he went down easily.

Arrival went surprisingly well. The most dreaded part, Kenson's health, was less harrowing than usual, with no deaths and no loud cursing.
Karan did not survive the Rho wave, but he did manage to last three quarters of the time and almost managed to fully strip the Mech's armor. I blame the change of music. Things went smoothly while Hallelujah and Over the Rainbow were playing, but then a bit more upbeat song started playing and everything went south.
Still, way better than expected.
Rest of Overlord went as smoothly. Cut a bit too close near the end, mostly due to how slowly Karan whittled his enemies health away. But he got it on the first try and managed to escape with his life. Had a nice nostalgic moment on how some were worried Hackett would screw Shepard over, before ME3 came out. Good times. 

Then Karan fetched Kasumi, said Hi to Anderson and learned that he was still technically a Spectre. He then attended Hock's party and had a grand old time. Finally he went to put down that monument, get the missing Dog Tags and fetch his charred hat. It was a very touching moment, a nice bitter sweet ending.

Until I realized he hadn't offered Liara a tour of the Normandy. Considered just skipping it, but decided to it. So he zipped to her Base, had a peak at some personal messages and videos, chatted to Feron, nabbed a Ship model and then offered Liara on board.
Told her he was feeling fairly positive about the situation. Then there was some more chatting, hugs and then back to work.

So instead of ending the session by the Mako, he parked the Normandy above Earth, then summoned Tali to his cabin to enjoy their last moments together, in case if he would catch "Death by politics".
Not as touching as I wanted, but still nice. And soon Karan will be rolling. And the Reapers will be hating. Trying to catch him out of cover, since modern weaponry can't pierce through crates and that just isn't right.

Daniel Shepard: ME1 Spacer/War Hero/Engineer

Reported to the SSV Normandy as ordered. Found the crew restless over the presence of a turian Spectre on board, an unusual sight on a shakedown cruise. Captain Anderson revealed the true mission: retrieve a Prothean beacon from Eden Prime while being observed for Spectre readiness. Easy warm-up exercise to kick-off a series of such exercises. The Spectre is Nihlis. I think he's rooting for me. He sees humanity's potential.

The briefing was interrupted by a distress call that recorded a "hand of god" landing of an unidentified ship. Despite the considerable change in mission parameters, Anderson decided not to call for backup. Radio silence too.

Landed on Eden Prime where I directed Cpl. Jenkins and Lt. Alenko toward nearby cover. Gunfire crackled and Jenkins went down. My hardsuit HUD identified the hostiles as geth recon drones. Yes. Geth.

Found one of the soldiers from the distress call fighting her own set of drones. Her shields held. Observed a pair of walking geth drape a wounded soldier over a device that drove a spike clean through his spine. Tested out my new singularity skill while dispatching the walkers. Picked up the Soldier, Ashley. Told her that the loss of the remainder of her squad wasn't her fault, but of course I didn't know that for sure.

Discovered that the spiked victims are converted to husks that are hostile to their former comrades and can fling static. Very damaging static. Discovered that husks are light.

Found a couple of surviving scientists. One was clearly traumatized and rambled about a prophet turian and the end of humanity. Luckily he was also light, so I helped him lie down so his meds could kick in.

Heard a single gunshot and observed the hand-of-god ship take off. Ashley was surprised to see it even though they were both in the same distress call video.

Found a trio of surviving farmers. One of them reluctantly handed over a Devlon pistol which made my Alliance-issue Hahne-Kedar unit look like a toy gun. Almost needed to use singularity to get him to reveal the leader of the smuggling ring; but a little charm was all it took. Equipped the pistol and immediately went on the search for other red guns to coordinate with it, even if I will never use them.

Stumbled upon a slain turian in red Phantom armor. Nihlis. Couldn't get the armor off of him. I guess my admittance into the Spectres will have to wait. But then why the heck are there geth here?

Lilith Shepard, Infiltrator, ME3
***
Javik and I co-starred in a movie! the famous Blasto series. I got to meet Blasto. The salarian director was lucky to be born now, 50000 years after his kidney was considered a delicacy by the protheans. Just wondering how many kidneys a salarian has? Need to ask Javik. The vorcha stunt was not so lucky - he got a full blast of prothean power. He did not survive.



Played some matches in the Armax Arsenal Arena, alone, for warm-up. How the hell is Barla Von ahead of Aria?

I met Kasumi in the casino, doing what she's doing best. I let her rob the casino. Part of me wanted to join her. Like old times, when I ran with this gang back on Earth.



Liara came and teached me to play piano.In fact, one song only.



(no, Liara and my Shep are NOT holding hands)

Garrus wanted to meet in the casino for some drinks. A turian lady couldn't keep her eyes of him - I killed her. Slowly and painfully, several times, in my mind. In the end, it was not so bad, despite my protests. The dance, not the imaginary kill.



Teased Garrus a bit, payback for that turian female.



Back to serious business. Normandy is still in dry dock, but took her for a test run in the neighboring systems. Saved some ex-Cerberus scientist Specialist Traynor was able to locate, led by a Dr. Cole. Among them - Archer, the mastermind behind Project Overlord. my morality was questioned in many occasions, but experimenting on my autistic brother is not exactly in my curriculum and I doubt will ever be. Archer killed himself. Pity, I'd rather had him living a life of pain and regrets.



Headed to Cyone, to investigate a fuel depot that got silent. Crawling with reapers. Killed them, put the reactor back online and saved Captain Riley's ass.

No Karan today. But might sneak in a dose of Earth with him later or maybe some Janet.
Instead, James did some N7 quests and Arrival. Also met up with Liara and wrapped up most of his outstanding business. Unless I change my mind, he to is ready for ME3.
Jolene also got a go and caught herself a Tali. She also disabled an infected production line, which was nice of her. She's got a long way to go for ME3, but she isn't in any hurry, so that's fine.
So grand times in small doses.

Today, I'm simply downloading Mass Effect onto a new computer. It's depressingly slow but what can you do? I chose ME1 for two reasons: it's the smallest of the three and it uses Intel rather than AMD - meaning I can finally play ME1 without all the organics and synthetics turning into blocks on Noveria and Ilos. Brand new experience with the game...in just 3 to 20 hours (it varies widely).

I only played ME1 to the part with Rachni Queen and gave up last year in July. Recently started and completed ME 2 and 3 and back again to reunite my Shepard with her space lizard boyfriend Thane and force a happy ending.

So here I am, Kathyrn Shepard (based off Voyager's Janeway). I picked Earth born War Hero infiltrator. And I'm playing ME1 from start to finish for the first time. May the Mako have mercy on my soul.

Joker has already made me laugh and I'm shocked that I'm not the Captain. So much has changed. @_@

The graphics so bad painful. Haha.