Jacob Taylor

Jacob Taylor was a human biotic and a former Alliance Marine who served as the armory officer of the Normandy SR-2 during Commander Shepard's campaign against the Collectors. A highly experienced fighter skilled with both weapons and biotics, he worked closely with Miranda Lawson, first as her informant and later under her command. Calm and principled, he often acted as a voice of reason aboard ship even as his unease with Cerberus deepened.

Alliance service and disillusionment#

Born in 2157, Jacob joined the Alliance military and served for a time with the Corsairs, a program that contracted independent captains to handle missions outside official Alliance jurisdiction and grant the Alliance deniability. He was stationed on Eden Prime and was present for the geth attack that nearly destroyed the colony. Between that assault and the later geth strike on the Citadel, Jacob grew disillusioned with what he saw as ineffectual political bureaucracy, and after five years of service he resigned.

His path crossed Miranda Lawson's during this period; the two worked together professionally, and Jacob came to respect her even as he questioned the institutions around them. When Miranda sought him out at a low point and offered him a job with Cerberus, he was wary of the shady, pro-human organization, but the work she described, bringing Commander Shepard back, was enough to draw him in. He held lingering reservations about who Cerberus was truly accountable to, and Miranda told him he would have to decide that for himself.

Cerberus and the Normandy SR-2#

Jacob enlisted with Cerberus for a chance to serve humanity, while remaining cautious of the organization's more ruthless measures. Miranda made him her lieutenant in the Lazarus Cell, the effort to resurrect Shepard, where he handled security at the research station. When the project neared completion in 2185 and a scientist named Wilson betrayed it, turning the station's security mechs against the staff, Jacob was fighting them off when Shepard awoke. The two escaped together, and he and Miranda proved to be the only survivors of the original cell.

Aboard the rebuilt Normandy SR-2, Jacob served as armory officer, maintaining the team's weapons. On missions he was a calm and collected presence, frequently siding with Shepard and working to defuse conflict, though he carried an instinctive distrust of mercenaries that colored his view of the assassin Thane Krios. His own unfinished business concerned his father, Ronald Taylor, who had vanished a decade earlier with the starship Hugo Gernsback; a distress signal eventually led Jacob to learn his father's grim fate. He was also a potential companion for a female Shepard, and in some accounts the two grew close over the course of the mission.

Breaking with Cerberus#

Provided he survived the assault on the Collector base, Jacob came to see Cerberus for what it was and left the organization, spending a quiet period in the Mediterranean. He reconnected with Dr. Brynn Cole, a Cerberus scientist he had met through a mutual contact, who later sought his help protecting a group of researchers disaffected with Cerberus. Jacob led them to a refuge on Gellix, where a relationship with Brynn blossomed, but Cerberus tracked the group down and attacked.

If Shepard chose to assist, the Commander found Jacob wounded and holding off the assault. After the survivors were evacuated, Jacob declined an offer to rejoin the Normandy, preferring to stay with the scientists and lend his support to the Crucible project, guarding their families and providing intelligence on Cerberus. He and Brynn were expecting a child, a daughter, and Jacob resolved to be a better father than his own had been. If Shepard chose to merge organic and synthetic life, Jacob was seen with Brynn; in other outcomes he was found working alongside Alliance personnel, having left his Cerberus past behind for good.