Major Kaidan Alenko

〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Jill
AGE: 27
JOURNAL: ironjill
IM / EMAIL: ComeHereHand
PLURK: hundreds

〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Kaidan Alenko
CHARACTER AGE: 35
SERIES: Mass Effect
CHRONOLOGY: Mid-Mass Effect 3; Right as he’s rejoining the Normandy’s crew
CLASS: Hero


BACKGROUND: To start things out, the story of Mass Effect follows the rise of humanity into the galactic community, which is a long and arduous tale of humans learning that aliens are people just like the rest of us. The story takes place in the future, and actually really starts out in the year 2148, when humanity discovered some ancient technology left by an extinct race that looked like bugs called Protheans on the planet Mars. The Protheans, of course, were extinct approximately 50,000 years before this point, and nobody really knew what happened to them, hell, humanity didn’t even really know what they were, other than they were extremely advanced, and by discovering the technology on Mars, humanity started to leap forward – quicker than they should have. With this technology, humans found out that the moon of the (not) planet Pluto, Charon, was actually something called a Mass Effect Relay, encased in ice. With this relay, humans reached out beyond our solar systems, and stepped out into the stars.

Things started to tumble apart after that. First, after humans had spent the last decade consolidating power and resources, they finally had a fleet, and they traveled beyond the stars, through this mass relay that they’d discovered. This starts small, and they began to figure out that this one relay is actually a network of relays, and they start spreading through the galaxy, setting up colonies on unoccupied planets. Surprisingly, nobody seems to notice, or if they do, they don’t really pay much attention. It’s not like those humans aren’t all that important anyway. Second, the Earth military – now calling themselves the Systems Alliance – starts to build a space station out in space. I promise, this is all really important. They also start to figure out how to use and adapt the technology they found, and humanity’s technological competence starts to jump forward by leaps and bounds.

With the discoveries they’d made, however, during this time, humans were making discoveries left and right technologically. Around the year 2151, several children (including a one Kaidan Alenko, while in utero) were exposed to element zero dust – element zero being an element that powered mass effect relays and space shuttles, oddly enough. It was the kind of thing that would eventually lead to advanced weapons, spaceflight, and biotic powers, although the early displays of biotic power could really be called magic space cancer. Children exposed to these powers started to display telekinetic abilities at around the age of five.

Meanwhile, back out in space, humanity actually found another race of aliens traveling the galaxy. They were somewhere in between a dinosaur and a bird, and they called themselves Turians. These Turians took offense to this species of plucky, unknown spacefarers, mostly because they were unknowingly trying to break galactic law – by trying to reactivate a dormant mass relay. This, as happens in most space operas, led to a war called the First Contact War, which happened in 2157. The notable thing about this war was twofold, it brought humanity in with the rest of the galaxy, and introduced humans to the variety of species that were out there in space; and it also led to a Turian named Saren Arterius and a human named Jack Harper to find a mysterious relic, which seemed to turn some who came into contact with it into human-machine hybrids. This is very important, because the human would go on to start a terrorist organization called Cerberus; dedicated to preserving the place of humanity in the galaxy, and he would start calling himself the Illusive Man – who was quite obviously a dick in a suit. Saren, on the other hand, became something called a Spectre, which stands for Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, pretty much spies/police/jack of all trades/people with way too much authority, who were the right hands of the council – a group of 3 who ran the laws of the galaxy from the Citadel; which was a massive space station that served as the seat of the galactic government.

Now back to Earth, where things kind of kept going. The First Contact War was, in the grand scope of things, pretty short. While on Earth, humanity was starting to discover that people exposed to this element zero dust had more potential than just bending a spoon, or knocking over a glass of water. In 2160, they started something called the Biotics Acclimation and Temperence Training, or BAaT – or as the people who eventually ended up there called it: Brain Camp. Sadly, they pretty much kidnapped kids and teenagers (including Kaidan Alenko – who had just started to show signs of biotic power) to subject them to training to see if they could get these magic space cancer to be space superpowers. What they discovered, with time, was that they could install implants into the children exposed to this magic space dust, and then they could show even more power. The first implants were really shitty. The second round, called L2s were also really shitty, but they showed varying degrees of success. Either you were ridiculously powerful (and likely insane) or you fizzled out. Most L2s eventually turned to terrorist cells and protest groups, seeking reparations from the Alliance for their mistreatment. In around 2167, Kaidan got one of these fantastic little devices, and then the company leading Brain Camp decided that they weren’t very happy with the results, so they hired a Turian named Vyrnnus to come and teach the kids – not really realizing that Turians didn’t know jack shit about biotics in general. In 2168, Vyrnnus was killed by Kaidan, who lost total control of his biotics after threatening a girl named Rahna that he had a crush on, for using her hands instead of her biotics. (Whoops.) Less than a year later, the parent company Conatix and the Alliance kicked all these kids out after the diplomatic fallout from the Turian Hierarchy for killing one of their own.

So now there were all these half-trained biotic kids running around, most of which would spend time either in crippling pain, strung out on a biotic drug called Red Sand, driven mad from the pain and power, or dead. Kaidan eventually ended up joining the Alliance Marines, one of the few jobs that biotics could get, after the fallout from Brain Camp. For quite some time, biotics weren’t really well-regarded by humanity, who thought of them as anything from unnatural to dangerous, and with the experimental nature of the powers, it’s not untrue. After that, Alenko served in the Alliance for some time, and actually excelled at military life – it suited his personality well – and he rose through the ranks, eventually getting assigned to a ship called the Normandy, serving under Captain Anderson.

Of course, this ship invariably ended up in deep shit. This ship was so deep in shit, nobody would even believe how deep the shit was. They were assigned to investigate a planet called Eden Prime, wherein a turian Spectre by the name of Nihilus, who in secret was observing the ship’s servicing Commander, Shepard, to determine if he would be a suitable candidate to becoming the first human Spectre. Of course, this didn’t go well. A Prothean beacon was found, and Nihilus was murdered by another Spectre, named Saren (DUN DUN) who killed his old friend, in pursuit of this beacon, using an army of mechanical beings called Geth. He was stopped by a trio of plucky humans – Commander Shepard, Kaidan Alenko, and one they’d picked up along the way named Ashley Williams. They stopped Saren, and while he’d almost activated the Prothean beacon, Kaidan had been shoved away by the commander, who actually got the message. Which, as it turned out, was one from the Protheans, and they couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

So what were they to do than to prove that this asshole Saren actually killed this other Spectre? They went to the Citadel, to talk to the council, who didn’t believe them. This set a shocking precedent of Shepard saying something would happen, the council waving it off, and then it happening. Eventually, Saren’s guilt was proven, with the help of a Turian cop named Garrus, a Krogan (big, beefy, tank-like species who was suffering through forced sterilization) bounty hunter named Wrex, and a Quarian (an exiled, space-faring species restrained to their exo-suits) named Tali’Zorah. With them finding Saren guilty, they were sent on a race to hunt him down, and stop him from maybe bringing out these things called “Reapers”. Which weren’t ominous, or a threat at all. Just an old wives tale according to the council.

Along the way, they rescued an Asari scientist named Liara T’soni – Asari were a species of mongendered, blue-skinned aliens who lived for, on average, about 1000 years – who happened to be the daughter of Saren’s lieutenant. They found out she was being hunted, mostly because she was a scientist/historian who studied Protheans, and she ended up being the key to unlocking the Prothean messages in the commander’s head. Then the Normandy’s crew also happened to stop an invasion by the Geth to an colony of humans, who ended up being overtaken by a being called the Thorian – more ancient than even the Protheans, who helped both Saren and Shepard make sense of the messages in their head, from the Protheans. They also ended up on an ice planet, where they took down another of Saren’s projects, which happened to revolve around reviving a species thought extinct called the Rachni, which was, predictably, a really bad thing.

So once this was all done, and they figured out where Saren was going next, they all headed to the planet Virmire, where Saren had supposedly set up camp, and had almost taken out an entire contingent of black-ops Salarians – another species, of fast-talking, fast-growing, excruciatingly scientific lizards who were well known for science and black ops – before the Normandy crew managed to help them out. Unfortunately, they had to storm Saren’s base, and split up. They found out that inside the base, Saren was both trying to cure the Krogan’s sterilization problem, and that his ship, called Sovereign, was not just a ship, but a sentient machine – and that it didn’t want to play nice. Eventually Shepard had to make a choice. He’d sent Ashley Williams to help with the contingent of STG (Salarian Special Tasks Group; aka: black ops!) while he sent Kaidan to man and arm a nuclear weapon to blow Saren’s base out of the sky, since he was trying to cure the Krogan Genophage (The official term for the Krogan’s forced genetic sterilization.) Shepard, however, in the heat of battle, could only get one of them, both were being swarmed with Krogan and Geth, and Shepard chose Kaidan, since he was guarding the nuke, leading to the death of Gunnery Chief Williams.

Then, the crew followed Saren to a planet called Ilos, which was an old Prothean colony. There, they found out that this went deeper than just Sovereign, that originally, the Citadel had been the center of it, and that originally, the Reapers would just cripple the galaxy from there. But the Protheans had fought back, and reprogrammed the Citadel just enough to keep the receptors in the Citadel from opening for the Reapers this cycle – of which Sovereign was one of them. There was no rhyme or reason to it, but they had to stop Saren and Sovereign, which led to them following them through a relay embedded on the planet called the Mu Relay, in a small tank – wherein it ejected them on the Citadel. There, they took down Saren, and saved the council – which had been under threat from Sovereign’s lasers while it attached to the citadel like a head crab. They also managed to kill Sovereign through some miraculous twist of fate, and the galaxy was saved (hooray!) but things weren’t done.

Kaidan and the rest of the crew of the Normandy stayed on, and the Alliance sent them to hunt down Geth, before the ship was attacked in a brutal slaughter by an unknown assailant. Most got out alive – including Kaidan – but the ship’s commander, and the first human Spectre, didn’t, they died. Mostly died. Kaidan, on the other hand, was pretty shaken up by his commanding officer’s death, and essentially threw himself into his work for the next three years, getting promoted eventually to Staff Commander, and he started taking top-secret missions, one of which was to the planet Horizon. Where he was trying to get colonists to cooperate, and failing, until the colony was attacked. That happens a lot to human colonies. This time, they were attacked, and Kaidan had been there to supposedly help stop the attackers, but that didn’t happen well at all. In fact, the attackers – a somewhat bug-like species (that are actually Protheans mutated by the Reapers) sent small bugs and paralyzed everyone, before trying to kidnap all of the colonists. Kaidan somehow lived, thanks to the efforts of a small team working for that terrorist organization, Cerberus. Who just happened to be led by that dead guy – Commander Shepard. Of course, when your old CO comes back from the dead, and working with a terrorist organization, it’s a cause for alarm. Kaidan, while surprised, essentially tells Shepard that he’s not going anywhere with him, and that he can’t believe he’s a) alive, or b) working for a terrorist organization. So they split ways, and Kaidan goes back to his not so cushy alliance job, and does his thing. His thing, actually, ended up being more missions, before eventually settling down at Alliance headquarters, where he was given another promotion, to the rank of Major, and was given a hefty task. Essentially, he was asked to train his own teams of biotic students, and teach them how to use their powers well. Surprisingly, something he took a shine to, despite his own experience with biotic instruction. Meanwhile, his old CO saved the galaxy again (like the dick he is) and also kind of eliminated a planet, so he was brought in for a court martial, of which Kaidan had to testify.

Then, of course, as all things go, shit hit the fan. That really deep shit that the Normandy stumbled into before, like 3 years ago? Yeah, it came back in a big way. Because the reason that Commander Shepard destroyed a planet was because, unsurprisingly, nobody was listening about the Reapers, and so he blew up a relay to keep them from coming through. Which really only delayed the inevitable. And it was that moment, when the Reapers attacked. Like a whole fleet of cephalopod-looking black ships with giant lasers attacked Earth, and the rest of the galaxy all at the same time. So Kaidan ended up scooting his ass to the newly rebuilt Normandy along with another Alliance Marine, James Vega, and then they pick up Shepard, and get their asses out of there at the Alliance Military’s command – who sends them to Mars, where there are Prothean archives – and also apparently Dr. Liara T’soni again, and Cerberus. Who was also looking for something hidden in the datafiles. Shepard, Liara, and Kaidan hit the depths of the Mars Archives, and they found some sort of information, which is really Liara’s thing these days, now that she’s the head of an intelligence network, known as the Shadow Broker. Unfortunately, they were stopped by the Illusive Man’s forces, spearheaded by one of the researchers, Dr. Eva, who stole the data, and after pursuing her, James managed to crash her ship by crashing his ship. Unfortunately, Dr. Eva was a high-powered android, who after escaping the wreckage, went for the first person she could find.

Which was Kaidan. She promptly slammed him into any surface she could find, crushed his windpipe, and nearly killed him. So for a good long while, after Shepard finally stopped Eva, Kaidan was in a hospital on the Citadel, recovering from his injuries. While Shepard’s off saving the galaxy – or trying to pull people together to save the galaxy, Kaidan’s not even really able to do more than drink through a straw, but even so, while in recovery, he received a visit from the Human Councilor (who was appointed after the battle of the citadel with Sovereign, a high honor!) named Udina, who gave him pretty much a deal he couldn’t refuse. Second human Spectre, actually. Kaidan accepted, and by the time he’d been inducted, and back to duty, his first mission had been to save the council itself. In the middle of all of this, the Citadel was attacked by Cerberus, who had sleeper agents everywhere, and started to take down the cops, the council, everything. While Kaidan was busy trying to save the council, he’d almost gotten them to a transport, before there was something coming up behind them – which ended up being Commander Shepard and his crack team. Kaidan, uncertain of what’s going on, other than the fact that it’s Cerberus attacking, is understandably suspicious of the fact that the Commander’s here, and that he’s supposedly attacking council members. In true “Shepard Charisma” fashion, eventually, he lowers his gun to his old CO, after being convinced it’s not Shepard, but Udina who’s the Cerberus agent, and after Udina pulls a gun, Kaidan shoots him. After that, Kaidan spoke with Shepard, before returning to the Normandy, finally clearing the air, after the whole wedge that Cerberus left between him and the rest of the crew, since he hadn’t returned to the Normandy with almost everyone else after the Commander’s death.

PERSONALITY: Kaidan’s one of those people that often grows and learns, not just from his own experiences, but he’s always been the person that really draws from the relationships around him in a big way. The majority of his biggest, most integral character development was prompted because of his attachments to other people, and the way that he perceived their relationships, and even what he could bring to the table for them – and then how they reacted to him. When he was younger, of course, there was the issue where he lost control and killed Vyrnnus, with a pretty powerful, biotic-laden kick – but when you meet Kaidan later, he’s not some sort of biotic god, but instead someone who works quietly on his terminals, serious and controlled, split between using his biotics and also technical abilities. Because of how people reacted – in particular Rahna, and how she essentially never talked to Kaidan again after that – he became the sort of person who does not lose control. Everything about him is something that he keeps careful control over, in particular his biotics. This isn’t surprising, considering that he’s one of the earliest humans to have biotic power, but he almost goes to the extreme. The rules and regulations of being a military man are well-suited to a man like Kaidan, who likes the structure and the additional support to his own control issues. If his own morality didn’t line up with the alliance so well, it would be a bigger issue, but because of the way he and the Alliance align so well, it works for the best. Now with the need for control instilled at a young age, it’s really remarkable that he got as far as he did, in terms of rank.

Serving on the Normandy, and having Commander Shepard as his CO was another thing altogether, and it helped Kaidan in a lot of other ways. Being on that crew, and with that particular CO helped Kaidan round himself out, from someone painfully stiff, all about the regulations and codes, and helped him learn to be more impulsive, learn to work from his gut when necessary. Kaidan is the planner, the one who’s got tasks, reports, debriefings, and being on the Normandy – essentially – helped pull the stick out of his ass just slightly. He learned to be more relaxed, but more than that, he’s more willing to speak his mind, tell people what he thought of the situation and what they were doing – mostly in part due to Shepard’s unique command style, in which he encouraged open-discussion.

There’s also the aside that by this time, Kaidan has taken up the role of a teacher, and a mentor, to pretty much an entire platoon of biotic students, and in that way, the work was uniquely suited for him. His need for control, his ability to show patience, and guidance shine through. He’s a diligent, methodical man, and it shows in the fact that even by the end of the war, his students were alive – which was honestly astounding compared by how many people died, and also by how easy it was to lose people. Even though they were separated, too, Kaidan still showed that he cared, deeply for the students, and spent much of his downtime on the Normandy (after his canon point) actually reaching out and looking for his students, to make sure they were alright. He’s not the kind of person who gives up on the people he cares about, even if sometimes he wants to, or even if sometimes extenuating circumstances mean he should.

That being said, there are parts of Kaidan that can be less than glowingly recommended. For one thing, the man is extremely judgmental; about people, decisions, choices, pretty much everything. If he doesn’t like it, he’ll let someone know, but in the same vein, the snap-decisions and judgments can mean that he ruins or near-ruins a relationship with people early on. He definitely holds everyone to the same standards as himself, and it’s very difficult to exceed his high expectations. He’s also the sort of person to hold onto things for an extremely long time – whether it’s a judgment or even something that happened to him. Like the issue when he was younger, the rejection by Rahna, Vyrnnus’s death, and the course of events that led up to it colored Kaidan’s entire adult life in a huge way. He doesn’t let go easily, but it means that experiences shape him in a much larger way as well.

It also doesn’t mean he’s not without humor, Kaidan can have a stick up his ass about many things, and often holds himself to his rules and regulations doesn’t mean he never does. He has a wry sense of humor, even if it only comes out whenever he’s honestly comfortable with other people, and even then, it’s rare. He’s quiet and thoughtful, the kind of person who thinks actions through – although words are something else entirely. While Kaidan thinks through what he’s doing; he’s unfortunately prone to saying whatever’s on his mind – which often leads to something very stupid coming out of his mouth, or something painfully honest, and more often than not, it’s both.

POWER:

For the first power, Kaidan will retain his biotic abilities. Biotics, for the most part, are telekinetic abilities, or energy manipulation. This generally manifests in pushes and pulls, lifts, and even slams to the ground, barriers, and an "energy drain" that serves to weaken combatants -- an advanced technique that only a few have been able to master (essentially, this particular ability uses the telekinetic forces to attack the nervous system to prevent help weaken them). Of course, biotics have a pretty limited range, and the fields can’t really extend beyond his field of vision They also are limited on how long they last, as in you can't really suspend someone for hours on end if you lift them into the air, that’s too much energy consumed by the biotic themselves to maintain the biotic field; so they only work in short, violent bursts, instead of long and suspended periods of attack. Using more than two at the same time, other than a barrier (which essentially serves as a telekinetic shield – and all biotics have mastered how to protect themselves first and foremost, since they're essentially your space wizards) isn't possible. So in essence, it’s battlefield telekinesis, using a type of energy manipulation to not manipulate the energy in people insomuch as he’s manipulating the energy around the person/object he’s manipulating. Even with barriers, the biotic is manipulating the energy around themselves, to change the way objects and projectiles come at them, but even barriers are easily dismissed with a few too many hits. The other downsides, of course, other than the inability to “double dip” the biotic abilities and limited range and sustainability is that biotics display voracious appetites and burn a lot of energy when using their abilities; and in an L2 like Kaidan, he’s got the additional downside of crippling headaches.

The second power Kaidan will maintain is more centered on his omnitool – in canon, omnitools are like a cross between a smartphone/laptop, that’s implanted into the arm, capable of generating overload charges, like power spikes, which serve as a method to take out shields/damage electronics, so in game, while the features will be limited, they would still exist. This would really only be useful on say robots/mechs/people in power armor (like assoles like that exist) And in general, would be of more use if say, someone wants a console shorted out or something. It’s more of a weak spike in power to overload a system – generally initiating a reboot sequence, instead of taking it down entirely. It can be used against organic enemies, but essentially, it’s just a shock to the system (in game mechanics means it takes down shields and does minor damage). The overloads aren’t powerful enough to short out machines that process large amounts of power – so like any player characters who are robots would be just fine, although robotic sharks would probably not be. Essentially, the omnitool will serve as a vehicle for that, but it also has the general functionality of a smartphone or laptop. The downside, of course, is that it isn't built to connect to any networks that would be available without some serious reprogramming, but it still serves that basic function.