Dossier: The Professor

Dr. Mordin Solus is a salarian biological weapons expert whose technology may hold the key to countering Collector attacks. He is currently operating a medical clinic in the slums of Omega.

Acquisition
This recruitment mission is acquired automatically after the completion of Freedom's Progress.

Walkthrough
As stated above because of the value of the Normandy’s tech lab on the CIC deck, it is highly recommended that you undertake this recruitment mission first, and at latest, second. Do not leave it until the end of the first round of recruitment missions.

Arrival on Omega
When Shepard arrives on Omega, EDI cautions that the section housing Mordin's clinic is quarantined due to a plague outbreak, and that gaining access may be difficult. She advises visiting Afterlife to get more information. You need not proceed there immediately if you wish to explore, as there are several minor assignments available in the area, as well as a few merchants.

At Afterlife, the bouncers wave you through immediately, while a human is fruitlessly antagonizing the elcor bouncer about the long wait. In the entrance hall you can earn some morality points depending on your dealing with some batarian thugs. Once inside the main bar, you can head to the back and up the stairs to the platform where Aria T'Loak, the unofficial queen of Omega, sits watching over her domain. The guards are not exactly happy to see you, and scan you to ensure you are who you claim to be. Once they are satisfied, you sit down opposite Aria and begin a conversation. You can ask her about anything to do with Omega, but be sure to eventually ask about Mordin and Archangel. Once you get the information, you can excuse yourself from the club. Eventually make your way to the turian guarding the shuttle dock to the quarantine sector.

Into The Plague
Before speaking with the turian, you may wish to save in case you do not have enough morality points to get past him without having to shoot up the place. As you approach, a human woman is incensed at the turian, as she is not being allowed back into the slums to protect her possessions from looters. Asking about the plague reveals that it affects everyone but humans and the vorcha. You can use the morality options to get the guard to call ahead to let his friends to stand down. Alternatively, if you want a firefight, then use the right dialogue options. If you get past the turian using diplomacy, the human woman will exasperatedly ask why she can't also be let in, and the turian will point out she is distinctly lacking a grenade launcher.

The Slums of Omega
Upon entering the slums depending on your options with the turian guard, either you will be shot at or the guards will stand down. Either way move across to retrieve the crate of 250 refined eezo. Go up to the barrier and be sure to pick up the medi-gel on your way. Go up the stairs and be prepared for some grizzly conversation from your squadmates. From where you enter run across to get access to a terminal with credits, power cells in the next room, and bypass the door to get access to some logs about how some turians were sealed in by the local mercs, the Blue Suns, to prevent the spread of the plague. The logs describe their last, tragic days.

Go back out and to the batarian victim on the ground. He is not happy to see humans as humans are not affected and he has somewhat logically convinced himself that humans are the cause of the plague. Ask him some questions and eventually he will go into a coughing fit, a paragon interrupt will use one of your medi-gels to help him (+5 paragon points). An additional 2 paragon points can be earned after the paragon interrupt by saying, "I'm here to help." or 2 renegade points can be earned by saying, "I need information." It is worth saving him because he has a lot more information he can give you. If you save him you can ask about the professor and his rather unorthodox methods, and his skill with weapons. Apparently the Blue Suns pressed him for protection money, and he popped them all before they could even respond. Either way you move on.

Moving past the now healthy or dead batarian bypass the door and go down to discover another batarian, unfortunately there is nothing you can do for this one. Access his logs to find out what happened to him and get his wall safe for a sum of credits. Moving around the next door you come under fire from the few remaining Blue Suns. You can fight them form the first floor, or you can run up the stairs and take them out from the height of the second floor. After taking them out if you did not go to the second floor, retrieve the medi-gel, and spare parts located there.

On the other side form where you entered, to the right of the barricade, bypass that door and enter the apartment of two humans. They tell you about how the Blue Suns, even though corrupt, still ran a tight ship, and had reasonable rates, well for Omega that is. You can convince them that staying in their apartment is not the way using morality, but they will not come with you. They say if you can clear a way to Mordin’s clinic, then they may take their chances and go to the clinic. Any way you decide to take the conversation don’t forget to access the safe for more credits. After that turn around and head back out.

Go behind the barricade that you destroyed the Blue Suns earlier, scan the merc for an assault rifle upgrade. Recommend saving you game at this point, the next area is hard, especially on higher difficulty levels. Go down the stairs and you start hearing gunfire. Apparently the Blood Pack is moving in on Blue Suns territory. Use the battle as cover and back track and up the stairs. Position your squad because the Blue Sun mercs won’t last very long. Then the pack will turn to you. Use your height for an advantage, and have someone guarding the stairs. The vorcha will stay at a distance, but the krogan members of the Blood Pack will not stay away and will charge up the stairs. Destroy the Blood Pack, watch for the pyro members, and the move down the stairs.

On the left side of the large room is another room that links to an apartment. On your way in pick up the Eezo and head into the apartment. The apartment has some unwanted tenants: human looters. You can let them go, or shoot them. Either way ask them questions first. They will fill you in on what happened and how the plague spread. Once done asking your questions, make your decision on the looters, and then leave. Head back out and down the stairs, following the signs to the clinic.

Mordin’s Clinic
Outside the clinic there is a detachment of human and mech guards. The guards if questioned tell you to not make any trouble unless you want to deal with the mechs and the professor himself. Head in and question as many people as you can, there is no actual conversation but they tell of stories of how the professor seems to be helping them and how he defended the clinic from a few attacks. Head down the back hall and head to the left first and pick up two crates and a research. The crates contain Palladium and Platinum, the research increases your medi-gel capacity after the mission. Once done in here go in the other room and before talking to Mordin pick up the medi-gel, power cells, and more resources. This time the other two, Iridium and Eezo. Once acquiring the items talk to Mordin.

Aria was right, Mordin likes to talk, fast at that, very fast. Mordin is friendly however, which is a change of pace in this area. He states that he had found a cure for the plague and needs a way to distribute it. You can ask Mordin to come with you but he declines for the moment because he wants to cure the plague first. So ask his plan for distributing the cure, he says via the air system, but there is a catch, there always is. The air control faculty is guarded by Blood Pack vorcha. Just as Mordin finishes, suddenly the air system shuts down, now a new set of problems on top of the ones you already had. Mordin will tell you that once the plague is cured he will join you. You can ask a few more questions, the end the conversation. Mordin will do two things, once he will give you a new gun, M-6 Carnifex Hand Cannon, and he will ask you to keep an eye out for his assistant Daniel. He would appreciate it if you could find him alive, he went behind the lines to get at some batarians, and give them the cure.

To Environmental Control
Good Save Point

Go out of the clinic, up the stairs, and be ready for a fight. Get into cover and use it to take out the attacking Blood Pack. If Shepard goes in first then you have a chance to catch them off guard and take out one of them. Pick a vorcha because the krogan in this area have armor. Some vorcha will have it too, but theirs is weak. Do not let the vorcha get in cover, because their Vorcha Regeneration will allow them to completely regenerate their health. Move around and use the cover to take out the Blood Pack. Be careful because some of them will charge you and others will stay put. In addition, this area is sometimes a little glitch because Pack members will sometimes not move and will stay out of you line of sight, requiring you to go hunting for the Pack. Once they are all down look around for a gambling terminal, guess what you can hack that for, and a medical station for another medi-gel.

Once past that move up and go up the stairs, and hack the terminal for some more credits. Go up the first of stairs and hack the terminal for more credits the up the next flight. The door on the left has the batarians and Daniel. Save before you enter because one wrong move will result in Daniel’s death. Enter the room and the situation immediately turns into a standoff. If you choose the Renegade interrupt, then every batarian dies, but Daniel dies as well. If you get past the interrupt, then you can convince the batarians that Daniel is there to help, earning paragon points. Alternatively, once they are cured refuse to let them leave, earning renegade points. If Daniel survives this encounter he will return to the clinic, and you will get an email at your personal terminal thanking you.

Once the decision is made, move on and open the door at the end of the hall. The next room has blood pack. Apparently the Pack was closer to the clinic that Mordin realized, and they have apparently taken a lot more territory than originally thought. Fight through the Blood Pack as you come across them until you reach a very large room where there is no ceiling.

This room has three interior staircases, all leading to the lower level. Stay on the upper level for now, it’s safer for you health and longevity. Where those large fans are across the way from you, heavy Blood Pack Troopers, having Missile Launchers will appear. There will be up to 6 of them showing depending on how long it takes you to take out the vorcha and krogan on the lower level. Stay on the upper level until those heavy troopers stop appearing. Once the heavies stop appearing you can either head down or stay on top, your choice.

Making your choice, take out the Blood Pack. If you save in this room make sure to go into past the doors and inside. If you don’t you will reload and you will have to fight all over again. Once inside on the right is some spare parts and some medi-gel. The gel is worth it because you will need it, the upcoming fight is a hard one. Go up the stairs and before opening the door save the game. Once saved, open the door.

Environmental Control
When you enter you encounter an unusually talkative vorcha. This one admits they are in league with the collectors. Now you have another reason to eliminate him, if you didn’t have enough already. Once the vorcha are down, EDI will come over your comm and tell you where to start up the fans, if it wasn’t obvious already, but you need to start this system and inject the cure before continuing.

Before activating the fans, save and put your squad into cover. As soon as you activate the system, vorcha and krogan will stream in from where you entered. Vorcha heavies will also appear on the catwalk across from your position and on the catwalks on your flanks. Take out the ones across the way first and let your squad deal with the Pack members streaming in. Take out the heavies on the catwalks on both sides then pick the side to attack first. Note that if you clear both sides before turning on either fan array, resistance is much lighter as no further enemies seem to spawn when you activate either fan.

No matter which way you choose the process is the same. Put your squad in cover and the door will open on its own. Take out the Blood Pack streaming out. Once they are down, come in and activate the fans for that side. Once that is done, run back out and up the stairs. The other side will already be open so take cover as the Blood Pack will be present and heavies will be again on the upper catwalks. Watch out for krogan charging up the stairs to take out you squad. Once you can get down the door opens again and now even more enemies. Once they are all down move in and activate the fans. You squad will say some things but you are immediately transported back to the clinic.

Mordin’s Clinic Round 2
Once back in the clinic Mordin tells you that the plague levels are dropping throughout the sector. He says that he is satisfied and ready join your team; he mentions working with Cerberus and how unexpected it is that they are working with aliens. You can now head back to the Normandy or stay in the clinic. Stay if you forgot to get the things earlier, but you can also talk to Daniel, if you saved him. You can run into the batarian from earlier in the slums. Also, you will see the humans from the apartment if you managed to convince them to leave. You can talk to all the patients for their perspective. When you are done, return to the Normandy.

Normandy
Mordin arrives ready to work. Jacob is there with the two of you and he brings the professor up to speed on the Collector situation. Now you have access to the tech labs, and you are now able to research upgrades for the Normandy, for your squad, or for yourself.

Now is a good time to start going around and asking about upgrades. Start with Miranda because her upgrade makes planet scanning a whole lot easier, and much faster.

Enemies

 * Blood Pack Boom-Squad
 * Blood Pack Pyro
 * Blood Pack Trooper
 * Blood Pack Warrior
 * Blue Suns Trooper
 * Varren

Mission Summary

 * Experience: 1,000 (1250)
 * Credits: 50,000
 * Cerberus Funding: 25,000
 * Credits found: 23,000 (+2000 by getting the datapad if you let the first plagued batarian die)
 * Weapons:
 * M-6 Carnifex Hand Cannon
 * Resources
 * Element Zero: 1,000
 * Palladium: 2,000
 * Platinum: 2,000
 * Iridium: 2,000
 * Upgrades
 * Medi-Gel Capacity (Microscanner)
 * Assault Rifle Damage (Kinetic Pulsar)

Trivia

 * Bringing Garrus into the area, although it's not recommended, has no impact on his health, although it does give extra dialog and an extra scene when you first meet Mordin.
 * Bringing Grunt into the area will lead to him asking "Is anyone else hungry?" after examining the burning bodies, to the disgust of the other squad member.
 * When rescuing Daniel, the batarian holding him at gunpoint is wearing a Purgatory prisoner jumpsuit.
 * In one of the conversation with looters in a turian's apartment, Shepard says, "Stealing from the dead, that's pretty low." This might be Bioware's staffs making fun of themselves. As a prominent maker of RPG games, Bioware most certainly opens ample opportunities for the Player Characters to loot from the dead. In fact, looting is the one of the biggest attractions for RPG fans.