I only have fragmentary notes on that — there’s a number of names that I haven’t narrowed down to one yet.

Generally speaking, Shepard simply never had time to do the proper administrativea that being a Baroness entailed. For all intents and purposes, her House and Estate were sealed by the Mayor upon her death.

In the years since she died, it has become something of a tourist attraction. No one is permitted inside, of course, but its forgotten that it was originally built for a slightly crazy and introverted matriarch.

Himura wrote:

4. Virtual reality

Is it a thing that actually exists or did it turn out to be nothing else but Sci fi dreams of the late XX century and early XXI? I tried to remember if we had it in the games and we did have the Armax Arena and the Pinnacle station combat simulation. But that’s about it.

What about the Premiverse? Is VR a popular thing, does it even exist? I’d think someone would corner the market for cyber sex, gaming and interactive ‘movies’ if nothing else.

There is ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ VR, as well as ‘haptic feedback systems’.

Haptic feedback systems are like what you see at the Armax Arena and at Pinnacle. They are not developed for much beyond combat sims.

‘Weak’ VR uses a VR headset and pressure-generative bodysuit and can be used for a wide array of generally stupid things (porn, entertainment)

‘Strong’ VR requires cybernetic interfaces, and actually hooks directly into the nervous system. From the point of view of the player, the VR is ‘real’. Again, this is mostly used for MMO’s, but some companies use it for remote teleoperation in research as well.

Himura wrote:

5. Alien races in the Terminus systems

Are there any new species that have been discovered, and or, exploited by the denizens of the Terminus?

There’s six sub-technological (I.E., pre-Atomic) civilizations in the Traverse, and two pre-historical ones. Several have been enslaved by the Terminus groups.

The most interesting of the races would be the ‘puffball’ creatures seen in Fear Unrelenting, which are now entering into the Industrial Age sort of — they don’t have atomic theory but have transitors, and their military is strong enough that enslavement is too much of a pain in the ass.

There’s about ten more prehistoric and eight or nine pre-atomic civs in the rest of the galaxy.

Himura wrote:

6. Is it possible the Alliance will get something on the order of war Titan(Warhound from WH40K) mech?

The turians have their monster truck, and you mentioned something about siege mechs being developed by the Alliance in tandem with the Salarian Union in the chapter where Sara gets her bearing after she woke up and started catching up with what’s new in the world.

The Salarians are the ones pushing siege-mech technology the most right now, along with the elcor. The Elcor do not typically use mechs for combat (most mechs are used as servitors to do things that are hard for the elcor to do … like, with hands) but the elcor have ‘combat forms’ that stand twenty five meters tall.

The Alliance is focused more on upgrading weapons and electronics on their current generation of mechs — they don’t have the technology as of yet to create walker-style combat mechs much bigger than the ATLAS battlesuit.

Himura wrote:

7. The STG file about the Odd Couple mentions that Kai’s blade, Silence, is not only a monomolecular sword but that the edge is also energized.

Energized with what? Some anti-biotic pulse frequency?

The blade is equipped with a ultrahigh frequency vibrafield, an electrical discharge battery, and (if needed) a kinetic reinforcement field. These three can be swapped out by removing the core of the handle behind the smoke grenades. The first one is useful for piercing heavy armor. The second is designed to destroy mechs. The third allows Leng to even parry warp sword blows.

Himura wrote:

8. How good is the Harrier assault rifle / battle rifle and when are we going to see more of it? It was one of the more broken rifles in the MP before the developers started nerfing things.

The Harrier in the PremiseVerse is the same OP Harrier seen at the start of ME3 MP. Generally speaking, the Harrier has superior penetration, power, accuracy and heat management than the Avenger or Phaeston. The Phaeston has better range, damage to soft targets, and durability. The Avenger has nothing. 😀

Himura wrote:

3) This one’s been bothering me for a while actually, Ashley sleeping w Kaidan. That’s not only flying in the face of SA regs pertaining fraternization but it also ended up with her becoming pregnant.

How did all that affect her career? She was always very concerned about redeeming the Williams name and proving that they were trustworthy. Yet she ended up sleeping with her immediate superior during a critical mission. And it was hardly a secret, so what happened after the SR-1 got shot down and Ash was left without cover of a friendly Spectre?

I just can’t believe it all went smooth for her. Between the Commissariat, the SA officer cadre and her being a Williams there had to be some serious blow back. To say nothing of the rumors about her getting into OCS on her back.

First, the fact that her kid was a result of a liason with her superior officer was kept quiet by Shepard, who never formally reprimanded Kaiden or Ash. Jiong knew about it but was more distracted at the time and his job was not to enforce military discipline in any case.

As far as the Alliance knows, Williams had a one night stand on the Citadel and got knocked up. She told Kaiden’s parents, of course, but they’ve kept everything very quiet. And Kaisen was born on the Citadel, and Chakwas pulled a few strings to make sure the father’s name was never connected to Alenko.

While it was not exactly a secret, the truth was that after the events of the Benezia Incident, the good word put in by Shepard, and the fact that she was ‘officially’ credited with the kill for Saren mean that no one really looked that hard. And she’s come more to terms with the fact that the Williams name is never going to be ‘redeemed’ in a way that gives her family back what they lost.

She’s been attached to Delacor’s team since he was tapped for Spectre. While they didn’t always get along, Delacor respected Ash’s combat skills and faith immensely, and recommended her promotion twice. Given that Delacor is a morose ass who rarely if ever gave recommendations, and that his coloring is somewhat similar to Kaiden’s, there was an accusation made that he was the father.

Delacor, of course, exploded. Williams exploded. Udina, who had been told the father was a marine who died, was outraged, and the issue was dropped like a hot potato and never brought back up.

She’s gotten lucky. Her luck will run out to some degree if Kaisen ever tries to join the marines, as a genotype test will identify his father very clearly. She hasn’t thought about that yet.

If it were to come out, what would happen would depend very much on existing testimony. IRL, I knew a LtC who was banging an ensign under his command. This didn’t come out until the LtC died over in Iraq. THe ensign was basically told “don’t do that again or we’ll DDC you”

I will reply on these questions tomorrow at work, but I want to make one thing clear:

Monomolecular edged weapons are extremely difficult to get, dangerous to even touch (much less use) and are illegal almost everywhere. Given that they can cut through almost anything except warp swords and elcor meteorplate armor, they’re the assassins choice for weapons.

Remembrance Dancers use them alot, along with every other dirty trick in the book. Richard William’s pet psychopath assassin also uses one.

Cerberus doesn’t have the pull or reach to manipulate the Judgement Cadre.

Hint #1: A known player of the game, but not one of the ones you’d expect.

Hint #2: I’ve already indicated the one group that has disproportionate ability to affect what the Commissariat bases its data on.

You’re close.

But the people who built the Arca devices did not do so from scratch.

Mr.Green wrote:

1) Speculation: Turians not blockading Shanxi

Why didn’t the Turians blockade Shanxi, when they had likely more ships and better tech – during the initial First Contact.

I know the whole boner for war. But it would have made more tactical sense – to simply sit in orbit and take pot-shots at any AA-Turrets. Or what?

In the initial attack, the goal was suppression — they were under the belief that humanity was operating solely from Shanxi. A blockade would have made no sense.

In the follow up, when it was clear this was only a colony, there was no real point in blockades, either. They needed to capture the planet to get intelligence on what they were facing, and given the relative unimportance of Shanxi they had enough ships for a fight but not for a full blockade.

Mr.Green wrote:

2) Speculation: First Contact War, Turian Primarch

Who was the motha-fucking, chicke-[CENSORED HEAVILY]-idiot. The Turian Primach, who thought, that blasting new spaceflight species into dust, to improve your economy is a good thing?

There’s a very good reason why Fedorian broke the dudes arms and legs before tearing off his mandables. Like many Primarchs, he was a compromise candidate, and unfortunately for the Hierarchy he came into power on the back of a backlash against the Families by several strong Clans, who wanted a Primarch they could influence.

Ultimately, the turian’s do not VALUE peace, and the idea that any race of beings could so successfully deny them in war was seen as insulting. Turians do not think like humans and what makes ‘sense’ to us manifestly does not to them.

Mr.Green wrote:

3) Speculation: Lord Manswell and Richard discussion.

Namely, Manswell stated – they had been compromised, and that such a thing hadn’t happened since the Days of Iron.

So, I am curious to this easter egg. What did Lord Manswell mean, to Richard, when speaking about geth-control plans. That the SSA, had been compromised once during the Days of Iron? Who and What had that been?

That it could be compared, to the likes of the current galactic affairs?

The ‘geth control plan’ was their flawed understanding of what Saren and Benezia were doing — they were under the impression that Saren was using the geth to produce a conventional conquest and overthrow of the Citadel government and to unseat the asari and salarians.

As for being compromised, that sort of ties in with the ultimate source of the truth about Jacen Manswells suicide manifesto. Certain things that happen in Lions in Blue and Silver hint at something that if extrapolated should yield a clue. 🙂

Mr.Green wrote:

4) Speculation: Humans and Turians, =3

This is my simple, fandom love here. Question being, any turian and human pairs around the galaxy? OR are they usually burned by Commissar fire? Or skinned alive by the Hastatim?

Honestly, no one really cares who sleeps with who unless its one of the Lords of Sol or a high ranking Family or Clan. Turian-human relationships aren’t unknown — the turian mechanic and the security director on Noveria were one, for example. They certainly aren’t the norm, but generally speaking people tend to focus more on their own lives than mouth-frothing outrage over species deviantism.