My Pitch for Wolfenstein: Youngblood 1.5

Hi Alex,

There's an old saying that says that all good things come in threes. So far, I've pitched two game remakes. One for Mass Effect and one for Star Trek. To complete this trilogy, I thought I should do something different and leave the world of Sci-Fi games behind. 

Why Wolfenstein: Youngblood ?

Back in 2019, Youngblood was not as well received as its predecessors. And here in 2025, Machinegames has finished Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This means they now have the resources to start working on the final game in their Wolfenstein series...Wolfenstein 3.

The problem is that Wolfenstein 3 is probably years away from releasing. And because of Youngblood's reception, there is not that much buzz for it (yet). So my pitch is for a Youngblood DLC/Expansion that will hopefully do something about that game's reputation and give the series an injection of activity. Also, by going the DLC route, players won't have to wait as long as they would for a full game.

The Set-Up

In Youngblood, we learn that the @ssh@ts have just lost a major battle over the Strait of Gibraltar. Whoever they've been fighting in Africa is about to cross over and bring the fight to them. In this DLC, we learn that like in our timeline the Organization of African Unity was formed in 1963.

However, unlike the real OAU, this version has only one goal...to fight and kill the @ssh@ts. And for the past seventeen years, that is exactly what they have been doing. Pushing them out of one country after another. And now they invading Spain and Portugal. In this timeline, the @ssh@ts betrayed Franco and conquered the country. 

There is, however, one major barrier between the OAU and Berlin...the French-Spanish border. The enemy has fortified this border for just this scenario....

Cue the Blazkowicz's Sisters: ...which is where the sisters come in. Due to the Jess and Soph wiping out countless @ssh@ts in Paris, things are looking up for the Resistance in northern France. They've been able to steal supplies, re-establishing/reinforce cells in other cities...etc, etc. 

The plan is to drop the Sisters in the a southern city, so they can revive the Resistance there are well. Then the revived Resistance can start chipping away at the Border from the other side. Killing key officials, sabotaging supply routes, blowing up important factories, etc, etc.

The Setting

The @ssh@ts are kind of expecting this move, so they increase security in all major southern French cities. But the Resistance outsmarts them by sending the Sisters (and their ally Abby) to Monaco. 

In this timeline, Monaco is not a playground for the rich. It was invaded and all it's bank accounts were plundered by the Reich to pay for the fortifications on the border. Then they build a big uber-concrete wall around it and turned into a Ghetto. (The European counterpart to New Orleans from the New Colossus.) 

The Real-life reason is that Monaco is relatively small. You can map out a large chunk of it, maybe all of it (relatively) easy. And it is next to the sea, so you have a build-in perimeter for the map already. The wall on one side and the water on the other. And by making it a separate map, you don't have to mess with the pre-existing ones. Back to in-game...

...The Resistance also picked Monaco because it has a harbor. This allows for a supply line from the OAU. And once the Sisters help free the city, they can hijack the Wall's defenses and turn them against the @ssh@ts. 

The Secondary Plot-line

After liberating Monaco, the Jess and Soph go back to Paris. And here comes a chance to shake up the Status Quo if you've complete the main campaign already. Once you've done that, and completed all the side missions, there's not much reason to keep playing the game. Post-endgame, it just become a lot grinding to level up. 

The idea for a the secondary plot-line is to do a partial reset of the Paris maps to give players who have finished the campaign more Post-endgame content.

The Plot:  

While the Sisters were away, a new Uber-@ssh@t arrived in Paris. He ordered all the codes changed (the codes for the doors in the Brothers, the drone dispenser code, etc.) and had people going around placing new padlocks all over town. He also had all the entrances to underground maps sealed up. This is a major problem for the Resistance. So Abby comes up with a plan..

...which is to frame the Paris' chief @ssh@t locksmith. The current locksmith is loyal to the @ssh@ts, but his aide is a Resistance spy. She sends to Sisters on a couple of missions frame the locksmith and make the enemy think that its the other way around. Once the @ssh@ts execute the locksmith, the spy will be promoted to take his place.

That done, the Sisters must find a way to kill the new Uber-@ssh@t, so he doesn't catch on or cause more trouble. (Which is complicated by the fact that he moved into a heavily guarded apartment in New Berlin.) 

Once the new Uber-@ssh@at is dead and with the spy in place, the player can then proceed to find the new codes, destroy the padlocks and re-unlock all the underground areas. This is also where any potential expansions of the Paris map could be sneaked in. As sites for side-missions unlocked by this new key spy. (*Moans at that pun.*) 

And that's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

My Pitch For Star Trek: Elite Force - Legendary Edition

Hello World, 

So it's been a while since we've had a good Star Trek game. And the Trek franchise could use a win. Fortunately, there were two games back in the early 2000's.....Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (2001) and it's sequel Star Trek: Elite Force II (2003). There is also an expansion for the first game that adds a virtual USS Voyager that you can tour and do stuff in.  

Both First Person Shooters, these games tell the story of the Hazard Team and its leader Alex Munro. The Hazard Team is an elite force of security officers created by Tuvok to help the USS Voyager survive the dangers of the Delta Quadrant. 

Elite Force II sees Voyager return to the Alpha Quadrant and the Hazard Team disbanded. Fortunately, in 2380, Alex Munro has a chance meeting with Captain Picard and the team is reformed aboard the USS Enterprise-E...

Time to move on to my Board Room Pitch...

Phase One

These games are OLD and so are their graphics. Especially the first game is VERY blocky. So Phase One is overhauling what is already there. The Legendary Edition would include both games and an extra section. 

This extra section would have the virtual USS Voyager and several mini-games that you can unlock in Elite Force II. There would be no changes to the story, with one exception...

• The one flaw in Elite Force II's story is the lack of Geordi LaForge. No offense to Dwight Schultz, who did his best with Reginald Barclay (as Chief Engineer), but it wasn't the same without LaForge. So pay LeVar Burton to record lines, please...

Phase Two

These days, computer games are expensive. Nostalgia alone is not enough to get people to buy this game. And you have to give some extra for new players. So while I would not change anything (else) in the existing games, I would add a third section of story. This would start after the end of Elite Force II. Which brings me to...

The Setting:  USS Dallas

An Excelsior-class ship seen and wrecked during the events of Elite Force II. Her crew was rescued by the USS Enterprise-E and she was send to Starbase 12 for repairs. One of the main characters, Ensign Telsia Murphy was her Chief of Security while the team was disbanded. She ended up back on the Hazard Team after Enterprise came to Dallas aid.

The Set-up:

After Voyager came home, Captain Janeway recommended keeping the Hazard Team around. But she was ignored. At the end of Elite Force II, Captain Picard tells Munro that he is going to recommend establishing more Hazard Teams on exploratory vessels. 

In the new section, we learned that this is exactly what he did. Janeway has been promoted to Admiral and is able to influence Starfleet Command's reply this time around. So this time, the recommendation is taken. 

And because what happened to it during Elite Force II, the Dallas is picked as first ship to get a Hazard Team. Munro and Murphy are thus send to the Dallas to set up the new incarnation of the team. 

The Real-Life Reason:

The Dallas is already in Elite Force II. The map is going to get a graphic overhaul as part of Phase One anyway. This means that you don't have to create the map from scratch. You can simply modify it for the third piece of story.

Another reason is because there is only one voiced character other then Murphy of the Dallas crew that survives the events of Elite Force II, Chief Engineer Katarina Scott. And she can easily be written out. I'm thinking she's been reassigned to oversee construction of the Voyager-A, giving the game a nice Star Trek: Prodigy eastern egg. 

But more importantly, once she is written out the only voice actors you need to get back from the original cast are Munro's and Murphy's. Everybody else can be (relatively) cheap unknowns for this part of the game.

The Story: 

Starting six months after the end of Elite Force II, the new campaign opens with Munro and Murphy arriving aboard the Dallas. The ship, having been repaired and refit, now looks like the Enterprise-B version of Excelsior-class on the outside.

Dallas launches and heads towards Attrexian space to see how things are going there after the end of Elite Force II. (This is where the Dallas was wrecked.) However, before they arrive, the Dallas is intercepted by a small scout-ship belonging to race called the Paloric. 

The Palorician homeworld has been invaded by a hostile race called the Xavor. And the invasion is Munro's fault....Back in 2376, Munro destroyed a space station called the Forge. The Forge had trapped many spaceships, including a Xavor scout that was on it's way back to Xavor Prime to report that Paloric IV was worth conquering and plundering. 

Now the Munro and Murphy - with help of the Dallas crew and a new Hazard team - have to find a way to Paloric IV and clean up this mess...

And that's where my pitch ends.  

So why ?

Hi Alex, 

So I've recently kicked two posts out on my blog to tell what I would do if I had the keys to kingdom of Doctor Who. Long story short, I really mixed Doctor Who and the Marvel Cinematic Universe together using the freshly introduced character of Mephisto. 

But I feel I didn't go into the WHY enough. So here we are. Starting with...

Reheated Nachos ?

This is problem with the current Doctor Who era. There is a LOT of recycling ideas. This is called Reheated Nachos by some fans. The biggest example of this is Gallifrey being destroyed in the Time War, then being restored and then being destroyed AGAIN in the Timeless Child arc. This is just lazy writing and plain stupid. And has angered plenty of NuWho fans.

Also, in my opinion, the Timeless Child arc didn't develop Doctor Who lore. It flattened it, ruined it. The Master 'happened' to find Timeless Child ? Yeah, right. It's more lazy writing. By putting a Big Bad - Mephisto - behind it you are retro-actively removing the 'coincidence/laziness' from these two big plot points. 

What Did Disney Get for Their Money ?

So far, not much....a single one special appearance by one D-list villain (Meep the Beep) and declining ratings. While the people making Doctor Who are not really listening to Disney. Yeah, I'd pull the plug as well. 

Right now, the fact that it is Disney, specifically that is giving the BBC/Bad Wolf a bag of money, is not really adding anything. If it had been a Netflix bag of money, or an Amazon bag of money, nothing major would have been lost. (Meep the Beep is not that impressive.) 

Added to that, a lot of people have turned off from having to 'do homework' to understand to the MCU movies. My impression is that not a lot people watched IronHeart. Introducing Mephisto there was a bad move. 

By making Mephisto a big bad in Doctor Who, you are now properly weaving together Disney and BBC characters. By making it a detective story, you have an excuse for exposition. And thus - if properly written - you DON'T have to do any homework. The characters will fill you in, making it the perfect starting point. 

Really, dude, you want to re-introduce Phil Coulson to the MCU...

Good point. This is another reason why I want Yelena to be the one who hears the whispers of the Fob-watch in Avengers: Doomsday. When she joined the MCU, Coulson was long dead. They never met. Hence, she is the perfect audience stand-in. 

Because - like people who have never heard of Doctor Who (or chose not to watch it) - she has to learn/puzzle together what is going on. And the audience is learning with her. It's a detective story/sub-plot and we're going with the detective and putting it together. Again, no need for homework.

And that's all I have for today,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302 on X) 

Ruining Victor's Day (Part 2)

 Where were we ?

 Last time, we ended with Coulson about to go Time Lord... (Long story, you might want to read Part 1) ...which is exactly what happens. Coulson regenerates into...a young Martin Freeman ? Yes, that would be my plan. The regeneration saves Coulson's life. But....wouldn't people have noticed Everett Ross being a Time Lord ?

No, because the Humans aren't used to turning into Time Lords. So Coulson is out cold. It is at this point that the Sisterhood of Karn arrives and uses a piece of technology called a Chameleon Arch on him. The Arch turns a Time Lord into a Human and stores the 'extra' bit inside an old-fashioned fob-watch. 

When the Doctor used the Arch, he didn't remember who he used to be and became a Human called John Smith. So Coulson becomes Everett Ross. As for how much of Ross' memories are real...? A lot. 

He became younger because Time Lord cells are much denser then Human ones. And there is only so much mass and energy to go around. So he really did enlist in the Air Force, married his (now ex-)wife and served in the CIA.

Why do it like this ?

There are lots of issues with the MCU. But IMHO one of the biggest problems is that it has lost it's heart. Putting Coulson back into the MCU is a big step towards giving the universe its heart back. And I think Freeman can pull it off. (Besides, he's already in the MCU.) Plus, this gives 'Ross' a whole new arc. It's a way to stir things up, big time. And if they do want to bring Clark Gregg back, he can portray his Life Model Decoy from Agents of Shield. It's a way to have your cake and eat it to. Time to move on to....

Avengers: Doomsday

For most of this movie, Ross is still Ross. He thinks the fob-watch belonged to his grandfather. But something is already brewing....with Yelena Belova. Back in Black Widow, all the ladies of the Red Room were exposed to anti-mind control gas. But the important thing is that Yelena was the FIRST person to be exposed. And the residue of this gas caused the fob-watch to start to whispering to her. 

At the end of the movie, Ross is horribly injured and near-death. Yelena has finally found the fob-watch and is racing to get the watch to Ross. And on this cliffhanger, the movie ends...

Avengers: Secret Wars

Yelena reaches Ross in time and opens the fob-watch. The transformation heals Coulson's wounds. His character development for this movie is dealing with having both Coulson's and Ross' memories. What could possibly make things even worse is the presence of Coulson 1.0 in the form of his LMD. Like a multi-doctor story, except different. 

Coulson 2.0's knowledge of Mephisto then becomes the spark that help the heroes to come up with a plan to defeat Victor von Doom. 

The Future

I don't know how many movies Martin Freeman has left on his contract. But when his contract runs out, Coulson regenerates again. Also, I figure that having a Time Lord added to the mix would get the attention of the Time Variance Authority. Maybe opening the door to a season 3 of Loki ? Other then that, who knows ? *Touches nose* Who knows ? 

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302) 

Mephisto All Along (Part 1)

Or...The Plot that  I think Disney and Bad Wolf should write. But won't have the balls to, because...(copyright) lawyers. 

Okay, the Whoniverse is Earth (Dimension) 5556. Marvel had the Doctor Who comic right from 1979 until 1999. So it is part of the comics that form the basis of the MCU. With that technical detail out of the way, where did I get this idea...

Recently I watched two ScreenCrush videos about IronHeart. The first was about who (else) made a deal with Mephisto, while the second was about possible future plots created by the show. And that was when a possible road map sprang into my head.  

Basically, this is what I would do if Doctor Who went forward. As for what the deal is with the red text...I wrote a version 1.0, but then had some addition ideas. So now you're reading version 1.1. Is it any good ? Well, I hope you will read it and decide for yourself. So enough preamble and on to...

The Plot

Our plot starts in the days of ancient days of Gallifrey. Here, Mephisto make a deal with two of the planet's Founding Fathers...Rassilon and Omega. But he does not succeed making in making a deal with Tecteun, who is too busy with her Timeless Child experiments. 

This deal is why (as stated in the episode The Five Doctors)  the official history say that Rassilon was a great leader, while the myths say he was terrible tyrant. The myths are true, because the Mephisto's influence was corrupting Rassilon (and many of the ancients Gallifreyan/Time Lords, who were a pretty evil bunch).

And then Tecteun succeeds. She adds Regeneration to the mix. Now, when you make a deal with Mephisto, you're stuck with him for life and the afterlife. Humans only have ONE life. So the deal sticks. 

But in the End of Time (Part 1) the Tenth Doctor talks about regeneration to Wilfred Mott. And he says it's like dying. Everything he was dies and some new man saunters away. My take would be that because both the personality and the body that made the deal is lost, the deal doesn't stick. Humans are stuck with the deal forever, Time Lords are stuck for one Incarnation. They regenerate, the deal expires.

Which Omega figures out. More important, he starts broadcasting his theory far and wide. To all his people, who then start using this loophole to get out of their deals. Mephisto's control of Gallifrey is crumbling. 

In revenge, Mephisto makes Omega lose his marbles and manipulates the last few people he still has control over exile Omega into an alternate dimension...which is the place that The Rani was trying to liberate him from in the Reality War.

After the last of Mephisto's influence is gone, Rassilon then white-washes the history book to make it seem like he brought Gallifrey out of it's dark ages. And to score PR-points, he starts a campaign against evil. He destroys Earth 5556's copy of the DarkHold, he wipes out the local version of the Symbiotes, gets rid of the vampires, fights the Racnoss, etc, etc.

All of this turns around Gallifrey's image. And Mephisto sees this happening. Between losing the planet and them suddenly being know as ancient, powerful good guys, he is pissed. But then he finds the perfect person to make a deal with. The person who will let him wipe out the Time Lords. DAVROS. 

He gave Davros the knowledge to create the Daleks. And the downside, the cost for Davros of this deal is pretty obvious. The missing half of his body, the wheelchair, the mutations and the blindness. The whole Last Great Time War was Mephisto trying to get rid of the Time Lords. Except, it didn't work. Yes, they suffered a great deal. Yes, they went through the Hell of war. 

But as we saw in The Day of the Doctor, they survived. Thanks to the Doctor and Clara, with an assist by UNIT and the Zygons, they found hope. So he has to try again. His new plan...placing the Timeless Child files some place where he knew The Master would find them. And this time, it did the trick.

How to weave all of this into new episodes ? 

Originally, my plan was for a single page of the DarkHold to be the McGuffin that starts the plot. But that was slightly off, so....The Doctor is trying to figure out the identity of The Boss. The Boss not only employs Beep the Meep, they also own the Time Hotel. 

My plan is for Mephisto to be The Boss. So, why did M send Anita Benn to help the Doctor in The Reality War ? Well, he wasn't being kind. He didn't want Omega to tell the Doctor the truth about Gallifrey's ancient times. 

Following a trail of clues, the 16th doctor - played by Billie Piper - finds a single page of the DarkHold in the Gallifreyan archives. Which make the Doctor decide that she needs a companion....

Who I think the companion should be....

This whole thing is so unhinged already that I figure it's a case of Go Big or Go Home. So my pitch....Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson.

How would that come about ?:

The Doctor recognizes the page of the DarkHold and realizes that they will need an expert of Earth 616. (We learn that the Doctor has watched all of Agents of Shield and Agent Carter.) But the Doc also realizes they can't just pluck some random person from that universe. Fortunately, there is another option...

In the two parter Dark Water/Death in Heaven, Missy aka The Master tried to turn all of Earth's dead people into Cybermen. As part of that scheme, she used a piece of a supercomputer called the Matrix. A supercomputer designed to store the minds of dead people. 

That Matrix hard-drive was confiscated by UNIT and is still sitting in the Black Archives. So the Doctor snatches Coulson from the end of his life. Events from the Agents of Shield episode The End are not altered, nor are Seasons 6 and 7 of Agents of Shields. 

The only thing that is altered is that it was only Coulson's body that died. Everything else is safely in the Matrix. The Doctor grows Coulson a new body, one that lines up with Clark Gregg's current age - the body being older due to having to work with Earth limited technology - and they are off to the races...

The New Bit

Following more clues, 16 and Coulson eventually find their way to the planet of Karn. Home to the Sisterhood of Karn. The sisters are a religious order who guard an eternal flame and the secrets of Regeneration. The Sisterhood survived the Master actions and we learn that they have another page from the DarkHold.

Back in the days of ancient Gallifrey, the Time Lords removed two pages from the DarkHold as part of the study to figure out how to destroy it. One for themselves and one for the Sisters. The Time Lord page is the one the Doctor found in the archives. The Sisters used their knowledge to create a Mephisto detector with the DarkHold page as its power source.

The Sisters can't kill Mephisto, but they've figured out how to exile him from their universe. This is why he has taken on the alias of the Boss. He needs henchmen to his work. And he uses the Time Hotel to get around. Because if he used magic to move around, the Mephisto detector would go off and the Sisters would exile him.

The Conclusion

The Doctor sacrifies herself to use Regeneration energy to destroy the Time Lord page - exposing it to regeneration energy is how the ancient Time Lords destroyed the book back in the day - and becomes the 17th Doctor. 

This gives Coulson an opening. Using a spell her got from the Sisters, he goes back to Earth 616 and drags Mephisto along. This kills Coulson and leaves Mephisto locked out of Earth 5556 (again). But the Sisters have one last trick up their sleeve.

The Time Lords have a piece of technology called a Chameleon Arch, which can turn a Time Lord into a human. But the Sisters have figured out how to do the reverse. So Coulson regenerates into....and that's all we have time for today. To be continued...   

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka @Dantes74302) 

My Pitch For Mass Effect Andromeda 2.0

 

Hi Alex,

First of all, I know that the tradition is to make an elevator pitch. But this subject is too long. So let's call it a boardroom pitch. And thanks for listening to my ramblings. So, here we go...

Boardroom Pitch for Remaking ME: Andromeda

To begin with, the folks at BioWare have made it clear that Mass Effect 5 will be a sequel to both the original trilogy and Andromeda. I'm not making this up, Mike Gamble - the big cheese himself - has said this. 

The problem is that to do that to properly, you will need to able to import choices from Andromeda into ME5. 

Now, I know that there are probably Andromeda critics thinking that there can't be that many. Or that they aren't that important. Well, let's see what I can think off from the top of my head. Ready ?

1. Tell me about your Ryder. Scott, Sara, somebody custom to your play-through ?
2. How is your Ryder doing in the romance department ?
3. Which loyalty missions did you do ?  
4. How did things work out with the Krogan for you ?
5. Did you cover for the Asari Pathfinder or reveal the truth ? Did you let her stay or replace her ?
6. Who rules Kadara Port these days ? 
7. Did you get all the golden worlds to full viability ? 

And I'm sure there are more waiting in the wings. But this is where we hit a major issue. Because Andromeda is runs on the Frostbite Engine, whereas ME-5 will be a Unreal Engine game. And those two pieces of software are not compatible. As things stand, you cannot import an Andromeda game save into Mass Effect 5.

But dude, Andromeda sucked anyway. They'll just do an interactive recap comic like they did before.  

First of all, I know that Andromeda was not everybody's cup of tea, but that is just rude to people who did like it. Keep it polite, please. Second, that would be a long comic. And if you know nothing about Andromeda, you'd be taking shots in the dark. Not to mention the simple fact that making Andromeda 2.0 - a Unreal Engine redo - might crank up Andromeda's sales numbers.

There is also a long-term argument to be made. Andromeda 1.0 came out in 2017...now, let's say ME-5 comes out in 2029 and is a giant hit. ME-6 gets green-lit and releases in 2035. That's great, but what if you want to do another Legendary Edition ? One that collects Andromeda, 5 and 6 ? 

As the last couple of years have taught us the hard way, the video game industry can be a volatile place. In 2040, are there still going to be people who know Frostbite ? Or it is going to be as obscure and forgotten as both the planet and code of Kobol ? (If you get the reference, good on you. If you don't, see what I mean ?) It's going to be much easier to upgrade Andromeda if it's already in (a version of) the Unreal Engine. 

Finally, anything you bring over from Andromeda to ME-5 is going to have to be redone from scratch anyway. Basically, if you don't redo Andromeda, you'd end up teasing the people who did like it with a game they'll never get. You risk turning off the Andromeda fans from your franchise. 

And for those complaining about Andromeda's writing....Who knows what other changes can be hung off this redo ? Which brings up to the big question....

Who Would Do This Remake ?

BioWare has recently laid off a lot people. And they are going to have their hands full with ME-5 for the next couple of years. If they are supposed to do this after ME-5, it's going to take forever to come out. My suggestion would be to outsource it. But to who or whom ? One word....Obsidian. Why ? 

1. Fallout: New Vegas proved that Obsidian can make games in franchises they didn't start and get the flavor right.
2. Obsidian made The Outer Worlds in Unreal Engine. Not only do they know the engine, they have the chops and knowledge to do a space RPG. Which brings us to reason 3...
3. Availability. Once Outer Worlds 2 is out the door - which will happen this year - Obsidian would be able to start this project. Let's look at some other options...
1. Machinegames....Just finished Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, now knee-deep into making the final Wolfenstein game.
2. Bethesda....Hands full remaking their own old titles. And we don't want a game full of glitches and bugs.
3. EA....simply don't trust them to get it right. 

Also, if anybody could tweak the writing in Andromeda, my money would be on Obsidian. And let's circle back to the long-term roadmap above. Andromeda wouldn't have a hard deadline. You could release ME-5 in 2029 and then drop Andromeda 2.0 anywhere you want in the gap between 5 and 6. Essentially slicing the time between releases.

Not to mention that with a planned release in the gap, you could add story to Andromeda 2.0. You could wrap up the loose ends of the Kett and the Quarian Ark. Yes, I know there was a novel about the Quarian Ark. But that only dealt with the virus. 

The Ryders still need to save their bacon from the Scourge and the Kett. You could even end Andromeda 2.0 with Ryder and company leaving for the Milky Way, with ME-5 showing the other end of the trip. (Not to mention that extending the story would give you even more choices for the game save to import, which would change things in ME-5 and give that game even more replayability.)

That's all I have,

Regards, 

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Shepard) 

P.S.

The Alex this 'letter' is addressed to is not a real person. It's my version of Kitty / Dear Sigmund. 

As for the pic that comes with this letter....I'm writing a Mass Effect Fan-Fic about the SSV Ain Jalut, the original SR-2 / Normandy's sister-ship, and made my own assignment patch for the ship.  

Mass Effect 5 clue in plain sight ?

To begin with, I have not played Mass Effect Andromeda. But I was curious about the game, so I've been digging around the Mass Effect wiki. And that's how I ended up reading the entry on the Scourge. Which is how ended up going into theory mode. Hold onto your hat, because it's going to be a wild ride...

The sentence that send my brain spinning was: 

The "Opposition" – the term SAM translated for the Scourge's detonators – learned their secrets from an entity called "Jheln".   

Wait a minute....Jheln ? That's a lot like Jien. As in Jien Garson, in the founder of the Andromeda Initiative. And for alien speakers, names can be a real pain to pronounce. So add a little phonetic distortion/translation trouble in there and you're off to the races. 

There is one problem. Jien Garson is...and I'm using the technical term here...dead. She was murdered shortly after arriving in Andromeda. But then I remembered Paragon7's YouTube videos. Long story short....she's been pitching the idea that Alliance has been working on an AI based on Shepard. Which made me wonder...

If there can be an AI based on Shepard, why couldn't there be an AI based on Jien Garson ?   

And if that AI, let's called her Jien 2.0, can figure out a way to travel back into time then Jien 2.0 could become Jheln. So if Jien 2.0 is a thing, what will would BioWare do with it ? I don't know. But here's....

What I would do with Jien 2.0 ?

First of all, I'm weaving several of Paragon7's ideas into this. #Thanks. Now, our AI needs a creator. Since they don't care about the rules and we've seen them mess about with AI, I'm giving that role to Cerberus. 

The story begins with them studying (what's left of) The Collector Base.  Here, they discover that there is a wormhole connecting the black hole at the center of Milky Way with the black hole at the center of Andromeda. Cerberus doesn't have the means to travel through the wormhole. But they do figure out how use the wormhole to transmit message back and fro between 2186 and 2819. 

So now Milky Way Cerberus can talk to any undercover people they have in Andromeda. (Despite the 600 year time jump.) Milky Way Cerberus infiltrates the program working on the Shepard AI, while Andromeda Cerberus steals as much info as they can on SAM.  They combine the two and the result is Jien 2.0.

This explains the who and how. Which leaves us with why.... I'm thinking the real Jien Garson is no fan of Cerberus. But Cerberus (thinks they) can program Jien 2.0 to agree with their views. That would make this AI a powerful PR tool. It's the ultimate deep fake. 

But this is where things go off the rails...Jien 2.0 finds a flaw in the shackles and manages to break out. However, she doesn't make her move right away. Instead, she steals decades of archive data from every major stock exchange in the galaxy. That done,  she hijacks the temporal transmitter and uses it transmit herself into the past. And - with the stock market info - becomes the Benefactor...

*Dun, dun, dun !* The Benefactor then hitches a ride to Andromeda when the Arks launch. Jien 2.0 also arranges for the real Jien Garson to be murdered, so she can't figure out her existence. But real twist is that it was Jien 2.0 that introduced the 'flaw' in the shackles that allowed her to escape, making the whole thing a Bootstrap Paradox. 

Jien 2.0 then transmits herself back into Andromeda's past using another temporal transmitter, becoming Jheln and founding the Opposition. That's how Jheln knew all the secrets of the Scourge.....she stole of all of Initiative's research on it before leaving. 

What after that ? Well, in my version Jien 2.0 and the Opposition would resurface as the secondary bad guys. And that is my stab at my why Liara might need a Shepard from an alternate universe. Jien 2.0 is an unshackled, time-traveling AI. She knows the histories of people, species and places. She can read people's psychological profiles and predict their moves. 

But that capacity only works for people from her native universe. No matter which ending you picked - control, synthesis, destroy or perfect destroy - Liara needs a Shepard that Jien 2.0 has no data on. A Shepard with a different history. A Shepard that Jien 2.0 can't predict. 

This would also make a good McGuffin to get Ryder on the team. Jien 2.0's (predictive) math is probably calculated on Shepard's old squadmates. Swapping (some of) them out with Tempest crew might throw her for a loop long enough for them to catch her with her pants down a few times.

And that's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)