Nemesis: Cerberus's sniper specialist

The Nemesis was a sniper specialist fielded by Cerberus throughout its campaigns of the Reaper War. Recognizable by her minimal armor and the red targeting laser that preceded her shots, a Nemesis was among the most feared soldiers in the Cerberus order of battle, an augmented marksman whose customized implants and scanning equipment let her deliver killing fire from concealment. Wherever the organization struck during the war, from the Citadel to Omega to its hidden headquarters at Cronos Station, Nemeses were positioned behind the front line, waiting for a target to break cover.

Augmentation and equipment#

Alliance intelligence described the Nemesis as a Cerberus sniper specialist whose body had been rebuilt around her weapon. Customized implants allowed a Nemesis to withstand the crippling kickback of the M-98 Widow antimateriel rifle, a gun originally designed to be fired from vehicle mounts, turning an already redoubtable opponent into a force capable of inflicting instant death. A suite of high tech scanning equipment made the sniper adept at maintaining cover, with the result that a Nemesis was usually spotted only after she opened fire, assuming her target survived the first round.

In the field, Nemeses were most often observed carrying the M-13 Raptor, a laser sighted marksman rifle whose rounds, in their hands, struck with the force of dedicated antimateriel weapons. A single shot could collapse a soldier's kinetic barriers outright, and lightly protected fighters could be killed instantly by one round. The operatives themselves wore conspicuously little armor, relying instead on personal shields, speed, and concealment. Every Nemesis observed in combat was a woman.

The technology inside them was never studied. Self destruct mechanisms activated upon the sniper's death, and the Systems Alliance never retrieved an intact example of Nemesis augmentation hardware. Combined with the well documented Cerberus penchant for suicide when faced with capture, this made scientific analysis of the implants impossible for the duration of the war.

Doctrine in the field#

A Nemesis fought a patient, positional battle. She held to cover almost without exception, leaning out only long enough to settle her aim and snap off a shot before dropping back out of sight. Her presence was betrayed by two signs, the glare of her red targeting laser as it sought a victim and a distinctive electronic buzzing that sounded as she lined up each attempt. Veterans of the Cerberus campaigns learned to treat either signal as a warning that a round was moments from arriving, and that a quick sideways movement as the beam settled was often the difference between life and death.

Having fired, a Nemesis rarely stayed where she was. She moved to a fresh position after taking a shot or whenever an enemy approached, and some operatives used rocket propelled boots to escape to higher or lower ground that her pursuers could not easily reach. In the open she was deceptively fast, breaking into erratic, unpredictable changes of direction that made her extremely difficult to hit, and she could throw herself into a combat roll to evade gunfire or incoming projectiles.

Her one weakness was absolute. The Nemesis carried no sidearm, no blade, and no close range weapon of any kind, and she would generally not fire her rifle at an enemy standing next to her, preferring to withdraw and reopen the distance. Cerberus doctrine compensated by pairing Nemeses with other specialists. They frequently operated alongside Phantoms, for whom a visible sniper made an effective lure, drawing attackers into the reach of a monomolecular blade while the Nemesis herself slipped away. Anyone who charged a lone sniper risked discovering that she had never been alone.

Deployments during the Reaper War#

Nemeses appeared at nearly every flashpoint of the Cerberus war effort in 2186. They were among the forces the organization landed on Eden Prime when it seized the colony's Prothean dig site, and they took part in the attempted coup on the Citadel, where shuttles dropped them onto the station's catwalks behind smokescreens alongside Phantoms, Centurions, and assault troopers. During the Cerberus occupation of Omega under General Oleg Petrovsky, Nemeses reinforced the station's maintenance corridors in company with Rampart Mechs, combat engineers, and shield pylons that lent their positions extra staying power.

At Sanctuary on Horizon, snipers took post on balcony barricades while Phantoms dropped to engage intruders at close quarters, a textbook example of the pairing that defined Nemesis doctrine. They defended raided Cerberus installations across the Terminus Systems and stood among the last defenders of Cronos Station when the Alliance finally assaulted the organization's headquarters. Their reputation outlived the battles themselves. The Armax Arsenal Arena on the Citadel's Silversun Strip included simulated Nemeses in its elite Cerberus scenarios, and the CAT6 mercenary company that later recruited discharged Alliance personnel fielded snipers whose methods closely mirrored those of the Cerberus original.

Countermeasures#

Forces that survived contact with Nemeses passed along a consistent body of advice. The sniper was not to be underestimated despite her unimposing presence and her habit of hanging back out of sight, since she ranked among the most lethal soldiers Cerberus fielded. Her limited rate of fire meant the interval after each shot attempt was the safest window in which to move or return fire, and counter snipers could strike in the moment she leaned out to aim, though the glare of her own laser could make her difficult to target cleanly. Piercing weapons and elevated or flanking positions could reach her even behind cover, where she often lingered for long stretches.

The alternative was to close the distance. Deprived of any short range option, a Nemesis under sustained close assault could be kept off balance long enough to be brought down, and even light blows were enough to stun her. The risk lay in the bait. Rushing a visible sniper in the later stages of a Cerberus engagement was precisely what her Phantom escort was waiting for, and disciplined units learned to confirm the sniper was truly alone before committing. However she died, her secrets died with her; the self destructing implants ensured that the Nemesis remained, to the end of the war, a weapon the Alliance could kill but never copy.