[jdjtcagle]

Capella is a binary...
IIRC, a trinary

[Carl]

indeed. i suppose it depends on which one they blew up. but both stars have about 2 and a half solar masses.

[jdjtcagle]

Well if they only got rid of one... would the others still be stable? How would they react? Hmmm....

[Rift]

I think that this was a random generated name, and the system did not contain two stars. Much easier to make up or use their favorite names of star systems.

(Phew. Managed to do my first post.)

[jdjtcagle]

No...
I highly doubt it, :V: screwed up and we pretend it's fixed

[Ghostavo]

Supernovas and novas in binary or trinary systems is actually more frequent than you think. Depending on the situation, the remains of the nova star (normally a extremelly dense and small object) will "feed off" a less dense and bigger star, which normally is a red giant due to the sheer number of those and because of the time it took for the nova or supernova to have happened (which would not let another star form nearby (reletivaly) after a star has been fully formed).

These interactions can lead to another nova/supernova IIRC.

[Rift]

Which in turn would just mean there would be another big boom.
So... In essence, this still leads to the question: why?

1. They cut off the jump nodes.
2. They use the gravity well to jump to a further or hard to reach place.
3. Just to annoy us.

Reasons we have posted are above. Including the one I just sugested.
4.... I can't think of a 4.

[Ghostavo]

What gravity well?

[Rift]

Going on the fact that mass is attracted to mass, that star pulls at the ship in the area, the planetoids, intellations, etc... "Gravity".
Using this gravity, one can use it as a sling, to propel them far away.
In fact, any big enough planet could be used.
Well, it happens IRL anyhow.

By "Gravity well", I was reffering to the Capella star that blew up.

[Mongoose]

I don't think the Shivans blew up Capella just to keep us away from their space.  That wouldn't really make any sense.  All the Shivans had to do was send all those Sathanases into Terran and Vasudan space at the outset, and they could have finished us off easily.  There was no need for them to go to such lenghts to deter us; they had already decimated half of the Terran and Vasudan fleets, so their victory would be guaranteed.  No, I think Admiral Petrarch's theory from the final cutscene is more likely.  The Shivans used Capella as a doorway to get somewhere far away, somewhere they couldn't access by normal means.  Maybe, as the Shivan Manifesto hypothesizes, they were creatures of pure subspace and were trying to return to their realm.  Or maybe they simply need to travel to another point in real space, perhaps even to a distant galaxy.  Remember, the Sathanases were using some kind of strange subspace pulse on Capella.  If they had simply wanted to blow it up, they probably could have simply used the equivalent of a really large bomb (think the Sun Crusher from the Star Wars universe).  I believe that the subspace pulses allowed the Sathanases to use Capella as a massive subspace portal, much more powerful than the normal nodes.  The Sathanases that jumped out were probably using this portal to reach their distant destination.  Those left behind were sacrificed in order to sustain the energy necessary to keep the portal open.  The Shivans wouldn't run for Gamma Draconis; they had no reason to, since the GTVA was all but beaten.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing
What i wonder is why the first Sathanas didn´t use that super weapon on the Colossus... If it took 80 of them to blow up a star, one single ship had more than enough power to destroy 10 Colossus. So why didn´t it use that uberweapon to win the battle??

The 80 saths surrounded the star for quite a while before they fired. Most likely the weapon requires careful calibration. Either that or it's completely useless against capships because it does something specific to the star.

[StratComm]

The Sath fleet also fired off a subspace pulse for much of their time around the star, so it may be that the weapon must drive the star to the verge of instability before the weapon has any effect.  And if all it does is cause the star to collapse, it may have absolutely no effect on a solid object.

[Gloriano]

Maybe Shivans are Galactic NATO who goes resolve conflicts
everywhere

(FS1) Terrans Vasudan war

(FS2) NTF

but that theory is lame, I like idea that there is going galactic war

[HeX]

Originally posted by Mongoose
I don't think the Shivans blew up Capella just to keep us away from their space.  That wouldn't really make any sense.  All the Shivans had to do was send all those Sathanases into Terran and Vasudan space at the outset, and they could have finished us off easily.  There was no need for them to go to such lenghts to deter us;  

I wasn't saying the Shivans had any intentions of finishing us off. I was saying that we stepped into something we weren't supposed to and the Shivans gave us the boot.

The idea that they needed to use the sun for a jump, why Capella then? There are probably thousands of stars that would have been much easier to use. Most of those probably didn't have Terrans and Vasudans attacking either. If they needed a sun, why not one on their side of Capella?

They specifically choose to destroy a sun that is both in GTVA space AND is one of the only links to the space beyond where the Shivans had established themselves.

I'm not saying your wrong, I just don't see it.

[magatsu1]

you'd think an advanced sub-space species would just collpase the Capella-Gamma Draconis node, rather than go to the effort of destroying a star.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by HeX


I wasn't saying the Shivans had any intentions of finishing us off. I was saying that we stepped into something we weren't supposed to and the Shivans gave us the boot.

The idea that they needed to use the sun for a jump, why Capella then? There are probably thousands of stars that would have been much easier to use. Most of those probably didn't have Terrans and Vasudans attacking either. If they needed a sun, why not one on their side of Capella?

They specifically choose to destroy a sun that is both in GTVA space AND is one of the only links to the space beyond where the Shivans had established themselves.

I'm not saying your wrong, I just don't see it.

Maybe Capella was unique in some way, and they couldn't reach it until the Knossos was activated from the other side.  Maybe the Lucifer was a scout ship, to locate a suitable class star, and secure the area

?

(yeah, I know there's issues RE: the ancients and how the Shivans invaded the first time, etc, etc, but it is another side of the argument.  At the moment, I favour the idea that Capella was just an easy way for the Shivans to either close off a second front, or to pen in the GTVA to be dealt with at a more convenient time)

[HeX]

Originally posted by magatsu1
you'd think an advanced sub-space species would just collpase the Capella-Gamma Draconis node, rather than go to the effort of destroying a star.

Could be that there are more node links in Capella then even the GTVA know about. If that is the case, then blowing up the sun would be a quick solution. Albeit, a bit of overkill.

[HeX]

Originally posted by aldo_14

(yeah, I know there's issues RE: the ancients and how the Shivans invaded the first time, etc, etc, but it is another side of the argument.  At the moment, I favour the idea that Capella was just an easy way for the Shivans to either close off a second front, or to pen in the GTVA to be dealt with at a more convenient time)

You know, I find it interesting that there is an assumption that the Shivans are going after the GTVA like they did the anchients. From the ani's in Freespace 1, it sounded like the Anchients were FAR more advanced and expanded then the GTVA is. I mean, subduing and crushing entire species, spreading through subspace....

The GTVA sounds pretty small and timid by comparison. I wonder if the Shivans actually WERE planning to crush the GTVA like they did the Anchients. Maybe we stumbled on them a tad too early (the Shivans that is).

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by HeX


You know, I find it interesting that there is an assumption that the Shivans are going after the GTVA like they did the anchients. From the ani's in Freespace 1, it sounded like the Anchients were FAR more advanced and expanded then the GTVA is. I mean, subduing and crushing entire species, spreading through subspace....

The GTVA sounds pretty small and timid by comparison. I wonder if the Shivans actually WERE planning to crush the GTVA like they did the Anchients. Maybe we stumbled on them a tad too early (the Shivans that is).

Don;t know if the Ancients were subduing advanced species, though, do we?

They could have simply been wiping out indigenous population, or even races which had only just reached subspace technology, etc.  I think the way in which the GTVA advanced to beam tech, etc, which could presumably defeat the Lucifer implies that the GTVA must be pretty close in tech if not territory (the TVs were somewhat distracted by the 14 years war, so expansion and exploration would be curtailed in respect to the Ancients, assuming they themselves were not fighting 'equal' races).

Of course, that's assuming the Lucifer was the ship that defeated the Ancients, and not something with the same basic weakness but more powerful.

Maybe the Shivans could be considered as a form of natural selection - only the strong can adapt and survive.  The Ancients grew accustomed to easily destroying weaker races, and so fell to one greater than them in turn.

[Ghostavo]

Originally posted by Rift
Going on the fact that mass is attracted to mass, that star pulls at the ship in the area, the planetoids, intellations, etc... "Gravity".
Using this gravity, one can use it as a sling, to propel them far away.
In fact, any big enough planet could be used.
Well, it happens IRL anyhow.

By "Gravity well", I was reffering to the Capella star that blew up.

I know what's gravity, but I fail to see what a supernova has to do with it (besides being caused by gravity). A supernova makes a star lose mass, so it's gravity is less than before.