Zaeedbio

 

Zaeed Massani

 

Role:

                Zaeed's story leads Shepard to gaining the large war asset known as the Blue Suns, a galactic-wide military outfit-- dubbed gang by most of the galaxy-- consisting of an estimated 150,000 trained mercenaries from a variety of intergalactic backgrounds, 25,000 mechs, 4000 odd personnel, and 7 used/stolen troop carriers. They will assist Shepard in retaking the Earth, and are vital to saving squad mates and civilians in the Earth mission. Zaeed is a temporary squad-mate for three missions.

                While the Blue Suns are known to engage in less than ideal interactions with the rest of the galaxy, including theft, kidnapping, bribery, slavery, vandalism, and extortion, they generally have a reputation of conducting themselves in a somewhat more professional manner than rival gangs. The Suns are renown for their ability to hold their own in ground wars against “official” military groups, like the Alliance – though this is partly because many troops come from the turian, human, asari, batarian, and salarian militaries after they finish their required years in service. Under the right leadership, the Blue Suns have been known to improve social wellbeing by acting as public security, or even a police force, and in the Cycle War they prove highly useful in protecting Earth and the Citadel.

                General rule for being confronted by a Suns gang is to be polite and cooperative, with chances being that they will treat you with gruff, but clear demands (their behavior is usually seen as preferable to other gangs, the Eclipse and Blood Pack in particular, who are far more hostile).

Recruitment:

                Zaeed has the easiest recruitment mission of any character in ME3. Shepard takes the kodiak shuttle down to the beautiful planet of Bekenstein, currently untouched by the Cycle War, and lands in the street of the countryside adjacent the wealthy capital city. The neighborhood is clean, quiet, and pretentious; with a handful of houses spread at a fair distance from each other, each house  elaborately decorated, high tech, and obviously owned by wealthy tenants. Shepard recognizes Donovan Hock's mansion (provided he recruited Kasumi in ME2) several houses away, but clearly visible from Massani's front yard. Zaeed's house (or small fortress more like) is on a hill, with large grated windows, missile turrets on the roof and lawn, and heavy YMIR units replacing statues one might have guarding their porch. High powered mech units surround the driveway, Shepard can see security cameras and automated rifles half concealed in the trees leading up to the house. Zaeed is slouching on the stairs of his porch in a stained wife beater and military pants (like Shepard's). Cans of beer surround the ex bounty hunter's feet, and a sniper rifle is by his side. Paragon Shepard frowns at Zaeed. Neutral Shepard gives Zaeed the “heads up” nod. Renegade Shepard smirks. Zaeed Massani just sighs, and says “Shepard...I'll get my stuff”.

                Shepard can enter Zaeed's house, and see how retirement has been treating him. Zaeed's interior is a lot like Liara's apartment on Illium, or Hock's house a few blocks away. High tech, crisp technology. However, Massani doesn't appear to know what to do with his retirement. Guns lie on the kitchen table, where he was obviously inspecting them. A large make-shift multi screen monitoring system is keeping tabs on the entire neighborhood. Battle trophies are hanging on the walls. Shepard can follow Zaeed to his bedroom, which has more trophies, guns, tv sets, model ships, alcohol etc scattered around. A massive vault door is at the far side of the room, which Zaeed opens. Inside the vault is Massani's old rifle, “Jessie”, encased in a glass case, and a suit case which was apparently pre-filled with everything Zaeed would need for a fast get-away.

Missions:

 

Zaeed Massani has three missions specific to his story: one large scale mission in which he overthrows Blue Suns high command, and two side quest missions involving securing a Blue Suns production factory which provides the war effort with mechs, gun ships, and troop carrying cruisers. I have listed these missions below.

1) Reclaiming the Suns: Once Zaeed is aboard the SR2, the ship automatically flies to the Citadel, where Zaeed proceeds to review C-Sec records to discover possible locations of the infamous gang that (in the galactic confusion and chaos of the Reapers) have started large attacks on Council shipping lanes, seizing massive amounts of supplies. Through the study of the Suns' attack patterns and methods, Zaeed is able to locate a large  military installation on a sunless moon in the Skyllian Verge, surrounded by asteroids that help block both suspicion and intruders. Zaeed wants Joker's help to navigate the moon, and find the Suns' training base, and Shepard's help to kill either Vido Santiago (if he escaped in Mass Effect 2) or Darner Vosque (Vido's successor).

         Joker navigates the Normandy through the asteroid field, Zaeed and Shepard (and Cortez) take a kodiak down the the moon's barren surface, to where a huge circular pit leads down into the heart of the base. Zaeed can coax Shepard into having a body-count competition (renegade Shepard can agree, while paragon and neutral Shepard can take a more professional denial) as the mission commences. As Shepard fights his way through the base, Zaeed discovers a console that reveals a number of Suns' troops are defecting, some are returning to the Council races' militaries, and some (humans) are leaving for the human extremist terrorist group, Cerberus. Throughout the level you discover that many of the men and women are unhappy with the tyranny and abuse they are both inflicting, and subject to-- especially with the galaxy massing for a galactic attack on the Reapers.

        Later in the level, Zaeed catches sight of Vido/Darner, and enraged, goes after him. Renegade Shepard is able to to halt Zaeed by telling him harshly that they need to stick together, and Zaeed turns back to rejoin Shepard, but is cut off from the commander by a automatic door Paragon and neutral Shepard try the same thing but are unable to distract him, and regardless of their attempts Zaeed is separated from Shepard and squad-mate by a door. EDI plots another route for Shepard into the chamber where Zaeed is fighting his way to the Suns' leader. When you enter the chamber, Massani and Vido/Vosque is gone, and the room is filled with corpses. In the chamber a large door leads up to an command tower. Shepard and company run through this door and fight their way up the tower to the main base control room. This room has its own galaxy map, military plans, monitors, trophies, etc (things to imply that it is a mercenary conference chamber), and Zaeed is in the room with a handful of Blue Suns mercenaries pointing guns at him. Massani tells them that he plans on killing the Suns' commander for the war effort.

a)      Renegade prompt allows Shepard and squad-mate to burst into the room and attack the guards, leading Zaeed to kill them.

b)      Paragon prompt allows Shepard to enter the room slowly, his gun in a non-threatening position. This leads to the Suns giving up, and pointing Zaeed in the direction  Vido/Vosque escaped.

Zaeed is pleased because he managed to wound Santiago/Vosque, who have made their way to the roof. If Shepard agreed to the body count Zaeed proposed, whichever character with the higher number of kills gets to insult the other (Shepard implies that Zaeed is too old, Zaeed implies that Shepard is too young) and the three combatants proceed to the roof. The Suns's commander is bleeding out, but has made his way to the edge. Zaeed and Shepard approach, but the commander mocks Shepard and Zaeed, and calls in a final gunship to dispatch them. Here is where Zaeed's morality alignment from Mass Effect 2 effects the game:

a)      If Zaeed was disloyal in Mass Effect 2 due to either ignoring his loyalty mission, or not allowing him to kill Vido, Zaeed will shoot Vido off the roof, prompting the gunship to open fire on him. Zaeed and Shepard will try to shoot down the gunship, but because Zaeed doesn't have Jessie, he will fall victim to the restrictions of heat-sink reloading, and will be mortally wounded, and Shepard and squad mate will succeed in destroying the gunship. He will die, content that he was able to get his revenge, in the midst of the Reaper war. Shepard will turn over Blue Suns control to the Council or Alliance, who plan on putting an undercover operative in charge of the operation.

b)      If Zaeed was loyal in Mass Effect 2 through paragon blue dialogue after Vido's escape from Zorya, he will attempt to push Shepard out of the way of the gunfire of the gunship, and will be mortally wounded. However, he and Jessie manage to shoot Vido from the roof, and the gunship from the sky. As Shepard crouches over the dying man, Zaeed will tell Shepard how he was inspired by Shepard's willingness to put others before himself, and the mission before others. He exclaims that he was proud to have fought for something more than credits, and dies after after giving Shepard Jessie with his blessing. Shepard turns over control of the Suns to the Council or Alliance.

c) If Zaeed was loyal in ME2 through renegade red dialogue after Vido's escape from Zorya, he and Jessie will succeed in mowing down Vido and the gunship with a barrage of bullets (Jessie not being subject to the restrictions of heat-sink reloading). He will take control of the Blue Suns by rallying them to join Aria and the Omega gangs in destroying the Reapers. Shepard can tell Zaeed to use the base and organization better than his predecessors before they part.

d)      If Zaeed was loyal in ME2 through fulfilling his quest for revenge against Vido, he and Jessie will succeed in mowing down Vosque and the gunship with a barrage of bullets (Jessie not being subject to the restrictions of heat-sink reloading). He will take control of the Blue Suns by rallying them to join the Council in destroying the Reapers. He tells Shepard to announce the Suns' new loyalty to the Council, and that the Blue Suns will return the supplies previously stolen. He gives Shepard Jessie as a parting gift for his fight against the Reapers, and exclaims that he is proud to be fighting for something more than credits. He leaves Shepard with a comment on how boring retirement was.

        (For c and b) Onboard the Normandy, Liara will tell Shepard that she has stationed her own spies within the organization to protect Zaeed, should any Suns' members try to attack him. She doubts he will need them.

Accounting for variables:

 

Of course, there are other variables to be accounted for as well, and I will try to address those below:

If Zaeed was loyal or disloyal, and died during the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2, then the mission to destroy the Blue Suns is given to Shepard by the Council after they call a special meeting with him. A team of C-sec's best strategists managed to pinpoint the location of a moon from which the Suns seem to be running massive operations, and they need the SR2 (one of the best ships in the galaxy) to kill or arrest the Suns' leaders, and halt the disruptive actions of the organization. The mission commences without Zaeed (obviously) and at the end of the mission you can either kill or arrest Vosque. He pleads for an arrest. Vido can only be killed if Zaeed's loyalty mission from ME2 was completed, as he remembers Shepard, and repeatedly attacks Shepard. If the Zorya mission from ME2 was never attempted, Vido can be arrested. Paragon points are applied for arrests, and renegade points are applied to kills.

If Zaeed died from completion of  his loyalty mission after the suicide mission from Mass Effect 2 (when renegade Shepard can leave Zaeed trapped in the burning base), the same result as above occurs.

2) Securing Carriers: A side quest mission which I won't go into a wealth of detail about (I'll leave my potential audience to imagine the finer details), this quest sees Shepard and Zaeed (if alive) attempting to secure a space station hanger that houses several carrier class ships, from two warring mercenary groups desperate to get their hands on the ships: the Blue Suns and the Eclipse Sisters. Once the Carriers' hangers are controlled, the ships provide the war effort with valuable war assets.

If Zaeed has maintained control of the Blue Suns already, they will join Shepard and Zaeed in combat.

If Zaeed died maintaining control of the Blue Suns, they will join Shepard at the command of their new leader (actually an Alliance/Council employed spy).

If Zaeed was never recruited or died in ME2, then this is simply a Council N7 mission for Shepard to complete.

 

3) Zaeed can also be a temporary squad mate for a number of other story missions not specific to his gang's role in the galaxy.

 

Zaeed can be a temporary squad mate while Shepard searches the hidden wards of the citadel, looking for the prothean VI, “Victory” – provided he has already been taken (recruited) to the Citadel by this point.

Zaeed can be a temporary squad mate in assaulting Cerberus's main base.

Zaeed can be a temporary squad mate in protecting the Citadel from the Reaper assault if Earth was abandoned and destroyed.

Zaeed can be a temporary squad mate in defending Earth if the was chosen to be saved during the war summit.

Zaeed can be a temporary squad mate in protecting the Crucible while it is being connected to the Citadel/Collector Base/deployed to Earth.