Kaidan Alenko

Kaidan Alenko was a human Sentinel and a marine of the Systems Alliance, serving as a Staff Lieutenant and head of the marine detail aboard the Normandy. A biotic implanted with the troubled L2 technology of his youth, he was among the first members of Commander Shepard's squad and a steady, disciplined presence through the hunt for Saren Arterius and the war against the Reapers. (Mass Effect; Mass Effect 2; Mass Effect 3)

Background#

Kaidan was born in 2151 to a family already tied to space, his father a serving member of the Alliance military. While his mother was downwind of a transport crash, he was exposed in utero to element zero, and rather than the terminal illness such exposure usually brought, he developed biotic potential. As humanity's understanding of biotics grew, children showing enough potential were encouraged into a training program conducted at Gagarin Station, known to its attendees as Brain Camp. (Mass Effect)

There Kaidan formed a close bond with a girl named Rahna. Conditions deteriorated when the program brought in an ex-military turian instructor, Commander Vyrnnus, a First Contact War veteran who disliked humans and drove the young biotics mercilessly. When Vyrnnus deliberately broke Rahna's arm during an exercise, Kaidan lashed out with his biotics and, in the struggle that followed, killed the instructor. The program was shut down and its records sealed. Rahna, frightened of what Kaidan had done, withdrew from him, and the two parted ways. (Mass Effect)

Alliance service#

After Brain Camp, Kaidan drifted for a time before returning to the Alliance on his own terms, wanting to serve. He refused further biotic training or an implant retrofit and enlisted in the Navy, working his way up to Lieutenant and earning several commendations despite the intense migraines his outdated L2 implants caused him. His experiences left him politically savvy but conservative, cautious, and tightly self-controlled. He bore no general ill will toward other species, observing that aliens were as capable of decency or cruelty as humans, and he held that humanity, as a newcomer to the galactic community, should earn its place rather than push too hard for it. He was eventually transferred to the Normandy under Captain Anderson, where he served alongside Shepard. (Mass Effect)

Eden Prime and Virmire#

On Eden Prime, Kaidan was deeply affected by the death of his comrade Richard Jenkins, his first friend lost in combat, and the devastation he witnessed there changed his reluctance to use his abilities against living targets. Throughout the campaign against Saren he grew concerned at the Council's refusal to take the Reaper threat seriously, seeing in it the same flaws that crossed all species. (Mass Effect)

On the mission to Virmire, two of Shepard's officers became trapped in positions from which both could not be saved. Shepard was forced to choose, and that decision determined which survived. In some accounts Kaidan lived; in others he was the one left behind, and a memorial fund was later established in his name to support biotic children. Should he have survived, he resolved to make the Council heed their evidence as a fitting tribute to the fallen. (Mass Effect; Mass Effect 2)

Horizon and the years after#

After the destruction of the original Normandy and Shepard's apparent death, Kaidan, in accounts where he survived Virmire, remained with the Alliance and eventually rose to Staff Commander. Hearing rumors that Shepard was alive and tied to Cerberus, and receiving a tip that the colony of Horizon might be targeted, he was dispatched there. When the Collectors struck, Kaidan was stung and paralyzed by a seeker swarm but shook off the effects in time to be reunited with Shepard. Wary of the Cerberus association, he refused to join the mission, insisting he was an Alliance soldier and always would be, and left to make his report. Their reunion meant more if the two had been lovers, one of the romances Mass Effect offers. (Mass Effect 2)

The Reaper War#

During the Reaper invasion, Kaidan returned to assist Shepard's evacuation from Earth and joined the mission to recover Prothean data on Mars, where he was severely injured confronting a Cerberus synthetic. He recovered at Huerta Memorial Hospital on the Citadel and, by then promoted to Major in command of an elite special operations biotic company, accepted an offer of Spectre status. When Cerberus and the ambassador Udina moved to seize the Council, Kaidan was caught between his orders to guard the councillors and the truth of the plot, leading to a tense standoff with Shepard. Depending on the trust between them, he could be talked down or might be killed in the confrontation. (Mass Effect 3)

Should he have survived, Kaidan could rejoin the Normandy crew or be assigned to the wider war effort. He reflected often on the millions caught in the war and on his own service, and in the final battle for Earth his fate rested on Shepard's choices and on whether enough of the galaxy's forces had been rallied. Where he did not survive an earlier turn of events, his name was added to the Normandy's memorial wall. (Mass Effect 3)