User blog comment:Mike Gilbert/My Idea for ME Next./@comment-25400375-20141013170947/@comment-25400375-20141014150507

So, the human protagonist might have to be a later spectre and the chief of security or something on the Universe Venture or whatever you want to call it. Because of their status, they have the power to do things differently from the captain and is only reprimanded if their actions jeopardize the vessel as a whole. Therefore, the spectre is much more formal to others than the lifelong soldier Shepard was. During the long voyage, they can get help from or antagonize many of the local races or passengers aboard the ship.

As for Andromeda, I'm thinking that at some point in it's past, it's own natural disasters and conflicts rocketed galactic civilization back many eons and that while most worlds have made their own hyper-drives to travel across their galaxy, there's no unifying government or extranet. At least not one that isn't aggressive. Among the many civilizations, there are some that have advanced ruins on their worlds that they worship more than they reverse engineer and a few well-intentioned races that try to clear away from the marauding empires that follow paths of superiority and conquest while still possessing some individual redeemable traits.

Two of the first species Universe Venture encounters at first appear to be unrelated. One is an honor bound race of warriors that take offense at Universe Venture for trespassing on their territory and humiliating them in battle which prompts their warlord to hunt them down and instigates a conflict that lasts throughout the new trilogy. The other civilization is an empire that holds sway over many clusters and is almost just as organized like TOR's Sith Empire that at first acts as Universe Venture's first ally before revealing that their royal family are actually conquerors who ordered the honorable warriors who's loyalty the Emperor earned in fair combat to attack Universe Venture while the chief diplomat/crown prince manipulates the Captain to hand over the secret of Mass Relay technology. Hoping to use it to unite Andromeda under their rule before going extragalactic their own way.

After facing the Emperor himself and surviving, the spectre then continues protecting Universe Venture on it's voyage while deciding the fates of many worlds they and the Empire come across as a growing resistance to the empire is forming which one of the Emperor's personal cabinet tries to take advantage of to become emperor himself. Unfortunately, resulting in the Empire's home world's destruction.

As the Emperor and his few loyal subjects try to keep the Empire together, he himself starts to go murderously mad from the pressure that scares even his loyal son, warlord, spy master, and others. As Universe Venture finally finds a solar system to build a permanent colony, the Emperor launches a final desperate attack that the spectre has thwart one way or another.