What did you do today in ME?

Melody Shepard, Colonist/Sole Survivor/Infiltrator, ME3 Insanity:

Before gathering Wreav and Victus to plan the genophage cure mission, Melody took time to chat with her comrades.

• She found Cortez hard at work on the shuttle, giving it 110% as always. She persuaded him to take some R&R time when they next visited the Citadel.
• James confessed to finding Jack "kinda hot". (He doesn't stand a chance...)
• Liara had been doing some digging and had learned that Wreav's weapon commissioning programmes were without precedent. Fortack must have been in his element. She and her commanding officer both feared for the future with Wreav in charge of the krogan.
• Padok and Eve were discussing krogan baby names. "Solus" was out of the question, apparently.
• Dr Chakwas was reassuring Greg Adams that he had not made a mistake when he declined to serve on the Normandy during the Collector crisis.

The war meeting was as ill-tempered as Melody expected it would be; nevertheless, a plan was made. A Reaper destroyer had taken position by the "Shroud", a tower constructed by the salarians during the krogan uplift that had purified the atmosphere, and which Padok Wiks intended to use to disperse the genophage cure. The Reaper was using the Shroud to poison the atmosphere; the plan was for turian aircraft and krogan tanks to lure it away so that Padok could safely implement the cure. He needed to use samples of the original genophage stored on-site to finish making the cure, and would need Eve to accompany him.

Before deploying to the surface, Melody took a call from the salarian dalatrass who informed her that the Shroud had a failsafe to prevent it being used in this way; the cure would not work unless the failsafe were worked around, although Padok would be sure to realize the problem. If she agreed, the salarians would commit to the war effort. Melody found herself tempted by the suggestion.

Melody boarded the shuttle along with Wreav, Eve, James (who had requested the assignment) and EDI. She pondered the dalatrass' suggestion. Eve realized that something was troubling the commander, but Melody brushed the suggestion aside.

The shuttle came in hot; the LZ was swarming with Husks, which Melody fed to her hungry CLAYMOAR. The party boarded an armoured car for the journey to the Shroud. Again, Eve asked Melody if something was troubling her. This time, Melody couldn't even look her in the eye.

Finding the road blocked, the squad was forced to take a diversion through a ruined city, the walls lined with ancient krogan art, a testament to Tuchanka's pre-industrial culture. Frequent earth tremors demonstrated that this was thresher maw territory. Reaper ground troops made their first attempt to stop the squad here, but they were easily dealt with.

Rendezvousing with Wreav's unit, the krogan explained Eve's plan for dealing with the Reaper: summon Kalros, the mother of all thresher maws, to take it down. The Shroud has been built in a shrine to her; two huge maw hammers (like the one that summoned the thresher during Grunt's initiation) could be activated... if the squad could make it past the Reaper on foot. Reasoning that anything was possible for someone who had survived the Omega-4 relay, Melody agreed to the crazy plan.

Despite the insignificant size of the three humanoids, the Reaper realized something was up, as it brought both its claws and its main gun to bear on the squad. As they got closer to the hammers, it dropped Brutes close by; after killing a few of them, Melody engaged her cloak and ran, activating both hammers as quickly as she could. Kalros duly obliged, emerging from the ground and destroying her prey. Tuchanka has room for only one eldritch abomination. (My only deaths in this mission were here; the beam got me once and the claws a few times).

With the route to the Shroud now clear, Melody hurried there, finding Padok waiting for her, alone: Eve had not survived the final procedures required to make the cure. Furthermore, he had discovered the failsafe that would prevent the Shroud from working. With the structure unstable following the earth-shaking Kalros-Reaper fight, Padok would have no time to evacuate after working around the failsafe... so Melody persuaded him not to throw his life away for Wreav. After some soul-searching, he agreed; though the scientist in him wanted to see the natural order restored, the pragmatist realized that it was not the best course of action to take, here and now. He agreed to slip away quietly; the krogan would believe he died as the tower collapsed, and would not realize the treachery for months.

Melody attended Eve's funeral, standing stony-faced as the krogan commemorated the loss of the one whom they believed had saved their people. Eve's voice haunted Melody's dreams that night, along with the voices of others who had died on her watch. Would Ashley and Mordin have supported her decision to betray a whole people? Six months ago, before parting company with Cerberus, she had vowed to the Illusive Man that should would not compromise her humanity to win the war. She had broken that vow, albeit for reasons she believed that she could justify, and had to live with the decision.

Trying to take her mind off things, Melody went to speak with her colleagues.

• Dr Chakwas took the opportunity to give her a checkup. Her cybernetics were fine.
• EDI was uploading data about the destroyed Repear to the turians.
• Liara remarked that she wished Eve could have seen the rebirth of her people. Melody said nothing.
• James hoped that with the krogan on-side, they could now focus on fighting the Reapers.
• Joker and Garrus were exchanging bad-taste jokes about their respective militaries. Speaking privately with Garrus, Melody almost confessed that she had sabotaged the genophage cure, but couldn't bring herself to say the words.

Melody received an email from Padok Wiks. He had fled to a colony to see out the war, helping the colonists in any way he could.

Current EMS: 1110

Pics and video follow...

The only trick I know is to watch the ground You will see the shadow where they'll come down. Ever since I do that I had less trouble with getting stomped. Generally, I think there are 4 spots where they come down, and the 2 on the right side mirror the 2 on the left side. One location is from where you start in this area, when you approach the stairs to the maw hammer. The second is directly when you leave the stairs.

Though... Watching the vid, the very first stomp is something I never had, I think. Way too close to the starting area... Bug?

I watched part of each one, though I admit to some fast-forwarding to get to the parts you commented on   Mostly I'm amazed that you can do all that without pausing. I pause all the damn time to target powers for Shepard and squad mates, and to get a better look at the battle field. I'm too slow for real-time combat 

From the Journal of Ioan Shepard:

- Omega: Was looking forward to never seeing this shithole again but Aria needed my help. She's already provided my with significant mercenary forces and promised guns, eezo and ships for helping her retake Omega from Cerberus. Ousting Cerberus is always the right choice and it's hard to turn down all the resources I'll get in return. We came toward Omega on a transport but a General Oleg Petrovsky said he had defenses that would shred the type of armor that withstood Collector shots. He tried some psychobullshit to attempt tell me I was sabotaging myself by leaving Cerberus. Obviously doesn't know the fate of those who remain - turned into husks or simply indoctrinated. Why would I want that?
- Crash landed with an escape pod and worked our way through to disable to station's defenses. Once done, other transports with Aria's forces could safely approach Omega. We did encounter a force field like nothing I'd ever seen before. Also saw a gang tag for the Talons, which meant there might already be active resistance on Omega. We later saw a mech - that passed through the field - throw a vorcha into it. The vorcha disintegrated. That meant it wasn't just something we couldn't bypass but had to also stay away from.
- Used secret tunnels to go under the force field. Ran into an old friend of Aria's, a turian named Nyreen Kandros. We made our to Aria's secret HQ but, while Aria made plans, Nyreen ran off. Aria and I then headed out in search of the Talons to forge an alliance. Turned out Nyreen was the leader of the Talons and, with some persuasion, agreed to work with us to retake Omega.
- A kick ass Hydra missile launcher took out an Atlas with one shot. Too bad that's all it could do. Fortunately, there was another one nearby. Don't know why Cerberus wasn't using these if they had them but their loss is seriously their loss. Nyreen was very concerned with the fate of the civilians on Omega but Aria not only knew better but knew her people. There were very few innocents on Omega and Aria knew how to fire them up for a street fight against Cerberus.
- Learned a few things. The force field technology came from beyond the Omega-4 relay. There must have been more than the Collector Base out there. It was also used in the rampart mechs, which emanated the same energy as the field itself. There were also some creatures called adjutants that were made from found Collector tech.
- Went to turn off the reactor to cut power to Afterlife - the main HQ of Petrovsky. Along the way, found the mangled bodies of Cerberus troopers. Nyreen said it had to be adjutants who had done that. Once the power came on, the adjutants came out. There were very strange. Unlike other husks we had found, I couldn't tell what race they were supposed to be a part of. In any case, adjutants can transform victims into more of themselves. no idea why we found so many dead, untransformed. We fought our way to the reactor but as we got close the attacks stopped. Nyreen predicted it was a trap and she was right. There was a force field around the reactor that kept us inside.
- Aria then did the unexpected. She reached out with her biotics and tore a hole in the force field. Whatever the technology, it wasn't immune to dark energy and the asari had it in spades. It was only wide enough for me to escape but I could make my way to the controls. Aria was worn out from it and the two of them still had to defend against rampart mechs. Aria wanted me to overload the reactor but that would cut life support, killing a lot of civilians before it could be brought back online. Instead, I took the time to reroute power away from the force fields so that life support was unaffected.
- Video logs showed that Cerberus were implanting humans with control chips and then transforming them into adjutants. Disgusting that they were turn innocent people into monsters.
- Scouting ahead based on a hunch, Nyreen found adjutants attacking civilians in front of Afterlife. We arrived in time to see here take a group of them out with biotic grenades inside of a barrier. I'd never seen Aria truly angry but she was pissed and took up into Afterlife to confront Petrovsky. It was a trap and she was bound and unable to use her biotics. Whatever the device was it was also killing her so I had to free her before that happened. I freed her and cleaned up Cerberus forces nearby at which point Petrovsky ordered a surrender. I'm not sure what he was thinking. When it came to Cerberus, I couldn't afford to take any prisoners. Too high of a chance of indoctrination. Besides, what he did by turning humans into adjutants was unforgivable. There was a price for that. Aria let him go, in honor of Nyreen, but I wasn't so forgiving. I put a bullet in his head.
- Far Rim: Headed out to the Far Rim to find out what was up with the quarians. They had gone to war with the geth and were winning - at least until the geth allied themselves with the Reapers and became too powerful to defeat. I agreed to stop whatever on the geth dreadnought was transmitting the Reaper signal so they the geth did not destroy the quarian civilian ships. Accompanying me would be the newest admiral, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy.
- Geth Dreadnought: Normandy got us in undetected by sensors. As Legion had pointed out to us last time we approached a geth ship, the geth did not use windows so we wouldn't be seen on approach. I had to enter solo and then find a new route for Kaidan and Tali to follow.
- When we got to the source of the Reaper signal we found Legion, hooked into a transmitting device. Legion asked me for help, suggesting it was not on the side of the Reapers. We had to disable the restraints. While looking for the controls, Legion said that the geth had sided with the Reapers only to save themselves from the quarian attack. If the quarians died, it would be through their own doing. Once free, Legion disabled the drive core, taking down all barriers and weapons, as a gesture of good will. Problem was Admiral Gerrel decided to attack and destroy the dreadnought with us still aboard. Worse, it still left the civilian fleet in danger. It was a narrow escape and did not leave me in a good mood.
- Normandy: I was pissed when I came on board. Gerrel tried to tell me the mission parameters had changed while all I saw was someone who endangered the lives of his own people. Moreover, he has no idea of my own mission and how he fucked the galaxy would have been if I'd died, no clue about the alliances I was building. I punched him in the gut and threw him off my ship. To be honest, I was surprised when Xen tried to push me into handing Legion over to her. I had no qualms after punching her, too. EMS: 3812.
- Tali came up to my cabin for a visit. She's afraid for her people but I told her she was well qualified to be an admiral.
- Stopped by my old retirement place on Intai'sei. It was in ruins but I did find the skull of an animal I overheard some salarian saying the krogan could make use of. Maybe they could clone it or something.
- Cyone: A fuel depot has gone silent. Another N7 and squad went there but was silent. They were okay when we got there but stuck. Reactor needed to be restarted and there were husks around. That meant the Reapers were trying to keep us from being able to refuel. Captain Riley's team was being overrun so I sent James after them. He wants to be an N7 so he was going to help one out. We succeeded and Hackett said they'd protect this facility. EMS: 3976.
- Bryon's Lab: Met with a man who had been investigating the Reapers. Sure, we knew they were real now but he might have some information on them we could use. Before he could tell me anything his assistant shot him and said something about "the darkness cannot be breached". When C-Sec arrived, we interrogated him but he was confused, like he didn't know what was going on. Not exactly like indoctrination but he also wasn't on control of his actions. When he tried to explain about the "Leviathan of Dis", which we had assumed might be a Reaper, he spoke the words "Turn back. The darkness cannot be breached." Then his mind just shut down. He wasn't dead but wasn't capable of thought anymore.
- EDI showed up and went through files. There were some video logs showing exchanges between Hackett and Bryson. Bryson and his team that were investigating the Leviathan were being shadowed by Reapers. The Leviathan had been known to have killed a Reaper but it could have been a rogue. Either way, it was not on the side of the Reapers but it also didn't want to be found. I didn't plan to give it a choice. A man named Garneau sent back a large, colorful orb that seemed to be related to the Leviathan. Using clues found around the lab combined with a galaxy map that had a limited number of systems, we narrowed our search down to one cluster. That's where we'd find Garneau and hopefully some answers.

I still can't imagine playing in real time; I constantly hit the space button even on normal!  I actually had to go to casual for the evil Shep boss fight.  Speaking of which, is there a special controller for those of us on PC?  I frequently find myself getting killed because of control issues with the key board.

Also, in ME3, how do you get readiness to go above 50%?  I'm near the end of my PT and have close to maxed out on forces but am still on 50%.

My big accomplishment this PT (my second ME3) is getting the Quarians and Geth to make peace.  I went with Kaidan over Ashley for this trilogy PT and kind of regret it.  Ashley can be charming even if you're not romancing her.  Kaidan not so much.  (My FemShep is with Liara; I want to see how that long-term romance ends.)

I have the MEHEM and extended Anderson conversation mods installed, so it should be interesting to see if they work and how they leave one feeling about the ending.

Any practical benefit to getting readiness above 50%?

You can actually raise your readiness on N7HQ as well, with missions similar to DAI's war table. Which, iirc, replaced Datapad.

I used extended Anderson conversation on this playthrough that I just finished, and I thought it as awesome I hope you like it.

As far as I know there are mods for Controller support for at least ME2 and ME3, but I'm not sure about ME1. You would need an XBox Controller, even though I also got my PS3 Controller to work on the PC for ME3MP, but it was way more work.

It's definitely amazing what sorts of dialogues can appear if doing many different things A big reason why I love to replay the MET.

Yeah, that must've been a bug, it's not normal for him to just stand there

Javik's fate is determined by what you do at certain points. There's 3 possibilities.
Spoiler tag just in case

melbella

Thanks fraggle and melbella!  I never realized the shard was so pivotal! 

Doggone it!   I truly am a nunchuck!  I really should've gone through the options!  (Always the guy who looks at directions as a last resort...)