Kahlee Sanders
From FABT
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Born: |
2 May 2139 CE |
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Died: |
8 October 2241 CE |
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Species: |
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Gender: |
Female |
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Height: |
6.4ft |
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Hair: |
Blonde |
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Eyes: |
Light blue |
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Affiliation: |
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Equipment: |
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Command(s): |
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Rank(s): |
Second Lieutenant |
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Era: |
Asari Cycle |
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Battle(s): |
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- "Jack promised to watch her language in order to maintain the necessary professionalism we need from our teachers."
- — Kahlee explaining to Jeff Moreau Jack's sudden change of behavior in 2186 CE.
First Lieutenant Kahlee Sanders was a systems technician and synthetic intelligence specialist in the Systems Alliance Navy and later Systems Coalition Navy, a former member on Jon Grissom Academy's Board of Directors and Director of the Ascension program, both before and after its initial dissolution as a result of the Reaper War. Born on Earth and growing up in the Greater Texan Megapolis of the United North American States, more specifically in San Antonio, her father was Jon Grissom, a Texan and her mother, Judith Sanders, a Californian. Her father, a Rear Admiral in the Alliance Navy renowned as one of humanity's great explorers, having spearheaded early efforts by the Alliance to colonize deep space in the lead up to the First Contact War, and later led one of the detachments of the Alliance First Fleet at the Battle of Charon and the Liberation of Shanxi, was famous throughout the Alliance, giving Kahlee a larger-than-life reputation to live up to, but one that did not influence her decisions later in life, as her father was a sullen and irritable man, especially after his wife died in 2161 CE. At the age of 22 and on the same year her mother died, Kahlee enlisted in the Alliance as a systems technician and synthetic intelligence expert, having graduated top of her class in the field in 2160 CE, wanting to continue her father's legacy while forging her own: her father was against this, but at this point he had retreated from the public spotlight, having retired only a year after his wife's death and living at his home on Elysium. Despite his disapproval of Kahlee's career choice, he was proud of her, especially after Kahlee quickly became one of the Alliance's top intelligence and technical experts, a reputation that gained the attention of the Systems Alliance Science Corps, who were eager to make use of her technical expertise. In 2163 CE, Kahlee was secretly recruited to work at a a black research facility on Sidon under the purview of project director Dr. Shu Qian: under classified conditions, Kahlee was part of a team that worked on artificial intelligence, but in 2165 CE, Dr. Shu Qian slowly began using project funding and resources to study an unknown ship discovered in the Phoenix Massing, a fascination that quickly became an obsession, with Kahlee taking notice: already dubious of the work being done on AI by the facility, she wanted to report Qian's actions to her superiors, but decided against it as she knew they couldn't be trusted, so she downloaded the data and Shu Qian's research files and fled to Elysium to seek refuge with her father.
When the base on Sidon was raided and destroyed by the Eclipse (hired by Shu Qian himself), Kahlee fears for her life and only narrowly avoids an Eclipse hit squad sent after her. He hires a krogan mercenary named Rutilak Skarr to kill Kahlee at the house, but the timely arrival of N7 and human spectre-candidate David Anderson and his handler, Spectre Saren Arterius, fight off the mercenary and force him to escape. Kahlee tells Anderson Qian was the traitor who gave up the base, but only shares this information with him, telling Saren that the base conducted biotics research, not wanting to betray the Alliance. Working together, Kahlee is given a false identity and goes with Anderson and Saren to Camala, neither of them aware that Saren is an agent of the Reapers working to stop Shu Qian from exposing what Sovereign was. Finding their only lead destroyed, forcing her to be sent away, only for her ship to be intercepted by Skarr and Kahlee taken to a refinery on the planet captured and occupied by batarian mercenaries under Edan Had'dah, where Shu Qian is also located, and Anderson and Saren stage an operation to infiltrate the refinery, with the former wanting to rescue Kahlee and extract Shu Qian, while Saren wanted to destroy the refinery to ensure Shu Qian was dead. Kahlee is rescued by Anderson just before Saren blows up the refinery, killing Shu Qian, all the mercenaries and every civilian inside, blaming the incident on Anderson in order to invalidate his candidacy for the spectres in the process. Though attracted to Anderson, Kahlee is promoted to Second Lieutenant after the incident and reassigned to a classified posting on Luna, and they both decide not to pursue a relationship. Kahlee continues to work on classified projects for the Alliance on Luna for the next ten years until 2175 CE, where she returned to civilian life, but agreed to retain her rank and position as a military consultant. In 2178 CE, she was offered a position on Grissom Academy's Board of Directors, which she accepted, and subsequently assumed the directorship over the Ascension program. She engaged in a brief relationship with Dr. Jiro Toshiwa and grew attached to the children of Ascension until the former was exposed as a Cerberus operative when he tried to paralyze autistic student Gillian Grayson and abduct her, resulting in Kahlee having to flee the station with Gillian and finally culminating in seeking refuge on a quarian ship, where it would be attacked by Cerberus commandos, only to be repulsed and the commandos killed, Gillian also saved by the timely change of heart of her father, Paul Grayson. After the incident, Kahlee took Paul into her custody and, with the help of pilgrim Lemm'Shal, tried to take him to Cuervo for questioning, only for Paul to knock both of them out, take control of the shuttle, pilot to the volus world of Daleon, land, and escape, leaving them unharmed. With Grayson gone, Kahlee had Lemm'Shal take her back to Grissom Academy and she resumed her post there.
In 2185 CE, a year after the Cerberus plot to abduct Gillian (who is now part of the Idenna crew), Kahlee remained in contact with Paul and one day receives an urgent message from him detailing his possible capture by Cerberus and he gives her detailed information on several Cerberus black sites, wanting her to leak it to the military. With the Alliance military unwilling to act on the information, she instead convinces Anderson to help her pass it on to the turian military through turian ambassador Orinia Numocus, who agrees to act on it, deploying a frigate to raid a Cerberus black site where they believe Grayson was being held and rescue him. However, by this point, Grayson had been heavily modified with reverse-engineered Reaper technology and implants and was under Reaper control, subsequently slaughtering the turian raiding force and capturing their frigate. Having lost contact with the force, Kahlee agrees to accompany Anderson and Orinia with another turian unit to the station to investigate, only to be suddenly attacked and captured by men from Aria's syndicate and brought to Omega. The Illusive Man had enlisted Aria T'Loak's help in capturing the rogue Grayson, telling her that Grayson was responsible for an attempt on her daughter's life. Forced to work together to stop Grayson, Kahlee sends out a fake distress call to lure Grayson to Omega, but the Reapers realize the trap when Grayson meets with Kahlee and he fights his way out, killing both Aria and Cerberus' men. Kai Leng offers Kahlee and Anderson a ride off the station to pursue Grayson, but they attack him instead, wanting to save Grayson: realizing this, Leng overpowers them and gives them a second offer, this time saying Grayson's condition can be reversed. Kahlee and Anderson agree, but once on the shuttle Anderson incapacitates Leng and secures him in their shuttle as they head to Grissom Academy, where they believe Grayson is headed, thinking his daughter is there. Following Grayson's attack on the station and his final death, Anderson asks Kahlee to join a research team he is putting together to study Grayson's body in order to prepare for the Reaper invasion: Kahlee agrees, and they finally kiss, promising to go on a date once the Reapers were dealt with. Kahlee goes to the Citadel with Anderson a week later to present the body to the Council in the hopes of finally proving the Reaper threat, but they still dismiss it as an advanced Cerberus monstrosity. Fed up with the Council's ineptitude, Anderson returns to Earth to finalize preparations, but leaves Kahlee to continue her research on Grissom Academy. When the Reapers finally begin their invasion in June of 2186 CE, Kahlee is the only director of the board to remain behind during the evacuation, and is still present when Cerberus troops attack the station, quickly occupying it. With the timely intervention of the Normandy Squad, Kahlee coordinates with them to evacuate the remaining Ascension program students and save them from Cerberus capture, finally escaping Grissom Academy, leaving it abandoned, and later destroyed by Reaper forces on their way to Elysium. She is subsequently enlisted by the UGC to work on Project Crucible, lending her expertise on synthetic intelligence to aid the superweapon's construction. Kahlee would remain on the Crucible during its deployment at the Battle of Sol, and had front row seats to its activation, watching the Reaper fleet die one by one from the weapon's control center.
Following the Reaper War's conclusion, Kahlee remained behind on the Citadel, aiding the reconstruction effort, learning early on of Anderson's sacrifice and death in the final stages of the battle. Remaining behind for Anderson's funeral, Kahlee remained with the Alliance Navy, and later the Coalition Navy, as a consultant until the re-establishment of the Ascension program at Epitaph Station in 2194 CE, where she resumed her position as program director. She left the service in 2205 CE out of protest for the Post-Apocalyptic War, and retired to her home in Honolulu on Hawaii where died she peacefully in her sleep in 2241 CE, age 102.