Author's Note:

Leo here. Never had to do one of these before. Basically there's been some debate going on among the recent Eden Colonies about the benefits of Psionics vs Biotics. I'm the first and I've fought alongside the latter so that apparently makes me an expert now. Cool. So let's start our Q&A.

Q: Which is better?

A: That's a stupid question.

The first thing you have to understand is that either set of abilities aren't inherently 'better' than the other. Yes High end Psionics provide a lot more flexibility compared to high end Biotics but in some cases lack power.

With Biotics you get kinetics through manipulating gravity in a variety of ways, lifting potential targets out of cover, pushing them away from you, pulling them closer, slamming their skulls off the ground, protecting themselves in a barrier, creating a singularity to yank them into a miniature black hole, or just punching a hole into their bodies with warp and warp ammo. The chief most benefit of Biotics is that the Mass Effect field they manipulate is used in literally every piece of technology to their name from the tiny little computer that appears and disappears from their wrists to the guns they fire to the FTL drives in the ships that they pilot. Most biotic implants, designed to augment a biotic's ability to manipulate and control their powers, are able to directly connect to these devices in order to augment their powers or super charge the device in question. Also worth consideration is omni-gel, a mixed ceramic, metal and plastic normally kept in a liquid gel form which is designed specifically to be manipulated and shaped by the use of a biotic field which results in new abilities such as 'Tech Armour.' The downside with Biotics is that it's dependant on the highly toxic Element Zero entering the body in it's fetal or embryonic stage of development, and is far more likely to give the newborn in question Cancer than anything else.

Compare and contrast Psionics. Psionics is all about manipulating the mind and has a range of more possible abilities which include telepathy, telekinesis and depending on the schools that you learn it from necromancy or pyrokinesis. You can for instance read an enemy's mind to find out where they are going or who they plan on targeting, or similarly take control over their minds to make them line up for your shot or make them shoot one of their allies, some stealthy blokes can even make you ignore their presence entirely to the point that you don't even realise they're there. Telekinesis has much the same applications as the aforementioned biotics though notably reduced, you won't be picking up a person with your telekinetic abilities but you can snap their necks if the armour on them isn't too thick, or you can toss some stones or other debris around them to sting more than a little. For psionics to do the same thing that the council would accomplish with a single Eezo core, IE spitting out a protective barrier around a ship, you'd need to telepathically link together an entire crew worth of psionics and have them all synchronise their telekinetics perfectly in a massive hive mind. Or just hard wire a bunch of telekinetics together like what the Lich's do when their bodies breakdown beyond a certain point. Pyrokinesis is not so much about controlling fire as it is controlling heat, using telekinesis to agitate the molecules within area of effect which yes, can set a target on fire but is much more likely to simply microwave them instead. As for Necromancy, you all saw the footage from the Batarian worlds, some of you were even there. Necromancy is more religion than science, for the principles it subscribes to even make sense you have to keep your mind open to concepts that science throws out the airlock but if you can get a grip on it, instant army. The draw backs come from the fact that, outside of a handful of races like the Flerkin or Draconics, Psionics only develops when you're exposed to a strong psi-field during your core neurological development in the womb, even then my people had the Lich's while the Draconics had Thuban constantly bathing them in a never ending flood of the stuff for like, a thousand years or something.

Q: Why Not Both?

A: We'd rather not.

There's probably some Salarian or Tebrid writer out there that's already hitting the key's trying to create a so-called hybrid warrior or something trying to combine the best of both worlds in their latest speculative fiction novel. Honestly it's possible but difficult to pull off. The Lich's would probably know. Their predecessor species, the Zroni, were wrapped up deep in the Reaper Trap so Eezo was probably a big part of their civilisation much like the Council's with no real shortage of biotics to boot, I'd be willing to bet that there was no real shortage of them that ended up getting caught up in the broken reality that led to them turning into undead in the first place. There's probably no shortage of my people who developed both too, the Lich's were still pretty dependent on Mass Effect fields when they met my people, historically. They immediately started to phase as much of that shit out as soon as possible after they started meeting other races but the tech still crops up every now and again. The issue here is that the necessary exposure almost never happens anymore. Eezo processing plants follow strict health and safety guidelines, most of the handling such as digging the stuff out is done by synthetic units, hell workers going through pregnancy are even given paid maternal leave in most work places. Most people didn't even know that Eezo can give you powers until Adek, and in all likelihood this was done deliberately. Thanks to the destruction of the Mass Relays Union races didn't even know how to use Eezo up until the Lich's introduced the technology to them, even then they deliberately kept the number of applications limited, mostly to artificial gravity. The Lich's are familiar with the fall of the last era, they were there for it after all, and they're trying their damnedest to make sure that it doesn't happen again. And that includes the creation of hybrid biotic, psionic warriors.

Q: Can We?

A: Yes.

We know full well how to create psionics and how to create biotics. If you're willing to treat a person as a guinea pig and saddle them with all kinds of health complications be my guest. And yes I do realise the Hypocrisy of what I'm saying. Basically if we do decide to do this then we'll need to start before the subject has been born. If you asked me which one we should start with, biotic parents or psionic parents, start with the psionics. Gene mutations that lead to the development of psionics occur when the individual is exposed to large amounts of Psionic energy while in the womb, they can also be passed down through the generations so when it's mother who is psionic it tends to wind up as a two for one deal on Psi development, three for one if you do it on a planet or city with a large presence of psykers. After that you need to prepare a Biotic pre-natal treatment or supplement. There's probably some council Gene splicing company that's long since started a program for splicing together the DNA of various biotic individuals to produce a super biotic, or maybe not. The codex says the council issued some law banning the wide scale use of genetic engineering in the name of preserving bio-diversity or something or other. None of my business, but you understand the point. Now if you want to talk about the 'benefits' of an exercise as insane as trying to combine Biotics and Psionics together then fine, lets go. Imagine for a moment that you were dealing with an enemy, this enemy knows where you are no matter where you hide and knows what you're planning for your next move, now imagine BAM! A rock hurled into the lower atmosphere of the planet, it's weight multiple dozens of times over and made to drop like a meteor on your exact location, and you can't even find the guy who did it to you before it all happens. Manipulating your mind, your surroundings, torching you or your allies, men you've fought alongside for years turning against you. In a word, if such an individual wants you dead, you're dead.

Q: So Where Do We Start?

A: We're Not As Far Off As You Think.

As this is as good a place as any I'll do a rundown on the 'Average' psi-readout of various races both within the Union's races and within the Citadel Refugees brought within our borders. So to begin with, some basic information. Psionics are typically graded based on what they can do.

0 Not Psionic.

1-2 Little Faster, little better reflexes, honestly nothing you'd pick out from the crowd.

3-4 Empath's, able to feel the emotions of those around them and make them feel what they feel.

5-6 Telepath's Mind Reading and mind control and all their possible applications.

7-8 Telekinesis and if you're skilled enough with it sound transmission and pyromancy.

9-10 The Walking Dead.

Now that we've cleared all of that up, lets move on to the report card then.

Asari-Do I even have to spell it out? Each and everyone of them are already Biotic, and each and every one of them are also, at minimum, a grade 3 empath that has somehow been twisted into a reproductive method. You want a Hybrid Psi/Bi Soldier? The Asari are already half way there. You want them to go over the edge? Odds are good it's going to start with one of them bagging at least a grade five Telepath and producing a child with them. According to the Salarian's there are minor hiccups to the DNA of the Asari depending on who they bagged to make their little blue ones, so they do inherit something from their 'fathers' we aren't just sure about what it is or how it affects the process. Oddly enough there is a lot the Asari are keeping top secret about their own biology so we only know so much.

Baloi-A solid 10, if not higher. The Baloi are a race of telepathic plant people connected together in a hive mind. That said there aren't that many of them so don't expect them to show up on the front lines any time, and they're heavily reliant on their 'tree of life' to function too.

Batarians-Oddly there's a wide disparity of psionics depending on what 'caste' that they're from but it's more understandable when you realise what they had buried on their home world. Their priests clock in on a average of 6, and tends to drop lower depending on where they stand on the social caste, but it never drops below 2. It may explain how and why they've gotten away with as much shit as they have for so long.

Draconics-Solid 10, they've been bathing in the 'divine messages' of Thuban for god actually literally knows how long, if there is a rank that's higher than ten then they might figure it out one of these days, that said they don't seem too interested in finding it either.

Elcor-No. Nature would truly bless the lot of them if they were as unreasonably strong as they were and psionic on top of that.

Flerkin-10. My own people had struggled a lot to bring up our own psi grade through the years, but we had the Lich's support, and we had a really long time to get there too. There's a reason why Flerkin are the go to choice for birthing new Lich's, and it's not just because we're their vassals.

Human-Their initial Colony ships managed to go all over Union space, meaning that large portion of the buggers got hit with a tonne of Psionics, still relatively new to the exposure to psionics they clock in on a average of four, but they go as high as 6.

Krogan-No. Honestly do they need it?

Lich-It's largely dependent on the psi-grade that they are birthed from, typically bumping up two or three grades in the process of ascending into a lich.

Lithoids-Oddly enough, no. The Lich's think that they were originally born as a by-product of the rampant detonating Mass Relays burning conscious into animate material but oddly enough this didn't result in a race of psykers. The Lithoids are oddly enough are resistant to psionics too.

Mero-2. Low on the psi-grade, probably something to do with all the time that they spend in the ocean on their home-world.

Quarians-No. Do you honestly think that if they did they would've been circling the drain for over three hundred years?

Salarians-They clock in on an average of 2, probably something to do with how fast they think. Given A the fact they can spit out a new generation every couple of years and B their predisposition towards mad-science if they were to get their hands on a source of psionic power to expose their eggs to I'd say that we'd be looking at sixes in around a decade.

Tebrids-The Slugs clock in at about 2 on average, honestly I would like it if they went up a grade or too, maybe pull the little monsters out of their own heads a bit if they learned how to think like normal people for once in their lives. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Turians-No.

Vorcha-Currently no. The Vorcha however breed faster than the Salarians and adapt to stimuli faster than anyone else, mark my word Sixes in a generation.

As for Drell, Hanar and Volus? We haven't had the chance to look yet.

Q: What about the Prethoryn

A: Unfortunately

The Prethoryn are currently in the process of redefining our understanding of the Psi-table, we'll give update as soon as we figure out where the hell they stand on it.

Q: And the Reapers

A: You Don't Wanna Talk About Reapers

Second hand information alert! Psionics represents the Reapers favourite third tactic after 'Overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers and technological advantages' and [CLASSIFIED]. They got a nasty two hit punch called indoctrination where they first kill off large chunks of your brain with ultra sound and then muck about the resulting soup with psionics, turns the poor sap into a slave to the reapers and they don't even know it, not until they've been activated and start crippling your infrastructure anyway. If you find any ancient busted up star ships that there's even a chance they could've been shaped like a squid when it was in one piece, destroy it with impunity. If you step aboard the ship anyway, kill yourself immediately and spare yourself the misery.