Dossier: The Convict

Shepard travels to the prison ship Purgatory to retrieve Jack.

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 he and his selected 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 more that 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's credits are transferred.

Once you have control again move along the tunnel to where the cells are. Once you arrive at the first cell, depending on who you have with you, they will say some interesting things. 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 guard 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 alive, or at least without a price tag. He says he can live like a king with the money form Shepard’s sale. 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 and the tube going left is your target. Move your squadmates up to the first support pillars on either side to provide cover and take cover yourself 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, then access the console. As you access the console one of your squadmates will tell you that this will override the security for the whole prison. Do it and the cutscene will continue and Jack is fully revived and clearly angry at her incarceration. The three YMIR Mechs in room are apparently no deterrent for her, she breaks her restraints and takes out her massive biotic powers on the YMIRs. Easily defeating the mechs she 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. 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 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 cellblock 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 the dead guard 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 it 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 the self-destructing prison 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 they try to use them. After a few seconds of taking cover on the bridge however, a large problem waltzes in, a YMIR mech. The mech will deal with any remaining prisoners then open fire on you. Use powers to take out the mech and take it down 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 once 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. 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. 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 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 Sun mercs that will try to take advantage of your focus on the mech, don’t let them. Once the YMIR is down either go to the right an 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 to drop the overlarge enemy. 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 med 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 assault rifle 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. However it is not that simple, 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. On the upper level to your left and right. The center and left ones can be taken out from your initial cover site ahead of you the left one is a little more tricky.

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, and from the warden and his rifle. The second option going right will help because while 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 take down the Warden’s shield, the mercs 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. Once the Warden falls, a cutscene will start.

Escape and the Normandy
Jack however has also been busy, and she 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 interest for Jack, but she spots the Cerberus logo on the Normandy's bow planes. That sends her into a fit and she doesn’t notice the guard sneaking up on her. However the batarian 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 by 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, but you can lie to Jack to get her on board or you can give her access, which won’t earn you points with Cerberus. Either way you board the Normandy before Purgatory explodes in your wake.

Once back on the Normandy, Jack demands immediate access to the files, 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
 * Prisoners
 * Warden Kuril
 * YMIR Mech

Mission Summary

 * Experience: 1250
 * Credits: 30,000
 * Cerberus Funds: 15,000
 * Credits Found: 15,000
 * Resources:
 * Element Zero: 500
 * Upgrades:
 * Damage Protection (Ablative VI)
 * Shotgun Damage (Synchronized Pulsar)

Trivia

 * Bringing Grunt along on this mission give some interesting dialogue as the mission progresses.