David Anderson

"I know Saren. I know his reputation, his politics. He believes humans are a blight on the galaxy. This attack was an act of war."

Captain David Anderson is a human war hero and the captain of the SSV Normandy. He was born in 2137 in London but holds almost no discernible regional accent. Anderson is one of the Alliance's most decorated special forces operatives, one of the first to graduate from the N7 marine program at Arcturus Station, as well as serving with honor in the First Contact War between the turians and the Alliance.

Captain Anderson plays a major role in the prequel novel Mass Effect: Revelation. In Mass Effect he is voiced by Keith David.

Mass Effect: Revelation
In 2165, Lieutenant David Anderson was the Executive Officer of the SSV Hastings. When the Hastings responded to a distress signal at a remote research station on Sidon, Anderson led the ground team and discovered the Sidon facility had been harbouring a traitor. Returning to the Citadel to recouperate after the mission, Anderson received the final decree of his divorce from his wife Cynthia, a separation caused by the long absences of his military career. He then followed the human tradition after getting divorced: he went to Chora's Den, near his apartment on the Citadel, to drown his sorrows.

After summoning Anderson to her offices, Ambassador Anita Goyle revealed that Sidon had been illegally researching artificial intelligence, and asked him to investigate the matter discreetly, as exposure would embarrass the Alliance. Anderson looked into the files of the only member of the Sidon staff who was absent during the attack, Kahlee Sanders, and discovered she was in fact the daughter of Jon Grissom, Anderson's role model. He went to Elysium under the cover of shore leave, and confronted Grissom. The retired general claimed he sent Kahlee to the safety and obscurity of the Terminus Systems but Anderson kept the house under surveillance. His gut instinct proved useful when a krogan named Skarr came looking for Kahlee, who was being hidden by her father. Anderson was barely a match for the krogan, had not turian Spectre Saren Arterius arrived. After Saren left, taking in Kahlee's lie about Sidon being a biotics research, Anderson and Kahlee decide they need to leave Elysium. With the help of a contact of Grissom's, they changed Kahlee's appearance and gave her a false ID as Corporal Suzanne Weathers.

Arriving on Camala, Anderson runs into Saren again, who was very furious that Anderson lied to him. Claiming ignorance, Anderson was left alone. Kahlee later revealed about the illegal research on Sidon, headed by Kahlee's crazed mentor, the AI researcher Dr. Shu Qian, and the batarian entrepreneur Edan Had'dah. Anderson quickly warns Goyle about Saren's discovery, just before the Council was about to impose sanctions on the Alliance. Goyle was able to negotiate her way out of the ordeal and later managed to issue a mission to arrest Qian and Had'dah, as well as assess Anderson's Spectre candidacy. Anderson then set up for Kahlee to be taken offworld but she was captured by Skarr to be forced to work for Qian. He paired up with Saren but they disliked each other from the word go, and it went badly. Saren broke from the plan and began destroying the element zero refinery where Kahlee was being held.

Anderson did not suspect that Saren had an ulterior motive during the rescue - claiming Dr. Qian's files on a mysterious artifact - as he was focused on rescuing Kahlee, with whom he had developed a budding romance. With her help, Anderson killed Skarr and the two of them escaped the refinery in time. Though Kahlee was saved, many innocent people died due to Saren's actions. However, Saren managed to put the blame onto Anderson, claiming the lieutenant alerted the guards and forced Saren's hand. True or not, this was enough to keep Anderson out of the Spectres. This story eventually filtered back to the Citadel, as a rumour that Anderson had been the first human Spectre and blown his first mission so badly they kicked him out - a story Harkin never got tired of repeating. Also, Anderson and Kahlee had to say their good-byes, as she was being transferred to a classified position.

Mass Effect
Anderson remained in the Alliance military, gaining an excellent reputation, and was eventually promoted to captain. Both Navigator Pressly and Doctor Chakwas speak very highly of Anderson's bravery and leadership skills. Because of this, and because of the secret and sensitive nature of the Normandy's shakedown run, the Alliance gave him command of their prototype frigate and allowed him to hand-pick his crew. He chose Commander Shepard as his XO and effectively became Shepard's mentor. A turian Spectre, Nihlus Kryik, was assigned to supervise the mission and assess Shepard as a possible candidate for the Spectres. The Normandy's first mission was the covert pickup of a Prothean Beacon from Eden Prime. Nihlus was intended to have accompanied Shepard on several other missions to complete his assessment. However, things got a lot more complicated when the colony came under attack by the geth and a massive warship.

After Shepard passed out, having made contact with the beacon, Anderson learned from Ashley and Kaidan, the Eden Prime ground team, that the attack had been led by none other than Saren, who had killed Nihlus in cold blood. Anderson believed that his old enemy was working with the geth to exterminate the entire human race, and was determined to stop him. But there was little he could do to stop Saren; their checkered past complicated the hearing with the Council. Ambassador Udina told Anderson to step aside and let Shepard handle the investigation, so the Council wouldn't claim the Alliance's accusations of treason were based on old grudges. Anderson was able to offer Shepard an explanation of Saren's history, and dig up some leads to help build the case against him. Finally, once Shepard had been made a Spectre, Anderson stepped down as the captain of the Normandy and handed her over to Shepard. He admitted this wasn't how he imagined his career ending, but he was content to pass the torch on to his XO.

Anderson remained on the Citadel, able to give Shepard advice and guidance when necessary. He was surprised when Shepard knew about Armistan Banes but didn't want to inquire where he found out. He was one of the few on the station who actually believed Shepard's vision from the Prothean Beacon was true, and understood the magnitude of the threat the Reapers posed. Anderson guessed that the Conduit was some kind of Prothean weapon, one Saren was planning to unleash against the galaxy. When Shepard finally gathered enough evidence of Saren's role in the impending Reaper invasion and returned, Anderson realised the Council and Udina might use Shepard's talk of the Reapers as an excuse to ground the Normandy, but couldn't get a message to Shepard in time.

Concocting a plan, Anderson invited the commander to a meeting at Flux and offered his help to unlock the Normandy's systems. Shepard warned him that he could be arrested for treason, but Anderson only cared about getting the Normandy to Ilos in time to stop Saren. He offered to either risk facing armed C-Sec patrols to unlock the ship's systems directly (getting shot in the process), or to break into Udina's office to countermand the lockdown order. Anderson's plan worked and the Normandy got off the Citadel safely. Somehow Anderson managed to survive the initial assault on the Citadel when Saren put his plan into action. After Sovereign was destroyed, Anderson led the rescue teams into the Council Chambers, hunting for Shepard's squad.

Depending on the outcome of the story, Anderson is one of the two candidates Shepard can recommend as either the human Council representative, or the chairman of a human-controlled or human-exclusive Council if the Destiny Ascension is destroyed. If chosen, Anderson was honored to accept the role. He vowed to either help strengthen and unite the Citadel races against the Reapers, or use his military experience to the full, and drive the Reapers back into dark space.