Mass Effect Love: Jack

by on April 4, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Chapter:

It happened to me too. I suppose you should consider this post Mass Effect 2 spoilery (from a certain point of view).

When I bought Mass Effect 3 I decided to load Mass Effect 2 to make sure my “main” save file was perfect. It was not. Jack was dead. Jacob was dead. Planets weren’t scanned. And Kelly Chambers. Oh my precious Kelly. She was not at her post. Fortunately I had an older save file before the final mission and figured out what I’d done.

Thanks to the internet and a dozen replays of the final mission, I saved Jack. We didn’t leave on speaking terms, but I saved her. And I saved Kelly.

I wrote this letter to Jack at the time that was meant to be a standalone post, but it seems more appropriate for this comic:

I wanted to say I’m sorry Jack.

When you fought with Miranda I took her side because I like her ass and her voice. You deserve better than that. My crew deserves better.

Ironically, my Renegade Shepard could calm you when you fought with Miranda. She knew the fight was coming. Good commanders can’t see the future though, they have to react, adapt, and accept their choices.

I’m not built like that. I can’t load my “main” save file, see you’re dead, and leave you that way. I grew up watching Sam Beckett quantumly leap through the past making right what was once wrong. And I saved you. I had to step into that quantum accelerator and watch you die over and over, but eventually I did save you.

Even after that I wanted your loyalty. I wanted in Mass Effect 3 to talk to you about Pragia. Maybe ask how you feel about that facility once you’ve lived in the world a little more. I wanted to talk to the woman you became, not the angry teen you are.

So I downloaded every DLC mission there was. At first because I wanted to see them, but then later to gain enough Paragon points so that in my main game I could get you to talk to me – to trust me. I had to use Electronic Arts’s online chat to get them to activate my Cerberus Network so I could get Zaeed and his loyalty mission. I used a Morality guide to make sure all my choices were Paragon ones. I bought that stupid Death Mask. I even bought the armour pack that had the +10 % negotiation. I went to every planet in every system hoping to find a mission that might give me enough paragon points to get through to you.

But I failed. If only I could have compromised my beliefs and rewritten the Geth instead of destroying them. I couldn’t do that Jack. I also grew up with Jean-Luc Picard. And he wouldn’t give Hugh that virus.

Maybe 30 points more would have done it. Maybe it would have been enough to talk to you. Maybe in either case we won’t talk about Pragia, or there won’t be a reference to it at all.

Anyway. There’s no more missions, no more planets, no more paragon points. I can’t even tell you I’m sorry. All I tell you to do is your job. But I want you to know I tried. I chose to kill the Geth, and to try to talk to you. That’s what a good commander does – make choices. Yea, make them, and live with them.

See you when I see you,
-Commander 2D.

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