"Mass Effect" - Universe [7] - Noveria Quiz

Answer: Synthetic Insights

Lorik Qui'in was the manager of Synthetic Insights on Noveria, just one of the many companies with interests on Noveria. He found evidence that Administrator Anoleas was dealing under the table, so Anoleas had the Synthetic Insights offices closed. Qui'in, without anything else to do, passed his time in the hotel bar.

Elanus Risk Control Services (ERCS) was a security firm that was hired to police Noveria. ERCS guards could be seen all over Port Hanshan.

Binary Helix was a human company that dealt in genetic research and modifications. Despite Saren's hatred of humans, he had ample stock in the company. It was Binary Helix that was using the Peak 15 research facility.

Serrice Council was an asari company that made high-end bio-amps and omni-tools. The asari were naturally biotic, and had lots of experience with biotics, making their manufacturers of the amps some of the best in the galaxy.

Answer: Kara Sterling

Kara Sterling was a sergeant in the Elanus Risk Control Services on Noveria. Shepard first met Kara when the Normandy touched down. Sterling was ready to fight Shepard when the Commander refused to obey Noveria's "no weapons" policy.

Later, Shepard found that Sterling was in charge of the unlawful ransacking of the Synthetic Insights office. Shepard had to kill a few of the ERCS personnel to retrieve Lorik Qui'in's data. Kara was furious, and mentioned that she didn't like cop-killers. Shepard countered that she was a corrupt cop, and a fight ensued.

Answer: Noveria Internal Affairs

Giana Parasini told Captain Matsuo and Sergeant Sterling to stand down in the docking bay when Shepard first arrived on Noveria. Noveria had a no-weapons policy, but Shepard did not feel the need to comply. Parasini told the security officers that Spectres were indeed allowed to carry weapons on Noveria.

After Shepard spoke with Anoleas, Parasini mentioned that talking to Lorik Qui'in in the hotel bar might prove useful. If Shepard recovered Qui'in's data from his office, killing some ERCS troops in the process, then Parasini again confronted the Commander, telling Shepard to meet her in the hotel bar before giving Qui'in his data.

Parasini revealed in the bar that she was secretly working for Noveria Internal Affairs, and that she had been investigating Administrator Anoleas for many months. With Qui'in's data, she would finally be able to arrest Anoleas. She asked Shepard to convince Qui'in to testify against Anoleas. Convincing Qui'in, if that was the route that Shepard chose, required a strong Paragon or Renegade score.

Answer: Get Giana Parasini to forge a pass for you

There were a large number of ways to obtain a garage pass. If Shepard talked to the merchant Opald, he asked Shepard to smuggle an item for him. One option was to turn in Opald to Administrator Anoleas, who would then have rewarded Shepard with a garage pass.

All the other methods involved going to the Synthetic Insights office. Once Shepard recovered Lorik Qui'in's evidence against Anoleas, Gianna Parasini revealed that she was working for Noveria Internal Affairs, and asked Shepard to get Lorik Qui'in to testify. Shepard could have given the data to Qui'in, who was willing to exchange it for a garage pass. Shepard could have convinced Qui'in to testify, and Parasini would have given Shepard a pass. Shepard could have turned the data over to Anoleas, and he would have rewarded Shepard with a garage pass, or Shepard could have told Anoleas that Parasini was spying on him, which would have resulted in the two killing each other. A pass could have then been obtained from Anoleas' corpse.

Answer: Geth

After finally getting a garage pass, Shepard was able to leave Port Hanshan. When Shepard first entered the garage, however, geth Hoppers and Destroyers attacked. Shepard and squad had the option of either fighting the geth normally, or hacking into a Grizzly and using its mass cannon against the geth.

Port Hanshan security was confused and angry at Shepard for fighting. Shepard explained that it was in self-defense, and offered that Lady Benezia had smuggled the geth onto Noveria packed in crates. Captain Matsuo told Shepard that there were crates enough for hundreds of geth, were that the case.

Answer: Central Station

Rachni were not found on any other primary world (Feros, Virmire, etc.), and were only encountered on a few side missions on worlds that opened up after Noveria was completed.

The rachni were an insectoid race with a hive mind, letting them coordinate vicious attacks against their enemies. They could survive extreme environments, could create massive labyrinths underground, and were very durable when it came to combat. Rachni could spit globs of toxic goo at targets, and could scuttle up to enemies quickly to deliver crushing melee attacks.

Saren needed to get to Ilos to use the Conduit, but the Mu relay to get to Ilos had been pushed off course by a supernova, and knowledge of its whereabouts was lost to the galactic community.

The rachni knew about the Mu relay, but were extinguished by the krogan. Rachni queens were able to pass memories to future queens, even while the younger rachni were still in eggs. A rachni egg was discovered, and a new queen was hatched and raised by Lady Benezia so she could extract the location of the Mu relay.

As a secondary objective, Benezia tried to create an army of loyal rachni drones to fight for Saren. The drones did not develop properly, though, being separated from their queen. They were hostile to their breeders and eventually escaped. The rachni escape and infestation was the reason for the Peak 15 facility going dark.

Answer: Insert new fuel rods into the reactor

Shepard drove the Mako to Peak 15, and arrived at the Central Station portion. Before Shepard could proceed to Rift Station, though, a few tasks had to be completed to bring the facility back online.

First, the main breaker had to be flipped. Then the virtual intelligence (VI) had to be brought back online by accessing the VI's core. To bring the VI online, Shepard could either spend 100 omni-gel or complete a four-disc Tower of Hanoi challenge.

Then the landlines to Rift Station had to be repaired on the roof, which was crawling with rachni.

Finally, the He-3 fuel lines had to be reactivated, which were guarded by a number of different geth models.

The Tower of Hanoi is a puzzle used in many video games, including BioWare's other title "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic". Like most logic puzzles, it can seem daunting at first, but the algorithm to solve it is not terribly difficult. The Tower of Hanoi puzzle is often used as an example or assignment when teaching recursion in computing science.

Answer: Mira

Virtual intelligences (VI's) were advanced computers that could perform a number of functions while interacting with sentient beings. VI's were not the same as artificial intelligences (AI's). They could not think independently, or create new ideas. AI research and development was severely restricted by the Citadel Council because they feared that creating a new race would lead to a war or genocide. Their fears were realized when the quarians created the geth by accident.

VI's often visually manifested as a pink, orange, and purple hologram of a certain species. VI's were given short names to call them by, to make interaction with them easier. The Peak 15 research facility had a VI named Mira, who manifested as a human female.

Avina was the VI that acted as a guide on the Citadel, and manifested as an asari. Vigil was a the broken VI found on Ilos, and his visual projection was broken, showing only a jumbled mess of swirling light. Hannibal was the VI that went rogue on Earth's moon. Shepard had to defeat the VI to unlock one of two specialization classes. Hannibal was not named until "Mass Effect 2".

Answer: Hot Labs

The Peak 15 research facility had a number of different labs for different projects. When Shepard finally found the surviving researchers, Captain Ventralis, the leader of the security forces, told Shepard that Benezia was in the Hot Labs.

Shepard had the option of either turning around to go to the Hot Labs right away, or to see the rest of the scientists first. If Shepard went to the Hot Labs first, all the Commander found was a bunch of rachni, as well as a console from which the neutron purge could be activated. The neutron purge was designed to eradicate anything in the labs in case of a leak. After escaping the Hot Labs, Shepard learned that Ventralis was on Benezia's payroll, and had been instructed to send Shepard away. Ventralis had hoped that the rachni in the Hot Labs would have taken care of the Commander.

If Shepard did not go to the Hot Labs, and instead went to see the scientists, then Shepard had two options gain access to the Secure Labs, where Benezia was actually hiding. If Shepard tried to just walk to the labs through the main corridor, then Ventralis' security forces became hostile.

The last option was to gain access to the storage areas and access tunnels deep below the facility, bypassing any security forces. To gain access, Shepard had to make an antidote for Dr. Cohen in the Quarantine Labs. If this approach was taken, then Shepard was still attacked by a small squad of geth and one of Benezia's moles in the research facility. If this approach was taken, then there was no way for Shepard to confront Ventralis for lying about Benezia's location.

Answer: Drenching it in acid

After defeating Lady Benezia and gaining the coordinates of the Mu Relay, Shepard was faced with a very crucial choice: to kill or free the rachni.

The rachni ravaged the galaxy long ago, and nearly succeeded in destroying the Citadel Council and all space-faring species at the time. Only the uplifting of the krogan was able to stop the rachni, and the krogan had since had their numbers and fighting capabilities reduced. Especially with the threat of the Reapers, the rachni were scarcely a force that the galaxy could afford to deal with.

But the single rachni queen that talked to Shepard promised that she would not attack the galaxy. That she would go into hiding and rebuild her race, teaching her children to live peacefully with the galaxy's other sentient beings.

Choosing to either save or kill the rachni had drastic effects felt later on in the "Mass Effect" video game series.