Wait, really? I always sent Kaidan to handle the bomb after taking him with me, and sent Ashley off with the salarians, but there are a few options you can take to help them out as you’re approaching the base. Kill the flyers (?) on the right-hand side of the map (you hear radio traffic from the salarians about how they’re no longer bothered by them), then right before you enter the base itself, there is the option to trip alarms away from you, which makes it harder on the salarians, or to just tough it out.
Kirrahe has always made it through when I’ve done that combo, at least (bring Kaidan, send Ashley, destroy flyers, deal with alarms such that it’s not tough on the salarians, save Kaidan at the bomb).
Looking it over, I think you’re right, it was elsewhere. It was the one with the derelict Reaper where you have to go inside and get the device out, so you can enter the relay safely. Lots of “holy fuck, this shit really does warp minds” memos and videos. From that experience, I thought there was no goddamned way the Collector base could be trusted.
Certainly by helping out the Slarians as you’re infiltrating gets you paragon points, but if you don’t go to where they are during the “choose which human crewmember dies” part, they will die along with that crewmember. Saren’s forces overwhelm them.
If you save them, they hitch a ride in your ship and hang out with Garrus and Wrex in the shuttle bay. They ask you to drop them off at the first planet allied with the galactic council.
I don’t recall them showing up in ME2, but they might make an appearance in the 3rd if you saved them. Not sure.
They do. If the Captain survived the events of ME1 he shows up on the Salarian homeworld when you’re there to pick up the female krogan and he helps you fight off Cerberus when they arrive.
The way I’ve played it, they still hitch a ride back with you, as long as you help them out along the way. I’ve never saved the salarian team with my other human squadmate at the end. (Remember they broke up into 3-4 different teams for the assault, and your team member is only with 1.) There’s maybe 4-6 salarians in your cargo bay at the end, including Kirrahe.
Right before you head out, Kirrahe asks you to watch for things that could help them. I found a spoilery link (has ME2/ME3 repercussions at the bottom), which breaks down to destroying the communications at tower 1, destroying the satellite uplink at tower 2, taking out the flyers, and not setting off alarms on the other side of the base from the panel before entering the base.
Too late to edit: I’m pretty sure I completed the tasks at the towers in addition to dealing with the flyers and not using the alarms to take the heat off you but put it on the salarians. I like clicking on everything, and remember dealing with at least one of those towers in a recent playthrough.
I picked Legion for the ducts; I figured if anything goes wrong, they were the least likely to feel pain. Garrus lead the fire team; he was the only one that everyone (except for Joker) seemed to respect. Samara was my biotic specialist simply because she was Asari; someone else might have done it wrong. I sent Mordin back with the crew even though I really wanted him with me to incinerate collectors; he is unfortunately the most frail of the crew. I picked Kasumi and Miranda to come with me for the final showdown; Miranda’s overload was invaluable against the Collectors and Kasumi does a good job of not getting herself killed prematurely. Also, I wanted the big guns (Garrus and Grunt especially) protecting the rest of the crew.
I always save Ash on Virmire. My last playthrough was as a femshep and I had predetermined that I would save Kaidan to see where the story goes. When I got to the moment though, I suddenly picked Ash anyway. It’s weird and sexist, but I can’t bring myself to sacrifice the lady.
By the way, when it comes to leaving one teammate behind in Mass Effect 1, I don’t have a strong preference: I think Kaiden and Ashley are both pretty annoying! But for my most recent play-through, I left Ashley alive because I was angling for the “played most of the game with the Alliance Soldier ally” achievement.