Desolas Arterius is a turian general who served during the First Contact War, and is Saren Arterius' brother. During the First Contact War in 2157, General Desolas is tasked with a secret assignment on Shanxi: a turian research vessel has crash-landed on Shanxi with an important artifact aboard, and Desolas must recover it. Desolas leads a squad into an abandoned human settlement on Shanxi while searching for the crashed ship, where he is ambushed by the human mercenaries Jack Harper, Ben Hislop, and Eva Coré. Desolas' squad is killed and Desolas himself is taken prisoner.