Aria T'Loak
A powerful biotic, Aria T'Loak has been the sole ruler of Omega for some time. Rumored to be at least a thousand years old, she is as skilled at combat and the user of her biotic abilities as she is at manipulation and power games. Ruthless, highly intelligent, and dedicated to maintaining her rule over Omega, Aria is a force to be reckoned with.
Though recent events have seen Cerberus take over Omega and send Aria into exile, there is no doubt that Aria will do everything within her power to reclaim what is hers.
Cerberus Occupation of Omega
The Illusive Man's plan to capture Omega was elegantly wrought. Experimental specimens called adjutants "escaped" from a Cerberus facility beyond the Omega-4 mass relay, took command of a Cerberus convoy, and arrived on Omega to wreak havoc. With more adjutants incoming, Cerberus reached out to Aria T'Loak, claiming it needed her help to stop its wayward test subjects. Reluctantly offering her own forces in an alliance, Aria joined Cerberus's General Oleg Petrovsky aboard his ship to oversee the battle. When the adjutants overran the Cerberus-Omega fleet, Petrovsky and Aria escaped through the Omega-4 relay.
However, Petrovsky's subordinate Colonel Raymond Ashe had remained behind on Omega to take control of the station's defenses while Cerberus reinforcements approached. Announcing that it was protecting the galaxy from the adjutant threat, Cerberus seized Omega, giving the Illusive Man full control of the Omega-4 relay and the space beyond. Without Aria to keep them in line, the various criminal and mercenary factions on the station erupted, fighting both Cerberus ground troops and each other.
Meanwhile, Aria was taken captive by General Petrovsky. Realizing that the adjutants had simply been a ruse to capture Omega, Aria managed to escape back to Omega, slipping away into its underbelly to organize a resistance force.
Eventually, Petrovsky ordered the Cerberus forces to evacuate the station, but this was yet another ruse -- this time to lure Aria out of hiding. With his troops out of harm's way, Petrovsky summoned a massive Cerberus fleet and presented Aria with an ultimatum: leave Omega or lose it. Petrovsky threatened to destroy the station rather than lose control, and with no alternative, Aria left, vowing she would return to claim Omega and take her revenge.
Cerberus: Adjutant
"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.
Cerberus: General Oleg Petrovsky
Military strategist and classical scholar General Oleg Petrovsky is one of the Illusive Man's most respected operatives. As a corporal in the First Contact War, Petrovsky was forced to take command of his unit and proved his tactical brilliance by holding off repeated turian attacks for weeks. The war ended before his position was overrun but not before Petrovsky had witnessed firsthand the brutality of the turian war machine.
Despite being praised and promoted for his bravery, Petrovsky eventually found more common ground with Cerberus than the Alliance military. Since leading the campaign to seize Omega, Petrovsky has proven to be a capable if firm administrator who is focused on containing or eliminating "unstable elements" before they threaten Cerberus's occupation of the station.
Cerberus: Rampart Mech
Though its initial invasion of Omega was successful, Cerberus was soon faced with the problem of controlling the station's large and often lawless population. An initial solution was to establish detainment areas bordered with impassable force fields, believed to be sheets of plasma suspended in a magnetic field. As Cerberus tightened its control of the station, units that could pass freely through the force fields to police the populace became necessary, leading Cerberus engineers to recover LOKI security mechs from the remaining Eclipse mercenary chapters. When upgraded with Cerberus's proprietary mini-fabrication technology, shielding recovered from Omega's element zero processing plants, and additional ablative armor, the result was the Rampart mech, a flexible combat unit designed for control and intimidation of Omega's inhabitants.
Rampart mechs can seek out targets or troublemakers anywhere on Omega, even lower industrial areas where radiation can be intense. 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.
Nyreen Kandros
Born to a family with a long and honored tradition of military service, Nyreen Kandros left the turian military after the emergence of her biotic abilities. Oft-suspicious of biotics, the turians shipped Nyreen off to the Cabal units, where her abilities and experience were grossly underutilized.
After several years as a mercenary, Kandros was drawn to Omega by its reputation as a haven for capable freelancers. Nyreen's early years on Omega were a pivotal time for her. Aria T'Loak took an interest in Kandros, helping her hone her biotic talents while developing her military experience and skills to their full potential. Aria also allowed Nyreen the time she needed to reconcile with her new way of life and her unexpected -- and initially unwanted -- abilities.
The two eventually parted ways due to irreconcilable differences, but Nyreen Kandros remained on Omega. Upon Aria's return to the station after the Cerberus invasion, Nyreen revealed herself as the leader of the Talons. Reformed under her leadership, the Talons are Omega's newfound symbol of resistance against the Cerberus occupiers.
Turian Cabals
The Cabals are an elite biotic turian unit whose dictum is, "the intangible is unstoppable." As turian biotics are relatively rare, with biotic abilities manifesting in only a small percentage of element-zero exposed turians, Cabals tend to be small and only comprised of 10 to 15 individuals led by a commanding officer called a kabalim.
A turian Cabal is often deployed covertly as shock troops or saboteurs, or they're sent on long reconnaissance missions for the Hierarchy. In addition to advanced biotic training, all Cabal soldiers are highly skilled in small arms, explosives, infiltration tactics, and piloting.
Centuries ago, during the Unification Wars, military black ops would recruit turian biotics as infiltrators, planting them anonymously in the regular infantry as "observers" or using them as assassins. This historical practice has left a cultural bias against biotic soldiers among the turian rank-and-file. As a result, the Turian Hierarchy prefers to keep its Cabals isolated from other branches of the military, citing "safety and unit cohesion concerns." Even turians whose biotic abilities are not combat-proficient are segregated into Cabals, often forcing them to cut short their promising careers in order to serve as a medic or maintenance officer. However, Cabal soldiers are professionals; those who do not adapt are quickly weeded out, resulting in strongly unified teams of experienced, deadly, biotic warriors who see their isolation as a necessary sacrifice to protect the Hierarchy.
The war with the Reapers means that the Turian Hierarchy no longer has luxury of keeping such powerful assets in reserve. Many Cabals have been recalled to Palaven, while the most experienced have been dispatched to the front lines for surgical strikes on Reaper strongholds or to provide support for regular infantry.