Launching the Andromeda Initiative and First Contact
Mass Effect: Andromeda opens with you on the Hyperion, a space ark full of thousands of humans as well as the equipment needed to find and locate a home for your people. The ark was launched during the original trilogy (though it was a background event that wasn’t shared), in order to give the residents of the Milky Way a chance to survive the Reaper onslaught.
It was founded by Jien Garson, an extraordinarily wealthy, and eccentric, entrepreneur who put up her riches to give everyone a fighting chance. Of course, while she was intelligent and had the funds to help get the project off of the ground, Garson needed help. She turned to many people, but the two important ones were Alec Ryder, a member of N7 doing research into a new type of artificial intelligence assistant (which becomes SAM), and a mysterious “benefactor.” With their help, along with the help of many other geniuses, the Andromeda Initiative was created and in 2185, before the third game in the series, the arks set out towards the Heleus Cluster in the Andromeda galaxy where they were set to investigate “Golden Worlds,” planets thought to be viable for habitation by individuals from the Milky Way.
Upon arrival, things aren’t exactly what everyone hoped they would be. Something called the Scourge grabbed hold of the Hyperion, and the first Pathfinder mission must start immediately. Alec Ryder sets off with his hand-selected crew, which includes the Ryder sibling, Cora Harper, and Liam Kosta, to investigate a Golden World, a planet scanned back from the Milky Way that had potential to sustain human life. Unfortunately the Scourge is doing a lot more than just holding the Hyperion back, it’s making the space around it dangerous, and things only get weirder on the planet.
While their shuttle was on approach, a bolt of lightning tore through it, tearing the ship in half. Now stranded on a planet with weird weather, and even weirder geography, but there’s a new threat there as well in the form of an alien race known as the Kett. This is first contact in Andromeda, a galaxy that was hoped to be home.
The rules of engagement are to approach peacefully, and while the Kett certainly do look intimidating, Ryder approaches cautiously only to learn that the first hostile entities are right before them. They murder a member of your crew, and spend your first touchdown on a planet.
