What did you do today in ME?

Melody Shepard, Colonist/Sole Survivor/Infiltrator, ME2 Insanity:

With the Reaper IFF needing a field test, Melody and her squad boarded a shuttle for their next mission, investigating a supposed Reaper artefact. It turned out to be nothing more than an avant garde hanar sculpture. Worse still, they returned to find that the crew had been kidnapped by Collectors. Their hands forced, it was time to take the fight to the bugs.

Before giving the order to enter the Omega 4 relay, Melody recalibrated her hardsuit and omni-tool:

• Disruptor Ammo: two ranks
• Cryo Ammo: four ranks (Squad)
• Tactical Cloak: four ranks (Assassination)
• Incinerate: four ranks (Incineration Blast)
• AI Hacking: one rank
• Operative: four ranks (Agent)
• Flashbang Grenade: three ranks

Melody distracted herself during the flight to the relay by checking in with the Illusive Man for possibly the last time. She offered him a place on the Normandy to see the Collector base for himself; he declined with thanks.

The relay propelled the Normandy into a colossal debris field in orbit around a black hole; the remains of the vessels that had previously attempted the crossing. The ship immediately came under attack from spherical probes. The Normandy's new defences held up; nevertheless, one breached the hull and entered the cargo bay. Melody took Grunt (Mattock, Squad Incendiary Ammo) and Thane (Incisor, Heavy Warp) with her to destroy it. The others recommended using heavy weapons, but small arms and powers brought it down with little trouble (easy fight, no player deaths, Grunt dropped once).

Melody's loadout for the SM:

• X-22d Eviscerator
• X-97e Viper
• X-12e Locust
• X-5e Phalanx

After a skirmish with the Collector cruiser that saw the Normandy's nemesis blown to smithereens with the new cannons, the Cerberus frigate crash-landed on the Collector base. The team prepared a plan to divide into two squads, led by Melody and Jacob, to infiltrate the base, with Legion entering via a ventilation duct to hack the doors from the other side. Melody chose Miranda (Heavy Warp) and Thane (Incisor, Heavy Warp) for her squad. (This went a lot smoother than I expected; no deaths. On a few occasions I left a valve alone, moved forward to clear Collectors up ahead, then went back to release the valve. Legion was never in any real danger; toasters should expect to get a bit toasty, anyway )

The two squads met up and saved the crew from being turned into soup. Joker readied the Normandy to collect the noncombatants. Melody sent Jacob with them as an escort, reasoning that having led the second squad there, he knew the way back. Then it was time to divide the team again. Melody picked Garrus to head up the second squad. Her squad would follow a path thick with seeker swarms, too many for Mordin's bugspray to defend against. She nominated Miranda to maintain a biotic bubble to shield the squad, and picked Zaeed (Incisor, Inferno Blast Grenades, Concussive Shot) and Mordin (Cryo Blast, Incineration Blast) to accompany them.

In spite of fierce resistance from Collectors, Husks and a Scion, the party made slow but steady progress. (No player deaths, but there were some squad deaths at the second stop. A biotic squadmate would have been useful for killing Harbinger more quickly, but Zaeed and Mordin's anti-armour area-of-effect powers were so useful against the Husks that it was a reasonable tradeoff. Astonishingly, none of the squad died at the third stop, and there were no player deaths at all).

Sadly, the team suffered a casualty at the end of the path: an exhausted Miranda was unable to maintain the bubble, and Mordin was carried away by seekers. (This was intentional, setting up ME3 with Padok Wiks in the Tuchanka arc).

With the base's control centre only a short distance away, Melody gave a rousing but angry speech, vowing payback for Mordin. With Collector forces closing in, Miranda recommended that most of the team stay behind to hold the line. Melody chose Thane (Incisor, Heavy Warp) and Jack (crowd control, Squad Warp Ammo) to accompany her to the control centre; the rest checked their weapons, loaded fresh clips and dug in.

Platforms carrying Collector reinforcements flew in, but each one stopped further away from the team. With her sniper specialization, this suited Melody just fine. (No player deaths; Jack dropped once). Approaching the control centre, the grisly truth was revealed: the Collectors were building a Reaper from the remains of the harvested colonists. It was secured to the ceiling by the tubes carrying the genetic soup. Melody shot the damn tubes while her comrades covered her (no player deaths, squad dropped once); and with that, it was time to place the bomb that would destroy the base.

...except that the Illusive Man called on the QECphone and suggested a neutron pulse to wipe out the Collectors, but leaving the base intact. Studying the base and the Collectors' tech could provide an edge against the Reapers. Melody was torn: Maelon's genophage experiments were appalling, and she'd destroyed his data; the Collector's science project was orders of magnitude worse. On the other hand, could they afford to be choosy with an existential threat looming over the galaxy? And the Illusive Man had been right about the Collectors from the beginning; might he be right about this too? Furthermore, he had brought her back when the Alliance had left her for dead; he had supported and believed her when the Council had abandoned her and revoked her Spectre status. Didn't she owe him?

Melody's comrades said nothing as she rigged the neutron pulse, though she got the impression that Jack was wearing a o_O expression behind her mirror shades. Garrus reported in from the other squad; they were holding the line without casualties.

The larval Reaper made a reappearance before the squad had a chance to depart. With her M-920 Cain at 190% charge, Melody's opening move was to blast a chunk of its armour away. After weakening it still further with her pistol (aiming the SR was too difficult, given how much the Reaper moved around), she found another power cell, enabling a second shot from the Cain. After that, the larva was as good as dead; a few final shots from the pistol finished it off. (No player deaths; squad might have dropped, I don't remember).

(...yes, you read that right, no player deaths at any point in the SM For the most part, I felt that I had the mission under control, certainly more so than in the Collector ship, derelict Reaper or the end of Miranda's LM, for example. The second and third stops on the Long Walk were the only places I felt that I was really winging it and expecting to drop.)

With the control centre collapsing around them, Jack almost fell to her death, but her commanding officer caught her. Jack got to return the favour a little later when Melody's leap for the Normandy shuttle almost fell short. The Normandy high-tailed it for the relay as the neutron pulse went off and the Collectors were consigned to history.

Melody checked in with her benefactor as the Normandy returned to Terminus space, imploring him to use the Collector base wisely in the fight against the Reapers, and vowing not to lose her own humanity no matter what she faced.


Mission accomplished! Whether or not I "earned" the achievement is debatable; arguably I glitched my way to victory with my Incisor-packing squadmates I still have plenty of N7 missions to complete, plus Shadow Broker and Arrival. At least I now have the option of dropping the difficulty level if anything proves too tricky.

I prepared for the SM by watching parts of these two YouTube videos showing Insanity infiltrators demonstrated by much better players than me, so props to these guys:

Now technically, Legion is gender-neutral...but why would he/it need to go to a rest room/shower room anyhow?   I do like goofy touches like that!

From the Journal of Ioan Shepard:
Illium: [Slight modification, since I "fixed" the problem with Conrad thinking I had intimidated him in ME1. Updated version of Conrad encounter.] As I approached the Eternity club to meet up with Miranda's contact, an asari accosted me with a slap to the face! I told her she had one shot but she'd better not try that again. Then she accused me of trying to take over her club. Inside, I found the reason why. Conrad Verner was telling the bartender that he was part of my squad and had to get the deed to Eternity as part of an undercover operation. Conrad was pretty surprised when he saw that I was actually alive. Turns out an asari merchant claimed to be a cop, that Eternity was dealing red sand (not illegal on Illium) and that he had to get the deed as part of his mission. I said I'd take care of it. Crazy fans are something I do not need at this time. Bad enough he was decked out in some kind of imitation N7 armor.
- Met with Lanteia, who said there was a slight complication in helping Miranda's "genetic twin". Eclipse mercs were involved, as was Miranda's trusted friend, Niket. Both things sounded like they could lead to a bad outcome but I was committed. Met with the Eclipse leader, who referred to Miranda's father as "the boss". Certainly suggested Lawson was funding Eclipse, which immediately made me dislike him. He also said Niket would not be helping us, and that made me damn suspicious. Also learned that her sister was young, having been kidnapped when a baby. Guess that explains the specific "genetic twin" term, since Miranda was trying not to imply that they were born at the same time. Still, it was dicey when it came to the legal aspects of us. The merc leader offered to let us walk away. My response was a punch in the gut followed by several shots to the head. Then came the explosion and four more Eclipse deaths. This was gonna be fun.
- Over a radio, we heard mention that Niket had reached the dock. Miranda was freaked. Then we saw Niket at the docks talking to Captain Enyala of the Eclipse. Couldn't be any more clear that he had betrayed her. He took umbrage to Miranda keeping Oriana a secret, as well as not letting him know that she had taken a baby away from a wealthy man who could have given her everything she could possibly want - except, perhaps, love, which was Miranda's problem. Miranda was going to shoot him but I stopped her. However, I couldn't stop Enyala from doing the same. Enyala could allegedly tear people in half with her biotics but that didn't mean Miranda couldn't fling her across the room. In any case, as tough an Enyala was, she was no match for my squad.
- When we caught up with Oriana she was safe. There were no signs of Eclipse and she was with her family. Niket hadn't been lying when he said he was the only one who knew how to find her. Miranda was going to walk away but I convinced her to go talk to her, to let Oriana know that she had a big sister who was looking out for her. When she walked away from her sister I could honestly say I'd never seen Miranda so content. Maybe this would change her for the better.
- Normandy: As soon as I was settled in, Joker told me Jack and Miranda were having a fight. Miranda was still being a Cerberus "cheerleader", as Jack liked to say, not acknowledging the wrong they'd done to Jack. It was a problem but I couldn't afford to take sides.
- A message from Lizbeth Baynham thanked me again for saving the colonists on Zhu's Hope from the Thorian's mind control.
- Illium: Since we were still in orbit, I thought it made sense to recruit the two allies that were on Illium, as well as drop by to see what Liara was up to. She wanted help tracking down information to find out who had betrayed her. I said I'd help.
- Convinced Conrad's merchant friend that the deed for Eternity was hers. She simply had to walk up there and be tough about it. Got a discount at her store for it. Also helped another asari merchant figure out that, yes, she loved the krogan who was shouting love poetry at her. Another discount, which I used to buy more fish and three model ships! Then I headed to Eternity to watch the fireworks! She was hauled off for attempted extortion. Good stuff! For Conrad, I told him that the asari was part of a terrorist cell and that his involvement had helped me uncover it. Then I sent him home.
- Talked to Seryna, as per Liara's suggestion. She told me Thane Krios was going after Nassana Dantius, who I'd encountered a while back. She had set me up to assassinate her sister, who was a slaver, but not because what she was doing was wrong. She did it because it would hurt her reputation. Mind you, I'm all too happy to take out a slaver but I can't say Nassana endeared me to her other than for the asari prototype mods she gave me access to.
- Seryna flew me and my squad to Dantius Towers. My goal was to recruit Thane, not save Nassana. We'd have to see how that went down. What was clear was that Nassana had Eclipse mercs protecting her so I was already not a fan. First thing we saw on landing were mechs gunning down workers. Then KEI-9's came for us. After dispatching them, found a still-living salarian worker. Gave him some medi-gel and sent him on his way. After talking to him I realized there was no way I was stopping Thane from killing Nassana.

Doing it that way usually make's it harder to keep both loyal. When I want to keep both loyal, I complete Miranda's loyalty mission right after Horizon. Once done, I talk with Jack who mentions her loyalty mission. Complete it right away. Shepard is able to keep both loyal.

If you can't keep both loyal, I would suggest siding with Jack.

"Mom, you're the best. A chocolate bar! Haven't had these in ages."
"Enjoy, you've more than earned this."
"And so maybe you've earned another part of my story."
"You know I do!"
"Haha, I'm happy to oblige. Well, after I had accessed the beacon on Virmire, Liara could make more sense of my vision and recognised Ilos in it. I called the Council to tell them what we found out. We headed back to the Citadel, since the Council finally decided to take steps against Saren, but it wouldn't have been enough. They planned to guard the Citadel, but didn't want me to follow Saren to Ilos. They didn't like my 'style', whatever that was. Udina took things in his hands. The Normandy was grounded and I thought we had lost our chance to catch Saren for good. But then Joker passed on a message from Anderson. He wanted to meet me at Flux, some club on the Citadel... I went there immediately. He wanted to try and get the Normandy out of the lockdown. He decided to break into Udina's office and overwrite the lockdown from there. We all waited for his signal on the Normandy, and once he had succeeded, we were en route to Ilos."
"I still can't believe you stole a ship."
"Well yeah, it was a little crazy. But it was good we did, otherwise..."
"You all did the right thing."
"We tried to catch up with Saren on Ilos, but he was always one step ahead. In a tunnel with a lot of stasis pods we had to stop because of some barrier in our way. We checked out our surroundings and found an old Prothean VI. It told us a lot about Saren, his plan, the downfall of the Protheans, the Reapers, and how they operated."
"Yes, learning some things about the Reapers when I contacted Hackett 3 years ago really made me shudder. There isn't anything like it. So much power, such numbers, such a mystery..."
"True. And one Reaper was already tough to take down. The thought of way more of those things out there wasn't exactly comforting."
"I can imagine. I'm still amazed how it all turned out in the end."
"Me too, believe me. But anyway, this VI on Ilos told us we might have a chance to stop Saren by downloading a data file it provided. It would corrupt the Citadel's security protocols and give me control over the station. We followed Saren through the miniature relay some Prothean scientists from the cryo pods on Ilos built, and landed right on the Citadel. A back door. Saren was ahead of us of course, so a wild chase began. He had already paved the way for Sovereign, the Citadel arms were closed, and Sovereign was docked to the station, on the cusp of regaining control of the Citadel and thus able to activate the relay for the other Reapers to pour in and take over."
"To hear how close this all was, it's... unbelievable."
"It truly was a race against time. We managed to find Saren though and this time, my words reached him. He admitted to being indoctrinated, and he shot himself. I used the VI's data file and it worked. But Sovereign did something to Saren and he came back to life... he was a monstrosity. We took him down for good, and with the Citadel arms open, the fleet poured in and took Sovereign down."
"Jesse?"
"Hm?"
"What you did with the Counc--"
"Mom, I had to. We couldn't save them, not with what was at stake. We had to. Sovereign needed to go down. I couldn't take the chance to lose parts of the fleet... if Sovereign had succeeded..."
"I just wanted to say that I understood why you did it. You had to stop Sovereign from starting the cycle right there, I get it."
"Oh. Thanks. It was a tough choice, but seeing how it played out I made the right call. Sovereign went down, a Reaper... defeated by us."
"That's right, sweetie. And it wouldn't be the last."
"Yeah..."

Endgame pics!

From the Journal of Ioan Shepard:

- Illium, Dantius Towers: Now that the salarian worker was safely on his way, I headed to the elevator with Zaeed and Mordin. We rescued some workers from a storage closet. Apparently the assassin had locked them in. Interesting. He takes contracts but avoids collateral damage. Then opened an elevator with a vanguard, an engineer and a krogan. But we were prepared and they went down. On the next floor up, caught a lone merc by a window, distracted by a conversation. I wanted to question him but he was...resistant. He refused to answer me and I sent him to the ground floor - the fast way. Found more salarians locked in a closet. One of them had a gun but he was clearly untrained and afraid. I knew I could talk him down. Even if he shot, well, I survived a similarly stupid move by Simon Atwell on Asteroid X57. My shields can handle it. However, once he realized I wasn't a threat, he handed the gun over to me, no shots fired. I had cleared a path for the to get to the lower levels where it was safer. Then I let Nassana Dantius - who was demanding an update through an intercom - know that her mercs were dead.
- After fighting our way to Nassana's office, we confronted her. I told her, repeatedly, that I wasn't there for her. She didn't believe me and thought money could fix things. I told her no amount of money could stop what was coming. So when a dress dropped down from the ceiling and dispatched her guards, I did nothing. Then he shot her right in the gut. After prayers - for forgiveness for himself - he agreed to come with me. Curiously, his reasons for doing so were to atone for the deaths of those workers he was unable to save.
- Normandy: Thane installed himself in the Life Support unit. After a chat, he helped us double the capacity of our probes. Handy. Also learned he's dying from a disease that's somewhat common due to drell living on the hanar homeworld. Drell come from an arid world that they destroyed ecologically. The hanar took them in on their own world but it's mostly oceans and very humid. It's caused complications, one of which is killing Thane.

That's how I play most of the time. Then go 'fuck it' in ME3 and paragade/renegon.

"After having dealt with Saren, I wanted to make sure we are prepared against the Reapers. But instead, we were sent to clear out geth pockets."
"I remember. You called me and were really angry about it."
"Of course I was. They didn't acknowledge the threat. And then, to make it worse, in the 2 years I was gone, they didn't do anything against it either..."
"How... was it? When you died, I mean. Did you... feel anything?"
"I barely remember it. I only remember not being able to breathe. I have no idea how long it took until I was unconscious, and then all I remember is waking up in that damn Cerberus facility that brought me back."
"Oh honey. If it's one thing I'm grateful for that Cerberus did, it's that they gave me back my son."
"I know. But it was strange. At first I asked myself if I had really died. I mean, how can you bring a person back like that? I was the exact same, just... my scar from Akuze was gone."
"Don't ask me, it's too much to think about."
"Yeah, it was overwhelming. After Miranda and Jacob had brought me to another station to talk with their boss, I met him via holo. Of course I didn't trust any of them, but the Illusive Man talked me into checking out Freedom's Progress, saying I was free to go if I didn't find any evidence of colonists being taken. Unfortunately, as you know, he was right. The colonists were all gone, but we ran into Tali. A quarian, Veetor, had been on Freedom's Progress for his Pilgrimage, and she and her team had been looking for him. It was thanks to him we found the evidence the Illusive Man was looking for. He had hidden himself away in one of the buildings, piecing together security footage that showed the Collectors taking the colonists. We got Veetor's omnitool data and Tali and I part ways again."
"Tali didn't go with you right away?"
"No. She was on an important mission of her own. I'd have liked to have her back of course, someone I knew, worked with before and trusted. But it wasn't possible then. We returned to the station and the Illusive Man surprised me with a new SR-2, Joker and Dr. Chakwas. Manipulated me by getting people he knew I would trust. I checked out the new ship, but I stayed away from any of the Cerberus personnel."
"Understandable, after everything you've been through with this group."
"I spent some time in my cabin to read the Illusive Man's dossiers of people I should assemble for this mission, and my e-mails. One of them was from Hackett, one from Anderson. I wondered how they could know so fast I was alive and with Cerberus. My last chance to get out of this was to talk to Anderson on the Citadel. I hoped I could get the Alliance to help me. But in reality, any evidence of the Reapers had been swept under the rug, and the geth had been blamed for everything. The Alliance would not help, and Anderson's tries to convince the new Council of the threat weren't successful. On top of that, the new Council didn't even want to see me."
"Because of what happened during Sovereign's attack."
"Yes. I spent the whole day roaming around the Citadel. Catching up on news pieces, drinking, coming to terms with what the Alliance not helping meant for me. That I had to work with Cerberus to save our human colonies. I had to put my own feelings about Cerberus aside and work with them."
"If only the Alliance..."
"Yeah. But it doesn't matter, mom. What's done is done, can't change the past. On my way back to the Normandy I picked up my first recruit for the mission. Kasumi Goto, a master thief. You should've seen all these dossiers, everything ranging from criminal, to thief, to mad scientist."
"Sounds wonderful."
"Didn't think I'd end up liking some of them back then, but they surely were better than Cerberus, even though I was still wary at first. I would've expected any to be a henchman of the Illusive Man, so I was careful around them. In exchange for joining, Kasumi had been promised - without me knowing of course - that I'd help her with something personal, but first I wanted to go see the Normandy wreckage on Alchera. I needed to see it."
"That couldn't have been easy."
"No, definitely not. After collecting all the dog tags from the dead crew, I spent hours at the crash site, just sitting there. I had found my old helmet and tried to wrap my head around everything that had happened. Before I finally went back I put up a monument in front of the cargo bay, not only to honour the SR-1, but Ashley's sacrifice as well... And after that I got drunk with Dr. Chakwas. It was a difficult situation, and I welcomed the idea of numbing myself."
"Oh Jesse... I--"
"Mom, are you okay?"
"I... Why did you never call me?"
"Ma, I don't know. I was... lost, unhinged. And I was ashamed I agreed to work with Cerberus... I was constantly thinking how I worked with the guys that killed my best friends on Akuze."
"I cried so much for you. So many nights. You could've put your trust in me, called me and let me know you were alive at least!"
"I'm... I'm so sorry to have caused you this much grief. I didn't want that... I wasn't thinking straight. Forgive me."
"That's already done, sweetie. Sorry, I didn't want to make a huge issue out of it. I just... Just promise me you'll never do something like that again... whatever happens, okay?"
"Don't worry, mom. It won't ever happen again."
"Thanks. I'm so glad I get the opportunity to talk with you again."
"Me, too. And it will stay that way."
"That warms your old mother's heart. Ahem... Well... excuse my little outburst. What happened then?"
"I did end up helping Kasumi, but I will tell you about it later. Look, it's almost lunch time."
"Oh, you're right. Should we eat on the terrace today? The weather is beautiful."
"Alright, why not. Fresh air sounds nice."
"Great! Wait a sec, I'll get your wheelchair ready."

Piiiics!


It's great to be back into ME2, but oh boy, I died in the tutorial Got overwhelmed by the 4 mechs in the second room, ahaha. I think I really was having problems with Tech Armor's super long cooldown and kinda forgot to shoot
Freedom's Progress went fine though, and I love I can insta-kill drones with Stasis
On this run I will not talk to any of the Cerberus crew (well except Kelly, who I headcanon to have approached Shepard first. Just to refuse her help ), including Miranda and Jacob. I assume they still come forward with their loyalty missions, but it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I have some plans for Miri in ME3 I think Jacob will survive as well.
I love playing in such a way, even though it means to miss content. A few years back it would've been unthinkable for me to not talk to some characters. I guess it helps playing ME so often, and I'm always anticipating what the outcome will be.

Also, I hope your PS3 will live a long life! I hope the same for mine, but if it will die at some point, I'll definitely get a new one. Impossible to live without playing the trilogy

No squadmate comes to Shepard about a loyalty mission. The player has to go talk with squadmate. If you don't talk to Miranda and Jacob, both could die on the suicide mission. Miranda will die in ME3 no matter what. If you choose to do the ex-Cerberus scientists missions, Jacob will survive. If its not completed, his name will appear on the memorial wall after completing Cronos

aoibhealfae: Why do you need your other PC? If you use Origin, all saves end up in a cloud and transfer easily to a new PC. It's the one point of convenience Origin has that I like.