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Fridge / Mass Effect Fridge Horror General

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  • The Keepers:
    • The Keepers are described much the same way as the Collectors, implying they are an older race that was enslaved and altered into biological androids in the same way.
    • It could be much worse than that: let's say the Keepers were the first race the Reapers wipe out. There must have been millions of Keepers damaged/killed/self-destructed during the (at least) 1 billion years that the Harvests have been going on. It also isn't that much of a stretch to assume that some races harvested might have been pretty brutal, and likely killed at least some of the keepers when they first discovered them. It seems unlikely that the Citadel could hold (not to mention, conceal) enough raw biological material for millions of years of replacement - but there again, with all those millions living aboard it, nobody will notice if a few people "disappear" from time to time...
    • In the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, one of the usable vids shows a Keeper walking away from a dead Krogan, Cpt Bailey mentions kids sometimes disappear in the ducts... Combine it with the above theory, and the keepers suddenly become horrific.
  • As you scan the various planets in the first two games, you'll often read descriptions of ancient architecture of races long gone. Every single time, you see the analysis: organized orbital bombardment, utterly obliterating all lifeforms on these planets... and they're always dated in multiples of 50,000 years...
  • According to Javik, the rachni weren't sentient back in his day. They took them and turned up their cunning and aggression. We also see the salarians doing the same thing to varren. So, does that mean the varren are going to be turned into living, sentient bioweapons? Kinda sucks as an existence.
  • A shitload of Fridge Horror is how Shepard always comes to the rescue JUST in time. It's either amazing or horrifying how Shepard is literally the only thing keeping so many awful events from happening. Let’s take a look:
    • Mass Effect
      • Ashley: Outnumbered by the geth on Eden Prime, and likely to be killed and turned into a Husk.
      • Tali: About to be murdered by Fist's thugs.
      • Liara: On the verge of starving to death.
      • Feros: the colony would have either been wiped out by the geth or remained slaves to the Thorian
      • The Scientists on Noveria: Besieged by the rachni and unable to last for much longer.
      • Citadel and the entire galaxy: about to fall to Sovereign and the Reapers.
    • Mass Effect 2
      • Garrus: About to be killed by the mercenaries.
      • Mordin: About to be overrun by the plague, vorcha, and possibly Collectors. His assistant would also be dead, and the plague would have been used by the Collectors as a chemical weapon
      • Grunt: Probably about to be gassed or otherwise killed along with Okeer by Jedore’s Blue Suns
      • Jack: Who knows what might happen to her if she had stayed in the Purgatory. Worse, who knows how many people she would have killed if she hadn't been influenced by Shepard?
      • Tali: If not killed on Freedom’s Progress, she would have most definitely died on Haestrom.
      • Thane: By his own admission, he probably would have been killed by Nassana Dantius’s guards, though perhaps not before he assassinated Nassana herself.
      • Samara: She would have been arrested and then probably forced to fight a whole army of Illium’s security forces. Even she admits she might have been killed and Morinth would be allowed free reign with no one to stop her
      • Legion: May have been taken down by the husks on the derelict Reaper.
      • That’s not even getting into the consequences of not dealing with the Collectors, and various loyalty quests and other missions, like the Overlord Project, Tali’s trial, the Reaper virus for the geth, Morinth, Maelon, Kolyat, Oriana, Vido Santiago, or Donovan Hock.
    • Mass Effect 3
      • Actually subverted half of the time, with Shepard either being too late or otherwise failing to save people (the kid, Mordin/Padok, Legion/Geth VI, Rila, Anderson... — and of course, billions of humans, turians, krogan, salarians, asari and so on, all over the galaxy). But played straight a lot of the time, too:
      • Liara: About to be overrun by Cerberus, the sole survivor of the Mars base crew.
      • Primarch Victus: About to be overwhelmed by Reaper forces on Palaven's moon. And he's himself a replacement for the Primarch whom Shepard was supposed to rescue.
      • Mordin, Padok, Eve, and the entire STG base: About to be wiped out by Cerberus.
      • Grissom Academy: Same.
      • Falere: About to be killed or, more likely, turned into a banshee. Especially if Samara isn't there.
      • The Citadel Council: About to be killed or captured by Cerberus.
      • The quarians: About to have their entire fleet destroyed in a hopeless battle against the Reaper-enhanced geth.
      • Javik: likely to die in stasis like all of his fellow Protheans
  • The Leviathan of Dis:
    • A commonly cited figure for how long the Reapers have been doing this is 37 million years, or the age of the Reaper you raid to get the IFF. Then we have the Leviathan of Dis, which is often overlooked, since all it gets is a planet survey entry in the first game. The third game states that batarian research on the Leviathan ended up in a similar way to the Cerberus research on the Reaper you land on, with the crew getting indoctrinated. Only this time, they infiltrated the government and let the Reapers attack. To quote the planet entry from the first game:
    "Jartar is noted for the discovery of the 'Leviathan of Dis,' the apparent corpse of a genetically engineered living starship. The Leviathan was found in the bottom of a crater by a batarian survey team, and estimated to be nearly a billion years old. It 'disappeared' after a visit to the system by a batarian dreadnought twenty years ago."
    • Prior to the "disappearance", the batarians were just annoying - they had an oppressive caste system, and had attacked other races, but they still interacted with the rest of the galaxy. Immediately afterward, the batarians demanded a huge land claim then resigned in disgust when they didn't get it, leading to their self-imposed isolation. As in, they were indoctrinated and wanted privacy while they finished the job with their own species. The Mind Rape implants they used on non-batarian slaves? Indoctrination again. Their demand for control of the really nasty Dahak system and their secrecy involving the Alpha Relay? Indoctrination again. They were always Jerkass bullies and slavers, but basically just a collection of street gangs with starships. The Reapers just helped them get made.
  • One planet mentions that 127,000 years ago it was the site of a battle between the Isunannon and the Thor'han. We know the Thorian is more than 100,000 years old and encountered both the Protheans and the Isunannon. Given the similarity between the two names, the fact that most names do become corrupted over time, or possibly was simply mistranslated, it leads to one horrifying thought. The Thorian may once have had access to starships and attempted to take over the Galaxy. Remember what Joker said the Colonists were trying to do? They were desperate to try to get onboard the Normandy. They were trying this again.
  • Here's one for the franchise: even if Shepard cures the genophage, it's not gone. Mordin describes the genophage mechanism in detail: it's a genetic mutation which the affects glands in the female body governing the growth of a fetus in the womb.note  "Eve's" body has simply transferred that from dedicated glands to a general metabolic process, making those glands as redundant as the rest of their organs. That makes the adaptation an explicit enhancement, but the genophage is still part of their genome. They essentially have a computer virus in their genes sending commands that no longer have a function. Another genophage modification is entirely possible. On a more positive note, if the krogan start causing trouble again, their genocide won't be necessary, and their direct experience with it will allow the genophage to fulfill its original function as a deterrent.
  • I Remember Me, a sidequest in the first game that's exclusive to Colonist Shepard, has Shep helping Talitha, a girl who'd been a slave to the batarians - who, as established above, were Reaper-affected even then and implanting anyone they thought they could get use of. Resolve this peacefully and she sends you a message in the second game: she's doing much better, she's in a special school, one of the doctors works for the same people Shep does and could send him/her this message. Well and good... but then you consider that that means one of the doctors is part of Cerberus, and what's the thing with Cerberus in the third game? Reapers.
  • Think back to one of the conversions you can have with Ashley in the original Mass Effect. In which she stated her infamously cynical view on galactic politics, stating that humanity cannot rely on aliens or trust them as allies. Since we are too fundamentally different and everyone will only look out for their own race's self-interest in the end. To prove her point, she used the metaphor of a pet dog. No matter now much you love and care for it, in the end, if push comes to shove, when presented with the choice between saving either another human being or your dog, you will always go for the the human. Now look at the ending of Mass Effect 3. If you pick the 'Destroy' option, you have just proven her point. Perhaps you view EDI as your close friend and you believe that the geth deserve a chance in building their own future. But in the end, when you are backed to a corner, you sided with the more familiar organics at the cost of all synthetic life.
  • The Reapers are already Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, but a little fridge horror puts them in near Physical God territory. Think about the end of the Arrival DLC, where Shepard launches a Goddamned moon at a mass relay to delay the Reaper's advance. It ended up destroying the relay, which exploded and destroyed the entire system. Now consider this: the Reapers built the mass relays, apparently quite easily. These relays can destroy an entire solar system if destroyed. Remember that they were NOT designed to do that. If anything, they would be designed to be as hard as possible to actually set off. The Reapers easily created a 'bomb' that destroyed an entire solar system, and it wasn't even on purpose. Can you imagine how unbelievably destructive they could be if they actually designed a weapon to DESTROY the galaxy instead of just harvest it?
  • One for the turians about the First Contact War. While it's called that by the humans, the turians call it the Relay 314 Incident. The last nation to call an atrocity-filled war (the turians bombed cities from orbit to kill human fireteams) an "incident" instead of a proper war was Imperial Japan. What else have they done that they've termed an "incident" instead of a war?
  • More a Fridge Squick example. Asari are said to be capable of reproducing with any species with DNA. Who's to say that certain individuals haven't reproduced with animals?
    • Another Asari Frige Squick. They appear as attractive human females. What do Turians think they look like? Turians. What did Protheans think about them? That they were attractive. Could it be that Asari alter viewer's perceptions to appear attractive to them? What the hell do Asari actually look like...
  • Cortez's husband Robert was not just killed by the Collectors, he was abducted by them. Which means he was eventually dissolved alive and pumped into the Human Reaper. During the Citadel DLC party, the Mass Effect 2 squadmates can have a conversation about the Collector Base. Cortez comments on how he is glad he wasn't around then. If only he knew how true that was.
  • The attempted Colony Drop by the Batarians was bad enough that it would have killed millions and rendered an entire planet uninhabitable for millenia. But what would have been the consequence should it have succeeded? Since this was a fringe extremist group, the Hegemony would have pled ignorance and disavowed responsibility, but would the Alliance have accepted that? No!! They most likely would have gone to war against the batarians, and the Council would have either seen it as another example of Humans Are Bastards and sanctioned them, maybe even kicked them off the Citadel, or otherwise washed their hands off, claiming it was an internal matter that the humans needed to deal with on their own. Due to the Council not helping, xenophobic sentiment rises, causing Cerberus to get stronger and engage in more horrific experiments. Saren would have been able to waltz in, steal the beacon, find the conduit and capture the Citadel to begin the harvest - with no Alliance to stop them since they are bogged down in a war of their own.
  • Humanity was in a lot of trouble from many other sources too. First, the Thorian had taken control of almost an entire colony, and it was only a matter of time before it had them building ships to spread its spores elsewhere and gain more thralls. Secondly, it was Cerberus who had commissioned the entire process of hatching the rachni egg and having the queen spit out soldiers and workers for them. If the whole thing wasn't hijacked by Saren and Benezia, the children might have broken loose, killed this queen and started to Kill All Humans since they were the ones who imprisoned them. A new rachni war would have been underway with the council saying "It's your own damn fault, clean up your own mess." Thirdly, biotics were starting to rebel, with at least two instances of hostage taking and Major Kyle organizing them into a cult. How long before this cult starts a serious insurrection? Or worse, become thralls of the Thorian, giving it a significant boost in military capability. And then there was Elanos Haliat. If there wasn't a Spectre for him to waste the probe's fusion bomb on, he could have leaked the info to the council just to spite humans, resulting in massive sanctions and possibly a ramp up of hostilities with the Turians. Couple that with all the other fires raging, and humanity is facing wars on at least three fronts completely alone.
  • In the third game on Thessia the Illusive Man claims that just after discovering the Charon relay, some people wanted to destroy it rather than allow whatever is out there to now be able to come in. If the First Contact War had escalated and things were going badly, it is conceivable that some desperate people on Earth might have tried to destroy the relay. And we all know by now what happens if you do destroy a relay with anything other than a well built Crucible
  • Some of the mission summaries from the second game look much darker after Cerberus's actions in the third game. Of particular note is the summary of the Reaper IFF mission. Without Shepard, Cerberus wouldn't have gotten that data, and in 3, it's discovered what that data was used for. Given Shepard's state of mind at that point, it's probably for the best that s/he never put together the Awful Truth: Shepard made Sanctuary possible.
    Reaper IFF successfully retrieved. Loss of Cerberus team on the Reaper vessel unfortunate but unsurprising. Will use team's health records for comparisons against husks encountered on Reaper for possible insight into indoctrination and husk conversion process.
  • The Rachni War: The cause of the Rachni War is rather nebulous because the only source available was still an egg at the time. Apparently the rachni were controlled by "oily shadows" through being forced "to resonate with ITS own sour, yellow note". That might have been the first attempt of Sovereign to reach the Citadel. The lack of reaper augmentation could be explained by Sovereign either being arrogant enough to believe he won't need to use it, or being careful not to reveal himself. At this point he wouldn't know why the Citadel won't activate and might assume the current cycle knows about him. What is horrifying about this: Had Sovereign been successful, the Reaper invasion would've happened around 83 A.D.! And we don't know where the threshold for harvesting is. Only an assumption regarding the Yahg becoming the next dominant space-faring species if the Crucible plan fails.
  • The more one thinks about asari mating the weirder and more sinister it gets. Since they have a social stigma against having children with other asari, what caused the switch when they discovered other sentient species, or was that stigma always there leading to a theory from earlier on this page? What if the stigma is based on some old government policy to lead to cultural domination? Total collapse of other species seems unlikely simply because of the salarian's male-female ratio and amphibian mating cycle. By trying to avoid backlash by giving too much detail the developers left a lot of questions, and an active imagination can be a terrible thing.
  • In the meeting with Vigil, he mentions that Sovereign didn't wake up recently, but occasionally got up every now and then over the last fifty thousand years to check on things. Makes one start to wonder where those anti-AI laws the Council are so hell-bent on came from, especially when there doesn't seem to be any pre-geth incident that could justify such fear.
    • Meanwhile, why has no-one besides Liara ever noticed "gosh, there are a heck of a lot of dead civilisations just lying around, all of which seem to have gone the same way"? Maybe Sovereign, and its hench-people, have been making sure no-one notices, one way or another.
  • When you think about it, Shepard would be TERRIFYING for their enemies. Seriously, look at it from someone else's point of view: By the end of ME 2 Shepard has semi bulletproof skin, indestructible bones, heals at absurd rates and is strong enough to beat down a Geth Prime. This means that Shepard can probably punch a hole in a shielded and armored synthetic that is arguably a walking tank. And no matter what Shepard's class is, they terrify their enemies; let's take a quick look, shall we?
    • Soldier: The enemy in front of you is heavily armored and has more weapons than you've ever seen someone carry. You and your platoon start to open fire, but in hardly a fraction of a second, the soldier pulls out their assault rifle and sweeps it through the air, firing wildly. You laugh, thinking they've just wasted their ammo, but suddenly there's a number of dull thuds behind you. You don't have to look; your HUD tells you your squad all just flatlined. And Shepard's just finished reloading. It doesn't help that Soldier Shepard is so pumped up with genetic modifications that they could beat Iron Man with their left arm and Captain America with their right. It's a wonder the people you punch still have heads afterwards.
      • You see all these weapons and think all those bullets aren't worth shit and you and your squad of more than twenty guys can just flank him and kill him without any trouble. He shoots a few times. You look to your right, and one of your teammates is screaming and trying to put out his flaming armor, and he dies still screaming horribly. Your team's engineer walks past you, and you breathe, assuming his shields will surely help him and your team to at least make the guy waste some of his bullets. Before you could even finish that thought, the engineer's shields fizzle out like they were nothing, and now he's convulsing, paralyzed and unable to even raise his gun before he's put down with one last shot. In frustration, some of your other teammates try to bum-rush him, but then you see streaks of white on their bodies, and notice they're slowing down, and then they're practically frozen on the spot, and a few shots is all it takes for your former teammates to just shatter like glass. You're stunned by what you've just seen, so much so that you don't even notice that the guy's already rushing at you, and the last thing you see is the butt of his rifle charging straight to your head.
    • Vanguard: Your band of mercs ambushes this stupid guy, laying down some serious suppressing fire. Suddenly, your companion freezes solid and, in a flash of blue light, the guy you ambushed turns into a blazing blue comet of death and rams into your friend, sending him flying through the air until he slams into a wall and shatters. The krogan on your team starts to charge the guy, but he swivels on the balls of his feet, so fast you hardly see it happen, and there's a sound like a cannon as half of your buddy's face just disappears. Then the guy turns to you, pumping the slide of a shotgun built exclusively for krogan as a blue biotic corona flares up around them.
      • Taken up to eleven in the third game, where a Vanguard can easily be the Reaper's worst nightmare. Shepard hurtling at them like an Angry Bird and playing ping pong with their corpses? Now they also use Nova; which wipes out anything within five meters, and Shockwave: a room clearing biotic attack that even Banshees cannot cope with. Shepard didn't defeat the Reapers, they just packed up and went home.
    • Engineer: You shoot at them, and your weapons don't fire. They shoot at you, and your shields don't work. Your armor is burned away by napalm. You try to hide, but they send a drone that electrifies you and forces you out into the open. The mechs you brought along suddenly gain kinetic barriers and start shooting at their masters. Your friend ducks out of cover to flank him and suddenly they fall to the ground, clutching their head and screaming as blood oozes out of their eyes and ears. Then you freeze solid, the monster points a pea shooter at you, and you shatter like glass.
    • Infiltrator: Your platoon is walking along their patrol. It's your turn on point. Nothing's really out of the ordinary, but you think you hear a far off gunshot. Confused, you wave your squad forward. Then you hear the sound again, closer - but this time a spray of blood hits you. You turn back to find that two of your men's heads are just gone. You all dive for cover but another of your men dies, shot in the face even as he dove for a rock. But you saw where the shot came from. You turn and open fire as the distant sniper ducks back under cover. Your team coordinates fire on the spot, keeping the damn sniper pinned as you advance towards their position. Then there's the sound of a sniper rifle, and another one of your friends' heads bursts open like a ripe melon. Your men start firing on the new position and you force them to coordinate to keep both of the snipers pinned down. There's another shot and someone else dies and you can't find the sniper. Everyone scatters, firing wildly. Terrified, you and a companion hide in a small rocky alcove, huddling together out of fear. You watch on your HUD as one by one every other member of your patrol goes dark until it's just the two of you. Where's the sniper? How many are there? Then you hear a sharp crack as your friend's neck snaps, and someone suddenly blurs into existence beside you, the barrel of a pistol jammed against the side of your head. To summarize: You and everyone you care about/work with could be killed, and you'd never even see who was doing it. (And if you get the weapon specialization they can carry a sniper rifle designed to pierce tanks that will shatter the arms of the average human who fires it and use it on normal infantry.)
    • Sentinel: Your shields fail before a wave of their hand. Your barrier explodes around you. Your weapons jam as you try to fire. Your armor distorts and rips itself apart. They knock you out of cover with a thought. And no matter what you do, no matter how many times you shoot them, no matter how many people shoot, no matter what you shoot them with, they just won't die.
    • Adept: To try and put this into perspective: think about how much Jack terrifies everyone that knows about her. Think about what she can do for a long moment. Got it? Good. An Adept Shepard is arguably as strong a biotic if not stronger than Jack. They can create small black holes with a thought repeatedly and with relative ease. Hide behind cover, and a blue blurry bullet of energy curves around to send you floating through the air, completely helpless. One of Shepard's team members might pick you off...or Shepard might send another blue blur to slam into you, throwing you off the edge.
    • Paragon Shepard does not care for your past sins, they forgive all. Shepard offers job opportunities for those who get the work done. Paragon Shepard may offer mercy and help for your past problems, and secure your loyalty. But not for one moment think they do not have you down their sights. Any traitor that has met the Cutscene Pistol of Doom will either back down or die. Shepard always wins, and their crew knows that. Offer one hand, arm the other indeed. Not only that, but if you refuse to back down, you will suffer for your sins. Paragon Shepard will tear apart your unethical research, stop whatever you were doing, and leave you to rot in jail for doing it.
    • Renegade Shepard, however, has no need for such petty mercies—if you so much as breathe in their general direction in the wrong way, they will kill you. Remember: you either fall in line... or you get crushed under their heel.
    • And then there's the Paragade Shepard.note  Is the commander on a nice day, where everyone lives, or did you just pissed him off, and the Geneva convention is now a Geneva suggestion? There's a reason why Aria thinks that Paragade Shepard is the most powerful and baffling being she's ever encountered, and thinks s/he's a truly dangerous person.
    • Also, think about the above class scenarios then add in some of the kinds of armor and weapons Shepard can use, namely the Recon Hood, the Collector Armor and Assault Rifle, and the Terminus armor and Blackstorm (A.K.A. the Black Hole Gun). The Soldier scenario would only be more terrifying as what looks like a Human-Collector hybrid holding a bizarre three-pronged organic gun-thing mows down your friends, the cold emotionless expression of the Recon hood behind the barrel of that pistol for the Infiltrator scenario, and the Terminus Armor holding the Blackstorm no matter what the class. The Cain just goes without saying because even if you didn't see it hit, you very likely heard that explosion and, if you were talking to a buddy on the radio, getting nothing but static at about the same time.
    • Just to add fuel to the fire, consider the options your Shepard can get with Advanced Training. Imagine the description of the soldier, but now they have the ability to drain the very life essence out of your friends with a thought. Or an Adept that's able to not only easily take down your anti-biotic shielding, but use that to steadily boost their own shielding while you hopelessly unload round after round into them as they get ready for their bone-crushing Throw to cool down.
    • Shepard and the Normandy combined are potentially horrific for Harbinger. So you're abducting another human colony when this human in battle armor starts killing your troops. Not only are they immune to the seeker swarms, but they look exactly like that Shepard whose ship you blew up two years ago so you wouldn't have to worry about them. They actually manage to activate the defenses, forcing you to withdraw. Later, you set a trap for them. Not only do you confirm that it's Shepard, but you catch a glimpse of their ship. It looks like their old one - didn't you destroy it? Finally, you're at your home base when that ship attacks. It's almost identical in appearance to the one you destroyed... only twice as big, and packing a lot more firepower. It shrugs off your initial attack before blasting your ship to pieces with what looks like a miniature version of Nazara's weapon. Finally, Shepard boards your base, takes out your unfinished human Reaper on foot, then destroys the base, along with all your work. In short, you killed this human, obliterated their ship and scattered their crew throughout the entire galaxy. And it was all just a temporary setback. As Garrus noted, Harbinger killed Shepard, and all it seemed to do was piss them off.
  • All of Shepard's squadmates are terrifying to their enemies in their own right. Let's count the ways:
    • Kaidan: You and your mercenary band have run into Shepard on a remote world and think that maybe you can take them out if you get rid of their squad first. You notice another human, this one wearing lighter armor than Shepard and only carrying an assault rifle and a dinky little pistol, so you decide to get him out of the way first. It's only when your bullets bounce uselessly against his strangely strong shields that you notice the glow of biotics. Before you can react to that, he points his omni-tool at you and makes your weapon blow up in your hand. You try to switch to your backup weapon, but he uses that opening to send you flying into a wall with bone-crushing force. Still dazed, you find yourself floating helplessly in the air, barely registering that your shields have disappeared, and now that dinky little pistol is pointed directly at your head.
    • Ashley: You find yourself fighting with Shepard in the Citadel Wards and notice that they are accompanied by a human wearing heavy armor and carrying an absurd number of weapons. One of your teammates tries to fire at them from a safe distance, only for her to pull out a sniper rifle and shoot him in the head. Your team's krogan charges, but she lobs an incendiary grenade at him then finishes him off with a shotgun. Getting desperate, you start shooting at her only to find that her armor is reinforced, and you now have her attention. She pulls out her assault rifle and starts shooting with more accuracy than full-auto weapon should ever have, cutting through your shields as if they're nonexistent. Finally, as you're on the ground bleeding, she calmly walks up to you with a Hand Cannon, ready to finish you off.
    • Garrus: As you and your fellow Blue Suns mercs pin Shepard under heavy fire, one of your squadmates' heads pops like a cherry tomato. Looking around, you don't see anyone besides your squadmates, you, and Shepard, when a concussive round knocks another squadmate off his feet. Looking toward the source of the shot, you see a turian dressed in a familiar-looking blue outfit, aiming his sniper rifle right at your head. And just before he kills you off, it dawns on you that Archangel isn't dead... He's working with Shepard.
      • Garrus' tendency to put people down in sadistically ironic ways is both hilarious and disturbing when you think about it. That takes a lot of time and effort to kill someone in an appropriate manner.
      • The fact that he's such Nightmare Fuel to bands of bloodthirsty mercenary groups that said groups, who usually hate each other's guts, had teamed up to take him on, were pooling all their resources, and were effectively in a stalemate with one guy with a sniper rifle, should tell you everything you need to know.
    • Wrex: It's bad enough that you've run into Shepard in your remote outpost, but they are accompanied by an enormous, battle-scarred krogan. He charges into your squad with reckless abandon, punching people as much as shooting them with a shotgun too large for a human to use. Even your teammate that tries to keep his distance only gets blown away by a Carnage round for his trouble. You try to get the situation under control only to see your bullets bouncing off of a biotic barrier. The krogan gives a sadistic smile as his entire body starts glowing blue and his outstretched hand sends you flying. As you struggle to get back on your feet, you see the krogan charging at you, shotgun at the ready.
    • Tali: You've got orders to shake down a small colony when you come across Shepard. Okay, I've just got to keep myself from being noticed and I'll be fine, you think to yourself. Then you notice a quarian nearby. Thinking that the quarian will be infinitely easier to kill than Shepard, especially one still on her Pilgrimage, you peep out of cover and level your sights on her, only for a painful electric shock to cause you to pop up from out of cover. Turning around, you see a violet combat drone eagerly waiting for you to go back under, which you quickly dispose of... but not before realizing that one of the Mechs you've brought along for this shakedown has gained kinetic barriers and is now firing at you and the other Mechs. As you fall to the ground, blood pooling around you, you watch helplessly as the quarian nonchalantly walks up to you, pulls out a shotgun that looks like it's more at home with the geth than the quarians, and say the last words you'll ever hear: "Keelah se'lai."
    • Liara: You've arranged for a meeting with one of the Shadow Broker's associates to get some intelligence for your next mercenary operation and go to a back alley on Illium to meet up with him when an asari shows up. Thinking she's a prostitute, you try to seduce her and invite her back to your place for some drinks after you've gotten your intel from the Shadow Broker, only to learn that she's the rep the Shadow Broker's sent to help you out. After giving you the intel, you thank her, and then decide that she's outlived her usefulness and that the Shadow Broker won't care for one representative going dark and start firing at her. The next thing you know, you're frozen in place, the asari's biotics radiating off of her body like blue fire and her pistol aimed directly at you. And just before she shoots you, she reveals the grim truth to you: She's the Shadow Broker, and you just shot in her general direction.
    • Jacob: You're taking on Shepard when you see they've got some Cerberus guy with them, and decide that killing him would be easier than killing Shepard. But instead of him going down like a Vorcha or varren, he doesn't die, his kinetic barriers just getting stronger with every shot you try to sink into him. Then, he returns fire, causing you to burst into flame. The last sensation you feel is the one of flying toward the barrel of his shotgun after being hit with a biotic Pull, on fire and slowly dying. "Gravity's one mean mother, huh?"
    • Miranda: While trading shots with Shepard you are alerted to the fact that your shields just died. While trying to determine if your shields really did die, you feel the sensation of being lifted up, before being slammed down onto the ground, hard. Broken, battered, and bruised, you get up and watch a Cerberus Operative walk up to you, take out one of your squadmates with her pistol, and finish you off with a Warp Field.
    • Zaeed: You're blind drunk and ready for a fight when suddenly you see Shepard and, in your foolhardy delusions of grandeur, decide to take them on. Before you can even draw your pistol, however, a concussive shot staggers you while you feel several bullets shred your shields to pieces. Looking to your left, you see none other than Zaeed Massani, interstellar bounty hunter extraordinaire, standing at Shepard's side, an old Avenger in his hands. And then, before you can even return fire, he then pulls out a grenade full of napalm and nonchalantly tosses it at you, ensuring your last few moments are spent screaming in agony as you burn to death.
    • Kasumi: You and Shepard are trading shots on Illium when you notice a grenade at your feet. Before you can react, the grenade explodes into a litany of loud sound and bright lights, causing you to stagger around blindly while someone overloads your shields. Then, as you finally come to, you watch as a Japanese woman appears out of thin air and gouts your lights out with an Omniblade. And what’s worse is that Kasumi is spec’d for less lethal takedowns, which means that you will most likely have to live with the ignominy of being bested by a Master Thief.
    • Mordin: You and your fellow Blood Pack mercs are dealing with Shepard when you spot a salarian scientist. Salarians are squishy—not even finger deep and you've cut their spines in half. But as you prepare to charge him, hopefully while your pack-mates are keeping Shepard occupied, the pack-mate with you snap-freezes and shatters with a well-placed pistol shot, while your vorcha bodyguards spontaneously burst into flame and are mowed down with SMG Rounds. Then, a flash of horrible, intense, and relentless pain overloads your body, and you watch helplessly as the salarian lowers his pistol at you. The last words you ever hear are, "Thought I was harmless, did you?"
    • Grunt: The Blue Suns has sent you to deal with some rowdy colonists who won't pay up on their extortion racket. Nothing too bad, right? That's when you see Shepard. But rather than panic, you decide to take them on, mano a mano, when you realize they've got a krogan with them. And when you try and take that krogan down with your shotgun, he screams, "Feel the Blood Rage!" and charges you while a Beehive Barrier forms around his hardening body, sending you flying off into the distance. As you hit the ground and get back up, you then watch the krogan nonchalantly walk up to you, pull out a massive shotgun, and shoot you point blank.
      • Not to mention, that krogan's young. He's not even fully mature yet. And he was designed to be a super soldier.
    • Jack: You're on a remote world, doing some more risqué operations when you come across Shepard. Panicking, you tell everyone to pack up and move out before they catch you and kill you all when a Shockwave sends you flying. Dusting yourself off from the impact of hitting the ground, you turn around and see a skinny woman whose tattoos cover more skin than the leather she's wearing. You aim down your sights to score a kill when a hail of shotgun rounds from the girl kills one of your squadmates and another Shockwave from the same girl sends you through the air again. As you get up again, you see Shepard mowing down your Mechs and squadmates while the girl sends one of your friends off a nearby cliff with a biotic Throw. Then, she turns, sees that you're still alive, and sends you upward with a biotic Pull, using her shotgun to finish you off. You barely recall the only words you heard her say as she and Shepard first see you and your squad, "Hello, dead people!" You'd be laughing if you weren't choking on your own blood.
    • Samara: You're trading shots with Shepard when you see an Asari Justicar by his side. Isn't she one of those die-hard justice lovers who like to kill anyone who breaks the law? you ask yourself. Deciding it doesn't matter, you decide to pop out of cover only to realize your squadmates and friends are dead and you're slowly starting to feel weak and sleepy. Checking your Omni-tool, you notice that your vitals are slowly deteriorating, and when you pop out of cover again, you realize that the Justicar's using her biotics against you by leeching away your life into hers. The last thing you feel is the shattering of every bone in your body as you hit the ground after being sent flying by a Shockwave.
    • Thane: You're in a firefight with Shepard when you're hit by a Warp Field. Looking around to see who sent it, you see a drell at Shepard's side, still mildly glowing from a recent use of biotics. Deciding that the drell will be the easiest target to deal with, it only dawns on you that he was the one responsible for the Warp Field when he sends you flying with a biotic Throw before finishing you with a few precision rounds from his pistol.
      • Alternatively, you'll be in your office, going about your illegal business, when all of a sudden, the guards outside your door are dead. Then the guards inside your room are dead. You radio the rest of your security force and realize that everyone but the janitors have either been shot or had their necks snapped. Then you feel hands grasping the sides of your head and violently jerking to the right. The last sensation you have is of a drell starting in on a prayer of forgiveness.
    • Legion: Let's say you are this poor, unfortunate Merc squad. You see Shepard. Oh, no. They're a really bad Human. Then imagine the first thing you hear is a robotic "Hostiles Spotted" in a dull emotionless tone. Standing next to this heavily armed human is a geth. Speaking English. The butchers of Eden Prime, the ravagers of the Citadel, the besiegers of Feros. The most horrifying enemy the galaxy has ever known (since you and most of the rest of the galaxy don't know about the Reapers) and this person has one working with them. But it's not so bad, it's just one lone geth, right? No smarter than a varren? Suddenly, it pops one of your squad mate's heads like a cherry with its own Widow Anti-Material Rifle. Oh, it's smarter than a varren, all right. It's a cold, logical death machine that only sees you as an obstacle to an objective, nothing more than a statistic in a combat data projection. Then it aims its Anti-Tank Cannon. Right at--
    • Morinth: You're trading shots with Shepard when you see an Asari Justicar by his side. But it's okay! She's on your side! So you happily turn around, mowing down your squadmates left and right, not realizing what's going on until either one of your squadmates manages to kill you or she bids you come to her, at which point the full force of what's happened hits you like a train and causes you to drop dead, either through bleeding out or by the revelation that the Justicar is actually an Ardat-Yakshi; something you only learn when she looks into your eyes while hers turn deathly black, before saying "embrace eternity" and overloading your nervous system.
    • James: You've cornered Shepard squad in the wards and see them with an even larger human. You write him off as a meathead that will be easily dealt with, only to see him step in front of Shepard while your bullets do nothing against his reinforced armor. He then starts shooting into your own squad, causing you all to catch on fire. While you're trying to douse the flames, they erupt even hotter as the meathead has just thrown a frag grenade into your group. As you're struggling to get up and keep fighting despite your burns, you see the meathead walking toward you, and he has switched out his assault rifle for a shotgun.
    • EDI: You're fighting Shepard on a space station and see that they have brought a mech with them. Not Shepard's usual MO but you can deal with it quickly enough. You fire at the mech only to see your bullets go right through it. Just as it fizzles out and you realize that it was a holographic decoy, you realize that something is shooting at you from behind, and you turn around to find the real mech firing at you with accuracy like you've never seen from one. You fire back, but as you do you suddenly see that your shields are gone. You try to get to safely but as you do the mech lights your armor on fire so that its weapon will do even more damage. Nothing you do seems to stop the mech's advance, and as it finally corners you, you notice that its expression is far too human.
    • Javik: You're fighting Shepard, who is accompanied by an alien that you have never seen before. You watch in horror as the alien shoots one of your teammates with a weapon straight out of a twentieth century vid until the teammate outright disintigrates. The alien throws a biotic grenade into your group, sending all of you flying. While you're floating in the air from the grenade's effect, you notice several of your teammates violently slam into the ground. The alien sends a strange, green biotic field into one of your allies before shooting him with that fantastic gun. One by one the alien shoots your surviving teammates, and each time it does that biotic field jumps to the next survivor. Finally, that biotic field is tearing you apart as the alien aims its gun at you, and you remember what a prothean looked like in your high school history books.

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