Garrus Vakarian

Category:Normandy Crew
Category:Important Characters
Category:Turians
=== Early Life: ===
Garrus Sophronius Vakarian was born on November 13, 2153 to Evadne and Aelianus Vakarian. He has a single older sibling, Solana Vakarian. 
Garrus was taught by his father to fire a rifle at a young age. When he was a older child, he began to help more around the house as Evadne's Corpalis Syndrome became worse, and around 12 of 13 year of age he coded a special mod for her omni-tool to compensate for her deteriorating fine motor skills. 
After his basic training and mandatory service he was offered additional training geared toward grooming Spectre candidates, but turned it down under pressure from his father. Instead he entered training at the C-Sec Academy, following in his father's footsteps. Their relationship became strained due to the two of them being unable to agree on the proper way to conduct himself and handle difficult situations. Garrus was promoted to detective in 2179, one year before his father retires from C-Sec and goes into politics. 
=== Mass Effect ===
After the attack on Eden Prime, Garrus was put in charge of investigating Saren. Unfortunately due to Saren's Spectre status he was unable to gather any meaningful information before his case was prematurely shut. As he was pleading with his boss Executor Pallin for more time, he met Commander Shepard. They met again in Dr. Michel's Med Clinic and he asked to join her in her own investigation into the rogue Spectre after Shepard scolded him for his reckless shooting of one of the criminals holding the doctor hostage.
After telling Shepard about the heinous actions of Dr. Saleon, she agreed to help him find the criminal. When they cornered the doctor, the Commander prevented Garrus from executing the doctor outright, ordering him to be taken into custody to face his crimes. Garrus became extremely angry when Saleon violently refused and forced them to shoot him. Shepard told the former C-Sec agent that you can't always predict what other people do, but you can control what you do. Garrus still didn't understand, but he let it go.
Garrus was with Shepard when they confronted Saren for the final time, and like everyone else was relived when Shepard emerged triumphant from the rubble.
==== Post Game ====
After the Normandy was destroyed by an unknown ship, Admiral David Anderson took the time to tell Garrus personally about Shepard's death. It took four days for the news to fully sink in, and by then the narrative that Sovereign was a creation of the geth was in full swing. On the fifth day after the news broke (September 18, 2183) he boarded a ship bound for Omega, leaving behind the opportunities he had been given as part of the crew that took down Saren.
On Omega Garrus' team of 12 were very successful in disrupting the criminal activity, though they wisely avoided disturbing Aria T'Loak and her operations. However one of their squad, Lantar Sidonis, was captured and tortured by the Blue Suns until he was forced to lure Garrus away from their home base. By the time Garrus realized it was a trap, all but two of his team was dead with the last two died shortly thereafter. Garrus held the base for two to three days, using ammo and stims. Resigned to his incoming death, Garrus made a final call to his estranged father to apologize. Aelianus realized that Garrus believed he is about to die. To inspire and comfort him, his father told him to finish up there and to come back home, so they can sort everything out. As he did so, Garrus saw an N7 emblem on the armor of one mercenary ahead of him. Daring to hope, he told his father that he'd return when he can because "the odds just got a lot better."
=== Mass Effect 2 ===
The newly resurrected Shepard arrived just in time to save Garrus' life, though not before he was badly injured by a rocket. He recovered remarkably quickly, joking about the damage with "Some women find facial scars attractive. Mind you, most of those women are krogan." While he questioned the sanity of working with Cerberus, he immediately said that he would be right behind her, "just like old times." Garrus was reluctant to talk about what had happened with his squad, but explained what his squad had been doing, that they had been betrayed, and also that he was going to find Sidonis and take revenge. To take on the Collectors Garrus pulled some strings and got a pair of Thanix cannons, a scaled down version of Sovereign's main gun, installed on the new Normandy SR-2. Some time during the crew's preparation for the Suicide Mission though the Omega 4 Relay, Garrus got information that Sidonis had taken a new identity and was hiding on the Citadel. Shepard agreed to help him, though she seemed uncomfortable with the dark turn he had taken.
While on board the Normandy, Garrus took the opportunity to send the Helos Medical Institute some of the Collector tissue. This, in combination with Dr. Mordin Solus using his STG connections to upgrade Helos' corporate security clearance, cleared the way for Evadne Vakarian to receive experimental treatment to prolong her life.
After dealing with Sidonis, Garrus and Shepard got on to the topic of the difference between how an Alliance Ship deals with high-risk operations versus the turian military. Shepard offered to help Garrus with his stress, by testing their respective "reach and flexibility". While blowing off steam made sense (they were friends and they trusted each other), romantic feelings for both of them were already in bloom. They consummated their relationship right before hitting the Omega 4 Relay. The Normandy returned from destroying the Collectors with all hands still alive.
==== Post Mass Effect 2 ====
After the annihilation of the Alpha Relay, Garrus returned to Palaven utterly exhausted. Knowing the Reaper invasion was on the horizon, Garrus turned to his father and laid out all the evidence. Though it seemed difficult to believe, in the end Aelianus came to the same conclusion as his son. Using his political connections, the two Vakarians received token support from the Hierarchy in the form of a task force. In Garrus' own words, though it was mostly given as a sop Garrus did "everything he could get away with... and a little bit more" to prepare his people for the oncoming war for survival.
=== Mass Effect 3 ===
Garrus was on the moon Menae, acting as a military consultant when Shepard arrived to rescue the Primarch and ask for help for Earth. Garrus jumped at the chance to return to the Normandy. From there, Garrus continued to act as a major coordinator of turian supplies and personnel. When Shepard asked Garrus if Primarch Adrien Victus could be trusted to keep his word, the turian sniper replied enthusiastically yes. But if not, "we can always find a new Primarch". 
After reuniting he and Shepard resumed their relationship- with Garrus feeling that if he was going to die, he wanted to be beside her.
As the war dragged on, Shepard made Garrus her executive officer (XO) and instructed him that if he suspected indoctrination in her, he was to shoot her. In the Battle of London, as Shepard and her squad were making a final push for the beam Garrus got knocked unconscious by a concussive round. When he woke up, he was in the med bay of the Normandy. Shepard had given orders via her omni-tool to head for the Charon relay. Unfortunately, while they did make it outside the Sol system the Normandy was struck by an explosive wave from the Crucible and a number of vial systems (including EDI herself) got shorted out.
== Every One That Asketh ==
=== Act One ===
===== Retuning Home =====
After crashing on 1002315 Williams, Garrus as acting XO and the crew of the Normandy spent four months attempting to make the ship spaceworthy again. He and Tali were able to supplement their lean supply of dextro-chirality rations using a process that Dr. Chakwas pieced together to reformulate levo-protein to dextro, however the both of them lost significant weight and were in somewhat precarious health as a result. When the crew made it to the ruins of Arcturus Station after reactivating the Exodus System relay, Hannah Shepard spoke to Garrus about his mental state and suggested he reach out for help regarding his PTSD. After Dr. Chakwas administered him some medication to help him sleep, Garrus helped Tali calibrate her relay-activation system so the Normandy would be able to return to Earth.
Once at Terra One, Admiral Steven Hackett informed both Garrus and Kaidan Alenko that Shepard was alive and directed the turian to his father for more information. He and Aelianus began in earnest their work in healing their relationship, and Garrus was taken to Shepard's side and informed of her pregnancy and imminent fatherhood. The Turian Hierarchy put him to work immediately in coordinating supplies and helping organize their resources and personal; for his service, they promoted Garrus to the rank of Legate. Garrus reached out to Miranda Lawson for help regarding Shepard's medical condition. When Shepard went into labor, Garrus stood by her and together they welcomed their daughter into the galaxy. When their daughter was 10 days old, Garrus officially proposed to Shepard before the three of them were forced to evacuate the SSV Parigoria and rendezvous at the Normandy due to an assassination attempt on Shepard and the baby.
===== Saying Goodbye to Mom =====
While working on the Galaxy-wide effort of re-activating the network of mass relays, Garrus got word that his mother had survived the Reaper War, but she was unlikely to live much longer. The crew of the Normandy called in a few favors and worked to bring him to the Helos Medical Institute on Rannadril. There, he reunited with his sister and mother and introduced them to his infant daughter. His mother and father gave their official blessing for him and Shepard to marry. While planetside, Shepard experienced a flashback. Her subsequent shut down forced him to relieve Shepard of her command, leaving him as Acting Commanding Officer. The next morning, Shepard experienced an even more extreme flashback which led to him learning of Shepard's covert mission to Illium to take down the Silver Star slaving operation, and her capture and torture. Garrus spent as much time as possible at his mother's side while balancing the Normandy's administration requirements and Shepard and Vi's care until Evadne passed away three days later.
===== Mysterious Happenings and The Hunt for the Marquis Begins =====
Unfortunately, during this time Shepard's mental health continued to fray. Garrus eventually asked Admiral Hackett if the true head of the Skyllian cabal- the Marquis d'Apien- had ever been captured or confirmed killed. When Hackett informed him that no, no one knew if he was dead, Garrus asked for (and got) all the files on Shepard's mission to Ilium as well was what intel the System's Alliance had on the Marquis himself. Bringing back the mentality and identity that had served him so well on Omega, Garrus concluded that he couldn't stand the idea of this criminal getting away with what he had done to Shepard or what he was still doing to innocent people. Later, Shepard would tell him that she was afraid of what she might do if she was in a position to kill the Marquis. Garrus swore to himself that he couldn't tell her the man had survived without also being able to say in the same breath that he was dead, and if she couldn't trust herself to kill her abuser than " [her] angel will do it for [her]". 
Strange occurrences between Garrus and Shepard begin to happen; Garrus begins to hear Shepard express unspoken feelings and words to him as though she was using subvocals. During the Christmas party of 2187, the two of them experience entanglement for the first time. 
===== Award Ceremony and Second Attempt on Shepard's Life =====
On December 7, 2187 a memorial service for those lost in the Reaper War was held on the Citadel. Among those who received the highest honors were the members of the Normandy. The crew was awarded the Unit Medal of Valour by the Alliance, and the Iridium Star by the Council. Garrus himself was awarded with the Lovell Award by the Alliance and the Nova Star by the Turian Hierarchy (both for Excellence in Command), the Nova Cluster (most honorable conduct-Turian Hierarchy), the Tower and Sword (excellence in tactics), and the Iron Crest (extraordinary valor and courage above and beyond the call of duty in the face of the enemy).
Shepard had just received her plethora of metals when a Minos assassin decloaked and struck her with a very powerful electrical blast, crying "For the Reapers!". Garrus shot the man dead almost immediately. He ended up being forced to run a diversion while Shepard was whisked away to a safe house to try to keep her alive. 
===== Beginning the Retrofit of the Normandy =====
On January 3, 2188 Garrus Vakarian was officially sworn in as co-Captain of the Normandy.