Zaeed Massani

Zaeed Massani
Mercenary Veteran
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Voice Actor	Robin Sachs
Appearances	Mass Effect 2 Mass Effect 3

“Rage is a hell of an anesthetic.”

Zaeed Massani is a feared, respected bounty hunter and mercenary soldier. Cerberus has contracted Zaeed to assist Commander Shepard in the mission to save mankind. In exchange, Zaeed requires help to complete another mission he had accepted beforehand, which is to liberate an Eldfell-Ashland Energy refinery from Blue Suns control.

Zaeed is only available through the Zaeed - The Price of Revenge DLC pack.

Mass Effect 2

Weapon proficiencies

• Assault Rifles
• Sniper Rifles

Powers

Class: Mercenary Veteran  Concussive Shot  Disruptor Ammo Unlocked at Concussive Shot 2  Mercenary Veteran  Inferno Grenade Unlocked when Zaeed is loyal.

Dossier

Zaeed Massani is notorious as the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter and mercenary soldier. After Zaeed is hired by Cerberus, Shepard is instructed to go to Omega to pick him up. Heavily scarred and well-equipped, he joins the mission exclusively for the money being paid to him by Cerberus. During his loyalty mission, he reveals that he co-founded the Blue Suns with his partner Vido Santiago, who eventually betrayed him and shot him in the face.

Cerberus sends Shepard an e-mail entitled Deal Struck with Zaeed Massani.

From: Illusive Man Shepard: We've reached an agreement with veteran mercenary Zaeed Massani. You may know the name; Zaeed has been involved in some of the best known (and some utterly unknown) military operations in the Terminus Systems, and is feared as a ruthless and relentless bounty hunter. I felt you might need a man with his skills on your mission, so I arranged to have him join you. You will find him on Omega, where he's wrapping up his current bounty. Don't worry about his fee; I've taken care of that personally.

Loyalty

Main article: Zaeed: The Price of Revenge

Upon recruiting Zaeed, he will inform Shepard that prior to his contract with Cerberus, he has another active contract that is not yet finished. He asks that the Commander fulfill this side of the contract by traveling to Zorya.

Zaeed knows Vido is on Zorya, and when the squad arrives he tells Shepard about his conflict with Vido. Upon finding Vido in his base, Zaeed intentionally initiates a compressed gas fire which eventually spreads throughout the facility. Shepard can then choose to either put out the fires, thus saving innocent workers, or pursue Vido.

If Shepard puts out the fire, Vido escapes in a gunship and Zaeed is enraged with Shepard — Shepard can convince Zaeed to work together as a team and to put his vengeance aside until the mission is complete, thereby securing his loyalty, but only with great difficulty. Otherwise, Zaeed's loyalty is not secured. If Shepard pursues Vido, Zaeed shoots Vido in the leg and then kills him by throwing a heatsink into the puddle of fuel Vido is lying in, burning him to death.

If Shepard travels to Zorya after the suicide mission, is a Paragon, and has at least two more squadmembers left, then there will be an option to leave Zaeed to die when a metal beam collapses on him.

Mass Effect 3

Zaeed returns to fight the Reapers, provided he survived Shepard's attack on the Collector base. Apparently, a few months after the Collector Base mission, Cerberus contacted Zaeed and offered him a job. However, the negotiations went badly and Zaeed now seeks out jobs that hinder Cerberus operations.

After the Cerberus coup attempt, C-Sec gets a tip that a volus ambassador, Din Korlack, was feeding information to the shadowy organization. In reality, though Korlack had ties to Cerberus while they were fighting the Collectors, he had second thoughts and cut them after the invasion. Upon investigating further, Shepard realizes that Din was kidnapped by mercenaries led by Zaeed. Fortunately, Shepard is able to remotely give Korlack information that causes Zaeed to realize he'd been duped. Zaeed kills the other mercs and saves Korlack, who gives information about a pending Cerberus attack on a turian colony, as well as the support of the volus bombing fleet.

If Shepard failed to secure Zaeed's loyalty during the fight against the Collectors, he dies saving Korlack. Oddly enough, he won't appear on the memorial wall on the Normandy's crew deck.

Zaeed can be found at the Citadel's Refugee Docks after the incident with Korlack, pledging his support to Shepard's war effort when Shepard comes visiting. If Shepard converses with Zaeed further, the Commander can ask if he knows Darner Vosque, the Blue Suns' leader on the Citadel. Zaeed reveals how Vosque botched a mission when Zaeed was still with the Suns, getting half his squad killed in the process. The Suns didn't boot Vosque out fast enough, Zaeed narrates, and he opines he should've ended Vosque's tenure with a bullet.

As with most soldiers freelancers or otherwise fighting in the Reaper war, Zaeed stocks up on war material and provisions necessary for him to survive in the field. Noticeably, he also purchases rifle parts for a discontinued variant of the Avenger series according to recent transaction logs on Liara's Broker Terminal, possibly to restore his beloved rifle "Jessie" for the fight.

The Commander can speak with him in London before the final battle. Zaeed almost thought Shepard wasn't going to make it, and was glad to be proven wrong. Shepard checks on him, and he offhandedly brushes it off, hoping instead the Commander has one "hell of a speech" prepared to get people moving as they'll need it based on what he's seen. He says it doesn't feel like a real ground war when the enemies are taller than skyscrapers, though he feels there's no use talking about it. He ends the call with Shepard on a high note per his vicious personality: "Let's gut the bastards."

If Shepard chooses to destroy the Reapers, Zaeed is briefly shown lounging on a chair on a tropical beach with his beloved rifle, Jessie, by his side.

Mass Effect 3: Citadel

Weapon proficiencies

• Assault Rifles
• Sniper Rifles

Powers

Class: Mercenary Veteran  Carnage  Concussive Shot  Disruptor Ammo  Inferno Grenade

Dossier

Zaeed's presence in events following Shepard's clone fiasco is dependent on him surviving the attempted kidnap of the volus ambassador in 2186. He can also assist Shepard in the Armax Arsenal Arena if the license to play using him as a squadmate is purchased.

Zaeed can be found at the Castle Arcade in front of the claw game, where he is having a hard time winning a prize. A kid was crying by the game who spent all his credits on it without getting any prizes, prompting Zaeed to try his hand when the "snivelling brat" asked him to. Shepard catches up to him alone on the machine, the kid long gone by then.

If spoken to, Zaeed hits Shepard up for credits (to which Shepard can either oblige or refuse) and struggles a few more times while venting his anger towards the game's creator. He eventually manages to win a volus doll, which he promptly (and somewhat rudely) gives to a nearby asari.

Zaeed is one of the optional invites to Shepard's big party. At the first phase of the party regardless of setting Zaeed loiters by the balcony if both of Shepard's krogan associates are present, and by the fireplace if not.

At the second phase of a quiet party, Zaeed is still at the balcony if he was there earlier, but now joined by Garrus if the turian is around. They start discussing potential booby traps to be laid around Shepard's home if another clone gets the bright idea to storm the place.

If the party is set to energetic and Samara is around, however, Zaeed joins her at the far end of the kitchen, examining the wall painting while attempting to flirt with her. He surprisingly shows insight regarding the painting, claiming the following words: "It makes me feel uneasy, like when you're alone in the dark, lying in wait, and the cold wind brushes across your face like the kiss of death." He further waxes poetic about his rifle Jessie, causing Samara to misunderstand their relationship as that of a merc and a woman until Zaeed clarifies otherwise. Despite the occasional eloquence, Zaeed handles his flirting in a hamfisted manner and barely gets the hint when Samara decides that silence better suits the two friends both.

At the third phase of a quiet party, Zaeed follows through with his plans to booby-trap Shepard's apartment, optionally staying in comm contact with Garrus for ideas. He can be found near Shepard's pool bath, suspiciously crouched over something. If Shepard asks what's going on, Zaeed explains that he is setting up "arma-fucking-geddon" on the tub: a timer counts down when the trap is tripped, thirty seconds later the pool heats up to temperatures around the "surface of the sun". Shepard poses the question as to how they can use it, Zaeed replies it's keyed to the Spectre's DNA. Shepard replies that the clone's DNA would be identical to theirs, causing Zaeed to curse the "goddamned clone." He scratches out the tub trap and announces he's got ideas for the coffeemaker machine downstairs.

If the third leg is energetic, Zaeed hangs out by the bar either relaxing on the sofa or doing target practice with bottles. While other guests are dancing around, he dismisses his own abilities at it, claiming that he moves "like a greased one-legged varren." He's also dismissive of the music the "kids" nowadays are enjoying, reminiscing instead on the scars of a girl who sang on some pub on Omega.

Regardless of how the party ends, Zaeed joins the group photo when the time comes, posing next to James Vega at the back of the group.

In the morning after, Zaeed lounges around on a living room couch. He apologizes in his own way for his snoring, claiming he had that problem ever since his nose was broken. He also reports they're out of bacon - there's still dextro-bacon for the guests with that biochemistry - and figured he'd save Shepard three strips as payback for all the times the Commander saved his bacon in the figurative sense.

Trivia

• Zaeed's neck shows a tattoo of the Blue Suns' insignia, a souvenir of his time as the leader of the Blue Suns.
• The name "Zaeed" is an Anglicization of an Arabic name (زيد), and means "one who progresses and makes other people progress".
• Zaeed is one of only two squad mates (the other being Kasumi Goto) whose loyalty mission is available straight away after recruiting them. He is also one of four squad mates without a mission tied to his recruitment (the other three being Jacob, Miranda, and Kasumi).
• Zaeed is one of only two squad mates who does not have any dialogue options when the player talks to him (the other being Kasumi). Instead, he, as well as some items in his proximity, can be interacted with, prompting him to reminisce or comment on the team or his earlier missions. Zaeed will be as talkative and mission-specific opinionated as any other party member during missions, however.
• Due to a possible writing error, during Archangel's recruitment mission, Zaeed will advise Shepard to get the shutters open, rather than closed.
• The wall opposite Zaeed bears a design marked "55" with five knives firmly stuck into it. The presence of similar knives on a crate near Zaeed indicates that he has been using it as a dartboard.
• Robin Sachs, who voices Zaeed, was a BioWare regular, voicing Saul Karath in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Lord Pyral Harrowmont and Murdock in Dragon Age: Origins, and Seneschal Varel in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. One of his final works was voicing Zaeed for the Mass Effect 3 Citadel DLC.
  • Operation: TRIBUTE, one of the Weekend Challenges in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, is a tribute to Robin Sachs, who passed away on February 1st, 2013. The operation goals are earning points with the M-8 Avenger and Inferno Grenades, referencing Zaeed's old Avenger rifle and his loyalty power in Mass Effect 2.
• Zaeed's mismatched right eye and surrounding facial area appears to have been surgically grafted onto his face; it is likely the point-blank gunshot wound he sustained blew off this part of his face and had to be reconstructed.
• In Mass Effect 3, Liara's data terminal indicates several purchases Zaeed made in preparation for war. Among these were a weapon repair kit and parts for a discontinued Avenger rifle series. This suggests that Zaeed wanted to go on one final mission with his beloved rifle, Jessie.
• As with all squad members, Zaeed has unique dialogue that can be heard at various locations, during missions or assignments, or if a specific squad member is in the selected team.
• The Shadow Broker has files on Zaeed Massani which can be accessed aboard his ship.