Mass Effect 1: Welcome to the Citadel
Citadel welcomes Normandy with open arms
Spectres are above the law
Garrus started as a sexy C-sec servant
Sheppard is still snooping around the Citadel to find more dirt on Saren. She meets up with a disgraced C-sec officer named Harkin. Harkin was the first human on C-Sec. As such whenever he did something untoward, the authorities looked the other way. Now there are loads of humans on the Citadel police so no one cares about him much. These days Harkin is considered a washed up officer who is constantly in trouble for taking bribes or being drunk on the job. The thing is Harkin is still a C-sec officer so he could help us get in touch with Garrus. Sheppard finds him at a bar getting drunk and being lecherous.
When he finds out who Sheppard is, he immediately goes on to bad mouth her superior officer. He tells Sheppard that Anderson was once in line to become the first Spectre but he also failed his mission and the opportunity to put a human on Spectre force passed away. This might be why he is so invested in seeing Sheppard succeed. Harkin also tells us that Garrus was on his way to apprehend someone at the medical clinic When he was last seen.
At the clinic, Jane walks into the middle of a hostage situation. Some thug has a gun to the doctor’s head. Consequences be damned, Garrus takes his shot. He is lucky enough to get the perp before the doctor is killed, but Sheppard is not impressed. She tells him that he put the life of an innocent civilian at risk when he decided to act in such a cavalier manner. As a law enforcement officer, he should be more mindful of his actions. I guess the cops are going to be the same in the future as well.
Luckily, the doctor is still alive to help us. She said the thugs had come in asking about a quarrian she had treated earlier. The quarrian herself had shown up asking for the Shadow Broker. This is quickly devolving into the mafia mess. Shadow Broker deals with information and has lots of dangerous and shady clients. No one has seen him or her. No one even knows if it is just one person or a group of people. Shadow Broker maintains an office on the Citadel, but all transactions are made through his representative. Even the representative has never met their boss.
Wrex is here to chew gum and kick ass. and he already chewed out his gum
The quarrian has some incriminating evidence against Saren, which she has not shared with anyone. She is adamant that she will only bring it personally to the Shadow Broker. In an effort to get to him, she has gone to someone named Fist. Fist runs a club in the wards called Chora’s Den. He is famously known as one of Shadow Broker’s representative. Unbeknownst to the quarrian, Fist has recently betrayed the Shadow Broker to join forces with Saren. As a result, there is a bounty out on him. Wrex, the krogan, has taken up the bounty and he is here as well. C-sec is trying to avoid a blood bath on the station, so they have brought Wrex in for questioning. Sheppard decides it will be useful to have another hand with her when she goes to face the mafia of Citadel. She finds Wrex in the C-sec, and he is willing to come along as long as he gets to kill Fist.
When the party gets to the Chora’s Den, Fist and his men are well prepared for a fire fight. After cutting through his goons, we finally get to Fist. Quarrian is no longer here. She did not want to hand the evidence over to Fist but instead wanted to talk directly to the Shadow Broker. Fist has arranged the meeting, and she is headed there right now. What she does not know is that it will be Saren’s men waiting for her over there. Fist has outlived his usefulness, so Wrex shoots him. Sheppard and Garrus are angry at him, but they knew exactly what they were getting into when they asked Wrex for help. All this indignation is for show. Which is why neither of them arrest the krogan.
Sheppard makes new friends
Right now, we need to go save the quarrian. Sheppard and her team get there in the nick of time. Quarrian is saved and the evidence is recovered. Her name is Talia and is on her pilgrimage. She thought she could make good money by selling this evidence of Saren’s treason to the Broker. And that money would be the offering she could bring back with her to her flotilla. Talia is grateful for being rescued and as a toke of her gratitude, she offers the disc with the evidence to Sheppard. This is a voice recording of Saren ordering the Geth to attack Eden Prime. There is another voice on the record but none of the humas recognize it. Saren is heard talking of a mysterious race of machines called Reapers. He is trying to bring them back from somewhere. The Geth follow him because Reapers are gods to them. They see Saren is a prophet. This is enough evidence to convince the Council. Now we can finally go after Saren and see why he is working with the Geth.
We are still in the tutorial phase of the game. The names of places and races are coming in at a rapid pace. I remember most of the lore so it does not feel unfamiliar to me, but I can see how a newcomer may quickly get bogged down in the details. There are quite a few of the races already introduced. In fact, I think rachni and the batarians are the only ones not on the Citadel (and for good reason). We will see them later in the game. The batarian might even be one of the species that were introduced in the DLC. There were rachni wars in which the Salarians fought and batarian wars against humans. They are mentioned off-handedly but don’t come into play too much at the beginning of the game.
I had forgotten how quickly the main team is assembled. We have most of our team here. Asari is the only we have yet to meet. Mass Effect progresses at a rapid clip. There is no need to grind so there is no padding on here. The game is paced really well. There is the intro with the mission on Eden Prime and investigation on the Citadel. Then there are three main quests, followed by one more to wrap up the investigation. And then there is the final battle. I have a feeling I will breeze through this game.
Original Four of the Normandy Ride-Till-We-Die crew
