What did you do today in ME?

You mean, an entire species Leviathans made thralls 500,000 years ago?  It would be interesting if they still had thralls on that level so recently.

Filed under: Personal
I went to investigate an Ardat-Yakshi monastery, following T'Soni's lead about it. Took her with me for any details she might know, Javik came along too. Turned out the monastery had been overrun with Reaper ground forces, and they had begun to turn the Ardat-Yakshi into hideous things. Their screams were earsplitting. We ran into one Ardat-Yakshi who was still herself. She had a sister who was in the Great Hall. She ran off, but since the Great Hall was our destination anyway, we caught up to her soon. Commandos had been sent to purge the place. Of course they had died, so I took care of it. The sister had already started to turn into one of these creatures, but the Ardat-Yakshi we had met earlier was still alive. I thought about just shooting her, but she promised to stay at the monastery and to be honest, either she'll be dead soon or joining these screaming monsters. There's nowhere for her to go, so she wasn't my problem.
This all reminded me of Morinth. She had just vanished after our Suicide Mission, but wrote me an e-mail recently. I probably should've killed her when I still had the chance. But maybe she's dead already.
When I returned to the Normandy we plotted course for the Citadel once more before heading back to Tuchanka, and after refreshing a bit I invited T'Soni to come up to my cabin. She wanted to show me something she'd worked on. A backup plan should we fail against the Reapers. We won't, but it was not a bad idea.
I should've been tired, but I wasn't. Funny thing. I invited Traynor up because I actually wanted some company and she had written to me about some chess matches before. It all went a little differently than expected. When she came in she was taken aback by me having my own shower. An idea formed in my head and I offered her she could take a shower. I'm not oblivious to her behaviour around me and I noticed how she looked at me whenever I talked to her. Admiring, her eyes telling signs of infatuation. I was dead on and when she mentioned 'someone' she tried to pursue, I joined her in the shower. Seduced her. It felt good, and in a way I felt like I got revenge for what Jacob had done to me, even though I knew that I did not exactly cheat on him. But I was frustrated and this was just what I needed. I actually like Traynor enough to keep her around, and she should be a good distraction from my 'feelings' for Jacob.

A few pics:


So the dialogues were different when choosing Morinth over Samara. Falere never mentions her mother and Shepard will never know her and Rila were Samara's daughters (I think). Pretty cool, so I'm happy I actually went through with picking Morinth for once.
Of course I also died a brutal Banshee death, sync-killed

Interesting.  I've never considered leaving the side quest until that late in the game.

I do know that when you buy it from Afterlife, you are actually dinged the 1000 credits; but if you buy it from the Dark Star on the Citadel, you're not actually charged for it.

From the Personal Logs of the SSV Normandy:



Did Legion's Mission, did Joker's mission, now....through the Omega 4 I go.

Mark Shepard: (sorry for so many posts; I've been off for several days and staying with my parents; been playing a lot of ME while here relaxing)

Normandy: Crew check-ins: Garrus and Joker: Trading jokes. Cortez: Still working on the Kodiak. Vega: Tuchanka reminds him of home. I really feel for this guy right now. Adams, Daniels and Donnelly: Donnelly is still a crep. Adams has nothing to report. Allers: Interviewed me on the genophage cure. I said the krogan were heroes during the Rachni Wars and they wanted to be heroes again. The krogan ate it up and I got more support from them. Chakwas: Back in the med bay. EDI: Uploading Reaper data to the turians. They think they've found a weakness. Liara: Told Glyph to tell the krogan to stay away from the inert Reaper. Sound advice given what we know of dead Reapers and indoctrination. Pets: The fish, the hamster and the dog are all happy. Traynor: She's starting to believe the legends about me are true.

The memorial wall has the name of another friend on it. It's sort of fitting that it's there since this ship is where he and I served together. I'm glad I didn't have to put Wrex there.

Emails: The dalatrass is disappointed, Wrex is off to save the turians, Corinthus thinks Palaven has a shot at surviving, Shiala and the Zhu's Hope colonists are still fighting, ExoGeni is on the side of the colonists, and a thank you note from someone I rescued on Benning.

Citadel: We got there and there was no one to guide us in. There were no sign of Reapers so we weren't sure what was going on. Then Joker tried emergency channels. Of all people, Thane answered. He said Cerberus took command. Kaidan went with the Council to protect them. Took a shuttle down near C-Sec with Garrus and Liara. Dunno why but I felt like having some of my oldest friends with me.

We started fighting Cerberus as soon as we hit set down. Bailey was injured and near the C-Sec entrance. He got us in and set us off to find Councilor Esheel. She's the one I was supposed to be meeting with anyway. As we set off, he took control of the systems and set us in communication with Thane.

I know I'm a Vanguard, which means I rush right into battle, but man do I love shooting the heads off of Cerberus troopers with a sniper rifle. We fought out way to the office of the Executor. Esheel had been meeting with him, which meant he was about to bring down charges on someone powerful. That obviously meant Udina. The Executor was dead but there was no sign of Esheel. Then I saw her. She had been down below and for some reason decloaked. When I updated Bailey, an assassin dropped down near Esheel. I got down there ASAP. It was three on one but the assassin thought it was no challenge. He went for Udina, but that's when Thane showed up. Those two fought, he stabbed Thane in the gut and took off in a skycar that was waiting for him. I took one of my own and followed but he caused it to crash.

Had to fight Cerberus troops and protect civilians while chasing the assassin. Based on the tracker I had on the Council, the assassin was heading their way. Here I encountered Nemesis and Phantom agents. They'd be difficult up close but the Krysae Sniper Rifer tore them to pieces without having to get up close. Caught up with the assassin at the elevators. We followed, with Bailey sabotaging their elevator and speeding ours up. We rode on the outside which gave an advantage.

Finally reached the elevator the Council was on. Leaped over to it but, naturally, they thought it was the assassin and fired on me. They exited and I entered the elevator to follow them. I had my gun trained right on Udina but Kaidan was confused. Didn't help that Udina accused me of being with Cerberus. I lowered my gun and had Liara and Garrus do the same. Kaidan decided to trust me. When Udina tried to open the doors Kaidan told him to step away. He refused. The asari councilor tried to reason with him but he shoved her to the ground and drew his gun. Kaidan shot Udina. He's a damn good shot, too, because it went right through the heart. Yeah, we might not get info out of him but if he's possibly indoctrinated then we probably wouldn't get anything useful anyway. Plus side, the Council was finally on my side. This Council was more reasonable than the first but now they understood me.

Authorized deportation of a con man from the Citadel. There were far more worthy refugees who could use his space.

Normandy: When I stepped into the airlock, Kaidan was waiting for me. He didn't like having an armed standoff with someone he loved. He thought I would have shot him if he hadn't backed down. I told him that could never happen. He also second guessed himself with the shooting but I told him he'd made the right decision. Then he said Hackett offered him a position, probably one that suited his rank. But he'd turn it down if he could join the Normandy. As if he had to ask. I missed Kaidan having my six. And, I have to admit, it was nice watching his six as he walked away.

QEC with Hackett and Anderson. They were surprised to hear about Udina but not shocked. However, they now recognize that working together is the best route to take. All Council species are now on board. Also, the quarians wanted to talk and I needed to go to them. The biggest fleet in the galaxy would be a huge asset.

Liara passed on a request from the Asari High Command. They were vague about their needs other than to say that they'd send commandos to investigate something and needed me to check it out.

War Assets: 3056 + Citadel Defense Force + Zhu's Hope Colonists + Asari Science Team + Asari Second Fleet + Asari Sixth Fleet + MORE Krogan Clans post-Allers interview + STG Task Force + Turian Sixth Fleet = 3624 x 62% = 2246.

Traynor had a lead on ex-Cerberus scientists on the run from Cerberus. Definitely worth checking out. Traynor told me that she was from Horizon and that if it hadn't been for me working with Cerberus back then she'd likely have been abducted and turned into Reaper good. So she wasn't completely opposed to people who had once seen Cerberus in a positive light but wanted out when they started killing everyone in their path.

Emails: Hackett ordered the crew to shore leave, Hackett passed on the assassin's dossier - he's a former N7 named Kai Leng who was dishonorably discharged, Vega wants to talk, Victus asked me to investigate a volus ambassador, Bakara sends her thanks, Aresh - who had survived Pragia along with Jack - helped a shuttle escape Elysium that was being attacked by Reapers forces at the cost of his life, Jack wants to meet at Purgatory, Allers wants an interview in my cabin, Traynor is ready to play chess.

Crew check-ins: Traynor: All good; Garrus: observing the memorial wall, asked if I could have shot Kaidan and I told him no; Kaidan: his mother is fine but his father rejoined the Alliance and went MIA, presumed deceased; Chakwas: wanted me to broker a trade of meds with refugees on the Citadel. They didn't trust her but she thought they'd trust me; Liara: Decided not the plant an informant on the Council staff post-coup; Engineering: Everything going well; Allers: reminded me she wanted an interview; Cortez: disappointed in Udina; Vega: New shoot first ask questions later when it comes to politicians; Pets: Enjoying ship life; Joker: unhappy with Cerberus and not a fan of Kaidan aiming a gun at me; EDI: Decided the Reapers are more fallible than they claimed and wanted to know the purpose of synthetic life, particularly since reproduction wasn't a goal. I could only offer that humans found purpose outside of reproduction. She altered her programming to follow my stated goals of duty, altruism and love. I wasn't suggesting EDI need emulate humans but I'm not going to argue with her about it.

Traynor came to my cabin to play chess. I had a suspicion that she was far better at this than mean, despite my tactical skills. As she pointed out, the battlefield isn't confined to an 8x8 square grid. She won. Twice. Still, EDI's instincts were right (do AI have instincts?) about Traynor. Huge asset to the Normandy.

Quarian Envoy Ship: I had Garrus, Liara and Kaidan back with me. Wrex wasn't an option but I could get Tali so I headed out to speak to the quarians. I was disappointed to have to deal with the admirals. I pretty much hated all of them. And the reasons why were illustrated when I learned that, in the midst of the Reaper invasion, the quarians decided to go to war with the geth. Fucking idiots. It would have been fine except that the geth allied themselves with the Reapers to save themselves. They got an upgrade that made them far more powerful than the quarians and it was likely that the quarians would be destroyed. The signal came from a geth dreadnought and I had to go on board to to disable it. It was only when they told me their newest admiral would be accompanying me that I felt better - it was Tali.

Geth Dreadnought: Tali and Kaidan were coming with me but the one unsecured docking tube was a wreck. I went to secure it and would have the others follow. Fortunately, the stealth drive kept the Normandy hidden and, as Tali had previously pointed out, the geth ships didn't use windows. We were essentially invisible. The tube broke off when I got to the other side so I was going to have to secure a different tube. I got them on board and Tali gave us access to the rest of the ship.

We made our way to the operations center but the Reaper signal couldn't be locked down from there. We had to go to the source by way of the maintenance tunnels. Got a message en route from Admiral Raan. Admiral Koris's ship had been shot down by a planetary defense cannon. Fate unknown. And he was always the most reasonable of the admirals even if he wrongly brought Tali to trial a while back. He was, at least, trying to prevent the quarians from going to war with the geth.

The maintenance tunnels themselves were a death trap, shooting electrical bursts at us a regular intervals. Dodging that and killing geth was no easy task. When we got to the point where the Reaper signal was being transmitted, we found none other than Legion. It had all kinds of cables holding it in place. It also asked for help. I identified it to Kaidan as a friend but he was skeptical, believing all geth were reprogrammed by the Reapers. Legion confirmed that the geth only allied with the Reapers because they didn't want to be destroyed by the quarians. Tali was understandably conflicted. She didn't believe any circumstances should lead to a Reaper alliance but also knew her own people put themselves in this position.

Once we freed Legion he shut down the dreadnought's drive core, disabling the weapons and barriers. That just made Gerrel stupid. He launched an attack with us still on board. It's like that asshole never learns. The whole reason for this mission was to allow time for the civilian fleet to escape. Now that chance was lost. Even Raan was forced to support him but very much against her will.

Normandy: Hackett told me we needed the geth fleet but damn if I hadn't reached my limit with the short-sighted quarian decisions. Garrel wanted me to agree with him that he made the right decision. Not only did I disagree, but he'd also endangered the mission and my squad and his people. I punched him in the gut and threw him off my ship. I refused to deal with him directly any longer. And when Legion showed up Xen tried to argue with me about letting her study with him. Did she not just see how I reacted to her Gerrel's idiocy? That geth was far more trustworthy than half the quarian admirals.

Emails: Gianna Parasini is helping with the Crucible, Liara wants to meet on the Citadel, Garrus wants to meet near the C-Sec shuttles, Maelon was glad to hear that his work had led to a genophage cure, Kaidan wanted dinner at Apollo's Cafe, Joker wanted me to meet he and EDI at Purgatory, Miranda wanted to meet up again.

Citadel: Dinner with Kaidan at Apollo's Cafe. We had a heart-to-heart, long overdue. Kaidan said he wanted to be with me and I had to admit I really wanted him, too. So we decided to give it a go. Hell, if we were gonna die anyway we may as well break all the rules. Since he's my XO, and Liara is using his office, I figured maybe he could bunk with me. I had the space for it.

Dear Ashley,

I now have two of the old team with me! I found Tali on Haestrom doing research into that systems sun. She says it's aging way faster than it should; all I know is it fried the hell out of our shields and Kal'Reegar, one of the Quarian forces their to protect Tali, told me that it had been murder on all their equipment as well... didn't seem to affect the geth though. They had arrived there shortly after the Quarians and had pretty much decimated them. Fortunately though, not before they managed to get Tali secure in a bunker. The geth were trying to force the bunker door and Reegar was about the only one left outside. It was a good thing that we arrived when we did or no one would have made it out alive.

After scooping up Tali, we stopped in at Illium. Liara was there but won't join me. She seems very obseessed about the Shadow Broker... something about him kidnapping her friend... boyfriend? Anyway, I don't think you have to worry about her trying to seduce me anymore... not that I was ever interested in anyone but you back then.

BTW, we picked up another recruit on Illium... a dying assassin. Gah, I wish the Illusive Man would send me some decent dossiers!

Miss you more than ever.
V.

My sentiments exactly.

From the Personal Logs of the SSV Normandy:



Sooo, yeah. the Suicide mission is done. And it only took me an hour. Only died once. And got everyone was alive. So now I have to wonder if I should import this save into ME 3 or stick to importing my canon 'world state' into ME 3, with Mordin dead? As I debate this, and input is welcome, time to go do the Normandy Crash sight and then Arrival.

Professor: Good morning class.
class: Good morning Professor themikefest
Professor: Before Ms. Shepard begins, I have 2 things to announce. 1) I will not be here Wednesday morning due to a doctors appointment. No. Its nothing to worry about. Just a routine checkup. mrsthemichellefest will fill in. I will be here in the afternoon. 2) As you know my office is open from 2pm-4pm for any of you to ask questions about class or need extra help with any troubles you might have. This week, my office will be open until 5pm. ok. Ms. Shepard. The floor is yours.
Stacy Shepard: Thank you Professor

Professor: Interesting. Are there other videogames you play besides this...Mass Effect game?
Stacy Shepard: Oh yes Professor. I like the Uncharted series. Bioware, the ones who make ME, have Dragon Age which is good. There are others, but those are the ones I play the most.
Professor: I look forward to hearing about the next game from you next week. Alright class. Lot's on today's agenda. We will have a test before the end of class. Just giving you a heads up. Ok. Turn to page 376 of your textbook, we will talk about.........

I'd import your save game, but after the crash site and Arrival. I always do the crash site first. For RP purposes it's the very first thing I can do to show that I would be with the Alliance if they were doing anything at all to stop the Collectors. But they're not so here I am as a Spectre who is allowed to do whatever it takes to get the job done. If that means aligning with the enemy temporarily, so be it. However, I haven't forgotten my origins or ignored those who weren't fortunate enough to have four billion credits spent on reviving them. You think they could have found Ash's, um, ashes on Virmire and cloned her back into existence? I mean if Shepard could have his memories after his brain was basically turned to mush, I'm sure something could be done for Ash.

Today, Benjamin did stuff.
Some N7 mission, saved his best boy Jacob, visited Thessia, checked out a monastery, found a giant cuttlefish, ruined the Armax arena, watched b-ball with Steve, visited Sanctuary, had a party, shoved an omni blade up Kai Leng's ass, went to Earth and became a Reaper.
Sorry Steve.

The little glowing twit did manage to talk me out of it at first. But it felt wrong during the sliders. Also learned that I can't cheat the crappy save system of this game and copy and paste an older auto save. So had to go through Shields again. This is why no one loves you ME3 >:C
Well it could have been worse. And I got to see the full paragon resolution of TIM again. It was glorious.

As for new stuff. Have never gotten top score in the Arena nor done the Unusual numbers quest, so that was quite fun. Had to do the last bit twice, since the Banshees in the first round were on Speed or something. Just swoosh, right on top of Benjamin's shoulders. Crazy stuff. 
Also tried Relay Defense. That was kind of fun. But didn't get the high score this time around. Too bad Towers of Hanoi was unavailable. 

Anywhos, will probably be looking at ME1 next when I'm in the Mass Effect mood, since the ME3 bunch is done and the ones left in ME2 don't quite fit my plans at the moment. Have also been sneaking into the character creator and made (too many :C) faces that I'm fond of. So they need some kind of story, right?