“Strength for Cerberus is strength for every human. Cerberus is humanity.”
Cerberus is a human-supremacist paramilitary group led by the enigmatic Illusive Man. Couching itself as human-survivalist, Cerberus' core belief is that humans deserve a greater role in the galactic community, and that the Systems Alliance is too hamstrung by law and public opinion to stand up effectively to the other Citadel races. Cerberus supports the principle that any methods of advancing humanity's ascension are entirely justified, including illegal or dangerous experimentation, terrorism, sabotage and assassination. Cerberus operatives accept that these methods are brutal but believe history will vindicate them. Nevertheless, both the Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council have declared Cerberus to be a terrorist organization and will prosecute identified Cerberus agents accordingly.
Cerberus arose from the tumult of the First Contact War in 2157 CE, a conflict between humanity and the first alien race they had encountered after achieving spaceflight, the turians. During the turian occupation of Shanxi, a trio of human mercenaries, Jack Harper, Eva Coré, and Ben Hislop, served with the Systems Alliance forces led by General Williams who were resisting the turians. After capturing a turian general, the mercenaries became embroiled in the general's conspiracy to use an ancient alien artifact to transform the turians into a race of invincible supersoldiers under his command. With the aid of the general's brother, Saren Arterius, Harper was able to foil the plot, but both Coré and Hislop were lost.
In the aftermath, Harper realized that although the galaxy was abundant with knowledge and wealth, it was also a dangerous place, and a dark time was coming for humanity. It was humanity's duty to meet this challenge, and Harper resolved to do everything in his power to better humanity and ensure their place among the stars. With that, Harper published the manifesto of Cerberus and assumed the identity of the Illusive Man.
As Cerberus grew, it had an indelible effect on the course of human development through acts of sabotage, assassination, media manipulation, and espionage. Cerberus became known to the public after a failed attempt to steal antimatter from the cruiser SSV Geneva in 2165. The sole surviving member of the operation named his sponsor "Cerberus", and the publicity from the incident spurred an increase in recruitment. In 2170, Cerberus engineered the Eldfell-Ashland Energy accident over Yandoa, exposing the colonists to dust-form element zero, and two other similar accidents over the preceding four months in two other colonies.
The following year, Pope Clement XVI is assassinated via rosary beads coated with toxic materials in order to be replaced by Leo XIV, who has eschatological beliefs more in line with Cerberus' goal of militarizing humanity. Claude Menneau, a candidate for the leadership of the pro-human Terra Firma party, was also assassinated in 2173 at the order of the Illusive Man to allow Charles Saracino to gain the position. Cerberus was additionally responsible for funding Michael Moser Lang, who would go on to gun down United North American States president Enrique Aguilar and Chinese People's Federation premier Ying Xiong in 2176, and sabotaging the starship MSV Anixara in 2182, resulting in the death of Turian Hierarchy war hawk Raherix Ursivus.
Cerberus ground forces are formed from personnel who are deemed physically suitable, be they unsuspecting volunteers, refugees or abductees. The research performed at Sanctuary allowed for Cerberus to control Reaper ground troops.
Personnel are put through an "integration" process - a combination of Reaper-inspired indoctrination, implantation or other conditioning - and become the various troop variants. While indoctrination is involved, and troops are physically altered into a husk-like state, the integration does not reduce them to the feral behavior that Reaper husks exhibit. Instead, Cerberus troops retain the mental capacity to perform their roles while maintaining complete loyalty to Cerberus' cause. Though there is a risk of Cerberus soldiers falling under Reaper control, the Illusive Man was confident that he could maintain control.
Cerberus troops make liberal use of Shield Generators. These can power portable cover systems or Shield Pylons, which envelop nearby units in an extra layer of kinetic barriers. Shield Generators are fairly resilient and can usually be manually reactivated if they short out, though they can overload dangerously when damaged. Pylons on the other hand are delicate devices and can't usually be reactivated or repaired in the field if destroyed by enemy fire. Both Generators and Pylons, being fairly simple electronic systems, can be vulnerable to hacking that can temporarily reverse their function, turning them from shield rechargers into shield dischargers.
Vehicles employed by Cerberus forces include the M-080 (APC variant), the A-61 Mantis Gunship, and UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle. Cerberus also maintains a significant flotilla of warships to perform covert operations across the galaxy. A large fleet in particular is stationed at Omega. These fleets consist of cruisers, fighters, and at least one dreadnought that are considered extremely advanced by Alliance standards. It is speculated by Alliance intelligence that this is because of Cerberus' acquisition of Reaper technology.
Cerberus is divided into numerous independent cells which have no knowledge of their counterparts. This ensures that should one cell be compromised, the others would not be captured. Each cell is led by an operative who reports directly to the Illusive Man. Cerberus operates many kinds of cells, ranging from military to political to scientific, but all united under the common goal of advancing humanity. Cerberus also has operatives throughout the Alliance, often embedded in high-ranking positions, giving the Illusive Man constant updates and feeding him information that would otherwise be classified.
As of 2185, Cerberus consists of 150 operatives organized into three cells. The Illusive Man oversees all projects carried out by the cells personally; consequently, there are never more than a dozen projects active at one time. This degree of micro-management leaves the organization vulnerable should the Illusive Man ever be compromised, though he has been smart enough to avoid detection so far.
Communication throughout Cerberus sometimes takes the form of steganographic messages embedded within extranet broadcasts. These messages can range from troop movement orders to instructions to financiers to direct money into certain cells. This method of communication was recently compromised by the Systems Alliance.
The Illusive Man can also afford quantum-entanglement communicators. One such device was installed within the Normandy SR-2 to give the Illusive Man a secure, direct means of communication with Commander Shepard.
Cerberus has wealthy sympathizers within the Alliance military-industrial complex, who contribute credits and resources to Cerberus, and trust the Illusive Man to make the right decisions. Cerberus also owns several front corporations which further fund and support their operations. Spending trends indicate that Cerberus has a reliable income running up to several billion credits per year.
Cerberus has operatives planted across Citadel space and the Terminus Systems who regularly report to the Illusive Man. Due to their widespread network, Cerberus effectively has access to almost every settled system, major trade stop, and colony in the galaxy. However, Cerberus has no knowledge of what goes on in uncharted systems and the Migrant Fleet, thus rendering the Illusive Man blind in those areas.
Cerberus operatives usually work alone. If an operative is captured, depending on their usefulness, Cerberus might attempt a rescue or simply declare them to be expendable and abandon them to their captors.
Cerberus produces its own proprietary weapon and armor systems for the exclusive use of its operatives, and has a reputation for being of the highest quality. Such Cerberus equipment that is captured intact is prized among soldiers.