You will only see one of the following assignments during your playthrough of Mass Effect, because each one corresponds to one of three potential backgrounds for Shepard.
You will have the option of completing only the assignment that corresponds to your Shepard’s background:
- A colonist background gives you Citadel: I Remember Me .
- A spacer background gives you Citadel: Old, Unhappy, Far-Off Things .
- An earthborn background gives you Citadel: Old Friends .
Citadel: I Remember Me
How to Get It : return to the Citadel and ride the Docking Bays elevator to C-Sec Academy
When It Is Available : After completing any of the first three post-Citadel, plot worlds (Noveria, Feros, or Therum); cannot be triggered after you leave the Citadel after being grounded
Where It Takes Place : Citadel Docking Bays
Special Notes: Must have 7 Charm and 7 Intimidate to see all dialogue options
If you have a colonist background, an additional assignment can be triggered during your return to the Citadel after you have completed any of the first three post-Citadel, plot worlds (Noveria, Feros, or Therum).
After leaving the Normandy , ride the Docking Bays elevator down to C-Sec Academy to receive a transmission from Lieutenant Girard about a woman who was rescued from batarian slavers a few weeks ago.
Her story is especially resonant to you, since she’s not only from your home planet of Mindoir, but she was also kidnapped during the raid on your town that claimed the lives of your parents.
Because of the trauma she suffered at the hands of the batarians, the woman has suffered a mental breakdown. Even worse, she’s got a weapon and is in danger of using it. Agree to help Girard with the woman, who is in the docking bays.
He gives you a syringe containing a sedative that will knock her out and allow medical personnel to help her. This triggers Citadel: I Remember Me . Its first task, Report to Girard is already complete; the second task is The Needle .
The Needle
Go to the docking bays to find the woman, whose name is Talitha. She’s obviously mentally traumatized by her ordeal; she’s speaking in the third person almost incoherently.
You need to get close enough to Talitha to either use the sedative on her or give it to her so she can use it herself. To do that, you need to take steps toward her, but if she becomes agitated, step back.
Talitha is not in her right mind, and she’ll use that pistol if she feels threatened.
Engage Talitha in conversation until you start seeing persuasions (assuming your Charm and Intimidate skills are high enough. Use the persuasions whenever they are available, and you’ll be able to step toward her safely.
Eventually, you get close enough to her to either use the sedative on her forcefully, or you can hand it to her so she can use it on herself. After the sedative is administered, the next task ( Report to Girard ) is triggered.
Report to Girard
After Talitha has been sedated, return to Lieutenant Girard and tell him that the situation has been resolved. This completes the assignment.
Citadel: Old, Unhappy, Far-Off Things
How to Get It : Must have a spacer background; speak to Zabaleta in the Wards access section of the Citadel
When It Is Available : After completing any of the first three post-Citadel, plot worlds (Noveria, Feros, or Therum); cannot be triggered after you leave the Citadel after being grounded
Where It Takes Place : Citadel Wards Access
Special Notes: Need Charm of 4 or Intimidate of 5 to see all dialogue options
Citadel Wards Access
After completing any of the first three post-Citadel, plot worlds (Noveria, Feros, or Therum), return to the Wards access section of the Citadel to find a man named Zabaleta, who hits you up for 20 credits.
His disheveled appearance gives the impression of a homeless drunk, but he claims to know your parents from serving with them on the carrier Einstein. Speaking to Zabaleta triggers Citadel: Old, Unhappy, Far-Off Things and its first task, Call Home .
Zabaleta claims to know your mother.
Call Home
Return to the Normandy and use the comm terminal in the Normandy ’s Comm Room to contact your mother on the dreadnought Kilimanjaro .
Regardless of the dialogue options you choose, she confirms Zabaleta’s story and tells you that he was severely emotionally traumatized by the aftermath of a batarian raid on Mindoir when you were just a teenager.
She urges you to encourage Zabaleta to go to the Veterans Affairs Office and get the help he needs. This completes the current task and brings up the next one, Speak to Zabaleta .
Speak to Zabaleta
Return to the Wards access area of the Citadel, where Zabaleta is still waiting.
Speak to him until you see two persuasion options, both of which convince Zabaleta to go to the Veteran’s Affairs Office and successfully complete the assignment, earning you a Paragon or Renegade bonus, depending on which persuasion you use.
You can also choose to answer with the following non-persuasion options, none of which convince Zabaleta to get help:
I’ll give you 20 for food : You open a line of credit at a grocery store for Zabaleta to get food, but not alcohol. This completes the assignment and earns you a Paragon bonus.
Take the money
: You give Zabaleta 20 credits and complete the assignment. You do not receive a Renegade or Paragon bonus by choosing this option.
Screw you : You refuse to listen to any more of Zabaleta’s sob story, and you don’t give him any credits either. This completes the assignment and earns you a Renegade bonus.
Citadel: Old Friends
How to Get It : Must have an earthborn background; meet Finch in the Lower Wards
When It Is Available : After completing any of the first three post-Citadel, plot worlds (Noveria, Feros, or Therum); cannot be triggered after you leave the Citadel after being grounded
Where It Takes Place : Citadel Lower Wards
Special Notes: Need a Charm of 8 or an Intimidate of 8 to persuade the turian guard; need a Charm of 6 or an Intimidate of 6 to persuade Finch.
Citadel Lower Wards
When you return to the Citadel after having completed any of the first three post-Citadel, plot worlds (Noveria, Feros, or Therum), you can meet and speak to a disreputable fellow named Finch in the Lower Wards between the lower markets and Chora’s Den.
You don’t recognize Finch, but he recognizes you as a former fellow member of the 10th Street Reds, a gang back on Earth, and he’s sure that’s not an element of your past that you want made public.
In exchange for his silence, Finch wants you to speak to a turian guard in Chora’s Den and arrange for the release of Curt Weisman, another Red who was caught possessing illicit narcotics in turian space.
No matter how you complete this first conversation with Finch, it triggers Citadel: Old Friends and its first task, Find the Turian.
Finch knows something about your background that you’d probably prefer to keep quiet.
Find the Turian
The turian guard you need to speak with is in Chora’s Den. Speak to him to find out that Weisman wasn’t picked up for narcotics possession, he was caught attempting to poison turian medical supplies, an obvious hate crime that carries a sentence of life in prison.
After speaking to the turian guard, you find out that Weisman’s crime was much more heinous than you had been led to believe.
There are three ways you can respond to the turian guard:
I need your help (Paragon persuasion): If you have the necessary Charm skill, you can persuade the turian guard to release Weisman by implying that you’re using him as bait to entrap more powerful criminals. This completes the assignment and earns you a Renegade bonus.
Make it negotiable (Renegade persuasion): You threaten to kill all of the turian’s fellow guards if he won’t release Weisman. This completes the assignment and earns you a Renegade bonus.
Non-persuasions : Advancing the assignment by using any non-persuasion options on the turian guard causes Finch to show up in Chora’s Den and interrupt. Finch vows to drag your name through the mud and get your Spectre status revoked, which brings up another set of dialogue options:
Finch blackmails you with your own history if you don’t manage to persuade the turian guard to release Weisman.
This won’t help you and So what? (Charm and Intimidate persuasions): These persuasions cause Finch to back down and realize that he has no leverage over you after all. This completes the assignment and earns you a Paragon and/or Renegade bonus, depending on which persuasions and dialogue options you choose.
You can’t do this and This is pointless! (Paragon and neutral options): Finch threatens to out your past if you don’t pay him 500 credits.
This gives you a pair of persuasions (which lead to identical outcomes as the persuasions described in the previous paragraph), the option to shoot him (which leads to an identical outcome as described in the next paragraph), and an option to pay him (which completes the assignment and earns you a small Paragon or Renegade bonus, depending on your dialogue choices).
(Shoot him) : You pull out your pistol and shoot Finch to death on the spot, impressing the turian and completing the assignment. This earns you a Renegade bonus.