James Vega

### Desciption

James Vega is an extremely muscled human male of Latino decent, with brown eyes and hair he keeps in a short mohawk. He also sports a number of tattoos, primarily on his back, neck, upper arms, and chest.

Vega is a loud, brash man, with little filter. He often likes giving people nicknames, such as "Scars" for Garrus Vakarian and "Lola" for Shepard. He also works out often, likely as a way to alleviate stress and other negative feelings, and is very proud of his muscles and pull up record.

### Early Life

James' relationship with his father went downhill after his mother died and his father began to use red sand.

At the age of 17, James joined the Systems Alliance Marines in 2176 at the encouragement of his Uncle Emilio. After signing the recruitment papers and returning home, his father Joshua sent James out to pick up a package for him. After meeting with a shady dealer, the police went to move in on him, forcing James to evade their pursuit. When he finally returned home, the package turned out to be red sand for his father's habit.

Angry at being used, James told his father that he won't be helping anymore and that he was leaving. Joshua revealed that he knew James had just enlisted, and threatened to reveal his actions and destroy his chance at a military career.

When James when to his Uncle Emilio, the older man reassured James that if his father went to the Alliance, he'd only be outing himself, and exposing the fact that he used a minor for his drug deal- something that would hurt Joshua, not James. Emilio went on to tell James that only he could choose how to live his life.

### Fehl Prime

Some time after the first *Normandy's* destruction in 2183, Vega was assigned to the remote colony of Fehl Prime. Like many fellow soldiers, James looked up to Commander Shepard as a role model, and was on his way to following in her footsteps- already being a member of the Alliance special forces. He served there for two years. While there, he met fellow future *Normandy* crew member Steve Cortez, whom he calls "Esteban" (a Spanish version of Steven, by way of the Greek "Stéphanos").

In 2185, the colony was attacked by Collectors, James found himself betrayed by a Cerberus mole and forced to choose between saving the colonists or intel that could be critical in dealing with the attacks and disappearing colonies- a choice that went against his own ingrained beliefs of not leaving anyone behind.

When Vega was debriefed on the Citadel and promoted, but struggled to live with the guilt- compounded further when shortly afterwards Shepard and the crew of the *Normandy* SR-2 destroyed the Collector threat.

### The Annihilation of the Alpha Relay

Vega took up a short residence on Omega, attempting to salve his feelings of failure and guilt in gambling and alcohol. When news of Commander Shepard being blamed for the destruction of the Bahak system broke, James got into a fight with a number of batarians. During his escape, James Vega ran into Admiral David Anderson, who commented on how difficult James had been to find. Despite the marine's initial refusal to be given any orders, he accepted when he learned that Anderson needed him to guard a very special prisoner: Commander Shepard herself.

## Mass Effect 3

### Escaping Earth

On June 19th, 2186, James Vega was tasked with escorting the imprisoned Commander Shepard to an emergency Alliance defense committee meeting, which was interrupted by the Reaper invasion of Earth. He, Shepard and Kaidan Alenko were able to escape Earth on board the *Normandy*, along with Joker, EDI, and the workers who were on board at that time. James loudly protested leaving Earth, but the newly reinstated Shepard overruled him, pointing out that they could not expect to defeat the Reapers (or even drive them away from Earth) without help.

When he saw that Shepard had successfully evacuated off Earth, Admiral Hackett redirected the *Normandy* to the Mars Archives. James joined Kaidan and Shepard as they attempted to locate critical intel while facing off against Cerberus troops. Vega ended up crashing his shuttle into the Cerberus infiltration unit "Dr. Eva Core's" own escape shuttle and prevented her from escaping with the Prothean data. Unfortunately, this was not before Kaidan was critically injured by the android. In a rush to save Kaidan's life, Vega slung the robot's body over his shoulder and took it with them.

### The Citadel

Vega was disgusted by how completely isolated from the horrors of the war that the civilians on the Citadel were acting, and reluctantly admitted that leaving Earth was the right call. He was quick to add that he was anxious to return to Earth, but he would follow Shepard's lead.

Some time later, Shepard and Vega had a friendly sparing match. As they danced around each other, James gave Shepard a quick run-down of his own military career. Shepard, dodging around Vega's blows, accused him of having a death wish for choosing to save the intel on Fehl Prime and told him that he needed to get past his choice and stay focused on what was needed from them now. After their match, James decided on "Lola" as a better nickname for his Commander, rather than Shepard because she reminded him of his best friend's older sister: "Hot. Tough".

When James found himself reunited with Steve Cortez on the *Normandy*, they resumed their friendship, teasing each other across the shuttle bay.

## Every One That Asketh

### The Crash and the Journey Home

Vega was on board the *Normandy* when they received orders to get beyond the Charon Relay at the end of the Battle of London. Like the rest of the *Normandy* crew he was stranded on 1002315 Williams for four months, while they worked to get the ship space-worthy again. He was also ecstatic when Tali was able to reactivate the Exodus Cluster Relay, shouting “Wooooooeee! Time to go home, ladies! *Hasta la vista*, Exodus Cluster—Earth here I come!”