A/N: As with last year, as a Christmas present I am presenting the STG write-up on Commander Shepard.

The timing of this STG report (as with the last one) is sometime during the early stages of the Reaper Invasion. Thus, this will be some of the write-up of exactly what Cerberus did to Shepard. Some of it will be vague so as not to spoil the coming events, while some things will be explicit. Most of this will consist of just what kind of horrific badass Shepard becomes in ME2/ME3/ME4.

Yes, I've started rough outlines on an ME4 fic. Bioware can go to hell.

UPDATE 7-13-2016 : changed to reflect how I've written up Shepard in the ME2 piece and fix various issues

-STG – STG – STG-

STG Report on the Butcher :

Senior Agent Rasha to the STG Master

As requested, I've put together an initial briefing document covering everything we currently know about Major-Commander Shepard. By necessity, this document is not all inclusive with details, but instead provides high-order information that can be queried in depth at a later time. Given the high levels of secrecy regarding certain aspects of her resurrection and long-term goals, the incompleteness of this document is likely to be higher than normal, if any Dashan-Black file is normal.

This file is classified Dashan-black. This is the sixty-first Black Section file since the origination of the first Special Task Order given by Dalatrass Shiron herself and the second iteration of this file since original compilation.

Caution : Read FIRST:

All information on the Butcher is based on four sources: existing military records, eye-witness accounts, reports from Senior Agent Mordin Solus, and accumulated scans and examinations. Under no circumstances can this file be assumed complete. Assume that this file is an understatement.

Repeat. Assume that this file is an understatement.

Major-Commander Shepard has destroyed enemies thought to be nearly unkillable, survived death, and personally killed at least two Reapers on foot. The only enemies who were ever able to escape direct combat with her were Saren and Benezia, and they did not escape for long. STG Agents in any form of confrontation with Shepard should project extreme deference and exercise the highest level of caution.

This is not an exaggeration – this woman killed the Shadow Broker. If she can get to him, she can get to US.

-STG – STG – STG-

Overview:

Formal Titles: Major-Commander of the Systems Alliance Naval Forces, Baroness of Intai'sei, High Cavalier of the United Knights of Earth, clan-sister of Clan Urdnot, seventy-fifth in the order of noble precedence, family founder of Family Shepard-T'Soni.

Nicknames: The Butcher of Torfan, the Butcher, Shepard of the Dancing Kanquess

Race: full conversion cybernetic transhuman

Age and sex: 33 (chronological. Dead for two years.) Female.

Wealth: Owns palatial home on Intai'sei, Thoreau Flats Region. Large apartments on the Citadel, small vacation home on Arcturus, courtesy of House von Grath. Estimated liquid wealth: 7.4 million credits galactic. Estimated investments: 19.2 million. (Note: T'Soni assets estimated at 780 to 820 million credits, if Liara T'Soni ever became matriarch once more.) Shepard Defense Industries lists her as Board Chairperson and CEO, current valuation at eight five million credits.

Psychological Summary: Falls into the Aggressive-Suppressed quadrant of combative personalities. Withdrawn, anti-social extroverted demonstrative. Emotionally suppressed around strangers. Multiple pathologies, mostly sexual and abuse-related. After return from death, has shown a marked improvement in dealing with the public, but maintains intense privacy and rarely if ever opines her personal beliefs in public.

Psychological modeling would suggest her relationship with Liara T'Soni is somewhat unhealthy given the trauma the two have endured.

Military Summary: Class VII Biotic. N7 Special Forces soldier. Biotic Vanguard. High level skills in sniping, CQB, direct assault. Skills in info-war, piloting, naval operations. Limited skills in naval engineering, combat engineering, and regimental level command. Early career was spent in the Penal Legions, promotion to regular infantry and then officer were done in rapid sequence. N-series training and special forces deployments were very high tempo until Battle of Torfan, after which she was marked as unreliable and shifted to garrison duty. Taking up Spectre commission resulted in (after Benezia Incident) promotion to Major of Marines. Exact details of service with Cerberus Military Forces unknown.

Employment: Systems Alliance Military, Council Spectre. Also dabbles in weapons construction. Wife is on retainer as Chair of Prothean Studies at University of Arcturus. Retains some level of connection to Cerberus.

Significant Family: Liara T'Soni (asari bondmate, wife), Shepard Grunt (adoptive krogan son), David Anderson (adoptive human father), Kahlee Sanders-Anderson (adoptive human mother). Various asari relatives through T'Soni (Aethyta Vasir, Tela Vasir). Parents deceased. Blood relatives deceased.

Overall Threat Rating: Black-Collapse Nine. This is not a typo.

Historical Notes, pre-military:

From all records Sara Shepard was born on Earth to a naval officer and his mistress. After mother's exposure to eezo, Cerberus project BETHLEHEM (see STG file D-490-A, interrogation release) targeted the families of poorer children with probable biotic abilities, and was able to disrupt her family. While details about BETHLEHEM are sketchy, it is unlikely that dedicated parents would fall to such scenarios.

Shepard was sold into child slavery. Cerberus fumbled recovery and Shepard entered gangs, forced into a life of crime. Criminal career culminating in gang shootout when she refused to aid in kidnapping a human military officer. (Anderson).

She was entered into the human Penal Legions via a deal of some sort between David Anderson and a local police authority figure we have ascertained was working with Cerberus. Possibility that Anderson has Cerberus connections (still investigating).

Historical Notes, military service prior to death:

Prior to her death, Shepard was a polarizing but interesting figure. Trained obsessively, to the point of neurotic fixation. Took coursework and training that did not apply to standard biotic vanguard. Social reject, complicated by past sexual trauma and emotional disconnect. (See STG File 45938-CC-E, extended interviews).

Famous for hatred of criminals, especially slavers and anyone who harmed the defenseless. Often branded psychopathic, but no evidence of psychopathy exists. Shepard was badly adjusted and all records show depressive episodes and fatalist outlook, not insanity.

Torfan incident brutally damaged Shepard mentally. Loss of team, perceived abandonment by command figures, death of teammate and lover, all combined to make Shepard unstable. Duty with Captain Delacor not smooth, two conflicting often. Again, evidence suggests possible Cerberus involvement in assignment.

Chosen by the SA to be a potential Spectre. Shepard at ground zero for beginning of Benezia Incident. After the deaths of Saren and Benezia, events catapulted Shepard into the limelight for some time prior to her sudden death. (See STG File 45938-CC-E, extended interviews).

Extremely violent manner of Shepard's death and volatile conditions in the Traverse made retrieving Shepard's body by the SA difficult. Number of geth warships in the area made it impossible to send recovery forces to crash site of Normandy for seventeen days. Upon arrival, no trace of Shepard's body found except for helmet.

Prior to death, Shepard was driven, excellent soldier in top physical condition. She was one of the best biotic vanguards in the SA, a skilled sniper, very skilled martial artist, and fair tactician. However she was in no way 'super powered' or otherwise out of band of the top level of human norms.

Findings of scans after death, on the Citadel:

Shepard's reappearance (along with Cerberus and certain media events) caught all parties off guard. Shepard ventured aboard the Citadel only twice during the Collector Incident, once to meet with the Council, and once to indulge in shopping and dancing with her wife. Both times the Citadel security scanners were able to get high-level scans of Shepard.

More complete information, including scan manifests, can be found in STG file 0039-Beta-Citadel98, subfiles A through GGR. A cyber medical glossary and physiological familiarization notes on human anatomy is strongly recommended, as is the primer on Inusannon technology.

Note that almost 8% of the cyberware present in Shepard appears to be echo-grade experimental technologies that we have not yet identified, but shares certain similarities to cyberware found in the corpses of Saren Arterius and Benezia T'Soni post-mortem. This likely indicates Reaper technology, although the presence of Vigil may indicate this is actually Inusannon technology. These are cataloged in subfiles GGS through GGZ.

Zero doubt the woman calling herself Sara Shepard is indeed her. DNA sampling from all body portions matched her DNA profile exactly. Broken bones in the pelvis not replaced by cybernetics show identical fracture patterns to Shepard, which cannot be replicated. No cloning offset markers found except in the skin, hair, lungs, and portions of heart, liver, kidneys and digestive tract. Original skin DNA markers found in hands, probably removed from corpse and reattached after resurrection. Would have rejected tissue grafts if not original.

Some battle scars remain, although electro-whip scars from youth along thighs and back have been removed. (Additional scars also noted, see mental and psychological notes).

The amount of cybernetic work on Shepard astonishingly advanced, sickeningly complete, and implemented with paranoiac's attention to detail. Shepard roughly 78% cybernetic. Large portions of right side, upper left side, face, and lower legs were very severely damaged by the manner of her death. Minor brain damage and severe damage to the heart, lungs, kidneys, and spinal column. All corrected with cloned tissues and/or cybernetics, or armor augmentation.

85% of her bones replaced with carbon-fiber nanomachined assemblies, contains internal mass-effect components of uncertain source and purpose. 88% of her muscle mass, particularly in the arms, legs, back, and chest areas, have been replaced with three-phase fiber myomer with a pull-weight of 7.4. Bone replacements keyed to support this muscular structure, along with a .4 meter titanium segmented rod in the back supporting the spine. Eezo readings indicate there are grav-plates installed in soles of her feet, palms of hands.

Blood is 35% to 40% artificial, laced with nanorepair machinery as well as highly experimental krogan-derived regeneratives. Her immune system is also nano-augmented. Canister of medigel embedded next to the spine, with internal network of capillary tubing to deliver it to any point in the body. Myomer bundles can be rapidly regenerated using omni-gel, while the bloodstream's nanorepair agents can heal wounds in minutes. Nine nodules of unknown make are connected to limbic system, six more to circulatory system, possible adrenaline or stimulant pumps.

Two greyboxes were identified in the scan as well, contents unknown. One is connected directly to the cybernetic eye assemblies, the other hooked into the brain directly. Both were EMP-hardened and did not show any signs of transceiver or transmission components, making it unlikely they are being offloaded by a third party such as Cerberus.

Shepard's torso, shoulders, forearms, thighs, and shins, as well as her skull, are protected by a half-inch of sub-dermal armor plating floating over some form of suspended omnigel treatment. The armor plating appears to be some form of Silaris-grade material. All major arteries and veins have medigel-lined mesh shields over exposed areas. Most of cranial bones replaced by armored plating. Shepard's ribs are armored spars, spaces between them filled with heavier armor plating. Additional sheet of sub-dermal armor is inserted in front and behind her vital organs in her lower torso. All of the armor is placed and fitted in such a fashion as to be unobtrusive to casual examination or even touch. A thin metallic subdermal gorget is fitted over her windpipe, preventing strangulation. Two spools of monomolecular wire are mounted in each wrist, and an omnigel microfactury unit is embedded in her right calf. The unit appears to be hard-wired to produce only a few items, with a small amount of omnigel onboard.

Gyroscopic balance elements in her wrists, shoulders and hips. Additionally, complete secondary move-by-wire system for her myomer wired alongside her spinal column directly to the brain, allowing her to continue moving even if hit with nerve agents and paralytics. Object embedded in the right hip that we estimate is a pulse-stabilizer, to nullify pulse dissipator disruptions of her biotics.

Shepard's eyes are clearly advanced cybernetics. Most of her major organs have cybernetic augmentation as well. Her face and torso show signs of reconstruction. All limbs are fully cybernetic. Pelvis is normal bone and has bracing spars along the side – some care appears to have been taken not to desexualise her body. Particular care was taken with breast reconstruction.

Two compressed air-tanks that take up 17% of her lung mass fitted in bases of lungs. All lung tissue shows signs of cloning and regeneration, as well as genetic modification for capacity. Kidneys have what appear to be micro-kinetic particle filters inserted inside of them. The heart, lungs, liver, and most other major organs show signs of heavy cloning and regeneration and are augmented with cybernetic devices of unknown function.

Shepard's skin is a mix of her original skin in those areas not damaged (lower torso, thighs, left chest, palms and hands, most of the back, portions of right leg and buttocks). The rest of her is covered in cloned but real human flesh over some sort of armored biosynthetic covering. This armored skin is three layers, a surface biosynthetic soft material approximating human skin, shot through with capillary breaches for blood to flow to the real skin over it. A second layer of anti-ballistic mesh spall lining with omnigel conduits, and a final layer of flexible polyalloy strips that provide additional protection against deep penetration by blades or other stabbing instruments.

Only Shepard's brain, sexual organs, lower intestine, and spleen are free of any cybernetic augmentation (aside from the greyboxes). All areas of the body show spots where minor cloning was done. Approximately 4% of brain mass appears missing, excised (probably necrosis post-mortem).

Motivations:

Shepard's prime motivation has always been the protection of and close relationship with Liara T'Soni. She has endangered her orders or other primary tasks numerous times in regards to that. In the known instance of time where the two were not together after her resurrection her combat efficiency, aggression and even reaction times were slower.

Her secondary motivation is the obliteration of the Reapers, which see sees at criminals of the highest order of magnitude. This is a bridge between her primary and tertiary motivations.

Her tertiary motivations are the destruction of any criminal who injures, enslaves, or takes advantage of the helpless or innocent. This does not appear to extend to most white-collar crimes or petty misdemeanors, only capital offenses. It is worth noting that she has very little

Organizations and Affiliations:

Prior to her death, Shepard was Major-Commander of the 89th Strike Flotilla's Battle Group Chiron, responsible for anti-geth warfare and answering personally to the President of the SA. After the ill-fated return to the Normandy for a final mission ended in her death, she was nearly forgotten for two years. Her rank at the time was a dual role - Naval Commander, and Major of Marines.

Upon her resurrection she joined the new Cerberus under the Illusive Man, and commanded the Revenant Military Operations Cell. She held this position until the SA arrest of her in the aftermath of the Collector Incident. Her current status as a Cerberus Commander is uncertain, but given her statements is likely still ongoing.

After being cleared of charges she was reinstated as Major-Commander and given functional control of the 1st Anti-Reaper Reaction Squadron. She is currently slated for promotion to Naval Captain in 2188 and is already on the Admiralty List due to her honorary rank as Major of Marines. If she wished she could attain the rank of General immediately.

As a noblewoman Shepard is entitled to be seated in the Gallery of Lords on Earth for the purposes of voting on members of the Senate. She holds the rank of Baroness and her estates are upon Intai'sei, where she is the only noble and thus directly controls a single Senate seat. (This is seat is currently filled by Commissar-General Alfred Jiong, her former political officer.)

She is the fifth most senior knight of the Knights of United Earth, outranked only by various High Lord of Sol.

Shepard holds the highest possible N7 readiness score and her records have not been beat since she set them.

She is owner of a small weapons design firm, Shepard Defense Industries. This is a registered member of the SA Court of Corporations.

She is the permanent honorary mayor of Intai'sei.

She is an honorary member of the Dancing Kanquess Lodge of Hunting on Thessia, and is the only human to have given formal dispensation from the High Solarch to utilize certain restricted biotics.

Tactics:

Shepard is extremely aggressive and refuses to lead from anywhere but the front in large-scale battles, but has a great amount of tactical depth and will opt for the best position when in small group combat.

She considers herself (especially given her supernatural levels of strength, speed, and toughness) the central combatant in any fight and will close range rapidly using kanquess biotic charges or her natural speed unless facing weapons capable of disabling her or if opportunities to snipe present themselves.

Before her death, her tactics were simplistic in pursuit of closing range - after her resurrection they have become complex. Yet in every fight we have records of, regardless of what range she starts at, she will eventually close range. And her enemies uniformly fail to prepare for the speed of her closure and end up flanked and dead in short order.

Shepard's weapons are designed to inflict a level of damage that nothing short of a Shieldbreaker will be able to absorb. They include super-heavy Harrier conversions, a Sunfire pistol, and heavy weapons she can wield easily due to her cybernetic strength. Additionally, she has extremely powerful biotics attacks as well as defenses, capable of destroying siege mechs or stopping most small arms fire completely.

Keep in mind that Shepard usually operates alongside a very dangerous sniper (Garrus Vakarian) and a very powerful biotic (Liara T'Soni). Thus, even while Shepard moves to short range, you must also deal with long-range and medium-range threats of equally lethal danger. If you cannot nullify Vakarian and T'Soni while keeping out of range of Shepard, you are dead.

STG Agents should take note of the tiresome repeated warnings and ensure they do not enter into combat with Shepard. Odds of ten man STG cell surviving combat with Shepard, Vakarian and T'Soni are extremely low (1 in 244,302 to be exact. This is not a typo.)

Specific Tactical Methods, Ground Combat:

Long range: will snipe if a target is openly presented, or to take out support. Sniping is done via the human Marine method, sans spotter. Occasionally will use a drone as spotter. If no opportunities present themselves, may utilize large-scale assault biotics to clear cover of enemies. Otherwise, tends to engage in suppressive fire to close range. This suppressive fire is, given the range, very accurate.

Shepard's eyes are linked to some form of targeting systems - she can instantly pull out her sniper rifle, acquire, and fire upon a target - even while running at full speed. Do not assume her closing range means the danger of sniper fire is gone.

Medium range: will begin biotic attacks (flare, warp) augmented with heavy machinegun fire. This fire is EXTREMELY accurate and should not be confused with longer-range suppressive fire – once within 300 meters Shepard can kill most targets with a single burst. Shepard will usually mix in several grenades at this range (smoke and flash) to disrupt enemy targeting. She will either stand off and continue heavy weapons fire and biotic bombardment or, once an enemy force is wounded and cover is depleted, rapidly close range.

Shepard will open range back to long if engaged with anti-tank or other high-penetration weapons, and will not close until these have been destroyed.

Short range: upon reaching short range, will engage with shotgun to disorient, then begin biotic charges. Shepard is the only known living practitioner of a variation of the kanquess known as the 'dancing kanquess' which places more stress and less damage on the impact of the charge but reduces the period between charges to almost nothing. Landing a hit on Shepard at short to melee range is nearly impossible.

Shepard's primary kill-weapons at short to melee range is her shotgun and her warp sword. This sword (nicknamed the Cleaver) is made of Reaper hull material and is virtually indestructible. This weapon, when energized, can (and has) cut through upwards of a full five centimeters of Silaris grade armor. Shepard utilizes the formal blade-style of a Clan war priestess (information from Agent Solus suggests skills were implanted by Matriarch Trellani). Combined with her incredible reflexes and speed, melee combat is almost certain death except for trained war priestesses and perhaps Remembrance Dancers.

Warning Advisory: Shepard is usually cool and collected, but when under significant emotional stress has a noted tendency to degenerate into a near-lunatic killing machine. She has been known to refer to this as her 'Butcher' state. Psychological reports from the SA indicate it may be a secondary personality. While in this frame of mind, Shepard has demonstrated feats of near impossible ferocity and savagery. Twice this has been triggered by the perceived death of her bondmate, Liara T'Soni. While in this state she will not resort to any tactics but continual closing of range and extreme biotic melee assault.

While this sounds like a tactical option that could be used to draw Shepard into a trap, it is recommended to not attempt this. Her battle with Tetrimus on Illum should illustrate why it is a poor idea.

Unit Tactics:

Small unit tactics generally consist of flanking with fire support, heavy use of grenades and biotic throw, and a kanquess flanking motion much like asari commandos use. Shepard will NOT endanger the lives of her team and will retreat if they are severely injured. Most of her small unit tactics revolve around particular team members talents, with her acting either as a hammer or anvil.

Large unit tactics consist of pressure flanking, tiered response assaults (sniper/grenadier combinations, mostly, mixed with combat engineers) and secondary flanking by Shepard herself with a small unit of elites. Despite how crazy it sounds, the elite unit with Shepard is the PRIMARY threat, not the large force. Shepard practices asari tactics and will attempt to decapitate enemy leadership.

Literally, in most cases.

Space battle tactics can only be taken on a case-by-case basis, but Shepard prefers missile-maneuver and attritional damage to direct throw-downs. Clear asari tendencies can be seen in her use of high-speed flanking maneuvers and heavy use of ECM/ECCM. Shepard is a rated naval pilot and naval fighter pilot, but aside from simulations has never piloted a ship in combat situations except the Normandy SR1 very briefly.

Notable Allies:

Shepard, as a galactic hero, has many allies. Only two stand out for the purpose of the report, Liara T'Soni and the Illusive Man.

T'Soni is Shepard's bondmate and closest confidante. The two have a bond that most asari see as somewhat dangerous known as a soul-link or soulforge, which impresses some of the personality and reactions of one person into the other, and allows the partners to feel emotional states from as far away as two miles.

Liara T'Soni is a well known information broker (once her true identity in the aftermath of the Sisters of Vengeance Incident were made public) and scientist. Given the fallout of the events on Ilium and Cerberus activity since, there is a very high chance Liara (with Shepard's help) murdered and replaced the Shadow Broker. If our conjecture is correct, then combined the two of them are the most dangerous pair in galactic society. T'Soni's mental state after the Sisters of Vengeance incident is rated as very poor, and this is a potential weakness in Shepard.

The Illusive Man has been an ally of Shepard since resurrecting her, but according to Agent Solus the realtionship was for the bulk of the Collector Incident very tense. However, any previous distrust between the two was seemingly eradicated by the actions Harper took at the end of the Collector Incident,

She has been highly vocal in his defense and has repeatedly refused to cooperate with any official attempts at arresting him. Obviously as the leader of Cerberus the Illusive Man has massive resources, but his biggest use to Shepard is his information network and financial assets.

Between T'Soni and the Illusive Man, it is extremely unlikely any form of black operations against Shepard would have even the slightest chance of success.

Other notable allies include:

Urdnot Wrex, the leader of Tuchanka, who considers her a clan-sister after she helped save the life of his only son, avenged the son's death at the hands of Okeer, and risked her career and severe censure to aid in changing planned alterations to the CDEM in the wake of the Collector Incident.

David Anderson, adoptive father, Admiral of the Sixth Fleet, and his wife Kahlee Sanders-Anderson.

Jason von Grath, Lord High General of the Systems Alliance, and House von Grath in general.

Valerie Kyle and House Kyle and Tradius Ahern also support her, as does Commissar-General Alfred Jiong, Senator, former political officer.

Notable Enemies:

Reapers? Idiots?

Anyone who has ever made an enemy of Shepard is extremely dead. Agent Mordin Solus was disturbed by the literal unholy glee Shepard dispatched her enemies with in his travels with her. The only figure who can fall into this category is whoever is currently in charge of Hades, which our current information posits is Richard Williams, who somehow survived the destruction of the first Cerberus.

Keep in mind Shepard is responsible for the eradication of two races (rachni and Collectors) and has fought down some of the most dangerous and feared opponents - including the Broker himself, Tetrimus, Benezia, several Glorious batarians, and Doctor Okeer.

Physical Abilities:

Shepard is no longer baseline human in any way, shape or form.

Based on eye-witness accounts, video footage, and extrapolation of scans taken on the Citadel, Shepard is roughly capable of matching feats of raw strength on krogan-or-greater levels. She has been seen tearing metal with her bare hands, punching through combat armor, and if rumors are to believed, was able to engage several krogan in hand-to-hand combat and defeat them easily. Given that her upgraded skeleton and spine are designed to be able to work in tandem with both whatever the mass-effect devices in her bones are for and her myomer muscles, it's possible her strength approaches yahg-level.

Shepard's speed and reflexes are at least equal to that of a salarian. She has demonstrated the ability to perform acrobatic feats that would shame a drell, and to maintain a run-speed of above fifty kilometers an hour for sustained periods of time. She has survived falls of greater than fifty meters without biotic weight suppression, and when struck by an air-car in a chase on Ilium got up and walked away with only minor damage.

Shepard's myomer musculature is comprised of thin-filament regenerative fiber, which is resistant to small arms fire and immune to heat. On top of that are sheets of sub-dermal plating over most vulnerable areas. Shepard has been shown multiple times to be able to bounce small arms fire (all but the heaviest pistols, most submachine guns, most light rifles and shot-based shotguns beyond fifteen meters). Conventional impact damage, such as CQB or martial arts, even with biotic assistance, is unlikely to do anything but irritate her.

Shepard appears to be almost immune to poisons, both contact and absorbed, and highly resistant to ingested materials (poisonous or not).

Shepard remains a top-form biotic martial artist. She practices biotic-assisted judo, asari susano, and seems familiar with drell zerzatio as well. Other martial arts include human karate and krav maga, turian chaness, and asari tidal-touch.

Shepard has not demonstrated any skills with melee weaponry aside from the use of her warpsword and her arm-mounted omni-blades. She has a strong aversion to knives based on trauma from her time in gangs, but this does not appear to apply to the warp sword.

Shepard retains her preference for heavy machine guns and super-heavy shotguns. All of her weapons are designed personally by her. Shepard is a near-genius when it comes to weapon design – do not expect standard ammunition or capabilities. She has a fondness for armor-piercing super-heated polonium wedges as ammo. Be advised that even being wounded by such will inflict both radiation poisoning and heavy metal systemic shock, as well as third degree burns.

Her current armament appears to be comprised of a self-designed modification of the Cerberus Harrier repurposed into a squad-level machine gun, and the self-designed ODIN Mk II, a super-heavy fully automatic shotgun. Her sniper rifle is a self-designed modification of a geth sniper rifle to basically emulate a Thanix weapon. Shepard's pistol is a Mark 202 Sunfire B, namely, the pistol used by Saren for many years, upgraded to use modern thermal clips but with a fallback heat-dispersion mode.

Shepard wears silvery-white and blue modified SPECTRE MOD III assault armor. She is the only Spectre to wear white armor, this is a visual identification aid. The armor is maintained by Commander Tali'Moreau vas Normandy and Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams, and no details have been identified as of yet aside from several built-in weapons systems (plasma thrower, kinetic explosive darts, monomolecular blades and augmented omni-blades in the wrists and knees) and sensor packages.

Mental and Psychological Notes:

Shepard's IQ is measured at 125, well above average but hardly genius level. Her education was sadly limited in her youth, and her attempts to remedy this lack have been frenetic. Shepard is believed to have focused much of her learning on technical and military skills, although she took some general college classes on human psychology in the months following the Benezia Incident, and maintains a hobbyist fascination with Prothean archeology (likely a result of her bond with T'soni). Later studies show interests in cybernetic medicine, oncology research and, surprisingly, spiritualism and the Wheel Religion.

Shepard is a very quick thinker, but also very easily angered. When angered she can be goaded into making poor decisions and charging beyond the range of her support forces. While this may seem a good tactic, keep in mind that if done incorrectly it places the instigator in close range with an angry woman capable of punching holes in combat armor with her bare hands.

Shepard is neither trained nor qualified in xenopsychology, yet has a marked preference for asari tactics and even viewpoints on some events. How much of this is due to early training with asari commandos when mastering the kanquess and how much is due to repeated bonding with Liara T'Soni is unknown, but Shepard is more comfortable around asari than other humans or other aliens. Shepard was able to fool the entire galaxy into thinking she was an asari for months on end, and young asari have a tendency to idolize (or fantasize about) her.

Shepard has never demonstrated appropriate fear responses to personal danger. She has never retreated, and does not allow quarter once she has offered it and been refused. She is incorruptible, even before she became wealthy, and will view bribes as insults. She is vulnerable to being emotionally damaged by those closest to her, but is only truly enraged by depredation upon the weak and defenseless.

Despite her current duties and conditions, Shepard disdains politics, dislikes wealth, and prefers blunt, open speech and simple surroundings. That being said, she has learned a great deal about interacting with others and can project considerable levels of charm when she puts her mind to it, and has somewhat relaxed her desire for a spartan lifestyle.

Shepard demonstrates relaxed and calm reactions and personality traits when in the company of her adoptive family members. Conversely, Shepard is tense and combative or cold when approached away from those individuals.

She is considered attractive by humans, asari, drell, and some turians. Shepard's sexual tastes appear to run exclusively to asari, or at least females, possibly due to her early history of abuse. Shepard appears to have an aversion to openly displaying her body, wearing heavy armor, loose fatigues, or loose-fitting civilian clothing that covers the arms and legs at all times.

Purchase tracking indicates Liara T'Soni and Shepard have both purchased multiple electro-whips and medical treatment equipment in the past year. The significance of this, as well as additional electrowhip scars on her body, in the context of Shepard's alleged preference for violent sex cannot be anything but confirmatory.

Biotic Abilities:

Prior to death, Shepard was classed as either very high Class IV or low Class V biotic in terms of strength. She was roughly on the level of an asari commando, which for a human was astonishingly strong, but not beyond human baselines. She was capable of defeating two Glorious batarians (albeit nearly dying each time).

After her resurrection, Shepard currently rates as either a high Class VI or possibly low Class VII biotic, beyond the capabilities of most biotics to match. This is due to specialized blueware, dedicated VI softscripts, and most disturbingly, an additional sixteen eezo nodes laced throughout her body. How this was achieved is currently unknown, but theories point towards the growth happening while Shepard was 'dead'.

Shepard's biotic strength is enormous- she has performed feats of biotic power that even the High Solarch could not match, including throwing a thousand kilogram shipping crate through a battle mech, collapsing a starscraper on top of an enemy, and re-channelling the output of a plasma reactor.

Shepard has shown high proficiency with throws, pulls, flares, warp, shear, tether, nova, biotic charge, blade, and channel, as well as other skills typically known only to asari war priestesses or Justicars - these were probably the result of her alliance with Matriarch Trellani or the ardat-yakshi known as Mornth.

Shepard is very skilled at using biotics in CQB, but poor in using biotic-assisted jumps. Considering her own formidable physical prowess however, this is hardly a limitation.

Shepard has a built-in pulse stabilizer embedded in her body. Pulse inhibitors and dissipator devices will not work at full functionality.

Political and Social Notes:

Shepard was unable to vote or participate in politics until just before her death. Since her reunion with the SA, she has constantly voted with the Rights of All political party. The party is pro-alien but dislikes Council manipulations of galactic politics, and is somewhat anti-corporate. Shepard's own personal politics in terms of the Council are strange - she tends to support whatever Councilor Udina suggests, but will also support Councilor Sparatus a great deal of the time.

Shepard has spoken a number of times about her dislike of social conservatism, trade restrictions and alien bias, a curious standpoint for someone affiliated with Cerberus. Then again, Cerberus itself has not engaged in anything that could be called 'anti-alien' since she joined its ranks. Shepard has shown very strong tendencies towards asari culture, although she rejects siari out of hand, but tends to oppose their politics and is highly critical of the Thirty.

Shepard only very reluctantly participates in political events. She is a champion of quarian and krogan rights, is usually very much against batarian interests, and has shown marked distaste for hanar in the aftermath of her discovery of two living Protheans and certain revelations about the Collectors.

Shepard is very heavily favored by the SA Commissariat, and it is primarily due to this that charges against her were dropped. She has flirted several times with the idea of joining their ranks, although she dislikes their views on guilt. The fact that the Commissariat, which only typically recruits commissars from brainwashed orphans locked into service via chemical modification and cortex bombs, has stated repeatedly they would be honored if she joined should demonstrate just how inflexible this woman is when it comes to guilt.

She has fiercely maintained her personal privacy, with the population of Intai'sei being extremely hostile to media and the local government passing laws to restrict media access to the planet. Shepard views Intai'sei as her home and personal domain and reacts to any political threats to it's independence or commerce with overwhelming aggression.

Warnings:

The following advisories are considered mandatory reading.

Close Range and melee combat is strictly contraindicated. This was true even before she died. Now that she has a warp sword, it's worth repeating.

Assault on Liara T'Soni is strictly contraindicated. While bond-shock might immobilize Shepard for a few moments, the anger such an act would generate would literally be explosive. Everytime she has been hurt Shepard has gone into the 'Butcher' state (see Tactics). While normally this would make her vulnerable, in her current augmented state the increase in speed, aggression and lack of self-preservation makes it nearly impossible for the instigator to survive.

A better tactic is to focus fire on Liara without serious injury to force Shepard to retreat tactically.

Use of heavy weapons, including anti-tank or even GTS batteries is advised if neutralization is needed. Between her body armor, her sub-dermal armor, her biotic barrier field, and her rapid regeneration and healing capacities, conventional weapons are very nearly useless against Shepard. Only high-powered sniper rifles with a direct shot to the brain have a chance, and the entire skull is armored so that would require a shot through the eyesocket. The only weapons that are guaranteed kills are usually employed against tanks or spaceships.

Please keep in mind Shepard survived one of the most horrific deaths possible and was able to be revived by Cerberus. If Shepard must be engaged and taken out, destroy the body.