AN: A quick note as to the roster of OC's [And changes to standard characters], these are merely the ones on the Normandy that Shepard regularly interacts with. For a moment, I'd like you to think about people running a ship on a 24 hour schedule with those as shown. Do they sleep? Do they all just stop the ship for the night and abandon their posts and hope not to be attacked?
No, there's a 'Night' crew, that mostly works as support for major operations, reacting to attacks when everyone else is asleep, and making sure the ship is actually going from A-B while the main pilot is asleep.
Of additional note, I will be expanding this over time, both for story reasons and as I decide to add to it. [Consider it to currently be Hyper-Abridged]
Abridged Dossiers
Ground Team Members:
Support Marines: Aleandrea [Far Support], Gor'Ria ['Meatshield'], Chima Ihejirika [Heavy weapons], Garrus Vakarian [Far Support]
Infantry Marines: Ashley Williams, Kaiden Alenko
Assault Marines: Jenkins, Maka Oordu
Specilists: 'Krogan Programmer' [Tech Specialist/Meatshield], Jodam Bau [Spectre/Tech Specilist], Commisar Carla Campos [Comissar/Biotics Specilist/Psionics Specilist], Tali'Zorah [Tech Specilist.]
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Gor'Ria
'I have found contentment. That is enough for now, but if you wish to take that from me, you shall see why we were allowed to keep our thoughts.'
Born to traditionalist parents Gor'Ria had little direct human contact in her early years, spending much of her time learning history along with other basic education, she was however enamoured with hunters, both those that remained with Africa hunting game and those who travelled to America, documenting it's state. She joined a junior hunting group during her secondary schooling stage and showed herself to be a talented mechanic before joining her settlement's combat volunteers, who worked alongside the Alliance, and volunteered for NA-Ground Recon missions before being before she was recruited by the Alliance.
Gor'Ria's technical scores were exemplary, however post augmentation Gor'Ria followed the marine infantry track, performing additional studies to achieve armoury, terrestrial and aero-space maintenance qualifications. Given her dedication, skill, and performance pre-Alliance on NA-Ground Recon opps, she was recruited into the N program, where she has languished at N3 for a couple of years, hitting her head against the glass ceiling applied to Muton and 'Thin-Men' which prevents them from undergoing the mandatory Non-Alliance cross-training required for N4 status.
Psychologically, Gor'Ria is rather detached. While dedicated once tasked, years of butting her head against the glass ceiling that stoped her from rising in Rank and N status has caused her to begin 'Coasting', achieving minimums and appearing outwardly rather helpful.
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Chima Ihejirika
'Been there, done that, currently wearing the T-Shirt.'
Chima was a child in the final years of the second contact war, and was one of the many African's chosen to join the African X-Com's departure from Earth. Shortly after langing, he proved himself in the exploration of Renebus, of particular note was the counter-attack initiated by Overview, being one of the few which returned after clearing the hive from which siege worms and wolf beetles were attacking, the main force having been ambushed by a pair of siege worms.
In the Third Contact War, Chima served as a MEC pilot, commanding the heavy support group BATHIM [Beserker and his Thin-Men], participating in several offensives and the defence of Aiur.
Psychologically, Chima hasn't stood up to the wear that comes with eternal youth, the decades of his prime combined with the rapid advances of the Remnant has left him mentally fatigued. Having lived his life for combat his skills are on-par with a Asari-Commando [Though he has many benefits over them given his genetic augmentations.]. For him, advances hold little wonder, and he chooses to live more because it's expected of him than anything else, taking most of his joy from creating large explosions, and the emotion of others through psionic bonds.
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Garrus Vakarian
'Being a good Turian put us almost at the same level as the Krogan. Bad Turians need to be there, and here, in order to tell the rest when they go too far, and do something about it.'
Much less in touch with his father ['By the book had us try to exterminate a species for the crime of existing!']. Remember' how in ME2 if you're more renegade he's 'Justice comes from the barrel of the gun?', or at least, so I'm told. Imagine that, but with him actively trying to be good and reign in those tendencies.
Oh, and as you know, he's undergoing Spectre Training.
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Ashley Williams/Kaiden Alenko:
Ashley is Psionic. No other notable changes.
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Jenkins, Maka Oordu
Other than surviving, no changes to Jenkins.
Maka Oordu is an Indigenous-Australian Marine, the sought stereotypically able to survive through whatever you dish out, slap you, dress you down for doing it wrong, and then doing it right to you. Slightly higher ranking and much more sombre than Jenkins, he's currently being considered for the N program… However he's not going to get that much screen time.
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Guuba 'The Krogan Programmer'
'Everyone is always so surprised that I'm a bit wizard and I have a brain behind my crest… It's almost like everyone's forgotten we got to the nuclear age on our own.'
Guuba was born and raised shortly before the Krogan Rebellions, finishing his schooling during the tense period where everyone was predicting war and waiting for the first swing. At the time, he was considered a skilled programmer, and not just for a Krogan. When war broke out, he joined a Salarian mercenary group, using both his expertise and bulk to great effect, and his affiliation shielded him from much of the backlash against Krogan's who hadn't yet joined the war effort against the Council.
After the war, he returned to his love, and has dabbled in many careers over the years, only rarely working as a merc [Such as during his stint during the 'Geth Uprising'.], more often having to use his fighting skills to survive attacks by those that consider him to be a race traitor. He's a known information broker and suspected black hat, however he does rather little, and has proven rather useful to Spectres every now and again in return for protection.
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Jodam Bau
No changes from canon… Of course, there's not much in-canon information I know, so consider this a 'I can't think of anything in particular.'.
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Commisar Carla Campos
'Why I constantly have to work with Cerberus confounds me… I wish they weren't out of our jurisdiction.'
A Brazilian orphaned at a young age, Carla is the very model of a Commisar, and often deals with Cerberus much to her dismay. She's mildly racist and despite the end of the age of nations is rather nationalistic. She often works alongside Cerberus due to her investigative skill and psionic ability, which she despises because Cerberus is one of the few groups outside of her reach, seeing as how they are chosen and protected as they have to be ready to defend Humanity from the enemies without, which includes infiltrators, something that allows them to keep more secrets than everyone except the nobilty.
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Tali'Zorah
Slightly more competent than expected from canon. Of course, just about everyone makes that change…
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Urdnot Wrex
Was born shortly after the Rachni were wiped out [To give him an age for this fic.], otherwise no change… If you can call the rough DOB a change.
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AN:
I recently decided to start long-war again after having angrily pushed it aside… I was delighted by the new [Beta-15B, I think.] starting location choices. My short list was, Argentina], Nigeria, Japan, and Australia. Everything else either didn't make the cut, or I dropped because the benefits were something I could get later [Though India was very tempting].
In my experience, mobility is king. I use strict screening, so I dropped Australia after finding out what the better soldier boost was [Piddly aim, small but maybe useful will, and a unnoticeable defence bonus], and then I thought of my Fic. Well, I'm testing Nigeria and Brazil. The Soldier boost for Australia also fits my fic of Australia holding out surprisingly well to the point of being the only resisting nation to join the Alliance… To my amusement though, Australia was the country lost at the start in my Brazil run through…
Oh, and yes, currently short. But there's been a bunch of other updates to the side stories, like the Codex, and the total word count adds up to almost a full update [Shh, ignore the AN word counts]… It's also much faster.