[Goober5000]

This is the extent of Petrarch's commentary on jump nodes.  He never says the Capella system is unusual in any way.

Will the Strategy Work?

Skeptics have argued the Shivans made intersystem jumps without using nodes in Ross 128, Ikeya, Vega, and other systems at the outbreak of the Great War. However, scientists assure us this plan will work. Though Shivans have used uncharted nodes and nodes too unstable for Terran and Vasudan vessels, they are as dependent on jump nodes as we are. Nevertheless, we must accept this strategy as nothing more than a temporary measure.

[Mobius]

Uncharted jump nodes?!?
In the FS1 command brief Wolf says "There's just one node out from Ikeya and we intend to blockade it"!!
The Taranis could return back or resupplying,but it tried to jump in a contested system instead.

Petrach said that the Shivans used interstellar drives to reach Ross 128 and Ikeya.The destruction of the nodes to Capella wouldn't finish the Shivan invasion...the Shivans could return.

And the Sathanas fleet?How did they escape?Interstellar drives!

[karajorma]

The game never mentions any kind of interstellar travel apart from jump drives.

[NGTM-1R]

That's not true. We don't know they came through 'unstable nodes', the game merely mentions the Shivans can use nodes too unstable for allied ships, not that they entered Terran-Vasudan space via one of them. Until canon says otherwise, there is as big a chance as any the Shivans came through a stable node that was simply uncharted.

Even the conclusion they're using unstable nodes is somewhat suspect, since, being unstable, nobody would be watching them when the Shivans came through. All the times we actually saw Shivans jump into or out of a system they came through stable nodes. It's possible they simply made use of stable nodes the GTA/PVN  did not know about or either could not detect or could not reach somehow.

[Mefustae]

Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves, the Shivans using one or two uncharted nodes is fair, but it's pushing it a little to say that all flanking maneuvers made by Shivan forces [of which it's safe to assume there were at least several] strong, and yet uncharted nodes. Command in both games has made mention of the Shivan's ability to move through uncharted nodes, which they wouldn't push if they didn't at least catch the bastards in the act.

And anyway, coupled with the subspace-induced supernova thing, the whole 'Shivans are able to use nodes too unstable for regular travel' line of thought is practically at the core of the 'Shivans are masters of subspace' conclusion taken almost as fact around here. Correct?

[OMFG PWNT]

humans must have built there own beams. human beams are green and cant shoot fast, shivan beams are red and shoot really fast. also human got slash beam which suck but shivans dont have. and yea to the guy above me a lilith can take on a colossus with ease and even sathana if its not head on

[Snail]

Actually, the whole Lilith thing is actually true. I died once in 'Their Finest Hour', and the SC Hela (the Lilith) destroyed all the beams on the Colossus and destroyed it. I was like

**** happens.

[Mars]

Okay, A: the LRed the Lilith carries cannot destroy ships with the supercap flag and B: The Colossus isn't initially beam freed in that mission, so that's why the Lilith wasn't vaporized on the spot.

[NGTM-1R]

There seems to be more then one "edition" of the tables, I think.

Mine allows the Helios to destroy the Sathanas, because I managed to disable the Sathanas in the same mission and let the bomber wing you get Helios it to death.

[Snail]

Wanna see screenshot?

Yes, actually, Mars. I checked my tables and it seems that I still had my BoE tables installed (all ships are Corvettes except cruisers and I removed the 'big damage' tag from all ships). With them, the Lilith can fry the Colossus, but when I deactivate MODs it just sits there shooting with the Colossus at 10%. Looks like Command really is dependant on Alpha 1.

[Mars]

That's probably the most screwed up mission in the game, wish they had finished it the way they had initially planned

[Rand al Thor]

What way had they initially planned?? I aint never heard anything about that.

[karajorma]

If you open the mission in FRED you'll notice that the Colossus has all manner of waypoint orders given.

At some point the guy FREDding the mission decided to simply disable the Colossus rather than have it move around but the orders are still present and if you simply undisable the Colossus it should start following whatever path was intended for it.

The mission probably won't work that well though as the Colossus is likely to be in the wrong place when the Sathanas jumps in.

[OMFG PWNT]

Okay, A: the LRed the Lilith carries cannot destroy ships with the supercap flag and B: The Colossus isn't initially beam freed in that mission, so that's why the Lilith wasn't vaporized on the spot.

all anti cap beams from the weakest LTerslash (1800 damage full charge) to the strongest BFred (82000 damage full charge) can destroy any cap ships, and lilith has 75000 hp a typical destroyer only has 100000 so consider it with the hp of a destroyer and much better weaponary than all destryoers except ravana and demon (1 Lred=6Bgreen=14Sred, if the damage is taken over a period of time), basically a lilith is more powerful than hades (which is the third best anticap destroyer after ravana and demon), colossus cant kill it fast it only has one forward Terslash (4000 damage full charge). onto damage reduction of super capitals sathana and colossus take around 30% damage reduction to hull from cyclops helios and rebel bomb, immune to your primary weap shots (not non capital allies but the last time i tested the sathanas seems to become immune to even allies once its hull is at 74%), and almost immune to semibombs that can kill corvettes (infryno, piranha, emp and trebechet)

[Snail]

Okay, A: the LRed the Lilith carries cannot destroy ships with the supercap flag and B: The Colossus isn't initially beam freed in that mission, so that's why the Lilith wasn't vaporized on the spot.

all anti cap beams from the weakest LTerslash (1800 damage full charge) to the strongest BFred (82000 damage full charge) can destroy any cap ships, and lilith has 75000 hp a typical destroyer only has 100000 so consider it with the hp of a destroyer and much better weaponary than all destryoers except ravana and demon (1 Lred=6Bgreen=14Sred, if the damage is taken over a period of time), basically a lilith is more powerful than hades (which is the third best anticap destroyer after ravana and demon), colossus cant kill it fast it only has one forward Terslash (4000 damage full charge). onto damage reduction of super capitals sathana and colossus take around 30% damage reduction to hull from cyclops helios and rebel bomb, immune to your primary weap shots (not non capital allies but the last time i tested the sathanas seems to become immune to even allies once its hull is at 74%), and almost immune to semibombs that can kill corvettes (infryno, piranha, emp and trebechet)

Actually, that's not so. I tried to re-create the scenario for a screenshot, but what happend is that the Hela got blown up, and a Ravana (SD Beast) came in and began shooting at the Colossus, which was at 10%. After about 10 minutes, when the Beast went down (Colossus had only 1 TerSlash remaining on that flank), the Colossus was at 10% and holding. It wasn't going down. When the Sathanas came, it fried the Colossus, no question about it. However, with the BoE tables installed (all battleships except cruisers and below have the corvette flag so I can order them around, most ships have more beam cannons for more beam-frenzied fights) the Lilith can blow up the Colosssus easily (while being hurt to around 15-50%).

[Nuclear1]

Uncharted jump nodes?!?
In the FS1 command brief Wolf says "There's just one node out from Ikeya and we intend to blockade it"!!
The Taranis could return back or resupplying,but it tried to jump in a contested system instead.

The GTA likely didn't know at the time that the Shivans were using unstable jump nodes, so blockading the Ribos-Ikeya node was probably the best strategy the GTA could've used. The GTA had probably intended to blockade the node once the Taranis had been taken care of, and then isolate whatever Shivans were still in Ikeya from the rest.

[Mobius]

The game never mentions any kind of interstellar travel apart from jump drives.

No,Petrarch says this when he introduces the fully-Meson-Bastion strategy.I'm sure of it.
Then,the survived Juggenrauts that have destroyed Capella jumped to...?
Is there a node inside the star?Or the disturbance created it?Or the disturbance allows interstellar drives?

[Goober5000]

The game never mentions any kind of interstellar travel apart from jump drives.

No,Petrarch says this when he introduces the fully-Meson-Bastion strategy.I'm sure of it.

You mean during the cutscene?  That's pure speculation.  Anyway, that's a special case, and could refer to intergalactic or even interuniversal travel.  It's not relevant.

Then,the survived Juggenrauts that have destroyed Capella jumped to...?
Is there a node inside the star?Or the disturbance created it?Or the disturbance allows interstellar drives?

They could have jumped to the Gamma Draconis node...

[Nuclear1]

With over one hundred thousand casualties and more Shivans incoming, we have no hope of holding Capella. Our only real chance is to seal off the system and prevent the invasion from spreading to other Terran-Vasudan worlds. If we fail to contain the Shivan advance, we will unleash the second Great War, a conflict we have virtually no chance of surviving. The Lucifer fleet we defeated 32 years ago is nothing compared to the strength of this armada. Command is committed to getting every last Terran out of the system.

Over 80 Shivan Juggernauts are now in position around the Capella sun. Science vessels monitoring their activity have detected an anomalous subspace field rippling from the Juggernaut fleet. Though we can barely detect the field with our instruments, its intensity has been increasing slowly over the past seventy-two hours. We have known since the Great War that the Shivans possess advanced subspace technologies, but this field goes beyond our wildest speculations. The Shivans may be powering up a new kind of weapon, the likes of which we have never before encountered.

Preparations are now underway to collapse the Epsilon Pegasi jump node. A Great-War-era destroyer, the GTD Bastion, will contain multiple meson warheads that will detonate inside the node. Scientists believe an explosion of sufficient magnitude will cause this node to collapse, as evidenced by the destruction of the Lucifer 32 years ago. The detonation of the Lucifer's reactors sealed off the Sol jump node in Delta Serpentis and severed all contact with Earth. The Bastion has completed its modifications in the Vega system and is now entering Capella.

Skeptics have argued the Shivans made intersystem jumps without using nodes in Ross 128, Ikeya, Vega, and other systems at the outbreak of the Great War. However, scientists assure us this plan will work. Though Shivans have used uncharted nodes and nodes too unstable for Terran and Vasudan vessels, they are as dependent on jump nodes as we are. Nevertheless, we must accept this strategy as nothing more than a temporary measure.


Once we have evacuated all civilian and military personnel from the Capella system, we will send a second destroyer, also carrying meson warheads, through the Capella jump node in Vega. If we succeed in sealing off both nodes, the Alliance will have trapped the Shivans in this system. If we fail, we face certain annihilation.

This is our Alamo, pilots. We hold them here, or we die trying.

That's the entire Command Brief. The part in bold is probably what you're referring to; Petrarch says that the Shivans are just as dependent on jump nodes as the GTVA. He also says that the collapse will be purely temporary in holding the Shivans, probably referring to fluctuating areas where jump nodes could eventually form. However, the present nodes detected by the GTVA were already decided to be too unstable for travel by even the Shivans, and so destroying the two reliable nodes to GTVA space was an intelligent course of action.

[Mefustae]

As an aside, does anyone know [approximately] how long the Battle of Capella had been going on when the Vega Node was collapsed?