Category: Missions

Comrades in arms. Friends. Kandros here.

 

Our time in Heleus has been intense, filled with conflict both internal and external, expected and unexpected.

 

First let me say: when I joined the Initiative and left for Andromeda, I never intended to lead a military life. However, the life I’ve created here in Heleus—this life as director of the militia—is more challenging and rewarding than anything I had imagined. And it’s because of all of you and your commitment and expertise. I’m lucky to lead such skilled soldiers. Sure, you’re a rag-tag militia called into duty when you’d rather be settling Andromeda—but no commander of a dedicated army could ask for better.

 

Now, the mission: the kett. Those assholes. I’m sorry I have to send you out to take on those soulless, ugly, bone-faced, motherless, ignorant bastards once more. In all my career, I’ve never encountered an enemy more despicable than the kett and their genocide disguised as reproduction.

 

Firebase Aqua—recently recaptured from the Roekaar—has been taken by the kett. Hideous grey cowards. Walking filth. We need you to get in there and do as much damage as you can—reduce their numbers, sabotage, mess their shit up.

 

You can do it. Have fun. Show those stupid, pompous bastards what good ol’ evolution can do. Show them that integrity and decency is powerful and that it can kick ass.

 

It’s an honor to serve with you. Kandros out.

URGENT: Highly sensitive and timely information.

 

Forwarded to Nexus Command by Angaran Resistance:

Resistance Intelligence Intercept

Parties: Between Unknown Combatant at Firebase Aqua and Roekaar Command on Voeld

Begin translation:

[UNKNOWN ROEKAAR] Commander, we’re under imminent attack but our hackers have discovered exciting, unexpected intel.

[COMMANDER OJAEG]  Go ahead. This channel is secure.

[UNKNOWN ROEKAAR] We’ve discovered a systemic weakness in the Milky Way enemy’s shield tech that our scientists can exploit.

[COMMANDER OJAEG] Incredible news. We can bring our enemies down, all at once. Transmit the intel to the outpost on Voeld. Once we figured out exactly how we want to deliver our ‘code bomb’, we can send instructions out to all of our bases.

[UNKNOWN ROEKAAR] Beginning transmission now.

[COMMANDER OJAEG] You’ve just saved the lives of many of your Roekaar brothers and sisters. Such heroics won’t go unrewarded.

Transmission ended

 

Commander Kandros, Evfra has asked me to pass the above correspondence to you at once. He urges you that this intel can’t be allowed to be disseminated from that base on Voeld. It would be disastrous, deadly, to both the Initiative and Resistance causes.

Good Luck to you and your troops.

APEX, Kandros here. We’re tracking a development at an angara facility codename Firebase Aqua that’s been taken by a Roekaar cell. We need to get in there and take it back. Evfra de Tershav, leader of the Angaran Resistance, has asked to address you directly.

 

Soldiers, this is Evfra de Tershav – Let’s talk about the Roekaar.

The Roekaar are angara, but I assure you they are our mutual enemy. They must be confronted and eliminated. I hate the Roekaar, and I want to tell you why:

Among my mothers, I had a favorite (most angara do but won’t admit it). I loved my mother Joevett because she was unshakeable and passionate in her beliefs, but she showed more kindness and empathy than anyone I knew. She taught me that empathy was not weakness, but strength.

She was also our family’s storyteller. She loved to recount the forgotten stories of Voeld before the Scourge: its massive cities, its technology, its life. Once, she built an instrument from a description in an ancient poem—it looked wrong and played no music. One day, she brought all the siblings and cousins to a mountain so we could throw it over the edge and blast it with shotguns. Laughter was important then.

Not long after, the kett took my family. “Scooped them up”, as we say. My mother Joevett wasn’t there that day, so she wasn’t taken—but she was changed forever. You see, the Roekaar prey on survivors like her. A cell recruited her to fight the kett—then the “Milky Way intruders”, and finally… her own people.

I came face-to-face with her on the battlefield recently. Resistance vs. Roekaar. My favorite mother looked at me with the kindness and empathy that I remembered… then she shot me. I don’t know what happened to her after that, but at that moment I vowed to fight the Roekaar until Heleus is rid of their hatred and lies. The kind of evil that makes a mother shoot her own son.

The kett took my family, but the Roekaar took my heart. We must end them.

Evfra out.

The story of Andromeda continues in the unique multiplayer APEX Missions. Take on the Archon in weekly, limited-time missions and earn valuable Mission Funds to spend on powerful equipment and items. Team up with your friends or send out APEX strike teams and further the Mass Effect Andromeda story.

From Friday, June 2 through Sunday, June 4, celebrate EA Play to Give in Mass Effect: Andromeda!

All players who log into Mass Effect: Andromeda Multiplayer will receive a Bonus Reward Pack by the Andromeda Initiative. There are few challenges the multi-species members of the APEX Elite militia haven’t faced, as no fight is the same. Use your reward to boost your Multiplayer character, team up with your friends, and jump into the fight to defend our new home in Andromeda!

Remnant Tracer Program Report – SAM Node (Autogenerated Text Entry)

After a successful upload into Remnant systems by APEX personnel, Dr. Aridana’s tracer program was downloaded by kett forces attempting to reclaim Remnant technology in that area.

In addition to providing useful data into how kett study Remnant technology, the tracer gave insights into multiple unknown Remnant devices, glyphs, and data patterns hooked to kett monitoring devices. This enabled us to shut down the Archon’s most significant Remnant device, before the tracer program was detected and neutralized.

The Remnant artifacts infiltrated by the tracer, however, are of particular interest. According to the kett studies monitored, these artifacts are actually components removed from some kind of Remnant observatory. Evidence suggests it is still active and accessible from a hidden gravity well in the caves previously explored.

I strongly recommend sending APEX to investigate this Remnant observatory and hack its systems for more complete data. Though reclaiming it from any active Remnant will be dangerous, the communications cached in these Remnant artifacts suggest that the observatory is receiving signals that have gone undetected by Initiative observers. From my initial transcriptions, they deserve immediate investigation.

 

[DATA: Raw signal transmission received by Remnant observatory. My analysis accounts for attempted auto-translation by Remnant systems and data fragmentation.

ANALYSIS: “…trying to boost the signal. Unknown if… tech seems to be helping even if we don’t know the… back to Keelah Si’yah. …way home.”]

Interdepartmental Communications Log – Nexus Tech Labs

[Tech Lab VI] Remnant Artifacts #43-#51 Added to Work Queue

[Prof. Herik] More Remnant artifacts, delivered for study! I’ve left them on your workbenches.

[Chief Lucan] C’mon, Herik, at least Ryder’s team wipes their finds down first. Now there’s silica dust all over.

[Tech Lab VI] Janitorial Notification: Sent to Superintendent Kesh

[Dr. Aridana] Chief, may I take Artifact #47? I would like to run some tests.

[Chief Lucan] Reassigning to you. Got something cooking?

[Dr. Aridana] Perhaps. APEX’s last operation disrupted the Archon’s attempts to reactivate a Remnant device, and allowed their intelligence division to intercept the base’s transmissions. Many of them discuss the kett’s attempts to datamine the device and understand Remnant code.

[Dr. Aridana] Why does the Archon have such an interest in particular Remnant locations and artifacts? I believe that, with a touch of subterfuge, we could use the Archon’s own insatiable curiosity to find out.

[Prof. Herik] Oh?

[Dr. Aridana] I plan to write a tracer program that uses Remnant code as a disguise. If uploaded at just the right location, one where the kett have been active—

[Prof. Herik] —the kett might download it in their Remnant investigations, and be none the wiser! Like a corivel mistaking a coral-banded traxus for a balkus grub, and taking it back to its nest! Ha!

[Chief Lucan] …right. ‘Course.

[Tech Lab VI] Database Information Request: Coral-Banded Traxus / Balkus Grub

[Dr. Aridana] With the tracer hidden in kett systems, we could have insight into the Archon’s schemes. But it must be uploaded at a Remnant site the kett are still investigating. That is no easy task.

[Chief Lucan] Didn’t APEX find a Remnant structure the Archon was interested in?

[Dr. Aridana] If they would be willing to set foot in there again, and if they can upload the tracer… this could unravel whatever web the Archon is weaving.

[Tech Lab VI] APEX Operation Proposal: Sent to Tiran Kandros

>> ENCRYPTED COMMUNICATION RECEIVED

>> CONFIRM APEX TEAM ID – ***.****.***

>> AUTHORIZATION CONFIRMED

>> RUNNING DECRYPTION…

Kandros here. Excuse all the cloak-and-dagger; Intelligence is taking point on this one. Our analysts have been decrypting the data recovered from those Remnant caves, and we’ve finally got our next lead.

The kett Archon is obsessed with Remnant technology. We know he’s onto something big—a Remnant device with a unique energy source. From these readings, the Archon’s close to reactivating it. And whatever that device was meant to do, our scientists here at the Nexus are saying its potential destruction is in the megaton range.

I want that device out of the Archon’s hands, and his plans stopped cold. But Intelligence asked me to keep this one under the radar to protect other ops. So we go dark.

Your objective is the kett facility where they’re trying to activate this Remnant device. You’ll be dropped in while the weather conditions have their sensors confused to eliminate the kett presence there quickly and quietly.

To make sure everything runs smoothly, you’ll be working alongside a new asset: a turian agent from Intelligence. He’s former corporate security, an expert in reconnaissance and information gathering, but he can hold his own in the field. His recon expertise and tactical cloak will have him playing hide and seek with the enemy. Do this right, you’ll take the kett down before they know what hit them, stop their plan for that device, and leave their Archon ranting at shadows.

Good luck, APEX.

>> DELETING MESSAGE…

APEX. Scout team just checked in. We need you on the ground ASAP.

The Sandstorm raid was a hell of a success. One of the outlaws we took down gave up a cave chock-full of Remnant. Intel says they were salvaging bots and scrap in the cave when the kett descended. A lot of them. By the time our team arrived, it was already a mess: kett fighting Remnant on top of heaps of dead outlaws.

Our scouts managed to draw the kett clear of the cave. While they hold them off, we need you inside to see what’s so damned important. Kett studying Remnant isn’t news, but all the data we’ve collected says the Archon’s onto something big. We think whatever’s in this cave is key. You’ll just have to cut down a lot of bots to get to it.

In close quarters especially, it’s easy to get pinned down. Stay together and watch each other’s backs in there. Flanking a wave will keep any laser eyes from ganging up. When it comes time to extract, don’t head for the point right away. It’ll just give the Remnant a chance to box you in until you’re good as dead.

Good luck down there.

Kandros

To: Kelly Lanz

From: Unknown

 

I hope this reaches you through whatever comm filters the Nexus has going…

 

We haven’t really spoken since the uprising. Can’t say I blame you for not joining us in exile. Hell, I hear you’re APEX now. That’s crazy.

 

When Sloane’s faithful dug into Kadara, I joined up with a bunch of ambitious types who wanted to go digging for tech instead. “Scavs,” most people call us. “Outlaws” in the obituary, please.

 

There’s power out there, Kel. Weird Remnant tech we can’t crack. Mostly we sell it by weight or just make up stories about what it does. There’s a sucker in every galaxy.

 

A few people are starting to get more creative. Really taking the stuff apart. Tinkering. They solder pieces together to make garbage. One guy tried to use the heat from the lasers to build a toaster. He’s dead now.

 

But that’s not why I’ve risked reaching out to you. Thing is, the more we salvage, the more the kett seem to come knocking.

 

The other day, we found an especially shiny haul in a cave that went on forever. Wasn’t too far in before we had to put down nine, maybe ten bots. They took a couple of us with them to robot heaven. But we dragged a fortune of tech out of there. And I’m pretty sure that was just the lobby.

 

Ever since then, the kett have put the pressure on us hard.

 

I’m starting to think we shouldn’t be messing with this stuff. Like, maybe we’ve found something important. I told the others we should stop. Keep to what we know. They won’t listen… and I’m not gonna stick around to find out what the kett want with this tech… or with us.

 

My gang’s last known coordinates are attached. The Remnant stuff they’re sitting on needs to be in Initiative hands, not ours. By the time your team touches down, I’ll be long gone. Kadara. I’m not proud.

 

A warning, though: when my gang sees APEX, they’re gonna put up a heck of a fight.

 

Tell ‘em I say hi.

Good morning, APEX. Kandros again.

A lot has happened since our last briefing. APEX welcomed a krogan biotic into its motley ranks—and with her help, we took down a behemoth. I thought exaltation was scary before I learned it could happen to a krogan.

Now we turn our attention to the Remnant: the Heleus Cluster’s automated security system. These bots aren’t always hostile, but when they are, watch out. Observer lasers leave a mark.

Few on the Nexus know this better than our newest APEX operative: a salarian, trained by the STG, who’s been taking apart Remnant since some of you were still in cryo. The guy really seems to know his stuff. He actually reprogrammed an Observer to fight alongside us. He calls it GLK—or “Glick” out loud.

Don’t ask me what the name means.

We’re still working hard to answer some key questions about the Remnant. We know the kett are asking a lot of these same questions. They might even have some answers we haven’t found yet. It doesn’t help that exiles are harvesting parts to sell and build tech.

We need you to infiltrate Remnant sites with our new friends. See what you can find. Remnant hate so much as a glare in their direction, so walking right into their house isn’t going to be easy.

Arm yourself, shoot what you have to, but try to take some notes. Nexus brass would rather not fight everything in Andromeda if they can help it.

Kandros out.