Aria T'Loak: The Pirate Queen of Omega

Aria T'Loak was the de facto ruler of Omega, the nominal capital of the lawless Terminus Systems. An asari who had survived for over a thousand years, she was known as the Pirate Queen of Omega and was fiercely possessive of the station, prepared to do anything to protect it and preserve her dominance. When Cerberus seized Omega from her, she fled to the Citadel and bided her time, and during the war against the Reapers she fought alongside Commander Shepard to take it back. (Mass Effect 2; Mass Effect 3; Mass Effect: Invasion; Mass Effect 3: Omega)

Ruler of Omega#

Aria had a colorful past before her arrival on Omega, where she first worked as an exotic dancer at the Afterlife Club. The role was a cover; in time she overthrew the club's owner and claimed it, then continued to form alliances and consolidate power until she deposed the krogan who had ruled the station. She spared him as an example of her power to others, derisively naming him the Patriarch. From then on she governed Omega with authoritarian control, her organization strong and her people fiercely loyal. (Mass Effect 2)

Almost nothing on Omega escaped Aria's notice, and mercenary groups thought twice before crossing her. She made certain she held the upper hand in any bargain, drawing on centuries of experience reading those who imagined themselves in stronger positions; simply by observing a person she could learn a great deal and usually knew at once when she was being lied to. A powerful biotic with commando training, she had survived so long by never needlessly exposing herself to risk and by the patience to see long plans through. (Mass Effect 2)

Dealings with Cerberus#

Aria's path crossed that of Cerberus and the Illusive Man more than once. She employed the former Cerberus operative Paul Grayson as a mercenary, and when her daughter Liselle was found dead and Grayson missing, she came to believe he was to blame. She later struck her own bargains with the Illusive Man, and by the time of the Adjutant outbreak she had allowed Cerberus to use Omega as a supply hub for its research bases beyond the Omega 4 Relay, where it scavenged for Reaper technology. (Mass Effect: Retribution; Mass Effect: Deception; Mass Effect: Invasion)

That arrangement proved her undoing. A new kind of husk called the Adjutant broke free of captivity at a Cerberus base beyond the relay and began an invasion of Omega. Cerberus dispatched General Oleg Petrovsky and his forces under the guise of aid, and once Aria had been lured away to contain the Adjutant threat, Cerberus seized Omega Control in a swift and decisive coup. Captured aboard Petrovsky's ship, Aria broke free, single-handedly took the vessel, and returned to wage a guerrilla war against the invaders, but Petrovsky forced her surrender by threatening to destroy the station level by level. Unwilling to see Omega obliterated, Aria conceded and withdrew, warning that she would one day return. (Mass Effect: Invasion)

Exile on the Citadel#

Driven from Omega, Aria fled to the Citadel, which was filling with refugees from the Reaper assault. It took station security three weeks to realize she had never submitted to immigration processing, and she simply called on the asari councilor to clear her when an officer came demanding her compliance. She passed her time at the Purgatory Bar, chafing at her confinement and at the constant watch kept on her, and swore revenge against Cerberus for taking her station. (Mass Effect 3)

Knowing that none of it would matter if the Reapers wiped out all life, Aria made Commander Shepard a proposition: to unite the three great mercenary groups, the Blue Suns, the Eclipse, and the Blood Pack, in exchange for their help in the war. If Shepard could bring the factions together under her banner, Aria judged the result to be an army willing to do the things respectable militaries would not. (Mass Effect 3)

Retaking Omega#

Ready at last to reclaim her station, Aria enlisted Shepard to lead the ground attack. She had assembled a fleet to break the Cerberus blockade, but insisted on taking only Shepard, refusing to let the Normandy's crew take part. Her cruiser was crippled by Omega's upgraded defense cannons, forcing Aria and Shepard to crash-land aboard the station, where they fought their way through Cerberus forces toward her bunker. (Mass Effect 3: Omega)

Along the way they encountered Nyreen Kandros, a turian biotic and Aria's former lover, who proved to be the leader of the Talon mercenaries. Reluctantly allied, the three worked to bring down the force fields across Omega by shutting off a Cerberus-held reactor, and Aria revealed her readiness to spend the station's civilians as a distraction, a ruthlessness Nyreen opposed at every turn. In the final battle for the Afterlife Club, Nyreen sacrificed her life to destroy a group of Adjutants. Enraged at her loss, Aria charged the remaining Cerberus troops and, with Shepard's aid, overcame Petrovsky. (Mass Effect 3: Omega)

When the general surrendered, Aria's response, and Shepard's part in it, turned on how far the Commander had supported her methods through the campaign: she might choke the life out of her nemesis or grudgingly spare him and hand him to Shepard, and the Commander could intervene either way. Aria then announced her return to the people of Omega and vowed never to lose the station again, committing her eezo supplies and a fleet to the war against the Reapers. She afterward found it easier to direct Omega's reconstruction from the Citadel's Purgatory Bar, true to her word that she always honored her debts. (Mass Effect 3: Omega)