Project Base

Location: Milky Way / Viper Nebula / Bahak

Project Base is an installation secretly built by a Systems Alliance deep-cover research team on an asteroid in the Bahak system.

The research team, led by Dr. Amanda Kenson, built Project Base around a Reaper artifact they discovered embedded in the asteroid. The team's original intent was to study the artifact, dubbed "Object Rho", but when they learned from visions emitted by the artifact that a Reaper invasion was imminent, they started what they called "the Project". The Reapers' plan was to use the Alpha Relay to strike anywhere in the galaxy; in order to prevent this, the relay had to be destroyed. To that end, Dr. Kenson and her team obtained scrap engines and navigation technology through sources on Omega and installed them into the asteroid. Once complete, the team could send the asteroid hurtling into the Alpha Relay with the press of a button.

Sometime during their study of the artifact, however, the entire team was indoctrinated. Now eager to witness the Reapers' arrival, the team no longer planned to complete "the Project" and launch the asteroid.

After Dr. Kenson was captured by batarian forces during a smuggling run, Commander Shepard was dispatched to rescue her. Upon returning Kenson to Project Base with less than two days before the Reapers arrived, Shepard realized that Kenson and her team had been indoctrinated by Object Rho. Although Shepard fought tenaciously against wave after wave of Project Guards, eventually the Reaper artifact unleashed a wave of energy which knocked Shepard out. Shepard awoke days later, with only a few hours remaining to initiate the Project. Despite the research team's heavy opposition and an attempt by Dr. Kenson to overheat the Base's fusion core and destroy the Project's propulsion systems, Shepard manages to activate the Project and escapes the Bahak system moments before the Alpha Relay is struck by the asteroid.