A Hell of an Audacious Plan
OK, this is about as crazy as conspiracy theories go, but what if, decades ago, possibly less, someone, or a group, figured out that the Reapers were coming. This assumes they have huge resources and access to basically everyone's secret data, and they decide that the Reapers will win and are trying to set up a continuation of civilization plan. The first step of the plan is to make sure that there is no-one that the Reapers could find out the plan from, and, in fact, make it seem like there is no plan by preventing the galaxy from figuring out that the Reapers even exist, thus throwing the whole galaxy to the wolves for a long-shot chance to save a relative handful of people. (Alec's kind of people)
The most reasonable method that might spring to mind for saving civilization is basically the giant cryo-facilities that the Protheans tried to use, but couldn't. However, since the Protheans didn't see the Reapers coming, there might be a chance. So, during this time there are probably multiple redundant facilities being built and filled and done right, in the way that only enthusiastic engineers with an impossible task and unlimited budget can.
Fast forward some and Jien Garson's Andromeda Initiative idea begins to sound potentially viable. It's another huge long shot, but as Plan B it is a decent second string to their bow. They get involved enough to try and crank out as many inter-galactic transports as possible while limiting the general awareness of the program. They know that if this project is going to save civilization from the Reapers, anyone and anything that has knowledge of the Initiative's existence in the Milky Way must be destroyed.
It is possible that at some point during the plan Cerberus was created to eliminate evidence with apparently random terrorist strikes, as well as conducting unauthorized weapons research, on the off chance they can cook up a Reaper-killer, although they are obviously not notified that this is the objective of their research.
Fast forward again. The Initiative is not yet ready, but the Reapers are, sending Sovereign to open the Citadel relay, but he is stopped by an obscure Alliance soldier using a homemade Prothean mass relay. This opens up a new opportunity for them, as well as a new urgency to finish the cryo-facilities and Initiative vessels, and commence clean-up. They hit Ilos and remove Vigil before the Council can return there, and use him to acquire the ability to build conduits. They place receivers on one or more Initiative or private vessels, while the transmitters were built at cryo-facilities or secret bases.
This would allow any incomplete vessels to be completed and filled in transit, which would be useful, since after the destruction of the Aratoht Relay all of the remaining vessels would be launched, ready or not, and final information sterilization commenced. The secret bases would use their resources to finish building and kitting out the unfinished vessels, and the last one out the door would turn out the lights, either destroying the conduit transmitter entirely via det. timer, or activating a watchkeeper VI which could destroy the facility if the Reapers detected it or partially reactivate the facility if the Reapers had gone and friendlies approached.
During this period between final ship launch and the early Reaper invasion, clean-up would be going on. QECs and databases tied to or with information on the Initiative would be confiscated or destroyed, and people connected to it, even by having friends/relatives aboard, would either be co-opted and disappeared or simply eliminated. It is reasonable that even TIM and the Shadow Broker might be targeted to protect the secret.
The cryo-facilities would have sufficient power to last at least 600 years, and would remain largely dormant until that time. If any of the facilities was detected by the Reapers, the VI in charge would attempt to defend the facility using any means necessary, up to and including opening the cryopods. If the facility was deemed lost or the Reapers were about to gain access to VI control or the conduit transmitters the facility would be obliterated to avoid compromising the plan. In addition, no cryo-facility would be known about by any other cryo-facility, base, or crew. Once the vessels with receivers had sufficient time to reach Andromeda and establish bases, assuming there were no Reapers nearby, the cryo-facilities with transmitters would activate and send their sleepers and supplies through, before returning to standby like the bases. Finally, once the last shipments to Andromeda are away and the Reapers are definitively gone, the facilities without transmitters will activate an release their populations to recolonize the Milky Way
Effectively, what this boils down to is that if someone was fast, well supplied, and REALLY paranoid, we could see a bunch of Milky Way people arrive in Andromeda without much connection to the Initiative.
What do you guys think? Is it so crazy it just might work, or just totally fruit loops?
