Dossier: Archangel

Archangel is a mercenary commander whose operations are noted for their technical expertise and strategic brilliance. He is responsible for high-profile attacks on gang leaders on Omega and can likely be found there.

Acquisition
This mission becomes available after the mission on Freedom's Progress. It is part of the first group of dossiers provided by the Illusive Man.

Walkthrough
This mission is the only mission in the game in which you will have to fight members from all three mercenary groups (Eclipse, Blue Suns and Blood Pack). Be sure to pick your squad members so that you are able to deal with all three defense types (shields, armor, and the occasional barrier), regeneration, and mechs. This is even more important on Hardcore or Insanity difficulties, when all opponents will have one of these three defenses. Miranda is particularly useful here, as she can deal with all three.

Afterlife
Upon arriving on Omega, Shepard will be instructed to speak to Aria T'Loak, the station's ruler. She tells Shepard about Archangel, stating that he is a dangerous individual who has been killing large numbers of Omega's plentiful criminals. Three mercenary groups, (Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Blood Pack) are preparing to kill him.

Aria directs Shepard to a small side room on the upper level of Afterlife to sign up for the merc mission. Upon entering the small room, if Shepard is female, the merc recruiter speaks in a rather condescending and presumptuous manner to her, allowing for a renegade interrupt to set things straight. In any case, Shepard signs up as a freelancer and can thus travel deeper into the station by talking to a merc at the transportation station. Just as you leave the room, you have a chance to earn a few morality points through dialogue options and an interrupt involving a young man who plans to sign up.

Upon arriving at the merc base of operations, Shepard has the opportunity to learn about the groups by talking to the local leaders. EDI tells the Commander that she can find no other way to Archangel than the one the mercs plan to take on their assault, and that the mercs are using YMIR Mechs, LOKI Mechs and a gunship to pin him down. EDI recommends sabotaging them before leaving.

As you make your way to Archangel's hideout, you will find several items of interest. In the first room, you'll find the Eclipse mercs and their leader Jaroth as well as a datapad that triggers Omega: Archangel: Datapad Recovered. When you exit that room, open the door on the left to find the YMIR mech. You'll have to bypass it to turn off its friend-or-foe targeting when Eclipse drops it into the fight later.

Sabotaging the heavy mech will cause it to turn on its masters after it is unleashed on Archangel.

The room also contains a crate with 500 units of eezo and a hackable datapad worth 4000 credits. The next door brings you to another junction. The Blood Pack's room is ahead of you and if Grunt is in the squad, there are a few interesting options with the Blood Pack Leader Garm. The other door continues the path to Archangel, along with another hackable datapad. After you grab it, turn left and there's a locked door to your right. Bypass it to find a Submachine Gun Damage upgrade as well as 4000 credits, Heavy Weapon ammo, and some Medi-Gel. The next door on the right has a hall which contains some medi-gel and leads to the Blue Suns' meeting room. If Zaeed is in the group, there is some alternate dialogue with the Blue Suns leader Tarak.

The Attack
Once Shepard enters the area with the gunship and talks to Sergeant Cathka the player is locked into going beyond the barriers. It is not possible to go back to the previous areas after this so make sure you have everything before talking to Cathka. While traveling through the area open to Archangel's fire, you can be hit by a single sniper shot which will knock out your shields, but do no other damage. The conversation with Cathka can be long or short, but either way, at a certain point Cathka will receive a signal to begin the attack. The rest of the freelancers run out and Cathka resumes work on the gunship. A Renegade interrupt will involve Shepard taking a welder and sticking it in Cathka, thus rendering him unable to fully repair the gunship.

Shepard vaults over the barricade and can finally turn on the other mercs, though note that Shepard must fire first before they turn on the squad. It's probably best to wait till they're crowded around a convenient explosive canister before blowing it up. Clear out the other freelancers and make your way up to Archangel's sniping location. Once the freelancers are out of the way, Archangel removes his helmet and reveals himself to be none other than Garrus Vakarian.

A conversation follows that will give Garrus' history over the last few years and can lend a few points of morality. At the end Garrus gets up and uses his sniper rifle to see what is going on. A Renegade interrupt is briefly available when Garrus hands the rifle over to Shepard, eliminating one of the LOKI Mechs with an opportunistic headshot. Shepard and Garrus must now fight their way past the three mercenary groups. The Eclipse appears to be tired of waiting and attacks first.

An M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle can be picked up either before or after talking to Garrus. It is a big improvement over the M-8 Avenger in terms of damage and accuracy. Nonetheless, there is a weapons locker in the basement where weapons can be switched after the Eclipse attack.

The Eclipse Attack
Jaroth is getting more frustrated by the second and sends in his own troopers and LOKI mechs against your fortified position. It is advantageous to stay on the second floor, but even with SMGs this fight is not very hard, as all the enemies stream over the bridge. Most of the mercs will simply bum-rush the sniper perch, disregarding cover, but Eclipse Heavies will take cover occasionally on the sides of the bridge to cover their comrades with rockets, meaning that they must be killed before they reach cover. If any mercs get into the base, you can move across and take them out before they reach the second floor. Garrus will give audio cues if Eclipse mercs manage to reach the base and the rear stairs. Eventually Jaroth will have had enough and sends in the YMIR mech. If it was sabotaged earlier, it will fight against its own. A useful tactic is to allow the mercenaries to whittle it down, then blow off its head. This will cause it to explode spectacularly, likely killing a good deal of mercenaries.

If it stays alive for too long, it will revert to its original programming after a few waves.

Jaroth, having lost a large number of mercs, enters the battle himself. If the salarian is kept on the bridge, he will be no trouble at all. He has an M-6 Carnifex which may damage your shields and those of your squadmates if not watched. Afterwards, Garrus will tell you to come and find him. Before talking to him, grab some thermal clips from around the base.

The Blood Pack Attack
While talking with Garrus an explosion is felt throughout the base. It appears that the bombs mentioned earlier, if Shepard talked with the merc leaders, went off and breached the tunnels Garrus had closed off. Now you must make a decision: take the whole team or go two and two. It is recommended to leave one squadmate behind to help cover Garrus; his health will drop faster otherwise.

The Blood Pack attack consists of krogan and vorcha. Weapons and ammo powers should be used appropriately. Most enemies are without shielding, so headshots can be efficient. Some have armor however, but most of these are vorcha, whose armor collapses quickly.

Afterwards, Garrus tells you to go to the basement, through the door under the stairs. If not done before, an Omni-tool can be scanned on the way which provides a Tech Damage (Multicore Amplifier) upgrade. Once in the basement, Garrus will tell you that three shutters need to be closed in order to secure the lower level. The first, right in front of you, can be closed without much effort if you run to it. However, if there are any enemies under the shutter, Shepard is past the shutter, or under the shutter once the 10 second countdown ends, the shutter will not close.

The other two shutters are north and south. It is most tactical to take the northern one last, because of the amount of cover and number of enemies; it is more controlled than the south one.

The shutter to the south one is in Garrus' garage, which contains a lot of crates, and a lot of open space. The shutter controls are across the room from the entrance. The cover in the room should be used to advance across the room. Be on the lookout for explosive crates and canisters as enemies can use them too. Advance to the shutter and close it off while keeping the Blood Pack at bay. A steady stream of varren, vorcha, and krogan will pour through the shutter, so crowd control tactics are necessary to keep them from interfering with the shutter closing. Once this one is closed, pick up any ammo and proceed north.

The way to the northern shutter has a lot of cover that both Shepard's group and enemies capitalize on. The enemies should be taken out as they pop their heads up, and your team should advance once a squad is down, or you can run out of ammo quickly. Around a corner about halfway to the shutter controls there is a Blood Pack Pyro. Teammates can be used as fodder, and Adrenaline Rush can be activated if Shepard has it. Any enemies should be taken out here, your squadmate(s) should be sent to the barrier, and then you should follow. The squad will then reach the last shutter.

Garrus will contact you immediately after the third shutter is closed and tell you that Garm and his Blood Pack have breached the base on the main floor. Run back up as quickly as possible to deal with the Blood Pack that have invaded the base. In addition to the Troopers, there will be varren as well, which should be taken out at a distance. You should then get upstairs as fast as possible to defeat Garm. Having left a squadmate with Garrus earlier proves to be a good idea here, because they will already be up there and will often have Garm's barrier down to at least 50% before you arrive. Garm should be killed as fast as possible, and before talking to Garrus again, all ammo should be refilled, as it will be needed for the fight with the Blue Suns.

This is the last opportunity to pick up the M-15 Vindicator from the couch

The Blue Suns Attack
Talking to Garrus this time fills Shepard in on his history with Garm and both agree to fight past the Blue Suns to make it out. However, before they can make a break for it, they get ambushed by Tarak and his gunship. If you took the time to zap Cathka, the gunship will be half armored. Because the gunship only has armor, its health is 50%. The gunship will fly around firing at you, and covering Blue Suns infantry. The gunship will first drop Jentha, who has both shields and armor and is equipped with an M-76 Revenant, a Blue Suns Legionnaire, and several Troopers. Once she is down there are Blue Suns mercs on the main level who must also be dealt with.

After clearing out the main floor, a cutscene shows that Tarak gets the drop on Garrus and wounds him. Garrus tries to fight back but instead gets hit with the blast from a rocket that leaves him unconscious. Now you have to take down the gunship as fast as possible, so leave your squadmates to focus on the infantry that will appear over the course of the fight. When the gunship is down a cutscene begins. It shows Shepard rushing over to Garrus who is laying in a pool of his own blood, and kneeling beside him. After a moment of silence his eyes open, he gasps for air, and he tightens his grip on his sniper pulling it closer to him. Shepard then tells a squadmate to radio Joker and tell him to be ready for them.

Normandy
Having eliminated the third mercenary gang, Shepard, Garrus, and squad will return to the Normandy. Here, Garrus receives medical attention with cybernetics, but will carry a wound on his face and damage to his armor for the rest of the game. Garrus will take up residence in the Normandy's main battery past the sleep pods on the crew deck.

Email
Nalah Butler who lives on Omega, wrote an e-mail with subject header Take care of Garrus, to Commander Shepard regarding Garrus' role as Archangel.

Enemies

 * Blood Pack
 * Garm
 * Blood Pack Pyro
 * Blood Pack Trooper
 * Blood Pack Warrior
 * Blue Suns
 * A-61 Mantis Gunship (Tarak)
 * Blue Suns Centurion
 * Blue Suns Commander
 * Blue Suns Heavy
 * Blue Suns Legionnaire
 * Blue Suns Trooper
 * Jentha
 * Eclipse
 * Eclipse Engineer
 * Eclipse Heavy
 * Eclipse Trooper
 * Eclipse Vanguard
 * Jaroth
 * Freelancer
 * LOKI Mech
 * Mercenary Bomb Technician
 * Varren
 * YMIR Mech

Mission Summary
Extracted Archangel from mercenary siege and recruited him for the team. Unclear whether injury to Archangel will impair his ability to assist in the mission. Regardless, revelation of identity as Garrus Vakarian useful in keeping Shepard comfortable.


 * Experience: 1,000 (1,250)
 * Credits: 40,000
 * Cerberus Funding: 20,000
 * Credits Found: 20,000
 * Weapons:
 * M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle
 * Resources:
 * Element Zero: 500
 * Upgrades:
 * Tech Damage (Multicore Amplifier)
 * Submachine Gun Damage (Microfield Pulsar)

Trivia

 * There is a small graphical bug during the mission. After the revelation that Archangel is Garrus, Garrus hands Shepard his sniper rifle, an M-92 Mantis. If Shepard has sniper-rifle training, and has any sniper rifle other than the Mantis equipped, the gun will switch to whatever rifle Shepard has equipped, and then switch back to a Mantis when Shepard hands it back to Garrus.
 * A similar bug occurs earlier if Shepard takes the Paragon Interrupt to break the M-4 Shuriken of the young man trying to sign up as a freelancer. If Shepard has any submachine gun other than the Shuriken equipped, the interrupt shows Shepard breaking this submachine gun and handing it back to the man.
 * Another slip-up appears after Eclipse's attack is repelled. When Shepard goes to speak with Garrus, he is no longer holding a Mantis, but a Viper instead.
 * There is a graphical bug that exists when Shepard talks to Tarak and Zaeed is in your party. Zaeed and Tarak talk, saying that they know each other, and part of Tarak's face disappears when he smiles after Zaeed says, "Anything's possible."