What did you do today in ME?

You mean Shepard doesn't bore the rest of the crew with pet pictures? This is an outage!

Since it's not a real romance, does having an LI not interfere with this?

Folks, where do the Andromeda PT go? Spoilers Section? I am on the bus home, can't wait to return to the verse. I need the Andromeda PT thread! I am addicted!

I briefly searched for one in the spoiler forum, but didn't see it. Maybe there isn't one yet? You could be the pioneer who creates it 

I'm glad you're addicted. Maybe I'll like it more than I think I will.

@domi
Can you post the link to the thread here? I think most of us wanting to possibly post in a What did you do thread for MEA were afraid to go look for one for fear of....well, spoilers.

Not here.  Though it doesn't say it, this area of the forum is exclusively for the trilogy.  I'd suggest the Andromeda Spoilers forum.  But you might have to create the thread because I don't think there is one.  I'm going to wait for my second PT to say what I'm doing because I'm deep into things already.

Today I really wished Tali was bi. Which is funny, because I'm not that fond of her. But her romance content is super cute.
As for Karan. He started the day by visiting a mining facility and encountering a very unenthusiastic Banshee. She pretty much just stood there, absorbing bullets. The drone escort also went pretty well. He's usually done with the repairs once the third banshee appears, but this time she came early and got a Hydra shot for her troubles.

Then it was time for some Citadel meet ups. Including catching a movie and sing-a-long with Tali and bailing Grunt out of jail.
Back to business, this time to fetch Ann Bryson. It went swimmingly and the shuttle extraction was timed perfectly. 
Next up were some doodles of N7 quests. The Cerberus labs and Communication towers. Then visited Bryson back at her home and learned where cuttlefish live and breed.

But first, a casino date with Miranda, bankrupting Joker and a party. Operation "keep Tali sober" was a complete failure. Was going to redo the party, this time loud, but found I enjoyed the relaxed, quiet party more. Learned that Traynor is allergic to curry, Grunt is a secret master chef and Anderson's apartment now has increased security measures. 

Party over, it was time to track down Levy. Survival portion went nicely, again, seem to have been a bit slower since Karan was still putting down the last Brute when Cortez pulse hit him. Still it went nicely. The water was cool and the cutscenes were cute.

That done, it was time for the end game. Did the Cerberus fighting base and some other war asset gathering first. Then hit Cronos. It went really well and didn't even need mood music for Kai Leng. But in hindsight, I really should have had some. Karan said his goodbyes and then heeded to Earth. Then things took a sour twist. Cannibals beat Karan up and every single flashy screen shake made me feel nauseous. So it was a sweet relief to retreat into Anderson's arms.
Stopped the session there, since I needed to reload anyways to be able to save. Hopefully, the Cannibals will be nicer to me tomorrow. Still, overall, had a lot of fun today .

Have a nightmare about Earth being Reaped. Except that they had this way of scanning and my husband and 10,000 other folks were found lacking and were going to be spared. Not me, of course, but he would. Because his having aspergers made him less evolved or something. BuT the reaction to that was rounded off all the saved t keep them alive and unharmed from others who would hurt them for their "saved status"

But then I didn't get to spend my last week alive with him. At this point, after I flail around in my own dream sobbing and just start to consider suicide, I wake up.

Friggen hate my imagination/dreams

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME2 cont'd:

Normandy

Emails - Hanar chain letter spam. Chorban emailed with a startling revelation about the nature of the Keepers and a 50,000 year cycle of galaxy-wide extinction. ("Old news, dude", Shepard thought to herself).

Joker reflected on the quarians' situation and Tali's trial. “I guess living on a ship your whole life can really mess with your priorities...” He's finally realized he needs to get out more.

Zaeed mentioned that he's killed lots of Cerberus operatives in his time. Shepard was starting to like Zaeed. He also provided tips on the best way to kill krogans - very informative.

Ken expressed his fondness for Tali's suit and “bucket”. He also enjoyed putting his foot in his mouth, apparently.

Tali was grateful to Shepard for resolving her trial without exposing what her father had done. She said there was even talk of her talking Rael'Zorah's place on the Admiralty Board - quite the turnaround from being threatened with exile. She was philosophical about both the trial and her father's death, and felt that he would have appreciated her honouring him by “blowing up a bunch of geth.” Shepard admired how well she was dealing with all of it.

Kasumi talked about how upset Tali had been leading up to the trial, and how she was glad it was resolved. Samara told Shepard about some of her adventures - being a Justicar, chasing Morinth, her days as a mercenary (she'd once stopped her fellow mercs from selling slaves to the Collectors). At one point, she'd even tangled with Nihlus, the Spectre killed by Saren on Eden Prime back when this whole Reaper business began.

Illium - Recruit the Assassin

Shepard, Tali, and Samara went back to Illium, looking to recruit the assassin, Thane Krios, from the last of the Illusive Man's dossiers.

At the docking bay, they were met by a very nice krogan representing Mr Thax, the business man who was a victim of a theft from one of his shipments. The krogan thanked Shepard for forwarding the shipping manifest that proved Mr Thax had been cheated (they had found it while helping Samara and Anaya deal with Eclipse at the spaceport). Shepard asked if she could be of further assistance, but Mr Thax's rep said it wouldn't be necessary and gave Shepard a small reward for the help provided. It was a very pleasant chat.

Shepard overheard a news report that Conrad Verner had started up a charity called "Shepards", to help orphans and refugees from the colony attacks. Shepard was glad Conrad was putting his energy and enthusiasm into something useful for a change.

Shepard and friends went back to Liara's office to see if she had any intel on how to locate Krios. Liara told them Krios' target was Nassana Dantius, and pointed them in the direction of Seryna, who worked in the cargo transport office. Shepard had run into Dantius before, back when she was investigating Saren. Dantius was a diplomat on the Citadel who tricked Shepard into taking out her sister, the leader of a crime syndicate. Now she was on Illium, running her family's corporation, and had evidently angered the wrong person and made herself a target.

Before heading to Seryna's office, they went to the Eternity nightclub to say hi to Aethyta. While there, Shepard helped persuade Synthetic Insights to help out a quarian indentured servant who had gotten herself into a little trouble with gambling debts.

They found Seryna, who told them that she used to head Nassana's security team, until the day she confronted her boss about her habit of assassinating her workers and business rivals (some things never change). She was fired, and to get her revenge she told Krios all about Nassana's security systems. She also claimed Thane wasn't being paid for the job, but was doing it to "restore the balance of his life."

Shepard convinced Seryna she just wanted to speak to Thane, not stop him, and Seryna agreed to take them to Dantius Towers and let them know how to get in. As they arrived, they saw security mechs mowing down employees for no apparent reason (bullets were cheaper than paying out overtime, maybe?). It seemed the stories about Nassana's "business" practices were true. Shepard and her team defeated the mechs (saving one salarian worker), and proceeded up the tower.

Along the way, they fought various Eclipse mercenaries who formed Nassana's security detail, and freed workers who had been hiding in locked rooms. They were apparently sealed in by Thane, not the mercs, so at least this assassin didn't seem to be letting innocents get caught between him and his target.

As they made their way up toward Nassana's office in the penthouse, they came across a merc in front of a large window, with his back turned. Under interrogation, he revealed that Thane had been reported up near the penthouse, but he might also be down below. Such valuable information deserved to be rewarded, so Shepard let him go free.

Shepard found a datapad containing genetic data for the Kirosa family. She'd thought she'd overheard a salarian complaining about missing genetic data back at the transport office - this might be what he was looking for.

They killed more mercs, freed some more trapped workers, and made their way across a bridge between the two office towers to finally reach Nassana's office. Nassana accused Shepard of being there to kill her like she'd killed her sister. As Shepard tried to explain herself, Thane dropped out of the air-duct and killed Nassana, making the whole conversation moot.

Thane revealed that he was ill and dying, and that "this was to be my last job". He agreed to join Shepard's team, however, seemingly wanting to atone for something. Back on the Normandy, Jacob was hostile to Thane for reasons Shepard couldn't quite figure out. Shepard was willing to give him a chance, despite his background, but apparently Jacob wasn't feeling so charitable. Shepard hoped this wouldn't be a problem, she needed her people working together as a team if the mission was to be successful.

Laura Shepard, Colonist, Sole Survivor


Laura began the evening by taking Grunt to see Wrex. Unfortunately, no one was interested in Garrus's eminently reasonable suggestion that maybe Grunt just needed to go dancing. (Because dancing solves problems? Which...explains the tango scene. I get it now  )



Instead, we got to fight a giant spaceworm! That shoots acid! And can burrow through planets!


I'm glad you are going to save us from a reaper in the next game, spaceworms, otherwise one might think you had no redeeming qualities at all.

I let it kill me once, with around 2 minutes left on the timer, before I dropped back to casual and just destroyed it with my grenade launcher. Giant spaceworms are not fun, but explosions are.

Grunt joins clan Urdnot!


Plus, turns out the Shaman really cares! Check out this loving note he sent to Shepard!


Is this the same asari/krogan couple I helped get together on Illium? I can't remember their names.


Laura had a musical theater star aboard her ship this entire time. The callback to this scene in ME3 is so heartbreaking. I recorded this one this time so I can go back and watch it after the genophage mission in ME3...and then will probably end up bawling or something.


I just now realized there are people standing on that lower floor


Next, time to recruit Thane and Samara. Rather than check my journal to remind myself which quest to pick up where, I got lazy I decide to live on the edge and approach a random asari official in the transport center. Turns out to be Thane's mission. Cool. It has possibly the best renegade interrupt in the game.


Thane is not phased by Garrus's rifle. Anyone with a desire to live should be. Poor Thane


He is happy to join the crew, however. Jacob has his doubts, but nobody cares about Jacob's doubts.


Shepard, why must you force the sickly drell to crane his neck when he talks to you? There's a chair right there.


Next time, Samara! And I'll probably drop by the Citadel because I can't remember if additional quests get triggered there or not.

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

Saving Terra Nova with Garrus and Liara:

Melody found Asteroid X57 on a collision course with the colony, the mining facilities' fusion engines on full burn, their defence turrets firing on approach. Melody found the facilities crawling with batarian-shaped sniping targets. After shutting down the first engine, she made radio contact with engineer Kate Bowman, hiding from the terrorists.

Making her way from facility to facility, and navigating a minefield surrounding one of them, Melody also recovered the bodies of civilian engineers whom the terrorists had murdered. A few batarians with rocket launchers tried to ambush the squad, but Melody had the high ground and picked them off with her sniper rifle.

After disabling the final fusion torch, Melody encountered Charn, the lieutenant of terrorist leader Balak. He was having second thoughts about his mission, but too many innocent people had died for Melody to let him walk away. He and his squad tasted summary justice.

Entering the main facility to confront Balak and rescue the surviving engineers, the squad faced heavy resistance from the remaining terrorists; nothing they couldn't handle though. Balak himself turned out to be an anti-human political extremist, seeking revenge on humanity for its incursions into disputed territory claimed by the Batarian Hegemony. Melody would have shot him there and then, had he not rigged a bomb in the room where the hostages were being held. Cursing his name as he departed, Melody resolved to one day finish what he had started here.

Melody disarmed the bombs left by Balak as a parting gift and rescued the hostages. She received a Savant X omni-tool as a thank-you from the grateful civilians.

After returning to the Normandy, Garrus took a moment to thank Melody for helping him to get his thoughts straight; he resolved to reapply for Spectre training. Although he didn't say anything about the X57 mission, Melody wondered whether he disapproved of her decision to let Balak go in order to save the civilians.

I managed this whole mission with no deaths, w00t! The turrets nearly got me a few times though due to my lack of patience Despite her readiness to act as judge, jury and executioner, I thought it more consistent with Melody's personality to prioritize civilian lives over bringing Balak down. Also got the Turian Ally achievement after disarming the bombs, so I'll mix the squad up a bit from now on.

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

Exterminating bugs in the Styx Theta cluster with Tali and Liara:

Nepmos: responded to a distress call from Alliance lieutenant Marie Durand whose squad had been overrun by rachni. Melody assisted with fending off the bugs, including using the Mako's batteries to power defence turrets. She then took her squad into a nearby mine where the rachni had made their nest. The party carefully made their way around the caverns, using close-range weapons and powers to kill the bugs in groups of two or three. They also encountered male "brood warriors"; Melody pulled the squad back and dealt with them at range using her sniper rifle.

Altahe: an Alliance listening post had gone dark. Melody found it overrun by rachni with no survivors. The logs indicated that a supply ship had recently arrived from the Argos Rho cluster, so Melody decided to head straight there to kick someone's ass. Before departing, the squad took care of a nearby rachni nest, neutralizing several brood warriors. (I did all the surface fighting on foot and managed it with zero mission failures, though it got pretty dicey due to the absence of cover. Took each pod in turn, hit Immunity, had Liara and Tali slap the brood warrior with Warp and Damping, then circle-strafed and tried not to overheat the shotgun. Those brood warriors are surprisingly nimble).

Unidentified space facility, Argos Rho cluster: crawling with rachni, unsurprisingly. (One worker got stuck in the floor; high explosive splash damage dealt with it). Melody checked the logs and discovered that it had been a Cerberus facility experimenting on rachni, until they got loose etc., etc. From the contents of the logs, Melody inferred that Cerberus may have been pulling the strings on Noveria, too.

Melody had been having second thoughts about her actions on Noveria, wondering whether she made the wrong decision under the influence of adrenaline, especially after the turian councillor accused her of genocide. However, her experiences in the Styx Theta cluster helped to ease her conscience. The rachni seem unrelentingly hostile and violent; Melody concluded that peaceful coexistence with them is impossible, sentient species or not.