[NGTM-1R]

The Bastion was deployed from inside Capella, to explode at the Capella end of the Epsilon Pegausi node, because they were attempting a Lucifer-level detonation and accompying subspace cataclysm. And the Lucy caused all the jump nodes from Earth to collapse, not just one. (Ref. End Cutscene.) So they deployed the Bastion from inside Capella, to explode at the Capella side of the node, to minimize the collateral damage if that happened again. (That way it would take out all the nodes in Capella, not in Epsilon Pegausi, if they did get a Lucy-level boom. Which they did not.) Since it didn't take out all the Capella nodes, the GTVA could safely use the Nereid on Vega-Capella node and have it detonate the Vega side without danger to other existing jump nodes. But they had to test and make sure with the Bastion first.

This has been a random FS1-plothole involved thought. Thank you.

[Nuclear1]

I thought that there was only one canonical jump point from Earth (though the end cutscene from FS1 suggests otherwise; I think that's mostly artistic license, since "all the jump points from Earth are gone" sounds better than "the jump point from Earth is gone").

[aldo_14]

I think Volition said they changed their minds after FS1 and made the single DS node canonical.  Probably to justify using destroyers to collapse the 2 Capellan nodes in the way they did.

[Prophet]

It was a big bang, but all jump nodes from the solar system? And a couple of planets too I'd imagine

[FireCrack]

yeah, v changed their minds.

I beleive they dtonated the bastion in capella because it was originaly in vega and to go all the way around is just a waste of time.

Was'nt the meson bomb developed in vega? this would lend support to this...

[Goober5000]

MadBomber developed an outstanding node theory for his WIP campaign which I think works really well, and I've decided to use in my campaigns too.

From Freespace canon, it's implied that nodes range in stability from completely stable to completely unstable.  One can assume that there's a certain "threshold" of stability that nodes must exceed in order to be traversable by GTA/PVN/GTVA ships.  (One can probably also assume that this threshold is much lower for Shivan ships.)

MadBomber adds to this that there are "phasing nodes" whose stability changes over time in a regular (or even irregular) cycle.  So when the stability moves above the threshold, they can be used, and when the stability moves down again, they cannot.  The GTA and PVN made extensive use of phasing nodes in the Great War (and probably also in the T-V War) but the GTVA is much more cautious.  Thus the FS1 node map (seen in the command briefing animations) shows phasing nodes while the FS2 node map shows only purely stable nodes.

In my own notes I've added a corollary that through some esoteric laws of subspace, phasing nodes cannot form on their own: they depend somehow on the presence of a fully stable node in the same system.  Therefore if all stable nodes in a system are collapsed, the phasing nodes are also collapsed via chain reaction.  Before the end of the Great War, the Sol-Delta Serpentis node was the only stable node in the system: the nodes to Beta Aquilae and Deneb were phasing nodes.

I haven't decided yet whether the phasing nodes will re-form themselves if one of the stable nodes is repaired, or if those phasing nodes are lost permanently and different phasing nodes subsequently form.  Either option offers interesting possibilities.

[Solatar]

That certainly has some backup in the freespace 1 campaign, where the have the Galatea travel through the asteroid field. Their excuse is that normally it would be circumvented, but they had no choice.

[Shade]

Would also explain the Shivan ability to apparently show up out of nowhere, rather work their way though outlying systems first like everyone else would have to. Sounds plausible to me. I mean, they had to get to Ross 128 somehow didn't they? And it certainly wasn't through GTA or PVN controlled nodes.

[Mefustae]

Was'nt the meson bomb developed in vega? this would lend support to this...

Indeed, at the famed 'Hideki Institute' somewhere in the Vega System, which i'm currently in the process of building for a campaign...

[StratComm]

I always got the impression that the Hideki Institute was planetside.  Not that having a big, bad-ass station that manufactures Meson bombs is a bad thing, mind you.

[Mefustae]

While it is most likely that the Institute itself would be planeside, the Meson Bomb (and container) is around about the same size as a Nimitz-class Aircraft Carrier (well, maybe not, but it's still pretty dang big). Building something like that on the ground and then launching it to orbit just isn't plausable - either physically or economically - so we must assume that the Meson Bomb project was likely space-based, possibly in orbit. As such, why would you seperate the core-researching team from the production of the Bomb itself when you have perfectly apt space-based facilities embodied in the Faustus, Arcadia, or perhaps even a decomissioned warship?

At least, that's the approach i'm taking...

[Goober5000]

There's also the consideration that if one of those things goes off in space, it does much less damage (comparatively speaking) than if it went off on the planet.

[Shade]

..."I swear this is where they told us to pick up that thing for the Capella project, but all I see is a big asteroid field. Could ya check the map again and see if we took a wrong turn in Deneb?"

[SadisticSid]

That certainly has some backup in the freespace 1 campaign, where the have the Galatea travel through the asteroid field. Their excuse is that normally it would be circumvented, but they had no choice.

I thought it had more to do with, you know, their warships being pelted with asteroids and all. Surely if a destroyer could get hit as hard as it did with wingman-quality escorts, then anything smaller wouldn't survive.

[FireCrack]

about the same size as a Nimitz-class Aircraft Carrier (well, maybe not, but it's still pretty dang big).

Actualy it's bigger, much bigger.

[Solatar]

I thought it had more to do with, you know, their warships being pelted with asteroids and all. Surely if a destroyer could get hit as hard as it did with wingman-quality escorts, then anything smaller wouldn't survive.

Well, smaller warships are also smaller targets.