In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars.
The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.
They called it the greatest discovery in human history.
The civilizations of the galaxy call it...
MASS EFFECT
Eden Prime
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, Ace Pilot "Joker" guides the ship through a "mass relay," a series of Hyperspace Lanes 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 Elite Agents Above the Law that directly serve the Citadel Council. A Spectre wouldn't be here if something big weren't going down.The Player Character is Lt. Cmdr Shepard, a human marine of Purely Aesthetic Gender whose first name (can be changed and) is never spoken aloud. Aside from their gender, Shepard can be assigned one of three Superhero Origins (Spacer Military Brat, Badass Normal Colonist and Earthborn orphan), three Establishing Character Moments during the character's military service (You Shall Not Pass! One-Man Army moment at the Skyllian Blitz; leading a raid at Torfan as Roaring Rampage of Revenge for the Blitz; Sole Survivor of a Sand Worm attack) and six character classes (more on that later). In addition to unlocking some extra Side Quests, each choice allows Shepard to start with some bonus "Paragon" and "Renegade" points towards the game's Morality System. No matter what Back Story 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."
Capt. Anderson briefs Shepard on what's going on. The Normandy is out here for three reasons. One is a basic shakedown cruise: she's the cutting edge of the Alliance military, developed with assistance of the Turian Hierarchy. The second is that the colony they've traveled to, Eden Prime, has found an artifact left behind by the Protheans, the franchise's race of Precursors who, As You Know, left behind a cache of technology on Mars that included Element Zero, the key to the franchise's One Big Lie. A second discovery could have similarly galvanic impacts on human scientific progress, and indeed sapient scientific progress as a whole. And the third is another shakedown cruise: LCDR Shepard is being evaluated for membership in the Spectres. This is something humanity wants badly: while they have their colonies, 90% of the species still lives on Earth, and they are considered upstarts by the other sentient races of the galaxy — not just the Proud Warrior Race Bird People turians, but also the Mad Scientist Sneaky Spy Species salarians and the Green-Skinned Space Babe Proud Scholar Race asari, each of whom have one individual on the Citadel Council. Now, according to humans, Humans Are Special, but nobody else seems to agree, and — so Capt. Anderson tells Shepard — getting a human into the Spectres is a step towards that legitimacy and recognition. A lot is riding on this mission.
There also turns out to be a fourth reason when Eden Prime broadcasts a distress call: they're under attack by robots and a giant ship that reaches out of the sky like the hand of death.
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 In the Back. Saren is working with the geth, and orders the colony leveled. Shepard's party kill the remaining geth and disable the demolition charges.
As Shepard summons the Normandy to come pick up the Prothean Beacon, Kaidan or Ashley - dependent on 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.
The Citadel
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 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 Dark and Troubled Past together), they inevitably rule in favor of their agent.Shepard starts to figure out how to, therefore, compile actual evidence. Shepard learns that a quarian (Enclosed Extraterrestrials, Roguish Romani IN SPACE!) recently arrived on the Citadel. A local doctor, Chloe Michel, referred her to Fist, a human who works for an Information Broker 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 Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves; meanwhile, Dr. Michel is being menaced by Fist's mooks, 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".
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 "A Million Is a Statistic" manner. It should be pointed out that a Renegade Shepard can express admiration for Saren's "I Did What I Had to Do" 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.
In addition to having free run of the galaxy, Shepard also can explore the Citadel itself. It's a giant space station of 13 million inhabitants, with a central ring from which five arms extend. These five arms, the "Wards," have buildings all over their interior surfaces. The ring is called the "Presidium," and it's where all the posh people live — the fancy merchants, the diplomats, and of course the Citadel Council itself, which deliberate atop the Citadel Tower that sticks into the center of the ring. It is equipped with defensive fleets from all three Council races — asari, salarians and turians — and has embassies for many other species as well, such as the rotund and pressure-suited volus, the elephant-like elcor, the floating pink jellyfish called the hanar, and of course Donnel Udina, putting the "Ass" in Ambassador on behalf of humanity.
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 Number Two 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 Disabled Snarker with osteogenesis imperfecta
. He got his Ironic Nickname because he was so serious in flight school.
Shepard is given three leads to chase down. While this recap is going to take them in the order listed below, the game is a Wide-Open Sandbox and the player can choose their own direction.
- On Tali's recording, Saren isn't just monologuing to empty air: he's talking to Matriarch Benezia, a noted asari leader. Her daughter, noted Prothean scholar Liara T'Soni, is doing archaeology on Therum. Getting her on your side may be very valuable... especially since you've already recruited five of your six Player Party characters, and the last remaining member seems to be an asari.
- 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?
- Once two of the three above missions have been completed, Shepard will be DM'ed by the Council. A team of salarian spies sent in a transmission consisting of only static — via their "mission-critical updates only" channel, an Absence of Evidence that bodes ill. They were last on the planet Virmire. Could Shepard go check it out?
Therum
This mission is comparatively short. Shepard and their two squadmates take their Awesome Personnel Carrier, the M35 Mako, on a long drive amongst the rivers of lava on Therum, getting accustomed to the Mako's... 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.
Shepard now has a complete squad. Coincidentally, each one represents one of the character classes.
- Ashley is a Soldier. All she has is a Stone Wall's Hit Points and More Dakka; 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, we currently believe is the moon Charon) and started to explore, they inadvertently violated a Council law about (not) flying through uncharted mass relays. A turian fleet discovered them doing this and immediately applied The Siege 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 Black-and-Grey Morality (believing aliens are just as racist as humans and would hang humans out to dry if needed) and straight-up Fantastic Racism ("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 Religious Bruiser and Warrior Poet, having a particular love of Tennyson.
- Tali'Zorah is an Engineer, who specializes in using Hard Light 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 Artificial Intelligence, 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 Homeworld Evacuation 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.
- Liara is an Adept, 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;" she's a Gravity Master who can push, pull, levitate and stasis enemy targets. She's something of a Squishy Wizard, but has by far the best crowd control in the game. Asari are Long-Lived, 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 Love Interest. Asari are a One-Gender Race, 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 Mind Meld asari do while having sex. Liara is therefore a romantic possibility for a Shepard of either sex who sees themselves Boldly Coming. The more conventional alternatives are Ashley for a male Shepard, and for the female Shepard...
- Kaiden is a Sentinel. Half Engineer and half Adept, Sentinels have a wide variety of support abilities, serving as White Mage and Barrier Warrior for their team as a whole. Kaidan is one of the first generation of human biotics (his mother was downwind of a transport accident, which is how he got element zero in his body) and was fitted with an older L2 implant, which sometimes causes him headaches — which is a lot better than the migraines or even loss of sanity other L2s have suffered. To train their newfound biotics, the Alliance turned to alien instructors, particularly the turians, and Kaidan's more cosmopolitan upbringing (compared to Ashley's insularity) has led to a more egalitarian viewpoint: where Ashley sees the more negative aspects of alien co-existence, Kaidan sees the possibilities. He hails from Vancouver, Canada.
- Garrus is an Infiltrator. Half Engineer and half Soldier, he is a Long-Range Fighter specializing in Sniper Rifles. A former police officer on the Citadel, Garrus, a Cowboy Cop, leaves C-Sec employ to follow Shepard and engage in a world where there are a lot fewer rules. This makes Garrus quite a rebel; the turians are very civic-minded, and have an enlistment rate above 90% percent. The ability to work within the rules, in other words, is a big deal to turians, and Garrus has gotten a fair bit of flak from his father Castis (himself former C-Sec and definitely a By-the-Book Cop) on the subject. Castis even discouraged Garrus from bucking for Spectre status, having a dim view of Elite Agents Above the Law.
- Wrex is a Vanguard. Half Soldier and half Adept, he is a Close-Range Combatant, using biotics to pin enemies in place while they close for a shotgun blast. Wrex is a krogan, another Long-Lived 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 Bug War that threatened the entire galaxy with extinction.note The answer came in the form of the krogan: a race of turtle-like Space Orcs with Spare Body Parts, Super-Strength, Super-Toughness and four testicles — which, in gameplay terms, translates to Unstoppable Rage, Regenerating Health, tons of Hit Points and Turning Red when at low health. The salarians threw a Technology Uplift 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 Breeders and an Introduced Species Calamity wherever they colonized, and a Might Makes Right Proud Warrior Race 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 Sterility Plague that causes stillbirths in 99.5% of krogan births. Consumed by nihilism, most krogan have become Blood Knights and Private Military Contractors or consumed by Civil War, 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 idea of krogan maybe not killing each other for a while.
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.
Shepard also has complete run of the Normandy itself, a three-deck frigate. Deck 1 includes the bridge and Joker's pilot seat, the main control area in the "neck" of the ship, the "Galaxy Map" where Navigator Pressly helps Shepard get the ship where it's going, and a comm room in the stern (rear). Deck 2, accessible via stairways just aft of the Galaxy Map, are the ship's living quarters: the main mess hall (dining room) is here, right underneath the Galaxy Map, and the crew's sleeping pods line the neck of the ship. The captain's cabin — Shepard's, now — is also here, across from the Med Bay where Dr. Chakwas and Liara make their homes; Kaidan also hangs out up here. Finally, an elevator right off the mess leads down to Deck 3, where the Mako lives in a vehicle storage bay. Here Ashley can be found maintaining the party's small arms, Garrus typically tinkers on the Mako, and Wrex just hangs out. Aft of the vehicle bay is Main Engineering, where Tali and Engineer Adams have made fast friends.
Noveria
Noveria is a world which advertises a minimum of corporate oversight, drawing Corrupt Corporate Executives by the dozen to conduct less-than-ethical research. Shepard can accept a number of Side Quests throughout the capitol city, Port Hanshen, to either clean up or aid (and benefit from) all this under-the-table dealings.Shepard learns from Secretary of Evil Gianna Parasini that no less than Matriarch Benezia has recently arrived and set out for Peak 15. However, a storm has set in, and Shepard will need permission from her boss — Administrator Anoleis, head of the One Nation Under Copyright — to leave. Shepard can obtain this by helping apprehend a local smuggler. Shepard can also borrow a parking pass from turian Lorik Qui'in in exchange for a favor: Qui'in's office, Synthetic Insights, has been impounded by some of Anoleis's thugs, and Qui'in needs some data recovered from his office. At this point Parasini reveals herself to be an Internal Affairs agent sent to reign in Anoleis's corrupt-even-by-Noveria-standards behavior; she wants Qui'in to testify against Anoleis, with the evidence Shepard just retrieved for him as proof. Shepard can help Parasini arrest Anoleis, let the two of them Mutual Kill each other, or just give the stuff to Qui'in; either way, Shepard gets access to the garage and can take the Mako out into the frozen wastes of Noveria.
Up at Peak 15, Shepard and Co discover that the entire research facility has been locked down for biohazard reasons, and encounter insectoid menaces. By making contact with some of the survivors, Shepard learns the nature of these insects: they are rachni, birthed from an egg found on a 2000-year-old rachni spaceship. Binary Helix, the company in charge of Peak 15, has been conducting research into the rachni on Saren's orders, with Matriarch Benezia having recently arrived to supervise the matter personally. Shepard's party must lift the lockdown and get Peak 15 back up and running, at which point they head to the level's third area, Rift Station.
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 Mook Maker 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 Mind Control 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.
Finally, Shepard regards the prize in the middle of the lab: the rachni queen. Using a deceased asari commando as a mouthpiece, she explains that it was revived to make war, but would prefer to disappear into anonymity. Shepard may choose whether to let her go or whether she's Too Powerful to Live.
Feros
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 Mind Control 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.
Shepard descends beneath the colony and defeats the Thorian, which deploys a number of brainwashed zombies and some mind-controlled asari to defend it. One of the surviving asari, Shiala, gives the lowdown: she was given to the Thorian by Saren as part of an attempt to establish alliance. Saren wants the Thorian because it existed all the way back to the time of the Protheans, and assimilated some of them when they died. What it gained from this — what Saren came to the Thorian for — what Shiala has — what Shiala now gives to Shepard — was enough Prothean Past-Life Memories that someone like Saren, or that matter Shepard, could finally comprehend the cryptic blipvert from the Prothean Beacon. With this Cipher in place, Shepard now sees that the vision reveals some sort of Robot War, but still lacks any additional context. Liara, who gets the vision from Shepard via Mind Meld, explains that the Eden Prime Beacon was damaged, and did not in fact transmit the entirety of the message it was encoded with.
Side Quests
While these missions can be attempted at just about any time, we are grouping them here for convenience. There are lots and lots of sidequests, many of which can be picked up at the Citadel and others which are hidden in some of the above missions. These are the ones that turn out to be important to Story Arcs:- Talk to Garrus about his time in C-Sec and he will mention a Dr. Saleon, a salarian who used Human Resources for Organ Theft, growing organs in his associates, harvesting them and then giving them cloned organs to repeat the process. Garrus was not able to bring Dr. Saleon to justice, but knows where the fellow is hiding. Once cornered, Saleon, no matter what, pulls a gun and is killed resisting arrest. The real question is whether Shepard used this opportunity to encourage Garrus's Cowboy Cop tendencies or urge him to play more by the rules.
- Talking to Wrex will lead him to admit some details about how he was chased offworld: for instance, the person who betrayed him and most derided his views as being hopelessly myopic was his father Jarrod, which Wrex avenged with steel before leaving. Wrex is on the hunt for his family's ceremonial battle armor, which was lost during the Krogan Rebellions and has ended up in the private collection of a turian named Tonn Actus. Wrex is glad to get it back... even if it is over a millenia out of date and basically not worth the fuel it costs to ship around on the Normandy.
- 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.
- On the Citadel is a guy named Conrad Vernor, who has a serious case of Hero Worship for Shepard. You can encourage him to go home to his wife, encourage him to try and be a badass (at which point he picks a fight with a bunch of turians and gets sent home in a box), or simply get him out of your face by means of pointing a gun at him, at which point he will be pissed off and renounce you as his idol. While this seems to go nowhere at the time — and, frankly, it does — the point of this section is also to document things that turn out to be important to Story Arcs.
- There's an asari diplomat on the Citadel named Nassana Dantius whose sister has been kidnapped by Space Pirates. While Citadel dignitaries are supposed to forward all such claims to C-Sec, Nassana sidesteps them and contacts Shepard directly, begging for her sister's rescue. Obligingly, Shepard attacks the pirates' base and kills everyone there... including Dahlia Dantius, who was actually their leader. Nassana, afterwards, shows no remorse over having used Shepard as a Professional Killer.
- One of the missions you pick up on the Citadel involves investigating a group of Marines sent out by Adm. Kahoku which has since gone missing. The detachment, it turns out, were lured into a trap by a human extremist group called Cerberus, a Nebulous Evil Organization best described as Right-Wing Militia Fanatic types IN SPACE!. Kahoku, desiring vengeance for his ambushed and murdered troops, manages to pass Shepard the location of several Cerberus bases, shortly before going on the run for his life. At each base, Shepard finds Cerberus conducting research into whatever they can find — Thorian zombies, rachni and worse — as well as Kahoku's body, as Cerberus in fact managed to find him. Shepard assaults a central Cerberus base to both avenge Kahoku and halt their illegal research, but that's only one of Cerberus's many heads, and the group will need to be stopped again later.
- One of the game's two Downloadable Content 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 Colony Drop. Shepard must shut down all three engines, determine who hijacked the asteroid — batarians, led by the vengeful Balak — and stop the plan in its tracks. Balak 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.
- After you pass a certain level, Adm. Hackett will contact Shepard. A rogue VI has taken over an Alliance training facility, and Hackett needs it stopped. Therefore, Shepard points the Normandy home: the facility is on Luna, Earth's moon. This a good mission for players to jump on quickly as it unlocks Shepard's "Specialization," a one-time and Shepard-exclusive evolution of Shepard's base class into something a bit more focused. In any case, Shepard succeeds at taking down the three servers that host the AI, which leaves only a cryptic response:01001000
01000101
01001100
01010000
Virmire
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, Nothing Is the Same Anymore.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.
Wrex is immediately interested. The genophage has been bad enough; the pessimism it has inflicted on his people is what's truly killing them, and a cure could help them out of their doldrums. Wrex wants the cure... and he wants it so badly that he's willing to pull his pistol on Shepard. This is a Plotline Death opportunity, the first in the franchise. Shepard, ultimately, decides Wrex's fate.
- Shepard can simply shoot Wrex. The argument ends.
- Shepard can also signal Ashley to shoot Wrex In the Back Ashley will also do this of her own volition if Shepard keeps talking to Wrex but isn't able to make headway.
- If Shepard has enough Karma Meter points, they can convince Wrex to stand down.
- If Shepard hunted down Wrex's armor, Wrex is more inclined to listen to Shepard's non-Paragon and -Renegade assertions.
- Finally, there is a Guide Dang It! state where, if Shepard declined Garrus's membership back on the Citadel and has not yet gone to Therum to recruit Liara, Wrex will automatically stand down so that The Player isn't left with too few squadmates later in the mission.
At this point, Kirrahe gets down to business. The only way they can level the facility is by fashioning the STG ship's drive core into a Time Bomb, and its explosive power is small enough that it will only be effective at a structural weak point. Normandy must land inside the base and offload the bomb. Shepard and Co will need to sneak into the base and disable its Anti-Air guns, and Kirrahe offers to facilitate this by staging a diversionary full-frontal assault. He begs assistance from one of Shepard's subordinates, and both Kaidan and Ashley, Semper Fi to the core, volunteer. It doesn't make any difference which one you choose: Kaidan has already established he has no problems with non-humans; and Ashley, whatever her personal hangups, is a Consummate Professional in the field. However, whichever one of them you choose will — naturally — be unable to party with Shepard on their sneaking mission.
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 Abominations 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 Robot War, and claims that it is part of a cycle of Eternal Recurrence; 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 Side Quest of Boldly Coming 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.
It's another Plotline Death, but this one is unavoidable. Both Kaidan and Ashley, from this point on, will be referred to as "The Virmire Survivor", because (their place in the story becomes basically identical and) the game spells out the choice and makes you select a name and pick, and thereby commit a Failure-to-Save Murder. The person left behind will die.
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. Nothing Is the Same Anymore.
Back on board, the Virmire Survivor is expressing a serious case of Survivor Guilt. 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 Heroic Sacrifice the Virmire Not-Survivor made for them.
The Citadel
Shepard, having completed the missions on Noveria, Therum, Feros and Virmire, automatically returns to the Citadel to (drop off the STG survivors and) tell the Council what they've learned. Unfortunately, the Council aren't interested. In their infinite wisdom, they've decided that the Reapers are a massive lie Saren has concocted to mask his plans of attacking the Citadel. They give Shepard permission to go find out whether it actually is the truth. More importantly, Ilos is in the Terminus Systems, where Shepard dare not set foot without triggering a political firestorm. Shepard is taken off the case and the Normandy is put into lockdown.If Shepard has a Love Interest (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 Quests; 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 Point of No Return, 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 Pre-Climax Climax before they land. The Very Definitely Final Dungeon is on.
Ilos
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 Eternal Recurrence 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 Human Popsicle 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 Cut Scene, as Sovereign, backed by a geth fleet, attacks the Citadel. Sovereign — which as Vigil explained has at least twice as many Technology Levels 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 Citadel
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 reaches Saren and is able to engage the former Spectre in conversation. Saren admits that he too is indoctrinated; The Corruption has taken hold. However, depending what conversation options Shepard took on Virmire, and on their Paragon or Renegade scores, Shepard may convince Saren that it's not too late to turn back. If so, Saren Eats His Gun, Dying As Himself. If not, you have to fight him.
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 Head-in-the-Sand Management 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 Failure-to-Save Murder 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 Final Boss battle that Shepard must fight and win.
Once Saren's body is defeated, Sovereign's shields drop. Joker swings the Normandy around and lands a final blow. The Reaper threat is ended... for now.
Finally, Shepard speaks to either the Citadel Council (if Shepard chose to save them) or Udina (if Shepard chose any other outcome).
- 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.
- If the Council survived, they thank Shepard and, in recognition for humanity's gallantry, officially welcome them as the fourth of the Citadel races, offering them a seat on the Citadel Council.
Either way, Shepard is asked to nominate someone to sit in the empty seat. Shepard can choose either Anderson or Udina. But either way, Shepard then turns their back on galactic politics and sets out with their own mission. Sovereign was just one Reaper; there are many, many more. And Shepard needs to stop them.
