Andromeda Initiative: the one-way voyage to the Heleus Cluster

The Andromeda Initiative was a civilian, multi-species project to send colonists on a one-way voyage from the Milky Way to the Andromeda galaxy. The human billionaire Jien Garson founded it in 2176, and in 2185 its flagship, the Nexus, left with four arks carrying humans, asari, turians, salarians and krogan. Its target was the Heleus Cluster, and almost everything about the plan went wrong when it got there. (Mass Effect: Andromeda; Andromeda Initiative briefings)

Founding: Jien Garson's plan for Andromeda#

Jien Garson, an eccentric human billionaire, started the Andromeda Initiative in 2176 as a private venture outside any government. The orientation briefings sold it to recruits as a one-way trip for scientists, engineers, explorers and colonists, with the long-term aim of a permanent presence in Andromeda and, one day, a route back to the Milky Way. Its spending ran into the quintillions of credits. (Andromeda Initiative briefings; Mass Effect: Andromeda)

Choosing where to go was the hard part. Light from Andromeda is about 2.5 million years old by the time it reaches the Milky Way, so ordinary surveys were useless. The breakthrough came from quarian data on a geth array near the Perseus Veil that used mass relays as a kind of FTL telescope, which gave near-current views of Andromeda. From these the Initiative picked its "golden worlds" in Heleus. (Andromeda Initiative briefings)

Just before launch, Garson's people found a flaw in the course calculations of the quarian scientist Shio'Leth vas Novarra, who had gone missing. She sent her security chief Luna Shanks and a turian volunteer calling himself Sanjin Vinnick to find him. The turian was really Tiran Kandros, and he came back with Shio and the corrected data, which earned him his place in the Initiative. (Mass Effect: Discovery)

The Nexus and the arks: how the voyage worked#

The Initiative built six ships. The Nexus was the hub, part ark and part space station, modelled on the Citadel and meant to grow to more than twice its size once it arrived. It carried a mixed crew, including about 1,200 krogan. Four arks of roughly dreadnought size, about 1.5 kilometres long, each carried one species and would dock with the Nexus to give it power and storage. (Andromeda Initiative briefings; Mass Effect: Andromeda)

The six ships and what became of them:

• Nexus: mixed crew and the leadership. Arrived in 2818 and was crippled by the Scourge. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)
• Hyperion: the human ark. Arrived in 2819 and was the first ark to dock with the Nexus. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)
• Natanus: the turian ark. Badly damaged by the Scourge and found in Remav. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)
• Leusinia: the asari ark. Chased and damaged by the kett and found in Valay. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)
• Paarchero: the salarian ark. Captured by the kett and found in Tafeno. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)
• Keelah Si'yah: the quarian ark, also built for drell, hanar, elcor, volus and batarians. Its mixed needs delayed it into a second wave. (Mass Effect: Andromeda; Mass Effect: Andromeda: Annihilation)

Colonists slept in cryostasis pods for the whole crossing of dark space. Ships out there could not refuel the normal way, so each ark ran on the experimental ODSY drive, which stored the static charge that would normally build up and blow a ship apart, and used a ram-scoop to collect hydrogen for fuel. (Andromeda Initiative briefings)

Each ark had a Pathfinder, a mix of soldier, scientist and guide whose job was to find a home for their people. The human Pathfinder was the N7 veteran Alec Ryder, who also built SAM, the AI that linked each Pathfinder to their ark through a neural implant. (Andromeda Initiative briefings; Mass Effect: Andromeda)

The secret purpose: the benefactor and the Reapers#

Garson's public story was about exploration. Recordings recovered in Heleus told a different one. The Initiative had been running out of money until an anonymous benefactor stepped in with near unlimited funds, convinced that a disaster was coming for the Milky Way. After the geth attack on the Citadel in 2183 and the appearance of the Reaper Sovereign, the benefactor took it as proof, and Alec Ryder agreed to speed up the launch. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)

Garson and Alec both distrusted the benefactor and talked about it in secret using the codeword "Fulcrum". Garson's own VI later admitted she regretted the arrangement. The Initiative was also allowed to develop artificial intelligence despite the Council's ban, and in Initiation she told Cora Harper that powers above her wanted that technology. (Mass Effect: Andromeda; Mass Effect: Andromeda: Initiation)

The first wave left in 2185, between the events of Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. The Keelah Si'yah followed later. None of the colonists ever learned how the war with the Reapers ended. (Mass Effect: Andromeda; Mass Effect: Andromeda: Annihilation)

Arrival: the Scourge, the uprising and the exiles#

The plan was for the Nexus and the arks to arrive together. Instead the Nexus reached Heleus alone in 2818 and ran straight into the Scourge, a vast web of dark energy across the cluster. Most of the senior leadership died. Garson's body was found in an apartment and her death written off as a Scourge casualty. Jarun Tann, a salarian from revenue management who sat far down the line of succession, became Director. (Mass Effect: Andromeda: Nexus Uprising; Mass Effect: Andromeda)

With no arks and no resources, the station starved. A dispute over food and command became an armed revolt led in part by Calix Corvannis, and Security Director Sloane Kelly sided with the rebels. When it ended, the losers were exiled, and many settled on Kadara. The krogan had been promised a say in running the station for helping end the revolt. When that promise was broken, nearly all of them left. Two attempts to found outposts failed, and construction on the Nexus stopped. (Mass Effect: Andromeda: Nexus Uprising; Mass Effect: Andromeda)

Kett and Remnant: the problems waiting in Heleus#

The golden worlds were not golden. Habitat 7, the Hyperion's target, was a storm-wracked world with a toxic atmosphere, and Eos was soaked in radiation. The Scourge had changed the cluster since the old surveys were taken. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)

The second problem was the kett. They had invaded Heleus around 2744 and were turning the native angara into kett through a process called exaltation. Their leader, the Archon, attacked the Initiative's outposts, captured the salarian ark and emptied thousands of its stasis pods for experiments. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)

The third was the Remnant, the machines and vaults left behind by the vanished Jardaan. The vaults could reshape a planet's climate and were all linked to a hidden world called Meridian. Remnant guardians attacked anyone who came close, and the Archon wanted the network for himself. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)

The Pathfinder turns it around#

The Hyperion arrived in 2819, fourteen months after the Nexus, and was the first ark to dock. Alec Ryder died on Habitat 7, and one of his twins became the human Pathfinder. With SAM's help to read Remnant glyphs, the new Pathfinder activated the vault on Eos, made the planet liveable and founded Prodromos, the first outpost that lasted. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)

From there the Initiative made first contact with the angara, rescued Moshae Sjefa from the kett on Voeld and opened outposts on Kadara and Elaaden, where the krogan had built their own colony. The Pathfinder freed the salarian ark from the Archon's flagship, could recover the turian and asari arks, and finally found Meridian. The Hyperion crash-landed there, and the Archon died in the fight for control of the Remnant network. The Initiative ended the year with a foothold in Heleus, a new alliance with the angara and the quarian ark still missing. Each step of that campaign is laid out in our Mass Effect: Andromeda plot summary. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)

For the wider chronology, see the Mass Effect timeline. For the peoples the Initiative met in Heleus, see our guide to every Mass Effect species. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)