What did you do today in ME?

100 pages of "What did you do today in Mass Effect"!!! That's pretty lengthy given that it's not a controversial thread.

From the Journal of Ioan Shepard:

- Normandy: TIM wants to talk to me. From just the one time (not counting our introduction), I know he's going to send me somewhere I don't want to go. Since I know he set things up on Horizon, I'm now suspicious of anything he tells me. And here's what he said: turians found a Collector ship, disabled it but died in the process and no other turians showed up to investigate. Two-thirds of this are almost certainly a lie, meaning that even the idea that the turians found the ship was suspicious in itself. And how did he find out before other turians? I don't know what TIM is up to here, but he's lying to me. Unfortunately, I can't afford to pass up investigating a Collector ship no matter what the truth of the matter is.
- Collector Ship: When we get there, no sign of a turian ship. Also, no sign of a hull breach. But the drive core is offline. Things aren't adding up. Decided Miranda and Kasumi would come in handy here - one, to see if Miranda would flinch when TIM was caught in a lie and, two, because Kasumi's ability to hack might be useful with alien tech. Too bad they're both dead since they have no sealed suits. Also, this is the same ship that showed up on Horizon, a ship that is known to have been tracking me. We found empty pods and piles of dead human bodies. Then we found a dead Collector. EDI said the did a baseline comparison between Collectors and humans. The analysis said that the Collectors were actually protheans, genetically altered to serve the Reapers! It was like the keepers all over again but so much worse. Found a Window sniper rifle that looked like it would be especially lethal.
- Further analysis by EDI, at Joker's suggestion, showed that this was also the same Collector ship that destroyed the original Normandy. That means this ship has been following me around for two years. If that's not evidence that I scared the Reapers by killing Sovereign then I don't know what is. It also confirmed that this was a trap but we were in too deep to do anything about it now. We saw enough pods to take every human in the Terminus Systems and still have room for more. It was obvious that Earth was the true target. The only thing I didn't know was the reason why. Miranda very rightly pointed out that the ship lacked dead Collectors. Again, trap.
- Activated a control panel to set up a link with the Normandy so EDI could data mine the Collector ship. Then something happened. Some things seemed to be activating on the Collector ship. EDI also said "something" was in her system and we lost contact. She reestablished our connection but was fighting off a systems attack while we fought Collectors. Also, that creepy Harbinger thing kept taking control of Collectors and talking to me. Once our fight was done, I had to re-link the two ships via console. EDI found information to help us navigate the Omega 4 relay. She also found out the distress call was from the Collectors, mimicking the turians. However, EDI also said that there was no way TIM didn't know it was a trap. Suspicions confirmed and I was starting to wonder if TIM wasn't in some way working against us even as he gave us the resources to fight. Could he be partially indoctrinated? It would almost make sense. He wants to help but then is also compelled to obey his masters and work against us. No surprise that Miranda had a hard time accepting it but she was clearly flustered.
- At this time the Collector ship started powering up and we needed to be gone. It meant fighting our way back to the shuttle. Harbinger said something weird along the way: "We are your genetic destiny". This controlling thing had all the earmarks of a Reaper. Reminded me of when Sovereign took control of Saren. Why would a Reaper say their kind were the genetic destiny of mine? It made no sense. We escaped just as the ship's weapons were coming online. I was going to have words with TIM about this.
- Normandy: I had a chat with TIM. I was pretty clear with him that I could no longer trust his intel. Still, when he told me about a derelict Reaper, I was interested. It would have the needed IFF to get us through the Omega 4 relay without being destroyed by what was on the other side: black holes and exploding suns in the galactic core. I found it unlikely that TIM was sending us into a trap - the same kind, no less - so soon, but if it did turn out to be one I wouldn't be shocked. However, we weren't ready. Joker still said the ship could be better. I hadn't fully followed through with what Sha'ira had told me about seeing to the needs of my crew. Garrus, Jacob, Miranda and Jack still needed attention. I also had a few more allies to recruit, all of whom would presumably have some issues to be dealt with as well. Team building, then Reaper, the Omega 4 and then, if all went well, leaving Cerberus behind. Then I could pursue things like helping Dr. Kenson, the friend of Admiral Hackett.
- Had a chat with Mordin about the Collectors. He said they behaved like the indoctrinated and slowly lost intelligence over generations. Tech was put in place to make up for it but in organic terms they were the mental capacity of someone senile with dementia. All their sensory input sent data to the Collectors. He said all their organs were replaced by tech and that they were more like husks than anything else. Just an insult to what they once had been. Better to destroy them completely than have this mockery live on. I agreed. Then he sang, which was downright strange. But my admiration for him grew even more, since he loved both science and art with equal fervor.
- Had dinner with Kelly in my cabin. She's a sweet girl. The flirting was all in fun. There's nothing between us but if she leaves Cerberus when I do perhaps we can remain friends.
- Pragia: Since I was feeling pissed at TIM, I thought it might feel good to blow up a Cerberus facility. Besides, it would make Jack happy. Given the purpose of this place, I brought along Jacob. I wondered how a biotic who had it good, and tended to apologize for Cerberus, would feel about what he saw. Unfortunately, right off, Jacob decided that the facility had gone rogue. Same as Miranda saying that the Cerberus people I'd encountered in the past were a military cell, as though that somehow absolved Cerberus of their actions. I didn't buy it anyway since they were doing experiments on human subjects, something clearly in the purview of scientists.
- Saw an arena. Learned that Jack was pitted against other kids in the facility. They used drugs to make her more violent and shocked her if she help back. No wonder she's so fucked up. Also learned that when Jack escaped her cell that no one was allowed to kill her but that all other subjects were expendable. Like me with Lazarus, she was the whole reason for the Teltin facility's existence.
- Someone named Aresh had hired mercenaries to assist him in some way. Allegedly to find salvage but a krogan that we killed said there wasn't much there. Aresh was in Jack's old cell, which is where we were headed. As it turned out, Aresh was a survivor of Teltin, but he was even more insane than Jack. He had it in his head that he would restart Tetlin to do what they hadn't. Except that they had. Jack was extremely powerful. The thing was, he was claiming that he and the mercs were rebuilding Teltin. That was clearly not the case. He was delusional. Jack wanted to kill him and was prepared to do it. I talked her down, telling her that he was trapped in the past, incapable of restarting anything, and that she would be free by leaving him alone and blowing this place to hell. Anxiety was all over Jack's face as she played with the detonator's trigger. I banged on the walls of the shuttle to signal it was time. She set off the bomb, Teltin exploded, and we rode out the shockwave as we flew toward the Normandy. Jack got one of my special new outfits to mark her as mine.