Banshee

Banshees were synthetic organic creatures the Reapers fashioned from asari, and they ranked among the most feared troops fielded during the Reaper War. Like the husks made from other species, a Banshee was a living being remade by Reaper technology into something monstrous, but where a husk was a shambling shock trooper, a Banshee was intelligent, deliberate, and steeped in biotic power. They were classed as advanced pressure units and were most often found at the head of a Reaper strike force.

Origin#

A Banshee began as an asari. Reaper technology twisted that body into a synthetic organic creature, towering and skeletal, its flesh fused with machinery. The Reapers did not draw on asari at random. Banshees were made from asari who carried the genetic potential of the Ardat-Yakshi, the rare condition that gave certain asari a deadly nervous system. A widespread belief, repeated in some galactic art and reference works, held that Banshees had been asari matriarchs, but this was mistaken; it was the Ardat-Yakshi lineage, not age or rank, that the Reapers exploited.

The transformation left the Banshee frighteningly intelligent, a marked contrast to the mindless husks that swarmed alongside it. This intelligence, combined with overwhelming biotic strength, made the Banshee a commander of sorts on the battlefield, an advanced pressure unit that anchored and led the Reaper forces around it.

Powers and tactics#

In combat a Banshee alternated between two states. When charged it glowed, and in that state it could cross open ground almost instantly through a chain of biotic teleporting surges, slipping through thin cover and walls and making itself extremely hard to track. Closing the distance, it would grasp a foe and impale them upon its hands, killing them outright, or bring both arms down in a heavy, staggering swipe.

When not glowing the Banshee moved slowly, but it remained lethal at range. It threw biotic projectiles much like a warp, slow moving but homing, capable of stripping an ordinary soldier's shields in a single hit and burning at the flesh afterward. Crouching and then springing up, it could release a screaming biotic blast across a wide area, knocking targets out of cover and briefly suppressing their ability to recover. Under fire it could raise a hand and conjure a shimmering field that turned aside nearly all incoming biotic and tech attacks for a short time.

Defensively a Banshee was protected by durable barriers and armor, and a barrier left undamaged for a moment would regenerate toward full strength. Sufficient punishment to its armor could force it to stop glowing and teleporting for a while, leaving it slow and exposed, until it screamed, took on its glow again, and resumed its advance. Its head remained its most vulnerable point.

Death and the Reaper War#

Banshees appeared throughout the Reaper War as part of the forces the Reapers and their thralls hurled against the defenders of the galaxy. The Codex recorded that when a Banshee was slain its body was destroyed by a biotic implosion, a measure that prevented its remains from being captured and examined.

One Banshee in particular could have a known name. Morinth, an Ardat-Yakshi daughter of the justicar Samara, might survive the events that preceded the war, and if she did she could be encountered as a Banshee during the assault on Earth. She fought no differently from any other of her kind and had to be destroyed all the same.