app for

[galacticheroine]

PLAYER INFORMATION
Your Name: Varis
OOC Journal: zombieproof
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: nope, i'm 26.
Email + IM: unknowngoddess[at]gmail.com / harder to kill
Characters Played at Ataraxion: n/a

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Commander Jane Shepard
Canon: Mass Effect
Original or Alternate Universe: AU
Canon Point: Mid-retaking Rannoch.
Number: ohhh randomize me.

Setting: Mass Effect universe storyline. all the tl;dr you could ever need.
History: Shepard was born to a farming family on the colony planet of Mindoir in the Attican Traverse, six years after humanity discovered Mass Relay technology, on April 11th, 2154. She was exposed in-utero to element zero, and was later identified as a biotic potential, but as she lived on a colony world this wasn't discovered until after the BAaT program was shut down.

When Shepard was sixteen, Mindoir was attacked by batarian slavers, and nearly every person was killed, including all of Shepard's family and friends. She survived, however, and an Alliance Patrol picked her up. She spent the next few years on Earth, being fitted for biotic implants and receiving training for how to get a handle on her powers. Eventually, she officially signed on with the Alliance.

She was posted to the human colonized world of Elysium when a massive fleet of batarian pirates and mercenaries looking to take slaves attacked the relatively peaceful world. Determined that Elysium would not become another Mindoir, Shepard was quick to mobilize the other soldiers both active and on leave, and get civilians who couldn't fight to safety, in addition to helping the civilians who wanted to fight to stand a chance. She helped hold the line until Alliance reinforcements came, driving the pirates from the system. She was awarded the Star of Terra for her bravery, and was a highly sought-after soldier after that.

After several years and several more assignments Shepard was placed on the SSV Normandy, an Alliance frigate with cutting-edge stealth technology. She was also tapped by the Council as a potential candidate for Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. What they were initially told was a routine shakedown run to Eden Prime turned out to be quite a bit more, first when they were informed that Shepard was being studied as a potential Spectre candidate by a turian named Nihlus who had joined them on the Normandy, but also because they were picking up a rare piece of Prothean technology, the race that created the building blocks of galactic society as it stood in the present.

When geth were discovered on the colony, it threw Shepard headfirst into a new war, one she'd hardly ever even dreamed of fighting. A Spectre by the name of Saren had gone rogue, working with the geth, aiming to bring about the end of civilization for a terrifying and seemingly mythical race called the Reapers.

After Shepard was able to garner proof that Saren was truly behind the attack on Eden Prime, she was raised to Spectre status, and given control of the Normandy. She built a crew, people she could trust, people she grew to care for, and she investigated Saren and the Reapers.

She discovered the truth, that it had been the Reapers who had wiped out the Protheans. that Saren was helping them return, to wipe out all traces of civilization. That this was a circle they had begun god only knows how many million years ago, reaping the benefits of galactic society while utterly destroying them.

Unfortunately, though Shepard was able to prove the geth and certainly Saren were behind the plot, she could convince no-one of the reality of the Reapers, and when she returned to the Citadel after receiving word they were mobilizing the fleet to defend the Citadel against Saren's inevitable attack, the Normandy was locked down and Shepard was grounded.

Not that you can ground a woman who is so determined to fight and survive for long. She and the others staged an escape, a mutiny, and with Captain Anderson's help broke the hard lock on the Normandy, and fled the Citadel to track down Saren and stop him from bringing back the Reapers.

Ilos proved to be enlightening, they learned the Protheans had managed to shut down the relay that the Citadel was, to lock the Reapers in Deep Space. Shepard took her team through the Conduit, ending up on the Citadel, and they fought their way through the once peaceful station, to the control center to keep Saren from opening the relay manually to let the Reapers through. He was under control of one of the Reapers, Sovereign, and though the Indoctrination was strong, he resisted at the last moment, shooting himself, and buying Shepard the time she needed to keep control of the system and close the relay.

Sovereign inhabited Saren's body using the mechanical implants the turian had received as a conduit, and Shepard and her team put him down. permanently. This weakened the ship Sovereign, that had attached to the Citadel, giving the fleet the opportunity to destroy it.

Though it was a solid victory, the Council was quick to cover up the truth of the Reapers, finding it too terrifying a truth to be possible. Shepard was more or less shuffled off, sent into obscure corners of space in an attempt to put the minds of the public at ease.

This resulted in Shepard's death. Because the Reapers were still active, and she had made herself a target. They sent out the Collectors, a mysterious race who operated primarily in the Traverse systems, and their guns cut the Normandy to pieces. Shepard was able to force Kaidan to evacuate most of the ship, and she herself went for the pilot, Joker, who was crippled and likely wouldn't have made it out on his own. She was able to get Joker to an escape pod when a blast knocked her away from him, and instead of risking his life trying to get back to the pod, she hit the eject. She was then knocked from the ship, her oxygen hose becoming severed when she struck a piece of debris.

Two years later, she woke up on a lab table, sore, face scarred, disoriented. Her body had been recovered by the pro-human group Cerberus, and they spent two years putting her back together, from the ground up. But then, as the project neared completion, someone tried to shut it down, shut her down.

All this resulted in Shepard having to work for Cerberus, despite having previously worked to destroy some of their bases, when she came up against some of their sick experiments while tracking Saren. They were giving her the resources to go after the Collectors, and subsequently, the Reapers. So she took the opportunity, though always operated on her own terms. No ruthless killing just for the sake of humanity, no experiments. None of what Cerberus had stood for was permitted on the new Normandy SR-2.

She found some of her old crew, and some of them came back. Wrex had moved on to live his life on Tuchanka as head of the Urdnot clan, and Kaidan had been promoted to Staff Commander in her absence. That reunion was tense, to say the least. He was furious with her for not getting in touch with him, and that she was working with Cerberus. Liara T'Soni also had her own path, though after some gentle prodding of her old friend, Shepard was able to assist her with bringing down The Shadow Broker, and in the process found out what had happened to her body. She discovered it was Liara she owed, not Cerberus, because without her the Collectors would have been in possession of her body, doing god only knows what with it.

She also found new allies, friends, in the people that Cerberus gave her dossiers on, even in some of Cerberus's own crew. From renegade biotic Jack, to the reserved Justicar Samara, Shepard grew to trust them all, care for them just as she'd cared for her original crew. Even the AI, EDI, made its way into her heart. When the Collectors attacked the Normandy again, seizing most of her crew when Shepard and her squad were on-mission, she took the fight straight to them, having found the means to safely travel through the Omega 4 Relay, to the Collector home base. She'd lost over twenty people when the original Normandy went down, it was unacceptable to lose another person. Shepard led the mission into the Collector base, and while at times it looked like a one-way trip, she was able to get to her captured crew in time, before continuing to the heart of the base, where they discovered the abomination the Collectors had been creating, a Human Reaper. Shepard had no illusions about what a danger that technology was, and despite that the Illusive Man wanted her to keep the base in tact, she set the bomb as had been her mission goal, and blew the Collector Base and the Reaper abomination straight to hell.

And then she told the Illusive Man to go to hell. His means did not justify the ends, and she wouldn't have any part in his despicable way of working.

Shepard barely had time to catch her breath after that mission when another important call came in, from Alliance HQ and Admiral Hackett. He asked her to run a solo mission into batarian space to find and rescue a doctor by the name of Amanda Kenson. This mission turned into a diplomatic incident, when Kenson revealed to Shepard that they had discovered a Reaper artifact that was broadcasting time and place of Reaper Arrival in the Milky Way galaxy.

Unfortunately, the side-effect of the Reaper artifact was too much for the Project workers to handle, and after freeing Kenson, Shepard was subdued, drugged, and kept in lockdown for three days, before her cybernetically enhanced immune system became completely immune to their attempts to keep her from stopping the Reaper arrival. Shepard was able to start up the Project, which was a coded way of saying "launch an asteroid at the Alpha Relay and blow it up to keep the Reapers out" before having to fight her way out of the base, take out Kenson to avoid the Project from being sabotaged, and escape from the system, mere seconds before the Relay was destroyed, and the system wiped from the map.

As many terrible things as she'd endured in her life because of batarians and their contempt for humans, it still took a hell of a toll on her to know that she was responsible for the deaths of 300,000 lives within the Bahak system, because when a Relay is destroyed, it blows the hell up.

After that, Hackett gave Shepard time to get her ducks in a row, before turning herself in to the Alliance for prosecution. She disbanded her crew, turned the Normandy over to the Alliance, and allowed herself to be arrested, because despite it being the right thing, she knew it was still something she needed to be held responsible for.

The next six months she was under lockdown, kept under constant guard, and while she hadn't been locked up, per say, she was restricted to desk work, and essentially stripped of her command. If you asked, out of all the shit she'd been through, she'd likely tell you those six months were the worst months of her entire life.

And then, the Reapers hit. Humanity wasn't prepared, not by a long shot, and by the time they called on Shepard, it was too late for her to do much beyond tell them to cover their asses as the Reapers blew out the windows on the Alliance Command building. She escaped on the Normandy with a skeleton crew, after being reinstated by Admiral Anderson as Commander of the ship, and charged with the mission of bringing help to Earth.

Hackett ordered her to detour to Mars to pick up Liara, who had been working in the Mars Archives, working to uncover Prothean clues as to how to destroy the Reapers. They got the blueprints to a Prothean device that would supposedly destroy the Reapers.

Again, Shepard was on a mission to build alliances, and force the inhabitants of the galaxy to see what they were too stubborn to see, that everyone was in the war together, and if they didn't stand together, they would fall alone. She united the turians and krogan with the help of several of her old crew, ending a feud that had been between the species for a thousand years.

Her steps were dogged by Cerberus, because the Illusive Man had gotten it into his head that Shepard was the enemy, and the only way to fight the Reapers was to learn to understand and control them. Since Shepard was working to destroy them, he sent troops at her every which way to hinder her. Where the Illusive Man wasn't, the Reapers were. Shepard certainly had her work cut out for her.

Personality: Shepard is the kind of person you want on your side. She's a woman who doesn't accept the words 'impossible' and 'can't'. She will fight with every single fiber of her being for something she thinks is right, and she is more than willing to put her life on the line in that fight. She is also fiercely loyal, to the Alliance, to her crew, to the Council. She was the perfect candidate for the first human Spectre, because everyone simply believed she was the best humanity had to offer. And she rose to it, because she is a leader, someone with a good level head on her shoulders, and a good soldier.

Beyond that, though, she's got a wicked sense of humor, alternately dry and playful, and while she is generally serious and professional in combat, if she is in a tense situation she may make a joke about it. Considering that all of humanity looks at her as an example, and often she finds herself the only one willing to stand against impossible odds, a good sense of humor is required, lest she completely snap under the pressure. Day after day she is faced with hard choices, choices that might be easier if her moral compass would allow her a more ruthless nature. She's not the kind of person who can reduce things to simple arithmetic, though. She is the woman who single-handedly defended Elysium from the pirate attack that became known as the Skyllian Blitz. Someone who fought so hard to keep people alive when it would've been easier to duck out, let someone else take care of it, she can hardly be the kind of person who will kill in cold blood. The soldier in her allows her to put that compassion aside when talking doesn't take care of business, but if she can see a way of fixing things that doesn't involve blood being shed, she'll take it.

Candidly, Shepard is an affectionate person, playfully teasing her crewmates, getting to know those she fights side by side with, laughing and smiling with relative ease. The people she works with are her family, and she cares for each one deeply, in different ways. Each person she comes to care for, she would give her life for without hesitation. She even did, once.

Though she is an open book for the most part, talking easily of her past, there are some things she won't speak of. Her death is a joke she often brushes off, and the crushing weight she feels on her shoulders at times, of everyone looking to her. It's obvious to those that are closest to her, the crew that knows her as more than just a commanding officer, but as a sister, a confidant, a friend who could have been more, they can see just how much every loss affects her. She'll try to smile and put on a brave face when most people ask her how she's doing, but those closest to her know how to break down those walls.

She's cracking, far from the infallible hero the galaxy paints her to be, and it's from her crew that she truly gathers her strength. The people who believe in her, who would follow her into the depths of Hell without so much as a question, they are her reasons to keep fighting.

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Shepard is a Vanguard-class biotic, with the ability to target an enemy and cover large distances to ram into them at violent speeds, in addition to being able to biotically yank people off the ground and send them floating through the air, she can also create a biotic shockwave along the ground, knocking adversaries off their feet. She typically has a biotic shield up to supplement her armor, but when she's within close-range of several enemies she can discharge the shield, creating an impact burst, like the shockwave only much narrower in radius and higher in damage, though it also leaves her vulnerable while her barrier recharges.

The limitations of the biotics are she's restricted by her amps and her implants, without them her powers work, but are weak and difficult to control. There's a momentary lag when she has to build up her biotic energy, and if she gets caught with her guard down she could be in big trouble. The tactics of a Vanguard, however, are typically hit hard and fast and hope that the enemy dies first so you're not stuck running away screaming. She also can't hit anything that she can't target, either with VI tactical assistance, or physically getting eyes-on (always the case with charge. If she can't see it, she can't charge it.)

Beyond her biotics, Shepard is a soldier, and a graduate of the elite N7 program, which means she is very good at getting her job done quickly and with as little mess as possible. She's trained with a variety of fire-arms, though she favors shotguns and sub-machine guns. She's also an experienced hand-to-hand combatant, and has gone through the basic field training all Alliance Marines undergo.

Physically, she's stronger than your average human, due to the cybernetic implants that Cerberus used to reinforce shattered bones and damaged tissue from her death. She has synthetic fiber literally woven into her skin to make her harder to kill than she previously was.

Not to say that she's indestructible, far from it. Anyone can be killed, even Shepard. While dumping firepower on her will get the job done, the fastest way to cut to the quick is to threaten someone she cares for, because her steely resolve will waver if she thinks harm could come to one of her crew. She'll willingly surrender herself if it'll save someone else, and she'll willingly sacrifice herself, even, if it comes to it.

Overall, most of her weaknesses are her emotional vulnerabilities, which is why she tries to keep them to herself except in the most private of company. She can also be tired out, her biotics have a recharge lag whenever she expunges a great deal of energy, and she couldn't hack her way out of a paper bag without an omni-tool.

Also she's probably the universe's worst driver.

Inventory: her Blood Dragon armor (Or her standard N7 armor, whichever),
omni-tool,
her customized M-11 Wraith shotgun, M-4 Shuriken machine pistol
a dozen universal thermal clips
her N7 dog tags
Appearance: Since I think the new default Shepard looks like Lindsay Lohan, I'll be stepping outside the box and using this lady right here. Shepard is a tall woman of a strong build, standing around 5'9". She has blonde hair cut into a bob with bangs and grey eyes. She used to have a scar across the bridge of her nose, running from her right eyebrow down to her left cheek, but when Cerberus rebuilt her, the damage to her face was so extreme that the scar tissue from the old scar she received on Elysium was completely removed. There's still a faint discoloration across the bridge of her nose, but it's hard to see. Other scars are more visible on her body, both old and new from battles before and after her reconstruction, the scar tissue on those running a little deeper.

She's a little softer around the edges than you'd expect a soldier, mostly due to her six months planetside adding a little padding in the bra and butt. She's light skinned, and would burn faster than she'd tan, with freckles sparingly dotting most of her body. She has a generally tired look about her, because she doesn't sleep much, and the dark circles under her eyes are fairly permanent.

Age: 32, technically.

AU Clarification: Shepard is a malleable Bioware protagonist, so there can be dozens of different combinations, to say nothing for appearances. to simplify, I have a handy-dandy list of her bigger choices here. She makes primarily Paragon choices, though she will take more aggressive paths when the situation calls for it.

SAMPLES
Log Sample:
It was something else, that while most of her crew was enjoying a day's escape from the stress of the war on the Citadel, their commanding officer was still weighing herself down with the politics. As she punched the control panel of the elevator to take her up to the Presidium, Shepard pulled the task list up on her omni-tool, frowning down at the holographic display as she double-checked who it was she was supposed to be having a conversation with. An asari strategist who was working with commando squads, trying to find chinks in the Reaper armor, as it were. Commandos weren't the best for brute force strikes on Reaper forces, but a flank attack was a strategy Shepard could get behind.

She also had a list of modifiers for weapons that she'd asked Cortez for earlier in the week, and at least three other people she needed to have conversations with before she had to head back too the Normandy and check in with Wrex on Tuchanka to see how mobilizing the krogan was going.

This elevator ride, she realized, was the only down time she was going to have the entire day. She exhaled slowly and leaned against the metal wall, tilting her head back and closing her eyes while she listened to the near-silent hum of the engine. It wasn't much, but ten seconds to think of anything besides how she was supposed to beat an enemy that had destroyed civilization countless ties over was just about the only thing she got.

Somewhere there was a beach with a red umbrella and a tall beer with her name on it, and taking a moment to contemplate that, gave her the energy to put on her diplomatic smile as the elevator let out a soft ping, letting her know she was now at the Embassy offices.

Comms Sample:

[The feed clicks on, audio only, and there's a moment before Shepard's voice comes through, her Commander Mode switched to full-on]

This is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy, Alliance Navy. I'm requesting any information available on the current status and location of my ship and crew. Barring that, the name and affiliation of this vessel.

[There's a pause as Shepard lets out a breath, giving the comm device a dubious look, as she pulls it away from her face]

I swear if I'm missing another two years of my life I'm going to - [and the audio clicks off as she cuts the feed]