[Mehrpack]

You know, looking back at all of those theories...

I still think the Knossos was a lock, not a portal.

hi,
yes and no.

i think first its was an portal, but as the war against the shivans going bad, the ancients use it to close the subspace node
and yes to a lock: maybe the knossos can emit a negativ subspace whirl to make sure that the node will not stabilize and hide the portal of the sensors.

and maybe another idea: what is if first bosch has activate the second knossos in the nebular.
maybe it working as lock too, but the shivans had never find out how the chance the process, maybe because that the shivan and the ancients technologie is to different.
thats maybe the reason why the shivans capture bosch.

Mehrpack

[karajorma]

Really?  That's whack!  I thought you needed a pretty stabilized node to jump out of systems - IE, you can't open about a dozen really fast and hope to get anywhere safely...

Why are you assuming that they had to instantaneously jump out of the system? The Gamma Draconis node was still open and depending on where it was in the system they could have had hours to evacuate through it.

[aldo_14]

You know, looking back at all of those theories...

I still think the Knossos was a lock, not a portal.

That would be an interesting synposis to base a campaign upon were one to select it.

[Eightball]

Why are you assuming that they had to instantaneously jump out of the system? The Gamma Draconis node was still open and depending on where it was in the system they could have had hours to evacuate through it.

I... guess so...

We'd need to know the speed of that blast and the dimensions of the system, I guess.  Ok, possible.  The only question is, why did those three Sathani stay?

[karajorma]

Now that is the big question.

[antar05]

For a serious answer to the question, I'm toying with the idea of the Shivans being only one of two "all-powerful" races.

Opposite the Shivans exist a race I'm, quite originally, calling Brahmans. As the Shivans destroy, the Brahmans create. They created the nodes (contrary to popular theory that it was the Shivan's doing), and (possibly) seeded the galaxy with life. It would explain why so many of the worlds linked by the subspace nodes are habitable.

It's just a hair-brained idea, but in the campaign I'm designing, it's either have the principal foes be scientists searching for the Brahman's homeworld (which, if I can swing it, will actually be in Subspace), or have the foes be, essentially, hippies with lasers.

Maybe I should just ditch this campaign and start from scratch.

[Ghostavo]

The question is not why did some Sathanas remain but why did some leave instead.

[NGTM-1R]

My personal excuse is that Their Finest Hour is named that way for more then one reason. Alpha 1, you see, is indirectly responsible for the Sathanas that didn't make it. Those freighters you blasted were carrying something necessary for the successful operation of the star-nuker (or perhaps the star-nuking was also Alpha 1's fault?), and when you blew them up, you forced the Shivans to attempt whatever they were trying to do with less fuel/maintance/what-have-you then was necessary.

[Eightball]

ngtm1r - I'm not sure I have this right, but you're saying that destroying those freightors meant the Sathani couldn't leave because they lacked fueld?

That would be very interesting indeed.  It suggests that an extremely desperate effort could be made to try to contain a Sathanas incursion - except that we never see nor hear of the first one to ever refuel or resupply, though it is entirely possible that it did at some point.  However, trying to cut off its supplies would leave it kicking for too long, requiring sacrifices the GTVA really can't make.

Do they really need 80 or so of these monsters to nuke a star?  I would imagine they wouldn't, the Shivans giving themselves at least a few spare in case the GTVA just got really lucky.  It would be pretty bad if they managed to reach another star (and perhaps they can't due to supply constraints) and nuked it, too.    I mean, it would take weeks to try to eliminate 80 of them from behind without a Colossus.

Though Deimos vettes would be less hindered by their slashing beams when their target's so huge...

Out of curiosity, has anyone stuck an Orion behind a Sathanas?  Especially if it had fighter cover (to eliminate the rear beam), the Orion I imagine could cause serious grief to the Sathanas...

I don't think the Knossos portals are locks (or at least not locks alone).  From FS2 (which we take as canon, right?) the Trinity "activated" the portal and jumped through.  Both the NTF and GTVA confirm this, although the Trinity never admits it before it dies.  Locks don't let you through when "activated" - although "activation" could be a misinterpretation of actual deactivation.  Perhaps the Knossos portals were locks to keep the Shivans from Ancient space - and Terran/Vasudan space is to some degree also Ancient space, since Ancient artifacts and sites have been found.

The portals may have failed to protect the Ancients the same way the Lucifer & Co. entered into the Great War.

Where was the second portal found, btw?  I forget...

[antar05]

Problem with them being locks:

The final cutscene of the game is pretty explicit about the fact that the Knossos tech allowed them to get back to Earth.

[Mehrpack]

Problem with them being locks:

The final cutscene of the game is pretty explicit about the fact that the Knossos tech allowed them to get back to Earth.

hi,
i mean if the portal can create a subspace node, why it cant make sure that a node not build or stabilize?
and we dont know the specifications of the knossos.
we doesnt know it, that i doesnt can lock node, we only know that it can stabilizes or create nodes.
any we dont know how the portal was, before the trinity "activate" it.
and the GTVA only guess the Trinity "activate" the portal (i mean here not that the Trinity wasnt there or doesnt fly through).
the only person who definitive know if the portal was inactiv or in a lock mode is Bosch, he was the only person who know how to use the portal and that behind the portal the shivan lurking.

and the lucifer: that fleet was the only contact in Ross 128, since 33 year have we there see no another shivan.
if bosch doesnt use the portal, maybe the next shivans came through in X years.
so i think, the ancients close/lock the portal, but the shivans search for another way and find it.
maybe the way over the natural nodes 100 or 1000 years long, but definite lager as 33 years.

the remians sathans: i believe the reason why they stay was only to stabilize the prozess in the sun long enough, that the other sathans can jump through the sun.
but this coast so much energy that the sathans energy-reserve go down respectively the sathans dies.
you see it, the sathans jump out, the remains go off and the sun exploded immediately after the lights go out.
i doesnt see any other reason why this sathans should stay.

Mehrpack

[aldo_14]

Problem with them being locks:

The final cutscene of the game is pretty explicit about the fact that the Knossos tech allowed them to get back to Earth.

Having a door doesn't mean that door doesn't need a key.

[NGTM-1R]

ngtm1r - I'm not sure I have this right, but you're saying that destroying those freightors meant the Sathani couldn't leave because they lacked fuel?

Fuel, parts, the somebody who actually knew how to run the thing...something broke, and it's Alpha 1's fault.

[WMCoolmon]

Problem with them being locks:

The final cutscene of the game is pretty explicit about the fact that the Knossos tech allowed them to get back to Earth.

Having a door doesn't mean that door doesn't need a key.

Adm. Petrach's next address:

"Nevermind...turns out a computer virus caused us to lose a couple of device drivers for the KnossosOS. Guess we won't be going back to Earth, after all."

[ShivanSpS]

We'd need to know the speed of that blast and the dimensions of the system, I guess.  Ok, possible.  The only question is, why did those three Sathani stay?

That easy, They stay because need to mantein the subspace attack on the star or dont work, and afer that they run out of energy to power up engines again.

[aldo_14]

We'd need to know the speed of that blast and the dimensions of the system, I guess.  Ok, possible.  The only question is, why did those three Sathani stay?

That easy, They stay because need to mantein the subspace attack on the star or dont work, and afer that they run out of energy to power up engines again.

What makes you so sure it was a subspace attack?

[ShivanSpS]

We'd need to know the speed of that blast and the dimensions of the system, I guess.  Ok, possible.  The only question is, why did those three Sathani stay?

That easy, They stay because need to mantein the subspace attack on the star or dont work, and afer that they run out of energy to power up engines again.

What makes you so sure it was a subspace attack?

I not sure... but Petrach say that there is a anormal subspace field, but none knows what is that green thing really.

[aldo_14]

I not sure... but Petrach say that there is a anormal subspace field, but none knows what is that green thing really.

Zigackly!

(Shivan intention threads are brilliant for annoying people in this way, BTW )

[Mars]

So I've noticed... what is this monster I have created?

[Eightball]

Mars Intention Theories thread?