Mass Effect: Incursion

When we last left the Normandy, The Illusive Man was calling. This is a game mechanic thing that I promise I'll explain later, but it more or less divides the plot up into three (or four ... is it shameful that I can't remember?) neat little sections. We've got a lot of media to cover, so we're going to use Brother Tim's calls as an excuse to take a break and look at some of the comics or books or whatever the hell else I feel like putting out there.

Such as Mass Effect Incursion! This is a short (seriously, eight pages) comic that's actually based on a line in Mass Effect Redemption, but we can't do that one yet because ... um ... shut up. Spoilers. It's fine, it'll still make sense.

(Incursion was written by Mac Walters, who took over lead writing Mass Effect around the time Bioware was making 2. Learn to look for his name, because he likes humans better than the aliens, and pretty much everything he does has a pro-human thumbprint on it. Fun fact! Mac Walters wanted to replace Garrus and That One Female Spoiler Character Squadmate Who You Can Probably Guess with Zaeed and That Other Female Counterpart Spoiler Squadmate Who You Can Also Probably Guess, because yay humans boo aliens.)

Anyway, Incursion takes place one week before Shepard dies, out on the mean Omegan streets. Also, it stars my very favorite asari, Aria!

It ... I mean, I wish I had more for you, but that's the set up.

So Aria and two cronies roll up on this scene:

That's a Blue Sun selling a bunch of humans to ... the fuck is that gray thing, some kind of batarian? The fuck else in this galaxy has four eyes like that?!

Actually, I'll quit faking through it, because you already know who that guy is. Damn, Ascension is the Chamber of Secrets of the Mass Effect universe. It's the second book, you're not sure it has anything to do with anything, and BAP magically it has everything to do with all of it. Remember the guy named Pel, who sold humans to the collectors? That's what the Blue Suns are busy doing, selling humans to the collectors, AKA that weird gray guy. Actually, remember, Pel tried to sell Kahlee et all to said collectors.

Now, as for why, we don't know that yet.

Anyway, Aria sees what's up.

I never realized until I had to draw it out how much of the plot involved looking at other things over railings.

Aria drops down and biotics the fuck out of some shit.

She also comes across a praetorian, a fucking huge collector who is a son of a BITCH to kill, so naturally Bioware threw them in multiplayer by the handfuls. Seriously, the swearing that goes on in this house.

Ha, no, but seriously, there's this one collector dude?

And he tries to break the first rule of Omega.

But no one breaks the first rule of Omega.

Once everyone's dead, Aria has her people interrogate the sellers.

Wait, why would the collectors only care about humans?

Mac Walters.

NEXT TIME: We go back to Krogan bongs.

... and Mac Walters.