The Captain's Quarters

The Normandy

The SSV Normandy and her crew are infamous throughout the Milky Way, to the good and the ugly. A prototype frigate originally commissioned in 2183, the Normandy was co-developed by the Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy, with the backing of the Citadel Council. Dubbed a 'deep scout' unit, the Normandy utilizes state-of-the-art stealth technology powered by a new, innovative drive core. The list of tactical perks is long and bulky enough to make any captain proud. But it's not the advanced tech or the accolades that makes the Normandy priceless to her crew.David Anderson presented Shepard with the ownership of this dream vessel, what was meant to be his retirement, when the Council decided that the claims against Saren were null. With so much at stake at the time, it felt only right to Anderson that the promising young woman be given the best edge he could afford to make sure she won. And, if he was honest, Shepard was like a daughter to him, something Vala reciprocated, though neither of them had ever asked the questions aloud. He'd taken an interest in her welfare when her test scores initially came in; much higher than most trainees. He volunteered to be her mentor after Vala officially joined the Alliance, and after many long years, when he asked for Shepard to join his crew aboard the Normandy, he received a resounding yes. It was years later, when the pair were at a bar on Earth, that Shepard drunkenly revealed it had been Anderson who'd made her sign up in the first place."I just saw that, that poster and... somethin' about the, the thing you do, y'know," Vala had slurred, pulling her shoulders back and putting on her work face for a moment, before relaxing and raising her glass. "I...I couldn't ignore it, or you. N'now, here we are. A toast to you, Anderson, for savin' my ass."Shepard runs the Normandy with pride, joy, and integrity. This vessel and its captain have witnessed life and death, the breaking and tempering of faith and its many intricacies, the rise and fall of families, empires, entire planets and systems. The sorrows and helpless anger of lost battles and comrades, tangling with the awe and mystery that lies between the stars, inspires a certain kind of person to be more courageous, compassionate, to seek out the impossible. It is those people that work aboard the SSV Normandy, and it is those people that follow the Commander to the end's of the universe.

Garrus Shepard-Vakarian

Loyal and in love. That’s what Garrus says when someone asks how he and Vala are.It takes a special kind of courage to leave behind the stability of a job, security, and home, to adventure across the stars, and more so when that adventure goes against your allies and laws in pursuit of hidden enemies. But for Garrus, it was an easy decision to join Shepard’s crew. His first year aboard the Normandy gifted him hard-earned wisdom and insight, honing his desire for justice — no matter the cost — to something more calculated and constructive. He idolized the Commander, taking cues from her actions and decisions and making them his own, analyzing her movements when out on missions. And it didn’t hurt that his snarky humour and charm made him a fixture with the rest of the crew, earning him the recognition and respect as ‘one of the Commander’s aliens’.Shepard’s death hit Garrus hard. The loss of the Commander, so violently and by an unknown enemy that anyone refused to acknowledge, drove him inward deeply. Anger and grief was all Garrus knew for a long time: angry that he couldn’t save her, angry that he’d never accepted he was, in fact, in love with Vala, that she was gone and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't return to the Citadel, not for anything. Omega was as good a place as any to shoot someone, so to Omega he went, burying himself in the underworld with a terrible wish that he'd die there. At least he'd be able to see Shepard again.It was those thoughts in his mind as Garrus hunkered down in his last stand against the mercs, quickly discarded when he saw Shepard’s armour in the crowd below, then her guns, then her face. He'd nearly convinced himself that it was someone else in her armour, which only hurt him more, until Vala was right there within arm’s reach. After getting out of Omega in (mostly) one piece, Shepard spent hours with him while in recovery, and he finally spills: what he’d been doing on Omega since her death, his crew that had been murdered, the goings-on of his operations, and finally, how he felt about Vala. It was from this point on that Garrus and Vala were inseparable.After the final battle for Earth, and Shepard’s rehabilitation, the pair take shore leave to visit Palavan and look for Garrus’s family. To their utter relief, the Vakarians survived relatively unscathed, though everything they had was gone. A few days later, in the center of Palavan and to each other’s teary amusement, Garrus and Shepard proposed to one another. Their answers were yes.

“Forgive the insubordination, but your boyfriend has an order for you. Come back alive. It’d be an awfully empty galaxy without you.” - Garrus

The Crew

While the SSV Normandy is a crown jewel in her own right, it's her crew that is more often talked about when discussing the Commander. The first Alliance ship to have both aliens and humans working alongside one another, Vala faced heavy criticism and warnings from her superiors for inviting Garrus, Tali’Zorah, Wrex, and Liara onto classified property. However, they were met with a brick wall of will and unmovable trust in her teammates, and only in this way did Shepard hold the Alliance naysayers at bay. When it became clear that this was how the Commander was going to operate, and that she was doing so effectively, her superiors backed off, though the grumblers still rear their heads from time to time. In the initial years of the SSV Normandy, and well after, Shepard’s squadmates became heroes of their own doing, their names household fixtures, not unlike their leader.Kaiden and Ashley were both granted Spectre status, making them the second and third humans to join their ranks. With their new status came new responsibilities, and they were dispatched almost immediately upon their return to Earth. The three of them met up shortly before they left, sharing a beer, congratulations, and memories, promising to stay in touch.Liara stayed with the Normandy for some time after, continuing her Shadow Broker operations from the ship until Feron found a place for them and Glyph on Omega. Oddly enough, they’re mostly left to their own devices.Wrex and Bakara have their hands full with repopulating their species and organizing the clans in the Kelphic Valley. When their first clutch was due, Vala and the crew were invited to Tuchanka to witness the rebirth of the krogans. Bakara names the first male to hatch Mordin, and the first female, Shepard — at Wrex’s insistence.Grunt stayed on Tuchanka with Clan Urdnot for a year, helping Wrex and Bakara with whatever needed doing; mostly ‘convincing’ the rebellious clans to work together, not quite willing to find a mate just yet. After the majority of the heavy lifting was complete, Grunt received a summons from the newly-instated Council, inviting him to become the first krogan Spectre in history. Vala was over the moon proud of him, and made sure she was there for his ceremony.Tali’Zorah returned to Rannoch once she was satisfied with Vala’s health after helping rescue her from the destroyed Crucible. The rebuilding of the homeworld took top priority within the Admiralty, and Tali brought a lot to the table in terms of technology and inventions to improve their lives. But the politics was nothing compared to the feeling of finally coming home. While the bones were being laid for their first settlement, Tali personally constructed a monument to the geth in her downtime in tribute to her friend, Legion, and the peace they had achieved together.Jacob returned to Earth almost immediately after the war to help with the relief efforts, at the recommendation of Anderson. He spent time wherever needed help the most, traveling across the globe at the behest of remaining world leaders, strangely running into Kasumi more often than not. After the fifth run in, Jacob cornered her and managed to get it out of her that she had a crush on him. They had a long talk, and agreed that a relationship may not be best right away, but they would put in the effort to get to know the other. Kasumi and Jacob now travel Earth together, donating their time and (sometimes ill-gotten) money to people and places that desperately need it.Miranda kept to her rogue life after the war. Knowing that Cerberus cells were still out there and operable, there was a good chance one of them would want to bring her in for questioning and worse. Incognito didn’t mean she couldn’t see Orianna though, who insisted that they stay in communication with one another, and Miranda wasn’t about to say no to her little sister. Orianna was growing into an intelligent and beautiful woman, not unlike her sister, who enjoyed pointing that fact out every once in a while.Zaeed returned to his mercenary ways, several thousand credits richer from his services and with little but a goodbye as he left. Samara returned to her duties as a Justicar, occasionally visiting her daughter, Falere, in the ruins of the Ardat-Yakshi monastery.Jack returned to her role as an instructor, but contracted herself out to the Alliance instead of joining them entirely. Her students were among the highest ranking cadets in training, and many went on to become part of special op squads. Her former students enjoy sharing stories of their training, and they brag that Jack always attends their graduation ceremonies.When N7’s internal structure returned to something akin to stability, James was inaugurated into their ranks. He returned to the Normandy for a huge celebratory party in his honour, before being sent out on his first assignment alongside Ashley and Kaiden.EDI was painstakingly rebuilt by Samantha Traynor. Before the storming of Cerberus’ headquarters, EDI had walked Traynor through creating a copy of her files and databases in case the Illusive Man had something ugly planned for her. Joker was beside himself with joy when she made her reappearance on the deck, and with much applause.While Javik’s wish to join his people in death never really disappeared, the Prothean instead went to Thessia to meet and understand the asari. Liara went with him, more out of concern than anything else, and was surprised to find that Javik could be a good teacher when not insulting every aspect of a race.