James Vega

Lieutenant James Vega was a human Systems Alliance marine and a member of Commander Shepard's crew during the Reaper War of 2186. An experienced and physically formidable soldier, he was nonetheless unfamiliar with the political workings and seedier corners of the wider galaxy. He carried the weight of a command decision made during a Collector attack on a colony, and his service alongside Shepard, whom he regarded as a role model, helped steer him toward the elite N7 program.

Early service and Fehl Prime#

Vega joined the Systems Alliance Marines at Camp Pendleton in 2176 at the encouragement of his uncle, Emilio Vega. Early in his career he was posted to the remote colony of Fehl Prime with Delta Squad, an Alliance special forces unit. When the Collectors came for the colony's population, Vega's commanding officer fell in battle and Vega assumed command. He was forced into an agonizing choice between saving the colonists and saving intelligence the squad had recovered that might be used against the Collectors. He chose the intel, losing the colony in the process, and was left one of only a handful of survivors. He later learned that Shepard had destroyed the Collector threat without that intelligence, and the conviction that the colony had died for nothing weighed on him heavily.

Joining Shepard's crew#

After the events surrounding Shepard's actions at the Bahak system, Vega was recruited by Admiral Anderson to guard the Alliance brig that held the detained Commander. He was then tasked with escorting Shepard to a defense committee hearing on Earth, which the Reapers interrupted with their invasion. Vega and the survivor of Virmire, either Ashley Williams or Kaidan Alenko, helped retrieve the Normandy SR-2 and pull Shepard off Earth. On a subsequent mission to Mars, Vega crashed his own shuttle into that of a fleeing Cerberus agent to prevent the theft of Prothean data, a reckless stunt that revealed how little he then cared for his own safety.

Service aboard the Normandy#

Vega kept to the Normandy's shuttle bay between missions, sparring with Shepard, training, and trading banter with his friend Cortez, with whom he had served before. He developed a habit of giving people nicknames and accompanied Shepard on operations across the war, from the rescue of the turian primarch on Menae to the effort to cure the genophage. Through conversations with Shepard he confronted his guilt over Fehl Prime, and when the Alliance approached him with an offer of N7 training he was uncertain he deserved it. Encouraged by the Commander, he ultimately accepted, marking the decision with a tattoo on his back.

Fate#

If Shepard activated the Crucible during the battle for Earth, Vega survived to pay his respects at the Normandy's memorial alongside the other survivors. If the galaxy's forces could not hold and Vega was at Shepard's side in the final push toward the conduit, he was killed by Harbinger. His path reflected that of a soldier learning to live with hard choices and to follow a worthy example without losing himself in it.