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[Dean_the_Young]

Notes: A copy/paste of a PM exchange with someone else.

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Do you think Cerberus gives quarter? (Offers surrenders/takes prisoners?)

On the face of it, you wouldn't think so: their troopers do executions in multiplayer, the Citadel Coup is big on wrapping up loose ends, and hey: they're supposed to be evil in that usually Bioware subtle way.

But...

Unlike the Reapers, Cerberus doesn't use dead bodies for their troops. Even without factoring in any ideological angle about preferring not to kill Humans when not necessary, Cerberus can only re-purpose live people: that's a point in the Grissom Academy mission. Factor in the Cerberus ideology, as vaguely defined as that is, and you could get a real incentive to offer surrenders when possible.

For Humans, whether fighting the Alliance or militia, every Human captured alive is one who could be 'recruited' as another Cerberus trooper. As far as a pro-Human ideology, that's a double-plus in not killing the Humans.

For Aliens, you could still have an incentive. Besides generic interrogations for intel and prisoner swaps or whatever else, there's indoctrination: Cerberus has it, Cerberus is known to use it, and nothing suggests they can't use it on aliens. Much like the Reapers, Cerberus could turn out sleeper agents of all races.

While Cerberus can't always do this is high-kinetic operations with low tolerance for prisoners (such as the Citadel Coup or in assaults), Cerberus is apparently a major enough force to constitute a front in its own right, and even take entire colonies during the war. That suggests more sustained operations, and more opportunities.

I could see a Cerberus commander, maybe that General from Invasion, who combines skill with double-edged mercy: offering a defeated force an option to surrender, with personnel given 'Geneva convention' standards. Since the Geneva conventions don't cover indoctrination, however, Cerberus just so happens to get a lot of 'defectors' who choose to join their side...

But just imagine it: it's the end of the galaxy, and you're fighting a force which has defeated you... and offers a chance at surrender. Would you consider it?

Other person
04:53 AM 2012-08-01
Surrender? Lots of harder men than me have done so when they were out of options, so I'm not going to sit in my armchair and swear I'd fight past the last bullet.

Surrender to Cerberus, though? Nah. Not unless it were right at the start of the war, before we popped open one of their dead's helmets and saw what they were doing to their own people's faces.

I think you're right that they would up as many live bodies as they could, though. Cerberus bodysnatching operations would be another horrifying aspect of the war to explore.

Dean_the_Young
06:38 AM 2012-08-01
I could especially see them targeting 'undesirable' populations that a good deal of people wouldn't be sad to see off in better times. Bums off the street, refugees with treatable-but-low-priority diseases, the mentally and even physically infirm...

I wonder if Cerberus ever ran a prison system as a front company. In peace time, that would have made a good way of moving/hiding/recovering Operatives and material: prisoner transfers, naturally accepted security measures and no-go areas, and plenty of opportunity to remove or reintroduce Operatives from the colonies: a bit of reconstructive surgery here, a transfer there, and a forged identity and release papers, and you could probably hoodwink C-SEC into escorting your Operatives for you.

Plus, if we want traditional Bioware subtlety, human subjects for experimentation. (Eyeroll at that trope.)

In war time, though, who's going to ask about all those condemned prisoners when the government can't even protect the innocent? Depending on how extensive those prison system(s) are, you could easily see Cerberus gain a few thousand 'recruits' at any time.

Dean_the_Young
03:54 PM 2012-08-01
Ye gods, thinking too much on the inter-stellar prison-system as a front company idea. It has so many potential uses for a group like Cerberus that I can't imagine that it wasn't used. Just imagine...

-'Security Guards' provide a front for moving groups of forces and arms across the galaxy. Instigating a prison riot in your own facility can legitimize moving in a few battalions of troops.

-The PMC's of the security guards provide a money laundering front, as well as a legitimate cover for Cerberus-controlled front groups, all while keeping the money in-house as it were. Cerberus prison system paying Cerberus mercenaries to move Cerberus goods around, without anyone recognizing.

-Prisoner transfers for smuggling Agents to and from locations. You could even have cases where operatives are 'captured', send to jail, and shipped to penal colony X for their next assignment.

-Supply depots. Already mentioned it above, but few people question prisons having no-access areas. Controlling movement is, in fact, a large part of the point. It's the sort that most people wouldn't think twice about, and cursory inspections could be guided to the 'legitimate' areas that might not match between paper and the ground.

-Money. Purgatory covered this, but the idea of for-profit prisons can apparently work. With a bit of haggling and lobbying, which Cerberus is well placed to do, this could be even increased: governments pay the Cerberus Prison Corp to take the prisoners off their hands, while the unethical-capitalist side of Cerberus could then use those prisoners for for-profit labor. On the 'benign' side that could be using white-collar criminals to advance Cerberus science/economic interests with their brains: on the 'evil' side that could include exploiting condemned criminals to hard labor for resource extraction ala Batarian slavery.

-Penal Colonies. Hardly an unknown idea (hi, Australia): the idea of using prisoners to establish the foundations for larger colonies to follow in worlds with high-startup costs due to initial attrition. Penal colonies could use prisoners to mine for resources (enriching Cerberus), establish a population claim (Cerberus-directed interests), or for more white-collar criminals even be a starting population for future legitimate colonies (which will always be in Cerberus's pocket).

-Recruitment: Spies. By controlling the privatized prisons, Cerberus would be in a prime position to condition, approach, and recruit agents both human and non-human. It's no secret that many small-time criminals become radicalized in prison, or that prisons can offer terms for preferred release to good convicts. By controlling all sides of the equation, Cerberus can play both: Cerberus recruiters could radicalize and recruit Humans for the cause, or approach even aliens by offering better terms or earlier release in exchange for something else: intelligence/technology/secrets for the white collar sort, or creating their future spies and snitches.

-Recruitment: Troops. When the war comes, every Human in a Cerberus Cell could become a potential special-forces level soldier. Purgatory had hundreds of prisoners, and it was just one ship: imagine what Cerberus could do with a franchise of prisons?