Today, the Alliance News Network continues our series of interviews previewing our documentary series Normandy: Eye of the Storm, which for the first time will tell the full story of the ship that saved that saved the galaxy. Today's interview features Jeff "Joker" Moreau, pilot of the Normandy.
Who are you, and what is your connection to the SSV Normandy and its captain?
Well if you're being all official my name's Group Captain Jeff Moreau. No-one ever says that that though, so you can just call me Joker. I happen to be the best pilot in the galaxy, and I've been helming the Normandy since 2183.
What was your first meeting with Shepard like?
Gotta be honest, I don't even remember it. He was brought on to the Normandy as the Executive Officer for David Anderson, who was our captain at the time. I don't think we said a word to each other until we were on our way to Eden Prime for that now infamous shakedown run – I was up front piloting with Kaidan (Alenko), and Shepard was mostly with the rest of the crew down back.
I do remember saying to him when he came up front to say hi that there was no way we were doing a simple shakedown run with a Spectre on board. He and Alenko didn't believe me. I sure showed them!
Word is that you've saved the Normandy from disaster a few times. Which of those would you say was the most memorable?
Saving the team from an exploding volcano on Therum was neat. Fleeing from the Citadel lockdown was fun. Had to escape exploding ships twice in a row when we were chasing the Collectors, that got pretty hairy. At the Collector base I even grabbed a gun, went to the airlock, saved a couple of crewmates from Collector troops, then limped back in to pilot us out of the Omega 4 relay – you know, the one no-one had ever returned from before – with an explosion cascading right behind us.
I could go on all day. But if I had to pick one, I'd say Ilos. It's easy to overlook because it wasn't really a rescue like so many of our other close calls, but it was the moment when I really, truly proved I knew what I was doing and that I was damn good at it too. We were so close to catching Saren, we knew he'd only just got there and we were fully prepped to stop him. The only problem was that we were trying to land in an ancient Prothean temple or something. Surprise, surprise, no landing pad nearby.
Navigator (Charles) Pressly was tearing his hair out trying to find somewhere to land us, and that's saying something, because he had a chrome dome. A nude nut.
What I'm saying is, he was bald. And he didn't believe I could get the Mako down safely to the only clear site we had that was near Saren and his Geth. He was arguing with Ash (Williams) over it. She didn't think I could do it either, but then tried to tell Pressly to get a closer landing zone, even though he'd obviously looked through everything. But while they were getting stressed out, Shepard was as calm as I've ever seen him. He ordered a Mako drop. I said I could get it done even though there wasn't enough space to do it safely. He believed me, and the rest is history. Getting the fleet to go to the Citadel once it was clear where the Conduit was going to take them in the Mako was another story…
Then there was the time we got blown apart. Pretty sure that counts as an actual disaster. Still, it was just once! Although Pressly died in that attack. I miss that guy. Bit of a grump, but he knew his way around the galaxy. I learnt more about galactic geography during his time on the Normandy than in all of flight school.
I suppose you could also talk about the time I single-handedly saved the ship by fracturing my legs to get to the ship's computer, which sent all the Collectors that were onboard out the cargo bay, but I think that would've been more memorable if we hadn't lost the rest of the crew in the process. Got them all back, but still.
Tell us something about the Commander that most people wouldn't know.
I thought by now everyone would know everything about the guy, but apparently it's not well known that he's a fan of ships almost as much as me. Maybe more than me, really. He's got models of all the famous ones that he'd put together by hand in his down time. It's kinda cool, if something that nerdy can even be cool.
Normandy SR-1 or SR-2?
Ah, look, they're both great ships. I have a lot of good memories from the first Normandy, and because it was a bit smaller there's some things I could do in it that I can't do in the new one. But the SR-2 is still flying, while the SR-1 is in pieces on a frozen planet. That kinda tells you everything you need to know.
How would you like history to remember you?
As the pilot of the ship that saved the galaxy. Think I've got that one locked down.
Stay connected to the Alliance News Network by making it your homepage on the extranet to get the latest interviews as we celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the end of the Reaper War.