Storyline

Humanity has discovered faster than light (FTL) travel and can now use huge technological wonders, Mass Relays, that create a wormhole allowing for travel over vast distances. Having only recently made contact with other alien species, humanity has many foes among these new races.

Mass Effect: Revelation
The Mass Effect: Revelation story revolves around the adventures of Lieutenant David Anderson of the Alliance Navy as he investigates an assault on a top secret research facility.

The story begins in 2157 with Admiral Jon Grissom who is on his way to Arcturus aboard the SSV New Delhi to congratulate the new graduates of the Alliance's N7 specialist training program. Nine years ago in 2148, scientists discovered a cache of alien technology buried under the surface of Mars. These aliens were known as the Protheans and it was decided that they had disappeared for unknown reasons 50,000 years ago. Using this technology, humanity discovered faster-than-light travel, or FTL, and expanded throughout the solar system. In 2149, an exploration team near the edge of the solar system discovered that Charon, Pluto's moon, was a mass relay, a dormant piece of ancient Prothean technology covered by sheets of ice. Scientists discovered that the mass relay granted instant travel across thousands of light-years to another mass relay in a different area of the galaxy. Jon Grissom led a team of brave men and women through the mass relay and became a symbol of the Alliance, a global coalition formed after the discovery of the Prothean cache on Mars. Back in 2157, Grissom meets with Second Lieutenant David Edward Anderson, a promising young graduate of the N7 program, and informs him that his true reason for arriving at Arcturus was to find new recruits to battle an unknown alien force that attacked an Alliance post at Shanxi. It was this that started the First Contact War between the Turian Empire and the Alliance. Several battles ensued until the Citadel Council, a multi-species government devoted to preserving galactic peace and stability, intervened and stopped the conflict. Eight years later, humanity was recognized by the Council and granted an embassy.

In 2165, David Anderson, answers an S.O.S. while patrolling the Skyllian Verge, an isolated region on the farthest fringes of Alliance space. Inside the facility, Anderson and his crew discover an elevator leading to the lower sections of the facility which was never taken back up to the surface. In the lower facilities, Anderson and his crew are attacked by several mercenaries who they manage to defeat. They discover a pile of dead bodies of the scientists and also find out that there was a traitor on the inside because the mercenaries had the codes to open certain doors. One remaining mercenary manages to set off a bomb that destroys the entire lower facilities. Anderson and his crew manage to escape.

On Camala, Edan Had'dah, a rich batarian, meets with the Blue Suns, an infamous mercenary group in the Skyllian Verge, who he hired to attack the Sidon base. A krogan Battle Master bounty hunter named Skarr is hired by Edan to assassinate Kahlee in order to cover up his involvement with the attack on the Sidon facility. At this time, Anderson arrives at the Citadel, the center of the Citadel Council, to meet with Ambassador Anita Goyle, the famous elected representative of the Alliance. Ambassador Goyle informs Anderson that the Sidon facility was researching artificial intelligence, technology that was banned by the Council after an incident 300 years ago where the quarians created an artificial race known as the geth that eventually turned on their creators. Ambassador Goyle reassured Anderson that the studies were being conducted under safe conditions. She sends Anderson to locate Kahlee Sanders who may have information on who was behind the attack and who may know the whereabouts of Dr. Shu Qian, the brilliant scientist in charge of the Sidon facility who is believed to still be alive.

Meanwhile, Saren, a turian Spectre, soldiers of the Council allowed to work above the law, who also has an extreme hatred for humanity over the First Contact War in which he lost his brother, tracks an illegal weapons exchange in a warehouse on Juxhi. After interrogating one of the arms dealers, Saren learns that the weapons were for the Blue Suns but at the last minute they pulled out to pursue a different job. Saren becomes suspicious and becomes dedicated to finding out what the Blue Suns were involved with. From a Blue Sun mercenary named Groto Ib-ba, Saren learns that a bounty hunter named Skarr was sent to assassinate a human named Kahlee. On Elysium, Anderson appears to Jon Grissom who tells him that he sent Kahlee away from Elysium to safety. Anderson leaves and a few hours later, Skarr shows up and attacks Grissom and Kahlee who was actually hiding in the house. Anderson appears to fight Skarr and later Saren appears and drives Skarr away. Saren questions Kahlee on what was going on at Sidon and she lies and says they were working on prototype weapons because if she revealed the work on artificial intelligence, Saren would alert the Council and the Alliance would be in trouble.

After Saren leaves, Kahlee tells Anderson that while working at Sidon. Kahlee mentions that all the equipment for the project were supplied by the Dah'tan Manufacturing Company on Camala. Meanwhile, Skarr returns to Edan who sends him and the Blue Sun mercenaries to destroy the Dah'tan facility and erase any information connecting him to Dr. Qian and the Sidon facility.

Anderson finds and kills Skarr in a Had'dah refinery. Meanwhile, Saren kills Dr. Quian and Edan after stealing Dr. Quian's files. He plans to use the artifact to take his revenge upon humans.

Mass Effect
The Mass Effect storyline has the player take the role of Commander Shepard, a human military officer in the Alliance Navy. Shepard had a difficult early life but in having to overcome great challenges in the line of duty, the commander has since shown exemplary talent and leadership ability. Currently, Shepard is the executive officer (XO) aboard the SSV Normandy.

Prologue
A prototype Alliance warship, the SSV Normandy, travels from Jupiter to the Mass Relay station at Charon. On board Captain Anderson, Admiral Hackett and Ambassador Udina discuss Commander Shepard's worthiness to become a Spectre. The ship and crew are heading to Eden Prime for their shakedown mission. Commander Shepard heads to the bridge where Joker, the pilot, takes the ship into the Mass Relay for its journey to Eden Prime. After making the jump, Captain Anderson asks Shepard to head to the comm room for a briefing. Once there Shepard and Nihlus Kryik, a Spectre who has been sent to observe, discuss the mission before Anderson joins them. Together they inform the commander about a Prothean Beacon that has been discovered on Eden Prime. This is their true mission: recover the beacon. This is also Nihlus' chance to observe Shepard in action.

The briefing is interrupted by a transmission from Eden Prime that Joker patches through. The footage shows Alliance soldiers fighting on the surface, under heavy fire and requesting reinforcements. As Shepard, Anderson and Nihlus watch, they see a huge dreadnought hanging over the surface. Anderson orders Shepard to get ready - this is going to be worse than they thought.

Eden Prime
As the Normandy touches down on Eden Prime, Cpl. Richard L. Jenkins, Lt. Kaidan Alenko and Commander Shepard prepare to head down to the planet. Nihlus is going groundside too, but he claims he moves faster on his own, and goes on ahead. In the first few minutes on the surface, geth assault drones appear without warning and cut down Jenkins. Shepard and Alenko continue towards the dig site, discovering the only surviving marine, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, who is being chased by geth troopers. Shepard and Alenko help her fight them off. Williams can't explain why the geth are here, but they've wiped out her whole unit.

Williams leads them to the dig site but the beacon has been moved to the spaceport. While they examine the nearby camp, the squad run into a group of geth Husks, reanimated human corpses, which they manage to kill. Shaken, they continue towards the spaceport where Nihlus agreed to meet with them. Meanwhile, Nihlus is surprised to see Saren Arterius, a fellow Spectre, at the spaceport. Saren tells Nihlus he's got everything under control, but when Nihlus turns his back, Saren kills him and leaves, ordering the geth to use explosives to destroy the colony. He approaches the Prothean beacon, which reacts by lifting him off the ground.

After finding Nihlus's body, Shepard's team continues to the tram area where they defeat the last of the geth and disarm their demolition charges. Shepard sees the beacon and calls the Normandy while Alenko and Williams take a look at it. One of them gets too close and is caught in some sort of field - Shepard intervenes but is caught in the field instead, pulled off the ground as Saren was. The commander suffers some kind of horrific vision - synthetics waging some sort of terrible war - before the beacon explodes and Shepard is thrown to the ground, unconscious.

The Citadel
Fifteen hours after the Eden Prime attack, Shepard wakes up in the Normandy's medical unit. The commander is physically okay, but has increased REM and suffered strange dreams. Captain Anderson tells Shepard about Saren, that he is a powerful Spectre but also outspoken against humans. If he's in charge of the geth, that means he has gone rogue, and they must tell the Council. Upon arriving at the Citadel, Ambassador Donnel Udina tries to convince the Council to remove Saren's rights as a Spectre, but only succeeds in getting an audience. Shepard, along with Alenko and Williams, continues to the Citadel Tower and meets Garrus Vakarian, a C-Sec (Citadel Security) officer investigating the charges against Saren. He hasn't found anything useful: Saren's Spectre status makes him untouchable.

The Council audience doesn't go well. The Alliance has little evidence and Saren - viewing the proceedings from a hologram - openly laughs at Shepard's vision. They need more to go on. Garrus, the C-Sec officer, might be able to help. Udina tells Shepard to find Harkin, a retired C-sec officer who could help them find Garrus. Shepard tracks Garrus to the Med Clinic, where the squad helps Garrus to take down a group of Fist's thugs, who were threatening Dr. Chloe Michel. Michel informs the group that a quarian had recently come to her for treatment. She had evidence of Saren's connection to the geth. However this quarian is being held captive by Fist himself. The group gains the aid of Urdnot Wrex, a Krogan Battlemaster, mercenary and bounty hunter who has a mark on Fist. They raid Chora's Den and learn that the quarian was supposed to hand the information over to the Shadow Broker, but this meeting is a trap. Saren's men will be the ones waiting. Shepard races to the meeting and manages to save the quarian, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya.

They bring Tali back to the Ambassador's offices. The evidence she has is an audio file proving Saren was behind the attack on Eden Prime. But it also hints that Saren is looking for something called the Conduit with the aid of a powerful asari called Matriarch Benezia, to bring about the 'return of the Reapers'. The Council aren't interested in the Reapers, but they can't ignore this evidence and strip Saren of his Spectre status. Commander Shepard is then made a Spectre and tasked with hunting Saren down. Captain Anderson steps down as commander of the Normandy and hands the ship over to Shepard, along with some useful leads. There have been reports of geth activity on the planets Noveria and Feros. Also, Matriarch Benezia, Saren's ally, has a daughter named Dr. Liara T'Soni, a Prothean expert.

[Note that the next three missions can be done at any time, and therefore some dialog or events may change according to the order you perform the missions in.]

Liara
The group tracks Liara down to Therum, a mining colony in the Knossos system. Sheppard finds Liara trapped behind a Prothean barrier curtain, they free her and learn that she is not in league with Saren or Benezia as the Geth were trying to destroy her. They defeat a Krogan Battlemaster on Saren's side and escape the mine as it explodes.

Noveria
Shepard arrives at Noveria and discovers that Matriarch Benezia recently arrived. She and Saren are investors in Binary Helix, which has a lab up on Peak 15. Benezia has gone there on business. However the lab has since issued a Code Omega signal, meaning there are critical problems, and a blizzard has cut off shuttle access. After wrangling with Administrator Anoleis, Shepard goes through other channels to get a garage pass and drives up to Peak 15. The facility is deserted save for geth and bizarre creatures - the Rachni - which have escaped from the labs. Shepard reactivates Mira and goes up to Rift Station, looking for Benezia. Rift Station is full of science staff sheltering from the Rachni attack; Shepard can help them out but gets attacked by those loyal to Benezia. The squad discovers Binary Helix found a Rachni egg that turned out to be a queen, and were trying to breed an army.

Down in the labs through the maintenance area, Shepard finds Benezia with the Rachni Queen. The matriarch attacks the squad, but after a fierce battle Benezia manages to overcome the indoctrination Sovereign has put on her, and tells Shepard the truth. Saren wants the location of the lost Mu Relay, and sent her to retrieve it from the queen's genetic memory, but Benezia doesn't know what else he is planning. Benezia hands the coordinates over to Shepard, but the matriarch becomes lost to the indoctrination again and the commander has to kill her. After deciding what to do with the Rachni Queen, Shepard leaves Noveria with Benezia's data and another piece of the puzzle.

Feros
Drawn to Feros by rogue geth activity, Sheppard and his crew find the Human colony Zhu's Hope, owned by the ExoGeni Corp, filled with disturbed and sick settlers. Shortly after landing, the colony comes under attack by Geth and Shepperd sets off to find why the Geth and Seren came to Feros in the first place. He soon finds a small group of humans who claim to be from ExoGeni Corp themselves, trapped by the Geth and the force fields the Geth dropship set up. After making his way inside the ExoGeni Headquarters, he discovers that the corporation has been experimenting with a mind-controlling plant, the Thorian, and that Zhu's Hope is actually a testing ground for its strange qualities. Shepperd disables the force fields by knocking the Geth dropship off the headquarters and proceeds back to the group of ExoGeni workers, where one of the security guards has received word that ExoGeni wants Zhu's Hope destroyed. Shepherd deals with the guard (either by talking him down or by a bullet to the face, depending on your Charm or Intimidate stat) and heads back to Zhu's Hope to destroy the Thorian. The colonists attack Shepperd when he arrives, along with Thorian Thralls, a kind of humanoid creature similar to the Geth Husks. Shepperd puts the colonists down and heads deep inside Zhu's Hope, where he finds that the Thorian is actually a very massive plant that has the ability to create Asari Clones that talk for the Thorian. After battling the Clones and destroying the Thorian, he finds that Saren sacrified one of his allies to the Thorian to gain the Cipher, the knowledge of the Protheans and their "way of thinking." Shepperd rescues Saren's sacrifice and she gives Shepperd the Cipher, another clue on how to find the Conduit, Saren's ultimate goal.

Virmire
The Council contacts Shepard a message with a possible lead. A salarian group on Virmire, investigating reports of Saren's activities, have sent a mission-critical transmission that was almost lost in static. Shepard heads to Virmire and meets the leader of the salarians, Captain Kirrahe. They have found a breeding facility for krogan that Saren is using to create an army. Kirrahe, now realising he's not getting the reinforcements he needs, asks for Shepard's help destroying it and they develop a plan. While the salarians distract Saren's geth, Shepard will take a team around the back and plant a nuclear device that will wipe out the facility. Kirrahe asks Shepard for a squad member to help him coordinate the attack - Shepard can send Ashley or Kaidan to help the salarians.

Leading the strike team, Shepard reaches the facility, but discovers its main purpose is not to breed krogan but to study indoctrination. In Saren's private lab the team finds another Prothean beacon that gives Shepard another vision, and they are confronted by a hologram of Sovereign itself, which is not a Reaper ship but an actual Reaper. Shepard manages to get the nuke set up across the facility only to get a call that the salarians are being attacked with heavy losses. The commander takes a group to help them but as they leave, the geth start attacking the nuke site and Shepard has to choose: both Kaidan and Ashley are in trouble and there's no time to save both. Once the choice has been made Shepard brings reinforcements in, only to be confronted by Saren. He tries to make the commander join his cause but Shepard refuses, fighting Saren off. Saren gets away and the team board the Normandy, escaping Virmire as the nuke destroys the facility.

Mutiny on the Normandy
Thanks to the undamaged beacon on Virmire, Shepard's Prothean vision is now complete. During the debrief, Liara melds with Shepard's mind to interpret it fully. After she gives the vision much thought, she realises that the landmarks in the vision are on Ilos, a planet she has studied as part of her Prothean research. Ilos had been impossible to reach because it was only accessible through the Mu Relay. This is why Saren needed the Mu Relay's location from Noveria. After the debrief Shepard gets a call from the Council: they're putting together a massive multi-species effort. Thrilled the Council are finally taking this seriously, Shepard heads back to the Citadel, wanting to personally lead the assault. But once back at the station, Shepard discovers the Council are only putting up a blockade around the Mass Relays to stop Saren reaching the Citadel. Neither they nor Ambassador Udina believe Shepard's story about the Reapers and they refuse to send a fleet to Ilos. It is in the Terminus Systems and a Citadel fleet there could start a war. Shepard knows the Normandy's stealth systems can get them there discreetly, but the Council are getting tired of Shepard's insistence that the Reapers are the real threat. Udina, wanting to make nice with the Council, locks out the Normandy's systems and grounds the ship.

Frustrated, knowing Saren is close to finding the Conduit and they're losing time, Shepard is grateful when one of the squad offers support, but a real breakthrough comes when Captain Anderson gets in touch, asking Shepard for a discreet meeting at Flux. Anderson believes the commander's story and knows the Normandy is the only ship for the job. He is going to unlock the Normandy's systems, allowing Shepard to steal the ship and take her to Ilos. Shepard is concerned that Anderson will be arrested and charged with treason - or worse - but Anderson sees his future as a small price to pay for stopping a galactic menace. Shepard goes to the Normandy and waits while Anderson does the job. The Normandy's systems are unlocked and they escape the Citadel, heading to Ilos.

Ilos
Upon reaching Ilos, Navigator Pressley tells Shepherd that he cannot find any clear land to get near Saren, who had made it through the Mu Relay to Ilos first. Shepherd suggests dropping the MAKO, which needs about 100m of open terrain. Pressley can only find 20m, but Joker insists that he can do it. The MAKO is successfully dropped outside an ancient bunker, where Saren manages to just shut the doors. Shepherd now needs to find a way to open the door, probably from a control room. After fighting through Saren's Geth, Shepherd and his 2 companions reach the control room and open the bunker doors. After driving past Cryogenic stasis pods, presumabely with Protheans in them, Shepherd meets a mysterious energy barrier. As he reaches the barrier, another barrier appears behind him, trapping him in. The only way out is through a door at the side of the wall. After heading down an elevator, Shepherd meets an ancient Prothean VI named Vigil. Vigil reveals to Shepherd allot of information that is relevant to the story:

The Conduit: The conduit was a mass relay, built by the protheans, designed to transport personel from Ilos's research center to the Citadel (The "Model" mass relay in the presidium is actually a working mass relay connected to the one at Ilos).

Reapers: The reason the Reapers clean the galaxy of all organic life every 50,000 years, is currently unknown. According to Vigil and Soveriegn, no one can comprehend or understand why they do it, they may be driven by goals that we simply cannot process as organics. Once the galaxy is wiped clean, the reapears return to Dark space, outside of the galaxy, to hibernate and save energy as the Protheans beleive. In this state, they are apperently very vulnerable.

Sovereign: Sovereign is the vanguard of the reapers. After every reaper attack, they leave behind one of their kind to survey and gather information on what the civilisations are up to. Once the Galaxy races have advanced enough, Soveriegn will activate the Citidel (a mass relay connecting the reapers from dark space to our galaxy) and usher in the next genocide.

The keepers: The keepers are presumed to be the first race in existence to be harvested by the Reapers. Probably used as slaves, the reapers controlled the keepers, and set them the task of maintaining the citedel, and activating the Citedel when Soveriegn signals them to let the reapers in. However, the keepers evolved so that they only responded to the Citedal's signals, not Soverigns. No problem however, as Sovereign can use the Citadel to contact the keepers. But after the Prothean extinction, the few remaining Protheans on Ilos travelled to the Citadel through the Conduit, and reprogrammed it so that the keepers would not respond to the Citedals signal to activate the relay to dark space. Sovereign needed to find another way of activating the Citadel Relay.

Vigil: When the reapers attacked, which lasted for centuries, Vigil kept personnel in cryogenic stasis. However, as his energy reserves ran low, he did what he was told to do, and shut off less important personnels pod's one by one, to conserve energy, so that when the time was right, he could at least open some of the pods. He managed to save a dozen scientists, who later on, hacked into the citadel and prevented Sovereign from activating the Citedal through the keepers, when the next Genocide occurs.

Sovereign needed Saren to go through the conduit, and gain control of the citadel. Whilst Saren did this, Sovereign would then attack the citadel with his army of Geth ships, and get inside the structure so that Saren could transfer the power of the citadel to sovereign. Vigil explains that Reapers are patient, and if Sovereign assaulted the citedel on his own, he would be defeated. But with someone going in the back door to give him control, he would be able to usher in the next reaper invasion, and complete his mission. Sovereign has been planning this for Centuries, after discovering that activating the Citadel through the keepers was not working.

After leaving Vigil, Shepherd carries on to fight the remaining geth on Ilos, and reach the Conduit, a mass relay pointing straight up, connected to the Citadel. Shepeherd just manages to reach the conduit in time driving the MAKO directly at it. The MAKO then appears in the Citadel, rolling over, disabling 2 Geth. The rush to stop Saren is on.

Citadel Assault
Shepard and the team manage to get out of the overturned Mako and use the nearby malfunctioning Avina terminal to get a sit rep. Saren is heading toward the Council Chambers and the whole station is infested with geth. The squad tries taking the elevator toward the Tower, but it stops halfway when Saren locks down the station's systems. Shepard tells the team to suit up and blows out the elevator's glass with a shot. They have to walk the rest of the way in zero gravity with their boots magnetised.

Meanwhile up in the Chambers, Saren - angrily shooting Keepers as he goes - reaches the central console and uses it to take control of the Citadel. As Sovereign gets closer, crushing the Alliance ships in its path, Saren closes the Wards, creating an impenetrable shell around the Reaper and the geth dropships already inside. Sovereign settles on top of the Citadel Tower, preparing to open the Citadel Relay once Saren transfers full control.

Elsewhere Shepard and the team are fighting for their lives against the geth and Saren's krogan warriors out on the Citadel's exhaust plains, trying to get to the Chambers. A geth dropship appears and starts unleashing shock troopers on them; Shepard activates the Citadel's defence turrets, and with their cover fire, takes the dropship out. Further along they run into several powerful geth turrets and have to use cover to get close enough to destroy them, or manage to sneak down a side route where krogan battlemasters are waiting. Eventually they reach a maintenance hatch that leads down into the Council Chambers, now burning and full of Saren's geth. The stairways provide some cover as the team fights towards the central console.

At that moment Saren appears and unleashes a grenade. Shepard's team are blown aside while the commander takes cover close to Saren. He urges Shepard not to be a fool - everything is lost if Shepard continues resisting Sovereign. Saren boasts that his faith faltered but Sovereign has implanted him, made him partly synthetic, perfect. This is the future of organic life. Shepard can't believe Saren allowed Sovereign to implant him. Shepard can attack Saren straight away, or try talking him down - the more Shepard talks, the more Saren is convinced, but his Reaper implants cause the turian intense pain when he begins to agree with Shepard. With enough convincing, Shepard trustingly steps into Saren's line of fire - Saren thanks the commander for freeing him before shooting himself in the head. In either case, he falls to the bottom of the Chambers.

Using the central console, Shepard uploads Vigil's program and gains control of the Citadel. With advice from the team, Shepard opens a communication channel and gets Joker... who has the Fifth Fleet just waiting for the commander's word once the mass relays are unlocked. Shepard has to decide between sending the Fleet to defend the Destiny Ascension and save the Council, letting the Council die, or focusing on Sovereign. Once the orders are given, Joker brings the Fleet through the nearby mass relay as Shepard opens the Citadel's ward arms.

As the Fleet engages the ships outside - geth dropships and Sovereign itself - Shepard tells the squad to check Saren and make sure he's dead. They drop down to the bottom of the Chambers - one coldly shoots Saren in the head, while the other confirms the kill to Shepard. Suddenly Saren's body begins to twitch as his implants fire up, burning his flesh away until he is a cybernetic construct like a Husk, completely possessed by Sovereign. The shockwaves from his transformation cause the platform to collapse and Shepard falls into the bottom of the Chambers. The squad fights back against the creature, but it is fast and deadly.

Outside, the Normandy is leading the attack against Sovereign. The Reaper unleashes a terrible weapon that burns through several Alliance ships, but the Fleet is slowly getting the upper hand. As the squad finally destroy the cybernetic creature and it burns away to ashes, Sovereign begins to weaken under the Alliance attack and releases its grip on the station. A blast from the Normandy is the coup de grace and the Reaper is destroyed.

In the Chambers, Shepard looks up to see a huge piece of debris from the Reaper heading straight for the Tower. The commander yells for the squad to take cover, just as it hits.

Much later, rescuers enter the Tower looking for survivors. Under a pile of rubble they discover Shepard's team... two of them, badly wounded but alive. If he is around, Captain Anderson helps them out, assures them that it's all right, and asks where Commander Shepard is. One of the squad looks sadly across the Chambers, where the Reaper debris has crashed into the floor. It would have crushed anyone standing under it. The rescue team help the squad out of the Chambers, and Anderson looks back - to see someone moving. Commander Shepard, with a broken arm, manages to climb out from behind the debris, limps toward them, and smiles.

Epilogue
Mass Effect ends after the completion of the storyline. The character is saved and may be used in a new game (or sequel). Either way a new game must be started to continue play after the final act. You can then explore the galaxy plus you'll have all the plot worlds available again as well. The main character's level, talents, specialization and equipment all carry over, but paragon/renegade scales are reset. Also any weapon, biotic or tech achievements achieved will be usable in any new career.