I'm not sure it would be so clean cut. There was probably some skew towards military ships and data, but I imagine there was a higher number of civilian vehicles and population that escaped than I think you're imagining. I'd guess the evacuation of Rannoch was a high priority when the Quarians finally yielded the planet. Not to mention, some portion of the military at the time likely attempted to delay the Geth from following when the Quarians finally lost the war. More impactful on the Quarian's collective knowledge would probably be the fact that 99% of their population was dead.
Let me direct your attention to the British Navy's anti-scurvy provision. There once was a British sea captain who got a really good deal on lemons, and fed them to his crew on one particular voyage. He noticed that
none of them developed even mild scurvy, and the only variable was the lemons. It was fairly common for merchant ships to transition into and out of the navy back then as needed, and when his ships did so, someone in the navy noticed that
none of his crews suffered any scurvy, and asked him about it.
For many years after that, the British Navy had a near-zero incidence of scurvy thanks to lemon juice rations. It was one of the things that helped make them a global superpower. But then political boundaries shifted, and they lost access to bulk lemons. Well, limes are almost the same as lemons, and they had plentiful lime plantations still, so they switched to lime juice rations without knowing why citrus fruits prevented scurvy.
The problem was, limes have about 30% of the vitamin C of a lemon, but they didn't triple the ration. And scurvy rates began to climb. Even though it was prevalent enough that it got them the nickname limeys, and the lime rations
did help mitigate scurvy rates, it didn't eliminate scurvy like the lemons did. And eventually the British Navy discontinued the lime ration entirely.
Nowadays we know why lemons worked great and limes… not so much. But back then, they didn't know. And that sort of thing is exactly how Quarian medical officers might not be aware that there are important additives in the MREs. Presumably they did know at some point, but by the time of the Morning War, nobody really knew anymore except the MRE manufacturers - who all died on Rannoch.
i just got this weird idea for an omake of sorts. Tali's distress beacon went alot farther than just Taylor and at the final battle when its just the Normedy vs the entire reaper army and all seems lost a signal comes in. just one from a small blue box "GIRONIMO!" then another "obsidion squad enroute" and another "edf responding to emergency distress becon" "green lantern of sector 2947" "enterprise" "solifol" "red one" and so on as more and more ships, stations, and heros drop out of subspace into a battle that was thought lost...all thanks to Tali's original beacon stretching across the multiverse and beyond.
That… is a really,
REALLY crowded battlespace!
It would be darkly hilarious if Rannoch were still inhabited by the descendant of Quarians left behind. An entire civilization grown up in the ruins of the old, and the Fleet's leadership knows they're there - which is the reason the Fleet never sends scouts to Rannoch. That the Geth didn't kill everyone throws all the leaders decisions into doubt.
It wouldn't even preclude the ME3 Rannoch arc - we only ever see pure Geth and Reaper infantry, but nothing says we couldn't have just happened to drop in on facilities with no Quarians stationed there.
The Fleet leadership could even believe there are no Quarians there because a Quarian cyborg running Geth background processes would be seen more like a bio-Cylon than a Colonial, to mix series.
Yeah, if that happened, the fleet based Quariens would be completely boned. The would be outnumbered, out gunned and, considering that they wouldnt have been under the thumb of the Council, potentially even out teched. It would actually be genuinely fascinating to do a story like that where the Rannochian Quarians basically decided to fuck teh Council and stayed within 'Geth' space to rebuild, which would allow them to advance more naturally. With any luck, cooler heads would prevail at the meeting, but considering what most of the known Quarians in the games think of the Geth, I dont think thats likely, even if the Rannochian Quarians would likely be willing to give their cousins a chance. In this senario they are hooked up to logic run AI after all and no logical person should blame a group for what their ancestors did.
Rannochian Quarians wouldn't be given a chance to give the Fleet a chance - the Fleet would see them as collaborators
at best and more likely, they'd be seen as bio-Cylons from Battlestar Galactica - the Fleet would do exactly what their ancestors did during the Morning War. Open fire, keep shooting, and not stop shooting until they were dead or ran out of targets.
