Zaeed Massani

Zaeed Massani was a feared and respected bounty hunter and mercenary soldier, heavily scarred and well equipped, who was contracted by Cerberus to assist Commander Shepard against the Collectors. A co-founder of the Blue Suns mercenary company, he had been betrayed and left for dead by his partner, and much of his long career was driven by the work of restoring his reputation and, eventually, settling that debt. He joined Shepard's crew chiefly for the money, but stayed to fight through the war against the Reapers.

The Blue Suns and the betrayal#

Zaeed once headed the Blue Suns alongside his partner Vido Santiago, running a security outfit that dealt in gun running, extortion, and worse. As the organization grew, some of its members wanted to enter the batarian slave trade, and Zaeed vehemently opposed it. The disagreement ended when Vido shot him point-blank in the face. Zaeed survived the attempt on his life, but the wound cost him much of the right side of his face, which was later surgically reconstructed, and left him with a permanent grudge.

He drowned his recovery in alcohol and endured a stretch as a washed-up name no one would hire. Pulling himself together, he began taking advertised jobs as an independent contractor and resolved that the only way to restore his reputation was to do something big. That ambition eventually earned him work for the Shadow Broker, including a contract to crash the turian frigate Verrikan, a job he completed through stealth and ruthlessness after his small team was nearly wiped out and one of his own number turned out to be working for Vido.

In Shepard's service#

Cerberus contracted Zaeed to support Shepard's mission, an arrangement that began with a simple message announcing the deal. He took the Normandy's starboard cargo hold as his quarters, filling it with trophies including a battered rifle, a Blood Pack helmet, and a model turian frigate. He made no secret that he had joined for the money.

Zaeed had one unfinished contract of his own, which led the team to the world of Zorya and the Eldfell-Ashland Energy refinery held by the Blue Suns. There he revealed that the true target was Vido. Setting a fire to flush his quarry out, Zaeed forced a choice on Shepard: pursue Vido, or stop to save the workers caught in the flames. Pursuing Vido let Zaeed kill the man who had betrayed him; sparing the workers let Vido escape, leaving Zaeed enraged and his loyalty in doubt unless Shepard could talk him down. After the operation, the Blue Suns tattoo on his neck marked him plainly as a founder of the company he now hunted.

The Reaper War#

Provided he had survived the assault on the Collector base, Zaeed returned to fight the Reapers. Cerberus had tried to hire him again after the suicide mission, but the talks soured, and he turned to taking jobs that hindered the organization instead. Tricked into kidnapping a volus ambassador, Din Korlack, on the belief he was striking at Cerberus, Zaeed realized the deception with Shepard's remote help, killed the mercenaries who had set him up, and freed Korlack, who in turn provided warning of a Cerberus attack and the support of the volus bombing fleet. In accounts where Zaeed had not earned Shepard's loyalty earlier, he died saving Korlack.

He could afterward be found among the refugees on the Citadel, pledging himself to the war effort, and later in London before the final assault, pragmatic and even cheerful about a fight against enemies "taller than goddamn skyscrapers." He restocked his gear and worked to restore his treasured rifle, Jessie, for the battle. If Shepard chose to destroy the Reapers, Zaeed was last seen lounging on a chair on a tropical beach, Jessie at his side, the old soldier finally at rest.