347 réponses à ce sujet

[ElitePinecone]

If it's as easy as just hopping in some modified craft and making the road-trip by throwing resources at an idea for a few years, then literally anyone else could do it. Including the Protheans. Including the Reapers.

 

You're really not understanding me, frankly. 

 

Being able to do something doesn't mean that they would actually do it. There's a difference between having the technological capability - which everyone has - and having a reason or motivation to leave the Milky Way.

 

For all we know the Reapers are restricted by their programming or the Leviathans' original instructions - I mean, it's not like they have a desire to explore anything, and their hubris got all retconned by ME3. The Protheans may indeed have explored beyond the MW, eventually, but they'd only just attained a galactic empire by the time they were destroyed by the Reapers. 

 

My point is: nobody before the current cycle would see a point going to Andromeda, even though they had the ability to do so.

[dreamgazer]

You're really not understanding me, frankly.

No, I'm understanding you perfectly fine, but it's incredibly tunnel-visioned rationale towards making this contingency project happen.
 

Being able to do something doesn't mean that they would actually do it. There's a difference between having the technological capability - which everyone has - and having a reason or motivation to leave the Milky Way.

You're underestimating the power of curiosity and hubris by a country mile, and you're overlooking a billion years of cycles.
 

For all we know the Reapers are restricted by their programming or the Leviathans' original instructions

Why would they be restricted?
 

I mean, it's not like they have a desire to explore anything

... they don't?
 

and their hubris got all retconned by ME3.

How did their hubris get retconned by ME3? What happened by the end of the third game that removes the possibility that their mandate, established in ME1, would take them to Andromeda to impose their order on organic chaos? If anything, their revealed purpose would make them even more driven to purge the universe of their intended problem.

Wouldn't rule the Reapers' capabilities of travel out. Without their interference, Andromeda will have had billions of years of unchecked development (why haven't anyone come to the Milky Way?) and no relays.
 

The Protheans may indeed have explored beyond the MW, eventually, but they'd only just attained a galactic empire by the time they were destroyed by the Reapers.

If us "primitives" can wage war and build an ark project at the same time, I'm sure those organized and technologically advanced motor-scooters can walk and chew gum, too. They've mastered the art of stasis pods, after all.
 

My point is: nobody before the current cycle would see a point going to Andromeda, even though they had the ability to do so.

And that's an incredibly erroneous assumption, due to the multitude of reasons why other cycles would do so: exploration, expansion, advanced resources, a contingency home, the works.

[Kabooooom]

No, I'm understanding you perfectly fine, but it's incredibly tunnel-visioned rationale towards making this contingency project happen.


You're underestimating the power of curiosity and hubris by a country mile, and you're overlooking a billion years of cycles.


Why would they be restricted?


... they don't?


How did their hubris get retconned by ME3? What happened by the end of the third game that removes the possibility that their mandate, established in ME1, would take them to Andromeda to impose their order on organic chaos? If anything, their revealed purpose would make them even more driven to purge the universe of their intended problem.

Wouldn't rule the Reapers' capabilities of travel out. Without their interference, Andromeda will have had billions of years of unchecked development (why haven't anyone come to the Milky Way?) and no relays.


If us "primitives" can wage war and build an ark project at the same time, I'm sure those organized and technologically advanced motor-scooters can walk and chew gum, too. They've mastered the art of stasis pods, after all.


And that's an incredibly erroneous assumption, due to the multitude of reasons why other cycles would do so: exploration, expansion, advanced resources, a contingency home, the works.

I'm not so sure I agree with you that past cycles could have built an intergalactic ark...primarily because with the current level of FTL tech, THIS cycle can't build an intergalactic ark either.

I showed mathematically that it really wouldn't take very long at all on a cosmic scale of things to reach Andromeda with current FTL tech, but that doesn't get around the drive discharge problem. Indeed, I'm quite convinced that the only way to truly do it would be to incorporate Reaper tech and negate the issue altogether.

And I'm not so sure a prior cycle could have done that. They may have killed a Reaper or two rarely, sure. But when they did, they did so in the isolation of their own star systems. Building an ark ship AFTER the Reaper invasion had already happened, while isolated from every other system in the relay network, while also simultaneously studying Reaper FTL tech during your planet feeling the force of a full scale onslaught of a Reaper invasion seems impossible.

In that regard, our cycle WAS special in that all of those restrictions are inconsequential. We had forewarning, no isolation from the relay network, and extended time to accomplish the task.

[themikefest]

I think it would be exceedingly difficult to coordinate an ark project without the ability to transfer people and materials across the galaxy quickly.

How would you explain the species that built the weapon that destroyed the reaper we see in ME2 that has the IFF that created the Great Rift on the planet Klendagon?

That had to be one big weapon to do that. How long did it take to build that? Where did they get the materials for it? If that one species is able to do that, I'm sure they could build a ship to take them to another galaxy to flee from the reapers

Its not impossible, its just very hard to do without having the relays. I'm sure other civilizations tried and failed. Its even possible that a species may of succeeded by leaving the galaxy and made it to another galaxy

If the relays weren't operational in this cycle, its a very good chance we may never of stopped the reapers
 

Vigil in ME1 says in the Protheans' cycle, individual star systems were cut off from one another. It's actually kinda a miracle that so many of the cycles were able to start work on the Crucible, given how dispersed their resources and militaries would've been.

What did the catalyst say? Oh yeah. Clearly organics are more resourceful then we thought. So I wouldn't say its a miracle
 

The other thing is that our cycle was the first time that the galaxy killed the Reapers' vanguard and had advance warning of the Reapers as a galactic threat to all life that would not accept surrender. We had knowledge and time that none of the others had.

Is there anything to suggest there has always been a vanguard aside from what Vigli says? There is nothing known about previous cycles, except the Protheans, that we know about except they were harvested. Its possible some cycles may of had some warning.
 
 

Remember that when every other cycle was confronted with the Reapers (in their individual systems, because their leadership was already dead) they had no idea what the Reapers wanted or where the war would end.

Would that stop you from fighting back and planning a way to flee from the reapers?
 

Why would anybody plan for an idea as far-fetched as leaving the galaxy if the easier solution was to run and hide within the Milky Way?

Why would it be far-fetched? Its possible some concluded that the reapers are doing the harvesting all over the galaxy decided the best course of action is to flee to another galaxy if possible
 

99% of it was totally unexplored, as people keep screaming about here.

Really? What does their screaming sound like?
 

An ark to Andromeda requires an understanding that *nowhere* in the Milky Way was safe from the Reapers,

Try telling that to Leviathan
 

Nobody else knew that,

A few cycles may of known and didn't give it much thought until it was too late
 

We understood - from the Protheans - that the only way to escape the Reapers with any degree of certainty would be to leave the galaxy entirely.

I don't recall ever hearing that from Javik, Vigil or Vendetta. When did this cycle know that leaving the galaxy was the best way to escape the reapers?

[dreamgazer]

I'm not so sure I agree with you that past cycles could have built an intergalactic ark...primarily because with the current level of FTL tech, THIS cycle can't build an intergalactic ark either.

I showed mathematically that it really wouldn't take very long at all on a cosmic scale of things to reach Andromeda with current FTL tech, but that doesn't get around the drive discharge problem. Indeed, I'm quite convinced that the only way to truly do it would be to incorporate Reaper tech and negate the issue altogether.

Agreed. Can't wait to see the results of delving into Reaper drive cores during the war.
 

And I'm not so sure a prior cycle could have done that. They may have killed a Reaper or two rarely, sure. But when they did, they did so in the isolation of their own star systems. Building an ark ship AFTER the Reaper invasion had already happened, while isolated from every other system in the relay network, while also simultaneously studying Reaper FTL tech during your planet feeling the force of a full scale onslaught of a Reaper invasion seems impossible.

Well, there are at least a few Reapers lying around ... but we've seen what happens when folks start researching them.

The narrative has three years and change to figure out how to avoid indoctrination and master the art of Reaper drive cores, and they barely understand how the relays work.

[ZoliCs]

How would you explain the species that built the weapon that destroyed the reaper we see in ME2 that has the IFF that created the Great Rift on the planet Klendagon?

That had to be one big weapon to do that. How long did it take to build that? Where did they get the materials for it? If that one species is able to do that, I'm sure they could build a ship to take them to another galaxy to flee from the reapers

Killing a Reaper is not that big of a deal. Our cycle killed hundreds. If the capability to kill one Reaper is analogous to be able to leave the galaxy is killing a hundred not?

[themikefest]

Killing a Reaper is not that big of a deal. Our cycle killed hundreds.

Can you prove that hundreds were destroyed before the crucible was used?
 

If the capability to kill one Reaper is analogous to be able to leave the galaxy is killing a hundred not?

Never said it wasn't, right?

[ZoliCs]

Can you prove that hundreds were destroyed before the crucible was used?

 

"The assault on Thessia did not go as smoothly as the Reapers' strikes against other races. While other species met the Reapers head-on, the asari resorted to dangerous hit-and-run tactics to harass their attackers. By engaging in guerilla strategies--blasting a Reaper ship, then jumping to FTL where they could not be tracked--the asari forced the Reapers to remain on the defensive.

 

Unfortunately, the Reapers' greater numbers allowed them to accept certain losses, so they soon ignored the attacks against them and began orbital bombardment of Thessia."

 

"Turian troop transports then entered Palaven's atmosphere to release shuttles, gliders, and individual soldier capsules.

 

The Reapers did not understand the seriousness of the threat at first--those that detected the landing crafts sent husks and Collector swarms to intercept them, but little more. This allowed krogan commandos to link up with Palaven's resistance and hand off their payloads--warp bombs and fission weapons.

 

In simultaneous strikes across the globe, Reaper ships began to explode. Turian resistance members had managed to smuggle the bombs inside when the Reaper processing ships, troop transports, and even destroyers and capital ships had opened their structures to indoctrinated turian leaders."

 

+ There was the battle at Earth. No numbers indicated, but given that these were big scale encounters a hundred dead Reaper is a safe assumption.

 

Never said it wasn't, right?

 

I guess you didn't, it just felt like you are agreeing with Dreamgazer who is vouching that it can't be done.

[themikefest]

+ There was the battle at Earth. No numbers indicated, but given that these were big scale encounters a hundred dead Reaper is a safe assumption.

I won't argue your assumption since its possible. I would say a lot more transport ships and processing ships were destroyed than destroyers and capital ships
 

I guess you didn't, it just felt like you are agreeing with Dreamgazer who is vouching that it can't be done.

I'm sure its possible to get to another galaxy. I'm just curious to see/hear how Bioware makes it happen if the next game does take place in another galaxy

[dreamgazer]

I'm definitely curious to see how the writers are going to hand-wave the pseudo-science and billions of years to get this cycle to Andromeda, especially if it's in secret during the Reaper war.

[Nitrocuban]

Wormhole created by a ancient alien device.

/thread

[Han Shot First]

If I were in Bioware's shoes I'd go about it by having the Council races repurpose a large warship or bulk freighter...something with enough room for thousands of colonists. By repurposing an existing ship it cuts down on construction time and resources. It's also entirely plausible to keep a ship of that nature secret. This is something not even close to the scale of the Crucible.

 

To get around the drive discharge problem I'd have the ark use a propulsion system derived from Reaper technology, similar to how Thanix weapons came about through reverse engineering Sovereign's weapon. There are going to be plenty of dead Reapers laying around and robots could be used for the salvage and wrench-turning instead of exosuit wearing organics. The Reapers get away with indoctrination primarily by taking people by surprise. With the Leviathan of DIS or Sovereign the people who went aboard knew nothing about the risks. Cerberus didn't have that excuse with the Derelict Reaper, but of course they used people instead of robots. If its one thing Cerberus did consistently it was falling into the mad science trope. Using robots to study the technology aboard the Reaper derelicts would avoid the indoctrination risks. I would presume that was how the Thanix weapons came about, since the Turians managed to recover bits of Sovereign safely.

 

Pack the ark ship with thousands of colonists from all the Council races along with the genetic materials necessary to make thousands more in the lab. The colonists go into cryosleep for the long journey to Andromeda with the ship's functions monitored by a V.I. Actually I'd probably make that a shackled A.I., just to get another A.I. character into ME: Next. With the desperation caused by the Reaper War I could see the Council abandoning the restrictions on developing an A.I.

 

The A.I. wakes up the colonists a couple hundred years later when the ship arrives in Andromeda.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

If I were in Bioware's shoes I'd go about it by having the Council races repurpose a large warship or bulk freighter...something with enough room for thousands of colonists. By repurposing an existing ship it cuts down on construction time and resources. It's also entirely plausible to keep a ship of that nature secret. This is something not even close to the scale of the Crucible.

 

To get around the drive discharge problem I'd have the ark use a propulsion system derived from Reaper technology, similar to how Thanix weapons came about through reverse engineering Sovereign's weapon. There are going to be plenty of dead Reapers laying around and robots could be used for the salvage and wrench-turning instead of exosuit wearing organics. The Reapers get away with indoctrination primarily by taking people by surprise. With the Leviathan of DIS or Sovereign the people who went aboard knew nothing about the risks. Cerberus didn't have that excuse with the Derelict Reaper, but of course they used people instead of robots. If its one thing Cerberus did consistently it was falling into the mad science trope. Using robots to study the technology aboard the Reaper derelicts would avoid the indoctrination risks. I would presume that was how the Thanix weapons came about, since the Turians managed to recover bits of Sovereign safely.

 

Pack the ark ship with thousands of colonists from all the Council races along with the genetic materials necessary to make thousands more in the lab. The colonists go into cryosleep for the long journey to Andromeda with the ship's functions monitored by a V.I. Actually I'd probably make that a shackled A.I., just to get another A.I. character into ME: Next. With the desperation caused by the Reaper War I could see the Council abandoning the restrictions on developing an A.I.

 

The A.I. wakes up the colonists a couple hundred years later when the ship arrives in Andromeda.

Um, Reapers can indoctrinate synthetic life as well as organic life. Just look at the Heretics. They go about it a different way, but they still do it. And if they are just simple robots, it's just a case of hacking which the Reapers can do. 

 

Plus our cycles scientists have no understanding of the Reaper cores. To them they seem to break the laws of ME physics. 

[ZoliCs]

Um, Reapers can indoctrinate synthetic life as well as organic life. Just look at the Heretics. They go about it a different way, but they still do it. 

 

Plus our cycles scientists have no understanding of the Reaper cores. To them they seem to break the laws of ME physics. 

I think they hack synthetics not indoctrinate, in which case a dead Reaper could hardly hack.

[Heimdall]

Um, Reapers can indoctrinate synthetic life as well as organic life. Just look at the Heretics. They go about it a different way, but they still do it. 

 

Plus our cycles scientists have no understanding of the Reaper cores. To them they seem to break the laws of ME physics. 

The Heretics weren't hacked.  They joined the Reapers by choice.  They were only able to control the Geth in ME3 because the Geth let them in exchange for upgrades.

 

That's the official line Shepard knows, but a group that's been studying Sovereign's core for years in secret might understand more.

[Han Shot First]

Um, Reapers can indoctrinate synthetic life as well as organic life. Just look at the Heretics. They go about it a different way, but they still do it. 

 

Plus our cycles scientists have no understanding of the Reaper cores. To them they seem to break the laws of ME physics. 

 

Robots don't have to be sapient. NASA is currently running two robotic rovers on the surface of Mars.

 

In any case the Turians found a method to safely study and replicate Reaper technology. I would presume that they used robots, but no matter how they did it...the method is there. It could be used again for the Ark ship.

 

The argument that an ark ship couldn't use Reaper technology fails when during the course of the Shepard trilogy there were several instances of Reaper technology either being reverse engineered or utilized in some fashion. As for the scientists not understanding Reaper cores, that is because it is alien technology that is far advanced compared to what the Council races can produce. The mystery is in that it is futuristic and hasn't been studied. That's the purpose of reverse engineering. You take it apart and figure out what it does and how it was made. That was how the Thanix weapons came about,

[Kabooooom]

If I were in Bioware's shoes I'd go about it by having the Council races repurpose a large warship or bulk freighter...something with enough room for thousands of colonists. By repurposing an existing ship it cuts down on construction time and resources. It's also entirely plausible to keep a ship of that nature secret. This is something not even close to the scale of the Crucible.

To get around the drive discharge problem I'd have the ark use a propulsion system derived from Reaper technology, similar to how Thanix weapons came about through reverse engineering Sovereign's weapon. There are going to be plenty of dead Reapers laying around and robots could be used for the salvage and wrench-turning instead of exosuit wearing organics. The Reapers get away with indoctrination primarily by taking people by surprise. With the Leviathan of DIS or Sovereign the people who went aboard knew nothing about the risks. Cerberus didn't have that excuse with the Derelict Reaper, but of course they used people instead of robots. If its one thing Cerberus did consistently it was falling into the mad science trope. Using robots to study the technology aboard the Reaper derelicts would avoid the indoctrination risks. I would presume that was how the Thanix weapons came about, since the Turians managed to recover bits of Sovereign safely.

Pack the ark ship with thousands of colonists from all the Council races along with the genetic materials necessary to make thousands more in the lab. The colonists go into cryosleep for the long journey to Andromeda with the ship's functions monitored by a V.I. Actually I'd probably make that a shackled A.I., just to get another A.I. character into ME: Next. With the desperation caused by the Reaper War I could see the Council abandoning the restrictions on developing an A.I.

The A.I. wakes up the colonists a couple hundred years later when the ship arrives in Andromeda.

I agree with all of this.

I will say though that if the ark thing turns out to be true, I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be the "Citadel-esque" location seen in the concept art.

[ElitePinecone]

When did this cycle know that leaving the galaxy was the best way to escape the reapers?

 

2183. The Prothean records on Ilos and (more importantly) the conversation with Sovereign. As far as we know, none of the other cycles ever had direct contact with a Reaper before the invasion because the war was over as soon as they came through the Citadel relay.

 

And that's an incredibly erroneous assumption, due to the multitude of reasons why other cycles would do so: exploration, expansion, advanced resources, a contingency home, the works.

 

None of these reasons are remotely compelling. There's no point spending time and resources exploring Andromeda when most of the MW (99% omg guise) is unexplored. The Protheans may have expanded to Andromeda eventually, but they were nowhere near occupying even a fraction of our galaxy. What resources would Andromeda have that aren't in the vast unexplored areas of the Milky Way? And why would the other cycles ever need a "contingency home" if they don't realise that there's a galactic threat? I just said before that fleeing *any* threat or danger except the Reapers could be accomplished by going into the 99% of the galaxy that hasn't been explored.

 

We cannot assume that other cycles would even have considered the possibility of going to another galaxy, even if it were technically possible. 

 

If us "primitives" can wage war and build an ark project at the same time, I'm sure those organized and technologically advanced motor-scooters can walk and chew gum, too. They've mastered the art of stasis pods, after all.

 

But why would they?

 

Only a civilisation that *knew* the Reapers would exterminate them entirely would ever resort to such a drastic option. None of them knew, because none of them had talked to the vanguard or had access to Ilos like the current one did. We know some Protheans were still trying to surrender to the Reapers a few centuries into their war. Others probably fled into other areas of the Milky Way. 

[Hanako Ikezawa]

The Heretics weren't hacked.  They joined the Reapers by choice.  They were only able to control the Geth in ME3 because the Geth let them in exchange for upgrades.

 

That's the official line Shepard knows, but a group that's been studying Sovereign's core for years in secret might understand more.

The Reapers also developed a virus that would change the Geth's thought processes aka indoctrinate them. The Heretics were going to use this on the Geth in ME2, but we stop it during Legion's loyalty mission. 

 

No, that's the line Bioware gives the player via the Codex. Yes the Codex isn't always correct but the only time it wasn't was for the Reapers plot twist. Plus if we could reverse engineer Reaper cores, we'd have ships on par with Reapers in strength thus would be used in the war. 

 

Robots don't have to be sapient. NASA is currently running two robots on the surface of Mars.

 

In any case the Turians found a method to safely study and replicate Reaper technology. I would presume that he used robots, but no matter how they did it...the method is there. It could be used again for the Ark ship.

 

The argument that an ark ship couldn't use Reaper technology utterly fails when during the course of the Shepard trilogy there were several instances of Reaper technology either being reverse engineered or utilized in some fashion.

I added if they are simple robots, they can be hacked. 

 

We don't know how safe the process of developing the Thannix cannon was. For all we know they lost dozens of scientists and engineers to indoctrination or hacked robots. 

 

True, but those pale in comparison to the complexity of a Reaper core. It's like saying that because someone can successfully reverse-engineer a gun they can successfully reverse-engineer a nuclear fusion reactor. The latter is not possible with current understanding and technology. 

[themikefest]

2183. The Prothean records on Ilos and (more importantly) the conversation with Sovereign. As far as we know, none of the other cycles ever had direct contact with a Reaper before the invasion because the war was over as soon as they came through the Citadel relay. 

So. What Sovereign says would lead me to believe that leaving the galaxy is the best way to escape the reapers? 

[Han Shot First]

I agree with all of this.

I will say though that if the ark thing turns out to be true, I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be the "Citadel-esque" location seen in the concept art.

 

I forgot about that concept art. You might be right that the Citadel-like location is the ark, assuming of course that the ark theory pans out.

 

 

I added if they are simple robots, they can be hacked. 

 

We don't know how safe the process of developing the Thannix cannon was. For all we know they lost dozens of scientists and engineers to indoctrination or hacked robots. 

 

True, but those pale in comparison to the complexity of a Reaper core. It's like saying that because someone can successfully reverse-engineer a gun they can successfully reverse-engineer a nuclear fusion reactor. The latter is not possible with current understanding and technology. 

 

I'm not sure that argument works against an ark utilizing Reaper technology. Its already established canon that Reaper technology can be reverse engineered or utilized safely, as it happened with both Thanix weapons & the Crucible. 

[Heimdall]

The Reapers also developed a virus that would change the Geth's thought processes aka indoctrinate them. The Heretics were going to use this on the Geth in ME2, but we stop it during Legion's loyalty mission. 

 

No, that's the line Bioware gives the player via the Codex. Yes the Codex isn't always correct but the only time it wasn't was for the Reapers plot twist. Plus if we could reverse engineer Reaper cores, we'd have ships on par with Reapers in strength thus would be used in the war. 

I know, but that had to be developed, finished by the Heretics and deployed, it isn't a passive mechanism like indoctrination that can persist even when the Reaper in question is dead.

 

The Codex is strictly in-universe knowledge, not word of God.  And like I said, we're talking about a secret group, not sharing their data, churning out one functional prototype by the end of the war, not mass producing them.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

I'm not sure that argument works against an ark utilizing Reaper technology. Its already established canon that Reaper technology can be reverse engineered or utilized safely, as it happened with both Thanix weapons & the Crucible. 

It's also been established in canon that our cycle has no idea how Reaper cores work. That's a key piece of knowledge needed in order to reverse engineer something. The Crucible was left purposefully simple by the Reapers as a trap/test depending on how you want to look at it. 

 

I know, but that had to be developed, finished by the Heretics and deployed, it isn't a passive mechanism like indoctrination that can persist even when the Reaper in question is dead.

 

The Codex is strictly in-universe knowledge, not word of God.  And like I said, we're talking about a secret group, not sharing their data, churning out one functional prototype by the end of the war, not mass producing them.

We don't know if a Reaper can do it passively or not since we haven't had synthetics or robots exposed to a 'dead' Reaper. 

 

What you're talking about is a retcon. A story that is part of a series should not have its foundation based on a retcon.

[themikefest]

Only a civilisation that *knew* the Reapers would exterminate them entirely would ever resort to such a drastic option.

How do you know that? Its possible that a few cycles found information about them and tried to prepare for the invasion and failed badly
 

None of them knew, because none of them had talked to the vanguard or had access to Ilos like the current one did.

How do you know a vanguard was left or that there wasn't a planet like Ilos?
 

[ElitePinecone]

So. What Sovereign says would lead me to believe that leaving the galaxy is the best way to escape the reapers? 

 

It's enough to begin work on a contingency plan, that's for sure.

 

In 2183 we just discovered that the super-powerful Protheans, who are literally worshipped as gods by some species, didn't vanish mysteriously 50,000 years ago but were actually wiped out down to the last person by a race of sentient machines. 

 

We learnt that these machines have done this, methodically, every 50,000 years. We learnt that the Protheans tried surrendering, but it didn't work, and when refugees spread between systems a fair chunk of them were indoctrinated and betrayed their locations to the Reapers. We learnt that they absolutely do not stop killing people, and that they're doing it for motives that at the time nobody could comprehend. They cannot be fought, or reasoned with, or hid from. Even trying to hide one planet - which worked in the Protheans' time - probably wouldn't work again, since they now know what a mistake it was to not scour the galaxy completely.

 

Talking to and fighting Sovereign also should've given the galaxy a warning of 1) how batpoo insane the Reapers are and 2) how powerful one ship is. 

 

If I were a councillor, or even a concerned government, the takeaway from all that is that the Milky Way is utterly unsafe for life if the Reapers ever arrived in large numbers. And if we were to lose, there would be absolutely no way to guarantee the continuation of civilisation short of leaving the galaxy completely.