Ryder's Mass Effect Experience

More Side Quests
Asari Diplomacy (Part 2) - Artemis Tau Cluster / Macedon System / Planet Sharjila
I'm back at the Artemis Tau cluster. Note the simplistic listing of cluster / system / planet above. I'll use that to inform you my location in the future. Now to finish up the business I have with Ms. Dantius. After dealing with the slavers in the base, it turns out that their leader is related to none other than Nassana Dantius! In fact, it's the very sister she said was kidnapped! You mean... it was yet another trap? *GASP* No! I totally didn't see that coming in this trap-filled game.

Oh well. We'll deal with the asari diplomat another time - in fact, we can't fully deal with her till the next game... Sigh. Wasting my time helping these people.

Hostile Takeover (Part 2) - Gemini Stigma / Han / Mavigon
And another crime syndicate shut down. Time to 'report' to Helena, I guess.

Hostile Takeover (Part 3) - Horse Head Nebula / Fortuna / Amaranthine
Upon reunited with Helena, I place her under arrest as the leader of her crime cartel. She tries to justify herself by saying her organization would only restrict itself to small crimes like gambling and smuggling illegal tech, but I'll have none of that, giving her one last chance to surrender.

Spoiler

Die by my hands then. Suits me fine. Like Fist, she'll make a small appearance in the second game if you let her go - but such an insignificant appearance isn't worth it. I've been trying to find an excuse to shoot this woman. lol

Espionage Probe - Voyager Cluster / Amazon / Agebinium
This is the first star cluster I've found to have 'cluster' in its name. Must be copyright reasons with a certain other sci-fi franchise...

It seems that some Alliance probes have entered turian territory, probes that were set to self-destruct when discovered to prevent enemy rewiring. To add even worse news on top of bad ones, the detonation is about equal to Hiroshima explosion. With the shaky relationship humans have with turians, this will inevitably lead to WWIII between them for sure. Looks like it's up to me to clean up other people's mess again.

So, a suspicious part about the probe is that it landed somewhere far beyond Alliance territory, suggesting that someone moved it. When I arrive at the signal source, lo and behold, the one responsible for moving it shamelessly comes out and admits it.

Spoiler

This man Elanos Haliat here was responsible for leading the Skyllian Blitz, a massive assault on a human colony called the Elysium. This will be more significant if your Shepard's service background is "War Hero"; mine is Ruthless, so I merely have a smaller part of it (I led the retaliation attack on Torfan). You can find out more of this at the Mass Effect wiki.

Anyway, Elanos here is butthurt we stood against his attack back then, so he now wants to set an example by eliminating me. Pretty pathetic, especially when I'm playing a girl. He leaves me to die with the hydrogen bomb set to explode (IN 10 SECONDS!!), but I've played enough of the minigames (frogger) to easily dismantle the damn thing. After I exit through the backdoor, I find the man and his crew waiting at a camp downhill with my Mako. Seizing my tank and blasting them all away was a piece of cake. So much for the leader of "thousands of pirates, slavers, and criminals of every stripe." lol

Cerberus - Voyager / Yangtze / Binthu
Before I carry on with this important mission, I just want to say...

We've found ourselves a Prothean pyramid!!!

Spoiler

Man, aliens and pyramids. Feels like Aliens vs. Predator all over again.

Next to the pyramid, we've followed Admiral Kahoku's coordinates to the Cerberus bio-weapons he was talking about. Seems like this "Cerberus" is breeding rachni. Great. Just when I thought I've seen the last of those cockroaches. Of course, there's more (there always is); in another research base on the planet, I've found something similar to Husks called the Thorian Creeper (which we're not supposed to meet till Feros). And at the final base, I've found more rachni (tiny green worker rachni) and also... Kahoku's body. Looks like we're too late (though, like I said, he'll be dead even if you come immediately ).

 

Vaguely remember this quest. Might have been the first playthrough from way back. Think the second time I did one about Cerberus or something? Yeah it depends on the background choice you do

 

Nah, if you're referring to the Cerberus quest, it's the same regardless of your Shepard's background history.

 

Even More Side Quests
Hades' Dogs - Voyager / Columbia / Nepheron
AKA Cerberus: Part 2, if you know your Greek mythology. It seems that these boys have another facility on another planet. Along with putting down those rabid pooches, I get to haul myself in a Thrasher Maw here too. It's hunting season, boys!

After retrieving some encrypted data files from their base, the Cerberus case comes to a close... for now. We'll see more of them in the second game. A lot of them. Like as if we're working with them...[/spoilers]

Back on my ship, I receive a transmission from an agent of the Shadow Broker, the underground information trader. Seems that they're the reason Kahoku got Cerberus' coordinates in the first place. In exchange for their location, they wanted the aforementioned data files I got. Of course, I rejected. These belong to the Alliance, and Shepard ain't gonna trust some shady broker from nowhere's town. Ruth might be dirty, but she ain't no traitor.

Spoiler

Lost Module - Attican Beta / Hercules / Eletania
The Alliance lost another probe. This time, it was shot down while spying on the geth, so it might be important. While ashore, I find another vision-inducing Prothean artifact. Remember Sha'ira? Well, for helping her, she gave me a trinket. This is where the jewelry does it magic, by activating the artifact.

Spoiler

Unfortunately, unlike the Prothean ruin in the second game, the vision here is all text-based. I guess they didn't have the budget and time to create another vision cutscene.

The vision shows the memories of a caveman through Shepard's eyes, hunting and claiming a mate. It seems that aliens (or rather, Protheans) had observed us primitive primates long ago, and that memory's transmitted through an implant buried into the caveman's skull. Basically, we were the animals being observed and studied back then. I wouldn't be surprised if they had kept some of us in a zoo. But don't feel too bad. Compared to the salarians before they evolved (click link), the cavemen were practically Einsteins.

I later find the probe, but it seems space-monkeys have made off with the data module in the probe. This is a fun part where you get to shoot some monkeys for Renegade points (simply searching them will grant Paragon ones). Due to a glitch, you can actually farm an infinite amount of Paragon points by searching the monkeys and then reloading your save. Since I'm a Renegade this time round, I have no use for this. Time for us primitive apes to kill other apes!

Spoiler

Says the alien who will sleep with anyone.

After slaughtering my way through those damn dirty apes, one of them eventually drops the module. I love how Tali says "He dropped the data module!" with such intensity, like as if she's asking me to stop with the brutality already. xD But no, I'm gonna wipe the rest of'em out. 'Coz I'm Shepard, and "Genocide" is my middle name. But just as I'm about to have my fun, I run into a geth ambush! lol Karmic justice, I guess.

Geth Attack - Attican Beta / Theseus / Feros
Time to move on to our main objective. There's a quaint little human colony here called Zhu's Hope. As soon as I stepped off the ship, there's a geth attack. Seems like the geth forces here are heavier than Noveria, so Saren must really want something here. I speak to the leader of the colonists here, Fai Dan, and he informs me that the geth's main base is at the ExoGeni HQ, the company funding this slum.

You can also spend some time here helping out the colony with clearing out the geth, restoring the food and water supply, just little stuff that will prolong the colony's existence. On the other hand, you can go the Renegade path and ensure this colony never see the light of day again, but that will be for later. For me, the mission takes top priority. And besides, that Renegade decision is coming up soon, and I'm not sure if I'll choose it yet.

On my way to the geth base, there's comm chatter regarding someone named Lizbeth coming from a group of colonist survivors. Seems like one of them, Juliana Baynham, lost her daughter in the base I'm heading to. I make no promises about bringing her back (not like I have a choice anyway, since she'll return by default).

Like Therum, I have to abandon my Mako halfway through as I enter the base. Here, I come across the varren for the first time (literally rabid alien pooches this time) and put them down.

Spoiler

I also run into the aforementioned daughter who mistakes me for a varren and almost shot me. She vaguely mentions a Thorian, but won't tell me more till I deactivate the geth energy field trapping her (and us) here.

Upstairs, there's a very upset krogan here (presumably one of Saren's mercs) having technical difficulties with the V.I.

Spoiler

Wonder if he'd like to send an error report. Before I get to tell him that sending error reports are pointless on a compute, he ragequits and starts taking it out on me.

The V.I. reveals that there's actually a Thorian beneath Zhu's Hope. More importantly, the colony is actually a testing ground to discover the effects the Thorian has on humans. Looks like ExoGeni's another Weyland-wannabe. Also, it seems that Lizbeth knew about the Thorian infection all along, but we'll deal with her later.

The Thorian
The energy field is coming from a geth dreadnought with its claws pierced into the building walls. To get out, I need to remove just one of those claws. Two more side quests can be picked up here, including another quest involving, yet again, Cerberus. The other one involves traveling to four different planets to stop a geth incursion. It's probably the most annoying side quest of all, but we'll get to that later.

Destroying the claw is simple enough. It's a numbers game where I need to click the right buttons to add up to a number between 31-34.

Spoiler

"Take your stinking claws off the building, you damn dirty geth!"

With the energy field down, I exit the building and bump into Lizbeth, who said she only lied because ExoGeni threatened to infect her with the Thorian's virus unless she keeps it under wraps. Also, she reveals that the Thorian has mind-control capabilities, which might explain why Saren wants this creature so bad.

Back at Juliana and the other survivors, an ExoGeni employee there reveals the true nature of the organization, and how it wants the colony purged. He doesn't live long. Juliana reveals that the colonists will try to stop me from getting to the Thorian... which is where the aforementioned Renegade option comes in. She gives you an anti-Thorian gas grenade (literally what it says on the tin) to neutralize the rabid colonists, but you can choose not to use them and just kill them all. lol

Here's the logic of it: using the gas grenade might affect you in combat too (it won't; it will only make the fight a bit harder). In other words, risking your life for a bunch of colonists. Personally, this is a lot different than killing the rachni, so I think I'll go with the gas grenade option. Massacring a bunch of people when there's another option isn't my Shepard's style (even if you get tons of Renegade points for it). Still won't help them with their food/water supply problem though since that gets in the way of my mission.

Sorting between the Thorian Creepers and the colonists can be a bit tricky, but with my shield level, it's not impossible. There are also extra grenades, so I just need to aim properly and I get to save everyone. Well, almost everyone.

Spoiler

Never underestimate the human willpower. Fai Dan the colonist leader died heroically.

Paragon Points +32

Told you there's a lot of points to be had. I might need to use a cheat later on to increase my Renegade points because certain important options in the game needs high Renegade.

Spoiler

Can't have a sci-fi game without at least one eldritch abomination. The Thorian also spits out an asari that speaks on its behalf, full of goo and Thorian slime. Kinky. Time to destroy her and her 'father.'

To destroy the Thorian, we need to blast away the tentacles it has latched onto the walls of the structure - kinda like the situation with the geth claws earlier, but this time, we've got five tentacles to deal with, all the while being hunted down by an army of zombies that hurl poison at me (the Thorian Creepers). Meanwhile, the asari is respawned again via the Thorian mouth, along with all the juicy content that comes with it.

You will definitely want to kill the asari clones first because if she pushes you down with her Biotic Throw, it gives the Creepers a chance to vomit their deadly acid at you (what's with these aliens spitting stuff from their mouth? disgusting creatures with no sense of hygiene) - and yes, they are deadly. Like the rachni acid, they bypass your shield and armor, eating directly into your health.

After I eventually skewer all of this hentai monster's tools of the trade, an asari named Shiala suddenly bursts out from what looks like a nasty pimple on the wall.

Spoiler

Seems like the Thorian was using her body to clone those biotic asari I had to deal with just now. She reveals herself as a follower of Benezia, and was under the same hypnotic influence of Saren and his ship, Sovereign. She explains that Saren sought out the Thorian in order to gain the Cipher, an ancestral memory that the Thorian gained when it consumed their corpses. I got Shiala here to share the Cipher, which is supposed to make sense of the vision I got from the Prothean beacon. The message isn't pretty.

Spoiler

Like something that came straight out of The Ring, eh? lol

After the mind-f*** I get, I have to decide Shiala's fate - let her stay and help the colonists or kill her for siding siding with the enemy. Since she did help Shepard out, she's willing to go on a little faith here to buy her story about Sovereign's mind-control powers. Shiala gets to live.

Time to leave Feros. Three down, two more story missions to go. I just realize that I didn't visit the Citadel after Noveria. Damn. Let's hope I didn't miss anything. Looks like that will be our next destination.

 

Feros Debriefing
Liara tries to make more sense of the 'Vision 2.0' I received from Shiala by melding with my mind.

Spoiler

Considering that melding with someone's mind is the asari equivalence of having sex, Shepard got lucky twice today - once with Shiala, now with Liara. I wonder if this is against military regulations.

But Liara isn't able to make anything useful out of that melding (doesn't matter; had sex). Oh well. Looks like we need something else that Saren has to make full sense of it. Time to head for Virmire, I guess. But first, I have to report my findings.

The Council isn't too happy about me killing a valuable subject of study, the Thorian. Of course, I told them the only reason to capture it is to kill it, to which the turian makes a rather distasteful analogy on how humans kill things we don't understand. It's a fair point, considering what I did to the rachni, but it's like pots and kettles here, that f-ing hypocrite turian. He add on that I would go to any lengths to help a human colony. Man, he's really baiting me to disconnect the call. I'm not in the mood today to have my patience tested, turian.

Spoiler

This marks the first time I disconnect the Council call. I wonder if there'll be future opportunities.

The Turian Councilor was a complete f-ing hypocrite. He and the other Council races would literally go on to save their own races too in the third game anyway, Jesus F-ing Christ. Pissed me off so much.

Squad Conversations
Kaidan
Kaidan probably heard my conversation with the Council and tries to convince me how human aliens can be by bringing up his old biotic instructor again, the tough turian teacher that cut corners named Vyrnnus. Remember that Turkish chick Kaidan mentioned? Well, Vyrnnus broke her arm because she didn't use biotics to pull over a glass of water, using her hand to grab it instead. What a stupid f-ing teacher. Of course, Kaidan stood up for her and the turian slashed his face with a knife. Kaidan cut loose with his biotics and gave him a biotic kick. It killed him immediately.

Spoiler

He explains that even though he hated Vyrnnus, it merely meant that he hated Vyrnnus as an individual, not turians as a species. I express my respect for the man, being able to overcome his trauma and still remain a pacifist, unlike a certain Renegade carrying her baggage around.

Liara
Her convo is actually pretty short. She tells me not to keep my burdens bottled up, before proceeding to add to said burden by reminding me that the fate of the entire galaxy is on my hands. Yeeeah, Liara, try taking up some social classes. You desperately need it.

Wrex
Wrex shares more of his adventures as a mercenary. A volus diplomat hired him to get rid of an asari commando, who turned out to be an old mercenary friend of Wrex named Aleena. He let her choose their battleground, and after fighting it out on an old space station, the station exploded, but he later found out she had escaped anyway. Out of respect for her nine lives, he let her go, coercing the volus into keeping him around to protect him. She never returned and the volus lived a long healthy life.

Spoiler

Ashley
It's Armistice Day, when the First Contact War (when humans had their alien first-encounter with the turians) ended. Ashley, being a humanist, always celebrates it with her family. She reveals that her grandfather's the commanding officer that raised the white flag to the turians. Explains why she has such a hatred for aliens - not that I can blame her, after the conversation I had with that upstuck Turian Councilor. Of course, Shepard has no pity for yellow-bellied soldiers and said her granddad deserved to be blacklisted. Were it any other more significant enemies, such as Saren, surrendering would be costly, and Shepard won't stand for it.

Of course, Ashley and her grandpops are two different people, and Shepard recognize that distinction in quality. Ashley would definitely fight till the bitter end, as exemplified by a future mission in Virmire.

Garrus
Garrus is worried that Saren would escape from our clutches, and that the Council might even try to protect him when he haul him in. Garrus suggests that we deal with the problem ourselves - permanently. This is the point of the game where you get to harden Garrus or not. If hardened, he'd have joined the Spectres by the second game. He merely mentions it briefly in ME2, but it's a nice option you might want to consider.

Personally, I would love more than anything to do away with the backroom politics and just kill Saren myself. But... sigh, that will make Shepard no better than Saren, yada yada yada, the usual morality play. It wouldn't be professional too. I also convince Garrus that killing Saren might also lose the chance to learn important information from him.

Tali
The quarian expresses her sentiments about being part of this important mission chasing Saren on her pilgrimage. She also thanks me for treating her like an equal.

Spoiler

She's an adorable little bubble. No wonder she's associated with moe by fans. Of course, she gets a lot tougher over the next two games.

Returning to the Citadel
Doctor Michel
Looks like our good doctor is in trouble again. Turns out, she used to give out free medicine and was fired for it, and now someone's blackmailing her using that info. Time to 'deal with it', Shepard style. The blackmailer who shows up turns out to be a krogan, but he's easy enough to deal with.

Spoiler

I get a discount on medical supplies afterwards, Killing criminals for cheaper healthcare! Ironic, but makes sense, I suppose.

The Fan
Ugh. Conrad returns for a third time. This time, he literally wants to sign up as a freaking Spectre! Oh my god.

Spoiler

He wet his pants and ran crying.

Reporting to Udina
He's happy that the colony on Feros survived, but even when happy, he's still got a stick up his ass.

Spoiler

Clearly he never had to decide the fate of an entire species.

Asari Diplomacy (Part 3)
I confront Nassana about using me for her dirty work, but she tries to justify it as keeping herself from being fired, being associated with a criminal. She tries to buy me off with extra credits, but I'd have none of it. She then offers something extra: the authorization to purchase very rare and valuable asari mods from certain stores (I'm not sure which one, to be honest). We'll get back at Nassana in the next game.

Seems like we've already done most of the interesting side quests during our last time here. There's another side quest where I plant a bug for Emily Wong to help her report about overworked traffic controllers endangering the Citadel traffic, but that's it. Guess I didn't miss much. I think there's actually a lot more to be missed in between visits during the second game.

But for now, there are more galaxy side quests to complete. This will probably be our final set of non-Citadel side quests. There's a lot to be covered here, including the introduction of a new species: the batarians.

Bring Down the Sky - Exodus / Asgard / Asteroid X57
We pay a visit to Asgard. No, not that Asgard. Nevertheless, this star system contains a series a of planets named after Asgardian gods; Borr, Loki, and Tyr. There's also a human colony planet named Terra Nova (no, not a reference to the Star Trek one; the wiki states that it's more likely a homage to the Heavy Gear game universe). Our destination is the asteroid heading towards that planet. Yes, heading towards it. As in dinosaur-mass-extinction style.

Spoiler

To witness an asteroid impact first-hand from space, it's actually kinda beautiful, if it doesn't cost millions of lives.

So it seems that this isn't humanity marked for extinction by the will of Norse gods. I mean, if it is, I would have just left them to their fate. It's like what the sex-god Goldblum said in Jurassic Park: "Dinosaurs had their shot, and nature selected them for extinction." If nature had selected humanity next, well... there are always humans populated elsewhere.

But no, it turns out that a set of torches were drilled into the asteroid and they are blasting it towards the planet. In other words, it's an artificial asteroid impact. As I head over to deactivate the first torch, I find out who's behind all this chaos:

Spoiler

Freaking batarians. They and humans have a history. Specifically, they were always fighting over territories with humanity or just straight-up robbing them, sometimes enslaving them. Unfortunately, due to a lot of them being the black sheep, batarians are like the black people of the galaxy. They get a bad rep for the wrongdoings of some of their people, and are always treated like thugs. The thing is, due to the Batarians' strict government law against citizens leaving the homeworld, all Batarians you meet in the game are by default criminals. There can be nice ones, but you'll rarely meet them.

Unfortunately, after the second game, you'll probably never meet the nice ones again. The rest of their race will hate your guts even more due to reasons. And that's as far as spoilers go.

Shutting down the first torch, I receive a transmission from an engineer named Kate Bowman. She tells me a little more about the batarian extremists, but she quickly gets cut off. As I exit, some doofus accidentally shoots me again, mistaking me for a batarian.

Spoiler

Seems like that happens a lot.

Simon here explains how bad it's going to be if that asteroid hits in very vivid details. Considering it's twice the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinos, shit's gonna be really bad. But don't worry, the batarians get bitten by karma reaaaally hard in the second game. I almost feel sorry for them. I know I'm leaking spoilers left and right here but man, I can't wait to rub it in their faces.

Simon also reveals the identity of the batarian leader in charge of this operation, Balak. We'll see him soon enough. Beside the first torch, you'll also find a radio station that plays the music you always hear during elevator rides. It's a shame the music fades away as soon as you step away from the station though.

At the second torch, there are a lot of landmines, so we can't get our Mako near it. Unfortunately, there are also enemies near the base, and my Mako can't get close enough to shoot them. Ugh. So I need to avoid the mines while enemies are shooting at me. This really test your concentration here. But, with some focus, it can be done. You just have to go around the mines and head into the base (in a straight line) from the center of the building where you can see the crates are aligned in front of the entrance. The right side of the building is a trap where the mines are heavily concentrated, so if you step anywhere near there, you explode.

After shutting down this torch, I communicate with Katie again, but she's caught by Balak and threatened to disclose her accomplice - namely myself.

Spoiler

To buy me some time, she lets her colleague get killed in my place instead. Looks like we're running outta time.

There's a grenade cache to the north of the second torch that you can resupply with. You'll pick up those grenades regardless of whether you've reached the maximum amount you can carry, so be careful not to waste any (I wasted 3 outta the 8).

After disabling the third and final torch, I come across Balak's second in-command, Charn. He tries to negotiate with me, claiming that he only signed on to earn a little profit, for "a quick slave grab."

Spoiler

He tries to sell me a sob story about how Balak is forcing him to attack me or he'll be skinned for it, yada yada yada, the same bullshit lackey excuses. He's a slaver, he enslaves people for a living. That's f-ed up. He dies.

Short after, I access Balak's hideout using the keycard I got from Charn's body.

Spoiler

He tries to hold Katie and the other engineers hostage so that he could escape... lol Yeah, sure. It's as if he doesn't know who he's dealing with. He continues rambling on about how it's humanity's fault that batarians are now in exile scrounging for food even though they were the ones who cut connections with the Council because they got all pissy about the aliens there not wanting to help the batarians attack humanity. He continues to assign blame, including my raid on Torfan (which was a retaliation for the batarians' Skyllian Blitz attack on Elysium, the human colony) - but let's face it, boring details aside, he's just finding an excuse to perform a massacre on my people. Time to shut him up.

Spoiler

With him and his army neutralized, I don't really have any reason to kill him. But after he threaten to continue leading the rest of the batarians on some crazy crusade against human colonies, I shoot a couple of rounds into his shoulder and leave him to suffer and die. We'll see his sorry ass again in the third game.

Shame about Katie though, now turned into literal ash.

Spoiler

 

Previously on Mass Effect...

Investigating the geth attack on planet Feros, Shepard came across a human colony being mind-controlled by a species called the Thorian. After destroying it, the unhappy Council stirred up some anti-alien sentiments within Shepard when they made some distasteful accusations. Later on, Shepard also prevented a major catastrophe when batarians dropped an asteroid on another human colony, Terra Nova. Although she was successful in stopping them and their leader, potentially stopping future attacks on human colonies, Shepard's actions caused a small number of casualties in the process.

~~~~

Cerberus rachni Experiment
Listening Post Alpha - Styx Theta / Erebus / Nepmos
I receive an Alliance distress call regarding a listening post being overrun by unidentified hostile life forms. Turns out these are our old foes, the rachni. These bugs are harder to kill than roaches. Looks like it's up to us and a small squad of marines to defend the post. This has a very Starship Troopers vibe when you think about it, so I brought Ashley and Kaidan along just to amplify that atmosphere. There are two ways to defend this post - your Mako or the turrets, but the turrets won't fire without hooking up your Mako's engine, meaning you can only use one or the other.

Personally, using the turrets is a lot more intense and difficult - but also lots more fun. You truly feel like one of those marines in the movies defending against horde of aliens surrounding you. And it's not really impossible to accomplish the task using the turrets. You just have to watch your six.

Spoiler

Eventually, we've cleared off the three waves, but we still need to clear out the bug-hive nearby. Due to the close quarters, it's much more difficult than the open-field fight we had. The trick is to use the crates as covers, maneuvering your way around to block the acid-spits.

Listening Post Theta - Styx Theta / Acheron / Altahe
Same shit. This time, I'm gonna go with Rachni Wars enactment, bringing Wrex (and Garrus) along. There are no marines to defend this time (they're all dead), so the whole 'Troopers' vibe wouldn't be as great as the last mission anyway. The rachni found at the post are few, but I manage to find out that the rachni attack only began after a supply ship arrived from a depot in the Gorgon system, so I guess I should investigate further there.

Depot Signa-23 - Argos Rho / Gorgon / Unidentified Space Facility
More rachni, more tight quarters. Due to the amount of crates aboard the freighter, it can be a maze to work through. After finding a series of audio logs, I find out that this rachni invasion is actually yet another Cerberus operation. Who would have guessed? Seems like they tried to experiment on the rachni, but underestimated them and let them escape.

Spoiler

Before we go, we have to blow up the ship to prevent further contamination. This can be tricky due to the aforementioned maze-like crates... and a whole army of rachni waiting for us. We've got 1 minute and 10 seconds to escape. Had to retry this once because I ran outta time.

The Myriad Side Quests Continue
Major Kyle - Hawking Eta / Century / Presrop
My old CO at Torfan, Major Kyle, has gathered himself a cult of biotic followers who were ostracized by society, now calling himself "Father Kyle". After two Alliance representatives were sent to bring the major back for mental treatment (let's face it, he's gone loony), they were believed to be killed by Kyle's followers. This mission adds additional context if you chose the "Ruthless" service history, as evidenced by the mention of the Torfan mission where Shepard got her men killed to get the job done.

Talking down Major Kyle is easy enough, and it saves me from fighting a bunch of biotics. The man's gone crazy from PTSD, and is now calling his followers his 'children', claiming that he can't abandon them. I convince him that he's endangering them rather than protecting them, since the Alliance will protect bust down the doors and kill his followers if necessary. He agrees to surrender, but only if he gets to explain to his followers about the situation, as they might attack me otherwise and I'll be forced to kill them.

In an ironic turn of events, despite Shepard's involvement with the major at Torfan, her ruthless nature didn't get in the way this time, and she gets the job done without getting anyone killed.

There's a bug with this mission. After you've convinced Kyle to surrender, you can still kill his followers, and he'd still calmly surrender anyway as if nothing happened. lol

Derelict Freighter - Maroon Sea / Caspian / MSV Cornucopia
The freighter is filled with dozens of husks. Like the Depot Sigma mission, this place is filled with lots of crates, so I'm forced into close quarter combat with them. Unlike the rachni, however, these husks explodes with tech energy, burning my shields away. Between the rachni that bypass my shields and the husks that eats away my shields, I don't know which is worse.

Remember those spikes that turn humans into husks? Well, I found dozens of them on board in two of the rooms.

Spoiler

Seems like the crew brought on board an alien artifact that brainwashed them into flying the ship to geth territory, where those robots turned them into husks with the spikes you see here. The geth then presumably left the ship in human territories to make an example of them. But, as you play through the next two games, you'll pick up new information that suggests otherwise, that the geth might not actually be responsible...

ExoGeni Facility - Maroon Sea / Vostok / Nodacrux
I get yet another distress call transmission, this time from an ExoGeni research facility. Heh. Probably should just ignore it and leave'em to die, those corporate evil, but whatever, I'll give it a look.

Funny story here. A bunch of Thorian Creepers tried to attack us, running really slowly towards our Mako. Three guesses who gets the upper hand, the slow-ass zombies with acid-puke or the tank with a cannon.

Spoiler

That is me sending a Creeper's body flying with my machine gun turret. He can't even run towards us because the impact of the bullets are pushing him back.

There are also a herd of space cows here that you can shoot.

Spoiler

Shooting them, however, have no other effect aside from satiating your inner-sadism (or just plain hatred for PETA).

At the ExoGeni base, it seems that these guys haven't learned their lesson since the Zhu's Hope incident. They created another batch of Creepers from the specimens on Feros, and while they managed to domesticate them at first, things went wrong as usual and the Creepers went berserk. Serves them right. They try to buy me off... lol Oh, these criminals. If they only know what kind of person Shepard is. Naturally, they die. But to be fair, their hired mercs fired their weapons first.

Colony of the Dead - Maroon Sea / Matano / Chasca
By the side quest title alone, you should know what we're dealing with - more humans turned into space zombies. Luckily, zombies are easy to sent flying with a tank. Shame they don't produce a Wilhelm scream as they fly like little piggies, but here's a sample to fuel your imagination.


Zombies and the boomstick are like a match made in heavy. Nothing goes as well together than these two, especially in close quarter combat. That being said...

Spoiler

While riding in my Mako, safe and secure, I aiim at a few husks in the distance that are barely moving, which i when I get a very Dawn of the Dead vibe here, like those survivors in that movie that shoot zombies from a distance with their snipers for sport. lol It's like, why are those husks just standing there anyway? Such easy targets. They don't even come running when I shoot them! They just keep standing there! lol

One thing I'm peeved by regarding these side quests is the lack of variety in them. There are seldom a quest that isn't about zombies, evil corporations, or more zombies. Compared to the side quests of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, where there's always a cool backstory in an unexplored vault, Mass Effect has a very limited range of activity. It's like, I actually have to work extra hard to make these side quests sound remotely interesting to my readers.

Anyway, enough with my griping. I download some logs and find out that these colonists were brought on this planet and turned into zombies by Cerberus for experiments. Of course, it's really hard to care about them in this game when they're just another evil corporation carbon copy like Binary Helix and ExoGeni.

Dead Scientists - Kepler Verge / Newton / Ontarom
This mission adds additional context if you chose the "Sole Survivor" service history. Otherwise, it'll be just another mission.

Somebody is killing off Alliance scientists who were working on a project on Akuze, the planet where the Sole Survivor Shepard had survived a Thrasher Maw attack. I am to rescue the final surviving scientist, whose last know location is on Ontarom.

Our third and final native animal comes in the form of space beetles, or at least that's what they're called. I just call them space roaches. I mean, just look at them.

Spoiler

Like the cows, killing them have no effect other than satiate your hatred for big giant bugs (there are also small tiny baby ones in the area).

There's also a special space cow here (labeled "Shifty Looking Cow") that will steal your credits when you talk to it and turn around. Killing it neither return your credits nor produce any beefsteak.

After clearing a science station of enemies, I run into the scientist, held on gun point by a mercenary calling himself Corporal Toombs. You get to shoot him immediate, or find out what happened to him. Seems like the Akuze attack was intentional, and these scientists were the ones who unleashed the Thrasher Maw on them. And guess which big bad organization the scientists belong to? Yep - freaking Cerberus again.

As tempting as it is to kill off the Cerberus scientist, I convince the corporal to step down and leave him to rot in prison. The corporal is admitted into therapy, and the good doctor is awaiting trial. Just another reminder that the misunderstood Ruthless Shepard isn't always one to go around shooting people when there's another option. Of course, with this many Paragon options, I now really have to increase my Renegade points using a cheat code.

Garrus: Find Dr. Saleon - Kepler Verge / Herschel / MSV Fedele
Seems like the good doctor is doing more than just harvesting organs, as I quickly realize when I have to fight over several zombie test subjects aboard his ship.

Spoiler

There's an option here that literally says, "Time to die, Doctor!" lol Of course, killing the doctor would harden Garrus and inspires him to join the Spectre. Roleplaying-wise, I still prefer not to dirty Garrus' hands, so I decide to haul Saleon in for the Alliance... but he tries to run away, so I still have to shoot him anyway. Garrus asks what was the point of all that if we're just gonna shoot him anyway, and Shepard explains that even though we couldn't have predicted his attempted escape, it mattered that we tried to handle things the right way first, by our attempt to arrest him. Another point for Shepard for being more than a mindless thug.

As with Wrex, you can talk to Garrus after his mission. He thanks me for bringing him along on the trip, and that he has learned a lot about doing things the right way, not the fastest. He realized that he wanted to kill Dr Saleon not just because he deserved it, but because the doctor got away under his watch, making it personal. I remind him to remember that experience when we hunt down Saren.

Next up: our final side quest, Tali's personal quest, and Virmire too! Also, not one, not two, but THREE of our squad mates might die in the Virmire quest! All that and lots more in the very exciting season finale of Mass Effect! Don't miss it!

 

Geth Incursions
Armstrong Nebula / Planet Maji, Casbin, Antibaar, Rayingri, and Solcrum
This is a four-part side quest where I have to eliminate a series of geth outposts throughout four different planets. It's also the quest where I can pick up a valuable geth equipment for Tali's pilgrimage.

The geth are amassing together in the Armstrong Nebula cluster, and Admiral Hackett suspects that they might be preparing for an invasion. So, it's another case of "putting a stop to a threat before it starts." With my Mako, this is a piece of cake. Of course, I had to enter combat on foot at Rayingri and Solcrum, but even with that, but even that couldn't stop the geth's inevitable destruction! Mwahaha.

Interestingly enough, when I eliminated the last of the geth on Solcrum, a message displays:

"As the last geth falls, you hear music from across the room. On the monitor, a quarian stands before a hushed crowd, warbling a mournful a capella of worlds and innocence lost. The recorded song is dispatched to the geth worlds behind the Perseus Veil. The transmitter shuts down."

Now, I get the part where the quarian sings a mournful song, but who was the one that dispatched a quarian song to the geth worlds, and why? Intriguing, right...? Well, stick around for the next two ME sequels and you might just find out. In the meantime, I've acquired data files from the final geth outpost on the evolution of the geth since the quarians' exile. Guess these might be useful to a certain squad party member...

Tali and the Geth
Back on board the ship, Admiral Hackett congratulates me for a job well done. The Alliance will also increase patrols in the cluster to prevent further incursions in the future.

Down at the engineering deck, just as I am going to offer Tali her present, she asks me for it instead. After teasing her a bit, I eventually give up the data files to her; seems like they're more important to her than just a pilgrimage gift, as they might be the key to sending her people home.

Spoiler

This marks the final side quest in my journal. There is one last side quest in the future, but it requires my Renegade meter to reach 90%, and I want to see if I could fill it up on Virmire rather than use a cheat code, so we'll do it later.

Virmire - Sentry Omega / Hoc / Virmire
Our penultimate story mission is here. It's almost near the end.

Buuuuut that will be for next time.

 

Virmire - Sentry Omega / Hoc / Virmire
And we're back. Now to finish the mission. For the entirety of this mission, I'm gonna use Ashley and Kaidan as my squad mates. You'll find out why by the end of this, for those of you who've never played this game before.

First off, Joker can't fly in any further till I disable some AA towers, so we're on foot (and the Mako) for now. But before that, space-crabs (or "Pod Crabs", as it's officially referred to).

Spoiler

Guess the space-roaches weren't the last of the indigenous life forms in this game.

After shooting up a lot of geth with my Mako, getting through the geth blockades, and finally deactivating those towers, I eventually arrive at the camp of the Council's salarian spies, where I meet...

Spoiler

Kirrahe's a bit disappointed at the small number of reinforcements he's got. He informs us about Saren's base of operation. Apparently, Saren has discovered a cure for the genophage. Shit. Wrex's gonna be pissed. Looks like I have to talk him out of supporting this cure.

Remember when I said that not talking to your squad mates between missions would result in the loss of one of them? Well, this is pretty much what I mean. Only by talking to Wrex repetitively do you get his personal side quest, and by doing that would it be easier to talk him down. You can still talk him down without doing the side quest, but doing it would pretty much guarantee that Wrex survives - unless you decide to kill him anyway. Bastard.

Wrex and the Genophage
At the beachside, Wrex is firing away his shotgun at the sea - probably at fishes. As I approach Wrex, drums begin to play in the background, letting me know that shit is going to go down between me and the krogan.

Spoiler

This is a good chance for you to rake up Renegade points if you're coming up short. Unfortunately, some of the Renegade options can be dickish, especially when I know where Wrex is coming from. I mean, it's about the survival of his entire people after all. On the other hand, I really need those Renegade points.

Spoiler

In the end, I get impatient with him and tell him to fall in line with my orders. But I manage to convince him with the Renegade option that Saren's merely using the krogans as tools, and they'll be disposable as soon as he's done with them. This only rake me +9 Renegade Points. Ugh. Looks like I have to be act a little more jerkass later on to get that 90%.

Anyway, killing the rachni is one thing, but killing Wrex will obviously have a far more severe impact in the coming two games. And besides, Wrex's a funny guy to keep around. Not sure why you'd want to kill off such an awesome character.

After all that hoopla, I talk to Kirrahe about dealing with Saren. Seems like he could convert his ship's drive into a nuke. Unfortunately, we have to manually fly it into the base and carry it in as the place is heavily-fortified. But since my arrival here on Virmire has triggered a lot of other AA guns, we will have to infiltrate the base and disable them first. Kirrahe will cause a distraction while I infiltrate the base to disable those guns.

But here's where it gets complicated: Due to the high risks of the mission, Kirrahe needs one of my men to follow him to help coordinate the teams: Kaidan or Ashley. I don't know why the other guys can't follow Kirrahe, like Garrus or Tali, but that's video game logic, I guess. In case the newcomers are wondering, this isn't the part where you choose who would die and or live - that's for later. I pick Ashley to follow Kirrahe for now, not because I wanna get rid of her later, but because "coordinating the team" sounds like a good chance for Ashley to redeem herself after getting her men killed back on Eden Prime.

Spoiler

After giving a short (very short) pep talk to Ashley and Kaidan, Kirrahe gives his to his own men - and boy, is it epic.

Needless to say, "Hold the line" becomes a popular catchphrase among fans.

Assisting Kirrahe's Team
So from here onward, I have to help out Kirrahe's team with miscellaneous actions that will keep the salarian alive, including disrupting the geth's comm tower, destroying their satellite, destroying geth aircraft and the fuel tanks they use to recharge, and handling the rest of the geth troops by yourself (as opposed to sending them away from you by triggering the alarms near Kirrahe's location). Doing otherwise gets you Renegade points, which I sorely need, but it just feels like such a scummy thing to do to use them as distractions - and that's just not my Shepard's style.

Assaulting the Base
Inside the base, I run into indoctrinated salarians who have either been brainwashed by Saren into becoming his soldiers, or reduced to mindless husks. When I find a bunch of them kept in jail cells, I could either free them... or leave them behind out of mistrust (granting you +9 Renegade points). They were brainwashed, after all. Even better - you can just put them out of their miseries yourself and gain even more points. Hell yeah, Renegade! lol But nah, I simply leave them behind, maybe to be medically treated by the Alliance later. 9 points is good enough.

I come across a krogan doctor working on the genophage cure, which I put to a stop. You can bring along Wrex on this part of the mission and have him help destroy the cure too if you want to - but that's a dickish move, so I left him behind instead. He might compromise the mission anyway.

Further inwards, I stumble onto a neurospecialist named Rana Thanoptis. She gives me more information about Saren's ship, Sovereign, and its ability to "indoctrinate" people. This is a very important plot-point that will become relevant in the next two games, particularly this point, "Indoctrination is subtle. By the time the effects become noticeable, it's usually too late." I let the scientist go, but not before scaring her about blowing this base up.

Eventually, I come across another Prothean beacon like the one on Eden Prime.

Spoiler

After messing up my head once again, I leave the beacon, only to come across...

Spoiler

Freaking Sovereign is a Reaper. Who'd have guessed? I really love this scene here because of how intimidating Sovereign's presence is here, despite being just a hologram. That emotionless robotic voice speaking of genocide and your species' inevitable destruction from an almost god-like position as it hovers over you. There's a very different feel here than some thug toting a gun.

So apparently, Sovereign confesses that the Reapers did indeed wipe out the Protheans 50,000 years ago. They were the ones who created the mass relays, which they allowed other species to find and advance to the apex of their civilization... before harvesting them, for reasons unknown. According to Sovereign, they transcend beyond our understanding, the nature of their existence beyond our grasp. In other words, eldritch abominations with blue and orange morality. Their reasoning can only be understood at a later game - or even beyond that.

But shortly after my conversation with this divine entity, Joker informs me that Sovereign is headed my way. Time to get out of here and blow this place to hell.

After disabling the AA towers, I make for the final stretch towards the nuke. Joker flies in with the bomb, but just when we're set to blow up the planet... Ashley is in trouble! She's stuck behind enemy lines! Oh no. Guess we'll have to go rescue her. Kaidan says he'll stay behind and guard the bomb, but I'm sure nothing bad will happen while I leave him in charge... right?


As I approach Ashley's position, geth reinforcements force Kaidan to activate the bomb immediately! Oh shit! Looks like I have to choose one of two people to save! Who'd have expected such a dilemma?! [laugh track]

Spoiler

Sigh. Alas, Kaidan. You've been a good bae.

I arrive by Ashley's side, but just when I thought it's over, Saren arrives! He tries to sell me his delusions about submitting to the Reapers rather than revolt and die.

Spoiler

What does he think I am? An idiot? That's like surrendering to Hitler! That's like letting Donald Trump build his stupid wall! But Saren is too far gone, and he believes he's on some sacred crusade to save all organics from the Reapers. Bah. Time to shut this loony up. Saren eventually gets the upper-hand and choke-slams me! But before he could perform the 'slam', I give him a good solid punch right on that ugly-ass turian mug! But before I could fire my gun on his ass again, he escapes. With the nuke's countdown alert blaring in the background, there's no choice but to make my own escape as well (honestly, all of this is a lot more exciting in the cutscene video than in my own words xD).

Spoiler

Let's take a moment of silence for our dearly departed squad mate.

Ashley and I share our grief for Kaidan. Ashley says it should've been her who stayed behind, and I call out on her martyrdom to redeem her grandfather's name. Liara interrupts at this point and asks permission to have sex again during our heavy conversation (or make sense of the vision I got from the latest beacon, whatever; we all know her real intentions ). She recognizes the landmarks from my vision - they belong to the planet Ilos. Looks like we have our final destination. But, Saren's entire fleet will probably be waiting for me there, so I'll need to first seek reinforcements from the Council (like they will help).

I report to the Council (one last time), and of course, they still don't believe about Sovereign and the Reapers... Oh my fucking god. The salarian councilor tries to justify it by claiming that their decision affects trillions of lives, and the asari councilor informs me that this is the reason I'm granted power as a Spectre, to act as I see fit to stop the Reapers, regardless of the Council's political obligations. Fair enough.

~~~~~~~

Next time... the last of the Squad Conversations, Renegade quest, kicking Saren's ass, and finally, the end of Mass Effect.

 

Previously on Mass Effect...

Kaidan died.

And now, back to the show!

~~~~~~~~

So I found out too late that after the Virmire mission, you're automatically sent to the Citadel. That means no side questing in the galaxy till we escape the Citadel. Oh well.

With the death of Kaidan, the mood aboard the ship is grim... particularly because of this BGM playing:

I think it's kinda tasteless to call it the "Love Theme", since this is played after the death of either Kaidan/Ashley, but I can see why it's called that, considering what happens after the death... (Your love interest and you celebrates you saving him/her instead of the other guy! Hos before bros, 'coz that's totally not tasteless at all!)

Squad Conversations
Joker
Joker consoles me, saying that it couldn't have been easy making the call between Kaidan and Ashley.

Spoiler

Joker did nail it right though. Back then, I didn't care much for Kaidan - he was just another squadmate - but choosing between the two wasn't quite what I expected, for one of my squadmates to die by my choice. lol I mean, Wrex is one thing, since you have the choice to not kill him, but between Ashley and Kaidan, there could only be one. Ugh. More tough decisions await our commander in the grim days ahead... That's what this game should be called: "Tough Call".

Spoiler

That's where Kaidan used to stand, waiting for me after every mission... waiting to hit on my tanned, Hispanic ass.


Liara

Spoiler

Dammit, Liara! Timing! Look it up! lol Saren just caused the death of our squadmate, girl!

She further speculates about whether if the rogue Spectre joined Sovereign out of some noble desire to stop the Reapers. Bah! I shot down her theory and said he got exactly what he deserved, that turian bastard. I'll make sure he suffers every ounce of my wrath in agony before he dies.

Captain Kirrahe
The salarian survives! Hah. He gives his gratitude, and pronounces his people's respect for Kaidan's noble actions (now THAT's what nobility looks like, Liara!). We'll see him again in the third game. It shall be a tearjerking reunion.

Wrex
Wrex apologizes that things got heated back there. He tells me to make Saren pay for it, and I assure him, oh he will. "No matter what it takes, I'm going to hunt him down and kill him."

Spoiler

Ashley
Ashley is frustrated about those A.I. dreadnoughts called the Reapers, about not being able to shoot back at them as a mere soldier with a rifle. She does make a good point; even with the Citadel's enormous flagship, the Ascension, they will still have trouble taking down one Reaper, let alone an army of them.

She too apologizes for the heated conversation post-Virmire, and asks how I coped with losing my men on Torfan. This is the kind of moment when Ruth would put up a brave face and say, "They did their duty," just to hide away her weak emotional side. Buuuut in this case, just this once...

Spoiler

That might sound like an idealistic platitude, but I think it shows Shepard's genuine desire to save everyone when there's an option, in spite of her supposed 'ruthless' facade. As you'll come to see later on during a very important decision at the final mission, Ruth is more than just a cold-hearted soldier.

Garrus and Tali no longer have any interesting conversations to be had. lol Guess I've talked to them too often. Garrus, especially, will be notable when he runs out of squad conversations in the second game... something about 'calibrations'. xD

Accessing the galaxy map automatically sends me back to the Citadel and the Council, where those aliens feed me the usual bullshit. They say they're prepared for Saren's attack on the Citadel by placing patrols at every mass relay leading to Citadel space (Waitwut? I didn't remember Saren saying anything about the Citadel... I did some research and this is actually a major plot-hole since there is literally NO WAY you can know Saren would attack the Citadel before you discover the Conduit's true purpose. lol). Of course, I consider the Council's "sit-and-wait" plan to be foolish and dangerous, but they deem my state of mind too reckless, and Udina, my own human ambassador proceed to lock down my f-ing ship so that he can play nice with the Council!

Spoiler

As I'm sulking in the ship, Joker informs me that Captain Anderson wishes to meet me at the Flux. Wonder what he would want. Oh well. We need to head over to the Citadel for one last round of side quests anyway.

Citadel Side Quests - The Final Round
There are actually only two side quests left on the Citadel.

Our Own Worst Enemy
At the Wards, there's a protest going on shouting ludicrous statements like "Earth first!" "Throw the alien-appeasers out!" Oh boy. This is gunna be gud. They're part of a political party called "Terra Firma" that opposes humanity's affiliation with aliens - basically a bunch of xenophobes. One of their party members stop me to ask for my support for the next election.

Spoiler

Note the resemblance with Sylvester Stallone.

Okay, so either I made a mistake about Ashley claiming it's Armistice Day a few days ago, or this is yet another plot-hole, since this guy claims the holiday is coming soon. Either way, this guy does make some legit points about how 'Earth' (Terra) must stand 'firm' (Firma) against having our rights as humanity influenced or taken away by aliens. I mean, can't say that the Council was ever that cooperative with my work as a Spectre.

But in spite of, I can't really support the notion of denying alien allies - that would make me a massive hypocrite, because I happen to like Garrus and Wrex, and also Tali.

Negotiator's Request
An Alliance negotiator has asked me to get him stimulants (drugs) to help improve his performance in an upcoming negotiation with salarians. As I probe deeper, it seems like this is yet another "humanist" not wanting to let the salarians get an advantage in the negotiation.

Spoiler

While I understand why you need to get high with those fast-talking aliens, it becomes obvious very quickly that this guy's just an addict looking for that extra shot. I ask him to listen to his own excuses and force him to get help immediately.

And that's it, the last of the Citadel side quests. Just one last side quest to go in space.

Escaping the Citadel
The Captain advises me to hijack the ship by overriding Udina's orders. Either that, or he could unlock the ship's controls himself via the heavily-guarded Citadel control. Naturally, the option with Udina sounds more favorable, not to mention gaining us a very satisfying cutscene later.

Spoiler

Squad Conversations - Final Round
You can talk to your crew one last time about being a fugitive on the run from the Citadel. lol The convos are short, so I'll just sum it up.

- Joker is disappointed that the Council didn't send any ships after us as he wanted to put the Normandy through its paces.
- Navigator Pressley is concerned about being court-martialed, but part of him loves it.
- Doctor Chakwas reminds me not to let down the crew that has sacrificed everything for me. No pressure.
- Liara calmly remarks that this will be all over soon, one way or another.
- Wrex notes that stealing an Alliance ship is risky, but he's all for it and wants to get his hands on Saren before the Council catches us. We also have our last "So long, Wrex" "Shepard" greeting that will become a meme in the future.
- Ashley actually doesn't have anything else to say.
- Garrus is surprised at my Renegade actions, after everything I said about doing things by the book. I guess he forgets the part about bending the rules a bit when there's no other option. I mean, we're talking about putting the entire galaxy at risk here. I also tells him to stop whining about not being able to catch Saren. As if I haven't got enough of that already from the others.
- Engineer Adams assures me that the Normandy will get through the dangerous Terminus (Star) Systems (where Ilos is) in one piece.
- Tali thinks the fugitive life is exciting. I asks if her father would help us out with his political pull if we get caught but she says stealing ships is a capital offense in her world, meaning her militant father would probably want to execute us himself. xD

The Final Side Quest: The Negotiation - Hades Gamma / Plutus / Nonuel
This quest can be triggered at any time once you hit 90% Renegade, and as soon as you enter another star system. The Admiral asks me to negotiate a treaty regarding mining rights with some tough-as-nails criminal leader named Darius. Regardless of the circumstances, I think it's a mistake to send me, a shoot-first soldier into a negotiation, but the Admiral says my attitude is exactly the kind that Darius would respect enough to negotiate in the first place.

The Paragon quest, on the other hand, involves rescuing a bunch of civilian researches from biotic fanatics. But i'm not gonna bother using cheat codes to attain this one. I might not like some of the Renegade decisions, but it's a more realistic alignment for me.

When I finally meet the guy, he already pisses me off. Aside from calling my Shepard stupid for her foul-up at Torfan, he said the Alliance sent a woman to win concessions from him with her 'assets'. Ugh, what a downright asshole to the capital A. Seems like the Alliance came to this guy because they wanted a powerful syndicate to stabilize the region after what the batarians did in the Skyllian Verge. After the Alliance dropped him there and forgot about him, he's now all pissy about not getting the respect 'he deserves'. lol What a loser.

But I'm here to do a job, so I play along nicely for now and tell him my background is irrelevant to the treaty. He pushes his luck by asking me to call "Lord Darius". lol Whatever. Seems like he now thinks he owns the territory the Alliance gave him, and his recent military raid was because Alliance miners were performing "illegal" mining on his asteroid. He asks for a formal apology from me for such insolence. I civilly apologizes on the Alliance's behalf, and he accepts, allowing the Alliance miners to do their job - for a fee, along with providing equipment to produce red sand (space-cocaine). Shady, but we could always find an excuse to arrest his ass later.

Just as negotiations are going well, there is one final request that he wants.

Spoiler

Sigh. Shit. He just had to say "swallow". F***ing pig.

My response? "Swallow this, asshole."

Spoiler

Of course, that gets him all pissy, and he starts shooting at me. But as Darius the charming gentleman here said, "I've killed worse than you!"

Back on board the ship, it seems that the good Admiral says that with the death of Darius, future raids will be more unlikely, almost like he's happy to hear I failed the negotiation. I call him out on for setting me up to do his dirty work, but he denies it and says because I'm a Spectre I am free of the potential charges anyone else would have faced performing the assassination. Everyone's a politician.

+25 Renegade

Find the Conduit - Pangaea Expanse / Refuge / Ilos
Using the Mu Relay, I land on Ilos at last, but it seems we've already got problems before we land. Seems like the nearest LZ is two klicks away from Saren's destination. If we land using the Mako now, we only have 20 meters of open terrain to land the vehicle, 80 meters lesser than necessary. But, Joker claims he can do it.

Spoiler

And the son of a gun did it! Not bad for a crippled pilot.

From this point on, this is my final choice of squad mates, so I decide to go with Ashley and Garrus. Ashley because next to Kaidan, she practically started this mission with me so it's appropriate that she finish it with me; and Garrus, because he deserves to finally take down Saren, not just as a fellow turian, but also as a c-sec officer who failed to bring him to justice the first time.

Before I can go chasing Saren, I have to open the sealed bunker door he's blocked himself behind. Immediately, I have to deal with geth troops, including two armatures. But despite their deadly cannon, I've dealt with them long enough to handle myself, circling around their aim and take potshots at them.

The planet can be quite spacious, so be careful not to get your bearings lost. There are a number of statues here that I'm assuming to be the remnants of the Prothean race.

Spoiler

A little further, you get to hack your own geth armatures to fight by your side. Of course, you have to run through a lot of gunfire to get to the activation consoles, but it's kinda worth it. I only manage to activate three out of four though before the enemies' wiped out already.

Eventually, I deactivate the security system sealing the aforementioned blockade door, but not before I stumble onto a Prothean message in a language Ashley and Garrus couldn't recognize... but I could.

Spoiler

Seems like the Cipher had granted me the gift of understanding Prothean. Useful.

Speaking of which, if you're wondering why all the aliens in this game speaks perfect English, there's actually an explanation for that in a DLC codex (for "Bring Down the Sky"). It's actually due to the use of machine translation, some sort of universal translator device that allows aliens to communicate with each other. More info can be found here.

Deep inside, we find what could only be described as stasis pods.

Spoiler

Seems like every one of these pods don't contain any life signs though. Well... almost every one. More on that... IN MASS EFFECT 3. DUN DUN DUN!

A little ahead, I'm sealed in between two energy shields! It's a trap! But, after I head down the elevator to the side, it turns out that it's only a V.I. program named Vigil.

Spoiler

There's a lot of information you can learn from Vigil, including the aforementioned true nature of the Conduit - the mass relay 'statue' within the Citadel. That's why Saren wants the Conduit. It's the perfect backdoor to our homebase, considering that the Citadel Tower, where we always meet the Council, is merely a few yards away from the relay! The others never discovered this because the Keepers ensured it that way. Told you they play an important role.Vigil gives me a data file that can give me temporary control over the Citadel to stop that from happening.

Saren wants to access the Citadel so that he can open a portal that allows the Reapers to arrive (they've been hidden in some 'dark space' for the last 50,000 years). But Vigil gives me a data file to temporary gain control of the Citadel to prevent that from happening.

There's actually a lot of information I skipped here because I don't want to bore you with the details, but it can be very interesting (why the last of the Protheans went extinct, why was the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime, etc.), so if you would like to know more, here's the full conversation:


Conduit
After all that infodump is done, we finally continue our pursuit of Saren and the Conduit. Before we leave, Garrus says an insightful remark. "So many races look up to the Protheans as paragons of civilization. But they were fooled by the Reapers, just as we were. They failed."

The last stretch to the Conduit (when you see it and the time limit of 40 seconds begins) can be quite easy if you just ignore all the geth, but on higher difficulties, I think you might have to get rid of some of them or get fried.

Meanwhile, at the Citadel...

Spoiler

...Sovereign arrives, the vanguard of our destruction, with its huge army of geth fleet.

As you can see from the following screenshots, we cut it kinda close.

Spoiler

But even something as crazy as sending a Mako through a mass relay isn't crazy enough for Commander Shepard. CUE MUSIC!
https://soundcloud.com/vladimir-syomochkin/miracle-of-sound-commander

At the Citadel Presidium, a broken Avina V.I. gives me a sitrep of the area. Seems like the Council has been moved to the Ascension, and Saren's fast-moving to the Council Chamber at the Citadel Tower.

Meanwhile, Sovereign's infiltration of the Citadel continues.

It literally ripped through turian fighters like tissue paper! lol

I quickly take the elevator up the tower, but Saren stops it mid-way. Looks like we have to go on-foot towards the Chamber. This is it! The final stretch before the last boss! As I fight my way through the geth, I could see Sovereign's grubby tentacles penetrating the Tower... (sounds so dirty when I put it that way)

Spoiler

That is one huge-ass tentacle. Not sure you can have sex with this phallic.

I actually didn't notice this before in all my prior playthroughs, which is no surprise, considering how focused I was fighting the geth.

After fighting through hordes of geth - even had to destroy some heavy turrets using my shotgun instead of the Mako this time - I finally find a hatch to enter the Chambers, where Saren and I have our final showdown.

Spoiler

Shepard: "Had to wipe out a few hundred of your followers along the way. Sorry if I kept you waiting."

Saren says that Sovereign has upgraded him, and that the Reapers could use valuable subjects like him and me, giving me one last chance to serve those machines. I tell him I'd rather die than give up my freedom, that the Reapers would betray those who serve them after they win. I try to tell him that he's obviously indoctrinated, but adding on his power-hungry god-complex, it's too far gone for him to recover.

Saren falls into despair, saying that it's too late. At this point, you could either ask him to shoot himself, or ask him to redeem himself, turning himself in (my Shepard went for the latter; for all of their trash-talking and all the talks with Garrus about executing Saren, Shepard would honestly rather haul him in, that big softie). Either way, he will thank you and do the following:

Spoiler

That looks like it hurts.

+25 Paragon

After I gain control over the Citadel, Joker radios in that he's waiting for orders with the Citadel fleet. All I have to do now is push a button to save the Ascension, and the Council... hahahahahahaha. Oh man, oh man, so I guess it's up to me now to save those aliens. Me, the savage primate who would go to any length to save humanity. lmao If only I could rub in their faces right now.

So, yes, the choice here is obvious - hold back the human fleet or risk their lives to save the Council. Well, if you've been following this playthrough closely enough, you should be able to tell which one my Shepard would choose.

Spoiler: Shepard's Final Decision in the Game

Like I said, if there's another option, it isn't Shepard's style to casually kill off other races (well, maybe except non-sentient animals like space-monkeys...).

With that matter dealt with, it is over. Saren's dead, and we can finally take down Sovereign with the rest of the galaxy. Right?

Spoiler: Dead Meme

You wish.

After Shepard orders Ashley and Garrus to make sure Saren's dead, Ashley puts a few rounds into his head. Just when it seems like he's dead for sure, a red flash of energy suddenly enters his corpse and something horrifying appears in its place:

Spoiler

To be honest, that actually looks pretty cool, in a very T-800 sort of way. I think I prefer this Saren over the old one.

The Robo-Saren (now possessed by Sovereign's mind) is actually pretty easy to deal with if you use your covers correctly. He will jump around a lot, fire a series of explosions at you that WILL hurt, but watching your minimap and using the appropriate covers will save your ass, along with making good use of your biotics.

Meanwhile, the Citadel fleet and Normandy are having some trouble taking down Sovereign's main body.

Spoiler

Saren's old husk will eventually die off, but you just need to keep shooting it while it's flying around - or dodge its fireballs very quickly. When you finally put down that turian bastard for good...

Spoiler

Normandy being the spearhead that delivers the finish blow to Sovereign feels so satisfying.

 

But whoa oh, what's this? Looks like Sovereign is not done with us! A part of its tentacle is crashing towards Shepard!

Spoiler

Never underestimate a hentai monster's desire to pursuit its waifu.

When the dust clears, all seems lost. Captain Anderson arrives with c-sec officers to rescue Ashley and Garrus... but where is Shepard? Ashley looks on with a despondent face, the wreckage of Sovereign's arm says it all. The Captain gradually shares that same look. His best man - or rather, woman - killed in action. Saved the Council, stopping Sovereign and Saren; Shepard was indeed a true hero.

But wait, what's that rustling noise in the background? Could it be? The crowd looks on in excitement, Ashley and Garrus exchange hopeful gazes. It is.

Spoiler

The hero walks on with a confident smile on her face. That is one tough son of a gun.

NOW it's over. Phew. We've came a long way, guys. Well, I did most of the work, but. Thanks for sticking around and read all that crap... if you did. xD

And now we get rewarded by the Council A New Hope style. Well, minus the parade and kissing a prince/princess, but at least humanity is now granted a seat... on the freaking Council! How rad is that?! The room which they grant me this prestigious reward is a dark one due to my Shepard being a Renegade (bright one if you go Paragon). But in spite of my nature, the Council recognizes that humanity's ruthless nature is more like a "ruthless determination to succeed, that we have an indomitable will, a fierce, savage spirit that will not bend or yield." They now understand that these traits are not what make me stubborn or dangerous, but what makes me strong. "There are dark times ahead; the Council needs humanity and its strength."

Pretty satisfying speech that makes me forget all about rubbing it in their faces.

I also get to pick a candidate for the new Human Councilor - Captain Anderson... or, ugh, Ambassador Udina. Anderson doesn't want the job, which means he's the best choice. A Paragon man who will do his best to save everyone. Udina only cares about humanity, which makes him a perfect Councilor since each of the race here are pretty much the same selfish bastard like Udina, as you'll see in the third game, so he'll fit right in. That said, Udina as a candidate is like voting for Donald Trump, ugh. Anderson might actually do some good being in the Council, change things from the inside. The Asari Councilor agrees with my decision. "Someone with military experience is a wise choice," she says, considering the coming war falling upon us.

The Turian Councilor adds on that with the peace and security disturbed, it's up to them - the Council - to defend everyone. lol I shut down that idea by saying they're not ready, that the Sovereign nearly wiped them out. No, it's up to someone truly ruthless to find a proper solution to drive the Reapers back into dark space.

Spoiler

Special thanks to @Doomguy for supporting me throughout this adventure.

GAME OVER​

 

NEXT TIME ON MASS EFFECT
​

THE WRITTEN PLAYTHROUGH

Assuming control... tomorrow.​

 

Woah you blew right through this game !

Kaiden looked so chill before the end
Convincing Saren to shoot himself gives you paragon points? lol?
Oh and can you romance the tentacle Geth monsters in the next game? I bet that's a peaceful solution to their problems...

Okay that was just bad from me
You started it

 

Yeah, I had to even skip my movie-viewing yesterday because I wanted to finish the game.

He's like "It's cool Shep. I'm cool with it. "

lol I said "the latter", as in "convincing him to turn himself in to c-sec." Which of course, he didn't, and would rather just off himself since it's too late.

xD Well, no, you can't romance the Reapers. Buuuuut there is something close to what you described in the next game... Wait and see.