Mars Mission - Insanity

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Alliance Prothean archives and research station on Mars.

Its been a few months now since Mass Effect 3 came out and I played the single player campaign game.  Since completing the single player campaign I’ve mainly been playing Mass Effect Multiplayer.  I decided to take another run through of the single player campaign mode on insane level.

During the initial introduction to Mass Effect 3 we find out what has happened to Commander Shepard after the destruction of the CollectorBase beyond the Omega 4 Relay and his parting of ways with Cerberus.

The Alliance hasn’t been to kind to Commander Shepard locking him up for a kangaroo-court court martial related to the Arrival DLC that took place after Mass Effect 2 and resulted in the destruction of the Batarian Mass Relay and subsequently millions of Bartarians.

Shepard's destination, the Mars Prothean archives.

We find our protagonist locked up in a plush Systems Alliance brig awaiting his court martial.  We are introduced to James Vega, a new character to the video games, in the opening sequence.  I never warmed up to Vega in Mass Effect 3 and I’m sure that won’t change in this run through.

Eventually Shepard’s day in court arrives and Vega comes to take him to the court martial.  Along the way we run into Admiral Anderson and now Lt. Commander Ashley Williams.  During the beginning of Shepard's court martial the Alliance starts losing contact with its outer bases and space stations.  Soon a massive object is spotted closing quickly on the Earth.  Then contact is lost with the moon and the Reapers attack Earth.

During the initial Reaper attack the Systems Alliance headquarters council, which is also also the court martial board, are all killed.  Commander Shepard makes his way to the Normandy with Admiral Anderson.  Rather than escaping on the Normandy Admiral Anderson decides to stay on Earth to lead the resistance against the Reapers.  He reinstates Shepard into the Alliance military and gives him command of Normandy instructing him to go to Mars.

Dr. Eva Core gives Ashley a beat down.

Upon arrival at Mars Shepard gets a break because the Reapers have not attacked Mars.  After landing Shepard discovers Cerberus troops control the archives.  Shepard, Vega and Ashley fight through the Cerberus troops to gain access to the Mars facility.  Inside they find Liara, who had been doing some Prothean research, dispatch a trio of Cerberus troops who where attacking her. 

Liara tells them of her research and the designs of a possible Prothean weapon for use against the Reapers.  They quickly agree that Cerberus is after the same information.  The team is now in a race to beat Cerberus to the Prothean data.  The Cerberus task force is lead by Dr. Eva Core, who unknown to Liara is actually a android disguised as a human.