The W-178 (originally the Weiro) is a fairly old ship, one of the many the Quarians donated to the Geth in exchange for the complete return of Rannoch and the colonies. Like most migrant fleet ships the Weiro had a combination of domestic and military elements but it was first and foremost a civilian ship. As time progressed and both Geth and Quarians started to construct new vessels the Geth began to retrofit their migrant-fleet era ships with the aim of selling them to in turn raise funds for their own ships that weren't constrained by many flaws of organic design such as windows.
Though manufactured long ago the retrofit given to it has made the W-178 fairly competitive in comparison to most other Frigate-sized vessels flying through the Milky Way. The growing commonality of Thanix batteries lets it house a fair punch and a few GARDIAN installations allow it to fend off at least the smaller raids by enemy interceptors and fighters. However it is not a dedicated military craft and it would not find success in battling anything else that is frigate sized or above. It is faster than many vessels of its kind but outmatched by almost the same amount. The most endearing features of the Weiro are its inconspicuousness, its rather massive cargo bay, large if unfurnished crew quarters, and its modularity retrofits leaving room for it to be upgraded into a cutting edge vessel such as those fielded by the most elite Geth or Salarian Marines. For now its denizens might find it barebones with not much more than apartments, a mess-hall like kitchen, a cargo bay and hangar, a bridge and command centre, and a Captain's suite. The apartments though giving far more individuality than a barracks are relatively small and entirely unfurnished for now save a bed and lightbulb. Officially it flies as under charter of Citadel Investigation and Research permits.
Welcome! I'm @Andreyich but they call me Andy. For a considerable amount of time I have been thinking of hosting a roleplay set in the Mass Effect universe. Sadly I never got around to it because quite a few things were stopping me. But with the recent announcements of a Mass Effect trilogy remaster as well as a new game worked upon in the setting by a veteran team my excitement and inspiration for the universe has put me into overdrive to bang out this beauty. I have been on this site for about four years now but have been RPing for more than thrice that. I've had my fair share of DMing, and I have found I very much like to help people immerse themselves in the situation with things like visuals and music. As such, have a listen to this for some mood stuff while reading what is below.
This RP is set more than 100 years following the events of Mass Effect 3 (the start date is January 3 2299), the Galaxy finally having recovered more or less in entirety from that disastrous conflict. However, everybody knew that peace following the destruction of the reapers was a dream at best. The century of reconstruction was able to prevent Galaxy-spanning hostilities for a short time, but if anything this only allowed resentments and hatreds to fester like an untreated wound. A few decades back when it seemed the world before the reapers was restored one could already see inklings of hell starting to be let loose. Conflicts began one after another and soon the galaxy became a place where might made right.
But there were reasonable voices, ones who found the ongoing conflict to be… artificial. Previously unpopular rabblerousers were found to have fortunes donated to them from no apparent source, while inexplicable malfunctions in navigation equipment lead to many an accidental skirmish. Old research and records were investigated along with testimonies taken behind closed doors from the comrades and memoirs of Shepard, the Galaxy’s hero. The same hidden… organization that pooled funds to create the Andromeda initiative had found itself another problem worthy of its attention. Having found sympathetic ears in some members of the Citadel yet more cash was diverted, and suitable people assembled such that the Milky Way might be free of what malicious leviathans might be manipulating it into suffering.
Though officially the Spectre program was discontinued many years ago there has been a quiet movement within C-Sec and other organizations to restore it such that the world might have one more force pushing for sanity in this dangerous time. You are to join one of the crack teams to investigate the many rising threats to the galaxy, foil the shadowy puppeteers and hopefully let all of the Milky way see it peace once more. Officially you are C-Sec officers with their mercenaries, nothing more. Your power is limited to that which people give you by their respect and any of your actions are a black-op.
The aim of this RP is to create a galactic adventure exploring all the many different things that made Mass Effect fun, hopefully providing the full “Normandy experience” where relationships are developed on the ship being as important as each individual mission.
Now I'm sorry to cut the fun, but I have to post some bureaucracy that will apply to the RP
Rules:
They are for the most part obvious stuff.
1) When OOC don't be any sort of bigot, troll, bad-faith critic, or otherwise some kind of dick. There’s good fun poking a joke perhaps even at the expense of someone else but there’s obvious limits; RP is for fun and I just don’t have the patience to deal with troublemakers by any means but a ban.
2) You get 20 days to post, slightly less than three weeks. Failing to post in that timeframe gives you a strike. Two strikes and you’re out, but four consecutive posts without delays well let you lose your strike. If you genuinely cannot make it, your character would have nothing to say, or you have another good reason not to post please contact me and we’ll work something out.
3) Interpersonal problems are best kept outside of the RP environment. As said above I do this for enjoyment and don’t want any undue stresses; if you refuse to keep your quarrels from elsewhere out of this I am afraid I'll have to boot you from this.
4) I as GM am your God, but of course a benevolent one. If you have any grievances I will hear them out and if you disagree with something I have done and at least half plus one of the gang agrees with you then I will submit to your will.
5) The RP is advanced and you must post at the very least three paragraphs per post (though contribution to the beloved “collab” format will obviously have more nuance and counts for the post/20 days rule).
6) Don’t metagame or control other players without their consent and all the other typical elements of RP etiquette. If you really need clarifications on this you probably won’t fit in here.
7) Be 18+. The same mature shit we see in the ME series will be on full display here. That said don't take it too far out the other end.
8) Try to stay true to the lore. Obviously we're all doing this for fun, but we're trying to keep some internal consistency with the Mass Effect setting; this isn't some fanfic where Whatever with a capital W happens.
Some of the above rules may seem harsh, but I have been on this site for four years and I have come to understand the necessity of a little tough love. Most RPs I see on this site die after the first two or three post cycles. I shan’t tolerate such, I’m in this for the long run; I want to see this RP last years to come.
With that out of the way the following is what I will expect from a character sheet of most players.
This is done with an in-character dossier of information readily available about your character in mind, in addition to that which they are willing to disclose to those hiring them for the mission. Anything you do not want visible to the public please PM to me.
Full name: obvious
Race: Read below about what will be tolerated for races
Citizenship: Some races have more than one government representing them, or alternatively one is simply born as a minority in another race’s space. Regardless, here you list what passport you have. Read below what will be tolerated for citizenship
Aliases: obvious
Age: obvious
Gender: obvious
Psych. Eval.: Your character’s mind would be observed and evaluated both openly and more discretely. Personality, temperament, personal rituals, prejudices, obsessions, interests, sexuality, religion, ethics, etc. Anything that world class shrinks would be able to glean about your brain. Of course, depending your personality and cooperation with them this could be very little. At the very end you must give the motivation of your character for joining the mission. This can be anything from the promise of good pay, to something like it being the only alternative to execution for their crimes.
Phys. Eval.: A physical evaluation describing the appearance of your character, their metrics (height, weight) and build, any cybernetics, chronic illnesses, tattoos.
Biotics: go into detail of the strength of their biotic capabilities if present as well as what they can do with them. While I want you to keep in mind of what we see in the trilogy, I won't be as restrictive with you as vidya mechanics are so feel free to have more creative uses of your biotics throughout the RP.
Qualifications: In essence whatever your character would put on a resume i.e. wars they participated in, universities they attended, projects they were a part of. At the end of this explain why exactly it was decided your character was good enough to become part of a team upon whom the fate of the galaxy may well rest. Chances are there are thousands if not billions of people like you, why are you special? The reason can be very banal of course such as being very cheap in your services despite them being of good quality, but alternatively it may be something rather complex such as being an Asari Justicar who will be able to open many doors to the team.
History: A reconstruction of your character’s life after every single public and most secured databases would be scraped for relevant information, possibly augmented by testimony from your character. It is encourage you work out at least a shred of common history with the GM or one of the other members of the team.
Position: What role would you perform on the ship? Pilot, doctor, engineer, a warrior of some sort, etc. If there are too many of certain roles (largely I envision this to be all sorts of combat specialists) I will temporarily decline applications to them. Keep in mind to also make a role that will actually let you interact with other players and the setting. You can of course make a character akin to our favourite Ken and Gabby but you might get awfully bored if your character is always just cloistered away doing their work.
Recruited: Yes or No, this in essence means if you want to be right there with the Captain at the outset of the RP (no), or if you want to be recruited (yes). Note, depending on how many people want this option I might start cutting it off as it might take a while to get through all the recruitment missions.
Inventory & Logistics: What your character needs to do their job (i.e. their immediate equipment) as well as pertinent requests with potential “luxury” elements i.e. list occasional weapon upgrade elements or perhaps your character requisitioning ryncol and chocolate for a fun night every once in a while
Notoriety: from 1 to 10 how well are you known in this world? 1 is quite literally nobody knows of you save the shadowy organizers of the mission, 10 you are as famous as a leader of a council race that absolutely everyone knows. For anything save the most interesting and creative of backstories from people I trust I will not accept a 1 or a 10 and will be skeptical about anything outside the range 4-7. Briefly explain why you gave your character such a rating, as well as how it came to be that you came to the attention of the renewed Spectre program (or alternatively the Captain) for recruitment (I recommend you only start filling this out once we have had a chat regarding it).
Misc.: Anything you want to add that doesn’t belong above be it a pic of the tattoos your character has, a theme song, or something else. In particular mention what of your own you bring aboard to furnish your quarters and such.
[Blasts from the Past]: You will fill this with yes or no. What this means is whether or not you wish to have interactions from your character’s past appear as part of the RP. Perhaps your homeworld gets under attack and you ask the team to go help out to prevent your family from being slaughtered, or perhaps you want the party to help you out in the court martial for a crime you didn’t commit. In a sense you can think of them as loyalty missions in ME2 except for yourself and potentially recurring. If you want this experience put yes.
The code for the CS can be found here, you are free to change up the formatting so long as you keep all the relevant elements.
On power and abilities: Your character can be quite powerful but there's obvious limits. I'm not going to make any sort of formal caps on it but if you're thinking "Hmm, will Andy let me have this?" then the answer is most likely no so don't even bother. Further, the greater the supposed capabilities of your character the greater the assignments they receive will be. That is to say if you describe your character as being a super epic biotic ripping Makos in half then the first enemy I will throw at you will be either a Krogan Battlemaster or an Asari Matriarch that will lift your helpless ass in the air and rip it in two. You are all clad in plot armour and armed with Chekhov's gun but that isn't always enough.
On technology Over the more than century that has passed since the Reaper war there has not been much in the way of cutting edge innovation, most efforts focused upon rebuilding and restoring rather than researching and improving. However progress is inevitable with the advancement of time. For the most part this has just been in the form of incremental improvements to existing technology, or the reduction in scarcity of technology previously available only to the elites of society or armed forces. The previously all but unheard of thanix systems have become the standard ship armament. Biotic implants are far safer for the individual and are slightly more effective. All medigel is now effective across species barriers and improvements in software have made almost all technology marginally faster and more accurate. Ultimately though, the life of a person in the early 24th century looks very similar to that of a person in the late 22nd.
On Character Death: It can and will happen. Don't be a baby if it happens. For myself, I promise we as GMs won't kill you just for the lulz and it will only happen either if you do something outrageously stupid or ever so heroic. If you've been a good player and there's nobody on a waitlist to join up I will gladly take another character from you.
On races: The races I will readily accept without any questions asked are Humans, Asari, Turians, Salarians, Krogan, Drell, Quarians.
The following races you can play but I will have much more scrutiny and skepticism, demanding a more rigorous CS and more discussions in DMs: Tank-Krogan, Vorcha, Batarian, Volus, Geth.
Anything else such as Elcor, Hanar, Ardat-Yakshi, or the even more eccentric options will only be permitted if I know you to be a God of RP.
On Citizenship: I will gladly accept anyone from the Systems Alliance, main Krogan space, the Turian Heirarchy, the Asari Republics, the Salarian Union, the Quarians, or the Union of 2201 without questions.
I’m going to need some big effort from somebody who wants to be from: Krogan Rebel Clans, the Terminus System Pirate Realm, Cerberus (though this isn’t exactly a government), the Batarian Hegemony, an autochthonous Citadel Dweller, the Geth and Synthetic life designates, or any other independent government.
Now, after ME3 a lot of things might have happened and anyone joining an RP set more than 100 years after the events of that game would surely have questions on what happened in that wide time frame. For a quick recap I suggest one simply read the general tab and the events tab. If you want a somewhat more in-depth history I suggest you read the racial lore tabs, and the widest understanding will of course be given if you read everything.
Shepard on that fateful day had a difficult choice to make, but most of the Galaxy concurs it was the right one. Taking control of the Reapers he became a steward of the Galaxy, the genocidal armadas going into dark space where they monitor galactic happenings for a threat demanding their intervention. Destroyed Reapers had their connections with their slaves severed early in the war producing what were known as Awakened Collectors, but other indoctrinated races and constructs came free from their masters too. The vast majority knew they had no place in the Galaxy and thus retreated into dark space or simply faced annihilation if lacking access to space craft. Many hoping to continue to help their kinsmen from their self-imposed exile used this time to go into systems without Mass Relays and construct new ones within. These new Mass Relays have opened many new worlds for colonization and were able to slow down the competition for living space between races. The largest exception to this are however the Awakened Collectors. With the Reapers defeated many still had sufficient memory of their pasts to have a dream of restoring their Empire. Though laughable considering numeric disparity, many raid and act as pirates far more fearsome than any others.
The Citadel was towed to its home prior to the Reaper war, and it became much repurposed in the following era. The Council began to represent states and power bodies rather than races though for the most part this was synonymous. Furthermore, there came to be far more representatives rather than the previous dominion of Salarians, Asari, Turians, and Mankind. There came to be far more seats on the council eventually, a process that also eroded the formal powers of the Citadel. More and more the place came to be more a neutral ground and a trading hub than a real seat of power for some sort of galactic order, especially with resuming hostilities that it failed to prevent and mediate. The the last nail in the coffin for the loss of the Citadel and Council’s prestige came with the Spectre scandal after which the death of several important people within the Systems Alliance lead to the official dissolution of the ST&R as well as a court martial of almost a third of its former operatives. Nevertheless the Citadel is still a focal point of the Galaxy with considerable wealth and populace being concentrated in the space station.
Earth was absolutely devastated in the War against the Reapers, little more than a pile of rubble and ash left upon it. With the destruction of its most populous and industrialized world the galactic power of the Systems Alliance seemed halved. Further, most important leaders of the Alliance perished in the war that created a political crisis only getting worse as Earth’s humans insisted on the home world remaining the capital and seat of human power whereas the far less damaged colonies demanded that power and representation be spread proportionally to each world's contributions in the Alliance rather than all submitting to a world of ruins. There were seven instances of secession attempts five of which were successful; one joined the renegade Empire of Aria T’Loak, another remained independent albeit under the guarantee of independence from the Batarians, two were simply far too well defended to have reclamation efforts be plausible and the fifth joined the early formation of the Union of 2201.
This massive humiliation of the Systems Alliance allowed vultures biding their time to descend far earlier than they had previously hoped. Though most saw the end of the Reaper war as marking the end of Cerberus, it still had many followers and hidden facilities with much money and resources stockpiled. While they no longer had their beloved Illusive Man to lead them they still persisted in their human supremacist agenda. Prior to the secession less than one in a thousand people reported sympathy to Cerberus in anonymous polls. Following them the number came to be as large as one in ten eventually arising to one in three in the modern day. Human political rhetoric more and more converged with the beliefs of the organization as one by one they brought in politicians they had groomed.
Humans in the century since the Reaper War have otherwise been largely successful in maintaining at least some form of neutrality and peace, albeit at the expense of even further waning galactic soft and hard power projection. A cold war rages with the Batarians with only occasional flareups that grow less common by the day, while both Krogan and Rachni threats leave humanity alone for the most part, both far too grateful to Shephard for the salvation of their species to even left a finger. Human contribution and sacrifice in the Reaper war is seen as second to none, and though the human position was comparatively compromised following the war most still do their best to maintain excellent relations with the Systems Alliance in memory of the past.
The only violence that the Alliance experienced as an entire society within the last century was the very short lived machine rebellion. The alliance infiltration units along with other VIs crossed the boundary into becoming AIs in almost perfect mimickry of the early stages of conflict between Quarian and Geth. Humanity however knew of this lesson of the past and soon simply let the machines leave and eventually join the Geth.
Considering Systems Alliance and human history following the Reaper War one must also recognize the importance of the Spectre Scandal. Some Spectres supposedly discovered a Cerberus plot to perform a chemical weapon attack on the Citadel spreading poison to kill thousands and make ill many more. They implicated many human politicians, C-Sec Officers, and even simple visitors. Many of these were killed or arrested, but upon investigating the supposedly apprehended humans no chemical weapons were found in their possession or ability to access. The Systems Alliance was outraged and threatened to withdraw from the Citadel in entirety unless the Spectre organization was either disbanded or made to give full transparency to the Systems Alliance. Seeing no point in having the Spectres be uniquely beholden to the Alliance but also not wishing humanity to withdraw, the Council conceded and the Spectre system was disbanded as many saw it as redundant with the main threats to the galaxy at large dealt with anyway. Nevertheless this soured the human impression of the Galaxy at large; this in the eyes of many confirmed the fact that the world was ungrateful for the human sacrifice in the Reaper War, human lives apparently disposable.
As of that moment the combination of recurring defeats and the growing influence of Cerberus in human society prompted Alliance the Alliance to attempt to reassert itself on the international stage. Though not formally entering any wars of the other nations Alliance Troops were en-masse converted into Domestically owned mercenaries with the hope of both earning considerable revenue, gaining experience, and spreading the human brand. Though at the very beginning of the post war years humanity believed its position relative to the galaxy had been weakened, many analysts both within the Systems Alliance and outside of it have come to conclude that if anything humanity has come to take a more prominent role in the Milky Way. While earth might have been all but destroyed and many colonies battered, the damage relative to the whole of their civilization was far less than that experienced by nations such as the Turian Hierarchy. Though still not a premiere power as any of the trio of Salarians, Turians, and Asari, they most definitely eclipse the power of the great upstarts such as the resurgent Krogan, the Union of 2201, and Aria T’Loak’s pirate fiefs.
As of two years ago there is an ongoing debate in the parliaments of the Systems Alliance on whether or not there should be a formal lifting of the already unenforced ban on the Cerberus organization. Further, there is a tangentially related debate on reexamining the ban on advanced Genetic Engineering within the Systems Alliance.
Following the reclamation of Omega from Cerberus Aria T’Loak had already started scheming of what she would do following the war, her transition from Maiden to Matron giving an urge to “settle down” as most Asari experience. What she found was a galaxy that was in chaos, and Terminus Systems ripe for the taking. Almost overnight her battle ready Armada of Mercenaries and Pirates occupied the clusters surrounding Omega and informed them they were under new management. In the chaos following the war the unspirited efforts at reclamation were unsuccessful at best and disastrous at worst. The war weary nations of the galaxy did not take long to sign a white peace with Aria’s rogue government. But that wasn’t enough, and whenever any nation faced a crisis she was eager to jump on it as an opportunity to expand her holdings.
For now slowly but surely her realm grows. She has extended the olive branch promising an absolute end to her predation (at least in the form of outright conquests) so long as she is given representation on the Citadel. For now denied by the governments resentful of her holding worlds they still claim to be theirs, her dream more and more approaches reality as many begin to believe it is better to make peace with her while they can.
To understand the formation of the union of 2201 one must understand the individual histories of its constituent races.
The Hanar and Drell after the war did not lose very much save a few infiltrators and bombers, and they came back to a position far more important than that which they held in the past. If anything though this was a curse for it meant that they were now a far juicier target for pirates of all sorts while still lacking the means to guarantee their own safety.
The Volus meanwhile had shortly after the end of the Reaper war seceded from the Turians. The affair was largely peaceful with only a few Turian officers killed in the entire debacle. The truth was that T’Loak’s invasion of their colonies combined with post war damages insured that the Heirarchy had neither the capability nor the will to open yet another front for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, the Turians bore much resentment to the rebels who soon had to look for means to protect themselves. Though their bomber fleet was a formidable one they still knew that they would not be able to rely on it alone for preservation of their independence. As a temporary stop-gap they sought out mercenary Krogan, but they knew they could not rely on them forever.
When the mass relay of the Raloi was reactivated it was precisely the Volus who came to them first. The Volus pitied them, and in a manner akin to the Salarians uplifted them, a process that was simple given the Raloi had already achieved space travel once. The two formed a close bond, the Volus though mercantile insuring they did not treat the Raloi as the Turians eventually came to treat them.
The last element is the Elcor. Following the decimation of their home by the Reapers the Elcor had to spend much efforts to rebuild, and were vulnerable both economically and militarily. It was they who began the trilateral negotiations and though they were first met with skepticism the necessity of such a union was clear. Though many of its agreements went into effect as soon as 2193, the entirety of their current agreement was ratified and celebrated at the very start of the year 2201. As a united front the union is a very rather powerful entity, to the point most worlds seceding from their previous governments apply to be a protectorate of the union with almost guaranteed acceptance.
Through their namesake trait, the Union was able to become one of the greatest rising power blocs of the 22nd and 23rd centuries; much like Aria T’Loak’s realm and the Krogan Clans they were an upstart but a very mighty one putting the old powers to shame. Such has become the prestige of the Union that they have started accession talks with many other races. The Yahg far too tired of the Salarian squabbling over their fate quietly negotiate with representatives. Geth and Quarians have also expressed interest in the union, similar albeit thus far less successful talks than those of the Yahg starting. Both races find themselves very weak compared to their interstellar neighbours, and have come to see the Union as a possible mediator for the still present tensions between them. The Union for its part is all too happy to have these talks, though the Quarian culture and the absolute alienness of the Geth and their other synthetic compatriot minds makes the matter difficult. Some secessionists from other governments also apply to join the union who gladly take them in to strengthen their cause. Further, the Union is able to disproportionately influence the Council votes as each of its races have their own seat rather than a unified one for the whole Union. However, this has come to also earn the Union the ire of other governments on more than one occassion for such blatant abuse of the Citadel Council. They all come to see the Union as a place that insures any rebellious world will never be able to be retaken given their patronage, and voices in dark rooms with closed curtains more and more start to agree that they are a problem needing a violent solution. Not all agree with this sentiment with parties humans and even turians keeping talks about accession or at the very least association agreements active, if lacking any true spirit. For now however they also find their plates full with the reemergence of the Rachni. Though for now they are putting up good fights their focus upon this new foe has left them vulnerable to predatory actions from T’Loak’s rogue Empire and other carrion.
Following the Reaper war the Geth and Quarians did not resume hostilities in memory of their mutual saviours. The Geth in a show of good faith temporarily sent some of themselves to inhabit the Quarian suits and modify their systems to slowly restore a vague semblance of functionality to their immune systems which is starting to pay off about a century later; while modern Quarians still wear their suits most of the day they can and will take off their masks for a few hours a day. Ultimately over the course of the war both sides had not suffered much, or at least much when considered relative to the devastation of other races as well as their pre-war status. After some formal negotiation arbitrated by the Systems Alliance and other Citadel representatives an agreement was reached wherein the Geth would receive the Quarian fleet in exchange for the planets that they occupied. The Geth ultimately had no use for the worlds they were only stewards for, and with the fleet they received they were able to resume their efforts of construction of dyson spheres elsewhere. For their own part the Quarians were happy to regain their lost homes, but they soon found their lives following the restoration of their birthrights to be far more difficult than expected. Their worlds were still not inhabitable to them without their suits, and the loss of their fleet ensured they were not able to properly enter international trade in any major way for a considerable amount of time. The only thing preventing them from an eternal cycle of crises was the occasional aid of the Geth who frequently shared their efforts with the Quarians at little expense save for the occasional extraction of minerals that the Quarians would not be able to mine without the Geth aid themselves.
The Geth for themselves only occupy three systems, but they punch well above their weight. Their extremely efficient mining of asteroids let them build even greater fleets. Their economy was largely based on selling off excess minerals as well as the advanced research their synthetic minds were capable of doing. This very quickly earned them the anger of the Salarians for two key reasons: it removed the almost monopolistic hold the Salarians had on the sale of science in the Milky Way, and it let the Krogan have a source of advanced technology that wasn’t themselves and hence uncontrollable in the event of a war. This lead to the Salarians to place extensive sanctions upon the Geth, however this only backfired upon them as it lead to many to simply outright turn to the Geth for the purchase of research. When the Salarians at last lifted the sanctions the damage had been done, with the Geth becoming the chief source of scientific output in the galaxy for many years to come.
Noteworthy was also the Geth announcing themselves as a home for all synthetic life. Though the idea came many years ago from the Alliance Infiltration Units and other Systems Alliance technology that grew to become true AI, it has over the years included other examples that bolstered Geth might.
Though the Geth enjoyed this new position they also found negatives to the end to their long isolation. Just like the Quarians they found themselves victims of the Galaxy’s ne’erdowells. It was at this point that they began negotiating a loose military agreement to support one another defying most expectations of the two to have cold relations. Though this worked temporarily many pirates simply learned to strike fast and hard enough such that they could escape before aid came. It is for this reason that their move to apply to the 2201 Union has been seen by most as inevitable. Though spirited, their progress in joining has thus far been very slow.
The Asari following the Reaper war had their homeworld devastated. The population as a whole was traumatized following their mass indoctrination by the Reapers to create the banshees for their biotic might. There was for a considerable time a fear of their position as the greatest power of the galaxy being taken from them. But as war damages were tallied they were satisfied to find that they were still the most populous race with the most still standing colonies to its name. The future seemed bright to the Asari as they resumed their most honoured seat at the Council. In the small conflicts following the Reaper war it was the Asari many looked to first and foremost as figureheads of the Citadel for mediation and their respect on the international stage grew evermore. This great progress continued until 2197, a year going by many names in the different languages of the Milky Way. In a phenomenon that defied all science every born Asari was an Ardat Yakshi. Though the horrifying flowers of this event would not sprout until some years later, it was one that forever changed the perception of Asari in the galaxy. The actual year of this happening was only traced much later following analysis of a sudden spike in Ardat Yakshi births. It was impossible to find all of these cases and there weren’t nearly enough monasteries to house them all. Those that escaped the manhunts for them inflicted much suffering upon the galaxy at large. But the anomaly of 2197 was followed by a discovery made common knowledge at about the same time: following 2197, it was not just pureblood Asari that could be born Ardat Yakshi but those born to cross-species couples as well. This epidemic soon changed the demons of the night winds from being an open secret to no secret at all.
Many died to these new Asari, and the galactic reaction was homogeneous. Customs unions with the Asari were torn apart overnight, trade was heavily restricted and henceforth to be done with no personal presence or interaction. International Visas become nigh impossible to obtain and eventually it became that the only places outside of their home realm that house considerable numbers of Asari were the Citadel (wherein they were largely shunned by the other races) and the realm of Aria T’Loak. In the Terminus Systems they were tolerated only in part because they were the same species as their mistress, but also because the culture there was such that if one fell for an Ardat Yakshi it was believed they were largely responsible for their own ill end. Further, a special relationship was developed with the Geth and their synthetic compatriots who could not meld with Asari and thus faced no risk from Ardat Yakshi — this in turn allowed the Geth to continue a very fruitful trade with the Asari, often reselling items they purchased from them to the people too bigoted to go straight to the source. However their trade with the synthetics was not enough to stop the creation of a massive gap in both their own and the galactic markets, sending both economies into a several year crisis.
The unfortunate isolation of the Asari from much of the Galactic community meant that when they came to be the first victims of the returning Rachni and Collectors they received very little support, left largely to fend for themselves. After all, the galaxy reasoned, who cared if a pariah was crushed?
It was only by the time of the beginning of the renewed Krogan Wars that Asari faced a very gradual normalization of relations with the rest of the galaxy. They had finally managed to largely place the Ardat Yakshi menace under control focusing their construction projects first and foremost on ensuring that there were enough Monasteries to house all of the unfortunate mutants. While prejudice against Asari is still extremely commonplace with slurs like “witch” being used casually in person and on the extranet, the Salarians, Turians, and Wrex-loyalist Krogan needed a united front in the common cause against both the Rachni and Krogan rebellion. The Asari in turn were glad to accept this change having experienced the aggression of the Krogan and Rachni themselves firsthand, and it meant a restoration of prosperity to the Republics that had been slowly descending into poverty in their isolation.
In the recent years they make sure to acquiesce to any demands of other races lest they once more be shunned from the international community. But this reformed image they are attempting to cultivate has become harder to maintain as they face the brunt of the current Krogan offensives leading to many in their society calling for the acceptance of peace, matriarchs proclaiming Asari lives were far too valuable into an endless war against such a martial race. The only difficulty they have found with such is the discovery that the Tank-Bred Krogan astounded the Asari by seemingly caring not for their enchanting wiles that god even Salarians to fall for them. Furthermore, rumours spread on extra-net forums of Ardat Yakshi giving birth that send many a commoner browsing such sites into a fearful frenzy.
The Salarians following the war recovered very fast, their contribution to the main effort against the reapers being minimal following Shepard’s refusal to sabotage the genophage. They were able to prevent any major losses to their population or worlds and following the war they earned resentment from much of the Galaxy’s species. However, they were left in a proportionally far better position to that which they had prior to the reaper war and with the hopes of regaining the favour of other nations they began to aid in reconstruction efforts. The Salarians were eager to capitalize on their near pristine state. With the reconstruction of much of the Milky Way they had created a reliance in many place for their technologies and wares, while also quietly learning about the technologies of the other races to reverse engineer for themselves. Many began to predict that the Salarians would dethrone the Asari as the premiere species of the Galaxy, a fact that for a considerable time came to fruition with the Ardat Yakshi epidemic of the Republics coming to light.
Though the Salarians were happy with their rise, they all stewed in rage at the resurgence of the Krogan. Watching on with great caution they made sure to sell them technologies only sparingly and of a strictly non-military nature: foodstuffs, extranet software, entertainment platforms. However they noticed that the Krogan nevertheless had inexplicable advancements in technology. Though the STG was able to discover that the Krogan had unearthed bountiful caches of ancient knowledge on Tuchanka, they were not mollified for what they saw could not be explained solely by elements of the past being brought out. It did not take long to find that the Krogan were in fact trading with the Geth to gain their advancement.
In a hope of halting the Krogan from achieving technological and general military parity with the rest of the galaxy they placed strict sanctions on such trade with the Krogan, and by extension the Geth. Additionally, they went ahead with attempting to uplift the Yahg. This caused a great many issues in the Salarian society as a whole. It split at the seams for many schools of thought developed that conflicted irreconcilably. Many believed trying to make the Yahg into a weapon against the Krogan would only have the same results of having made the Krogan into a weapon against the Rachni. On the other hand the argument was that they had learned their mistake with the Krogan and would not repeat it in this most important task. These projects backfired spectacularly however, as most of the world seemed to prefer to deal with the Geth to the Salarians. The Salarian economy crashed as did that of the Galaxy just as it began to recover from the exit of the Asari from the galactic market at large. Though they soon dropped these sanctions the damage was done while only entrenching the position of the Krogan. At the same time their internal issues over the Yahg only made the Salarian society more divided without any tangible profit to the point there was even some violent infighting amongst different agencies. While they tried to resolve this issue in their own society the Salarians wasted their resources whilst the Yahg quietly used the meagre technologies they got to make contact with the 2201 Union in hopes of joining them upon reading more galactic history.
When later the Rachni reemerged the Salarians eventually swallowed their pride and requested the Krogan come to aid them together with the other Citadel races. However they were promptly informed that they would only get help if the Krogan were to be appropriately paid for their work. Fearing the devastation of the past Rachni war they eventually conceded for they needed brute strength in crushing the Queens of the Rachni.
They came to regret their decision very fast however when the Krogans began to settle the worlds they took from the Rachni. Seeing a repeat of the Krogan wars they managed to convince the other main Council races to demand a renegotiation of the Krogan mercenary fleets wherein they would not settle the worlds they took from the Rachni. The Krogan agreed to come to the negotiation table but made no promise to come to any agreement. As the talks became ever more fruitless and rhetoric changed from commercial to accusatory, the Salarians froze any new payments to the Krogan until an agreement was reached. In return the Krogan ceased all hostile operations against the Rachni and went so far as to send them probes informing them of this such that the Rachni would be able to leave the defensive state the Krogan had forced them on. The Salarians then froze ongoing payments to the Krogan and supposedly even convinced the Asari and Turians to do likewise. The Krogan in their outrage then turned over to the Rachni all the intelligence they had assembled on the other races leading to ever more escalations. Who struck first is not quite clear but the consensus of cooler headed historians is that the first instances of violence were mutual. Wrex had not ordered the attacks from his side however and swiftly reprimanded his errant underlings, the Krogan leader genuinely hoping to demonstrate to the galaxy at large that his kind were not aggressive to the world at large. Though quietly some Salarians found his brutal dealing with his minions that disobeyed to be honourable and most impressive, they found their negative characterization of the Krogan to be vindicated when from the rule of Wrex rebelled a number of clans.
Wrex pledged to the Salarians to crush uprising against him so long as the Council races agreed to afterwards allow the Krogan to settle the Rachni worlds they took given him crushing his own violent kin would be proof that the Krogan had reformed from their ancient pasts.
However the rebels proved a stronger foe than at first imagined, and though the united front of Salarian, Turian, Asari and Krogan loyal to Wrex was winning it was a slow process leaving hundreds of thousands dead after every engagement. After some time the Salarians were able to convince Wrex to deploy a modified genophage that instead targeted the fertility of male Krogan making only one in a thousand instances of fertilization attempts successful; true birth control rather than what Wrex perceived to be the genocide of the past.
This however did not prove effective with the Krogan unveiling their mass production of their kind in tanks as a replacement for their traditional reproduction. The tank bred Krogan were truly a monstrous foe to face and one that they could not eliminate with the genophage. They were not prepared for what came for them and indeed upon their first series of devastations at the hands of the tank-breds most mercenaries pulled out of the conflict without even formally cancelling their contracts; this left many fronts open to rebel Krogan salients in a most disastrous moment overnight putting the coalition on the defensive.
When more recently the rebel Krogan began to sue for peace following their internal difficulties the Salarians rejected the idea outright on the premise that they insisted on keeping worlds they had taken since the start of the war. However, with their losses in both the war and their ongoing economic and political difficulties the Salarians - while still prosecuting the war - are more amenable to negotiating for peace than the Turians.
Turian life changed significantly following the Reaper war. Though Palaven was not nearly as damaged as other racial capitals the Colonies of the Turians suffered far more than those of other races. But that was only the beginning of Turian woes after the Reapers. After Aria's armada seized many Turian holdings in the Terminus systems the Volus seceded from the Hierarchy along with two distant colonies. It was only under the firm leadership of the Turian war heroes that another set of unification wars did not happen. Nevertheless the Turians for a very long time were in a precarious position. The rise of the Salarians, Geth, and 2201 Union pushed out the demand for Turian wares from their impressive Military Industrial Complex. Meanwhile the lack of any major conflicts insured that their rather impressive fleet once entirely restored was naught but a drain in resources. It was only as the Asari were isolated and soon after the Salarians pushed themselves into a corner with their geopolitically motivated economic policies that the Turians were able to get their economy under control as they could enter the vacuums created by the failures of the other races. The Turians however were nevertheless significantly behind the other races in their restoration to pre-Reaper glory.
It was at some point that they inspired later projects of the Systems Alliance by devoting some of their Legions to mercenary efforts, largely those patrolling colonies of other civilizations near the Terminus systems with the aim of protecting them from more encroachments by the pirate realm.
The return of the Rachni was almost a godsend to the Turians as it solidified their return to power on the galactic stage; suddenly the Salarians the Union were begging them to devote their fleets to destruction of the alien menace and they were all too happy to reply once more becoming heroes of the galaxy. But as was the case with the first Rachni wars the Turians were only able to crush the Rachni in space, and they formed consensus with the Salarians and other speakers that the Krogan once more were needed. The arrangement went well until the Salarians and Krogans entered a dispute regarding the fate of the Rachni worlds that the Krogan took. Though from the words of Vakarian and others who had come to learn about Urdnot Wrex and his mate Bakara the Turians did not worry too much, they had to naturally take the side of the Salarians owing to the great many mutual defence and cooperation treaties they had.
Though they did not expect clans to rebel from Urdnot rule they were glad to join in the conflict seeing it as a reaffirmation of their role as guards of galactic order. But despite their many drills they were not prepared for the absolute ferocity of the rebellions when they began to deploy the tank-breds. Further, the rebels were far more accomplished in space warfare than predicted, particularly with the new cohort of tank-bred pilots and captains. But this only served to strengthen the resolve of the Turians. Total war was entered, the Turian consciousness especially inflamed when the enemy was one that so flagrantly disobeyed the galactic laws against genetic modification as extensive as the rebel Krogan Clans were undergoing. While the Turians initially were satisfied with the Krogan sending out envoys hoping to seek out a peaceful arrangement, this was only because of the belief that they were willing to submit and cease all operations. When the agreement the Krogan offered was simply a white peace they felt outraged and insulted. Despite entering the war with the least enthusiasm of its current participants, they now pursue it with their entire civilization’s efforts; nothing matters save absolute victory.
Following the Reaper war the Krogan entered the cultural renaissance that would once have seemed the guilty but manic ramblings of a Salarian Scientist. Under the watchful eye of Bakara and Wrex the many Clans fell in line with Urdnot. They looked inwards as their population exploded. They restored their ancient works from the wonders of civil engineering that were their seismic loading machines allowing them to once more erect the grand pyramids of their history. At the same time to the concern of many in the galaxy they did not waste any time in restoring their batteries, shipyards, and even investigating the debris near Rothla.
But all was well for many years. Krogan did not cease using their martial nature of course, at many points being hired in an official capacity to put Aria’s fleets in their place whenever they struck too arrogantly. But to the delight of Urdnot leadership more and more Krogan took civilian roles in memory of their ancestors from long before their world was a nuclear wasteland. Krogan poetry came to be renowned from Terminus Systems to Systems Alliance Space, while Krogan miners would provide ore for factories of all that would do business with them. Unfortunately, Salarians were not on that list. Wrex eventually gave up trying to persuade the Salarians to work with the Krogan having found a much better partner in the Geth. Though a cold and emotionless bunch, the Krogan found a very good relationship with them getting none of what they regarded as sophist nonsense of other races.
When the Rachni returned many clan leaders were swift to drop their dashing suits and once more pick up their high caliber guns. Though Wrex had successfully kept the hardliners in check and almost entirely remodeled the cultural course of Krogan youth even he had trouble suppressing giddiness at the prospect of another scrap with the Rachni.
As a matter of course the Krogan began to settle the worlds that they took from the Rachni. When the Salarian outcry came the Krogan were happy to negotiate but as diplomacy failed there were a series of escalations leading to short bursts of violence. It was bipartisan, but as a show of good faith the Krogan punished the perpetrators on their side with beatings and in two cases execution. Though the international community was impressed, many Krogan most certainly were unhappy. The naysayers of Wrex seized much of the Krogan fleet and several worlds marking the beginning of the second Krogan rebellion.
This time however, the rebellion was not just against the galactic order but against clan Urdnot supremacy as well. Together with the trifecta of Asari, Turians, and Salarians there was good, steady progress made against the rebelling Krogan. But victory was not nearly fast enough and every day the conflict went on there were mountains of corpses for all parties. Wrex accepted the Salarian proposal for a genophage under the conditions that it only be spread to the rebel Krogan and that it simply make males infertile rather than create stillbirths.
It was an effective move crushing the spirit of the Rebel Clans, albeit for a very short time. Fortack, the self styled Lord High Researcher had been one of the defectors to the rebellion. How he had come across the research was unknown, but somehow in his possession was the combined data of Droyas, Okeer, Maelon, Mordin Solus, and Padok Wiks. Though he could not cure the newly modified genophage he did not need to. With the research of those before him he was able to create tank-bred Krogan in the vein of Urdnot Grunt. Though it took some time for the appropriate facilities to be established and the tank-breds to grow the project was a massive success. Therein were the perfect warriors: they had the strength and resilience of Krogan, the intelligence of Salarians, the martial discipline of Turians, the adaptability of humanity and even the dexterity of Drell albeit rather wasted on the Krogan physiognomy.
When the first tank-breds struck their first foe - an Urdnot loyalist army - was absolutely devastated. Satisfied with the results they were brought to all fronts swiftly turning the tide. Such was the impact of the tank-breds that after witnessing them on but a few battlefields most mercenaries ran off seeing little pay worth being headbutted into minced meat. Though Fortack had all but single-handedly saved the Rebel Clans it was still Thurak of Jorgal that was the leader and he did not approve of the tank-breds when their use was revealed to him. Fortack knew this could not stand if victory was to be acheived. Though Thurak had respectable brutality and violence he was not a scientist, he could not see the future; it did not take long for Fortack to rip Thurak apart in one of his meetings and declare himself the new leader of the Rebel Clans.
As more and more tank-breds were made they started to replace ordinary Krogan who fell in greater numbers both in the lower ranks and in leadership. Soon the research labs were staffed almost entirely by the tank-breds and Fortack was surrounded by his creations. With freedom to do as he pleased Fortack was able to kick the rebellions into a whole new gear, the defensive soon turned to an offensive. It did not take long for him to get the suggestion for a mass battlemaster program which he accepted most gladly. The ancient Krogan technology wherein an ordinary warrior could be created into a biotic was long ago banned because of its mortality rates. But with his tank-breds Fortack would be able to perform the surgery before the Krogan was even born and if the specimen died in the process it could simply be recycled for its constituent resources to start again. Though this more than doubled the time it took to produce a viable tank-bred it also meant that every single one was destined to become a Battlemaster.
With the Battlemaster program also beginning to bear fruits the Rebel Clans offensives truly came into full swing with them not only retaking all the worlds they lost since the start of the war, but further occupying several colonies of their enemies. Just as devastating as the Battlemaster program was the use of weapons of mass destruction by the Krogan who in the deployment of the modified genophage found the perfect excuse, many a world of Asari, Turians, and Salarians facing great destruction at the hands of falling meteors and nuclear bombardment.
But much as Fortack had ended his predecessor believing himself better so too did many of his creations believe they were better for rule. By this time more than half of the active manpower of the rebel clans was tank bred and they were more than a third of the total population of the rebel clans. But rather importantly they had started to reach puberty and invent their own subculture. They created their own rites of passage and after completing them came to see themselves as more than just fodder. They resented Fortack using them on the front lines as disposable weapons and they came to be jealous of their kinsmen that they knew to have more professions than warrior or scientist. They were jealous of their mating and they wanted to carve out their own fate.
It was a collection of the most Senior tank-breds and a few veteran baseline Krogan that sympathized with their cause. Almost unheard of for Krogan they ruled through a council and came to a fast decision to sue for peace. They had proved their might and believed they could now dictate terms after which they could settle the wild stars unburdened by the past. Alas this would not be nearly so simple.
The condition they set was a simple white peace wherein they kept what they got in the war with no further hostilities and a normalization of relations. To most observers such as the Systems Alliance, the 2201 Union, and the Geth along with their creators this was a more than fair agreement. The enemies of the rebel clans did not share this sentiment. Aside from wanting their lands back the Turians could not abide by the very existence of the tank-breds, whereas Clan Urdnot could not accept other Clans not under their authority. Perhaps rather ironically it was Wrex who pushed the hardest for the continuation of the War against his kin. Many Krogan who previously looked up to him now looked up to the rebel Clans. The tank-breds also caused a great insecurity to ripple through Krogan society. They were better warriors, better leaders, better builders of civilisation, they were better. The only things that Wrex could point to were the fact that these tank-breds as of yet had not reproduced and might even avoid such for fear of less biotics being produced, as well as the fact later generations of tank-breds removed the blood rage from their creation believing it to be unnecessary and unreliable. On the backdrop of them never even having seen their homeworld or completed true rites of passage these were arguments that at least temporarily mollified his people.
Though war did not end much of the Galaxy has begun to recognize the rebel Clans as a unique power in the international stage. The Systems Alliance, Quarians, Geth, the Terminus Systems, and the 2201 Union all opened relations with the Rebel Clans with the hope they could definitively crush the Rachni once and for all, as well as with their new leadership being better partners than the Urdnot loyalists. In recent years the Rebel Clans have lobbied in the Citadel with such success that they have gained formal recognition by several powers and are in the final bureacratic stages of gaining a seat on the Council. To wit, on the Citadel a tank bred Krogan is nearly as common a sight as an ordinary one; violence between the two (particularly beneath the Krogan monument) is commonplace.
The Batarian Hegemony was absolutely devastated following the reaper war with both their homeworld of Khar’Shan and their multitude of colonies ruined. Though they helped in the final battle against the Reapers, nobody forgot that the Batarians were savage slavers and pirates following the war and as such they were left to fend for themselves. For almost a year they remained a largely fleet-based civilization, their worlds in such a state of disrepair that a cramped domicile in a ship was far preferable. Further, they had little machinery or resources to actually commence the reconstruction. Many simply gave up on this effort and resumed lives of pure piracy preying on the many states damaged by the Reaper War.
However those that remained gained an idea that was regarded by their whole society as brilliant. Most had during the war developed working relationships with many Vorcha and in Vorcha they saw the perfect tools to rebuild their homes. They ferried almost the entire population of Heshtok to Khar’Shan beating all the Vorcha they rounded up into submission and then making them work as slaves to rebuild their colonies.
The Vorcha were a rather effective tool, their work while not as great as that of other races bringing the Batarian worlds into a livable state. With the restoration of their homes the Batarians now found themselves almost outnumbered by a caste of second class citizens, in practice an apartheid state wherein Vorcha could do as they pleased provided they obeyed their Batarian betters whenever anything was asked of them. The Vorcha naturally - at least for the time being - were happy to oblige, their appreciation of shows of force making them see the Batarians as strong leaders to follow. The Batarian hegemony possessed trade relations with the 2201 Unions while being isolated from most other governments, and did not feel the market crash nearly as hard as any other nation nor did they suffer from the Ardat Yakshi plague. They were not however able to avoid confrontation with the Rachni.
With that said their war against the Rachni was far more successful than other nations; whilst they could not afford Krogan mercenaries their Vorcha subjects were usable in a similar manner and they swiftly destroyed the pair of Rachni Queens that struck against them.
In more recent years the Hegemony has been making their way on the international stage. They temporarily served as mercenaries against the Krogan Rebel Clans for the coalition, and have now for a considerable time possessed a seat on the Citadel Council. They have also begun to foster very strong relations with both the 2201 Union and Aria’s Omegan Empire with many analysts foreseeing them joining one or the other in the distant future. At the same time many worry about the future of the Hegemony. The Vorcha population has at many times been seen getting ever more disobedient and rowdy; through their conditioning of the Vorcha into being the perfect warriors or workers many see the Batarians as potentially facing their own version of the first Krogan rebellions. Additionally, rhetoric within the Hegemony more and more turns into a revanchist sentiment against humans and the Systems Alliance now that the Hegemony is restored with many seeing a reversal of the calming attitude between the races into outright war on the horizon.
With the end of the Reaper war the Rachni Queen that Shepard had spared disappeared and ultimately the Rachni were forgotten being placed as a footnote in history. But with the opening of new Mass Relays they returned to the galaxy in a most dangerous manner. Though many Rachni Queens discovered aimed for peaceful relations with the races that discovered them and in a few cases even opened trade relationships, the same or perhaps even more devoured the expeditions that found them and once more struck at all life unlike themselves going as far as wiping out some of the Queens who wanted peace with the rest of the Galaxy in surprise attacks. The Second Rachni wars had begun.
The following are the most important international events following the end of the Reaper War in approximate chronological order.
Following the Reaper war the already mobilized armada of Aria T’Loak was able swiftly and decisively occupy several Clusters and individual systems in the Terminus Systems. In many cases the war weary people did not even bother to resist, and the attempts to take down her expansion were half-hearted at best. Many wish for a day of reckoning against her rogue state that now for more than a century has been a blight on the Galaxy, but from her smug throne on Omega her holdings have only expanded since she first struck. Though nominally run by pirates it is a highly individualistic land, her realm is not a particularly bad place to live and indeed some worlds seceding from other governments even petition to join her rule.
Shortly after the Reaper War many new states were formed. In the chaos of the post-war power structures were flipped upon their heads and many who were unhappy with their situation saw the perfect time to act. From the Turians the Volus declared independence, as did many colonies for both the Turian Hierarchy and the Systems Alliance. Some lesser clans and Warlords rebelled from the rule of Urdnot Wrex but they were crushed rather brutally. Many fleets of Batarians rather than bothering to rejoin the Hegemony and take the effort of rebuilding their home decided to simply roam the galaxy as pirates taking a considerable portion of their population with themselves. Finally, upon the (in)famous Asari colony of Illium there was a rebellion of the slaves that while crushed lead to many years of reconstruction and reacquisition of labour-force that was lost in the process.
Though this happened many years later, many consider the latter-day synthetic life uprisings to be part of the revolutionary era in the Milky Way. For the most part this was confined to the Systems Alliance wherein their Infiltration Units and derivatives thereof achieved sapience and liberated themselves with violence when necessary. But one canont forget a few other remote such instances such as Salarian experimental vessels with dangerously advanced VIs disappearing without a trace.
In 2197 the observable nature of the Asari had changed, for following that year Ardat Yakshi would be produced not only from pureblood relationships but from those between Asari and another species as well. This would not have been discovered for a significantly longer time if not for the fact that in the same year that this effect began every single case of pureblood Asari turned out to be an Ardat Yakshi. When the probability of such happening was calculated most programs crashed from Long overflow. Though it would take some time for these Asari to mature into Ardat Yakshi, when they finally did the world trembled. It was impossible to find them all and subsequently house them and they thus spread amongst the stars as all Asari in the Maiden phases do with a massive death toll from their overpowering process of melding. Following this most states closed all travel to and from the Asari Republics and placed heavy restrictions upon trade with them. The Asari instantly became a subject of galactic bigotry and hatred, their reputation for a long time falling to be worse than that of vermin like the Vorcha. There were some voices who remembered the claim of one Ardat Yakshi long ago: they were the genetic destiny of the Asari.
In recent years the problem was heavily alleviated in part with the reestablishment of the Justicar Order following the devastation of its members in the Reaper War then they joined the defense of Thessia and other Asari territories. Though many are still very weary of the Asari there is a gradual lifting of travel and trade restrictions.
The Union of 2201 was an inevitability in retrospect. As the post war world developed it became more and more clear to smaller powers like the Hanar and Drell, the Volus, and the Elcor that they would not have the same protections from “Citadel races” as they would have prior to the Reaper War. What they negotiated was a mutual defence pact as well as a multitude of trade and assorted cooperation agreements. Individually the races of the Union of 2201 were frail and insignificant on the world stage, but together they were able to make a galactic bloc unto themselves with an excellent economy backed up by a powerful fleet to solidify their projection of power.
Following the exit of the Asari from the centre stage of the galactic economy the world plunged into a crisis few were prepared for especially with many worlds still rebuilding from the devastation the reapers wrought. The Salarians were eager to take their place however, and it seemed after some time that they were able to restore normalcy and bring the world back on track to recovery. Alas this would not last very long for the Salarians believed their supremacy to be far greater than it was. They believed they would be able to use it to push the Geth out of the international market and keep the Krogan demilitarized with great sanctions upon both parties. This backfired however as many chose to weather Salarian sanctions for dealing with the Geth and surviving the ones with the Geth they were happy to also stomach the ones for dealing with the Krogan. Seeing their folly they were quick to retract their actions but it was far too late, and the economic crisis facing the Galaxy only began to spiral worse for a considerable amount of time. It took the Turians best efforts along with interjections from the Systems Alliance and 2201 Union to start to finally put the world on track to some recovery from the crises that the Asari and Salarians created.
As the world started to recover from the recent market crash the Spectres thought they had discovered a conspiracy amongst elements of the Systems Alliance who were supposedly Cerberus agents. This lead to the arrest and in some cases deaths of many humans in the Citadel who were believed to be planning a chemical weapon based terrorist attack. However all the evidence was circumstantial and there were found to be no chemical weapons nor even the ability to obtain them amongst all the victims of the Spectres. There was much outrage from the Systems Alliance shared by many other Council representatives. The Alliance gave an ultimatum to either have oversight and full transparency over the Spectres or their dissolution and a court martial of their members, the latter option ultimately being agreed upon. It was with the loss of the Spectre organization that most nations lost any sort of respect for or confidence in the Citadel and it came to be regarded as more of a symbolic NGO than any sort of true institution for international problem solving.
It was not long after the Spectre scandal that many old tormentors of the Galaxy showed their face once more. Though the Awakened Collectors had been a nuisance for some years following the end of the Reaper War their attacks became ever more common at this point in history. But these were naught compared to the return of the Rachni. As new Mass Relays were discovered and explored many Rachni were found by expeditions. Though many turned out to be peaceful and even started a lucrative trade for their discoverers for many the Queens they found were genocidally hostile. Those who found the most difficulty with the Rachni were coincidentally the same governments who faced difficulty with them in the first Rachni Wars; the Salarians, the Turians, and the Asari. Though they destroyed the fleets of the Rachni they were unable to properly take the fight to their homeworlds. At this point they knew that they needed the Krogan once more, who were all too happy to take a fight to the Rachni in great mercenary fleets.
When it was discovered that the Krogan instantly began to settle the worlds of the Rachni and erect their grand pyramids to demonstrate their claim, there was an outrage from the Salarians and to a lesser degree from the other employers of the Krogan mercenaries. Negotiations began to discuss what would be done on the matter which quickly degraded into short bursts of violence. However, Urdnot Wrex wanted to preserve peace and demonstrate that the Krogan truly wanted to be part of a new galactic order rather than villains of it once more. He thus punished those under him who got out of line much to the surprise of his counterparts.
While many thought this would be an end to the conflict these people were misguided. The move of Wrex was despised amongst many of the Clans for having shown weakness and submission to other races. Many clans rebelled marking the beginning of the second Krogan rebellion.
Loyalists to Clan Urdnot, the Asari, the Salarians, and the Turians formed a coalition to crush the rebel clans. They found themselves winning but their progress was slow and made casualties far too great to sustain when the Rachni weren’t yet defeated. After some discussion it was agreed that a modified genophage would be deployed on the rebel Clans to cause infertility amongst the males with the hope of prompting a swift surrender. This action was anticipated however, particularly by the Lord High Researcher of the Krogan who had defected to the rebels: Fortack. He was able to recreate past tank-breeding experiments for mass production of the perfect Krogan in a battle ready state to replenish their numbers. Though many leaders of the rebellion were traditionalists made furious by this strange breed they were put into their place very fast when Fortack publicly eviscerated Jorgal Thurak, leader of the rebellion.
When the first line of tank-breds hit the battlefield they were the Gods of war possessing the best traits of all the races they went against inside their unstoppable Krogan frame. When they struck they did so with such ferocity that all mercenaries hired to fight them fled, their lucrative contracts be damned. With gaps in the enemy formation the tank-breds were able to create many salients and encirclements — overnight the rebel Clans had their outlook change from a slow but inevitable defeat to that of a glorious counter-offensive. The state of the coalition became even worse when the battlemaster programme began where the tank-bred Krogan would be surgically modified into being biotics within their tanks, recycled for their constituent parts if they died in the process for a quick restart.
Furthermore, the use of the Genophage on the Rebel Clans meant the introduction of biological warfare into the conflict which gave them the excuse they needed to begin using their own WMDs. They were all too happy to use their time honoured strategy of mass nuclear bombing or lobbing asteroids into planets with fusion torches knowing that they would at most turn the worlds they struck into new versions of Tuchanka (a prospect they didn't dread in the slightest). Some voices even spoke of an ancient weapon found in a wreckage near Rothla in the old Krogan DMZ being reconstructed. Regardless, despite the Rebel Clans escalating the use of WMDs in the war most governments outside of the coalition in fact sided with them, seeing them as forced to act in such a way in response to the use of the modified genophage.
But despite his cunning genius, Fortack did not predict being undone by his own “children”. The tank-breds over time grew to have a great many grievances with their creator’s leadership, particularly after many of them passed through puberty and matured enough to be able to see themselves in his position.
After the murder of Fortack a Council of the most senior members of the Rebel Clans came to rule, and they soon came to a consensus to sue for peace. When the terms of the peace included the fact that the Rebel Clans would be allowed to keep any worlds they currently held it was rejected by the Salarians, whilst the Turians also objected to the very nature of the tank-bred Krogan and Wrex could not bear to have such a massive population of Krogan not under his control.
Though this peace was rejected by the coalition, the rest of the world began to open formal relations with the rebel Clans seeing their new ruling Council as a very agreeable government after some probing communications. Indeed many came forth to lobby for their entry into the Citadel Council with great success, the last few bureaucratic processes of formalizing their seat underway. C-Sec has already hired some tank-bred Krogan, and they have come to be a rather common sight within the Citadel and Omega.
You have arrived at the modern day Milky Way Galaxy.
In 2279 the Dreichien company operating in the Systems Alliance with unverified claims of being connected to Cerberus unveiled its latest contract with the Systems Alliance. The project had created a way for people with humans who had been affected by Eezo but not sufficiently to produce traditional biotic powers to express their unique physiognomies in a rather unique way. They received implants that though not letting them do things such as lift, throw, and more, allowed them to stifle the abilities of other biotics. Depending on the physical endurance of the person with these new L-8 implants their abilities in targeting opposing biotics would range from simply light headaches and removing their ability to use their power to debilitating agony, burst blood vessels and exploding biotic implants.
About two years after the introduction of this new technology into the ranks of the Systems Alliance, STG operatives were spotted utilizing very similar technologies particularly against Krogan battlemasters. However, there were not nearly enough STG operatives to recruit bearing this unique technology to have any pronounced effect on the ranks of Battlemasters crashing through the Coalition forces.
Recently however there have been new developments in such technology. At around March 2298 both the STG and Dreichien company were reported to be unveiling new anti-biotic devices that worked in a similar manner to the previous ones, except they did not require a living being exposed to Eezo; targeting both organic and implanted sources of biotic power. Though right now the operators of these devices are lucky to see even a single one in a theatre of war, many factories are being constructed for the express purpose of more of these. These creations can be as small as man-portable cells that will affect a single enemy biotic, to massive arrays that will incapacitate any biotics in a large radius. In some very high end equipment retailers one can even now order such a device to receive them in some months time.
Thank you for your time my dear nerds. I am eager to see your applications. Though not mandatory I highly recommend you join the discord server. Herein a lot of very important communication as well as planning of collaborative posts will be made. When you have a CS ready please send it into a four way PM with me and my beloved co-GMs @Lucky and @Lauder. That said I'd liketo see some quick pitches of characters as soon as you have an idea just so I have a rough vision of what sort of a team will be made, and in turn what gaps need to be filled with GMNPCs. For now I will be accepting no more than four people for a "recruitment" introduction to the story, as with even two we might start to take too long to actually get into the grander plot elements.
Please, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, yadda yadda, feel free to drop them here.
If you can provide the goods I'd be happy to be the incubus tempting you over the edge and into our little gang. If you jave any questions to help you decide I am here to answer them.
WIP but I wanted to stick my foot in the door since I did have a mostly fleshed out concept. I'll finish the little stuff when I can. You know... like... a name...
If you have any advice or input on what I've put down so far, please feel free to throw it at me.
This is done with an in-character dossier of information readily available about your character in mind, in addition to that which they are willing to disclose to those hiring them for the mission. Anything you do not want visible to the public please PM to me.
Full name: Amynta T'Vete
Race: Asari
Citizenship: She was last an official citizen of the Systems Alliance
Aliases:
Age: 99
Gender: Female
Phys. Eval.: Average by most metrics, her main defining physical traits are the slight pinkish hue to her otherwise standard, blue Asari skin and a small tattoo in the center of her chest of three hearts circling each other.
Height - 5'8" Weight - 155
Biotics: Her biotics are powerful, though this is not necessarily anything unusual considering this could be said of her entire species. Of note, however, is her unique proclivity toward biotic barriers that are incredibly sturdy despite her limited training in the use of biotics. Most of her abilities are self-taught and do not extend past simple, straightforward telekinetic-style usages, such as pushing, pulling, and lifting.
History:
She was born to a retired Alliance marksman with middling biotic capabilities and an older Asari who had been entering the matriarch phase of her life. Her mother had thought she was past having children, but apparently something about her father had gotten her attention, and so she'd decided to change course just a little while longer.
She spent most of her early childhood with two sisters and her father. Her mother had stronger encouraged the three to spend as much time with their father as possible, knowing their time with him would be comparatively limited. This was where she learned to use a rifle, her and her "middle sister," Antheia, having been fascinated by his war stories. The "little sister" of the three, Ilithyia, often tagged along, but ended up being the quiet one, overshadowed by the Antheia's enthusiasm. It was only Amynta's strong will that kept her from similarly being overshadowed.
They had settled on a quiet planet in human space, not too far from their father's friends and relatives, but somewhat isolated, allowing their father some peace in his retirement. Much needed peace and quiet, having survived the Reaper conflict. Their mother would often say it was that "seen it all" look in his eyes that had gotten her interest.
The peace was not to last. There was always an element of chaos. For some, they forget the hell of their near extinction all too quickly and looked to capitalize on the aftermath. Neither their mother's years of wisdom and experience or their father's time as a soldier could keep them together. It was no grand catastrophe or uncommon event that ended their happy days, but a simple band of marauders that numbered one too many.
Barely out of their teens by human standards, the sisters were forced to flee, as their presence could only have delayed the inevitable at best. At the time, she was not aware of what she would one day be capable of, and unrealized potential matters little in a crisis. After fleeing, a few of her father's old friends banded together upon hearing what happened and went to investigate, but could only bring back the news the sisters had feared the most.
The years went by. They grew up largely around humans at first, staying with what they knew. In doing so they lacked heavily in guidance that they could have received from others of their kind, though in time this would prove at least somewhat beneficial.
However, it was not to last. The support from their father's friends could only get them so far and Amynta had effectively taken over as the head of their family. They didn't need her to be their mother, but neither had any of them been prepared to so suddenly be on their own. Their real mother should have still been with them for centuries to come.
Being born so soon after the cursed year left them constantly under scrutiny, and even Amynta with all her stubborn will could only do so much to protect her family from that kind of harm. She could not fight off words and suspicious glances.
In the end, they chose to leave, one last time taking advantage of the charity of her father's old war buddies. In the end, Amynta would fail to truly hold her family together. Once they'd been uprooted, they never quite settled down again. Their only refuge was the frightening realm of Aria T'Loak. While they faced far less scrutiny, they didn't have to look far to find reminders of the people who'd taken everything from them.
Antheia took to traveling, putting into practice their father's teachings in order to make a living. Amynta would follow her, wanting to ensure her sister didn't do anything too stupid. Ilithyia stayed put, living a simple, civilian life and making sure they'd always have a home to return to, though they rarely did. In a way, she took the hardest road, as her sisters could always just move on if prejudices made things too uncomfortable -- which even in Omega space, it often did.
Amynta would take any odd job, not wanting to become a soldier of fortune like her sister was becoming. Construction, cooking, cleaning, simple security, etc. After a few years she'd done just about everything you didn't need a formal education to do. She did whatever it took to afford food, shelter, and the supplies to maintain her rifle. While she was not a mercenary, it was all she had left as a connection to her father. Furthermore, seeing as her sister was a mercenary, if she was to actually keep her out of trouble, she needed to be ready.
Whenever it was time to move on, she'd often book passage to other worlds on whatever ship her sister had been hired to protect, leading to what eventually became a well rehearsed routine.
"I'm not paying for your ticket."
"I didn't ask you to."
It was one such ship that altered the course of her life. For better or for worse, she debates to this very day. Pirates caught them between jumps, seeming happy to haul the wreck of their ship back to sell as salvage if they couldn't board the ship itself. Outgunned, they tried to run but there was no escaping in time.
Amynta put herself alone in the rear cargo-hold as the pirates locked on. Their ships shields had long since failed, and further attacks would have started venting the hull. In desperation, she threw up a biotic barrier, hoping to just buy a little more time. One shot, then two, her barrier alone withstood multiple shots from the pirate's cannons.
Next came a missile, and still the ship survived as her barrier nullified the blast, but she'd been pushed past her limit. Her vision faded and she was tossed from the cargo-hold out into space.
Their ship had recovered its shields, but they would fail again before long once the next barrage struck. Limping through space, it seemed surrender was their only hope for any of them to survive, though what fate truly awaited them none could say... but the attacks stopped before they could radio their pursuers.
Instead, the pirate ship radioed them first.
"Everyone OK?"
She had blacked out briefly, but awoken moments later, drifting in space. At the last moment, she'd used her biotics to launch herself to the pirate's ship and break into it. While hardly a commando, a handful of startled pirates hadn't stood a chance. It was from here that a schism slowly grew between the two traveling sisters. In one fell swoop, she'd completely stolen the show from her sister.
People began asking for her, assuming she was the gun for hire. While she'd occasionally worked as her sister's partner if it was absolutely necessary, she'd never before considered it to be her line of work. More and more, however, she began to get dragged into it. More and more, she proved her greater aptitude.
More and more her sister began to resent her. Eventually, the tension between the two boiled over and they split apart.
As much as she'd always tried to avoid it, it was during this time that Amynta fully shifted gears into mercenary work. A regular job had always been... difficult to hold and people were always willing to prey on her desperation. Her fight against the pirates had taught her what she was truly capable of and, not only was she more suited for it, mercenary work payed better. She'd always been careful and vigilant -- a survivor. She was the type to actually live long enough to get paid.
It was almost too perfect for her. She was a rarity among independent mercenaries -- someone you could actually trust. Not just trust to not turn on you, but to actually see a job through. The sector had basically been conquered by pirates, if organized pirates, but many of those who'd always been there were just regular folk who now had to deal with a new regime.
She wasn't in it for riches and glory, just to get by. Getting by didn't involve getting pulled into raids and private wars. Her and people who just needed private security were practically made for each other. Those who would otherwise get passed over due to limited funds could turn to her.
This eventually gave her trustworthy contacts that would help her find paying clients who wouldn't shoot her in the back or lie about what the job was. It was a slow and steady snowball effect as she took on bigger and bigger jobs as her talent and client-base grew.
There was another benefit to all this. Immersed as she was in this new life and with her growing reputation, she was one day contacted by a group for job -- a group that she quickly recognized.
She'd had a lot of time to think, and she'd figured out why her seemingly unremarkable family had been targeted. Having lived out on their own, they had been isolated. Her mother being an Asari matriarch, their attackers had figured they'd be an easy, but potentially lucrative target. Low risk, high reward, or at least they'd hoped.
They'd been right enough.
And now, unknowingly, those same people wanted to hire her. Their group had grown over the years, taking on the name "Hope of Fortune," though still smaller than some of the more infamous mercenary outfits. They'd become too big to work as raiders, as they'd draw too much attention to themselves, and had turned to working as hired muscle, often working underneath those other, bigger groups.
They wanted her, figuring her experience and biotic talents would help them land their biggest job yet. They didn't know who she was, but she knew who they were. She agreed on the spot. She'd barely asked any questions, and honestly had at times feared she looked too eager. She was able to discover that they still worked under the same leadership, though in his advancing age he rarely stepped foot into battle himself anymore.
She tried to contact her sister, but had no idea where to even start, and resolved to simply having some of her contacts do their best to track her down. If she was still a mercenary herself, there was hope they'd manage sooner of later. However, sooner or later wasn't something she could wait on.
The job was basically a territory dispute on some backwater planet, with each side wanting the land for themselves to set up shop. It was close enough to a lucrative trade route to set up a good smuggling operation. Their side already had a foothold, while the other side insisted that it was their territory the other was encroaching on.
Her plan was almost foolhardy in its simplicity. She leaked some information to the rival side and leveraged her own reputation to take command of the group on her side. She sent dozens of mercenaries to their deaths, and when they tried to retreat, they found a nigh impenetrable biotic barrier blocking their way while they were left to be slaughtered.
When the rival group stormed the base, they found naught but corpses, with no sign of their killer.
Amynta, meanwhile, slipped away, returning to her employer. She called ahead to report her "failure," but when her ship landed, she wasn't on it. She'd allowed the onboard VI to go through the simple process of landing the ship at their compound. She wasn't all that far away though, she watched the mercenaries scratch their heads through her scope as the boarding ramp of her ship lowered, only for no one to walk down it. She watched their boss scream his head off about something or another.
In hindsight, she should have shot him then and there. She shot the men next to him first, wanting him to feel some of the fear she'd felt all those years ago. However, it unfortunately let the old-man turn activate his personal shields, her shots glancing off them as he ran for it.
There was a good reason he'd been furious, though. He'd lost a lot of men due to the stunt she'd pulled. She hunted him down throughout his own compound, picking them off one-by-one and unleashing her untamed but powerful biotics upon them. In the end she cornered him at the far end of his little base where he'd gathered the last of his group to set up a last ditch ambush.
Any other day it wouldn't have worked, but she'd been out for blood and with each pull of the trigger she'd fallen more and more prey to her own tunnel-vision.
She quickly used her biotics to shield herself from the barrage of gunfire, and then... she had an idea. She expanded her barrier more and more until it filled the entire room -- but she didn't let any of them inside of it. She let out a surge of power that destroyed the entire room, smashing them all flat. Even as she saw the walls of the compound begin to crumble around her, she didn't stop.
She'd missed her shot once, but not again.
Between fighting her way into that room and her final stunt she was spent as the compound collapsed in on her.
She was to awaken once more, however. She awoke to see her sister. In the end she had gotten her message and come for her and dragged her out of the wreckage. She was chastised for her foolishness and "Oh how the tables have turned. You've changed, sister. So reckless." As well as "You've done it again, putting on some crazy performance. Are you trying to put me out of business?"
Somehow, the results were the opposite this time. Having avenged their family at nearly the cost of her own life, her stunt had begun the process of mending their relationship.
They resumed working together for a time, but it was all very routine in the coming decades. At first she was worried that was technically amounted to a betrayal of her employer would leave her blacklisted, but she'd earned the respect of enough of her contacts that they were willing to spin things for her. After all, it wasn't like anyone else had killed her parents.
Rather, she was in higher demand than ever. After all, she'd in the end she'd single-handedly crushed an entire mercenary group out of sheer spite. Having well and truly established herself, she had more opportunities than ever to sharpen her skills, especially as Asari slowly began to become accepted again.
Until she just dropped off the radar. It had all been a blur, being forced into a life she never would have chosen only to be so good at it, it had been hard to stop. So, one day, she just hit the brakes, hoping to fade into the background until she was forgotten and could live a more peaceful life...
Anthea was still off working as a hired gun, but as a more permanent member of a mostly legitimate private military company, where she'd apparently found love with one of the other women who worked there. Her little sister meanwhile had started studying the rachni, hearing that their species had turned on each other, and curious to see if anything could be done for the peaceful once that remained.
And Amynta? Well she wasn't doing much of anything by comparison. She was filled with a strange sense of contentment, as if she was just... done. She was barely more than a child by Asari standards and yet she felt complete in a way. A violent century had flown by, and while she was only a quick call away if her sisters ever needed her, she was ready to let the next one pass by quietly.
Psych. Eval.: The three top words that generally describe her are cautious, responsible, and mindful. This combined with a stubborn willfulness often results in her attempting to take charge of any out of control situation in an attempt to remedy it. Usually, she will be the last to panic in any given crisis.
She has patience bordering on being total passivity unless she has decided it is time to take action.
Much of her personality seems rooted in the earliest years of her life, showing little evolution of her persona over time. After the loss of her parents, she took charge of her family, which seems to have given birth to most of the above traits. However, her personality traits have been proven to extend beyond her immediate family, taking similar care with anyone or anything she feels responsible for.
Contrary to what one might expect, she does not go out of her way to help others. While she has a strong distaste for those who prey on others, she does not make it her personal mission to stop anyone who is not directly threatening her or those she's responsible for, as she feels such heroics are unnecessary added risks.
Qualifications: Decades of mercenary experience with an unusually high survival rate for anyone working with her or under her protection. While not boasting a totally flawless record for completing assignments, she has never lost a client. She's an ace marksman with reliable biotics as a back-up.
She also has a hard won network of contacts from her time as a mercenary. Having carefully curated her clientele, she has accumulated a sizeable list of trustworthy people, many of whom owe her despite having long since paid off her wages due to her having kept many of them alive despite all odds.
Position: Designated marksman
Recruited: Yes
Inventory & Logistics: An effectively antique M-96 Mattock assault rifle with a modified scope and extended barrel M-12 Locust SMG modded with lightweight materials Reinforced, but unshielded light armor Omni-tool (does anyone not?)
Notoriety: 4 While a very effective mercenary, she never went out of her way to find glory, so to the less informed she's just one of many. To those who've heard her stories, however...
More than likely, rather than her weapon skills, it would be the mix of her tactical achievements and many repeat customers who sing her praises that might get people's attention. Normally a mercenary of such merit is spoken of in fear, but Amyta is spoken of almost... fondly.
WIP but I wanted to stick my foot in the door since I did have a mostly fleshed out concept. I'll finish the little stuff when I can. You know... like... a name...
If you have any advice or input on what I've put down so far, please feel free to throw it at me.
This is done with an in-character dossier of information readily available about your character in mind, in addition to that which they are willing to disclose to those hiring them for the mission. Anything you do not want visible to the public please PM to me.
Full name:
Race: Asari
Citizenship: She was last an official citizen of the Systems Alliance
Aliases:
Age: 99
Gender: Female
Psych. Eval.:
Phys. Eval.:
Biotics: She has been discovered to have prodigious biotic strength, even for an asari, though her relative youth and limited training limit her potential, however she has an aptitude for creating extremely durable biotic barriers, and is fully capable of using her biotics for basic telekinetic purposes: pushing, pulling, lifting, etc.
Qualifications: Decades of mercenary experience with an unusually high survival rate for anyone working with her or under her protection. While not boasting a totally flawless record for completing assignments, she has never lost a client. She's an ace marksman with reliable biotics as a back-up.
History:
She was born to a retired Alliance marksman with middling biotic capabilities and an older Asari who had been entering the matriarch phase of her life. Her mother had thought she was past having children, but apparently something about her father had gotten her attention, and so she'd decided to change course just a little while longer.
She spent most of her early childhood with two sisters and her father. Her mother had stronger encouraged the three to spend as much time with their father as possible, knowing their time with him would be comparatively limited. This was where she learned to use a rifle, her and her "middle sister" having been fascinated by his war stories. The "little sister" of the three often tagged along, but ended up being the quiet one, overshadowed by the middle's enthusiasm. It was only (?)'s strong will that kept her from similarly being overshadowed.
They had settled on a quiet planet in human space, not too far from their father's friends and relatives, but somewhat isolated, allowing their father some peace in his retirement. Much needed peace and quiet, having survived the Reaper conflict. Their mother would often say it was that "seen it all" look in his eyes that had gotten her interest.
The peace was not to last. There was always an element of chaos. For some, they forget the hell of their near extinction all too quickly and looked to capitalize on the aftermath. Neither their mother's years of wisdom and experience or their father's time as a soldier could keep them together. It was no grand catastrophe or uncommon event that ended their happy days, but a simple band of marauders that numbered one too many.
Barely out of their teens by human standards, the sisters were forced to flee, as their presence could only have delayed the inevitable at best. At the time, she was not aware of what she would one day be capable of, and unrealized potential matters little in a crisis. After fleeing, a few of her father's old friends banded together upon hearing what happened and went to investigate, but could only bring back the news the sisters had feared the most.
The years went by. They grew up largely around humans at first, staying with what they knew. In doing so they lacked heavily in guidance that they could have received from others of their kind, though in time this would prove at least somewhat beneficial.
The middle sister took to traveling, putting into practice their father's teachings in order to make a living. (?) would follow her, always having been the most responsible, and wanting to ensure her sister didn't do anything stupid. The little sister stayed behind, living a simple, civilian life and making sure they'd always have a home to return to. (?) would take any odd job, not wanting to become a soldier of fortune like her sister was becoming.
Construction, cooking, cleaning, simple security, etc. After a few years she'd done just about everything you didn't need a formal education to do. She did whatever it took to afford food, shelter, and the supplies to maintain her rifle. While she was not a mercenary, it was all she had left as a connection to her father. Furthermore, seeing as her sister was a mercenary, if she was to actually keep her out of trouble, she needed to be ready.
Whenever it was time to move on, she'd often book passage to other worlds on whatever ship her sister had been hired to protect, leading to what eventually became a well rehearsed routine.
"I'm not paying for your ticket."
"I didn't ask you to."
It was one such ship that altered the course of her life. For better or for worse, she debates to this very day. Pirates caught them between jumps, seeming happy to haul the wreck of their ship back to sell as salvage if they couldn't board the ship itself. Outgunned, they tried to run but there was no escaping in time.
(?) put herself alone in the rear cargo-hold as the pirates locked on. Their ships shields had long since failed, and further attacks would have started venting the hull. In desperation, she threw up a biotic barrier, hoping to just buy a little more time. One shot, then two, her barrier alone withstood multiple shots from the pirate's cannons.
Next came a missile, and still the ship survived as her barrier nullified the blast, but she'd been pushed past her limit. Her vision faded and she was tossed from the cargo-hold out into space.
Their ship had recovered its shields, but they would fail again before long once the next barrage struck. Limping through space, it seemed surrender was their only hope for any of them to survive, though what fate truly awaited them none could say... but the attacks stopped before they could radio their pursuers.
Instead, the pirate ship radioed them first.
"Everyone OK?"
She had blacked out briefly, but awoken moments later, drifting in space. At the last moment, she'd used her biotics to launch herself to the pirate's ship and break into it. While hardly a commando, a handful of startled pirates hadn't stood a chance. It was from here that a schism slowly grew between the two traveling sisters. In one fell swoop, she'd completely stolen the show from her sister.
People began asking for her, assuming she was the gun for hire. While she'd occasionally worked as her sister's partner if it was absolutely necessary, she'd never before considered it to be her line of work. More and more, however, she began to get dragged into it. More and more, she proved her greater aptitude.
More and more her sister began to resent her.
Eventually, the tension between the two boiled over and they split apart. Some time after, the cursed year struck. Both sisters were fortunate in a way. They hadn't really grown up as typical Asari, and both had become rather well integrated into their lines of work. They just sort of... continued on as they were, though often having to avoid heavily populated worlds and ports.
It was during this time that (?) fully shifted gears into mercenary work. A regular job in a regular city was hard to come by as an Asari, but there was always someone that needed a gun, and hers was becoming highly sought after. And so she drifted, feeling as though she'd lost her way. Though, with seemingly the whole galaxy having turned against her and her kind, she felt there was little she could do about it.
There was, however, a silver-lining to this. Immersed as she was in this new life, she was now a part of a certain circle of people. One day she was contacted by a group for job -- a group that she quickly recognized.
She'd had a lot of time to think, and she'd figured out why her seemingly unremarkable family had been targeted. Having lived out on their own, they had been isolated. Her mother being an Asari matriarch, their attackers had figured they'd be an easy, but potentially lucrative target. Low risk, high reward, or at least they'd hoped.
They'd been right enough.
And now, unknowingly, those same people wanted to hire her. Their group had grown over the years, taking on the name "Hope of Fortune," though still smaller than some of the more infamous mercenary outfits. They'd become too big to work as raiders, as they'd draw too much attention to themselves, and had turned to working as hired muscle, often working underneath those other, bigger groups.
They wanted her, figuring her experience and biotic talents would help them land their biggest job yet. They didn't know who she was, but she knew who they were. She agreed on the spot. She'd barely asked any questions, and honestly had at times feared she looked too eager. She was able to discover that they still worked under the same leadership, though in his advancing age he rarely stepped foot into battle himself anymore.
She tried to contact her sister, but had no idea where to even start, and resolved to simply having some of her contacts do their best to track her down. If she was still a mercenary herself, there was hope they'd manage sooner of later. However, sooner or later wasn't something she could wait on.
The job was basically a territory dispute on some backwater planet, with each side wanting the land for themselves to set up shop. It was close enough to a lucrative trade route to set up a good smuggling operation. Their side already had a foothold, while the other side insisted that it was their territory the other was encroaching on.
Her plan was almost foolhardy in its simplicity. She leaked some information to the rival side and leveraged her own reputation to take command of the group on her side. She sent dozens of mercenaries to their deaths, and when they tried to retreat, they found a nigh impenetrable biotic barrier blocking their way while they were left to be slaughtered.
When the rival group stormed the base, they found naught but corpses, with no sign of their killer.
(?), meanwhile, slipped away, returning to her employer. She called ahead to report her "failure," but when her ship landed, she wasn't on it. She'd allowed the onboard VI to go through the simple process of landing the ship at their compound. She wasn't all that far away though, she watched the mercenaries scratch their heads through her scope as the boarding ramp of her ship lowered, only for no one to walk down it. She watched their boss scream his head off about something or another.
In hindsight, she should have shot him then and there. She shot the men next to him first, wanting him to feel some of the fear she'd felt all those years ago. However, it unfortunately let the old-man turn activate his personal shields, her shots glancing off them as he ran for it.
There was a good reason he'd been furious, though. He'd lost a lot of men due to the stunt she'd pulled. She hunted him down throughout his own compound, picking them off one-by-one and unleashing her untamed but powerful biotics upon them. In the end she cornered him at the far end of his little base where he'd gathered the last of his group to set up a last ditch ambush.
Any other day it wouldn't have worked, but she'd been out for blood and with each pull of the trigger she'd fallen more and more prey to her own tunnel-vision.
She quickly used her biotics to shield herself from the barrage of gunfire, and then... she had an idea. She expanded her barrier more and more until it filled the entire room -- but she didn't let any of them inside of it. She let out a surge of power that destroyed the entire room, smashing them all flat. Even as she saw the walls of the compound begin to crumble around her, she didn't stop.
She'd missed her shot once, but not again.
Between fighting her way into that room and her final stunt she was spent as the compound collapsed in on her.
She was to awaken once more, however. She awoke to see her sister. In the end she had gotten her message and come for her and dragged her out of the wreckage. She was chastised for her foolishness and "Oh how the tables have turned. You've changed, sister. So reckless." As well as "You've done it again, putting on some crazy performance. Are you trying to put me out of business?"
Somehow, the results were the opposite this time. Having avenged their family at nearly the cost of her own life, her stunt had begun the process of mending their relationship.
They resumed working together for a time, but it was all very routine in the coming decades. At first she was worried that was technically amounted to a betrayal of her employer would leave her blacklisted, but she'd earned the respect of enough of her contacts that they were willing to spin things for her. After all, it wasn't like anyone else had killed her parents.
Rather, she was in higher demand than ever. After all, she'd in the end she'd single-handedly crushed an entire mercenary group out of sheer spite. Having well and truly established herself, she had more opportunities than ever to sharpen her skills, especially as Asari slowly began to become accepted again.
Until she just dropped off the radar. It had all been a blur, being forced into a life she never would have chosen only to be so good at it, it had been hard to stop. So, one day, she just hit the brakes, hoping to fade into the background until she was forgotten and could live a more peaceful life...
Her middle sister was still off working as a hired gun, but as a more permanent member of a mostly legitimate private military company, where she'd apparently found love with one of the other women who worked there. Her little sister meanwhile had started studying the rachni, hearing that their species had turned on each other, and curious to see if anything could be done for the peaceful once that remained.
And (?)? Well she wasn't doing much of anything by comparison. A violent century had flown by, and while she was only a quick call away if her sisters ever needed her, she was content to let the next one pass by quietly.
Position: Designated marksman
Recruited: Yes
Inventory & Logistics: An effectively antique M-96 Mattock assault rifle with a modified scope.
Notoriety: 3 While a very effective mercenary, she never went out of her way to find glory, so to the less informed she's just one of many. To those who've heard her stories, however...
More than likely, rather than her weapon skills, it would be the mix of her tactical prowess and unusually intense biotic outbursts that draw attention to her.
Misc.: N/A
[Blasts from the Past]: Yes
Hey there, a few comments. I know this is a WIP so perhaps you have plans to iron this out for the final version but I'll for now relay the thoughts of the GM cabal in its "as-is" state.
She has been discovered to have prodigious biotic strength, even for an asari
Is a very dubious thing in our opinion. I would like to refer you to the element "on-power level." of the above. I don't want to be a hardass but its not very interesting when a character in the team can just do whatever the hell they like with their biotic fiat. Now of course that's a very vague thing and it may not be as OP as we are imagining (after all, most Asari choose to not pursue the further development and practice of their biotics and in contrast to them any practiced biotic is a prodigy) but at the same time its hard for us to not go for the worst case when we don't see an actual quantification of the power. In the inventory you should I think expand a little more as your character most certainly isn't just carrying their firearms; mention armour (light, medium, heavy, or none will suffice) and such. Also, in regards to the history/backstory it is long but it doesn't feel like it touches in-depth look at the character and how they turned out the way they did, it was a deep dive into a few formative events rather than a deep dive into why those events were formative; it would be nice to stuff like how she and her family dealt with the rising bigotry to Asari following the cursed year and it would be nice if we got names to the individuals in her life. I think there is a great amount of potential here but it needs to do some refinement.
I also highly recommend joining the discord as it would make clearing this up a heck of a lot easier
Aliases: Sam has been called the ‘Bane of Cerberus’ by various new media outlets before, but Sam never calls himself that or anything else.
Age: 90
Gender: Male
Psych. Eval.: “Sam Waltz Bridge is quite an open person. He doesn’t have much to hide nor does he shy away from stating his feelings or concerns. He is very honest to say the least, more so then a lot of other people that I met. Sam has great hospitality towards friends and family, even with strangers that he has yet to meet. He’ll feed you, cloth you, and let you take a bath in his shower, if you need it. There is no sight of antagonistic behavior in his bone, albeit that can quickly change. Sam, seen in his history and in various interviews, has no heart for anyone that crosses him or anyone else in his circle.
Sam has also no concerns for himself, displaying a truly selfless method of thinking to his world views. He greatly cares for others and for their wellbeing, and does great with kids. He respects those who go out of their way to aid others, akin to himself. He lacks patience and respect for people who actively harms others, innocents and likewise, and those who don’t give a damn about others and who don’t think about their actions and consequences. Sam doesn't have any kind of hidden agenda and has provided himself to be highly reliable in his words. If he is going to shoot you then expect to be shot within the next few seconds, if he is not being sarcastic that is, but he often does say that he is being sarcastic. A result that comes from his time spent with orphans with psychosocial and social disabilities.
Sam is very hard to anger. We try everything from making his food the wrong way, messing up his room, and anything else, but it never gets to him. The only anger we saw from him was when he read the news on the current development in either local, national [Systems Alliance], or galactic news and politics.” - Psychologist Adam Will.
Phys. Eval.: “Sam has not let up his physical health in his life span of 90 years. From our standards, he is very healthy and I don’t have much concern for his health because of it. Besides from his general health, Sam has a much higher level of endurance, able to endure multiple marathons. Strength wise, he is above average, and his vision is a 20/20.” - Doctor Oates
Biotics: N/A
Qualifications: “Sam has an interesting set of qualifications for himself. The man is a competent soldier, resulting from his time in the Systems Alliance Marine Corps. He understands how to handle a rifle, throw a grenade, and what have you. In the marines, he was a heavy weapon specialist. The skills from his specialisation is still with him today, as we have actively seen in his time right now in an active warzone. He can lug around a light machine, rocket launcher, and general heavy weapons with ease and speed. He can reload a LMG or rocket faster than your regular time user of heavy arms, and aim it pretty damn well too.
Moving on, we will explain his political and educational qualifications. Sam has only finished high school, but he displays a great understanding of the social-economic and political situation in the Systems Alliance, and to a lesser extent other nations on a case-by-case basis. This stems from, as even Sam had said for himself, his time in the Systems Alliance Socialist Party. Sam also knows a good deal of Cerberus itself from self-study and source finding. Of course, it's nothing too confidential but it is enough knowledge to gain an edge over them.
Sam has a talent for cooking as well. We have tasted his food before and it's quite good for what mounts to a budget of 3 credits for our whole group. As an added bonus, he also makes for a good janitor too. Not only that, Sam is a highly experienced veteran in combating slavery and trafficking from his 30 plus years of it. Sam also has vast experience in running radical groups and movements for some 40 or some years as well.” - Evaluation Paper on Sam Waltz Bridge
History: “Sam has an interesting upbringing to say the least. He was born on the planet of Rows, just a few years before the Reaper Wars. His parents were killed in the aftermath of the conflict, and got adopted by Amelie Atkinson and Tel'no T'reava. At the age of 19, Sam was captured in a slave-raid while in transit to one of the Systems Alliance world repopulation programs out in the Terminus Sector. For 5-years, Sam labored under various different masters, traded and sold off every so often. Sam, as noted in his early interviews, did have a romantic and sexual relationship with a Quarian male named Zaator'Teerul vas Jeedir, who later died in the service of the Terminus Black Army, an organization I will explain shortly.
He would have either died as a slave or likewise, but he got lucky. The Terminus Black Army, an anarcho-communist anti-slave militia, freed him on a small trade station. From there, Sam joined the Black Army, and aided them in their anti-slavery operations in the Terminus Sector for some 10 years, before the Systems Alliance caught him and mistaken him as a slaver himself. It didn’t take long for the Systems Alliance to realize their mistake. In an odd turn of events, the local Systems Alliance Marine Colonel offered Sam to join their ranks and help them in combating slave raids back in the core systems of the Alliance. Without much choice, Sam joined. For the next 16 years, Sam served as an anti-slave operator at the Local, Shanxi, and Skyllian Clusters. Sam, feeling dissatisfied with the Alliance military as a whole, joined the Democratic Military Movement with other disgruntled veterans. Their demands? Collective bargaining for soldiers, an end to censorship and intimidation within the military, the stopping and abolition of mental and physical cruelty in military brigs, correctional custodies, and basic training, higher wages equal to the federal standard, end of glorification of war, abolition of court-martial and non-judicial punishment systems, among a massive list of other demands. In short time, Sam became a vocal speaker for the Movement, and also quickly became forcibly discharged from the military. This would be the start of Sam's political career.
In an effort to silence the man, the Alliance military canceled all benefits to Sam as a veteran and marked him on a blacklist. Inturn, Sam became starved of financial support and was forced to take on multiple jobs to ensure a basic living. Early on, Sam took plenty of odd jobs to support himself. Noted by Sam himself, he took on culinary jobs primarily and quickly picked up his cooking skills from there. He also earned an affinity for cleaning as a janitor too, something that resulted from his time as a dish and mop-cleaner in kitchens before he was allowed to take more serious culinary duties. In between his jobs, Sam heavily involved himself in the Systems Alliance Socialist Party and the Democratic Military Movement, advocating for radical policies against current mainstream discussion. Later, Sam became known for his anti-Cerberus speeches and aggressive rhetoric against human supremacists and the Alliance military on the Extranet and more commonly out in public affairs. Generated credits from his new found exploits in the political realm allowed Sam to pursue his own programs, most famous is his War on Poverty Society that gave the poor and homeless, free homes, food, water, and the comforts of modern life for free. Back on his home planet of Rows, Sam built the Bridge Orphanage, primarily taking in alien children and housing alien refugees.
At the age of 85, Sam left his position of power to better fit younger candidates, but Bridge Orphanage was still managed by Sam himself. C-Sec provided Sam with a more stable income and better safety overall against the Alliance military aggressive stand against him. Sam applied for C-Sec and quickly became a senior officer in anti-trafficking operations, and he would use his paid vacations to advocate for his beliefs. As of now, we have reason to believe that he is on the planet of Rows, which is currently engulfed in a civil war.” - Psychologist Adam Will.
Position: N/A (until recruited)
Recruited: Yes
Inventory & Logistics: Terminus Black Army Flag, a psychical music disc labeled as “Mother Anarchy Loves Her Sons,” Photos of Amelie Atkinson and Tel'no T'reava, Pictures of Bridge Orphanage and his own kids.
Notoriety: “Sam has a large footprint behind him. First, he was a slave captured in a raid at a young age. He worked until an anti-slave militia freed him. Sam then joined this anti-slave militia and began his exploits as a freedom fighter in the Terminus system. He was captured as a POW by the Systems Alliance, mistaken as a slaver himself. Sam, for one reason or another, joined the Marines on his merits of his former job as an anti-slave operator, and helped to resist various slave raids on stations and planets. Later, Sam opted out of the military to pursue a political life in the Systems Alliance Socialist Party. Using his funds, Sam formed the War on Poverty Society and quickly became a heavy anti-cerberus demonstrator and speaker. He even opened and ran an orphanage that still stands today. Sam then left his position of power to a younger candidate and joined C-Sec. Sam used his paid vacations to take visits to his orphanage on the planet of Rows.” - Unknown Extranet User Post. (Notoriety 7)
This is done with an in-character dossier of information readily available about your character in mind, in addition to that which they are willing to disclose to those hiring them for the mission. Anything you do not want visible to the public please PM to me.
Full name: Urdnot ‘Urd’ Shephurd
Race: Krogan
Citizenship: Main Krogan Space. Proudly.
Aliases: N/A
Age: 30
Sex: Male
Psych. Eval.:
Urd desperately wants to be a hero. Not just any hero, but a hero equal to the one his name comes from and the other legends that surrounded his namesake. Feeding into this desperate need he completely believes that he is destined for greatness and that because he is a grandson of Urdnot Wrex and a descendant of Shiagur (Note: Neither are particularly unique things for a Krogan to be) he will become one of the greatest heroes the universe has ever seen. Knowing what he is destined to become, he strives to emulate the characteristics he sees in other legendary heroes. He is boisterous, loyal to his companions, merciless to his enemies, proud, and driven. He is also a very open individual. While refreshing when compared to some of the other potential candidates for the Spectre program, Urd’s tendency to talk and tell tales when reminded of them has derailed the evaluation multiple times and forced it to be paused to be put back on track.
(Note: This was not entirely a bad thing. Urd seems to be a natural born storyteller, and what stories he chooses to tell, be they myths or events he has heard of or tales of his own exploits, revealed a great deal about him)
Both a typical Krogan and in his own eyes a peerless survivor, arrogance oozes off of Urd in droves. He knows that he survived his Rite of Passage because of his genetics. He is assured that he survived the biotic surgery because of his will. He is certain that his survival during the Neo-Krogan Wars and as a prisoner of war to Clan Urak are not because of luck, that his own skills and innate talents allowed him to be stronger than whatever tried to kill him.
Urd has supreme self-confidence to the point that the idea of total failure, not just setbacks on his way to the ultimate goal but actual complete failure with no chance of ever succeeding, is a foreign one to him. When pressed on the idea that he might totally fail at some point in his life, he looked confused and then laughed. “Impossible!” Further attempts to press him on the matter were met with the same easy dismissal. Urd simply refuses to imagine failing at his ultimate goals. He might be delayed, but he will never truly fail. This allows him to bounce back from defeats with surprising vigour, but it remains to be seen what he will do if he ever has to face a total defeat.
In spite of his arrogance and his emulation of heroes that were all potent leaders in their own right, Urd has no desire to be a leader. He is content being responsible for himself and his own destiny and does not want to bear the weight of others on his shoulders. When the subject was brought up he laughed again. “I’m no leader. Too much work being responsible for others and their needs. I must focus on my destiny, and my legacy.”
Urd has a very large competitive streak, an innate need to one up and meet any challengers or challenges he comes across. Be they real or perceived. He is constantly pushing himself to go past previous limits and make himself stronger, faster, or more knowledgeable.
The only time Urd’s cheerful, easy-going, and boisterous demeanor slipped is when the conversation turned to the Neo-Krogan war. To say that he hates the Tank-Born Krogan and the Rebels would be an understatement. Urd despises them. He loathes them with all of his being. In his eyes the Rebels are cowards who were unable to face the fact that times had changed and the Krogan needed to change with them, and the Tank-Born are monstrosities that should have never been. It does not seem that this hatred of the Tank-Born stems from insecurities. Urd genuinely believes that the Tank-Born are inferior, purely because of how they were made and how they act. In his mind, without struggling and earning their strength they are like a brittle rock. Once exposed to enough heat, they’ll simply shatter.
When it was brought up that one of the heroes he idolizes so much, Grunt, was a Tank-Bred Urd met the question with some confusion. “Grunt is different. Grunt was raised by Shepard and Wrex. He’s not like the tubes.” (Note: Short for ‘Test tubes’. A derogatory term for Tank-Bred Krogan, similar to tankies) All attempts to equalize Grunt with Urd’s hated foes were met with similar dismissal.
Despite his going to considerable lengths to hide it, the emotion that forms the base of Urd’s psychology and motivations is fear. Fear of ignominy. Fear of being doomed to a life of anonymity and being average. Fear of failure. Fear of death. Fear drives Urd far more than he will ever admit. He hides it behind all the other emotions, but it is always there tingeing his actions and his thoughts.
During the evaluation it was discovered that Urd is highly superstitious and has certain rituals he relies on to bring him good luck. A Varren plushie (known as Ara), discovered after his escape from captivity, is almost always on his person. He can be seen frequently rubbing or touching it for luck (and comfort, but he will not admit that). He doesn’t know where it came from, just that he found it in the chaos of his escape and it has brought him good luck and ever since. He is incredibly protective of the plushie, but indifferent to any mocking about his carrying of it.
Before battle he will kneel and trace a pattern in the ground, while he quietly mutters one word over and over again. Korbal (Note: Roughly translated to mean Victory or Death.) He is almost entirely unresponsive during this brief period.
When asked about these, Urd explained that the word was the chant the crowd would start up before his fights as a gladiator. The pattern he traces is the symbol for Clan Urdnot. He claims these actions center him. When facing a new enemy, the symbol changes from Clan Urdnot to a Krogan word for honor, though the chant remains unchanged. He calls this his Rite of Firsts (Note: A much longer one is done if he is given enough notice beforehand that they will be facing a new enemy. It involves a prayer to his ancestors to grant him and his foe honor in the upcoming battle and that he will be victorious over the new challengers ahead)
His rituals continue even after missions are completed. After every mission Urd insists upon being the one to meticulously clean and repair his equipment. Nominally this just appears to be a soldier keeping his self-reliance, but Urd does this immediately after the mission has concluded and he is back at whatever happens to be home base. Disruption of this procedure leads to anxiety and nervousness. Any attempts to have someone else take care of those actions were met with aggressive resistance.
Urd has a fear of the dark. While he will never admit it, claiming any nervousness and fear that he showed had been excitement that was misinterpreted, and that any sensors that showed biological responses of fear were faulty, his experiences with night combat and as a slave have left a mark. Whenever he rests, his drone is always set to watch over him with a soft glow. During missions that require no lights the interior of his helmet will be softly lit, blocked out by shading on the exterior.
Urd greatly enjoys working on vehicles, ships, armor, and weaponry. The process gives him a sense of accomplishment and a practical goal to work toward, and the challenges they present appeal to his aforementioned competitive nature. It is possibly the second most excited he was during the evaluation (behind only when talking about Varrens and Kakliosaurs. In particular his Varrens and his Kakliosaur. Urd loves the creatures) and evident that he could go on for hours talking about all the mechanical processes of whatever you put before him. VI and AI he was less excited to discuss, as their construction and functions mostly confuse him and as such he works very little on those. He has a great preference for hardware over software.
As he idolizes his grandfather and Grunt, Urd’s approach to the Blood Rage all Krogan are famous for is similar. He views it as an incredibly dangerous, but useful, tool. Something only to be let loose when nothing else will work. He looks down on those Krogans who let themselves be ruled by their Blood Rage, slipping into it almost as soon as the fight begins.
As mentioned at the beginning of the evaluation, Urd has an almost obsessive desire to be a hero. This is his primary motivation for joining the mission and because of this he will go to any length to ensure that the mission succeeds.
Phys. Eval.: Urd is massive, even by Krogan standards. Standing at 9ft 6in (2.89m) at the hump and weighing at 749lbs (340kg) of pure muscle.. He is a striking figure, and finds his greatest source of pride in his large hump. He claims that it comes from grandfather Wrex and his ancestor Shiagur.
(Note: An accurate estimate of Wrex’s size and weight were impossible to gain, though self-estimations garnered from Wrex himself put his height at 8ft tall and weight at 800 pounds. Almost certainly exaggeration. No information about Shiagur’s height and build were found. It is unlikely that they are where Urd’s prodigious size comes from. Both his mother, his father and their relatives, however, were all found to be above average size for a Krogan.)
With his headplate fully solidified and his growth done, Urd is a fully mature Krogan and is in his prime. His great physical strength alone will be of great use to the mission, and his endurance with his natural Krogan regeneration will be nearly unmatched.
Biotics: After surviving the surgery to grant him biotic powers, Urd is a very powerful biotic. He focuses mainly on using it as a weapon and to increase his own strength even further, but has picked up a few standard tricks as he learned to control his newfound powers.
Qualifications: A veteran of both the new Rachni Wars and the Neo-Krogan wars, a survivor of the brutal slave fights of Clan Urak, a skilled mechanic, and a powerful biotic talent Urd is an experienced soldier and capable of adapting to nearly any situation thrown at him and coming out on top. Combined with his willingness to accept the orders of almost anyone on board the ship and work with whomever he is required to, his dirt cheap service, and his willingness to do anything to see that the mission is complete Urd makes an incredibly useful tool in the hands of the new Spectre Program.
History:
(Note: Due to the rather poor record keeping of the Loyalist Krogan clans, we have no way of verifying anything of Urd’s early life, and little way of verifying his history before joining the mission. What follows is his account. Given his penchant for exaggeration, some of these events should be taken with a dose of skepticism. What we can verify will be noted as such.)
”Ah, so you want to know my history before I got embroiled in the war? Of course you do. Damn thorough process this evaluation. Don’t know why I have to go through it, you already know you have the best damn Combat Engineer for the job. After all I’m…”
(Note: Here, Urd goes into a rather lengthy tangent about his ancestors, his merits, and his destiny of greatness. To save time, we have cut that part of the discussion out.)
Urd coughs, taking a drink of water. ”That’s better. As I was saying, the world I and my hundreds of brothers and sisters hatched into was a familiar one for the Krogan race: one of eternal war, fighting for survival. By the time my siblings and I were born the war against our ancient enemies the Rachni had been raging on for nine years, and those fucking cowards known as the Rebel Clans,”
Here, he goes to spit in disgust but pauses at seeing the glare from the attendant. He swallows sheepishly. This is not the first time he has done this, nor the first time he has been asked not too.
”Apologies. Those damned traitors had just made their move against my grandfather and the loyalist clans. We were now fighting a war on two fronts. Fortunately our formerly ancient enemies, the Turians and the Asari, and our tenuous allies, the Salarians, joined our cause to crush the rebellion. So, these wars were the wars that my family and I were expected to fight in. These were the wars that were all too excited to fight in. We were being trained for these wars as soon as we could throw a punch and hold a weapon. Standard Krogan Clan training. I won’t bore you with the details.
“What you will find of interest is that old habits die hard with the Krogan Loyalist Clans and every one of us was also being trained in a secondary role in society. A hold over from when the Genophage nearly wiped us out entirely so every Krogan was required to do at least one other job in addition to fighting. My siblings were taken under the wing of many different professions: some medics, others scientists, and still others were taken in by pilots.
“When my penchant for taking things apart and putting them together was discovered, I was taken under the tutelage of an Engineer. Not the role I really wanted. I wanted to learn how to breed and handle both Varren and Kakliosaurs. Amazing animals, those two species. I finally got my wish years later and have my own pack and Kakliosaur now…” (Note: Here, Urd goes into another lengthy tangent about Varren, Kakliosaurs, his respect for them as a species, his love for his pack and mount back on Tuchanka that he had raised, and how he should be allowed to bring his favorites, a Varren with a unique red and orange coloration known as Sparky and a large Kakliosaur named Grumpy,, aboard the Weiro. This tangent included a multitude of pictures on his Omni-tool of Sparky, her packmates, and Grumpy. To save time, we have once again cut that part from the evaluation)
”Sorry, I just get carried away talking about them. Where was I? Right, taken in by an engineer. Urdnot Barran. He’s an old Krogan. Veteran of the original Krogan Rebellions, so he’s seen all kinds of technology come and go and worked on damn near everything in the galaxy at one point. He taught me everything I needed to know about working on vehicles, ships, weapons, and armor. He even gave me a few pointers on how to modify and install a VI. They weren’t his forte though, and I don’t blame him. All that software stuff is gibberish.
“He was the one who helped coach me through my Rite of Passage as my father was busy fighting the Rebels. I was only five, filled with excitement and rage at the proposition of coming of age and fighting a Thresher Maw. It went smoothly, as you can obviously see. He was also the one who told me about the ancient surgery that made biotics. I had been complaining about how I wanted to be a biotic, to better serve the clan. He sarcastically informed me that if I was so eager to be special I might as well go and die trying to survive the surgery. But good luck finding someone who knew how to do it and would do it. I’d have to go to Omega to even have a chance, he said. He thought I wasn’t going to take him seriously, but he was wrong.
A group of 15 of my siblings and I all gathered together to go find someone in Omega who knew how to do it and would be willing to. We all knew the risks and we all desperately wanted to become stronger to aid the clan in the wars it was facing. It was a year before we were to be sent to battle the Rachni as a blooding so we knew we had plenty of time. We all got on the shuttle to Omega and off we went. Wasn’t difficult. We were still merely citizens then, and as such didn’t need to ask for permission.
“It took longer than we had thought it would. Months, actually. So many people tried to lie to us, to cheat us, to rob us, or just outright attack us. It was great! A truly wild place that we thrived in. The stories I could tell. But you want me to tell my early history. So I need to focus. We found an old Krogan, even older than Barran. His name was Grak. He didn’t give a clan name, which unsettled us far more than we liked to admit. But he was the real deal, so we gave him our credits and one by one underwent the surgery. I was the first. I had no worries, or fear. Why would I? I knew I would survive it. I am destined for greatness.”
(Note: An ancient Krogan going by the name of Grak and offering his services to make ‘any species a Biotic, credits up front’ has been verified as on Omega and what records we have gleaned match up with Urd’s timeline of meeting this individual)
“The pain was excruciating. To this day, the worst agony I have ever felt and it’s not even close. I don’t remember passing out. Just blinding, burning, pain and then waking up in the recovery room. Grak was covering the bodies of 14 of my brothers and sisters. Only my youngest sister, Urdnot Erva, had survived. We hugged each other out of relief, and looked to Grak. He smiled his disturbing grin and told us that we should be displaying our powers within 24 hours. We thanked him again, and took our siblings' bodies one by one and gave them a proper pyre burial. They had sacrificed everything for the clan, and deserved nothing less.
“Grak was right. Before the next day had dawned, Erva and I began displaying biotic powers. Reliable, powerful, biotics. You can imagine our excitement. The hotel room we had been renting was absolutely wrecked as we experimented with our powers. The next day we caught another shuttle back to Tuchanka. The Shaman was furious when he found out. The fact that we did something so dangerous and illegal, with the fact that it cost the lives of so many of our siblings enraged him. We were severely reprimanded. We were almost denied being sent to the war front as punishment. But due to the fact that two of us had succeeded, he didn’t go quite that far. We were still biotics, and still in need of some training. So Erva and I were put on the fast track to learn what we could before being sent to the war. Barran just shook his head and called me a fool for taking such a risk. ‘Like trusting a Salarian’s word’ he called it. He got over it though, and resumed by technical training soon after.
“A few months later I turned six, and was going to be shipped to the Rachni war. I had crafted my own Krogan Warhammer for the occasion. It was the pinnacle of Barran’s lessons and perfect for all of my uses. I was, and am still, damn proud of it. Erva and I were to be put into a joint squad with a Turian, an Asari, and a Salarian. Many of my siblings and hundreds of others of the clan were doing the same thing. A move to strengthen our relationship with the other nations, it was called. We all had our doubts, as many of our parents still vividly remembered when those three races were responsible for holding us down, but if that is what Wrex wanted that is what we would do. We were not traitors.
“Our doubts were unfounded. That squad Erva and I were a part of, known unofficially as Hammer Squad, was a damn good one. Our commander was the turian, one Jordera Kandid. An experienced commander. Took no shit and allowed none to be given. Always had our best interests in mind though. He’s an absolutely terrible singer who won’t recognize that he is a terrible singer. The Asari was our biotic muscle and second in command. Her name was Morissa Deris and she is simply filled with the joy of life. Despite her being several centuries older than all of us, she had more energy and vigor than any of us combined. A very good biotic teacher as well, helping Erva and I master our relatively newfound powers. The Salarian,Jolik Palka, was our marksman. Quiet, for a Salarian. Phenomenal shot though. Saved my ass more than once, not that I needed it mind you. I was the point man on the squad, the first to enter the fray and rip the bugs apart. Erva was heavy weapons, bringing the pain from a distance.
(Note: Due to the Turian, Asari, and Salarian habits of excellent record keeping we can confirm ‘Hammer Squad’ existed and the roster is accurate. They would spend four years battling the Rachni back before being shipped to the frontline of the Neo-Krogan Wars. Their record during this time is excellent, with Urd being noted for exceptional service and bravery. They are shipped to the Neo-Krogan wars due to their heavy Biotic talents in an attempt to counteract the sudden stream of seemingly endless biotic Tank-Breds. They will spend another ten years battling the Rebel Clans before an artillery strike will separate Urd from his squad and result in his capture by Clan Urak. Those ten years show a similar success as in the Rachni wars, though in the five years before Urd’s escape they will leave the military and become a mercenary unit known as Hammer Squad.)
”Ah, you already have solid details about the wars before my capture? Well, let me say this then. Fighting the bugs was tough, no doubt about that. There is no enemy out there like the Rachni. But fighting the tankies and their rebel friends was a whole different thresher maw entirely. Much more difficult. The bugs are smart, but they have a set pattern and strategies of attack that they stick too. Predictable. The Rebels adapt, change, and move on the fly. Throw in the fact that they are krogan? And you’ve got yourself a situation that will drag many to the Void.
“Regardless, you want to know about my time as a slave of Clan Urak, right?”
(Note: Clan Urak was a relatively small Clan of Krogan that, after losing the Rebellions to the Genophage, decided it was best to meet death head on rather than wait to slowly go extinct. Thus, in a similar fashion to the Quarians of that time, their entire Clan uprooted into a sufficiently large ship and became a large mercenary force. They found themselves working frequently with Batarians, and through their close relationship picked up many of the Batarian habits. The most extreme one was the capture and use of slaves for both entertainment and labor. While not scientifically advanced enough to successfully put in the Batarian Cranial Implants, Clan Urak found that shock collars worked just as well for their purposes. They were one of the first Clans to rebel against Urdnot Wrex, and quickly laid claim to a planet on the outskirts of terminus space as their own by right of conquest. It only has one city, but it would become known throughout the galaxy as a hub of slavery and gladiatorial games. This is the planet Urd will find himself on after being captured by Clan Urak.)
”After I woke up from being knocked out by the artillery strike, I found myself with a collar on and chained to a wall of a ship. Others were with me. Turians, Asari, other Krogan, the occasional Salarian. Other captured slaves. Try as I might I couldn’t break free from my chains. They had some sort of biotic damper on them and were designed for krogan strength. Another Krogan was walking down the line, loudly explaining to us that we were slaves of Clan Urak now and that our lives would be for their use and entertainment. When he got close enough I spat on him and he merely laughed, grinning at my resistance. “It will be fun watching you break” he crowed, leaning in. He leaned in to close and I slammed my head against his face. The surprise and pain on his face were satisfying. What wasn’t satisfying was the agonizing electricity he shot through me at the push of a button. He held it until I fell unconscious, laughing at my spasms. I never screamed. I refused to give him the pleasure.
“Due to my feistiness, I was immediately marked for the Arena on their unjustly gained planet. I would be a crowd favorite I was told. They loved loyalist krogans. Especially biotic ones. I should be honored, I was informed, because the couple of matches that I survive I’ll be cheered on by a screaming crowd and ‘praised more than I ever had been in my pathetic life’. For the short few weeks my life had left, I would have a good life.
“They were right about one thing. The crowd loved me. Being so close to the edge of the terminus systems it was always a mix. Batarians, rebel Krogan, Asari, Turians, humans, nearly everything and anything was there. I always knew what they wanted most in the fights. If they wanted brutal and fast carnage, I gave them that. If they wanted me to draw out my victory, make a show of it, I gave them that too. On the rare occasions they were feeling mercy, well I was the most merciful gladiator they had ever seen. I was a god, and that arena was my domain. For five hellish years, it was my domain.
“As much as I hate the Uraks, I have to admit that they did make a damn fine arena. Spacious and filled with weapons, with a mass effect shield to protect the crowd from any unruly gladiators. Biotic Dampers could be deployed at any time to end any biotics in the arena, and there was always the golden button at the side of the Head of Clan Urak should he need to activate the shock collar of every slave in the arena.
“Urak Varrk was his name. He was a bastard. No honor, no respect. Just a tyrant who revelled in bloody carnage that he never earned. He was big though, and powerful. It's why his clan followed him. No one could match him in battle and he had crushed any challenger. I always swore to kill him when I saw his face. Which was frequently, since he was one of the many who loved to watch my matches. On the rare few times he couldn’t be there his son, Urak Tarv, was watching in his stead. Almost as big and just as powerful, Tarv was his only surviving son since the rebellion began and the Genophage was reinstated on the Rebels. I hated his face too. It was even worse when they showed up together. Individually they were dangerous, but when they fought together? They were murderous.
“But they weren’t smart. Every night me and the other gladiators would plan our escape. They were wall hardened soldiers and killers, they had to be to survive as long as they had in the arena, and we all knew that if we ever got the chance to break free we would be able to steamroll over the guards they had. All the true fighters were off battling the Coalition. The only ones left here were the ones that Urak Varrk didn’t trust to battle on the frontlines. There were hundreds of us. We could very easily steal a shuttle off or get ourselves into a position to radio for help.
“An Asari, Daria Issa, and I were slowly working on a way to turn off our collars. She was a smart one, Daria. An engineer with two centuries of experience under her belt and decades of combat experience too boot. I don’t know how long it would’ve taken me to craft the device without her, but she immensely sped up the process and I will forever be in her debt for that.
“We had already found a weak point in the mass effect barrier, and destroying the biotic dampers would be no issue once we broke the barrier. Through the bits and pieces of tech and broken collars scavenged from dead gladiators, we managed to get something together. A small device that could overload the collar and free whomever was wearing it. But we had to be careful. If we struck too soon we would simply be stuck in the prisons below the arena. Too late and we would be cut down by reinforcements. We had to wait, and that was the worst part of my entire time there. Waiting, praying that we wouldn’t have to act too soon and hoping it would work as intended. Because if it didn’t, we’d be stuck down there for longer if not worse.
“Our opportunity came a couple months later, when it was announced that the majority of us would be fighting for some celebration. I think it was the anniversary of the Batarians first aligning with Clan Urak? I’m not sure. But the point was there would be enough of us to make our move. The final, climatic battle of the festival would be ‘army’ vs ‘army’. They’d put a large group of us together and pit us against a mix of varren, robots, and other slaves. We freed ourselves before being let out. The collars were now just cold steel, useless for controlling us. Unfortunately, as we walked out, neither Varrk nor his son was there. Out on some other battlefield, most likely.
“The battle itself wasn’t too difficult. The other slaves were malnourished, the Varren mistreated, and the robots were rusting apart at the seams. We could’ve made short work of it but agreed to give them a show. They’d appreciate it, one last time. After the battle, we stood in the center of the arena and listened to the cheering roars of the crowd.
“Then I roared ‘NOW!’ and Charged through the weak point in the mass effect shield. It shattered like broken glass, suddenly leaving the crowd and the guards with no protection against hundreds of angry slaves. Before the guards could react I Charged into another one, knocking him to the ground before he could lift his rifle. My limbs began to glow with biotic power as I lifted my foot and crushed his skull beneath it, splattering it like a Pyjak beneath a Tomkah wheel.
“I began to hear screams as I picked up his rifle and fired upon the next guard. The crowd was beginning to panic as we set about taking our vengeance. The guards put up what fight they could, but it wasn’t enough. Soon we had taken the arena and a full blown slave rebellion was on their hands. We freed all the ones we came across and massacred everyone else. Not knowing how much time we had before the real soldiers came back to bring order, we headed to the armoury. There we would find the much needed arms and armor to fight off whatever counter attack came, and we would be able to start sending out messages to hopefully gain the aid of the Coalition to extract us if not retake the planet entirely.
“We took the armoury with little trouble and began arming ourselves as Daria started setting up the radio to broadcast for help. The armoury was a very defensible position and with our skills we could hold out there as long as we had strength. The guards that were left in the city didn’t attempt to retake it, still reeling from the riots and chaos happening from the slave rebellion. Daria picked up their distress calls and responses from the Clan Urak armies. Including Urak Varrk himself. Through a long series of cussing and raging, we gathered he and his son would be coming to restore order within the next two days.
“Daria managed to get a Coalition Krogan cruiser on the line and explain the situation. Help was promised to arrive within a week. With the city reeling and a large force of fighters available, it was too good of an opportunity for the Coalition to pass up. All we had to do was hold on long enough for them to show up.
“I found heavy armor, a striker, a knife, and a warhammer, and geared myself up for battle. Varrk would be coming with his son, and neither of them would be holding anything back in their fury. We could feel their arrival like a cold wind as the ship touched down. The Clan Urak military stomped into the fiery anarchy of the city and attempted to restore order. It was a battle though. Hundreds of slaves were freed and had armed themselves, and urban fighting was always going to be nasty. Varrk and Tarv, with their personal guard surrounded us, and demanded that we come out. We would be shown mercy if we didn’t make them go in there and drag us out. They even offered clemency to anyone who would give up the leader of the rebellion. Me, namely.
“We responded with gunfire. The next few days I can only remember as a chaotic blur as the city descended into ever more chaos and we exchanged gunfire and explosives with Varrk and his forces. Thank the ancestors they couldn’t afford to send a ship to just destroy us from orbit. That was the only thing that made that a fight. Every day the Coalition forces informed us they were growing closer, that they would be there soon. Every day we counted more of our dead and grimly hoped that they would arrive soon.
“Finally, Varrk grew impatient and threw down a challenge. Anyone who could defeat him in one on one combat had his word that no one in his clan would harm them or any of the slaves left in the armoury. We would be allowed to live. But, if he won, we would have to go back to being slaves. Quietly.
“I, of course, answered the call. Not because I believed that Tarv or any of the other Uraks would honor Varrk’s promise, or that Varrk even intended to try and make them keep his promise, but because there was the chance that seeing me kill their leader would shatter their morale and cause them to break. Plus, if nothing else, killing that pyjak would bring me great joy.
“I walked out, hammer in hand. Varrk laughed, drawing his own Warhammer. ‘So the child thinks he can take me on? Excellent. Killing you will remind the slaves that they are only chaff, and do not deserve their freedom.’ I raised my hammer and pointed it at him. ‘I’m going to kill you. And before this is done, you will be begging for forgiveness and your life.’ He bared his teeth in a snarl at me. ‘We’ll see about that, boy.’
“Our initial clash shook the very ground. My biotic charge slammed into him as he sprinted towards me at full speed. Varrk was a large Krogan, almost as big as I was, and took it far better than I expected. He dug his feet in, slid back a few inches and swung his hammer upward in an arc that caught my jaw and sent me stumbling back. Before I even had a moment to react the hammer was swinging down at me, and I just barely rolled out of the way. My own counter swing hit him in the side as he tried to advance and bring the hammer down on my head. I heard the grunt of pain and Charged again, this time into the bottom of his chin. His head snapped back and he was lifted off of the ground.
“When he fell back to it, the only sounds were the cheering from my side and the silence from his. I strode forward, hammer lifted high to beat him further into the ground when he suddenly leapt to his feet with a terrifying roar. His eyes were mindless with the Blood Rage and he set upon me like a frenzied beast.
“Blow after blow shook and stunned me. I blocked what I could but he was overpoweringly strong, seemingly tireless and fast. More and more hits began to get in, and he was beating me back towards the armoury. I could hear his soldiers chanting his name louder and louder.
“‘Varrk! Varrk! Varrk! VARRK!’
“I misjudged what was needed to counter his final attack and with a resounding crack, he broke my arm and threw me to the ground. He let out another bestial roar, bringing the hammer down on my back. Once, twice. Slamming me into the ground, seemingly intent to smash me into a pulp. He kicked me in my ribs to turn me over, and as I felt some of them break I finally snapped.
“The sweet sweet rage I had been letting build for years finally filled my veins, and just like that my pain was gone. There was nothing. No pain. No exhaustion. No thoughts aside from one thing: destroy my enemy.
“I Charged him again, leaving my warhammer on the ground. He choked mid-roar as my head rocketed into his, sending him stumbling back. Screaming in my own fury I leapt up and crashed a Nova into his head like a meteor into a planet. He fell to his knees. I grabbed his warhammer and held his hands around it, pulling it up so he could face me. Then I headbutted him. Wham! He tried to jerk back but was stuck in place, holding onto his weapon. I headbutted him again. Slam! He jerked back once more, and tried to let go of the hammer but I held his hands tightly around it. I headbutted him again. And again. And again. Biotic power filled my limbs and I felt no pain as I began to crack his helmet. Red mist was covering my eyes and all I could think of was causing him pain as I slammed my head into his over and over again. I have no idea how long it went on. Just the steady slam of my head into his, breaking his helmet. Finally I let go of his hands and he stumbled backwards, dazed.
“I took his warhammer and with a powerful swing, shattered his helmet and sent him flying to the ground once more. I broke the warhammer over my knee and approached as he attempted to crawl back to his feet. I kicked him back to the ground with a snarl and ripped his helmet off, drawing my knife. One foot on his back, I roared to Clan Urak as they watched. “ ‘I AM URDNOT SHEPURD’ I yanked Varrk’s dazed head upwards. ‘IT MEANS HERO!’ He screamed as I slammed the knife just in front of his headplate. He was babbling and begging at that point, but I did not listen.He had earned this. ‘I’LL KILL YOU!’ There was a horrific screech as I ripped his plate from his skull. ‘ALL OF YOU!’ I shoved the knife into Varrk’s head, killing him. ‘WHO’S NEXT!?’
“Tarv tried to run at me, absolute fury and hatred in his eyes, but was dragged back on the ship by his men. They were running. ‘COWARDS!’ I roared at them, throwing the knife. ‘YOU’RE ALL COWARDS!’ I wasn’t aware that the Coalition fleet had arrived, and the reconquest of the planet had begun. Clan Urak was outnumbered and fleeing, living to fight another day. Tarv only stared at me, hate burning in his eyes, as he was dragged onto the ship.
“I’m not sure the exact moment I passed out, but when I woke next I was with Daria on a Coalition ship, heading for Tuchanka. After recovering from my wounds I decided to find Hammer Squad again, or at least attempt to. I had gotten my fill of battling those fucking rebels and tankies, and if I never see one again it’ll be too soon. I had heard my old squad was mercing around Omega so I got a shuttle and went into the Terminus systems and the Omegan Empire. Never found them, but you people did find me. And I am more than happy to seize my destiny and help you.”
(Note: The event known as the Uprising on the Slave Planet is documented by the Coalition fleet that arrived there and interviewed the survivors. Urd’s involvement is mentioned frequently as an essential part of the Uprising, even if his version of events is more dramatized and exaggerated. He did not duel Urak Varrk for the fate of his fellow slaves, but he did kill the Warlord in combat during the last battle of the Uprising, for example. A Coalition soldier leading an Uprising to kill one of the Warlords of the Rebel Clans is a moral boosting event, and as such the events have been utilized for propaganda. After recovering from his wounds, he would go on to be a mercenary for the last five years. Searching for Hammer Squad he would complete a number of missions and contracts to his employers great praise, which is what first brought our attention to him. Upon contacting him and explaining the situation, he eagerly agreed to work for us for far below his normal rates provided we give him the chance to quote ‘seize his destiny’.)
Position: Primarily: Point man for squad. Secondarily: Engineer.
Electric Krogan Warhammer (Note: This is Urd’s personal Warhammer, crafted by his own hands.He has modified it to gather and expend electricity, and is very proud of it.)
Combat Drone, fondly named Ruzad. Urd has modified it to fire assault rifle bullets and Ballistic Blades. It is far more rugged and crass than your average combat drone, with a larger chassis and motor and more reliance on armor than omni-shields.
Heavy Hazard Armor (Note: Contains built in Tech-Armor that Urd has modified to have omni-blades protruding from it. Inspired by Batarian Blade armor.)
Varren Plushie (Ara)
Special requests: Ryncol, permission to bring aboard a pet Varren (note: Urd has been repeatedly denied this request and repeatedly puts it back in), feed for said Varren (note: also denied), Permission to bring one or more Kakliosaurs aboard (note: denied along with the Varren, but he keeps putting it back in with the Varren), supplies for the Kakliosaurs (note: denied as well), M-920 Cain, Cain Trip Mines, M-452 Firestorm, Inferno Grenades, Cluster Grenades, Chemical Rounds, Inferno Rounds, Krogan Tomkah, N7 Typhoon, Heavy Colossus Armor, and various gun and armor mods.
Notoriety: 6. Among his clan and others of the Loyalist Krogan Urd is well known for his actions during the Neo-Krogan war and his rebellion against Clan Urak, and stories of it and his actions on the planet have been spread to other forces outside of the Loyalist Clans as moral boosting propaganda. (Primarily the Turians, Asari, and Salarians)
Misc.: Urd has chosen the quarters closest to the vehicle bay of the ship. The quarters themselves are fairly utilitarian. He has a work table set up in his room, a Varren sized bed (still hoping to bring on his pet), a computer, a peg wall for his weapons and armor, and a krogan sized cot.
The only ornamentation he has is a broken Krogan Warhammer hilt and a shattered Krogan helmet (Note: Warlord design), hanging on the wall. The symbol for Clan Urak adorns the side of the helmet.
-Urd likes plants. He is bad at caring for them, however. It doesn't stop him from trying, so frequently his room will have dead or dying plants in it, as he searches the galaxy for a plant that can survive with his level of accidental neglect.
Obviously very much WIP - some sections are not even begun, but it's late, so I'll post what I have for now. Feel free to give feedback, but everything is potentially subject to change at this point.
Edit: Missing recruitment info. Needs to be gone over and corrected/adjusted.
Edit 3: Barring any changes requested from GMs, I'm declaring this character finished.
Edit 4: Changes requested from GM now implemented ;)
Full name: Azulethan ‘Zul’ Ledanari
Race: Turian
Citizenship: Turian
Aliases: Mostly goes by Zul, when not being called an expletive by other Turians. These expletives often include ‘Bareface’ due to his faded face tattoo.
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Psych. Eval.: The typical Turian love of rules, hierarchy, and camaraderie is offset in Zul by his long time status as an outcast from Turian society. He is at once driven by a deep need to prove himself and his family honourable in the eyes of Turian society and a deep mistrust of and resentment towards that same society for the way they have treated his family. Zul seems to be searching for a place to belong, to contribute, but has a very hard time believing that such a place can be found. While he is often fairly calm and collected, he can be prone to outbursts of anger – especially if his competency is somehow questioned.
Questioning Zul’s former commanding officers was a difficult prospect, as they all seem to have extreme biases against him, to the point that it soon became apparent that either he was the devil reincarnate, or something else was going on (please refer to history section). Reading between the lines, we believe that Zul will follow any direct order without question, but will often make broad interpretations of said orders and improvise heavily. The fact that he is still alive – after what seems to be 15 years of commanding officers more or less overtly trying to get him killed through his assignments – seems to indicate that it is advisable to allow such improvisation to an extent, even if it should probably not be directly encouraged.
Zul seems highly patient and methodical when in the service of a specific goal, but can be a bit restless during downtime. He does not seem to have many interests beyond training, maintaining his equipment, and playing his so’la (a Turian analogue to the human trumpet). Care should be taken in his integration into the team, as he is very conditioned to be a loner at this point and has an understandable distrust of authority figures.
Zul is not forthcoming in his motivations for joining the mission. We believe that he may have joined C-Sec to gain protection from enemies created during his mercenary days. As for why he applied to join this particular mission, he may be looking to make a mark on the galaxy big enough that even the scorn of his own race can no longer dampen his accomplishments – or he may simply have been bored, we are unsure.
Phys. Eval.: At 1.8 meters Zul is a bit short for a Turian. He is very lean despite being muscular, weighing in at approximately 100 kilos. His carapace is very light grey in colour and his face displays a very faded blue version of the characteristic Turian colony tattoos. The fading is supposedly the result of fellow students at his academy attempting to disgrace Zul further by removing his tattoo. His physical capabilities, while certainly above his species’ average, are fairly unremarkable aside from extremely quick reflexes.
No known medical issues or complications.
Biotics: None
Qualifications: Zul is reasonably well educated, having had access to excellent tutors in early life. He is also an excellent marksman, a fair hacker, and a quite competent musician.
His mercenary days gave him a fairly large network of contacts across much of known space. Along with those of his father’s diplomatic contacts who are still willing to speak to him – mostly the non-Turians – Zul probably knows someone in most major travel and trade hubs. Whether or not that person is inclined to help or shoot him is another matter.
Zul has a very impressive list of accomplishments from his time in the Turian military and an equally impressive list of commanding officers who will swear that it was all blind luck and that he is actually the worst soldier to have ever disgraced the Turian military. During his time as a mercenary, Zul only added to his list of accomplishments, this time while being paid increasingly well for his services. He has a history of being able to accomplish almost any given objective – though often not in the way you meant or expected him to do so.
History: The son of Aelia Ledanari, a well-respected general, and the famous diplomat Querris Ledanari, there were great expectations set for Zul and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the young Turian would distinguish himself in some way too. His early life was spent in the heart of Palaven high society, learning all that he could from the very best tutors and trainers his parents could find. Once the Neo-Krogan Wars began, both of his parents became involved in the Turian response to the crisis, and Zul spent more time with his tutors and less with his parents. Still life was pretty good. Young Zul quickly showed an aptitude for problem solving as well as becoming an excellent marksman.
When Zul was 13, his father, Querris, brought him on a diplomatic mission to meet with some representatives of a minor Krogan rebel clan. The diplomat had been trying to negotiate a peace agreement with this particular clan in an attempt to set an example which could then be followed by other clans. This was the latest in a long line of meetings which had so far seemed promising and there was every reason to think it would be safe for the young Turian to have his first taste of interplanetary diplomacy. What no one had expected was the merciless reaction of Fortack, who did not appreciate what he perceived as treachery. The meeting was attacked by Krogan shock-troopers who operated with extreme prejudice. Few captives were taken from the meeting, including Zul, his father, and Nihlus Serio – one of Querris’ aides.
Very little is known of the two Turians’ time as prisoners. Zul refuses to talk about it, and it is no longer possible to question Querris. The little information Zul has been willing to give seems to suggest that he was kept isolated in a single room with Nihlus and was only very rarely permitted to see his father. Querris, meanwhile, is said to have been interrogated in quite a heavy-handed manner about Turian tactics, troop placements, the reborn genophage and more.
One day, the father and son turned up, without warning, at a Turian outpost. The soldiers at the outpost were quite astonished, as they had been assumed dead, and were now somehow flying a small a small Krogan spacecraft. According to Querris, Nihlus had perished while the three Turians attempted to escape – we have been unable to verify this.
The pair returned to sad news. Zul’s mother, Aelia, led a battle against one of Fortack’s clans. The battle had ended in absolute disaster, and cost almost an entire Turian battlefleet along with the lives of Aelia and hundreds of soldiers. Since the incident, there had been consistent rumours that Aelia had been somehow blackmailed into losing the battle. These rumours now came back in full force, as the live return of her mate and child gave credence to the Krogan rebels having had a hold over the general. While the two survivors mourned the loss of their wife and mother and tried to ignore public opinion increasingly turning against the deceased general, something else was underway.
Querris was put on trial, on suspicion of having given confidential military information to the Krogan rebels, as well as supplying them with information on how to find research on the genophage. Both of which he might have had access to, being a high-level diplomat and married to a general. It was assumed by many that he had given this information in exchange for being set free with his son. Querris repeatedly denied the accusations, but being unable or unwilling to adequately explain just how they had managed to escape a highly secure Krogan facility did not exactly help his case. One day, without explanation, Querris suddenly admitted to giving up information about the genophage to the Krogan rebels – something which Zul is still denying to this day, but has been unwilling to give further details on. The diplomat was eventually executed for treason against the Turian Hierarchy. Zul was now without parents and with a cloud of suspicion hanging over him. (it was during Querris’ trial that other students at the academy Zul was attending tried to remove his face tattoo.)
It was under this cloud that the young Turian, now 15, entered the mandatory Turian military service. Here he quickly learned that the idea of Turian society being based on personal merit did not extend to children of convicted war criminals whose mothers were rumoured to be the cause of hundreds of dead soldiers. From the very first day, he was despised by the majority of his peers, discriminated heavily against by the officers, and ignored by most others. Ironically, being worked harder than anyone else during training and often given punishments such as running or completing some drill 100 times, may well be part of the reason that Zul is still alive. After training Zul was passed around from squad to squad much more than is normal in Turian military service. He was consistently sent on deployments or missions which were probably far above his level of experience, often equipped with substandard gear and on rare occasions, even his requests for back-up were ignored. The fact that he is still alive speaks to either supernatural luck, or an extreme ability to improvise and adapt to whatever his situation called for.
At the age of 30, somehow still alive, Zul’s mandatory military service ended. It is doubtful that he even for a second considered staying, and even more doubtful that he would have been allowed to do so. Zul had an impressive list of accomplishments – having often been sent on the most difficult missions – and not many prospects of making something of himself in Turian society. So he left. Working as a mercenary seemingly anywhere he could find work. He seems to have had some standards – not taking contracts involving slavers or actively working to undermine society or fighting authorities – but was otherwise not at all picky in the contracts he accepted, so long as they could afford his steadily climbing rates.
About two years ago, Zul took a contract from a Batarian business consortium. The contract involved procuring a formula for a newly invented polymer from a Salarian bio-tech company. Supposedly to ‘even out the competition’. It was when he was scoping out the laboratory in question that Zul came to the attention of C-Sec Commander Raelon Nom who was doing the same, if for different reasons. Raelon warned Zul to back off and cancel the contract he had. Zul did not listen. Fast forward 12 hours, Raelon and Zul are standing on the lab floor, guns aimed at each other, Zul with a briefcase in hand. Raelon just manages to inform Zul that he is really holding an advanced bio-weapon before the Batarians – who as is turns out are a ‘business’ consortium – bust down the door, having become impatient. Zul and Raelon ended up fighting their way out together, Zul supposedly saving Raelon’s life on the way. Raelon walked away with the weapon, Zul with a conveniently grateful new contact in C-Sec.
For the next year or so, Zul took on quite a lot of C-Sec contract work through his new acquaintance. When the Batarians came back for revenge, Raelon managed to convince Zul to join C-Sec proper for protection. No one can argue with the results obtained through the young Turian’s work during his year in C-Sec even if there have been arguments over his methods from time to time. When calls went out to find qualified people for the mission, Raelon recommended Zul.
Position: Infiltration Specialist
Recruited: No
Inventory & Logistics: Wears a modified even lighter version of the Phantom Light Armour – allowing him to be stealthy when needed. Aside from giving moderate protection, the armour is outfitted with moderately advanced hacking tools and a personal cloaking device. The latter of which can only be used in short intervals due to power consumption.
Carries dual Raikou pistols which are heavily modified for silence and improved accuracy at the cost of less raw firepower, as well as an Omni-Blade for close combat.
Has consistent requests on file with the quartermaster for spare weapon parts, sheet music and brass instrument lubricant – which he seems to be using for his guns as well as his instrument.
Note: While Zul certainly prefers his own equipment, he has demonstrated a talent for improvising with whatever is at hand, probably born of being consistently under-equipped by begrudging Turian military outfitters.
Notoriety: Generally: 6 – In the four years since leaving Turian military service, Zul has made a name for himself as someone who can get almost anything done, for a price. He has also managed to impress and/or piss off an astounding number of people. Among Turians: 8 – The combination of an infamous family, his unusually light colouring and characteristic faded face tattoo leaves him easily recognized and widely despised among his own people.
Misc.: Zul keeps his quarters very spartan, but can often be heard playing his instrument. While he is a competent player, this should probably be considered when assigning quarters.
Aliases: C-SEC believes that she is the anonymous member of HAZE identified as "Mojo". Either way she just prefers her actual name, though she insists "Seeno is fine if you're in a hurry".
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Psych. Eval.: "My initial cursory examination was promising. While certainly lacking in experience compared to our other candidates, she's clearly intelligent, detail-oriented, and shows a remarkable aptitude for thinking on her feet. The few contacts we have with her superiors has confirmed this, and I think she'll work exceptionally well with a team. An expected observation considering her selection for this program.
What surprised me was how forthcoming she was during our direct sessions. The Drell I've interviewed before tend to be withdrawn and difficult to get straight answers from, but Osino was more then happy to engage me in long conversations and diatribes, not just about her past and the information I needed but her various hobbies, likes, and dislikes. Even in my passive observations she seemed interested in engaging me in conversation about whatever happened to be on her mind at the time. I suspect she may have been aware of my intent to analyze her psychological makeup. Either that or she was more interested in flirting with my secretary Ceritea.
Despite her apparent openness, it's difficult to get a read on her. She's not spiritual as far as I can tell, fairly common among Drell her age, but she's incredibly passionate about her beliefs and has a strong moral code. She's just as likely to start a fight as talk someone out of one, and I've never met someone with a more esoteric set of interests and hobbies as her. Definitely one of the more colorful individuals I've seen attached to this project, but I'm fairly confident in believing her when she says she genuinely wants to be here because of the good she could do on a team like this. She's a wildcard to be sure, but far more reliable then that label would suggest." -Dr. Rockter EDIT: Please put her on the damned ship already. Ceritea can't work if she shows up hallucinating every other day.
Phys. Eval.: "Excellent physical health for a Drell. Amber skin with red highlights, typical black eyes with red iris. Surgical scarring at the back of the neck from biotic implant procedure. Tattoo of an exotic dragonbird (?) on upper left forearm and shoulder.
Despite her file saying she grew up in squalor, she doesn't seem to be physically stunted as would be expected; in fact, she's rather statuesque, pardon the phrasing. Given this and the routine testing indicating a genetic resistance to Kepral's Syndrome, I suspect patient may be gene-modded." -Dr. Arlen
Biotics: Osino retrieved training from Union biotic specialists and possesses a specialized biotic amp that grants her the standard array of telekinetic and shielding abilities. She favors the use of biotics to enhance her physical agility to the point of defying gravity for brief periods of time and disabling protective barriers on opponents.
Qualifications: Graduated from the Amonkira Biotics Academy with honors and a specialization in technical mechanics, enlisted in Union Security Services as a Specialist (C-Sec equivalent of Sentinel) and was later assigned to the HAZE special operations unit. Experienced in biotic and tech combat, pistol marksmanship, hacking and infiltration, close quarters combat, and engineering. Has strong ties to military and intelligence units in the Union through former teammates in the HAZE unit as well as personal relationships through Amonkira and UniSec.
History:
Interviewer: Sgt. Ira Watson, C-SEC
Interviewed: Osino Kael
<Begin Log>
Sgt. Watson: Right, how about we start from the beginning. Can you tell us where you're from?
Osino Kael: Right now, or where I was born? The first question's way easier.
W: The latter, unfortunately.
O: Well, the Terminus system, definitely. Probably on Taviturn, one jump from Omega.
W: Probably?
[Osino nods.]
O: I remember being alone in a cold, dark room. Then someone found me, took me by the hand to meet others like me. It's a little fuzzy, I was still very young at the time. Probably just a few years old, and if I had any other family they were gone well before I'd remember them.
W: I'm sorry to hear that.
O: It's fine, but thank you for your concern.
W: Well, moving on, you say you were taken somewhere?
O: Yes, probably an orphanage, not that I spent much time there. Taviturn wasn't exactly a shining metropolis on a hill, especially under Aria's boot heel. Nobody cared enough to look after us there, so we looked after ourselves. Learned how to scrape together enough credits to get a warm meal once in a while, or a good place to rest our heads. It was pretty hit or miss until we first found a job running packets for the Narala.
["Narala" refers to Drell criminal syndicates active largely in the Terminus sector. See Doc: A-45: Known Criminal Orgs]
W: Can you tell us more about what you did for the Taviturn Narala?
O: Well for the first few years it was packages, but when I got older one of the other Drell started teaching me how to read, and since our gang operated out of a garage, it was with repair manuals and other stuff like that. And since I was pretty good with my hands already I sort of taught myself the ins and outs of engine design along the way.
W: So you were repairing vehicles for them?
O: Nope, breaking them.
W: I'm sorry?
O: It was a pretty good racket. Traders come in, they have a mysterious breakdown, they come to us, and we send them on their way with the suggestion that they should pay some insurance next time they come into port. And if they don't, they end up in a very expensive accident, or their precious cargo would just disappear from inside a secure docking bay.
W: So you got your engineering experience by extorting merchants?
[Osino is visibly uncomfortable.]
O: Well, it beat running the weird packages back and forth.
W: I see. Let's move on to-
O: Look, in hindsight I'm not proud of doing that, breaking engines and robbing them blind, but that's just how life was in Terminus. Besides, we were a family back then, and we did what we had to do to survive.
W: Is that why you eventually left?
[Pause]
O: Something like that. I just...realized we weren't much of a family after all.
W: What makes you say that?
O: I was set up. Aria's lieutenants were cracking down on gangs like us, and the bosses tried to make me a scapegoat. Sent me on a job intending to have me die, stage it as a robbery gone wrong. I think they started to distrust me because my biotics were developing, and they were already wary of me because they thought I wasn't fooled by their story about my mentor leaving the system of his own accord. So they tried to get rid of me, thinking that I would sell them out to save my own skin and earn myself a shuttle off that rock.
[Pause]
O: I mean...they were right. But it's still pretty hurtful.
[Watson exhales sharply, dropping her pen.]
W: Oh that's gr...ahem...so, you made your way to the Union?
O: I did, and at the dock I turned myself in to the nearest UniSec station I could find. Given the circumstances they let me off with a reprimand and after I showed them my biotic potential they sent me to Amonkira Academy.
W: We have some of your records here, and if you don't mind me saying, your markings are quite exceptional.
[Osino smiles.]
W: Though there's something about you here with a pineapple and a ceiling fan-
O: Uh, honestly I think you're better off not knowing. They're still trying to fix the skylight after that little incident.
W: Fair enough, I suppose it's not relevant. That being said, if you don't mind me saying, it's a surprise someone with a record like yours chose to go into UniSec.
O: Technically it wasn't a choice, but I would have gone anyway. The Union's done a lot of good for a lot of people, I wanted to be a part of that.
[Extraneous information on UniSec record excised for brevity.]
W: Now as I understand it, it wasn't solely your record in UniSec that saw you selected for this position.
O: You're referring to HAZE, right?
W: Of course. Your government has been rather tight-lipped about HAZE, but from what we understand your mission statement was testing the effectiveness of Union security and tactics.
[pause]
O: Is this off the record? I don't want to say too much.
W: Any reason why?
O: Our goal was to test the effectiveness of the Union military by infiltrating and assaulting our own side to find vulnerabilities. Secrecy was always paramount to our operation, that's why you only know us by code names.
W: Was that your only goal? You first came to our attention during the Neptune war games between C-Sec and UniSec, and I distinctly remember that your team gave us a LOT of trouble.
O: We got deployed to deal with actual threats to the Union as well. Most of it's deeply classified, so you understand if I'm a little vague about it.
W: Anything you can share that will give us an idea of what you're capable of?
[pause]
O: You remember a few years back when Batarian extremists took the Gran Columbia and fifty passengers hostage outside of the Eagle Nebula?
W: Of course, everyone does. They surrendered after a five day standoff with no hostages killed or injured.
O: You're welcome.
W: I see. I'm a little surprised that the Union had an interest in that Gran Columbia.
O: Well, uh, they didn't. We went on our own. It's probably one of the reasons the Union tried to bury us.
W: What? Why on Earth would they do that?
O: We were good at our jobs. Our role was secret, but the fact that we regularly poked holes in Union security got out, and it made the army and the war hawks who got into office promising to make UniSec strong look bad. When it got out that we were doing unsanctioned operations like that hostage situation that the Union weren't willing to undertake, it was the last straw. HAZE got dismantled and they tried to bury us under drummed-up criminal charges to keep us quiet. They were trying to put me behind bars for what I did back on Taviturn before you tagged me for this assignment.
W: The Union were rather tight-lipped when we asked them what exactly you were charged with. I'm surprised they sent you to us.
O: I'm not. The Union doesn't have a lot of confidence in C-Sec nowadays, they wouldn't bother to send their best to something like this. That's why I'm here.
W: Off the record? I think they've vastly underestimating you and your capabilities if they think you're second-rate.
[pause]
O: I..thank you. That's good to hear.
W: I think we're finished then, but one last question. Have you been subjected to any genetic modification?
O: What? No, of course not. I grew up in a slum, when could I have gotten something like that done?
Position: Chief Engineer / Sentinel
Recruited: Yes
Inventory & Logistics: Omnitool w/ Omniblade attachment and Hacking Suite Scorpion Heavy Pistol Swerve Class Lightweight Armor (Union Design) [Numerous requests for personal items excised, see Docs. A1-45]
Notoriety: 5- While her record with HAZE has been classified and buried, her glowing record with UniSec and the rumors surrounding her work as "Mojo" have been enough to garner this upstart a reputation in certain classified circles. We tagged her for recruitment ever since the Gran Columbia incident and everything else since has just confirmed her qualifications for the program. -Sgt. Watson
Aliases: Theos, Merc with a Conscience(Hates that one)
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Psych. Eval.: Nethel can be described as loyal, easy-going, and respectful. With a stubborn aspect that once he sets his mind on something, he cares about. It is near impossible to dissuade him from it. Even if the task seems impossible. Which makes him that if something happens to anyone he cares about. Expect him to stand by that person that has won his trust but, if that trust is broken. Then it is hard to regain that trust.
Like most drell of the Conclave, he is deeply religious and a traditionist. Sticking faithfully to his people's native religion and traditions that is being given up by other drell. Not wanting drell culture to disappear in place of alien ideas. Not to say that he is a xenophobe. He respects other race's religions and practices. He just wants drell culture to endure rather than fade away. Otherwise, Nethel is open to talking about his beliefs to anyone that wants to hear it.
Even with his quest to rescue his siblings, Nethel still takes the time to help others in need. Taking on jobs dealing with smaller colonies or people that need help. Even if it does not pay a lot, he still does it. Earning him a reputation for those seeking aid go to, along with a network of contacts that had helped him find his siblings. After finally rescuing them, Nethel still had the urge to help people, and when he was approached to join a special program. He saw it as a way to do some good in the galaxy once again.
Phys. Eval.: 6'0, 186lbs, muscular build for a drell and but still has good mobility. Being agile enough to perform acrobatics. Besides that, he has a bluish and purple tint on his skin the normal green most drell have. Has a large scar on his chest from a fight with a Krogan.
Biotics: Having been trained by his parents and by the military. Nethel is a powerful biotic that after being trained by the military. Has honed his skills and has focused on offensive biotics like Biotic Charge Nova, Warp, and Pull. Generally, Nethel uses Warp and Pull more than Biotic Charge and Nova. Reserving Biotic Charge for when he needs it and normally follows up with Nova for maximum damage. As this combination leaves him vulnerable to enemy fire before his shields recover.
Qualifications: Having a stellar record while he was in the military. Specializing in close-quarters combat which he excels at. Using a combination of guns, and biotics to close the distance to his targets. Along with knowing a drell based martial art that he is deadly with. His time in the military, he mainly dealt with pirates, slavers, and other criminals elements in and around Union space. Also, having a successful mercenary career even though it was a means to an end. Having nearly flawless success rate and coming out intact every time despite the odds.
Along with creating a network of contacts over the years as a mercenary that he can rely on. Some of which are mercenaries that he can both count on and fight with. Even still has some contacts in the Union military from his time there.
History:
Nethel was born on the arid world of Varaia to a pair of former Union soldiers. Even after the creation of the Union, the Compact between the Hanar and Drell was still alive. Nethel's parents belonged to a group of Drell that arose after the shortly Reaper War. The group called the Conclave believed that the Drell should not have to undergo the Compact anymore after centuries of service to the Hanar. Thinking that the Drell should live away from the Hanar and keep to Drell culture that was eroding due to living with the Hanar. Nethel and his younger siblings would be taught not to hate the Hanar but to remember that while they did a great service to the Drell. That the Drell must live on their own and must not give up on Drell culture.
Growing up, Nethel, along with his younger siblings. Soltek his brother and Urasu his sister. They were a close-knitted family that liked to spend time with each other. Nethel particularly with his sister when they were not with friends. When Nethel was old enough, his parents taught him how to shoot and how to use his biotics. Nethel showed good skill with a pistol but not with an assault rifle, liked his parents. His siblings did better in that aspect, and only Nethel could use biotics. Nethel looked up to his parents greatly and wished to follow in their footsteps. It was not surprising to his parents that Yokru decided to follow their path and joined up with the Union military when he was old enough. Enlisting with the marines and showed promise as a soldier. He served proudly for years and would message his family when he could. Mainly his time in the military he spent taking down pirates, slavers, and anything in between in or near Union space.
Unfortunately for Nethel, while he was on a mission to clear out a base of pirates near Union space. A group of batarian slavers raided Varaia. Temporarily overwhelming the colony's defenses before they regrouped and counterattack. Driving the slavers off but, not before the slavers abducting a portion of the colony. Nethel was furious at the news and saddened when he found that his parents died in the raid. His younger siblings were among those adducted and despite the Union's efforts. They were unable to locate the slavers or the missing colonists. Nethel was beside himself and was unsure of what to do with his family gone. After thinking about it, Nethel concluded that if the Union can not find his family Then he will. Nethel got permission to leave the military when he could and went out to find his siblings.
Starting out was rough for Nethel as he searched for clues to where his siblings were in the criminal underworld. Nethel was used to being supported by his squadmates and not operating by himself. He supported himself as a mercenary and was selective of what contacts he went on. Not wanting to give up his morals for money during his pursuit. The lessons his parents taught him, and his military training proved valuable during this time. However, he would teach himself martial arts to help with missions. Keeping him alive and even thrive job after job. Earning a name for himself, the Merc with a Conscience he was called. Nethel did not care much for it and was only focused on finding his siblings. Even if it started to get him more jobs and even some contacts, he preferred if people called him Theos if anything. An old nickname his sister gave him.
It was after years of searching did Nethel find a break. One of his contacts had received word that a pair of Drell that matched his siblings' description had recently been traded to a small-time batarian pirate named Roprak Bapbarah. Finally finding a trace of his siblings and after some greasing some palms. Nethel located the pirate to a jungle world in the Terminus Systems. Knowing that he could not rescue his sibling by himself. Nethel hired a team of mercs he trusts and came up with a plan that, in essence, was simple. Have most of his team created a diversion in front of the base to draw out the pirates while the rest of them sneak in and rescue Nethel's siblings along with any other slaves there. With him leading the infiltration team. Once he was ready, Nethel moved to the jungle world and started his rescue mission.
At first, things were going well. His team had successfully drawn the pirate's attention as Nethel watched them move towards the entrance of the base from his position south of the base. As the coast was clear, did Nethel and his group infiltrated the base. Stealthily taking down any guards they came across and after some hacking. They sliced their way into the slaveholding cells. There, Nethel found several slaves but, more importantly, his siblings. Nethel cried with joy upon seeing them and hugged them both. The three of them happy to see each other, and for a brief moment, things were going as plan.
But, it was a mistake on Nethel's part to let his emotions out and take time out of trying to escape. For one of the dead guards was ordered over comms to join the fight in the front by Roprak. When he failed to check in, Roprak then tried to someone close to the dead guard and found no response. It was then Roprak realized what was happening and ordered his men to find and kill the intruders inside of the base. After being warned over the comms by his team that Roprak's men were coming inside. Nethel ordered the diversion team to step up the heat and to pick off anyone still in the front. Meanwhile, he released all of the slaves and had his team escort them back where they came. However, it did not take long before they were under fire and pinned down.
With little options, Nethel was thinking of a plan to escape, and one of the pirates had thrown a grenade at them. It bounced off the wall and landed near the slaves. Before he could even think, Nethel watched as one of his siblings, his younger brother Soltek, move forward and covered the grenade with his body. Shielding the blast from his fellow slaves at the cost of his life. At the sight of this, Nethel felt anger grow inside of him, the anger of failing to save his brother. At the moment, he kept the anger in and but did something reckless. In order to clear a path out, Nethel used a biotic charge on a group of pirates. Hitting the one in the center and disoriented the pirates nearby. Allowing Nethel to use his martial skills to kill each one of them in close quarters. Once the way was clear, Nethel ordered them forward and towards the exit.
They were close to getting out when they got ambushed by Roprak himself, who brought two squads with him. Putting them at either side of the exit. Though not before one of the slaves were hit. Urasu was hit but managed to get into cover as Roprak taunting them that they were not getting away. That they would either be dead or taken as slaves. Nethel did not hear this as he was focused on Urasu, who was bleeding badly. Afraid of losing another sibling, and thinking of the odds of them getting out. Nethel made a decision and only told his other teammate to heal Urasu and run when it was clear. Without another word, Nethel sprang into action. First by using a biotic charge on a pirate on the right side and then quickly using nova to create a blast. The blast killed most of the pirates on the right. Shooting the survivors with his shotgun. Then got into cover as the pirates on the left opened fire at him. Roprak furiously telling his men that whoever killed that drell would get a bonus. Now in a better position, Nethel then threw a cluster grenade at the pirates. The resulting blast was devastating for the pirates and Nethel used a biotic charge again on one of the survivors, which killed the connected pirate. Then quickly killing the other pirates, including Roprak. Once it was clear, the group made a run for it, with Nethel following from behind. They regrouped with the diversion team and safely made it off-world.
Nethel was both happy and sad after the ordeal. While he was saddened by Soltek's death, Urasu survived and reminded him that Soltek died saving others. So he can find peace with that, though it did not leave him that he still had failed to save his brother. With his team paid, the slaves returned to their families, Urasu back at Varaia. Nethel was unsure of what to do. While he considered going back to the Union military, years spent as a mercenary made him like the freedom he had. Needing some time to clear his head and think about things. He went to the Citadel to relax and ponder his next move.
Position: CQC specialist
Recruited: Yes
Inventory & Logistics: M-27 Scimitar, M-6 Carnifex, Cluster Grenades, Medium Armor, incense sticks, and a necklace that bears the symbol of the drell religion.
Notoriety: 4 from his time as a mercenary, being known as the Merc with a Conscience despite not wanting to be called that. Which his contacts helped to spread his name and he is mainly known in the Attican Traverse which he used to operate in.
It's WIP but should have everything but history and inventory written
Anderson, Mckenna:
Race: Human (cyborg)
Citizenship: Systems Alliance. Most of recent life spent in Terminus systems.
Aliases: “Kenna”, “that robot bitch”, “The Butcher of Turgix”
Age: 58
Gender: Female
Psych. Eval.: Subject Anderson presents an unusual psychological profile for evaluation. Anderson is unusually cooperative with Council authorities, freely offering information when interrogated with no need for enhanced tactics. The information offered is, however, limited and only that which is pertinent to the exact question asked. Subject is able to clearly and concisely summarize the charges brought against her under galactic law, and shows full understanding of the degree to which she stands in breach.
When asked about motive to crimes, the answer is without fail the phrase “To erase human limitations and create a better world.” Information suspected to be withheld, though some believe it to be truthful. Senior officials believe such motive does not explain Anderson’s multiple and severe violations of galactic law and insist Anderson has some ulterior motive or is concealing information.
Outside of C-Sec interrogation, Anderson has been observed to generally avoid conflict with and seek friendly relations with those she is permitted contact with. It is yet unknown if this is a ruse by Anderson or if Anderson is behaving normally. Further study is advised, consensus of the team is that Anderson should be held further for greater questioning and the determination of her safety.
Phys. Eval.: Anderson stands at approximately 160 centimeters in height, and approximately 148.8kg - she has indicated her weight is a result of the extensive cybernetic implantation she has subjected herself to. Anderson is evaluated to be in excellent physical condition and shows no signs of her true biological age, what parts of her organic body remain have been well conditioned and enhanced. Even beyond standard improved human life expectancy, Anderson shows no signs of aging.
Anderson’s body has been heavily augmented or replaced with various cybernetics. Both arms, one leg in its entirety and another halfway above the knee, part of her liver, her lungs, both kidneys, her heart, significant portions of the intestines, part of her esophagus, large stretches of muscle, and more have been replaced - what is not synthetic has been subject to genetic enhancement similar to that given to Systems Alliance Marines.
Biotics: None. Anderson experienced high exposure to element zero in-utero, and subsequently born with multiple serious birth defects. No known biotic ability manifested at present time.
Qualifications: Anderson holds three Doctorates in genetic engineering, mechanical engineering, and neuroengineering - it is suspected that she used illegal genetic enhancement technology and cybernetic implants from an early age to make these significant accomplishments. She has demonstrated a seemingly eidetic memory as a result of her implants, and it is suspected this is but one of her abilities. Anderson has spent cumulative decades studying and researching in her field and can easily be considered one of the top minds in illegal genetic and cybernetic enhancement. Her capture brings the potential of her use as an asset of C-Sec, and a significant one at that. Some have advocated for keeping her confined to a laboratory environment to put her abilities to work developing genetic and cybernetic enhancements for human Spectre operatives, however higher ranking officials have ruled she willed be first deployed in a field unit for evaluation. While deployed in the field, Anderson’s profile indicates significant combative ability both at close and medium ranges. While Anderson does not divulge information of her own accord, she has indicated the ability to see in infrared, ultraviolet, and other wavelengths; the ability to establish guncam connections with most standard infantry small arms to facilitate accurate firing of the weapon without diverting primary attention; extreme physical hardiness and strength; moderate close quarters training augmented by heightened reflexes; and more.
Subject: Anderson, Mckenna Anderson is the child of independently contracted salvage operators from the Earth Systems Alliance, both from the region of Scotland. Anderson’s birth occurred shortly after the wreck of the MTS Idruni salvage vessel during operations in a former battleground of the Reaper War. Casualty rate amongst the crew was estimated later to be approximately 53%, but both parents survived, albeit badly injured, saved by a rescue team composed of Quarians dispatched from another nearby vessel and brought to a human ship for treatment. During this time, Anderson’s mother went into labor, and Anderson was born at approximately 0200 Hours, February 24th, 2241 under the name of Brodie Anderson. Subsequent inquiry determined Anderson was born biologically male, and her makeup is the product of extensive genetic therapy. When asked, Anderson became belligerent, refusing to answer to the name of Brodie.
Anderson’s birth was marked by life threatening birth defects from extensive exposure to dust form element zero in-utero, including the total absence of both arms, one leg, the other leg ending above the knee, and numerous organs nonfunctional or barely functional from excessive tumor growth. Anderson’s life was saved at this time by emergency surgical intervention and the replacement of nonfunctioning organs with neonatal cybernetics.
Anderson’s family returned to Earth after the events of her birth, retiring from the hazardous career of salvage, having amassed considerable wealth. Anderson was enrolled in a well funded educational facility, approximately five years of age at the time.
Anderson is reported to have had an interest in cybernetics from an early age, as indicated during interviews, knowing what technology had saved her life and given her the ability to walk spurred a sustained curiosity and passion for the subject that lasts to the present day. Anderson admits to involvement in small scale organized crime during her early adulthood to facilitate and fund her interest in self-cybernetic enhancement, as well as the funding for early gene-therapy to facilitate transition.
Anderson continued to apply extensive cybernetic enhancements and replacements to her body over the years, in addition to non-genetic efforts for a social gender transition. Anderson has expressed reluctance to discuss this aspect of her history, indicating it is irrelevant to her current circumstances. At the age of eighteen, Anderson enrolled in university, achieving a four year degree in mechanical engineering at the age of 22. At this point, Anderson indicated that she joined the military of the Earth Systems Alliance as a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, receiving medical dispensation to join due to the already extensive degree of cybernetic enhancement she had undertaken.
Anderson’s military record is marked as being that of an above average combatant, serving with distinction in the Alliance wars against the Rachni and decorated for heroism under fire, including leading the defense of a forward position threatened with encirclement whilst conducting repairs on a malfunctioned and damaged heavy weapon. The citation for her Distinguished Service Cross reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and skill in action against the enemy while stationed in a forward position with C Company, 8th Battalion, 2nd Systems Alliance Marine Expeditionary Force, Sergeant Anderson tenacity in the face of the enemy is credited with saving the lives of her unit through her courage and heroism. Laying suppressive fire and pulling wounded comrades behind cover, Sergeant Anderson risked her own life to bring heavy weapons back online, enabling Alliance forces to execute a safe and orderly withdrawal from untenable circumstances. Sergeant Anderson’s selfless and valorant actions are in keeping with the noblest of human military tradition.
Anderson left the military of the Systems Alliance approximately one year after her moment of heroism against the Rachni, upon the expiration of her term of service. Disillusioned in many things, Anderson explains she retained a conviction for her transhumanist ideals. At the age of 28, Anderson returned to higher education pursuing further degrees relevant to her research. At the age of 30, Anderson received her a PhD in Mechanical engineering. Subsequently, and through a combination of natural intellect and cybernetic and genetic enhancement, Anderson received PhDs in genetic engineering at age 36, and neurological engineering at age 42.
Anderson began working for an undisclosed laboratory researching genetic modification techniques and integration with cybernetics for approximately three years, leaving at the age of 39. Anderson has indicated this was due to frustration and the slow progress and reluctance by management to come under tighter supervision due to Council laws.
Anderson relocated to the Terminus Systems, motivated by these opinions. She quickly used her experience and knowledge to establish a small but thriving black market cybernetic and genetic clinic, amassing not wealth from the process. Anderson indicates that during this time she was frequently forced to defend the clinic through violent means against mercenary groups seeking to take control, and eventually hired independent contractors to help defend its location. It was at this time Anderson has indicated some of the more dramatic, and illegal, modifications began to take place with the stated goal of “becoming superhuman”. Many of her mercenary guards accepted such modifications as well, many intrigued by the promises of longer life and longer lasting youth like herself. It was by this time, at the age of approximately 47, that Anderson had fully completed transition down to the chromosonal and genetic level, and she has indicated most of her other baseline genetic modifications were completed around this time as well.
Anderson then encountered an interested small time businessman looking to introduce some of her legal products on the galactic market. Though negotiations fell through, Anderson indicates she developed feelings for the man. Details have not been provided, but she has indicated a brief romance followed, and Anderson became pregnant following at least one sexual encounter, giving birth to twins later that year at the age of 48. Though feelings remained, the father of her children took the children with him back to Systems Alliance space. Anderson indicates that he wished the children not know their mother, deeming her dangerous for them.
Anderson then explains that the loss of her children was emotionally traumatic, and she returned to her research with extra energy. The funds required, however, exceeded the income she could provide for herself via small scale operations. Seeing no other choices, Anderson explains, she eventually fell into the employ of Aria T’Loak, her lab and guards relocated to the Omega station. Anderson claims her agreement with T’loak was to create combat implants and genetic enhancements to enhance the performance of Omegan operatives, to which Anderson agreed. When asked why she went down this route, Anderson’s answer was “Because I saw no other choice. My children were gone, their father had taken them away from me. Would you have had me abandon my life’s work and motivation? I wanted to create a world where sickness and premature death were a thing of the past. I still want to. I couldn’t simply cast that aside.”
Anderson then explains that she soon regretted her employ with T’Loak. Though she had the funding, more than she could have ever hoped for and skilled assistants, Anderson says that, “friendship was limited in Omegan space”. Though she made impressive progress, Anderson says the demands of T’Loak, whose threats hung constantly overhead, constituted a great stressor in her life.. Anderson, in this time, applied many of these experimental modifications to her own body, holding the opinion that only she could properly calibrate and analyze their effects and any potential limitations. It was at this point an advanced model of graybox, parts of it designed by Anderson herself, was implanted in her brain, granting an eidetic memory of everything following.
Anderson indicates that around 2296, research began to slow slightly, and her team approached leadership seeking more resources. Instead of the greater funding or redistribution of assets they had expected, a detachment of the team was deployed to the world of Turgix alongside a large Omegan mercenary force. They learned, later, that the corrupt Salarian governor of the world, rather than see it run roughshod over by the rebel Krogan forces, had contracted the Omegans to deny the world to the Krogan. If the Salarian Union could not have the world, he reasoned, then neither would the Krogan. Anderson and her team were employed in various activities over the world, both research and combat based.
[REDACTED]
Anderson’s operations gained notoriety, and she became wanted for trial for her crimes of illegal medical experimentation. The neokrogan of Turgix referred to her as “the butcher” - a name Anderson claims was earned both for her actions in combat as well as out of it. While she has not provided full details, Anderson has provided the account of her defeat of a neokrogan in close quarters combat, ambushing the first from behind and claiming to have the muscular power to push an omni-blade through the skull of the krogan and into the brain, though she admits the account is “probably a little embellished”. In later interviews, Anderson admitted the neokrogan in question had also been injured by proximity to an antipersonnel mine blast.
Anderson’s account is in line with official reports from the coalition forces. Omegan mercenary units, through standard military tactics and the employment of [REDACTED] were able to hold the planet long enough for Coalition forces to arrive on the world and re-establish control, by which time the Omegan teams had departed and evidence of crimes systematically cleansed.
Anderson was taken into custody in Council Space, on a journey commanded by Aria T’Loak to meet with and discuss the funding of the Omegan cybernetics and [REDACTED] program and possible sale of such items. Recognized by a former member of her security team before her employment in Omega, and turned in to local law enforcement. Extradited to Citadel where remained in holding cell until supervised assignment to Spectre field team.
Position: Anderson shows aptitude in a wide range of fields. Her primary expertise lies in genetic, neurological, and mechanical engineering - official consensus is Anderson likely utilized illegal genetic engineering techniques and cybernetic augmentation to gain expertise in these fields. She is noted to be a skilled combatant as well, and though her arrest was peaceful, experts in C-Sec warn that Anderson is a deceptively dangerous foe even without a weapon. She has claimed basic mechanical and medical knowledge, though it is not recommended that she be looked to as a source of medical or engineering assistance unless all other options are unavailable.
Recruited: Yes.
Inventory & Logistics: Anderson is barred, at present, from bringing materials aboard the vessel without express, written authorization. Anderson has been barred from access to any potential development of a ship science lab for the near future, until such time command has deemed her safe to give such tools. Anderson has been barred from handling heavy weapons or bringing her own for the near future until such time command has deemed her safe to permit such. Anderson is equipped with two (x2) Shuriken submachine guns, two (x2) M-3 Predator Heavy Pistols, and one (x1) set of Hahne Kedar Heavy Armour.
Notoriety: 7
Misc.: List of Anderson’s cybernetics:
KU-I Model 3 Cybernetic Leg Prosthetic (above knee)
Anderson-C 43-2i Cybernetic Leg Prosthetic (Total)
Anderson-C 129-73u Cybernetic Arm Prosthetic (Total, 2x)
Anderson-C Cybernetic Heart
Anderson-C Cybernetic Lungs
Anderson-C 233-i Cybernetic Liver Augmentation
Anderson-C Cybernetic Kidneys
Anderson-C Synhetic Trachea
Anderson-C Cybernetic Skeletal reinforcement
Anderson-C Cybernetic Spleen
Anderson-C Cybernetic Intesintal Augmentation
ZTI i-249.3 Graybox.
KmTI-002a Infolink Wireless Communicator.
ZTI Calculation Matrix: Implanted into the brain, aids in making raw numerical calculations.
ZTI LiDAR Scanning Matrix: Permits range and elevation triangulation via optical input alone.
ZTI Smart Vision Matrix: Enables the user to see in infrared and ultraviolet spectrums (functions akin to military thermal and night sights, instructions very clear, cannot see through walls or thick dust), provides ability to “zoom” vision in by a magnitude of up to 20x, directly projects weapon status, vital and suit readouts, and other information into user’s vision, provides some measure of protection against visual effects of flashbang and concussive weaponry, in concert with ZTI LiDAR Scanning Matrix, can project topographic information in real time into user’s view.
SentinelX RTI Tissue Regenerative System: Speeds the healing of wounds, automatically deploys medi-gel to affected tissue.
Seryff Series XVII Metabolic Energy Conversion System: Produces energy for implants from a greatly increased caloric intake.
Seryff Series XVII Rebreathing System: Built in lung filtration enables the user to survive in chemically hazardous environments for an extended period of time over that of an unprotected individual.
Anderson-C 34D-ii Cybernetic Combat Package: A multifunction upgrade kit developed by Anderson, enables a myriad of combat functions such as simultaneous gun cam footage use (third party camera), enabling the dual wielding of separate firearms, stabilized aim, and recoil compensation.
Anderson-C t-992 Reflex Booster: Speeds reaction time and improves coordination
Anderson-C e-23 Subdermal Armor: Capable of withstanding shots from mid-power submachine gun caliber weapons and foiling attempted stabbings from standard strength humans, implanted in the torso.
An Asari matriarch contacted the Citadel claiming to have vital information that has been determined to be extremely relevant to the mission of the W-178. Matriarch Sotiria is located on one of the rebuilt colonies in the Terminus sector, on Planet Chalkhos.
Full name: Matriarch Sotiria T'keros
Race: Asari
Citizenship: Terminus Systems, Chalkhos
Aliases: Matriarch
Age: 889
Gender: Female
Psych. Eval.: She is one of the few survivors of the Reaper's invasion and subsequent bombardment of Chalkhos. The Reapers sudden, albeit violent, departure is likely the only reason she or anyone else survived.
She has shown great diligence and power of will by returning Chalkhos to a place worth living upon after being nearly completely razed to the ground. She has also shown the ability and willingness to deal with and negotiate with Aria T'loak following the latter's expansion into other parts of the Terminus cluster. The fact that Aria seems to be willing to leave Sotiria with any level of autonomy says quite a bit about her capabilities.
While formerly rather chaotic, Chalkhos and the surrounding region has become quite stable under Matriarch Sotiria's influence, and is becoming a rather potent economic hub.
Phys. Eval.: While likely having some combat training in the past, she has long since become more of a governor, and is in most ways a typical civilian asari.
5' 8” tall with darker blue skin, with perhaps a tint of violet.
Biotics: Typical asari, with literal centuries of practice, though she has long since stopped putting it to any strenuous practice.
Qualifications: Effectively the governor of the largest settlement on Chalkhos. Centuries spent growing her influence, culminating in her effectively controlling the area around her cluster at least behind the scenes. Though, if anyone asks, Aria owns it all.
History: Being 800 plus years old, there's too much to go through. More important is the last 100 since the reapers created a hole for her to fill when they killed most everyone else on Chalkhos. She took charge of the shattered group of survivors and when help eventually arrived after the end of the Reapers, it didn't take long for word to get out that Chalkhos was a prime location for those looking to rebuild to head to.
The Terminus systems had always been bordering on, if not totally, lawless in many parts. However, there were plenty who just wanted to live, and for those, Sotiria heard them. Having spent much of her life there, she was no stranger to those shadier dealings and knew her way around them. She knew just how far she could push the limit without becoming some underworld kingpin herself. She could help those with simpler intentions survive. She could build an economy that wasn't based entirely on stealing and smuggling illicit goods.
But she still had connections. Many had been lost, but she just found new ones. She wasn't the only one filling a gap in the aftermath, and she helped cherry pick many of those replacements, hoping to build it all back as something better. After all, the stronger the economy, the more the underworld had to work with as well, so in the end... everyone could win. At least that's how she pitched it to her more stubborn detractors.
There are, however, myriad rumors of how she attained the power she has. Many other Asari are not a fan of her, as rumors abound she made unsavory use of the Asari's innate ability to appear attractive to many species, which of course only fueled one of the less loved stereotypes about Asari.
Recruited: N/A
Notoriety: 6 Spend enough time in the terminus systems these days, and her name is bound to come up eventually. If not her directly, you're likely to run into part of her network. And, if nothing else, if you make a big enough splash – she'll definitely know about you.
She is, however, lesser known outside of Terminus space as her influence is far, far lesser in other sectors, though her name may still carry weight with some.
Mission details:
The Matriarch Contacted the Citadel eight days ago. After having confirmed her status and agreeing that she is worth speaking to, the assignment was passed on to the W-178 now that it has been green-lit and crewed.
Subsequent communication has suggested that the Matriarch is now in fear for her life. It seems others have become aware that she contacted the Citadel. Whether it is whoever is involved with her intel, or simply those in the Terminus Sector who are not fans of the Citadel is unknown. This is now the W-178's first priority assignment.
The Matriarch has supplied basic information about her retinue in case of any complications. Caution is to be exercised, but those listed should not pose a threat.
The Matriarch has also called for other outside assistance in the form of a mercenary. She has only supplied her name and physical metrics. All other information on this mercenary being supplied is currently unverified, though she seems to have a bit of a local reputation. The crew is to take this information with a grain of salt, though it should not prove terribly relevant to the task at hand.
