Does it matter who I send to repair the tower on Palaven's moon?

Question

I'm doing the mission where you're sent to Palaven's moon to rescue the Turian primarch, you need to repair a communications tower. I have the option to either send James or Liara.

Does the progress or outcome of the mission change at all depending on who I choose? Am I at risk of losing anyone? I know this seems kind of weird to ask so early in the game, but after having so recently finished ME2 and having to choose people for the Suicide Mission (and this is war, y'know), I'm a little paranoid.

Answer 1

It makes no difference. It just comes down to who you want by your side while you fight off the wave of husks, an event that lasts only a minute or two. After that, your party member will rejoin you.

If you could lose a party member this way, I would have happily used it to kill off James Vega.

Answer 2

Surprisingly, yes. The more technical minded Liara will complete the objective faster then the meathead James. This will result in one extra round of husks because James is far slower then Liara about fixing things. He'll succeed of course but you and Liara will face extra husks for your troubles. But no, you won't lose anybody.

This happens later on in other missions but if you're tech heavy (such as having both Tali and EDI in the squad) it doesn't matter.

Answer 3

Unlike in Mass Effect 1 or 2, in Mass Effect 3, all characters are equally competent at hacking, decrypting, and repairing anything you might find in the world.

In Mass Effect 3, the game likes to force you to temporarily give up one of your squadmates to make a certain "Defend" segment harder. Ultimately, there is no effect, as your squadmates "serendipitously" always finish as soon as you kill the last enemy.

Funny how that works.