Kaidanbio

Kaidan Alenko

 

Role:

Kaidan Alenko acts as an Alliance representative, consultant, and second “leash” (after Vega) for Shepard. Kaidan is a wealth of detail on Alliance intelligence. He also has clearance to Lunar Base's security, which allows Shepard to unlock the mission “Close to Home”, in which Shepard and Kaidan infiltrate a heavily damaged base on Earth's moon to repair some of Earth's planetary communication capabilities.

 

Recruitment:

Alenko's recruitment takes place in two different parts of the game, depending on Shepard's allegiance.

 

If Shepard is aligned with the Alliance, Kaidan is recruited at the end of ME3's  tutorial mission, when he comes out of the SR2 docking bay to give Shepard and Vega covering fire as they board the Normandy. He is later briefed by Alliance Parliament to monitor and assist Shepard's progress, as he tries to unite the races.

If Shepard is aligned with Cerberus, Kaidan is recruited on Shepard's second return trip to the Citadel – after completion of the mission Klencory, visit to the Shadow Base, and first war summit. Kaidan, along with a handful of Alliance crew members (including James Vega, Samantha Traynor, Steven Cortez, etc) was requested by Alliance Parliament to assign a team of their best and brightest to monitor and assist Shepard during his missions to find Prothean artifacts and help solidify diplomatic solutions to some of the galaxy's inter-species conflicts.

The Council believes that Shepard's previous relationship with Cerberus should be watched continuously, and that, if the Alliance wants support for Earth, they should be willing to intervene if Shepard acts in a way that supports the terrorist organization. With the destruction of the Bahak system still fresh in everyones' mind the Alliance and Council hope to avoid further hostilities – and Shepard's agreement to investigate the possibility of a cure for the genophage (at the end of the first war summit) only deepens their concern.

 

Characteristics:

After being absent in ME2, Kaidan's return to the Normandy comes with determination and conflict on his part. He is embarrassed and quickly becomes defensive when confronted (either by Shepard, Shepard's ME2 LI, or Joker) on his unwillingness to have joined Shepard on Horizon after the Collectors attacked. Apparently Kaidan would've gladly been part of the Suicide Mission, had he not been convinced that Cerberus was evil. Yet despite his defensive stance on not joining Shepard earlier, Kaidan is also determined to protect Alliance interests, and get the SR2 crew to cooperate with him, just like old times.

If Shepard is aligned with Cerberus, then a portion of the SR2's crew will be ex Cerberus employees who worked with him since the Collector threat (provided they survived the Collector Base). Kaidan will not trust any of them, though throughout the story, his personal investigation into all of the crews' backgrounds will turn up mostly information on ex Alliance employees with good service records.

Notable character interactions:

Kaidan doesn't trust Miranda, believing that she is as ruthless and cold as TIM. However he respects her strong nature and intelligence, and tries to remain civil with her.

Kaidan sees Jack as being the ultimate victim of Cerberus treachery (something Jack hates), and wishes that the Alliance could have helped her. However Kaidan is interested in her expertise with biotics, Jack becomes his friend. Jack even shows him stretching and muscle toning techniques (non-sexual) that lowers his LSX headaches, while keeping his biotic power levels higher.

If Jack romanced Shepard in ME2 and is continuing his romance with Shepard, Kaidan will be happy for them.

 

[Note: While romanced Kaidan has a slightly cold attitude to all male characters who romanced Shepard in ME2. Jacob is the only one he does not reconcile with]

Kaidan initially dislikes Legion. He still remembers the death toll of the geth on Eden Prime, and is not convinced that any geth can be trusted. Kaidan believes that the geth should be either driven off, or reprogrammed, and Rannoch should be returned to the quarian fleet.

Kaidan will get along well with Kasumi until he learns about Kasumi's greybox, and the potential information it hold that could damage the Alliance's reputation. Once the greybox information is brought between the Hegemony and Alliance Parliament, Kaidan will realize that the military that he serves isn't as pure as he once thought, and will make up with Kasumi.

Kaidan initially distrusts Jacob as much as he distrusts Miranda. However, after reviewing Jacob's records as an Alliance Corsair, and records of saving of the Citadel Council from batarian terrorists, he is angry at Jacob for leaving (“betraying” is the actual word he confronts him with) the Alliance. Kaidan believes that the Alliance needed and still needs good military soldiers like Jacob. As the story progresses, Kaidan begins to respect Jacob more and more, and eventually the two become good friends.

Kaidan's best friend is James Vega. The two worked together on past missions, and his public recognition of James's skills are what got Alliance Parliament to assign Vega to being Shepard's guard.

If Shepard is not romantically interested in James, James will confess that he is attracted to Kaidan, and will ask Shepard for advice. Shepard has the option of convincing James to seek a relationship with Kaidan.

 

Missions:

Kaidan is available for all missions after his recruitment, and is a permanent squad member.

 One mission that Kaidan has is called “Close to Home”. After the geth-quarian situation is resolved,  Alliance Parliament asks Kaidan to try and convince Shepard to go to the Sol system in an attempt to repair Alliance communications on the moon's (Luna's) Lunar Base. Kaidan has security clearance to Lunar Base in the form of a “hard-key” (keycard).

After a rogue A.I damaged Lunar Base (in ME1), security overrides were made in the form of older key-card technology in the event of anothis A.I malfunction.

Since the Reaper assault on the galaxy, refugees of Luna's initial invasion were able to confirm that part of the base is still intact – though it is likely a trap for many of the moon's remaining population. Luckily, the Normandy's stealth drive proves for a relatively safe way to the base – which is on the dark side of the moon, now rotated away from Earth and the Sun.

If Shepard agrees to do this mission, the Normandy flies to Sol. There are only a few Reapers on Luna, as most of their fighting is on Earth. As the ship approaches the moon, Shepard and the SR2 crew look out the windows to catch a glimpse of Earth. The planet is still blue, but large parts the continents are orange will massive fires, and massive brown dust storms make up most of Earth's cloud cover.

Shepard, and company land near Lunar Base in the shuttle, and approach. The Base is located in a huge natural crater that has been domed over with diamond hard class, several meters thick.

The mission is fairly straight forward. The base appears to be empty, except for human corpses lying in vacuum-exposed areas. The electricity is out, and Shepard must use his flashlight to move throughout the base. Kaidan uses his security key card to take the company through several locked rooms. EDI detects a single other form of movement aboard the base, and Shepard and company can either investigate the movement (which will escape from them), or proceed with the mission. Just as they make their way to Lunar Base's transmission center, they are assaulted by the derelict base's lone inhabitant, a specialized human husk with the body of a spider, and head comprised of dozens of screaming human heads. After defeating the husk, Shepard and Kaidan reestablish communications to Earth's military – granting the planet more coordination against the Reaper attack. On top of that, a Shepard can activate a distress message from Lunar Base to all remaining settlements on the moon, telling them to evacuate to the Citadel.

After the signal is sent out Shepard and company step out onto the moon's barren surface, and look up at Earth – now the heart of Reaper conflict. Then they turn to the shuttle, board the Normandy, and leave Sol's system.

Kaidan is available for a side quest on at Grissom Academy, where Shepard and Kaidan can go and motivate the students as part of public support. At the space station, Kaidan and Shepard meet Kahlee Sanders, who runs the facility, and she takes them to an auditorium where Kaidan will give a brief speech about galactic responsibility (etc, etc), and Shepard will motivate the students with a paragon, neutral, or renegade speech of his own.

If Diana Allers, Emily Wong, or Khalisah Al-Jilani onboard the Normandy, they will come and film Shepard's speech as part of their documentary.

 

 

Ironing out variables:

 

If Kaidan died in ME1, he does not appear in ME3. he can be mourned. Shepard can take a picture of Alenko to the Victim Memorial in the Citadel, and put it up on the wall. A few of Shepard's squad-mates will join him for the ceremony.