Jael Kader

Jael Kader is a former Blue Suns mercenary and freelancer currently working for Jane Shepard on the Normandy SR-2. She is somewhat quiet and reserved, preferring to prove her worth rather than boast about it. Her fighting style could be considered much the same: preferring tactical, measured assaults in both her personal and professional lives.

Early Life
Jael Kader was born on Earth in 2157, but moved with her parents (James and Evelyn) to Elysium at the age of three as part of the initial colonization force. James was a member of the Alliance Navy, and was often forced to leave Jael and her mother on Elysium as Alliance patrols across the Skyllian verge became more frequent. Jael's mother never took well to the change, and slowly but surely turned to alcohol to hide her growing bitterness towards her husband and the Alliance. Due to this, Jael and her mother were never very close, though she idolized her father, who on his few shore leaves would dote on his daughter and tell her exciting war stories. James, however, held his own resentment against the Alliance, asking Jael to promise him that she would never join. Despite the lack of a steady father figure and her mother's increasingly worsening alcoholism, Jael excelled in academics, being a candidate for the planned Jon Grissom Academy due to her studies in mathematics.

In 2176, however, the Skyllian Blitz hit. Jael's mother died fleeing Batarian troops with Jael; her father was in battle with the Alliance Naval fleet. Jael managed to survive by joining up with a small band of resisting citizens. When the battle was over, James Kader never returned to Elysium- he was presumed one of the few on Alliance ships killed in the attack, though no body was ever found.

Omega/Blue Suns Involvement
Afterwards, having nothing left on Elysium and fresh resentment against both the Alliance and batarians, Jael gained passage to Omega on a shipping freighter, intending to make her own way there as a private mercenary outside Alliance space. However, almost immediately upon arrival she came upon a Blood Pack cell trying to assassinate a human woman from the Blue Suns, and (rather stupidly) threw herself into the fray to defend her. Jael was critically wounded, but fortunate in that the woman turned out to be Jentha, an up and coming member of the Omega Blue Suns. Jentha saw that she received medical attention, but in return asked that she join the mercenary group. Recognizing her need for actual battle training, and respecting the loyalty shown by Jentha, Jael agreed.

Jael took well to combat training, and over the years became a respected and feared member of the Suns- by 27, she had achieved the rank of Centurion. Due to her upbringing, she was quieter and much more unassuming than one usually expected from a mercenary, preferring to use her analytical skills and assault rifle rather than words to prove her worth. Despite her skill, her father's sense of honor and justice still lingered in the back of her mind, and she often questioned Suns actions. However, her respect for Jentha (now second-in-command) and the loyalty that she believed she owed the Suns overrode these doubts in most cases. When Archangel's group began attacking and winning against mercenary troops, she became even more conflicted, secretly wondering how much she had compromised to join the Suns. Her disagreements with Blue Suns leadership became more frequent and more pronounced, even with her former role model.

Perhaps because of these outbursts, Kader was sent to help oversee the Gozu district on Omega. Here, for a while, she began to take pride in her job again, believing the methods used by the Suns, though sometimes morally questionable, kept order and a sort of law in at least one corner of Omega. Then the Gozu district was hit with the Collector plague. Kader's human status made her immune to the plague, but an immediate target of her fellow Blue Suns who quickly accused her of being a traitor and tried to assassinate her. Unable to fight both her former comrades and the Blood Pack, she fought her way to an abandoned apartment where she was forced to hide until Shepard and her team arrived and removed the quarantine on the area. After escaping, she learned about Shepard's involvement, and also that Archangel was presumed dead.

Due in equal parts to guilt over her activities with the Blue Suns, inspiration from the Archangel incident, and her experiences in Gozu, Jael left Omega and began working as a single, freelance mercenary back "home" in the Skyllian Verge- however, she soon became discouraged, believing she as one person was not making enough of an impact. This led her to seek out Jane Shepard on the Citadel, asking to join the SR-2's crew on the condition that she be able to leave if she felt her morals were compromised.

Normandy SR-2 Oddly, Jael's first relationship on the Normandy was forged with Cassondra Shepard, who flew her up to the SR-2 after a shared bottle of whiskey on the Citadel. Later, Cass helped her identify and track down her father, James Kader, who was alive and well as a pirate in the Terminus systems. After confronting him, Jael discovered her father had not been the Alliance hero she had imagined, and had left her and her mother on Elysium to pursue his own, morally unsavory goals. When she offered him clemency on the Normandy, he instead asked her to kill Cass and join him. Jael refused, and was forced to shoot him in self defense.

Jael remained on the Normandy for a short time, leaving when the first reports came in about the Reaper attacks on Earth. She joined the Alliance and was involved in ground operations in and around London. Her former criminal associations turned out, in the end, to have a positive effect. Through a network of other former and current Blue Suns, Jael came into contact with Zaeed Massani, who was also helping coordinate the resistance on Earth at the request of his commander, Alia Shepard. Massani lost contact with both Kader and his commander, however, and arrived at a civilian refugee camp too late to prevent her death, identifying her by the tattoo she still bore on her neck.

Jael Kader died in London while serving the Systems Alliance, 2187.

Psychological Profile
"You swear loyalty to a group, and you have to accept their morals, whether you like it or not. Stay long enough, and you get comfortable with that. I'm not doing that again."

Jael is best described as "chaotic good"- insisting on doing what she believes to be just, no matter what popular opinion or authorities say. Her past experiences have made her believe that swearing fealty to any organization or person will only cloud her judgment again. As such, she is critical and/or distrustful of the Alliance, Cerberus, and becoming too close with anyone. That said, she admires many of the Shepards for their selfless actions, and is loyal to them.

Although intent on doing the "right thing", Jael's merc background and guilt about her past makes her sympathetic to individuals with a more "gray" morality, believing that her redemption is impossible if she doesn't offer the same courtesy to others.

Jael tends to internalize her issues, and displays many of the symptoms of a high-functioning alcoholic. This is a fact she will deny tooth and nail if confronted on, however. The emotional fallout from her father's betrayal and death recently has only exacerbated the problem. She is often lonely due to her desire to remain free of close relationships, and if she was honest she'd probably admit to missing the days on Elysium when she had family and friends. At this point, that's the only thing she is comfortable lying about.

Trivia


 * Jael tends to give others on the Normandy nicknames, a remnant of her Blue Suns days. So far, she has dubbed Astor Cohen "Ponyboy" and Anders "Goldilocks".
 * Her own nickname was "Little J", a fact she finds embarrassing and now vaguely sickening due to the fact both her father and the Suns used it. She does find the fact that she is once again following a commander with a name starting with "J" ironic.
 * She still has her Blue Suns tattoo on the back of her neck, as a reminder of what NOT to do.
 * She prefers assault rifles to any other weapon. All other opinions will be laughed at and mocked.
 * She feels SarenCat to be a formidable opponent worthy of respect. Despite this, she will still continue to throw him out of her room at any opportunity.
 * Jael's current appearance is based on musician Brody Dalle