Atax App

Your Name: Panda
OOC Journal: dontbepanic.livejournal.com
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: 25 Years old.
Email + IM: thisbeapanda@gmail.com + pandan0w
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None yet!

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Jane Shepard
Canon: Mass Effect Series
Original or Alternate Universe: Alternate Universe
Canon Point: Post-sucide Mission, Post-Shadow broker, Post-Overlord, Post-Arrival
Number: RNG

Setting: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Background
History: (Given that Shepard is a Bioware semi-generic Protagonist, there is very little to go on in history before the canonical games. To give her a a more reasonable character, I have written out her early history, most of which is based upon small facts that are known to be canonical. Just a fair warning)

Jane Shepard was born and raised amongst the Alliance navy to two loving career parents. Her childhood was pretty strict given her living in military space stations and ships, stifled with discipline and protocol but it's still filled with fond memories of a fairly normal childhood. As she grew up, she befriended and fell in love with the son of one of her father's subordinates. Though, when she turned 18 and decided to enlist, the boy decided to stay a civilian and it was only weeks before they both agreed the distance wasn't going to work.

At basic, she was a pretty decent soldier, though showed no expansive skill in engineering beyond a few minor hobbies and wasn't 'blessed' with biotics. Still, she showed charisma and a excellent tactical and strategic head on her shoulders, quickly gaining her the assignment of squad leader in her cadet platoon. It was also during this time she fell pretty hard in love with a female cadet. They hit it off pretty well and were quite the couple. As Basic ended and AIT began though, Shepard's girlfriend showed her true colors as someone quite offensive in every regard and their relationship quickly fell apart. Shepard stayed in training and earned the place of ensign, but Shepard's decision to stop pursuing any romance and focus more on her career which helped her qualify for N7 Special training.

So began her career with the Alliance, filled with untold adventures and occasional boring paper work or garrisons in the middle of nowhere. She worked her way up the ranks, being known to complete everything down to the letter of the order and then some. This didn't hold more true and greatly dig into Shepard's own soul than the assault on Torfan. Having already seen the Batarian's work in other missions, Shepard made a judgement call through the haze of the chaos that was around her and order not to let any Batarians make it out alive. Those under her supported her decision and a lot that happened that day Shepard doesn't even remember nor probably doesn't want to remember. The only memories she could recall was the dark, mucky hatred she felt for the Batarian's at the time and the amount of bodies that littered the fortress' hallways of both alien and friendly faces she'd come to know. Ever since then, she's regretted the decision and hoped it would just stay quiet under the other military actions. Unfortunately, it didn't.

The Massacre had still happened and the Military brass were in conflict at whether to praise her for her outstanding victory or condemn her for such atrocious and bloody decision. Even Civilians and the press came to hear about Torfan and the word 'Ruthless' was almost table-term when discussing about Shepard. Her father, who was now captain, would never look at her daughter the same, but Shepard's mother knew what battles could bring out of people and didn't think any less of her only child. Whether good or bad, The Massacre at Torfan was the founding stone that would boost Shepard's career and with the help of her parents' old friend Captain Anderson, Managed to earn the title of Commander and be XO to the newly built and experimental ship, Normandy SR-1 five years later.

Unfortunately for Shepard, an alien race known as the Geth decided to ruin Normandy's maiden voyage. The Geth were worshipers to a long thought dead alien race of mechanical super beings known as Reapers and with the help of a galactic traitor named Saren, The Geth were determined to re-awaken the Reapers from their slumber. Choosing Shepard as the new agent to bring stability and justice to the galaxy, the Galactic council gives Shepard the title of Spectre and orders her to put a stop to Saren. It takes nearly a year to accomplish, but with the help of a recruits she managed to pick up from throughout the galaxy, Commander Shepard saved the galaxy and the current galactic government body from an apocalypse. Of course, this came at the cost of massive casualties for the humans in order to defend against Saren's plan.

As a reward for Shepard's efforts to save the galaxy, the council gave her new orders to seek the remaining Geth, an order that was nothing more than to scoot her under the carpet and away from threatening their political power. It was long, boring work, but once again Shepard's life was intervened by fate.

A mysterious ship, later known to be controlled by a alien race known as Collectors, decides to Ambush the Normandy and virtually destroy it. It's only the efforts of training and Shepard's quick thinking that helped save most of the crew, but at the cost of Shepard's own life.

A Human extremist group known as Cerberus manage to acquire Shepard's remains and spend the next two years conducting an experimental procedure in an attempt to reconstruct and resurrect Shepard, which turns into a success. Finding herself in a complex full of enemies, Shepard coerced by her 'saviors' into helping them deal with the more recent appearances of Collectors that have been attacking human colonies. It doesn't take long to discover that the Collectors were also helping the return of the Reapers and with both new and old allies and a new ship, Shepard manages to defeat the Reapers' minions once more. While there were still a plethora of advanced technology for Cerberus to study, Shepard instead choose to destroy the Collector base, breaking her tie from Cerberus entirely.

It now has been four months since that event and Shepard's life has never been dull for a second. After putting a stop to a Cereberus VI experiment gone wrong, helping her lover Liara find the mysertious Shadow Broker and replacing him.

More recently Shepard received secret orders from Admiral Hackett for a Black Op commando raid and rescue of a deep cover operative inside of Batarian Space who had supposedly found evidence of an imminent Reaper Invasion. While slightly uncomfortable with the idea of entering Batarian Space once more, much less alone, Shepard agreed to the orders and proceeded to Bahak System. The details of the mission is length, but to summarize the situation, Shepard proceeded to the Batarian base in which the operative had been captured and freed her. The Operative, by the name of Dr. Amanda Kenson, and explained to Shepard that her covert group had uncovered an ancient Reaper device that had told them of the imminent approach of the Reapers. With that discovery made, Dr. Kenson's team had come up with a plan of throwing a planetoid-size Asteroid at Bahak's Mass Relay to hopefully delay the Reapers for at least another year and even more hopefully manage to destroy a few in the subsequent explosion. Unsure whether to believe the Doctor or not, Shepard asked Kenson to see the Reaper device, which Kenson happily obiliged.

Once they reached the Arcturus Station and Shepard was shown the Reaper Device, The Device immediately showed the proof that Shepard had wanted to see, but the Commander just as soon realized that the entire populace of the station had been indoctrinated. She tried to fight her way out, was quickly subdued and given a sedative. When she re-awoke, Shepard saw the timer for the arrival of the Reapers had went from 1 and a half days to little less than 2 hours. With nothing but her courage and determination, Shepard broke herself out of confinement and managed to reach the controls for the Mass drivers to which to launch the asteroid. It was a hard decision, especially when hundred of thousands of innocent Batarians still living in the system. Regardless, the decision had to be made and Shepard tried to warn the Batarians, but was cut off by the indoctrinated Kenson, who was now actively trying to put a stop to the Asteroid. Shepard tracked down Kenson and stopped her and it was only seconds to spare for Shepard to successfully escape from the asteroid and out of the system before the explosion of the Mass Relay's destruction would destroy the Bahak System.

With all of that done, Shepard gave her report to Hackett and despite both telling herself that she had done the right thing and the understanding of the admiral, the mission had left a lingering chill to her. Much worse, it made her wonder just how much more she had to sacrifice in order to stop the Reaper Invasion.


Personality: Personality wise, Shepard is an idealist who's both honor and duty-bound, but her military upbringing has made her practical and willing to admit toward realistic solutions. Anyone outside of her crew while on duty tends to get a slight cold shoulder, but she treats her crew as if they were family. Her orders are stern when they need to be, but the more Shepard comes to know you, the more laid back she would be as far as her military duty and rank permits. She tries to know anyone in her squad as best as she could and tends to share a sort of intimacy known only between close relatives and significant others. She's a pack leader and wants to trust those within her squad to watch her back as much as she would watch theirs. Being tasked toward things on her own lends toward a bit uncomfortably for her, but N7 training and the experience of several theatres of war has enabled her to manage through without any penalty.

Off duty, Shepard is a pretty awesome woman. She's very casual to her friends and isn't above talking with complete strangers. She isn't exactly intelligent for any of the more complex sciences and things like 'Oscillators' or 'Radioactive thirum deposits' kind of goes over her head. When she was younger, she was a bit of a party-goer but now that she's into her 30's and middle age is drawing near, that party attitude has slowly been thinning out. Romance and relationship wise..well, There has always been a certain Kirkish charm that seems to draw both men and women towards her. Whether its the incredible confidence she shows in the darkest hour, the gallantry she shows that few gentlemen actually give, or the nice seasoning of femininity to an otherwise militant personage. While the commander won't chase everyone she can see, its doubtful she'd refuse any...offers given to her depending the person and situation. When she does find herself infatuated with someone, she tends to run her flirts a little thick and horribly corny which surprisingly work more than they ruin the moment. Close friends would quickly come to know the infamy in the number of flings she tends to have. This is especially true now that she's kind of gotten over her small prejudice with aliens. (at least Asari) Liara has been the only crew-mate she ever really got involved with, but that had been bit of an off-and-on affair, until recently.

Overall, Shepard believes she needs to do the duties that people expect of her and because of this, the pressure has kind of been rising over the years. First it was about being a commander, then Spectre and just after defeating Saren It was being a hero. She tries her best to do the right thing and save as many people as she can, even if it means putting herself or her crew at risk. She's even had to play a few grim numbers games in the last five years than she'd rather not have been forced to play at all. The guilt of these decisions still haunts her though has not really shown it or told anyone, especially recently after Bahak. It's also because of this, the massacre at Torfan, and the Mass Relay destruction at Bahak, she tends to get a bit temperamental when people remain blind to the deadly situations at hand or willing risk their subordinates lives with little care about them. Her sharp tongue and slightly short temper does carry over to other things, but she manages to restrain it when it needs to be.

Abilities:

Genetic Modification: Unlike a fair other sizable amount of the human population in her own universe, Shepard has no gifts or talents that would make her a Biotic due to far little exposure to Element Zero. However, thanks to scientific discoveries in regards to genetics, Jane Shepard was born to certain unseen modifications. While normal for humans in her universe, compared to 21st century humans, Shepard has 10% better in all around physical and mental performance with an extra 5% in strength, endurance, reflexes and Hand-eye coordination. This doesn't give her too much of an advantage compared to other aliens' or species more natural traits or innate skill, but would be a noticeable difference on more basic 20th century humans.

N7 Training: Since she could remember, Jane Shepard has always wanted to be and trained for being a Alliance soldier. Because of that, and her privilege in being recruited in the Special Forces N7 Program, Jane has been given skills that would match any normal military force to that of a Special Forces Marine with the full intention of being a match for any other alien force out there. This would include all weapons specialization, Military hardware knowledge for the last 100 years, Demolitions, various Close Combat, Marksmanship, Foraging, Piloting both ground, atmospheric and space crafts and other Survival training just to name a few. In addition, because of her futuristic world, Zero-G combat and atmospheric combat should probably also be added. These skills have only improved over the 13 years of service with the Alliance Military. In the last two years and eight months prior to her arrival to this setting, Shepard has been taught more broad diplomatic skills and leadership skills that comes with being a Captain of a warship and a Spectre.

Innate tactical talent: While many in the N7 Program have various overt abilities such as biotic implants and technical ingenuity, Shepard's own contribution the program was her incredible knack for tactical and strategic perception of the battlefield and being able to act on it accordingly. There is few in the galaxy who can percieve a fight before them and are able to figure out ways to get the most out of the situation as effectiently as she can. It's a talent that has helped her numerous times in her long military career, her out-of-the-box thinking has saved her skin and the her teammates and even completed objectives that were normally seen as impossible.

Cybernetics: Due to her temporary death and the needs to improve survivability in combat, Shepard has been given small cybernetic implants that show very little if any overt identification of such modifications. This includes a few synthetic organs and various Muscle/bone/Skin weaves that render her just a little more resillient on the battlefield. It's not much, but every little thing counts.

Weaknesses and Power Limitations:

Still Human...Mostly: Despite the various genetic and cybernetic modifications done to her, she is still only human and suffers the same weakness as any other normal human suffer. Physical injury or removing much needed physical requirements, while a little more difficult, is still achievable by conventional means and too much physical harm will result in Shepard's demise.
Not on good terms with Metal Detectors: While she may look flesh and blood, the various micro-technology from both the Lazarus Project and the several minor combat modifications have made it almost impossible for her to NOT set off a metal detector. It gets a little annoying sometimes.
Limited resources: Shepard is certainly a skilled combatant and can be resourceful when she needs to be, however even she has limits. The various weapons she has acquired in her inventory from the start of this game require a portable cooling units known as 'Thermal clips' to maintain fire without overheating. With only five heat clips for her assortment of weapons alone, it will leave her very hesitant on expending them meaninglessly. She can build more, (They're not that terrible complicated) but that requires time and resources.
Limited technical knowledge: Her scope of technology is limited. While she was trained in basic hacking and enigneering skills, she's far from an expert. She can operate most computers of various tech levels with some effeciency, though more anachronistic the device is, the harder it will be for her to operate it.
The Bane of Vehicle Insurance: Not necessarily a weakness or limitation, but it's a known quirk that vehicles are pushed to their very limit when driven by Shepard for any lengthy time. It's not that she's a terribly bad driver/pilot, but her profession in addition to her creative thinking tends to leave the vehicles she pilot in rather...less than a desirable state.
Inventory:
+Modified N7 Armor (Equipped with a Kuwashii Visor, Shield Harness Torso, Asymmetric Defense Layer shoulder pads, Off-Hand Ammo Pack armbands, and normal N7 Greaves. Basically it's a little more sturdy and protective to the user with an additional area for extra ammo.)
+An Omni-tool
+ M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle
+ An 'old' HMWSG Master Shotgun X modified to shoot High Explosive rounds, The only weapon in Shepard's arsenal that doesn't rely on Thermal clips, but does have a severe cooling time.
+M-3 Predator Heavy Pistol
+ M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle
+ Dog tags
+ A Picture of Liara
+ 5 Thermal clips
All of the weapons are specifically designed to be compacted and everything should fit in just right.
Appearance: Being from the future, with both the military upbringing and mild genetic manipulation, Shepard has been given the fit build of an amazon. She kept herself as fit as she could be, standing at a good 6', with toned limbs and flat stomach. Keeping that level of fitness has been kind of easy given how...hectic her life has been as of late. Her hair is kept at regulation length, just leveled to touch her shoulder but not long enough to get in the way while in tense situations. She's pretty attractive, with a round face, high cheek bones, straight nose, solid jaw, and sharp green eyes. Standard cosmetic genetic modifications made any worries about blemishes non-existent. She would probably be even more of a looker if the life of a Alliance Marine hadn't given her more than a few scars. The more noticeable ones are the 'splintering' web of a scars that was given to her as a byproduct when she was resurrected. The more prominent of the scars runs from the middle of her left cheek and zig-zag toward out across her face. The scar has mostly been healed and can only be seen if you really bothered to look close enough.

Shepard has never really let the more typical feminine stereotypes to fit her, wearing very little make-up if at all. She also isn't one of serious fashionable tastes, choosing to wear more plain colored and comfortable clothes than anything fashionable or popular. When not in uniform, you could usually see Shepard in a brown tanktop and jeans.

Age: 30 (Technically 32, but was dead for 2 of those years.)

AU Clarification: Like many Bioware Protagonists, Commander Shepard has no set canonical history. Players are given the options in which Shepard's life could be taken and will drastically effect how NPCs percieve you. This Shepard's gender not withstanding, the following things are also part of AU clarification.
Pre-service history: Spacer
Psychological profile: Ruthless
Class: Soldier
Morality: Paragon

>>Recruited all six ME1 squad members
>>Released the rachni queen
>>Wrex survived Virmire
>>Kaiden died on Virmire
>>Starts to Romance Liara
>>Saved the Council, sacrficed the Alliance Fleet

>>Recruited all twelve ME2 squad members and secured their loyalty
>>Destroyed the Collector base
>>Frees David from Project Overlord
>>Helped Liara kill the Shadow Broker and take his place
>>Soldified her Romance with Liara
SAMPLES
Log Sample:
(Set in the IJAG Game setting.)This was just unreal, almost ridiculous in fact. It was one thing to fall asleep and somehow end up in an unfamiliar space station. It was quite another to find the station to contain pastel-colored ponies that talked and living Muppets. It kind of felt too much like a bad speculative fiction story or that someone spiked her drink the night before...or that she had a stroke. She really didn't want to believe the last one. Still, alternate universes or not, it removed her from her normal duties.

At least, that was the plan in the long run. For now Jane wanted to just get to know her new neighbors as much she could. This wasn't like the Normandy where the crew was barely pushing on 50 and had a proper capacity to match it. No, this station, if it could even be defined as one, went well beyond the size of the Citadel and probably just barely over what even Frigates crewed. To be honest, it was a little unsettling. Not that she was much into the belief in such things, but the constant emptiness and the almost complete automation gave the whole place an eerie ghost town feeling. Knowing her luck though, she was bound to be asked by some random passerby in helping them with some situation at the moment.

"You got it all wrong!" Roared a man at his female companion, the obvious intensity of his yelling and the fact that anyone could see veins on his forehead throb made it quite clear he was angry. "You know better than to trust those kinds of people!"

"I know what I'm doing, Michael!" the woman cried back, looking just as much upset as guy was angry. "Just because you're my brother doesn't mean you make me talk to only certain people! They aren't as bad as you think they are!"

It was then that the woman's eyes caught Shepard as the Spectre started to pass by and leaned forward to cut Jane off. "Ma'am! I'm sorry to keep you away from whatever you're doing, but could you please explain to my brother that I have my own life and can make my own decisions!"

"See, this is just what I'm getting at!" The scowl on the man's face only grew deeper and its focus now split between his apparent sister and Shepard. "You're always trying to cover your own wrong decisions by talking complete strangers to mob me into backing down! That isn't going to happen today!!"

The urge to face palm at that moment was almost unbearable for Shepard, but instead she raised her hands up in surrender and gave the two troubled people a nervous smile "Easy there, I'm not the one to side with anyone unless I get both sides of the story. I'll be glad to help."

Comms Sample: [There's a momentary pause, as if she isn't too sure what to even type for this. Still, she has to try something. It's not like she has any better ideas right now anyway.]

This is Commander Jane Shepard of the Systems Alliance Navy and if someone can tell me how in the hell I got from sleeping in my quarters to being stuck in one of those pods, I'd appreciate.

I'll even say 'please' if it got answers faster.

Note: I will be sending the mods an email in relation to this.