Mass Effect 2 : LP Complete, Releasing Control.

[spekkio]

Damn, that's some EXTREME avatar:

Great job as always, RK47.

 

[RK47]

Ahem, I kinda forgot what we were supposed to do here!

Meet Wraev Urdnot, a distant relative of the deceased Wrex.

I assure you, if your death was the goal, you'd have landed as an ember. Truth is, you did me a favor. With his death, Wrex's friends became my friends, and clan Urdnot fell to me. For the better.

He had troubling ideas. We are better off with a leader who respects tradition.

Ummm..I can't really recall what Wrex is about. So whatever.

You can't speak for me, Uvenk. So, Shepard, what do you want here?

Who is this? I thought you lead your clan alone.

Uvenk is from Clan Gatagog. Our clans have fought to a standstill, so we've come to a temporary understanding.

A brief joining, Urdnot is senior, for the moment, as is traditional.

For the moment, yes. Ha. We'll see.

You don't call this a true alliance?

Both clans have shown their strength. For the moment, neither clan can win, so we turn our attention elsewhere.

As soon as one clan shows weakness, the stalemate ends. The survivors will produce stronger, smarter krogan. This has always been the way.

Well. That's great. Stick with your retarded traditions then, I'm glad I killed Wrex. This way, they'll never be truly united to threaten the galaxy once more. Just weaken a seperate clan, and they'll eat each other up.

You all live underground? Is the surface that inhospitable?

Tuchanka and the krogan live together in war. The planet hates us, and we hate it. See for yourself. Brave the barren, war-torn wastelands and discover the world that made the krogan powerful enough to threaten the galaxy.

I heard the Blood Pack brought a salarian here. Know anything about that?

Blood Pack? I don't follow mercenary bands. My scout commander might know something I don't.

I have a krogan on my crew. He has some kind of sickness and needs treatment.

This krogan smells like a juvenile. Was his clan destroyed before he was taught how to live?

I have no clan. I was tank-bred by the Warlord Okeer, my line distilled from Smart, Garriott, Howard, Hines, Molyneux, Gaider, Kasryspyn...

You are the offspring of a syringe, not fit to walk Tuchanka!

I am pure krogan. You should be in awe.

You are the product of Bioware? It's well hated. Too bad. Hate is good. Influential.

Why would you care about Bioware? This is about Grunt.

He thinks a link to Bioware could be worth allowing this thing to become an adult.

Ah, dark, gritty, and mature ritual. Common selling point among next-gen action RPGs, in line with hormone-driven reproductive urges that the unwashed masses are famous for.

Nothing so infirm. He's becoming an adult. He must face the Rite of Passage.

DUN DUN DUN

Bah! I will not allow this. You risk your status. Your clan!

Do you wish to become Urdnot Grunt?

You would allow a cloned krogan to join clan Urdnot?

No, I would not. But Warlord Okeer is well known. Grunt could win us some influence. Clan Urdnot can't stay dominant forever. Some of our people will never accept this. We'll have to see how Grunt fares in the Rite.

What happens if he doesn't do this Rite of Passage?

If his clan is destroyed, he can't be killed without taking the Rite. And I advise against delaying the Rite any longer.

Well, that doesn't answer my question, meathead.

The Rite secures clan membership. There's no cure to his mood. He's krogan.

We didn't come all the way here for nothing.

Yes, my blood demands this.

Then speak with the shaman. Seek him there. And prepare yourself. You as well, Shepard. Grunt is your crew. You are part of this.

Shucks. But let's delay that for a bit and follow up with Mordin quest first. Splitting the post here so you get some materials to read while I write up moar updates.

 

[RK47]

Let's poke more space lizards for answers!

Wow, he must really hate Andhaira.

How many humans does the clan leader allow to walk freely among the Urdnot?

Not very many. It begs the question of why you are here.

I earned the right to walk among you. Want to see how I did it?

Ugh. Very well. But if you get in the way of my research. I will see you ejected.

You must be working on something important.

I am! There are always new ways to destroy things. To melt them! To tear them apart! There's always room for another weapon on Tuchanka.

I take it that you are a scientist.

I am not just a scientist! Without me, those mouth-breathing fools wouldn't have weapons or bombs to kill things with! My predecessor said no one would understand the true worth of my work. As I pulled my blade from his chest, I knew he was telling the truth.

Extreme much, Cleve?

Not exactly what I would call effective academic peer review.

I don't care what you'd call it. We value the will to use what we create, not just the ability to create it. We don't count success until the ground shakes in response.

Enjoy your research.

Yeah, no thanks to you. Or anyone else.

Impressive to see life adapt. Continue despite circumstances. Inspiring.

Whatever, Mordin. The krogan doctor of war sells upgrades at high prices. I'll come back later when I have more credits.

Now I'll ask the Chief Scout for info on the missing salarian.

Sent one of my scouts to check it out, but he never reported back. Guess they got him, too. Chief told me to give you one of the trucks. Just follow the highway to Weyrloc's base, if you've got the quads to deal with him and the Blood Pack.

What can you tell me about Clan Weyrloc's base?

Last I heard, the clan was holed up in an old hospital.

That doesnt' sound very defensible. Why'd they hole up there?

Any hospital on Tuchanka has to be built well enough to withstand a bunch of enraged krogan. When an injury forces us to switch over to secondary organs, things get messy. Higher thought processes don't always transition properly. "Blood Rage' they call it.

OK Let's borrow the truck and get that salarian back!

 

[random_encounter]

I still don't get why the ship doesn't just power up and engage its mass drive core. That would've left Shepard and his team no chance to escape at all.

Neither do I. It seemed like the easiest solution. Close doors behind them, use some alien technology they've never seen to seal the way in, put up shields, and jump out. It worked on Stargate SG-1.

If anything, it could have made a more interesting encounter as the team tries to find a way out of a giant ship in transit either by trying to take it over or sabotage the engines...both of which could have allowed us to see more of the Collector-tech that EDI can apparently hack ID4 style.

But that would have probably added too many hours to the game for the casual gamers.

Right. 37. Million. Years. Bioware, why do you like to pull random number out of your asses?

I don't have a problem with hyper-ancient things like this in a game, but when I found the Reaper, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be for reasons that became clearer at the end.

On mention of the millions-of-years age of the hulk, I half expected Shephard to suddenly turn to his fellows and remark "I've seen this before, everyone, so stay close. You'll be safe with me. I'm a Lensman."

 

[RK47]

We arrived at the hospital outer gates and alighted. The truck wasn't able to enter the smaller gate so we had to go on foot.

Our squad make up this time is specialized in taking out low-tech organics. Grunt's incendiary ammo can be used by the whole squad. And Mordin's incinerate is devastating against armored targets. The biggest bonus is when you set fire on organics, as long as they're not shielded, they will panic and stop attacking.

Tuchanka is full of non shielded organics. Krogans may possess high regeneration and armor, but those are effectively nullified by burning effect.

The local fauna includes varren and klixen, a species of giant fire-breathing insects.

Also had to deal with a bunch of rocket toting vorchas from the Blood Pack. But overall, it's a walk in the park with this squad. Nothing gets past the burn.

We finally get inside the hospital for some medical narratives by Mordin. Enjoy!

Test subject. Victim of experimentation.

They're trying to cure the genophage. Why experiment on non-krogan?

Humans useful as test subjects. Genetically diverse. Enables exploration of treatment modalities.

How are humans more genetically diverse?

More variable. Peaks and valleys, mutations, adaptations. Far beyond other life. Makes humans useful test subjects. Larger reactions to smaller stimuli.

I know we can look much different from each other, but asari have a wide range of skin tones.

No. Ignore the superficial appearance. Down to genetic code. Biotic abilities, intelligence levels. Can look at random elf, dwarf, and hobbit, make reasonable guess. of their INT & STR. Humans too variable to judge. Outliers in all species, of course. Geniuses, idiots. But human probability curve offers greater overall variety.

Never used humans myself. Disgusting, unethical, sloppy. Used by brute force researchers, not thinkers. No place in proper science. Krogan use of humans unsurprising.

I imagine you had to do some live subject testing while developing the new genophage.

No. Unnecessary. Limited tests to simulations, corpses, cloned tissue samples. High leve tests on varren. No tests on species with members capable of calculus. Simple rule, never broke it.

Yes. Human experiments strictly high-level, concept testing. Native Tuchanka fauna likely used later, in development stages. Wise to delay use of varren until necessary. Powerful bite.

What can you tell me about their experiments from looking at the body?

Position of tumors suggests deliberate mutation of adrenal, pineal glands. Modifying hormone levels. Counterattack on glands hit by genophage. Clever.

Do you think they're close to curing the genophage?

Can't say. Need more data. Conceptually sound, though. Genophage alters hormone levels. Could repair damage with hormonal counterattack.

Now we've got two reasons to shut this place down.

Focus on Maelon. Too late to help the dead.

 

[lightbane]

Sooo, krogans are totally self-destructive khornate bersekers wannabes that when injured switch to secondary organs at the expense of losing themselves to rage, potentatially worsening their wounds or even cause death as they attack everything at sight... ?????

Better to not think too much about it.

 

[RK47]

You killed our youngest and weakest, human. They were not worthy of remaining near our glorious work. Inside you will find only hardened Blood Pack veterans, tempered by savagery, and war and dedicated to one goal. The salarian will cure the genophage and clan Weyrloc will spread across the galaxy in a sea of blood!

Fucker's giving a speech on top of a flammable gas tank. How fortunate. One grilled lizard, coming right up!

I wasn't aiming at you, Fatso.

Interrupting his speech will grant you a some renegade points and a free kill. Otherwise, encounter proceed as per normal. You still have to kill his minions as well, how can any Paragon pass up an opportunity like that, I don't know.

Genetic sequences. Hormone mutagens still steady. Protein chains, live tissue, cloned tissue. Very thorough. Standard treatment vectors. Avoiding scorced earth immunosuppresants to alter hormone levels. Good, hate to see that.

Not developing. Modifying. Much more difficult. Working within confines of existing genophage. A hundred times the complexity.

He totally missed the point there.

Errors unacceptable. Could cause total sterility, malignant tumors. Could even reduce effectiveness. Worse than doing nothing. Had to keep krogan population stable. One in one thousand. Perfect target, optimal growth. Like gardening.

*applause*

You're saying you were working just as hard to keep their populations from falling?

I think Mordin's EXTREME-o-Meter is way off the charts.

Rachni extinction tragic. Didn't want to repeat. All life precious. Universe demands diversity.

Uh.. you and I are the same, huh? I sterilized the Rachni too in Noveria.

What was it like, working on the genophage modification project?

Statistical analysis in the afternoon. Run new simulations during dinner, set data to cook overnight. Laughter. Ego. Argument. Passion. Galaxy's biggest problem, massive resources thrown at us. Got anything we wanted.

Sounds like you were pretty important. How'd you go from that to running a clinic in Omega?

Wanted to heal people. Good use of last decade. Something easy. No ethical concerns. Understand rationale for modified genophage. Right choice. Still hard to sleep some nights.

How can you agree with using the genophage, Mordin? Look at what happened to Tuchanka as a result.

State of Tuchanka not due to genophage. Nuclear winter caused by krogan before salarians made contact. Krogan choices. Refuse truce during Krogan Rebellions. Expand after Rachni Wars. Splinter after genophage. Genophage medical, not nuclear. No craters from virus. Damage caused by krogan, not salarians. Not me.

So if the krogan banded together and formed a united government, you'd welcome that?

Yes. United krogan saved galaxy, destroyed rachni. Genophage not punishment. Simply alters fertility to correct for removal from hostile environment.

 

[Brother None]

...That's it...the whole consequence to shooting Wrex is that it's not him (presumably) leading his clan, but some other dude who'll give you the same mission.

How

Also I call bullshit on the human variance thing. But fuck it. If there's ever a sci fi story that doesn't put the human race on a fucking pedestal I'll be glad to hear it.

Hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[Angthoron]

Also I call bullshit on the human variance thing. But fuck it. If there's ever a sci fi story that doesn't put the human race on a fucking pedestal I'll be glad to hear it.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin.


And yay! Updates, awesome.

 

[Derper]

Laughter. Ego. Argument. Passion.

 

[Gondolin]

Wreav? Is that a homage, a coincidence or a "loan" from Frank Herbert?

 

[RK47]

Mordin's anguish will continue...and so will yours if you hate text.

Sterile Weyrloc female willing to risk procedures. Hoped for cure. Pointless. Pointless waste of life.

I didn't expect you to be disturbed by the sight of a dead krogan.

*Defensive* What? Why? Because of genophage work? Irrelevant. No, causative.

Goal was to stabilize population. Never wanted this. Can see it logically...but still unnecessary. Foolish waste of life. Hate to see it.

Well, this is what you do best isn't it, Mordin? Playing God. Controlling a species' birth rate. I thought he got over it, but clearly...

Yearly recon missions. Water, tissue samples. Ensure no mistakes. Superiors offered to carry it on. Refused. Need to see it in person.

:tear:

Explored religions after work completed. Different races. No answers. Many questions.

Sounds like you were trying to deal with your guilty conscience. The doctor who killed millions.

Welcome to five minutes ago, Commander.

Modified genophage project great in scope. Scientifically brilliant. But ethically difficult. Krogan reaction visceral, tragic.

Looks like he's opening up, finally.

Not guilty, but responsible. Trained as doctor. Genophage affects fertility. Doesn't kill. Still caused this. Hard to see big picture behind pile of corpses.

Can you really just rationalize it all away? How do you justify it?

Wheel of life. Popular salarian concept. Similar to human Hinduism in focus of reincarnation. Appealing to see life as endless. Fix mistakes in next life. Learn, adapt, improve.

LOL.

Enough of your spiritual life. Anything useful on the body?

Minimal insight into experiments. Gene therapy. Risking cancer, aiming for benign mutation.

It's hard to see all this, Mordin. But you did the right thing. Your work saved lives.

Not easy. Sometimes wish I wasn't as intelligent. Choice would have fallen on someone else. Not my problem. Fool's wish. Had to be me. Other's might have gotten it wrong.

ENOUGH PETER PARKER-ING!

 

[random_encounter]

Interrupting his speech will grant you a some renegade points and a free kill. Otherwise, encounter proceed as per normal. You still have to kill his minions as well, how can any Paragon pass up an opportunity like that, I don't know.

I'm not sure why, either, as I ended up with maxed out Paragon points and could have spared a few Renegade actions. I guess at the time, I wanted to see where it would go if things would play out differently.

The only place where it really didn't was with Zaeed's mission when I chose to spare the refinery workers instead allowing the head guy to escape. But at the time, I had high enough Paragon points to talk Zaeed down and gain his loyalty, so I guess I'll be seeing his former partner in ME3.

Unless I get an e-mail saying that someone had already killed him.

...That's it...the whole consequence to shooting Wrex is that it's not him (presumably) leading his clan, but some other dude who'll give you the same mission.

How

There was one significant difference with Wreav that RK47 had touched on. Under Wrex, he made alliances among the clans and was actively working to unite them while challenging their traditions. Same voice actor and everything and he was happy to see Shephard. I'm guessing that will extend into ME3 and contribute towards a united fleet action or something with everyone you buddy up with, DA:O style.

You still couldn't recruit him, though, as he had to stay behind to keep things from falling apart. Typical.

 

[RK47]

Fucking hell Mordin your loyalty mission is probably the most text heavy of them all!

Not Blood Pack, not member of Clan Weyrloc. Wrong clan markings.

I'm an Urdnot scout. Weyrloc guards got me. Brought me here.

You don't look so good. Are you injured?

They gave me things. Injections, mostly. Sometimes gas. Made me sick. Fever, aches. Can't keep food down. They're fixing the genophage. I'm making a sacrifice for all krogan.

You're safe now. Just get back to your camp. I'll deal with the Weyrloc.

You can't do that. You can't stop them. Do you understand? They're curing the genophage. They're going to make it all bette! They have to keep doing the tests!

Why do you want them to keep doing the tests?

This is my fault. I got caught. Wasn't strong enough, not good enough. This is the best I can do. This is all I can do.

Sigh.

And go he did.

And finally we got to the boss fight. This is a multi level corridor with ramps to climb up and down from. Making it really easy for me to pick off charging krogans and varrens. These guys pack shotguns which are only effective at close range.

Pistol these bastards from higher level, just watch out for the occasional rockets they launch. If the Wyrloc chief appears, just use Grunt as a meatshield. I only needed to revive Grunt once before finishing off the boss with pistol shots.

Finally. The objective is right before our eyes.

How long will it take you to admit that I'm here because I wish to be here?

Impossible! Whole team agreed! Project necessary!

How was I supposed to disagree with the great Doctor Solus? I was your student! I looked up to you!

Experiments performed here. Live subjects! Prisoners! Torture and executions. Your doing?

Note: I notice that Maelon spoke in longer sentence. I thougth this was odd, but I reasoned that maybe Mordin thought patterns is probably much faster than his dumbfuck student.

You honestly think the experiments you did here are justified?

We committed cultural genocide! Nothing I do will ever be justified! The experiments are monstrous..because I was taught to be a monster.

Pathetic.

Mordin, did you ever perform experiments like this?

No. Never taught you this, Maelon.

So your hands are clean! What does it matter if the ground is stained with the blood of millions!

Kid, stfu. Seriously. This is the climax to the good build up dialogue we had with Mordin? Such injustice!

You taught me the end justified the means. I will undo what we did, Professor. The only way I know how.

And who'll clean up after your mess if the krogan went wild? Me?

What happens if the genophage is cured and the krogan expand again? That will be on your head.

We justified this atrocity by saying the krogan would cause havoc and war if their population recovered. But look at the galaxy! Batarian attacks in the Traverse, geth attacks on the Citadel. Is this a more peaceful universe?

If what you mean my more peaceful is one less side quest in a shitty backwater planet full of giant talking space lizards, yeah.

The assault on your Eden Prime might never have happened if we had let the krogan recover. We'll never know.

Do. NOT. Bring. That. Up. Honestly, as the player. I was angry at this kid. He's spouting shit, and when an EXTREME response was justified all Shepard could muster was ask more inane questions.

How would a krogan population explosion have done anything to stop Saren and the geth?

An increased krogan population would have forced the Council to take steps, likely involving colony rights in the Traverse.

No.

Bla bla bal bla bla Michael Moore bla bla bla bla bla bla bla.

Supposition. Impossible to be certain.

Don't you see? We tried to play god, and we failed! We only made things worse...and I'm going to fix it.

You talked about killing but the genophage isn't lethal. It only affects fertility rates.

Krogan fight over fertile females. They become mercs or pirates because they see no alternatives! They would be thriving in a cultural renaissance now had we not decided that this is what they deserved!

I'm about to perform a bullet renaissance on your body, I swear to God on the first chance I get...

We're shutting your lab down, Maelon.

Shutting down more than that.

Mordin, in rage, grabbed the pistol off the crazed student's arm and pushed him back.

It's over, Anakin....I've got the moral high ground.

I can stop Mordin still....but why should I? Perhaps he was misguided, but the things Maelon did had crossed the line. Whatever good intent he had in him died when he crossed that line. And for that, there's hell to pay. The consequences of his actions were too dire to be redeemed.

Make it so.

Don't worry about me, Mordin. How are you doing?

Knew he was young, impressionable. Should have talked to him after. Gotten him through guilt.

Right, wrong irrelevant. Maelon dead. Problem solved.

If you think it could be useful, why not hang on to it?

Worked years to create modified genophage. Should destroy this.

I think the answer is very clear-cut in this case.

Yes. Only safe course. Wiping drive. Done. Ready to go. Ready to be off Tuchanka. Anywhere else. Maybe somewhere sunny.

:tear:

 

[PlanHex]

Erm, doesn't Grunt give a shit about the genophage?
Why is he just standing there like a moron while you fuck with his species' fertility?

 

[lightbane]

Erm, doesn't Grunt give a shit about the genophage?
Why is he just standing there like a moron while you fuck with his species' fertility?

Remember his inane behaviour, obviously his INT is below 5.

 

[Kthan75]

Erm, doesn't Grunt give a shit about the genophage?
Why is he just standing there like a moron while you fuck with his species' fertility?

Actually, he doesn't give a shit. His creator, Okeer, believed that the genophage should be accepted and that the resulting Krogan would be more powerful in the end.

 

[random_encounter]

I'm not so sure about that. Their adjustments were done in secrecy by the Salarians who are apparently space ninjas when it comes to black bag jobs. If Okeer had known what they were up to, he could have done what this clan did instead and had succeeded much sooner. Okeer's acceptance of the genophage was likely based on his own failure to solve it, leading him down the path he took with Grunt.

Other than that, though, I thought it weird that Grunt didn't have ANY input on this much dirty laundry. Not a peep, even when Shephard kicked that other krogan back into action. I thought for sure Grunt would have slaughtered that guy on the spot for being a wuss.

 

[Kthan75]

True that. I found Grunt to be the most boring party member, even more so than Jacob.

Wrex had much more personality, and the encounter with him in ME2 was nice.

 

[Insane Psychic]

I agree that Grunt was kinda boring, his loyalty mission and the reasons for it are also the weakest IMO.

I really dug Mordin's though. The background was actually interesting.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

More variable. Peaks and valleys, mutations, adaptations. Far beyond other life. Makes humans useful test subjects. Larger reactions to smaller stimuli.

Oh for the love of god Bioware, you fail biology forever.
The Lack of Genetic Variability Among Humans Indicates We Were Almost Wiped Out

“We actually found that one single group of 55 chimpanzees in west Africa has twice the genetic variability of all humans,” Gagneux says. “In other words, chimps who live in the same little group on the Ivory Coast are genetically more different from each other than you are from any human anywhere on the planet.”

 

[circ]

Humans think they're hot shit. Why is this news?

 

[RK47]

Save the krogan argument is too weak. I don't think Bioware can do better than that. There's almost no redeeming value for these guys.

 

[lightbane]

´Which one argument? There are many about the Krogan that are retarded...

 

[RK47]

The whole 'we screwed the krogan' argument from Maelon.

I can't be arsed to sympathize with them at all.