The Reapers:
A myth common to several cultures in the galaxy, Reapers were once imagined as space monsters that consumed entire stars. For centuries the governments of the Mass Effect galaxy pretended they were just that; a myth told in similar themes by all primitive cultures in the galaxy. As it turned out they weren't a myth, and they have recently returned to wreak havoc on the races of the Citadel once more.
It is a endless cycle to the Reapers. Primitive civilizations grow into star-crossing ones, develop along guidelines long set in place by Reapers to speed up the process (Mass Effect technology), develop into truly advanced civilizations and are then annihilated by the Reapers. To the Reapers they do this not to destroy the organics but to save them, as they are under the belief that all organics eventually build synthetics to do their bidding, who eventually surpass them and destroy them anyway. In their minds they are just imposing Chaos to order.
Each actual Reaper is a giant sentient Starship capable of annihilating entire armies by itself. Clad in armor that often times can fend off many blows from an entire fleet, Reapers are the most fearsome force in Mass Effect. More insidiously they can indoctrinate their foes through poorly understood energy fields and have them turn on their comrades.
The Reapers thus fight alongside three forces that they have already indoctrinated. The Geth are the first, a race of synthetics created by Quarians but later rebelled, bring with them a race of extreme hackers as well as highly expendable shock troops. The Collectors bring heavy hitting weapons and swarms of mechanical insects that can disable with a single bite. Finally there is the recently indoctrinated Cerberus, who brings with them cunning and brutality.
In this tournament the Reapers are going to aim for what they have always aimed for; the harvest of all advanced life, whether it be synthetic or organic. Such a ambition would naturally include nearly every race in this tournament, and thus they will accept nothing other then complete enthrallment, proccessment (meaning they are turned into a Reaper form) or destruction from their foes . Chaos forces are going to be hated and reviled on principle.
Key Terminology:
Indoctrination:
Reaper "indoctrination" is an insidious means of corrupting organic minds, "reprogramming" the brain through physical and psychological conditioning using electromagnetic fields, infrasonic and ultrasonic noise, physiological changes such as hormone manipulation and muscle control as well as other subliminal methods. In one example where Paul Grayson was about to commit suicide to end their control of his body, the Reapers released hormones and manipulated the electrical impulses within his brain to induce a feeling of triumph and happiness. In another example they shut down his rational mind and forced him to rely on his primal, subconscious one. Organics undergoing indoctrination may complain of headaches and buzzing or ringing in their ears. As time passes, they have feelings of "being watched" and hallucinations of "ghostly" presences. Ultimately, the Reaper gains the ability to use the victim's body to amplify its signals, manifesting as "alien" voices in the mind.
Again Synthetic opponents they can introduce programs that gradually converts control over to the Reapers. This is what the heretic Geth, servents of the Reapers, were planning to do in Mass Effect 2 to the regular Geth before Shephard put a stop to it.
Indoctrination can create perfect deep cover agents. A Reaper's "suggestions" can manipulate victims into betraying friends, trusting enemies, or viewing the Reaper itself with superstitious awe. Should a Reaper subvert a well-placed political or military leader, the resulting chaos can bring down nations.
Methods to induce indoctrination include any prolonged contact with the Reapers themselves, prolonged contact of Reaper technology even if its "inactive" technology save possibly weapon systems (in this way they target scientists directly), being around Reaper artifacts and having reaper technology implanted inside of you. As shown by the comics in cases of certain artifacts even brief contact is enough to convert. Note Reaper indoctrination is extremely difficult to remove as even cutting off all Reaper contact with the indoctrinated AND destroying all traces of Rapers nearby will still leave the subject indoctrinated.
Long-term physical effects of the manipulation are unsustainable. Higher mental functioning decays, ultimately leaving the victim a gibbering animal. Rapid indoctrination is possible, usually through self-replicating implants, but causes this decay in days or weeks. Slow, patient indoctrination allows the thrall to last for months or years.
To Date no one has shown a full-immunity to Reaper control, though at least one, like the Last Rachni Queen, has an extreme resistance. However it should be noted that the Rachni are NOT immune according to lore, as the Rachni Queen herself notes that her kind experienced a "sour note" back in the Rachni Wars (Rachni communicate by singing) that is reminiscent in effects to indoctrination, which both she and Shepard speculates happened. However at the same time is is clear that powerful minds can slow the indoctrination process, once it begins, and potentially even rebell in minor ways when fully indoctrinated. However the most they can manage to do then is generally commit suicide, however this is very hard to do.
--Cerberus techniques:
After salvaging technology from the Collector Base, Cerberus used Reaper implants to indoctrinate captured civilians and transform them into loyal soldiers and test subjects. One of the methods used to speed up this method that they use is drugs, which weaken a victim's mental willpower to resist. Other tactics include sleep deprivation and forcibly implanting the self-replicating technology.
--Cybernetic Implants:
If the Reapers opt to install Cybernetic implants, which they do eventually for most of their enthralled soldiers or indoctrinated servants that outlived their usefulness. These implants improve strength , speed, reaction time, minor regeneration, sensory, durability and biotic ability to a superhuman degree, even if the subject doesn't actually have a biotic ability to begin with! The limitation here though is the host's biology. I.E. they can't make a human being travel mach speeds because the human body is (barring superhumans) incapable of such feats. Though they might, hypothetically, via cybernetic implants, get the human to run in the 30-early 40 mph range, just barely exceeding their host's limits.
-Possession:
The Reapers can send a secure signal to any one of its minions, smoothly take control of their motor functions, and awaken their previously dormant biotic potential. In a matter of seconds, even the lowliest Collector drone or indoctrinated force can be upgraded to a battle-hardened biotic commander. If the Reaper dies, it can simply activate and control another body.
-Effects of Possession:
On the Physiological being possessed by a Reaper incurs huge changes. A possessed host is going to be become far accurate, combat-savy , biotically powerful and have his physical skills amped up to an extreme.Biotics are pushed to such extremes that even a simple push is described as capable of liquefying bones. As the Reapers have assumed control, the body is now directly controlled by a being with potentially millions of years of combat experience and accuracy, as the possession enhances the body's already impressive cybernetic implants further.
However as the book Mass Effect: Retribution noted the Reapers are going to need their host to be alive and conscience for optimum control and power. If the host is not they can still control the body however it will be extremely slow and inefficient.
Furthermore I would like to note that none of this is necessarily exclusive. One can be implanted with cybernetics and possessed but not fullly indoctrinated, while most indoctrinated don't get implants until relatively late in their indoctrination stages, as to do so before their sleeper agent status is revealed invites severe suspicion.
Sub-Forces
--Heretic Geth
--Cerberus
Immediately following the First Contact War, an anonymous extranet manifesto warned that an alien attempt at human genocide was inevitable. The manifesto called for an army - a Cerberus to guard against invasion through the Charon relay.
Derided as "survivalist rhetoric written by an illusive man", the manifesto and its anonymous author soon fell off the media radar. But in 2165, terrorists stole antimatter from the SSV Geneva, the sole figure arrested named his sponsor "Cerberus". Throughout the 2160s and 2170s, alleged Cerberus agents assassinated politicians, sabotaged starships bearing eezo, and conducted nightmarish experiments on aliens and humans. Denounced as human-supremacist, Cerberus calls itself human-survivalist.
In recent years, the pro-human syndicate known as Cerberus has seen its influence grow galaxy-wide. The largely untraceable organization now includes private intelligence agencies, biotics laboratories, research facilities, and the lucrative corporations that provide a front for it all.
Cerberus's charismatic leader, known only as the lllusive Man, drives the organization's philosophy and interests. The level of secrecy he maintains puts professional intelligence agencies to shame.As Cerberus grows, so too does public distrust of the organization. Some commentators have remarked that Cerberus is not so much pro-human as it is antialien. Others question the blind loyalty of its employees.
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As of the end of Mass Effect 3, just before the Cerberus Headquarter mission, Cerberus has all but officially allied with the Reapers. The Illusive Man even warned the Reapers that the Citadel was the key to the Crucible, resulting in the capture of the one place that could be considered the capital of the galaxy. However they aren't fully indoctrinated like the Collectors and Geth are, and of all the three groups will have the greatest degree of tactical freedom.
--Collectors:
Living beyond the Omega-4 mass relay in the Terminus Systems, the mysterious Collector species is glimpsed so rarely as to be taken for a myth by most in galactic society. In reality, Collectors are human-sized insectoid bipeds and can resemble massive winged beetles. They are a terrifying force in the galaxy, responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands.
Collectors generate permanent stasis fields around themselves, creating nightmarish red-shifted energy fields. In battle, they hold position whenever possible, relying on their aggressive biotics and nearly limitless power. Several types of bipedal Collectors have been identified, including minions, defenders, zealots, assassins, and artillery-operators.
Acting together, Collectors have imprisoned entire cities in stasis. These cities are then harvested for their Reaper overlords.
Basic Technology:
Link Here
See Mass Accelerators, "Kinetic Barriers" (which Cerberus uses), Body Armor (which pretty much all use), Biotics and Omnitools (Cerberus)
--Deployable Equipment:
Reapers and their servents are known to utilize a number of common equipment items in battle.
-Dragon's Teeth:
"Dragon's teeth" is the nickname Alliance marines have given to the huge spikes that geth use to turn human corpses – and unfortunate living victims – into husks. Their function resembles ancient methods of execution by impalement. The name comes from Greek mythology, specifically Jason and the Argonauts; when a field was sowed with the teeth of a dragon, each tooth sprang up as a soldier.
Dragon's teeth are comprised of a tripod-like support and a metal spike that retracts when not in use. It is speculated that this retraction could serve as a trap, activating to impale anyone who approaches the tripod, as dragon's teeth are often found in use where there have been no geth to operate them.
Adrenaline is used as the delivery medium for nanites in the conversion process. The more adrenaline the victim has when the conversion process begins, the faster and more efficient it becomes. Therefore, the shock generated from the victim's impaling would cause an increase to the amount of adrenaline in their system.
The devices convert the muscle, organs and water content of a corpse into cybernetic parts – possibly recovering a miniscule amount of nutrients – then reanimate the body with an electrical charge, turning it into a simple-minded husk that attacks anyone who gets close enough. Releasing the new husk also retracts the spike back into the tripod, ready for re-use.
Dragon's teeth aren't the only way Reapers turn bodies into husks, but it is the more commonly occurring method.
-Barrier Engine/Shield Pylon:
These are devices, used by the Reapers and Cerberus respectively, that once deployed constantly recharge nearby Kinetic/Biotic Barriers, thus extending the longevity of troops until it is destroyed. The Biotic Barriers of the Reapers operate independently, however Cerberus shield pylons require generators.
--Deployable Shield Generators:
Used by Cerberus, these devices deploy mobile cover for an infantry squad. Often used to further fortify positions that need to be defended.
===Recon===
 |
| What normal indoctrinated agents look like. Little to no outer difference from previous form or typical species form. |
For recon the Reapers will have much of the same advanced scanners that the Citadel faction has, such as the ability to scan for indigenous life, electronic signatures, emissions basic geography information including gravity, atmosphere conditions/breath-ability, notable landmarks, radio signatures, thermal signatures, resources ect. So powerful are there scanners that just the slightest burst of a mobile device (or omni-tool) in Mass Effect does carry a risk of eventually being seized upon and zoomed in on by the Reapers. Geth and Cerberus would also deploy many unmanned recon drones to probe an area, while the Geth are known for using cloaked units to infiltrate.
Then comes indoctrination. The Reapers have gotten indoctrination down to a science. They will attempt to indoctrinate agents of enemy or neutral factions and have them scout out their own side's positions, remaining in place to both gather intelligence and act as sleeper agents for when the time is right. Moving up the ranks they will attempt to indoctrinate scientists, military captains and even leaders. If the enemy fails to catch them then these indoctrinated agents can reak untold amounts of havoc, even cause the faction to disintegrate if a leader is indoctrinated. The Reapers can beam information directly out of the indoctrinated minds, even use them as conduits to download "trillions of terrabytes of information" (though the latter depends on degree of control) from a galactic internet equivalent .
===Infantry===
Note: I will be condensing multiple units into categories to save space here
Reaper Husk forms
Weapon Type: Various
Armor Type: Body Armor, Shields
Mobility: 4-7
Training: 5 (Cybernetic implants)
Max Range: Sniper
Preferred Range: Assault (for ranged variants)
Classification: Various
--Basic Description:
In their brief stint in the galaxy the Reapers have already turned many denizens of the Galaxy into Husks, or Reaper-controlled cybernetically enhanced servants. Husks can be transformed when the victim is either recently dead or alive, and can be done with either sentient or non-sentient foes (see Harvester, Misc transport) . As discussed above the cybernetic implants are going to drastically biological traits such as strength and sensory, making them superior in that sense to humans and potentially the base form of whatever race the given Husk is based off of.
--Subtypes:
-Husk :
--Classification : Swarming melee Grunt
Husks are the aggressive, mindless foot soldiers of the Reaper armies. They are created by impaling either living or dead humans on mechanical spikes that rapidly extract water and trace minerals and replace them with cybernetics. These cybernetics reanimate the lifeless flesh and tissue, transforming the bodies into horrifying killing machines.
The Reapers use large groups of husks to overwhelm the enemy. The husks' inability to feel pain, as well as their tendency to attack in groups, makes them particularly deadly adversaries. In close combat they can rip beings to shreds in a few seconds with their claws or out-muscle many in a grapple, for the Cybernetics improves their strength above all else.
-Cannibal
--Weapon Type: Arm Cannon, Frag Grenades:
The Arm Cannon appears to be a rather large Mass Accelerator cannon built into the Cannibal's arm for slower, singular, but more devastating shots then a normal rifle. Cannibals are also known to use their brute strength in close quarters and throw frag grenades.
--Armor Type: Medium Chitin Armor
--Classification: Ranged Grunt
Cannibals are front-line Reaper units created from corrupted Batarians. The nickname refers to their propensity to devour the bodies of fallen comrades. This triggers a biochemical process through which the cannibals spontaneously heal themselves and grow new chitinous armor. The transformation also appears to give cannibals a greater awareness of their surroundings, leading to more strategic behavior and careful use of battlefield cover.
-Marauder:
--Weapon Type: Frag Grenades, Phaeston
Named after a turian spirit of creation, the Phaeston was engineered to provide the best possible balance between accuracy and firepower in a machine gun. Each shot is tempered by kickback dampeners inside the shoulder stock, which lets the Phaeston pack more punch than other weapons its size without sacrificing precision. Its fully automatic fire and relatively light weight has turned the Phaeston into the turian infantry's primary go-to weapon. Versatile, each clip containing 50 rounds, and with great long range accuracy, it isn't hard to see why this is the premier long range weapon of the Turians.
--Armor: Energy shield
--Classification : Husk Squad Leader
Marauders are harvested turians that command and protect other Reaper troops. The lean, armored creatures present a significant threat in and of themselves, but they are especially dangerous when leading a Reaper task force.Alliance marines have observed marauders fortifying husks and cannibals by enveloping them in a ribbon of energy that forms a scabby shell of armor, and thus a Marauder's presence improves the longevity of a entire squad.
-Ravager:
--Weapon Type: Twin Artillery Cannons : Essentially mini-mass accelerator cannons, these can tear through armor extremely quickly.
---Acid Burst: When the Ravager dies it bursts into acid, harming everything nearby.
---Swarmer: Swarmers, derived from Rachni Workers, continuously pour from Ravager sacs and rush the enemy. Once they get close enough they will chump up for a acid spraying suicide attack.
--Armor Type: Heavy Chitin Armor
--Classification : Mobile Artillery
Ravagers are former rachni that the Reapers have transformed into heavy artillery through a process of implantation and genetic modification. As walking organic turrets, they can sustain and inflict considerable damage.
Ravagers bear egg sacs that continuously spawn swarmers. If the sacs are destroyed, either during combat or upon the ravager's death, their entire contents burst forth to charge the enemy and explode on contact. A dead ravager expels a caustic gas and an acidic puddle.
-Additional Factors:
--Both Recently dead and the still living can be turned into husks.
--See Cybernetic Implants: These Husks are all biologically superior to their original forms. See the beginning section
--Dragon's Teeth: The Reapers have devices built to speed up the husk transformation process. See SUPPORT section
Heretic Geth Standard Troops
Weapon Type: Pulse Rifles, Mixture
Armor Type: Shields, Synthetic armor
Mobility: 3-9
Training: 4-5(hundreds of programs working together at once)
Max Range: Sniper
Preferred Range: Assault
Classification: Synthetic Shock Troopers
--Basic Description:
Geth are actual tiny hardware components that alone possess only animistic intelligence. However the more of them are together the smarter they become. The Typical combat platform contains hundreds of them, all working together and thinking at the speed of light in combat. The Geth shift their combat platforms into a variety of different forms. The first part will cover the basic Geth then the special forms.
--Loadout:
Assault Rifle :
--Pulse Rifle
The Geth Pulse Rifle is a compact highly-accurate, high-powered, advanced energy pulse assault weapon manufactured by the Geth Armory, which when discharged manifests itself briefly as a sharp, cyan beam ending in an electrical discharge. It is the standard infantry weapon for the geth military.
Two anomalies differentiate these geth weapons from other stock assault rifles. First, the mass effect field generation technology follows a sine curve (it has a variable rate of fire). Second, its slugs are lighter than standard Avenger slugs, but they're encased in a phasic envelope. Overall, this weapon should be more effective against shields and barriers than a battle rifle, but will likely have less armor penetration capabilities. Overall it has a RPM of 1000, with 80 clip and 400 in reserve.
Shotguns:
--Geth Pulse Shotgun :
This three-barreled geth weapon fires miniature but potent cluster rounds of superconducting projectiles and has a longer range than standard shotguns. A two-stage trigger system allows for either quick-fire capacitors or a charge-and-release attack to electrify the projectiles as they exit the weapon. As the rounds hit the target, they fragment and electricity arcs between the pieces, flash-converting the air to conductive plasma. The resulting impact, heat, and electrical charge overloads shields and barriers and causes massive trauma to unarmored targets.The Geth Plasma Shotgun's shots have a very basic tracking capability and will sometimes group and curve slightly toward their target, even at medium range. It has a RPM of 174, clip size of 5 and reserve of 40.
--Javelin
Called the Javelin by Alliance marines, this geth weapon holds a reservoir of ferrofluid, magnetically drawn into the firing chamber and expelled at lethal speeds. Like a high-pressure water-jet, the ferrofluid cuts through nearly anything it hits with so much heat that it resembles a beam of light, causing terrible wounds. IT can fire through a meter of solid steel cover though it is a single shot weapon with only 9 rounds in reserve off the bat.
--Geth Plasma SMG
This geth weapon works on the same principles as the Spitfire: it shoots superconducting toroids that break apart on impact, retaining an electrical charge that flash-converts the shrapnel into plasma. Unlike the Spitfire, however, the plasma SMG has been modified to take thermal clips. Holding down the trigger speeds up its rate of fire, rapidly depleting the gun’s heat sink in exchange for nearly continuous fire. Upgraded it has a clip size of 100 with 400 in reserve.
ML-77 Rocket Launcher (Common)
Missile launchers are surfacing with increasing frequency among the Terminus Systems mercenary bands and Geth Rocket Troopers, but their origin is unknown. Each projectile features a friend-or-foe recognition system, ensuring it will find a hostile target -- though not necessarily the one in the crosshairs. In urban situations, it is useful for taking out snipers and other entrenched enemies, so it is popular with the Blue Suns mercenary band. It is nearly impossible to duplicate, as it uses Fabrication Rights Management (FRM) technology.
--Geth Spitfire (Rare)
Like the geth plasma shotgun, the Spitfire is not a true energy weapon. Instead, the minigun magnetically flings clusters of superconducting toroids. These donut-shaped projectiles are designed to shatter upon impact, arcing electricity between the fragments and flash-converting them to plasma. The gun's punishing, automatic blasts impact with the heat of a cutting torch.
The weapon's stopping power has garnered the attention of both Alliance and quarian intelligence, who theorize that the Spitfire may have been designed to destroy other geth. Enough Spitfires have been found in the field to suggest that the weapon is out of the prototyping stage, and that a schism among synthetics may have forced them into production.
- Melee: Geth are trained in basic hand to hand should they need to fight there. They can also emit pulse shockwaves from their body to devastate those directly in front of them.
- Defense: Geth body armor is naturally durable in addition to standard shields/medigels (which do work on them)
-Special:
Some Geth Troopers may have
--Hunter Mode: Advanced diagnostics redirect power into offensive systems, boosting combat capabilities.
Faster Movement.
See through smoke and objects.
More weapon, power, and melee damage.
Greater weapon accuracy.
Shields reduced by 50%.
--Fortification: See Krogan on Citadel profile, but essentially vastly improved shields for a limited time.
Platform Variations:
In addition to the standard Geth Trooper variant (Which is far more common then the rest) shown in the above picture Geth are known to make use of the following:
Geth Shock Trooper:
Geth Shock Troopers are heavy geth infantry, indicated by their larger size and white armour. They are physically more durable and with better shields. The Geth Shock Trooper is not only a heavy infantry unit, but also a capable engineer. As seen on Eden Prime, they are capable of setting up and arming large explosives. Geth shock troopers
Geth Snipers:
The Geth Snipers are geth bipedal platforms geared for long-range combat. They're dark brown with red armor details and emit a bright cyan light from their 'flashlight eye'. They're equipped with Javelin rifles as of ME3 and possess the powerful Assassination ability. This ability briefly turbo-charges the gun and hits the target with accelerated force.
--Geth Rocket Troopers:
This class of geth is specialized to incorporate heavy firepower against groups of enemies. They are usually dispatched alongside Geth Troopers and Geth Shock Troopers. Rocket Troopers are instantly noticeable as they sport dark red armour rather than the standard dark blue and black of a Geth Trooper. they come equipped with ML-77 rocket launchers and are one of the msot common variants.
-Geth Sapper:
Geth Sappers are geth enemies encountered by Commander Shepard. Sapper platforms are predominantly white with darkened extremities. They jump around and cling to walls like a flood stalker though, fast and agile enough to be difficult to target. They only pause to fire on foes with their in built pulse weaponry. The Geth Stalker is Essentially the same as above, but with a in-built sniper rifle.
--Geth Destroyer:
Geth Destroyers are one of the larger and more dangerous forms of geth infantry, frequently encountered wherever there is a notable concentration of geth. They are more durable and deadly than most geth infantry, and should be handled with caution.The Geth Destroyer is a fearsome enemy, standing eleven feet tall. Their armor is dark grey with a yellow stripe down the middle of the chest, and they have a bright blue 'flashlight' eye. The Destroyer can carry a Pulse Shotgun or M-451 Firestorm. They are a bit rare as of Mass Effect 2
--Geth Pyro:
Essentially the same as above with the flamethrower, but much more common.
--Geth Hunter:
Hunters possess cloaking devices, shields and shotguns. Save for their shorter stature, their appearance is very similar to Geth Destroyers..The Geth Hunter's combat behaviour is to close in and eliminate opponents with its shotgun. Their stealth devices mean they are capable of catching opponents off guard, particularly in the middle of combat where more visible threats are likely to be targeted first. However their bodily outline is still visible.
--Geth Bomber Drones:
Geth Bomber Drones are more heavily armored then most drones and possess tougher shielding. They go around the battlefield shocking foes and dropping grenades on them .
-Additional Factors:
--Drop deployment: Geth are literally dropped out of their drop ships, surviving due to their high durability. The Geth dropships don't even need to stop to do this. --They are extremely good at hacking enemy AI and machines. They can also skavenge machinery and build new combat platforms from that.
-- Difficult to hack: According to Mass Effect 2 Geth couldn't be hacked or get Viruses for more then a few seconds. Or at least that is the most damage a Quarian or other Citadel faction can inflict upon them. In the words of Legion Geth behavioral process changes only last until the Geth in question manage to restore to a archived copy, which doesn't take that long.
---According to Mass Effect 2, Geth shields are less vulnerable to incoming projectiles then Alliance ones.
--Radar Jamming: Several Geth units have the ability to passively jam radar or other sensors.
--Body Unimportant: Thanks to the information shown in the Geth profile the Geth view their combat platforms, rather then the programs, as unimportant. They won't hesitate to sacrifice them if need be.
--Geth can share tactical appraisals and information instantly between each other and presumably, due to the connections, to the Reapers themselves.
--The Heretic Geth are fanatically devoted to the Reapers, and will not hesitate to sacrifice themselves for them. They have also been improved with Reaper hardware that causes them to manage systems far faster then normal Geth.
Cerberus Troops:
Weapon Type: Mass Accelerators
Armor Type: Heavy Body Armor
Mobility: 4
Training: 5 (indoctrinated implants)
Max Range: Sniper
Preferred Range: Assault for most
--Basic Description:
Through the use of indoctrination tools Cerberus has turned hundreds of thousands if not millions of unwitting and often unwilling humans into combat drones, implanted with cybernetic implants that carry with them some of the benefits identified from the beginning. Though much smarter then Reaper husks, and capable of advanced tactics, Cerberus forces are still mindlessly loyal to the Illusive Man. Cerberus troops are armored with heavy body armor and kinetic barriers and armed with powerful rifles. They often deploy directly from the sky or Kodiak vehicle.
-Subtypes:
-Assault Trooper:
--Weaponry : M25 Hornet
The M-25 Hornet is a long-range submachine gun created by Cerberus. It is standard issue for Cerberus troops, who are trained to handle the recoil from the gun's three-round bursts with 25 ammo per clip. Cerberus designed the Hornet to conserve ammunition and provide cover-fire during prolonged conflicts.
---M22 Eviscerator:
The Lieberschaft 2180 shotgun, or "Eviscerator," is of human civilian design and has a unique ammunition generator. Where most modern firearms shave off chips or pellets from an ammunition block, the M-22 shaves off serrated metal edges designed to fly aerodynamically. This dramatically improves its armor-piercing capabilities, and its tight grouping ensures lethality at longer ranges than standard shotguns. This design violates several intergalactic weapons treaties, so the M-22 is not distributed to militaries.However Cerberus doesn't follow treaties.
---M-96 Matchlock Auto:
Medium-range, semi-automatic rifle. The Mattock is a hybrid weapon with an assault rifle's low heat production and a sniper rifle's punch. Marksmen favor its increased power over that of an assault rifle to bring down hardened targets. Its lack of a full-auto setting is advertised as a feature rather than a shortcoming as it curbs a soldier's tendency to spray inaccurate fire under stress. It has a ROF of 750 per minute, which is impressive given the 16 clip and lack of full auto. Its greatest strength is its high impact and highly accurate ammo, while its main weakness is inefficiency in close quarters. It is a common replacement to the Avenger.
---Shock Baton:
For melee the Cerberus trooper carries a shock baton loaded with debilitating bolts of electricity.
--Armor Type: Kinetic Barriers, Heavy Body armor, Medigel
--Classification: Standard Grunt
Assault troopers are the backbone of Cerberus forces. Those candidates who make it through the grueling basic training are submitted to an intensive psychological program that renders them fearless, disciplined, and unrelenting. Outfitted with custom-designed armor and rifles, these soldiers function with determined precision and practiced teamwork.
The first to rush into a fight, assault troopers often work in tandem with more powerful units. They make strategic use of this scenario, keeping their opponents occupied until it is too late to react to the combined Cerberus force bearing down on them.
-Guardian:
--Weapon Type: M-358 Talon
The Talon is a close-range pistol favored by Cerberus Guardians. Firing heavy-gauge shotgun pellets, it delivers massive trauma to unarmored targets. Its waste heat is sufficiently excessive that it carries six separate ammunition blocks, rotating like a twentieth-century revolver to prevent shaver jam or misfire due to premature melting of the shot.
---Shock Talon/Shield: Shock Talon like how the assault trooper uses it, the shield is a pretty powerful bashing tool.
--Armor Type: Heavy Body Armor, Kinetic Barrier, Medigel, Shield
--Classification: Human Tank
Guardians, the Cerberus equivalent of human tanks, are slow-moving soldiers who carry enormous polycrystalline-composite shields. The weight of the shield requires an armored suit equipped with hydraulic assists and a dedicated power supply. Combining this exceptional protection with a suite of enviromapping systems, guardians focus on flanking opponents to flush them from cover.
A Guardian's slow but relentless approach is intended to demoralize enemies as well as draw their fire, but rip away their shield, and guardians become little more than cannon fodder.
-Nemesis:
--Weaponry M-13 Raptor, M-98 Widow
M-13 Raptor:
The Raptor is a human version of a turian weapon developed for conflict on the low-gravity world Amar. Fighting at longer ranges than expected, the turians optimized a low-recoil, semi-automatic rifle with a scope, and issued it to their regular infantry, creating a hybrid weapon that was half-assault rifle and half-sniper weapon. Cerberus assigns the Raptor to Nemesis snipers.
M-98 Widow:
Weighing in at 39 kilograms, the Widow Anti-Material Rifle is primarily used by sniper teams in assault missions against armored vehicles or krogan. While kinetic barriers offer effective protection on vehicles, the kind generated by conventional military field generators are far too weak against the Widow.
The Widow was never designed to be carried and fired by a human. Although this modified model can be carried, no ordinary human could fire it without shattering an arm. However one company did eventually make a version barely compatible with humanoid physiology which became a instant hit on the market.
--Armor: Kinetic Barriers, Armor, Medigel (standard throughout galaxy)
--Classification : Sniper Specialist
The nemesis is a Cerberus sniper specialist. Customized implants allow the nemesis to withstand the crippling kickback of the M-98 Widow antimateriel rifle, turning a redoubtable opponent into a force capable of inflicting instant death. A suite of high-tech scanning equipment makes the sniper adept at maintaining cover, meaning a nemesis is usually spotted only after opening fire--assuming the target survives the first round.
Because of self-destruct mechanisms that activate upon the sniper's death, the Alliance has never retrieved an example of nemesis augmentation technology.
-Centurion:
--Weapon Type: M-96 Matchlock (see Assault Trooper) ,Smoke Grenades
--Armor Type: Barriers, Heavy Armor, Medigel
Centurions are Cerberus's front-line tacticians. They are meant to enact the lllusive Man's strategic goals, although it is clear that they have leeway to adapt as an encounter develops. Thanks to Cergberus modifications each squad leader is going to be completely dedicated to achieving victory regardless of the cost.
-Additional Factors:
--Every member of the Cerberus basic troops is designed to function as a piece rather then a whole. They are most effective when working together in a squad, combining tacticians, rear snipers, movable cover and grunts all in one.
--Cerberus troops can be deployed from hovering Kodiaks thanks to their ability to slow their ascent with some sort of rocket boots.
--Numbers can easily be replenished from Cerberus indoctrinated humans, if there is any.
--Cerberus uses Occular flashbangs to prevent interrogation when captured.
--Thanks to their indoctrination, Cerberus troops are both going to be mindlessly loyal to the overall cause and particularly brutal in their application of tactics. Cerberus only cares about results, not civilian causalities.
Cerberus Mechs
Mobility: 4 , 7 Rampart Mechs
Training: 5
Max Range: Assault Rifle
Preferred Range: Assault Rifle
--Basic Description:
Sometimes manpower just isn't enough ,and to supplement their ground troops Cerberus has been known to use a number of cheaply built mechs. These aren't the junk Loki Mechs of the Citadel Alliance though, no these mechs have been re-purposed into far more potent and menacing mechs. If native infrastructure is captured or created these mechs can be mass produced at alarming rates.
Subtypes:
-Orgre Mechs:
The Pulse Cannon is a upgraded Geth version of the same weapon, and is far more devastating to infantry. The Storm Generator fires a persistent storm of energy over a area, damaging and tearing any enemies that don't move out of the way. Such a weapon would be most potent against foes in cover, for it would force them to move out of cover.
--Armor: Heavy Kinetic Barriers, Armor
--Classification: Heavy Mech
They seem to be based on YMIR Mechs, upgraded with experimental tech salvaged from the Collector Base. Like the Ymir it could be used as a sort of squad-breaker, to be deployed as heavy units that the rest of the force can rally behind in order to push against entrenched positions. Otherwise it functions as great security inside a enemy base.
-Rampart Mechs:
--Weaponry M-23 Katana, Omni-blade, Fear inducement and Hunter Killer mode (see Description)
M-23 Katana:
Manufactured by Ariake Technologies, the Katana is a common mercenary weapon, and is also popular on colonies with Varren infestations. It's deadly at short range, but ineffective at long range. Its an incredibly popular Shotgun with a clip size of 5 and Semi-autonomous fire. Pretty much common among all factions.
Furthermore they carry Omni-blades, which is a disposable silicon-carbide weapon flash-forged by the onitool's mini-fabricator. The transparent, nearly diamond-hard blade is created and suspended in a mass effect field safely away from the user's skin. Warning lights illuminate the field so the searing-hot blade only burns what it is intended to: the opponent.
--Armor Type: Heavy armor, Kinetic barriers, Special Abilities
--Classification: Suppression Mech
Rampart Mechs are Loki Mechs upgraded with Cerberus's proprietary mini-fabrication technology, shielding recovered from Omega's element zero processing plants, and additional ablative armor.
It is fitted with infrasound and scent markers that are "fight or flight" triggers for several species and are intended to subdue or disperse a crowd. When necessary, Rampart mechs can channel all available power into generating a high-intensity shield that defends against hacking or biotic attacks and weapons fire, protecting the Rampart until reinforcements arrive. For combat, most Rampart mechs are equipped with a standard issue shotgun; if damaged beyond repair, the Rampart mech destroys the shotgun's aluminum-alloy heat-dispersal sinks, coating any nearby assailants in red-hot residue that burns through armor.
In extreme situations, the Rampart mech overclocks into a "hunter-killer" mode, diverting power from its unique shields to single-mindedly destroy its target. In this mode, the Rampart mech moves faster, attacking with a flash-forged omni-blade that targets unprotected nerve clusters and immobilizes the luckless target. The Rampart also channels excess heat through the dispersal sinks, visibly burning off material to create an intimidating display as it advances.
Additional Factors:
--Rampart Mechs can move freely through the plasma forcefields.
--Manufactured: Security Mechs are common throughout the galaxy and are easy to manufacture. Should Cerberus set up or capture native infrastructure they can build whole factory lines of these things.
Collector Basic Troops
Mobility: 9.5 (can fly) , 3 (Scion) 4 (Abomination
Training: 5
Max Range: Sniper
Preferred Range: Assault
--Basic Description:
The Collector troops still carry some of the modified weaponry of their Prothean predecessors 50,000 millenia before. Unlike the main Reaper forces and Geth forces, who are used in overwhelming force everywhere, and similar to the more tactically deployed minded Cerberus the Collector forces utilize hit and run tactics. They first come in with Seeker swarms (see Support) to paralyze their enemies and quickly send in light ground forces armed with Collector Assault Rifles and Collector Particle Beams to mop up and take prisoners. When confronted with sufficiently heavy resistance the Collectors are usually under orders to flee unless ordered by a Reaper not too.
Subtypes:
-Collector Drone/Trooper
--Weaponry:
--Collector Assault Rifle:
The Collector Assault Rifle uses the same principles as a human assault rifle, but its organic components clearly set it apart. Its power source appears to be an internal organ with biotic capacitance; its ammunition resembles pellets of metallic enamel that strip shields off enemies with deadly efficiency. As Paragon Lost shows a significantly powerful Collector beam can utterly incinerate a foe, turning them into ash.
--Collector SMG:
This short weapon is a hybrid of mechanical and organic parts, some more advanced than the Collector assault rifle. It vents heat automatically rather than requiring thermal clips and, when wielded by a Collector, extends a neural link to their skin at the wrist. Its ammunition is effective against armor and low recoil makes it a good weapon for sustained suppression.
--Collector Sniper Rifle:
This weapon's long-range particle beam is capable of sustained fire, allowing it to switch between anti-personnel or anti-materiel roles just by holding down the trigger. This rifle does not accept thermal clips, instead cooling down by venting heat into a liquid-containing sleeve that radiates it through the fin-like protuberances on its barrel.
They are also armed with frag grenades. Finally the Collectors are armed with organic blades on their arms, to be used in melee if one gets to close.
-Collector Webs: Collector Troopers can create Collector Webs, which hang in the air and drastically slow he movement of any who move in.
-Armor: Biotic Barriers( very similar to Kinetic shield but more powerful), Collector Chitin Armor
--Classification: Standard Grunt
Collector Drones/Troopers (merged from the two games because of their similarities) carry out much of the same functions that the Assault Trooper, Marauder, and Geth Trooper carry out. They are grunts, made to hold the line and keep up the pressure even though doing so often costs them their own lives. Like all Collectors they can fly, allowing them to rapidly deploy wherever they want to be deployed.
-Collector Guardian
--Weaponry: Collector Assault Rifle (see above), Warp Ammo
Warp Ammo boosts the damage done by targets who have been recently hurt by biotic powers.
--Armor: Barriers, Chitin Armor, Anti-ballistic shield (see below)
--Classification: Gaurdian
The Collector Guardian, in a move demonstrating the apt naming of the variant, can deploy anti-ballistic shields in front of them or other squad members. These shields can soak up limited amounts of damage before being overwhelmed, however it does provide an extra layer enemies must bypass. Thus in battle these Gaurdians boost the longevity of their allies.
-Collector Assassin
Weaponry: Collector Particle Rifle
Precise and lethal, this focused-radiation weapon is very effective against shields, barriers, and armor.The amount of energy required to create a destructive beam is several orders of magnitude more than the amount needed to launch a high-velocity projectile via a mass effect field. It can fire at a whopping 1200 RPM.
--Armor: Barriers, Chitin Armor
--Classification: Sniper
The Collector Assassin fills the niche of sniper that was filled by the Nemesis in the Cerberus profile. Armed with the extremely powerful particle rifle it can pick off foes from an extreme distance while its allies continue the fight up front. Like other Collectors it can fly and thus can fly up if need be to a good vantage point.
-Collector Captain:
--Weaponry: See Collector Trooper
--Armor: See Collector Trooper
--Classification: Collector Captain
There isn't much to say about the Collector captain except that it has upgraded shields and armor. It functions a similar role to the Centurion, but no where near as smart or independent. They can however deploy mini- Seeker Swarms that count as equipment for them (see Support) .
-Abomination:
--Weapons: Claws/teeth/strength, post mortem-explosion
--Armor: Some Chitin Armor
--Classification: Suicide Bomber
Abominations are a type of husk created by the Collectors. They act as suicide troops, charging in and exploding next to their targets. Often they are encountered alongside groups of Husks to prevent individual targeting of them, however they can be told apart by the fact that Abominations glow red while normal Husks glow blue. Like all Husks the Abominations are going to have an exceptionally good reinforcement rate, requiring only dead or living humanoid bodies.
-Scions
--Weaponry: Arm Cannon (see Marauder but much more powerful), Biotic Shockwave
When used, the power sends out a series of explosive biotic impacts in front of the user ignoring any obstacles. It can be unleashed along the ground to launch all enemies in its path into the air, or used against airborne targets.Shielded targets will be stunned momentariy.
--Armor: Heavy Chitin Armor
--Classification: Mobile Artillery
Scions are a type of Husk made from three human Husks fused together and grafted around a single mass effect/biotic weapon on the left arm. The blue "sacks" on their backs contain redundant organs and element zero sources to provide power for their weapons and shockwaves. They function as fire support, keeping opponents pinned down with their devastating salvos while moving in. They can also force foes out of cover with their biotic shockwaves. Like all Husk forms, except Scions to have a large rate of reinforcements.
Additional Factors:
--Modus Operandi: Hit and Run generally, however massed assaults are sometimes used if the Reapers deem it efficient. They deploy devastating Seeker Swarms first generally to weaken enemy resistance to a often non-existent point, then quickly move in and mop up.
-Husks: Scions and Abominations are going to have a high reinforcement rate on the virtue of being dead bodies that can easily be re-purposed into Reaper servants.
Adjutants
Weapon Type: Arm Cannon, Biotics
Armor Type: Chitin Armor
Mobility: 6
Training: 5
Max Range: Assault
Preferred Range: Close Range
Classification: Rapid Infection Vector
--Basic Description:
"Adjutant" is the Cerberus codename for the experimental subjects created at a secret facility beyond the Omega-4 relay. The creatures are based on Reaper technology, and the adjutants encountered on Omega have the ability to infect any life-form to create a new adjutant.
Adjutants are deadly pack hunters. They initially remain hidden, observing potential victims and distracting them with subtle whispers. When they select a target, adjutants ambush them with charged projectiles that create a violently unstable mass effect field that causes severe disorientation and renders the target helpless. Enhanced muscle tissue gives adjutants the ability to leap surprising distances, allowing them to close in and infect their target quickly.
The baseline form of the being does not match any known species. Xenobiologists suspect that Reapers may have originally created and implemented the virus several cycles before the Prothean extinction and that it still carries genetic traces of its original host. If this is true, then like the Collectors, adjutants are a glimpse into the distant past at a species whose very existence -- and struggle against the Reapers -- has long been forgotten.
--Loadout:
- Ranged: The Adjudants possess an arm cannon similar to the marauder that can shoot both mass accelerator rounds and bolts of pure biotic energy. They can fire projectiles similar to biotic singularities that can render a un-shielded target helpless and waiting for the Adjudant.
- Melee: The Adjudant is extremely deadly in melee, using its claws and mouth-tentacles to tear through foes. In Omega DLC just one rebellious Adjudant (for they still serve the Reapers more then Cerberus) could run through and tear into pieces several Cerberus squads.
- Defense: Thanks to their body armor and biotic barriers Adjudants can withstand a great deal of firepower before being put down.
-Special: Infection:
Whoever the Adjudants successfully attack in close quarters then becomes infected themselves. In a breif time these infected will turn into Adjudants, who then also seek to spread the infection. Species barriers prove to be no deterrent. Essentially Adjudants are super "Reaperfied" zombies.
-Additional Factors:
--Role: Rapidly spreading infection vector.
===Elites===
-Elite Reaper Forces (Brutes and Banshees)
Weapon Type: Fists, Biotics
Armor Type: Heavy chitin/biotic shielding.
Max Range: Pistol
Proffered Range: Melee or about
Mobility: 3.5- 6 (brief teleportation)
Training : 5
Classification Shock Troops
Basic Description:
Banshee:
Banshees are the corrupted asari often found leading a Reaper strike force. The Reapers create them specifically from asari with active or latent predispositions to becoming Ardat-Yakshi, a rare neurological condition that enhances the asari's biotic power while causing the immediate death of anyone she mates with.
Lumbering as though in constant pain, the emaciated banshees are surprisingly durable opponents. They are devastating biotics able to hurl lethal balls of energy and create shockwaves as they regenerate. What Alliance military finds most disturbing is the Banshee's ability to spawn her own warp field and seemingly teleport during combat. Although their wails have no apparent physiological effect, the psychological impact is undeniable.
When banshees die, their Ardat-Yakshi genetics twist against them, causing a biotic implosion to ensure they evade capture.
Brute:
The brute is a hulking amalgamation of turian and krogan victims of the Reapers. Because tissue from dextro-protein species like the turians is incompatible with levo-protein species like the krogan, implants regulate the brute's body chemistry to combat organ rejection.
It is the fusion of turian military skill and krogan blood rage that makes the brute such a formidable enemy, capable of destroying armored vehicles to get to the soldiers inside. Troops are advised to keep their distance, and, whenever possible, not engage a brute alone.
LOADOUT
-Ranged Weapons: The Banshee uses her biotic powers at range (see Special).
-Melee: The Brute charges into battle with 2-3 tons of force. When it gets close enough it will try to crush the enemy mercilessly. The Banshee can rip foes limb from limb with her deadly claws.
-Defense: Both Reaper husks are heavily armored, the Brute more so. However the Banshee has a powerful biotic armor to compensate. Banshees are also sometime shown creating visible shields around themsleves that negate biotic powers.
-Special :
--Biotic Powers (Banshee) :
-Warp: Warp works by creating rapidly shifting mass effect fields that shred a target apart, similar in function to the disruptor torpedoes used by starships.The Banshee's automatically tracks targets.
--Nova: Utilizing the Banshee's own potent barriers she creates a massive biotic blast that sends out shockwaves in all directions.
-Biotic Charge: at close range the Banshee suddenly charges into a foe, knocking them off balance.
--Teleport: The Banshee can teleport a few meters ahead of her, and is often seen "hopping" from place to place.
Additional Factors:
-Psychological Warfare: Citadel soldiers have learned to truly fear the Banshee's cry, adding to the Reaper's overall score here.
-Role: Shock Troops
Praetorian
Weapon Type: Particle Beams
Armor Type: Barriers, Armor
Max Range: Assault
Proffered Range: SMG
Mobility: 7 Can Hover
Training : 6
Classification: Shock Trooper
Basic Description:
The Praetorian is a slow-moving flying Collector construction that consists of thirty deformed Husks fused together. It is armed with powerful particle beams, and protected by a strong barrier and powerful armor. The Preatorian is probably the single strongest foe in this Elite Section, armed with weaponry for both melee and ranged combat. It is a bit limited by the requirement of needing 30 husks to fuse into one, but in the Preatorians case this is probably worth it. The Praetorian, like most Collectors, can fly and can even be used against hovering aircraft.
LOADOUT
-Ranged Weapons: Particle Beams:
The Preatorian fires two high-powered particle beams from its eyes that are capable of turning a fully armored human into ash with a single burst (Mass Effect: Paragon Lost).
-Melee: Claws and Teeth: In close combat the Preatorian attacks with jaws and claws, which can be brutal for a improperly armored foe.
-Defense: The Preatorian has heavy armor and a Biotic Sphere that completely surrounds it. Needless to say the Preatorian is very hard to kill.
-Special : Death Choir:
-This AOE move forces the Praetorian down to the earth where it attempts to incinerate nearby foes with a potent biotic shockwave. This move also has a second objective, as the Praetorian's Biotic Shield rapidly regenerates when used.
--Made out of 30 Husks or corpses, this will be the Husk form with the lowest rate of reinforcements.
Possessed Collectors (Harbinger possessed)
Weapon Type: Various
Armor Type: Chitin Armor
Max Range: Sniper
Proffered Range: Assault
Mobility: Various
Training : 6-7
Classification: Reaper-enhanced Elites
Basic Description:
"Possession", as stated in the opening, refers to Collector units that are now under the direct control of the Reapers themselves . These beings are going to be much stronger and tougher than normal Collectors, and given that there will be thousands of actual Reapers present in the battle there will be quite a few possessed minions. Once one of their possessed minions is dead the Reapers can simply posses another with extreme ease, in a move that the Alliance has yet to figure out how to stop. The only weakness is that it takes a few moments for the Reaper to take full control upon startup, giving enemies a opportunity to try and quickly finish them off.
LOADOUT
-Possessed Subtypes:
--Abomination: Abominations are now equipped with weak biotic barriers for protection. In addition there explosion, once they suicide bomb themselves, is 4-5 times bigger.
--Scion: These giants get a massive boost to their armor potency, as well as biotic barriers. For offensive they can shoot out multiple 6-frag grenade bursts at people, making them a intimidating force.
--Collector Troops/Captain: Being possessed boosts their biotic barriers by a ton, however other then that its effects are rather tame.
--Praetorian: A Possessed Praetorian is the most powerful Reaper-possessed unit here. In addition to its normal moves it can shoot out missiles that automatically track foes. In addition their armor and barriers have been boosted to the point where they are the most powerful unit in the Reaper elite section.
---Harbinger Possessed: Those Possessed by Harbinger are even stronger than those possessed by Base Reapers. They have additional Biotic Barriers and Attacks not seen elsewhere. There is only one Harbinger though so there will only be 1 Harbinger possession at a time.
Additional Factors:
--Common: As any Reaper is capable of possessing a Collector, there are going to be a lot of possessions occurring even at once.
--Leaders: Often these possessed collectors are used as leaders of Collector battle groups.
Cerberus Advanced Troops:
Max Range: Sniper
Proffered Range: Assault
Mobility: 7, 3 Atlas
Training : 6
Herein lie the Cerberus troops that are utilized when normal troops don't suffice.
-Subtypes:
-Phantom
-Weapon Type: Monomolecular blades, Hand Cannon
A Monomacular blade is a sword that is made almost a single molecule thick. However it has phenomenal cutting power and can cut through most armor with ease. Phantoms also carry hand cannons in their right palm allowing them to fire quickly while on the run.
-Armor: Biotic Barriers, Body Armor
In addition they can also briefly cloak and possessed extreme agility to run away from their opponent.
-Classification: Melee Specialist
Phantoms are agile Cerberus agents with a wide array of offensive and defensive capabilities, including particular specialization in evasive maneuvers and firing from cover. Although intelligence on their implants still evades the Alliance, phantoms are known to be able to create a personal barrier for greater protection.
Monomolecular blades and biotic shielding allow phantoms to engage in close-quarters combat, and phantoms can briefly cloak in order to recover from injuries. They are shown to be highly skilled, and in Mass Effect Homeworlds comic series just one wiped a whole Drell facility out.
-Atlas:
-Weapon Type: Mass Accelerator Cannon, Rockets
A Mass Accelerator Cannon fires an ammo packet of 100s of explosive rounds which first shred into a target then quickly detonate. A Single shot from one of these cannons can take down a unshielded frigate. They also have micro-fabricated rockets.
-Armor Type: Kinetic Barriers, Thick Mech Armor
-Classification: Infantry Support
With the Atlas, Cerberus's research arm has combined the deadly armor and firepower of a YMIR mech with the tactical superiority of a trained human pilot. An element zero core allows the Atlas to be air-dropped onto a battlefield with minimal impact damage. Its thick armor includes a robust transparent canopy made from a polycrystalline composite proprietary to Cerberus. Alliance engineers hypothesize that the material is some kind of synthetic sapphire composed with interlayers to resist cracking and thermal damage.
Although the Atlas is somewhat unwieldy in the field, its antipersonnel machine guns and ability to shrug off damage from anything short of a heavy weapon makes it a fearsome opponent. Heavy loss of life is to be expected in any unprepared encounter with this unit.
-Dragoon:
-Weapon Type: M-25 Hornet ( see Assault Trooper), Biotic Lashes
--Biotic Lashes are static fields of energy that can, presumably like the Warp power, flense and tear flesh on contact.
-Armor: Heavy Body Armor, Kinetic Barriers:
--Despite their kinetic barriers the Dragoons are extremely agile in combat.
The Dragoon is a Cerberus unit encountered in Mass Effect 3. Dragoons are heavily armored soldiers capable of lunging toward their enemies with considerable speed and biotic lashes. It assumes the role of melee specialist alongside the Phantom, and together with its sword wielding partner can flank and get in close with foes in squad engagements.
Additional Factors:
--Dragoons and Phantoms can be created from indoctrinated humans, giving them a decent reinforcement value.
Geth Primes
Weapon Type: Various
Armor Type: Standard
Max Range: Above Assault
Proffered Range: Assault Rifle
Mobility: 3
Training : 5-6
Classification: Heavy Geth tank Troopers
Basic Description:
Geth Primes are heavy geth platforms that serve as command units on the battlefield. Larger and more powerful than any other geth infantry platform, Primes are equipped with heavy armor and shields, specialized abilities and a variety of deadly weapons.
LOADOUT
-Ranged Weapons:
Geth Primes use a variety of Missile Launchers, pulse rifles, light machine guns or massive pulse cannons, which are anti-vehicle weaponry.
-Melee: Though slow and clunky, they can deploy deadly energy pulses at point blank range. In addition the Geth Juggernaut can open up and maintain a electrical current with a nearby foe, quickly electrocuting them.
-Defense: Standard, however the Geth defenses here are going to be multi-layered powerful shields and powerful heavy armor.
-Special :
--Geth Turrets: Geth Primes deploy automated turrets that can recharge the shields of nearyby allies, and deploy pulse/flamethrower fire.
--Combat Drone: Deploys a fast flying drone that can be armed with either a pulse gun or a flamethrower.
-- Siege Pulse: Deploys a massive pulse of electricity in the area around the Prime.
Additional Factors:
See Geth. Basically everything there.
====Heroes====
Harbringer
Height: 2 Kilometers
Weight: Many, many tons....
Age: ~1 Billion Years old!
Type of Hero Bonus: Leadership, Mass Destruction, Indoctrination, Possession Bonus
Classification: 1st Reaper
The Reaper called Harbinger is believed to be the oldest and largest in the Reaper armada. From the reaches of dark space, Harbinger managed to control the Collectors, a race of human-sized insectoid bipeds, as it sent them on a campaign to kill and gather humans from vulnerable colonies. The Collectors became a terrifying force in the galaxy, responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands. Surviving colonists have described the tone of Harbinger's threats, heard through the Collectors as they attacked, as visceral and terrifying.
The Mass Effect Leviathan DLC have further expanded upon Harbringer's origins, naming him as the very first Reaper created from the corpses of its Leviathan creators. Further knowledge that the second-oldest Reaper was dated "around a billion years old" puts Harbringer at an even older age then that. I cannot express enough how formidable and impressive it is for Harbringer to have survived all the way since those early days, fighting and succeeding in the harvest of potentially millions of organic civilizations.
Loadout
Ranged: See Reaper Capital Ship. In addition to everything there Harbringer is noted for possessing more Beam weapons that also charge faster.
Melee: None needed
Defense: See Capital Ship, though I am going to note again that no one has managed to kill him in a billion years.
Special: Indoctrination, see beginning.Possession, see Elites
Additional Factors:
--See Reaper Capital Ships
--Leadership
--Immune to Mental Attacks: Not only is Harbringer, like most Reaper Capital Ships, made up of billions of minds processed into its current form but it is made of millions of Leviathan minds, which are the species capable of mind controlling "lesser" races on a whim. Given that Reaper capital ships do take on characteristics of the races they were made of for all extent and purposes Harbringer is going to be not only immune to everyone attacking him who is not a deity, but the exertion would probably also kill whoever is attacking him.
Kai Leng
Height: 5'10
Weight: 170?
Age: 30s
Type of Hero Bonus: Assassination
Classification : Cerberus Assassin
Kai Leng is an assassin working for Cerberus. Leng was formerly a lieutenant and N7 marine in the Systems Alliance known for having anti-alien attitudes, culminating in the death of a Krogan in a barside duel from a knife. He was arrested after this but then freed in a Illusive Man intervention. Becoming the Illusive Man's formost assassin and infiltrator, Kai Leng achieved a reputation for being discrete and methodical. Recently he has been upgraded with Phantom implants, and is sent by his master to assassinate high profile targets.
-Ranged: Palm Blaster: See Phantom
-Melee: Monomacular Blade: See Phantom again, however unlike the normal Phantom he can charge up his blade with electricity to stun all those around him. He is also a master of martial arts as shown in Mass Effect Retribution, and through a combination of swordplay and martial arts he can annihilate a whole highly trained Turian squad in a few moments.
-Defense: See Phantom, but with stronger barriers
-Special: Kai Leng can recharge his shields and simultaneously stun all those around him through a move known as "Electric Boost". He is also equipped with a tactical cloak allowing him to become invisible for a short period.
-Additional Factors:
--Top Assassin: It is likely that this man, along with some Phantom underlings, will be sent to assassinate neutral and enemy officials of note. However Kai Leng is pragmatic, and won't attack a target if he doesn't feel he has a chance of succeeding. He will often stalk a target for weeks on end until he gets the right chance.
--Tactical Leader: Kai Leng led Cerberus forces on Citadel and Thessia. Though he doesn't always succeed he does manage to get operations done successfully generally.
--Former N7 , an elite branch of the Alliance military.
Important Characters:
-Oleg Petrovsky
Oleg Petrovsky is a Cerberus general. He is an experienced and formidable military strategist, as well as a classical scholar with a deep knowledge of military history. He has already proven his tactical skill many times, such as when he held out against the overwhelming Turian military machine in the First Contact War or when he managed to take Omega from Aria't'Loak. In this battle he will serve as a sub-commander for Cerberus, commanding their forces in a given sector.
-Illusive Man
The lllusive Man is a human loyalist focused on advancing the interests of his species, whatever the cost to non-humans and reportedly humans. The Citadel Council regards him as a fanatic who poses a serious threat to galactic security.
The reclusive tycoon is the head of Cerberus, an organization that furthers his pro-human agenda throughout the galaxy. His views have led him into questionable alliances. As the leader of Cerberus, he has complete control of the organization. He is willing to do whatever it takes to win his own falsely perceived victory.
- Catalyst:
The Catalyst, also known as the Intelligence, is an ancient artificial intelligence that resides within the Citadel. It embodies the collective consciousness and memories of the Reapers, and thus countless ancient civilizations. The Catalyst was built to oversee relations between organic and synthetic life, specifically how to harmonize them. However its overriding objective was to ensure the continued existence of life in the galaxy through any means necessary.To do this it created the Reapers, while under the impression that Synthetics will always surpass and destroy their organic creators. So the Reapers destroy advanced Organic civilizations to prevent them from being destroyed by Synthetics!
The Catalyst, though never present on the battlefield, serves as the main guiding intelligence of the Reapers who they can presumably call upon for additional knowledge/tactical appraisal.
Light Calvary:
- A-61 Mantis Gunship
Type of Aircraft: Helicopter
Fighter or Bomber? : Both
Weapon Type: Machine Guns and Rockets
Armor Type: Vehicle armor/kinetic Barriers
Classification: Rapid response Gunship
Basic Description:
The Gunship is driven by vectored-thrust engines. First rolled off the assembly lines in 2170, the Mantis remains in service in dozens of armies across the galaxy. Its modular construction means that the versatile Mantis can be reconfigured as a low-altitude gunship, a fighter, a high-altitude bomber, or even a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane that can engage enemy craft around a planet or a space station. The only role the Mantis cannot perform is that of a true deep-space fighter, as it has no FTL drive.
The Mantis houses an element zero core which lightens the engines with a mass effect field, allowing it to take off vertically and hover in place using minimum fuel. This also gives it far greater range and speed than the helicopters and jump-jet aircraft that once filled its niche.
Loadout:
Armament:
Essentially has the same thing that the Atlas possesses, though in greater quantities and more powerful.
Defense: A strong kinetic Barrier and tough vehicle armor.
Special:
Additional Factors:
-- It also houses a thermal decay system and an electronic countermeasures suite which help it to nullify surface-to-air attacks.
--Role: Usually shown to be infantry support, though as noted it can be modified for a number of different roles.
Harvester
-Type of Armor: Light Flying
-Speed: 60 mph?
-Calvary Purpose: Raider/ Anti-air harrassment
-Classification: Herald of Invasion
The sight of a Reaper Harvester in flight nearby is one of the first indications that a Reaper invasion is underway. Their massive wingspan allows them to quickly cover the distance between them and their prey.
In the Harvester's mouth are two heavy guns that fire in an alternating pattern. The Harvester's most fearsome quality, however, is that its appearance guarantees that Reaper ground troops are not far behind.
-Armament: Mass Accelerator Cannons: See Atlas
-Defense : Tough Vehicle Armor. Probably going to allow it to survive a missile or two .
-Special: Transport: Harvesters are often used to drop off a squad of husks.
--Additional Factors:
 |
| Though some names are wrong it demonstrates accurately the size. |
-Fill The skies: Harvesters, in addition to harassing ground forces, also harass air by filling the skies with enough of them to both attack aircraft with their cannons and by physically tackling them mid air and driving them to the ground.
===Armor===
Geth Collossus
Weapon Type: Siege Pulse, Machine Gun
Armor Type: Shields and Heavy armor
Speed: Slow
Classification: Heavy Geth Tank
Basic Description:
The Geth Armature is a mobile anti-vehicle and anti-personnel unit employed in high-risk areas, often dropped directly from a Geth Dropship. The unit consists of a quadruped "tank" or "walker" and is usually accompanied by Geth Rocket Troopers. Armed with superior firepower and a Siege Pulse assault cannon, this geth is easily a match for the armored vehicles of other races. Its main armament is deadly but slow to recharge, but the Geth Collosus compensates by knocking down infantry with a smaller secondary machine gun.
LOADOUT:
Armament : Siege Pulse: Essentially a Pulse Gun on a massive scale, would presumably evaporate most foes.
--Machine Gun: See above vehicle profiles.
Defense: Standard heavy armor, geth body and shields. It also has a self-repair protocol that transfers all weapon power to shields while it rapidly repairs both said shields and armor. Cannot fire in this state.
Special: As noted above this combat platform has a fast acting self-repair protocol.
Additional Factors:
--Like Virtually every other platform this can be deployed by a fast moving Geth Dropship.
--Ultraviolet and Infared sensors
M-80
Weapon Type: Mass Accelerator Cannon
Armor Type: Heavy vehicle armor
Speed: Slow
Classification: Tank
Basic Description:
The M-080 is a large infantry fighting vehicle, or IFV. This class of vehicle is equipped with a turret with two coaxial barrels: the machine gun and main cannon. Like the M29 Grizzly and the M35 Mako, the M-080 is equipped with six wheels, and can hold around a dozen people. In a age where tanks are often considered obsolete the M-80 is one of the few still used, and even shown to be used still by Cerberus. They mainly however use the APC variant which allows for increased passenger compartments and thus troop deployment.
LOADOUT:
Armament :Mass Accelerator Cannon: See Atlas
Defense: Heavy armor +Kinetic Barriers. Much more heavily armored then either Mako or Hammerhead.
Special: M:80 Thanix Missiles:
The M-80M is a variant of the Mako designed to support a missile battery rather then a standard turret. While there also exists APC and IFV versions with increased passenger support and turrets respectively, the Thanix Missile is what really shines. This missile can destroy most ground vehicles in a single shot, and can destroy a Reaper Destroyer if it hits in exactly the right place.
Additional Factors:
--Cannot be deployed from Frigate, must be static deployment.
Ultraviolet and Infared sensors
Reaper Destroyer
Weapon Type: Beam Weaponry
Armor Type: Heavy Kinetic Barriers, Unknown type of metal
Speed: Flying: probably hundreds of km/h Ground: 30-40 km/h
Classification: Ground/Air Superiority/ Sub-commanders
Basic Description:
===May be factored into either Armor or Air Combat. Or Both, as the Destroyer has roles in both.===
The Reaper Destroyer is the reason the Reapers don't bother building conventional tanks, leaving that to the indoctrinated races. No, for ground warfare they deploy the Reaper Destroyers, a variant of Reaper that stands around 160m tall* ( for reference the largest 40k titan is 50 meters high and a Pacific Rim Jaeger is 80 meters high) and is armed with a potent beam weapon. This massively armored behemoth has been shown to dominate whatever field its been deployed in, and even Commander Shepard has never been shown to take down more than one at once (and each of those times is extremely difficult battle).
* Measurements were initially based on length . In ground combat it is slightly smaller then that given its spider-like walking motions but it is still extremely tall. -Weaponry:
The Reaper Destroyer possesses a Beam Weapon on its front, normally covered by plating, that can be unfolded when it must fight. This beam weapon can penetrate nearly every type of armor except possibly the toughest (Dreadnought) in a single hit, and it can incinerate any infantry that gets caught in the beam's wide arc. In addition to being able to hold the beam and move it in a wide arc, it also possesses a fairly decent recharge rate. Such is the range of the Reaper destroyer that it was capable of annihilating the Quarian Fleet while on the ground, while they were in high orbit or beyond. Essentially the beam weaponry is fully accurate over the Destroyer's entire line of sight.
In addition, the Reaper destroyer is large enough to simply crush many vehicles/troops underneath it.
-Defense:
The Reaper is going to have an extremely durable chassis and barriers that exceed all other Mass Effect factions. It can even protect against weapons deigned to penetrate said barriers, including GARDIAN lasers and Thanix Missiles, though these types of weapons will break the barriers faster than conventional weaponry. Distortion weaponry like Javelin Missiles is another one will also bypass it faster, but is unlikely to destroy the Reaper in a single shot, even if the shot is aimed in just the right spot.
It is so heavily armored that almost all ground attacks just fail to penetrate within Mass Effect, and what attacks do must deal with its phenomenal size, meaning it requires a greater payload then normal. The only two exceptions of a Reaper being beaten by a Ground Force was when it was A. It was attacked by a giant monster even bigger than it and pulled into the Sand or B. took a extremely lucky shot to the "eye" from two exceptionally powerful missiles (see Thanix Missiles) , mortally wounding it and was then blown up by the entire Mass Effect allied Ground Force (of a half a dozen races) firing upon it all at once. However even the soldiers that advocated using the missiles acknowledged that if they had not hit the eyes, the Missiles wouldn't have been able to down the Reaper.
For the greatest demonstration of Conventional Reaper defense was in the Battle of Rannoch, where it took the Normandy and much of the Quarian fleet constantly pounding it with firepower to destroy the Destroyer. Even then it still took a obscene amount of time for one Reaper. However that said it is clear that a Alliance Dreadnought , with their 38kt blasts, could destroy a Destroyer if given enough time and not shot down first.
--Special: The Reaper Destroyer can indoctrinate foes and possess Collectors. It can even indoctrinate foes when inactive,so long as targets are around its corpse.
-Additional Factors:
--Vital Importance: Everything else is just filler in this profile compared to that of the Reaper Destroyers or Capital Ship. A enemy force MUST be able to beat the Reapers themselves to get a win. If they cannot beat the Reapers themselves, but dominate elsewhere, then they do not deserve a victory.
--Just one Reaper Destroyer was able to control the Entire Geth Collective of countless billions- if not trillions- of programs. That should speak volumes of their processing power should the initial hacking attempt succeed. That said they were let in originally by the Geth, showing that maybe they couldn't hack into such a system, however nevertheless they could not be dislodged without killing the Reaper controlling it.
--Mental Resistance: While Capital Ships are made up of Billions or high millions of minds, Reaper Destroyers are made up of hundreds of thousands or low millions. This should be factored in to trying to attack them mentally with either direct or illusionary attacks. Since they are made of hundreds of thousands or millions of minds, they also have the processing power to be extremely capable sub-commanders.
-- Escort: In fleet combat Reaper Destroyers are used to escort and help defend the larger Reaper capital ships.
--Common: The Codex itself calls Reaper Destroyers "astoundingly common" and given that they only require millions or hundreds of thousands of processed bodies to make they might just appear in this battle in the (very few) thousands to start out with.
--Transport: Destroyers can have limited transport capacity.
--Power Source: Reaper power source is such that they seemingly never have to recharge.
--Can switch between walker and flying modes.
===Air Force===
Cerberus and Geth Fighters
Type of Aircraft: Airplane
Fighter or Bomber? : Fighters
Weapon Type: Torpedoes, Mass Accelerator Machine Guns
Armor Type: Standard
Classification: Fighter
Basic Description:
A catch-all term, Fighters are single-pilot combat small craft. They are lightweight enough that they can be economically fitted with powerful element zero cores, making them capable of greater acceleration and sharper maneuvers than starships.
Loadout:
Armament: Generally what has already been seen. Mass Accellerator machine guns can be included on these, as well as ship-sized (thus more powerful) pulse weaponry if the fighter in question is Geth. Many fighters are also going to come with the
--Disrupter Torpedoes:
Disruptor torpedoes are powered projectiles with warheads that create random and unstable mass effect fields when triggered. These fields warp space-time in a localized area. The rapid asymmetrical mass changes cause the target to rip itself apart.
In flight, torpedoes use a mass-increasing field, making them too massive for enemy kinetic barriers to repel. Because extra mass retards acceleration, torpedoes are easy prey for defensive GARDIAN anti-missile weapons and must therefore be launched at extremely close range to be effective. They are often fired en-masse in frigates, though just one is devastating, as that is required to overwhelm said GARDIAN defenses.
To prevent damage to the parent craft, torpedoes must be "cold-launched" meaning they are released before their thrusters ignite. Aligning with its target trajectory, a fighter releases a torpedo and immediately thrusts away, while the torpedo continues to coast towards its target. After the fighter is clear, (no more than a second after launch) the torpedo activates and its mass field and thrusters away from the fighter and towards its target.
Defense: Vehicle Armor + Kinetic Barriers:
Special:
Additional Factors:
Cerberus Frigates
Type of Aircraft: Frigate
Fighter or Bomber? : Both
Weapon Type: Various
Armor Type: Barriers, Armor
Classification: Fast-flying rapid response ship
Basic Description:
Frigates are light escort and scouting vessels. They often have extensive GARDIAN systems to provide anti-fighter screening for capital ships, and carry a squad of marines for security and groundside duty. Unlike larger vessels, frigates are able to land on planets(though they have to turn off their kinetic barriers to do so) and are used regularly enough to be included here. They can be used both in fighter and bomber purposes.
Cerberus was noted to have a small but very elite force equipped with the top of the line weaponry. So Thus while Cerberus is going to field far fewer frigates than the other Mass Effect force its higher end weaponry is going to be near universal among those that are included.
Loadout:
Armament:
--Mass Accelerator Cannon:
Essentially these are giant versions of the smaller gun model already described on the previous page. Rather than being mounted on the exterior, starship guns are housed inside hulls and visible only as gun portholes from outside.A ship's main gun is a large spinal-mount weapon usually running 90% of the hull's length (though I believe this less for frigates) . While possessing destructive power equal to that of tactical nuclear weapons, main guns are difficult to aim. Because ships must be able to point their bows almost directly at their targets, main guns are best used for long-range "bombardment" fire. Dreadnaughts have the ability to fire single slugs that can obliterate medium sized cities instantly....while the Frigate is much smaller and thus less devastating then this, it is STILL going to inflict a large amount of damage once it hits.
The Following two weapons, though vastly more powerful, can be considered "uncommon".
--Javelin Missiles: The Javelin is an experimental close-assault weapon fitted on a handful of newer Alliance warships. It consists of a "rack" of two or more disposable disruptor torpedo tubes bolted or magnetically "slung" on to a ship’s exterior armored hull. The torpedoes are fired on converging trajectories, and detonate in a precisely timed sequence that allows the dark energy emitted by their warheads to resonate and thereby magnify the resulting space-time warp effects.
Like fighter launched torpedoes, Javelins are "cold-launched" for safety reasons, though they use a different approach. Resembling old-fashioned submarine torpedo tubes, Javelin torpedoes come packed in individual sealed tubes filled with compressed, inert gas. Opening the front of the tube causes escaping gases to push the torpedo into the vacuum, releasing a puff of crystals around the mouth of the tube. After completely clearing the tube, the torpedo ignites its thrusters.
--Thanix Cannon:
After the Battle of the Citadel, human and turian volunteers spent three months clearing the station's orbit of debris. During the cleanup, the turians secretly salvaged Sovereign's powerful main gun along with much of the weapon's element zero core. Eleven months later, the turians introduced the Thanix, a scaled-down version of the weapon.
The Thanix's core is a liquid alloy of iron, uranium, and tungsten suspended in an electromagnetic field powered by element zero. The molten metal, accelerated to a significant fraction of the speed of light, solidifies into a projectile as it is fired, hitting targets with enough force to pierce any known shield or armor. The gun can fire reliably every five seconds.The weapon's relatively small size allows it to be mounted on most fighters or frigates. It is now widely used by the Alliance military and is the primary weapon on the refurbished Normandy SR-2.
The weapon it was reverse engineered from could inflict anywhere from 132 to 454 kilotons of TNT (3 times a Halo MAC cannon at least and 4-5 times more then a Dreadnough of ME) . Though the Thanix cannon is clearly much weaker you are still looking at an insanely strong weapon.
--Bombs: It is known that Mass Effect frigates still carry conventional explosives and bombing frigates can presumably carry them in a large quantity. When is probably the most powerful bomb known is the "Warp Bomb" which is like a disrupter or Javelin yet much bigger.
Defense:
--Gardian: A ships' General ARea Defense Integration Anti-spacecraft Network (GARDIAN) consists of anti-missile/anti-fighter laser turrets on the exterior hull. Because these are under computer control, the gunnery control officer needs to do little beyond turn the system on and designate targets as hostile.
Since lasers move at light speed, they cannot be dodged by anything moving at non-relativistic speeds. Unless the beam is aimed poorly, it will always hit its target. In the early stages of a battle, the GARDIAN fire is 100% accurate. It is not 100% lethal, but it doesn't have to be. Damaged fighters must break off for repairs.
Lasers are limited by diffraction. The beams "spread out", decreasing the energy density (watts per m2) the weapon can place on a target. Any high-powered laser is a short-ranged weapon.GARDIAN networks have another limitation: heat. Weapons-grade lasers require "cool-down" time, during which heat is transferred to sinks or radiators. As lasers fire, heat builds within them, reducing damage, range, and accuracy.
GARDIAN lasers typically operate in infrared frequencies. Shorter frequencies would offer superior stopping power and range, but degradation of focal arrays and mirrors would make them expensive to maintain, and most prefer mechanical reliability over leading-edge performance where lives are concerned. Salarians, however, use near-ultraviolet frequency lasers with six times the range, believing that having additional time to shoot down incoming missiles is more important. As shown in the novel Mass Effect Retribution, these lasers can and have been used offensively before.
--Cyclonic Barrier Technology (CBT) attempts to solve the higher-end limitations of traditional kinetic barriers. Traditional barriers cannot block high-level kinetic energy attacks such as disruptor torpedoes because torpedo mass effect fields add mass. The CBT violently slaps aside rather than halting incoming linear force. By rotationally firing their mass effect field projectors, ships create rapidly oscillating kinetic barriers instead of static ones. Shooting through the CBT is like trying to shoot at a target inside a spinning ball.
Significant drawbacks to current CBT configuration prevent its use on anything other than frigates and fighters. Its many high-frequency sensors and emitters require frequent maintenance and replacement. A partially damaged CBT can endanger its operator, who is surrounded by rotating mass effect fields skewing in unpredictable directions. Fortunately, if an emitter is damaged, the CBT corrects to become a traditional shield array, a safety feature that makes it most effective during opening volleys.
--Silarus Armor: Asari-made Silaris armor can resist even the tremendous heat and kinetic energy of starship weapons. The armor is nearly unsurpassed in strength because its central material, carbon nanotube sheets woven with diamond Chemical Vapor Deposition, are crushed by mass effect fields into super-dense layers able to withstand extreme temperatures. That process also compensates for diamond's brittleness.
Diamond armor itself has two limiting disadvantages. First, while nanotubes and CVD-diamond construction have become cheaper in recent years, it remains prohibitively expensive to coat starships or aircraft larger than fighters in Silaris material. Second, the armor must be attached to the ship's superstructure, so shock waves from massive firepower can still destroy the metals beneath the armor itself.
Special:
--Sensors: See Reconnaisance. Frigates are equipped with a huge variety of sensors that make it extremely difficult to hide from them.
--Frigates are light escort and scouting vessels. They often have extensive GARDIAN systems to provide anti-fighter screening for capital ships, and carry a squad of marines for security and groundside duty. Unlike larger vessels, frigates are able to land on planets.
--Frigates move extremely fast through the air, and as they move their thrusters burn at hundreds of thousands of degrees incinerating whatever is tailing them.
--Cerberus Ships are going to be much rarer than Alliance ones, but still present in larger numbers due to years of secret armament.
Type of Aircraft: Drone
Fighter or Bomber? : Fighter
Weapon Type: Gamma beam?
Armor Type: Starship Armor
Classification: Reaper Air Superiority fighter.
Basic Description:
An oculus is a mechanical servitor of the Collectors and Reapers, apparently built with a single purpose -- to find and eliminate threats. Its outer structure has three apertures that house long-range detection equipment similar to those found on deep-space probes, used to find and track targets from near-stellar distances. Contragrav mass effect fields allow an oculus to move easily through space or atmosphere in pursuit of its prey, and a large central lens serves as the emission center for its weapons platform. All four of its lenses have a titanium iris covering that prevents the detector's optics from scratching due to interstellar dust or atmospheric residue.
Upon its destruction, more of the oculus' features become apparent. Its interior houses fibers of near-inorganic nerves, indicating that a Collector drone or Husk has been stripped down to its central nervous system, reinforced with interfacial gel that can withstand hard vacuum, and repurposed to pilot the oculus for the rest of its existence.
Loadout:
Armament: The central weapon is a strange one, operating on alien principles. It appears to use mass effect fields and directed energy to attack the strong nuclear force that holds its targets' atoms together, producing heat and light in an air atmosphere and causing irradiating gamma particles to burst from any heavy metals targeted by the beam. Such a weapon could easily cut through shields, and leave its target dying with just a glancing hit. It can be held for a concentrated beam or short rapid fire.
Defense:
In the brief fight with Commander Shephard it was shown to have heavy vehicle armor, however it should be noted that the version that boarded the Normandy had shed its outer plating to get on, and thus the real full version would likely be much more potent. It might also have kinetic barriers however this is unconfirmed.
Special:
Additional Factors:
--Boarding action: For a huge ship the Oculi can shed its outer barrier and carve through the hull, boarding it and attempting to gut it from the inside.
--Swarms: Swarms of these creatures are often used, either independently attacking targets all along Reaper battlefields or else emerging en masse from the Reaper capital ships themselves.
--Against Ground foes, if there is no air around, it can opt to strafe battlefields with its deadly arsenal.\
--Speed: At least Supersonic if not higher. They are able to match the fighters of Cerberus and other Mass Effect factions.
Reaper Capital Ship
Type of Aircraft: Sentient Starship
Fighter or Bomber? : Both
Weapon Type: Various
Armor Type: Extremely Heavy
Classification: Mass Destruction/Leadership/Indoctrination
Basic Description:
===May be factored into either Armor or Air Combat. Or Both, as the Destroyer has roles in both.===
Standing in at 2 kilometers tall, the Reaper Capital Ship dominates the entire category in both size and influence. In fact just one of them is capable of untold destruction by themselves. Each Reaper Capital Ship is made of billions of minds, the processed remains of the most powerful or influential race in a cycle, giving them immense processing power. In terms of weaponry they are armed to the metaphorical teeth with a unstoppable main cannon, auxiliary beam cannons, a horde of accompanying Oculi, and a defensive laser system.
Though normally Capital Ships aren't included in atmosphere engagements, the Capital's vital use as a indoctrination device, base, assault walker and the vital importance of the vessel in Planetary Conquest, as well as the fact that it often chooses to fight on ground level, earns it a spot.
Loadout:
Armament:
--Main Cannon: Their main weapon is a spinal mounted "magnetohydrodynamic" cannon with a yield of 132 to 450 kilotons of TNT, which dwarfs the main gun of an Everest-class Alliance dreadnought. No known ship, not even a dreadnought, has been known to survive a hit from this weapon. Even if the target is hardened, as in the case of a surface-based missile silo, the gun can instead bury the target beneath molten metal. Precise targeting computers and correctors also give the Reaper weapons a longer effective range than organics' dreadnoughts or cruisers.For reference organic dreadnoughts have a range of 10s of thousands of kilometers, meaning that the Reaper pretty much has "line of sight" range in ground combat (this is shown when the ground bound Reaper Destroyer takes down spaceships in space).
--Beam Cannons: See Destroyer, but the Reaper Capital Ship has several on their tendrils, capable of firing them either rapidly or even firing a few at once.
--Oculi Carrier: As part of their anti-fighter defense, Reapers are described as carrying a whole mini-fleet of these guys.
--Enhanced GARDIAN: The reaper GARDIAN system is going to be better than the Citadel or Cerberus versions, ensuring more causalities from fighters and a much longer time in which it is able to defend the vessel from projectiles. The range of the GARDIAN's use for the regular Mass Effect factions is around 10 kilometers, with the Reaper version being better. This makes it extremely difficult for fighter craft to get close enough to it to hit, working in addition to the Oculi swarm and beam cannons.
Finally in some situations it has been observed just ramming through targets like a freight train.
Defense: In order land on a planet, a Reaper must substantially reduce its mass. This transfer of power to its mass effect generators leaves the Reaper's kinetic barriers at only partial strength. However even then the Reaper Capital Ship is still going to have better shields than the Destroyer, making it extremely difficult for anything groundside- and even most aircraft- to destroy it. And it will have resistant to heat weapons like the Laser or Thanix and even distortion weapons like the Javelin Missiles, though these will get through the shield faster then pure conventional arsenal.
That said none of this applies when the Reaper is in the air, which means that its enemies must deal with the full Reaper shield that can tank 4 dreadnought shots at once. There is only one weapon that managed to cripple a Reaper in a single shot within Mass Effect , and that weapon not only failed to wholly destroy the Reaper corpse but also created a massive impact crater on a adjacent planet(which demonstrates phenomenal power). In addition to armor and shielding, the pure size of the Reaper capital ship is going to allow it to sustain a lot of fire by itself, requiring many more blows to put down. Multiple limbs or parts of the Capital Ship can be blown completely off and it will keep fighting regardless.
 |
| That whole thing right across the middle is the impact crater |
Special: Can possess Reapers and Indoctrinate people. Just being around a Reaper is going to start the latter process. Even if said Reaper is technically dead.
Additional Factors:
--Vital Importance, Power Source and Mental Resistance: Even better than the Reaper Destroyer in the last regard, as their minds are made of the gestalt consciousness of billions. Unless its a deity attacking, all Mental Attacks should be considered failures.
--Each a nation unto itself....see the bottom of Leadership profile
--Uncommon: These ships are going to be much much rarer than the Reaper Destroyer. Far rarer, but probably measured in the low hundreds.
--Reaper Capital Ships have limited transport capacity.
 |
| Size comparison includes Ultralisks (35m) , various Titans (largest 40k titan is 50m) , Jaeger (80m) , Reaper Destroyer (160 m~) and looming Reaper Capital ship (2 kilometers) |
===MISC AIR===
UT-47 shuttle
Type of Aircraft: Shuttle
Purpose of Aircraft: Transport, sometimes covering fire
Classification: Rapid Insertion transport
Basic Description:
Originally created to covertly insert Alliance marines into hostile environments, the UT-47 shuttle has since been sold to allies, recovered by enemies, and had its specifications stolen by spies. In one form or another, this durable transport is now used in all corners of the galaxy.
A-model Kodiaks feature a front-mounted mass-accelerator cannon that can be used in an antivehicular role. Since the shuttle lacks proper gun ports, soldiers often open the side hatch to fire on enemies. This is discouraged in Alliance manuals, since it exposes the interior to return fire.
Flying the 47A during atmospheric combat requires considerable skill. The pilot must reduce the vehicle's mass for speed and handling, while maintaining enough mass to resist recoil, incoming fire, and inclement weather. More than one pilot had overstressed the Kodiak's field generator and ended up on the battlefield instead of above it.
Cerberus has been known to use the ship to drop in their troops from the aiir, who slow their ascent with rocket boots attached to their feet.
Loadout:
Armament: See Armor for Mass Accelerator Cannons
Defense: Standard vehicle armor/kinetic Barriers
Special/ Detailed Purpose:
--Transport: The Kodiak can carry around 12 people into battle and quickly drop them off.
--Resupply: The Kodiak also carries enough room to drop off supplies on the front if needed.
Additional Factors:
-Speed: Though Kodiak speed is currently unknown, it is likely to be around the standard hover cars of their day, meaning that this ship should be able to reach 650 kilometers per hour at maximum based on Citadel Skycars. It is likely that the Kodiak achieves less then this as that model was a skycar, however it should be pointed out that the speed is not unreasonable for Mass Effect.
Geth Dropship
Type of Aircraft: Insectoid Dropship
Purpose of Aircraft: Rapid Transport
Classification: Literal "Dropship"
Basic Description:
A Geth Dropship is a large, insect-like frigate capable of carrying large numbers of geth. Geth Dropships are designed to drop geth units from overhead, often dropping Geth troops and Geth Colossi mid-flight. They also occasionally provide air support for the ground-based platforms in the form of a powerful projectile attack.
Loadout:
Armament: (if any) :Geth Pulse cannon: See Colossus
Defense: Kinetic barriers/shields
Special/ Detailed Purpose:
Such is the nature of the Geth that they can be dropped onto the ground while the aircraft is in mid-flight without many seeming injuries.
Additional Factors:
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Reaper Transport Ship
(Unfortunately no image of a Reaper Transport ship exists)
Troop Transports vary in length between 200 meters and one kilometer and are used to transport husks to unconquered worlds and bring victims to Reaper processing centers. They lack sentience and are remotely controlled by the Reapers. Obviously with a ship that big you can expect a lot of troop capacity. They can also seemingly drop Husks directly onto the field via Drop Pods that would be dangerous to most organics, however not the durable Husks.
===Support===
Seeker Swarms
Armor Type: None really
Type of Support: Massed Swarm
Classification: Paralysis inducing insects
What Bonus do they give?: Inflicting Paralysis
Seeker Swarms are technological devices used by the Collectors. They have the appearance of large light-brown insects, deployed in swarms from Collector ships. Once released, the Swarms seek organic targets and sting them, leaving their prey in a paralytic stasis-like state. This allows the Collectors to disable the populace of entire colonies, whereupon they move in and gather the bodies for transportation.
Loadout:
Armament: One sting and it will gradually disable all movement in a target, leaving them in a paralysis-like state.
Defense: None really other then traveling in a swarm and being incredibly hard to completely eradicate.
Special/Detailed Purpose: Mass Paralysis. Once this is done the Collectors- or potentially Reapers given some Mass Effect information- swoop in and either take and store the paralyzed for processing or executes them.
Additional Factors:
--It is unknown how they are made, though it is clear they are a mechanical construct.
Combat Engineers
Armor Type: Body Armor/Kinetic Barriers
Type of Support: Fire support via turrets
Classification: Engineer.
What Bonus do they give?: Fire Support
Cerberus combat engineers are specialized support units that assist primary forces while staying out of the line of fire. They wear lighter armor than the typical Cerberus combatant, using a modified mesh that allows greater mobility. Under cover and out of sight, engineers focus on setting up and maintaining turrets as well as repairing mechanical units or armored allies. When confronted, they return fire only for as long as it takes them to find cover again and let front-line combat personnel take over.
Although engineers are not particularly dangerous on their own, it is advisable to remain alert for turrets, which can mow down an entire squad while the engineer escapes.
Loadout:
Armament :See assault Trooper
Defense: Light armor/kinetic Barriers
Special/Detailed Purpose: Setting up Turrets:
These Turrets are stationary attack platforms that can lock on to any target that enters their range, mowing them down with Mass Accelerator machine guns. These can be rapidly set up by Cerberus Engineers to assist the overall squad.
They can also repair vehicles and mechanical units like Rampart Mechs.
Additional Factors:
--See Cerberus squad. This forms the Fire Support Specialist of the team.
--Engineers are also going to be exceptional at hacking and disabling other advanced technology too.
-Processors
( Again no image available for this type of reaper variant, which Mobile centers for mass DNA harvesting. Like the Troop Transports, Processors lack sentience and are controlled remotely by the actual Reapers. Instead of detailing the ship which seems to be lacking any official detail, I will detail the method)
Harvesting:
Even with all the Reapers' power, harvesting every sapient species in an entire galaxy can take decades or even centuries. The most time-consuming part of the process is gathering DNA from the population. To accelerate the effort, the Reapers follow a consistent procedure.
Victims who cooperate, surrender, or are captured by husks are sorted into camps. It is believed the husks possess receptors that allow them to analyze a victim's DNA through sight, smell, or touch. Victims that meet their standards are herded from the camps into processor ships. Those the husks deem insufficient are either turned into husks themselves or indoctrinated to serve as slave labor. The Reapers use this last option to give their victims false hope -- many captives who would otherwise fight back become docile when they see members of their own kind obey and survive.
The processor ships reduce victims to a transportable liquid. Like in a slaughterhouse, the ships' design prevents victims from seeing or hearing what happens elsewhere so that they do not panic. The victims are ushered into locking pods, then rent apart and dissolved into paste that is flushed to storage vats.
The rate of killing is phenomenal. Intelligence estimates suggest there are more than 400 processor ships on Earth, killing approximately 1.86 million humans per day. In combination with battlefield deaths, disease, and famine, this pace will result in the complete depopulation of Earth within a decade. As the husks and indoctrinated slaves build more slaughtering facilities, the kill rate can only increase.
===Defenses===
Omega Forcefields:
Type of Defense: Impassible Barrier:
Described as sheets of Plasma wrapped in a magnetic field, any organic or unshielded synthetic that attempts to cross through is roasted alive. Only through adequate shielding or by turning off the power is one able to cross the forcefield.
Geth Jamming Tower: The Geth Employ this device to disrupt enemy communications and targeting systems. With enough time they can build many of these.
Hades Cannon:
The Hades Cannon is an anti-aircraft weapon of Reaper design. It is a massive directed-energy cannon, capable of being mounted on the four-legged chassis of a Destroyer-class Reaper. Several Hades Cannons were utilized by the Reapers during their assault and occupation of Earth. They are highly accurate as well as powerful, as they are capable of shooting down craft as small and nimble as a UT-47A Kodiak Drop Shuttle as well as hitting those in space.
--Manned Turrets:
Manned Mass Accelerator Turrets are sometimes used by the Reaper forces to hold fixed positions. These fire enormous quantities of Mass Accelerator rounds that can tear ordinary Husks into pieces in seconds.
====Leader Profile===
Name: Harbringer
Notable Battlefield Feats:
Unfortunately we don't know much of his direct, detailed feats, only what he has done in total, and that is quite literally lead a billion years of successful genocide and harvest. Reapers work in a unique way in that functionally they are completely independent in their combat effectiveness and tactical ability. And Yet they also display a huge degree of cooperation to the point where tactical ideas and strategies are shared instantly across Light Years via Quantum Entanglement devices, sort of like the Geth except faster. Thus the Harbringer you see below, with a few categorical exceptions, is much more a Anagram of leader X-Factors for the combined Reaper Collective rather then any one Reaper.
Personality:
Not much is shown regarding Reaper personalities. They treat the world and the organics with a sort of cold clinical detachment and disdain. They won't be demoralized by losses in conflict though they will seek to prevent the deaths of fellow Reapers as that makes their overriding goal much harder to achieve. Logic and the overriding objective are the formost two traits on a Reaper's mind. They will also seek to use emotions of the enemies against them, and Harbringer in particular was good at this. However they have also been through the motions so many times that they are shown to be arrogant and a bit unimaginative, and this ends up hurting them when organics spurn their normal combat doctrines to attack them in novel ways.
-Command Style: First Among Equals:
No one Reaper has command * over the others however the way they are designed, built and combat style ensures that they display perfect cohesion between each other. Harbringer has been described as "leading " the Reapers but if need be they are fully capable of acting independent of him. They are each a nation, each capable of taking out civilizations and rasing armies by themselves. Its likely that the other Reapers recognize him as the one with the most experience and thus follow him for that reason.
*The Catalyst I don't consider a Reaper, more like an overseer that has no real input in how battles are handled.
Reaper X-Factors:
*Since every Reaper technically has the more or less the same traits and abilities, these Leader X-factors are for the Reapers as a whole . The only x-factor Harbinger really changes is experience, and that is only slightly.
Adaptive Creativity: 72/100
The Reapers are very good at adjusting their tactics directly to counter another force's tactics, as shall be discussed in tactics, and often in somewhat innovative ways. Yet they have suffered loss many times before thanks to an enemy changing up or surprising them with a new tactic.
Tactics: 84/100 :
The Reapers are exceptionally good at adjusting their tactics to directly counter those of the enemies, and did so to each of the Council races in turn. The Asari who loved hit and run attacks were ambushed, surrounded and eventually forced to fight in a place that they could not afford to retreat from. Harbinger played on Turian emotions by targeting a emotionally significant planet to trick them into luring their forces in a trap. Salarians were bypassed and short-cut before they could launch their doctrine-demanded first trike assault. Even against adaptable foes like the Alliance the Reapers have found a means to victory. However that said they have shown the inability to predict radical and surprising changes in enemy tactical doctrine, illustrated by the Miracle of Palavan where the Turians sacrificed hundreds of resistance fighters and more civilians to suicide bomb several Reaper ships and inflict massed causalities.
Yet they are also subtle, and will utilize indoctrination to infiltrate enemy ranks or long term recon to fully plan out a strategy before battle In the Reaper War he would attempt to break the morale of Earth by tricking their leaders to a peace conference, indoctrinating their leaders, and then using their own sub-governments (The Systems Alliance is a coalition of governments) against the regular people, enforcing their own extinction..
The Reapers are exceptionally good at adjusting their tactics to directly counter those of the enemies, and did so to each of the Council races in turn. The Asari who loved hit and run attacks were ambushed, surrounded and eventually forced to fight in a place that they could not afford to retreat from. Harbinger played on Turian emotions by targeting a emotionally significant planet to trick them into luring their forces in a trap. Salarians were bypassed and short-cut before they could launch their doctrine-demanded first trike assault. Even against adaptable foes like the Alliance the Reapers have found a means to victory. However that said they have shown the inability to predict radical and surprising changes in enemy tactical doctrine, illustrated by the Miracle of Palavan where the Turians sacrificed hundreds of resistance fighters and more civilians to suicide bomb several Reaper ships and inflict massed causalities.
Yet they are also subtle, and will utilize indoctrination to infiltrate enemy ranks or long term recon to fully plan out a strategy before battle In the Reaper War he would attempt to break the morale of Earth by tricking their leaders to a peace conference, indoctrinating their leaders, and then using their own sub-governments (The Systems Alliance is a coalition of governments) against the regular people, enforcing their own extinction..
Strategy: 83/100 :
Reapers can be quite subtle, and will utilize indoctrination to infiltrate enemy ranks or long term recon to fully plan out a strategy before battle In the Reaper War he would attempt to break the morale of Earth by tricking their leaders to a peace conference, indoctrinating their leaders, and then using their own sub-governments (The Systems Alliance is a coalition of governments) against the regular people, enforcing their own extinction. They are quite capable of adapting to unique traits within the enemy force to best ensure their own demise.
Intuition: 75/100:
The Repaers are extremely good at predicting enemy actions based on their combat doctrine and finding a counter. They do fail sometimes though at this.
Experience: 96/100:
Roughly 1 BILLION years of experience! The only thing that stops Harbinger from getting full points is A. never had experience against magic or pseudo magic (though they do have experience, ancient experience, against pseudo-psychics) and B. The Reapers deliberately make it so the organic civilizations advance only in the direction they want them too, with little variation, using Mass Effect technology. Thus encountering a civilization with radically different technology might throw them off a bit. Still it is stated by the Catalyst that they harvest roughly every 50,000 years so that would mean that Harbringer may have an estimated 20,000 Harvests of multiple species under its proverbial belt, assuming the rate carries through for that billion years. That's going to be untold iterations of tactics used by organics against the Reapers, weapon variations, enemy culture variations, circumstances ect. Each Harvest varies from many decades to centuries, increasing experience time.
Roughly 1 BILLION years of experience! The only thing that stops Harbinger from getting full points is A. never had experience against magic or pseudo magic (though they do have experience, ancient experience, against pseudo-psychics) and B. The Reapers deliberately make it so the organic civilizations advance only in the direction they want them too, with little variation, using Mass Effect technology. Thus encountering a civilization with radically different technology might throw them off a bit. Still it is stated by the Catalyst that they harvest roughly every 50,000 years so that would mean that Harbringer may have an estimated 20,000 Harvests of multiple species under its proverbial belt, assuming the rate carries through for that billion years. That's going to be untold iterations of tactics used by organics against the Reapers, weapon variations, enemy culture variations, circumstances ect. Each Harvest varies from many decades to centuries, increasing experience time.
Audacity: 84/100
Discipline: 95/100:
The Reapers are physically incapable of feeling fear and treat all things with a sort of cold detachment. However they might get too obsessed with killing a foe as what happened with Shepard, and arrogance may warp strategies at times.
Intelligence: 87/100 :
Reapers are typically millions if not billions of minds and processes molded into one, and Harbinger is no exception.
Psychological Warfare: 89/100: Indoctrination, as one of their main strategies, bumps this rating up hugely. Reapers aim not just to break their foes physically but mentally. As the Battle of Taetus, fought on a planet which had emotional significance for the Turians, showed the Reapers will aim to provoke other emotional responses, such as anger and rage, if they deem doing so useful to their overall objective.
Corruption: 55/100: The Reapers firmly believe that what they do is for the good of the galaxy, and that they’re preserving these races in Reaper form. It is there belief that the other races MUST be destroyed and preserved, for if not then synthetics created by the organic races will inevitably do the task for them. They genuinely believe they are doing the right thing and that they are "saving" the other species, and because of this reason they will go to any lengths to carry out the harvest.
The Reapers are physically incapable of feeling fear and treat all things with a sort of cold detachment. However they might get too obsessed with killing a foe as what happened with Shepard, and arrogance may warp strategies at times.
Intelligence: 87/100 :
Reapers are typically millions if not billions of minds and processes molded into one, and Harbinger is no exception.
Psychological Warfare: 89/100: Indoctrination, as one of their main strategies, bumps this rating up hugely. Reapers aim not just to break their foes physically but mentally. As the Battle of Taetus, fought on a planet which had emotional significance for the Turians, showed the Reapers will aim to provoke other emotional responses, such as anger and rage, if they deem doing so useful to their overall objective.
Corruption: 55/100: The Reapers firmly believe that what they do is for the good of the galaxy, and that they’re preserving these races in Reaper form. It is there belief that the other races MUST be destroyed and preserved, for if not then synthetics created by the organic races will inevitably do the task for them. They genuinely believe they are doing the right thing and that they are "saving" the other species, and because of this reason they will go to any lengths to carry out the harvest.
Additional Factors:
--Each a nation....: If Harbinger is destroyed, it will only harm the Reapers in a very minor way. Each Reaper is independent, a nation within itself, and bound to a gestalt overall consciousness (Catalyst) that already contains all knowledge Harbinger possesses . They will still be able to plan with laser-like precision, still be able wage war with nearly the same effectiveness as before Harbinger's death. In this manner an enemy race cannot decapitate their leadership and win that way, for they are each leaders of nations cooperating fully with each other. Each can serve as a conduit for indoctrination and thus raise armies by themselves, each is a master tactician/strategist by our own considerations.
This gives the Reapers another potent advantage; they can pretty much operate independently from each other if they wanted with maximum efficiency even enacting different plans from each other and carrying them through. Yet they also have no problems whatsoever coordinating and will also do so with full efficiency As illogical as it sounds the Reapers as a whole are the epitome of both centralized and decentralized warfare.
====Reaper X-Factors===
--Morale*: 85/100: Though the Reapers will retreat when they sense the need to, they are for all extent and purposes immune to scare tactics and attempts to drain their morale.
--Logistics: 90/100 (Cerberus 68): Reapers don't have supply lines and technically don't need anything themselves to function, except possibly organic life to build more of their minions and the ability to transport said minions. However as have been stated elsewhere these minions are only optional, the Reapers don't give one wit about their lives, and the Reapers themselves are without need for food, water, ammunition, fuel, and even energy supplies. Cerberus does have some of these problems though, however operate more or less independently from the Reapers. That said though the minions are merely optional, killing them all and preventing new husks from being made will slow Reaper progress down immensely, just not stop them.
--Espionage: 84/100: Reapers place a heavy emphasis on indoctrination, which they use to infiltrate enemy forces and place sleeper agents to sabotage at the right moment. Seemingly loyal agents and officials can turn upon their fellows with frightening effect, and in particular the indoctrination and seeding of officials helped doom the Prothean Empire, Batarian Hegemony, and more. If they get the opportunity they will gladly indoctrinate faction leaders, destroying empires from the top down.
--Discipline: 95/100: See Harbinger profile
--Overall Intimidation Factor: 72/100:
By appearances their armor is mostly composed of huge, massive war machines or undead, modified footsoliders. By reputation they are intimidating in that they are a ominous, brutal threat completely dedicated towards eradication. Indoctrination helps erode trust between allies however they don't seem to invoke quite the fearful responses that Chaos, Dark Eldar or Tyranids do.
--Reinforcements: High-Very High (Reaper Husks/Geth= Very High Cerberus = Variable, Collectors : Low)
As Mentioned in the other Mass Effect profile, the Geth can replicate so long as they have available materials to make more Geth with, and they can use scrap metal for this. Cerberus's reinforcements will normally be "low" unless the given population of the planet they are fighting on contains humans, in which case it shall be bumped up due to forced indoctrination. The Collectors may have the ability to make more of themselves, but for the most part they are just the remnants of a dead race that will eventually completely pass into oblivion.
The Reaper Husks are going to have reinforcement rate that incorporates the amount of bodies- dead or living- that they can get their hands on. These need not be sentient creatures either, as the example of the Harvester shows. For outside reinforcements the Reapers now control roughly half of the inhabitable Mass Effect galaxy at the point which they are being used, with frequent conversion and harvesting operations in place, and thus new Husks will be arriving fairly frequently. In fact given the sheer amount of planets they have assaulted (though it is noted they can't be everywhere in the galaxy at once) the opening up of a new planet to attack, even one as populated as a Hive World, will not seriously bother the Reapers and their ability and will to reinforce. Even the Reapers themselves will be arriving with some minor regularity (more so with Destroyers, capital ships arriving rarely).
Quantity vs. Quality: Slight Quantity: The Reapers themselves are clearly formidable, and view themselves (rather rightly or wrongly) as the pinnacles of creation. Their cybernetic implants forced into minions are also meant to instill a lot of new abilities to aid towards battle. However the Reapers clearly view them as cannon fodder and massed soldiers, showing a tendency towards quantity.
Offensive vs. Defensive: Heavy Offensive:
The Reapers haven't really been shown on the defensive, and usually they strike with overwhelming force, though this might in part be because they so overpower the Mass Effect factions.
Reasons for Battle: The Reapers believe that all organic life in the galaxy is doomed to self-destruction at the hands of their synthetic creations, and that they must "harvest" each species to preserve them forever in immortal Reaper form. In this way the knowledge and legacy of the species would never die even if their physical selves did. They are willing to go to any lengths to enact their harvest, only retreating when they cannot see any logical way to win a battle (yet).
===Additional Factors===
Reaper Game Plan:
(What follows is a hypothesis of how the initial Reaper assault would occur, based on known invasions).
The PC method assumes a random starting planet for both factions, starting with a million even with no space force. This is both going the Reapers at both a advantage and a disadvantage. Ideally they would have tried to conduct long term recon or seed the planet they are invading with indoctrinated spies/saboteurs. However at the same time, given the nature of this tournament, they don't have to worry about a spacefleet attacking their back.
Upon landing they are immediately going to assess the planet. Are the natives space-age level or on the crusp of, or are they primitive? Is the planet populated or hardly? If the natives are not near the space-age level, don't have a large population of synthetics/robot technology or are otherwise primitive, they will only focus on their immediate PC foes, who presumably are advanced. If its sparsely populated the Reapers won't really bother to commit a full-scale operation, preferring instead to end their enemy as soon as possible.
Lets assume that the planet is both sufficiently advanced and populated that the Reapers are interested in a harvesting operation.The Reapers will appear in high in atmosphere, pretty much their entire force contained within their massive transport ships or even the Reapers themselves. For a few tense minutes they will rapidly scan the planet, picking out tech levels, key locations such as military bases and large cities, geography ect. If they can they will hack into the communications of that planet's natives, bypassing all but the best cyber defenses and download everything they can (they can download data worth the entire internet in a few moments ). Once this is done they will promptly destroy any and all satellites in orbit. What follows can only be described as total blitzkrieg.
With things rapidly proceeding the Reapers use their extreme mobility(the fact that all of them are technically aircraft) to position themselves right where they are needed. Thus the Blitzkreig assault begins. Reaper Capital Chips move to destroy the enemy defense installations, missile silos( or other installations with superweapons), military bases and attempt to subdue the great cities of the land. Some Cities, the ones deemed not small enough to warrant a effort for immediate takeover, might simply be bombed from the air to destroy their threat capacity and then left for later. Reaper Destroyers meanwhile will target enemy command centers, communication posts and serve as a assisting force to the Capital ships. Transports will disgorge their enormous population of husks which will be let loose on the cities, hunting down military resistance and corralling civilians, as well as making more of themselves with the dragon's teeth. Infrastructure such as any form of long-ranged communications, roads, water plants, power stations, medical, farms ect will be destroyed. The Reaper's early strikes will be intended for massive devastation, and mass devastation they will inflict. This isn't happening over a small area, its happening WORLDWIDE all at once, with force distribution prioritized first and foremost on completely and utterly destroying the capability of the enemy's military to function. As neither the Reapers or their forces really need to rest this will be a non-stop 24/7 assault.
At the same time the other allied forces won't be inactive either. Geth will aid in the destruction of the groundside military force with precision strikes, whereas the Collectors immobilize large portions of the populace with their collector swarms . Once done they kidnap them and bring them to the soon to be set-up processing centers. The Cerberus meanwhile, not truly being under the control of the Reapers yet in a tactical sense, will do there own thing, capturing civilians to convert to more troops (if human), inflicting adjutants freely on alien populations and generally committing acts of sabotage and assassination of key targets, weakening the overall resistance effort.
Within as little as a day, but potentially taking a longer given how militarized the civilization they are invading is , most major bases and military forces on a planet are going to be shut down. Organized resistance, but not total resistance, is going to collapse as it becomes increasingly difficult to communicate over long range as well as to upkeep a significant force. The fate of whole sections of the world will be unknown Civilians, with no access to food or water with the destroyed infrastructure will be corralled by the husks into processing plants, which does have some of these vital necessities . There some of them will be indoctrinated others will be turned into husks, while the majority are processed into making new Reapers. Eventually as the number of husks increase and the cities are brought increasingly under control attention will be brought to the countryside, which will be flooded with roving bands of husks . The Indoctrinated will be used to instill hope of living in the captives thus decreasing chances of rebellion, be sent to infiltrate the rebel organizations and sabotage from within, and occasionally even be used as foot soldiers.
They may attempt to offer peace to the leaders of nations during this, offering to have them meet the Reapers to negotiate settlements. This will of course just be a ploy to indoctrinate the desperate leaders, who will then help split the resistance, turning what little remains of their armed forces against the more passionate rebels in the name of peace. Even if the military were to see through this ploy they would be forced to kill their own leaders, depriving them of it (of course this assumes the leaders accept the peace offering). Gradually the Reapers will seek to whittle down even local resistance so that they can harvest easily at their leisure.
Of course this plan has a number of advantages and disadvantages which almost prove counterpoint to each other. This style is of course going to push the neutral side almost totally into the arms of whatever other force they are fighting on a planet unless they are completely anti-social (Tyranids, Flood ect) however after the first days the participation of the native forces will almost certainly be whittled down to unconnected local resistance forces that is really by this point going to be a nuisance to the Reapers. This plan means they are going to split their forces immensely, leaving these individual battle-forces vulnerable to strikes by a massed force early on but this comes at the benefit of almost total denial of any planetside infrastructure to the (PC) enemy, as well as the Reaper's own infrastructure in place to set up the mass production of Husks and indoctrinated fighters (plus its not unfeasible for the Reapers to prioritize certain targets more if they are taking a huge pounding).
--Hackers: The Reapers are natural hackers, able to shut down the security systems of entire space stations with just simple message. They can even shut down whole portions of the extranet, which is the ME equivalent of a galactic internet. Few firewalls can hold them back for long On the reverse they are also exceedingly good at avoiding being hacked. When they hack into enemy systems they can download trillions of terrabytes of information instantly.
--Reapers don't view actions and battles with emotions as most humans do. Rather they see battle in a cold and detached manner that allows them to commit the most horrible actions without feeling any remorse so long as it serves their goals.Reapers are patient and methodical, willing to slowly and completely rip apart a enemies main strategy then rush in, though they will also seize advantages when the opportunity presents itself. A reason the Reapers may be so good at ripping apart enemy battle plans/combat doctrine is the sheer amount of time the Reapers have been around, with over 20,000 cycles worth of different battlefield iterations to consider.
--Reapers are extraordinarily good at disrupting targeting systems, whether through jamming towers or perhaps equipment the destroyers have themselves for this task. Though they can be affected by stealth systems and weapons that disrupt targeting, these are only temporary obstacles and the War Assets page frequently closes the section with something along the lines of "it will work until the Reapers adopt a countermeasure".
--Reaper Conversion: The Reapers justification for turning other lifeforms into Reaper thralls ensures that A. They don't run out of cannon fodder easy, B. eliminates potential for Local Resistance C. Directly take troops away from enemy forces and add to own side and D. Demoralize enemy . In fact large populations are the Reaper's PRIMARY Target, though they will attempt to destroy any obstacles on the way to the primary target.
--Cerberus make liberal use of Shield Generators, which can protect a given area instantly with infantry cover.
--Indoctrination may be factored in here.
--Weakness: Despite all that said the Reapers are not invulnerable. Through concentrated firepower or tricky they have been destroyed in the past. Tactically, if a foe drastically and suddenly deviates from their standard combat doctrine the Reapers will be surprised, and under this theory the Turians dealt a grievous blow through unconventional suicide bombing when they generally wage conventional warfare. They are also arrogant regarding organics and their emotions, which have led to underestimation in the past, taking some causalities because of it. The fact that even in the refusal setting the Reapers lose shows that one day, even with all their power, they will eventually be beaten conventionally using the same technology they pioneered. That said they haven't technically lost a war yet due tot these issues.
===Victory Gains===
--Husks: In the words of Javik the Prothean on Reaper Conversion, "every battle conjures a new nightmare" as they convert sentient or even non-sentient minions to their bidding.For this tournament they will be creating "Husk" forms of enemy sentient and sometimes non-sentient races to create their own legions of new monsters that combine original biology/powers along with cybernetic upgrades enhancing said powers. This will even occur in battle/campaign, meaning that their foes (Eldar for example) will have to deal with Husk forms of themselves.
--Against Humans Cerberus employs Reaper augmentations to forcibly indoctrinate them, boosting their numbers to a high degree.
--Technological Gain: Low-Moderate: Reaper Husks are often shown with weapons originating from the cycle they originate from and the Reapers themselves utilize organics technology for their purposes, however don't adopt it on a long term basis.
--Biological Gain: Moderate: Reapers have shown themselves adept at taking the biology of other races and manipulating them to their specifications.
--Each a nation....: If Harbinger is destroyed, it will only harm the Reapers in a very minor way. Each Reaper is independent, a nation within itself, and bound to a gestalt overall consciousness (Catalyst) that already contains all knowledge Harbinger possesses . They will still be able to plan with laser-like precision, still be able wage war with nearly the same effectiveness as before Harbinger's death. In this manner an enemy race cannot decapitate their leadership and win that way, for they are each leaders of nations cooperating fully with each other. Each can serve as a conduit for indoctrination and thus raise armies by themselves, each is a master tactician/strategist by our own considerations.
This gives the Reapers another potent advantage; they can pretty much operate independently from each other if they wanted with maximum efficiency even enacting different plans from each other and carrying them through. Yet they also have no problems whatsoever coordinating and will also do so with full efficiency As illogical as it sounds the Reapers as a whole are the epitome of both centralized and decentralized warfare.
====Reaper X-Factors===
--Morale*: 85/100: Though the Reapers will retreat when they sense the need to, they are for all extent and purposes immune to scare tactics and attempts to drain their morale.
--Logistics: 90/100 (Cerberus 68): Reapers don't have supply lines and technically don't need anything themselves to function, except possibly organic life to build more of their minions and the ability to transport said minions. However as have been stated elsewhere these minions are only optional, the Reapers don't give one wit about their lives, and the Reapers themselves are without need for food, water, ammunition, fuel, and even energy supplies. Cerberus does have some of these problems though, however operate more or less independently from the Reapers. That said though the minions are merely optional, killing them all and preventing new husks from being made will slow Reaper progress down immensely, just not stop them.
--Espionage: 84/100: Reapers place a heavy emphasis on indoctrination, which they use to infiltrate enemy forces and place sleeper agents to sabotage at the right moment. Seemingly loyal agents and officials can turn upon their fellows with frightening effect, and in particular the indoctrination and seeding of officials helped doom the Prothean Empire, Batarian Hegemony, and more. If they get the opportunity they will gladly indoctrinate faction leaders, destroying empires from the top down.
--Discipline: 95/100: See Harbinger profile
--Overall Intimidation Factor: 72/100:
By appearances their armor is mostly composed of huge, massive war machines or undead, modified footsoliders. By reputation they are intimidating in that they are a ominous, brutal threat completely dedicated towards eradication. Indoctrination helps erode trust between allies however they don't seem to invoke quite the fearful responses that Chaos, Dark Eldar or Tyranids do.
--Reinforcements: High-Very High (Reaper Husks/Geth= Very High Cerberus = Variable, Collectors : Low)
As Mentioned in the other Mass Effect profile, the Geth can replicate so long as they have available materials to make more Geth with, and they can use scrap metal for this. Cerberus's reinforcements will normally be "low" unless the given population of the planet they are fighting on contains humans, in which case it shall be bumped up due to forced indoctrination. The Collectors may have the ability to make more of themselves, but for the most part they are just the remnants of a dead race that will eventually completely pass into oblivion.
The Reaper Husks are going to have reinforcement rate that incorporates the amount of bodies- dead or living- that they can get their hands on. These need not be sentient creatures either, as the example of the Harvester shows. For outside reinforcements the Reapers now control roughly half of the inhabitable Mass Effect galaxy at the point which they are being used, with frequent conversion and harvesting operations in place, and thus new Husks will be arriving fairly frequently. In fact given the sheer amount of planets they have assaulted (though it is noted they can't be everywhere in the galaxy at once) the opening up of a new planet to attack, even one as populated as a Hive World, will not seriously bother the Reapers and their ability and will to reinforce. Even the Reapers themselves will be arriving with some minor regularity (more so with Destroyers, capital ships arriving rarely).
Quantity vs. Quality: Slight Quantity: The Reapers themselves are clearly formidable, and view themselves (rather rightly or wrongly) as the pinnacles of creation. Their cybernetic implants forced into minions are also meant to instill a lot of new abilities to aid towards battle. However the Reapers clearly view them as cannon fodder and massed soldiers, showing a tendency towards quantity.
Offensive vs. Defensive: Heavy Offensive:
The Reapers haven't really been shown on the defensive, and usually they strike with overwhelming force, though this might in part be because they so overpower the Mass Effect factions.
Reasons for Battle: The Reapers believe that all organic life in the galaxy is doomed to self-destruction at the hands of their synthetic creations, and that they must "harvest" each species to preserve them forever in immortal Reaper form. In this way the knowledge and legacy of the species would never die even if their physical selves did. They are willing to go to any lengths to enact their harvest, only retreating when they cannot see any logical way to win a battle (yet).
Past Opponents:
The Reapers have defeated an uncounted number of alien civilizations, though unfortunately only a few are detailed .
The Leviathans, a aquatic race with the natural ability to mind control species, were the original creators of the Reapers, building them to determine the reason why Synthetic and Organic life couldn't coexist . In the opening move of its first cycle the main intelligence behind the Reapers, the Catalyst, wiped out the Leviathans in a war that saw the creation of Harbinger. The Leviathans were perhaps the one race that was more advanced then the Reapers, and were able to use pulses that could disable Capital Ships and enthrall new species to fight for them, giving them a bit of experience (and the only KNOWN experience) against a race both more advanced then them and with pseudo-psychic powers.
Then after that we have an estimated 20,000 cycles worth of destruction, each cycle containing numerous variations and other alien races presumably. Though it is unknown what exactly transpired during those cycles, other then the obvious conclusion, it can be speculated that, given the mastery of the Reapers in handling enemy combat doctrines, that they faced a huge variation of tactics, stratagems and to a limited extent weapons used against .They will likely have experience with every type of leadership model, ranging from authoritarian generalship to Theocracy to Geth consensus.
In the last known cycle the Protheans had carved themselves a empire of many species and a vast military more technologically advanced then the current Mass Effect factions, all unified by one creed (like the Covenant, Tau). Most importantly they had prior knowledge of hundreds of years that the Reapers were coming. The Reapers first decapitated the Prothean leadership, gathered all information they could find on them, and then slowly ground down the Prothean war machine into dust. During this conflict they quickly managed to learn and counter the entire military doctrine of the Protheans, forcing them onto a losing game as they struggled to create brand new strategies. They utilized indoctrinated agents heavily. Though the Protheans ultimately were powerful enough to take hundreds of years to fully put down and managed to turn off the signal within the Citadel (which saved the next cycle) they were utterly destroyed. What this conflict shows us is that static combat doctrines might be harmful against the Reapers if they can learn it and predict what you are about to do, and that even with prep time and a multi-racial coalition there is no guarantee they can be beaten.
That leaves the last cycle, the one of Commander Shepard, that the Reapers have encountered. Its made clear from the beginning that none of the Mass Effect factions can beat the Mass Effect factions conventionally, despite fan desires of a ending that doesn't involve the dreaded "colors" . At the end of the game every race is militarily in shambles, only just pulling together what is left in a desperate alliance as they had been thoroughly countered individually. The Asari, utilizing Hit and Run and Sabotage tactics, found them useless against the Reapers who not only countered the strategy but eventually forced them into pitched battle on their homeworld where they couldn't enact a fight and flight tactic. There they were destroyed. . The Alliance, deploying tactics based heavily on Sun Tzu, found their tactics ineffective as the Reapers have no need for supply lines, headquarters (each and every one of them IS a mobile headquarters) and only limited usage of support units (essentially knocking out their support category would just annoy them, not destroy their combat ability).
The Batarian Hegemony, relying on a myriad of secretive government institutions and terrorism, was itself infiltrated, dealt grevious blows from within, and found itself unable to terrorize the Reapers in the slightest. They were wiped out early on. The Salarians, reliant on secrecy, cunning, science and clandestine operations, found themselves unable to properly counter the Reapers and were isolated on their homeworld for much of the war.The Turians, reliant on massed overwhelming assaults and disciplined ranks of infantry, were conventionally defeated when the Reapers played upon Turian emotions to launch a devastating assault that ended up costing a lot of lives, and then found themselves unable to beat the Reapers conventionally despite having the galaxy's strongest military. The other races; Geth with their vast synthetic hordes, Quarians with their huge flottilla, Leviathan remnants (yes a few survived the billion year interlude!) , Drell, Hanar, Volus, Elcor, pirates ect could only provide supportive roles and not win the war by themselves. In fact it is cannon that if none of the dreaded "colors" are picked then the entire cycle is wiped out, though apparently this cycle ends up doing so much damage that one of the future cycles is finally able to do what the others couldn't, and beat the Reapers conventionally.
The Reapers have defeated an uncounted number of alien civilizations, though unfortunately only a few are detailed .
The Leviathans, a aquatic race with the natural ability to mind control species, were the original creators of the Reapers, building them to determine the reason why Synthetic and Organic life couldn't coexist . In the opening move of its first cycle the main intelligence behind the Reapers, the Catalyst, wiped out the Leviathans in a war that saw the creation of Harbinger. The Leviathans were perhaps the one race that was more advanced then the Reapers, and were able to use pulses that could disable Capital Ships and enthrall new species to fight for them, giving them a bit of experience (and the only KNOWN experience) against a race both more advanced then them and with pseudo-psychic powers.
Then after that we have an estimated 20,000 cycles worth of destruction, each cycle containing numerous variations and other alien races presumably. Though it is unknown what exactly transpired during those cycles, other then the obvious conclusion, it can be speculated that, given the mastery of the Reapers in handling enemy combat doctrines, that they faced a huge variation of tactics, stratagems and to a limited extent weapons used against .They will likely have experience with every type of leadership model, ranging from authoritarian generalship to Theocracy to Geth consensus.
In the last known cycle the Protheans had carved themselves a empire of many species and a vast military more technologically advanced then the current Mass Effect factions, all unified by one creed (like the Covenant, Tau). Most importantly they had prior knowledge of hundreds of years that the Reapers were coming. The Reapers first decapitated the Prothean leadership, gathered all information they could find on them, and then slowly ground down the Prothean war machine into dust. During this conflict they quickly managed to learn and counter the entire military doctrine of the Protheans, forcing them onto a losing game as they struggled to create brand new strategies. They utilized indoctrinated agents heavily. Though the Protheans ultimately were powerful enough to take hundreds of years to fully put down and managed to turn off the signal within the Citadel (which saved the next cycle) they were utterly destroyed. What this conflict shows us is that static combat doctrines might be harmful against the Reapers if they can learn it and predict what you are about to do, and that even with prep time and a multi-racial coalition there is no guarantee they can be beaten.
That leaves the last cycle, the one of Commander Shepard, that the Reapers have encountered. Its made clear from the beginning that none of the Mass Effect factions can beat the Mass Effect factions conventionally, despite fan desires of a ending that doesn't involve the dreaded "colors" . At the end of the game every race is militarily in shambles, only just pulling together what is left in a desperate alliance as they had been thoroughly countered individually. The Asari, utilizing Hit and Run and Sabotage tactics, found them useless against the Reapers who not only countered the strategy but eventually forced them into pitched battle on their homeworld where they couldn't enact a fight and flight tactic. There they were destroyed. . The Alliance, deploying tactics based heavily on Sun Tzu, found their tactics ineffective as the Reapers have no need for supply lines, headquarters (each and every one of them IS a mobile headquarters) and only limited usage of support units (essentially knocking out their support category would just annoy them, not destroy their combat ability).
The Batarian Hegemony, relying on a myriad of secretive government institutions and terrorism, was itself infiltrated, dealt grevious blows from within, and found itself unable to terrorize the Reapers in the slightest. They were wiped out early on. The Salarians, reliant on secrecy, cunning, science and clandestine operations, found themselves unable to properly counter the Reapers and were isolated on their homeworld for much of the war.The Turians, reliant on massed overwhelming assaults and disciplined ranks of infantry, were conventionally defeated when the Reapers played upon Turian emotions to launch a devastating assault that ended up costing a lot of lives, and then found themselves unable to beat the Reapers conventionally despite having the galaxy's strongest military. The other races; Geth with their vast synthetic hordes, Quarians with their huge flottilla, Leviathan remnants (yes a few survived the billion year interlude!) , Drell, Hanar, Volus, Elcor, pirates ect could only provide supportive roles and not win the war by themselves. In fact it is cannon that if none of the dreaded "colors" are picked then the entire cycle is wiped out, though apparently this cycle ends up doing so much damage that one of the future cycles is finally able to do what the others couldn't, and beat the Reapers conventionally.
===Additional Factors===
Reaper Game Plan:
(What follows is a hypothesis of how the initial Reaper assault would occur, based on known invasions).
The PC method assumes a random starting planet for both factions, starting with a million even with no space force. This is both going the Reapers at both a advantage and a disadvantage. Ideally they would have tried to conduct long term recon or seed the planet they are invading with indoctrinated spies/saboteurs. However at the same time, given the nature of this tournament, they don't have to worry about a spacefleet attacking their back.
Upon landing they are immediately going to assess the planet. Are the natives space-age level or on the crusp of, or are they primitive? Is the planet populated or hardly? If the natives are not near the space-age level, don't have a large population of synthetics/robot technology or are otherwise primitive, they will only focus on their immediate PC foes, who presumably are advanced. If its sparsely populated the Reapers won't really bother to commit a full-scale operation, preferring instead to end their enemy as soon as possible.
Lets assume that the planet is both sufficiently advanced and populated that the Reapers are interested in a harvesting operation.The Reapers will appear in high in atmosphere, pretty much their entire force contained within their massive transport ships or even the Reapers themselves. For a few tense minutes they will rapidly scan the planet, picking out tech levels, key locations such as military bases and large cities, geography ect. If they can they will hack into the communications of that planet's natives, bypassing all but the best cyber defenses and download everything they can (they can download data worth the entire internet in a few moments ). Once this is done they will promptly destroy any and all satellites in orbit. What follows can only be described as total blitzkrieg.
With things rapidly proceeding the Reapers use their extreme mobility(the fact that all of them are technically aircraft) to position themselves right where they are needed. Thus the Blitzkreig assault begins. Reaper Capital Chips move to destroy the enemy defense installations, missile silos( or other installations with superweapons), military bases and attempt to subdue the great cities of the land. Some Cities, the ones deemed not small enough to warrant a effort for immediate takeover, might simply be bombed from the air to destroy their threat capacity and then left for later. Reaper Destroyers meanwhile will target enemy command centers, communication posts and serve as a assisting force to the Capital ships. Transports will disgorge their enormous population of husks which will be let loose on the cities, hunting down military resistance and corralling civilians, as well as making more of themselves with the dragon's teeth. Infrastructure such as any form of long-ranged communications, roads, water plants, power stations, medical, farms ect will be destroyed. The Reaper's early strikes will be intended for massive devastation, and mass devastation they will inflict. This isn't happening over a small area, its happening WORLDWIDE all at once, with force distribution prioritized first and foremost on completely and utterly destroying the capability of the enemy's military to function. As neither the Reapers or their forces really need to rest this will be a non-stop 24/7 assault.
At the same time the other allied forces won't be inactive either. Geth will aid in the destruction of the groundside military force with precision strikes, whereas the Collectors immobilize large portions of the populace with their collector swarms . Once done they kidnap them and bring them to the soon to be set-up processing centers. The Cerberus meanwhile, not truly being under the control of the Reapers yet in a tactical sense, will do there own thing, capturing civilians to convert to more troops (if human), inflicting adjutants freely on alien populations and generally committing acts of sabotage and assassination of key targets, weakening the overall resistance effort.
Within as little as a day, but potentially taking a longer given how militarized the civilization they are invading is , most major bases and military forces on a planet are going to be shut down. Organized resistance, but not total resistance, is going to collapse as it becomes increasingly difficult to communicate over long range as well as to upkeep a significant force. The fate of whole sections of the world will be unknown Civilians, with no access to food or water with the destroyed infrastructure will be corralled by the husks into processing plants, which does have some of these vital necessities . There some of them will be indoctrinated others will be turned into husks, while the majority are processed into making new Reapers. Eventually as the number of husks increase and the cities are brought increasingly under control attention will be brought to the countryside, which will be flooded with roving bands of husks . The Indoctrinated will be used to instill hope of living in the captives thus decreasing chances of rebellion, be sent to infiltrate the rebel organizations and sabotage from within, and occasionally even be used as foot soldiers.
They may attempt to offer peace to the leaders of nations during this, offering to have them meet the Reapers to negotiate settlements. This will of course just be a ploy to indoctrinate the desperate leaders, who will then help split the resistance, turning what little remains of their armed forces against the more passionate rebels in the name of peace. Even if the military were to see through this ploy they would be forced to kill their own leaders, depriving them of it (of course this assumes the leaders accept the peace offering). Gradually the Reapers will seek to whittle down even local resistance so that they can harvest easily at their leisure.
Of course this plan has a number of advantages and disadvantages which almost prove counterpoint to each other. This style is of course going to push the neutral side almost totally into the arms of whatever other force they are fighting on a planet unless they are completely anti-social (Tyranids, Flood ect) however after the first days the participation of the native forces will almost certainly be whittled down to unconnected local resistance forces that is really by this point going to be a nuisance to the Reapers. This plan means they are going to split their forces immensely, leaving these individual battle-forces vulnerable to strikes by a massed force early on but this comes at the benefit of almost total denial of any planetside infrastructure to the (PC) enemy, as well as the Reaper's own infrastructure in place to set up the mass production of Husks and indoctrinated fighters (plus its not unfeasible for the Reapers to prioritize certain targets more if they are taking a huge pounding).
--Hackers: The Reapers are natural hackers, able to shut down the security systems of entire space stations with just simple message. They can even shut down whole portions of the extranet, which is the ME equivalent of a galactic internet. Few firewalls can hold them back for long On the reverse they are also exceedingly good at avoiding being hacked. When they hack into enemy systems they can download trillions of terrabytes of information instantly.
--Reapers don't view actions and battles with emotions as most humans do. Rather they see battle in a cold and detached manner that allows them to commit the most horrible actions without feeling any remorse so long as it serves their goals.Reapers are patient and methodical, willing to slowly and completely rip apart a enemies main strategy then rush in, though they will also seize advantages when the opportunity presents itself. A reason the Reapers may be so good at ripping apart enemy battle plans/combat doctrine is the sheer amount of time the Reapers have been around, with over 20,000 cycles worth of different battlefield iterations to consider.
--Reapers are extraordinarily good at disrupting targeting systems, whether through jamming towers or perhaps equipment the destroyers have themselves for this task. Though they can be affected by stealth systems and weapons that disrupt targeting, these are only temporary obstacles and the War Assets page frequently closes the section with something along the lines of "it will work until the Reapers adopt a countermeasure".
--Reaper Conversion: The Reapers justification for turning other lifeforms into Reaper thralls ensures that A. They don't run out of cannon fodder easy, B. eliminates potential for Local Resistance C. Directly take troops away from enemy forces and add to own side and D. Demoralize enemy . In fact large populations are the Reaper's PRIMARY Target, though they will attempt to destroy any obstacles on the way to the primary target.
--Cerberus make liberal use of Shield Generators, which can protect a given area instantly with infantry cover.
--Indoctrination may be factored in here.
--Weakness: Despite all that said the Reapers are not invulnerable. Through concentrated firepower or tricky they have been destroyed in the past. Tactically, if a foe drastically and suddenly deviates from their standard combat doctrine the Reapers will be surprised, and under this theory the Turians dealt a grievous blow through unconventional suicide bombing when they generally wage conventional warfare. They are also arrogant regarding organics and their emotions, which have led to underestimation in the past, taking some causalities because of it. The fact that even in the refusal setting the Reapers lose shows that one day, even with all their power, they will eventually be beaten conventionally using the same technology they pioneered. That said they haven't technically lost a war yet due tot these issues.
===Victory Gains===
--Husks: In the words of Javik the Prothean on Reaper Conversion, "every battle conjures a new nightmare" as they convert sentient or even non-sentient minions to their bidding.For this tournament they will be creating "Husk" forms of enemy sentient and sometimes non-sentient races to create their own legions of new monsters that combine original biology/powers along with cybernetic upgrades enhancing said powers. This will even occur in battle/campaign, meaning that their foes (Eldar for example) will have to deal with Husk forms of themselves.
--Against Humans Cerberus employs Reaper augmentations to forcibly indoctrinate them, boosting their numbers to a high degree.
--Technological Gain: Low-Moderate: Reaper Husks are often shown with weapons originating from the cycle they originate from and the Reapers themselves utilize organics technology for their purposes, however don't adopt it on a long term basis.
--Biological Gain: Moderate: Reapers have shown themselves adept at taking the biology of other races and manipulating them to their specifications.
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