Awesome / When There Was a Tomorrow

• The entire Normandy Crew, even the Red Shirts, get one as early as the second chapter when they thwart a Covenant boarding party without losing a single crewmember. Shepard, Jack, Grunt, and Kasumi, in the meantime, manage to board the Covenant ship the boarders originated from and infiltrate it from the inside, opening the door for EDI to destroy it.
• Grunt gets one himself when he peels off a Hunter's armor and rips apart the worms constituting its body. Made even more awesome as its his act of making up for getting pummeled by Hunters in a previous fight while on a Blood Rage.
  • Even that act was awesome from the Hunters' point of view- Grunt is the Krogan equivalent of a super soldier, who has taken down nearly single-handedly any idiot stupid enough to cross his path, and has grown arrogant. He charges the Hunters... and one backhands him so hard it embeds him into a solid concrete wall and knocks him out of the fight for the rest of the mission. Damn.
• In Chapter 10, Jack headbutts Emile without augmenting it biotically and manages to knock him back a few steps.
• The dog fight around Anchor 9. Noble Six and Joker show some seriously creative flying and a lot of Covenant fighters end up as debris for it.
• At the end of Chapter 16, Grunt goes head-to-head with a dozen Brutes, and manages to keep fighting even as they constantly wound and overwhelm him. Although Miranda and Jack eventually come to his rescue, he pitches in as soon as the pressure comes off. His reward? A Gravity Hammer. Two chapters later, it proves to be a match made in Heaven.
• Also in Chapter 16, some marines climb into Warthogs attached to their Pelicans while mid-flight and shoot down the Banshees that are following them. Afterwards, they get dropped into Traxus Tower through the skylight where the Normandy Crew are holed up, while still riding the Warthogs.
• Samara fighting a Brute Chieftain in the same chapter. The force of its gravity hammer hitting her biotic barriers shatter the windows of the building they're fighting in.
• After attempting to console Shepard about Tali's apparent death, Garrus finds Emile trash-talking him and Shepard's apparent relationship with her. After none too subtly trying to tell Emile to lay off proves futile, Garrus throttles the Spartan against the wall and has this to say...
  Garrus: "Listen to me you smug son of a bitch, I don't care what your problem with me is. I don't care how much you insult me. I don't even care what you think of me. But if you open your mouth and talk about Tali or any of my friends like that again, I don't care if we're allies. I will shove this giant knife so far and so fast down that worthless hole you call a mouth you won't be able to talk, breathe or eat without the use of several machines. Do we understand each other?"
  • For the first time, Emile actually seems sorry. He doesn't come out and say the words, but he does acknowledge that his words were out of line, and points out that Shepard isn't the only one who's lost someone recently.
• Much like in the game, the You Shall Not Pass! Noble Team and Team Normandy pull off against the Blood Pack and Covenant, where everyone gets a Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
• Noble Six's final hours, including killing Kreave, denying the egotistical Krogan his chance to take on Shepard again.
  • Doubly so when he takes a chance to comfort a dying Kreave after he crosses the Despair Event Horizon, even knowing full well he would never have done the same if their situations were reversed. Kreave, to his credit, is grateful.
  Six: Before he died my friend asked something of me. When I knew I wouldn't be able to do it, I passed the duty on to another friend. It wasn't much of a request. All he asked, was that somebody remember us. Remember this place, this planet. As long as someone knows of Reach, of what happened here, they'll remember us. It doesn't require song or monuments, just someone else to remember the place we fell.
  Kreave: Then... it's a good death...Do me a favour Spartan, when the Sangheili come... kill many. Die... well.