The Collectors, an enigmatic four-eyed insectoid race residing beyond the mysterious Omega Four mass relay from where no ship ever return, began abducting entire human colonies by the events of "Mass Effect 2" on behalf of the Reapers. Shepard, who had been killed in action during a surprise attack by Collector forces at the beginning of "Mass Effect 2", is reconstructed and revived by Cerberus in the year 2185, following a complex cybernetic engineering process which lasted two years. Shepard sets out to assemble a team of skilled individuals from across the galaxy for a suicide mission into the Omega Four mass relay to stop the Collectors from harvesting more human colonies.