|
In 2172 CE (council era), on her eighteenth
birthday, Ari Shepard enlisted in the Alliance military. No-one, especially not her,
could have predicted how instrumental a street-kid would be in
saving the galaxy, more than once, from destruction.
Shepard was an outstandin soldier, and quickly rose in the ranks of
the military to Commander Shepard. In 2176, during the Skyllian
Blitz she earned her first recognition as a hero and the Star of
Terra commendation medal. Along with a ground force of civilians and
off-duty Alliance soldiers Shepard fought batarian
funded pirates and raiders, buying time for the
Alliance Fleet to fly in and attack from behind. At one point
Shepard single-handedly held off enemy troops and on more than one
occasion risked her life to save fellow soldiers and civilians.
Witness reports of her heroism are wide-spread, but Shepard has
always been very private and humble about her achievements, and
shied away from the media attention her deeds provoked.
In 2183 CE, soon after it's
construction, Commander Shepard received the post of XO (executive
officer) aboard the Alliance's newest and most advanced project -
the SSV Normandy SR1
(Systems Alliance Space
Vehicle Stealth Reconnaissance 1) under the command of Captain David
Anderson.
In the
very same year the Normandy and her crew were tasked with retrieving
a Prothean beacon that had
been dug up on the farming colony of Eden Prime, a human colony in
the Exodus Cluster on the fringes of the
Terminus Systems.
There was no way of knowing
how this simple mission would change the lives of everyone on board
the Normandy and the course of galactic history.
When the crew of the Normandy arrived, they
found Eden Prime under attack by a force of
geth. Commander Shepard lead a small
ground team through the colony, fighting off geth and securing the
safety of a few surviving colonists.
Nihlus Kryik, a
turian
SPECTRE (Special Tactics
and Reconnaissance) scouted ahead of the Commander. He was
accompanying the mission under the guise of checking out the
Normandy's capabilities, but was in fact assessing Shepard to be
included in The Council's SPECTREs. During the mission Corporal
Richard L. Jenkins was killed and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was
recruited. Nihlus was also killed, and a dock-worker who witnessed
the incident revealed Nihlus' murderer and the commander of the geth
force as Saren Arterius – a turian, renowned SPECTRE, and Nihlus'
mentor. Shepard found the Prothean beacon, and it activated, burning
an ancient Prothean message into her mind.
The vision imparted on
Shepard by the beacon was unclear, both because it was meant for
Prothean minds, and also because the beacon was damaged at the time.
All Shepard was able to discern was a great threat from someone or
something referred to as the Reapers, but she had no proof.
The
council were not sympathetic towards Shepard's claims of Saren's
crimes, and on returning to the citadel she had a hard time convincing them of his
guilt. After conducting her own investigation, Shepard produced hard evidence in
the form of an audio recording recovered from the hard-drives of a
geth, which also revealed an asari Matriarch named
Benezia as
Saren's co-conspirator. The recording revealed that Saren's plan
included finding something called the Conduit, and using it to
return the Reapers. In the light of this evidence The Council had no
option other than to concede to Shepard's accusations against Saren,
but refused to believe in the existence of The Reapers. Unable to
launch official force against the geth without instigating a
full-out war, the council elevated Shepard to SPECTRE status, making
her the first human SPECTRE and tasking her with hunting down
Saren.
The ascension of Commander Shepard to SPECTRE status was a
great win for humanity in their bid to be seen as equals in the
galactic community, and in their bid to be represented on the
council. She was given full command of the Normandy and it's crew by
the Alliance in recognition of this achievement, while Captain
Anderson was forcibly retired from the post. While on The Citadel,
Commander Shepard also recruited the help of
quarian mechanicist
Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, krogan mercenary Urdnot Wrex, and turian
C-Sec
officer Garrus Vakarian in her campaign against Saren.
As
Shepard tracked Saren across the galaxy she defeated hordes of geth
and continued to decipher more details of the Prothean message in
her brain.
On Feros she encountered The
Thorian and discovered
that Saren had been there, looking for
“The Cipher” which
The Thorian held in it's mind, and was the key to understanding
the Prothean's message. Shepard defeated The Thorian who held
the colonists under it's thrall using spores they inhaled.
Afterwards, she was able to receive The Cipher from an asari who had
been captured and held within The Thorian, its mind melding with the
asari's and passing the knowledge of The Cipher. While The Prothean message
was still jumbled, Shepard was able to discern a few more details
about the threat, making her more determined than ever to stop
Saren.
On Noveria Shepard faced Matriarch Benezia, who in a
moment of strength was able to overcome the control Saren had over
her mind and tell Shepard the co-ordinates of the Mu Relay, which
she had been sent to Noveria to obtain. She revealed that Saren's
ship was capable of a process she called indoctrination
, which lead to anyone who had prolonged contact
with the ship being slowly subverted to its will. She was unable to resist the
control for long, and Shepard was forced to kill her. Shepard also
encountered a Rachni Queen on Noveria which she decided to free in a
controversial act of mercy, for which she had her
reasons.
Shepard then travelled to Therum where she found and
saved Liara T'soni, an asari archaeologist, Prothean expert, and
Matriarch Benezia's daughter. With Dr T'soni's knowledge of Prothean
language and culture she was able to help Commander Shepard
understand more of the vision, but it was still jumbled from the
damaged state of the beacon when Shepard activated it. It seemed to
be both a warning and also, pointing towards something which could
help in the defeat of the Reapers, but what exactly was still
unclear.
Shepard then headed to Virmire on a mission for the
council to investigate a vague distress signal sent by a small team
of members of the salarian Special Tactics Group (STG) who had been
in the systems on reconnaissance. She discovered a facility which
Saren had been using to investigate the effects of indoctrination
and for cloning krogan in an attempt to cure the genophage and
create a personal army. The surviving Salarian STG, lead by
Captain
Kirrahe, along with Commander Shepard's team came up with a plan
to destroy the facility. Shepard along with Wrex and Garrus
infiltrated the base while Ashley lead the salarians in a frontal
assault of the facility as a distraction, and the rest of the team
fashioned a crude nuclear bomb and readied it to be planted at the
centre of the facility. While inside the facility, Shepard was able
to communicate with Sovereign , Saren's ship which revealed
itself to be an actual Reaper. Sovereign revealed that the Reapers were
responsible for guiding the course of organic evolution in the galaxy until
a point which they deem them ready, before returning in great
numbers to harvest all advanced organic life and start the cycle over
again. This was the final proof for Shepard the the threat of the
Reapers was real. She also found an un-damaged beacon and received
an un-jumbled Prothean message which revealed a Prothean facility on
Ilos was the location of The Conduit, and Saren's destination beyond
the Mu Relay. Shepard was successful in blowing up the facility, but
Ashley Williams lost her life in the battle, along with many members
of the Salarian STG.
On retuning to the citadel to report in and
drop off the surviving salarians Shepard discovered that despite her
testimony, the council still refused to believe the existence of the
Reapers, and they proceeded to hold her at the Citadel to prevent
her from following Saren through the Mu Relay, believing they could
apprehend him on his return. Shepard however, was more than
convinced of the existence of the Reapers and the very real danger
to the galactic community. She broke free of the Citadel to follow
Saren through the Mu Relay to The Conduit. Upon reaching Ilos
Shepard found a Prothean ruin and discovered that the Citadel was a
giant Mass Relay , which the Reapers needed activated to
facilitate their return. The Conduit was a small relay which delivered
Saren, and then Shepard, into the heart of the Citadel where Saren was
able to give Sovereign access to its systems so that it could
activate the relay and return its brethren. Shepard fought and defeated Saren while
the Alliance, along with the combined forces of other species and
the Normandy, defeated Sovereign. The Council, however was killed in
the battle.
After the battle was over, Shepard met with Captain Anderson and the human ambassador to the
council, and recommended Captain Anderson for a
position on the new Council. The danger seemingly gone, people began
to rebuild, and Shepard was tasked with clearing up the remaining
pockets of geth. Even after everything Shepard had done for them,
and all the proof she had offered, the new council, with the
exception of Captain Anderson refused to believe in the existence of
the Reapers.
Two months after the battle of the citadel, Shepard
was on a routine patrol on the fringes of the Terminus Systems when
the Normandy was attacked by an unidentified opponent and destroyed.
Most crew members, and all of Shepard's team made it out alive, but
Shepard was caught in the explosion. Even though her body was never
officially recovered by the Alliance, there was no way she could
have survived the blast and the exposure to deep space, and she was
reported killed in action.
Cerberus corporation, however,
recovered her body and set the Lazarus project into action, planning
to revive the Commander.
Two years later, in 2185 CE Shepard was
fully revived and regained conciousness at a Cerberus base at an
unknown location. She met with the head of the Lazarus project,
The
Illusive Man
, and was tasked
with investigating the disappearance of human colonies in the Terminus Systems,
starting with the most recent hit on the colony of Freedom's
Progress. Though she battled against many Cerberus funded outposts in her career
as a SPECTRE for their questionable ethics Shepard recognised the need of the
Galaxy and put her differences aside for the moment.
She was given the
unexpected joy of being re-united with the Normandy's original pilot
– Jeff “Joker” Moreau and gifted with a Cerberus-built
Normandy, named the Normandy SR2 by Commander Shepard in a blinding
flash of genius. Investigation of the colony of Freedom's Progress
revealed that the disappearances were the work of the fabled
Collectors
from beyond the Omega 4 Relay. Two Cerberus operatives
Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor were assigned to Commander Shepard
for her mission against The Collectors.
Shepard then set about
building a team to “take the fight to The Collectors” and attempt
what was widely regarded as a suicide mission – travelling through
the Omega 4 Relay. This team consisted of Garrus Vakarian from
her original crew; Jack or Subject Zero, a powerful human biotic and
a convict; Grunt, a cloned (or “tank bred”) krogan; Mordin Solus, a
salarian scientist and doctor who worked for a time on the Salarian
STG; Tali'Zorah nar Rayya (now vas Neema) from her original crew;
Samara, an asari Justicar; Thane Krios, a deadly
drell assassin; and
Legion, a geth soldier belonging to a 'tribe' of geth who did not
worship the Reapers, but fought to stop them as
Shepard did.
In between building this team Shepard also undertook
various missions to prepare herself and her crew for the main
mission. One of these was the defence of Horizon, a human colony in
the Terminus Systems which The Illusive Man had reason to believe
would be hit next by The Collectors. The intel was correct, and
Shepard arrived just in time to fight The Collectors off before they
could abduct the entire colony, managing to save just under half the
population. Shepard also ran into Kaidan Alenko on Horizon, who is
now Staff Commander Alenko. Shepard also managed to infiltrate a
supposedly derelict Collector ship and uncovered
disturbing data
about the origins of The Collectors and their purposes in abducting
humans. The ship was a trap however, and Shepard only just managed
to escape with the knowledge that to successfully traverse the Omega
4 relay, the Normandy would have to be fitted with Collector
“friend” data, as the relay used an identify friend/foe system to
determine who to let through and who to destroy. Shepard managed to
find and infiltrate an ancient and truly derelict Reaper ship and
download its friend data, the final confirmation that The
Collectors were working for the Reapers.
With everything she
needed to take on The Collectors, Shepard set out on one last
mission to secure a final upgrade for the Normandy which would
ensure it survived another encounter with the Collector ships. While
she was away The Collectors attacked the Normandy, using a virus
that had been implanted in the Reaper's data banks to immobilise the
ship. The Normandy's pilot Joker crawled through metres of air ducts
to reach the AI core and give EDI direct control over all of the
Normandy's systems. The Collectors however, abducted every other
crew member aboard and EDI was only just able to save the ship and
her pilot by locking him in the core, opening all of the air locks
and initiating FTL (faster than light) travel. Upon Shepard's return she was devastated
to find what had happened. She set course immediately for the Omega
4 Relay and jumped through to The Collector's improbable base in the
galactic core.
Shepard and her team of ten infiltrated the base,
fighting their way through to the captured humans, but they arrived
too late to save most of the Normandy crew and all of the colonists.
After sending the few remaining crew back to the shuttle, Shepard
fought on into the heart of the base and set explosive charges, only
just escaping the blast that eliminated The Collectors once and for
all. Of Shepard's team four brave souls died during this mission:
Mordin Solus, Jack, Samara and Tali'Zorah vas Neema vas Normandy nar
Rayya. In the coming years Shepard hopes to unite every able force
in the galaxy to fight the Reapers in their inevitable attack on the
galactic community. If anyone can do it, she can.
Whispers From The Normandy would like to
take some time to honour every person who was killed in this dark
time, either helping in the quest to save the galaxy, or simply
innocents who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time.
Countless human settlers were
abducted by The Collectors, or killed by geth in the Eden
Prime war.
Many brave Alliance service men and women were
killed during the destruction of the Normandy SR1, and as a
result of the abductions from the Normandy SR2.
Many
civilians, soldiers and professionals on the citadel were
killed in the battle of the citadel.
The original Citadel
Council.
The brave members of Captain Kirrahe's salarian
Special Tasks Group reconnaissance team. |
Mordin
Solus
Samara
Jack
Tali'Zora vas Neema vas Normandy
nar Rayya
Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams
Richard L.
Jenkins
Navigator Presley
Matriarch Benezia, who despite
her actions afterwards, set out with the aim of stopping
Saren. |
|
