Quote Originally Posted by BRC View Post
What bugged me more than anything about Cerberus was it's ships. Troops I can understand, they indoctrinate people into being Shock Troopers, they've got the manufacturing contacts to arm and armor them, ect. I can also understand the secrecy, since just about everybody in Cerberus is indoctrinated to commit suicide on capture they can keep their movements hidden, especially if they have sympathizers inside the alliance military working to thwart investigations.

What I don't get is their ships. In ME3 it sounds like Cerberus has a navy, they talk about Cerberus Cruisers and fighter squadrons, and taking on the Illusive Man's space station requires Hackett to pull ships (At that point the combined might of just about every power in the galaxy) away from the Crucible. I could understand if they had a few freighters with guns put on them, but it sounds like they have full-scale warships. You could hide soldiers, but a warship takes LOTS of time and resources to build. You'd need to secure a very large facility, engineers, parts, ect. The Normandy SR2 was still a frigate, bigger than the old one, but still tiny by warship standards.

Plus, Warships take TIME. Indoctrination means that Cerberus can get an Insta-Army. Take a reasonably healthy human, semi-huskify them, and you've got a fanatically devoted foot soldier. If the Huskification process dosn't train them, you send them through super-bootcamp, which because they're now tireless fanatics, they but everything into. And you can train them in parallel, hundreds if not thousands of brainwashed refugees at a time! You can't pressure-cook a warship though. Even if you have the facilities, materials, and an indoctrinated shipwright, you can't get a fleet quickly, but not long after the Reapers hit they've got warships running around.


I personally justify it by saying that the Cerberus ships are largely Alliance ships full of indoctrinated crew with a new coat of paint.
Actually, there's a decent explanation for that.

Cerberus has always ran front companies for money. One of the biggest? Cord-Hislop Aerospace, a leading starship manufacturer.

It's a books and tiny background detail thing, so missing it isn't exactly a failing on your part, but it's been set up.

Also, they had Udina and Din Korlack in their pockets. Money isn't an issue.