Confirmation of some form of multiplayer component in Mass Effect 3 is prompting feverish speculation. How can Bioware possibly explain three Commanders, all called Shepard? We might just have the answer in these exclusively fabricated scenes that certainly won’t appear in Mass Effect 3: Salarian Crackers:
[Opening scenes of the game]
The Illusive Man: We’re at war. No one wants to admit it but Humanity’s under attack. Three very specific men might be all that stands between Humanity and the greatest threat of our brief existence. We need three leaders, and we need to surround them with the brightest, the toughest, the deadliest allies we can find. The team will have to be strong, their resolve unquestionable.
Commander Groucho Shepard: Well that covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself.
Commander Chico Shepard: What has a trunk, but no key, weighs 2,000 pounds and lives in a circus?
The Illusive Man: That’s irrelevant.
Chico Shepard: Irrelephant? Hey, that’sa that answer. There’s a whole lot of irrelephants in the circus.
Commander Harpo Shepard: HONK!
Miranda Lawson: Please, Shepard. Shepards. I know you distrust this organisation but you must believe me, Cerberus is dedicated to the cause of Humanity.
Chicho Shepard: Cerberus? Cerberus up some lemonade, maybe we can talk.
Harpo Shepard: HONK!
Groucho Shepard: Why, you’re the most beautiful NPC I’ve ever seen, and that’s not saying much for you. Will you marry me? Do you have any side quests with good rewards? Answer the second question first.
Chicho Shepard: And-a marry me as well!
Miranda Lawson: I can’t marry both of you, that’s bigamy.
Groucho Shepard: Yes, and it’s big of me too!
Harpo Shepard: HONK!
[The Shepards and Miranda are pinned down by enemy fire while investigating a research facility]
Groucho Shepard: Hello, Normandy? Three men and one woman are trapped in this building. Send help at once! If you can’t send help, send two more women! No good, they’re not receiving. Someone has to flank those heavy weapons and take them out.
Chico Shepard: I wouldn’t go out there unless I was in one of those big iron things, go up and down like this… What do you call-a those things?
Miranda: Tanks.
Chico Shepard: You’re welcome.
Harpo Shepard: HONK!
[The Shepards confront the gravest threat the galaxy has ever seen]
Reaper: We are legion. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom. You cannot even destroy any part of us.
Groucho Shepard: Oh yeah? One morning I shot a Reaper in my pyjamas. How it got in my pyjamas, I don’t know.
Reaper: My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation – independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence.
Groucho Shepard: Yes I can, you’re just some alien vessel.
Chicho Shepard: An alien what?
Groucho Shepard: Not an alien what, an alien vessel. Don’t you know what vessel is?
Chicho Shepard: Sure I can vessel!
[Starts whistling]
Harpo Shepard: HONK!