The Operative

Officer Garrus Vakarian, formerly of the Turian Hierarchy Security Force, was assigned to the Wedge Defense Force in 2280 as part of the Hierarchy's officer exchange program. He was originally slated to remain aboard the Normandy for just one mission, but that mission turned out to be a doozy, and he found something in WDF service that he'd been missing as a cop on Palaven - something that compelled him to stay on until the ship's destruction eight years later. Less by-the-book than your average turian officer, Garrus still has a policeman's mentality, rather than a soldier's, in many ways.

The Rifleman

Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams, Royal Salusian Marine Corps, was proud to be part of the RSMC's long tradition of service aboard WDF vessels, in part because it was her only opportunity for a deep space posting. Her family had been out of favor with certain elements within the Ministry for War since before Earth Contact, when the family name was still Vl'%hmz, owing to an incident that befell her great-grandfather during the 1866-1873 war with the Turian Hierarchy. She carried that stigma, and a hereditary grudge against turians, until the fires of battle aboard the Normandy - and alongside Garrus - burned both of them out of her.

The Mechanic

Seconded to the WDF from the United Earth Defense Forces, Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko was part of the first Earther generation to be born with a statistically significant psionic minority. Early human psions (sometimes called by the now-deprecated term "biotics") had to be cybernetically augmented in order for their powers to manifest to useful levels, but the augmentations had severe side effects, causing the project to be abandoned after only a few years. Alenko was one of the lucky survivors to emerge with useful powers and no significant handicap (though he would be plagued by occasional severe headaches for years). A powerful telekinetic, he also has considerable technical training - the combination which earned him his nickname aboard the Normandy.

The Warlord

When he joined the crew of the Normandy as what was euphemistically called a "contractor", Urdnot Wrex's nickname was ironic; like almost all krogan encountered off their home planet of Tuchanka, he was a mercenary, pure and simple. The messy political situation on the homeworld and the ongoing decline of his species had left him bitter and cynical even by krogan standards. He fought because it was the only thing he knew how to do. As part of the Normandy's increasingly eclectic crew, he rediscovered the joy of battle and learned for the first time what it was to fight for a cause, not just a paycheck.

The Information Specialist

Kevirin'Zorah nar Irvola became part of the Normandy crew more or less by accident. The young quarian, out traveling the galaxy on his people's traditional pilgrimage, was swept up in the events of the 2280 geth attack on Salusia simply because he happened to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills to have picked up a key piece of evidence as to what was going on. A talented software engineer and computer technician even by the standards of his unusually technical culture, Kevirin'Zorah could have returned to the Migrant Fleet in triumph after the geth were routed at Salu II - but he was having far too much fun to leave the Normandy.

The Professor

Nobody really understood what Dr. Liara T'soni was doing on the Normandy at first, least of all Dr. Liara T'soni. An asari archaeologist barely out of her first century, she, like Kevirin, was pulled into the vortex of the Incursion of 2280 more or less by accident. Lacking any sort of military or spacer training, she first came aboard as a guest in what amounted to protective custody, but her determination to pull her own weight soon saw her transforming herself from a sort of unofficial mascot into one of the mainstays of the crew. Clever, resourceful, and a lot tougher than she looks, she is capable of almost Shepardian flashes of ruthlessness - though, as with her role model, she's usually just acting.

The Wheelman

Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau was the WDF brass's first and only choice to helm a ship as fast and twitchy as the SR1-class prototype, and not because he happens to be a very distant cousin of Gryphon's. Wisecracking, cynical, and carrying around a huge chip on his shoulder because of his lifelong battle with Vrolik's Syndrome, he's also in a class all his own as a pilot. He may not have lettered in track or wrestling at the Academy, but as long as he has a good enough chair to sit in and a powerful enough inertial damper on board, he can make a ship, or an aircraft, or a speeder, or a car - pretty much any vehicle - do things very few other people can even imagine. He's surprisingly good for morale, too. Just don't get him started about the whole "Joker" thing.

The Company Man

A career officer in the once-secret navy of GENOM Corporation's Military Arm, Captain Lorth Needa's shot at the big time came when he was given a task force and assigned to command one of the key missions of Operation Götterdämmerung: the assassination of Virginia Shepard. Having elegantly (by GENOM standards) accomplished this mission through the complete obliteration of the Normandy, he then lost a few points with the front office by blowing the follow-up job (the capture of Cybertron), but now he's been handed another chance to make good by doing bad. Now the pressure is on for this cold, ruthless, and relentless hunter. He knows Largo, ever mercurial, is unlikely to accept his apology a second time...