John Shepard

Commander John Shepard is a Council Spectre, N7 Marine, and captain of the Normandy SR-2.

WIP

Early Life
John Shepard was born on Earth on April 11, 2154. He grew up as an orphan on the streets and endured a life of petty crime and underworld gangs, one of which was the Third Street Reds. He eventually gave up this life and enlisted in the Alliance at the age of eighteen.

Skyllian Blitz
In 2176, during the Skyllian Blitz, the Alliance colony of Elysium was attacked by mercenaries and pirates. The Alliance successfully repelled the assault, largely thanks to Shepard, who single-handedly held the line against batarian slavers. He was awarded the Star of Terra afterwards, the Alliance's highest honor.

The Eden Prime War
In 2183, Shepard investigated a geth attack on the colony of Eden Prime aboard the newly christened SSV Normandy, a prototype vessel that was co-designed by turian and human engineers, under the command of Captain David Anderson. Heading groundside with Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Corporal Richard Jenkins, who was killed almost instantly by a geth drone, Shepard re-grouped with Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, sole survivor of the Unit 212, part of the 2nd Frontier Division, the colony's resident garrison. Fighting their way through the colony, they came across the body of Nihilus, a turian Spectre who Shepard had met earlier on the Normandy. After defusing bombs that the geth planted, the squad came upon a Prothean beacon, which was the real reason why they had been sent to Eden Prime in the first place. Ashley got too close to the beacon, and it began to pull her in. Shepard immediately ran up and pushed her aside, taking her place. He experienced a brief vision before the beacon exploded.

Shepard came to learn that rogue Spectre Saren Arterius was the one responsible for the attack on Eden Prime. With some assistance from Urdnot Wrex; a krogan mercenary, Garrus Vakarian; a turian Citadel Security agent, and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya; a quarian stowaway on the Citadel, Shepard was able to present sufficient evidence to the Citadel Council to rebuke Saren's Spectre status.

The Hunt for Saren
The evidence also gave some clarity to Shepard's Eden Prime vision. Fifty thousand years earlier, the Protheans were wiped out by a highly advanced alien race known as the Reapers. Shepard believed that Saren was after something known as the "Conduit", which would allow the Reapers to return and repeat what they had done to the Protheans. The Council then appointed Shepard as the first human Spectre, with orders to hunt down and either apprehend or eliminate Saren. Anderson was forced to step down as Normandy captain, giving command of the ship to Shepard.

Shepard travelled to Noveria, Feros and Therum on the hunt for Saren, and recruited Dr. Liara T'Soni, an expert on the Protheans, on the latter planet before heading to Virmire to investigate findings from a salarian reconnaissance team lead by Captain Kirrahe. There, Shepard encountered another beacon, one identical to the one found on Eden Prime, and received yet another vision from it. It was then that encountered the Reaper named Sovereign, who was revealed to be the real mastermind behind Saren's plans. Saren himself had been brainwashed by Sovereign through a process known as indoctrination.

Shepard also discovered that Saren had discovered a potential cure for the krogan genophage and was breeding an army of krogan. Thus, the decision was made to destroy the facility. While Wrex was understandably upset at this decision, Shepard was able to talk him down. Shepard then led a team to plant a nuke in the heart of the facility, while sending Ashley to assist the salarians in taking down the anti-air towers that would allow them to evacuate. While the AA towers were disabled, the salarians were pinned down with no way out. Kaidan volunteered to remain behind to guard the bomb. However, just as Shepard's squad was en-route to Ashley's location, the geth began deploying troops at the bomb site. This leads to Kaidan activating the bomb in desperation. Shepard was forced to make a tough decision: Continue heading to the AA towers and assist Ashley and the salarians, or head back to the nuke and save Kaidan. He knew there wasn't time to save both. He ultimately chose to save Ashley and the salarians, sacrificing Kaidan to ensure the base's destruction.

With the data from the second beacon and with some help from Liara, Shepard managed to deduce the location of the Conduit on the Prothean world of Ilos. However, the Normandy was recalled to the Citadel and grounded by Ambassador Donnell Udina while the Council took the situation into their own hands. With help from Anderson, Shepard was able to steal the Normandy and plotted a course for Ilos. During the journey, he became romantically involved with Liara.

Arriving on Ilos, they discovered a Prothean virtual intelligence known as Vigil, and learned that the Conduit is simply a backdoor to the Citadel, and that the Citadel itself was the key to the Reapers' return.

Battle of the Citadel
Travelling through the Conduit, Shepard was able to locate and kill Saren on the Citadel, which had come under siege from Sovereign's forces. Shepard made the call for the Alliance to jump into the system and save the Destiny Ascension, which housed the Citadel Council, and managed to destroy Sovereign. The Council then offered humanity a seat, believing they were ready. Shepard vouched for Anderson as the candidate.

Death and Revival
Several weeks later, while patrolling Citadel space and wiping out any remnants of geth resistance, the Normandy is suddenly attacked and destroyed by an unknown vessel, crashing on the planet Alchera. Most of the crew survived, but Shepard was killed while saving pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau.

His body was recovered by Cerberus, a pro-human splinter group, who successfully managed to revive him two years later in 2185 as part of Project Lazarus, led by Miranda Lawson. Shepard was brought to the Illusive Man, Cerberus' enigmatic leader, and was told that human colonies were vanishing across the galaxy. Shepard and Miranda discovered that a race known as the Collectors are responsible, abducting entire colonies before heading back through the Omega-4 Relay; a mass relay in which no ship had ever returned from. The Illusive Man then instructed Shepard to scout the galaxy and recruit the most dangerous assassins, outlaws and mercenaries for an assault on the Collectors. To complete this task, Shepard was also provided a new starship based upon the original Normandy, known as the Normandy SR-2.

With Miranda's assistance, Shepard was able to recruit a dozen from some provided dossiers, including familiar faces like Garrus and Tali. The colony of Horizon was attacked and, while the Normandy was able to intervene, the Collectors make off with half the colony. Shepard also encountered Ashley on Horizon, who had been posted there as a response to the colony abductions. Ashley was relieved to see Shepard alive, but was angry that he had seemingly joined Cerberus. The Normandy later obtained a Reaper-designed "Identify Friend/Foe" (IFF) device in order to travel through the Omega-4 Relay but, while the crew was testing the device, the Normandy was attacked and boarded by the Collectors. While Joker and the Normandy's Enhanced Defense Intelligence, otherwise known as EDI, were able to save the ship, the Collectors still made off with the rest of the crew.

Attack on the Collector Base
Having gone through enough preparations and not wanting to further delay rescuing the crew, Shepard launched the mission they had been preparing for, and began the assault. The Normandy was able to destroy the Collector ship that had destroyed the previous Normandy two years earlier, but enough damage was done to force an emergency landing on the Collector base. Shepard and his squad ploughed through the Collectors, who they discovered to be what remained of the Protheans, repurposed as Reaper slaves, and managed to save the crew. The squad then discovered that the collected humans have all been processed and melted down to fulfill construction of a 'Human-Reaper'.

Shepard was able to destroy the Reaper and began the process of destroying the base. Amidst the process, he was contacted by the Illusive Man, who tried to convince him to spare the base, believing that they can use the Collectors' technology against the Reapers when they invade. Shepard refused for two reasons - on a moral level, he knew the horrific things the Collectors have done to the innocent colonists and couldn't bear to utilize their technology, and on a pragmatic level, anything Reaper-made was liable to commence the indoctrination process. The Illusive Man then ordered Miranda to stop him, but she rebuked him and Cerberus, announcing her resignation instead. The Normandy SR-2 crew was then able to miraculously escape and destroy the base without losing anybody.

Arrival
A few weeks later, Shepard was contacted by Admiral Steven Hackett to rescue Dr. Amanda Kenson, who allegedly had proof leading to an imminent Reaper invasion from a relay known as the Alpha Relay. Shepard was able to verify Kenson's information, who proposed to use an asteroid to ram and destroy the Relay, once again delaying the Reapers. She is revealed to have been indoctrinated by the Reapers, however and sedated Shepard.

Two days later, Shepard was able to fight his way through the base and start the engines that would allow the asteroid to destroy the relay. He then confronted Kenson, but she commited suicide with a grenade. Shepard fought his way off the asteroid while also confronting Harbinger, another Reaper, through a hologram. The asteroid rams into and destroys the Alpha Relay, but sends a shockwave that results in the destruction of Aratoht, a batarian colony with a population of around 300,000. Hackett commended Shepard for his actions in destroying the Relay and delaying the Reapers, but warned him that he would have to eventually return to Earth and face the consequences for Aratoht's destruction.

House Arrest
Following his actions, Shepard turned himself in and was placed under house arrest at an Alliance base in Vancouver, United North American States, Earth, where he remained for six months.

Reaper War
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Personality and traits
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Physical Appearance
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Powers and abilities
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Equipment
For protection, John utilizes the Onyx Armor, the preferred armor of most N7 operatives. He carries an M-8 Avenger Assault Rifle, M-3 Predator Heavy Pistol, M-23 Katana Shotgun, M-92 Mantis Sniper Rifle, and M-100 Grenade Launcher at most times, more than enough to deal with most threats.

Behind the scenes
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