Miri, please play that song of ours. *Miranda puts on a vinyl disc on an old record player and, after some slight static noise, the intro of Baba O'Riley starts playing.*


Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.
Well, let me tell you a story...

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."

The name's Shepard, Duke Shepard.

I was born on Earth 32 years ago. I lost my parents when I was still very young. Life wasn't easy as an orphan. I was put in a foster home with some abusive 'parents'. I felt lost without guidance and purpose and got out of there as soon as I could. Free of this oppression I got a hold of myself by joining a street gang - the Tenth Street Reds. "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." They taught me a lot of what it meant to be a man. I got myself into a lot of trouble by following them and even spent some time behind bars, for the things we did. But it was a good time, or so I thought. Growing older, I got tired of the life of petty crime and the negative sides of it. When I turned 18, I decided to leave that life behind and joined the military.

The first year was tough, but eventually I came to like the life of a soldier. So, I tightened up and did my best to succeed. My efforts weren't in vain, as I started to quickly climb the ranks. It seemed that I had a real talent for being a soldier. When I became a sergeant at the age of 22 and already a N6 operative, I was selected to undergo the prestigious N7 training program. A program to train the very elite of Alliance soldiers. But before becoming a real N7 trainee, I had to undergo a harsh test. I, along with other candidates, was put on an asteroid. We had a limited supply of oxygen. Only those who lasted the longest would become N7 trainees. I remembered something, I've picked up in my youth. When you sleep, you consume less oxygen. Remembering that, I just took a nap, while the other candidates struggled with their oxygen supply. As it turned out, I was the last one with some air in my tank and so I got inducted into the N7 program. The training was brutal. Some quit. But I grew to like and even love it. You had to stare the monster right into the eyes and tell it "Come get some!" This ultimate defiance was what got me through the program. Deep down below, I had changed during the time I went through it. I didn't know how, but it made me more determined and more reckless.

I got promoted to lieutenant and put in charge of a company, after completing the program. This was during the Skyllian Blitz. My first real assignment, as a commanding officer, was to take the last holdout and the main base of operations of the Batarians on the moon of Torfan in 2178. They were comprised of mostly pirates, mercenaries and slavers, who were left behind by the retreating Batarian fleet. I knew it would be a hard battle against a desperate and entrenched enemy. But it had to be done, no matter what the cost was. That's why they picked me to lead the charge. I ordered my company to attack without mercy, because the Batarians deserved none after Elysium and Mindoir.
I told them: "Nuke ’em ’till they glow, then shoot ’em in the dark!"

Although we took severe casualties, I kept pushing them forward, relentlessly. Those aliens weren't allowed to leave this battle alive. After some hours of heavy and bloody fighting we had seized control of the base. "Heh, heh, heh… What a mess! There were some prisoners left after the battle. I made the decision that they had to be made an example of and had them executed on the spot. This rose a few eyebrows, but also gained me some silent admiration, for my do or die attitude. I kept climbing the ranks until I became a lieutenant commander in 2183 and was assigned to a new ship as the second in command under the famous Captain David Anderson.

This is where this story really begins.

I joined the military to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I was already out of bubblegum before my next mission even begun.

I was told it would be just another routine mission. Just a simple shakedown run of the Alliance's newest and most advanced frigate, the SSV Normandy SR-1. The objectives were to test the new stealth system and the performance of the new Tantalus drive core. We were supposed to do this near the paradise colony world of Eden Prime, far from any potential trouble. It felt strange and unwelcome to have a Turian Spectre on board for this mission. But since the ship was a joint project between Humans and Turians we had to, begrudgingly, tolerate his presence on board. For some unknown reason, he told me that he was evaluating me as a potential Spectre candidate. The hell he was! I wouldn't be judged by some unknown alien, let alone a Turian.
I remembered what they had done to us during the First Contact War, something I couldn't forgive. But after Anderson's intervention, I reluctantly agreed to this folly. If it was in the best interest of the Alliance and Humanity, I had to play the part, no matter how much I resented it. In reality, this mission was anything but routine. They found some ancient beacon on that colony, and we were going to retrieve it. Once we got near this paradise world, all hell broke loose.

We received a transmission from Eden Prime. It was attacked by unknown forces. Casualties were high. The last thing we saw on the transmission was what seemed to be like a giant spaceship descending onto the colony. We had to get there fast.

Shortly after we were on the ground, Jenkins got himself foolishly erased by forgetting the number one rule in ground warfare - duck and cover. There was no time to linger over his, now, worthless body, so we moved on. Shortly after, we ran into one surviving marine - some Chief Ashley Williams; a coward if you ask me. Even though I didn't want her to join my squad, we had to keep her tagging along as she knew the way to our objective. It turned out that the attacking force was the Geth. The Geth, if you can believe it. Outside the Perseus Veil! Who would believe that?

We arrived at the dig site, but the beacon was gone. We continued to the space port and learned from another coward that the Turian Spectre, who was supposed to evaluate me, was offed by another Turian Spectre called Saren. After deleting some more Geth and casually disarming some bombs, we found the beacon. Stupid Ashley grew nosy about it, and I had to pull her out of the beacons' influence. That's when it hit me. Excruciating pain flowed through my body while I was seeing some barely intelligible pictures and memories before blacking out. Thanks Ashley...

I woke up 15 hours later on the Normandy. Those crooks didn't even have the decency to get me to a real hospital. And if that wasn't enough, Anderson recruited Ashley to the crew - to my dismay. I got the feeling that he wanted to keep torturing me.

Once we got to the Citadel and reported to the Council, I was off again, gathering evidence that Saren was a traitor. Obviously, the Council didn't believe a word we said. Why would they? We were just mere humans, and they were the Council - gods among all aliens. Disgusting.

After some time, I collected evidence that portrayed Saren as a traitor. I was only required to enlist the help of several aliens. Udina even forced me into taking a Quarian with me. Really? At least now the Council saw their error and stripped Saren of his rank and titles. But they didn't want to commit to a full hunt for this scumbag. Eventually, under pressure from ambassador Udina and myself, they forced themselves to do what they never wanted to. They made me the first human Spectre and gave me the mission of hunting Saren down - at all costs. I assured them that their decision was correct, because "they don’t make ’em better than me!" At least that last bit got my approval. I was now legally unshackled and could apply my own judgement to evolving situations. No more Alliance red tape, no more orders, no more 'yes Sir'. I was free to do what had to be done, no matter the cost - exactly how I liked it. Torfan was just a prelude to what was to come.

While doing my main investigation on Saren, I came across an Asari consort. She asked me to fulfill some simple tasks and I did. Her reward was interesting, to say the least. She showed me why 'being into aliens' wasn't that bad at all. I still prefer humans, though. I also came across some deranged 'fan' of mine, Conrad Verner, who was clearly obsessed with the first human Spectre. I told him to beat it, as I wasn't interested in his delusions. Later, I heard a news report that he got himself shot in front of a bar, because he thought he could do better than I. Served him right. That might teach him some humility, I thought.

To pursue my mission, I got command over the Normandy. "It ain’t no bike, but it sure beats the hell outta walking." Captain Anderson was stepping down, to make way for me to take over. He also gave me some leads to follow in my hunt. Noveria, Feros and some uninteresting Asari Doctor in the unknown. As I boarded my new ship, I was expected to give the crew a pep talk to start off our mission. I thought about it for a moment. I wanted to make it longer, telling them that we're in this alone; nobody would help us, and the odds were against us. But that would've probably gone over their narrow minds. So, I decided to make it shorter. Initially I wanted to say, 'It's my way or the airlock', but they probably didn't even know what an airlock was. So, I made it even shorter and abundantly clear. Eventually, I told them:

"It's my way or... Hell, it's my way."

On our way to Noveria, I made the round to speak to my crew. I found a like-minded member, Lieutenant Pressly, who also was highly skeptical about the aliens we had on board. I couldn't agree more with him. If I could, I would've put them all into the airlock. When I got to Ashley, I wanted to tell her that she was not welcome aboard my ship, but then, looking at her, I noticed two compelling arguments to dissuade me from my notion. I got a bit distracted, and, in the background, I heard something mutter 'Eyes up here, Commander', but I'm not sure what it was. While she was a bit of a nuisance to deal with, she had the looks to become something more. For now, I let her be on my crew. And there was the upside that by including her in my squad I could exclude one more alien from it, at least.

Once we arrived on Noveria, we were welcomed by an unwelcoming security detail. They wanted us to surrender our weapons. In your wet dreams, "I go where I please, and I please where I go", I said, and we had a brief Mexican standoff. Some authority intervened before I could pull the trigger. It turned out that we were allowed to keep our weapons after all, because of my Spectre status. Who would have guessed? That authority was the secretary to the chief administrator of the colony, Gianna Parasini. She filled us in on the 'politics' of this secluded colony and the events that transpired prior to our arrival.

The Asari matriarch I was looking for arrived a few days before and went to a research facility at Peak 15. That's where we needed to go. But there was a problem. We needed a garage pass to leave the main colony, and the administrator, an ignorant Salarian, wouldn't grant us one. So, we had to do some 'investigative' work again. This time for some Turian, who was persecuted by the administrator. Apparently, he got some information on the administrator's shady dealings, and we were going to find it. In return, he promised us a garage pass. After investigating his office and shooting some corrupt 'security' staff in the face, we brought him the evidence and made him testify against the administrator. We finally got the pass. It also got the administrator arrested. He just should've paid me more, to keep quiet. His loss, our gain.

We were finally able to get to the research lab. On our way there we met some 'mostly peaceful' Geth who, unsuccessfully, tried to improve the paintjob of the Mako. At the entrance of the research facility, the Geth became less peaceful. Maybe, us committing multiple 'hit-and-runs' on their comrades had something to do with it? I'm not sure. But it didn't matter; we shot our way free, regardless. That is, until we came across a foreign, unknown and hostile alien species. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I thought that I had seen this species somewhere before.

After we navigated our way through the inner complex of the facility, and dealt with some minor issues, we finally caught up to the matriarch. She held some silly speech about being a mother and Asari commandos, that didn't interest me one bit, before she sent her goons against us. It turned out that Asari commandos and Geth were no match for our guns. After removing her support staff from the equation and confronting her directly, she told us some wacky stories about indoctrination. After she gave me some vital information about the Mu Relay, I quickly put her out of her misery. That poor woman had suffered enough with her mental illness.

Inspecting the tank, she was gazing upon; when we first saw her, I saw an enormous version of the unknown alien species from before. It turned out to be a fertile Rachni queen. She pleaded with me for her life. But, remembering my history classes, I knew what they had done to the galaxy a few thousand years ago. I couldn't let such a terror go free and start a new Rachni war. So, I decided to bathe her in acid and be done with it. We still had to deal with the rest of the Rachni infestation of the facility and enact a purge protocol. Once this was done, we could finally leave this awful place. I desperately needed a warm shower, or better yet a hot babe in my arms.

It turned out that the Council hadn't paid attention to their history classes and wasn't too fond of me eradicating the Rachni. At least Udina agreed, for once.

Our next stop was Feros. The reports said that it had been invaded by Geth, and they turned out to be truthful very soon after we set foot on the ground. The colony of Zhu's Hope was besieged and frequently attacked by Geth. While speaking to the head authority, the Geth attacked again. We cleared them out of the adjacent tower and its surroundings. When we defeated the last Geth, we saw a ship of them taking off and heading somewhere unknown. After reassuring the authority that the colony was safe again, at least for a while, we got to know that it was also lacking energy, water and food supplies. After gathering intel on those problems, we set out and got all of them fixed in no time. There were some fights with the Geth in between, but nothing we couldn't handle.

Now it was time to head to the Exo Geni headquarters, where the threat was believed to originate from. Getting into the Mako and driving over some more 'mostly peaceful' Geth, we arrived there. On our way, we came across a camp of refugees from the facility, who had fled from the Geth. The first thing I noticed was some obnoxious man, Ethan Jeong. Apparently, he was the leader, or the last living, high ranking official of ExoGeni on that planet. Not only did he lie to his colleagues about the colony, but he also tried to prevent me from doing my job by discouraging me from going to the facility. Something was off with this guy; I just couldn't put my finger on it then. There was also a missing person, still believed to be at the facility. It was the daughter of a researcher. She asked me if I could find and save her. Why does everyone want something from me? I was just the first human Spectre and not God,
at least not yet.

Unsurprisingly, the Geth weren't as peaceful once we arrived at the headquarters. But, at least, there were no acid spitting Rachni around this time. The Geth cruiser had clawed itself into the station, erecting a strong force field that was preventing access to the main facility. We had to find our way around that and a way to deactivate it. We found a path to the lower parts of the facility and arriving there I got shot by some young woman. I've had it! Why did everything on this damn planet wanted to kill me? Luckily, her shot bounced off harmlessly off my kinetic barrier.
It turned out that she was the missing person, Lizbeth. She was elated to hear of her mother's survival, and that I didn't shoot her in return. At least she proved to be somewhat useful by giving me her access card. It would come in handy, later. After dealing with some Varren, we moved further into the compound.

We came across a technologically illiterate Krogan who, unsuccessfully, tried to get some information from a VI interface. Too bad, he didn't have an access card. After dispatching him to the afterlife, we got to talk to the VI. This is where we learned of ExoGeni's dirty secret, Species 37, or as they called it the 'Thorian' - a plant based, sentient lifeform of unknown age. This Thorian was able to mind control other lifeforms and ExoGeni intentionally used the colony of Zhu's Hope as a testing ground. Using humans as test subjects in a sick experiment was something that really chaps my ass. I couldn't and wouldn't tolerate this. After deleting some more Geth, we went to a large hall where the Geth ship had inserted its claws. It was some sort of garage, and one of its claws went through an opening where a large door was. By reading some of the logs, we figured out that this door tended to malfunction at specific PSI levels and shut violently if those were reached. After doing some quick calculations, I set the pressure just right for the door to slam shut. This severed the main claw of the Geth ship and with it gone it couldn't hold on to the facility anymore and crashed below it. This disabled the force field, and we were free to return to the colony.

We picked up Lizbeth and headed back. When we reached the refugee camp, Lizbeth jumped out of the Mako and ran straight into it. We followed and found an unfriendly scene. Ethan held Lizbeth and her mother at gunpoint. His nerves were at an end, and there was no telling on what he might do next. I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't listen to a word I said. He even admitted that he hoped the Geth would kill us. I pointed my gun at him and said "Dying ain’t much of a living boy.", but he still wouldn't calm down. That's when I exerted a few pounds of finger pressure on the trigger and removed him from the equation for good.


"Good, Bad, I’m the guy with the gun, and mine is bigger than yours!"

All that was left to do was to return to the colony and deal with that Thorian creature. But before we went, they gave us some modified grenades with some nerve agent that would knock the infested colonist's unconscious, so we didn't have to kill them. I gladly took them. Killing innocent humans wasn't on my agenda. "Guess again, freakshow. I’m coming back to town, and the last thing that’s gonna go through your mind before you die… is my size-13 boot!"

Back at the colony, we used the grenades to great effect and only took out those pesky creepers, while keeping all colonists alive. Once the colony was pacified, we headed below it, to meet this alien creature. It obviously wasn't happy to see us and spluttered a weirdly green Asari out. It attacked us instantly, together with more creepers. We fought them and severed one nerve cord of the creature after another. When the last cord was taken out, this ugly alien plummeted to its death. The, formerly, green Asari was blue again and free of the creature's influence. She offered me to give me a Cipher, which she had given Saren before, to help me with my pursuit of that scoundrel. She merged her mind with mine. It was strange. I didn't know Asari could do that. It wasn't entirely unpleasant. But after she touched my mind, I couldn't let her live. There was no knowing of what secrets she'd uncovered during the act. Besides, she worked with my arch nemesis. I executed her then and there. The colony was saved, and I had one more clue, the Cipher, in my hunt for Saren.
Mission accomplished.

During my report to the Council about the Feros operation, they informed me about a new development in my hunt for Saren. A Salarian recon unit had found his secret base on the planet Virmire, at the border of Citadel space, and right next to the Terminus systems. We were sent there to investigate the situation and, if possible, bring down Saren. Arriving on Virmire, it became clear that the base had strong anti-air protection. A direct assault was therefore impossible. We dropped a fair distance away from the base in the Mako, while the Normandy waited, until those AA guns were dealt with. There was a fierce thunderstom in the distance. It was almost Too Much Rain over paradise. We just hoped that it wouldn't come any closer.
The lightning was impressive, though.
The approach to the base was defended by a small army of various Geth units and defensive fortifications. Utilizing the Mako to its fullest potential, we fought our way through them and eventually arrived at the recon unit's base camp, just in front of the base. The Normandy landed there just before our arrival. But her presence alerted the base and brought even more AA guns online. So, we were stranded for now and had to assault the base on foot.

Captain Kirrahe, the leader of the recon unit, briefed us about the situation. Not only had Saren an army of Geth, but now he was also breeding a Krogan one. He seemed to have found a cure for the Genophage. An army of Geth was bad enough; we didn't need the extra threat from another. I agreed with Kirrahe that the base had to be destroyed, and with it the cure for the Genophage. Wrex, my Krogan crew member, was very upset about this and refused to go along with the plan. I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't change his mind. I didn't need a threat from within, so I took care of him, leaving his dead body on the beach. The pod crabs weren't going to die of starvation any time soon.


"Lizard skin makes great boots."

Going over our plan of attack, the captain had a brilliant idea. They would convert their ship's drive core into a nuclear bomb, and we would use it to destroy the base entirely. "Babes, bullets, bombs. Damn – I love this job!" But there was a catch. There always is one. Why can't things be easy, at least once in a while? We couldn't drop it from orbit. We had to place it in the base ourselves. But before the Normandy could get the bomb to its destination, those AA guns had to be silenced. I went over the plan for the assault one more time with Kirrahe. They would split into three teams and attack the base head on. We would use the attack and the attention that it drew to sneak into the base from behind and sabotage it from the inside. To coordinate the teams, he asked for one of my crew to accompany his unit. I chose Ashley. I needed Kaidan's technological knowledge to prepare and set up the bomb. It was a sacrifice that had to be made. Now I had to include an alien in my squad. Until now, I managed to avoid this unpleasantry with both Ashley and Kaidan in my team. But there was no helping it, as there was no alternative to the ground-based attack.

Kirrahe held a heroic but stupid speech about holding the line. How could you attack something by holding a line? Then the assault began. We were making our way around the base and started attacking it from the rear. The captain asked me to find some ways to help them with their assault, if possible. We didn't have time for that! We had to use the confusion to quickly infiltrate the base and disable the AA systems. The Salarian 'Special Tasks Group' could handle it alone. And they had Ashley with them. She was a capable soldier, which I somehow grew to like, even after boring me with her poetry. At least we shared our view on aliens with another. Shooting our way through some light Geth forces, we arrived at the rear entrance and made our way inside. We met some hostile Salarians there. What drove them to aid Saren was unclear, but they had to be dealt with. Shortly after, we found some holding cells with more Salarians inside. They seemed to be not really there anymore, mentally speaking. Only one of them was lucid enough to speak. He told us about the indoctrination Saren was using on them. So, that's why they were hostile. Figures. He wanted us to release him from his cell, but I couldn't trust him. We left him there and moved on. The nuke would take care of them.

Moving deeper into the base, we finally managed to find the AA gun controls and swiftly destroyed them, so no one could re-arm the guns. Now it was time to search for Saren. He was On the run long enough. I would put 'my size-13 boot' right up his rear and through his skull, so he could never attack a human colony again. We looked everywhere, but there was no trace of him. This coward sure didn't make it easy to be eradicated. Eventually, we entered an office with an Asari researcher inside. She got frightened by our presence, rightfully so, and tried to make a case to be spared. She quickly opened an elevator to Saren's private room. She also told us about the indoctrination that was taking place at the base. It wasn't Saren who indoctrinated others; it was his ship. It didn't make sense then. How could a ship do something like this? Maybe she thought helping us would improve her odds of survival. Well, she had outlived her usefulness, and I couldn't allow a follower of this terrorist to escape. Who knew what she would do in the future? A bullet to the head quickly ended her hopes of survival.

"Looks like cleanup on aisle four."

Entering Saren's inner sanctum, we found another Prothean beacon. Now I was glad that Ashley wasn't with us, this time. She probably would've gotten all nosy about it again. I still needed the information that was stored there, so I interacted with it. Luckily, this time the effects were far milder than the first time and I didn't feel pain or get knocked out. I saw some more strange images and memories, but it was clearer than last time. I still couldn't make any sense of it. As we prepared to leave, a hologram of Saren's ship appeared before and spoke to us directly. At first, we thought it was some kind of VI but soon realized that it was actually a fully self-aware AI, and an actual Reaper at that. It called itself 'Sovereign'. A blatant insult to all species. Now it made sense how it could affect people to indoctrinate them. It mocked us, called us insignificant, and made a threat about the destruction of all life in the galaxy. Its time had come to initiate this galactic war. I was going to stop it, no matter what the cost was!

Moving on, we entered an open area that was ideal to place the bomb. I radioed the Normandy, and it soon arrived. We placed the bomb, and Kaidan started to prepare it. Meanwhile, the Salarians and Ashley were in a heavy firefight with Geth forces and needed assistance. It was Kaidan who told us to go to their rescue and assured me that he would finish preparing the bomb. I left a guard there, just to be sure, and gathered the rest of my crew, before heading to help the other team. Now I had two aliens in my squad. Things just got better and better. Halfway to the other team, Kaidan called in and informed us that they were now also being attacked by Geth, and that he was activating the bomb, to make sure it would go off in any case. I had to move fast. And more importantly, I had to make a decision. Saving a hot babe or... well, the hot babe it was. Kaidan understood my reasoning and swore to protect the bomb with his life. We arrived at the Salarians position shortly after and ripped the Geth apart, from behind. With them gone, Saren showed his face for the first time during the battle. He tried to attack us, but we managed to get into cover just in time. We got into a brawl, and he held me up and over the edge of the base. His strength was unnatural. I managed to confuse him, by telling him about a hot chick behind his back. The moment he turned his head, I punched him right in the clacker, as hard as I could. There was a cracking sound as he tumbled to the ground. For a moment he was dazed, and I was free of his grip. But before I could capitalize on my attack, he was up again, jumped on his hoverboard and fled the scene. I swore, next time I got the chance I would perforate his legs first. We quickly boarded the Normandy and left this planet in a hurry. Just after we cleared the atmosphere, the bomb went off. It was quite a spectacle, watching this from space.

Besides Kaidan, Kirrahe and most of his 'men' didn't make it. Apparently, the STG wasn't as elite as they were told to be.

Time was running out. I had to inform the Council about Saren's plan and his ship.
Measures had to be taken, to prevent them from bringing in more Reapers.

With all what was going on, I already had collected multiple clues about Saren's plan. Yet, I had a nagging feeling that something was still missing. I couldn't yet understand how the Mu relay and the Conduit fit together. I sought the advice of Anderson. And there it was! I had overlooked one minute detail that could perhaps help me. This Asari doctor. The daughter of the long dead matriarch. She was said to be somewhere in the Artemis Tau cluster. Having no other options left, I made the decision to give it a shot.

Scouring the cluster, we found one planet that had the potential to be it, Therum. It was a barren, volcanic world. We started scouting it with the Mako and soon got attacked by Geth. This was potentially a good sign. They were present in all of our major operations to this date. So, the Asari could be the reason for them being on this planet. We progressed further through a narrow canyon, flanked by rivers of lava. And we found and fought more Geth. Eventually, we arrived at some sort of fortification. There was no going further on the main path. Luckily, there was a very narrow path on the side. We got the Mako through there and ended up in the middle of this fortification, with Geth all around. After quickly dispatching them, we cleared the buildings and opened the gates. Now we could advance further, until we got to a point that was too narrow to get the Mako through.

Now we were on foot and got repeatedly attacked by more Geth. That is, until we came to a camp of some sort. There seemed to be a mine entrance. Unfortunately, it was defended by a Geth Colossus and normal ground troops. Those colossi were a challenge, even for the Mako. Now we had to fight one on foot. Not the best outlook. At least there was cover we could use. It took us a while to damage it enough for it to finally collapse. Now we were free to enter this mine. It wasn't a mine, as we quickly found out, but an underground facility of some sort. We had to delete some more Geth while exploring and getting deeper into it.

Now we came across a force field, and behind this force field was an Asari. She seemed to be suspended in a bubble of sorts. Approaching the force field, trying to get a better look, she spotted us and called out for help. She looked quite dehydrated and emaciated, upon closer inspection. She also didn't seem to be all there anymore - clearly hallucinating. She was also kind of rude, believing us to be unfriendly. I didn't know how she would come to that conclusion. And I had my doubts that she could be of any help, given her mental state. But since we were already there, why not get her out and see where that went? We looked around and found a mining laser that helped us blast our way to the other side. Not the most assuring choice of words, I know, but it worked. Now we were behind the force field, directly next to her. She begged us to disable her entrapment, and so I did. With her finally free, all that was left to do was getting out of this place. We took an elevator to the upper level. Upon arriving, more Geth and a Krogan battle master showed up. They clearly wanted the Asari alive and us dead. Obviously, we rejected this approach and smashed the hostiles into oblivion. All the fighting and explosions inside made the ruins unstable and we had to leave fast. I called in the Normandy, and we quickly boarded it to leave this planet.

During the after-mission briefing, this Asari fell into disbelief. She had studied the Protheans for 50 years and couldn't comprehend what I've learned in such a short amount of time. I tried to shut her up and told her to deal with it. There was a rogue Spectre out there that needed killing. If she wasn't going to be of any help, I would drop her back into the volcano I just rescued her from.





That gave her pause. But briefly after that, she grew annoying again. Having learnt about my interactions with two Prothean beacons, she desperately wanted to pry my mind. I strongly rejected this notion. No one was going to mess with me this way! She stood up, came very close and looked straight into my eyes. Was she trying to seduce me? I told her again, in no uncertain terms, that this wasn't going to happen. Then she got me distracted for a moment, by telling me that Ashley was undressing behind my back. I just couldn't resist but look there. That's when she grabbed me and forced herself into my brain. I couldn't resist it anymore while she did this. And even worse, none of my crew intervened! When she was finally done with me, I felt mentally leached. I couldn't believe that I had fallen for this ruse. Normally, I was the one who did this to others, like Saren. I didn't think that it would ever work on me. Damn, Ashley... Why did you have to be such a hottie? The Asari apparently had an epiphany. The place we were looking for was Ilos, an ancient Prothean world. And it could only be accessed through the Mu Relay. Damn you! You just could've asked about my visions and came to the same conclusion. Why did you have to violate my mind? Those were my questions at the time.

And if that ordeal wasn't enough. Shortly after this Asari had mentally raped me, I was getting blackmailed. I couldn't believe that she was this desperate.



Maybe that was her revenge for me casually mentioning that I killed her mother? 🤔

With all the pieces coming together, I knew what we would have to do. Go to Ilos and stop Saren from reaching the Conduit. But first, I had to inform the Council. So, we went back to the Citadel one last time...

With Saren exposed and his base destroyed, the Council thought this situation was resolved. They patrolled the Mass Relays to the Citadel with their fleets, to stop him from getting there. I told them about Ilos and that I had to go there to stop Saren. But they either were deaf or just wouldn't hear me. They told me they had the situation under control... Those imbeciles would jeopardize everything over their narrow-minded politics. They wouldn't even let me take the Normandy there and, with Udina's support, locked us out of the Normandy... This was a betrayal of the highest order! After all what we had done for them. I was speechless and maximally frustrated and angry. Would this be the end of the galaxy as we knew it?

I had one last ally left on the Citadel, at least. Captain Anderson had a plan on how we could regain control of the Normandy and go to Ilos. He presented two options: Overwrite the lockdown in their main base or try to do it through Udina's personal terminal. I told him to go to Udina's office. I also asked him to give Udina a message from me, if he was there. I told him to punch Udina in the face for me, hard. I wanted to do this myself, but I had to be on the Normandy when the lockdown was lifted. Me and my team headed back to our ship. The rest of the crew also made it back there. We were ready to go, and the lockdown was soon lifted. Joker quickly took us away from the Citadel and towards the Mu Relay.

On our way there, I spent some time in my cabin, reminiscing about the events that led me to this point. That's when she came in. Ashley wanted to talk about our situation. She assured me that we did the right thing, mutinying against the Council and the Alliance. She tried to bore me some more, with her poetry. But this time there was some sense in what she said: "Death closes all. But something ere the end, some work of noble note may yet be done, not unbecoming men that strove with Gods."
I had the feeling that she wanted something more, and I was right. Given our questionable odds of surviving this mission, she wanted to share her Passport to Heaven with me. This could be the last opportunity we had for some private time together, after all. I told her to get down and give me twenty. Our joined physical exercise was intense and exhausting, but it was oh so good. We had to take some time to rest after this.
"I like a good cigar…and a bad woman…" Having recovered from the initial exhaustion, I told her that we needed a little more exercise and to make it forty, but Joker intervened. We were getting close to Ilos and didn't have time to continue our practice. What a shame...

There was no decent landing zone in sight, and tensions grew about our approach. Then Joker pulled off an awesome maneuver and dropped us in the Mako in a very tight space, just behind Saren and his goons. I was glad to have Joker on board, because "I’m an ass kicker, not an aviator." Unfortunately, Saren managed to shut the gate just in time, so we couldn't follow him directly. We had to find a way to open it first. This place was ancient and crowded with Geth. We scouted around and managed to get the power back online. We also came across some ancient, damaged VI of the Prothean era. Only I could understand the bits and pieces of the warning about the Reapers. The Cipher I picked up on Feros probably was the cause that I could understand Prothean. Now the Geth attacked in force, and we quickly made our way back to the Mako. The gate was open now, and we could start our pursuit of Saren once again.

We drove through a very protruded corridor. The were hundreds of containers on the walls, left and right. Most likely Prothean stasis pods. We fought our way through some more Geth until we came to a halt at a massive force field. Exploring the cause for this force field, we met a Prothean VI, Vigil. It filled us in on the final moments of this place. A secret research facility to create a Mass Relay, the Conduit. It linked directly to the Citadel, which in turn was a massive relay to dark space itself. It was the point of entry of the Reaper fleet, to start their next mass extinction of all advanced galactic species. But this time they had a problem. The last Prothean researchers managed to manipulate the Citadel, or more precisely the Keepers, so Sovereign's signal to open the relay to dark space didn't work anymore. For the first time I was grateful to those aliens. They bought us some precious time to prepare for this mass extinction event, if only the Council would listen...

Having learned everything we could from Vigil, we quickly got back into the Mako and raced after Saren. Fighting our way through more Geth, we arrived at the Conduit. There was no sign of Saren, though. He must have already used the Conduit and was on the Citadel. We initiated the boosters of the Mako and drove straight through the Geth forces that were defending the Conduit. Upon reaching it, we got teleported and landed straight in the Presidium of the Citadel. The Mako was of no more use. We had to continue on foot. Trying to reach the Citadel tower, we got stuck in an elevator. Saren must have shut down the transport systems. We had to perform an extra vehicular activity and fight our way through the Citadel's exterior, in a vacuum. Those gravitational boots were finally coming in handy. We fought more Geth and casually destroyed a Geth cruiser on the way. We re-entered the inner Citadel through a hatch, which led directly to the tower. After deleting some more Geth, it was finally time! Saren had no more places to hide. It was time for him to meet his maker. He tried to reason with me, told me I'd have a place amongst the Reapers, if I just joined him... That was not going to happen, ever!

I told him "Harr matey, someone’s gonna take a long walk off a short gang plank!". He told me in turn how Sovereign upgraded him. Someone should have informed him of my massively upgraded gun since Virmire. It took only a few hits to make him lose equilibrium and plummet over ten meters to the ground from his hoverboard. And as if that wasn't enough to finish him, a giant shard of glass from the tower ceiling dropped onto and impaled him. To make sure he was dead, Ashley put a bullet through his head. I then opened a comm relay to the fleets. The first message I got was that the Destiny Ascension, with the Council on board, was under heavy attack and needed immediate assistance. Now it was time for the Council to experience how it felt to be ignored and left alone. I wouldn't sacrifice human lives to save these numbskulls. They had to figure it out for themselves, like I did all the time after they had stalled me...

Suddenly, there was a massive surge in energy. Saren's body came back to life. But it was not Saren who stood before me; it was Sovereign, who had taken control over his body. I put more bullets into and eventually killed it for good. That also did it for the ship. Its defenses went down, as soon as I had killed its physical form. Now it was getting shot to pieces by our fleet. The battle of the Citadel was over.

The death of the old Council left a vacuum in the galactic power structure. It was the perfect time for humans to take control over galactic politics. I had to make a choice, who to support as new head of the Council. Udina or Anderson. Anderson was a friend and a good man. But he was too soft to put Humanity's interests first. Reluctantly, I chose Udina to spearhead the rise of the humans. Sometimes, you just need a ruthless pitbull at the front, to get what you want. I left them bickering over the scraps. I had more important things to do. Hunting down the remainder of the Geth and stopping the Reaper invasion...