History Recap / MassEffect1

In the year 2183, a sleek human spaceship flashes through the stars. It's the SSV ''Normandy'', SR-1, with Captain David Anderson in charge. On its bridge, AcePilot "Joker" guides the ship through a "mass relay," a series of HyperspaceLanes that cover the the Milky Way. An alien, a "turian" named Nihlus, is aboard to observe, which has resulted in some jitters amongst the crew: Nihlus is a "Spectre," one of the EliteAgentsAboveTheLaw that directly serve the [[NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering Citadel Council]]. A Spectre wouldn't be here if something big weren't going down.

The PlayerCharacter is Lt. Cmdr Shepard, a human marine of PurelyAestheticGender whose first name ([[HelloInsertNameHere can be changed]] and) is never spoken aloud. Aside from their gender, Shepard can be assigned one of three {{Superhero Origin}}s (Spacer MilitaryBrat, BadassNormal Colonist and Earthborn orphan), three {{Establishing Character Moment}}s during the character's military service (YouShallNotPass OneManArmy moment at the Skyllian Blitz; leading a raid at Torfan as RoaringRampageOfRevenge for the Blitz; SoleSurvivor of a SandWorm attack) and six character classes (more on that later). In addition to unlocking some extra {{Side Quest}}s, each choice allows Shepard to start with some bonus "Paragon" and "Renegade" points towards the game's MoralitySystem. No matter what BackStory the player chooses, Shepard is entitled to wear the "N7" label, indicating they are trained Special Forces (the "N") and have attained the highest level of proficiency (the "7"). For lack of any other recognizable heraldry, "N7" has become Shepard's calling card, and has featured extensively on [=BioWare=] merchandise, even though the designation's nature indicates it is scarcely exclusive to Shepard and that other designations indicating just as much distinction must exist. (To be sure, it is reasonable that gamers might be less interested in wearing a T7 badge indicating proficiency at buttering toast.) Though fairly customizeable, Shepard does have a CatchPhrase used to end conversations: "I should go."

Shepard lands alongside a subordinate, Lt. Kaidan Alenko, and link up with a NCO assigned to Eden Prime's garrison, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. She explains that the colony came under attack by the geth -- an astonishing fact, as these robots have not been seen outside the Perseus Veil for 300 years. Shepard, Alenko and Williams fight their way through geth forces as they try to reach the Prothean artifact. They are also opposed by Saren -- a turian Spectre, just like Nihlus. However, it becomes clear that Saren is not on Nihlus's side when he shoots the latter InTheBack. Saren is working with the geth, and orders the colony leveled. Shepard's party kill the remaining geth and disable the demolition charges.

Shepard starts to figure out how to, therefore, compile actual evidence. Shepard learns that a quarian (EnclosedExtraterrestrials, RoguishRomani InSpace) recently arrived on the Citadel. A local doctor, Chloe Michel, referred her to Fist, a human who works for an InformationBroker called the Shadow Broker, in hopes of getting the quarian protection. Unfortunately, Fist has defected and now works for Saren. The Shadow Broker has hired a krogan mercenary named Urdnot Wrex to have Fist RewardedAsATraitorDeserves; meanwhile, Dr. Michel is being menaced by Fist's {{mook}}s, and turian Citadel Security agent Garrus Vakarian is trying to protect her. Shepard may recruit Garrus, Wrex or both as party members (or, for that matter, turn them down, though you shouldn't). By interrogating Fist, Shepard learns that the quarian is about to be met by Saren's agents, and Shepard has only four minutes to save the quarian. (Wrex then carries out his contract.) The quarian, once rescued, introduces herself as Tali'Zorah nar ''Rayya''. The evidence she has, which she salvaged from a defeated geth, is a recording of Saren admitting his treachery, and specifically his desire to find something called "The Conduit" which will allow the return of some other force called "The Reapers".

Shepard can also walk around in the three decks of the ''Normandy'', talking not only to their squadmates but to other key Alliance personnel: Chief Engineer Greg Adams, Navigator and NumberTwo Charles Pressley, doctor Karin Chakwas and pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau. Joker is the most important of them, as the most prominent non-party-member character in the series; he is a DisabledSnarker with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteogenesis_imperfecta osteogenesis imperfecta]]. He got his IronicNickname because he was so serious in flight school.

* On '''Noveria''', the geth have come to visit. Shepard should find out what they are interested in, and why.
* On '''Feros''', a tiny colony has been overrun by geth and krogan mercenaries. Why does Saren care about this third-rate planet?

This mission is comparatively short. Shepard and their two squadmates take their AwesomePersonnelCarrier, the M35 Mako, on a long drive amongst the rivers of lava on Therum, getting accustomed to the Mako's... [[DrivesLikeCrazy interesting]] physics modeling while dealing with geth opposition. They eventually get to the dig site, where they find Dr. T'Soni trapped in a Prothean security trap. She activated it when the geth invaded, knowing it would keep her safe from them, but not having much idea of how to get out again. Shepard springs her free and then fights off an attack by a krogan mercenary who wants to kidnap Liara. The four return to the ''Normandy'', and Liara joins the party.

* Tali'Zorah is an '''Engineer''', who specializes in using HardLight {{hologram}} constructs in battle. She's an expert at hacking and is particularly effective at disabling the geth -- which makes sense, given that the quarians ''created'' the geth. Their original intent was to create a robotic force for manual labor operating at Siri levels of intelligence, but constant tweaks and updates resulted in actual ArtificialIntelligence, which has been outlawed by the Council. The quarians tried to decommission the geth ''en masse''; the geth, protective of their lives, fought back. This resulted in the entire quarian race declaring defeat and ''pulling a HomeworldEvacuation'' during (what Earth calls) the 1800s; since then they have lived on the Migrant Fleet, wandering through space. Quarian adolescents must prove themselves by completing a "Pilgrimage" where they find and procure some advantage to the quarian race as a whole, and Tali is doing hers.

Whenever Shepard embarks on a mission, they are given a chance to pick squadmates. Each one has two "points" spread out amongst the various disciplines, and a meter at the bottom of the screen fills according to the current squad layout. A Shepard who is an Infiltrator, alongside the Adept Liara and Soldier Ashley, would therefore form a party of 3 Combat (1 from Shepard and 2 from Ashley), 2 Biotics (Liara) and 1 Tech (Shepard). While a well-rounded party can be valuable, and can always be formed by using the other squad members to balance out Shepard, there are also times when maxing out in a single direction is valuable: for instance, a Tech-heavy lineup of an Engineer Shepard, Tali and Garrus (or Kaidan), providing ''5'' points of Tech, would be strong against robots like the geth... and we are going to be seeing an awful lot of geth during this recap.

Rift Station is being frequently overrun with rachni, with the defenders holding a perimeter as best they can. In addition to small side quests, Shepard must hunt down Matriarch Benezia. A MookMaker boss, she summons a number of enforcers, asari commandos and geth alike, before confronting Shepard directly. (She will not stand down even if Liara is present.) However, before she does, she manages to speak in her own voice: she reveals that Saren's ship, the squidlike ''Sovereign'', is able to exert some sort of MindControl over those near it. Benezia calls it "indoctrination" and admits that she has been affected; she could not stop fighting if she wanted to. However, even the might of an asari matriarch, one of the most powerful biotics alive, cannot stop Shepard.

Feros is a city in the clouds: most of the planet is covered by Prothean skyscrapers, which the colonists are building on. The mayor of the colony, Fai Dan, is trying to keep things together under constant geth attack, and Shepard has the option of assisting in getting the water, power and/or food supplies restored. Shepard needs to reach the nearby headquarters of the [=ExoGeni=] corporation, as their research appears to be what the geth are after.

Shepard learns that the geth have come after the "Thorian," which [=ExoGeni=] have been researching. The Thorian is sort of plant life with MindControl powers, and the colonists at Zhu's Hope have been deliberately exposed to it for research reasons. By the time Shepard learns this, the Thorian has fully taken over the colony, and Shepard must fight their way through the colonists, either using lethal force or specially-tailored gas grenades which will knock them unconscious.

* Adm. Hackett of the 5th Fleet contacts Shepard and tells them of some geth outposts along the Skyllian Verge. In clearing them out, Shepard finds a terminal of geth data. Tali expresses immediate interest in this data: the whole point of her Pilgrimage is to find something the Migrant Fleet could find useful, and data on their ancestral foes is about as useful as one can get. Shepard can decide whether to accept or decline her request.

After fighting their way past a bunch of geth defenders, Shepard makes contact with the salarians, with Joker landing the ''Normandy'' in their camp. They're not just any spies, they are members of the Special Tasks Group -- the salarian equivalent of James Bond, in other words. Captain Kirrahe, their leader, has already lost half his men, but he has at least found out what's going on down here: it's Saren's base of operations, and he's breeding an army of krogan, which he can do quickly because he has found a cure for the genophage.

As Shepard makes their way in, they have a chance to meet some of Kirrahe's salarian casualties, who have been captured and indoctrinated; this is an opportunity for Shepard to learn more about how indoctrination works. Shepard also finds another Prothean Beacon -- this one intact, and delivering the complete warning into Shepard's brain: a warning against a race of robot death {{Eldritch Abomination}}s called "Reapers" which annihilated the Protheans 50,000 years ago. By going up a ramp to a control panel, Shepard gets even more information: they talk to ''Sovereign'', the giant squid-shaped indoctrination spaceship Saren has been flying around, and discover that '''''it IS a Reaper'''''. It refers to Shepard and the others as "organics," planting the seeds of the idea of a RobotWar, and claims that it is part of a cycle of EternalRecurrence; organic civilizations develop & span the galaxy, and once the time is right the Reapers arrive to exterminate them. Sovereign also reveals how it's kind, not the Protheans, are the true creators of the Citadel & Mass Relays. The Protheans, which people of this "cycle" believe to have been an enlightened race of {{Precursors}}, were simply the previous of countless sequential alien civilizations whom discovered the Mass Relays & Element Zero before the Reapers exterminated them. Sovereign shows that most terrifying thing an Eldritch Abomination can show: complete and total disinterest in the puny things it will obliterate.

Shepard still needs to blow the place and exfiltrate the STG contingent, who by now are heavily engaged in their diversionary attack. ''Normandy'' lands, and Kaidan or Ashley -- whichever one of them you didn't send with the STG -- comes out with a giant bomb which will level the place. This squadmate, too, becomes detached, standing guard over the bomb, leaving Shepard with only some combination of Tali, Liara, Garrus and Wrex. (This is why Wrex ''cannot'' die if you didn't recruit Liara and Garrus -- it'd just be Shepard and Tali. And no, a SideQuest of BoldlyComing with Tali isn't an option. At least, not in this game.) Shepard, meanwhile, heads to the AA tower to reinforce the STG. Halfway there, the situation becomes dire: the bomb comes under assault as well. Ashley radios that she thinks Shepard should go save Kaidan; Kaidan radios that he thinks Shepard should go save Ashley; Joker radios in to mention that there are too many geth coming into orbit and ''Normandy'' only has time to make one pickup.

Either way, Shepard hustles over, only to face the biggest problem in the galaxy: Saren himself, here to make sure things go according to plan. He sees the Reapers as completely unstoppable, and feels that cooperation is preferable to extinction. Shepard tries to talk him out of his plan, but is unsuccessful. Whatever the case, Shepard jumps onboard the ''Normandy'' and the ship streaks into space as, down below, the bomb goes off. Saren's base on Virmire is destroyed... and the player party is now short one member. NothingIsTheSameAnymore.

Back on board, the Virmire Survivor is expressing a serious case of SurvivorGuilt. Shepard also has the complete message from the Prothean Beacon, which Liara helps interpret: it points to a planet called Ilos, where the Conduit can be found. If the Virmire Survivor was leading the STG contingent, then Kirrahe and his salarians will be in the hold, and will promise not to forget the HeroicSacrifice the Virmire Not-Survivor made for them.

If Shepard has a LoveInterest (and they didn't die on Virmire), the two have a short moment aboardship before Anderson invites Shepard to a bar. He's hatched a plan that will let Shepard commandeer the ''Normandy'' and get back on the trail. As such, Shepard should make sure to do any Citadel-only {{Side Quest}}s; you won't be returning before the credits roll. Shepard should also, once they've managed to leave the Citadel, complete any of ''those'' side quests they want to as well. Ilos is the PointOfNoReturn, and Shepard will not be able to return to the ''Normandy'' or even change squad members from this point on. Shepard and their love interest even have a PreClimaxClimax before they land. TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon is on.

Shepard and their two squadmates drop on Ilos. Saren manages to shut the doors just as the Mako lands, so Shepard has to do some running-around to open them. But once they're open, the Mako jets them to their next objective: Vigil, a surviving Prothean VI. Vigil explains that the cycle of EternalRecurrence has gone on for millions of years (Liara proposed a similar theory just after being rescued from Therum, though she admitted she had no proof at the time), and Vigil wants to pass on the Protheans' mistakes so that the denizens of this cycle can learn from them. It explains that the Conduit is a miniature mass relay that leads directly from here, Ilos, to the Citadel... which ''itself'' is a giant mass relay, whence the Reapers can come in from the "Darkspace" outside the Milky Way Galaxy and start slaughtering all spacefaring life. Ilos itself managed to get overlooked in the chaos, and the entire Prothean population decided to HumanPopsicle themselves in the hopes of emerging later, but the power systems weren't durable enough to last. The Reaper invasion is not only coming, it was already supposed to start... if not for the brave actions of the few remaining Protheans on Ilos, the only ones which Vigil was able to preserve. They sabotaged the Citadel so that the Reapers could not use it. Saren is on his way there now to reverse that sabotage, and Shepard must stop him.

Shepard jumps in the Mako and races for the Conduit. Interspersed with this breakneck driving situation is a space battle, depicted via CutScene, as Sovereign, backed by a geth fleet, attacks the Citadel. Sovereign -- which as Vigil explained has ''at least'' twice as many TechnologyLevels as the defenders -- wins handily. Saren boards the station, heading for the Master Control Terminal, as the flagship of the defense fleet, the asari dreadnought ''Destiny Ascension,'' prepares to evacuate the Council, and Shepard's Mako reaches the Conduit and is flung through space to...

The Mako emerges onto the Presidium, squashing a couple of geth, and Shepard tries to catch up with Saren, who has already made it to the Council chambers and is beginning to hack into the Master Control Terminal. Shepard and crew must go EVA, walking up the outside of the Citadel Tower in zero-G to reach the Council Chambers at the top. Meanwhile, the Citadel defenders order the arms of the Wards closed to prevent Sovereign from reaching the (outside of the) Tower. Unfortunately, they are unsuccessful, as Sovereign simply sweeps aside whatever ships attempt to stop it.

Shepard takes control of the Master Control Terminal. Almost immediately, they are contacted by the forces outside. The ''Destiny Ascension'', with the Council on board, is taking a terrible hammering and will soon be lost. Meanwhile, Joker comms in: the ''Normandy'' is at the head of the entire Fifth Fleet under Adm. Hackett, and is waiting to jump through once Shepard re-activates the mass relays. Shepard's squadmates debate: the Council has displayed HeadInTheSandManagement at best, and it seems unwise to waste more lives saving them. That being said, the Reapers represent a threat to ''all'' the galaxy, and humanity has a chance to score points. Shepard must decide whether to save the Council, condemn them to death explicitly, or commit a FailureToSaveMurder by having the human fleets focus on Sovereign once Shepard opens the Wards again. Of course, nothing's ever that simple. Sovereign re-animates the Reaper cybernetics in Saren's body, presenting a true FinalBoss battle that Shepard must fight and win.

* If the Council is dead, Udina thanks Shepard for giving humans a shot at galactic prominence: the Citadel races have had their fleets pulverized, while humanity's are relatively untouched. Udina will suggest that he personally form a new Council; if Shepard's Paragon score is higher, it will include the Citadel races, but if Shepard went Renegade, it will be a human-only Council. They just need someone to chair it.

* Wrex is a '''Vanguard'''. Half Soldier and half Adept, he is a CloseRangeCombatant, using biotics to pin enemies in place while they close for a shotgun blast. Wrex is a krogan, another LongLived race. A few of them still remember the Rachni Wars, which began in the 1st century CE when an asari jumped through an uncharted mass effect relay and accidentally started a BugWar that threatened the entire galaxy with extinction.[[note]]That Citadel rule about "''Don't go through uncharted mass relays, goddammit''"? Yeah, it wasn't just some ObstructiveBureaucrat flexing on the galaxy.[[/note]] The answer came in the form of the krogan: a race of turtle-like SpaceOrcs with SpareBodyParts, SuperStrength, SuperToughness and [[BizarreAlienBiology four testicles]] -- which, in gameplay terms, translates to UnstoppableRage, RegeneratingHealth, ''tons'' of {{Hit Point}}s and [[TurnsRed Turning Red]] when at low health. The salarians threw a TechnologyUplift at these krogan in exchange for their assistance against the rachni, and the krogan eventually persecuted the war to conclusion, killing the last rachni in about the 3rd century CE. However, krogan are also {{Explosive Breeder}}s and an IntroducedSpeciesCalamity wherever they colonized, ''and'' a MightMakesRight ProudWarriorRace to boot. Having finished the first galactic war, they declared the second... and, for the second time in a millenium, the Citadel races were faced with extinction. The so-called "Krogan Rebellions" ended around 800 CE via a joint operation by the turians and the salarians: the "genophage," an induced SterilityPlague that causes stillbirths in 99.5% of krogan births. Consumed by nihilism, most krogan have become {{Blood Knight}}s and PrivateMilitaryContractors or consumed by CivilWar, dying faster than they can reproduce. Wrex, who is a little smarter than that, was driven from the krogan homeworld when he proposed the hippie libtard snowflake idea of krogan maybe ''not'' killing each other for a while.

The PlayerCharacter is Lt. Cmdr Shepard, a human marine of PurelyAestheticGender whose first name ([[HelloInsertNameHere can be changed]] and) is never spoken aloud. Aside from their gender, Shepard can be assigned one of three {{Superhero Origin}}s (Spacer MilitaryBrat, BadassNormal Colonist and Earthborn orphan), three {{Establishing Character Moment}}s during the character's military service (YouShallNotPass OneManArmy moment at the Skyllian Blitz; leading a raid at Torfan as RoaringRampageOfRevenge for the Blitz; SoleSurvivor of a SandWorm attack) and six character classes (more on that later). In addition to unlocking some extra {{Side Quest}}s, each choice allows Shepard to start with some bonus "Paragon" and "Renegade" points towards the game's MoralitySystem. No matter what BackStory the player chooses, Shepard is entitled to wear the "N7" label, indicating they are trained Special Forces (the "N") and have attained the highest level of proficiency (the "7"). For lack of any other recognizable heraldry, "N7" has become Shepard's calling card, and has featured extensively on [=BioWare=] merchandise, even though the designation's nature indicates it is scarcely exclusive to Shepard and that other designations indicating just as much distinction must exist. (To be sure, it is reasonable that gamers might be less interested in wearing a T7 badge indicating proficiency at buttering toast.)

As Shepard summons the ''Normandy'' to come pick up the Prothean Beacon, Kaidan or Ashley - dependent on the Shepard's gender - approaches it and begins to get yanked into the air by forces beyond comprehension. Shepard wrestles Kaidan/Ashley out of the grip of the whatever-it-is, only to take their place: Shepard is hoisted into the air and information is poured directly into their brain. It apparently comes from the Beacon -- which, having delivered its cryptic message, explodes.

As Shepard summons the ''Normandy'' to come pick up the Prothean Beacon, Kaidan/Ashley (dependent on the player's gender) approaches it and begins to get yanked into the air by forces beyond comprehension. Shepard wrestles Kaidan/Ashley out of the grip of the whatever-it-is, only to take their place: Shepard is hoisted into the air and information is poured directly into their brain. It apparently comes from the Beacon -- which, having delivered its cryptic message, explodes.

As Shepard makes their way in, they have a chance to meet some of Kirrahe's salarian casualties, who have been captured and indoctrinated; this is an opportunity for Shepard to learn more about how indoctrination works. Shepard also finds another Prothean Beacon -- this one intact, and delivering the complete warning into Shepard's brain: a warning against a race of robot death {{Eldritch Abomination}}s called "Reapers" which annihilated the Protheans 50,000 years ago. By going up a ramp to a control panel, Shepard gets even more information: they talk to ''Sovereign'', the giant squid-shaped indoctrination spaceship Saren has been flying around, and discovers that '''''it IS a Reaper'''''. It refers to Shepard and the others as "organics," planting the seeds of the idea of a RobotWar, and claims that it is part of a cycle of EternalRecurrence; organic civilizations develop & span the galaxy, and once the time is right the Reapers arrive to exterminate them. Sovereign also reveals how it’s kind, not the Protheans, are the true creators of the Citadel & Mass Relays. The Protheans, which people of this "cycle" believe to have been an enlightened race of {{Precursors}}, were simply the previous of countless sequential alien civilizations whom discovered the Mass Relays & Element Zero before the Reapers exterminated them. Sovereign shows that most terrifying thing an Eldritch Abomination can show: complete and total disinterest in the puny things it will obliterate.

As Shepard summons the ''Normandy'' to come pick up the Prothean Beacon, Kaidan approaches it and begins to get yanked into the air by forces beyond comprehension. Shepard wrestles Kaidan out of the grip of the whatever-it-is, only to take his place: Shepard is hoisted into the air and information is poured directly into their brain. It apparently comes from the Beacon -- which, having delivered its cryptic message, explodes.

As Shepard makes their way in, they have a chance to meet some of Kirrahe's salarian casualties, who have been captured and indoctrinated; this is an opportunity for Shepard to learn more about how indoctrination works. Shepard also finds another Prothean Beacon -- this one intact, and delivering the complete warning into Shepard's brain: a warning against a race of robot death {{Eldritch Abomination}}s called "Reapers" which annihilated the Protheans 50,000 years ago. By going up a ramp to a control panel, Shepard gets even more information: he talks to ''Sovereign'', the giant squid-shaped indoctrination spaceship Saren has been flying around, and discovers that '''''it IS a Reaper'''''. It refers to Shepard and the others as "organics," planting the seeds of the idea of a RobotWar, and claims that it is part of a cycle of EternalRecurrence; organic civilizations develop & span the galaxy, and once the time is right the Reapers arrive to exterminate them. Sovereign also reveals how it’s kind, not the Protheans, are the true creators of the Citadel & Mass Relays. The Protheans, which people of this "cycle" believe to have been an enlightened race of {{Precursors}}, were simply the previous of countless sequential alien civilizations whom discovered the Mass Relays & Element Zero before the Reapers exterminated them. Sovereign shows that most terrifying thing an Eldritch Abomination can show: complete and total disinterest in the puny things it will obliterate.

As mentioned above, Shepard only needs to have completed two of the other missions before taking this one on. However, you probably shouldn't: After this mission, NothingIstheSameAnymore.

* One of the game's two DownloadableContent packets, "Bring Down the Sky," takes place entirely on Asteroid X57 near the human colony of Terra Nova. The asteroid was deliberately pushed nearer the planet to aid in resource harvesting; now someone has turned on its engines to organize a ColonyDrop. Shepard must shut down all three engines, determine who hijacked the asteroid -- batarians, led by the vengeful Bahak -- and stop the plan in its tracks. Bahak eventually organizes a stand-off, demanding his life in exchange for that of the innocent engineers he has captured. There is no Third Option this time: either everyone dies or no one does.

As Shepard makes their way in, they have a chance to meet some of Kirrahe's salarian casualties, who have been captured and indoctrinated; this is an opportunity for Shepard to learn more about how indoctrination works. Shepard also finds another Prothean Beacon -- this one intact, and delivering the complete warning into Shepard's brain: a warning against a race of robot death {{Eldritch Abomination}}s called "Reapers" which annihilated the Protheans 50,000 years ago. By going up a ramp to a control panel, Shepard gets even more information: he talks to ''Sovereign'', the giant squid-shaped indoctrination spaceship Saren has been flying around, and discovers that '''''it IS a Reaper'''''. It refers to Shepard and the others as "organics," planting the seeds of the idea of a RobotWar, and claims that it is part of a cycle of EternalRecurrence. The Protheans, which people of this "cycle" believe to have been an enlightened race of {{Precursors}} who discovered element zero and the mass relays, merely discovered them from the last cycle, and possibly beyond. Sovereign shows that most terrifying thing an Eldritch Abomination can show: complete and total disinterest in the puny things it will obliterate.

If Shepard has a LoveInterest (and they didn't die on Virmire), the two have a short moment aboardship before Anderson invites Shepard to a bar. He's hatched a plan that will let Shepard commandeer the ''Normandy'' and get back on the trail. As such, Shepard should make sure to do any Citadel-only {{Side Quest}}s; you won't be returning before the credits roll. Shepard should also, once they've managed to leave the Citadel, complete any of ''those'' side quests they want to as well. Ilos is the PointOfNoReturn, and Shepard will not be able to return to the ''Normandy'' or even change squad members from this point on. Shepard and their love interest even have a sex scene before they land. TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon is on.

Shepard awakes aboard the ''Normandy'' some 15 hours later. The ''Normandy'' is en route to the Citadel, the giant space station that serves as the capitol of the galaxy, to report Saren's treachery to the Council. Shepard cannot precisely explain what the Beacon showed -- the FMV is essentially a {{blipvert}} -- but it's probably bad news, and Shepard believes it relates to why the Protheans went [[KillEmAll very suddenly extinct]] about 50,000 years ago. After checking in with Donnel Udina, the human ambassador on the Citadel, the humans step before the Council. Saren, weighing in via {{Hologram}} [=FaceTime=], urges the Council to dismiss the charges, and since the humans have no evidence besides the fact that Capt. Anderson doesn't like Saren very much (they have a DarkAndTroubledPast together), they inevitably rule in favor of their agent.

Udina, Anderson and Shepard present this evidence to the Council. They admit that Saren has gone rogue and revoke his Spectre status. To hunt him down, they assign... Shepard, who replaced him as a Spectre. In addition to special equipment and their "above the law" status, Shepard is also given command of the ''Normandy''. Captain Anderson explains his antipathy towards Saren: the latter ensured that Anderson would flunk out when ''he'' was a Spectre candidate, in addition to running an op in a very "KillEmAll" "AMillionIsAStatistic" manner. It should be pointed out that a Renegade Shepard can express admiration for Saren's "IDidWhatIHadToDo" mentality, while simultaneously criticizing him for sabotaging Anderson's candidacy. Shepard's official goal is to apprehend Saren by any means necessary. Shepard's personal goal: try to figure out the blipvert they got from the Prothean Beacon.

* Wrex is a '''Vanguard'''. Half Soldier and half Adept, he is a CloseRangeCombatant, using biotics to pin enemies in place while they close for a shotgun blast. Wrex is a krogan, another LongLived race. A few of them still remember the Rachni Wars, which began in the 1st century CE when an asari jumped through an uncharted mass effect relay and accidentally started a BugWar that threatened the entire galaxy with extinction.[[note]]That Citadel rule about "''Don't go through uncharted mass relays, goddammit''"? Yeah, it wasn't just some ObstructiveBureaucrat flexing on the galaxy.[[/note]] The answer came in the form of the krogan: a race of TurtlePower SpaceOrcs with SpareBodyParts, SuperStrength, SuperToughness and [[BizarreAlienBiology four testicles]] -- which, in gameplay terms, translates to UnstoppableRage, RegeneratingHealth, ''tons'' of {{Hit Point}}s and [[TurnsRed Turning Red]] when at low health. The salarians threw a TechnologyUplift at these krogan in exchange for their assistance against the rachni, and the krogan eventually persecuted the war to conclusion, killing the last rachni in about the 3rd century CE. However, krogan are also {{Explosive Breeder}}s and an IntroducedSpeciesCalamity wherever they colonized, ''and'' a MightMakesRight ProudWarriorRace to boot. Having finished the first galactic war, they declared the second... and, for the second time in a millenium, the Citadel races were faced with extinction. The so-called "Krogan Rebellions" ended around 800 CE via a joint operation by the turians and the salarians: the "genophage," an induced SterilityPlague that causes stillbirths in 99.5% of krogan births. Consumed by nihilism, most krogan have become {{Blood Knight}}s and PrivateMilitaryContractors or consumed by CivilWar, dying faster than they can reproduce. Wrex, who is a little smarter than that, was driven from the krogan homeworld when he proposed the hippie libtard snowflake idea of krogan maybe ''not'' killing each other for a while.

* Ashley is a '''Soldier'''. All she has is a StoneWall's HitPoints and MoreDakka; she can use all four weapon types (pistols, shotguns, battle rifles and sniper rifles) and focuses solely on shooting damage. Ashley is trying to fight off "The Williams Curse": when humanity first discovered a mass relay near Pluto (which, due to humanity's comparatively poor optical hardware, was believed to be the planet's moon Charon) and started to explore, they inadvertently violated a Council law about flying through uncharted mass relays. A turian fleet discovered them doing this and immediately applied TheSiege to the human colony of Shanxi. To save the population from starving, Ashley's grandfather, General Williams, surrendered; he has since gone down in history as the only human to surrender to aliens, and Ashley's family is still fighting against this black mark. This has resulted in Ashley having a grudge against aliens in general, which manifests itself both as cynical BlackAndGreyMorality (believing aliens are just as racist as humans and would hang humans out to dry if needed) and straight-up FantasticRacism ("I can't tell the aliens from the animals" -- in her defense, this is meant to be said only when she's in proximity to the "Keepers," a race of insectoid enigmas on the Citadel that nobody knows about because ''there's laws against studying them''; unfortunately, there's 20 of them around the Citadel, so the line can come up quite frequently, and even after the player has turned the camera away from the Keeper in question). She's also a ReligiousBruiser and WarriorPoet, having a particular love of Tennyson.

* Liara is an '''Adept''', [[FighterMageThief the Mage to Ashley's Fighter and Tali's Thief]]. All asari have element zero in their bodies naturally, and Liara uses these for the discipline of "biotics" -- that is, MindOverMatter. She's something of a SquishyWizard, but has by far the best crowd control in the game. Asari are LongLived, and Liara is merely 106 years old. Obviously, that's enough time to become estranged from one's parent, and Liara barely knows anything valuable about Matriarch Benezia; instead, she's more fascinated by Shepard -- not just due to professional curiosity, but as a LoveInterest. Asari are a OneGenderRace, with every asari capable of conceiving and bearing offspring -- even with other alien races, as no genetic information is actually exchanged, with the egg self-fertilizing and then randomizing its genes depending on information gained via the MindMeld asari do while having sex. Liara is therefore a romantic possibility for a Shepard of either sex who sees themselves BoldlyComing. The more conventional alternatives are Ashley for a male Shepard, and for the female Shepard...