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[Kabooooom]

My issue with an earlier departure for the ARKs (pre-ME 3) is that it makes no sense for the leaders of the galaxy to construct such a cosmic life raft but not tell their own militaries to prepare for the arrival of the Reapers. If the various Council species did in fact take the threat of the Reapers seriously, and they were doing something about it, then why is the collective armed forces of the galaxy caught with their pants down the moment the Reapers show up in ME 3?

Earth is conquered in a matter of a few hours, and most of the Alliance fleets are wiped out in a 'surprise attack' but why? If the Council truly believed Shepard's claims about the Reapers enough to build several intergalactic vessels, then why did they not inform their fleets to be on the lookout for a massive invasion force?

Like I explained in another thread - because it was a blitz attack. They KNEW the Reapers were coming. What they didn't know was WHEN they were coming. By the time they realized that Batarian space was likely under attack, the Reapers were practically already attacking Alliance space. And by the time the Turians realized Alliance space was under attack, they were already attacking Turian space. Besides the fact that is literally the reason that blitz attacks are so successful, even against a prepared military force - there is no preparing for something like that when the alien force you are facing is far more advanced and far more powerful than yours anyways.

Or in other words, they were always totally fucked. There's nothing they could do about it, even though after Arrival I am sure they tried to do something.

[Medhia_Nox]

It took over a century to wipe out the Protheans.

 

The problem is not with ME:A... it's with the timeframe of ME1,2 and 3.

[Vortex13]

Like I explained in another thread - because it was a blitz attack. They KNEW the Reapers were coming. What they didn't know was WHEN they were coming. By the time they realized that Batarian space was likely under attack, the Reapers were practically already attacking Alliance space. And by the time the Turians realized Alliance space was under attack, they were already attacking Turian space. Besides the fact that is literally the reason that blitz attacks are so successful, even against a prepared military force - there is no preparing for something like that when the alien force you are facing is far more advanced and far more powerful than yours anyways.

 

 

That still doesn't explain the sheer lack of preparation the collective militaries demonstrated at the start of ME 3. Okay, so the Reapers move in with an overwhelming force, but if the Alliance was actually informed of the impending attack then why are Hackett and Andersen debating what "Something massive on long range scanners" is? 

 

This isn't like the attack on Pearl Harbor in WWII, were the military was literally caught napping in some cases. If the leaders of the galactic government were willing to make several ARK ships based on the testimony of Shepard then they should have at least told the various fleets to be on standby. Even with blitz tactics, the Reapers shouldn't have been able to wipe out 2/3rds of the Alliance navy if they had been prepared, and positioned themselves accordingly. As it stands, the armed forces are standing around slack jawed while the Reapers arrive and start blowing stuff up. 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Heck, the top brass of the Alliance navy were literally asking Shepard "What do we do?" within the first five minutes of the game, how does that in anyway sound like a prepared/informed military?

[The Elder King]

That still doesn't explain the sheer lack of preparation the collective militaries demonstrated at the start of ME 3. Okay, so the Reapers move in with an overwhelming force, but if the Alliance was actually informed of the impending attack then why are Hackett and Andersen debating what "Something massive on long range scanners" is? 

 

This isn't like the attack on Pearl Harbor in WWII, were the military was literally caught napping in some cases. If the leaders of the galactic government were willing to make several ARK ships based on the testimony of Shepard then they should have at least told the various fleets to be on standby. Even with blitz tactics, the Reapers shouldn't have been able to wipe out 2/3rds of the Alliance navy if they had been prepared, and positioned themselves accordingly. As it stands, the armed forces are standing around slack jawed while the Reapers arrive and start blowing stuff up. 

It should be noted that both Anderson and Hackett believed Shepard, and the fact  that the Reapers were coming. That conversation is strange regardless of the possible Ark project.

[UpUpAway]

That still doesn't explain the sheer lack of preparation the collective militaries demonstrated at the start of ME 3. Okay, so the Reapers move in with an overwhelming force, but if the Alliance was actually informed of the impending attack then why are Hackett and Andersen debating what "Something massive on long range scanners" is? 

 

This isn't like the attack on Pearl Harbor in WWII, were the military was literally caught napping in some cases. If the leaders of the galactic government were willing to make several ARK ships based on the testimony of Shepard then they should have at least told the various fleets to be on standby. Even with blitz tactics, the Reapers shouldn't have been able to wipe out 2/3rds of the Alliance navy if they had been prepared, and positioned themselves accordingly. As it stands, the armed forces are standing around slack jawed while the Reapers arrive and start blowing stuff up. 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Heck, the top brass of the Alliance navy were literally asking Shepard "What do we do?" within the first five minutes of the game, how does that in anyway sound like a prepared/informed military?

 

Have we considered that - believing that they had more time to prepare, the ARK project was their Plan A... and they were going to prepare a Plan for fighting the Reapers head on after they got the ARKs built?  Hence, Shepard's comment "You know we're not ready if it is them, not by a long ways."  Hence, the question "What do we do?"  (I.e. It's too soon, the plans to fight the Reapers aren't yet complete enough).

 

Anderson also makes a comment at the beginning of ME3 that it's tough knowing that you can't save everyone... Maybe he was referring to " We don't have enough ARKs built yet to evacuate everyone to Andromeda."  (We've got some on board and started out, but not near enough yet.)

 

The plot twist here might just be that Shepard did know about ARKCON.. but Bioware just did not reveal that knowledge to us (the players) in the Trilogy.  It's not uncommon for authors of mysteries to keep the reader "out of the loop" until they are ready to reveal their plans for the story.

[Vortex13]

Have we considered that - believing that they had more time to prepare, the ARK project was their Plan A... and they were going to prepare a Plan for fighting the Reapers head on after they got the ARKs built?  Hence, Shepard's comment "You know we're not ready if it is them, not by a long ways."  Hence, the question "What do we do?"  (I.e. It's too soon, the plans to fight the Reapers aren't yet complete enough).

 

Anderson also makes a comment at the beginning of ME3 that it's tough knowing that you can't save everyone... Maybe he was referring to " We don't have enough ARKs built yet to evacuate everyone to Andromeda."  (We've got some on board and started out, but not near enough yet.)

 

The plot twist here might just be that Shepard did know about ARKCON.. but Bioware just did not reveal that knowledge to us (the players) in the Trilogy.  It's not uncommon for authors of mysteries to keep the reader "out of the loop" until they are ready to reveal their plans for the story.

 

 

That would be even more ridiculous (IMO).

 

 

The galaxy has currently fought, and killed a single Reaper so we know that they aren't invincible. The galaxy has also recovered, and reverse-engineered Reaper weapons technology, meaning that we should logically stand an even better chance against them now than we did previously. Obviously, the Reaper invasion force was sufficient to jeopardize the entire fate of all advanced Milky Way species, but as of the start of ME 3, we had no reason to believe that they literally outnumbered everyone 10,000 to 1, and had hacked -godmode- onto themselves. It would have been far more logical to step up development and deployment of thanix cannons for the combined armed forces than to immediately assume that all was lost, and throw everything behind the construction of ARK ships.

 

 

If the intergalactic escape route was indeed the Plan A of the Council species' governments, then why devote so little resources to it? If the leadership was convinced that everyone was going to die, and that escaping to Andromeda was the only way, then why didn't they have the entire galactic economy devoted to churning out these things? Why did they even bother leaving their fleets stationed around their planets and colonies if armageddon was approaching and no one could survive? Something being a Plan A would infer that the most time and effort was put into said project, the Council wouldn't deem something priority one, and then supply it with piecemeal staff and resources. We should be seeing thousands of these intergalactic ships if this was the galaxy's Plan A to dealing with the Reapers.

[CDR Aedan Cousland]

I like the idea that the Arks were originally constructed with the intent of being used for exploring and mapping the uncharted majority of the Milky Way, but the Reaper threat caused the Council to change the plans up a little and order the Arks to be retrofitted for potential intergalactic travel instead.

 

Maybe the calls for the retrofits occurred shortly after the events of ME1, as the Citadel DLC showed the council believed in the threat the entire time, but were likely denying it to avoid a widespread panic. This is likely a retcon, considering how they treat it like it was so unexpected; otherwise, they did a sh!t job of preparing to fend off the Reapers, despite having ample time to do so. The Shadow Broker and Cerberus [spits] have shown that massive projects--in this case, quietly preparing for the Reapers--can be kept secret to all but the involved personnel in the ME universe, so the lack of preparedness from the Council is shameful, retcons aside.

 

Furthermore, maybe they did reverse-engineer what they could from Sovereign and/or the Collector base/ship (my money's on the Collectors, especially with James' intel) to make the potential for intergalactic travel more feasible (as feasible as it can be in the magical ME universe, at least).

[Kabooooom]

That still doesn't explain the sheer lack of preparation the collective militaries demonstrated at the start of ME 3. Okay, so the Reapers move in with an overwhelming force, but if the Alliance was actually informed of the impending attack then why are Hackett and Andersen debating what "Something massive on long range scanners" is?

This isn't like the attack on Pearl Harbor in WWII, were the military was literally caught napping in some cases. If the leaders of the galactic government were willing to make several ARK ships based on the testimony of Shepard then they should have at least told the various fleets to be on standby. Even with blitz tactics, the Reapers shouldn't have been able to wipe out 2/3rds of the Alliance navy if they had been prepared, and positioned themselves accordingly. As it stands, the armed forces are standing around slack jawed while the Reapers arrive and start blowing stuff up.


EDIT:

Heck, the top brass of the Alliance navy were literally asking Shepard "What do we do?" within the first five minutes of the game, how does that in anyway sound like a prepared/informed military?

But what would be the alternative? Move the fleet, leaving Alliance space undefended against any force (like the Batarians)? Evacuate civilians (unrealistic)? Adopt more defensible positions (may not exist and probably wouldn't matter in the face of an advanced force)? I seriously can't see how they could do better. They were screwed.

[UpUpAway]

That would be even more ridiculous (IMO).

 

 

The galaxy has currently fought, and killed a single Reaper so we know that they aren't invincible. The galaxy has also recovered, and reverse-engineered Reaper weapons technology, meaning that we should logically stand an even better chance against them now than we did previously. Obviously, the Reaper invasion force was sufficient to jeopardize the entire fate of all advanced Milky Way species, but as of the start of ME 3, we had no reason to believe that they literally outnumbered everyone 10,000 to 1, and had hacked -godmode- onto themselves. It would have been far more logical to step up development and deployment of thanix cannons for the combined armed forces than to immediately assume that all was lost, and throw everything behind the construction of ARK ships.

 

 

If the intergalactic escape route was indeed the Plan A of the Council species' governments, then why devote so little resources to it? If the leadership was convinced that everyone was going to die, and that escaping to Andromeda was the only way, then why didn't they have the entire galactic economy devoted to churning out these things? Why did they even bother leaving their fleets stationed around their planets and colonies if armageddon was approaching and no one could survive? Something being a Plan A would infer that the most time and effort was put into said project, the Council wouldn't deem something priority one, and then supply it with piecemeal staff and resources. We should be seeing thousands of these intergalactic ships if this was the galaxy's Plan A to dealing with the Reapers.

 

They did have several "cycles" of past civilizations that had failed utterly to avoid extinction to go on.  Also, do we know absolutely that they devoted "so little resources" to ARKCON... or was that the target of all the mineral scanning that you did in ME2?  Was it so piecemeal or is it that the authors wrote the story to not reveal just how "not piecemeal" the ARKCON effort was.  Why wouldn't everyone in the entire galaxy be devoting time to churning out these things... because someone has to keep the home fires burning... the continuity of daily life has to go on even during a war (and I believe that theme was even touched one somewhere in the Trilogy).

 

At this point, all the theories are being dismissed as "ridiculous" in one way or another.  One theory will be "right" in the end... or more than likely none of them will be completely write since it's Bioware, not us, actually writing this story. 

 

I think I'll just resign from this site for now again... and let you all duke it out for another year.  We can all group "facepalm" when Bioware reveals their complete story to us.