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Cerberus Threat Index: Ayle ul Massa
Compiled by Mars Cell
Security Level Red
Illusive Man,
Sir, as per your orders, Junior-Analyst DuFrane has been removed from Isis Cell for electing to forward Analyst Franks' report without properly editing the verbiage as he was ordered by Angela. While I agree that some level of punishment was necessary, transferring a promising young man who made a mistake to Prometheus Cell seems wasteful to me. Surely a more measured response is called for? On that matter, I would again request even basic knowledge of just what is happening within Prometheus. The rumors are decidedly unsavory, and internal morale is beginning to drop. I cannot reassure our people that what we are doing is for humanity's future if I personally don't know that.
Returning to the subject at hand, I accepted Angela's request to clean up her follow-up report on Executive Ayle ul Massa while she attempts to locate a new, properly qualified assistant.
Operative Chambers
Basic Profile
Name: Ayle ul Massa
Age: 44
Height: 6'2"
Species; Batarian
Sex: Female
Race: Delta Common
Caste: Warrior
Ranking: Midcaste Exile
Marital Status: Single
Parentage: Resin Massa, Meshial Massa
Siblings: Seven; All non-Exiles
Medical Analysis
Chambers
Massa is the most injured of the original Silver Blades, a legacy of a bad encounter with Geth on Antibaar and a hard life in the Hegemony military. Her right arm is entirely prosthetic from the shoulder, while her right leg is at least thirty percent cybernetic. Her Hegemony medical records are rather fragmentary, and her status as an SIU supply operative makes them difficult to access even for EDI and EVA.
Our best guess is that several of her internal organs are likely cloned replacements due to recorded injuries fighting an STG team on Naru'shin, and that she likely has further internal augmentation as most SIU officers do. Analyst Frank's notes seem to indicate that there is a high probability that she has bone weaves, internal medigel dispensers, and armor plating inserted beneath her natural cartilage protection (likely explaining how she survived being shot twice by Geth type shotguns at point-blank range).
History
Chambers
Born on the Class A colony of Fen'shin as a middle child to a large midcaste family, what public records we have seem to indicate a young woman who angled herself to join the warrior cast from a very young age. She passed all of the traditional tests and was accepted into the caste at the age of fifteen, and was advanced into officer's training more or less immediately. As with most females, she was directed into the Hegemony's logistical and support arm.
Her next public appearance was at the age of twenty-two, when she applied for the title of Hieth'sham, backed by the eldest Highborn priest of her homeworld. According to Franks, no non-biotic female has ever passed the tests, and Massa was no exception, though the public discourse indicated that she came very close. Her performance evidently impressed at least one SIU officer, as she was transferred to the SIU once she had recovered from injuries sustained during the trials.
At this point, virtually all of our records cease for nearly two decades and we have to rely on conjecture and hearsay from SIU engagements with the STG, Nightwind, and AIS.
Officially, any female should only have been involved in support and preparation work, but evidence seems to indicate that she was heavily involved in rear-line command and planning of the operations. The unit containing her showed developing tactics and shifts across several engagements throughout this time-frame, culminating in the chaos of the STG raid on Naru'shin. While most of her team was killed, and she herself badly wounded, her team was praised by the High Patriarch and held up as a badly needed public morale boost in the wake of the Skyllian Blitz.
Her team was transferred to the Dark Rim in the wake of the incident, likely to allow them to recover in lighter battles against pirates. This left them ideally positioned when the Blue Suns War broke out several years later.
Massa's promotion to Harath'krem came during the fighting on the Blue Sun outpost world Somewhere, when a Legionnaire attack managed to breach the Hegemony's main lines and attack the forward command post. During the confused fighting that followed, she saved Patriarch-General Tulre Veshivan, and the grateful Highborn immediately claimed her into his house.
Whatever enjoyment she might have gained from that lasted barely a month, as Veshivan was assassinated by a freelance agent while she was directing a separate engagement. The new House Patriarch Poril Veshivan proved to be a staunch conservative and chauvinist, and had absolutely no use for an independent female who publicly rejected his demand that she abandon the warrior caste and subordinate herself to him. Blaming her for his father's death, he declared her Reyja'krem.
In this I have to agree with Franks in that this particular man was less than intelligent. He was found dead less than a week later, assassinated by Massa and a pair of soldiers she had claimed as her cadre. Orders to detain her were ignored by her old SIU team, and she was able to escape to the Terminus in advance of her formal exile for murder.
She spent roughly a year acting as an independent contractor alongside her cadre, primarily in the Lady Warlord's employ, before linking up and agreeing to reform the Silver Blades alongside the other warrior-type Reyja'krem still alive within the Terminus.
Psychological Profile
Chambers
Based on what we know, Massa is about as stereotypical of a female Batarian as it is possible to be. She is blunt, forwards, extremely self-sufficient, and very openly enjoys what power she has been able to accumulate for herself. She is also highly controlling of her direct subordinates, and prefers to direct them towards situations she has no desire to become involved in as a means of displaying that she has sufficient power to ignore things beneath her.
Further, her relationships with Cieran Kean and Nynsi Shaaryak are likely extremely interesting behind closed doors. Shaaryak is ostensibly her social superior, yet Massa is recorded as being the 'senior' of the three Executive Commanders. The pair likely have to negotiate a social minefield in even casual conversation, with both likely involved in constant attempts to remind the other of their respective strength.
Her relationship with Kean is... intriguing to me. Despite the fact that she was out of commission for the entire Redcliffe campaign, Kean never attempted to usurp her place, and even today continues to publicly insist that Massa is actually the Silver Blades CEO despite the fact that Aria, Sederis, and the other major warlords all seem to regard him as being in that position.
I don't know if they have some kind of deeper personal relationship, but I would say that it is probable that Massa regards Kean extremely highly for his refusal to even tactility admit that he has more power than her. Her reaction should he be harmed would likely be similar to his own when his lover was killed even if they are not together in the physical sense.
Unit Cohesion
Lawson
Massa largely commands in the manner of SIU officers, with similar planning schemes and strategies. She has begun to adapt these to integrate methods developed by the Lady Warlord's forces, along with lessons evidently learned on Redcliffe. It is relatively easy to see her influence on Kean and his own branch upon comparison, especially after developing combat plans with the man during the Benihi operation.
According to Analyst Franks, the SIU standard is to have four operational plans for any given situation, along with at least one retreat option. Plan one is typically the preferred option, and is the most cautious and least ambitious. Plan two is more aggressive and direct, with an emphasis on resolving the situation quickly. The third option often involves some kind of division of forces in order to flank and overwhelm an over-cautious target. The final main plan is the... Franks charmingly refers to it as the 'fuck it, destroy everything' plan.
Backup plans tend to be far more detailed and extensive than the primary four, with numerous options laid out in advance. This is likely a legacy of SIU experiences fighting the STG, with the Batarians always operating under the assumption that they would be out-thought and out-maneuvered in the moment, necessitating extensive preparation before the fighting began in order for them to have a reasonable chance of success.
As a large-scale unit commander, Massa appears to have simply scaled her small-scale tactics upwards, making her units oddly polymorphic by Batarian standards. They are still not at Alliance levels of adaptability or response time, much less Asari or Salarian, but her plans are far more adaptable than more rigid Hegemony standards, and that could take many opponents by surprise.
Personally, she seems to heavily manage her direct subordinates, but does not micro-manage beyond that rank. This is likely also true at the small-unit level, though we have next to no direct evidence of how she directed Kean while he acted as her XO.
Threat Index
Lawson
Massa is as dangerous as any other other SIU agent in terms of direct conflict, with the natural advantages and deficiencies of her species. She is a crack shot with most weapons, capable of absorbing injuries that would be lethal to a human or Asari, and is far stronger than most humans in close combat. However, she also has a relatively low bar for fatigue, and is not naturally built for speed.
Personally, she is likely less dangerous than her fellow Executive in Kean, but her natural durability and augmentations makes her a more irritating target to put down and keep down.
Small Arms – As with most SIU trained operatives, she prefers to fight at short to medium range, giving herself the widest variety of tactical options. In many ways she can be compared to Kean, though her greater accuracy at range is contrasted against his higher lethality in melee. Together the two are likely a highly deadly pair, especially if they have a sniper providing long-range support.
Armor – She has adopted the lighter armor typically born by the Silver Blades in the wake of Redcliffe. I feel that I should remind any reader that this armor is only 'light' by Terminus definitions of the word. By Citadel or Alliance conventions, it would still be medium weight, featuring large numbers of composite strike plates in addition to thick shielding nodes.
Grenade Usage – While not reliant upon pre-programmed technical mines, Massa does subscribe to the grenadier philosophy common to SIU agents. She will quite frequently utilize large numbers, and a wide variety, of the devices in any given engagement.
End Report
And we're done with the Cerberus reports, for the moment. We'll likely have a few intelligence briefing sections for a variety of people, then move on to the side-story concepts.
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P a treon Zach_K2V
Thanks, Kat