Dossier: The Convict

Jack is rumored to be the most powerful human biotic ever encountered. Very little additional data regarding Jack is available, except that the subject has a history of violence and should be approached carefully. Currently, Jack is being held on the turian prison ship Purgatory. Cerberus has negotiated for the prisoner's release.

Acquisition
This mission is acquired after the mission to Freedom's Progress.

Arrival
Upon arriving at Purgatory, Shepard is confronted by several guards that insist that Shepard and the squad relinquish their weapons. The following conversation can yield a few morality points in either direction. After your point has been made, Warden Kuril will enter and will allow you to proceed, telling his guards that they are well equipped to handle three armed guests. Kuril will take you on a walkthrough of the facility. You are in the maximum-security wing and he explains how each pod is a self-contained cell that can be ejected if necessary. You can see giant arms moving cells and it moves three onto the walkway further along. Kuril tells you how to get to where you can retrieve Jack, once Cerberus' credits are transferred.

Once you have control again, move along the tunnel to where the cells are. Once you arrive at the first cell, one of the squad members with you may offer his or her thoughts. You can choose to converse with the guards, or you can walk past. If you choose to converse, you can earn a few morality points based on your conversation options. Moving past the guards and the prisoner, you can converse with the next prisoner and he gives you some inside details on how the prison really works. Apparently, the warden sells prisoners to earn some extra income. He asks if you can buy him, but once he learns that you have come for Jack he immediately changes his mind. You can question him about how dangerous Jack is. It isn’t good, but for the mission’s purposes, she’s perfect.

Continue down the hallway until you reach the door to outprocessing. The tech at the entrance tells you to go to the door at the end of the room. As you open the door, it reveals a cell. A cutscene plays where the Warden comes over the intercom and tells Shepard that they are too valuable to leave the station without a price tag. Tell him what you think of that and prepare for combat.

Betrayal
Once the cutscene with the devious Warden ends, get your squad into cover and target the doors as Blue Suns mercs will come streaming in that door. FENRIS Mechs will also come through and try to harass you. Stay in cover and kill off the mercs before they do the same to you. Once the mercs are dead, gather up thermal clips and move out the door: the tube to your left is your target. Move your squadmates up to the first support pillars on either side to provide cover and take cover yourself, either behind the crate or at the entrance to the tube. Big surprise: more mercs will try to take you down; deal with them and move on. There is no real reason that you should move your squadmates or yourself, as the mercs will just come at you. Pick up the clips and enter the control booth for the super max wing. The tech inside will try to stop you -- deal with him -- then grab the refined element zero next to the door where you entered, and then access the console. (If you shoot the Technician at point-blank rage with a shotgun, then access the console, you will see him slide off the desk during the cutscene.) As you access the console, one of your squadmates will tell you that this will override the security for the whole prison. Doing it will continue the cutscene and Jack is shown to be fully revived and clearly angry at her incarceration. The three YMIR Mechs in the room are apparently no deterrent for her, as she breaks her restraints, unleashes her massive biotic powers on the YMIRs, and escapes. Now, it’s a chase.

The Chase Begins
Once you regain control, run to the door on your right and down the ramp to where Jack was. You'll find that she has blasted a hole in the wall and the YMIR Mechs are in ruins. Before going through the hole, scan the YMIR Mech at the back for a research upgrade, then proceed into the hole. Kuril comes over the intercom and tells all the Suns on the station that there is a riot in progress and Jack is loose. The computer tells you a little further along that some cellblocks have decompressed, with no survivors. The computer will regularly update you on the destruction running through the station. Moving along the hallway, grab the power cells and loot the dead guard farther down for some credits. Once you reach another hole, walk through it and into a scene of destruction.

The room bears all the signs that someone came through in a fit of rage. Move your squad into cover and take out the mercs that are trying to kill both you and the prisoners. Unfortunately, the prisoners are going to kill you, too, so move through and kill everyone and everything that gets in your way. In this room, stay on the upper level and in cover on the bridge, and use long range weapons to take out the Blue Suns. Watch your flanks for any enemies. After a few seconds of taking cover on the bridge, however, a large problem waltzes in: an YMIR Mech. The mech will deal with any remaining prisoners, then open fire on you. Use powers to take out the mech quickly because it can get on your flank or behind you.

Once the YMIR is down, take out any remaining Blue Suns in the area and then move from cover and collect clips. Run up the ramp from where the YMIR came down, or the ones at the end if you didn’t see that, and hack the datapad at the top for some credits. On the way out, scan the shotgun for a research upgrade. Once in the U-shaped corridor between the cellblocks, grab the Medi-gel, and hack the datapad for some credits. Save your game and open the door into the next cellblock.

The next cellblock has a little less to worry about in terms of prisoners, but more in Blue Suns. Move your squadmates into cover: the thing on the floor across from you is a pop-up cover, so just move a squadmate or yourself near it and it will pop-up for cover. There are a few of these in this room so be on the lookout for them. Use the initial cover to take out the enemies in the trench and move along the trench until you reach the underside of the bridge. At this point, if not already, another YMIR Mech strolls out and promptly greets you and your squad with machine-gun fire. Take cover and you have two ways to deal with this:

Option 1: Move back to the last piece cover before the bridge and hunker down there. Use ammo powers and anything else you have to take down the YMIR when it approaches from the right. Keep an eye out for Blue Suns mercs that will try to take advantage of your focus on the mech. Once the YMIR is down, either go to the right and deal with the remaining mercs, or use the upper catwalk for the same purpose.

Option 2: Once you have cleared out the mercs, take your squad up the ramp to the catwalk and take cover, both from the mercs and from the approaching YMIR Mech. The mech will meander its way over and come between some cell-pods ahead of you. While it starts to climb the ramp, focus your firepower on it. Once the mech is destroyed, take out the remaining Blue Suns and head for the door.

Either way you chose to deal with the mech and mercs, don’t forget to grab credits from the dead Blue Suns soldier on your way to the next hallway. This hallway has a medical station, power cells, and a wall safe. Collect from each and BEFORE opening the door, save your game.

The Warden
Opening the door this time gives a cutscene where Warden Kuril is using his M-76 Revenant to cut down rioting prisoners. Then he happens to notice you, and mentions that while he could not take Shepard, he will still recapture Jack. Take him down before he has a chance to carry through on that threat. It is not that simple, though, since he is protected by a shield that must be taken down before you start shooting at him. Otherwise it is just a waste of ammo. The three generators that must be taken out are on the lower level ahead of you, and on the upper level to your left and to your right. The center and left ones can be taken out from your initial cover site ahead of you; the left one is a little trickier.

Once the cutscene ends, run up and take cover behind the crates ahead of you. Take out the mercs that are protecting the shield generator and then shoot the generator where you see the glowing blue power cell. Again, use the cover to take out the attacking mercs and the center and left generators. From here you have two options to attack the third. One is to go to the left and use the pop-up cover and crates here to shield you from the attacking mercs who come out of the large cargo bay doors to the right, as well as from the warden and his rifle. The second option of going to the right will help because although you challenge the mercs directly, once you defeat the ones coming out of the door, all you have to worry about is the Warden.

No matter which direction you chose, once you've taken down the Warden’s shield, the mercs will stop coming through the large door and that just leaves you with the Warden himself. Kuril has all three -- health, armor, and shields -- for defense once the overshield is down; get in cover, put your squad in cover, and focus your fire on the Warden. The best options are to use assault rifles, sniper rifles, or Heavy Weapons to take down his defenses. The best time to hit him is when he pops up or starts to go back into cover. On higher difficulties, it's better to sic your squad on Kuril's back-up while you focus on him. Once the Warden falls, regardless of how many Blue Suns are left, a cutscene will start.

Escape and the Normandy
Jack, however, has also been busy, and has reached the airlock. The guards try to stop her, but her biotics take them down before they have a chance to even raise their weapons. Apparently, the large ship out the window draws Jack's interest, but she spots the Cerberus logo on the Normandy's bow planes. That sends her into a fit, allowing a batarian guard to sneak up on her, but before the guard can do anything he gets a shot in the head from Shepard’s pistol. Jack spins around, and a conversation begins.

If you have Jacob and/or Miranda, there are a few interesting comments from Jack during the conversation. You can earn a few morality points based on your conversation options: Jack wants access to Cerberus’ files onboard the ship; Miranda and Jacob think it’s a bad idea. You can lie to Jack to get her on board, or you can give her access, which won’t earn you points with Cerberus, but either way, you board the Normandy before Purgatory explodes in your wake.

Once back on the Normandy, Jack demands immediate access to the files, and you can either give them to her right away, or tell her to settle in first. She says she is going to the lowest point on the ship. You can find her down the stairs outside Main Engineering on Deck 4.

Enemies

 * Blue Suns Centurion
 * Blue Suns Commander
 * Blue Suns Legionnaire
 * Blue Suns Trooper
 * FENRIS Mech
 * Prisoner
 * Warden Kuril
 * YMIR Mech

Mission Summary
Recruited prisoner known as “Jack” for the team

Purgatory’s betrayal of Shepard unacceptable. Fortunately, was able to reverse credit transfer. May have to take steps against Blue Suns to demonstrate consequences of interference.


 * Experience: 1,000 (1,250)
 * Credits: 30,000
 * Cerberus Funds: 15,000
 * Credits Found: 15,000
 * Resources:
 * Element Zero: 500
 * Upgrades:
 * Ablative VI (Damage Protection)
 * Synchronized Pulsar (Shotgun Damage)

Trivia

 * Bringing Grunt along on this mission gives some interesting dialogue as the mission progresses. Garrus and Mordin also have unique dialogue here (for example, when passing the guard slain by escaped prisoners.)
 * There are two prisoners to be seen on the way to Prisoner Out-processing, identified only by their prison ID numbers, 780 and 403. 780 and 403 are also the two major telephone area codes for the Canadian province of Alberta, where BioWare calls home.