Operation Shieldwall begins this Friday at 6 PM PT. Can we agree that a shield and a wall are pretty close to being the same thing? They both serve similar purposes, but maybe that's completely irrelevant.

The event ends Monday morning at 5 AM PT and will be accessible through the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions of the game. Here are the challenges and rewards, and the story conceit as to why there are suddenly more banshees everywhere:

• Allied Goal: Promote 50,000 characters. Successful completion of the allied goal will grant all players a Victory Pack.
• Squad Goal: Promote 3 characters. Successful completion of the squad goal will grant all squadmates a Commendation Pack.
• Special Circumstance: Due to the failure of Operation Silencer, more banshees will spawn with Reaper enemies and might also spawn with other enemies.

Make sure to set “Upload Gameplay Feedback” to ON in the online options to be able to participate.