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Deception Novel
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Description:
Deception is a military history novel written by human author William C. Dietz. Known for being littered with factual errors, undeveloped writing, and plot inconsistencies, critic reviews range from "deeply flawed" to claiming "it boldly lives up to its name."

Prior the Reaper War, and in a seemingly absurd attempt by the publisher to raise soldier morale, shipments of the paperback book were sent to ships throughout the Alliance fleet. Procurement officers were initially baffled on what to do with the unwanted cargo, as they did not have the need nor the room for the literature.

Although the majority of the books were dumped into space, remaining copies were still put to notable use. Ships with front-line ground troops utilized them mainly as target practice, while others used them for simpler things, such as origami, door stops, and hitting snoring bunkmates. In a slightly more official capacity, the books were used two-fold; first, as packing product when transporting ordinance and heavy munitions, and second, to simply get them off the ship.

One sergeant on leave at the Citadel stated that the book gives a soldier everything he needs to keep going. When questioned about it further, he stated that, "the pages may be a bit scratchy, but it's actually strong and super absorbant."

That looks awesome. I can't use mods though because I play on PS3.

What mod is this from?

I assume it is but maybe the poster just made it up on the fly?

From the Journal of Ioan Shepard:

- 2181 Despoina: EDI caught a trace of Leviathan's energy signature here. Kaidan, EDI and I took a shuttle down to the ocean world. Kaidan expressed some doubts about being friendly with this thing but I pointed out that anything that could - and would - kill a Reaper was something we wanted working for us. Cortez said our probe was located deep beneath the ocean. The shuttle could take the pressure. That is, until a pulse shorts out all systems on the shuttle. Cortez was able to glide in for a landing on some sort of floating wreck in the ocean. There are many other similarly stranded ships, some which have unrecognizable insignia. Of course, this is inside of the the Terminus Systems so there could be a lot of there where don't know about.
- We scouted around while Cortez tried to make some repairs. Saw several of the Leviathan artifacts. Initially, I planned to leave them alone so as not to piss off the Leviathan. But then I saw dead bodies next to every single one of them and decided I'd rather not have those things force me to stay and stare to death. Especially not after Ann told me the Leviathan wanted to kill me. Then some husks, brutes, marauders and cannibals dropped in to fight. Finally, Cortez got the shuttle airborne and provided some cover fire. For about five seconds before a second pulse brought it back down. It was clear the Leviathan didn't want anyone to leave this planet. Cortez suggested that only by finding Leviathan would we be potentially able to leave the planet. In order to do that, we'd have to use an old Triton mech (like an Atlas mech but modded for deep sea exploration). I had to charge it and then go diving. Kaidan was not on board with this plan but we had no other options.
- The deeper I went, the worse the communication got until I finally lost them. It was also dark like nothing I'd ever experienced. Space was nothing like this. Fortunately, I had a supply of flares to use once I hit the floor. I wasn't at the bottom but pretty damn close. There were huge jellyfish, unlike the little guys in my fish tank. I did record audio logs of what I was experiencing in the event that I didn't make it back but that somehow someone was able to retrieve the Triton mech. Probe was intact when I found it at about 3300 meters deep. Much deeper and the pressure would be too much to survive.
- Then something started to rise up. It looked kind of like a Reaper, but smaller and organic. Could these things be inside of the Reapers? It didn't make sense based on the human Reaper but maybe there was more we didn't know. It wasn't happy I was there. It also said it wasn't a Reaper but something "more" and that Reapers were echoes of it. Reapers are synthetic which does imply something made them. And maybe that something made Reapers in their own image. The Leviathan race existed more than one billion years ago. The jist of it was that they enslaved other races. Some of those races were killed off by synthetics. They created a powerful AI to protect life at any cost. That AI did so by turning on the Leviathan and creating the very first Reaper - Harbinger - from their dead. They have been harvesting organic life ever since, searching for some answer to the problem of synthetics killing organics. The easy answer was to enforce peace, since they seemed that powerful. This just proves that being extraordinarily powerful doesn't stop idiocy.
- It took some time but I convinced the Leviathan to help. It was now exposed to the Reapers so hiding wasn't an option. It made it clear that it wasn't fighting for us but for itself. I could see already that the Leviathan were going to be a threat we'd have to deal with should we actually win the war. They'd naturally want to reclaim their position as masters of the galaxy. The thing I really didn't like was that this thing was in my head. That meant that, like Ann, I was indoctrinated. Still, I'd rather be a puppet on occasion than slowly have my very being eroded away until it simply did what the Reapers wanted by some kind of instinct. But it said my successes were not a product of chance, implying some other force was at work helping me. I couldn't even imagine what that meant.
- Once I had secured their agreement to fight, I activated the emergency thrusters. When I got to the surface I collapsed on the deck, worn out by the intrusion into my mind. Kaidan and EDI were still fighting and Cortez was in the air. That was good. Then a brute started fighting another of its kind, also turning on the husks. I was truly in awe when a Reaper came toward our shuttle and then simply crashed into the ocean. Considering the power of the Reapers, it was terrifying how powerful the Leviathan were. Kaidan told me never to do anything like that again. I guess it's a good thing I'd already gone to Omega without him because I don't think he would have liked it. In any case, this mission was an unqualified success. I heard from Ann Bryson. She was okay and joining the Crucible team. EMS: 4445.

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

Melody received a message from the salarian councillor, Esheel, who claimed to have evidence that Donnell Udina was corrupt and requested a private meeting at the Citadel. When the Normandy arrived, she found the traffic control comms unresponsive. A private message from Thane explained that Cerberus had taken control of the station.

The Normandy shuttle made a hot landing at C-Sec's private bay, finding the place under siege. Melody, Garrus and Liara shot their way past the Cerberus troops and made contact with Cdr Bailey. He explained that Cllr Esheel had a meeting scheduled with the C-Sec executor, and her life was therefore in danger. The squad proceeded through the war zone that was C-Sec HQ, finding evidence of sleeper agents within C-Sec. Arriving at the executor's office, they found him dead. Esheel appeared, having been hiding using a cloaking device, and was immediately attacked by a pretentious poser wielding a sword. Thane appeared out of the shadows and fought him off, but was badly injured in the process.

The squad borrowed a police car and pursued the "Phantom" assassin through the Presidium to the Citadel Tower, where they had to ride atop an elevator in an attempt to beat the assassin to the top. They found Udina with the asari and turian councillors, and Kaidan acting as an escort in his capacity as a Spectre. Melody explained that a Cerberus assassin was right behind them, and Udina was likely dirty, leading his colleagues into a trap. Udina countered by claiming that she was still working for Cerberus; her Ajax armour didn't really help her case.

With Kaidan and Melody pointing guns at each other, her blood ran hot and she refused to lower her weapon, forcing her former colleague to blink first and eventually take her side. Udina showed his true colours, pointing a gun at the asari councillor when she attempted to stop him. Melody executed him immediately. Bailey arrived with a C-Sec squad; both he and the councillors were grateful that a tragedy had been averted.

Melody visited Huerta Memorial to check on Thane, finding the corridors full of civilian victims of Cerberus' coup attempt. She found Kolyat with his father, administering drell last rites: due to complications from Kepral's syndrome, Thane would not recover from his injuries. She joined Kolyat in a prayer that turned out to be for her. (This is one of my favourite scenes in the game, perhaps in the whole trilogy).

The Presidium was a total mess, with wounded civilians being treated in the streets. She'd been having doubts about her former allies since Benning, but this latest atrocity made Melody realize that Cerberus would never come around and join the Alliance in their fight, and she could no longer justify continuing to wear armour with their logo. (Character development!)

While looking around at the devastation, Melody was stopped by a C-Sec detective investigating misuse of batarian diplomatic codes. Using her Spectre privileges, she found links with acts of anti-human terrorism and discovered that the perpetrator was Balak, the instigator of the Terra Nova crisis three years before. He was stupid enough to pull a gun on her; she disarmed him and used his own pistol to settle her unfinished business.

Kaidan was waiting for his former commanding officer at the Normandy docks. Both tense, they cleared the air, Kaidan saying that he no longer doubted her. He explained that Hackett had offered him an assignment, but Melody made him a better offer and he agreed to join the Normandy squad.

Via QEC Skype, Hackett and Anderson expressed disbelief that Udina would attempt to sell the Council out to Cerberus. They also forwarded intel on the assassin, Kai Leng, with whom Anderson had some history. (I've read the novel trilogy since my previous playthrough, so Kai Leng seems a little less pointless now).

Melody checked in with some of her squad:

• EDI asked about the purpose of synthetic life. Melody encouraged her to use Cerberus' former goals as a starting point to determine her own purpose.
• She found Garrus at the cenotaph, to which Thane's name had been added. He expressed relief that the standoff atop the Citadel Tower had not ended in Kaidan's death.
• Like Melody herself, Kaidan was having mixed feelings about not being able to fight on Earth, where his mother was living, his father MIA. Melody expressed empathy with her colleague.

Current EMS: 1386. (Barely higher than last time; perhaps I misread it before. Checked and double-checked this time!)

Pics and video follow. I screwed up a few times in the combat, all completely avoidable mistakes of course All the deaths (four in total, as I recall) have been edited out of the video, but there are plenty of non-death mess-ups for you to enjoy.

Holy hell... just finished the trilogy ... I had all the dlc's installed so the ride was again great (it just gets better and better), but I had forgotten to install the crusial extended cut.

I have experienced the old ending just once, so I didn't remember how surrealistic awful it was. Just how... wow... I didn't even realize that the discussion with the starboy was so short. He simply just told me to pick a colored card.

*installing the extended dlc even though it's 4 am*

Never played without the EC but I'm glad you're putting it in.  You can just go back to a prior save and finish things off with a better ending.  Me, I use mods because I prefer them to even the EC.

Started an ME1 PT with Giovanna Shepard, colonist, war hero, Paragon Vanguard on Hardcore. I chose the sniper rifle, which I really liked on my Infiltrator PT, as her additional power. Now as Vanguard, she can use the pistol, shotgun, and sniper rifle in addition to her biotic powers.

I have two mods installed: MEUTIM and the latest version of rondeeno's ME1 same sex romance mod. After having completed the Liara romance with Loredana, Giovanna, instead, will go after Ashley. It should be interesting to see what changes rondeeno made to that romance.

After becoming a Spectre, Giovanna first went to the Artemas Tau cluster to search for Benezia's daughter, Liara T'Soni. Giovanna believed that if Liara was free from Saren's influence, her expertise on the Protheans might help Giovanna make sense of the vision she had after interacting with the Beacon on Eden Prime. She might also convince Benezia to surrender. She found Liara trapped in a Prothean ruin while being hunted by Saren's Geth. They then rescue Liara and go to Noveria in search of Benezia.

On Noveria, they find a planet run by business interests that turn a blind eye on questionable research. Benezia is here to deal with some crisis in the Binary Helix; BH is controlled by Saren. After dealing with corruption in Port Hanshan, they head to Peak 15 where BH's labs are located. They are warned that Benezia had asari commandoes with her. Before they are even able to grab a Mako, they are ambushed by geth. Upon arriving at Peak 15, they soon find what drew Benezia: large insect-like creatures have escaped BH's labs and are attacking all they run into. Giovanna and her team assist the surviving staff and discover the monsters they are fighting are rachni, an extinct species resurrected by BH in hopes of creating super soldiers. They were able to hatch a rachni queen from a long frozen egg on a derelict warship from long ago.

They finally reach the main lab where Benezia and her entourage safeguard the queen. Liara proves loyal to Giovanna in the inevitable battle against geth and asari commandoes. They find out that Benezia has been brainwashed by Saren; she uses the term "indoctrinated." Unable to save Benezia, Giovanna finds herself communicating with the rachni queen who uses a fallen commando to talk to her. The queen says that her violent "children" attack because they were raised separate from her and can no longer be saved. She asks for mercy for her species; she promises to raise her children in isolation from other species and avoid hostilities. Giovanna shows mercy and lets the queen fly off. After finishing off the rest of the queen's psychotic children, Giovanna takes the Normandy on a number of missions fo0r the Alliance. The VI in a training base on Earth's moon has gone rogue and is killing marine trainees. Giovanna and company shut down the VI, killing numerous drones defending it. They also investigate a rogue black ops group named Cerberus on behalf of Admiral Kohaku, whose marines were killed by a thresher maw in a trap laid by Cerberus.

I continue to admire how well-designed the main missions are. I'm also annoyed at how lame and repetitive the secondary missions are. How many times did they reuse the same warehouse or lab? One also has to wonder about Ashley's iconic white and pink Phoenix armor! All the other marines in her squad appear to have been dressed in more military-like outfits. One would think they would all be wearing the same thing. I always feel evil whenever I put Phoenix armor on any of the male characters. (It does look good on Tali, though.) The stats on Phoenix armor are also pretty miserable, so it typically gets sold or turned into Omni Gel.