Amanda Kenson: Scientist of the Bahak System

Doctor Amanda Kenson was a human scientist from the University of Arcturus who became notable when she and her team claimed to have discovered that the construction of the mass relays predated the existence of the Protheans. Years later she led an expedition that uncovered evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion, and in the course of that work she and her people were indoctrinated by a Reaper artifact, turning her against the galaxy she had tried to warn.

The age of the relays#

Amanda Kenson made galactic headlines when she revealed the controversial finding that the vast majority of mass relays in the galaxy actually predated Prothean civilization. By analyzing the composition of dust trapped in the vicinity of mass relays and comparing it to the dust clouds elsewhere in the same systems, she determined that only a fraction of the relays could be dated to roughly fifty thousand years ago, and that the rest were far older. The conclusion overturned the assumption that the Protheans had built the relay network, and it placed Kenson at the center of a heated scientific controversy.

The Project and Object Rho#

Sometime after announcing her discovery, Kenson set out with an expedition team to investigate rumors of Reaper technology on the fringes of a batarian system. Her group, which she called the Project, discovered a Reaper artifact they dubbed Object Rho. The artifact gave those near it visions of an imminent Reaper invasion that would come through the system's mass relay, which the Project called the Alpha Relay. Convinced the threat was real, the Project resolved to destroy the relay by slamming a large asteroid into it, a strike that would buy the galaxy time but devastate the system around it.

Kenson sent word of the looming invasion to a friend, the Systems Alliance Admiral Steven Hackett. When Hackett later learned that she had been captured by batarians on the world of Aratoht and accused of terrorism, he contacted Commander Shepard and asked for help in rescuing her.

Rescue and betrayal#

Shepard broke into the batarian prison and freed Kenson as her captors prepared to interrogate her, and the two fought their way out together. Aboard a commandeered shuttle she briefed Shepard on the Project and Object Rho, then brought the Commander to the asteroid the Project had prepared as a weapon. There she displayed the countdown to the invasion and led Shepard to the artifact itself, promising it would supply all the proof required.

The visions it produced were genuine, but so was its danger. As Shepard reeled from the experience, Kenson drew a weapon, unable to allow anyone to stop what she now believed was the Reapers' arrival. She and her entire staff had spent too long studying Object Rho and had been indoctrinated; they now served the Reapers and would do anything to keep Shepard from activating the asteroid. Disarmed and forced back, Kenson retreated deeper into the facility and turned its defenses and personnel against the Commander.

When Shepard reached the controls and set the asteroid on its course, Kenson tried in turn to destabilize the reactor, override the engines, and at last to destroy the asteroid outright rather than see the relay struck. Raging that Shepard could not hear the whispers she heard, she pulled out a detonator in a final confrontation and pressed it regardless of anything the Commander said, and the resulting explosion obliterated her.