Oleg Petrovsky

Oleg Petrovsky was a Cerberus general, an experienced and formidable military strategist and a classical scholar with a deep knowledge of military history. Viewing humanity's course and the gathering danger of the Reapers through that historical lens, he came to believe Cerberus offered humanity its best hope, and he rose to become the Illusive Man's chief military strategist. He is best remembered for leading the Cerberus conquest of the station Omega and its subsequent defense against Aria T'Loak.

Background#

As an Alliance corporal during the First Contact War in 2157, Petrovsky was forced to take command of his unit and revealed his gift for tactics by holding off repeated turian attacks for weeks. The war ended before his position fell, but not before he had seen the brutality of the turian war machine firsthand. Though praised and promoted for his bravery, he eventually found more in common with Cerberus than with the Alliance military, and over the years he rose quietly to become one of the Illusive Man's most respected operatives and his chief military strategist. A student of human military history, he was given to drawing parallels between his own campaigns and the words and deeds of past commanders.

The taking of Omega#

When Aria T'Loak fought to defend Omega from the Adjutants, husk-like creatures released on the station from a Cerberus transport, the Illusive Man dispatched Petrovsky and Colonel Raymond Ashe to help contain the outbreak. Petrovsky commanded a powerful warship, the Elbrus, and used it to destroy the Adjutant-controlled Cerberus vessels surrounding the station. Aria first found him euthanizing a mortally wounded turian and accused him of slaughtering aliens, but he countered that killing those already attacked was the only way to stop them from transforming, a point made plain as a nearby salarian became an Adjutant before them.

As fresh Adjutant ships emerged from the Omega 4 Relay, Petrovsky took the Elbrus through it to strike at the source, the Cerberus facility Avernus Station. He and Aria cleared the station, but Aria overexerted her biotics and collapsed, and on the Illusive Man's orders Petrovsky restrained her and arranged to deposit her elsewhere so that Cerberus could move on Omega while the leaderless gangs splintered. He complied, though he began to suspect that the Adjutants had been released deliberately and was not pleased that his men might have died merely to further a ruse. Aria broke free and forced him to return her to Omega, where she rallied the gangs against Cerberus. As the fighting wore on, Petrovsky grew appalled at Ashe's disregard for the lives of his own troops and of civilians. When Ashe released an Adjutant inside Afterlife to kill Aria, the two officers came to blows, and after the creature infected Ashe, Petrovsky killed his subordinate to protect his men. He then revealed to Aria that he had already won: he had withdrawn most Cerberus forces so the fleet could destroy the station if it could not be held, and he offered her exile or annihilation. Aria conceded, and Omega passed to Cerberus.

The defense of Omega#

Aria later returned to reclaim her station, slipping a captured Cerberus cruiser through the blockade, but Petrovsky recognized her attack the moment her ships appeared and warned her off, having upgraded Omega's defenses. The reinforced cannons tore through the armor of her ship, yet Aria and Commander Shepard managed to board and disable the station's guns. Watching their progress through the security cameras, Petrovsky anticipated each stage of Aria's plan, allowing the intruders to fight through the Adjutant-infested mines toward the reactor that powered his blockades. He confronted them by hologram, trapping them behind a force field and declaring that he had won, but Aria and Nyreen Kandros tore an opening with their biotics so Shepard could reach the controls. Warning that cutting the power would endanger Omega's civilians, he watched as the fields were deactivated regardless and the three survived.

Petrovsky set his command post at Afterlife and prepared for a final battle. After Nyreen sacrificed herself outside, Aria charged in and was caught in a stasis trap he had laid, whereupon he loosed a horde of perfected Adjutants and his last Cerberus soldiers. Shepard freed Aria, and together they destroyed the attackers. With his defenses spent, Petrovsky surrendered and ordered his remaining forces to stand down.

Fate#

When Aria and Shepard confronted him, Petrovsky offered intelligence on the Illusive Man in exchange for amnesty and admitted that he had let Aria escape during the original assault, but a vengeful Aria seized him and began to strangle him. His end depended on Shepard's actions through the liberation of Omega. He might be handed over to the Commander and spared, delivered to the Alliance for questioning, executed outright, or left to Aria to kill. If spared and interrogated, he proved cooperative, giving up the location of a Cerberus base the Alliance then destroyed and likely earning asylum. If killed, the Alliance still recovered Cerberus intelligence from his former headquarters through Aria's technicians.