[Ravenholme]

I'd like to see a showdown between the Atreus and a Solaris class destoyer. No side has the advantage.
Suddenly Vasudans jump in, with at least one destroyer.
Steele says something along the lines of "Hahaha you stupid pacifists. Now you are finished".
The Vasudans warm up a beam and *bam* blow the Atreus' engines apart.

Now a little speech from the Vasudans about how they found out the truth about how Steele manipulated them with the help of the GEVs and that he would now die for his crimes.
After that the Solaris and the Vasudans pound the Atreus into spacedust.

That'd be a horrible waste of the best character in Blue Planet. If it happens, I will cry.

[Satellight]

That'd be a horrible waste of the best character in Blue Planet. If it happens, I will cry.

Don't be afraid. If Steele is going to die, I'm sure it will be glorious !
If not, I'm afraid that Chuck Norris will be VERY unhappy. And I'm pretty sure that no one want to make Chuck Norris unhappy...

[Snail]

Yeah that sounds like an arsepull. If Steele dies, it had better not be like that.

[-Norbert-]

Who said anything about Steele dying? Didn't you guys ever hear of escape pods?
I doubt either the Vasudans or the UEF would just want to blow him up, if they had the chance to put him before a court.

[Mars]

Steele definitely seems like a "down with the ship" kinda guy.

[Ypoknons]

I don't know about that - like it's been said, he's a gentleman psycopath, even though he's supposedly badass/magnificant bastard/cool I think it could go either way. Really depends on how he's caught - if they can even catch him, at that.

[Ravenholme]

Who said anything about Steele dying? Didn't you guys ever hear of escape pods?
I doubt either the Vasudans or the UEF would just want to blow him up, if they had the chance to put him before a court.

Before a court for what? Using valid tactics and misinformation?

It's a war, you know. More than that, it's war amplified and scaled up to interplanetary/interstellar scales.

[-Norbert-]

For killing civilians.
I'm pretty sure the UEF doesn't like that one bit, war or no war.

As for the Vasudans: Their whole species went to a decades long war over a translation mistake. Do you think they will take it easy if they ever found out that Steele, their supposed ally, made the GEVs attack them and tried to manipulate them into a war they didn't want?

[Snail]

As for the Vasudans: Their whole species went to a decades long war over a translation mistake.

URGH. I don't know why people keep saying this. Terran mishandling of the conversation was clearly a contributing cause, but it wasn't the sole reason war broke out.

[-Norbert-]

I never said it was. But if it was just a minor annoyance they wouldn't have gone to war, no matter what else happened.

[Snail]

I never said it was. But if it was just a minor annoyance they wouldn't have gone to war, no matter what else happened.

Dude. There were other reasons for the war. Things like, I dunno, border disputes, aggression, mutual fear, etc.

[-Sara-]

To me, basically, the Vasudans of the 14 year war were religious zealots. If it didn't belong in their strait, their line of thinking, they thought it had to go. The early religious and traditional Vasudans were probably very prone to declaring the Terrans as a blasphemous species. The first contact was probably tensed and uneasy and the Terrans insulting the Vasudan ritual by not performing it correctly may have been one of many steps which pissed off the Vasudans (I'm guessing that the Terrans may have found little respect or understanding for said ritual and things got worse from there on). We also don't know what exactly happened. An Orion may have crossed an unknown border, mistaken for an invasion, or whatever.

Vasudans changed eventually, partially thanks to Khonsu II, but quite probably also because the agressive Hammer of Light movement opened up Vasudan eyes concerning how terrible radicalism can really be. Vasuda Prime going to hell (along with probably many of their temples, holy places and libraries) may have also played a part for the Vasudans who are now seemingly buildinging a new history for themselves: one of exploration and science.

[Snail]

I don't think the Vasudans were religious zealots. I think a portion of them were (probably this group joined the Hammer of Light) but that they were simply being led by an incompetent, extremely corrupt warmongering government (the Parliament). The war probably broke out due to a number of issues, not just one thing alone (and definitely not just because of the Conversation), probably the both sides were viewed by the other as aggressive and unreasonable.

[-Norbert-]

I never said it was. But if it was just a minor annoyance they wouldn't have gone to war, no matter what else happened.

Dude. There were other reasons for the war. Things like, I dunno, border disputes, aggression, mutual fear, etc.

I know that, and I even acknowledged it in the very post you quoted! But if the translation mistake wouldn't have been a serious affront to the Vasudans, then it would have never even been mentioned.

And if that doesn't get my original point through, that seems to have been lost somehow, let me rephrase:

According to their tech-room entry the Vasudans place a lot of value on social rituals and proper behaviour.
Steele made sure the GEVs would attack the Vasudans and tried (and at least initially suceeded) to manipulate them. That is as far from proper behaviour as you can get and thus will have serious repercussions if the Vasudans ever find out.

And even the Terran side of the GTVA might take offense in Steele giving sensitive information (the place of a diplomatic meeting of a Vasudan Admiral) and GTVA equipment (at least one Argo) to terrorists. Taking offense can be anything between a harsh reprimand for causing a diplomatic crisis and being put up on charges for treason.

[Snail]

I know that, and I even acknowledged it in the very post you quoted! But if the translation mistake wouldn't have been a serious affront to the Vasudans, then it would have never even been mentioned.

Yeah I misunderstood your post. I thought you said that if the Conversation wasn't a big deal they wouldn't have gone to war entirely, not that it wouldn't have been mentioned in the tech entry. But still:

The GTA intelligence entries from FS1 are heavily biased. They clearly glorify the GTA and the GTA's ships as "shining beacons of stability" and "symbols of Terran pride". The Terran species entry even establishes that aggressive jingoism (under the euphemism of "unified expansionism") can only continue to "benefit" the Terran species (which it clearly did not, even at the time that entry was written, all that did was drag the Terrans into a needless 14-year war).

The role the Conversation played in starting the war could easily have been blown out of proportion. I don't deny that the Conversation most probably did play a part, but it annoys me when people say that the entire war started because of "a translation error", when there's little evidence to support that. It trivializes the war and also makes the Vasudans look like asshats (which some may argue they are, but whatevs).

And if that doesn't get my original point through, that seems to have been lost somehow, let me rephrase:

According to their tech-room entry the Vasudans place a lot of value on social rituals and proper behaviour.
Steele made sure the GEVs would attack the Vasudans and tried (and at least initially suceeded) to manipulate them. That is as far from proper behaviour as you can get and thus will have serious repercussions if the Vasudans ever find out.

And even the Terran side of the GTVA might take offense in Steele giving sensitive information (the place of a diplomatic meeting of a Vasudan Admiral) and GTVA equipment (at least one Argo) to terrorists. Taking offense can be anything between a harsh reprimand for causing a diplomatic crisis and being put up on charges for treason.

Firstly, it's "Gefs", not GEVs. It's also not an acronym, so it's not GEFs either.

Secondly, I agree with pretty much everything you said. If the truth seeps out it could be pretty disastrous for Steele. But he probably has a contingency for that too.

[-Norbert-]

Yep... Gaian Effort... now that you mention it I remember

[Garfield]

Looking through WiH, there doesn't seem to be anything that's present in every gameplay section of the campaign. My guess at the big hint is the picture of Jupiter in the background of the briefings. It's basically the first thing you see whenever you start a mission, which certainly counts as staring you in the face. So my prediction is: R2 will revolve around a last ditch attack on Jupiter to break the GTVAs' back and bring them to the negotiating table.

Other misc. guesses:
-Calder's quest for revenge leads him to a Captain Ahab style death
-Ken turns out to be Aken Bosch, who joined the Shivans in the same way Bei joined the Vishnans
-Bei succeeds in contacting the Vishnans, but the Vishnans turn out to be evil somehow

[Flak]

Or perhaps Byrne did something to that Lucifer derelict.

[Mars]

Shivans and Vishans arrive, Earth destroyed.

[-Norbert-]

Or perhaps Byrne did something to that Lucifer derelict.

What Lucifer derelict? What little of the Lucifer came out of that jumpnode in the first place blew up in a pretty massive explosion. I doubt there was much debris left after that, certainly not enough to call it a derelict.