Inducing Substance: a Shepard's guide. (A playthrough of the Mass Effect series.)

[Xzarloxara]

A quick question about ME3 gameplay for you guys: What am I supposed to do when someone throws a grenade at me and it lands behind my cover where it can hit me? Is there a way to get rid of it, or am I just supposed to run for different cover?

 

[Antimatter]

Once a grenade has finished its trajectory, it appears that it becomes a static object ("science" I guess ). The game should normally provide covers that are close to each other- try a simple roll to your left or right (and IIRC, your shields or health bar drop won't drop when you're rolling).

 

[Xzarloxara]

My visit to the Council went pretty much as expected. They couldn't really do anything to help me, other than asking for favors... Ashley is still unconscious, and I got Dr. Chakwas to return to service on the Normandy. Then, after I had a nightmare about that kid, I explored the Normandy. Speaking of that kid, I am starting to think there is more to him than meets the eye... Anyway, while exploring the Normandy, I managed to find all my old models and my space hamster too (yay!). Now the big question is, where do I go next? Palaven or somewhere else? Any advice?

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

My visit to the Council went pretty much as expected. They couldn't really do anything to help me, other than asking for favors... Ashley is still unconscious, and I got Dr. Chakwas to return to service on the Normandy. Then, after I had a nightmare about that kid, I explored the Normandy. Speaking of that kid, I am starting to think there is more to him than meets the eye... Anyway, while exploring the Normandy, I managed to find all my old models and my space hamster too (yay!). Now the big question is, where do I go next? Palaven or somewhere else? Any advice?

Seriously, you said Garrus was your love interest in ME2 and you ask if you should go somewhere else before Palaven?

Jokes aside, the general advice for ME3 would be, even if it sounds counterintuitive, to do the missions labeled "Priority" after finishing side stuff. Some quests will be timed again, but the Priority missions are the main ones that don't ever expire, and finishing one of them will trigger the next phase and might lock unsolved side missions.

Also, once a mission called "Priority: Cerberus Headquarters" appears, it's time to wrap up everything else and to do the Citadel DLC, because that Priority mission is a point of no return that triggers linear events and therefore should be done after all other open side missions or DLCs (Citadel DLC starts with a visit to Anderson's apartment for a holiday)

And yeah that kid has more purpose than to make you sorry to see them killed by the Reapers.

 

[Xzarloxara]

I decided to go to Palaven, or rather its moon, first. There were reapers and husks everywhere, and the Turian forces were not in good shape. The Turian leader I was sent to find and rescue had already been killed by the time I got there, so my first task was to find out who was next in line of succession. After fixing a comm tower, I found Garrus on the moon and he joined me to look for the new Turian leader, who happened to be a friend of his. After a short run we got to the place where the new leader was bunkered down and told him the news. We then left Palaven behind with the leader and Garrus now on the Normandy.
Palaven and the Reapers.

One mechanic about this game I discovered that I don't like as much as how it was in ME2 is how heavy weapons are handled. Apparently instead of choosing them in your loadout at the start of the mission, they are just things you stumble into that have been placed at predetermined points in the game. I don't like how that takes the strategy of "when do I use this?" out of the game. Instead, you just have it for one or two specific hard fights and that is it...

Seriously, you said Garrus was your love interest in ME2 and you ask if you should go somewhere else before Palaven?

Garrus was my romance in ME2, but Liara was my romance in ME1 (and I did have her as a sort of "bonus romance" in ME2 as well). I guess this means I have to choose between them now, which is going to be a difficult choice. I like both of them a lot.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

One mechanic about this game I discovered that I don't like as much as how it was in ME2 is how heavy weapons are handled. Apparently instead of choosing them in your loadout at the start of the mission, they are just things you stumble into that have been placed at predetermined points in the game. I don't like how that takes the strategy of "when do I use this?" out of the game. Instead, you just have it for one or two specific hard fights and that is it...

I'll go out on a limb here and dare to say that you're just grieving the lost opportunity to one-shot everything with your big nuke launcher with the biblical name

I'd suggest to simply take it as an opportunity to adjust and learn new strategies. ME3 has much more typical shooter mechanics, and IIRC you once said you liked and were good at shooters, so even if you don't like that particular change, I'm sure you'll do fine.
Just remember to combine skills focused on armour and shields and anything with CC effect, and remember what I told you about combos. Just experiment, and you might get stuff comparable to DA:O's glyph explosions or freeze/shatter and the like. Skills and their combos, also with ammo types, are more important than heavy weapons imho.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Back on the Normandy, while EDI was trying to extract data from the synthetic body we found on Mars, she wound up taking control of it somehow and now can join me as a squad member. I also found a sign on the Normandy refrigerator... No guns or Turians allowed!

Next I went back to the Citadel, and found that there was much more of it to see this time, including a lot of old friends, and myself.

There are a lot more stores that are open now, but I do not have a lot of money for buying things, so I will have to shop carefully. I had a good LOL at the Blasto display...
Then I went to a Dr. Bryson's lab and found he was looking for a Reaper killer called the "Leviathan". He was going to give me his data when his assistant, apparently indoctrinated or controlled by something, killed him. Great... EDI showed up in her new body and helped me investigate the lab for clues. We eventually found that Bryson had a field assistant who he sent somewhere in the galaxy to find clues. After further investigation, we found the likely location of this assistant and marked it for later exploration.

After this, I met a Salarian Spectre who was after an indoctrinated Hanar... and Kasumi. Right after that, I met Kasumi again and she helped me chase leads on the Hanar for the Spectre. We eventually caught up to the Hanar, who had uploaded a virus to disable the defenses of the Hanar homeworld. Kasumi quickly stopped the virus, causing the terminal she used to explode. She cleverly faked dying to escape the Spectre. After the Spectre left, she agreed to help out with constructing the Prothean's Reaper-Killer device. I also apparently gained the aid of the Spectres and the Hanar as war assets.

Next up, I had a visit with Aria from Omega. She had lost her rule of Omega to Cerberus and needs my help to get it back. In exchange, she is uniting the three terminus mercenary groups, Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Blood Pack to join my cause of fighting the Reapers. I need to help convincing each group to join her though (naturally...). The Blood Pack was easy, I just had to show up to help a Vorcha take over the group. For the Eclipse I was sent to free their leader from prison, but she turned out to be a bit too crazy for my liking, so I had her second in command assume control of the group instead and let her stay in prison. The Blue Suns want me to kill a Turian general I helped in the past, but I don't want to, so I have to convince him to leave the Suns alone instead. To do this I apparently need to find Prothean artifacts to persuade a black market dealer to supply Citadel Defense with weaponry. This may be a bit harder to accomplish than the other two...

Next I discussed the retaking of Omega with Aria. She plans to use me on a strike force... alone. I am not sure when I will do this, but it is good to know.

 

[Xzarloxara]

I left the Citadel and did a bit of scanning in a few clusters. I found a few items requested by random people on the Citadel, including the Prothean artifacts I needed to convince the Blue Suns to join up with me.

The first major mission I did after leaving the Citadel was to investigate the distress signal at the Grissom Academy. It turned out that Cerberus was trying to kidnap the students for some unknown reason. While I was there, I was surprised to meet up with Jack again! She seemed to have mellowed out a bit since I last met her, and she was an instructor at the academy. I had a lot of trouble fighting Cerberus troops in this mission, especially when I got to the atrium area and they kept throwing endless grenades at me and sneaking up from behind to flank me. I eventually managed by staying in the hallway leading up to the atrium instead of entering the atrium. This way the jerks couldn't surprise me from behind. After I fought my way through that mess I ran into another familiar face: David Archer, who I rescued from his Cerberus brother back in ME2. I was very happy to see he was doing well. Then I found an empty Cerberus robo-suit thing called an Atlas and used it to quite effectively defeat the remainder of the Cerberus forces in the facility.

After this I checked back on the Citadel and found Miranda there. She was worried about her sister being hunted by her father again, but was handling it herself for now. I was a bit surprised she was no longer with Cerberus, considering how fond of it she had been back in ME2. I also met another familiar face: the grumpy matriarch bartender from Ilium was now working on the Citadel. I was also quite surprised when she told me she was Liara's father! Liara already knew, of course, but didn't think it appropriate to talk to her, until I encouraged it at least. Eaves dropping on their conversation was quite enlightening, and I was happy I encouraged them to talk.

Next I went to investigate the Leviathan, or more specifically, follow up on the lead I got about Dr. Bryson's assistant. The place turned out to be an asteroid mining facility full of nasty reaper troops and, by far, the creepiest people ever. It was obvious the people there were being controlled by something, but I wasn't sure what. I wound up chasing one of them and got into a fight with Reaper forces that was so hard I was unable to actually kill all of them. There were these N A S T Y things called Banshees that were nigh impossible for me to deal with. I had to just run away from the fight to avoid being killed by them, which was very disappointing to me. After I escaped the Banshees, I got to the creepy guy I was chasing and found he was trying to guard some kind of spherical artifact of the Leviathan; which he destroyed by blowing himself up. After doing this, the creepy people returned to normal and I learned that they had no memory of what had happened while they were controlled, for 10 years! This left me with more questions than answers, but my next lead was to return to Dr. Bryson's lab on the Citadel, because I know he had another one of those artifacts there, which, by the way, is very worrying. What is this Leviathan though? Is it some kind of rogue Reaper? Is it something unusual and organic like Dr. Bryson thought? Hmm...

A view from the mining asteroid.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Banshees are Reaper-mutated asari and very dangerous indeed. In fights with them, you need to keep moving and try not to let them get into melee range, they have a lethal grab.
They're quite slow until they suddenly teleport, and you can see them charging up before they scream, in which case you should try to interrupt them.
Use Overload for their shields and Warp/Throw combos for their barriers, and a lot, because they regenerate.
Their grab can be interrupted with things like concussive rounds, think of it as something like the ogre grab in DA:O.
Just don't focus on them or everyone else will gang up on you, because you need time to kill them. Better keep your distance from a banshee and kill other enemies before focusing on them.
Try to learn how to take them out, though, this won't be the last you see of them.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Banshees are Reaper-mutated asari and very dangerous indeed. In fights with them, you need to keep moving and try not to let them get into melee range, they have a lethal grab.
They're quite slow until they suddenly teleport, and you can see them charging up before they scream, in which case you should try to interrupt them.
Use Overload for their shields and Warp/Throw combos for their barriers, and a lot, because they regenerate.
Their grab can be interrupted with things like concussive rounds, think of it as something like the ogre grab in DA:O.
Just don't focus on them or everyone else will gang up on you, because you need time to kill them. Better keep your distance from a banshee and kill other enemies before focusing on them.
Try to learn how to take them out, though, this won't be the last you see of them.

Sure, but meeting two at once with very limited room for maneuverability was not ideal for the first time... Not to mention they came in last as part of a very long protracted battle, so reloading to try to find strategies took forever. I found another one, alone this time, and was able to kill it just barely. Nasty buggers. I am still playing on insanity difficulty, so they are probably more of a problem for me than they were for you. I will definitely have to learn better strategies for killing them, though.

 

[Xzarloxara]

I am getting quite caught up in this Leviathan plot line, so I decided to continue with it for now. Returning to Bryson's lab did not lead to the catastrophe I expected, what with that artifact there. We simply shielded it so it could not influence anyone. Then we had to look for clues on where to find Bryson's daughter, Ann. These clues were easy enough to come by and we set out to find her.

When we got to the dig site, we found out the place was swarming with Reaper forces. The place was built on a cliff and falling apart as we tried to move toward Ann. I had to fight all kinds of Reaper troops including another Banshee, and at the very end, a massive flying thing called a Harvester. The worst part of this mission was that, as I moved around, I would sometimes take fire from some unknown source and die practically instantly... It was really annoying since I had no way of knowing when it would happen or where it came from. I could just be standing there, with no enemies in sight, and suddenly be dead for no reason. I saved frequently to work around this. The Banshee was alone this time, so, even though I had even less room to move around, I was able to defeat it usually. The Harvester at the end of the mission was a pain because every time I left cover to get an angle on it, it would kill me. I wound up just letting my squad mates deal with it while I took out the weaker distracting forces in the area. I was a bit surprised by how well that strategy worked... We rescued Ann and learned that Leviathan was indeed a Reaper, but we still do not know why it seems opposed to others of its kind...

After rescuing Ann, we headed back to Bryson's lab to look for further clues (again). This time we decided to let Ann get possessed by the artifact in the lab so we could trace the signal. We wound up with several possible locations to look for Leviathan, but Ann warned me that it was angry and wanted to kill me... I really don't understand this thing's motivations... Unless it is afraid of the other Reapers...

Harvesters everywhere at the dig site.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Continuing along the Leviathan questline revealed ultra-major spoilers.

Spoiler

Having gone this far, led by my curiosity, I just had to continue searching for the Leviathan. It was a fairly quick thing to track down its location on a planet-wide ocean world. As we were going towards the location where my probe found the Leviathan, the shuttle was hit by a pulse of some sort that knocked it out of the sky. We landed in a floating graveyard of wrecked ships, and while I was looking around for salvage, a Reaper capital ship appeared in the sky and started dropping troops on us. After a long series of fights, we chased away the ground forces and found a diving mech suit I could use to search the ocean for Leviathan. After diving way down, I finally came face to face with... 3 giant squid-like creatures who looked very much like Reapers, but were 100% organic. These creatures were the Leviathans I had been looking for. They possessed my mind to communicate with me and told me that they were once the apex of all organic life in the galaxy. They functioned by indoctrinating thrall races and caring for them in return for tribute. When their thrall races created a machine race, much like the modern Geth, many of the thralls were killed. The Leviathans responded by creating an AI with the mandate to preserve life in the galaxy. Something went wrong though, and this AI turned on the Leviathans and killed almost all of them somehow... to make Harbinger, the first Reaper! Ever since then, the Reapers have raided the galaxy in periodic "cycles" to harvest more organic races to build one more Reaper with each cycle. They also built the Mass Relays to speed up the development of organic life. This explains a great deal about the Reapers, but left me with one major question: How the hell is this supposed to preserve organic life in the galaxy?! Anyway, the Leviathans wanted to keep me as a thrall because I was a special kind of threat to the Reapers, but I was able to persuade them to join the fight against the Reapers instead. Upon leaving the depths of the ocean, the leviathans demonstrated their power of indoctrination, by destroying both the Reaper ground troops and the Reaper capital ship, allowing us to escape.

This place is like... A City of Abandoned Ships! (@Antimatter )

Reaper overhead...

The diving mech.

Diving down. Cool glowing jellyfish!

The Leviathans!

After this adventure, I headed to Eden Prime to find out what Cerberus was after. Upon arrival we found a Prothean stasis pod containing an actual living Prothean! After some light fighting and chasing Cerberus off the world, we were able to open the pod and rescue the Prothean, named Javik. Javik seemed quite understandably upset about the state of things, but decided to join my team as a squadmate because I was going to fight the Reapers.

The stasis pod.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Next I went to a Cerberus lab that had a couple of Reaper artifacts in it which I had to retrieve. It was a relatively short and easy mission.

Now, with not much left to do at this stage, I decided it was finally time to help Aria retake Omega. This turned out to be the longest and hardest mission I had done in ME3 thus far. It was so long that I won't go into full detail with every stage of it. I had to go alone but I had Aria herself as a squadmate for most of the mission. Shortly after arriving on Omega we met an old girlfriend of Aria's named Nyreen. Nyreen was, amazingly enough, a female Turian (I was starting to doubt that female Turians existed) who was especially focused on preventing harm to the civilians of Omega. Nyreen would often be a part of my squad as well, and she and Aria would argue constantly about each other's methods. We fought many enemies, mostly Cerberus, but also some kind of Reaper creatures called Adjutants that got loose on the station after Cerberus got there. Even though Nyreen and Aria broke up because of a clear difference of opinion, as we fought together, they were clearly starting to like each other again. Just as We were closing in on the Cerberus general, Nyreen decided to sacrifice her life to save some civilians from a bunch of Ajutants. Outraged, Aria and I finally got to the general and defeated him. To my surprise, Aria decided to spare his life and hand him over to me so I could get the Alliance to interrogate him. Seems Nyreen and I managed to soften her up a bit...

Toward the end of the mission there were two really hard fights, one where I had to disarm some bombs within 5 minutes while constantly under fire, and the final fight, where I had to rescue Aria while constantly under fire. It was seemed less about skill and strategy, and more about dumb luck after a while in these fights. Very frustrating. But there was plenty of experience to be had over the course of this mission. I started at level 45 and ended at level 54. Still, the characters and story were very well written. I enjoyed how badass Aria was and how Nyreen was kind yet able to stand up for herself.

 

[Xzarloxara]

With nothing else to do, I headed to the diplomatic conference between the Turian Primarch, the Salarian Dalatrass, and Urdnot Wrex. Tensions were high, to say the least. Wrex agreed to help with the war only if he got a cure for the Genophage. He had apparently gotten some intel that the Salarians had some Krogan females that were immune to the Genophage on their homeworld of Sur'Kesh. The Dalatrass was upset about this leaked info and reluctant to cooperate, but the political pressures from Wrex and the Primarch made her give in and agree to deliver the females to Wrex.

When I arrived on Sur'Kesh, things were relatively peaceful, although Wrex made quite an entrance. I met an old friend there who pledged his service to the war: Major Kirrahe, who I met on Virmire.

Elsewhere, I was told not to touch "that". I touched it anyway. (You had to be there...)

Just as I was about to go downstairs to retrieve the females, when an alarm sounded. There were apparently intruders approaching. Downstairs I met up with the mastermind behind the entire project, and the guy who leaked the info about it to Wrex: Mordin! He told me only one of the females was left; the others had died due to a side effect of the cure. By now the intruders were identified as Cerberus, and it was pretty clear they were here here to kill the female Krogan. Cue the escort mission. I was able to get the Krogan to safety, and leave Cerberus in my dust, brining the female, "Eve", and Mordin with me to help with finishing the cure. One question remains though... Who tipped off Cerberus about the cure? Not sure...

After this I went to Tuchanka to investigate some Cerberus activity with a giant cannon left over from the Krogan Rebellions. It was a fairly simple mission; they had repaired the gun and I captured it and used it to destroy their ship, which they planned to bombard the Krogan with.

Having done that, Wrex had a task for me: He sent a Krogan scout team to investigate some unusual activity in old Rachni space. He didn't send me there alone; he also sent another Krogan team there. When I arrived I met up with the leader of this team: Grunt! After investigating some tunnels there, we found that the Rachni had also been turned into Reaper monsters. The Reapers had captured the queen from Noveria and had been using her to breed their army. By the time I got to her, I had to choose whether to sacrifice her or Grunt's team... A tough choice, but once again, I could not let the Rachni go extinct like this. It was sad for Grunt to lose his team, and I almost lost Grunt himself, but he still made it out alive, if injured.

Back on the Normandy, I had a touching scene with Liara in which she told me of a project of hers: to make time capsules to preserve the history of the Reapers, the Collectors, the Reaper Wars, and me. Garrus hasn't had time to talk to me recently so after this I am leaning towards romancing Liara in this game so far. Still undecided though...

Sur'Kesh

The cannon on Tuchanka.

The creepy Reaper/Rachni caves.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Next, I decided to help the Primarch by rescuing his son who was on a secret mission on Tuchanka. After I fought through the Reaper forces to reach him, he told me he had been sent to disarm a bomb that Cerberus had.

After that, I went out on the followup of this mission: helping disarm the bomb. I had to battle my way through Cerberus on an exploding battlefield and then protect the Primarch's son while he tried to disarm the bomb. It turned out that the Turians planted the bomb during the Krogan rebellions as a "just in case", and Cerberus dug it up to use it. Unfortunately, the old bomb proved difficult to disarm, and even though he was successful, he died in the process.

The exploding battlefield.

The Bomb.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Now it was finally time to cure the Genophage. Before I headed for the Shroud, a device that we could use to disperse the cure, I got a proposal from the treacherous Salarian Dalatrass. She promised me Salarian aid in the war only if I sabotaged the cure. Needless to say, this was out of the question. I would not betray the Krogans and I think the Salarians will have to join my cause eventually anyway if they want to survive the war. Once I arrived at the Shroud, another problem came up: There was a 'small' Reaper ground ship there, blocking access. Though we decided to deal with it by using Turian air units and Krogan ground units, the Krogans got held up by Tuchanka's less than ideal road conditions, and the Turians had to fall back When I took my team out to look around, we got separated from the Krogan ground units and made our way through some ruins where we learned of a "Mother of all Thresher Maws" that lived in the area since ancient times. Fighting our way to the Shroud, we got the idea to sic the Thresher Maw on the Reaper that was blocking our way, so we did. It turned out the Reaper was actually no match for the Mother Maw, which destroyed it and dragged it under. Unfortunately... The Shroud was heavily damaged by the Reaper and Mordin sacrificed his life to go up and disperse the cure. I was very sad to lose him, but I guess he was quite old for a Salarian, and probably didn't have much time left... Still, very sad...

And now with both the Turians and Krogans on board with my cause, their leaders seem to have left the Normandy. I am going to miss Wrex and Eve especially, but we all have jobs to do. Also, for the first time, it looks like I have above the minimum amount of forces needed to fight the Reapers, at least according to the war assets console (that doesn't mean I will stop gathering troops though).

The Shroud.

The Shroud guarded by the Reaper.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

"Would have liked to run tests on seashells"

Mordin's choice was one of those very moving moments in ME3 that made it feel so personal and meaningful to me. I freely admit shedding some tears for him the first time I played.
Also, what a change from the first impressions in ME2 where we couldn't always be too sure about his ethics.

 

[Xzarloxara]

"Would have liked to run tests on seashells"

Mordin's choice was one of those very moving moments in ME3 that made it feel so personal and meaningful to me. I freely admit shedding some tears for him the first time I played.
Also, what a change from the first impressions in ME2 where we couldn't always be too sure about his ethics.

You mentioned that someone died in the suicide mission when you played, I have been wondering who it was, if not Mordin. I have heard he is the most likely casualty during that mission. And yes, it was very sad that I had to lose him...

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

You mentioned that someone died in the suicide mission when you played, I have been wondering who it was, if not Mordin. I have heard he is the most likely casualty during that mission. And yes, it was very sad that I had to lose him...

I lost Thane, because I had failed his loyalty mission.

 

[Xzarloxara]

After curing the Genophage, I got a message from the Salarian councilor. He said something about suspecting Udina of treason. Since I usually head back to the Citadel after missions, I went there to see about this next, but I ran into complications, as I somewhat expected. I was unable to contact Citadel Control for docking, but I did manage to get a message from Thane. He informed me that Cerberus had attacked the Citadel! I deployed my team to C-Sec HQ and worked with Bailey to regain control of things. When I found the Salarian Councilor, he was under attack by an assassin; a formidable seeming character I later learned was named Kai Leng. He would have surely succeeded in killing the defenseless Councilor, but Thane suddenly jumped in to save the day! The fight between these two assassins was fierce, but even though Thane was able to keep Kai Leng busy long enough that he couldn't kill the councilor, Thane was stabbed in the chest by Leng's sword. Kai Leng fled the scene, and the Salarian Councilor gave me proof that Udina was a traitor. I had no time to tend to Thane; I had to chase Leng to keep him from killing the other councilors. After a brief chase across the Presidium and up an elevator shaft I beat Leng to where the other councilors, including Udina, were being escorted by Ashley. When I confronted them and told them of Udina's treachery, Ashley was hesitant to trust me at first, but only for a brief moment. Without any extra persuasion on my part she turned on Udina who drew a gun on the other Councilor at which point I shot him dead. Leng never showed up again. Apparently he decided to flee the station, his mission failed.

My mission accomplished, I immediately went to visit Thane in the hospital. His son, Kolyat, was there to give him a transfusion, but it wasn't enough. Thane said his final prayers with Kolyat and I, and died. After this it was apparent the Citadel, formerly untouched by the Reaper war, had started gearing up for the war. As I looked around I met with a few more familiar faces. First, with the help of a C-Sec officer, I started tracking some old Batarian diplomatic codes someone had been using to commit acts of terror against humans on the Citadel. When I found the last one I was met with a gun to my back... being held by Balak, the Batarian terrorist who tried to destroy Tera Nova with an asteroid. He had apparently become the highest ranking Batarian left after their home systems had been taken by the Reapers. Much as we would have liked to kill each other, I persuaded him to work together with me, and he begrudgingly agreed and ran off, giving me control of the Batarian's remaining fleet (a rather sizable war asset actually).

Sadly, I had then found out that Kelly Chambers was killed by Cerberus while they were assaulting the Citadel. But exploring the area further I ran into an old 'friend' again: Conrad Verner. In a hilarious twist, he finally proved useful for something, and gave me his aid in building the Crucible, even though he was still a bit of a nuisance in some ways...

Next I was asked to investigate the Volus Ambassador on the Citadel: Din Korlack. The Turian Primarch had suspected him of being a Cerberus informant. When I found his office, I learned he was indeed an informant back when I was fighting the collectors, but he was rather unsuccessfully trying to break ties with Cerberus, due to their recent atrocities. Ceberus hired some mercenary assassins to kill Din, but I arrived on the scene in time to see one of them, my old friend Zaeed, kill the others. Apparently he had his own grudge against Cerberus and was taking jobs specifically against them, but got tricked into doing this one for them. When he found out that Cerberus was behind this job he joined me in persuading Din to not only inform on Cerberus's plans to attack a Turian colony, but also to grant me support from the Volus fleet. Zaeed himself also agreed to help in an advisory position for my war effort.

Back on the Normandy I had some more personal chats with several of my crew members: Traynor, my tech specialist, Diana Allers, the news reporter I have tagging along, and James. Though I seem to have had some options for romance here, I didn't pursue any of them, since I am still after either Garrus or Liara.

I have a lot of new tasks on my to do list now, and I am not sure which one to go for next...

By the way, Ashley joined my crew upon leaving the Citadel.