[Goober5000]

And then Petrarch went and put in his mouth to Khonsu's face.

TMI???

[Droid803]

Write a fanfic plz.

[General Battuta]

Fixed.

[-Norbert-]

On the other hand, before Petrarch focussed all the humans on the return to earth, the terran part of the GTVA was just inches from completely falling apart, so it's not like they had much of a choice.
If they abondened the portal project, there would have been riots all over the place. And the longer they took to finish it, the more restless the population would have become.

[NGTM-1R]

5 Raynors 2 Titans. Two more Raynors and a Titan on the ways still

Artibrarily selected, but the basic point is that the Raynor is a direct combat destroyer. If the Orions have mostly been retired, then the GTVA has no other option for when you've got to kill that target, fast, no screwups possible. They need Raynors if they want to have a force that can do that now that the Orions are gone.

The Titan is however a ship that mainly carries fighters but also can overwhelm smaller craft quickly with its forward armament, and is a capable of limited all-aspect self-defense. The GTVA already has a bunch of ships that fit that description; they're called Hecates. Sure, the Titan does it better, but the Hecates are still in their first decade or so of service and the GTVA does not have the ability to replace them rapidly.

Admittedly, the Hecate did prove to be something of a blunder in FS2 as it wasn't adequately able to defend itself against raiding enemy capital craft, but the Titan's torpedos give all-aspect defense somewhat better than the Hecate's TSlashes. Maybe it's enough. Maybe it's not. I'd have to set up versions of Argonautica and Proving Grounds with a Titan in place of the Aquitaine to begin finding out, but Forced Entry would seem to say it's enough.

[Dragon]

I think that they have more than two Titans, there's the GTD Temeraire, at least one Titan in WiH and, most likely (if they kept the class naming convention), the class namesake, GTD Titan. The one in WiH isn't the GTD Titan, so there are at least 3 of them.

That only reason would probably be enough.
In the hypothetical example with Sol and Vasuda switched, the Vasudans would likely seek to construct a subspace portal to reconnect with their homeworld (and its history). Even more so especially since there would likely be Vasudans still living there.

I merely disagree with what Dragon is claiming.

The Vasudans may not understand the Terrans' reasoning behind why they wish to construct the portal, but I feel that they would understand that if their situations were reversed, they'd likely want the same thing, merely for different reasons. I don't feel that the Vasudans would be content with discarding a significant portion of their population, knowledge, and industrial base because it'd take some resources to get back to them if they were put into the same scenario.

yes, you could make the argument that they're not in that position, but doesn't that make Vasudans sound like asshats if they go "Yeah, if this happened to us, we'd like your help, but since it happened to you, we're not helping you."?

I think that they would consider building a portal secondary to securing their current economic situation, starting work on it when their economy was stable and capable of supporting such investition. And they are helping Terrans, by keeping GTVA going in the crisis. Also, Vasudans could approach building a portal in a different way, maybe by building a smaller version of it, just to allow communication throught the unstable node (of course, if that's possible).

[-Norbert-]

I doubt that a smaller portal is possible. There is no canon information either way, but I think the portal must be around the node. A smaller portal wouldn't be around, but inside the node, thus scrambling the node with it's moving parts rather than stabilising it.

Might be a way to block an existing node though...

[The E]

This depends on several things we have no canon info on. Personally, I think it's not so much the size of the Knossos that's a problem, it's the R&D required to develop the tech to develop the tech to build the damn thing.

[Snail]

What about the UEF? What did they do with all their Fenrises and Orions?

[Spoon]

What about the UEF? What did they do with all their Fenrises and Orions?

Didn't they only had like 1 Orion class to begin with? The 1st fleet's GTD washington if I recall correctly.

[Snail]

I don't recall the name Washington from anywhere, might have missed it. But given that BP portrays Sol has really being the industrial and economical heart of the GTA when it collapsed, I doubt the GTA would only have 1 destroyer in the system...

[General Battuta]

The BP-canonical name of at least 1 (if there is more than one) First Fleet Orion is actually given in BP:AoA. See if you can find it.

But given that BP portrays Sol has really being the industrial and economical heart of the GTA when it collapsed

Actually, FreeSpace 2 does that. BP didn't really add anything in that respect.

[Snail]

The BP-canonical name of at least 1 (if there is more than one) First Fleet Orion is actually given in BP:AoA. See if you can find it.

But given that BP portrays Sol has really being the industrial and economical heart of the GTA when it collapsed

Actually, FreeSpace 2 does that. BP didn't really add anything in that respect.

Well then, that makes it all the more curious. Sol being as important as it is, why only leave 1 destroyer back there?

[General Battuta]

Who said there was only one?

If there were, though - I imagine it'd be because you could put N destroyers in Sol and it wouldn't help you at all. If the enemy - whether Vasudans or Shivans - is that close, you've already lost. Particularly if it's the Lucifer.

[Snail]

Who said there was only one?

The Spoon did.

So the main GTA fleet's probably scattered throughout the galaxy? Makes sense, 'specially given how the Bastion was supposed to be the last hope for Earth and all...

Guess that explains why the UEF don't have any old GW-era stuff lying around.

[General Battuta]

Somebody go figure out what the Orion defending Earth is called in BP. I think it's not the Washington.

[MatthTheGeek]

GTD Washington is the Destroyer that appear at the very end of FSPort. This mission having been added for fun I guess, it's definitely not canon.

[General Battuta]

Apparently the one in 'Lucifer' in BP didn't get its nameplate applied. 

[manwiththemachinegun]

Since this has turned into a story discussion. I have to ask how weak the Terran contingent of the GTVA is in comparison to the Vasudan one. It seems to me to strain credibility a bit that the Terrans after losing Sol and Capella would let the Vasudans militarize to such an extent. A mere three systems run by Admiral Bosch had enough Terran firepower to keep the GTVA at bay for years. I find it hard to believe losing one system, even with the economic problems that come with it, would deplete the GTVA Terrans to such an extent.

[Insomniac34]

GTD Minnow??