Well, that was definitely an interesting few days. After watching the Normandy's test run, I saw just what the pilot was capable of. The turian representative, General Invectus, as well as Captain Dillard were screaming at the pilot, because apparently he'd knocked out the real test pilot and was putting the Normandy through its paces. Captain Dillard angrily told the pilot, Lt. Jeff "Joker" Moreau that he'd be court martialed for stealing the ship, but General Invectus told him to stay his hand, and that if Joker wasn't the Normandy's pilot going forward, that would put a damper on human-turian relations.
At that point, Captain Anderson was put in command of the Normandy, and chose his crew from the SSV Tokoyo, which included me as his XO. When he told me this, I was extremely excited about serving on the first stealth starship ever made, and all I could blurt out was "What are your orders, sir?"
Anderson just smiled at me and said "Shepard, let's see what we can find."
What we found was trouble. After loading up the ship with supplies and heading out, I was met by the turian Spectre, Nihlus Kryik before we started our shakedown run. He, along with Anderson, informed me that I was being considered for Spectre status, though Nihlus brought up Torfan as my major accomplishment. Anderson, who knew how much being the Buther of Torfan bothers me, didn't say anything, but he just pushed forward with the reasoning.
They also informed me that this first mission, retrieving a Prothean beacon, would be the first of many missions Nihlus and I worked together as he evaluated me for. My thoughts in that moment were "Okay, I get to show what I'm capable of without having to be the Butcher of Torfan", something I didn't get to do thanks to what happened to him.
Anyway, we got a distress call from Eden Prime, the planet we were heading to, because they were attacked by an army of geth, as well as the rogue Spectre, Saren Arterius. We headed down and I took Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Corporal Richard Jenkins, both of whom I had reassured earlier that day that I am not the Butcher of Torfan anymore, and I didn't enjoy it when I made that call. Unfortunately, we lost Jenkins to geth drones, which was a heavy blow to me. Even when I was doing the right thing, making the right calls, I was still losing people. I told Alenko that he'd get a proper service when this was over, but we had to move.
We continued on and found Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, had her join my squad, and then found the body of Nihlus, who was shot by Saren. From there, we headed into the colony, disarmed nuclear devices, and I was put down hard by a vision from the beacon, and I was out for 10 hours, waking back up on the Normandy. I was met by Anderson, Dr. Chakwas and Chief Williams, glad to see I was alive.
I debriefed Anderson and he told me we were heading to the Citadel to debrief the Council. The Council, of course, didn't want to believe that Saren, one of their top agents, had gone rogue, and given his reputation of doing worse things than I'd ever done on Torfan as his first instinct, attacking a human colony and attempting to nuke it wasn't outside his wheelhouse.
From there, Anderson and Ambassador Udina told us to investigate and see if we could bring charges against Saren, and we told two sources: Barla Von, an agent of the Shadow Broker, and suspended C-Sec officer Harkin. After talking to both, we had two more leads; C-Sec officer Garrus Vakarian and krogan mercenary Urdnot Wrex. We retrieved Garrus at a med clinic, where he shot a criminal who had a doctor held hostage right in the head. I was upset, because while he took him down clean, you never aim for the head in that situation; always aim for the hip or knee, because in this case, if he killed the hostage, we'd have lost our lead. I chewed him out for it, and he apologized to Dr. Michel, who gave us another lead; First at Chora's Den. We then headed into C-Sec HQ, where we picked up Wrex, and headed to Chora's Den. We fought our way through the mercenaries and eventually found Fist, who revealed that a quarian had data that would prove that Saren had betrayed the Council. Unfortunately, he sold her out to Saren, and we needed to rescue her. Before we left, though, Wrex went behind our backs and killed First, saying the Shadow Broker paid him to kill Fist, and Wrex didn't leave jobs half done. I yelled at him, because ever since the N7 program, I firmly believe that you don't shoot unarmed prisoners. I am impressed with Wrex's honor code, though; do your job to the best of your ability.
Anyway, we rescued the quarrian, who told us her name, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, and we brought her back to Udina's office. He chewed me out for the destruction that I'd caused, but he shut up when Tali revealed her information. This made Udina happy, since this gave him what he needed to have Saren stripped of his Spectre status. And after some pushing, the Council made me the first human Spectre.
And let me tell you, I'm NOT going to be like Saren. I'll find the best way that limits death and destruction while still getting the mission done.
Anyway, I was given command of the Normandy, because as Anderson said, a Spectre needs his own ship, and I'm heading into the Traverse to find and stop Saren. I thanked Anderson for not only the ship, but for all the advice and friendship he's given me over the years.
But for now, we're heading out to find Dr. Liara T'Soni, daughter of Matriarch Benezia.
Author's Note: This one's going to be a bit shorter than Ana's story, since I'm not going to tackle every side mission in ME1, nor will I go over the religious implications, since that's not a big part of his character. He's a repentant Butcher of Torfan, and that's where his head is at.