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 COMMANDER RILEY SHEPARD service no. 5923-AC-2826 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I DON'T HAVE WHAT YOU DO that fire that makes someone willing to follow you into hell itself HISTORYPRE-GAMES Riley Shepard was born April 11, 2154 on Mindoir, a small border collony in the Attican Traverse. When she was sixteen slavers raided Mindoir, slaughtering her family and friends. She was saved by a passing Alliance ship and enlisted with the military at eighteen. At 22 Shepard made a name for herself during the Skyllian Blitz. A band of pirates, slavers and batarian warlords launched an attack into the Skyllian Verge, intending to destroy Elysium. Already on Elysium herself, Shepard rallied colonists against the invaders and, when enemy forces broke through the colony's defenses, Shepard single-handedly held them off and sealed the breach. She was rewarded with the Star of Terra, the Alliance's highest honor. MASS EFFECT In 2183, Riley travelled to the human colony Eden Prime on the SSV Normandy with turian Spectre, Nihlus Kryik. Nihlus was supposed to judge Riley to see if she was worthy of becoming the first human Spectre (Special Tactics and Reconnaissance), elite agents who answer only to the Citadel Council. Eden Prime was attacked by the geth and a rogue turian Spectre named Saren Arterius, who killed Nihlus and ordered the Geth to destroy the colony. After finding Nihlus' body, Shepard and her team - Lt. Kaidan Alenko and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams - disarmed the geth's explosives and find that Saren was on Eden Prime for a recently uncovered Prothean Beacon. Shepard was caught in the beacon's field and saw a vision of synthetics waging war before the beacon exploded, knocking Shepard unconscious. Back on the Citadel, after an initially unhelpful audience witht he Citadel, Shepard recruited Garrus Vakarian - a turian C-Sec officer investigating the claims against Saren - and Urdnot Wrex - a korgan bounty hunter - as well as Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, a quarian with evidence of Saren's connection to the geth. Tali presented an audio file saved from a geth's memory core, clearly showing that Saren was behind the attack on Eden Prime. He was also looking for something called the Conduit with the asari Matriarch Benezia to bring about 'the return of the Reapers'. Saren was stripped of his Spectre status, though the Council showed no interest in the Reapers. Commander Shepard was then named the first human Spectre and was tasked with hunting Saren down. During the hunt Shepard also recruited Dr. Liara T'Soni, a Prothean expert and Matriarch Benezia's daughter, and soon after they were forced to kill Benezia as she became lost to Saren's indoctrination. The hunt for Saren eventually brought Shepard's crew to Virmire where they think Saren is breeding krogan to create an army. After talking down Wrex, who was furious that Shepard was willing to destroy a potential cure for the genophage - a salarian bioweapon that made krogan breeding almost impossible - they found that the faclility was not there to breed krogan, but to study the indoctrination effect. In Saren's lab they were confronted by Sovereign - not a Reaper ship like originally believed, but a Reaper itself. Soverign revealed that the mass relays - mass transit devices used for interstellar travel, believed to be created by the Protheans - were actually created by the Reapers, as was the Citadel. Having set up nukes across the facility, the geth attacked and were soon followed by Saren, who tried to recruit the commander to his cause. Shepard refused, fighting off Saren and escaping Virmire as the nukes destroyed the facility. Kaidan Alenko was lost in the blast. Thanks to an undamaged beacon on Virmire, Shepard's Prothean vision became complete - it was a distress call intended to warn the Protheans about the Reapers. The beacon lead them to Ilos, where Shepard found an ancient Prothean VI named Virgil who revealed that the Citadel was actually a huge mass relay linking to dark space, outside of the galaxy, where the Reapers were waiting. It was also revealed that after every Reaper attack, which took place every 50,000 years, they would leave behind one of their own to monitor the development of the galaxy's races. Once they were sufficiently advanced they would activate the Citadel Relay and usher in the next genocide, the Reapers returning to dark space once the galaxy had been harvested to hibernate. Shepard and her team travelled through the Conduit - a small prototype mass relay built by the Protheans - to the Citadel Predisium. There they took part in the Battle of the Citadel, where an Alliance Fleet - lead by the Normandy - took down Soveriegn and Shepard prevented the Citadel Relay from opening before taking care of Saren for good. The Council were saved during the attack and, in gratitude, they offered humanity a place on the Council. Shepard nominated Captain Anderson, her mentor, and they decided to unite the Citadel races against the coming threat of the Reapers. MASS EFFECT 2 Shortly after the events on the Citadel, the SSV Normandy was attacked by an unknown vessel while patrolling for geth resistance. The crew abandoned Ship and Shepard was blasted into space after forcing Joker, the ship's captain, into the final escape pod. Her suit was breached and she died via asphyxiation, her body pulled into the orbit of a nearby planet. Her body was recovered by Cerberus, a pro-human paramilitary organisation led by the Illusive Man, who revived her with their Lazarus Project. She woke two years later on a research station that was under attack by its own security mechs and escaped with Cerberus operatives Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor. They brought her to meet with the Illusive Man who revealed that entire human colonies had been disappearing all over the galaxy. Working for Cerberus, Shepard discovered that the colonies were being taken by a species called the Collectors, with clues suggesting that they were working for the Reapers. The Illusive Man explained that the Collectors resided beyond the Omega-4 Relay, a place from which no ship had ever returned. Given command of a new starship, the Normany SR-2, piloted once again by Joker and equipped with an onboard AI named EDI, Shepard was tasked with assembling a team to stop the Collectors. She recruited Mordin Solus, Jack, Grunt, Thane Krios, Samara, Zaeed Massani and Kasumi Goto (a salarian scientist, biotic human, newborn Krogan, drell assassin, asari justicar, human mercenary and human thief respectively) as well as reuniting with Garrus and Tali. The Illusive Man sent them to explore a supposedly disabled Collector ship where they discovered that the Collectors were originally Protheans, enslaved by the Reapers. With EDI's help, Shepard also found how to bypass the Omega-4 Relay before having to escape a Collector ambush. Shepard visited a derelict Reaper and acquired an IFF necessary to safely travel through the Omega-4 Relay, as well as recruiting a geth known as Legion. While Shepard and her squad left the ship on a shuttle, the Normandy integrated the IFF into its systems before being attacked by the Collectors who captured the crew, only leaving Joker behind who managed to escape with EDI's help. When Shepard's squad returned they used the Omega-4 Relay to reach the Collector base and rescued any surviving cerw members before fighting their way to the central chamber. There, Shepard discovered that the Collectors were constructing a giant Human-Reaper, made from the genetic material of the abducted colonists. Shepard detroyed the Human-Reaper and, against the Illusive Man's wishes, the Collector base and escaped with the rest of her squad. MASS EFFECT 3 Six months later, Shepard was confined on Earth, having been relieved of duty after her work with Cerberus and awaiting court-martial by the Systems Alliance. The Reapers invaded and quickly overwhelmed Earth, and Shepard was reinstated by Anderson and ordered to Mars by Admiral Hackett. On Mars Shepard learned of a Prothean superweapon capable of destroying the Reapers and recovered its schematics from the Illusive Man, who revealed Cerberus' desire to control the Reapers instead. With schematics in hand, the Alliance began construction on the device, subbed the Crucible, while Shepard was ordered to recruit support from other species across the galaxy. Shepard began by rescuing the turian primarch from Menae, a moon orbiting the turian homeworld, Palaven. The primarch pledged turian support to Shepard if the krogan helped defend Palaven, but the krogan leader - Urdnot Wrex - refused to help until the genophage was cured. They travelled to the salarian homeworld of Sur-Kesh where they found Mordin Solus. Mordin forumlated a cure from Eve, a fertile krogan female, and hatched a plan to disperse it using a tower called the Shroud on the krogan homeworld of Tuchanka. On the way to Tuchanka Shepard was contacted by the leader of the salarian government who revealed that the Shroud had been sabotaged to prevent the dispersal of a cure. She also offered the salarian government's support if the sabotage was left intact. Shepard chose to allow the cure to proceed and Mordin sacrificed himself to deploy a counter-measure. After Tuchanka, the quarians offered their support to the Alliance if Shepard helped them reclaim their homeworld, Rannoch, from the geth. After bording a geth drednought and rescuing Legion, Shepard disabled the Reaper control signal over the geth and destroyed the Reaper base on Rannoch, giving the quarians the opportunity to attack the vulnerable geth. However, Legion sacrificed itself and upgraded the geth usng Reaper technology, enabling them to achieve true sentience and free will. Shepard negiotiated a ceasefire, brokering peace between the two. After being given information by the asari councilor, Shepard travelled to the asari homeworld of Thessia in search of a Prothean artifact that would help her to identify the Catalyst, an essential component for completing the Crucible. She eventually learned that the Catalyst was the Citadel, which had been captured by the Reapers after successfully indoctrinating the Illusive Man. The Alliance and its allies launched an assault on the Reapers in a last-ditch effort to retake Reach and activate the Crucible by joining it with the Citadel. After a grueling battle in London, Shepard was gravely wounded by Harbinger, the leader of the Reapers, but still managed to reach a Reaper transport beam to enter the Citadel. There she convinced the Illusive Man of his indoctrination and he committed suicide. Shepard attempted to fire off the Crucible, only to be lifted to the pinnacle of the Citadel. There a childlike artificial intelligence declared itself to be the Catalyst and the creator of the Reapers. Conceding defeat to Shepard, it presented three opions to break the Reapers' cycle - she could destroy the Reapers and all other synthetic life, control them as a policing force by copying Shepard's influence into a new artificial intelligence, or synthesize all organic and synthetic life, resulting in both achieving perfect understanding of one another. Not wanting to risk the Reapers turning on the galaxy again in the future, Riley chose to destroy them. They and all synthetic lifeforms - including EDI and the geth - were destroyed and the Citadel and the mass relays were severely damaged (though eventually rebuilt). Riley herself was almost killed by the blast that took out the Reapers but was found in the rubble, brought back to full health by Miranda Lawson using her research from the Lazarus Project years prior. PERSONALITYAdmiral Hackett: "Well, what about Shepard? She grew up in the colonies." Captain Anderson: "She knows how tough life can be out there. Her parents were killed when slavers attacked Mindoir." Admiral Hackett: "She proved herself during the Blitz. Held off enemy forces on the ground until reinforcements arrived." Captain Anderson: "She's the only reason Elysium is still standing." Ambassador Udina: "We can't question her courage." Captain Anderson: "Humanity needs a hero. And Shepard's the best we've got." Commander Shepard is a natural born leader. She's stubborn, can be reckless at times, and will always choose to do the right thing - which has frequently resulted in her almost (and actual) death. She's quick to call out others actions if she deems them particularly stupid, though doesn't take it well if anyone does the same to her. Shepard is also fiercely loyal. She lost her family at a young age and her crew, in a way, became her new family. As such she will do whatever is necessary to save them. That being said, she is more than capable of making difficult decisions - however hard it may be. She chose to save Ashley on Virmire, leaving Kaidan behind. She chose to cure the genophage knowing that it would lose her the support of the salarian government and risked the loss of the quarian fleet should they refuse to back down against the geth. And then, ultimately, she destroyed the geth - and EDI - as well as risking her own life to make sure the Reapers could not return. ABILITIESRiley is an Infiltrator and as such is incredibly tech savvy, possessing the ability to disable enemies without the use of a weapon. That being said, she also has weapons training and is highly skilled with a sniper rifle. She is also a specialist in hand to hand combat and possesses a great amount of strength (as seen when she carried Ashley back to the Normandy by herself). She has synthetic enhancements to her skin/muscle/bone allowing protection from a great deal of damage. Shepard has high levels of charisma, allowing her to persuade and intimidate others easily. She is also a natural leader and others tend to follow her instinctively. IN-GAME CHOICESMASS EFFECT Saved the Rachni Queen, talked Wrex down, lost Kaidan on Virmire, saved the Council, made Anderson the human Councilor. MASS EFFECT 2 Saved Maelon's data, killed Morinth, rewrote geth heretics, destroyed the Collector. All squadmates survived. MASS EFFECT 3 Cured the genophage, negotiated peace between the quarians and the geth, chose to destroy the Reapers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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efryndiel , header artwork by elven-butts.
