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Never played another game in the Mass Effect series? Looking for a refresher before taking up the helm of the Normandy again? Our Primer will help you get up to speed.

Once Shepard returns back from the Omega 4 Relay he receives a call from Admiral Hackett, someone who has supported Shepard despite any of his questionable actions. He needs help rescuing Dr. Amanda Kenson, a deep cover operative who had come across evidence that a Reaper invasion was imminent, before being arrested in Batarian space.

Infiltrating the prison alone Shepard locates Kenson and breaks her out using a Batarian shuttle. On their way to Kenson’s base she explains that she came across a Reaper artifact called Object Rho. They learned from the device that the Reapers were rapidly approaching and that they could use a special relay in the system, called the Alpha Relay, to strike anywhere in the galaxy. To counter this, Kenson was constructing a massive engine on the asteroid to destroy the relay, but with the consequence of causing a supernova like explosion which would kill 300,000 Batarians in the system.

As they arrive at the base, Kenson explains that the project was ready to go right before she was captured and she would show Shepard all the proof needed to justify the event. Entering the lab Shepard is shocked to find the Object is unshielded and is suddenly subjected to an intense vision of the Reapers attacking which incapacitates him momentarily. While the Commander recovers Kenson draws a weapon, revealing that she and the entire base have been indoctrinated by the Object and no longer have any intention of using the asteroid to delay the invasion.

A nasty firefight erupts as Shepard attempts to ward off waves of enemies before eventually being taken down by the Object itself and waking up in a medical lab, learning that Kenson wants the Commander alive as an offering to the Reapers. Eventually Shepard breaks out, and realizes that there is no choice and triggers the asteroid to crash into the mass relay. 300,000 Batarians are killed, but the Reaper invasion is delayed once more.