Dossier: The Assassin

Thane Krios is a drell trained from childhood as an elite assassin, proficient in both long-range sniping kills and close infiltration. He has slowed his activities in recent years but is rumored to have a target on Illium.

Acquisition
After completing the misson on Horizon, The Illusive Man will give Shepard a dossier on Thane.

Arrival on Illium
Upon landing on Illium, Commander Shepard is welcomed by a Nos Astra official, Careena, who informs Shepard that all administrative formalities and docking fees have been taken care of by an old friend, former shipmate Liara T'Soni, who would like to speak with Shepard in her office, as soon as is convenient. EDI advises Shepard that Liara may have information on Thane's location.

Liara tells Shepard that Thane arrived a few days ago and his target is a corporate executive, Nassana Dantius. Shepard may be acquainted with Nassana depending on choices made in Mass Effect. Thane contacted an asari named Seryna, who has an office in the cargo transfer levels. Follow the lead to Seryna’s office.

Getting to Thane
Seryna's office is under the shipping sign. Shepard learns that Seryna used to be head of security for Nassana. She found out that Nassana routinely engaged in assassinations of business rivals and government officials, as well as the death of her own sister. Seryna confronted Nassana and was fired for it. Thane learned about Nassana's security from Seryna. Nassana is in the penthouse of Tower One of the Dantius Towers. Seryna believes that Thane will likely infiltrate through the second tower, which is still under construction. Seryna helps Shepard because she believes it will give Thane a better chance at successfully assassinating Nassana. Seryna can take Shepard and the squad to the Dantius Towers. However, Shepard can only go to the Towers once, and the Commander cannot return to Nos Astra once at the Towers without first completing the mission.

There will be many enemies who are synthetic or who have biotic barriers so Miranda would be good to have in the party, because she has Warp and Overload.

Dantius Tower Two
When Shepard agrees to go, a cutscene plays where Seryna describes Nassana’s paranoia of killers, and rightfully so given her business practices. After being dropped off at the bottom of the empty tower, the squad quickly runs into a bunch of security mechs chasing panicked salarian construction workers. Once you regain control, shoot out the glass and engage the FENRIS and LOKI mechs. Once the mechs have been disposed of, to the left, Shepard can find Medi-gel and a terminal hackable for 4,800 credits. Shepard should be able to talk to a wounded salarian for some information. The worker will explain that Nassana sent the mechs to round up all the night workers to get rid of them immediately. A Paragon interrupt uses some Medi-gel to get some more information out of him and earning his respect. The information is well worth it unless Shepard is low on Medi-gel. The other information the salarian provides is a good picture of your trip through the tower.

Level 1
After dealing with the salarian in whichever way you choose, go through the door and down the hall. Be prepared to take cover as soon as you exit. Eclipse mercs will attack you. Fight through them and round the U-shaped level, taking cover and eliminating mercs as they come along. Be careful throughout the level, and also the entire mission, as the mercs are fond of shooting at you and your squad from the flanks. At each of the corners, send your squad ahead of you to flush out the enemies, but keep your squadmates in cover. Once you round the second corner there are two corridors that the Eclipse mercs will attack from. One has cover and the other doesn’t. The best option from a few game plays is to use your squad to pin down the mercs, then either send one squadmate or go yourself to flank the mercs and reach the ramp at the end of the level. When you finally get through the level, head up the ramp to level 2.

Level 2
At the top of a ramp and past a door there will be some Medi-gel, thermal clips and an unexpected visitor. Once you take these items, take cover as Eclipse is out for your blood. Use the cover and move when necessary to take out the attacking mercs. There is an L-shaped cover at the end of the area, get to it and once things calm down you have two options, either go up the hall or go through the door back and to the right. Either way you choose does not have a lot of cover in this next area. The best option here is to send your squad to pin them down, then flank the enemy yourself, get closer, and then take them out. Once the mercs are down take a second to gather clips and reload. The next area is complicated because of the narrow entryway but creative and intelligent usage of squadmates can help in this situation.

Once the mercs stop coming, explore a little. Do not go into the elevator yet. Go to the other side from where you entered and down the hallway. Here there is the rapid-fire M-97 Viper, some power cells, and a terminal hackable for 4,200 credits. Go back and bypass a nearby door to find some salarian workers, Daroth and Shelum. The salarians will tell Shepard that someone who was not an Eclipse mercenary locked them in the room. You can earn some morality points with the conversation, depending on your options choices. Inside the room is medi-gel and a locker with 3,000 credits. The next thing is to activate the elevator. Before you do, put your squad in cover and then activate the elevator. A krogan Bounty Hunter and two Eclipse Engineers will come out of the elevator. Once they are down, take the elevator up.

Level 3
Exit the elevator to find an Eclipse Trooper communicating with his superiors. Shepard interrupts and the merc turns around to see three weapons pointing at him. The conversation that follows gives you a few morality points and a Renegade interrupt. Using the Renegade interrupt sends the merc through the window. During the conversation, you get information about how to get to Nassana and then you can decide to kill him or let him go. The Paragon option lets him leave and he doesn’t warn his friends, the Renegade option calls the mercs to your presence. Either way you choose to go prepare for a fight or just turn around. If you chose the Renegade option be prepared for a “knife fight” with some Eclipse mercs.

If you chose to let the merc go then head over to a datapad on the floor. The datapad contains the Kirosa genetic database for the Salarian Family Data assignment. Open either of the doors into the next room, which is large, open, has plenty of cover, and more than a few explosive containers. If you enter quietly you can hear conversation between Nassana and her hired help. She isn’t happy about all the damage you have done. Once in cover target the Eclipse Vanguard in the room and take her down first. The rest of the mercs in the room will be a lot easier once she falls.

Once the Eclipse Mercs are dealt with go to the door on the left side of the room and bypass the door. When the door opens a terrified salarian points a pistol at you. A quick Renegade interrupt will cause you to punch the salarian, but it may be bettter to wait it out. No matter your choices, the armed salarian, Telon, will fall unconscious and his brother, Chesith, rushes to his aid. The conversation learns how Telon got the gun and how the same person locked them in this room. Once the conversation is over, the room contains Medi-gel and a PDA on a Eclipse mercenary corpse hackable for 6,000 credits. Head back out and before the ramps up to the roof and bridge, there are power cells, a comm terminal, and the M-97 Viper incase it was missed earlier. The terminal provides some options for annoying Nassana but no morality points. Head up the ramps to the roof and the bridge to Tower One.

Roof and Bridge
Get into cover fast because there are flanking enemies on your left. Use what cover you have to take out the enemies. Move up when you get the opportunity to get to the pillars and crates on the opposite side from where you entered. Once all the mercs are down, move up and take the refined eezo and if you need new weapons, use the weapons locker. Also don’t forget to pick up the Medi-gel just to the left of the locker. This is a good save point.

Around the corner, if you are careful you can avoid being detected until you start shooting. Be careful in this area because there is an Eclipse Commando who has both barrier and armor. The area has little room for your squad to take cover or maneuver. The best thing to do is to focus on the Commando and once she is down, take out the rest. Or take out the rest while the Commando has her head down. Once the mercs are down go to the end and there will be a submachine gun upgrade, Med-gel, and a PDA hackable for 12,000 credits.

The bridge to Tower One is a long narrow walkway that is ideal for sniper rifles or assault rifles. There is the usual assortment of Eclipse mercenaries and mechs. It is possible to use powers to knock enemies off for instant-kills. Move from cover to cover on the shaky bridge until you start taking rocket fire. At the opposite end of the bridge are two stationary rocket drones. They start firing long before they become targetable. This presents problems in using squad powers or the Missile Launcher, because Shepard will often lock onto another target even if pointed at one of the rocket drones. However the drones only have shields so once the shields are down they’re gone.

Once you have cleared the bridges of enemies, get into cover at the end of the bridge but not the wall, because another wave will appear on upper level of the bridge leading to Tower One’s penthouse. Take these guys out before you go up the stairs, or you will regret it no matter what difficulty you are on. Once they are out send your squad up the stairs but keep them close to the right as another Eclipse Commando waits as the last barrier to Nassana’s Penthouse. If you can use your squad to fire from cover but most of the time you have to lure the Commando away so you can fire on her from cover. The Commando will not follow you back down the stairs so stay on the upper level and retreat if necessary to regenerate shields and health.

Once the Commando and any other mercs are down, enter Nassana’s Penthouse.

Nassana’s Penthouse
Once you open the door, the few remaining Eclipse mercs, tending to Nassana herself, raise their weapons. Nassana turns around and comments in shock "Shepard, but you’re dead!", at which point Shepard will humorously respond by saying "I got better." Nassana asks Commander Shepard who hired Shepard to kill her; she disbelieves that the commander is not there to kill her due to the recent rampage. A subsequent noise distracts the mercs and Nassana tells them to check all the other entrances. Clearly she is even more paranoid than she was described. Thane is waiting in the ventilation ducts for the right moment. Once the mercs have their backs to the windows, he makes his move.

Thane jumps down from the ducts and kills one merc silently by snapping his neck, then he immediately kills another with a quick punch in the neck and proceeds to shoot the last of Nassana's mercs before he grabs her herself. He shoves his pistol into Nassana's gut and pulls the trigger at point-blank range, causing Nassana to slump dead. Thane gently places her on the desk and folds her arms, before he starts praying over Nassana's dead body. At this point, you can start speaking with Thane by choosing to be nice or angry that he is ignoring you. During the conversation, Thane comments on how he was working his way up and how you provided a great distraction that allowed him to get further and faster than he had hoped, to which you can respond however you like. After that, you can tell Thane about the suicide mission and that you need his help to bring down the Collectors. Interestingly, Thane has little problem with being on a mission that will likely result in death, because he admits that he is dying regardless and wishes to make the universe a brighter place before his death, but assures that his condition is not contagious and will not affect his performance. Thane then agrees to work for Shepard for no charge, after which the conversation will end and you will automatically be returned to the Normandy.

Normandy
On the Normandy, Jacob distrusts Thane because he believes the drell is essentially a mercenary. Thane asks to be quartered in a part of a ship that is arid. EDI recommends the Life Support section because it is slightly more arid than the rest of the ship. You can find Thane there for the rest of the mission. Thane is unperturbed by the presence of an AI.

Email
If he was saved, Jeirt, one of the salarian workers, sends the following email to Shepard regarding his encounter with Thane:

Enemies

 * Bounty Hunter
 * Eclipse Commando
 * Eclipse Engineer
 * Eclipse Trooper
 * Eclipse Vanguard
 * FENRIS Mech
 * LOKI Mech
 * Rocket Drone

Mission Summary
Recruited Thane Krios for the team, but medically questionable unless mission is resolved quickly.

Legal representatives dealing with public damage to Dantius Towers.


 * Experience reward: 1,000 (1,250)
 * Credits: 60,000
 * Cerberus Funding: 30,000
 * Credits Found: 30,000
 * Weapons:
 * M-97 Viper Sniper Rifle
 * Upgrades
 * Submachine Gun Damage (Microfield Pulsar)
 * Minerals
 * Element Zero: 500

Trivia

 * Jacob is dismissive of Thane because he is essentially a gun-for-hire. Ironically, Shepard may call Jacob a gun-for-hire in an earlier conversation with the Illusive Man.
 * After completion of the mission, a news report can be heard on Illium about Nassana's death. The price of stocks in her corporation has risen as a result.
 * If you speak to Tana (Seryna's work colleague, found near where you took the ride to Dantius Towers) after finishing the mission, she will give you a datapad with a message from Seryna explaining that she has left Illium for a "new life" and was glad hear that Thane succeeded in his mission.
 * The Renegade interrupt with the Eclipse mercenary on Level 3 and Nassana's comment about Shepard are seen in a few Mass Effect 2 trailers.
 * Dossier: The Assassin was the mission featured in 2009's E3 demo.
 * There is more dialogue with Nassana if your Shepard is imported from a Mass Effect save (provided that you did the related side-quest). She is shocked to see Shepard again, then comments on the irony that she had Shepard kill her sister back in 2183, and now it's her turn.