Quote Originally Posted by Vyrerus View Post
Finally got broken of that in Mass Effect 1 with the asteroid DLC. The Batarians were gonna drop an asteroid on a human colony with like 4.4 billion people. The way I read what was going on the first time, the option presented was to stop the Batarian and let the science team hostages die, or let the asteroid hit the planet. I was quite miffed when the Renegade option was saving the 4.4 billion colonists(you'd think saving 4.4 billion vs. saving 5 individuals would be Paragon, but nooooooo). Turned out that saving the scientists was Paragon, and all that happens is the Batarian leader gets away. We succeed in stopping the asteroid. It pissed me off, because it made me realize it was really a non-choice, especially when in the third game, you can run into that Batarian again, only now he's dying painfully and slowly in a refugee camp from some illness.
That's not the same Batarian. The one in the refugee camp is an unnamed terrorist who's lashing out because he blames humanity for the fall of the Batarian Hegemony. Balak (the guy from Bring Down the Sky in ME1) shows up in a different side quest, where you find out what really happened to them.

Of course, as so many things ended up in ME3, the only difference that really happens if you do or don't kill Balak in 1 is a notch on your galactic readiness rating (if Balak dies, you can't get the Batarian Fleet asset).