User:EliteMaster117/Terrence Shepard

"Humanity needs a leader who's looking out for them. From now on I'm doing things my way, whether you agree or not!"

- Shepard, ending his work with Cerberus.

Lieutenant Commander Terrence Shepard (born April 11th, 2154 CE), was an Alliance soldier and former Cerberus operative. He was known for saving the universe twice, during the Arterius Crisis, and the Collector crisis.

Early Life
Born on Mindoir, a small, outer colony on the edge of the Attican Traverse, in 2154 CE, Shepard was born to a farming family, who lived on the outskirts of a major city on the planet. Terrence lived a rather calm life. He was home-schooled up until the age of eleven, and from then on went to a public school in the city.

At the age of sixteen, in 2170 CE, batarian slavers came out of nowhere, and attacked the planet. Shepard was at his public school during the time of the attack. The slavers slaughtered the colonists on the planet, and one of their first targets was the Shepard family ranch. The slavers attacked, robbed the farmhouse, and murdered Shepard's parents.

When the slavers made their way to the school, a passing Alliance patrol saw the attack on Mindoir and heard the distress beacon. They rescued Shepard, and most of his school, then sent in reinforcements to attack Mindoir, but the slavers didn't give up.

A gunship engaged the shuttle Shepard was on, shooting it down over the city, along with another two ships leading the schoolchildren and teachers out. Shepard was the only survivor from the crash, and was rescued by Alliance ground forces. Shepard was forced to join the Alliance after finding out none of his family or friends had survived, and Mindoir was almost completely destroyed.

Shepard had nothing left back on the small border colony, and chose to lead a military career instead.

Early Career
His first mission was to inspect an Alliance base whose soldiers had all gone missing. Upon arriving, he encountered a group of mercenaries who were looting the base for credits, resources, and Alliance encryption codes. Shepard's team fought their way through the base, and took down all the mercenaries.

For the next six years, Shepard was stationed on a small, terrestrial mineral goldmine, where he was part of the mining operation. In early 2176 CE, the planet underwent a drastic change. The constant mining of minerals had weakened the ground's surface, and it had finally broke. The base was built on a cliffside, and magma spilled out of the mountainside. The cliff started to collapse, and Shepard set the alarm.

Shepard ran out of the base, and saw that there were many survivors still inside. He went back in, and made sure they all got out of the building. Just as the last person was getting out, the building started to collapse, as the lava had cracked the cliffside. One last person inside was trapped under a column, and Shepard tried to lift it, but he knew he had no time. He had to run. Just as he got out of the building, the entire cliff started to collapse behind him, and he got in the shuttle as the cliff fell into the puddle of lava below.

Shepard was assigned three months of leave on Elysium. After one week of leave, a huge band of pirates, slavers, and batarian warlords attacked the colony. Shepard told his commander to rally troops at the Kingston Hotel, as it was the highest and most secure location they could reach.

After his commander was wounded fighting his way to the hotel, Shepard got to the hotel, with the commander in a fireman's hold. The commander told Shepard to devise a plan. Their forces numbered ninety soldiers, divided into six fireteams, so Shepard told fireteams one and two to protect as many civilians as they could. Fireteams three and four would stay at the Kingston hotel, defend it, and keep an eye out on the skyline.

Fireteams five and six were assigned to hold off and defend the town. That was only a partial amount of the troops on Elysium. After all men near him were taken out by a special ops squad of mercenaries, Shepard held out on his own. He killed them all, and fought until he saw the brigade coming in. Tanks pounded on the forces, and aircraft bombed. Eventually, the battle was won, and Shepard was given several medals and was his third promotion. After the battle, he was recognized as an icon, the rookie who saved many, and spent several years ranking up, and battling, until he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and assigned on the SSV Normandy.

Death
After hearing reports of three missing Alliance ships around the planet Alchera, the Normandy was sent to investigate the missing ships. After four days of searching, the Normandy was engaged by a Collector cruiser. The ship had heavy damage, and most survivors were trying to keep the ship alive. Shepard sent out a distress beacon to the Alliance, when met by Ashley Williams. Shepard told her to get the survivors to the escape pods while he went to get Joker out.

Upon going to the upper decks of the ship, Shepard found that the entire ceiling of the ship had been ripped apart. He found Joker, and got him to an escape pod, but was blown back when the Collector cruiser fired a second beam. Shepard barely managed to launch Joker's escape pod before the force from the explosion threw him out in the vacuum of space and breached his suit.

Eventually, Shepard's lifeless body landed on Alchera's surface, where it was recovered by Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor, two Cerberus operatives. For two years, they worked on bringing Shepard back to life, in a project called the Lazarus Project, until Shepard was given a premature awakening.

Attack on Lazarus Research Station
After a premature awakening, Shepard was awakened from his healing to find the Lazarus Research Station under attack. Miranda guided him through the station, explaining that rogue mechs had attacked the base, which were originally supposed to defend it.

Upon moving through the station, Shepard found Jacob, one of the only surviving personnel. Together, they fought through the facility, until meeting another operative, Dr. Wilson. Wilson was wounded, but able to fight.

After fighting through the rest of the research station, Shepard, Jacob, and Wilson reached the shuttle, and met Miranda, who shot Wilson in the throat, killing him. She explained that Wilson had hacked the mechs, and before she could explain further, the station started to explode. The shuttle launched, and Shepard was evacuated.

The Veteran
"You must be Commander Shepard. I hear we have a galaxy to save."

- Zaeed, to Shepard.

After reading the dossiers on his squadmates on Omega, Shepard found Zaeed Massani beating up a batarian delinquent as a part of a job. After speaking with Zaeed, Shepard found that Cerberus had talked him into working for them for a very large sum of credits. Zaeed himself stated it wasn't good business, but for the credits, he would take it. He also told Shepard the credits weren't all he was going for; he wanted to take out Vido Santiago, leader of the Blue Suns, as Santiago had taken a refinery, and had been using the workers as slave laborers. The company wanted it dealt with. After agreeing to the mission, Zaeed left to turn in the batarian, and would meet Shepard on the ship later.

Archangel
"That bridge has saved my life, funneling all those witless idiots into scope."

- Archangel, to Shepard.

Upon recruiting Zaeed, Shepard's next dossier was Archangel, a mercenary commander and marksman. In order to find him, he would have to ask Aria T'Loak, Omega's ruler. Aria told him he was in trouble, holding off against three major mercenary groups that had joined forces to take him down; Aria stated they were recruiting anyone. Miranda offered that as a way to go in. After speaking to the recruiter, who stated that there was a 500-credit admission fee for recruiting, and that a Blue Sun at the transport depot would take them to Archangel. On the way out, Shepard saw a young enthusiastic man trying to recruit. He convinced the kid to turn back, and though the kid was angry, he knew he wouldn't regret it.

Upon arrival, Blue Sun lieutenant Salkie told Shepard that Archangel was holed up in a building at the end of a road, and that the only way in was through a narrow, exposed bridge - a literal killing ground.

After talking with salarian Eclipse leader, Jaroth, and krogan Blood Pack leader, Garm, Shepard found out that Archangel was a turian, and with that thought, remembered Garrus. He wondered were Garrus had gone, and for a single second, thought Garrus could be Archangel, but pushed the thought out of his head. There was a slim chance of that.

After that, Shepard found a room filled with inactive mechs, and disabled a YMIR mech's friend-or-foe ID. Then he went to meet Sgt. Cathka, and saw him working on a gunship. Shepard learned he would be bait for Archangel, going in a wave against him while an infiltration team sneaked around. Cathka went back to work, and Shepard grabbed an electric prodder, jabbing it into Cathka's back and leaving him unable to repair the gunship.

Shepard then charged onto the bridge with the other freelancers, and engaged them, thus blowing his cover.

Shepard moved into the building, killing an unsuspecting freelancer trying to get the door to Archangel open. He then met with Archangel, and found he was Garrus Vakarian. Shepard welcomed him with open arms, but, the celebration was short. After engaging in a firefight with the mercs, Jaroth sent in the YMIR mech, but the mech started attacking the mercs, and eventually it was destroyed. Shepard, Garrus, Miranda, and Jacob took out the remaining mercs, including Jaroth. The infiltration team had breached the lower level, though, and Shepard told Jacob to stay with Garrus while he and Miranda continued downstairs to close three shutters on the lower levels, stopping the infiltration team.

After returning to Garrus' position, Shepard engaged Garm and his Blood Pack soldiers. After finishing off Garm, Shepard once more spoke with Garrus, until being ambushed by the damaged gunship and Blue Suns. Shepard almost destroyed the gunship, and took out all Blue Sub forces, when the gunship fired at Garrus, wounding him. Shepard finally destroyed the gunship, and returned to Garrus, who was bleeding out. Shepard, Jacob, and Miranda got Garrus to the Normandy, where he received medical attention, but kept scars on his face, and a hole in his armor.

Normandy Crash Site
After the remains of the original Normandy had been found on Alchera, Shepard was assigned to find the dog tags of all of the missing or fallen crewmen and return them to Councilor Anderson. He landed the shuttle, and searched the area, successfully collecting the dog tags. Shepard was rocked by seeing the Normandy like this, and had several memories of members of the Normandy, such as Navigator Pressly, and Corporal Jenkins. Shepard placed a monument at the crash site, and on the way back to the shuttle, found his crushed helmet.

Kaidan Alenko
Though he respected Kaidan, and depended on him in missions that required Biotics, Shepard though dimly of Kaidan, and thought he had a somewhat bland attitude.

Though he felt bad for Kaidan, Shepard had no regret for his decision, as he knew Kaidan had offered to stay behind on Virmire.

Tali'Zorah vas Normandy
"I would've brought some music, but I didn't know what you'd like..."

- Tali, before the Suicide Mission.

Commander Shepard and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya were friends through the events of the Saren Campaign, and Shepard found it sad that she became nervous during conversation. He felt he needed to get to know her more, as she was the first alien he had met, and they grew closer than friends by the attack on the Citadel. Shepard brought Tali along in the battle of the Citadel, and felt he needed to bring her back to the team during the Collector crisis. He often flirted with her during the Collector crisis, as she had been Shepard's best original friend, aside from Garrus. They began a relationship during the Collector crisis, and a few hours before the Suicide mission, they had a romantic encounter.