User blog comment:Commdor/Gamestop Spills From Ashes screenshots/@comment-4118072-20120224202309/@comment-1221773-20120224211431

I was thinking more like this would be a flashback type of thing. Like you control the Prothean as he fights his way through Collectors (essentially Prothean husks, because who else would we fight in a flashback?) to get to a secret emergency stasis pod. Then in the present day, you're Commander Shepard fighting Cerberus troops to get to that pod first.

If true, then the Collectors would still be dead in the present day.