I believe that the reports about the demise of Cerberus were highly exaggerated.
Plus, only some bases were shut down, Cerberus still has a long reach within Alliance politics and economy, for instance, Concord-Hislop, one of the biggest spacecraft manufacturing firms is in TIM's hands, and there are dozends of companies like that.
As for the manpower, there is a simple, yet logical explanation.
First of all, as many of you have already mentioned, humans from all over the Terminus Systems (including lots of mercs and ex-soldiers) could be flocking to Cerberus, plus I don't think we should discredit the possibility of cloning. I mean, think about it! Even now, in 2012, we can clone smaller animals like mice and rats, hell, even a sheep! 180 years from now, the only things that could stop anyone from cloning somebody are ethics and laws. Cerberus don't care much about either one of those. If you can remember, Shepard asks Jacob around the beginning of ME2, if he was a clone (implying that it is quite a possible explanation). Cerberus probably has the combined scientific knowledge of humanity, the salarians, the asari, the turians and all the lesser species too, add some reaper and collecter tech and you have an army of cloned soldiers with military training (think of Grunt, he didn't need much training either to become a killing machine).
As for the materials and equipment: Cerberus could have stockpiled both durning the years, as it is well within the reach of the Illusive Man to get ready for a war against the entire galaxy, in case it falls into chaos. Don't forget that they have Concord-Hislop which builds spacecrafts, so as I said, they could have stockpiled it durning the years.
Now, in my humble opinion, there can only be two explanations for the betrayal of Cerberus.
1. TIM was somehow indoctrinated without his knowledge, so by the time the Reapers invaded, he managed to convince himself that the only way he could save humanity is by joining forces with the reapers.
2. He has something of unimaginable value to the Reapers, so he made a deal with them: they wipe out advanced life, including a great portion of humanity, but in return the remaining humans can fill in the space left after the demise of the Collectors, only with more autonomy with Cerberus ruling them, leaving its top employees and TIM mostly intact.
Or maybe he (thinks?) he has the means of defeating the Reapers alone, thus ensuring Cerberus dominance over the galaxy. Hm, an Illusive Man-shaped super-reaper?
Modifié par Revanor, 04 mars 2012 - 03:24 .
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