Jacob: The Gift of Greatness

Ten years ago, Jacob's father disappeared along with the Hugo Gernsback, the privately held frigate on which he served as first officer. Last week, the ship's beacon sent out a distress call reporting a crash on the planet Aeia. Jacob would like to investigate.

Acquisition
After the mission on Horizon, Kelly Chambers will inform Shepard that Jacob wants to talk to Shepard. When Talking to Jacob, he informs Shepard that last week his father's ship sent out a distress call, reporting a crash and requesting a rescue. However, the ship went missing ten years ago, so he has his doubts about his father being alive, but he would still like to investigate to get some closure. Someone passed a message about the distress call to Jacob's personal log through Cerberus filters.

Arrival on Aeia
The shuttle drops Shepard and the squad a little south of the hulk of the MSV Hugo Gernsback. Jacob comments that the ship is mostly intact and that the crew could have survived the impact, but wonders where they are now. When you approach the ship there will be the distress beacon VI on the right of the bridge into the ship, to the left is an officer’s log that will give you some information regarding the crash and what happened before the activation of the beacon. Go in the ship to find a few more logs that reveal a troubling picture of the crew experiencing loss of higher cognitive functions and the officers exploiting that. Inside the ship is also a datapad that has some credits on it.

Head out of the ship and across from the bridge are some spare parts that can be salvaged. You can recover these either before or after you talk to the beacon. Talking with the beacon will give some interesting information. Apparently, Captain Fairchild was killed in the crash or shortly before it, and Jacob’s father was promoted to Acting Captain. The beacon will also describe how it was set up about a year after the crash but wasn’t activated until a few weeks ago. After almost 9 years. The beacon also reports that ingesting the local flora impairs mental functioning.

Move on and eventually you will come across a female survivor babbling about how the leader said someone from the sky would save them. You can earn a few morality points based on your response. While she is talking this time, you see some people sneaking up you. A Paragon interrupt will allow you to save her life. Use the crates and pipes around for cover and take out the hunters. There are salvageable parts on the left near where the hunters appeared from. Move along and after a little while you will come across a stripped mech, Jacob will say that the hunters must be putting on a lot of pressure. Up the road, so to speak, is a settlement.

Female Encampment
Upon arriving you encounter some of the members of the encampment and after they get a good look at Jacob, they are terrified. You can comment on that and then Jacob offers up some explanation on why the men and women are separated. Move around the camp and examine the food stores, to your immediate right. Jacob will say they are completely spoiled and that the women must have been eating the native plant life. Medi-gel is to the left of the food, grab it. As you move further back in the camp some LOKI Mechs will come out saying that the leader demands obedience and to relinquish all weapons. Take out the LOKI Mechs and continue exploring. In the center of the camp on a crate is a datapad, and to the right of the camp is some spare parts, get both and bank some credits.

The ship's doctor stands nearby. From the conversation with her, you learn the following:
 * The crew were split into officers and crew, and the officers hoarded all the food, forcing the survivors to eat the local toxic food.
 * Five officers survived the crash, but all were then killed within a week of each other once the beacon was complete.
 * Within a year all the male crew-members were either dead or exiled.
 * All the women were assigned to officers like property.

Bypass the nearby disabled mech's safeties to blow up a barricade and progress. Once you hack the mech, get back because it will explode.

Get to Ronald Taylor
Move over to the dead bodies and one of the squad members will observe that the older corpses appear to be posed, as in a warning, and the rest just lay where they fell. Then Ronald Taylor comes over a PA system, saying that his crew mutinied and that he only just now got free. Jacob refuses to believe anything his father is saying. Ronald also mentions that his security system has gone haywire and they will attack anything. Now you have to fight some LOKI Mechs on the way to wherever Ronald is hiding, well protected at this point.

Move up to the crates and get into cover, as there will be some mechs at the top of the hill. Once the initial mechs are down move your squadmates into cover at the center of the clearing using rocks to the right and the crates around the transmitter thing as cover. Find cover for Shepard anywhere you can and still get a clear shot. Take out all the mechs and then move your squadmates up because there will be more mechs coming from the crates at the back and from the right, which is the path forward.

Once you take down the mechs from the forward crates move your squadmates, even if under fire, to positions that give you a clear shot at the path forward. About 10 LOKI Mechs will be coming from that direction, so make sure that all the maintenance that went into maintaining them all these years goes to waste. Once all the LOKI Mechs are down explore near where the large crates are for some spare parts and a heavy pistol upgrade.

Move along and up the path. When you have sight of another encampment, squeeze all three members of your squad behind some crates, as there is no other cover nearby. Ronald will come over the PA saying that he took years to train his guards and they will defend him until they die. Jacob provides something to say about that. If it wasn’t clear enough he is covering himself. Once you manage to take out the attacking guards and some mechs, move up to the canopy and pick up three items: Medi-gel, some spare parts, and some power cells. Once you have all those save your game before moving on.

Ronald Taylor’s Headquarters
The large wall in this next area will only provide some protection as in this area you have to contend with fragile crates and some more guards. You also have Ronald’s last defense to contend with, a YMIR Mech. The YMIR will move around and flank you if you stay behind the wall, so move back if you need to, but it will not move beyond the clearing. Once the YMIR is down the fight will be much easier. Move back into the clearing if you need to and move your squadmates, and Shepard around to take out the enemies. Watch out for the fragile crates all around as they will not hold for long. Once all the enemies are down, move around the clearing to get some element zero and a datapad for some credits. Once you are ready open the last door and head up to where Ronald Taylor is playing king of the castle.



Ronald’s mood when you arrive is overjoyed. He doesn’t seem to notice Jacob and apparently thinks that you are there to rescue him from his “insane” crew. However, Shepard just walks past Ronald and looks out over the sea. Jacob questions his father and eventually you can reintroduce them. Ronald immediately retracts some of his lies saying that he wasn’t ready for the burden of command and how it changed him. Then he tries to convince you that he did what was best. Jacob says that something went wrong and that he has been living in a childhood fantasy for 10 years. Ronald cannot determine where it went wrong but he knows something did. Jacob then comments that the food could have only lasted for so long, to which Ronald replies that eating for one can really stretch a food supply. Now you can decide how to end this:
 * Leave Ronald Taylor alive to be arrested by Alliance officials.
 * Leave him to his fate at the hands of the survivors, who attack him not long after Shepard and Jacob left.
 * Leave him a half-charged pistol, thus allowing him to kill himself rather than face the crazed crew.

After you make your choice, you return to the Normandy.

Normandy
You go immediately to the comm room where Jacob is talking to the Illusive Man. Jacob accuses the Illusive Man of passing the distress signal to him, but the Illusive Man denies it. Jacob then asks who did and Miranda arrives to provide that answer. She says she sent it to Jacob to fulfill an old promise. Then the Illusive Man tells Miranda that they will discuss proper protocols at a later time, dismisses Jacob and Shepard, then diconnects. Shepard asks why Miranda did that, and Jacob replies that Miranda keeps her promises but he can’t remember which one. Apparently, Miranda has a long, but selective, memory.

E-mail Message
The Alliance comes soon after the Normandy leaves to rescue the survivors. One of them sends a thank you message to Shepard:

Enemies

 * Brainwashed Guard
 * Feral Hunter
 * LOKI Mech
 * YMIR Mech

Mission Summary
Survivors from Aeia are being treated by Alliance personnel with additional Cerberus support. Pleased to see Taylor unharmed psychologically by experience.

Jacob Taylor has dealt with his father and is now focused solely on the mission.


 * Experience reward: 750 (937)
 * Credits: 30,000
 * Cerberus Funding: 15,000
 * Credits Found: 15,000
 * Upgrades:
 * Heavy Pistol Damage (Titan Pulsar)
 * Minerals:
 * Element Zero: 500
 * Powers Unlocked:
 * Jacob: Barrier

Trivia

 * The mission has many similarities to the novels Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
 * MSV Hugo Gernsback is named after author Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the first science fiction magazine.
 * There is a continuity error. Thermal clips, according to the Codex, are a new technology developed after examining geth technology. Jacob's father and the crew have been stranded for 10 years, long before the development of thermal clips. Yet when playing through the mission, the mechs and survivors that attack Shepard have thermal clips, and drop them for the party.
 * The Codex entry for 2175 Aeia, implied to have been written before the events of this mission take place, mistakenly states that Ronald Taylor was the Captain of the Gernsback and not the second in command. It's possible the developers originally intended Taylor to be the Captain, but later changed this so that his being unprepared for the stress of command could be given as a partial explanation for his failings in judgment.
 * If this mission is done after the suicide mission and if Miranda has died, she will still appear in the conversation with the Illusive Man after Jacob's mission.
 * A Noise similar to the rachni song from Mass effect 1 can be heard while walking along the shore before entering the wreckage of the Hugo Gernsback.