Hannah Shepard

### Description

Hannah Shepard is slightly shorter than her famous daughter, Commander Shepard, with slightly darker eyes, and a shorter and more blunt nose. Her dark hair is streaked with white due to her age. She assesses people quickly and effectively, and it is here in her gaze that she most resembles her only child.

### Early Life

A decedent of Alan Shepard, the second human to reach space, Hannah Shepard was born to John and Jane Shepard in 2123 on Luna. Her parents were avid proponents of space exploration and highly decorated officers in the United North American States Navy.

### Early Carrier

In 2141 Hannah followed in her parent's footsteps and joined the United North American States Navy, and specialized in tech, though her mind also made her a keen tactician. Just a few years later in 2148 Prothean Ruins were discovered on Mars, leading to the ratification of the Systems Alliance charter by eighteen of Earth's largest nations and the discovery of the Charon Relay the next year. Hannah and her parents were among those who transferred into the newly formed Systems Alliance Military, created by the pooling of the military resources of various nations.

Sometime after that, Hannah met ONI operative Robert Minkowski. Despite their differing career paths, the two fell in love and were married in 2152 by Hannah's father on board his ship, the SSV *Hawking*. Two years later, on April 11th, 2154 Hannah gave birth to their only child, Shepard. When their daughter was three, the turian Hierarchy attacked a group of humans reactivating a relay, kicking off the three-month First Contact War

In 2170, Hannah was serving on board the SSV *Einstein* when the colony of Mindoir was attacked by batarian slavers. One of Hannah's friends on the ship, Lieutenant Zabaleta, was on the ground as they fought desperately trying to reach the civilians. He developed PTSD from the horrors he saw and began drinking in an attempt to cope. Hannah and some others attempted to cover for him and encouraged him to get help, but he ended up being discharged.

Due to her engineering expertise, Hannah was the backstage lead chosen by the Alliance to assist in the design of the original *Normandy,* sometime prior to 2177. She worked closely with turian ship engineer Livinius Tarrigon and the two became close friends- notable due to the attitude of both species after the conflict less than 30 years prior. He taught her how to make *rylke* and she showed him how to make coffee.

On May 7th, 2178 Hannah arrived on Arcturus Station to attend to daughter's difficult recovery after her abduction by the Marquis d'Apen and subsequent escape after approximately six months of captivity and torture. Eventually, her daughter insisted on returning to active duty and as assigned to the *Normandy* as her XO.

### Mass Effect

As of 2183 Hannah was a Captain, in charge of the Alliance dreadnought SSV *Kilimanjaro.* During her hunt for the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius, Shepard discovered a homeless Lieutenant Zabaleta during one of her trips to the Citadel. When her daughter called her for advice after the veteran dropped her mother's name, Hannah gave Shepard a short account of what had happened to him, and asked her daughter to encourage the broken man to reach out to the Veteran Affairs Office for treatment and rehabilitation.

In 2185, after Commander Shepard's death some two years before, Hannah would turn down a promotion to Rear Admiral saying she believes serving as a Captain of the SSV Orizba is the best way to honor her child's memory. When rumors of her daughter being alive began to circulate Hannah sent her daughter a message, speculating her disappearance must have been due to the nature of her Spectre work, and chided her to sneak something through a secure channel next time.

In 2186 due to the Reaper War Hannah was promoted from Captain to Rear Admiral and was recruited for the Crucible project.

### Personal Life

Despite seeing her husband infrequently due to his work, Hannah considered her marriage "incredible". Whichever ship Hannah was assigned to was their family's "home base". Robert respected her independence; in Hannah's words " We existed in our own worlds, and created a mutual one whenever we were together.”

## Every One That Asketh

On December 6th, 2186, shortly before the Crucible's explosion, Shepard sent a message to her mother suggesting she get beyond the Charon Relay. While Hannah thought the message strange she trusted her daughter's judgment. Hannah ended up being glad she'd followed the suggestion, with the Relays offline she helped keep the sector around the Arcturus Cluster stable.

Five months later, on May 9th, the relay powered back on and the SSV *Normandy* SR-2 came through. She spent the next few days debriefing the crew, getting the particulars from Tali'Zora vas Normandy on how she'd reactivated the relay, and speaking with Garrus Vakarain, *Normandy's* acting CO. She recommended Garrus see someone for what she correctly identified as PTSD.