Blue Suns

The Blue Suns are a "private security organization", in reality a mercenary outfit operating in the Skyllian Verge. The Blue Suns have a reputation for being both discreet and ruthlessly efficient, and as such charge a sizeable fee. They were founded by Zaeed Massani and Vido Santiago.

After betraying Zaeed, Vido hired many batarians into his ranks, even naming Solem Del'Serah his head of operations, though this act was little more than a PR stunt calculated as a sign of cooperation to placate his batarian funders, and to draw away fire from potential assassination attempts. It worked on both counts and the partnership lasts to this day.

Over the next decade the Suns grew into a fearsome combat force spanning dozens of places.

Blue Suns mercenaries often have a tattoo of a blue sun somewhere on their body. During high-risk jobs, the tattoo would be removed with an acid wash to prevent them being identified, then reapplied once the job was finished.

Blue Suns consist mostly of batarians, turians, and humans, and also employ YMIR, FENRIS, and LOKI Mechs.

Mass Effect: Revelation
In 2165, the Blue Suns were hired by Edan Had'dah to carry out a raid on the Systems Alliance research facility at Sidon, as well as to provide security for Had'dah himself during some of his more unscrupulous activities. However, to take the job for Had'dah they had been forced to pull out of an arms deal, which attracted the attention of Saren Arterius. During his investigation he killed several Blue Sun mercs, including Groto Ib-ba. Another Blue Sun mercenary tried to arrest Kahlee Sanders under the pretense of being an Alliance MP, but she realised he was an imposter by the type of pistol he had and escaped.

Later, the Blue Suns assigned to Had'dah went under the command of Skarr -- despite the fact he had killed several of their number when he was first hired -- and were dispatched to intercept the SSV Iwo Jima and finally capture Kahlee. The operation was successful and Kahlee was taken to an element zero refinery. The refinery was subsequently destroyed, resulting in the deaths of Skarr, Had'dah, and most, if not all, Blue Sun mercs assigned to them.

Mass Effect: Redemption
After the destruction of the SSV Normandy, the Blue Suns are hired by the Shadow Broker to recover the body of Commander Shepard. After finding Shepard's corpse on Alchera, they place it in a crude stasis pod and transport it to Omega. Having been tipped off by the Broker that Liara T'Soni and Feron were attempting to stop the exchange, the Suns send a team to intercept them, though they are killed by an unknown sniper. Most of the remaining team was killed when Liara and Feron ambushed them, though they were successfully able to deliver the pod to the Broker's representative.

Mass Effect 2
The Blue Suns have arguably the most screen time and 'significance' of any criminal organization in Mass Effect 2, alternatively taking part in or acting as the main focus during several missions, assignments, or otherwise, either as enemies to be killed or antagonists to be overcome.

Gozu district
The Blue Suns control the Gozu district on Omega, running protection rackets and earning credits from the slums' citizens. When the slums are entered, it is commented by the citizens that the Blue Suns kept the district tightly run, and some will even state that they preferred the Suns (over a plague) for the order they imposed. When the Collector-spawned plague struck the slums, the Blue Suns' non-human members began to succumb and lose their strength, giving the vorcha (who were immune to the plague) an opportunity to take control.

The Suns were forced into combat with the vorcha and krogan Blood Pack warriors; this fight, along with the plague, depleted their numbers and eroded their control of the district. They also carried out attempts to execute humans within the district, as it was believed that the plague was of human design (due to humans being immune). This belief led the Blue Suns to send a squad to Dr. Mordin Solus' clinic when it was learned that he was sheltering humans, with the intent to burn the clinic down and/or kill the humans there. This resulted in Mordin executing the entire squad single-handed, and then displaying the bodies as a warning.

Archangel
Several months earlier, a mysterious turian vigilante, who would later come to be universally known only as Archangel, arrived on Omega. He gathered a team of 12 individuals (including himself, a salarian demolition specialist, and a batarian hacker) and wreaked havoc on the Suns' operations, including disrupting meetings and smuggling deals, stopping shipments, gunning down and/or sniping Suns' agents and gunships, making the Suns hesitant to take on any job for fear of Archangel interfering. He even attempted to kill off the leader of the Omega Blue Suns in his base of operations; the same was done for the Blood Pack and Eclipse merc bands.

After the attempt, Tarak grew desperate and grudgingly forged an alliance with Jaroth and Garm, the ringleaders of Omega's Eclipse and Blood Pack, in an attempt to finally kill Archangel. They were eventually successful in 'persuading' one of Archangel's teammates, Lantar Sidonis into selling out Archangel's team. Ten of the team were killed, while Sidonis went into hiding and Archangel himself retreated into his base. He barricaded himself inside, sealing the doors and filling passageways with debris, leaving a narrow bridge as the only access point. An expert sniper, Archangel was able to defend this bottleneck against many Suns mercs and even a gunship through specific, well-timed bullet hits. Since the gunship remained intact overall, Tarak ordered Sergeant Cathka to begin repairs on it.

Afterward, Tarak, Jaroth and Garm all agreed to open up a freelancing market of sorts, hiring dozens of freelance mercenaries to fight against Archangel for a 500 credit payment. However, Garm, Tarak and Jaroth intended to use the freelancers as disposable cannon fodder in a diversion while an infiltration team killed the vigilante. Most of these freelancers were either ill-equipped, inexperienced, or just plain inept, allowing Archangel to easily pick them off and forcing Garm, Jaroth and Tarak to slightly modify their plan; the freelancers were to attack first in conjunction with the infiltration team, followed by the Eclipse and their mechs, whereas the Blood Pack was to launch an attack through underground tunnels concurrently with a strike over the bridge, and finally an airborne assault by the Blue Suns supported by Tarak in his Gunship.

Tarak was the unofficial coordinator of the entire operation, his gang having the most amount of manpower and resources, including the aforementioned gunship. All of the gang leaders hated Archangel for their own reasons, beyond the disruption to their business: Jaroth's top lieutenant and brother was killed by Archangel when his team raided an Eclipse smuggling shipment he participated in, while Tarak himself had grown increasingly deranged and paranoid after the failed attempt on his life; Garm had tracked down and personally fought against Archangel himself in "the longest damn fight" he'd ever had, losing his entire group of mercs beforehand, and once reinforcements arrived in time to help him out, allegedly chased him down over half of Omega itself, only to give up once Archangel had escaped.

During Commander Shepard's bid to gather a large, capable team of the best operatives in the galaxy, Shepard was forced to feign being hired as a freelancer both to ensure Archangel's survival, and then recruit him. As Shepard's group seemed "competent enough" in the eyes of the mercs, they were designated as the infiltration team. On arrival at the base, it is clear that Archangel stands little chance of surviving, being exhausted from all the time he spent holding the line against the mercs single-handed, and was reported to have made several unspecified mistakes during the operation. Before the assault began, Shepard had the option to meet up with Jaroth, Garm and Tarak, reprogram an YMIR Mech to attack the mercs instead, and kill Sergeant Cathka, thereby preventing Tarak's gunship from being fully repaired and making it relatively easier to destroy. When the assault is launched, Shepard took part in the initial attack, backstabbing and wiping out the freelancers, enabling a meeting with Archangel, who is revealed to be an old colleague, Garrus Vakarian.

After holding out against the Eclipse and Blood Pack, as well as killing off both Jaroth and Garm, Tarak's gunship arrived and severely wounded Garrus, but was subsequently shot down and killed by Shepard, finally bringing an end to the entire ordeal. If a data pad is discovered before the attack, it will also reveal that the mercenary groups planned to attack Aria to gain control of Omega.

Purgatory
The Blue Suns are also revealed to own and run the maximum security prison Purgatory. The prison is run by Blue Suns Warden Kuril who claims that Purgatory is for "the good of the galactic community", despite the harsh methods used to maintain order, including carrying out torture, beatings and even murder (blowing prisoners out of an airlock as examples), prisoners are also sold to vengeful victims/relatives or to groups with large enough finances, such as Cerberus. The Blue Suns have a substantial presence within the prison and have utilized several YMIR Mechs to act as heavy-hitters in case a riot broke out.

The prison is known to hold the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy and the Blue Suns agree to keep them imprisoned only if their home planets agree to continually pay for their incarceration or they will release the inmate at an unknown time and place on their homeworld; considering inmates like Jack inhabit the prison, most worlds presumably pay. Shepard will travel to Purgatory to recruit Jack, who has been purchased by Cerberus from the Blue Suns.

Early on, Warden Kuril betrays Shepard, attempting to imprison the Commander, who he states is more valuable as a prisoner than a customer, leading to a fight breaking out between Shepard's team and Kuril's Blue Suns, with Shepard eventually releasing the entire cell block in order to free Jack from cryo containment. This causes a full-scale riot throughout the ship, with the Blue Suns attempting to restore control, kill Shepard and re-capture Jack. They ultimately fail with Shepard killing Kuril and Jack joining the Commander’s crew. Cerberus then retracts the funds they paid. A news report reveals that the Purgatory was destroyed, with the Blue Suns losing yet another piece of influence.

Korlus
The krogan warlord Okeer has hired the Blue Suns to provide funding and security for him as he works on his experiment to create the "perfect" krogan, offering the rejects from his experiment as payment. A Blue Suns officer named Jedore is assigned to assess the potential of the rejects as viable shock troops. Okeer and Jedore quickly begin to lose patience with each other when the rejects prove too unstable to be reliable soldiers; Jedore begins to think that Okeer's project is not worth the time and money the Suns have invested, while Okeer considers Jedore to be an incompetent leader and chafes under her direction. The Blue Suns decide to use the unstable rejects for live ammo training, with Okeer giving them the impression that the next generation of tank-grown krogan would benefit from an improved mental imprint that would make them more reliable. Eventually, Shepard arrives on Korlus looking for Okeer, who was believed to have valuable intel on the Collectors. Okeer uses the distraction caused by Shepard's arrival to release several of the rejects, which proceed to attack both Shepard's squad and the Blue Suns. Jedore quickly discovers this betrayal, and decides to kill Okeer and use his research to restart the project with a blank slate. By the time Shepard makes it to Okeer's lab, Jedore has holed up in a massive storage bay with the next generation of tank-bred krogan. Although she has several of these tanks "flushed" with poison gas, she releases some of them to fight Shepard. Although Jedore does not survive the battle with Shepard, she does succeed in killing Okeer, who sacrificed himself to save his prized creation.

Zorya
The Commander will be required to travel to Zorya to gain Zaeed's loyalty. The planet is tightly controlled by the Blue Suns, with them being the de facto rulers of the planet, having unmatched influence in politics and law. They have also captured a refinery on the planet, forcing the workers into virtual slavery. Zaeed was originally supposed to capture the refinery, however he changed his plan when he learned his old partner and co-founder of the Blue Suns, Vido Santiago was inside of it.

Shepard will have to fight various Blue Suns squads throughout the jungle and refinery. There are high numbers of pyros and shotgun-wielding troopers throughout the refinery making close quarters fighting particularly dangerous. Shepard will have to make a choice on whether to save the refinery workers from burning to death or pursuing Vido Santiago. Depending on which choice is made, the Blue Suns leader can be killed or escape in a gunship. Choosing to save the civilians may result in Zaeed not becoming loyal, but only if Shepard doesn't have a high enough paragon score.

Citadel
In Garrus' Loyalty Mission, Harkin, under the alias "Fade", has been using his connections in C-Sec to start a racketeering ring with the help of the Blue Suns. The Blue Suns provide protection for Harkin in exchange for a cut in his operation. When Garrus and Commander Shepard track Harkin down, the Blue Suns defend him long enough to barricade himself in a warehouse. The Blue Suns don't last long against Shepard, however, and Harkin is eventually cornered. C-Sec later arrests him and dismantles his operation.

Mass Effect 3
In Mass Effect 3, Commander Shepard can gain the allegiance of the Blue Suns with the help of Aria T'Loak for the war against the Reapers.

Troop Varieties

 * Blue Suns Centurion
 * Blue Suns Commander
 * Blue Suns Heavy
 * Blue Suns Legionnaire
 * Blue Suns Pyro
 * Blue Suns Trooper
 * Command Bodyguard
 * Senior Engineer

Key Members

 * Solem Dal'serah - Head of Operations of the Blue Suns in 2185.
 * Vido Santiago - Co-Founder and leader of the Blue Suns in 2185.
 * Zaeed Massani - Co-Founder and former leader of the Blue Suns.
 * Darner Vosque - Leader of the Blue Suns in 2186.
 * Tarak - Commander of the Blue Suns on Omega.
 * Jentha - Officer of the Blue Suns on Omega. Answers to Tarak.
 * Jedore - Commander and contributor to Okeer's krogan cloning project on Korlus.
 * Warden Kuril - Commander of the Purgatory prison ship.
 * Sergeant Cathka - Engineer and maintenance man for Tarak's gunship.
 * Sergeant Boortis - Hijacker of the MSV Strontium Mule.
 * Captain Vorhess - Hijacker of the MSV Strontium Mule.
 * Captain Narom - Commander of the Blue Suns base on Sanctum.

Trivia

 * The Blue Suns are likely named after 'Blue Sun', a corporation in the TV series Firefly.
 * They may also have been inspired by Black Sun, a criminal gang in Star Wars.
 * The Blue Suns possess two troop types with Roman legion ranks - Legionaries, who were the heavy infantry, and the Centurions, who were professional officers. This could possibly be from turian influence, as turian culture is based on the Romans.
 * In the comic book Mass Effect: Redemption, two of the Blue Suns mercenaries are krogan. However, there are no krogan Blue Suns mercenaries to be seen in Mass Effect 2.

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